A ‘CLASSIC’ CHOICE
BLISSFUL BOP!
FEATURES
ARTS & REVIEW
SPORTS
BC’s New England Classic proves a key ingredient to campus life, A5
BC bOp! took over the Vanderslice Cabaret Room to jazz things up a bit this weekend, B8
BC took two from two different opponents to continue their win streak over the weekend, B1
CLEAN SWEEP
HEIGHTS
www.bcheights.com
THE
The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College
established
1919
Monday, October 19, 2015
Vol. XCVI, No. 36
JpeX^f^l\ Xggifm\j 9: cXe[ Ylp I\j`jkXeZ\ ]ifd E\nkfe i\j`[\ekj ]X`cj kf gi\m\ek gliZ_Xj\ 9P :8IFCPE =I<<D8E E\nj <[`kfi Members of the synagogue Congregation Mishkan Tefila (CMT) voted to approve Boston College’s acquisition of the 23 acres of land it owns at 300 Hammond Pond Parkway in Newton. This land, formally acquired by BC on Sunday afternoon, consists of 14 acres of wooded land and nine acres of developed property, where the synagogue resides. The property is about 1.2 miles from main campus. Over two-thirds of the congregation voted to approve the sale, more than needed for the sale to go forward, said Ted Tye, a managing partner of National Development who was hired by CMT to represent the synagogue in evaluating options for its property and ultimately negotiate an agreement with BC. “There was no one who spoke against the sale,” he said in an email. “The congregation was enthusiastic about moving ahead with its plans for the future. The sale will allow them to focus on next steps. Boston College has not commented further on their plans.” University Spokesperson Jack Dunn said he cannot comment until the deal is officially finalized in the spring of 2016. In August, when the sale was first announced, Dunn said that the land would be used for administrative buildings and parking lots. Members of the Newton community recently spoke out against the land sale, citing environmental concerns and arguing that the wooded property being purchased ought to be conserved. The aldermen of Newton passed a resolution urging Mayor Setti Warren to conserve the wooded land owned by CMT, either by purchasing the property or placing conservation restrictions on the land, which is criss-crossed by hiking trails and is used by residents to walk dogs and run. The synagogue will remain on the property until 2019, and will then likely move to another location in Newton. “It’s sad because there are so many members that have such a history in the building itself, and that’s a difficult thing for our congregants,” Congregation President Paul Gershkowitz said about the sale in August. “But we also are very excited about our future and reestablishing Congregation Mishkan Tefila as a viable entity moving forward.”
DREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR
@ekf k_\ mXcc\p f] [\Xk_ Penalties and poor secondary play plagued the Eagles in a loss to Deshaun Watson and the No. 5 Clemson Tigers on Saturday. See page B1.
Jfg_fdfi\j j\k ]fZlj fe dXjj `eZXiZ\iXk`fe `e L%J% Gi\j`[\ek`Xc JZ_fcXi gifa\Zk fe n`[\jgi\X[ `dgi`jfed\ek kf b`Zb f]] n`k_ jcXd gf\kip \m\ek 9P :FEEFI DLIG?P =fi K_\ ?\`^_kj The United States has just 5 percent of the world’s people, but 25 percent of its prisoners. The Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy group, reports that 2.2 million Americans are in jail, a 500 percent increase over the past 30 years. Seventy-five percent of those in prison for drug crimes are poor people of color. All of this costs taxpayers $70 billion a year, according to The Sentencing Project, a national non-profit that advocates for a fair criminal justice system in the U.S. These concerns about the American judicial system have prompted a group of 19 Boston College students to start Mass Incarceration: Missing in America
(MIA). The group hopes to educate students about, and take action against, the wide-ranging, negative effects of so many Americans spending time in prison, on probation, and on parole. The organization hosts its kick-off event, a slam poetry performance, this Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Eagle’s Nest. The idea for Mass Incarceration: MIA came out of a six-week PULSE program the students participated in last summer through the Gabelli Presidential Scholars Program. They did community service at different placements in the Boston area, including Bridge Over Troubled Waters, which serves homeless and at-risk youths. At the end of the program, the group decided to start an organization focused on mass incarceration.
“Whether we were working in prisons, homeless shelters, or educational groups, we saw across the board that racial minorities and people of lower socioeconomic status were incarcerated at much higher rates,” Alexandra Mills, a member of the project and MCAS ’18, said. “It’s clearly a huge problem.” The students kept encountering people affected by mass incarceration, when most of them did not even know the scope of the problem beforehand— this made them realize they wanted to highlight it on campus during the school year. “If we haven’t really had to think about it, how many other people on campus don’t know about it?” Mills said. The idea for Tuesday ’s sp oken word event came from a slam poetry show some of the students attended last summer, where they were struck by performances that highlighted the
relationship between race and mass incarceration. The show was held at Haley House, a soup kitchen and activist group that provides low-income housing and other services. With Tuesday’s show, the group seeks to extend that conversation to BC. “The event will include speakers from BC, the greater Boston community, and Suffolk County House of Corrections,” Ameet Kallarackal, CSOM ’18, said in an email. It is co-sponsored by 18 other groups, including the theology, history, and philosophy departments, BC SLAM!, and Amnesty International. “We reached out to a lot of people and we had amazing support,” Andrew Cammon, CSOM ’18, said. “This issue is finally getting a lot of bipartisan support and attention from a lot of different
See Incarceration Project, A3
=`m\ dfek_j gfjk$^iX[# GXk\ief `ebj i\Zfi[ [\Xc I\Z\ek Xcld j`^ej [\Xc n`k_ efkXYc\ gif[lZ\i Af\ E`Zfcf 9P K8PCFI JK% ><ID8@E =fi K_\ ?\`^_kj
DREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR
During his time at BC, Paterno was heavily involved in the Music Guild, through which he was able to practice performing live.
Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, John Mayer, Ed Sheeran. Chris Paterno, BC ’15, hopes to follow in their footsteps through his new record deal with Joe Nicolo’s Blackbird Productions. In early May, the Philadelphia Freedoms, the city’s tennis team, asked Paterno to play a set at their event at Villanova Pavilion with over 1,000 spectators. Paterno was forced to quickly throw together a band, now known as The Chris Paterno Band, and the group has remained together since that first
show. After a successful gig at Villanova, the band was asked to play again in Spring City, Penn. The band’s mandolin player, Adam Monaco, brought Nicolo to the show, whom he had been previously working with to record several tracks. After hearing the band’s sound and original lyrics, Nicolo asked to meet with Paterno and officially signed him his label last week. “Joe saw us play and really liked our set and our original music,” Paterno said. “He asked me to stop by the studio and the rest has just been contract negotiations and seeing what we wanted out of [the record deal].” Nicolo, prior to creating Blackbird Productions, had owned and run Ruff-
See Paterno, A8