The Heights September 17, 2018

HEIGHTS

THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

EST. 1919

WWW.BCHEIGHTS.COM

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE?

STABLE SUCCESS?

SPORTS

ARTS

Womens soccer’s 8-0 start has been built on defense and set pieces—can they keep the ball rolling?

Various dance groups speak about the intricacies of their audition processes.

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BCPD Issues Bulletin After Lake St. Incident The report was filed by an individual unaffiliated with BC.

BY JACK GOLDMAN News Editor The Boston College Police Department issued a Community Awareness Bulletin this morning concerning two incidents of a victim being “inappropriately touched” while walking down Lake Street. The most recent incident occurred at approximately 10 p.m. by Rogers Park, which is located next to the intersection of Lake Street and Washington Street in Brighton. BC’s

Brighton Campus and the Harrington Athletics Village are located less than a half-mile from the park.

The victim, who the bulletin noted was not affiliated with the University, reported the incident to the Boston Police Department on Tuesday.

“The victim described the suspect as a light skinned male, pale complexion, 25-40 years old, medium build, short dark hair, and wearing squareframed glasses,” the bulletin reads.

The second incident occurred one month ago and was not reported to police at the time, according to the bulletin.

WOODY MARSHALL /AP PHOTO

BC Cracks Associated Press Poll for What’s Up With Joy Moore First Time Since 2008, Ranked No. 23 Following its 41-34 victory over Wake Forest on Thursday, BC– Joy Moore, BC ’81, is the new VP of Student Affairs.

BY JACK GOLDMAN News Editor After talking about how much now-retired Vice President of Student Affairs Barb Jones meant to her Boston College experience and the University as a whole during a time of social tumult, Akosua Achampong, BC ’18, isn’t in a sad mood or low spirits.

Despite losing an administrator she viewed as an understanding advocate fighting for students, serving as a role-model for women on campus, Achampong is itching to talk about something else.

“I love Joy Moore,” Achampong said in an interview in August. “Joy Moore is a superstar, let’s just start there. She is so badass, like wow.”

Jones’s successor, Joy Haywood Moore, vice president for student affairs and BC ’81, embodies the characteristics the former Undergraduate Government of Boston College president holds dear: Strong, female, graceful, poised, kind, compassionate, diligent, undeniable.

“She is someone who moves with such grace and poise, it’s amazing,” Achampong

See Bulletin, A3

said. “She’s definitely a woman that I immensely look up to in every way, and her ability to fulfill so many roles and inhabit so many spaces. I connect with her on many different levels … I’m not sure I’ve met someone like her before.

Moore exudes another feature Jones showcased in spades: enthusiasm. There isn’t a topic somebody can touch on that Moore isn’t interested in engaging on. She listens intently, her responses are measured in that she takes time to gather her thoughts, but enthusiastic in that she isn’t afraid to make it clear how she feels.

And she feels good about her new job.

Moore’s former home was in the Cadigan Alumni Center, where she served as associate director of alumni relations and directed commencement. Despite the apparent change in department, Moore believes she’s just refocusing her vision onto current students instead of the former ones. Her job is now to enter students’ lives at a different point in their BC experience.

Moore said she “loved” working with alumni, but her passion lies in her work with younger students.

“I don’t want to sound corny, but I think, having been a student here myself, and then having worked in a variety of schools,

See New VPSA, A3

3-0 for the first time in 11 years–broke its way into the AP Top 25.

BC Continues Focus on Diverse Faculty BC hired 18 new AHANA+ faculty numbers this fall.

BY JACK MILLER Asst. News Editor

AND OWEN FAHY For The Heights Almost a year after the “Silence is Still Violence” march, Boston College is staring down several obstacles that stand in the way of a more diverse and representative faculty, but according to figures, BC has one of the most diverse faculties of its peer schools.

Last fall, over 500 students signed a letter of support that called for the University to hire more administrators and faculty of color, especially in STEM departments and the Carroll School of Management, which the letter highlighted as historically non-inclusive. Currently, 19 percent of BC faculty identify as AHANA+, continuing

Recruiting?

Don’t Forget to Go Outside

the steady trend of a 1 percent increase each year.

According to information made available through the Common Data Set Initiative, non-white or minority faculty made up 18 percent of Harvard’s total faculty, 16 percent of Northeastern’s, 13 percent of Boston University’s, and 12 percent of Georgetown’s last year. At BC, 18 percent of faculty were non-white or minority for

18%

18%

Joy joy

16% 13%

Newton Residents Will Vote on Pot-Shop Ban Newton’s shop moratorium is in place until Dec. of this year.

ROBERT WALMSLEY

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

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ANNA TIERNEY/HEIGHTS EDITOR

Copy Editor

See Walmsley, A7

See Faculty, A3

Faculty Diversity 2017-2018

BY COLLEEN MARTIN

It’s that time of year at Chestnut Hill. The once verdant giant oaks on Campanella Way are speckled with orange and red hues. Cool air begins to cut through the dense New England humidity. The reservoir geese begin their migratory flights. New Eagles abound. Why, it’s recruiting season, of course.

The undertaking all CSOMers and MCAS corporate-hopefuls feared is

the 2017-18 school year.

The decentralized nature of the hiring process can impede attempts at hiring a more diverse staff, said Billy Soo, vice provost for faculties. Since each department takes the lead in selecting and vetting candidates, there are no institutional measures that allow the University to take a step back

KAILTIN MEEKS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

No Letdowns

Daya gave an energetic performance to kick off this year’s BC concert series, see A16.

NEWS: Board of Trustees

Four new members of the Board of Trustees were announced this week.......A2

FEATURES: Kevin Allocca

The Newton City Council voted on Sept. 7 to allow a question on the November ballot that would allow voters to “opt-out” of having recreational marijuana establishments in Newton.

The vote to put the question on the ballot was proposed after a group of Newton residents organized to protest the addition of recreational marijuana establishments to the community.

In November 2016, Massachusetts voters turned up to the polls and voted yes on Question 4, effectively legalizing marijuana in the state.

Specifically in the city of Newton, 54.7 percent of people voted in favor

Allocca, BC ’06, tracks and interprets internet traffic...................................................................A8

INDEX

legalization, according to The Boston Globe. One medical marijuana establishment, Garden Remedies, is currently located in Newton and is exempt from the possible sanctions on recreational facilities.

Some Newton residents have expressed concern about the possibilities of recreational shops opening in town.

One resident, Emanuele Viola, created a public petition on a personal Wordpress site in order to have the question put on the ballot. Viola’s chief concern is that Newton would become a “hub for west suburban marijuana users,” since local towns Wellesley, Weston, Needham, and Dedham voted to block recreational stores from opening.

Newton becoming a hub for marijuana users would increase the number of people possibly driving under the influence, according to Viola. Viola linked

See Ballot Question, A3

NEWS.........................A2 METRO..................... A5

Vol. XCIX, No. 17 MAGAZINE..................A4 SPORTS.................... A9 © 2018, The Heights, Inc. OPINIONS................... A6 ARTS..................... A16 www.bchelghts.com 69

The Heights

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TOP

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things to do on campus this week

1

Ann Burgess, a professor of nursing, and former FBI agent John E. Douglas will host “The Minds behind Mindhunter,” at 4:30 p.m. in Rosham Theater. The two worked together in the 1970s to shape modern psychological profiling of serial killers and their work is the basis of Netflix’s Mindhunter series.

Monday, September 17, 2018

2

Students looking to start a club on campus can learn more at an information session hosted in Stokes South 109 at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. The event will cover the application process, criteria for approval, and the resources that clubs have access to.

3

The curators of the McMullen Museum of Art’s Carrie Mae Weems: Strategies of Engagement exhibition will host a tour on Friday at 12 p.m.

There will also be a Q&A session where attendees can hear firsthand anecdotes about the the show’s creation.

NEWS Dining Services Confirms Late Night Hours, Menu BRIEFS FRESH to Table Wins Award Boston College Dining Services won the National Association of College and University Food Sources’s (NACUFS) 2018 Gold Award for Sustainability. The organization seeks to support colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

The award is specifically in response to the “FRESH to Table” initiative. The program, which is an acronym for fairly traded, regional, equitable, sustainable, and healthy, is the result of a $399, 705 grant by the Henry P. Kendall Foundation in 2017. The foundation, which was founded to address environmental concerns and conservatism, works to increase the production and consumption of local, sustainably produced food. Its aim is to have 50 percent of New England’s food come from local sources by 2060.

FRESH to Table supports a weekly showcase in front of the fireplace at Lower. Every Thursday, chefs from BC Dining and nearby vendors serve a new meal that fits at least two of the five components of FRESH. After trying the free sample, students can pick up a recipe for that week’s spotlighted food and purchase enough ingredients to make a dinner for four.

The University has continued working to expand its sustainability efforts in other areas as well. Over the summer, BC Dining established a reusable container program for Stuart Dining Hall and an educational campaign aimed at increasing the popularity of metal silverware and china.

BC Dining has also received honors from the Environmental Protection Agency and recently led a forum on recycling and waste management for Massachusetts colleges and universities.

Global Health Program Director Boston College has tapped Phillip J. Landrigan, M.D., BC ’63, as the first director of the University’s Global Public Health program.

The Boston native brings decades of experience working for the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the dean for global health and Ethel W. Wise Professor and Chair of Preventive Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Throughout his career he scored public health victories, from advocating for the creation of the Office of Children’s Health Protection under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to laying out public health and survivor and first responder care plans in the days following 9/11, according to the The Chronicle. His history even extends past U.S. borders, most notably his work for the Global Campaign for the Eradication of Smallpox.

The Global Public Health initiative combines faculty from the Lynch School of Education, the Carroll School of Nursing, and the Graduate School of Social Work into a interdisciplinary undergraduate program. Currently, students can enroll in a three-course program.

As the founding director, Landrigan will oversee research into the consequences of pollution and the creation of a global public health minor, which is set to open next fall. He will also play a role in the direction of the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, which is set to open in 2021.

“In the field of global public health, Dr. Landrigan is one of a handful of internationally recognized leaders on the planet,” Vice Provost for Research and Academic Planning Tom Chiles said in a statement to the The Chronicle.

By Jack Goldman News Editor

In an email sent Thursday afternoon, Boston College Dining Services confirmed that weekend Late Night dining hours on Lower Campus would be 9 p.m. to 2 a.m at Addie’s Loft. The email also officially announced that mozzarella sticks and chicken tenders, old staples of previous years’ Late Night dining menus, would be returning to the current menu on weekends. Those items returned to the weekend menu last week.

Dining Ser vices announced revamped menus, hours, and locations this fall. Last week, The Heights published an article on tweaks BC Dining would make to its initial changes that included

interviews with Meghan O’Neill, associate director of restaurant operations, and Beth Emery, director of BC Dining.

The two noted difficulties balancing staff needs, budgeting, and student needs led to the new changes. They expressed regret about not communicating with the student body more clearly about the new changes so as to assuage some of the initial consternation that broke out in the wake of the announcements at the beginning of the semester.

The Undergraduate Government of Boston College responded with a post on its Facebook page, commending BC Dining for “[bringing] back most of the Late Night elements we know and love.”

“Our conversation with Beth Emery, Megan O’Neill, and [Dining Services’ Associate Director of Food and Bever-

age] Michael Kann last Friday was very open and fruitful,” Reed Piercey, UGBC president and MCAS ’19, said. “They were honest about the fact that changes to Late Night were not communicated very well to the student body and showed genuine interest in hearing what we thought could be improved.”

Piercey and Ignacio Fletcher, UGBC executive vice president and MCAS ’20, discussed the student representatives’ concerns about the move to Addie’s, and Piercey commended the administrators’ willingness to listen to the student body’s concerns.

“While they unfortunately said that a move back to the first floor would not happen at this time, Dining leadership was happy to take our suggestions about how the service at Addie’s could be im-

proved,” he said.

Piercey cited BC Dining’s commitment to improving the payment system implemented this year—students must pay for food and then hand a ticket to the cooks making food before receiving their order—and better managing lines and overcrowding. Signs will be added to Lower dining in order to showcase the elevator to the second floor that can be used by students who might not be able to use the stairs.

“I think they really are doing their best to recreate the fun social experience we all know from weekend nights [in the past] on the second floor,” Piercey said.

“And if the universal feedback going forward is that the Addie’s location really is unmanageable, I’m sure they would consider that as well.” n

University Announces Addition of Four New Trustees

By Jack Goldman News Editor

Four new members will join Boston College’s Board of Trustees beginning this fall, according to a University press release. Nicholas Burns, BC ’78, Hon. ’02; Jonathan Rather, BC ’82; Kendall Reid, BC ’79, Hon. ’18; and Kevin Smart, BC ’99, will be the newest members of the board, which will convene on Sept. 28.

Burns is a professor of diplomacy and international relations at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a faculty associate at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, according to the release. He has served as under secretary of State

for political affairs, U.S. ambassador to NATO, ambassador to Greece, and a spokesman for the State Department. He has also served on the White House National Security Council and worked in Israel and Egypt for the department, serving on the Foreign Affairs Policy Board for Secretary of State John Kerry, BC Law ’76. His awards include 15 honorary degrees, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, and the Secretar y of State’s Distinguished Service Award.

Rather has worked since 1999 as a general partner and member of the Management Committee and Investment Committee at Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Stowe, a private equity firm that manages $22 billion, according to the release.

He spent 14 years with the Goelet Investment Office, where he served as the office’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer. He is involved in numerous charitable organizations, including Domus, a charity that assists more than 1,100 underprivileged children and their families, according to the release.

Reid is an award-winning documentary producer who has worked at CBS News and HBO Sports. She has held membership in New York Women in Film & Television, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Minorities in Cable, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and Women in Sports and Events, according to the release. She is best known for her Peabody Award-win-

ning documentaries Journey of the African American Athlete and Dare to Compete, the Struggle of Women in Sports.

Smart is a managing director at J.P. Morgan Chase, where he has worked for 19 years. He covers hedge funds, asset managers, family offices, and high net worth individuals. He was a part of the committee that created the Black Leadership Forum at J.P. Morgan Chase and supports the company’s efforts in regards to recruiting at historically black colleges and universities. Smart also serves in multiple capacities at BC, including holding seats on the Wall Street Council, the Alumni Advisory Council Executive Committee, and the Board of Regents. n

‘BC After Hours’ Initiative Opens 300 Hammond Pond

By Jack Goldman News Editor Boston College is launching an initiative entitled “BC After Hours” that will concentrate on providing late night locations and resources to students, according to a University press release. Notable additions to spaces being rolled out as a part of the initiative are an intramural sports field at the Harrington Athletics Village on Brighton Campus, extended food service options and hours, and new rehearsal spaces at 300 Hammond Pond Parkway.

“One of the four components of the University’s ‘Ever to Excel’ strategic plan focuses on student formation,” Vice President for Planning and Assessment Kelli Armstrong said in the release. “Creating spaces for students to collaborate, and to interact with faculty and staff, is an important part of our mission. These enhanced

spaces are the first step in a plan to continually improve the environment for students, and we plan to offer additional spaces each year.”

The University has added a section to its website where all updates related to “BC After Hours” can be found. The initiative is a collaboration between Student Affairs , University Mission and Ministry, Dining Services, University Libraries, the BC Police Department, Auxiliary Services, Information Technology, Facilities Management, and Institutional Research, Planning, and Assessment. Academic offices also had a hand in influencing the new plans.

“Students tell us that spaces for collaboration, informal study, and comfortable socializing allow them to connect in intentional ways and create opportunities for engagement and dialogue—the very things that enable them to form deeper insights about themselves and others,” Joy Moore,

POLICE BLOTTER: 9/12/18 – 9/14/18

BC’s interim vice president for Student Affairs, said in the release.

Shuttle bus service to 300 Hammond Pond will begin on Sept. 17. The website states that a multipurpose room will serve as a choral and dance rehearsal space.

On that same day, a system for reserving rooms for group study in Maloney and Stokes Hall will launch.

In addition, the fourth floor of Maloney will continue to be open to students, with a new setup that includes a charging station for phones and computers. The Vanderslice Cabaret Room will also be opened for studying when no events are booked in the space.

O’Neill Library will continue to offer multiple study spaces students can reserve. The study rooms on the fifth floor will now take room reservations up to seven days in advance, and reservations can range from one to four hours.

Printing will be offered on the fourth floor of Maloney in conference rooms 450 and 452, in addition to the print station on second floor of Lower, near Addie’s. According to the website, a printing station in McElroy is “coming soon.”

In terms of food, delivery will continue to be offered through BC GET from Hillside, but now also from new additions CoRo Cafe and Cafe 129 on Brighton Campus while those locations are open. BC Dining previously announced that delivery from Addie’s, Stuart, and McElroy will be offered through the app as well. CoRo Cafe’s hours will be extended to 10 p.m.

Coffee options will be available on the first floor of O’Neill, as well as Stokes South 114 and Hillside. The Lower Campus staple will be open until midnight with food options available until 8 p.m. Addie’s will continue to offer specialty coffee drinks as a part of its late night options. n

Wednesday Sept. 12

buiding at St. Mary’s Hall.

Thursday Sept. 13

Friday Sept. 14

12:02 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at Stuart Hall.

10:00 p.m.- An officer filed a report regarding a violation of a University Stay Away Order at Boston College Police Headquarters.

1:31 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding an attempt to commit a crime at 66 Commonwealth Ave.

5:38 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at 90 St. Thomas More Road.

4:32 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding vandalism to a non-residential

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

.

CORRECTIONS What would you name the next new building at BC? “I would actually just rename one of the Cushings.

It’s confusing to have two buildings with the same name.”

— Domenica Proud, CSOM ’22 “The GlobeMed building,, for the organization I do at BC.” — Asad Pasha, MCAS ’ 19

“Cooper Building, after my dog.”—Marissa Oliveri, MCAS ’22

“The Yelena P Building, after my grandmother.”

— Josh Elbaz, MCAS ’19

Please send corrections to eic@bcheights.com with ‘correction’ in the subject line.

The Heights

Monday, September 17, 2018

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From South Africa to Cadigan to Maloney, Joy Moore Takes Helm New VPSA, from A1 even though they were high schools … just being around young people … has always been where I found my source of energy,” she said.

Moore has taken the helm at the Archer School in Los Angeles, Dana Hall in Wellesley, Mass., and, most notably, the Oprah Winfrey Academy for Girls in South Africa. As she settles back into what it’s like being a part of the natural rhythms of undergraduate life, she’s leaning specifically on what she learned in South Africa to establish her role at BC. Moore is concentrating on being “engaged, visible, and present” for students on campus. After working out of the student body’s experiences for her first few years at the University, she said it’s vital that she work to get a sense of student interest in different areas.

“I recognize that I can’t be in all of those things, but I want to try to be [in] as many as possible so that I can really know what’s going on and get a sense from the students of the things that are important to them,” Moore said.

She admits she doesn’t have a vision for her role yet—that’s what this assessment period is for. Moore is of the opinion that she can’t come into a vice president role at BC, especially one at Student Affairs, without having as close to a clear understanding as possible in regards to what matters to the student body before deciding what her ultimate vision is for her job.

“I just don’t feel like I can sit in isolation and develop [my vision] and say, you know, here it is,” she said. “My sense is that it has to come from those who [my vision] is going to serve.”

Moore’s plan has been to meet with as many organizations as possible, such as UGBC and the Thea Bowman AHANA

and Intercultural Center (BAIC), and the Montserrat office and its students, but she’s also encouraging students to come to her office hours—they’ll be called “What’s Up With Joy Moore”—so that she can canvas general student opinion. Jones’s Student Affairs advisory group will continue during Moore’s tenure as well, giving her a focus group setting where she can learn more as well.

That doesn’t mean she’s disregarding what she’s learned from her past. She calls her time in South Africa particularly poignant. She takes pride in how she packed her life up and moved to a country where she didn’t speak all the languages, thinking she knew what she needed to know about her new home and finding out quickly she did not know.

She said the resilience and the ability to not be afraid of what you don’t know that she learned over her years working with the students, parents, and Winfrey built the foundation for her current administrative career. “[It] prepared me for coming into new environments, like Student Affairs … and being able to, with some level of confidence, jump in and work from past experience,” Moore said. “The experience in South Africa was definitely distinctive.

But there is clearly common ground that every young person … wants to have an education, because they understand that that’s what’s going to get them to the next place in their life.”

She noted that the major difference between her South African students and her BC students is that in South Africa, the girls came from challenging, almost hopeless situations that only education could transport them out of.

Few BC students are in that situation, but both groups share the knowledge that their educations are what vault them into

Photo Courtesy of Joy Moore

situations they find appealing.

The similarities don’t stop at the students, either. Both the parents Moore worked with while she was in South Africa and those she’s ready to work with in her new role want the best for their children.

Moore said she would be working to support the efforts of parents in the same way she did while she worked on a different continent.

There are BC students who can relate to situations many of the girls in South Africa faced—specifically those working with Montserrat. Moore, herself, was a Montserrat student during her time as a student at the University, and she intends on concentrating on improving opportunities for lower-income students at BC. “I recognize that students who identify themselves in that category have a different challenge ahead of them,” Moore said.

“What I would want to make sure they understand is that their first priority is to their work—so that they can do well and achieve the things they want to achieve—and not dwell on or let their family’s financial circumstances define who they are.”

She said she recognizes the opportunities students have to redefine their identity at BC—not so that students are giving up their past, but more so that students can take advantage of the University to add elements to their person that are a point of pride.

In fact, that redefinition is an important part of how Moore ended up back at BC in the first place. When she returned home from Africa in 2011, she was looking to “redefine Joy.” She was looking to reconnect with her family after having been away from them for four years, which meant being in Boston.

“I knew Boston College to be an institution that was welcoming … an institution that I always felt was sort of on the move, there was always something coming,” Moore said. “That excitement interested me. And it was a place that I knew, as a community, they really cared about the people work there.”

In her capacity in Cadigan, she was able to take advantage of multiple opportunities where she could reinvent herself. Her new experiences included her concentration on alumni relations, her involvement with the Dublin Aer Lingus college football classic, and, a year ago, she took on the responsibility of directing commencement—all the while settling back into family life after her time abroad.

Moore thought it was important to know that despite her not being Catholic, the spirituality the University pushes students and faculty to make a part of their BC experience appealed to her. Deepening your faith in an attempt to gain a new “breath of energy” is something Moore finds wholly unique to the BC experience.

Notably, the BC experience isn’t the

same for every student on campus, especially the genders and races that call this campus home who aren’t in the majority.

The work Moore wants to do with the BAIC enter is centered around improving those experiences.

A woman of color in a vice president position at a school that has struggled to diversify its student body and its faculty as the University has moved into the 21st century means a lot to students involved in Bowman, like Achampong.

The former UGBC president found Moore a guiding light for her BC experience. When Achampong felt marginalized or that administrators couldn’t relate to her, Moore was the administrator she went to.

Moore’s willingness to listen and lean on her own experience as a black woman provided the perspective Achampong craved, and now Moore can add that perspective to even more students’ experiences.

That perspective, Moore noted, is not one filled with countless memories of being discriminated against while she was at BC. In fact, she said she couldn’t recall any specific incidents where she was discriminated against, but especially considering the incidents that incited the Silence is Still Violence March, Moore is ready to take on issues of inclusion.

“I came into [my time at BC as a student] with a mindset that this campus was mine, fully, just as much as it was anyone else’s,” she said. “And I conducted my life and myself in that way, taking advantage of opportunities and getting involved. “[I was focused on] taking advantage of the goodness. That negative stuff, I tried not to let it come into my space. … Fast-forward to the grown-up Joy Moore now, and I take my role as being a role model very seriously.

And I take that seriously for other African American young women who are here, for faculty and staff, and for all students. If you work hard, if you have an attitude of optimism and a sense of energy and inclusivity then people will want to be a part of what you’re creating.”

Moore said that in a community this size, a race-related incident similar to the events of last fall could come up again that needs to be addressed. Although she doesn’t fear the fallout that can come about from such incidents, her goal is to try not to let such incidents grind the University to a halt.

“I know that there are some students in this community who grew up without knowing a black person or a person of color,” Moore said. “And so now, here they are in a community where there are many, and they’re having their first encounters.

And I take a lot of the actions and things that may have been done in the past just as naive—they probably know that it’s wrong, but I don’t think they realize how it affects people.”

She said that knocks are going to come

to members of this community because of the color of their skin—it’s a part of her life, and it’ll be a part of every person of color’s life on this campus. Moore says it’s her job to educate students on what words can mean to different races, genders, or any other identifying factor to a student at BC. To Moore, her tenure is the beginning of a new dialogue that needs to be opened up between each member of the BC community.

“I think one way to try to help with that conversation is to have more conversation,” she said. “It’s uncomfortable, and it’s awkward, and people are going to have different viewpoints, but that’s okay. You can have different viewpoints, but you can’t be disrespectful, you can’t be unkind. … Not when you’re in this community, and not when you get out there in the world.”

Moore suggested mini-town halls could be a direction she chooses to take advantage of in order to further open such dialogue, but that’s one of the takeaways she thinks she’ll develop as she talks more with students and faculty across campus.

That doesn’t mean that Moore isn’t ready to listen to students while she tries to educate as well. She plans on continuing to learn as the months pass by, since that’s how she’s become a mentor to students in the past: Passing on the lessons she’s learned in the past.

She credits her parents, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks, and Thurgood Marshall as figures she’s either interacted with or read about to learn more about her history. From there, she’s taken those lessons and tried to pass them onto the people who surround her, whether they be BC students, young women in South Africa, or her peers in the Student Affairs office and the BC administration.

Achampong can attest—one of Moore’s lessons has stayed with her to this day—and is quite pertinent to how the vice president is approaching her new position. Doing the right thing will bring people to your cause.

“It’s not hard to get people behind what you’re supposed to be doing,” Moore told her.

It’s a heartening sentiment BC’s student body has had trouble finding in the administration in the past. Criticisms have been leveled at University administrators for not addressing student concerns, especially surrounding the racial divisions made evident as the “Silence is Still Violence” movement came to prominence last October.

Perhaps Moore is the sign of a more relatable era beginning at BC. As the primary front-facing member of the administration, how responses are made will be in Moore’s hands as they were in Jones’s.

Now, all that’s left to find out is whether she plans on following her advice to Achampong. n

BC AHANA+ Faculty Proportion Among Best of Peer Institutions Faculty, from A1 with the large spike in hiring diversity that year because of a “cluster hire” in 2017 of candidates who hold joint appointments in AADS and other departments.

“The challenge with that is we can’t do that every year,” he said. “There’s just not enough demand for the AADS courses for us to continuously.”

Both the Lynch School of Education and the Graduate School of Social Work hired AHANA+ candidates in two of their three available slots this year.

Soo also recognized that there are underlying issues with the diversity of the general applicant pool, especially in areas such as STEM. He cited the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation’s Career Enhancement Fellowship Program, which aims to increase the number of

AHANA+ faculty members by providing grants and research stipends to minority doctoral candidates.

By expanding the sheer number of AHANA+ candidates, it expands the field of applicants that departments are able to recruit.

“I also hear from them that the pipeline just isn’t there,” Soo said. “We’re just not attracting enough of these candidates to come to campus.”

Another blockage in the pipeline comes in the recruiting process. Universities all across the nation are heavily pushing for a more diverse faculty, thinning out an already narrow pool.

Soo sees two upcoming opportunities to improve diversity at BC. The first comes in the form of faculty turnover, which has increased in recent years, primarily through retirements.

“It shouldn’t be surprising that that population of faculty is predominantly

white men, because when you go back 40 years ago, 30 years ago, you know, that was the composition of the school, right?” he said.

As that cohort retires, the incoming faculty will naturally be more diverse and representative, Soo explained.

The Schiller Institute for Integrated Sciences and Society will provide the second opportunity.

The University plans on hiring 22 new faculty for the institute, projected to open in 2021, opening up a chance at diversifying the STEM programs at BC. Soo said that female senior faculty are being targeted for positions in the science department as well.

Since 2015, the University has conducted workshops, run by the Office of Institutional Diversity, to eliminate forms of bias in the recruitment and hiring process.

“There’s a natural tendency to hire

people that look like you and that sound like you,” Soo said. “It limits the pool of potential people that you can recruit from and ever since we started doing [the workshops], the percentage of AHANA faulty that we’ve hired has actually gone up.”

As required under current labor laws, BC conducts race and gender-blind admissions. Despite this, Soo shared his concerns with other insidious, and often unconscious, bias in the process.

The Provost’s office makes it clear to the workshops’ participants that they need to be aware of these biases.

Soo suggested that there might also be a much more subtle bias that strikes when applicants are recruited in the first place. When departments search specifically for graduates of certain schools, they limit themselves to an applicant pool that is only as diverse as those institutions.

Soo suggested that students looking to make a lasting difference engage with the numerous fellowships and grants that BC provides specifically to AHANA+ students. If more minority students pursue graduate studies, the long-term result will be a more robust pipeline of underrepresented minority faculty.

Although he warned that this bottom-up approach may be slow, Soo said he hoped that BC would be able to create a new generation of more diverse faculty.

An increasingly diverse faculty will help students on campus feel more comfortable and represented in the classroom.

“If these are the kinds of students we’re attracting, then our faculty should reflect that,” Soo said. “We want our students to see our faculty and sort of say, ‘I can relate to this faculty member, I can see myself in their position, I can see that my experiences are shared by them.’” n

Newton Considers Dispensary Ban Lake St. Assaults Incite Investigation, Bulletin Ballot Question, from A1

to the petition on optoutnewton.org.

“Although recreational consumption of marijuana is legal throughout Massachusetts, state law allows cities and towns to opt-out of having retail stores and other establishments offering recreational marijuana within their town limits if such a ban is approved by voters in a ballot measure,” the website says on its homepage.

“Such a ban would not prohibit adults’ right to consume, grow or purchase recreational marijuana.”

The website has an FAQ section that has answers to multiple questions.

Those include: “Why is a marijuana dispensary more disturbing than a liquor store?” and “Won’t legalizing recreational marijuana sales reduce the black market?,” among others.

The petition on the same site gathered the necessary 6,000 signatures to bring the question before the City Council.

The vote to allow this question on the ballot comes after the Newton City Council passed a temporary ban

on March 5.

According to previous Heights reporting, it was passed so that the Zoning and Planning Committee would have time to complete a planning process to consider in which districts and under what conditions recreational marijuana establishments will be allowed to open.

The temporary hold was expected to last until December 2018.

It was then intended to be lifted so recreational marijuana establishments could apply for licenses, councilors said this past spring. n

Bulletin, from A1 BPD is handling the investigation into the incidents, and the bulletin asks that anyone with information contact them at 617-343-4250.

Chief of BCPD Bill Evans noted that the similar incidents are what triggered the release of the bulletin.

Despite the fact that they could theoretically be isolated incidents,

BCPD and BPD are treating them as potentially related.

The bulletin recommends that if anyone is out after dark, they travel in groups using well-lit areas.

It also recommends that people walking at night not use ear buds or take calls, and asks that if anyone sees somebody acting in a suspicious manner that they call BCPD or 9-1-1 immediately. n

The Heights

A4

Monday, September 17, 201

Prof. Richard Gaillardetz is the Catholic Mythbuster

By Timmy Facciola Asst. Magazine Editor The clergy are to lead and the laity are to follow.

There’s no room for members of the LGBT community in the Church.

Tradition forbids female ordination.

These are some of the myths Richard Gaillardetz debunks as chair of the theology department and Boston College’s resident Catholic Mythbuster. In his 14 books, doctoral seminars, and 1000-level core classes, Gaillardetz proposes a theological understanding that recognizes the immense diversity of thought and experience within the Christian tradition and approaches the Catholic Church not as a relationship between the clergy and laity but one shared among the entire baptised faithful.

After recent revelations detailing decades of sexual abuse cover ups in the church, prominent clergy and theologians have pushed forward their opinions on how the church ought to act in response to what some estimate to be the most pressing

crisis since the Reformation. Some of these essays can read like political manifestos, and invoke theology that is black-and-white and top-down.

But Gaillardetz’s strain of theology recognizes complex theological discrepancies in light of the grand scheme of Christianity, and the even broader context of man’s attraction to religion.

Balancing between close attention to minute theological discrepancies and broader metaphysical questions and then making the information graspable to 18 year olds is something colleagues have identified as distinctly Gaillardetz-esque.

“He’s fully in-touch with sophisticated features of intellectual traditions,” said Brian Robinette, an associate professor of theology at BC. “But he’s always on the lookout for how that can be communicated to a broader audience. Not just with clarity or precision but in a way that really captures the imagination.”

For the past seven years, Gaillardetz has researched, read, and wrote as part of the theology department that is ranked sixth in the world. Within this faculty are

PHoto Courtesy of Richard Gaillardetz

Gaillardetz taught seminarians for 10 years, and now chairs the theology department.

professors who publish in the most prestigious academic journals and the most commonly read Catholic periodicals. It is in this balance—between rigorous theological academia and everyday encounters of faith, a freedom to criticize the church and a freedom to embrace Catholic identity with a community—that Gaillardetz thinks the church is at her best.

“I think the future of the church is going to depend on whether people are going to catch on to Pope Francis’s vision of reform and renewal,” Gaillardetz said.“Which is to step back from the attempt to reassert the differences between clergy and laity and instead ask how the church can be more robustly engaged with the pressing questions of our age.”

Drawing on contemporaries like English theologian James Alison, a former Dominican priest noted for his work with the LGBT community, Gaillardetz asks his students to consider the Church metaphorically as a restaurant and a halfway house to deconstruct preconceived misconceptions about the Catholic tradition. Through contextualized explanations of centuries-old Church councils and personal stories about his own faith experiences, Gaillardetz is able to make Catholicism seem approachable to students because he was once in their position—the product of a fragmented, word-of-mouth religious education.

Gaillardetz grew up in a military family, moving around the country throughout his childhood, and spent the first three years of high school in Fairbanks, Alaska.

“I would say it was a fairly perfunctory practice of the Catholic faith,” Gaillardetz said. “We were Catholic but I wouldn’t say my parents were strongly committed Catholics. There were periods in my childhood where we weren’t going to Mass on a regular basis, followed by a return to the Church.”

His parents retired in Austin, Texas before his senior year of high school, when Gaillardetz became involved in diocesan retreats and developed a real interest in Catholicism.

But he found something lacking.

“The experience of parish life was a tepid experience of the faith. The liturgies weren’t all that great and there was just a lot about my experience of Catholicism [in my] late

high school years that just wasn’t all that satisfying,” Gaillardetz said.

He went on to the University of Texas, Austin, and soon met some students involved in an evangelical Christian group called Campus Crusaders for Christ (CCC).

In CCC, Gaillardetz found a religious passion that was missing in his parish life in high school.

“I was immediately taken by their sincerity, their passion, but probably more than anything, their sense of fellowship,” Gaillardetz said. “This was a tight-knit student organization where people really were developing strong bonds of friendship and mutual support.”

But a byproduct of this zeal for Christianity that he found so attractive was a disdain for intellectualism that he could not stand.

“I had problems with literal interpretations of the Bible, with challenging evolutionary theory,” Gaillardetz said.

Gaillardetz was invited by a Catholic friend in CCC to daily Mass at the Catholic Student Center, which was staffed by Paulist priests.There, Gaillardetz met a priest named Bob Rivers, who invited Gaillardetz to take a course he was teaching that year on Catholic understandings of the Bible. Gaillardetz enrolled in the course, and a whole world of theology opened up to him.

“The Catholicism that was unsatisfying to me had largely been a child’s model of Catholicism,” Gaillardetz said. “It was CCD, or Catechism Catholicism, and he helped me see a whole world of contemporary Catholic theology, the work of the Second Vatican Council, the contributions to theologians like Karl Rahner that answered so much more compellingly some of the intellectual questions I was struggling with.”

Rivers encouraged him to become a student-leader and develop a more Catholic model of evangelization. Gaillardetz organized coffee house ministries and tried to foster a community of students who shared both zest for Catholicism and a curiosity about its tantalizing mysteries.

At the time, UT Austin did not have a religious studies department. Gaillardetz switched from business to humanities and was able to “cobble together a religious studies program by taking some courses in the classics and a sociology of religion

course,” he said.

Upon graduating, Gaillardetz was invited to start a campus ministry program in Denton, Texas in the diocese of Fort Worth. He found the work rewarding but felt he lacked the skills to communicate adequately with the diocese’s large Latinx community, so he enrolled in an intensive immersion program and traveled to a small mining town called Chalchihuites, in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico.

In Chalchihuites, Gaillardetz encountered a tradition of Catholicism entirely different from the one he knew back home.

“There’s a much richer non-clerical devotional life that’s part of the Mexican Catholic experience, so there were a lot of lay-led devotions that weren’t really relying on the priest a great deal,” Gaillardetz said.

He returned to the United States with a much richer understanding of the cultural diversity within the church. A bishop working in the dioceses at the time named Joe Delaney thought the future of the church was going to be in lay formation, and he gave Gaillardetz a scholarship to pursue a master’s in theology at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas.

After completing his master’s, that same bishop offered Gaillardetz a job in his diocese in adult education and catechesis. The diocese of Fort Worth has a large metropolitan area, but it also has on its outskirts small, rural, immigrant communities of German and Czech Catholics. Much of his job was driving to the parishes of these distant communities to offer training.

But once again, Gaillardetz felt himself running up against his educational wall, and felt he needed to advance his education further if he wanted to continue working in theology.

So he applied and was admitted to the Ph.D. program at the University of Notre Dame, where he met his wife, Diana, who also works in church ministry and holds her own advanced degree in theology, and together they had the first two of their three sons in South Bend, Ind. After completing the program, Gaillardetz was offered a position teaching young men studying to be priests in a diocesan

See Gaillardetz, A8

Future Veterinarian Aboukhater Flees Aleppo, Interns in Belize

By Brooke Kaiserman Assoc. Magazine Editor Her family had packed its bags to flee to America, with violence mounting and time dwindling. But Jude Aboukhater refused to embark on the exodus without her loyal honey-colored labrador, Roxy.

Aboukhater, MCAS ’20, grew up in Aleppo, Syria, alongside her older sister and twin brother. Growing up, she enjoyed all the trimmings of a quintessential childhood—when she wasn’t playing piano, taking on tennis, or volunteering in religious mentorship programs, Aboukhater and her siblings would watch sitcoms such as Friends or read the Harry Potter books.

“Hearing English and listening and reading the Arabic subtitles, that’s how English worked its way through our lives,” she said.

This initial exposure to English would prove to be instrumental when Aboukhater’s family was forced to relocate to Watertown, Mass., after the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War. Aboukhater was one of the fortunate few who holds United States citizenship—she was born in America, but her family returned to Aleppo when she was two months old. She credits this for her ability to enter the country in the midst of a stringent political climate.

“It started to go bad over there . We stayed there for four years during everything and [my parents] were very hopeful that things would get better,” Aboukhater said.

“That was not the case and things got worse to the extent where my dad was like, ‘Nope, safety has to come first. We have to leave.’”

When it came time to choose a college, Aboukhater’s strong family ties pointed her firmly in the direction of Boston College, as her sister was already a sophomore—Layla, BC ’18, graduated this past May. In American culture, kids expect to one day go to college and move out of the house, but growing up in Syria, Aboukhater was not prepared to sever family ties so quickly.

“My twin brother [Matthew, MCAS ’20] too, we just wanted to be in the same school all together,” Jude said. “Especially after going through the last four years of stress ... we wanted to stay together.”

Many students are afflicted with career indecision in their undergraduate years—they weigh passion against practicality while faced with competition and time constraints.

Though the glimmer of childhood ca-

reer dreams dims for many at the onset of adulthood—aspiring astronauts turn into accountants, detectives become doctors, and firefighters morph into financial planners—Jude wants to be a veterinarian just as much now as when she was 5 years old.

“Growing up, she always talked about wanting to be a vet—and wanting to save all the puppies in the world,” Layla said. “We thought it was a phase that she’d grow out of, but, as the years passed by … we started to realize that, no, this is actually something she wants to do.”

She remembers growing up with her first dog, Jazz, a rowdy rottweiler that Aboukhater’s family discovered was bred to butcher—Jazz came from a dog fighting club that had recently closed and sold its puppies.

Consequently, Jazz was aggressive and even violent, often assuming a protective mode while sleeping and eating.

“Throughout that, I still loved him until my parents literally took him away because he was dangerous,” Aboukhater said.

Upon arriving at BC, Aboukhater began with the required courses for students on the pre-veterinary track. In her chemistry lab, she looked over to the adjacent lab hood and met John DiBello, MCAS ’20, with whom she bonded over their shared disdain for the long hours investigating isotopes and love of making new friends. He quickly noticed her passion for veterinary medicine both in and out of the classroom.

“The way that she approaches humans is amplified when she’s hanging out with animals,” DiBello said. “She’s a wonderful person to people, and then she sees a dog, and it just takes over everything, in the most wonderful way.”

Soon, she became eager to expand her knowledge beyond the classroom and interact directly with doctors in clinics and hospitals. Last summer, she took the first step by traveling to Guatemala for a veterinary volunteer program. Recognizing her lack of experience, Aboukhater took the volunteer position as an opportunity to dip her toes in the water by observing veterinary doctors for the first time. She was thrown in the deep end, however, when on her first day, she passed out while shadowing a surgery.

“I woke up and got so stressed,” she said.

“I [thought], ‘I’ve never known anything but wanting to be a veterinarian, what does it mean if I’m passing out from surgeries?’”

Aboukhater soon realized that rather than a setback, this moment of vulnerability

was watershed—from that point on, she knew how to confront stressful situations and prosper under pressure.

“I opened my eyes, and the Guatemalan veterinarian was holding my hands,” said Aboukhater. “He was like, ‘Don’t worry, Jude!

I fainted two times in vet school.’”

Since Aboukhater was working in the hospital as a volunteer rather than an intern, she had ample time to herself to indulge another passion of hers—travel. During her most memorable adventure in Guatemala, Aboukhater hiked up a non-active volcano and slept on its peak while watching a neighboring, active volcano erupt titian-colored magma on the 20-minute mark.

“It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been,” she said.

The next summer, she challenged herself to acquire the hands-on veterinary experience she needed to prepare for veterinary school, which for Aboukhater is fast-approaching.

“There’s only so much you can learn from shadowing. Eventually you realize you’ve hit kind of a red line. ... You need to have that interactive experience to be able to further your knowledge,” she said. “You will hit that line, and that’s it.”

With this attitude, Aboukhater was accepted into BC’s Eagle Intern Fellowship, a competitive program that compensates students for participating in internships that otherwise might not be feasible. She approached the Heal Veterinary Clinic in Watertown, Mass., and offered to work as an intern, more than willing to do the grunt work most would dread. For the fellowship, Aboukhater was required to intern for at least 250 hours while simultaneously taking physics for her veterinary school prerequisites.

“I gained so much experience, because what you have to realize is that you actually do know nothing about your field,” said Aboukhater.

She spent the first week of the internship helping in any way she could, which mostly consisted of washing, folding, cleaning and scrubbing.

“I tried to help them out as much as I could. ... The more helpful you are, the more connections you make and the more they want to teach [you],” Aboukhater said.

Her evident passion paid off, and by the second week, Aboukhater was drawing blood, giving vaccines, doing scribe work for appointments, and forming lasting

kATIE gENIRS / Heights eDITOR

Jude Aboukhater, MCAS ’20, has veterinary experience in Guatemala, Belize, and Mass. relationships with the staff. She made such a positive impact on the staff that at the end of her internship, she was hired at Heal Veterinary Clinic and is working there once a week this semester.

“She completely lights up the place when she’s here, and it is definitely a darker and less fun place when she’s gone,” said Amanda Leef, owner and doctor at Heal Veterinary Clinic. “I call her everybody’s good luck charm. She makes everybody happy, and just improves everybody’s day. Whenever she’s here, whatever her role is.”

After completing her internship at the clinic, Aboukhater continued her summer foray into the field of veterinary medicine, traveling to Belize to intern at a local hospital. In contrast to her time shadowing on the sidelines in Guatemala, her internship in Belize provided her with hands-on veterinary training.

“She has such a wide range of experience from living in Syria to living in a fairly wealthy area of the United States, to working in Belize,” said Leef. “I think one of the things that’s really vital in veterinary medicine is that you understand where different people are coming from and that we’re not all coming from the same place, and I think that that range of experience is going to be incredibly beneficial for her.”

By the end of the internship, she was able to comfortably suture dogs, a feat that had felt impossible during the onset of her time in Belize. The process began with a piece of chicken—Aboukhater would suture each piece with three to seven stitches, guiding the thread through the flesh with a small

needle, and working hard to balance accuracy with efficiency. When she began to feel more comfortable, it was time to try her hand at suturing living, breathing animals.

“My first dog I was actually shaking,” Aboukhater said. “My hands were shaking and I couldn’t get ... the needle inside the dog’s skin, because I was trying to be very gentle.”

The operation was further complicated by limited anesthetic drugs Belisian veterinary hospitals have access to, adding a tight time crunch to the intricate procedure.

“I basically had five to 10 minutes to do it or else, literally, the dog’s tail would start wagging at me and the dog would start to wake up,” she said.

With every dog she sutured, she grew more comfortable, and soon fell into a rhythm—Aboukhater credits the immersive experience with her ensuing confidence.

“By my second, third, fourth dog, I was a pro. ... I just got a grip on it ... and now I feel like I know,” she said.

While Aboukhater still has a long way to go before she opens up a practice of her own, Aboukhater looks toward a bright future in the field of veterinary medicine and vows to always remember the perils of her past.

“I do always think I want to at some point go back home and help in any way possible,” Aboukhater said. “Never live there again, I would say, because I believe that history repeats itself, and I don’t want to have my children or grandchildren go through what I went through—but definitely go back and help and give back, because I got something from there that’s a huge part of me.” n

The Heights

Monday, September 17, 2018

TOP

3

things to do in Boston this week

1

The Museum of Science is hosting its annual College Night on Friday. Attendees can explore all exhibits for free with a student ID. Special events include a live animal presentation, an indoor lightning show, and a space exhibit. Boston Duck Boat tours will also be offered on a first come first served basis.

A5

2

On Saturday, all are invited to the MFA to celebrate the opening of the new exhibit Winniethe-Pooh: Exploring a Classic. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., free milk and cookies and games will be held on the Huntington Avenue lawn. The festivities are free to the public.

3

This weekend, Jamaica Plains Open Studios will celebrate its 25th year. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., the artwork of over 200 artists will be showcased in over 40 locations. Attendees can meet local artists and learn about their processes of creation. The events are free and open to all ages.

A Two-Wheeled Mission to Tackle Poverty, Recidivism

By Alessandro Zenati Metro Editor

Outside the double doors of an atrium leading to Google’s Cambridge headquarters, in the center of the MIT academic nucleus, the sounds of derailleurs clicking into gear and handlebar bells ringing signal an encouraging transition in the mobility soundtracks of urban spaces all around the world. The City of Boston has embraced—albeit slowly—the potential benefits of this modal shift from driving to cycling, particularly as it works to achieve the objectives established in its Go Boston 2030 transportation initiative.

Brandale Randolph acknowledges the power of life on two wheels, not only for the environment but also for individuals who could be empowered through the employment opportunities that he is creating at The 1854 Cycling Company.

The 1854 Cycling Company is a premium bike manufacturer based in Framingham, Mass., recently named a 2018 finalist for MassChallenge’s startup accelerator program. It acts as a social enterprise geared toward providing living wages to previously incarcerated individuals returning to the job market.

The company also produces cycling apparel and has built up a compelling urban aesthetic and brand voice, as the name harkens back to the year that the Anti-Slavery Society first met and the subsequent burning of the United States Constitution on July 4, 1854 by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison in protest of American slavery practices. The company

has firmly positioned itself as an essential link to the surrounding community and an agent for social justice.

“The market I need to hit loves our story, and they love the fact that who we’re trying to help is someone that has been looked over,” Randolph said. “Embracing our story and not hiding from it has separated us in terms of how we brand ourselves in the future. ... I don’t believe we’re just going to be a bicycle company in five years.”

Prior to the company’s inception, Randolph graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and took up a hedge fund job in Los Angeles, only to move away after the 2008 stock market crash.

Having grown up in Louisiana, Randolph claims to have acquired a disregard for authority and conventional practice that primed him early on for entrepreneurial activities.

“The only thing I saw in my future was having my own business,” said Randolph.

“I realized early on that I wasn’t really known to work for other people. I can, and I have, but entrepreneurship was definitely something I started to look into.”

Despite being on track to having a lucrative professional career, Randolph felt a responsibility to assist people who were less fortunate, specifically formerly incarcerated individuals, in acquiring a new dynamic technical skillset, achieving financial security, and avoiding relapse into criminal behavior. The opportunity to effect change from the bottom up presented itself when Randolph moved to Lubbock,

Texas, where his wife was finishing her Ph.D. studies.

There, he began by starting his own social justice nonprofit called Project: Poverty, while also offering employment guidance and teaching financial literacy to inmate cohorts at the Lubbock County Detention Center. Randolph hopes that by providing workers with living wages, the benefits will trickle down to their families and support the education of future generations.

“The problem that I think a lot of people have is that they believe that their job is their identity,” Randolph stated. “Your identity ultimately is your purpose and not necessarily the job title that you have.”

As the company continues to grow and receive recognition for its modus operandi, Randolph remains faithful to his company’s purpose and the human elements of his business. By crafting a delicate balance between commercial venture and social venture—a challenging marriage—Randolph hopes that The 1854 Cycling Company will become a positive stepping-stone for employees to reach their professional aspirations.

Listening attentively to each worker’s needs and aligning them with the growth of the business has brought Randolph closer to this purpose. Ultimately, he estimates that the company will have full command of the production process, from manufacturing to assembly and delivery to customers, by late 2019.

“This [purposeful growth] only comes from listening to my employees,” said Randolph. “I believe that having a moral

Photo courtesy of The 1854 Cycling Company

Brandale Randolph is building 1854 to prepare workers for fulfilling professional lives.

compass is what a lot of businesses lack.”

Dissociating the true signal from the noise in addressing the issue of poverty exists at the core of what the company aims to do. In his 2014 TEDx Talk “Stop throwing breakfast sandwiches at the poor,” delivered at Texas Tech University, Randolph presented this approach by way of an anecdote.

One morning while entering a fastfood restaurant, he noticed a poor man asking patrons for spare change. After some thought, Randolph offered to give the young man a dollar upon exiting the restaurant if he watched after the bike he had parked outside. But before Randolph even made it past the entrance, a patron jostled past him and threw a breakfast sandwich at the poor man, explaining

that he sensed any money given to the man would be used to purchase drugs.

The breakfast sandwich unraveled in the air and its contents spilled onto the pavement.

The scene was troubling for Randolph, who felt that the poor man’s experience was not an isolated one, but rather endemic among those without steady employment and proper housing. That moment outside the fast-food restaurant, as the sun rose above the horizon to greet shopkeepers and workers opening their storefronts around town, proved to be the catalyst for Randolph. He had found a purpose not only for his own life but also for the change he hoped to effect in the lives of those employed through The 1854 Cycling Company. n

Artist Steve Locke Breaks Boundaries Through Abstraction

By Isabel Fenoglio Asst. Metro Editor

Visitors gathered in the living room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on Thursday for an intimate conversation with contemporary artist and current Boston-artist-in-residence Steve Locke.

Holding a cup of steaming tea, Locke walked in with a smile, and after giving a few hugs, proceeded “to spill tea” on his experience serving as the 2016 artist-in residence at the museum; discuss his current exhibition on the museum’s facade, Three Deliberate Grays for Freddie (A Memorial for Freddie Gray); and drop hints about upcoming projects.

“I have become sort of the adopted house cat of this museum,” Locke said with a laugh. “I never leave.”

Locke began his pilgrimages to ISG as a college student, when he attended Boston University. “We used to smoke marijuana and come to Gardner museum and just like wander,” he said coyly. “That was my introduction to the collection. I do not recommend that, the guards are much more attune to people touching things now. I don’t do that anymore, thank

goodness.”

When his mother died in 2004, Locke came back to ISG to mourn her.

“Time is sort of pregnant in the Gardner museum,” he said. “It starts and stops in this very interesting way. You have this sort of eternal present of the collection and then the living present of the garden.

And plus you can walk around here and cry and everyone just thinks you are overwhelmed by the art, which is great.”

But serving as the artist-in-resident in 2016 was what really hooked Locke to the museum.

“I got to live here, wake up here, and go to sleep here,” he said. “I got to watch the army of people who make this place run.

The people with the tiny brushes dusting and the restorers. Not to mention the whole staff that makes that garden happen. To actually see that in operation was magical, it was like watching some sort of ballet every morning.”

Locke’s time at ISG in 2016 had a profound influence on his work. In particular, it sparked his obsession with textiles.

During his residency, the museum was in the process of restoring the silk ceiling of the Raphael Room, and watching the

restoration take place helped inspire the installation that currently dominates the museum’s front facade, Three Deliberate Grays for Freddie (A Memorial for Freddie Gray).

At first glance, viewers see nothing more than three rectangles of color. But the installation should not be compared to a Rothko: the three colors combine to form an abstract portrait of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in 2015 while in Baltimore Police custody.

Gray’s untimely death sparked outrage throughout the country, and helped fuel the Black Lives Matter movement. Closer examination reveals the work for what it is, a brutal and honest examination of the history of race and violence in America today.

“It is my job as an artist to not look away,” Locke said. “Freddie’s death was devastating. I couldn’t get what happened to him out of my head. I had to respond.”

A portrait painter by trade, Locke knew that he couldn’t just paint of portrait of Gray. So instead, he began thinking about how he could talk about the loss of a person rather than an image.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about the

words ‘Freddie Gray,’ and I asked myself ‘If I could make Freddie Gray a color, what would it be?’” he said.

So Locke began looking at images of Gray on the internet, and selected three photographs. The first is an image of Gray on a street corner in his neighborhood, wearing a bright red shirt. The second image is of Gray being arrested by Baltimore police. The final image is a photograph of Gray in the hospital on life support.

“I took these images and used photo software to average the color in all of them to get three monochrome colors,” Locke said.

The resulting colors form a timeline of the life, suffering, and death of Gray. These colors became Freddie Gray.

“The colors actually exist as separate from the piece,” Locke explained. “They can be anywhere. Anything can be Freddie Gray. Any one of us can be Freddie Gray.

That’s the point I’m trying to make with the work.”

The exhibition unveiled on June 26, and will run through Jan. 21, 2019. Locke is currently working with a choir and will hold a performance called a Requiem for Freddie Gray in October. The choir will

sing four songs, “Baltimore,” “Trouble in Mind,” “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted,” and “Young Gifted and Black.”

The lecture concluded with Locke talking about his current and most controversial project, the Faneuil Hall memorial. “Peter Faneuil made his fortune from the slave trade, and Faneuil Hall was a marketplace where people were sold,” Locke said.

Earlier this year, Locke proposed the idea of putting an installation memorializing the men, women, and children sold at Faneuil Hall in the space to Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, BC ‘09. “All sorts of things are memorialized, in bronze. But the economic engine that made it possible is not acknowledged,” he said. “America’s relationship to black people is violence.

And it has always been violence. Unless we start to interrogate that, we are going to be consumed by it.”

“When they picked me to be the artistin-residence for the city, I really thought that they made a mistake,” said Locke. “But the Mayor’s Office told me this is what the city wants, someone to drive the conversation. That’s what art is about. Show me the line, so I can step across it.” n

The Music and Legacy of Orion Morales, Global Jazz Institute

By Jenna Rosenthal Heights Staff Upon entering the Zero Gravity Room on Wednesday night, jazz music emanated from the walls as a saxophonist, a guitarist, and a pianist played alongside each other as part of

the Goodbye Boston Concert.

The concert served as a time to say farewell to Orion Morales, who has been an integral part of the Berklee College of Music’s Global Jazz Institute since he joined it in 2015. Currently a postmaster fellow at the Global Jazz Institute, Morales was born in Chile

photo courtesy of orion morales

The Goodbye Boston Concert honored Orion Morales of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute.

and moved to Boston three years ago to pursue his master’s of music degree in jazz performance.

As a highly motivated and accomplished pianist, he has published a book of 70 compositions and has released nine albums that blend jazz with Latin American folk music and classical music. Morales has performed throughout the United States, produced recordings, and pursued advanced studies alongside grand musicians like Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, and Jack Dejohnette.

Morales’s friends and community at the Global Jazz Institute gathered on Sept. 12 to create rhythms that would convey their gratitude and appreciation for Orion’s work at Berklee.

They performed using Chilean rhythms and an improvisation method of jazz, which connected the musicians with the members of the audience, according to Morales.

Although Morales has a deep affection for music, it is matched with his zeal for social justice and community outreach.

“Music can inspire new movements,” Morales said. “I think the youth need to be a part of this movement for change. Young people need to build more in their communities and take responsibility to make the changes we need to see in the world. I think they can do this through music, which empowers people to communicate and express how they feel.”

Besides composing and teaching jazz in Boston, Morales is igniting this very change through his foundation in Chile.

The mission of the Asociación Amigos de Orion Lion Foundation is to cultivate social mobility and cultural exchange through the power of music.

Morales’s foundation educates students in music from the time they are early adolescents until they are young adults.

Select students from the program receive scholarships to then attend the Berklee Global Institute of Jazz.

Morales is returning to Chile to work on his foundation to help provide more funding and opportunities

for students in his program. There are currently 40 students in foundation, and two of his students just arrived in Boston to attend Berklee this semester.

Many of the students in his foundation have become the first professionals in their families. Morales intends on continuing to deliver a message of hope, identity, and integrity through music to his students.

“If you want to save the world, you need to go the place where the people need you,” Morales said. “If I stayed here for 10 more years, I could make beautiful papers and recordings , but I think in this moment I am going to do more social work going back to my people.”

As Morales goes back to Chile to be a catalyst of change, he will fondly remember his years in Boston.

“In Boston, I learned about the world,” Morales said. “I experienced different cultures through friends and musicians I met these last few years, who have now inspired me musically through their perspective.” n

The Heights

A6

EDITORIAL

QUOTE OF THE DAY

‘After Hours’ is Needed Commitment to Student Space

To provide students with additional spaces for social, academic, and recreational activities, Boston College is continuing to expand the hours and utility of spaces and services.

Beginning last year with student-run services like BC GET and administrative changes like study spaces on the fourth floor of Maloney Hall, the initiative is called “BC After Hours.” The proposal brings conveniences to students, including an intramural sports field at the Harrington Athletics Village on Brighton Campus, extended food service options and hours, new rehearsal spaces at 300 Hammond Pond Parkway, and generally extended hours in other locations.

This initiative is a joint effort of numerous departments on campus: Student Affairs; University Mission and Ministry; Dining Services; University Libraries; the BC Police Department; Auxiliary Services; Information Technology; Facilities Manage-

Monday, September 17, 2018

ment; Institutional Research, Planning, and Assessment; and various academic offices. The collaboration of so many departments demonstrates the University’s collective commitment to better the educational and recreational opportunities available to students.

In addition to Hillside, other on-campus restaurants—CoRo Cafe and café 129 on Brighton Campus—are now involved in BC GET’s delivery services, and fast food chains like Domino’s Pizza will continue to accept Eagle Bucks and offer discounts to students. More printers will be added around campus as well, coming to the fourth floor of Maloney and McElroy. Many of these opportunities allow students more spaces to collaborate and study, which will come in handy especially during exam periods.

A multipurpose room, intended to be a rehearsal space for choral and dance groups,

“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”

- David Mitchell

at 300 Hammond Pond will be accessible to students via shuttle bus beginning Monday. In the past, performance groups have criticized BC’s lack of practice space available. Hopefully this addition will allow more groups adequate rehearsal time. On the same day, students will also have access to a website through which they will be able to reserve study spaces in Stokes and on the fourth floor of Maloney in addition to the spaces already able to be reserved in O’Neill. Other study spaces will be available in the Vanderslice Cabaret Room.

Because BC lacks a student center that would offer one convenient meeting space to study and socialize, “BC After Hours” is a deliberate initiative from the administration to provide similar spaces to students around campus that will enhance student life. In some ways it’s a compromise, but it demonstrates a recognition of some longtime asks from students.

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Have an event that BC students might be interested in? Contact Alessandro Zenati, Metro Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email metro@ bcheights.com.

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If so, contact Joan Kennedy, Magazine Editor, at (617) 552-3548, or email magazine@bcheights.com.

Arts Events For future arts events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk. Call Jacob Schick, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email arts@bcheights.com.

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CUSTOMER SERVICE Clarifications / Corrections

The Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. If you believe we have made a reporting error, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or questions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact Connor Murphy, Editor-in-Chief, at (617) 552-2223, or email eic@bcheights.com.

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The views expressed in the above editorial represent the official position of The Heights, as discussed and written by the

Editorial

The

Heights Established 1919

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The Heights

Monday, September 17, 2018

A7

Appreciating the Impact of Art

69

can possibly connect us?

I firmly believe the answer is art.

69

iBooks - People forget they have iBooks on their Macs. There’s really nothing great about this app—I would be surprised if you told me that you’ve even opened it once— but it’s reassuring to have there, symbolic of education, providing hope, and reminding you that you can, potentially, get work done on this machine that so easily distracts you from the tasks that should be your priorities. calendar - It’s just so convenient, with the little icon that always has today’s date on it and all of the holidays ever marked for the next four years (if you scroll to January 2023 right now, the days are all blank. It’s bleak and hopeless—you’ve been warned). photo booth - Remember the effects? Not the new ones with the animations above your head—those are freaky—but the classic effects, like comic book for when 14-yearold you wanted to look retro and hipster, or the one that twirls your face from the middle so that your mouth is completely vertical on the left side of your face, or the Eiffel Tower background one that always somehow cut off the top of your head, or your ears, or the entire right upper quadrant of your face. personality tests - Unrelated, but true. Not only is it a great way to procrastinate, but it’s an even better way to get an organized list of your positive attributes that you can use on your resume. Give one to your roommate so you know who you’re really living with.

69

Anna Long

maps - It doesn’t seem as reasonable to have on a computer as it is on a phone. Why do you need a map app on your computer, anyway? Are you driving somewhere with your computer open on your dashboard?

That seems dangerous. Why can’t you just open Google Maps on your browser? imovie - Unless you’re a 12 year old making a project for your history class using the “Fairytale” trailer template because it looks the most historical and old-fashioned, you’re probably going to make a tacky clip that is a waste of a minute and a half (except that you’ll have probably spent at least three hours making it because you needed the transitions to match up with the music because, if you don’t have that, you have nothing).

Google chrome - You’re pretty anomalous if you don’t have Chrome, even though its a separate download. The good thing about Chrome is that the website that doesn’t work on Safari tend to work on Chrome, but that’s all that’s good about it: It’s just a backup browser that has a less appealing appearance and a much creepier knowledge of your preferences.

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of them had to be created by someone

I don’t mean the serious Renaissance

who studied one of those lost arts?

paintings of miserable-looking people

We only have great books and movie

holding fruit and crying that are hang-

franchises and music records because

ing in the MFA. No, I’m talking about

there are people who spend their time

the Mission Impossible franchise (I

thinking them up, and that’s just as

mean, Tom Cruise can be considered

valid of a vocation as anything else.

Every Tuesday and Thursday I take

art, right?), Ariana Grande, and Grey’s

a break from the monotony of my core

Anatomy. The things we pay attention

art history, English, music, theatre,

courses and required language classes

to when we just want to relax. These

or anything else that doesn’t directly

and spend an hour and 15 minutes

things aren’t mentioned on campus

correlate to graduate studies and a

listening to the ins and outs of movie-

as a bonding method, but they are

stable career may not save lives in

making. This introductory class in

the invisible thread that holds us all

an operating room or make millions

the film studies department is a great

together. They create the atmosphere

from their penthouse—however, they

course for the simple reason that

that we have the pleasure of living

will make a difference. They will go

it’s fun. My professor is hilariously

in here at BC. How many times have

on to draw up building plans for the

awkward, the projects are easy and

you made a friend by connecting over

city center you’ll love to visit in 10

entertaining, and the textbook has a

a love for Game of Thrones? John

years. They will write the column in

picture of Heath Ledger on the cover,

Mayer’s new album? Excitement for

The New York Times you’ll start your

for crying out loud. Last Tuesday, my

the release of Crazy Rich Asians? OLs

Sundays reading. They will score the

professor begged all 50 people in the

and RAs and all the other acronyms

movie soundtrack you’ll be saving on

lecture hall to declare a film studies

on campus can give rousing speeches

Spotify after walking out of a movie

minor so that, in his words, “the film

and force us to play Ships and Sailors

theater. These people will make small

department doesn’t get swallowed

all they want, but nothing connects

differences in our lives that eventually

up by communication. . . . That’s the

people more than the realization that

add up to who we are. It’s not brain

future that all the small, artsy-fartsy

they love the same thing.

surgery, but it is important.

People who major in film studies,

departments are headed toward.” It

Pablo Picasso said that “the pur-

was a joke, mostly. I got the distinct

pose of art is washing the dust of daily

of just dragging yourself to your Draw-

impression, however, that he was re-

life off our souls.” Granted, he was a

ing 1 class for the art core. Visit the

ally crying, “Save us!,” and all I could

little crazy. But I think he was on to

MFA and go to Starbucks with your

think about was how unfair that is,

something. In my last column, I wrote

friends afterward to talk about what

since film, art, and music save people

about the balance between enjoying

you saw. Go to the movies instead of

all the time.

life and preparing for it, and this is

illegally binge-watching the Marvel

in part what I meant. Life is hard and

Universe on 123movies.

Boston College is a melting pot

So, take an art class for fun instead

of students from all over the world.

being a student is stressful, but every-

Learning to consciously appreci-

There are athletes from the South

thing seems less impossible when you

ate something that impacts your life

who have never seen snow and want

and your friends are crowded around a

is how we train ourselves not to take

to study classics, girls who have spent

small TV laughing at Anne Hathaway

anything for granted. In relation to the

their whole lives in the state of Mas-

and swooning over Chris Pine in The

arts, it’s a small shift, but it will make a

sachusetts and are counting the days

Princess Diaries 2. Something some-

difference in the way you live and act.

until they can study abroad in Spain,

one thought of thousands of miles

Every day we are saved and encour-

international students who speak three

away in the backroom of a studio can

aged by the arts. It’s time we save them

languages and have to fly more than 10

soothe your soul and actually make

back.

hours just to get home, and approxi-

your life more fun. Now, isn’t that just

mately 9,320 other unique stories on

as powerful as the ups and downs of

this campus. So, other than a love for

the stock market?

BC and—hopefully—learning, what

This week, pay attention to the

Anna Long is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

Defending Unhappiness Kate Colombo

pages - Does anyone even use this?

Like, ever? Has anyone ever opened this app with the intent to write a paper or report or anything besides, maybe, the developers and their families (who only probably use it out of pity because they know that Microsoft Word and Google Docs are significantly better)?

things that make you smile. How many

With the dawn of the social media age and our newfound sense of complete creative control in the presentation of our real lives as well as the fostering of a culture here at Boston College in which excellence and perfection are the standard, I’ve found that many of us have a very similar and well-defined perception of what it means to be successful. I’ve also found, however, that holding oneself to that rigid definition is the very thing precluding us from enjoying it: The first bastion of success as defined by many is happiness. How often have you heard, upon asking someone what they want out of life, “I just want to be happy”?

Probably pretty frequently, because that is the primary answer I’ve received (and, heck, it’s the primary answer I’ve given). I have, however, genuinely struggled with my pursuit of happiness.

As such, I present to you now a defense of unhappiness and posit that holding oneself to a standard of success in which one must achieve and maintain happiness is foolish and, frankly, miserable.

In debunking happiness as a measure of success, I would like to first consider how unrealistic it is to expect that someone maintains her happiness indefinitely. It’s easy to fall into the trap of expecting that happiness necessarily accompanies success and that once one is successful, she will always be happy—but this is impossible. Whether for mundane reasons (for example, catching the flu or a bad break-up) or for more medically significant reasons (such as clinical depression), happiness is an elusive and often fleeting emotion. There will always be things that ruin your day and, although wanting to banish those things from your life is natural, actually doing so is a feat well outside the human capacity. While mitigating these feelings is possible, their mere existence should not impact your view on your successes because they are impossible to avoid. Therefore, judging one’s own success by the metric of happiness is neither sustainable nor accurate.

The expectation that one can perpetually maintain a sense of happiness, and that doing so is necessary for success, is harmful. I can use my own experience with this to illustrate.

I struggle to stay happy, and as a result I am very hard on myself about how I interact with others and how I communicate that unhappiness. I hoped to “fix” myself by seeking help from external sources: I tried talking to friends and loved ones, but I felt frustrated at how little I could tell them and how very little they could actually empathize with, compounding how lonely and hopeless I felt. It led to a lot of fights, and each time I felt like I was just bringing everyone down.

I couldn’t reconcile with myself that I’m just as worthy of love and understanding as anyone else, that my unhappiness was valid and deserving of attention, and most of all that I wasn’t broken for feeling unhappy. It’s difficult

“Why couldn’t I just be ‘happy’ or ‘like everyone else’?” and sad to acknowledge that even this most fundamental act of self-love was out of reach for me. I genuinely felt like a failure for being unable to maintain my happiness. It seemed like something everyone else could do—why was I so bad at it? Why couldn’t I just be “happy” or “like everyone else”?

After recognizing that perhaps my friends had no idea how to help me or even how to answer those questions, I sought professional help and learned that a lot of people can’t “just be happy,” and that hanging onto that expectation was another weapon I was using to beat myself up. My desire and expectation for happiness was one of the very things keeping me from it.

Unhappiness is normal and universal. Granted, being happy is a good thing and having the ability to mitigate any negative feelings—particularly those directly causing harm to one’s mental health—is important

and necessary. This is not intended to be an attack on happiness—rather, it is intended to correct the notion of isolation which often accompanies unhappiness. Most, if not all, of us assume that, when we feel particularly unhappy, no one understands or cares to understand and that we are entirely alone in feeling unhappy. One need only scroll through Instagram and Facebook to see that everyone we’ve ever met since middle school is living a better life, a happier life, a more successful life than we are right now.

At least, that’s how it appears. This only serves to reinforce that feeling creeping up in the backs of our minds, tugging at the corner of our souls when unhappiness strikes: “I’m in this alone.”

Recognizing that this is not actually the case, that millions of people over the course of human history have likely felt precisely the same things, goes a long way toward mitigating those feelings of unhappiness and, more importantly, demonstrates that feeling unhappy is not a sign of failure. Because unhappiness is so universally felt, despite the front that we tend to put up around each other, this means that even the most successful people have been or are currently unhappy. As such, to attribute failure to feeling unhappy is misguided and illogical. If even the most successful of people are unhappy at times, then it’s absurd to expect oneself to “succeed” at happiness consistently, which will only cause further unhappiness.

To uphold the expectation that one should be always happy is a disservice and an injustice to yourself.

By acknowledging how acceptable our unhappiness is, we are showing ourselves a higher level of kindness and understanding. Ultimately, in fostering this positive relationship with feelings, based not on the societal expectation of perfection, but on the more realistic and compassionate understanding of our own humanity, we will come closer to achieving the success of a life well lived.

Kate Colombo is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

The opinions and commentaries of the op-ed columnists appearing on this page represent the views of the author or artist of that particular piece, and not necessarily the views of The Heights. Any of the columnists for the Opinions section of The Heights can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

Chill Out, Be a Kid Robert Walmsley

Walmsley, from A1

really here. Yup, recruiting is ramping up nine months before these jobs and internships even start. You can thank the Wall Street investment banks for this new wrinkle after they decided to poach talent early, leaving a wake so wide any firm with a slight overlap in potential talent either followed suit or was at risk of being pushed aside.

Alas, there’s no more “occupying” we can do, and our country’s new administration is making these powerful bulge bracket banks somehow more autocratic through deregulation—so why fight them now? All you can do is cry on your keyboard as you scroll through EagleLink and reach for any familial connection to some sort of reputable business down to your fifth cousin.

But do not fret, you anxious young upstarts, for I am with you, and can provide much-needed advice. No, I didn’t land a big internship with a Big Three or Big Four, nor am I Tom Hanks from Big. But there is something you can learn from the latter: Chill out and be a kid.

I don’t mean this in the literal sense of reverting back to the mindset of a child, but the idea is actually more constructive than one may think on the surface.

In my prepubescent wonderment, I loved to go outside and explore vast green spaces. Running through Stokes Lawn late to class double-fisting Starbucks probably doesn’t count, so I’d recommend a stroll down the Emerald Necklace or a trip to Boston Common.

This doesn’t just provide perceived relaxation, either. Time outside has scientifically proven restorative benefits that can help reduce fatigue. You may claim that, between homework and applications, you lack the time. But at a certain point, fatigue outweighs the plateauing positive benefit of grinding in O’Neill, so hop on the D-line and take in some nature, man.

Running the Res and repping curls can help reduce stress and increase energy, but nothing beats T-ball or some rec soccer games. No, really, all those times you whiffed at a stationary ball or scored on the wrong goal probably improved your mental and physical vitality more than hitting the Plex. In a study published just last month, researchers found that respondents who play team sports report 22.3 percent fewer poor mental-health days than those who don’t exercise, the highest rate of any exercise category surveyed. Researchers posited that the additional social component helped reduce isolation, a driver of many mental-health issues. So, go get a pickup game going to prevent that nagging depression, even if your coordination mimics a giraffe on skates like mine does.

I wasn’t the most intellectually curious child and cringed at the thought of a summer reading log. Most of the time I’d read one of the perpetually regurgitated Diary of Wimpy Kid books or a graphic novel, but occasionally I stumbled upon an enjoyable yet demanding book. I challenge all you stressed-out corporate-cog candidates to do the same. Get off the Bloomberg Terminal for a second and read some Hemingway or Capote. If you couldn’t already guess by now, reading also has numerous health benefits. Deep reading, not just skimming articles and headlines, increases neural connections, bettering mental speed and memory while simultaneously reducing stress. It’ll also give you more interesting talking points at parties than your typical digression into a skimmed Wall Street Journal article or the implications of an inverted yield curve (yawn).

All this time you thought you needed to fake the appearance of maturity and discernible skill is virtually impossible to obtain in two years of college.

In actuality, all you needed were some Caulfieldian tips to manage the growing existential crisis slowly taking hold of your futile life.

For any legitimate vocational help, please see your CSOM career advisor.

Unless, of course, you’re in MCAS. If so, may Ignatius have mercy on your soul.

Robert Walmsley is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

The Heights

A8

Monday, September 17, 2018

A Head of Culture and Trends Kevin Allocca, BC ’06, gets paid to watch YouTube videos all day.

By Joan Kennedy Magazine Editor If you posted on Craigslist about a job opening in New York City during the year 2007, chances are Kevin Allocca, BC ’06, responded. After graduation, you could find him among empty ramen cups, blanket over his head, searching for a plan. As a salmon swims upstream, post-graduation Allocca flocked to the Big Apple to make it, like the Frank Sinatra song. He laid the groundwork to have a joint birthday party every year with his roommate, Kevin Armstrong, BC ’06, called “KA Fest,” given their twin initials—but in terms of a career he was winging it.

“The eclectic tastes and varied interests, I think, were something he had to figure out,” Armstrong said.

Allocca—interested in everything from acting, directing, and teaching, to writing, documentary-making, parody, and the University of Miami football team (which Armstrong calls his fatal flaw)—kept poking around.

“There was this weird listing for like this humor-satire site,” Allocca said. “I remember I was either going to be an unpaid intern at The Onion or a paid intern at this other new website.”

Allocca decisively took the paying job.

He found himself an intern at a joint venture into internet entertainment with IAC and Huffington Post, called 23/6, at a time when internet entertainment was a nascent idea, not the gold mine for fame and profitability it is today.

“It was my dream job. I was like this is the thing I wanted, I came to do,” Allocca said.

Allocca starting dabbling in writing with his humor column for The Heights, which made him a self-proclaimed C-list celebrity between Co-Ro and Commonwealth, and through which he sent messages to his freshman sister’s imminent suitors, saying “I won’t print her name here because she’s probably embarrassed I mentioned her, but, I mean, we have the same last name, so if you’re feeling a little Sherlock Holmes with the Agora it shouldn’t be too hard to find her. I also want to point out that if you are not a woman and I catch you trying to talk to her, I will strangle you with my Ethernet

cable.” (Very 2006, no?)

“He really took the craft seriously, like it wasn’t just a college hobby for him,” Denise Ekenstierna, his Heights editor at the time, said.

Previously the lone comedy writer among marketplace and news writers in The Heights’s McElroy offices, at 23/6, Allocca was surrounded by real, seasoned comedy writers—some of whom flocked from The Daily Show, Letterman, and Conan. They taught him how to write jokes, and, because it was a website instead of a printed newspaper, there was no limit to what Allocca could post. He photoshopped pictures and made videos—a timely pursuit given the ’08 election’s plethora of material.

Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John McCain, and Sarah Palin were a part of one of the first elections to have 24/7 news coverage (because of the internet) and also the first election to have 23/6 coverage. Allocca made mocking mash-ups of people, including politicians—and had minor heart attacks whenever they were shown on TV. After showing one video on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann called him someone with “too much time on their hands.” Much of what Allocca did, one would find all over social media today, but back then social media as a concept was just beginning to hatch.

“I remember sitting around when Twitter launched, and the other comedy writers just ripping into it so hard, like ‘Who the hell—what is this, like, micro-blogging website where people just post a status like that they just had a sandwich?’” Allocca said.

Allocca thought a lot about how traffic moves around the internet at the time, calling it the “subtext” of the things he was doing at the time. While Allocca was starting to feel at home in the big city, shooting with names like Eugene Mirman and H. Jon Benjamin, he was watching contemporary household names like John Mulaney and Aziz Ansari perform in comedy clubs.

“New York has that sort of energy about it which I just really loved,” Allocca said.

Armstrong notes that there never was and never will be any taking Allocca out of New York City—his veins had already morphed to match subway routes, and his alarm clock had already been replaced by the noise of sirens and screeching tires in the

Photo Courtesy of kevin allocca edited by nicole chang/heights editor

Kevin Allocca was the director of Hello...Shovelhead! during his time at Boston College.

morning. Allocca’s confidence skyrocketed.

He was living the life he wanted to, the life that he never realized he could make a career out of.

“So then we all got laid off two years later,” Allocca said.

Born in Hollywood—Hollywood, Fla.— Allocca attended St. Thomas Aquinas school, which had a heavy emphasis on its elite sports program—but Allocca loved to be on the stage, even if no one was watching.

Allocca markedly didn’t manage to elicit a High School Musical-esque shift of focus from the basketball courts to the theater.

Instead, in a High School Musical 2-esque manner, Allocca pulled a Gabriella and went his own way, heading for Boston College.

Far from his little town sandwiched between Miami and “almost Miami” (Fort Lauderdale), Allocca saw Boston and snow for the first time at a Harvard University public speaking invitational and fell in love with the city and the seasons. Ready to get out of south Florida, with what he saw as its superficial perceptions of wealth and success, once Allocca set foot in Boston as a new part-time resident, he was enamored with its intellectual culture. He started classes at BC as a Hardey resident with a biology and theatre double major. Remarking that such a combination does not make sense, but rather, was the crime of a heavy hand at registration, Allocca decided to study communication and film.

“On paper I studied communication and film, in college—but I really studied comedy and entertainment in a way,” Allocca said.

“That’s how I spent all of my free time.”

Allocca also entertained the masses in Fulton 511 as the director of Hello...Shovelhead! It was in this role that he says he got the most raw professional experience of his life, balancing the spin cycle of other’s creative visions, his own recaps of the three-hour Braveheart in 60 seconds, and rejection.

“It’s really hard to tell someone their jokes aren’t good—it’s a very complex thing,” Allocca said.

The allure of performance exposed Allocca to the process of creation—and he soon found himself constantly wanting to create things. He took classes in screenwriting, directing, and filmmaking. His college experience was marked by intense intellectual curiosity, proved by his writing of three theses—one of which was about was about female comedians.

“It was a blessing and a curse, [for Allocca], being talented and having a variety of interests,” Armstrong said. “He wasn’t going to settle for anything that he wasn’t passionate about.”

Allocca’s expanse of pursuits has resulted in him being an interesting subject of a Google search—nowadays, there’s no one in the world with a more interesting LinkedIn than Allocca. He had an internship (around the time YouTube first launched) at a publishing company paying college students to write books for the summer. After hearing about it at a Career Center event, he applied, got it, flew to Colorado, and came to learn everything about said company.

“If you go to Cracker Barrel and you see those books on the shelf—they write those books,” Allocca said.

Next, fresh off Linden Lane, he produced documentaries about Russian history, spending a summer in Siberia. After making a film about Biloxi, Miss. after Hurricane Katrina, and having formed a close bond with John Michalczyk, a film studies professor, Allocca received the social justice project grant and set out.

“Literally during graduation, I’m at some awards ceremony or something,

and [Michalczyk] taps me on the shoulder and is like, ‘Do you want to go to Siberia this summer?’” Allocca said. “He was like, ‘Yeah I need a student to come with us to work on this documentary, would you like to come?’”

“I had known [Allocca] for a couple of years … and I very much enjoyed him as a student and a friend, and if there were any opportunities that came around, he would pick them up and do them,” Michalczyk said.

So Allocca unpacked his jackets from storage and put away his swim trunks: He was headed for the Arctic Circle. Hands tingling from imminent frostbite, he refined his story-telling skills. Filming, especially abroad, was an experience that Michalczyk said gave him an instinct for media and visual communication. When he returned to America he headed for New York, first to work at 23/6, then at Mediabistro, a news site that wasn’t as well known as the New York Post, which Armstrong had just stopped working for—prompting Armstrong to donate a “New York Post” notebook to Allocca.

“I was like this will lend credibility to your name—start bringing this around people and it might scare some folks,” Armstrong said.

Then, Allocca applied to a “random” job at YouTube that was based in tracking trends. YouTube, thinking that it would further legitimize itself as a platform, wanted to find a way to see more of its videos shown on news sites. Given that Allocca understood both pop culture and the news, he was the man for the job. Armstrong wasn’t surprised when Allocca landed the job at YouTube, given that he had an extremely forwardthinking mind.

“I never thought I would work at a tech company—that doesn’t align with anything I told you before about myself,” Allocca said.

Allocca started racking up frequent flyer miles, so he and Armstrong’s (who was also traveling a lot, working for Sports Illustrated) apartment often went unoccupied for weeks—and the vagabond roommates had to meet up for dinner in San Francisco one night instead of in their lonely kitchen on the East Coast. Allocca launched YouTube Trends, which (“surfaces popular videos in real time, and analyzes phenomena within the YouTube community”) in 2010, and now he is the head of Culture and Trends at YouTube.

“Ultimately the thing that I realized I was most interested in is why people like things and how entertainment works,” Allocca said. “And there are few things you can do that are at the scale of YouTube that answer that question.”

Since then, YouTube has grown to have billions of users. Allocca says that the success of YouTube, and every major technology platform, is due to a combination of chance and the right decisions at the right moments.

He thinks Flash (which allowed videos to play on any site, without leaving the site) is what enabled Youtube’s success and growth.

In the early days, its success was seen in the passing around of videos like “The Evolution of Dance” and “Charlie Bit My Finger.”

Now, its unparalleled success is seen in the masses of people who use YouTube videos to get careers, like Justin Bieber, comedian Bo Burnham, and Dude Perfect, and regular people who have created cultural moments and built huge audiences on YouTube, like David Dobrik and Logan Paul. YouTube has democratized media, allowing its creators to also be its audience. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie now share the spotlight with untrained entertainers who populate the web and

garner the undying love and affection of their fan bases. Allocca sits at the crux of this moment in popular culture.

“Kevin’s mind essentially is the internet—it can be very distracting, it can be very informative, it can be stuff that’s useless, it can be stuff that’s prescient,” Armstrong said.

Media and technology impact all aspects of the human story. Though Allocca admits that media is still absolutely flawed, he believes that it acts as a mirror to humanity—it’s flawed because people are flawed.

Allocca thinks a lot about what it would be like to grow up now, in an age where iPhones are more plentiful than Tamagotchi, and the importance of understanding the ethical implications and quandaries of media—from the spread of incorrect information to the restriction of dangerous content.

“The ultimate challenge is one that goes beyond any piece of technology. … It goes to how we interact with one another,” Allocca said.

Allocca says his real job is watching YouTube videos all day, and, given that fact, he seems to be the person best suited to do what he did in his talk for TEDYouth.

He explained why certain videos go viral among the millions that don’t—and chalks viral success up to three factors: tastemakers, communities of participation, and unexpectedness.

Allocca’s favorite video of all time is “Yosemitebear Mountain Double Rainbow 1-8-10”in which a user by the name of “Yosemitebear62” commentates enthusiastically about the appearance of a double rainbow in the sky.

“For me that’s like a metaphor of what I love about media: One person who is really passionate about something and wants to share that experience with other people, and other people finding it and engaging it on their own,” Allocca said. “It’s also really funny, and it makes me laugh to this day, and if I show it to someone that’s never seen it before and they laugh too, I think there’s a real power in that.”

Besides the funny, Allocca loves the uniqueness of YouTube’s ability to connect millions and be reflective of a diversity of societies, passions, and interests. He marvels at the fact that he can watch something made by someone in a remote village of the Philippines, and that the audience has a participatory role in creating culture—and he recently wrote a whole book on it, called Videocracy.

One of the standout trends he highlights in his book is one that he found impossible to wrap his mind around at first. During one of his YouTube-marathon workdays, Allocca came across a plethora of videos of people filming elevators. The topic seemed strange to Allocca, but the fact that these videos had a crazy amount of views was even stranger. When writing his book, Allocca got in touch with a guy from a popular elevator channel. As it turned out, the man has Asperger’s and estimated that a majority of his audience was composed of people with autism around the world. He explained that there are aspects of elevators, and the hobby of exploring them, that attracted people whose brains work differently, and all those people found each other and created a unique and thriving community through YouTube.

“I think that that idea of something that makes no sense to me, that makes no sense to the mainstream media, but is very meaningful to the people who are watching it is what, I think, plays out every day in much more trivial, as well as much more serious ways,” Allocca said. n

After a Life-Long Spiritual Journey, Gaillardetz is Home at BC Gaillardetz, from A4

seminary at the University of St. Thomas Graduate School of Theology in Houston, Texas.

Gaillardetz was one of the more youthful teachers at the school, and the only one to join the seminarians in games of basketball during recreation time. “There was an academic faculty that taught theology courses and a formation faculty that was concerned with spiritual formation,” Gaillardetz said.

“And I used to tell the formation factory that I learned more about the seminarians on the basketball court than they were likely to learn in all their meeting with them because there’s a way in which when you’re on the field of play in sports your true self comes out. The piety gets stripped away and you see who people really are.”

While Gaillardetz enjoyed his time teaching in the seminary, it put him into close contact with some deep-rooted problems he saw in the formation of priests.

“I had the privilege of working with a number of really wonderful, dedicated seminarians,” Gaillardetz said. “I also saw firsthand some of the problems that we are still experiencing in the life of the Church, a kind of clericalism that frankly has only gotten worse in the last few decades. I could already see how that was baked into our whole system of calling forth men to the priesthood.”

Although he loved the academia he engaged with, Gaillardetz also wanted to bring some of those deep theological insights to the lives of everyday people.New chairs of professors of religious studies were endowed at the University of Toledo, and he was invited to apply to the Margaret and Thomas Murray and James J. Bacik professorship of Catholic studies. In Toledo, teaching at a state university, Gaillardetz received the opportunity to teach classes he hadn’t previously had the freedom to.

He team-taught interdisciplinary courses with the film department on religion in

film and with the English department on Catholicism in English literature.

The secular school gave Gaillardetz freedom to explore non-traditional paths that stem from Catholic theology, but with this freedom, Gaillardetz sometimes felt inhibited from pursuing his academia as an extension of his Catholic identity. While it freed him in some ways, teaching at a secular school made Gaillardetz feel like he was teaching in a second language, and he yearned to teach not just about Catholicism but as a Catholic.

There was an opening for the Joseph Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology at BC, to which Gaillardetz applied and was then hired. And so in Boston, Gaillardetz felt a new sense of liberation.

“One of the things I appreciate about being at BC is I don’t have to apologize for my Catholic identity,” Gaillardetz said.

“But neither do I feel constrained to only talk about it in one narrow form. We are unabashedly Jesuit Catholic in our mission

as a university, but we’re also very open to the idea that that doesn’t preclude critical conversation, difficult conversations sometimes about controverted issues.”

One of the environments where Gaillardetz has these conversations is in the theology core class Exploring Catholicism, which he taught for the third time last year.

(Editor’s Note: I took this class last year.)

The majority of his students are usually not practicing Catholics, he said. Some grew up in the Catholic tradition but now no longer practice, and some are encountering Catholicism for the first time in their lives at BC. With such a wide range of experiences, Gaillardetz takes the course as an opportunity to act as a Catholic Mythbuster, exposing his students to different ways of understanding the relationship between the clergy and laity, the history of female deaconesses in the early church, and the problems with imagining God to be what Gaillardetz calls an “interventionist

God”—one who zaps lightning bolts to heal brain tumors and change traffic lights green in the same breath.

“A lot of people, including a lot of our students, who may at one point have been part of the Catholic tradition but may have drifted away, I think a lot of reason for that is they were only exposed to a kind of reductive child’s model, and as they grew in maturity and education, it just started to look silly and untenable,” Gaillardetz said.

But Gaillardetz doesn’t attempt to evangelize and convert his students to enroll in RCIA. Instead, he begins with asking what it is about the human condition that has drawn and continues to draw people to religion.

“I want to start with the fundamental questions they have and the presupposition that there is a fundamental yearning within the human spirit that religion responds to,” Gaillardetz said. “And so I try to start with helping students become more aware of that yearning they experience.” n

SPORTS

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

A9

@HEIGHTSSPORTS

FOOTBALL

BC Clocks in at No. 23 in AP Poll, Ranked for First Time Since ’08

BY BRADLEY SMART Assoc. Sports Editor

For the first time in almost 10 years, Boston College football is ranked, coming in at No. 23 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll. After an impressive offensive showing against Wake Forest pushed the Eagles to a perfect 3-0, voters took notice, slot-

ting them between Texas A&M and Michigan State.

The last time BC appeared in the polls was Nov. 30, 2008, when it was ranked 18th. The Eagles were cochampions of the Atlantic Division, eventually falling to Virginia Tech in the conference championship game.

Entering the poll was expected by most, as BC’s first three games of

BOSTON COLLEGE 41

2018 have established that last year’s second-half surge was no fluke. The Eagles have come away with wins in eight of their last 10 games and have displayed a potent offense that should cause opposing coaches plenty of problems.

Anthony Brown, fully recovered from a torn ACL, has looked the part of a star quarterback. Brown was near-

ly perfect against the Demon Deacons on Thursday, throwing for a careerbest 304 yards and five touchdowns, a stat line that harkens back to the Doug Flutie era. Meanwhile, potential Heisman Trophy candidate A.J. Dillon has started the season the way many would expect—his 432 rushing yards are good for fifth nationally.

Paired with a stout defense that

WAKE FOREST 34

THE PERFECT STORM

notably features Wyatt Ray’s five sacks and six assorted interceptions in the secondary, it’s not hard to see why BC has earned national attention.

Jockeying for position in the race to catch No. 3 Clemson in the Atlantic Division, the Eagles are arguably in the lead—which has the potential to make the Nov. 10 clash much more meaningful than in years prior. 

Give Props to Loeffler

ANDY BACKSTROM

WOODY MARSHALL / AP PHOTO

Anthony Brown tossed five touchdowns, A.J. Dillon ran all over Wake Forest, and the Eagles got in and out of North Carolina with a win before Hurricane Florence hit the East Coast.

BY ANDY BACKSTROM Sports Editor With 13-mph winds blowing north-northeast and Hurricane Florence just hours away from hitting the Carolinas, Boston College football stuck to the ground throughout the first quarter of its Thursday evening ACC opener against Wake Forest. In fact, the Eagles ran the ball 15 times in the opening frame.

At first, the one-dimensional offense worked like a charm, so much so that A.J. Dillon plowed his way to the end zone on just three carries to round out the game’s first series, a drive that spanned a mere 67 sec-

onds. Everyone—fans, spectators, and analysts—had their eyes on the sophomore Heisman hopeful. Dillon wouldn’t win BC the game, though.

That was up to Anthony Brown.

After the Demon Deacons decided to crowd the box, Dillon’s production took a hit. The Eagles punted the ball on five consecutive possessions and weren’t showing any signs of progress until Brown orchestrated a three-play touchdown drive at the beginning of the second quarter. He capped the series with a 27-yard pass to Jeff Smith. The ball was slightly over-

See Football Vs. Wake, A11

BY PETER KIM Asst. Sports Editor After two dominant wins over in-state foes to kick off the year, Boston College football faced its first real test of the season when it traveled to play Wake Forest on Thursday night. And though the Eagles didn’t pass with flying colors, they certainly passed the test. Riding yet another career day from Anthony Brown, as well as the always dependable A.J. Dillon, BC got its conference slate off to the right start, recording a 41-34 victory behind an offense that eclipsed 500 total yards for the

third-straight game. Here are some takeaways and things to watch for the Eagles moving forward.

Brown Has Star Potential In limited action against both Massachusetts and Holy Cross, Brown showed no signs of rust after an extended layover following his season-ending knee injury in 2017. The real question, however, was how he would perform against higher level competition. After all, the Minutemen and Crusaders pale in comparison to ACC competition.

Well, after Thursday’s game

See NOTE Vs. Wake, A12

On Oct. 7, 2017, Boston College football was embarrassed on national television—maybe not on the scoreboard, but in every other aspect of its Thursday night matchup against Virginia Tech.

Outplayed in all three phases of the game, the Eagles were outgained by close to 100 yards of total offense and failed to move the chains on all but two of their 18 third and fourth-down conversions. Wide receiver Jeff Smith debatably threw BC’s best pass of the night—and that’s saying something. Starting quarterback Anthony Brown logged a putrid 42.4 completion percentage, connecting with his receivers on just 13 of his 30 pass attempts. To make matters worse, Harold Landry left the game with an ankle injury—one that eventually sidelined the future secondround draft pick for the season.

In Year Five, a season that was supposed to be the turning point of head coach Steve Addazio’s tenure, the Eagles were without their best player, 2-4, and winless in the ACC. Following the 24-10 loss, he walked into Yawkey Athletics Center and sat down in front of a hoard of reporters, asking about yet another conference defeat. Addazio was in the hot seat. And another loss could have very well cost him his job, especially with Martin Jarmond—a first-year director of athletics that screamed youth and change—running the ship.

“It’ll come together, and it’ll be beautiful,” Addazio said. “You can write that one down. I don’t have the time clock on it right here. But it’ll come together, and it’ll be beautiful.”

To Addazio’s credit, he was right.

Practically overnight, the Eagles’ offense transformed into a high-scoring phenomenon—a highly entertaining one at that.

But he wasn’t the mastermind behind the metamorphosis: That was all Scot Loeffler.

During what was a miraculous second-half finish, the second-year offensive coordinator saved both BC’s offense and his head coach’s job.

Prior to taking over the reigns at BC back in 2012, Addazio was widely known as Florida’s offensive coordinator during the tail end of Urban Meyer’s tenure.

After working with Meyer at Notre Dame,

See Loeffler to the Rescue, A10

MEN’S SOCCER

Dieye, No. 7 Cardinals Deal Eagles First Loss of Season

BY JACK COLEMAN For The Heights In a match of absolute war ball, Boston College men’s soccer sought to claim a second conference victory over heavily touted LouLouisville 1 isville. Coming Boston College 0 into the game, head coach Ed Kelly knew that his team’s playing style clashed with that of the Cardinals. The longtime coach expected a battle, and that’s what he got.

Both sides witnessed players sprawling out on the field in desperate attempts to block soaring shots with their bodies or to take out the ball from underneath their opponent. Ultimately, though, it

INSIDE SPORTS

was Louisville that prevailed, scoring the game-winning goal in the 80th minute off a costly BC turnover. The 1-0 decision marks the Eagles’ (2-1-3, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) first loss of the season—a defeat meddled with physicality and missed chances.

One such moment perfectly summed up the pace of the match, when, at the 19thminute mark, No. 7 Louisville (4-1, 2-0) junior Lamine Conte received a yellow card for taking out one of BC’s own. The midfielder had been taking falls—none of which resulted in the stoppage of play—throughout the night and thus was blatantly furious at the call. Emotions continually rose as Eagles star senior forward Simon Enstrom was dragged down in yet another fiery play.

This was then followed by senior defender

Abe Bibas being pulled by his jersey as the ball sailed his way.

Bibas, with blood coursing through his veins and frustration and concentration apparent on his face due to the dirty playstyle of the opposing Louisville player, was not willing to let a shot on goal pass him by. With all his might, Bibas attempted a frantic, wild shot that had him suspended in mid-air with his leg making a strong connection with the ball. The shot was too high, but Eagle fans in the crowd could hear a premature “da-da-da da-da-da” of a SportsCenter Top Ten highlight play.

BC’s closest shot at a first-half lead was a near perfect attempt on goal. DurJONATHAN YE / HEIGHTS STAFF

MSOC Vs. Louisville, A10

Louisville racked up 13 fouls in its bruising one-goal victory over the Eagles.

MSOC: Eagles Tie Holy Cross in OT Thriller VOLLEYBALL: BC Drops Two of Three at NEC

SPORTS IN SHORT...........................A10 BC outshot its Patriot League foe, 32-7, on Tuesday evening, The Eagles’ nine-game win streak came to end over the MEN’S SOCCER..................................A11 but failed to tip the scale and record the game-winner..... A12 weekend, as BC lost to Harvard and Northeastern......A10 WOMEN’S SOCCER.............................A12

The Heights

A10

Monday, September 17, 2018

VOLLEYBALL

BC Loses Two of Three in Annual New England Challenge

By Taylor Covington For The Heights

After a perfect start to the year, Boston College volleyball finally suffered its first bitter taste of defeat in this weekend’s New England Challenge.

Entering the tournament with a spotless mark through nine games, the Eagles felt the pressure to earn bragging rights in local battles against Harvard, Northeastern, and Massachusetts Lowell. The result was two disappointing losses to the Crimson and Huskies that sandwiched a home win over the River Hawks. Each game went to four or five sets, but errors plagued the Eagles in the defeats and spoiled a chance at continuing a program-best undefeated run.

“We have to find a way to reduce errors,” head coach Jason Kennedy said after the trio of local matchups. “We have to learn to play as aggressively in the beginning of the game as we do in the final sets.”

Kennedy’s frustration with slow starts is well-warranted, as BC (10-2) lost the first set in all three matchups. The Eagles were strong in the latter half of matches—at times almost doubling its attack percentage by the final set—but twice it proved too late.

BC concluded the tournament on Saturday night with a loss in four sets to Northeastern (6-6), a team that has his-

torically been tough for the Eagles to find consistency against.

The Huskies were fresher, having played just one of their tournament matches. Gabrielle Tschannen paced the Northeastern offense, as it built an early 9-3 lead and kept BC at arm’s length throughout the first set, winning, 25-19. The teams traded points in the second set with seven lead changes.

Despite McKenna Goss’s eighth kill of the night, the Huskies ended the set on a 7-4 run to win the set, 25-21.

In true form, there was a bounce-back performance from Kennedy’s team after the half. The third set was anyone’s game until Goss’ ninth and 10th kills helped the Eagles claw their way to an 18-16 lead. After a few BC errors, the teams battled point-for-point before the Eagles manufactured a threepoint swing to take the frame, 25-23, forcing the match into a fourth set.

Still, the slow start would prove too much to overcome. Early in the fourth, Northeastern jumped out to a 7-4 lead, forcing an early BC timeout. If anything, the timeout helped the Huskies, as they came off the break with a 4-1 run and used the resulting momentum to carry them throughout the set. The Eagles never got closer than six points the rest of the way, losing the frame, 25-16, and the match along with it.

Friday’s first set against UMass Lowell

(1-11) was also an erroneous one for the Eagles, as they struggled against a strong Lowell defense. Within the first two minutes, a ferocious attack by Jill Strokis was immediately returned, revealing the River Hawks’ ability to keep the ball in play. BC’s Cat Balido and Amaka Chukwujekwu crowded the centerline and managed to block attacks by UMass Lowell standout Malia Randolph, but the strategy wasn’t enough in the early going, as BC conceded the first set, 25-21.

The second set was marked by trading points with Lowell, eventually holding a two-point lead midway through the set.

This was short-lived, though, as the Eagles came off a timeout with four kills, claiming the second set, 25-23. In the second frame, an ace by libero Makenzie Morrison paired with three River Hawks errors gave BC the four-point win and a commanding set lead.

Dominating the final set, the Eagles displayed their best offensive skills of the match—and of the entire challenge. Dictating a fast pace, BC surged ahead with three consecutive kills by Clare Naughton. The Eagles found their rhythm and cruised through the rest of the frame, doubling up UMass Lowell to finish the set, 25-10, and earn their 10th win of the season.

TIGER TAO / HEIGHTS STAFF

For the first time since 2015, the Eagles have won double-digit games.

Earlier in the week, however, BC suffered its first loss on the year in a five-set match against Harvard (5-4).

The Eagles conceded a close first set, but kept their heads, responding to a Crimson service error with a 9-1 run to take the second frame 25-19. The third set was anyone’s game until the last half, where momentum shifted to the Crimson and a 7-2 surge forced set point. The Eagles held off three set points before ultimately conceding the frame, 25-21.

In the fourth set, the teams battled back and forth, trading points until two straight Eagles points gave them a 1917 lead. BC was able to close the frame

on a 6-5 run, forcing a fifth set with a 25-22 victory. In the fifth, the teams were evenly matched until Harvard scored three unanswered, prompting a BC timeout with a score of 13-8. The Eagles attempted to rally, but found their rhythm too late, as the Crimson claimed the set and match.

“That game was frustrating,” Strokis said. “It’s particularly frustrating for us juniors who have lost to them the past three years, but we’re stepping up our blocking and focusing on coming out strong. We have a winning culture now, and we’re intent on making [Coach Kennedy] proud.” n

Loeffler Saved the Eagles Offense and Steve Addazio’s Job Loeffler to the Rescue, from A9 Addazio was hired to coach the Gators’ tight ends in 2005. As the years progressed, he climbed the ranks, ultimately landing the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach position in 2009.

The next two seasons, Tim Tebow came within one game of leading Florida to a third National Championship appearance, and Florida posted 33 points per game, finishing inside the top 50 in scoring both years.

So when Addazio left Temple to take over an Eagles team that averaged less than 20 points throughout the 2012 season, fans and alumni expected something to change. At first, it looked like they were in luck—following back-to-back dismal Frank Spaziani campaigns, Addazio strung together a pair of 7-6 seasons, all while BC recorded upward of 26 points per game.

But after he signed a six-year contract extension in December 2014, everything started to fall apart.

Granted, even though injuries played a significant role in BC’s downward spiral, the Eagles made a home for themselves at the bottom of the ACC’s Atlantic Division.

In 2015, BC infamously lost all eight of its conference games, limping to a 3-9 overall record. The next year, the Eagles, although 7-6, were outscored, 153-24, by the likes of Clemson, Louisville, and Florida State.

After averaging 27 points per game in the first two years of Addazio’s stay, BC’s scoring output plummeted to a mere 18.8 per contest during the 2015-16 seasons.

The passing game was virtually non-existent, in large part because Addazio simply used graduate transfers—a metaphorical bandage—to cover what was a much larger hole in the Eagles’ offense. As a result, BC stuck to the ground, running the ball 41-plus times per game. On a week-to-week basis, opponents stacked the box, shutting down Jonathan Hilliman, Myles Willis, and Tyler Rouse.

Addazio wasn’t completely out of touch with the game, however. It’s important to note that off the field, he and his

assistants reeled diamonds in the rough, including three NFLers—Harold Landry, Isaac Yiadom, and Kamrin Moore—and a Heisman Trophy candidate, as well as a handful of guys that ended up outplaying their two or three-star ratings. His determination and leadership skills have never been in question. On the other hand, his in-game strategy—ranging from clock management to conservative playcalling—has been debated on BC blogs for years.

With his back against the wall, Addazio made one of the best decisions of his head coaching career, dishing the playcalling responsibility to Loeffler, someone he held near and dear. It’s unclear how much influence Addazio still has, in terms of the playbook—but the difference in offensive output, both statistically and aesthetically, is indisputable.

Loeffler coached alongside Addazio at Florida, joining Meyer’s staff as the Gators’ quarterback coach. Even though the Barberton, Ohio native only spent one year at Florida, his work didn’t go unnoticed.

Loeffler—who previously coached Tom Brady at Michigan and served as a Detroit Lions assistant—mentored Tebow, helping the senior polish his mechanics for the upcoming NFL Draft. By the year’s end, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner ranked first in the nation in passing efficiency.

Looking back, Tebow’s playing style didn’t translate to a lengthy pro career, but what Loeffler was able to do with the dualthreat quarterback further convinced his colleagues that he was special, especially one in particular.

Addazio hired Loeffler as his quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator when he moved to the Mid-American Conference to coach Temple. During their one year together in Philly, the two revamped the Owls’ offense. Temple racked up 30.6 points per game in 2011—5.6 more than they averaged in the final season of Al Golden’s five-year stint.

Addazio’s Owls rounded out the season with a New Mexico Bowl victory, marking their ninth and final win of the

season. But the dominance was shortlived, and so was the Addazio-Loeffler partnership—for the time being, at least.

Loeffler was hired as Auburn’s offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach that winter, and Addazio and Temple promptly took a huge step backwards. It’s worth noting that the Owls moved to the Big East for the 2012 season—a considerably more competitive conference than the MAC—but the year-to-year difference was still telling: Temple’s scoring output dipped below 25 points per game, and the program finished just 4-7, missing out on the postseason for the second time in the past four years.

Loeffler moved from school to school, often tasked with jumpstarting offenses.

When he got to Virginia Tech in 2013, he was asked to restore the Hokies’ reputation as one of the more offensively adept teams in the ACC. It took time, but eventually, Loeffler had VTech where it was in the late 2000s, averaging 31 points per game during the 2015 campaign.

Following that season, Loeffler reunited with his old colleague in Chestnut Hill. Like his previous three years on the Heights, Addazio shouldered the playcalling duties in 2016. Even with a healthy Patrick Towles, BC struggled to move the ball and boasted the 12th-worst scoring offense in the country. But it wasn’t until the Quick Lane Bowl that Loeffler got to implement the up-tempo offense that he had in mind since the day he got to BC. In his final two years with the Hokies, they recorded 75 or more snaps a game, keeping opposing defenses on edge each week. BC reached that mark against Maryland and logged 29 first-half points, en route to its first postseason victory since 2007. It’s safe to say that the Eagles were on to something—well, almost.

Addazio entered the 2017 season with the mindset that the Eagles were going to play faster than ever. They did. But pace of play didn’t merely equate to efficiency.

Despite averaging 77.5 plays per game over the course of the first six games of the season, BC tallied just 16.3 points per

game during that span—its lowest scoring output since 1978, a year in which the Eagles stumbled to an 0-11 record.

The problem was, Addazio wasn’t taking shots downfield. Brown was logging a mere 4.7 yards per pass attempt.

The dink-and-dunk scheme was nothing more than a glorified run. Regardless if it was Hillman or Dillon running the rock, the Eagles’ rushing attack was average at best—perhaps predictable is a better way to describe it.

Addazio was employing the correct system with the wrong playbook. An uptempo offense only works if you can pick up chunks of yards at a time. BC was doing the exact opposite. Like he did in the past, Addazio banked on using all three downs to move the sticks. As a result, BC faced an average of 19.3 third downs per contest in its first four games of the year, the fifth-most in the country. It only converted 32.8 percent of the time, ranking the Eagles 96th in the nation in that department.

The breaking point was BC’s Thursday night meltdown against the Hokies.

Although not publicly announced, it was around this time that the play-calling duties were passed on to Loeffler. Immediately, the Eagles looked like a different team.

At Louisville, the offensive coordinator made a point to establish the run. In what was a coming-out party of sorts, Dillon rumbled past the Cardinals’ defense for 272 yards and four touchdowns. Thanks to the true freshman, every play in Loeffler’s arsenal was fair game. From that point forward, he alternated between a multitude of run calls and play-action passes, constantly tricking defenses with an array of similar formations.

It wasn’t like opponents could figure out the BC offense with one week of game film either. At Virginia, Loeffler ran a playaction pass off a jet sweep. Brown’s deep pass fell harmlessly incomplete, but the offensive coordinator accomplished what he set out to do. A few plays later—following an Eagles first down—Loeffler called for

another jet sweep. Only this time, Brown didn’t fake the handoff. As the defensive backs retreated to the upper level, Thadd Smith received the ball and made a beeline to the edge, sprinting down the sideline for a 76-yard touchdown.

BC won five of its last seven games, defeating opponents in dominant fashion.

Of course, Dillon fueled the offensive explosion, but it was Loeffler who was calling the shots and simultaneously molding Brown into one of the conference’s up-and-coming signal callers.

The 2017 offseason was one of speculation and projection. National media outlets pegged BC as the ACC Dark Horse, but the question remained: Was the Eagles’ offense for real?

Three weeks into the 2018 campaign, it’s pretty clear that the answer is yes.

Behind Brown and Dillon, BC rattled off two Bay State blowouts. To light up the scoreboard against Massachusetts and Holy Cross is one thing—to do it at Wake Forest in an ACC opener is another.

Once again, the Eagles found themselves on ESPN’s Thursday night broadcast. There was no embarrassment this time around. Instead, BC shined, taking the nation by storm. Brown completed 16of-25 passes for 304 yards and five touchdowns, Dillon rushed for 185 yards and a score, and the Eagles left Winston-Salem with a 41-34 victory in hand—as well as their first 3-0 start to a season since 2007, one that earned them a No. 23 ranking.

Dating back to Oct. 14, 2017—presumably when Loeffler started calling plays—the Eagles have averaged 38.7 points per game. Aside from Dillon, Addazio is the face of the program, and reasonably so, considering his recruiting prowess. But Loeffler is the one creating the magic behind the curtain, and if it wasn’t for him, the Eagles could be in Year One of yet another rebuild.

Andy Backstrom is the sports editor for The Heights.

He can be reached on Twitter @AndyHeights.

SPORTS in SHORT ACC FIELD HOCKEY Standings Conference overall

North Carolina

1-0

7-0

Duke

1-0

5-2

Virginia

1-0

3-2

Louisville

1-1

5-2

Boston College

1-1

3-3

Wake Forest

0-1

2-4

Syracuse

0-2

3-3

Numbers to know

0

Seconds remaining on the clock when Louisville field hockey’s Bethany Russ scored the game-winner against BC on Saturday night.

4

Sacks for Wyatt Ray in Thursday night’s win over Wake Forest, good for a new school record.

11

Set piece goals through nine games for women’s soccer, with seven of those coming via corner kicks.

QUote of the week

“We made a stupid mistake, and they were able to capitalize.”

— Men’s soccer coach Ed

Kelly, on Louisville scoring the eventual game-winner in the 80th minute.

SPORTS

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

A9

@HEIGHTSSPORTS

FOOTBALL

BC Clocks in at No. 23 in AP Poll, Ranked for First Time Since ’08

BY BRADLEY SMART Assoc. Sports Editor

For the first time in almost 10 years, Boston College football is ranked, coming in at No. 23 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll. After an impressive offensive showing against Wake Forest pushed the Eagles to a perfect 3-0, voters took notice, slot-

ting them between Texas A&M and Michigan State.

The last time BC appeared in the polls was Nov. 30, 2008, when it was ranked 18th. The Eagles were cochampions of the Atlantic Division, eventually falling to Virginia Tech in the conference championship game.

Entering the poll was expected by most, as BC’s first three games of

BOSTON COLLEGE 41

2018 have established that last year’s second-half surge was no fluke. The Eagles have come away with wins in eight of their last 10 games and have displayed a potent offense that should cause opposing coaches plenty of problems.

Anthony Brown, fully recovered from a torn ACL, has looked the part of a star quarterback. Brown was near-

ly perfect against the Demon Deacons on Thursday, throwing for a careerbest 304 yards and five touchdowns, a stat line that harkens back to the Doug Flutie era. Meanwhile, potential Heisman Trophy candidate A.J. Dillon has started the season the way many would expect—his 432 rushing yards are good for fifth nationally.

Paired with a stout defense that

WAKE FOREST 34

THE PERFECT STORM

notably features Wyatt Ray’s five sacks and six assorted interceptions in the secondary, it’s not hard to see why BC has earned national attention.

Jockeying for position in the race to catch No. 3 Clemson in the Atlantic Division, the Eagles are arguably in the lead—which has the potential to make the Nov. 10 clash much more meaningful than in years prior. 

Give Props to Loeffler

ANDY BACKSTROM

WOODY MARSHALL / AP PHOTO

Anthony Brown tossed five touchdowns, A.J. Dillon ran all over Wake Forest, and the Eagles got in and out of North Carolina with a win before Hurricane Florence hit the East Coast.

BY ANDY BACKSTROM Sports Editor With 13-mph winds blowing north-northeast and Hurricane Florence just hours away from hitting the Carolinas, Boston College football stuck to the ground throughout the first quarter of its Thursday evening ACC opener against Wake Forest. In fact, the Eagles ran the ball 15 times in the opening frame.

At first, the one-dimensional offense worked like a charm, so much so that A.J. Dillon plowed his way to the end zone on just three carries to round out the game’s first series, a drive that spanned a mere 67 sec-

onds. Everyone—fans, spectators, and analysts—had their eyes on the sophomore Heisman hopeful. Dillon wouldn’t win BC the game, though.

That was up to Anthony Brown.

After the Demon Deacons decided to crowd the box, Dillon’s production took a hit. The Eagles punted the ball on five consecutive possessions and weren’t showing any signs of progress until Brown orchestrated a three-play touchdown drive at the beginning of the second quarter. He capped the series with a 27-yard pass to Jeff Smith. The ball was slightly over-

See Football Vs. Wake, A11

BY PETER KIM Asst. Sports Editor After two dominant wins over in-state foes to kick off the year, Boston College football faced its first real test of the season when it traveled to play Wake Forest on Thursday night. And though the Eagles didn’t pass with flying colors, they certainly passed the test. Riding yet another career day from Anthony Brown, as well as the always dependable A.J. Dillon, BC got its conference slate off to the right start, recording a 41-34 victory behind an offense that eclipsed 500 total yards for the

third-straight game. Here are some takeaways and things to watch for the Eagles moving forward.

Brown Has Star Potential In limited action against both Massachusetts and Holy Cross, Brown showed no signs of rust after an extended layover following his season-ending knee injury in 2017. The real question, however, was how he would perform against higher level competition. After all, the Minutemen and Crusaders pale in comparison to ACC competition.

Well, after Thursday’s game

See NOTE Vs. Wake, A12

On Oct. 7, 2017, Boston College football was embarrassed on national television—maybe not on the scoreboard, but in every other aspect of its Thursday night matchup against Virginia Tech.

Outplayed in all three phases of the game, the Eagles were outgained by close to 100 yards of total offense and failed to move the chains on all but two of their 18 third and fourth-down conversions. Wide receiver Jeff Smith debatably threw BC’s best pass of the night—and that’s saying something. Starting quarterback Anthony Brown logged a putrid 42.4 completion percentage, connecting with his receivers on just 13 of his 30 pass attempts. To make matters worse, Harold Landry left the game with an ankle injury—one that eventually sidelined the future secondround draft pick for the season.

In Year Five, a season that was supposed to be the turning point of head coach Steve Addazio’s tenure, the Eagles were without their best player, 2-4, and winless in the ACC. Following the 24-10 loss, he walked into Yawkey Athletics Center and sat down in front of a hoard of reporters, asking about yet another conference defeat. Addazio was in the hot seat. And another loss could have very well cost him his job, especially with Martin Jarmond—a first-year director of athletics that screamed youth and change—running the ship.

“It’ll come together, and it’ll be beautiful,” Addazio said. “You can write that one down. I don’t have the time clock on it right here. But it’ll come together, and it’ll be beautiful.”

To Addazio’s credit, he was right.

Practically overnight, the Eagles’ offense transformed into a high-scoring phenomenon—a highly entertaining one at that.

But he wasn’t the mastermind behind the metamorphosis: That was all Scot Loeffler.

During what was a miraculous second-half finish, the second-year offensive coordinator saved both BC’s offense and his head coach’s job.

Prior to taking over the reigns at BC back in 2012, Addazio was widely known as Florida’s offensive coordinator during the tail end of Urban Meyer’s tenure.

After working with Meyer at Notre Dame,

See Loeffler to the Rescue, A10

MEN’S SOCCER

Dieye, No. 7 Cardinals Deal Eagles First Loss of Season

BY JACK COLEMAN For The Heights In a match of absolute war ball, Boston College men’s soccer sought to claim a second conference victory over heavily touted LouLouisville 1 isville. Coming Boston College 0 into the game, head coach Ed Kelly knew that his team’s playing style clashed with that of the Cardinals. The longtime coach expected a battle, and that’s what he got.

Both sides witnessed players sprawling out on the field in desperate attempts to block soaring shots with their bodies or to take out the ball from underneath their opponent. Ultimately, though, it

INSIDE SPORTS

was Louisville that prevailed, scoring the game-winning goal in the 80th minute off a costly BC turnover. The 1-0 decision marks the Eagles’ (2-1-3, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) first loss of the season—a defeat meddled with physicality and missed chances.

One such moment perfectly summed up the pace of the match, when, at the 19thminute mark, No. 7 Louisville (4-1, 2-0) junior Lamine Conte received a yellow card for taking out one of BC’s own. The midfielder had been taking falls—none of which resulted in the stoppage of play—throughout the night and thus was blatantly furious at the call. Emotions continually rose as Eagles star senior forward Simon Enstrom was dragged down in yet another fiery play.

This was then followed by senior defender

Abe Bibas being pulled by his jersey as the ball sailed his way.

Bibas, with blood coursing through his veins and frustration and concentration apparent on his face due to the dirty playstyle of the opposing Louisville player, was not willing to let a shot on goal pass him by. With all his might, Bibas attempted a frantic, wild shot that had him suspended in mid-air with his leg making a strong connection with the ball. The shot was too high, but Eagle fans in the crowd could hear a premature “da-da-da da-da-da” of a SportsCenter Top Ten highlight play.

BC’s closest shot at a first-half lead was a near perfect attempt on goal. DurJONATHAN YE / HEIGHTS STAFF

MSOC Vs. Louisville, A10

Louisville racked up 13 fouls in its bruising one-goal victory over the Eagles.

MSOC: Eagles Tie Holy Cross in OT Thriller VOLLEYBALL: BC Drops Two of Three at NEC

SPORTS IN SHORT...........................A10 BC outshot its Patriot League foe, 32-7, on Tuesday evening, The Eagles’ nine-game win streak came to end over the MEN’S SOCCER..................................A11 but failed to tip the scale and record the game-winner..... A12 weekend, as BC lost to Harvard and Northeastern......A10 WOMEN’S SOCCER.............................A12

The Heights

A12

Monday, September 17, 2018

FOOTBALL

Run Defense and Special Teams Cause for Concern in Wake Win NOTE Vs. Wake from A9 the beginnings of an answer: Brown has the potential to be one of the best in the country. One of the biggest knocks on the sophomore gunslinger last season was his accuracy. In 2017, Brown didn’t have back-to-back games where he completed more than half of his passes. This season? He’s completed more than 60 percent of his pass attempts in all three games—granted, he only threw the ball twice against Holy Cross—and he’s been making almost every throw with pinpoint precision.

Thursday was no different. Brown, who ended the game 16-of-25 for 304 yards and five touchdowns, was dropping dimes all over the field. On one particularly impressive drive, right after Wake Forest took a 24-21 lead, Brown first completed an inch-perfect back shoulder fade to Jeff Smith along the right sideline for a gain of 24 on 3rd-and-14. After another big third-down conversion to Michael Walker kept the drive going, Brown found Tommy Sweeney on a deep out route along the opposite sideline with another impeccable pass, dropping the ball right over the senior tight end’s left shoulder for a 29-yard touchdown.

If Brown continues to play with this kind of poise and and accuracy, he’ll bring consistency to the quarterback position that BC hasn’t had in the Steve Addazio era. Better yet, the one-two punch of him and Dillon gives the Eagles one of the most potent offenses in the country, a nuanced attack that can keep BC competitive with any

Power Five team.

Play-Action Proficiency One of the greatest weapons that BC’s offense utilized on Thursday was the play-action pass. Three of Brown’s touchdowns came off play-action, but the groundwork for its effectiveness was laid from the Eagles’ first drive of the game. Offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler opened the gates with three consecutive Dillon runs. The first two gained seven yards, but on the third, Dillon busted free, bouncing the ball outside for a 45-yard touchdown. If it didn’t already, Wake Forest now knew it had to respect BC’s formidable offensive line and rushing attack.

For the rest of the game—utilizing the fear of Dillon’s speed-power combination—Brown and the rest of the offense feasted on play-action. First it was Jeff Smith wide open on a deep post route for a long touchdown in the second quarter. Next it was Kobay White’s turn to score off play-action on a sideline go route, then Tommy Sweeney on a long out route. Finally, Smith ended up wide open on a wheel route off a fake jet sweep to give the Eagles a 10-point fourth-quarter lead.

All in all, Brown finished 5-of-10 for 169 yards and four touchdowns off play-action with a couple other deep balls just missing the mark.

Wyatt Ray’s Coming Out Party Zach Allen, who made a name for himself last season with six sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss, is the star of the Eagles’ defensive line, but across from him Wyatt Ray has been quietly excellent ever since taking over from Harold Landry in the second half of 2017. On

Thursday, however, Ray wasn’t quiet whatsoever.

The senior, who had just nine career sacks coming into Thursday’s contest, finished with four on the night, breaking the Eagles’ single-game record of 3.5, previously held by Mathias Kiwanuka and Mike Mamula—two guys who ended up hearing their names called in the first round of the NFL Draft. Throughout the night, Ray displayed an impressive speed rush, whether that was off the line or on delayed stunts.

The first and last of his sacks came on plays where he initially lined up outside the tackles, before looping around the defensive tackle inside and simply running by Wake Forest’s guards. That said, his third sack might have been the most impressive. With just over four minutes left in the fourth quarter, Ray was initially stalemated by Demon Deacons right tackle Nathan Gillian, but used a ferocious hand jab and swim move to disengage and blow by him, leaving Gillian stumbling and grasping at air. If Ray keeps this up, his play will provide BC’s defensive line with a much needed boost.

In Too Much of a Rush In the Eagles’ first two games this season, they didn’t see their run defense tested in a significant way.

UMass managed just 66 yards on 34 carries, and while Holy Cross ground its way to 197 yards rushing, the majority of those yards came after BC’s starting unit had taken a seat for the afternoon.

Wake Forest was the first to really expose the Eagles’ rush defense and

gap discipline, and it’s safe to say that BC has some things to work on in that department. A combination of Matt Colburn II, Cade Carney, and Sam Hartman paced the Demon Deacons to 298 yards rushing on 60 carries, utilizing a variety of delayed option handoffs and quarterback draws—a mix that gave the Eagles’ linebackers fits all game long.

Carney, whose patient running style is similar to that of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Le’Veon Bell, was especially effective. On one particular play, Carney looked like he was stacked up behind the line for a loss, but BC defensive end Tanner Karafa was caught hanging in the upper level of the Eagles’ defense, effectively allowing the Wake Forest back to squeeze through the trenches and break away for a 42-yard gain. For BC to have success against some of the ACC’s other dominant rushing attacks, the entire front seven will need to be more disciplined.

Special Teams Weren’t At All Special Even against lower-level opponents, the Eagles’ special teams issues were quite apparent. Holy Cross was able to return two blocked punts for touchdowns in Week Two, and Wake Forest repeated the feat in the first half of Thursday’s contest.

In the second quarter, Grant Carlson mishandled a high snap and was forced to punt while scrambling to his right. A diving Wake Forest defender got his hands to the ball, and it was returned for a touchdown. To make matters worse, early in the first half,

Michael Walker muffed a punt at his own 13-yard line, leading to the Demon Deacons’ first touchdown of the game. And late in the second half, John Tessitore badly missed an extra point, a mistake that could have very well proved costly. For the rest of the season, BC won’t have the ability to give away 15 points on special teams and still win. Whether it means taking a look at different punt formations or changing kickers again, these issues will have to be ironed out, and fast.

Fourth Down? Thumbs Down Wake Forest was aggressive on short fourth downs all game long, daring the Eagles to make a stop and force the home team off the field. It was a challenge that BC failed to rise to for most of the game. When all was said and done, the Demon Deacons were 6-of-7 on fourth down. Of course, it’s only fair to mention that the one time the Eagles did get off the field on fourth down was when Taj-Amir Torres made a great play on a fade route in the end zone to end a Wake Forest scoring threat. But for the majority of the game, the Demon Deacons were able convert in a variety of ways.

First it was Hartman using the delayed option handoff, and, later in the game, it was a number of different short to intermediate routes that resulted in easy completions. A couple of times, thanks to the fast-tempo Wake Forest offense, Hartman and his receivers were able to catch the Eagles in off coverage because they didn’t have time to set their assignments properly.

That’s something that BC can and should look to fix in the future. n

MENS SOCCER

Missed Chances Haunt BC in Thrilling Draw With Holy Cross

By Peter Kim Asst. Sports Editor At the final whistle, Lasse Lehmann and other Boston College men’s soccer players collapsed to the turf in disbelief, while Simon Enstrom 1 Holy Cross pulled his jerBoston College 1 sey up over his head in shock. After 110 minutes, 32 shots compared to just seven for Holy Cross (0-2-2), one questionable offsides call that prevented a clear goal scoring opportunity, and numerous opportunities to win the game, BC was unable get the job done. Despite a dominant performance in midfield, the Eagles struggled to score on Crusaders keeper Henry Stutz who made several fingertip saves and frustrated Eagles attackers all game long, and had to settle for a 1-1 draw in their first meeting with the in-state rival Holy Cross since 2010.

The start of the game was choppy and sloppy. The Crusaders were having difficulty getting on the ball, while a couple of poor touches were preventing the Eagles from stringing together a coherent attack.

It didn’t take long for that to change. Eleven minutes in, a beautiful long throw-in gave

Enstrom his first real opportunity of the game. The senior unleashed a fierce shot with the outside of his right foot, only to see it skip wide of the far post. He wouldn’t rue the missed opportunity too much.

Just 30 seconds later, Trevor Davock won a 50-50 ball at the top of the box off a feed from Kristofer Konradsson. His fierce drive was palmed away by Stutz, but the rebound fell right to the feet of Enstrom.

The senior captain, fresh off a two-goal performance against Clemson, made no mistake with his follow-up, burying it in the roof of the net to give the Eagles the early lead.

BC continued to dictate possession and created more shots than its New England counterpart, though Holy Cross did have a couple chances of its own. First, a cushioned header from Simon Becher off a long ball into the box found Mason Brummett in space at the top of the 18, but his half-volleyed attempt skimmed wide of the right post. Eight minutes later, a free kick from the right wing fell to Rory Birse at the top of the box, but his effort was well wide of the near post.

Besides these few opportunities, the Eagles continued to enjoy control of the

game. Ivan Postolka won a corner for the Eagles that the Crusaders managed to scramble clear, and just three minutes later, the ball dropped to Konradsson at the 18, following a scramble on a corner. His driven strike soared well wide of the post.

Enstrom and Konradsson both saw efforts blocked as the Eagles continued to apply pressure, but were unable to break through. And late in the first half, they paid for their inability to convert their dominance into another goal. In the 42nd minute—after Ivan Postolka was beaten on the Crusaders’ right wing—Garrett Leahy’s square pass found Becher at the top of the box, and the freshman forward unleashed a right-footed rocket that found the bottom right corner. For Holy Cross, Becher’s first career goal could not have come at a better time.

When the second half started, it was immediately clear that the match was no longer a lopsided affair. Just five minutes in, Lehmann gave the ball away in midfield, allowing the Crusaders’ R.J. Place an open look at goal at the top of the box, only for a pair of flying Eagles defenders to block it behind for a corner.

It was only with the reintroduction of

Callum Johnson and Abe Bibas, and the switch to a 4-3-3 with 20 minutes to go, that BC finally began to reassert its dominance.

After the formation change, the Eagles— Konradsson in particular—impressed head coach Ed Kelly.

“When we switched to a 4-3-3, he really came into his own and caused havoc, cutting inside and taking people on,” the longtime coach said.

First, a header from Tyler Stott off a corner kick was saved by Stutz, and then BC began to pepper the Crusaders’ goal from distance. Johnson and Lehmann both watched scoring attempts sky over the bar before Johnson found himself in space just inside the box, but had his shot blocked by a sliding Holy Cross defender. A minute later, Konradsson saw his driven shot from distance barely parried out by Stutz, and Enstrom sent a close range follow-up high. In spite of their pressure, the Eagles were unable to find a way through, as Stott eyed one final header save before the end of regulation.

The overtime period yielded more one-way traffic toward the Holy Cross net, as the Eagles hit the woodwork not once but three times. First Konradsson ripped

yet another long-range shot on net, clipping the outside of the post. A mere five minutes after that, Tyshawn Rose’s curled delivery found Enstrom alone in the box, but his header ricocheted off the top of the bar. Konradsson hit the post again with yet another bending shot, and a flurry of free kicks and corners amounted to nothing before the whistle blew.

But BC’s best chance to win the game came with just under five minutes to play.

Enstrom—onsides due to a Crusaders player that had gone down injured just a few yards from his own goal line—was played clean through. Even so, the sideline referee signaled for offsides, most likely because he hadn’t spotted the injured player. Play was mistakenly blown dead before Enstrom could get a shot off, killing off a golden chance for the Eagles to win the game.

“Human error,” Kelly said after the game. “No problem, but costly, and there’s no guarantee Simon would have scored.

We had our chances—we can’t blame the referee.”

Indeed, with three ACC games in the next week, BC can’t afford to miss this many chances and hope to continue its unbeaten start to the season. n

WOMENS SOCCER

How Sustainable is the Eagles’ Undefeated Start to the Season?

By Peter Kim Asst. Sports Editor Thirty minutes into Boston College women’s soccer’s game against Temple on Sunday afternoon with the Eagles already a goal to the good, a long run by Gaby Carreiro down the left wing ended with the ball being deflected for a corner kick.

Sam Coffey immediately headed for the corner flag, knowing the Eagles had a huge opportunity to add to their lead. And add to it they did. In what is rapidly becoming a trademark BC play, the Eagles sent Gianna Mitchell, one of the tallest players on BC’s roster, to crowd Owls goalkeeper Jordan Nash. The resulting service found Kayla Jennings, whose bullet header sailed into the top corner of the cage, a scoring play that eventually proved to be the winning goal in the Eagles’ 4-1 victory.

This set piece excellently encapsulates BC’s season thus far. The Eagles have rattled off eight consecutive wins—all non-conference—to start the year, thanks to a combination of superb wing play, shutdown defense, and exquisite strategy.

At times, they’ve been outplayed, like when they were outshot, 19-8, in their narrow 1-0 win over then-No. 21 Texas Tech, but their winning formula has yet to let them down.

The question that naturally arises, however, is whether this is a playing style that can

keep bringing them success. So what do the numbers say about BC’s chances to keep its hot start to the season going?

Perhaps the most common of sports cliches is that “defense wins championships.” The good news for the Eagles is that so far this season, they’ve displayed some championship-level defensive ability. BC has allowed just three goals in eight games, or 0.38 goals per game. In the 2017 season, that number would have been seventh best in the country, just behind national champion Stanford (0.36 goals per game allowed) and ACC powerhouse Duke (0.38)—a team that fell to UCLA in the Final Four.

For some further context, in 2017 the Eagles’ current goals-against average would have been almost a full goal lower than the national average, 1.34. Go back one season further, that number would have been good for second best in the country and once again well below the national average of 1.39. Of course, it is important to remember that the 2016 team, one that was also undefeated throughout non-conference action, conceded just 0.44 goals per game in nonconference contests. That team struggled once ACC play started, giving up 19 goals in 10 matches and finishing the conference slate 3-7. BC’s excellent goals-against average is not the only number that paints them as an elite defense, however.

Impressively, BC is outshooting op-

ponents, 130-61, on the season, and has allowed just 4.9 percent of opponents’ chances to be converted into goals. To put that figure in perspective, top professional soccer players worldwide such as Chelsea’s Eden Hazard (who scored 17 percent of his shots during the 2017-18 season) expect to turn roughly 15 percent of their chances into goals. In addition, the Eagles have yet to allow a single goal off a set piece in 2018.

Free kicks are the hardest plays in soccer to defend, and it’s a mark of BC’s defensive solidarity and coaching that it has yet to allow one find the back of the cage.

Any way you slice it, the Eagles are a solid defensive team. They do a great job of limiting shots, and the chances they permit almost never find the back of the net, largely because of Kayla Duran, Alexis Bryant, and Co. The real question, though, is if the Eagles have the offensive firepower to complement a rock solid back line.

BC isn’t lacking goals by any stretch of the imagination. It’s tallied 21 for an average of 2.63 per game, a figure which would again have slotted the program in the top 10 in the country a season ago. That said, there are two things to be noted about that figure.

Over half of those goals—13-of-21 to be exact—came in three games: five against Albany and four against both Quinnipiac and Temple. More notably, BC has scored

11 of those goals off set pieces—seven corner kicks, two direct free kicks, and two penalties. Now, every team has its good days, and even if you remove BC’s three highest scoring efforts, it still averages 1.6 goals per game, which profiles as an above average offensive attack when considering the national average a year ago was roughly 1.35 goals per game.

The concern about the sustainability of BC’s scoring comes from their set-piece— and specifically corner kick—scoring rates.

The Eagles have taken 49 corner kicks, 27 more than their opponents, this season, and scored seven, for a conversion rate of just over 14 percent. It doesn’t take a lot of watching soccer to figure out that the average team doesn’t score almost 15 percent of its corners. In fact, the MIT Sloan Sports Conference estimates that a soccer team has roughly a 2 percent chance of scoring on any given corner. Thus, it’s not unexpected, and it is in fact likely, that BC’s scoring output off set plays will regress toward the mean.

And therein lies the concern as BC moves into conference play. Against the more prolific attacks in the ACC, the Eagles will not be able to solely rely on a sturdy defense. Somehow, some way, the Eagles will have to make a dent on the scorecard.

They’ve gone to set plays to bolster a sometimes inconsistent attack, but as their

scoring rate off free kicks regresses, they’ll need to find more consistent sources of offense. To do this, they’ll likely look to Coffey and Olivia Vaughn—who boast five goals apiece—to keep producing, but will almost certainly need their other offensive weapons such as Jenna Bike, Carreiro, and Carly Leipzig to step up.

Despite an expected dip in set-piece scoring, BC’s winning formula still has mathematical merit. Given the nature of the Eagles’ offense, it stands to reason that the chances of scoring a goal are maximized when taking a set piece.

This was confirmed by the Sloan Sports Conference. In the aforementioned article, it was noted that a team’s chances of scoring a given set piece are roughly double its chances of scoring a given open play attack—1.8 percent to 1.1 percent. While a 0.7 percent difference may not seem like much, in a sport like soccer, which is often low-scoring, every little advantage helps. Thus, BC’s accumulation of corner kicks—an average of 6.1 per game—is a huge boost.

With innovative set pieces and an elite defense, BC appears to have cracked the code for challenging traditional conference powerhouses, such as Duke and North Carolina. Only time will tell if the Eagles’ hot start will continue into ACC play, but the odds seem to be in their favor. n

CLASSIFIEDS

Thursday, January 17, 2014 Thursday, April 7, 2016

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THE HEIGHTS

A14

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

Unexpected Motherly Friendships Fuel ‘Simple Favor’

BY PETER GAVARIS Heights Staff A Simple Favor, a lighthearted pastiche of the film noir genre with some added suburban kitsch, gets its kicks from subverting our expectations. The film opens with an old-school art deco-style title sequence, revealing out-of-context images from the film that hint at what’s to come: betrayal, adultery, and conspiracy (everything you’d expect and want). Interspersed throughout this tribute to thrillers of old are some images of innocuous suburban life, like a plate of brownies and a child’s art project. Right off the bat, the film announces its comedic mode, mixing the steely, melodramatic

world of a noir with the fuzzy sweater, Elmer’s Glue aesthetic of an elementary school playdate. Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy) has had success in his career doing just this—finding comedy in worlds and genres that just seem to take themselves too seriously. It’s part Double Indemnity, and part Bad Moms.

An unexpected friendship sets the plot in motion. Stephanie Ward (Anna Kendrick) and Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) meet one afternoon picking their sons up from school, and its their sons’ friendship that ultimately brings these two moms together.

Soon after, they’re sipping martinis and gossiping while the kids play with Transformers. Stephanie is a seemingly straight

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laced, mom-of-the-year type who lives alone with her son and spends her days filming a middling vlog series wherein she promulgates helpful parenting tips with a hearty smile.

Emily, conversely, embodies the archetypical working mom, flaunting designer pant suits, expensive sunglasses, and a Porsche 911. She lives in an angular, modernist home that seems comically out of place in the quaint Connecticut suburb where the story is set, and her take-noprisoners attitude is laughably at odds with niceties dispensed by the other parents waiting for their kids in the schoolyard.

She’s degrading and blunt, but Stephanie sees something liberating in her shameless attitude. This tale of two moms quickly takes a dark turn, however, when Emily goes missing.This sudden disappearance raises quite a few questions, but it also signals the film’s sharp, but welcome, turn into noir territory as characters consider the potential for conspiracy and malfeasance. All of this rings loudly for Stephanie whose idyllic world is turned upside down, as she’s effectively dragged into the midst of this plot that seems ripped from the pages of a sleazy paperback. At the same time, Emily’s son and husband Sean (Henry Golding) deal with Emily’s disappearance by getting closer to Stephanie and her son.

Stephanie quickly becomes a sleuth of sorts, making her way through this hall of

mirrors by compiling evidence about the disappearance and even asking her online followers for information on Emily’s whereabouts. Things escalate quickly (maybe too quickly), as our protagonist becomes entangled in a conspiracy that takes her trekking across the country for a brief time, uncovering evidence and putting the puzzle together.

In many ways, A Simple Favor represents a departure for the director, who’s mostly been known for his work in broad comedies. And while this would certainly qualify, there’s a deliberate rigor here that simply isn’t as present in Feig’s other films that feel significantly more improvisational and built around character personalities.

Feig blends the more serious implications of a noir with his brand of comedy well, especially when the plot is unobtrusive and he’s afforded the time to find the melodrama and comedy in the tension.

Warts and all, A Simple Favor is an undeniably fun watch that mostly captures the spirit of the thrillers it’s spoofing, which is the most important thing to get right in an exercise like this: The melodrama is melodramatic, and the mystery is mysterious. Early in the film, Stephanie posits that “everyone has a dark side,” and that proves to be true. But more than anything else, Feig’s film also makes a compelling case for mining that dark side for lightness and levity. 

‘BoJack Horseman’ Spotlights Existential Humor

BY MICHAEL TROY Heights Staff

When Netflix released the inaugural season of BoJack Horseman in August of 2014, it was met with surprisingly mediocre critic reviews in comparison to the almost unanimously positive response from the general public. As it turns out, most television critics at the time were not required to watch the entire season of a show, but rather just the first half, and BoJack’s second half was the highest point of the season. So, almost all of the critics only saw six of the season’s 12 episodes, which brought the show’s critical score down significantly.

Every season since then has been labeled, by both critics and the public, as a masterpiece. Season five continues that tradition of near perfection.

This particular season follows BoJack through the production of the first season of a new show, of which he is the star.

While filming, secrets from his past are reintroduced and other characters learn more about themselves. This season doesn’t hold back in the emotional rollercoaster department, throwing plenty of the heart-wrenching twists that the BoJack Horseman fan base has become accustomed to seeing.

Since its conception, BoJack Horseman’s greatest strength has always been its ability to seamlessly mix humor with genuine emotion. The show is able to use this to reel the audience in through a very modern brand of humor, and then

keep them invested through the highs and lows of the emotionally diverse and usually likeable characters. This wonderful aspect of the show can be credited to the fantastic group of writers behind the great scripts that are composed for each episode, and they craft each part of it differently.

The humor of BoJack Horseman comes in two different form: visual and existential. Since the show takes place in a world where animals are much more human-like and are integral parts of society, the writers and animators can use them in endless visual gags of anthropomorphic animals doing very animal-like things in a human environment. For example, two dog characters are on a date in this most recent season, and instead of eating civilly like the humans at the next table, they put their faces in their food and chow down messily.The other kind of humor is existential, and this is the kind that bridges the gap between the humor and the emotional impact of the story, because a lot of it pertains directly to some of the horrible things that happen to the characters.

Many of the characters use this sort of existential humor to cope with what they are going through, and most of it is funny because it is either legitimately hilarious or so cringe-worthy that the awkward secondhand embarrassment is humorous.

The awkwardness of the humor when it pertains to the major plot points in this show makes a lot of the characters feel more realistic, because they react to

their issues in believable ways. Because of this, it is much easier to get invested in the characters, and then feel however the show wants you to feel whenever something happens to them.

Another thing that sets this show and season apart is its dedication to leaving little secrets in the background of its shots. For example, during an airport scene, there is a computer screen showing the status of the upcoming flights, and for a flight that will be departing for Istanbul, Turkey, the flight status is “Stuffed.” Little hilarious tidbits like that make it more enjoyable to sit back and watch BoJack Horseman because it’s so interactive. It’s more satisfying to find these little details because the show doesn’t point them out, but rather lets the audience discover them

for themselves.

The last reason this season is great is simple: the best episode of BoJack Horseman is in this season. The entirety of episode six consists of one character talking to a captive, unseen audience. This character undergoes an entire character arc in the span of about 23 minutes of continuous dialogue, and the voice actor does such a phenomenal job at giving subtle voice changes to indicate feeling.

BoJack Horseman is a masterfully made television show, and its fifth season may just be the best yet. Anyone who has yet to see this show needs to pull up Netflix and get to binge-watching it, because it is as captivating as an animated show can get, and it is worth the time it takes to get invested. 

Asst. Arts Editor

Usually, albums have a sad song or two. It’s important for the overall balance of the record. Not for Carrie Underwood. Her latest release, Cry Pretty, is the single most depressing collection of songs ever released, probably. It is overbearing.

While the record was totally miserable, the song quality was generally okay.

Nothing to write home about, but good nonetheless. The album opens up with “Cry Pretty,” which became surprisingly popular over the summer. Summer hits are usually upbeat and fun, but “Cry Pretty” is poignant and cathartic—it’s the kind of song that’s too sad if you

listen to it while you’re having a good day, but absolutely perfect if you’re feeling down.

Another standout on the album is “Backsliding,” an emotional song about a failed relationship. A unique cadence paired with a steady beat help the song shine when compared to all the slow, sad songs on the album that sound the same.

One of the few (and by few I mean two) songs on the 12-track album that might be considered happy is “Southbound,” an upbeat number that is mostly nonsensical but extremely fun. The song is reminiscent of the worst aspects of some modern country music—vapid, repetitive lyrics about getting day drunk.

But at least the song wasn’t depressing.

MUSIC

CRY PRETTY CARRIE UNDERWOOD DISTRIBUTED BY CAPITOL RECORDS NASHVILLE RELEASE SEPT. 14, 2018

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JULIA PERRY

‘MARINERS APARTMENT COMPLEX’ LANA DEL REY

Indie powerhouse L ana Del Rey’s dreamy, old-Hollywood aesthetic collides easily with a soothing backdrop of piano and the gentle twang of country-influenced guitar stylings and her signature languid vocals on “Mariners Apartment Complex,” her first single since 2017’s Lust For Life.

It comes as the first single off of her highly anticipated 2019 album.

Her carefully cultivated image of feminine mystique and an air of sadness is often so tied into her music, it is hard to separate the two.

“Mariners Apartment Complex” stands out and builds off of the power of her 2017 album by its simplicity.

The track is not overproduced, allowing her powerful lyrics to shine. Del Rey keeps her California cool throughout the single, getting lost in the Pacific through the seafaring lyrics.

In the first line, “You took my sadness out of context,” Del Rey reminds us that she is strong and powerful, and that her kindness should not be mistaken for weakness. The image hearkens back to the sea, and she repeats the phrase “I’m your man,” a perfect summary of her message to a lover. 

MUSIC VIDEO ADAM MEHAL

‘TRANZ’ GORILLAZ

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BOJACK HORSEMAN RAPHAEL BOBWAKSBERG PRODUCED BY NETFLIX RELEASE SEPT. 14, 2018 OUR RATING

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Underwood Voices Forlorn Feelings on ‘Cry Pretty’

BY EMILY HIMES

SINGLE REVIEW

“Kingdom” is the other song that’s not incredibly dreary—in it Underwood compares life to a person’s own kingdom. It was reminiscent and sweet, in a way that—you guessed it—made it a little sad. Of course.

Even the songs not about breakups, love gone wrong, and totally failed relationships are dismal. “Spinning Bottles” tries to raise awareness of alcohol addiction and drinking and driving with lyrics like “Can’t live like this anymore / spinnin’ bottles, spinnin’ wheels, spinnin’ out of control.” The song is for a good cause, but it brings the album down with its heavy theme.

“The Bullet” addresses gun violence in America. The song was inspired by the mass shooting last year at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas.

Poignant lyrics like “You can blame it on hate or blame it on guns / but mama’s ain’t supposed to bury their sons” and “‘Til every heart that’s left to break is broken / the bullet keeps on goin’.”

Similar to “The Bullet,” “Love Wins” also takes a political stance, which is often unusual in country music. The song also focuses on gun violence, but addresses America’s dividing issues a positive outlook with lines like “I believe you and me are brothers and sisters / I believe we’re made to be here for each other.” In the bridge of the song, Underwood’s powerful voice echoes “Love is

the answer, love’s an open door / love is the only thing worth fighting for.”

The best song on the album is the bonus track, “The Champion” featuring Ludacris. The song plays up Underwood’s best asset—her powerful voice. The song is uplifting and motivating, and somehow Ludacris’ part fits in seamlessly. The lyrics aren’t amazing, but they are pretty motivating—and Underwood’s voice is on full display. It ends the album on an extremely high note.

Underwood has definitely released better albums in the past, and most of them have the reputation of being angry, powerful pieces better fit her forceful voice. Angry music seems to be what Underwood does best (“Before He Cheats” is still popular 13 years after its release for a reason). Cry Pretty doesn’t contain many numbers that allow her voice to shine, and instead leaves listeners disappointed in the musical quality and slightly more sad than they were before they listened to it. With exception to “The Champion” and the politically motivated songs “Love Wins” and “The Bullet,” the record doesn’t amount to much.

If Underwood’s life has had any influence on her music, I’m sincerely sorry for the atrocious few years she had. And I hope that this year goes a lot better for her—if anything, for the music’s sake. 

Gorillaz (consisting of the animated members 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle, and Russell Hobbs), one of the most recognizable (if not the only) popular virtual bands out there, recently released “Tranz,” their newest music video, and it’s a total trip. The animation of the quartet is fairly mundane, just a stage with the four colorfully expressed musicians singing, playing their instruments, and going through the motions, but the background is something completely different. Seemingly pulled out of the depths of someone’s codeine-infused psychological nightmare, it’s a juicy, floral, and colorful affair, mixed in with the haziness and grain one would expect of a “lo-fi” production.

While this sort of flamboyant abstractionism isn’t totally original, as music artists have been trying to play on this theme for a while in order to make their videos seem more unique than others, none seem to embrace this theme as totally as the Gorillaz do in their newest video. The whole thing combines to create a very surreal and confusing experience—one’s reaction to it will solely be based on their tolerance for some more out-there imagery and their lack of a history of epilepsy.

The video of course, is only one half of the story (it is a MUSIC-video), and in this case, the song played both stands well on its own and accompanies the visuals being presented. Something interesting about the song structure is that the main, catchy hook “Do you dance like this / Forever?” is really only repeated once or twice.

When compared to some other pop songs, “Tranz” certainly doesn’t follow the tried and true structure of hit-making by the books, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, seeing as there’s already plenty of pop songs out there, the Gorillaz are likely going for a slightly different audience than the most mainstream of the mainstream.

Overall, “Tranz” is a wacky, interesting experience which will likely polarize its many viewers. Gorillaz fans are likely going to be more accustomed to the visuals, while others will find them to be both weird and shocking. 

The Heights

Monday, September 17, 2018

AcappellaFest 2018 Performers Hit High Notes A Star is

By Maeve Russo Heights Staff

Friday night in Robsham featured the collaboration by a few of the most present artistic groups on campus. AcappellaFest, an event hosted by the Acoustics, one of Boston College’s co-ed a cappella groups, featured performances by seven of the 12 active a cappella groups on campus. This joint effort worked to the strengths of each group and provided the students in the audience with an evening of high-quality song performed by their friends and peers.

AcappellaFest opened with a song from the Acoustics. The co-ed a cappella group

hosted the event in order to raise money for the Morgan Center, an organization dedicated to providing an environment that fosters play and friendships for preschool age children undergoing cancer treatment.

The Acoustics’ set as a whole was strong, featuring highlights like incredible low notes from their singers, in particular Dan Paulos, CSOM ’19. The group opened the show with “Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse, bolstering the song with the full-bodied voices of strong singers across the team.

Following the Acoustics came the Dynamics, another of BC’s co-ed a cappella group. The group stunned the audience with its impressive mix of falsetto and backing vo-

katie Genirs / Heights editor

The Sharps won the crowd’s applause with renditions of “Lay Me Down” and “River.”

cals throughout their performance. Voices of Imani, the gospel choir of Boston College, nearly stole the show. The group showed off a bare bones set, but this worked in its favor.

The reason for this is that everyone sang the lyrics rather than a melody accompaniment. This minimalist approach allowed each of their voices to truly shine. Their performance play to their strengths—presence, pitch, and projection. Next were the Heightsmen, an all-male a cappella group, whose audience reception marked them as a definite crowd favorite. The team seemed to go for guaranteed cheers by playing lots of songs from their setlist from last year.

At one point in their performance, each of the freshmen got the chance to sing a verse alone. This sweet and nice way to incorporate the new members of the team into their first performance. Among untrained voices was freshman Skyler Cho, MCAS ’22, who hit unexpected high notes during a rendition of “Beautiful Girls” by Sean Kingston.

B.E.A.T.S. (Black Experience in America Through Song) brought it all to the stage, offsetting the more traditional a cappella songs. The group’s presence at BC and in its performance is important and necessary in providing a different and welcome perspective than the other more traditional groups.

B.E.A.T.S. lived up to their acronym, lending rhythm and excitement to the evening with Destiny’s Child’s “Bills Bills Bills.”

Ceding the stage to thunderous applause, they were followed by the Sharps, BC’s only all-female a cappella group. The group sang two popular pop songs, “Lay Me Down” by Sam Smith and “River” by Bishop Briggs. It was difficult not to sing along and was one of the highlights of the show.

The Common Tones stole the show entirely. The co-ed a cappella group began with a strong male lead whose voice fills the room immediately and effortlessly as soon as he opens his mouth. Then the Common Tones took all the air out of the room with a performance by Olivia Constantino, MCAS ’21, of “Chandelier” by Sia. One might expect that, due to human limitations, her vocal range would not be all-encompassing, but if that is the case, the audience didn’t see the limit during this performance. This speaks to her raw talent and to the anticipation for her future performances by those who saw her in Robsham that night.

Next, the Bostonians, BC’s first a cappella group, took the stage and sang a pop mashup to showcase their singers. The highlight of this was a female lead Lexi Kelly, LSOE ’19, a senior who, without effort, overwhelmed the background melody and brought the audience to attention.

To finish the show was another performance by the Acoustics, whose bass tones brought to mind thoughts of the golden voice of Bing Crosby. n

‘Not There, Not Here’ Emphasizes Spatial Presence

By Brenden Pollock For The Heights

On Sept. 10, the McMullen Museum of Art opened a new exhibit showcasing the work of Hartmut Austen, an assistant professor of painting at Boston College.

The exhibit, titled Not There, Not Here, presents a collection of 22 abstract paintings created between 2009 and 2018 and will be on display until Dec. 13. As the title suggests, these works demonstrate feelings of in-betweenness and transience in both space and time. They reflect on current issues and spaces, and they provoke thought on the relationships people have with their surroundings.

Hartmut Austen, the artist behind this exhibit, grew up in Marburg and Bielefeld, Germany. Before moving to the United States in 1998, he studied painting and drawing with H. J. Diehl at the University of the Arts (Hochschule der Künste) in Berlin. Today, his work is recognized throughout Germany and within the United States. Not There, Not Here is his first solo exhibition in New England.

The collection of paintings in McMullen is located in the museum’s atrium.

Guests to the museum can observe the exhibit as they ascend the stairs to the third floor. This method of installation allows viewers to observe the paintings as they move throughout the museum, which adds to the exhibit’s implications on the fluidity of time and space.

Two pieces, “Title Painting” and “Stage,” set the tone for viewers as they en-

ter the exhibit and approach the staircase.

“Title Painting,” an oil painting on linen, contains the words and title of the exhibit “not there, not here” painted on it.

It juxtaposes many of the other paintings in the collection with its sense of intentionality and use of language. Normally, the common phrase is worded “not here, not there.” This painting exchanges the second and fourth words, which causes viewers to reflect on the simultaneous familiarity and unfamiliarity of the wording.

Located beside “Title Painting” is “Stage,” an oil painting on canvas. A grouping of colored rectangles depicts a set of screens arranged on top of a stage. Both the screens and the perimeter of the stage are outlined with red lines. Similarly to the borders of the words in “Title Painting,” these red lines depict the original structure of the painting.

They show how a basic collection of lines and shapes within a space can begin as abstract but with time and the addition of colors and ideas can become something more concrete and recognizable. In an interview with Jordan Kantor, Austen explains how the screens depicted in the painting were inspired by the stage design of the 2012 Republican National Convention.

The inclusion of this event, which influenced public discourse in recent years, prompts reflection on subjective connections to one’s surroundings.

The final component of the installation, located on the landing just before the third floor, is comprised of a symmetrical

Taylor Perison / Heights Staff

Hartmut Austen’s exhibit focuses on the relationships between people and space.

arrangement of 14 paintings. These mixed media pieces either on canvas or linen showcase a wide variety of colors, patterns, and meanings. Unlike the pieces at the start of the exhibit, this collection of paintings is less intentional and more uncertain. The paintings share Austen’s abstract style of overpainting to create eccentric forms and colors.

Only a handful of paintings are titled.

The majority remain untitled with little to no information about them. This absence of readily available context leaves the exhibit open to a wide variety of interpretations. Only paintings such as “Aleppo,” “Two Prisons,” “Harbor,” and Stages possess subtle references to the events and spaces they were inspired by. His works, although responsive to the both current happenings and historical events, do not require a lot of prior knowledge in order

to prompt reflection.

Austen’s methods of creating, composing, and executing art and nearly a decade’s worth of work have resulted in the Not There, Not Here installation. The collection is quite powerful in its ability to induce a wide variety of interpretations and perspectives, which are later enhanced once the viewer discovers the artist’s true intent.

Not only do the pieces interact with each other, but they also evolve throughout the day due to the location of the exhibit.

The open windows of the atrium surrounding the collection provides fluctuating lighting conditions that play with the colors and shadows of the pieces. This illusion of movement within the art coupled with shifting views of the museum’s surroundings add to the ephemeral nature of the exhibit. n

Dean’s Colloquium Shines Light on ‘Ultraviolet’

By Stephanie Liu Heights Staff

In the spacious Gasson 100, the Dean’s Colloquium on Thursday, Sept.

13 featured novelist and professor Suzanne Matson in a presentation of her new novel Ultraviolet, a fictional tale based on the real stories of her family, spanning three generations.

Ultraviolet features Matson’s own family members as the main characters, detailing a story that focuses on the character Kathryn, based on her mother.

Kathryn’s mother Elsie was a missionary in India, and Kathryn spent most of her childhood in India, attending boarding school. Returning to the United States as a teenager, Kathryn feels isolated

and alienated in her own country as well as her father’s Mennonite culture.

When her mother passes away from a surprise stroke, Kathryn tries to escape the discontent she feels in the American Midwest by going to Oregon, where she tries to find her identity. Kathryn begins her new life in Oregon by supporting herself as a waitress and trying to live out her dreams of becoming a writer.

Trying to shed her Mennonite past, Kathryn eventually marries Carl, a construction worker 16 years older, whose carefree manner is a welcome contrast.

Kathryn, however, feels trapped in her marriage with her hopes and dreams thwarted. Their daughter, Samantha, based on Matson herself, grows up knowing her mother’s discontent, and

Sam Zhai / Heights staff

Suzanne Matson presented her novel ‘Ultraviolet,’ a story about familial interactions.

builds a happy family of her own.

The novel is a tale about growth, identity, and the lives of three generations of women, all trying to find their place in the world. Before the reading of the novel, Matson shared photographs of her family, from which she took inspiration. Her grandmother had detailed photo albums during her time in India, where little pictures depicting family and scenery were captioned with little notes written in silver ink against the black paper. She then showed pictures from her father’s side.

“My father had two Nicaraguan wives—common law wives, as it turns out,” Matson said. She explained that her father didn’t mention his other wives when he courted her mother.

In her reading, Matson shared a story about the character Kathryn’s voyage to Oregon from her home, on which she meets a soldier named Mitch.

They spend an afternoon together in Chicago while both of them await their transfers. Kathryn is eager to break out from her Mennonite background and has her first experience going to the movies and kissing a boy, but their time together is short. Described as “awkwardly between worlds” and “invisibly foreign,” the struggle of Kathryn to find her identity is sympathetic and relatable to the reader. Little asides into the mind of Kathryn bring her to life—hearing her vulnerabilities and thoughts make

her much more real.

When asked about the name of the work, Matson shared that the inspiration came from the beginning of the novel, in a scene where Kathryn and Elsie had to get ultraviolet treatment for the eczema on Kathryn’s skin in India. Kathryn had to shield her eyes from the ultraviolet treatment, which acts as a metaphor for the whole novel, where characters would choose to turn a blind eye to issues that they did not want to deal with.

Matson commented that though she had written three novels before completely from scratch, writing a story based on her own family was actually harder.

Almost 95 percent of the novel was actually fiction, as Matson argued that people’s memories usually consist of individual stories that they repeatedly tell, and that she had to fill in the blanks and imagine what would have happened in between those encounters. Matson’s mother Kathryn only lived to read the first couple parts of the book.

Matson remembers her mother reading a story then commenting, “None of this happened,” prompting Matson to ask whether to change the name of the characters, given that the story was mostly fiction. With her mother’s reassurance and blessing, however, Matson decided to stay with her mother’s name for the character of Kathryn. n

A15

Remade Jacob Schick

It’s that time of year again folks. Oscar season. Or at least it almost is. Which means that the trailers for those Oscarbait movies are out! This past weekend, I traveled all the way into Boston with my girlfriend and my roommate to see Searching. While this movie was great, it’s also not even close to the subject of this column. What is the subject of this column was a part of my movie-going experience that came before the actual movie.

The trailers. One trailer in particular.

Coming to theaters for the fourth (or arguably fifth) time, is A Star is Born.

What I find interesting about this is that it’s clearly marketing itself as an “Oscarbait” movie, but it’s also a remake. Initially it seems like these things don’t go together.

Remakes are usually reserved for the likes of horror movies, action movies, and action-horror movies. Such celebrated members of this hall of fame include Carrie, Total Recall, and Death Wish. So why are they remaking A Star is Born and marketing it as an award-worthy movie?

I’m of two minds on this. Either they’re simply lying to us and this movie is going to be terrible just like all of these remakes I just mentioned (and presumably a million other awful remake movies). Or, maybe, just maybe, this movie is actually going to be good. I find myself leaning toward this second one, and it’s for a few reasons.

The first reason is that it simply looks good. It looks good in a variety of ways, so this first reason (singular) is really just an umbrella for all of the following small reasons. Okay, you get it. Proceeding. The trailer makes the movie feel compelling and high in quality. I think Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga are both capable of good or great acting. I think that they believe that this movie could be award-worthy, and are therefore really trying their best.

The supporting cast also looks great.

Based on the trailer, both Sam Elliot and Dave Chappelle are prominent supporting actors. I am a big fan of both of these men, and I believe that they are both very talented and will only add to the film.

The second reason is that it’s directed

by Cooper himself. This will be his very first directing job, which probably means that he’s been working really hard not to mess this up. If this is a total flop, the man will not be directing much else and presumably, he wants to move from acting as the main part of his career to directing.

So Cooper has a lot riding on this.

Third, it’s a music movie. Everyone loves movies in which music plays a large role. They always seem to be really compelling and engaging and they have a killer soundtrack. Almost Famous, Walk the Line, Ray, Straight Outta Compton, 8 Mile, and Amadeus are all well-received and well-respected films about music. This film is about music. A point in its favor.

Fourth, while remakes are usually bad, they aren’t always bad. In fact, sometimes they are absolutely amazing. They are amazing because they star great people, someone high up is putting a lot of work into them, and because they are about something compelling. They are amazing for the three reasons I just spent three paragraphs discussing. But let’s look at some examples. There are movies like The Thing and The Fly, which many people believe are fantastic movies (myself included). But, a lot of people haven’t seen those movies or movies like them. There are movies like The Jungle Book or Freaky Friday or Casino Royale. But maybe those movies are too popular. Sure, they’re good and well-liked, but they aren’t great movies. They didn’t win any awards. To whit: The Departed and True Grit. While I think that the original movie that spawned The Departed, Infernal Affairs, is a better movie, its remake did win an Academy Award. And while this Academy Award is commonly looked upon with regret, there it remains. And it is a great movie. True Grit did not win an award, but it was nominated (and snubbed). But it is a remake, and it’s a great movie.

While the previous A Star is Born movies may not have been the best or most long standing films that have ever been created, I do believe that there are compelling reasons not to count this one out yet.

Jacob Schick is the arts editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

ARTS

So You Think You Can Dance?

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

BY JACOB SCHICK Arts Editor

Posted on the walls in the O’Neill Library and McElroy Commons stairwells during the first week of class were dozens of fliers advertising auditions for a seemingly uncountable number of dance groups. Throughout the same week, posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter enticing prospective dancers to come to tryouts over Labor Day weekend—with additional options the following week for those who were traveling and were unable to make it.

These days were packed to the gills with auditions, first meetings, and open practice among the various dance groups. New students—especially those interested in dance—certainly know that Boston College has dance teams. They’ve likely seen one or two teams perform at orientation or during Welcome Week.

But very few new students—or even returning ones—realize that BC is home to a grand total of 16 different dance groups ranging across genres, style, professionality, message, and presence.

And many teams are refreshing their ranks in the new year, after graduation left them low on members. Minki Hong, creative director of UPrising and MCAS ’19, spoke on other potential replacement factors for UPrising, one of BC’s hip-hop dance crews.

“We try to replace the seniors,” Hong said. “Some people unfortunately do have to attend to their other priorities, but no hard feelings.”

Being on dance team is a large commitment, and juggling shows and practices can become challenging when combined with academic and social responsibilities. While the majority of the time it is due to last year’s seniors having graduated, many dance teams lose one or two people per year due to other commitments.

In order to achieve this replenishment of their numbers, the dance teams hold auditions. Many of these auditions, across genre and style of dance, follow a similar theme.

Over the course of one or several days, the dance team will host auditions in order to gauge the experience and skill level of prospective dancers and determine if they would be a good fit on the team. For example, Dejah Cosby, co-president of Phaymus and MCAS ’21, explained the way they run the auditions for Phaymus, one of BC’s hip-hop-based dance companies.

“We choose a song to dance to based

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on our set last year,” Cosby said. “For about an hour we’ll teach it to them, and if they have any questions, they can ask us. And then we’ll give them about 10 or 15 minutes with the song running so that they’ll commit most of it to memory.”

After this preparation, the auditionees are divided into groups of three or four dancers and ushered out of the room. One by one, each group is brought in to dance in front of the Phaymus eboard.

“We’ll have them do the dance twice,” Cosby said. “Once with a returning member and once by themselves.”

After this process is over, the Phaymus eboard provides a little surprise for the prospective dancers.

“We surprise them with a little freestyle,” Cosby said. “We’ll put on a classic song and tell them to dance like they’re having a good time somewhere just to see general dance moves.”

This process is fairly standard across the dance teams. Max Bahar, co-captain of Masti and MCAS ’21, gave a rundown of the group’s auditions. Masti is BC’s South Asian dance troupe. Masti’s auditions run for about two hours, in which members teach the prospective dancers choreography and then break the auditionees into groups in order to watch them perform.

“We have them perform in front of us while we record them,” Bahar said. “That way we can have videos to reference.”

This allows them to return to various performances to more carefully judge individuals’ dance capability without making these auditionees dance in front of them over and over again. Some teams deviate from this norm. For example, Females Incorporating Sisterhood Through Step (F.I.S.T.S.), BC’s all-female step team, conducts interviews alongside their auditions, asking the potential member questions to determine if their values would fall in line with the values of the organization as a whole. Felicia Cafua, manager of F.I.S.T.S. and MCAS ’19, emphasizes the importance of these shared values.

“We are also really concerned about sisterhood and giving back to the community,” Cafua said. “We ask, ‘what does sisterhood mean to them?’”

In an even greater deviation, some teams hold only partial auditions, or even none at all. Full Swing, BC’s swing dance team, conducts auditions only for its Showdown team—the dancers that will be competing in the highly publicized and highly attended event that occurs in the spring. Those auditions run

fairly similarly to those described above.

For all those not planning to dance on the Showdown team, Full Swing takes all. Jason Rothstein, president of Full Swing and CSOM ’19, explained that the team is constantly adding new members throughout the year, maintaining Full Swing’s numbers at somewhere between 30 and 40 active members. For those not on the Showdown team, Full Swing emphasizes the fun community that swing dancing provides, while downplaying issues of strong commitment that might hinder the other dance teams in finding new members.

Conspiracy Theory, BC’s breakdance team, holds no auditions whatsoever.

“We as a club think that you shouldn’t

The director of the Dance Organization of BC (DOBC), Emily Zona, MCAS ’19, highlighted her team’s focus on strong technique, good attitude, and the ability to pick up choreography. Because technique is such a priority for DOBC, the team usually recruits students who have been dancing seriously for a while, instead of students who are new to dance. BC Irish Dance (BCID) also finds itself in a similar situation, Eileen McAleer, co-president of BCID and CSON ’19, explained.

“Irish dance is a very unique type of dance, so a lot of times we are looking for people with experience,” McAleer said. The auditions are open to anyone, regardless of experience, but prospective

over, the teams to welcome those new members they do select. Some teams will go door-to-door and surprise their new teammates at their dorm rooms, and others will send a congratulatory email.

But each team is working on a tight schedule. Most groups have practice within one or two days of auditions, as they often have performances or competitions that need as much preparation as possible. This is, in part, the reason that auditions take place so immediately at the start of the academic year. For those who do not make it onto the team of their choice, it can be a very discouraging time. But the members of the team running these auditions were once in

KEITH CARROLL / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Dance Organization of Boston College accpets only five students from the 40 who auditioned for the multi-genre team.

need auditions to come to dance,” Ashish Gurung, president of Conspiracy Theory and MCAS ’19, said. “If you want to learn how to dance, come to Conspiracy Theory.”

Throughout the year, Conspiracy Theory gains and loses members as commitments arise or new people are introduced to the club. Instead of focusing the team on competition or performance, the eboard holds open practices that strive to teach people different aspects of breakdancing.

There is no experience necessary, and Conspiracy Theory does not expect any either. The team’s goal is simply to introduce newcomers to dance, and to its benefits as an activity and as a community. The lack of auditions is seen as a strength by the team.

“There’s too much of a focus on the audition process in a lot of dance teams at BC,” Gurung said. “I’ve seen a lot of members come to our club, I think me included, who are either afraid or exhausted by the audition process and just want to learn how to dance.”

But for the other teams, the captains, choreographers, and members of the eboard have specific criteria in mind while watching auditions.

dancers usually self-select based on their past experience in Irish dance. “For the most part, we are taking girls who have danced their whole lives and have a passion for Irish dance and have shared in our community before.”

BC Dance Ensemble (BCDE) is looking for a mixture of dance experience and ability. The director of DE, Caroline Dorko, CSON ’19, enumerated these styles.

“We really look for a combination of strong technique and strong performance, as both are so important to make a well-rounded dancer,” Dorko said in an email. “Dancers also need to be versatile, as DE does ballet, contemporary, jazz, and several other styles of dance.”

Fuego del Corazon, BC’s Latin dance team, finds itself in a unique position when evaluating the students who audition to be a part of the team. Elena Akins, the social media chair of Fuego and MCAS ’19, explained that practically no one has experience in Latin dance. Instead, the captains look for people who want to be involved in the team, who have good technique, have a good personality—especially good facial expressions—and who will fit well in the team dynamic. When the auditions are

their shoes.

“It takes a lot of courage and strength to put yourself out there as someone auditioning for a group,” Zona said. “I have a lot of respect for those 40 girls that showed up this year. It’s hard.”

But for those who audition, this respect may be little consolation. Lizbeth Brea, MCAS ’20, tried out for Fuego last year and did not make the team.

“It was disappointing because they gave me callbacks so I like thought that I had it in the bag but then you kind of don’t hear from them for a week,” Brea said. “And you find out that they went to the peoples’ rooms who got in and made posters for them but they kind of just sent out an email and were just like ‘sorry’ after the fact.”

While most teams do welcome all to their audition process, it does not mean that they will accept all. Brea is now a member of Vida de Intensa Pasión (VIP), after auditioning and making the cut this year. But the competition that permeates BC’s dance culture can discourage many students from giving it another shot.

“It’s more competitive than they make it out to be,” Brea said. “When they say ‘no experience required,’ it’s pretty required.” 

At Stokes Set, Daya Delivers Energetic and Engaging Show

BY MADDIE BOETTNER

For The Heights

Kicking off the annual Boston College concert series, Daya performed on Stokes Lawn Saturday for the third annual Stokes Set. Originally from Pennsylvania,

Daya debuted her first single “Hide Away” in 2015 and has made a name for herself featured on tracks by The Chainsmokers, Gryffin, Illenium and RL Grime. Students gathered on the lawn for what was quite an electric night.

When the artist was announced,

SAM ZHAI / HEIGHTS STAFF

Daya commanded the stage with high energy and accompanying light shows.

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many on campus felt that she might have been a better choice a few years ago. This trepidation was misplaced, however, as Daya put on a stellar performance that was enjoyable and worthwhile no matter the year.

Complete with lights and a routine consisting of dancing effortlessly around the stage, Daya began her performance by spreading positive vibes through the crowd and got the crowd of students ready to dance through the night.

The first song that really made the crowd come alive was “New.” The beat electrified the stage and traveled through the crowd. This building climax worked to get everyone standing on Stokes lawn more and more excited as it was about to drop.

The lights that accompanied the drop lit up the crowd. As the beat dropped and the lights flashed on, everyone in the crowd screamed with awe and excitement.

When Daya performed her first single “Hide Away,” it was as if everyone in the crowd already knew the lyrics.

The energy emanating from Daya and from her fans was palpable. Each sang the song to each other, Daya to her fans and her fans to the artist on stage.

Watching people get really into the performance made the atmosphere of the concert that much better. Daya’s performance allowed for easy engagement—the artist is a skilled stage performer with the ability to keep the crowd on her side.

From her emotional deliveries to dances, she gave nothing short of an exceptional performance.

Seeing Daya perform her features with major EDM producers was a unique and special aspect of her concert— it was as if she had crafted this concert specifically for the BC students who came out to watch.

‘Not There, Not Here’

Eight a cappella groups collaborated through song to raise Hartmut Austen, a BC professor, is the focus of a new exhibit A15 money for a charity in the Acoustics’ hosted event.................A15 at the McMullen Museum..............................................................

But this was especially the case for those who love the style of Gryffin and Illenium. Watching the light show outdoors and on campus was an experience that can, by nature, only happen on rare occasions.

After exiting the stage to cheers and applause, Daya returned for an encore playing “Don’t Let Me Down” by the Chainsmokers. Not only did she absolutely nail the performance, but every single person in the crowd erupted in harmony with her as she performed on stage.

It was impossible not to have fun during the concert and during the encore because ever yone around was able to just let loose and enjoy the show.

This year's Stokes Set turned out to be a great way to begin the year.

The concert also set a high bar for the Campus Activities Board to meet for the upcoming concerts: Plexapalooza and Modstock. 

‘A Simple Favor’..........................................A16 ‘BoJack Horseman’.....................................A16 ‘Cry Pretty’..................................................A16