The Heights 04/14/2014

The Heights will return on April 24. Happy Easter Break!

BANDIT MARATHON

‘STIX & STONES’ JOHNNY B. GONE

FEATURES

ARTS & REVIEW

SPORTS

Spectators bolster Campus School runners’ spirits at Mile 21, B8

The Bostonians and The Acoustics joined for their annual a cappella show on Friday, A8

After winning the Hobey Baker Award, Johnny Gaudreau signed with the Calgary Flames, B1

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HEIGHTS

THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

established

Monday, April 14, 2014

Vol. XCV, No. 22

BC senior dies in NYC cab accident

University asks students to act safely at marathon

BY NATHAN MCGUIRE Asst. Editor

Kelly Gordon fatally struck by two taxis

BY CONNOR FARLEY News Editor

On Friday morning, the Boston College Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs notified students via email of the death of Kelly Gordon, CSOM ’14.

“It is with sadness that I inform you that Boston College senior Kelly Gordon, of Brielle, New Jersey, was killed yesterday in New York City after being struck by a motor vehicle,” said Barbara Jones, Vice President for Student Affairs, in an email sent at 11:45 a.m.

Gordon, who was studying marketing and finance in CSOM, was visiting New York City to attend job interviews. According to police, she was fatally struck by a taxicab while crossing East 78th Street at York Avenue in Manhattan at approximately 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 10.

According to reports from Boston.com, upon being hit by a cab heading south, Gordon was then struck by another cab heading from the northbound side of the street.

Gordon’s sister was with her at the time of the accident.

According to the same report, no arrests have been made, and police are continuing the search for the two drivers involved in the incident.

“This morning, members of our Campus Ministry staff alerted her roommates and close friends about this tragedy,” Jones said in the email on Friday. “I ask all of you to keep Kelly and her family in your thoughts and prayers and to support each other during this difficult time. Please know that counselors are available for students at University Counseling Services in Gasson Hall, and that all Masses on campus this weekend will be offered for Kelly and her family.”

Gordon volunteered and participated in several campus organizations, including 4Boston and BC Women in Business, according to University Spokesman Jack Dunn.

“She was very well-respected and admired in the community,” Dunn said in a statement to Boston.com. “We’re all grieving.”

According to the Office of the VPSA, further information on Gordon’s funeral and memorial services will be posted at www. bc.edu/bcinfo when it becomes available. 

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GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

This year’s Boston Marathon will see increased security measures throughout the concourse.

In an email to be sent out to students today the University will ask students to exhibit respect and caution at next week’s Boston Marathon, a year after two bombs killed three and injured 264 at the finish line on Boylston St. Dean of Students Paul Chebator said in a phone interview that his office will ask students to respect runners and to remember the solemn nature of the Marathon, in which 35,000 runners—the course capacity—are expected to compete this year.

Student conduct policies regarding alcohol and behavior will be enforced, the majority of the BCPD force will be on campus, and about 20 staff from the office of the Vice President for Student Affairs will be on hand to reminds students about conduct policies. Access to the Mods will be restricted to students over the age of 21—as it is during tailgating days in the fall.

“My biggest concerns [are] either alcohol use that becomes a safety issue where someone is jeopardizing their own safety or

someone else’s safety … Or alcohol use that results in inappropriate behavior,” Chebator said.

Student Affairs staff and the Office of Resident Life staff will be deployed on Main and Newton campuses to speak with students and suggest that they follow conduct policies and state laws.

Eagle EMS will also be active to deal with medical situations involving runners or students. After the bombings last year, St. Ignatius was opened to about 400 runners who were stopped along the route in front of BC. Eagle EMS members attended to many of those runners who experienced dehydration, muscle cramps, and other medical issues.

Chebator said that although the Marathon often connotes a celebratory atmosphere it is important for students to remember last year’s attacks and to conduct themselves in a respectful manner. “[We ask] students to be extra careful during the Marathon, not do anything really stupid, but also to respect what the Marathon

See Marathon, A3

Elizabeth Smart shares story of overcoming adversity After being held in captivity for nine months at age 14, Smart now looks to the future

BY CAROLYN FREEMAN Heights Staff Everyone faces obstacles, but it’s overcoming them and focusing on the future that is critical—that’s how Elizabeth Smart was able to survive after she was abducted, held in captivity, and raped every day for nine months.

Smart spoke to a full Devlin 008 on April 10, with students packed into the stairwells and onto the floor around the podium—BCPD was called in to manage the crowd.

“I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to a room quite this packed before,” Smart said. “It’s a nice feeling to have.”

The majority of the talk focused on her personal story. The night before Smart’s junior high school graduation, when she was 14, she was abducted from her bed at knifepoint. The man who kidnapped her forced her to walk several

University Chorale performs at Trinity Chapel

hours in the mountains near Salt Lake City, Utah. Eventually, they reached a grove of trees with a tent in the middle.

In the tent, her abductor’s wife forced her to change into robes. When she was done changing, her captor came into her tent and spoke to her: “I hereby seal you to me as my wife before God and his angels as my witnesses.”

Smart was shocked—this was the last thing she expected him to say. He then said it was time for them to consummate their marriage. Smart was raised in a strict home and didn’t know what that meant—but, she had some idea, she said.

“And then he raped me, and that’s exactly what I thought it would be and prayed it wasn’t,” she said. “I will never forget how I felt lying on the ground at that moment. I felt like no one could MAGGIE BURDGE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

See Elizabeth Smart, A3

Schor to be awarded by ASA for research

BY JULIE ORENSTEIN Assoc. News Editor

EMILY SADEGHIAN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

On Saturday night, the University Chorale performed its spring concert on Newton campus.

Last Thursday, kidnap survivor Elizabeth Smart discussed her resolve to overcome captivity.

The American Sociological Association (ASA) has recognized Boston College professor of sociology and best-selling author Juliet Schor as the recipient of this year’s Public Understanding of Sociology Award.

The award is presented annually to a person who has made contributions to advance the understanding of sociology and related scholarship among the general public. Since arriving at BC in 2001, Schor has focused her research on consumer culture, sustainable consumption, and climate change—topics that were not widely addressed in her original field of economics.

“When I came to Boston College in 2001, I switched from economics into sociology, largely because I had been working on consumer culture, a topic that sociologists have long addressed, but which economists aren’t particularly interested in,” Schor said in an email. “I was also drawn to sociology because it is more

open to critical analysis, [or] questioning what is taken for granted. Sociology is also methodologically and theoretically pluralistic, which I appreciated.”

At BC, Schor teaches seminars on consumer culture and environmental sociology, as well as a social science core and history elective course on the history and future of human impacts on the planet with her husband Prasannan Parthasarathi, a professor within and assistant chair of the history department.

Schor said that in the core class, she tries to draw connections between the class material and what is happening in the news, and she has even offered opportunities to do campus projects that address the issues studied in the course.

These aspects of the course make the material more relevant, and relate to Schor’s dedication to advancing the public’s understanding of her field.

“There are so many reasons why sociology is important for the public to understand, from its ability to debunk popular, but wrong, conventional wisdoms, to the insights it can provide for policy, to how

sociological analysis can help people act in more just and compassionate ways,” Schor said. “As a scholar of consumption, I see how sociology can give people valuable insight into their spending and lifestyle decisions.”

In her recent research, Schor has been paying close attention to climate change,

See Schor, A3

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF NEWS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Professor Juliet Schor received this year’s Public Understanding of Sociology award.

The Heights

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Top

things to do on campus this week

The Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy will host a panel discussion on the dilemma of state secrecy tonight at 5:30 p.m. in Stokes S195. The panel will feature Rahul Sagar, assistant professor of politics at Princeton University.

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Monday, April 14, 2014 Lisa Baldez, associate professor of government at Dartmouth, will speak on Wednesday on the evolving global norm of women’s rights. The event, part of the political science department’s international relations lecture series, will take place at 4 p.m. in Devlin 101.

On Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Higgins 300, the BC department of romance languages and literatures, in conjunction with the Wellesley College department of Italian studies, will host a screening of Viva La Liberta. The dark comedy is a satirical portrait of contemporary Italy.

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Love with Healthcare app wins SEED competition open arms

By Nathan McGuire Asst. News Editor

Adriana Mariella Racism and sexism are hard things to think about and even harder to talk about. There are dense and complicated theories written on each, some of which I’ve encountered, thought about, and then stopped thinking about because the solution was either buried under words I had to look up or was contingent on a major structural shift that I had no power to singlehandedly bring about.

In the face of what might be the two most divisive issues that we’re grappling with as a nation, I feel paralyzed. There are whole events dedicated to pinpointing the elusive spaces from which racism and sexism flow (or at least trying to understand how we can treat each other better), yet there’s no concrete solution. Although this might suggest that the problem is too complicated to just “fix,” I would argue that at least the first step of the solution is simple.

Sitting in the 10:15 p.m. C.A.R.E. Week mass last Sunday, I was struck

by Rev. Jeremy Clarke, S.J.’s, homily, in which he explained that the raising of Lazarus shows us not only Jesus’ humanity, but also his desire to love us and for us to love each other as we are, to roll away the figurative stones that prevent us from doing so. It was so easy. There was nothing to think about but love—unqualified, uninhibited love.

While I’m not going to try to argue that racism and sexism are easy problems to fix, I am going to argue that the thing holding us back from solving them is a lack of the kind of open-minded, open-armed love that we learned about in religion class and an inability to see past the fixed identities that we assign each other.

To be able to transgress the boundaries of race, class, and gender, we must accept that they do not exist in a vacuum but inevitably interact, as Kobena Mercer described. We need to recognize that one’s unique experience cannot be determined by the color of one’s skin or the gender one identifies with. If we want to successfully engage each other in dialogue, we have to acknowledge the hybridity of our and others’ identities and the unintentional way that ours might inform our interactions.

We have to approach each other with love, rather than with aggressive and negative assumptions.

We have to recognize that in these dialogues, our unique experiences might mean that we’re inadvertently committing a kind of epistemic violence against another, and we need to address the experiences that might be informing our perceptions of ourselves and our relations to others.

We go to a school that preaches love and acceptance, and while we might do this at an individual level, I think that we sometimes still see the world in segmented groups that are not only static, but are also inevitably separated from ourselves.

This keeps us engaging each other from a place of judgment rather than a place of love. We need to turn that around.

In my four years here, I have seen this shift begin. We have recognized that we need to unite not divide, speak rather than fight. But this is just the beginning. It is up to you, the new leaders, to keep this trend going when the Class of 2014 graduates.

Adriana Mariella is a senior staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at news@bcheights.com.

Loic Assombo, A&S ’15, was awarded first place in the Social Entrepreneurs Envisioning Development (SEED) competition last Tuesday for his plan to develop a smartphone app to spread awareness about life-threatening diseases to countries in Africa.

SEED, part of the larger BC Venture Competition (BCVC), will provide Assombo with $2,500 in funding to refine the app that he created last summer through the Global Enterprise for Medical Advancement (GEMA), a non-profit that he founded to address pressing healthcare issues in Africa.

“That fact that I will be able to use this app to empower people to recognize things that are killing them frequently and give them actual medical suggestions that they can do from home to start taking care of themselves is huge,” he said.

Assombo’s project was inspired by his own experiences with the problems that he wishes to combat.

As a young boy he and his family left their native Cameroon, a country of 20 million people on the centralwestern coast of Africa, for the U.S. in search of better health care for their mother.

When he was six, Assombo’s mother suffered a stroke. Because there were few hospitals nearby, Assombo’s family spent three days trying to raise money to get her the care she needed. During that time, his mother stayed at home without access to a doctor and with no idea of her current condition.

“Once we finally got to a hospital, it was overcrowded and inefficient, so we traveled here to get healthcare,” he said. “I’ve always been bothered by the fact that we had to travel across the world just to get healthcare for one person.”

emily fahey / Heights editor

Loic Assombo won $2,500 in the SEED competition for his smartphone app.

In Cameroon—and throughout Africa—there is a shortage of doctors, a lack of adequate medical facilities, and insufficient medical resources.

For every 10,000 people on the continent there are just two physicians.

Africans have an average life expectancy of 60, and Cameroon has a life expectancy of about 52.

Assombo, who majors in biology, said that GEMA has identified three issues that are at the center of the problems surrounding the continent’s healthcare—inadequate doctors, few hospitals, and scant resources.

At the SEED competition, five competitors pitched their business plans to a panel of judges for 15 minutes and then answered judges’ questions.

Assombo said a key factor in the judges’ decision to award him first place was that he had already developed a prototype of his app and brought it to Africa to get feedback from doctors and hospitals.

Last summer, while working for Think Big, Dream Big—a Bostonbased organization that helps high school and college students develop solutions to pressing issues that face their communities—Assombo developed the prototype app.

“I wasn’t sure if doctors would approve of it, if people in Cameroon would even know how it works, and if it was something that people were willing to try,” he said.

Assombo decided to apply for grant funding to finance a trip back

to Cameroon for the first time since he had left 12 years earlier. While he was there, he showed his app to three hospitals, eight doctors, and representatives from telecommunications companies.

Everyone he met was with impressed, and especially praised the app’s educational components. Assombo relied on information about illnesses and diseases from the Mayo Clinic to integrate into the app.

Mobile phone use in Africa has increased rapidly in recent years. It is now estimated that there are about 253 unique subscribers on the continent—roughly 31 percent of the total population—and that number is largely expected to increase.

“The mobile app is supposed to mitigate healthcare issues by empowering the average person who is not a healthcare professional to be able to recognize, diagnose, and use preventative care techniques against the top five illnesses that are killing Africans,” said Assombo, who developed the app with assistance from his high-school friend and GEMA partner Adriel Mingo.

The app aims to educate users by providing them with a list and an interactive video of symptoms of illnesses common in Africa. Assombo said education and awareness are crucial components to empowering Africans to recognize illnesses and to adopt preventative measures.

With the $2,500 in prize money, Assombo hopes to refine some issues with the app and apply for official non-profit status under the U.S. tax code. In the coming months he plans to attend conferences, work with incubators, and apply for additional grant funding.

“It’s more than just the money, it’s also the mentorship,” he said. “I wouldn’t have been able to get this far just with money. It took a lot of mentorship.” n

BC Clean promotes responsible spring move-out

By Connor Farley News Editor In an effort to minimize wasted materials and maximize usage from leftover belongings at the end of each year, the Boston College Office of Residential Life created BC Clean in the spring of 2011—a year-end campus move-out program that both encourages students to take greater responsibility for packing up their possessions and donates unwanted or unneeded materials to charity.

“The program encourages students to be respectful and responsible in their packing up and moving out of their residential community at BC, educating our students to avoid cleaning charges, and take home all of their belongings,” said Chris Darcy, associate director of Residential Life and Campus Ministry.

The program also emphasizes giving back to local charities by means of donating substantial quantities of unused textbooks, clothing, or other usable materials.

“If students have items or belongings that they wish to donate such as text books, linens, clothes, nonperishable foods, household items, and furniture, we host three service agencies on campus throughout the move-out process to collect any and all items for donation,” Darcy said.

At the beginning of summer closing, the organizers of BC Clean designate several residential lounges and common areas as donation centers for students.

The program channels its donated items into three charitable organizations—More Than Words (MTW), The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and Household Goods Recycling of Massachusetts (HRGM).

In 2013, BC Clean helped collect more than 5,000 unused and donated books for More Than Words, a nonprofit that provides youth that are homeless, in foster care, court involved, or taken out of school with leadership development and employment skills. According to its website, the books collected for the MTW

assist the organization to enable disadvantaged youth to participate in job training programs that last from six to 12 months.

At an average price of about $3 per book, BC Clean donated the equivalent of over $15,000 in support of MTW. In 2012, BC Clean had collected about 3,250—a nearly 2,000 book difference from the proceeding year.

Last year, BC Clean also collected approximately 13,140 lbs. of clothing; 2,100 lbs. of nonperishable, good-package food; 107 dorm room refrigerators; and 26 microwaves, among other items. Indicative of the program’s progress, in 2012 BC Clean had collected 1,760 lbs. of food, and in 2011, about 1,110 lbs. were collected.

Since the program’s inception three years ago, the Office of Residential Life has witnessed a significant decrease in damage to rooms and apartments, and residential buildings have generally been left in a cleaner, more livable state, Darcy said.

Students interested in becoming involved with BC Clean will have the opportunity to do so, and are welcomed by the Office of Residential Life to participate.

“We have had a small number of students involved in the past assisting us in setting up residential lounges for collections, and working with the agencies,” Darcy said.

As University move-out days approach, Darcy said he looks forward to accomplishing new goals for the program and reaching record donations for BC Clean’s three charities .

“We are excited to move into year four [of BC Clean], and one of our goals was to get the word out there now, so that the seniors can remember what it was like to donate to those in need, and to move out, leaving things a little better than they found them as part of their residential life experience,” Darcy said. “We believe passionately in our community benefitting and meeting the needs of others while making their move-out experience easier.” n

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A Guide to Your Newspaper The Heights Boston College – McElroy 113 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467 Editor-in-Chief (617) 552-2223 Editorial General (617) 552-2221 Managing Editor (617) 552-4286 News Desk (617) 552-0172 Sports Desk (617) 552-0189 Metro Desk (617) 552-3548 Features Desk (617) 552-3548 Arts Desk (617) 552-0515 Photo (617) 552-1022 Fax (617) 552-4823 Business and Operations General Manager (617) 552-0169 Advertising (617) 552-2220 Business and Circulation (617) 552-0547 Classifieds and Collections (617) 552-0364 Fax (617) 552-1753 EDITORIAL RESOURCES News Tips Have a news tip or a good idea for a story? Call Connor Farley, News Editor, at (617) 552-0172, or email news@bcheights.com. For future events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the News Desk.

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Call Connor Mellas, Sports Editor, at (617) 552-0189, or email sports@ bcheights.com.

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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 Eleanor Hildebrandt, Editor-inChief, at (617) 552-2223, or email eic@bcheights.com.

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If you could replace the Easter Bunny with anyone or

Who is your favoritewho BC or Dining anything, what employee? would it be?

“A pug.”

—Mike Kotsopoulos, A&S ’17

“Father Leahy.”

—Dan Kfoury, A&S ’16

“Dick Po.” —Patrick Christmas, A&S ’17

“Santa Claus.”

—Michael Mikkelsen, A&S ’17

THE HEIGHTS

Monday, April 14, 2014

BC admins outline Mile 21 security

Professor recognized

by ASA

Marathon, from A1

Schor, from A1 and she recently finished a chapter for the ASA Task Force on Climate Change that focuses on the carbon footprints of U.S. consumption patterns and ways to lower them.

This research will contribute to the association’s first report on climate change and add to the policy debate surrounding the issue.

“I work on the factors that lead people to spend money, how consumption patterns and attitudes vary by social class, and how we can shift to a more ecologically sustainable and more socially just consumer culture,” Schor said.

Schor has focused on these themes in her numerous books

“I work on the factors that lead people to spend money ... and how we can shift to a more ecologically sustainable and more socially just consumer culture.”

- Juliet Schor, BC Professor of Sociology published throughout the last two decades, including The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture, and The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need. Her most recent book, True Wealth: How and Why Millions of Americans Are Creating a Time-Rich, Ecologically Light, Small-Scale, High-Satisfaction Economy was released in 2011.

“Like many young scholars, in the first years after receiving my Ph.D., I focused mainly on research and publications that were of interest to other scholars,” Schor said.

“After about a decade, I decided to write a book [The Overworked American] for a wider audience … having one’s voice heard by large numbers of people is a great privilege—and I also found writing for the public very enjoyable. Since then I have continued to do both scholarly and popular writing.”

Schor acknowledged the numerous colleagues and coauthors with whom she’s worked over the years, particularly BC graduate students Luka Carfagna, GA&S ’18; Bobby Wengronowitz, GA&S ’19; Emilie Dubois, GA&S ’17; and Will Attwood-Charles, GA&S ’17.

These students have worked with Schor on her most recent project about the “sharing economy.”

In addition to her writing and research, Schor has consulted for the United Nations Development Program and World Institute for Developmental Economics Research. She is also a co-founder of a national sustainability organization, the Center for a New American Dream. 

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MAGGIE BURDGE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

Last Thursday, Elizabeth Smart spoke to a full Devlin 008 on living a happy life in the face of trauma and adversity.

Smart reflects on traumatic past, looks forward to future Elizabeth Smart, from A1 ever love me again and no one would ever want to be my friend again.”

Despite the heaviness of Smart’s story, her ability to look at it from a distance—it has been 12 years since the kidnapping—allowe d her to inje ct some humor into the talk. She interspersed tales from her life at home before the event into her description of the abduction in order to give the audience a sense of what she was like as a young teenager.

Before the kidnapping, one of her most traumatic experiences was when a popular girl at school snubbed her. When she told her mother what happened after school that day, her mother told her she loved her and would always love her. Smart recalled this memory as she was lying in the tent that first day. Her belief in her faith and in her family helped her survive, she said.

“I made up my mind in that moment that I would do what-

ever I could to sur vive,” she said. “It didn’t matter what it was. It didn’t matter how many personal standards or principles or promises I had to break to myself. I would do it if it meant that I would be able to go back home and see my family again.

That decision saw me through a lot.”

Nine months later, she was rescued. Although her two captors had taken her to California for the winter, she convinced them to return to Salt Lake City, where police recognized her and took her into custody. Though she did not know why, the police handcuffed her and took her into a cell in the police station, she said.

“I guess if I go to prison that would still be a step up from where I’ve been the past nine months,” she thought at the time.

As soon as she thought that, her father walked in the door and she was able to go home.

The next morning, Smart’s mother gave her advice that helped her move on and stay fo-

cused on the future. Her mother told her that she had to move forward, otherwise she would be letting her captors take away even more of her life. The best punishment Smart could give them was to be happy, Smart said.

“It’s not really what happens to us that makes us who we are—it’s our choices,” she said.

“It was my choice to be happy and let the past go that got me where I am today.”

Despite the horror of the nine months she spent living outside with her captors, Smart said she is no longer upset that it happened to her. “ I w o u l d n’t a sk fo r i t , I wouldn’t sign up for it, but I just think of what I’ve been able to do since then,” she said. “I certainly wouldn’t be here today, certainly would not be a public speaker at all. I don’t know where I’d be, but I’m grateful because of the people I’ve been able to meet, the people I’ve been able to work with and for the lives I’ve been able to change.” 

has come to mean after what happened last year,” he said.

The City of Boston announced improved public safety measures for this year’s race in a press release on Saturday.

Boston Police Department (BPD) will have an increased presence of uniformed and undercover officers along the route, and officials encourage spectators to not bring large items such as backpacks and strollers along with them to watch the race. Although these items are not banned, individuals possessing them may be subject to search.

The Marathon course begins in Hopkinton—some 20 miles west of BC—and abuts campus along Comm. Ave. at Mile 21. That portion of Comm. Ave. will be closed to traffic and non-Marathon runners between 8:45 a.m. and 4:45 p.m.

This year, non-registered runners will be prohibited from entering the race as “bandit runners.” In past years, the BC’s Campus School Volunteers have run the race as bandits. Because of new security measures, though, they will be prevented from doing so this year. Yesterday, the Campus School hosted its own marathon for volunteer runners.

Chebator said that the University will ask students to respect the bandit policy and to not enter the race under any circumstances.

He also said that students should be mindful of their alcohol consump-

tion, especially because road closures will make it difficult for medical staff to transport students who require medical attention to the hospital.

“It’s virtually impossible to get across Commonwealth Ave.,” he said. “So, we end up having to take students to other hospitals instead of St. Elizabeth’s.”

After runners pass BC on Comm.

Ave. they will turn onto Beacon Street and toward downtown Boston.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, and other city officials announced this weekend that along the Boston portion of the race there will be 13 ambulances, 140 Boston EMS personnel, and four medical tents.

Spectators can text “Boston” to 69050 to report suspicious activity, or call 911 in an emergency situation.

Between the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., pedestrian crossing along the Marathon route will be restricted to areas designated by the city. Around BC those designated locations include Centre St., College Rd., Lake St., and Chestnut Hill Ave. Pedestrians will be prohibited from crossing at any other areas.

Students who plan to return to Main Campus on Monday should use Beacon St. and those who plan to return to Newton Campus should use the Massachusetts Turnpike or Centre St. Chebator said that Residence Life will send an email to students sometime this week with information regarding residential policies. 

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

The Dean of Students Office said this year’s marathon will see more security.

CONTENT SPONSORED BY EAGLE EMS OF BOSTON COLLEGE

Eagle EMS Celebrates National Collegiate EMS Week On February 2nd, a group of experienced Eagle EMS officers taught one of their CPR and first aid classes, but this time to a completely different audience. Officers Joseph Pereira, Kristen DiBlasi, and Kevin Zirko traveled to the Woods-Mullen Homeless Shelter in Boston and taught first aid to homeless individuals who are in the process of transitioning from the shelter to independent living. While the first aid skills were somewhat demographically focused, the participants were also taught general emergency protocols for events such as choking, splinting, diabetic emergencies, allergic reactions, and bleeding control. The class was very hands on, and according to sophomore Joseph Pereira, Eagle EMS’s Director of Education, the participants were very engaged and asked a lot of questions. Joe started the project and based the class on his experiences working this past summer in Newark, NJ as an EMT. While in Newark, Joe noticed that the volume of 911 calls from the homeless population could be reduced if the homeless were taught basic first aid, a fact that inspired him to begin a program in Boston through Eagle EMS. Joe claimed that his experience teaching “was really enriching, because these were people we have never reached out to before. It allowed me to view what I do as an EMT through a different lens.” Joe and the other officers, Kevin and Kristen, enjoyed their time at the shelter and learned a lot just by listening to the stories that were shared by the participants. Each member who attended the class received a free first aid kit to keep with them, paid for by the Volunteer and Service Learning Center. Eagle EMS looks forward to continuing working with homeless shelters, and expanding its outreach with the help of the Boston Public Health Commission.

- SPONSORED CONTENT -

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The Heights

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Editorials

Monday, April 14, 2014

QUOTE OF THE DAY

CSVBC holds successful first ‘Marathon Sunday’

Life is short, and Art is long; the crisis fleeting; experience perilous, and decision difficult.

-Hippocrates (460 - 377 B.C.), ancient Greek physician, Father of Western Medicine

Students should support runners, respect extra safety measures at this year’s official Marathon Following the bombings at last year’s Boston Marathon, the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) announced increased security measures for this year’s race. Besides outlining an increased police presence along the route and laying out stricter rules for both runners and spectators about wearing costumes, carrying backpacks, and possessing glass bottles, among other things, the BAA also released a statement unequivocally discouraging unauthorized participants. “For the safety of our participants, spectators, and partners, public safety officials and the BAA strictly prohibit unofficial participation, and those in violation will be subject to interdiction,” reads a passage on the BAA website. “We are aware that many people want to participate in some way in this year’s Boston Marathon as a display of support, but we ask that those who are not official participants to refrain from entering the course for the safety of the runners and themselves … The BAA reserves

The University is asking students to be respectful of the runners, officials, and each other, and those requests are entirely reasonable, given the extra meaning attached to this year’s race. the right to remove any person from the course who is not displaying an official bib that has been assigned by the BAA.” The Campus School Volunteers of Boston College (CSVBC) traditionally arranges training and transportation for BC students who run the Boston Marathon as “bandit runners” in order to raise funds for the Campus School. In accordance with this year’s stricter stance on unofficial runners, though, the CSVBC announced mid-March that it would no longer be able to support BC’s bandit runners on the day of the Marathon. To ensure that the 350 students who had been training would still have an opportunity to see their work come to fruition, the CSVBC staged its own informal marathon yesterday, conducted much the same way as its usual training runs. On Sunday, the CSVBC arranged transportation to Hopkinton and then back from Copley Square, and it set up water stations along

the route for the runners. Runners left the starting line at 9 a.m. and hit Mile 21 a few hours later, mainly between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.

Althoug h the ro ad s weren’t blocked off and there were far fewer runners than on previous Marathon days, students, friends, and family still turned out to line the sidewalks, holding signs, giving high-fives, and cheering for the Campus School runners. The atmosphere was certainly different from the typical BC Marathon Monday, but it was encouraging that so many people still showed up to support those running for a good cause.

As of now, it is uncertain whether Marathon Sunday will become a new tradition at BC, or whether students interested in running will seek out other marathons or try to run the Boston Marathon by registering for other charities. As a committee of Campus School parents is in the process of developing a plan to make the school’s retention at BC financially sustainable, losing the fundraising that hundreds of bandit runners brought in every year would be a considerable obstacle. Whatever CSVBC decides, next year’s leaders should make that decision public as soon as possible so that runners can plan accordingly.

Looking ahead a week, hopefully students will turn out again on April 21 to cheer on the official runners, despite extra security measures that might change the way Marathon Monday works and the fact that fewer familiar faces will be in the crowd.

One year after the 2013 attack, many are running the 2014 Boston Marathon in order to pay their respects to those affected by the bombings, and having spectator support will be particularly meaningful.

Student safety next Monday is a serious concern for University administrators, and Dean of Students Paul Chebator stressed that students are expected to recognize that, while the Marathon will still be a celebration, it is also solemn occasion. Chebator said that enforcement policies will be the same as they have been in the past—the Mods will be under the same restrictions as on tailgating days in the fall, and the alcohol policy will be enforced as usual.

Most BCPD officers will be on duty, and about 20 Student Affairs staff, alongside Eagle EMS members, will be on hand as well. The University is asking students to be respectful of the runners, officials, and each other, and those requests are entirely reasonable, given the extra meaning attached to this year’s race.

andrew craig / Heights Illustration

NOTH dance’s name exhibited poor taste In light of last year’s Marathon attacks, ‘Drop Beats not Bombs’ title was highly insensitive

On Friday evening, Nights on the Heights (NOTH), in conjunction with Global Zero and Electronic State of Mind, hosted a dance titled “Drop Beats not Bombs.” The event was held in the Vanderslice Cabaret Room, and the description sent out by NOTH in an email on Thursday afternoon stated that the event was in support of the Boston Marathon runners.

In light of the bombings at last year’s Boston Marathon, this choice of title showed extremely poor taste and was highly insensitive toward the

many members of the Boston College community who were affected by the attacks.

One of the co-hosts, Global Zero, is a student organization dedicated to nuclear nonproliferation. This issue, although important, is entirely seperate and should not be conflated with the Marathon bombings. While the relation between the event title and the mission of Global Zero is clear, the use of “bombs” in the title of an event that also claimed connection with the Marathon was unacceptably flippant about a somber reality.

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The Heights

Monday, April 14, 2014

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Why not to say ‘no’ to bandit runners Received wisdom Mary Kate Nolan Brighton Campus - Sometimes, we think that this part of Boston College’s campus does not get the love it deserves. On this past beautiful, sunny Saturday, we took a brief foray onto those wonderfully green grounds, and the campus was mostly deserted.

Sure, there were a few groups of students here and there, but in terms of the amount of space, it was nothing.

With such verdant pastures and rolling hills, we cannot understand why more students wouldn’t want to spend the first warm weekend day frolicking upon the meadows there.

Shorts - We had almost forgotten what it felt like to bare our legs in the sun—it has been so long. It is a truly remarkable occasion when one can open one’s shorts drawer for the first time in many months, and we had the joy of doing so on Saturday. After all, what other attire is appropriate for gallivanting around Brighton Campus?

Professors Who Take Class Outside - Almost as predictable as salmon pants and KanJam on the Quad, the arrival of spring also brings beg-yourprofessor-to-take-you-outside-forclass season. Huge Thumbs Up to the professors who give in to these whines from their students. Not only do you become infinitely cooler in our eyes, but also, for some inexplicable reason, the material is more interesting against a backdrop of grass and daffodils. Plus, we kind of love fulfilling the #socollege fantasies sold to us by admissions pamphlets.

MacBook Extension Cords - God bless Apple and its infinite wisdom.

The inclusion of the optional extension cord with every laptop makes using your computer almost anywhere with a plug possible. This is especially appealing to students who happen to go to an older university with incredibly inconvenient outlets. Oh, is the outlet three tables away in the Rat? Don’t worry—your extension can reach that. The other side of the aisle in Bapst? Yeah, your extension can reach that, too. Now, if only they made a version that wouldn’t trip everyone who passed.…

Rain On Admitted Eagle Day - As a general principle, we are opposed to rain on any day of the week—we don’t like it on Wednesdays just as much as we don’t like it on Saturdays. There are, however, a few days of the year in which we find the rain particularly disagreeable. Yesterday was one of those days—it was admitted students’ day on the Heights. As most of the visiting students have not yet made up their minds regarding what college they will attend after they graduate high school, it is imperative that they leave with a positive memory of the University. Unfortunately, factors such as the weather often play a role in forming the feel that a prospective student has of a campus. While prospective students should be aware of what the general weather patterns are in the various climates of the schools between which they are choosing, that does not mean that a particularly bad weather experience on a campus won’t be unduly weighted when students are making their decisions.

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Whether we like it or not, Marathon Monday has changed forever. It changed the moment the bombs exploded in Copley Square.

It changed the instant little Martin Richard was pronounced dead. It changed when we received notice that our school and our city were on lockdown. We felt it when we were escorted from our dorms to the dining halls by police officers. We knew it as we kept our eyes and ears glued to the TV to find out any shred of information about the attack. Despite our cheers and celebrations when Boston’s Bravest tracked down the bombers, we understood that this joyous day would henceforth be stained with tragedy.

Unsurprisingly, the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) and Boston Police Department (BPD) plan to enforce tighter security restrictions to ensure that an incident of this nature does not occur again. As a result, runners are no longer permitted to leave backpacks at the finish line. Spectators who choose to carry bags are subject to random searches from the police. Athletes are prohibited from wearing bulky clothing and cannot wear costumes of any kind. These new rules, while slightly annoying, are necessary to maintain a safe environment for runners and spectators alike. The BAA announced a new rule that I cannot comprehend, however. On Feb. 26, BAA Spokesperson Marc Davis announced that bandit runners are prohibited from participating in the 118th Boston Marathon. He stated, “It is just not the year to run if you’re not registered. We’re asking unregistered runners to just stand on the sidelines and cheer.” With upwards of 3,500 police officers on duty and the number of runners cut nearly in half, this year’s Marathon will be very different

indeed, especially for Boston College students.

The presence of bandit runners has been a unique attribute of the Boston Marathon for the past century. It generates camaraderie, inspiration, and charity among the Boston community.

Most importantly, it gives amateur runners like you and me the chance to compete in the Marathon without prior experience. Otherwise, runners have to endure the stringent qualification process to be granted an official number.

For starters, athletes must prove that they have completed a marathon within a certain time limit just to qualify to register. Men between the ages of 18 and 34 must have proof of a qualifying time of under three hours and five minutes, while women must qualify in three hours and 35 minutes. Likewise, the registration process is comparable to BC course registration, with thousands of hopeful participants racing to enter their information quickly enough to secure a spot on the course. This year, runners were so eager to participate that race registration closed within just three hours of opening.

In addition, there is a significant registration fee. Consequently, very few BC students qualify for an official spot, so most choose to compete as bandits. Usually, bandit runners start after the official start times, and BC students can expect to see their friends climb Heartbreak Hill around 3 p.m. on race day. Most students sport a gold and maroon t-shirt designed by the Campus School Volunteers of Boston College (CSVBC). They pool their collective fundraising efforts to donate to the on-campus charity, the Campus School.

Last year, a group of nearly 250 students raced and raised a total of $70,000 for the charity. This year, however, we won’t see the sea of maroon and gold t-shirts among the runners.

Athletes have mixed feelings about the BAA’s decision to bar bandits from the race—on the one hand, they are disappointed that they do not get to race with the sea of 30,000 runners.

They will not hear the echo of voices cheering them on at all points along the course. For most runners, the constant encouragement from

spectators is something that keeps them motivated throughout the 26.2-mile stretch. On the other hand, students are happy that they will get to enjoy the events as spectators. Knowing firsthand how important cheering can be, I predict that BC students will be more enthusiastic about the race than ever before.

Heroically, the Campus School team is not letting the decision deter them from running the race. In order to keep the 20-year tradition alive, the CSVBC organized its own race, which occurred yesterday. While students pledged to show their support and cheer for their friends as they raced along the contours, hills, and streets of Boston, their experience was certainly different.

This drastic change in the structure of the Marathon leaves me skeptical about the BAA’s decision. I understand that extra security measures need to be taken after the dreadful events of last year’s race. I find it unfair, however, that athletes who have been training all year for the Boston Marathon are forced to sit on the sidelines. They are excluded from the monumental race, which should be a beacon of strength and inspiration after the tragic bombings that killed three people. Worst of all, most runners were at the tail end of their training program when they found out that they would be prohibited from participating in the 118th Boston Marathon.

Had the BAA announced the decision a few months ago, perhaps it would have been a bit better received. In my experience, the Boston Marathon has been an opportunity for whole city to come together in celebration. Excluding the dedicated athletes, who were hoping to experience the marathon in its entirety, is not the appropriate way to move past the tragedy of 2013. Rather, we should join in remembrance of the victims and their families, while preserving the traditions that have made Marathon Monday so great in the past.

Mary Kate Nolan is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

Reflecting on a slogan

Kimberly Crowley Like I’m sure so many others can, I remember exactly what I was doing when I found out that something terrible had happened during last year’s Boston Marathon.

While my situation was a bit different from the norm since I was studying abroad in Beijing, it is likely that the majority of people reading this column can relate to the cycle of emotions I went through upon hearing the news. Overcome with feelings and cut off from most forms of communication thanks to Chinese firewalls and limited cell phone service, I took to my blog. In it, I tried to communicate all of my sadness and anger as well as my love and support from hundreds of miles away. “This event may have destroyed the marathon,” I told my readers, “but it did not destroy the city of Boston.

This is something that cannot be done …

Instead of destroying this idea, this attack will only serve to strengthen this bond. I have watched from abroad as the people of Boston have gathered around each other in love, support, and friendship and have even witnessed it myself from thousands of miles away. This type of brotherhood cannot be broken, no matter the extent of the hate thrown at it.”

When I returned to the U.S. nearly a month later, I was pleased to learn that many others had echoed the same sentiment, and that the idea had been nicely wrapped up in a new mantra—“Boston Strong.” I was proud of Boston and how it had responded.

From the tragedy came hope, from disorder came unity, from anguish came healing.

The “Boston Strong” ribbons that adorned the city served as a message to all who had been wounded that an entire city of people was pledging to stand firmly behind them.

The t-shirts being sold in store fronts were

Bird Flew

tangible proof of this love, and the donations pouring into the One Fund were enough to inspire confidence in the future for anyone watching the totals add up.

Unfortunately, I can’t say that I have continuously been impressed with or proud of how “Boston Strong” has been used in the year since the incident, and I know I’m not alone in this. In fact, in doing research for my column, I found that it didn’t take very long before controversy over the phrase began to arise, with Boston Magazine publishing a blog post entitled “The Beginning of a ‘Boston Strong’ Branding Backlash” before even a month had passed.

The backlash is less than surprising. Anyone who lives in Boston has watched as “Boston Strong” has become attached to a number of different aspects of city life completely unrelated to the marathon. When the Bruins were in the Stanley Cup, the “B” in “Boston Strong” became the Bruins logo. When the Red Sox were in the World Series, the same thing occurred again. And, while they can’t help but balk at the lack of tact when cities like Chicago responded with shirts that read “Chicago Stronger,” many Bostonians have found themselves becoming increasingly disgruntled with the use of the phrase as a sort of rallying cry for our sports franchises and a marketing gimmick for local companies.

All of a sudden, “Boston Strong” has largely ceased to feel like a powerful demonstration of solidary. Instead, it is increasingly coming to be seen as a brand—the “official slogan of Boston sports teams,” a frequently utilized hashtag, and a logo sold on tote bags and mugs.

Unsurprisingly, I have considered writing this column many times, wanting to express my disappointment at having watched the evolution of “Boston Strong” from a powerful mantra neatly summarizing a unity that all Bostonians know exists to a salient marketing tool used, to rally support for causes much more superficial than I feel were originally intended by the two students at Emerson College who coined the phrase.

But, as previously illustrated, this kind of

column has already been written in almost every major Boston-based publication, and I did not want my piece simply to be a subpar commentary on a topic that professional journalists had already covered.

I was motivated to write this column now, however, because, in recent weeks leading up to this year’s marathon, I have seen a change in how “Boston Strong’ is being used—a change which, I believe, represents a return to the original meaning of the phrase. The release of the new #WeWillRun video, the upcoming Sports Illustrated cover honoring the people of Boston and last year’s marathon runners, and the increased concern in making sure the proceeds of “Boston Strong” products are going to the One Fund have all served to remind the city of Boston why “Boston Strong” came about in the first place and why we all rallied around it.

Yes, “Boston Strong” is going to be commercial, and partially for a good reason. Selling shirts and other products helps to keep support for the One Fund going and works to remind people that we are still healing.

The power of the slogan isn’t in the words itself, however. It did not make Boston strong, not by a long shot. It simply encapsulated a strength that was already and will always be in this community—strength we always recognized on some level but that made itself known in the moment we needed it most. Boston is strong and will continue to be strong whether we have a mantra for it or not. In fact, there were likely come a time in the near future when we won’t need “Boston Strong,” and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The sentiment will continue to live on in the hearts of people. I simply hope that, until that day, we can work as a city to remember the initial purpose of the phrase and stop it from once again becoming a frustrating example of corporate branding when we are far removed from marathon season.

Kimberly Crowley is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

BY DOLAN BORTNER

The opinions and commentaries of the staff columnists and cartoonists 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 and artists for the Opinions section of The Heights can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

Nate Fisher This column is a conversation with Old Nate, a continuation of my first piece about the recent changes made to the Boston College campus and the messages those changes send. Stokes Hall is the most highprofile of these changes. Everyone and his or her mother loves it, with its overwhelming eager-to-please-ness. It’s back in the limelight again after recently winning a fifth award for excellence in design. The front page of Agora Portal is beaming with pride that the experts anointed Stokes’ beauty.

But hey, this country was founded on the sweeping rejection of received wisdom, so with that in mind: Stokes Hall is ugly, and I reject any argument made towards its beauty or its belonging on this campus. Whew. That was fun. Contrarianism feels cleansing.

That’s a bit much, Nate. Cool your jets.

Stokes is such a pleasant building. All it wants to do is look nice and be a part of BC campus. It even tries to fit in by looking like the marquee old buildings around it. But the awful truth is that, try as they might, no one can make a new old building. The closest thing anyone can manage is making something new that vaguely resembles the old building, but the plastered-on old aesthetic is only skin-deep, made with new materials and new building techniques.

Stokes and the buildings like it never truly feel old—the best they can manage is a Disneyland kind of tack.

Curiously, inside Stokes any pretensions of oldness are swiftly dispatched with. The hallways have the echo chamber polished sterility of your ritzier bathrooms. The designers also apparently saw fit to include several faux-gold elevators. Oh, to be a fly on the wall for the architecture firm’s meeting that day. “You know what would make this academic building prettier, Tom? Four of those gold elevators we just installed in that three-and-a-half-star Vegas hotel!”

“That’s a great idea, Darryl! We’ve got an award-winner on our hands!”

Big deal, Nate. This is just a roundabout way of you saying you don’t like how it looks. You probably think O’Neill Library is better architecture (I do). But the ramifications of Stokes extend far beyond my taste.

Stokes sends several of the wrong messages that a Jesuit, Catholic institution dragging itself towards the 21st century should send.

It commits several cardinal sins, all by virtue of its aspiration towards beauty and the sense that it “belongs” at BC. Stokes offers up no conversation with the other pieces of architecture around it. Making a building that offers no conversation with its surroundings flies totally counter to the principles of higher education. A university campus ought to incorporate unique designs from different time periods to document and honor the intellectual tradition. A university is always updating and changing what it knows. It doesn’t just teach geocentrism and paint without three-dimensional perspective over and over again. Stokes, by virtue of its young-old-ness, is the received wisdom of the past without its inherent wisdom. It’s just the reception.

The message BC sends with Stokes is that it is not interested in honoring the intellectual tradition. Stokes indicates that BC cares more about imprinting and exhibiting its brand, and maintaining total control over how that brand looks. The architectural inbreeding of aping the nearby buildings says, “We have our thing. This is what we do. And it doesn’t change. Not after a hundred and fifty years. Anything different has no place on this campus. Anything modern has no place on this campus. Except gold elevators. Four of those, please.”

This should be unsettling for anyone who thinks BC needs to change its attitudes or policies. Given the uproar a year ago about the university’s stance on contraceptives, with many labeling the University “backward,” this architectural worship of the past indicates that change is unlikely any time soon. If you’re not a BC kid, don’t bother trying to feel welcome here. There’s a visual ideal to aspire to. Stokes is the preppy white kid. Stokes is the grand bombastic metaphor for how this University regularly prizes homogeneity, and for how often it carelessly treads on creativity and diversity despite its half-hearted claims to the contrary.

Nate Fisher is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@ bcheights.com.

THE HEIGHTS

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Monday, April 14, 2014

Jonathan Glazer takes sci-fi back to earth with ‘Under the Skin’

BY LOGAN WREN Heights Staff

The best sci-fi stories are those that embrace allegory—the movies that take our life, our normal, earthly, human life, and remove it one, or even two steps with small changes to physiology, environment, or culture. Thus, the best episodes of Star Trek were just one degree away from human and, therefore, said so much about humanity.

Star Wars UNDER THE SKIN was so Jonathan Glazer successful because it combined lightsabers and the Force with the forces of good and evil—also, it cast the ultimate force of evil in the universe in Nazi garb, and that is always a powerful stance to take.

Jonathan Glazer, director of Sexy Beast and Birth, succeeds in this way with his most recent sci-fi film Under the Skin. The film stars the increasingly prolific and always striking Scarlett Johansson, who plays an alien who has come to earth for an un-

stated—though conjecturable—purpose.

During her time on the third planet from the sun, she seduces men with the curves of her earthly body, leading many of them into her van and then into abandoned homes.

I will not describe the seduction process after that, but I can tell you it does not leave the men in a good place—it is no small irony that Johansson recently played Black Widow in The Avengers. The story moves with the seductions, and each new man and manipulation affects the alien, bringing her a bit closer to Earth, so to speak.

The confusing nature of the film, in which much goes unsaid and is left to be surmised, is reminiscent of Prometheus (2012), but the execution is more skillful here and provokes more consideration.

The trajectory of the film, however, is easy enough to moralize: the alien (Johansson) slowly humanizes as she touches more people, while watching them from her large, white van, as she walks through the city and meets thousands of faces.

What is left to interpretation is how to understand that anthropomorphism and the results of it.

Greek tragedy operated similarly to the

best sci-fi stories. The mythological setting of tragedy allowed the ancient Athenians to play out their worst fears, societal angst, and existential woes in a realm a few degrees away from a too close, too painful, and too banal reality. If the tale of Oedipus cast instead an Athenian shopkeeper named Andros, a man who talked with other men at the assembly and went to drinking parties like all the rest, the tragedy would lose the universalism and profundity inherent in the remove of myth. Andros would just be a really creepy guy who, in all likelihood, would be ostracized.

A comparison to tragedy and its functions is not far away from this film. The beautiful alien, an outcast from our society, one exiled by her nature, goes on a journey of self-discovery, like an Oedipus searching for his parents or a Pentheus donning a dress and grabbing a thyrsus. Our alien leaves her home and slowly assimilates into our society, taking on our clothing, trying out our foods, and having sweaty human sex.

It is easy to view an alien as a dangerous outsider who comes with malicious intent. Our very nature—and shows like

PHOTO COURTESY OF FILM4

Sci-fi film ‘Under the Skin’ successfully works through allegory to explore the human condition.

Lost— has prepared us always to distrust the other. When our alien seduces men and proves them to be, just as Apuleius described, animal bladders filled with hot air, it is easy to see the harm she causes, but she is only doing as she knows. In that way, the film is a story of adolescence. It is a story of a girl—or perhaps any being—in a process of self and sexual discovery, but with the removal of the extraterrestrial nature of our alien. This process inevitably

harms others, those seduced, and it can harm the self, too. Tragedies, as a rule, do not end well.

Under the Skin is a lot closer to home than a galaxy far, far away. It is an exploration of the difficulties of alienation and self-discovery. It suggests that we all tread the line between the group and the other, like walking on that ever-receding line of tide moving down the beach, one foot in the water and one out—you’ll see what I mean. 

‘Rio’ franchise heads south with sequel

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE REPORT TITLE

WEEKEND GROSS

WEEKS IN RELEASE

1. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

41.4

2

2. RIO 2

39.1

1

3. OCULUS

12.0

1

Despite familiar voices such as Anne Hathaway and Bruno Mars, ‘Rio 2’ falls short due to generic subplots and mediocre musical numbers.

4. DRAFT DAY

9.8

1

which he has grown accustomed, bringing along a fanny pack stuffed with a string of humorously unnecessary items, including a malfunctioning GPS system, breath mints, a Swiss army knife, and a mechanical toothbrush.

Coming along for the trip are Blu’s fun-loving companions, a toucan named Raphael (George Lopez), and a musical duo composed of a cardinal named Pedro (will.i.am) and a canary named Nico (Jamie Foxx). Upon arriving in the overwhelmingly colorful depths of the Amazon, Jewel finds that the family she thought was dead is actually alive and well. Her father and ruler of the land, Eduardo (Andy Garcia) is overjoyed by his daughter’s return, but finds himself less than pleased with her humanfriendly husband. Also there to greet her on her return is her former childhood playmate, Roberto (Bruno Mars), whose serenades and flirtatious tone with Jewel make Blu jealous.

By now, the film’s overstuffed cast turns the film more into a “I know that voice” distraction, and it overshadows the predictable storyline that ensues.

The screenwriters must be big fans of Meet the Parents (2000), because their stories from here on out are almost interchangeable. Blue finds himself unable to cut ties with his human ways, to the constant disapproval of Eduardo and the rest of the tribe. Everything he does seems to be the wrong thing, from

5. DIVERGENT

7.5

4

6. NOAH

7.5

3

7. GOD’S NOT DEAD

5.5

4

8. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

4.1

6

PHOTO COURTESY OF BLUE SKY STUDIOS

BY GRACE GODVIN For The Heights

Rio 2, Brazilian-native Carlos Saldanha’s follow up to his hugely successful Rio, takes place partly, of course, in Rio de Janeiro. The film tells the story of Blu (voiced by Jessie Eisenberg), a macaw bird, who travels with his family to the Amazon to be with the rest of his kind.

This is a Rio we haven’t quite seen before, however.

Unlike RIO 2 the slumCarlos Saldanha filled city portrayed in City of God (2002) or The Incredible Hulk (2008), Saldanha’s Rio de Janeiro exudes happiness and cleanliness. In the opening sequence, Blu and his friends dance and sing on top of the Christ the Redeemer statue, with twinkling Rio below them, beautifully lit in New Years fireworks.

The beginning of the film finds Blu happily married to Jewel (Anne Hathaway), another macaw, together raising three young offspring. Soon they discover that there are more of their endangered kind living in the Amazon rainforest 2,000 miles away, and Jewel decides that it’s time to take their family on a trip to the jungle. Their three children are up for the vacation, but ol’ Blu finds himself tied to the human life to

proudly parading around in his fanny pack to starting war with a neighboring tribe of birds.

The tribe soon finds its sanctuary threatened by malicious loggers attempting to cut down its part of the forest, a predictable human threat to this animal-centered film (think: Finding Nemo with the divers who capture Nemo as the antagonists). There’s also a bit with a revenge-seeking cockatoo—accompanied by a pink poisonous frog as its weapon—who seeks the death of Blu after he inadvertently caused the clipping of the cockatoo’s wings in the last film. Kristen Chenoweth’s short appearance as the frog winds up providing the most pleasing musical number, with a twistedly humorous rendition of “Poisonous Love.”

Ultimately, Saldanha packs his film too full of only half-amusing subplots with underdeveloped and generic characters. He tries to distract the audience with a few lackluster musical numbers and a star-studded cast, which will surely be enough for the kids, but his film lacks the shrewdness of a Despicable Me (2010) and the musical talent of a Frozen (2013).

Surely, the promoters of the World Cup, which plays in Rio de Janeiro in June, will be pleased with this portrayal of the city, but Saldanha doesn’t quite live up to his original in this uninspired sequel, and, while brief, the 96-minute film start to drag as the end draws close. 

2

PHOTO COURTESY OF BLUE SKY STUDIOS

PHOTO COURTESY OF INTREPID PICTURES

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BESTSELLERS OF HARDCOVER FICTION 1. THE KING J.R. Ward 2. I’VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN Mary Higgins Clark 3. NYPD RED 2 James Patterson and Marshall Karp 4. MISSING YOU Harlan Coben 5. THE GOLDFINCH Donna Tartt

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6. THE INVENTION OF WINGS Sue Monk Kidd 7. BY ITS COVER Donna Leon 8. DESTROYER ANGEL Nevada Barr 9. POWER PLAY Danielle Steel 10. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR Jeffrey Archer SOURCE: New York Times

Psychological thriller ‘Oculus’ challenges perceptions of horror genre

BY CAM HARDING For The Heights

Despite the rather ridiculous premise of two siblings battling a satanic mirror on a four-century-long murdering spree, Mike Flanagan’s psychological horror Oculus provides an interesting deviation from the modern onslaught of ’80s remakes and Paranormal Activity spinoffs.

The stor y follows OCULUS Kaylie Mike Flanagan and Tim Russell (Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites, respectively) who witnessed their father Alan (Rory Cochrane) murdering their mother Marie (Katee Sackhoff ) 11 years prior. After being released from a mental institution for shooting his father, the 21-year-old Tim reunites with his older sister Kaylie, who swiftly drags him into her obsessive crusade to prove their misfortunes were caused by an antique mirror. When Kaylie acquires the haunted artifact and Tim helps move it into their old house, the two siblings confront their past as the mirror begins to exert its frightening

influence.

What stands out about Oculus is its extremely ambitious and well-executed editing. Bouncing back and forth between past and present, the audience witnesses the process of Alan and Marie descending into madness while the adult Kaylie and Tim routinely endure horrific illusions and hallucinations. Flanagan does an excellent job with pacing, as the timelines become so interwoven that they eventually blur into one overlapping sequence.

The effect is absolutely surreal, and it is sure to leave some audience members truly confounded.

Still, the most important question remains: is it scary? Frankly, not really, but in fairness, Flanagan appeared more intent on messing with his characters’ heads, as well as the audience’s. Indeed, it seems inevitable that at least a few audience members may utter aloud, “What the hell?!” as the movie becomes increasingly bewildering and disturbing. Unfortunately, there are a few factors that greatly hamper Oculus’ effectiveness as a horror film. The prevalence of distorted perception becomes an obvious trope set by a few precedents early in the movie. Consequently, Oculus becomes fairly mundane as every twist and turn isn’t necessarily predictable so much

as thoroughly unsurprising. Although the exact details and circumstances may not be blatant, the basic gist of the “shocking” ending is so agonizingly apparent within the first 20 or so minutes that the suspense of the climax is woefully mitigated.

The childhood plot, though fairly well acted—even child actors Annalise Basso (young Kaylie) and Garrett Ryan (young Tim) offer solid performances—a few too many events come across as unintentionally comical. One of the early indications that the mirror is distorting reality is when Marie and Alan insist to each other that one said something that the other denied uttering. For example, as Marie is exiting Alan’s office (where the mirror is hanging), Alan’s voice can be heard muttering “grotesque cow” as the camera focuses solely on Marie. When Marie turns around Alan innocently denies saying anything.

The writing evidently held back the drama and believability of the plot. By the time Alan devolves into a full-blown psychopath, his behavior only becomes more laughably suspicious. Despite decent performances, the material itself obviously posed a challenge for the actors.

For example, Kaylie, as she first confronts the mirror, absurdly muses to herself how

PHOTO COURTESY OF INTREPID PICTURES

‘Oculus’ focuses on ambiguity rather than fear, taking a different approach to the horror genre. the antique is probably “hungry” as she speaks to it. Given that Oculus is a horror movie, one can expect that the script isn’t particularly strong or memorable.

In addition, the ghoulish-eyed figures haunting the house appear so casually on screen that it is unclear whether they were intended to be “terrifying” or simply symbolic. It would be unfair, however, to say Oculus doesn’t have its twisted moments. There is certainly a fair amount of grotesque and eerie imagery that will definitely make the faint of heart squirm in discomfort. To his credit, Flanagan can

pull the few legitimate thrills off without gratuitous quantities of blood or overuse of cheap jump-scares.

Although it has its fair share of flaws, Oculus has some intriguing and wellexecuted techniques that set it apart from most contemporary horror films.

At the very least, it feels refreshingly different. While it certainly isn’t a classic that will spark heated analysis, Flanagan provides a healthy amount of ambiguity that allows audiences to theorize and interpret. It also leaves plenty of room for a sequel. 

The Heights

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Monday, April 14, 2014

Dynamics’ Summer Camp Cafe shows off old, new vocal talent From Dynamics, A8

John wiley / heights Editor

Saturday’s Summer Camp Cafe mixed deeper cuts with numbers taken from the Top 40, featuring a wide range of the group’s vocalists.

for the number. The Dynamics generally perform with more minimalistic, tighter vocal arrangements—this placed added importance on the work of the evening’s soloists.

While the Dynamics took on a few numbers off the top 40—notably, Bruno Mars’ “Treasure”—Saturday’s show was characterized by deep cuts. The Dynamics have a stronger indie influence than most a cappella groups on campus, and many of the voices within the group lend themselves well to less conventional numbers.

Luisa Lange, A&S ’16, stood out in the first half of the cafe with her solo work with Lianne La Havas’ “Don’t Wake Me Up.” Lange’s voice was well matched with the work of the English singer-songwriter.

The intimate harmonies of the group, too, made sense with the number, which in La Havas’ original recording includes an a cappella intro.

The second half of the cafe was highlighted by a performance of The Neighborhood’s “Sweater Weather” by freshman crooner Ryan MacDonald, A&S ’17. MacDonald, with an impressive balance and range to his vocals, actually out-sang the original recording, turning the traditionally understated alternative rock song into a showstopper. “Sweater Weather” was followed by two medleys, Lorde and Mumford & Sons, respectively,

and while a lot of the emotional appeal of the cafe was packed into the group’s lesser-known repertoire, these familiar medleys were certainly welcome pieces of the performance. The Dynamics did particularly well balancing more experimental, coffee shop-style songs with popular selections. The cafe stayed relevant, without pandering to the crowd.

Ellery Spencer, CSON ’15, and Ryan Galvin, A&S ’14, came together in the later part of the show for a duet performance of The Frames’ “Falling Slowly.”

One of the more tender parts of the night, the number was visibly emotional for Galvin, a senior. The lyric, “We’ve still got time,” added a stinging irony to the piece, which was placed near the close of the show.

Cassie Dragone, LSOE ’16, was impeccable with her impersonation of Estelle in The Dynamics’ performance of the British hip-hop vocalist’s “American Boy,” while Hans Friedl, A&S ’16, gave his own, more comedic take on the Kanye West rap verse featured in the song.

The Dynamics’ Summer Camp Cafe was all about good laughs and good music—vocally, the Dynamics were quite a talented collective. Behind the music, however, was a fabric of personalities that held the group together. The lighthearted “summer camp” video reels showed off a group of performers very much at home with each other. n

The Bostonians and The Acoustics collaborate for Stix & Stones concert

John wiley / heights editor

Connor Hutchison, A&S ’14, of the Bostonians (left) and Megan Gladden, A&S ’15, of the Acoustics (right) were two of the vocalists featured in Friday’s performance, which brought the two a cappella groups together in the Cabaret Room.

From Stix and Stones, A8 wood’s “Cowboy Casanova.” Soloist Megan Gladden, A&S ’15, brought some bright energy to the performance and was aided in some deft harmonies from her companions. They followed with a duet between Sean O’Hara, A&S ’14, and Dominique Alba, CSOM ’17, performing old time show tune “The Lady is a Tramp.” It was a bold choice to move away from the pop classics that usually dominate a cappella events, but as ever The Acoustics proved they are a colorful, versatile bunch.

Closing their first set of the event, The Acoustics invited The Bostonians back on stage to perform a song together, as Stix

& Stones tradition calls for. The groups melded together more than amicably and performed a staple from The Bostonians’ repertoire “Brave / Roar.” The medley brought both groups and both pop anthems together in unison, with Keely Bartram, A&S ’16, taking the solo. The arrangement moved from “Brave” to “Roar” without a hitch as Bartram handled the roaring refrains with ease. The combined sound of The Acoustics and The Bostonians gave the song a fuller depth and filled the room more than any other arrangement.

The Bostonians stayed on stage for their final set. Haley Paret, CSON ’15, performed Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” with an assist from Bartram, who handled the song’s rapping.

The song is less relevant than it was a year ago

given Pitch Perfect’s slow slide from popularity, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. The performance was pure, playful spunk.

The Bostonians followed that demonstration of spunk with a beautiful rendition of Eva Cassidy’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Soloist Rebecca Nelson, LSOE ’14, and her accompaniment took a quiet approach to the song. Nelson sung with a measured pace that rose and fell along with the movements of the arrangement. The head bobbing that overtook the audience for “No Diggity” rolled into a collective stillness.

The performance was a nice contrast to the thundering “Brave / Roar” and the rambunctious “No Diggity.”

The Acoustics then shuffled onto the

stage in good cheer for their last set. They brought more playfulness to the event with a parading rendition of Trey Songz’ “Bottoms Up.” Featuring a rotating cast of soloists, The Acoustics spread the fun around. Perhaps the performance didn’t turn the cabaret room into the bumping club that The Acoustics hoped it might, but the song brought the energy to spur the event through its final set.

The Acoustics closed their set with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals’ “Paris.”

Soloist Lauren DeVito, A&S ’15, and her accompaniment came together in perfect unison for the joyously catchy refrain of ooh la las. The song lends itself well to an a cappella cover with so many harmonies present beyond the primary vocals.

For the final song of the event, the groups came together one more time to send the audience out into the night. The groups took a page from The Acoustics’ repertoire as soloist Matt Michienzie, A&S ’17, took the stage to perform Ray LaMontagne’s “You Are the Best Thing.”

Again, the combined forces of both groups gave the performance a much fuller sound. Michienzie used his deep, yet smooth voice to roll through the celebratory tune.

It was a fine note to end the event.

While a cappella has become known for battles and showdowns, Stix & Stones brings a cappella back to what it really is all about—just a group of people singing together. n

‘Culture Shock’ features four dance acts From ‘Culture Shock’, A8 as the Swing Kids, this small team was established as an organization at BC in 1998. The pace and style of “Culture Shock” was drastically different from the dance before it, yet, it was equally entertaining. Despite the sudden change, the two pieces flowed nicely together. Full Swing’s set was marked by a feel-good, nostalgic vibe.

The dancers were obviously having fun, and that positive energy resonated well with the audience. There was infectious joy in Full Swing’s performance, lifting the spirits of Gasson 100. It is not hard to see why the Swing movement gained so much popularity during the Great Depression.

The South Asian Student Association’s dance group Masti followed Full Swing, transporting the audience from the swing clubs of the 1930s to modern-day India with Masti’s style of dance, which merges the cultural charm of traditional Indian dance with a more modern style of movement. Masti’s

performance was heavily influenced

by Bollywood’s big, energetic dancing spectacles—movement is an important part of India’s media culture, and Masti brought that identity to Gasson. Last weekend, Masti won top honors in the cultural category of the Annual Showdown dance competition, and that energy carried over to Friday’s show. Masti’s musical selection smoothly transitioned between beats and styles—some were more heavily influenced by Western music, some much more traditional.

“Culture Shock” showed off many ethnic dance traditions, but part of the concept of the showcase was to show how these styles have become interconnected in a globalized market of ideas. The hybrid style of Masti celebrated South Asian culture, while at the same time demonstrating how interconnected world dance has grown to be in recent years.

Leaping over continents, “Culture Shock” took the audience to Latin America for the final act of the night.

Vida de Intensa Pasion (VIP) once again brought together the old and the new,

bringing pop culture in the United States into the context of traditional Latin dance. Starting with more conventional Spanish dance music, the performance eventually transitioned into a remix of Rihanna’s “Say My Name.” The remix brought many of the musical elements found in Latin music together with the vocal work of the Barbadian-American singer. This engaging final act brought the night’s theme of cultural fusion to the forefront, showing how culturally specialized styles of motion can be set to Top-40 hits.

This cleverly titled event, “Culture Shock,” brought a new meaning to the expression. Despite jumping back and forth between distinct and geographically separated styles, the evening demonstrated a sense of unity between the cultures. Engaging the audience with this dialogue of cultures, the four acts featured in “Culture Shock” provided a compelling mix of talents. The show was a reminder of the cultural mosaic at BC and the multicultural foundation of modern dance. n

Robin Kim / heights sTAFF

Full Swing was one of the four cultural dance acts featured during Friday’s show in Gasson 100.

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ARTS&REVIEW MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014

Summer Camp Cafe a ‘Dynamic’ show

THE FINER THINGS

A ‘Girl Meets World’ of TV

Deep talent and quirky personality brought out in the BC a cappella group’s spring show

BY JOHN WILEY Arts & Review Editor

ARIANA IGNERI As Disney Channel moves forward with its spin-off Girl Meets World, I can’t help but look back, remembering the beloved, decades-old original and all the ways that it’s influenced my life.

A wave of nostalgia swept over me on Friday when the 30-second video teaser for the show premiered. Not only did I think about the Saturday mornings I used to spend on my couch—Cap’n Crunch in hand—watching Boy Meets World on TV as kid, but I also thought about how, nearly two years ago, the news that the series was being rebooted became the subject for the first Scene spread I ever worked on for The Heights.

The old arts editors and I did a piece on retired programs that either should or shouldn’t be brought back—Friends, Gilmore Girls, and, of course, Boy Meets World were among the ones we covered.

I was so excited about the spread and about the fact that one of my favorite childhood shows was being remade, that, when I ran to be elected to the board, my former mentors said, jokingly, that I would shape the section with my love for the ’90s classic.

My Boy Meets World obsession might not have manifested itself concretely in every single article, column, review, and feature I’ve written for the paper, but I’d like to think that the old arts editors were right about what they said to some extent. I’d like to think that the real-life lessons presented in the coming-of-age show have affected the way I do things.

Unlike most of the shows I’ve seen on TV, I learned a lot from Boy Meets World over the years.

Cory taught me, as strange as it sounds, that it’s okay to feel as average as a piece of celery. In many of the episodes, he felt inferior, and aside from his BrilloPad curly hair, he was pretty dull. But Cory always knew how to embrace who he was—to find the extraordinary in his ordinary self and to make even a boring vegetable like celery interesting, too.

Topanga taught me about embracing differences. Whether it was her crazy, flower-child style, unique and weird name, or philosophical way of thinking, she stayed true to her identity and helped everyone else do the same for themselves as well.

Eric taught me about being funny and charming and having good flow, but he also taught me about being persistent.

He never did well in school, wasn’t very smooth with girls, and wasn’t great at most of the jobs he held—still, he never gave up. He knew that “life’s tough,” but he also had a solution: “Get a helmet.”

Most of the things I discovered from Boy Meets World, though, came from the old, sensible, and ever-endearing Mr. Fe-he-he-he-heeny. He always had something to say about friends, love, family—about everything, really.

Feeney’s wise words taught me about the gift of friendship: “It is given with no expectations, and no gratitude is needed, not between real friends.”

They taught me about communities and how the most important and special people in your life don’t have to be related to you: “You don’t have to be blood to be family.”

They taught me about what to do when you’re passionate and care about someone or something: “When you find love, you hold onto it and cherish it because there is nothing finer, and it may never come again.”

They taught me about how to be someone worth being looked up to: “A real hero is someone who does the right thing when the right thing isn’t the easy thing to do.”

Most importantly, though, they taught me how to live a life worth living: “Believe in [yourself ]. Dream. Try. Do good.”

Boy Meets World has been off the air for more than a decade, yet it’s these things—not so much the jokes, or the actors, or even the characters exactly—that I remember about the show. It’s the lessons that have stuck around long past the series’ seven-year run. They’ve made it timeless and relatable for anyone—boy or girl—learning to live in this world.

Ariana Igneri is the Assoc. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com

JOHN WILEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Hans Friedl, A&S ’16, backed the evening’s small group performances with soft guitar.

Per tradition, the Dynamics close their spring cafes with a rendition of “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life,” from Dirty Dancing. Alumni of the a cappella group are invited to the stage (or perhaps, more appropriately, the front of the classroom) for this number. Founded in 1998, the co-ed music group has done a fair bit of growing over the years, and by all appearances, learning the lyrics to “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life” has never especially been a part of the Dynamics’ tradition.

It’s a bewildering spectacle, proud alumni surfacing from the crowd to join in the song, with no one too sure of the order of things. It’s goofy and fun, and the audience is encouraged to sing along.

Those who don’t know the group well

enough might consider Saturday’s closing number a gaffe, and with the intensity of Boston College’s a cappella culture, such a lighthearted performance is offensive to what most other groups consider themselves to be. But to understand this bizarre closing is to gain an important insight into who the Dynamics are—there’s no easy way to stage a successful alumni number, and without being able to update the arrangement from year to year, the Dynamics are left with this mangled mess of a song. Either they pass down the song or scrap it. Inevitably, the tradition is kept—the Dynamics aren’t looking to prove anything. The group is deep enough in talent to know that when these cafes roll around, they can be comfortable with themselves.

Saturday’s Summer Camp Cafe in McGuinn 121 was marked by a Dynamic

sense of humor. The performance was divided by short film clips, telling the story of a bunch of misfits brought together at summer camp. The strange characters presented in these film clips barely resembled the polished performers featured on Saturday night—the group dressed in white, formal attire and worked with a diverse, sophisticated selection of songs.

Again, this speaks to the dual identity of the group. Musically, the Dynamics were impeccable—save, of course, for the show’s wild conclusion—but at heart, they are that group of misfits, and Saturday’s cafe was all about the big personalities behind the big voices.

The show opened with a rendition of Christina Aguilera’s “Come On Over,” with a Beyonce Easter egg in the mix. Freshman Meghan Linehan, CSOM ’17, was featured in the performance. The song showed her off as a powerful addition to the group, her colorful voice making her an ideal lead

See Dynamics, A7

S O T B O D N N I A A N S S C I T P S R U O ESENT C A E H T :

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d S T n O a NE IX

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JOHN WILEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

BY RYAN DOWD | HEIGHTS STAFF

T

he Bostonians and The Acoustics met in the Vanderslice Cabaret Room for their annual Stix & Stones concert Friday night, and thankfully, no bones were broken. The groups and their prospective audience had hoped that they could hold the event in a place Boston College students unequivocally love—outside Lower, next to the mythical Beans, Creams, and Dreams. But alas, rain ruined that hope, and so the event relocated to a packed Cabaret Room. The groups traded two song sets for about an hour and even came together at the halfway point and finale for two songs.

The Bostonians were clad in their usual black and The Acoustics in a colorful array. It’s easy to get caught up in the competitive nature of a cappella events.

But more than any other, Stix & Stones is about fostering community within groups.

The Bostonians got things started with pop and campus sensation “Happy”

by Pharrell Williams. Sam Park, A&S ’16, took the solo, backed by a tightly wound arrangement. “Happy” is a song that will be sung in a cappella performances for the next 20 years, and The Bostonians brought more than enough energy in their opener to make up for the dampened hopes of the audience.

They followed with Connor Hutchison, A&S ’14, performing Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love.” The song had a quieter feel that fit the world-weary expression of its Friday afternoon audience.

After two songs, The Bostonians ceded the stage to The Acoustics. The Acoustics brought some country flavor to the event, covering Carrie Under-

See Stix and Stones, A7

‘Culture Shock’ creates dialogue through dance

BY MELISSA ABI JAOUDE For The Heights At its best, dance builds bridges between cultures, creating dialogues between multinational traditions of movement. It can link together societies, as well as tell stories about what sets them apart. This past Friday, the International Club at Boston College hosted “Culture Shock,” a dance showcase with performances from four of BC’s dance teams: Vietnamese Students Association (VSA), Full Swing, Masti, and VIP. The unifying thread of the show was the idea of melding cultures. Each team represented a different style of dance, often one unique to a certain country or ethnic identity.

The show kicked off with members from VSA dancing the “Lotus Dance,” a

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‘Rio 2’

cultural display meant to represent the beauty and form of the lotus flower. In Vietnamese culture, the lotus flower represents long life, health, honor, and good luck. The lotus flower grows from the murky darkness of the pond floor up, breaking through to the surface of the water toward the sun. It is well anchored, moving freely with the currents without being uprooted. Wearing loose red dresses, the dancers imitated the movements of the flower as they twirled, carrying large paper flowers in each hand.

In a 180-degree turn, “Culture Shock” moved from the gardens of Vietnam to the U.S. in the ’30s with a performance by the Full Swing, BC’s swing dance group. Formerly known ROBIN KIM / HEIGHTS STAFF

See ‘Culture Shock’, A7

Carlos Saldanha’s sequel to ‘Rio’ has more stars, but less developed characters and subplots, A6

‘Oculus’

The Vietnamese Students Association, Full Swing, Masti, and VIP were featured in the show.

The well-executed horror film takes on a more psychological than grotesque approach to the genre, A6

Bestsellers...............................A6 Box Office Report........................A6

SPORTS

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MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014

Gaudreau wins Hobey, scores for Calgary in first NHL game

BY CONNOR MELLAS Sports Editor For Johnny Gaudreau, the second time’s the charm. A year ago, Gaudreau headed to Pittsburgh as a Hobey Hat Trick finalist with 21 goals and 30 assists in his pocket, and an outside shot at winning the Heisman Trophy of college hockey.

St. Cloud State’s Drew LeBlanc took home the hardware last season, but this year, Gaudreau got redemption.

On Friday evening at the Loews Hotel Millennium Ballroom in Philadelphia, PA,

Gaudreau became the third player in Boston College history to win the Hobey Baker Award, carrying on the legacy of previous BC winners David Emma and Mike Mottau. The catalytic 5-foot-8, 155-pound forward was a favorite heading into the season, and his 36-goal, 44-assist, 80-point junior campaign made him the nearly unavoidable choice for the award.

Gaudreau beat St. Lawrence University senior forward Greg Carey and St. Cloud State University senior forward Nic Dowd for the Hobey, which is presented annually to the top player in Division I college

hockey. The award is the latest and greatest piece in Gaudreau’s 2013-14 hardware collection, which includes the Walter Brown Award, the New England MVP, MVP of the Northeast Regional, and the Hockey East Player of the Year honor.

The news of the award was coupled with the announcement that Gaudreau’s college hockey days are over. Gaudreau, along with his senior linemate and friend Bill Arnold, signed a deal with Calgary and flew to Vancouver to join the Flames in preparation for yesterday’s game against the Canucks. Gaudreau signed a three-

year entry level two-way contract with an annual base salary of $832,500, a yearly signing bonus of $92,500, and an Average Annual Value of $1,850,000, when performance bonuses are included.

Arnold’s deal is a two-year entry level two-way contract with an annual base salary of $810,000, a $90,000 yearly signing bonus, and an Average Annual Value of $900,000.

The teammates reunited on Calgary’s third line on Sunday night, playing the first period together before Gaudreau moved up the depth chart to the second line,

scoring his first NHL goal after just 35:22 of play in his first game.

Gaudreau leaves BC with the third highest single season points total, and 78 goals and 98 assists for 176 points in his three-season career in Chestnut Hill. As a freshman, Gaudreau played a key role in BC’s 2012 National Championship victory, and the Eagles reached the NCAA Tournament in each of his three years at BC. Gaudreau’s junior season was highlighted by his first career hat trick in his thirdto-last game as an Eagle and a 31-game point streak. 

FIGHT TO THE BITTER END EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Eagles crash out of Frozen Four after crushing defeat to Union in semis

BY CONNOR MELLAS Sports Editor The helmets come off, and suddenly they’re human again.

Bill Arnold, the on-ice warrior who scrapped, fought, and battled for four years to become one of the deadliest two-way forwards in college hockey, is over5 Union whelmed by tears as he walks to his Boston College 4 seat. Patrick Brown, the forward who went from playing 13 games his sophomore year to captaining his team to the Frozen Four as a senior, sits down solemnly on Arnold’s left. And Johnny Gaudreau, the electrifying mite-sized magician of a hockey player who dazzled and dangled his way

deep into the very fabric of Boston College athletics, stifles the lump in his throat and tries to explain what went wrong on BC’s five-minute power play.

“They had a good PK, a good defensive team, and we didn’t get enough shots through to the net, and we didn’t do what we were told to do on the power play, so we needed to get more shots through,” Gaudreau said, his voice trembling.

“Like Johnny said, we were just kind of out of sync there, not everyone was on the same page, we were trying to maybe force stuff too much, and you can’t do that against a good penalty kill, they’ll stop you,” Arnold added.

If the scoreless five-minute power play was the kidney shot in the Eagles’ 5-4 loss to Union on Thursday evening in the Wells

Fargo Center, the Dutchmen’s goal that came seconds after it and put Union up 4-2 was the knockout uppercut.

From the first minute of the game, Union was at BC’s throat, forechecking and testing freshman goalie Thatcher Demko early. It was BC that scored first, though. Picking up the puck in neutral-zone traffic, Arnold edged into the Dutchmen’s end and stickhandled through the Union defense. Finding Kevin Hayes lurking on his left, Arnold picked up his head and fed the right winger, who cut into the crease, spun to his left to set up a shot, and lost the puck in the scrum. For just a moment. the puck sat unattended—then Gaudreau banged it past Union goaltender

See Hockey, B3

Welcome to the new world: So begins the latest epoch under Jerry of York

CONNOR MELLAS Marketh down the 11th day of the fourth month of the third millennium as a period of great change and chaos, a time from whence glorious tales of bygone eras were shouted by the mouths of doves to legions of Facebook friends and followers of Twitter. For in the 17th hour cast by the glorious Spring sun, the Flames of Calgary announced their taking of Johnny Gaudreau, micro magician of the ice, from the land of Chestnut Hill. The king has left, the king has gone, and yet, the kingdom will live on.

One day after Boston College’s Johnny Hockey won the Hobey Baker Award, signed the dotted line, and hopped on a jet to Vancouver, the calm Internet oasis free from hot takes, reckless speculation, and opinion mongering composed of the people who care and talk about BC athletics had a

minor heart attack.

A freshman forward on the BC men’s hockey team, Chris Calnan, caused the scare, or rather, his teammates did. Calnan’s teammates began spamming his account with congratulatory mentions, wishing him the best of luck in the future and implying that he was leaving BC. Before the forward could fire back with a “My friends aren’t funny” tweet, people jumped to the conclusion that he was signing with the Chicago Blackhawks.

The prank was timed perfectly. Given that Calnan is a freshman and scored 13 points in 37 games this past season, his signing with a Stanley Cup contender heading into the postseason would seem unlikely— especially because 65-point scoring senior winger Kevin Hayes has yet to sign with the Hawks—but the joke worked. The pace at which the rumor spread and the nervousness it caused illustrated something bigger than Internet gullibility, though—there are some serious feelings of jumpiness regarding the future of the BC men’s hockey team.

Three years, 78 goals, 98 assists, and 83 wins later, the Gaudreau era is over, and its

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conclusion ushers in a true changing of the guard and a legitimate feeling of uncertainty around Conte Forum. Looking ahead to next season, BC is losing Gaudreau, Bill Arnold, Patrick Brown, Hayes, Isaac Macleod, and possibly Michael Matheson, if he inks a deal with the Florida Panthers. Including Matheson, that’s the loss of 260 of BC’s 461 total points from the 2013-14 season.

When BC lost seniors Patch Alber, Parker Milner, Pat Mullane, Brooks Dryoff, Patrick Wey, and Steven Whitney after the 2012-13 season, there was some concern, but also a great deal of confidence in the junior class coming up to lead. The heirs apparent for the 2014-15 BC team are significantly less clear-cut. Excluding Gaudreau and the two goalies, Brian Billett and Brad Barone, BC’s five remaining juniors combined for 14 goals and 28 assists for 42 points this year—barely more than half of the 78 points produced by Arnold, MacLeod, Hayes, and Brown during their junior campaign.

Barring huge statistical leaps heading into 2014-15, it seems likely that the leadership and the points will come from the

Baseball: Eagles take on Irish

BC fell in the weekend series 2-1 to fellow bottom-dweller Notre Dame......................B4

underclassmen, and while there’s an old soccer adage that you can’t win anything with kids, next year’s team will need the younger players to step up to find success.

In terms of the offense, BC has proven talent waiting in the wings. Ryan Fitzgerald and Austin Cangelosi bookended head coach Jerry York’s second line and led the freshman charge this year with 29 and 26 points, respectively. Adam Gilmour showed flashes of brilliant vision and played regularly on the fourth line all year, ending up with 20 points in 40 games.

Keeping in tradition with recent years, BC’s incoming recruiting class includes a talented group of players. York’s recruits include four of the top 10 players in the country: No. 2 Sonny Milano (forward), No. 3 Noah Hanifin (defenseman), No. 7 Zach Sanford (forward), and No. 8 Alex Tuch (forward), according to CollegeHockeyNews. com. The recruits are a bump up in size for BC as well. Each one is at least 6-foot, 180 pounds, with Tuch weighing in at 6-foot-4, 213 pounds.

Possibly the greatest key to BC’s success, however, will be its leadership from the blue

Lacrosse: Eagles blow out Hokies

Led by their top scorers, the Eagles topped Virginia Tech in their last ACC game.....B3

line and behind. BC’s freshman goaltender, Thatcher Demko, and defensemen, Steve Santini, Ian McCoshen, and Scott Savage, were inconsistent at times, but played beyond their years for much of the season.

Factor in the recently elevated play of Teddy Doherty, the addition of Hanifin, and the seasoning of the current defensemen and man between the pipes, BC’s defense could be the core of the team next season. Additionally, Matheson would be a tremendous game-changer if he decided to stay.

The Gaudreau era is over and Johnny B. Goode has Johnny B. gone—the latest epoch under Jerry of York has begun. BC is going into a significant reloading phase, but the existing talent and incoming recruiting class suggest that BC could be an NCAA Tournament-caliber team again next year. As the youngest team in college hockey, BC made it to the Frozen Four. They say you can’t win anything with kids, but for the second year in a row, BC probably won’t listen.

Connor Mellas is the Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.

Roundup...................................B2 Sports in Short.........................B2

THE HEIGHTS

B2

Monday, April 14, 2014

BC softball’s Annie Sommers back in business after injuries

BY ALEX STANLEY Heights Staff

Pittsburgh’s Katherine Kramer steps up to the plate, swings, and hits a ball deep into left field. At first glance it looks to be a home run, but it’s a little short and too far to the left. Just as the ball is set to hit foul ground, a glove snatches it seemingly out of nowhere.

Junior Annie Sommers stands up, composes herself, and throws the ball into the infield.

A few innings later, Sommers makes a similar diving effort for a foul ball, but comes up short despite risking hitting her head on the side wall. “I kind of love your left fielder,” says the sports information director visiting from Pitt, to no

one in particular in the press box.

For the Pasadena, Calif. native, softball has always been an important facet of life. Having a father who played both minor league and college baseball, Sommers grew up in a household surrounded by baseball and softball, starting with tee ball and transitioning into travel softball when she was in high school.

It was not all fun and games, though, as Sommers seriously considered quitting softball when she was a junior in high school.

Sommers was burnt out, used up by the quantity of games she played with her travel softball team. In the summer, it ranged close to 100. Yet, with her family pushing her and reminding her of the

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Annie Sommers hit her second home run of the season in the series finale against Maryland.

ROUND U P

college softball and eventual coaching dreams she held, Sommers kept with the sport. Then, in her senior year of high school, she began to struggle with injury.

“I got injured my senior year in high school playing soccer—I tore my ACL, so I missed my senior season,” Sommers said. “A year and a week later, I remember I was on the bus up to Upper, and I remember telling my roommates, ‘Wow, guys, it’s been a year since I’ve torn my ACL.’” The next game she played was a scrimmage against Har vard in the bubble, just a couple of weeks away from the softball team’s season opener.

Sommers was playing right field and followed a fly ball as it hit the top of the bubble and came down at a stark angle.

The ball took a strange bounce—Sommers stopped, pivoted, and tore her left ACL. She missed every regular season game in her freshman year, then came back her sophomore year and earned herself a starting position in the outfield.

“She tore her ACL, which was a huge bummer, and then really worked her butt off rehabbing and really getting it stronger,” said Boston College head coach Ashley Obrest.

Obrest sees Sommers’ hard work and focus from rehab extending to both batting and fielding. She said that Sommers has greatly improved on her batting, thanks in part to her dedication to filmwatching and consistency in showing up for extra hitting.

“In left field, she gives effort on every single ball that goes to her,” Obrest said.

“Whether it is her diving for a ball that is foul or her making a routine play, she is always going after it hard.”

Despite having dealt with two ACL tears, Sommers does not let that hold her back from diving recklessly to catch balls in the outfield.

“I like to sacrifice my body,” she said.

“If I’m not coming out of a game with bruises or scrapes on my knee, then I’m like, ‘Ah, I didn’t have a good game.’ I need to get my jersey dirty.”

Sommers also cites her strong faith as a holding factor in the way she approaches softball games. Her helmet features the Biblical verse of Colossians 3:23, which reads, “Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart, as

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

After missing time due to ACL tears, Sommers has become a healthy contributor for the Eagles. working for the Lord, not for human masters.”

The BC softball team is currently enjoying a winning season, in which it has already collected eight more wins than last year’s 14-38 campaign.

She attributes this to a strong sense of togetherness on a team devoid of cliques or limited friend groups.

“This year has been great,” she said.

“We’ve been winning, and I think our team has really come together. It’s the first time a lot of us have been excited about who our teammates are.”

This has translated into on-field success, according to Sommers, which

can be seen in BC’s wins and near losses against softball powerhouses Arizona State and Michigan.

Sommers has a knack for making her contribution to the team clear, whether it is a diving catch, pulling her team into a huddle after the end of an inning, or making a big hit. In fact, just yesterday she hit a home run in the Eagles’ loss to visiting Maryland.

“Watch out for BC,” she said. “I think we’ve been surprising a lot of people, which I’m excited about. I know we have the talent, the drive, and motivation. When we are on, we are very hard to beat.” 

BY MARLY MORGUS | ASSOC. SPORTS EDITOR

TRACK

ROWING

W. GOLF

SAILING

The Eagles dropped another AC C m atchu p o n Sunday morning, losing to Virginia Tech 6-1. Head coach Nigel Bentley’s team got off to a shaky start as Jennifer Ren and Heini Salonen lost 8-4 in their doubles match, before Katya Vasilyev and Wan-Yi Sweeting lost their match 8-5.

Vasilyev recovered by defeating Hokie Kelly Williford 6-1, 6-3, but she was the only Eagle to tally a victory on the day. The loss to Virginia Tech followed a devastating 6-1 loss to Duke.

The Blue Devils swept doubles play, before Sweeting earned Boston College its only victory of the day, winning her match in a 10-3 tiebreak. 

Th i s w e eke n d , the Boston College women’s track team headed west to Amherst, Mass. for the UMass invitational. The Eagles had wins in three different events as well as three top-16 performances, a strong enough effort to take first place in a field of 11 teams, all from the New England area.

Freshman Fallyn Boich set a personal best javelin throw of 42.37 meters, gaining her a second place finish, and she also came in fourth in discus. Madeleine Davidson won the 1500-meter race with a time of 4:32.01, the ninth best time in BC history, and Morgan Mueller took first in the steeple chase. Elizabeth O’Brien had the third win for the Eagles in the 5000-meter race. 

The Boston College women’s crew team w a s in action this weekend at the Knecht Cup, located in West Windsor Township, N.J. on Mercer Lake. The Eagles raced two varsity eights, two varsity fours, a novice eight, and a third varsity eight.

The second varsity four advanced to the grand final on Sunday and came in first in that race, gaining the overall win with a time of 7:46.01.

The second varsity eight also won its grand final. The varsity four advanced to the grand final as well, coming in third. The novice eight finished one spot behind that, taking fourth in its race, and the third varsity eight came in second in its final. The varsity eight took fourth in its race. 

Led by junior Cristina McQuiston, the Eagles finished in 10th place at the Gold Rush tournament at Yorba Linda Country Club in California.

Ahead of this we ek’s ACC Championship Tournament in Greensboro, N.C., McQuiston shot +15 to tie for 18th place overall.

She entered the final day of play at +8, but shot a +7 in Round 3 by bogeying on seven holes.

Katia Joo shot three strokes behind the team’s leader, McQuiston, while Christina Wang finished at +28 and Regan Simeon came in 52nd, shooting a +36. The Gonzaga Bulldogs won the tournament. BC came in 10th out of a field of 11 teams. 

At the Savin Hill Invitational, Boston College dominated its competition, scoring just 54 points.

The Eagles topped Salve Regina during the in-conference regatta.

At the Owen, Mosbacher, and Knapp Trophies two-conference regatta, the Eagles narrowly lost out to Brown for second place, as Yale pulled away to win the event.

Stanford topped the Eagles and 18 other competitors at the Thompson Trophy regatta on the Thames River in Connecticut.

BC placed eighth at the intersectional race, finishing just behind Fordham and ahead of Rhode Island, scoring 280 points. The Cardinal beat their competition by 57 points. 

SPORTS in SHORT

W. TENNIS

ACC Baseball Standings Team

Conference

Overall

Florida State

14-4-0

27-8-0

Wake Forest

12-7-0

23-25-0

Clemson

10-7-0

21-14-0

Maryland

7-10-0

21-13-0

NC State

6-12-0

20-15-0

Notre Dame

3-15-0

14-21-0

Boston College

3-15-0

11-24-0

Numbers to Know

70

Quote of the Week

“We were just kind of out of sync there, not everyone was on the same page, we were trying to maybe force stuff too much. ”— Bill Arnold on BC’s 5-minute power play against Union.

BC’s total goal differential at the end of EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR the 2013-14 hockey season. Emily Fahey / Heights EditorCupicatuidet L. Fulessedo, querfecta, nihilicii ineri fic

+42 The individual +/- for Johnny Gaudreau and Bill Arnold at the season’s end.

130 The number of shots blocked by Isaac MacLeod and Steve Santini this year.

THE HEIGHTS

Monday, April 14, 2014

B3

Dutchmen overcome Eagles en route to National Championship From Hockey, B1 Colin Stevens and into the twine at 2:08. It was a rare mistake for the Dutchmen, and they wouldn’t give up more easy ones.

Union equalized at 2:39 in the second period after BC’s fourth line’s zone coverage collapsed. Deadly with a free slap shot, senior captain Mat Bodie sniped Demko’s stick side. As the goal horn sounded, the life was sucked out of BC and the Dutchmen began a siege on Demko’s net.

For much of the second period, Union pulverized each line that BC head coach Jerry York sent out on the ice, racking up shot after shot on Demko’s net. The youngest player in college hockey weathered the siege like a grizzled veteran, using his size to stretch across the crease multiple times and his reflexes to deflect screened shots from distances. Finally, at 10:45, he yielded to the attack as a high, flubbed glove save landed in front of the hungry stick of junior winger Daniel Ciampini. With nothing but goal in his sights and Demko out of the play, the Dutchman smacked home the puck to give Union an edge.

Union refused to relent after scoring.

Outskating and outhitting BC, the Dutchmen set up an outpost in BC’s head and continued to terrorize the Eagles. Demko came up with save after save, though, on his way to 36 on the night, and at 15:53, the all-freshman fourth line redeemed itself. Defenseman Steve Santini hadn’t scored since Dec. 6, but when sublime fourth-line passing gifted him the puck near the blue line, he took a few steps and gunned a laser past Stevens to drag BC back into the game.

The teams finished the second period level, but the third would belong

to the Dutchmen.

Lurking at the point on a Union power play, lethal defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere called for the puck. Freshman forward Mike Vecchione obliged, and Gostisbehere made BC pay for leaving him open. Daniel Ciampini got on the end of Gostisbehere’s lightning slap shot for his second of what would become a hat trick, and the Eagles took on gallons of water and began to drown.

Even when the power play fell apart, Union scored again, and the clock ran mercilessly closer to zero, the Eagles kept fighting. Down 4-2 after letting up the post man-advantage goal, Ryan Fitzgerald fought for a scrappy score. When Ciampini completed his hat trick with an empty netter, Brown got one past Stevens with less than five seconds remaining.

Ultimately, BC ran out of time and chances against a team, which, on the night, was better than them. Union broke out with deadly speed, defended loyally throughout the game, and capitalized on its opportunities. For the Eagles, there was no terrible scapegoat to decry and no savior to rescue them. There were goals scored and mistakes committed, saves made and plays blown.

With nearly four minutes left in the third period, Arnold—as he did countless times this season—picked the puck off the boards and fired a pass cross-ice to the waiting stick of one of his teammates.

No one was there, though.

Every BC player on the ice was digging it out, desperately trying to get to that pass, in a threatening position, or anywhere they could go help to get that puck into the net and keep their season alive. In the end, the Eagles didn’t have win No. 29 in them, but they fought to the last second in loss No. 8. 

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

BC crushes struggling Hokies

At home, softball takes two of three from Terps

BY MARLY MORGUS

The softball team won just two games in ACC play last season, but this year’s team has produced superior results. A pair of triumphs over Maryland over the weekend means the Eagles have already won four more games in ACC play than they did overall last season.

Alhough Boston College dropped its weekend finale with the Terps on Sunday, 4-2, it was still able to win the series. A home run from senior Annie Sommers gave the Eagles a 2-1 advantage when the teams were level at 1-1 headed into fifth inning. In the seventh, trailing by a run, Maryland’s offense woke up after a dormant weekend.

Jessie Warner’s double got things going for the visitors, before Corey Schwartz’s hit for two bases put the tying run on the board. Schwartz scored on a single to right from Erin Pronobis, who in turn scored on a Shannon Bustillos double. Nicole D’Argento, who was bailed out by freshman pitcher Jordan Weed, conceded each of the runs.

The Eagles completed their Saturday sweep of the Terps by scoring four runs in the game’s final frame to win 4-2.

Megan Cooley was walked and got to second when D’Argento singled. The

BY ALEX FAIRCHILD Asst. Sports Editor

Assoc. Sports Editor There’s nothing easy about playing an ACC women’s lacrosse schedule, and during the course of its conference play, the Boston College 20 B o ston ColVirginia Tech 9 lege women’s lacrosse team has exemplified that difficulty. Through six ACC matchups going into Saturday, the Eagles held onto a record of 2-4 in the conference, while still maintaining a No. 6 national ranking. With the culmination of conference play on Saturday, though, the Eagles capped off their final ACC game on a positive note, topping the Virginia Tech Hokies in dominant style, 20-9.

Virginia Tech had been struggling in conference play all season, dropping each of its four ACC matches leading into the game, all of them by more than eight goals.

The Eagles got down to business right from the start, putting up four unanswered goals within the first nine minutes of play. Junior Covie Stanwick, the Eagles’ points leader on the season, was responsible for three of those goals, scoring within the first three minutes, then again at the 25-minute-mark—that goal assisted by Moira Barry—and again at 19 minutes. Teammate Mikaela Rix, who has been lighting up the scoreboard all year and leads the Eagles in goals scored with 33 so far on the season, had the fourth goal within that span, which came just over a minute after Stanwick’s first.

The Hokies struck back twice to make it 4-2 before the game hit the 16minute mark, but the Eagles then went on another streak, scoring five more as the half wound down. This time, the scoring was more evenly distributed with Rix scoring once, Barry striking twice, and Sarah Mannelly, the Eagles’ second-most productive offensive weapon, adding to the scoreboard as well. Stanwick closed out the first half with her fourth goal of the game, scoring with just one second left to make it 9-2.

Faced with an onslaught of shots from the Eagles’ offense, Virginia Tech goalie Meagh Graham actually tallied more saves that Emily Mata did on the other end for the Eagles during the first half. While Mata had two saves on the

hits forced Maryland to change pitchers, but reliever Brenna Nation walked Tory Speer before Kaitlyn Schmeiser reentered the game. Alana DiMaso’s hit bounced to third and an error allowed two Eagles to score and equalize the game at 2-2. Tatiana Cortez’s bunt plated Speer to give BC an edge it would not relinquish.

BC’s bats came into the second game of the doubleheader hot, as it had just crushed the Terrapins 8-0 in the first matchup of the three-game series.

Speer’s homer bolstered Weed’s threerun shot in the fourth inning.

D’Argento improved to 13-10 on the season, though she only pitched through a pair of innings. She struck out three batters in the victory and was replaced, with her team in front 7-0.

Cooley got things going for the Eagles in the first inning, scoring after an errant throw looking to get Speer out at second when the senior attempted to advance further from her hit. DiMaso brought Speer home before Jessie Daulton’s single sent DiMaso to home plate for the score.

Despite losing the final game of the set, the Eagles are playing winning softball and with a record of 22-17, head coach Ashley Obrest’s team has shown dramatic improvement. 

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

Moira Barry had three goals in the Eagles’ 20-9 rout of Virginia Tech on Saturday.

Hokies’ five shots during the first half, Graham had three.

The Hokies’ offense picked up during the second half, but not enough to surmount its already sizable deficit.

While Rix’s goal for BC was the first of the half, Megan Will quickly struck back and scored two for Virginia Tech, followed by one from teammate Kelly Naslonski to make it three straight goals for the Hokies.

An Unrelenting Rix served as the book-ends to that streak, though, scoring her third of the game to nullify Virginia Tech’s unanswered streak as the score was brought to 11-5, BC. From there on out, the Hokies were unable to put up another sizeable streak which they desperately needed, managing to score two goals in a row just once more. With the offense failing to put enough points on the board, the defense also served to widen the deficit as the Eagles scored nine more goals

during the last 20 minutes of play. Barry had two more, and Rix scored once to register her game-high point total of six—five goals and one assist.

Stanwick was silenced in the second half, but other Eagles—Carly Weilminster, Cali Ceglarski, Kate Rich, Tess Chandler, and Caroline Margolis all stepped up and had goals of their own—and Sarah Mannelly had her second of the game.

From a goaltending standpoint, the second half was similar to the first.

Graham faced nearly twice the number of shots that Mata did and had three saves to Mata’s one.

With the win, the Eagles finished their ACC schedule on a high note.

After one more regional regular-season game on Wednesday against Vermont, the Eagles are headed to the ACC tournament in hopes of making a postseason run in one of the nation’s top lacrosse conferences. 

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Softball’s two victories against the Terrapins gives it five ACC victories on the season.

THE HEIGHTS

B4

Monday, April 14, 2014

Notre Dame secures series with shutout

BY JOHNNY CAREY Heights Staff In the second game of a Saturday doubleheader at Chicago State’s Cougar Stadium, the Boston College baseball team looked to 7 Notre Dame salvage a split Boston College 0 on the day as well as a series victory against ACC foe Notre Dame. It was clear early on, however, that head coach Mike Gambino’s team simply didn’t have it on Saturday evening.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, spurred on by the dominant pitching of Michael Herne and consistent offensive outbursts, crushed the Eagles by a score of 7-0. Coupling Herne’s performance with the team’s 4-2 win over BC earlier in the day, Notre Dame’s pitching was dominant enough to earn the Fighting Irish their first ACC series victory on the season.

Jeff Burke took the hill for BC, looking to snap a stretch of starts plagued by inconsistent control. Burke succeeded in that regard to some extent, as he only allowed two walks on the evening, however, he did hit a batter and still wasn’t quite able to put it all together.

In the first inning, Notre Dame

jumped out to a 2-0 lead after a hit batter, a pair of singles, and an error by BC. In the fourth, the Fighting Irish took a stranglehold on the game, plating two more runs via a James Nevant RBI triple and a sacrifice fly by Lane Richards.

Burke was done after only four innings, allowing four earned runs on three hits, two walks and a strikeout, dropping his record to 0-5 on the season.

The Irish put their final three runs on the board in the sixth and eighth innings.

BC’s bullpen was so-so, allowing three runs over fi ve innings, including one allowed by Mike King and two allowed late in the game by John Nicklas.

Offensively for BC, there wasn’t much to note. Sophomore southpaw Michael Hearne went the distance for Notre Dame, shutting out the Eagles while allowing seven hits. Hearne had excellent control of the strike zone, striking out five while not allowing a single walk.

“Hearne did a really good job keeping us off-balance,” Gambino said. “We couldn’t string hits together. We had some guys on in different innings, but we couldn’t put two or three hits together to get anything going. He just kept us off balance.”

Seven of the Eagles’ starting nine

tallied a hit, but not one starter could punch out a second base knock. All seven Eagle players who reached base were left stranded, which was certainly a frustrating way to lose for Gambino’s team.

Th e series was played for a charitable cause. The three-game weekend set between BC and Notre Dame was dedicated to “Strike Out ALS.” All ticket sales were donated to the Pete Frates #3 Fund, which was established to help former Eagles captain and director of baseball operations, Pete Frates, in his battle against ALS, which is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Gambino and Notre Dame coach Mik Aoki agreed to set up the game for the cause some time ago. Aoki served as BC’s head coach from 2007 to 2010, including when Pete Frates was a senior.

Aoki and Notre Dame also agreed to auction off their special red jerseys for the Pete Frates #3 Fund.

“It was awesome to see what coach Aoki did out here, putting together a weekend out here for Strike Out ALS weekend,” Gambino said. “That was awesome to see, it’s not a surprise if you know coach Aoki and you know what kind of person he is.” 

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Jeff Burke started on the mound for BC, but was relieved after pitching just four innings.

ND draws even in win

BC claims series opener against Fighting Irish

BY JIM HILL

BY MICHAEL HOFF

Heights Staff

Heights Staff

For Boston College sports fans, the name Pat Connaughton quickly conjures images of defeats on the 4 Notre Dame hardwood. The Boston College 2 association with the name and these incidents, the Connaughton effect, came with Notre Dame’s move to the ACC in 2013 and developed after the basketball team’s games against BC this past season. Connaughton, who served as the Irish’s sure-shooting swingman from November to March, scored 34 total points and snagged 14 rebounds in his squad’s two conference wins over the Eagles.

While both ND’s and BC’s basketball seasons concluded nearly a month ago, the Connaughton effect is still growing—expanding to another sport. The ND letterman, known for his hustle on the court, took the mound against the BC baseball team in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. He would pitch the full nine innings, striking out six opposing batters and leading the Irish to a 4-2 victory over the Eagles.

Connaughton was given substantial support from the ND lineup: the Irish scored early and then increased their team’s lead with a hitting streak later in the game. The first ND run came in the first inning, which started with a double from leadoff hitter Conor Biggio: Third baseman Blaise Lezynski, the team’s RBI leader, hit a single into center field, driving Biggio home from second base and giving ND a 1-0 lead over BC. Additional ND scores were staved off until the fifth inning, much to the credit of BC start-

Boston College started its weekend series against fellow ACC bottomdweller Notre Boston College 4 Dame with Notre Dame 1 a 4-1 win at Cougar Stadium on Chicago’s south side. Only its third ACC win on the season, BC pushed three runs across in the top of the 11th before redshirt freshman reliever Luke Fernandes closed out the game with a clean bottom of the frame.

“I came in to finish out the 10th, and then Gabe [Hernandez] got a big hit and Blake [Butera] got some insurance runs, and I was able to finish out the 11th,” Fernandes said. “Big win, obviously we respect Notre Dame a lot, but any ACC win is huge.”

BC shortstop Joe Cronin’s double to left center in the top of third drove in Butera to open the scoring, but despite seven hits allowed, Notre Dame starter Sean Fitzgerald didn’t allow another run in his eight innings pitched. In those eight innings, the Eagles left eight runners on base and were possibly on their way to yet another agonizing defeat.

The Eagles’ own pitching staff kept its offense in it, though, led by starter John Gorman’s six innings of one-run ball. The junior validated his status as the Friday starter with just two walks and four hits allowed, surrendering his only run in his last inning. Sophomore lefty Jesse Adams relieved Gorman in

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The pair of defeats keeps the Eagles in the basement of the ACC, with just three wins. ing pitcher Andrew Chin, who retired 11 of 12 batters after Lezynski’s RBI in the first inning.

When the quality of Chin’s pitching declined, the scoring began, and the ND attack was machine-like: The Irish had five consecutive hits and plated three runs.

“Andrew threw the ball well,” said BC head coach Mike Gambino. “But he made a couple mistakes, and they hammered him.”

The first runner to score in the fifth inning was catcher Forrest Johnson, who hit a single after teammate Zak Kutsulis grounded out.

Johnson would be driven home by outfielder Robert Youngdahl, who hit a triple. In turn, Youngdahl scored after shortstop Lane Richards hit a double down the left field line. An infield single off the bat of outfielder Mac Hudgins, paired with a throwing error, enabled Richards to score the final run of the inning and gave ND a 4-0 lead. In spite of these scores, Chin was able to regain his composure and close the inning, getting Lezynski to ground into a double play.

After this scoring spree, the BC pitchers were able to prevent ND from plating more runs. Chin pitched into the seventh inning— yielding no runs after Richards’ score—and reliever Bobby Skogsbergh pitched the final 1.1 innings, closing the game. While these BC ballplayers kept ND scoreless through the last four innings, the Eagles’ lineup rallied: Michael

Strem was able to score in the eighth inning, plated by teammate Nick Sciortino, and first baseman John Hennessey scored in the ninth, plated by Tom Bourdon. A resurgent Connaughton quashed the rally, getting Strem to ground out to close the last frame. BC could only muster two runs, and the Irish, heavily relying on their fifth inning scoring spree, won 4-2 over the Eagles.

For the ND and its fans, the victory proved the first clear demonstration of Connaughton’s pitching potential this season. Though ranked the No. 46 prospect among players eligible for the 2014 MLB Draft by www.perfectgame.org, the ND right-hander struggled to exhibit this talent in the majority of his recent outings. Going into the contest against BC, Connaughton was winless and had a 6.89 ERA. Conversely, for the Eagles, the ND victory and Connaughton’s pitching performance evidenced a negative trend that continues to impact the BC baseball team: a hitting and scoring struggle, an inability to consistently challenge the man on the mound. Connaughton was the third ACC player to pitch a complete game against BC in this year’s contests, and Michael Hearne became the fourth in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader. The other two pitchers were Florida State’s Luke Weaver and North Carolina’s Trent Thornton. 

the seventh and worked three and onethird stellar innings of his own. Adams gave up just one hit and no walks while striking out four Irish batters and gave his offense enough chances so they could make it to the 11th.

“Tie game, and I knew if I attacked the zone I would be able to get some plays behind me by the defense, and I knew the bats were going to come around eventually to give us that lead that we needed to have, and Luke was going to hold us for the win,” Adams said.

After Fernandes came in for Adams and stranded Notre Dame’s Ryan Youngdahl in the 10th, BC first baseman John Hennessey started the game-winning rally with a four-pitch walk, followed by centerfielder Tom’s Bourdon’s 0-2 single to left. Left fielder Michael Strem pushed both runners up with a sac bunt, and catcher Nick Sciortino loaded the bases with another walk. Stepping to the plate with the bases juiced and down 1-2 to new Notre Dame reliever Matt Ternowchek, Hernandez singled in Hennessey for the game’s winning run before Butera’s double to left center scored Sciortino and Bourdon for ultimately unnecessary insurance runs.

“Went up to the plate looking for a fastball, something good to hit, got it, put my barrel on it, hopefully put a run across, and we did,” Hernandez said. “And then Blake came across and brought a couple of runs in, some insurance runs, that was huge. And then Luke coming in at the end, shut the game out, great win for us.” 

Eagles’ offense delivers, but defense falters against the Virginia Cavaliers

BY TOMMY MELORO Heights Staff

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

Mikaela Rix had a hat trick against the Cavaliers, but it wasn’t enough to get the Eagles a win.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. On Thursday night against the Virginia Cavaliers, the Boston College 16 lacrosse team Virginia faile d to get Boston College 14 tough, and as a result it fell 16-14 and dropped to 10-4 on the year, and 2-4 in the ACC. The Eagles were led by the usual names—Covie Stanwick led all players with six points in the form of three goals and three assists, while Mikaela Rix had a hat trick of her own, which she paired with two assists. Brooke Blue completed BC’s three-pronged hat trick attack with her own three-goal game.

A variety of other Eagles contributed goals, including Sarah Mannelly, Kate McCarthy, and Caroline Margolis.

Scoring wasn’t the problem for the Eagles on Thursday night. It was their defense that dug the grave and started shoveling on the dirt. Virginia’s offense continually and systematically dismantled the Eagles’ defense, scoring

almost at will.

The Cavaliers put up seven goals in the first half, putting the Eagles in a 7-2 hole with just over five and a half minutes left in the half. BC did not roll over, though, and fought back to within one by the time the half was over, bailing out the defense and keeping the Eagles in the game.

In the second half, the Eagles tied the game four times at 7-7, 8-8, 10-10, and 12-12. Virginia would then go on to score the next four goals in 10 minutes, keeping the Eagles offense off the board and leaving BC with just 56 seconds to try and tie it for the fifth time. BC scored twice, cutting its deficit in half, but time ran out on the Eagles before they could come any closer.

The Eagles have had problems starting games strongly, allowing themselves to fall behind early. Their slow starts have regularly led to close losses as BC’s scorers scramble to catch up with their opponents, only to fall just short, the hole too deep to dig out of.

The same thing happened on Thursday night against the Cavaliers. BC fell behind, and though it was able to tie the game

multiple times, BC never once took the lead over Virginia.

BC’s shooters had spent most of the game catching up to the Cavaliers, bailing the defense out of a bad first half. When the offense went cold and needed the defense to bail them out, however, the defense again failed.

Virginia scored four times in just over nine minutes, as the Cavaliers took a stranglehold on the game. Of Virginia’s 16 goals, 14 were scored by just four players—Courtney Swan, Maddy Keeshan, Liza Blue, and Kelley Boyd.

The Cavaliers scored on their only free position shot of the game, indicating that no matter what they tried, the Eagles were simply unable to contain Virginia’s offense.

Head coach Acacia Walker’s offense is scoring at a good clip—that much is certain. If there is one adage that has proven prophetic time and time again, however, it’s that defense wins championships. If the team’s defense is unable to support its offense, it is unlikely that the Eagles will be able to contend for any championships in the upcoming post-season. 

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HEALTH & SCIENCE

Monday, April 14, 2014

PROFESSOR PROFILE

Science isn’t Pendas brings authentic German experience to BC totally cool

BY CORINNE DUFFY

WHO: Devin Pendas

Heights Editor

JOSEPH CASTLEN The format for getting kids interested in science is pretty comprehensive within the country. Do an interesting demonstration—usually involving setting something on fire—and then explain what just happened in terms that kids can understand.

If you need an example of this model in action, just turn to the program MythBusters.

The show is very predictable. In the beginning, the two main figures, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, will banter back and forth about a “myth,” such as whether it is possible to literally knock someone’s socks off of his or her feet. Then they make preparations to test that myth and a few others with the help of their assistants. Finally, just before the show ends, they will do a fullscale test of the main myth in question.

This “full-scale” test is often taken to an extreme. For example, when testing the “Knock Your Socks Off ” myth, after failing to knock off their test dummy’s socks with a mechanical uppercut and a 1,700-pound metal pendulum, the camera zoomed in on Hyneman and his majestic mustache as he pronounced the mantra of the show, “When all else fails, use nitroglycerin.” For this particular episode, they found that, by using 500 pounds of industrial explosives, it was impossible to knock off someone’s socks without also blowing him or her up in the process.

While this is more for entertainment value than for actual scientific purposes (it is a TV show, after all), it just goes to show that people feel the need to create elaborate demonstrations of what scientific knowledge can lead to in order to get people interested in it.

It is this that has caused this family-friendly show to turn into a Bill Nye the Science Guy of sorts for the new generation.

Bill Nye himself did plenty of interesting demos on his show, and there is no doubt that he singlehandedly interested thousands of children in learning more about science.

This is only the on-ramp to the educational highway, wrought with uneven lanes and pointless construction work, and not the exit ramp to a science-centric education. Unlike heroin and Game of Thrones, watching a single experience with MythBusters will not get a kid hooked for life, reading research study after study and just itching to perform the next scientific experiment.

According to a Washington Post article published near the end of 2013, U.S. students are falling behind other countries in the areas of math and science, coming in 23rd in science and an even more dismal 30th in math (the study looked at 65 countries in total). Although standardized tests do not give a 100 percent-accurate picture of students’ actual knowledge, they are a “good enough” way to assess what students know, and with numbers like these, it is hard to deny that we are doing something wrong.

Teaching the test rather than teaching for the sake of teaching is one major problem that is being addressed by educators across the country. Another problem, however, is the stigmatization of math and science as nerdy, uncool, and difficult.

Shows like MythBusters do their best to make science seem “cool.” To blow something up, however, and then say, “Science is cool,” is not enough to hold students’ interest, because once they start to take actual science classes wherein they must memorize seemingly pointless pathways and equations, they can lose their interest pretty quickly.

“Where are the socks and explosions?” they find themselves asking. The answer is that science isn’t all about blowing things up, among other “cool” applications that are used to convince students.

Science is often tedious, frustrating, and it isn’t always clear why particular elements of science are important. For these reasons, it is fair to say that science isn’t cool, and that’s okay. Right now, a song titled “#Selfie”

by The Chainsmokers is one of the most popular songs on the air. Speaking of chain smoking, that also used to be “cool” until science revealed that it comes at the cost of lung cancer, emphysema, and other undesirable side effects.

Science isn’t cool, because what’s cool changes from day to day. Science is more than cool because of the endless applications it has. Science has cured epidemic diseases, put a man on the moon, and taught us basic laws of nature that we use every day. Giving students a taste of the “cool” applications of science is fine for piquing their initial interest, but only by helping them realize how rewarding its tedious, frustrating nature really is can they become hooked on science.

Joseph Castlen is an editor for The Heights. He can be reached at features@ bcheights.com

Ever since he became an Eagle Scout at the age of 14, Devin Pendas, an associate professor within the history department, knew he wanted to be a history professor. Perhaps these early inclinations derived from his mother, who was pursuing a graduate degree in history during his early childhood and, rather than tell typical bedtime stories, would read selections from her history books to then-8-year-old Pendas.

“I was doomed from the beginning,” he joked. Today, Pendas specializes in modern Europe; German history; the history of war and genocide; the history of war crimes trials after World War II; legal history; and the history of human rights.

Born in Colorado, Pendas moved around often until age 8 due to his mother’s graduate studies, living in places such as London, San Francisco, New York, and both Tubingen and Frankfurt, Germany. From age nine on, however, he spent the remainder of his youth in Colorado Springs, Colo.

For his undergraduate education, Pendas traveled to the Midwest to attend Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. In 1986, he studied abroad in East Berlin when East and West Germany were separated during the Cold War. “It was an incredibly interesting time to be there, obviously,” Pendas said.

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, he had been in Paris—his mother married a French man and had moved there—but was hesitant to travel to Germany with his friends for the barrier’s destruction and the ensuing celebrations. “Nobody saw it coming, the reunification, and all the sudden, boom, there it was.” Pendas considers his apprehension one of his “biggest regrets”—“There are times in life when you shouldn’t be that practical,”

TEACHES: War and Genocide and Human Rights and History EXPERIENCE: Graduated from Carleton College and taught history core courses at the University of Chicago

CORINNE DUFFY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

he said.

After graduating from Carleton in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in history, Pendas continued with his education at the University of Chicago for his graduate and doctoral studies, obtaining his M.A. in 1993 and his Ph.D. in 2000.

Subsequently, he worked for three years at the University of Chicago as an assistant professor of social sciences and a Schmidt Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts. From 2001 to 2003, he served as an associated faculty member, instructing two core classes on social theory within the history department: Wealth, Power, and Virtue, and Power, Identity, and Resistance.

Following his postdoctoral fellowship in Chicago, he moved to the East Coast and came to BC in 2003 amid much excitement in his family life.

“I’ll never forget—my daughter was just two weeks old,” Pendas said. At BC, he offers German and international history classes, including a year-long introduction to German history; a class on Nazism and the Nazi Regime; Human Rights as History; War and Genocide; and War Crimes Trials, a

FUN FACT: Studied abroad in East Berlin when Germany was separated during the Cold War

course that examines trials following WWII—such as Nuremberg, Eichmann in Jerusalem, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

At present, Pendas teaches the history core and Human Rights as History—one of his favorite courses to instruct.

“It’s a really tricky issue—it gets very complicated very fast, which makes it intellectually very interesting,” he said.

“I really like teaching that class and the Third Reich class, and I think the students get a lot out of those courses.”

Since 2008, he has also served as a faculty affiliate and co-chair of the German Study Group at the Center for European studies at Harvard University.

Alongside teaching, Pendas is currently working on Law, Democracy, and Transitional Justice in Germany, 1945-1950, a book to be published by Cambridge University Press that provides a history of trials for Nazi crimes conducted strictly in German courts, which he hopes to finish by the end

of this summer. Additionally, he is researching and constructing a synthetic account of law and mass violence within the modern period.

Fluent in German and competent in French, Pendas also travels abroad for his work and research. This past fall, he spent time in Germany for a series of TV and radio interviews. “It was an interesting test of how good my German was,” he said.

About his initial interest in and experience at BC, “Well, within the academics job market, it was where I was offered a position, and I was very grateful for that,” Pendas said. “Especially for humanities faculty, there aren’t often many competing opportunities. When I was searching for employment, it was the best job in the country that year for German historians.

“In addition, while I was in grad school, I knew I wanted to teach at a research university dedicated to undergraduate education—BC is one of the very small number of schools that fits that category almost exactly, with such a focus on research and undergrads. I love it.” 

Strong Month begins tomorrow with charity panel From Boston Stronger, B8

and Breathe Easy Boston.

The articles celebrate the success Boston has had in these social justice areas, but also acknowledge that there is much more to be done especially in light of this concept of Boston Strong. “[The publication is] looking at ways in which Boston is strong in those areas, but also ways in which Boston can uniquely address improving those problems, so we can embody Boston Strong rather than just remember Boston Strong,” said Nathan Schwan, A&S ’16.

“Our articles are not only expert analyses of the problem, they are also innovative solutions and personal narratives about how the problems have affected individuals in Boston,” Allen said.

Dan Lundberg, Presidential Scholar and A&S ’16, ran in last year’s marathon and was able to show the rest of the group how charity and social justice has always been an integral part of the Boston Marathon’s mission. “One of the

fact that there are social justice tragedies that happen in Boston all the time, especially in lower income communities.

“We want to make sure that when we are examining Boston Strong that we should critically reflect on it,” Schwan said.

The students then decided they would continue this conversation about Boston Strong through the creation of a publication featuring articles about social justice issues including health care, immigration, homelessness, and education in Boston, as well as articles about the Boston Marathon and the idea of Boston Strong. “We wanted to capture the direct voices of agents for change in social justice in Boston,” Allen said. “We wanted to connect them all and show how their initiatives interface through the marathon.”

A few contributing organizations include the Boston Public Health Commission, the Greater Boston Citizenship Initiative,

things Dan showed to us was how much the Marathon is connected to charities and social justice issues and how many different aspects of social justice like health care, homelessness, and disabilities use the marathon as a time to come together to raise awareness and raise funding for charities,” Schwan said. It was through this knowledge that the Presidential scholars began to realize how the Marathon is a symbol of social justice and plan for this month’s events.

Starting on April 15, “Strong Month” will be kicking off with an event at 7 p.m. in the Murray Function Room in the Yawkey Center. The event will include three speakers and the release of the publication. “Strong Month is going to be 26 days, one for each mile of the marathon,” Schwan said. “Each day we are going to release an article from the social justice portion of our publication. With each day we will have an interactive question for people to answer on Facebook

CLUB SERIES

by sharing our photo and commenting their response. We really want this to be an interactive thing with the BC community and the Boston community in general.” These articles will be shared via Facebook, as well as through the website strongmonth.org.

“Also, each day we are going to have an action step. It can be as simple as having a certain conversation with someone, or it could be a volunteer opportunity with one of the organizations that contributed to our publication,” Allen said.

“There is a lot of energy in Boston Strong, whether it is emotional or a connectedness,” Schwan said. “How do we harness that energy and point it in the right direction? You use it on the one hand to remember and pay respect to the people who were affected. But an incredible way to honor that is to recognize how we have all come together and take this to the next step.” 

FEATURING BC’S STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS

s’Upper T Club gives freshmen an opportunity for spontaneity and conversation

BY SARAH MOORE Heights Editor

Gathered in front of St. Joseph’s Chapel on Upper Campus stands a small group of students, Charlie Cards in hand but unsure where the remainder of their Saturday evening will take them. They are a part of one of Boston College’s newest clubs, focused on spontaneity and stepping outside of the BC bubble.

Led by co-presidents Mike Wenger and Mike Kotsopoulos, both A&S ’17, s’Upper T Club is a new opportunity for the BC community to explore the potential of the areas outside of Chestnut Hill. As referred to in its name, this club centers around dinner and the MBTA on its weekly Saturday evening excursions.

Each excursion begins on the piazza outside of St. Joseph’s Chapel before it gets onto the T, unsure of where it will get off or what it will be eating that night. Wenger, Kotsopoulos, and the club’s faculty sponsor, Rev. Casey Beaumier, S.J. are the only ones who know the evening’s location until the group steps off of the T and into a restaurant.

“It could be the Red Line, the Green

Line, anywhere,” Kotsopoulos said.

“The goal is to find somewhere random, somewhere spontaneous, to have good food and good conversation. As long as we are with good people, that’s all that matters.”

The club’s excursions began in late March with a trip to the North End for an Italian dinner, however, it has had a longer history at BC than just this past semester. S’Upper T Club was originally created five years ago with the help of Beaumier. As its leading students graduated however, it fell into remission over the past two years.

Wenger and Kotsopoulos contacted Beaumier to reestablish the club, finding value in the spontaneity and fun that characterizes each excursion.

Aside from a dinner outside of the dining halls, s’Upper T Club provides BC students an opportunity to both encounter a new place as well as new people as it brings together anyone who wants to hop on the T on a Saturday evening.

“The main focus group is freshmen, but it is an opportunity for the entire community to get off campus and to be immersed in a different community of people than you might normally be with,” Wenger said. Wenger and

Kotsopoulos note that despite living together on Upper or Newton campuses, it is very easy to become stagnant within a friend group later in one’s freshman year—a problem they think that s’Upper T Club can fix.

“The club is able to extend that first initial feeling as a freshman where you are very willing and open to meet new people,” Wenger said. “As freshman year progresses, you can get into a group of friends, but people aren’t necessarily content with that, so this is an opportunity to continue to be open to new and different people who you aren’t necessarily entrenched with on a day-to-day basis.”

Wenger described the true mission of the club that he hopes to continue in the future. “It continues a kind of spontaneous community like the beginning of freshman year but the emphasis is to know that you don’t need an established group of friends or a Facebook event to grab new people and get to know them over a good dinner,” he said.

Kotsopoulos and Wenger always encourage new students to join them on their excursions, which have been located in the North End, Chinatown, and most recently at a burger joint in

Harvard Square. “As long as you are open to the night, you will have a great time,” Kotsopoulos said.

“Aside from building community, it is just really fun,” said Wenger, describing the club’s interesting experience on its April excursion to Chinatown, in which the members struggled with an un-translated menu. “We were asking the waiter’s son to try and translate, but what I thought was supposed to be noodles came out as a full pigeon, so that was definitely something new, which was great.”

While the club only has one more excursion planned for the semester, on April 26, Kotsopoulos and Wenger are already excited about the continuation of the club in the upcoming school year. Aside from already discussing potential excursions, they eventually hope to pass their leadership down to incoming freshman and continue the community-building efforts for future years.

“Not only does it give kids an option if they aren’t in to one type of night life, but it is just a great sense of building community,” Kotsopoulos said. “The club is an opportunity to come out, explore Boston, and meet some new people.” 

The Heights

Monday, April 14, 2014

Umbrellas fund wells From Jonas Umbrellas, B8 the Bucket provides us,” Pavano said.

By working on implementing wells in general areas, the companies make sure that water is distributed fairly based on need and is eventually accessible to everyone in the community.

Pavano described Jonas Umbrellas as “a for-profit social venture.” The company keeps some of the profits in order to start the next projects. “We don’t want it to be a one-time thing,” Pavano said.

Instead, the company wants to create a sustainable model and continue to put in more wells. Between $1,400 and $1,500 of the profits is needed for well installation, maintenance, upkeep, and supervision. Some of the profits also go toward microfinancing to help people maintain the well on their own, according to Pavano.

“It’s been a learning process,” Pavano said. He started Jonas Umbrellas on his own, and he currently has only three interns from George Washington University and a creative director to help him run the company.

“There’s been a lot of trial and error, reaching out to different networks, trying to get as many people involved as I can, and creating great partnerships,” he said. Pavano described trying to find people who want to make a difference, and how Jonas Umbrellas’ mission is key to the future success of the projects.

Jonas Umbrellas has recently started a campaign with Indiegogo, an international crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money and awareness for various projects. “It’s super, super important for us,” Pavano said.

The Indiegogo campaign has allowed Jonas Umbrellas to try preorders for the first time, and it is allowing people to make solid contributions to get the company moving.

“We’re just trying to get as much traffic to this website,” Pavano said. “We want people to get awareness of clean water and issues, and what we’re trying to do to mitigate these issues.” The campaign will be running until May 2.

As of April 12, the campaign has raised $6,263 of its $18,000 goal, which equals about 140 to 145 umbrellas sold.

“BC was super influential for me,” Pavano said. “It’s definitely a servicebased community, and it set me on the right path for getting back.” Pavano emphasized how grateful he is for his time at BC and the fierce pride he has for the University. “At the end of the day, this project will hopefully save a lot of people’s lives. That’s why I’m doing this,” he said.

In a video posted on Jonas Umbrellas’ website, Pavano said, “Imagine you’re walking down the street, and you see someone with the same umbrella pattern as you. You’d know that both you and them helped fund a well that gave clean water to over 6,000 people.

To me that’s special. It creates a network—a network of people, who are willing to give back to others.” n

B7

The Heights throughout the century The Rat at Boston College

not be able to run in the actual Boston Marathon. After missing almost a month of training due to an injury and minor illness, it would be easy to drop out when it was announced that the Campus School would be running a separate marathon.

“It just didn’t seem reasonable for me to throw all that away,” she said. “More importantly, we were still running for an amazing cause. Not only was it unfair to cheat ourselves after our hard work, it was completely inconsiderate to let the Campus School down.”

Majo Guillen, a member of the Campus School’s marathon committee CSOM ’14 and, said that having the marathon on a Sunday actually allowed runners greater interaction with the families and students for whom they were running.

“They’re at water stations throughout the course,” she said. Guillen also said that she was happy to see that there were so many people at BC who supported the marathon, while shouting her own encouragement to runners via a megaphone.

Corleone Delaveris, A&S ’15, was mentally set on not running even before the Campus School announced its separate marathon. A member of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Delaveris doesn’t normally get Easter off from school, but this year both the Western and Eastern Easters fall on the same day.

A combination of the opportunity to

A story for every Boston

The Rat has transformed from popular pub to greasy food grab-and-go to study space since the 1970s

By Kendra Kumor Features Editor In 2014, the basement of Lyons Hall serves as a quiet dining hall for students to grab a quick, usually prepackaged lunch between classes. Opening at 8 a.m. and closing at its new, later time of 3:30 p.m. only during the week, Welch Dining Room, known as the Rat, provides an academic environment suitable for student-faculty collaboration.

In 1980, however, the Rathskellar was Boston College’s on-campus pub and bar, and it provided a much different atmosphere for meetings and socializing, then between the hours of 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. An advertisement in the Sept. 26 edition of The Heights reminded students that the Rat’s admission price was only 50 cents on Thursday nights.

Not only did the Rat serve as a pub, it was also the center for various forms of on-campus entertainment.

“The Rat began in 1971 with a $70,000 loan,” reporter Nate Holt wrote in an article on Jan. 16, 1978. The article revealed that Rat manager Tim Horrigan planned to revamp the programming in the pub to attract more attendees.

The Rat was open to BC students on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. According to Horrigan, the pub was “slowest on Monday and Wednesday.” In order to fix the problem, Horrigan planned to implement “ping-pong, backgammon, bridge, and dart tournaments … to beef up attendance.”

In addition, the Rat’s long-time performer, DJ Mike Curry, was replaced with Amy Whorf, who promised to play “a bit more disco” instead of the “oldies-dominated material” offered by Curry. Horrigan insisted, “BC can’t be caught in a mid-sixties time warp forever.”

In another effort to boost attendance, the same article announced that for the first time in its history, the Rat would be serving pitchers of beer as well as light beer, but still no hard liquor due to the Newton ordinance against hard liquor consumption. As one student pointed out, though, in the Feb. 25, 1980 issue, “Just because they don’t sell liquor here doesn’t mean we can’t party somewhere else and then come here—it’s still a great place to have a good time and meet people.”

Just over a year after these modifications, Massachu-

setts lawmakers raised the legal drinking age from 18 to 20, forcing BC to relinquish the alcohol authorization necessary to keep the Rat open as a pub. The Rat went on a nearly two-year hiatus, but returned in September 1981 after student negotiations with administration.

“It’s the Rat the way it used to be,” said then-UGBC President Joanne Caruso in the Sept. 14 issue of that year. “We’ll have a DJ each week and possibly live bands once a month.”

In 1982, UGBC brought the band Private Lightning to the pub to a sold-out audience. In the Nov. 12, 1991 issue of The Heights, students were photographed enjoying a conga line for ’70s Night in the Rat. Perhaps one of the more notable performers to perform in the Rat, Vanilla Ice arrived at BC on Feb. 3, 2000 to perform his “anthem ‘Ice, Ice Baby,’” according to the Jan. 25, 2000 issue. The article revealed that Vanilla Ice would be performing two sets: one for all ages and the other for students 21 and over.

The Rat’s atmosphere along with its food was much different than its current, health-conscious selections.

In the March 23, 1998 issue, Heights staff member Katra Cuskaden reported on the first healthy dining option to be offered in the Rat. Until that point, only greasy, fried options were available such as cheeseburgers, chicken sticks, and fries. According to Patricia Bando, director of BC Dining Services at the time, “We wanted a whole new look at Lyons.”

The new line, Wrap Express, was introduced based on the students’ call for healthier options. But the switch did not come without opposition. A satirical headline from the 2002 issue of The Depths read, “Student profoundly satisfied after meal in the Rat.” Cries from the Sept. 21, 2006 issue read, “We want the old Rat back,” after the dining hall switched to entirely healthier options.

The Rat peaked in popularity in the late ’80s and ’90s and soon lost appeal for later generations. In the Sept.

4, 2001 installment of Voices from the Dutsbowl, only one participant knew what the Rat actually was. Chris Tomeek, BC ’05, answered, “An old bar underneath Lyons—my dad used to be the bouncer there.” Other very wrong answers included, “A little demon that lives in the football stadium and terrorizes the opposing team,” and “Probably on my floor because I live in the basement of Keyes North.” n

Bandit Marathon unites BC community at Mile 21 From Bandit Marathon, B8

On The Record

go home for Easter and the Boston Athletic Association’s imminent crackdown on bandit runners, or unregistered runners like the Campus School’s, led him to mentally commit to not running this year.

Breakfast with a friend who was also considering not running changed Delaveris’s mind.

“He told me that he wasn’t sure if it was worth it, now that it wasn’t the Boston Marathon,” Delaveris said. “My immediate response was, ‘You’re not running to run the Boston Marathon, you’re running for the Campus School.’

It was my gut response.”

The reminder that he would be running for something other than himself set Delaveris back on track. A runner since high school, he said that his decision not to participate last year after having run for the Campus School his freshman year compelled him to train for this year’s race.

“I decided to run, both on behalf of the Campus School, for whom I had felt guilty for not running the year before, and for the solidarity of Boston, because we can’t let the attacks make us afraid to go outside,” Delaveris said.

Ben Dollar, whose son has been a student at the Campus School for several years, said that both the runners and their support have always impressed him.

“I’m continually delighted by the level of commitment,” he said. “I’m amazed, but not surprised.”

Michael Granatelli, A&S ’15, said that

being on the sidelines was a bit strange— he’d run last year’s marathon, but knew that things would be different for bandit runners now and decided to take a year off from training in December, before the Campus School announced Sunday’s race. Even being on the sidelines, though,

didn’t make him feel left out.

“There’s so much BC pride,” he said.

“It’s crazy that people are doing this without it being an actual marathon. There’s people yelling all over—I could hear it from my room. It really makes you appreciate BC.” n

Margaret La Pre / For The Heights

Students lined up along Mile 21 to support their friends during the Campus School’s marathon.

Samantha Costanzo If you ask Boston College students why they’re running the Marathon this year, chances are that their response isn’t going to be “Just for the fun of it” or “Just to say I did.” The more likely answer is probably something that has to do with last year’s attacks, along the lines of “To show that we’re still strong,” or, more simply, “For Boston.”

It’s all for Boston, the place we call our home for four years of our lives. Whether we stay here after graduation or not, Boston, or at least Chestnut Hill, is probably going to mean something special to every BC grad, especially after we all saw how the city came together last year in response to the bombing at the Marathon’s finish line.

I’m not running—I could hardly go a mile during my high school track days without complaining—but I’ll be cheering the runners on from the sidewalk at both Marathons this year, because for now, I’m a Bostonian, too. There is a city I’ll have in mind while watching the marathons, and it’s different from everybody else’s version because it’s made up of a different combination of places and people that I’d never want to see hurt or completely gone.

There’s a special place for the T in my Boston, and no, I’m not talking about a special place in hell. I adore the T. It’s the reason I know Boston better than I know my own hometown, because I’m rather terrified of driving anywhere in LA and there’s not much for public transportation out there. Add the T to that mix, and all of the sudden the rickety B line looks pretty spectacular. For all of its flaws, it’s a $2 ticket to a city I’m still not done exploring.

One of my best friends and I found the Make Way For Ducklings statue in Boston Common last week. I’d always heard about it, but had never seen it, and I’m so glad we stumbled on it. Sitting on a bench in front of the ducks and watching all of the little kids making their pilgrimages to the statue made my day. It’s almost like an unwritten rule that every small child, upon seeing the ducks, must sit on them.

Some kids weren’t picky and just plunked themselves down on the nearest baby duck. Others went straight for the tall mama duck’s sloping back—off of which I was convinced one would eventually tumble—and one equal-opportunity kid decided to sit on every single one for a few seconds. It was hilarious and wonderful —and a beautiful reminder that I’m not the only one in love with Boston. Even the toddlers know there’s something different about it.

I think it goes to show that Boston is more of a community than people give it credit for being. Before moving here for school, I’d heard that New Englanders were cold, antisocial people whose very souls have been blown away by the icy winter winds, but I’ve yet to encounter anyone who fits that description. Maybe I’m just sheltered. Maybe that Boston belongs to a different time and place, where dropped Rs were more common.

The people I see and talk to every day are never anything but kind, barring, of course, the usual bad days everyone has.

The same day my friend and I laughed with the kids riding ducks on Boston Common, we wandered into a shop on Newbury St. whose sole employee was the man who owned it and never held regular hours because he liked to leave time to do his “daily affirmations” every morning. We were fascinated by all of the jewelry and paintings and knick-knacks he had in the shop. He talked to us for almost an hour about everything—from how he stays in business to his philosophy on life. I think people in LA are too busy to do that.

Another thing that Bostonians are exceptionally good at is appreciating warm weather. After a winter as dark as the one that we just had, it’s refreshing not only to have some sunshine at last, but to see the shorts and sunglasses and picnics that everyone seems to be having in celebration. It’s really the little things that make Boston so amazing, and the regular change of season is one of them.

And there is, of course, a BC in my Boston. It’s a microcosm of the city that’s barely five miles away, full of interesting people with big ideas who are ready to make a difference, even if it’s just on campus. It’s diverse, it’s welcoming, and it, like Boston, is a place that I am hesitant to ever leave—a place that I and thousands of others will be celebrating during the marathons.

Samantha Costanzo is the Asst. Features Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at features@bcheights.com.

B8

FEATURES MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014

BOSTON MARATHON

2014

Bandits steal their

Marathon

BC students add depth to motto

BY CAROLINE KIRKWOOD Heights Staff

MARGARET LA PRE / FOR THE HEIGHTS

BY SAMANTHA COSTANZO Asst. Features Editor

After doing a 21-mile training run in the rain and cold, Kelley Summers, CSOM ’16, hoped for a beautiful Marathon Sunday. “That would make the hard parts in the course that much easier to get through,” she said last week.

Unfortunately the day arrived drizzly and dull, but for Summers and the other Campus School runners, just having the support of their fellow Eagles on the course was enough encouragement.

“I really just cannot wait to see my training pay off on the 13th,” Summers said.

“I’m hoping for a ton of screaming Eagles crowding down at the bottom of Heartbreak Hill. That would be a great second wind to have to get me through those next five miles to the finish line.”

At least that wish was granted on Sunday, as clusters of Boston College students lined Mile 21 from one edge of campus to the other to watch their classmates cruise by them.

“Everyone’s out here still supporting the runners,” said Nikki St. Jean, LSOE ’15, who was on the course to support her friends who were running. “It doesn’t matter what day it’s on.”

For Summers, this intense support and long tradition of the Boston Marathon, which she’d been hearing about even before she arrived at BC, compelled her to train for the marathon.

“Whether it is on race day or not, I still feel a part of that tradition, and being able to say that I ran on that famous course for a great cause such as the Campus School is great for me,” Summers said.

It was seeing that tradition marred by last year’s bombing that finally sealed the deal for Summers.

“Having seen how such a joyful day full of pride, excitement, and camaraderie turned somber and frightening in an instant really encouraged me,” she said.

Support from friends who had run the marathon in previous years also gave her an extra push. Although she said that running 26.2 miles can get boring, she hoped that their support and a good playlist of music could get her through.

“The people that told me they have run it made me believe that I could, too, if I really worked hard, so I focused on making them proud while proving to myself that I could actually run 26.2 miles, which is something I could never have imagined myself doing even two or three years ago,” Summers said.

Brittany Birbiglia, CSON ’14, had wanted to run the marathon for years but kept putting it off.

“I decided to add the marathon to my senior year bucket list, and I was not going to let myself make any excuses this time,” she said last week.

Like Summers, last year’s tragedy had an impact on Birbiglia’s decision to continue training, despite the fact that she would

As students at Boston College, many may feel that they have a good sense of what it means to be “Boston Strong.” For the Class of 2016 Presidential Scholars, Boston Strong can be more than just a response to the marathon bombing, but also a response to the social justice issues Boston faces every day.

Every year, the sophomore class of Presidential Scholars works on a social justice project. The class of 2016 decided to dedicate its project to what it means to be Boston Strong. The project’s inspiration—this year taking the form of a publication comprised of social justice articles from various charities—started almost exactly a year ago on April 15, 2013, the day of the Boston Marathon bombing. For these Presidential Scholars, who come from all over the country, this was the moment when they first felt part of the greater Boston community.

“We all said that day was the day we all felt we were truly Bostonians and truly connected to the city,” said Lucas Allen, Presidential Scholar and A&S ’16.

“That idea of Boston Strong really had an impact on us.” It was this day that would urge the students to take on the concept of Boston Strong in their social justice project.

The students began exploring this notion of Boston Strong through a panel event held this past October. “In October, we had an event all about examining the phrase Boston Strong,” Allen said. “One of the themes we found was this idea that came back to what Mayor Menino had said in the week after the act, ‘Our strength as a city is that we take care of one another.’ That right there was our strongest connection. We are thinking about Boston Strong, what does this strength mean? It means taking care of one another or creating a more just society.”

The panel also commented on the

See Boston Stronger, B6

See Bandit Marathon, B7 PHOTO COURTESY OF NATHAN SCHWAN

The project’s articles discuss Boston’s successes and failures in social justice.

Jonas Umbrellas startup crowdfunds wells for African schools

BY CAITLIN SLOTTER Heights Staff

“Stay Dry. Give Water. Make a Difference.” The motto epitomizes the core mission of Jonas Umbrellas, a company founded by Josh Pavano, BC ’10. Jonas Umbrellas sells a limited-edition designer line of umbrellas. Once 3,000 Jonas Umbrellas have been sold, a well will be funded in sub-Saharan Africa through the company’s third-party nonprofit, Drop in the Bucket.

“Unlike Toms, with its one-for-one model … we have a crowd-funding model,” Pavano said. “Everyone contributes to one big item that makes a huge difference.” Jonas Umbrellas gives everyone the opportunity to become a piece of the puzzle that will save thousands of lives.

“I came up with the idea about eight

months ago when I was in Uganda and Rwanda,” Pavano said of his visit to Africa as part of his MBA program at George Washington University. “I was really just kind of changed by that experience.” Pavano went on to describe how humbling it was to see the limited resources there, compared to the excess present in the U.S. Upon returning to the U.S., Pavano got in touch with various non-profits, and he created a startup on Boylston St. Jonas Umbrellas soon partnered with Drop in the Bucket, a non-profit organization in Los Angeles that builds wells and sanitation systems at Sub-Saharan African schools.

According to the Jonas Umbrellas website, 4,500 children die from not having access to clean water everyday.

Each day, mothers and daughters in Sub-Saharan Africa have to walk 3.75

I NSIDE FEATUR E S THIS ISSUE

miles to collect dirty water for their families. This usually takes anywhere from four to six hours per day.

Pavano explained that with every 3,000 Jonas Umbrellas sold and every well built, 1,000 school children and 6,000 people overall will have access to clean water. “Girls will get to go to school instead of searching for water sources,” Pavano said.

Jonas Umbrellas chooses which schools will receive wells through Drop in the Bucket’s systematic process. The company chooses a large area of schools and stack ranks those schools based on need, considering resources available, the number of children, family size, and access to water.

“We’ll be choosing the most needy schools based on the information Drop in

See Jonas Umbrellas, B7

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOSH PAVANO

Alum Josh Pavano created his startup Jonas Umbrellas to fund new wells in Africa.

Heights Through the Centuries: The Rat has provided Boston College students with everything from rap performances to a casual study space............B7

Health & Science.........................B6 Editor’s Column.........................B7