The Heights, March 15, 2021

O N E Y E A R L AT E R , B C R E M E M B E R S ‘ C H AO T I C , ONE YEAR LATER, BC REMEMBERS ‘CHAOTIC,

H E L L O N E A R T H , B U T E U P H O R I C ’ W E E K HELL ON EARTH, BUT EUPHORIC’ WEEK

When Boston College students and faculty returned to campus on March 8, 2020, few could have predicted that campus would be empty again in a week’s time. One year later, students and administrators are still reflecting on and processing those final five days on the Heights—the decisions that were made, the chaos that ensued, and the lasting effects of the campus closure on the community.

SOUNDING THE ALARM

Philip Landrigan, director of BC’s Global Public Health Program and Global Observatory on Pollution, said that when the first cases of COVID-19 began appearing in the opening weeks of 2020, he had little sense of the severity of what was to come.

“I wasn’t that clear from the beginning, partly because the initial reports were kind of sketchy, and partly just a normal human reaction that it was far away, you know, it wasn’t here,” Landrigan said. “Then during the months of January and February, as the number of deaths started to mount up, it was becoming increasingly clear to all of us that this was a very, very serious threat and that we needed to buckle down.”

Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley said that every administrator was keeping an eye on COVID-19 throughout January and February. He recalled a meeting with the Board of Trustees during which one board member asked him what was keeping him up at night.

“It was Friday, February 7 and late the previous night, the doctor in Wuhan, Li Wenliang, had passed away,” Quigley said. “The 30-something doctor … was one of the first to sound the alarm. And I’m not usually an alarmist, but I said that was something that had me a little bit worried.”

Quigley said that there were several meetings entering into Spring Break about COVID-19, but no one yet understood the gravity of the situation.

Landrigan said that he briefed top administrators about COVID-19 in a meeting on Feb. 28, the final Friday before BC’s Spring Break.

“None of us in the room at that point were yet ready to close the place down,” Landrigan said. “I gave my best advice as to what steps BC should take … then over the next 10 or 11 days it became increasingly clear that this was a much much more dangerous situation than we had realized.”

Stanton Wortham, dean of the Lynch School of Education, said that there was some planning to move classes online before Spring Break even began. Informational Technology Services had begun to ramp up Zoom licenses, and there was communication from department chairs to faculty urging them to begin planning for the possibility of the transition to remote learning, he said.

“So there was some preparation going on even before Spring Break, thinking, in case it happens, we’re going to have to do X, Y, and Z,” Wortham said.

MARCH 8

On Sunday, March 8, BC’s campus came alive as students returned from various Spring Break destinations. Natalie Dryja, MCAS ’22, had just returned from a week-long trip to Miami, Fla. with her roommates.

While in Florida, Dryja remembers hearing more and more reports of COVID-19 cases across the United States, she said.

“When we were there, like everyone was just kind of joking about COVID, but we didn’t think it was actually a real thing here … which is crazy to think about now,” Dryja said.

Nathaniel Van Ness, CSOM ’23, remembered that his friends were making jokes that people should be careful around a student they knew who came back from a Spring Break trip in Italy.

Executive Vice President Michael Lochhead said that one of the challenges BC faced was the early timing of its Spring Break, which began on March 2, relative to other universities. Lochhead said that in the week of Feb. 28 to March 7, the situation began to escalate.

“We were moving in the direction of remote instruction, [and] we didn’t have the advantage of a Spring Break to kind of get everybody up to speed,” Lochhead said. “We were coming back from Spring Break as everything was changing, and so that forced us to move more quickly.”

There was a lot of chaos during those first few days in March in terms of advice coming from the local, state, and federal government, Quigley said.

“There was so much cross-cutting and confusing guidance coming from elected officials that it made the jobs of folks in institutions, not just in higher education but across the country, more difficult than I think it needed to be,” Quigley said.

Areas surrounding BC also began to grapple with the emergence of the virus in early March.

By March 8, Newton North High School students and teachers had completed their first of two weeks quarantining at home after returning from Italy, per the request of Newton health officials. On the same day, the first Newton resident received a “presumptive positive” test.

THISSTORYWASCO-WRITTENBY MAGAZINE EDITOR, ANNA LONNQUIST; ASSOC. MAGAZINE EDITOR, STEPHEN BRADLEY; ASST. MAGAZINE EDITOR, MCCLAVERIE; NEWS EDITOR, MEGAN KELLY; AND ASSOC NEWS EDITOR, JULIA KIERSZNOWSKI

Students Awake To Flooding, Water Damage in 90

Copy Editor EMMA DAWSON Heights Staff AND JULIA LANDWEHR Heights Staff

When Maureen Kelly woke up early in the morning on Feb. 27, droplets were falling from crevices in the ceiling of her dorm room in 90 St. Thomas More Rd.

The top bunk of her roommate’s bed was soaked and the carpet and kitchen tile looked like a rainstorm had just passed over them. Her six-man suite in 90 was filled with water.

“We were trying to put pots and pans everywhere and they were just filling up with gross, yellowy water and we had to keep dumping it away,” Kelly, MCAS ’23, said. “Eventually we started using our recycling and trash bins.”

Kelly said she noticed the water at about 6:45 a.m. and suspects that the flooding had only been happening for a couple of hours, as she later learned that the girls living in the suite above her had not yet noticed any water in their room when they went to bed around 4 a.m.

Kelly and her roommates called the Office of Residential Life at around 7 a.m., she said.

“They came, … went upstairs and checked the other rooms, then eventually pulled the fire alarm to send everyone outside,” Kelly said. “And I think they shut the water off.”

Kelly’s suite was one of several in the residence hall that were damaged by the flooding, according to Heights reporting.

Hanganh Vo, a resident of the fourth floor of 90 and MCAS ’23, said that as students walked out the building, the staircases were “flooded with water.”

Kelly said that in the morning, ResLife provided her group with consistent updates. ResLife initially told Kelly and her roommates that they would be temporarily housed in a hotel, but by noon notified the group that because there were six of them, they would instead be moved into a vacant Mod.

up and moved into the AC Marriott Hotel in Cleveland Circle.

Orfanos and her roommate, Madeline Bowden, MCAS ’23, said they were initially impressed by how ResLife handled the incident and helped them through the process of moving out. But, as the days went on, the roommates grew frustrated with ResLife’s lack of communication.

Bowden said that she and her roommates were suspicious that their carpet, which was saturated with water, had mold in it. The roommates kept trying to get people’s phone numbers to ask how they were going to handle the issue, she said, but failed to get in contact with anyone.

Vo said that ResLife told her and her roommates that it was unlikely that they would be able to return to their rooms or live there for the near future, and advised them to pack a bag with clothes and other belongings.

“[ResLife representatives] were like ‘We’ll figure out where you guys are moving next,’” Vo said. “‘It might be like a hotel or somewhere off campus but we’ll figure out transportation and all that stuff so you guys can still go to class.’”

Katerina Orfanos, Lynch ’23, and her roommates who live in a six-person apartment on the fifth floor of 90 were also affected by the flooding.

When they were told to evacuate, Orfanos’ common room was filled with about 2 inches of standing water. After spending the day bagging and labeling their belongings, which BC offered to launder, the roommates quickly packed

“We couldn’t really get in contact with anybody,” Bowden said. “Like, no one. We couldn’t get a phone number, and we were trying to send emails out, and we weren’t getting a ton of responses.

Bowden said that ResLife responded to an email she and her roommates sent about the carpet situation with a mass chain email to everyone who had been affected by the flooding. The email said that it would be about a week’s worth of work in each of the rooms, and did not specify the nature of the work that would be conducted, she said.

Vo, on the other hand, said she felt supported by ResLife throughout the process.

“They were constantly communicating with us,” Vo said. “All of the ResLife and Facilities people who helped us move would keep us updated on the state of our room and … [the communication] was really open. I felt like they really cared that we were going through this and they made it super easy.”

Residents of 90 heard rumors about the cause of the flooding, the students said, but have not received an official explanation from ResLife.

ResLife did not respond by press time about what caused the flooding, but several students reported to The Heights that staff said the flooding was caused by a pipe that burst on the fifth floor.

Nipuni Obe, another one of Orfanos’ roommates and MCAS ’23, said that she asked a BC Facilities employee about what happened, and he told her that the flooding was caused by poor maintenance of the buildings. Orfanos and her roommates have heard about incidents of flooding in residence halls in previous semesters, they said.

Aside from water damage to their dorm rooms, residents who were impacted by the floods have shared other concerns.

With all the commotion of moving to temporary housing, as well as Facilities workers and ResLife staff making repairs, Kelly and her roommates were concerned about contracting COVID-19 from the staff entering their room. Since the incident, neither Kelly nor any of her roommates have tested positive for COVID-19.

her clothing was ruined. Bowden and her roommates’ textbooks and shoes got wet. One of Orfanos’ roommates was charging her laptop in the common room the night of the flooding, and it was completely submerged, Orfanos said.

The University is still assessing damages to the building caused by the flooding, and residents have filled out forms describing the nature of the damage, the students said.

Facilities has repaired all the affected rooms in 90, the students said, restoring the walls and baseboards as needed. In the interest of time, BC decided not to pursue aesthetic fixes, according to an email Obe received from ResLife, which means that Kelly and Orfanos’ rooms have drywall dust, missing trim, and unpainted sections of plastered wall.

COVID-19 was an added stressor for Orfanos’ group, though, when one of the roommates tested positive on March 2, and the rest of her suite was moved from the AC Marriott to Hotel Boston to quarantine. They are still not sure where their roommate contracted the virus, Orfanos said.

The roommate that tested positive was moved to Pine Manor for isolation.

The roommates had only packed for a three-day stay, so they didn’t have what they needed in quarantine at first. ResLife delivered the students some of their clothing that had been left in their dorm, Orfanos said.

All of the students that spoke to The Heights have returned to their dorm rooms, and many reported that their belongings were damaged.

For Kelly, everything from her TV to

After returning to their suite, Orfanos and her roommates found mold on Friday on one of their desk chairs, even after ResLife confirmed that their room was mold-free the week prior. This discovery has left the three roommates concerned, they said.

Orfanos and her roommates said that they emailed ResLife about the mold and had not yet received a response at the time of publication.

Kelly said overall, she was grateful for how BC helped her navigate a lessthan-ideal situation, though the flooding was still a disruptive experience, as the students were out of their rooms for an entire week.

“It felt a little bit like all of the past year of chaos just tumbled into an extra week,” Kelly said.

BC Students Enjoy Pop-Up Dining Events at Patio at Walsh

B Y A DA A NDERSON Heights Staff

Heights Catering surprised students with Taco Tuesday outside Walsh Hall on the afternoon of Feb. 16 at the first installment of a series of pop-up dining sites called “The Patio at Walsh.”

“We have used these pop-up events as an opportunity to provide something different for the kids who are probably going through some COVID-19 fatigue,” Scott Powers, assistant director of Heights Catering, said.

BC Dining advertised the taco popup stand in an Instagram post on the morning of the event.

“It was something we had always talked about, but you know, COVID-19 was the thing that pushed us to say ‘Hey, you know, this is the perfect time to do it,’” Powers said. “We wanted to provide BC students with something fun and exciting.”

Powers said that the new executive chef, Brad Shannon, is the “culinary mastermind” behind the food offerings, which include tacos, loaded tater tots, and grilled cheese sandwiches. But the pop-up events, which last

between two and two and a half hours, are a group effort put on by the whole catering team, which brainstorms, tests, and cooks the food served to students, he said.

“It provides an opportunity for the kids to experience something different, socially distant, outside, and gives us a creativity outlet,” Powers said.

The catering team was surprised by the popularity of the events, Powers said. Students lined up all the way to the Margot Connell Recreation Center for the opportunity to try that day’s pop-up dish.

“We went in not knowing what the volume and what the interest would be and we are just trying to up our production to match the demand,” Powers said.

BC students start lining up half an hour early for The Patio at Walsh to ensure that they get there before supplies run out, according to Powers. The pop-up events serve around 450 people on average. At their taco popup event, Heights Catering served over 900 tacos.

Harrison Wilkes, MCAS ’23, who has attended two of the pop-up events so far this semester, said that the high

student attendance speaks to the events’ overall success.

“I feel the pop-ups have been such a success to the point they quickly run out of food and have to turn away many disappointed students,” Wilkes said.

Wilkes spoke positively of both of the events he attended, where he got tater-tots and grilled cheese.

“My experience was quite different both times, with the first being a pleasant surprise finding a tater tot stand outside my room, while the latter was more hyped up and thus attracted a larger crowd,” Wilkes said.

The pop-up format was an important aspect, Powers said, as Heights Catering wanted the events to be something different and exciting for students.

“The reason we wanted to do this was to provide the BC students with something fun,” Powers said. “Put yourself in a student’s experience right now, going to class, being online all the time, not having the regular social outlets that you have. We wanted to provide them with something that was different and something they could look forward to, stumble across.”

Davies, MCAS ’23, said that

even though the line for food was very long at the pop-up she attended, the grilled cheese was worth the wait.

“The pop-up stand was great,” Davies said. “They had multiple options and the food was very tasty! ... The line was very long which was an unfortunate part of the experience, but it was exciting to have new, good food to try on campus.”

Students can expect ramen, breakfast food, and hot cocoa bombs as the themes for upcoming events, which will continue to be announced the morning of the pop-ups.

“We are going to continue to do it as long as we can,” Powers said. “It is something that we want to continue to do into next semester and through the next year.”

Olivia

W ater damage from the flood on the walls of a kitchenette in 90.

IKRAM ALI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

COURTESY OF JARED BROSNAN

An entrance to the 90 St. Thomas More Rd. residence hall.

“It felt a little bit like all of the past year of chaos just tumbled into an extra week.”

- Maureen Kelly, MCAS ’23

“We couldn’t get in contact with anybody. Like, no one.”

- Madeline Bowden, MCAS ’23

VIKRUM SINGH / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Heights Catering serves up grilled cheese on Tuesday outside Walsh Hall.

Newton Project Takeout Supports Local Restaurants

By Olivia Vukelic Heights Staff

To help Newton families suffering from food insecurity and to support local businesses, the Rotary Club of Newton is involved with two projects—Newton Project Takeout and Nourishing Newton—which purchase meals from local restaurants and deliver food to Newton residents in need.

Newton Project Takeout collects donations to buy gift cards from locally owned restaurants and then distributes them to Newtonians in need, according to Martha Bixby, a coordinator of Newton Project Takeout.

Newton Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NNHN), a volunteer group, is partnering with the Rotary Club of Newton on the project. NNHN was started as a Facebook group by Shalini Tendulkar, a Newton resident and Tufts University professor.

“The purpose of NNHN is to support all those efforts and do what we can do to amplify what’s needed and how people can help during this time,” Bixby said. “So

our goal is to continue that through this program.”

The creators of Newton Project Takeout were inspired by The Boston Globe’s Project Takeout, which encourages people to order takeout from locally owned restaurants throughout Boston. With the pandemic limiting indoor seating and winter hindering outdoor seating, Project Takeout encourages residents to order from local restaurants.

After reading an article in The Boston Globe about the initiative, Bruce Wilson, another coordinator of Newton Project Takeout, wondered how this program could be brought to Newton and expanded to support people facing food insecurity. Wilson reached out to Tendulkar’s NNHN group to help individuals and families struggling financially and to bring in customers for the local businesses.

Wilson said that when he pitched the program to NNHN, the group welcomed it enthusiastically.

“People donate money to buy a restaurant gift card, we purchase that gift card that

helps the restaurant, and then we pass it on to a person with food insecurity,” Wilson said. “So it’s a two-for-one special.”

Susan Faccenda Peghiny, a Newton native and chair of the Rotary Club of Newton, said the club’s motto of “service above self” reflects its commitment to the community as an action-oriented, inclusive organization. In the past, the Rotary Club has collaborated with the Rossi Family Foundation and Feed the Fight Boston.

“Most of our work now is really food insecurity focused,” Peghiny said. “We collaborate with other organizations to act as their non-profit so that people can make tax deductible donations or get their companies to match [donations].”

Bixby said Newton Project Takeout utilized the NNHN Facebook group, which has over 4,000 members, to recruit volunteers and raise money. It also used the communication platform Slack to discuss the project.

Newton Project Takeout has received $1,200 in donations as of Feb. 27. The group delivered the first round of gift cards to

around 30 families at Newton organizations, including the West Suburban YMCA and the Boys & Girls Club of Newton.

Restaurants interested in participating can register through a Google Form. Residents can make donations through The Rotary Club of Newton, which Peghiny said serves as the program’s 501(c)(3) non-profit entity, allowing donors to deduct a charitable donation from their taxes.

The Rotary Club of Newton is also partnering with the Newton-Needham Regional Chamber for a state-funded program called Nourishing Newton.

State Senator Cynthia Stone Creem proposed that $175,000 of the state’s budget be used to support restaurants and residents, allocating $75,000 to Newton restaurants, $60,000 to Brookline restaurants, and $40,000 to Wellesley restaurants, according to the chamber.

Restaurants will offer 50 meals priced at $15 each and the Rotary Club will coordinate pickup and delivery, according to the chamber. Restaurants interested in participating can submit an application form.

Nourishing Newton purchases food from locally owned restaurants and distributes meals to those in need. The program purchased and delivered 1,000 meals as of Wednesday, according to a statement from Newton-Needham Regional Chamber President Greg Reibman.

Similar to Newton Project Takeout, Peghiny said that Nourishing Newton’s

goals are twofold—to provide financial support for independently owned restaurants in Newton and meals to those facing food insecurity.

Meals have been provided by Baramor, Moldova Restaurant, Sandwich Works, Walnut Grille, Judith’s Kitchen, LeDu Thai Eatery, Blue Ribbon BBQ, Johnny’s Luncheonette, Cafe Sol Azteca, and Anna’s Taqueria. Volunteers dropped off the meals at the Centre Street Food Pantry, Newton Food Pantry, the West Suburban YMCA, the Newton Senior Center, and the Arabic Baptist Church of Boston, according to Reibman.

“We’re trying to get as many meals delivered as fast as we can to help the restaurants,” Peghiny said. “And on the other side, families are really struggling right now.”

Nourishing Newton is expected to deliver almost 5,000 meals to families between the program’s launch on March 16 and the end of May, Peghiny said. It is in the process of recruiting volunteers for bulk deliveries from restaurants to local food pantries and identifying households that need help coordinating food deliveries to their homes.

Peghiny said that the two programs are interwoven through their volunteers and similar goals.

“It’s actually very nice and very encouraging to see that so many people are working so hard and working together,” Peghiny said. “It’s very collaborative, supportive, and it’s been a really wonderful experience.”

Look Out Newton, Yarn is Coming

By Ashley Emanuel Heights Staff

Don’t be surprised if you see brightly colored knitted scarves strewn across a tree in the upcoming months—they are meant to be there. In an effort to brighten up the city, Hooked on Newton has been knitting all winter in preparation to yarn bomb Newton this spring.

Danielle Moriarty, the associate director of Newton Cultural Development, described yarn bombing as a form of artwork that involves wrapping objects in the town such as trees, benches, and light posts in bright, colorful knits in order to beautify public spaces.

“I think it’s really about bringing joy and beauty and just an overall happiness to folks during these really challenging times, and the colors and the vibrancy and the unexpectedness of yarn bombing I think will be a great way to kind of be maybe a glimpse of small moments of respite and joy for people,” Moriarty said.

This socially distant activity allows for the community to learn a new activity and display their work for all to see, Moriarty said. She described yarn bombing as a creative way to bring the community together and bring a smile to people’s faces.

“What we’re going for is really those unexpected moments where you’re not expecting, you know, a lamp post to be wrapped in neon green and pink and blues,” Moriarty said.

Although an official date for the yarn bombing has not been set, Moriarty said the exhibit is looking to start on June 11, which is National Yarn Bombing Day. She said this would coincide with the national day and allow the exhibit to stay up for the duration of the summer. Due to the nature of yarn fibers, yarn bombing is only temporary, Moriarty said

There are approximately 40 people on the participant list with four leaders working to share their skills and teach over Zoom sessions, Moriarty said.

“We really wanted this to be a community-led and community-curated experience and really give ownership over the knitters and crafters about what they wanted to install and even where they wanted to install

it and kind of let it take on a life of its own within the public sphere,” Moriarty said.

A smaller-scale version of this project was done at Newton’s Crystal Lake Park in 2017. Moriarty said the locations as well as involvement will be expanded from this exhibit. She also said the locations of the yarn bombing are still being determined, but they are looking into the green spaces at Crystal Lake Park again as well as local hospitals.

“We’re hopeful to have an installation at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital to kind of have that be a pinpoint to recognize and celebrate the essential workers there during COVID,” Moriarty said.

In typical COVID-19 fashion, Moriarty said all of the preparation and skills sessions for this project happened over Zoom, allowing the community to stay connected while remote.

“So what we did is encourage participants to get together for skill shares and Zoom sessions where they can teach each other techniques and stay connected with each other, but in a physically distant way, so over Zoom and throughout the winter just to kind of maintain connection during these dark New England days,” Moriarty said.

Moriarty said Hooked on Newton came about as a way to implement a COVID-safe activity that would brighten up the community, especially going into spring.

Moriarty said this program is open to people of all ages in the community, though there has been a focus on the older community due to the nature of knitting being more common in older demographics. The program has collaborated with the director of over-55 programming through Newton Parks, Recreation and Culture to help engage Newton’s older residents as well as to help with project management and coordination.

“We felt this was an important person to bring in particularly given that older folks are particularly isolated during these times of COVID and also over the winter, so we wanted to make sure that that was a population that we were engaging,” says Moriarty.

This project is ongoing and Moriarty encourages anybody that is looking to join to reach out about involvement. She said that the center would be happy to have anyone join and participate in the project.

Special Election Voting Begins

By Julia Remick Metro Editor

Issues of zoning and policing were on the minds of some Newton residents who cast their votes during early voting in the special election to fill two vacant seats on the Newton City Council. Early in-person voting at Newton City Hall lasted five days, ending on Friday.

As of Thursday, 5,800 Newton voters had sent in mail-in ballots, and 1,181 residents had voted in person during early voting, according to a statement from Mayor Ruthanne Fuller.

Bryan Barash, Tarik Lucas, and David Micley are running to fill the vacant seat in Ward 2. John Oliver and Madeline Ranalli are campaigning for the seat in Ward 1.

Waban residents Wendy Valentine, Larry Fishman, and Sam Fishman decided to vote early to avoid crowds and allow time for the clerk’s office to process their votes, because they feel that the race will be close.

The three residents voted for Barash and Ranalli. After working on a political campaign with Ranalli in 2018 and with Barash last summer, Larry Fishman said that he believes both candidates are committed to affordable housing and

civil rights.

“They have been very active in Black Lives Matter in our local areas,” Sam Fishman said. “So, you know, I think that they’re good activists for our community and I think you need voices like theirs in the council.”

After voting by mail for the presidential election in November, Larry Fishman said that he enjoyed the process of voting inperson this time around and prefers it to mailing in his ballot.

Ann Murray from Newton Highlands voted early because she thought it would be less crowded. For this election, she said, she is concerned with issues of zoning and equity in the police department.

Murray said she enjoyed being able to vote in person and that she felt safe doing so, as people were spaced apart.

After reading about the candidates and consulting a friend, Murray said she chose to vote for Oliver and Lucas because she believes they have good experience.

“The young lady from Harvard is probably very bright,” said Murray. “But I think she needs a little more life experience.”

Alekhya Chaparala, a resident from Newton Centre, said that she chose to vote early because it offered more flex-

bility. She said that when considering the candidates, issues of housing, the environment, and policing were important to her.

She voted for Barash and Ranalli, saying that she agreed with their platforms.

For Margaret Seif, the most important issue during this election was zoning. She said that she felt safe voting in person, but that City Hall was surprisingly crowded given that she was there during the final hour of early in-person voting.

Ronna Krozy, a resident from Chestnut Hill, said she wanted to take advantage of the nice weather, which impacted her decision to vote early.

Some important issues for her during this election included diversity, health care, and housing.

“Basically the same problems that we look at in society are issues we’re looking at locally,” Krozy said.

Voting in the special election will continue at various polling locations on Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and all Newton voters can cast their ballots, regardless of the ward they live in. Mail-in ballots will be accepted by mail or in the drop boxes outside of City Hall until the polls close.

“You have to vote, you have to be involved, and you have to be engaged,” Krozy said.

Maggie Leahy contributed to reporting.

Volunteers of Newton Neighbors Helping Neighbors dropped off gift cards at the Newton Boys & Girls Club.

Newton Project Takeout purchased gift cards from five restaurants last week

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRUCE WILSON

JULIA REMICK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRUCE WILSON

Tom Grennan Explores New Music Chapter

on this album.

Twenty-six-year-old Tom Grennan, born in Bedford, England, had a promising soccer career, but there was something continuously driving him toward music.

He began his musical career as many do, playing gigs at various London pubs with his acoustic guitar. When a representative of Insanity Records heard him perform at the Finsbury Pub, he was offered a contract with the label. His debut EP, Something in the Water, found considerable success in England, as did his first album, Lighting Matches, released shortly after his EP.

Grennan released his second studio album, Evering Road, on Friday. Grennan

chose to name Evering Road after his former home in East London, where he resided with his ex-girlfriend. Both factors are at play on the album, as he lyrically explores his relationship with his hometown and the emotional fallout of his past relationship.

“Evering Road is a road in East London which I lived on, and that’s where the story happened—and it’s love, heartbreak, and redemption—it’s got all of that in it,” Grennan said in an interview with Gigwise

The album explores his past relationships and the toxic effects they had on his life. It documents a transitional stage and marks an exciting new chapter in his life as he still attempts to define his place in the world. He embarks upon a journey of personal growth while detailing his heartache

MUSIC

The album is largely representative of his unique style of soulful pop paired with his raw, gravelly tone. Listeners feel the emotion in every lyric. Despite the pain and heartache, the overall message Grennan conveys in the album is one of hope. During times of hardship, Grennan’s music provides a solace in which one can truly discover inner strength.

Evering Road begins with “If Only”—a splendid choice for an opener. The robust energy of the song quickly builds as the violin-led orchestra is introduced.

“Little Bit of Love” is the ultimate gem of the album, both in melody and meaning. The song introspectively explores Grennan’s inner thoughts as he sings, “I tried to fly but I used my wings too soon.” Rather than follow the classic girl-meets-boy storyline for its music video, Grennan chose to depict the lyrics from the perspective of someone simply wanting to feel loved. The video portrays unconditional love told through the story of two brothers, meant to reflect Grennan’s relationship with his younger brother.

“This is the Place” and “Something Better” are both lively pop tunes that found early success when previously released as singles. Similar to what one would hear in a London club in the early 2000s, “Oh Please” has a dynamic beat with clear R&B influences.

Grennan delivers his more soulful ballads toward the middle portion of his album. “Sweeter Then,” “Make My Mind Up,” and “You Matter to Me” each present a powerful gospel chorus and elegant piano backing that perfectly accompany his poignant and graceful lyrics. Grennan shares his promise of personal growth in “Sweeter Then” as he sings, “Oh, I plead trying to be a better man.” “Amen” shares similar gospel roots and focuses on an internal battle of coping with loneliness and struggling with one’s religion. Aspects of Grennan’s ballads are reminiscent of the rich sound of singers such as Adele and Lewis Capaldi—two artists Grennan said he takes inspiration from.

“Long Live You and I” concludes the deluxe album and centers on the idea of moving on and looking toward the future with both optimism and enthusiasm. Grennan accepts the events of his past and the influence they have had on his life, saying he is ready to begin a new journey of personal discovery and possibly find love again in the process.

An album inspired by heartbreak is certainly not a new concept, but Grennan offers a refreshing and redemptive perspective on it and undoubtedly´ gives listeners some delightful tunes in the process. Although Grennan claims to have lost part of himself during his relationship, after listening to his album, it is evident that this part of him has once again been discovered.

Selena Gomez Leans Into Spanish Pop

B Y E RIN P ENDER Heights Staff

Selena Gomez’s first full-length Spanish EP, Revelación, is a testament to her versatility and poise as an artist.

Gomez’s seductive tone and smooth voice are even more pronounced when she sings in Spanish, as each lyric and note seem to effortlessly glide from her mouth.

Her remarkable vocal control is evident in the ease with which she sings in Spanish, seamlessly making the transition to Spanish lyrics despite their faster pace.

Each of the seven songs on the EP, which was released on Friday, channel a calming and intimate sound that makes it feel as though Gomez is singing directly to the listener.

“De Una Vez,” in particular, features a gentler melody compared to her other fast-paced, dance-anthem beats. Collaborations with Rauw Alej andro, Myke Towers, and DJ Snake add even more flavor to the album.

An underlying beat, a dembow beat, is present in almost all of the songs on the EP and creates a summertime feeling and an infectious desire to dance and enjoy life.

The dembow beat is most present in “Buscando Amor,” “Dámelo To’,” “Vicio,” and “Adiós.” “Buscando

Amor” and “Adiós” also showcase Gomez’s impressive range and vocal control, demonstrating the dexterity of her voice.

The final song, “Selfish Love,” is the only bilingual track on the EP. It is reminiscent of the pop roots Gomez is famous for, sounding somewhat like her earlier songs “Hands To Myself” and “Same Old Love.”

“Selfish Love” is the kind of song that makes the listener want to get up and dance with its beat and joyful sound as Gomez sings, “All this time and we got that selfish love / I like makin’ you jealous.”

The lyrics of Revelación emphasize breaking free of an old lover and enjoying life without being tied down to a feeling or a person.

“De Una Vez” is a manifestation of quiet power, with Gomez singing, “De una vez por todas / Soy más fuerte sola / Y es que no me arrepiento del pasado / Sé que el tiempo a tu lado / Cortó mis alas / Pero ahora este pecho es antibalas.

This translates to “Once and for all / I’m stronger alone / And I do not regret the past / I know that the time by your side / Cut my wings / But now this chest is bulletproof.”

This beautiful chorus is Gomez reclaiming her life and embracing her growth from the heartache she’s

overcome. As stated in the lyrics, Gomez knows she’s stronger for it. Throughout the rest of the EP, Gomez sings of desire and having a good time without being tied to expectations of love and commitment.

Her newfound views on love and freedom are evident on “Buscando Amor,” when she sings, “Que no le hablen de amor que eso con ella no va (Don’t talk to her about love, that’s not going to fly).”

On this track, Gomez showcases her desire to have fun without thinking about the pain and heartache that love can bring.

“Adiós” is a final kiss goodbye to

MUSIC

the lover who hurt Gomez. She makes it clear that she has already said goodbye and moved on as she sings, “Esto no es personal, no hay nada que explicar, adiós (This isn’t personal, there’s nothing to explain, bye).”

Revelación offers easy listening music with powerful lyrics that prove Gomez’s skill and scope as an artist.

While Spanish music increases in popularity within the music industry, as evident by Spanish artists Natalia Lafourcade’s and Carla Morrison’s rising popularity, Selena Gomez steps onto the scene, exploring an image beyond her identity as an American pop artist.

Following her recent Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, Noah Cyrus added to the rollout of Spotify Singles with the release of her “Re: Stacks” by Bon Iver cover.

Leading up to Sunday’s Grammy Awards, Spotify released new material for those nominated in the category.

Spotify asked each artist to contribute pairs of songs for the series: one reimagined version of an original as well as a cover of an artist who inspires them.

Paired with guitar and piano, Cyrus’ vocal talent shines through in the cover. Her folk charm and genuine approach to the cover bring the song to a new level.

Her soft, soprano vocals diverge from Bon Iver’s signature slow and gravelly tone that shines through on all his songs.

She speeds the pace up slightly and heightens the volume of the vocals to effectively bring greater attention to the lyrics and create an unearthly feeling in the song.

Background choirs fade in and out, filling out the song, and adding greater momentum to the cover.

Fans of Noah Cyrus and Bon Iver alike will appreciate the inventive approach she brings to the piece.

‘WHAT’S NEXT’ DRAKE

The Paper Kites Release Romantic Album

BY KIERAN WILSON Heights Staff

Roses, a new album from The Paper Kites, showcases the ethereal soundscapes and delicate songwriting that the band has become known for. The Australian indie rock-folk quintet is best known for its touching love song “Bloom,” which was independently released in 2010. Since then, the band, composed of Sam Bentley, Christina Lacy, Dave Powys, Josh Bentley, and Sam Rasmussen, has released five albums—with the last two albums released in 2018.

The band remained largely silent until late August of 2020, when it released what would be the first single off of Roses, “For All You Give.” The Paper Kites have since put out four more singles throughout 2020 and the beginning of

this year. Prior to their newest album, The Paper Kites had never collaborated with other artists on a project, but on Roses, each track features a different female singer, hand-picked by the band. Every song perfectly suits each artist’s individual voice and style, and the layering of audio makes it difficult to distinguish where the voice of lead singer Bentley ends and the featured artist’s voice begins.

Spanning ten tracks, Roses features delicate electric guitar sounds and synths along with gracefully picked acoustic guitars. The soft-spoken, dreamy vocals encourage the listener to lose themselves in the sounds and feelings each track evokes and to fully explore the 44-minute world The Paper Kites have built. While a few songs may feel drawn out or even a bit simple, with a little patience and attention to

the lyrical messages, it becomes clear how thoughtful and deliberate Roses really is.

“Climb On Your Tears,” for example, requires an especially close listen. This track comes in at a little over six minutes and features Newton, Mass. native Aoife O’Donovan. The most prominent instrument is a dreamy electric guitar, which pairs nicely with the muted drums.

Together these instruments create a feeling of intimacy between Bentley and O’Donovan, as well as between the song and its listener. While the meaning of the chorus—“Climb on your tears / Like a ladder to a rose, baby”—is not obvious, it seems as though The Paper Kites were aiming to capture a feeling of vulnerability between two people, rather than convey an outright message in the song.

“Climb On Your Tears” is not the only track to feature lyrics that require a bit of extra reflection. In “Walk Above the City,” the chorus recites “Flowers underneath us now / Towers underneath us now / We walk above the city / You and I.” While the lyrics might not make literal sense, accompanied by the tender tones of Portuguese singer MARO, the track conjures up the images and feelings that come with sweet, even sappy, love—a theme that appears over and over again on Roses

“Dearest,” another love song, goes beyond romantic love, as Bentley and Lydia Cole sing about caring for

parents. The two are backed almost exclusively by a single fingerstyle guitar, making “Dearest” one of the most delicate and heartfelt songs on the whole album.

“Steal My Heart Away” diverges from the softer and slower sound of many of the other songs on Roses. With dreamlike synths and chimes, “Steal My Heart Away” feels more like a ’90s ballad than a typical Paper Kites song.

“For All You Give” may be the only track that can compete with “Dearest” for the most sincere song on Roses. The track features a warm and welcoming, tenderly picked acoustic guitar, providing the perfect setting for its lyrics.

In the second chorus, Bentley along with Lucy Rose sing “Like the night comes black and blue / I’ll give it back to you / Like a road runs straight and true / For all you give / I’ll give it back to you.”

While these lines may seem simple, the guitar and the pair’s subdued, yet beautiful, voices combine to make “For All You Give” one of the best and most wholesome songs on Roses

Roses is not flashy and contains no fancy production for the band to hide behind. Rather, the band, along with the 10 female featured artists, relies on thought-provoking lyrics aided by airy and gentle acoustic and electric guitars.

For some, Roses may present itself as too slow or folkie. But, for those who truly enjoy sitting and appreciating sweet yet pensive music, Roses is a can’t-miss.

Drake possesses that je ne sais quoi which allows his dissatisfaction with his lavish lifestyle to be endearing rather than irritating. To be clear, I use je ne sais quoi literally because “I [truly] do not know” how he pulls it off. Why do so many people adore an ostentatious billionaire whose artistic output has been devoted to dwelling on his character flaws and lamenting his failed relationships? In my opinion, Drake’s popularity comes from the intense relatability of his lyrics and, more specifically, his ability to encapsulate universal emotions in a single line (what YouTube commentator Jon Denton dubbed “Instagram caption rap”). While people take vicarious pleasure from observing celebrity lifestyles on social media, self-proclaimed “sickos” flock to Drake for a different reason. They find solace in the knowledge that everyone experiences disappointment, despondency, and even despair.

On “What’s Next,” off his EP released March 5 titled Scary Hours 2, Drake raps, “I’m makin’ a change today / The liquor been takin’ the pain away / I heard you was givin’ your chain away / That’s kinda like givin’ your fame away.” It’s Drake’s typical extravagance and swagger—as is the music video for “What’s Next,” which sees Drake roam his hometown of Toronto during a snowstorm. Like many of his videos, the atmosphere is injected with heavy doses of luxury vehicles, designer jackets, and latenight energy. Drake’s self-assured presence prevents even the most outlandish scenes from feeling incongruous.

For example, toward the end of the video, we see Drake’s frame silhouetted against the luminescent backdrop of a jellyfish tank. It is this undeniable confidence that prevents Drake’s ambitious vision from collapsing under its own weight and devolving into self-parody.

Ultimately, Drake’s enduring relevance and continued successes have proven there are only two types of people left: Drake fans and liars. As one of my roommates said, “Dude, Drake is my number one most-played artist, and I don’t even like him that much.” In due time, my friend. In due time.

PHOTO COURTESY OF INSANITY RECORDS

‘EVERING

PHOTO COURTESY OF INTERSCOPE RECORDS

‘REVALACION’ SELENA GOMEZ DISTRIBUTED BY INTERSCOPE RECORDS RELEASE MARCH 12, 2021 OUR RATING

‘RE: STACKS’

NOAH CYRUS’ BON IVER COVER

NATHAN RHIND

MUSIC VIDEO

K ATHERINE C ANNIFF A ssoc. Arts Editor

The walls of the WZBC lounge are plastered with posters, but one giant, glossy image stands out. A distorted, rainbow-colored prism pops on a black background.

The letters of the radio station are reconfigured in elegant and wavy fonts. Amanda Roussel, MCAS ’21, designed the poster, commemorating the radio station’s 60th year on air. Responsible for creating many of the funky posters adorning the radio station’s walls, the contents of Roussel’s creative brain are on display—metaphorically and literally.

After getting an MRI last spring, Roussel’s doctor handed them a copy of their brain scans. Immediately fascinated by the images, Roussel took the scans and created a promotional poster for the radio station to reach out to other BC students with musical interests.

The poster was one of Roussel’s first projects for WZBC and helped ignite a growing passion for graphic design.

“I’ve realized that it’s a passion because it’s something that doesn’t feel like work all the time, and it’s some thing that I’m willing to put in like a lot of hours into doing,” Roussel said.

Formerly the AM radio coordinator at WZBC, Roussel became the publicity coordinator in January 2020. They began creating more posters and stickers for the station, honing their graphic design skills.

Before the pandemic hit, the station was gearing up for a concert at the Great Scott, a music venue in Allston, and Roussel started working on a poster for the event.

Roussel’s staple bold colors—vibrant blues, pinks, and yellows— stand out on a distorted geometric landscape. Pink lines bend across the page, lifting the names of the bands the board was planning to host.

Quinn Kiernan, the current operations manager for WZBC and MCAS ’22, said that Roussel’s impressive posters offered him some consolation when they were forced to cancel the event.

“[The] concert never happened, but I’m just so glad the posters happened,” Kiernan said.

Embracing their newfound passion for graphic design, Roussel started

creating more merchandise for the station.

Last year, the WZBC office was abandoned after students were sent home due to the pandemic, and any chance of a concert was canceled.

But, Roussel’s designs helped the station remain active even while remote last year. Roussel produced mugs, stickers, koozies, sweatshirts, and t-shirts—each item emblazoned with one of their unique graphics.

Roussel spent their summer learning Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, which helped them face the challenge of revitalizing the station’s image.

Turning to the classic WZBC sign, which hadn’t changed since the station’s founding in 1960, Roussel enhanced the logo by simplifying the lines and adding blue, green, pink, and yellow layers to the lettering.

“It just felt, you know, like [with] COVID and everything … we weren’t able to do that much, so why not try to reinvent ourselves and just imagine and recreate these things that, you know, [have] been around [like the logo],” Kiernan said on utilizing Roussel’s design skills.

As a senior, Roussel’s time as a WZBC board member ended last

kenthaler

Best spot on campus for creative inspiration.

The woods around the reservoir. Climbing over the rocks and walking on tree stumps feels childlike and light in a way that I can’t find inside.

What visual artists inspire you?

Musical artists?

Charles Burchfield and his dreamlike watercolor scenes, Helen Fran-

For

Favorite club/organization you’ve been a part of at BC. WZBC. I found such a cool community here, a place to practice my hobby, and so many new artists to listen to!

semester, but their creative projects extend beyond the walls of the station’s office.

Roussel, a psychology major and art history minor, also works as a McMullen Museum of Art student ambassador and helps design marketing materials and educational guides for the museum.

Roussel’s work is rooted in the creative instincts they developed growing up in Birmingham, Ala.

They grew up sewing and creating projects with unique materials, leading them to love the sensation of crafting something with their own hands.

Roussel recalls making sculptures out of abandoned wires and distorting photographs of nature using Photoshop as a kid.

Roussel

Roussel’s latest project, however, branches away from graphic design, as they’re reconnecting with the unconventional tools and materials of their childhood.

Over quarantine, Roussel explored jewelry design, recreating styles they saw in stores and playing around with an assortment of beads they found.

With their collection of beads and jewelry flourishing over winter break, Roussel started selling their earrings on their Instagram

What is the most influential class you’ve taken at BC? I’ve loved all my art history and studio art classes, but PULSE was really the most influential. I genuinely loved my placement at Coyne Rd. house [a group home for women] and grew personally from our class discussions and readings.

Favorite book, album, or film. I wish I could wipe my brain so I could read both The Secret History

page called gears— gear for your ears.

The earrings— handmade with the bright, colorful shades Roussel is drawn to—are a collection of classic shapes that are reminiscent of childhood imagery: hearts, stars, and butterflies. The tactile experience of piecing together the colorful earrings connects them to the fun projects of their childhood, Roussel said.

Often inspired by the playful craft supplies found in the aisles of Michaels, Roussel has experimented with multi-colored polymer clay and Shrinky Dinks, a craft that minimizes and hardens drawings when put in the oven.

Raiding the shelves stocked with miniature figurines, Roussel made one set of earrings with small, glass mushrooms.

Their products are an eclectic assortment of bold pieces—including large, multi-colored moons, stars, and cacti.

Roussel’s daintier pieces feature smaller, pastel-colored beads. Their most recent earring creations are clouds and flowers in shades of pink, blue, and gold.

In their dorm room, Roussel’s

stockpile of clays, beads, and figurines are stuffed into a large, black crafting toolbox.

The white walls of their dorm are bedecked with their earring display and an array of soft-hued postcards, which showcase Roussel’s personal style.

Commandeering the common space in their suite, Roussel has continued assembling earrings for customers, mostly other BC students, throughout the semester.

Recently they made a Valentine’s Day set, a collection they are particularly proud of.

The festive collection includes pieces with long chains connecting large flower, heart, and butterfly shapes and embellished with pearl beads.

Erin Ballengee, Roussel’s roommate and MCAS ’21, has watched Roussel’s graphic design skills improve. Ballengee said Roussel spends all of their free time cultivating their individual style.

“I think a lot of it could be called whimsical, kind of nostalgic, like looking at them just like makes you happy,” Ballengee said “Like whatever medium [it is], the graphic design is kind of—[it] can be almost psychedelic sometimes. And the earrings are just really pretty and dainty.”

Roussel was surprised to be spotlighted as an artist on campus, having just recently started taking art classes and using unconventional artistic methods.

But, Roussel’s rebranding work for WZBC and their inclination to transform the kitschy crafts of childhood into trendy jewelry testify to their artistic abilities.

“It’s taken me a while to like learn that I can allow myself to take art classes and … that those are skills for the real world,” Roussel said on how their outlook on their personal art has evolved.

Graduating this spring, Roussel said they don’t see themself working in a creative field but knows that art will always be a resource for relaxation and expression, as their unabashedly vibrant colors and shapes recall the simpler pleasures of childhood.

Always returning to the words “childlike” and “playful” to describe their work, Roussel’s work speaks to art’s ability to transport people to a different time and place.

they turned out, especially with th e three colors!

What will you miss most about your time at BC?

Favorite jewelry item that you’ve designed.

I’m proud of my clay-checkered flowers. Making checkerboards was something I’d been trying to nail for a while, and I’m so happy with how

I’m afraid to think of big thing s like traditions or people! One of my favorite days on campus I’ll miss is the first warm day in spring, when everyone finally comes outside. Seeing th e grass covered with people really makes this look like a college brochure, an d everyone’s in a good mood.

Amanda Roussel, a graphic designer and jewelry artist, taps into the playful feelings of childhood to create bold digital pieces and funky earrings.

GRAPHICS BY MEEGAN MINAHAN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

PHOTO BY IKRAM ALI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Amanda Roussel designs whimsical jewelry with unique materials and figurines, like the earrings pictured above.

and The Goldfinch again. They’re both by Donna Tartt, who creates such a deep dive into a particular subject for each book—classics and the art world, respectively. The stories are twisty, full, [and] mysterious!

Q&A With Amanda Roussel:

and her massive abstract Expressionist paintings, and Beth Hoeckel and her collages.

music: Phoebe Bridgers, Bedouine, Arthur Russell, and Weyes Blood.

MARCH 9

On Monday, classes resumed. Wortham said that upon BC’s return from Spring Break, there was a growing awareness across higher education that the situation was getting serious.

“But … I was in the office that next Monday,” Wortham said. “It was like a domino effect, you know ... it just became clear that every university was going to do it, and the public health situation was such that [University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J.,] had to do it.”

Adrienne Nussbaum, the director for the Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS), said that in the days

had already altered their courses because of COVID-19 concerns, and the Undergraduate Government of Boston College called for suspension of in-person classes due to health risks.

“By Wednesday morning, I think we kind of knew what was going on,” Kim said.

In the days since Landrigan briefed administrators about COVID-19, the numbers had moved from the disturbing to the alarming, he said.

Quigley said that he, Lochhead, Leahy, and several other vice presidents and University leaders spent the final few days in and out of conversations about what BC was going to do.

“[We] were in conversation among ourselves, but also with elected officials elsewhere and in touch with other higher ed leaders trying to figure out what the

quite a bit more.”

Van Ness said he awoke from a nap at around 6 p.m. to the sounds of commotion and screaming on his floor in Williams Hall as Leahy’s email appeared in students’ inboxes.

“I remember being in my friend’s dorm on Upper because I live in Williams and people just going to Mac and like, carrying like cases of drinks and food, spending all their meal plan money,” Van Ness said.

By the time he tried to go join in the commotion, all of the shelves and fridges were empty, he said.

Amid the chaos of receiving the news, Kim said that he and his friends processed their emotions at different times.

“Whether it was in the first 15 minutes after we got sent home, or like three hours later when we were all hanging out with our friends, you just [saw] so many people kind of hit that realization, and it [was] sad to watch people go through that,” Kim said.

For many, the final few days on campus were as packed with celebration as they were with emotional lows.

“We realized what was going on, and there was just this outpouring of sorrow among everyone I was around at the time,” Kim said. “It’s actually pretty crazy to reflect on how quickly the atmosphere turned from like joking around to just total grief.”

Mogan said that he and Executive Director of the Pine Manor Institute for Student Success Joy Moore were in the middle of a dinner with members of the Asian Caucus in Maloney Hall when the news broke.

Bahr said. “I was like, ‘It’s a nice day … It’s gonna be a good last day here.’ Then all of a sudden I got the email, and I was like, ‘I have to go pack now.’”

After former U.S. President Donald Trump announced that a travel ban on European countries was going to be put in place, there was a scramble to return to the U.S. as quickly as possible, Bahr said. She was able to fly home on March 13, but her ticket was expensive, she said.

For many students on BC’s campus, the four-day window to move out of their residence halls also presented challenges. Many low-income students faced an added layer of stress and uncertainty about transportation and where they would go after leaving campus. Issues like homelessness, unstable living situations, and expensive travel prices made leaving campus especially difficult for some students.

weeks away from the start of her season when BC moved online. McNeil, a track and field athlete, was in the middle of preseason training for her first meet when it was called off due to COVID-19.

Although BC canceled classes, there was still uncertaint y about whether athletes would be allowed to remain on campus to finish their seasons, she said.

“We were also getting so much ne w information ever y day so throughout the whole process, it was just a lot of uncertainty,” she said. “I was a little bit surprised once the season was actuall y canceled, but I think a lot of us at that point were expecting it.”

Before returning home, the track and field team said goodbye to the seniors in their locker room, McNeil said.

leading up to the announcement, her office watched anxiously as other schools in Boston moved to online instruction.

“Our international students and their parents were contacting us, and then I was contacting people at BC,” Nussbaum said. “And I kept being told, ‘The decision’s being made, you’ll hear soon.’”

10

MARCH

Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts, and Harvard University announced that all of its courses would move to remote instruction.

Despite universities shifting toward remote learning, Dryja said that many BC students held onto hope that BC would not do the same.

“I wasn’t sure if BC would actually, like, send us home,” Dryja said. “I feel like they have a tendency to kind of … be like, ‘Oh, we’re different. We’re gonna stay here,’ so it definitely felt weird and kind of concerning that other people were actually going home.”

Later in the day, an email circulated that fueled rumors that BC would be moving classes online the next day.

Panic spread across campus as students grappled with the possibility of being sent home for the rest of the semester.

Associate Vice President for University Communications Jack Dunn responded with a statement that BC had not made the decision to move all courses online.

Peter Kim, former Heights editor and BC ’20, described an increasing sense of worry on campus as rumors spread.

After hearing that other universities in the Boston area shut down that evening, Kim said, the residents of his neighboring Mod predicted that March 10 would be their last day of normal school.

right move was going to be,” Quigley said. “So by Wednesday, the 11th, we were prepared to make our announcement.”

Late Wednesday afternoon, outpourings of emotion overtook campus as students received an email from Leahy announcing that they would be required to evacuate residence halls by March 15.

When the email went out, Dryja was in the library working on a paper due that night, she said. While she was sitting there, students began receiving Leahy’s email at slightly staggered times.

“The email … was like coming out in waves,” she said. “People were getting up and leaving, because they were just like, not caring about their homework anymore, and I hadn’t gotten the email yet, and I was like, super confused.”

When Dryja eventually received the email, she said, her first reaction was to be with her friends.

On her walk back to Walsh Hall, Mod residents had already flocked into their yards, she said.

“I remember walking back into Walsh, [and] everyone was kind of like, out in the hallways,” Dryja said. “I had to walk through the Mods too from the library, and it was just like, a full on party in the Mods.”

Associate Vice President for Student Engagement and Formation Tom Mogan said in an email to The Heights that he went to the Mods that evening to monitor what was happening and to support the seniors.

“We knew the group that would be most impacted was seniors and we tried to be present to this group each night in the Mods to help support them through what we knew would be a difficult time,” Mogan wrote.

Kim said that he and his roommates walked into their neighbors’ Mod immediately after hearing the news.

“We all got into a big group hug, and we started crying,” he said. “Two months is not that significant of a period of time, but to

“We knew the email was going to come out shortly and decided to proceed with the dinner so we could be there to support the students and answer any questions they may have,” Mogan said. “The email came out during our dinner and the students were obviously upset and we tried to comfort them.”

Administrators, though, had to put emotions on the backburner to address logistical challenges that came with transitioning to online learning— connecting faculty to new platforms and preparing students for the shift.

Wortham said he immediately began to wonder how to address the challenges that came with remote learning. Classes had to be moved online, faculty connected to new platforms, and computers loaned to graduate students, among other tasks, he said.

“The logistical challenges were so big that there wasn’t really a lot of time for emotional reaction,” Wortham said. “It was just like sprinting from the time it happened.”

MARCH 12

On Thursday, BC notified all students studying abroad that they had to return home to the U.S.

Kristen Bahr, former Heights editor and CSOM ’21, was studying at Comillas University in Madrid, Spain at the time. She said that in the weeks leading up to being sent home, everything seemed relatively normal.

The only difference, she said, was that there was hand sanitizer everywhere, which was unusual for Spain. No one was wearing masks yet, but there was definitely a focus on washing hands and using hand sanitizer, Bahr said.

Bahr recalled having the feeling that she was going to be sent home a few days prior to the announcement, but she didn’t know when the news would be released. Even with the expectation, receiving the news was heartbreaking, she said.

“I kind of knew that it was coming, but it was in the morning. … I had gone out to get a cup of coffee, and like it was a really nice day, so I was excited,”

For Van Ness, who is from San Antonio, Texas, there were no direct flights home, meaning that flying would have been extremely costly. His parents ended up making the 30-hour drive from San Antonio to Boston, but there was a two-day period during the last week when he had no idea how he would return home, he said.

“I hated the short notice,” Van Ness said. “We have to vacate in a few days like, what about all the international students? What about like the people who live really far away? What about the students who struggle financially?”

All international students are required by U.S. law to get a signature on an immigration form in order to come back into the U.S., Nussbaum said, and at that point in time, students didn’t know how long they would be out of the country.

“Our office was insane,” Nussbaum said. “We had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of international students

“We decorated [the locker room] with streamers [and] balloons and then turned off the lights and had them come in the locker room, and it was just a lot of fun,” she said. “It wasn’t enough, but it was nice, at least to have one last time with our seniors and get a proper sendoff, because they definitely got robbed the most out of everyone.”

MARCH 13

As students processed their semester being cut short, there was an uptick in vandalism across campus. Between 7 a.m. on March 11 and 7 a.m. on March 16, there were a total of 63 incidents reported by the BC Police Department.

Numerous reports included malicious destruction of property over $1,200— including one at Gasson Hall, where two stained glass windows were broken.

“I remember hearing about it because I feel like most of it was … on Lower Campus or something like that, or on Middle Campus,” Van Ness said. “I was like, ‘How stupid are you to do that?’”

“Given

Lexi

pouring into our office to get immigration forms signed, so we were just in crisis, chaotic mode.”

Also on March 12, the ACC suspended all athletic-related activities and the NCAA canceled all post-season tournaments. For BC athletes, the suspension of on-campus activities meant the cancelation of the remainder of their seasons.

McNeil, MCAS ’23, was only

Landrigan said that those final three or four days of craziness at BC were inevitable.

the pluck of emotion that was released by the event, even though I know that some of the events got a little bit out of control, it’s the way humans behave when they’re confronted by shock and grief and pain,” Landrigan said.

Quigley said that a smart decision BC made was requiring students to move their

PHOTO BY MADDY ROMANCE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Seniors flocked outside their Mods after Leahy’s email was released.

PHOTO BY IKRAM ALI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Students watched the sun rise over the Res, a typical senior tradition.

“Which was difficult, painful, but in the end the right decision,” Quigley said. “There are a number of schools that allowed students to leave their stuff in the dorms, and that was a lingering sore point on many campuses around the country through the rest of the spring and into the summer.”

The move-out process created a sense of commotion and chaos on campus. As Dryja and her roommates packed up their eight-man suite and shoved their belongings into vacuum bags, they felt an overwhelming sense of not being ready to leave and also not knowing what the future would hold, she said.

“I feel like everyone was like, just really trying to take it all in because I felt like it would be the last time we would ever see each other,” she said.

On Wednesday, Kim and his roommates invited as many friends as they could to their Mod to share their collective grief about losing the last two months of their senior year, he said.

The last days on campus were also packed with traditions like Mod weddings, senior sunrise, and taking graduation pictures in front of Gasson, Kim said.

“It felt like a large tailgate … you just [walked] around and there would be so many things going on, like all the time,” he said. “It would be a [Mod] wedding, there’d be people having a barbecue, there’d be people doing whatever, hanging out with their friends, just drinking. There [was] just, like, organized chaos.”

He recalled the sense of unity felt by seniors, who bonded over their shared loss.

“When you have the last two months of

MCAS ’23, remained on campus after the March 15 residence hall closure because China’s travel policies at the time made buying a plane ticket difficult, he said.

“I think [the BC administration] reacted to the situation relatively quickly and ResLife was reliable when it was needed,” he said.

During these early weeks of the pandemic, Lochhead said that BC lacked clear-cut guidelines for handling COVID-19.

As new CDC guidelines emerged, BC’s essential workers were on the frontlines of implementing them. BC Dining consolidated to McElroy Commons, installed contactless payment systems, and trained dining staff to strictly enforce social distancing policies.

“They just took all of the policies and everything really seriously,” Mary Brooks, Lynch ’22, who stayed on campus through the semester as a resident assistant said. “Every day, there’d be changes.”

Hu said that with these policies in place, he felt safe staying on campus. Students were allowed to leave their dorms for recreational purposes but were advised against having guests in their rooms. Although Hu felt safe overall, he said that some areas could have been improved.

“There could’ve been better ways of going about things, like utilizing a residential hall that does not have an entire floor … sharing the same bathroom space,” Hu said in an email to The Heights. “But then again, it was cleaned and disinfected regularly, so how much risk was really there?”

As health officials gained more knowledge about COVID-19, BC gradually made its policies for on-campus students stricter, Hu said.

“I feel like at first when I got back home, I was like, ‘Okay, no classes, no nothing ... my life is like on hold,’” she said.

During this period of remote learning, Dryja said she learned to adapt to the pandemic. This lesson proved useful when, in early May, she received news that her internship that was supposed to provide her with housing in Connecticut was also going remote.

Ali Bane Hammond, the director of First Year Experience and Orientation, said that the FYE office had to immediately start planning how orientation would look for the incoming freshmen. By early April, they knew they were going to need to shift to a hybrid model of the program.

“In a period of about six weeks, and in collaboration with wonderful colleagues from across the University, we revamped the entire program – from the orientation registration process to orientation leader training to the particulars of delivering content to and creating community among the Class of 2024 and their families,” she wrote.

from the office at least for a few weeks, and maybe back in June,” he said. “Someone recently joked, ‘When you said we’d be back in June I didn’t realize you were gonna mean June 2021.’”

Nussbaum said that because so many international students couldn’t return to campus in the fall, their program had to provide immigration advising and programming in a totally different way in order to support students from afar.

Burns said that many of the issues students have been seeking counseling about in the past year stem from the pandemic.

“Obviously, many of the same issues are still there, but a new thing that we think about and see quite a bit more is issues around isolation and loneliness,” he said.

“While there’s always been and continues to be issues around anxiety, the uncertainty and anxiety around health and future is of course much higher than it would have been a year and a half ago.”

Quigley said he was incredibly proud of the way that the BC community responded in the spring.

MARCH 14

During those final days—which Van Ness described as “chaotic, hell on Earth, but euphoric”—many students took the opportunity to say goodbye to their favorite places.

Dryja and her roommates frequented Mod parties and popular off-campus spots like Osaka, she said.

“It honestly was just … a super fun time with all my friends those few days, which, looking back on it, does seem kind of weird,” Dryja said. “They were sending us home for a pandemic, and everyone was like, ‘Oh, let’s all go out, go to the Mods,’ and like, going out doesn’t seem the safest, but it was very fun and also really sad.”

On one of their last nights, Dryja and her roommates pulled an all-nighter and watched the sunrise over the Reservoir, a tradition that seniors normally partake in during Senior Week, but that they felt may not even happen for them due to the uncertainty of the pandemic, she said.

“We were like, ‘Oh, it’s like senior sunrise … [but] who knows when we’ll ever be back,’ which was a bit much, but it was a lot of fun,” she said. “There was a lot of sentiment of like, just sad to be going home but also happy to be with each other.”

For Van Ness, the majority of those final nights were spent with his international friends, many of whom he still has not seen since because they are currently attending BC from their home countries.

“My best memory was hanging out with my international friends before they left because one had to go to Brazil, one had to go to the UK, one had to go to Russia,” Van Ness said. “We didn’t know when the next time was when we’re going to see each other, so it was nice hanging out with them for a few days.”

For those in the class of 2020, they knew with certainty that the last days on campus were their final chances to experience hallmarks of senior year that they would now be missing.

your senior years taken away, it just created this intangible kind of bond,” Kim said.

Whatever wild excursions or outpourings of frustration and sadness students experienced during those last few days, at the end of most nights, they were surrounded by those at BC that they valued the most, Kim said.

“A lot of it [was] just spending time with the people who you have grown to care about the most at BC and making sure that you can take in all the things that you were supposed to have in as good a form as you can,” he said.

Susan Gennaro, dean of the Connell School of Nursing, said that she has a responsibility to feel the losses that her students have faced as a result of the pandemic, such as being unable to experience Commencement and other traditional senior celebrations.

“Somebody told me a long time ago that functional families celebrate, and I think that’s really true,” Gennaro said. “Graduation is a big thing. Senior week is a big thing. All those kinds of things are important because it’s part of what we look forward to. You know, the pictures we take of who was there with you—whether you ever see them again or not—they’re good things.”

MARCH 15

The majority of BC students returned to their homes by the University’s deadline, but approximately 500 students remained on campus afterward. These students were moved to Upper Campus where they completed the rest of the school year remotely.

International students and students from vulnerable backgrounds without a safe place to return to were the priority during this time, Lochhead said.

Though most of his friends also stayed on campus, he said, the campus felt worlds away from the normal BC experience.

“It was different without all the students you see everyday,” Hu said. “Suddenly, you don’t see them anymore. … It still felt like BC, but it just, it just lacked that kind of vibrance to it.”

ADAPTING TO THE NEW REALITY

Quigley said that the administration’s first concern after many students were moved out was how to transition BC to remote learning.

“In this case I said, ‘Okay, we’ve got around seven days to go fully remote in the middle of a global pandemic,’” Quigley said. “And so all of a sudden all of our efforts were directed to what do we need to do, where are the areas of concern, how are we going to make sure that people have the right level of support.”

Gennaro said that one of her first concerns when BC announced that it was moving to remote learning was how senior nursing students would fulfill their required in-person patient care hours to graduate.

“That was a lot of working within systems,” Gennaro said. “Because even within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, they weren’t working. They were elsewhere. … It’s not easy to figure out how you communicate when the world has stopped.”

Wortham said that another challenge was figuring out if Lynch students could be licensed without in-person learning.

“There was a huge question of if the schools were also going virtual, would it count if the student teacher was participating in a Zoom session or would it not count because it wasn’t in person,” Wortham said. “And nobody knew, you

Emerson DeBasio, former Heights editor and MCAS ’21, was hired as an orientation leader for last summer during the same week students were sent home. The hardest part of the transition to virtual orientation, she said, was not knowing what to expect.

“It definitely was a little bit of a transition,” DeBasio said. “First Year Experience made it very clear to all of us that they were trying to preserve the original kind of orientation experience as much as they could in a safe way, and we went through a lot of training and a lot of strategizing … to find a way to preserve that experience for freshmen coming in.”

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE EXPERIENCE

“It was an incredibly difficult time in so many different ways, but I think that we did a good job,” he said. “We got to the end of the term.”

The chaos and crowds of last March feel like a far cry from the reality of life one year into the pandemic, Kim said.

“It’s just strange,” Kim said. “It feels like another life entirely, where we were celebrating with our friends, like going out to bars one last time.”

Reflecting on the experience of being sent home, students and administrators have gained a new perspective after a year of learning to adapt to pandemic life.

Contrary to her sentiment last March that the entire world was on pause, Dryja said she’s learned to live with the pandemic and go about her life in different ways.

Although Kim has been reflecting

One

Initially,

on what has been taken away from him personally, as the one-year mark of being sent home comes and goes, his losses are now situated in a much broader global context, he said.

Much has changed in the last year, he said, but it feels like the world has been

“I still have sadness from what was taken away from us, but you look at what has transpired everywhere else in the country, and I think it’s really difficult to truly be that upset with what was taken from us when you compare what’s been taken from other people,” Kim said. “I think that perspective is something that [only

year later, life has still not returned to normal. Instead, BC has adapted to a “new normal” defined by social distancing, mask wearing, and weekly COVID-19 testing.

many believed that COVID-19 would entail only a few weeks of lockdown.

Students who stayed on campus late were moved to Upper Campus.

Packed cars pulled up to the Mods as seniors moved out early.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TINGWEI HU

PHOTO BY MAGGIE DIPATRI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

PHOTO

GRAPHICS BY OLIVIA CHARBONNEAU AND MEEGAN MINAHAN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Boston College Must Dismantle Sex Stigma on Campus

Boston College must reexamine the campus culture surrounding sex that is perpetuated by outdated rules and a lack of transparency in order to destigmatize the experiences of victims of sexual assault. The University should also provide more direct support for victims.

This reexamination should be inspired by an executive order, signed on March 8 by President Joe Biden, directing the Department of Education to reexamine the Trump administration’s changes to Title IX that went into effect this past August.

As reported by The Heights in 2020, “The new [Trump-era] rules most notably mandate live cross-examination during hearings and narrow the behavior that schools must investigate with a new definition of sexual harassment. The rules also reduce the locations and circumstances for which a school has responsibility to investigate, such as off-campus housing. They also allow schools to use a higher standard of evidence in their sexual misconduct investigations, an option that has been available since 2017 but no schools have adopted.”

The Trump-era rules effectively discourage sexual assault victims from reporting instances of sexual assault.

Sexual assault happens at BC. According to the University’s Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report, there were 23 reports of on-campus rape and seven reports of fondling at BC in 2019.

“Twice as many rapes and four times as many fondlings per student were reported at

Week in Photos

Boston College than at the average of its competitor schools in 2018, according to data from campus safety reports,” The Heights reported in 2019.

These numbers are remarkable, considering that many victims of sexual assault do not report their experiences. According to RAINN, only 20 percent of female-identifying students who are victims of sexual assault report their experiences. With this statistic, it is a reasonable assumption that many victims at BC have not come forward.

BC notably prohibits “sexual intercourse outside the bonds of matrimony.” While this rule is recognized by many students on campus as a defunct relic of the past, it still sets the tone for any conversation about sex at BC.

Stigmatizing consensual sex by categorizing all sexual acts as sinful instead of properly distinguishing between consenual and nonconsenual sex makes it even more difficult for victims of sexual assault to share their experiences. Moreover, male-identifying and LGTBQ+ victims often experience a greater degree of self-doubt surrounding their experiences that is heightened by the Jesuit, Catholic values that the University cites in its Student Code of Conduct on sexual activity.

Much of the activism and advocacy surrounding sexual assault prevention at BC is done entirely by students—especially members of Stand Up BC and employees at the Women’s Center. While their actions are admirable, the majority of the Women’s Center staff is

undergraduate students, who are taking on the responsibility of providing support for the University’s entire undergraduate population. These programs need more than just outward support like social media posts from the University. While BC does provide additional support through the Sexual Assault Network, this program still falls under the management of the Women’s Center. The University’s efforts are not nearly enough to facilitate honest dialogue about sexual assault. This responsibility should not be borne solely by students.

The University’s response to reports of sexual assault, as outlined in the Student Sexual Misconduct Policy, remains largely undefined and dependent upon the specific incident reported and whether or not the victim requests confidentiality. BC, however, relies heavily on connecting victims with student-led organizations to offer support, which highlights a subliminal passivity. The Women’s Center and other resources rightly fall under the umbrella of University Health Services, but these organizations should receive more internal support in the form of increased staffing from the University.

The reexamination of Title IX by the Biden administration is a sign of greater support for victims of sexual assault on college campuses, but BC needs to reexamine its own culture around sex in order for any Title IX changes to have a meaningful impact on campus. BC should follow the example of the Biden administration and reevaluate its own rules.

Top photos, left to right: Students line up for the grilled cheese pop-up in front of Walsh Hall, Tuesday, March 16, 2021; BC attacker Charlotte North attempts to evade Virginia defender Jalen Knight, Saturday, March 13, 2021; BC attackers Cara Urbank and Charlotte North and midfielder Kayla Martello celebrate after scoring a goal, Saturday, March 13, 2021.

Bottom photos, left to right: BC midfielder Olivia Hahn and UNH midfielder Isabelle Danahy chase the ball, Friday, March 12, 2021; UNH midfielder Bloam Van Den Brekel defends the ball from BC midfielder Olivia Hahn, Friday, March 12, 2021; BC midfielder Darcy Clement hits the ball toward the goal, Saturday, March 13, 2021; BC player Gianna Boccagno hit the softball against UMass, Saturday, March 13, 2021.

(VIKRUM SINGH / HEIGHTS EDITOR); (KRISTIAN LAMARRE / FOR THE HEIGHTS); (NICOLE VAGRA / FOR THE HEIGHTS); (ADITYA RAO / FOR THE HEIGHTS).

Take the High Road, Not the Salty One

pre-storm repertoire, including using different types of

If you happen to rely on a groundhog for your forecast, you may have been dismayed to hear Punxsutawney Phil’s assertion on Groundhog Day that we had six more weeks of winter ahead. Regardless of how much credence you place in a groundhog’s predictions (I personally trust him for all my news), February definitely proved we were not yet out of the notoriously brutal Boston winter, and the threat of snowfall in March is still very real.

In snowy conditions, we prioritize keeping warm when outside and staying safe on the roads, but we have to be conscious of how we accomplish these goals. Collectively as humans, we tend to manipulate our natural environment to make it more convenient and efficient for ourselves. During winter, salting roads in anticipation of wintry storms can have unintended consequences. Road salt might seem innocuous considering some of the solutions are made of table salt and other mixtures consist of magnesium chloride or calcium chloride, which are similar in structure and function. Road salt is highly practical for safe driving as it prevents ice from forming and snow from sticking. There are environmental consequences of using de-icing salt, however, and given that Boston College spreads this salt before a storm, we should be aware of its ramifications and perhaps look to incorporate alternatives into our

Roadside soil and vegetation are usually first to come into contact with the salt, simply because of their proximity to the road itself. The salt degrades soil and causes disruptions in delicate nutrient balances that are essential for plant growth. There is also a plethora of microorganisms residing in the soil that are indispensable in the food chain, and any disruptions in salinity come at a detriment to those communities.

Even though BC’s campus is developed and far from a flourishing woodland, there is still reason to be concerned about the health of our vegetation, soil, and microorganisms. A campus desolate of any sort of shrubbery or grass would negate sustainability efforts on campus—like the F.R.E.S.H. initiative in the dining halls—not to mention that a barren campus is not aesthetically pleasing.

Even more concerning to the student body should be the possible effects of road salt on BC’s beloved Chestnut Hill Reservoir. Students refer to it as “the Res” and enjoy walking and running its perimeter while appreciating the overall beauty of the space. The utility of the Res has become especially relevant in the age of COVID-19 as it provides students with a safe outdoor area to connect with friends. De-icing road salt, however, has the potential to impair the health of the Res as well as the organisms that rely on it for their habitat and drinking water.

Lakes in the Adirondack Park in New York provide an apt comparison to the Reservoir, as both experience harsh winters and are subjected to large amounts of road salt. Lake George specifically measured a 3.4% increase in salt concentrations over the past 30 years. Residents

of Lake Placid have already called their local government to action with a petition clamoring for “immediate action” in decreasing road salt concentrations or looking for alternative de-icing methods. Other Adirondack freshwater streams reported salinity concentrations proportionate to saltwater concentrations.

One threat an increased salt concentration poses in the Reservoir that has been observed in the Adirondack lakes is harm to the aquatic organisms residing there. Colonies of cyanobacteria and phytoplankton cannot tolerate changes in salinity, and larger organisms like fish experience decreased mass and problems with breeding due to increased salt levels. These species are essential in preserving the Reservoir’s natural ecosystem, not to mention maintaining the Commonwealth’s label of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir as a spot for “fishing.”

There is no reason to be hyper-concerned about the Reservoir or vegetation on campus right now, as there are no tests proving that there are currently issues with their salinity, but the possible environmental issues that come with de-icing road salt is something to be preemptively aware of. There are hopes for alternatives—plows with a different type of scraper and just applying less salt have proved effective for clearing roads in upstate New York while being more environmentally friendly. So, for now, persevere through the winter, stay warm, and maybe tell people about how much you now know about road salt.

Alli Hargrove is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at allison.hargrove@bc.edu.

March is arguably the worst month of the year, but with the worst month comes the best McDonald’s tradition.

Shamrock Shakes are a delicious way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day all month long. Three dollars never tasted so good.

The inspiration for the shake, and the symbol of St. Patrick’s Day, shamrocks represent good luck and approaching warm weather. It might seem corny, but a four-leaf clover and a good luck wish can offer a much welcome break from the winter blues.

An Intersectional Approach To Women’s History Month

never told about the barriers that exist for women in STEM. Many of the women I love— including my mom—are scientists. If I really wanted to choose something else, though, I know I could do so with the support of the women in my life.

March is a highly anticipated month in my family. The first of March marks the beginning of Women’s History Month and Mărțișor (Mer-tsee-shore) in Romania (and Moldova!). On March 1, people receive and give mărțișoare (mer-tsee-shu-ar-eh), a broach to be worn until the end of the month as a celebration of the upcoming spring.

Closely following on March 8 is International Women’s Day, which effectively operates as Romania’s Valentine’s Day: People give flowers and chocolates to the women in their lives that they love. This year, my mom gave me a potted primrose for the two holidays, and we called my grandparents in Romania to celebrate my grandmother. In short, March is a special occasion for me and many other Romanians when we celebrate women.

Since high school, the dominant gender power that influenced my life has been feminine. My mom, aunt, grandmother, teachers, friends, and all of my mom’s close girl friends have always supported me. Their support has helped me build trust in my gender identity as a woman through the years.

These women set the example for all the options I have for the life ahead of me. I chose to pursue a career in STEM because I was

A month dedicated to the power of femininity feels appropriate to me, not because women need a whole month of celebration due to their historical oppression, but because women deserve appreciation. The month of February, though, is important for a different reason. I have always seen Black History Month as justified because of the history of slavery in the United States and the violence that people of color experience, but Women’s History Month feels like a custom with less purpose and intention behind it.

Of course, I am biased since I come from a country where women are valued for being women, and I was brought up by a mother who practically sold her arm and foot to make my life easier. So, I did not understand the degree of oppression that women face in the United States when I was younger.

February always started the conversation about Black history in school—my English classes always read works from the Harlem Renaissance and literature dealing with the Civil Rights Movement. While I held a deep knowledge of Black history by sixth grade, I did not formally learn anything about women’s history until 10th-grade American history.

When I compared and tried justifying the difference between learning about Black history and women’s history, I was limiting the idea of women’s history to my own experiences as a white woman. My gauge on “historical pain” was an inaccurate and biased measure of

determining which of the two topics is more significant to be taught in schools. I didn’t understand the pain of Black women—who experience the intersection of Blackness and femininity. I also left out a crucial group of people in my understanding of women’s history: non-white, queer people.

Black history and women’s history are usually taught as separate topics in school, but this makes it difficult to start conversations about intersectionality—some people identify as both Black and a woman, and some people identify as neither.

I have realized that in order to acknowledge the whole of women’s history, we need to acknowledge the work of the most marginalized people and even admit that our current ideas of feminism often do not extend to those people sufficiently. Women’s history does not acknowledge gender-queer history even though all of it is tightly intertwined in the history of injustice.

I am grateful that my school emphasized Black History Month, but just because February and March are separate months does not mean that women’s history and Black history are separate causes. Rather, the reason Women’s History Month isn’t more widely celebrated in America is because we are not ready to confront issues of intersectionality. The way I was taught, the way I live, and the way that many Americans view political issues involving race and gender is far too linear. Women’s History Month is an extension of Black History Month, plus more.

Ana Pirosca is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at ana.pirosca@bc.edu.

The opinions and commentaries of the op-ed columnists appearing on this page represent the views of the authors of those particular pieces, and not necessarily the views of The Heights

For such an amazing holiday, you would think that the world would decide on a better dish than this one to celebrate with. Worse yet, BC Dining is surely going to attempt to whip up this duo. Campus awaits seeing corned beef and cabbage’s glam shots featured on the @bc_chefskiss Instagram page.

No parades

One of the hallmark celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day is the parades that take place across the country. But, for another year, the pandemic has stripped us of bagpipes, kilts, and drunk pedestrians. Nevertheless, next year will hopefully return this wonderful tradition.

AnA PiroscA

Alli HArgrove

Shamrock Shakes

Shamrocks

Corned Beef and Cabbage

GRAPHIC BY MEEGAN MINAHAN AND OLIVIA CHARBONNEAU / HEIGHTS EDITORS

WON, NOT DONE

Boston College baseball has never been better. In less than a month, it has pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in history, Sal Frelick is on track for a historic season, and BC has earned its highest Baseball America ranking in program history—No. 13. With the Eagles setting records practically every time they take the field, one question looms: how much longer can BC’s hot streak last?

BC is 9-5 so far this season. Four of its wins have come against ranked opponents, and all but two were earned on the road. An early start earned the Eagles a program-high No. 13 ranking, and if the Eagles can shrug off their recent series loss and continue their winning ways in their upcoming matchup against No. 18 North Carolina, that ranking could very well increase.

BC’s success could be a fluke. All odds said it should have never won its third game against Auburn. Upon deeper examination, however, BC appears to be playing worse than it could—or should—be.

For the first time since 2014, the Hockey East Tournament quarterfinal is not a best-of-three series, and the Eagles made the most of their first game with a win over New Hampshire.

By Nick Pulice Heights Staff

The last year has been full of unpredictability for Boston College men’s hockey. This season saw game postponements and last-minute schedule changes, the cancellation of the Beanpot Tournament, and the creation of the Hockey East Power Index, just to name a few examples. Among all of this change, however, one constant was the Eagles’ resiliency. Another constant w as unrelenting pressure from New Hampshire.

The Eagles’ resiliency continued into the Hockey East playoffs, as did BC’s struggles against UNH. After three quick first-period goals for BC, it seemed that the Eagles and their potent offense were on course for a landslide victory. But, UNH struck back with two goals to put the result up in the air, as the Wildcats always seem to do against BC. Despite the second-period comeback attempt, No. 1-seed BC (16-4-1) held on in the third period to defeat No. 9-seed UNH (6-13-3) in the Hockey East Tournament quarterfinals 3-2.

From the opening puck drop, the physicality of playoff hockey was on display. Both teams were trading hits and collecting penalties all night long. Mike Hardman was noticeably physical for the Eagles with two crushing open-ice hits.

“He’s really physical, but he’s got good skills also,” BC head coach Jerry York said. “He really hurts people, but they’re clean checks. You know he’s out there. He’s something that we value very, very much.”

The scoring began just over five minutes into the first period. With the teams playing 4-on-4, BC’s leading scorer Matt Boldy took advantage of the extra open ice to link up with Alex Newhook on a gorgeous cross-ice pass. On what looked like a designed play, the puck deflected off the boards perfectly to Newhook, who was all alone in front of the net. The talented goal scorer snuck a shot past UNH goaltender Mike Robinson to give his team the early advantage.

“It is certainly a play that we’ve seen the Bruins do over the years,” York said of the cross-ice pass. “You’re going to negate icing for sure because you have speed going, but [if] you get a bounce off the boards, you get a really good chance. We did tonight.”

BC has a reputation for scoring in bunches this season, which held true on Sunday. Just two minutes after Newhook’s goal, the Eagles doubled their lead. All year long, Hardman has wreaked havoc for opposing goalies in the crease with his size and skill. After Robinson made a save on Eamon Powell’s point shot, the rebound fell right to Hardman, and he beat the UNH netminder for the goal. Hardman’s net-front presence has been a valuable asset for York’s squad this season.

Soon after Hardman’s tally, BC struck once again. All alone in the slot, Nikita Nesterenko received a pass from Colby Ambrosio, and he blasted a one-timer past Robinson to make it a three-goal lead for the Eagles. As the period came to a close, it felt like an absurd offensive output was on the horizon.

The next period felt like a whole new hockey game. After a first period in which BC dominated, the Wildcats came out of the first intermission with vengeance. Eric MacAdams got UNH on the board, as he beat Spencer Knight glove side on a powerful wrist shot from the faceoff circle. Just a few minutes later, the Wildcats cut the BC lead to just one as Luke Reid beat Knight on a wrister from the slot.

In the final seconds of the second period, Boldy had a prime chance to score. He rang the puck off the crossbar on the partial breakaway, denying him an insurance goal. After seemingly being on their way to a blowout win, the Eagles found themselves just clinging onto a single-goal lead by the end of the second frame.

The third period was once again like a new game, with very few whistles and no penalties committed by either side. Robinson robbed Hardman late in the third on a spectacular kick save to keep his team alive. UNH had a few chances to tie the game after pulling its goaltender, but Knight and the Eagles’ defense stood tall to see out the win and reserve their spot in the next round of the playoffs.

The Eagles will continue their quest for a conference title when they take on the UMass Lowell River Hawks in the semifinals on Wednesday night at home.

“I thought we defended extremely well when the goaltender was pulled,” York said. “We didn’t give up a ton of chances there. Historically, wins in the playoffs are just hard. To advance—that’s the objective—and not very often are there easy games in the playoffs.”

Seven of BC’s nine starters are batting below .300. Of that seven, three are under the Mendoza Line. In 2019, only five starting Eagles hit below .300 and not one fell below .200. While Frelick and Luke Gold’s .407 and .339 averages might not last, the majority of BC’s lineup is actually slumping.

One such player is Cody Morissette. Although Morissette momentarily broke his cold streak with a

North Powers Eagles To Win in Top-10 Matchup

By Ethan Ott A sst. Sports Editor

Football has the Heisman, hockey has the Hobey Baker, and lacrosse has the Tewaaraton Award. Listed as an early candidate for the high honor, Charlotte North has put together highlight reel-worthy performances game after game this season. Saturday’s game against No. 9 Virginia was no exception, as North scored seven goals to propel Boston College to a win.

No. 10 BC (4-1, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) beat Virginia 20-11 on Saturday in a bounce-back win after falling to No. 1 North Carolina last weekend. The Cavaliers (5-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast) were undefeated prior to facing BC and averaging a staggering 15.8 goals per game.

North scored the first two goals of the game for BC in the first 10 minutes of play, giving the Eagles an early 2-0 lead. Jenn Medjid added to the Eagles’ offensive attack to put BC up 3-0, but Virginia’s Maggie Bostain responded 39 seconds later to cut BC’s lead back to two.

The Cavaliers and Eagles continued to trade goals until the scoreboard read 6-3 in BC’s favor. But suddenly, the momentum shifted in Virginia’s favor. Two goals by Lillie Kolak and one by Ashlyn McGovern quickly brought BC’s lead

down to one with 7:41 remaining in the first period. A North goal less than a minute later shifted the momentum back in BC’s favor, and at the end of the period, BC led 11-6 following a North goal with nine seconds remaining in the frame.

The second period started on the same note that the first ended on. BC’s Cassidy Weeks scored an unassisted goal 40 seconds into the period, setting the tone for a successful rest of the game for the Eagles.

Most of the second period consisted of BC and Virginia trading offensive attacks, although two four-goal runs helped give the Eagles a clear advantage.

With 11:06 remaining in the game, BC scored the first goal of a 3-0 run to put the final nails in the Cavaliers’ coffin. Virginia, however, found some momentum in the last four minutes with two goals, but by then it was far too late to prevent the loss.

Nine BC players got in on the scoring action, three of which were freshmen Belle Smith, Kayla Martello, and Annabelle Hasselbeck. While Smith and Hasselbeck had already scored at least one goal this season, Martello’s two goals were the first of her collegiate career.

The highlight of BC’s offense—as it has been many times this season—was North. She leads the team in goals with 24 on 36 shots for a .667 shooting percentage. North is also third on

the team in assists and leads BC in total points. She finished Saturday’s game with her second-highest goal total this season, second only to a career-high-tying performance against Albany to open the season.

Medjid also contributed substantially to BC’s effort on Saturday with three goals on seven shots. She has the second-most goals on the team with 14 and a .519 shooting percentage.

On

BC’s

BC’s

ern

COURTESY OF BC ATHLETICS

Ethan Ott

the defensive side, BC goalie Rachel Hall recorded 10 saves on 21 shots. She has started all of BC’s games so far this season and currently boasts a .398 save percentage. Virginia’s Charlie Campbell, meanwhile, recorded 12 saves on 32 shots.

win over Virginia marks its third against a ranked opponent this season. The Eagles beat No. 15 South-

California and No. 22 UMass in

their second and third games of the season. UVA is BC’s highest-ranked win so far this season, and the Eagles have the potential to add to their resume with games against ranked opponents No. 17 Louisville and No. 12 Duke in the near future.

win over Virginia proves the Eagles are capable of competing at the highest level and bodes well for the rest of their season.

KRISTIAN LAMARRE / FOR THE HEIGHTS

Charlotte North recorded her second-highest goal total of this season with seven in a win over No. 9 Virginia.

By Lucas Girardi Heights Staff

Following an exhilarating two-out, eight-run, ninth-inning comeback in the final game of its series at Auburn last week, No. 17/13 Boston College baseb all could not provide the same intensity at No. 10/15 Louisville, getting swept for the first time this season. BC’s series concluded with an 8-6 loss to the Cardinals, a disappointing end to what looked like a promising game.

BC (9-5, 2-4 Atlantic Coast), however, showed signs of life in the series, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the closer. But the Eagles couldn’t finish the job, and BC’s pitchers couldn’t handle the hot bats of the Cardinals (11-4, 4-2).

After the Eagles jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the second inning, t he Cardinals rallied back to tie it at four apiece, scoring one run in t he third and three in the fifth. BC quickly responded with two runs in the top of the seventh to take a 6-4 l ead, but costly BC errors and timely hitting gave way to four Louisville runs in the bottom of the eighth for an advantage that held for the remainder of the game.

“I told the guys, ‘Hey, it’s a long season, there’s still a long way to go, just keep doing what we’re doing,’” BC head coach Mike Gambino said after t he game. “And honestly after this w eekend I still told them, ‘there’s still a lot of season left, it’s a long season, keep doing what we’re doing.’”

Birdball struggled to finish out innings on a high note and take advant age of runners on base. BC bats went a measly 0-for-10 on two-out hitting compared to Louisville’s 8-for-15. The

Eagles also left 11 runners on base and squeaked out only one extra-base hit, while the Cardinals posted six.

BC bats came out ready to put the ball in play, notching three singles in just the first inning alone. With two on, Luke Gold brought Brian Dempsey home with a sacrifice fly to center field to put the Eagles on the scoreboard first, and Jack Cunningham then ripped an RBI single to right field that brought Sal Frelick home.

Cunningham went 3-for-4 on the day.

“Jack gives you good at-bats, he gives you good situational hitting, and there’s thump there, so it was really good having him back in the lineup,” Gambino said.

Down 2-0 entering the top of the second, Louisville’s Christian Knapczyk made a crucial throwing error on a ground ball by Frelick, allowing BC to add two more runs to its lead.

BC right-hander Alex Stiegler came in to relieve lefty Joe Vetrano in the third, and he gave up two hits but no walks and no runs over his two innings.

After reaching on a fielder’s choice, BC catcher Peter Burns caught Luke Brown stealing. In the same at-bat, Louisville’s Henry Davis homered to left field, cutting the gap to 4-1. Davis went 4-for-5 with two runs and a double.

Stiegler seemed to be finding his groove after going three-up, threedown on 10 pitches in the fourth.

The fifth inning, however, told a different story. He earned the first two outs of the inning, but Cooper Bowman sparked a two-out rally for the Cardinals with a double down the leftfield line. Bowman’s was the first of four hits in a row for Louisville, which concluded with a two-RBI double by

Left-hander Garrett Schmeltz entered the game in the fourth to relieve Luke Smith and gave up four runs—two of them earned—on seven hits in three innings.

BC left two runners on base in the top of the sixth after Dante Baldelli bunted and Dempsey singled to center. Jack Perkins came in to relieve Schmeltz and posted three strikeouts, two hits, and a walk while leaving the Eagles scoreless over 2.2 innings.

On the other side of the ball, righthander Max Gieg entered the game in the bottom of the sixth to relieve Stiegler following his three-run fifth inning. Stiegler struck out two but

gave up four runs on six hits over his three innings.

BC escaped the stalemate in the seventh after Cunningham led off with a single and Ramon Jimenez drew a 3-2 walk in the next at-bat. Cameron Leary then laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners. Vince Cimini ripped a two-RBI double down the right-field line on the very first pitch to give the Eagles a 6-4 lead. Gieg had another productive inning, this time only throwing nine pitches, and BC appeared to be headed toward victory.

But BC’s luck quickly changed. With two on base, Gieg made a wild throw to first base, allowing Cameron Masterman to score from second and Lucas Dunn to advance to third. The

Eagles still held a 6-5 lead following the error but were cornered into a dangerous situation with runners in scoring position. Knapczyk then crushed a triple to the right-center gap to bring both runners home, givin g the Cardinals their first lead of the game at 7-6.

Following the error, Gieg hit another batter on the first pitch, and Gambino pulled him for lefty Joey Walsh. Knapczyk then scored due to another throwing error. With two runners on, Walsh escaped the jam by getting Davis to ground out into a double play.

Kaleb Corbett earned the save for Louisville, only giving up one walk to BC in the ninth and punching out two of the other three batters.

Anderson’s No-Hitter Fuels 10-0 Victory

By Sam Arcamone Heights Staff

In its first nine games, Boston College softball posted a record of 2-7. That record was hardly indicative of the team’s production.

What the record doesn’t show is some tough-luck losses, most of which had final scores within a four-run margin and all of which were hard-fought.

After a crushing walk-off loss to NC State on Feb. 20, the Eagles had ample time to meditate over it with a two-week layoff.

Over the break, the Eagles went to work and emerged on their home turf as a machine firing on all cylinders. Since the Eagles’ return to the diamond, they have given up two total hits in two games. After CC Cook silenced Bryant in the Eagles’ home opener, BC ace Susannah Anderson took the circle and pitched a no-hitter to take down UMass (0-2) 10-0 for BC’s second straight run rule victory.

After somewhat of a rocky start to the season, Anderson found her footing to begin Friday’s game against cross-state rival UMass, and she made her exit five innings later, two hit batters away from a perfect game. The shutout marked the 10th of Anderson’s career, moving her into sole possession of third place for most shutouts in program history.

Anderson held the Minutewomen hitless through five innings, and she sat down the last ten batters she faced in order.

UMass hitters barely had time to set their cleats in the dirt of the batters’ box before Anderson retired them. Six of UMass’ 15 outs were strikeouts, and no balls put in play left the infield.

The offense fed off Anderson’s energy and posted 10 runs in four innings at the plate.

With each inning Anderson completed, the Eagles reached the dugout determined to match her intensity. BC peppered the UMass outfield with extra-base hits, tallying a season-high

seven doubles on the day. After four and a half innings, the Eagles had racked up enough runs for a run rule, ending the game early.

The Giery sisters, Kristin and Nicole, shined for BC. Kristin plated the first run of the game in the first inning with an RBI single, scoring Ellie Mataya, who walked to begin the inning.

The hit set the table for Emme Martinez, who followed Kristin with a bases-clearing double, extending the Eagles’ lead to 3-0 after one. In the fifth, with two runners in scoring position, Nicole delivered a two-RBI single to center field, cementing a BC victory. Overall, the Giery sisters combined for a 4-of-5 day at the plate and drove in four runs.

Mataya, the Eagles’ leadoff hitter, did not make an out against the Minutewomen. She worked counts for two walks, added on a single and a double, and didn’t make an out on the base paths, completing her flawless day.

Cook, coming off an impressive

pitching outing against Bryant, made her presence known at the plate.

She broke the game open in the third with a two-RBI double, scoring Nicole and Gianna Boccagno to make the score 6-0.

The Eagles’ pitching staff has recently been on a mission. Cook, Anderson, and Peyton Schnackenberg have overwhelmed opposing batters, holding them scoreless in the Eagles’ last two games.

The Eagles’ offense posted 18 runs in 10 innings at the plate over the last two contests.

BC’s game against UMass marked the second of a seven-game homestand for the Eagles.

With in-state rivals BU and UMass Lowell on the horizon, followed by a two-game series against Stony Brook, the Eagles have a little more time to warm up before heading into the thick of ACC competiti on.

BC’s two most recent competitions have been a stark contrast to the Eagles’ opening few games, but they seem to have finally found their footing.

BC Is Good, but It’s Not Playing up To Its Potential

3-for-4, two-home run performance against Rhode Island, his .277 average is hardly on par with what is expected of this year’s No. 43 MLB Draft prospect. He hit .320 as a freshman in 2019, and is set to exceed that this season if his .448 2020 average is any indication.

Morissette’s slow start proves that BC will not need to only rely on its stars this season to win games. The trio of Mason Pelio, Frelick, and Morissette were to credit for much of BC’s preseason relevance, but three players alone cannot lead a team to greatness.

Pelio can only pitch in a fraction of BC’s games, and Frelick and Morissette account for just 22 percent of the Eagles’ offense. Other players on the roster have to step up as well, and so far not everyone has. BC is averaging almost seven runs per game with an offense largely playing short of its potential.

Defensively, Pelio is also off to a slightly rocky start. Pelio is rated as the No. 31 draft prospect, but his 5.21 earned run average (ERA) is lower than the cumulative ERA from his

freshman year—the last full year the junior played. He started the season with five shutout innings in a win against Charleston Southern but has been inconsistent since.

He gave up six runs in four innings in his next start against Duke but came back against Auburn, pitching 5.2 shutout innings for the win. Discounting his Duke and Louisville losses, Pelio has been near perfect, so his ERA should start to drop soon, but his early inconsistency could become a problem.

Joey Walsh has been a consistent highlight of BC’s pitching staff. Walsh’s 3.12 ERA seems about average, but it is nothing to be alarmed at. His worst outing so far came in his start against Duke where he went for 3.2 innings and gave up four runs, only two of which were earned.

That outing would not be optimal for a starting pitcher, but Walsh is not a starting pitcher. It’s unclear exactly which role Walsh plays, but with just one start and three out of four of BC’s saves, his use extends far beyond that of a starter.

Walsh is also unusual as a closer. He has thrown for at least three innings in two out of three saves this

season, hinting at stamina greater than that of the average closer. His best performance of the season came in BC’s comeback win over Auburn when Walsh threw two lights-out innings, limiting the Tigers to one hit and earning his first win of the season.

BC’s first- and fourth-most used pitchers, Emmet Sheehan and Alex Stiegler, have also struggled up to this point in the season. Sheehan is boasting a 6.75 ERA over four starts, and Stiegler has posted a more excusable 6.43 ERA over 14 innings in relief.

BC’s pitching has, overall, been underperforming, yet the Eagles have still been winning. If its offense continues producing at the rate it has been, BC’s pitching won’t need to do much to win games. At No. 13 in the country, however, BC is not just trying to win games. Pitching wins championships, and BC’s whole staff will need to be performing at the top of its game if it wants a run at Omaha.

If I had predicted BC’s record up until this point on opening day I would have guessed 8-6. BC’s sweep over Charleston Southern was not a surprise, and it would have made sense to give the Eagles at least one win against Duke, Auburn, and Lou-

isville. Add on gimme wins against Maine and Rhode Island and that’s the season so far. Instead, BC took two against both Duke and Auburn while dropping all three to Louisville, resulting in two unexpected wins and a 9-5 record.

But what does 9-5 really mean?

BC has had seven for-sure wins, four for-sure losses, two flip-flop wins, and one flip-flop loss. One flip-flop win came against Duke and the other came against Auburn while BC’s flipflop loss came against Louisville.

BC won its third game against Duke 5-2, but it could have gone either way. In the bottom of the seventh, Duke had two runners on with just one out. An extra-base hit would have scored at least one and could have sparked a rally. Instead, the Blue Devils left both stranded. In the eighth, Duke was in an even better position with runners on first and third and no outs. A home run would have tied the game, but instead, Stiegler retired three straight Duke batters.

The Eagles should not have won their final game against Auburn. Few teams have ever come back down eight runs with two outs in the ninth, so while amazing, BC’s ability to do so

can be chalked up to luck.

BC also had a solid shot at winning the third game in its series against Louisville. The Eagles led 4-0 in the second inning, and later led 6-4 in the seventh. Had it not been for Louisville’s four-run bottom of the eighth, BC would have walked away with a two-run win.

Adjusted for flip-flops, BC should be just about 8.25-5.75. Its actual 9-5 record is a product of a combination of luck and clutch baseball. The underperforming Eagles have earned their bright start, but the road ahead will be challenging.

The ACC is full of top baseball teams, many of which will go head to head with the Eagles in the next couple of weeks.

Luckily, BC really is that good, it just hasn’t shown its full potential yet. If its entire roster can play up to expectations, BC should have a historic season.

If its roster can exceed expectations, don’t be surprised if BC makes it more than a couple of rounds in the College World Series. If the luck of the first couple of weeks holds, BC might just be able to bring rings back to Brighton.

COURTESY OF BC ATHLETICS

Alex Binelas, bringing home Brown and Davis to tie the game up at four.

Luke Gold recorded an RBI in the Eagles’ two-point loss to Louisville to close out the three-game weekend series.

TO SEE IS TO BELIEVE

g

-

By Emma Healy Sports Editor

Jocelyn Gates’ phone bill has probably never been higher than it was for the four years she worked at the University of South Florida.

Call after call and text after text went out to athletics administrators across the country trying—begging—to schedule football games. On the receiving end of most of those countless calls and text messages? Martin Jarmond, who at the time worked for Ohio State University.

After Jarmond turned Gates and USF down once, she resolved to text him at least once a month until he agreed.

“He needed to know I was serious about getting this game,” Gates said.

It was a tall task, seeing as USF wasn’t—and still isn’t—a Power Five program, while Ohio State certainly was. Every text she sent elicited the same response: no. To this day, USF still hasn’t played Ohio State in football. But it wasn’t for a lack of trying on Gates’ part.

“She almost wore me down,” Jarmond said. “That is a real talent and skill of hers: that she can connect. And y ou see it as an administrator because she can talk to student-athletes, she can talk to staff and administrators on campus—she connects well with people. And that’s a gift that she has. She’s always had that.”

Though she never secured a game against Ohio State, with those constant texts, Gates laid the foundation for her ascent into the highest ranks of athletics administration.

Jarmond took note of her persistence, and as a result, extended a hand when he found himself in a position to help her.

Gates graduated from Howard University with a degree in biology and a plan to be a dental researcher, but not long after graduation, her career took a sharp turn. After deciding not to show up to her scheduled MCAT twice, she realized that another path lay in front of her.

Gates, who was a four-year player on Howard’s soccer team, soon understood that she wanted to pursue a career in sports without giving up the chance to help people. After Gates made a few stops at the NCAA headquarters and universities across the country, Jarmond hired her to serve as the senior associate athletics director and senior woman administrator at Boston College. She is also BC’s deputy Title IX coordinator.

“I always told him ‘when you become an athletic director I’m gonna work for you,’” Gates said of Jarmond.

He knew her, of course, from the countless texts she had sent him and the handful of in-person meetings they had, but it was a conversation with Kevin White, the athletics director at Duke University, that convinced him she was the right hire.

“He said ‘I don’t care what you’re looking for. Jocelyn is the person,’” Jarmond said, recalling a conversation he had with White in 2017. “And that was

it. I mean, I remember that was probably the strongest indication [to hire her]. … It starts and ends with Jocelyn.”

White and Gates worked together at Duke for four years prior to her role at South Florida. He was, and still is, the head honcho for the Blue Devils, and she, despite having a master’s degree, was just his assistant at the time.

“He had a vision for this role to help somebody grow, and he wanted to help a minority specifically grow,” Gates said of White. “I knew that this was where I was supposed to be, and that if I had not taken the job, I would not be where I am in my career right now. He has propelled me in ways that I can’t even imagine.”

White is one of a select group of people in Gates’ life who she calls “champions”—those mentors with whom she has a deeper connection and who will have her back without her even asking. So though her title said she was an “assistant,” she was at the table for every big meeting and every major decision.

have a place in any room they want to be in. They have a voice to stand strong. To know that and then also to know that people have their backs, and it’s so important for me in particular to know that I want all students on campus to know like I have your back.”

After Jarmond’s departure to UCLA last summer, Gates is now the highest-ranking per-

I get to break out of being who I am—I get to the fun side of me.”

Growing up, Gates said she had her mom to look up to, and when she went off to college, she had her professors. But only about 6 percent of BC faculty is Black, and though 39 percent of new hires this year identify as AHANA, BC students of color have to work harder to find role models who look like them, Gates said.

As a result, whether it was intentional or not, Gates has evolved into the same sort of figures she used to admire.

She strives to be someone her son Duke and her step-daughter, or “bonus daughter,” Avery can look up to, and she gives Black students at BC a role model in the administration who looks like them.

“You know, a lot of times, you need to see what you can be,” Jarmond said.

her,” Perry said. Gates and Perry overlapped briefly at Duke, where Perry was the assistant coach for Duke women’s basketball. Their interaction was brief, and they met by chance after discovering they attended the same church, but they developed their friendship from afar over the last decade.

Gates was even a bridesmaid at Perry’s wedding.

“I have this picture of me … and my [other] best friend who’s holding my hands, talking to me right before, like moments before I’m about to go down the aisle,” Perry said. “And you see Jocelyn in the view from the mirror in the picture, looking on, just admiring the moment, not worrying about a moment for her.”

Over a decade later, Gates now champions for BC student-athletes just like White did for her over a decade ago. As a former student-athlete herself, Gates has an intimate understanding of the challenges which many of the people she works with face every day. But she doesn’t limit her scope to student-athletes of color, or even just to student-athletes.

“It’s important for our students— not just for student-athletes—for our students on campus to know that there are people in leadership that look like them,” Gates said. “And because I have people in leadership that look like me that allowed me to know that I can get there as well.”

Her identity as a Black woman is central to her work in a way that not only builds rapport with students, but goes a step further to prove to them that she is acutely aware of the struggles and hardships that they face, particularly for minority students at a predominantly white institution.

“Being a Black woman is everything to me,” Gates said. “It’s so important, and my passion is helping Black people and Black students feel great about themselves and understand that they

female, in BC’s athletics department. But being alone at the top is not an unfamiliar feeling to Gates.

“She’s a trailblazer, seriously, at every school that she’s at she just continues to rise and be mentors to other people,” Heather Burris, one of Gates’ best friends, said. “And I think that she is definitely a champion for inclusion and diversity, especially related to women’s sports and higher athletics.”

Gates and Burris met at Howard as freshmen, and the two have been inseparable since. Burris would spend weekends and holidays with Gates’ family, who lived nearby, and though Gates’ soccer schedule kept her busy—Burris admitted to having never attended one of her games—they always found a way to unwind at the end of the day.

To her friends, Gates is the life of the party, and Burris said having her at any event infuses boundless energy and joy into the room.

“She wants to be a good dancer,” Burris said. “She’s not great. She’s not horrible, but she loves a good routine.” Dancing skills—or lack thereof— aside, Gates is unabashedly enthusiastic in her friendships

“And to see is to believe it, and Jocelyn, being a female, being a minority, and being a former student-athlete, she embodies some of the some of the traits and values and characteristics that we want our young people to have or aspire to be.”

What Gates took from her experience at Howard, in addition to lifelong friendships and a top-tier education, was the knowledge that as a Black woman, she

Gates’ work doesn’t end when she’s off the Heights. In fact, it doesn’t end ever, because she views her role as one of constant compassion. When Perry ran into a seemingly unsolvable problem with one of the student-athletes she coaches at UCLA, Gates was her first outlet.

Perry turned to Gates for her perspective on the situation, which Gates readily offered.

“She didn’t have to give that information and talk to me or my student-athlete about, you know, ‘This is what I recommend,’” Perry said. “... And so I think she cares about just the athletes in general, not just her own.”

The persistence she showed in trying desperately to schedule a game against Ohio State all those years ago wasn’t the catalyst of her career—we may never know what truly sparked her unwavering desire for progress—but it was certainly indicative of a larger pattern.

At each stop in her career, Gates has turned heads for the caliber of work she produces and for the smile plastered across her face as she does it.

the majority of people in her field to get half as far.

But she doesn’t seem to carry that attitude with a sense of bitterness. Instead, her voice exuded gratitude as she spoke about all of the hard work she has put in to earn her plentiful career opportunities.

“We just have to be that much better than everybody else, because nobody’s gonna hand us anything,” Gates said.

“We do not have the silver spoon. We have to network. ... I had to advocate for myself. I had to put my name out there. I had to get out there and meet people, even if it’s uncomfortable to do so, because no one is sitting here and doing that for me.”

“You know, I’ve loved seeing her become more confident because I think sometimes she would doubt herself, just like all of us do,” Jarmond said. “But she is, she is supremely talented.”

She’s earned national recognition as well, earning the title of FBS Administrator of the Year in September 2020.

“I almost cried,” Gates said about earning the honor. “I had no idea. I mean, it’s such an amazing accolade to receive, because, you know, it’s not like you’re out there boasting about yourself, but then you’re realizing that others see the hard work you do and then they appreciate you.”

Though to her friends and coworkers, she handles her work with an effortless grace, much of the work Gates puts in often goes unnoticed. The simple act of checking in on one student-athlete during finals or recommending another for a job seems small, but it’s the small things which set Gates apart.

just wants to make sure that everyone has a good time that everyone feels good about themselves,” Shannon Perry, another one of Gates’ best friends, said. “Whenever I get around her, it’s

For some people, such an attitude is bound to create a chip on the shoulder. Gates, however, navigates her career, friendships, and life with the utmost sense of humility.

“It’s never about her. It never has been in any capacity that I have known

“I think part of the reason why I’m able to be in a role like this, I guess in a leadership role, is because I just bust my tail,” Gates said. “I’m working really hard, and I’m not looking at the job ahead of me. I’m looking at the job

in and how I can do awesome at what I’m doing.”

Martin Jarmond, former BC Athletics Director

Photos Courtesy of Jocelyn Gates