The Heights Feb 23, 2015

DINING PULLS THROUGH

RUNWAY IN LYONS TAKEN FOR GRANTED

FEATURES

ARTS & REVIEW

SPORTS

BC Dining Services braves four winter storms in three weeks to feed students, A8

The Fashion Club held its second annual Fashion Show this weekend, B8

Strong offensive efforts by Brown, Clifford, and Hanlan cannot stop No. 10 Notre Dame, B1

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HEIGHTS

THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

established

1919

Monday, February 23, 2015

Vol. XCVI, No. 11

elections

Ca

d Mik n a y d e i s s

a n d Jo s e m se Ja

1,486

1,168

757

Th a i om v as and Oli

Napoli and Hussey take UGBC election, will serve as president and executive vice president

BY CAROLYN FREEMAN News Editor Glints of navy blue, green, and teal sparkled in celebrations around campus after a Friday night announcement that Thomas Napoli, A&S ’16, and Olivia Hussey, A&S ’17, would serve as the president and executive vice president, respectively, of the Undergraduate Student Government of Boston College (UGBC) for the 2015-16 school year. The decision, handed down by the elections committee, came after Napoli and Hussey concluded the election with

a 318-point margin over their closest competitors, Cassidy Gallegos, LSOE ’16, and Michael Keefe, A&S ’16.

Candidates James Kale, LSOE ’16, and Jose Altomari, A&S ’16, rounded off the candidate list, finishing third in the race.

Napoli and Hussey earned 1,486 votes; Gallegos and Keefe earned 1,168 votes; and Kale and Altomari earned 757 votes. In total, 3,411 students voted—over one-third of the undergraduate student population. The majority of the junior and senior votes went to Gallegos and Keefe, while the majority of the freshman and

sophomore votes went to Napoli and Hussey.

This is a decrease from last year, when 4,332 students voted.

The Napoli-Hussey campaign platform consisted of three divisions: advocating, uniting, and improving. Much of the team’s plan related to Napoli’s work as chair of UGBC’s Institutional Policy Review committee. A revision of the BC student guide and a comprehensive free speech proposal were central to the team’s proposed reforms.

“Olivia and I are both incredibly honored to have received the support of the BC com-

munity,” Napoli said. “We cannot wait to get started working with students across campus in pursuit of a unified campus voice.”

Moving forward, Napoli and Hussey will pick the other vice presidents to make up the rest of the members of the Executive Council.

All of the vice presidents will be appointed by Napoli and Hussey except for the vice president of Diversity and Inclusion, which is elected within the AHANA Leadership Council and the GLBTQ Leadership Council.

See Election Results, A3

In Copley, a convergence of culture at Annual Ball DI Programming Board hosts ball to celebrate AHANA community

BY JENN SUH Heights Staff Nearly 650 students gathered at the Westin Copley Place in downtown Boston to celebrate the AHANA community at the Annual Ball on Saturday night, hosted by the Undergraduate Student Government of Boston College (UGBC). The four-hour long event, which ran from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., was planned and organized by the Diversity and Inclusion (DI) Programming Board, a subdivision of UGBC. “The purpose of The Annual Ball is to have an event where students can come together and have fun in

an inclusive and open environment,” said Alisha Wright, manager of the DI Programming Board and A&S ’15, in an email. “We really like Ball because it brings together people of so many different backgrounds and walks of life, and that has become a major goal for this event.”

The theme of the event was “Arabian Nights,” and posters explaining the history behind different facets of international culture were displayed throughout the ballroom.

“We chose Arabian Nights as our theme because we thought it would be beautiful, and because we wanted to be able to teach our guests about a culture that may be unfamiliar to them—in this case it was Saudi Arabian culture,” Seth Blanke, assistant manager of the DI

See Annual Ball, A3

JOHN WILEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Lily Peng, A&S ’17, cofounded the BC chapter of Lean In, and has been serving as co-chair of the upcoming “Own It” women’s summit.

Confidently bridging BC’s gender gap Sophomore Lily Peng takes leadership on women’s issues to larger scale with summit

BY JOHN WILEY Editor-in-Chief

YANYI WENG / HEIGHTS STAFF

The Westin Copley Place played host to the Annual Ball, sponsored by UGBC, on Saturday night.

Lily Peng, A&S ’17, remembers her hometown of West Hartford, Conn. as a bubble. Before arriving at Boston College, she had given little thought to women’s issues. Her father—a scientist who Peng remembers little of growing up—died of cancer when she was 10. Peng’s mother worked under her father in the same laboratory, and after his death, was left to find another job. As Peng entered West Hartford’s Hall High School, her mother enrolled in an MBA program, beginning work toward a degree that would take six years to earn attending night classes after work. (She would receive her diploma at

age 50, the same year her daughter enrolled at BC.) As Peng continued her schooling, her mother would frequently remind her that, as immigrants from China, she and her father arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York with only 50 United States dollars to their names. That it was important to not stress herself out and enjoy her education. And that the problems Peng faced were relatively small when compared with the issues women of her mother’s generation were forced to confront.

Peng spent her high school years heavily involved in volunteer work, founding a club for it in her high school and then serving as co-president. She never particularly noticed in West Hartford barri-

ers that might limit the accomplishments of female students. Coming to Chestnut Hill, Mass., she was particularly surprised to hear a 2012 statistic that the average woman at BC would see her self-esteem significantly diminished as an undergraduate—while the average man would leave with an increased sense of confidence (all while maintaining a lower GPA than his female classmates).

The fall of her freshman year, Peng was quick to notice male students dominating classroom discussions. She would find herself silently sitting with answers to questions the professors would ask. Men in the classroom would respond quickly (and ofttimes incorrectly) while Peng’s thoughts frequently went unshared.

At the 2013 University involvement fair, Peng signed up for BC’s Women in

See Own It, A8

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things to do on campus this week

Rev. Michael Himes and student speakers will talk about their experiences finding genuine happiness in their lives at the Happiness Talks, Monday at 7:00 p.m. in Devlin 008. The talk, which has been postponed twice due to weather, is part of the BC Happiness Project.

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Monday, February 23, 2015

The Arts and Sciences Honors Program will sponsor a talk about the real cost of making movies in China and in America on Monday at 6:30 p.m. in Stokes 195S. Speakers will include a former studio executive, a translator, and a cultural critic.

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This year’s Clough Colloquium talk will feature Ambassador Karen Hughes, the former counselor to President George W. Bush and Under Secretary for Public diplomacy and Public Affairs. She will speak Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. in Gasson 100.

News RHA’s ‘Cribs’ showcases student dorm rooms Briefs

By Sophie Reardon Heights Staff

Faculty Honors Three faculty members within the Marketing Department of the Carroll School of Management recently received three high-profile awards for their work and research.

Assistant professor Hristina Nikolova was awarded with the 2014 John A. Howar/AMA Doctoral Dissertation Award for her research on joint decision-making for couples, focusing on the tensions in choosing between instant gratification and long-term benefits.

Assistant professor Nailya Ordabayeva was recognized for her work in co-authoring an article, “Getting Ahead of the Joneses: When Equality Increases Conspicuous Consumption among Bottom-Tier Consumers.” Ordabayeva was awarded the 2014 Journal of Consumer Research award, which is chosen by the Journal’s policy board from the articles published in 2011’s Journal of Consumer Research. Finally, Kay Lemon, marketing department chair and accenture professor, was awarded for her article, “Capturing the Evolution of Customer-Firm Relationships: How Customers Become More (or Less) Valuable Over Time,” which examines the factors that affect the profitability of customers over time. The article won the Journal of Retailing Davidson Award.

Awareness Melissa Sutherland, assistant professor in the Connell School of Nursing, was given a grant from the National Institutes of Health of $169,892 for the continuation of her research. Sutherland’s research focuses on the perpetration of violence against college women.

Sutherland seeks to address and bring awareness to the issue of sexual assault—an issue that is prevalent on college campuses and has recently accrued much attention from the media—through her research. The grant will last two years and is funded by the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

With the grant funding, Sutherland intends to survey 1,000 female students that have used campus health centers across five schools in New York and Massachusetts, to assess the clinics’ service of students.

Sutherland hopes that her research will help materialize better intervention strategies in dealing with violence against college women.

MDMA crisis In Middletown, Conn., 11 Wesleyan University students have been hospitalized on Sunday due to an apparent MDMA overdose—a drug commonly referred to as Molly—on Saturday night, according to NBC Connecticut.

The University’s vice president of student affairs, Dean Michael Whaley, sent out a letter to the school community at 11 a.m. on Sunday, noting that a Wesleyan sophomore is in critical condition at Middlesex Hospital, and two other students were hospitalized, in less serious condition but with similar symptoms.

Later in the day, an ambulance transported three more students with similar symptoms to the hospital, according to a follow-up email Whaley sent to students just before 2 p.m. A spokeswoman for the University later sent a follow-up statement confirming that seven students were transported and another four went directly to the hospital for treatment.

Boston College students now have the opportunity to showcase their living space in BC’s version of MTV Cribs. The Student Programming Committee (SPC), a subset of the Residence Hall Association (RHA), is hosting the second annual BC Cribs now through March 31st.

“My roommate came up with the idea last year,” said Henry Bolo, co-vice president of SPC and CSOM ’16. “Each BC room has its own character and personality and he thought it would be a cool way to see how everyone sets up their room. We were also trying to do as many events and initiatives that would digitally engage students, and Cribs fit the criterion perfectly.”

In the competition’s first year there were eight video submissions. But RHA is hoping to get more this year.

“Last year was a huge hit,” said Nancy Au, SPC co-vice president and CSOM ’15. “We created a Facebook page ... so that people could solely access the Cribs videos and it got over 600 likes on the page by the time it was over, which was awesome.”

To be eligible for a shot at the 500 dollar cash prize, a contestant’s video must be about five minutes and should give a tour

Patricia Doherty, the director and senior research scientist at the Institute for Scientific Research (ISR) at Boston College, recently received the 2014 Distinguished Service Award.

Doherty won the award in recognition of her initiative to help developing countries derive social and economic benefits from satellite-based technology.

In addition to this honor, the Institute of Navigation (ION) presented Doherty the 2014 Weems Award for her contributions to the management and encouragement of advanced navigation research.

The mission of ISR is to conduct experimental and theoretical research on space physics, the solar-terrestrial environment, and space weather to promote ethical and innovative change, she said.

The ISR aims to prove highquality research publications to contribute to the education of future scientist—it hopes to contribute the education of scientists and represent BC as a scientific research leader, Doherty said.

Her position at ISR requires Doherty to manage research contracts and grants. Doherty also supervises a group of ap-

1:44 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a well-being check on a BC student off campus.

1:32 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm activation in the Flynn Recreation Complex. The Boston Fire Department responded.

Friday, Feb. 20 1:13 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported to a medical facility by ambulance from the Upper Dorm roadways.

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PHoto courtesy of RHA

The winner of the second annual installment of RHA’s ‘BC Cribs’ will receive a 500 dollar cash prize. of his or her room. The contestant can then submit the video to RHA, and it will then be posted on the BC Cribs Facebook page.

Whichever video gets the most likes wins the competition.

Last year, the prize was split between two teams. The money for the prize comes from RHA’s budget, Bolo said.

The winning room last year was from 90 St. Thomas More Rd. In the video, the six BC students who live there give a tour of their two bedroom, one bath suite. The video closely mimics an episode of MTV Cribs. In the video, Kevin Slocum, CSOM ’16, raves about the apartment’s wooden table, as well as its view of a slice

proximately 40 scientists whose research focuses on various scientific fields.

“The overall scope of our group’s research encompasses everything from the center of the Sun to the surface of the Earth,” Doherty said. “This includes studies of solar physics, space physics, space chemistry, space weather, radio wave propagation, satellite studies, and stellar calibrations.”

Doherty has recently been studying space weather, which describes conditions in space that affect Earth.

To do so, Doherty has focused her attention on the Global Positioning System (GPS), which can be used to navigate from one place to another.

“GPS has many applications that can be used for societal and economic benefits, including precision farming, emergency location systems, natural resource monitoring, fleet tracking, monitoring the location of vulnerable citizens,” Doherty said. “GPS is a great resource for scientific exploration. In our research, we have been using specialized GPS monitoring equipment to study space weather around the world.”

ISR can help scientists around the world by providing the latest scientific technology to scientists around the world, especially in countries that lack continuous

POLICE BLOTTER Thursday, Feb. 19

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of Commonwealth Ave. The videos would allow students an insight into the rooms they could potentially have in the coming years, Au said.

“With BC housing, some people go in blind choosing whatever residence hall they heard was the place to be,” she said. “So BC Cribs gives people a taste of what it could be like living in Walsh, in 90, or even on Newton. BC also becomes your home away from home. These residence halls, apartments, and houses become extensions of who BC students are. It’s a great way for people to get to know their fellow students and how they live.”

The competition brings the BC community together—it is something that everyone can talk about, Au said. She said her favorite was the first video submitted, from Walsh 323.

In this video, the BC students joke about how they “won the lottery” in getting an eight man in Walsh. The guys boast about the rooms features—a shower, a toilet, two chairs, two chairs, two lamps, and a sink to not do the dishes.

“The bar was set high last year, but the SPC team is working their butts off to make this year even better,” Bolo said. “I dare anyone to watch any of the videos and not laugh once.” n

Doherty uses GPS technology in developing countries

By Yolanda Bastillo Heights Staff

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and reliable research.

By supplying this type of research, ISR demonstrates its dedication to its mission, which focuses on improving regions of the world where there has been few continuous scientific research projects.

“Our worldwide networks of GPS space weather monitors provides new information on the physics of the ionosphere by providing measurements” Doherty said. “Bringing GPS technology and space research to developing countries has a positive effect on their future development.”

Doherty explained that her love for science came about at an early age. She emphasized that she was in the right place at the right time to work with GPS. “As a child, I hoped to be an astronaut. But considering my fear of heights, I had to find another way to satisfy my interest,” Doherty said. “This new technology just exploded with possibilities for scientific research.”

With such de velopment s in her own research, Doherty wonders what other research she will conduct. When looking toward the future of space research, Doherty believes that the field will only expand and improve over time. No scientific technology is perfect, Doherty said. Each has room to grow and become more precise with

adjustments.

“GPS has given us so many opportunities to study the ionosphere, the Sun-Earth connection and the effects of space weather around the world,” Doherty said.

“However, GPS is not perfect. It has limitations, errors sources and is susceptible to signal interruption and jamming.”

Although GPS technology is not always precise in nature, Doherty believes in an evergrowing scientific technology.

ISR’s mission to help developing countries continues to stay true, especially with the addition of other scientific systems that are in the process of developing. Doherty is in the middle of submitting another proposal for further space weather research.

The ISR wishes to support the Federal Aviation Administration’s efforts to define performance capabilities of aviation systems using the next generation of GNSS satellites and signals.

“At this time, however, GPS is being upgraded with stronger signals and signals with specific purposes such as civilian applications and aviation,” Doherty said. “In addition, other constellations of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are in development. With so many more signals and greater signal strength, we will have greater opportunities from our studies.” n

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02/18/15 - 02/23/15

2:43 a.m. - A report was filed regarded assistance provided to another police department.

3:02 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student on Campanella Way.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

What is BC’s biggest rival, BU or Notre Dame?

“BU, it’s closer. And I respect Notre Dame more than BU.” —Dan Cunningham, CSOM ‘18 “ND, there’s more hype, they have a football team, and they’re Catholic.”

—Jake Grossbaum, A&S 18

“I think it’s BU because hockey is our best sport.”

—Seamus Cassidy, A&S ‘16 “Definitely BU because there’s nothing like a crosstown rivalry.”

—Riley Soward, CSOM ‘18

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The Heights

Monday, February 23, 2015

Napoli and Hussey intend to enact change via transparency, advocacy Election Results, from A1 Napoli and Hussey emphasized that their young, enthusiastic team was critical to secure their election. They employed a slightly different campaign strategy than other teams by appointing members of their team to specific roles within the campaign. The majority of their team was freshman and sophomores, Napoli said.

“We really put a lot of trust in our team,” he said. “The real difference, though, was the freshman and the sophomores—all of them have such high hopes for UGBC.” In the past six weeks, Napoli and Hussey have met with over 100 different people to gauge the University community. As they prepare for office, the team will continue to meet with administrators, like Dean of Students Thomas Mogan and Mark Miceli, associate director in the Office of Student Involvement (OSI), and student leaders outside of UGBC. The team hopes to be able to work together with students outside UGBC—for example, they would like to be able to meet with presidents of prominent clubs once or twice each semester. The new frontier in advocacy is to collaborate with leaders outside of student government, Napoli said.

Regarding members inside UGBC, Napoli and Hussey want them to focus more on the issues they are passionate about rather than organizational structure.

“Our whole thing is back to basics,” he said. “That means right now Olivia and I need to be prioritizing the organizational structure, valuing the best leaders … really creating a solid groundwork.”

Napoli and Hussey had a 42-page platform that detailed action plans for each of their campaign points. Hussey said this pre-planning will make it possible for them to get started planning events now, rather than spending the next few months making step-by-step

plans. She emphasized that they plan to make their goals public at the beginning of the tenure, so that they will be held accountable not just by OSI, but by the entire student body.

Napoli said the team plans to be honest with their advocacy work in order to create a more transparent student government.

“Part of our platform was a transparency platform point—it was more of a philosophy,” Napoli said. “I think that students get disheartened with UGBC when we make big promises and then it doesn’t happen year after year continuously. Just be more realistic: students can handle the truth.”

According to Hussey, UGBC planning usually happens in September, and then the new administration does not tend to get going until around the middle of the fall semester. Napoli and Hussey hope to have every event and initiative laid out on paper and planned out as much as possible before then, including who UGBC will collaborate with and which division events will originate with. Hussey, who in her new position will head the Student Assembly, plans to speak with the 50 elected senators of Student Assembly to gauge what they are interested in working on.

Over the summer, she said, they can start planning, writing proposals, and talking to administrators, so that the senators can come back in September with much of their work planned out.

“We always want to be improving,” she said. “I think now is the best time because now the student body is so engaged with the election and the issues, that now if we continue this conversation immediately we’ll keep them interested and engaged.”

Napoli emphasized that his campaign was dynamic, note how he and Hussey constantly reevaluated their platform throughout the course of campaign season.

“There’s always a better way to do things,” he said. n

drew hoo / heights Editor

Thomas Napoli and Olivia Hussey will be the next president and executive vice president of UGBC. They emphasized their goal of advocacy.

Annual ball in honor of AHANA community draws crowds to city

yanyi weng / heights staff

The programming board for the Diversity and Inclusion Council of UGBC sponsored the event at the Westin Copley Place in downtown Boston­­—nearly 650 people attended to celebrate the AHANA community of BC.

Annual Ball, from A1 Programming Board and CSOM ’16, said in an email.

The event featured a photo booth, as well as additions that were new and unique to this year’s ball: belly dancers and henna tattoo artists.

“I appreciate that there was an effort to bring excitement and new traditions to the Annual Ball,” said Yvonne Shih, CSON ’15. “The traditional belly dancers helped bring the people in the room at the start of the event.”

“I was surprised that there was a henna station this year, but given the

theme of the night, it was very fitting,” said Noel Kim, LSOE ’15. “The woman who gave me an intricate design on my left hand was very friendly ... Needless to say, I walked away very happy with mine.”

Alex Bou-Rhodes, A&S ’15, whose stage name is DJ Ides, played music for the event throughout the night.

B ou-Rhodes has also played at other events, including the Annual Boat Cruise and the Annual Gala, as well as on and off campus.

“Students always love him, and we really love being able to have students get involved in our events and showcase

their talents, so we thought he was a perfect fit,” Blanke said.

Various kinds of food were served throughout the night and divided into Italian, Mexican, Chinese, and Japanese areas, inside and outside the ballroom.

Among the dishes were pasta, tortellini, bread, tacos, dumplings, shumai, and sushi. The dessert selection ranged from chocolate-covered strawberries to chocolate cake, and beverages were also available.

“The food was very beautifully arranged and appetizing—my personal favorite was the Mexican cuisine,” Lia Zhou, A&S ’17, said. “I really loved the

general mood of the dance. It felt like everyone was extremely happy, energetic, and unaffected by the incessant snow.

Overall, I had an incredible experience, and there’s no doubt in my mind that I’m going to attend again next year.”

The DI Programming Board coordinated with the Westin to figure out the logistics of the event, from food to transportation to decorations.

“We go to the Westin time and time again because of their professionalism and we absolutely could not put on this amazing event without all of their help,” Wright said.

Ten other members of the DI Pro-

gramming Board helped to plan and organize the ball, adding to the organization’s lineup of yearly, large-scale events, including The Annual Boat Cruise, The Annual Gala, and The Annual Showdown, which celebrate the AHANA and GLBTQ communities.

“It’s our job to plan inclusive and enriching events where all students feel comfortable and welcome,” Wright said.

“Each event has many different dynamics and logistics that go into planning it, and the ball is extensive, and we get the chance to work with many different vendors and businesses, which is an awesome experience.” n

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Monday, February 23, 2015

Caffeine on campus: a look at coffee suppliers’ role within BCDining

By Kayla Fernando Heights Staff From the independent coffeehouse to college campuses across the world, the impact coffee has had on innumerable lives is something that will undoubtedly last longer than even the toughest coffee stain. Boston College students are not immune to the siren song of caffeine, and there is a noticeable influx of coffee consumption over the course of the day and at certain peak times of the year.

BC Dining goes through a meticulous process of selecting coffee companies which will provide coveted caffeine for the BC community and prides itself on offering high-quality products to satisfy student demand while keeping in mind its emphasis on social justice in the coffee industry.

BC maintains business with three main coffee suppliers: Peet’s Coffee & Tea, offered in the Chocolate Bar; New England Coffee, offered in the Rat; and Equal Exchange, offered at Hillside Cafe, the Bean Counter, the On the Fly Minimart, and in all campus dining halls.

Between 8 and 3 p.m. are the most popular times of the day to buy coffee, while midterms and finals cause an even larger spike in sales. While each company offers its own unique variety of flavored coffee, all three are socially conscious, certified “fair trade” companies.

“The only coffee we use at BC is ‘fair trade,’” said Michael Kann, associate director of food and beverage of BC Dining Services. “‘Fair trade’ is a program that guarantees the end farmers more dollars per pound of coffee beans. Fair trade companies pay the end farmers almost three times more than do other conglomerate companies.”

These companies are heavily involved in the production and marketing of coffee, working directly with farmers to ensure that both parties benefit in the market. The farmers, most of whom work in developing countries, receive a better income based on the quality of their product. Becoming fair trade certified is a large investment for the company itself—consequently, BC Dining holds these companies in high esteem when they consider potential suppliers.

BC Dining considers new coffee companies every other January in an exhaustive process that takes into account the company’s social mission, product quality, equipment cost, and potential location on campus. Being able to own equipment makes selling

Arthur bailin / Heights editor

The Chocolate Bar offers hand-crafted drinks, supplied by Peet’s Coffee & Tea, and faces its largest crowds during weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. coffee on campus an easier process, and the specialty flavors of coffee a certain company can offer gives it a competitive edge. After agreeing on a prospective company, BC Dining considers its possible location on campus. Often, the atmosphere of a dining location is a deciding factor in determining where a certain brand of coffee will be offered. It is important that the type of coffee that is eventually incorporated into a certain location provides the best complement to its dining atmosphere. “Certain dining locations such as the Chocolate Bar or Hillside offer hand-crafted drinks,” Kann said. “Dining halls like MacElroy and Corcoran Commons have a more ‘grab-and-go’ service.”

Peet’s Coffee & Tea, New England Coffee, and Equal Exchange share among them almost 20 years of partnership with BC. BC Dining depends on the suppliers’

More coffee locations have opened to meet the students’ demands, such as the coffee bar in the On the Fly minimart next to Mac, which opened last eek, and the Bean Counter in Fulton Hall, which opened last Christmas. recommendations as well as individual feedback to satisfy the changing tastes of its clients, often holding focus groups and managerial meetings and asking for student input to improve service.

More coffee locations have opened

to meet the students’ demands, such as the coffee bar in the On the Fly minimart next to MacElroy, which opened last week, and the Bean Counter in Fulton Hall, which opened last Christmas.

Other ways BC Dining seeks to help students is by offering free coffee in libraries during finals. BC Dining Services also encourages students to participate in other sponsored events, such as the annual Barista Competition.

The annual Barista Competition will be held next Wednesday, Feb. 25th at 7:30 p.m. in Hillside Cafe, at which students can support their favorite baristas as they are brought together from the different dining locations on campus to face off, head-to-head in making specialty drinks for a panel of judges, representatives of the coffee companies at BC, and staff of BC Dining alike to determine the best BC barista.

The competition organizes the baristas into a tier breakdown as their drinks are judged for different components— such as presentation and taste—for several rounds. Featured performances by several student clubs and organizations stud the event. “It’s like March Madness,” Kann said, a judge in the competition himself. “Whether they’re full-time employees or students, it’s really fun to watch. It’s a fun atmosphere.”

In the end, coffee has a complex history that often goes unappreciated, even by avid coffee drinkers. In recent years, coffee companies have done much to brand the drink, especially on college campuses. Marketing aside, coffee has always been more than a combination of flavor shots and sugar. “I think coffee has A class status,” Kann said. “It still evokes some memory and has a special place in our hearts.” n

Who married up? Picking who came out on top between Tom and Gisele Maggie Leccese Last weekend, love was on some minds and e ver yone’s newsfeed. It had me wondering if maybe Instagram had released a new filter called “Valentine’s Day,” one whose effect added an airbrush and twinkle in the eye to every young couple in love.

On a routine scroll through Facebook, one couple caught me by surprise. It was Tom Brady and his wife Gisele Bundchen sharing a sweet Valentine’s kiss, both wearing goof y ladybug headbands with sparkly red hearts on the end.

For such an attractive couple, the picture was shockingly ordinary. But stripped of all of their glamor, the pair looked like they

belonged together.

Driven by my jealousy of Gisele, I then started to think.

I don’t know a lot about sports, but when it comes to Tom versus Gisele—who won?

Is Tom overlooking Gisele’s tendency to make controversial comments about raising children? Or was it Tom who scraped by and managed to land the model (despite having deflated balls)?

B efore Gisele met Tom, it seemed like she was going to be the breadwinner of the family. Tom was the hot young quarterback , but Gisele was making millions of dollars as the highest-paid supermodel in the world. She’s also an activist and philanthropist; because of

her work in supporting several environmental causes, she was named a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme in 2009.

Gisele is also fluent in three different languages and conversational in English. But she won me over when she made Anne Hathaway look like an idiot for not knowing about Shu Uemera eyelash curlers (see: The Devil Wears Prada).

Tom, on the other hand, may not have started out on top, but he’s certainly worked his way up there. He has made a name for himself as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, based on his field awareness and ability to make on-field decisions in milliseconds. Four Super Bowls

and a handful of MVP awards is more than enough to quantify his incredible athleticism.

Pairing the Victoria’s Secret model with the successful athlete is something that’s been done before, and with good reason. Both are the highest goal within their respective gender stereotypes: girls as pretty, boys as tough and strong.

But even though there’s a fair amount of buzz generated every year by the Victoria’s Secret fashion show and the Oscars red carpet, it’s nothing compared to the Super Bowl.

With Tom’s Super Bowl wins, he seems to be building up a legacy, and maybe Gisele will do nothing more but slowly fade into irrelevance.

email features@bcheights.com for more info

But the question of Tom versus Gisele doesn’t just come down to beauty versus football.

Rather, what’s more valuable to us as an audience—innate talent or learned skill?

The answer is learned skill.

We live in a culture that values the self-made man, the hard worker, and the 10,000-hour rule. Yet we’d still rather watch a T V segment about a child prodigy like Derek Paravicini, a blind and autistic piano player who can play any piece of music after only hearing it once, rather than a segment on any of the countless other musicians who have devoted their lives to mastering their craft.

There’s something fascinating about those who possess

innate talents because they can’t be created.

To m m a y h a v e d e v o t e d countless hours to get better at football, but Gisele managed to make millions of dollars just by planting herself in front of a camera.

Despite my better judgment, I’d have to say that Gisele is settling. She would be better suited for someone who’s achieved success by showcasing a natural gift, like a child piano prodigy or maybe Benjamin Button. Then again, Tom proved that learned skill was needed to get Gisele.

Maggie Lecesse is a part of The Heights’ features staff. She can be reached at features@ bcheights.com

The Heights

Monday, February 23, 2015

A5

Surviving this week: insights for the soul

Corinne Duffy

Photo courtesy of Kat Clarke

Undergraduates like the ones above in Ivanhoe, Va. participate in the Appalachia Volunteers program during their Spring Break in the Appalachia and Atlantic regions.

‘Appa’ volunteers grow in number, regional focus

By Madeleine Loosbrock Heights Staff ““Appa” is a Boston College buzzword. Most students have either been, or have friends who have been, on an Appalachia service trip. It is mentioned often, but for those of us who have only seen the Instagrams, we ask—what is Appa?

Appalachia Volunteers is BC’s alternative Spring Break program. Located on the first floor of McElroy Commons, Appa is a student-run service organization. A council of 14 students along with a campus minister and graduate assistant organize the program. The council is responsible for booking the sites, coordinating weekly meetings, fundraising, and all other responsibilities that make Appa possible.

“Our mission is building community through loving, learning, and serving those in the Appalachia and beyond,” said Kat Clarke, Appa co-head coordinator and A&S ’15. “This year we are serving 27 different sites.”

This March, Appa will travel to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, and South Carolina. While members of the program have been traveling to the Virginia sites for almost as long as Appa has

been around, this year will be the first time in many years that Appa returns to Kentucky.

“Appa used to go to Kentucky, but hasn’t in the recent past,” Clarke said.

“This year we are sending trips to Big Creek, McKee, Lexington, and Elizabethtown, Kentucky.”

Unlike many volunteer organizations at BC, there is no application process to join Appa. “Anyone who wants to join and completes the program requirements on time can be a part of Appa,” Clarke said.

With this, Appa has grown tremendously over the past few years. Due to this growth, Appa has expanded beyond just the Appalachia region and into the Atlantic region as well. This spring, roughly 380 BC students will be participating in the program, more students than have participated in the past few years. Students are randomly assigned to a location and group, which they find out in the months leading up to the trip, which will last the entirety of spring break.

Each individual trip is run through a different program, which students are allowed to choose a preference for prior to the trip. Many of the Appa trips are run through Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit, Christian housing ministry.

Habitat comprises a community of volunteers that builds and repairs houses in locations all over the world.

Appa also offers community based trips that are not entirely based on construction in the same way that Habitat is. These programs are run through different community organizations, such as Volunteers for Communities in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

These programs focus on different jobs in the community such as raking leaves, yard cleanup, church cleanup, painting, and school ministry.

Appa volunteers begin preparing for their trip long before spring break arrives. Each week, the volunteers meet with a small group of other Appa volunteers. In addition to these weekly meetings, Appa volunteers must participate in a day of local service before attending the service trip and write a reflection on this experience. Closer to the actual trip, the volunteers begin to meet weekly with the small group they will be traveling with.

These small groups become very close throughout their trips, often establishing long-lasting relationships the students can carry back to BC. In 2014, Regina Noonan, A&S ’17 traveled to Union County, N.C. as a part of a Habitat trip with Appa.

“I liked meeting and getting to know

people from other years and backgrounds that I wouldn’t have otherwise met,” Noonan said. “Without our usual surroundings, we had a lot of improvised fun making a giant mattress slide, playing hide-and-go seek, and surfing on a mountain of cardboard.”

For many participants, Appa is about more than just volunteering in povertystricken regions. The program is largely a learning and growing experience. “Our Mission is to learn about the structural and social realities in the U.S. that leave some people impoverished and marginalized while discussing the injustices that create entrenched poverty,” according to the Appa mission statement on the organization’s website.

Thus, students take away far more than just the skills they use on their trips. There is a great personal growth aspect to Appa, and this is what makes the program so special. “The best thing students can take away from Appa is the first step toward a new outlook not only on themselves and their place at BC, but also on social justice and their place in the world,” Clarke said.

“Before, during, and after Appa, I learned that service is more than just putting in a day at a work site,” Noonan said. “It is also about connecting with individuals and a community.” n

Four (and a half ) snow days ….

Five days until Spring Break ….

Woah, sounwds like a convergence of cabin fever and spring fever if I’ve ever heard one. And I’m not referring to a really neat cabin. Like, we’re talking the hotbed of all things structurally catastrophic right now: Edmond’s. Yeah, Edmond’s fever. Barring the chance that we have another cancelled day of class before Friday—I dunno, Fr. Leahy, I’m seeing some flurries in the weekly forecast—these five days present ample opportunity to shake things up a bit before the whirlwind that is Spring Break. And let’s be real, given all of the time you and those missing ceiling tiles have spent pent-up in Walsh, you claustrophobes need some fresh air—or at least novel ideas. Brain freeze gotcha dumbfounded? That’s fine; I’ll do the ’storming. Just don’t hold my Corinanity against me, okay? Cool. Let’s get to it, then.

1) Take a walk around the Res No, I’m serious. Jack Frost gets a super bad rap—he’s actually a pretty chill guy, if you get to know him well enough. Sure, he’s been kinda clingy lately, but what can the guy do, this is his time to shine. And you can’t deny the fact that you’ve got him to thank for those seven Instagrams—a modest combined total of 1,400 likes, it’s whatever. But c’mon, it should be beautiful this time of year, all that snow. This week is practically balmy—take a look at Wednesday. Thirty-seven degrees and snowing? And there’s a 30 percent chance it’s already snowing? Count me in. Get your swimsuits out, kids; Spring Break’s coming two days early.

2) Go to the Museum of Fine Arts You’re probably wondering, but no, I did not get paid to endorse the MFA. But I’m not insinuating that I’d turn down any Jacksons that come my way.

It will, however, get you out of your dorm and into the real—sometimes pretentious—world. So, get your snob on (I like art, I swear!) and head downtown. Wander aimlessly, pretend to be a professionally trained docent, or do homework in the cafe. Or don’t. It’s your free will so you can cry if you want to, or something like that. Best part? It’s free with your Boston College ID. 3) Prank your roommates It’s getting to that point when you need to spice things up in your relationship, you know? Kindle the roomie fire.

I’m not saying use real matches, but I’m not saying don’t use them, either.

Just kidding, but be creative. He or she will love you for it eventually, anyway.

(Patent-pending ideas include, but are not limited to: submerge his or her stapler in Jell-O; forge a ResLife sanction notice; incrementally increase the weight of his or her headset with change and gradually take coins out each day; convince him or her that he or she disclosed a horrifying secret to you while asleep; replace all of his or her writing instruments with crayons, the list goes on. Michael!)

4) Stop reading this column Yes, I know, you’ve gotten this far, and Social Darwinism stipulates a survival of the fittest philosophy. But you’ve gotta fall back. You have a family, after all. And brain cells. I hear you need some of those.

5) Rock climb Rocks aren’t just for jocks these days. Did you know that Central Rock Gym and MetroRock Climbing Center not only have open climbing hours, but also beginner classes? Oh, I didn’t. It’s a gneiss workout, too. So, get out there, climb to new heights just outside the BC Heights. Rocks rock, am I right?

6) Write for The Heights Never want to read this foolishness again? I’m right there with you. Haha.

No, seriously. I beg of you.

Corinne Duffy is the Features editor for The Heights. She can be reached at features@bcheights.com

The Heights

A6

Editorial

QUOTE OF THE DAY

2015 UGBC election season in review

This year, the campaign to elect the president and executive vice president of the Undergraduate Government of Boston (UGBC) lasted for one week—continuing the change established last year to shorten the campaign period from two weeks. In that time, the three different teams chose to pursue different campaign strategies. Thomas Napoli, A&S ’16, and Olivia Hussey, A&S ’17, chose an active online strategy, with a Facebook page that garnered nearly 450 likes as frequent pictures and links were posted. Cassidy Gallegos, LSOE ’16, and Michael Keefe, A&S ’16, had a robust online presence as well, but also opted to employ signs, snow displays, and tables. The third team, James Kale, LSOE ’16, and Jose Altomari, A&S ’16, had a more understated campaign presence, both physically and online—they focused on interpersonal contact.

The shortened election season seemingly forces the teams to become as aggressive as possible during campaigning. Painting on the snow, and posting excessively on Facebook, for example, works to get students aware of the elections but is not as effective in getting students to understand the complexities of platform point. The short election cycle makes it difficult for those campaigning to effectively disseminate important information about how the platforms vary.

Having a one week campaign cycle without primary voting to narrow the race down to two teams also became slightly problematic during the presidential debate, held the night before voting began. Since three teams were present at the debate and the candidates were not permitted to directly

Monday, February 23, 2015

counter one another’s points, it was difficult for those in attendance to discern the strengths of each team, let alone pick a clear winner of the debate.

The debate came off as more of a panel discussion in which all three teams would offer their takes on the posed questions and give similar responses.

It would be prudent in future years to amend the structure so that even if three or more teams participate in the debate, each team is able to emphasize its unique platform points and show how they philosophically differ from the other candidates.

Despite these difficulties, the oneweek cycle should be considered a welcome change due to the exhaustive nature of a two-week campaign.

While this shortened window certainly has flaws, the positives of a less exhaustive campaign outweigh the negatives of requiring all teams to stage marathon efforts. The Elections Committee should be for commended as well for the strong election turnout. Approximately one-third of students voted in the elections, a relatively good turnout. Students, especially underclassmen, should be praised for turning out to vote despite the perceived annoyance of some campaign tactics.

Reflecting favorably on the candidates, this year’s election exhibited clean campaign tactics by all teams in the race. No smear tactics were used against other teams, and no sanctions were levied due to unfair campaign strategies.

While there are still some improvements that the Elections Committee should consider for following years, the 2015 campaign season should be looked at as a model for years to

“Some people are old at 18 and some are young at 90 ... time is a concept that humans created.”

-Yoko Ono (1933 - ), singer, artist, peace activist

Letters to the Editor Letter from Climate Justice at Boston College to Jack Dunn We as Climate Justice at Boston College are writing to respond to the aftermath of the Breaking Climate Silence vigil, held on Feb. 13th. Forty-five of us held signs requesting BC to divest from using fossil fuels. We marched and sang songs to the theme of breaking up with fossil fuels. We urged BC to end their toxic investment relationship with fossil fuel companies.

University spokesperson Jack Dunn’s response to our call for divestment at the vigil was ill-informed and contradictory to BC’s own investment guidelines. He stated that, “it seems like the notion of divestment is just a very convenient way to absolve ourselves of our own responsibilities. ‘If the oil companies just divest the problem goes away’… That’s not true—the best way we can effect change is to commit ourselves individually.” While reducing one’s carbon footprint does help the cause, we need to take collective action to meet the crisis. Fossil fuel companies must leave four-fifths of their proven reserves in the ground if we are to have a future hospitable to human civilization.

Divestment calls attention to this fact when we talk of the “carbon bubble.” At $27 trillion, it will make the housing bubble look small.

Furthermore, the administration’s response is contradictory to BC’s own endowment webpage. Dunn is summarized as saying in a recent Heights article that BC’s position is that the endowment exists to provide revenue for University initiatives and to serve its academics. He noted that it is not in place to serve any particular social justice mission. While it is admirable that BC cares so much about serving academics and University initiatives, this statement contradicts precisely what BC claims to stand for. Recorded on the BC endowment webpage is, “In the management of its investments, BC reflects the ethical, social, and moral principles inherent in its mission and heritage. In particular, the University is firmly committed to the promotion of the dignity of the individual, personal freedom, and social justice.” The University apparently is firmly committed to promoting social justice with its investments, yet they fail to address the most important issue in the world today.

University administrators also noted that they admire our passion for the issue of climate change. While that is kind of them, we do not want to be patronized or seen as admi-

rable; we want to be seen as youth­—the young people who are the victims of an intergenerational injustice—fighting for a chance at the same adulthood, the same future, that they were fortunate to have.

Dunn claims that the administration does “not want to see [BC’s endowment] used as a political wedge,” however, this inaction is just as significant of a political stance as divestment. BC has a fine history of pioneering social justice movements in accordance with its motto, “Men and Women for Others.” In the spring of 1985, BC made the decision to divest from any “companies which [sic] do business in South Africa.” This choice, along with similar decisions made by other institutions, helped stigmatize businesses associated with the South African apartheid system, and in turn the South African government itself.

Nelson Mandela credited the divestment campaign in the United States as an indispensable factor in pushing Congress’ 1986 economic sanctions bill, which in turn was a “key factor in the eventual victory.” Had institutions stood by idly, retaining the status quo of their investments in the name of noninvolvement in politics, would there have been such a significant change?

Fortunately, we will never know because universities responded to student calls for divestment from apartheid.

Currently, by choosing to not divest, the administration is using the University’s endowment as both a financial mechanism and a policy statement in support of fossil fuel companies. In our protest, we asked BC to pick a side, they chose to support the fossil fuel industry. How will BC live with its current active decision of inactivity when the inevitable devastation of climate change seizes the planet?

Apathy is an administrative stance that we as students of BC cannot accept. If our institution truly upholds social justice in this world, then it is our duty to utilize our endowment to reflect our professed mission.

We call upon BC to make the right decision. We must withdraw from fossil fuel violence. We have the opportunity to lead a new and important movement. Do we want to be remembered as those who strove for a better world, or those who let it burn?

Zachary Muzdakis A&S ’17

A welcome expansion to Social Justice Day Boston College is well-known for its emphasis on social justice in its teaching and rhetoric, and though related initiatives certainly are not lacking, Social Justice Week proved to be a welcome addition to BC campus life.

In years past, the University celebrated a single World Justice Day. The AHANA Caucus, under the leadership of Angel Jehng, CSOM ’16, and Monica Azmy, A&S ’15, decided to expand the event this semester as a response to the BC community’s interest in the types of the issues the week attempts to address.

The extent of last week’s offerings was impressive. To put together five days of programming, the AHANA Caucus collaborated with eight major organizations on campus, including GlobeMed, BC Ignites, FACES, and CAB, along with 23 culture clubs. This inclusion of so many organizations, all with different focuses, accurately mirrors the theme chosen for the week , Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It also provides an opportunity for clubs with different missions but the same commitment to improving the world around them to collaborate and become informed about causes that they have not personally championed.

“Social justice” is a buzz phrase often used within the BC commu-

nity, and because of the frequency of its application, its meaning is quite variable. When used by a formalized program like 4Boston, for example, the phrase takes on a different flavor from when it is used to describe a more spontaneous expression of student activism, like the die-in protests of December.

Social Justice Week is a good addition in further educating students on the range of matters evoked by this phrase—it also offers an opportunity to reflect on its meaning.

While social justice is a concept that is prevalent at BC, the education and action tends to be contained to students in the formalized programs or the students who actively seek out the information on their own. Social Justice Week was an attempt to make this type of information and access available to the less engaged student.

Social Justice Week could be criticized, as many BC programs could, for only providing information and not necessarily organization action on the featured causes.

However, providing an educational week that busy students can drop in and out of according to interest is much better than not providing any information at all.

Initiatives like Social Justice Week should be continued, and all those involved in expanding the event’s offerings have done well in increasing the range of views offered.

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

Editorial Board. A list of the members of the Editorial Board can be found at BCHeights. com/opinions.

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The Heights reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity, accuracy, and to prevent libel. The Heights also reserves the right to write headlines and choose illustrations to accompany pieces submitted Breck Wills, Graphics Editor Alex Fairchild, Online Manager Alec Greaney, Assoc. Copy Editor Archer Parquette, Asst. Copy Editor Arielle Cedeno, Assoc. News Editor Gus Merrell, Asst. News Editor Jack Stedman, Assoc. Sports Editor Tom DeVoto, Asst. Sports Editor Mujtaba Syed, Asst. Features Editor Chris Fuller, Assoc. Arts & Review Editor

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Submissions must be signed and should include the author’s connection to Boston College, address, and phone number. Letters and columns can be submitted online at www.bcheights.com, by email to editor@bcheights.com, in person, or by mail to Editor, The Heights, 113 McElroy Commons, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467.

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The Heights

Monday, February 23, 2015

A7

Stokes Arsonist Chronicles Vol. 2

Nate Fisher Getting The Printer Swipe on The First Try - Class is in exactly seven minutes. You’re making moves across the quad, getting the Maloney elevator just as it’s about to close. You’re taking the steps by two. Swinging a right through the door and there’s no line for the printer. A godsend. You pull your ID out and you get the swipe on the first try, loading the screen in an instant. The only better feeling than this is getting the USB into the port on the first try. Life’s good.

You make it to class with the paper in hand, and 60 seconds to spare.

Your Roommates Still Being up - It’s been a long night. The test tomorrow isn’t looking so hot, and you’re trying to forget the fact that it’s worth 30 percent of your grade. You take the long, empty walk back to your dorm room, and it’s so damn cold out. You get back into your dorm, punch in your room code, and find all of your roommates are still up, chilling and lost in some deep conversation (maybe it’s about the creation of the universe, maybe it’s about whether eggs are better scrambled or over-easy) and you can fall right in without skipping a beat. Sure, that test is still tomorrow, and you should probably get to sleep already. But this—you don’t want to miss a moment of this.

Those People That Try Too Hard in Class- Keep doing you.

[Note: This is the second installment of a three-part fictional series. The characters and events portrayed in this story are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.]

FEB. 9, 2015 “God damn Wi-Fi,” Nimitz growled. Joey noted that the Wi-Fi around campus was worse than usual, a phenomenon which, of all phenomena, had made Nimitz relatively motor-mouthed.

“I don’t know what’s slowin’ campus down more, the Wi-Fi or this dang snow … which is a LOT of snow!” Brent was hoping for a laugh from Joey. Joey took his flask out and drank some gin. Brent, who was driving, also had a long swig, then started the car.

The wheels spun in the snow. Joey dreaded the thought of having to get out and push, but Nimitz got out instead. Nimitz liked pushing. Joey had gone head first into the whole Student Investigative Liaison lark.

The case, all disappearances and dead ends, was a source of eternal frustration, but it had produced a mess of what Joey called “incidentals,” investigative addenda about the Big Crackdown and the shadowy Boston College powers that be. It helped that he was 21 and could buy his own gin now. He kept well stocked on Bombay and lemonade. But it stunned him that Brent shared his taste.

The three of them stumbled, Joey most woozily of all, through the snow trenches down Commonwealth Ave. A puddle on the corner forced them to turn around.

The snow trench was blocked by a group of commuters behind them, who were heavily encouraged by Nimitz to back up to the first shoveled-out break in the snow wall.

“So we haven’t heard anything from this Dean fellow in two weeks?” Nimitz shook his head as the three men entered the apartment building’s front door.

“I don’t know what you’re looking to

dig up here, gentlemen,” Joey said, chuckling at the idea that Brent was hoping for a bedroom full of maps and tacked-up papers connected by multi-colored strings. They walked down the hall and immediately found this Dean fellow’s apartment, marked 3A. “Him and the arsonist were cleaners together. Our intel says they’ve commiserated after the incident.” Joey shrugged, then squinted at Dean’s living room. Dean seemed long gone. The apartment had been empty for some time. The three men stood, pausing, heads tilted, as the music of Taylor Swift bled in through the wall from the apartment next door. There would be no evidence here. “It’s all on the internet now.”

Hiking back to the police car, Brent made a crack about all the figures in this case going up in smoke. Brent. Joey’s older sister had chemistry lab with Brent not even three years ago. Brent had a last name and Joey had learned it once but no name ever fit a kid as much as Brent fit Brent. Nimitz didn’t have a first name. This much was certain.

Joey chuckled. “I put a lot of trust in you guys getting into the back of a police car. I feel like any time it strikes your fancy you decide I’m under arrest and I can’t get out.

Heh.” No laughs. Joey felt like Brent and he felt small. Nimitz punched his index finger into his phone.

As the cruiser slip-slided through the slushy artery of lower campus, Joey noted that the whole place seemed dirty, not like real world dirty but this is BC we’re talking about. And there was the graffiti, popping up six times around lower but now brazenly on the wall of BCPD itself, always the same chilling suggestion made only slightly less chilling by its punning from a mispronunciation of the accused arsonist’s last name: Kevin YOU. FEB. 23, 2015 Liz was a study in demure blondness.

Joey sighed at knowing this dame looked no different from 2,000 other dames at this school. But when Joey mentioned Kieran and Dean she jumped with urgency and jogged him over to the parking garage.

“What do they have everyone working on here?” Joey asked.

“We’re writing an interface detailing

information about off-campus residences in collaboration with city officials. Size, total residents, internet access, usage statistics.”

“You’re working for the Big Crackdown?”

“BC’s the biggest player in the Big Crackdown. They want to run every off campus apartment like a dorm, get everyone on their grid and monitor anything we do on the Internet. They won’t abide you hiding online anymore.”

Joey wobbled, and clearly needed to think about this more. Liz had the answers to the unanswerables. “What does this have to do with the arson?”

“Joey they need crimes. Rules were made to be broken and that works both ways. The ‘No More Than Four’ rule, finding witnesses for the arson case, they just need an excuse to take the control they’ve always wanted.”

“I need to talk to the arsonist. Do you know what happened to him?”

“You’re asking the wrong questions.

Either the arsonist was framed and he’s gone or it was a surface crime and he’s gone. Your arsonist doesn’t exist. Look for the deep crime.” Joey winced at Liz’s sloganeering, but it occurred to him that this dame Liz had a kind of low-key edge about her, and if he squinted hard enough he could stop her from looking that same kind of attractive and treat her like a real deal femme fatale.

As they walked back to Maloney he fidgeted with the belt on his trench coat. Did he still smell like gin?

“Liz, you wouldn’t know anything about the Kevin You graffiti, would you?”

“Hmmmmmm, I don’t know squat about that. It would take a cleaner’s knowledge of BCPD’s schedule and access to big ladders to pull off that kind of graffiti job over and over.”

Joey’s mind set itself dancing again.

“Something’s going to happen,” he announced. “If people are up to something, I need to know.”

“Students are fed up. Things are going down. You won’t see a Facebook event though.” Liz had a wry smile. “Keep it in house,” and she went back to coding.

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

An author’s take on Kendrick Lamar Those People That Try Too Hard in Class- Stop doing you.

Accepting the fact that Half The Semester is Already over- College is a slow blur and it sucks that another semester is already halfway done. After spring break, things are only going to go faster.

Black Ice - When it gets warm, and the snow melts, everyone is happy to think that it’ll just go away. But, the next day, when it freezes, all hell breaks loose across campus.

Noise in Bapst - Ah, “Blank Space.”

You’re moving, and you’re grooving, and things are good. You decide you need some quiet time to get that book read, so you unplug your headphones to put your laptop away. And as you realize what you’ve done, it happens: “Blank Space” is blaring out even though it’s set at the lowest volume, filling all of the top floor of Bapst, and suddenly it feels like the entire solar system is looking at you. You slam your laptop shut as a reflex, and there’s still that split second where it doesn’t go to sleep but is still playing very, very loud. You take out the reading and try to stop thinking about what has just happened, but it’s impossible. You’re wondering if everyone still hates you 20 minutes later, and then you decide to just get up and leave. The only silver lining is that you didn’t fart. You might have to consider transferring if that happened.

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Sean McGowan “Six in the mornin’, fire in the street.

Burn, baby, burn—that’s all I wanna see.”

Although you can’t quite see it, those words leave a trace of something on your retina that won’t go away. There’s a surreal kind of disturbance to burning streets at dawn: it’s unnatural. And the creeping manner in which Kendrick Lamar brings you the image lingers just as long, giving voice to a subdued collective unconscious of the oppressed, which seems to get some kind of sick pleasure out of watching the world burn.

These are the opening lines of his recent single “The Blacker the Berry,” and if you can believe it, they’re on the milder side compared to the rest of its lyrics.

Vivid pieces like “I’m black as the heart of a f—kin Aryan” and “He get a chain that he gon’ bleed him” strike deeper than most whole sonnets, and make that first one seem like something off the Sound of Music soundtrack.

The song, which borrows heavily in theme and subject matter from Wallace Thurman’s 1929 Harlem Renaissance novel of the same name, is a brutal five minute assault on racism, gang violence, and indoctrinated white supremacy. In it, the listener finds a shattering piece of indignant poetry that makes no apology for itself, equal in scope and ambition to the finest work of Rudyard Kipling, Tupac, and Tennyson.

But Kendrick doesn’t go for the jugular, not right away. Instead he climbs inside a quasi-schizophrenic beat laid down live by his band and delivers the delinquent, idiosyncratic brand of hip-hop vocal that’s earned him a fiercely loyal cult following. Through two distinct personas and nearly three octaves, Kendrick sings and shouts over the slow, corrosive burn of a backing track like a featherweight boxer throwing reckless jabs at man twice his size in a lead vest. He doesn’t let up, and barely takes a breath.

The song pounds along until the music fades out and he grunts out its final devastating anti-crescendo: the word hypocrite, stated as a backward lamentation for the song’s final, poignant couplet: “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street? / When gang bangin’ make me kill a n—a blacker than me.”

It’s this final rhyme that has famously garnered the attention of Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer prize winning author of Telegraph Avenue and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Taking to genius.com, the writer expounded rather brilliantly on the rhetorical trick that Kendrick is pulling with the song, pointing out that Lamar refuses to explain his calling himself “the biggest hypocrite of 2015” at the beginning of each verse precisely so that he could do it here at the end, where it hurts the most.

This is an epiphany of Joycean style and proportion. A revelation that shifts the song’s emotional center and sheds new, unflattering light on each word that comes before it. This couplet marks a twisting of the knife that Kendrick slipped into your side three verses ago—the one whose sting you were too wrapped up in righteous anger to feel.

Now, I should take a moment here to note that I count myself among the dorkiest, most over-privileged white men on the planet—I’ve got the jump shot to prove it. Thus I feel relatively ill-equipped to speak with any authority on what a song like this means to Kendrick Lamar and the community he’s singing it for.

Though I can’t imagine that Michael Chabon felt much differently. There is a certain awareness to his commentary, as if he’s treading carefully on dangerous ground. When working with a piece of writing that draws so heavily from such a deep well of pain and near-ancient hatred, it’s easy to come off as an outsider, who doesn’t get it and never will.

And so it’d be perfectly understandable if public opinion turned against him for pointing out what he did, and making what would initially seem so akin to a condescending denigration of the black community, which did weep—along with the rest of the world—when Trayvon

Martin went down in the streets. No one would have minded if they had doomed him to be, like the wide-eyed white boy Julie from his novel Telegraph Avenue, “drowned in the tide of his embarrassment on behalf of all uncool white people everywhere when they try to be cool.”

But he’s got much nobler intentions than simply showing off or being cool.

There is a world that he’s trying to bring to life—one that looks very much like the one he so brilliantly builds within the pages of Telegraph Avenue. It’s one in which a used record store, staffed by Nat Jaffe (white) and Archie Stallings (black), is the center of a cultural universe. Young, old, black, white, bisexual, homosexual, and hyper-sexual people congregate within to discuss old jazz music and the daily goings-on of the neighborhood, their only price of admission being an honest interest in old records and a few minutes to spare.

It’s a world cultivated in the written word with music at its center. As he notes in an interview with The Guardian, Chabon created it, in some sense, because he’d moved so far away from home and become what he called a “racist.” Pressed for elaboration, he ponders out loud that this particular brand of racism occurs “whenever one group or class of people becomes invisible to you.”

Just like the heartfelt verses of “The Blacker the Berry,” Michael Chabon’s novel is a fascinating piece of modern literature, written out of a profound disappointment in himself and the community he lives in. He isn’t writing about the friendship of a white guy and a black guy, just like Kendrick isn’t just writing about his own hypocrisy.

He is making a profound statement, with both his novel and continuing displays of appreciation for Kendrick Lamar’s music, on the power of music, poetry and prose to unite human beings in their affinity for art and shared experience.

We would all do well to develop an appreciation of statements like this, and teach our children to do the same thing.

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

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

Working to see the other Dave Connors “My question is for the women in the group.” We were sitting in a large circle in La Casa de Migrantes, a migrant shelter in Arriaga, Chiapas, Mexico, having a conversation with a group of 30 migrants or so, discussing the experience of traveling illegally through Central America and Mexico. The people we sat alongside were at most two days into their journey north. Many of them were not even sure the route they were going to take, or even where they would stay after their night in the shelter. Several people had just joined the circle, including two women in their mid-20s.

“My question is for the women in the group. How is the experience different for you as women?” The question came as a refreshing splash of recognition, and the women’s faces lit up with excitement at the unexpected acknowledgement of their presence in the room. The relief, however, was brief—a drop of cool water falling on an unknowably large hot plate of pain and suffering, quickly fizzling and reducing to nothing but vapor.

“The journey,” she responded over a growing lump in her throat, “The journey is hard.

Very hard.”

That’s all she could muster before she broke down crying, her stream of tears forcing its way through eyes clenched in agonizing remembrance. The 60 seconds of deafening, heart wrenching silence that followed spoke volumes, each of us could feel the weight of her suffering without hearing a word of the details.

The words of our in-country liaison, Julio, rang in my head. “There is no translation for a smile, nor is there for pain.”

Each of us in that room felt her distress, shared in her sorrow. We saw our own tears in her eyes, our own difficult memories written in her furrowed brow. The woman across from us was no longer a migrant. She was no longer Honduran. She no longer wore a different skin tone or spoke with a different native tongue. In this still, silent moment, we saw a glimpse of what she really was: a mother, a daughter, a sister, a miracle of biochemistry, a living, breathing human being with hopes and fears who has experienced love and anguish, laughter and confusion, just as each person inevitably has.

Suddenly, migration was no longer an abstraction. It was nothing to be conceptualized and analyzed in some ivory tower. It was this woman’s, these people’s reality. And it was damn hard. In sharing their stories, these migrants allowed us to enter into their narrative, just as they had entered our own. This kind of cross-cultural encounter of humanity is at the core of the Arrupe mission. We don’t go to Latin America to be saviors to poor children or to build houses and feel good about ourselves.

We go to recognize our shared humanity with those in incomprehensibly different situations from our own, and recognize our collective responsibility to build a society where that humanity can be acknowledged without having to fly halfway across the globe.

Why is it that the woman in the migrant shelter was a migrant before she was anything else in our minds? It’s the same reason Michael Brown and Eric Garner were black criminals before they were anything else, before they were fathers, sons, before they were even individuals. It’s the reason we need to be reminded that black lives matter rather than it being understood in the first place. It’s our societal inability to see even an iota deeper than the surface of someone’s skin, or the language on their tongue. It’s the deep, subconscious fear of the so-called “other,” bred from little but assumptions and a refusal to see past them.

It’s a fear that still lives parasitically in our modern society. I don’t think I’ll soon forget the young woman’s face, both the elation at being acknowledged as an equal, and the wounds that the acknowledgement reopened. It will serve as a constant reminder of the universality of human experience. Despite any difference, there is always common ground. When reaching that common ground is an instinct rather than an afterthought, hands will grasp each other before triggers, and lips will split in laughter before clenching in anger.

Seeing through the stories we create about each other and listening to the ones we tell about ourselves creates a new starting point for where we interact with each other. It respects, dignifies, and prevents mindless violence.

Sharing our stories rejects the parasitic fear of the other and values human connection above all else. As novelist Colum McCann writes, “You become who you are by telling each other your stories. The bloodstream of the stories becomes the bloodstream of your life.”

More than anything, the woman in the shelter will be a constant reminder to vulnerably share my story in all places, and perhaps more importantly, to listen lovingly to those who share their own.

Dave Connors is a guest columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@ bcheights.com.

The Heights

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Monday, February 23, 2015

Contingency plan: Dining adapts to the chaos of winter Dining Services plans for employees to stay overnight in anticipation of dangerous travel conditions

By Mujtaba Syed Asst. Features Editor During the peak nights of Winter Storm Juno in late January, scatterings of sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows covered the floors of every major dining hall on Boston College’s campus. Harsh weather conditions left roads too dangerous to drive, and with MBTA services universally cancelled, Boston College Dining Services employees spent multiple nights on campus due to the danger implicit in attempting to make it back to their own homes.

Unlike many groups of University employees, Dining Services staff members are needed regardless of class cancellations and administrative closing.

Keeping the dining halls open during these emergency events poses a challenge for the employees themselves and for dining administrators.

“We’re essential personnel, so whether or not they close school we have to figure out a way to feed the 9,000 students on campus and then anybody else, including other essential personnel like facilities, health services, and police,” Beth Emery, director of Dining Services, said. “Our employees know that they are required to come.”

While employees know they must report to work

regardless of weather circumstances, what makes matters slightly more complicated is that BCDS administrators, including Emery herself, are kept in the dark on the University’s decision-making process on snow day cancellations until the rest of the academic community is notified.

“We don’t typically find out until it’s announced,” Emery said. “Dining has nothing to do with the decision. There was one [snow day notification] that didn’t come out until early the next morning, and we didn’t know. We had a hunch, but we never communicate with the officials. We find out when students do.”

Due to the well-publicized nature of each storm this semester, managers at Corcoran Commons, McElroy, and Stuart dining halls have been able to prepare in advance for employees needing to stay one or more nights on campus.

“During the first snowstorm, the general managers of each of the main locations went out the day before and bought air mattresses, sleeping bags, and other items,” Emery said. “A lot of the employees that have been here for awhile brought their own sleeping bags and pillows.”

According to Emery, 55 BC Dining employees slept over the first night of Juno, followed by 25 on the storm’s second night. For the three subsequent

storms—the most recent of which did not result in a University cancellation—21, 45, and 31 employees, respectively, slept in the dining halls overnight.

While the majority of BC Dining employees have been able to spend nights on campus to ensure that student and community needs are met, weather conditions the past few weeks have been grueling enough to render high numbers of employees unable to commute to BC in the first place. In turn, the principle challenge for Emery and her administrative colleagues within Dining Services has been to allocate staffing between the dining halls, and at times closing smaller operations in order to ensure that mainstays have been kept open.

“We see what our staffing is and then we make a decision about consolidating operations,” Emery said. “It’s easier on weekends because we don’t have as many operations anyway so our priority is to open the three main dining locations, which we’ve been able to do. We may make modifications where Eagles Nest employees may work at McElroy or Addie’s employees may work in Lower.”

Another hurdle caused by recent snow conditions has been maintaining the quality of food from a freshness standpoint in the event that deliveries face delays due to poor road conditions. Each major din-

ing hall on campus generally receives deliveries from suppliers most days of the week, meaning any lapses or delays necessitate diligent planning and real-time adjustments to keep quality high.

Emery indicated that delivery vehicles were unable to make scheduled drop-offs during the first storm, Juno, due to road conditions. However, because the cancellation of the deliveries was communicated in advance, BCDS was able to consolidate enough of “the basics” in the three main dining halls to ensure students’ needs were met. This came at a contrast to other universities in the area, some of which, according to Emery, were pushed to hand out boxed lunches instead of hot food when they began to run out of essential items.

While conditions throughout the past few weeks have been difficult for Dining Services employees, Emery notes that there is a certain sense of pride that drives the positive morale of these staffers and pushes them to continue serving the University community to the best of their ability during times of need.

“I’ve only been here a year and a few months,” she said. “I’m amazed at the dedication of the team and the sense of pride in being a member of the essential team. They realize the impact they have—the community has to eat.” n

arthur bailin / Heights editor

At BC, Peng takes on advocate role through Lean In, Own It Own It, from A1 Business. Later that fall, she would attend the Intercollegiate Business Convention in Boston, hosted by the Harvard chapter of the club. There, she recalls being “blown away” by the accomplishments of the female leaders present at the Hynes Convention Center event. She met with CEOs and founders of nonprofits, and perhaps most significantly, she introduced to the work of Sheryl Sandberg in a podcast sent to the event.

Sandberg, the Chief Operating Office at Facebook, co-authored her first book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, earlier that year. The book’s titular phrase “lean in” originated in Sandberg’s 2010 TED Talk titled “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders,” in which she noted how the women in her family would “lean back” in the workplace to make time for their children.

The Facebook executive expanded “Lean In” to a global effort, forming a nonprofit that would quickly establish chapters in cities and universities in all parts of the world. These local chapters offered “circles” for women to discuss professional issues or concerns they might have. Younger women would meet with older, professional mentors in these circles, covering topics like the use of body language in communications

and ways women might ask for a raise.

Sandberg’s movement was not without criticism. Perhaps most notably, humanist author Susan Faludi questioned Lean In’s large corporate sponsorship, which included several companies with weak female representation on an executive level and legal histories of gender discrimination.

In “Facebook Feminism: Like It Or Not,” Faludi also notes Lean In’s failure to address the struggles of women in poverty.

Proponents of Sandberg’s Palo Alto nonprofit—now numbering a little over half a million on Lean In’s Facebook page—argue the organization provides a vital professional network to women in the corporate world, citing the strong practical applications of the business lessons learned in these circles and lauding the openness of the nonprofit to all sorts of women.

After hearing from Sandberg at the Intercollegiate Business Convention, Peng personally decided to co-found a Lean In chapter at BC, bringing the nonprofit to the University last semester. She has since taken up an increased interest in women’s issues on campus. Lean In now operates six circles at BC, and Peng is particularly proud that several men have become involved with the organization recently.

“It’s tough, but you have to advertise it as a group that talks about leadership to men and a group that talks about gender

equality to women,” she said. “It’s sad that you have to make that distinction—even though it’s both things—but that’s how you rope them in.”

Peng notes several factors that she believes are diminishing the confidence of women at BC, among them, the hook-up culture, the strong stereotypes existing for women, and the unrealistic body expectations resulting from those stereotypes. (“You have to eat a salad, and ‘Plex,’ and then eat another salad after you ‘Plex,’” she comments.)

The success of Lean In, according to Peng, comes very much from the small tasks these circles set out for members on a weekly basis. Participants are encouraged to pledge an action each time they meet with their circle. These tend to be relatively simple changes to the week, such as contributing in every class.

Last semester, Peng was asked to join Advance, a group of female leaders on campus formed through the Women’s Center. It was through that program that Peng first heard of “Own It,” a women’s summit held at Georgetown University in 2014. In November, Caela McCann, president of Women in Business and A&S ’15, and Alexis Teixeira, director of female and gender affairs for BC’s Undergraduate Government and CSOM ’17, approached Peng with the idea of hosting the summit

at BC. They were interested in bringing Peng’s perspective from Lean In into the leadership for the summit, and asked that she join Teixeira as a co-chair.

McCann would serve as executive director to the event.

The concept behind Own It is to encourage women to “own their successes, own their opinions, and own their differences.” When comparing the event with Women in Business’ Intercollegiate Business Convention, Peng notes how the Own It summit aspired to be more accessible to women who are not specifically interested in business.

This year, Own It has expanded to several universities around the country, including George Washington University and Notre Dame. The leadership for Own It hopes that, like Lean It, the phrase will grow into an international brand. Its history is unique from Lean In in that, while Sandberg’s organization was born out of the corporate world, Own It came from college students.

Scheduled for March 28, the BC Own It summit builds on last year’s BC Women’s Summit, which was hosted by the Undergraduate Government of Boston College.

Influential female figures, many of whom are BC alumni, will appear at the spring conference. The organizers of the event hope to make the summit also accessible

to men. Tickets will be available to all students on Monday for five dollars through Robsham.

A little over 20 organizations have opted to collaborate in the creation of the BC Own It summit, and as Peng says, offer their “time, money, and listservs.” The full student leadership for the event was selected through an application process in December. Joining the student board as faculty advisors, Katie Dalton, director of the Women’s Center; Karl Bell, assistant director of Student Organizations; and Regine Jean-Charles, assistant professor of romance languages, are aiding in the organization of the conference.

The keynotes for the event are expected to be given by Carrie Rich, CEO and founder of the Global Good Fund, and Katie White, former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Peng’s mother—who has been slightly skeptical of her daughter extensive involvement in women’s issues on campus (she has emphasized to Peng that she should should set aside some time at college for “playdates” with friends)—is planning to attend the March summit. Peng smiles when she talks about her mother being there.

“If I’m starting where I am, and she’s come that far, if I extend that much on top of where I already started, we’re unstoppable,” she said. n

A letter to the victors: advice for Thomas and Olivia Connor Mellas Dear Thomas and Olivia, or “Tolivia,” if I may, Congratulations on winning the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC). Just to be safe, I demand a recount and a trial by combat. Just kidding, carry on. I’m hoping we can cultivate an honest dialogue here, so I should let you know that I didn’t vote for you, or anyone else, due to my well-known distrust of non punch-card elections.

Enough lollygagging, though, let’s get to it. Student opinion toward UGBC seems to have reached an all-time eye roll. When was the last time you heard someone express love, respect, or even a

deep-seeded fear of our elected student overlords? Probably not since one of them got behind the wheel of a car at night.

Your campaign platform of “advocate,” “unite,” and “improve” is beautifully generic—like a promise carved on a plaque below the name of a bad orthodontist— but you could strive for far greater verbs than those. I urge you to reach for the stars and crush all who get in your way: assail, divide, and destroy your way into BC lore. Make an impact on something other than your resumes. Luckily for you, I’ve got a plan all figured out.

Step One: Quietly build up a goonish but loyal militia. This one’s pretty simple—when push comes to shove, you might need a bit of muscle. I’d start by recruiting the bouncers from Mary Ann’s.

Get some hefty guys that had to quit football because of concussions or dudes that got cut because they weren’t tough enough to play for Steve Addazio. Then ring up some of the fine young men from

the 2011-12 and 2012-13 Boston University hockey teams.

Step Two: Establish a network to produce viral propaganda. Hire Sean Casey and the Mod of Cards crew to create topnotch videos. Get a bunch of freshmen to run riot on Yik Yak. Ask BC Bop to write you a heart-shaking anthem. Please throw me and the good folks over at the New England Classic a bribe or two. I’ll write anything, and you can pay me in Moogy’s.

Step Three: Make Hawaiian shirt Fridays happen. Could be a swell time for everyone.

Step Four: Dissolve the Student Assembly (SA). I’ve always thought ants and bees are on to something when it comes to structuring a government. No discussion, no problem. The SA is like a F’real milkshake. Sure, you could have one, but you could also not have one. Life would go on.

Step Five: Silence all opposition. At this point, you’ve definitely upset a few

people (probably because they weren’t prepared for Hawaiian shirt Fridays). Just unfriend or block them.

Step Six: Take control. With an anonymous tip, alert the BCPD that a brazen gang of freshmen hooligans are smoking weed sticks and drinking beers on the Newton field hockey pitch. Then, narc on every party off campus. That should scatter at least three quarters of the force.

Take advantage of the chaos and, quickly move to step seven.

Step Seven: Seize Gasson and make it your command fortress. Construct a blatantly evil throne out of obsidian rock.

Lounge on it all day long. Pass brutal judgement on freshmen and sophomores.

Use your militia to enforce a strict curfew, and arbitrarily burn down a mod or two.

Step Eight: Disband Tolivia. Olivia, wait until Thomas falls asleep. Then put him in a box and sign him up for that one-way trip to Mars. You’ll need to act quickly to pull this off, but why share

the power? Should Thomas really be the one who always gets to sit on the throne?

Haven’t you worked just as hard as he has?

I’ve never heard of a king ant or a king bee.

Step Nine: Do whatever you want.

Accomplish the ideas outlined in your platform. The “Party Rights” guide and “What Club Are You?” survey sound useful if a bit gimmicky, but spotlighting sexual assault and creating a mental health awareness program are definitely achievable goals worth pursuing.

Good luck. Once you acquire an empire, make it a nice place to live. And don’t get bogged down in self-seriousness.

Regards, Connor P.S. Sorry about the coup, Thomas.

Just had to be done. Enjoy Mars.

Connor Mellas is a senior staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at news@bcheights.com.

SPORTS

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Freshman football and men’s basketball players should stay eligible

MICHAEL SULLIVAN Freshman year is the worst. Learning a new place to live in, finding a new friend group, adjusting to a different level of academic—all of these are incredible challenges.

Leaders of the Big Ten Conference want to make the lives of freshman football and men’s basketball players easier. The way

they want to go about it, however, will make these athletes’ lives a living hell.

The Big Ten is considering creating a ‘year of readiness’ for all football and men’s basketball players, according to The Diamondback, the University of Maryland student newspaper. This rule would require that athletes in the two big revenue sports be ineligible as freshmen so they could adjust to the academic rigors and social challenges of college life.

Several institutions have expressed extreme support for the measure. Maryland president William Loh told The Diamondback, “If they do well because they spend more time, get more academic advising ... their freshman year, they’re going to gradu-

ate. And I think it’s worth spending an extra year of financial support to ensure that they graduate.”

In addition, some conference commissioners, including the ACC’s John Swofford, said that the measure is an idea worth discussing further. “I don’t think it’s looked upon as radical an idea as it seemed to people five years or 10 years ago because it makes so much sense educationally,” Swofford told CBS Sports. “We’re in a period now where everybody is trying to get a hold of the student-athlete experience and a recommitment, if you will, to balance academics and athletics.”

Freshman ineligibility would revert to the original rules of the NCAA. The gov-

erning body of college athletics allowed freshman eligibility to all sports except football and men’s basketball in 1968, before following suit for those two in 1972.

Because of the high cost of providing funding for a separate freshman football and men’s basketball team, as well as giving scholarships to players who wouldn’t even contribute to the primary team, the NCAA reversed this policy.

Not everyone has expressed support for this proposal. BC men’s basketball coach Jim Christian thinks the change would be detrimental for players and programs alike.

“I don’t see it,” Christian said. “It’s an adjustment for everybody. But what is

taking basketball away, the one thing they love and the one thing that you can be around them all the time, going to do?”

Christian vehemently disagrees with many of the issues some of the Big Ten’s leaders have with allowing freshmen to play. One-and-dones represent a miniscule amount of men’s basketball players in Division-I. The NBA raised the minimum draft age from 18 to 19 in 2006, forcing players to either attend college for at least one year or go overseas. According to CBS, an average of 10 true freshmen a year entered the NBA Draft from 2010-14.

This pales in comparison to the nearly

See Column, B3

No Fight Left

drew hoo / heights editor

Notre Dame’s high-flying offense punished the Eagles in a huge rout

BY ALEC GREANEY Heights Editor The man watched his shot glance off the rim.

Luckily, it popped back in his direction, and he snatched the rebound. With no one nearby, he took a step back and 70 Notre Dame attempted another 387 Boston College pointer. Good! The crowd erupted, sending reverberations through and around all corners of Conte Forum.

This man jogged back off the court, accepting high-fives. Meanwhile, the two teams broke from the huddle of the timeout and returned to the court, signaling it was time for fans to resume their dull murmuring for the actual game.

For the first time this season, more than 8,300

people showed up to Conte on Saturday afternoon to watch basketball. To find the last basketball game that attracted such a showing, you’d have to go back to Feb. 8, 2014, when No. 11 Duke traveled to Chestnut Hill.

In that game, the No. 2 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Jabari Parker, dominated the Eagles in the second half, handing Boston College a 21-point loss.

In that game, however, BC fans had reason to cheer. Although the Eagles never led, they did go on a 12-5 run in the first half to tie it up, providing BC fans with the all-too-familiar false sense of hope. In Saturday’s matchup with No. 10 Notre Dame (24-4, 12-3 ACC), the Eagles (9-17, 1-13 ACC) gave their

See Men’s Basketball, B3

BY JACK STEDMAN Assoc. Sports Editor Jim Christian barked orders into the ear of Olivier Hanlan, who held the ball at the 3-point line with his back facing the Boston College bench. The repetitive words could not be made out, but the message was clear—create something, anything.

Hanlan responded immediately, jabbing at the defender with a few quick dribbles along the baseline, stopping on a dime, and popping a fadeaway jumper.

BC’s matchup against No. 10 Notre Dame was reminiscent of the Louisville game back in January.

Despite the incredibly efficient shooting of the

Fighting Irish and Aaron Brown’s best efforts to recreate his season-high against the Cards earlier in the season, the ways in which the Eagles met the high octane offenses are lightyears apart.

At the Louisville press conference, coach Rick Pitino heaped praise upon Christian for his coaching ability. Christian had thrown a wrinkle on the zone defense in an attempt to scramble the Cardinals’ offense, but Terry Rozier, Montrezl Harrell, and Chris Jones proved to be too red-hot for BC to stop.

Fast forward to the post-Notre Dame press conferences, where all praise was piled upon individual players. With both teams lined up in man-to-man defense, the game became a contest of player versus player, and all Christian could do was urge his best

See Jerian Grant, B3

Whirlwind of emotions results in BC and UMass Lowell tie

BY MICHAEL SULLIVAN Heights Editor

Eagerness: Michael Louria heads to the box—two minutes for tripping Ian McCoshen at 2:40. A golden opportunity for the Eagles, as they planned 2 UMass Lowell 2 to strike hard Boston College on netminder Kevin Boyle.

Heartbreak: Adam Chapie races down the ice for the Riverhawks. He sends a last-minute pass over to Joe Gambardella, waiting on Boston College goalie Thatcher Demko’s right. A shorthanded goal and a 2-1 lead.

Elation: Under a half a minute later, Adam Gilmour rockets the puck off the faceoff to Noah Hanifin. The freshman dished it to Ian McCoshen across the ice, who skated forward briefly before sending an absolute bullet ping-

ing off the back of the net past Boyle. The fans go wild.

Frustration: Despite the momentum, the Eagles had trouble driving any shots past the stout University of Massachusetts-Lowell goalie Boyle, forcing the game into overtime.

Ambivalence: the game’s result.

The No. 10 Eagles (18-10-3, 11-6-3 Hockey East) and the No. 16 Riverhawks (17-10-5, 10-7-3 Hockey East) rode this roller coaster of emotions all night long. Each needed this game badly in perhaps the biggest one for both sides this season. A win not only put BC or UMass Lowell in the driver’s seat for the second seed (and a first-round bye) in the Hockey East Tournament, but also would give either team a badly-needed boost in the Pairwise Rankings.

Unfortunately, neither team came away

I NSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE

satisfied as the two finished in a 2-2 draw.

A lot certainly went right for the Eagles in this one, starting with the tenacity of their offense. BC came out hot, capitalizing on a pretty sequence by the team’s youngest stars. Alex Tuch fired back a pass from the goal line right to Hanifin. He rifled the puck towards Boyle which, after a revision by the official scorers, looked to be tipped in by Gilmour. With those two shots—this and on McCoshen’s rocket—Hanifin effectively set up both goals for the Eagles, giving the BC forwards excellent opportunities to drive the puck into the net.

But his performance on the offensive side shouldn’t come as a surprise. The young defenseman has showed his ability in front of the other team’s blue line throughout this season, ArthUr BAiLiN/ heights editor

See Men’s Hockey, B3

Women’s Hockey: BC beats, ties BU

No. 1 BC finished with a win and a tie versus the Terriers in a weekend home-and-home.....B2

Even Michael Matheson’s gritty performance couldn’t will BC past Lowell Friday night.

Baseball: Eagles swept by LSU

BC couldn’t compete with the No. 4 team in the nation, losing all three games to the Tigers..B4

TU/TD...................................B2 Softball...........................B4

THE HEIGHTS

B2

THUMBS UP GIRLS - It’s all about the women’s teams this year at BC. With No. 6 lacrosse rocketing out of the gate to a 2-0 start and softball sitting seven games above .500 early in the season, women have done most of the winning for BC this year. Let’s not forget to mention the one-loss women’s hockey team, either.

WHEELIN’ AND DEALIN’  The NBA Trade Deadline provided two furious hours of movement that kept us on the edge for the rest of the day. With some huge names changing teams, no one was safe for a few hours on Thursday afternoon.

LIVE BATS  The hits were plentiful up and down the BC baseball lineup this past weekend.

Blake Butera is hitting .393 for the Eagles through seven games, and wonderboy Chris Shaw already has two home runs and 10 runs batted in. So the Eagles should have had a great weekend against LSU in the Bayou, right?

THUMBS DOWN DEAD ARMS  Wrong . B C ’s pitchers gave up eight, seven, and 16 (!) runs in its three games agaisnt LSU, pacing the Eagles to a disappointing 0-3 weekend. If this continues, it’ll be a long year for Birdball.

HOCKEY TIES - Just give us a winner. There is nothing more anticlimactic than a tie in men’s or women’s hockey, and both BC teams fell victim to the dreaded tie this past weekend. Whether it takes a longer overtime period or a shootout, we’re sick of watching 65 minutes of hockey just to leave with no victor.

THE ‘O’ SHOW - We love to watch Olivier Hanlan go to work, but the man can’t do everything by himself. Someone, anyone, needs to step up for the Eagles and take some of the load off of Hanlan, or the Eagles’ eight-game losing streak will continue through the end of the season.

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Monday, February 23, 2015

BU manages a tie on the ice against No. 1 Eagles

BY ARTHUR BAILIN Heights Editor In a Senior Night game, it is only fitting that the hallmark moment of the game was one that involved a signif2 Boston College icant 2 Boston Univ. shift in emotions.

As Megan Keller began to settle in to the visitor’s penalty box at Walter Brown Arena, disaster struck for the Eagles.

A shot from senior captain Marie-Philip Poulin found its way past freshman goaltender Katie Burt and into the net.

Jubilation rang out from the heavily partisan crowd, echoing the Walter Brown Arena faithful from Boston University hockey games past.

But then, the shift. Referee Bill Doiron, having seen BU forward Kayla Tutino interfere with Burt, stretched out his arms and screamed, “NO!” He repeated the gesture emphatically.

As the crowd, somewhat groggy from the free chili that permeated the arena, processed what had hap-

pened, a chorus of boos rained down on the officiating crew who had just snatched an overtime goal—and a win—out of the white gloved hands of the Terriers.

It was a game of missed opportunity for the canines from Allston.

The No. 6 Terriers (21-8-3, 15-5-1 Hockey East) blew two leads to the No. 1 Eagles (30-1-2, 20-0-1 Hockey East) and could not finish in overtime to lead to a 2-2 draw. For the Eagles, it was a game of cat and mouse, or rather dog and mouse, as the mice escaped capture.

“It’s their senior day, we knew they were going to come out hard,” head coach Katie King Crowley said.

“They’re a very good hockey team.”

The Terriers did just that to open the game. While the first Terriers goal—the first goal of the game—did not come until 18:44 of the first period, the Terriers largely controlled the pace of play, not allowing the Eagles to have a sustained attack. The work of the Terriers came to fruition during a power play, caused by a Lexi Bender tripping penalty.

Samantha Sutherland ripped a shot past Burt to give the Terriers the one-goal lead. They sustained the

lead for the duration of the period, capping a slow start for the Eagles, a trend that has been occurring in games outside of the friendly confines of Conte Forum, a trend that Crowley attributes to quicker pace of play due to typically smaller ice surfaces than the 200’x87’ surface of Kelley Rink.

If the Eagles were slower through the first, they opened things up in the second.

The Eagles sent a barrage of shots on Victoria Hanson, outshooting the Terriers 20-2 in the period. Only one goal came out of the barrage, a Haley Skarupa goal a quarter of the way through.

Then, past the halfway point of the third, the craziness of the game began to unfold. It started with a Maddie Elia goal to put the Terriers up by one. The upset-minded canines began to have the mice in the cross hairs. The Eagles began to put pressure on net, but to no avail.

Then, a breakthrough came for the Eagles.

Sarah Lefort was whistled for body-checking Alex Carpenter. The opening for escape for the mice was there, but opportunity is a little bit

different than execution. Realizing this, Crowley called a timeout.

“We talked about how they had gotten opportunities on the power play in the second period,” she said.

“This was the time to bury one.”

A flurry of shots for the first 1:30 of the power play was to no avail, as the Eagles tried to escape the impending doom of the game clock.

The persistence paid off, as a blocked clear attempt by Megan Keller set in motion the moments leading up to the game-winning goal. Keller passed the puck to Skarupa, who fired a shot from the blue line. Hanson made the save, but Dana Trivigno was there to clean up, knotting the game up at two.

The Eagles would not leave the third period mistake-free. A late too-many-players call on BC left the Eagles down a player for the remainder of the third period and a substantial part of overtime.

The penalty set the stage for a BU onslaught of BC. The Eagles would kill off the too-many-players penalty, but Keller, the player who had made the key play to bring BC back into the game, nearly took the team out of the game by getting called for hooking

Poulin on a transition play.

The issue manifested, as Poulin received a feed from Lefort and buried one from in between the face-off circles. Katie Guay, the referee at the red line, pointed to the goal to signal that the Terriers had scored. Doiron, however, came in from the blue line to wave off the goal, saying that Tutino had made contact with Burt right before the goal.

Meanwhile, Burt came out to BU’s goal celebration to speak to Tutino, who immediately shoved Burt onto the ice, turning the bewildering to the surreal as Tutino was restrained by the officials and sent to the box.

Another goal would not be scored, as Burt would stop all eight of BU’s shots on goal and the Eagles successfully killed the power play to preserve the tie.

The mice had escaped, at least from the comically dated Walter Brown Arena. The Eagles, who likely will face the Terriers late in the Hockey East Tournament, have finally found the dance partner in Hockey East worth their attention. 

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Just two nights after a 5-0 victory, the Eagles couldn’t muster up more than two goals against the No. 6 Boston University Terriers in a 2-2 draw. Haley Skarupa had two points for BC.

BC cruises in final regular season game at Conte

BY CAMILLE HOMA For The Heights For Emily Pfalzer and the seniors of Boston College’s women’s hockey team, the final home game of the regular sea0 Boston Univ. son 5 Boston College versus Boston University was bittersweet.

The win against BU, however, made it a little sweeter.

The celebration of senior night was emotional for all, and coach Katie Crowley had many praises for her five seniors: Pfalzer, Emily Field, Kate Leary, Erin Kickham, and Danielle Doherty.

“We have some tremendous seniors on this team and they contribute in all sorts of ways,” Crowley said. “I’m really proud of all five of them for what they’ve done for our program, how they’ve helped our team grow and our program grow, and I can’t say enough about those five kids.”

The Thursday night matchup between No. 1 Boston College (301-1, 20-0-0 Hockey East) and No. 6 Boston University (21-8-2, 15-5-0 Hockey East), resulted in a high intensity 5-0 shutout win for the Eagles.

The first period set the pace for the rest of the game, with the Eagles’ defense coming out strong and their offense delivering on goal opportunities. Pfalzer led the effort against the Terriers offense, often sweeping

away rebounded shots on goalie Katie Burt.

After a penalty on BU’s Victoria Bach for tripping, Pfalzer passed to Megan Keller, who set up Alex Carpenter to send the puck past BU goaltender Erin O’Neil’s left foot 12:36 into the period.

Due to their solid passing and puck possession in their 5-on-5 playing time, the Eagles gave themselves a two-goal lead late in the first, with Toni Ann Miano taking a shot that went through the five-hole of BU’s O’Neil.

The Terriers came out strong on offense in the second period.

Four total penalties on BC, at one point giving BU a 4-on-3 advantage, allowed the Terriers to have many scoring chances.

Burt, however, knocked each away—in the second she saved a total of 16 shots, largely with the help of the Eagles’ penalty kill.

After the third kill by the Eagles, Andie Anastos, assisted by Carpenter, got off a beautiful shot, which went over goalie O’Neil’s left shoulder and into the top corner of the net, bringing the game to 3-0. Tensions were high between the teams, as to be expected in any matchup of the BCBU rivalry, causing some pushing to occur after the whistle on goal saves.

This restlessness increased as BU failed to deliver on any of its power play chances. A penalty was called

on Pfalzer for hooking at 18:15 into the period, leading to a decision by BU to pull netminder O’Neil to gain a larger advantage.

Due to a change in possession down the Terriers’ end, however, Haley Skarupa skated up the ice and dump a shorthanded empty-netter into the BU goal.

The intensity of the game continued into the third period, with BU looking to pull their way back from a four goal deficit and with BC trying to keep the game a shutout.

Both the Eagles and the Terriers played aggressively, leading to many scoring chances and many penalty minutes.

After a penalty on BC’s Tori Sullivan for hooking, Carpenter got possession, skated to the right of O’Neil, and let the puck fly into the top shelf of the BU net.

The amount of penalty minutes for BU in the third allowed the Eagles to continue their tenacious play and to emerge victorious.

With this win under their belt, the Eagles are looking at the Hockey East playoffs and beyond, but first are concentrating on winning their last game of the regular season at BU. “One step at a time for us, but that’s [being in the NCAA final game] been a goal of this team for awhile as well as winning the Hockey East playoffs,” Crowley said. “You can’t take one before the other.” 

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Katie Burt and senior Emily Field embraced after a 5-0 shutout over BU.

The Heights

Monday, February 23, 2015

B3

Eagles’ defense couldn’t compete with Irish’s elite scorers From Men’s Basketball, B1 biggest crowd of the year few reasons to cheer beyond the promotions, falling 87-70.

Notre Dame has excelled on offense all season and maintained its efficiency against BC, shooting an impressive 58.6 percent from the field in the first half. Both Olivier Hanlan and Aaron Brown put up double figures in the first, keeping the game close and taking just a five-point deficit into the break.

In the second, there was nothing BC could do. The Irish made 10 of their first 11 shots en route to a 75 percent shooting performance. The Eagles managed to shoot above 50 percent in that half, but the 19 seconds they led for in the opening minutes would be the only ones.

Last time these two teams met, just two and a half weeks ago, the trio of Zach Auguste, Jerian Grant, and Steve Vasuria dominated, combining for 50 of Notre Dame’s 71 points. This time around, the production was even

more balanced. Six players finished in double-digits for the Irish, and Pat Connaughton also added on eight points. Grant, though not the leading scorer, did a terrific job running the offense, picking up 11 assists to complement his 10 points.

“I was unbelievably impressed with how Grant played the game,” BC head coach Jim Christian said.

“We went zone, he got the ball in the middle of the floor and carved us in there. He carved us up off of the ball screen. He’s a terrific player.”

The Eagles came out strong on the offensive side, as well, spurred on by solid performances from Brown and Dennis Clifford. Brown led the team in shots and points, categories normally led by Hanlan. After putting up such high scoring totals in the last several games, Hanlan has garnered special attention from opponents’ defenses.

“I thought we did a good job with Hanlan not getting his 30 [points],” Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey said. “When he gets his 30 then the

games are interesting—and BC is in them.”

Hanlan still picked up 19 while draining 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, but he didn’t take over the game as he has done recently. Clifford, meanwhile, put up one of his best performances of the season. The big man went 7-for-10 with 17 points, knocking down a couple jump shots along the way. He has often seemed shaky in the paint this season, but he appeared confident on Saturday, taking advantage of a couple mismatches

and going up strong.

In the end, it was BC’s defense that couldn’t get it done. Notre Dame had its way inside, putting up 48 points in the paint compared to BC’s 28. Backup center Will Magarity missed another game as he continues to recover from a concussion he sustained earlier this season, and even BC’s talented guards had trouble staying in front of Notre Dame. Superior shooting skill and athleticism decided the game early on, and BC will have to keep fishing for a second ACC win.n

The Big Ten’s proposal for freshman ineligibility will not work From Column, B1 5,000 men’s basketball players across 351 D-I programs.

Christian also believes fault for underclassmen failing at the professional level lies with NBA front offices.

“What’s prepared?,” Christian said. “They’re drafting them. We’re not telling them who to draft. So if they’re drafting people who are unprepared, that’s their issue. They’ve got to do a better job drafting. I think that they should draft older players. They draft potential.”

As Christian says, college coaches should not be held accountable for not having their players ready after only one year of coaching. Even if the player possesses incredible physical attributes or raw talent, it’s hard to blame coaches if the NBA results don’t match the potential scouts saw.

Christian provided a solution for the issue. “[The NBA] should change the rookie scale,” he said. “If the guys

had to invest a lot of money like they do in the NFL, they better be right.”

Christian’s solution could work.

If NBA teams were forced to use a larger percentage of the salary cap on rookies, perhaps they would put a heavier stock into established results rather than taking risks.

I’m not convinced that Christian’s idea would work—not immediately, at least. Raising the NBA rookie pay scale may entice more underclassmen to declare early in the hopes of a big payday. It would take years of NBA teams choosing more experienced players over freshmen before any real change would occur.

Some believe NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s plan to raise the minimum age limit from 19 to 20 would help college basketball. I don’t think that’s entirely true. Many young players may consider going overseas and learning under professional coaches—or just to avoid taking classes if they feel their trip to the NBA is guaranteed—while earn-

ing some money on the side. Note, however, that very few players have succeeded going that route—Brandon Jennings spent a year in Italy, and perhaps Emmanuel Mudiay may thrive after a year in China, but that’s all.

Lowering the age limit back down to 18 may actually help more.

That allows high school players who scouts believe are at an elite level to make the jump immediately, if NBA teams are willing to take the risk.

You could hit big, like with Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. You could get serviceable talent—Rashard Lewis, Tyson Chandler, and Amar’e Stoudemire all fall into that group. Or, like a team could with any pick regardless of age, you could strike out big time: enter the Kwame Brown’s and Sebastian Telfair’s of the world. This would also allow college programs to work with players who are actually interested in playing in college, interested in learning from esteemed coaches like Mike Krzyzewski, and interested in

receiving an education, rather than using college basketball as a quick stepping stone to the NBA. There’s a common theme to these arguments—they require the NBA’s rules to change. As Christian said repeatedly: “it’s an NBA issue.”

The Big Ten and the NCAA should let Silver and the NBA Players Association sort things out. The age limit benefits the NBA, allowing players to be more marketable by featuring them on national TV longer, and it also helps reduce some risk during the draft with another year of scouting. Conference leaders might need to respond to the NBA’s rules, but implementing freshman ineligibility isn’t the right response.

The logistics behind keeping freshmen from playing haven’t been released yet, but I don’t see how it will work. It wouldn’t make sense for the basketball players to not play in any games, so schools would have to form freshmen-only teams. Additional staff members would need to be hired to coach these teams, in-

creasing athletic budgets. Increased expenditures would not come on athletic scholarships—football will still get 85 and men’s basketball will get 13, unless that rule changes as well. Keeping more players in college for a fifth year would only tie up those available scholarships for longer. “To say to Jahlil Okafor you’re going to play on the freshman team?” Christian said. ”Those guys are going to go from the freshman team to the NBA.” Granted, it might make sense in college football. A lot of the best players redshirt during their freshman year anyway for several reasons, like physical development or waiting for positional competition (especially among quarterbacks and offensive lineman) to graduate.

It is extremely rare for the youngest possible players in football—redshirt sophomores—to get drafted. Jameis Winston and Johnny Manziel are the exceptions, not the rules. Additionally, BC is an exception in terms of its graduation rates for athletes. BC

ranked third in the nation in Graduation Success Rate across all sports.

While it may not seem like a problem to Christian and BC, some schools have difficulty helping student-athletes graduate, especially ones from men’s basketball and football. For example, the average school graduates 71 percent of its football players. Florida State, North Carolina, and North Carolina State all come in under the national average.

Still, this measure should not pass. The NCAA should not curtail its rules to fit the needs of the NBA and NFL when the professional leagues give little consideration to effects on the college game.

If there would be any consolation to this rule, it’s the one that Christian conceded: “It’d be some good freshman games.”

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

Grant creates offense in unique ways vs. BC From Jerian Grant, B1 one to take over and compete with the Irish every step of the way.

An analysis of offense versus offense becomes a complete mismatch in favor of the Fighting Irish, for more than a few reasons.

What can only be described as wizardry at times, Grant’s playing style is defined as a creator in every sense of the word.

Combining the offensive prowess of Hanlan with the jack-of-all-trades playing style of Pat Heckmann, Grant spearheads the steamroller that is ND’s deadly offense.

In the span of only a few minutes—a few trips up the court and back—Grant did just about everything a player can do on the court.

The sequence starts with a forceful rejection of a Brown layup on one end, in which he comes from behind to shove the ball—and Brown—away from the rim.

On the ensuing ND offensive trip, Grant rises above everyone else to snatch up a rebound off a missed three by Pat Connaughton, only to dish it back to Connaughton for a make and one of his 11 assists on the day. To finish off his one man show with an exclamation point, he makes a drive through traffic and a contested finish at the rim look easy.

“Grant just made some easy plays, got guys shots, and didn’t worry about his numbers,” said Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey.

“He was such a man out there.”

Perhaps Grant’s most remarkable characteristic is his vision—an incredible sixth-sense awareness of what is happening on every inch of the court at every second.

A loose rebound up in the air might seem like a 50-50 ball, until Grant arrives at the scene to swat the ball on a perfect line to an open player on the other side of the court. When he’s on the ball, he’s even more dangerous. Grant has the combination of wherewithal, skill, and confidence to create a play out of thin air. A quick spin off of a defender suddenly becomes a bullet that lands in the hand of a teammate, who then knocks down the high percentage shot.

While Grant sticks out as a man among boys, the supporting cast of the Irish is nothing to forget about.

Pat Connaughton, an incredibly gifted two sport athlete, only had eight points, but cannot be left alone on the 3-point line.

Demetrius Jackson took over the offense when Grant handed it off to him, topping off his team-leading 15point night with a forceful alley-oop late in the second. Bonzie Colson and

Zach Auguste tore apart the Eagles interior defense from the start of the game, and six different players for the Irish finished in double figures as Grant spread the wealth around.

The Eagles’ offense, meanwhile, flowed just a little differently against Notre Dame than it had all season.

Most notable from the game was the absence of a few key players.

While Will Magarity sat in street clothes on the bench—sidelined for a second straight game—Heckmann and Dimitri Batten were in the game but were never really involved.

The duo finished with five points each and only two rebounds and one assist between them, leaving the offensive responsibilities in the hands of Dennis Clifford, Brown, and Hanlan.

Clifford delivered one of his best offensive games of the season, finishing with 17 points, six rebounds, and four assists.

He has scored more this season—19 against UMass Lowell and Maine—and he had a double-double against Harvard, but against Notre Dame, he looked solid and composed with the ball in his hands.

“People forget he hasn’t played in two years,” Christian said. “The last couple of weeks he has really started to compete and has gotten better.” The statistic that sticks out

the most for Clifford is the four assists, a season high. In most games, defenses give Clifford a lot of space when he gets the ball away from the paint. Especially against Syracuse, the seven-footer would turn too slowly, or put up a rushed jump shot when he had more time to examine the play.

The composure he showed against ND led to those four assists, as he got the ball up away from the quick hands of the guards and took his time picking his passes and shots.

Leading scorer Brown produced a much more up-and-down game than Clifford did. Far out-shooting anyone on the court, he attacked the rim constantly, but doesn’t have the finishing ability of Hanlan to put up huge numbers.

“Aaron did a great job of getting to the basket, but I think sometimes he goes too deep, and he has to start making some other plays,” Christian said.

In the end, Jackson played better defense on Hanlan than Clifford did against Colson or Auguste. In addition, Grant proved why he is one of the best players in the country, and Christian needed a lot more fadeaway jumpers from Hanlan for the Eagles to compete with the highly efficient offensive machine of the Fighting Irish. n

drew hoo / heights editor

The Eagles lost, despite Dennis Clifford’s best offensive performance.

Eagles’ defensemen put the pressure on, but couldn’t finish it From Men’s Hockey, B1 with these shots being his 15th and 16th assist of the year. Additionally, Hanifin danced around defenders all night, setting up more shots for his forwards, while taking a couple of his own throughout the game.

In fact, the entire Eagles defensive corps stepped up on Friday. McCoshen continued his fiery streak by adding his third goal in two games.

As far as actual defensive work, team captain Michael Matheson looked at his absolute best.

Throughout the game, Matheson came up with huge plays when BC needed them most. His strongest play came with about 10 minutes left in the third period. The Eagles had to fend off another UMass Lowell

power play, and after a deflection that pulled Demko forward, his left side remained wide open. A UML forward received the puck with a clear angle, but Matheson sacrificed his body to force the shot up in the area and safely away from the net.

Matheson has faced criticism this year for his declined play—much of it a completely fair assessment. Many expected the defenseman to make the proverbial jump to that next level of play his junior year as the team’s most prominent veteran presence. No one, however, can deny that BC’s captain showed flashes of his brilliant talent Friday night.

Most impressive was Matheson’s passion on the ice, one that spread throughout the Eagles. BC has garnered a reputation as a highly physical

team, which has often led to many penalties. That showed in a positive way against the Riverhawks. Throughout the game, especially in the latter half, BC applied heavy pressure on UMass Lowell players, forcing tough shots if any at all.

Whether the Eagles simply felt the weight of needing a win on their shoulders, or if they were playing hard for the team’s seven seniors in their final regular season game at Kelley Rink doesn’t matter—the fire showed in a way it hasn’t at times this season.

And yet for all the passion, BC has nothing to show for it. For each thrilling pass, the Eagles missed getting off a shot. For each strong defensive play, a silly miscue leading to a power play shortly followed. The lack of consistency that has plagued the Eagles all

season came back to bite them, as they simply couldn’t find a way to finish.

“It was like two different games for both teams,” BC coach Jerry York said. “[UMass Lowell] get[s] style points in the first half, but we really picked it up in the third and OT.” And he’s right. The Eagles’ pressure came throughout the game.

Without an ability to finish, however, the result comes up this way—an opportunity that could have been. With a win against UMass Lowell, BC could have wrapped up the second slot in Hockey East, securing that first-round bye and perhaps making the next week easier on them.

Instead, this draw makes the road to the NCAA Tournament a little harder. The Eagles do still have a onegame lead on UMass Lowell in the

Hockey East standings. Friday’s tie, however, denies the Eagles a victory in the tiebreak with UMass Lowell.

Per Hockey East’s tiebreak rules, a win put BC ahead by virtue of its 1-1 record against Boston University compared to UMass Lowell’s 0-2 record, but this tie gives the Riverhawks the advantage by having a 1-0-1 record over BC. Additionally, the game dropped them two spots to 12th place in the Pairwise Rankings. If not most troublesome, each team has two inconference games to play.

While UMass Lowell gets two home games against Vermont, the Eagles must fly to South Bend, Ind. to play Notre Dame. Mathematically, BC has an advantage: if the Eagles come away with the same or a better

record at ND than UMass Lowell does against Vermont, then they still finish on top.

On the other hand, if the Eagles lose more games to ND than UMass Lowell does to Vermont, the pressure will be on in the Hockey East Tournament to convince voters to put BC in the tournament.

After the game, Matheson didn’t seem too worried. “It’s a really tight race in Hockey East, it always seems to come to the last two, three games of the year,” the captain said. “That’s why teams love playing in a conference like Hockey East.”

But considering their prime position to clinch their spot, there’s only one real emotion the Eagles should feel now.

Concern. n

The Heights

Monday, February 23, 2015

B4

Softball continues impressive start in weekend tournament

By Tommy Meloro Heights Staff While Boston College students were wrapped up in their North Face or Canada Goose jackets, trying to avoid slipping on the sheet of black ice also known as the Mod Lot, the softball team was enjoying a relatively balmy 60-degree weekend down in sunny Conway, S.C. This wasn’t an early Spring Break trip, however—the Eagles were all business, winning each of the four games they played in the Chanticleer Showdown.

The Eagles improved their record to an impressive 11-3, defeating Sacred Heart on Friday, Bucknell and Murray State on Saturday, and host Coastal Carolina on Sunday. Pitcher Allyson Frei was the unquestionable star of the weekend for the Eagles, winning three

of the four games on the weekend, notching 28 strikeouts (including 10 in a single game twice), and improving her record on the year to 9-2.

On Friday, staunch pitching and some power hitting propelled the Eagles to a 4-1 victory over Sacred Heart. Frei pitched a complete game, allowing just four hits and one run, striking out seven in the process.

Meanwhile, second baseman Chloe Sharabba went 2-3 with an RBI double in the fourth to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead, while catcher Tatiana Cortez smacked a home run in the sixth inning to put the Eagles up 3-1 on the Pioneers.

BC would tack on another run on an RBI groundout by Jordan Weed, providing the final margin.

On Saturday, however, it was BC’s bats that did the heavy lifting. The Eagles pounded Bucknell 8-1, and then out-hit Murray State to a final score of

9-6. Weed pitched a gem in the early game, going six innings, giving up one run on eight hits, and striking out eight.

Center fielder Megan Cooley set the tone early, hitting a leadoff homer, the first of her career, before Sharabba took over. Sharabba made sure that Weed’s effort didn’t go in vain, as she went 2-4 with four RBIs, including a three-run home run.

The second game was the first in which BC had to outmuscle the opposing team, as the Racers of Murray State refused to go down easy.

In particular, one Racer gave Frei a massive headache each time she stepped up to the plate. Shortstop Alexa Becker went 4-for-4 and drove in all six Murray State runs. The rest of the Murray State lineup combined for four hits and no RBIs. BC jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first two innings thanks to a two-run

Taylor Coroneos single in the first, and a two-run double by Annie Murphy in the second.

Becker halved that lead with one swing in the third, with a massive home run. The Eagles extended their lead once again, with Cortez driving in two more runs for an 8-3 lead. Becker refused to let BC get away, however, knocking a booming double down the right field line driving in two more.

Becker came up in the top of the seventh inning with two outs and almost no chance that her team would make up its four-run deficit. Despite this, she once again put a scare into the Eagles, smashing her second home run of the night. However, the scare was only brief, and she couldn’t do it all herself as the Eagles remained victorious.

It was easily Frei’s worst performance of the weekend, as she let up all six runs to the Racers. Frei still managed

to strike out 10, as Becker was the only one that could touch her.

Whatever Frei changed from Saturday night to Sunday worked, because she was nigh untouchable to the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. Frei again struck out 10, but this time didn’t allow a single Chanticleer to cross home plate as the Eagles held on for a taut 1-0 win.

On the offensive side, the production came from an unlikely place, as third baseman Jordan Chimento, who had gone 0-for-7 in the first three games, drove in the Eagles’ only run against the Chanticleers.

As the team returns to the hellscape that is Boston, students can hope they’re bringing the weather with them, however unlikely that may be.

What may be more likely is that the Eagles continue the blazing hot streak that carried them to an undefeatedw weekend in Conway. n

Bayou blowout: Eagles swept by No. 4 LSU in Louisiana

By Alec Greaney Heights Editor Chris Shaw turned on the kneehigh pitch, blasting a line-shot out to right field. The ball rocketed over the right fielder, who turned and ran back to the track, but never had a chance.

Most fans in the bleachers of Alex Box Stadium could only swivel their heads in awe as the ball rapidly cleared all but one row.

Shaw jogged around the bases as the left field scoreboard reflected his home run, boosting Boston College baseball (2-5) to two runs and five hits. Unfortunately, Eagles’ supporters could only celebrate so much. This was just the second run in seven-plus innings for the Eagles, while No. 4 Louisiana State University (6-1) had already scored in every inning but one, good for 11 runs and 16 hits.

LSU would tag on another five runs and five hits in the bottom of the frame, completing a 16-2 rout of BC to sweep the three-game series.

Fortunately for BC, the performances in this game weren’t indicative of the entire series. In the two games on Friday, which became a doubleheader day

once forecasts for heavy rain on Sunday forced the finale to be rescheduled, the Eagles played with the top-five team.

They got out to an early start in game one, as Gabriel Hernandez and Blake Butera put together back-to-back singles. After a Joe Cronin struck out and both runners moved into scoring position on a throwing error, Shaw came through, driving a single up the middle to plate both runners.

The Eagles added another run in the fourth, as Michael Strem had an RBI single to drive in Cronin.

BC starter John Gorman couldn’t hold either lead the Eagles took, allowing two runs in the second and two more in the fourth, the latter of which would prove to be the difference. Mike King came in to relieve Gorman, who couldn’t make it through the fifth.

King quickly got LSU to line out for the final out.

King threw another two innings for BC, in which his only real mistake was allowing a solo shot to Danny Zardon.

Two more runs crossed in his latter inning of relief, though both were unearned—the products of a throwing error and an obstruction call—and BC fell, 8-3.

King has lead BC’s bullpen so far in this young season, posting a 1.96 ERA and a .173 opponent batting average.

Beyond him, the team is still looking for guys to get outs.

Freshman Carmen Giampetruzzi, who has yet to allow a hit or run in three appearances totalling an inning and a third, is the only other BC reliever to have pitched at least one inning and have an ERA under 6.75.

The starters are in a similar boat.

Gorman’s ERA shot up to 6.30 in 10 total innings.

Jeff Burke, who allowed five runs in 4 1/3 innings in Friday night’s 7-4 loss, currently stands at 9.72, while Nick Poore’s 1 2/3-inning start on Saturday shot him up to 9.00.

To be fair, the 16 runs allowed on Saturday inflated these statistics. In many ways, the game in general was one to be forgotten. The Eagles never led, needing eight different pitchers to get 24 outs in the LSU lineup. Head coach Mike Gambino pointed out how such a tough loss could help the team in the future.

“From the moment we got to the park, we didn’t quite have the focus that we needed,” Gambino said. “We’re so

Emily Fahey / Heights Senior Staff

Despite a strong showing from the plate, the Eagles struggles from the mound against LSU. close to being really, really good. Without that focus, we’re close to being able to get rolled like that. It’s a really good lesson as we get going and it’s something to build on.”

The Eagles should focus on building up their pitching, which has yet to live up to the strong performances in the

lineup. After two weekends, the team’s overall ERA is higher than the number of games it has played: 7.93.

No matter how many home runs Shaw hits this season to pace the offense, the Eagles can’t win unless the rotation steps up and finds ways to keep more runs off the board. n

Seminoles roll past the Eagles thanks to monster first half

By Victoria Johnson Heights Staff

SPORTS in SHORT

Dribble. Dribble. Pump fake. Shot.

STUFFED. Karima Gabriel made a smashing block that echoed through Conte Forum to deny Ivey Slaughter access to the hoop. She denied the Seminoles at the rim not once, not twice, but five times. Along with five steals and six rebounds, Gabriel single-handedly shut down part of the No. 9 Florida State University offense, but the Boston College Eagles (12-15, 4-10 ACC) fell to Seminoles (25-3, 12-2 ACC) by a score of 86-68.

To open the game, FSU won the tip-off and stormed down the court. Center Adut Bulgak made an easy layup for the Seminoles to put them on the board first. It was evident that BC had holes in its defense as FSU got inside the paint on every possession.

Both sides maintained a fast pace so the defenses did not have time to set up. In order to slow down their opponents, the Eagles

were forced to be extremely aggressive.

Because of their overzealous defense, Katie Quandt was sent to the bench after committing two fouls in the first three minutes.

With the starting center taking a seat, it was Gabriel’s turn to step up. On the defensive end, she was a solid force, but her aggressive nature also put her in trouble early. After she committed two fouls in the first seven minutes of the game, head coach Erik Johnson was forced to rotate between his two centers.

BC’s offense remained quiet until Kelly Hughes’s offensive rebound led to a threepoint play by Nicole Boudreau. Seconds later, the Eagles made their way down the court. Boudreau sent a behind-the-back bounce pass to Ashley Kelsick, who broke inside to make a layup—but the Eagles still trailed 26-12.

The Seminoles did not relent, and Boudreau commended their talent. “When [BC] would drive, there would be someone there,” Boudreau said. “Their rotations were really

Men’s Hockey East Standings

Team

Conference

Overall

Boston Univ.

13-4-3

19-6-5

Boston College

11-6-3

18-10-3

UMass Lowell

10-7-3

17-10-5

Notre Dame

9-6-5

14-15-5

Providence

11-8-1

19-11-2

Northeastern

10-8-2

15-12-4

Vermont

10-8-2

18-11-3

Maine

8-10-2

13-18-3

New Hampshire

8-11-1

13-17-2

Connecticut

6-11-1

9-17-7

Merrimack

5-12-3

14-14-4

Massachusetts

5-15-1

10-20-2

crisp every single play, every single time they were on the floor.”

BC fought to find its opponents’ weakness but poor passes plagued the team, along with elementary turnovers. When the Eagles safely brought the ball close to the basket, their shots consistently rimmed out or banked off the backboard.

The Eagles exploded with less than a minute left in the first half. Boudreau made a triple with three seconds on the shot clock, causing Conte to erupt. After an FSU miss and a Gabriel rebound, Boudreau sunk a buzzer beating three-pointer to send the Eagles into the locker room trailing 45-29.

With a shooting percentage of 32.4, it was clear BC needed to make some adjustments if they wanted to compete with the Seminoles, who were shooting at 69.2 percent.

“I asked them in the locker room, ‘What’s the difference between where we are and where we need to be?’” Johnson said. “It’s not just spectacular athleticism

or amazing shooting. We have the talent.

It is just some of those discipline issues and some of those consistency issues and things like that.”

The Eagles cleaned up their game and came out hot in order to close in on the FSU lead. Hughes knocked down a three to open the half, good for her first points of the game. After a Boudreau steal and Gabriel rebound, Hughes hit another jumper to bring the Eagles within 11. BC’s defense was strong and swarmed the ball, causing the Seminoles to miss shots. A few minutes later Hughes hit two 3-pointers to bring her team within eight.

Both sides exchanged 3-pointers, answering one after the next. The Seminoles tried to break away but Hughes made two shots at the charity stripe and Kelsick sunk a 3-pointer to make the score 66-54. Soon after, Bulgak was sent to the bench after committing her fourth foul. This seemed like good news for the Eagles, since Bulgak scored 19 of her team’s points.

Numbers to Know

Emilee Daley made a 3-pointer but Leticia Romero had no problem making one of her own on the other end. After a timeout, FSU decided to pressure the 3point line. The Eagles struggled to get clear shots but Daley snuck into the corner and hit a triple with one minute left. Even with Hughes’s 16 points, Gabriel’s three steals, and Daley’s three triples, BC failed to make a comeback. Although they struggled hard against a tough BC defense in the second half, the Seminoles walked away with an 86-68 win.

Despite the loss, Johnson continues to remain positive and look forward to contending with more tough ACC competition.

“We love it. This is what we all signed up for … this is what gets us fired up. It forces you to be you’re best,” Johnson said. “We weren’t afraid of a top 10 team. I thought we came roaring back and really showed that we can play at the highest level. We just need to be more consistent.” n

Quote of the Week

7.93

“When you do that The earned run average of baseball’s against any team, pitching staff, which has given 52 / Heights EditorCupicatuidet L. Fulessedo, querfecta, nihilicii ineri fic Emilyup Fahey you’re not going to earned runs through seven games. have a good result.

18.7 When you do that The average points per game of men’s basketball’s Olivier Hanlan, against a great team, who leads the ACC. you’re going to get 6 blown out.”

Emily Fahey / Heights Editor

The number of goals scored by midfielder Mikaela Rix through two games. Lacross No. 6 in the country.

Baseball coach Mike Gambino on lack of focus —

CLASSIFIEDS Monday, February 23, 2015

B5

THE HEIGHTS

COMMUNITY HELP WANTED $$ SPERM DONORS WANTED $$ Earn up to $1,200/month and give the gift of family through California Cryobank’s donor program. Convenient Cambridge location. Apply online: SPERMBANK.com.

VISIT BCHEIGHTS.COM FOR UPDATED NEWS EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK.

THE HEIGHTS

B6

Monday, February 23, 2015

Coolidge Corner hosts Oscar shorts ‘Aya,’ ‘Phone Call’ among others

BY LIZ HOLMAN Heights Staff

The 2015 Oscar-nominated shorts continue their run at Coolidge Corner Theater with some amazing live-action narratives. What makes this category so unique is that it represents the Oscar’s least American batch of nominees to be found outside the foreign-language race, allowing the audience to get a taste of some of the countries that are rarely represented at the multiplex. Although there were five shorts this year, there are two really exceptional ones that deserve to be commended throughout this entire space: a 40-minute short hailing from Israel named “Aya” and a short half its length from England named “The Phone Call.”

“Aya,” a mostly English short codirected by Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis’ explores the question of “What if?” What if we were supposed to meet?

While waiting for her husband to return at the airport, Aya (Sarah Adler) reluctantly agrees to hold a chauffeur’s

sign while he runs out to move his car.

When the passenger (Danish actor Ulrich Thomsen) arrives before his real driver returns and assumes that Aya is his driver, she impulsively decides to go with it, and drives him to Jerusalem.

As the rest of the narrative unfolds, the audience watches their relationship progress from strangers to something resembling genuine affection.

This beautifully understated film explores the sort of possibilities inhibited by social conventions—Aya momentarily sets aside her life to make a new (romantic?) connection with a stranger. The film explores the makings of a connection, and how much of a factor being in the right place at the right time plays. Was it by chance that Aya decided to drive this stranger, an act of fate, or rather a break in rationality? Was it the fact that they found themselves in a scenario that they wouldn’t normally find themselves in—in a car for hours with nothing to do but talk—that created intimacy? After she drops him off, Aya returns to her family, leaving that “what if ” unanswered and

coming back to her senses.

If the cast of “Aya” sounds impressive, then Sally Hawkins and Jim Broadbent in “The Phone Call” will blow your mind. Mat Kirby and James Lucas casted Hawkins to play a volunteer helpline counselor who regularly helps those in distress. One day, she gets a call from a lonely old man who, at first, is at a loss for words. The only thing he seems to be able to get out are the words, “I’m scared,” and, “Joan.” After quite a few attempts, he finally begins to reveal what’s bothering him—his wife, Joan, had passed away two years ago from breast cancer and life just wasn’t worth it without her. As they continue to talk and the conversation gets increasingly personal, Hawkins realizes that the caller has taken a lot of pills and, as the clock ticks by, she tries to avert the crisis.

The sheer anguish of this encounter plays out on Hawkin’s face as she realizes that she is at a loss and the old man’s life begins to slip away. Eventually, he stops responding and the camera cuts to his apartment. The caller, Broadbent, is

PHOTO COURTESY OF DIVINE PRODUCTIONS

A woman waiting at the airport turns into a fraudulent chauffeur on a whim in “Aya.” never seen, but his wife is seen coming through the front door with groceries.

She calls out his name and he shouts from the other room, “Joan, honey, where have you been?” and she replies, “Looking for you.” And if, at this moment, you are not choking on your own tears, well then it’s probable you don’t have a soul.

What made these two films really

extraordinary was that they highlighted certain truths about human connection through scenarios that we don’t normally see. Two strangers forced into a situation together through an act that seems reckless and, frankly, crazy, reveal an innate human desire for intimacy, and two more strangers faced with the reality of death reveal what relationships mean to a life. 

‘McFarland’ hits stride in sports genre

1 PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE REPORT TITLE

PHOTO COURTESY OF WALT DISNEY STUDIOS

Kevin Costner stars as Jim White, the coach that led the longshot McFarland High School cross country team to state championships.

BY CALEB GRIEGO For The Heights The underdog story is very familiar to sports dramas. Audiences have been rocked by the crucial drive of a close football game or left biting their nails during the final tee. Crosscountry, endurance running, would seem to pale in comparison to such intense moments, but McFarland, USA proves that it too can evoke exMCFARLAND, USA citement Niki Caro and anticipation.

Based on the true story of the 1987 McFarland High School cross-country team, this film is just as fulfilling as any other sports film. Though we know all too well that characters and teams faced with seemingly insurmountable odds will inevitably come out on top, this gripping tale still pulls emotionally at the heart strings as each runner takes their mark.

Jim White (Kevin Costner) is a football coach shrouded in numerous controversies.

After his latest scandal, he is forced to find what work he can, relocating his family to McFarland, Calif., a town of mostly working class Hispanics. At the local high school, White is met with a ragtag sports program and a most ungracious welcome. After recognizing the hopelessness of the football program, he sets his sights on several boys with a knack for running. Seeing an opportunity to reinvigorate the

school and his career, White begins his task of molding them into runners fit to combat the rich and privileged towns surrounding them.

In an effort to do so, White becomes ingrained in the boys lives and truly experiences their hardships working in the fruit fields, managing academics and attempting to hold their families together. As their talents grow and their passion for the sport increases, the reality of a State Championship transcends from fantasy, for this small town, into a reality.

While it may be easy to write off McFarland, USA as another predictable underdog triumph story, it has what many other stories lack: heart. Its predictability can be forgiven, because its emotional clout is centered in real characters. Their struggles outside the sport feel just as poignant as those in it. As these boys struggle to come to grips with the reality of their family lives and the possibility of something better, their goals and aspirations are funneled into cross country.

In many ways, the sport and their lives are inseparable. The characters’ emotional and physical exhaustion is represented in every way on screen. Though the outcome is certainly known, the journey to victory is in no way diminished, the audience’s investment more pays dividends when the anguish of their poverty dissipates in light of a better future.

The performances, though not flawless, evinced a kind of earnestness that is consistent throughout the whole of the film. Costner’s transformation dynamically changed from a man ignorant of foreign culture to one that

embraces it. Though this kind of trope, coach embracing culture, has been seen before, Costner’s performance served as a convincing and suitable backbone for the rest of the cast.

On a critical note, the film was set in 1987, yet there was little in the way of props, sets or wardrobe to suggest this. Aside from the occasional VCR or vintage automobile, the film’s setting and context would remain fairly ambiguous if not for the on screen text indicating year and month. This detracts from the film only slightly as the nature of the true story shines more clearly through the characters than the sets.

The camerawork on the film captured the training and races in a beautiful manner.

Whether long takes of mountainsides or the straight and narrow trails between fruit orchards, common of the McFarland area, the shots served as a reminder of the very real nature of life in Southern California. When not panning across visually stimulating terrain, the close camerawork evoked thrill and tension.

The stampede of feet and sweat, visibly dripping off the actors stirred up visceral feelings of tiredness. The exhaustion and the longevity of the races themselves created such palpable tension in the air that upon their completion viewers themselves may have gasped for air.

McFarland, USA creates an enjoyable and comfortably cultured atmosphere. The fair camerawork coupled with solid performances lead to a striking tale of perseverance not unlike anything we have seen before, but entertaining in its own right. 

WEEKEND GROSS

WEEKS IN RELEASE

1. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

23.2

2

2. KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE

17.5

2

3. THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE

15.5

3

4. MCFARLAND, USA

11.3

1

5. THE DUFF

11.0

1

6. AMERICAN SNIPER

9.7

9

7. HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2

5.8

1

8. JUPITER ASCENDING

3.7

3

9. THE IMITATION GAME

2.6

13

10. PADDINGTON

2.3

6

3

2 PHOTO COURTESY OF 20TH CENTURY FOX

3 PHOTO COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES

BESTSELLERS OF HARDCOVER FICTION 1. THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN Paula Hawkins 2. ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE Anthony Doerr 3. OBSESSION IN DEATH J.D. Robb 4. A SPOOL OF BLUE THREAD Anne Tyler 5. THE NIGHTINGALE Kristin Hannah

6. TRIGGER WARNING Neil Gaiman 7. MOTIVE Jonathan Kellerman 8. PRIVATE VEGAS James Patterson 9. GRAY MOUNTAIN John Grisham 10. TWELVE DAYS Alex Berenson SOURCE: New York Times

‘Hot Tub’ filled with repugnant water, swimmers heavily cautioned

BY CHRIS FULLER

Assoc. Arts & Review John Cusack—who played Adam Yates in the first Hot Tub Time Machine film—must have actually found a hot tub time machine, gone into the future to see how the sequel would do, and decided it would be best if he were not involved. Basing itself solely off the success of the original film, Hot Tub Time Machine HOT TUB TIME 2 tu r n e d MACHINE 2 what came Steve Pink across as a creative and retro take on time travel into a crapshoot of penis jokes and lazy scriptwriting that could hardly impress anyone (including die hard fans of the first film). Whereas Hot Tub Time Machine’s ’80s references and general atmosphere actually gives it amusing material to work off, Hot Tub Time Machine 2’s jump to the future gives it no such comedic value or premise.

The boys, having garnered success from their exploits in the first film, are now unsatisfied with their lives and mope about in spite of their financial positions. Lou, staying

back in the ’80s when the group originally went back in time, has made his success in the present based off his knowledge of the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s. Nick’s musical revival in his trip back through time has reignited his career and he now makes music for a living. Jacob now knows Lou is his father and can live comfortably off of his riches. Adam, Cusack’s character, is written off as being on a book tour.

Now that time has caught up to where Lou lived before making the jump back in time, his schemes are now forfeited and his company is running itself into the ground.

He constantly falls into doing a lot of drugs, generally upsetting his family, and throws rampant parties. At one of these parties, after making a speech about how everyone should live selfishly, doing everything only for themselves, Lou is shot in the crotch and the boys must get him to the conveniently placed hot tub time machine to go back and find out who Lou’s assassin is.

The group finds itself in the future, where the assassin, for some undisclosed reason, must have come from. Lou is somehow okay, after being shot in the groin, and the rest of the film is spent trying to track down

the man or woman that shot him. The group comes across Adam Yates Jr., played by Adam Scott, who joins them on the quest to find the attempted murderer. The gang spends the rest of the film parading about a strange 2025 alternate future that has little ground in reality or any interesting features to it.

One of the more frustrating aspects of the film is the way it handles the future. Hot Tub Time Machine 2’s “alternate timeline” concept makes no sense in the context that it is given. Lou’s incident is entirely done away with, but his problems in 2025 unfold just as if nothing had ever happened to him in 2015. The whole “murder mystery” is actually ruined by the film’s poster that blatantly gives away the only interesting aspect of the whole film. Even if it weren’t ruined, there is no intriguing development in the film that invests an audience in the group’s outrageous escapades. Whatever the writers were trying to do with framing the future in their story, it failed miserably.

These characters inspire zero sympathy.

Lou especially does nothing to make a viewer wish that he were not shot in the beginning of the film. He is sex crazed, lazy, and maniacal, not even in a funny way. At some point in the

PHOTO COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Built off the unanticipated success of the original, this sequel drowns itself in convolution. film, a smart car, which runs on feelings, is angered by him and attempts to kill him. It would have made a better use of everyone’s time if the car succeeded and the movie just ended there. Nick, Jacob, and Adam Jr. are not nearly as despicable, but they do little to hold a viewer’s interest and are just as unrightfully depressed as Lou is.

There is no reason why this film should exist. The first film does an impressive job of manipulating the time travel concept into a

mildly entertaining throwback to ’80s culture and it knows its place as a half-assed comedy that could actually get a few laughs out of an audience. Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is a sad excuse for comedy and the only reason it was made was that the first film did considerably well, given the concept and quirky cast.

Cusack was right to avoid the film and hopefully the lousy sequel does poorly enough for the producers to stop the series in its tracks 

The Heights

Monday, February 23, 2015

B7

Roaming through the provinces of the McMullen Museum

Danielle Fasciano / heights staff

‘Roman in the Provinces’ is an ehibit that celebrates art on the fringes of the once great, expansive Roman Empire, how native cultures influenced the development of Roman culture, and eventually, what it meant to be Roman.

From Roman, from B8 In the various busts from different regions around the Empire, the diversity of beauty in the exhibit can be seen distinctly. The ideal Greek figure is far different from its Tunisian counterpart, and yet each is expressed in fine marble, sculpted in similar fashion with the figures striking similar poses. The expressive nature of beauty in each is unique, yet its execution is very similar. This kind of diversity, blanketed in Roman style, is the perfect blending of dissimilarity and similarity.

The coinage and currency on display uniquely depicts the values of their respective regions. Far different from the faces of the Roman patriarchs which dominate the Roman coin, the coin of the provinces each have their own flavor, with unique seals, gods, and regionally distinct messages. Though each served the same general purpose in the marketplace, the differences in the mint were another way in which these peoples culturally identified themselves within the greater Roman Empire. The coinage itself is well preserved and stunning in age. Each distinct coin was struck by hand and is

representative of the human convention of currency stretching far back into the earlier empires.

Also on display are fragments of grand mosaics and small tapestries. Whether originally a large panel spanning the length of a public street or a banner that once hung from the houses of law, both were embroidered or carved with messages of identity in relation to the Roman Empire. Hanging above the barracks in a city, an inscription may declare that the soldiers within serve foremost Caesar, and through that service to Caesar, administer imperial justice for the

community.

Living under the laws of a ruler in a far away land may have been strenuous to those commissioned to uphold them.

These very Roman reminders, etched into walls and marking the streets upon which people walked daily, showed the extent to which they were willing to go to preserve their claims. Art was one way to connect to those people they conquered.

The displays in Devlin are fantastic in nature and are expressive of the beauty of the Roman period. They wrap around the edges of the exhibit, inviting visitors to wander to along the edges of the exhibit.

Art in this time was as much a political tool as the sword. Romanization and the effects of it can be seen even into the modern age. These relics give glimpses into a time in which power and control could not be easily diffused along empires.

The Romans, to their credit, controlled an area that reached far beyond their natural borders, and yet, through the aid of their cultural identity, connected on a human level to those they controlled. In an age long before the digital realm, politics and culture travelled across regions through art because it can speak to all people. It can be quite powerful. n

University Chorale belts it straight outta St. Ignatius From Chorale, from B8 selections flow with grace and significantly evokes the original epic.

Chorale eventually moved on from Mozart, though not before saying farewell by performing the last piece Mozart ever produced, the “Ave verum corpus.” They transition the program to what Director John Finney called more springtime fair. Chorale included two selections from Franz Schubert’s Mass in G major. The pieces had a quiet, firm tone before rising with piercing high notes.

After taking a stop on Charles Villiers Stanford’s “Beati quorum via,” the concert moved onto American hymns, first with Alice Parker’s “Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal.” The piece featured overlapping “alleluias.” It’s a victory hymn, a piece to accompany an uplifting montage. They followed Randall Thompson’s “Alleluia,” a piece consisting of simply alleluias and a single amen at the end. Thompson’s alleluias were less declarative than Parker’s. It logs blocks of alleluias across Chorale’s formation culminating in grand fashion as Chorale sent screaming alleluias back

and forth across the church. The piece eventually folded to a hush and rested on the lone amen, in what was the highlight of the concert.

Finney and Chorale neared the end with three African-American spirituals—“Every Time I Feel Spirit,” “Give Me Jesus,” and “The Battle of Jericho.” The first is a fairly straight forward though enjoyable piece. “Give Me Jesus” was a tender piece that centered understandably on the “Jesus” in the chorus. Chorale sung “Jesus” with serious solemnity.

And finally, there’s “Jericho” which in seems to intentionally mimic how the heralds must have spread the word about Joshua’s victory at Jericho. It’s like a really loud game of telephone.

Chorale concluded with Mack Wilber’s arrangement of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” The piece seemed like one of the simpler pieces in the concert. It came in high but soon melded both the high and low notes in a soothing melody. It’s an inviting piece, in both name and tone. Hopefully, as Finney noted, spring will heed its welcome. But for a night in St. Ignatius as more snow fell, winter wasn’t nearly as dark. n

Danielle Fasciano / Heights staff

The Fashion Club of Boston College presented collections from Vineyard Vines, local boutiques, and experimental fashion by Cindy Chen.

FCBC puts on its second annual fashion show From Fashion, From B8 The collection emphasized casual wear and creative graphic prints, including stylized cupcakes and elephants.

Local Newton boutique Duchess showcased its designs in a wide range of styles and prices. Including primarily spring-inspired styles, Duchess incorporated neutral tones, printed pants, high-low dresses, patterned tops, floral skirts, military-inspired and utilitarian jackets, distressed jeans, and black and white dresses.

Juice, BC’s alternative funk-inspired eightman band played at the halftime show.

Featuring frontmen Christian Rougeau, Kamu Burton, both A&S ’17, and Ben Stevens, CSOM ‘17, on vocals, the group performed its singles, “Pineapple Groove” and “Shoot Me Down.” The funk-inspired

hip-hop infused jam band then played a cover of B.o.B.’s “So Good” with Daniel Moss and Michael Ricciardulli on guitar and Miles Clyatt on drums, all A&S ’17, before finishing off its set with single “How You Gonna Do Me Like That.”

Vineyard Vines is a longtime staple of C culture. At Friday’s event, the Massachusetts brand’s line incorporated both casual and formal looks. Students strutted down the runway in khaki shorts, pastels, shift dresses, printed pants, quarter zips, bright colors, and hats characteristic of the company’s preppy aesthetic. For the formal portion of the show, students donned maxi dresses, ties and slacks, blazers, chiffon dresses, corduroy pants, and other business casual-inspired clothing. To close out the Vineyard Vines collection, the students walked down in pairs down the runway

in formal attire.

The final collection of the night featured styling and makeup by Cindy Chen, A&S ’16. Focusing on high fashion and conceptual art, Chen launched her blog, Opal’s Catharsis, as a way to showcase unconventional design. Chen’s line drew upon the theme of ancient goddesses using white face makeup, applique flowers, golden body art, and a variety of textures in order to highlight more experimental high fashion. Chen’s line featured four models, each clad in white linen cloth, as well as body and facial makeup, in order to portray the theme of an army of goddesses.

Reminiscent of body armor, Chen’s collection provided a much-desired high fashion offset to the other standardized ready-to-wear collections featured in the fashion show. n

drew hoo / heights editor

University Chorale brings renditions of Mozart and other classics to St. Ignatius on Saturday.

ARTS&REVIEW

B8

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

THE DAYS OF SUMMER

Kanye’s foray into fashion

EAGLES ON THE RUNWAY

SUMMER LIN Ask anyone about Kanye West and most would agree that he is one of the most polarizing figures in popular culture. His stunt with Beck at the Grammys ceremony was met with negative backlash and drummed up more publicity than his Grammys performance itself—a testament to the fact that controversy often overshadows the rapper’s musical accomplishments.

Ten years ago, West was a relative newcomer to the music industry, having just released The College Dropout and Late Registration to critical acclaim. Back then, West struggled to be accepted and taken seriously as a rapper. West—who was turned away by several record companies before College Dropout—rejected the image embodied by mainstream hip-hop artists. West produced albums as grand aesthetic statements that challenged hip-hop’s assumptions about hyper-masculinity—choosing to embrace emotion, themes of materialism and heartbreak, and the oft-maligned Auto-Tune vocal effect.

While Kanye West has shaped the landscape of hip-hop within the last decade, he has also been venturing outside of it.

Last Friday, West launched his collection, in collaboration with Adidas Originals, at New York Fashion Week. For years, West had been designing clothes with collaborators such as Nike before debuting his first collection at Paris Fashion Week in 2011.

With mixed-to-negative reception, West has found a whole new set of obstacles and assumptions to overcome.

Staged with Italian performance artist Vanessa Beecroft, West’s military-inspired sportswear collection featured models in flesh-toned stockings and utilitarian pieces.

Over the loudspeakers, a recording of West’s voice rallied against the limitations of the industry. “I want people to feel like it’s okay to create and follow what their dreams are and not feel boxed in,” the voice said. “I want people to feel like awesome is possible.”

Feeling boxed in is something to which West has grown accustomed since his beginnings in the music industry. In reception to his Adidas line, NYFW creator Fern Mallis told the New York Post, “I’m kind of over Kanye. I mean, I’m not a fan of his music, and the attitude and the agenda is not my style.” Other members of the industry’s elite echoed this sentiment, slamming his collection as derivative of previous designers.

Fame itself is something to which West attributes his hardships in fashion. In response to Mallis, West took to Twitter and told Mallis that he will persevere in the design world despite her criticism. “I was too famous by the time I realized I wanted to design,” West said. “Fame is often looked down upon in the design world, so it’s actually been something I had to overcome.”

While Kanye West claims that he is “too famous” to be taken seriously as a designer, fame itself is responsible for advancing West and his family in the fashion world.

While models have to claw their way to walk at NYFW, Kendall Jenner walked at Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Donna Karan, Vera Wang, Michael Kors, and Oscar de la Renta. Karl Lagerfeld, creative director of Chanel, also picked Jenner for his show in Paris. Meanwhile, the front row at Kanye West’s show was worthy of the Grammys, including Beyonce, Jay-Z, the Kardashians, and Rihanna alongside Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

That’s the problem with West making his mark in the fashion world. While he continues to blame fame for derailing his efforts as an aspiring designer, fame itself is what gave West a leg into design in the first place. What his collection has shown is that West has to distance himself from his reputation as a performer—similar to how he had to unravel assumptions about hip hop. The question isn’t whether West is too famous—it’s if his fashion designs and creativity will live up to the image he has built up for himself. We’re all waiting to see if the self-declared “Warhol” and “Steve Jobs” will live up to the name he gives himself.

Summer Lin is the Assist. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com

DANIELLE FASCIANO / HEIGHTS STAFF

Featuring the styles of Daisy Spade, Duchess, Clear Classics, Vineyard Vines, Rightsided, and Cindy Chen, FCBC puts on its second annual fashion show in the Rat.

BC students take to the catwalk to showcase stylish collections from local boutiques

BY SUMMER LIN Asst. Arts & Review Editor Even a snow accumulation of over 70 inches and sub-freezing temperatures couldn’t stop Boston College’s most fashion-forward club from showing off its latest styles. The Fashion Club of BC presented its second annual fashion show at the Rat this past Friday. Featuring the fashion designs of Daisy Spade, Duchess, Clear Classics, Vineyard Vines, Rightsided T-shirts, and makeup by Cindy Chen, A&S ’16, the fashion show combined both style and performance. BC’s funk-inspired band, Juice, as well as F.I.S.T.S (Females Incorporating Sisterhood Through Step) put on special half-time

performances during the show.

Up first, Daisy Spade presented its ready-towear styles to a cheering crowd. Infusing southern charm into city chic, the line heavily featured neutral colors with a-line skirts, cut-out dresses, rompers, and patterned tops. The boutique incorporated classic styles and bright colors along with more accessible and affordable trends reminiscent of Forever 21.

Clear Classics brought in fashions from Abhinav Adi, a designer from Northeastern. The collection incorporated self-designed tanks and graphic sweatshirts featuring humorous slogans such as, “YOLO Wait I’m Indian” and emoticon tshirts. Unlike the other fashions, Adi utilized mainly

black and white in his designs.

In the first interlude to the show, BC’s all-female step group F.I.S.T.S. performed in matching pink A-line skirts and black tops. The show featured three routines performed by the four members of the group. “It’s about how all our styles come together as one,” one F.I.S.T. member announced to the crowd, combining positive body sentiment with individual style. F.I.S.T.S. closed out its performance with a rendition of Kid Ink’s “Body Language” before exiting the stage.

Rightsided T-shirts showcased its graphic print line, featuring watercolor inspired tanks and t-shirts.

See Fashion, B7

Winter winds in St. Ignatius

BY RYAN DOWD Arts & Review Editor

If the University Chorale’s Christmas Concert is the group’s Homecoming of sorts, and their Spring Break trip to Dublin and Galway is, well, spring break, then the Winter Concert is the fall formal or spring fling without the accompaniment of a mild season.

For the usually more casual Winter Concert, The University Chorale of Boston College gathers in St. Ignatius instead of the more remote Trinity Chapel on Newton campus. The Winter Concert is the bridge, between what the group has done so far in the year and what is on the horizon. It offers a glimpse back to Christmas time and into the gentler times of spring. The concert takes the audience through varied religious hymns from the 17th century through Mozart in the late 18th century and ending with American 20th

century pieces.

It’s a different, more casual crowd, mostly students, some who seem to have just wandered in, others grouped in friendly bunches.

The concert began with the older and somewhat illusive pieces “Tollite Hostias” and “Exsultate Justi.” The concert sparked in earnest with three selections from Mozart’s Requiem, which the group featured in its Christmas Concert. Mozart’s Requiem is a funeral piece, one of the last things he wrote. It comes in high and mournful before descending with a quiet sense of urgency into a dream-like state. Hearing only three selections from Mozart’s much longer work is like watching three scenes from The Godfather or three episodes from Friday Night Lights. It is a clear credit to the work of both the original composer and Chorale that the

See Chorale, B7

DANIELLE FASCIANO / HEIGHTS STAFF

McMullen Museum explores art on the periphery of Roman culture in newest exhibit.

From Rome with Love: The display of empire in Devlin

BY CALEB GRIEGO For The Heights

DREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The University Chorale gathered in St. Ignatius to showcase the annual Winter Concert.

INSIDE ARTS THIS ISSUE

‘Hot Tub Time Machine 2’

If only we could go back in time and stop this movie from ever being produced, B6

Enveloping the whole of the Mediterranean and extending its influence from Babylonia to Britannia, the Romans were as audacious as they were successful.

Culturally pervasive, the Romans shaped the world more so in a conquest of culture than any brutal, military conquest of territory. Open through May 31, the McMullen Museum in Devlin Hall is host to a variety of works testifying to this fact, highlighting arts and infrastructure, and how the ideas of the Roman Empire extended far beyond the borders of old Italy.

‘McFarland, USA’

Costner stars as an adaptive cross country coach in this enjoyable sports flick ,B6

The exhibit focuses on those provinces to the east, beyond the Mediterranean borders. In the ancient world, diffusing ideals and ideologies across large distances could prove to make or break an empire. These vast distances would be too heavy a load to exercise any meaningful control over native populations. At the same time, the complete eradication of cultural identity is not optimal for suppressing unrest among the newest inhabitant of the Roman Empire. The Romans found ways to mesh what it meant to be Roman, with cultures far different from that of the motherland.

See Roman, B7

Weekend Box Office Report.........................B6 Hardcover Bestsellers....................................B6 ‘Live Action Oscar Shorts’.............................B6