The Heights Feb 26

The Heights will return on March 12. Have a great Spring Break!

CONSOLATION KINGS

LEGOS IN BOSTON ‘ARTIST UNKNOWN’

SPORTS

METRO

SCENE

BC topped Harvard in overtime to salvage 3rd place in Beanpot, B8

The new Legoland Discovery Center in Somerville is bringing back a favorite pastime, A8

BC student and makeup artist Cindy Chen debuts new magazine, B1

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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Vol. XCVI, No. 12

Number of BC Fulbright winners hits decade low in 2014-15 With 10 winners, BC remains among top producers of Fulbright grants for research institutions, yet places lower than most recent years

BY JULIE ORENSTEIN A1 Editor Over the last decade, Boston College has been a Fulbright grant powerhouse.

In every Fulbright application cycle since 2004-05—the oldest data available online from the Fulbright Program—BC has never ranked lower than 17th in producing the most Fulbright grant winners among doctoral and research level

institutions. The University has placed as high as ninth, earning this ranking in both 2007-08 and 2011-12.

Earlier this month, the program released its list of top producing institutions of Fulbright grants in 2014-15, with grants being awarded to students pursuing positions as English-teaching assistants and researchers in one of over 140 participating countries.

Unlike in previous years, BC did not

rank in the top 20 of Fulbright producers, placing 31st in the list of top producing doctoral or research institutions with 10 grants awarded out of 60 applications.

Two BC students were also selected as Fulbright alternates, and two students received teaching grants from the French government, which are administered by the Fulbright Program.

The top three producers this year were Harvard University (33 winners of 160

applications), University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (28 winners of 120 applications), and Northwestern University (27 winners of 124 applications).

Adjunct associate professor of political science and Fulbright Program advisor Paul Christensen said in an email that fewer BC winners was likely the result of a number of factors. One factor is that the Fulbright Program is making more of an effort to get a better national crosssectional demographic, diversifying the grant winners across more schools.

Christensen also noted that more schools are actively pursuing higher

numbers of applicants, therefore programs in every country have become more competitive due to a sheer increase in those competing.

As far as the percentage of applicants who are actually awarded a Fulbright grant, BC’s figure hovers around the average for most schools ranked highly among top producers—10 winners from 60 applications makes for a 17 percent winning percentage, while top producers such as Harvard boast a winning percentage of 20.6 percent.

See Fulbright, A8

Faculty target poor conditions for adjuncts with ‘walk-in’ Tenured and non-tenured faculty members join together to make BC more aware of problems for adjunct professors

BY CAROLYN FREEMAN News Editor

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The BCAAUP made information about its cause available during its walk-in on Wednesday.

Susan Michalczyk motioned to a 2014-15 course catalog that was lying on a table in the Chocolate Bar. Try to find your favorite professor in this, she said, and see that many of them are adjuncts.

She did this recently with a sociology student, and found that just 12 of the 32 professors they looked at were tenuretrack or tenured. On a national scale, 75 percent of all faculty at universities and colleges are adjuncts, according to NPR. Boston College does not have a number for how many of the University’s faculty members are adjunct, since they classify professors as full- or part-time, rather than tenured or nontenured, said Lori Harrison-Kahan, a full-time adjunct professor of English. Harrison-Kahan acted as one of the organizers of a “walk-in” on Wednesday.

For several hours, faculty—both tenured and non-tenured—sat at couches in a walk-in in the Chocolate Bar in Stokes Hall to raise awareness of the problems adjunct faculty face, both at BC and across the country.

Feb. 25 was the first National Adjunct Day of Action.

The BC chapter of the American Association of University

Professors (BCAAUP) sent an email to all University faculty urging them to stop by Stokes Hall between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to meet with one another or hold office hours. The email also suggested that professors spend a few minutes in class educating students about adjunct faculty.

Rather than staging a “walk-out,” BC faculty members opted to stay in a common area to demonstrate their desire to educate students and to raise awareness, said Michalczyk, the president of the BCAAUP and the second vice president of the AAUP. “To walk out would perpetuate this culture that is all about money, that we don’t care about our students,” she said. “BC faculty cares so much about our students that they put their own well-being, their own financial security on the line for their BC students.”

There are key differences between tenured and non-tenured faculty. Adjunct faculty are contracted on a short-term basis: many of the full-time faculty have multi-year contracts, whereas short-term faculty are hired by the course. Full-time adjunct professors earn a salary and have benefits, whereas part-time adjunct professors are paid by the course. Adjunct

See Adjuncts, A3

Himes on happiness: ‘Give yourself away, give joy away’ BC adaptation of Happiness Project campaign seeks to encourage joy amid busy schedules

BY YOLANDA BUSTILLO Heights Staff Before she was elected as the next executive vice president of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC), Olivia Hussey, chair of campus climate within UGBC and A&S ’17, watched the central event of her Happiness Project initiative fall victim to snow.

The Happiness Talks took place last Monday night with students sharing their thoughts on finding genuine happiness. Sponsored by UGBC and the Office of Health Promotion (OHP), the Happiness Project is a campaign based on Gretchen Rubin’s bestselling book of the same name.

The BC adaptation was scheduled as a week-long event in January with tables in dining halls where students were given “hap-

piness tasks.” Students also took photos with Instagram frame cutouts and added input on posters to spread awareness. The Happiness Talks were originally scheduled for Jan. 27, but were pushed back due to weather.

“We are so happy with the fantastic turnout, and it really speaks to the power of collaboration between UGBC and OHP,” Hussey said. “All of the speakers were so inspirational and gave the entire audience quite a bit to walk away with.”

At the Happiness Talks, Hussey hosted, while Fr. Michael Himes, Teddy Mitropoulos, A&S ’15, Stephanie Schwartz, CSOM ’15, and Jono Keedy, A&S ’16 discussed what genuine happiness meant to them and how they tried to find it in their own lives. Hussey discussed why she thought the event would be effective for students. She said students find themselves caught up in their busy schedules without re-

flecting on what truly makes them happy.

“By starting this dialogue about what happiness is and where it stems from, we are on our way to creating a more positive and authentic campus climate,” Hussey said. “Remember that while joy has a different meaning to everyone, at the end of the day it comes from caring for others. Although the talk was only an hour long, I hope that the message can be carried on in the future.”

Before delving into the talks, however, Harleen Singh, a member of the 4Boston council and A&S ’15, led students in a selfexamining reflection. She reminded students of the moments where they should reflect on what makes them happy and how to keep that happiness throughout their day.

Afterwards, Himes discussed happiness and personal growth. He provided students with his definitions of happiness and joy and how they differ. “I make a distinction between joy, which is something internal that springs

See Happiness Talks, A8

CLARE KIM / HEIGHTS STAFF

Fr. Michael Himes was among the main speakers at the Happiness Talks on Monday.

Spring Sports Preview

Mikaela Rix and Kenzie Kent plan to lead the Eagles past an incredibly tough ACC schedule to lacrosse immortality (and a national championship, too), see page C4-5

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

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things to do on campus this week

On Thursday, Feb. 26, students will compete in the annual Sing it to the Heights. Hosted by the Emerging Leader Program in conjunction with the St. Columbkille Partnership School, all proceeds will benegit the St. Columbkille’s music program. Event starts at 7 p.m.

News Briefs Emergencies Next week, the BCPD, in conjunction with Boston Police, will hold a session in Robsham Theater to train for the event of an active shooter in the building. The trainings will take place on Feb. 28 and Mar. 4.

The sessions are designed to allow Boston EMS, Armstrong Ambulance, BCPD, and Boston Police an opportunity to practice their emergency response plans. The training was planned for a time when the majority of students will be off-campus, University spokesman Jack Dunn said.

Robsham will be closed to the public during the exercise. Those near the theater on lower campus may be able to hear the sound of blank ammunition. Uniformed police officers will be in the area.

“This exercise allows us to strengthen interaction and communication with our partners and provide for familiarization and practice of skills and tactics in a team approach,” John King, Chief of BCPD, said to The Chronicle.

“It provides an opportunity for multi-agency participants to work together in a safe and controlled environment to achieve the common goal of ensuring the safety of all members of the BC community.”

Civil rights Last Thursday, civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin spoke at the University in an event hosted by the School of Social Work. In 1955, Colvin refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white rider, nine months before Rosa Parks became a civil rights trailblazer for doing the same.

Colvin was 15 years old when she took her stand on the bus in Montgomery, Ala. After failing to give up her seat, she was arrested and thrown in jail. Despite being ordered to move by the bus driver, she remained where she was.

“I remained where I was, because history had me glued to the seat,” she said. “I felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side, and Harriet Tubman on the other, holding me down. That’s why I didn’t move.”

Colvin’s granddaughter, Jennifer Colvin, is a student at the School of Social Work. The talk took place in the Heights room in Corcoran Commons.

Writing award James Najarian, an associate professor of English, has been awarded the Stephen J. Meringoff Writing Award in Poetry by the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers.

Najarian specializes in nonfiction prose and Romantic and Victorian poetry. He was award the prize for his poems “Kleptomania,” “The Frat Boys,” and “From the Armenian Quarter.”

He will receive a cash prize and his poems will be published in the association’s journal Literary Imagination or in its newsletter, Literary Matters.

Najarian directs the PhD program of the English department, and his research interests include book production and gender and sexuality in literature.

He has entered several poetry and volume publications, but has never been honored with an award higher than finalist, so this award, from an organization he respects, was especially gratifying, he said to The Chronicle.

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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Take a moment to pause and engage in prayer, reflection, and silence with the event Preparing for Easter: An Opportunity to Pause and Pray. The event is directed by Fr. Joseph O’Keefe, S.J. and will be held on Thursday from noon to 1 p.m., at 36 College Road.

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Mike Cermak will speak about social justice on Thursday, Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m. in Cushing Hall 001.

He will discuss educational inequality as seen through his experiences founding The Green Dragons Project, aimed at addressing diet related diseases among the youth in America.

Hughes talks leadership experience with Bush

By Sophie Reardon Heights Staff On Wednesday night, Boston College hosted Karen Hughes, former counsellor to President George W. Bush and the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. She is now the global vice chair of Burson-Marsteller, a public relations and communications firm.

This program was funded through the Clough Colloquium, a program formed by Charles I. Clough ’64 and Gloria L. Clough M.Div. ’90, M.S. ’96. The mission of the Clough Colloquium is to introduce the BC community to leaders with high ethical standards.

Hughes was born in Paris, but grew up in Texas, where she attended Southern Methodist University. She graduated summa cum laude with degrees in both english and journalism.

Hughes found an internship at a TV station and grew to love covering politics specifically because she came to realize that the decisions made in the political process impact many lives.

The TV station offered her a job after she graduated. Rather than becoming cynical of politics, as many reporters do, she found politicians to be incredibly inspiring in what they could do for other people. She decided to get involved in the field of politics.

After working for Reagan’s campaign, she worked to get Former President of the United States George W. Bush elected governor of Texas in 1995. Hughes said that

joining the campaign was a difficult decision because she knew she would have to sacrifice her personal life. After he won the election, she worked with him for six years.

When Bush decided to run for president, he asked Hughes to help him with his campaign.

“He told me that he wasn’t going to run if I hadn’t gone with him,” she said. “And I don’t know if that’s true or not. I think he probably would have run but I think he was pressuring me to come along.”

Hughes’s talk was centered on the three principles she believes to be essential to being a good leader: clarity, example, and optimism. She drew on her experiences in working for the government to provide examples of how these entities can be effective in the workplace.

She said the morning after Sept.

11, President Bush came into the office with a clear vision as to what needed to be done. In a time filled with chaos and uncertainty, she was surprised at his calm and determined manner.

President Bush, she added, was always clear about his expectations.

At the first staff meeting held after he was elected President, he told the staff that they needed to collaborate and listen to one another. He also demanded that they all respond to each other’s missed calls before responding to any others. From the first day, it felt as though the entire staff was part of the President’s team—there were no departments or divisions among them.

Hughes explained that in today’s world with the communication climate that we have, between social

media and the television, sticking to your moral values is especially important.

“Define yourself or someone else will define you,” she said.

She believes that this was Mitt Romney’s downfall in the 2012 election. He allowed Obama to define him before he could define himself.

Next, Hughes spoke of the importance of a leader setting the example. President Bush showed the importance of example in both small and large ways, she said.

President Bush was very timely, she said. He believed that it was rude to be late. His staff responded positively to the fact that he placed an importance on the values that they had to value as part of their jobs, too, he said.

Hughes described the trying times that she and Bush experienced in the White House and how these difficult times reflected his character.

She said in the days after Sept. 11, President Bush took the time to ask many of the staff members how they and their families were doing. President Bush, she said, was also hesitant to visit the places where the tragedy had taken place because he did not want to be in the way. This showed his true humility, she said.

She said the fact that President Bush valued honesty made it so that she was never nervous to tell him that he made a mistake or to relay bad news to him.

President Bush also emphasized the importance of family. He told all of his staff that if they were a parent that was to be their number one job.

Because of the President’s beliefs on the importance of family, Hughes was

able to make the decision to leave the White House after 18 months of working there in order to spend more time with her family.

Hughes’ final point was that leaders must possess optimism, which to her means passion and enthusiasm. She pointed out that at many points in Bush’s presidency it was difficult to remain optimistic.

During the 2008 recession, Hughes called President Bush to see how he was dealing with the stress of the situation. She said he had no self-pity.

Hughes shared that when she was abroad representing America in Turkey, she visited a low-income housing neighborhood. One of the boys she met asked her if the Statue of Liberty was still facing out.

She said this was one of the most haunting questions she experienced on the trip—it is, in fact, still facing out, she responded. n

Heights Staff

Professor Martha Bayles of Boston College’s College of Arts and Sciences honors department brought together leaders within the film industry for a panel discussion on Feb. 23 about how America is internationally perceived. She was joined by Teng Jimeng, a translator and consultant to Chinese film directors, and Alex Franklin, head of Film and Television at Partos Company and a former studio executive at several film companies.

In January, Bayles released her book Through a Screen Darkly: Popular Culture, Public Diplomacy, and America’s Image Abroad. She explores America’s image abroad and the potentially surprising lack of desirability in America’s freedom and democracy, as well as the distorted portrayals of these qualities among America’s cultural exports.

Bayles moderated the panel— Hollywood and Beijing: Beyond the Bottom Line—about the real cost of making movies in China and America. Franklin focused on the impacts of a growing box office and voiced the intentions of Hollywood while Jimeng represented those of China, particularly Beijing.

Franklin noted that within the

last few decades, success in the movie industry within the United States does not carry as much weight as it did in the past because of the recent growth of the international box office.

“Over the last generation, everything has been turned upside down,” Franklin said. “Being a success in the United States doesn’t even really matter as much.”

Franklin listed various statistics highlighting the astronomical growth of international box offices in comparison to the stagnant American interest. He explained that China is increasing in box office tickets by about one third per year and has increased by 300 percent in the past five years, while America has increased 3 percent in the past 10 years.

Since Hollywood’s primary interest is to increase revenue and profits, Franklin said that America is now seen as just another market, and this shift in perspectives among Hollywood producers and film-makers has changed the types of films being made to cater to the larger international audience.

“Hollywood studios now focus the bulk of their time, their energy, and their resources on big budget action films and comic book movies,” Franklin said. “What is happening in China, or Russia, or India, or all

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Drew hoo / heights editor

Hughes priased the character of Bush and shared her experiences with students working closely with him in Texas and in the White House.

industry,” Jimeng said.

Bayles then posed the question of whether or not the U.S. and China can collaborate to create a joint, successful film industry, as well as whether or not they should and the requirements necessary of each partner if this were to occur. Franklin believed it should happen and is what the two countries are currently attempting to do.

He explained that there needs to be more trust on both sides in order for this to happen. But, he said Hollywood is still hesitant of such a relationship, partly because of cultural differences, language barriers, and the potential for China to back out or not fully invest in the industry.

Jimeng agrees that the two countries should attempt to create this joint industry and believes they can after building a trusting relationship.

Jimeng explained that building this trust will help merge the two industries, countries, and cultures and stimulate profitable outcomes for both sides, where businesses and everyday citizens can benefit from the film industry.

“We have people traveling back and forth [between the U.S. and China],” Jimeng said. “What we need right now is cross-cultural people with cross-cultural, multicultural backgrounds.” n

Clarifications / Corrections The Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. If you believe we have made a reporting error, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or questions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact John Wiley, Editor-in-Chief, at (617) 5522223, or email eic@bcheights.com.

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CORRECTIONS The following correction is in reference to the issue dated Feb. 23, 2015 Vol. XCVI, No. 11 The article titled” No fight left” incorrectly showed Boston College beating Notre Dame in the scorebox.

2/23/15 - 2/24/15

Monday, Feb. 23

Tuesday, Feb. 24

10:20 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a past larceny at Corcoran Commons.

1:44 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a suspicious circumstance at Gonzaga Hall.

1:00 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a past larceny from a Boston College student at Fitzpatrick Hall.

9:19 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a traffic accident at Corcoran Commons.

4:08 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a fire alarm activation in Rubenstein Hall.

11:24 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding vandalism in Walsh Hall.

5:01 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical transport at Gasson Hall.

of these other countries is we’re sort of just trying to figure out the bare minimum we can do to pass censorship and make money.”

Both speakers later addressed the concept of censorship within the film industry, with respect to politics and the rights of Americans. Franklin and Jimeng both agreed that international censorship is an obstacle for Hollywood. However, though Franklin expressed compliance on Hollywood’s end to abide by China’s censors for the time being, Jimeng pushed for America to work around these barriers.

“If you run into a problem, evade it,” Jimeng said multiple times. “Please the crowd, not the censors.”

Jiimeng also offered a clear incentive for China with the increased interaction through films to unfold in the development of a bridge between America and China, within the industry and consequently in culture, ideology, and modes of business. He expressed hopes of the heightened commerce in China to reveal an equally profitable outcome for the Chinese. Jimeng sees the movement as a two-way track where Hollywood is moving into China as China is trying to build a market in the U.S., he said.

“I remain optimistic with the coproduction mode for this emerging

A Guide to Your Newspaper

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

Trust needed in U.S. and Chinese film markets

By Alexandra Allam

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—Source: The Boston College Police Department

What are you going to do when the weather hits 50 degrees?

“Probably cry because I’ll be so happy.”

—Nicolette Pellicane, A&S ’17

“Build an arc because of all the flooding.”

—Austin Bodetti, A&S ’18

“I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

—Chiara Heintz, A&S ’17

“Pretend I’m a freshman and playing lacrosse on upper.”

—Kat Clarke, A&S ’15

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The Heights

Thursday, February 26, 2015

University faculty gather in solidarity with adjuncts Adjuncts, from A1 faculty members—known at BC as professors of the practice—are evaluated solely on their teaching. This means that they are not rewarded for their research or for their service, which can include independent studies, reading theses, and advising student groups, said Min Song, a tenured professor of English.

Full-time non-tenure track faculty tend to teach more classes and are not given time for research. For example, they are not eligible to go on sabbatical to conduct research.

Full-time tenure track faculty have the ability to go up for tenure, which would ensure job security until retirement. Tenured faculty members have more duties in school and are paid a greater salary. Tenured and tenure-track faculty members are evaluated by their teaching, service, and research.

Recently, the employment of adjunct professors has increased nationally.

Song and Harrison-Kahan attributed several reasons to this change: Universities are trying to cut costs, which results in the hiring of cheaper adjunct faculty.

In addition, the competition for students has led universities to invest in infrastructure designed to attract students rather than in other aspects of the university. Tenure track jobs have declined while the number of applicants with Ph.D.s has remained the same— there is a glut in the labor market.

Hiring adjunct professors rather than tenure-track professors cheapens costs for universities because they do not have to provide services, like an office or computer, for these students, Michalczyk said.

When tenured faculty die, rather than replacing that person with another tenured faculty member, universities are converting that spot into a few adjunct positions, she said.

This shift is not limited to BC, nor to the Boston area. Rather, it is a nationwide movement. BC actually acts as a model in some aspects of the ad-

junct movement—the school provides office space and access to equipment for faculty, which is not the case at all other schools.

Part of the goal at Wednesday’s walk-in was to be in solidarity with faculty members across the country. A lot of part-time faculty are struggling financially, Harrison-Kahan said. One institution, for example, held a canned food drive for faculty members on the National Adjunct Day of Action.

BC, in addition, has pushed toward having full-time non-tenure track faculty—this means that these employees will hold multi-year contracts and will get benefits.

“That’s a real step in the right direction,” Harrison-Kahan said. “It’s a step that really benefits students because faculty who are on multiyear contracts are here for many years to work with students, to mentor students, to build relationships with students, which is something that part timers can’t do, because they are just here on a course by course basis.”

Though students would benefit from having more continuity with professors, they do not seem to notice the difference between tenured and nontenured faculty, she said. She has noticed a shift in the culture of respect between faculty members, however: Previously, tenured faculty members tended to look down upon their adjunct counterparts, but as awareness has increased, there is more of a sense of solidarity between all faculty members due to the knowledge that they are all working for the same issues.

“I think in many ways the devaluation of teaching, as it affects adjuncts, affects everybody,” she said. “If teaching isn’t valued the way that it should, or if research isn’t valued the way that it should, that affects every faculty members, not just depending on your status.”

Michalczyk has been an adjunct professor at BC for the past 23 years and has been president of the BCAAUP since 2012. In the latter role, and as the second vice president of the national AAUP, she receives no pay. As a prominent member of the executive board of

arthur bailin / heights editor

On Wednesday, tenured and non-tenured faculty sat in Stokes Hall in solidarity with adjunct faculty members across the school and nation. the AAUP, she attends many educationrelated conferences. At the first conference she went to, she heard a line that stuck with her.

“What’s the difference between a tenured professor and a non-tenured professor?” she said. “50,000 dollars. It’s about the money.”

Tenured teachers have to be more careful about what they say in classes because of their lack of job security. Michalczyk said that compromises professors’ abilities to teach authentically—she

believes this limits their ability to teach students for fear of their contract not being renewed.

Faculty members who try to speak up in defense of adjuncts are retaliated against, she said.

“If I am no longer here at Boston College, I think that people will make a connection between what I have done to try to speak up to support faculty and students and my position or lack thereof,” she said.

Michalczyk went on to explain that

those who raise their voice about the divide in faculty and the lack of job and financial security are looked at as troublemakers. Those people are marginalized, isolated, and forced out, she said.

“When you’re forced to choose, like Sophie’s choice, it doesn’t end well,” she said. “And when you choose not to take a stand, then you look the other way. So either you choose, or you’re forced to choose. It divides all of us and it hurts everyone. I don’t know how to fix it. We are all in jeopardy.” n

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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Spreading some cheer to the T

Sarah Moore Stagnant after finishing my last two exams in the middle of midterms week, I shifted my efforts on Tuesday afternoon from flipping through Spanish flashcards to sealing and signing envelopes. Thanks to my Dad, there always seems to exist a disparity between how many letters I receive and how many I send, so finally getting around to using my overpriced stationery made its way to the top of my housekeeping list. Stamped and addressed, though my letters would each make their way to different mailboxes along the east coast, they all seemed to convey a similar theme: there is a s—t ton of snow in Boston.

How much longer can the city’s eight feet of snow be the topic of conversations, local media, emails, classes, or Metro columns—to borrow a phrase from my favorite misunderstood mathlete—the limit does not exist.

I walk to class confined between walls of ice, my leather boots are permanently coated in a salty residue that is more than likely deteriorating them (sorry, Mom), I can’t remember the last time I had full feeling in all of my fingers and toes, it takes three times longer for the Comm Ave. bus to make its route, and I am sick and tired of looking like an overstuffed, sniffling, puffy-faced eskimo. The city and public transportation have been shut down for more than two full days, local stores and restaurants have lost business as fast as parked cars and fire hydrants have been lost in snow piles, and no one can walk outside without slipping or freezing. The storm was so bad it even warranted its own blizzard snapchat geofilter.

Of course the city can’t help but talk about it. The snow has inconvenienced everyone from Eagles to Terriers, commuters to professors, Bostonians alike.

Instead of using the snow as a means to complain, as I have and probably will throughout April when it melts and floods my dorm room, one local has used it as an excuse to spread some smiles. Alice Donovan, a graduate student at Boston University and a graphic designer, has channeled the city’s snowinduced irritation to fuel her latest creation from BU’s Engineering Product Innovation Center, “Optimism Tickets.”

Donovan and her fiance handed out the little cardstock rectangles at both the Park Street and Kenmore MBTA stations, during morning rush hour last week. Designed to look like Charlie Tickets, only a little bit larger to prevent them from fitting in the fare machines, Donovan’s Optimism Tickets are a positive spin on the Bostonian’s hectic commute. Instead of the traditional graphic, her tickets include positive sayings and anecdotes in hopes of alleviating the stress brought on by delayed trains.

“Trust the journey. This card is not worth anything but it might make you smile or perhaps entice a sarcastic grin.

Maybe even an ‘lol.’” read the tickets, whose expiration is “when the snow melts.”

As a T-Rider, I can’t say that a yellow, ticket look-alike with a fortune cookie-esque phrase printed on the back would make my crowded ride home from volunteering, during rush hour, an enjoyable experience, but it might make me less likely to complain all the way back to my bunk bed. Yes, the snow is inconvenient and delayed trains are almost as terrible as BU winning the Beanpot, but Donovan’s Optimism Tickets are a nice gesture to remind us that we will get where we are going, eventually, and probably faster than if we were taking the B-Line anyway.

Though Donovan’s Optimism Tickets realistically have little impact on the seemingly unending delays that the MBTA has faced due to the recent snow accumulation, they are a much needed reminder that life, like commutes, goes on regardless of how many inches may blanket a city over a two-month period.

Sarah Moore is the Asst. Metro editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com

Photo courtesy of Vincent Morreale

‘Staying in Boston’ is an award-winning web-series that is looking to change how college graduates view Boston by following one young woman’s daily life in the city.

New series explores ‘Staying in Boston’ after graduation

By Adriana Olaya Heights Staff A new web-series is looking to change how college graduates view Boston by following one woman’s decisions of life, love, and finding a career. Staying in Boston follows Cecilia (CC), a Harvard graduate, who quits her steady job and eschews her paycheck for a series of odd jobs while she pursues her passion of acting amid self doubt and a chorus of naysayers.

According to writer and creator Jan Velco Soolman, the show is about “taking a chance and doubting yourself, but not being afraid to do it.” This idea hits close to home for Soolman, as well as director/executive producer Vincent Morreale. Soolman attended business school and currently works in marketing, but always knew she wanted to write for her profession.

“I decided I didn’t want to wait anymore,” Soolman said. “I wanted to put myself out there and see if my writing resonated.”

Soolman’s decision led to the creation of CC and the concept for Staying in Boston. “She’s a lot like me,” she said. “My writing reflects what I was dealing with before I decided to put my writing out there.” Soolman has also written many short plays that have been featured in the Boston Area, including Like Wet Cereal to a Bowl, The Character of Imperfections, DING!, Holiday Hang-ups and Welcome to the Hate Store.

Morreale shares a similar experience to Soolman and CC. He planned to start his own film company, but had many doubts.

“There’s that portion of your mind telling you that you have to have a steady job and be a responsible adult,” Morreale said.

“There were times when people told me to stop, that I was wasting my time and

that my goal wasn’t realistic.”

Nevertheless, he chose to pursue his love of film. As a director, he has won awards for his short comedic films Death on Toast and A Spritz in Time. Morreale also contributed practical effects for the short Zombie Attacks and extensive digital effects for the film How to Win the Internet. The two met when one of Soolman’s plays was being shown at the Boston Actors Theater. At first, Morreale was completely opposed to the idea of the duo collaborating on a web-series. A previous experience working with a webseries deterred him from the idea. After looking at the script Soolman proposed, however, Morreale was completely on board. “I sent him the script to take a look at and he loved it,” Soolman said.

After a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo, a crowdfunding website along the lines of Kickstarter, the two raised enough money to get started. The show held auditions in South Boston, and eventually cast local actors Drew Linehan, Michelle Mount and Mario DaRosa Jr. as the three leads in the show.

Besides being what Morreale calls “a natural and relatable show,” the show is also a love letter to the city of Boston.

Staying in Boston showcases many of Boston’s sights and venues, including many scenes filmed at The Pour House, a Back Bay favorite. “We wanted to show the uniqueness of the city and highlight what Boston is all about,” Soolman said. In addition, Morreale describes Boston as a beautiful city with a fantastic history and great people. “I think that the city grows on anyone who spends any amount of time there,” he said.

Morreale and Soolman also sought to challenge the stereotypical version of Boston portrayed in many films and TV shows. “We wanted to show Boston

in a little bit of a different light. Boston is such a cool town and there are many sides of Boston we wanted to show off,” Morreale said.

During the series, many characters in Staying in Boston question CC’s choice to begin pursuing her acting career in Boston. The main character wants to pursue a career in acting, despite refusing to start her career at popular bases like L.A. and New York. “That’s a big part of why this show and the concept work,” Morreale said. “Boston, like CC, is the underdog.

Boston also has a wonderful theater and independent film community.” Morreale adds.

Staying in Boston has been nominated as an Official Selection in both New York City and Los Angeles’ web fests in addition to nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress and Outstanding Writing awards.

In addition to such accolades, Staying in Boston has also had a great deal

of positive feedback from the public.

“There’s been a lot of excitement about this,” Morreale said. “I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback and the message resonates.

We had a full house at our screening in Kendall and everyone loved it.”

Morreale and Soolman hope to continue their success in their individual work, as well as with the show. One aspect the duo would like to pursue involves working with the city of Boston. Staying in Boston showcases many of the unique aspects of the city and working with the city in the future would be a great opportunity, according to Soolman. The show is also searching for an investor, and hopes to create a second season of the series in the near future.

“In the end, what we really want is for people to give it a chance and watch it and share it,” Soolman said. “I hope people like it. I hope people take something away from it.” n

Photo courtesy of Vincent Morreale

The show’s writer Jan Soolman and director Vincent Morreale pose at an awards ceremony.

Let’s wander: navigating the city, always searching Ryan Daly Whatever it was for and for whatever it was worth, we would always turn to driving. Tell our parents that we were going out, pile in, and just go.

We decided the turns at the intersections, decided the destination when we found it. We filled the car with music that was too loud. We thumped on the roof, the seats. We sang. We filled the car with silence that went unnoticed. We laughed. We called it wandering. Whatever it was that we were looking for, we never talked about it. But we were looking. We were always looking.

The go-to for wandering, my Black 2003 Honda Pilot with the dented frame and worn leather seats (pure sex appeal, I know) was traded for a pair of rubber-soled shoes when I got to school. The suburban backdrop for the Boston skyline. I wouldn’t, and will never, trade the people for anything.

The number one allure for wander-

ing with wheels: illusion of movement.

Tires spun over asphalt and we went places without really moving at all. We would talk about something wrenching or uplifting or stupid, and the movement fed into our egos—we were going somewhere.

Wandering on foot, it’s a different animal. When you wander on foot, you actually move. Slowly. Wandering on foot lets you learn the street, the sidewalk—the contours, curves, lumps, holes of these ill-planned Boston places. You can’t hide from the weather—definitely not from the snow.

You notice him, her, them. You walk past the park and smell the weed, look down and see the empty nips and beer cans standing stark against the snow. You hear snapshots of conversation, both good and bad. You can choose to listen to music. You might, a lot of the time, wander on foot alone. And if you choose to skip the music, your only choice is to listen. A lot of people love blaring on their car horns—you learn that real fast.

I traded the Black Honda Pilot in, but whenever I go back to the suburban homestead, I trade back in for the car. And when I get it back, we get together, and we wander. You should

hear us when something good comes on, and we start pounding the roof, matching the beat. Absolute madness.

We wander, and after all of this time, we’re still looking.

Driving or walking, there must be time put aside for wandering. Not just going places, you know, because we spend a lot of time going places: classes, meetings, work, parties. We need to spend more going somewhere—just, somewhere. There needs to be time for that freedom. Too much structure will make a person mad after long enough, and that’s not the good madness we feel when we’re trying to punch out the roof.

Wandering is like any other reflective activity—like keeping a journal, or meditating, or failing at yoga. On foot or by car, after enough time, you’re bound to ask a simple and terrifying question: am I really going anywhere, ever?

Above all else, wandering is the opening act for the big show: serendipity.

We were silent, and we had been for a while. The street sign on the right had a crude drawing of a beach on it—a “private” beach. We took the right. There was a fence, but it was left open. If there was a “No Trespass-

ing” sign, we didn’t see it. We parked, got out. We had no idea where we were, or how far from home. We didn’t care. We sat on the beach, right up against the water line, and it was warm, and we were warm, and we watched a lightning storm explode far across the water.

Toward the bottom and to the right, across the water and on land, there was a firework show that we could hold a hand up to and cover with our thumbs. I can’t tell you what we talked about. I can tell you I was happy. If I were to venture a guess, I would say that everyone else was happy, too.

That’s what I think we were looking for, every time. Something good to happen. Something serendipitous. But that’s a rough guess.

What I really know is that if we could find what we found in some low-key, innocent, suburban landscape, imagine what we could find in this big, bursting, beautiful, bad city.

Ryan Daly is an editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, February 26, 2015

A5

My rules to explore the city

ARCHER PARQUETTE

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BROTHER’S

Three chefs bring their backgrounds in Italian, Mexican, and American cuisines to create a variety of specialty dishes at Brother’s Restaurant in Coolidge Corner.

Chefs bring a mix of culinary histories to Coolidge Corner

BY COLLIN COUCH Heights Staff

When three experienced chefs join forces, food fanatics might think of a new Food Network reality show—but at Brothers Restaurant in Brookline, Mass. the trio of culinary experts is setting out to give customers a convergence of Italian, Mexican, and American cuisines.

The idea for the restaurant sprang from brothers Edison and Cesar Gutierrez, along with their friend Concepcion—culinary minds that have been involved in the Boston food scene for some time.

“We’ve been working around Boston for more than 13 years as executive chefs,” Edison Gutiérrez said. “Now we decided to put our ideas together and make this restaurant with our own ideas, own recipes, and everything is homemade.”

This dedication to homemade food springs from the three chefs’ desire to put together memorable, personal dishes. All three had been working in restaurants across the city as executive chefs for a number of years, before they noticed that many culinary producers

lacked the ambition to create dishes that cater to a range of new, diverse customers. “We kind of got tired of working for somebody else,” Gutierrez said. “When you go home, you go home normally.

You go home like nothing happened, and you don’t get the motivation.”

A lack of motivation to produce dishes that suit other people’s tastes is partly why Edison, Cesar, and Concepcion decided to combine their talents to open an independent restaurant.

“Over here, when you go home— even if you make only three or four customers—you go home happy,” Gutierrez said.

The welcoming atmo sphere of Brother’s Restaurant comes naturally to the three chefs, in part because of their desire to completely change their own culinary experiences from the preparation side. The brothers are continuously striving to provide options that not only appeal to them, but also to the diners.

Since opening in Coolidge Corner this past January, Brother’s Restaurant has experienced an increase in the number of customers walking through its doors. “We are happy with what we are doing right now because we have a really

good response from the neighborhood and they really like the food,” Gutierrez said. “We don’t make a lot of business right now, but we are happy because the people who come over here, they walk out the door happy.”

The restaurant offers a full menu with breakfast, lunch, and dinner selections. Breakfast is Chef Cesar Gutierrez’s specialty, and offers a diverse set of options, highlighting the morning menu at Brother’s. One of Gutierrez’s favorite morning specials is the French toast.

“The stuffed French toast with cream cheese and the strawberries and bananas in the middle—when you get that first bite, the strawberries and bananas are warm with the cream cheese and it’s a really good taste,” Gutierrez said.

The warm challah bread used for the French toast at Brother’s is stuffed with an array of fruits, jams, cream cheese, or ricotta in any combination made to order. Always hot, the French toast is a reliable choice that will exceed your expectations every time, according to Gutierrez. For those without the highpowered sweet tooth, salty, cheesy, or meaty omelets are offered alongside other breakfast options that are guaran-

teed to spice up your morning. Healthconscious food is another option, with Brother’s Restaurant offering fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola. Brother’s Restaurant prides itself on the fact that it offers something for everyone, at any time, and for any meal of the day.

The lunch and dinner menus at the restaurant are where the three brothers’ Italian, Mexican, and American influences noticeably converge. With items such as linguini bolognese and tacos alongside a fried chicken sandwich and a black angus ground sirloin burger, the experience and influence of each chef shines through onto the menu. This wide selection of exceptionally prepared food attracts fine diners as well as college students, the latter particularly during breakfast. “We also have a discount for students,” Gutierrez said. “If they sign into the looped-in app, we can always make any promotions.”

Looking to the future, Brother’s Restaurant aims to expand to another location in Brookline in about a year and a half. According to Gutierrez, the opportunity to spread food, ideas, and some more brotherly love across Boston would be a delightful opportunity. 

Crunchbutton offers students a new way to order food

BY MAGGIE MARETZ Heights Staff

FRANCISCO RUELA / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC

During his final year at Yale University, Judd Rosenblatt was hungry. But studying prevented him from making a tedious journey just to satisfy his craving. Coveting a sandwich popular among Yale students, The Wenzel—which consists of a chicken cutlet, cheese, mayo, and hot sauce—Rosenblatt decided to figure out a way to get himself a n d fel l o w students the sandwich without making the trip to the New Haven, Conn. restaurant. With this, the seeds of the app Crunchbutton—which functions as a third party delivery service from restaurants that do not deliver—were planted.

“It originally started in my senior year at Yale with a single sandwich,” Rosenblatt said. “I thought it would be cool if you could click one button online and get that sandwich paid for and de-

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livered straight to your door.”

Rosenblatt is the founder and CEO of his startup, Crunchbutton. At Yale, Rosenblatt set out to make his idea a reality—starting by delivering The Wenzel to busy students in New Haven, “So we launched a simple one-click food ordering site that let you do that,” he said. “And we’ve since sold over $200,000 of that one sandwich, and expanded the model to deliver from restaurants that don’t deliver across the country.”

Crunchbutton currently has a presence at several college campuses across the U.S., including Duke, University of North Carolina, Northwestern, and Syracuse. They are now launching their app at Boston College.

In an effort to be responsive to customer feedback and input, Crunchbutton works directly with students at colleges in order to introduce and develop the app within the context of a particular campus (“Essentially bringing it as their own mini-business,” Rosenblatt explained). In addition to these liaisons who work to promote the service, Crunchbutton is also looking to bring together individuals who would like to work as delivery drivers.

Colton Hardman, A&S ’17, is a marketing intern for Crunchbutton. He believes there is a good market for the service among

the student body, and thinks the idea will take off in Boston. “At BC, it’ll be very good because there are so many restaurants that are just out of reach,” Hardman said. “BC is so close to Boston, but you can’t really walk anywhere, you have to jump on the bus or the T. Crunchbutton is designed to bridge that gap.”

Currently, the app is still in development stages for the area surrounding BC. According to Hardman, the team wants to gauge the reaction from the BC community, get a sense of the kind of following that they have, and then push forward with expansion to more restaurants. Right now, the app offers delivery service from local favorites including ShakeShack, El Pelon, Pino’s, New Hong Kong, China Garden, and Natalie’s Pizzeria.

As Crunchbutton expands across the country, Rosenblatt credits the idea behind the app for its popularity among college students far. “Students just love the idea of having their favorite food delivered to their dorm without having to do any work to go get it,” he said. “It significantly reduces drunk driving and it’s a great thing for people to have late at night, or for dinner while studying, or with friends.”

In effort to further maximize the user-friendliness of the app, Crunchbutton offers a feature that allows users to quickly place an order with the push of a button, simply by accessing past orders at their favorite restaurants. Although pricing varies based on which restaurant the user orders from, students are typically charged a three dollar delivery fee for the service, plus whatever they decide to tip the driver.

Looking to the future, Rosenblatt and the Crunchbutton team plan to expand the service in a series of better, faster, and more efficient launches. The app hopes to find customers beyond the student market, which Rosenblatt says is a natural progression from where they started.

The team is also working on a different app that will enable drivers to receive orders on their phones. But right now, the main thing motivating Crunchbutton is the process of continuing to build a presence for the app.

“We are getting better and better at launching quickly and efficiently,” Rosenblatt said. “And we are building sustainable, great communities where our customers love us and our drivers love us.” 

I believe firmly in the benefits of solitude and quiet reflection. Sometimes, after a long day of dealing with my fellow human beings, I feel a deep urge to move to Alaska, where I will fish in the freezing rivers and hunt down polar bears with my bare hands. Sometimes people are annoying—this is true about just about everyone, and therefore it holds true that it is good to spend some time alone.

In my experience the best way to do this is to explore, to wander aimlessly through the cobblestone streets of Boston.

It’s quite the experience to get off the train somewhere around Boylston St. and just wander until you reach the ocean.

To accomplish this you have to obey some rules. These rules are serious—don’t you hooligans go off all half-cocked on this one, or you’ll regret it.

Preamble to the Rules: Recommended Reading: Does this column seriously have recommended reading? Yes it does.

You can only truly appreciate Boston if you read some of these books. Any Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, by Boston College alum George V. Higgins, Gone Baby Gone

by Dennis Lehane, Prince of Thieves by other BC alum Chuck Hogan, and a book about Whitey Bulger (whichever one you want, God knows there’s a lot them).

First Rule: Shut up. Shut your mouth.

As a great man once said, “Blessed are those who maintain silence for they shall not be quoted.” Shut your face, get on a train to Boston, and keep your face shut for the entire day. If anyone tries to be friendly, just stare them down. That’s the way functional members of society do it.

Second Rule: Bring your phone. You might think I’d advocate some technology-free in-touch-with-humanity crap.

I’m not. Bring your phone, the map is very useful for when you get lost in South Boston and some guy named Chuckie is threatening to stab you for wearing a Yankees hat.

Third Rule: Don’t get lost. Don’t be stupid. That would be bad. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Fourth Rule: Appreciate Boston. You better appreciate this fine town. America was built here, and if that doesn’t inspire you, you must be a heartless freedomhating ne’er-do-well. Boston’s a beautiful place filled with fascinating buildings and sights. You’ll be living here for at least four years, most likely. Don’t you want to get the most out of it? Not to remind you of your inevitable death, but your death is inevitable so take some time to enjoy the world around you.

Fifth Rule: There is no fifth rule. Be sure to keep this in mind.

Sixth Rule: End your journey at the ocean. I won’t map out the beginning and middle of your escapade, I’ll let you determine which sights to see. But you have to end it on the shoreline, or else you’ll be hearing from me.

Seventh Rule: Think about life while staring at the water. If you don’t do this at some point in your life, were you ever really alive?

Eighth Rule: If you are approached by a homeless man named Sinclair who offers you Chex Mix, do not listen to him.

SINCLAIR IS NOT WHAT HE SEEMS! Ninth Rule: Have Fun! Just kidding, this is the type of thing annoying people end lists with, the type of annoying people you are escaping by going on this journey.

So don’t have fun, or do have fun, do whatever you want.

10th Rule: Buy a 1991 Buick Regal if the opportunity ever arises. It’s a great car. Also here’s some AP Recommended Boston Sights and Stops: The State House, Boston Common, The Public Garden, Faneuil Hall, any narrow cobblestone street in Beacon Hill, Back Bay, The Long Wharf, Quincy Market, The Courthouse (for all you mafia-obsessed fellers like myself ), Prudential, Brattle Book Shop, Union Oyster House, and so many more.

That’s all. Now hop on that train and get yourself over to Boston. Enjoy the much-needed solitude while learning more about this fine city.

Archer Parquette is an editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@ bcheights.com

The Heights

A6

Editorials

QUOTE OF THE DAY

BC adjunct professors gather in solidarity

On Wednesday, members of the faculty gathered in the Chocolate Bar in Stokes Hall to raise awareness about the differences between tenured and nontenured faculty members. Both groups were present at the “walk-in,” which was hosted as a part of the first-ever National Adjunct Day of Action.

Seventy-five percent of faculty at colleges and universities across the country are adjunct faculty, according to National Public Radio.

Adjunct faculty, unlike tenured faculty, are hired on a course-bycourse basis or on a multiyear contract, rather than being hired until retirement, like tenured faculty.

The number of adjuncts at Boston College is unknown, because the University classifies its professors as full-time or part-time, rather than tenured or adjunct. Adjunct professors, for example, are referred to as “professors of the practice.”

Though the quality of teaching from adjunct professors is comparable to that of tenured faculty, outside factors inevitably make it harder for adjuncts to do their jobs.

Part-time adjunct faculty members tend to teach a few courses at multiple college campuses, which means they have more students and less time for research.

As one participant in the walkin pointed out, BC faculty seem hesitant to come together and speak up. As the adjunct movement gains speed, many professors have formed unions. BC, however, has not yet formed one. Nor does it have a faculty senate.

The professors who participated in the walk-in on Wednesday ought

Thursday, February 26, 2015

“Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.”

-Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), American writer

to be commended for taking a stand on an issue that affects them and many others every day.

Wednesday ’s demonstration by the faculty continues dialogue about social change that is needed in the BC community.

Members of the faculty gathered in Stokes to show that they stand in solidarity with each other, and with adjunct faculty across the country.

Their goal is to create a cultural shift in how adjuncts are viewed, treated, paid, hired, and fired is admirable. Moreover, the effects of this goal will be felt by students as well.

Adjuncts have less freedom in their teaching because they are under constant threat of being fired. They are also constantly on the hunt for a new job—when an adjunct is hired course by course, it is difficult to invest oneself into a position without knowing if they will hold that same position next semester.

A cultural shift is clearly necessary in order to ensure greater job stability and better financial security for professors with Ph.D.’s who have worked in the field for decades. The adjunct problem is a symptom, however, of a greater problem of extreme competition for students in higher education, as well as the necessity of cutting back expenditures in the deflated economy.

Taking a stand to try to combat this culture, however, is an admirable first step by the BC faculty to ameliorating the problem at the University and, eventually, on a broader scale.

Weak communication from Elections Committee According to the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) Elections Committee website, voting in the presidential elections ended at 8 p.m. on Friday. Also according to the Elections Committee website, it ended Wednesday night. According to a Feb. 19 email, sent at the start of the voting period, it ended at 6 p.m. Friday. The last time outlined was correct, though the Elections Committee’s website was not updated to reflect this change through the voting period.

This impartial committee, tasked with enforcing fair UGBC elections and providing relevant information to students on these elections, has failed in offering consistent, timely information to students through their website and social media channels this election season. A Facebook announcement of a winner came over an hour after an initial announcement, which was delivered to the winning team behind closed doors. An email notification of the results has yet to be sent.

The vote count—which was offered to campaign officials for the team of Thomas Napoli, A&S ’16, and Olivia Hussey, A&S ’17, on Friday night—was promised to be made publicly available by the Elections Committee on Monday. It did not come until Tuesday, well after preliminary totals given to the Napoli campaign had been published by several campus publications, including The Heights.

In national elections, votes are

made publicly available as soon as they come in from various polling locations—and before polls in other parts of the country are actually closed.

If the results are to be announced to campaign teams behind closed doors, they should simultaneously be broadcasted to all students, and with those results should be the same vote count offered to the campaign teams.

Also notable is the fact that throughout this campaign season, the Elections Committee’s Facebook page directed students to an inactive OrgSync page that had not been updated since 2013, and on it were several dead links to important forms for filing complaints and stating intent to run for office.

The Elections Committee did an exceptional job this year in enforcing clean campaigns, and in light of the extenuating weather circumstances, it was wise in postponing the elections to give students ample opportunity to attend the debates and learn about the candidates.

The availability of information and the inclusion of voters in important announcements, however, is paramount to successfully managing any election. Each of these informational errors and delays would seem trivial in itself, but for a committee given the job of enforcing transparency in UGBC campaigns, it is not unreasonable to expect some degree of clarity in communication on the elections.

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.

Heights

The

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 John Wiley, Editor-in-Chief Chris Stadtler, General Manager Maggie Powers, Managing Editor

Editorial

Magdalen Sullivan, Copy Editor Julie Orenstein, A1 Editor Carolyn Freeman, News Editor Michael Sullivan, Sports Editor Corinne Duffy, Features Editor Ryan Dowd, Arts & Review Editor Bennet Johnson, Metro Editor Ryan Daly, Opinions Editor Arthur Bailin, Photo Editor Joy Li, Layout Editor

The Heights welcomes Letters to the Editor not exceeding 400 words and column submissions that do not exceed 700 words for its op/ed pages.

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

to the newspaper.

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

Thursday, February 26, 2015

A7

The inside view of UGBC

Hagop Toghramadjian

Final Push Is Almost Over - After 14 papers, three midterms, and an hourlong presentation, hell week right before Spring Break is almost over.

And, wherever you are going, you’re that much closer to being there. Just a couple more early mornings, late nights, and enormous cups of coffee to get us through the rest of this insanity. And, if you’re really struggling, get the Director from the Chocolate Bar. Trust me. You’ll forget sleep was ever a thing.

Dream team Leaving - We’ve heard the news: we’re distraught. Cruz, Melissa, and Kim are not going to be here much longer, serving as the valiant security guards for Walsh. Kim, in all of her sweet charm. Melissa, in all of her well-you-forgot-your-IDso-better-bring-me-a-huge-turkeydinner-before-I-let-you-in-to-thisdamn-building attitude. Cruz. Just, Cruz. Things will never be the same again. We don’t know what we’re going to do with ourselves. A send-off party will be happening in Walsh. Be there. But not if you’re a freshman. If you’re a freshman, please stay away.

Battery Life - We spend at least an hour of each of our waking days looking for outlets to charge our phones and laptops. It seems like every time we turn around we need to plug in somewhere else. The outlets in Bapst don’t work all the time. There are so few outlets in the Chocolate Bar, and those seats are always taken by the time we get there. There’s nothing worse than realizing our computer is about die, and you just have to finish this Canvas post, and you find ourselves scrambling around, desperately looking. When you can’t find it, and the computer dies, and your participation grade plummets, you have no one to blame but yourself.

And whoever installed the outlets in Bapst.

Reckless Driving - Look, we’re going to cross the road. We are the pedestrians. We have the right of way, and you Mass-hole drivers think you can do whatever you want. Stop leaning on that horn so much and back off.

Let me live my pretentious life where everything belongs to me. I have class and stuff. Gosh.

Work Over Break - We were looking forward to sleeping from Friday until Tuesday during Break, but we can’t do that anymore. Why, you might ask? Because we have mountains of work to do. It’s not even like we’ll do the work and then be free from work once we get back to campus. We’re going to do all the work, get back to campus, and have even more work to do. Sigh. This is the way it’s going to be. We just haven’t accepted it yet.

The Number of Thumbs Down - It’s a rough week for everyone. We tried digging around for some more positive things, but the well is dry. After break, we’ll be back with more positive energy. For now, sadness. Snow.

Seasonal depression.

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Three elections and countless hours into my involvement with the Undegraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC), I’ve grown aware that there are two contradictory facts about my relationship with student government. The first might come as a surprise: it is impossible to express the extent to which UGBC can frustrate, discourage, and exhaust me. I don’t usually vocalize these feelings, but they have occupied my mind for many a cold walk to and from our meetings in Carney. The second fact is more pleasant. I am somehow still inspired enough to carry on—I still have enough belief in the UGBC that I continue to attend four to eight meetings and work sessions a week, watching homework pile up and other involvement opportunities pass by. So as campus elections reached their frantic climax and dozens of students took to social media to disparage UGBC, I spent much of the last week reflecting on the organization, its flaws and its merits.

Sometimes I truly do wonder whether UGBC is nothing more than a colossal waste of energy. Meetings—often poorly attended—can be bogged down by procedure and repetitive updates. As a result, real progress and advocacy usually only occur when members devote their own time to working on initiatives.

Unfortunately, many individuals can go weeks or months without putting in this type of independent effort; the sad reality is that UGBC is usually the first commitment to be neglected when the rigors of classes and other clubs get in the way. Overcommitted and under-inspired members often drop out altogether, resulting in high rates of turnover and a dearth of experience throughout the organization.

UGBC’s flaws go beyond individual members and their lack of initiative.

Our student government’s leaders have undoubtedly made mistakes as well. Last year, the Student Assembly (SA) was run in too formal a manner, with procedure and protocol often stifling policy initiatives and transparency. This year, in an overcorrection of last year’s mistakes, UGBC has been run in a much more casual fashion, with deliberation and discussion often missing from the picture. I myself am guilty of contributing to many of these problems. Last year, I gladly embraced the formality of the SA; in this year’s casual spirit I too have cut corners. And just like every other UGBC member, when my enthusiasm flags or other commitments demand my attention, I fail to live up to my potential as a student representative.

But this regrettable gap between goals and reality is a natural part of life, an unfortunate but unavoidable feature of all organizations, especially political ones.

As human beings, we perpetually set our sights sky-high, creating Herculean tasks for ourselves without examining what it will take to complete them. And though we often fail to bring our dreams to fruition, we usually manage to notch some great achievements along the way.

It is these achievements and the passionate people who accomplish them that energize me to continue my work in UGBC. For make no mistake—our student government is a magnet for some of the most dedicated, conscientious and serviceminded individuals on campus. Last year’s Executive Vice President, Matt Alonsozana, stands out in my mind as a particularly devoted and genuine leader. While his administration made mistakes, they were not founded in carelessness, arrogance, or any of the other flaws commonly seen as UGBC’s cardinal sins. Rather, they were errors of execution that can never bring into question the goodwill that characterized his administration. This goodwill was especially evident in the community Alonsozana helped create in the SA; his leadership brought together passionate, serious individuals from every cohort on our diverse campus. In addition to creating a space for serious debate and discussion on issues

ranging from the programming split to fossil fuel divestment, last year’s SA had real, tangible policy achievements. The most notable was the establishment of Campus Voice, a website where students can submit and vote on suggestions to UGBC. Once suggestions receive 50 supporting votes, UGBC must investigate their feasibility and advocate for their implementation.

Since last spring, five such ideas have come to fruition; UGBC updated and expanded PEPs, created a new 250-plus member-strong textbook exchange, and helped organize a bike share program, among other responses to Campus Voice proposals.

This year’s leadership has also been driven by genuine care for the student body. Like Alonsozana before her, President Nanci Fiore-Chettiar has made mistakes—but her selfless intent and boundless energy, absolutely evident to all who work with her, mark her as a truly sensational student leader. Under her watch—to name just a few of dozens of accomplishments— the UGBC website has been updated to display an abundance of easily accessible information; the organization submitted a thoroughly researched proposal to expand opportunities for free speech on campus; and Student Assembly leaders convinced the Department of Event Management to cancel a planned 20% surcharge for room bookings, catering and other student group needs.

For all UGBC’s defects, it has recorded legitimate triumphs over the last two years.

This is, above all else, a result of the passionate service and care of its members.

I’ve only mentioned two names, but behind every Alonsozana and Fiore-Chettiar are literally dozens of equally heartfelt and energetic leaders. Yes, the UGBC often comes up short; the work of effecting change on campus is difficult and can be incredibly discouraging. But the dynamic and devoted individuals working in UGBC undeniably make our University a better place.

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

Beauty is in the eyes of your doctor

Alis Dicpinigaitis At some point, we have all heard the Romantic trope that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” The Ancient Greeks and Classical world, however, would disagree with this subjective construct of aesthetics. In fact, architects, philosophers, mathematicians, and artists have, for millennia, played with the “golden ratio” as a mark of beauty. This ratio (roughly 1.618) considers proportions in our faces and bodies as ways to indicate what is aesthetically pleasing. The golden ratio exists between the nose and the mouth, the waist and the shoulders, and many other places. The Ancients applied a fairly objective standard as to what is considered beautiful.

Modern societies have largely departed from this objective standard. It seems like today, virtually everything is considered “beautiful” in some way. The political correctness machine’s enforcement of positive body image is primarily responsible for this.

Certainly, positive body image in theory is not a bad thing by any means, and in fact something for which every individual should strive, but modern rhetoric within the movement succumbs to many problematic assumptions.

The primary notion behind the positive body image campaign is one of autonomy: we must own our appearance as it has been endowed to us by the powers that be. Acceptance is a viable psychological mechanism to employ for things that cannot be changed despite our utmost volition. The state of our bodies is dynamic—it can be changed. Just as we should allow for the ability to grow and mature intellectually, we must allow for changes in our physiognomy. This is all assuming, of course, that a person does not suffer from a health complication that makes it difficult to lose or gain weight, or otherwise live a healthy lifestyle (such as a thyroid condition that

often leads to such a restriction).

The argument can then be made that there is no need to conform to normative standards of beauty, and that we can be empowered by self-acceptance alone.

This is also problematic because it often encourages people to subordinate the relative importance of physical appearance within the graduated hierarchy of societal imperatives. We can harp on how “evil” society is for being superficial. We can criticize ad campaigns and the media for sexualizing our world. Ultimately though, the physical appearance that we project is exceedingly important for our success and livelihood in today’s culture. In fact, a recent U.S. News and World Report study explains that attractiveness can lead to higher salaries and confers other financial advantages.

Although personal value should be determined by more substantive attributes, such as intellect and ambition, dismissing the fact that appearances matter is caustic to our success potential.

The movement often encourages poor dietary and health habits as well.

Too much self-acceptance can encourage laziness and complacency. Much of positive body image rhetoric has become militant and inflammatory. One article in which a woman recounts her negative experience with dieting urges her readers: “Try this at home: Be fat and happy.

Be unapologetically fat. Wear a bikini, and mean it. Eat pizza and ice cream and enjoy it.”

The sentiment expressed here and elsewhere is one of reckless abandon that encourages a lack of dietary restriction and standard healthy living. The psychology underlying it is bothersome: it tells us that just because something is difficult, we should avoid it. If life teaches us anything, it is that difficult and challenging things are those that are most worthwhile. Complacency is caustic. Similar rhetoric adopts a state of siege mentality that often propagates the problem of attacking people based on physical appearance by condemning physically attractive people as “too skinny,” and similar sentiments.

An offshoot of the positive body image campaign is the commercialization

of “plus sized models”—women who are often more generously proportioned than their more standard model counterparts who sport an hourglass figure and thin waist—a way to show that beautiful women can be found in places other than the annual Sports Illustrated Bikini Shoot. The most notable plus sized model today is likely Tess Munster, who has gained popularity in the last year. In an interview, she is described as “happy and liberated” as well as essentially the essence of female empowerment. The forceful phrase “skinniness is not happiness” is scattered throughout the prose.

This is where the line must be drawn.

Appealing to science, we must consider Ms. Munster’s measurements: she stands five feet, five inches tall and weighs 260 pounds. This gives her a Body Mass Index (BMI) calculation of roughly 43.3.

For reference, normal weight yields a BMI range of about 19 to 24 and obesity anything over 30. By any medical standard, this woman is morbidly obese.

The quality of her health is such that her lifespan will most definitely be truncated as a result of her size. Yet this woman is constantly praised and lauded as a representation of female empowerment and as a pioneer in breaking the mold of normative beauty standards.

The most perverse and scary notion is that young girls struggling with body image issues will not only view Munster’s physical precedent as acceptable, but actually something for which they should strive.

This sends the completely wrong message and has negative implications for health standards here in the United States as we progress into the future.

Ultimately, notwithstanding medical issues, everyone should maintain healthy diets and lifestyles. The sentiments expressed by much of positive body image rhetoric are dangerous because they serve to allow for rationalization from a psychological standpoint and they encourage unhealthy lifestyle habits.

Alis Dicpinigaitis is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She 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.

When Sean Penn ran dry

Katerina Ivanov When I was a kid, I used to dream of receiving an Oscar. On long car rides I would go through my acceptance speech in my head: I’d thank my family, my husband—who was naturally played by my fifth grade crush in this elaborate fantasy. I was a dramatic preteen, so naturally I’d be dressed in a flowing Prada gown, dripping in diamonds, a sole tear of gratitude shining on my cheek, as I’d curtsy and glide off the stage into the arms of my many admirers.

You know what wasn’t a part of my Academy Awards fantasy?

Sean Penn saying something racist.

Sean Penn already had a shady reputation in my book. All those domestic disturbances against Madonna? Yeah, I haven’t forgotten about those. So when he presented the award for Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards, I was a smidge confused, if not miffed. When he said, “Who gave this sonofabitch a green card?” in reference to Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu, I let out a collection of colorful four-letter swear words that would make my mother blush. Iñárritu took the tasteless jab in stride, even laughing graciously at the joke, which only proves he’s a much more forgiving and more well mannered person than I am. As a proud, outspoken, Mexican-American, I would have stomped up to that podium and proclaimed Sean Penn as the anti-Christ to millions of viewers. He took one of the most amazing moments of this director’s life and whittled it down to a sh—y race joke.

“Calm down, Kat!” friends advised me, disturbed by both my crass vocabulary and the flames of fury shooting out of my eyes.

“It was just a joke.” But that’s the worst part.

That people like Sean Penn can be let off the hook because it was “all in good fun.” That’s basically telling viewers, “It’s okay to be racist—as long as you’re joking about it!”

Jokes always have some truth to them.

Humor is great, and can be used to highlight inequality and many of the underlying issues in American society in a conversational tone, but cheap racial jabs are not included. They bring nothing positive to the conversation on inequality in America, only serving to highlight the fact that there is discrimination in our presence. Soon jokes become earnest opinions, and our society becomes desensitized to racial slurs and degrading words because it’s all a joke. Calm down.

Stop taking everything so seriously. You’re such a buzzkill. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve been told to sit down and shut up and smile because it’s just comedy.

This year’s Oscars were under some serious heat for racial disparities. Selma was snubbed for Best Actor and Best Director, some idiot on Fox News used an AfricanAmerican racial slur in reference to Lady Gaga’s Oscar performance, and on Fashion Police host Giuliana Rancic quipped that singer Zendaya’s dreadlocked hair looked like it “smelled like weed.” When did our country stop teaching that we should think before we speak? When did adding a laugh track make it acceptable to say ostracizing and discriminatory phrases okay? By joking about Iñárritu’s green card you are really saying immigration issues are a joke. By making jokes about Zendaya’s dreadlocks you’re saying multicultural body image acceptance issues are a joke.

When will these television personalities, actors, news anchors, these people in the spotlight who our culture idolize and looks up to, realize that no one is laughing?

When a racial joke is made, most (decent) people feel nervous and uncomfortable.

Sean Penn’s pea-sized brain finally realized this when, after his joke, the audience sat in horrified shock. Sean Penn doesn’t seem like an entirely awful person. Remember the charity work he did for Hurricane Katrina?

The Earthquake in Haiti? But let his racial gaffe function as a warning: all the good things he’s done, the charity and social awareness work, have been wiped from my mind because he said something idiotic and discriminatory. He should be called out on it.

The future generations of our society should see that this is not okay—this is not what role models do.

The next time someone says sit down and shut up, it’s just a joke, or stop making this into a big deal, they should be called out too.

It’s not funny, so stop laughing.

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

THE HEIGHTS

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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Brick by brick, LEGO constructs mecca for Boston fans

BY WILL MENNICKEN Heights Staff The recently-opened LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Somerville, Mass. is offering kids, adults, and LEGO fans alike a new way to engage in the old childhood pastime.

Although it is mainly geared toward children from ages 3 to 10, LEGOLAND Discovery Center Boston hosts an adult night the third Wednesday of every month. The event is a chance for LEGO fans ages 18 and above to explore LEGOLAND Discovery Center themselves, since regular admission always requires adults to come with a child.

LEGOLAND Discovery Center is not owned by LEGO, but rather the attraction is operated by Merlin Entertainments—a European company that is Europe’s biggest and the world’s second largest visitor attractions operator in the world. The Boston LEGOLAND Discovery Center was the sixth to open in the U.S., and 11th LEGOLAND Discovery Center to open worldwide. The popular LEGO attraction is Merlin’s newest concept, and the entertainment company plans to roll out new sites and a number of prime locations in specially selected location in Europe, the U.S., and the Far East. The Boston location prominently features over 3 million LEGO bricks in a 44,000 square-foot space.

Other attractive fe ature s include

an exciting, interactive LEGO laser ride, Merlin’s Apprentice ride, a 4D cinema, and party rooms for birthdays and other celebrations.

One of the Boston location’s most popular attractions so far is MINILAND, which features many of the city’s iconic regional landmarks constructed from LEGO Bricks. Famous Beantown landmarks, including Faneuil Hall, South Station, and the Boston Public Library, are all featured in detailed replicas of multi-colored LEGOS. The city is surrounded by the Boston harbor as well, with countless moving LEGO motorboats. There are other interactive LEGO structures in MINILAND as well. Kids can race miniature boats on the Charles River using a turnstile, or play baseball in Fenway Park by swinging a miniature bat to hit a pinball.

A recent addition to MINILAND includes a Gillette Stadium replica, and

standing high is the Vince Lombardi trophy. In the background, the exhibit’s lights flicker on and off to produce a fireworks show on the walls.

Every feature of the MINILAND was created and constructed by LEGOLAND Discovery Center’s Master Model Builder, Ian Coffey. The 26-year-old Coffey turned his love of LEGO bricks into a full-time job by beating more than 60 contestants in several construction challenges during a Brick Factor competition at the Boston Public Library.

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime to turn a passion into a full-time job,” Coffey said. “The Brick Factor Competition was intense, and the pressure was high, but I couldn’t be more thrilled with the out-

come. What could be better than getting paid to build LEGO models all day and teach children how to harness their imagination and creativity?”

Coffey’s main tasks involve maintaining and continuously building and updating the MINILAND models. Coffey also teaches workshops and interacts with the thousands of children that visit the attraction annually.

The center is open throughout the week with admission costing $23 for adults, and $18.50 for children. For the same $23 admission fee, customers at Adult Night have access to all of the amenities that LEGOLAND Discovery Center has to offer, as well as food and alcoholic beverages for sale.

“We feature a different theme for Adult Night each month, with past ones including Star Wars, Carnival, and Las Vegas Blackjack,” Coffey said.

After the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl win, February’s Adult Night theme was Boston sports. Fans were decked out in their favorite Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox, and Patriots’ gear, as well as a few patrons sporting Boston College hockey jerseys.

Adult Night hosted a wide age range of customers—from college students to senior citizens to young couples on a memorable, unique date.

“Our location has the greatest volume of customers compared to other locations, because of the intellectual community in Boston, as well as all of the colleges,” Coffey said.

Adults have the chance to be entered into a raffle based on their score at the interactive LEGO laser ride, or get sprayed with water while watching one of four

movies in the 4D cinema.

Unlike the LEGOLAND theme parks across the world, LEGOLAND Discovery Center Boston is exclusively an indoor attraction. According to Coffey, the center rests at an ideal location in the heart of Assembly Row in Somerville.

The center is a five-minute walk from the new MBTA T-stop on the Orange Line called “Assembly,” which opened this past September. Although the LEGOLAND Discovery Center has only been open for nine months, it has been a popular attraction here in Boston, and Coffey and the rest of the Boston team hope to continue to attract LEGO fans of all ages in the future. 

WILL MENNICKEN / HEIGHTS STAFF

BC produces 10 Fulbright winners from 60 applicants last year Fulbright, from A1 Some schools , such as Stanford University—which placed 33rd on the list—only had a 14 percent winning percentage with 10 winners from 72 applications, while others such as the University of Pennsylvania had a 27.6 percent winning percentage with 21 winners from 76 applications. Penn placed seventh on the list of top Fulbright producers.

In recent years, BC’s winning percent-

age has ranged from 22 percent in 201314 (19 winners of 85 applications) to 45 percent in 2005-06 (13 winners from 29 applications).

Christensen, who has been involved with the program for six years and has served as the Fulbright Program advisor at BC for the last four years, said that while he would like to see more applicants and he can work more to publicize the opportunity, the applications from BC students have remained strong.

“I have certainly not seen any drop in the quality of the applications from our students, and the number of applicants has been pretty steady,” Christensen said.

As for the current 2015-16 Fulbright application cycle—in which finalists have already been named—Christensen said that the status of each applicant is not public knowledge at the time due to privacy rules.

Among the BC Fulbright winners for

the 2014-15 cycle are graduates teaching English in countries including Ecuador, Taiwan, Bulgaria, Austria, Guatemala, Ukraine, and Germany.

Four students won Fulbrights to travel to Germany this year, maintaining BC’s institutional legacy for sending students to the European country. In the spring of 2013, the German studies department hit the milestone of having sent over 100 Fulbright scholars to Germany and Austria, ranking BC among the top producers of

Fulbright winners for those countries.

Michael Resler, professor and chair of the German studies department and a Fulbright advisor, is known for encouraging his students to apply for German Fulbrights, and received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany from the German Consul General in November for individual service to the nation, which includes his role in facilitating American students’ exchange in Germany. 

The blame game: why Boston needs to stop pointing fingers in snow woes

BENNET JOHNSON Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, hasn’t been happy lately. Now in his second year as Mayor of Boston, Walsh has been forced to confront a wicked monster that has been tormenting the city over the past two months: snow. But rather than melt away, the problems across the city have accumulated to the point where Bostonians are looking for someone to blame, and now Walsh’s political career could be the next thing to be buried beneath the snow.

Boston is no stranger to the white stuff. But lately, the historic snowfall has gotten so absurd that rather than wallow in our winter woes, some Bostonians decided to take a different approach.

Last week, a group of Boston daredevils recorded videos of themselves jumping out of roofs and windows into snowbanks—many of the snow “divers” were barely even clothed while performing the frosty feat. The group started a statewide movement on social media, known as the #BostonBlizzardChallenge.

Walsh immediately criticized the movement, saying Boston wasn’t Loon Mountain—a popular ski area in New Hampshire—and pleaded that everyone “Stop the nonsense right now.”

Meanwhile in Washington D.C., Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker sat at the President of the United

States’ table during a black-tie event at the White House, describing Boston’s winter troubles to President Barack Obama. The situation has escalated to the point where Baker is lobbying for federal aid to help Massachusetts recover from the state’s recent massive snowfalls. To the President and the rest of Capitol Hill, Baker is now known, simply, as the governor of snow.

After four major snowstorms in three weeks, the white monster has wrenched local budgets and shut down the region’s public transit system, leaving workers stranded and businesses to suffer the consequences. Until January, the winter was unusually tame, and it appeared that we could make it through the season in one piece.

But after three weeks of destruction, the issue of managing an unprecedented 90.8 inches of snow has been dumped on the desks of city officials.

If the snow continues to fall and city is forced to shut down once again, Walsh and Baker might be the next to take a leap out of their office windows.

Immediately, when the first storm hit the city, Baker and Walsh were thrown into crisis mode, set to prove to Bostonians that they were ready to be the new leaders that the city and state needed. Walsh issued parking bans across the city, but roads were miserable and not cleaned to the curb.

As the snow piled up and refused to melt, many usual two-way streets were forced to shut down to one lane—often putting drivers up against each other.

As the T began to collapse, Baker was put in the crosshairs. The public was furious, and looked up the ladder for retribution.

To make matters worse for the governor, MBTA General Manager Bev-

erly Scott also abruptly resigned two weeks ago, and the mess was publicly dropped on Baker’s desk. All of this prompted streets to be a nightmare, and commuters were forced to take matters into their own hands and be delayed or miss work altogether.

As leaders of the snow removal efforts, Walsh and Baker are easy to blame for the mess. The rookies were both thrown right in the middle of the issue, like a closing pitcher brought in to make one out and save a baseball game after sitting in the bullpen for the previous 8 2/3 innings.

We cannot blame them for being forced to manage an unpredictable disaster. How could they have planned to budget for an unprecedented 9 feet of snow? How can we blame Baker for an underfunded transportation system that has been a concern for years?

For now, Walsh and Baker are working to fix the nightmare. Walsh has already spent over $35 million on snow removal, and there are still plows on the streets. Baker is also currently pushing for transit improvements that have been in the works for years, but are not at the forefront of the city’s concerns.

But the problem is that we are still looking to blame someone—or something—for the snow. We want someone’s head on the guillotine when really there is no one to blame at all.

Instead of pointing fingers, Bostonians should realize that this was something nobody could have planned for, and instead should work together to clean up the mess.

Bennet Johnson is the Metro Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

CLARE KIM / HEIGHTS STAFF

Reflections on happiness Happiness Talks, from A1 up from within us and happiness, which is contingent on a whole array of external circumstances,” Himes said.

He further explained that happiness is something that changes regarding the circumstance, but true joy is something that lasts. He described the happiness and joy he found in his 46 years as a priest.

“If someone had asked me if I had been happy all my time as a priest? Well, of course not,” Himes said. “I’m not mad, but if someone were to ask me if I would do anything else, the answer is no. There have been days I have not been happy, but there has not been a day that I would want to do anything else.”

Himes believed that the key to being truly happy is by paying attention to others. Instead of focusing on one’s own happiness, Himes suggested listening to others and trying to give them joy. By doing so, Himes stated, we become one step closer to genuine joy.

“Happiness is always a byproduct, it is never the center of your lives,” Himes said. “If one thinks that one is looking for contentment, for being comfortable, for being in control in life, if that’s what you think happiness will be, then I suspect your happiness could easily end up destroying you.”

Mitropoulos opened up the student talks with his own perspective on what happiness meant to him. Even when faced with personal struggles, Mitropoulos explained that he found his happiness when he was able to get away and reflect.

“For me, there are two types of happiness: an immediate one, and one that brings me genuine joy, putting my soul to rest,” Mitropoulos said. “It is in these moments on this rock that I am reminded of how blessed I am and what really makes me happy.”

Explaining the BC dynamic, Mitropoulos emphasized how often students forget to take care of themselves, especially when they need to most. “Unfortunately, this type of happiness is hard to come by. How often do we take care of ourselves?” Mitropoulos said.

Mitropoulos told students that before he realized how to properly take care of himself, he resorted to the “hook up culture.” He explained that instead of finding true happiness, he was simply running away from his issues rather than facing them.

Schwartz then examined her years at BC and looked back at the struggles she faced. She warned students of the effects of superficiality, telling the story of her own experiences.

Keedy, the final student speaker, left the audience with some final thoughts on appreciation and personal growth. Keedy described how his life transformed once he had changed his mindset in regard to what true happiness meant and said his experience at BC allowed him to learn the meaning of joy and personal growth.

Concluding his talk, Himes left students with final words of wisdom.

“By focusing on others, I was able to assist them in their journey for joy,” Himes said.

“Give yourself away. Give joy away. You will never run out of it.” 

COLUMN

REGARDING BOYHOOD

THE CRITICAL CHARM OF THE FILM IS MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING,IPAGE B2 COLUMN

ALBUM REVIEW

‘PARKS AND RECREATION’ WAS THE BEST FRIEND A VIEWER HAD, PAGE B2

THE DETROIT RAPPER LOOKS TO STRIKE SUPER-STARDOM WITH NEW ALBUM, PAGE B4

FAREWELL KNOPE

Big Sean’s ‘Dark Sky Paradise’ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015

THE

Cindy Chen’s Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Summer Lin - Asst. Arts & Review Editor | See Page B3 BRECK WILLS / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC

The Heights

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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Oscars 2015

Reasonable Dowd

So long to ‘Parks & Rec’

Waiting For ‘Shawshank’: The best of ‘Best Pictures’ Ryan Daly

Ryan Dowd I have a precise method for watching television—the sandwich method.

It’s emblematic of three things I’m fond of—television, sandwiches, and selfimposed doctrines through which I can impose some sort of form on my life.

Basically, it states that you should watch shows throughout the day like you structure a sandwich. You start with bread and lettuce—a clean sitcom like Happy Endings. You move onto meat, maybe some honey baked ham or Game of Thrones, and finally cap it off with another slice of bread and some spicy mustard or a caper like Entourage or New Girl.

This is all indicative that maybe I’ve spent a bit too much time alone. But in a more optimistic light, television shows are some of my better friends. And no show has been a better friend (and no show makes for a better bread/lettuce combo) than Parks and Recreation. The show has always been endearing, but it wasn’t always that good, until it became great, because honestly, waffles are a lot better than sandwiches.

If NBC’s legendary late 2000s comedy Thursday night was a group of buddies at the local high school, Parks and Rec probably would have sat at the end of the lunch table. The Office was the guy with the cool older brother who knew all the dirty jokes and teachers, before joining a frat at the state school.

Community was the cool nerd a little off the hinge who took a gap year to write for The Daily Show before flaming out and actually enrolling in a community college. 30 Rock was the editor of the school paper who’d go onto to Columbia and fall so deeply in love with itself it starts a new self-love movement in Brooklyn. Parks and Rec, that good hearted kid, would get better. It’d cut those creepy bangs and grow a fashionable beard. It’ll end up being the best man in 13 weddings.

Losing Parks and Rec is like losing a dear friend. If you burn through a show that’s already aged—like Friends, the end isn’t as sad, because you’re on your own for the most part. Parks and Rec didn’t just leave me or you. It left us. In the span of one frame it left all of our lives at the same time.

Shows can go out in many different ways. They can go out in glory like Friday Night Lights. They can go out in faux glory like Entourage. They can go out with a whimper, which is the impression I got in middle school about ER. I haven’t finished Parks and Rec yet. That may make me weak, and the honest truth is that at writing this, the show hasn’t found its way onto Hulu yet. It’s a cop-out and one I’m sticking with. For so long, Parks and Rec had been tied to my daily routines. It’s been as dear a friend as morning coffee and a lightly toasted bagel with mixed berry cream cheese.

Parks and Rec is how I like my friends, food, and politics. Simple. Not Andy Dwyer simple, Knope or Swanson simple. The world and its folk are insane, and all you can do is make it better. That’s not something I’d usually say, but Parks and Rec has made a sentimental believer out of me.

I’d make the case that simplicity in art is its own form of complication.

Don’t The Beatles somehow sound simple and complex at the same time?

Parks and Rec was like that. Its cast of characters seemed one dimensional, but those dimensions ran bone deep. It’s also, aside from Donna and Jerry, the only show to ever boast a cast of B-list stars, though Chris Pratt hankering for A-list belt.

Watching a television show venture beyond the void, and go wherever they go after death, hurts. But I have to believe that somewhere up there, Leslie Knope is calling the attention of the Equality for Sitcoms Committee, that April Ludgate has never been happier, and that Lil’ Sebastion is up with them. I hope they have waffles in horsey heaven.

Ryan Dowd is the Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

photo Courtesy of ifc productions

‘Boyhood’: 165 minutes of bore Caleb Griego When Olivia Evans—played by Oscar winner Patricia Arquette—exclaims, “I thought there’d be more,” she’s lamenting how the time with her son—Mason Jr.—has gone by so quickly. I had a similar thought after watching Boyhood for the first time.

A film so hyped and universally acclaimed, Boyhood had a lot to live up to.

Taking 12 years to make, one would hope that a project this big would find something profound to say in the end. Raking in numerous awards and exorbitant amounts of recognition, including six Academy Award nominations and Arquette’s eventual victory. True, it didn’t win Best Picture, but I have been left wondering if the film really deserves all the universal praise.

The film’s most obvious achievement comes from its production and creation.

That kind of success is not something we can neglect. Linklater took upon himself a huge assignment when he decided to create Boyhood. Juggling other projects, managing actors’ schedules and adapting filming techniques, and creating a film that would be marketable 12 years down the line were just a few hurdles that Linklater had to overcome and manage. It is a praiseworthy feat that the film got made at all, considering all these variables, especially in light of the masses of films that never get made with all the hurdles a single year throws upon production.

We champion the film as one that took so long to make. We judge it in its own—12 years in the making—realm, not as a film with something to actually say.

Boyhood is not without its charm and quaintness. The films is ripe with nostalgia that will give any young person who grew up in the past decade loads to remember and fawn over. This is relatively low hanging fruit considering the time in which the film was crafted. Every shot of a GameBoy, Razor Ripstik, or Toonami segment is designed to get the cheap “ooh”s and “I remember that”s out of the audience. The film tricks you into finding it meaningful by flashing glimpses of things you fondly remember rather than any substantive message laid in the film itself. Capturing dated culture when filming over the years is inevitable, but it does more to distract us from what is (and really what is not) happening on screen. Within its 12 years, again I ask, what was Boyhood trying to say?

Apologists for Boyhood may say that the meaning lies within the banality of it all. The fact that nothing much happens is representative of our own lives, trudging forward without any hint of progress in the moment. But this would be a generous in-

terpretation. As we see Mason Jr. grow, we see him become rather unlikable. Fumbling through his life, expressing little in the way of knowledgeability or experience, we simply see him mumble and groan, overcoming no real credible threats or change. We are exhausted by his pseudo-philosophical ideas that, coupled with his muttered delivery, leave us laughing rather than awe struck. As a character, what makes him unique? It’s hard to anticipate and wish to see his life unfold when he embraced the world so callously. Instead of using the heaps of production time to formulate ideas and develop a relatable, and, more importantly, likeable character, the film leaves us instead with a detached, entitled, annoyingly artsy, wannabe philosopher.

I found myself hyper-critical of his every move, because he became so unlikeable. I was furious when he made a bowl of cereal and not more than 10 seconds later, placed it near the sink. Unbelieveable.

He did not eat that that fast. Unnecessary critique aside, I kept wondering where the point of the film lay.

If you want a film that truly speaks to the banality of life, look to 2013’s Nebraska.

Narratively speaking, nothing really happens in this film either. Through the use of its characters, Nebraska ultimately finds something that speaks to us— a people on a deeper level. Where Boyhood clings to superficial connections that children of the last decade can appreciate, Nebraska reaches for something more universal and ultimatley human.

Boyhood is not terrible and some of the awards, like Arquette’s Oscar for best supporting actress, are well deserved. It is when we start calling it the best film of the decade or even the century, as some have, that it warrants a call for pause. We are quick to fall in love with films and extrapolate meaning when there is none, especially when others claim a connection as well. It is simply the bandwagon effect.

What will it be remembered for in another 12 years? My bet is something along the lines of, “That movie that was made over 12 years,” and not for any meaningful scene or moment. Words like epic and revolutionary will not be words we use to describe Twelve Years a Boy. Yes. Boyhood was different, but so was The Artist, and who is talking about that?.

Sitting in bed, Mason looks to his father and asks, “So what’s the point?”

“Of what?” he responds.

“I don’t know, any of this. Everything.”

“Everything? What’s the point? I mean, I don’t know,” he honestly replies.

My thoughts exactly.

My dad had to make choices when he and my mom moved into our house before I was born—what needed to go, and what needed to stay. The desk stayed, and was put in a new room. The desk spans the width of the wall, the shelves span the width of the desk, and the best of the best span the width of the shelf. The best of the best for my father, anyway. To make it this far, the stacks of books, CDs, and DVDs had to carry more than a place-holding significance. This entertainment stayed.

Nine years later, a 9-year-old version of me climbed the desk and pulled down a DVD with a white man and a black man on the cover staring off into the distance. My dad tapped a finger on the cover, “Good.

Even better than good. One of my favorites.”

Which, for me, became an understatement. A 16-year-old version of me watched The Shawshank Redemption for the first time, and it wasn’t just good, or just better than good: it was perfect. It’s about everything—everything. Nothing has been perfect since—there’s been good, and there’s been even better than good, and with every passing year, I wonder whether perfection like that is ever to be replicated.

Let’s start in the present: 19-year-old me watched the Oscars last Sunday—interested and skeptical. Accolades were awarded, and the upsets were relatively minor. Some people said some good stuff with their 50 seconds in front of the world. Birdman was given the golden crown for 2015. I haven’t seen Birdman yet, but when I undoubtedly do, there are three ways to proceed.

One of the first two ways is almost certain—either it’s like recent best picture winners (12 Years a Slave, Argo, and The King’s Speech), and it gets an “eh” at best; or it’s like the smaller chunk of best picture winners that requires stretching back some years, even more than a decade (The Departed, American Beauty, and A Beautiful Mind), and gets a pause before the “whoa.”

The third way is a trumping of Shawshank.

But I’ve almost grown to resent the Oscars as an outlet for what will and won’t supersede the perfect movie, because what it comes down to is that a lot of the Best Pictures don’t translate into the best pictures.

The Oscars are systematic in this way. Political. But how disconcerting, how obnoxious, how dumb is that? Can there be more irony than the superfluous number who-will-winand-who-should-win lists? What’s the point of a Best Picture award if the best picture doesn’t win?

But the Oscars aren’t alone in stagnation.

Let’s go back a couple weeks: Whiplash sucker punched me in the mouth, sparking

Caleb Griego is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

discomfort and elation. I paced across my dorm as the snow piled up outside, trying to find something to distract me, confused as how my roommates felt fine enough to look up another movie. Whiplash had no shot at the Oscars, experts reported.

Ten months ago: In the dead heat of June, a friend and I got to New York City hours before a Yankee game and needed something to fill the time. Snowpiercer was playing in an independent theater, one of only four venues in the entire country that was showing the movie. Two hours later, leaving the theater, my friend and I looked at each other and both spat laughter. Our eyes were bloodshot. We had forgot to blink. We sat for 10 minutes in the movie theater lobby without saying a word.

Snowpiercer wasn’t nominated, and I’m not surprised. It’s a silly movie, and I can see someone at the Academy smoking their fancy pipe and saying, “Well, it’s just not tasteful enough.” But it was a silly movie that suspended belief in its own silliness and beckoned me to just take a ride, and that’s something else.

Whiplash and Snowpiercer are dimeworthy movies, but to my mind, they don’t come close to Shawshank.

That’s the story of all the movies that I see that are dime-worthy: great, but not like Shawshank. No film comes close to that third path—it won’t trump Shawshank. That means a lot more than trumping Shawshank as a very spectacular movie in its own right.

It has to do with my dad’s desk, how his office smelled like cigars even though he never smoked, of always seeing that cover with the white man and black man staring longingly at something that seemed heavenly, but far off. It has to do with watching the movie at the precise moment I did, where I was just old enough to understand everything going on, unlike so many other movies I had watched when I was younger and then re-watched when I was older and thought, “Oh, that.”

Things that make any movie as perfect and as incontestable as Shawshank have more to them, always. Things that go outside of the movie—like how the Best Picture goes outside of what makes it a best picture. And it is disconcerting, obnoxious, and dumb.

Whenever I see Birdman, it’ll come into crystal clear view whether the Oscar was handed off to the wrong team again. And no matter how good Birdman is or how good any other movie is, nothing will come close to that one night, Shawshank, the office that smelled of cigars, and two men, bound together, looking off, wanting, like I do, to be proven wrong.

Ryan Daly is an editor for The Heights.

He can be reached at arts@bcheights. com.

This weekend in arts

photo courtesy of Castle rock entertainment

By: Chris Fuller | Associate Arts & Review Editor

‘Focus’ (opens friday)

Sing It To The Heights!

(Thursday, 7 P.M.)

A con-man’s greatest scheme is complicated by the reemergence of his former lover and partner. Will Smith and Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) star as the two high-stakes troublemakers.

Great American Songbook: The Music of Disney (Sunday, 7:30 P.M.)

Members of the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra will be playing tunes from famous Disney movies and shows at the Berklee Performance Center. Admission is $8 in advance and $12 the day of the show.

‘The Lazarus Effect’ (Opens Friday)

Researchers have discovered a serum, codenamed, “Lazarus,” that can bring the dead back to life, but their discovery may turn out to be too good to be true. Olivia Wilde and Donald Glover star as two of the scientists who come across this unparalleled discovery.

The Emerging Leadership Program is hosting an ‘American Idol’-inspired singing competition in Robsham Theater this week. The winner will be chosen by votes from the audience. Tickets can be purchased through the Robsham Box Office.

photo Courtesy of kramer and Zigman films

The Jest Wing (Thursday, 8:30 P.M)

Asinine sketch and improv comedy group along with Generation Citizen are hosting a night of political comedy in Fulton 511. Admission is free.

Symphony of the Goddesses (Friday, 8 P.M.)

The Boston Symphony Hall will play host to music from the famous game franchise The Legend of Zelda this Friday. The acclaimed world tour features a larger than life video accompaniment and chronicles the history of the legendary series.

My Mother’s Fleabag Spring Cafe Show Thursday Trivia!

(Thursday, 7 P.M.) (Thursday, 9 P.M.) The improv group My Mother’s Fleabag will be putting on an interactive Spring Cafe Show in Gasson 305 this week. Flealady Tatiana “Tomagotchi Terror” Schaefer, A&S ‘16, is back from abroad and will be in the show. Admission is free.

The Campus Activities Board is holding a trivia night this week on the second floor of Lower. They will be serving free pizza and drinks and the winning team will be given $25 in the form of a surprise gift card.

The Heights

Thursday, February 26, 2015

B3

Chen embraces the unconventional through makeup

a fuller picture

Lorre v. Sheen Piano Edition Chris Fuller

john wiley / heights editor

photo courtesy of cindy chen

Photo Courtesy of arlo perez

Cindy Chen, A&S ’16, is redefining traditional standards of makeup, artwork, and how ordinary people look at themselves in the mirror.

By summer lin | Asst. arts & Review Editor

S

ometimes she goes to bed with a new makeup modes of unconventional photography, body art, and [creating my own line] goes against that.” look already planned out for the day ahead. conceptual design.

While her work has been markedly well-received Cindy Chen, A&S ’16, has been interested in art- Two years ago, Chen was exploring the possibility and popular at BC, Chen derives the most inspiration work since a very young age. In high school, Chen par- of having her work showcased in magazines and other from her makeup work with models and networking with ticipated in art exhibitions before discovering another publications. After submitting her portfolio, Chen be- other like-minded artists. Her blog has served as a digital creative outlet through the form of conceptual art and lieves her work was ultimately turned away because it platform for forming connections with international artexperimental makeup. Following the techniques from did not cater to typical standards of beauty. Chen then ists. Chen describes that in helping underground artists YouTube tutorial and DIY videos, Chen is a self-taught decided to launch her own magazine as a creative outlet gain more exposure, she has also encountered people aspiring makeup artist who utilizes both her skills for experimental artists. She hopes that by drawing a who simply do not desire a large following and create in photography and Adobe Photoshop to showcase large online presence, people will be interested in reading art for art’s sake. alternative forms of makeup artistry. print copies of her publication.

“It is understandable that due to the nature of my

Since arriving at Boston College, Chen has “People don’t usually respond well to change or aesthetic, my models get a bit wary of the outcome of launched her own online blog, Opal Catharsis, in new-age art,” Chen said. “My goal with the magazine is the shoot as I do their makeup in production, because order to feature both her own work and the work of to curate new types of artists to be seen by the public.” at times it is borderline alien,” Chen said. “I think some of underground artists. Capturing both costume-y and While Chen has always wanted to be part of the my best works have come out of allowing improvisation high fashion art, Chen derives inspiration from emotion fashion industry and hopes to enhance fashion col- to take its course and I diverted so much from my initial in order to create more powerful images. Catering to lections with makeup design, she remains wary of the sketches that I created a completely different look.” experimental and avant-garde makeup, Chen describes possibility of starting her own makeup line in the future.

Ultimately, the goal for Chen is to bring acknowlher own aesthetic as strange and one you wouldn’t The creative process, above all else, is most important to edgement to these undiscovered artists and to showcase expect to find beautiful. her. unconventional beauty in everyday people.

“I look at the face as a canvas,” Chen said. “Normal “I’m not the type of person that would monetize off “We stare at the mirror every day, blind to the makeup tends to be mainstream. When people typically of this because it takes away from the source of motiva- details in our faces that make us unique and wonderful,” use makeup, they use it as a mask. I want to enhance tion,” Chen said. “I’ve always loved art and my work goes Chen said. “Words can’t always show us that these little their features and make them realize they are beautiful back to my roots. I want to keep the vision alive and it things exist. We have to discover it ourselves.” n in a way they wouldn’t normally expect.”

Three-dimensional art, levitation photography, and costume design are all fields that Chen eventually wishes to pursue in her work. For inspiration, Chen prefers to forgo structure and goes off of spontaneity. Social media, Instagram, and print media have all influenced Chen in her designs. For Opal’s Catharsis, Chen examines high-fashion portfolios and selects artists that she feels bring a unique perspective to artistic expression.

In addition to her blog, Chen is working on launching her own magazine, titled Artists Unknown.

The aim is to bring underground and unknown artists to the forefront and to have their work appreciated. In conjunction with photographer Dan McCarthy, a stuphoto courtesy of Dan mccarthy dent from Northeastern University, Chen incorporatesChen showcases underground artists who expriment in costume design, makeup application, and conceptual photos.

The long-overrun CBS series Two and a Half Men came to a pitiful and stunning close last Thursday. The show, which ran for around 12 years, lived on way past its prime, probably due to its ludicrous and vain creator/producer, Chuck Lorre.

The show’s plot took a really strange turn when Charlie Sheen was forced out due to his drug habits, talk show outbursts, and generally tumultuous relationship with Lorre (I’ll get to him in a minute). Ashton Kutcher was oddly introduced as a strange tech enthusiast who had struck it rich and moved into Charlie Harper’s Malibu beach house, dealing with Alan Harper’s antics for another couple of years before the show closed.

Sheen’s departure from the show was rather publicized and it was widely presumed that the show would just end with his absence as the ratings of its eighth season dropped, but it went on, despite cringe worthy critical reception.

Appropriately, the show ended this year, but in a fashion I don’t believe anyone expected, and not in a way long running fans deserved to see it come to a close. Sheen’s character was killed off after he left the show, but the series finale does away with this notion, asking as if Charlie was never really dead, just kidnapped by a crazed lover. The entirety of the episode is spent berating Sheen and poking fun at the show’s own unnecessary longevity and weak writing.

It makes for a poor and self-deprecating note to end a show on, and the last two minutes prove to be some of the most heinous moments I’ve ever seen on television.

The final scene of the program features a faceless Charlie walking up to his old home, knocking on the door, and then being crushed by a piano that fell from a helicopter that Jon Cryer and Ashton Kutcher’s characters had noticed in the previous scene. It gets more atrocious. The camera pulls back to reveal the facade of the house being in a studio, where series producer Chuck Lorre is sitting in his director’s chair.

Lorre then proceeds to turn around, look in the camera, say Sheen’s famous catchphrase, “Winning,” and then also be crushed by a falling piano. Canned laughter encompasses the entire scene and it cuts to black from the last shot of the two broken pianos.

Chuck Lorre has, for me, just been the name that pops up under “Executive Producer” at the end of his shows on CBS. He produced Two and a Half Men and still works on Mike & Molly and The Big Bang Theory. Even with more renowned producers like Vince Gilligan, whose name comes up after each episode of Breaking Bad, one rarely hears much about television visionaries behind the scenes.

Lorre, on the other hand, leaves “vanity cards” at the end of every program he produces. In some episodes, these cards just discuss the production of the episode. On others they delve deep into Lorre’s unapologetic political views. CBS has often censored these vanity cards for their partisan content or just plain crude language.

The mixture of these cards and Lorre’s decisions with the last episode of his “hit” television series make him one of the most vain, self-appreciated personalities television has to offer. If I still watched the show regularly, the ending would have outraged me. Instead, I’m more puzzled why the network executives and his colleagues would go along with the madness. What did his fans do to deserve him acting out a scene of personal angst, spite, or whatever that was as the last scene to their beloved show?

Apparently, Lorre and the other producers actually asked Sheen to be in the last episode to give a speech about drug abuse in the end and be crushed by a piano, but he understandably declined to participate. Whatever Sheen’s personal battles are, Lorre does not deserve to reassert their troubled past in an attempt to celebrate the end of the program that they built together. Sheen may be a drug addled lunatic, but that is none of Lorre’s business and it is not fair of him to have such a disgraceful mockery of the man on national television.

Two and a Half Men needed to end a long time ago. After Sheen left, the show felt miserably clunky and everyone except Jon Cryer looks like they gave up on trying to make a quality program years ago. It is sickening to think of how much money anyone made from one of the trashiest hours of television that I have ever laid eyes on.

Chris Fuller is the Assoc. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

THE HEIGHTS

B4

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Big Sean shoots for ‘Paradise’ and ends up in rap purgatory

BY RYAN DOWD Arts & Review Editor Big Sean has somehow become a pseudo-rapstar without actually rapping beyond a basic level of competence. He’s never released a critically acclaimed or top selling album. Until the moderate mainstream success of “I Don’t F—k With You,” he’d never had a hit single. People who pay some attention to popular music, and especially those who consider themselves members of the hip hop scene, have

definitely heard of Big Sean. How has Big Sean become a rapstar? He’s done it through proximity.

He’s got a smooth casual tone, a casual arrogance. He’s the guy you call if you’re Fall Out Boy or Miley Cyrus and need an hip-hop splash somewhere in your album, because every hit song has to have a couple vague rap bars, right? He just lingers, and he does it again in Dark Sky Paradise, where his songs here hover around four minutes—about a minute and a half too long.

His third studio album, Dark Sky Paradise is a modern rap album with bubbling synths and an impressive guest list. It’s got Drake, Kanye, Chris Brown, Jhene Aiko, and a couple guys you’ve never heard of before. And like most modern rap albums, it’s mostly uneven. And the fault ultimately lies on Big Sean’s narrow shoulders.

In the first track “Dark Sky (Skyscrapers),” Big Sean sets the trajectory of the album. Dark Sky Paradise is about his rise to the top and the pitfalls of proximity to the top. Original

DARK SKY PARADISE BIG SEAN PRODUCED BY GOOD MUSIC RELEASED FEB. 24, 2015 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOD MUSIC

right? He asserts “I don’t owe nobody in the world no favors,” which isn’t exactly true, because Kanye West discovered Big Sean and has produced each of his three albums.

In the grand tree (or clique, or great chain of being) of rap, Big Sean is branched under Kanye. In the Big Sean mythology, he apparently got his record contract by freestyling in front of Kanye at a Detroit radio station. As J. Cole to Jay-Z, Big Sean is to Kanye—down to the uproariously famous girlfriend (Ariana Grande).

Aside from some of the inconsistencies in his self-presentation, Big Sean has his moments in arguably his most ambitious album to date.

“I Don’t F—k With You” is a rightful hit with an abrasive sounding hook and pretty abrasive content. Big Sean gives into raw emotion in his lyrics and it rightfully shows in the form of the track. It’s him at his cruelest and nearly best. Even his ponderous moments don’t seem as forced as they typically do. He says, “I guess drama makes for the best content / Everything got a bad side, even a conscience / Now you’re drinkin’ ‘til you’re unconscious.” For Big Sean, that’s some deep stuff.

On the general topic of “depth,” you have to take the good Big Sean with the bad Big Sean. “Deep” featur-

ing Lil Wayne is a whole lot of telling without much showing. The refrain constantly hits us over the head with “this s—t deep,” without ever delving into deep topics. Big Sean can be fun, but depth isn’t really his wheelhouse. And don’t try to argue, as he does, that looking up to the sky and wondering if you’d fall or learn how to fly counts as a deep thought.

That’s just silly.

On Dark Sky Paradise, Big Sean plays to the level of his competition.

When Lil Wayne is in the house, he goes down to that level. When Kanye or Drake is in the house, the product is actually pretty good. “All Your Fault” featuring Kanye sets a lilting production to Sunday morning drive flow from Big Sean. In “Blessed,” he nearly matches Drake bar for bar. And in “One Man Can Change the World,” Kanye and John Legend join Big Sean in one of the smoothest, maybe even best R&B, songs so far this year. And it’s Big Sean who leads the charge here. Kanye and John Legend join in on some of the choruses, but Big Sean provides the heart—his delivery comes off as earnest, not cocky.

Big Sean is best when sped up or slowed down. He’s best when surrounded by really good artists.

He’s not a rapstar, as much as he acts like one. 

MisterWives weds spunk and sentiment in ‘Our Own House’

BY MARIAN WYMAN Heights Staff In less than three years of existence, the New York City indie pop group MisterWives has made a name for itself with loud, bright, anthemic music. Bouncing off of a successful 2014 EP—whose songs are all featured on their new album, Our Own House—MisterWives collaborated with the renowned producer Frequency and created even more new music. Teetering toward aggressively fun, Our Own House’s sound incorporates blaring horns, fast and syncopated rhythms, and spunky, beautiful vocals from lead singer Mandy Lee Duffy.

With a little bit of alternative and a lot of pop, the songs on this record are punchy and unique. From the band’s Reflections EP, “Reflections” and “Coffins” are the two standouts of the album, but for entirely different reasons. “Reflections” jams. Its lyrics are empowering and fierce in a way that is so desperately needed for women in the popular music industry.

Mandy Lee Duff y writes her songs with an agenda to liberate women in a positive way, always underlining independence and strength.

“Coffins,” on the other hand, instils variety to both the EP and the complete album that can add depth

to the entire work. “Coffins” is an intensely dramatic ballad, and, as its title would suggest, the material is darker and more poignant than much of MisterWives’ other songs.

Nonetheless, its musicality is on par with what MisterWives has set as a standard: incredible instrumentation, in this case featuring strings, and palpable emotion. The track is arguably less fun than many of the others, but it is no less valid.

Our Own House’s title track is quintessential MisterWives—it is without a doubt the best-produced, strongest single of the new album.

As Duffy captivates listeners with her lively vocals, a gradual instrumental pickup leads to a loud, powerful, booming crescendo with every chorus. The bass line grooves along with added rhythm and electric guitar, but most notable in this song are the horns. Different from typical indie pop, the brass in this song speaks to dynamic nature of the album.

It’s unconventional, it’s noisy, and it’s good.

More understated than most of the other tracks on the album is “Oceans.” It’s a compelling, beachy song with a smooth and quiet groove.

While its effortless instrumentation lends to its vocals throughout the verses, the chorus shows some added dimension. Adding a heavier,

rhythmic element to the chorus allows the song to have a climactic moment while maintaining a cool, island-like sound.

“No Need For Dreaming” is another track that represents the anthemic side of MisterWives. Though it begins calmly, the song quickly develops into a soulful, uplifting chorus with strong electric guitar and more of the album’s tasteful brass. “Best I Can Do” is similar in nature, taking advantage of the band’s excellent musicianship and powerful sound.

Its syncopation, coupled with rousing horn blasts and solid percussion, perfectly compliments Duff y’s smooth

yet fierce vocal line.

Some of Our Own House’s tracks do fall to a more expected, rote pop sound. At any rate, these songs are still accessible and enjoyable and will undoubtedly be supported by MisterWives’ audiences. “Hurricane” and “Box Around the Sun,” are two examples of rather “stock” pop songs.

They are great for featuring Duffy’s singing, but they are not special in doing so. The instrumentation is well-done, but not unique. It is unrepresentative of the way MisterWives values a more funky, soulful pop interpretation, especially through most of this record. These songs

are good, but they don’t fit with the exceptionality of this album.

Perhaps more important than the impressive musicality of Our Own House is the message of empowerment and strength. All while maintaining an approachable, supportive energy, Duffy sings as an independent and fierce female who makes no apologies for her confidence. “Not Your Way” is exemplary in this: it is female-focused. It is powerful. It is a song to make you dance. Duffy’s lyrics speak real truths of gender inequalities in a medium that is inspired and interpretive: in 2015, these messages need to be heard. 

The Swedes (see, ABBA) really know how to make sweet, soulful melodies. Swedish singer-songwriter Jose Gonzalez released his third album, Vestiges & Claws, last week. If Gonzalez’s indie-rock work had not been considered memorable by now, Vestiges solidifies his place among the ranks of popular folk musicians.

Gonzalez has gained more popularity over the last few years since he became a member of the Swedish

rock band, Junip. Releasing his first solo work in 2003, Gonzalez has seen quite a bit of support from his homeland, Sweden, and from many European nations, but has struggled gaining a larger audience here in America. As Gonzalez’s work with the Swedish band has earned more of a reputation in the U.S., Vestiges & Claws should serve to propel him to more acclaimed recognition among American folk enthusiasts.

One of the only scruples to find in listening to Gonzalez’s music is that it is too nearly mimics his work

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OUR OWN HOUSE MISTERWIVES PRODUCED BY REPUBLIC RECORDS RELEASED FEB. 24, 2015 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF REPUBLIC RECORDS

Jose Gonzalez steps out of Sweden with ‘Vestiges & Claws’

BY CHRIS FULLER Assoc. Arts & Review Editor

CHART TOPPERS

with Junip. If a listener plays songs from both Junip and Gonzalez in successive order, they would probably find few differences between the two.

The only real differentiation is Tobias Winterkorn’s synthesizer and organ, two features that greatly contribute to Junip’s hailed tone and depth. Listening to Gonzalez’s album, a fan of Junip jumping over to try out Gonzalez’s solo work may find it lacking in this regard. Gonzalez’s vocals are one of the more renowned qualities of Junip’s style, but on its own, his voice can be, overall, a little underwhelming.

VESTIGES & CLAWS JOSE GONZALEZ PRODUCED BY MUTE RECORDS RELEASED FEB. 17, 2015 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF MUTE RECORDS

That being said, the real substance to be found on Vestiges & Claws is in the arrangement and layering of the acoustic guitar and Gonzalez’s intriguing and heartfelt lyricism. The album’s third track, “Stories We Build, Stories We Tell,” though repetitive, features some of the greatest lines off the whole album (“Don’t believe in karma or hell / But in the memories and stories we tell”). Gonzalez, however, relies a bit too much on the chorus. He does not like to stray too far from them, and while he may be a rather inventive lyricist, his monotonous return to the chorus leaves listeners yearning for more originative lyrics throughout a song.

Meticulous details also set Gonzalez apart from his counterparts in the folk genre. The album’s eighth track “Vissel,” does not even feature vocals from Gonzales, but it provides a soothing acoustic rhythm interspersed with a winding whistle and beat that would make for a sensational stroll through a forest filled with quiet pondering. It’s these noticeable stylizations like the whistle or the pan flute in “The Forest” that give this album a resolute distinction in the genre.

The weakest element of Vestiges & Claws is the eerily similar drumbeat found in almost every track. A distracted listener would probably confuse most songs on the album because of this repetitious and this,

in turn, really takes away from the unique and intriguing stylization of Gonzalez’s guitar playing. Not only are the beats strikingly comparative, they are also rather bland and contribute little, if not detract from, the overall ambience of the album. In a way, however, this unyielding atmosphere that holds resolutely throughout the album seems to be intentional.

Many of these tracks blend together, for better or worse. At times, it feels like this subtle continuity bundles everything together well, but on the other hand, it can sometimes come across as Gonzalez having found a comfortable sound that he does not want to stray away from. The lineage between tracks makes for an easy listen, but it also can feel like a waste of potential, a lack of creative brevity that would make Gonzalez much more innovative.

Gonzalez’s third solo album has a lot going for it. His vocals are honestly extremely soothing. Not many voices in popular music ring quite like his did and he seems to really understand how and when to manipulate it. His talent on the acoustic guitar strongly complements his vocal ability. Gonzalez throws down some intriguing riffs throughout the album that constitute his unique style in the genre. The percussions, however, distract heavily his brilliant meanderings and really detract from the general quality of Vestiges & Claws. 

Ariana Grande’s newest music video for her hit song “One Last Time” is exceptionally improved from this pop princess’ previous videos. Director Mark Landis takes viewers on an apocalyptic adventure in which Grande explores a chaotic scene caused by an impending comet collision.

Released on Feb. 15, the video plays as if it was shot in a single, continuous take. It expertly mixes sci-fi with reality to create an intimate four minutes and 10 seconds fit for the silver screen.

Opening with a montage of news reels detailing a fictitious comet’s irreversible collision course with earth, Grande’s video boasts a captivating concept fraught with danger and suspense.

This action-filled thriller features Grande dodging police officers, traversing through a dilapidated apartment building, and even battling bearded foes in an attempt to get a better view of the imminent doomsday event.

Starring Grande’s “Victorious” co-star Matt Bennett as her timid love interest, the “One Last Time” video masterfully mimics a home video with its handheld camera and organic scenes. The lack of stability and smooth transitions add to the suspense and make the video seem realistic, despite the admittedly lackluster computergenerated effects. The spontaneity and havoc simulated by the video’s cinematography compensated for the mediocre elements.

Opting for a different kind of music video than her preceding ones—those characterized by flirtatious batting of the eyelashes, casual and annoyingly high ponytails—Ariana Grande’s newest work is refreshingly original.

Touching on themes of rebellion, vulnerability, and the resilience of love in the face of certain doom, “One Last Time” is a drastic change from the mundane music videos we are used to seeing from the pint-sized pop singer. 

SINGLE REVIEWS BY HANNAH MCLAUGHLIN BIG SEAN FEAT. DRAKE “Blessings”

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE “What Kind of Man” “Blessings” is a catchy track whose energetic background beats and quality lyrics make it a clear standout from the rest of Big Sean’s newest tracklist. Drake’s hook and Big Sean’s fast-paced rapping makes for a successful collaboration. The most noteworthy element of the song is Kanye West’s surprise verse that concludes the song.

A haunting track from Florence and the Machine’s upcoming LP, this song is rich in tones. It is, however, reminiscent of almost every other Florence + The Machine ballad.

Though calm at the advent of the track, the tone changes, and whispers shift to shouted lyrics. Apart from repetitive refrains, this song is well-written and emotionally enthralling.

RIHANNA “Towards the Sun” Straight off the soundtrack for the DreamWorks’ Home, “Towards the Sun” is an empowering track that is heavy on percussion.

Slightly eerie in sound, Rihanna is still energetic and fun. Especially impressive is Rihanna’s ability to deviate from her usually explicit content while still successfully producing a quality song.

CLASSIFIEDS Thursday, January 17, 2014

THE HEIGHTS THE HEIGHTS

B5 B5

Thursday, February 26, 2015

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THE HEIGHTS

B6

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Fitzgerald’s OT goal clinched a third-place finish for BC two goals in the second before settling down following the penalty parade and Line on Commonwealth Avenue. shutting out the Crimson for the reAn electrifying finish capped an mainder of the game. His efforts helped otherwise pedestrian game for BC (19- the Eagles push the game to overtime— 10-3, 11-6-3 Hockey East), as the Eagles Matthew Gaudreau scored the equalizer take home the third-place trophy for the off a deflection from a hard snipe by 23rd time in the 2015 Men’s Beanpot swingman Teddy Doherty.

Tournament with a 3-2 overtime win “He’s a key to our club,” York said of against the Harvard Crimson (14-10-3, his netminder. “For all the penalties we 10-7-3 ECAC). took, he was called upon to make some But it wasn’t that easy—the Eagles really excellent saves.” had plenty of problems against the Once the game reached the extra Crimson, none of them unique to this period, the Crimson didn’t even get off game. Penalties and prolonged scoring a shot. On the other end, the Eagles droughts plagued BC for a large part of battered Harvard goalie Steve Michalek the matchup. with several shots before a little bit of As was the case in their overtime puck luck went their way. loss to Vermont , Sophomore BEANPOT the Eagles had a lot Austin Cangelosi of difficulty finding won the faceoff, an offensive rhythm sending the puck in the game, especially in the second to the top of the offensive zone for a period. After taking a 1-0 lead on Alex waiting Ian McCoshen. BC’s bruiser Tuch’s rather easy goal in the first then passed it onto Destry Straight, who period, capitalizing on a penalty by made a nice pass to Fitzgerald waiting Harvard’s Jimmy Vesey, BC lost all of its for the point on Michalek’s right. mojo. The Eagles managed a mere two His first shot clanged off the post shots on goal in the period, compared before rebounding perfectly to his stick to 15 by the Crimson. for the exciting game-winner.

It’s not as if Har vard’s defense And although Fitzgerald himself overwhelmed York’s team. BC could noted his personal scoring droughts, not execute on any of its passes, barely some of which lasted over a month, getting off any attempted shots. That’s York still praised his forward’s ability not to say there weren’t any prime op- to come up when it matters most. “Ryan portunities. The Eagles couldn’t even has always had big game tendencies,” the manage a shot during a 5-on-3 chance BC coach said. early in the second.

That doesn’t mean that the Eagles But York blamed the penalties as the didn’t sit on the edge of their bench. reason for his team’s pitiful offensive Although the Screaming Eagles’ Pep performance. The Eagles played with a Band—otherwise known as the entirety man down for 14 minutes, 10 of which of the BC student section in the largely were in the second alone. empty TD Garden—started playing “For “I thought we’d have the penalty situ- Boston” and the BC Alma Mater, the ation sorted out by now,” York said. “It’s referees went to the replay. According too late in the year to be talking about to Fitzgerald, they were checking to see discipline and penalties.” if Michalek had knocked the net off of While the Eagles’ defense played a its bearings. huge role in keeping them in the game “After the game we’re coming off, I despite all the penalties, much of the said, ‘Fitzy, was there any problem?’” credit must go to goaltender Thatcher York said of the extended wait. “He Demko. The Crimson consistently bom- said, ‘Oh, no problem, coach.’ I said, ‘Is barded the sophomore goalie Demko there a problem, Fitzy?’ He said, ‘Eh, with shot after shot, mostly when there might be.’” they had the man advantage over the And just as York recalled that moEagles. ment, that sly smile appeared on his Nevertheless, Demko only allowed face again. 

From Game Story, B8

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Harvard captain Max Everson (44) hangs his head after the Crimson collapsed to the Eagles after their dominant second period.

Santini and Hanifin played excellently to stifle HU’s Michalek From Defense, B8 Anyone surprised by the fact that it was the Eagles’ defense and goaltending that gave the team a victory probably hasn’t been paying too much attention this season. York certainly expected it.

“We’re a team built for 2-1, 3-2 type games this year and there’s got to be outstanding goaltending,” York said. “We don’t score a lot of goals very easily.”

And that win didn’t come easily for the Eagles by any means. Plagued by sloppy play in the neutral zone, an early lead provided by Alex Tuch quickly crumbled in the second period. Seemingly everything went wrong for BC that period, beginning with discipline.

The Eagles took five penalties in the frame, constantly forcing the already short-handed roster to play on its collective heels for half of the period. BC’s penalty kill was, for the most part, up to the task, allowing only one goal on five chances for the Crimson, but for a team that hasn’t been exactly prolific scoring-wise this season, playing a man down can be a death sentence.

“We had one, two, three, four, five penalties in the second period,” York said. “One of them was a carryover penalty, but that’s a lot of shorthanded time. It’s hard to have much offense, to have much get up and go offensively.

Our shots on net were minimal.”

BC’s second period struggles went further than just the penalties. The Eagles appeared incapable of completing a cross-ice pass in the neutral zone, leading to multiple offside calls and plenty of offensive momentum killers. Sometimes the dump-and-chase offense can succeed, but in those cases, the “chase” part of the equation can’t mean chasing your linemates back to the bench. Throughout the second period, that adaptation of the classic, yet oh-so-frustrating offensive style was seemingly all the Eagles could muster. BC forwards were noticeably tired coming up the ice after playing so much man-down hockey in their own zone. They couldn’t stay on the ice long enough to execute any real offense.

The Eagles’ lack of discipline and lack of efficiency passing in the neutral zone led to a woeful two shots on goal in the period, while Harvard peppered Thatcher Demko with 15.

When the TD Garden horn signaled the end of the second period, it appeared as if the socalled “consolation” prize would be given to a Harvard team holding a 2-1 lead.

The second intermission seemed to do BC good, as the team came out looking completely different in the third. The Eagles only committed one penalty in the period, allowing for the once exhausted forwards to make simpler passes and finally execute the “chase.” Once the Eagles started winning chases, it was only a matter of beating Harvard goaltender Steve Michalek.

This task, however, fared quite difficult against the same guy who only a few weeks ago stopped 63 shots in a double-overtime loss to Boston University. Michalek did surrender three goals on 27 shots, but the stats don’t tell the story in this case. Michalek kept Harvard afloat in the third, making 13 stops including one incredible kick save on Hanifin in the waning minutes of regulation. Once again, Michalek’s efforts in the 2015 Beanpot came in a loss, but this loss came as a result of BC’s shutdown defense and its own stellar goaltender. 

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Eagles showed off their physicality, sometimes to a fault, amassing seven penalties.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, February 26, 2015 Standings TOM DEVOTO

21-4

MICHAEL SULLIVAN

16-9

JACK STEDMAN

14-11

HEIGHTS STAFF

11-14

B7

Recap from Last Picks

Game of the Week

The Eagles tied UMass-Lowell 2-2 in a thrilling showdown last Friday night. The BC women’s hockey team shut out BU 5-0 on Friday night, only to tie them at Walter Brown Arena on Saturday afternoon, 2-2. The lacrosse team’s Tuesday matchup against Holy Cross was postponed until next Tuesday, Mar. 3. No. 16 Maryland upset No. 5 Wisconsin behind Dez Wells’ 26 points.

Lacrosse

Boston @ Syracuse College

Guest Editor: Keaton McAuliffe Asst. Layout Editor

“I’m only here so I don’t get fined.”

MICHAEL SULLIVAN

This Week’s Games

Sports Editor

JACK STEDMAN

Assoc. Sports Editor

Asst. Sports Editor

TOM DEVOTO

KEATON MCAULIFFE Asst. Layout Editor

Lacrosse: No. 6 BC @ No. 2 Syracuse

Syracuse

BC

Syracuse

BC

Men’s Basketball: Wake Forest vs. BC

BC

BC

BC

Wake Forest

BC / BC

BC / ND

BC / BC

ND / BC

Liverpool

Liverpool

Draw

Man City

Men’s Hockey: No. 9 BC @ Notre Dame (x2) Soccer: Liverpool vs. Manchester City

It’s an early-season clash of the titans as No. 6 Boston College travels to upstate New York to take on the No. 2 Syracuse University Orange at the Carrier Dome. The Eagles have won their first three contests of the season, but ‘Cuse will present much stiffer competition than they have seen this season. The Orange, meanwhile, are coming off of a monumental victory against dreaded ACC foe, No. 8 Virginia. The Eagles will have to be road warriors for the next few weeks, as each of their next five games will be played on their opponent’s home turf.

Saturday, 1 p.m. at Carrier Dome

Give him the heave-ho: BC has held onto York for way too long From Column, B8

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEGIHTS EDITOR

He’s old, he had to wear an eyepatch, and he hasn’t won enough. It’s time to say goodbye.

had to wear an eyepatch, making him look like a pirate. Why should BC put up with someone who associates the school with piracy, besmirching its otherwise-pristine reputation?

Despite making a full recovery and having no other health issues in the years since, the mere fact that York had surgery leads to concerns about his ability to continue leading the Eagles. I mean, surger is a red flag for character and toughness. My 75-yearold grandmother just got both her knees replaced and is walking better than ever and without pain, but I sure as heck wouldn’t trust her to coach a peewee hockey team, let alone BC. Recruiting. York has proven that he can recruit, and recruit well. But recently it seems his skills have begun to deteriorate, almost as severely as Alex Rodriguez’s baseball skills did once he got off steroids. York may have successfully recruited Johnny Gaudreau here, but that was only after Gaudreau de-committed from North-

eastern (I mean, come on, really? York couldn’t beat out Northeastern?). But hey, at least he didn’t have too much trouble getting Matty Gaudreau to commit! Besides, as York gets up there in age, he’s probably losing touch with the younger generation and all their new-fangled Tweeters and Tinders (I’d probably swipe right on Jerry). Also, there’s no way York could ever make Vines as good as Addazio’s.

Trophies. The one thing York consistently talks about is winning trophies, and it’s the one thing that has led to his sanctified stature on campus. It’s also the one thing he hasn’t delivered recently. Yes, winning the Beanpot five years in a row was nice, but really? Losing to Northeastern?

And then needing overtime to beat Harvard?

BC fans expect another, unending Beanpot-winning streak to start up next year, or else York might be in even hotter water than he is in now, and who knows if this pirate coach is an adept swimmer? After all, we’ve only ever seen him on the ice of Kelley

Rink. York hasn’t won the Hockey East Tournament since 2012, a full three years ago, and the same year he last won the National Championship. BC students are starting to feel like BU, needing to savor every trophy without knowing when or where the next one might come from.

To the BC students clamoring for change, who are howling for Mike Cavanaugh to return from the wasteland known as Connecticut or for York to hand over the reigns to assistant coach Greg Brown, I hear you.

To Brad Bates, if you’re not still considering bolting for Michigan, I hear your silence, loud and clear. Jerry York hasn’t delivered a championship in, like, forever. There must be some creeping thought attacking your brain—is it time?

And to both of you, I will say only this: Trust no one.

Tommy Meloro is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com

Outside of Hanlan and Brown, BC turned cold against Pitt From Pitt Basketball, B8 Hanlan’s full offensive arsenal was yet again on display, as he managed to burn Pitt’s defense play after play, even while the team knew he was going to shoot.

Part of the credit goes to Jim Christian, whose game plan utilized Hanlan’s great off-the-ball movement to beat increased defensive attention. Cutting backdoor, running off screens or using dribble handoffs, BC’s superstar guard got his shot off quickly and accurately.

With a competitive drive that refused to submit, he finished 10-of-20 from the field and 5-of-12 from beyond the arc, despite Pitt being in control all night long. In a clear indicator of his aggressiveness, Hanlan drove into the teeth of the defense countless times, absorbing constant contact en route to a season-high 14-of-14 from the charity stripe.

Hanlan’s supernova performance provided the only bright spot in an otherwise disheartening game for BC. Appearing to have watched Saturday’s BC-Notre Dame game, Pitt coach Jamie Dixon went after the Eagle’s depleted interior defense repeatedly.

As if the same play were run on loop, the ball would find its way inside to center Michael Young, who would either score, draw a foul, or attract enough panicked help defense to leave someone else wide open for an easy bucket. Despite being several inches shorter than Clifford, Young proved too strong and too quick for him to guard, finishing with 22 points, a whopping 15 free throw attempts, and four offensive rebounds.

Forward Jamel Artis confounded BC from the tip. The Eagles are normally the team creating a mismatch at the four with Heckmann, but they quickly learned that the script had been

flipped.

Artis was too strong for Heckmann, forcing Christian to play Eddie Odio for most of the second half. The emerging sophomore finished with 24 points, eight rebounds, and 11 free throw attempts of his own. In fact, BC paraded Pitt to the line for 34 attempts, 15 more than its season average. A team normally content to work its offense and subsist on midrange jumpers, Pitt made a concerted effort to expose the Eagles down low.

On the offensive end, the non-Hanlan performances were hardly better.

Aaron Brown looked to be aggressive from the opening tip as well, even finishing with a solid 20 points on an efficient 7-of-13 shooting.

Despite his scoring totals, Brown racked up six turnovers, a high number considering the amount of time the ball was in Hanlan’s hands during the game. Many of those came on plays where he was overaggressive, dribbling into traffic or barreling into defenders at the rim.

Apart from Brown and Hanlan, the rest of the team scored just six points. The supporting cast, particularly Brown, contributed to BC’s 14 turnovers, including an ugly 11 in the first half. In addition, excluding Hanlan, the Eagles shot just 3-of-10 from the free throw line, leaving easy points on the table.

Yet again faced with a team playing for their NCAA Tournament future, the majority of the Eagles played as though they were keenly aware that they had no postseason future.

Wearing a giant bullseye on his back all night long, in addition to shouldering his entire team, Hanlan tried to drag the Eagles to their elusive second ACC victory. In the end, even his tireless legs and shooting gave out, with the Eagles claiming the fate faced by all one-man stands: resounding defeat. 

Lacrosse

scoreboard

BC UVM

BURLINGTON, VT 2/21

13 10

W. HOCKEY BC BU

2 2

PHOTO COURTESY OF HEATHER TENNANT / THE PITT NEWS

Olivier Hanlan (21) and Aaron Brown scored 39 and 20 points, respectively, but the rest of the Eagles’ offense only combined for six.

M. BASKETBALL

STANWICK 4 G 2 A ND ROACH 4 G BC

BOSTON, MA 2/21

87 70

BASEBALL

SKARUPA 1 G 1 A BC SUTHERLAND 1 G 1 A LSU

2 16

CHESTNUT HILL, MA 2/21 SOFTBALL COLSON 16 PTS BROWN 22 PTS

BC 8 BUCK 1

BATON ROUGE, LA 2/21 w. basketball SHAW HR BREGMAN 4 RBI

FSU BC

86 68

CONWAY, SC 2/21 WEED 10 K SANDERS 3 H

boston,Ma ma11/11 2/231Boston,

m. hockey HARV BC

2 3

CHESTNUT HILL, MA 2/22

m. basketball

ROMERO 19 PTS DALEY 17 PTS

BC PITT

65 71

MICHALEK 24 SVS FITZGERALD GWG

pittsburgh, 2/24 Newton, MApa11/09 HANLAN 39 PTS ARTIS 24 PTS

SPORTS

B8

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015

CROWNED*

(*IN CONSOLATION)

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

BY MICHAEL SULLIVAN Sports Editor Jerry York walks into the postgame presser, a sly smile creeping across his face.

He looks like Fiddle Kid probably does when he sneaks a five spot from his mother’s purse: fully aware he got away with a crime without an apologetic bone in his body. As he climbs the short ladder leading up to the microphones, he notices he accidentally sat down at the wrong placard.

Instead of his name, this one reads the name of his savior for the day’s game: Boston College forward Ryan Fitzgerald. Rather than perform an awkward ole around his sopho-

more scorer, York chuckles and sits down in front of the mic.

“I’m okay with being Fitzy,” the longtime BC coach said.

He’s certainly the man to be right now for the men’s hockey team.

Wi t h o u t h i m , t h e hockey faithful may have rioted by the time the BC bus returned to Chestnut Hill. Instead, the Eagles sneak out the backdoor of the TD Garden, laughing all the way down the B-

BY JOHNNY CAREY Heights Staff Boston College earned a 3-2 overtime win with huge Pairwise implications over Harvard on Monday in what head coach Jerry York refused to call “The Consolation Game,” but instead referred to as “The Third Place Game.” Without a doubt, the intensity of the game backed up York’s slightly more euphemistic label.

In a relatively empty TD Garden, one noise could be heard loud and clear throughout the

BEANPOT

2015

See Game Story, B6

afternoon: the sound of Steve Santini crushing Harvard skaters into the plexiglass boards. Santini, along with fellow defenseman Noah Hanifin, was outstanding for BC. He played a vital role clearing the puck in the team’s often employed penalty kill, as well as making sure no Harvard forward felt comfortable anywhere on the ice with a strong physical presence. Santini sent Harvard skaters crashing into the ice and the glass all game with heavy body checks, creating some perfect clips for his personal highlight reel. Hanifin was not quite as physical as Santini, but was just as effective in keeping Harvard skaters from shooting up close to goaltender Thatcher Demko.

See Defense, B6

Is it time to say goodbye to York?

TOMMY MELORO

Hanlan drops 39 points in loss

PHOTO COURTESY OF HEATHER TENNANT / THE PITT NEWS

BY CHRIS NOYES Heights Staff There are no doubts that this is Olivier Hanlan’s team.

Performing at an incredibly high level, the ACC’s leading scorer carries a talent-deprived Boston College (9-18, 1-14 ACC) squad night after night, often with little help.

Although many fans expect Hanlan to be the focal point in each game, contests like Tuesday night’s leave fans wondering if anyone else is even sharing the court with him. Against Pittsburgh (19-10, 8-7 ACC), as Hanlan lifted his game to ever higher standards, his supporting cast appeared to

slip on an invisibility cloak.

Interior anchor Dennis Clifford got eviscerated in the paint, jack-of-all-trades Patrick Heckmann pulled a rare disappearing act, and the remainder of the squad, save for Aaron Brown, showed a reluctance to even shoot the ball. Hanlan’s seasonhigh 39 points could not bring his underwhelming teammates to victory.

In the 71-65 loss to Pitt, Hanlan managed to score over 50 percent of his team’s points for the second time in three games. In constant motion all night, he was aggressive from the tip, drilling two early 3-pointers before the first media timeout.

I NSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE

See Pitt Basketball, B7

Disclaimer: This column is satire. All opinions belong the author, a known idiot, and do not reflect those of anyone with an ounce of logic.

A few constants exist at Boston College men’s hockey games. Of course, there’s Fiddle Kid™, the alma mater at the end of the game, and, my personal favorite, the “sieve” chant. There’s also always the contingent of freshmen who feel the need to be blackout drunk for every game, a rite of passage for Newton fools.

There’s one more tradition that truly drives the pulse of the student section.

At the beginning and end of each period, and after each Eagles’ goal that is scored, if you were to look behind the net, you would see several passionate, dedicated fans enthusiastically waving two banners.

One of these flags bears the senile serene, vaguely wrinkled face of head coach Jerry York, emblazoned with one word: “TRUST.” Over the past few months, this enthusiasm has waned. As BC becomes further

Spring Sports Preview: Rix, Kent and pals

Turn to the C-book to check out Heights Sports’ Spring Preview, featuring stories on lacrosse, baseball, and softball this season..................................C1-8

and further removed from its last NCAA Championship, the motto “TRUST” mocks the fans who have given up their time and energy on countless Friday and Saturday nights to cheer on a team that no longer meets their expectations, kind of like how the Patriots failed to win the Super Bowl for 10 years, but routinely came tantalizingly close.

In his last three years at BC, York has done absolutely nothing for the students. Lupe Fiasco did more for BC in one concert. York has underperformed in light of their expectations, shattered their dreams, possibly killed their pets, and repeatedly finished the NCAA Tournament without lifting the trophy. They owe him nothing in return, and are showing it the only way they know how—being absent from the games and sitting quietly in the bleachers in solemn protest. The loudest noise at Conte during a game is now the sad echoing of a student hitting a cowbell every once in a while.

It’s said that the sound of silence can be loud, but this approaches deafening. The lack of ardent support from

both the students and the administration leads to the toughest decision facing Brad Bates in his short tenure as BC A.D.: getting rid of Jerry York, one way or another.

Here’s why he should: Age. York is 69 years old, turning 70 in July. It’s a proven fact that old people are always terrible coaches. Just look at Bobby Bowden, Joe Paterno, Jim Calhoun, Marv Levy, George Halas, and Larry Brown. York has been under scrutiny since BC’s loss in the Frozen Four last year broke his streak of “winning the title every other year.” Combined with his age, it has me thinking about the future. Unless we could clone Jerry? Get on that, you countless Bio majors on the pre-med tracks. Besides, there’s always the chance that with Obamacare now staunchly entrenched in American society, those death panels could be calling York’s name at any time.

Health. Just two years ago, York underwent two separate eye surgeries, missing five games during a crucial stretch of the season. He also

See Column, B7

Scoreboard...........................................................................................................B7 Editors’ Picks.........................................................................................................B7