New healthcare bill
Bc falls again Lady madonna
Metro
Sports
The scene
Healthcare act forces religious institutions to provide contraceptive coverage, B10
In a close, heated game, the Eagles lost late to NC State last night, A10
With Madonna performing at this year’s Super Bowl, we trace her evolution, B1
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Vol. XCIII, No. 5
BC Dining explains food pricing strategies Prices are chosen based on numerous factors, admins say By Samantha Costanzo Asst. News Editor
Boston College Dining Ser vices (BCDS) has been recognized numerous times as one of the best in the nation. Just last year, it was awarded the Massachusetts Restaurant Association Foodservice Operator of the Year prize. And while students might agree that the food is good, they certainly know that it is not cheap. A 20 oz. bottle of Powerade, for example, sells for $2.59 in McElroy Commons’ Carney dining room. At the Star Market on Beacon Street, a 32 oz. bottle of Powerade—12 oz. more than the BC version— sells for $1.19. “I don’t have to make money, but I have to break even,” said Helen Wechsler, head of Dining Services. “If I don’t, I become a burden to the University, and your tuition is supposed to go to your education, not the food.” Part of this ability to break even is because of the BC meal plan. Of the 7,200 beds available on campus, 5,000 of them are attached to a mandatory meal plan, which cost $4,724 for the 2011-2012 school year. “While students feel that that’s a lot of money, it’s what’s absolutely necessary to run the business to break even,” Wechsler said, adding that in recent years, parents and students have asked for bigger options for the mandatory meal plan in
addition to the Residential and Flex plans and optional Dining Bucks. Another factor in the price of food in a BCDS cafeteria is the way in which they are run. According to Wechsler, grocery stores such as Star Market operate on a very different scale than BCDS. The markups on food items sold in BC dining halls have to be higher than those of grocery stores, not only because they are not sold or offered in the volume that a supermarket is able to, but also because such stores do not have the same overhead costs as BCDS. “They work on tiny markups on all of their food because they sell in volume,” Wechsler said. “Not only do they buy it at a better price because they’re an international company with international procurement negotiations, but then they only [have to] mark that up a teeny tiny bit.” B CDS spends approximately 37 percent of its revenue on purchasing food. Because BCDS is considered an auxiliary of the University, it must pay rent for each dining hall it operates. This accounts for approximately 7.7 percent of revenue. About 12.3 percent of revenue is spent on facility maintenance and operating costs, such as water, power, and silverware. The biggest expense for dining services, however, is its employees, 250 of which work full time. Approximately 32.7 percent of revenue is spent on employee salaries, while 10.7 percent of revenue is allocated for fringe benefits. This accounts for about 43.4 percent of the total BCDS costs per year. “If you look at these against national
See Food Prices, A4
Campaigning begins, teams release plans By David Cote News Editor
Candidates for UGBC president and vice president began campaigning in earnest yesterday, releasing their platform information and recruiting supporters in their quest to lead the Boston College undergraduate body. Campaign t-shirts of various colors filled classrooms and the Quad, and hand shaking and door holding will undoubtedly continue throughout the month. In the early excitement of elections, many campaign teams have worked hard to introduce themselves to the student body and emphasize their key campaign points. Candidates Robert Veiga and Jeff Colonnese, both CSOM ’13, emphasized fiscal responsibility in this earliest stage of the campaign. “It is central to our campaign strategy that we excite the student population with our innovative ideas while maintaining a strict adherence to fiscal responsibility,” Veiga and Colonnese said. “This directly reflects our views on leadership, and one can correctly surmise that this will carry over with our actions once elected.” Conor Sullivan, LSOE ’13 and Daniel Tonkovich, CSOM ’13, are running under the slogan “Including U in UGBC,” a phrase that they say reflects their hope to involve more students in UGBC. woogeon kim / heights editor
Prices at BC Dining are typically much higher than nearby stores. See Page A4 for more info.
See Candidates, A4
Long-awaited outdoors club gains approval from SPO By Molly LaPoint Heights Editor
After working for over two years to gain official recognition, the constitution of the Outdoors Club of Boston College (OCBC) has been approved and the organization has been registered by the University. The push for forming an officially recognized Outdoors Club began with co-founder Ben Key, BC ’11, during the 2009-2010 academic year. During that time, another group of students with similar ideas joined up with Ben, including current president and co-founder, Keegan
Dougherty, A&S ’13. “A group of students including myself formed a group and got in contact with Ben serendipitously,” he said. Karl Bell, assistant director of the Student Programs Office (SPO), said that one of the initial issues with the club’s launching was under which department it belonged, since it was not, for example, necessarily academic, cultural, or athletic. “Initially, the question was, where was the best place for it?” he said. Liability, and who would be responsible if there was an injury on the trip, has also
been a standing issue. “I believe one of the challenges has been and will continue to be around liability,” Bell said. “The risk manager will be the person who will guide that conversation.” The liability argument never made sense, Dougherty said, because other clubs, such as the Geology Club and Outdoor Adventures—which is run through Campus Recreation—run similar trips. “Liability never made sense because of Geo Club and Outdoor Adventures,” he said. “There was always a kind of inconsistency on their part there.” Bell said that this concern for liability
was likely an issue when the Geo Club began, however. “I think it’s the nature of the activity,” he said. “There’s an academic component perceived to be a part. I believe that [the University] had the same conversation 20 years ago or even longer when we registered the Geology Club.” Since beginning the process to become officially recognized, OCBC’s members have forgone excursions in order to avoid problems with liability, but have worked with Geo Club and Outdoor Adventures.
See Outdoors Club, A4
photo courtesy of ocbc
OCBC was recently approved, but struggled for several years to be recognized by SPO.
Initiative shot down by Senate Campus will not become smoke free By Andrew Millette Assoc. News Editor
photo courtesy of clara son
Although many students still enjoyed beautiful weather in Canada, others were left disappointed by shaky bus service and long rides.
SnowJammers left disappointed by long rides Bus service and inclement weather cause trouble, Campus Vacations offers refunds By David Cote News Editor
Many students looking forward to a trip full of snow, fun, and Canadians were left unhappy this weekend, as the annual SnowJam trip, sponsored by Campus Vacations, was full of disappointment for many prospective vacation-goers. Typically, students leave Boston College either Thursday or Friday around noon, and arrive in Canada in about six hours. Students who plan on going can purchase
packages that include a place to stay, lift tickets, ski or snowboard rentals, and a Top of the Mountain party. This year, inclement weather and mechanical failures left some students stranded on the bus for as long as 23 hours. “SnowJam was a highly anticipated trip for my friends and I, and it was unfortunately not by any means what it was promised to be,” said Kelly Miller, A&S ’15. “We left from Boston 12 hours later than we were supposed to and spent 23 hours on a bus ride getting back to Boston.”
Colin Quinlan, a bus captain for the trip and CSOM ’15, had a similar experience, but still said he managed to enjoy the trip. “We were supposed to leave at 11:30 a.m. on Friday and we waited for seven hours, having Campus Vacations lead us on. However, they finally said the buses weren’t coming and we couldn’t go on the trip,” Quinlan said. “So three buses of kids were denied the trip, but some kids made other arrangements, including the midnight bus.” Quinlan and many other students arranged to take a Greyhound bus from South Station to Canada, after the buses sponsored by Campus Vacations failed to show up to
See SnowJam, A4
College campuses are one of the last safe havens for smokers in an increasingly smoke-free world. Boston College will remain smoker-friendly for the foreseeable future, as the UGBC Senate recently chose to shoot down a campus-wide smoking ban initiative. “There’s no ban for smoking being worked up currently,” said Mike Kitlas, UGBC president and A&S ’12. “Elise Phillips, the Director of Health Promotion, approached myself and Jill [Long, UGBC vice president and A&S ’12), asking us about this and whether we thought there would be student support for it. We told her that this was an issue the Senate would normally deal with, so we passed along her inquiry to the Senate. The Senate looked it over, talked to their constituents, and found that there was not very much support from students for looking into the initiative further.” BC students were not the only population on campus that was not supportive of such an initiative. “We would probably get a significant pushback from faculty, probably even more so than from students,” Kitlas said. “One of the things we talked about is if this is going to be a ban and the students have to follow it, faculty, staff, and the ad-
ministration would have to be held to the same standard.” Though there was little support for such an initiative at BC, this issue was brought up due to a growing trend on college campuses of going smoke-free. Emory University, the University of Kentucky, and Barnard College have all recently imposed campus-wide smoking bans. It does not appear that BC will follow suit any time in the near future, unless students decide to make smoking an issue. “We haven’t heard many complaints about it before,” Kitlas said. “We are doing a survey, that will be sent out tomorrow in an e-mail asking what the one thing BC students would like changed or improved about their campus would be. If someone says, ‘I want to see a ban on smoking policy implemented here,’ then we’ll look into it, but I don’t foresee that happening.” Kitlas does not personally support a campus-wide ban on smoking. “What I have found through many of my encounters is if a BC student is bothered by the smoke of another student and goes up to them and asks them to not smoke in a certain area, they’ll gladly move and accommodate them,” Kitlas said. “I think that is part of the BC campus and the quality of student we have here. That’s part of the reason I wouldn’t go for the ban specifically at this time.” Even if support were to be found for a smoking ban in the near future, Kitlas
See Smoking, A4