DON’T FIRE DONAHUE
IN GOOD HANDS
‘CHORDUROY SEASON’
SPORTS
METRO
SCENE
Asst. Sports Editor Alex Fairchild makes a case for Donahue’s coaching style, A10
Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans discusses his role in the city, B10
‘The Scene’ previews the tracks on Chorduroy’s newest album of student artists, B1
www.bcheights.com
The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College
established
1919
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Vol. XCV, No. 10
BC
HEIGHTS
THE
UPSTATE UPSET
Syracuse Syracuse
62 59
Following a difficult series of losses, the Eagles rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit to defeat No. 1 Syracuse in an overtime victory at the Carrier Dome. See A10
KEVIN RIVOLI / AP PHOTO
Fiore-Chettiar and Marchese win 2014-15 UGBC election BY NATHAN MCGUIRE Asst. News Editor
A re cord numb er of student s voted in a new UGBC administration Wednesday, culminating a momentous campaign between the two teams. The Elections Committee (EC) announced Wednesday night that the team of Nanci Fiore-Chettiar and Chris Marchese, originally the only team that filed for candidacy and both A&S ’15, will serve as the UGBC president and executive vice president for the 2014-15 school year. According to unofficial numbers released by the EC, Fiore-Chettiar
and Marchese garnered 2,327 votes—54 percent of the record 4,332 undergraduates who vote d. Lucas Levine and Vance Vergara, both A&S ’15, received 2,005 votes. Both numbers represent the totals before sanctions were applied for both teams . The Student Programs Office (SPO) is expected today to release the official numbers. Before the results were announced, the EC announced that the LevineVergara team had been docked 50 votes for campaigning in a residence hall when they were not permitted to do so. Monday, Fiore-Chettiar and Marchese were sanctioned 75 votes for
an unspecified campaign smear directed at Levine and Vergara. Fiore-Chettiar and Marchese, who were originally running uncontested, as they were the only candidate team to file before the original Jan. 16 deadline, won every class year. According to the EC’s unofficial numbers, the freshman class turned out the most voters (1,335), followed by the junior class (1,192), and the sophomore class (1,177). Only 628 seniors voted in the election. Fiore-Chettiar and Marchese fared best in their own class year—the only
See UGBC Elections, A4
DREW HOO / HEIGHTS STAFF
Fiore-Chettiar and Marchese were elected UGBC president and executive VP on Wednesday.
Faculty, administrators to establish core renewal goals New task force will review core requisites BY JULIE ORENSTEIN Assoc. News Editor
JUSEUB YOON / HEIGHTS STAFF
Sakena Yacoobi, who founded the Afghan Institute of Learning in 1995, discussed the role of education and female leadership in Afghanistan.
Yacoobi talks rebuilding Afghanistan BY JENNIFER HEINE Heights Staff Boston College’s Institute for the Liberal Arts welcomed Sakena Yacoobi to campus on Tuesday for an event entitled “Aid Through Action: Reconstructing Education and Health Systems in Afghanistan,” part of a series of lectures that focus on contemporary Afghanistan. In conjunction with professor Kathleen Bailey, the
Political Science Department, and the Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies Student Association, the university invited Yacoobi to speak on her experience as an advocate for women, children, and education. Yacoobi is best known for her work with the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), a female-led NGO (non-governmental organization) that she founded in 1995 and for which she continues to serve as president and executive director.
In addition to seeking education for both boys and girls, the institute provides training for other educators and promoting health education for women and children through its Learning Centers for Afghan Women. She has also founded the Professor Sakena Yacoobi Private Hospital in Herat, and the Professor Sakena Yacoobi Private
See Yacoobi, A4
Nearly three years after efforts began to renew the University core curriculum, Boston College administrators and faculty are stepping back from specific proposals and logistics in order to clearly establish a vision for the new core. Fourteen faculty and administrators constitute the Core Foundations Task Force, which, over the next two months, will seek to accomplish a number of changes. These goals include ensuring that the core’s vision aligns with Jesuit educational ideals, incorporates student formation as a fundamental characteristic, and focuses on overall outcomes, rather than content alone. In a town hall meeting Tuesday evening, Interim Provost Joseph Quinn reviewed the path the University has taken in the core renewal process since discussions were initiated in the spring of 2011. Extensive meetings began in earnest in the fall of 2012 with the Core Renewal Committee, chaired by English professor and director of the Institute for Liberal Arts Mary Crane,
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) David Quigley, and Dean of the Carroll School of Management (CSOM) Andy Boynton. This committee focused on the key theme of what kind of people the University wanted its students to be when they graduated, and how the core could contribute. Last spring, the Core Renewal Committee released its proposed 42-credit core, which included two six-credit courses for freshmen focusing on enduring questions and complex problems. Quinn said that the renewed core was rooted in six principles that were not all that different from the principles guiding the existing core, which was instituted in 1991. The proposal was met with hesitation from faculty on some aspects, including the course load that would be required of math and science majors, the impact on enrollment in the Perspectives and PULSE programs, and first-year students’ ability to handle interdisciplinary courses on complex topics. In response to these concerns, a second version of the renewed core was released in August, and there was discussion about piloting courses in the fall of 2014. “The philosophy behind this effort has
See Core Renewal, A4
TopTHREE
THE HEIGHTS
A2
..
Thursday, February 20, 2014
things to do on campus this week
Visual Culture
1
Dating God Lecture
Today Time: 4:30 p.m. Location: Devlin 101
The African and African Diaspora Studies program is sponsoring a lecture by UPenn anthropology professor Deborah Thomas about the issues surrounding the creation of visual archives in state violence.
2
Tracy Smith Reading
Today Time: 5:30 p.m. Location: Heights Room
Franciscan author and columnist Daniel Horan will discuss insights from the Franciscan tradition that relate the journey of faith to dating as a dynamic, creative, and renewing spiritual thread for Christians.
3
Today Time: 7 p.m. Location: Gasson 100
The Lowell Humanities Series presents 2012 Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy Smith, whose latest collection draws on a number of inspirations and is in part a tribute to her late father. Smith has published three collections of poetry.
FEATURED EVENT
College Republicans, Democrats clash along party lines BY DANIEL PEREA-KANE For The Heights Boston College Republicans and Democrats found little common ground last night in a debate sponsored by the BC chapter of No Labels, a national nonpartisan organization dedicated to creating change in American government. Cole Rabinowitz, A&S ’14, moderated the debate. E.J. Risley, A&S ’14; Myles Casey, A&S ’17; and Wesley Mather, A&S ’14, debated for the Republican perspective. Evan Goldstein, A&S ’15; Therese Murphy, A&S ’14; and Madeline Walsh, A&S ’14 debated for the Democrats. Rabinowitz began the debate with a question about the economy. He said that the 85 wealthiest individuals in America are worth more financially than the entire bottom half of all Americans. Mather responded by arguing that trickle-down economic policies allow for greater growth than government intervention. “A rising tide lifts all ships,” he said. “Equality and fairness are not the same thing. We don’t have to be equal to be fair.” Mather related this trickle-down approach to debt and unemployment before stating that America’s biggest resource is to tap into its wealthiest individuals. He then critiqued the minimum wage increase widely proposed by Democrats across the nation. “It’s not a feasible idea to keep raising the minimum wage,” he said. “It’s not fair to
EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR
The debate was sponsored by the BC chapter of No Labels, a nonpartisan organization. say, ‘You’ve done so well. Why don’t you help out the guy next to you?’” Goldstein, of the College Democrats, shifted the discussion from wealth disparity to a way to ameliorate it by reporting that recent research suggests that raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would bring 5 million people out of poverty. The moderator’s next question was about college costs. Murphy responded to the question by suggesting that the government should expand Pell Grants, make the FAFSA easier, and give more aid to community colleges. Mather rebutted Murphy’s position by arguing that not everyone should go to a four
year liberal arts college and that the government should not be encouraging students to take out large loans to pay for college. Murphy responded that everyone has a right to a college education emphasizing that the path to opportunity in America is college. The moderator’s third question regarded global warming. Casey responded by stating that the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change exaggerates scientific data about the severity of climate change. “We’re not denying that global warming is a thing, [but] the left has blown up the impacts of global warming to astronomical
POLICE BLOTTER
2/15/14-2/19/14
Saturday, February 15 12:10 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported to a medical facility by a cruiser from Corcoran Commons. 2:04 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported to a medical facility. 2:25 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported to a medical facility by ambulance.
7:11 p.m. - A report was filed regarding non-BC affiliates who were ejected from Conte Forum for possession of an alcoholic beverage. 8:14 p.m. - A report was filed regarding medical services provided to a BC student who was transported to a medical facility by ambulance from Edmond’s Hall.
Monday, February 17 12:24 a.m. - A report was filed regarding police services provided at Edmond’s Hall.
Sunday, February 16
4:12 a.m. - A report was filed regarding property damage in the Lower lots.
12:27 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm activation in Stayer Hall.
10:45 a.m. - A report was filed regarding police services provided.
12:38 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a past act of vandalism in Walsh Hall.
2:06 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a past larceny from Corcoran Commons.
College Corner NEWS FROM UNIVERSITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY BY NATHAN MCGUIRE Asst. News Editor A group of faculty and students at St. Mary’s College have crafted a wage policy plan that would cap the president’s salary based on the salaries of the lowest-paid employees, according to The Huffington Post. The proposal would first raise the salaries of the college’s lowest-paid employees from $24,500 to $30,000. Then, the salary of the highest-paid official would be limited to 10 times the salary of the lowest-paid employee. So, it would be capped at $300,000—$25,000 less than what the president currently makes. The activists spoke anonymously to some of the college’s lowest-paid employees— including janitors, groundkeepers, and security guards—and learned that many of them had to supplement their salaries with food stamps and other government assistance programs. One woman reported she could not afford and therefore had to skip her needed medication, while others reported be-
levels,” he said. Murphy said that Casey’s view of global warming is not the one held by the Republican Party at large. “It’s very hard to debate this issue when Republicans won’t even admit that climate change is occurring,” Murphy said. “It’s been very difficult for Democrats to make any progress on environmental legislation because of Republican opposition.” The fourth question the moderator asked was about U.S. foreign policy, particularly in Syria and Afghanistan. Murphy emphasized that the chemical weapons deal in Syria was a triumph of diplomacy, while Casey criticized it as a passive strategy that relied too much on Russian President Vladimir Putin. The debaters found more common ground on immigration—all panelists supported comprehensive immigration reform. The Affordable Health Care Act was a more contentious topic. Mather sharply criticized the bill, but acknowledged it is here to stay. “So far, this bill has been a gigantic flop,” he said. “How are students really going to address this bill? They aren’t signing up in huge droves. I’m planning to stay on my parents’ plan until I’m 26.” Walsh offered a defense of the bill. “Without Obamacare, there are so many provisions that people in this room wouldn’t have the benefit of enjoying,” she said. “We’re talking about the lives of everyone in this room, and not just policy and rhetoric.”
ing unable to pay their heat and utility bills on time. The college’s faculty senate expects to discuss the proposal at their meeting today. If they decide to support the proposal, they must pass it internally and then send it to the college’s board of trustees for final approval. According to The Huffington Post, 180 college presidents made more than $500,000 in 2011. At St. Mary’s, the salaries of the president and vice president have increased by 91 percent since 2001, while the college’s lowest-paid employees have seen an increase of 56 percent in their pay over the same period of time. The college does not have a position on the proposal because the employee’s salaries are negotiated with a union, St. Mary’s interim president Ian Newbould told The Huffington Post. Those opposed to the wage plan have argued that the college should follow the free market, and that such a plan might fail to attract talented administrators to the college. The school is currently searching for a new president.
A Guide to Your Newspaper The Heights Boston College – McElroy 113 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467 Editor-in-Chief (617) 552-2223 Editorial General (617) 552-2221 Managing Editor (617) 552-4286 News Desk (617) 552-0172 Sports Desk (617) 552-0189 Metro Desk (617) 552-3548 Features Desk (617) 552-3548 Arts Desk (617) 552-0515 Photo (617) 552-1022 Fax (617) 552-4823 Business and Operations General Manager (617) 552-0169 Advertising (617) 552-2220 Business and Circulation (617) 552-0547 Classifieds and Collections (617) 552-0364 Fax (617) 552-1753 EDITORIAL RESOURCES News Tips Have a news tip or a good idea for a story? Call Connor Farley, News Editor, at (617) 552-0172, or email news@bcheights. com. For future events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the News Desk. Sports Scores Want to report the results of a game? Call Connor Mellas, Sports Editor, at (617) 5520189, or email sports@bcheights.com. Arts Events The Heights covers a multitude of events both on and off campus – including concerts, movies, theatrical performances, and more. Call John Wiley, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email arts@bcheights.com. For future events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk. Clarifications / Corrections The Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. If you believe we have made a reporting error, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or questions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact Eleanor Hildebrandt, Editor-in-Chief, at (617) 552-2223, or email eic@bcheights.com. CUSTOMER SERVICE Delivery To have The Heights delivered to your home each week or to report distribution problems on campus, contact Marc Francis, General Manager at (617) 552-0547. Advertising The Heights is one of the most effective ways to reach the BC community. To submit a classified, display, or online advertisement, call our advertising office at (617) 552-2220 Monday through Friday.
Tuesday, February 18 10:26 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a BC student who was transported to a medical facility by ambulance. 5:44 p.m. - A report was filed report regarding the civil possession of marijuana. 8:28 p.m. - A report was filed report regarding confiscated property.
Wednesday, February 19 1:22 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm activation in Cheverus Hall.
—Source: The Boston College Police Department
The Heights is produced by BC undergraduates and is published on Mondays and Thursdays during the academic year by The Heights, Inc. (c) 2014. All rights reserved.
CORRECTIONS Please send corrections to eic@bcheights.com with ‘correction’ in the subject line.
VOICES FROM THE DUSTBOWL “What is your favorite bathroom on campus?”
“Basement of Gasson.” —Jackie DeMarco, LSOE ’17
“Maloney fifth floor.” —Sijin Choi, A&S ’17
“The Rat.” —Sam Shriver, A&S ’14
“Stokes third floor.” —Alan Lipchin, CSOM ’15
The Heights
Thursday, February 20, 2014
A3
Media critic Hale sees industry shift
Sharing identity
By Alexia LaFata For The Heights
Alex Gaynor We live in a highly individualistic society in the U.S., and sometimes it may seem that the only way to live in a true community is within the microcosmic context of college campuses or intentional communities. Tracing this post-Enlightenment, American “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” myth back to its origins, one may find that this way of being is entrenched in the very fabric of our culture. It also seems common that many Americans may see this way of living as natural and part of a larger global phenomenon. Living in the Philippines, I’ve perceived a very different viewpoint on how humans can interact with each other in a larger societal context. What I’m referencing is the Filipino notion of kapwa, or the idea of being one with another in shared identity. I would like to state from the outset that these are simply my humble observations from experiences I have had thus far with some incredible people, but are not necessarily representative of the culture at large, as I cannot even begin to scratch the surface of cultural understanding in only four short months. From my foreigner’s perspective, kapwa seems to be a central and almost subconscious part of the Filipino mindset. It combines sensitivity to one’s fellow beings, joy when one shares themselves and their heart with others, and the idea that one’s life is wholeheartedly bound up in the lives of others. To put it in the context of a Boston College student, consider what your typical thoughts are when you wake up each morning. Maybe how you’re really hungry, or how you’re really stressed out about a paper you have due tomorrow, or a relationship that’s on the rocks, or what you’re going to spend your time doing that day. All of these are natural and expected feelings, but notice how they are all centered on the self. Maybe it’s just my perception, but it doesn’t seem to be within the common notion of American society to wake up in the morning and start thinking about how other people in your community are doing, or what their days will be like, and what happiness they’ll find that day. Kapwa acknowledges these interconnections and reliance on one another as essential to one’s being. Practicing the ideal of kapwa may seem foreign (literally), cliche social justice-y, and idealistic to many of us, but how can this idea challenge our current thought patterns as largely individual college students? I’m not trying to group all of the “non-west” or even the Philippines into a stereotyped cluster of people who solely love and care for each other. In fact, the extreme wealth gap in the Philippines would illustrate that quite the opposite is happening in society. What I am saying is that this idea could be present on a day-to-day basis. Sensitivity to the needs of others, even the unstated and dormant ones, is a key feature in the concretization of this idea, and plays into the notion of how to actually show genuine care for the advancement, well-being, and happiness for one’s fellow human beings. Talking about compassion is important, but until something is experienced through lived reality, understanding what it means to share identity with others is not fathomable. It’s about recognizing the fact that everything we do, whether it is as small as cooking a family dinner, or as lofty as “changing the world,” is reliant on our fellow partners in the human experience. We are each other’s greatest teachers, and perhaps the sooner that this notion becomes more present in the western world at large, the sooner we can start working together. I challenge myself and fellow students to look for the kapwa in our own lives, since I do not think that one has to travel all the way to the Philippines to start working toward this concept of shared identity.
Alex Gaynor is a senior staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at news@bcheights.com.
Emily Stansky / heights staff
Norby Williamson, an executive vice president at ESPN, shared advice on success in the business world.
ESPN exec talks leadership By Mujtaba Syed Heights Editor
On Tuesday, the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics hosted Norby Williamson, executive vice president of production, program scheduling, and development at ESPN. Williamson spoke to students and faculty about his career, the sports media industry, and his insights on leadership and success as part of the center’s Lunch with a Leader program. Graduating with a bachelor’s degree in corporate and video communications from Southern Connecticut State University, Williamson joined ESPN in 1985 as a production assistant, although he argues that his actual role was far less glamorous than the title indicates. “My bio was incorrect there, I actually started in the mail room,” he said. “I wasn’t even qualified to sort the mail—I was hired as a driver. Back then, when highlights came in to SportsCenter they were actually shot on the ground at different places, and they were put on airplanes and flown out.” Williamson’s initial role at ESPN, therefore, focused on picking up tapes and bringing them back to the studio for editing and eventual playback on television. He entered the sports network at a time when it was still very much a startup firm vying to compete with proven industry titans like NBC, ABC, and CBS, all of which had their own sports coverage branches. “We launched in 1979, six years before I even got there,” he said. “Through the ’80s and through the early ’90s, ESPN was still fledgling. As we got more successful, we would interact with these big behemoths.” During ESPN’s rapid growth phase, Williamson quickly climbed up the company’s leadership hierarchy. Transitioning into a role within
the studio production department, Williamson would go on to serve as an associate producer from 1987-89 and eventually become a senior coordinating producer for SportsCenter in 1998. He then served as senior vice president and managing editor from 2002 to 2005, responsible for all day-to-day content on news and information programming for ESPN’s networks. His most recent role prior to his current one was executive vice president of programming and acquisitions, in which he oversaw rights negotiations and relationships with rights holders for ESPN entities. In his current position, Williamson is tasked with oversight of critical ESPN operations within production and programming. Asked whether he ever considered alternate career paths, Williamson indicated that the environment ESPN operated in when he arrived was such that he never thought about anything except helping push the company forward. He described that over the course of his career to date, a marked shift occurred in the way industry competitors and sports fans view the concept of ESPN. This, according to Williamson, coupled with brand value and luck has made ESPN what it is today. “I can’t tell you how many times we got laughed at for wanting to create a 24-hour sports network,” he said. “Sports were relegated to Saturdays and Sundays. Now everything is televised. There is an insatiable appetite for live events and live sports. A lot of [ESPN’s success] was brand, a lot of it was opportunity, and a lot of it was luck. A lot of it was being at the right place at the right time and capitalizing on a need.” While Williamson spent some time describing the progression of the sports media industry and his own background, most of his talk focused on values and leadership
insights that the younger audience members could focus on in light of their career aspirations. One of his most potent points centered on what he believes to be a central misconception in many peoples’ lives. “There’s a myth out there that I need to debunk a little bit,” he said. “That people think life is fair. Life isn’t always fair. And as you understand that, that will help you navigate where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.” Urging the audience to key in on hard work, enthusiasm, and ethical behavior despite inevitable roadblocks, Williamson emphasized the need for young people to expect adversity and learn how to overcome it. He then related his approach to sports growing up—one in which he constantly outworked others and strived to gain a greater understanding of the games he played—to the work ethic that has been critical to his professional success. “You see somebody who’s standing in front of you who wasn’t the most accomplished from an academic perspective,” he said. “I grew up very blue collar—there was nothing really special about me, and I mean that in all sincerity. I think the difference was a sense of work ethic and commitment.” While many in attendance came in hopes of simply picking up words of wisdom from an executive among the most accomplished in his field, Williamson put Boston College students’ potential for success in perspective when he noted what he was able to accomplish when adding perseverance to his humble beginnings. “For me to get to the position that I am in today and to be passionate about it in a field that is evolving and unique and something that I dearly love, this should bode well for all of you sitting in this room.” n
Mike Hale, movie and television critic for the New York Times Culture Desk, spoke to a crowded Fulton 511 on his experiences within the world of media criticism and recounted the changes he has witnessed within the industry. A graduate of Stanford University, Hale grew up in both America and Asia, moving b e t w e e n v a r i o u s co u nt r i e s including Pakistan and Indonesia, and eventually arrived at the Times in 1995 as a copy editor on the sports desk. Since 2009, he has been writing about television and film, joking that his greatest qualification for his job is his ability to sit in one place for a long period of time. It was in The New Yorker that Hale read his first movie review. He admitted that he’d never seen the magazine before his freshman year in college. Once he picked it up for the first time, though, he was hooked. He admired the New Yorker critics’ plain yet vibrant style of writing and the way they made ever ything they wrote seem interesting. “I don’t think there’s any better criticism today than there was back then,” Hale said. Hale discussed how much critics’ job descriptions have changed from the past, the most obvious of those chances being the result of the explosion of the Internet and technology. There was a time when critics were only required to write criticism. Now, critics must multitask and rapidly churn out material, including television show recaps the day after the show airs , detaile d critical blog p ost s under time pressures, and clever tweets. “It wasn’t the same kind of rushed-to-be-the-first to get your word in on something [like it is now],” Hale said. Th ro u g h o u t th e p a s t 1 5 to 20 ye ars , the Time s ha s exp er imente d w ith v ar iou s multimedia platforms. During the mid to late ’90s, the Times was a large proponent of blogs. Around the mid-2000s, blogs quietly started to disappear, and suddenly it was all about interactive graphics and slideshows. This trend lasted three or four years, and what’s coming in now at the Times is video. “The next step is to more directly compete with television by doing video ourselves,” Hale said. Hale went on to discuss how re aders and p e ople in the television business often
combine journalism with media criticism, especially in the case of television criticism. There tends to be a lack of distinction between being a critic and being a reporter. Hale believes, however, that there actually is a distinction, and if you combine the two functions, there’s an effect on the criticism. “When people whose work you’re judging [who] you may need to write harshly about are the same people you depend on for news tips and quotes, there’s a problematic situation, potentially a conflict,” he said. Additionally, Hale stated that television has completely changed in the last 15 years, and critics frequently examine whether or not today is the Golden Age of television. The bulk of those changes in TV are largely a result of the rise of cable. Hale referenced The Sopranos a s the tele vision show that solidified cable’s dominance over broadcast. Once channels like Discovery Channel and the History Channel were added as well, cable’s presence continued to grow. “Basically, the answer to the question of are we in a Golden Age of television is simply that of course there’s more good TV, [because] there’s so much more TV,” Hale said. “I have criticized a lot of the shows that are critically acclaimed,” he said. “I don’t see a lot of shows that really make me care about the characters or plotlines. The average for TV is much higher than it’s been in the past, but I don’t see the highs as being the highest they’ve ever been.” Hale claims there are limitations on how good TV can be because there are too many people—committees of writers, directors, and people in offices hundreds of thousands of miles away—working on the same project. “It doesn’t mean you can’t make great TV, but it means you can’t do the same thing that a really good movie director can do,” Hale said. “You can’t have the same amount of control. You can’t make the same kind of unified work that a great movie director can put on.” Another problem Hale has with television is its lack of emotion. In shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad, for example, Hale sees coldness. “[They’re] missing a kind of emotional element, a kind of playfulness in TV,” he said. He said he prefers shows like Louie that express one male’s honest worldview in a credible, genuine way. n
GE’s Burke focuses on marketing innovation By Connor Farley News Editor On Wednesday, the Boston College marketing department held the first event of its spring semester series—a succession of featured speakers within the marketing industry intended to encourage students to study the role of marketing, consider career progression, and analyze the overall theme of innovation within both large and small companies. The event, which featured Chief Marketing Officer of General Electric (GE) Health Care Sean Burke, BC ’94, focused on evolving marketing innovation and GE’s approach to leveraging young talent in order to solve some of today’s most crucial global health care needs. Burke, who began his career with GE immediately following his undergraduate studies at BC, opened the discussion on “innovation” by first giving two dictionary-based definitions of the word, but followed with a quote from Thomas Edison, the company’s founder, that he said accurately encompasses the role marketing in business: “I find out what the world needs and then proceed to invent it.” Burke said it was the process of creating solutions to problems, and not the reverse, that perpetuates global marketing creativity and ultimately leads to innovative growth in both business and health care. After asking students in the audience for their interpretations of the quote and its applicability to marketing, Burke noted how Edison’s method of prob-
lem solving shapes progress. “I love the order of [the quote],” he said. “What I like here is we say, ‘What does the world need and how do we proceed to invent it.’” Invention, he said, should be predicated on the basis of need and promoted for the good of others—a theme he internalized during his time at BC and in line with the University’s motto of being men and women for others. Breaking down his lecture into two main concepts, Burke discussed how, in marketing, “one size does not fit all” and noted the importance of observation—two branches of research Burke said GE focuses on when trying to improve both the science and art of understanding customer values. “Why do [customers] buy or why don’t they buy?” he asked. “What are the values and what are the reasons that help drive a person to buy things?” When citing the example of having to pitch an MRI machine to hospital administrators, or a refrigerator to families—both GE products—Burke emphasized the company’s commitment to not marketing technology solely on it technical attributes, but also the future benefits it will provide consumers. “User perspective is critical,” he said. By analyzing market needs, Burke said, GE can provide airlines with ways of monitoring fuel levels; install state-of-the-art hospital equipment in developing countries; and bring maternal neonatal health
care resources to parts of rural Africa—all initiatives the company has employed through market research, and often the result of a field within marketing called reverse innovation. “When we save 1 percent of the fuel burned in aircraft engines, we save our customers a ton of money—the analytics are huge, whether we’re making MRI machines or locomotives,” Burke said. “Innova-
tion is increasingly about data and analytics.” Reverse innovation, also know as trickle-up innovation, entails inventive global solutions originating in third-world and developing countries before being introduced to the industrialized world—an aspect of the health care industry GE has expanded into by having a widereaching international presence. Burke closed his talk by citing
several ways undergraduates can become involved with GE, specifically students interested in marketing and economics, and also mentioned that more than 180 BC graduates currently work for GE. The BC marketing department’s next event will take place next Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Fulton 511 and will feature Jason Sinnarajah, strategist and business analyst for the Cleveland Indians. n
Emily Sadeghian / heights editor
GE Chief Marketing Officer Sean Burke discussed innovation and marketing concepts on Wednesday night.
The Heights
A4
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Task force seeks to articulate vision for 2015 core renewal Core Renewal, from A1
drew hoo / heights staff
With 54 percent of the 4,332 votes, Fiore-Chettiar and Marchese will assume the 2014-15 UGBC presidency, executive vice presidency.
New UGBC president, executive VP elected UGBC Elections, from A1 class in which they won by more than 100 votes. The freshman class was the closest—only 16 votes separated the teams. Fiore-Chettiar and Marchese, who will be sworn-in sometime in late April, pitched their platform to voters under the slogan “Together We Will.” “I think that our involvement really helped,” said Fiore-Chettiar of their victory. “We’ve met so many people over our three years.” “Luca s and Vance had a ver y appealing message,” Marchese said. “By far they did a great job being in the Quad, being in the Rat, being all over campus, [and] being really visible. I think that’s why it was a very close election. But I think what set us apart was when we did sit down to talk to people we were able to sell our vision very well.” “We’re proud of everything our team worked for,” said Mike Keefe, Levine and Vergara’s campaign manager,
in a statement. “We’re proud of the positive campaign we ran. We are so proud and thankful for the people on our team. We look forward to working on the issues next year that remain important to us, such as mental health, and advocating for tangible student needs, and we wish Nanci and Chris all the best in their administration.” Levine and Vergara, neither of whom had previous UGBC experience, were able to mobilize strong support from students not affiliated with the organization. They won the EC’s straw poll at the campaign kickoff event by 25 votes, and garnered strong backing within the freshman class. “I think it’s important that we follow through on the commitments we have already made,” said Fiore-Chettiar, who is still a co-director of FACES. Both Fiore-Chettiar and Marchese will still serve as senators in the SA until they are sworn in as the new leaders of the government’s executive branch. They said they will continue to work on their legislative initiatives and plan for
their next year’s administration. “My first priority a s the ne w executive vice president will be to ensure that all of the [Student Assembly] seats are filled before the summer,” said Marchese. Turnover in the SA has been high in past years, as some seats are left unfilled if senators decide not to seek reelection and if no candidates run. Marchese said that this leads to confusion in the fall semester when students with little UGBC experience must be appointed to fill the seats. Fiore-C he tti ar and Marche s e praised their supporters for helping them win an election that was heavily predicated on the four candidates’ promises to change the organization that many have claimed is out of touch with student concerns. “All of this was made possible by our team,” Marchese said. “This should not be seen as Chris and Nanci winning. It should be seen as, our team really fought for a vision, and that vision won because of them.” n
always been measured and incremental,” Quinn said. “Take our time, listen to people, learn by doing, experiment—see what works and what doesn’t work in these pilots, and improve based on that experience.” The mounting contention, however, led to what Quinn called a “two-month timeout,” in which the Core Foundations Task Force will try to articulate a clearer vision for the new core against which future proposals can be compared. University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., upon reviewing the core proposal and the subsequent faculty concerns, requested that the vision for the core be addressed before moving into discussion about practical implementation of new courses. Rev. Greg Kalscheur, S.J., senior associate dean for strategic planning and faculty development in A&S, will head the task force, which seeks to complete its charges by April 15. “The heart of the task is to articulate a vision for the core that can then guide the preparation of pilot courses for the fall of 2015,” Kalscheur said. Kalscheur said that the vision will grow out of foundations established by the 1991 core document and will build on the work done last year as well as the fundamentals of Jesuit pedagogy. “The Jesuits structured the educational project out of a formative purpose,” he said. “We see the success of our Jesuit universities in who our students become.” The task force met for the first time last week, Kalscheur said, and it will meet again next week before moving on to focus groups and wider discussions in March and April. The group then hopes to have a mission statement to deliver to Leahy by the midApril target date. After outlining the steps the task force will take, several of the nearly 40 faculty members in attendance at the meeting raised questions and concerns, mostly pertaining to the logistical side of the core renewal—such as what kinds of courses they will be expected to teach—as opposed to the process to establish a vision for the core. History professor Robin Fleming questioned whether the concept of pairing courses from two different departments in an interdisciplinary approach was still alive as proposed in last year’s renewal plans. “There’s massive confusion among the faculty about what’s still on the board and what’s not the board,” Fleming said. Quinn said that the administration would rely on the imagination of the faculty to put together course combinations that were both expected and unique, and Quigley elaborated on the timeline for the immediate future. “At this point, we are eager to move forward after April 15 or so to early summer and then through the 2014-15 academic year to figure out exacting whether [the courses] are questions or problems, whether they’re three credits, how they are configured,” Quigley said. “But I think the pressing task over these next two months is to come up with a compelling vision that satisfies the very staple groups within the University. Some important parts of our community
didn’t feel that the vision articulated last year was quite satisfactory, so I think we need to get that delivered by mid-April.” In the same vein as Fleming’s question regarding procedural matters, political science professor Marc Landy asked what the decision-making structure would look like after the task force’s two-month timeline expires. “We did spend a lot of time on what the governing structure would be going forward,” Quinn said. “The people who have gotten us here do think that we need a different organizational structure to implement the kind of courses we’re going to be experimenting with. One possibility is that this current group, whose mission really is from now until the middle of April, will live on in a larger fashion for longer. That hasn’t been decided, there’s a lot of conversation about that, and that conversation, to some extent, has been put aside while we do this.” Other faculty members, including chair of the earth and environmental sciences department Gail Kineke, professor of po-
“The heart of the task is to articulate a vision for the core that can then guide the preparation of pilot courses for the fall of 2015.” - Rev. Greg Kalscheur, S.J. Assoc. dean for strategic planning and faculty development litical science Ali Banuazizi, and associate professor of English Jim Smith, emphasized the vital role that they feel the faculty should play in the renewal process. Quinn responded by noting that Leahy had said they could not move forward with so many faculty objections, and that the faculty has already expressed enthusiasm by acknowledging the importance of the core renewal, even through their concerns. “We need to continue that kind of enthusiasm into the future because, in the ‘land of logistics,’ we need lots of faculty members to be enthusiastic, willing to try things, willing to see what works,” Quinn said. Assistant history professor Thomas Dodman questioned what would happen if there is significant discontent among the departments regarding the new vision for the core. “We hope to have sufficient input from the departments so that won’t be the case,” Quinn said. “We certainly have to make out a Plan B if we end up with a mission everybody hates.” n
NGO-founder Sakena Yacoobi discusses education in Afghanistan Yacoobi, from A1 High Schools in Kabul and Herat. Coming to the U.S. in the 1970s, she earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at the University of the Pacific and a master’s degree in public health from Loma Linda University. Among her international awards, Yacoobi has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2013 she also received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Princeton University and the Opus Prize from Georgetown University. In her talk, Yacoobi emphasized the role of education in building Afghanistan. She considers education the most important element in raising the standard of living, and uses her 20-year career in Afghanistan and the borderland refugee camps as support. “For 20 years that we have been working with the people, we have found one thing in common,” she said. “Every single parent and every single child loves education. They want to get education, they are starving for education. “Living under the system that they did for so many years, they saw what ignorance did to them,” Yacoobi said. “They saw what ignorance did to the country. And that’s the reason they are willing to give anything for education.” Although she founded AIL in 1995, the organization has faced a host of challenges since its inception. Following the Taliban crackdown on girls’ schools in the ’90s, the Afghan Institute of Learning was forced to shut down its center due to security threats. As Yacoobi recalled, “It was very hard because I knew if something
happened, the lives of all these women, all these girls were in our hands, so we made the decision to close the center. During the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, if anyone was caught with a book or a teacher teaching in a classroom, that would be the end of that teacher.” Still, the organization supported approximately 80 underground home schools, thereby helping educate around 3,000 girls. She noted that community involvement was key in protecting the students: “We needed to have a guarantee from the teacher and from the community that they would protect the kids, that they together would support us,” she said. “We must have the support of the community, we must have the participation of the community—otherwise we would not be able to do it.” Emerging from those more repressive years meant that the need for teachers and educated people was more urgent than ever. “During the war in Afghanistan, we lost nurses, we lost doctors, we lost educated society,” she said. “So during this time, you could imagine what happened to Afghanistan. Definitely, we are lacking teachers. Now, we have about five million children going to school, and we only have 160,000 teachers. You can imagine that this is not enough.” In order to fill the need, she began an education restructuring. Under Russian and then Taliban influence, the school system emphasized rote memorization over critical thinking. “You would go to school for 12 years, but you wouldn’t learn that much,” Yacoobi said. “When we started in the refugee camps, we wanted to see
juseub yoon / heights staff
Education proponent and former Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sakena Yacoobi discussed the need for more accessible education in Afghanistan. how we could really change the system of education. That it would be a system that students really learned, not just to memorize things.” Much of the education is simple. Given the current dearth of health professionals, many programs teach young Afghans how to take care of themselves to prevent illness. Expectant mother classes pass this information onto mothers in a nation that consistently ranks among the highest in infant mortality and, most progressively, reproductive health classes help married women understand how to limit the number of children they bear. In addition, with this new restructur-
ing, Yacoobi saw drastic improvement in attendance. “It didn’t make a difference if there was a classroom or not,” she recalled. “It didn’t make a difference if there were books or not. It didn’t make a difference if there was a uniform or not. They come and sit on the grass, they come sit under the tent, they come sit on the bare floor, and learn. That was the first step.” For young people with few resources, this type of education proves particularly helpful. Yacoobi discussed programs implemented among street children and in orphanages, which teach the students practical skills as well as critical thinking and study. “Looking at these children, we
know they won’t become Talibs,” she said. “That’s what education can do for you.” After 20 years, she shows no signs of slowing down. She acknowledged that people ask her increasingly about her age and safety in a volatile Afghanistan, when she could easily live out her life in the U.S., and shared her response: “We all are human beings,” Yacoobi said. “I won’t let the child die, let the woman die, because I want to have a more comfortable life. It’s very hard. I love my country. “That’s the reason we concentrate in education,” she added. “When you work in education, you find that it works toward a solution.” n
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Editorials
Thursday, February 20, 2014
QUOTE OF THE DAY
BC must reevaluate its core revision process
The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less. -Vaclav Havel (1936-2011), Czech playwright, essayist, and first president of the Czech Republic
Focusing on the core’s mission, the administration has lost sight of its real problem—implementation L ast spring , B oston College brought in an outside consulting firm, Continuum, to help develop a plan for a new core curriculum. The University core has not been updated since 1991, and last year’s Core Renewal Committee developed a new plan, heavily focused on interdisciplinary courses, that was meant to be piloted beginning in the fall of 2013. After the summer break, however, the new core structure was not implemented, and it now appears that the University has returned to the drawing board.
The administration should consider making small changes that can be implemented while the big-picture renewal is still underway. An open town hall meeting was held to introduce the new Core Foundations Task Force and explain the manner in which it seeks to address the continuing issues with the core on the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 18. Made up of 14 faculty and administrators, the group intends to spend the next two months redefining the fundamental objectives of the University core. Working off a list of 10 objectives, the task force seeks to articulate the vision of the core by April 15, focusing less on content and more on desired outcomes. Clarif ying the mission of the core is important, but many of the problems with the current curriculum lie not in intention but in implementation. Knowing that the core is meant to foster rigorous intellectual, religious, ethical, and personal development will make no difference to the student sitting in an overcrowded lecture hall listening to an unenthusiastic professor. Moreover, while it is reasonable to expect a complete overhaul to
take time, the core renewal process has already been in the works for over three years and has seen no tangible results. The administration should consider making small changes that can be implemented while the big-picture renewal is still underway. For example, reevaluating the cultural diversity requirement in isolation of the rest of the curriculum—reconsidering the purpose of the requirement and which courses fulfill it—would be valuable. The University could also look into hiring more faculty members or revising the guidelines for which professors are required to teach core classes, in an effort to drive down the size of historically large introductor y courses like those in history and the social sciences. This effort could be modeled on the departments in which most faculty members teach at least one core class per year, usually in small sections, such as philosophy and theology—many students feel that these classes are executed well, whereas some other core classes are still seen as a burden. It is crucial that faculty members are heavily involved with the core renewal project, both this task force and any other aspects of renewal under consideration. A key reason that last year’s proposed core structure was not put into practice is that faculty were skeptical of how its implementation would work, and had myriad questions regarding the v alue and logistics of interdisciplinary blocked courses. Professors are eminently qualified to speak to what works best inside the classroom, and will also be able to give valuable input about how to update the core for the 21st century. The University is well within its rights to redefine the purpose of the core curriculum, and after more than 20 years, it does warrant another look . The administration must keep in mind, however, that the greatest challenges facing the core are in its implementation and the classes themselves—a concurrent reevaluation on the micro level is just as necessary as a macro level review.
UGBC campaigning needs better oversight EC must add transparency in sanctioning, manage campus voting stations
The campaign season for the 2014-15 U GB C pre sident and executive vice president wrapped up as polls closed last night at 8 p.m. Shortly afterward, it was announced that the candidate team of Nanci Fiore-Chettiar and Chris Marchese, both A&S ’15, had won with approximately 53 percent of the vote. This year saw significant changes in elections structure—the actual campaign period was limited to 10 days, there was no primary vote, and the Elections Committee (EC) introduced new sanctioning guidelines. The changes did not entirely eliminate campaigning issues, though. For one thing, while setting up computers in public places such as McElroy Hall and the Rat so that students can vote between classes is not necessarily a bad idea, allowing candidates and members of their campaign teams to stand right next to those voting locations is highly problematic. There is a distinct difference between campaigning and heckling, and shouting at students from three feet away while they vote undeniably falls in the latter category.
The EC should also be more up front about which teams are being sanctioned, why they are being sanctioned, and how the consequences will play out. A potentially negative outcome of a shortened campaign season is that decisions regarding sanctions must be made quickly, with little time to weigh all reported infractions. Especially since the EC enforced sanctions that subtracted votes from teams for violations—a very serious outcome—it is important that it is clear about what infractions merit what punishments. The campaign season was successful in other respects, however. Student turnout for voting has been historically low—last year’s final elections only saw 34 percent of the student body casting votes. This year, though, over 4,300 of the 9,100 undergraduates voted, constituting almost 48 percent of the student body—evidence of increased interest and involvement. Hopefully students will maintain that interest throughout 2014-15, engaging the new UGBC government and holding its leadership accountable for their campaign promises.
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Letters to the Editor The following letters are in response to “University, parents aim to keep Campus School at BC,” an article by Connor Farley, originally published on 2/13/14:
Campus School Volunteers give thanks
Thank you for believing in us. Thank you for giving the Campus School an opportunity to continue to thrive and to grow on the Boston College campus. Thank you for realizing that the Campus School is more than just a volunteer placement for us, it has become our second home. It is a place where we seek refuge, learn about compassion, and most importantly, experience love. Thank you for letting us continue to be advocates for our students and their families. You are allowing us to continue to raise awareness about individuals with disabilities and raise money so that our students can have the very best. You are allowing us to put many of the ideals that we learn in our classes into action. Thank you for recognizing that the values and skills we learn serving at the Campus School will allow us to become alumni that Boston College is proud of. As we have been taught, solidarity is learned through contact,
not concepts, and you have given us the opportunity to remain in close contact with our students, their families, and the Campus School staff. Thank you for living out the Jesuit ideals that Boston College was built upon. You have made us proud to call Boston College our home. You have provided us with the opportunity to learn what it truly means to be men and women for others. Thank you for listening. You heard our voices and you listened. You let us tell you our stories and attempt to explain what the school means to us. You came with open hearts and were able to see how important this school is to your Boston College undergraduates. From the bottom of our hearts, we cannot thank you enough. We will not soon forget the faith that you have put in us. We promise to make you proud. The Campus School Volunteers
Thankful for Campus School decision We are thankful to the senior administration of Boston College who not only listened but heard the voices of the parents, faculty, and volunteers of the Campus School as well as BC alumni who spoke on our children’s behalf. We look forward to this renewed collaboration with the administration to embrace our
shared goal of improving and sustaining the Campus school with all of its magic on campus and in the heart of BC. Laura and Chris Yorke Parents of Campus School student
The following letter is in response to “Introduction to Politics,” a column by Nate Fisher, originally published on 2/17/14:
Introduction to Cynicism
Yes, you’re correct—UGBC election season is one of the most trying times to be a Boston College student. Maybe it’s the seasonal depression or the loud, hung-over walks through the Quad, or maybe it’s just the fact the campus smells a little worse for a week. Do they wash those campaign shirts? The UGBC candidates aren’t necessarily the best among us, and a competitive election season doesn’t necessarily bring out the best in our campus. But the people in UGBC, the people who actually care about those annual “talking points,” are some of the best people on this campus. True, you don’t have to be in UGBC to care or to be involved or to do good work. Nor does membership prove proper motives or real passion. But I believe it shows one thing: a lack of apathy. Apathy is the noose around our generation’s neck, and it lives on at BC. The fault for this can be put on UGBC, sure, as a derivative and boring club that regurgitates snappy slogans and produces more profile pictures than it does changes to student life. Staplers, coffee, iClicker rental—who the hell cares?
Well, we’re supposed to. UGBC is supposed to come to us, the students, but if it doesn’t, let’s go to it. If you think that we’re better off by ignoring UGBC or isolating it as an unrepresentative voice of the students, you’re wrong. I’ve been uniquely able to see so much of what UGBC works for silently, whether it’s creating discussions about race and identity or registering hundreds of students to vote in an election that does matter (that would be the U.S. presidential one). UGBC members deserve troves more appreciation than they receive because they’re the most passionate, most caring people here, and they’re willing to buck the apathy and naysaying to get involved. They’re the ones who recognize the problems on our campus and actually care to fix them. And they do it happily. We don’t need an introduction to politics. We’re too smart for that. What we need is an introduction to engagement, a fresh perspective on what’s right with UGBC, and what’s wrong with our perspective.
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Connor Bourff A&S ’15
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The Heights
Thursday, February 20, 2014
A7
New age advertising
Stephen Sikora Liam Neeson - On Tuesday, our c ampu s w a s g race d w ith the presence of ma ster Je di, e v il mastermind bent on destroying Gotham, and Irish actor extraordinaire Liam Neeson. While his appearance was simply as a part of his son’s touring Boston College, it stirred quite a commotion on campus and in the Twitter-sphere. Although BC places an incredible emphasis on studying abroad and encourages as many students as possible to do so, we have a hunch that the young Neeson might not be allowed to go abroad his junior year. It’s just a hunch, though. Girl Scout Cookies - On Tuesday, we walked through the first floor of McElroy on the way to our office, only to notice that there was a table at the bottom of the main staircase selling a particularly delectable kind of baked morsels—Girl Scout cookies. Really, we think that this is the most wonderful time of the year. Although there may still be snow on the ground, if there are Girl Scout cookies in our stomach, we can be content and happy with the world. What makes these cookies so special?, you might ask. Well, we think that it is one part secret recipe, one part adorable salesmanship, and one part scarcity—if they were around all year, it just wouldn’t be the same. They even let us in on a little secret—they are going to be back today. So, if you missed them on Tuesday, you can still seek them out and grab a tasty snack today.
If you’re a sports fan, you’ve likely noticed a recent trend that started on ESPN and has since been utilized and tweaked by multiple sports networks. During a typical sports broadcast, every few minutes a small rectangle featuring an advertiser’s logo will first appear on the left of ESPN’s bottom line and will subsequently make its way over to the right corner, where it stays anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two. This is yet another sign that sports media has become, and will continue to be, the most dominant force in television. Last year ESPN won the rights to college football’s new playoff system. The price tag for the semifinals and finals, along with six additional bowls, was $7.3 billion over 12 years. CBS and Turner recently signed a similar deal for the NCAA Tournament— $771 million a year for 14 years. These are astronomical numbers. Yet, channels can justify the expenditures because they’re making even more money than the value of the deals. The reason is simple—sports programming offers immense advantages that other television entities do not. The most obvious reason is that sports are one of the last programs that fans are essentially forced to watch live and, thus, be subjected to commercials. Other television mediums used to be the same—I remember a few years back knowing that each Wednesday at 9 p.m. I’d settle on the couch with my family to watch Lost. We willingly sat through the 20 minutes of commercials per episode because we didn’t have a choice—that’s how it always was. But that’s all changed. With the popularity of the DVR, it’s now possible to watch any show on TV without commercials by
It’s Snowing, Again - Well, folks, it’s been snowing again, building on an already enormous accumulation on the ground around here. It is rather frustrating, really. It’s almost the end of February and this is what we get? At this rate, we wouldn’t be surprised if it snowed again over Spring Break. With all of this snow accumulation, it probably won’t even be gone by graduation and, well, that would kind of suck. Printer No. 7 - Printers are fickle creatures. We personally think that most of them have sentience and enjoy playing cruel tricks on their human masters. In this particular case, it is not the problem of a printer not working—that is something with which we could cope. After all, there are repairmen. But in this case—the case of Printer No. 7 in the O’Neill Library—the printer works, but it is incredibly slow. There is no reason to get a repairman over to fix it, so it stays slow forever. Yeah, we hate this.
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goal net, and New York Life’s logo superimposed on the field during game play. That I remember each of these brands is a testament to how effective the advertising is. I’ll admit, though, that I was against these types of ads when they first came on. My initial experience came on Red Sox broadcasts a few years ago, when all of the sudden Corona Light ads started popping out from the top left scoreboard in between pitches. I realized that in addition to those, there was one graphic or statistic that was sponsored by a company seemingly every inning. Did that stop me from watching the games? Of course not. That’s the beauty of sports advertising. No matter how many ads there are, or whatever the name of the bowl is (recall that this season BC played in the Advocare V100 Bowl), we’ll still watch our alma maters and the cities we root for play. And this certainly extends to national games as well—despite college football’s title game being called the Vizio BCS National Championship, it still pulled in more viewers than last year at over 15 million. On Tuesday, I attended an event at BC that featured one of the top executives at ESPN, and I asked him about the new bottom line ads they’re running. He explained that, far before the company actually implemented them, they had labs in which different options were shown to different people, and they analyzed the results. To no surprise, the ads passed. Evidently, some other testing must have passed as well. I recently looked at an ESPN box score, and a Mercedes Benz ad was present before the stats got started. It was the first time I had seen that. Was I initially annoyed? Perhaps. But I continued on to the other scores. Our society has such an immense craving for sports that it doesn’t matter. And while we profit on increased production quality, leagues and TV profit on us. It’s a win-win.
Stephen Sikora is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@ bcheights.com.
The loss of the letter
Kristy Barnes
Room Checks - They are a part of life that we do not like very much. On Tuesday (Tuesday was a big day for us, in case you haven’t noticed), we were accosted in the wee hours of the morn—9 a.m., that is—by RAs and an RD on the hunt for housing code violations, broken red tabs, and errant alcohol, all while we were trying to get our beauty sleep. Are these searches really necessary? Do they really need to be at 9 a.m.? If we were all going to be honest about it, everybody has a pretty good idea of when these checks are going to happen. It seems like this is done under a “You know that I know that you know” pretense.
merely fast forwarding through them once they’re recorded. The days of appointment television are gone. Sports are different. The way we consume sports requires us to watch games as they’re happening. Through Twitter, 24/7 score update apps, and instantaneous highlights, the sports world revolves around each person knowing what’s happened at hyperspeed. Sure, you could try to DVR a game and pretend you’re watching it live, but that would require staying off the grid— Twitter, Facebook, friends’ texts—until the game is completed. In a world of increasing smartphone dependency, we all know that rarely happens. Those same smartphones, however, create a potential dilemma for all kinds of television. Recall the last time you rode the Comm. Ave. bus or one of Boston College’s elevators. Nearly everyone who doesn’t know each other—and plenty who do—looks down at his or her phone for the duration of the ride. We’ve grown so accustomed to our smartphones and tablets as a substitute for boredom that we can’t even stand in an elevator without checking them. The same thing happens with TV. When a commercial hits, many times our eyes are not focused on the big screen, but instead on the small one. And that’s where the future of sports television revenue lies—advertising to viewers when they’re solely focused on that big screen. Nearly everything in sports media is sponsored these days. Whether it’s a Coors Light six-pack of questions on SportsCenter, the Sprint Halftime Report on Inside the NBA, or the Subway Fresh-take Hotline for ESPN podcasts, if something doesn’t have a company attached to it, it will soon. My favorite example was CBS’s coverage of college football last fall. One afternoon I counted six different insurance companies that were represented during a single game—one each that sponsored the pregame, halftime, and postgame shows, in addition to Geico supporting the Heisman Trophy, Allstate having its logo on the field
Everyday for the last two weeks, I’ve checked my mailbox. You see, I’m waiting. Some days patiently, some days not so patiently, but nonetheless, every day after class, I swipe into Voute, go to the mailroom, get on my tiptoes, and peer inside. Each day, I walk away empty-handed. I’m not even sure if what I’m waiting for will ever come. Not because he doesn’t care or is too lazy to write—letters are simply not a common means of communication anymore. In fact, he argues, doesn’t it just make more sense to Skype? The amount of letters written each year has been decreasing for centuries. Historians claim this is partially due to the telegraph, the phone, and the ease of transportation, and partially due to the simplification of communication all together. There is no need to write in detail about how a joke written to you a week ago made you laugh so hard your sides hurt, especially when it is easier simply to type “lol” to a funny text you received 30 seconds ago. Little by little, each generation has developed its own reasons and excuses for ditching socialization via ink on paper and, as a result, the art of the letter has almost been eliminated altogether from the 21st century’s means of communication. Yet today’s generation marks a new and telling shift. Previously, letters were abandoned due to the convenience of other modes of communication (i.e. the phone or email). This was a matter of practicality, not a lack of ability. The problem today’s youth has with letters is completely different. Rather than simply opting for another way to correspond for the sake of ease, we have left the letter behind due to impatience and an inability to communicate in long form. Constantly bombarded with
Lecture Hall
texts, tweets, or posts on a wall, it is very uncommon for 20-something’s to communicate in a written form longer than 140 characters, not to mention wait a week or two for a response. In such a high-tech, high-speed world, it seems like the letter has lost its place. So what do we lose? Most obvious is the physical beauty of the art. The aesthetic pleasantries of a dark cursive word carved onto the contrasting white of paper are simply overwhelming. The soft crinkle of opening an envelope or the folds of an inscribed message is soft to the ear. These distinct characteristics are simply absent from email. Letters also allow one to deliberate fully and commit to each and every thought with caution and certainty. The physical act of writing a word takes longer than the quick tap of a few keys, allowing one the time necessary to formulate each sentence fully. This is further illustrated by the fact that one cannot simply backspace when a mistake is made or one changes his or her mind. With the written word, one must compose thoughts in the mind, ensure their perfection, and then assiduously put them on paper, none of which are necessary for an email. Yet, the loss of aesthetics and certainty of context are personal, and while they are significant and worthy of attention, one must also consider the bigger picture. There is a book on my desk that I’ve read multiple times cover-to-cover entitled Love Letters of Brilliant Men. Within the pages, I find myself in the minds of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Oscar Wilde. I am at once firmly informed of the love they felt toward the recipient. For example, “my angle, my all, my own self ” writes Beethoven to a women he addresses as “immortal beloved.” Yet, beyond this I also see their concerns of being separated from their soul mates. Mozart writes to his wife, “I beg in your conduct not only to be careful of your honor and mine, but also to consider appearances. Do not be angry with me for asking this. You ought to love me even more for thus valuing
our honor.” Beyond the obvious affection shown, through these letters I can get a taste of the life these men, and the women they loved, lived. Preserved between the carefully chosen words are true reactions to the everyday world they experienced, the cultural anxieties they faced, and the personal trials they confronted. These thoughts and words are uncensored—they expose raw emotion. As one can see, letters have a historical significance often forgotten. It is through the correspondence of two sisters that the world learned about Jane Austen and through Pliny the Younger’s letter to a historian that we saw a picture of Vesuvius erupting right before our eyes. In fact, many aspects of history would have been lost if not for what was, almost literally in that time, snail mail. This is not a concern that only I have. Many articles, essays, and even books address what the loss of the letter means to society, history, and the human soul. And just what do they say happens when we stop being able to articulate and formulate fully our love for another or express vividly via words the things we see or the way in which events impact us, both on a personal level and on a cultural level? A part of society, and man, is lost. Of course, the reason I wrote in the first place was that it was the means of communication by Virginia Woolf and Jack Kerouac. It’s fun, cute, even romantic. It’s also just nice to know someone took the time to write. It was in no way an effort to preserve the daily life of a college student, but, in effect, that is what I did. I don’t pretend to think that my letters will someday change the way a historian looks at the 21st century, but I do believe someone’s will. It is important to realize what is preserved between ink and page is important—for the individual, for society, and for history in a larger respect. After all, somehow I don’t see the next bestseller title being Love Emails of JK Rowling.
Kristy Barnes is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@ bcheights.com.
BY PAT HUGHES
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.
Some music to consider Victoria Mariconti You listen to it occasionally when you study. You’ve probably been subjected to it in a too-warm concert hall full of the “elderly” (the 45-plus population). Sometimes it gets appropriated into the sports world as a dramatic background for NFL commercials—in fact, it frequently rings through our own Alumni Stadium when the team is on defense. It is classical music. I’m being melodramatic, I know. But the fact remains that most young adults—unless they have elected to study it or have nurtured a relationship with it—fall somewhere on the spectrum of indifference to contempt when they hear it. The “why”s abound, and I’m willing to admit that some are quite legitimate. At a certain point, classical music becomes inaccessible without training. Your ears need to know for what to listen in order to pick out structural and harmonic elements that amount to meaning. Meaning, too, is a slippery concept here. Music is ineffable. With a few exceptions of obvious tropes or notes from composers, the meaning of music is rarely exempt from debate, if a meaning exists at all. Both of these factors contribute to its high art status—classical music is frequently portrayed as an exclusive club protected by a pretentious and prickly “keep out” attitude. One belief to which I take particular exception is that all classical music belongs on CDs entitled, “10,000 Hours of the Most Relaxing Classical Music.” Find a recording of Krzysztof Penderecki’s “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima” and see how relaxed you feel. Granted, it’s not something I frequently elect to work out to—but all classical music worth its salt has an argument and a narrative, even if the argument is only structural or antithetical to the idea that music must have an argument. There have been both victories and failures when it comes to exposing unwitting audiences to the staple works in the Western classical canon (keeping in mind that small-c “classical” encompasses everything between the medieval and the modern day). Disney did what I consider an admirable job in marketing music to kids through the Fantasia movie. The cartoon Tom and Jerry features beastly solo piano lines. After a certain point, though, we have to acknowledge that we are just hiding the vegetables in the mashed potatoes. So, below is Tori’s Classical Starter Pack (just pay shipping and handling). Arbitrary? No. Comprehensive? No way! I’ve left off the Renaissance entirely. The initial list was much longer, but space has forced me to select four. The task I’ve taken up is hopelessly quixotic, but I hope that these works will pique your interest. You just may realize that the past 500 years have produced pieces of such sublimity—divinity—that are as worthy of your attention as the same four minutes of insipid aural wallpaper to which you party. The selections ascend chronologically and all can be found on YouTube. One: “When I Am Laid in Earth,” aria from Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell (1689). This mid-Baroque aria for soprano, also know as “Dido’s Lament,” is not only powerfully poignant, but is also a fine excerpt from the nascent English opera of the 17th century. Ever notice that pop songs have very repetitive bass lines? Give a listen to the lower register here. Two: “Fugue No. 4 in C-sharp minor” and “Fugue No. 11 in E-major,” from the Well-Tempered Clavier, Books I and II, respectively, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1722). A fugue is a means of composition in which three or more voices (or lines, in instrumental music) state the same melody and then twist around each other in imitation. They might strike you as academic and dry at first, but be patient with them and with your ears. They are essentially essays that have several distinct, but related, arguments— each line is entirely independent but fits with the others. Oh yeah, and they sound godly, too. Just try to write something that logical and beautiful in words. Three: [And this is where a Romantic Era or Ultra-chromatic piece would have gone, but I want to plug the 20th century. Musicologists and composers are rolling in their graves right now.] Four: “The Rite of Spring” by Igor Stravinsky (1913). It caused a riot at its premiere in Paris. Everyone loves a good controversy, so why not find out what all the fuss was about? Frankly, this piece gets over-emphasized as the turning point of modern Western music, but there is truth in the legend. By the way, it doesn’t exactly embrace you as a listener. Five: “Movement III,” from Sinfonia by Luciano Berio (1968-9). This movement is an auditory trip. The Italian composer Berio lifted the third movement from Gustav Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony and then layered other musical and vocal quotations over it, mostly drawn from preceding works in the 20th century. Depending on your disposition, or the light, or the time of day, this can either be insidiously frightening or very divertente, or simultaneously both. Absolutely watch this on YouTube. Oh, and mind the first chord if your volume is up—it will hurt.
Victoria Mariconti is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.
The Heights
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Thursday, February 20, 2014
BC upsets No. 1 Syracuse in Orange’s first season loss
Kevin Rivoli / AP Photo
Donahue’s defense is evolving Column, from A10
Kevin Rivoli / AP Photo
Men’s Basketball, from A10 Then, it was Anderson’s time. Seconds after Rahon’s three, Anderson got the ball down low. Rahon drove and spotted his teammate under the hoop. Anderson has been through a lot in the past few days. After losing a close friend and mentor in Kelley, the junior’s double-double against Notre Dame was not enough to put the Eagles over the top. Against Syracuse, his nine points and 14 rebounds were integral in the team’s upset bid.
With Grant coming in from over the top, Anderson ducked. Christmas was on his back, and Anderson was caught. He had no option but to shoot. After putting his head down, Anderson leaped straight up, powering his way to a layup that would tie the game at 41. It was the biggest play Anderson made on the night, and after Cooney missed a 3-pointer with seconds remaining, it was Anderson who recovered the ball and tossed it down the court, jumping into the arms of his teammates after the final horn
sounded. This year with Donahue & co. has been difficult, and he made that clear after one of the most momentous wins in his career as a coach. “Obviously, it’s been a hard year for us, so to go out and play like we did against the best team in the country, own their floor, [we] hadn’t played well, down 13,” Donahue said. “Just really happy for our guys. They deserve it. They’ve been incredible throughout this whole year.” Down by more than 12 points, his team was able to fight back again.
“There’s been so many times this year where I think they really could have let themselves go and not come in and work everyday,” Donahue said. After an emotional week for the basketball team, beating the best team in the country was shockingly surreal—a barely believable way to conclude it. “I also thought that Dick Kelley’s presence and how they handled that all week—they lost someone that was very close to them,” Donahue said. “To play with that kind of inspiration tonight was great.” n
Men’s Basketball Notebook
The team that couldn’t finish finds a way at ’Cuse By Marly Morgus Assoc. Sports Editor
They were the team that doesn’t finish. They were the team that came closer and closer: a free throw there, a bad foul there, and they lost it. It didn’t matter who it was—Notre Dame, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Syracuse—all games lost after BC showed signs of an upset, or even just signs of life. The Eagles just couldn’t close. Didn’t finish. Choked. Whatever you call it, it made for a lot of heartbreaking losses. Last night was set up for a similar story. BC leapt out to an early lead, but C.J. Fair almost single-handedly pulled the Orange back into contention before it got out of hand, scoring eight of Syracuse’s first 10 points. Fair slowed down, but by no means relented, leading the Orange in scoring with 20 points in what turned out to be Syracuse’s lowest-scoring two halves of the season. In regulation time, the teams put up 50 points each, tying BC’s season low, and surpassing Syracuse’s by only one. Syracuse’s 2-3 zone was doing its
job, limiting scoring chances so that BC had to rely on 3-point chances. In the first half, that was enough. Syracuse entered the first break with a relatively comfortable margin of eight points after BC made just four of 12 3pointers amounting to just 12 points, which made up the majority of the Eagles’ scoring in the half. In the second half, though—the period in which Syracuse has beaten down and tired out opponents all year—the Eagles pulled through and hit seven of 10 from behind the arc, quickly catching up to the Orange and bringing their total 3-point percentage to 50 percent for the game, while Syracuse hit just 16.7 percent. They tied the game, just like they have against formidable competitors so many times, but with BC’s track record, even a lead was no guarantee of a win. This is the team that doesn’t finish. A 24-11 run was exciting, but tying the score up with eight minutes remaining isn’t enough. There were so many times that the Eagles could have lost it. Moments of brilliance to get ahead were quickly
followed by blunders. For instance, with just more than three minutes remaining, Ryan Anderson broke up a pass in the Syracuse offensive end that was intercepted by Patrick Heckmann, who quickly brought it down for two to put the Eagles on top. Over the next few seconds, though, the Orange tied it up once again. BC was close to letting it all slip away when a controversial call came with just seconds left in overtime. Up by one, Lonnie Jackson got in the way of a pass from Tyler Ennis that flew out of bounds. Upon first look, it appeared that Jackson had failed to make contact with the ball as it went over his fingertips, but it was ruled a Syracuse ball, giving the Orange a chance for the lead. It was Syracuse, this time, that couldn’t finish. The team that had won its last two ACC matches by just three points, pulling through in the clutch with last minute plays, couldn’t pull it together this time. The Orange faltered, giving up the ball two more times and allowing the Eagles to scrape away with the lead and the win, finally pulling off
the upset after coming so close against so many teams. Through eight lead changes, five ties, and Syracuse’s largest cushion of 13 points, a combination of Olivier Hanlan’s 20 points, Anderson’s gamehigh 14 rebounds, and calm, smart play down the stretch, the Eagles finally pulled it off. “We’ve been up eight in a lot of games this year, down the stretch, and we’ve had an emotional season,” head coach Steve Donahue told ESPN. “We lost one of our colleagues in Dick Kelley and just the emotion of this game—I’m speechless. I’m so happy for our guys and all the adversity we’ve faced this year—obviously a huge win for our program.” It was the first time that BC knocked off a No. 1 team since 2009 when the Eagles upset North Carolina and finished the season with a 22-12 (9-7 ACC) record. This BC season has a different story—the wins aren’t coming easily and they aren’t coming often, but the Eagles return to Boston with the biggest upset of the college season under their belt. n
that Hanlan and others leave as well. While the team can get frustrated and is prone to dry spells in games, the Eagles do not give up. Late in the second half of games, Donahue can call a timeout and inspire the team. Even coming out of the gate after intermission against Syracuse at home weeks ago, the Eagles were fired up. In the end, that time, the Orange was just too good. Even at 7-19, the Eagles’ tempo of play is not too lethargic. Without Donahue at the helm, that could change. Darryl Hicks will also be available to play next year. The Kentucky Mr. Basketball finalist is a highly rated shooting guard who was the second-best recruit coming out of the state in 2013, between Derek Willis and Dominique Hawkins, who were both signed by Kentucky. By firing Donahue, the basketball program could come close to starting a revolving door of basketball coaches, which is why the team’s current coach is a better option for the long run. Since his first day in Chestnut Hill, Donahue has been focused on tomorrow as opposed to today. Donahue is also aiming in the right direction, and he has started to sign ACC quality players. A few of his signings have been successful, namely Hanlan and Rahon. Garland Owens is a game-breaker with potential for the future. Defensively, Donahue was able to figure things out with the team Al Skinner left behind. While this current edition of the Eagles was disastrous at defending the basket at the start of the season, it has greatly improved. Now, the Eagles just need to get stops at the end to win games. Over the season, they’ve lost games on average by less than five points, which has put them just one or two stops away from taking the lead. The defense is the problem, and with another year in charge of this group, Donahue can fix his system better than a coach in his first year at the school. While this season is not ideal for the program, Donahue should be given another year to lock down the defense and better one of the nation’s strongest attacks.
Alex Fairchild is the Asst. Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.
Three Eagles to play for USA gold in Sochi Tom DeVoto
For The Heights
Brian Snyder / AP Photo
Alex Carpenter, Kelli Stack, Molly Schaus and the rest of Team USA play for gold today.
When the Americans and the Canadians meet up in the Olympics, bad blood boils over between usually friendly neighbors. For the second consecutive Olympic Winter Games, the United States women’s hockey team will battle Team Canada for ultimate bragging rights in the gold medal game. In 2010 at Canada Hockey Place in Vancouver, the Canadians outplayed and outmatched the Americans en route to a 2-0 shutout in the final. The Unites States, featuring one current and two former Boston College players, hopes to avenge its losses both from four years ago and earlier this month in Sochi. For ward Kelli Stack , a 2011 BC graduate, is appearing in the Olympics for the second time. Through four games Stack has one goal, three assists, and is third on the team in ice time at 82:28. Her lone goal came during the first game for the U.S., a 3-1 victory against Finland. Alex Carpenter, a forward and BC
sophomore, is tied for the team lead in goals with three. She scored the first goal in the semifinal round against Sweden to put the Americans on top. It was a lead they would never surrender on their way to a 6-1 victory. Molly Schaus is another member of BC’s class of 2011. She is the primary backup goaltender for the Americans. Schaus played in Team USA’s 9-0 rout of Switzerland, coming away with a shutout, stopping all 10 shots she faced. In a game in which fighting is banned, these two teams aren’t hesitant to let their emotions show. The U.S. and Canada have faced off multiple times in the past year gearing up for the Olympics, and two games have been marred by full-line brawls. The first took place in early October in Burlington, Vt., after a U.S. player made contact with the Canadian goalie, sparking the Canadian defenders to protect their teammate. The chaos occurred in the final minutes of a 3-2 win for Canada. The next was just under two months ago in mid-December in Grand Forks, N.D. In one of their last contests before leaving for Russia, another brawl took
place after some post-whistle activity. The U.S. came away with a 4-1 victory in that match-up. In Sochi, Team Canada has only given up one goal to teams other than the U.S. It is undefeated thus far, including a 3-2 win over the U.S. in group play. Canada has won the past three Olympic gold medals for women’s hockey. Ever since the Americans won the inaugural women’s hockey gold medal in 1998, Canada has dominated in its national sport. The Americans, meanwhile, have beat up on all of their opponents except the Canadians. They breezed through contests with the Finnish, Swiss, and Swedish national teams , but the y couldn’t quite keep up with their rivals from the north. The women’s final this afternoon will serve as a precursor to the men’s semifinal on Friday that pits the U.S. against Canada once again. The American men lost a heartbreaker in overtime in the final just four years ago, and they are looking to capitalize on a stacked Canadian roster that hasn’t quite gelled yet in this tournament. n
THE HEIGHTS
EDITORS’ EDITORS’PICKS PICKS
Thursday, February 20, 2014 The Week Ahead
Standings
The women’s lacrosse team hosts Ohio State on Saturday in its second home game of the season. Men’s hockey takes on UMass Lowell in a Friday-Saturday home and home. The baseball team is at Stetson for a three-game series this weekend. No. 1 Syracuse heads to Durham to face No. 5 Duke in an ACC
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Recap from Last Week
ALEX FAIRCHILD
17-3
CONNOR MELLAS
15-5
MARLY MORGUS
15-5
HEIGHTS STAFF
14-6
Game of the Week
Men’s basketball couldn’t keep up with Notre Dame and lost by a score of 7369. The women faired no better, falling to the Irish by more than 20 points for the second time this season. The men’s hockey team swept Vermont to gain the Hockey East regular season title. Team USA beat Russia in a shootout.
Women’s Lacrosse
Boston vs. Ohio State College
Guest Editor: Eleanor Hildebrandt Editor-in-Chief
“Sail.” CONNOR MELLAS
This Week’s Games
Sports Editor
MARLY MORGUS Assoc. Sports Editor
ALEX FAIRCHILD ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT Asst. Sports Editor
Editor-in-Chief
W. Lacrosse: No. 13 BC vs. Ohio State
BC
BC
BC
BC
M. Hockey: No. 1 BC vs. No. 7 UMass Lowell (series)
BC
Split
BC
BC
Baseball: BC vs. Stetson (3-game series)
2-1 BC
2-1 BC
2-1 BC
2-1 Stetson
NCAA Basketball: No. 1 Syracuse at No. 5 Duke
Duke
Syracuse
Syracuse
Syracuse
Last Saturday, the No. 13 Boston College women’s lacrosse team started its season with a big win over Notre Dame. Led by Mikaela Rix’s six goals and one assist, the Eagles started their season off on the right note. On Saturday, the Eagles will be back at it after a delayed game against New Hampshire, originally set to play on Wednesday, that will take place today. On Saturday, BC will play its second game in three days, this time facing 2-1 Ohio State. The Buckeyes started off their season with two wins at home in Columbus, Ohio, but then fell in their first road game to No. 14 Stanford.
Saturday, 12 p.m., Newton Campus
POINT COUNTERPOINT
CAN BOTH HOCKEY TEAMS WIN THE BIG ONE? Nobody can stop either BC team
Two championships are too unlikely
BY JOHNNY CAREY
BY TOM MELORO
For The Heights
It’s no secret that Boston College loves its hockey. It’s also no secret that BC is damn good at its beloved sport this season. With the regular season winding down, it’s trophy season for the Eagles. Both the men’s and women’s teams took home the Beanpot title a week ago and followed that up by wrapping up Hockey East regular season titles over the weekend. What’s next, however, will define how players, coaches and fans of BC remember the season. Winning the Beanpot is awesome, but it has become somewhat commonplace at the same time. Regular season titles are exciting, but they aren’t enough anymore. At this point, both teams have their eyes set on bringing national championship titles back to Chestnut Hill in the spring. Not only is that lofty goal feasible, it will happen—and here’s why. The men’s team hasn’t lost since Nov. 29. Yes, you read that right. Nov. 29. Remember when you were sitting on the couch with your belt slightly loosened, still recovering from your Thanksgiving food coma? Well, while you were considering never getting up off the couch again, BC fell to Holy Cross at Kelley Rink by a score of 4-5. Since that shocking loss to the team now ranked 52nd out of 59 division one men’s hockey teams (according to the USCHO Pairwise Rankings), the Eagles have been unstoppable and don’t look like they’re going to slow down any time soon. The team has a seemingly never-ending list of talent, unmatched by any other squad in the nation. When the candidates for The Hobey Baker Award were announced, the list contained three BC players: Bill Arnold, Kevin Hayes, and Johnny Gaudreau were the names listed, and they just happen also to be three of the nation’s top four scorers this season. Gaudreau, the Hobey Baker Award favorite at this point in the season, is in the midst of one of the greatest individual stretches college hockey has ever seen, registering a point in 26 consecutive games. The dynamic line of Gaudreau, Arnold, and Hayes has been unstoppable, combining for 93 points in the Eagles’ last 17 games. Quite frankly, no one in college hockey has the ability to neutralize that trio. The only way having such a dominant top line could be a problem for BC would be if it were the team’s only source of scoring. For the Eagles, that is anything but the case, as all four lines the team rolls out on an every game basis have the ability to take over a game. In fact, the teams score an average of 4.39 goals per game. That’s .71 more goals per game than anyone else. It’s safe to say offense won’t deter BC from a national championship. How about defense and goaltending? Check. The Eagles allow the fifth least goals in Division I this year. Couple that with freshman goalie Thatcher Demko, who is 12-1-2 this season with the third-best goals-against average in college hockey, and it’s definitely tough to score on the Eagles. With a dynamo offense and stalwart defense that has propelled the team go unbeaten for almost three months, it’s hard to bet against BC.
Now that we’ve established that the men’s team will take home the title in Philadelphia this April, here’s why the currently fifthranked women will do the same. Remember Nov. 29? That day you were on the couch and the men’s team lost? Yeah, it just so happens that the women’s team lost that day, too, falling to Cornell. While the men’s team has been just about perfect since, the women haven’t. They’ve slipped up. Once. Since its loss in Ithaca, the women’s team has been about as impressive as the men’s team, tallying only one loss along the way. Keeping the puck out of the net is no problem for BC as senior goaltender Corinne Boyles holds a .943 save percentage, good for fifth in the nation. In terms of offense, the team does not have one dominating offensive player, but instead it employs a balanced attack. Sophomore Haley Skarupa is the team’s leading scorer with 34 points, good for 20th in the nation, despite missing time with an injury. The team does also have four of the nation’s top 42 scorers, however. With its deep pool of talent and the fact that the team is hitting its stride now, it is hard to imagine the Eagles will not continue their torrid pace over the next couple of months. Simply put, there is no hotter pair of teams than BC men’s and women’s hockey right now, nor will there be come national championship time. Save the dates, Eagles fans: Mar. 23 and April 12 will be two days for championships.
scoreboard
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Men’s Olympic hockey is officially in full swing, just as Boston College fans gear up to cheer on both their men’s and women’s teams in their respective NCAA tournaments. It’s only fitting that the Olympics are in Russia this year—the 1980 Miracle on Ice is constantly being referenced, a stark reminder of just how difficult it is to win it all, especially as a favorite. That’s reason No.1 why, though it’s possible for both teams to win the National Championship this year, it won’t happen. Let’s start with the men, who are, as of now, the nominal favorites to take home every piece of hardware from here to Philadelphia. They’ve already locked down the Hockey East regular season trophy—they have the leading Hobey Baker candidate in Johnny Gaudreau, as well as dark horse Bill Arnold, and what looks like plenty of depth behind them. However, once in the single-elimination tournament, BC will be tested, and there’s a chance it won’t be up to it. What could ultimately derail this team is its youth, and, consequently, its inexperience. Steve Santini, one of the top freshmen on the team, took two major penalties early in the year. While he has steered clear of them recently, he is becoming a fan favorite, as well as quite notorious, for his ability to lay the wood on defense. That tenacity could cost BC in the tournament if he were to take an ill-timed major. Scott Savage, another freshman defenseman, was benched after two bad miscues in the Beanpot finals against Northeastern—the first directly leading
Men’s and women’s hockey have won multiple trophies each already, but can both take home a National Championship?
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For The Heights
50 56
Atlanta, ga 2/13
3 hanlan 21 pts BC miller 18 pts memphis 5 chestnut hill, ma 2/13
m. hockey
cooper 13 pts BC mcbride 19 pts 3 reb vt
lafayette, la 2/14
lafayette, la 2/14 softball
softball
speer 1 r 1 h BC crowdus 1 r 3 h cau
6 0
dimasso 2 r 2 h forrest 1 h
burlington, vt 2/14 w. hockey
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to Northeastern tying the game at one, the second giving Northeastern a breakaway and scoring opportunity that was saved by goalie Thatcher Demko. As for the depth in scoring this year, the top three leading scorers are, of course, Gaudreau, Hayes, and Arnold—of the next nine top point scorers, only Patrick Brown is an upperclassman, and five are freshmen. Continuing the trend of youngsters playing key roles on the team, one freshman who cannot be ignored is the man between the pipes, Demko. Since being handed the starting role, he’s handled it with aplomb, going 8-0 and allowing just 1.375 goals per game. While this obviously bodes well for the next few years, there is no pressure that matches playing in a single-elimination tournament for a National Championship—in this case, BC’s inexperience could lead to issues that could ultimately knock this team out of the tournament a bit earlier than expected this year. Thus far, the women’s team has had a season with the same amount of hardware as the men—this past Sunday, it too wrapped up the Hockey East regular season title, less than a week after winning the women’s Beanpot over Northeastern. The women are ranked No. 6 in the Pairwise rankings, and they’ve done it thus far without Olympian Alex Carpenter, the leading scorer on last year’s Frozen Four team. What derailed the Eagles’ quest for their first star was the buzzsaw known as Minnesota, the team that went an astonishing 41-0-0. BC played the Gophers tough in the Frozen Four, taking them into overtime before conceding a goal that ended the Eagles’ season. While the Gophers finally lost a game this year, they’re still a stunning 30-1-1, and the overwhelming favorites to repeat. The Eagles have had, by all statistics, an excellent year. They’ve got two pieces of hardware already, and their record is an impressive 23-5-3. They have seven players with at least 20 points on the year, and are outscoring their opponents by an average score of 3.5-1.7. Senior goaltender Corinne Boyles has gone 19-5-2, with a save percentage of .943, and a goal-against average of 1.59, providing BC with a steady presence in net. Within these solid statistics, however, is a story that has had its ups and downs. Of the Eagles’ five losses, just one has come to a team with a higher RPI than them, a 2-0 loss at Cornell, which they avenged the very next night with a dominating 4-1 win in the same building. Two of their losses came to the University of New Hampshire Wildcats and the Connecticut Huskies, teams ranked 28th and 29th in RPI. Of the five teams ahead of BC in RPI, they’ve gone 1-1-1, showing they can hang tough with the heavy hitters. Most of these bumps in the road occurred early in the year—from Nov. 30 through Feb. 7, the Eagles went 9-0-2 and were seemingly on cruise control. They were brought crashing back to earth by a UConn team that held the Eagles scoreless, reviving memories of those early hiccups—hiccups that could dash BC’s hopes of earning that elusive star if they bubble up again in mid-to-late March. Both the men’s and women’s hockey teams have a good-to-great chance of winning a National Championship this year. They are deep, have veteran leadership, and have had their teeth cut against some tough competition thus far. It’s easy to forget how truly tough it is to claim the crown that comes with the title of “best team in the nation,” however. For one team to win, it will be impressive. For both teams to do it in the same year would be truly special. While it’s of course possible, it’s highly unlikely that BC will be adding a star to the back of both teams’ jerseys after this year.
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SPORTS THE HEIGHTS
A8
A10
Thursday, February 20, 2014
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2014
A case for keeping Steve Donahue ALEX FAIRCHILD Disappointment. It is not a buzzword at Conte Forum anymore—it is a reality. Steve Donahue’s men’s basketball team has failed to live up to the expectations placed upon it last fall. After a team based around freshmen incurred a nine-win season two years ago, it followed it up by nearing the .500 mark, with guards Olivier Hanlan and Joe Rahon introduced to the mix. Both sophomores have bolstered Boston College’s offense and turned it into one of the nation’s best. Donahue’s offense is based around the spread, which is a motion offense that sticks five guys around the perimeter and drops a big man down low. It is designed to have four or five players on the floor who have the ability to shoot the ball from distance. The spread creates an exciting attack, and when it is fluid, it can produce an exciting and effective brand of basketball. Believe it or not, the Eagles are one of the most efficient offensive squads in college basketball. In the ACC, they rank second, behind Duke, in adjusted field goal percentage, which takes into account the number of points gained from each shot attempted. While the Eagles’ field goal percentage, overall, is on par with the rest of the conference, Donahue’s offense is more efficient in its shooting. Donahue’s team has also been competitive in most games this season, despite facing what Ken Pomeroy’s ratings say is the nation’s third most difficult schedule, and that only takes into account the teams the Eagles have played, not the length and number of road trips the Eagles have taken. Donahue chose to forgo the cushy home schedule the team has had in the past. BC’s head coach has admitted he was wrong and that he overscheduled the team. There is not doubt that the road trips have taken a toll on the team. Confidence, which often dictates a player’s mentality, has been cited as a huge role in this team’s downfall. The overscheduling has exacerbated the squad’s issues. Had it played the schedule it faced last year, the team could have more confidence in itself, and it could have picked up more wins. Take Clemson, for example. The Tigers had a comparable year to the Eagles last season, and the two sides are at similar points of development. Both coaches scheduled games with Auburn and UMass and were defeated. While the Tigers were able to hang with Auburn for longer and lose to the Minutemen by less than the Eagles, they narrowly escaped Conte Forum with a victory. After beating the Eagles, Clemson’s head coach Brad Brownell said that he scheduled easy to build confidence. His strategy has worked, as Clemson is sixth in the ACC standings behind each of the five ACC teams that has been ranked at one point, or another, this season. It is also hard to fault Donahue for the loss of Dennis Clifford. While BC is by no means a lock for 20 wins with the big man in the lineup, it certainly would not be limited to just six victories, even with this schedule. Clifford in the lineup would improve BC’s play in the post, as it would push Ryan Anderson to the 4, where he shone in his first two years at the school. On the recruiting end, there is not much Donahue can do. He is limited to just one scholarship this year. Next season, the core of the team will be the same. Even with speculation that Hanlan, the team’s leading scorer—and the ACC’s third best in that category—is leaving, there are a few mock draft boards that do not have his name on them. Hanlan is a talisman with the ball and could use another year in college to develop his defensive abilities and raise his basketball IQ. If Donahue leaves, one can assume
ORANGE CRUSHED On Wednesday night, BC entered the Carrier Dome stricken with losses and emerged with a win over No. 1 BY ALEX FAIRCHILD Asst. Sports Editor Trapped. That’s how you feel when you face Syracuse’s suffocating 2-3 zone. Ryan Anderson was stuck in the corner, doubled up on by two massive members of the Orange. The Eagles were down 13, and he called a timeout. After 23 more minutes of basketball, No. 1 Syracuse was stuck in a similar position. The Eagles had the Orange in their talons. It took 84 days, 18 games, and 15 losses before the Boston College men’s basketball team was able to beat a Division I team other than Virginia Tech. An upset victory against Syracuse at the Carrier Dome, 62-59, could not have come at a more perfect time for a reeling Eagles team. After losing Sports Information Director Dick Kelley last Thursday evening, the team mourned the loss of a man who served the program for more than two decades. Kelley’s funeral was held on Tuesday morning, and before the team had time to blink, the Eagles were on their way to upstate New York. Taking on the nation’s best college basketball team would be no easy task, and even though the Eagles hopped out to a quick lead, they were quickly pinned back by C.J. Fair, who finished with a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds. The senior forward saw his team struggling and took the ball to the hoop. He earned himself a pair of trips to the line, and used a layup and a jumper to get his team down within one early on. On the boards, Anderson and Eddie Odio dominated. Anderson had a strong start to the night in the low post. In the game’s first 10 minutes, the junior forward accumulated six rebounds. Odio hopped in next, and before the half was out, the pair combined to wipe the glass 16 times. Head coach Steve Donahue has been working on the defensive end and this team’s rebounding ability all season. It paid off against Syracuse, as the Eagles took Jerami Grant, the ACC’s seventh leading rebounder, out of the game. The game plan was the same as the last time Donahue’s team played against Syracuse, well-known for an extremely active, difficult-to-penetrate 2-3 zone.
In the first and second halves, the Eagles screened the zone to create open looks for themselves. Using Anderson and Odio to set picks between Syracuse guards Trevor Cooney and Tyler Ennis gave Olivier Hanlan and Joe Rahon a lane to get into the high post—the weakest part of Syracuse’s zone. The Eagles would need points in transition as well to get an open look before Jim Boeheim’s team could set its defense. BC was not entirely successful against Syracuse. The Orange forced 12 first half turnovers from the Eagles. From those changes in possession, Boeheim’s team was able to get 17 of its 25 first-half points. It was a fiery effort from an opponent that excels at jamming passing lanes and forcing errors from getting traps on the wings and down low. The Eagles were still able to find the open shooter. Anderson and Odio operated in the high post throughout the first half, looking to exploit the area between Syracuse center Rakeem Christmas and the team’s two guards. BC looked to work the ball into their big man, who would draw attention and then work the ball out to an open guard. It is similar to the way the screen works, but instead, the big man finds his man on the perimeter or turns to take the open jumper. The Eagles were able to move the ball around the zone well in the second half, turning the ball over just five times after the break. “I thought the guys made a great adjustment, you know, we gave them a couple things,” Donahue said. “Put Patrick in there, had four guards, started rotating the ball out into the middle on different guys, and I thought it really made Syracuse scramble.” Anderson also got physical in the paint and Heckmann stepped up as well. Looking for the tie with just over 11 minutes left, the Eagles were down by eight. Heckmann drove through Syracuse’s guard pairing before kicking the ball out to Olivier Hanlan, who knocked down a game-changing three. Hanlan did the same with 8:55 to go, as he drove into the high post and found Joe Rahon for three on the kick.
See Men’s Basketball, A8
KEVIN RIVOLI / AP PHOTO | JORDAN PENTALERI / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC
See Column, A8
I NSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE
Notebook:
Men’s
Basketball:
Boston College has struggled to finish games, but found a way on Wednesday...A8
Point/Counterpoint: Frozen Four
Will both the men’s and women’s hockey teams win National Championships?..A9
Editors’ Picks........................A9 Scoreboard.........................A9
A2fashion forward
swug life
defending the ‘Senior washed up girl’ lifestyle, page B5 album review
phantogram
The duo’s album ‘voices’ reflects their ‘street beat’ style , page B4
The Heights
Thursday, January 17, 2013
album review
cole swindell
swindell’s self-titled debut fails to subvert the conventions of the country genre, b4
SCENE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2014
THE
By John Wiley, Arts & Review Editor Ariana Igneri, Assoc. Arts & Review Editor Michelle Tomassi, Asst. Arts & Review Editor See B3, Chorduroy jordan Pentaleri / Heights Graphic Illustration
THE HEIGHTS
B2
OUTSIDE THE LINES
Confessions of a snowflake
Thursday, February 20, 2014
SCENE AND HEARD
BY: STEFAN TODOROVIC
MICHELLE TOMASSI Hey you. Yeah I’m talking to you, student sitting on the fourth floor of O’Neill gazing out the window instead of doing your calculus homework. You’re staring at my friends and me falling from the sky, aren’t you? Aside from reminding you that it’s not polite to stare, I’d like to answer two questions that you’re probably thinking at this very moment: 1) “If you guys keep falling at this rate, will you get us out of class? Or work?” Fat chance. We already got you one snow day—do you really think we can get you two? Let’s be a little realistic. Next question. 2) “Fine. If you’re not going to get me out of class, then I hate you. You’re cold and slippery, and you mess up my eyeliner. Will you ever stop? Can you just go away?” No. We are a product of nature, and we will not cease to exist just because we are inconveniencing you. Your angry tweets will do nothing to combat us, and your shovels and snowplows are only temporary solutions. In case you are unaware, Miley Cyrus’ song was actually written about us. We can’t stop, and we won’t stop either. It seems like you college students have a love-hate relationship with us. Usually the “hate” part lasts a lot longer than the “love,” and you know what? I’m not going to just let you insult the rest of my species and me without fighting back. Boston College, we know that you love us a lot more than you claim. We are pretty much your artistic muses, and life as you know it would be nothing without us. First of all, we have the power to distract you from almost any situation. We captivate your attention in the middle of class, and we inspire awe because of our fluffy, powdery texture. As we fall slowly, or rapidly, we hypnotize you. Seduce you. And despite your attempts, you just cannot resist us. We also dictate your fashion choices. Those Bean boots that you people are obsessed with? Yeah, those probably wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for us. Winter accessories and earmuffs just look better when they are lightly dusted with us. We make your hair look angelic, and we add a bit of flush to your cheeks. Why go to the makeup counter in your local mall when you can get a free makeover, courtesy of Mother Nature herself? You use us to satisfy your artistic inclinations. We act as the clay for the amateur sculptor, allowing you to craft snowmen, igloos, turkeys, and hippopotamuses galore (and we applaud you for getting so creative). You take “Impressionism” to a literal level by diving into our fluffy blankets and making snow angel impressions. We populate your Instagrams, we make your precious Gasson more beautiful (if that’s even possible), and we serve as the perfect backdrop for your newest “fun in the snow” profile picture. How can you say that you hate us if you cannot stop taking our picture? It’s borderline creepy, and we wish you would choose another subject to obsess over. Like Liam Neeson, perhaps. Students, you also take advantage of us for your own political motives, and that makes us a bit sad. You use us for evil by shaping us into balls and throwing them at each other, and we serve as protective forts in your fierce battles on the Quad. You throw blue and red liquids onto our pristine white coating to further your campaigns, as if a simple sign isn’t good enough anymore. From a quick glance, we thought someone had been murdered, or that blood had been shed in those “snowball” wars—but, upon approaching the surface of the earth, we realized it was just some students using us as substitutes for poster board. One of my friends was caught in the fire, and she doesn’t think blue or red are her colors. So let’s not do that again, okay? Finally, music would just not be the same without us. “White Christmas,” “Let it Snow,” “Frosty the Snowman,” “Winter Wonderland” … come on, people! And your beloved Frozen soundtrack would be nothing without our existence. You can’t ask someone if she wants to build a snowman if there’s no snow, and the storm will not rage on if we’re not there to cause it. You sing about us, take our pictures, and perform strange rituals to summon our arrival (we know about the spoons under pillows and pajamas worn inside out, and we think it’s pathetic). It sounds to me like you worship us, and therefore you simply cannot say that you hate us. You love us because we inspire you and provide an aesthetic experience unlike any other. So please, give us the love we deserve—because these mixed signals are just not healthy for our relationship. Besides, we heard you sing the truth: the cold never bothered you anyway.
Michelle Tomassi is the Assistant Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.
1. TRIPLE THREAT
After back-to-back editions with Kate Upton on the cover, the 2014 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue features not just one, but three cover girls: Nina Agdal, Lily Aldridge, and Chrissy Teigen. Teigen, who is married to R&B singer John Legend, made her Swimsuit Issue debut in 2010, but this is her first cover. It’s the rookie year for Aldridge, a Victoria’s Secret model, while Agdal made her SI debut in 2012.
2. FALLON FILLS IN After taking over for Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon has become the new face for The Tonight Show. Fallon had been the star of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and his highly rated viewership granted him the seat on one of the world’s greatest stages. The show has moved its location from Los Angeles to New York in order to match its setting to Fallon’s character.
4. JUST MARRIED
The gossip may be true—about former Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester, that is. Reports say that Meester and Adam Brody of The O.C. fame were recently married in a secret wedding ceremony, less than three months after they announced their engagement. Brody was photographed with a gold ring on his left hand at LAX over the weekend, so it looks like this marriage was one secret Meester couldn’t keep.
3. KYRIE IRVING WINS MVP
5. NEESON TAKES BC
On Sunday night, the East beat the West 163-to-155 in the NBA All-Star game, making it the highest scoring game in All-Star history. Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving, who finished with 31 points and 14 assists, closed the game out strong and took home the game’s MVP Award. At 21, he’s the youngest player to have been granted the honor.
Taken actor Liam Neeson visited Boston College on Tuesday so his son, Michael, could see the university. Led by a student tour leader, Neeson and Michael trekked through the snowy campus, attracting a great deal of attention and becoming the subject of a number of clever tweets and status updates. Neeson, following Kobe Bryant, is the second celebrity to make a surprise visit to BC this year.
THIS WEEKEND in arts
BY: ARIANA IGNERI | ASSOCIATE ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR
PHOTO COURTESY OF BOSTON BALLET
Opening this weekend at the Boston Opera House, the Boston Ballet’s new show, ‘Close To Chuck,’ features three seperate performances of contemporary ballet.
1. ACAPELOOZA (THURSDAY 2/20 7:30 P.M.)
4. ‘CLOSE TO CHUCK’ (ONGOING)
7. ‘POMPEII’ (ONGOING)
The Dynamics, Sharps, Heightsmen, Jammin’ Toast, and Against the Current are set to perform in McGuinn 121 on Thursday night. The concert will be a benefit for Camp AmeriKids, an organization that provides a summer camp experience for children affected by or infected with HIV/AIDS and sickle cell anemia. Tickets will be sold for $5 at the door.
Part of the Boston Ballet’s 50th anniversary celebration, its new show Close to Chuck features a trio of works by three contemporary and visionary choreographers, including Bella Figura, C. to C. (Close to Chuck), and Resonance. The ballet is running from Feb. 20 to Mar. 2 at the Boston Opera House. For show times and tickets see bostonballet.org.
Set in Rome in 79 A.D., Pompeii is an action-drama about a slave turned gladiator who battles to save his true love as Mount Vesuvius erupts and destroys the city. The movie opens in Boston on Friday.
2. BOSTON LOVES IMPRESSIONISM (ONGOING) The MFA’s first crowdsourced exhibit Boston Loves Impressionism features 30 paintings chosen by the public. The exhibit features the works of Monet, Van Gogh, and Degas, among others. For more information, visit mfa.org. Admission to the MFA is free with a BC ID.
3. ‘THE CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION’ (THURSDAY 2/20 TO SATURDAY 2/22, 7:30 P.M.) Maggie Kearnan, A&S ’14, makes her directorial debut with The Circle Mirror Transformation, a play about characters living in a small, artsy community who take drama classes together, and discover some scenes have no script. Student tickets are $10 through the Robsham Theatre Box Office.
5. GRAHAM COLTON CONCERT (THURSDAY 2/20, 9 P.M.) After releasing his latest album at the end of January, American singer-songwriter Graham Colton is stopping at T.T. the Bear’s in Cambridge for a concert. Tickets are $10 in advance through ticketweb.com or $12 at the door.
6. ‘INEQUALIT Y FOR ALL’ FILM SCREENING (THURSDAY 2/20, 4:30 P.M.) Former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich’s expose Inequality for All will be screened on Thursday in Fulton 511. The film was honored at the Sundance Film Festival, and highlights issues of inequality and the middle class. Refreshments will be served at the event, and the screening will be followed by a live webcast by Reich.
8. SLAMNESTY UNCENSORED (SATURDAY 2/22, 8 P.M.) Boston College Amnesty International is presenting an evening of spoken word and slam poetry in Gasson 100 this weekend. Female step team F.I.S.T.S will also be performing at the event. Admission is free.
9. TRACY K. SMITH (THURSDAY 2/20, 7 P.M.) Part of the Lowell Humanities Series, Poetry Days is sponsoring a lecture by poet Tracy K. Smith in Gasson 100 on Thursday. Her most recent collection, Life on Mars, won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize. The event is free.
10. UNIVERSITY CHORALE CONCERT (SATURDAY 2/22, 7 P.M.) The University Chorale’s annual Winter Concert will feature Chorale classics including “Beati Quorum Via” and “Come Thou Fount,” as well as new selections from the Magnificat and the St. Nicholas Mass. The concert will be in St. Ignatius Church and is free.
THE HEIGHTS
Thursday, February 20, 2014
B3
KEEPING IN STYLE
y o r u d r ho
Chorduroy’s 2014 album features 15 original tracks from what the music organization identified as Boston College’s premier musical acts. The record is expected to make it to Spotify in the next few days, with distribution of the actual CD beginning in March. What music will matter at BC in the semester to come? The Scene previewed the 15 tracks and artists featured on the project, with the hope of providing a road map for listeners to come.
WITH
C
“Garden State” - Terry Peng
Senior Terry Peng’s “Garden State” is Mraz meets jazz. His vocals are as smooth as his instrumentals. Airy and light, the track is very “I’m Yours”-esque, with its catchy string melodies and down-to-earth lyrics about love: “When I said I loved you that night / We were drunk / But I meant it.” With its suave, retro keys and deep bass riff, the song defines itself as more than just another summer beach tune.
“Drunken Poets” - Biggs, Minsaw, amd Apex
“First & Last”Bobnoxious & The Master Craftsmen
“Wasting Daylight” - Lucid Soul After Lucid Soul opened for Macklemore at Modstock last spring, there’s no denying the group can groove. “Wasting Daylight” showcases this talent. The guitar solo toward the end of the track is when the band shines brightest, though the song’s lyrics and vocals are worth mentioning too. As James Farrell, A&S ’15, sings “I can’t light the flame alone,” in his raspy voice, it’s hard not to get up and jam along to Lucid Soul’s funky vibe.
“Granada Blvd” - Romulus
Bobby Scheuch, CSOM ’14, is the Miles Davis of BC—a music-everything man with classic charm, and unprecedented stage presences. “First & Last” shows off Bobnoxious and company in an atypically mellow state, highlighting the group’s technical gravitas, but leaves out much of the chaos that characterizes the band. It’s a quaint expose of talent that, among other things, shows off another face of the dodecahedron that is Bobnoxious.
“Empire” - Arielle Rivera Pristinely produced and recorded by BC seniors Jack Godfrey and Arielle Rivera, “Empire” sounds like the kind of trendy song you’d hear from female R&B/pop artists playing either on the radio or in a club. Against a background of clean beats and electronic synths, Rivera demonstrates a Demi Lovato-esque control over her voice, riffing on the chorus as she sings, “I’m standing in your empire / And I can’t even look away.”
“Can’t Figure Him Out” - Acarodeux With its trippy sounding piano keys and haunting chorus, “Can’t Figure Him Out” is a psychedelic listening experience. The song, created by Acarodeux (Aarron Carrillo, A&S ’14), seems to extend infinitely, despite the fact that it’s just about three minutes long. Most of the track highlights its neatly arranged electronic soundscape, with a deep vocal refrain cutting in a couple of times and repeating, “You can’t figure him out / You can’t figure him out.”
Anonymouse goes long on “Disconsolation,” a track off the band’s EP Outboard, which is featured in the Chorduroy collect. There’s something of a Green Day flare in Anonymouse’s “Disconsolation.” The chorus to the song repeats, “I’ve lost all hope in you”—but there’s hope yet for Anonymouse. The track shows off a young artist, ready to take off and grow.
“Alright” - Free Alley
“The ’95 Sweep” - Blame the Sirens
The Chorduroy compilation makes a more subdued transition with Free Alley’s “Alright,” a mellow folk track that is dusted with light piano in the chorus, and fuses more prominent keys as the song progresses. By the end of the vocalist’s sequence, the song shifts and builds to a faster pace more typical of Mumford & Sons songs—simultaneously drawing from contemporaries and maintaining a style all its own.
“Locked Up” Lucas Allen
If Johnson is just a dude with a laptop, then Blame the Sirens is just a group of dudes and their guitars—yet, there’s something very honest in their purity. “The ’95 Sweep” is a stripped-down testament to a simpler time, as Nick Benevenia, A&S ’14, sings, “I know I’ve been wasting my time / Watching highlight reels of the Devils in ’95 / But it makes me smile so damn hard.” The track starts and ends with sound clips from the game itself, further transporting us into that moment.
“Words Rang Hollow” - Scojo feat. Alandra Scott Johnson, A&S ’14, who goes by the name Scojo on the Chorduroy album, is headed in the right direction with his dance track “Words Rang Hollow.” It’s not blaring club music by any means— rather, his synths start out smoothly, and slowly build up alongside the elegant, mature vocals of Alandra. Scojo is self-described as “just a dude with a laptop” on his SoundCloud page, and this song perfectly highlights his abilities.
“Found My Way” - Jimmy and the Gooch
“Take Me Too” - Seaver’s Express Seaver’s Express’ debut EP Parachute was released at the end of September, and the band has since kept a strong presence in the Boston area, frequenting Music Guild events and building a name in Cambridge venues. “Take Me Too,” one of the stronger cuts off Parachute, is featured on the Chorduroy spring collection. The song shows off the band’s range of dynamics, opening with a soft tonewheel intro, and building to a driving rock dynamic.
Miami guitarist Dan Fuenmayor, A&S ’16, makes his Choruroy debut with “Granada Blvd,” a track recorded with his band Romulus in the group’s debut EP The Third Leg. “Granada Blvd” is the upshot of the grunge aesthetic pioneered by bands like Nirvana, and has a veneer more typical of ’90s rock. Lead vocalist Henry Sosa shows off his versatile vocals in the track, blending well with Fuenmayor’s expansive instrumental backdrop to put out an impressively sized sound.
“Disconsolation” - Anonymouse
“Passion” - Times New Roman Times New Roman (William Bolton, CSOM ’16) effortlessly fuses Motown influences with more contemporary sounds on his sexy track “Passion,” one of the leading songs featured on his 2013 EP Satisfaction. A steady metronome beat, a jazzy guitar rhythm, a set of trumpets, and a stuttering vocal refrain characterize Bolton’s track. These distinct, yet deftly blended elements, coupled with Bolton’s idiosyncratic style of rapping and singing, give the song a real retro-cool feel.
“Drunken Poets” is one of the more unusual cuts off Chorduroy 2014, a a purely hip-hop track with a scaled-backed production that consists of little more than a recurring hook and constant beat. The actual verses are recorded in significantly lower fidelity the rest of the collection, and as a result, it feels raw and unpolished. “Drunken Poets” is divided into three isolated verses, and is a nice introduction to the three artists featured on the track.
Lucas Allen, A&S ’16, made his debut as a freshman on last year’s Chorduroy album with his song “This Night is Ours,” and this year he’s back with “Locked Up.” While his first track harmonized with female vocals, Allen is all on his own for this one, and the result is a more consolidated showcase of Allen coming into his own smooth rock style. The extended guitar play at the end of the song rounds off the track—and the album—in a stylish, satisfying close.
“Found My Way” is a bright, feel-good track from Jimmy and the Gooch, a folk duo from Long Island, N.Y. With uppity acoustics supported by the mandolin strings, the track gives more of a bluegrass vibe, taking a lighter approach to the folk genre. This is a roll-down-yourwindows kind of tune, evoking images of the sun and sky—much needed at a time like this.
THE HEIGHTS
B4
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Phantogram refines original ‘Voices’ with latest album BY MAGDALENA LACHOWICZ Heights Staff
Although it has been five years since its debut album Ey elid Mov ie s, Phantog ram has been affirming its niche steadily since then, releasing two EPs and having a number of tracks appear in commercials, movies, and TV shows. With word of mouth bolstering the duo’s name from one set of ears to another, Phantogram maintains a cer tain middle ground between unknown and mainstream, holding onto the indie tag without being obscure. Despite having no sleeper hits or breakout singles in the arsenal, Phantogram retains a strong following, something its newest effort, Voices, will be sure to maintain. Produced in an actual studio this time around with the help of John Hill, the record sounds professional and finely tuned, something which regular listeners will be much accustomed to. Labeling themselves as “street beat” (a sort of trip-hop, dreampop combination with heavier back beats), Sarah Barthel and Jack Carter have taken their uniquely labeled sound and put forth another clean, tight record which exemplifies their genre without making a caricature out of it. Although each track has heavy post-production work (a signature of Phantogram’s style), there is not a sense that
this detracts from the record or somehow undermines it . Without it, there would definitely be something missing from their sound. Never being one to strip down its music, Phantogram has carried on this tradition throughout Voices, which will certainly be a treat for old and new listeners alike. Unfortunately, these same listeners will find that the band ha s not de v i ate d f rom thi s traditional sound—at all. In fact, variation is nearly non-existent here as each song blends into the next with little notice from the listener. Multiple play s through only exacerbate this, leaving the album to be a sort of glorified background music choice more than anything else. Barthel’s ethereal vocals tend to bypass the ear, slip through the back of the mind, and find their way out the other ear—it never truly registers what is being said or why. Lyrically, there is nothing to be spoken of either, and there is not much reason to stop and back track anyway. The slickness of the production often does the same, never dazzling or catching hold of the attention, instead flowing right along, one song into the next. Carter lends his vocal talents on only two songs, and neither member appears vocally together on any, which furthers this sort of underthe-radar sound. Having both members sing on a track possibly could have lent an interesting
America, meet Cole Swindell. As it happens, he already knows a lot about you. Swindell, as you’ll discover no more than a minute into his debut album, isn’t an artist: he’s a stereotype, albeit an endearing one. If you’re looking to get some “red all up in your neck”—as Swindell so eloquently offers in the album opener “Hey Y’all”—Swindell is the man for the job. If you’re looking for some basic human dignity, however, Swindell is in a dark place indeed. The real Cole Swindell is prob-
ably locked away in a basement somewhere, chained to the wall, fed no more than meat scraps as executives of the Nashville record confederacy torture the humanity out of him. Commercial country music has grown dangerously comfortable exploiting the demographics it claims to represent, profiting off a careless caricature of working-class America, and there’s no artistry in the box that records like Swindell’s are content to leave you in—only profit. What’s so devastating about Swindell’s debut is the missed opportunity of it. The country music scene has produced some
VOICES PHANTOGRAM PRODUCED BY REPUBLIC RECORDS RELEASED FEB. 18, 2014 OUR RATING
PHOTO COURTESY OF REPUBLIC RECORDS
The tracks on ‘Voices’ are not highly distinguishable from one another, but the album still reflects the duo’s own style. tension to the project—dynamics are lacking in the other wise finely tuned sound. This criticism withstanding, the record does speak to the fact that Phantogram know its sound inside and out. Although Barthel and Carter are not aiming for lofty heights here, there is a refinement that must be recognized. They’re sounding better and better with each release, fine-tuning every step of the way. Considering that their following has generally been created by word of mouth, this consistency
extraordinarily genuine artists. On one side of the country genre, there are the respectable defenders of what, for lack of a better term, could be considered the “country lifestyle.” Artists like Jason Aldean and Keith Urban (who ironically, was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia) have used the general themes of country to create a charming critique of big-city living and fast-paced living. On the other end of it, the Jack Johnsons and Eric Churchs of the industry use country’s imagery as a means of subversion, offering a critique of things like country’s small-mind-
COLE SWINDELL COLE SWINDELL PRODUCED BY WARNER BROS. RECORDS RELEASED FEB. 18, 2014 OUR RATING
PHOTO COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. RECORDS
Swindell is stuck in his pickup truck with his debut album, lacking any individuality as a country artist.
only serves to help them, as they aren’t relying on gimmicks or breakouts to establish their fan base. Phantogram may not be the most innovative or avant-garde band in existence—however, it’s fantastic at what it does and is worth taking up into any music collection. Phantogram isn’t making up any excuses, just making good music. Take it or leave it. In an era in which many musical artists rely on disingenuous means to gain bigger and better fame, it must be handed to Phan-
togram for sticking it out with its “street beat” style. Voices lends itself to the day-to-day of modern society, providing the perfect background soundtrack to the average commute, a melancholic day or a night on the town. Unimpressed with schemes and shiny new tricks, the album does not try to compensate for being another step in the band’s evolution process. Instead, it fits neatly into the spaces in the back of the mind where it may not always be heard, but will always find a niche to stay in.
edness and careless glorification of alcohol. On either end of this spectrum, there’s nobility. And then there’s the valley of ashes. Enter Swindell, a figure who addresses these common themes of country with no sense of irony or sincerity. Swindell makes mention of the back of a pickup like it’s a contractual obligation and sings of beer like it’s water. When Swindell attests he’ll “drink to a country song, another work week gone,” there’s a suffocating insularity to it all. Swindell takes no ownership of the genre—he’s tortured and silenced by it. And perhaps—just maybe—Swindell lies awake in bed at night, overcome with existential nausea as he hears what sounds like his own voice sounding from the radio, haplessly rhyming “killin’ it” and “chillin’ it” with all the gravitas of a single-ply toilet paper roll. It’s more than likely, however, he does not, and music to Swindell is a job like any other, and the recording of his self-titled debut was a work week like any other. The record isn’t entirely humorless. “Dozen Roses & A Six Pack” is the gem of the album. In one of the few unique narratives on the album, Swindell decides that before an uncertain meeting with his woman, he’ll buy a dozen roses, in case she telling him she’s coming back home, and a six pack, in case the news is otherwise.
Unfortunately, this imagery of Swindell hedging bets can easily be analogized to the album as a whole. Everything on it feels safe, measured, and methodical. Nothing stands out, and nothing falls flat. Swindell can drop g’s off track titles like its going out of style, but regrettably, he can’t shake the imagery that’s stuck to him. The album ends as it starts. The scene? Swindell’s pickup truck. “The Back Roads and The Back Row,” is less of a narrative than the rest of the album, and more a moment remembering. Swindell recalls his “first taste of beer,” his “first taste of broken heart,” the good times, the tears, the “red dirt men” that left their marks on his life, and the mother who saved his seat in churches and soul in Jesus. Swindell reckons he learned everything he needed to know “somewhere between the back road and the back row”—as the track’s title would imply. For Swindell, this record never becomes an opportunity to question those lessons, or try to figure out what they were worth. Everything between the back roads and the back row just “is”—it can never be more and never be less. Swindell is trapped in his own paradigm, and the record might have actually been beautiful, if it weren’t so depressingly upbeat and brazenly unaware of itself.
ALBUM PREVIEWS BY MICHELLE TOMASSI THE FRAY
Pharrell Williams
Aloe Blacc
Helios Expected Release: Feb. 25
GIRL Expected Release: Mar. 3
Lift Your Spirit Expected Release: Mar. 11
The Fray is back with its fourth album Helios, expected to release next week, and it seems that the band will continue to experiment with more forceful rock on this newest project. In contrast to its defining singles “How to Save a Life” and “Over My Head,” The Fray’s recent releases “Love Don’t Die” and “Hurricane” sound more aggressive in tone, departing from its original piano-driven style. The group has traditionally produced music with more personal, serious undertones, but in a recent interview with HuffPostLive, the band described Helios as “happier” than its previous album Scars & Stories. The Fray hasn’t experienced the same commercial success as in prior years, so Helios may mark the transition point for the band members as they enter their 12th year as a group.
He sang alongside masked robots, contributed to the guiltiest pleasure song of last summer, and is now ready to fly solo once again. Pharrell Williams will be releasing his second album G I R L in early March, which will feature his single “Happy” from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack. Although he hasn’t released an album since 2003, Pharrell was at the forefront of major hit singles in 2013 with a prolific series of releases that included “Get Lucky” and “Blurred Lines.” Pharrell’s debut album In My Mind was heavy on rap tracks and collaborations, so perhaps G I R L will highlight some more of his own soul-funk vibes as seen on “Happy.” But then again, with a singerproducer like Pharrell Williams, none one’s ever quite sure what they ought to expect.
SINGLE REVIEWS BY STEFAN TODOROVIC MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE “Fake Your Death” Off its upcoming greatest hits album, “Fake Your Death” finds alternative-rock band My Chemical Romance delivering a strong final single. The piano-driven ballad, reminiscent of MCR’s The Black Parade days, reflects the end of the groups’s career, with lyrics like, “Some people watch / Some people pray / But even lights can fade away.”
TOP SINGLES
1 Dark Horse Katy Perry feat. Juicy J 2 Happy Pharrell 3 Talk Dirty Jason Derulo feat. 2 Chainz 4 Say Something Christina Aguilera & A Great Big World 5 Let Her Go Passenger 6 Timber Pitbull feat. Ke$ha 7 Counting Stars OneRepublic
Swindell’s debut album traps him within own paradigm BY JOHN WILEY Arts & Review Editor
CHART TOPPERS
Soul and hip-hop artist Aloe Blacc’s next album Lift Your Spirit is expected to release on Mar. 11, and he has given us a good sense of what we can expect already with singles such as “The Man” and “Ticking Bomb.” “The Man” was recently featured in a Beats commercial. The Orange County singer first made it onto major airwaves in 2010 with his singe “I Need A Dollar,” which went on to be the intro music for HBO’s How to Make It in America. Blacc managed to break the surface of mainstream genres without immersing himself in it completely, instead allowing his soulful voice to serve as the focal point of his releases. If we’ve learned anything from his country-esque vocals on Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” it’s that Blacc has the ability to layer sounds beautifully in the most unexpected ways.
TYLER THOMAS “Love It”
TOP ALBUMS
1 The Outsiders Eric Church 2 Frozen Soundtrack Various Artists 3 Now 49 Various Artists 4 Beyonce Beyonce 5 Unorthodox Jukebox Bruno Mars Source: Billboard.com
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK BY RYAN DOWD
“ADDICTED TO YOU” AVICII
In his music video for “Addicted to You,” directed by Sebastian Ringler, Avicii takes us back instead of his usual forward. Set against the snow banks of a mountain, Avicii and Ringler drop us in an old tale with a new twist. It’s Bonnie and Clyde— only with two Bonnies played with flair by Hedda Steirnstedt and Madeleine Martin. The video is one of contrast. Pop song set against old-timey title lettering. A classic tale swapped out for a more modern, lesbian-leaning interpretation. For the most part, it all works. The vibrant visuals match the song’s excitable pitches. The vocals by the soulful Audra Mae match the intimacy between our two female leads. When the drums kick in at the minute mark, you’ve bought in. You’re along for the flashing, quick-cutting ride, although you probably know exactly where it’s going given the overt Bonnie and Clyde reference. When the video goes where we know it’s going (a shootout), we feel something—sadness, anger, or something of the sort—but not much of something. Despite the catchy tune and stunning visuals, it all feels rushed, and it’s easy to rush a three and a half minute music video. Avicii and Ringler almost have to, but that doesn’t make the video’s eventual ending less abrupt. Maybe that’s the idea: to make the audience feel cut off in some way just like the two feisty sirens in “Addicted to You.” “Addicted to You” is worth the price of admission—a 15 second ad on YouTube. It’s a bright, flashing piece of eye candy that’s quite enjoyable for the first three or so minutes.
MACHINE GUN KELLY FEAT. WIZ KHALIFA “Mind of a Stoner” The Los Angeles-based rapper Tyler Thomas just dropped his latest single “Love It.” A woodwindsaxophone beat offers a calm yet spirited vibe that, in many ways, resembles the life of Thomas. He was able to earn recent recognition for his track “I Got This,” featuring logic. His unique charisma and lyrical talent provide his listeners with an inimitable complexity of sound.
Back at it again with another ready-for-radio track is Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) and Wiz Khalifa bringing “Mind of a Stoner.” The track features a previously produced beat by DJ Mustard, initially made for the track “Get You High” from KiD iNK’s album Rocketship Shawty. While Wiz Khalifa brings his “look-mama-Imade-it” swag to the track, MGK steals the show.
The Heights
Thursday, February 20, 2014
B5
Wiley’s Follies
Scene Style
Waiting for Styles and imagery on the UGBC campaign trail Liam Neeson By John Wiley
Arts & Review Editor
The Levine-Vergara team’s ‘Bringing UGBC Down To Earth’ slogan served as an affirmation of the pair’s outsider status, building on the imagery of the eagle.
It was baby blue warfare for candidates Lucas Levine and Vance Vergara (left) as they took to the dining halls to make the presence of their supporters known to student passersby.
How much is in a t-shirt, a logo, a slogan? As UGBC election season wraps up, little is left of the campaign— a few odd banners hanging from windows, a decorative cloth hanging from a car, a campaign pamphlet covered in mud on the floor of the Walsh lobby. The material surrounding these candidates disappears in days, and for Nanci Fiore-Chettiar and Chris Marchese, both A&S ‘15, the campaign slogans will likely be forgotten soon as the work starts. But what does it all mean? For one, there’s a clear formula for drafting the materials for these campaigns. The logos for both the Fiore-Chettiar-Marchese and Levine-Vergara teams featured an eagle and kept to a minimalist design. The Levine-Vergara campaign included an outline of a globe in its logo, while Fiore-Chettiar-Marchese kept to just the bird. As expected, the teams picked opposite colors—red and light blue—to give the visual presence of the teams around campus an adversarial look. Frequently, the campaigns would set up tables alongside each other, and if it weren’t for the colors, it would be difficult to distinguish the campaigns from body language alone. This year, however, the color warfare was taken to a new extreme as Fiore-Chettiar-Marchese campaigners colored snow red with spray bottles full of food coloring, and Levine-Vergara supporters did the same with blue. Although not quite Machiavellian tactics, the politicking done on campus has a sure power dynamic to it—for these moves to be effective, the teams have to bank on the fact that voters are easily manipulated by imagery, and while it’s impossible to gauge how much a 30-foot wide “L + V” etch in the snow in O’Neill Plaza impacted the election, it makes sense that candidates turn to unusual spaces to get their messages across, as the Elections Committee limits other avenues of expression. Turning to the slogans, Fiore-Chettiar-Marchese stuck with the expression “Together We Will,” while Levine-Vergara settled on “Bring UGBC Down to Earth.” These expressions reflected the teams’ respective insider-outsider dynamics, and both had in them something of a populist flair. How much is in a t-shirt, a logo, a slogan? However much can fit, and as more and more elements of these campaigns get transferred to online mediums, it’s imaginable that in years to come, teams will be able to get by without these visual and rhetorical necessities of student government campaigns. For now, however, little changes from year to year when it comes to this aspect of the campaign trail—the visual tactics of the two teams remain essentially similar to each other. n
John Wiley
‘Together We Will’ became the mantra of the Fiore-ChettiarMarchese campaign, as Nanci and Chris made their experience as reformers in UGBC the basis of their platform.
Candidates toed the line between formal and casual, balancing the desire to come across as professional and the need to come across as having the common touch.
John wiley and nathan mcguire / heights editors
Fashion Forward
Trading in high heels for Uggs and embracing the life of the ‘swug’ For senior girls at BC, the swug life isn’t so much a choice as it is a year-long commitment
Therese Tully It’s spring of my senior year, and I have come to know a whole new way of life. It is whispered about at parties and on early mornings on the Comm. Ave. bus—it is even talked about in the cramped bathroom of Mary Ann’s. It’s the sensation sweeping Chestnut Hill. I’m embracing the swug life. Not to be confused with thug life, swug life is its own phenomenon. For those of you fabulous little freshmen who are still on top of the world, just you wait: the impending decline is upon you. Swug—for those of you unfamiliar with the term that is daily becoming far too real—stands for senior washed up girl, and it’s what I am all about. Let me preface this by saying that the always fabulous Leandra Medine, whom I have written about in previous columns— the self proclaimed “Man Repeller”—recently put a post on her blog entitled, “Messy in a Good Way,” so I am not alone in my love of the swug life. To be fair, the fashion aspect of swug is only one facet of the phenomenon, but it is crucial nonetheless. And if a fashion goddess like Leandra Medine is on board, I no longer have to feel guilty about it. A swug can be spotted in her natural habitat of Chestnut Hill by a variety of markings. If you are a bright and sunny freshman girl with an uncanny amount of enthusiasm, beware. It is not suggested that you approach the swug too closely or rapidly, for the swug is known to scowl or squawk at young predators. One sign of the
swug is her love of Uggs (the swug loves a rhyme). As is widely accepted by now, Uggs are some of the most hideous footwear known to man. But damn are they comfortable—and did I mention warm? Nothing says swug life like trading in your beautiful leather boots, fabulously chic wellies, or dare we mention heeled booties for your tried-and-true, salt-stained Uggs. You probably bought them in high school, and they are too hideous and stupidly expensive to justify replacing. Let’s face it, there just ain’t nothing like a swug in Uggs. Now, these Uggs are not enough to identify the swug. Some poor unknowing underclassman or a mini swug-in-training might also be found wearing the offensive footwear. Said swug may have yoga pants tucked into them—actually, said swug will definitely have yoga pants tucked into them. While some fancy swugs may have some nice Lulu leggings, other swugs will go with a true flared yoga pant that will not fit nicely into their Uggs. Additionally, they will not pretend to try to tuck them in nicely. A swug never apologizes. This outfit is topped off with bulky winter socks, some sort of t-shirt, and probably an oversized sweatshirt. The swug will not wear contacts, and she will not wash her hair, and most of all, she will not touch her makeup bag. After many long years of worshipping her makeup bag full of finely cultivated products to enhance her natural features and highlight her skin tone, the swug will decide to give this old friend a break. The thought of waking up even five minutes earlier to apply even a hint of blush feels too laborious for the swug who was definitely at the aforementioned Mary Ann’s far too late the night before swigging Miller High Lifes. Plus, whom is the swug trying to impress anyway? Her fellow swugs? All of the guys in her grade whom she pretty much already
knows? These fellow senior men are either all tied up in a relationship, probably with a younger lady, or completely undateable. Due to all of these factors, senior ladies just aren’t going to waste their expensive makeup on day-to-day living. Everyone in Lower can see how little effort they’ve already made— swugs don’t waste time and energy. But most importantly, swugs have better things to do, things that mean that it is okay to put their fashion lives on the back burner, if only temporarily. For most swugs, the rest of their lives mean getting dressed for work everyday. No yoga pants. No ponytails. Lots of makeup. These prospects sound exhausting. Swugs deserve to enjoy this time in their lives. Swugs need to spend time with their friends before they scatter around the country post-graduate. They need to relish in the joy of deciding
that jeans are too much effort. They need to apply for jobs, grants, grad schools, fellowships, postgraduate volunteer work, or contemplate the meaning of their swug lives. Swugs need to study, they need to work hard and play hard. The swug life is a beautiful life, and I am sticking to it. It’s the perfect moment in a senior woman’s life when she is over trying to impress her fellow peers and really has the time to revel in that freedom and be comfortable in her own swug skin. Don’t call me washed up—call me smart. In the wise words of Donna Meagle and Tom Haverford, “Treat yo’ self” to the swug life.
Therese Tully is a senior staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.
John wiley / heights editor
For senior year, it’s okay to let more important things temporarily take precedence over fashion.
When I first heard Liam Neeson was visiting Boston College with his son on Tuesday, my natural response was to hunt him down. Why? Because Liam Neeson, that’s why. So I packed up my books, and by the time I made it outside, a small mob was already gathered outside of Devlin, staking out what presumably was the actor’s limousine. I waited with them for a couple minutes, but when the 61-year-old Irishman failed to produce himself, I took matters into my own hands—I had to find him myself. Somewhere between creepily profiling the parents in the admissions office, conspicuously walking back and forth through the Quad, and finding myself wandering aimlessly through what appeared to be the offices of the environmental science department, I began to question my motives. What if I did see Liam Neeson? Would I say anything to him, or would I even be able to speak? What would he say to me? Wait—what if he tells me to get away? How would my life be compromised if Liam Neeson told me to get away? Would I get away? Would he make me get away? Isn’t Liam Neeson a little old to have a kid looking at colleges? Why did I even care? I wasted an hour for the chance to see Liam Neeson for no more than 30 seconds, knowing the odds of even that were slim. I never saw Liam Neeson, but I did waste a good chunk of the afternoon that I could’ve spent studying for my business law exam later that day. To be honest, I’ve never understood the obsession with celebrities—if anything, I’ve looked down on it. And now I’m left with an unusual dilemma. Suddenly, I’m not so sure I understand myself. Why should it matter that Liam Neeson was casually walking around the Quad? And why did BC feel the need to update Agora with the details of Kobe Bryant’s visit to a marketing class? When we hear about these celebrities coming to our school, there’s a sense of validation. If an extraordinary person bothers with such ordinary things—going on a college tour, attending an evening class—our own lives begin to feel a little less ordinary. Liam Neeson isn’t just a man. Liam Neeson is sublime. So logically, spending an afternoon waiting for Liam Neeson is in itself sublime. Or is it just creepy? Later that day, I caught Fr. Leahy walking through Stokes. I wondered what his thoughts were on Liam Neeson, or if he even watched movies, for that matter. I imagined what BC might be like if students hunted down Leahy in the same manner, and it soon made sense why they wouldn’t. There’s a very gloomy way of looking at the whole day—nobody cared about seeing Liam Neeson. Nobody really thought about what they’d say to him. Nobody cared what his visit meant. Seeing him for 30 seconds meant next to nothing. No one cares that much about seeing Liam Neeson—unless, that is, Liam Neeson might see us. Our love of celebrities has little to do with who they are or what they’ve done. I daresay most of those whispering about Neeson in the Quad hadn’t seen more than one or two of his films, and if I really cared about the man, I could have easily spent that afternoon checking one of his films from O’Neill or doing some research on the man. The obsession with celebrities has little to do with the stars and everything to do with ourselves. If taking pictures of Leahy as he walked up the Million Dollar Staircase—or making a witty remark about his visit to campus—could get nearly the attention on social media as Neeson’s visit, perhaps we’d stalk that man, too. So is it shameful that I spent my afternoon hunting down an innocent man and with no motive other than the self-gratification in seeing him? When you frame it that way, it is somewhat indefensible—but maybe there’s more to it. Maybe it’s not all too different from putting aside that paper to spend an hour in the snow or stopping on a busy day to take a picture of Gasson. If we can’t find time for these little escapes, if we close ourselves off to adventure, what’s the work for anyway? There’s nothing more joyfully human than standing outside Devlin, getting pelted by snow, waiting for Liam Neeson.
John Wiley is the Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.
B6
The Heights
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Would you rather have $46,000 or a whooooole lotta take-out? Cook your own dinner instead of ordering in. $9 saved a day x 5 days a week x 10 years x 6% interest = $46,694. That could be money in your pocket. Small changes today. Big bucks tomorrow. Go to feedthepig.org for free savings tips.
THE HEIGHTS
Thursday, February 20, 2014
B7
THIS WEEK IN... BY ANTONIO FRIETZE | FOR THE HEIGHTS
POLITICS
COMMUNITY
The name Kennedy is so closely associated with politics that one can hardly be mentioned without the other, and Joe Kennedy III is no exception. The freshman representative from Massachusetts is approaching his oneyear anniversary in Congress, and much is expected from the young politician. Kennedy only recently passed his first bill and has largely refrained from openly criticizing House Republicans , focusing instead on building bridges across party lines. “I think it’s extremely important to at the very least try to understand what that point of view is,” Kennedy said of his Republican counterparts, according to The Boston Globe. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to agree on everything. But you might find something.” As of now, the young congressman faces an uncontested election in the 2014 cycle.
During his initial campaign for higher office, Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, promised to work toward a greater number of minority-owned businesses and suggested that half of the command staff of the Boston Police Department and half of his Cabinet be members of minority communities. Walsh reiterated these promises last Monday at an event in honor of Black History Month. Walsh has taken steps toward achieving his goals, including appointing the BPD’s first AfricanAmerican Superintendent-in-Chief, William G. Gross, and choosing Felix G. Arroyo, a Latino, to be the city’s chief of Health and Human Services. While leaving the event, however, Walsh acknowledged that achieving his goals of greater inclusion is a longterm process. “I can say everything, all the right words, but if I’m not proving it by my actions, then it’s just words,” he said, according to the Globe.
POETRY WINTER This coming Wednesday, Feb. 26, teams from Emerson College, Berklee College of Music, Simmons College, Harvard University, and Northeastern University will perform slam poetry at Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, Mass. The performance is part of the Weekly Wednesday Series hosted by the lounge that aims at featuring spoken word and slam poetry. The teams are performing in preparation for the annual College Unions Poetry Invitational in Boulder, Colo. Another person can sign one up to perform at the mic, but no one person can sign up more than one name. Additionally, the mic is for unaccompanied poetry only—no instruments allowed. Doors open for the Weekly Wednesday Series at 7:15 p.m., and there is typically an open mic that begins at 8 p.m., though no open mic will be hosted this week. Featured poets begin at 10 p.m. Poetry shows are 18-plus and the cover charge is $3.00.
YOU JUST BLEW $10,000. Buzzed. Busted. Broke. Get caught, and you could be paying around 10,000 in fines, legal fees and increased
$
insurance rates.
In the spirit of vigorously rejecting the propensity of young adults in Boston to hibernate during the winter, the online magazine Forever Twenty Somethings is hosting its first event in Boston, the “F*** Your Couch! Party” at the Brahmin, an American cuisine and cocktail bar in the Back Bay. The event aims to combat winter malaise and bring together young people from all over Boston to enjoy each other’s company and the music, and to drink. The event is 21-plus. Tickets are available on Eventbrite for $22 until Friday, Feb. 21 and include one complementary drink as well as three raffle tickets that could win prizes such as a ski vacation, gift cards to Tavern Road Restaurant and Bar, or individual registration for Major League Bocce’s spring season. The event will run from 8:30 p.m. on Friday to 2 a.m. Saturday. Tickets will not be sold at the door.
ARTS The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston opened a new exhibit last Friday focusing on the Impressionist works most popular in the Boston arts communities. Fans voted for their favorites among 50 works, with the top 30 becoming part of the Boston Loves Impressionism exhibit currently at the MFA. The exhibition will run until May 26 and includes masterpieces such as Van Gogh’s “Houses at Auvers” (1890), Monet’s “Water Lilies” (1907), and Edgar Degas’ “Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer” (original model 1878–81, cast after 1921). The exhibition is home to letters, photos, statues, newspaper clippings, as well as paintings. This is the first time the MFA has invited the public to play such a deciding role in an exhibition, and it is available to Boston College students at no cost upon presentation of a valid BC ID.
BOSTON FOODIE
New Italian restaurant opens in Seaport District
Buzzed driving is drunk driving. buzzeddriving.adcouncil.org
PHOTO COURTESY OF M.C. SPIEDO RISTORANTE
Chefs Gaier and Frasier strive to bring back the Renaissance in new venture BY KELLY COLEMAN Heights Staff
Established chefs Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier recently kicked off their newest culinary venture, M.C. Spiedo Ristorante. The Italian Renaissanceinspired eatery is located inside the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel in the Seaport District. Gaier and Frasier traveled around Europe and were fascinated by Italy’s rich history—specifically, the Italian Renaissance. In addition to being a time of significant artistic and cultural change, Frasier said that the Renaissance was also a time when people rediscovered “that food and cooking—going out and having parties—was part of life. Before that, cooking and eating was really only considered for sustenance.” The time period’s influence can be spotted in every detail of the eatery—even the food. A “spiedo,” the Italian word for “spit” or “skewer,” was a widely used culinary tool during the Renaissance, and it will be used nightly to roast the variety of meats on the extensive menu. Mark and Clark—the names behind the initials “M.C.,” have extrapolated actual recipes from the Renaissance era through extensive research. The recipe for the Leonardo salad, for example, was found scribbled in the pages of one of Leonardo da Vinci’s actual sketchbooks. Frasier also noted a chicken dish topped with fruit which was inspired by a recipe prepared for 90 wedding guests in Sienna on Dec. 28, 1326. “We’ve really brought back something that is pretty fascinating,” Frasier said, as almost the entire menu is based on historical dishes and methods of cooking. The authenticity continues in the decor of the restaurant. The 80-seat dining room features a grand marble antipasti bar where 10 guests can sit and watch food be prepared up close. Opulent gold columns planted around the main dining area complement the luxurious red velvet curtains that cloak cozy booths on the opposite end of the dining area. The restaurant also features a private dining room for parties with
up to 20 guests. The restaurant’s attention to detail is acute: five striking chandeliers shaded by baroque fabrics sprinkle the ceiling, and an authentic market carts zip around to deliver charcuterie, cheeses, and other small dishes to hungry patrons. Before the birth of M.C. Spiedo, Gaier and Frasier opened two restaurants, Arrows and M.C. Perkins Cove, both in Maine. When asked how he became involved in the restaurant business, Frasier chuckled. “Like a lot of people in the restaurant business, I kind of fell into it,” he said. The dynamic culinary duo met years ago while working at the renowned restaurant Stars in San Francisco. Frasier credits the establishment as being “a landmark restaurant” that changed the the nature of restaurants in the U.S. Growing up, both chefs were born into families that loved to cook. While neither of them attended culinary school, both worked their way up in the restaurant business—starting with washing dishes
LOCATION: 606 Congress Street CUISINE: Italian SIGNATURE DISH: Spit Roasted Heritage Chicken and bussing tables. Both chefs are excited by the challenge of opening a new restaurant, especially in Boston, which Frasier refers to as “a land of many colleges and extremely bright people” who are “dynamic and interesting.” Frasier contends that, while M.C. Spiedo has a contemporary feel, “it definitely evokes the era,” and that compared to the many intimate restaurants of Boston, Spiedo has a more glamorous vibe. Gaier and Frasier hope the restaurant reflects the emotions of the Italian Renaissance. Frasier reiterated that the Renaissance was not marked by the reemergence of art and culture, but also “the rebirth of the enjoyment of life.” “The whole restaurant is about that,” he said.
THE HEIGHTS
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BENNET’S BANTER
BCPD’s well deserved thank you
BENNET JOHNSON Boston College rests on about 350 acres of prime real estate nestled between the city of Boston and the residential neighborhood of Newton. What’s special about BC is that it prides itself on access to a city while still retaining an enclosed campus where most students interact together in common areas. Students’ safety on campus, however, is sometimes affected by the school’s close proximity to a major city, and the University and BCPD work tirelessly to ensure that students can feel safe at all times when on campus. BCPD is not a typical college police force. Actually, the group is very unique in that it is granted the rights of an actual police force, as well has the ability to exercise its authority outside of the Boston College area. BCPD operates with 51 sworn-in police officers that work full-time to provide 24 hour-a-day services. “Working together for a safer community” is the motto of the Boston College Police Department. In many ways this is difficult, since the campus is split into five sectors. BCPD, however, is a specialized police force that serves the community in many ways that go far beyond basic law enforcement. BC students and BCPD are not always on the best of terms. I know police officers probably despise us during most nights on the weekend, and rightfully so. After numerous drunken encounters with students in the Mods and lurking around Late Night, I’m always surprised to see an officer smile and wave at passing students crossing CoRo on Monday morning. Despite some of the complaints surrounding BC, I think now is a good time to take a moment to really appreciate all of the work that BCPD does to keep our community safe. Since the turn of the new year, there has been an uptick in violence in Boston. In fact, there have already been 10 homicides since January, and 75 guns taken off the streets. Although Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09 established his safety initiative—designed to cut back on gun violence—we live in a time where gun violence is an issue. I believe at BC we are truly blessed to be living in a college community devoid of this type of serious violence and danger. With the 1-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings on the horizon, I think now is an appropriate time to recognize and appreciate the work of our police force Last year, Officer Sean Collier died protecting the student population of MIT. Collier is a true hero who put the safety of thousands of students before his own. Sometimes BCPD officers need to protect us from ourselves, but as last year’s events have shown, sometimes BCPD needs to step in when there is a threat of external danger. Last year when the entire city was on lockdown, BCPD didn’t hide with the rest of the city awaiting the end of a manhunt. Instead, they came in to work and ensured the safety of the BC community. What’s remarkable about BCPD is that it is not just a unit or a force. It is so much more. BCPD officers are not out to get us all in trouble. They are reasonable. They know we’re in college and like to have fun. But they also know that sometimes we get out of control and need to be put in check. BC students take for granted the 51 full-time officers that keep our community safe day in and day out. They are a dedicated group that too often goes unrecognized for their accomplishment. Next time you see a BCPD vehicle trolling around Upper Campus or an officer walking through the Mods, take a moment to thank the officers who protect our school each day and make BC a safe place.
Bennet Johnson is the Asst. Metro Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Tidbit faces subpoena in New Jersey investigation MIT President L. Rafael Reif announces support for founders BY RYAN TOWEY Metro Editor Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President L. Rafael Reif released a letter to the MIT community on Feb. 15 announcing the university’s support for the student founders of a startup called Tidbit. The students have been facing legal trouble since December, when the attorney general’s office of New Jersey served Tidbit co-founder Jeremy Rubin a subpoena in connection with an investigation led by the Garden State’s Division of Consumer Affairs and Office of Consumer Protection. “I want to make it clear that the students who created Tidbit have the full and enthusiastic support of MIT,” Reif wrote. Tidbit rose to prominence last November, when Rubin and three fellow MIT undergraduates participated in an online “hackathon.” The startup would allow an internet user to avoid seeing displayed advertisements by lending website owners the computing power to mine for bitcoins, a type of electronic currency. The attorney general’s office feared that Tidbit may have violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act by breaching people’s computers without authorization and demanded that the startup release sensitive information, including source code and hosting websites, despite the fact that the team insisted the coding was not yet functional. In an effort to defend itself against the demands of the subpoena, the members of the Tidbit team began working with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a
non-profit that defends innovation rights in the digital world. “The issue is the state thinks [Tidbit’s] being used for some malicious purpose, and we disagree,” said EFF staff attorney Hanni Fakhoury, according to Boston Magazine. EFF and Tidbit’s representatives also insisted that the subpoena was unlawful, because Rubin is from Boston. “Tidbit and its developers have no connection to New Jersey at all,” Fakhoury told Boston Magazine. All of Tidbit’s developers, including Mr. Rubin, are MIT students who reside in Massachusetts. Tidbit’s servers are not physically located in New Jersey. Since the code was never functional, it cannot and has not been used to mine for Bitcoins.” In a letter to users, the Tidbit team explained the effect that the subpoena was having on the startup: “Our development progress has been halted,” they wrote. “From what we understand, we can’t release anything or even incorporate until the subpoena has been settled … Obviously, this is a significant setback. We’re intensely frustrated and are working to resolve the situation as soon as possible.” MIT received criticism for what members of the university’s community saw as a failure to support the students, echoing problems critics had with the university’s handling of federal charges levied against Aaron Swartz, an internet activist who committed suicide in January 2013 as a result of the legal backlash that came after he downloaded millions of journal articles using MIT’s network. Members of the MIT community sought signatures for a letter criticizing the administration’s perceived inaction in the face of Tidbit’s troubles. “Students are being threatened with legal action for doing exactly what we encourage them to do: explore and create innovative
TIDBIT LOGO VIA TIDBIT.CO.IN
Tidbit, a startup founded by MIT students, would allow website owners to mine for bitcoins. new technologies,” wrote Hal Abelson, a computer science professor; Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT; and Media Lab graduate student Nathan Matias, according to The Boston Globe. In his letter to the community, however, Reif dispelled the notion that MIT would not support the Tidbit team as it faces legal strife. Reif wrote that the problems faced by Tidbit highlight “issues central to sustaining the creative culture of MIT.” Reif added that MIT Chancellor Cindy Barnhart and Provost Marty Schmidt met with the students as well as EFF to discuss the case and offer assistance in the legal proceedings.
Reif insisted that, in order maintain the innovative nature of MIT’s student body, systems need to be put into place to assure that students have the assistance they need if legal troubled stem from their inventive efforts. “Beyond this specific case, I believe we should provide our student inventors and entrepreneurs with a resource for independent legal advice, singularly devoted to their interests and rights,” Reif said. “I have asked the Provost, Chancellor and General Counsel to develop and submit to me a specific proposal for creating such a resource, which will add an essential new strength to MIT’s innovation ecosystem.”
Calderwood Hall to house the Gardner series Museum, from B10
PHOTO COURTESY OF GERRY ABBEY
Abbey converted his 600 journal pages into his first book, which he self-published.
Abbey chose to self-publish, avoiding creative negotiations Abbey, from B10 his first few months abroad Abbey was frequently left alone with his journal. To offset the obstacles of communication he found amongst the other teachers in the village, Abbey wrote, recounting his experience and arranging his thoughts, “I was just a 23-year-old trying to sort out the world as a young professional, who was trying to translate a different culture.” In October 2004, however, he began to realize that hundreds of hand-written pages could be more than just a journal. “I was beginning to see stories that were valuable for me, that put into words the lessons I was learning,” he said, and the nine-year process began. The now published Cheers, Beers, and Eastern Promise tells the story of Abbey’s year in Taiwan and how it shaped his life, highlighting circumstances that range from confusion in the village, struggles with language, a motorcycle crash, and “way too much karaoke,” he says. “It is what I took away from the interactions, experiences, and adventures I had.” Transferring his 600 journal pages into a copy-edited manuscript was a lengthy process. Upon returning from Taiwan, Abbey spent three years transcribing his content into the first stages of his memoir, taking notes on the stories that would provide the most significant and cohesive retelling of the most important year of his life. “I was taking the stories and not rewriting them but reinventing them,” he said. “For this to work they needed to appeal to a broad audience.” After moving to three different states in three years, Abbey settled in Boston and took a job as a cost-of-living surveyor that allowed him both flexible hours for writing as well as continued global travel opportunities. With 435 single-spaced, Microsoft Word pages of content, which would transfer into about 1,200 standard style novel pages, Abbey sought the help of a structural
editor to cut down his seemingly endless manuscript. “To see those extra pieces come away and have a fine tuned story come together, to just be able to read it from beginning to end, I used to think years ago that I would be really attached to what I wrote but that process was beautiful,” Abbey said. After cutting more than three fourths of his content, Abbey worked with local, Cambridge-based copy-editing companies before self-publishing his book through Amazon’s publishing platform CreateSpace. “Being that this story is so personal and important, I didn’t want to haggle with publishers or agents,” Abbey said. “I wanted it to be my way. That decision was made outright, at the very beginning. There were a lot of people who went into making this a real marketable, published work but it is my story, my life, and the most experiencefilled and impactful part of it.” After publishing in late 2013, Abbey and Cheers, Beers, and Eastern Promise have seen early success. Much of his post-published time now consists of promoting his work and reaching out to the Boston-area community. “I truly believe in this story,” he said. “It is definitely a mixed response, but we always have something to look forward to every other week and Boston is a great outlet, what with all of the universities that surround it each with such great minds.” Not only is Cheers, Beers, and Eastern Promise now available locally at the Harvard Bookstore, Porter Square Books, and Trident Booksellers & Cafe, but it is also available on Amazon and Kindle, the latter of which will be discounted for a Spring Break special. “Now that I am done it is incredible to be able to look at my book, tangibly and published, and know that it is what I wanted to have done,” said Abbey, who plans to continue writing in the future. “If you like books, you are going to enjoy this story. If you like travel, teaching, learning, and the human experience, you are going to love this story.”
couple of years, we have been thinking about making work that would resonate in the new space, the different space, with new visual language,” she said. In March, digital art trio OpenEndedGroup, a veteran group at the Gardner, will premiere a 3D film it created during its 2012 residency at the Gardner that was specifically created to be shown in the Calderwood Hall. The film, called Saccades, is comprised of a series of thousands of images. It is designed to emulate the experience of moving through the museum in a different way than a person typically might by showing the way the mind makes associations. OpenEndedGroup, which worked with a friend to make the film, created a special algorithm designed to sequence the various images in a way that maximizes the use of visual space and the viewer’s experience. The following month, Stir will feature the performance of poet Susan
Howe accompanied by musician and composer David Grubbs, who combine poetry and soundscapes to create sound-works. Their performance, entitled WoodSlipperCounterClatter, will feature previously unpublished text collages by Howe and field recordings made by Grubbs in the Gardner Museum in 2012. On April 17, Stir will also feature a performance by toy pianist Phyllis Chen, called A Far Cry. While the series is still new, the creators are optimistic about its potential to contribute to the Boston arts community. They believe it will attract a different kind of crowd than those who enjoy more classical arts and music and hope that it will encourage a broader exploration of all elements of contemporary art. Cavalchini called the series “inspiring” and is enthusiastic about its potential to give artists the opportunity to workshop and play with new ideas. “It’s a small program,” Calvalchini said. “but the [Calderwood] space allows for the possibility to grow.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF AN ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM PRESS KIT
The courtyard of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum encloses statues and a lush garden.
THE HEIGHTS
Thursday, February 20, 2014
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Mayor’s Safety Initiative to address city violence BY TRICIA TIEDT Heights Editor In his inaugural address at Boston College, Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, highlighted the importance of addressing violence in Boston’s rougher neighborhoods. While last year’s homicide rate was low by the city’s standards—just 40 murders accounted for in 2013—“40 homicides still represents 40 grieving mothers too many,” according to Walsh. Walsh is now following through on his promise to address city violence with the creation of the Mayor’s Safety Initiative. Last Friday, Walsh announced that the initiative—crafted with the intention of curbing violence in Boston—will be led by Leon Graves and Daniel Mulhern. The initiative will work with the Boston Police Department, the Boston
Public Health Commission, the Boston Public Schools, and the Boston Centers for Youth and Family, among others, to foster cross-departmental strategies to further tackle the violence on Boston’s streets. According to the mayor’s office, the mandate of the project is to “examine and recommend solutions for the root causes of violence, such as access to illegal guns, trauma among young people, and quality of life issues such as economic development, access to education, and pathways to careers.” The initiative was designed in order to create new strategies to address violence and weed out existing strategies that are deemed no longer effective. “Boston is a city that is rich in assets, and we need to build on those assets to build a strong, safe future for our kids,” Walsh said in a press release. “I keep saying this: We cannot arrest our way out of
this problem. We need to take a comprehensive approach to neighborhood safety, and this is an important first step.” According to The Boston Globe, Walsh did not give a timetable for the initiative’s initial findings. Graves and Mulhearn have worked together in the past 15 years. Graves, who formerly worked for the late Representative Kevin Fitzgerald, has 20-plus years of experience addressing neighborhood violence, particularly with at-risk youth, and taking guns off of Boston streets. In his most recent role as a Dorchester District Court probation officer, Graves was assigned to the Youthful Offender Unit in collaboration with the District Attorney’s Office. Mulhearn most recently served as assistant district attorney for Suffolk County. As chief of the office’s Gang Unit and Safe Neighborhood Initiative,
THE HEART OF THE CITY
Mulhearn focused on gang-related crime, homicide, firearms-related cases, and drug offenses. He has served as a prosecutor in Boston for more than 10 years, specializing in gang-related offenses, gun crime, and drug trafficking cases. Both men appointed to lead the new initiative are Boston natives. The execution of this new plan comes after the Walsh’s administration came under fire last week for his proposed gun buyback program. Shortly after Walsh and Police Chief Commissioner William Evans proposed the reimplementation of a gun buyback program, which has not been done in Boston since 2006, criminologists and advocates alike criticized buyback plans as highly ineffective. The Mayor’s Safety Initiative, therefore, is seen as a test for the mayor’s office as Walsh persists in fighting violence in Boston.
Evans anticipates fighting crime alongside Walsh Evans, from B10 Evans said. “We’re a lot alike, and I think we have some of the same goals that will help Boston moving forward.” On April 15, 2013, Evans faced “probably the biggest challenge I’ll ever encounter in [his] career.” After hearing the news of the marathon bombings, Evans entered what he calls “operational mode.” The next 42 hours tested all of his leadership abilities. He ran to his home one mile away and rushed to the scene of the bombing. After completing a full-length marathon, Evans worked 42 straight hours as one of the key leaders in the search for the Boston Marathon bombers. Evans’ relentless leadership was influential in the capture of the alleged terrorist Dzokhar Tsarnaev. One major conflict arose when President Barack Obama decided to visit Boston. The president came to visit hospitals and hold mass at the Holy Cathedral, while two alleged terrorists were still at-large. While still hunting down the people responsible for the bombing, Evans also had to ensure the safety of the president. Evans’ most notable role in the aftermath of the bombings was his commanding the search of Watertown. From 1 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 19, Evans and his team of officers methodically searched houses,
making sure the location was safe. Having only slept 10 hours all week and running on water and granola bars, it seemed like his day was over until Evans got a dispatch that the suspicious person was hiding in a boat. “It seemed like every cop in New England was at the boat,” said Evans. “When they heard that I had the guy in the boat, it was hard stopping all of the cops. After a shootout started, I had to yell both on and off my radio for them to stand down.” Throughout the whole shootout, Evans was worried that this wasn’t the bomber, because all that the police could see was someone poking out of a boat. “I always remember that guilty feeling that this wasn’t our guy,” said Evans. “I think it was the happiest day of my career when I found out that this was 100 percent our guy.” Perhaps Evans’ most memorable moment following the tragedy was driving to the press conference after the capture of the alleged bomber. “People don’t usually clap for cops,” Evans said. “The celebrations and applause for us was the best feeling in the world. I was on the field the next day for the Red Sox, and I almost teared up during the national anthem and ‘God Bless America’ because it was such an emotional week.”
EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Police Commissioner Evans spoke to members of the Emerging Leadership Program Tuesday.
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COLLEGIATE ROUND-UP BY ADRIANA OLAYA | FOR THE HEIGHTS
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Harvard professor called ‘sheriff’ of the Internet Harvard’s Benjamin Edelman has become the sheriff to the Wild West that is today’s Internet. Edelman, who is now an associate professor at Harvard Business School, has always had a particular prowess for Internet ethics. At age 13, Edelman wrote a program that helps clients decide on components for Gateway computers. In high school, he helped businesses set up databases and websites. While a student at Harvard, Edelman was making up to $400 an hour as an expert witness for the National Football League, aiding in the fight against unauthorized web browsing, according to Bloomberg.com. By his senior year, Edelman was enlisted by the American Civil Liberties Union and paid $300 an hour to oppose the government’s use of information filters in libraries. Edelman is “an astonishing scholar of the Internet,”
BOSTON UNIV. Boston University is taking steps to limit alcohol abuse by its students. While the school already has an alcohol enforcement policy in place, many officials at the university believe it is not strict enough, particularly after 11 students had to be rushed to the hospital last weekend, according to CBS Boston. After urging from the university, BU police are stepping up patrols, particularly plainclothes officers, and concentrating in popular party spots on and off campus. Even some students are beginning to agree with the increased measures. “Pretty much every weekend, you see ambulances going from some of the younger kids’ dorms,” said BU senior Scott Shaw, according to CBS Boston. “I’m glad they’re stepping up.” Nevertheless, there is an unsurprising student resistance, as many fear the potential for increased animosity toward police and even bad decisions made by students trying to protect themselves from disciplinary consequences.
said Alvin Roth, a Nobel prize- winning colleague, according to Bloomberg Technology. “It’s the Wild West out there, and Ben is the sheriff.” Edelman, through his lucrative form of consulting, seeks to promote and enforce online behavior norms as well as seek out Internet misdeeds. “The Internet is what we make of it,” Edelman said. “We can shape it through diligence by exposing the folks that make it less good than it ought to be.” Edelman has not shied away from the Internet giants. While he has done work for Microsoft, he has also actively criticized Google, Inc. and Facebook, Inc. This, in turn, has caused many Internet corporations—and even Harvard colleagues—to become wary of him. Edelman sticks by his ethics, however, telling Bloomberg Technology, “I am who I am. I can’t stop being me.”
MIT Nine students from MIT were among the 126 researchers awarded 2014 Sloan Research Fellowships, according to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The MIT researchers have a diverse background, including three neuroscientists, three chemists, two mathematicians, and an ocean scientist. Since 1955, Sloan Research Fellowships have been awarded to ambitious scientists and scholars early in their careers. The fellowships recognize the students’ achievements and identify them as rising stars in the next generation of scientific leaders. This year’s recipients were drawn from 61 colleges and universities across the United States and Canada, according to MIT News. The fellowships are awarded in eight different fields, including chemistry, computer science, economics, mathematics, molecular biology, neurosciences, ocean sciences, and physics. Participants must be nominated by fellow scientists and be selected by an independent panel of scholars. These nine MIT students will receive $50,000 to be used in further research in their given field.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA
EMERSON Emerson College has teamed up with Tufts University to create a video game called Civic Seed. This multi-player, interactive, online video game was created by Tufts’ Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service and Emerson’s Engagement Game Lab. Civic Seed, which is set to launch this month, was created to prepare college students for community service and internships. “Student under-preparedness for working in communities is a pressing issue,” said Mindy Nierenberg, according to Campus Technology. Nierenberg is the senior student programs manager at the Tisch College and the director of the leadership minor in Tufts School of Arts and Sciences. Civic Seed aims to remedy such underpreparedness by having players explore “community collaboration, professional standards, sustainability, connecting academic interest to career aspirations, and leadership development” as well as respond to questions that form their “civic resume,” signifying the game’s completion.
The name everyone should know MAGGIE POWERS Martin Richard. Jan Marcos Pena. Two names, one forever in the public memory as the youngest Marathon bombing victim, the other a victim of a fatal shooting in Mattapan just a few weeks ago. Yet, when newly appointed Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans spoke at BC the other night, I was struck by how he used the name of almost every single victim he talked about and the dignity that came with each usage. So his reference to the alleged Marathon bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev as solely “white hat” seemed peculiar. He was able to remember the exact names of victims or even particular addresses of the party-prone BC student houses, but a name seared into the memory of thousands, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, went unmentioned. There was only a reference to the hat he was wearing in one of the first pictures released to the public. It became clear after a few more minutes this was no slip of the tongue. Evans continued to mention “black hat” and “white hat.” Finally, he explained himself. “I call them ‘white hat’ and ‘black hat,’” he said. “I don’t like saying their names.” Evans refused to grant them, the men who attacked his city on one of his favorite days of the year, the same dignity as the hundreds of victims he has seen in his time as a police officer in Boston. A 45-time marathoner, Evans completed the 2013 Boston Marathon only to be pulled from his post-race whirlpool and beer to respond to the explosions on Boylston St. He then spent the next week surviving on water, granola bars, and only about 10 hours of sleep until Tsarnaev was captured. His story, already told by Runners World, National Geographic, GQ, and Anderson Cooper, is making him a highly recognizable figure. Evans’ name is finally getting the recognition it deserves. There is very little I, a writer from a college newspaper, can add that will not seem redundant or trite. But, in some ways, Evans’s story is so classically Boston it can’t help but seem a little cliche, in the best way. Born, raised, and still a resident in South Boston, Evans still goes down to the Shamrock Pub with his brothers every weekend. His new push into the spotlight still seems startling to him. “My wife calls me this morning and says ‘did you see the Metro newspaper?’” He shook his head and explained, “they’re all over me because I’m not a tweeter.” He paused for a second. “A tweeter … is that what you call it?” There is something wonderfully human about Evans. He is far too humble for his role. He claims the hardest part of his new job as police commissioner is “finding an outfit.” “For 33 years I wore the same dark blue suit,” he explained in his surprisingly soft voice and South Boston accent. He even poked fun of himself as to how he looked in his dress uniform in GQ, “I look like a little kid playing dress up,” he said. Just the idea of being in GQ seemed funny to him. This humility and quiet leadership is a lesson so many BC students should absorb. After the capture of Tsarnaev, Evans was swept into photo opportunities with important politicians across the city. He said he could barely be seen in the back of all the people. Rather than fight his way through, he turned to his guys with him and said, in a wonderfully Boston manner, “Do you want to go get a beer?” He never did get to finish his beer after running 26.2 miles, after all. His story has been told over and over again, but it begs repeating. He has a connection to BC students—his son is enrolled—and the achievement of which he is most proud, funnily enough, is the introduction to a fence around the Mods. (Sorry, guys.) We should be proud to share even small links with a man whose name deserves to be remembered.
Maggie Powers is an editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@ bcheights.com.
METRO THE HEIGHTS
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Thursday, February 20, 2014
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2014
EDGE OF TOWN
In defense of the snow
A SAFER BOSTON
RYAN TOWEY Out the doors of Back Bay Station and onto the street. It is snowing in in the streetlights. Most would hurry to the Copley T stop and vanish into the warmth of the underground trains, but there exist few greater experiences in life than a walk in the snow. The cold of disappearing snow on your face reminds you that you are alive, though not in the same way that the warm bath of sun might—you are alive, but the tiny bites of cold remind you that life is not meant for easy pleasure alone. Walk past the Fairmont Copley Plaza. The doorman will be spared the brunt of the cold by the heaters above the doorway, but you pause only briefly for a reprieve from the thickening snowfall. The doorman nods at you as you spot a couple, laughing with their heads lowered, holding hands as they rush up Dartmouth St. toward the public library, but you are so unlike them—your hand holds only a bag you packed for the journey between home and Boston. The snow is not a comedic scenario to be shared, like a rude waiter on a dinner date or an unexpected thunderstorm on a family vacation. No, these things are not funny when alone. Is this loneliness? Not quite, you decide, because there is you and the snow and the suspicious feeling that there is something else with you. That is when you see Trinity Church. You have not been to Mass in weeks, maybe not since Christmas, but you have been raised a certain way to believe that something is in there, safe and warm beneath the snowcovered roof. You know that if you try the doors, they will be locked, but you cross the snowy expanse between yourself and the church just to try, just to say you did. When you return to the sidewalk, you are not sure that having entered the church would have much satisfied you anyway. Surely, that is not where that something is. Perhaps it is here, falling slowly and covering the earth with a heaven that will grow dirty with the exhaust of human invention, that will still take days to fully melt away. You are reminded of Franz Wright’s “The Heaven,” one poem in God’s Silence, in which the speaker stands “in the otherwise vacant / and seemingly ceilingless / vastness of a snowlit Boston / church.” You look around and see no one is around you—only one taxi idles at a stoplight, as if to take you where everyone else has gone. Back to their houses, back to warmth and their families or their lack thereof. You wonder if you have already found your church. You know that, back at school, people will be complaining about the additional round of snow. Even your mother says she is sick of it. The perennial mantra begins, the communal push to fast forward time. To you, however, time is still—the only motion comes from the falling snow. Even that taxi might sit at that unchanging traffic light forever. You know what the papers call this type of weather. “Snowmageddon” and “polar vortex:” the words that describe man’s next titanic battle against snow. Surely, they are wrong. Wright’s poem returns to you again. The speaker says that his “hope is to die like a child,” and a voice speaks out of the emptiness: “I / can do that—/ if you ask me, I will do it / for you.” You listen for a voice, but hear nothing. The silence, however, is not a discomfort. It provides you, instead, with the feeling that something would speak were it not already whispering snowfall. Satisfied, and finding yourself finally before the maw of the Copley stop, you clamber underground with stories of a snow about which no one should complain. Time starts again. The red light changes to green, and the idling taxi goes.
Ryan Towey is the Metro Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.
Born and raised in South Boston, Police Commissioner William B. Evans discusses the Marathon, running, and making the city a safer place BENNET JOHNSON |ASST. METRO EDITOR
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t 55 years old and as a veteran of 45 marathons, Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans considers running an essential part of his life. Each day he wakes up at 4:30 a.m. and goes for a seven to eight mile run, then heads off to a full day of police work. His job of protecting the city of Boston can be very stressful, and he views running as his medicine. “I like to say I’m more of a runner than a policeman,” Evans said. Running in his 18th Boston Marathon last year, Evans hoped to be under 3:40 in order to qualify for the next year’s race. “I remember running and hearing my family and a group of cops cheering for me,” Evans said. “I will never forget crossing that finish line and seeing a bomb dog and explosives technician right in front of my eyes. It is something that I can’t get out of my head.” After completing the arduous 26.2 miles of the Boston Marathon, Evans headed to the Boston Athletic Club to relax on his day off from police work. Just minutes after entering the hot tub, a Boston police officer ran to share the news of the bombings in Copley Square. “I immediately thought that this can’t be true—this can’t happen in Boston,” Evans said. A 33-year veteran of the Boston Police Department, Evans was essentially nurtered to enter the field of criminal justice. Born and raised in South Boston, Evans lived in a lower-class neighborhood, and was brought up by five older brothers. His brother Paul went on to be police commissioner for 10 years, and two other brothers are currently Boston firemen. “Having that type of upbringing, you have a better understanding of how to treat people,” Evans said. “I believe my rough childhood made me stronger as an individual today.” After graduating from Suffolk University, and taking leadership classes at Harvard University, then a Homeland Security class in Monterey, Calif., and graduating from the FBI Academy, Evans joined the police force. He started as a cadet in 1980 and worked his way up to be a patrol officer, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and eventually superintendent. He served nine years as captain in the Allston and Brighton area and partnered with the local communities to reach solutions on crime and social disorder. In 1997, the main concern in these neighborhoods was
not robberies, assaults, or murders—instead it was issues surrounding colleges and universities. Evans worked directly with school administrators and strived to make college communities safer. He was instrumental in adding more security at Boston College football games and erecting a fence around BC’s Mods. For the past four and a half years, Evans has served the superintendent of the Boston Police Department. The captains are in charge of 11 districts throughout Boston, and as superintendent, Evans leads each of them, as well as a gang unit and special operations. On a daily basis, Evans views every police report in order to get an idea of what is going on in the city and then strives to address those issues. “I watch what crime is going on in the city,” Evans said. “Then I allocate the resources according to that crime. I put a lot more of my resources into rough areas to stop the violent crimes, rather than in less violent areas.” One challenge Evans faced as superintendent occurred in October 2012, with the Occupy Boston movement. For 70 days, Evans was down near Dewey Square leading the defense to deal with the occupiers. Rather than battling with the protestors, Evans set the tone from the beginning that his men would not be the enemies. “There was not one incident during Occupy Boston because of my style, ‘killing them with kindness,’” Evans said. “I’m in the 99 percent just like them, and I instructed my officers to talk to the occupiers and truly understand their issues.” Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, recently promoted Evans to commissioner of the Boston Police Department. Although his role has changed, his focus is still on planning for the next Boston Marathon. Evans and his team have been planning security for the past five months for the event that is set to have a record 35,000 participants this year. Another part of his job as Commissioner involves working with Walsh and Governor Deval Patrick on reducing violence. There has been an uptick of violence this year, with already 10 homicides and 75 guns taken off the street. “I look forward to having a very good relationship with Marty Walsh,”
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Gardner Museum introduces new contemporary art series ‘Stir’ combines art and music in an experimental series BY MAGGIE MARETZ Heights Staff
PHOTO COURTESY OF GERRY ABBEY
Gerry Abbey wrote much of his book about his visit to a village on the coast of Taiwan.
Local author recounts writing, editing, and telling his story BY SARAH MOORE Heights Editor
After nine years of writing, editing, and rewriting, Gerry Abbey has finally brought his story to the shelves. His recently published book, Cheers, Beers, and Eastern Promise, outlines the lessons learned and stories gathered over his yearlong experience in rural Taiwan. Excited and unsettled after returning to Fairfield University from studying abroad, a young Abbey sought to continue his travels and pursue new experiences. He looked to the Department of State-sponsored Fulbright Scholarship for this opportunity and by mid-2004 he
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was headed to teach English as a foreign language in a coastal town, almost three hours from Taipei. “Before that, I didn’t have any idea about Asia,” Abbey said. “I had never thought about Asian studies and honestly, I had only had Chinese food maybe twice in my life before I got on the plane. Seeing signs I couldn’t read and hearing people I couldn’t understand —everything was new, different, and extremely difficult, but I looked forward to the learning opportunity.” While attempting to break through the language barrier a little each day, in
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For the first time ever, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is presenting a new series called Stir, which features a blend of contemporary art, music, and performances. The series, which launched on Feb. 6, gives visitors to the Gardner Museum the opportunity to explore the experimental, modern events and exhibits that will be featured on the first Thursday of every month in the Museum’s new Calderwood Hall. The difference between Stir and the series it is replacing, Avant Gardner, is that, while some of the performance artists are not new to the Museum, the work they present in the series always will be. Stir launched with a performance of a piece by composer Lee Hyla that was specially commissioned by the Callithumpian Consort. The group, which is led by the New England Conservatory’s Stephen Drury, regularly performs at the Gardner, but its performance of Hyla’s piece had never been heard before its showcase in Stir. Pieranna Cavalchini, curator of Contemporary Art at the Gardner and co-creator of the series with curator of music Scott Nickrenz, describes
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Stir as “a mixture and collaboration of the music and contemporary departments,” which she hopes will provoke a new understanding and exploration of the blend between musical expression, visual art, and the spoken word. Since it is the first year that Stir will be presented, the nature of the series is largely experimental and relies heavily on the willingness of both the artists and visitors to explore new ideas. Cavalchini explained that the idea is to engage the audience and allow new ideas to stretch the viewers’ minds, as many of the concepts presented likely will be foreign to the average audience. The Calderwood Hall, which will house all of the events offered within Stir, is new to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and will play an integral part in the presentation of all of the performances. Renzo Piano and Yasuhisa Toyota designed the hall, which serves as the replacement for the old concert hall, the Tapestry Gallery. Piano and Toyota designed the hall with the intention of giving each audience member—located in three levels of balconies above the performers, who sit on the ground level—a uniform audio experience. One of the main reasons Stir was developed, according to Cavalchini, was the anticipation of this new hall and the potential it possesses to harness new and different performances. “For the past
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