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The Eagles snuck by Northeastern to move on to the Women’s Beanpot final, B8
Local coffeehouse Fuel draws accolades in early years and looks to expand, A8
The producers of Mod of Cards discuss the making of their latest episode, B1
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Thursday, February 5, 2015
Vol. XCVI, No. 6
Addazio adds 26 new recruits on National Signing Day Football recruiting class reflects focus on local talent, with balance between offensive and defensive players to replace key starters BY MICHAEL SULLIVAN Heights Editor Heading into National Signing Day as the head football coach for Boston College, Steve Addazio had four goals for his second recruiting class: dominate the home front, replace starters in the secondary, beef up the offensive and defensive lines, and find speed.
The Eagles will have 26 incoming student-athletes—21 freshmen, four mid-year enrollees, and one graduate transfer—from across nine states. Fifteen of BC’s 26 recruits live within a five-hour radius of Chestnut Hill and six are from Massachusetts—a fact that Addazio finds key to the growth of the program. “You always want to build a fence
around your school,” Addazio said. “Massachusetts has really good high school football, good coaches, and programs. These are kids that understand the Northeast.” BC’s incoming recruits are evenly balanced on both sides of the field, with 13 offensive and 13 defensive players. On the offensive side, the Eagles will add one tight end, one offensive-minded athlete, one running back, two quarterbacks,
three wide receivers, and five linemen. Defensively, BC will add two tackles, two ends, three linebackers, and six defensive backs. Addazio stressed the need to find secondary men to replace 2014 starters Manuel Asprilla and Dominique Williams. Highlighting this year’s defensive back class is Lukas Denis of Everett, Mass. Denis was ESPN Boston’s 2014 Defensive Player of the Year while compiling eight interceptions, three of which he returned for touchdowns. The BC coach also praised Denis’ intangible ability. “He is
a high character guy who is very bright,” Addazio said. “He’s a real BC guy. He will do well here.” The Eagles augmented their defensive line by adding graduate transfer tackle Evan Kelly and freshmen ends Zach Allen and Wyatt Ray. Kelly arrives from the University of Richmond as a First-Team All-Colonial Athletic Conference Player in 2014—given his background with the Spiders, Addazio noted that Kelly should be ready to start immediately for BC. Ray,
See Signing Day, A8
Matching student ideas with funding From UGBC, two funds for innovative campus projects BY ARIELLE CEDENO Assoc. News Editor
WILL MENNICKEN / HEIGHTS STAFF
Patriots parade draws thousands into Boston streets Super Bowl winners’ homecoming celebration rolls through city Wednesday as run of Boston’s professional sports championships continues in 2015 BY WILL MENNICKEN Heights Staff For the fourth time since 2002, the New England Patriots marched through the streets of Boston—this time, piled with snow. The parade was in celebration of a thrilling Super Bowl victory over the Seattle Seahawks last weekend. Thousands of cheering fans gathered in the city streets on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the Patriots’ last-minute 28-24 win over the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX, dredging through the city’s
snow conditions. Grandparents, babies, foreign tourists, college students, and police officers were decked out in red, white, and blue Patriots attire as Bostonians welcomed their team home from Glendale, Ariz. The one and a half mile journey began at 11 a.m. at the Prudential Plaza, from which the players paraded east down Boylston St., then left onto Tremont St. towards City Hall. The event marked the ninth time in the past 15 years a Boston professional sports team held a parade after winning a national championship title. Children, and even some adults, ignored police
warnings and climbed atop six-foot snow piles to get a view of their favorite players during this powerful moment in Patriots history. There was plenty of excitement and anticipation in the air as fans stood and awaited the arrival of their heroes. Groups of young fans chanted “Let’s go Pats!” and “Brady, you’re my hero!” long before the parade had even begun. The parade took about 20 minutes to pass, and had many uniquely Patriot-like qualities. Trucks blared music and showered the sidewalks with red, white,
See Parade, A5
Renewed oversight over the Innovation Fund and the Taking Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) by the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) will allow for students and organizations—both registered and nonregistered student organizations—to seek out funding for projects, programming, and events with increased clarity. These funds were created with the intention of sponsoring student creativity and allocating funds to individuals and groups that would otherwise not already have access to funding from other bodies. These new funds are structured so that approved individuals, groups, or organizations receive seed money—provided by UGBC to those outside of UGBC—that goes directly and immediately toward funding an idea, whether that be an event, initiative, program, or project. “The main goal is to really give students the funding to pursue the idea that they have,” said Matt Lavelle, UGBC senator, chairman of the Student Assembly’s Finance Committee, and CSOM ’17. “This really gives them the stepping stone and capability to put that into action, at the same time it supplements organizations on campus that do want to run events but don’t have the funding from a typical funding source.”
See Student Funding, A3
Newly formed council to advocate for accessibility First town hall meeting addresses issues for students with disabilities BY CAROLYN FREEMAN News Editor The newly formed Council for Students with Disabilities hosted its first town hall meeting on Tuesday, with the issue of physical disabilities at Boston College as the focus of the event. The council, established under the division of diversity and inclusion in the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) in January, is headed by Phoebe Fico, A&S ’16, and was formed as an advocacy group for students with disabilities. The council plans to work toward removing obstacles for these students in everyday life at BC, Fico said.
“We’re really excited to expand and grow the council,” said Martin Casiano, vice president of diversity and inclusion and A&S ’15. “Thank you for being the trailblazers with us.” In addition to Fico and Casiano, Paulette Durrett, the assistant dean for students with disabilities, spoke at the meeting. She has worked with students on the issue of campus accessibility for the past four years. Having previously advised UGBC, AHANA Leadership Council (ALC), and GLBTQ Leadership Council (GLC), she now works with students confronted with physical, medical, psychological, and temporary conditions that might limit their access to resources at the University. A potentially complicated aspect of the support system for BC students with
See Town Hall, A3
BEANPOT
ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR
BC falters with late Northeastern goal, drops Beanpot semifinal Men’s hockey lost 3-2 to Northeastern in Tuesday’s Beanpot semifinal and will play Harvard in the consolation game. See page B8.
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Enjoy a full cultural experience at “Parivaar,” the South Asian Student Association’s (SASA) 18th annual culture show on Saturday in Robsham at 7 p.m. The performance includes cultural dances, individual acts, and a fashion show. Tickets can be purchased online.
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Thursday, February 5, 2015 On Sunday, Feb. 8, the Black Student Forum invites students to attend a showing of the Oscarnominated film Selma at 11:40 a.m. at the Chestnut Hill SuperLux theater. The film is free to attend, and there will be a discussion in Cushing 001 afterward at 2:30 p.m.
Listen to the music of Harpsichordist Peter Watchorn and the musicians from the Bach Cantata Series at Emmanuel Church are performing a concert in Lyons Hall, Room 423 on Sunday, Feb. 8 at 4 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Boston College Music Department.
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News Kevin Breel addresses mental health stigmas Briefs By Alexandra Allam Heights Staff
No incidents On Feb. 3, the University announced that there had been no significant incidents on campus following the Super Bowl. The lack of indents earned the praise of William Evans, the Boston Police Commissioner. On Feb. 2, the Boston Police Department (BPD) issued a letter to area university students to thank them for their behavior. Thomas Mogan, Dean of Students, George Arey, director of Residential Life, and John King, director of Public Safety, also wrote a letter to all Boston College undergraduates thanking them for their cooperation and announcing that the BPD had thanked Boston-area students. “As we celebrate the victory of the New England Patriots, I wanted to be sure to reach out to our college and university students in Boston to say thank you,” the letter from the BPD read. “There were thousands of fans celebrating in Boston last night. You did a great job in doing so both responsibly and without incident.”
Housing begins As of Feb. 4, the 2015-2016 Returning Undergraduate Application Form is live on Agora Portal. Students must indicate their housing by midnight on Feb. 13, regardless of their intent to live on-campus, offcampus, or to go abroad. Students who fail to declare their intent could lose their housing privileges in subsequent years. If students don’t know whether they will be studying abroad or living off-campus at this point in time, they should submit forms as though they are going to live on campus, according to ResLife. If they decide after Feb. 13 to study abroad or live off-campus, students must submit a leave of absence form. This will cancel their request to live on campus and BC will issue them a full room and board refund if they have paid any bills at that point. There will be four information sessions hosted for freshmen this week, and students who are interested in applying for special housing—Healthy Living Community, Romance Language, Sustainability & Honors—must do by the intent form deadline.
Future snowfall More snow is coming to Boston. According to WCVB, Boston will receive one to three inches of snow to fall Wednesday night into Thursday morning—almost nothing when compared to winter storms Juno and Linus. “It looks like light snow will be around for the (Thursday) morning commute and it may get a little bit more intense mid-morning before it shifts off shore as we get into the afternoon,” Storm Team 5 meteorologist Cindy Fitzgibbon told WCVB. Sunday and Monday of next week could bring significantly more snow to Boston, but it is currently unclear how that might affect the city in regards to public transportation and school closings. With the recent string of winter storms, Boston has set two snowfall records dating as far back as 1974. Winter storm Linus capped the snowiest seven-day period, contributing to the 40.2 total inches that beat the old record of 31.2 inches set in 1996. Feb. 2 was also the snowiest since 1974, with an accumulation of 15.9 inches, as compared to 11.1 inches that fell 41 years ago.
21-year-old comedian and mental health activist Kevin Breel stood in front of a packed Robsham Theater last night, coming to Boston College as a part of the University’s Be Conscious initiative. “The only way to be vulnerable is to admit you’re imperfect,” he said. The Wednesday event was sponsored by the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) in conjunction with BC’s To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) chapter. Since its development this past summer, Be Conscious has been working throughout the school year to connect students to resources on campus, increase dialogue surrounding mental health and mental illness, and develop a more supportive community on campus for those struggling with related issues. Cassidy Gallegos, UGBC Senator and LSOE ’16, founded the University chapter of TWLOHA last January, hoping to bring the national group’s goal of breaking down the stigma surrounding mental health and mental illness to BC. With the Be Conscious program, UGBC and TWLOHA are working to normalize conversations around these subjects. Breel is the first major speaker on mental health to come to campus for the project. Since his TED talk, “Confessions of a Depressed Comic,” instantly went viral two years ago, with over a half of a million views in less than 30 days, the Canadian comedian has traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada to share the story of his battle with depression and advocate for the education, destigmatization,
Heights Staff The start of the new month marked the launch of two intercollegiate sustainability competitions on the Boston College campus. RecycleMania began Feb. 1 and runs until the end of March and the NRG Games begins Feb. 8 and finishes at the end of this month. BC first entered the RecycleMania competition in 2005. The tournament, which now includes over 400 colleges and universities, started out in 2001 as a recycling competition between Ohio University and Miami University. The rivalry between the two schools led to a successful competition in which both schools improved their recycling rates. In the following years, an increasing number of colleges were invited to join RecycleMania. “We all have come to a greater awareness of what it takes to manufacture items and goods that we use,” said Sustainability Program Director Robert Pion. “Why not recycle something so that it can be repurposed or remanufactured instead of throwing it into a landfill?” In last year’s competition, BC
Amelie Trieu / heights staff
Breel spoke to a packed Robsham Theater about mental health as part of the University’s Be Conscious campaign. and awareness of mental health and mental illness on high school and college campuses. “I was just sitting there and there was this crushing feeling that came over me that I’m not living a life, I’m just living a lie,” Breel said, giving the group a glance at the night of Feb. 26, 2011, when he came close to taking his life. The anecdotes and insights Breel presented about his journey in his TED talk gave Gallegos and other TWLOHA members the inspiration to bring the comedian to BC. “There’s no reason for anyone to struggle alone,” Gallegos said. “Mental health is something that everybody has and it affects every part of our lives, so if we can’t talk about it, we can’t address it.” After watching the TED talk and seeing posts about Breel by the founder of TWLOHA Jamie Tworkowski, Gallegos felt com-
placed 67th out of 461 colleges in the Grand Champion category with an overall recycling rate of 36.73 percent. “This year, we are also reaching out to faculty and staff to make them aware of RecycleMania,” Pion said. “We typically target the students, but recycling is something that all of us can easily do.” Pion noted how BC Facilities Services recently installed water bottle filling units in all of the residential halls on Upper and Newton Campus, so the University may see fewer plastic bottles used. He hopes students will see press releases and notices about the events and take ownership of the competition. BC’s Sustainability Program set several new goals for this year’s RecycleMania competition, including improving the University’s recycling rate and generating fewer total tons of overall waste and recycling. Outside of the competition, BC does pretty well with recycling, Pion said. Last year, the community recycled or diverted waste at a rate of 44 percent. “It’s a good number, but since we’ve been recycling for so long, I
pelled to bring the speaker on campus. Early last year, Gallegos met Breel at one of his speeches in Acton, Mass. After she got in contact with his agent, Gallegos worked with TWLOHA and UGBC to put her plan into action. “[The clubs] were all for it,” Gallegos said. “He is so relatable and very, very good at presenting the message and keeping a positive and hopeful attitude about it. Everybody was pretty on board with that.” In his presentation, Breel cited statistics that 12 to 14 teenagers a day die by suicide in North America and one million people every year, on average, take their own life. With the growing epidemic of suicide as a result of depression or other mental illness in the U.S. among college-age students, the push to understand and know how to respond to mental health issues
has been heightened, according to Gallegos. “So, for me, there is a lack of understanding at BC,” Gallegos said. “I think it’s not to say BC students are wrong or approaching it incorrectly, it’s just that it’s an unknown reality, you know? Absolutely a microcosm of the real world.” Gallegos explained that she, along with the clubs, would like to spread the distinction between mental health and mental illness, as well as a larger education on the appropriate language to use surrounding the subjects. “I think the stigma surrounds mental health, mental illness, specifically, is not just here at BC,” she said. “It’s nationwide, international, and I just want to put out the message that it’s okay to not be okay, and it’s not a character flaw to admit that you’re struggling with a mental health issue.” n
think we can improve on that rate,” he said. The NRG Games are another initiative geared toward improving habits among BC students and faculty. BC is competing against other schools in the Campus Conservation Nationals. The goal of this competition is to reduce the amount of energy and electricity used by students. BC participated in the games for a while, according to Pion, but then stopped participating until the games were restarted about five years ago. “At the request of some students, I was able to revitalize the NRG Games after a few years when we didn’t have the competition,” Pion said. The program puts BC in competition with other colleges, and residence halls in competition with each other. Students can go online and see how their residence halls are doing in the competition compared to other halls on campus. Pion believes that because halls are competing against one another, the students living in these halls will be all the more willing to take necessary measures to cut back on their energy emissions.
“If 50 people in a building decided that they would not keep TVs running needlessly or decided to shut off lights when not needed you would see an impact,” he said. “Multiply that by 7500 students and it can add up.” Pion said that it is hard to tell if there is one specific area in which the BC community is using more energy than in others. He added that succeeding in these competitions is not just about beating other schools. By competing, the University is acknowledging that it is part of a greater effort that can help to make a significant impact on waste reduction and on the carbon levels in the atmosphere. He suggested students think of one thing they could do differently, giving example of using real silver in the dining halls rather than plasticware. One small change like this will result in less waste, he said. “We owe it to each other and we need each other to work out solutions facing our climate and planet—but so many things seem beyond our reach or years away,” he said. “This is doable now, while we work out the bigger picture issues.” n
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 Carolyn Freeman, 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. Arts Events For future arts events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk. Call Ryan Dowd, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email arts@bcheights.com. Clarifications / Corrections The Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. If you believe we have made a reporting error, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or questions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact John Wiley, Editorin-Chief, at (617) 552-2223, or email eic@bcheights.com.
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 The following corrections are in reference to the issue dated Feb. 2, 2015, Vol. XCVI, No. 5 The article “Bowman Center readies for Black History Month celebration” misstated that tickets for the Haitian Association’s alumni reception are on sale through the Robsham ticket office. Tickets are available for free through Eventbrite. The same article misstated that the movie screening of ‘Selma’ would be on Saturday, rather than on Sunday, Feb. 8. The same article misstated that the Bowman Center will be hosting the Selma screening, rather than the Black Student Forum in collaboration with the Black Faculty, Staff and Administrators Association. It also misstated the time of departure and failed to qualify the specified time of the post-movie discussion. The information regarding tickets is a new addition to the article.
02/02/15 - 02/03/15
Monday, Feb. 2
Tuesday, Feb. 3
1:59 p.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was later transported to a medical facility from the Flynn Sports Complex.
4:05 p.m. - An office filed a report regarding a theft.
4:11 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a traffic accident in the Middle Campus Lots.
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POLICE BLOTTER
2;20 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding property that was confiscated in Xavier Hall.
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At BC, a February push for sustainability By Sophie Reardon
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11:43 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported to a medical facility from Cushing Hall.
—Source: The Boston College Police Department
What does being a superfan mean to you? “It’s a lifestyle.” —Thomas Hartnett, CSOM ‘18
“Well ... my shirt is in Texas.” —Seth Blanke, CSOM ‘17
“What is sports?” —Jake Robinson, A&S ‘16
“Embodying BC at all of the games.” —Yolanda Bustillo, A&S ‘18
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Thursday, February 5, 2015
Chinese NGO activist visits BC, discusses public involvement By Gus Merrell Asst. News Editor
The people of China have a very tenuous relationship with their government. The government will often refuse to listen to the needs of the people, and individuals and communities often go unheard when they bring their hardships to the attention of their government. Song Qinghua sought to fix the relationship between the Chinese people and their government, bridging the gap between politics and the needs of society. Her non-governmental organization, Shining Stone Community Action (SSCA), is designed to train the Chinese people to become more involved in the public decision-making process. Qinghua spoke to a small assembly of students in Gasson 305 on Feb. 3 at an event hosted by the Chinese Students Association of Boston College and professor of political science Robert Ross. Since Qinghua only speaks Chinese, a translator was present at the lecture. The first and most important foundation that Qinghua laid for the lecture was her definition of governance, saying that good governance was simply good management. She went on to explain that good governance involves the government’s involvement in public welfare, as well as its need to be transparent with—and accountable for—its actions. The biggest challenge that SSCA has faced has been the difficulty with cooperating with the government, according to Qinghua, who cited the the government’s skepticism of establishments that are not associated with the government, such as unions and religious institutions. SSCA focuses on three distinct goals when interacting with the people and the government. Qinghua said that getting the participation of the people within public decision is the most important part of what SSCA does because it is the foundation of its mission. She also said that there is a heavy focus on improving the organization’s relationship with the government and establishing a greater level of cooperation. Additionally, Qinghua hopes to compile a collection of case studies that SSCA can publish to
Alex gaynor / heights senior staff
Song Qinghua runs a non-governmental organization that trains Chinese people to become more politically involved, spoke via a translator in Gasson 305 this past Tuesday. further educate the public. Much of the lecture was centered around a case study that Qinghua shared that showed the success SSCA has had bridging the gap between the government and the people. The case study described a community full of older citizens who continually brought their issues to the government but received no help because the government didn’t consider many of their issues as being of consequence. Qinghua said that the people were interested in fixing their problems but claimed that they were too old to do anything useful. Qinghua sat down the people in
the community and asked them to present their problems and how they affected the community. Once the problems were out in the open, she asked them to brainstorm potential solutions without factoring in possible road-blocks, such as their age. Through this exercise, the group discovered that one of their largest problems was their inability to get rid of trash, so they set up a timeline for how the trash would be removed, and SSCA worked with the government to get transportation provided so the trash could satisfactorily be removed. Qinghua said that the success of this
project brought hope to the group and that when they sat down to think about their problems, they were often able to find the solutions. The community was so encouraged that they decided to form a small, selfgoverning board that would continue to push whatever agenda the community decided upon. After the elections, Qinghua said that she was slightly surprised when the board consisted of the people who were most pessimistic about the idea in the beginning. SSCA, headquartered in Beijing, currently has 20 employees in three cit-
ies. Questions were raised as to whether they should expand to other major cities around the country, but Qinghua believes that their efforts and money are better spent training individuals and communities to help themselves as they did in her case study. Having trained around 60,000 people to become more involved with the Chinese government, Qinghua and SSCA plan to continue to grow their initiative. Qinghua says that although things move very slowly, she is confident that they will be able to continue to spread their ideology through both the Internet and additional training programs. n
UGBC, CSD hope to remove obstacles for students with disabilities Town Hall, from A1 disabilities is that there are so many different places for these students to seek help that it’s not always clear where is most appropriate. Right now, there are four different offices that work with people with disabilities, Durrett said. “It’s part of BC’s history and culture that if they see a need, they fill that need,” Durrett said. “Sometimes that need is filled without talking to other people.” A large part of Durrett’s job is working with faculty and staff around student needs. For example, if a student needs to take an exam in the Disability Services Office because he or she needs extra time,
Durrett will go and talk to the professor to show that this is a documented need. Nanci Fiore-Chettiar, UGBC president and A&S ’15, expressed her excitement for the new council. This is an issue she is especially passionate about, she said. When she was a freshman, she brought Keith Jones, an activist for people with disabilities who has cerebral palsy, to campus. The event was not particularly well attended, according to Fiore-Chettiar, and she hopes to bring him back this year, as well as establish other initiatives and policies. “I’m really excited to have Phoebe here,” she said of Fico’s leadership on the
council. “She’s super passionate.” The town hall meeting eventually broke into small groups to discuss three aspects of BC life: residential life; academic life, support, and accommodations; and administrative support and resources. The group that focused on residential life focused on accessibility as well as the campus culture. It was noted that people at BC are often unaware of how students with disabilities navigate the campus. Although some things have improved in recent months, namely the accessibility of Bapst Library, there was a consensus that this is still a work in progress. “There’s definitely a culture at BC
where you should be healthy and fit and when people are not normal, there’s a social stigma,” said Christine Song, A&S ’18, who attended the town hall meeting. “I think the way to get rid of that stigma is more awareness and acceptance of other people.” Next, the group that discussed academic life, support, and accommodations brought up troubles that come with living off-campus. The accessibility of science labs was also brought up by this section. The third group talked about administrative support and resources, and suggested that the University add online resources onto the Agora Portal.
It was also suggested that the process for making medical appeals for housing be expedited, with it cited that the process currently can take months. One final group discussed all three of the categories of accessibility problems, and indicated that BC needs to work as a group rather than placing the entirety of the issue on those affected. Topographically, BC is a challenging campus to navigate for students with disabilities, noted group facilitator Brysen Boyd, A&S ’17. The University places an emphasis on diversity, but does not seem to recognize that people with disabilities also add to the diversity of the campus, Boyd said. n
Innovative independent projects to be bankrolled by UGBC student funds Student Funding, from A1 The fund draws its money from an allocation in UGBC’s budget, which is derived from the Student Activities Fee. The Student Assembly has primary oversight over both funds and acts as the primary trustee for funding—particularly, the Financial Affairs Committee within the Student Assembly (SA). Although each fund has the same basic infrastructure and application process, the criteria for each is different, as the two funds were implemented to serve different purposes. According to the Innovation Fund Guidelines, the Innovation Fund is intended to finance innovative projects and initiatives on campus, with three areas of focus: Tech Challenge, Social Innovation, and General Benefit. The Taking Green Initiative Fund also seeks to foster creativity, but with a focus on improving sustainability. “The fund’s purpose is multifaceted: it can serve as seed money for student-led projects, an incentive to address ‘green’ issues on campus, or an allocation for initiative ‘green’ programming on campus,” reads the Taking Green Initiatives Fund Guideliwnes.
According the Fund Guidelines, in order to be deemed eligible for funding, applicants must be registered undergraduate students; the proposed initiative, event, or program must be open to all undergraduate students; and, if the request is an organization allocation, the proposal must be in accordance with that organization’s mission. Furthermore, the organization must not have received funding for the proposed idea from any other body, like the Student Organization Funding Committee (SOFC), before applying for the Innovation Fund or the Taking Green Initiatives Fund. “Just naturally, if you’re a registered student organization you will receive funding from SOFC, but when it comes to the specific initiative, event, or project, they cannot have received funding from SOFC before that,” Lavelle said. In keeping with the goals of the program—to foster student innovation and creativity through the allocation of funds—the current infrastructure will allow for non-registered student organizations to apply for funding, as any registered undergraduate students can apply. While both SOFC and UGBC have the ability to fund student organizations,
SOFC serves as the primary source of funding for the 200 registered student organizations. “UGBC’s funds serve mainly as a complement to SOFC funding, either for non-registered student organizations, or for RSOs that the SOFC cannot fund fully, since we only fund clubs up to certain caps per our guidelines,” said Jackson Bowers, SOFC Chair and CSOM ’17. “I think UGBC’s funds will have the biggest impact for non-registered student groups, since these groups cannot get funds from SOFC.” According to the Fund Guidelines, members of UGBC are ineligible to apply for individual allocations, and campus publications, the campus activities board (CAB), and SOFC are ineligible to apply for organizational allocations. The initial application process is done through OrgSync, where prospective applicants submit the appropriate form for their desired funding. The application examines the logistical aspects of the proposed event or initiative, and also asks how it will contribute to the student body. “Our main goal behind it is to make sure that it’s new, something outside of the
box, and something that adds value, in addition to benefitting a lot of different students on campus—not narrowly towards one group or person,” Lavelle said. After submitting the form, the individual or group meets with the Financial Affairs Committee to discuss the application in an interview. If the Financial Affairs Committee approves the application, then the request goes to a vote in the next SA meeting. If the majority votes in approval of the allocation of funds, the funds are granted. If their allocation request is denied, applicants may appeal the decision by appealing to the executive vice president (EVP) of UGBC, currently held by Connor Bourff, A&S ’15. These funds have been in existence since Sept. 2014, but they are currently undergoing slight policy revamping and re-working with the aim of heightened accountability, oversight, and eligibility standards. Currently, there is no formal oversight by UGBC over the students and organizations that receive funding, beyond the stipulation that the event or program for which the funds are allocated must visibly include the “Funded by UGBC” logo in some capacity.
Lavelle also noted the potential for eligibility guidelines to be revised so that individuals may no longer apply for funds individually, but might instead be required to apply with a small group of people. “We are working on the specific funding eligibility, particularly in regards to individuals that apply because we want to make sure that these students take responsibility for the funding that they are given,” Lavelle said. Another policy change for the funding program includes heightened communication between those who received funding and UGBC, so that they may be able to more efficiently track the progress the group or individual has made to meet that event, initiative, or program. Ultimately, the slight adaptations of policy were made in hopes of increasing the efficiency and success of the individual or group’s proposed idea. “The point of the fund is a recognition that UGBC does not have all the answers, and there are students with awesome ideas,” Lavelle said in an email. “We wanted to make sure to put aside accessible money for students to use to realize a vision that can benefit other students.” n
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Boston vs. New York KAYLA FAMOLARE The Boston College population is seemingly split between a few particular areas of the country. In an effort to avoid the, “Why BC is not diverse,” column, I’ll just state the somewhat obvious: it’s between Bostonians and New Yorkers, Yankees fans and Sox diehards (or Mets fans if you’re part of the small sect). Past the obvious rivalry between the two baseball team lies another competition between those hailing from the “City that never sleeps” and the “City on a hill,” and that is the level of excitement and opportunities of the exploration in one’s respected space. I had this all-too-often argument with a good friend hailing from an hour outside of New York. She claimed that “the city”—the only “city” in her opinion—was the best place to spend the holiday season, that Boston is nothing in comparison to Central Park or Rockefeller Center amid the glistening lights and gently fallen snow. I, being the shouldhave-been-a-lawyer defender of all things I love, sent out on a mission to prove that Boston was just as great, if not perpetually better than New York around Christmas time. My master plan went as follows: Walk down Newbury St. You get the fun Geotag on Snapchat, and get to see how many cool shops there are, because there’s absolutely no way there are cool shopping places in New York, right? Right. Go to a fun, festive restaurant. One that is completely and uniquely Boston. Walk through the Public Garden. This was going to be the dealbreaker—the pretty lights, the frozen pond, the snow-covered willows. I knew this would seal the deal. Walk to the Frog Pond—classic. Even if we were not going to skate, it will be cool to see so many people enjoying such a staple of a Boston winter. Here’s how the night actually panned out: Newbury was, of course, frigid. Layers, Kayla, Layers. Every uniquely-Boston restaurant was booked, so Max Brenner’s it was. (This in fact was a blessing-in-disguise. Try the hazelnut hot cocoa from the “hug mug.”) The public garden faired to be very bare, and while still beautiful, the lack of bright, wintry lights was disappointing and seemed less than what I remember as a child when walking around. There was not a soul at the frog pond. I was distraught and a bit embarrassed that something I talked up so much had been so sub-par. I hung my head low as I suggested we call an Uber to go home. “Well,” I finally thought, “we’re close enough to the State House, might as well.” We ventured up the hill to the shining gold dome. What was to follow turned the entire excursion around as we ventured through the sloping, snow-covered, lamppost-lit streets of Beacon Hill. The row of brick townhouses covered in snow, decorated and lit up by an array of Christmas light brought a new glow to the seemingly un-lit and dull Boston we had previously stumbled through. With each Mahogany door we passed came a new and elaborate Christmas wreath hung with pride—displaying a sense of presupposed personality of the warm residents within the brownstones—and with almost every window came a towering, bright tree. We passed through Charles St. and the quaint and small shops lined as if in a picture-esque England town (a la A Christmas Carol) with large glass windows with traditional Christmas window display. (Ok, I’ll admit it. Maybe New York’s 5th Avenue Displays are a bit grander and more eye-opening.) One window of a ski and snowboard shop featured old photographs of skiers gliding their way their way down the Beacon Hills while another framed paintings of the Hill in both the summer and winter-time. While Boston may not be as grand as the celebrations that take place in New York City, there is a quiet and subtle presence during the holiday season among Boston neighborhoods that make it equally as enjoyable. It wasn’t the popular and quintessential Boston tourist attractions that stood as a staple for the holiday seasons like one can see in some of New York’s popular sites, but in the around-the-corner, lets-give-it-onelast-chance places you never expected you would explore—the stumble-upon gems.
Kayla Famolare is an editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@ bcheights.com
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Harvard dropout creates absorbable caffeine spray BY REBECCA MORETTI Heights Staff Most people get their caffeine fix by drinking coffee or energy drinks. Harvard dropout and young entrepreneur Ben Yu has found a different solution: spray-on caffeine. Yu himself has never been able to drink coffee without experiencing discomfort, explaining that some people metabolize caffeine slowly because they lack a certain enzyme. “When I drink coffee, I feel like a zombie,” Yu said. “I can’t sleep, I can’t think. This had always bothered me.” Yu’s negative reactions to coffee prompted him to develop a product that gives users smooth, focused energy minus the downsides of energy drinks and coffee. Sprayable Energy has no calories, sugars, chemicals, and does not induce jitters or a caffeine crash. According to Yu, the pocket-sized product is both a healthier and more effective alternative to coffee and energy drinks. Before dropping out of Harvard in 2011 and starting his company, Yu was studying biochemistry. Yu took a leave from Harvard while waiting to see if he’d received a prestigious Thiel Fellowship, which grants students $100,000 to focus on their work and research outside of their university studies. Once he received the fellowship, he left school to work on an e-commerce search engine, which he later set aside to develop Sprayable. “Fear of failure and uncertainty often keeps people from trying new things,” Yu said. “But in the end very few people regret the choices they make and the lessons they learn when coming down this path. That being said, it is incredibly difficult. Though there’s no clear path to success in entrepreneurship, remember that you can always bounce back at this age when you’re young and for the most part responsibility-free.” Yu met Deven Soni—later to become his equal partner and cofounder of Sprayable—on a social cruise for entrepreneurs and investors. Soni had been working in venture capital and investing in startups in the Bay Area, and the two became
fast friends. They later applied for a program called Startup Chile, in which the government in Santiago gives entrepreneurs a $40,000 grant to bring their ideas to Chileans. In Chile, Yu and Soni discussed the feasibility and desirability of the Sprayable idea. “We had to do a lot of research to make sure there was actually a demand for a product like ours,” Yu said. Once he decided to partner with Yu, Soni had to figure out the regulatory status of the product, build a team, and find manufacturers. Meanwhile, the development of the product was underway. Yu’s father, a chemist, had been working with transdermals—medicines that go through the skin—and became the chief science advisor for Sprayable, helping bring his son’s idea to life. Yu knew that caffeine can pass through the skin and be absorbed gradually over time. According to Yu, this technique is healthier than ingesting because it naturally regulates the dose that enters the body. “The two main groups who love the product are those who are sensitive to caffeine or are having health problems, especially stomach-related issues,” Yu said. By being absorbed straight into the skin, the caffeine bypasses the digestive tract and goes straight into the bloodstream. Over a year was spent in the lab trying to develop a viable formula for Sprayable. An obstacle encountered in the development of the product was the low solubility of caffeine. “In the spray, as opposed to in a normal cup of coffee or an energy drink, we had a lot less liquid to work with,” Yu said. “The problem was that we had a little water and a lot of caffeine, which is not that soluble. Our main issue was how to increase the penetration rate of caffeine.” After raising over $100,000 through a n i n d i e g o g o c a mp a i g n i n 2 0 1 3 , Sprayable was able to make its first mass production run, and has continued selling since. Business has been going very well for the company, with their products being sold in over 50 countries. In terms of advertising the products—which can be bought online—Yu said that word of
mouth has been much more effective than online ads. The company has grown revenue-wise, team-wise— from a team of three to six—and also product-wise. Now, the startup has launched its second product called Sprayable Sleep, which is basically sprayon melatonin. Yu believes that this product will target a much larger demographic than the first, by catering to insomniacs or anyone who has a melatonin deficiency. “Melatonin is produced naturally by our bodies in response to darkness,” Yu said. “Now that we stay up late with artificial lights it completely disrupts our bodies’ ability to create melatonin. Sprayable sleep gets people to their normal sleep-wake cycle.” Customers find Sprayable Sleep preferable to taking sleeping pills , which often contain additive chemicals. According to Yu, one of the greatest benefits of taking melatonin topically is absorbing it over time, rather than all at once as you would with a pill. This absorption through the skin mimics the body’s gradual release of melatonin, and helps regulate its circadian rhythm much more accurately. “Energy and sleep are two things which largely determine the quality of a person’s life,” said Yu. “We want to create products that help p e ople lead happier, more productive lives.”
Local coffee shop draws students with ‘America of old’ feel Fuel, from A8 community, meet new people, and see new faces,” according to Ferreira. “That way we can get our name out there, so people know who we are.” Fuel’s success has extended beyond Brighton and Chestnut Hill. The coffee shop was voted “Best coffee house on the Boston side of the Charles” by The Boston Phoenix during its first year in business.
“One of the coolest things is the customer-staff interaction,” Ferreira said. “Here, we do not have a business-like vibe, but one of friendship. We tell new hires to not only do their job well, but to be friendly to the costumers. To show them that you care.” Bonesia and Ferreira attribute much of Fuel’s success to its ambiance, which draws its inspiration from “America of old.” Countless
framed pictures adorn the walls of the establishment, among them great individuals such as Steve Jobs and Bob Dylan. “We try to emulate the innovation and exploration of those times,” Bonesia said. “To older people it will feel nostalgic to revisit that era and to the younger audience it will serve as a reminder of what the country is capable of. ” Within the next year, the establish-
ment is aiming to expand, a second location currently in the works at Logan Airport. Additionally, after catering to the company, New Balance has begun talks with Fuel about placing a location inside of their new headquarters. When asked to describe what Fuel America means to him, Ferreira talks big. “We fuel America,” he said.
ARTHUR BALIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Fuel America, a staple in Brighton, has become a popular study spot for Boston College students, offering a variety of specialty coffee beverages and fresh food options.
The Heights
Thursday, February 5, 2015
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Flat Patties brings homemade burgers to Harvard Square The sound of By Colin Couch Heights Staff
Harvard Square boasts an array of restaurants serving up iterations on the “classic” hamburger, but Flat Patties is looking to separate itself from the competition with its fresh ground beef, hand-cut fries, and potato buns. Located on Harvard Square’s flagship Brattle St., Flat Patties has been serving up the “Best 10 dollar and under burger” in Harvard Square since its inception in 2005, according to Boston Magazine. Flat Patties has evolved from sharing space with Felipe’s Taqueria to claiming its own place at 33 Brattle St.—sporting an intimate upstairs area where customers can listen as patties sizzle below. “You’ll notice here we serve it on a plate,” said Tom Brush, the director of Flat Patties and co-owner of Felipe’s Taqueria. “Here, you’ll notice there’s a lot of nice little touches.” Once customers step inside the restaurant, the home-cooked sensation a customer feels as he or she is served one of the freshly ground burgers at Flat Patties ties into Brush’s restaurant philosophy. Brush hopes to perfect one single restaurant in order to grind out the best experience possible, combined with the theme of a “down-home burger.” “My whole theory on restaurants is you do one, and that’s it,” Brush said. “There’s no such thing as a restaurant that gets better as they get bigger or expand. Something gets lost.” While the ground beef churned out
daily onto mashed potato brioche-like buns is the most popular menu item at Flat Patties, the restaurant also offers several other well-known, decadent items on its accessible menu. According to Brush, the restaurant’s ice cream is a “killer, made from scratch” dessert that comes in forms of frozen custard and milkshakes. Flat Patties hopes to surprise the customer with homegrown, cozy touches, while also offering high quality food and a surprisingly large selection of menu items. The homemade burger “quickserve” restaurant separates itself from competitors by doubling as a homespun ice cream shop. “We make, from scratch, our own homemade frozen custard,” Brush said. “It’s ice cream, but it’s a high-density ice cream. It’s not whipped with a lot of air. Most ice cream has a lot of air that fluffs it up, but it’s more like gelato. It’s churned slower, and it also has a higher egg content.” Aside from the meat itself, Flat Patties is cooking up some exceptional buns and sandwiches. “We sell a lot of pulled pork,” Brush said. “We also bake our bread from scratch every morning, and mashed potatoes are the moisture and body of the bread.” These airy buns nearly resembling popovers in texture, complement the fresh ground beef perfectly. To cater to the entire spectrum of customers walking through Flat Patties’ doors, the restaurant also features a popular veggie burger. “ The y ’re amazing ,” Brush said.
city silence
Sarah Moore
Photo courtesy of Flat Patties
Flat Patties is serving customers award-winning burgers and ice cream in Cambridge. “They’re bound together with oats and egg, and there’s a little bit of cheese in them. It’s zucchini, carrots, and onions, and it’s a really good veggie burger homemade right here.” As a staple in Harvard Square, college students make up a significant chunk of Flat Patties’ customer base. The restaurant welcomes a nightly
influx of students attracted to sub-five dollar prices of burgers and a $3.50 milkshake. Looking to the future, the restaurant hopes to continue catering to its college student clientele, as well as building off its various menu options. “This sort of quick-serv, sandwich, fries is good for college students,” Brush said. n
Boston-based app looks to redefine stock market experience Bullseye, from A8 With more than half of Americans being retail investors, Robinson sees lots of potential growth for Bullseye with future investors. “There isn’t a communication tool built around this yet—it’s empowering for people to learn about the market at a younger age and these are the users that are going to be entering the market in the future.” Bullseye is also seeking to establish relationships with news sources. “These are the type of people that want to be on our application—they can have their audience on our app and have more information about the people that they are
talking to,” Robinson said. This will allow these news sources to target users based on their interests. Right now, Bullseye is focusing on the US markets, but Robinson and his team have received requests for additional markets. Robinson noted the importance of foreign markets on the app in the future, but wants to ensure that the user experience on the American market is correctly done. Bullseye is developing smart notifications that alert users about the stock they are following. “The iOS app doesn’t give you any push notifications when earnings are out, or when your stock is up like five percent,” Robinson said. “We’re
currently in the fine tuning stages of these notifications right now.” With Robinson, Hamilton, and Neri all having design backgrounds, they are focusing on providing a pleasant user experience. “We hope to provide a platform that is fun, casual, and easy to use,” Hamilton said. “We want to deliver what people want, when they want it, and how they want it, I just think the whole mobile offerings aren’t up to speed with what people would expect.” Robinson belie ves that there is growth and as Bullseye’s user base grows, there is potential to earn revenue, but will not sacrifice experience.
“Our competitive experience is our good user design and user experience, and if we can focus on that and win—then the revenue streams will figure themselves out,” Hamilton said. Hamilton believes in the future that Bullseye can be a platform for data collection so that companies can better understand who they are targeting. “One of the things we can do is collect data on social interests in the market and determine what’s trending.” Currently, Bullseye is only available on iOS devices. Following beta and iteration stages, Robinson, Hamilton, and Neri are confident that they will expand to Android after they nail down the user experience on the iPhone app. n
Cue the Duck Boats: parade celebrates Patriots’ victory
Will Mennicken / Heights Staff
Duck Boats carried New England Patriots players through the streets of Boston in celebration of their defeat of the Seattle Seahawks in Superbowl XLIX on Sunday evening.
Parade, from A1 and blue confetti as the introduction of the parade, the End Zone Militia, fired their muskets as they typically do upon the Patriots scoring during home games at Gillette Stadium. The colonial soldiers were followed by the Patriots cheerleaders who waved to fans and danced in an open-bed truck to pop music. The event had originally been scheduled for Tuesday, but Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS 09, postponed the parade due to the poor weather on Monday that blanketed the streets of Boston—preventing devoted fans in Arizona from
returning home. The city has not stopped celebrating the victory since Sunday night, despite an 18-inch snowfall that covered Massachusetts on Monday morning. Vendors were selling Patriots gear of all types to those who lacked it, so the entire crowd could show their New England pride. In addition, various signs were being given away by Bostonians that were both celebratory and mocking. Popular posters read “Job Done!” and “Feeling Deflated Seattle?,” alluding to the Deflategate scandal that shook the Patriots’ reputation after their playoff game on Jan. 18.
During the course of the parade across the city, 25 World War II-style duck boats each carried three or four players along with their families as they took pictures of their fans, who were just as eager to capture the moment. The first duck boat received some of the loudest of cheers among fans, as Malcolm Butler, the little-known, rookie player whose interception sealed the win for the Patriots. Every duck boat had at least one player throwing gray T-shirts into the crowd saying, “It was the Butler” across the front. Other duck boats carried the likes of Robert Kraft—owner of the Patriots—and tight end Rob Gronkowski,
who eccentrically wore a yellow beanie like a minion from Despicable Me and danced to hip-hop music. A green-colored duck boat holding Super Bowl XLIX’s Most Valuable Player Tom Brady was the most popular sight at the parade. For the fourth time in his career, the beloved quarterback Brady waved to wild, cheering fans. Brady hoisted the silver Vince Lombardi trophy in one hand and held his five yearold son in the other. Crowds of children, chased by their parents, ran alongside the green duck boat from the sidewalk to follow Brady and take in as much from the moment as possible. n
It was a cold, terrific quiet. To my right and left, a rolling scene of frozen hills and valleys. There were mounds of ice where cars should have been and the slushy remnants of the sidewalks were crunchy with an unsuccessful layer of sand. The only breach in the endless white was the neon orange straw that stood askew in the cup that I held. Two of my roommates and I had braved the post-Juno tundra on Monday afternoon for Boston’s favorite coffee chain. After three snow days in less than seven days, though none of us would admit it, we were all beginning to resent the close quarters of our forced triples. As the campus busses had stopped running hours earlier, and the majority of the green line was experiencing “severe” delays, we had few other options to quell our cabin fever than the treck to Dunkin’ Donuts. Our Bean Boots slipped on gritty paths, passing the beige brick of dorm buildings. Shortcutting behind St. Ignatius, we trudged through the snow finally emerging on Commonwealth Ave., a street-cross away from our destination. Even more terrifying than the iceblanketed street, still unplowed from the morning snowfall, was the complete absence of anyone or anything else besides my panting roommates and me. No cars, no people. No dog walkers, no brave joggers, no Green Line trains, no rushed commuters. Where were the giddy freshman walking to CityCo for red solo cups? Shouldn’t I have heard honks and screeching brakes, typical of the Boston driver? Commonwealth Ave. was empty, save three, bundled-up barely teenagers and what was left of long-passed tire tracks. Extending from Newton, through Brighton and Back Bay, and over the Charles, Commonwealth Ave. is one of Boston’s most trafficked routes. Constantly buzzing with everyone from commuters to tourists, the street is a city staple—making its utter emptiness all the more jarring. I stepped out, without caring to look both ways, into the road’s icy puddles. I could have sat down in the middle of one of the city’s busiest streets, could have laid down, The Notebook-style, and made snow angels along the route of the Newton Bus. The “BC Biddie” in me even thought to stop and take a picture, but the biting cold that numbed my fingers and cheeks hurried me through the flurries to the sanctity of a free Hazelnut Latte (courtesy of Dunkin’ after the Patriots win the night before). A New England storm can create a lot of commotion—canceling classes and public transportation—but surprisingly enough the Juno/Linus combo was able to cause as much placidity as pandemonium. Apart from the obvious potentials for hazard, the recent Nor’Easters have been able to accomplish an underlying sense of community throughout the city. We are in a sense stranded together; all entrapped in the warmth of homes, apartments, and dorms, admiring the ever-falling inches outside our windows. Our hearts go out to the neighbors and friends shoveling their cars out of each individual avalanche. I have shared more smiles with sporadic strangers in the past week than ever, each silently chuckling over our shared affinity for layers and a good pair of mittens. We can all relate to shoes coated in salt residue, to noses permanently pink from the wind. Coming from the D.C. suburbs, both blessed and plagued with seasons not nearly as tumultuous as those of Chestnut Hill, all a good snowstorm can manage at home is an empty dairy department at the grocery store and a slew of anxious soccer moms—maybe a two hour delay if the middle schoolers wore their pajamas inside out the night before. The Hub, however, manages to have some of its most hallowed moments amongst snow plows and student-made igloos. On Monday and during Juno last week, I was reminded that Boston can be beautifully stagnated by snow.
Sarah Moore is the Asst. Metro Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com
THE HEIGHTS
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EDITORIALS
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Giving a voice to the differently abled
The newly created Council for Students with Disabilities held its first official event on Tuesday. A town hall meeting focusing on physical disabilities, this initial gathering was led by chair Phoebe Fico, A&S ’16, with the long term goal of increasing accessibility for all people on campus. The Council was formed by the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) under its Division of Diversity and Inclusion. A Council created specifically to promote the rights of students with disabilities is a sign of progress in a longer campaign to increase ease of access in Boston College’s spaces. This council has the potential to educate students so far unengaged in the movement, opening doors for all students to advocate for a more easily travelled campus. It’s worth noting, however, that students who do show up for panels and town hall events are often already invested in the issue discussed—it is less likely that students who know little of the problem will attend a meeting to
Thursday, February 5, 2015
“At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.” -Fredrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philologist, philosopher, poet
solve it. BC Ignites is one potential model to examine as a mode to engage the maximum number of students. Last semester, UGBC hosted a successful BC Ignites on the topic of mental health. The event, which took place on O’Neill Plaza, attracted students from across the University. Much of the effectiveness of BC Ignites is that it happens in the middle of campus and catches the interest of passing students. Unlike a meeting or panel discussion, its format encourages students to stop and listen for as long as they can. Open forums that engage and educate more of the student body would be an effective way to start a cultural shift on campus to run alongside the physical improvement to the University already in the works. It is easier to build new paths than it is to change attitudes on campus. The school can rebuild its infrastructure, but in the long run, it is up to us as students to work the rest of the way there.
Mental health is given a young face To build on the success of the Be Conscious campaign—launched in the fall semester to address issues of mental health at Boston College—UGBC and To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA-BC) continued their efforts to de-stigmatize issues of mental health at the University by bringing Kevin Breel to campus last night. Breel, a comedian who has struggled with depression, shared his story in a TED Talk that has been viewed over 3,000,000 times, and he has become internationally known for his mental health activism. At just 21 years old, Breel succeeded in conveying experiences that are relatable to many BC students. The fact that Breel is a young comedian who, outwardly, does not fit conventional stereotypes of those facing mental illness adds to the effectiveness of his visit to BC, a school where students are quick to list achievements in academics and extracurricular activities, but less likely to be open about some of their struggles. Students on a campus such as this one could be hesitant to address mental health issues publicly, as these
struggles often come with a taint of weakness or failure that does not fit into their neatly polished image. It is clear, however, that any students dealing with issues of mental health at BC are not alone in their experiences, as University Counseling Services has indicated that approximately 25 percent of BC students use the office’s services at least one time before they graduate. A presentation such as Breel’s contributes to the ongoing initiative to open more public dialogues about mental well-being at BC, facilitated by groups such as UGBC, TWLOHABC, and the Asian Caucus, the latter of which introduced Silver Week to raise issues of mental health. Students struggling with mental illness should never be forced to openly share their personal experiences if they do not feel inclined to do so. They must, however, be accorded a social environment that enables them to seek support and, like Breel, tell their stories in the manner in which they feel most comfortable and least stigmatized.
Creative funding gives power to students With the creation of the Innovation Fund and Taking Green Initiatives Fund, UGBC is taking positive steps to make funding more available to undergraduate students and organizations. Both funds will provide funding for specific events on top of the base funds that the SOFC is able to give to RSOs. While many regard UGBC, by general principle, as a source of advocacy for students, it is prudent to note that it is not able, by default, to advocate effectively for everyone, or for every situation, and similarly, is not always the most appropriate organization to do so. These funds provide the perfect opportunity for an alternate avenue to give students an incentive to come up with new ideas that can help improve the Boston College community. If a student or organization wants to fund something, he or she or the organization currently has to apply through BC’s club platform, OrgSync, at least 21 The views expressed in the above editorials represent the official position of The Heights, as discussed and written by the
days before acquiring desired funding. Applications are then reviewed by the Finance Committee of UGBC who can grant the desired funds two weeks later if the Student Assembly votes and approves them. It is also a prudent step for UGBC to allow unregistered student organizations to apply for funding in order to finance their own events and speakers. This is especially important in light of the complaint that unregistered student organizations have limited rights on campus, as these funds would open up more funding opportunities for all students and groups. These funds provide a unique chance for students to receive resources with which they can do good for the community. UGBC should be commended for beginning to set aside accessible funds for students who have a vision for the betterment of the community. Editorial Board. A list of the members of the Editorial Board can be found at BCHeights. com/opinions.
HEIGHTS
THE
The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 JOHN WILEY, Editor-in-Chief CHRIS STADTLER, General Manager MAGGIE POWERS, Managing Editor
EDITORIAL
MAGDALEN SULLIVAN, Copy Editor JULIE ORENSTEIN, A1 Editor CAROLYN FREEMAN, News Editor MICHAEL SULLIVAN, Sports Editor CORINNE DUFFY, Features Editor RYAN DOWD, Arts & Review Editor BENNET JOHNSON, Metro Editor RYAN DALY, Opinions Editor ARTHUR BAILIN, Photo Editor JOY LI, Layout Editor
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR A Response to “Signs of Unity at Boston College” Hagop’s article insists that there is a universal desire for equality here as evidenced by both the “Race In The USA” Panel, and Reverend Davidson’s sermon on black life, featuring a sympathetic furrowing of Fr. Leahy’s brow. While Fr. Leahy may have been visibly moved at that particular mass, it is his noticeable silence on the issue of racial justice that motivated students and faculty alike to occupy the halls of St. Mary’s. That gesture, and the subsequent fallout, highlighted the campus’ diverging views; it didn’t merely create a “sense” of division as that article put it. For many, racial injustice “has become inescapable… as the events of the past few months have unfolded.” But that painful reality is the only known life of the marginalized. By any measure, the unity to which Hagop refers is not all-inclusive. It only exists in the lip service of our campus clergymen. If the desire for justice were uniform, the St. Mary’s protest—a representation of the Jesuit mission of promoting justice—would’ve been treated and spoken of as more than a punishable inconvenience. The truth is that Boston College’s community diverges greatly on how approach justice. Some see no tension between our mantras: serving others and personal excellence. However, the latter often becomes a prerequisite for the former through awards, recognition, and resume bullets. Inequality will not be overcome without sacrifice. To place “goodwill” as a point of emphasis in this pursuit is to coax the sensibilities. Only those who really want relief from either guilt or responsibility could
see Fr. Leahy thanking Rev. Davidson as anything more than keeping up appearances. Justice is not an emotive exercise. Racism is not simply a matter of personal offenses and etiquette, so it will not be fixed through platitudes and ceremony. Racism is an issue of economics, policy, and the dominance of white privilege (supremacy by another name) in western culture. Without that understanding, people will continue to merely live by sentiment. Their quest for justice will only reach as far as the consolation of conscience and the preservation of privilege. Recognizing that fairness is something everyone must actively and uncomfortably pursue is the only legitimate unifier. Understanding that our community is not an agent of change simply because we say so, and feel better about it over time, is the only necessary sentiment. But I see your Reverend Michael Davidson, and I’ll raise you a Reverend Martin Luther King in one of his lesser-known speeches, “I Have A Dream”: Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. KWESI AARON A&S ’16
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The Heights
Thursday, February 5, 2015
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The true scourge of Super Bowl XLIX
Eleanor Hildebrandt
Working Out In The Morning- The sun isn’t even up and the Plex is practically empty. All of the machines are at our disposal, and there’s no line for the treadmill (finally, for God’s sake, finally). When the workout is over, there’s still a full day ahead of us, and now we’re up and ready to go through the unbelievable amount of work that we have. Take a shower, grab a coffee, and we’re on our way. Working Out at Night - It has been a day from hell and we’re just looking to relax, but we know that we shouldn’t. The Plex is practically empty this late, and we’re all warmed up and ready to go for a workout. Time can be taken throughout the hour to think back on the day, and what we did right, and what we never want to do again. All of the energy and pent up energy out of us, we go and grab late night, and then chill out in our room before falling asleep, ready to wake up and take the next day on. Women’s Hockey - If you haven’t gone to a BC women’s hockey game all year, you are missing out on something truly spectacular. The team is on a 27-game undefeated run, and it crushed Northeastern during the first round of the Beanpot. This team looks truly unstoppable, and it is up to us as the students to go and support a team while it continues to smash the competition.
Here are the facts: I do not care about sports. Not so as to credibly label myself a “fan” of any team, at least. I watched the Mariners a few times over the course of my childhood (R.I.P. Kingdome), my family has literally (and I use that word in the literal sense) never sat down together to watch a televised sporting event, not even the Olympics, and I’ve made extraordinarily poor use of the Gold Pass that I purchased in a fit of school spirit this year, having attended a grand total of two—count ‘em, two—games. The Super Bowl takes that disinterest up a notch to distaste, as the glorious culmination of all I’ve grown up disliking about America—the blatant, exalted commercialism, the sheer excess, the manufactured rivalry, and the sport itself: uber-muscled men paid large sums of money to risk injury for the mindless entertainment of millions. This is the killjoy party line, and I’ve walked it for years. And yet, as I sat on the floor of an Iggy dorm last Sunday switching my attention between the television screen and my Twitter feed, I found that I cared about the outcome of Super Bowl XLIX far more than I expected to—i.e., a lot. My two homes, Seattle and Boston (okay, “New England”), were engaged in a proxy battle, and as much affection as I hold for Beantown, I had clambered onto the Seahawks bandwagon and was not looking back. While I’m not from Seattle proper (I hail from the smallish city of Mercer Island, which is to Seattle as Chestnut Hill is to Boston), I identify strongly with my Pacific Northwest roots. Life at Boston College has only sharpened that sense of connection—upon trundling over to the East Coast nearly four years ago, I noticed my new peers comparing me against a checklist of traits associated with the land of houseboats
and granola. Vegetarian? Obviously. Liberal? Goes without question. Atheist? Let’s not get into that. Etc. Etc. Etc. Now, almost everyone goes through this—no matter where people grow up, it seems, they arrive at BC all set with preconceived notions about how certain places connote certain personalities. You expect different things from a Texan than a New Yorker; a California dude is bound to be distinct from a Jersey guy; and so on and so forth. (The only ones nobody seems to know what to do with are those who grew up in Massachusetts—they’re unpredictable.) And while a lot of people reject the stereotypes and assumptions that they’re faced with, just as many embrace them; it can be nice, especially freshman year, to have a prepackaged set of characteristics waiting. It sets you apart from the mob, just a little, while providing a basis for connection with anyone from the same neck of the woods. This flash of kinship can come from anything; to stick with the theme, my favorite artifact from last year’s Super Bowl is a 26-second YouTube video in which raucous, jubilant Seahawks fans staunchly refuse to jaywalk. As someone who will remain planted on the street corner, patiently waiting for the little blue man to appear—even if the person I’m with has already crossed and is on the opposite corner staring at me in disbelief—I had an almost giddy sense of recognition when the clip popped up on my newsfeed. Much as I (like any true American, natch) prize individualism, there’s something comforting about common ground—even if it’s just a sidewalk. So perhaps it’s not too surprising that I got slightly, well, territorial about this Super Bowl, surrounded as I was by people who actively wanted the Seahawks—and by extension my home—and by extension me—to lose. This triple conflation of team, city, and individual became obvious last week in the form of an atrociously rude column about Seattle and its denizens by The Boston Globe’s Thomas Farragher. He calls out the Emerald City for its lack of history, makes the usual, tired cracks about dopey baristas and fancy coffee, strongly intimates that the city is full of Communists, and, most
confusingly, claims that Seattleites consider Amazon’s Jeff Bezos a sex symbol. (You can’t have it both ways, Farragher—either we’re softhearted socialists who flock to local businesses, or we worship the book-bundling behemoth’s piles of cash. Make up your mind!) All in all, the column was so weak and bitter that it’s probably being served at Dunkin’ Donuts (ba dum tss). But see? This is what city rivalry does to a person; I’m leaping in to defend the honor of coffee, when I don’t truly give a flying fig where you get your java. (So long as it’s fair trade, of course.) It seems so trivial to equate a team’s success … or heartbreaking, last-minute failure … with the merit of a place, and of the people who call it home. It can’t be healthy. Right? #ConflateGate2015! But it’s a lot easier to make that claim from the losing side. I’m sure I would’ve been gleeful if Seattle’s 12th man had triumphed over the Pats’ No. 12—how could I not be? Far from the Cascades, in a roomful of people with similar stakes in the game, a Seahawks win would’ve felt like a personal vindication. The loss was simply a nudging reminder that, even senior year, Boston still isn’t quite home. (A jovial assertion from a fellow spectator that Seattle’s “just a secondclass city” didn’t help.) So I can’t in good faith bemoan conflation and simultaneously rue the Hawks’ loss; I’ll try to one-up Farragher by remaining logically consistent. (Harsh, maybe, but he should’ve known that Commies love to hold a grudge.) I admit—while I wasn’t in the mood to watch up close, there really was something great about Bostonians’ absolute joy after their win; like the vibe on campus after last fall’s USC game, it’s a feeling of collective triumph that just doesn’t come from anything besides good ol‘ sportsball. Does this recognition mean I’m going to get any more use out of that Gold Pass this semester? Doubtful. But, ensconced in my bandwagon Sunday night, I have to say I was glad to be any kind of fan at all.
Eleanor Hildebrandt is a former editorin-chief of The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.
Standing in defense of offense
Men’s Hockey - This is the BC men’s hockey team we are talking about. The team shows up to the Beanpot, where it has won for the past five years, and blows the first game to Northeastern. We expect more from our team. Let’s hope the boys come back in style (like we’re used to seeing them) when playing Harvard, because if they don’t, then there is so much more to get upset about. Street Signs On Hammond Street Sidewalk - Seriously, who designed this sidewalk? There is already no space on the sidewalk, but when you throw in a street sign in the middle of travel, it makes two-way traffic impossible. Isn’t living on CoRo bad enough already? Stomach Flu - With no warning, no notice, the BC Plague has become the BC Stomach Flu, and it is knocking down students left and right. We’ve heard that the infirmary is overflowing with patients, and this makes us nervous. So wash your hands. Make sure not to share drinks. Don’t touch anyone, ever. Wear gloves. Stay in your room. Close the blinds. Wrap yourself in your bed and only leave room for your eyes to look out so you can see if anyone is trying to get in the door that you blockaded.
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Zachary Russell Use the words “long,” “hard,” or “meat” in a carbon dioxide sentence and you’re likely in store for an ear full of phallic allusions. But is it worth it? The emissions, I mean. Of course, no topic is inherently flawed, but if you find yourself and half of your friends all racing to the same punchline, please stop. You are not thinking, nor are you clever—you are being pushed on by the social inertia that mindlessly devours all things penis. Anyone who winks, “Yeah, you like that meat?” at the mention of a local deli should be drawn, quartered, and then literally made into quarters for kids to sneeze on as they play boardwalk Skee-ball. It is a prime example of lazy humor, the type of cheap shot backed by no creativity, wit, or greater truth. However, dick jokes are generally benign. No one’s definition of self has ever been shattered by a dick joke (I hope). They do not truly offend. Victims: who they are, and why are they important to keep in mind when dealing with offense? People claim that offensive jokes, even those that have been wellcrafted, are insensitive and belittle serious issues, which—in the presence of intelligent design and virtuous intent—is unwarranted. Offense is a weapon, and, when used properly, diminishes the power of rape, racism, and death in order to conquer them. At those mentions, I’m sure some of you are warily proceeding into this column with a chip on your shoulder. If so, please dip it in some queso and try to relax. There are often two arguments against offensive humor, the first of which surrounds the personal effect it has on the receiver. However, this argument is found to be hollow when taken to its logical end. If even the mention of evil shrieks so loudly in our minds so as to render us piles of quivering flesh, then the mere syllable “rape,” for example, should be banned in any context. Rape support centers, Rape Awareness Week, and counseling—the lot should be buried deep below the social
consciousness to prevent pain and the past from welling up. This is, of course, ridiculous, as the only way to overcome our fears and insecurities is to expose and confront them. Secondly, people claim that offensive humor belittles the issue concerned. Yet, if mentioning rape or racism in a humorous context trivializes its gravity, how have Dave Chappelle and Louis C.K. not drowned in God’s Eleventh Plague of hate mail? Well, Chappelle’s humor succeeds because it satirizes our country’s racial inequity and at its foundation promotes harmony by exposing the absurdity of the alternative. Similarly, Louis C.K. jokes about how, if he could travel back in time, rather than kill Hitler, he would rape him. “If he had been raped by me, he wouldn’t have pulled any of that stuff, man. Should we invade Poland? ‘No … I’m just gonna take a shower, I don’t feel good…’.” He continues, “I’m not condoning rape, obviously. You should never rape anyone, unless you have a reason … like you want to f—k somebody and they won’t let you.” In the first joke, victimization is problematized, because he makes fun of the victim, yet we must remember that the victim is also Hitler. When distilled down to its purest essence, the joke’s thesis states that rape is so dark, so dreadfully powerful, that it could have prevented one of the most evil and headstrong men to have ever lived from starting World War II and committing genocide. The follow-up joke further explores rapists’ monstrous rationalization: it’s not even a joke, but we find humor in the twisted outrage of rape’s raw truth and motivation. While a cursory glance at this bit offers a man normalizing sexual violence, a deeper look displays how incredulously warped the world appears to him. Allow me to stop here for a moment to emphasize that my goal is to neither change hearts nor convince anyone that such topics are funny. Objectively, they are not, and these comedians realize this— more than most, in fact. By profession, a comedian journeys through the world as a depressed cynic, lifting up the societal surface to expose its grimy underbelly, and returns to relay to the audience his findings. In the face of such nonsense, filth, and
sadness, it only follows that he, the comic, would bemoan the state of the world—yet once the veil has been torn, he cannot but see reality’s horrid face, and thus he must create his own veil to shield himself from what he has uncovered. In the comedian’s case, he chooses to alchemize his surroundings through comedy. Make no mistake, comedy is not CARE Week—in a grim twist of irony, comedy is less “voluntary” and participatory. The audience exists to laugh, not to dredge up humanity’s evil, but the two are actually not mutually exclusive. Catharsis is gained through a pouring out of emotion, whether through discussing the struggle, burning the old pictures, or laughing at the hatred. Laughter is a visceral, instinctive reaction— a bullet aimed at the mind’s conception of the joke’s truth. Prayer, laughter, solidarity—they all offer catharsis, the origin of which should not matter. If you can laugh in the face of darkness, are you not more powerful? Is its force not diminished? Granted, humor is not action, and listening and chortling does not necessarily translate to tangible world-betterment. Well-crafted comedy, though, resonates. In Talking Funny on HBO, Seinfeld acknowledges this power of resonance and claims that a good bit can press itself into one’s identity forever. CARE week and similar events are indispensable, but they presuppose interest in the issue. The indelible impressions and widereaching influence of comedy have no prerequisite care, and thus it has the ability to spread and instill that care necessary for action. I heard Louis’ bit months ago and it has stuck with me since, essentially forcing me to write, research, and discuss rape, through which I have grown. If comedy opens the door, CARE week furnishes the house, but only you decide how you live. I will leave you with this: If you’re trying to make a rape joke, think, because you are probably going to unjustifiably offend a lot of people. But if you’ve thought long and hard about its virtuous rigidity—well, let’s be honest, this sentence is just one big cop out of a dick joke.
Zachary Russell is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.
The opinions and commentaries of the staff columnists and cartoonists appearing on this page represent the views of the author or artist of that particular piece, and not necessarily the views of The Heights. Any of the columnists and artists for the Opinions section of The Heights can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.
Don’t buy into STEM
Solina Jean-Louis We hear it almost every single day: “Science is the future!” Americans who support science and math education have a point: In a 2012 report by the Obama Administration, it was declared that within a decade, a projected one million STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) graduates will be needed for continued economic growth in this country. While the research conducted by the Obama Administration may have been seemingly conclusive to the need for STEM graduates in America, many other organizations have put out studies that show conflicting statistics. In 2008, the National Science Foundation, an obvious proponent for increased science and math education in the United States, found that for those in STEM careers who had graduated in 2005 or 2006, 20 percent had already left the STEM field. Similarly, in 2011, Georgetown University found that 10 years after graduating with a STEM degree, 58 percent of the graduates had left the field. With so much conflicting information on the necessity or promising nature of STEM fields, it can be difficult to determine if funding such large amounts of federal money toward STEM education in primary and secondary schools is even worth it. What about those students who are not interested in STEM fields? Are their interests even worth it? Generally speaking, when a child is going through primary and secondary school, they find themselves in one of three categories. One, they find that they are strong in math and science and genuinely enjoy it. Two, they find that they are strong in the humanities and genuinely enjoy them. Or three, they are the lucky ones who genuinely enjoy and excel in both fields. For those of us who fall in the first category, you are golden. Your future is set for you—according to the our elected officials, that is. In fact, according to Florida Governor Rick Scott, your degree in a STEM field makes you a better person than those with a humanities degree. In May 2012, he proposed an initiative to make humanities degrees more expensive than those in STEM fields. On a radio interview with WNDB-AM, Scott said, “I want to spend our money getting people science, technology, engineering, and math degrees … that’s what our kids need to focus all of their time and attention on: those type of degrees that when they get out of school, they can get a job.” Let me get that straight: students who are getting STEM degrees deserve more funding and attention than those who are excelling in the humanities. So, according to Scott, it would be better to force children who aren’t fond of STEM fields into STEM fields purely because it will get them a job. Get ready for a life of money but misery, Florida students! You can rest easy knowing your governor truly cares about your intellectual well-being and happiness in your career! Sarcasm aside, Governor Scott’s comments on the continuing war between STEM and the humanities perfectly sums up the nation’s attitude towards educating the future generations of America. Popular opinion tends to lean towards educating students based on the future’s needs, but completely ignores the students’ needs. Sure, it may be true that our country needs engineers to build sustainable cities and mathematicians to help propel NASA’s research on outer space, but I am 100 percent certain with every fiber of my being that what we do not need are engineers and mathematicians who hate their careers and wish they were doing something else. In fact, we don’t need anyone in any field who wishes they were doing something else. The history of this country has repeatedly showed us that passion in one’s beliefs and careers fuels positive change in this country, not the career itself. So, to my English, History, Political Science, or Classics majors, you keep doing you. Don’t listen to Floridian governors or “experts” who continually fund one side of the education system and completely ignore the other. To my STEM majors, you keep doing you, too, because the fact of the matter is, we need passionate scientists and engineers to help improve the human race as a whole. We need passionate teachers, writers, and historians as well. We need passionate citizens. We all have a place in this country, no matter what anyone tells us.
Solina Jean-Louis is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.
The Heights
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Thursday, February 5, 2015
Bullseye app aims to simplify stock trading Boston design firm creates tool to easily share stock information with friends B y P asqualle D i F ilippo Heights Staff
arthur bailin / heights editor
Fuel drives local coffee scene Atmosphere that invites students to spend the day allows Fuel America to set the pace among competing coffeehouses By Juan Olavarria Heights Editor For many college students, the start of a new day means one thing: a freshly brewed cup of coffee. Located at the intersection of Chestnut Hill Ave. and Embassy Rd., Fuel America enjoys a special connection with Boston College students, as its welcoming ambiance, plentiful options, and distinct decor keeps students walking through its doors. The coffee shop is the brainchild of Jeff Bonesia—one of its managing partners—and opened its doors in 2011. It identifies itself as a “new kind of American coffeehouse … inspired by America’s can-do attitude.” “We are here to ignite your journey,” Fuel’s website says. Coffee has been a recurring theme throughout Bonesia’s life, as he worked at various companies such as Burger King, Green Mountain Coffee, and Dunkin’ Donuts. After a career in advertising, he finally had the opportunity to realize one of his dreams to establish a coffee joint with its own distinct character—a place where individuals could go and enjoy themselves and want to return. As such, Fuel America was born. Alongside its coffee menu, Fuel offers an array
of foods that range from sandwiches and salads to pies and smoothies. “We wanted to offer fresh food, real food,” Bonesia said. “We get many organic foods from neighboring towns.” The coffee shop features a different atmosphere from many other local competitors. “People and students come and spend their entire day here,” Gabriel Ferreira, manager of Fuel, said. “They can relax and do their work. It is an experience that is unlike that of Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts—we aim to celebrate the people.” Since its opening, neighboring students at BC have been frequent customers at the coffee shop, especially since Fuel participated in many on-campus events, such as “Taste of Off-Campus” hosted by the Office of the Dean of Students in conjunction with the Office of Government and Community Affairs and the Office of Residential Life. According to BC’s website, the event offered students a chance to “receive free food and drinks, as well as great information about life off-campus.” At the fair, Fuel gave students a tasting of the different sandwiches they offer as well as their coffee, which has its own particular “rustic” feel. Events such as these allow for Fuel to “get out into the
See Fuel, A4
There are hundreds of stock market apps available on the iPhone, but Creative Cream founders Zach Robinson and Andy Hamilton noticed an absence in apps that could track, obtain news, and discuss stocks that users were following. The Creative Cream, a Bostonbased design firm, created Bullseye, which hopes to produce the ultimate mobile stock market experience. Robinson met his current CTO Mark Neri while working at a local design firm and would discuss the markets and their stock interests during their commute to work by train. After Robinson left the firm, he met up with Andy at an industrial design firm who was interested in the stock market. Both Robinson and Hamilton left to found their own design firm called The Creative Cream. Robinson and Hamilton discovered that there was not a unified app to share their stock interests with friends and co-workers. “It’s so hard to know what stocks your friends have and when a stock goes up or a corporate action takes place, it’s so fun to share that,” Hamilton said. “It’s ridiculous that in 2015 you can’t download an app and share a stock with someone and have a conversation with an audience.” “I would use my native iOS app to track my stocks, and in the most simplest fashion, there wasn’t a way to share stocks that I was watching with anyone else,” Hamilton said. Robinson and Hamilton would text each other updates on their current holdings, but understood that it was difficult to share all the information they wanted. “We used to talk stocks on the train and at work, but once he [Robinson] left the company, that communication was essentially dormant,” Neri said. Bullseye creates a modern all-in-one solution to this problem. With Facebook log-in information, friends can share their stock updates and thoughts
on their current holdings as well as view stocks their friends are tracking. Bullseye personalizes its updates based on its users’ network, and provides recommendations according to users’ current stock interests and friends’ interests. In addition to this, Bullseye provides on-demand market and news information on the stocks that users are following. The app overlays corporate news and stock charts so that users can see how the stock price reacted to the corporate news or actions. As the app progresses in its lifecycle, users will be able to personalize their own sources within the app based on their viewing habits. “We’re trying to bring users exactly what they want,” Hamilton said. “We don’t want users to be inundated with information that they think is useless.” Bullseye will also allow news outlets to specifically target users based on their information and stock interests. Robinson and his team are currently targeting investment clubs at universities around the country for Bullseye’s
“It’s ridiculous that in 2015 you can’t download an app and share a stock with someone and have a conversation with an audience.” —Andy Hamilton, cofounder of Boston design firm Creative Cream beta, and have done so with Heights Capital, a Boston College student-run investment club. But overall, Bullseye seeks to target retail investors. “Their daily habit is to open up and check on their stocks, we’re trying to provide a better way for them to see what’s going on with their portfolio and any news related to them,” Robinson said.
See Bullseye, A5
Football signs on over 20 in Addazio’s second recruiting class Signing Day, from A1 a six-foot-three, 230-pound end from Boca Raton, notched All-State honors as a senior while compiling 7.5 sacks. His tone perked up most, however, when speaking about Allen. The defensive end finished his career at New Canaan High School with 33 sacks and was the Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year. “It was really important for us to get a better four-man rush,” Addazio said. “[Ray and Allen] are two young guys who are big-time pass rushers.” With seven of 12 offensive linemen graduating, including all five starters, Addazio also recognized the need to replace his men up front. “I’ve coached that position my whole career and I would tell
you I’m excited about last year’s and this year’s O-line class,” Addazio said. “In the future, we’ll be a dominant front.” This incoming class’s offensive line is highlighted by Anthony Palazzolo and early enrollee Chris Lindstrom. The six-foot-five, 330-pound Palazzolo from Connecticut helped Fairfield Prep run for 4,196 yards last season and he earned a spot on the Connecticut High School Coaches Association All-State First Team as a senior. Lindstrom—a Dudley, Mass. native—checks in at six-foot-four, 236 pounds and was named ESPN Boston’s Lineman of the Year as a senior. Although he comes in undersized for an offensive lineman, Addazio lauded his toughness and work ethic. Addazio stressed the importance of
finding linemen who will fit his offensive game plan. Although BC lost offensive coordinator Ryan Day, who accepted the position of quarterback coach of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles, Addazio asserted that BC will run the same system as last season—the one he brought in himself—and he’s the one in the charge of the offensive war room. And though Addazio wants to edge closer to a balance on offense, he acknowledged that BC will be a run-heavy team, led by true freshman Jon Hilliman (860 yards, 13 TDs) and sophomore Myles Willis (459 yards, 2 TDs). The Eagles will lose starting quarterback Tyler Murphy, who passed for 1,623 yards and 13 TDs and rushed for a school career record 1,174 yards and 11 TDs. To combat that, Addazio added
two dual-threat quarterbacks to compete with Darius Wade and Troy Flutie for the quarterback position: Jeff Smith and earlyenrollee Elijah Robinson. Smith threw for 2,163 yards and rushed for 1,236 as a senior for Central Catholic in Seminole, Fla. Robinson has impressed even more: as a two-year starter for Montclair (N.J.) High School, Robinson amassed 6,431 all-purpose yards and 84 TDs. Robinson also won the Maxwell Football Club’s New Jersey Player of the Year Award. Addazio also added several weapons in the receiving core, notably tight end Jake Burt and receiver Nolan Borgersen. Burt earned ESPN Boston All-State honors, scoring seven touchdowns on 28 catches for 255 yards. “We feel like with his athleticism as a tight end and physical
presence, he should have a great career,” Addazio said. Borgensen compiled the most impressive high school record of any BC freshman. The six-foot-two, 185-pound wideout set New Jersey state records for career touchdowns (52), receiving yards (4,212), and catches (247), while also setting singleseason records in touchdowns (27) and receiving yards (1,894) as a junior. The fiery coach had similar praise for Borgesen, another early-enrollee, for both his work ethic and his quickness. “He had a seamless transition in the winter workouts—he was completely unphased by the intensity of the workouts, which is hard to do,” Addazio said. “He’s got bona fide speed. You’re talking about a guy who came in camp and ran a 4.3. He’s fast.” n
In light of recent troubles, a case for revamping the T system Bennet Johnson We were the first people to board the B-line, but by the time the train made its way to Kenmore, the T was packed. Wall-to-wall, ecstatic Pats fans jammed inside the rusty train car as it slowly made its way into the city on Sunday night. Cars honked their horns as they passed by, dozens of inebriated Bostonians high-fived each other, and chants of PA-TRI-OTS reverberated through the train. As I spent well over an hour clinging to a ceiling bar in a dimly lit B-line car on Sunday night, I couldn’t help but notice the sense of community that the T provides—bringing Boston
together in a way that I have never seen before. As freshmen, we are told countless times to avoid taking the B-line. It stops nearly every block and is significantly slower than the C- or D-lines, which are just as accessible for Boston College students. Often, we are told to avoid the T all together. In a day and age where everyone seems to be in a hurry, why would someone spend hours on the T when one can just call an Uber? Doesn’t it make intuitive sense to spend 20 dollars on an Uber to get to Harvard Square instead of spending over two hours on the T? Until last week’s blizzard completely shut down the city of Boston, the winter had been shaping up to be a light one, snow-wise. Over the past week, however, Winter Storms Juno and Linus completely clobbered the city—setting a new record for the snowiest sevenday period in history at 34.2 inches,
according to the National Weather Service. The storms cancelled schools, delayed the first Boston 2024 public Olympics meeting as well as the Patriots parade celebration, and pushed back the Beanpot. Most notably, cancellations and delays on the T have made it nearly impossible to navigate across the city. Some MBTA trips over the last week have ended in fire—others in ice. Many workers couldn’t make it to work, hurting businesses. Newly-elected Governor Charlie Baker called the delays on Tuesday morning “unacceptable” and vowed to work with the city to improve the service as soon as possible. In the middle of the snowstorm, just when it’s most important to have public transportation as an alternative to driving on dangerous roads, the city instead asked commuters to seek alternative transportation. With the last week of delays, cancel-
lations, and commuting misery fresh in mind, most riders today would agree that the T needs some major improvements—especially with the thought of hosting the world’s biggest sporting event in less than a decade looming over our heads. How can a crumbling, under-funded system possibly handle the Olympics if it cannot even make it through a rough New England storm? There is no doubt that the T needs to be upgraded. The state is already moving forward with plans to replace seasoning equipment on the Red Line and Orange Line, as well as a Green Line expansion in Somerville and Medford, although those plans will take years to accomplish. Recently, more people have been switching over to Uber, but surge pricing of up to four times the normal rate on Tuesday deterred riders from using the ride-sharing service. Despite Uber’s success, it lacks the historic charm that has established the
T as a staple of Boston. The first Green Line car hit the tracks in 1897. That means the T has hosted countless trips to the Beanpot, well over a hundred ‘Battles of the B-Line’ against Boston University, and nine championship parades for the Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics in the 21st century alone. The last week of travel disasters has proved that the T needs revamping. Sure, the system can be annoying, inconvenient, and slow at times. And it is probably smart to avoid the T if another record-setting snowstorm covers the city. But the T is quintessential Boston—the aged system resembles our historic city—and sometimes there is nothing better than joining in, chanting PA-TRI-OTS especially after another Super Bowl win.
Bennet Johnson is the Metro Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.
COLUMN
BOB DYLAN
FOLK LEGEND UNLEASHES ‘SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT,’ PAGE B4 REVIEW
COLUMN
BC A CAPPELLA GROUPS BELT TO BENEFIT CAMPUS SCHOOL, PAGE B2
LOOKING BACK ON PAWNEE POLITICS WITH OBAMA’S STATE OF THE UNION, PAGE B4
‘A CAPPELLA SHOW’
Parks and Recreation
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Boston College, ready for a close-up? Ryan Dowd - Arts & Review Editor BRECK WILLS / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC
The Heights
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Reasonable Dowd
Thursday, February 5, 2015
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My Knights and Dragons
Ryan Dowd The problem with living week to week—aside from eight-page papers flying out of closets you thought were safe and secure at least until the snow melted—is that you miss some cool stuff. It looks like I’ve missed the chance to see Game of Thrones in IMAX—it was always a fool’s hope. The necessary background here is that HBO’s epic (thoroughly expensive for us and them) fantasy series made its way to IMAX theaters over the weekend, earning $1.5 million in the process, which means the two episodes aired on HBO last spring combined to be the 10th largest domestic earner over the weekend. It’s some positive off-season press for the show that continually gets caught up in a “will it, won’t it” overtake of the original books, in what has become a long and convoluted timeline of death and destruction. Basically, a bunch of people paid around $15 to see two episodes of television they could have easily pirated in their bed with some home baked cookies and their Bernese Mountain dog named Grey Wind. Chances are that most of us missed it, because few college students are willing to pay $15 to see a movie in IMAX, unless The Hobbit is premiering at midnight. How many of us have cars to get to the only IMAX in the general vicinity at Jordan’s Furniture, which the T avoids like Daenerys Targaryen avoids a ship to Westeros? Chances are I missed it, unless I pony up for a zipcar. Or if you read this, email arts@bcheights.com and pick me up after class for last showing today, 4:15 p.m. at Jordan’s. I’ll run through as much Stark genealogy as I can on the ride over there. It’ll be fun. Because who doesn’t do deep dives into iceandfire.wikia.com on the possible parenthood of Jon Snow or refresh and bolster their knowledge of various fictional family trees? Dear Daenerys Stormborn is the daughter of the Mad King Aerys and brother to fallen Prince Rhaegar, whom past King Robert (ala first season King Robert) slew at the Trident. She’s called “Stormborn” because she was born during a storm at Dragonstone on the eve of her father’s defeat as she and her brother raced across the Narrow Sea to the Free Cities. Whenever someone mentions they like Game of Thrones, I hate them—for just a moment. We all have our “things.” One of mine is I get to say I read Game of Thrones in the summer before 8th grade. I’d read more than 3,000 words of A Song of Ice and Fire, the series’ actual name (Game of Thrones is the name of just the first book), before the first episode even aired. Sometimes, I feel guilty when someone in one of my classes talks about how much he or she (but I mean, commonly a he) loves Jack Kerouac. Or if someone says they’re really into jazz. I think, well, maybe I shouldn’t have spent a net total of two years reading George R.R. Martin’s books over and over again through the night. Maybe I should have read other stuff, gotten more into Hemingway or watched Avatar: The Last Airbender before I got too old to appreciate airbending. But can you name the seven major families in Westeros? Stark, Tully, Baratheon, Martel, Greyjoy, Arryn, Tyrell, and, least of all, the Lannisters. Too easy? What beloved book character who travels with Ser Barristan Selmy did the show infamously leave out? Strong Belwas. Basically, we’re in my basement talking about knights and dragons. Well, actually I’m just talking, flailing excitedly at the map resting above the couch. “That’s why Robb Stark needed to go to the wedding, because his army would have been bottlenecked where the landmass narrows.” You can have Hemingway and jazz. I’ll keep my imaginary direwolf, but maybe consider taking me to Jordan’s Furniture if you’re free after three.
Ryan Dowd is the Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.
john wiley / heights editor
The Dynamics, Acoustics, Sharps, Bostonians, and Voices of Imani belt out the classics while My Mother’s Fleabag takes care of the comedy all in name of a raffle and baked goods.
A Capella and comedy unite for the Campus School Summer Lin
Asst. Arts & Review Editor Blizzard warnings and snow storms couldn’t keep comedy and a cappella away from the Murray Function Room this Tuesday night. Boston College’s a cappella groups were joined by BC improv comedy troupe My Mother’s Fleabag for the benefit event. Raffle tickets and baked goods were sold at the show to benefit the Campus School, which educates children with multiple or severe disabilities. The eclectic group—comprised of gospel singers and Fleabaggers alike—put on a memorable show of fan favorites and new releases. Dynamics The group kicked off the set with Bruno Mars’ “Treasure,” led by Josh Beauregard, A&S ’17. Beauregard brought Mars’ soul-influenced vocals to life, fusing funk and R&B with beatboxing accompaniment to the song. The upbeat performance transitioned into a more slow, inspired melody with Ingrid Miwchaelson’s “The Chain.” Channeling the folk singer’s slight vocal vibrato and piano-fueled songwriting, Ellery Spencer, CSON ’15, finished the set on a literal high note, charac-
teristic of Michaelson’s sultry vocals. Against the Current Against the Current stayed true to its name in its two-part set. Instead of current chart-toppers or old classics, the group strayed from the pack by including slow ballads and country favorites. Across genres, the group showed off its versatility through songs such as Jacquie Lee’s pop-inspired “Broken Ones,” led by soloist Vivian Lee, A&S ’17. Lee, in her impassioned and expressive vocals, led the group through the rendition of the slow pop ballad. Following suit, Tim Lee, A&S ’17 showed off his vocal chops in country favorite Gavin McGraw’s “I Don’t Want To Be.” Backed by the group’s skillful harmonizing, Against the Current finished strong with a favorite country throwback. Acoustics The Acoustics catered to mainstream and underground audiences alike in its repertoire selections. The group opened up the set with the synthpop band Chvrches’ “The Mother We Share.” Even without Chvrches’ distinctive synthesizers and samplers, soloist Julie Gill, CSON ’17, did the song justice while background beatboxing simulated electro-pop sound. Gill turned the stage over to Taylor
Maclead, A&S ’15, whose faithful rendition of James Morrison’s “The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore” evoked the English songwriter’s characteristic soulful croon. The group then ended its set with a new debut song—Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk.” Alex Rougeau, A&S ’18, and Olivia Lynch, A&S ’17, performed the first verses of the song, showcasing Ronson’s artful blend of ’80s funk and R&B before handing the reins over to Alex Cavanaugh, CSOM ’17, and Ben Seo, LSOE ’16. Garett Little, A&S ’15, closed the set with the song’s namesake and distinctive bridge. My Mother’s Fleabag In an interlude from music and a cappella, My Mother’s Fleabag took the stage. Celebrated for its fusion of audience participation and comedy, the improv troupe led the crowd into games such as “Growing Shrinking Machine,” “My Movie,” and “Moves and Shakers.” Members Sara Elzeni, A&S ’18, Caitrin Assaf, A&S ’18, and Amanda Hoffman, A&S ’17, inspired skits involving gluten free supermarkets, jazzy stew, and an old woman with a drinking problem. Meanwhile, Jenna Postiglione, A&S ’17, and Alex Dzialo, A&S ’15, were quite literally moved by the audience as one volunteer controlled
Summer lin / heights editor
their arms and legs in “Movers and Shakers,” depicting igloo-building and alligator skits to the crowd’s delight. Sharps BC’s only all-girl group is known for its strong vocals and belting out mashups and in this case, the Sharps did not fail to deliver. Starting off with MKTO’s “Classic,” Sherri Cheng, CSOM ’18, led the group into a mash-up of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.” Cheng matched the upbeat pop performance of MKTO with the R&B stylings of the Jackson clan. Jennifer Dwyer, CSOM ’15, finished off the set with OneRepublic’s “I Lived.” Sustaining the band’s pop rock energy and meaningful lyricism, Dwyer’s impressive vocals and faithful execution of the song finished the set on a strong note. Voices of Imani Following the Sharps was BC’s only gospel choir, Voices of Imani. Director David Altenor, BC ’09, led the choir into a cover of Sister Act’s “If You Wanna Be Somebody,” sung by soloist Kyrie Olsen, A&S ’17. The group’s spiritual renditions of American gospel music initiated audience participation as the crowd swayed and clapped along to Eddie Hawkin’s “Oh Happy Days.” Voices of Imani then ended its three-piece set with the American spiritual “Go Down Moses,” led by Bria Coleman, A&S ’15. Members of the large ensemble dispersed into the crowd, chanting and clapping into the song’s finale as audience members leapt up to their feet to join in. The Bostonians The Bostonians, BC’s original a cappella group, started off the last set of the night with Sam Smith’s soul-inspired “Not The Only One,” performed by Ben Stevens, CSOM ’17. Cheered on by the audience, Stevens matched the raw intensity and R&B influence of Smith’s vocals. The group then transitioned into a classic rock staple—Billy Joel’s “Vienna.” Led by soloist Liam Maguire, A&S ’17, the group performed a smooth rendition of Joel’s ballad without a hitch. There’s no better way to close off a show than with a crowd pleaser, and with Taylor Swift, it’s always a safe bet. Chloe Mansour, LSOE ‘17, pumped up the crowd with Swift’s “Shake It Off.” Mansour displayed her impressive vocal range and put a unique spin on Swift’s summer pop anthem. n
This weekend in arts
By: Chris Fuller | Associate Arts & Review Editor
the vagina monologues (Thursday - Saturday, 8 P.M.)
Seventh Son (Opens friday)
The 2015 Vagina Monologues are coming to Cushing 001 this weekend. Eve Ensler’s monumentally successful show has grown into a perennial event at BC, discussing issues of female anatomy with a touch of humor. Tickets are $10 through the Robsham Box Office.
Parivaar (Saturday, 7 P.M.)
BC’s South Asian Student Association presents its 18th annual culture show: Parivaar. There will both vocal performance and dance incorporated into this celebration of South Asian Culture. Tickets are $10 and can be found at the Robsham Box Office.
night at the revolutionary cafe (Sunday, 7 P.M.)
The Organization of Latin American Affairs welcomes all to its second open mic night. This Sunday’s show will have a poetry feature, promoting free expression at BC. Open Mic sign-ups start at 6:40 p.m. and admission is free.
Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son (think about it) and he has just began his apprenticeship with The Spook. Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore star in this adaptation of the novel The Spook’s Apprentice
SpongeBob: Sponge Out of Water (opens friday) Daniel Lee / heights senior staff
traffic light party (Saturday, 11 p.m.)
Love is in the air this Saturday in the Cabaret Room. Check out the party’s Facebook page for guidelines on attire. DJ Nova will be on the turntables and there’s even a rumor of a live Cupid. Tickets are $5 at the door.
Motown the Musical (Saturday, 7:30 P.M.)
This Tony-nominated musical surrounds the Motown record label and founder Berry Gordy. Tickets can be found at The Boston Opera House’s website.
The sequel to the epically popular SpongeBob Squarepants: The Movie brings the iconic sponge and his pals out of their depths. Antonio Banderas stars as the nefarious pirate Burger-Beard in this roaring animation.
Jupiter Ascending (opens friday)
From the creators of The Matrix comes this sci/fi fantasy starring Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum. Targeted by the Queen of the Universe, Jupiter Jones must fight her own life and bring down the tyrannical Queen.
The Heights
Thursday, February 5, 2015
B3
a fuller picture
Oh, the places tech will go Chris Fuller
Clare Kim / heights staff
Mod of Cards Breaking ground: behind the scenes of the second episode Ryan Dowd | Arts & Review Editor By Ryan Dowd Arts & Review Editor It’s 10:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night, and Foster St. is fake-throwing down. Girls are in their “going out” outfits, and guys have on their fancy boots and Vineyard Vines coats. It’s an eerily familiar and foreign scene. The noise slowly rises without a deafening bass to absorb the usual party conversations. There are more than a few details that set this gathering apart from the usual Tuesday night rager. Derek Switaj, CSOM ’15, mingles his way through the group’s separate cloisters, wrinkled script in hand. Max Prio, CSOM ’16, is set up behind the bar not with drinks, but rather a camera attached to a slider, ready to track across the landscape of the scene. His partner in cinematography Ryan Reede, A&S ’16, is set up not far to his right, his own camera pointed. Prio cuts off the giddy crowd, noting the absurdity of the situation before asking the crew of extras to keep the noise to a minimum, effectively cutting it out all together. “You can talk to each other,” he says. “But don’t make any audible noise.” And the shooting for the second scene of the second episode of Mod of Cards begins. Prio, in an Exposure Productions long sleeve tee shirt, delicately pulls the camera across the tracks on top of the bar as each section of the crowd has its own action to make. Finally, the camera rests as Ben Halter, A&S ’16—who plays the infamous Frank Underwood, the star of the show—makes his turn into frame. He leans against the bar and gives his aside to the camera. It’s a move Mod of Cards has in its short time become known for—drama within familiarity. And at the helm are Switaj, Reede, and Prio. Prio and Reede, of Boston College’s media startup Exposure Productions, lead the show’s principal photography and editing, while Switaj serves as writer-director. The Heights sat down with the three before their shoot on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming release of Mod of Cards’ second episode and the show’s production as a whole. On first episode’s reception Prio: Right off the bat, we got a lot of great reception. Switaj: The funny thing was the quality. A lot of people were impressed with the quality. These guys did such a good job with the cinematography. From the story perspective, the funny thing for me was people coming up to me
with two totally different perspectives like, “You guys totally nailed what BC student drama’s like and student government is just like that.” And I had people telling me, “Oh, you did a good job but that’s not what BC is like.” And that’s two very different perspectives. It’s funny how depending on your perspective on BC and what you do here, for some the show felt scary real and some because it was fake drama. Reede: I guess it depends on if people have seen House of Cards or not. The first episode is really similar (to the original) and then we branch off from there. So a lot of people who didn’t see House of Cards were like, yeah I liked it, but I didn’t really understand what was going on, because there’s this net of character relations that you kind of understand immediately if you’ve seen House of Cards and that have to develop—which they do. On release structure Prio: That was part of the strategy with releasing the first before Winter Break. The one by itself is so disconnected from the rest of the story. We don’t really develop much of the drama in it. We just present the climate of where everything is gonna happen … You didn’t miss any drama if you didn’t see it. Now that we’re bringing it back for the second semester, it’s when the drama is really gonna start happening and you’ll start understanding who some of those characters are. On snow Prio: It was kind of something we just decided we’re gonna have to live with. If we were legitimate, and we had a budget and we had all the time in the world we would have waited until spring to shoot. But it’s a reality of it all. We go to school from fall to barely even spring, before we get warm weather and we knew it was going to happen. We were lucky enough that we got so much of episode two shot without snow in it but then all of a sudden snow came. Spoiler alert: you’re gonna see continuity errors—snow—it’s going to be there and then it’s not gonna be there Switaj: And you know the nice thing is we were able, to an extent, re-write some scenes in the later episodes—so three, four, five, and six, I’m not expecting many issues. I mean, from an extension of disbelief you can get a snowstorm in March … and there’s no definite timeline in which the story occurs in each of our episodes. Episode five, for instance, takes place in one entire day. All the other episodes happen over a course of days. On the move from D.C. to BC Switaj: There’s a reason why pretty much every story’s been told, since 3,000 B.C. They’ve just shifted and they have new
connotations and new culture and new people. So really taking political Washington D.C. and political Boston College fake drama and our UGBC really isn’t that different from a story perspective if you understand it well … and just being here for four years, it clicks with how it fits. On Exposure to ‘Mod of Cards’ Prio: Part of why we took on this project in the first place, when Derek reached out initially to Ryan and then to me, we and Exposure as a whole were kind of getting kind of bored with the typical promo videos. They weren’t anything that were outright creative on our part. This is going to be our time to shine creativity as far as cinematography and using all the tools that if you’re not involved with film you don’t really understand how many tools we have to manipulate things with. There’s so many ways to create emotion and imagery and messages with the position of your camera, the position of the lights, the shadows you create, the sound, so many different things that actually go into the production of it, that yeah, it’s been very refreshing to have that liberty to move our camera around where we don’t do it in Exposure work. Reede: The intro was more strictly the emulating the House of Cards intro. There’s a lot of shots in the House of Cards intro that I don’t think belong there just from a framing aspect. But Max and I had a blast coming on campus in September. We were just going throughout Boston and shooting 60, 70 GBs of time lapse footage. Prio: It’s a lot more fun to work with multiple cameras that are all moving. We just have more time on set to plan, storyboard, and executes, so we kind of know going in where we are going to have the lights and how many cameras we’re going to need. We can really be a lot more creative with dynamic shooting, moving the camera like they do in House of Cards and getting vertical pans, horizontal pans, rack focuses—things that often take us a couple takes to get down. If you pay attention to how the show progresses, I hope as something we’re trying to do more you’ll notice a lot more of these artistic flair that me and Ryan are putting on it. For a while we were stuck in our exposure nature, but now we’re putting in the effort to use a bunch of tools we haven’t used in a while so you’ll see a lot more camera slides and see vertical and horizontal moves with the camera and it’s just been a blast. Me and Ryan have over our lives 15 years of experience doing all sorts of different work so it’s nice to finally take some of that and bring it back to the fore front.
On the two Franks Switaj: I think part of the fun of that character is Frank in House of Cards is a sociopath. He has very little empathy, or none … In the original script of the pilot episode Frank is described as King Richard III, Iago, and Hannibal Lector rolled up into one person—that’s a pretty clear cut picture of who Frank is. So when you take Frank and you boil him down to the college level, and all the characters to an extent, we’re trying to figure out what would these characters look like if they aren’t developed as a person yet. If they’re still in their formative state, formative time in their life, you know our Frank isn’t a full sociopath yet, but as the episodes go along you see, “Oh, there’s some tendencies.” You think, “Oh, I can see how he could grow up into grown-up Frank.” Same thing with Claire … I think the key was figuring out what are the most important traits in these characters in the show and when you filter them down to the college level. Why is Frank motivated? For him, in my mind, it’s pride. He is, I think, in the early stages of a little bit of sociopathic tendency but I think it’s also just pride, too. He feels like he’s been wronged and he wants to right the wrong. Traditional hubris, right? On working with stage actors Switaj: That’s been one of the most fun things for me directing just working with the actors. I came from a theater background. The biggest difference that I see, and it was very apparent early on with our actors, is when you’re acting in theater you’re acting for an audience so you’re projecting—all of your motions are exaggerated—everything you’re doing is making minute things present on a large stage. So now when you put a camera in someone’s face, you see every little tick, every little twitch, every little smirk, every little smile. It’s the small movements that rule in film and it’s the big ones that rule in theater. So that was a lot of the early Mod of Cards shoots, just open dialogue … At the end of the day, the actors want to look good for their sake. I want them to look good for the show’s sake. So the better I am at catching when things are off or when theater tendencies are coming into it that helps everybody … A lot of film is acting through the eyes, acting through the small smirks, and I just particularly enjoy that so it’s been interesting. Max said earlier that part of this is building that family, so it’s fun to see your brothers and sisters and everybody changing and growing and learning. n
I consider myself out of the loop. As far as technology goes, I maintain a level of proficiency that allows me to function in everyday society and, at a certain level, with my peers. My parents have always described me as ‘tech-savvy,’ but that is only me being able to read a settings menu on a device or discovering some hidden feature of an iPad that neither of them could find. I have played a lot of video games in my life, so I’ve always known my way around a gaming console, and I know how to open and close Internet Explorer and Safari. But I have realized, over the past couple of years that I grow more and more uncomfortable with technological progression in time, especially with regard to commercial use. Last night, my roommate asked me to get on Snapchat so he could lend me 60 bucks for a video game. To start, I don’t have a Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or Yik-Yak. I have a Facebook to keep in contact with people whose phone numbers I do not have, but I do not appreciate social media very much at all. I use my cell phone for calls, texts, music, and a couple video games I find entertaining, but I really do not like to use it for much else. So when my friend proposed this digital transaction to me, I looked at him, puzzled, and asked, “What the hell do you mean by, ‘use Snapchat?’” To my astonishment, he informed he could send me cash, without a penalty, through the Snapchat app, just so long as I had my credit card on file with the app. I put my card on the app (just to move along with the evening), but to be honest, I was sincerely troubled by the app’s latest achievement. Why should a picturesharing app have access to my banking transactions? This is just one example of the many ways I feel technology is taking over our lives at a very personal level. I do not want to sound like an old curmudgeon, ranting on the disadvantages of the apparent conveniences that technology provides us in our everyday lives, but I feel, more and more everyday, that some of my fears are becoming rational. Looking out across a dining hall, every night I see a couple tables where, for more than a few minutes, every person is on their phone doing something, usually involving social media. I have heard serious arguments from friends and acquaintances regarding likes, and posts gone ignored, but what does any of this actually count for? There is a lot to be spoken on the topic of social media’s actual impact on society, but for space’s sake I can only reiterate that there is something unhuman about the way we incessantly interact through the digital world. There is something much more beautiful to me about living fully in the moment, rather than trying to snap a shot of every other minute of one’s life. To go along with my fears of technology’s impact on our interactions, technology is becoming more self-aware and intelligent as new cyber-developments take place. Even tech genius Bill Gates and physicist Stephen Hawking warn of the future advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), saying that we should tread lightly with where we take inanimate thinking. I am not proposing that one day the robots from the Terminator movies are going to extinguish the human population, with their huge guns and spooky skull-print aesthetic, but is it entirely implausible to imagine an AI designed to make environmental protection its number one priority and for said AI to determine that we humans are one of the more harmful plagues upon the Earth’s well-being? Again, I may just be spouting science-fantasy mumbojumbo, but when asked in a Perspectives class whether a thinking robot could be harmful to us, the room gave a hearty laugh—that discomforted me. Maybe it is crazy to think that one day robots could pose a physical threat to humanity, but I think we should respect the power that we have already handed technology. My trepidations may be entirely off-base, but I know I am not the only one with these thoughts. With books like Dave Eggers’ The Circle and several articles and movements surrounding the pushback of social media, I see some sort of effort by people to remind us of the power we hold in our hands and the power that that device in our hands holds over us. But, generally, the public seems just a bit blind to the influence technology holds over us, and I include myself in that statement to some degree. As much as modern technology is the driving force of everyday happenings around the world, we cannot rely on technology to replace the human experience or genuine human intellect.
Chris Fuller is the Assoc. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.
THE HEIGHTS
B4
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Looking at the heartland politics of Pawnee, Indiana SEAN KEELEY Three weeks ago, on Tuesday, Jan. 20, President of the United States Barack Obama delivered his sixth State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. The same night, the seventh and final season of Parks and Recreation debuted on NBC. I know, because I was waiting for one of these programs to end so the other could begin (sorry, Mr. President). Parks and Rec and presidential politics: What do these two TV events have to say to each other? More than you might think, actually. As unassuming as the show may appear, I contend that Parks and Recreation is the best show about American politics of our generation. It’s less cynical than the backstabbing vision of Washington shown in House of Cards, less pandering than Aaron Sorkin’s insufferable The Newsroom, and more idealistic than both of them. It may lack the raunchy laughs of Veep and the serious drama cred of Homeland, but Parks and Recreation offers something else that we desperately need: a vision of America where democracy still works.
I know, I know: that’s a pretty weighty charge to lay upon a show that began as a mediocre knock-off of The Office. And make no mistake, that’s exactly what the show was at first. Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope was an only slightly less crazy version of Michael Scott, and everything from the camera style to the supporting cast’s foibles seemed to mimic The Office. The show only got its groove going in the second season when it departed from the formula. Instead of being another deadpan comedy about a deadbeat workplace, Parks and Rec embraced the optimism of its protagonist. It became a truly idealistic show, about one woman’s never-ending quest to make things better for the town that she loves. Over the course of seven years, Parks and Recreation has been an education in civics disguised as an ensemble sitcom. In examining the daily struggles of a tiny parks department in Pawnee, Indiana, Parks has found humor in town hall meetings, government shutdowns, filibusters, taxation controversies, dirty campaign tactics, and vote-buying schemes. It has plunged its audience into a world of absurd political players and opinion-makers, from the ob-
structionist City Councilman Jeremy Jamm to the blissfully dumb TV anchor Perd Hapley. Squint a little, and any given episode of Parks and Recreation becomes a surprisingly shrewd look at the ailments of America’s dysfunctional political system. Here’s the thing, though: The show has never let that satire obscure its fundamental goodnaturedness. Parks is infused with a real sense of affection for all the crazy personalities, outdated laws and ridiculous traditions that populate its storylines. It is a vision of small-town American life that embraces democracy in all its complexity and absurdity. It also embraces it in the characters in the same way. I don’t have enough words to dwell on Aziz Ansari as the swaggy entrepreneur Tom Haverford, or Chris Pratt as the lovable doofus Andy Dwyer, or Aubrey Plaza as the stone-cold, sarcastic April Ludgate. Suffice it to say that they form a well-oiled comedic machine, and are integral to the show’s essentially communal vision. All other supporting characters, however, must bow down to Ron Swanson. As portrayed by Nick Offerman, Swanson has al-
ways been the perfect foil to Leslie Knope, a mustachioed burly man who espouses libertarian policies that would make Ron Paul blush. The conflict between Leslie’s biggovernment activism and Ron’s conservative convictions has been the butt of countless jokes over the years, but in this farewell season the writers are exploring that tension in particularly fruitful ways. The season premiere, which jumps ahead to 2017 to find Leslie working with the national parks service and Ron running a private construction company, also put the two friends at loggerheads over a long-simmering dispute. Three episodes later, Ron and Leslie were forced to confront their resentments when they were locked together overnight in City Hall. It could have been a tired sitcom cliche, but Poehler and Offerman pulled it off : a tribute to how deeply they have inhabited their characters, and to the writers’ conviction to make both characters well-intentioned, principled people whose ideological disagreements cannot trounce their friendship. There is, I think, something beautiful in Leslie and Ron’s friendship that speaks to a
fundamental hope we have as Americans: the hope that we are still more united than divided. Which brings me back full circle to the State of the Union, where President Obama reiterated his famous refrain about America being a unified country: not red or blue, liberal or conservative, but fundamentally one. “I still believe that we are one people,” the President said, to applause, even as pundits ripped him later in the evening for his apparent naivete. Perhaps they were right to do so. At least on the national level, America today does not look remotely united, and it’s hard to imagine, say, Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren sharing a friendship like Ron Swanson and Leslie Knope. But there is at least one place where that vision still holds sway: a town called Pawnee, Indiana, which you can visit on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. for the next three weeks. Spend a little time there, and you may find yourself touched by the better angels of our nature.
Sean Keeley is senior staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.
Bob Dylan honors Sinatra, but lost in the ‘Shadows’ of his voice BY JAMES FARRELL Heights Staff As time turns our musical legends into aged versions of their former selves, there arises the interesting quandary as to what happens to these former superstars next. Do they sit comfortably on their fame, and ride out happily into the sunset of music immortality? Or do they continue to press forward, warriors that they are, creating, producing , and performing? Regardless of what their respective fan bases might want, many choose the latter path, and we are left with the task of figuring out how to assess these choices in the context of a lifetime of music. With Shadows In The Night, an album of old standards made famous by Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan precariously continues his foray down the path of the weary warrior. Bob D ylan fans have had mixed reactions over their hero’s attempts to continue playing music. His voice is raspy beyond his years, which is not a compliment, and his live reiterations of his classic songs are often rendered unrecognizable (for proof, check out his 2011 Grammy per-
formance with Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers). That being said, Shadows In The Night is a collection of 10 tender, wellarranged tracks. They are filled with respectable vocals from Dylan and a truly genuine jazz sentiment. It’s not the uptempo, Rat-Pack-style of Frank Sinatra songs, but rather the sultry and romantic numbers, played late at night in a smoky jazz lounge. Dylan handles them as well as he can—the finished product is a melancholy, reflective retrospective on a tradition unexpectedly and satisfyingly distant from the folk legend that we all know. In short, Shadows In The Night is a pleasant surprise. Now, that doesn’t mean that fans should expect a revitalized Bob Dylan, ready to begin a second wind of youthful angst. Dylan still sounds like an old man with a cold. But to be fair, he has always sounded like he had a bit of a cold, and it was that nasally twang that made his voice charming and iconic for so long. So really he just sounds like an old man, and that process of heroic aging can be endearing in and of itself. However, that caveat doesn’t save certain tracks on this album. “The Night We
Called It A Day” gets into higher registers, and Dylan’s age really shows as he strains to hit the notes. “Some Enchanted Evening” features some unsteadily held out long notes that weaken the song’s power. For the most part, however, Dylan holds his own vocally. “I’m a Fool To Want You” and “Autumn Leaves” both have particularly good vocal efforts, perhaps because the vocal parts are quiet and in a lower register. Yet the
beauty of the album lies in the dreamy arrangements. Almost every song on the album features swelling orchestral chords or horns and lap steel guitar adding a drop of country flair, and the album is too short (at 35 minutes) to ever feel repetitive. These elements give the whole album a floaty, suspended atmosphere. It’s a bit reminiscent of elevator music, but perhaps it’s hearing Dylan work so hard to sing these songs that gives them
such a real emotional impact, the sense that it was important for this to happen at all costs. It feels natural, even when sounding natural doesn’t come easy. As is often the case with these kinds of old-timer’s albums, it’s unlikely that fans will reach for Shadows In The Night before more classic albums like The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan or Highway 61 Revisited. But by no means does that mean that make Shadows In The Night a failure.
With a name like Title Fight comes the connotation of aggression, passion, and an all-or-nothing mentality. And if you’ve heard any of Title Fight’s previous works, one would expect something of that nature—an album filled with battle-
like, punk/hardcore-influenced songs. While a select few tracks on Title Fight’s fourth LP Hyperview reflect those concepts, it seems that the foursome out of Kingston, Penn. has found enough confidence to move away from their more aggressive roots and toward a sound that demonstrates the group’s distinct evolution.
TOP SINGLES
1 Uptown Funk! Mark Ronson 2 Thinking Out Loud Ed Sheeran 3 Take Me To Church Hozier 4 Blank Space Taylor Swift 5 Shake It Off Taylor Swift 6 Sugar Maroon 5 7 Lips Are Movin Meghan Trainor 8 I’m Not The Only One Sam Smith
TOP ALBUMS
1 American Beauty/ American Psycho Fall Out Boy 2 1989 Taylor Swift 3 Title Meghan Trainor 4X Ed Sheeran 5 B4.Da.$$ Joey Bada$$ Source: Billboard.com
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK BY RHODA MORRISON
“LITTLE TOY GUNS” CARRIE UNDERWOOD
SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT BOB DYLAN PRODUCED BY CAPITOL STUDIOS RELEASED FEB. 3, 2015 OUR RATING
PHOTO COURTESY OF CAPITOL STUDIOS
Title Fight goes for the gold with newfound style, falls short BY HARRY MITCHELL Heights Staff
CHART TOPPERS
Title Flight came together in 2003 when members Jamie Rhoden (guitar and vocals); Shane Moran (guitar); and twins Ned and Ben Russin (bass and drums, respectively) were just in middle school. It took eight years for the collective to release their debut album, The Last Thing You Forget, which featured a vicious sound that would character-
HYPERVIEW TITLE FIGHT PRODUCED BY ANTIRELEASED FEB. 3, 2015 OUR RATING
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANTI-
ize the majority of their work up until the release of Hyperview. Hyperview is a departure from the angsty punk sound that jumpstarted their career, as it embraces past influences, yet makes noticeable changes to their sound and alters the cliche interpretation of punk as a genre. The first track, “Murder Your Memory,” has a title that suggests ferocity, yet features a slowly accelerating array of synthesizers building into an unexpectedly beautiful arrangement of meandering guitars, a simple, unaggressive drum beat, and harmless vocals. The songs lyrics suggest forgetting your past and moving forward, which acts as a perfect introduction for the album as Title Fight seems to be doing just that on a musical level. The following track and lead single “Chlorine” is slightly more upbeat, dominated by heavily reverbed guitars and strikingly muddled vocals. The song certainly brings a different sound to the table, but is somewhat monotone, as it lacks the aggressive, gravelly vocals that characterizes Shed, The Last Thing You Forget, and Floral Green. “Chlorine” transitions into “Hypernight,” a similarly guitardominated track with soft vocals, a clear sign of the group moving away from their aggressive nature.
While the fourth track, “Mrahc,” is arguably the closest Title Fight has come to pop, it is easily the most likeable song and will probably be the album’s most popular track. Energizing guitar riffs couple with a snare-heavy drumbeat and spirited vocals to make a short and sweet, radio-ready track that anyone could listen to. With the exception of the sixth track “Rose of Sharon”—a loud, enthusiastic track with a lot of yelling—the remainder of the album is somewhat repetitive. Three of the last four songs on Hyperview sound almost identical and fail to add any substance to the record as a whole. “Murder your Memory,” “Chlorine,” “Mrahc,” and “Rose of Sharon,” are the highlights of the album, with a number of somewhat mediocre tracks with strikingly similar tones found in between. As a whole, Hyperview is a successful deviation from Title Fight’s previous sound. The complete alteration of style is a sign of boldness and confidence in the group’s ability. The album lacks the destructive and forceful nature of previous works, but makes up for it with a well-crafted, more demonstrative sound. Hyperview, while not Title Fight’s strongest work, demonstrates a great level of confidence and passion.
It is a known fact that since winning American Idol in 2005, Carrie Underwood has put her fame and fortune to good use, donating large amounts of money to various charities while raising awareness and support for those less fortunate than herself. Her newest single, “Little Toy Guns”, is another attempt by Underwood to address an important social issue, one that may be closer to home for many. Directed by PR Brown, the video begins in the middle of a heated argument between a couple standing at the top of a staircase. As the volume of the argument grows, the camera takes us down to a child’s level and allows us to see the world through the eyes of a 10 year-old girl who sits in the closet covering her ears. All of a sudden, the dolls, blankets and drawings on the wall are replaced with an enchanted forest setting, like something out of a fairy-tale, and the shouting is drowned out by Underwood’s powerful vocals. Bringing Underwood’s emotive lyrics to life, the video captures the child’s desire to escape into a fantasy world where words are harmless and where she becomes the hero that reunites her parents. However, the end of the video, which returns to the real world, lessens the impact of the song’s poignant message, and gives the wrong impression that difficulties at home can be solved by simply reaching out and holding hands. In the 21st century, domestic violence is faced head on, with many organizations fighting to stop it. Yet, with the release of this video, Underwood reminds us that it is not just physical abuse that can leave a wound, but words too, and that children are the real victims, who often find themselves caught in the crossfire.
SINGLE REVIEWS BY HANNAH MCLAUGHLIN RIHANNA FEAT. KANYE WEST & PAUL MCCARTNEY “FourFiveSeconds” Recorded by an unlikely trio—two of today’s R&B favorites and a ’60s rock legend— “FourFiveSeconds” is a refreshing single with a surprising sound. With McCartney on an acoustic guitar, the song boasts a light and carefree air. Although it’s a shame McCartney didn’t lend his voice to the track, the finished product is a well-crafted mellow masterpiece.
MODEST MOUSE “The Best Room”
ELLIE GOULDING “Love Me Like You Do” Goulding’s newest single—from the highly anticipated upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey— is a lackluster love song with a poppy beat that deviates from the British singer’s usual style. Though it still contains Goulding’s signature sound—namely her floating vocals and distinct accent—“Love Me Like You Do” is, unfortunately, nothing extraordinary.
Modest Mouse has been just that over the past five years--modest. They haven’t released a record since 2009. But these forefathers to The Shins, and Arcade Fire, have released three singles over the past year and a half. Their most recent “The Best Room” is fairly basic--a mess that’s not engaging lyrically or in composition, but it’s soothing in a simple way.
CLASSIFIEDS
The Heights The Heights
Thursday, January 17, 2014
B5 B5
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Community Help wanted $$ SPERM DONORS WANTED $$ Earn up to $1,200/month and give the gift of family through California Cryobank’s donor program. Convenient Cambridge location. Apply online: SPERMBANK.com.
THE HEIGHTS HAS A NEW AND IMPROVED WEBSITE, UPDATED DAILY
JUST FOR YOU. CHECK IT OUT. BCHEIGHTS.COM. Directions: The Sudoku is played over a 9x9 grid. In each row there are 9 slots, some of which are empty and need to be filled. Each row, column and 3x3 box should contain the numbers 1 to 9. You must follow these rules: · Number can appear only once in each row · Number can appear only once in each column · Number can appear only once in each 3x3 box · The number should appear only once on row, column or area.
SURE, AT FIRST I WAS A LITTLE TAKEN ABACK BY THE WHOLE PEEING STANDING UP THING. BUT I TAUGHT HIM TO THROW A STICK AND NOW HANGING OUT WITH HIM IS THE BEST PART OF MY DAY. — EINSTEIN adopted 12-09-10
The Heights
B6
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Skarupa and Field keep BC’s championship hopes alive From Women’s Beanpot, B8 tion—the Eagles’ early season total is, of course, an absurd standard to maintain over an entire season. Plus, if BC were to have only scored those 3.17 goals per game over the course of the entire season, the team would still slot in at eighth in the nation in scoring. To drop almost a goal per game on average in such a short time, however, is reason to have concern—a concern that
showed quickly in the first period. Desjardins, despite being tagged for five goals in her first start, held the Eagles at bay for nearly the first 40 minutes of the game. Repeatedly, rocket shots came flying in repeatedly from Alex Carpenter, Haley Skarupa, and Lexi Bender. With each shot by one of BC’s elite attackers, the NU goalie knocked away each one with either her stick or pad. Meanwhile, Burt allowed the Huskies to get ahead on a sharp goal by freshman
Arthur Bailin / heights editor
Sharp goaltending by Chloe Desjardins couldn’t keep Field or Skarupa from scoring.
McKenna Brand at 7:52 for her sixth goal of the season. NU’s defense shined as well, preventing the Eagles from getting off too many quality shots on Desjardins. Northeastern defensewomen pushed the Eagles’ forwards to the outside and holed up the middle. Rather, the Huskies’ defenders forced contested shots from the angles instead of head on at the goalie Desjardins. Recognizing this strategy by NU helped the Eagles make the necessary adjustments, according to BC head coach Katie King Crowley. “That’s one of the things we’ve noticed in the last couple of games,” Crowley said after the game. “You’ve got to create opportunities with puck movement and the way we skate and I thought we did that.” But Crowley’s adjustments showed in the closing minutes of the second period, when BC captain Emily Field broke her slump, sniping the puck from the circle for her sixth goal of the season and tying the game at one. Tori Sullivan and Kate Leary had a couple more solid chances on Desjardins, but the Northeastern goalie’s proficiency continued until 11:29 in the third. Skarupa launched a feed from Carpenter past Desjardins’ right shoulder for her 24th goal of the year, giving BC the lead for good. Andie Anastos’ empty netter with seconds remaining sealed the game for the Eagles, upping the unbeaten streak to 27 games and sending BC to the Beanpot finals. When Crowley entered the press
Arthur Bailin / heights editor
McKenna Brand beat out Katie Burt to open the scoring in the 30th minute on Tuesday. room, she sighed with a smile on her face, the same one she has had all year, praising her girls’ resilience in the win. “I thought the kids stuck with it and continued to stick our game plan,” Crowley said. Meanwhile, NU’s Dave Flint had the same reaction most coaches have when going up against BC: the No. 1 team in the nation. He slumped in his chair, expressed his disappointment, provided a few cliche answers on how great the Eagles are and how his Huskies played them
tough—a somber tone the whole time— and returned to focus on Harvard in the consolation game. For now, BC fans can rejoice—although the men fell in their first round against NU, the women will be playing next Tuesday for the championship in Cambridge and the elongation of their magical season. Given how the Eagles played—the pure frustration they showed and the offensive drought they endured for the first half of the game—it may be time to start the timer on how long it’ll be
Poor first half sinks Eagles in defeat against Grant, ND By Tom DeVoto
Asst. Sports Editor With six and a half minutes left in the first half, Jerian Grant stepped back deep behind the 3-point line and let a shot fly. It bounced off the front of the rim, onto the backboard, down off the rim again, and into the net. The University of Notre Dame took a 23-point lead on that shot. On the other end, Aaron Brown drove the baseline valiantly and threw up a desperate layup that kissed the glass and laid on the front of the rim—for what seemed like an eternity—ultimately rolling off into the waiting hands of Irish center Zach Auguste. It was just that kind of day for the Eagles (9-12 overall, 1-8 ACC) and the Fighting Irish (21-3, 9-2). Notre Dame got some beneficial bounces on its home floor, and BC did not. The Irish rode hot shooting all game en route to a 71-63 win over the Eagles at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend. No. 10 Notre Dame was coming off a last-second loss on the road at the University of Pittsburgh, and it came out of the gate sure to prevent a similar
upset from happening on Wednesday night. The Eagles, meanwhile, struggled mightily to get going. Many of their attempts from the field in the first half were 3-pointers, and very few of them fell until the last few minutes. The Irish, led by star point guard Jerian Grant and his 17 points, shot over 50 percent from the field in the first half. ND is ranked No. 2 in the country in field goal percentage, so the impressive shooting display was no surprise for the efficient Irish. Grant did not miss a shot during the first 20 minutes, connecting on all three of his attempts from downtown for nine points. He added five assists and three steals during that half. The start of the second half fared much better for the Eagles, but more specifically forDennis Clifford. The big man from Massachusetts added two quick buckets on the interior in the first minute of the half to rebound from a difficult beginning. After finding himself on the outside of the starting lineup for three straight games, Clifford blew defensive assignments and committed lazy turnovers in the opening minutes, showing obvious signs of rust. For the Irish, Grant’s sidekicks
performed almost as well as the star. ND’s Auguste had his way down low throughout the game, finishing with 16 points on seven-of-11 shooting. Auguste bullied the Eagles’ big men in the paint, using brute force and quick feet to dance around BC’s defenders. Additionally, Irish forward Steve Vasturia came up with clutch shot after clutch shot whenever the Eagles seemed to need a defensive stop. The sophomore scored 17 points, tied for a team-high, on seven-of-nine shooting. He connected on 60 percent of his 3-point opportunities. Olivier Hanlan led the way in the second for the Eagles, who shot better from long distance but not good enough to chip into the lead. Hanlan’s 28 points and four assists each led the team for the game. In the last three minutes as Notre Dame started to let off the pedal, the Eagles absolutely caught fire, unable to miss from behind the arc. At one point, with over a minute remaining, the lead was cut to six—but a Vasturia dagger put the lead out of reach for good. The Eagles dug themselves too big a hole to climb out of, though, as the Irish held on for the win. n
Arthur Bailin / heights editor
Olivier Hanlan scored a season high 28 points, but BC couldn’t overcome Notre Dame.
Northeastern power play, late goal by Darou dooms BC From Men’s Beanpot, B8 discipline. “We took a lot of penalties,” York said. “It’s hard to overcome that because you’re playing a lot of the same players over and over again.” Entering the game, BC was ranked 41st out of 59 Division I programs in average penalty minutes per game with just over 10. The Eagles took six penalties on the night against the Huskies for a total of 12 penalty minutes in just two periods. Before the game got started, BC faced a big challenge. The first game between BU and Harvard University went to double overtime, pushing back BC’s start time nearly an hour and a half. “It definitely played a role but at the end of the day both teams are in the same boat,” Matheson said. “We didn’t use that as an excuse by any means.” The Eagles didn’t look slow at the start—they dominated pace of play against the Huskies in the first couple minutes. Despite a multitude of chances for both teams, there was no scoring in the first stanza. The second period started with a bang, as Saucerman’s tally came only 21 seconds after the initial puck drop. Four minutes later, though, Ryan Fitzgerald took advantage of a nifty outlet from Austin Cangelosi and deked goaltender Clay Witt out of his shorts, but left the puck at the edge of the crease. Before Witt could cover, Destry Straight came barreling in and pounded the puck home to even the score. It was Straight’s seventh goal of the season. Penalties came back to bite the
Eagles once again halfway through the second, as point man John Stevens used a screen in front to sneak a wrist shot into the top corner of the net. But it didn’t take long for the Huskies to start showing cracks in their defense. Following yet another Eagles penalty, forward Chris Calnan had a shorthanded breakaway chance, but couldn’t get a shot off. The puck slid down into the Eagles end, but bounced back onto the stick of Fitzgerald, who got another open chance of his own. This time, he glided straight in, using his body to shield the NU defenseman, and flipped the puck with ease over Witt’s glove hand to even the score. For 20 minutes, the score remained that way. But as time was expiring on the third period, self-diagnosed poor shooter Dustin Darou was given a bit of extra space from forwards Adam Gilmour and Calnan, and he took advantage of it. He let a soft wrist shot fly from the point, and it miraculously avoided every body in front on its way over Demko’s glove. With that, BC’s title hopes were dashed. There will be no celebration next Monday. There will, however, be a consolation game against a team that is ranked far higher than Northeastern, a team that dominated BC already this season. And if the Eagles start taking the same unnecessary penalties against the Crimson, they’ll be in trouble. After BC’s win against Providence this past weekend, York lauded his team’s smart, calculated aggressiveness. Against the Huskies, that same aggressiveness turned into blind belligerence, and ultimately caused BC’s demise. n
Arthur Bailin / heights editor
Zach Sanford and the Eagles’ offense went cold, notching only a shorthanded goal by Fitzgerald and a lucky shot by Straight.
THE HEIGHTS
Thursday, February 5, 2015 Standings TOM DEVOTO
11-1
MICHAEL SULLIVAN
8-4
JACK STEDMAN
7-5
HEIGHTS STAFF
7-5
B7
Recap from Last Picks
Game of the Week
A strong penalty kill and goals by each of the freshmen lifted the men’s hockey team over Providence, 3-2. The men’s basketball team couldn’t click offensively, falling to Clemson, 64-49. A double-double by Kelly Hughes wasn’t enough as women’s basketball lost 72-60 to No. 16 North Carolina. A pick by Malcolm Butler helped the New England Patriots win Super Bowl XLIX over the Seattle Seahawks, 28-24.
Men’s Basketball
Boston vs. North College Carolina
Guest Editor: Chris Stadtler
North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina
BC
Men’s Hockey: No. 11 BC @ No. 18 Merrimack
BC
BC
BC
BC
Women’s Hockey: No. 1 BC vs. Connecticut
BC
BC
BC
BC
No. 12 North Carolina will travel to Chestnut Hill to take on the Eagles this Saturday afternoon for a critical ACC matchup. The Tar Heels are reeling after winning six straight games, having dropped their past two games. The Eagles, meanwhile, are on a tailspin of their own after losing two straight and four of their last five. BC is still searching for its first home conference win of the season, while UNC enters Conte with a 3-1 ACC record on the road. BC has to focus on beating the Heels on the glass, as they rank No. 2 in the country in rebounds per game.
Virginia
Louisville
Virginia
Louisville
Saturday, 3 p.m. at Conte Forum
General Manager
“It’s about honor, it’s about respect.” MICHAEL SULLIVAN
This Week’s Games
Sports Editor
Men’s Basketball: BC vs. No. 12 North Carolina
NCAA Basketball: No. 9 Louisville vs. No. 3 Virginia
JACK STEDMAN
Assoc. Sports Editor
Asst. Sports Editor
TOM DEVOTO
CHRIS STADTLER General Manager
In a parallel universe, BC gets stuck at the Beanpot From Column, B8
ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Perhaps if the Eagles were snowed in at the TD Garden instead of waiting for Harvard and BU, they’d have more happy moments like these.
in hopes of beating the Huskies in something. A strong “We are BC!” chant is started. 10:36 p.m.: Michael Matheson and Destry Straight skate around the ice in utter confusion. “What’s the big idea, Straight? It’s just a little flurry, eh.” 11:11 p.m.: After a failed shootout between Paws the Husky and Baldwin the Eagle, the BC and NU ski teams arrive to provide entertainment. After BC couldn’t secure the contract of those mesmerizing Bungee Jumpers from the UVA basketball game, they settle for some big air ski jumping. The two teams are so amped that the whole city practically turns into their own practice area. Everyone makes a wish. 11:26 p.m.: Jerry York walks home, because he is immortal. 11:33 p.m.: Back in the media suite, The Heights editor counts six cannons going off. Faces of journalists from other publications are shown on the ceiling, as Capitol music plays in the background. 11:44 p.m.: With almost every phone in the arena running low on power, most students start to lose their minds. Suddenly, all the BC fans realize they do in fact have a women’s team, and that they even beat Northeastern earlier in the day. One fan remarks, “We are ranked No. 1 in the country, who would’ve known?” Another is heard saying, “There’s a women’s version of the Beanpot.” Heights editor shakes his head and face palms. 12:00 a.m.: The clock strikes midnight. Coffee is running thin. Coaches are turning into pumpkins. Resolute Heights editors begins to deteriorate, until Steve Addazio’s voice pops into his head—“Remember, be a dude!” 12:23 a.m.: Northeastern’s live mascot jumps at the opportunity at hand to escape his dreaded life follow-
ing NU’s hockey team. Leaving the warm confines of the Garden, he is at home in the arctic tundra and realizes his dream of being the top dog in the Iditarod. Sidenote: More teams should follow Butler and Georgetown in this tradition. I’m all in for Eagles soaring around Alumni Stadium and adorable Husky and Terrier pups prancing around the rink. 12:41 a.m.: BREAKING: Police release statement involving crucial evidence in arson case. After wiretapping the Eagles’ locker room, voices were recorded expressing their disgust at spending so much time in that cramped box. 1:10 a.m.: Update: The BC student section is on hour three of chanting. The “We Are” half is going strong, but the “BC” contingent is nowhere to be found. Insane fan, who swears the walls are closing in, screams, “What are we? I need to know!” and his friend responds, “You’re a CSOM student, George, snap out of it.” 1:12 a.m.: BC student finally realizes what the problem is with BU. There’s no campus feel. 1:15 a.m.: A generous BC alumni gift parachutes into the media suite. Heights editor uses his power of camouflage to avoid the games going on around him. 1:31 a.m.: Restless fans start complaining about BC’s football schedule. Shouts and grumblings about some guy named Howard and a late bye week resonate around the arena. 1:42 a.m.: Addazio, shovel in one hand and can of whoop-ass in the other, bursts through the doors in a blaze of glory. He proceeds to shovel out the entire D line from North Station to Reservoir, yelling things like “Where’s the juice?!” and “We’re a family! We have more heart than anyone else on the planet!” along the way.
Jack Stedman is the Assoc. Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com
York’s Eagles fail to shut down upset-minded NU From Men’s Hockey, B8 create a clean enough look for himself, or his teammates, to beat Husky goaltender Clay Witt. “We had some really good chances to score, other than the two we put on the board,” York said. After Northeastern potted the game winner, Fitzgerald and Tuch—BC’s two purest goal scorers—each had another chance to atone. Tuch pounced on a rebound in front of Witt with about a minute left. Fitzgerald raced into the Husky zone with less than 10 seconds remaining
and ripped off a missile from the high slot. “The 6-on-5, we had two really good chances to tie it up,” York said. “Fitzy just missed top shelf, and Alex Tuch, from my vantage point, hit the top of (Witt’s) stick.” None of BC’s really good chances in the final frame got past Witt, though, and so every player on the Eagles’ roster suffered their first beanpot defeat on Tuesday night. There isn’t much variance for the 2014-15 Eagles besides the win/loss column, and they picked a bad day to finish on the wrong side of it.
M. BASKETBALL
scoreboard
L’VILL 81 BC 72
M. HOCKEY PC BC
2 3
chestnut hill, ma 1/28
ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Northeastern outmatched the Eagles at every turn, from better goaltending from Clay Witt to a stronger attack led by Mike Szmatula.
w. HOCKEY
JONES 28 PTS BC BROWN 28 PTS PC
CHESTNUT HILL, MA 1/30
4 2
M. BASKETBALL
49 FLORENTINO 2 AST BC SANFORD 1 G 1 AST CLEM 64
PROVIDENCE, RI 1/30 W. BASKETBALL SKARUPA 2 G CARELS 1 G 1 AST
BC UNC
62 70
CLEMSON, SC 1/31 W. HOCKEY HANLAN 15 PTS ROPER 24 PTS
BC NU
3 1
CHAPEL HILL, NC 2/1 HUGHES 14 PTS MAVUNGA 25 PTS
BOSTON, 2/3 Boston, MaMA 11/11
M. HOCKEY NU BC
3 2
cAMBRIDGE, MA 2/3
M. BASKETBALL
SKARUPA 1 G BRAND 1 G
BC ND
63 71
DAROU GWG FITZGERALD 1 G 1 AST
SOUTH BEND, IN 2/4 Newton, MA 11/09 HANLAN 28 PTS GRANT 17 PTS
SPORTS
B8
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015
A night in the Garden
PENALTY KILLED
Six power play chances for Northeastern destroyed BC’s Beanpot final dreams
JACK STEDMAN The storied Beanpot tournament and snowstorms go way back—to 1978, specifically. That year, ol‘ Mother Nature dropped heaping amounts of snow on the Boston area at the worst time possible—during the opening round of the Beanpot. Being the college hockey city that it is, Boston refused to yield to blizzard conditions. Fans received the urgent message that the last trains would be leaving before the game ended, but that didn’t matter. Bostonians have a reputation to hold—the weather does not affect them at all. Perhaps too die-hard for their own good, several hundred fans watched the rest of the game, and stayed there for days as a result. Shades of the Blizzard of ’78 reared its ugly head again this year, as the opening round got postponed for the first time since 1983, this time caused by Linus, the second major storm to hit Boston in 10 days. Chaos ensued, but this year it was students rushing to sell their tickets instead of thousands of people stranded in an arena. With winter storms and Beanpots mixing once again, what might have happened if Boston College and Northeastern had played amid a blizzard and gotten stranded? Here’s a timeline of that alternate reality. 9:32 p.m.: The announcement comes over the loud speaker that all the roads are closed and the last trains leave in 15 minutes. Everyone is too entranced by Thatcher Demko flashing his pads and Noah Hanifin gliding around the ice to notice. 9:35 p.m.: Media members, who are beginning to take notice of the dire situation outside, quickly claim their own territory. Alliances are made and everyone begins hoarding the candies, coffee, and other treats in the TD Garden press box. Mysterious journalist finds her favored bow and arrow hidden among the jelly beans and chocolate-covered cookie dough. 9:59 p.m.: Northeastern takes down the Eagles, and the penalty box immediately goes up in flames. Initial police report states arson as the cause of the fire. Unidentified BC players being questioned. Investigation in progress. 10:08 p.m.: BC fans, dissatisfied with their loss on the ice, turn back to the chant war—“We have futures!”—
ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR
BY TOM DEVOTO Asst. Sports Editor Dalen Hedges gathered the puck along the sideboards at TD Garden and whipped it across the ice to Kevin Roy. Roy baited goalie Thatcher Demko into diving across the crease, then flipped the puck towards the front of the net. Somehow the puck ended up on the stick of a wide-open Colton Saucerman. There was nothing between him and the twine—a guaranteed power play goal. The horn buzzed, Northeastern celebrated, and the NU student section let out a raucous cheer. The tie had finally been broken, but it was only the first minute of the second period—plenty of hockey left. Seconds later, the Huskies came knocking on the door once again. On the ensuing faceoff, a Boston College turnover led to a NU breakaway opportunity, during which captain Michael Matheson took a penalty to prevent the scoring chance. Two minutes, tripping. Two minutes—that’s what this game came down to. As an isolated
incident, two minutes is not a long time to play hockey down a man. But try to survive those two minutes six times, at some of the most crucial junctions of the game, and it becomes insurmountable. BC men’s hockey learned that the hard way on Monday night in the team’s 3-2 loss to Northeastern in the first round of the Beanpot. The Eagles couldn’t stay out of the penalty box in the early going, and it cost them against NU. The Huskies went twofor-six on the power play and buried the Eagles with a late goal. The loss ended the Eagles’ streak of five consecutive Beanpot titles—one more would have tied the record for most consecutive championships with Boston University’s run of six straight at the end of the 1990s. Following the game, BC head coach Jerry York praised the Huskies, but couldn’t shake his disappointment in the team’s lack of
BY MICHAEL HOFF Heights Staff Boston College head coach Jerry York has won 979 games for a lot of reasons. One of them is that he knows his teams well. This iteration doesn’t have a lot of margin for error. “The game’s tied 2-2 with not much time left, Merrimack [game was the] same, BU [game] was the same. Really close, tight, hard checking games,” York said Friday after a 3-2 win over Providence, showing the type of team BC is. BC won that Providence game because Zach Sanford cashed in the game-winning shot late in the third when he had the chance. BC had similar chances on Monday against Northeastern in the Beanpot semifinal with the game tied 2-2 in the third on Tuesday night, and it had some opportunities to tie it up after the Huskies went up 3-2. The Eagles didn’t convert and they’ll play the early game next Monday night for the first time in six years because of it.
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2015
See Men’s Beanpot, B6
“It’s a 2-2 game with a couple minutes left in the contest,” York said after Tuesday’s loss. “We told our team: we’re built for these types of games, 3-2, 2-1, and we just gotta make a play to win the hockey game.” York’s remarks after Tuesday’s game were similar to Friday’s because the two games played out in a similar fashion, as many BC affairs have this season. BC played good defense, and goaltender Thatcher Demko limited second chances when shots did get through. The game came down to the third period, and BC had its opportunities. Early in the third, with the game still tied, an uncovered Ryan Fitzgerald fired a wrist shot from the slot and missed the net entirely. Later, with the game still tied, Alex Tuch had a similar chance off a rebound and shot the puck off the high glass behind the net. Right before that chance, Tuch couldn’t corral an Adam Gilmour pass on his backhand on a prime 2on-1 rush. All period long, with the score tied after the Huskies went up one, Noah Hanifin cut right through the Northeastern defense, but he couldn’t
See Men’s Hockey, B7
See Column, B7
Frustration sets in as BC heads to the Beanpot final vs. Harvard BY MICHAEL SULLIVAN Sports Editor Out in front of Katie Burt’s net, a hard, hooking punch flew. Emily Pfalzer’s strike hit only air, as a teammate and a Northeastern University player fell onto the ice, entangled. No huge brawl resulted from the incident, but Pfalzer’s frustration grew. She got a pat on the back by a teammate, but the Boston College defensewoman still appeared heated. Tough physical contact, however, was made later in the second. Megan Keller went to the box alongside the Huskies’ Heather Mottau—cousin of 2001 Hobey Baker Award winner, BC’s Mike Mottau—for roughing. Given how BC has played of late, it’s hard to place blame on Pfalzer and Keller for getting a little upset. Although the Eagles (26-0-1, 17-0-0 Hockey East) won 3-1 victory over the Northeastern Huskies (8-14-4, 7-8-
1 Hockey East) at Harvard’s Bright-Landry Hockey Center in the first round of the women’s Beanpot Tournament, something felt off about the BC women’s hockey team. In their first two contests, the Eagles dominated Northeastern in a home-andhome series. Playing with Taylor Blake in between the pipes (Burt was busy with the United States U-18 Team) BC won convincingly: 7-3 and 9-1. In both games, the Eagles chased NU goaltenders Sarah Foss and Chloe Desjardins—each was benched for the other due to the pair’s poor play, brought on by the BC offensive onslaught. The nation’s top offense, which at its peak averaged 6.23 goals per game through its first 22 games, has now scored 3.17 per game in its last six contests since the NU games. This may sound like an overreac-
See Women’s Beanpot, B6
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ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR
BC captain Emily Field celebrates after breaking her slump by scoring the tying goal in the first, her sixth one of the season.
Men’s basketball: BC falls just short at ND A furious three-minute charge wasn’t enough as the Eagles dug too big of a hole in the first half to climb out of, losing 71-63 to the Irish.........................B6
Scoreboard...........................................................................................................B7 Editors’ Picks.........................................................................................................B7