The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 Vol. XCI, No. 43
THE HEIGHTS
BC hosts Jemez high schoolers BY MOLLY LAPOINT Heights Staff
Since Saturday, 15 high school students from the Jemez and Zia Pueblos in New Mexico have been visiting Boston College through the Jemez-to-BC program, experiencing student life and exploring Boston. Tuesday night, they performed traditional dances and shared information about their Pueblos in an event called “Voices from the Pueblos.” The event began with an overview of the Pueblos’ demographics, culture, and education system by Francis Vigio, a high school science teacher and member of the Zia Pueblo. In January, Vigio will become the assistant principal and early college program director at Walatowa Charter High School, where about half of the students from the group are enrolled. Vigio said that reforming the education system on the reservations has been a priority. “For a long time, it was very rare that you saw someone going to school,” he said. As a result, in 2004, a study was completed in which every community member of the Jemez Pueblo was asked what they wanted from their education system. The result was the Vision 2010 Plan. “It laid out all of those wants, and identified what was important for the Pueblo,” Vigio said. The education system works to integrate cultural lessons with learning traditional subjects. “It’s important to note that pre-Columbus, we learned by doing,” Vigio said. “We didn’t have a school. Before, it was either traditional learning or classroom learning, but now we’ve come full circle and put
See Jemez, A4
PHOTO COURTESY OF KEVIN SCHUSTER
Jemez and Zia Pueblo students participate in BC’s Jemez-to-BC exchange program.
INSIDE SPORTS
The football team prepares for its final home game, A10
THE SCENE
The most inspiring figures in the arts at BC, B1
MARKETPLACE
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2010
Labs face regulation rigors Use of mice and rats in BC labs subject to review
BY DANIEL TONKOVICH For The Heights
For Thomas Chiles, chairman of the biology department, working with rodents is nothing new. He has worked with such creatures in scientific research settings since his time as a graduate student performing research on hepatic function in rats. Now his research involves using mice to study cells of the immune system. He says the mice are necessary to progress with his research. “I have many projects underway, one of which uses mice in lab studies of immune system cells,” Chiles said. “To conduct the research, we have two options: one is to use cell lines, and the other is to use mice. Mice are the most successful model to study the immune system. They are relevant for experimentation for the study of the immune system and autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, we use mice because we have 100 years of research of mice. That knowledge is invaluable.” Boston College currently houses approximately 200 mice and rats in its animal care facility for scientific research purposes. The University has the capacPAMPAN ZHANG / HEIGHTS STAFF ity to hold approximately 1,000 animals, ranging in Campus labs, which house rodents for research purposes, adhere variety from mice to rabbits. They are euthanized with to strict regulations to avoid controversy in animal experimentation. carbon dioxide once the research has been completed.
UGBC puts ticketing online BY KENDALL BITONTE For The Heights
Earlier this semester, students who braved the line for Homecoming tickets waited for hours at a time. Last week, the 150 tickets allotted to students for the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 were sold in three minutes on the Web. The Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) has begun using an online ticketing system for select events to eliminate the need to wait in line at the Robsham Theater ticket office. The Harry Potter premiere was the first such event. One hundred forty tickets for the Boston Ballet’s Dec. 4 performance of The Nutcracker followed suit, went on sale yesterday through the online system. The UGBC currently uses the online reservation system exclusively for its BC to Boston events. The new method follows a first-come, first-served basis, with the tickets going to the first students to complete the online reservation form for each event. According to the UGBC’s Web site, BC to Boston aims to help bring students into the city by sponsoring affordable events. This semester the group organized a trip to a Red Sox game, shuttles to the Head of the Charles Regatta,
and tickets to see the musical Wicked. The UGBC decided to implement the new method of selling tickets due to the popularity of the BC to Boston events and the multitude of problems that were presented by in-person sales. Mark Larik, director of BC to Boston and CSOM ’13, saw the change to online sales as a way to better serve student interest. “For the Wicked event, many students woke up extremely early and were in line at Robsham before 6 a.m., and some of them did not get tickets,” he said in an e-mail. “We thought there had to be a better way to distribute tickets so students don’t have to wake up so early and waste time in line.” Online sales were first used for the Friday, Nov. 19, showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 at the Regal Fenway movie theater. The process has proven to be easy to use, and reflects the increased student interest in these events, Larik said. He reported that 150 students signed up for the Harry Potter tickets in just three minutes. Rachel McMonagle, A&S ’12, reserved a ticket for the premiere online, and said that she thought the new system was a major improve-
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A special contracted vendor disposes of the carcasses, which are then cremated. BC seeks to limit controversy in its animal experimentation by strict adherence to regulations governing animal research. “Animal research is obviously a sensitive issue, but Boston College strictly follows all federal guidelines,” Chiles said. “Many rules and regulations govern the treatment of animals,” said Nancy McGilloway, manager of animal care for BC. “The two key principles are no pain and no distress. The animals are to be treated humanely in all aspects – temperature, humidity, housing, floor space, fresh food, fresh water, and bedding.” Research with animals by institutions receiving federal funding is governed by the provisions of the Animal Welfare Act and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals published by the National Academy of Sciences. According to the regulatory provisions, any procedure can be performed on an animal if it can be successfully argued that it is scientifically justified. The provisions of the Animal Welfare Act do not, however, include purpose-bred rodents and birds. The species are instead regulated under Public Health Service policies enforced by the federal Office for Laboratory Animal Welfare. Many institutions also undergo additional accreditation through the Association
See Labs, A4
REVISITING RECYCLING
KEVIN HOU / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Ecopledge is currently undertaking an initiative to increase students’ understanding of the single-stream recycling program. For more, see Pg. A3
Caffeine to be removed from Four Loko drink BY ADRIANA MARIELLA For The Heights
On Tuesday, the maker of the popular alcoholic energy drink Four Loko said that it would remove caffeine and other additives from the drink, according to a release by the manufacturer. The announcement by Phusion Projects, which manufactures Four Loko, comes amid an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) into the health effects of alcoholic drinks that contain caffeine. Yesterday, the FDA sent a warning letter to four companies, including Phusion Projects, which said that the caffeine added to their respective malt alcoholic beverages is an “unsafe food additive,” according to a release by the FDA. The letters, which were distributed following an independent laboratory analysis of malt beverages containing caffeine, also said that legal action could be taken against the four companies under federal law.
In addition to Phusion Projects, other companies that were warned by the FDA include Charge Beverages Corp., which produces drinks such as Core High Gravity HG; New Century Brewing Co., which produces Moonshot; and United Brands Company Inc., which produces drinks including Joose and Max. Currently, Four Loko has been banned in the states of Washington, Michigan, Utah, and Oklahoma, while Connecticut liquor wholesalers and some of New York’s largest beer distributors have respectively agreed to suspend deliveries of the drink. George Haivanis, owner of Reservoir Liquors in Cleveland Circle, said that he will stop carrying Four Loko as a result of government action that has been taken against the drink in Massachusetts over the past several days. Haivanis said he thinks that Four Loko is most popular among the college-age
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Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, B10 Classifieds, A5 Editorials, A6 In the News, B10 Police Blotter, A2 Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down, A7 Forecast on Washington, B8 Weather, A2 Editors’ Pick, A9 On the Flip Side, B6
www.bcheights.com
AP FILE PHOTO
Following an FDA warning, the company that manufactures Four Loko, Phusion Projects, has announced that they will remove caffeine from the popular alcoholic beverage.
PAMPAN ZHANG / HEIGHTS STAFF
Reilly Dinius, BC ’10, gave his ‘Last Lecture’ on Monday, during which he offered a collection of life lessons, from the perspective of students from the Class of 2010, to BC undergraduates.
Dinius gives ‘last lecture’ BY ANA T. LOPEZ
Special Projects Editor On Monday, Reilly Dinius, BC ’10, with the help of the Class of 2010, re-imagined the notion of the “Last Lecture,” by offering a collection of “hyper pertinent” life lessons to undergraduates regarding the world of Boston College. The commissioning of a 22-year-old as a “Last Lecture” speaker deviated from the series’ norm of giving the stage to seasoned professors. Dinius addressed these concerns in his opening remarks, saying that the decision to give this speech was not one born out of a desire to share his personal outlook, but from discussions throughout his senior year with classmates who yearned to tell underclassmen the things they wished they had known while in their position. Previous speakers in the lecture series are Fr. Michael Himes, a professor in the theology department; Mary Joe Hughes, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences honors program; and Paul Breines, a former professor in the history department.
“We were sitting in Hillside thinking about our college mortality and looking around at all the freshmen and thinking about what we would share, what we would say – and what we definitely wouldn’t say – if we could,” Dinius said. Student leaders from Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) said they felt that such an address would fit well within the theme of the “Last Lecture” series they have sponsored on campus for the past two and half years. The idea developed over the course of the past year, and Dinius agreed to relay the wisdom of his class. “This is not the last lecture of Reilly F. Dinius,” he said. “Instead, it’s the lecture of dozens and dozens and dozens of people in the Class of 2010.” Dinius said that, beside his introductory and closing remarks, only “6 percent of it was [him].” The rest was read directly from e-mails sent to him from graduates who are now scattered across the country and globe. The fourth speaker in BC’s version of the nationally popular series, Dinius in-
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