Heights 05-06-10

The Heights will return in September. Best of luck with exams!

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 Vol. XC, No. 24

THE HEIGHTS THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2010

BC falls behind in alumni donations

BY MICHAEL CAPRIO News Editor

AND KRISTEN ZALE For The Heights

BY PATRICK GALLAGHER Assoc. News Editor

AND CATHERINE CYPHER For The Heights

See Donations, A4

Mabida and Raab restructure cabinet Three new cabinet positions added to roster

Notre Dame, Holy Cross boast more donors

Fewer than 25 percent of Boston College alumni, including 28 percent of undergraduate alumni, give money to the University, compared to 51 percent of all alumni at Holy Cross, 49 percent at Notre Dame, and 31 percent at Georgetown.

Now, the University is trying to increase the proportion of seniors who chip in before they graduate as a means of getting them into the habit.

But administrators said they have found the effort is easier said than done.

University officials said pushing hard for contributions to the senior class gift will help boost future alumni giving and improve the University’s donation percentage, which is one of the measures used in all-important rankings.

“We’re trying to get seniors to make a gift,” Vice President and Special Assistant to the President Rev. William Neenan, S.J. said. “At Holy Cross, 90 percent [of seniors] make a gift. Here, we’re trying to get 50 percent. They’re trying to create a climate that you’re expected to pay – that you’re expected to pay back.”

Seniors, still paying tuition and in

www.bcheights.com

KEVIN HOU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Both students and local businesses were forced to make adjustments following the contamination.

Water shortage affects community

BY JI HAE LEE For The Heights

AND MICHAEL CAPRIO News Editor

The City of Boston has lifted a contamination warning that left nearly one third of the Boston population unable to use tap water from Saturday to Tuesday afternoon following a rupture in a main water line that affected over 29 local communities.

Boston College dining services responded to the incident, providing free boiled water to students.

“We got our first notification of the water issue at around 3:30 p.m. on Sun-

day through a phone call,” said Megan O’Neill, the associate director of dining services. “We responded as quickly as possible by immediately shutting off anything that had tap water flowing to it.

We also set up what we call the ‘hydration stations,’ where students were able to get free boiled water.”

Dining services employees boiled as much as 600 gallons of water every 30 minutes, and hired a tanker truck with 8,000 gallons of sanitary water.

Washing dishes was not an issue for employees, as the dishwashing machines operate at 180 degrees, O’Neill said.

See Contamination, A3

During last week’s inauguration, Micaela Mabida, president of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) and CSOM ’11, swore in the 201011 cabinet of 70 members. The cabinet selection process, which differed from previous years, drew criticism from some within the campus community.

In selecting the cabinet for the next academic year, Mabida and Patrick Raab, vice president of the UGBC and A&S ’11, chose from among 197 applications.

“It was a two-tier system,” Mabida said. “First, we took applications for executive directors, and executive managers – we call that our senior leadership team.”

During the second tier of the process, directors conducted their own interviews for cabinet members. The final cabinet was approved by Mabida and Raab during an April 13 UGBC meeting, Mabida said.

Three new cabinet positions were added to the roster this year – directorships in international relations, campus awareness, and fine arts.

The directorship of fine arts was temporarily in jeopardy this year. The directorship was previously occupied by Kathie Chang, A&S ’11, whose position was taken off the UGBC cabinet roster earlier in the process.

Mabida said that, during the initial review, it was determined that it would be more effective for student organizations to hold their events through the Art Club.

“There were legitimate concerns over the effectiveness of the directorship and

KEVIN HOU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Mabida and Raab instituted three new cabinet positions this year within the UGBC. whether the student body could benefit more from a structure in which all departments would be held accountable to their own arts programming in cooperation with the Art Club,” Mabida said.

But two weeks later, and following further discussion with executive directors and managers, Mabida and Raab reinstated the directorship.

“Throughout our review, a renewed directorship was proposed, including a more integrated role within the cabinet,” Mabida said. “It was decided this renewed role could potentially be most effective in ensuring that the tremendously talented students at our school were represented.”

Mabida and Raab’s decision has drawn criticism from within the arts community.

“The position was reinstated two weeks after it was cut, and they didn’t even call me back for an interview,” Chang said. She said that she felt the recognition

See Cabinet, A3

Romance language cuts planned Curricular changes will affect role of adjunct and part-time professors

BY MICHAEL SHIPPIE For The Heights

The romance languages and literatures department will undergo curricular changes during the next academic year, drawing criticism from some in the department.

“The cuts will have to be made throughout the University, in all departments,” said Elizabeth Rhodes, chairwoman of the Hispanic studies program, a program likely to be influenced by the coming changes.

INSIDE THE SCENE

A roving pop culture columnist reflects on his time at BC, C1

SPORTS

The Hispanic studies program is the second most popular minor at BC. Each year, professors find themselves teaching large classes, in some cases up to 70 students per class.

It has also been of some concern that students who take Spanish often do not take classes past 600-level electives, and remain in basic grammar courses, Rhodes said.

To allow more students to quickly rise through the grammar courses toward upper-level electives, the department has cut several 300-level courses, and combined the Naturalmente 1 and Naturalmente 2 courses into a one-semester intensive program, Rhodes said. From this program, students can move to Contextos, a required literature course for the major or minor, as well as any of the subsequent upper-level electives, covering topics ranging from crime in Spanish culture to Don Quixote.

Rhodes said that students will now be able to engage in Hispanic literature, history, and culture.

But some are not optimistic about the planned changes. “The decisions made by the department have missed an opportunity to integrate into the humanities and

universal global issues,” said one professor in the department, who prefered to remain anonymous.

The professor said that the department’s decision to eliminate grammarfocused courses will place the jobs of part-time and adjunct professors in jeopardy.

“The tenured professors and the head of the field want to focus on specializing, which interestingly enough secures their positions,” the professor said. “The parttime and adjunct professors will be able to teach half the classes they are able to teach now, and gain half the money, when new hires enter BC.” “These professors will have no opportunity to ever attain tenure, and forever live on the risk. They already make significantly lower salaries and do just as much work, and are just as intelligent.”

Rhodes said, hiring professors for long-term positions is a more complicated process.

“In order to hire tenure-track professors, the University must conduct a nationwide search, and the most qualified will be hired,” Rhodes said.

KEVIN HOU AND ALEX TRAUTWIG / HEIGHTS EDITORS ; MICHAEL SALDARRIAGA / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC

See Languages, A4

Butler to take over ministry efforts

Baseball grabs two wins in midweek series, C8

Rev. John Butler, S.J., will replace Rev. Joseph Appleyard, S.J., who will be leaving BC this summer

MARKETPLACE

BY DANIEL TONKOVICH For The Heights

Oil spill has catastrophic effect on Gulf, D4 Classifieds, A5 Crossword, A5 Editorials, A6 Editor Picks, C7 Police Blotter, A2 BC Tube, B2 Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down, A7 Forecast on Washington, D2 Weather, A2 Videos on the Verge, B2

COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF NEWS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Rev. John Butler, S.J., will serve as vice president of University Mission and Ministry next year.

A familiar face from on campus will soon lead the University’s Mission and Ministry efforts. Rev. John T. “Jack” Butler, S.J., will take the role of vice president for University Mission and Ministry, according to a statement released by the University this week.

He will succeed Rev. Joseph A. Appleyard, S.J., who has been named assistant and adviser to Rev. Myles Sheehan, S.J., the provincial of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus.

University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., praised Butler in a statement, calling him a talented and energetic individual who is deeply involved at Boston College. “Fr. Butler is a Jesuit who is widely known on campus, and someone who cares deeply about the University’s

mission, especially the intellectual and religious dimension,” Leahy said. “I look forward to working with him in strengthening Boston College.”

Butler has strong ties to the BC and New England Jesuit communities. He is a graduate of St. Thomas University and also holds degrees from Providence College, Loyola University in Maryland, and the former Weston Jesuit School of Theology.

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1991 and started his career at BC as a campus minister in 2002. In 2007, Butler was appointed the inaugural director of Manresa House, which provides information and guidance to students at BC who are considering the priesthood and religious life, and since his appointment he has brought the house regional acclaim.

See Butler, A4

TopFive

Thursday, May 6, 2010

THE HEIGHTS

things to do on campus this week

Mudstock Tournament

Springfest

Modstock

AHANA 30th Year Ceremony

Trivia Night

Today Time: 9 a.m.

Location: Edmond’s Parking Lot The second annual Mudstock mud volleyball tournament will feature 64 teams, and will run from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. The event will be hosted by the Undergraduate Government of BC.

Today Time: 11 a.m.

Location: Mod Parking Lot The Residence Hall Association of BC will present an afternoon of free food, music, and inflatables as a part of its celebrations surrounding the last day of classes.

Today Time: 4 p.m.

Location: Mod Parking Lot The UGBC will feature the band Motion City Soundtrack in its annual outdoor concert.

Battle of the Bands winner Code: Motion will perform as the opening act.

Today Time: 5:15 p.m.

Location: Robsham Theater BC will celebrate the closing celebration for the 30th anniversary of the AHANA acronym. Refreshments will be served at 5:15 p.m., and the ceremony will last from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Today Time: 9 p.m.

Location: Lower Dining Hall Nights on the Heights will present a night of trivia lasting from 9 p.m. until 11 p.m. in the upper part of Lower Dining Hall. Come for free food and great prizes.

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FEATURED ON CAMPUS

Dining dollars go unspent

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IntheNews

FOUR DAY WEATHER FORECAST TODAY

77° T-storms Likely 48°

FRIDAY

69° Sunny 52°

SATURDAY

68° Showers Likely

University U. of Virginia men’s lacrosse player charged with murdering student Details have been scarce thus far in the murder of a University of Virginia women’s lacrosse player, allegedly

by George Huguely of the UVA men’s lacrosse team, according to a report by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Huguely was arrested on Monday and was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Yeardley Love.

Huguely was arrested shortly after police discovered Love’s body in her apartment early Monday morning.

The University’s president, John T. Casteen III, said in a statement that the death “moves us to deep anguish.”

43°

SUNDAY

59° Mostly Sunny 40°

SOURCE: NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE

A Guide to Your Newspaper The Heights Boston College – McElroy 113 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467 Editor-in-Chief (617) 552-2223

Local News City Council passes resolution calling for boycott of Arizona

KEVIN HOU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Cynthia Aburto and Katie Niemeyer hope to use their extra dining money to buy food to donate to a local organization.

BY MOLLY LAPOINT

the stuff away for free,” Taziva said.

The supplies Taziva and As the end of the semes- Z a c h a r i a s a c c u m u l a te d ter nears, students are find- were helpful when the boil ing creative ways to use up water order was in place. their extra dining dollars.

“We were the only ones with Roommates Kudzai Tazi- Smart Water [once it was va and Zach Zacharias, both sold out in the dining halls], A&S ’13, decided to use so we were selling it for $1 a their extra dining money to bottle,” Taziva said. make some cash. “My roomThe operation has stayed mate has been on a diet, so relatively small, kept mostly he’s only been getting milk within their hall, Taziva and salads from the dining said. “The administration facilities here,” Taziva said. would probably have a probBecause of this, Zacharias lem if it got big,” he said. had $1,700 in Cynthia mandatory Aburto and dining money “I have almost $1,400, Katie Niemeya f ew we e k s er, both A&S and I figure the a g o , Ta z i va ’ 1 3 , h o p e to said. money is almost all use their extra Because money going to go to waste, dining Zacharias’ to buy food to so why not use it to donate to a losurplus dining money cal homeless help someone?” would be forshelter or food feited at the bank. Right —Cynthia Aburto, end of the year n ow, Ab u r to A&S ’13 if he didn’t has just under spend it, the $ 1 ,4 0 0 a n d two h a tc h e d Niemeyer has a plan, Taziva said. “We about $700. noticed people on the floor “I have almost $1,400, were low on money,” he said, and I figure the money is “So we bought Pop-Tarts, almost all going to go to Smart Waters, and granola waste, so why not use it bars to sell them on our to help someone?” Aburto floor.” said.

However, they did not So far, Aburto and Niesell all of the food they meyer are still looking for bought. “We gave most of an organization that will Heights Staff

accept their food, but they hope to donate it Friday.

“We’re planning to buy foods that are already packaged – sandwiches, cereals, maybe some chips,” Niemeyer said. “I’m planning on spending $300 to $400, because I have to make sure I can feed myself.”

Because Aburto has so much money, she has not thought too much about how much she plans on spending. The bigger constraint, she said, is how she will transport the food to the facility she and Niemeyer decide on, as they are hoping to use public transportation. “I’ll probably buy as much as I can carry,” she said.

Niemeyer said she is surprised that the University does not have a program that allows students to donate food on-campus.

“When I told my sister [who attends the University of Southern California] that I wanted to do this, she said, ‘Oh, yeah, other schools do that.’ At USC they have a bin where you can buy food and put it in, and they take it to a homeless shelter.”

“It’s kind of surprising BC doesn’t have a program like this, especially with their commitment to service,” Aburto said. 

Yesterday the Boston City Council passed a resolution calling for the city to avoid investing in state or local government in Arizona. The resolution, which was passed unanimously, was proposed in protest of Arizona’s new immigration law. The resolution calls for the city “to the extent reasonable ... not to participate in any business activities substantially connected with the State of Arizona.” City Council President Michael Ross said, “As a city, we have long rejected the idea that racial profiling is sound public safety policy.”

On Campus Two CSON professors honored by Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame Two Connell School of Nursing (CSON) professors are among 22 highly regarded nurse researchers who will be inducted into the new Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame, according to a release from the Office of News and Public Affairs. Ann Wolbert Burgess, who specializes in the field of forensic nursing, and Callista Roy, whose Roy Adaptation Model of nursing theory is taught around the world, will be honored in July at the International Nursing Research Congress in Orlando.

National Prosecutors to appeal the release of nine jailed militia members DETROIT (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Wednesday they’re appealing the release of nine jailed Michigan militia members charged with wanting to overthrow the government, warning that freeing the defendants could endanger the public. The U.S. attorney’s office met a deadline to declare whether it would appeal a judge’s order that releases the nine until trial. Prosecutors also urged U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts to extend her order that stops the defendants from going home while the appeal is pending. The members of the southern Michigan militia are charged with conspiracy to commit sedition and the attempted use of weapons of mass destruction.

Editorial General (617) 552-2221 Managing Editor (617) 552-4286 News Desk (617) 552-0172 Sports Desk (617) 552-0189 Marketplace Desk (617) 552-3548 Features Desk (617) 552-3548 Arts Desk (617) 552-0515 Photo (617) 552-1022 Fax (617) 552-4823 Business and Operations General Manager (617) 552-0169 Advertising (617) 552-2220 Business and Circulation (617) 552-0547 Classifieds and Collections (617) 552-0364 Fax (617) 552-1753 EDITORIAL RESOURCES News Tips Have a news tip or a good idea for a story? Call Michael Caprio, News Editor, at (617) 552-0172, or e-mail news@bcheights.com. For future events, e-mail, fax, or mail a detailed description of the event and contact information to the News Desk.

Sports Scores Want to report the results of a game? Call Zach Wielgus, Sports Editor, at (617) 552-0189, or e-mail sports@bcheights.com.

Arts Events The Heights covers a multitude of events both on and off campus – including concerts, movies, theatrical performances, and more. Call Kristen House, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or e-mail review@ bcheights.com. For future events, e-mail, fax, or mail a detailed description of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk.

Clarifications / Corrections The Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. If you believe we have made a reporting error, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or questions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact Matthew DeLuca, Editor-in-Chief, at (617) 552-2223, or e-mail editor@ bcheights.com.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Police Blotter 4/31/10 – 5/1/10 Friday, April 30 10:45 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an injured party in Stuart Hall. The party was transported to a medical facility by ambulance.

1:20 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a suspicious party who was reported earlier and could not be located. The suspect was identified in the Lower Lots, issued a trespass warning, and escorted from the area.

small amount of a controlled substance that was confiscated from a non BC student in Edmond’s Hall. The party was issued a $100 civil citation and a trespass warning.

1:42 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to an underage intoxicated party in Gabelli Hall who had fallen and struck her head. The party was transported to a medical facility by ambulance.

8:00 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm activation in 110 St. Thomas More Hall. The cause of the alarm was determined to be from the use of a hair dryer which activated a heat sensor.

3:03 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a party who was observed in possession of a stolen construction sign from Commonwealth Ave. while off campus. The party was ordered to return the sign and a report was forwarded to the ODSD for disciplinary action.

9:57 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a confiscation of alcoholic beverages from two underage parties off campus. A report was forwarded to the ODSD for disciplinary action.

3:56 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a male and female in the Lower Lots who were harassed by a group of males who were later identified. A detective is investigating.

11:31 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a complaint that someone had thrown a glass bottle at the windshield of a BC bus near Main Gate, causing it to shatter. No injuries were reported.

Saturday, May 1 12:52 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a

Voices from the Dustbowl “What would you like to see as the Dustbowl question?”

“What’s your favorite color?”

—Molly Marotta, A&S ’13

“Do you think there should be more grass?”

—Sha-Lee Flavius, CSOM ’13

8:56 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a party in Cushing Hall who was transported by ambulance to a medical facility.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

“How do you feel about not having frats or sororities on campus?”

—Meghan Crippen,

A&S ’13

Delivery To have The Heights delivered to your home each week or to report distribution problems on campus, contact John O’Reilly, General Manager at (617) 552-0547.

Advertising The Heights is one of the most effective ways to reach the BC community. To submit a classified, display, or online advertisement, call our advertising office at (617) 552-2220 Monday through Friday.

The Heights is produced by BC undergraduates and is published on Mondays and Thursdays during the academic year by The Heights, Inc. (c) 2010. All rights reserved.

CORRECTIONS Please send corrections to editor@bcheights.com with ‘correction’ in the subject line.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, May 6, 2010

A3

City of Boston tries to keep students here for the summer

BY KENDALL BITONTE For The Heights

Summer vacation is right around the corner for students at the nearly 100 colleges and universities in the Greater Boston area. Approximately 250,000 college students attend these schools, and, after final exams, many will leave the city limits. The city endures a significant population and economy drop at the conclusion of the academic year due to the absence of these college students.

Students contribute an estimated $4.8 billion to the city’s economy annually through tuition and spending in the community, according to the 2008 edition of the New World Encyclopedia. Universities are some of the largest employers of the area, as well.

Other than adding to the city’s revenue, students and faculty spend hundreds of thousands of hours volunteering throughout the city. In fact, Boston

College alone contributes 444,000 hours of community service, annually, according to BC’s 2009 Benefits and Economic Impact Report. BC enrolls approximately 14,500 students, including undergraduate, graduate, and law school students, and employs 3,500 faculty and staff. The report said that BC impacts the regional economy by an estimated $1.3 billion.

BC is one of the smaller universities in the area.

Larger colleges and universities within the Greater Boston area include Boston University, Northeastern, Harvard, and UMass Boston, all of which have similar economic impact figures. There are many small private universities, including Emerson College, Simmons College, and Wheelock College, that serve the downtown area, as well.

The City of Boston recognizes the influence of academia on the city’s economy, said Tim Sweeney, director of Public Policy at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, in an e-mail.

“Greater Boston’s colleges and universities are the lifeblood of our economy, attracting top students from across the globe to our region,” Sweeney said. “During the school year, students participate in internships and co-op programs, volunteer in the community, bolster our residential real estate market, and support our local vendors and service providers. All of this helps to support our economy and keep our neighborhoods active and vibrant.

During summer break, there’s an inevitable decline in these activities.”

As students reach their junior year, there are more incentives to stay in the Boston area for the summer.

BC students often live off campus during their junior year in houses with yearlong leases, keeping them in Boston for the summer prior to their senior year.

Some BC students also do research, obtain jobs, or take classes for academic credit.

Natalie Thomas, A&S ’12, who is from San Diego, Calif., went back to California last summer

to work as a camp counselor. As a rising junior, however, she wanted to have the opportunity to take classes outside her major, so she decided to return to BC for part of the summer, she said.

“I’m staying on campus for six weeks this summer to take classes to free up my schedule for next semester,” Thomas said. “I am really excited to spend more time at BC for this time and will probably be back next summer as well.”

Not every university offers as many opportunities to stay in the area. The Chamber of Commerce is in the process of working with the city as a whole to create universal options for students, Sweeney said.

“In order to keep more students here, both during summer break and after graduation, the Chamber is partnering with the Boston Federal Reserve Bank to strengthen business-academia ties and promote internship and job opportunities for our region’s students,” Sweeney said. 

St. John’s seminarians reflect on Jesuit discernment process

BY MICHELLE KACZMAREK Heights Senior Staff

In a hall at St. John’s Seminary on Brighton Campus, a collection of men, mostly in black, sing the Regina Caeli in Latin before sitting down to lunch. Together in time and rhythm, the voices envelop the dining room in a low octave. Amid summer squash pasta, chocolate brownies, and a salad bar, all courtesy of Boston College Dining Services, the song is just one more reminder, one more moment of reflection, one more instance of a community sharing faith and love.

Dressed in black slacks and short-sleeved shirt and an unassuming priest’s collar, Donato Infante, BC ’09, stands in line at the lunch buffet, singing. It is still Easter season according to the liturgical calendar, and the men at St. John’s Seminary sing the hymn at both lunch and dinner.

Like almost every other day of the week since he entered the seminary in August, Infante woke up at 6 a.m., had morning prayer at 7, community mass at 7:30, breakfast as soon as mass finished, the Ignatian examen at noon, and then lunch. The days will vary depending on his classes, scheduled meetings with his faculty advisors and spiritual director, and personally allotted

exercise time, but today is an exception. Infante will meet with a group of several other seminarians for their recently-established book club at 3 p.m. After, he will have evening prayer as usual from 5 to 6 p.m., followed by dinner.

Curfew is always at 11 p.m.

In 1976, the total number of diocesan priests for the Boston Archdiocese was 2,401. In 2006, this number had dropped to 1,408 along with the number of total seminarians from 563 to 88, according to the Official Catholic Directory.

The total Catholic population for those years in the archdiocese also dropped from 5,539,700 to 3,974,846.

In the United States, the Catholic population has steadily represented between 24 and 22 percent of the population since 1965, according to the Center for Applied Research of the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

But the number of priestly ordinations throughout the country has risen from 442 in 2000 to 472 in 2009 along with the number of graduate-level seminarians from 3,172 in 1995, to 3,472 in 2000, and 3,357 in 2009.

According to the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, the 1940s and 1950s saw a significant rise in the number of diocesan and religious priests, the numbers since represent a “balancing out.” In any case,

the numbers change from year to year, but the decision to enter the diocesan priesthood or religious life is still the same even if the context may have changed.

Delving into the particulars of Catholicism and studying books on faith, the idea of the priesthood only came to Infante with the discovery of a prayer that read, “Lord, I will do whatever you want me to do, go wherever you want me to go, say whatever you want me to say, I will love as you want me to love.”

Praying this for the first time, the thought popped into his head, “Be a priest.”

“I thought, ‘Absolutely not, this is not for me. I want to get married, I want to have kids, I want to coach my kids’ soccer team,’ but the idea didn’t go away,” he said.

He is now finishing his first year at the seminary.

There are some seminarians that wonder every day if this is right for them, while others are positive in their choice early on, Infante said.

The application is rigorous.

There is a medical exam and a two-day psychological evaluation that can go longer than that. The discernment process does not stop once the men are at the seminary.

Men still continue to “purify their desire,” some realizing the vocation is not their own, or that they are called to something else.

MICHAEL CAPRIO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Donato Infante, a first year seminarian at St. John’s Seminary and BC ’09, said he had often contemplated the priesthood.

In Boston, diocesan priests usually complete six years at the seminary to build the spiritual, human, and pastoral elements required of a priest, although some can skip the first two years of pre-theology courses if they have already attended a college seminary or have fulfilled these philosophy requirements while at a university.

Each summer they are placed at parishes in their diocese, and during what amounts to their academic year, they are required to do work within their diocese in addition to attending class. In their final year, seminarians are ordained as deacons before they are ordained

priests. Through this whole process, those first moments of wanting to enter religious life come to realization.

Walking through the central corridor of St. Mary’s, Rev. Casey Beaumier, S.J., points out the gothic architecture, characteristic of one of the oldest buildings on campus, and in particular stops in the silent, dimly-lit chapel. Walking under a cast-iron arch, Beaumier enters a parlor to the right and sits down.

“Discernment by definition is listening for the sincerity of desire.

For every human being, discernment is a craving of the heart,” Beaumier said. 

UGBC leaders select Cabinet members Cabinet, from A1

STEVEN SENNE / AP PHOTO

While some coffee shops and restaurants around BC temporarily closed their doors this week, others sold bottled and filtered water to attract customers.

Some local businesses saw higher sales following water contamination period Contamination, from A1

But there were some problems, said Helen Wechsler, director of dining services. “We were caught off-guard, so there were certain impediments,” she said.

During the contamination period, blazing bowls in Corcoran Commons, along with other items, were taken off the menu due to the lack of clean dishwashing water. Dining services also closed the Chocolate Bar, which re-opened Wednesday.

Wechsler said that, contrary to rumors circulating among the student body, dining services did not raise prices this week. “Prices of everything in the dining halls, including Smart Water, actually remained the same.”

While some local businesses were forced to close their doors during a water contamination scare earlier this week, Al Linich, manager of City Convenience on Commonwealth Ave., saw unprecedented sales.

“I saw more customers than I have in a while,” Linich said.

A main line water break Saturday afternoon, which left 29 local communities unable to drink tap water from Saturday until Tuesday afternoon, closed coffee shops and restaurants in and around Boston.

For bottled water vendors like Linich, however, the contamination presented itself

as a business opportunity.

But some stores fared better than others. “I was told by the students that Shaw’s and some other stores in the area were out of water,” Linich said. “They said that we were the only ones left that had any. The good news is that I had ordered a bunch of water for the Marathon.”

City Convenience’s neighbor, Dunkin’ Donuts, closed its doors during the threeday period. The manager was unavailable for comment.

Linich said that preparation was key in providing for customers during the contamination. “We have excellent vendors,” he said. “By Monday, we had Pepsi and HP Hood trucks dropping off water to us. We also had an ice company deliver ice to us after we sold out over the weekend.”

Linich said he sold over 200 bags of ice from Saturday through Tuesday.

But ice and water weren’t the only hot items over the weekend. “We also sold a lot of frozen food and pre-made sandwiches that we probably would not have sold otherwise,” Linich said. “But we’re back in business like nothing had happened.”

“We depend on BC students and they’re a major part of our business,” he said. “We were happy to provide them with what they needed.”

Some students chose to search beyond the dining halls for water solutions. Kirsten Carlow, A&S ’12, had her parents drop off packs of bottled water. “It’s still inconvenient though, because we are running out of the bottled water very quickly,” she said. “I feel conscious now every time I use it, knowing that the water will be depleted soon.”

Other students were forced to make changes in their daily habits. “When I heard that water is no longer safe for drinking, I used Powerade instead of water to concoct my protein drink,” said Cory Hamilton, A&S ’11. “That was a huge mistake. It neither dissolved well nor tasted good.”

Some students said that the recent paucity of water hardly affected them. “It hasn’t affected us that much, other than the fact that my suite mates and I are using it as an excuse for not washing the dishes,” said Jenny Choi, A&S ‘12.

But the contamination might not have been as bad as it was perceived to be, some said.

“I think the media and some people made the water issue seem more serious than it actually was,” said Dorine Yang, LSOE ’12. “Nothing has changed much, at least for me. I always had to boil water to cook and make tea anyways. I guess a minor change is that I had to put all the silverware in boiled water after washing them for the past few days. But overall, not much had changed.” 

of her efforts led to her reinstatement. “I love the arts, and I love BC. These programs deserve to be featured, and I want it to be long term.”

Moira Notarstefano, treasurer of the Art Club and A&S ’11, said that, given the Art Club’s budget, there would be “no way” the organization could have supported Chang’s UGBC programs, which include Slam Fashionation and shuttle buses to the Museum of Fine Arts.

“There would be no way we could help with that,” Notarstefano said. “With all the events we have, our budget is spent throughout the year.”

Currently, $1,600 of the Art Club’s $3,300 budget goes toward funding and maintaining student art exhibitions in Bapst Library.

Notarstefano said that, even if the Art Club were to request additional funding, it would be a difficult endeavor. “SOFC tries hard to make sure all the money it allocates to each club is appropriate to each

club,” she said. “It’s not clear that we would get the extra funding to help with these events.”

Chang’s new directorship will be under the department of community relations, not student life.

“It’s not going to change,” Mabida said. “But if you’ve been in the position for a year already, we’d like to see [the position] grow.

We’d like to, essentially, see some improvement.”

In addition to adding three new directorships, Mabida and Raab have also restructured the UGBC “teams” that assist with duties in various committees. While the duo has maintained some teams, such as the Women’s Issues Team and the Academic Advising Team, it has cut the Street Team.

Mabida said that she hopes that the marketing component, previously provided by the Street Team, will be adopted by each individual team.

Mabida and Raab also added the Health and Safety and Campus Awareness Teams to the list this year, making for a total of 15 teams. 

HONEST ABE SALUTES SENIORS

PHOTO COURESY OF ANDREW SYVERTSEN

A banner of Abraham Lincoln donning sunglasses was hung from Gasson Hall this morning before being taken down around 10:30 by BCPD.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

The Heights

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BC 25 percentage points behind ND in giving Donatinos, from A1

many cases facing debt and a weak job market, are less than enthusiastic. After Senior Class Gift Day, 520 had made donations, or 23 percent of the class – an even lower proportion than alumni who give.

“Why do they want me to donate so much when I just paid all this money to go here?” said Michelle Crowther, A&S ’10.

But many students received financial aid, and even those who didn’t paid less than their educations actually cost, said John Feudo, associate vice president for alumni relations.

That’s because a large portion of the University’s budget is funded by the endowment and alumni contributions.

“Of course we’d like that culture to start while our students are still here, because it’s much easier for current students to feel the importance of giving back,” Feudo said.

BC students also receive support from the school even after they graduate, said Feudo, and reap the benefits of a strong alumni network. He said he wants seniors to know “that BC continues to give back to them.” He also said, “BC alumni love to hire BC alumni, and alumni also prefer to do business with other BC grads.”

Those alumni, meanwhile, said they are concerned about BC’s ranking, brand, and reputation.

“Alumni want to know what’s the branding for BC because, as that grows, the value of education to alumni, that improves as well,” said Jason Moore, CGSOM ’10, who was head of the New York City alumni chapter. “It has a residual value for alumni, having that name on their resume.”

Neenan said the rankings about which alumni are concerned depend largely on them.

“If you want to advance into the upper echelons, it’s going to cost money,” he said. “We need contributions.”

Last year, University officials said 45,000 of

the University’s 154,000 alumni attended 440 alumni events. But only about 37,000 made a donation, or fewer than 25 percent.

“There’s an anomaly here, which I can’t explain,” Neenan said. “These alumni – it’s very noticeable – they love Boston College, and yet the percent that contribute on an annual basis is modest compared to other schools.”

“There’s a disconnect,” he said. “We’re not in the dregs, but we’re in the middle of the pack.”

Denise Johnston, BC ’77, said she doesn’t give regularly because she cannot always afford to make a big donation. “But in retrospect, I wish I had given consistently. I would only give when I felt like I had a chunk of change to give.

I wish I was a consistent giver, whether it was small or large.”

Neenan said the University is trying to get alumni in the habit of philanthropy by asking them to make small gifts as seniors and pushing that idea with such events as the first-ever Senior Class Gift Day. Even small donations are fine with him.

“How much does a pint of beer cost?” he asked.

“I think that would be a good amount.”

Johnston doesn’t remember there being a senior gift campaign when she was a student.

“I wish someone had talked to me more oneon-one about it” when she was still in school, she said. “I don’t ever remember anyone talking to us as students about giving back.”

Today’s seniors say they are being bombarded with requests to contribute to the senior class gift.

“I’ll probably give, like, 10 bucks,” Crowther said. “It seems stupid though. What are they going to do with my $10?”

She said, “I don’t know why they’re pushing for it so hard. It seems like they really need this money, and I don’t know why. I feel like they already have plenty.” n This article was reported by students in CO3301, Advanced Journalism.

Students form employment, travel plans for summer vacation

By Rebecca Kailus Heights Staff

Summer is upon us, and for Boston College students that can mean many things.

Amid the bleak economy, finding summer work this year may be harder. Russ Ventura, an adviser in the Career Center, said the number of summer internship postings on the Career Center database has diminished. “The amount of postings went down by 20 percent from what they were two years ago,” Ventura said.

“We saw last year that the actual database postings went down.

However, there are more internships out there as students become more proactive and contact businesses on their own.”

The Career Center has provided many resources for students to find summer work, hesaid. In addition to the internship fairs held during the academic year, the Career Center Web site also has links to databases in which students can search for summer work. “Most students go onto the internship databases and look for things they are interested in,” Ventura said. “If they don’t see any jobs they like, they take a proactive strategy and look for companies geographically. We suggest they contact the companies directly and ask for summer internships.”

Although the databases provide links to internships around the country, many of the links provide jobs in the greater Boston area. “A majority of the internships that are posted in our portal are from the Boston to New York corridor,” Ventura said. Ventura said that students should also ask faculty in their respective departments about summer work.

“We suggest for students to talk to faculty within their major,” he said. “Many of the faculty members have contacts within their majors.”

In some instances, faculty members have asked students to work with them on their research over the summer. This is what the summer has in store for Kim Rhodes, A&S ’12. Rhodes, an environmental geosciences major, will be aiding in field work for Noah Snyder, a professor in the geosciences department. She will also be taking a biology class at Boston University. As a research assistant, Rhodes will assist Snyder as he conducts research on rivers in Maine.

Since this opportunity will allow her to gain experience in her chosen field, Rhodes chose to stay in Boston this summer rather than return to Virginia. “I wanted to get field work experience before going into the job market,” Rhodes said. “I also wanted to learn more about what it’s like to be a geoscientist, and I didn’t just want to work at the movie theater again in my hometown.”

While some students are seeking work in areas of study, other students see the summer as an opportunity to broaden their educational horizons. Meredith Koch, A&S ’12, a biology major and math minor with a bioinformatics concentration, will be studying at the American School of Thessaloniki in Greece for five weeks. In addition, Koch will be working as an emergency department technician at the Stanford Hospital.

After hearing about this opportunity at the study abroad fair, Koch said she decided that the summer would be the best time to study abroad. “I can’t study abroad during the year because of my major and two minors, so studying during the summer was a good alternative and most of the people in Greece speak English,” she said.

Koch said she will be studying Greek art history and architecture along with the history of Thessaloniki. “Both hopefully

will fulfill the core,” she said. “I wanted to take a history class that was different and had a unique perspective, and the architecture class just sounds interesting and fun.”

Other students have found work from sources outside of those offered at BC. John Sears, A&S ’12, a German and Spanish double major and Arabic minor, found a job working as a translator for a cigarette company in Flensburg, Germany. “I am staying with my language partner and his uncle in Denmark,” Sears said. “I will live at his uncle’s house in Denmark, and I will have my own car to make the 15-minute commute to work in northern Germany everyday.”

Since Sears will be translating for a campaign aimed at Germany, Spain, England, and Ireland, he said he will be able to use the skills and knowledge he has gained from his major courses at BC. “Three days a week, I am working for a cigarette company,” he said. “I’ll be doing translation work between German, English, and Spanish. The other two days a week I will be working at an upscale restaurant in northern Germany to practice my language skills.”

Like many students, Sears said he chose his job in order to gain experience in his future career path while having the enriching opportunity to live abroad. “I like Europe a lot,” Sears said.

“I’ve also taken German business classes at BC, which will help me apply what I learned in the classroom to real life. Since I will also taking a German night class in Germany, I will be able to meet other people and better my German. But mostly it will give me good working experience in a variety of fields. I’ll get experience abroad since after graduation I will most likely get a job abroad or be dealing with people abroad.” n

Courtesy of the office of news and public affairs

Rev. Terrance Devino, S.J., will come from the University of Scranton to assume Butler’s position as director of Manresa House.

Devino to take place of Butler Butler, from A1

“Since Manresa House was established in 2007, Boston College has become the place for people to come and talk about their vocations. During that time, many people have come here to talk about serving God, with three entering the Society of Jesus and several others entering diocesan seminaries,” Butler said in a statement. “While I was one of many who was involved in these conversations, I am proud of what we have accomplished.”

Butler said he is excited about his new position within the University and the challenges he expects will come with the position.

“Prior to coming to BC, I had worked in prison ministry with violent offenders and I never thought of higher education as a career option, but I have fallen in love with BC and the higher education apostolate,” Butler said. “I believe in this ministry, in our faith, and our commitment to Jesuit, Catholic education. To

help articulate and proclaim that belief is exciting to me.”

He said that even though he is committed to building upon the work of his predecessor, he also has developed some goals of his own for the future of Mission and Ministry at BC. “I believe that Mission and Ministry can be a department that helps to set the tone for the larger University, where people are challenged to be caring, to be excited, and to be free to be the people God has chosen them to be,” Butler said. “Ultimately, the goal is to become a University where, through our academics, service programs, and personal reflection, men and women can find their deepest desire, which is at the heart of Ignatian spirituality.”

Rev. Terrence Devino, S.J., vice president for university ministries at the University of Scranton, will move to BC and assume Butler’s previous role as director of the Manresa House and special assistant to the president.

While at the University of Scranton, Devino oversaw its ministry programs, in addition to serving on University leadership teams.

“I am thrilled to be coming back to Boston College to serve as special assistant to the president and to continue the good work Fr. Jack Butler has done at Manresa House in supporting and encouraging vocations,” Devino said in a statement. “To engage in conversations with people interested in religious life and, in particular, the Society of Jesus, and to take part in pastoral activities on the BC campus is an honor.”

Leahy said he looks forward to working with Devino. “Terry Devino brings many years of experience as a priest and has served with great effectiveness at both Fairfield and the University of Scranton,” he said. “I am confident he will continue doing great work at Boston College.”

Butler and Devino will both assume their appointments during the summer months. n

Hispanic studies program to be affected by curricular changes Languages, from A1 As of right now, all 600 level courses in the Hispanic studies program are fully enrolled for the upcoming fall semester.

Also, courses of 60 to 70 students will be downsized to about 20.

Other departments are facing similar situations. Electives in one of the University’s most populated departments, economics, were full

within the first days of registration.

“Thankfully. however, Boston College has been able to hold cuts off for as long as it can,” Rhodes said. n

Tech Trek aids employment Experience, networking has aided in job search, alumni said

By Patrick Gallagher

for undergraduate and graduate students of all disciplines called TechTrek, which meets throughLast summer, one of John Gal- out the semester and culminates laugher’s students interviewed with a class trip to Silicon Valfor a highly sought-after position ley, where students are able to with technology giant Google. witness firsthand the revolution Surrounded by over a dozen of that has overtaken the technology Harvard, MIT, and Yale’s best and industry. The focus of TechTrek is brightest, Gallaugher’s student to teach how companies develop got the job – and he said that the from start-up to blue-chip, and everything in between, from crecompetition wasn’t even close.

That’s because, according ating and marketing a company to Gallaugher, a professor in to recruiting investors.

In 2009, underthe department graduate students of information in the program met services, the In 2009, with over 50 techcompetition is nology executives, now looking up undergraduate including four to Boston Colstudents in the CEOs, four chairlege, rather than the other way program met with men, founders, or executives, around, when it over 50 technology C-level and 10 executives comes to his line executives. at the senior vice of work. president or vice “We’re offerpresident level. ing our students “As far as my experience in it, a better-than-Ivy-League education at BC,” he said. “We give our it was so far outside of the normal students an unfair competitive parameters of a normal class,” said Jim Luo, a TechTrek alumnus advantage.”

Gallaugher said that his de- and BC ’09, who currently works partment’s ability to successfully for Summit Partners, a Silicon place new graduates with promi- Valley-based private equity firm. nent Silicon Valley companies “The whole time the idea was that specialize in the information really to learn about and get exservices is a direct result of having posed to people that you might many well-placed alumni already hear about but never really have the chance to meet.” entrenched in those firms.

Twice each year, Phil Schiller, “Entrepreneurship is the problem solving growth engine for the senior vice president of worldeconomy,” Gallaugher said. “BC wide marketing at Apple, meets alumni are on the frontlines of with Gallaugher’s students – the same Phil Schiller who was the these businesses.”

Each year he runs a course face of Apple in the absence of Assoc. News Editor

CEO Steve Jobs last year.

Other prominent names who met with TechTrek students include Digg CEO Jay Adelson; Dan Nova and Peter Bell of Highland Capital; Twitter Board of Directors member Bijan Sabet; Cybersource founder Bill McKiernan; Quattro Wireless Chairman Andy Miller; and Intuit Chairman and former CEO Bill Cambell, who is also on the board of directors at Apple. Schiller, Nova, Bell, Sabet, McKiernan, Miller, and Cambell are all BC graduates.

Miller’s company was recently purchased by Apple for $250 million, and will be the basis of Apple’s new iAd platform. McKiernan recently sold his company to Visa for over $2 billion. And the successes of Apple and Twitter have been well documented.

Bill Clerico, another alumnus of the TechTrek program and co-founder of the Web payment company WePay – which, in just two years in Silicon Valley, is already starting to take business away from PayPal, according to Clerico – attributed the success of the program to Gallaugher’s work.

“He not only does a great job with the undergrads, but he’s also tremendously well respected in the alumni community,” Clerico said. “To line up meetings with Bill McKiernan [and] Bill Cambell … speaks to how much Professor Gallaugher is respected.” n This article was reported by students in CO3301, Advanced Journalism.

CLASSIFIEDS

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THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, May 6, 2010

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BIRTHDAY WISHES The Heights wishes Daniel Louis Ottaunick (May 22), Ana Therese Lopez (May 27), Hilary Marie Chasse (Jul. 5), Zachary Stephen Halpern (Jul. 14), Alex Catallo Trautwig (Jul. 31), Brooke Kayla Schneider (Aug. 5), and Kristen Grace House (Aug. 27) very happy summer birthdays!

Let’s go fly a kite, up to the highest Heights. Have a good summer, BC! Answers to the Crossword are below the Sudoku

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.

Answers below Answers to Crossword and Sudoku

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The Heights

Editorials

Quote of the DAY

‘The Heights’ names Person of the Year

Thursday, May 6, 2010

“Home is a name, a word. It is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.”

— Charles Dickens

‘The Heights’ honors one student with the title of Person of the Year and six students and faculty with Momentum Awards.

Each year, The Heights surveys the past months and sets out to find one individual to name Boston College’s Person of the Year. This person can be a student, administrator, faculty person, or member of the Jesuit community – anyone who has had a profound effect on the life of BC over the previous two semesters. We do this both to recognize the achievements and influence of that individual, as well as to set him or her as a model for others at BC .

We also selected six individuals, three students and three administrators or faculty, who have proven themselves to be exemplary persons and models for their colleagues. We take particular care to search out those persons who may otherwise go unrecognized for their achievements, for we have found that often those who accomplish the most and live the most impressive lives are those who do so unostentatiously. We are proud to name these six people recipients of this year’s Momentum Awards. They, like the Person of the Year, provide a model through their actions. As we have interviewed each of them over the past weeks, we have been, without exception, impressed by their commitment to the University and its students.

And so, The Heights is proud to present the Person of the Year and the six Momentum Awardees: Earl Edwards, A&S ’10 As president of the AHANA Leadership Council (ALC), Edwards has faced some of the University’s most contentious issues and had a hand in some of its greatest successes. When students discussed issues of race last semester, Edwards always proved a calm and prudent presence. He has guided the ALC with a steady hand, and has been preparing the organization for the future even as he prepares himself for graduation. The diversity seminar he has had a hand in proposing will likely continue debate about education around issues of race, class, gender, and other forms of social inequality well after he leaves campus. Perhaps most impressive, however, is the way in which Edwards’ activities on campus are just a continuation of his life outside of campus. As a member of a fraternity, the DIOP program, and the founder of a youth basketball league in his hometown of Brockton, Mass, Edwards incorporates his skills as a natural-born leader with his philosophy of giving back.

Jerry York, Men’s Hockey Head Coach After the team’s National Championship win this year, which was the third national trophy the Eagles have brought back to Chestnut Hill during York’s tenure as coach, it became apparent that whatever strategy York has developed for his team is working, both on the ice and off. This team is a point of pride for the University in ways that go beyond its many athletic successes. The culture that York has developed both for his players and the fans will only perpetuate the good reputation that the team has developed.

It begins and ends with York’s commitment to the values of this University and his demand that his players exemplify high standards in the classroom, in the residence halls, and on the ice.

Mike Bell, A&S ’10 As one of the managers of the O’Connell House for the past three years, Bell has had a unique perspective on what is necessary for a successful student event. As the University continues to experiment with how to create successful and well-attended programming through Nights on the Heights and other initiatives, it appears that Bell and his fellow managers have found the correct formula for events that are both stimulating and popular, using the often underappreciated space in the O’Connell House. The art shows he helped organize in the house have been at the forefront of the expanding arts community at BC.

The tradition of collaborative artistic events is sure to continue despite Bell’s impending graduation.

Rev. Bienvenue Mayemba, S.J. It seems as though everyone who has encountered Father Mayemba at BC has remarked upon his effortless friendly nature and generosity of spirit. It is one thing to say a person is always kind and caring. It is another thing to encounter, again and again, students, faculty, and friends who say that Mayemba lives the life of a hopeful Jesuit intellectual with unwavering cheer. He rose from a life of hardship with, or perhaps because of, his joy and hope for life. The experience of simply talking with the man is enough to qualify him for this award. He has been a diligent student, a devoted teacher, and an exemplary Jesuit. It will be a loss to this campus when he leaves in July to go teach in Africa. However, we regard him as we do all those seniors who are about to leave campus – with hope and optimism. We know that Father Mayemba has not completed his work, and we hope that he will maintain his contact with the University, so that it may benefit further from his presence.

Julia Gabbert, Mariana Souza, and Sarah King, all A&S ’10 Almost every student has enjoyed the flatbread pizzas and mixed green salads from the Loft at Addie’s, but few are aware that this brand new, organic kitchen was the brainchild of three students who have worked tirelessly over the past two years both in the kitchen and in the newly opened organic garden on the Brighton Campus. The Real Food movement, which began at Yale University, is a community that supports local, organic food for students and works towards lowering the carbon footprint at BC. Although skeptics might say that the “green” food movement is nothing more than a fad, the success that Real Food BC has been met with is a testament to its undeniable staying power.

Amy La Combe, CSOM professor in the Portico program The issue of effective advising for undergraduates has been a source of debate within the schools at BC, particularly Arts and Sciences. However, the Portico program, with La Combe as one of its most successful advisers, is a model that other schools should follow.

As a BC graduate, La Combe has been able to parlay her personal experience into successfully lecturing freshman students in the Portico program, as well as guiding countless CSOM underclassmen in finding the concentration that is best suited to their interests.

She has taken full advantage of both the educational and advisory aspects of the program in a way that has helped make the management program at BC one of the top in the nation.

Matt McCluskey, LSOE ’10 Although innovative service projects are not beyond the norm at BC, sometimes a student’s initiative is so above and beyond the call of duty that he or she can serve as an inspiration for other projects and students looking to make a unique and personal contribution to the world. McCluskey’s Healdtown Project supplies Healdtown College, a struggling institution in Africa, with recent college graduates to teach, free of charge, merely for the love of teaching. Although the program is located in Africa, he views the task as akin to aiding a struggling school in our own neighborhoods. His philosophy is that every student should be provided with the same level of education anywhere on the globe, and McCluskey, as well as other Lynch School of Education seniors, are preparing to put this ideology into practice in the coming years.

The Heights The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 Matthew DeLuca, Editor-in-Chief John O’Reilly, General Manager Darren Ranck, Managing Editor

Contributors: Mollie Kolosky, Sam Lipscomb, Will Watkins

Chris Petteruti / Heights Illustration

Letters to the Editor A year-end retrospective from the heads of UGBC Al Dea and Alex Hirs Thursday April 30 marked the end of our term of as president and vice president of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC).

On that day, we passed the torch to Micaela Mabida and Patrick Raab, who will serve as the next UGBC president and vice president. We are beyond grateful for our experience, and it has given us incredible opportunities and inspired an unbelievable amount of passion. However, we know that the time has come for the change in leadership, and we believe that the UGBC will continue to grow in a positive direction. We feel confident that Micaela and Pat will address the initiatives that have been built over the previous administrations while identifying and tackling new areas of concern.

We ran on a slogan of “Commitment.” We believed that students at BC deserved a committed government – committed to working hard and listening to its constituents. We are proud of the successes we have accomplished this past year to stay true to this concept, and we feel that BC will continue to benefit from a more committed student government.

While the hours were long and at times the tasks were daunting, we always knew that we were never alone, and we have many people to thank for their love and support throughout our four years in the UGBC. A special thanks goes to Mark Mic-

eli, UGBC’s advising dean. Mark, you have given yourself fully to advocating on behalf of and coaching the interests of UGBC and its members. You have worked diligently to improve and strengthen UGBC through events and initiatives and have sacrificed endless hours to support our agenda.

Kathy Paglia, our trusted UGBC Mom. You have been the first person we’ve seen when we walked into the UGBC office each morning and will be the last person we ever forget. Your love, warmth, and compassion for UGBC have helped foster a lasting community among the student government, and we will carry your influence with us for years beyond our time at BC. Patrick Rombalski, you have been an incredible advocate for the development of students, and we have been privileged to work alongside you through these past few years. Thank you for standing by in both the calm and stormy days and sharing your leadership and guidance, both personally and professionally.

To the countless other administrators that we have worked with in Student Affairs, Mission and Ministry, and other realms of BC, we cherish our relationship and value your passions for the betterment of Boston College.

We also would like to thank the Office of Public Affairs as well as The Heights, in particular Matt DeLuca and Alexi Chi. Thank you for keeping us honest and working with us throughout the past months. Both of you have demonstrated excellent

Al Dea is ’09-’10 UGBC president and a senior in the Carroll School of Management.

Alex Hirs is ’09-’10 UGBC vice president and a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Concert disappointment continues with Modstock Taylor Ross After initially hearing that The Fray was the UGBC Campus Entertainment’s choice for the Spring Concert, I thought, “On the bright side, UGBC can only go up from here.” I’m not saying The Fray makes bad music, rather their genre is more appropriate for a “Makeout Mix” rather than a college concert full of rowdy undergraduates. Judging by the turnout, the UGBC surely recognized their blunder of a choice.

An article in The Heights on April 26 quoted executive director of Campus Entertainment, James D’Ambra, stating that a survey from the UGBC Web site showed that students “were interested in a pop or Top 40 artist.” D’Ambra continues to cite that roughly 600 students contributed to the survey, which

justified the hiring of The Fray.

The UGBC Campus Entertainment’s job is to make entertainment choices while properly expressing the majority voice of the undergraduate.

600 students account for roughly 7 percent of the entire undergraduate population, and do not accurately express the general interests of the students. The UGBC Campus Entertainment should not rely on a meaningless online survey to make executive entertainment decisions. Rather they should be active among the students in daily interactions and be able to infer which artists would stimulate popularity among the students.

Modstock is perennially the last hoorah before finals, a time in which students can sing and dance together in amazing weather to celebrate the last day of classes. UGBC’s selection of Motion City Soundtrack has diminished any faith I had in UGBC Campus

Entertainment after “The Fray Incident.” I didn’t even remember who the band was till I search my iTunes and found them under my “Jams to Cry to After You Get Dumped” middle school mixtape. Their poppy, whiney, emoesque sound is more appropriate on a pubescent boy’s iPod, not an outdoor college concert which has previously presented popular entertainers like State Radio, Big Boi, and Slightly Stoopid.

I feel betrayed by my student body, and even worse, MCS recently released a new album, My Dinosaur Life. Do I need to give my review of the album, or does the title speak for itself? Maybe if we get lucky they will throw out free copies following their encore. I hope people are there to catch them….

Taylor Ross is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.

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leadership, and we are truly grateful for our relationship.

Thank you to our 2009-2010 Cabinet for buying into our mission and working to accomplish our platform goals. If we were ever able to find success or address a need on campus, it was because of your amazing drive and dedication.

To our friends and families, thank you for supporting and loving us through this experience, which we know was challenging at times.

Your patience and love this past year helped us manage in the most frustrating moments, and you are the reason we were able to enjoy this year as much as we did.

And once again, thank you to our fellow students for your part this past year – for your feedback, challenge, criticism, encouragement, and compliments. You are the reason we do what we do, and we are so grateful for your involvement in making BC the amazing university that it is. While there will always be things we could have done better, we are incredibly proud of our accomplishments and the role you played in helping us reach our goals.

We hope that having a more committed UGBC improved your student life, and we are privileged and blessed to have worked on your behalf.

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THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, May 6, 2010

A7

OPINIONS

No child is an island

Thumbs Up Intramural Mug – If you were one of the teams fortunate enough to win the championship in their respective sport, you not only received a baller athletics T-shirt but also an enormous ceramic mug in the style of German beer stein.

Yep, those will definitely be used to consume Muscle Milk or other athletic-type drinks.

Mother’s Day – Whether your celebration involves frantically running to CVS for a card or trying (and failing) to book a table for brunch, TU/TD would like to offer a piece of family wisdom, passed down for generations, to commemorate the holiday: A toast to all the mothers in the world, and another to all the fathers who made ’em so.

Spring Festival – In addition to Modstock, the RHA and UGBC will be making sure that sudents are not only celebrating their freedom with moon bounces, but also fried dough (because cause the two go so well together, internally).

Party On –TU/TD would like to applaud the brave souls who traversed to the top of Gasson to hang a farewell banner to the class of 2010.

Why a shades-wearing Abraham Lincoln was chosen as a well-wisher remains a mystery, but the bigger mystery is why no-fun-BCPD removed the sign before anyone had time to enjoy it.

Babies – They have arrived!

After months of anticipation and obsessive trailer-watching, the premiere of the most adorable documentary ever, Babies, has finally arrived.

Wait, hasn’t everyone been counting down?

Coffee – I never knew how much I needed you, until you weren’t there. Let’s never break up again.

24/7 – Bapst, you’ve got competition, and he has real books. The wonder of all-day O’Neill has come again, and those who might possibly have, say, a 20-page research paper due the next day will no longer be cut off from vital research materials! You have heard and answered our prayers, library gods.

Strip Mod - Another beloved BC tradition marches on this Saturday night, and crowds are expected to pour in from all sides. What else besides beloved tradition would provoke hundreds of college students to line up to see six awkward men remove their clothes?

Ole Miss - Students at the southern school spontaneously started a “Jai Ho” dance party in the student union.

They might have Faulkner’s estate, but we have better dance talent. See you in Lower, BC steppers.

To the Res – TU/TD would like to personally thank BC’s very own comic strip artist, Sal Cipriano, who, for longer than any current Heightser can remember, has been entertaining us with his biweekly comic strip. Your wit and turkeys will be sorely missed.

Retro – Beyonce has done it again, this time with her new video for the single “Why Don’t You Love Me?” which features the diva as B.B. Homemaker in retro duds that would make the ladies of Mad Men drool.

Nomah – This beloved shortstop was honored at Fenway today (5 / 5 is the day, 5 is his number) to commemorate his long career as a Red Sox favorite.

CHARLES MANGIARDI When I walk across the stage on May 24 to receive my diploma, my childhood will officially come to a close. For most of my friends and classmates, that final act of a long and drawn-out youth is terrifying.

Not for me. I’m ecstatic to make that walk.

Receiving a diploma from Boston College doesn’t just mean that our childhoods have ended. It means that we have completed them successfully and are armed and ready to enter adulthood. For me, it is an accomplishment grander than I can conceptualize, one that I share with a legion of people who got me to this point.

Looking back, it’s easy to romanticize childhood. We like to remember the things in our lives – cartoons, sports teams, musicians – that helped distract us from its negative aspects. The fights at home, the public humiliations at school, the insecurities, the tragedies and regrets and mistakes – those we do not commemorate.

My childhood had its ups and downs, but when I look back on it with sincerity, I remember the people who helped me through the downs much more than the things that distracted me from them. My diploma will only have my name printed on it, but it is most assuredly their achievement as well.

They are what I find myself think-

ing about the most as the final days of college tick away.

I think, of course, about my parents. They filled my life with love, instilled me with a sense of right and wrong, and sacrificed time and money to give me the greatest education they could (and not just in the classroom). They made their mistakes along the way, but never once were their actions driven by anything but undying and unconditional love for their children.

I think also of my sisters, Maria and Katie. For better or worse, their trials and triumphs have been the single greatest influence on my life.

They have taught me the true meaning of perseverance and forgiveness.

I think of Ms. White and Ms. Mazza, the teachers at Long Beach Catholic who taught me the fundamentals of reading and math, the necessity of working with others, and most significantly, the importance of not taking myself too seriously.

I remember another teacher of mine, Ralph DeFino, one of my first in Croton-Harmon schools.

He turned me on to a lifelong love of both history and football. The former has been my major at BC. As my coach in the latter, during a time in my life when I was very close to falling off track, he was there to point the way ahead. Like so many other positive aspects of youth, football would not have been possible without the sacrifices of someone like him.

All my coaches, in fact, helped to make the man I am today. To John Catano, John Bell, and Sam Occhipinti, I owe my self-confidence and my understanding of hard work, team work, and ambition.

And I owe a great deal to Susan Dudman, who taught me math for three years in high school. When many teachers saw me as a jock, a jerk, a nuisance, a stoner, a slacker, a loser, or (most commonly) a waste of potential, she saw me for what I really was: an insecure child with the ability to be something greater. She worked as hard as she could, beyond the call of duty, to challenge me and my classmates to become what we were capable of.

At BC, I have been blessed with people like Fathers Joe Marchese and Rev. James Erps, S.J., who helped me to rediscover my faith and were always willing to lend an ear when I was struggling with my transition to college.

There are others, of course, far too many for me to list here and many more than I’ll ever know.

Taxpayers and donors and policemen and soldiers who I have never met, but whose contributions and sacrifices allowed me to receive a top-f light education and to rarely worry for my safety. Classmates whose deaths taught me to value every moment of my life.

Friends who shared laughs, and sometimes tears, with me. Ancestors whose names I don’t even know, whose hard work on behalf of their children has eventually trickled down to me.

I’m excited to make proud the people who got me here. If I ever do set the world aflame, I’ll do it with the matches that they provided.

That realization makes it impossible for me to dread my graduation.

Charles Mangiardi is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at cmangiardi@bcheights.com.

The real BC experience CHRIS DEWEY All of us arrived at Boston College with different hopes and dreams. Some of us were excited about the strength of the sports program, while others thought that BC’s size would best fit their needs.

Many of us were attracted by the University’s academic standards and the promise of receiving a top education. Though we were all told of the mythical “BC Experience” at freshman orientation, this was an intangible concept that few could possibly understand, let alone appreciate. Four years later, this concept still might be difficult to verbalize, but deep down inside we feel it and understand it on an emotional level.

In less than three weeks, BC’s class of 2010 will head out into the “real world,” bachelor’s degrees intact. Four years after most of us first chose to come to this school, it is assumed we will now leave academically enriched. However, is our degree the most important thing we take along with us? Though it will be hard to forget the zany lectures Professor Michael Moore gave in Psychology as a Social Science or the genius performances of Seth Jacobs in his Vietnam class, I cannot help but think that my most memorable, lifelong lessons were gathered in the classrooms of Duchesne East, Walsh, South Street, and Gabelli.

There are some important facts of life that my group of friends and I could have never learned in Devlin 008. For instance, Valentine’s Day

of sophomore year taught many of us that life is infinitely more pleasant and relaxing when Captain Morgan’s rum is not around. Quality time spent with the editors of The Heights informed us as to how many people can dance on a table before it collapses. Freshman life as males led us to discover that counterfeit tickets could indeed get us into exclusive off-campus galas elusively referred to as Tightface parties (yes, we were that cool). And what major could have ever taught us how to trek halfway across the country in a jam-packed RV of questionable functionality?

Admittedly, these lessons are not restricted to how one navigates the debauchery of a weekend at college.

The “BC Experience” instructed us on how to live in an environment that required cooperation, sacrifice, and compromise to reach our goals. Whether we lived in a double, a quad, a six-man, an eight-man, or a nine-man, we had to learn how to work with others to achieve happiness. This was not always an easy process. Along this journey, we may have encountered friends suffering from school anxiety, problems at home, a bad breakup, depression, or deaths in the family. Throughout this process, we were required to learn how to band together to overcome these seemingly unconquerable roadblocks and make the most of our time here.

The “BC Experience” is not about getting straight A’s or filling out our resumes with clubs and activities. It is not about who can hook up with the most people or make the most friends. No – the “BC Experience” is a process of learning how to become better people both for ourselves and for those close to us. It is about learning to appreciate the most

FROM HERE TO RESERVOIR

BY SAL CIPRIANO

ordinary moments and recognizing the significance of something as simple as a late night talk with your roommates. Ultimately, this experience creates accomplishment through friendship, love, intimacy, and understanding rather than personal achievement. Men and women for others.

Graduation is a frustrating reality for those of us who have fallen in love with BC over the course of the last four years. It spells the end for many who were just starting to feel like they had finally grown comfortable and confident in this collegiate environment. Although it is natural to feel that you could accomplish and explore so much more around here with another year or two, step back for a minute and try to list every positive experience you have had. I bet you will be surprised at the number of good times you have encountered here. Let’s emerge from this beloved sanctuary with our minds conscious of all that we have ascertained, both academically and socially, rather than what we were unable to get to. Now is not the time for regrets.

Thank you to all my friends and family who made this undeniably unique experience possible.

Through the good times and the bad times, you stood by me and assisted me in becoming the stronger person that I am today. Folk wisdom suggests that college is the best four years of your life. While it scares me to think that my life has peaked, it is tough to think of things getting much better. At the end of the day, I can’t help but smile and marvel over what a ride these past four years have been….

Chris Dewey is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at opinions@bcheights.com.

Hunting butterflies with dynamite DAN ESPOSITO So, this is it. After four years, 38 classes, 19 different roommates, a whole lot of cheap beer, and one catastrophic apartment fire, it’s finally time to write my final column for The Heights, my farewell column.

“Farewell column” is a funny idea, especially since after roughly three years I’m still not entirely sure whether anyone reads this thing.

Who exactly am I supposed to be saying farewell to? My loyal (theoretical) readers? The concept of print journalism? Myself ?

To recite the old cliche, I’ve never been much for goodbyes. In this case, I’m truly speechless. It’s not my business to write some sort of tearful swan-song about how much this all meant to me. I’m not Lou Gehrig leaving the Yankees.

I’m graduating. Instead of prattling off a list of all the things I’ll miss most about BC, I’ll try to do something mildly constructive (if summative) with the last 500 to 750 words I’ve got.

Strangely enough, the only things that seem relevant to say at the end of the whole affair are the same old cliches that we all generally ignored in the beginning: “Get involved,” “Make the most of your time while it lasts,” “Don’t take anything for granted.” Isn’t it fitting, though?

Didn’t most of us spend four years here living out whatever tired cliche of college life we initially decided to embrace? Whether it was theme parties and Jell-O wrestling or all-nighters in the library and the impeccably polished thesis, we’ve spent our college lives trying to live up to some personal ideal. And now, as the last week of classes slips away into warm weather and late nights, I think I’ve learned enough to say that it was all a load of crap. There is no Animal House to be found here, no Good Will Hunting, no Real Genius or Old School, not even a semblance of Revenge of the Nerds.

After four years, the fact is, the college we were promised doesn’t exist.

If it ever did, it was never ours.

Yet, in our mad pursuit of our own assumed collegiate “potential,” in between beating ourselves up for never taking the college road trip or starting our own student clubs, or becoming president of the UGBC, who among us hasn’t managed to accidentally (haphazardly even) stumble upon something great here?

Who hasn’t at some point over the last four years had one of those perfect moments that make all the movies seem gaudy and overblown, as if they were trying to capture some small truth by distorting it to a grotesque and manageable size.

This is how we go through college, because no one ever told us it could be simple. We make it complex and dramatic. In this way, I’m compelled to liken college to hunting butterflies with dynamite. There will be collateral damage and we may not get what we came looking for, but some things will remain intact. Still, it is inevitable that, in the end, the air will be filled with the vivid confetti of broken wings, missed opportunities.

I suggest we let these fall gracefully. It doesn’t become us to mourn our own departure from this place, this lifestyle. After four years, if you’re not ready to leave, you haven’t grown enough. If there aren’t moments you’ll remember, you haven’t lived enough. And if there aren’t things you’ll miss, you haven’t loved enough. After four years, and many goodbyes, what’s left to say but, “It’s time to go.”

Dan Esposito is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at opinions@bcheights.com.

Have something to say?

It’s the end of the year, keep it to yourself.

A8

The Heights

Thursday, May 6, 2010

A8

person the The Heights

of

Thursday, May 6, 2010

year

W

hen Boston Magazine described Boston College as a “J. Crew catalogue with a slight hangover” four years ago, they obviously did not take into account a student like Earl Edwards, A&S ’10. The absolute antithesis of this stereotype, Edwards came into BC the definition of “institutional diversity” and has since worked to reshape how BC students think about what it is to be diverse on this campus. For many, Edwards is diversity at BC – but not because he is a AHANA male from a difficult socioeconomic background. Instead, many find him to be a model for how students should interact with one another – crossing racial divides and breaking barriers between ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic groups that he finds to be arbitrary.

earl edwards David givler / heights editor

He is just as invested in understanding the experience of non-AHANA students as that of minorities on campus as, for him, diversity is not just the experience of students of color – it’s the experience of every student on this campus and learning how each one intersects.

“It’s obvious that he’s a male of color, but he’s worked across cultural barriers. Earl has as many white friends as black,” said Dan Bunch, director of Learning to Learn.

But instead of pontificating to friends and roommates or keeping his ideas to himself, Edwards has gone above and beyond in his four years at BC to bring this idea of diversity – of coming together and finally understanding one another – campus wide. With months left of his undergraduate career, he could be found in the offices of faculty and administrators, hammering out the details of a proposed course he calls the “Social Experiment.” The class would be a required one-credit seminar for freshman and would provoke dialogue about the breadth of backgrounds and struggles that BC students experience.

“The Social Experiment course really sparked out of having everyone on campus understand these taboo topics like gender, sexuality, class, and race,” Edwards said.

“Having a foundational course to have students talk about things we don’t usually talk about and have skewed opinions about is key. It makes students of color understand other people’s experiences and it helps white students understand their privileges and that they have a race, too.”

But how did a young man in the midst of what many consider to be the most selfish years of one’s life become not only a strong, effective leader, but also a completely selfless one? The root of every single one of his good deeds, Earl says, is his family – his mother in particular. “I grew up in a homeless family, but my mother was very giving.

Even when we were really struggling, if a neighbor needed food, she would make them a plate. Or if they needed money for the rent, she would give them a loan. So growing up, giving was just instilled in me as a value and that’s one of the reasons I felt I had to give back here.”

This sentiment is not lost on Edwards’ peers and especially not on those he leads alongside. “There is something that distinguishes Earl: he has taken his personal hardships and made it his duty to address them and give back. That’s Earl,” said Erika Hernandez, A&S ’11 and vice president of the ALC this year.

In giving back, Edwards made himself an intimidating force on paper. He has held two of the campus’ highest leadership positions – President of the NAACP his junior year and President of the ALC his senior year – served as a Preceptor for the summer Option Through Education (OTE) program, been a member of a fraternity and DIOP (Dedicated Intellectuals of the People), and, as an extra commitment senior year, completed an independent research project on the experience of black males at

BC. Earl has been described by those that know him best – and those who know him hardly at all – as “unassuming” and “quietly assertive.” With a soft-spoken, humble, yet undeniably strong way about him, no title could be more fitting. He is a go-getter, but not in the sense that he is resume building or stepping over those beneath him to be the center of attention. “As long as the job gets done, Earl doesn’t need to be the center of attention,” said Paulette Durrett, assistant dean of the Student Programs Office (SPO). “He can often be the wind beneath someone’s wings.”

“Earl is respected by his peers,” said Andy Petigny, associate director of the Office of AHANA Student Programs. “He’s someone that students can relate to and approach.

He makes people comfortable because he’s not up on his soapbox preaching.”

The phrase “That’s Earl” came up frequently in talking to administrators like Durette and Bunch who have served as mentors for Edwards and fellow students who have known Edwards since he came to BC. Each had a different characteristic they claimed was Earl Edwards. This ranged from his creativity, to his openness, to his ability to address the unseen need, to, most fittingly, his unique ability to relate to just about everyone.

“It is rare that administrators find students that move them to action and Earl is one that has moved me to action,” Karl Bell, assistant dean of SPO said. “He challenged my approach to my work and the BC community.”

Brotherhood is integral to Edward’s constitution. As a member of a fraternity, the DIOP program, and the founder of a youth basketball league in his hometown of Brockton, Mass., he hasn’t limited his definition of race to a particular race, but where he sees a chance to affect change. And most rewarding for Edwards is watching as those he has associated himself with and helped come into their own. In talking about his mentees in the OTE program, he said, “To see these people come into leadership positions now, that’s probably what I’ve been most proud of.”

This year, Edwards has designed a course that could potentially change how an entire University looks at all types of diversity; this week, he is learning to drive a car for the first time. Next year, he will be managing the basketball league in Brockton as well as teaching English in Providence as a part of Teach for America. Beyond that, his future may hold law school or some other vocation, but, one can be assured, whereever Earl Edwards ends up, the people he meets will be better for having known him.

Bell said it well when he spoke of Earl’s unique philosophy. “I see students who move and make sacrifices but lose something along the way,” he said. “Earl has not lost his sense of self purpose around his BC experience. There’s a saying ‘Walking with kings and not losing the common touch’ – that is Earl.”

- Ana T. Lopez, Special Projects Editor

B2

The Heights

Thursday, May 6, 2010

momentummomentummomentummomentum The Real Food Girls During the 34 years that Adelaide Lalli has served as a Boston College dining hall manager, she has never missed an opportunity to bring her own culinary expertise into the BC kitchen – often cooking ravioli for employees and teaching cooking classes after hours for students. Since its opening in 1994, the campus dining hall that bears her name, The Loft at Addie’s, has striven to reconnect patrons with their food.

“It’s more than having just a server behind the glass serving you food,” said Julia Gabbert, president of Real Food BC and A&S ’10. “It’s about having a sense of connection with what you’re putting into your body.”

Gabbert, along with Mariana Souza and Sarah King, both A&S ’10, started a BC chapter of Real Food, an organization dedicated to promoting the growth and consumption of locally-grown organic produce on campus, in the fall of 2007 following a Real Food Conference at Yale University. Since then, the trio has opened a garden on Brighton Campus and has turned The Loft at Addie’s, formerly a cafeteria famous for its pasta and Chinese food, into an organic kitchen.

The idea started when King traveled to the Yale conference with Michael Cermak, GA&S ’13, where the two learned how to apply an organic food program to BC’s campus. “I learned a lot about food justice,” King said. “The Real Food community, it’s a network in itself. It’s a movement.”

By the end of 2007, the group had a sustainable chapter at BC in the works, and a plan for further growth. By the fall of 2008, Real Food BC had a base of operations in The Loft at Addie’s – a place to showcase the produce grown in the Brighton garden. “That summer was our first harvest,” Gabbert said. “It was an exciting time.”

But the Real Food members don’t only serve organic food to other students.

Their own diets fluctuate with the changing of the seasons, as some of them eat only locally-grown seasonal foods. “I’ve become quite adept with

by Michael Caprio Heights Editor the root vegetables,” said Souza, whose winter diet has given her the options of eating turnips, beats, and other New England rooted vegetables from New England. “I eat a lot of potatoes, onions, turnips, and butternut squash. I eat seasonally and locally,” she said. “And I’m known for my curried butternut squash,” she said jokingly.

Ironically, eating locally is not an easy task. King said that she drives up to 30 minutes outside the city to visit local farms and pick up produce – a trip she makes once a week. “I go to Green Meadow Farms in Hamilton,” she said. “I have a deal with them where I pay and they just give me a basket when I go of everything I need.”

But there is more involved in their diets than just a desire to eat locally, Souza said. “It’s about leaving a carbon footprint, too,” she said. “It’s engaging my community because it’s where I’m from. I should only eat things that are part of this community.”

But she sometimes cheats. “Sometimes if I feel like having a mango or a banana, I’ll sneak one,” she said jokingly. “But only if it’s organic.”

Meet chef Gabbert. The Real Food BC president not only grows organic food, she said she fancies herself a decent cook. “If you came to my house, I’d have to make you some fresh baked bread, then maybe some lentils soup and some apple crisp,” she said. “… with some wine, of course.”

But Gabbert wouldn’t call herself a chef. Neither would she call herself a president. “I’m an activist,” she said. “But I’m a little more than that.”

“She’s our little sunshine,” King said with a smile. “She’s very petite, but she has a very big personality.”

As Gabbert, who stands at 5 feet, 4 inches, prepares for the summer, she said she is proud of her legacy on campus and feels confident in next year’s Real Food leaders. “I feel really optimistic to have a group of students coming up, who are passionate about the organization,” she said. “I don’t see it going down anytime soon.”

mariana souza, sarah king, julia gabbert alex trautwig / heights editor

Michael Bell If you ask Michael Bell, A&S ’10, about the presence of ghosts in the O’Connell House, he will express a hint of skepticism. “I’ve had many people tell me they’re real. I’ve lived here for three years and have never had an encounter with one. It’s an old house, it’s creaky. Maybe I’ve just blocked it out.” As an O’Connell House manager, who would know better than Bell? For the past three years, Bell has lived as a resident in the O’Connell House, and since his tenure began, he’s seen the house flourish as an open forum for community involvement and student expression.

Ironically enough, Bell knew little about the house before moving in. A participant of the Shaw Leadership Program, Bell heard about the manager position through an upperclassman in the Shaw Program. “I think I came in [the O’Connell House] once for a group project, but it just didn’t make sense to me,” Bell said. “I thought it was offices. That’s how the house has been for quite a while.”

Bell chose to apply for the management position, despite the job description being a bit vague. “My sophomore year, we didn’t do events. It sounded like something that could be interesting rather than being an RA or working 40 hours a week.

At the time, to be honest, I wanted to do it because it would be a great deal. It’s really expensive to go here, and it would help out a lot.”

Come his junior year, the Student Programming Office (SPO) recognized the importance of the house as a usable space and mandated events every Friday and Saturday night to be facilitated by the five house managers, Bell among them. “It was really great because that’s definitely not how it was when I lived on Upper Campus, but at the same time as a manager, it poses a challenge in the sense that now we have to come up with something to do. Are we hiring musicians to come in? Does that draw a crowd? Are we doing board game nights or something like that? It raised a lot of questions.” Bell had the answers in mind. “My job is to create community at BC, whether it’s though having a club host something or doing it ourselves.”

With this mission statement in mind, Bell began to offer the space to clubs with additional sponsorship from OSP. The club events would offer the interest and draw the people, and OSP would provide the resources to sustain the event.

“I think Mike has helped the larger community to see that the house can be used in a variety of ways, and has opened it up even more to the BC community,” said Beth Gionfriddo, an O’Connell House manager and LGSOE ’10. “He has worked hard to create a fun and inviting atmosphere in the house.”

mike bell Kevin Hou / heights editor

by Darren Ranck Heights Editor

Bell’s strategy has always been to facilitate the planning of events and work out the logistics but put the creative planning into the hands of the students themselves.

“Basically it was getting other students to take ownership over these events,” Bell said. “We ask, ‘What do you want to do?’ Once students are invested in helping plan, it’s easy.”

A photography class sophomore year prompted Bell to pursue his own event, as he felt dissatisfied with the art scene at BC. “There wasn’t much going on,” Bell said. “Art Club had a show once a semester. It was still nice to show work, but they were just like, ‘Throw it up on the wall,’ and whoever sees it, sees it.” In an effort to strengthen the arts, Bell proposed to friends from the dark room that they hold an art show in the O’Connell House. “All the kids I talked to were just blown away. They were like, ‘Are you serious? Yeah, that’d be great!’”

What started as an art show became a communal art workshop, where the participants brought new pieces each week for criticism. Eventually, the chosen pieces formed the first O’Connell House art exhibition, “The Attic,” named as such because all the photos were shot in the O’Connell House attic. “It kind of just became this geeky little group because we all loved what we were doing. But at the same time, it led into the fact that we produced an entire show and hung it at the end of the semester, and we had a crowd of 200 people show up,” Bell said.

The success of the initial show spawned two more O’Connell House exhibitions, each one bringing in new art forms and a larger crowd. “Mike’s unique perspective on the arts has provided him with a great outlook for student programming,” said Mark Miceli, assistant dean of student programs. “Displaying student art on campus is challenging, and Mike wanted to do something about it.”

“He was the glue that bound the entire project,” said Ryan McDaid, art show participant and A&S ’10. “The galleries Mike organized were unique in that they invited a group of artists to work together on a single theme and transform the O’Connell house into an experience. Mike’s galleries had a focus and a spirit that I haven’t seen anywhere else on campus.”

Bell does not feel such events, difficult as they may seem, are impossible for students to plan. “I think the legacy isn’t the fact that these art shows need to go on, but more the fact that we said, ‘Hey, BC, look what actually happens here,’” Bell said. “The kids who were involved saw there was no outlet for this, and we made our own outlet. I think a lot of people got that message. You want to do something? Just do it.”

The Heights

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Matthew McCluskey

B3

by Kris Robinson Heights Editor

At a young age, Matthew McCluskey, LSOE ’10, dreamed of taking on not one, but two very different occupations. If he couldn’t be a catcher for the New York Yankees, McCluskey had his heart set on being a lawyer, or perhaps starting a Jack Johnson cover band by the age of 40.

A native of Mendham, N.J., McCluskey grew up in “diner filled suburbs” 30 minutes outside of New York City. “I’ve lived in the same town my entire life, with my brother, who’s eleven months older than me, my sister, and my mom,” McCluskey said, detailing his home life. “My family is my rock, my everything.

I’ve talked to my mom every day on the phone since I’ve been in college. My brother and I are so close in age that we get along great.”

McCluskey found his experience at Mendham High School to be similar to his time at Boston College. “My high school was really competitive. Everybody worked hard, but we still had fun. It was very similar to BC in that sense,” McCluskey explained.

On top of his school-related commitments, which included the wrestling team, the baseball team, being a Eucharistic minister, and president of the Future Business Leaders of America, McCluskey worked 20 hours per week at a law firm, a job that he believed would help prepare him for his future in the law occupation.

Going into his freshman year as a student in the College of Arts and Sciences, McCluskey adopted a pre-law concentration, ready to set his destiny in motion.

Before he could turn the key in the ignition, however, something happened.

Something by the name of Camp Sunshine.

Working for two weeks at a camp in Maine for children suffering from terminal illnesses put everything into perspective for McCluskey. “I came back from it, knowing like this is what I want to do. This is what I want to be,” McCluskey says. His experience at Camp Sunshine resonated with him in ways that his time at the law firm did not. McCluskey discovered that the law profession wasn’t his true calling. He was meant to teach.

Becoming resident assistant as a sophomore reignited the fire that had been doused during McCluskey’s freshman year. Eventually, McCluskey dropped his law concentration and transferred into the Lynch School of Education, where he is pursuing a double major in English and secondary education. He immersed himself in a variety of activities, some close to home and others, a bit more surprising. “I signed up for the First Year Professional Development Seminar, a program in the Lynch School, and I really started to discover stuff about myself

jerry york alex trautwig / heights editor

Coach Jerry York Conventional wisdom tells us that those who are best suited to lead are rarely the ones who seek such a position. Boston College is extremely fortunate then, to have found Coach Jerry York, who conducts himself with a quiet dignity and humility that can only come from a desire to achieve something more than just wins. Coach York, after 16 years in the program, has brought three National Championship trophies back to Chestnut Hill, the most recent addition claimed this past season. Ben Smith, team captain and A&S ’10, said, “You think of all the qualities of a good leader and you must think that Coach York has all of them.

Whenever things are going well, he pushes the attention away from himself and whenever things are going badly, he looks it right in the eye and moves forward.”

Coach York’s relationship with BC began during his childhood, as one of ten children growing up in Watertown, Mass. His father, a doctor, frequently visited the Jesuit community in St. Mary’s and, in return, the BC Jesuits would join his family for Sunday dinner or even trips to their South Shore beach house. “Jesuit values are part of my fabric,” he said. “We live our lives based on how we’re raised and make our decisions based on that.” This early indoctrination to the Jesuit values of men and women for others has clearly been a major influence on his coaching style, which emphasizes being gracious to opponents as well as teammates. “The first thing he said, during the press conference after winning the National Championship, was compliment Wisconsin on being such a great opponent,” Matt Price, asst. captain and CSOM ’10, said.

York later attended BC High School, then Boston College, graduating with the class of ’67. He played center for the Eagles, and then went on to graduate school. His wife, Bobbi, is also a BC grad and a Massachusetts native. Needless to say, although he spent years away from his old stomping ground while coaching at Clarkson and Bowling Green, Coach York is a BC boy through and through. “The tug of the alma mater is so strong in our family, my wife, Bobbi and I, both of us have a great affinity for BC, so it was an easy choice to come back here,” he said.

York’s history with the school not only gives him a level of loyalty beyond that of other coaches, but, as a former player, he has a unique perspective on the life of the student athletes. “I understand the demands placed on them by having gone through what they’re going through: the academic demands and the demands of the hockey culture to play very well,” he said. “They have to balance the academics and the demands of BC’s elite level program.”

that I didn’t know existed, like that I like writing,” McCluskey says. A poetry course unknowingly introduced him to something that would quickly become a beloved hobby of his: slam poetry.

McCluskey’s decision to study abroad his junior year brought him to Cape Town, South Africa, where, after meeting some extraordinary people, he was given the opportunity to start what he and a few of his colleagues in LSOE call the Healdtown Project. Healdtown College, the alma mater of a number of prominent black leaders, including Nelson Mandela, was an institution in need of help, with very few resources, monetary and human, available to it and a student passing rate of zero percent in the region’s matriculation exam. “Our philosophy is that we will supply young, passionate qualified educators for free if someone will pay for us to live. And we’ll just teach, because that’s all we really want to do is teach,” McCluskey said.

The Healdtown Project is not a missionary undertaking for McCluskey. “This could be a school down the road in Boston and I still would have done it. It’s just a struggling school that happens to be in Africa. All schools should be equal, but unfortunately, that’s not the case,” McCluskey affirmed. McCluskey and the other members of the Healdtown Project are in the process of sending out a proposal and waiting to hear whether they will be provided with funding for their desired time at Healdtown College.

Though McCluskey has only spent a short time at BC, his presence is unmistakable to those whose lives he has touched. “Matt’s got a great sense of integrity,” said John McDargh, a professor in the theology department. “He also has a wicked sense of humor. I’ve learned a lot from him and I’ve come to appreciate his concern for others.”

“Matt’s a really nice guy and although he’s very involved, he still finds time to create fun things for me and the rest of the guys on my floor to do,” says Stephen Ryan, one of McCluskey’s residents and A&S ’12.

“Wherever Matt ends up in life, those around him will be lucky to have him and they will know that they are lucky to have him,” says Lisa Patel Stevens, associate professor in LSOE. McCluskey’s students at Brighton High School, where he works 55 hours a week, would be bound to agree.

matthew mccluskey Sang Lee / heights Staff

by Hilary Chasse Heights Editor

The high standard that Coach York holds his players to is a major factor in the success of his team. Before the players are even admitted into his program, York is already demanding more of them than slapshots and hat tricks. “As part of the recruiting process, we don’t get players that aren’t interested in our core values and we might lose them to other schools,” he said. “Part of our strength is that we’re a Jesuit school that stresses a lot of positive things, we want to be part of the fabric of what we have here.”

Coach York thinks of himself first and foremost as a teacher, and he tutors his players in much more than hockey: He teaches them how to have values and be good on the ice, in class, and in social settings. “He has created a culture since he’s been here and his program starts with the whole person. He understands that at the end of the day that it’s about more than what’s on the ice, and if you take care of the bigger parts, it’ll trickle down and things will take care of themselves,” Price said.

Although Coach York has earned every honor and accolade he’s ever received, he gives himself almost no credit for his incredible achievements. When speaking of being the winningest active coach in the NCAA, with 821 wins at the start of this season, he merely said, “That’s longevity, I’ve just stayed in coaching for so long, and I’ve been consistent.” When reminded of his reputation as a coach who fosters his players not only as athletes but as students and community members, he said, “But that’s not me, that’s the school, that’s the type of institution that I’m fortunate to work at and I hope that we are a small part of that tradition.” Even when he was honored by BC this spring by having his former number retired, he humbly requested that the number remain active so as to continue the traditional jersey numbers for coming generations of players.

Matt Lombardi, asst. captain and CSOM ’10, described how Coach York stepped aside to allow his team to get the full experience of winning a national championship. “Usually it’s Coach in the limelight but he passes that along to the seniors and older guys on the team because it’s not about him being successful, it’s about how he wants his players to experience all the great things that come with winning,” Lombardi said.

It is clear that whatever formula Coach York has found over his enormously successful career works, but it is stunning in its simplicity: “Win a lot of games, graduate our student athletes, and make our alumni and student body proud of our players, not just on the ice, but off the ice.”

B4

The Heights

Rev. Bienvenu Mayemba, S.J.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

by Matthew DeLuca Editor-in-Chief

Rev. Bienvenu Mayemba, S.J., may be found walking around the Reservoir on the first day of classes, reciting the names of his new students. First he learns their names, then their faces. And then he goes to the class’ first meeting. By the end of the first week, he recognizes each of his students.

Bienvenu Mayemba Kubata Batinuesa was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to a woman who feared she would not have any more children – she named him Kubata, which means “no children” or “inability to conceive,” and Batinuesa, which means “born out of death.”

Mayemba said he feels as though he has carried the meaning of these two names with him his whole life. “Giving someone a name is having power over them,” he said of the power of names in the Congo. When he became a Jesuit, his mother started feeling guilty, he said, “because she thought the name she gave me began to follow me. But I felt like it was God calling me not to have children.”

Growing up in the Congo was difficult, Mayemba said. “I didn’t have a lot of models other than my parents and my siblings.” He found some at the local Jesuit school. Impressed by their dedication to education and sense of solidarity with the poor, Mayemba ultimately decided to join them. He came to Boston College to further his studies in philosophy.

Roberto Goizueta, professor in the theology department, was Mayemba’s adviser.

He said that the man’s attitude does not change when he is in the classroom, but rather that he is, himself, an exemplary student. “I have always been terribly impressed by him, both as a person and a scholar, a Christian and a priest,” Goizueta said. But their relationship has extended beyond the classroom. Goizueta, like many on BC’s campus who have encountered Mayemba, said that, when speaking with the man, they always find themselves wanting the conversation to continue. “I always look forward to my meetings with him, and took every opportunity I could to maybe selfishly draw from him that inspiring spirit,” he said.

Rev. James Bernauer, S.J., said that Mayemba has been active in the life of the Jesuit community on campus. “He seems particularly concerned about the older Jesuits and always is eager to join them in conversation,” he said. “On the level of academic engagement, he is so enthusiastic about the theological research he is doing and also about the lives of the undergraduate students. He loves being with BC students and, it would seem, BC faculty.”

Mayemba said that, while at BC, he has been impressed by the concern students have for other cultures. “I’ve been struck by BC students, the sense of social justice,” he said. “BC students have a great sense of social solidarity. Look at how many

students go on immersion trips, and how they come back joyful.”

He will take this spirit with him when he returns to Africa in July to teach in Nairobi and the Ivory Coast. Students in Africa, he said, often come from extreme poverty and suffering, but they are hopeful. “Every teacher, you can inspire a student. The first three months, I only see the best in my students,” he said.

Sometimes, his enthusiasm is challenged. “I never give up. I grew up with a sense of toughness, and I feel in me a sense of resilience. Not once I ever thought about suicide.” Still, one or two students have challenged him. “I will call them for tea. We will not talk about class reading, nothing about class. Once when I did it, it opened up for me a new perspective.”

But his interests are wide ranging. “I used to be in acrobatics in primary school and high school, and I used to do African dance, as well,” Mayemba said. He also plays the conga drums, and played flute and piano before giving them up. He is an avid soccer fan. “I am very excited to have the World Cup in Africa. I will be supporting Ghana.”

As much as his childhood in Africa was filled with struggle, Mayemba saids that there are certain aspects of life there that he misses dearly. For instance, he said, he misses being able to go up to anyone in a bus station and strike up a conversation.

When people read books on the bus or the train, they miss out on opportunities to connect with other people, he said.

Africa is a continent in need of hope, Mayemba said. Hope out of death. “They don’t want to remember. It is too difficult for them to look back. But I am a big believer in memory, a memory of resistance. We look at the past to move forward with hope. It is good how people can reconcile themselves to their hope.”

Casey Clevenger, a doctoral student in philosophy at Brandeis, sought help from Mayemba when she was applying to doctoral programs. She said she thinks Mayemba will take an even more active role in the university communities he will be tending to. “I think because he will be at such a young University and being such a young academic community, he will have an opportunity to take on a real leadership role. Because he has so much vision, in terms of working with individual people, I think the difference he will be able to make in the lives of students will have long lasting impacts.”

“On the level of international presence, this is a true son of Africa who exhibits the loving care and joy that is so native to peoples there,” Bernauer said. “With all the discouraging news that comes to us out of the African continent, Bienvenu proclaims in his life “a profound good news from that continent.”

amy la combe alex trautwig / heights editor

Amy La Combe Carroll School of Management (CSOM) students are just as insecure about their major choices and career paths as any. They jockey from one major to the next and ponder the feasibility about adding a completely unrelated minor. They worry about credit hours and studying abroad. They, like other students at Boston College, seek advice and guidance in making these decisions. But what students in the Schools of College of Arts and Sciences, Lynch School of Education, and Connell School of Nursing lack is an advising celebrity. In CSOM, her name is Amy La Combe.

La Combe currently works as a lecturer in CSOM’s Portico program, but her ties to BC date back to her undergraduate years. As an accounting concentrator, she’s lived the experience of the CSOM student. La Combe managed to balance her passion for business education – a passion that would carry throughout her career – with stardom on the women’s basketball team, serving as the team’s captain in her senior year. After graduating, La Combe moved back to Syracuse to work for one of the big eight accounting firms at the time. Though technically apt for accounting, Amy decided, with help from mentors, to leave the firm and pursue a graduate degree in counseling. While working towards her masters at Syracuse, Amy melded her prowess on the court and in counseling by serving as a graduate assistant in an advising position for men’s and women’s basketball.

Fortunately for her alma mater, La Combe missed the freedom of life in Boston.

Willing to risk a solid salary and career stability, she transferred back to the site of four pivotal years of her life to take up an advising job in the athletics department.

She acted as the football academic adviser for four years and, under her guidance, students did exceptionally well. Although she touted an astounding graduation rate for her players, CSOM has a way of calling its Eagles home, and La Combe realized her heart lie across campus in Fulton Hall. So, in the summer of 2000, La Combe took up an assistant dean position in administration. She was exposed to the business end of a business school and, though capable, she “missed not being with students.” After being offered to teach part-time in tandem with her deanship, she used the opportunity to brush up on her “rusty” accounting skills and met the challenge, finding it to be exceptionally rewarding. She dove in and taught accounting full-time for five years.

All the while, her lore as a CSOM staple grew, and when she returned to her assistant dean position in advising, students were thrilled to have her as a resource in the classroom as well as in advising. “She likes people,” said Richard Keely, associate dean of CSOM. And the people like her back. Her popularity grew so much in her two years as a dean of advising that other members of her office created a mock “Wanted” poster with her face in the middle, a joke on how desired her time was. Her ability to

bienvenu mayemba kevin hou / heights editor

by David Givler Heights Editor see from a student’s perspective and to understand their experience by having been through it herself is what made her a perfect fit for a teaching position as a Portico professor, during the program’s inception last year. The program allows professors to introduce management freshmen to themes in business that they will encounter in their studies at BC. The program also has a unique advising aspect, in which La Combe sees great value.

Dan Roemer, CSOM ’10, met Amy as a freshman during Dean’s coffee. Roemer was also a student in La Combe’s 8:30 a.m. financial accounting class his freshman year.

He describes her teaching style as “very dedicated” and it should be for that early of a class. Roemer said that even at an hour when most students can barely pour a cup of coffee, “[La Combe] was always fired up and ready to go.” Her students agree that her classes are challenging and that she is a demanding professor, but it’s her understanding and dedication to her students that make the classes so desired. Outside the classroom, she acted as Roemer’s unofficial adviser, a title many assign to her. Roemer explained, that in an advising setting, she brought the same level of care and motivation that she did in the classroom. “She’s really invested in what I’m doing here at BC,” he said. “She gave me helpful tips, but did not push me to go in any one direction. She helped me to be able to juggle my two majors.”

But more than her engaging teaching style or ability to sort through a convoluted degree audit is her approachability and desire to connect with students as people.

Just as before, La Combe still finds her sense of athleticism to be a means to bond with students and be a mentor outside of the confines of Fulton. She is known for going on runs with students and hopes to utilize them more in the future to connect upperclassmen and underclassmen. La Combe’s talents are not only recognized by her students and advisees but also by her peers in CSOM. Ethan Sullivan, coordinator of the Portico program, describes her as “a master teacher.” Citing passion, motivation, and liveliness, Sullivan justifies the student hype surrounding La Combe. “If you have Professor La Combe and can’t get excited, then there is something wrong with the person.” Her enthusiasm also leads roles outside management including being the faculty adviser for the Best Buddies program and working with student groups such as the Emerging Leading Program.

From a student perspective, La Combe is a celebrity. The faculty’s perspective is based in respect and appreciation. Keely worked heavily with La Combe during her deanship in advising. “She has a genuine way valuing every person that enters the building,” he said.

Rachel Gregorio & Sam Lipscomb / heights illustration

Thursday, May 6, 2010

THE HEIGHTS

C2

+Editor’s Corner

Summer art in Beantown h it on w is l rien l A er Th

KRISTEN HOUSE As I write this last column of the semester, I am two days away from the last day of classes and a few portfolios and final projects from being halfway done with my college career. From the events of this week alone, I have a keener awareness of what the Apocalypse will look like: 90 degree heat, a water shortage, and printer paper taped to the doors of Starbucks that says: “No Coffee. No Water.” I find it unmanageable to regulate a decently level body temperature.

But in the midst of this absurdity, I’m looking forward to summer, a time of year that always affords plenty of free time to catch up on all things entertainment.

All of my summers have usually been characterized by summer reading — whether I was reading Cynthia Voigt’s Homecoming, thinking twice about whether I should trust my mother to leave me in the car ever again, or weeping heavily at Their Eyes Were Watching God (God bless Tea Cake), I’ve always had characters follow me through my hazy Massachusetts days. I can’t wait to find a book that will define my summer this year, but anything will look fantastic next to textbook chapters and shoddily copied handouts (note: When a line of words is cut off on the right side of a page, that does not translate to legible). At the moment, I have my eye on David Sedaris’ Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, because the man knows how to spout humorous nuggets like it’s his job (which … it is).

Probably the best summer arts memories were also the most spontaneous. Watching a free rendition of Hamlet as a part of the Boston Common’s free outdoor theater productions was a highlight in my 14-year-old mind, despite the woes King Hamlet experienced with recalling his lines from time to time. I can still remember watching the sun sink into the city buildings and the park’s streetlights pop on like a garland of white lights.

I’ll state the obvious: Take advantage of whatever cities you visit this summer. Sure, it’s most certainly amazing to grab that box set of television seasons that you’ve missed out on all year — I intend on digging up the past two seasons of The Office and settling in for a season of So You Think You Can Dance, but I hope I can find a few impromptu concerts and plays that will be unexpectedly rewarding. Not that there are many impromptu concerts in my town (unless you count the annual sandcastle contest), but I’ll make it work.

What truly embodies the essence of summer arts for me is seeing a movie with friends that I’ve seen only a handful of times in the midst of a crazy school year.

It’s traditions like the uninterrupted string of Spiderman movies I saw with my friend Meredith over a span of many summers. Perhaps because I’m up to my ears in Whitman and theology at this point and I’m speaking from a psychologically imbalanced place, but the only thing that’s getting me through the last hours of the school year is the prospect of that day when I won’t feel guilty about watching re-runs of Project Runway for hours on end.

This is what the lazy days of summer are made for. Summer TV, catching up with old friends and old characters, superhero films, outdoor plays, and watching to see who collaborates with the Boston Pops on the Fourth of July. If absolutely nothing looks exciting, new, or happy right now, consider where we’ll all be in just a couple weeks. I’ll be the one in my hometown, commuting past the llama farm to work everyday, jamming to Miley Cyrus’ “I Can’t Be Tamed,” B.o.B.’s “Airplanes,” and Don McLean’s “American Pie,” absolutely no rhyme or reason to what I listen to next.

Kristen House is the Arts & Review editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

They say that when one door closes, another door opens. As this semester comes flying to a close, we are seeing the end of more than a few things. For me, it’s the end of sophomore year, and thus the end of the first half of my college career. For you, it might be the long-awaited end to a deathly boring course. It might be the end of college altogether. If nothing else, it’s the end of a beautiful semester of turning anxiously to see which videos we have chosen for Videos on the Verge. But while a lot is ending, even more is beginning. Summer is just a handful of finals away. So I say, out with the old and in with the new. Let’s kick summer off right. In that spirit, I present to you three newly-released music videos, all which are undoubtedly bound to blow up your speakers this summer.

1

“Not Myself Tonight” - Christina Aguilera This highly anticipated new video doubles as Christina Aguilera’s dramatic comeback, and she has certainly managed to catch our attention.

The video, which has earned Aguilera less than welcomed comparisons to Lady GaGa, shows the scantily-clad popstar pulling off impressive choreography and even rolling around in bed with a certain lucky back-up dancer.

2

“Can’t Be Tamed” - Miley Cyrus Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Actually, it’s a winged Miley Cyrus emerging both literally and metaphorically from the nest, and then the cage, of all that’s keeping her from becoming that wild animal of an artist she wants to be. In this video, which dropped yesterday, we see an edgier Cyrus pushing her way to the forefront and proving that she is no longer the princess she once was.

3

“Why Don’t You Love Me” - Beyonce The always-fierce Beyonce manages an entirely new level of fierceness with her video for “Why Don’t You Love Me,” which transforms her into drunken ’50s housewife B.B. Homemaker, who alternates between being the pretty, perfect image of a ’50s female to a drunken mess, struggling to hold up a martini as she lies on the floor.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF YOUTUBE.COM

F

Getting lost in ‘Lost’

W

hen I started writing this column in January, I chose to avoid one show in particular — Lost. My hesitancy to write about this ABC drama comes from a few crannies in my cranium. Those who do not love Lost nor worship its complex genius tend to hate it. They view it as overhyped, a waste of time, and a science fiction show that used polar bears on a tropical island as a plot device (can we please forgive the polar bears already?).

To those people, I hear your opinions and disrespectfully agree.

Yes, Lost has taken up too much time in my life to be considered a healthy influence.

Come the end of the series, I will have dedicated 121 hours to watching the show and at least another 121 theorizing about what I’ve just watched. Sure, I could and should have been doing homework instead of getting sucked into the mythology, but what I gained was one of the purest forms of entertainment. Not since 24 has a show been so titillating and confusing. I, too, have felt the frustration and the anger that Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the show’s helmers, infuse in the viewing populace. It’s a draining show.

Even during the lulls, I still stood behind the show. I can attest the show can be overhyped. After one of the greatest season finales in television (season three’s flashforward finale), the show came back with a snoozer of an episode. Actually, after the critically acclaimed and Emmy-winning first season, the second season was a seemingly meaningless season of button pushing. I understand how the show lost part of its audience at that point.

I stood behind it because, for better or worse, I dedicated myself to seeing the castaways get rescued.

Little did I know, the show would screw with my brain in a way that I find unbelievable.

For instance, this season brings us two parallel universes created by an atomic bomb that the present-day castaways set off in 1978, and each member of the flight is slowly starting to recollect bits and pieces about his or her alternate life. That situation makes absolutely no sense, even with an explanation. I watched five seasons of this situation, and even the events leading up to it don’t clarify what’s going on.

I can admit that I find the show ridiculous. I can agree that it is completely warped, but I will defend it to the grave because of its brilliance on the landscape of television. The flashback technique utilized in the first three seasons was genius. While we observed the real time accounts of island life, the juxtaposed backstory of each individual character took characterization to a new level. On any other show, we know the person as they are in the given situation, but Lost had the chutzpah to base each episode on flashbacks. We know these characters as well as they know themselves, which makes the show that much more of a rewarding experience.

We were there when Jack was elected leader despite his failures as a surgeon. We were there when Sawyer and Kate played “Never Have I Ever.” We saw Sun discover her pregnancy in the midst of a turbulent marriage. We couldn’t take our eyes off of villainous Ben or resident assassin Sayid. Possibly most moving of all, we witnessed the phone call from Desmond to Penny in an episode that took less than an hour to lay out one of the most passionate and engaging romances in television history. The show has moved me more than most real life events, and I cannot give J.J. Abrams enough credit for that.

Ex-Tube columnist Blair Thill and I often discuss the upcoming finale. We agree that while it can never tie everything up properly, we cannot wait to see how it comes to an end. One of pop culture’s paramount series is coming to an end, and I bid it farewell with a quote from the pilot episode. “Guys … where are we?” Catch up with some good TV this summer, readers!

Darren Ranck is a Heights editor. He can be reached for comment at arts@bcheights.com.

Joseph Neese is a senior staff member of The Heights. He welcomes comments at arts@bcheights.com.

ARTS EVENTS CALENDAR ON CAMPUS

OFF CAMPUS

THURSDAY

THURSDAY

ART AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY O’Neill Library

THE SHOUT OUT LOUDS Paradise Rock Club, 7 p.m.

ASIAN JOURNEYS McMullen Museum

SIGUR ROS House of Blues, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY

FRIDAY

BOOKS AND THEIR COVERS Boston College Law Library

THE INDOBOX The Middle East, 8 p.m.

A POET AT WORK Burns Library

OK GO Paradise Rock Club, 8 p.m.

SATURDAY

SATURDAY

ART AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY McMullen Museum

LOCAL NATIVES Great Scott, 9 p.m.

ASIAN JOURNEYS McMullen Museum

EOTO Paradise Rock Club, 9 p.m.

SUNDAY

SUNDAY

SWING TO SACRED MUSIC Robsham Theater, 8 p.m.

COBRA STARSHIP House of Blues, 7 p.m.

ASIAN JOURNEYS McMullen Museum

AS TALL AS LIONS The Middle East, 7 p.m.

PETE FAY’S CURIOUS CHILDHOOD:

The “curious” men of Gabelli 407

PETE FAY To you, the loyal readers of “Chris Dewey’s Curious Childhood” who expected to find, in this space, one last piece of nostalgia from the man who’s reminisced so eloquently about topics ranging from GoldenEye to Pogs and everything in between, I say fear not. Your beloved column has not been hijacked — it has merely been moved to its rightful place — the spread of The Scene — to celebrate the special niche its author has carved out at The Heights. So before you continue reading this column, turn the page over. Soak up the last words of wisdom afforded you from an all-time expert in pop culture. Only after reading that should you return to this page to finish my column.

For the past four years, I have had the privilege and honor of living with your esteemed author. Long before he offered you a glimpse into his curious childhood with musings about teenagers, mutants, and ninjas (Feb. 25 for those of you who want to read it again), and well before he schooled you in some “Slasherology” last spring, Chris Dewey was my roommate.

In fact, for five of eight semesters, he has been my direct roommate. If anyone at this school has seen Chris’ curious childhood firsthand, it’s me.

But I’ll let you in on a little secret about myself, which I happen to believe is true of all of us: My childhood was just as curious as Chris’ was — if not more so. Like a lot of kids who grew up in New York, I was all about the Yankees. I still am.

Ask my roommates how many nights I spend with my laptop on my lap feverishly refreshing ESPN.com’s Gamecast to see if my Yanks got a hit. Yet, unlike any kids my age, I developed a strange, obsessive fascination with the moronic announcers

and even dumber sports talk radio stars that called and analyzed my teams’ games. Listening to and criticizing people like ‘Doc’ Emrick, John Sterling, and Mike and the Mad Dog, whom the great sage Don Imus ingeniously nicknamed “Fatso and Fruit Loops,” was, to me, what the things Chris has written about were to him. Maybe you weren’t as weird as I was, but be honest with yourself — you did quirky stuff as a kid, too.

How did Chris, the Batman aficionado from nearby Needham, and I, the loud, sports-crazed New Yorker with seemingly different interests, survive and thrive as roommates? Truthfully, we owe it all to Steve Irwin, whose all-toosoon passing on our third night at Boston College brought us closer than we could ever have anticipated. May he rest in peace.

I’m lucky. I didn’t have a roommate horror story (far from it). But I’ll offer one bit of advice to those of you who do: Don’t be afraid to share your own curious childhoods with your roommates. Funny things happen in the world of sports (Suzyn Waldman, Detroit Lions’ quarterback Scott Mitchell lighting up a cigar after a 5-11 season), and funny things happen in world of entertainment (Gregg Allman’s songwriting, Danny DeVito’s limoncello-fueled exploits in the Lincoln Bedroom — Youtube it, trust me). Laughter is a universal language. We all need it, and it doesn’t matter where it comes from. Maybe it breaks the ice.

Maybe it makes BC feel like home. Maybe it challenges you to try something different and expand your worldview. Maybe your newfound friendship changes and enriches your life.

As Chris himself wrote for you on Feb. 11, 2010, “If Boston Red Sox fans and New York Yankees admirers can live together peacefully and become best friends, anything is possible.”

Pete Fay is a contributor to The Heights. He can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

The Curious Case of Christopher Dewey

By Chris Dewey Heights Staff My strange and fantastic journey with the Arts section of The Heights began in the second semester of my freshman year.

Unsure of my abilities as a writer, I took on the least daunting assignment I could find: preview reviews. This assignment required me to write up quick blurbs either praising or criticizing three movie trailers each week. I kid you not – this was actually a feature in The Heights just a few short years ago. When I decided that I was ready for a step up from this extremely prestigious and arduous column, I was able to substitute one week for someone who wrote a weekly piece about a celebrity on the rise. For whatever reason, I chose to profile Ryan Gosling, whose latest movie, Fracture, was coming out that weekend. To this date, I still have never seen Gosling in a single film, so I’m not quite sure why I felt qualified to sing his praises back then. The content of the assignment was truly irrelevant, I just wanted to dive in head first and tackle any available piece to get my name out there.

After I wowed my editors with my ever-witty trailer reviews, they decided it would be all right for me to start reviewing actual movies. A quick peek at my resume of film reviews will yield classic titles such as Hannibal Rising, The Number 23, and Resident Evil: Extinction. Lest you have pity on me for having attended such dismal films, I must disclose that I voluntarily chose to go see these movies. Perhaps due to my unconditional love for horror films or some underlying masochistic tendencies, I believed that I was going to see movies that actually had a chance of being good. And while some of them certainly were entertaining, most were painful to sit through. I, essentially, became a grown version of the young child who continually touches a hot stove despite repeatedly getting burnt. A glance over Monday’s edition of The Heights will reveal that, three years later, I still haven’t learned. However, amid all the garbage that I forced myself to sit through, I did review one excellent film that has come to symbolically represent my particular philosophy about pop culture. That film was Hot Fuzz.

When my friend and editor at The Heights, Stuart Pike, offered me the chance to attend a pre-screening of Hot Fuzz, I was ecstatic. I was already a fan of the director, writers, and actors from their previous release, Shaun of the Dead, and figured that they could only improve on their first effort. Upon arriving at the theater, I realized that I was viewing the film with some notable local film critics, like Ty Burr from The Boston Globe. Though I’ve never been a huge fan of Mr. Burr’s somewhat arrogant approach to reviewing movies, I felt like my job was slightly more important because I was watching the movie alongside the likes of people who made their livelihood doing what for me was just a hobby. Only making this experience more amazing was that I would get to interview the director and two lead actors a week after viewing the film.

Hot Fuzz was exactly the kind of film I would have wanted to make if I had the appropriate funds and talent to make movies.

Effortlessly blending aspects of American action flicks, Agatha Christie mysteries, and slasher movies, this was a film that celebrated genres that did not always garner the respect of film experts (whatever that means) and critics. While talking with Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost, the men responsible for Hot Fuzz, it became clear that they cherished the opportunity to pay homage to their favorite genres and recreate the magic of the movies that they had grown up watching, such as Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. They had taken bits and pieces of different types of pop culture that they loved so much and created their own product. In effect, they revitalized what they thought was significant in the realm of entertainment and made it relevant once again by unleashing it upon a mass audience. This film prolonged the legacy of a variety of film genres that may have been otherwise left in the past.

After this experience, I had a better understanding of what had appealed to me about the pop culture I had loved for so long. I could now verbalize why a band like Aerosmith or a movie series like the James Bond franchise felt so important. These were cultural forces that had outlasted trends, criticism, and controversy. As a means to entertain the masses, they stuck around long after many had predicted that they would meet their demise. They were the fortunate cases of legacies that were secure where they stood. However, I knew that there were still pieces of pop culture from the past that I treasured that were not considered pertinent to the scope of modern entertainment. Like the people behind a film like Hot Fuzz, I knew that I wanted to find a way to publicize this kind of entertainment and introduce it to people who would not have encountered it otherwise.

During my sophomore year, I was fortunate enough to attend and review two concerts for The Heights that embodied the concept of legacy. That autumn, both Van Halen and The Police made stops on their respective reunion tours at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston. For Van Halen, this was their first tour with frontman David Lee Roth in over two decades. Similarly, The Police had not toured together since 1984. The most cynical of music fans would have identified these tours as nothing more than quick cash grabs, and it’s possible that I witnessed nothing more than that. Nevertheless, I left those shows with the feeling that anything was possible, even when all signs pointed in the

opposite direction. No one ever expected those bands to perform together again, but there they were on stage, perhaps not as young and vibrant as they once were, but still making it exceedingly evident why many referred to them as living legends. Just when people were willing to write them off as fossils from the past, they reemerged and prolonged their legacy for another few years.

Junior year ushered in a new editorial board for the Arts & Review section of The Heights. I like to refer to this as the moment I got my “big break.” Shortly after rising to power, Zak Jason, the new big cheese in Arts, gave me the opportunity to write a weekly column about a specific area of pop culture that I would be qualified enough to cover. After a few ideas were tossed around, we settled on creating a column called “Slasherology.”

With a few brainstormed ideas of where to begin and a title graphic that superimposed my face onto Albert Einstein’s, I was ready to start writing my first regular column for The Heights.

“Slasherology,” a feature in The Scene that was most likely read by about 20 people, chronicled my fascination with the horror genre and all of its cliches and quirks. Though I always understood that I was writing something that would have a somewhat limited appeal, it was important to me because it allowed me to give a voice to a genre that was so often marginalized. I never had any illusions that people cared as much as I did about the sociocultural allegories found in zombie films or the significance of the color red in The Sixth Sense. However, maybe someone would read it one week and decide to investigate the films that I mentioned.

This column became a means for me to recast the limelight on a type of film that had been considerably more popular in past generations. Between articles written by others that discussed the latest MTV programming or the third comeback of Britney Spears, I was able to write something that was uniquely me and broadcast one of my passions to a wider audience. Although I have no way to gauge how successful I was in my endeavor, I always hoped that my writing would instill readers with an interest to explore some more obscure means of entertainment. This was my way of taking something from the past, something most people would call nostalgic, parade it to the frontlines and give it a second chance.

When senior year came around, I was ready to be done with “Slasherology. Perhaps a little too narrow in scope, I knew that there was only so much more I could say on the topic of horror.

Instead, the column was given an overhaul and became “Chris Dewey’s Curious Childhood,” a possibly self-important weekly feature in which I tried to convince people that Pogs and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were still relevant topics of discussion. This new column provided for endless possibilities — I could write about film, music, television, toys, or even books. And though my roommate is greatly disappointed in me for never tackling a piece on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, it was always exciting to hear positive feedback from readers who appreciated the recognition given to these mainstays of 1990s childhood culture.

The goal of all of this, besides hoping to entertain all of you loyal readers who have made it this far into the column, was to take seemingly dormant items from our childhoods and inject some new life into them. Shows like Are You Afraid of the Dark and movies like Heavyweights had come and gone, but my hope in chronicling their past popularity and significance was to prolong their legacy and bring them back from simply being thought of as nostalgic afterthoughts. While shows like Vh1’s I Love the 1980s / 1990s and Bret Michaels’ Rock of Love may seem to take a similar approach, their tone is vastly different. They insist on viewing the past ironically, as if the stuff that was important to us in younger years should be regarded as one big joke nowadays. Unlike them, I believe that what we enjoyed as children was a vital factor in shaping who we would grow up to be. Rather than mock and parody our childhood, we should celebrate and prolong the legacy of such instrumental forces that defined an era of our lives.

Hopefully all of this sheds some light on why I enjoy these forms of entertainment so much and why I feel it necessary to discuss them at length. Maybe now it’s a little clearer as to why I felt it was necessary to inform the campus that Kiss came out with a new album earlier this year. Maybe now people will understand why I think the Power Rangers theme song is a legitimately good piece of music. And maybe now it won’t be so hard to explain why I spend my time looking for news on the possibility of a third Ghostbusters film. In short, I like the idea of a piece of pop culture that is able to transcend generations and secure a long-lasting legacy. It should surprise none of you that I wrote this paragraph while wearing a pair of Batman pajama pants.

It saddens me to know that this will be the last column I will ever write for The Heights. Over these past four years, I have had an incredibly unique opportunity to write at great length about all of my little idiosyncratic interests and hobbies. In no particular order, I’d like to thank Zak, Kristen, Allison, Ethan, Stuart, Blair, and Alex for trusting in me and essentially giving me free rein on my articles. Even when I would make some questionable claims (e.g. giving the Friday the 13th remake a relatively positive review), they stood by me and embraced my oddball opinions on pop culture. I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading my columns as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Rachel Gregorio / heights illustration

C4

Thursday, May 6, 2010

THE HEIGHTS

+Food and Fashion

Chronicles of Campus Fashion: Remixing the classics

BY MEGHAN BORA

AND

For The Heights

KAILEY KRAMER

With pieces like jeggings, clogs, and military jackets on the rise, it’s easy to become infatuated with the what’s in vogue.

Despite the allure of fashions hot off the runway, one must resist the urge to overdose on the “now.” Instead of committing fashion suicide, breaking up the trends with the “classics” is never a bad idea.

There will always be wardrobe staples to which we go back.

These are the items that everybody can find in their closet, or at least should be able to find. Don’t assume you cannot make a statement just because you’re wearing a white button down or a plain v-neck. Just because these pieces are labeled as “basic” does not mean they have to be boring. After all, American Apparel created an entire brand on that notion, and they are not exactly lacking in the boldness department. Celebrated women’s wear designer Alexander Wang also based his label on the same “less is more” philosophy with his debut in 2007.

In the first photo, Marcus, hailing from Berlin, sports the basic striped pullover and navy cardigan. We love that he swapped the traditional black or navy for the much catchier red stripes.

Coupled with his crisp, black skinny pants and a casually slung leather messenger tote, he would fit in perfectly on any corner bistro. This look is effortless and simple, yet anything but dull.

Nicole, originally from Ecuador, pairs classic with classic, while sneaking in subtle details that keep her look fresh. She inspires us to experiment with the most basic of pieces. The glasses carelessly accenting her white shirt, which is tied at the waist, show how even the tiniest of details can take any piece to the next level.

Sporting our favorite timeless Ray-Bans, Heather elevated the white button down by layering it under a risky shag coat. Making another appearance, skinny black pants are stylishly tucked into her strappy gladiators. Not only do we adore this outfit, but also what we think to be its best accessory — her hair. Never underestimate the ability of a hairstyle to make or break an ensemble!

So don’t put your oxford shirts and cardigans on eBay just yet.

Remember, trends are meant to come and go with every season, but the staples should never leave your closet.

JORDAN MENDOZA / FOR THE HEIGHTS

On Marcus: Nautical stripes aren’t just for sailors. He takes stripes out of the 1940s and gives them a 21st century edge.

Meghan Bora and Kailey Kramer are contributors to The Heights.

They can be reached for comment at arts@bcheights.com.

Risotto Recipe Redux

BY JENNY LIU

For The Heights This week’s water crisis posed as much a state of emergency to cooks as to anyone else.

To every cook’s dismay, vegetables could not be washed with water from the faucet, and water had to be boiled every time something needed to be cleaned or rinsed. This situation makes even the most manageable of food preparations a little more demanding than usual. During this busy time of the year, what is necessary is a hearty recipe that does not require the use of water at all. You can put down those unwashed zucchinis now.

Risotto, an Italian rice dish, is different from other rice dishes in that, instead of water, it is cooked in a broth, usually chicken.

Conveniently, the rice should not be washed before cooking because doing so would remove the starch that gives the risotto its trademark sticky texture. Over a period of 20 minutes, the arborio or other short-grain rice like carnaroli absorbs the broth and fluffs

up into a flavor-filled, al dente risotto that is powdered with pepper, salt, and freshly grated parmigiano reggiano.

The balsamic vinegar enhances the flavor of the tomato, but there is no need to run out and buy a new bottle if you do not already have some on hand. Most risotto recipes also call for the addition of white wine, in which case, one cup of broth can be substituted out for one cup of cheap, dry white wine.

This dish is also extremely versatile, with variations ranging from the more common mushroom risotto and butternut squash risotto to the more exotic octopus risotto with a seafood stock base. The health-conscious can leave out the cheese, while those who pursue gluttonous abandon may substitute the olive oil for two more tablespoons of unsalted butter.

The result is a balanced dish containing four food groups — meat, fruit, dairy, and grains — that tastes so resoundingly delightful that it would make anyone temporarily forget that the world is caving in around them.

On Nicole: Intellectually hung glasses accent the Gap classic white shirt especially when worn with Hunters. We love that Gap brought back the white shirt last season in all its fall ad campaigns.

Bite of Boston Publick House 1648 Beacon St. Brookline, MA 02445 (617) 277-2880 Hours: Mon: 4 - 10:45 p.m.

Tues - Sat: 12 - 10:45 p.m.

Sun: 12 - 6:00 p.m.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CREATIVE CONFECTIONER BLOG

The appeal of the friendly neighborhood bar

BY KARA KAMINSKI

Heights Senior Staff

COURTESY OF FOODNETWORK

Ingredients A medium-sized chicken, chopped into fairly small pieces 2 cups Arborio rice 2 onions, minced 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 can whole tomatoes, drained of water 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (optional) 5 cups chicken or vegetable broth Salt and pepper Cheese: Parmigiano Reggiano or substitute

Cooking Instructions:

1. Heat the oil and butter in a large pot without browning it and, when the mixture begins to crackle, add the onion.

2. Cook, stirring, until the onion is translucent, and then add the chicken pieces. Continue to cook, turning the pieces to brown them on all sides, for about 10 minutes.

3. Stir, reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, cover, and let cook until the chicken is about half done.

4. Add tomatoes to the pot, followed by the vinegar.

5. When the vinegar has evaporated, add the rice.

6. Add the first serving of simmering stock, about 1/2 cup.

Stir until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add another serving of stock and stir until most of the liquid is absorbed.

Repeat this process until the mixture is creamy and a bit loose; the rice should still have some chew to it. The process will take about 20 minutes.

7. When the rice is done, remove from stove to avoid overcooking. Add seasoning and cheese, and serve the risotto hot.

On Heather: The vintage white button down and black skinnies become a bit sassier with the addition of a pink shag shrug and Jeffrey Campbell gladiators.

It’s a life goal of any How I Met Your Mother fan to have their own personal neighborhood bar. It must have a strong local feel but not be so dingy that you feel dirty breathing the air, or that you’re copping out on your Friday night. Another key is the comfort food. The bar needs to have food you want to eat after a failed test, a hard day at work, or a bad break up. After finding The Publick House, I want it to be my bar.

Walking into The Publick House, the first thing I noticed was the smell. I couldn’t put my finger on the exact smell, one moment it was goat cheese, the next a hoppy beer, at times possibly even fresh bread or meats.

While intoxicated with the smell, I had to focus my mind and make my way through the Friday night crowd to the hostess stand.

The wait was an hour and half. Hearing I had to wait so long for a table made me immediately want to head for the door, but the sound of someone asking for a “beeyah” told me I could persevere. I admit I was afraid that even when I got to a table the waitress would rush me through the meal for the next party. It was quite the pleasant surprise that she instead allowed my party to linger over our meal as long as we pleased. We stayed for over two hours after finally getting the table, and never felt rushed.

Sitting down with the menu, I was faced with a dilemma. There was a cheese plate and a charcuterie plate, but how could I choose? Usually restaurants offer you both in one appetizer platter, but The Publick House does not. I asked my waitress what I could do and she soothed my fears. She went to ask the chef and told me that for $3 she could add foie gras to my cheese platter. I quickly agreed to the deal, excited that the chef would make such a concession on a busy Friday night. The appetizer I ordered was called the Publick Plate, “a daily selection of meats, cheeses, and vegetable creations.” My plate came with fried polenta, olive and artichoke tapenade, hummus, gouda, cheddar, sopressata, salami, and my foie gras. Each part of the plate was delicious and perfectly paired with other parts of the plate. The only issue I had was the chef’s choice to use green olives in the

tapenade. It was most likely a cost-saving measure, but really degraded the quality of the tapenade. The plate was $16 ($19 with my addition), but perfect for sharing. I honestly could not have asked for more in a plate to hang out around with friends. It was easily large enough to be a hearty bar snack for four.

For the main course, I had the “famous mac and cheese.” It was the reason I came.

My favorite magazine’s, Saveur’s, cover story this month was mac and cheese as a comfort food. Already an avid fan of mac and cheese, Saveur put me into the official judge mindset. At Publick House, I added asparagus, one of the many add-on choices, to my dish.

When the dish came I delved in with my high expectations and loved it. But I must admit, as I worked my way through the dish it became a bit less charming. I could hear my inner foodie telling me it needed sharper cheese and the asparagus was chopped too fine. While the mac and cheese was not the perfection I had built it up to be, it was still wonderfully cheesy, without being soupy, and perfectly cooked. The Publick House’s mac and cheese may not be something that I get a craving for in the middle of the night, but it is still something I’d order again during the many restaurant visits I see in my future.

The Publick House is exactly what I wanted in a neighborhood bar. There were seemingly infinite local beers on tap for the amateur or advanced beer connoisseur.

When sitting in the bar, I felt like a real Bostonian. I was comfortable casually hanging out without ending the sometimes tiresome mentality of “going out.” The Publick House was a perfect balance of qualities to make it the perfect neighborhood bar.

Getting to the point...

Transit: Available on mbta.com Travel Time: 15 minutes Affordability: Cheap Atmosphere: Bar Scene Food Quality: Excellent

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, May 6, 2010

C5

+Music

Josh Ritter runs away with great album

BY WILL WATKINS

of his previous efforts, such as “Kathleen” from Hello Starling, “Lillian, Egypt” from The Animal Years, or “Right Moves” from Historical Conquests.

Josh Ritter has never been an easy artist to pin Instead, Ritter’s approach to love is more contemdown. Heralded by many as the successor to Bob plative than wooing, which could very well be a Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Bruce Springsteen, he reflection of a major period of settling down in has been unable to find commercial success in the his life – his marriage. For the first time, his songs United States. While he is largely ignored in his feature female backing vocals, and they come homeland, Ireland has embraced him and made from his wife, fellow musician Dawn Landes. Rithim a star. What is constant about ter is no longer searching for Josh Ritter is the literary quality he Out of a rating the right woman; he found her brings to his music. He studied at of 10, this and is now presenting her to Oberlin College in Ohio, where he the listener. The album is also completed a self-designed major in album scores filled with darker and moodier American History Through Narrative songs than on any of his preMusic. He has always listed Mark Twain as one of vious efforts, most notably “Rattling Locks,” on his biggest influences and has referenced much which Ritter sings, “I had a dream that I was dying of Twain’s work in his music. He may be the only / But it wasn’t a nightmare, I was real peaceful as contemporary singer-songwriter to moonlight as a I fell / And if I was falling into Heaven / Heaven novelist. His latest album title, So Runs The World must be hotter than the Bible tells.”

Away, is taken straight from Shakespeare – Act III While Ritter’s songwriting is constantly evolvof Hamlet, to be precise. ing, his love affair with folk music and storytellRitter’s previous album, The Historical Con- ing remains constant. “Folk Bloodbath” is the quests of Josh Ritter, was marked by a shift to strongest example of this on the album, in which fuller band, including Ritter adds his lyrics, the addition of horns, dealing with a series of and a poppier, more rathree deaths, to a tradidio-friendly sound. Since tional folk melody that then, Ritter has split ways with his label and experienced a bout of writer’s block. It is true that So Runs The World Away is less commercial than its predecessor, but it would be a mistake to fully attribute that to the label change, as Ritter has always managed to avoid making the same album twice throughout his long career. The writer’s block is not in any way present on the album, which is as well Acclaimed singer written as any of his songwriter Josh previous efforts.

Ritter returns with an A new sense of calmenergetic and heartfelt ness in Ritter’s love songs LP So Runs the World is perhaps the most imAway portant change on this album. Gone is the signature youthful exuberance that has marked many Heights Staff

9

Ritter attributes to Mississippi native John Hurt.

“Lark,” in which Ritter sings a simple, catchy melody over an intricate, finger-picked guitar part and bare bones percussion, will be easily recognizable to his longtime fans and is the type of song that could have fit in on any one of his six studio albums.

Ritter is also known for his energetic live performances, which he makes no secret of loving as much as, if not more than, the audience. The material on this album will certainly put an interesting twist on his live shows, as it only is upbeat when Ritter is angry and is slow and introspective when he is happy. That said, this album seems to be his most promising for a live show, as its musical depth and diversity will likely result in a captivating performance. Unlike his previous efforts, which focused mostly on Ritter and his acoustic guitar, So Runs The World Away seems to really be a collaborative effort. Even a song like “Change Of Time,” one of the album’s simplest, keeps every band member fully occupied and is loaded with nuance. Josh Ritter is one of the greatest songwriters and lyricists of his generation, and So Runs The World Away is evidence of this as much as any of his other albums. It shows welcome evolution in Ritter’s songwriting, and is his most detailed and diverse album to date.

IN STORES NEXT WEEK

The National High Violet 4AD

Keane Night Train INTERSCOPE

CHART TOPPERS SINGLES

1 2 3 4 5

Nothin’ On You B.o.B. Rude Boy Rihanna Break Your Heart Taio Cruz feat. Ludacris Need You Know Lady Antebellum Hey, Soul Sister Train

1 2 3 4 5

Plastic Beach Gorillaz Broken Bells Broken Bells Have One On Me Joanna Newsom One Life Stand Hot Chip Gorilla Manor Local Natives

COLLEGE ALBUMS

PETE RIMES / AP EXCHANGE

Source: Billboard.com & CMJ.com

THE BEST KEPT

Electronica, Young Jeezy and Sleigh Bells, oh, what a week it’s been orifice of the Internet. Opening up your browser was cause enough for a complete inundation of new music. Now, it’s time to look back at the afterglow and sift through another edition of The Best Kept.

TONY CUNEO

Download of the week

What a week. At any given moment, it seemed like 10 awesome things were going on or getting released. Just when you started salivating over YouTube highlights of DJ Premier and Pete Rock’s truly epic beat battle in Japan (if you’ve never heard those names before, just picture the Ali and Frazier of hip hop production trading spins before a rabid crowd in a packed Tokyo basement), BAM, you were liable to get blindsided by something like Jay Electronica’s new single, or Wale’s new video, or Jeezy’s new mixtape – you get the idea. Quality seemed to be gushing from every

Jay Electronica – “The Ghost of Christopher Wallace” Once again, Jay Electronica sets every major hip hop blog on fire with one emotional, heartfelt track. Say what you want about Diddy’s admittedly stupid babble in between lines and for the last three minutes of the track, but if you’ve listened to Ready to Die enough times to appreciate this song, you’ve probably built up a healthy resistance to Diddy talking over great raps. In his two verses, Jay speaks on the void left in hip hop by Biggie’s death and successfully frames himself as the heir to

the throne (Now having an obnoxious Diddy echoing every other line doesn’t seem like such a bad idea, does it?). Although releases from this guy are rare, they consistently catch everyone on their heels and give the impression that Jay is one of the only rappers out with his head screwed on straight.

Honorable mentions Young Jeezy – Trap or Die II There were a ton of good mixtapes released this week (a couple include: Jadakiss – The Champ is Here and Big K.R.I.T. – Kirt Wuz Here). This was the most highly anticipated, and Jeezy delivered exactly what his fans were waiting for: more thunderous, bumping gangster gospel, but there’s nothing here to make a believer out of any skeptics.

The Black Keys – Next Girl (Video) The video itself doesn’t offer much aside from a few silly laughs,

but the song itself is an extremely promising precursor to the group’s upcoming album, Brothers. It’s punchy and upbeat, but just as soulful as anything the Black Keys have released before

Have you heard of?

Sleigh Bells – “Tell Em” What happens when a teen pop star turned fifth grade teacher meets a onetime, hardcore guitarist turned waiter in a Brooklyn restaurant? In this case, the answer is a bold, badass neo-pop duo called Sleigh Bells. Their music sounds like pop that went through a heavy metal blender and came out a blownout, distorted behemoth of treble and bass. After blasting ray-bans and fedoras off the stupefied faces of thousands of audience members at Coachella, the duo released a new single, “Tell Em,” which is bound to test the fortitude of your

amplifiers and eardrums. Accompanying the album was the track list for their upcoming summer EP of the same name.

Sean Falyon ft. Playboy Tre – “Wonderful Life” (Video) This beautifully photographed portrait of life in the streets of Philly perfectly captures the gritty, down-to-earth style of these two blue-collar emcees. A lot, perhaps too many, of rappers and directors have played this angle before (think of any Joell Ortiz video you’ve ever seen). Rappers crusading against the iced-out, arrogant videos of the ’00s seem to have invented their own anti-glamorous, “telling it like it is,” cliches. Not Sean Falyon and Motion Family (directors). They break the mold with earnest raps and visuals of everyday banalities that are convincingly authentic.

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

+ Film

‘Cyrus’ and long-awaited sequels fill summer slate

BY BRENNAN CARLEY For the Heights

With summer rapidly approaching (Seriously, have the past few weeks flown by for anyone else?), the smell of buttered popcorn that accompanies the biggest movie season of the year is wafting through the air. The lineup of films coming out over the next few months is truly impressive. There are the typical blockbusters (The A-Team and Shrek Forever After come to mind), the goofy comedies (Killers and Grown Ups), and the romances (Letters to Juliet and Sex and the City 2).

Thankfully, some producers strategically place some good movies in the mix, ones like last summer’s sleeper hit (500) Days of Summer. Looking to fill that “quirky indie comedy” slot this year is Cyrus, a standout film at festivals like Sundance and the Boston Independent Film Festival. The film features funnyman John C. Reilly as John, a divorced 40-something who is just looking for someone to love.

He gets involved with Molly (Oscar Nominee Marisa Tomei) and falls head over heels. Things seem to be going perfectly, until he meets her assertive

and sneaky adult son Cyrus (Jonah Hill). Suffice it to say, he doesn’t get along with his mom’s new boyfriend, dropping creepy hints with dead eyes, such as, “I’m so glad you’re my new dad.” The flick also stars the wonderful and highly underappreciated Catherine Keener as John’s ex-wife Jamie, which is reason alone to see the movie.

Our childhood returns in a big way this summer with the arrival of the long-awaited Toy Story 3. I think the reason our generation is so excited about this movie is because we are the “Andy - Generation.” We have grown up with each one of the Pixar films: in the first Toy Story (1995), we were preschoolers along with Andy, fearing for the safety of Woody and Buzz. In Toy Story 2, Andy was in grade school, away at camp for the summer; at the same time, he was wondering if he had outgrown his toys, just like we were. Disney has done a wonderful job of luring us in to the third movie in the series, as well. A recent batch of “college only” screenings just took place all across the country, in which audiences our age were able to see a “cliffhanger” version of the movie.

Viral marketing has been targeted to

Facebook and Twitter users in college.

The buzz has been on a steady rise ever since the first trailer dropped, showcasing Andy at college. Some big celebrities pop up as new characters, like Whoopi Goldberg as Stretch the Octopus, Bonnie Hunt as Dolly, and current American Idol frontrunner Lee DeWyze as Twitch.

In a season otherwise cluttered with “brand name” flicks and sequels, Get Low stands out as a beacon in the dark. While not a documentary about the self proclaimed “King of Crunk” Lil Jon (Fingers crossed that it gets made someday!), the movie stands out because of its all-star cast.

Academy Award winner Robert Duvall stars as Felix Bush, a reclusive hermit who lives on his own in the woods following a “devastating and mysterious incident.” The man decides to rejoin society only to plan his own funeral, with the help of Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), the proprietor of the local funeral home. Here’s the twist: Felix wants to be present at his own funeral so he can hear what townsfolk have to say about him, good or bad. The movie also features Hollywood legend Sissy Spacek as Mattie Darrow, a woman

Felix dated many years ago. Judging the trailer alone, Get Low looks like an understated but emotional indie flick with hints of droll, deadpan humor.

Prospects for the film look good, but it could be forgotten because of other new releases. Just one week earlier,

the Angelina Jolie helmed Salt and the Paul Rudd / Steve Carell buddy comedy Dinner For Schmucks arrive in theaters.

Have a happy summer, movie lovers. I hope you emerge relatively unscathed!

COURTESY OF ALLMOVIEPHOTO.COM

The highly-anticipated ‘Toy Story 3’ is sure to attract its audience of original ‘Andyites.’

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world cup preview

GROUP A 1.

2.

3.

4.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

THE HEIGHTS

Mexico Uruguay France South Africa

Breakdown: This might be the most balanced group in the World Cup. None of the teams are dominant, but all are capable of stringing together three solid performances to advance. Mexico is undefeated in its past 15 games. Ever since Javier Aguirre replaced Sven-Goran Eriksson as manager, El Tri has been the most consistent team in North America. Uruguay quietly qualified for the World Cup by winning a playoff with Costa Rica. Los Charruas have one of the most underrated attacking duos in Forlan and Luis Suarez. Although France is historically one of the leading countries in soccer, don’t expect much out of Les Bleus in this World Cup. Their weak central defense could be exposed against both Mexico and Uruguay. And South Africa might become the first host country to fail to advance. Very few South African players play in top flight European leagues.

Still, don’t underestimate the importance of playing on home soil.

GROUP E 1.

2.

3.

4.

Breakdown: Holland qualified in style, outscoring its opponents 17-2 in eight games. The Dutch play a beautiful brand of soccer usually only seen from Latin teams like Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. Their defense leaves a lot to be desired, but if other teams can’t get possession of the ball, what difference does it make? Denmark has qualified for the Cup three times before and survived the group stage each time.

Nicklas Bendtner, the 22-year-old Arsenal phenom, will have to do most of the scoring on an otherwise grizzly frontline. Cameroon became the first African team to reach the quarterfinals in 1990, but success has been fleeting since then. The Indomitable Lions have failed to survive the group stage in any of their other four tournament appearances. Unless another scorer besides Samuel Eto’o emerges to keep defenses honest, opponents will key on the Inter striker and it will be another early exit for Cameroon. Japan has been wholly unimpressive in 2010, struggling to draws with Venezuela and China and losing convincingly to South Korea and Serbia.

Can anyone slow down Spain? The No. 1 team in the world has been on a remarkable run for the last three years, losing just once in 45 matches over that span. La Furia Roja top our list of storylines to watch in South Africa this summer.

By Paul Sulzer, Dan Ottaunick, Ian Boynton, Robert T. Balint, and Andrew Klokiw

GROUP B 1.

2.

3.

4.

GROUP F

Argentina Nigeria Greece South Korea

Breakdown: Argentina spearheads one of the weakest groups in the World Cup. The Albiceleste have arguably the most talented team in the world, but former star-turned-manager Diego Maradona hasn’t found the right mix of players to maximize that talent. Nigeria has a history of showing up for big tournaments, advancing out of the group stage twice in its three appearances and finishing in third place at the African Cup of Nations earlier this year. John Mikel Obi leads a young, dynamic team that could shock more well-known opponents. The Greeks have never won a game in an international tournament, except for 2004, when they won the European Championship. Their thin midfield could be worn out by Argentina and Nigeria. South Korea has a veteran team that finished in fourth place in the 2002 World Cup. The Koreans lack firepower beyond Manchester United star Park Ji-Sung, so they will have difficulty scoring enough to advance.

GROUP C 1.

2.

3.

4.

England USA Slovenia Algeria

1.

2.

3.

4.

MOLLIE KOLOSKY / HEIGHTS PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

With the exception of the Netherlands, no country has a more storied history of choking in the World Cup than Spain. A country with a deep, rich soccer tradition, Spain has a grand total of one fourth place finish to show for it. But this edition of the tournament is Spain’s to lose. The European champions are 41-1-3 since 2007, including a world-record 15-game winning streak and a record-tying 35-match unbeaten streak. Save for a slipup last summer against the United States, Spain has been unbeatable for the better part of the last four years. La Furia Roja has a deep enough midfield to stock two world-class teams. Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets, Cesc Fabregas, and David Silva highlight the best midfield in the world. Spain runs a 4-1-2-1-2, or 4-4-2 diamond, which creates precise passing lanes for easy scoring opportunities. Spain has two excellent finishers in David Villa and Fernando Torres, too. Did we mention that they have the best keeper in the world as well (Iker Casillas). For all these reasons, The Heights picks Spain to win its first-ever World Cup title this summer.

WILL BAD KARMA KILL FRANCE?

Breakdown: England fans think every year is their year, but this might be the year that they’re actually right. The Three Lions have the best striker in the world in Wayne Rooney and a midfield that can compete with anyone. They could be undone, though, by question marks at keeper and on defense, where John Terry is still trying to regain the trust of his teammates after cheating with the wife of fellow national teamer Wayne Bridge. The United States has cooled down after its shocking trip to the Confederations Cup final last summer. Without Charlie Davies, the team lacks the speed to wear out opposing defenses. Look for head coach Bob Bradley to slot winger Clint Dempsey at forward in Davies’ place, since the Fulham man has a nose for the goal. Slovenia will try to slow the other teams down with stingy defense and a methodical attack.

Algeria is playing in its first World Cup in 24 years and will be happy with a single win or tie.

GROUP D 1.

2.

3.

4.

Holland Denmark Cameroon Japan

Absolutely. The French qualified with the typical ennui they usually reserve for the group stage of the actual tournament. They have the entire nation of Ireland cheering against them, plus everyone who understands that soccer is played with the feet, not the hands. Even if France had qualified through fair play and not a Thierry Henry handball, Les Bleus are still fielding one of their weakest teams in recent memory. The duo of Henry and Nicolas Anelka might have struck fear into opponents’ hearts four years ago, but now it draws little more than a yawn. They have 13 goals

WILL SOUTH AFRICA BE THE FIRST HOST NOT TO ADVANCE? Needless to say, after a great performance in 2006, the French squad will be heavily favored over the South Africans. While less decorated than France, both Mexico and Uruguay enter the 2010 World Cup with strong squads and high hopes. Mexico, a team loaded with talent, has qualified for the last four World Cups and trailed only the United States in CONCACAF qualifying. Rounding out the group is Uruguay, a dynamic squad led by the ever-dangerous Diego Forlan of Atletico Madrid. Each of these squads, at the expense of South Africa, is poised to make a run in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Germany Ghana Serbia Australia

FINAL

SEMIFINAL

Breakdown: This group is the most difficult to predict, since each team looked so good in qualifying. Serbia has the best defense, anchored

by Nemanja Vidic and former American youth international Neven Subotic. Ghana’s midfield can control the tempo of the game, so long as Chelsea star Michael Essien is healthy. Even if Essien misses the World Cup due to his injured knee, Ghana can still turn to Sulley Muntari and Stephen Appiah for composure in the middle third of the pitch.

Germany, which has a string of seven straight quarterfinal appearances, consistently does well in the tournament. Strikers Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose, though, have been in terrible form lately, so Germany could struggle to crack a difficult defense like Serbia’s. Australia dominated regional qualifying and was impressive in the last World Cup, but the team lacks depth beyond midfielder Tim Cahill and goaltender Mark Schwarzer. Although this is not the strongest group in terms of offense, the weak Australian defense could be exposed.

ROUND OF 16 Mexico vs.

Nigeria

England vs.

Ghana

between them in 49 combined league games. Franck Ribery (below, right), Yoann Gourcuff, and Florent Malouda are all fantastic playmakers, but who’s going to put the ball in the back of the net? In their last 10 games, Les Bleus have scored more than one goal just twice. France was embarrassed

by Spain, 2-0, in a World Cup tuneup two months ago. The Spaniards scored twice in the first half and shifted to cruise control as the futile French attack tried desperately to score.

Not exactly an impressive showing for the 2006 runners-up.

Don’t expect the World Cup to be any kinder.

Holland vs.

Breakdown: Terry and Rio Ferdinand are towering figures at the center of the defense, but they rely on strength to dispossess their men.

Sneijder and Robben could carve through the Three Lion defense with their vision and creativity.

Robben, especially, could wreak havoc on the left wing if Ashley Cole is anything less than 100 percent as he attempts to recover from the broken ankle he suffered in February. As long as the Dutch can disrupt England’s rhythm with defensive midfielders Nigel de Jong and Mark van Bommel and deny Rooney the ball in the attacking third, they should win.

Winner: Holland

Holland vs.

Spain

Breakdown: These teams play a beautiful, possession-based brand of soccer that will lead to plenty of scoring. The Dutch are the only team that can match Spain’s firepower in attack. The difference in this match will be goaltending. Somebody will have to make an important save at some point, and our money’s on the poised Casillas of Spain, not Maarten Stekelenburg, who can occasionally lack composure. La Furia Roja has been on the precipice of international domination since winning Euro 2008. A World Cup title would only cement its status as the premier team on the planet.

Winner: Spain

Spain vs.

Paraguay

QUARTERFINALS Mexico vs.

England

Holland vs.

Brazil

Uruguay vs.

USA

Denmark vs.

Spain

GROUP G 1.

2.

3.

4.

Brazil Portugal Ivory Coast North Korea

Breakdown: Here it is: the group of death. Brazil and Portugal are slotted first and third, respectively, in the latest FIFA rankings. The Elephants of the Ivory Coast are no slouches, either. This is the second straight time they’ve been placed in the most difficult group (they played Argentina, the Netherlands, and Serbia and Montenegro last time), so they definitely have something to prove on their home continent. Poor North Korea will be lucky to manage a goal against three of the best teams in the world. The Samba Kings of Brazil have an embarrassment of riches, as always, so expect them to outperform last tournament’s quarterfinal disappointment. Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani will effectively spread out the defense for some easy scoring. Brazil and Portugal are the picks because of the Ivory Coast’s sketchy form lately, which includes a quarterfinal exit in the African Cup of Nations and a bizarre 2-0 loss to South Korea in March.

1.

2.

3.

4.

USA

Breakdown: Expect this game to pick up right where the last match between these two left off: with Spain in all-out attack and the United States in a defensive shell. The Americans are crafty on counterattacks, but if they can’t possess the ball, it’s impossible to counter. Also hurting America’s cause is the likely absence of Davies, who wore out the Spanish defense with his tireless runs into the box.

Dempsey is a quality replacement for the injured Davies, but his strength is finishing in front of the net, not creating opportunities for others. The United States will keep it close, but won’t win.

Winner: Spain

QUARTERFINALS

Breakdown: For better or worse, the Italian team has changed very little since winning the World Cup in 2006. The cast of characters is largely the same – just four years older. Head coach Marcello Lippi will have to rest the bigger names in the group stage to keep them fresh for the knockout rounds, so an opportunistic team like Slovakia could capitalize.

Paraguay is flying under the radar, despite an impressive qualifying campaign in which La Albirroja was just a point behind Brazil for the group lead.

Manchester City’s Roque Santa Cruz is the go-to man for goals, although his playing time has been limited on a deep team this year. Slovakia is an inconsistent team capable of pulling off an upset or two but unlikely to make a run. They went 4-1-1 in their final six qualifiers, but just 1-5-1 in their last seven friendlies. New Zealand is happy to be here.

In their last World Cup appearance, the All Whites were pummeled 12-2 and lost all three games.

GROUP H

SEMIFINAL

BORIS GRDANOSKI / AP PHOTO AND MICHAEL SALDARRIAGA / HEIGHTS PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

ROUND OF 16 Holland vs.

England

Italy Paraguay Slovakia New Zealand

Spain Chile Switzerland Honduras

Breakdown: Spain has staked a pretty strong claim to the title of best team in the world with its play over the past two years, so it’s safe to say that the other three teams are competing for one spot to advance out of the group. Chile comes into the tournament hot, owning an 8-1-2 record over the past 11 games with four wins over World Cup teams. La Roja loves experimenting with different formations, so expect them to field lineups with just three defenders on occasion to catch the opposition off guard. The Swiss team suffers from a dearth of scoring with striker Alexander Frei hurt, so look for them to play a more defensive style in an effort to advance. Honduras is the wildcard in this group.

Since they’re only here because Jonathan Bornstein scored a fluke goal with seconds remaining to tie Costa Rica in the final regional qualifying match, Los Catrachos are playing with house money.

ROUND OF 16 Uruguay vs.

Argentina

ROUND OF 16 Denmark vs.

Italy

Portugal vs.

Spain

Breakdown: Mexico’s possessionbased attack could frustrate a young Nigerian team prone to lapses in focus. The Super Eagles are a surprisingly deep team, though, so they won’t get worn out chasing down the ball.

Winner: Mexico

Breakdown: The Dutch score at will behind a deep frontline that features Dirk Kuyt, Wesley Sneijder, and Arjen Robben. Although Paraguay is balanced, its weak midfield will struggle to dispossess the ball from a technically sound team.

Winner: Holland

Breakdown: England is disciplined enough to disrupt Mexico’s possession-based attack. Mexico’s defense in front of Guillermo Ochoa will have its hands full with Rooney, Gerrard, and Lampard, all of whom are creative scorers on or off the ball.

Winner: England

Breakdown: Uruguay relies on the same physical defense that works so well for the United States, except it doesn’t have an exceptional keeper to mask its technical flaws. Nestor Muslera is overmateched against American Tim Howard.

Winner: USA

Breakdown: Uruguay plays a physical, disruptive brand of soccer that could frustrate the fast-paced Argentineans. If Uruguayan coach Oscar Tabarez surprises Argentina’s Maradona, will he be able to adjust?

The prediction here is that he won’t.

Winner: Uruguay

Breakdown: Whoever can dictate the pace of this game will win – attacking, aggressive Denmark or conservative, defensive Italy. Lippi is reluctant to unleash his young stars, which will ultimately doom the defending champs.

Winner: Denmark

Bre a kd ow n : G h a n a l a c k s a consistent second scoring option after Asamoah Gyan. England has attack issues of its own (Who should start beside Rooney?), but it has quality finishers like Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard in the midfield who can make the difference.

Winner: England

Breakdown: Since Chile usually plays with just three defenders, there will be plenty of space for the Selecao attack to operate. The wings are especially exposed in such a formation, so right back Maicon should have a field day as the freeflowing Brazilians romp.

Winner: Brazil

Breakdown: Two prominent Brazilian attackers – Kaka and Robinho – had disappointing seasons leading into the Cup, while a third (Luis Fabiano) is recovering from an ankle injury. The Dutch forwards, on the other hand, have been consistently excellent.

Winner: Holland

Breakdown: Spanish fullbacks Sergio Ramos and Joan Capdevila love to get forward in support of the attack and should have no trouble tracking back after risky runs since Denmark’s wingers are old and could be unfit. Neither sees regular club playing time anymore.

Winner: Spain

Breakdown: This is a statement game for the United States. The Germans are fielding their weakest team in a long time. Their top three forwards are all having terrible club campaigns.

Keeper Rene Adler loves to gamble, so look for the Americans to try to take advantage of a mistake.

Winner: USA

Breakdown: The Portuguese struggle to score, despite deploying Ronaldo as a second striker. That’s a problem Spain doesn’t have. La Furia Roja creates precise passing lanes for easy scoring opportunities. Villa and Torres don’t waste chances in front of the net.

Winner: Spain

Brazil vs.

Chile

USA vs.

Germany

RACHEL GREGORIO / HEIGHTS PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

The Heights

Editors’ Picks

Thursday, May 6, 2010 The Week Ahead

Standings

The Heights’ sports picks will temporarily be on hold this summer, but the sports world still goes on. The Preakness is just a week away, while the World Cup, NBA draft, and MLB will be at the center of our attention this summer.

C7

BCnotes

Recap from Last Week

Maegan O’Rourke

46-19

Paul Sulzer

45-20

Zach Wielgus

39-26

Heights staff

35-30

Maegan is the picks champion for this semester after correctly picking Super Saver to win the Derby. Lacrosse beat Le Moyne on Senior Day. Virginia Tech swept baseball, while softball also lost the series to the Hokies. The Suns moved on in the NBA playoffs.

Softball The softball team dropped an out-of-conference game to No. 20 UMass yesterday afternoon, losing 3-1 in Amherst.

The Minutewomen’s Sara Ploudre struck out nine Eagle batters to set the UMass single-season record with 466 strikeouts.

BC picked up five hits in the game, but had a difficult time getting runs across the plate against Ploudre, who won her 33rd game of the season with the victory.

Senior Dani Weir tied the game at 1-1 in the sixth inning with an RBI single up the middle, but UMass responded in the bottom of the sixth when Meghan Carta crushed a two-run homer to give the Minutewomen the lead for good. BC pitcher Nicole D’Argento only allowed four hits to UMass in the game.

Guest Editor: Karolina Cyburt Layout Editor “I hope there’s no headbutting this time.”

This Week’s Games Baseball: ACC tournament champion

Women’s Lacrosse Zach Wielgus Sports Editor

Maegan O’Roruke Assoc. Sports Editor

Paul Sulzer Asst. Sports Editor

Karolina Cyburt

Layout Editor

Florida State

Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech

Soccer: World Cup champion

Germany

Spain

Spain

France

NBA Draft: No. 1 overall pick

Evan Turner

John Wall

Evan Turner

Evan Turner

AL

AL

AL

NL

Super Saver

Super Saver

Paddy O’Prado

Noble’s Promise

MLB: All-Star Game winner

Winner of the 135th Preakness Stakes

Though aiming to end its season on a high note, the women’s lacrosse team could not handle Harvard and the Crimson duo of Melanie Baskind and Jen VanderMeulen, who each scored five goals in Harvard’s 17-9 win last night.

The Eagles (12-6) and Crimson (8-7) were tied at two goals apiece when Harvard scored seven of the next eight to jump out to a 9-3 lead with 3:34 to go in the first half. Neither team budged to end the first 30 minutes.

Harvard opened the second half with three goals before the teams traded three goals each. BC cut the lead to 15-9 with 3:37 to go, but two more Crimson goals ended the game.

Sudol’s six RBIs put away Huskies

ACC foes up next

coughed up,” Aoki said.

The Eagles added a run in the fifth on a single by John Spatola, which scored classmate Robbie Anston to put BC ahead, 7-4.

Sudol’s second home run of the day came in the sixth inning, when the Eagles scored five runs. First, Matt Hamlet scored on a wild pitch, and after Matt Watson was hit by a pitch, Melchionda hit a single through the hole, plating Spatola.

Then came Sudol, whose blast landed in nearly the exact same spot over the right field wall as his first. This put the Eagles up by a score of 12-3.

Northeastern would go on to score three runs in the top of the seventh on a three-run home run off Kyle Prohovich, but the BC bullpen held the Huskies’ bats silent for the rest of the game.

On the mound for the Eagles, Lasko had a solid game, allowing only three runs while confusing batters with a nasty curve.

Besides Lasko and Prohovich, Aoki was able to give a few guys in the bullpen some action, using Dave Laufer, Kevin Moran, and Chris Kowalski.

“I thought we pitched it fairly well,” Aoki said. “When they had some little rallies coming back, I think we did a good job of making the pitches that we needed to.”

lost only two of their series this season, dropping one apiece to Virginia and Virginia Tech.

In order to challenge Florida State, the Eagles’ pitching will need to bring much stronger stuff to the table than was seen at Virginia Tech. John Leonard got roughed up in the series closer, giving up seven runs on 11 hits in his 5.2 innings of work. The blowout, his first loss this season, caused the right-hander’s ERA to shoot up to 4.12.

Fellow pitcher Mike Dennhardt also suffered at the bats of the Hokies, who rang him up with five runs during his start in the season opener. This quality of pitching will not do much against a team coming off a 17-1 thrashing of Le Moyne.

The team will simply need to play its best kind of baseball to succeed against the visiting Seminoles and Yellow Jackets. Anston and the rest of the lineup will need to provide the runs they’ve shown they can generate to support the pitching staff. The starters should look to emulate Pat Dean’s three-run performance on Saturday.

If they can hold the high-powered Florida State and Georgia Tech to a few runs, and if the offense brings its best to the plate, the Eagles may stand a chance of winning these must-win series. n

Northeastern, from C8

In the later innings, Aoki also made substitutions in the field to get bench players game-ready. BC’s skipper said it was definitely good to get guys off the bench and out of the bullpen.

“Some of those guys have needed to get in there and get some at-bats,” he said.

“I think at some point or another we’re gonna need guys like Robby Moir and Matt McGovern and those guys, get them some at-bats. We’re certainly gonna need to go into our bullpen a little deeper than we have as we go down the stretch.”

Laufer picked up his second win of the season for the Eagles, while Chris Carmain was the losing pitcher for the Huskies.

Every member of the BC starting lineup scored a run in the win except for Smith, who still helped out by knocking in two runs. Sudol was the offensive star of the day, going 2-for-4 with six RBIs, while Zapenas also went 2-for-4 for the Eagles.

Aoki said that for the rest of the season, it’s all “playoff baseball.”

“Really at this point for us, it’s playoff baseball for us the rest of the way, in order for us to be able to get to the ACC tournament, in order to be able to get to the NCAA tournament, which I think are both very much within our grasp,” he said.

“But we have very little if any margin for error.” n

A Look Ahead, from C8

alex trautwig / heights editor

John Spatola rounds the bases after a homer (top), and Mike Sudol takes a pitch (bottom).

Adjustment may take some time Brad Zak Most Boston College Superfans have never heard of Ben Brust and probably never will. That’s because Brust was just granted the ability to accept a scholarship to another Big 10 school after decommitting from Iowa last month. Steve Donahue was hoping to bring him in to compensate for the loss of Skinner’s recruits for the class of 2014, but it looks as if the Chicago-area recruit will now stay closer to home.

Brust would have been a good fit for the Eagles’ system, but not having him in Chestnut Hill isn’t the team’s biggest concern. The real issue is that, for the second year in a row, the Boston College men’s basketball team will have an empty recruiting class if the current situation holds up. Now the Eagles are forced to go digging for leftover recruits and hope there is a basketball player out there looking to transfer to a team in transition.

It’s a very scary thought to think that back-to-back basketball senior nights will be highlighted by the departure of student managers and cheerleaders. Many fans may be worried about next season, but it will be the two to three years after that look most dire, as freshmen and walk-ons might have to make significant contributions to our basketball team.

As of today, the current roster is comprised of only eight scholarship players – all juniors or seniors. Of those eight players, three are centers who don’t exactly bring the same offensive firepower of a Shaquille O’Neal or even the artist formerly known as Jermaine O’Neal.

The roster is plagued by limitations and it has lost a lot of the flexibility

that Rakim Sanders and some of the incoming freshmen would have provided.

Almost all agree that Donahue was a good hire for the school, though he bears no semblance to John Calipari, who will bring his recruiting class and its coinciding violations over to his new school with him. If Donahue had brought his recruits to BC with him, it would have been a bigger win for the science department than the basketball team.

Donahue’s Cornell team depended on strong guard play and sharpshooters from beyond the arc who controlled the pace of the game. As next season gets underway, it will be interesting to see who is forced to adjust their style, Donahue or the players? The team only returns three guards to next year’s team – Reggie Jackson, Biko Paris, and Dallas Elmore – and only Jackson has the explosiveness to impose his will on a game.

Jackson, however, was only a 29 percent three-point shooter on over 100 attempts from downtown. For Donahue’s system to prevail, that number will have to climb for Jackson to elevate the level of play for the Eagles.

For all of those who wanted so badly to implode the flex and run Al Skinner out of town, the near future had to be sacrificed for something more promising down the line. Patience will be key early on as Donahue adjusts to big

conference basketball and the players adjust to his style. Hopefully the growing pains come out early on in the season when the Eagles’ schedule will likely resemble something similar to a CYO slate and Conte Forum has more media row members than Superfans.

Next year was supposed to be the year that BC made its run toward an NCAA Sweet 16 or possibly beyond for the first time in school history. I’ve watched the 2011 recruiting class for three seasons and feel connected to the success of this group. We suffered through their adjustment from Tyrese’s entourage to an independent team, and we’ve rode through the highs of beating ACC powers and the lows of losing to Ivy League competition. The team was at best inconsistent, but there was always promise.

Expectations have fallen for this team after many fans overrated their chances at success last season.

However, we may have one of the best coaches in the country for a team that nobody believes in. Donahue got here for turning an Ivy League team into the darlings of last year’s NCAA tournament. Things may be bleak right now, but it appears we’ve got the right guy for the job, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Brad Zak is a staff writer for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.

Our Athletes Got Talent

andrew powell / heights staff

The swim team showed off some of its skills in the Athlete Talent show Tuesday night.

Don’t forget the sports Looking for Answers, from C8 to do. Donahue will need to implement his new system and bring in his players, all while transitioning with the remaining players from Al Skinner’s tenure.

Compared to football and basketball, the hockey team seemed like it would have the least amount of questions surrounding it just a few weeks ago.

The team returned from Detroit with the national championship trophy in hand, savoring its success and status as toast of the town. But then when at least three players were involved in an accident with the T, a dark cloud appeared over the team. As the investiga-

tion continues to pan out, many wonder what course of action coach Jerry York will take against those involved, and if it will affect the upcoming season.

Expect all these questions (and more, most likely) when you return to Chestnut Hill in the fall. We’ll see answers soon enough from the football team when they take the field against Weber State on Sept. 4, but the basketball and hockey teams will take longer to figure out. Until then, we’ll just have to speculate.

Maegan O’Rourke is the Associate Sports Editor of The Heights. She can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.

SPORTS THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, May 6, 2010

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THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2010

Four-run fifth fuels win over Harvard

A Tip of the Cap

BY ZACH WIELGUS Sports Editor

A throwing error by Harvard shortstop Jeff Reynolds was all the Boston College baseball team Boston College 7 needed.

3 Harvard Down by one with two outs in the fifth, Mickey Wiswall ripped a ground ball to Reynolds. The Crimson shortstop misfired the throw to first base, allowing Robby Anston to score from second and continue to inning.

With the game now tied at two, Wiswall, who drove in the seventh run in the sixth, stole second to put a runner in scoring position for right fielder John Spatola. The captain took advantage, knocking a single into left center to score Wiswall.

After Matt Watson drew a walk, Anthony Melchionda sent another single into left field, pushing Spatola across home plate, and Mike Sudol finished the scoring output with another single, putting the Eagles (26-20) up 6-3.

A committee of Hunter Gordon, Kevin Moran, and Matt Brazis pitched nearly perfect ball for the final four innings, allowing only one hit and no runs.

Harvard (17-26) jumped out of the gate to take an early 1-0 lead after the top half of the first inning. Dillon O’Neill led off with a single before stealing second and third. BC starter Dane Clemens nearly got out of the jam, but Tyler Albright roped a single to center field to plate a run.

The Eagles responded with the bat of Spatola, who singled home Matt Hamlet from second. It stayed that way until Spatola launched a solo home run over the right-field fence in the bottom of the third.

Harvard took back the lead in the top half of the fifth after Clemens yielded back-to-back singles. Gordon entered the game for the senior starter, immediately throwing a wild pitch to move over the runners. Two straight groundouts to second base brought the runners home, giving the Crimson a 3-2 lead.

Thanks to some timely hitting and a commitment to sharp line drives, the Eagles regained the lead and enter this weekend’s series against No. 5 Florida State on a two-game win streak. 

Sudol’s two home runs power Eagles on Tuesday

BY GREG JOYCE For The Heights

Mike Sudol doubled his season total in home runs and drove in six to help the Boston College Boston College 12 Eagles (25-20) 6 Northeastern beat Northeastern (9-23), 12-6, Tuesday afternoon at Shea Field. The center fielder hit two long balls over the right-field wall, one in the third inning and the other coming in the sixth.

“I thought we played pretty well,” said BC head coach Mik Aoki. “All around, I thought it was a pretty good win.”

The Eagles’ onslaught started in the second inning, with two outs and Anthony Melchionda on first. Brad Zapenas grounded a pitch that found the hole between the first and second basemen for a single, and Melchionda advanced to third on a bobble by Northeastern’s right fielder. Garret Smith then hit a hard line drive to the gap in left-center field, scoring both Melchionda and Zapenas.

In the third inning, the Huskies took the lead by hugging foul territory. Pete Castoldi and Matt Miller hit consecutive singles down the left-field line. The following batter, Logan Gillis, sliced a line drive down the right-field line that landed just fair for a double, knocking in Castoldi. After BC pitcher Taylor Lasko got the next batter to pop out, Frank Compagnone hit a scalding grounder down the right-field line out of the reach of the diving Melchionda to drive in two runs, putting the Huskies up, 3-2.

The Northeastern lead only lasted that half inning, though, as the Eagles scored four runs in the bottom frame to go ahead 6-4, and they never looked back. After three consecutive walks drawn by BC, Melchionda hit a sacrifice fly to center to knock in Mickey Wiswall. Next up was Sudol, and he hit his first round-tripper of the day to make it 6-4.

“Mike Sudol, with the two three-run jacks, was really a big lift for us offensively and gave us the lead back that we had ALEX TRAUTWIG / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Catcher Matt Watson welcomes John Spatola back to home plate after the right fielder crushed a home run in the third of Wednesday’s win.

See Northeastern, C7

Summer brings more elite loom for baseball questions than answers ACC Powerful Seminoles, Yellow Jackets round out Eagles’ regular-season play May 5-7:

MAEGAN O’ROURKE Whether we like it or not, the end of the school year is quickly approaching.

Summer is here, and with it comes the end of Boston College sports, at least for a few months.

This fact is probably far from most students’ minds. Final papers, exams, and packing up dorm rooms still must happen next week, and most people probably won’t read The Heights today because they’ll be drinking Kool-aid down at Modstock. But as we head our separate ways for the summer, it’s hard to not look forward to next year.

In this case, it’s hard not to start gearing up for the 2010-2011 seasons.

Hockey is coming off a championship season, football once again found itself in a bowl game, and there’s cause for new optimism for the basketball team with the arrival of Steve Donahue. But even with the success BC teams found this season, there’s still more questions than answers as we head into next year.

It may be pessimistic to use this last column of the year to talk about the questions surrounding these BC programs. At the same time, there’s no doubt that it’s all we’ll be talking about as soon as we get back on campus in September. It can’t hurt to look ahead.

In the world of BC sports, attention shifted at the end of spring semester back to football, as the team worked out at the annual Spring Game. While the spring practices should not be weighed too heavily, there are still plenty of

things to analyze.

Football once again must deal with a quarterback situation for the second year in a row. While the starting role is much more clearly defined than it was last year (Did Spaz even know who should start?), there are still four quarterbacks vying for playing time. Dave Shinskie earned the starting role at least for the spring, with his improved play over the course of last year that helped bring the Eagles to the Emerald Bowl.

At the same time, rising sophomore Mike Marscovetra is eagerly improving behind him, showing the best performance in the Spring Game two weeks ago. Then there are the two unknowns, early enrollees Chase Rettig and Josh Bordner. Rettig, who by all accounts appears to have the most impressive skill set, will obviously need more time to develop. But his potential must be noted, and should make BC fans hopeful for a season when the team knows its starting quarterback going in.

And possibly the biggest question for next season will come down to the biggest name on the team: What will Mark Herzlich, finally cancer-free and on track to get back into playing shape, contribute to the team? As the ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2008, it’s hard to imagine that Herzlich will regain that form immediately. But the thought of Herzlich and Luke Kuechly on the field at the same time has to be something to look forward to.

The basketball team remains even more of a question. There’s no doubt that the team underachieved this past season, finishing out of contention even for an NIT bid. But with Donahue now at the helm, will the Eagles turn it around in just one year? This seems unlikely, if only because of players in limbo – besides the fact that it’s just difficult

See Looking for Answers, C7

I NSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE

No. 5 FLORIDA STATE (34-11, 14-7 ACC)

May 20-22:

ALEX TRAUTWIG / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The entire team is going to need to deliver for BC to take down Florida State or Georgia Tech.

BY ROBERT T. BALINT For The Heights

Time is running out for Eagles baseball. Aside from four non-conference games, the team has only two series left on its schedule, both against top-tier ACC squads. To stand a good chance at the ACC tournament, and to have a hope of making the College World Series, these next two match-ups against No. 5 Florida State and No. 17 Georgia Tech are mustwin situations for the Eagles.

Unfortunately, the team does not have much in the way of momentum going into this weekend’s series against the Seminoles, having just come out of an ugly road series against Virginia Tech. The

The world stage is set

An in-depth preview and predictions for this summer’s World Cup.....................C6

Hokies (32-14, 14-10 ACC), ranked No. 16 nationally, swept the Eagles, outscoring the visitors 20-10 over three games.

The trip to Blacksburg had something of a silver lining, however, in the form of Pat Dean’s strong performance on the mound on Saturday. He gave up only three runs over six innings, but found little run support from the BC lineup.

The sole run came from right fielder John Spatola, who notched his 11th home run of the season.

Florida State, on the other hand, had no such offensive troubles in last weekend’s match-up against Le Moyne.

The Seminoles hammered the Dolphins, 17-1, in the series finale on Sunday, led by infielder Sherman Johnson, who had

Change is never easy

The shift from Skinner to Donahue could take some time, but it will be worth the wait..................C7

No. 17 GEORGIA TECH (36-9, 17-7 ACC)

five RBIs in the game.

Seminoles pitcher Scott Sintz held Le Moyne bats quiet for five innings, allowing just one run. Sintz’s record is now 4-0, which is matched by fellow hurlers Brian Busch and Mike McGee. The Eagles’ lineup will have to be ready for such a dangerous pitching staff. Offensive leader Robbie Anston, who is currently batting a .352 average, had an uncharacteristically quiet weekend in Blacksburg. The center fielder went 2-11 over the series.

Fellow slugger, first baseman Mickey Wiswall, slapped a pair of solo shots in the series finale, his 13th and 14th of the year. Wiswall, currenty hitting .290, is just shy of joining the four Eagles who are hitting above .300: Anston, Spatola, Anthony Melchionda, and Matt Hamlet.

The offense’s lack of consistency has been one of the key issues for the squad over the course of the year.

On the weekend of May 20, Georgia Tech will come to Chestnut Hill to face the Eagles for the first time this season.

The Yellow Jackets (36-9, 17-7 ACC) are another conference powerhouse, and will take on the Eagles for what will be their season finale.

Georgia Tech’s weekend did not go as expected, however, as the team dropped a series on the road to NC State (28-18, 11-13 ACC). The Wolfpack’s pitching staff held the visiting squad’s robust offense to 10 total runs over the series. Wolfpack hurler Cory Mazonni’s five innings of nohit ball set his team up for its 4-2 win.

The Eagles remember Mazonni from the BC-NC State series in April, during which BC bats lit up Mazonni for five runs and six hits.

In terms of match-ups, Georgia Tech seems to be the more manageable of the two looming threats. The Seminoles have

See A Look Ahead, C7

Editors’ Picks..............................C7 BC Notes.....................................C7

MARKETPLACE THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, May 6, 2010

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THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2010

INTERNATIONAL INSIGHTS

The big fat Greek bailout BINH NGUYEN On Sunday, Greece announced that it had reached an agreement on a financial rescue package with Eurozone members and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail out its fragile economy. However, the deal might not be enough to help Greece in the long term or stop the spread of economic crises to other European Union (EU) members.

The Eurozone-IMF rescue package contains 110 billion euros, or $146 billion. European governments said that the first portion of the package will be paid within the next few weeks. Luxembourg’s prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, said up to 30 billion euros will be allocated to Greece over the first year. The first loan will be given out before May 19, which is the date of Greece’s next debt repayment. The rest will spread over three years and will be conditional on cut expenses and rising taxes in Greece.

However, the bailout has not solved Greece’s fundamental problems. The country’s debt is still projected to soar over the next few years. The economy is still supposed to shrink. Let us take a look at Greece’s economy as it stoodin 2009. First, government spending made up for 50 percent of its GDP. This figure is shocking because, even though the Obama administration has loaded the U.S. economy with bailouts and stimulus plans, total spending by state, local, and federal government agencies counts for no more than 35 percent of the total GDP. Second, the bailout will supposedly decrease Greece’s deficit-to-GDP ratio from 8.1

See Greece, D4

U.S. COAST GUARD, PETTY OFFICER 3RD CLASS PATRICK KELLEY / AP PHOTO

Coast Guard workers transport a cleaned boom that will be used by shrimping boats and other watercraft to contain the oil spill. Many fear it will more devastaing than that of the Exxon Valdez.

MARKET REPORT

BP rushes to contain massive oil spill damage AMEET PADTE On Tuesday, April 20, an explosion took place on the Deepwater Horizon oilrig in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil has been gushing through the hole left by the explosion at a rate of 42,000 gallons a day and the flow shows no sign of ceasing. Underwater robots have failed to activate the blowout preventer that would rectify the situation. As of May 1, 210,000 gallons of oil have been leaking each day with mixed results

in collecting the missing crude. At its peak, the slick measured 80 miles across and up to 42 miles from north to south. Of the 126 workers on the rig, 17 were injured and 11 are dead. It has been postulated that British Petroleum (BP), the company operating the rig, will spend close to $100 million cleaning up the mess.

BP has entered a Toyota-like state of complete damage control. After all, it would find the situation quite uncomfortable if the spill ends up being designated the Deepwater spill, similar to the Exxon Valdez. Having one’s brand attached to an environmental catastrophe is not conducive toward doing business. More significantly, BP’s reputation has taken a beating in the United States and this is just another strong mark against it.

In her book Silent Spring, Rachel Carson stated “… man has written a depressing record of destruction, directed not only against the world he inhabits but against the life that shares it with him.” This “record of destruction” propagated by man is most clearly reflected in the impact or perceived impact of oil companies on our planet.

A 2008 poll by the Kaiser foundation found that 63 percent of respondents held an unfavorable view of oil companies, citing reasons ranging from volatile gas prices to poor environmental track records.

With its iconic British racing green and yellow shield logo, BP is no exception. When a BP-chartered oil tanker spilled 300,000 gallons of oil off the coast of California in 1991, it did help

clean up the mess, but then successfully fought against a bill that would have required higher safety standards for oil tankers. Five years later, in a leaked Colombian government report, BP was found to have been supplying the military with details of peasants, trade unions, nationalization advocates, and environmental activists to not only defend its facilities but also to fight government legislation. In 1999, it was named the worst polluting company in the world according to EPA data.

Given the movement toward “green” advocacy, it would be disadvantageous to operate a company while tainted with such an environmentally unfriendly image. Furthermore, all oil companies

See Spill, D4

BC gets a taste of world water crisis

IN THE NEWS

On Saturday afternoon, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s (MWRA) announcement of a water main break in Weston, Mass., and subsequent “boil water order” impacted almost two million people in the Boston area.

This event prompted the activation of emergency water supplies and the sending of numerous safety alerts over the Boston College e-mail system, causing an unprecedented spike in the sale of BC’s (in)famous Smart Water, frantic trips to the local CVS, and the establishment of hydration centers in the dining halls on campus. As luck would have it, the beginning of the so-called “drinking water crisis” coincided nearly perfectly with the hot and humid weather streak that has commenced this week.

Perhaps even more troubling than concerns about the safety of showering with water from the Reservoir is the pure inconvenience factor of such an event, which forced students to forgo their favorite early morning caffeinated beverage and to remove the hotplates that survived ResLife’s inspection from their behind-the-bed hiding places. Yet, the pipeline that supplies Boston with

clean drinking water is repaired and life returns no normal.

However, the fact that the end is in sight distinguishes members of the BC community from the estimated one billion people that lack access to clean drinking water worldwide (and may never live to receive it). According to a March 2010 United Nations report titled “Sick Water,” over half of the world’s hospital beds are filled with patients suffering from waterborne illness, more people die each year from complications associated with the ingestion of dirty water than are killed in war or from acts of violence, and a water-related disease claims the life of one child under the age of five every 20 seconds.

These numbers are numbing, and they highlight the plight of those who inhabit some of the world’s poorest countries and are victims of minimal or absent wastewater infrastructure and medical services. In essence, the drinking water crisis is intrinsically paired with an enormous health and environmental catastrophe.

But, as the World Health Organization details and as Bostonians now know, first world countries are not exempt from the effects of waterborne disease: “Infectious

See Water , D3

CHRIS O’MEARA / AP PHOTO

In a seeming effort to improve his chance, Florida Governor Charlie Crist decided to run for the open Senate seat as an Independent.

Charlie Crist emerges as dark horse

BY MATT PALAZZOLO Heights Staff

The Florida Senatorial race took an unexpected turn last week as Charlie Crist, the popular moderate Republican governor of the state, announced that he will run as an Independent. GOP rival and former State House Speaker Marco Rubio had drastically eclipsed Crist in recent polls. Faced with an inevitable defeat in the GOP primary, Crist opted

POLITICS

ECONOMICS

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

A Pakistani-American, Faisal Shahzad, has been arrested for allegedly leaving a car bomb in the middle of Times Square over the weekend.

Former Bear Stearns executives, which folded back in 2008, testified before a Congressionally-organized committee that they did all they could to prevent the company from collapsing.

A Johnson & Johnson unit not only voluntarily recalled certain shipments of children’s liquid Tylenol and Motrin over the weekend, but a Federal inspection report cited numerous quality control problems.

A crowd-sourcing program named Ushahidi has been put to use marking the spread of the oil spill, despite the fact that it was originally designed to track political violence in Kenya.

Three people were killed in Greece inside a bank building that had been set on fire by demonstrators who were angered by new taxes and spending cuts.

Financial analysts are warning that Spain may likely fall into the same economic black hole from which Greece is currently battling to escape, unless the government takes a firmer hand.

I NSIDE MARKE TP L A C E

THIS ISSUE

to switch allegiances and become an Independent.

Crist’s decision received mixed reactions from both parties. Rubio denounced Crist’s move as political posturing and stated, “You are never going to be able to hold him accountable to anything, because his opinions are going to change based upon what the polling tells him or his political convenience tells him.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and National

Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn pledged their full support to Rubio. They said in a joint statement, “Elections are about trust, and frankly, it is unclear whether Crist deserves any.” On the other hand, former Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer praised Crist’s decision, stating that, “After facing political threats and intimidation by Republican

See Florida , D3

$650

“

The amount that a 26-year-old woman in Italy was fined for wearing a face veil in public.

7

The amount of hours which passed after Faisal Shahzad’s name was added to the no-fly list to when he bought a ticket to Pakistan.

Forecast on Washington..........................................................D3 Brain stimulation gains momentum in medical field.................D4

IN QUOTES

For The Heights

IN NUMBERS

BY RACHEL NEWMILLER

When we detain terrorism suspects, our top priority should be finding out what intelligence they have . . . not be telling them they have the right to remain silent.

”

– Senator John McCain, U.S. Senator (R-AZ) referring to rights that should be afforded to suspected terrorists.

Health & Science.................................D2 Political Belief......................................D3

D2

Thursday, May 6, 2010

THE HEIGHTS

Various organisms made water unsafe DANNY MARTINEZ

DAN OTTAUNICK

HILARY CHASSE

MATT PALAZZOLO

Did the United States handle the Times Square bombing well?

Yes, I was very impressed.

Go USA!

Incompetent terrorists make their job easy.

Suspect apprehended in less than 72 hours? I’d say job well done.

Eliminating a terrorist threat without calling in Jack Bauer? Definitely a success.

Is President Obama using the oil spill for his political advantage?

It helps because he doesn’t want to drill. However, the political fallout of the spill will be bad anyways.

If not yet destroying BP helps him politically, then yes.

When we see him tenderly washing down the oily duckies, the case will be closed.

Absolutely. If only he could create politically favorable natural disasters too.

Will Obama pick a liberal judge or someone more moderate for the SCOTUS?

He should pick someone moderate, but he needs a strong liberal.

He should pick the qualified candidate, regardless of party.

Who knows what that man will do, he’s such a mystery! *swoon*

He will pick someone similar to himself, most likely a socialist Muslim.

Will Congress pass comprehensive immigration reform this summer?

I highly doubt it. Republicans can be obstructionists because they are convinced they will gain many seats in November.

Not if Arizona has anything to do with it.

Let’s focus on destroying Arizona first.

Health care reform took over a year, and that was before re-election campaigns prevented any progress in Congress.

Marketplace Editor

Collections Manager

Opinions Editor

Marketplace Staff

Water, from D1

POLITICAL BELIEF

Court hears club discrimination case OLENA SAVYTSKA In 2004, the Christian Legal Society at Hastings College of the Law (University of California) became a chapter of the associated national Christian Legal Society (CLS). CLS policy required its officers and voting members to share the organization’s beliefs.

Accordingly, following the merger, members of the Hastings chapter had to sign a statement of faith, which included a denunciation of extramarital sexual intercourse.

Concerned that such a policy would alienate, among other groups, homosexual students, Hastings College withdrew official recognition of the Hastings CLS along with accompanying benefits such as access to facilities and student activity fee funds. The law school imposes a non-discrimination policy on clubs much like that used by other educational institutions, so that any member of the student body is eligible to join any student organization.

Arguments on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez began in the Supreme Court on April

19. Similar cases involving First Amendment rights of campusbased religious groups have been litigated recently. The outcome, as the CLS points out in its brief, whether a court decision or a policy change by the university, has always been favorable to the religious group. The argument of the Christian Legal Society of Hastings is two-pronged, hitting the notes of both freedom of religion and freedom of association. On the one hand, the organization has claimed that the college’s anti-discrimination policy unfairly targets beliefbased groups, restricting freedom of religion. On the other hand, it adds, asking clubs to open their doors to any member of the student body would yield absurd results. The CLS illustrates this idea with a hypothetical situation in which neo-Nazis are allowed to join a Jewish student association.

Yet, the very essence of this case is somehow absurd, since at its very foundation it is a contest between equally compelling rights – the right to believe and the right to disbelieve; the right to belong and the right to be exclusive. The legal battle that has emerged from Hastings College mirrors the divided social landscape of the United States, where we are all too often tempted to reach for the comforting blankie of our rights.

Prima facie, in the context of

PHOTO COURTESY OF LSHTM.AC.UK

Cryptosporidium was one of the harmful parasites found in the unclean water.

a liberal educational institution, the Hastings non-discrimination policy seems appropriate. The members of the CLS chapter are free to maintain their religious convictions, yet they should give non-believers or homosexuals the right to take part in their discourse as well. In a similar vein, it would probably be unfair for a cultural group to exclude members who do not have the appropriate ethnic background but are nevertheless eager to learn about the group’s culture. In addition, clubs like the Christian Legal Society have a built-in selection process, since people who do not share the club’s beliefs are less likely to join. Overtly shutting out some members of the student body, then, seems too rash a measure, and one that is likely to breed animosity.

Ultimately, we must examine the beliefs which stand behind the non-discrimination policy which Hastings College applies to its student organizations. Is such a policy really “neutral” as the law school argued to the Supreme Court? It seems that the nondiscrimination policy has, as its foremost goal, the promotion of diversity and mutual acceptance.

Its possible drawbacks, however, may be the inhibition of free and open discussion and debate as well the dilution of a club’s beliefs to the benefit of inclusiveness.

Certainly, from the perspective of

a student organization, or any organization at all, there is a strong desire to have the bond of shared values. Freedom of association, as well as its flipside, was aptly described in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, a 2000 Supreme Court case: “freedom of association … plainly presupposes a freedom not to associate.” Dale readily comes to mind in connection with Martinez, since the defendant in Dale was a gay man removed from a leadership position with the Boy Scouts for his sexual orientation, which the Boy Scouts argued was in conflict with their moral code.

Let us hope that the dazzling brainpower of the Supreme Court will be strong enough to grapple with Christian Legal Society v.

Martinez. Yet, as Justice Breyer has noted, there is often no one right answer to a case. Martinez does not present a pretty situation, whichever way it will be resolved. There are potential victims and potential transgressors on both sides of the dispute. The Court’s answer to the two parties will be a statement regarding the American social fabric. Whether the result will be patchwork or a melange knit, we have yet to find out.

Olena Savystka is a staff writer for The Heights. She welcomes c o m m e n t s a t m a rke t p l a c e @ bcheights.com.

world, while outbreaks of waterborne infectious disease caused by agents such as Cryptosporidium, Campylobacter and E. coli O157 continue to occur in industrialized countries worldwide.”

In fact, Cryptosporidium and fellow protozoan Giardia are listed as parasites of most concern by the MWRA and serve as reason enough to boil your water. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), Cryptosporidium are microscopic parasites that live in the intestine of its infected host and are protected by an outer shell, often referred to as an oocyst, allowing them to survive outside of a person’s body for an extended period of time while making them chlorineresistant. Common symptoms of Cryptosporidium infection, termed cryptosporidiosis, include diarrhea, stomach pain, and vomiting, beginning two to seven days after the start of the infection and lasting one to two weeks in individuals with normal immune systems.

As the MWRA warns, young children, the elderly, and those who have decreased or compromised immunity are most likely to fall victim to this organism.

Similarly, Giardia also causes gastrointestinal upsets and can be found in all areas of the United States. Contrary to what some believe, not all home water filters are able to remove these pathogens, given their incredibly small size of around five or more microns.

Therefore, it is very important that the boil water order be followed to kill these organisms and to prevent possible complications resulting from parasitic or other bacterial infections.

As the MWRA advises, all tap water that has been boiled for at least one minute can be used for “food preparation, hand washing, brushing teeth, and drinking water.”

Finally, in order to reduce the possibility that a waterborne disease outbreak occurs, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created a set of drinking water contaminant standards. These guidelines provide both Maximum Contaminant Level Goals (MCLGs, or the level below which no expected health risk occurs) and Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs, or the highest level currently allowed) for a variety of microorganisms, inorganic chemicals, disinfectants, and other compounds that can be found in water samples.

Interestingly, small amounts of coliforms, including fecal coliform and E. coli, arsenic, cyanide, and uranium, are all allowed to be present in drinking water. The complete list of regulated contaminants, along with the potential health effects and sources of each, can be found on the EPA’s Web site.

The topic of clean drinking water is a broad one, highlighting the work of number of governmental organizations and global initiatives, and this water crisis reminded Bostonians that it is indeed a precious resource. 

Crist faces tough fight against conservative Rubio Florida, from D1

leaders, Charlie Crist once again put the people of Florida first over partisan politics and mean-spirited, vindictive demands of the current Florida GOP leadership.”

Crist quickly defended his move at a political gathering in St. Petersburg.

Addressing the crowd, he stated, “I could have chosen to stay in the Republican primary, but frankly, for me, this is your decision. It’s not one club’s decision or the other.” Crist remains confident that his departure from the Republican Party will not hinder his campaign financing or victory prospects.

Crist had become increasingly unpopular among conservative Republicans recently. In early 2009, Crist publicly supported President Obama’s stimulus package, drawing the ire of fiscal conservatives. He also supported environmental regulations, including limits on offshore oil drilling. The spark that ultimately led to Crist’s break with the Republican Party was a teacher salary bill. Earlier in the month, Florida’s Congress passed a bill that would tie teachers’ salaries to students’ test scores and bar tenure for newly hired teachers. Crist vetoed the bill, pleasing teachers unions but infuriating Republicans. With the April 30 deadline for leaving the Republican primary fast approaching, Crist made his move.

Crist’s stunning reversal in fortune highlights the growing Tea Party influence in mid-term elections. Marco Rubio, the now presumptive Republican nominee, is a conservative Republican who has the enthusiastic backing of the Tea Party. His surging poll numbers forced Crist to either move farther to

the right himself or abandon the GOP. A similar situation is occurring in Arizona, where John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate and longtime political “maverick,” is even in the polls with former GOP congressman and Tea Party-endorsed candidate J.D. Hayworth. In response to this challenge,

McCain has been forced to take a firm conservative stance on current policy conflicts. He recently praised the new and highly controversial Arizona law that allows police officers to demand identification from suspected illegal aliens. Just two years ago, McCain sponsored a comprehensive reform bill

with the “liberal lion” Ted Kennedy.

Like Crist, McCain has been pressured to move farther to the right by the Tea Party, though he has no intentions of turning independent.

Crist’s decision to run as an independent is not without precedent. In the 2006 mid-term elections, Con-

JIM REED / AP PHOTO

Mitt Romney, left, stumps for Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, right, who is running against Independent Charlie Crist for a prized Senate seat.

necticut senator Joe Lieberman, the longtime Democratic incumbent, was running for re-election. He, like Crist, was a moderate who had joined the opposition party on many controversial issues. Lieberman had voted in favor of the War in Iraq, opposed affirmative action, and sided with the Bush brothers in the Terri Schiavo case. He steadily lost ground to fellow Democratic candidate Ned Lamont and was eventually defeated in the primary. Lieberman was undaunted by his loss and chose to run as an independent. However, like Crist, Lieberman was criticized by and lost support from his Congressional party leaders and faced possible fundraising issues. Lieberman went on to easily win the election, though, beating Lamont by 10 percentage points and joining Congress as an independent, free from party obligations.

Charlie Crist faces an uphill battle in the Florida Senate race. He has been criticized by both his GOP and his Democratic rival, and most of his GOPappointed staff has resigned from their posts. He is accused of being a turncoat and political opportunist. Despite this bleak outlook, all is not lost for Crist. As Michael Leahy of The Washington Post states, “Given Crist’s history as a winner and Rubio’s untested strength statewide, few analysts are willing to count Crist out.” Unlike John McCain, Crist is now an independent in both name and party and no longer has to measure his policy stances against conservative ideology.

He is still popular in Florida and has been a highly successful governor. With six months until the mid-term elections, Crist’s road to the Senate has taken a detour. Whether it will prove to be a dead end remains to be seen. 

The Heights

Thursday, May 6, 2010

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Palestine must use non-violent methods to be successful Alex Cohen Four years ago during freshman orientation – which I attended before even graduating high school – I enrolled in an Arabic class at Boston College. Vince Flynn’s electric political thrillers had convinced me I wanted to work for the CIA as a counterterrorism operative. (As it turns out, someone in my Appalachia group this year is a close family friend of Flynn.

My life comes full circle.) It didn’t quite pan out the way I expected, as I’m not going to work for the CIA. In fact, I don’t even have a job.

But for some reason, the Middle East – especially Israel and Palestine – has captivated me. I wrote my thesis about the war in Gaza that ended just before President Obama was inaugurated. I took a yearlong course on the Arab-Israeli conflict at the London School of Economics (LSE) last year. The first thing I ever wrote for a publication was a letter to the editor of The Heights about a lecture I attended in November 2006, where members of the audience screamed profanities and left hundreds of balloons outside the lecture chamber to symbolize Israeli cluster bombs.

Between orientation and my first classes on the Heights, Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in southern Lebanon that left over 1,000 dead. Last year, Israel fought Hamas in Gaza for 23 days, killing over 1,000 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. The United States and Israel are in a diplomatic spat over settlement construction. Gaza is under heavy blockade and has more than 50 percent unemployment. Rockets – many supplied by Iran - continue to fall on towns in the north and south of Israel. Palestinians in the West Bank have to go through Israeli checkpoints just to move from place to place. In four years, I’ve learned about Arab and Israeli history, about the similarities and differences between Muslim, Christian, and Judaic thought, about the morality of fighting wars, and how modern terrorism has come to falsely characterize an entire region.

I’ve also learned that a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is about as far-fetched as it ever was.

But I see hope, even if it’s slowmoving and could take years to manifest into something tangible. Last month, a couple of notable figures visited Palestine to continue the message of their respective forefathers.

Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the legendary civil rights leader, spoke in Ramallah about the impor-

It’s not the first time Palestinians have used nonviolence to fight Israeli occupation. The first intifada in the late 1980s was a largely nonviolent mass movement and a catalyst for the Oslo Accords. But so much resistance since then has been violent, including a second intifada that began in 2000 and petered out in 2006.

Today, over 50 percent of Palestinians support armed resistance.

Attendees at King and Gandhi’s talks

Israel, Palestine, and neighboring countries like Lebanon. It’s tough to talk about peace when all you hear of is death. And it’s even tougher to see the human side of the Israeli and Palestinian people when all you see on TV is rocket and suicide attacks, and air-strikes that destroy families and homes.

I don’t want Palestinians to stop resisting an Israeli occupation that assaults personal and collective

Nasser Ishtayeh/ ap photo

Palestinian children march through the streets with pictures of their prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, and olive branches, representing peace. tance of nonviolent resistance. He was preceded by Rajmohan Gandhi, a grandson of the Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. Their combined message of peaceful resistance seems to have had a small impact.

The BBC reported in April on peaceful Gandhi-style protests in the West Bank village of Beit Jala. At least 40 people regularly protest at Israeli checkpoints and other areas.

in Ramallah last month spoke of both armed and nonviolent resistance.

The BBC said these folks “apparently missed the point of strictly peaceful campaigns.”

But the reason I’m hopeful, if even only a little bit, is because nonviolence is alive in Palestine and, perhaps more importantly, being reported. In my four years at BC, I’ve heard only about death and destruction in

Palestinian dignity. I just hope they change how they resist. Israel is not going to change its tactic of forceful, disproportionate retribution. It should, but it doesn’t have to – it’s got domestic and international political and military support. But Israel is supported because of the character of the attacks it endures. Even the Israeli left – often the voice for the thousands of Palestinian victims of

Somali Islamic groups clash with pirates for control of stronghold

By Patricia Harris

Asst. Marketplace Editor The instability in Somalia has sunk to a new low in the recent clash between an extremist Islamic group and pirates who have been terrorizing international waters for years. Hizbul Islam, one of the main Islamic groups in the country, captured the town of Harardhere over the weekend, which housed a major pirate base, and now these fighters have access to the ill-gotten gains stored there.

Despite the loss of an estimated $100 million in resources that could have potentially fallen into the custody of the pirates, the seizure took place with no violence between these two groups. Before the invasion by the Islamic militants even occurred, residents of the area stated that hundreds of pirates f led the scene in luxury cars with TVs stacked in the back and mattresses strapped to the top of their vehicles. According to a pirate spokesperson, there was advance warning of the at-

tack, which the pirates chose to act upon. Currently, there are no plans for the pirates to retaliate and try to take back their stronghold. As quoted in Businessweek, Bashir Ahmed, who claims to be a spokesperson for the pirates, states, “We are not going to fight them. Our objective is to have safe places to keep our hostages.”

One of the concerns of the international community is the safety and the status of those hostages. So far, the pirates have moved at least four hijacked ships that were anchored near Haradhere farther north to another infamous base in Hoboyo.

These ships undoubtedly hold some hostages on them. In total, the pirates claim to hold at least 300 hostages from numerous countries.

The fear is that Islamic extremists might take over control of some of those hostages, and then the countries would have to negotiate with them. Then, the ransom money paid could be used to finance terrorist activities against the current govern-

ment in Somalia. However, Hizbul Islam has mentioned that it has no interest in these hostages.

According to the Associated Press, a militia commander associated with the Islamic militants stated that they will release any foreign hostages they encounter.

Currently, all of the hostages have remained in the custody of the pirates.

Not only have Islamist fighters taken over the pirate base, but several hundred members of the group have also seized multiple strategic positions in the town, including the local police station and numerous crossroads.

Hizbul Islam has claimed to have run the pirates out of area in order to clean up the town. The head of operations for Hizbul Islam, Sheik Mohamed Abdi Aros, said, “Hizbul Islam came here to install Islamic sharia law in this region and fight piracy, which we consider un-Islamic. We hope to curb the dirty business.”

In public statements, the group says that it has no intention to continue the pirates’ criminal activities. However, a

photo courtesy of rnw.nl

Two Somali groups, al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam, have utilized piracy as a source of income to wage war in the country.

BBC correspondent states that there are reports that the militant group had actually tried to form a deal with these same pirates in order to get a part of their profits at an earlier time. As a result of these inconsistencies, it is possible that the pirates’ position could change.

This latest event has emerged following civil war that has ravaged the country for years. Islamic extremists have been in the process of attempting to overthrow a weak U.S. and U.N.backed government. So far, they have been successful in controlling much of the southern and central regions of the country.

Somalia has not been able to boast of a strong national government for about 20 years, since the regime of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The result of the political chaos has been the rise of piracy in the region. These pirates hunt for victims in the vicinity of one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, the Gulf of Aden. According to Businessweek, pirates have made 217 attacks and hijacked 47 ships in the past year.

The pirates are divided into numerous groups, and hold about 20 ships in a variety of bases throughout Somalia.

Previously, Hizbul Islam had close ties to al-Shabab, an Islamic group that follows a strict form of Islam. Until recently, they shared control of the town of Kismayo, a port located in the southern part of Somalia. The two groups shared a similar interest in overthrowing the current government, which has shaky control of the country. In 2009, however, the alliance between these two groups crumbled, and al-Shabab forced Hizbul Islam to leave Kismayo.

Political analysts suggest that this shift in the relations between the two groups made it necessary for Hizbul Islam to seek an alternate supply of money, and thus forced them to relocate to Haradheere. n

human rights violations – condemns rocket attacks and suicide bombings.

A mass nonviolent movement may affect the way the entire conflict is reported. A sustained movement will change how each side is supported.

The first intifada may not have had a tangible impact despite its largely nonviolent character. I believe that a mass nonviolent movement today would make a much bigger impression. A lot has changed since Oslo.

America’s first black president is more committed to peace in Palestine and Israel than any of his predecessors – this should not be overlooked.

But more importantly, the world sees and knows more of Israel and Palestine than ever before. We’re aware of every rocket, every settlement being built, and every civilian losing his or her life. Students like me are devoting more time than ever to studying the Middle East. We’re learning of the region’s vast and complex histories and variety of religious and political thought. We debate how to fight terrorism, and which modes of resistance are morally legitimate.

To me, the way forward in Israel and Palestine is nonviolence. It might mean that some people get killed – on both sides. I don’t mean to belittle the value of their lives, but, for a future of peace in an area known for death, it may be worth the price. I’ve thought for a long time that a Palestinian Gandhi might be able to rally enough people to a nonviolent cause. In the absence of a dynamic and influential leader, though, having small nonviolent demonstrations is a good place to start. These should be publicized and supported as much as possible.

Nonviolence needs outside help to flourish.

My hope is that Palestinian nonviolent efforts like the ones in Beit Jala grow. It will not be easy to do; Palestinians feel backed into a corner.

Logistical problems of organizing mass protests in a territory spotted with Israeli checkpoints are the least of their worries. But in four years of study at BC, I’ve seen and learned that violence breeds violence in this region. My hope is that nonviolence breaks this cycle.

In Israel and Palestine, it’s been 60 years of “an eye for an eye.” I hope it hasn’t made the world blind.

Alex Cohen is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at marketplace@bcheights.com.

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Thursday, May 6, 2010

The Heights

Brain stimulation gaining steam as viable treatment to go into it with a very positive attitude,” he said.

Deep brain stimulation was also used in a clinical trial aimed at creating a treatment for people suffering from epilepsy. A group of 110 people had electrodes implanted in their brains and their seizures were monitored.

Forty-one percent of patients showed a reduction in seizures after 13 months, while 56 percent

author of the study, said electrical deep brain stimulation does For The Heights reduce seizure frequency in patients. But he cautioned, “DBS Last month, more than 300 therapy is invasive and serious patients in the United Kingdom complications can occur. Addiwere fitted with electrodes that tional clinical knowledge would deliver an electric current deep help to determine the best caninto the brain as doctors sought to didates for DBS therapy.” find another way to treat ParkinSimon Wigglesworth, deputy son’s. The technique, known as chief executive at U.K. chardeep brain stimulation, activates ity Epilepsy Action, said, “We areas of the brain that have been hopeful control movement, for some time that improving symptoms deep brain stimulasuch as tremors and tion may be a treatstiffness. Deep brain ment option for some stimulation (DBS) people with epilepsy. involves implanting a This study is exciting wire with electrodes news and could be an at its tip into one important developof three areas of the ment in the treatbrain. The wire is ment of epilepsy in connected to a small the 30 percent of “neurostimulator” people whose seiunit rather like a zures don’t respond pacemaker that is to traditional drug implanted under the therapies.” The reskin of the chest. search is published This unit sends eleconline in the journal trical impulses along Epilepsia. the wire and into the Apart from being brain. The impulses used to fight ParkinPhoto courtesy of bbc block the electrical son’s and epilepsy, • Electrodes are implanted in the signals that cause the DBS has been found brain under local anaesthesia, with the symptoms of Parkinto help boost the son’s disease. memory of patients. patient awake so their responses can The United KingWhen the electrodes be monitored dom team investiwere stimulated by • The electrodes are stimulated by a gated 366 patients electrical impulses, who received either the patient began to “pacemaker” stitched into the chest surgery and mediexperience feelings • It has been used for more than cation or medicaof deja vu. The rea decade to treat tremor, and more tion alone. When searchers at Toronto followed up after a Western Hospital recently to treat Parkinson’s disease, year, the researchers, found that as the inchronic pain, and depression based in Birmingtensity of the stim• Side effects can include apathy, ham, Bristol, Livulation increased, erpool, Oxford, and details in the memhallucinations, depression, and even London, found those ory of the subject compulsive gambling - but often they who had undergone became more vivid. are temporary surgery reported a After three weeks better quality of life. of constant electriThey wrote in Lancet cal stimulation, the Neurology that sursubject performed gery has become an important experienced a reduction after two better in memory tests than he treatment option for patients years. All the patients suffered had previously done. with Parkinson’s. from regular epileptic seizures “We hopefully have found a Professor Keith Wheatley of and had failed to respond to circuit in the brain which can be the University of Birmingham told drug treatment. In the group modulated by stimulation, and the BBC, “It is not a cure. What of patients who received brain which might provide benefit to it does is help control symptoms stimulation, researchers noted patients with memory disorders,” more than medication alone.” a 41 percent reduction in sei- said Professor Andres Lozano, the The 10-year study, funded zures compared to a 14.5 percent lead researcher on the project. by the charity Parkinson’s U.K., decline in seizures in a control Lozano is now leading a pilot the Medical Research Council, group which did not receive study into whether deep brain and the Department of Health, stimulation. stimulation can help people with is said to be the largest trial of Epilepsy is a common neu- early Alzheimer’s disease. They its kind in the world. On average, rological disorder characterized are initially testing six patients. about one person in every 500 by recurrent seizures. These Rebecca Wood, chief executive of has Parkinson’s, but the option seizures can cause temporary the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, of surgery is generally used only loss of consciousness, convul- welcomed the move but said furas a last resort. sions, confusion or disturbances ther work was clearly needed.

Bob Garland, age 65, from in sensations. According to the “It will be interesting to see Plymouth, was diagnosed with World Health Organization, epi- whether this method offers any Parkinson’s 18 years ago. He had lepsy affects 50 million people benefit to people with Alzheimsurgery at Frenchay Hospital in worldwide. er’s,” she said. “With the numBristol in 2002. “It has taken Previous studies indicated ber of people with Alzheimer’s away the extremes of my move- that one third of those with forecast to double within a genment problems,” he said. He epilepsy do not respond to anti- eration, we urgently need to find encouraged others to seek an epileptic drugs. Robert Fisher, ways to tackle this awful disease, opinion on whether the operation director of the Epilepsy Centre but research is hugely underwas suitable for them. “You have at Stanford University and lead funded.” n

By Yat Hang Yu

Deep Brain Stimulation

Patrick semansky, alex brandon, and dave martin / ap photo

An oil boom used to contain the spill is deployed in the Gulf, top left. A small pool of oil accumulates in the ocean; the spill is equivalent in size to that of Jamaica, top right. Above, researchers examine a dead turtle, a victim of the spill.

BP oil spill ravages the Gulf Spill, from D1

are perceived as one unit (“Big Oil”) single-mindedly pursuing profits without regard for social, economic, or environmental responsibility.

BP is unique among oil companies in its utilization of overt green-branding. You might recall the staid, corporate, and somewhat imperial “green shield” that once constituted its logo.

In 2000, BP rebranded its logo, changing it to a vibrant green and yellow sunflower-helios symbol with “bp” in lowercase letters.

The connotations are obvious – both the shapes and the colors are extremely evocative of the environment and therefore bring to mind lush pastures and vegetation. Simultaneously, BP introduced its “Beyond Petroleum” slogan in an effort to demonstrate that BP is committed to pursuing alternative energy and reducing its impact on the environment.

Many of BP’s gasoline stations were refurbished to appear more cutting-edge and aesthetically pleasant, with solar panels on the roof. This campaign was continued in BP’s commercials, in which Ogilvy clearly demarcated the difference between other dark, dirty, and socially unconscious gas stations and BP’s bright and friendly ones.

To give these mostly superficial changes credence, BP became the world’s largest producer of solar panels and invested in research into biofuels and hydrogen fuel cells. They left the Global Climate Coalition, a group of 50 corporations and trade as-

sociations that supports research that refuted global warming proponents. To fight its competition on a more established front, BP launched an environmentally-friendly diesel fuel with 90 percent reduced emissions, forcing its competitors to adopt similar practices.

The success of BP’s rebranding is debatable. Its marketing steps were so obvious and brazen that they were met with derision and protests outside its London headquarters, particularly because the campaign’s launch coincided with BP’s push for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The campaign has become the quintessential example of “greenwashing,” or, “the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service,” according to www.stopgreenwash.com. The most cynical believe that the company’s claims are entirely without merit, while others believe that the marketing campaign is an attempt to inform the public of BP’s new practices. As always when between two extremes, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. BP has shown greater sensitivity to environmental concerns in its industry while leading the way to new, cleaner fuels.

Some nefarious practices remain, however, which brings us back to the recent catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. Right now, a number of state and federal operated boats are on the scene skimming, corralling, and burning the oil in an attempt to mitigate the

adverse environmental effects.

Local fishermen are outraged that BP failed to anticipate and adequately address the risks of drilling, a stark contrast to the almost loving attitude that they previously held because barnacles grew on the oil wells, attracting fish – a boon to the fishermen. These same fishermen are now being hired by BP to deploy oil booms and other skimming equipment. They perform these tasks reluctantly, aware that BP has the political and financial clout to eliminate whatever small authority they have.

Events like this one, the Toyota fallout, and the recent Goldman Sachs controversy remind the public that corporations nearly always act in their own best interests, pursuing their fiduciary duty. They have no actual obligation to help the public, feed starving children, or treat their suppliers fairly.

Students in the Carroll School of Management will probably learn at some point about “corporate social responsibility,” a modern expression used to describe such practices. When you choose to align yourself with a company, which you believe engages in “fair trade,” “green activities,” or even “diversity recruiting,” keep in mind that there is a not-so ulterior motive. A cynical viewpoint, it must be said, but one with plenty of merit, as evidenced by a pool of oil the size of Jamaica.

Ameet Padte is a staff writer for The Heights. He welcomes comments at marketplace@bcheights.com.

Amid riots and frustration, EU agrees to bailout Greece

Nikolas Giakoumidis) / ap photo

The controversial bailout was finally agreed upon after weeks of protests and riots, firm resistance from Germany, and the alarming collapse of the Greek economy.

Greece, from D1 percent to 2.6 percent by 2014.

However, it will raise the debtto-GDP ratio from 133 percent this year to 144 percent in 2014 as well. Third, government revenue is not going the right way because income was only 37 percent of Greece’s GDP in 2009, a 10 percent decline from

the previous year. Finally, inflation is already high in Greece due to the recession.

The package may provide temporary aid to the Greek government, but it does not address the possibility of sovereign debt crises. As lenders and market speculators paid attention to similarly vulnerable European nations, countries

like Portugal and Spain will have to face consequences of huge deficits. Last week, Portugal’s debt was downgraded, and the country may be waiting for a bailout. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Spain is now 20 percent and its economy is shrinking. Because Spain has a much larger economy than that of Greece or Portugal, a

hypothetical bailout of Spain would be much more expensive.

In addition, Latvia, Hungary, and Romania, which are not in the 16-member group that uses the euro, are striving to meet economic and fiscal goals set by the IMF. The bailout came after weeks of negotiation, and critics say that national interests

slowed down the response from Eurozone and the IMF. Germany has the strongest national interests and has a firm public resistance to Greece’s bailout.

Chancellor Angela Merkel was under foreign criticism for deciding to aid Greece. She presented her draft legislation to her cabinet on Monday, and has to wait for the German Parliament’s approval of the aid package before Germany can lend Greece the money.

“I’m going to get behind such a path by all means,” Merkel told reporters in Bonn. She said the program was vital to ensure the stability of the euro.

For Greece, the rescue package will require budget cuts and tax raises. The measures include eliminating bonus payments for public sector workers, capping annual holiday bonuses, and curtailing them for high earners. Even members of Parliament will no longer receive bonuses. The plan also bans increases in public sector salaries and pensions for at least three years. In addition, value-added tax (VAT) increases from 21 percent to 23 percent. Taxes on fuel, alcohol, and tobacco rise by 10 percent.

There are also taxes on illegal construction.

However, I think the measures would eventually undermine economic growth because

Greece does not have to cut back a lot in accordance with the Eurozone-IMF bailout. Up until now, Greeks have been able to retire with pensions at age 53. The bailout now requires them to work until they are 67. Up until now, Greek government workers have only worked for 12 months, but get paid for 14 months. The bailout makes Greece eliminate the 13th and 14th-month salaries, but is this not typical of how workers in other countries earn their salaries? The cuts only reduce the budget waste that should not have been there in the first place.

I have doubts about whether Greece would be able to follow through on the measures that come with the package. I think the European Union and the IMF also agree with me on this point, because they actually monitor Greece to make sure that the country really enforces these measures. Yiannis Stournaras, a leading economist and former economic adviser to the current government, confessed that such skepticism was not avoidable. “People haven’t trusted the Greeks since the time of the Trojan War,” Stournaras said. “This is nothing new.”

Binh Nguyen is a staff writer for The Heights. He welcomes comments at marketplace@bcheights.com.