The Heights January 19, 2017

THE

HEIGHTS The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

WWW.BCHEIGHTS.COM

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

BOO HOOS

LICORICE

SPORTS

ARTS & REVIEW

Men’s basketball suffered its second consecutive blowout loss on Wednesday, 71-54.

Professor Gautam Chopra’s new film details authentic teenage struggles.

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2,900 30%

students accepted

accepted

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The Office of Undergraduate Admission admitted 2,900 students to the Boston College Class of 2021 in December, about 33 percent of a pool of 9,000. Last year’s early action acceptance rate was 32 percent, with a pool of about 8,500 applicants, marking a 5 percent increase this year in early applications.

Admitted students averaged a 33 on the ACT and a 1425 on the SAT, which was updated this year by the College Board to a 1600-point scale and a new EvidenceBased Writing and Reading section. Last year’s early action admits averaged a 33 on the ACT and a 2128 on the old 2400point SAT. Students were accepted from 46 states and 30 countries, with a geographic distribution that John Mahoney, director of undergraduate admission, said is about the same as in years past. AHANA students make up about 27 percent of those admitted, compared to 28 percent last year. Mahoney said about 30 percent of high school graduates nationally are AHANA. Admissions hopes to fill about 30 percent of the Class of 2021 with students who were accepted early action. BC uses a nonbinding, restrictive early action program, which means applicants may not apply to both BC and another school’s binding early decision program, but may apply to other schools’ early action programs.

Mahoney’s office makes extensive efforts to recruit students from AHANA

backgrounds, starting with buying the names of high school juniors who perform well on the PSAT. Counselors travel widely in the fall to present about BC, targeting specific schools with large AHANA populations, as well as community-based organizations, which often come to BC to tour.

“We’re working hard to increase the AHANA student application pool and ideally would like to see that percentage of AHANA students ratchet up a little each year so that we look more like the country,” Mahoney said.

Mahoney said that the updated SAT took some getting used to for longtime admissions counselors, but his team received training and concordance tables

from the College Board to help smooth the transition.

Georgetown University and the University of Notre Dame, generally considered BC’s biggest competitors for applicants, released their early admissions statistics before Winter Break. At Georgetown, the early action acceptance rate was 11.9 percent from 7,822 early applicants, a record-low rate, according to The Hoya. Notre Dame accepted 24.4 percent of 6,020 early applicants. Its admission website reported that it saw a 10 percent increase in early applications over last year.

Georgetown reported an average

See Admissions, A3

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Each of the hires will have a joint appointment in AADS and a “tenure home” in a specific department.

The English department is handling one of the hirings, a tenure-track position in African American literature and culture. Director of AADS Martin Summers said in an interview Wednesday that a little over 100 applications were received for the other two positions, which will be focused on race, religion, and the African diaspora. AADS is overseeing the hiring process for these two positions.

The AADS hiring committee has narrowed the field of applicants to a final six, with three vying for each position. They will begin coming to campus next week for a day and a half of extensive interviews, with the last applicant visiting in mid-February.

One of the two will be based in the theology department and have a joint appointment with AADS. The other position was open to

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Thousands of prospective students visit Devlin Hall, the home of the Office of Admissions.

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9P :?I@J ILJJF 8jjfZ% E\nj <[`kfi The Upshot, a data and analytics blog run by The New York Times, published a study on Wednesday night that maps financial data at American colleges and universities. Boston College students reportedly have a median family income of $194,100, ranking 21st out of 65 elite colleges, and 70 percent of students come from the top 20 percent of earners, ranking 22nd, according to the study.

The article’s introduction states that “some colleges are even more economically segregated than previously understood, while others are associated with income mobility,” though it does not explicitly criticize BC. Representatives from BC were not yet available when contacted for comment late Wednesday night.

The Upshot’s report is based on mil-

INSIDE

THIS ISSUE

applicants from a wide array of fields, including history, anthropology, and political science, who specialize in the religious experiences of African-descended people, according to the AADS website. Summers said the three finalists for that position are two historians and one art historian, so the eventual appointee will be based in either the history department or the art, art history, and film department.

The English department position had an Oct. 12 deadline, and the other positions had an Oct. 15 deadline. All three positions are open-rank, meaning applicants could range from current Ph.D. students to tenured faculty at other schools. After the application window closed, some preliminary interviews were held in late November at the American Academy of Religion Conference in San Antonio, and the remainder of the interviews were held in late November and early December.

In March, Introduction to African Diaspora Studies was added to the social science core and African Diaspora in the World War I and II were added to the history core. That followed a report released by the Undergraduate Government of BC in January 2015 called “Towards a More Inclusive Community,” which suggested that BC give more support and funding to programs like AADS “that accurately reflect the history, culture and perspective of underrepresented people in America.”

Summers said he had been in conversation with Provost and Dean and Faculties

See AADS, A3

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lions of anonymous tax records taken from schools that participate in Title IV federal funding. The study measures both access and outcomes and mobility.

Its access figures are based on students born in 1991, or roughly the Class of 2013. Outcome and mobility figures are based on students born between 1980 and 1982, who are now about 35, around the age when relative income stabilizes. The study does not include international students.

The Upshot reported that 2.8 percent of BC students come from the top 0.1 percent of earners, 16 percent from the top 1 percent, 44 percent from the top 5 percent, 58 percent from the top 10 percent, 70 percent from the top 20 percent, and 3.1 percent from the bottom 20 percent. BC’s share of students from the top 1 percent ranks 24th out of 65 elite colleges.

Vanderbilt ranks No. 1 with 23 percent. BC’s share from the bottom 20 percent ranks 36th. UCLA is No. 1 with 8.3 percent of students in the bottom 20 percent. The New York Times defines an elite college based on a 2009 index from Barron’s that has a “selectivity index” of one or better.

The Upshot also reported that BC is one of 38 colleges that has more students from families in the top 1 percent (16.1 percent) than students from families in the bottom 60 percent (15.2 percent). Families from the top 1 percent are reported to earn over $630,000 a year, while those in the bottom 60 percent earn $65,000 or less.

BC ranked 19th out of 64 elite colleges in median student income at age 34, with $71,800. At 56 percent, it ranked 17th in the share of students who moved from the bottom fifth of earners as children to the top fifth as adults. At 11 percent, BC ranked 38th in “overall mobility,” or the likelihood that a student moved up two income quintiles.

The New York Times also ranked BC against other contemporaries, such as schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference, other Massachusetts schools, and all of the nearly 2,200 schools it analyzed. When compared against these schools, BC often ranked very high or very low in each of the aforementioned categories. More information about these statistics can be found at nytimes. com.

D\kif <[`kfi This Saturday, not even 24 hours after Donald Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States, downtown Boston will fill with attendees of the Boston Women’s March for America.

Beginning at 11 a.m. on Jan. 21, 40,000 people of all genders, ages, and races will gather in the Boston Common, at the corner of Beacon and Charles Streets. There, a selection of speakers and performers will begin the event and continue speaking before the crowd until 12 p.m., at which point the march will commence. Until 2 p.m. marchers will follow a 1-mile route that loops down Commonwealth Avenue and Clarendon Street before returning to the Common where the March will end.

One of what is now 300 similar marches occurring across the globe following the Inauguration, the Boston Women’s March for America began as a grassroots event inspired by the Women’s March on Washington. The impressive size and reach of the Washington event, which is projected to draw at least 200,000 marchers to the nation’s capital on Saturday, inspired activists across the country to create similar events in the cities that they called home—including Boston.

In an effort initially pushed forward by local volunteers, the Boston Women’s March quickly gained attention and trac-

NEWS: Late Night, Hillside Edition METRO: Revolutionizing Recovery Hillside will now be open until midnight Monday through Thursday..........................A2

With their startup Exowear, BC grad streamlines patient recovery.........................A4

INDEX Vol. XCVIII, No. 1 © 2017, The Heights, Inc. www.bcheights.com

tion. The Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus stepped in to sponsor the March, and well-known figures—such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, Attorney General Maura Healey, and Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09—have announced that they will join the initial series of speakers and performers to join the marchers.

“I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with women and people of all backgrounds from across Massachusetts at the Boston Women’s March for America,” Warren said in a press release. “This gathering is a chance for us to come together to make clear that we believe in basic dignity, respect, and equal rights for every person in this country, and that we are committed to fighting back against bigotry in all its forms.”

Volunteer organizers began planning and promoting the Boston Women’s March in early December. The event quickly gained interest on Facebook and—although on a smaller scale than the D.C. March—over 40,000 people have currently pledged to attend the March on Saturday. If this number of projected attendees proves true, the Boston Women’s March could be one of the largest marches in the city’s history (the current record holder is the 1969 peace rally). Regardless of its place in Boston history, the March will be the most widely-attended gathering following the election of Trump.

The unique importance of this event is not only evident from this huge number, but also from the stories featured on the March’s website. From tens of thousands of marchers planning on attending, a selection of people have written short pieces

See Women’s March, A4

NEWS.......................... A3 ARTS & REVIEW............B1 METRO...................A4 SPORTS......................B8 OPINIONS................... A6

THE HEIGHTS

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things to do on campus this week

1

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Unity Breakfast will take place this morning from 8:30 to 10 a.m. in the Heights Room. The event is sponsored by the Office for Institutional Diversity. Students, faculty, and staff will honor King’s life and legacy at the breakfast.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

2

Margo Reder, a business law lecturer, will hold office hours for students interested in legal concerns over start-up matters. The office hours will be held today from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Cushing 208. The event is sponsored by the Business Law & Society Department.

3

The Thea Bowman AHANA Intercultural Center will hold an open house on Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Maloney 455. Students will be able to meet BAIC staff and learn about the programs and resources available to them. Refreshments and raffles will be included.

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Asst. News Editor

9liej EXd\[ 8dYXjjX[fi Brian P. Burns, a former Boston College trustee and business executive, was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be the United States Ambassador to Ireland.

Burns’s appointment as ambassador is subject to U.S. Senate confirmation.

Burns was the founder and a large benefactor of the Burns Librar y, which houses rare books and special collections.

The library’s Irish collection is the most comprehensive in the United States.

Burns is the chairman of BF Enterprises, Inc., a publicly owned real estate holding and development company. He graduated from The College of the Holy Cross and Harvard Law School and became the youngest director of the American Irish foundation in 1963. He then helped to merge the foundation with the Ireland Fund to form The American Ireland Fund (AIF), in which Burns is a lifetime trustee.

Since its creation, the AIF has raised over $450 million for Irish charities that support peace and community development.

Burns created a visiting scholar endowment through the Burns Foundation, which he chairs. The Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies program has helped to bring to campus a series of academics and notable public figures who have influenced Irish cultural life.

“The extraordinary support provided by Brian Burns, members of the Burns family, and their associates and friends has helped make Boston College one of the world’s leading centers for the study and appreciation of Ireland and the Irish diaspora,” Christian Dupont, a Burns librarian, said to The Chronicle.

J_\X Gifdfk\[ kf MG Kevin Shea, executive assistant to University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J. since 2006, has been named vice president and executive assistant to the president.

In the last decade, Shea has coordinated staff in the president’s office and has ser ved as a liaison to the Board of Trustees.

“Kevin is committed to the mission of Boston College and responds effectively to a wide range of requests and issues,” Leahy said to The Chronicle. “I value his advice and care for the BC community, and rely greatly on him.”

B efore working at B C , Shea worked closely with Cardinal Sean O’Malley as the communications director for the Archdiocese of Boston. He also served as the director of public relations for the Boston Red Sox. “I am humbled and excited by this appointment,” Shea said to The Chronicle.

“Boston College is truly a special community and I look forward to continuing to work alongside a dedicated group of administrators, faculty, and staff in service to the University.”

Beginning in early February, O’Neill Library and the seating area in Hillside Café will extend its hours to give students more space for studying or meetings.

Hillside Café will remain open until midnight on Monday through Thursday nights, while O’Neill’s first floor will be open until 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

On a typical week, O’Neill opens at 9 a.m. on Sunday and remains open until 10 p.m. on Friday, and operates from 9 a.m to 10 p.m on Saturday, and opens again at 9 a.m. on Sunday.

Hillside is usually open 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, and closes at 4 p.m. on Friday.

Last April, O’Neill began to gauge student demand for extended weekend hours. The trial weekends showed that around 60 students would use the library’s open space, which seats 130 students at maximum capacity, between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., and that number would trickle down to about five stu-

dents after 3 a.m.

According to Scott Britton, associate university librarian for instruction, access, and user engagement, the initiative to extend library hours began with a column in The Heights that called for a safe study space on campus during weekends when dorms can get noisy.

The column sparked the Undergraduate Government of Boston College’s Campus Improvements Committee to begin looking into where students could go to study on weekends.

When the issue came to Britton’s attention, he reached out to Student Affairs. This began conversations about opening up Eagle’s Nest, Hillside, and O’Neill’s first floor.

“The library is a place where people were studying anyways, so when we would close at 10 o’clock, we were moving people out of the building, why not just move them downstairs?” Britton said. “It made sense, and the only real issue was securing the rest of the building.”

After the past trial periods, it was clear that there is student demand for a workspace during

weekends, and funding was secured to open up the first floor of O’Neill. While there will be no library staff workers available, a security guard will be present to ensure that no one strays from the first floor of the building, and the elevators will be locked.

Britton says that depending on student feedback, the number of students that use the extended hours starting on Feb. 3, conversations of opening up the library longer could take place. Britton encourages students to contact him, or University Librarian Thomas Wall, with any feedback and suggestions.

Hillside’s extended hours, “Hillside After Dark,” will begin Feb. 1 as a partnership between Dining Services, UGBC, and Student Affairs. Hillside After Dark will serve as a space for students to socialize, relax, and study during the week.

Hillside After Dark was, in part, the result of ongoing conversations to build a student center at BC. This past fall, Russell Simons, UGBC president and MCAS ’17, and Meredith McCaffrey, UGBC executive vice president and MCAS ’17,

pushed the necessity of more student social spaces on campus during meetings with University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J. During this conversation, Hillside was mentioned as a possible temporary solution to the ongoing search for a space open to students to relax and socialize, according to Vice President for Student Affair Barbara Jones.

“The idea is to have a space that isn’t your residence hall, and somewhere you can go in the evening and just meet up with friends, or have a small study group, or have an executive meeting for a student organization, or whatever you want to use it for,” Jones said.

According to Jones, the space and extended hours are not intended for club programming, and are instead intended to work toward the goal of creating more social and gathering spaces on campus.

“We don’t really know when a student center will be built, so we’re taking a look at how students are using the space on campus.” Jones said. “We’re trying to make sure that students have the kind of space that they

need.”

Student centers on campuses provide gathering spaces, meeting space, food, and a variety of other things. Building a student center at BC has been an ongoing conversation since at least 1995, when BC went as far as drawing up plans for a new building.

During the fall semester, UGBC’s Student Assembly (SA) unanimously passed a resolution that affirmed a continuing effort in establishing a student center.

“We’re trying to gauge the best way to meet the needs of the students on campus, and that’s the concern that Russell and Meredith have,” said Jones.

Jones said that the student center would be located where the Flynn Recreation Complex is currently, as the University plans to open a new athletics recreation center where Edmond’s Hall used to stand. Until then, however, Student Affairs will continue gauging student feedback when looking at other possible spaces to open up to students.

“I hope that students will find it useful to have a hangout space,” Jones said.

<X^c\j# Nfc]gXZb kf GcXp 8CJ 8nXi\e\jj >Xd\ Xk =\enXp 9P I@C<P FM<I<E; Sports Editor Boston College baseball announced on Wednesday that its Sixth Annual ALS Awareness Game, played in honor of former captain Pete Frates, will take place at Fenway Park against NC State on Sat., April 22. It represents a sort of homecoming for Frates, who went 4-for-4 with a home run and won Beanpot MVP in the same stadium nearly 11 years ago.

Tickets can be purchased for $10 on the Red Sox team website or at the gate on game day.

All proceeds benefit the Pete Frates #3 Fund, which covers medical costs not paid for by health care.

The ACC matchup will recognize Frates, who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2012, as well as Chris Combs, who played for the Wolfpack from 1994-97 and was diagnosed last May. In the summer of 2014, Frates popularized the viral Ice Bucket Challenge, which raised $220 million for ALS research and brought increased awareness to the disease.

POLICE BLOTTER Monday, Jan. 16 12:34 a.m. - A report was filed regarding assistance provided to another department.

7:09 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a medical incident at Duchesne West.

ALEC GREANEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Sixth ALS Awareness Game, played in honor of former captain Pete Frates, will take place at Fenway Park against NC State on April 22.

The game also marks the first time that the Eagles have played at Fenway outside of the Beanpot Tournament, in which they hold a 25-10-1 record. But the Red Sox have a long history of working with Frates to spread awareness of the disease.

In 2015, the team played an exhibition game against BC during which all players wore No. 3

in a press release. “Even though we have played there a good amount, this game is even more special because we are honoring Pete. The Red Sox have done so much for Pete and the Frates family in the last five years.”

Last month, Frates was given the NCAA Inspiration Award, hand-delivered to his home in Beverly, Mass., by none other

than NCAA President Mark Emmert. It was the latest in a long line of distinctions for Frates that shows no signs of stopping soon.

“Any time we can gather and do something to help the ALS community, to help Pete, we jump at that opportunity,” captain Bobby Skogsbergh said in a video provided by BCEagles.com.

1/16/17 - 1/18/17 12:13 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a larcency of a bicycle on Campanella Way.

What is your least favorite book you read in high school?

Wednesday, Jan. 18 6:32 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a traffic crash on Campanella Way.

11:33 p.m. - A report was filed regarding found property at Conte Forum.

Tuesday, Jan. 17 12:19 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a medical incident at Medeiros Hall.

to commemorate Frates’s fight against the disease. That same year, the organization signed Frates to a one-day contract in front of thousands of fans at Fenway.

“We are very lucky to have such a great relationship with the Red Sox to allow us to play at the historic Fenway Park,” head coach Mike Gambino said

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

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

THE HEIGHTS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

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The Civic Engagement Committee will host an Inauguration Day watch party for students on Friday morning at 11:30 a.m. in the Vanderslice Cabaret Room.

The Civic Engagement Committee is a group made up of members of Student Affairs and the Office of the Dean of Students, as well as students from the Undergraduate Government of Boston College and the Eagle Political Society. The purpose of the group is to plan programs that allow students to be more civically engaged.

Lisa Berasi, the communications specialist for the Division of Student

Affairs and a member of the Civic Engagement Committee, said the group has been pushing for programs more than ever this year. Its goal is to host a couple of programs each month that may feature documentaries, professors, or lecturers. The committee is planning to have a lecture on climate change and another on trade relations in the near future.

“Particularly in this election and political climate, we want to offer students programming that will create dialogue and that will push each other to engage,” Berasi said.

Berasi feels that students are often stuck in bubbles, conversing only with students who share similar political beliefs or have similar socioeconomic statuses. The programs created by the committee are meant to burst that bubble. The group hopes to bridge the polarizing gap that exists between students of different political parties, Berasi said.

With this year’s divisive election, the committee has noted a higher level of student civic engagement.

The group has seen the highest number of students who registered to vote

in the election in years—almost 2,100 students registered to vote through BC’s partnership with TurboVote in September.

The committee has hosted watch parties for inaugurations in the past

“I think it’s important for us to see the peaceful transition of power between two administrations,” O’Brien said. “I plan on going to this event to hear what the other side has to say about some of the most important

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and hopes that this one draws a crowd of students. Insomnia Cookies will be available to students in attendance.

Michael O’Brien, MCAS ’18, will be attending the watch party on Friday morning.

issues. I think liberals and conservatives need to listen to each other more often.”

Some students will experience the hype of the inauguration closer to the capitol.

Rachel Simon, CSOM ’18, will

travel with a couple of her roommates to Washington, D.C., to participate in the Women’s March on Washington, which will take place on Saturday. The march is a part of a national walkout in support of women’s rights and gender equality.

Simon and her friends bought tickets to the inauguration in October, before the results of the election were announced. Simon had a strong feeling Hillary Clinton would win.

When she heard Donald Trump won the election, Simon and her friends had a discussion about whether they wanted to attend his inauguration, and ultimately agreed that they were not comfortable doing it. When they found out that the Women’s March was happening, they became excited and felt it was a great way to get use out of their tickets.

“I think it’s going to be an incredible juxtaposition of two very different sentiments,” Simon said.

Simon and her friends agreed that they have been sheltered from the drastically different views a large portion of the country has. This realization made them more pas-

sionate to speak out for their beliefs and principles.

“Watching the incoming administration come in has solidified a lot of my views in a much more defined way—and one of those is definitely women’s rights,” she said.

As a member of Strong Women, Strong Girls and a board member of the annual Women’s Own It summit, Simon is involved in women’s rights issues on campus. While in D.C., Simon will be meeting with the founder of Own It, who created the conference while at Georgetown. She also interns at The Consortium on Gender, Security, and Human Rights, an organization that seeks to educate people about how gender impacts their role in conflict and post-conflict resolution.

Simon and her friends left for D.C. on Wednesday night and will stay through the weekend. Simon looks forward to the march and how it will inspire young women to become activists for change.

“The march will be a nice way to feel a sense of empowerment and make a statement,” she said.

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The Undergraduate Government of Boston College’s Student Assembly (SA) will hold a special election next week to fill several seats vacated by members who are abroad or who decided to leave the SA in the fall.

Empty seats would normally be filled via appointments by Meredith McCaffrey, UGBC executive vice president and MCAS ’17, but with several positions open she said she thinks it is better to hold an election.

The open positions are two senior class seats, one junior class seat, and a MCAS seat. McCaffrey said that this special election has not happened in her time in UGBC. Heights records indicate a special election was held in 2006 for a junior class seat, though sometime in the fall rather than the beginning of spring semester.

McCaffrey said students have already reached out to her about running, including some who were interested in seats back in the fall. She thinks the MCAS seat will have the most interest because it applies to the most

students.

As for the senior seats, she hopes they will be contested but is not sure yet. Whoever wins the special elections will hold the seats only for the rest of this school year, but they will be full members of the SA with committee placements.

“It will hopefully be a good way for people, whoever gets it,

makes sense for the election.

Appointments would make more sense if the vacancies were in the middle of the semester.

Overall, she thinks that the reduction in size of the SA this year from 50 to 35 members has made the members participate more actively than in the past.

The Elections Committee (EC), the independent body that

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to get a feel for SA, and then if they like it they can run again for next year, and if they don’t, then it’s only a semester,” she said.

The special election will take place from Jan. 23 to Jan. 26, a change from a normal campaign, which usually last a couple of weeks.

McCaffrey said this is not likely to become a common policy moving forward. The timing this year, where positions are vacant at the beginning of the semester,

runs UGBC elections, will host meetings this week for students interested in running for the SA or in the UGBC presidential election.

McCaffrey said she and Russell Simons, UGBC president and MCAS ’17, will be available for meetings with any interested teams, but they do not run the election.

Last year’s presidential election did not end until April 1, after multiple teams that had

declared their intent to run early on dropped out.

In early March, the Elections Committee decided to reopen the race so that other teams could declare, and hosted a primary to narrow the field to three teams.

The length of last year’s election was cited by Rachel Mills, former co-chair of the EC and BC ’16, as a potential reason for a decrease in voter turnout. Just 2,592 students voted in last year’s presidential election, down from 3,411 in 2015, and 4,332 in 2014. Mills also said that having a primary election probably contributed to making voters disinterested, because they would not want to vote twice.

Casey Doyle, co-chair of the EC and CSOM ’17, said in an email Wednesday that the timeline for the presidential election has been updated this year to be only 12 days, after what she called a drawn-out election last year.

This year, the election will kick off on Feb. 5, followed by a period of campaigning and voting on Feb. 15 and 16. A primary will be held on Feb. 13 if five or more teams declare their candidacy.

“Our goals for the year are to have a successful election and a large voter turnout,” Doyle said. “We definitely are a little concerned about filling the seats for the Student Assembly but are hoping UGBC will help drive interest.”

<Xicp 8ZZ\gkXeZ\ IXk\ K`Zbj Lg kf ** G\iZ\ek Admissions, from A1 SAT score between 710 and 770 for critical reading and 700 and 770 in math, and an average ACT score between 32 and 35. Notre Dame did not report standardized test scores. Both schools have different yield targets and class sizes from BC’s, so statis-

tics are not necessarily directly comparable.

About 2,500 early action applicants to BC were rejected, and 3,500 were deferred to be reconsidered in the regular decision round. Mahoney said his office has an ethical obligation to reject applicants who would not be competition in the regular

decision pool.

Combined with the regular decision applications received by the Jan. 1 deadline, BC has received a total of 28,500 applications to the Class of 2021, down from last year’s total of 28,900.

B C ’s alumni network has hosted 45 receptions across the

country for admitted students since applicants were notified, and Mahoney expects about 800 students to attend an Admitted Eagle Day on Jan. 29.

“Now we want to yield these students, and get as many of these great students to come to BC as we possibly can,” he said.

MARGAUX ECKERT / HEIGHTS ARCHIVE

88;J kf >\k K_i\\ Dfi\ :fi\ =XZlckp AADS, from A1 David Quigley and Dean of MCAS Rev. Gregory Kalscheur, S.J., about adding positions from the summer of 2015 to last winter.

“I was happy to authorize searches for AADS this year and I’m hopeful that we’ll welcome some talented new colleagues to the faculty later this year,” Quigley said in an email. “I continue to work with deans, department chairs, and program directors across the University to hire and retain a diverse and excellent faculty.”

The AADS website says that the program envisions successful applicants as teaching classes such as Introduction to African and African Diaspora Religions, Religion in Africa, and Varieties of Black Religious Experience, among others.

Summers said that the hirings will give the program the opportunity to explore becom-

ing a maj or dow n the line, because, between 13 affiliated faculty and nine core faculty, e ventually there could be a “critical mass” of professors necessary to become a major.

Currently, AADS offers a minor. He cautioned, though, that becoming a major will depend on interest from students, particularly those who would want AADS as their only major. As of Wednesday night, 10 of the 17 AADS classes being offered this semester are full.

Summers has a year and a half left as director of AADS, around which time the program is scheduled to go through an external review, when its longterm goals will be discussed. “[The hirings] will certainly change the intellectual environment in AADS, because we’ll be adding three more people with whom the existing core faculty can engage with around our shared research interests,” Summers said.

THE HEIGHTS

A4

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

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As I opened the door of the car, I entered into a whole new world that was both strange and eerily similar.

I walked along the sidewalk as a light mist fell on my head—the drops becoming visible under the light of the lampposts that flanked the street on both sides.

Then, I saw it: a bright pink sign that illuminated the façade of the Garment District.

“How did I get here?” I asked. In my mind, I thought I had explored every corner and alley of Cambridge during my three years here in the City. I was wrong.

University students like me are often caught in a state of mind where we believe we know everything there is to be known about any given topic. It’s but a reflection of being under constant intellectual trial, where we are expected to know as much as we can for all of our classes.

This leads us to then think that what we know is all there is to know about certain topics.

Moreover, we think we are indestructible, doing things that if we took the time to think we might not end up doing.

This train of thought went through my head in an instant. I was hit with a wave of realization—had I been caught in this same attitude? I tossed that thought aside and walked in.

The store opened up in front of me as I crossed the doorway and walked up a few steps.

An array of clothing styles plastered the walls from floor to ceiling, all organized by decade.

Bright neon signs indicated the direction for specific fashion trends.

Need an ugly Christmas sweater?

Check. Bomber jacket for a Top Gun costume? Check.

Want a more eclectic look to fit a recent realization about your personality? You better believe you’ll

find something.

The whole experience was reminiscent of an earlier time when the counter culture dominated the youth. In there, I saw things that I never thought I would see outside movies. At one point, I felt like I was walking through a scene from Terminator—large metal robot eyeing me from the corner included.

Upstairs had another realm for me to discover.

Half of the floor was adorned with Christmas decorations that ranged from the innovative to the ludicrous.

I must have seen Pokemon, Darth Vaders, and just plain ol’ elves in holiday attire.

For some reason, instead of confusion, it brought me an odd sense of joy and excitement. It was as if my young self met up with an alternate version of my being. I kept going with a noticeable pep in my step.

I did an about-turn, and I spotted something that I had never seen before: a whole section where they sold clothes “by the pound.”

Laughing, I left. I couldn’t handle the absurdity anymore.

Walking down the same street I had just been in but a few minutes ago, I saw it in a completely different light.

I was awakened from my stupor caused by routine and a misplaced sense of superiority.

I began to see the world and the City at face value once more—taking in all the experiences I could and extract as much as I could out of them.

I told myself that I could not fall into that state of mind anymore, as it placed a thin veil of deceit over my eyes, distorting every experience I could have and instead showing me a duller version of reality.

Boston holds many more secrets for me to find on my free time— when I’m not watching Westworld that is (if you haven’t seen this show, do yourself a favor and give it a shot, you won’t regret it).

I can’t wait to see the world anew now that I have lifted that distorting veil.

AlXe FcXmXii`X `j X j\e`fi jkX]] ni`k\i ]fi K_\ ?\`^_kj% ?\ ZXe Y\ i\XZ_\[ fe Kn`kk\i 7AlXeV?\`^_kj%

MEG DOLAN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Nfd\eËj DXiZ_ JXkli[Xp Women’s March, from A1

This Saturday, not even 24 hours explaining why they will attend the March.

With some marching for reasons that range from their personal rights or the rights of those unable to march for themselves to the threats posed to the environment, these short stories highlight the recent emotions that have surfaced within Americans in the months following the election.

Although the March will take place immediately after the Inauguration, it was not organized as an anti-Trump demonstration. As Zack Steigerwald Schnall, the youth and student organizer for the March, explained to The Heights over email, organizers hope that the March will unite Bostonians from every imaginable background and community and allow participants to march in solidarity with communities that feel threatened or marginalized in the modern world. Organizers also hope to remind leaders in America, and across the world, of the values of freedom, equality, dignity, and acceptance on which the country is built.

Steigerwald Schnall also noted that Boston, with its rich and complex history, is an ideal choice for such an event to take place. In the city where the American War

of Independence began, Saturday’s events will be unique in that they allow citizens to directly continue the American legacy of self-advocacy and free thinking.

Although the official title is the Boston Women’s March for America, Steigerwald Schnall emphasized that this march will welcome the participation of anyone interested.—it is a march for everyone.

“We welcome everyone to attend the March in affirmation of each other’s lived experiences,” Steigerwald Schnall wrote in an email. “If we can raise awareness throughout the broader community and send a signal to the rest of the world that we will not tolerate intolerance, the March will have been a success.”

As Saturday draws closer, Steigerwald Schnall offers advice to those hoping to attend the event. Marchers are encouraged to make signs to hold while marching, and to bring umbrellas in case of rain. For those concerned about getting hungry, worry not, for food trucks nearby will have food available for purchase.

Each attendee will have the opportunity to participate in something that will make history, and Steigerwald Schnall encourages interested participants to register online.

Currently, no student groups from Boston College have stepped forward to organize a contingent from the University.

PHOTO BY EXOWEAR

9: >iX[lXk\ 8`dj kf I\mfclk`fe`q\ ?\Xck_ :Xi\ N`k_ Be\\ 9iXZ\ JkXiklg 9P D@:?<CC< NL For The Heights

When Stephen Cheng, BC ’16, was a junior at Boston College, he noticed that his grandmother was struggling more with the osteoarthritis in her knee. Although Cheng’s grandmother had dealt with the condition over the years, she had consistently undergone physical therapy and exercises at home to improve the state of her knees.

For a while her condition was improving, until Cheng noticed a decline when he returned home to New York during winter break of his junior year.

Although she had continued to see a physical therapist, she was not following up with the at-home exercise regimen, so her condition worsened. Because Cheng had been at college, he did not fully understand the situation until he was home for break. Thus, Cheng grew a drive to change healthcare and developed the idea that eventually became the startup Exowear.

As one of the startup’s founders, Cheng explains that Exowear aims to physical therapy by using wearable technology that tracks, motivates, and coaches patients through their medical exercises from the comfort of their own home.

For patients like Cheng’s grandmother, this kind of technology positively intervenes in a recovery process that is strenuous on multiple different levels.

“She had a lot of trouble walking, and walking is something that is so fundamental to a person,” Cheng said. “Losing

that really hurt her physically but also emotionally, as she had to depend on others for even simple tasks.”

Losing the ability to walk is a vicious cycle in that the less one walks, the worse one’s health becomes, and the subsequent and inevitable weight gain makes it even more difficult to walk.

Many patients do not realize that they are improving, and many feel that they are not improving fast enough.

They are unaware that they are improving at a rate that is, in reality, normal, and a misunderstanding of the rate of recovery leads patients to lose motivation.

His grandmother’s situation inspired him to start Exowear and with new wearable technology, Cheng thought thatit would create a better way to moniter whether patients were doing exercises, as well as motivating them to do their exercises.

Currently, the Exowear device is strictly focused on a specific part of the body: the knee. The device can detect how one moves one’s knees, and measure the range of motion which is the angle between the ankle and the hip.

Additionally, the device can also measure the movement in a threedimensional space, not only knowing whether a patient completes his or her exercises, but also detecting the types of exercises patients are doing. By easily monitoring the patient’s progression, Exowear creates a transparency in their recovery that incentivizes patients to follow through with their exercises and corrects misconceptions about recovery

PHOTO BY EXOWEAR

The Exowear technology moniters the progression of a patient’s physical therapy and recovery.

time.

The Exowear team consists of a group of researchers from Boston College, along with members who recently graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. With such a large team that spans across different time zones, there have been many challenges, including communication. At the same time, this large team was beneficial, especially early on in the founding, providing Exowear with a variety of resources.

Cheng says that BC has played an important role in the founding of Exowear and cites the Elevator Pitch Competition (EPC) as the push he needed to start the company, where Exowear was named the Best Product winner by judges who are professional venture capitalists.

“Looking back, I can see that [those] competitions and events at BC [were] important. There are ideas out there; it’s just that you need to take that first step to begin the journey,” Cheng said.

“The EPC provided that opportunity for me along with feedback to improve my idea and the product.”

The team participated in the Shea Centre for Entrepreneurship’s first Accelerator program at BC, Accelerate at Shea, and the iVenture Accelerator through the University of Illinois. According to Cheng, Exowear’s participation in Accelerate at Shea in the spring semester of 2016 led them to a path of discovery. The program was great for recruiting members, and provided the team with the initial funding they needed.

Participation in the programs offered exposure, access to resources, and the opportunity to tap into all the networks available through the universities.

Cheng noted that they were especially helpful in that he could speak with people he would not normally be able to talk to, in terms of the process of customer discovery to physical therapists to health supervisors.

One of the biggest assets was the great mentors, who are able to guide founders through the mistakes they make when first starting a startup.

Cheng emphasized importance of advice from veterans in the startup industry, as they often have unique and valuable insights.

As of now, Exowear is working out of MATTER, a Chicago healthcare startup incubator. Cheng credits these accelerator programs for helping Exowear to learn about and get accepted into Matter. Although there are many applications for their technology such as in gaming and data, Exowear is looking to stay with healthcare and the company’s original mission of aiding patients in understanding and monitoring their recovery.

THE HEIGHTS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

A5

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MADELEINE D’ANGELO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Pf^XNfibj ]fi 8cc `e :_\jkelk ?`cc 9 P C 8LI<E K 8C@F =fi k_\ ?\`^_kj Word is starting to spread about the ne west kid on an already busy block. Earlier this we ek the much-anticip ate d newest location of YogaWorks at The Street, Chestnut Hill opened its doors to the public. Joining the boutiques surrounding the nearby Star Market, the 4,500square foot studio is sure to attract an energetic crowd that is eager to unwind.

With studios in Back Bay and the Boston University area, the Chestnut Hill location marks B o s t o n’s t h i r d Yo g aWo r k s , sending the message that it’s here to stay. In such an active city already punctuated with culty fitness studios, YogaWorks is sending a fresh message: yoga works for everyone.

D a n a K e l l y, t h e g e n e r a l manager of YogaWorks Chestnut Hill, explained that the YogaWorks business began in Santa Monica when the company’s founders— C hu c k M i l l e r, A l a n Fi n g e r, and Maty Ez raty —launche d a successful teacher-training program under the YogaWorks name in 1990. From there, the business expanded into studios, and spread across the country.

With 40 other locations spread across the nation, Kelly noted the company’s rapid expansion. Only half of the YogaWorks locations open today existed a year ago, showing how the brand has built a reputation through its training.

What is unique about the Chestnut Hill location, however, is that this is one of YogaWorks’ first studios to have been built from the ground up. The studio, which is with fitte d bamboo flooring and filled with environmentally friendly details, was designed with the hope of creating a safe and peaceful space for clients.

The Chestnut Hill location also features amenities such as a

boutique and a tea bar.

But Kelly hopes that YogaWorks will not only serve as a place for instructors to continue their education, but also as a space for the greater Chestnut Hill community to develop their practice as well.

Kelly feels confident that, by focusing on their trainers first and taking time to develop individuals who strive to grow, her team has created an atmosphere that is fun and homey.

Kelly said the differentiating factor of YogaWork s is that the team really listens to the community.

Before opening, the studio sent out a survey for founding memb ers and others in the community to uncover what i t i s th e y ’re l o o k i n g fo r i n a yoga studio. Not only are the times then catered to the Chestnut Hill yogi’s schedule, but what is expected from each instructor is also hyper-specific to this clientele. Even though the Chestnut Hill studio is close to the city, Kelly and her team understand that these groups of people live different lifestyles and want different things.

She described the Back Bay clients as more transient, whereas in Chestnut Hill, the many students and suburban parents seek out a cozier, more niche studio.

“It’s really about listening to the clients and getting feedback to make it the best for them,” Kelly said. “We want this to be your home away from home. As opposed to running in and out, you will be welcomed to hang out here.”

But Kelly clarified that the ultimate goal for any YogaWorks studio is to ensure that each client, no matter their needs and lifestyle, feel safe and welcome.

“We would love for this to be the place where you come to relax,” Kelly said. “To breathe and enjoy yourself, so you leave feeling better than you came.”

When asked how to encourage Boston College students to break out of their Plex routine and take a chance on YogaWorks, Kelly seemed deeply thoughtful. She understands all too well that it is easy to stay within your comfort zone, and not venture outside the sports and clubs that BC students are already invested in.

Offering some empowering insight into the world of “Om,” Kelly encouraged all athletes to give yoga a try, and to relinquish any preconceptions that they might have about the sport. She highlighted that with classes ranging from traditional Vinyasa flow classes to Hip-Hop yoga cla sses , there is a cla ss for everyone.

And for all those Reservoir runners out there, YogaWorks plans to roll out its unique “Om the Run” series—a short, group run in the neighborhood followed by an hour long of stretching and relaxation—to the Chestnut Hill studio early fall.

“Yoga doesn’t have to be the only sport you do,” Kelly said. “It’s a great complement for any sort of athlete.”

Kelly e ven urged student groups to reach out to her for events. YogaWorks loves hosting events regardless of if people simply need the studio space for a party or for a fundraising event—the business owners want people to come in and enjoy doing something healthy.

In addition to the enthusiastic welcome, YogaWorks Chestnut Hill is offering two weeks of unlimited classes for $25 to new students during their grand opening to introduce the Chestnut Hill community. Kelly also hints that B C students should make sure to look out for passes on campus for free week of unlimited classes.

Kelly promises you’ll be met by an eclectic, holistic group of strong people. So grab a friend, unroll your mat, take a deep breath in and unwind.

If you are Boston College student lucky enough to have a car on campus, you might want to make slowing down one of your resolutions for the new year.

Earlier this month, on Jan. 9, Boston’s new default speed limit went into effect, dropping from 30 mph to 25 mph.

Even though the reduction is only five miles per hour, it greatly decreases the likelihood of a driver or pedestrian suffering injury in the event of collision.

Not only are drivers given more time to react, but at 25 mph the chance of a pedestrian death decreases from 20 percent to 12 percent.

A f te r G o v e r n o r C h a rl i e Baker passed a law granting towns and cities the authority to lower their speed limits in the summer of 2016, Boston’s City Council approved the move to decrease the speed limit within city limits in late November.

Vineet Gupta, the Director of Policy and Planning of the Boston Transportation Department (BostonDOT), explained that before the movement was approve d, Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, other city officials, and BostonDOT worked with advocacy groups to build support for the initiative.

Ultimately, it was the combined efforts of citizen advocacy groups and state legislators that helped pass this initiative.

Even though many steps had to be taken within the city government to decrease the speed limit within the city, the initiative falls under the far-reaching Vision Zero project.

Although Boston had always been concerned with moving toward a greater level of safety on the city streets, it was in March of 2016 that Walsh announced that Boston would join the Vision Zero coalition.

Born in Sweden during the late

1990s, Vision Zero is a now global initiative that aims to increase the safety on roads by eventually eliminating fatalities and dangerous crashes.

Within Boston, Walsh hopes to eliminate any traffic related fatalities or serious collisions by 2030. Gupta explains that Vision Zero acted as the driving force behind the 25 mph initiative.

Vision Zero serves as a formalizing process for initiatives like the 25 mph policy, as it allows Boston to join cities around the country—and around the world— to take collective action in reducing crashed on city streets.

A large concern for the officials behind this initiative was spreading word about the speed limit reduction throughout the city.

Gupta explained that there were two dimensions to addressing this concern: educating the public and enforcing the new regulation.

I n o rd e r to s u f f i c i e ntl y spread awareness throughout the public, Gupta explains that officials launched an education campaign.

Large posters were not only hung throughout the city and on the T, but advocacy groups also aided the city in spreading the news. A massive email campaign also served as an effective tool in bringing the change to the public’s attention.

As far as enforcing the new speed limit, Gupta explained that while the city of Boston is not legally allowed to use speed cameras to detect and fine drivers exceeding the speed limit—a regulation that is the case in many areas around the country—they do have alternative methods.

One such method is a sign that confronts drivers with their own speeds.

“In areas where we have notices that there are some streets that are showing higher speeds than others, we have installed

signs that use radar to monitor the speed [of the passing car],” Gupta said. “When you’re going too fast they start to flash.”

In addition to signs like these, the Boston Police Department also expressed their commitment to enforcing the new speed limit.

The BPD will have officers observing and enforcing the new speed limit and encourage motorists to voluntarily adhere to the new limits with the goal of keeping the traveling public safe,” Lt. Mike McCarthy said in an email.

City officials also encourage Bostonians to spread the word among themselves about the new initiative.

In addition to using Twibbon to change your Facebook or Twitter profile to one that supports the initiative, the city also provides a series of posters that citizens can download and print out. These posters, which are available in six languages, use clean graphics to explain the change and the facts behind it.

The initiative is still in its early days, but as of now, there have been no complaints regarding the speed limit reduction.

For those concerned that the speed limit decrease might increase the congestion of traffic in the city, Gupta explains that fast traffic does not guarantee an efficient flow of traffic.

In many areas of the city, such as Back Bay, traffic lights are timed so that drivers going 25 mph will consistently hit green lights. If a driver goes above that, they are more likely to encounter a red light.

Far from any complaints, the Boston public has met this initiative with overwhelming support thus far.

“Everyone thinks that it’s the right thing to do because keeping the speed down dramatically reduces the possibility of a serious injury or even a fatality in a collision,” Gupta said.

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

As part of their Vision Zero initative, the Boston government decreased the speed limit to 25 mph.

THE HEIGHTS

A6

EDITORIALS

QUOTE OF THE DAY

E\n 88;J Gif]\jjfi ?`i\j @e[`ZXk\ Gif^i\jj The University will hire three new core faculty members to teach in the African and African Diaspora Studies Program (AADS). One of the incoming professors will teach African American literature and culture in the English department, while the other two will be hired by AADS to teach courses in race, religion, and the African diaspora. One of these professors will be based in the theology department, and the other appointee will be based in either the art, art history, and film department or the history department.

AADS currently consists of six core faculty members and 13 other affiliated professors and offers a minor and an independent major. Classes within the program can fulfill cultural diversity, history, and English core requirements.

In January 2015, the Undergraduate Government of Boston College released a report that called for the University to expand its diversity efforts. In addition to increasing funding for AADS, the report called for a greater allocation of resources to other potential majors such as Native American studies, Latin American studies, and Asian-American studies.

Last March, Introduction to African Diaspora Studies was added to the social science core and African Diaspora in the World I and II were added to the history core. Around the same time, a minor controversy broke out as some students criticized the history core for being, in their eyes, Eurocentric.

In a letter to The Heights in May of last year, Sarah Gwyneth Ross, the director of the history core, acknowledged the legitimacy of some student concerns with Eurocentrism within the history core at BC, but offered the addition of these courses as evidence of an increasingly international perspective and continued commitment to building a more diverse academic program.

The expansion of the AADS faculty represents an important step in promoting a

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

more culturally diverse curriculum at BC. For a University that designed its honors program around the “Western Cultural Tradition,” working to grow programs and departments that educate students outside of the traditional canon represents a commitment to becoming a more inclusive and diverse institution.

The University took an important stride in amending its curriculum when it added those courses to the core in the spring.

Students at BC have expressed concern that classes reflecting study outside of the Western culture are often restricted to the cultural diversity core. The addition of further courses within the AADS program that can fulfill history and English requirements

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr., Oberlin College Commencement speech, 1965

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

A Message to BC Hockey Fans From Jerry York

In our first game at Kelley Rink of 2017, our students turned out in full force, possibly the best I have seen in my 23 years as head coach of our Boston College hockey team. Seeing the entire student section packed while our team came to the ice for warmup was not only a sight for myself, our coaches, and student-athletes to behold, but it is a great representation of our university.

I want to personally thank each and every one of you for coming out and supporting our team against one of our greatest rivals.

Although we did not get the result we were

looking for that night, I can assure you, your passion and energy have stayed with this team and we promise to carry it through the rest of the season to the best of our abilities. We hope that all of you maintain that enthusiasm for our club going forward as we try and channel your passion to victory.

Thank you!

The Heights reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity, accuracy, and to prevent libel. The Heights also reserves the right to write headlines and choose illustrations to accompany pieces submitted to the newspaper.

Letters and columns can be submitted online at www. bcheights.com, by e-mail to editor@bcheights.com, in person, or by mail to Editor, The Heights, 113 McElroy Commons, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467.

A<IIP PFIB J:?@CC<I =8D@CP ?<8; ?F:B<P :F8:?

@k `j `dgfikXek k_Xk k_\ Le`m\ij`kpËj XZX[\d`Z gif^iXdj i\Õ\Zk k_\ YXZb^ifle[j Xe[ `ek\i\jkj f] efk aljk jfd\ jkl[\ekj# Ylk Xcc f] k_\d% represents a necessary acknowledgment of student concerns on the University’s behalf.

Martin Summers, the Director of AADS, hopes that the addition of the three new faculty members will move the program one step closer to the quorum necessary to establish it as a major. Although this will depend on student interest, the establishment of an AADS major at BC would represent a heightened step towards intellectual and cultural diversity on campus.

The University should continue to develop programs such as AADS, as well as others, to create a more inclusive and broad academic program. As incoming classes at BC continue to become more diverse, it is important that the University’s academic programs reflect the backgrounds and interests of not just some students, but all of them.

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:LJKFD<I J<IM@:< Clarifications / Corrections

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Delivery

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The views expressed in the above editorials represent the official position of The Heights, as discussed and written by the Editorial Board. A list of the mem-

bers of the Editorial Board can be found at bcheights. com/opinions.

HEIGHTS

THE

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THE HEIGHTS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

A7

Kildg Dljk J\\b <em`ifed\ekXc Gif^i\jj ?Xe[j Lg# >iX[\j Lg IP8E ;L==P SYLLABUS WEEK - There is joy in its infamy. A light drizzle prior to the impending downpour of daily classwork, commitments, and responsibilities. As the hordes of students return to campus, they begin a week without care, in which beer cans and solo cups crowd dorm room desks, denigrating textbooks and notebooks to the role of coasters. It might be a Tuesday, it might be a Wednesday, but 9 a.m. classes and healthy sleeping habits will inevitably be disregarded. If it were a film, one might call it: The Silence of the Lounges. The concept of the weekend becomes obsolete, blurring the line between a good time, and all the time. Here is to pretending everything doesn’t matter for a little while, as if we hadn’t just had a month long break. College students tend to overextend, but no one ever said you could have too much fun. Well, maybe someone has, but they probably hate small animals and live in a cave in somewhere in Turkmenistan. Who cares what they think.

NO LONGER DESTROYING YOUR FAMILY’S DATA PLAN - The freshman whipped out his iPhone as his Dad drove out of the gates to Upper Campus. As his thumbs pinned the screen, they entered the usual routine. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, repeat. Only something was different. The familiar pair of thick semicircles above a smaller triangle in the top left corner of his screen had been replaced by a posse of circles, some plump, others empty. Unknowingly, the freshman had sewn the seeds of his demise at family dinner that night.

His habitual social media surfing was chewing through data faster than a beaver with a cocaine problem when given a fresh log. If only data could be replenished as easily as a tray of mozzarella sticks.

In the waning days of his presidency, Barack Obama has been busy promulgating rules and regulations, intent on propping up and protecting a legacy that is, to put it lightly, up for grabs. His eleventh-hour busywork is frantic and futile, given the expressed and ample interest his successor and an emboldened GOP have in rolling back and disassembling Obama-era decrees such as the Affordable Care Act or the Clean Power Plan (CPP).

There is one issue in particular—the pivot to clean energy and a world economy less reliant on fossil fuels—that all U.S. politicians and citizens should be weary to question or reverse. When Obama stepped up to the plate in ’08, he had soaring, Babe Ruth-like hubris in his nomination victory speech: “This was the moment when the rise of oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” Fast forward to 2017, and well, it wasn’t.

Climate scientists and those who keep tabs on how the planet is faring—a wholly depressing and dejecting pastime—know that the ocean is rising and the planet is ailing faster and faster. In the 21st century, coastal inundation, splintering Arctic ice sheets, and megadroughts are entering our vocabulary as they become the new normal. 2016 edged out 2015, which had beaten 2014, as the hottest year on record.

To Obama’s credit, the United States and the international community have begun to take fragile, modest steps in combatting the problem. Over the course of his two terms, Obama has presided over developments that give way to cautious optimism—the Paris Accords; the leadership of cities, states, and corporations in promoting and implementing sustainability measures; the deployment of scalable, cost-competitive renewable energy.

Hard-line environmentalists say that Obama’s climate legacy is a wash since he perpetuated the combustion of fossil fuel.

Sure, he tapped into petroleum reserves, built pipelines, and OK’ed the expansion of hydraulic fracturing, but this is part of

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change—via an advertisement—in 2009.

He has met with Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio, both outspoken environmental activists, but he has also met with people like Kanye West and William Happer, a Princeton physicist who thinks carbon dioxide is good for the earth. Trump’s cabinet appointments give the indication that he will hew to the side against taking any constructive measures.

For the State Department, he has chosen Rex Tillerson, who is currently the head of Exxon Mobil. For the EPA, he has picked Scott Pruitt, who in his tenure as Oklahoma’s Attorney General allied with the oil and gas industries and filed lawsuits against federal environmental initiatives.

There are external forces that give hope—the increasing affordability and appeal of clean energy, electric vehicles, green building, and energy efficiency; the international community’s commitment to curbing climate change; and the possible soft power and reputational considerations that would likely deter Trump from doing anything drastic or draconian to alter the U.S.’s current course on climate. After all, he wouldn’t want to make the U.S. a pariah in the international community or let a rival like China take the lead on the matter. Moreover, Trump will likely be obsessed with his legacy from the day he enters office, and he knows that charting a path backwards on climate change would not look good in the history books.

Disagreements over what we should do and how we should do it are perfectly sensible, but stalling progress for the sake of political gain or expediency—or to curry favor with fossil fuel industries—is nonsensical. Denial, delay, and disinformation are dangerous; we are mortgaging the health of our planet, ramping up species extinction, and jeopardizing the birthright of future generations.

The simple truth is that if we put politics before the planet, we’re in trouble. We are not being duped by professional scientists. The immediacy, certainty, and danger of climate change are a problem—it’s real, it’s here, we’re in trouble, et cetera et cetera. Here’s to hoping that Trump treats it with the attention it deserves.

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SOPHOMORE HOUSING LOTTERY March 14. Destiny day. Eight freshmen awake with hopes and dreams heavy in their hearts. They wait for the dreaded email, crowded around a single laptop. The freshman’s rhythmic clicking is the only sound that pervades the air as the group all stare intently at the screen. They’ve refreshed one, two, 27 times. Suddenly, an emboldened email appears at the top of the freshman’s inbox. It has come. Before they even read the message, two of the freshmen scream, and another faints in agony. One can be heard down the hall running to throw up in the bathroom. The bravest of the bunch takes a deep breath, and opens the message. He gasps, and slowly stands up from his computer.

The others drop their heads, and begin to weep. The news is unspoken, but it is clear. Their dreams have been crushed, and now two of them must be excommunicated.

They’ll probably select fainty and pukey. That was weird. Definitely don’t want to live with that.

being president—seeking compromise and consensus, keeping gas prices low, growing the economy, and achieving American energy independence. His was a measured fight against climate change.

Unfortunately, in the sorry state of politics today, what once was bipartisan is now deeply partisan. Emission reduction-averse industries can wield influence over political agendas, and too many members of the Republican Party are in lockstep opposition to any serious attempts to nip this problem in the bud. In 2010, the verdict of Citizens United opened the floodgates for special interests and companies to influence political decisions, which led to Republicans rolling back their support on the issue as it became politically weaponized.

Many members of Congress doubt the very existence of climate change or any anthropogenic connection to it. Included in this cohort—among many others—Senator Jim Inhofe, senior member of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, Congressman Fred Upton, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Senator Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader. Inhofe is the infamous senator from Oklahoma that brought a snowball to work to try and disprove climate change once and for all.

Echo chambers in Congress and comment sections on the internet might have you believe that you are being hoodwinked by the scientific and international communities.

This, coupled with tobacco industry-style distortionary campaigns that sow misinformation to the public, is problematic. Overzealous environmentalists want to tar and feather fossil fuel companies and over-expound on the doom and gloom of an Armageddon looming around the corner. There’s a fine line to walk between fear-mongering alarmism and dispassionate, levelheaded advocacy.

Both sides obscure progress by politicizing the issue and failing to compromise.

Back to the incoming administration—is there any case for environmental optimism?

Trump has modeled himself as a messiah for the coal industry, tweeted that global warming is a hoax created by China, and said that he’s, “not a big believer in man-made climate change.” He also told The New York Times, however, he had an open mind about climate change, and advocated for action on climate

Inhale. Exhale. I meandered throughout the crowd of people dressed in angular blazers and straight-edged dress pants, feeling conscious of the constant thrum of my own voice in my head: You don’t belong here. I looped around a pole at Eagle’s Nest. Ah, there was the man you wanted to talk to. Okay, don’t screw up. I began to walk towards him. Suddenly, a flash of khaki and blue appeared in my vision, cutting in front of me and making its way over to the man, eager to charm and schmooze an internship out of him. Okay, it’s fine, just play it off. I strode over to the shiny appetizer trays and filled my plate with the rolls. As I stood, munching on greasy deliciousness and watching the incessant conversations in front of me, I felt that familiar voice creeping into my thoughts. You are a big waste of time. Why are you even here if yo— I shoved the last crumbs into my mouth and took a long swig of my water, pretending that it was stronger than it really was. With as much confidence as I could muster, I walked over to the alum that I had initially set out to talk to. As I approached him, I extended my hand, “Hello. How are you? My name is Karen Choi and I just wanted to thank you for coming to Endeavor today.”

During the fall semester, the deep blue posters with Gasson’s spires peeping up from the bottom of the page led me to register for this three-day program to explore my career options. Endeavor promised to help me identify professional skills, network with alumni, and go on a career trek in Boston—all of which I was not aware of until the night before when I decided to look up the Career Center’s website. As I stayed up that night learning about Endeavor, I began to regret my

decision. After all, I already had an internship for the spring semester. I already knew what I wanted to do with my life after college. Going to this program would only throw me off this linear progression that I had fully committed myself to.

Perhaps I was right to be worried. But also, maybe this opportunity to explore was exactly what I needed at a point in my life in which I had begun to close certain doors on potential career paths.

Endeavor showed me that it was too early in my career path to be barring myself from the many opportunities that present themselves to undergraduates, even if they seemed unrelated to my major.

Many of the alumni at Endeavor took convoluted paths to their current professions, which are sometimes unrelated to what they studied in college. English majors became bankers. Theology majors now guide students through academic advising. Disillusioned film majors who fetched coffee after graduation are now leaders in nonprofit organizations. These alumni showed me that I did not have to conform to the expectations of my major, and that there was no harm in exploring other career paths. Before Endeavor, I didn’t want to consider different industries because I felt that I wasn’t qualified.

But most of all, I didn’t want to consider other career fields because I feared that I would become interested in them and distract myself from my three-year plan.

Like many of my peers, I’d grown sick of holiday parties this winter break—not of my family’s beloved traditions or of the delicious food, but of my relatives incessantly asking me what I was going to do with my English major. I have answered this question so many times that I no longer truly believe in my automated response: my major doesn’t really matter. My faith in this statement started to waver as I began comparing myself to my CSOM or CSON friends who seemed to have a clear path in front of them.

Suddenly, a liberal arts education and my English major seemed to indicate uncertainty rather than the effectiveness of a well-rounded education. The broad

nature of my studies created ambiguity, not a specific wealth of opportunity.

My experience at Endeavor, however, showed me that my major does matter.

Not in the sense that being an English major doomed me for life, but that the skills I have developed through my English classes are applicable and useful in many diverse career fields. An introvert can speak confidently to professionals who have become leaders in their companies. An English major can put her skills to use in the financial industry.

A girl with a three-year plan can change her mind. This program allowed me to step outside of my self-imposed confines and to develop the skills I already had so that I can explore a future that is brimming with more opportunity than I ever imagined.

We become so comforted by the idea of there being one fail-proof way to reach our dreams, even when we are not entirely sure what those dreams are. Given that college is a time of development, how can we be sure by our second year of college of what we want to do for the rest of our lives? In our comfort, we restrict ourselves. There isn’t just one way, but there are many ways to reach happiness.

On the last day of Endeavor, my group got the opportunity to venture to a company in Cambridge called Education First. The outside of the building had a geometric ribbon of tinted glass running down the front, which we later learned was called the “glass waterfall.” Each square pane was individually cut and fit into enormous, adjacent triangles that cascaded down the building. Some parts spiked out of the building and some jutted in. It was as if someone had cracked open a geode and revealed the glittering layers of crystals within it. As I stood inside the building, marveling at the sunlight filtering through the glass waterfall, I felt as if something had cracked within me as well.

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B<CJ<P :FEEFIJ When I got my first paper back in a history core class my freshman year, I was discouraged to see a B- on the top of the page. I went into office hours that afternoon to talk to my TA and ask for his reasoning behind the grade. After a short conversation, he bumped my grade up three points, changing the score to an 85. This was the first time I realized that by simply showing I cared about a class, I could improve my grade. This is a strategy I have utilized the past four semesters and has, I believe, yielded academic success.

With a new semester starting up and Canvas quiet for the time being, our grades and our class experiences have nothing but potential. Many of us are looking to improve our grades this semester.

Of course, this is easier said than done. For students who feel as though they reached their maximum number of hours in the library last semester, improving grades can seem like an almost impossible task. There may be, however, a way to boost grades without having to spend so much extra time studying. In fact, the solution could actually lie within class time, when no quiz or test is on the agenda. It also just might make your time in class more interesting and meaningful.

The secret I will let readers in on is not a proven theory, but is as simple as this: class participation and engaging with a professor can improve your overall grade.

It might sound overrated, or even obvious, but it makes all the sense in the world. Many courses actually have class participation factored into the overall grade, making the correlation between participation and final grade clear. The line is a little fuzzier when it comes to classes without a specified participation grade.

But in any classroom, be it a discussion section or a small lecture, raising your hand is beneficial, regardless of whether or not you get the answer right.

This semester, challenge yourself to raise your hand a set number of times each class period (please ignore this advice if you are in a 200 person lecture!). Not only will you be more engaged with the material, allowing you to better retain it, but professors will take notice. If you answer a question a few times per class, professors will remember you and, as long as you don’t overdo it, probably like you more for it. Think about it—no teacher wants to ask a question and see 25 students staring back blankly. If you are the one to be brave enough to give their question a shot, the professor will surely appreciate you for it.

Perhaps you have trouble speaking in front of large groups and don’t find it so easy to speak up in class, or are in large lectures where participation is not the norm. This does not mean your grade cannot benefit from participation. Emailing your professor with occasional questions about homework or class material is another way to engage and show that you care about the class.

Additionally, visiting office hours, even if it’s to ask questions about a recent test or to clarify class material, is a way of putting yourself out there and earning points with a professor, just in a more private, less intimidating setting. If you are shy, it helps to preface a private conversation with a professor by saying something like, “I’m kind of shy about speaking up in class, but I have a few questions about the exam.” This approach can earn you all the benefits of class participation without requiring you to actually have to speak up in front of a large group. Participating in these ways allows us to form good relationships with professors, a key factor in academic success. If a professor knows you are the kind of student that engages with and cares about class material, they will naturally be more likely to give you a higher grade.

Grades are also just one benefit of getting to know your professors. But they can be great resources to students in search of recommendation letters, thesis advisers, or just someone to talk with about academic goals or career advice.

Participating a little more this semester may put you on a path toward more academic success, so raise your hand and give it a shot.

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THE HEIGHTS

A8

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When I was younger, my mom showed me an old French movie called The Red Balloon. So many years later, I don’t remember much of the movie’s plot—I think he lost the balloon in the end—but certain images of a scruffy young boy carrying around a perfect red balloon have stayed with me. Maybe it’s just me, but over the years I have developed a certain affinity for the idea of giant red balloons. Something about their bright color and gleaming surface is inextricably linked to the hopeful and lighthearted joys of being a kid.

In fact, I think that this simple object—a giant red balloon—should be the worldwide symbol for hope. Not the popular choice of a dove in flight, or a circle without end, but a red balloon silhouetted in front of a bright-blue sky.

But after wandering through the Greenway’s Dewey Square Park, I was shocked to discover that I am far from being the only one linking this seemingly random object with such a tricky emotion.

Located in between Boston’s Waterfront and Fort Point areas, Dewey Square lies just past South Station. Much to what can only be the delight of the business people who work in many the nearby offices, the bustling square often fills with Boston’s trendiest food trucks when lunch rolls around. The square also contains a giant building that features a smooth 70 by 70 foot concrete wall on the back. This wall, which is shaped like a giant rectangle with half a circle protruding from the upper-left-hand corner, is also the perfect canvas.

Greenway officials first took advantage of this unconventional canvas in 2012, when they worked with the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) to cover the space with an ultimately controversial mural by the artistic duo Os Gemeos. But after a little over a year, the mural fell victim to the passage of time and the city’s harsh climate, and officials replaced the work.

The cycle has continued over the past years, with a new mural gracing the building’s surface each fall. Last year, it was visually straightforward—the entire wall space, painted a bright blue, featuring the words ‘A TRANSLATION FROM ONE LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER’ in bright-red block letters.

But this year, there is not a straightforward aspect of the mural to be found.

Titled Spaces of Hope, the surrealist Iranian artist Mehdi Ghadyanloo painted the Greenway’s fifth—and current—Dewey Square mural last October. While the work was underway, Bostonians could watch the mural come to life before their eyes.

When you see the mural for the first time and still don’t fully know what you’re looking at, it might just make your head spin. It looks like someone removed the back wall entirely, exposing the inside of the large concrete building for all of Boston to see.

In the art world, it is a ‘trompe l’oeil’ work, a kind of painting that fools the eye into thinking that the image on the canvas is real.

But instead of the real-life interior you might expect—maybe something like an industrial storage space—the mural depicts a dimly lit room filled with life-sized people.

These figures, many of whom stand in the building’s shadowy interior, each hold something in their hand, and they seem to be waiting in an unbelievably long line to ascend the short spiral staircase that hovers in the center of the building.

As you follow the figures, your eyes will travel upward, following the twists of the staircase until it comes to an end directly under a hole hollowed out in the roof of the building. The large hole shines light onto those waiting on the staircase, revealing that the object grasped in each figure’s hand is a red balloon. At this point, you might also notice the gigantic red balloon escaping through the hole in the ceiling, leaving the dark room and entering the light-blue sky.

Of course, this is all fake—a meticulously-crafted work of art. But when you see it, there’s something about it that’s more than just beautiful.

Maybe this something involves a feeling I cannot help but believe that the mural triggers within each viewer. Because at the end of the day, don’t we all just want to float off into the sky, gripping the fragile string of a perfect red balloon?

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

Boston, Status Update DXpfi DXik`e A% NXcj_# N:8J Ë'0# ^Xm\ _`j k_`i[ JkXk\ f] k_\ :`kp X[[i\jj k_`j n\\b# _`^_c`^_k`e^ jk\X[p ^ifnk_ Xe[ gif^i\jj dX[\ `e 9fjkfe% 9P N@CC@8D 98K:?<CFI 8jjk% D\kif <[`kfi Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09 delivered his third State of the City address Tuesday night, outlining his triumphs in office and introducing new proposals for the city. Walsh was greeted with a standing ovation as he took to the stage at Boston’s Symphony Hall to a packed crowd of supporters.

The speech marked the Mayor’s final State of the City address in his third term as mayor. This coming November, he will run for re-election against fellow Democrat Tito Jackson. In this year’s address, Walsh’s passionate remarks focused heavily on inclusiveness, reinforcing the notion that Boston is a city for everyone.

Walsh began the speech with an array of impressive statistics that highlighted his achievements as mayor over the last three years. He proudly declared to Bostonians that the city is currently stronger than it has been in previous decades.

Over the last three years, Walsh said his administration has added 60,000 new jobs to the city and decreased the unemployment rate to 2.4 percent—the lowest on record. Walsh went on to mention the vast improvements in public safety to a crowd of 2,500 people. “ We b r o u g ht violent crime down by 9 percent, property crime down by 16 percent and, just as important, arrests are down 25 percent since 2014.” Walsh said.

Wa l s h t r u m peted his success of combatting the housing shortage by building 19,000 new homes, resulting in 1,052 Bostonians moving from the streets into their own homes. As the crowd erupted in applause, Walsh then vowed to end all chronic homelessness by 2018.

Under Walsh’s leadership, Boston has enjoyed steady growth. The population is up almost 30,000 people to a 50-year high. Walsh boasted that Boston is ranked the best city for startups and a leader in venture capital success. He added that the city is now America’s shoe capital, manufacturing brands like New Balance,

the unemployment rate decreased

2.4%

.052% of Bostonians moving from the streets into their own homes

Converse, and Reebok.

Walsh made it a point to include Boston’s flourishing arts and culture scene. The city invested $90 million in neighborhood branch libraries all across Boston and for the first time, arts funding is being added to the capital budget.

Walsh then shifted gears, discussing his proposal to make Boston a more prosperous city.

The plan was a rundown of the improvements that need to be made with jobs, housing investments, infrastructure, education, and public safety.

“For the first time in half a century, Boston is a city with a plan,” said Walsh.

“Imagine Boston 2030, a plan drafted by thousands of Bostonians, will shape growth to benefit all our residents for decades to come.”

Walsh continued his speech mentioning his efforts to confront transportation issues, proposing a scheme to upgrade infrastructure to alleviate traffic. Cutting edge traffic light technology hopes to ease the traffic on Boston’s busiest streets with $300 million already secured to refurbish roads across the city for commuters.

Walsh pleaded that the people of Boston deserve a better functioning public transit system. He claimed that the Massachusetts economy needs a better commuter rail service, explaining that the officials must develop a strong and fully funded plan so that the T can meet the demands of the modern world.

Walsh stated that Boston officials are making steady progress with the city’s public education, even though there remain problems to be addressed. He recognized the steep barriers many students still face, but was confident in his plans for the future saying, “Public schools are the foundation of equal opportunity.”

Walsh announced that in the coming week, he will file legislation in an effort to eliminate the opportunity gap in early education by offering free, high-quality pre-kindergarten education to every single 4-year-old in the city.

The proposal will be funded by Boston’s tourism taxes. In addition, another $1 billion will be invested into the 10-year facilities plan which aims to revamp Boston’s school buildings, allowing every student to learn in high quality 21st century classrooms.

Walsh then turned his attention to public safety in the city. In a poignant moment of his speech, Walsh regretfully mentioned the 45 homicides in the city over the last year. Despite shootings being down 6 percent, he acknowledged that his work is far from over. Walsh’s goal for the future is to reduce homicides to zero percent. Through Operation Exit and Professional Pathways, Walsh also hopes to get troubled youth to leave the streets behind.

As Walsh began to wrap up, his attention moved towards the defiant spirit of Bostonians. With President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration this Friday, Walsh addressed his concerns of uncertainty and a lack of trust with government. Walsh promised that regardless of what happens nationally he will fight for the city’s values.

“We are in this together, and we will fight everyday for each other, for Boston, and for all its people.”

arrests are down

25% since 2014

@e ;\Z\dY\i# 9\cfm\[ <X^c\Ëj E\jk <dgcfp\\ C\k >f 9P :?I@J ILJJF 8jjfZ% E\nj <[`kfi Maria Gonzalez, a popular member of the Eagle’s Nest dining staff known for her friendly disposition and care for Boston College students, was let go from BC Dining before Winter Break. A famous face on campus, students would wait in long lines at Eagle’s Nest each day to have their sandwiches specially made by her.

Gonzalez was hired as an employee three years ago through Snelling, a temporary employment agency. She knew that she would not be a permanent employee of BC Dining, but did not expect to be let go so suddenly in December.

When Gonzalez went to the dining manager’s office after her last shift to ask about her hours for second semester, an assistant to the manager informed her that she would not be working at BC the following semester. In a phone interview on Wednesday, Gonzalez expressed confusion over her dismissal.

“They didn’t give me any other reason,” Gonzalez said. “Just ‘we don’t need you anymore.’ They didn’t even say ‘thank you.’ That’s the most aggravating thing.”

BC Dining hires approximately 90 temporary employees and 800 BC students and local high school students to fill up open employment slots, according to Director of BC Dining Services Elizabeth Emery. BC Dining only uses an outside temporary agency, such as Snelling, when it has been unable to fill an open slot with a BC hire. Gonzalez’s firing was due to her spot being filled by a BC employee after BC Dining hosted a recruiting fair that attracted many new employees.

“We have filled the open position with a Boston College employee and informed the

temporary agency and met with Maria personally,” Emery said in an email. “We thank Maria for her service to the BC students and community.”

Gonzalez was also upset that she did not have a chance to say goodbye to students, many of whom she had become close with over the years. She had the cell phone numbers of some of the students closest to her and decided to call them on Monday to let them know she would no longer be working at Eagle’s Nest.

Andrew Kubicek, CSOM ’19, was upset when he got the phone call from Maria. He immediately went to Facebook to share his frustration and created the petition. Hundreds of students received Facebook notifications on Monday afternoon that they had been invited to an event titled “Eagle’s Nest Boycott: They Fired Maria!”

“It has come to my attention that our beloved Maria from Eagles [sic] Nest has been fired and will not be making our Tuscan Chickens anymore,” the private event description states. “Seeing Maria was the highlight of many of our days and in an effort to get her back at BC there will be a boycott on all of Eagles [sic] Nest. BC can take our money but they can’t take our Maria!”

Over 400 people were invited to the event on Facebook.

“She felt caught off guard,” Kubicek said.

“She knew it couldn’t have been a performance issue.”

Some students are confused about why Gonzalez, one of the most beloved members of the dining staff, was the one that was picked to be replaced from the pool of employees from temporary agencies.

“It made me feel so bad because I had been working so hard for the students,” Gonzalez said. “I treated them like they were my own

kids.”

Gonzalez’s daughters live in Peru. Every time she served students, she said, she would treat them like she would treat her daughters.

“It’s that mom feeling,” Gonzalez said.

“That’s how I felt for you guys.”

Gonzalez began a new full-time job at Brigham and Women’s Hospital on Monday, but said she misses working at BC. Although she did not get the chance to say goodbye to students, she wants to thank them for everything.

“I would have loved to tell them goodbye and thank you,” Gonzalez said. “Behave and be a good boy and girl. I love them too.”

ANDREW SKARAS / HEIGHTS ARCHIVE

Gonzalez often made Tuscan Chicken sandwiches at the Eagle’s Nest station above.

REVIEW

‘SILENCE’

JESUIT PRIEST GRAPPLES WITH FAITH IN THE FACE OF HARSH REALITY, PAGE B3

COLUMN

REVIEW

LISTEN TO YOUR INSTINCTS, IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS, PAGE B3

THE PAPACY GETS A FACELIFT IN A YOUTHFUL POPE WITH CONSERVATIVE VIGOR, Page B4

TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT

‘The Young Pope’ THURSDAY | JANUARY 19, 2017

THE

MEG DOLAN / HEIGHTS EDITOR | ZOE FANNING / HEIGHTS EDITOR

THE HEIGHTS

B2

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

A Film by Gautam Chopra:

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When watching a film, reading a book, or witnessing events throughout the world, it is human nature to inject oneself into the forefront. The question of “Who would I be in this scenario?” is a ancillary version of the larger question “Who am I?” Gautam Chopra, a film studies professor at Boston College, seeks to bring these ideas to the screen in his latest film Licorice, a uniquelystylized coming-of-age film.

After hitting a dog in the street, a girl named Pinky (Nivita Chaliki) follows the animal into the backyard. As soon she finds the owners, Mike (Eli Goykhman) and Tara (Emily Pattison), who happen to be fellow classmates at her high school. After confronting her peers, Pinky embarks on an internal journey of value and self-worth. As she grapples with external forces passing judgement on her, Pinky must weigh in on herself in this relativistically-oriented world.

Drawing inspiration from films such as The Ice Storm (1994), Sex, Lies & Videotape (1989), and Wendy and Lucy (2008), Licorice speaks to many similar themes of intimacy and personal growth, while bringing its own voice to issues both modern and outside of time. The notion of figuring out who one is is not a new question, but remains timeless and difficult to answer.

The short film had its origins in other film ideas Chopra was investigating. Thought to be a part of a larger, feature length film, the events captured in Licorice originally stemmed from an idea about a woman in her 30s. The events were, therefore, part of the past. Chopra soon found that this auxiliary story was packed with enough substance to warrant its rendering as a short film.

From an early planning stage, Chopra made it clear that this film would steer away from any melodrama or inauthentic forays into the problems of youth. To achieve this, he wondered whether the story should revolve around a hyper-specific series of events or broader themes that would connect to the largest audience. This line of reasoning resulted in a seemingly paradoxical conclusion—the more specific the story becomes, the broader the appeal.

“I was afraid people would laugh at how these specific things or the way these characters act,” Chopra said. “But when you are afraid to say something, usually that means you are on the right track.”

He elaborated further that those uncomfortable, uncanny aspects of life, found in these characters, are more likely to elicit an emotional response. Specificity in a story lends itself to that goal. The idiosyncratic nature of these characters is established, therefore, when we put ourselves in their shoes—they feel lived in.

Within this smaller, specific framework, the imperative became creating authentic and wholesome rendition of these characters.

Much of this depended on the performance elicited from the actors. Despite both writ-

ing and directing the film, he found that the casting of the film became the lengthiest process.

Initially, Chopra thought of casting older, more seasoned actors to play these younger characters, but he feared the adjustment would not reflect the more nuanced sentiments and affect the emotional connect of the film. Despite deciding to “go for it” by casting younger actors, the contentious relationship between

younger actors, who might not yield desired performances, was a chief concern.

Pulling from local talent, and using his students as resources, the film was able to land young actors who could accurately portray the characters as Chopra saw fit. Joe LaRocca, a film studies professor at BC who served as assistant director on the film, described how these worries soon fell to the wayside once a suitable cast had been found.

“I was nervous about having teen actors,” LaRocca said. “But they were more professional than I was.”

In film, many choose to stay away from the unpredictability of animals and children.

feeling,” Chopra said. “Constantly competing on Instagram and Facebook, constantly asking, ‘How do I stack up?’”

This onslaught of comparison undoubtedly influences one’s perceptions knowingly or unknowingly, especially among the younger populations. These woes may seem fleeting or decursive, but their ramifications remain all too real to many. Though touching on many issues including sex, marginalization, and isolation, Licorice sees one simple, yet powerful sentiment come to light—listen to yourself, not other people.

Aesthetically, Chopra described the film as handsome with a beautiful collage of browns, greys, and light blues.

The work of art director Elissa Nechamkin, the art team of Caroline Witts, and production designer Ilana Galpert, supplied sets that were a resounding force in their own right on screen. Just as important, the world these characters live in must be as authentic as the characters themselves.

Lending to the overall feel of haze and uncertainty laced throughout the film’s narrative, the sets bolstered the narrative effort.

Regarding a different aspect of production, fog played an important role in furtherinwg this metaphor. The fog machine was a more visual way of creating atmosphere in a crisp way that compounds the ideas being played out around it.

“You can see the air and it gives the film a nostalgic feel while still keeping the images sharp and clear,” LaRocca said.

“Additionally, the fog works well as a metaphor for the mind of the teen, although that was not something we talked about before shooting.”

Throughout the creative process, interestingly, Chopra himself admitted the directorial process again brought him into an interesting frame of mind.

Even an experienced filmmaker and professor could get nervous when helming such a creative undertaking.

“I felt like I was a student again—learning,” he said. “Each time you are confronted with a blank page and everyone is asking you what to do. I felt like I was back at that place again.”

Seemingly referential to the plight of its characters, the entirety of the creative process and the film itself is one of discovery. Just as a story is PHOTOS COURTESEY OF GAUTAM CHOPRA pieced together and brought “I had a specific vision about who this girl to fruition on camera, so too are our lives are was and how she would act in certain situa- penned before our eyes.

Expect to see Licorice sometime before tions,” Chopra said. “But the actress [Chaliki] March as it enters its later stages of posthelped expand my view of the character.”

This kind of adaptive thinking echoes the production.

Licorice is poised to be a story equipped openness to change and personal development to make compelling points without being seen throughout the film.

Thematically, the film is especially perti- heavy-handed or overly reticent. The universal nent in this day and age. Self-worth and stack- notions of self-discovery and evaluation are ing up to others proves to be a more pressing certain to resonate to some extent within all issue as technology facilitates the comparison. viewers. Efficaciously creating three-dimenThis is where the specificity best lends itself, as sional characters in the span of a short film the problems being seen on screen are reflec- furthers the aims of the film—that struggles of all ages, of all degrees of brevity, can be just tive of a reality off of it.

“The film really looks at what people are as poignant and compelling.

But, as LaRocca described, Chopra was able to integrate them in a masterful way that fully takes advantage of the talents and demeanor of younger actors on screen.

Though Chopra had developed an image of what the characters, namely Pinky, would be like through the writing process, he still was surprised when he found the characters continued to evolve during and throughout the casting process.

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PHOTOS COURTESEY OF GAUTAM CHOPRA

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I’M JUST SAYIN’

Why do people read criticism? Generally speaking, people like to have a good time at the movies. A movie review can help them decide if a particular movie is right for them.

So the movie critic must answer the all-important question: Should I see this movie?

The answer isn’t always a sweeping yes or no. Of course, everyone should see movies like Jaws, The Godfather, or Whiplash.

They are objectively good movies. And of course, no one should ever see some awful movie like The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl: 3D ever—even once. And sure, maybe that one is more of a personal vendetta, but come on, it’s terrible. It has “3D” IN THE TITLE and the villain is the HEAD OF GEORGE LOPEZ (Okay, calm down, deep breaths, Jacob). But for a majority of movies, it isn’t, however, a black and white issue. What one person might like, another might hate. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy a mindless action movie.

But I can’t stand crappy romantic comedies.

Other people would say that I have no idea what I’m talking about, and that The Other Woman with Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, and Kate Upton is the paragon of cinematic excellence. They would be wrong, but their opinion is completely valid. So here we have our predicament. How does one decide what to rate a movie, and whether or not to recommend it?

Ratings present the principal issue when answering these questions. It has always been my opinion that a few stars or a number out of 10 can’t capture all of the things that go into making a movie good or bad.

Plus, there is always the issue of comparing ratings. In the reviews that I watch or listen to that gave ratings, there are always people in the comments section saying things like “I can’t believe you gave movie X and movie Y the same rating! How do you sleep at night?” To lend some credibility to my argument, we can look to one of the greatest film critics of all time, Roger Ebert.

Let’s jump back to a simpler time, when everyone’s biggest problem was the end of the Mayan calendar, 2012. Two very different movies were released. One was Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and the other was The Avengers. Clearly, these are very different movies, and one is objectively a better movie than the other (see if you can figure out which is which), and yet, THE Roger Ebert gave both movies 3 out of 4 stars. Does that mean that Roger Ebert would have said that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is just as good as The Avengers? Not at all.

Therein lies the problem with comparing movies. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a historically inaccurate horror/monster movie and The Avengers is a star-studded superhero summer blockbuster. They have nothing in common beyond “they’re both movies.” So why did they get the same number of stars? It’s because Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a pretty good historically inaccurate horror/monster movie that fans of the genre will enjoy, and The Avengers is a pretty good star-studded superhero summer blockbuster that fans of the genre will enjoy. These movies should only be compared to other movies like them and should be rated on how close they come to being all they can be. It’s apples and oranges really.

For all of the flaws with the ratings system, there are positives. Three out of five stars gives the reader something concrete to hang on to. The critic might go back and forth in the review, but at the end of the day, those stars say very clearly: “Yeah, it was a pretty average movie.”

Personally, I want people to see the movies I think are good and to not see the movies I think are bad. If my 4 or 5 stars gets someone to see a great movie and they have a good time, my work is done. And if my 1 star stops someone from seeing Transformers 8: This Time It’s Just One Big Explosion, then I’m happy as a clam. Obviously, I think reading the review is better than just looking at the rating, and I believe it’s much easier to figure out if you would like a movie or not that way. But ultimately, whether or not you see a movie is entirely up to you. I like to think that movie reviewers (myself included) help you to make it an informed decision.

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THE HEIGHTS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

B3

JZfij\j\Ëj ÊJ`c\eZ\Ë Jfnj Jfiifn 9P A8:F9 J:?@:B 8jjk% 8ikj I\m`\n <[`kfi Faith is not an easy thing to have. In today’s world, especially in a developed country like the United States, most people like to think that everyone is free to hold and express their religious beliefs.

These freedoms are protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution. But in reality, those protections may not always lead to the intended outcome.

For example, Muslim people have experienced a great deal of discrimination in recent years. In other parts of the world, Christians, Jews, Hindus, and members of every other religious group experience the same persecution because of their beliefs. In 17th century Japan, Christians faced an Inquisition, in which they were hunted down and forced to reject the religion on pain of death. Martin Scorsese’s Silence examines the conflict between keeping the faith in a setting in which no one is being killed and the use of faith, pragmatically speaking.

Silence first premiered in Rome—a fitting setting—on Nov. 29, with a wide release on Jan. 13.

Scorsese claims that he has been working on this passion project for the last 25 years. The film takes place in Southern Japan, where Jesuit Catholic missionaries have been working to bring Christianity to the Japanese farmers and fishermen. A Portuguese Jesuit priest in Macau has received word that Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) has renounced his faith in the face of the persecution of Christians by the Japanese government. He relays this information to Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Father Garupe (Adam Driver), two of Father Ferreira’s former pupils.

As incredulous followers, Father Rodrigues and Father Garupe set out to find Father Ferreira and clear him of this slander.

Neither are prepared for the hor-

rors plaguing Japan when they arrive. Sitting in the theater, the audience is hardly prepared for it either until the first scene of the movie plays. Silence opens with the brutal mass torture of Japanese-Christians being witnessed

by Father Ferreira. Their torturers have crucified them next to springs of boiling water and are continuously pouring the water down the bodies of the victims, leaving their skin red with burns.

Father Ferreira watches on in horror while being told that he could save them all if he would only apostatize himself (renounce his beliefs).

For such a short title, Silence is a long movie. It’s truly an epic, spanning two hours and 41 minutes of real time, while the story is spread out over decades in the lives of the characters. This runtime is par for the course with Scorsese at this point, especially considering it isn’t even his longest feature film (Gangs of New York takes it with three hours and 36 minutes). Silence is definitely a “slow burn.” The movie makes no apologies for its length, and spends all the time it needs getting where it wants to go.

The characters drive the movie forward, with most of the cast turning in a great performance.

Two characters stand out amid all the rest. The first is Kichijiro (Yosuke Kubozuka), a Japanese peasant. He acts as the guide for Father Rodrigues and Father Garupe in getting them to the islands where Father Ferreira was last seen. He was a Japanese Christian, converted by earlier Jesuit visits to the country, but he considered himself one no longer.

Toward the beginning of the inquisition, the Japanese government had captured him and his family, who are also Christians.

They had threatened to burn them alive if they did not step on a fumi-e, a carved image of Christ, to show that they had no respect or faith in the religion and were

willing to soil an image of Christ.

Every member of his family refused to step on it, instead choosing to martyr themselves, except for Kichijiro, who watched as his family burned alive. His arduous beliefs clash magically with the brutality he must endure.

The second is Governor Inoue (Issei Ogata). Head of the inquisition in Nagasaki, where Father Ferreira lives and where Father Rodrigues eventually travels to.

He is the villain of the movie, and he plays his role well. He and Father Rodrigues often have conversations about the nature of Christianity in Japan. This leads to the most compelling aspect of his character.

Clearly, Father Rodriguez is the protagonist, and is who the audience roots for. But taking the situation into account, some of the points made by Governor Inoue actually make sense. Father Rodrigues’ responses to Inoue’s arguments seem hollow in the face of the suffering that he has the power to stop.

These conversations, and the events in the latter half of the movie bring the main conflict of the movie into focus.

The answer to this problem is what Silence drives at for so long. Father Rodrigues sees the suffering of these “innocents,” yet he does not act. He is presented with the option to free them all if he would only apostatize, the act itself being “only a formality” according to the Japanese themselves. Rodrigues’ inner conflict is palpable by the audience. He is a man who has devoted his life to serving God. He cannot denounce Christianity. But what is he to do? The Japansese will not kill him, so he cannot martyr himself. Instead they will kill innocent Christians, whom he has the power to save. Is his faith more important than their lives? His prayers bring the title of the movie into frame – he receives nothing but silence in return.

Silence is not an a “fun” movie.

It is very long, and at times quite slow. But it is beautiful, it is compelling, and it is a great movie.

Silence leaves the viewer with questions that don’t have easy answers.

It is one man’s religious journey through life, and it is a difficult journey.

In the end, the path toward faith is one that many people struggle with, and Silence shows the power that faith can have for those who believe.

FILM

SILENCE MARTIN SCORSESE DISTRIBUTED BY PARAMOUNT PICTURES RELEASE JAN. 13, 2017 OUR RATING

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WORD FROM MARS

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M<IFE@:8 >FI;F This Christmas season, I was given the gifts of discretion and foresight. Over Winter Break, I was asked to be a part of a music video. The role would be simple: show up, sit in front of a vanity, and put on makeup. Or so I thought.

I should have expected that there was more to the task than initially explained. This role in the music video was not one I auditioned for, but merely one that had fallen in my lap due to an old friendship.

Texting me a couple days before Christmas, this friend asked if I could do him a favor and minorly participate in the filming of his first music video. He sent me the link to his SoundCloud page and had me listen to the track in question. The cool, urban, retro sound with a talented rap feature about succumbing to the desire of fame and fortune instantly conjured up images of a sleek, modern house in sunny Miami and a music video full of exciting energy. I was hooked and said yes.

He and I had had a rocky past as friends when it became clear that he wanted more than a friendship. Over the years, it had become a struggle to maintain a friendship, but the music video seemed like the perfect olive branch between two musically and artistically passionate

friends.

As the date soon approached for the filming day, I began to grow anxious about my role in the video. The more I asked for concrete details about a time, location, and other important information the more I was rebuffed in order to talk about my “scene.”

What this friend had initially described to me as a solo glamour shot, became a tension-filled, on-screen romance between the two of us. Chills went down my spine—this wasn’t what I had signed up for. As the texts came pouring in, my anxiety rose. Suddenly, more acting and modeling was required. When he asked for my input on how we should demonstrate “a great love scene,” I broke. It dawned on me that my role as an extra was actually one as a major love interest. The lie further revealed the unprofessionalism of the project. Not only would I be providing my own clothes, hair styling, and makeup, I had no idea who would be filming the video or when or where.

After the other shoe had finally dropped, I told him that his new vision was one I couldn’t be a part of. His wish to have me play a pretend girlfriend would not come to fruition. I had always wanted to see a musical project come to life and the thought of being a part of one had sent me over the moon. The reality of the situation, however, was what brought me back down to Earth.

The experience taught me a valuable lesson about opportunities. I struggled with cancelling at first because I was worried about missing out on an opportunity to try something new and be a part of something fun and interesting.

There is a fine line, however, between putting yourself outside your comfort zone for the

sake of success and just being plain uncomfortable.

Often, naive individuals in the music and film industries are taken advantage of because they are blinded by their sheer want to be a part of something great, something bigger than themselves. In doing so, they miss big, waving red flags signaling a hidden agenda.

Drew Barrymore’s pre-pubescent drug ridden ascension to fame instantly comes to mind.

Due to her parents neglect and mismanagement she ended up in rehab by age 14 and emancipated from said parents by age 15.

It’s easy to believe that everyone is well-intentioned and worthy of trust. But, just like with any complicated, artful song, you must read between the lyrics, or lines, and decipher the truth. I’m glad that I pushed for the truth and set a standard of comfort for myself.

I’m sad I couldn’t participate in the creation of something artistic and exciting, but this was not the right opportunity to be involved in.

I’m glad I didn’t wait until the uncomfortableness had settled in on set. I’m glad I didn’t stick around to find out if there were more scenes that this friend wanted me to be in that crossed personal lines and boundaries. Some favors are truly warranted and others come at too high a price.

Considering our past and the vast array of other professional and artistic opportunities in the world, the choice was clear. Life isn’t supposed to be comfortable and easy, but it is meant to be honest and sincere without sacrificing art, edge, and excitement.

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CALEB GRIEGO

VERONICA GORDO

JACOB SCHICK

Arts & Review Editor

Assoc. Arts & Review Editor

Asst. Arts & Review Editor

Shyamalan is back. Split is his 12th time in the director’s chair and may mark the return to a director who was had praises heaped on him since The Sixth Sense hit theaters in 1999. It can surely be said now that he is not the next Spielberg, but Shyamalan could still solidify himself as a decent or even good director.

Split follows a disturbed individual with dissociative personality disorder played by James McAvoy. The director, even in good directorial lights, cannot escape criticism as many have been quick to condemn the film as insensitive to people with DPD.

English indie p op tr io The xx serves up a brooding yet electric vibe in their third studio album I See You. Similar to their previous works, I See You incorporates a myriad of elements to create an auditory treat. Acoustic instruments paired with looped beats and the harmonious voices of band members Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim offer a daring take on modern pop.

Tracks “Say Something Loving” and “Lips” highlight this fact, the latter using religious choir vocals mixed with dance beats to do so. The xx have truly come into their own with this album.

Amid the typical sub-par January movies, The Red Turtle signals the likely end of good movies for the next few months.

An animated film, The Red Turtle is a relatively short movie about a man who is left stranded on a deserted island for years of his life—his only source of companionship are the creatures who live on the island with him, most significantly the turtles. The Red Turtle marks the first feature length film for director Michael Dudok de Wit, who up to this point has only directed shorts. The movie is completely free of dialogue, choosing instead to narrate throug the visuals—opponents of artistic movies be warned.

THIS WEEKEND IN ARTS: EDITORS’ PICKS

THE HEIGHTS

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

;\m`flj Xe[ ;Xi`e^# ÊLe]fikleXk\ <m\ekjË Dfifj\cp Jklej 9P 98II<KK< A8EE<P ?\`^_kj JkX]] A mysterious fire, a trio of unusually brilliant siblings, and a villainous Neil Patrick Harris are the recipe for a deviously delectable treat—one that takes the form of Netflix’s newest show, A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Netflix released the eight-episode series on Jan. 13, employing Barry Sonnenfeld, Mark Palansky, and Bo Welch to adapt Lemony Snicket’s infamously beloved book series, donning the same title for the small screen.

Paramount Studios and

Dreamworks Studios attempted an adaption in 2004 with the movie version of the series starring Jim Carrey as the mischievous Count Olaf, but the two versions are vastly different.

The movie portrayed Snicket’s story more dismally and traditionally while the Netflix interpretation captures its original quirks and twisted comedy, starring Neil Patrick Harris as Olaf this time.

A Series of Unfortunate Events begins in the way anything starring Harris should—with a song.

The eerie musical warning that urges all children to “Look Away”

from the tragedy that is about to unfold flows into the introduction of Lemony Snicket (Patrick Warburton).

Standing in an underground sewer of sorts, he too admonishes any potential viewer of this story, even presenting an opportunity for whomever may be watching to turn off the show right then and there. This foreboding opening sets the precedent for Snicket’s tendency to directly address the audience, serving as an intimate narrator of these strange events.

Once Snicket assesses that this audience is here to stay, he dives into the world of the Baude-

TELEVISION

UNFORTUNATE EVENTS BARRY SONNENFELD PRODUCED BY NETFLIX RELEASE JAN. 13, 2017 OUR RATING

NETFLIX

laire children.

The oldest child Violet (Malina Weissman) is the creative inventor of the family whose inspiration only occurs under the influence of her tied-up hair. The middle child Klaus (Louis Hynes) is the genius and book worm who assists his sister’s creations.

Sunny (Presley Smith), a mere infant, contributes to the sibling production via her teeth that can cut any substance, including stone.

While the children are perfecting a new invention on what the y deem a brilliant beach day—gray and cloudy—their cough-prone family banker, Mr. Poe (K. Todd Freeman), unfeelingly informs them about the death of their parents in a devastating fire.

With the fire went their entire family estate, and now they are left with nothing but hefty finances that can only be accessed when Violet is of age. Not to worry, the children will be immediately placed in the hands of their closest relative.

By “closest,” however, Poe means only physically nearby, cuing the entrance of the most sinister actor-turned-guardian possible: Count Olaf. This distant relative of the Baudelaires will prove to be the new root

of all their misfortune, from his demands for them to polish his insanely dilapidated mansion to cooking for his huge theatre troupe and more. All the while, the mystery of what really happened to the children’s parents lurks continuously in background.

A Series of Unfortunate Events is a visual feast for the eye, invigorating a bleak tale with gleaming color. Every setting teems with magic, whether it be the grand Baudelaire mansion or the filth ridden manor of Olaf. The poignantly upbeat underscore also intensifies the crises of the plot.

The humor, however, contrasts with the intensity and allows relief from an otherwise completely tragic endeavor.

The show also achieves the impossible—making audiences love Harris even more than before. Well, at least they may now love to hate him. He breaches new territory in this crooked role, galvanizing the notorious villain with heinous spunk and rocking viewers back and forth from laughter to fear.

Netflix’s newest original show A Series of Unfortunate Events grasps despair with dark humor, and, contrary to the series’ opening credit song, we can’t look away.

ÊGXki`fkj ;XpË GXpj ?fdX^\ kf Jki\e^k_ f] 9fjkfe`Xej 9P :8IFC@E< D::FID8:B ?\`^_kj JkX]] The Boston Marathon Bombing was an atrocity this city will never forget. Almost four years ago, evil struck the city, taking lives and inflicting lifealtering injuries to civilians. Patriots Day takes the audience through that day and the days that followed to the capture of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, leaving the audience both stunned and moved. Featuring Mark Wahlberg, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, and J.K. Simmons, Patriots Day paints a vivid portrait of the events of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing.

The scenes of the bombings and the aftermath were staggering. Sergeant Tommy Saunders (Mark Wahlberg), a fictionalized amalgamation of several real people, did not shy away from the graphic events that occurred.

While it was disturbing and upsetting, the movie wouldn’t have done its job if it had only shown the recovery. It was important to highlight the brutality of this act of terror.

Narratively, the film explained in more detail how the police went about solving the crime. This included looking to camera footage from the stores around the bombing site and setting up a carbon copy of the crime scene in what appeared to be an empty warehouse. Each detail was crucial in the investigation. It gave credit to

those who worked tirelessly to catch the criminals responsible, as well as delved into who was knowledgeable to or complicit in the act.

One of the people believed to be a suspect was Katherine Russell, Tamerlan’s wife (Melissa Benoist). The police believed she had been in on the plot. The film suggests this as factual through the interactions on screen between the family, despite real world findings. The movie even dramatizes the interrogation of Russell. She is portrayed as a villainous character, knowing more than she let on.

Patriots Day also held others that might not immediately come to mind at fault to some extent. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s classmates at UMass Dartmouth are especially put in a critical light. After seeing the alleged bomber on television, one of the classmates messaged him to see if it was Tsarnaev on the news. The classmate received a cryptic message response and a series of emojis that should have caused suspicion. Later on, his classmates find the makings of a bomb in a backpack in a closet, but again fail to go to the police with these revelations.

At times it felt like a dark story, too horrible to be true. Actual camera footage from the day of the bombing brought a stark feeling of reality to the film. These bits of footage included marathon runners along the course, the bombers placing the bombs, one of the bombers going out to get milk

from the store, and the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Perhaps the most moving feature of the film was how it went about introducing characters. A young couple, Jessica Kensky (Rachel Brosnahan) and Patrick Downes (Christopher O’Shea), teased each other in their kitchen the night before attending the marathon.

Sean Collier (Jake Picking) is shown playing video games with his friends and asking an MIT student to a Zac Brown Band concert that weekend.

All these scenes solidify these characters, these real people, more fully

and make their tragedy all the more harrowing.

The unthinkable events of April 15, 2013 illuminated the strength of the people of Boston. The phrase “Boston Strong” serves as a mantra for the city. It represents a mentality and a spirit, powered by love and strength of great people. The film was dedicated to the first responders, medical personnel, and law enforcement. In the words of Wahlberg’s character, “What I saw today, good versus evil, love versus hate, there’s only one weapon you have to fight back with. It’s love.”

Patriots Day paid homage to all

those who fought back after the attack and illustrated the strength and resilience of the people of Boston.

In an emotional closing, Deval Patrick (Michael Beach), Kensky, and Downes, members of the Boston Police, and others involved on that day to discuss the lasting impact of this tragedy. One police officer remarked after the capture of Tsarnaev that it was the first time he had had seen people lining the streets and applauding the police.

At the closing, as the credits rolled, the audience clapped out of respect and appreciation.

In today’s day and age, television viewers have more choices than ever before. From network TV to cable and online content, the supply of high-quality television is outstripping any one viewer’s possible ability to watch it all. With this oversaturation, it is important to make a strong first impression, not only with the pilot as a whole, but also with the opening

scene. The first moments of a show must keep people from changing the channel, and also set the tone for the series as a whole.

HBO’s The Young Pope does both of these things with a bizarre dreamwithin-a-dream sequence. The very first visual of the show is a morbidlybeautiful aerial shot of the new pope, Pius XII (Jude Law), crawling out from under a pile of dead babies, emerging to find himself standing in the center of Saint Peter’s Square. He awakens

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MUSIC VIDEO CALEB GRIEGO

“COLD COLD COLD”

CAGE THE ELEPHANT

FILM

PATRIOTS DAY PETER BERG DISTRIBUTED BY CBS FILMS RELEASE JAN. 13, 2017 OUR RATING

A24

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CHART TOPPERS

from this dream and finds himself in another dream, where he delivers his first homily in front of an adoring crowd. The speech goes off the rails, however, as he cites the virtues of masturbation, abortion, divorce, and more. He awakens a second time to find himself back in reality. Academy Award-winning director Paolo Sorrentino’s decision to introduce the viewer to his story through this bizarre Russian egg doll of a dream sequence establishes all the elements that will be

TELEVISION

THE YOUNG POPE PAOLO SORRENTINO PRODUCED BY HBO RELEASE JAN. 15, 2017 OUR RATING

HBO

important to the series—the darkness, the humor, the surellity, and the fact that this show will subvert the viewer’s expectations.

After the dreams, the scope of the story becomes clearer, revealing it is the day after the papal election of Pius XIII (born Lenny Belardo). The audience learns a major reason behind his election—older cardinals feel like they have the power to control him.

Pope Pius flies in Sister Mary (Diane Keaton), a nun that took the orphaned Lenny in at 7 years old. Pope Pius rewards her loyalty by appointing her to be his personal secretary. The episode ends with Pius XII bribing a bishop, Marcello Romolo, into telling him the sins of the other cardinals.

What the first episode lacked in a racing plot, it made up for with fascinating character development.

Law delivers a nuanced and skilled portrayal as the titular character. Law plays a character shrouded in secrecy that often makes him difficult to read.

He best describes his own character when he menacingly tells Romolo, “I’m going to let you in on a secret.

Ever since I was little, I’ve learned to confound people’s ideas of what’s going on in my head … not only that, I’m intransigent, irritable, vindictive, and I

have a prodigious memory.”

Technically speaking, the show stands out as one of the most beautiful television shows ever filmed.

Surrounded by the extravagant and cinematic world of the Vatican, each shot is so skillfully composed that any individual frame could be a painting. The cinematic chops of the director clearly shine through and the show feels more like a movie than simple TV. The Young Pope makes itself hard to review because it’s hard to even pin down the genre of the show or the narrative structure. Is it a serious character drama, a workplace comedy set in the Vatican, or a surreal experience? Usually this indecisiveness is a flaw, but with The Young Pope it feels like a conscious decision to make itself an enigma, and the show goes out of its way to make itself inaccessible. The first ten minutes are free of dialogue, and the first time Pius speaks, it’s in a dream and he’s saying things he doesn’t believe. Often characters have extended conversations in Italian, and no subtitles are offered.

Overall, like Pius himself, the show is both young, telegenic, confusing, and by all means interesting.

Cage the Elephant takes a crack at potentially dark underpinnings in medicine and entertainment in its latest music video for “Cold Cold Cold.”

Arriving at a medical institution, a man is dragged into its recesses. Met with doctors ready to treat him, the man sees they are not alone, as an audience flanks both sides of the room.

Clad in white coats and masks that completely cover their faces, save for their eyes and mouth, the audience members are a homogeneous sea of blank stares.

The doctors attempt to cure the man of a sickly heart that is pulsing through his translucent chest. After shaving the man’s head, he endures several rounds of odd therapy and homeopathic procedures. Interjecting with showy nurses, dancing in red clothes, and cuts to the band, the demeanor of the operation seems frantic and apathetic.

At wits end, the doctors draw a sword. In an instant, they decapitate the man. Through this new opening, the doctors remove his heart, revealed to be completely black, and carry it away. Sewing and cauterizing his head back on, the man awakens, cured—but with a queer and absent stare. A new mask is raised to his face, as he becomes like the others.

The video connotes strong notions of ritualistic behavior, which ultimately leads to a form of mild lobotomization. Perhaps the band hopes to suggest that the dire nature of overdiagnosis and flippant attitudes toward medicine leads to incapacitation and a lack of feeling. This showmanship of medicine does not have the patient’s needs in mind, instead revealing the glory of an individual’s reputation. Alternatively, one may interpret that the video details the dark nature of showbusiness—that one will lose one’s mind and subsequently, heart, when coerced into the system of showmanship and spectacle themselves.

SINGLE REVIEWS BY VERONICA GORDO THE CHAINSMOKERS “Paris”

HALSEY “Not Afraid Anymore”

GREY FT. BAHARI “I Miss You” DJ duo The Chainsmokers craft another simple yet catchy addition to the pop house genre with “Paris.” A slow burn, the track features soft vocals set to a rhythm that builds in intensity with every verse. This, coupled with the themes of escapism and romance, makes any listener feel like they’re in the city of lights.

EDM group Grey’s “I Miss You” conjures up sentimentality while evoking an unforgettable beat. The idea of unrequited love may be a cliché but the song carries a sound all of its own. This pop track is sure to get you thinking and on your feet dancing.

Halsey contributes to the Fifty Shades Darker film soundtrack with an intense track fit for red rooms and leather whips. The resounding drum beat and dramatic crashes of sound leave the listener spellbound. “Not Afraid Anymore” is the perfect backdrop to this thrilling tale of star crossed lovers and sensuality.

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THE HEIGHTS THE T HHEEIGHTS HEIGHTS

B5 B5 B5

THE HEIGHTS

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

MEN’S HOCKEY

;\jg`k\ Flkj_ffk`e^ 9L# <X^c\j =Xcc `e >i\\e C`e\ I`mXcip MHOK vs. BU, from B8 and the BU defense. For the Eagles, the 3-0 loss drops them to 14-9-2 (9-3-1 Hockey East) on the season, already surpassing last season’s loss total. It’s also the first time BC has dropped multiple games to its archrival since the 2011-12 championship season.

Throughout the game, the Eagles struggled mightily against a Terriers (14-5-2, 7-2-2) defensive corps that forced them away from solid scoring chances.

Instead of putting shots on net that might lead to rebounds, BC often had to go high, knocking pucks off the glass. Oettinger attributed that to the strong play of his defensive tandems, particularly Doyle Somerby and John MacLeod. The six-footers took advantage of BC’s undersized forwards and defensemen, and made life difficult offensively all night for the Eagles.

“Our defensemen did a great job on keeping the puck away from me,” Oettinger said. “I don’t think I had to make any big Grade A saves.”

Statistically, Oettinger faced nine chances considered “Grade A” on the evening. Yet even those barely caused a bead of sweat to drip down Quinn’s forehead.

Rather, they served to frustrate Jerry York.

In fact, the BC head coach estimated that his offense earned fewer Grade A chances than that. He pointed to two oppor-

tunities—one by Chris Calnan on a breakaway from the slot, another by Ryan Fitzgerald on a wraparound—that may have seriously threatened BU. Other than that, despite the 34 shots on Oettinger, York felt his team needed more opportunities to score.

“You’re not going to get a ton of big chances in big games, you’re not just going to,” York said. “But you’ve got to capitalize on the ones you have. You can’t go buy them at the store.”

On the night, BC was 0-for-3 on the power play, two of which were drawn on Somerby, the BU captain. On the first, Clayton Keller expertly kept the puck away from the Eagles with three clears. BC only got two shots from Casey Fitzgerald at the blue line, but nothing from its first line, despite playing the full two minutes. On the second, BC’s second line of David Cotton, Austin Cangelosi, and Christopher Brown got some momentum, but it was snuffed out by the first line. The third may have been BC’s best chance—and it barely did any good itself.

The final score overshadows a brilliant performance from Woll for the Eagles in net. For the second-consecutive game, Woll staved off strong chances from the Terriers’ plethora of firstrounders. Even after Michael Kim drew a penalty with three minutes to go, Woll remained on top of his game. He made a Thatcher Demko-esque sliding

save to stone Kieffer Bellows on his right side, getting full extension with his pads.

Though BC did a solid job staying out of the box in terms of total minutes—something York was pleased with—the timing of its penalties couldn’t have been worse. White headed to the box with 1:15 to go, giving BU a 5-on-3. Despite only having 19 seconds with the two-man advantage, Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson made BC pay with a shot that went off Woll’s back.

Despite their recent struggles, the Eagles still remain on top of Hockey East, if ever precariously. The road doesn’t get any easier for them, though. BC has five games to go, with four being at home, against ranked opponents in the conference: two against Massachusetts Lowell, two against Vermont, and one against Notre Dame. And yes, the Eagles will get one more guaranteed crack at the Terriers in the first round of Beanpot.

And there are certainly signs of some improvements. On the weekend, BC outshot BU, and Woll certainly proved he can hang with any goaltender in the country. Yet finding good performances within defeats doesn’t add up to championships. And pinpointing places where BC almost got there won’t cut it in the nation’s toughest conference.

“I thought we played pretty well over the weekend,” York said. “But pretty well isn’t going to win series.”

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

A referee prepares to drop the puck during a faceoff in Monday’s bout between the Eagles and Terriers.

Terrier Defense, from B8 Matilla. Surprisingly, Brown chased a lost faceoff behind BU’s net and bodied Nashville Predators 2016 first-round pick Dante Fabbro off the puck to gain possession, but that unit couldn’t do much after that.

The usual first group, which has BC’s best weapons in the Fitzgerald brothers and Colin White, didn’t do much better by struggling to enter the zone and generally wasting the rest of the time that Somerby was in the box.

Several minutes into the third, the Eagles got their last chance on the man-advantage, but it was mostly highlighted by Matilla letting the puck bounce over his stick at the point and out of the zone. It’s hard to say that the power play failed on the night because BC only had

three such looks, but everything’s heightened in a rivalry game, and it was more than the lack of goals that didn’t inspire confidence in BC’s PP. Like all coaches, York’s been known to tinker with his power play’s positioning and personnel throughout a season, but his top players on the first unit just need to score. If they don’t, BC will probably be on the losing end of games against deeper teams like BU. Difference on Defense Besides not converting on the power play, another reason why the White and the Fitzgerald brothers were kept off the board is also the most glaring difference between the two teams that faced off at Conte Forum on Monday: defensemen.

BC started three freshmen, and they all happened to be under six feet and 185 pounds. BU starts

two freshmen defensemen, but Fabbro was a first-round pick, and the other one, Chad Krys, was a second-round pick (Chicago Blackhawks) in 2016, as well. All of BU’s top 6 defensemen are NHL property, actually, and they’re all over six feet tall, too. Yet they still moved well enough to keep up with Ryan, the older Fitzgerald, as he was chased down from behind on a few occasions throughout the game. BC’s first line of Fitzgerald, White and Matty Gaudreau had some decent scoring opportunities, but they were usually rushed and the passes were always a little bit off. A big reason for that was the stout defense corps assembled by fourth-year BU head coach David Quinn, who has made up for his lack of experience with some major recruiting chops.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

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AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Junior center Katie Quandt and freshman Georgia Pineau slump near the scorers table before subbing into the game.

Once again, Boston College women’s basketball came so close—but at the end of the day, head coach Erik Johnson’s squad just couldn’t finish the job.

Three days after a four-point loss to Georgia Tech, the Eagles traveled to Charlottesville, Va., to take on the University of Virginia. Both teams sought to snap three-game losing streaks with a hard-earned conference victory, but for most of the game, neither team managed to pull away. Only at the very end did the Hoos manage to pull away for a 62-55 victory over BC. The Eagles (8-10, 1-4 Atlantic Coast) relied heavily on sophomore Mariella Fasoula. She finished with a double-double, scoring 20 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Fasoula also recorded one assist in the game. Georgia Pineau, meanwhile, scored five points, grabbed seven rebounds, and dished out four assists.

UVA (12-5, 1-3) enjoyed big games from Breyana Mason, who contributed four rebounds and two assists along with her 19 points, and Aliyah Huland El, who scored 12 points on

the day.

The game was deadlocked through thre e quar ters . B C claimed the first lead of the game when Fasoula made a layup to open up scoring. But throughout the first quarter, neither team built a lead of more than three points, with the period ending in a 12-12 tie.

The second quarter was a different story. Turnovers plagued the Eagles and aided the Cavaliers, forcing BC to play catch-up for much of the quarter. Jocelyn Willoughby scored several baskets off of the turnovers, including 3-pointers, to help the Hoos begin to pull away. With just over two minutes to go in the half, BC trailed by 11 points.

But the Eagles refused to allow the Hoos to pull away for good.

A fast and furious comeback sparked by a Taylor Ortlepp trey saw the Eagles contain UVA and chip away at its lead. At halftime, UVA’s lead had been reduced to 29-28.

BC started the third quarter on a strong note. Pineau made a layup to regain the lead for the Eagles, but they couldn’t keep the lead for long. Throughout the quarter, the teams exchanged baskets, sometimes pulling ahead

by a basket, sometimes falling behind by a basket. Overall, there were six lead changes in the quarter as both teams battled hard to regain the advantage.

Entering the fourth quarter, the score was tied at 40 apiece.

The start of the fourth quarter looked just like the third quarter.

UVA took an early advantage, but could not break away by more than three points. With just under three minutes to go, BC regained the lead once again when Kelly Hughes found Kailey Edwards on the perimeter.

Edwards sank a trey to give the Eagles a 49-48 advantage.

The lead didn’t last long— Lauren Moses made a layup and the Cavaliers regained the lead for good. In the final minutes, UVA broke away from the Eagles thanks to points from Mason, Willoughby, Moses, and Dominique Toussaint.

In the end, turnovers killed the Eagles’ chances of beating the Hoos. BC lost the ball 22 times compared to UVA’s nine, allowing the Cavaliers to capitalize on these mistakes. Looking ahead to more ACC play, BC must limit its turnovers to remain competitive and secure more conference victories.

FOOTBALL

K_i\\ D`[$P\Xi <eifcc\\j Af`e <X^c\j ]fi Jgi`e^ GiXZk`Z\j 9P 8E;P 98:BJKIFD 8jjk% Jgfikj <[`kfi Flocks of students walked from class to class on Tuesday with a sense of familiarity, just one month removed from their first-semester course loads. But for a few, the beginning of the second semester is a transition to a new home.

And for three Boston College football mid-year enrollees, it

also marks the start of a collegiate athletic career.

Freshmen Travis Levy, Alec Lindstrom, and E.J. Perry have decided to enroll mid-year.

The three graduated from high school this winter, and will begin practicing with the Eagles this spring.

Levy will join Jonathan Hilliman and Davon Jones in the backfield. The Sherwood High School alumnus’ numbers speak

for themselves. As a four-year starter, Levy surpassed 5,000 yards from scrimmage and tallied 76 total touchdowns in his career. In his senior season, the 5-foot-11 workhorse ran for 1,809 yards and 29 touchdowns, en route to earning Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year honors. There will be carries to go around, as the Eagles are losing running backs Tyler Rouse and Myles Willis to graduation.

S ome day, Le v y may f ind himself running behind a blocking Lindstrom. Alec will join his brother Chris, a starter in each of his first two years at BC, on the offensive line.

A s an upp ercla ssman at Shepherd Hill Regional High School, Alec had a hand in his team’s dominant rushing attack.

In his senior campaign, ball carriers averaged 7.6 yards per rush and eclipsed 3,300 yards on the

ground.

After leading the Eagles to their first bowl victory in nine years, graduate student Patrick Towles—last year ’s starting quarterback—has run out of eligibility. Perry will accompany Darius Wade, John Fadule, and Anthony Brown on the depth chart.

As a senior at Andover High School, Perry tossed 47 touchdowns, tying the Massachusetts

state record—one that he shares with none other than BC legend Doug Flutie. Like the 1980s Eagle phenom, Perry is a dualthreat. In addition to throwing for 3,398 yards, he scampered for over 1,000 yards during his senior year.

On Feb. 1, BCEagles.com will broadcast a National Signing Day Show, revealing the rest of the Eagles’ 2017 recruiting class.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

9: Jn\\gj D\ii`dXZb# <ok\e[j LeY\Xk\e Jki\Xb kf (( >Xd\j 9P I@C<P FM<I<E; Jgfikj <[`kfi B o ston Colle ge women’s hockey extended its unbeaten streak to 11 games, the secondlongest streak in the country, with a sweep of Merrimack College over the weekend.

Captain Andie Anastos was the star for the No. 6 Eagles (163-4, 12-2-2 Hockey East) during the home-and-home series , netting the game-winner with just two minutes remaining on Friday in a 1-0 win. On Saturday,

she tallied another goal and assisted on the game-winner in a 3-1 road victory over the Warriors (8-16-2, 4-13-0).

Goaltender Katie Burt had another stellar weekend, saving 12 shots en route to her fourth shutout of the season and the 27th of her career. The next day she was arguably even better, allowing one goal but posting 25 saves in her 79th career win.

One more win will tie her for the all-time program record of 80 held by Molly Schaus.

Burt is currently on pace to

surpass the NCAA record of 114 wins, set in 2013 by Minnesota goaltender Noora Raty.

BC got on the board early on Saturday thanks to a first-period strike from Anastos. It was originally called a no-goal before a video review overturned the decision, giving the senior her 11th score of the season.

The Eagles tacked on another goal before the period was finished. Delaney Belinskas fired a couple shots from close range that Warriors goaltender Samantha Ridgewell deflected in

the direction of Haley McLean.

The senior forward cleaned up the mess near the net to hand BC a 2-0 lead.

Paige Voight chipped into the Eagles’ lead in the second period, sneaking one past Burt with a minute left in the second period. It looked as if Merrimack might notch an equalizer when it earned a power play midway through the third period. But Kali Flanagan stole the puck in Warrior territory and found Kenzie Kent streaking down the wing.

Kent’s first shot was blocked, but she lasered home the deflection to turn a penalty kill into a game-sealing goal.

In the op ening game on Friday, BC experienced a scare when, after 57 minutes of play, the team had nothing to show for its lopsided shot advantage.

The Eagles finished with a dominant 38-12 edge in shooting, yet the game remained scoreless until the waning minutes.

Finally, Anastos let head coach Katie Crowley breathe out a sigh of relief when she

smacked a one-timer from the faceoff circle off a backwards pass from Makenna Newkirk, beating netminder Lea-Kristine Demers high on her blocker side.

The 11-game undefeated streak is the fourth-longest in program histor y. With Alex Carpenter and Haley Skarupa gone, Anastos has stepped up as one of the true leaders on this squad.

BC is rolling now, and it appears as if few teams are going to stop it anytime soon.

THE HEIGHTS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

B7

MEN’S BASKETBALL

=ifd K`gf]]# :Xmj FlkgcXp I\\c`e^ <X^c\j MBB vs. UVA, from B8

22 of their 27 field goals in the game, dissecting the BC defense with simple, precise passing.

Perhaps Virginia’s slow tempo lulled the Eagles to sleep with a late start time on a weeknight, but Christian wasn’t impressed with the energy level that BC brought to the contest.

only surrendered five turnovers the entire game. BC couldn’t e ven capitalize on the ver y few chances it got—the Eagles scored zero points off of Virginia turnovers.

The Cavaliers assisted on

At the beginning of the second half, BC players emerged from the tunnel almost sullenly.

Non-starters headed straight to the bench, rather than joining the rest of the team on the floor to warm up. In game action, players looked lethargic or even disinterested at times.

EDITOR’S

Christian didn’t think his team was ready to play a team of Virginia’s caliber, and it clearly showed on the scoreboard.

“We didn’t come out to play Virginia—a ranked team—with the energy and emotion that you need to play with,” Christian said. “We’ve got to fix that.”

PICKS

Last season, BC nearly upset North Carolina at home without Jerome Robinson or A.J. Turner.

With the return of the Eagles’ sophomore duo and the emergence of freshman Ky Bowman, can they upset the No. 9 Tar Heels?

KAITLIN MEEKS / HEIGHTS STAFF

RILEY OVEREND

Sports Editor KAITLIN MEEKS / HEIGHTS STAFF

Mo Jeffers (left) attempts a free throw while Jerome Robinson (right) defends a Virginia ball-handler during the Eagles’ 71-54 loss on Wednesday night.

It’s hard to find a better frontcourt in the countr y than UNC ’s trio of Isaiah Hicks, Kennedy Meeks, and Justin Jackson. In the Tar Heels’ last game against Syracuse, the baby-blue bigs grabbed 18 offensive boards that led to 20 second-chance points. Mo Jeffers and Nik Popovic will have a hard time keeping those forwards off the glass, but if they can, BC’s backcourt duo should make this one very interesting.

8^X`ejk 9L# Jlg\i]Xej ?X[ Gc\ekp GXjj`fe Fan Attendance, from B8

over all their opponents in the Big East. Back then, it seemed that BC would remain competitive and a top threat in the ACC even as a newcomer to the conference.

A harsh reality soon set in as the highest-profile teams began to suffer. Fans walking out early or skipping games altogether sent a message: We don’t approve of this. After all, the messages students and fans have tried to send to administration about their opinions on coaches and athletics staff have largely been completely ignored, so what better way to get the attention they want than to leave empty seats at Conte and Alumni?

Besides, it isn’t like the students are the only people not represented at games. I think it’s shortsighted to place blame solely on students and not recognize that the community at large could be a lot more supportive of the Eagles.

You will never walk into Conte Forum or Alumni Stadium and see the student section half-empty, but every other seat in the house full. Having a completely packed student section without the support of the community is not the right answer. BC must find a way to reach out to everyone to boost attendance, as it seems the “Boston’s College” campaign isn’t working out as well as the University would’ve hoped.

But discussing football and basketball is a separate issue for a different time. Right now, we’re talking hockey—and hockey is a different story.

USCHO.com ranks BC at No. 14 on its list of men’s hockey attendance across the country. In the 2015-16 season, BC averaged almost 5,000 fans per game, filling 63 percent of Kelley Rink. Only two Hockey East schools were ranked higher than BC in total attendance per game—Connecticut and Lowell—but Connecticut’s percentage of seats filled was actually lower than BC’s, clocking in at 57 percent. Furthermore, it’s important to note that the other Hockey East schools play in arenas built primarily for hockey. BC, however, hosts both basketball and hockey in the same space. The ACC is the bigger nationwide conference, so the space must be built primarily with basketball in mind. This makes it even more impressive that BC is ranked so high in attendance.

These attendance numbers tell a significant story. Yes, BC may struggle to fill seats in football and men’s basketball,

W. BASKETBALL

make it clear from the get-go that this was not a friendly environment for the Terriers, but a hostile one.

The fan treatment didn’t get much better for BU from there, with students alternately cheering for BC and insulting BU. I saw students wearing BC hockey jerseys, BC hats, and BC socks, ready to cheer their beloved Eagles to victory. I saw students packed together in the stands, filling the space and being loud. I didn’t see anything that made me think the fans were apathetic. In fact, I thought the student section did a great job given that the game wasn’t exactly thrilling from a BC student’s perspective—the Eagles only had two serious scoring opportunities, according to head coach Jerry York.

I’m not alone in thinking that the student section made their presence known on Monday night. York wrote a letter to the editor to The Heights.

In it, he cited an attendance of 7,884 fans—likely an underestimation, given the amount of people standing—and thanked the students for their support. Regardless of the official number of fans, it’s clear that Kelley Rink was jam-packed on Monday night.

York even characterized the student section as “possibly

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CHESTNUT HILL, MA

BC 1 | MC 0

BC|ANASTOS G MC|DEMERS 37 SVS

the best [he] has seen in [his] 23 years as head coach” of the Eagles.

A message like this is significant. York was under no obligation to say anything like this. It wouldn’t have looked odd or bad if he hadn’t said anything about the student section at all. But he chose to write this letter and thank the student section. Evidently York was genuinely impressed at the way the students turned out for the game.

Another aspect of Bailin’s argument is that the fans weren’t passionate because they didn’t attend games up until now. It reads like a bandwagon accusation—nobody cared until the BU game rolled around, and even then nobody was all that passionate. Again, I disagree with this point. During the stretch of time between Halloween and Christmas break, students are overwhelmed with midterms, essays, and assignments. This

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BC 67 | GT 71

BC|FASOULA 22 PTS GT|PAN 17 PTS

W. HOCKEY

especially when compared to other conference schools. But BC is actually one of the best schools in the nation for filling seats at hockey games. And this brings me back to my original point—that Bailin’s argument against the student section falls flat.

I disagree that the student section was listless on Monday night. Hockey is what BC does best, so hockey is what draws the crowds. Kelley Rink was jam-packed and rocking on Monday night. BC students made their feelings about BU known immediately. As the players from each team who represented their countries at World Juniors late last year were recognized, BC students cheered on their Eagles and loudly booed the Terriers. This stands in sharp contrast to the game played at Agganis Arena several days before, when BU fans cheered for the Eagles who’d played at World Juniors.

BC fans, it seems, wanted to

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CHESTNUT HILL, MA

M. HOCKEY

is especially true of the period leading right up to finals. With so much work to do and high stress levels, it isn’t unusual for students to miss some home games and study instead. BC has transformed itself academically in recent years, accepting fewer and fewer students and pushing these students to achieve more. This is excellent for the University’s reputation and for the students’ careers after graduation, but it does mean that sometimes, students will have to choose to study rather than walk to Kelley Rink for a game. Besides, some of the more exciting games during that stretch—like Notre Dame, North Dakota, and Northeastern—were either away games or played at a neutral location.

It’s also crucial to recognize that BC’s student body is no-longer comprised of lifelong hockey fans. As the University has jumped in academic rankings, it has attracted students from across the country, and even across the sea. College hockey may be huge in New England and parts of the Midwest, but it’s not very popular elsewhere in the country. Even as many of the students here are frenzied about college hockey, even more are just discovering it for the first time. I myself never cared much about

BC 1 | BU 2

BC|WHITE G BU|OETTINGER 32 SVS

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BC 3 | MC 1

BC|BELINSKAS 2 A MC|VOIGHT G

1/13 BOSTON, MA 1/14

NORTH ANDOVER, MA

college hockey until I came to BC, and I know many people who feel the same way.

If you compare that to other schools in Hockey East, it makes total sense that BC’s numbers might not always be as high. The state schools in Hockey East—New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Lowell—each attract high numbers of in-state students, people who have likely grown up with college hockey and formed an attachment to their future school at a young age.

In 2013, according to The CT Mirror, almost 60 percent of UConn students were in-state; 63 percent of Maine students live in Maine; and 80 percent of UMass students are Massachusetts natives.

BC’s numbers are quite different. StudyPoint estimates that 76 percent of the student body comes from other states and countries. CollegeBoard estimates that 74 percent of BC students are out-of-state.

Whether it is 74 percent or 76 percent, it is clear that BC’s demographics are almost entirely flipped—the bulk of the state schools’ population is in-state, while the bulk of BC’s population are transplants. With a demanding academic schedule and a growing percentage of students who haven’t been lifelong college hockey fans, it is rational that BC would not produce the same attendance numbers as schools comprised overwhelmingly of New England natives.

The point is, I don’t think the student section was low-energy or apathetic on Monday night. And it does no good to criticize the students when they do turn out in full force and make their presence known. (This is a lesson I learned the hard way last year.)

Hockey can draw crowds.

Crowds make noise and create a hostile atmosphere for visiting teams. Maybe the BC student section isn’t always rolicking across all sports, but that can be attributed to the low success of some of the biggest teams here. Start winning and the students will come.

And as for hockey?

Well, the student section has another opportunity coming up to prove that it is far from apathetic. February is fast approaching, and you know what that means …

It’s almost Beanpot szn, y’all.

PREDICTION North Carolina 72 Boston College 66

ANNABEL STEELE Assoc. Sports Editor

BC has earned a couple of conference wins this year. It’s time for a big statement win. And who better to topple than the Tar Heels, who nearly lost to an injury-riddled Eagles team last year?

If Jerome Robinson and Ky Bowman are on point, the offense will come alive for BC. A couple of well-timed treys and big defensive stops will seal the deal and the Eagles will pick up a crucial victory over the No. 9 Tar Heels.

PREDICTION Boston College 75 North Carolina 68

ANDERS BACKSTROM

Asst. Sports Editor

Lately, BC’s success has been determined by the play of Jerome Robinson and Ky Bowman. Prior to the Eagles’ game versus UVA, the duo was averaging a combined 32.5 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game.

But when the two underclassmen guards are cold, the entire team struggles to respond.

UNC, on the other hand, has a bit more wiggle room with four scorers in double figures. Unless the Eagles’ stars shoot lights out from deep and avoid careless turnovers, they’ll have a difficult time running with the Tar Heels.

PREDICTION North Carolina 89

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M. BASKETBALL

BC 53 | SYR 76 1/14

BC|POPOVIC 13 PTS SYR|BATTLE 21 PTS

W. BASKETBALL

Boston College 76

M. HOCKEY

BC 0 | BU 3

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SYRACUSE, NY

BC|WOLL 29 SVS BU|CURRY G

CHESTNUT HILL, MA

BC 55 | UVA 62 1/15

M. BASKETBALL

BC 54 | UVA 71 1/18

BC|FASOULA 11 REB UVA|MASON 19 PTS CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA

BC|CHATMAN 16 PTS UVA|HALL 13 PTS

CHESTNUT HILL, MA

SPORTS

B8 THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017

@HEIGHTSSPORTS

MEN’S BASKETBALL

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For University of Virginia men’s basketball, slow and steady wins the race.

The Cavaliers like to play slow—it has been a defining feature of head coach Tony Bennett’s teams ever since he took over for Dave Leitao in 2009.

Though many mo der n ba sketball teams are opting for more dynamic, fast-paced, aggressive styles of play, Bennett’s squad has no problem slowing the game down and using the entire shot clock to find the best possible look at the basket.

Since they play at such a slow pace, the Cavaliers average the fewest possessions per 40 minutes in the nation, according to KenPom.com. But what Virginia lacks in speed, it makes up for

in efficiency. Its offensive and defensive efficiency numbers each rank in the top-15 nationally, and the team keeps turnovers to a minimum.

On Wednesday night against Boston College, Virginia’s slow, steady, and clinical style of play helped the team cruise to an easy win.

The Cavaliers (14-3, 4-2 Atlantic Coast) methodically picked apart the Eagles (9-10, 2-4) on both ends of the floor en route to a 71-54 victory. It was a full team effort—no Virginia player scored more than 13 points, and no player saw more than 25 minutes of time on the floor. Virginia’s star, senior guard London Perrantes, only played 20 minutes and scored six points on nine shots. But it didn’t matter much on the scoreboard.

Bennett was impressed by his team’s

defensive improvement from its last matchup with Clemson, but he also said it helped that BC had a rough night shooting. The Eagles shot just 38.5 percent from the field, while Virginia connected on 51.9 percent of its chances from the floor.

“I wouldn’t get crazy saying we were great defensively—they were off shooting,” Bennett said. “They missed a lot of shots.”

The slow tempo that Virginia set right from the first tip prevented the Eagles from getting in an offensive rhythm. BC’s shots weren’t falling, but the Cavaliers prevented BC from getting out into transition for easy buckets on the run.

The Eagles only scored two points on fast-break chances, and didn’t exactly have many opportunities throughout

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the game.

BC’s two primary scoring options, guards Jerome Robinson and Ky Bowman, were both limited to single-digit point totals. Robinson was held to nine points on 4-of-14 shooting, while Bowman had just seven points.

“If you took any team in the country and their two best players are having a tough offensive night, you’re gonna have a tough time scoring,” head coach Jim Christian said. “That’s gonna happen with us, and that’s gonna happen with the other 350 Division-I teams.”

After rattling off seven consecutive games of more than 20 points, Robinson has struggled to find the basket in the past two games, both of which were losses to conference opponents.

Christian said after the game that Robinson was fighting an injury suf-

fered mid-game—he got hit in the jaw in the first half, and was complaining of vision problems on the bench—but he wouldn’t make any excuses for his star player.

Jordan Chatman picked up the slack offensively for Eagles, contributing 16 points to lead the team. It was a seasonhigh for the sophomore transfer from Brigham Young, who also set a season high with 33 minutes played.

“I thought tonight was the best game that Jordan has played since he got here,” Christian said. “He was aggressive, he was confident, he shot the ball well, and played hard on defense.”

Virginia maintained its status as one of the most responsible ballhandling teams in the country, as it

See MBB vs. UVA, B7

MEN’S HOCKEY

8EE89<C JK<<C< Fans can make or break a game day experience.

That seems really obvious, but it’s true. Just ask Seattle. The Seahawks’ fans, collectively known as the 12th Man, are famous—in recent years, at least—for their earthquaking (literally) noise at home games. Since the start of the Pete Carroll era, Seahawks fans have gone from being mere spectators on the sidelines to actually being an influential presence during games.

On the flip side of that, you can take a look at my Washington Redskins. After years of shocking mismanagement from high-level executives (read: Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato), fans grew more and more fed up and increasingly decided to stay home from FedEx Field on Sundays. As a result, several “party decks” installed in 2011 have now been covered up, as the stadium is far bigger than what is needed.

The only Redskins game I have ever seen in person was an embarrassing 27-7 loss to the Buccaneers during which the fans were listless and quiet. It was far from the earthshattering devotion of Seahawks fans, and it meant that home field advantage was pretty much nullified for my ’Skins. Even as the their fortunes rise, many of my fellow fans still opt to sit out the official game day experience in Landover.

The point is, when fans get into the game, it can really make a difference. I think everyone can agree on that. And most of the time, everyone can agree whether or not a fan section was rowdy enough, or made itself known in a big way. But sometimes there’s disagreement on this subject.

Arthur Bailin of BC Interruption wrote about his thoughts on the Boston College-Boston University men’s hockey series earlier this week.

He offered three takeaways from the series, including this: “The Student Section Needs Immediate and Fundamental Help.” He argued that the student section, while packed with fans, was more on the “apathetic” side of things than passionate during Monday night’s game. And he cited the “absolute lack of student section attendance throughout the season” as a possible reason why the student section is, by his standards, “unacceptable” right now.

I disagree.

(Well, for the most part.)

Yes, the student support for sports here in general is not huge. But honestly, who can blame the students? A decade ago, Matt Ryan was leading BC football while Jared Dudley ran the court at Conte Forum. Ever since then, students have had little to celebrate for these big-name sports. For the past several years, football and both basketball teams have struggled to remain competitive in the ACC, a conference the Eagles joined in a controversial manner after walking

JULIA HOPKINS / PHOTO EDITOR | ABBY PAULSON / CREATIVE DIRECTOR

N`k_ X *$' n`e fe Dfe[Xp e`^_k# k_\ Ef% * K\ii`\ij jkfc\ dlck`gc\ ^Xd\j ]ifd k_\ <X^c\j `e k_\ 9Xkkc\ f] :fdd% 8m\% ]fi k_\ Ô ijk k`d\ j`eZ\ )'(($()% 9P D@:?8<C JLCC@M8E <[`kfi$`e$:_`\] The clock wound down on a brilliant penalty kill for Boston College men’s hockey. Graham McPhee and Casey Fitzgerald had expertly kept the puck behind B oston University goaltender Jake Oettinger. The Terriers’ starstudded first line had no time to create scoring chances since they couldn’t get the puck out of their own zone.

A capacity crowd of 7,884 at Kelley Rink—likely with more in attendance standing up, but don’t tell the fire marshal—rose to their feet.

With each waning second, they counted down the time until Colin White would be freed from the box. Unfortunately for the loudest

collection of Superfans this season, they’d never get past two.

The Terriers, a team front-loaded with freshman talent, turned to a young gun without an NHL suitor. As time expired on that White penalty, Patrick Curry took advantage on a perfectly set-up screen. With a quick release, Curry went top shelf past BC goaltender Joseph Woll, before falling into a huge fist pump.

“In a [freshman] class that gets a lot of attention, he didn’t,” BU head coach David Quinn said of Curry.

“He’s been very, very important to our team.”

Curry’s goal was all that was needed in a masterful, 34-save performance by Oettinger in net

See MHOK vs. BU, B6

9P D@:?8<C ?F== ?\`^_kj JkX]] Boston University has a lot more NHL draft picks on its roster than Boston College does this year. Even if you didn’t know that, you probably could have figured it out on Monday night. BU was faster than BC, and maintained that aggressiveness while only taking three penalties the whole game.

“They’re solid on defense, so you’re not gonna get a lot (of chances),” head coach Jerry York said.

Without a lot of great chances at even strength, it was even more imperative that the Eagles took advantage of their power play opportunities.

They had one in each period, and each time felt like that was BC’s chance to put its mark on the game.

In the first period, BC actually controlled much of the run of play. The Eagles doubled up the Terriers’ shot attempts in that stanza, but couldn’t seem to break through. Possibly their best chance to get one past Jake Oettinger was on their man-advantage at the end of the first, but star defenseman Casey Fitzgerald let the puck get out of the zone just as BC was creating some havoc.

BU converted its own power play in the second period, but BC had a chance to get it back when Terriers’ captain Doyle Somerby took his second penalty of the game about five minutes after Patrick Curry’s goal.

This time, York sent out his other power play unit first, which included freshmen Christopher Brown and Jesper

See Terrier Defense, B6

See Fan Attendance, B7

INSIDE

SPORTS

FOOTBALL: Eagles Add Three Players

WOMEN’S HOCKEY: Streak Reaches 11

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL........................ B6

Travis Levy, Alec Lindstrom, and E.J. Perry graduated high school early to join BC for spring practices...........................B6

The Eagles swept Merrimack College in a home-and-home series last weekend to extend their winning streak.............B6

EDITOR’S PICKS..................................... B7