The Heights April 24, 2017

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THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

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MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2017

PAINFUL HOPE

’PACK YOUR BAGS

ARTS

SPORTS

‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’ captures the sadness of life, love, and time.

Brian Rapp tossed a shutout to complete BC’s sweep of the Wolfpack this weekend.

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CS Looks for Growth

Jarmond Named New AD

Despite rising interest, computer science remains understaffed.

The deputy AD at Ohio State officially joined BC Thursday.

BY LEO CONFALONE Opinions Editor Computer science is the fastest growing undergraduate major at Boston College, but the department remains notably understaffed.

According to the BC Factbook, the number of undergraduate computer science majors has grown from 57 in 2007 to 268 in 2016, an increase of 370 percent, the largest of any undergraduate discipline. The number of undergraduate minors increased from 19 in 2012 to 41 in 2016. The computer science department had nine full-time faculty for the 2016-17 school year, a faculty to student ratio of about 1:34 for the department’s 309 majors and minors. The faculty to student ratio in 2007 was about 1:5.

Edward Sciore, an associate professor in the computer science department, is expected to retire this year, and the contract of one of the visiting professors in the department is also set to expire. Robert Signorile, also an associate professor, has deferred his retirement to December of 2018. The department has hired two new tenuretrack faculty members, with Lewis Tseng to start teaching in the fall, and Emily Tucker Prud’hommeaux to start in the spring of 2018. Vahid Montazerhodjat has joined the department as a long-term faculty member, and two additional visiting faculty, Ziyuan Meng and Anjum Biswas, have also been hired, bringing the department’s total to 12 for the 2017-18 school year. Despite these new hires, Sergio Alvarez, the department’s chair, believes that the department will still be understaffed.

“We’ve grown a little bit, but that’s because we were simply way understaffed,” he said.

“Now we’re still understaffed, and we will be with these additional hires.”

Alvarez is in the process of writing a study comparing the computer science department at BC to those at other leading liberal arts universities, including Yale,

See CS Faculty, A3

EST. 1919

BY RILEY OVEREND Sports Editor

LIZZY BARRETT / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Wade Impresses in Spring Game Redshirt junior quarterback Darius Wade threw for nearly 200 yards in Saturday’s intrasquad scrimmage, B1.

The search is over. Martin Jarmond, the former deputy athletic director at Ohio State, will replace Brad Bates as Boston College’s next Director of Athletics.

Jarmond, 37, becomes the youngest AD in the Power Five after spending nine years at Ohio State. He has been in charge of football scheduling, and helped raise over $120 million in the last three years.

“I knew it would take a special place to leave Ohio State,” Jarmond said in a press release. “It is clear to me that Boston College is that place.”

A press conference will be held today to welcome Jarmond to BC. 

Showcasing Innovation at Hack the Heights Eight teams finished projects during the 24-hour ‘hackathon.’

BY HEIDI DONG Asst. News Editor On Saturday evening, pizza and coffee lined the walls of Carney 103 as eight sleepdeprived teams demoed the projects they had worked on at Hack the Heights, Boston College’s first ever “hackathon.”

From Friday at 6 p.m. to Saturday at 6 p.m. around 50 students gathered in Carney for a series of workshops, seemingly unlimited food, and hours of working on a project. The hackathon, put together by the BC Computer Science Society (BCCSS), was sponsored by General Electric, Optum, PwC, Jebbit, and Google.

Despite sleep deprivation and a time

limit, students were able to form teams, decide on a project, identify what needed to be done, and split up the work. At the end of the hackathon, eight teams had finished projects ready to be judged. Students created innovative apps that kept track of and mapped their classes, mapped the location and status of water stations, helped autistic children identify and express emotions, among others.

Hackathons allow students from all different backgrounds and levels of computer science knowledge to come together and work on a project from the ground up in a fun environment. The project can be anything that students want to work on, whether a pre-existing idea, or something that is thought up during the hackathon itself.

Throughout the night BCCSS lined up a series of workshops, held a screening of The Social Network, and secured food

donations from the sponsors and BC’s computer science department. Throughout the 24 hours, the food added up to a feast of 60 El Pelon burritos, 45 pints of ice cream, 50 total pizzas, three dozen bagels, four dozen donuts, and eight “Box ‘O Joes” from Dunkin Donuts.

Four prizes were awarded to a general first place hack, a general second place hack, a GE prize for the best hack for social good, and a beginner’s prize for the best hack by a beginner student. Teams were judged on creativity, utility, and complexity.

Three computer science faculty members, Robert Signorile, Howard Straubing, and Rosemarie Tagliamonte were the judges.

“Some of these were individual projects, but having the structure of a group like this and deciding who’s going to do what and then making that work together is something they probably don’t do enough of in class,” Straubing said.

At the end of the hackathon, eight teams had finished projects. The team that won general first place hack created a project called Emotus, an app designed to help children with autism express and recognize emotions. The four team members, Kevin Lee, MCAS ’18; Bryan Lee, MCAS ’17; Humphrey Ahn, LSOE ’19; and Daniel Lee, MCAS ’17, were awarded an Amazon Echo.

Users of Emotus are prompted with an emotion—happiness, sadness, or anger—and asked to express it through a front-facing camera. Using facial recognition, the app will congratulate the user if the expression matches the prompt.

Bryan Lee came up with the idea while at a bar the night of the hackathon. He said he left the event and his teammates to go to the bar and was talking to a friend who was

See Hackathon, A3

Boston Science Rally Preaches Inclusion Safety concerns led it to be held as a rally rather than a march.

BY ABBEY MCHUGH For The Heights On a rainy and near-freezing Saturday afternoon, thousands of science lovers showed up on the Boston Common as a part of the March for Science that took place in cities across the country. Clusters of students debated the merits of climate change science right next to families with little kids that held scribbled signs covered with stickers. All generations of geeks came out in full force of the merits of effective and comprehensive science.

The crowd spanned from the front of the stage near Beacon Street all the way back to the Parkman Bandstand.

Many clutched witty signs, braving their hands against the cold in order to broadcast mostly political messages.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

“Save the planet, recycle Trump,” one said. Other marchers dressed as their favorite science heros, like Miss Frizzle, from The Magic School Bus, and Bill Nye. This event was at first designed to be a march coinciding with the bigger march in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, but safety concerns led to a rally-style event instead.

“We will march, we will vote, and we will change behavior,” said former NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman in her speech.

A delegation of Boston College students were at the rally.

“I went to the rally to show my support for science,” said Dan McCarthy, MCAS ’20 and the organizer of Climate Justice at BC, which was also at the march. “I think it’s immensely important that we fund scientific research, especially in medicine, energy, and climate change, and our politicians need to know that.”

Most of the signs and the conversa-

NEWS: Rebel Power

Politcal science professor Peter Krause will launch his first book Tuesday.......A2

tions started at the rally were centered around President Donald Trump’s proposed cut and tightening control of the government’s science powerhouses, like NASA and the EPA. “There seems to be this huge rise in anti-intellectualism and the complete dismal is facts,” said Leslie Templeton, MCAS ’20. “We’ve entered the ‘alternative facts’ era, but it’s important to remember what science actually tells us.”

“All of you nerds need to run for office,” said George Church, a legendary genetics professor at MIT and Harvard.

The 15 speakers at the rally held the crowd’s attention as they shared their personal stories about how science has impacted their lives.

Activists, entrepreneurs, and rocket scientists alike shared the stage and poured their hearts out to the crowd of thousands.

Each speech centered around one theme: inclusion. All dreamed of a

FEATURES: The New Mr. BC

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Fifteen speakers shared personal stories with a crowd of sign-bearing science lovers. scientific community that is one day as diverse as our nation. This includes all races, genders, and those with disabilities.

Graciela Mohamedi started out her speech in Spanish and delved into a story of how a man once assumed she was the janitor in her engineering lab because of her ethnicity. Alicia Wooten described the systematic bar-

Mike “Graz” Graziano took the crown with his charisma and killer dance moves....... A4

INDEX

riers between herself and her desired research as a deaf scientist.

“Representation is the most important tool for the younger generation,” Mohamedi said. “You cannot teach that science matters without inclusivity. Scientists need to look like them.”

See Science, A3

NEWS.......................... A2 SPORTS......................B1

Vol. XCVIII, No. 23 FEATURES................ A4 ARTS & REVIEW............ B8 © 2017, The Heights, Inc. OPINIONS................... A6 www.bcheights.com

The Heights

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things to do on campus this week

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Today at 12 p.m., the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy will host an event titled “The Roles of Supreme Courts in Constitutional Democracy.” Brazilian Justice Luis Roberto Barroso will speak at the event, which will take place in the Barat House.

Monday, Arpil 24, 2017

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Today from 12 to 1:30 p.m., Vivian Tseng, the vice president of the William T. Grant Foundation, will give a talk titled “Improving the Use of Research Evidence.” The lecture is co-sponsored by the School of Social Work and the Lynch School of Education. The event will be in McGuinn 521.

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The School of Social Work will host Theresa Betancourt, an associate professor at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, on Tuesday at 1 p.m.

The talk is titled “Promoting an Implementation Science Agenda on Mental Health in Settings of Adversity: From Refugees in the U.S. to Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

NEWS Jackson Reflects on Voter Suppression in 2016 BRIEFS

By Abigail Druhot

Hines to Speak at BC Law

Geraldine Hines, associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, will speak at Boston College Law School’s 85th Commencement on May 26 in Conte Forum. She was the first black woman to be appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court.

“I am delighted that Justice Hines has agreed to be our Commencement speaker,” Dean of BC Law Vincent Rougeau said to BC Law Magazine.

“Her experience as a civil rights advocate and her record of achievement on both sides of the bench make her an example to us all.”

Growing up in the Mississippi Delta, Justice Hines witnessed the turmoil of racial discrimination and voting rights abuses in the 1960s.

She received her law degree from the University of Wisconsin, and upon graduation became a staff attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute where she litigated for prisoner rights.

“I chose work that was important to me and my community,” she said to Gargoyle, the alumni publication of UW. “For me, that always meant following some problem that needed attention, that not too many other lawyers were involved in.”

Hines has also been involved in organizations like the American CIvil Liberties Union, the National Lawyers Guild, and the National Conference of Black Lawyers. She has observed elections and investigated human rights abuses in Africa and the Middle East.

She is also founding partner in the first law firm of women of color in New England. There, she litigated discrimination cases in employment, police misconduct claims, education, among others.

“Our little firm took cases that most big law firms wouldn’t touch,” she said.

“We tried to represent folks who had legiti­mate justice concerns, whether or not they had the means to pay for our services.”

Prof. Wins Book Prize David Miele, Buehler Sesquicentennial Assistant Professor at the Lynch School of Education, and a team of educational and cognitive scientists from across the country were awarded a $4.6 million grant to study what kinds of teaching practices will lead to student success.

The five-year project, “Implementing Principles from the Science of Learning within Educational Practice,” will investigate students and teachers in elementary school through college settings. The research will build upon previous projects that Miele and other psychologists worked on that investigated how student learning is affected by certain study behaviors and strategies.

“We are taking what we’ve come to understand about general principles of effective learning and exploring how this can best be applied in real educational settings,” Miele said to The Chronicle. “It is very exciting to get to collaborate with a group of excellent researchers from across the country and to have the resources to work on things that can potentially advance classroom practice and student learning.”

Miele and his team will explore different factors that may affect how to best implement principles of learning in educational contexts, such as types of activities and materials teachers use in the classroom. They will also examine practical and psychological barriers that may prevent teachers implementing these principles into the classroom.

“One of the long-term goals of this type of research is to provide students with the tools they need to learn effectively on their own—without teacher or parent supervision,” Miele said.

Heights Staff

Jesse Jackson, civil rights activist and former presidential candidate, believes Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election because of African-American voter suppression. The Electoral College, he said, has roots in slavery and was created to count slaves as less than people. And its original intentions have lasting effects, he believes.

Jackson was the keynote speaker at the Second Memorial Lecture Commemorating Rev. Raymond Helmick, S.J. on Saturday night. During his speech, Jackson touched on issues ranging from the election to the Super Bowl.

“As hurt as the Falcons were that night, there were no fights, there was no one throwing helmets at each other, they shook hands. What enabled them to lose with dignity?” he asked, answering, “Whenever the playing field is even, and the rules are public … and the score is transparent, we will accept the outcome.”

Jackson’s words throughout the rest of the night focused on this theme of peaceful and fair resolution, and he pointed to the late Helmick, for evidence of peacemaking.

“Peacemakers are in the bridgebuilding business,” he said. “Father Ray saw walls as sin and estrangement. He saw bridges as salvation. Sometimes we become so blinded by arrogance we can’t see. But, Helmick sought to always see both sides of the picture.”

Jackson gave advice to people seeking to resolve conflicts in the world

Amelie Trieu / Heights EDitor

Jesse Jackson was the keynote speaker at the Second Memorial Lecture Commemorating Rev. Raymond Helmick, S.J., on Saturday. today. He discussed his stance on international conflicts and America’s “no-talk” policy with some countries.

According to Jackson, if there’s no talk, there are no results.

He also talked about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the role he feels the U.S. should be taking.

“Our job is not to choose sides, it should be to reconcile sides,” he said.

Jackson offered advice to people trying to follow his legacy or follow the legacy of other civil rights activists.

“Know when you step on this journey, it didn’t start with you,” he said.

“You are joining a train moving toward justice sometimes derailed. If you’re real smart, you get protection from those who’ve gone before you.”

He also encouraged people to listen to the struggles of other groups and come together to fight for justice. He

specifically cited Chinese and Japanese exclusion from the U.S. and the Holocaust as narratives one must find a common thread that connects them.

Jackson was disappointed by the 2016 election because he said not enough people went out and voted. He offered a passionate stance on voting rights and how he felt citizens of targeted minorities are being stripped of their right to vote due to strict voting procedures.

He said Hillary Clinton lost because of the voter suppression of AfricanAmericans. Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Detroit, New York, and California are “targeted zones” because they only allow one day to vote. He also said that Clinton lost North Carolina because of a marginalized, stolen vote.

Jackson also mentioned the Electoral College as a contentious subject since

its role in the most recent election.

“People said Hillary lost because of the Electoral College,” he said.

“No one connected that College with slavery—it is rooted in slavery. It was meant to throw off the numbers to count slaves as less than people.”

On the last subject of his 1984 and 1988 presidential runs, he said he ran for a certain reason, and that the country may be different today if he had won.

“I ran for president to change the system, change the rules of the system,” he said.

He ended his speech by offering words of wisdom to those trying to fight for justice.

“We must be willing to jump in the water,” he said. “Deep water does not drown you. You drown when you stop kicking.” n

Developer Presents Vision for Sustainable Housing

By Connor Murphy News Editor Imagine a sprawling metropolitan system, connected by high-speed rail, that encompassed Boston, New York City, Toronto, Rochester, New Haven, Worcester, Portland, Springfield, and Montréal. That’s called an “interaction sphere,” which is becoming increasingly common in China, and would put the region’s major cities only an hour or two apart by train.

Not only would people be taking the train more, but driving would decrease because of more population density, decreasing carbon consumption by drivers.

An interaction sphere is the kind of thing Jonathan Rose hopes could solve may of the country’s problems.

At a talk Thursday organized by the Corcoran Center for Real Estate and Urban Action, Rose, one of New York’s biggest developers, articulated his vision for the future of sustainable, affordable housing.

The author of The Well-Tempered City, Rose’s family company runs over 31,000

housing units in NYC. He said he uses the company as a force for good, which he calls “social-venture work.”

Rose wrote the book because he was fascinated by the political results obtained by cities as opposed to states or the federal government. For leaders of municipalities, he said, it doesn’t matter what party they belong to—if the streets are dirty or other services are not being met, they are equally likely to be voted out of office.

Cities therefore achieve more results than bigger entities.

The problem with cities, though, is a lack of vision to gamely meet the challenges of the times. By 2080, 80 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. Inequality is growing, humans are over-consuming, and there is considerable volatility and destruction in the environment.

“We actually are afraid as a society to dream big enough to have a vision that matches the challenges we have ahead of us,” he said. “If you look at almost any city plan and you hold it up to some of these issues, there’s a mismatch.”

In California, a high-speed rail system in a vein similar to the one Rose dreams about is already in the planning stage, although the project could be halted by farmers concerned about how the rail would affect their land. To Rose, that’s a lack of courage.

One of the biggest problems is a lack of affordable housing, as over 20 million American families spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing. Some spend 20 or 30 percent of their income on transportation, and in Los Angeles, Rose said, some spend 96 percent of their income on housing and transportation combined.

Cities also lack plans to deal with climate change. Miami, for example, is built on porous calcium, so when the sea level rises, water will come up into the city even if defenses are built against the ocean.

Rose calls this idea “dynamic planning,” a constant adjusting of ideas. It stems from his theory that humans are out of balance with nature. Chinese dynasties changed, he argued, when an earthquake or some

natural disaster wreaked havoc and convinced people to remove the emperor.

Inequality in America has also become increasingly vast. In 1950, Americans in the bottom quartile of income had a 76percent chance of earning more money than their parents did. Today, Rose said, it’s just 32 percent. Opportunity has flipped, becoming far less distributed.

In order to solve these problems, Rose wants people to think differently about debt, especially in light of a $3.4 trillion infrastructure deficit in which schools, roads, and bridges have increasingly fallen into disrepair. Most cities have a capital budget and an operating budget. The operating budget is the one that needs to be balanced—the day-to-day income and expenses. But on the other side, when it comes to infrastructure, he thinks people should borrow.

“You’re borrowing to create infrastructure that could easily pay for the debt,” he said. “The money is there, we have to have the courage to say, ‘There can be good debt.’” n

POLICE BLOTTER: 4/19/17 – 4/21/17 Wednesday, April 19 11:21 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a medical incident at Gasson Hall.

2:44 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a supicious circumstance at Maloney Hall.

7:06 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a medical incident at the Newton Lots.

9:10 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm activation at Stayer Hall.

the Hovey House.

10:41 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a vandalism at O’Connell House.

2:10 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a larceny at Campion Hall.

Thursday, April 20

8:24 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a drug law violation at Keyes North.

11:35 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a larceny from a motor vehicle at

10:02 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a medical incident at Alumni Stadium.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

CORRECTIONS If you had to live a day with only one sense, what would it be?

“Sight because it would make you observe things more and respond to things.”

—Maddie O’Shea, MCAS ’20

“Sight just because it’s just such a vital part of life.”—Shanon Lee, MCAS ’20

“Taste because we eat food everyday.”—Stephen Vinson, MCAS ’20

“Sight because I’d like to see everything and take it all in.”

—Kendall Trovato, MCAS ’20

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

The Heights

Monday, April 24, 2017

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CS Dept. Understaffed CS Faculty, from A1

Amelie Trieu / Heights Editor

First Hackathon Produces Apps, Games Hackathon, from A1 talking to a friend who was doing research related to the topic. During the second day of the event, the team started and finished the project.

“I’m really glad that BC has started doing hackathons,” he said. “I think it’s a really good step because computer science here is very small.”

The general second place prize was awarded to a team of four that created an app called Don’t Skip Class.

The team, Thomas Ding, MCAS ’20; Zhangyang Wei, MCAS ’18; Jie Zhou, MCAS ’18; and Xueliu Wang, MCAS ’18, created the app to help students navigate campus and their classes.

They were awarded a Raspberry Pi Kit and a $50 Amazon gift card. A Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer.

Users enter their class schedules into the app and are then able to see their classes for each day mapped out on BC’s campus.

The app also shows students which lunch location is most convenient given their class location and times.

If students need to miss class, or have already missed class, the app has a feature that allows students to send a pre-written email explaining their

absence.

Wang said the idea for the app came from the team’s personal experiences of being confused on how to navigate campus during freshman year and morphed into an app that all students can use to keep track of their days.

“We kind of wish we could’ve had this kind of event when we were freshmen,” Wang said. “It was really fun and we learned a lot. I’m kind of jealous.”

The Beginner’s Prize was awarded to a single-man team who created a game called “Feel the Bern.” Julian Matos, CSOM ’20, got the idea of using Bernie Sanders as the character in a simple running game after seeing all the games that made fun of Donald Trump. The user must avoid the fat cats in suits along the path and try to collect stars.

“I thought about making this way back during the election cycle, but I never really got around to it,” Matos said. “So when I started thinking about it, that just popped into my head and I got to finish it.”

The GE Prize for the best hack for social good was awarded to a team of three, Brennan Nugent, MCAS ’20; Jake Mnich, CSOM ’20; and Ben

Meisenzahl, MCAS ’20, that created an app called Refill. Refill addresses the problem of not knowing where to fill up water bottles by allowing users to drop a pin where there is a water refill station. Users can also update the status of the filter station if it is working or not.

“I got the idea when I was looking for a water station,” said Nugent. “It was fun, and I’m looking forward to the next [hackathon].”

“The whole idea of a hackathon is to start and finish a project contained in the event,” said Cam Lunt, MCAS ’17. “When it comes to making apps or websites or any sort of idea, you can get a lot of ideas that you might start and want to explore but then forget about when class gets really busy.”

Lunt said that a hackathon gives students a place and an opportunity to explore ideas that may have taken a backseat to course work over the year.

“We have a smaller computer science community on campus which can be a downside because obviously we don’t have as many resources as a big school like MIT, but it’s also a big plus in that our community of students is very tight-knit,” said Jesse Mu, MCAS ’17. n

Dartmouth, Brown, Georgetown, and the University of Chicago. He found that BC’s department would need 16 faculty members to be on par with the average for universities nationally. He doesn’t see any sign of students’ interest in computer science slowing down, and he thinks that the department needs a minimum of 20 faculty, based on BC’s size, although he ideally would like to have as many as 30, which would bring the faculty to student ratio down to about 1:15 or 1:10, respectively.

Louis Andrews, MCAS ’17, a computer science major, said that the understaffing of the department sometimes makes scheduling tricky, especially for those pursuing a B.S. rather than a B.A., because some required courses are only offered every other year.

“I can’t imagine that you would find a CS major at this school that their biggest complaint wouldn’t be the lack of classes offered, which is a product of understaffing,” he said.

The University determines how many professors each department needs based on the faculty to student credit hour ratio, according to Vice Provost for Faculties Billy Soo. BC looks at student demand for courses in a subject from majors and nonmajors, and then calculates average course size and teaching load per professor. This allows the school to determine the number of faculty that are needed to staff a department, which can fluctuate from year to year.

The University wants to focus on elevating more junior faculty to tenured positions, and is considering hiring more senior professors in order to accelerate the development of the department, Soo said.

Although it had been offered in CSOM beforehand, a proposal to create a computer science major in MCAS was approved in 1980, and students could officially declare the course of study in the fall of 1981.

Computer science is one of the fastestgrowing areas of study at universities, as the American economy has become increasingly reliant on people with technological knowledge in recent years. Because of this, departments at many universities have been very active in the market for computer science professors, Soo said. This creates a competitive environment that can make it difficult for a school to hire enough suitable educators to meet student demand.

“We’re competitive, we can go toe to toe, other than with maybe Harvard and MIT,” Soo said. “We just need to work harder simply because everyone wants them.”

He described the University’s proximity to the tech-friendly city of Boston as an advantage in looking to hire new computer

science faculty, but also noted the area’s high cost of living as a possible drawback.

Another obstacle to BC’s hiring of additional computer science faculty is its lack of a graduate computer science program, which lessens the opportunities for prospective professors to conduct research.

Although there has been talk of establishing a graduate program, it would require more faculty, and therefore the program first has to make a number of new hires. Many of the peer institutions that Alvarez used in his comparison have graduate programs in computer science, he noted. Both Soo and Alvarez stated it is something that BC desires to accomplish in the future.

The upcoming construction of the Institute for Integrated Sciences and Society (IISS), scheduled for 2021 or 2022, will give the University the opportunity to expand the computer science department and perhaps create a graduate program, Soo said. Alvarez sees the potential for computer science to help model complex systems in biology, or the way that a composer puts together a musical piece, among other things.

Alvarez described the University’s increased support of the computer science department, which he believes is essential to BC’s identity as a liberal arts university.

“In the 21st century, computer science is really a language for the liberal arts, just as mathematics used to be the sole language of the sciences,” he said.

While the computer science department has no plans to cap majors and minors, Alvarez noted that the department’s disparity in faculty sometimes makes it difficult for incoming freshmen to explore the field through introductory courses, which inevitably fill up. The limited number of seats in computer lab rooms also put a limit on the number of students that can take computer science classes, he said. For the fall semester, all courses above Computer Science I were restricted to majors. Students who are minors were required to go to the computer science department during their pick times to be added to a waitlist before they could add the course.

In the future, Alvarez has a vision for the computer science department that would fit into BC’s Jesuit mission. He thinks that it is important to keep people at the center of computing, and for the department to remain aware of the ethical implications of automation and the increased role of technology in the workplace.

“We’re going to grow BC to have an excellent computer science department, but also in a way that helps people’s quality of life, and contributes to efforts in improving health outcomes and to addressing environmental concerns,” he said. n

Krause Will Launch First Book, ‘Rebel Power,’ on Tuesday

By Chris Russo Assoc. News Editor Uniting to fight against ISIS and the regime of Bashar al-Assad has led the Kurds to form a more cohesive state, according to Peter Krause, an assistant professor of political science at Boston College.

Last week, Krause published his first book, Rebel Power: Why National Movements Compete, Fight, and Win, which addresses the many conflicts in the Middle East. It was the No. 1 book about nationalism on Amazon in November when it was available for preorder.

Krause will speak at a book launch event tomorrow at 6 p.m. in Devlin 101 to promote it.

Krause spent a decade researching nationalism and political violence and conducted over 150 interviews across the world to write the book, which seeks to address several questions, including why

some groups have states and others don’t, why some groups cooperate with each other while others use violence, and what makes a successful national movement.

His interest in terrorism, nationalism, and political violence began when he was studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005 to attain his master’s degree. Krause also obtained his Ph.D. from MIT. While he performed research for his dissertation, he was particularly interested in whether terrorism and political violence were effective strategies for forming a successful state. As he read literature on the topic, he felt it was too narrow because it often looked at an individual organization’s attacks and its effects rather than at the wider picture.

Krause believed that most of this violence was embedded in broader national and social movements. His research focused on how multiple groups that all sought in-

dependence used violence to achieve their goals. Over the course of the last 10 years, Krause has published several articles about the topic, but he wanted to put his ideas in a cohesive text, so he decided to write the book.

“I care much more about people reading it than buying it,” Krause said. “It’s something that I have put so much of my life into and I feel like it’s the best work that I’ve done [so I would] feel so honored if people read it.”

The book has four chapters: “the Zionists in Israel,” “Palestinians in Palestine,” “Algerians in Algeria,” and “Irish in Ireland.”

During his summers, Krause travelled to Algeria, Northern Ireland, and many other countries to conduct research and hold interviews with people embedded in national movements.

His most insightful interviews were with two famous female terrorists: Leila Khaled, the first woman to hijack an airplane, and Zohra Drif. In 1969, Khaled hijacked an

Israeli airplane as a part of Black September to put pressure on both Israel and Jordan’s monarch.

Krause said female terrorists were unique in their time. The two women’s attacks challenged the stereotypes about political violence that were in place at the time, namely that terrorists are uneducated. Drif spoke French and went to law school.

Krause said it was fascinating to interview the two women about the attacks they carried out and whether they perceived them as effective.

In his book, Krause seeks to address what makes a national movement successful.

“It’s all about the balance of power behind the movement,” Krause said Krause believes movements with lots of organizations have more competition, so more time is spent on internal fights, making conflicts with other states more difficult to resolve.

In his book, Krause writes about what he calls the “hegemonic movement,” in which there is one dominant organization that spends its time and resources on external conflicts so it can gain power. This, Krause believes, is a recipe for success.

Krause said the struggles between the different states in the Middle East relate closely to the United States’ fight against terrorism.

He believes that the U.S. must understand the complex relationships between the different groups to predict where they will strike next.

He said that Americans believe terrorism is all about the U.S., when in reality, the fighting between these groups usually isn’t. Their concerns are much more local, Krause believes.

“I think that understanding the internal dynamics of these movements and how these groups think can really lead to better foreign policy,” he said. n

Activists Reject Era of ‘Alternative Facts’ Science, from A1 This thoughtfulness of all people was incorporated in the event itself. There was a whole children’s section where kids were able to watch interesting science demonstrations and learn more about STEM fields.

Signs everywhere backed off the crowd from the walkways to make sure that wheelchairs could get around. A quiet tent was constructed for those who felt sensory overload to take a break from the crowds.

Another message common to the speeches was that this rally was not enough—further action was needed in order to make this event a success.

There were stands for many nonprofits like the Sierra Club and Voter Choice Massachusetts had tables at the rally itself so the rally-goers could sign up to help.

“The key to making progress is following rallys with action,” McCarthy said.

“If we follow these rallies with legislation in Congress, or state initiatives, that’s when we’ll achieve the most.” n

Julia Hopkins / Heights Editor

Nerd Prom: As thousands gathered to support research, one sign at Boston’s rally read “The Revolution Will Be Peer-Reviewed.”

The Heights

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Monday, April 24, 2017

‘Going Purely on Charm:’ This Year’s Mr. BC, Mike Graziano

By Margaret West For The Heights Michael “Graz” Graziano, LSOE ’17, sat down in the middle of the first floor of O’Neill Library, lucky enough to have found an empty table during prime study hours. We had just come in from frolicking outside for the Heights photoshoot. He had been goofing around for the cameras, making fun of his own awkwardness while he threw the classic thumbs-up pose. Graz is easy-going, charming, and deceptively humble. He was still shell-shocked by his big win of a prestigious title—Mr. BC. “Everyone else had real talent, and I didn’t … I was going purely on charm,” he said over the table, sneaking peeks at my interview notepad. He was nominated by his friends in the Residence Hall Association three days before the pageant kicked off. They thought he would be the perfect candidate, and apparently, they were right. Graziano is definitely a people person—he can command the audience’s attention, clown around on stage, and bring a smile to people’s faces, which he noted as his only goal going into the pageant.

Graziano’s main goal in his official role as Mr. BC is to have fun with people, and bring some joy into their lives.

“I’m charismatic, but I also care,” he said of his personality offstage.

He wants to help the world one person at a time, cultivating the individual attention and personal touch that only Graz can bring. He is on the right track, school-wise, for his personality and beliefs, as an education

major focusing on teaching middle school. He likes kids, and they like him. And, he claims, he identifies with their teenage angst.

Graziano reaches more people through his largest passion: sports.

Although his career on the field peaked in high school, the avid New York Giants fan has a sports show on WZBC and regularly serves as a broadcaster for Boston College football, men’s basketball, men’s hockey, and baseball games. He never leaves Alumni Stadium early. He has played nearly every intramural BC offers, although football is his favorite to watch and play.

Graz is from Ossining, a village in Westchester County, N.Y. he says is famous for missionaries and its massive prison. He plans to return there for the summer and figure out the rest of his life, hopefully landing a job with a sports network on camera or behind the scenes.

The talent portion was the perfect place to showcase his silly side, and Graziano made the most of it.

“I pretty much sang “Mr. Brightside” and ran around,” he said. “And I wa s exhauste d ab out half way through. I was just like, ‘oh no, there’s more to this song.’”

The audience felt the fun, and giving them a good experience was his main goal in entering the competition.

Despite his professed lack of dancing talents, this was not his first brush with fame. This Mr. BC win has its roots all the way back in his freshman year, when he won his orientation’s danceoff, taking home a green—his favorite color—shirt, that will definitely look

Josh Mentzer / Heights STAFF

Mike Graziano won over the judges and spectators at the Mr. BC contest with his spirited performance of “Mr. Brightside.” good with his new sash and crown.

The summer-wear section was his biggest challenge, as a self-professed owner of a “girthy” body, redeemed by his shark hat, swimsuit, and snorkel, he finished off the show with a bold cannonball straight into the floor.

When asked about his strategy for the show’s choreography, he replied in typical Graz fashion.

“Get a laugh, because everyone’s so stressed out,” he said. “Just calm down and enjoy yourself.”

The interview/formal section was what he was most excited for. That was where his charisma shined. He was thrilled with the question he was asked: the classic, what is your ideal date? His

answer: mini golfing and milkshakes.

Sorry, ladies, but if you are the type that ever turns down a free milkshake, Graz is not interested.

Winning Mr. BC was a cherished moment for Graziano, while preparing to leave BC behind. He took this win as an opportunity to reflect on his time here and what it really meant to him.

“What I’m going to miss most are those 12:30 conversations you have in your suite … finding those people with common connections,” he said. “It’s the small moments that mean the most.”

He emphasizes the importance of finding those strong, loyal friends who will do stupid little things to support you. Part of Graziano’s pageant

strategy was to fill the crowd with friendly faces, bringing together friends from all walks of life to give that confidence boost that can make all the difference. All his supporters were thrilled at the win, hyping up the crowd for their friend. His mom, one of his biggest supporters, was excited once he convinced her he wasn’t lying, and she hoped there was a potential Miss BC for him.

So if you recognize Graz walking across the quad one day, stop him, have a chat, take a break from your busy day. He would love to meet you, give you a dose of that famous Graz charm, and hopefully brighten your day. n

African Bridge Network Connects Immigrants With Resources

By Ashley Stauber For The Heights Emmanuel Owusu knows what it’s like to come to a new country alone and try to start to a life. As an African immigrant, he understands the challenges that an immigrant can face, from learning a new language to finding healthcare. This can be especially difficult when an immigrant doesn’t have connections in the new country. Owusu has set out to make the path to this new life easier for African immigrants.

By creating the African Bridge Network, Owusu instituted a network for professional Africans to come together and address their aspirations and needs. Owusu was inspired to create the network after meeting with Richie, a cashier at a local retail shop who was originally from Ghana and had a college degree in Engineering.

“He reminded me of my early years in the U.S., when I also worked in customer service, like many African immigrants,” Owusu said in an email. “You have to start from somewhere and work your way up.”

Owusu was shocked to hear that Richie was planning to go to nursing

school after his friends advised him that he would have an easier time getting into nursing school than pursuing his dream of being an engineer. Undeterred, Owusu encouraged Richie to go after his passion.

As Owusu described, Richie’s story is just one out of the 76,000 African-born immigrants living in Massachusetts, mostly in the greaterBoston area. Owusu urged Richie to avoid what he calls the “Brain Drain” where highly-educated Africans end up taking positions in the workforce that underuse their skills and potential.

“The waste of knowledge is a loss to the individuals, their families, communities, and society,” Owusu explained, “and the culprits are a lack of accurate and timely information, career support, networking opportunities, integration resources and social capital in the African Community.”

In response, Owusu founded the African Bridge Network in 2015.

“Our mission is to build a supportive environment for African immigrants to leverage their foreign degrees and experiences to reach their potential,” he said. “We envision the day where every African immigrant

in the U.S. will receive the necessary support to turn his or her potential into a brain gain for themselves, their families, the communities, the United States and for Africa.”

Westy Egmont, professor in the Immigrant Integration Lab at Boston College School of Social Work and advisor and sponsor of the African Professionals Mentoring program, was approached by Owusu at the time when the African Bridge Network was just a fledgling idea in his mind.

Egmont explained how the Innovative Integration Lab exists to find ways in which people who are new to the U.S. can find their way toward full social, political, economic, and spiritual integration. When he heard about Owusu’s concept of a professional network among Africans he was immediately in support of the idea and willing to act as a sponsor.

Part of his role is to find out the resources of other organizations with similar goals for other population groups and also to brainstorm different programming ideas.

“It was an exciting opportunity for me to meet a group of African leaders and particularly Emmanuel in order to learn his vision and see if I could be supportive of what he was doing,”

Egmont said.

By March 2015, Owusu had taken the first steps in establishing the network and Egmont was excited to rally his support from the sidelines.

Egmont is confident that the model here will continue to expand and replicate, hopefully to other metropolitan places like Washington D.C., and stresses how furthering local depth surpasses their national potential at this time.

Mary Schletzbaum, GSSW ’18, a first year graduate student in the Global Concentrations two-year program, was first introduced to the African Bridge Network when she was sent there through the School of Social Work for her first field placement.

Due to the network’s still burgeoning start, however, they were not quite ready to have a student and so Schletzbaum transitioned to another organization, only to return to the African Bridge Network this past January. She was pleased to see how the network has grown. Owusu, her former supervisor, asked for her help in consulting for their Orientation workshops.

“Emmanuel is fantastic and very well connected,” Schletzbaum said.

“Everywhere I go it seems like he knows someone there. He’s very authentic and welcoming to everyone and he really sees the importance of valuing each person that you make contact with. He’s a great leader and has his whole heart in the organization.”

Schletzbaum described how the overall network is broken down into a mentoring program that partners college-aged African immigrants with professional mentors, a professional networking event with multiple seminars, an orientation workshop and the curriculum that goes along with it, and a career advising program.

She stressed how the seminars keep expanding in size, with the the latest one focused on housing and how to make good investments.

Schletzbaum also hopes that hearing about the network will encourage faculty and staff at BC to reach out and act as mentors.

The Network continues to expand and Owusu continues working to provide the best connections and opportunities he can to young immigrants like Richie, so that they won’t end up settling for less than they can achieve. n

Vague Satisfaction and Peaceful Moments in a Canoe Archer Parquette This is a column about love. And by love, I mean vague satisfaction with an aquatic activity, not actual love. Because love is a lie, and the world is a cruel gaping pit of pain, loss, and gastrointestinal distress.

So I’ve been feeling extra cheery this past week.

Some of you may have noticed that if you saw me, I lacked my usual sad grimace and may have even looked practically chipper. I may also have been scratching the back of my head and frantically muttering, “The squirrels stole my pajamas,” but that’s a story for another column.

The reason for my unusually energetic and joyful mood was canoeing. In my young, but positively fascinating, life, I have found myself within the confines of a canoe three times. Once when I was in the third

grade, once after sophomore year, and once this past October in my junior year.

And I think about it constantly.

Seriously, I might have some sort of canoe problem, akin to substance abuse. When I happen upon a large body of water, as I often do in my many wanderings, I picture canoeing across it and I can hear Johnny Flynn singing, “The water sustains me without even trying” in the back of my head. When I can’t sleep, I begin to think about large bodies of water, as one does, and quickly my mind is back inside a canoe. Even when I meet with my devoted fan club (The Archer Enthusiasts), I start thinking about slicing through a cold New England lake.

At the end of this school year, I will get the chance to canoe again in mystic, mysterious Maine. And then a week after that, I might get the chance to canoe in nippy, neighboring New Hampshire. It’s a freaking canoe extravaganza, people. Excitement is in the air.

In my attempts to explain this bizarre developing obsession of mine,

I’ve turned to my history and found nothing. I don’t know how to swim, despite spending my elementary school years being forced to go to swim class every week at the local Y, with its elderly locker room nudity and floors guaranteed to cause a plantar wart or two. During those classes, I would hug the shallow end of the pool, and occasionally try to use the floating lane dividers as a way of pulling myself along instead of actually swimming. It was horrible and awful and I hated it.

But now, sitting in a flotation device above the water, I am the closest to happy I’ll probably ever be.

Cutting across a lake’s surface with the water-mover-stick (I’ve been told some people call it a paddle), changes everything for the minutes I’m out there. I honestly think you could stick me on a canoe with the most annoying, loud-mouthed person I know, and it would only make things marginally unpleasant. Such is the power of the canoe.

I wish there was a succinct explanation for any of this, so that

I could easily apply the logic to the lives of my many devoted and loving readers and relate my experience to your own, but I have no damn idea.

Something about nature, something about water, something about escape, something about talking to one person for an extended period of time, something about horizons, something about quiet. ????????.

That previous sentence was just question marks, in order to emphasize my lack of answers. The best I can say is that I think these different factors manage to fuse together and play off each other to create a significant and important experience. But one factor, I believe, plays a more important role than any of them: scarcity.

If I lived on a lake, owned a canoe, and spent every afternoon drifting in the water, I probably would stop loving dumbass canoes so much. The fact that I only get to canoe on rare occasions in between long bouts of everyday life is what really makes it something exceptional.

Therein lies the only real in-

formation I have to pass on you (besides never using the word “therein,” which sounds stupid and pretentious). If you have something like canoeing, a personal experience or location or really anything that offers you a unique and borderline-perfect moment, don’t screw around with it constantly and ruin it. Let it be. Enjoy it when the time comes.

But who am I to give advice? I eat too much cheese and have an unhealthy obsession with a pointless form of nautical transportation.

And that’s it for now. This is my last column of the semester, but, barring the many horrible and unfortunate things that can happen in the span of three months, I’ll be back next semester to pen a few more of these little masterpieces.

If you’re graduating, good luck, I’ll see you on the other side, and don’t forget about spending some time on the lake.

Archer Parquette is the features editor for The Heights. He can be reached at on Twitter @ArcherFP.

The Heights

Monday, April 24, 2017

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From Alumni Stadium to Gillette: Tropeano Cheers for Patriots

By Shannon Kelly Asst. Features Editor

And Ashley Stauber For The Heights For a brief moment—only four counts of eight—all eyes would be on Isabella Tropeano, LSOE ’18. The judges had seen plenty of women before her. To be impressed, Tropeano would have to do something different, dancing to a song she would not know until the first beat hit her ears.

But for Tropeano, four counts of eight, however short, would be enough. She would have more to prove over the arduous auditions and callback process, but Tropeano eventually earned her spot on the New England Patriots Cheerleading Squad.

Tropeano began her love affair with dance at an early age. More than just for pleasure, Tropeano’s hobby evolved to include competition performances with a team. After completing high school, during which she took a break from dance, she joined the pom squad at Boston College. Pom, a varsity sport at BC that incorporates dance, cheerleading moves, and pom-poms without the stunt work or tumbling of the cheerleading squad, has 13 members and requires intensive tryouts, usually over two days. The team spends most of its time at events like football and basketball games, cheering and dancing on the sidelines. Though there was a learning curve—the dance that Tropeano learned over her early years is different from the more regi-

mented movements used by the pom squad—Tropeano found that it was something she was interested enough in to take to the next level.

Getting to that level, however, required a strenuous audition process.

The ensemble of 450 dancers was whittled down to 100 after a series of freestyle dances, with no preparation or knowledge of the song beforehand.

As dancers were removed from the audition, those who remained learned a choreographed dance, reducing the original total by 350. Those 100 then participated in a beauty pageant-type round, in which they did the typical swimsuit and cocktail-wear modeling on top of more choreographed dances and solo performances. By the end of the competition, 40 dancers continued on to the final round of the six-week boot camp.

“Boot camp is just like everything you can imagine and pushed you mentally and physically to the brink,” Tropeano said.

On top of the standard dances that the contestants had gotten used to, they also had to memorize facts and figures on the history and current events related to the New England Patriots for tests and attend daily workouts. At the end of the process, Tropeano received the news that she had been chosen.

The tough regimen over the month and a half will serve Tropeano well, however, as she will have to attend two three-hour rehearsals a week during the season before gamedays, in addition to the workload of being a college student.

Gregory Payan / AP Photo

Isabella Tropeano underwent a rigorous tryout process full of freestyle dances, daily workouts, and tests on Patriots facts.

As an applied psychology and human development major and a biology minor through the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Tropeano is keeping busy on campus. Her academic interests have encouraged her to entertain the idea of attending medical school after graduation, though she still has time to decide. Her schoolwork serves her well in her extracurricular activities, as she has volunteered at the Campus School since she arrived on campus. Tropeano has

tried to expand that experience by getting her fellow pom squad members involved in community service.

But the position isn’t all work and no play for Tropeano. While technically her job is all-business, she will get to attend events for the Patriots, which range from press to birthday parties.

As one of the biggest perks, Tropeano will travel with the cheerleading squad to Aruba for its swimsuit calendar photo shoot.

To get to the next level, though,

Tropeano will have to sacrifice participating in the pom squad in her senior year. As a varsity sport, her payment for dancing and cheering as a part of the Patriots organization makes her a professional, and therefore ineligible—not to mention the time conflict and overwhelming responsibility of dancing for two teams at once. And while it was rewarding for Tropeano to dance on the sidelines of Alumni Stadium, it will be a whole other ball game to perform at Gillette. n

The Mursday Effect ,Chapter 11: And All Was Lost, the Penultimate Adventure Joanna Oxford “The Mursday Effect” is a humor piece created pseudonymously by two authors, with each devoting him or herself to an alternating chapter each week. The newest installment in the serial will appear in each Monday issue of The Heights. It can also be found online with the previous chapters.

I looked back at Rutherford’s face—he was examining a small rock he was kicking with his tattered shoes, a look of forced concentration trying to mask the sadness in his eyes.

So, this is how it was, I thought.

So much for friends forever.

The mercenaries, all things considered, were quite nice, which is the raise in quality you expect when you acquire hired killers from Canada.

“Hey!” one barked at me. “Miss!

Do you want any tea?”

You see what I’m talking about.

And let me just say, I indulged myself. Whatever they offered, I took. That’s the funny thing about losing your purpose—nothing matters at all, and you can finally just relax.

Fortunately for me, the dismal warehouse the mercenaries had locked me up in was for the retail chain Homegoods, so I laid in seafoam-green, chevron-patterned chaise lounges and curled up in ultra-plush blankets as I planned out my next move.

The details relayed to me are shaky and not as solidly substantiated as before, as I was trapped in the Homegoods warehouse. But this is what people said happened, so let’s go with it. *** The three students stared back at Regina.

“So, can I like, come with you?”

Darren said. “I am just so over this existence.”

“I will think about it,” Regina said. “But probably, no.”

“Now wait just a minute!”

Retrograde said, flipping through a small notebook. “You said you were the one we were looking for. That means you’re good!”

“You would think. But that’s just writing conventions lulling you into a false sense of predictability about the plot,” she said. “Just because I’m the one you’ve been looking for doesn’t mean that I’m necessarily

good.”

“Wow, that’s sneaky as hell,” Bridget said, a smile on her face. “I kind of love that.”

“Well, anyway, enjoy your last few moments on earth. You are all doomed to die in this realm while I go onto whatever iteration of this universe is great for me.”

George shot Bridget a panicked look. Darren grabbed a flask he had been hiding in his pants pocket.

Retrograde just huffed and huffed, flipping through the pages of his small notebook like a deck of cards.

Regina clasped her hands together and smiled, satisfied in her havoc-wreaking.

“Time for me to go! I have a lot of people to let down today about the state of the earth,” she said.

“Maybe I’ll swing by right before I head out just to bask in your sorrow again. It’s quite pleasing.”

The trio looked at each other, unsure of what to do next.

“I guess I should call my mom and let her know where I am,” Bridget said. “For helicopter parents, they really haven’t checked in about grades in a while.”

Retrograde looked at her as she trudged to a corner of the room.

“I’m leaving.”

“What?” George yelled. “You take us on this whole journey and have us commit several crimes, and now you’re just going to up and leave?”

Retrograde sighed.

“You don’t understand right now,” he said. “But this has to be done. I have to go. Please, remember me.”

“You can’t just pull this Aslan crap!” George shouted, throwing tiaras onto the floor. “You’re just some regular guy, okay? You are not going off to save the world or something.”

“I bet that’s what people said about Jesus,” Darren said, rolling his eyes.

“This is all just ridiculous.”

George was trembling with anger.

“You know what? Just get out of here! We don’t need you anyway!

Go!” “Yes, that is what I was planning on doing,” Retrograde said, making his way to the door.

George turned to the wall.

“Goodbye, my friend.”

Retrograde looked over his shoulder, shook his head, and left.

“Dude, did you just Harry and the Hendersons him?”

“Try The Fox and the Hound, Darren. Get some culture.”

Bridget sighed as she put away her phone.

“Well, they’re struggling with the concept of my impending death because I haven’t even committed to Goldman for the summer yet, but I think they’ll get through it.”

Tears started to form in her eyes.

“They mostly just talked about my sister’s newest piano competition trophy.”

“Oh ... wow …” Darren said, struggling to come up with words for the first time in his life. “That is a lot.”

She ran off to a small, dimly-lit room with pillows and candles, which is weird for a tiara shop to have. She was sobbing and vulnerable.

George rushed to the outside of the door, attempting to hear her inside, though all he would have been able to hear would be her ugly sniffling and squeals.

“Hey ... are you okay?”

Bridget looked at him like he was the dumbest person in the world.

“I don’t know, George, what do you think? That’s a question for you. The world is ending and we are going to die, and my parents don’t even care. Do you want to ask another stupid question?”

She threw herself on one of the piles of pillows.

“Hey …” George said, patting her head. “It’ll be okay. I actually wanted to talk to you about something, about us.”

“What?” she said, looking up at his face.

“Ever since we’ve been on this journey, and we’ve found ourselves in these horrifying situations and our lives have been at stake, I’ve been thinking,” he started, squinting his eyes a little to appear more desirable. “And I just wanted to say, like, since we’re going to die, that ...

I love you, Bridget.”

She gasped and looked up at him, getting close to his face.

“Wow, I … can’t believe this is my life,” she whispered. “Please, never do this to a woman again.

That was awful.”

He got up and walked out the door. Bridget smiled to herself. Not even if the world was ending.

But still, all was lost.

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In Martin Jarmond, BC Finds Perfect Fit for New AD After Boston College announced that Director of Athletics Brad Bates would not have his contract renewed and would seek an opportunity with Collegiate Sports Associates, we argued that the next hire made by University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J. would be “the most crucial hire in the program’s history.” At no point in its history, save for the point shaving scandals that plagued men’s basketball in the late ’70s, has BC Athletics been at a lower point in terms of public perception.

This athletics savior had to have ample experience running a program in the Power Five, particularly in football and men’s basketball. Whoever the next AD would be, we said, must be capable of surrounding themselves with people who had similar experiences working with these two sports, given how crucial each is financially to the University. This AD would have to revitalize and convince donors to return to the Flynn Fund, especially as three major infrastructural projects begin for athletics in the replacement for the Flynn Recreation Complex, the Brighton Athletics Complex, and the indoor practice facility adjacent to Alumni Stadium. At the same time, the next AD would have to be ready to lead a program that hosts more varsity sports than any other school in the ACC. And they must be ready to face the harsh Boston media and a ravenous fanbase desperate to return to winning—or, at least, return to being competitive.

In Martin Jarmond, BC may have surpassed all of our expectations, not to mention those of fans—and, perhaps, many with the University itself.

The 37-year-old Jarmond, the former deputy AD and chief of staff of The Ohio State University, was by far the most eligible candidate on the market, and without question a better choice than any of those we could have suggested. As deputy

Monday, April 24, 2017

AD, Jarmond was the sport administrator for football, men’s basketball, baseball, men’s golf, and women’s golf. He was also in charge of football scheduling and led several major committees. Between OSU and his time at Michigan State University, Jarmond has personally raised over $250 million in the last six years.

Given his many years with two of the nation’s athletic blue bloods, Jarmond knows exactly what goes into building a winner. With his track record, he has the ability to convince BC’s hungry donors to invest in the University’s athletic programs, especially at this critical construction juncture. In Columbus, Jarmond has seen what good facilities are supposed to look like. And Ohio State has the most varsity sports in the Big Ten Conference, with 28, so Jarmond will have experience balancing a hefty mix of teams.

Jarmond brings youth and exuberance to the position as the youngest AD in a Power Five Conference. As a member of University of North CarolinaWilmington’s men’s basketball, Jarmond also showed he is a natural-born leader and winner. He walked onto the team, yet became a captain as a senior. Jarmond was a member of the Seahawks’ first-ever NCAA Tournament team.

Jarmond, who is black, will be BC’s highest-ranking administrator of color.

This is important for an athletic department that does not have a single minority head coach, and only has five black fulltime assistant coaches: football’s Rich Gunnell; men’s basketball’s Stan Heath; women’s basketball’s Yvonne Hawkins and Jesyka Burks-Wiley; and women’s soccer’s James Thorpe. Now, BC’s soon-to-be most public face in the media will help buck the trends of a University who has garnered a tradition of homogeneity, as news sources such as The Boston Globe have contended in the past.

Speaking of the media, Jarmond has

“Interpreting freedom as the multiplication and rapid satisfaction of desires, men distort their own nature.”

- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

already shown a willingness to be open. He reached out personally to The Heights on Thursday shortly after he was announced, as well as to writers at The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, and BC Interruption.

Jarmond also has shown a pattern of quickly responding to emails from fans.

It is a special brand of openness unseen over the last several years.

If we were to nitpick, Jarmond has two flaws. First, given that he has never been an AD, Jarmond has never had to directly hire or fire a coach. At Ohio State, Jarmond has also seen a run of success typical of one of the nation’s blue blood programs—the Buckeyes have been stable with Urban Meyer and Thad Matta running the football and men’s basketball programs, respectively, for longer than Jarmond’s tenure in Columbus. That being said, Ohio State’s bio on Jarmond claims he has been involved in the hiring and firing process. The only way for one to be involved in direct hiring and firing is to be an AD, but Jarmond’s experience with a Power Five still surpasses what BC might have gotten from an AD at a lesser school.

Additionally, if there’s any program BC cares a lot about and Jarmond does not have a lot of experience with, it’s hockey.

But even then, both the men’s and women’s programs essentially run themselves.

Jerry York and Katie Crowley are arguably the two best coaches in the country at their craft, and will help Jarmond ease into the two sports.

When announcing his opening, BC provided comment from several ADs, including North Carolina’s Bubba Cunningham and his former bosses, OSU’s Gene Smith and MSU’s Mark Hollis. They, among all others, have praised BC for the hire. We are no exception. Jarmond is the perfect fit for a school that needed one at the most critical time. Nothing is a sure bet in the world of athletics hirings, but Jarmond is as close as you can get.

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The Heights

Monday, April 24, 2017

A7

Sewing Safety Before the Smoke

Joseph Staruski Intruders in Bapst - On Saturday, two newlyweds entered Bapst Library, photographer and other members of their posse in toe. The studying and working stopped for a brief moment, and all eyes in the room fixed their gaze upon the white dress and tuxedo in the middle of the room. Despite the students in the background, the pair posed for multiple photos, lost in their excitement and love for each other. When the photoshoot was over, the whole room gave the couple a resounding clap. The groom stood up on a chair and thanked everyone, wishing us luck on our exams. As the wedding party walked out, I couldn’t help but feel pensive. Amid the stress of finals, the hustle and bustle of everyday life at Boston College, I often forget that an entire world exists outside campus.

These intruders into my study session ended up being just what I needed to set my head back on straight. I wish them all the best.

Something I’ll Miss - The day grows late, and the freshmen on Upper return back to their dorms to begin the nightly grind, or head down to Mac for a late-ish dinner.

The few that remain outside as the Massachusetts nighttime chill slowly sets in, however, are in for a spectacle. Behind the far side of the land that the privileged freshmen roam, the sun begins to dip slowly in the sky amid a background of orange and pink. The colors become more fantastic as the sun gets lower, flooding the space above CLXF with a wonderland of sorbets and pastels. A freshman climbs on top of the roof of the O’Connell dance studio, hoping to get a better view.

Looking out over the quieted Upper Campus below and the humblingly beautiful sky above him, it’s sunsets like this that he knows he’ll miss next semester.

Massachusetts voters elected to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in 2016, which was absolutely the right decision.

Many, like Governor Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, claim that marijuana is unsafe and toxic for our communities. But the truth of the matter is that marijuana is already prevalent in our communities for better or worse.

Legalization will make the substance safer for people who choose to use it and will take profits away from drug dealers and cartels, giving it to legal business owners and the state (through taxes). Furthermore, users will better understand the substance because the government can require packaging that specifies concentrations and provides instructions on how to use marijuana properly.

Unfortunately, Massachusetts marijuana laws are not nearly as good as they ought to be. It seems to me that the law that was passed was less of a “final cut,” and more like a template for what could potentially be excellent legislation.

To begin, marijuana taxes could be much higher. Marijuana will be taxed in two ways: by excise tax and by sales tax.

In Massachusetts, the excise tax rate will be between 3.75 percent and 5.75 percent depending on the town or city, and the sales tax will be the same as the general sales tax of 6.25 percent. For comparison, Colorado’s excise tax on marijuana is 15 percent and its sales tax on marijuana is 12.9 percent.

Colorado can get away with such high taxes because marijuana is coming off of the black market, where the prices were inflated.

Colorado took in $127 million this past year from marijuana taxes. Each year, the state appropriates marijuana funds for building schools, funding drug prevention programs and anti-bullying campaigns, and early literacy grants, and so on.

Unfortunately, this is another place where the Massachusetts marijuana law is

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proof packaging for edibles, and other safety measures so that we don’t have to deal with our dogs and children getting high from stealing out of the cookie jar.

Lewis has filed legislation to solve this issue. His bill would require opaque packaging and other very strict regulations that provide for public safety.

Finally, the legalization bill also lacks adequate educational requirements and initiatives. As written, the law requires that a person under 21 caught with marijuana fulfill four hours of instructional courses on drug education and 10 hours of community service. That is nothing. A driver’s ed course in Massachusetts requires at least a total of 48 hours of instruction and behind-thewheel experience.

Moreover, the educational component ought not to be limited to people caught using marijuana underaged. It should be a graduation requirement to take some sort of drug educational course for a semester in high school. It is the duty of our educational system to prepare our citizenry to live a healthy and productive life. Children need to learn how to make responsible decisions about drugs and alcohol, and this is an important component to a robust marijuana law.

Marijuana ought to be legal, but that is not to say that it is good to use marijuana.

Legalization is the first step to minimizing the impact of such a drug. When weed is legal, it can be controlled, regulated, taxed, and researched, all things which increase public health and safety, rather than having the drug cause havoc on the black market.

Massachusetts voters made the right decision when they voted to legalize marijuana, but now the state legislature has a huge job to do when it comes to making the law the best that it can be. The goal needs to be to preserve individual liberty to use marijuana, while also making it safe and ensuring public health. The law, as written, is pretty bad. But, as it turns out, some of the critics of legalization like Lewis and Baker could be the most helpful allies in creating a comprehensive and intelligent legalization policy.

Joseph Staruski is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

A New Approach to Syria

Rebecca Moretti

Unintentionally Making Something Old - Every avid music fan does it. Your favorite artist is about to release a new album, and you stay up late just so that you can hear it the second it drops. You refresh Spotify like a madman, and suddenly, it’s there, 45 minutes of brand new music for the world to hear.

You put the project on repeat, listening to it for hours on end before falling asleep to its sound. When you wake up, it’s what you’re singing in the shower, between classes, in class, in the library, and then back in your room, right where you started. You rave about the album, trying to get all of your friends to listen, imploring them to take part in your obsession. After a few days, however, the music begins to lose its magic. Your ears crave something new yet again. Your mind wishes you could unhear each song so that you could experience the thrill of listening to every melody for the first time again. Such is the continual plight of an avid music fan.

Sure, many albums seem to become better the more that you listen to them, but nothing ever beats the first time you hear an amazing song.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

insufficient. Our law does not specify any programs to be funded by marijuana taxes besides the enforcement of the law itself.

Any funds after that are just dumped into a general fund for appropriation by the legislature.

My fear is that those funds could be wasted by future state legislatures on irrelevant or useless expenses, when they should rightfully be going toward marijuana research, prevention programs, and drug rehab. I worry that future legislatures could take the marijuana funds for granted and use them for political gain or frivolous expenses, while important programs related to marijuana expenses go unfunded. The revenue the state gains from marijuana sales should be automatically appropriated to certain programs that are relevant and effective.

A marijuana research initiative is one such idea that is currently under consideration. Senator Jason Lewis, a strong opponent of the 2016 legalization campaign, has proposed a bill that would allow the Commonwealth to use taxpayer funds to study the social, psychological, and biological effects of marijuana.

While funding for this program would not come directly from marijuana taxes (as it should), we can at least say that we are publicly funding research. Marijuana research is very sparse in the United States because of federal regulations and lack of funding. Massachusetts could become a leader in this field.

Another very important part of creating an effective marijuana law is packaging regulations, of which the current law specifies none. Packaging is extremely important for marijuana products, especially edibles.

Marijuana is not like cigarettes or alcohol when it comes to ease of recognition. You can clearly distinguish a cigarette from a piece of food, and alcohol has a very distinct taste from any other type of drink.

But for marijuana, this is not always the case. In states where it is legal, stores sell marijuana-infused cookies and brownies, as well as other products containing THC such as weed candy and sodas.

If not packaged properly, marijuana edibles could be a big hazard for children and uninformed adults. Massachusetts needs to require big, explicit labels, child-

It seems that President Barack Obama’s pr overbial “red line” in Syria just became President Donald Trump’s very concrete red wall. In August 2012, Obama declared that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government would cross a red line that would require American military intervention.

Less than a year later, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad killed over 1,400 of his own people in a massive chemical attack that included nerve agents such as sarin gas.

No U.S. military strike on Assad’s government ensued, and Obama’s red line proved to be a line drawn in invisible ink. In other words, the red line was not enforced, and no American retaliation followed the chemical gassing of over a thousand people.

Fast-forward to April 2017 and Trump is in the White House. A few years ago, Trump seemed to be adamantly against the notion of intervention in Syria, according to various statements he made (and particularly his Twitter posts). He has criticized Obama not only for not enforcing the red line in Syria, but for drawing one in the first place.

Following a recent chemical attack in Syria that led to Trump ordering the first direct U.S. strike on Assad’s government, however, it seems that his non-interventionist stance may have shifted a bit.

Trump, like many others in Washington, believes that setting limits and not enforcing them is bad strategy for the U.S., since it reduces the nation’s credibility in the world and emboldens aggressive actors. Whether this is true or not, recent events suggest that Assad has not been shy to use chemical weapons once again. Evidently, the deal John Kerry brokered through the Russians in 2014 to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile has not prevented another chemical attack.

On April 4, a chemical bombing in a

rebel-held area of northwest Syria killed over 70 people, including children, and sparked international outrage. Trump and other world leaders strongly condemned the chemical attack, blaming Assad’s government. Syria and Russia, not surprisingly, deny that the Syrian military used chemical weapons. However, it appears that only the Syrian military had the ability and motive to carry out such an aerial attack.

The poison used in the bombing is likely to have contained a nerve agent such as sarin gas, according to witnesses who saw victims writhing and foaming at the mouth.

On April 7, Trump ordered cruise missiles to be fired on the Syrian airbase from which the chemical attack was launched. This strike represents the U.S.’s first direct military action against Assad’s regime.

Internationally, many have praised the retaliatory strike on Assad’s government.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle, including prominent Congressional Democrats such as Senator Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, have also expressed approval of the strike. Hillary Clinton expressed support for the bombing of Syrian airfields.

“Assad’s air force is the cause of most of the civilian deaths,” she said in a recent interview. “I really believe that we should take out his airfields to prevent him from bombing innocent people.”

Some, including the Syrian and Russian governments, have criticized the strike and/ or denied Assad’s culpability. Others, including Senator Bernie Sanders, scrutinized Trump’s decision to bomb Syria without Congressional involvement. However one feels about Trump, his decision to strike Syria was morally justified, which is why it was so popular.

Many instantly connect the strike with a policy of regime change, and I don’t see why this should be the case. Those most worried about the strike fail to realize that it is most likely not the precursor to a U.S. war to overthrow Assad, but rather an isolated incident with a strategic and moral significance.

This strike should not be seen as sign of fundamental change for U.S. policy in Syria. Trump can more easily retaliate with a limited direct strike against Syria because,

unlike Obama, he hasn’t preached the necessity of Assad’s immediate removal. Also, if Obama had retaliated after Assad crossed the red line, it may have angered Iran and jeopardized negotiations in the Iran nuclear deal.

Obama was insistent that Assad step down or be removed, but never actually took direct action against Assad’s regime.

Now we have Trump, who over the years suggested that Assad could stay in power and stabilize Syria, ordering the first direct strike on the Syrian regime. Some say Trump’s behavior is confusing and contradictory. In reality, it’s pretty simple. The Trump administration is taking it day by day with the crisis in Syria.

The White House has stated that this was a limited strike, aimed to punish but not remove Assad. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis stated that the U.S.’ main priority in Syria remains the defeat of ISIS. And perhaps, for now at least, it is better left at that. The U.S. hasn’t always been successful in spurring or executing regime change in other countries.

Even in conflicts where the removal of a dictator is morally justifiable, the U.S.’ good intentions don’t always pan out due to the inherent difficulties involved in rebuilding a state.

Assad is undoubtedly despicable, but there is no telling what will replace him after he falls. In fact, Assad’s removal may result in a greater mess or an even more evil regime. Regime change in Iraq and Libya has created a worse situation in these countries than what existed before U.S. intervention.

The only thing that will improve the plight of Syrian civilians now is stability. We can go on and on about how Assad needs to be removed, but inevitably someone needs to rule.

So, who rules? The answer to this question is the fundamental underlying principle of every stable nation. The sooner that’s figured out, the sooner stability can be restored in Syria. So far, Russia is the only one who has answered this question.

Rebecca Moretti is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

The opinions and commentaries of the op-ed columnists and cartoonists appearing on this page represent the views of the author or artist of that particular piece, and not necessarily the views of The Heights. Any of the columnists and artists for the Opinions section of The Heights can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

Analyzing Adderall Rachel Loos

I recently received an email from the Boston College Office of Health Promotion with a link to the CORE Alcohol and Drug Survey. As I completed the questionnaire, one part that stuck out to me concerned the use of prescription stimulant drugs, namely those used to treat ADHD, like Adderall and Ritalin.

It’s known that many college kids are taking stimulant medications, whether they are prescribed for ADHD, taken to help with studying, or used recreationally. The drugs may be seen as academic performance enhancers, increasing focus, alertness, and energy. These effects also translate well to party settings, allowing users to stay up later and drink more.

BC’s Alcohol and Drug Policy explicitly prohibits the misuse of prescription drugs, including stimulants, but research has found that prescription stimulants are widely available on college campuses.

I created a short, informal survey to help me understand students’ experiences with prescription ADHD medication. After sharing it with my class Facebook group, and several GroupMe chats, I was pleasantly surprised to receive 41 responses.

Again, this was a very informal Google Forms survey and the answers do not necessarily reflect the population of BC, but it was interesting to see the results.

While only 20 percent of respondents had ever been prescribed stimulant drugs for an attention deficit disorder, over half had taken these drugs without a prescription.

My results may overestimate the scope of stimulant medication use. In 2013, researchers at the University of Michigan found 7 percent of students had used stimulant medication medically in the past, and 12.7 percent had used it for nonmedical reasons. I suspect that it is difficult to tell whether the drugs are abused or used therapeutically.

I am currently in the process of weaning myself off of a stimulant medication that I began taking about four years ago.

At the time I started taking it, I genuinely had difficulty sustaining attention. I still do, but lately I’ve reconsidered whether it disrupts my ability to function. I no longer can tell if I am taking the drug because I need it, or because I just want a “boost” to help me study.

Subjective perceptions of attention deficiency make it difficult to determine who actually “needs” these medications.

It isn’t that hard to get a prescription, an Internet search of ADHD symptoms and a willing doctor will get you there. I’m not sure how prevalent it is for students to get prescriptions without truly having ADHD. Students want these drugs to help them get by in school, but I found that, in another study, nonmedical users of prescription stimulants tended to skip class more, and had significantly lower grade point averages than non-users. This could be due to their increased likelihood of engaging in other drug and alcohol use.

I think many people take these drugs at universities because the environment is so stressful and everyone is incredibly busy. I’m doing 10 different things all the time. A college can’t promote the use and misuse of prescription stimulants, but the culture at BC and colleges in general encourages students to be hyper-focused, energetic, and overinvolved. That’s why it’s so popular to take these drugs.

Consider this: during finals, coffee is free and the library is open 24 hours.

Caffeine is the normal, accepted way to get around our bodies’ natural energy constraints, but many withdrawal symptoms for caffeine are similar to symptoms of ADHD medication withdrawal (e.g. fatigue, headache, changes in heart rhythm).

I can’t tell anyone what drugs to consume. I am certainly not a perfect role model, and I’m conflicted. I can’t deny that I get far more work done when I take this drug, but I hate being dependent on a pill for motivation. I caution anyone against viewing medication as a cure-all for their academic and other problems.

I hope we can promote an environment where we don’t have to stay hyper-focused constantly. It’s okay to just chill out sometimes.

Rachel Loos is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

THE HEIGHTS

A8

MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2017

Singing Like His Life Depends on It Nazir Fares spent 30 days captured by Muammar Gaddafi. But he managed to turn away from depression and toward faith.

BY GRACE GVODAS Asst. Copy Editor Most of us couldn’t sing even if our lives depended on it. But for Nizar Fares, current director of Boston College’s Middle East Ensemble, it was the thing that almost got him killed.

In 1999, three years after winning Studio El-Fan, a Lebanese talent show similar to The Voice, Fares was invited to perform in Libya. Little did he know, one of the spectators would be Muammar Gaddafi, then the dictator of Libya.

Infatuated with his performance, Gaddafi demanded that Fares record one of Gaddafi’s personally written pieces.

After remaining in Libya to record two of Gaddafi’s songs, Fares prepared to depart back to his home in Lebanon. Unfortunately, returning home would prove to be a lot more difficult than that.

Fares was told to remain in his hotel, and then was prohibited from leaving his room indefinitely.

“I didn’t know why back then, and I had to stay cool because they might have good intentions,” Fares said. “But after 30 days, I was facing death every day because, you know, it’s Gaddafi. Many leaders got into that country and disappeared so, who am I?” He was on the

verge of complete starvation, refusing to eat for four days at a time in fear that his captors were poisoning his food. The only thing that got him through, Fares said, was praying, reading the Bible, and playing his oud, a Middle Eastern instrument similar to the guitar. He was eventually released, but only after 30 days of persistent physical, mental, and emotional suffering.

He plummeted into a deep depression.

Being held hostage, unsure of whether or not he would make it to the next day, had a profound effect on Fares.

His dejection persisted. Fares hoped to spawn a successful singing career after winning

Studio El-Fan along with continuing his academic pursuits. But these dreams were crumbling in his feelings of helplessness and despair.

His faith, however, persisted. Fares continued to pray and read the bible, and two months after being released from Libya, came across the Gospel of Matthew 6:26.

“It talks about the lilies and the birds, and how he is able to feed them and take care of them and how they are much better,” Fares said. “So I prayed that prayer.

‘Lord if I am much better than birds and lilies, and you are able to take care of them, then you are definitely able to take care of me.’”

Any young and successful artist develops a sort of ego, Fares noted. When he began his singing career, he admitted, his drive was for the fame, the wealth, the music videos, and the like. But after being held hostage and experiencing two months of utter despair, on the night he read Matthew 6:26, Fares redirected his gaze.

“On that night I told Him, ‘It’s not me anymore, it’s you,’” Fares said. “So I slept that night, and I woke up a new human.

No trace of depression. I was full of joy and full of peace.”

From that day forward, Fares dedicated his voice to God, becoming fully immersed in his new vision, mission, and ministry. He recorded three Christian songs that year, all hits within a week.

Fares has since recorded 14 Christian albums, three of which are for children.

Fares now travels all over the world doing extensive work for refugees throughout the Middle East, Australia, and Europe. He plays music in

refugee camps, and provides whatever it is people need most, be it clothing, food, emotional and moral support, or prayer—he never just sends out money.

Fares described that he is committed to being fully present to help how he can best serve those in need. He spent his Easter this year with refugees in Sydney, and will head to Greece and Turkey for two weeks to do similar work starting May 1.

“Nobody really knows the magnitude of sadness and the magnitude of distress that these people are living,” Fares said.

“That is why I am going there … doing field work, relief work, and also I do concerts.”

One of Fares’ most memorable—and most heart-wrenching—experiences in working with refugees is the story of a woman called Umm Imad. A Christian who lived in northern Iraq, her neighbors broke into her house, poured gasoline on her daughter, and then lit her on fire. Six days later, the Islamic State invaded her town, and everyone fled, forcing Umm Imad to leave her daughter in the hospital with severe, life-threatening burns.

Two months later, the hospital located Umm Imad and told her to come back, and that her daughter was asking for her.

“The daughter said, ‘I won’t leave this world until I make sure that you forgave the people who burned me,’” Fares said “‘On the third day, Jesus told me that you forgave them, so now I can go in peace,’ and she died.”

Despite these agonizing and sorrowful experiences, Fares emphasizes how he believes God’s hand is still ever-present in life.

“We have the chance to get closer to God or to deny him and deny his presence,” Fares said. “And what I have seen in these people is them getting closer to God.”

Despite his commitment to mission work with refugees, Fares found time to earn his Ph.D. in musicology at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in 2012. That same year, he, along with his wife and two young boys, received green cards to come to the United States. They arrived in 2013, and Fares became a guest artist and lecturer, directing workshops and performances at Tufts and William and Mary. After receiving a call from Ann Lucas, an associate professor in the music department at BC, he began directing the Middle East Ensemble in Jan. 2016.

Since his arrival, Fares has grown the Middle East Ensemble from 10 musicians to 28—teaching multiple students one-on-one to help them understand the complex Middle Eastern scales that are not typically, if at all, present in Western music.

On top of his tireless work with refugees, direction of the Middle East Ensemble, and time spent with his children and wife, Fares is applying for a grant to write a book on the development of Arabic ornamentation and how it evolved between 1904 and 1970.

The purpose of the project would be to provide a practical approach for both Western and Middle Eastern people to learn the complex Middle East musical tradition, which he would write in both English and Arabic.

Fares’ schedule is multi-faceted and intense, but he is not intimidated by the business. He continues to work 18-hour days, he said, as he has done so for the past 17 years since being released from Libya.

“I think there is a lot to be achieved,” Fares said. “There is a lot to be done. And time is my enemy.”

Although his voice was once what brought him close to death, it has become the very thing that gives him, and thousands of others, life. 

The Day After One week after Marathon Monday, the seven student runners profiled in The Heights’ “Day After Day,” reflect on running the Boston Marathon.

BY ARCHER PARQUETTE Features Editor Emma Howe At the finish line, Emma Howe stopped to catch her breath. She had just finished her first Boston Marathon, a goal she’d had for many years, and successfully raised money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. With this done, many runners would have doubled over, grabbed some water, and tried to recover from the ordeal they had just gone through. But Howe caught sight of her dad standing just past her and immediately took off sprinting.

“I almost hyperventilated because I was kind of crying,” she said.

They reached each other and hugged past the finish line. After promising to run the Marathon for him three years ago, when he was diagnosed with cancer, she had reached the culmination of that promise.

The Marathon had been difficult, but Howe remembered her cause and was motivated by the runners surrounding her. She had spent the past months training alone in the cold weather, and to suddenly be surrounded by hundreds of people all striving for the same goal kept her going through the hardest parts of the race. Crucially, the people around her were all part of her division: people running for charity.

“Knowing that everyone around you is running for a cause was so, so cool,” she said.

Bennet Johnson Bennet Johnson had already achieved much of his goal before he started the Marathon. He had set out to raise $10,000 for Special Olympics Massachusetts and managed to surpass that total by more than 20 percent. The money will benefit people with special needs, such as Johnson’s brother Sam. Having achieved this, he went into the Marathon wanting to finish.

The morning of Marathon Monday he had a run-in with Boston College legend Doug Flutie. They met before starting the race and spoke about Flutie’s foundation, which also helps children with autism. When the race began, Johnson’s dad got on the T and followed his son along the route, finding him four

times during the race to cheer him on as each mile grew harder to complete In his first Marathon, Johnson finished in four hours and 40 minutes, a satisfying time considering the effect of the heat.

“I literally saw some people like pass out or faint,” he said.

After the halfway point, he started to lose his pace, but kept going so he could make it to BC before “hobbling” the final five miles to the finish.

“Heartbreak Hill was as bad as everyone says,” he said.

Despite this, he credits the Marathon as an amazing experience that he might think about repeating—once he takes a week to recover.

Hannah Bowlin Hannah Bowlin was prepared for the excitement of passing BC, but what she didn’t realize was the impact of passing the Wellesley “scream tunnel.” At Mile 12, the Wellesley College students line the route, holding signs and screaming at deafening levels as runners pass. Experiencing another college tradition on the route kept Bowlin going the extra miles to BC. “Emotionally and physically I was preparing for Mile 21 and once that was over it kind of like a crash on both of those accounts,” she said.

She slowed down through Mile 22, but once she caught sight of the Citgo sign a mile ahead, she knew she was close and could stick it out until the end. One reason she kept going was the charity she ran for: the Boston Children’s Museum.

She reached her individual fundraising goal and her team also raised its collective goal.

“We were able to help a lot of these kids reach the museum in ways they might not have been able to otherwise,” she said.

When asked, she immediately and definitively said that she wants to run the Marathon again.

“Anyone can do it,” she said. “Anyone can run if they really want to.”

Sean Kane Passing Linden Lane, Sean Kane heard someone yelling his name. He turned and saw Campus School volunteers standing alongside the road, representing the cause he was running for. As

he ran by, they snapped his picture and reminded him of why he was running in the first place.

“They made it worth it,” he said.

The parts of the race when there weren’t people cheering him on, around Miles 7 through 10, were the hardest parts for him. It wasn’t the soreness or the thirst, but the need to stay motivated until he reached those exceptional moments like Linden Lane.

After BC, he kept going and managed to achieve his goal time, under four hours, which he was satisfied with but also wishes was even better. He’s already planning to run another marathon, hopefully in less heat, so he can beat the time he set.

“No marathon will be like Boston,” he said.

At the time of this interview, he is still actively fundraising for the Campus School and is already promoting new events for this upcoming week.

His fundraising campaign is continuing until May 31, and he shows no signs of slowing down.

But for now, he’ll never forget running his first marathon.

“I wouldn’t change it for the world,” he said. “It was incredible.”

Kathryn Lieder To get through the hardest parts of the Marathon, Kathryn Lieder thought of Ryan, the young cancer survivor for which she ran.

“It was so exhausting, kind of hit a wall, but it was so cool to think of him and his perseverance,” Lieder said.

During the race, Ryan, who was in Florida at the time, tracked her progress.

The day after Marathon Monday was his birthday, and Lieder thought about the importance of running for a charity that helped Ryan and kids like him. She has almost reached her fundraising goal for her charity, the Adventure Project, which provides physical training to young cancer survivors.

“It was really energizing just running for a charity and knowing that I was doing it for a greater cause rather than just running it to run it,” she said.

She completed her goal—to finish the race—and is thinking about running again in the future. One thing she would change is her training. As she suffered a

PHOTO COURTESY OF SEAN KANE

Sean Kane (28118), above, ran this year’s Marathon for the Campus School. knee injury shortly before the Marathon, she would like to learn better training practices and take a shot at another marathon if she gets the opportunity.

“It’s such an amazing experience to see the 85-year-olds who are out there, the blind runners who are there with guides,” she said. “It’s really motivating … I’d love to run another one.”

Maddie Perlewitz Maddie Perlewitz was sick around Mile 5 of the Marathon. It wasn’t the best start, seeing as she had 21 miles left to run, but she kept going and it didn’t stop her from achieving a goal.

“I finished in four hours, 22 minutes, and 59 seconds,” she said. “So that’s better than I thought I would do.”

That wasn’t the only goal she achieved.

She surpassed her $10,000 fundraising goal for 261 Fearless as well. The organization, named after the bib number of the first female runner, Kathrine Switzer, had a particularly memorable year, as Switzer ran the Marathon again this year at age 70. Perlewitz’s fundraising goes toward promoting female empowerment through running.

Miles 23 to 25 presented a particular challenge for Perlewitz, as they did for many of the runners. At Mile 23, she lost feeling in her quads and had to keep moving for three miles in order to finish. Despite the difficulty, she stayed motivated to keep running and experience the last of the three moments that

many of the runners look forward to: Wellesley, BC, and the finish line.

Carson Truesdell At Mile 21, nearly done with his second Boston Marathon and starting to feel the effects of the heat and sun, Carson Truesdell saw his friends lining the road cheering him on.

“It’s moments like that where you realize why you run and why the Boston Marathon is special,” he said. “I can do other marathons, but I won’t really have another experience like that.”

Alongside uniformed soldiers walking the marathon route, amputees running, and students raising money for charity, Truesdell felt a sense of unification that he’s never felt running somewhere else. It was the last time he would run the Boston Marathon as a BC student, and he took in these special moments.

Despite not doing as well as he had hoped, about 10 minutes slower than his goal, he is still happy about running the Marathon. As a “type-A personality,” he plans to keep working to achieve what he knows he is capable of in the years to come.

“I finished the Marathon and I’m like ‘I’m never doing this again,’” he said. “Then you start to feel better, you start to not feel delirious, your headache goes away … you start to think about it more, and you’re like ‘I want to do this again.’” 

SPORTS

MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2017

B1

@HEIGHTSSPORTS

LACROSSE

Walker Becomes Program’s Winningest Coach To-Do List for New AD

BY ANNABEL STEELE Assoc. Sports Editor

It was Boston College lacrosse’s 12th victory of the season, but different from the previous 11. With the win, head coach Acacia Walker 10 Notre Dame became the winBoston College 16 ninge st he ad coach in program history, the Eagles honored its five seniors on Senior Day, and

they closed out the regular season with a dominant conference victory. But for several stretches in the first half, you might’ve thought that Notre Dame, not BC, would win. An especially productive second half, however, carried the Eagles past the Fighting Irish, 16-10. The Eagles will take on Notre Dame next week in the ACC Tournament in Richmond, Va. It didn’t take long for Notre Dame (11-6, 4-3 Atlantic Coast) to find the scoreboard in

the first half. Cortney Fortunato, a top-5 goal scorer in the country, netted her 54th goal of the season a little more than five minutes into play after beating BC (12-5, 3-4) goalie Zoe Ochoa. 62 seconds later, Casey Pearsall found the back of the net, giving Notre Dame an early 2-0 lead.

Not to be outdone, BC stole a goal back on the Irish 30 seconds later. Kenzie Kent found Kayla O’Connor open by the net, and O’Connor hurled the ball past Notre

Dame goalie Samantha Giacolone to halve the Irish lead.

The Irish responded by scoring two more goals, building up a 4-1 lead less than 10 minutes into play. Alex Dalton and Grace Muller recorded the goals, with Fortunato building up her stat sheet by adding an assist.

Rather than lose momentum and allow

See Lax vs. Notre Dame, B2

BASEBALL

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR | ABBY PAULSON / CREATIVE DIRECTOR

With Pete Frates in attendance, BC topped NC State in the ALS Awareness Game at Fenway before capping off its first ACC sweep with two wins on Sunday.

BY PATRICK CONWAY

BY RILEY OVEREND

BY RILEY OVEREND

For The Heights

Sports Editor

Sports Editor

Boston College baseball won a pitcher’s duel led by a complete-game shutout Brian Rapp in the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader against North Carolina 0 NC State State. The Eagles (15Boston College 1 22, 6-15 Atlantic Coast) finished off the sweep of the Wolfpack (20-20, 8-13) with a 1-0 victory, for their second ACC series win and their first sweep of the season.

Rapp pitched lights out, allowing only three hits, two singles from NC State’s Stephen Pitarra in the first and sixth innings, and another single from Josh McLain in the ninth. Rapp was on fire, and head coach Mike Gambino trusted him enough to allow Rapp to pitch the full nine innings. Rapp finished with six strikeouts and earned his first win of the season on a complete

At 5-foot-10, Dan Metzdorf isn’t going to blow fastballs by hitters like his cheddar-throwing teammate, Donovan Casey. Instead, Metzdorf ’s approach is meticulous, 1 NC State methodical, and, on Boston College 2 Sunday against North Carolina State, nearly unhittable.

The lefty specialist made the best start of his career for Boston College baseball in the opening game of a doubleheader, tossing a career-high eight innings and allowing just one run in a series-clinching 2-1 win over the Wolfpack.

The sophomore kept his pitch count low by pounding the zone and letting his defense do the rest. The Eagles didn’t make an error for their third-straight game, with Jake Alu, Johnny Adams, Casey, and Metzdorf himself all making

BOSTON — Jacob Yish remembers when he first met Pete Frates as a freshman in high school. It was before a football game, and Frates came to talk 3 NC State to his team minutes Boston College 8 before game time.

“He gave one of the best pregame speeches that I’ve ever heard in my entire life,” Yish recalls. “I still remember that to this day. I’ve been kinda close with Pete all throughout high school, and here it’s tough not to be close to Pete.”

The now-college freshman attended Frates’ alma mater, St. John’s Prep, where the two developed a friendship that only strengthened when Yish decided to play for head coach Mike Gambino and become a

See Game Three, B3

See Game Two, B3

See Game One, B3

RILEY OVEREND It seems as if the only debate over incoming Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond is whether his hire was a home run or a grand slam.

The entire Boston College community was hyped when Jarmond was announced as Brad Bates’ replacement, and for good reason—his resume is remarkable for any AD candidate, let alone a 37-year-old.

As Gene Smith’s right-hand man at Ohio State in charge of football operations and scheduling, Jarmond knows the inner-workings of a perennial football powerhouse.

He led record-setting fundraising campaigns at both OSU and Michigan State. And he seems like an ideal fresh face to guide the athletic department through a period of change as it attempts to catch up with the rest of the ACC. Safe to say, Jarmond will have plenty on his plate when he arrives to campus on Monday. Imagine all the new names he’ll have to remember, all the necessary networks he’ll have to develop in his first few weeks on the Heights. To call it overwhelming would be an understatement.

In the midst of all the chaos, though, Jarmond will be forming his vision for the direction of the program. Here are five things I’d like to see him address in his first 100 days in office.

1.) Be transparent about the future of smaller programs.

Bates left behind a solid foundation for new athletic facilities, but questions remain. Namely, how is the swim and dive team supposed to compete without a regulationsize diving board? Under Bates, the fate of the program was up in the air, creating a tension that reportedly forced out former head coach Tom Groden after 45 years at BC. Jarmond can mend these wounds by altering the plans for the new Plex.

After all, they’re merely blueprints.

Or he can continue course and go forward with a $200 million project that will likely damage swim and dive, along with tennis and fencing.

Design plans indicate that the number of tennis courts will drop from 10 to three, and available practice space available for the fencing team will shrink. But maybe it’s the future that Jarmond sees for his new home.

See To-Do List, B4 FOOTBALL

Wade, Backfield Steal the Show at Annual Spring Game

BY ANDY BACKSTROM Asst. Sports Editor In last year’s Jay McGillis Memorial Spring Game, Boston College football’s offenses—Maroon and Gold—combined for a total of six points (two field goals). And judging by the first play of Saturday’s game, there was no indication that things would be any prettier this time around. On the opening kickoff, Taj-Amir Torres dropped back deep into the end zone, eyeing the ball as it spiraled through the air. But, instead of fielding it, the ball fell right through his hands.

To make matters worse, both Eagle units traded scoreless possessions throughout the first quarter. But eventually, head coach Steve Addazio’s group got things going—specifically, quarterback Darius Wade. The tobe redshirt junior led all four of the game’s touchdown drives.

Just like any spring game, the pace of play hardly rivaled that of the

INSIDE SPORTS

regular season. For starters, the final two quarters of play were cut down to 10 minutes apiece. Not to mention that the authenticity of the game was tainted by the constant variability of the teams’ rosters. Nevertheless, the progression of the quarterback competition, Addazio’s offensive philosophy, and the depth of the defense was on full display.

The Good 1) Darius Wade Darius Wade is used to battling it out for the starting gig. After winning the job as a freshman, a broken ankle sidelined his opportunity to establish himself as the program’s go-to guy.

Then, one year later, Wade had to compete with graduate transfer Patrick Towles for the position. Despite meager numbers, Towles got the nod.

Now, with redshirt freshman Anthony Brown on his heels, Wade has to prove that he should be the signal caller for the third-straight offseason. On LIZZY BARRETT/ HEIGHTS EDITOR

See Spring Game, B4

Richard Wilson (38) carried the ball for two touchdowns during Saturday’s annual Jay McGillis Memorial Spring Game.

SOFTBALL: Eagles Sweep Georgia Tech FOOTBALL: Spring Numbers to Know Jessica Dreswick earned her 18th, 19th, and 20th wins of the year against the Yellow Jackets............................B2

Darius Wade stood out under center, throwing for nearly 200 yards in Saturday’s Spring Game...................................

B4

TU/TD............................................. B2 SPORTS IN SHORT................................ B2 SOFTBALL............................................... B2

THE HEIGHTS

B2

MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2017 SOFTBALL

Thanks to Dreswick, Eagles Record First Series Sweep

THUMBS UP

BY CHRIS NOYES Heights Staff

A WEEKEND OF CELEBRATION - This weekend, both baseball and softball swept their opponents for the first time this year. But BC’s winning extended past the diamond. On Senior Day, lacrosse scored 11 second-half goals and upset No. 11 Notre Dame. With the exception of men’s and women’s tennis, the only Eagles team that didn’t win was football. And it was playing itself.

NBA PLAYOFFS - In the NBA playoffs, upsets are hard to come by. Over the past two decades, a No. 1 seed has won the Finals 12 times. But this year, it has been anything but predictable. Whether it’s the fact that the Bulls are leading the first-seeded Celtics, or that the Bucks are making the Raptors look mediocre, this postseason is suspenseful. And we love it.

HARPING ON BRYCE - For Bryce Harper, last season was a let down. One season removed from winning National League MVP honors, the Washington National’s numbers took a huge hit.

But, 17 games into the 2017-18 season, and it’s clear that Harper is back. He is batting close to .400 and has hit seven home runs—five of which came in the last week.

THUMBS DOWN GEORGE’S LATE-GAME STRUGGLES - After the Pacers dropped the first game of their series against the Cavaliers, Paul George lashed out at C.J. Miles for not giving up the potential game-winning shot. Well, the four-time All Star got the last shot in game four. But for the 30th time in his career, George choked.

MARTE’S SUSPENSION - Starling Marte is the latest victim of steroid bug. Marte, debatably the face of the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise, was suspended 80 games

by Major League Baseball on Wednesday.

Back in 2014, he signed a six-year, $31 million contract extension. Good thing the Pirates didn’t trade Andrew McCutchen.

BLACKHAWK DOWN - Since 2010, no team has won more Stanley Cups than the Blackhawks. Still, no one’s perfect. For the first time since 1993, Chicago was swept in the playoffs. Even worse, the Blackhawks became the first No. 1 seed to be swept in the opening round of the NHL’s current playoff format.

Like Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down?

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Nothing provides a security blanket to a reeling softball team quite like an ace pitcher. She gives the entire team a jolt of Georgia Tech 3 confidence, Boston College 8 blocking out memories of recent painful losses. An innings eater and a streak stopper, she turns the tide for her team just by her presence on the mound.

For Boston College softball, Jessica Dreswick is unquestionably that kind of pitcher. Coming into this weekend’s series with Georgia Tech, the Eagles had dropped four-straight games, including a sweep last weekend at the hands of conference rival North Carolina. But backed by Dreswick’s dominance, the team punctuated a weekend sweep with a dominating 8-3 victory on Sunday afternoon.

Picking up the victory in all three games this weekend, Dreswick improved to 20-10, surpassing the BC (27-18, 11-6 Atlantic Coast) single season record for victories in a season, a mark that had been set in 2015 by current junior Allyson Frei.

After giving up a solo home run to the Yellow Jackets’ Draven Sonnon in the top of the second inning, Dreswick breezed through the next four innings without giving up another hit. Despite not starting the seventh inning, with head coach Ashley Obrest looking to steal an inning of rest for her workhorse ace, Dreswick reentered the game to record the final two outs, after teammate Jordan Reed conceded two runs while only recording one out to begin the frame.

In an early 1-0 hole, the Eagles took the lead in the bottom of the second despite only getting one hit that left the infield. Behind an infield single

from Lexi DiEmmanuele and a bunt single by Allyson Moore, BC loaded the bases with one out. After a wild pitch allowed DiEmmanuele to score the tying run, the Eagles erased the Georgia Tech (14-33, 6-15) lead for good on an RBI single by sophomore Dani Thomas.

Though that was all the run support Dreswick would need on the afternoon, the offense wasn’t done yet. After scoring one in the fourth inning, the Eagles added three in the fifth and two in the sixth, with Jordan Chimento’s solo homer in the sixth serving as the exclamation point. The blast couldn’t have come at a better time for the junior catcher and BC’s third leading hitter by batting average, as she had recorded just two hits in her last seven games.

With the win, the Eagles remain tied in the loss column with North Carolina and Louisville for second in the

conference behind No. 2 Florida State, who still has not lost an ACC contest.

The kudos for the team’s competitive effort in conference play goes largely to Dreswick, who has now pitched in all 17 of the team’s ACC games, requiring no relief help in seven of them. And she should get the chance to make this season one of the truly memorable ones in program lore.

With eight regular season contests, plus postseason competition, she should be able to set the single season record for starts in a season and even has an outside chance to top the program record of 245 2/3 innings pitched in one season.

Regardless of the records, the team is just happy to get back to their winning ways. And heading down the stretch of the season, their confidence should only grow, knowing the deadly weapon they will send to the mound for big games. 

BC Takes Both Games of Doubleheader Against GT

BY NICOLE PLA Heights Staff

Two games, same day, same result.

Boston College softball cleaned up in both games of Saturday’s doubleheader against Georgia Tech. Once again, the Eagles relied on their pitching staff to shut down the opposition. Jessica Dreswick and Co. allowed a mere four runs over the course of the day. But it was BC’s bats in the early portion of play that served as the driving force for the two-game sweep.

In the back half of the doubleheader, Dreswick picked up right where she left off in game one. In fact, she did more than that. The junior punched out all three batters she faced in the first inning. Then, in the bottom of the frame, a single by Taylor Coroneos and walks by Annie Murphy and Chloe Sharabba loaded the bases. Thanks to a wild pitch, Coroneos was able to scamper home, giving BC (26-18, 10-6 Atlantic Coast) an early lead. Soon after that, Tatiana Cortez hit a three-run shot, driving in three more runs.

In the top of the second, the Yellow Jackets (14-32, 6-14) made up some ground. Leading off, Katie Krzus singled through the right side. Kaylee Ellebracht grounded out to second, but in doing so, moved Krzus into scoring position. The ensuing batter, Kelsey Chisholm, singled through the right side, bringing home Krzus. But that was the only run Georgia Tech scored, as Dreswick was quick to extinguish any sort of Yellow Jacket rally.

It wasn’t until the top of the sixth that another run crossed the plate.

After drawing a full count, Samantha Pierannunzi hit a solo shot, cutting Georgia Tech’s deficit to two. Fortunately for BC, Dreswick recovered and retired the next three batters to end the inning. In the final innings, the Eagles’ offense stalled. But it didn’t matter. Dreswick had more than enough run support to close out the 4-2 win.

Just like the second game, BC controlled the first inning of the series opener.

But, at first, things were shaky. On the third pitch of the game, Jessica

Kowalewicz singled. Then, Dreswick misfired, hitting Krzus with a pitch.

With two runners on, the Yellow Jackets were threatening. That’s when Dreswick settled in. She struck out Malea Bell and then forced a double play ball to third, ending the inning.

Murphy, Sharabba, and Cortez all walked in the bottom half of the first, loading the bases. All it took was a Jordan Chimento fly ball to center field to give the Eagles their first run of the game.

In the top of the second, Dreswick retired the side, maintaining the Eagles’ one-run advantage. But BC didn’t have any better luck on the offensive end, as all three of its batters in the bottom of the inning failed to reach base.

Scoring resumed in the third.

Sharabba was hit by a pitch, giving her a free ticket to first. Cortez and Lexi DiEmmanuele proceeded to single and walk, respectively. Allyson Moore singled to the left field, scoring Sharabba and Cortez. And, because of an inaccurate throw to home plate, DiEmmanuele also had enough time

to cross home plate. As a result, the Eagles entered the fourth inning on top, 4-0.

In the bottom of the fourth, Murphy singled up the middle with two outs. Next up was Sharabba. The versatile shortstop showcased her power, when she homered to left field, extending the BC lead to six.

Jordan Weed replaced Dreswick on the hill in the top of the sixth.

Despite giving up two late-game runs, Weed, at times, was just as effective as Dreswick.

To cap off the victory, Kendra Friedt came in to close out the game in the seventh. She did just that, and the Eagles took the first of two, 6-2.

Although BC is off to one of its better starts in recent history, it has yet to reach a season milestone—one that head coach Ashley Obrest has been targeting.

“We’re trying to do something we haven’t done all year which is sweep a team,” Obrest said.

But with Saturday ’s wins , the Eagles are on the brink of achieving that goal. 

LACROSSE

Eagles Ride 11 Second-Half Goals in Upset of Irish Lax vs. Notre Dame, from B1 Notre Dame to build up an even bigger lead, the Eagles fought back, keeping play mostly even for the final 20 minutes of the first half. The first opportunity to eat into the Irish lead came with just under 17 minutes remaining in the half, when Notre Dame’s Katherine Eilers committed a foul, giving BC a free-position shot. Kate Weeks, a top-5 goal scorer in her own right, took the shot and expertly placed it past Giacolone.

With 15 and a half minutes to go, the Eagles got another golden opportunity when Eilers was whistled for another foul.

This time, O’Connor attempted the free-position shot, but Giacolone managed to save the shot.

Ochoa wasn’t quite as lucky a few minutes later, when, assisted by Dalton, Heidi Annaheim put the ball past her to bring the score to 5-2, Notre Dame.

The Eagles scored three consecutive goals to tie the game up. Apuzzo scored two of them—one assisted by Kent and one off of a free-position attempt—for her 52nd and 53rd goals of the season, respectively.

With just under three minutes in the half, Kent scored her first goal of the game, erasing Notre Dame’s early advantage and equalizing the score.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, they couldn’t score again in the half—or at least prevent the Irish from scoring.

A foul on Christina Walsh gave Notre Dame a free-position shot with 57 seconds remaining in the half, and Muller put it away past Ochoa to regain the lead.

Less than 20 seconds later, Dalton also beat Ochoa with a shot. Heading into halftime, Notre Dame held a 7-5 lead over the Eagles.

In the second half, BC took control, outscoring Notre Dame 11-3 over the 30-minute period to capture and retain the lead.

For the first 10 minutes of the half, however, it remained close, with each team taking advantage of free-position opportunities.

Laura Frankenfield took the first shot of the half, but Giacolone blocked it. Frankenfi eld got another opportunity, however, when Molly Cobb committed a foul, giving BC a freeposition shot.

Frankenfield handled the opportunity well, scoring her 17th goal of the season and reducing the Irish lead to one goal.

The tying goal also came thanks to a free-position opportunity. Emma Claire Fontenot fouled to give the Eagles a free-position shot, which Kaileen Hart handled with ease to tie the game up at seven apiece.

The tie didn’t last long. Notre Dame temporarily regained the lead when a Dempsey Arsenault foul offered Pearsall a free-position shot, which she put past Lauren Daly, who replaced Ochoa in goal for the second half.

The teams traded goals again—or, rather, Hart and Pearsall traded goals again. Hart beat Giacolone to tie the game up at eight, but Pearsall scored on Daly again to give the Irish a 9-8 lead.

It was the last lead Notre Dame would hold, however, as BC outscored the Irish 8-1 in the final 20 minutes of play to earn the victory.

First, Kent tied the game at nine with a goal with just over 19 minutes to go. Then, a quick flurry of three goals in 62 seconds built up BC’s first lead of the day, giving the Eagles a 12-9 advantage.

BC spaced the rest of its goals out, with Frankenfield, Kent, and O’Connor scoring in the final 16 minutes—including two goals from Kent—to round out BC’s tally at 16 goals for the day.

Notre Dame managed to steal back one more goal when Savannah Buchanan beat Daly, but it wasn’t enough to overcome BC’s lead late in the game. 

SPORTS in SHORT W LACROSSE STANDINGS

NUMBERS TO KNOW

CONFERENCE

OVERALL

North Carolina

6-1

13-2

Syracuse

5-2

13-5

Virginia

4-3

10-7

Notre Dame

4-3

11-6

Boston College

3-4

12-5

Louisville

3-4

11-6

Virginia Tech

2-5

11-7

Duke

1-6

8-8

65

Number of wins that lacrosse head coach Acacia Walker has recorded, the most in program history.

20

Number of strikeouts that Jessica Dreswick recorded in BC’s sweep of Georgia Tech.

0

Number of runs Brian Rapp allowed in a complete game against North Carolina State, BC’s first shutout since April 17, 2015.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Everyone is just feeding off of each other. That’s how baseball works.”

— Jake Alu,

on BC’s pair of four-run rallies in the 6th Annual ALS Awareness Game against North Carolina State

The Heights

Monday, April 24, 2017

B3

BASEBALL

Rapp’s Complete-Game Shutout Seals Sweep for Eagles Game Three, from B1 game shutout.

Birdball struck quickly, and in the first inning Jake Palomaki hit a one out double to jump on starter Michael Bienlien early. Palomaki then advanced to third base on Michael Strem’s groundout to shortstop, and Gian Martellini followed up with a walk to place runners on the corners. Bigras flied out to centerfield for the third out, and the Eagles left two runners on base to start what looked to be a potential offensive matchup.

After letting up a single in the first, Rapp started mowing down batters, only allowing one baserunner in the next four innings on a walk. BC’s offense had a difficult time stringing together any offense, until Johnny Adams bunted himself safe with two outs in the fifth inning. Brian Dempsey then hit a chopper to the Wolfpack shortstop, whose throw pulled the first baseman off the bag, and allowed Adams to advance to second and left Dempsey safe at first.

Donovan Casey hit a shot to centerfield, which seemed like it was going to drop and allow runners to score, until the centerfielder McLain made a fantastic catch on the run to end the inning.

Birdball’s offense came back to life again in the sixth inning as Martellini hit a double with two outs, followed by a Mitch Bigras walk. Jake Alu was up next, and pounded a single into center, where McLain fielded the ball.

Martellini rounded third and headed for home as McLain gunned the ball in from center. Catcher Brad Debo caught the throw and made a great play to tag Martellini at home and end the inning without a BC run.

Rapp made quick work of the first three batters he saw in the seventh inning and the Eagles were back up again. Jacob Yish was scraped by a ball that was thrown a little too far inside by Bienlien, and Bienlien was pulled from the game after pitching six scoreless innings. Pitcher Dalton Feeney relieved Bienlien, and Dominic Hardaway was sent in to pinch run for Yish. Hardaway took off for second base, and was called safe as Adams laid down a sacrifice bunt.

Brian Dempsey grounded out back to Feeney, who took it to first himself, and Hardaway advanced to third base with two outs and nobody else on. Feeney let loose a wild pitch in the dirt while pitching to Casey, and Hardaway strolled to home on what would be the only run scored of the game. Casey grounded out to the third baseman, and the Eagles scored what would be the winning run on zero hits in the seventh.

Rapp came back out for the eighth inning and retired the first two batters who both flied out to Strem. After a questionable ball-four call, Rapp got the next batter to groundout to second, which ended the inning. Rapp returned yet again in the ninth and faced Pitarra, who had the only two hits for the Wolfpack at the time. Pitarra hit a

Julia Hopkins / Heights Editor

Jacob Stevens picked up his fourth win of the season on Saturday, limiting NC State to three runs and walking just one batter. heater on the ground past second base, but Palomaki made an excellent diving stop to rob Pitarra of his third hit of the day. Rapp struck out the next man, but allowed a two-out single to McLain.

This proved to be no problem, as the cleanup hitter grounded out to Adams at shortstop and the Eagles held on to win the game and complete the sweep

of NC State.

Birdball won with a small ball philosophy that was only made possible

by Rapp. With Rapp’s dominant performance, the Eagles did not need to score any more than one run, and they are able to ride a three-game win streak into their matchup with UMass Lowell this Tuesday. This was an important

win for BC, and the players showed no complacency after wins earlier in the morning and the day before at Fenway Park. It is getting close to crunch time as there is less than a month remaining in the regular season, and the Eagles will need to remain hot as a critical series against Miami looms over next weekend. n

Metzdorf’s Gem, Martellini’s RBI Double Lift BC Over ’Pack Game Two, from B1

Julia Hopkins / Heights Editor

Sophomore outfielder Jake Alu hit two doubles at Fenway in an 8-3 win on Saturday.

impressive plays in the field. NC State managed just three hits all day against Metzdorf, who retired the last seven batters he faced.

Birdball first got on the board with some of its patented small ball in the second inning. After Alu and Jacob Yish tallied back-to-back singles, Adams laid down a picture-perfect squeeze bunt down the first-base line. Not only did Alu score from third, but Adams evaded the tag on his way to first and reached safely.

In the fifth inning, the Wolfpack rallied against Metzdorf to tie the game.

Evan Mendoza led off with a double and advanced to third on a single by Joe Dunand. With runners on the corners, Brett Kinneman bunted, but it didn’t work as well as when the Eagles tried it.

The sacrifice moved Dunand into scoring position, but failed to score Mendoza from third.

With one out, catcher Andy Cosgrove

got the job done with a flyout to center that was just deep enough for Mendoza to tag up and score. Michael Strem fired a bullet to home plate, but the tag was not in time.

While Metzdorf dealt on the rubber, NC State starter Brian Brown also silenced BC’s bats. He lasted 6 2/3 innings, allowing four hits and striking out 11 hitters. In comparison, the Eagles only struck out five times as a team on Saturday.

One of the main culprits was Gian Martellini, who recorded a hat trick by striking out in his first three at-bats. But in his final plate appearance in eighth inning, BC’s cleanup man connected with one.

After Jake Palomaki singled and advanced into scoring position on a sac bunt, Martellini found a pitch he liked and turned on it, shooting a double past the Wolfpack third baseman for the go-ahead RBI. It was Martellini’s teamleading 26th RBI of the year and his third game-winning RBI of his career.

Casey closed the door again for the Eagles, recording a 1-2-3 ninth inning for the save and solidifying their secondstraight ACC series victory.

If anyone in the rotation deserved a win, it was Metzdorf, who entered Sunday’s start with a 1-5 record that does not tell the full story of his season.

He was pegged with the loss after tossing six strong innings of one-run ball against No. 1 Louisville last month. A week later, he threw six scoreless frames against Clemson, but he earned a no-decision.

Wins are hard to come by in the ACC, and they’re nearly impossible with a lowscoring offense like BC’s.

Metzdorf has come a long way since last season, when he made 17 appearances and only one start. The longest he lasted in an outing was two innings, and his ERA rose to 8.00. This year, he has been a viable No. 2 starter for a pitching staff lacking in depth. And today, although he doesn’t look the part, he certainly played like an ace when his team needed him most. n

In ALS Awareness Game, Eagles Win for Frates at Fenway Game One, from B1 part of the Birdball family. Frates, a former Boston College baseball captain who was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2012, has impacted many, like Yish, with his inspirational story of resiliency. As one of the creators of the viral Ice Bucket Challenge, he helped raise $220 million in six weeks for ALS research. Already, that money has funded scientists who identified a gene variant connected to the disease.

So when Yish stepped into the batter’s box at Fenway Park for Saturday’s annual ALS Awareness Game, he remembered who he was playing for.

North Carolina State had fallen in a 2-0 hole in the first inning, and Yish had a chance to make it a big inning with runners on first and second.

The Byfield, Mass., native ripped one through the right side and plated a pair of runs, extending the BC lead to 4-0. That would be all the run support Jacob Stevens needed, as the Eagles’ ace allowed three runs over 6.2 innings and picked up his fourth win of the season in a 8-3 victory over the Wolfpack (2018, 8-11 Atlantic Coast).

Energized by the pregame ceremony honoring Pete Frates and NC State’s Chris Combs, it didn’t take long for Birdball (13-22, 4-15) to strike in the first inning. Donovan Casey led off with a single up the middle and Jake Palomaki walked, immediately forcing Wolfpack starter Sean Adler to work from the stretch. The heart of the or-

der hit the ball hard, but both Michael Strem and Gian Martellini lined out straight to NC State fielders.

With two outs, Mitch Bigras extended the inning with an RBI single through the right side. The rally continued with Jake Alu, who doubled into the gap, driving in Palomaki to make it 2-0.

“We kinda all know what Pete means to us, so we just kept that with us as we came out in the first inning and scored four runs,” Alu said.

After Yish’s two-RBI single, the happiest man in the dugout may have been Stevens, who returned to the mound with a rare early lead.

Stevens consistently attacked the strike zone, kept his pitch count low, and silenced the Wolfpack offense until the sixth inning. In the top of the frame, NC State narrowed BC’s lead to just one with three runs off Stevens.

The major blow was a two-out, twoRBI double down the left field line off the bat of DH Brad Debo.

With momentum beginning to shift, the Eagles responded with another rally.

“A big thing we talk about is, ‘Pass it back to the next guy,’” Alu said. “Everyone is just feeding off of each other.

That’s how baseball works.”

The bottom of the order passed a full plate back to the top, as Johnny Adams and Brian Dempsey singled to put two men on with no outs. Then, BC witnessed a common occurrence in baseball: Turn the opposing pitcher into a fielder, and you never know what

might happen.

Casey got caught off-balance and grounded one back to reliever Joe O’Donnell, who fielded it and threw home in an attempt to nail the streaking Adams. But his throw went wide and Adams slid home safely, pushing the lead to 5-3. The next batter, Palomaki, bunted down the third-base line and reached after O’Donnell’s throw to first sailed high. Back-to-back errors cost the Wolfpack two runs, if not more.

After Palomaki’s bunt loaded the bases, Strem put the nail in the coffin with a two-RBI single that increased the lead to 7-3. Gian Martellini followed with another hit—the Eagles’ sixth-consecutive baserunner—to plate Palomaki for the final run of the game.

The bullpen held the lead, with Witkowski escaping a threat in the seventh, shutting the Wolfpack down in the eighth, and passing it off to Casey for the ninth. The win marks the third ACC victory in the team’s last four games after winning just one in its last 12 tries.

But for BC, which always seems to play better when Frates is watching, this win means much more.

“It definitely meant a lot to me, knowing Pete for a while now,” Yish said. “We had Pete Frates games in high school, but none of that compares to playing at Fenway. It was great to come out here for a great cause, put all our energy into the game, and get a win.” n

Julia Hopkins / Heights Editor

Pete Frates (top) was honored at Fenway, where Donovan Casey (30) scored twice.

The Heights

B4

Monday, April 24, 2017

FOOTBALL

In Spring Game, Addazio Debuts New Up-Tempo Offense Spring Game, from B1 Saturday, he certainly did so.

While at BC, Wade has stuggled with his accuracy. Over the course of his collegiate career, he has completed just 47.8 percent of his pass attempts (33-of69). You would have never known, based on his placy in this scrimmage. Time and time again, Wade showed poise and awareness in the pocket. He connected on 16 of his 27 pass attempts, recording 194 yards through the air. Whether it was finding Tommy Sweeney in the middle of the field, hitting Ben Glines on a crossing route, or checking it down to a running back in the flat, Wade almost always knew where to go with the ball.

Wade’s experience and knowledge of the game was evident. If the defensive line penetrated, he never panicked. Instead, he rolled outside of the pocket and either delivered a throw or scrambled for a positive gain.

Because Addazio had Wade and Anthony Brown taking reps with both the Maroon and Gold teams, the score of the game doesn’t tell the real story. On the surface, it looks close: 17-17. But in reality, Wade stole the show. All but three of the 34 total points scored were byproducts of Wade-orchestrated drives.

2) Offensive Arsenal BC lost two multi-purpose backs, Tyler Rouse and Myles Willis, to graduation.

Yet it appears as if their shoes will be filled with relative ease. Without incoming four-star recruit A.J. Dillon, the Eagles’ backfield already looked explosive.

According to Addazio, Jonathan Hilliman has been having his best spring yet. And it seems like it’s paying off. Hilliman—who averaged a mere 2.9 yards per carry last season—looked revitalized on Saturday.

For someone who primarily stuck to

running in between the tackles last season, he seemed particularly willing to bounce the ball back outside on designed inside rushing plays.

Meanwhile, Davon Jones picked up right where he left off last season. Not only can the freshman catch the ball out of the backfield, but he can also breakaway from the defense for chunks of yardage. Early in the second quarter, Jones bursted into the open field for a 30-yard rush.

Soon after, he piled in for a sevenyard score.

Equally as impressive was the play of Richard Wilson and Travis Levy. Wilson reached the end zone twice, and Levy showcased his agility and swift moves in open space. In sum, the running backs were responsible for all four of the touchdowns that were scored.

As far as Addazio is concerned, splitting up the carries among the backfield is more of an afterthought.

In his eyes, no matter how much they are or aren’t used, each one of them is valuable.

“You need ’em all,” Addazio said.

“What you learn in this conference is, you need all of those backs.”

You also need productive wide receivers and tight ends. BC is in luck, as it is returning all of its top receivers from last season.

In the spring game, Wade and Brown heavily targeted Sweeney. The sophomore tight end made a huge jump in production last season, and Addazio says that he’s made another this spring.

Additionally, Glines and Kobay White were effective in the slot. Teamed with Jeff Smith, Charlie Callinan, and Michael Walker, those two should round out a much-improved receiving corps.

3) Up-Tempo Offense

Similar to this year’s Quick Lane Bowl, BC featured an up-tempo offense on Saturday. Instead of calling plays in a huddle and drawing from a wristband, all plays are signaled. As Wade said in the post game press conference, everything you need to know is in your head. Despite requiring an increased workload, such an offensive philosophy keeps opponents on edge. It also increases fatigue—something Addazio’s players can use to their advantage. “[The fatigue is] tough,” Sweeney said. “It’s something to work on. [But] you see that other guy, and he’s just as tired, if not more tired, and that kinda makes you go a little more.”

Addazio estimates that both the Maroon and Gold teams each ran close to 50 plays. For a team that has struggled with moving the chains and scoring during Addazio’s tenure, perhaps a change of pace is what’s needed.

The Bad 1) Anthony Brown This game was a chance for Brown to make a statement—to show that he poses a legitimate threat to Wade’s starting role. But after throwing two interceptions and only completing only 10-of-27 pass attempts, it’s safe to say that he may very well need more time to develop as a passer.

Brown was hit-or-miss on many of his throws—most notably in the first half. One play removed from wowing those in attendance with a 40-yard bomb to the end zone that barely escaped the fingertips of Elijah Robinson, Brown was intercepted. His throw was tipped

by Troy Flutie and picked off by Atem Ntanteng. It was a tough break for Brown, who fit a catchable ball into a tight window. If Flutie doesn’t tip this ball, this isn’t an interception.

Passing Darius Wade: 16-of-27, 194 Yards Anthony Brown: 10-of-27, 84 Yards Rushing Richard Wilson: 17 Attempts, 71 Yards, 2 TD Travis Levy: 17 Attempts, 67 Yards Defense Zach Allen: 3 Tackles, 1 Sack, 3 Pass Deflections Taj-Amir Torres: 2 Tackles, INT

madison mariani / heights editor

A few drives later, Brown, once again targeting Flutie, misfired. Torres was there to make the play, turning the ball over back to the Maroon team. Unlike the first interception, this one was Brown’s fault. Like some of his other throws on Saturday, this one had too much juice on it.

Every so often, Brown looked sharp.

His velocity on the ball was impressive, and his deep ball was enticing. He has all of the tangibles. It appears that he just needs time.

2) Second-String Offensive Line Whenever Brown was playing with the second-string offensive line, he was frequently pressured. On multiple occasions , he dropped back and immediately saw defensive lineman storming toward his way. If it wasn’t a spring game, Brown would have paid the price.

Wade faced the same pressure, but called on his seasoned awareness to move out of the pocket. It’s important to note that the second line consisted

of the depth chart’s No.s 8-13, with graduate transfer left tackle Marcell Lazard coming in over the summer, Jon Baker’s offseason surgery, and Elijah Johnson’s torn ACL all keeping them out of the game. Still, all said in done, the lack of depth in the trenches was exposed.

The Ugly 1) Jersey Swapping Spring games are already hard enough to follow. But when Addazio started flip-flopping players between the two rosters mid-game, the task reached a new level of difficulty. The confusion peaked when a player wearing a gold No. 4 jersey took the field. There was no such player listed on the gameday roster, and as a result, he was unidentifiable.

What was even worse was the color combinations that resulted from the swaps. By the end of the game, some guys were wearing gold helmets, gold jerseys, and gold pants. Defining that look as “too much” would be an understatement. n

Lizzy barrett / heights editor

In last year’s spring game, the Maroon and Gold units combined for a total of eight points. This time around, with a newly implemented up-tempo offensive philosophy, the teams put up 34 points.

Upon Arriving at BC, New AD Martin Jarmond Has His Hands Full To-Do List, from B1 Streamlining the athletic department at the expense of smaller sports like swim and dive, tennis, and fencing may be one of the solutions to the struggles of football and men’s basketball.

Track and field, too, has suffered from a lack of proper facilities. As the only Beanpot school without a regulation indoor track, the Eagles are forced to train at Harvard, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. The new Plex outlines plans for a jogging track that sounds a lot like BC’s lone, disappointing indoor track that surrounds the tennis courts.

Again, Jarmond will have to face the question of whether to invest in a small sport or not. And if he decides that track and field is here to stay,

then the next step is making sure the program catches up with the rest of Boston, let alone the ACC. Either way, Jarmond should be open about the future of swim and dive and other similar sports, considering that new facility plans threaten their existence. The coaches and players deserve to hear the truth rather than discover it hidden in blueprints.

2) Improve the stadium plans for Brighton Campus facilities.

The long-awaited move to Brighton is on the horizon for Birdball and softball, but the new stadium might still be the worst in the ACC. Current plans show no signs of locker rooms, batting cages, or any other indoor practice facilities. Plus, the seating capacity was downgraded from 1,500 to just 1,000. If you’re

going to spend millions of dollars on renovations, you might as well make sure they meet the standard of the ACC. And if anyone deserves stateof-the-art facilities, it’s head coach Mike Gambino and the Eagles, which have suffered through years of snowy Shea Field and sharing the Bubble in the offseason.

3) Finalize plans for a basketball practice facility.

Last spring, Bates announced three major construction projects—a rec center, playing fields, and a field house next to Alumni Stadium—that represented a step in the right direction despite some of the concerns discussed earlier. But one of the biggest omissions from the design plans was a separate practice facility for the basketball team. The Power Gym doesn’t exactly woo potential

recruits. BC won’t truly be up to speed with the rest of its conference until it can boast a respectable training facilities.

With a $200 million project already in the works, I understand that it may be difficult to fit another basketball complex into the equation. But it can’t be ignored. High on Jarmond’s list of priorities should be finding a location for a future basketball practice facility and securing funding for it.

4) Reinvigorate the alumni base of donors.

This should be the easiest of Jarmond’s tasks as he takes the reins in Chestnut Hill. The 37-year-old oozes charisma, and the community has already rallied around him in the days since his hire. Will fundraising at BC be harder than at OSU or MSU?

Probably. The Eagles are nowhere near the Buckeyes or Spartans in terms of public support of their programs. But there is an alumni base out there that has been alienated by the struggles of BC’s biggest sports, and Jarmond has an opportunity to rope them in with hopeful rhetoric.

There is a lot to be excited about for the future of the program. Jarmond just needs to sell his vision to donors and pray that they buy in.

It is far easier said than done, but if Jarmond can shore up the design plans for future facilities and continue his fundraising success, his impact will be more significant than any AD since the legendary Bill Flynn.

Riley Overend is the sports editor for The Heights. He can be reached on Twitter @RileyHeights.

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THE HEIGHTS

B6

MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2017

Corporate Greed Severely Stifles Artistic Integrity in ‘Fate’

BY CONNOR MURPHY News Editor

Near the merciful end of The Fate of the Furious, one of the bad guys™, played by Kristofer Hivju, looks over at a bemused Dominic Toretto, played for the last 70 years by a very bald and very rich Vin Diesel. “Quite a show,” Hivju’s character says, referencing, among other things, the other bad guy™ who just got pushed off a building into the spinning propellor of a docked nuclear submarine on the shore of a frozen lake in Siberia, his blood spattering against the wall. Except this movie isn’t a show—it’s a complete circus. The impulse to entertain is simply relentless, brutally so, two-plus hours of head-bashing-against-the-wall entertainment. But it works, somehow, goddammit, it works: Fate is one of the best consistently terrible movies ever made.

Take, for example, the first scene, essentially a cold open to this $250 million monstrosity, which has already earned $30 zillion and will no doubt spawn 12

sequels. The eighth installment in the Fast franchise picks up in Havana with Toretto and his recently not-dead wife Letty, played by Michelle Rodriguez, on their honeymoon. With zero exposition, Toretto gets into a street race with a guy who is either a supervillain or an irrelevant bit player (hard to tell). Toretto wins, of course, but crosses the line with his whole car on fire, à la Ghost Rider.

The globe-trotting is truly obscene, but Fate’s biggest flaw is that it explains the stakes far too late, prompting some head-scratching at first about just why Toretto is willing to work for Cipher.

Turns out (spoiler alert) he has a baby, who Cipher has kidnapped. An insanely cute baby. Without giving too much away, at one point, Statham’s character (after he’s managed to stay dead for about 35 minutes) breaks into a plane (while it’s flying) and rescues said insanely cute baby, carrying him along for a gleeful killing spree that’s one of the best scenes in film history, probably. This movie is getting three stars, and like two and a half

of them are because of that baby.

Other than that, Fate is pretty much just white teeth, nice butts, and fast cars.

The nature of these movies is that they pull off masterful set pieces and completely butcher attempts at being emotionally compelling, with the enormous exception of all the extremely heartfelt Paul Walker stuff in Furious 7.

One of the problems, unfortunately, is Diesel. He’s a complete mystery. He says probably 40 words in this entire movie, all with the same perplexed facial expression, like he too can’t believe this is No. 8. He has more chemistry with the cars than with Rodriguez.

It’s hard not to wonder why they keep him around—it’s like if a lousy cook is the unwitting founder of a sprawling multinational chain of restaurants, and all he asks is that he be allowed to keep messing around in the kitchen of the original location, and the new owners just deal with it because without him they’d have nothing.

Another problem is that it’s just so

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damn corporate. The product placement is overwhelming and tasteless, and the air of inevitability about it all is smug, like they’re very open about stealing your money by making this complete waste of a movie. Don’t believe me? A spin-off series was announced last week featuring Johnson and Statham. It’s become gaudy: at $250 million, this is the seventh-most expensive film ever made, and it seems

like they wrote the movie to eat up the budget, rather than the other way around, planning the most outrageous and expensive stunts possible.

Come to think of it, maybe Diesel’s facial expression is actually the look of a man who is all too aware of what’s going on here, and doesn’t mind, thank you very much, sticking around to make another $1.5 billion movie or six. 

‘Search for Everything’ Finds Haven in Classic Sounds, Thoughtful Lyricism

BY BARRETTE JANNEY Editorial Assistant

Everyone possesses that one trusty pair of socks. While maybe not particularly thrilling, those knitted wonders will always be there to cover your feet, and their comfort is unmatched regardless of their generally uninspiring duty. No artist seems to embody the role of tried-and-true socks quite like John Mayer does with the release of his newest album The Search for Everything, with its largely typical melodies serving as a cozy relief rather than providing any groundbreaking innovation.

Released on April 14 by Columbia and Sony Music and produced by Capitol Studios, The Search for Everything marks Mayer’s seventh album and his first since the success of Paradise Valley in 2013. The work follows the release of two EPs, The Search for Everything: Wave One on Jan. 20 and The Search for Everything: Wave Two on Feb. 24, each containing four songs from the album, which translates into only four never-beforeheard songs on this latest release.

One of these new songs includes “Theme from The Search for Everything,” which,

as its title suggests, offers a brief, entirely instrumental tasting of the album’s overarching sound. Simplicity radiates through its acoustic guitar presence and bursts of percussion along with waves of “ah’s,” conveying a contagious sense of positivity. The theme also reminds listeners that the album will reflect that classic John Mayer sound of soothing rhythms.

Another new listen is “In The Blood,” a folk revival reminiscent of the Lumineers.

A combination of acoustic guitar and clapping creates a stripped down, intimate feel to communicate the song’s message of self contemplation and questioning. John Mayer sings, “Can I rise above the flood / Will it wash out in the water of is it always in the blood?”

“Rosie” demonstrates a slight deviation from simple acoustics and instead utilizes a range of instruments including drums, guitar, airy flute-like sounds, and a dash of brass. Such a combination allows for a fullness of sound that is palpable and unquestionably sweet, highlighting the song’s message of encountering an old lover once again.

“Never on the Day You Leave” main-

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SEARCH FOR EVERYTHING JOHN MAYER PRODUCED BY COLUMBIA RECORDS RELEASE APR. 14, 2017 OUR RATING

COLUMBIA RECORDS

tains the role of ballad for the album and withdraws from the general optimistic mood of the other songs. Its heavy use of piano layered with violin touches and subtle percussion provide insight into the weight of a romantic breakup, with lyrics like “Love grows in the time it’s been / Since you last held her hand / She’ll fight for you like hell / Then force herself to like some other man.”

Some other standouts from the album that also appeared on the previous EPs include “Still Feel Like Your Man,” “You’re Gonna Live Forever in Me,” “Helpless,” “Love on the Weekend,” and “Roll it on Home.”

Slow jazz that gradually lifts characterizes “Still Feel Like Your Man,” ultimately creating a bright tone with its feature of choral vocals and chimes. The instrumental dynamics of “You’re Gonna Live Forever in Me” emphasizes whistling with a simple piano accompaniment that automatically registers as a tune straight out of the beloved La La Land and clings to the belief that love can persist through any obstacle with lyrics such as “I guarantee / It’s just meant to be.”

“Helpless” employs a more urgent melody than its predecessors, reflecting the panic evoked from questioning and realizing one’s own incapacity through a rapid guitar beat and repetitive lyrics like “Tell me now, tell me now.” “Love on the Weekend” features musical interludes with descending piano scales that instill a driving force into the otherwise soothing piece. “Roll it on Home” serves as a standout for the album simply because of Mayer’s dip into country twang.

Overall, The Search for Everything is replete with that notable Mayer sound to a fault. While it is a relief that he can still produce relatable material about love and relationships that will inevitably be stuck in our heads and on our soothing rainy day playlists, no genuine departure from expectation was embarked upon where there was infinite opportunity to as his first album in such a long period of time.

Nonetheless, we will continue to listen to Mayer’s pacifying, albeit overdone, melodies simply because he has returned and never fails to remind our musical taste buds just why we adored his sound in the first place. 

1 UNIVERSAL PICTURES

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE REPORT TITLE

WEEKEND GROSS

WEEKS IN RELEASE

1. THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS

38.7

2

2. THE BOSS BABY

12.8

4

3. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

9.9

1

4. BORN IN CHINA

5.1

1

5. GOING IN STYLE

5.0

3

TRENDS IN MOVIE MONEY

Coming as no surprise to anyone who has been alive in the past decade, The Fate of the Furious led the standings in this weekend’s box office report.

It only brought in, however, a paltry $38.7 million. Pssh. That’s pocket change. Spending money. Bargain bin. Ex gratia. For a song. They’re practically giving it away. This is down from last weekend’s near $100 million opening for the eighth movie in this franchise. But don’t worry Universal Studios, or Vin Diesel, The Fate of the Furious has grossed almost $1 billion worldwide against a $250 million budget. We’d say they’re doing alright. We anticipate that, in addition to quadrupling their budget this time, that the dozens of movies that will be spawned from this series. This weekend was not very good for movies in general, as Born in China, a kids documentary, earned fourth place with only $5 million. Last year, this weekend had the release of The Jungle Book and Barbershop: The Next Cut to propel the box office far past $100 million. In an even more disappointing stroke, a fantastic movie, Free Fire, only made $1 million. This movie was fantastic, and everyone should see it. It’s great, and it’s going to be the new Get Out (which is still making money) for the foreseeable future. Go see Free Fire.

It’s awesome.

2

2

3

3 DISNEY

20TH CENTURY FOX

‘Free Fire’ Aims for Simplicity, but Results in Utter Monotony

BY PETER GAVARIS Heights Staff

Ben Wheatley’s latest genre concoction of violence and debauchery, Free Fire, is fun, until it isn’t. The dank, drizzly streets of Boston serve as the backdrop for this confined tale set in the 1970s. Rain patters down in the night, as an assortment of shady characters make their way to the rendezvous point outside an abandoned warehouse.

Bernie (Enzo Cilenti) and Stevo (Sam Riley) arrive on the scene with IRA leader Chris (Cillian Murphy) looking to buy guns, while Justine (Brie Larson) arrives as a broker between both parties to ensure a peaceful arms transaction. The bearded Ord (Armie Hammer) soon strides into frame before making a masturbation joke and leading the crew through the dimly-lit halls of the dusty depository, bringing them to the heart of the warehouse to meet gun sellers Vernon (Sharlto Copley) and Martin (Babou Ceesay). Money is promptly offered, and the guns are swiftly brought over, but the

deal, obviously, gets botched by something so incidental and arbitrary that it’s not even worth mentioning. Everyone grabs a gun and starts firing. That’s it.

For the remaining hour of the film, flurries of bullets fly across the screen, hitting flesh or ricocheting against walls and beams of the vacant warehouse. To Wheatley’s credit, the violence in Free Fire packs a punch, as each gunshot sounds dangerous.

The fight begins with shaky alliances that are guaranteed to break down as the characters physically wear down and the film becomes increasingly grotesque.

Wheatley has, evidently, conflated the gratuitous violence of a Tarantino film with the sometimes funny, often exhausting quipping of a Marvel movie. Characters drop like flies over the course of the runtime—the deaths are often followed by some wisecrack or gag. The screenplay, written by Wheatley and his wife, Amy Jump, contains as many one-liners as there are bullets riddled throughout the walls of the warehouse. The film mistakenly relies on wit to sustain the

preposterously long shootout. After a while, the jokes become as stale as the violence.

The motley crew of hooligans all take cover behind barriers—boxes, crates, sheetrock, rafters—and frequently pop up from cover to take aim. The only thing more prevalent than gunfire in this film is the enormity of each character’s ego.

Insults are hurled back and forth amongst the characters in an assortment of accents ranging from Murphy’s deep Irish brogue to Copley’s shrieky South African accent—an anti-United Nations, per se. Copley’s shrill delivery and loud, often unintelligible comments, in conjunction with his ’70s popped collar and teal blue suit, stole the show.

Setting the film in the ’70s was brilliant idea, for it offered each actor the chance to really embrace the over-the-top dialogue.

Critics will often praise a film that “knows what it is,” meaning a genre film that understands its primary objective is to entertain by shunning self-seriousness. Free Fire will surely be celebrated by some for being self-aware, but that shouldn’t be enough

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to qualify it as a great film. Its obliviousness to anything remotely serious in the first half of the film is warmly received, but the chaotic cacophony becomes overwhelmingly tiresome after about thirty minutes of quips and gunshots.

Sometimes, simplicity is bliss, but let’s not forget that simplicity can also be monotonous. After everything’s said and

done, the bulk of Free Fire consists of the characters crawling around on the grimy warehouse floor, yelling across the room, and occasionally killing a person. Some might argue that this is the film’s message: violence is fun, until the gravity of the damage is realized. A message as simple as that is not nearly a message at all—it’s an understood truth. 

The Heights

Monday, April 24, 2017

B7

Wind Ensemble Presents Intensity, Artistry in ‘Paris Sketches’

By Isabella Dow Asst. Arts & Review Editor An enthusiastic and sizable crowd gathered in Gasson Hall on Saturday for the University Wind Ensemble’s dynamic presentation of Paris Sketches. The show took the audience on a trip around the world for music inspired by various countries, while showcasing the band’s immense and diverse array of talent. Containing highly energetic songs with fluctuating moods and intensities, listeners heard selections from numerous points over the past century, which gave both a chronological and geographical progression of artistry throughout the concert. Most of all, the pieces demonstrated the wealth of depth that one can find in the world of music.

The evening opened with “Molly on the Shore,” composed by Percy Aldridge Grainger in 1907 as a birthday gift to his mother. Using melodies inspired by contrasting Irish reels, the piece embodies a whimsical and spirited attitude, while the layers of instrumentation create depth and prevent the bouncy cadence of the song from becoming too lighthearted. Opening with fluttery clarinets and building with

effervescent flutes, the piece becomes more robust as crashing percussion duels with the swirling melodies. The overall effect is an enchanting and mildly mysterious piece that many listeners bonded with immediately.

Next, the band played “Cuban Overture”

by George Gershwin, composed in 1932 after Gershwin visited Havana and was inspired by the country’s rich culture, particularly their rhythmic dance and music.

Opening with an emphatic, discordant sound featuring Latin percussion and powerful brass instrumentation, the grand introduction to the country eventually cedes to more laid-back, thematic material.

While the volume and tone of the piece oscillates throughout, the unpredictable melodies maintain the listener’s attention and preserve the agitated and exotic nature of the unmistakably Cuban-inspired composition.

Following with the titular group of compositions, the band performed Paris Sketches, a collection of four songs composed

by Martin Ellerby in 1994 as a tribute to the composer’s personal attachment to a city with powerful artistic history. The first song, “Saint-Germain-des-Près” features music inspired by the Latin Quarter of the city with

resonating, slow-burning instrumentation and a dark and dreamy landscape. The subtle, twinkly embellishments enhance the peaceful nature of the piece, an attribute that was skirted by the succeeding piece, “Pigalle.” Ellerby described the song as “a burlesque with scenes cast in the mould of a balletic scherzo-humorous” kind of way, and that intricate description captures the mischievous sound of the woodwind section amidst thundering, reverberating percussion.

Continuing with “Père Lachaise,” a piece named after the largest cemetery in Paris, the song unfolds with haunting and graceful subtlety. In particular, the leaden bells that accent the meandering and pensive melody assert a sense of finality to the piece, which is fitting considering the location to which the song refers. The last song in the collection, “Les Halles,” features a fanciful tone to create an understated brightness that is challenged by an uneasy undertone, and wrapped up Paris Sketches in a way that captured the sense of wonder and intensity of Pairs.

The group then performed “Bulgarian Dances,” composed by Franco Cesarini in 2006 and inspired by the rich tradition of Bulgarian folk songs with roots tracing

Taylor Perison / Heights Staff

The sustained intensity and moodiness of the concert mesmerized the audience.

back to antiquity. The piece features a mix of warm, meandering melodies and frantic, vehement energy that gives a multidimensional presentation of the traditional Bulgarian art form.

The show closed with a jarring, controversial track called “Redline Tango,” composed by John Mackey in 2004. Inspired by the breakdown of an engine pushed too far, and Mackey’s experience with the New York subway system, the piece is a blazing, at times deafening dedication to the tortured life of a machine. Perhaps one of the most novel aspects of the piece is the fact that it was inspired by a commonplace

occurrence such as a subway train. While many go about their life without attending to such metal turmoil happening in their presence, Mackey captured the unhinged, maddening quality of this inhuman struggle and personified it with great complexity, which the Wind Ensemble rose to meet with an abundance of energy.

With compositions inspired by everything from cultural history to urban phenomena, the show brought the audience a diverse collection of musical and artistic influences, which was carried out effortlessly by the band’s skillful and impassioned presentation. n

Asinine Mixes Kissable Dads, Barack Boys, Grease Parody in Spring Show Asinine, from B8

Shaan Bijwadia / Heights Staff

‘Gruesome’ Finds Hope Gruesome, from B8 chalk. Left on the floor, after several iterations of dragging and rearranging between scenes, the words became effaced or blurred. The current age of the current scene remained the only clear etching on the ground. This added to the overall nonlinear progress and time as everything, including the physical space became more disconcerted and out of place.

Life is not all it is cracked up to be.

Like Doug’s bones, relationships splinter, families fracture, and emotional scars run deep. But we have friends to take our hand and show that although everybody hurts, not everyone has to be alone.

At the tender age of 13, in a quasiromantic jest, Doug makes himself puke in an act of solidarity with Kayleen.

“Our throw up is all mixed together,” he said looking inside the bin.

She steps closer and looks inside.

“Yeah,” she says smiling, looking up at him, “yeah.” n

answer fit most of the questions posed.

Aside from audience participation, Asinine brought its comedic strength full force in some of the other sketches it put on throughout the night.

Some of the stronger examples were the Disney Channel Original Movie, “Kate of the Union,” in which a teenage girl was president and was consecutively asked to prom by Chad, the cutest boy in 11th grade, and Vlad, the son of the Russian Ambassador; “Dead Astronauts,” in which a lonely astronaut tries a promposal using the bodies of his fallen comrades; and “Snapwater,” where two creatives try to pitch the newest Snapchat

extension, a water bottle that sends a picture of you to all your contacts every time you drink from it.

Asinine clearly knew how to work a crowd, using funny skits to gear the audience up for the participative improv performances. Many members of the audience had come to support their friends on stage, signified by whoops, cheers, and shouts of various names throughout the show.

The night went out with a bang, almost literally. The last sketch to end the show was a parody of “Summer Nights” from Grease.

The group would begin singing the song, only to have it interrupted during the solo

by questions from The Pink Ladies and The T-Birds. One of The Pink Ladies interrupted with a melodic and in-tune “Did he put it in your butt?” and “Did you pour milk on his dong?” while one of the T-Birds was more concerned with cartoon characters asking, “Who’s her favorite Smurf?” and “What about Elmer Fudd?” in his part of the song.

Somehow, Asinine managed to weave their way through envelope fetishes, kissable dads, deviant sexual acts, and Randy Quaid gracefully, smoothly, and hilariously. They engaged the audience, but kept a handle on the evening.

In an ironic turn, Asinine, a name that belies stupidity and foolishness, presented an intelligent and enjoyable show. n

John Walsh / Heights Staff

Lizzy Barrett / Heights Editor

‘Untold Stories’ Exhibit Shows No Two Identities Are the Same

By Isabella Dow Asst. Arts & Review Editor In recognition of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at Boston College, the Untold Stories: Diversity Within the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Community exhibit in O’Neill Library seeks to raise awareness for the cultural diversity within this community on campus and society at large. Sponsored by the Thea Bowman AHANA Intercultural Center, Vice President for Student Affairs, and the BC Libraries and featuring headshots taken by Joon Park, MCAS ’18, the exhibit shared 10 students’ experiences as members of the AAPI community, and provided a valuable perspective toward developing a more supportive environment within the BC community.

One common thread in these stories centered around the students’ journey toward understanding and accepting their cultural identity. For some students that immigrated to

the U.S., their heritage made them feel ashamed or out-of-place, and some mentioned either glazing over their cultural identities or growing to embrace what their identities meant to them as individuals.

One student spoke of their experience as a first generation Asian American college student, which added additional challenges to what is already a stressful transition for most students.

“I had no experience in my family of college and how to be successful in college,” he said. “While being a first generation Asian American college student was not the easiest path, it’s made me into the person I am today.”

The exhibit also noted the frustrations of students when people categorized their individual identities into incomplete understandings of AAPI heritage. One student talked about her experience in public school, where the other students asked if she was Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, none of which accounted for the fact the

student is Vietnamese.

“Now, I’ve learned to appreciate and embrace the vibrant culture I come from,” she said, a triumph she performed at the South East Asian Student Association culture show with her Vietnamese rendition of “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana.

Another student spoke of the counterproductive nature of trying to conform her Indian American identity into the stereotypically East-Asian American identity that permeates societal discussion of the culture.

“I’m just happy being myself and defying all of the stereotypes,” she said. “I’m loud, talkative, political, and Indian, and I love all of these things about myself.”

Racial stereotypes that constrain or marginalize their identities are also a source of concern for AAPI students. Oftentimes, AAPI students are confronted with the stereotype that their heritage makes them smarter or better equipped to handle life, which can place additional stress on them due

to society’s tendency to apply sweeping narratives to individuals with diverse backgrounds.

Furthermore, one student spoke of her struggle to overcome the stereotype that those with Asian heritage should be subservient.

“I have been taught to accommodate and filter while others are told to emit and express,” she said. “I’m tired of having to suppress my feelings because of this idea that Asians haven’t struggled as harshly as other minorities.”

With regard to life at BC, several stories spoke of both the challenging and encouraging environment AAPI students find on campus toward embracing their individual identities.

A couple students talked about their experiences attending secondar y schools with a more diverse student body, and how at those schools, they weren’t as conscious of their AAPI identity. Upon arriving on campus, howe ver, some student s face d a significant adjustment period, as one student experienced after coming to a

“predominately white college.”

Other students, however, noted that they have taken time at BC to explore their heritage. One student, Yechan Na, MCAS ’20, spoke of their immigration to the U.S. after sixth grade, and found the opportunity to “explore [their] cultural identity through various clubs and discussions” on campus, which was not a set of resources available to them before college.

While everyone’s experience with cultural diversity is different, stories like Na’s demonstrate the necessity for a welcoming and nurturing environment on campus for AAPI students, which exhibits like this one hope to deepen.

Most of all, many of these students stressed that their cultural differences are what make them special and should be celebrated—not stifled.

A couple students spoke of spending half their lives in Korea and half in the U.S., which demonstrated both that their Korean-American identities could not easily be deconstructed, and that no two identities are the same. n

B8 MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2017

ARTS&REVIEW

What’s in a (Nick)name?

@BCHEIGHTSARTS

It Hurts to Help

CALEB GRIEGO “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

What mean you, Juliet? I have never been able to discern how I feel about this line. On one hand, a name is just a useful convention we use to describe what is around us. Montague and Capulet were just representative words of the people used to divide and categorize. The rose is a rose. On the other hand, names do hold a lot of power as symbols. Family names symbolize esteem and heritage throughout generations. When hearing our own names, we respond and look for those calling us out almost involuntarily.

But the loftier ideas are for another time. I want to know, what’s in a nickname? It would seem that the prevalence of nicknames has been cut down severely.

And when I talk about nicknames I am not talking about abridging an existing name (William to Will or John to Jack).

I am talking about the nicknames that people just give you—the involuntary kind of nicknames that were bestowed on you without your consent. Those nicknames of old were fun and solidified people within a group because it was the group that defined how they were to be regarded.

There was a certain art to it. When talking to my grandfather, his stories are rife with names that seem little more than a smattering of letters. In all cases, his stories had an additional sense of flair because it wasn’t Jack and Jill running down to the market, but something like Licks and Howler swinging by the dollar store. The stories he tells are more unique to him and his life because they contain a lexicon no other group shares. It also demands that people are knowledgeable about one another, as opposed to a distanced superficial familiarity.

What I find of value in nicknames is the fact that others give them to you. In many cases, my grandfather would tell me, it wasn’t something positive, rather something that made you stand out, or made reference to a historic personal event. So when you jumped off the roof, broke both your legs, and walked around with splints for five months, you became Splints. These kinds of names did a lot for group solidarity. You were given a name.

You gave others names. Each name was more than a calling card but a segway into a story or the reminder of a history.

I wonder why the practice has fallen away, or why I don’t remember anyone in my life or circles sporting anything other than what is on their birth certificate. Isn’t that kind of boring?

As people, were are not defined by our name, but by our experiences. No two Davids are alike. Neither are two Marys or Katherines. Those nicknames pointed, in some ways, to something more unique to you than the name you share with others. It points to an event only you lived.

That event is part of a larger amalgam of experiences that constitutes you.

What’s in a name? What kind of name? I think what Juliet meant was that proper names don’t mean much. They don’t give you the sensation of smelling a rose. The Montague name does not capture the essence of Romeo himself.

Those names are bland and doesn’t clue us into anything about the substance of a person or thing. Nicknames can do that better because they are intrinsically tied to the person.

In the future, I hope to see more nicknames because more nicknames means more stories. It’s a way to differentiate all the humdrum names and delve deeper into the essence and experience of a person.

When at social events, we know that the nice question to ask is “What’s your name?” but the far more interesting question is, “What do your friends call you?”

Caleb Griego is the arts & review editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

INSIDE ARTS& REVIEW

SHAAN BIJWADIA / HEIGHTS STAFF

‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’ personifies the idea that everyone hurts, but no one has to nurse their wounds alone.

BY CALEB GRIEGO Arts & Review Editor Happy endings, in their truest fairy-tale versions, rarely come to fruition. Instead, life amounts to masses of heartbreak, injury, and failed dreams. But even within this dour, grim view of the world, we can find comfort by commiserating. By joining calloused hands and bearing scars, the world just may get a little less dim.

Gruesome Playground Injuries details these struggles by looking at a single relationship as it cyclically atrophies and blossoms.

The dark comedy drama, penned by Rajiv Joseph, sees friends Doug and Kayleen as they rencounter one another throughout their lives. Their meetings, usually predicated on the latest blunders of the accident-prone Doug, leave both parties yearning for a deeper connection, but, for various reasons, letting their connection wither. The play progresses nonlinearly, with each scene acting as an important episode of their relationship. From the age of 8 to 23, then to 13 and all the way to 38, Doug and Kayleen come to many of the same repetitive conclusions about their state in the world, but sadly continue to lose themselves—and each other—in an endless series of pitfalls.

During the Bonn Studio performance of Gruesome, directed by Kyle Hanscon, MCAS ’17, the intimacy of the narrative was heightened in the close setting. The proximity to

Kayleen (Erica Fallon, MCAS ’18) and Doug (Alex O’Connor, MCAS ’20) allowed for their struggles to resonate with the audience as every emote and jest could be seen. In several cases, the characters entered the center stage through the sides as if coming from the audience itself. In this way everything played out on stage hits almost every spot on a viewer’s emotional palette.

Much of the success of the film can be attributed to the characters who felt lived and real. Even though their years are superficially represented on stage through dress and demeanor, there was a constant sense that each had more of a story.

In an email, Hanscon described the process they went through to evoke this sentiment.

“We spent two days of our rehearsal process fabricating the almost forty-years of life for Kayleen and Doug,” he said. “Going from how they felt the first time they interacted with each other to exploring what would happen between the unspoken years of each scene.”

As Doug, O’Connor straddled the line between admirable naivety and earnestness.

As Kayleen was often quick to point out, Doug, though not the brightest flame, has a heart of gold, making his constant injury and misfortune more perturbing. O’Connor captured that essence through his impassioned delivery and gesticulation. Whether it be in regards to Kayleen’s negligent father,

her abusive boyfriend, or her general sadness, the sentiment felt nothing short of genuine.

As Kayleen, Fallon’s nuanced facial expressions pointed to the character’s internal struggles. While Doug wore his emotions on his sleeve, Kayleen kept much of her hurt on the inside.

Fallon was about to convey this, through her closed body language and perpetual sense of languish worn on her face. As a result of these disparate emotional dispositions, the strain of their relationship could be more fully understood.

Both actors succinctly conveyed the age of 8 without delving into the realms of camp. They captured the essence of childlike behavior and dialogue in a believable and serious manner.

Additionally, Fallon and O’Connor spiced in a healthy dose of humor as they delivered a few choice lines. Humor served a twofold purpose. It established a more believable friendship complete with riffing, jabs, and quips. And it decompressed much of the tension brought about through the more serious moments of the play.

With regard to the setting and the progression of time, the mechanics of transition helped further ideas of confusion and timelessness. At the onset of each scene, the stage crew dragged decor around and scrawled out the age of the couple on the floor in

See Gruesome, B7

Asinine Engages in Debauchery for Night of Gags

BY JACOB SCHICK Assoc. Arts & Review Editor Apparently, in addition to Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts, iPhones can always be trusted to alert you to impending meteor disasters. At least, they will alert the members of Asinine, Boston College’s only sketch and improv comedy group, to the fact that they have just 30 minutes before the world ends in a plume of smoke and fire.

In honor of their last 30 minutes on Earth, Asinine members tried to make it count. Among the various parts of the skit, Asininers chose to drown their sorrows in alcohol (à la one bottle of Mike’s Hard Lemonade), unsuccessful attempts to pray to God, a roadtrip across America, and taking a nap.

Asinine started the night off strong with this video sketch, filling the short film with lots of visual gags as well as situational jokes.

One member of the group built a “shelter” of books in O’Neill, and by minute 20 had already resorted to drinking his own urine Bear Grylls-style. One of the highlights of the video was the storyline of the member trying to fulfill his life-long dream of a crosscountry roadtrip. He got as far as Newton Centre before traffic caught up with him, but while he was trying to make it out of Massachusetts, he sang along to “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw.

Fortunately for Asinine, and the audience members sitting in Fulton 511, the “meteor” turned out to be a small rock, and the Asininers made it to the show.

‘Free Fire’

To begin the actual performance, Asinine played “My Movie,” its first improv game of the night. In “My Movie,” four Asininers were directors, pitching movie ideas to a producer. Their ideas came to them from the first letters of words shouted out by audience members.

Some of the funnier examples of this game were “BB” which one director turned into a movie called Barack Boys, a group of boys (and girls) who really liked Barack Obama, and “KD” which stood for Kissable Dads, a fairly self-explanatory film.

The group followed with two skits, both garnering lots of laughs from the excited audience.

The first was “The Liz Show,” in which two tween girls tried to interview a teenage band called Death to Consumerism, and a mailman with an envelope fetish. Following was “Asinine Presents: The First Person To Ever Sneeze.” Three cave people explored the stage until one sneezed and was met by an incredulous, “What the f—k?!” from another surprisingly literate cave person.

One of the funniest parts of the night, however, was not scripted or planned by Asinine. Every time the group asked for words to be volunteered by the audience, they would ask a question to the crowd like “What would you not want to find under your bed?” or “What is the worst way to die?”

One audience member in the front row, without fail, would scream at the top of their lungs, “Randy Quaid!” Surprisingly, this

Ben Wheatley’s latest film strives for fun, but comes off as repetitive and uninspired..................................................... B6

See Asinine, B7

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN WALSH

Blending sketch and improv, Asinine offered nothing “butt” laughs in its new show.

‘BC Wind Ensemble’

Listeners were graced with dedication and instrumental poise in its Paris-inspired compilation of pieces.............B7

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE REPORT.................. B6 ‘The Search for Everything’............................... B6 ‘Furious 8’........................................................ B6