Jan 15, 2015 by The Heights

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

NEXT FACEBOOK?

WINTER IS COMING

SPORTS

METRO

SCENE

Will BC men’s basketball make it to 12 wins this season?, B6

Holy Cross dropout hopes to bring social networking app WiGo to BC in February, A8

Gear up with fresh winter wear in anticipation of the frigid and frosty temperatures, B1

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HEIGHTS

THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

established

1919

Thursday, Janurary 15, 2015

Vol. XCVI, No. 1

Law school earns public policy center

BC named to service honor roll

BY CAROLYN FREEMAN

Federal government recognizes University’s service programs

News Editor

BY GUS MERRELL Asst. News Editor

Boston College was awarded the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll of 2014 in recognition for its outstanding participation in community service and specifically Appalachia, the Neighborhood Center, and the service-learning program, PULSE. The award makes BC part of a community of over 750 colleges and universities that have shown their belief in the importance of bettering their communities, according to the National Corporation for National and Community Service. “This is a designation that universities apply for, really,” said Daniel Ponsetto, the Welles Remy Crowther director of the Volunteer and Service Learning Center (VSLC). “There’s a whole process that the University goes through, to document what our students do, how many of them do it, where they do it, how many hours they do it.” Volunteer organizations within Boston College such as the VSLC welcome anyone who signs up, but several programs such as 4Boston require applications because they are oversaturated with volunteers. While there seems to be a sense of competition between students to get into specific programs or placements, that belief is not completely true, according to Ponsetto. He does believe, however, that sense of competition speaks to the nature of BC’s relationship with service. “For Boston College, in many ways, I shouldn’t say it’s easy for us, but we do have a good situation here in that so many of our students are looking to engage in some type

DREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Marchese to return to UGBC? Sunday night Student Assembly vote set to decide former executive vice president’s reinstatement

BY JULIE ORENSTEIN A1 Editor As early as next week, Chris Marchese, A&S ’15, could be reinstated as executive vice president of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC). Student Assembly members will vote Sunday night, deciding whether Marchese will return to his former position on UGBC’s Executive Council. Marchese resigned in November after being placed on University probation and subsequently falling out of good standing with the administration—thus making him ineligible for holding the vice presidency of a student organization. Connor Bourff, former vice president of student initiatives and A&S ’15, was then appointed as the new executive vice president and has served in the role in Marchese’s absence. If Marchese is reinstated, Bourff will return to his position in the student initiatives division.

As Marchese’s probationary period expired at the end of last semester, he, along with Nanci Fiore-Chettiar, UGBC president and A&S ’15 and the rest of the organization, understood that there was the potential for him to be reinstalled to the Executive Council upon the start of the spring semester. Despite this knowledge, however, Marchese said that he spent Winter Break considering whether to return or not. “I kept thinking about what it might be like to take a semester and do normal senior things and focus on my last semester of classes,” Marchese said. “The more I thought about it, the more I realized that not only do I want to come back, but that there’s so much more that I want to do with this semester than I originally thought. I think the one really good thing to come out of this whole process is a renewed focus, I think, on my part to see the bigger picture and the intentionality behind what UGBC does.”

See Marchese, A8

See Community Service, A4

BC 64

The Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy, previously at Suffolk University, is moving to the Boston College Law School, the result of a $7.53 million endowment gifted to the school by the Phyllis & Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation. The Foundation partners with various institutions in Boston, including BC, Harvard University, and Massachusetts General Hospital, in order to further its goals of creating productive dialogue and policy on the local and state levels of government. At BC, the Center will house the Rappaport Fellows Program, which consists of paid fellowships for top law students at one of the six law schools around the city: BC, Boston University, Harvard University, New England School of Law, Suffolk University, and Northeastern University. The 12 fellows are typically picked from a pool of around 100 or more applicants. In addition to this fellowship program, the Center will host a visiting professor each year who will be paid for with the endowment from the Rappaport Foundation. The Center will also hold roundtables and political debates in order to promote the discussion of important issues of law and public policy in the greater Boston area, said BC Law Dean Vincent Rougeau. R. Michael Cassidy, a professor in the law school, will be the faculty director of the Rappaport Center. He is in charge of generating ideas for conferences and new initiatives. He will supervise an executive assistant and an administrative assistant. The Center plans create a physical and intellectual space for public policy and government leaders to solve problems and work together, Cassidy said. “I think the Center will tie BC more closely to the major public policy issues facing Boston and Massachusetts,” he

See Rappaport, A3

57 HARVARD

City targets overcrowding off-campus Inspectors to visit over 500 addresses that could violate safety codes BY BENNET JOHNSON Metro Editor As many students move back into their off-campus homes for the spring semester, some may soon be greeted by city inspectional officers knocking at their doors. For the first time ever, 31 local colleges and universities—including Boston College—have submitted the addresses of their students living off-campus to the City of Boston. Of the

25,000 addresses received, Boston housing officials have compiled a list of 580 potentially overcrowded addresses across the city. In the coming months, the city’s Inspectional Services Department (ISD) will dispatch inspectors to each address to look for possible health and safety violations. “The city has heard multiple complaints from college students that they are often victimized by absentee landlords and unsafe living conditions,” said University spokes-

man Jack Dunn. “Now that the city has the addresses where students live, they can do inspections to make sure that the residents meet the appropriate living standards set by the city.” The city will primarily be searching for issues related to overcrowding. There are more than 45,000 undergraduate and graduate students living off-campus in Boston, according

See Off-Campus, A8

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

BC outlasts Harvard in overtime Olivier Hanlan had 17 points and eight assists as BC needed extra time to beat Harvard, 64-57. The Crimson connected on only 32 percent of shots from the field. See page B8.

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

Mayor Walsh has set safety in off-campus student housing as a priority for his administration, approving inspections for some locations.

The Heights

Top

things to do on campus this week

Join University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., for Mass on Sunday at 9:00 p.m, in St. Ignatius Church. The Boston College community will gather for “A Celebration of Faith and Hope at Boston College,” on the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr. day.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Celebrate the legacy of the iconic civil rights leader in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Gathering on Monday, at 7:30 p.m. in Gasson Hall, Room 100. The event will include a Gospel choir, speakers, and a birthday cake to celebrate Dr. King’s 86th birthday.

On Wednesday, Jan. 21, the Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculties and the Jesuit Institute will host a panel discussion titled “Race in the U.S.A.: Expectations, Concerns, and Hopes in 2015.” The event will be held in Fulton Hall, Room 511 from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Takei to Calhoun emphasizes passion for brand talk media, sexuality By Jennifer Suh Heights Staff Actor and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights activist George Takei will speak in Robsham Theater on Friday, Jan. 16, at 7 p.m. The ticketed event is free to Boston College students and faculty, with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Students can pick up tickets at the box office starting Monday, Jan. 12. The event was planned by the Asian Caucus Cabinet in collaboration with GLBTQ Leadership Council (GLC), Faces, and Allies. Takei will address issues of media, sexuality, and identity to start off the Asian Caucus Cabinet Spotlight series—a new initiative that will highlight topics relevant to the Asian and Asian-American community at BC, said co-president of the Asian Caucus Earnestiena Cheng, CSOM ’15. “With his ability to relay a high profile Asian-American perspective on Asians in the media and Asians in a discussion of cross identity, especially including sexuality, his life and experiences present an invaluable opportunity for the Asian Caucus and greater BC community to explore topics that are not often already vigorously discussed on campus,” she said in an email. Born in Los Angeles to Japanese-American parents, Takei began his acting career in in the 1950s when few Asians were cast in Hollywood. He is most known for his role as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu of the USS Enterprise on the original Star Trek television series. Since then, he has appeared in several TV shows and films and has worked as a director and author. In addition to acting, directing, and writing, Takei is the official announcer for The Howard Stern Show. Takei has continued to achieve success in other fields, especially on social media. He has over 8 million likes on Facebook, 1.48 million followers on Twitter, and over 100 thousand subscriptions to his YouTube channel, “Takei’s Take: An Original AARP Web Series.” He is also actively involved with LGBT rights and JapaneseAmerican groups. “George Takei, as famous as he is for being a groundbreaking Asian-American actor, is equally noteworthy for his advocacy work on behalf of the LGBT community,” Cheng wrote. Although Takei did not hide his homosexuality or advocacy of LGBT rights throughout his career, in 2005 he confirmed that he is homosexual and has been in a relationship with his partner, Brad Takei, for 18 years. “George Takei is so relevant to many different communities at Boston College and so it [the event] is a perfect way to not only address Asian American issues for the AC community, but also acknowledge the complexity of these issues as beyond simply race and sexuality, alongside the greater BC community,” said HyunChan Jeong, co-president of the Asian Caucus and CSOM ’16, in an email. The Asian Caucus Cabinet has planned three other Spotlights, to be presented once a month, for this semester. They will focus on sociolinguistics, mental health awareness, and domestic abuse. “We feel fortunate to have a passionate, driven, and united Asian Caucus Cabinet this year,” Jeong said. “To be able to come together in this fashion is a testament to the potential of the impact a community can have on a college campus.” n

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photo courtesy of associated press

Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ‘09, stressed the importance of education and housing in front of an audience of 2,500 at Symphony Hall on Tuesday night.

Walsh delivers first State of the City address By Colin Couch Heights Staff In his first State of the City speech on Tuesday night, Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, stressed education and additional housing in the city as vital areas that need to be improved in front of an audience of 2,500 at Symphony Hall. Walsh’s address was comprised of forward-looking plans for pr imar y and s e cond ar y schools, colleges, homeless shelters, and the closing of financial gaps between certain groups in Boston. In an effort to promote Boston’s budding entrepreneurial culture, Walsh’s administration will also launch StartHub, a program designed to give startups an edge in the city. “Boston is a city of revolutionary innovation,” Walsh said. “We need to support our local talent and spread opportunity widely. So this year we’re launching StartHub, a regional program to unify and bolster our startups. A full-time ‘startup czar’ will

help entrepreneurs grow businesses in Boston.” Aside from promising to build new schools and promoting a housing development, Walsh highlighted the importance of B oston’s 2024 U.S. Olympic bid—treating the event as a method for Boston to exhibit its innovativeness and advancement as a global leader. “We’ll take this once-in-alifetime opportunity to talk about our city’s future: in education, in housing, in transportation, and more,” Walsh said. “That’s why the public process is the ultimate benefit. It’s why I commit to you that we will hold transparent conversations on every impact in every neighborhood.” Walsh made it clear in his speech that he is making education a priority for the city in 2015. Currently, high schools in Boston have a 30 percent dropout rate. Along with 40 minutes of extra learning time for students attending grades one to eight, pre-kindergarten classes will also undergo an expanded

day with better quality class time. Local universities with a presence in the city could experience an influx of students, with plans outlined at Walsh’s address of “re-designing our high schools around pathways to college and career.” Aside from improving the content in schools and extending the school day, Walsh’s 10-year Facilities Plan aims to update the schools in Boston physically. New STEM and Arts schools will be on the table during the coming year, and Walsh promised for there to be no “false starts” this year. After addressing his primary and secondary school initiatives, Walsh also mentioned the plan to construct additional dorms on the over 60 college campuses in the Boston area. Emerson College was the first institution to respond to Walsh’s call for more dorms after the first off-campus census of college students, and the other colleges and universities with a presence in Boston have been encouraged to send in

their applications as well. “After getting the first-ever consensus of off-campus student housing, we’re asking our universities to build more dorms,” Walsh said. Walsh’s promises for advancement through improvements in education and the construction of affordable housing was followed by a discussion on homelessness. Walsh addressed this concern by assuring citizens of opening a safe homeless shelter during the week of the address. This comes after he closed the bridge to Long Island where the city’s largest homeless shelter is located. He promised the conjunction of “the services and the housing that are bridges to new life” through the construction of the first Office of Recovery Services in the nation’s history. “Nothing is more important to me than protecting our most vulnerable neighbors, whether the addicted or the homeless, our children or our seniors,” Walsh said. “This isn’t just policy to me. It’s personal.” n

Professors awarded for educational research By Allie Olivieri For The Heights Last week, two Boston College professors—Andy Hargreaves and Marilyn Cochran-Smith—were listed in the Education Week’s RHSA Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, which recognizes professors and scholars at the university level who substantiate public conversation and debate surrounding education. Hargreaves and Cochran-Smith, both professors in the Lynch School of Education, were ranked No. 12 and No. 45 respectively. Approximately 200 professors earned their place in the rankings

by completing scholarly work outside of the classroom, like writing novels and articles for publications. The rankings are based on a points system, with about half the points a professor receives in the rankings originating from scholarly citations, where the professor’s work is cited in the scholarly research of other professors. Cochran-Smith thinks that these rankings are effective in validating a professor’s ideas about various topics, considering it an honor to have her work recognized. The rankings stimulate universities to consider the role of

POLICE BLOTTER

from the Mods.

3:51 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a file alarm activation in Alumni Stadium.

10:28 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a larceny in Duchesne East.

Sunday, Jan. 11 12:55 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was later transported to a medical facility

“The creators of the rankings are quite explicit that they want to encourage more academics in education to make a strong contribution to action and debate in the education profession and in public life,” Hargreaves said. Hargreaves and CochranSmith’s achievement positions the Lynch School of Education alongside the nation’s top teaching programs. The rankings are useful, according to Hargreaves, but not his first priority. “When one of us does well at Boston College or in the Lynch School on some particular criterion, this really is a credit to all of us,” he said. n

Arts Events For future arts events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk. Call Ryan Dowd, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email arts@bcheights.com. Clarifications / Corrections The Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. If you believe we have made a reporting error, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or questions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact John Wiley, Editor-in-Chief, at (617) 5522223, or email eic@bcheights.com. CUSTOMER SERVICE Delivery To have The Heights delivered to your home each week or to report distribution problems on campus, contact Chris Stadtler, General Manager at (617) 552-0547. Advertising The Heights is one of the most effective ways to reach the BC community. To submit a classified, display, or online advertisement, call our advertising office at (617) 552-2220 Monday through Friday.

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

12/08/14 - 12/09/14

Saturday, Jan. 10

1:50 p.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC employee who was later transported to a medical facility from McElroy Commons.

the intellectual in both public life and within the university. The best use of these indicators is to help professors reflect on the impact of their work, Hargreaves said. “We shouldn’t just publish in a scholarly journal and then hope for the best in terms of impact,” Hargreaves said. “This is a special obligation of working in professional schools like education, nursing and social work.” Hargreaves, who has done a lot of research on how to improve schools, thinks that it is important for schools to implement the knowledge and ideas these professors have to offer.

News Tips Have a news tip or a good idea for a story? Call Carolyn Freeman, News Editor, at (617) 552-0172, or email news@bcheights.com. For future events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the News Desk.

Monday, Jan. 12 12:33 a.m. - A report was filed regarding vandalism to a nonresidence.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

If you could be a hot drink, which one would you be? “Warm pink lemonade.” —Jordan Laugeni, A&S ’17

“Hot chocolate.” —Ryan Kanai, A&S ’18

“Espresso.” —Alisher Zakirov, A&S ’17

“Hot tea. I’m a big tea person.” —Annie Kim, A&S ’18

The Heights

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Universities play large role in Olympic proposal By Bennet Johnson Metro Editor

After a daylong meeting in Denver Jan. 9, U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) board members chose Boston over two-time host Los Angeles and other attractive options San Francisco and Washington D.C. as its bid for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, according to The Boston Globe. The USOC chose the plan presented by Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, and Boston 2024 Committee chairman John Fish that promised frugality, while emphasizing Boston as a city steeped in sports tradition, reusable venues, and an abundance of colleges and universities in the area. On Friday morning, the city of Boston and organizers of Boston 2024 hosted a press conference to outline the next steps of the city’s Olympic bid. Enthusiastic officials described the bid as a once-in-a-lifetime planning and economic opportunity for the city. Walsh and Fish also vowed to create a cost-effective Olympics that will not be paid for by Boston taxpayers. “I am wicked excited, and Boston is wicked excited,” said John Fish, who is the chairman of Boston 2024, the privately-funded nonprofit organizing committee. Walsh and newly-sworn in Governor Charlie Baker pledged transparency and an open line of communication amongst Bostonians moving forward. The city will host at least nine community meetings in neighborhoods throughout the city, beginning Jan. 27 and running through September. Walsh encouraged Bostonians in “every corner of the city” to voice their questions and concerns during the planning stages. “I promise this will be the most open and transparent and inclusive process in Olympic history,” Walsh said. “I am excited to share our vision with the people of Boston and hear their thoughts on how we can work together to not only bring the Games to Boston, but create one of the most innovative, sustainable and successful Olympics the world has seen.” Walsh and Fish described the bid as an opportunity to bring “Regional Games” to Massachusetts. The officials said their general plan is to use stadiums and facilities throughout the greater Boston area, particularly on college campuses. “70 to 75 percent of all of our ven-

Courtesy of associated press

Charlie Baker, the newly-sworn in Governer of Massachusetts, discusses the city’s plans for an Olympic bid at a press conference Jan. 9. ues here in Boston will be located on university campuses,” Fish said. Boston’s compact Olympic plan leans heavily on existing venues, which could include Gillette Stadium, TD Garden, Boston College’s Conte Forum and Alumni Stadium, Harvard Stadium, and Boston University’s Agganis Arena. 28 out of the 33 planned sporting venues are within 10-kilometer radius, which is very attractive to Olympic athletes, according to Fish. In addition to sporting venues, local colleges and universities may be asked to provide housing for the games. Currently, an Olympic village is planned for the former Bayside Expo grounds near the University of Massachusetts Boston. “Boston has put itself in such a

very strong position from a competition point of view, because we have over 100 universities in our Boston community,” Fish said. “There is no other state or city in America that has that. All of those universities have a majority of facilities that we need, and if they don’t, they are planning today for the future.” Three to four universities have been proactive in offering their facilities to the city of Boston and Boston 2024 directly, according to Fish. Harvard, MIT, and Tufts were mentioned in offering to build new venues, but the committee does not have a set partnership with them. BC has not spoken directly about its involvement in the potential Olympic bid, but the University is willing to

be supportive to the city. “While we have not yet had formal discussions, we are happy to work with the Mayor and committee leaders to explore ways in which we can be of service to Boston regarding the Olympics,” said University spokesman Jack Dunn. The USOC decision to select Boston as the United States’ bid city is the next step in the International Olympic Committee selection process. During the next two-and-a-half years, Boston will be part of a competition against some of the top cities in the world: Paris, Rome, Hamburg or Berlin, Budapest, and Istanbul. There will be an extensive review process before the IOC selects a winner in 2017. n

photo courtesy of the office of news and public affairs

Law center programs connect academics, politics

said. “This is a great opportunity for our students and faculty to work on an interdisciplinary basis with government leaders to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing our state.” Although the Foundation provides an endowment, it is the duty of the university that hosts the Center to provide the rest of the funding. At this point, Suffolk University no longer feels that they can afford that. This fall, BC prepared a proposal to offer their ideas for the program. The advisory board of the Rappaport Foundation reviewed proposals from several schools and chose BC, Rougeau said. “We felt very strongly that the Rappaport Center’s mission and its goals really meshed well with who we are at BC Law,”

A fresh view of the city

Kayla Famolare

From left to right: BC Law School Dean Vince Rougeau, Jerry Rappaport, Phyllis Rappaport, BC Law Professor Mike Cassidy—the Rappaport Foundation recently moved to the BC Law School.

Rappaport, from A1

Uptown Girl

he said. “We take very seriously at BC Law the idea that we get students to be leaders, to be men and women for others. What the Rappaport Foundation is trying to do is very similar: they are trying to nurture leaders for greater Boston.” BC Law aims to nurture member of the legal profession who are thinking about larger ideas. Rougeau hopes that the Center will attract more students who will hear about programming connected to the University. Despite the current financial standing, the Center was successful at Suffolk. It created a strong brand among law firms and offices. BC, however, is ready to make the program even more successful, Phyllis Rappaport said. “I think Boston College is very well posed to bring the center to new heights,”

she said. Since the 1980s, Phyllis and Jerry Rappaport have been giving scholarships to the Harvard Kennedy School. In 1997, the Rappaport’s created the foundation in order to facilitate a connection between academics and state and local governments. Eventually, they decided to create a separate program just for law students, the Rappaport Center. The Center works to accomplish common goals with the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard University. “Boston College Law School has always had a big role in the political leadership within the city: so many of its grads have gone on and served the important public policy positions,” said Jerry Rappaport, who graduated from Harvard in 1949. “This made BC a

logical choice and a wonderful partner for Harvard in terms of their common goal.” The Center has been critical in recognizing the capability young lawyers have in changing public policy, according to Jerry, and in acknowledging that they have the ability to be an active participant in this change. “I have the feeling so often that young people feel that they are impotent to change public policy and to some extent that they are a victim of public policy,” Rappaport said. “I think serving in important public policy positions with the officials who are at the center of the political process and political power gives them a chance to understand it and to recognize that they can be effective in it.” n

Four and a quarter miles: a measly 10-minute drive. On a good day, when I have the agility of a village runner training for the Olympics, a 40-minute run. That is the distance between my home in Winthrop, Mass.—the first town North of Boston—and downtown Boston. One would think with such easy accessibility, I would spend the majority of my time in the city: getting my daily coffee at some cafe on Newbury St., running the Charles every morning, or walking my dog through the public garden. The truth is that I am the most un-Boston Bostonian one will ever meet. I went to school in Newton throughout middle and high school, I secluded myself to activities around my hometown (rarely venturing outside its one bridge in and out of town), and I do not even have a Boston accent, despite my own father’s wicked elongation of “A’s.” The only truly “Boston” thing about me is my aggressive driving skills. One would also imagine me an expert in the hidden gems of the city—knowing the best places to go to get a true taste (in the literal and metaphorical sense of the term) of the city. Unfortunately, to my inquirers’ dismays, I usually give the most generic suggestions for travel and exploration. (“Go to the frog pond,” “Newbury is always fun,” or the classic “the North End has some good restaurants.”) I am ashamed to say that despite my proximity to a city, I could not tell you of the intimate hole-in-the-wall restaurants, or the cool art festivals that give Boston its historically and culturally rich identity. It is a shame, actually, that despite my 20 years of inhabiting this city—choosing to continue my residency through college and introducing myself as being from Boston—I could only really tell you the well-known places that any person with a travel guide could tell you about. One day last year, one of my best friends hailing from Los Angeles told me about an art exhibit she was visiting in the city. “Have you ever heard of it?” she asked. I was ashamed to say that I had not. The SoWa First Fridays showcase an array of artists in the SoWa artist guild that open their doors for free on the first Friday of every month. Over 60 artists open their doors in the South End to display their work while entertaining art-goers with wine and cheese, all for free. Goers get to experience the cultural air of Boston while submerging themselves in a lesser-known event of city life.How, I thought, could someone from the West Coast know about an event like this? What this proved to me was that I lacked a desire to know my city: the nooks and crannies, the hidden gems, the events and places that make Boston unique. My friend’s sense of self-discovery inspired me: I gained a sense of exploration as I desired to know more about Boston than what appears on the surface—a sports town and shopping destination. I wanted to become a true, knowledgeable Bostonian. All I needed was a desire for discovery. When given the opportunity to become a columnist this semester for the Metro section, it felt as if I would finally be given that opportunity. Over the next few weeks, as I sit down to write about this city and all its intricate, intimate settings in my upcoming columns, I’ll be able to share my own discoveries in this city, expanding my knowledge and love for my supposed home for the past 20 years. It is here that I will become a true Bostonian, sharing my growing love for the city and all its hidden gems.

Kayla Famolare is an editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

The Heights

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Universities play large role in Olympic proposal By Bennet Johnson Metro Editor

Courtesy of associated press

photo courtesy of the office of news and public affairs

Law center programs connect academics, politics

A fresh view of the city

Kayla Famolare

From left to right: BC Law School Dean Vince Rougeau, Jerry Rappaport, Phyllis Rappaport, BC Law Professor Mike Cassidy—the Rappaport Foundation recently moved to the BC Law School.

Rappaport, from A1

Uptown Girl

Kayla Famolare is the outreach coordinator for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

The Heights

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Stokes Hall arsonist violates parole, missing since April 2014 [This story was originally written for Professor Jon Marcus’ Advanced Journalism class, with contributors Dominique Alba, Jiah Park, Elizabeth Pehota, Michael Pescuma, and Sylvia Waghorn.] A year after setting three fires on the Boston College campus, the international student who pleaded guilty to the crime has violated his probation and disappeared, court documents show. Pengliang “Kevin” Yue, who is from China, has been missing since April and has also failed to pay most of the $63,591 in restitution ordered by a judge, according to Yue’s records. A spokeswoman for the state probation office, Coria Holland, said she didn’t know if Yue had been given back his passport, which he surrendered when he was released on bail. If he is caught, said Holland, Yue’s fate will be up to a judge. Yue pleaded guilty to using a lighter to set two wooden chairs on fire in Gasson Hall, then torching stacks of paper, a chair, and a desk on different floors in Stokes Hall on Nov. 9, 2013. He later admitted that, before he set the fires, he had been drinking beer and shots of vodka, got angry when other students called him

names, and missed the campus shuttle bus twice between 9:46 and 9:59 on that cold Saturday night. Police records in the court file on the case show that investigators later tracked Yue’s movements using undisclosed “technical” as well as human sources that gave them “his exact actions and at specific times,” which contradicted what he previously told them. Boston College Police Department Sergeant David Flaherty, who made the arrest and wrote the report, said the department would not disclose how it caught Yue. “These are confidential university matters that as a matter of practice are not publicly discussed once the case is concluded,” Flaherty said. University spokesman Jack Dunn also declined to comment. Students questioned about that night said they had no idea how the police learned they were in Stokes Hall at the time. “I’m not at all sure how they knew I was in the building,” one, John Stathopoulos, A&S ’16, said. Said another, Alessandra Scorzella, A&S ’17: “They somehow found out everyone that was in the building at the

time of the fire.” Yue’s court documents shed light on other unreported details of the case. For example, Yue was brought in once for questioning a few days after the crime and again about two weeks later. That day, after two hours of questioning—confronted with those unspecified details of his movements—he confessed. Then he asked for a cheeseburger and fries, which BCPD officers provided. He was convicted in Newton District Court of four counts of wanton destruction of property and one count of disorderly conduct. Yue was ordered to stay away from BC property and undergo counseling. Yue’s attorney, Michelle Menken, said she would not comment on her missing client’s case. Yue’s cell phone still rang but went unanswered. So did the doorbell at his last known address, an 863-squarefoot, two-bedroom apartment on Commonwealth Ave. “He was a very quiet, reserved, respectful kid,” Tom Cerulli, operations manager for Lyons Dining Services, and Yue’s boss said. “I remember when I found out. I was, like, ‘Kevin? Really?’ It was shocking and no one expected that he would do something like that.” n

Alex Gaynor / heights senior staff

Pengliang Yue has failed to pay most of the $63,591 he caused in damages to Stokes Hall.

WiGo plans expansion to BC ‘WiGo,’ from A8 someone creates an event using the app to go to a BC hockey game and over 500 people attend, you can earn over $500. We’ve seen it be a big thing for athletes and super fans.” Currently, over 100 students at a school must download the app and sign in with verified university credentials before the app gets “unlocked” for that campus. In the past, WiGo has predominantly focused on targeting large universities with fraternities and sororities. Suffolk University, Boston University, and Northeastern University are some of the top users of the social-networking app in the Boston-area. Although WiGo has not been “unlocked” at Boston College, Kaplan expects the app can make a big debut in the future. “We hope to roll out at BC sometime early next month,” Kaplan said. “We haven’t done any targeted marketing yet, but at a place like BC with no fraternities and sororities, I think our app can be highly successful if social people promote events to places like parties, sporting events, clubs, shows,

and bars.” As a modern social-networking app, WiGo has received numerous privacy concerns. One of the app’s main defenses is that at 5 a.m. each morning, all of the data from the previous night is erased. WiGo also enforces a student-only user base by employing a self-policing mechanism that blocks administrators or other individuals with .edu email addresses. “For kids to be making social plans on our app, there has to be some trust,” Kaplan said. “We have managed to be 100 percent college kids, and have essentially created a curated list of students that want to interact with each other.” Looking to the future, Kaplan hopes to continue expanding his service across the U.S., as well as targeting post-graduate students living in large cities and eventually people of all ages. “I think the tool we are using to make social plans is something that no one else has nailed,” Kaplan said. “We started with college kids, but we have this vision that we can build something that helps people of all ages make imminent social plans.” n

photo courtesy of improv asylum

Jeremy Brothers seeks to introduce a fresh, new approach to improvisational acting in the North End through Improv Asylum.

Improv Asylum brings laughs and its love of comedy to Boston’s North End By Maggie Maretz Heights Staff

Photo courtesy of Ben Kaplan

Ben Kaplan and WiGo’s team of investors and advisors celebrated the launch of their new app.

photo courtesy of ben kaplan

WiGo, with offices in downtown Boston, intends to expand its network to BC students in 2015.

The art of comedic improvisation is a risky business, but that is not stopping Improv Asylum from catapulting itself into Boston’s comedy scene. “Improv is such a bizarre little thing, because people form a group and they’ll do a show one night a week,” Improv Asylum’s Artistic Director and Director of Training Center Jeremy Brothers said. “Our actors do as many as 10 shows a week, so they really know how to perform. They’re not just comedians— they’re really talented performers.” According to Brothers, the rigor and dedication required of its actors is what separates Improv Asylum from other comedy theatres is. Brothers got involved at Improv Asylum by taking classes at the theater, and is now working to spread the love of improv each day. Located on Hanover Street in the heart of Boston’s North End, Improv Asylum was founded in 1997 and has developed to become one of the city’s premier producers of improv and sketch comedy shows. Recently named Boston’s Best Comedy by Boston’s A-List, Improv Asylum has put on over 10,000 shows for more than two million people, and continues to offer shows six nights a week. The theater puts on a series of shows,

but the most renowned event is the Main Stage Show, which Improv Asylum performs every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The Main Stage show is Improv Asylum’s “most polished show,” according to Brothers, and features the same cast of six actors each show. The six work together to create a show that combines improvised elements and a prewritten sketch to create what Improv Asylum describes as the intersection of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Saturday Night Live. “We write and rewrite, and we put stuff up in front of an audience and get a read on whether or not it’s working, and how we can tighten it up,” Brothers said regarding Improv Asylum’s Main Stage show. “The first weekend went so well I kind of want to look around and say, ‘Are we done? Can we just call it here?’” In addition to the Main Stage show, Improv Asylum offers a series of other productions, including “The Show Against Humanity,” which is based on the popular card game Cards Against Humanity. On Saturday nights at midnight, those with an appetite for something more explicit can also attend the “Raunch Show,” in which the cast is more lenient about the suggestions it will take—performing more vulgar improv scenarios while drinking beers on stage. “We’re just wearing our regular

clothes and sort of playing with each other,” Brothers said. One of Improv Asylum’s most popular shows is the “House Teams” event, which features students and alums of Improv Asylum’s in-house Training Center acting alongside Main Stage cast members putting on a performance. The Training Center targets a younger audience in the Boston area—attracting recent college graduates, people who have just moved to the city, professionals who would like to get better at public speaking or presentation skills, as well as people who see the show and think to themselves “I want to do that, I think I can do that, and I want to learn how,” Brothers explained. Besides working to bring a love of improv to the North End, Brothers and Improv Asylum hopes that it can teach others how to better communicate in today’s innovative workplace. The theater provides a corporate training program to companies all over the world, including Dunkin’ Donuts, Converse, Staples, and many more. “A lot of the skills we teach in the training center are clearly for improv and performance,” Brothers said. “But some of the same exercises have great communication takeaways—as far as working in teams, brainstorming, or active and aggressive listening to work together to move ideas forward.” n

The Heights

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Editorials

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Structural changes to ‘The Heights’

This first print edition of The Heights in 2015 reflects several structural changes that have been designed to provide greater clarity and convenience to readers of our print issue. Beginning this year, content chosen to be featured on the front page will be reconsidered with the intention of bringing readers more relevant stories, pooling together items from the News, Features, Metro, Sports, and Arts sections. This change was made with the aim of reflecting the diverse interests of our readership—major sports games, noteworthy musical performances, and events in the city of Boston will now supplement, and add variety to, our traditional news coverage on our front page. We plan to bring readers the top stories in a quick and efficient manner by featuring them on the most visible place on the paper, our front page. This change follows the current practices of most major professional news publica-

tions, and, in the past, The Heights has already employed this strategy of featuring the most key stories, regardless of section focus, such as the Feb. 20, 2014 front page that highlighted men’s basketball’s upset of No. 1 Syracuse under the headline “Upstate Upset.” Subsequently, the changes occurring now formalize practices already partially in place, intermingling content in a way similar to how it is managed on the homepage of our website. Also important to note is the fact that, despite the absence of front pages for the Metro and Features sections, the content rooted in these sections remains an integral part of our paper. This content can be found, along with News content, throughout the “A” section of the print issue, across the front, back, and inner pages. It is our hope that, through these changes, we can reorient our production process to better address the demands of our readers.

Questioning the ‘No More Than Four’ rule As the city moves to inspect 580 potentially overcrowded student units offcampus, Boston’s “No More Than Four” policy deserves intense scrutiny. As highlighted in a Boston Globe Spotlight report, municipal agencies have proven insufficient at enforcing the zoning ordinance, which bars more than four undergraduates from living in a single apartment or house. The ordinance was originally aimed at controlling rent prices for non-students—protecting long-term Boston residents from being priced out of housing by students with potentially larger budgets and a willingness to live in tight conditions. This policy has been purported to protect students from dangerous living conditions, but in practice, often grants landlords the leverage to neglect student tenants. Fearful of eviction, students in violation of the ordinance are unlikely to report unsafe conditions under the current system. This was evidenced by two recent fires in spaces inhabited by Boston University students, the buildings allegedly in violation of the city’s fire code. In reality, many of the off-campus housing units in the city’s Brighton neighborhood—the closest to Boston College—are designed to house more than four occupants. A Globe study found that 80 percent of students surveyed in this area said they had more than four undergraduates in their apartments. Properly maintained by landlords, these traditional family-style arrangements should not be a threat to occupants. Interestingly, the city ordinance only applies to undergraduates, with graduate students, fraternities, sororities, and all other non-student occupants exempted from the restriction. An arbitrary rule, selectively applied to a small population, the “No More Than Four” policy makes little sense for BC students, and in many cases, has diminished the rights to safe housing they should be afforded. Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s, WCAS ’09, renewed focus on students housing is commendable. The city’s approval of a new dorm on the former site of St. Thomas More Hall and allowance for the conversion of 2000 Commonwealth Ave. into student housing also should alleviate local housing units, improving conditions for students. However, a A strict enforcement of the “No More Than Four” policy, however, makes little sense in the BC area. As the city moves

forward with these inspections, it is imperative that the focus be on unsafe conditions rather than the supposed “overcrowding” of off-campus properties. Should students be evicted in the inspection process—the possibility of such action left ambiguous by Boston officials—it will further discourage undergraduate tenants from reporting on no-show landlords and requesting necessary housing repairs. Ultimately, zoning officials need to reconsider the “No More Than Four” rule, recognizing the 2008 laws failure to improve student housing conditions and the city’s inability to enforce it. Zoning ordinances that reflect the reality of the neighborhoods students are living in—and do not arbitrarily target undergraduate students—are necessary in improving the conditions of off-campus houses. Recognizing the general housing shortage in Boston, city schools understandably have not enforced the current ordinance, and in the process, have been hands off with the state of off-campus units. If the city is serious about student safety—as it currently claims to be—it will recognize the necessity for universities to empower students, educating them on their rights as tenants and helping them legally press landlords to better maintain the off-campus community. This is not currently possible for most schools, with a poorly devised ordinance forcing them to look the other way when it comes to the state of student living in Boston. A more reasonable ordinance would take into account the size of the housing units and respective accommodations when setting a cap on undergraduate tenants. Overcrowding can certainly be an issue with students living in a unit, but the first step in enforcing safe living conditions is setting attainable standards for landlords and tenants to follow and universities to encourage. Such reform will empower students to stand up to landlords, and also provide that permanent residents are not getting priced out of their homes simply because landowners are willing to exploit the willingness of students to live in cramped quarters. Walsh is taking a good step, but, ultimately, it isn’t enough. Until the system of accountability is restored between landlords and students tenants by revising the 2008 ordinance, the dangerous condition of off-campus housing will persist.

The views expressed in the above editorials represent the official position of The Heights, as discussed and written by the

Editorial Board. A list of the members of the Editorial Board can be found at BCHeights. com/opinions.

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The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 John Wiley, Editor-in-Chief Chris Stadler, General Manager Maggie Powers, Managing Editor

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Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech, by definition, needs no protection. -Neal Boortz (1945), American author, attorney, radio host

Letter to the Editor A letter from the Sociology Department on race The Department of Sociology adds its voice to the mounting number of students, faculty and staff calling for the Boston College administration to acknowledge the growing discontent in the nation and the campus community around issues of race, inequality, and police accountability. Although the recent grand jury decisions not to indict the killers of Michael Brown and Eric Garner ignited the protests in Ferguson, MO and New York City, the killing of unarmed Black men, women and children in this country is nothing new. Having gained the widespread media attention due to the protests they generated, these cases vividly illustrate the ongoing subjugation of Black people in every phase of the criminal justice system. From pedestrian and motor vehicle stops (Stop-And-Frisk & Driving While Black), to incarceration rates and sentencing discrepancies, to the likelihood of being shot dead by police, sociology and other social sciences have amassed an abundance of empirical data demonstrating that Black Americans are treated unequally and killed disproportionately by law enforcement. Thus, the recent events in Ferguson and Staten Island are not aberrations but reflective of a reality that millions of Americans who are Black and Brown face every day. The fact that the police officers in these cases failed to be indicted is yet another reminder of the existence of two separate but unequal justice

systems. These systems remain divided by race and operate by different sets of rules. These are serious issues. Indeed, they are issues of life and death. And it is important for the University to engage in these sometimes difficult, but very important conversations because they affect us all at BC. Some students, faculty, and staff come from the very racial backgrounds and communities that are most likely to suffer these horrors. Some are in positions of authority to help alleviate these injustices. And we all have the ability to act. Thus, the entire BC community is implicated in the injustices around us. We cannot simply be observers. We must be participants. We recommend that faculty, academic departments, and the Division of Student Affairs make space in their curricula and programming to have these critical conversations. We support students in their endeavors to voice their concerns. And, rather than remaining silent and stifling student protest and engagement, it is imperative that the leadership of the University encourages critical dialogue and action until people of all races feel safe when walking the streets of our country. BC needs to be on the right side of history—the side of social justice. The BC Sociology Department

Addressing the gender divide at Boston College Bro. A noun defined by the contributors of Urban dictionary as “An alpha male idiot”. More broadly, a bro is any person, regardless of sex, who possesses a high capacity to “chill”. Being called a bro is the young adult equivalent of a being picked first by the cute boy in your elementary school gym class for kickball. It’s an act that says “we, the boy population, think that perhaps, you, a female, are of adequate athletic ability to join us in this highly competitive game of kickball. Be honored.” After gym class, you walk a little taller, and maybe even brag to your parents as you walk (in my case trip) off the school bus. In my adult life, being considered a “bro” by my peers fills me with a stupid a sense of pride. My confidence in any given social situation hinges upon my perceived acceptance into the boys clique, or the “bro” culture. Why do I, and other females, take pride in “being different from other girls?” What makes us different? We are more bro-

like, more accepted by males and therefore better than “other girls”. What is so bad about being a girl? I like to consider myself a feminist, admittedly not very good one, and I still crave the acceptance of my male counterparts. My pride should stem from my own accomplishments and self-perception, rather than the social status given to me by others, specifically the herds of males down the hall that only like me for my slightly raunchy taste in YouTube videos. How is it that I, aware of the implications of our society’s gender-based colloquialisms, still feel empowered by them? It’s backwards, it’s counterproductive, and however, my human desire to be accepted, is more easily fulfilled as a “bro” than as an individual.

The Heights welcomes Letters to the Editor not exceeding 400 words and column submissions that do not exceed 700 words for its op/ed pages. The Heights reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity, accuracy, and to prevent libel. The Heights also reserves the right to write headlines and choose illustrations to accompany pieces submitted

to the newspaper. Submissions must be signed and should include the author’s connection to Boston College, address, and phone number. Letters and columns can be submitted online at www.bcheights.com, by email to editor@bcheights.com, in person, or by mail to Editor, The Heights, 113 McElroy Commons, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467.

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THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, January 15, 2015

‘War on Drugs’ killing addicts

CHRISTOPHE BERNIER NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS - It seems like a whole lot of hoopla for nothing, you think. Yes, the planet completed another revolution around a star. This gets people to stand in the frigid cold for 14 hours to watch a ball drop for 60 seconds. Curious. But we love New Years Resolutions. We love the ver y ignorance for a simple continuing of a concept we invented long ago. Ignorance for one night, anyway. It’s not that we believe that we will keep our resolutions—we know that we’ll break most—but it’s the idea that, through it all, it’s never too late to restart our engine. COLLEGE IS AWESOME - We are in awe of what we do every day. Wake up, and learn. Outside of a part-time job, we just learn. We s p e n d w h o l e d ay s b e i n g lectured to in a classroom and sitting in a library (where things are, somehow, social). We devote four years to enriching the whole person. We get to read books and stuff. It’s a lot of work, sure. The best things are. Gasson rises stark against the horizon, and even with a biting wind in our face, we can’t help but feel an overwhelming thrill to be back. GOOGLE - The Interview wasn’t all that good. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that the moment we wanted to see it, we could. When things looked the most hopeless for the movie, Google strolled in. “We could not sit on the sidelines and allow a handful of people to determine the limits of free speech in another country,” Google said on its official blog, simultaneously releasing the film on G oogle Play and YouTube. Leave it to the company that reinvented the wheel to still look badass as ever.

THE PLEX AT 4 PM - New Years Resolutions are so sweet until there’s an awkward twenty-minute wait for a treadmill. BOOK STORE PRICES - No, we’re n o t b u y i n g . Wa i t , w h a t ? 5 0 buck s? To rent it? The thing has every word highlighted, and someone covered all of chapter seven in sharpie. Yeah, well fine. I’ll probably only need to read 20 pages of it, anyway. UNORIGINAL RESPONSES - We act our parts in a bizarre number of plays, and in more of which we are extras rather than leads. Yet, we are always the ones to pen the script of our roles, no matter how big or how small. This point seems to be the most forgotten. When someone says “How was your break?” our response is not dictated by the majority. We’re going to say something more wholesome and truthful than “Good,” because the ver y fact that we’re going to be six feet under soon means that there is no time for robotic answers. Write your role.

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It’s human nature to blame the supplier. After all, Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. Several Massachusetts counties have risen the purchasing age of cigarettes, yet smoking age remains at 18. As long as you don’t buy it, you can smoke it. We separate consumption from purchasing—we place accountability on sellers, for clearly they should be the ones making sure we don’t make bad decisions. How many times have we heard that we need to stop the inflow of drugs from Mexico and South America? The soldiers of the War on Drugs have embodied the attitude that the supplier is the bane of all their trouble, so the bulk of the efforts have been fought on the supply side. For so long, busting drug dealers has been seen as the real victory. But is it? Not so much. The more we think like that, the more drug addicts we’ll put on the streets. Let’s take a step back, or a few steps back—actually, take enough steps to end up in Richard Tresch’s microeconomics class. Markets depict the relationship between suppliers and consumers: the less you supply and the greater you demand, the greater the price, and vice-versa. Economists have attempted to model the drug market and have come to several conclusions. The first one is that when the supply of drugs is reduced, the price of drugs increases. Fair enough: less drugs means

people fight more for the reduced quantity. The second conclusion is that prices have little effect on the quantity of drugs demanded. People want drugs, and they’re going to pay the price. Finally, the third conclusion, derived from the first two, is that a reduction in supply will actually increase the profits of the remaining suppliers. This is due to a hike in prices coupled with a short reduction in quantity. Economists everywhere champion this model, but there it’s not completely accurate. The main oversight lies in the failure to recognize drug addicts as a unique demand population. Entering and exiting the population has almost nothing to do with price. Have you ever heard someone say, “I heard the price of molly went down last month, maybe I’ll buy myself a gram, try it out.” That’s absurd. Addicts start consuming because they’re given their first doses. After that, the addiction kicks and they become part of a fixed demanding population. We all have a friend, or a “friend,” who went from not touching drugs to smoking like a chimney. Nothing will get you out of it but treatment.—nothing will win the War on Drugs but treatment. What they do on The Wire, that doesn’t really do anything. No matter how much it costs, addicts will keep doing it. The model shows that an increase in price will slightly decrease the quantity demanded. That may be correct, but we have to look at where this reduction comes from in actuality. The National Bureau of Economic Research published an article saying that a 100 percent increase in tobacco price would result in a five percent decrease of smokers. Drugs aren’t very different.

An increase in drug prices fails to reduce the number of users. Rather, it results in addicts consuming a tad less. Is that what we want? Have our addicts consume a bit less heroin, while the number of users is staying the exact same? I’m no expert, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. In my opinion, however, the ineffectiveness of pushing up the price isn’t what is most troubling. What bothers me is that by putting so much pressure on the supply, we force drug addicts to pay more for what they need—not want, need—to consume. And we’re not talking about your upper middle-class BC kid who smokes too much weed—we’re talking about people who can barely afford feeding themselves and paying rent because they have to buy their heroin. They’re not going to consume less because they can’t—that’s how addictions work. Now two things are going to happen. Either they’ll cut the food budget, or resort to crime. Again, I’m no expert, but these don’t sound like satisfying solutions. I’m not saying that we need to let suppliers be, let alone legalize drugs. I just think our efforts and money could be better used than how it is. More than $10 billion are spent on this war, and we should use that budget well. It’s time for us to realize that we’re losing our War on Drugs because of our obsession with blaming the suppliers. Not only do I think it’s not helping, but it’s also killing drug addicts. We have to recognize that addiction is a disease, and addressing that problem is the only way we’ll reduce consumption.

Christophe Bernier is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

A right for gay couples to adopt

JOHN MIOTTI As with all generations, it is the responsibility of the young to outwardly push cultural boundaries in the hopes of promoting progressive change—change that inherently defies the pre-existing norm. Undeniably, one of the most pressing social issues of our generation centers itself on defining just what “family” is—more specifically, the legality of same-sex marriage and adoption. Although the issue of family has evoked division among communities worldwide, it is important to recognize the growing acceptance of civil unions and gay marriage, endowed with the same legal rights as married couples. Yet, despite the changing perception of partnership, the issue of same-sex adoption significantly lags behind—ultimately jeopardizing the rights of a homosexual couple to create a family. If the world is beginning to accept civil unions, then why does the freedom to adopt come into question? On April 14, 2014, the Maltese Parliament approved a law recognizing same-sex partnership as equally valid as marriage. Furthermore, the law allows for homosexual couples to adopt. While this legislation numbered Malta among the nearly 25 European countries to legally acknowledge same-sex unions, it made them only the 10th European nation to allow adoptions by same-sex couples. Although the Maltese Parliament voted 37-0 to legalize the two standards, the bill was met with continual opposition from the country’s Nationalist Party—who abstained from voting. Many lawmakers against the bill argued that same-sex adoption

threatens the children’s best interests. Such opponents held that adoption is a right of the child and not a right of the couples, heterosexual or otherwise. Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna stated, “This [law] does not reflect the order established by God in creation and may expose the children eventually entrusted to such adoptive parents to adverse effects.” Additionally, Pope Francis openly voiced his disapproval despite his highly appraised comment: “Who am I to judge a gay person of goodwill who seek the Lord?” Regardless of such arguments, Malta—a nation with 98 percent of its 412,000 residents belonging to the Roman Catholic Church—met the law with celebration. Since its most recent statistic in 2008, UNICEF has found that over 153 million children (ranging from infants to teenagers) are classified as orphans— having lost at least one parent. Of this number, over 13 million have lost both parents. Despite the intentions of foster care, many of these quasi-parental institutions are largely flawed, being understaffed and poorly regulated. Consequently those who are not adopted leave the system with a poor education, lack of basic life skills, and a propensity for a life of exploitation and poverty. Regardless of one’s definition of “family,” there exists a strong demand to find permanent homes for millions of children. Denying these children the opportunity for adoption, regardless of the parents’ sexual orientation, is a grave injustice. Opponents of same-sex adoption want to argue on behalf of the “rights” of children. Yet who are they to decide that a heterosexual couple is intrinsically better prepared and more loving than another type? How can these opponents possibly know what environment is better for the child? If you want to argue about the child’s rights, think about this: Does the child

not have a right to a home? To an education? To a chance at a fulfilling and happy life? Same-sex couples who decide to adopt want the child and are willing to provide him or her with an environment filled with opportunity. Would this same child be better off trying to find his or her way through the foster care system until he or she turns 16 and is left alone? Furthermore, just what exactly did Bishop Scicluna mean when he stated that children who are adopted by same-sex couples are subject to “adverse effects?” I recognize that children under same-sex parents may be prone to bullying at school and may face challenges in conceptualizing the controversy of homosexuality. Yet, in my experience, I faced bullying despite having heterosexual parents and, at a young age, I had to conceptualize the hatred embedded in terrorism (being only six years old on 9/11). These challenges, therefore, are faced by every child and in no way legitimizes the claim that same-sex households are inadequate. Perhaps the Bishop is instead implying that same-sex parents will manipulate the adopted child into becoming homosexual. Under this pretense, the Bishop must believe homosexuality is therein a choice—and I thought we lived in a progressive world? We talk about making the world a better place and yet something as straightforward as finding an orphan a home is still met with opposition and debate. If Malta is an example of anything, it is an example of the world taking a step in the right direction. Let’s embrace our responsibility to defy the norm and help continue this forward push, before more children are left to chance.

John Miotti is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@ bcheights.com.

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THE HEIGHTS

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

World of possibility JULIA BOGIAGES The “world of possibility” is a beautiful place, home to our visions of the future, and absent of doubts, insecurities, and obstacles. Last week I visited the world of possibility with LeaderShape, a retreat offered by BC that focused on value-based leadership. A “vision,” as defined by LeaderShape, is a reality that you wish to see in the world. To create a vision you must, for a brief time, live in the world of possibility. LeaderShape’s vision is “a just, caring, and thriving world where all lead with integrity, and a healthy disregard for the impossible.” This goal may seem lofty, impractical, and therefore naive to some. But LeaderShape wishes that someday this vision will not seem lofty, impractical, or naive, but possible, and that eventually this vision will not seem to be anything, but just be. The vision I created at LeaderShape was equal visibility and representation in mainstream visual media. For a moment I let go of the doubts, insecurities, and obstacles—resources, discrimination, uncertain success in the creative fields—that would prevent this vision from becoming reality. For a moment I dreamed of a world where mainstream visual media accurately and appropriately represented people on the spectrums of gender identity and expression, race, ethnicity, physical ability, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic class, and size, and told the human stories. For a moment I dreamed that the creators of mainstream visual media—writers, directors, and producers—represented a similarly diverse group of people. For a moment I dreamed that people would be able to look at their screens and see a bit of themselves reflected back. Representation in the media is vital. Stuart Hall, a cultural theorist, sociologist, and professor, and whom many called the “Godfather of multiculturalism,” defined representation as “the way in which meaning is somehow given to the things which are depicted.” Hall argued that because representation is crucial to the existence and constructed meaning of an event, those in power seek to control it. This often leads to the propagation of certain characteristics, which then can lead to stereotyping. “The struggle to open up stereotypes is often a struggle to increase … the possibilities of identities which people have not seen represented before,” Hall said. This requires “one to go into the power of the stereotype itself and begin to … subvert, open, and expose it from the inside.” The breaking up of stereotypes and the increase of positive representation requires actions from those with the ability to create and shape the media. Despite the recent progress towards more equitable representation, my vision will not happen tomorrow. But at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, I saw its beginnings. I saw it in Gina Rodriguez, winner of Best Actress for Jane the Virgin, who said, “[This award] … represents a culture that wants to see themselves as heroes.” I saw it in Jeffrey Tambor, winner of Best Actor for Transparent, as he said, “And finally, if I may, I would like to dedicate my performance and this award to the transgender community. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for your courage, thank you for your inspiration, thank you for your patience, and thank you for letting us be a part of the change.” I saw it in Joanne Froggatt winner of Best Supporting Actress for Downton Abbey, as she said, “After this storyline aired I received a small number of letters from survivors of rape, and one woman summed up the thoughts of many by saying she wasn’t sure why she’d written, but she just felt in some way that she wanted to be heard. And I’d just like to say I heard you and I hope that saying this so publicly means that in some way you feel the world hears you.” My vision will not happen tomorrow. But it is only with people like Rodriguez, Tambor, Legend, Common, and Froggatt—people with the ability to create and shape mainstream visual media and who are actively working to break up stereotypes and increase positive representation—that my vision can even come close to becoming reality.

Julia Bogiages is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@ bcheights.com.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Boston startup proposes a new way to plan weekend Holy Cross dropout is the brains behind WiGo, the social networking app that is spreading to campuses nationwide BY BENNET JOHNSON Metro Editor

BRECK WILLS / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC

PHOTO COURTESY OF BEN KAPLAN

Giuliano Giacaglia (left), chief technology officer of WiGo, joins the startup’s founder and CEO, Ben Kaplan, in bringing the app to colleges across the country.

A freshman at Holy Cross, Ben Kaplan was frustrated when he found no simple way to make social plans for the night. “College kids want to know what everyone is doing on the weekend,” Kaplan said. “The biggest things used were Facebook events and group texts, but I wanted something better—something more effective.” Between class and hockey practice, Kaplan often worked well into the night from his dorm room to make his idea a reality. He pitched his idea in a “Shark Tank” business-style competition at Holy Cross, and won first prize for showing four slides for an app called WiGo—an acronym for ‘Who is Going Out?’—designed to solve the problem of finding social plans for the night by showing photos of friends who plan to go out, and letting you “tap” others you would like to encourage to come along. “Holy Cross may just have its very own Mark Zuckerberg on its hands,” read one blog post following WiGo’s debut. WiGo’s service is designed to be as simple as possible. The app links everyone at a given university in the same network by the school’s .edu email address. From there, students can post where they are going at night, and other friends can join. Each day, students create a list of events, and users can see where others are planning to go, invite each other to a destination, or suggest a new destination. The mobile app can relay a number of different signals—“following” someone, “favoriting” them, “tapping” them—that you’re interested in spending time together. After winning the venture competition in his freshman year, Kaplan gained the confidence to take WiGo to the next level. Kaplan developed the software for his app over the summer, and WiGo at Holy Cross in January 2014. Within three weeks, over half of the student body had downloaded the app. At the end of his sophomore year in May, Kaplan decided to drop out of school in order to focus on spreading WiGo to other college campuses. “After seeing WiGo take off at Holy Cross, I knew that this was something that other college kids would like and want to use,” Kaplan said. “When I dropped out of school, I had no tech team or any employees. It was just me, some code that I owned, and a vision to bring this to other schools.” Since launching out of Holy Cross’s small campus

in Worcester, WiGo has expanded to over 1,100 campuses nationwide, and currently has over 16,000 followers on Twitter. Kaplan and eight other WiGo employees have raised over $700,000 in initial funding, and are currently raising another $2 million seed round from investors. “We hit 50,000 users in the first six weeks … that’s faster than Tinder when it started,” Kaplan said. WiGo’s team of advisors and investors boasts some big names from the tech world. Paul English— the founder of Kayak.com and Boston-based startup hatchery Blade—invested in WiGo as one of its first startups, aiming to develop the app and graduate it as a standalone company. Tinder co-founders Sean Rad and Justin Mateen are also investors and serve

“When I dropped out of school, I had no tech team or any employees. It was just me, some code that I owned, and a vision to bring this to other schools.” —Ben Kaplan, founder and CEO of WiGo as active advisors to the startup. “When I shared with Justin and Sean how fast we were growing, it really hit them that this was about as fast as they grew,” Kaplan said. “The next day they offered to write us a check.” Other investors include Kevin Colleran, one of the first ten employees at Facebook, as well as Ben Fishman, who is the founder of Rue La La and started the hat company LIDS as a student at Boston University. WiGo has also received support from New England Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork and Toronto Maple Leafs forward James van Riemsdyk. One reason why WiGo has spread so quickly at campuses across the country is that the company will pay students to host events on the app. Top ambassadors at the WiGo’s most popular universities earn over $1000 per week, according to Kaplan. “What we do when we launch at schools is essentially pay kids to use our app,” Kaplan said. “If

See WiGo, A5

Former EVP Marchese could return to ofﬁce Marchese, from A1 After deciding that he did wish to return, Marchese and Fiore-Chettiar met with administrators to talk about Marchese’s potential future with the organization. The situation was then addressed by the Executive Council Monday night, with Marchese speaking to council members as well as Student Assembly committee chairs. Following that meeting, the Executive Council determined that it would nominate Marchese to return—taking into account administrators’ insights as well as UGBC members’ opinions on the issue. “[The administrators] said ‘we fully support whatever it is you want to do—whatever you think is best for the organization and for students is what we think is best,’” Fiore-Chettiar said. Marchese and Fiore-Chettiar noted that UGBC members had been given space to express their thoughts on Marchese’s potential return in the organization’s annual midyear review, and Marchese said that it would be up to the Student Assembly as to whether they wanted him to address them prior to their vote on Sunday. If the Student Assembly is to vote in favor of Marchese’s reinstatement, the Office of Student Initiatives would provide final approval in the form of double-checking his eligibility pertaining to academic and conduct standing with the University. Fiore-Chettiar said that, while there are still UGBC constitutional rules to be abided by, Marchese would not be held to any formal additional standards or requirements for personal conduct upon his return. “We don’t want to be policing Chris, that’s not our role as students or student leaders,” she said. “We appreciate the

steps that he’s taking, but at the end of the day, that’s up to him and it was our decision … whether we felt like it would be a good fit.” Marchese indicated that he has taken initiative himself to continually engage in reflection and conversations with individuals across campus, and that, since he was the one who put UGBC in its current position, he felt it was important for those initiatives to come from him. He also hopes to address his place at BC as more unified, not divided between being executive vice president at some points, and just a student at others. “This is an opportunity for me to not only prove myself, but be a better student leader in the sense of it’s a second chance, but look at all that [I] still have to address,” he said. “I no longer think of myself as, ‘Chris, the student who is sometimes executive vice president,’ and then, ‘Chris who goes home.’ You can’t really turn off a switch of when you’re vice president and when you’re not vice president.” Marchese said that he does not anticipate any problems transitioning back into his role—if he is in fact reinstalled as executive vice president—as he has kept track of the Student Assembly’s ongoing efforts. Fiore-Chettiar added that the student initiatives division would also likely see a smooth transition with Bourff returning to his initial position on the Executive Council. Among the issues that Marchese would hope to address if given the chance to serve for a final semester on the Executive Council are better engaging students with UGBC and seeking more feedback on quality of student life, as well as adopting a campus free speech policy and continuing efforts to improve textbook affordability and mental health awareness. 

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

Officials are zeroing in on violations of the “No More Than Four” rule, which limits the number of undergraduates who can legally live together.

Inspectors turn focus on off-campus Off-Campus, from A1 to The Boston Globe. ISD housing inspectors will confirm whether students living in any of the 580 identified units are violating a 2008 zoning rule prohibiting more than four fulltime undergraduates from sharing the same apartment, commonly known as the “No More Than Four” law. They will also examine whether these units pose unsafe living conditions, such as a lack of exits or malfunctioning smoke detectors. Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, has promised to reverse the trend of overcrowded and often unsafe housing conditions for students. Following a fire at an overcrowded off-campus home last year that killed Binland Lee, a 22-year-old Boston University student, and a Boston Globe Spotlight report that highlighted substandard living conditions in the city’s college neighborhoods, Walsh established a city ordinance that requires colleges to provide a list of student off-campus addresses each semester. BC previously voiced concerns about disclosing the information, citing federal student privacy laws. The University has since changed

its stance on the matter after the city revised the ordinance, requesting only the addresses and number of students living off-campus, not the names of students. “Every college and university in Boston has now complied with the city’s request,” Dunn said. “This is anonymous data and there is new information that can be drawn from it that does not single out individuals, but rather provide addresses that will help the city keep track of areas where students live for a variety of reasons.” Over the next few months, ISD officials will be sent to the 580 addresses found in the initial analysis of the housing data. If city officials confirm the location is unsafe or there are too many students living together in one unit, they plan to work with students and landlords to resolve the issue. If the problem persists, officials will document the violation and notify the university. City officials do not plan to act immediately if violations are discovered. The city pledges to work cooperatively with building owners and universities in the coming months to find effective solutions, only evicting students as a final alternative. “If the department determines the unit is

unfit for human habitation, we will work with property owners, students, and the schools to find alternative housing for the tenant,” said Inspectional Services spokeswoman Lisa Timberlake. “Displacing students is the very last resort.” According to city officials, the inspections are designed to target absentee landlords—many of whom have resisted efforts to follow city housing codes—forcing students to share overcrowded apartments simply to afford the rent. Building owners will be responsible for impending violations, and the ISD inspections will not punish students for an overcrowding situation. “The Mayor’s concern is for the safety and wellbeing of students living off-campus, and that is our concern as well,” Dunn said. “The Mayor is not seeking punitive sanctions on undergraduates living in the city of Boston.” Currently, ISD officials are analyzing the student off-campus housing data received from the local colleges and universities. With new technology, the city hopes the initial analysis of this data will ultimately lead to the inspection all of Boston’s approximately 150,000 rental units over the next five years. 

COLUMN

THE GOLDEN GLOBES

THE BOOZY AWARD SHOW ACTUALLY GOT IT RIGHT THIS TIME, PAGE B3 FEATURE

ALBUM REVIEW

FROM THE STREETS OF BOSTON TO BOSTON COLLEGE , PAGE B2

R&B ARTIST D’ANGELO RETURNS FOR FIRST ALBUM IN 14 YEARS, PAGE B4

APEX 13

“Black Messiah”

SCENE THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2015

THE

Winter Arrives Summer Lin - Asst. Arts Editor

On the first day of school, BC students returned to a colder, darker campus after the passing of the Winter Solstice. As winter arrives in earnest, so do the fashions and styles that make the season inhabitable. Photos Drew Hoo - Heights Editor Libby Faus - Heights Staff

By: John Wiley | See Page B1

The Heights

Reasonable Dowd

Falling back on break

Ryan Dowd Winter Break is a time to recklessly look back on the year and hopelessly attempt to catalogue and categorize each and every meaningful moment from it. If it was a good year, we celebrate. And if it was a year in which two planes disappeared off the face of the earth, we reach out blindly like NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for some semblance of a silver lining. For me, it has always been a time to catch up—on sleep, on my 3,370 and growing unread emails, and really on the stuff I missed throughout the year. It’s a time to catch up on culture, to finally watch Black Mirror and Happy Endings, to watch Guardians of the Galaxy three times, and four Emily Blunt movies. I think I’ll be forever catching up. “Apparently Serial,” a podcast murder mystery program, has been all the rage since October. Rage—from feigned to righteous and on Twitter to the old fashion streets—has itself made its mark throughout the year. But breaks, especially the long, cold, dark, frigid, bitter winter breaks aren’t about rage as much as inertia. I haven’t taken a physics class in years, but Google is a dear friend, and so inertia is the tendency of an object to continue in a line at a constant velocity (a line being naturally straight of course). It’s Newton’s first law of motion, basically stating there’s an inherent resistance to a change in state. If you roll a tennis ball down a hallway, it’s probably going to stay on that path unless something else happens, though I think “acted upon by another force” is the popular, droning phrase for the end of that sentence. But there’s another law of the universe. It states that Ryan, when forced to do nothing, will consequently do nothing unless acted upon by another force. Winter break can’t be measured in weeks or days. When someone asked me what I did over break, I have to pause. Winter break is like a montage scene in a movie, when time floats along from cut to cut following whatever inertia the film is driven. My break wasn’t Rocky running up the stairs, but a montage that shows me opening the next bag of Fritos, sinking deeper into a fort of blankets as the next episode rolls over on Netflix, lazily putting cream cheese on a bagel and pouring my third cup of coffee as the hub bub of your family’s morning bustles around. These are the images of a winter break. When I left in the middle of December—almost a month ago—I thought this would be the break I’m going to get ahead: apply for some jobs or one of the ships that carry interns across the River Styx from boyhood to the land of employment. This would be the year I’d start the next great young adult novel about an allboy, Jesuit high school for werewolves, eta 2022. But no, I didn’t get around to any of those things over break. I read an old military sci-fi book from off the shelf, watched the Lord of the Rings movies again, read a few of my favorite Harry Potter chapters, and more or less plugged along the familiar paths. It was nice. Inertia is a hard thing to break. There’s the issue of the other force. You need a push or else you’ll just float right along from late night to late morning reading, watching, and thinking about the same stuff. That’s the odd thing about consuming culture—it’s no fun alone (well in some cases it’s kind of fun). I think it’s nice to bounce off some other forces sometimes. I’m sure Friends is still enjoyable alone than it is with the boys, but without friends, message boards, the whole hacking internet culture just isn’t much fun.

Ryan Dowd is the Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

APEX 13 Daniel Imahiyerobo releases “Here Comes the Sun,” mixtape on horizon

john wiley / heights editor

Daniel Imahiyerobo performs during the BC Underground event of last year’s Artsfest—a critical step toward cultivating more throrough recognition of campus artists. Ryan Dowd

Arts & Review Editor

It’s not out of the ordinary for a 13-year-old to fashion a rapper name. What is more uncommon is for it to stick. For rapper Daniel Imahiyerobo, A&S ’15, “Apex 13” stuck. “Apex is just the zenith, the highest point of anything,” said Imahiyerobo. “When I was 13, I thought I was the s—t, the highest. Now I guess it’s more of a standard that I would try to hold myself to: to being out my own personal best each time I’m writing or performing something.” The 13 came from his age, and his 13-year-old insistence to make it a lucky number. He will still answer to Apex 13, with a bit of a shrug and a knowing grin. “It is my name,” Imahiyerobo admitted. “I haven’t thought of another one.” It’s the name he coined all the way back in eighth grade when he and two friends from middle school first forged the rap group “The Blackhearted.” The group has remained in contact and produced music together over the past eight years, from high school in Boston to their separate lives in college. Boston has never been a particular haven for hip hop (despite the success of Mark Walhberg, aka Marky Mark). Boston produces rough and tough actors and its fair share of indie bands, but not the steady stream of rappers to rival New York or Atlanta. Few 13-year-olds fulfill that level of commitment and fewer still reach a similar level of artistic achievement as Imahiyerobo. His 10-track mixtape, Boss Town, MA, sits wrapped and ready for a late January or early February release. In anticipation for the drop, Imahiyerobo released “Here Comes the Sun,” his second single from the mixtape on Jan. 10. He released an earlier track “Vices” in September as well as an accompanying music video in December. The two tracks represent a striking range from Imahiyerobo. “In the timeline of singles, ‘Vices’ was actually more of a downbeat song, and so after putting that out I wanted to do something that was more cheery or uplifting in and of itself,” Imahiyerobo said. He described the mixtape as a “winter album.”

And “Vices” reflects that with a dark, driving beat and surging voice from Imahiyerobo. But “Here Comes the Sun” is something different altogether. Imahiyerobo described the track as one of the few uplifting tracks on the album. It has a lighter atmosphere than “Vices” though still tells a painful story—one that insists that things don’t always get worse. “Here Comes the Sun” is a track that is standing on the shoulders of George Harrison of The Beatles’ original song and, as Imahiyerobo explains, is a deeper reflection on what music, and rap especially, has come to mean for him. “[The track] was really just a conversation with a friend of mine who was going through a really tough time, and afterward her story just stuck with me,” Imahiyerobo said. “I couldn’t get it out of my head.” But rap is more than just therapy for Imahiyerobo. “It’s a protest genre,” Imahiyerobo said. “It was made from kids who had nothing in the 70s, and it was a voice to the voiceless. It was art, it was poetry.” Imahiyerobo understands the work of process: how a song can transform from empathy to an electronic entry on Soundcloud, how a genre can move through spoken word poetry and 2 Chainz, or even how a name can grow from 13-year-old brashness to

a personal standard and dedication to old friends. Thankfully, Imahiyerobo sees a similar, uplifting trend for arts, the more underground especially, at Boston College. Although ever-present and nearly always entertaining a cappella shows across campus will feature a popular rap verse usually inspiring an echo of “oohs” and “ahhs” across the room, Imahiyerobo admits that artists and their representation on campus have room to grow. And coming from a community himself, he understands the value of growing a culture not currently vividly present outside of Artsfest. “[The Blackhearted] has always felt more a self-contained, insulated thing,” said Imahiyerobo. “We were bringing our own initiative to do things. But that’s always the goal to build the [larger] community.” He does believe, however, that at BC such a community is still possible and, on its best days, somewhere on the horizon. “This year I’ve noticed a huge boost in the spoken word community here,” said Imahiyerobo. “They’ve been putting on more events and they’ve been way more popular than I remember them being in years past, so I think we’re getting there. There’s definitely more progress to be made.” n

John wiley / heights editor

This weekend in arts

By: Chris Fuller | Associate Arts & Review Editor

George Takei: Media, Sexuality, and Identity (Friday 1/16, 7 p.m.)

‘American Sniper’ (Ongoing)

Staring Bradley Cooper in arguably his most intense, physically demanding film, American Sniper recounts Chris Kyle’s horrific experiences during his tour in Iraq as a legendary sniper. Directed by film icon Clint Eastwood, American Sniper is being swarmed by Oscar buzz.

The Asian Caucus Cabinet hosts an evening with actor and human rights activist George Takei in Robsham. Free tickets are available at the Robsham Box Office before the event.

Goya: Order and disorder (Through Monday 1/19)

It’s your last chance to see this stunning MFA exhibit before it closes this coming Monday. Capturing and highlighting the range of creativity and output of Goya, Order and Disorder is bound to make any art enthusiast’s day worth remembering.

‘Discovering Kapwa’ Photo Exhibit (Through Thursday 1/29)

Found in the O’Neill Library’s first floor gallery, “Discovering Kapwa” is a visual reflection of Boston College students’ experiences with the Casa Bayanihan study abroad program in the Philippines.

Bye bye liver (Friday 1/16, 8 p.m.)

Combining Boston’s love for entertainment with its love for drinking, Bye Bye Liver offers an interactive, informative, and hysterical evening for all. Ticket and location info are available at www.ByeByeLiver.com

Murder Most medieval (Saturday 1/17 7:30 P.M.)

Join Sir Lancelittle and his court of cooky characters for a night of fun, mystery, and most dasterdly, murder. Ticket and location info available at http://mysterycafe.com/shows.

The Bostonians & the Alleycats Concert! (Thursday 1/15, 7:30 p.m.)

Celebrate the end of the first week of classes with a classy concert. The Boston College Bostonians welcomes all the way from the UK The Alleycats of St. Andrews University for a lovely recital in the Vanderslice Cabaret Room.

‘Blackhat’ (Ongoing)

Blackhat unites the American and Chinese governments in an attempt to take out a criminal plotting to ruin the international banking network. This chilling thriller stars Hollywood veterans Chris Hemsworth and Viola Davis.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, January 15, 2015

A FULLER PICTURE

Winter Fashion

Why can’t we be friends

RYAN DOWD. ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR | CHRIS FULLER, ASSOC. ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR | SUMMER LIN, ASST. ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR

CHRIS FULLER

“I think my fashion sense and style really shows off my personality: it can go from ‘hipster’ in one minute to ‘diva’ in another.” -Samara Foster, A&S ’15. Brooklyn, NY

“I recently got this coat and I really wanted to wear it out. My style is what I find comfortable and what looks nice.” -Crystal Zhuang, A&S ’18. China

“I go for a bohemian and comfortable look most of the time, something that I can relax in.” -Alissa Rothman, CSOM ’15. Old Saybrook, Connecticut

“A lot of my clothes are from thrift shops and I try to find clothes with a story behind them. ” -Alissa Rothman, CSOM ’15. Old Saybrook, Connecticut

““I really like color palettes or just colors that go together with other colors. That’s how I usually choose what to wear.” -Tristan Norcutt, CSOM ’18. Old Bridge, NJ.

Award season arrived with full force and with it, the Hollywood couture: Emma Stone’s now iconic black and silver Lanvin jumpsuit, Lupita Nyongo’s flowing purple Giambattista gown. For the lucky few that are loaned Oscar de la Renta and Valentino gowns or Giorgio Armani tuxedos, winter fashion often means donning designer wear at various award shows For Boston College students, however, the cold months present the ultimate challenge of bundling up without forgoing fashion. With the onslaught of below-freezing temperatures and a fresh new semester, BC students dress up (or down) and don their warmest coats for the first day of school, showcasing common trends in winter style but also some flair for orgiginality. Parkas and Printed Coats It’s easy to get lost in a homogenized sea of North Face jackets, circle scarves, and Patagonia fleeces during the winter months, but the cold temperatures don’t mean students have to forsake style for warmth. The lightweight jackets and anoraks of autumn are a thing of the past, being traded in for printed coats and parkas. Winter gives students the room for creativity in their outerwear choices. A vibrant hue, a unique silhouette, or an interesting 90s plaid print offsets the mundane BC uniform of Bean boots and puffy coats. Fun with Layering New York Fashion Week Fall / Winter 2014 collections were all about layering, androgynous looks, clean lines, fur, and shearling—this new semester is no different. Whether it’s bundling in a flannel, a cozy cardigan, or throwing on a wool coat, layering helps ward off winter’s icy grip and adds dimension and stylistic flair to the most simplistic of outfits. It’s all about playing with different textures and prints. Playing with Colors Black was and always will be on trend but a pop of color or a vibrant hue draws interest to an otherwise monochromatic look. While the winter months might seem drab with uniform shades of white, grey, and black, coordinating color palettes or color blocking offers a unique take on more traditional winter trends. Take Your Grandpa’s Style The old adage, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is not lost on several BC students who abandon Vineyard Vines and J. Crew for thrift or consignment shops in order to find their first day of school outfits. British fashion icon Alexa Chung stunned the fashion world with her eclectic mix of high street and vintage wear during the late-2000s and secondhand wear or thrifting has garnered recent mainstream success. It’s all about finding clothing that stands out from the rest and offers a unique take to winter wear.

“I like to wear stuff that’s different or that not everyone else would wear.” -Cimron Charles, A&S ’16. Kingstown, St. Vincent.

“If I’m looking for day wear, my go-to places are thrift stores or consignment shops..” -Cole DeNormandie, A&S ‘15 | Lincoln, MA.

“My style is usually very relaxed and business casual and a lot of my clothes are from consignment shops” -Tebs Maqubela, A&S ’16. Boston, MA

Clooney, “Boyhood,” and streaming celebrate at the Globes SEAN KEELEY When it comes to prestigious awards shows, the Golden Globes occupy somewhat ambiguous territory. Whereas the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, and Tonys are all geared toward one specific entertainment industry, the Globes cover both film and television. This effectively makes the Globes seem like both an afterthought (in the case of television, which is celebrated at the Emmys four months earlier) and a warm-up (in the case of film, whose main celebration comes with the Oscars a month later). Compounding the strangeness is the actual organization that gives out the prized Globe: not a professional industry organization, as with the other awards shows, but a shadowy cabal known as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, consisting of 90-odd foreign journalists whose sole purpose seems to be having this show once a year. So, how to make the Golden Globes relevant? Hiring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as your hosts is a good start. The two reigning queens of comedy proved their hosting mettle for the third consecutive year on Sunday night, delivering a 10-minute opening monologue with jokes about everything from the North Korean cyber attacks to Bill Cosby rape allegations. The jury’s

still out on whether the Cosby joke was in good taste. Judging by the audience’s collective gasps, and Jessica Chastain’s front-row facepalm, the answer would seem to be no, although George Clooney, at least, seemed to get a kick out of it. Clooney himself ended up hogging the stage for a spell as he received the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, a curiously premature honor for the 53-yearold. Even the hosts seemed to question the relevance of the award: one of Fey’s best jokes contrasted Clooney’s life achievements with his new wife Amal Amaluddin, an international human rights lawyer with substantial experience in highprofile UN cases. The show could have used a little more of Fey and Poehler’s irreverence. After the opening monologue, they played a noticeably diminished role, turning the stage over to the usual onslaught of overlong speeches and tributes. Still, the ceremony wasn’t entirely without its moving moments. Patricia Arquette, picking up a supporting actress prize for the 12-years-in-the-making Boyhood, dedicated her award to single mothers around the country and to her own parents in particular. The film’s director, Richard Linklater, likewise delivered a gracious and genuine

speech after winning Best Director. Kevin Spacey, who won best actor in a TV drama for his hammy lead performance in Netflix’s House of Cards, shared a long memory about the director Stanley Kramer and his constant drive to improve artistically. Like many awards show speeches, it managed to be both heartfelt and self-indulgent. Of course, the real value of awards shows lies in the shiny awards themselves. On that count, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association managed to deliver a few surprises. Showtime’s The Affair, an adultery drama that premiered in October, walked away with the prize for Best Television Series Drama, while its star Ruth Wilson took the corresponding Best Actress prize: not bad for a new show that lacks the name recognition of its competitors. The other TV categories were full of fresh blood, too: Jeffrey Tambor won Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as a transgender woman in the new Amazon series Transparent and dedicated the prize to the transgender community. Later in the night, the show also won the top TV comedy prize. Meanwhile, Gina Rodriguez beat a host of returning nominees to win Best Actress in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy for the CW’s Jane the

Virgin. On the movie side of things, the HFPA was more inclined to choose old favorites. The ever-consistent Julianne Moore won for the Alzheimer’s drama Still Alice, while Michael Keaton got Best Actor for Birdman, perhaps as much for the movie’s inherent comeback narrative than the performance itself. Even the younger winners seemed to fit into a predictable awards rationale: Eddie Redmayne may not have delivered the year’s best performance in The Theory of Everything, but awards shows sure do love their crippled geniuses. It i’s easy to get cynical about the motivations of awards shows, which often seem designed to paint the industry in a flattering light rather than reward the best art. Then again, sometimes

they really do get it right. In this humble viewer’s estimation, that is exactly what happened with the two Best Picture awards, which went to Boyhood (for drama) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (for comedy). Never mind that those arbitrary genre categories fail to do justice to either movie’s range or ambitions. Let’s just be happy that Richard Linklater and Wes Anderson, two of America’s hardest-working and most distinguished filmmakers, are finally getting some awards recognition, and the chance to expose their work to a wider audience. To steal a line from The Grand Budapest Hotel, such moments prove that “there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse” known as awards season. 

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HOLLYWOOD FOREIGN PRESS

Looking back, I’ve always been a bit of a music misfit. I never really enjoyed much of what my friends listened to while we were growing up, nor did I find myself checking the charts to see the top 10 singles of the week or the most popular albums on iTunes. For the most part, my dad was actually responsible for constructing my taste in music. He always had such a diverse collection of genres, sounds, and artists, and since I had been listening to his music my whole life, I found it easy to recognize a lot of the singers and songs I really appreciated. As I started to build my own library, I saw that it didn’t include much of anything new and, with the evolution in digital conversion in the last decade, hidden hits and gems of the disco and soul era were easier to find than ever. But even in this digital age, where music can be produced en masse, cheaply, I find that even my father probably has more new or popular music than I do. Music taste is an interesting phenomenon. What one person finds to be a beautiful ballad—expressing his confusion or a multitude of human conditions—another person finds to be a cacophonous mess of crap. Of course, the music we listen to allows a broad range of likes and dislikes within a single culture. While some can easily adapt to new or contrasting sounds, taking suggestions from friends, many of us fall into a musical rut, becoming hostile when our personal style is encroached upon by others’ tastes. A jazz enthusiast and a metal head stranded together on an island with one album of their choosing would probably sooner kill each other before strenuously coming to an agreement. Despite the magnitude and scope of talent in the industry and the continual development of new genres and sounds, the most popular music of today is, at least to me, not an adequate representation of the musical variety actually present in our culture. Although I am not an expert on modern hits, I feel I would only have to list a few superstar singers and club songs to argue that today’s pop music is heavily focused on the party scene, hookup culture, and making gargantuan sums of money. While I may try to defend my music (generally ’60s and ’70s soul and funk) as being more passionate, respectful, and frankly groovier than a majority of this decade’s music, it would take a few discotheque tracks and some trippy lyrics to prove that the messages of both era’s music are very similar, despite their tonal differences. So why is it so difficult for me to try listening to Taylor Swift and for friends of mine to groove to the Bee Gees? We all fall into countless prejudices, and our tastes in music do not escape this trap. For the oldies (and myself for that matter), it’s hard to give up the rad hits of the good old days. For the younger generations, it’s naturally tough to appreciate something that has been and is now gone (or hidden in sight). What can we do to remedy our differences? How about the next time “Uptown Funk” comes on we’ll give it a shot and the next time “The Hustle” breaks out we can try to form a soul train? All it takes is a little bit of cooperation and some good vibes and maybe we can all find a beat to dance to like fools.

Chris Fuller is the Assoc. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, January 15, 2015

D’Angelo’s career resurrected with newest album ‘Black Messiah’ BY JAMES FARRELL Heights Staff After two critically acclaimed albums, 14 years of silence, and ongoing rumors of an upcoming R&B masterpiece, there was a lot of hype revolving around the return of D’Angelo. Despite the anticipation, D’Angelo still managed to catch the public off-guard with the surprise release of Black Messiah in early December, just before the rumored 2015 release date. Now, after years of teasing and delaying, Black Messiah has come to fruition at the perfect moment when it was most needed. As it turned out, D’Angelo chose to rush the completion of the album in the wake of the recent protests surrounding grand jury decisions in Ferguson and Staten Island, in which police officers were not indicted for the deaths of unarmed black males Michael Brown and Eric Garner. And indeed, while Black Messiah, an album as hugely important as its name suggests, has more than lived up to its anticipation, its inherent greatness is only amplified by its context.“It’s about

people rising up in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and in every place where a community has enough and decides to make change happen,” D’Angelo says in the liner notes. Black Messiah is not one man. It’s a feeling that, collectively, we are all that leader.” Black Messiah has two levels of sound space. The first is the messy collective: the raw mixture of muddy sound best exemplified in the first few seconds of the opening track “Ain’t That Easy,” or the entirety of “1000 Deaths.” The former features sludgy guitar and haunting vocal harmonies that border on dissonance without truly achieving it. It’s both offputting and alluring. The latter rests uncomfortably on violent, distorted pulses. D’Angelo’s voice is filtered so heavily that the lyrics are indiscernible. It’s a daring wall of sound that doesn’t make much sense right away, but authoritatively demands your attention. The second level is the mastery of the album. It’s the subtlety buried underneath the messiness, the sudden bursts of musical genius, complexity, and smoothness that make that wall of sound so

mysteriously compelling. Everything amazing about Black Messiah exists below the surface, requiring deeper engagement. The quick instances of brass in “Sugah Daddy,” the smooth guitar of “Really Love,” or the rhythmically staggered drums on “Prayer” are all strokes of brilliance. The jazzy ending of “Betray My Heart,” created through subtle, sophisticated guitar riffs and fervent bass playing, might be the album’s smoothest moment. The finesse of Black Messiah is in these small, hidden elements, which come together to create a raw, beautiful mess, filled with emotion and sensuality. Many critics have already drawn comparisons to Sly and the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On, or Miles Davis’ On The Corner. Indeed, Black Messiah combines many elements, including jazz, R&B, urban, hip-hop, and funk, as well as the soulfulness of Sly and the hectic nature of On The Corner. But D’Angelo’s also not afraid to take away the crispness of those elements, to make it sound dirty, even filthy. And like There’s a Riot Goin’ On,

Black Messiah gets political. “All we wanted was a chance to talk / ‘Stead we only got outlined in chalk,” D’Angelo sings in “The Charade.” “Question ain’t do we have resources to rebuild / Do we have the will?” he asks in “Till it’s Done (Tutu).” With the urgency of the surprise Fergusonresponse release, these lyrics take on an incredibly weighty meaning. Interestingly, they are often indistinguishable, lost in filters, harmonies, conflicting sounds,

and odd rhythmic patterns. Like every other great element of the album, they require digging. However, it’s not the politicization of the lyrics that makes Black Messiah so valuable—sex and love, for instance, are other major themes. Rather, it takes on a quality common to all great music and to every major social issue: it may seem confusing and messy on the surface, but if you dismiss it for that reason, you may just miss something important. 

BLACK MESSIAH D’ANGELO PRODUCED BY RCA RECORDS RELEASED DEC. 15, 2014 OUR RATING

Charlotte Aitchison, better known as Charli XCX, has been a prominent behind-the-scenes force in pop music since 2012. Although she started off in songwriting and collaborations—hits including Icona Pop’s “I Love It” and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”—XCX has taken to her second major album release to show exactly how she stands as a solo artist. Sucker is a fierce, liberating, and unapologetic pop record that demonstrates Charli XCX’s dominance both as an individual artist and as a woman. Whether it is the empowering lyrics or the 1980s-inspired hard

rock, the many elements of Sucker give pop music a new edge. The attitude is palpable, the message is anthemic, and the music rocks. Second only to “Boom Clap”— featured in The Fault in Our Stars— “Break the Rules” stands as Sucker’s most popular song, and for good reason. “Break the Rules” is fit for the club scene with a heavy bass and a consistent dance beat. This track has earned significant radio play, it is lively, and completely captures the idea of pop, which makes it accessible for vastly different audiences. With “Break the Rules,” Charli XCX sets the tone for all that Sucker contains. It defies typical, overdone pop music and ventures into dance,

PHOTO COURTESY OF BONNAROO

electronic, and punk. The title track “Sucker” is another display of Charli XCX’s fearlessness and creativity. It is more melodic than a majority of the record’s songs, and its synth line has a unique style. Especially in “Sucker,” and really throughout the entire album, her lyrics are at the forefront. The words pack an edginess that only XCX can deliver so well. She makes no apologies for her fierce outlook. With confidence and a blatant disregard for the haters, Charli XCX becomes seemingly invincible on the record. Both “London Queen” and “Gold Coins” weave together the feminine superpower and hard rock

SUCKER CHARLI XCX PRODUCED BY ASYLUM RECORDS RELEASED DEC. 15, 2014 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF ASYLUM RECORDS

that marks Charli XCX’s music. Thoughtfully focused on storytelling, the lyrics to these song emphasize an energetic, lively spunk that balances out the more harsh punk instrumentation. When XCX so vividly describes her move to the United States in the autobiographical “London Queen,” she counters cool glamour with a retro, electronic groove. The musicality is dynamic, vacillating between punk rock and electronic, and it caters to the excitement of Charli’s story. “Gold Coins,” an empowering track about wealth, luxury, and a life of fantasy, contrasts gold and champagne with heavy guitar, synth, and hard rock. Charli XCX exudes artistry, and she clearly used Sucker to demonstrate her skill in writing and performing songs that are far from the norm, yet still easily appreciated.In a more vulnerable moment, “Need Ur Luv” exposes Charli’s softer side. XCX is made sweeter in this track, and the shift is mirrored by the song’s instrumentation. Although the song is percussionheavy, its lack of a strong guitar line ensures that Charli’s vocals are the song’s main melody. The track is extremely representative of indie pop music with its light, airy nature and its attention to character. Charli is less fierce in this track—the content being as obvious as the song’s title—but no less skillful. She shows that she can be a pop “purist” of

sorts, and does not use the rock instrumentation to cover up for any flaws. The content is a rarity among Sucker’s songs, though, as Charli XCX tends to naturally settle in her confidence. To put it simply, XCX knows what she’s doing: she has created an album that showcases her undeniable musicality, and she reiterates her confidence in her lyrics that serve to empower herself and others. Focusing again on romantic relationships, Charli uses “Breaking Up” to reassert her own strength. With an 80s rock background to set the tone, Charli XCX channels the likes of Pat Benatar and other leading ladies of rock while demonstrating extreme attitude. In continually proclaiming that “breaking up was easy to do,” there’s no reason to be anything but confident. “Body of My Own” brings the album together, showing off Charli XCX’s free spirited artistry. Though the lens of this song is obviously a relationship, Charli’s lyrics also speak to her singular strength as a musician. She does not need the fame of more popular vocalists to bring her lyrics to life, because she can do it herself. Charli has paid her dues, working in the background and in collaborations, for long enough. Sucker is the way to liberate Charli XCX from that cycle, it captivates listeners and demands to be heard in a way that few albums really can. 

The guitars of California X blaze through ‘Nights in the Dark’ BY PHOEBE FICO For The Heights

The punk band California X is a bit of a paradox. Maybe that is why they have the “x “in their name, for the unknown, the undefinable. You see, the boys behind the band—Lemuel Gurtowsky, Dan Jones, Cole Lanier, and Zacky Brower—are not from California at all. The band came in Amherst, Mass. The second paradox comes in because California X defines itself as a punk band. They are not a punk band really, at least not on their sophomore effort, Nights In The Dark. The punk rock genre has always been popularly defined by two characteristics: a lack of musical skill that transfers into a gritty guitar sound and a social consciousness that comes through in the lyrics. California X has one of the two characteristics: dirty guitars, as the guitar is the main feature of the album. Unlike the punk rock heroes of the past, however, Gurtowsky can actually shred as lead guitarist. He is versatile with an ability to cross genres. The heavy distortion and long,

drawn-out notes at the beginning of the first and title track recalls that of the 70s art house rock bands. Then, all of a sudden, the song explodes into a dirty, gritty, chugging guitar vehicle that seems as though it is a steam engine barreling towards its destination, ready to decimate all in its wake. This is complemented by the lead guitar that lies on top of it like a more experienced lover, whose sole purpose is to titillate. It works. This technique of lead guitar solos over a solid rhythmic guitar base, is one of the albums strongest attributes and is used and different times in many different ways throughout the album. It is used on “Hedley, MA,” where the solo is structured as a scale and the underlying rhythm guitar part is relaxed and distorted, like a hazy drug fueled dream. Then, there is “Blackrazor Pt. 1,” which recalls Metallica’s great guitar epic “One.” California X then reuses guitar techniques on the second part of this song, a separate track and the next on the album. It recycles the charging, chugging guitar idea on the title track, which connotes a lot of anger, befitting a song with the

word “Blackrazor” in its title. Then, there are the guitar tracks that break from the norm. “Ayla’s Song” is a one minute acoustic, instrumental track that holds more emotion than many of the other tracks on the album due to its frank simplicity. It doesn’t try to be more than a cool riff. Conve ying emotions , or emotional depth is where this album falters. This is what

makes California X fall short of being a truly great punk band: The band’s lyrics are the least important part of the songs. In contrast, 70s New York punks— people like Patti Smith and Richard Hell (of Television)— considered themselves writers above all else. Everything else, the hardened instrumentals, came second. With these guys it seems

TOP SINGLES

1 Uptown Funk! Mark Ronson 2 Blank Space Taylor Swift 3 Take Me To Church Hozier 4 Thinking Out Loud Ed Sheeran 5 Lips Are Movin Meghan Trainor 6 All About That Bass Meghan Trainor 7 Shake It Off Taylor Swift 8 I’m Not The Only One Sam Smith

TOP ALBUMS

Charli XCX ‘booms, claps’ her way to her own pop stardom BY MARIAN WYMAN For The Heights

CHART TOPPERS

the opposite. Their lyrics and potentially catchy melodies are drowned out by the overbearing, albeit good, guitar. There is no chance of an emotional connection. While at first listen one might be impressed by the striking instrumental complexities, the songs lack the complexity of a more complete work, which makes them listenable but ultimately forgettable. 

NIGHTS IN THE DARK CALIFORNIA X PRODUCED BY DON GIOVANNI RECORDS RELEASED JAN. 13, 2015 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF DON GIOVANNI RECORDS

1 1989 Taylor Swift 2 The Pinkprint Nicki Minaj 3X Ed Sheeran 4 In The Lonely Hour Sam Smith 5 Guardians Of The Gal axy: Awesome Mix Various Artists Source: Billboard.com

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK BY LUIZA JUSTUS

“ELASTIC HEART” SIA

Sia’s “Elastic Heart” has everyone buzzing in a way that few music videos can manage. It features Shia LaBeouf and Maddie Ziegler, the acrobatic 12-year-old gymnast from Sia’s last hit video, “Chandelier.” The video places both actors inside a cage and through interpretive dancing and acrobatic movements, the video depicts an intense fight between the two characters. Their battle speeds up and slows down in intervals that keep the viewer glued to the screen. Their outfits are skin-colored and understated in an effort to emulate the most basic human condition possible. The video could have several interpretations, but it is clear that the two characters represent the artist’s internal struggle—two parts eternally at war with one another. Near the end, the child (Ziegler) is able to walk out of the cage. The adult (LaBoeuf) then realizes that he is trapped and that he is alone. While she can walk in and out as she pleases, he can never get out. It’s a statement on the creative, expressive bliss that is youth and the painful, constraining that comes with adulthood. Now, of course, we live in an era where it is difficult to make a creative statement that falls a bit outside the norm without receiving a shower of criticism. This video has been accused of having tones of pedophilia—to which Sia responded that she was simply creating “emotional content” and that the two characters were the warring “Sia states,” and that there are no romantic undertones between them. Unfortunately, many people fail to see the artwork as it is and try find something to grumble about just for the sake of complaining. At its best, the video is groundbreaking and beautiful. At worst, it’s still a little different from the hyper-sexualized, cliche industry standard. And for that, we should be thankful. 

SINGLE REVIEWS BY LIZ HOLMAN MISTERWIVES “Our Own House”

MAYA PAYNE “If Only” This song sounds like an epic combination of Ellie Goulding, Of Monsters and Men, and Lorde, as well as everything else that could possibly be right in the world. It is a radio-radio indie hit, with a disco beat and powerful melody. “Our Own House” is begging to be put on repeat.

MEGHAN TRAINOR FEAT. JOHN LEGEND “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” At only 17 years old, Payne is making a big name for herself. You can’t help but get absorbed in the beat and rhythm of this song and just feel all the good vibes. Perfect for a pregame—or really any time of day—make sure to add this to your favorite playlist.

Yes, this is a love song, but it’s really refreshing—it showcases Meghan Trainor’s vocal abilities in a way that we haven’t seen on the charts before. John Legend’s part on this track is just an added bonus and so perfectly ﬁtting. The two complement each other in a catchy melody that is less sappy and more genuine.

CLASSIFIEDS Thursday, January 17, 2014

THE HEIGHTS THE HEIGHTS

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Thursday, January 15, 2015

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THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Last year was good, but BC Athletics has much to improve in 2015 From Column, B8 when assessing BC Athletics’ 2014. Senior midfielder Emma Plasteras garnered First-Team All American honors for the second consecutive season. She finished with a team-leading nine assists and 21 points overall in just 18 games played. Along with the other seniors, she will be difficult to replace. But if the Eagles can match their accomplishments from this past season–or better yet, surpass them–they will make the BC community proud. MEN’S HOCKEY: Check in on some old acquaintances. It’s been over two months since the Eagles dropped a heartbreaker at home to the Terriers of Boston University and much has changed in the college hockey world. BC endured a skid in the following games, and fell drastically in

the USCHO polls, but rebounded to go without a loss since November. Meanwhile, BU rose to the second slot in the national rankings, sitting only behind Minnesota State–Mankato. Freshman wunderkind Jack Eichel is still impressing at BU, while BC’s young roster has finally started to gel and produce results. Defensive wrecking ball Steve Santini’s return to the lineup for the Eagles, following an extended absence for a wrist injury, stands as a welcome return to an injury-depleted unit. What better time than now for the Eagles to rekindle their relationship with the Terriers? BC travels down Commonwealth Avenue on Friday night to take on BU for the second time this season, looking to avenge its first defeat. The Eagles need to keep rolling to regain ground in the rankings, while

the Terriers can’t afford to drop a game to an inferior opponent at home. JIM CHRISTIAN: Make some new friends. Jim Christian has impressed in his first year as men’s basketball coach, needing only one more win to tie the total from last season with more than half of the season remaining. With key out-of-conference victories against New Mexico and Providence, the strides the team took in 2014 are readily apparent. Unfortunately for Christian, most of the current roster will depart next season. Seven seniors will graduate from BC in May–eight total will depart if Olivier Hanlan decides to forego his senior season. If Hanlan does declare for the NBA Draft, as expected, Christian will need to replace four of his five starters from 2015.

Christian and his staff will have their hands full recruiting that many quality players for next year, but they’ll have to find some new players to prevent stunting the growth of this team. BC received a bit of a boost for next year when Lonnie Jackson was announced to be out for the rest of the season last week, meaning the senior can apply for a medical redshirt and gain an extra season of eligibility in Chestnut Hill. The focus for the coaching staff should be to find guards who can score, and lots of them. With Aaron Brown, Dimitri Batten, and potentially Hanlan leaving BC next year, the Eagles will have a considerable amount of scoring firepower to replace. The trio leads the Eagles in scoring but BC is nevertheless facing offensive challenges this season, ranking 223rd in points per

game nationwide. Christian and his staff brought BC basketball back from rock bottom, a task that deserves a considerable amount of praise. A couple new buddies, ones who can preferably drain 24-footers with great consistency, are just what the program needs to keep this good thing going. WOMEN’S HOCKEY: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There’s nothing to say here. The women’s hockey team doesn’t have to change a single thing from 2014. If it stays on the path that it’s carved out for itself, Superfans will have something to celebrate when April comes around.

Tom DeVoto is the Asst. Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com

POINT COUNTERPOINT

CAN THE EAGLES REACH THE 12-WIN MARK? Winnable games out there for Eagles

Truth in the numbers: No shot for BC

BY JACK STEDMAN

BY MICHAEL SULLIVAN

Assoc. Sports Editor In the stately manor that is the Atlantic Coastal Conference, Virginia, North Carolina, Duke, Notre Dame, and Louisville currently occupy the lavish master bedrooms, antiquefilled billiards rooms, and cavernous parlors. Syracuse is still fighting for its spot in one of the spacious guest rooms, while North Carolina State and Miami are making noise next door after both took down the No. 2 Blue Devils. A closer examination of ACC estates, however, shows two different worlds, one of which exists far from the perfectly-trimmed green lawns and gold-encrusted ceilings in Chapel Hill, Charlottesville, and South Bend. We’re talking the attic crawl space, the maids’ chambers, and the utility closets deep within the bowels of the conference where Boston College currently resides. The top-heavy nature of the ACC hides the fact that the bottom half of the conference is very similar, meaning a not-so-lofty goal for BC this season is to reach 12 wins. The Eagles stand with a record of 8-7, making the magic number a mere 4 wins. So with that, let’s navigate the long hallways and trap doors of BC’s remaining schedule and find out how and why BC will reach the 12-win mark this year. THE POWERHOUSES: One-third of BC’s remaining games come against ranked opponents: The Eagles play No. 2 Virginia, No. 6 Louisville, and No. 15 North Carolina once, and then No. 12 Notre Dame twice. The Eagles are in no way expected to win any of these games. Just last year, however, the Eagles traveled to the Carrier Dome in upstate New York and took down the Orange, who were the top team in the nation and undefeated at the time. This time around, BC has the luxury of playing four of these games in Conte Forum, and they could very well steal a win from one of these teams. They have already proven that they can at least stick around with a top 25 team—West Virginia—and all they need is one Oliver Hanlan takeover, like in his performance against Providence, to pull off an upset. After all, college basketball makes its name off of the possibility of an upset happening at any moment—they call it March Madness for a reason. Crazier things have happened. THE DARK HORSES: Another third of BC’s remaining games from tier two of the ACC, which consists of programs that are always solid and are usually perennial dark horses, if not high seeds, in the NCAA Tournament. Syracuse finds itself in this category because it seems to have fallen off the radar a bit after starting the year 6-4. These teams have proven that they can play with the best, and they will be a handful for BC. Miami and North Carolina State have each taken down the Blue Devils in the last four days, while the Orange boast a seven game win streak. The recent game against the Panthers was a Dennis Clifford putback away from a BC victory in regulation—it wasn’t so much as Pitt won the game as it was BC lost it. Pitt’s padded record against weak opponents makes it look a lot better than it is, and the Eagles should take care of business in the rematch. Miami also recently beat BC in a close game, in which a 21-9 run and comeback by Hanlan and co. fell short. Hidden inside the box score, though, is the fact that Eddie Odio scored a career high 13 points and BC’s bench outscored Miami’s 19-7, both good signs for the Eagles going forward. Expect BC to come away with a win in at least one, if not two, of these games. THE BOTTOM FEEDERS: And finally, we arrive in the Eagles’ current nest. The last third of the remaining schedule comes from the teams directly surrounding the Eagles at the bottom of the totem poll. This is where the Eagles can actually expect to win some ball games. Last year, three out

of their four conference wins came against Virginia Tech (twice) and Wake Forest, who are currently 14th and 12th in the ACC, respectively. Not much separates these teams from BC. They all are programs that have fallen a long way from former glory and are scratching their way back into relevance. So while they will most likely be scrappy and ugly games, a win is a win. To put it simply, two wins should be a given, and three is well within reach, against the likes of Florida State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, VT, and Wake. Do the math real quick: one upset + two quality wins out of tier two + 2 gritty W’s against the common folk = a grand total of five wins. Even if that elusive upset doesn’t come, or the Eagles let another slip through their grasp at the hands of Pitt or the U, then pulling off a couple more wins from the lower tier is possible. While 12 wins in a season will put BC nowhere near the gated community atop the ACC, it will be a significant upgrade from the shack they were living in last year. And it’s very possible. 

Sports Editor

12 wins. It doesn’t seem like it should be this unattainable. And yet, asking for the Boston College men’s basketball team to surpass this mark—a mere 40 percent of the Eagles’ 30-game schedule—makes some burst out in laughter. It’s hard to blame anyone for doubting BC. The Eagles have earned a berth to the NCAA Tournament just three times since joining the ACC a decade ago, and their last trip six seasons (and two coaches) ago ended in an embarrassing upset by Southern California. After a successful 21-13 first season under Steve Donahue, BC bottomed out, compiling a 33-63 record from the 2011-12 to the 2013-14 season, good for a .344 winning percentage. The final three seasons of the Donahue era saw the Eagles finish twice with single digit win totals, and only a grand total of 16 ACC victories in 56 conference games, a .286 winning percentage. So you can forgive fans and pundits for their lack of optimism about BC. Still, 12 wins shouldn’t be this far out of the question—unlike in last year’s 8-24 debacle, the Eagles (8-7, 0-3 ACC) came

AdjO

AdjD

Luck

Points Per Game

Rebounds Per Game

100.5 15th in ACC

97.0 8th

-.069 15th

65.9 14th

33.6 14th

101.5 12th

97.5 10th

+.057 3rd

63.3 15th

36.8 9th

101.1 13th

98.7 12th

+.028 7th

69.9 9th

35.6 10th

100.9 14th

93.9 5th

-.014 11th

66.1 13th

39.5 4th

101.8 10th

95.9 7th

-.061 14th

71.3 6th

40.1 3rd

101.8 11th

102.9 15th

-.045 12th

69.0 11th

32.1 15th

KEATON MCAULIFFE / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Aaron Brown and the Eagles should pick up wins against weak opponents, while also holding upset potential.

away with several wins in their non-conference schedule, highlighted by exciting victories over regional rivals Providence (13-4, 3-1 Big East) and Harvard (10-4, 1-0 Ivy League). Take out the Friars and the Crimson from the non-conference schedule and you won’t be as easily fooled. Look at BC’s remaining victories. The Eagles beat an 11-5 New Mexico team that went 0-3 in games against teams in major conferences, the other two being Texas A&M and Southern California. Four of the Eagles’ victories come against the America East, a conference with a combined record of 54-89, third-worst in the NCAA. Two of BC’s wins come against teams with one win (Maine and Marist) and a third, Binghamton, has only two wins. Most importantly, the Eagles’ moderate success in their non-conference schedule pales in comparison to the results of their ACC counterparts—as of today, BC looks up from the bottom of the standings at the remaining 14 teams in the conference. A glance at the team’s in-game statistics—not including those compiled in Wednesday night’s game against Harvard—seems more predictive of the Eagles’ future performance. On defense, the Eagles show vast improvements, allowing 13.5 less points per game this season (63.8) than they had allowed at this point last year (77.3). Analyst Ken Pomeroy backs up this data, placing the Eagles at 93rd in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency (AdjD), which measures the points a team allows per 100 possessions adjusted to their opponents, with a score of 97. This ranks BC eighth, smack dab in the middle of the 15team ACC. Before putting too much stock into the Eagles’ defensive jump, let’s again recall those teams they’ve played already this season. Of the teams in BC’s seven victories, only Providence ranks in the top half of the NCAA’s 351 Division I teams in adjusted offensive efficiency (AdjO), which measures the points a team scores per 100 possessions adjusted to their opponents. In addition, four of the teams (Binghamton, Marist, UMass-Lowell, and Maine) rank in the bottom ten percent in AdjO. Even considering these modest defensive improvements, BC falls short. According to ESPN, the Eagles slot in at second-to-last in the ACC in both points per game (65.9, leading only Clemson) and rebounds per game (33.6, ahead of Virginia Tech). Pomeroy’s advanced stats run in line with these basic numbers: BC ranks at 178th in offensive efficiency at 100.5, last in the conference. Now turn back to the schedule. Going forward, the Eagles will only play teams with winning records, including five remaining games against ranked opponents: No. 2 Virginia, No. 6 Louisville, No. 15 North Carolina, and two against No. 12 Notre Dame. In addition, the ACC looks even deeper beyond the ranked teams. If No. 2 Duke, who crushed the Eagles 85-62 last week, can lose back-to-back games against conference rivals Miami and North Carolina State, how can BC expect to compete? In looking at both the basic and advanced stats, five teams in the ACC seem beatable for BC: Clemson, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Wake Forest. To reach that 12-win mark, BC would have to beat four of the five. Unfortunately for the Eagles, luck is not on their side. According to Pomeroy’s metrics, which measure the difference between a team’s actual winning percentage and what their winning percentage should be based on their points scored and points allowed, BC is the unluckiest team in the ACC, at -.069. Granted, much of the luck stat comes from, well, luck, as it fluctuates from season-to-season and throughout the year, usually balancing out over time. Remember, however, BC’s losses against Miami and Pittsburgh: the Eagles demonstrated an inability to close out these close games, something that will continue to plague them as their opponents get tougher. One year, perhaps in the near future, the Eagles will return to their peak around the turn of the century, when they took home three Big East titles and consistently made the tournament. The 2014-15 season, however, is not looking to be that year. 

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, January 15, 2015 Standings MICHAEL SULLIVAN

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JACK STEDMAN

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TOM DEVOTO

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HEIGHTS STAFF

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Recap from Last Picks

Game of the Week

BC men’s hockey crushed the University of Michigan in a 5-1 victory. Women’s basketball held off the University of New Hampshire in a 64-58 win at Conte Forum. BC football lost to Penn State, 31-30, in heartbreaking fashion at the New Era Pinstripe Bowl. The University of Oregon dominated Jameis Winston and Florida State in the semifinals of the inaugural College Football Playoff.

Men’s Hockey

Boston at Boston College University

Guest Editor: Kayla Famolare Outreach Coordinator

“Suck it, Greaney!” MICHAEL SULLIVAN

This Week’s Games

Sports Editor

JACK STEDMAN

Assoc. Sports Editor

TOM DEVOTO

KAYLA FAMOLARE Outreach Coordinator

Asst. Sports Editor

Men’s Hockey: No. 17 BC vs. No. 2 BU

Men’s Basketball: BC vs. No. 2 Virginia

Virginia

Women’s Basketball: BC vs. No. 25 Syracuse

Syracuse

Green Bay

Seattle

Green Bay

NFC Championship: Packers vs. Seahawks

The Battle For Commonwealth Avenue is nigh once again as Boston College and Boston University will meet up at Agganis Arena in the 266th matchup in this historic rivalry. The first contest this season at Conte Forum went the Terriers’ way, as BU used a four-goal effort in the third period to overpower the Eagles. The teams have headed in opposite directions in the rankings following the matchup, with BC falling from No. 3 to No. 17, while the Terriers jumped up from No. 5 to No. 2. Both teams are riding hot streaks as of late, however, as neither program has dropped a game since late November.

Friday, 7 p.m. at Agganis Arena

Eagles’ dramatic ﬂair pays off with an exciting victory From Men’s basketball, B8 tunities. After stripping the ball away in the opening possession, junior guard Olivier Hanlan found teammate Aaron Brown for the fast break lay-in for the game’s opening bucket. Brown was a major contributor to BC’s strong start, as he matched the Crimson’s scoring output with 10 points of his own that propelled BC to a 25-10 lead, its biggest of the night. Brown’s efforts were aided by the likes of Patrick Heckmann, who pickpocketed a Harvard guard two minutes in and stormed down the middle of the court before kicking it out Brown for a wide open 3-pointer. Heckmann later came up with a big block on the defensive end and started the break the other way. BC’s swarming defense contributed to 10 first half Crimson turnovers, five of which were committed by Harvard’s top scorer Wesley Saunders. Saunders struggled from the field all night, finishing four-of-19 from the field and just one-of-seven in the second half, though he was effective from the charity stripe, knocking down seven-ofeight en route to a 15-point performance. The Eagles headed into the locker room at halftime with a 30-19 lead. “I thought the first half defensively was as well as we’ve played all year,” Christian said. “We did what we were trying to do. Our one-on-one defense was good, and our ball screen defense was very good. That’s a good offensive team, so to hold them at halftime to 19 points is a pretty good effort.” As soon as the second half began, Harvard began the slowly crawl back, and the Eagles had to work hard to keep them in check. “They made a pretty good run at us in

the second half, and it was good to see guys not back down,” Hanlan, who led all scorers with 17 points, said. One of those guys who didn’t back down was junior center Dennis Clifford, who had a phenomenal game, collecting 10 boards and netting 13 points on his way to his first career double-double. The two teams traded baskets, with Clifford netting a couple of hard-fought shots down the stretch, but going into the final two minutes of regulation, Harvard had taken a 47-45 lead. Crimson guard Siyani Chambers stared down Hanlan on consecutive possessions, ball tucked under his arm, letting the clock tick down. With about six seconds left on the shot clock, Chambers made his move, dishing the ball to forward Steve Moundou-Missi, who fumbled it and booted it out of bounds with 39 seconds remaining in the game. Hanlan let the clock tick down, moved the ball around, and then gave it to Clifford. The big man found a cutting Heckmann, who then dished the ball to Brown. He finished at the rim, tying up the game with his first points of the second half at the game’s biggest moment. After Saunders missed a turnaround buzzer beater in the paint, the game headed to overtime tied at 47. The two teams traded buckets to start the overtime period, with Hanlan showing off his touch on a floater. Batten, not to be outdone, laid in a smooth finger roll driving from the left side. It was Heckmann, however, who stole the show for the Eagles in overtime, scoring seven of BC’s final eight points. With the Eagles nursing a two-point 56-54 lead with 46 seconds remaining, Heckmann hit a dagger from the corner to put BC up by five, then sealed the game with an authoritative dunk off the long ball from Hanlan, capping a dramatic victory. 

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Eagles got production all around the court, from Olivier Hanlan’s lockdown defense, to Eddie Odio’s incredible effort to save the ball.

Tight defense and lane control power BC to overtime victory From Notebook, B8

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Olivier Hanlan, BC’s leading scorer on the day, peers through the soul of Harvard’s top guard Wesley Saunders, preparing his next attack at the hoop. w. basketball

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counting for 60 of its 64 points. Two major factors propelled the Eagles to their eighth win of the season, matching the tally of last year’s team. STOU T TE AM DEFENSE: From the outset, BC’s defense was the obvious key in this victory. The Eagles held the Crimson to 32 percent shooting from the field and forced 16 turnovers in the game. This defensive dominance ignited BC’s hot start, giving it a necessary cushion down the stretch. Head coach Jim Christian was very aware of the crucial importance of his defense in the post game press conference. “If you guard, you’ve got a chance to win every game,” he said. BC’s offense is not typically capable of keeping it ahead in too many games, which was clear again in this one. The Eagles shot just 24 percent from beyond the arc and only 40 percent from the foul line. The Eagles’ offensive shortcomings make defense that more important, and it shines a light on the essential role played by center Dennis Clifford. He is capable of erasing a lot of the errors that perimeter defenders may make with his overwhelming size in the paint. The Eagles as a whole also did a good

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job defending Harvard’s leading scorer Wesley Saunders, holding him to just 15 points while forcing seven turnovers. BC used a lot of different looks to slow down Saunders, using lighting rod Garland Owens off the bench to slow him down. DOMINANCE IN THE PAINT: A glaring difference in the box score from this game was the difference in points in the paint for each team. BC scored 38 points in the paint and held Harvard to only 16. Although the Eagles only start one player taller than six-foot-five, they still controlled the paint. Over the course of the game, Hanlan was capable of getting into the paint at will, hitting multiple tough shots but also finding teammates on his way to eight assists. One of those teammates was Clifford, who scored 12 points of his own and added 10 rebounds to record a double-double. Both keys to this game came together at the end, when BC’s defense proved itself by having a solid handle on defending the paint when it mattered most. In the postgame press conference, Christian noted the importance that defending on the final possession had for his team. His team’s defense was called upon to get a stop to send it to overtime and it delivered, allowing the Eagles to soar over the Crimson. 

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2015

New Year’s resolutions for Eagles

HARVARD For the Heights It appears that the 2014-2015 Boston College men’s basketball has a flair for the dramatic. Its past two contests were close losses, as the team squandered multiple double-digit leads in an overtime loss to Pittsburgh and mounted an unsuccessful comeback effort against Miami. “We had to win,” head coach Jim Christian said. “We had to get back into the winner’s circle. When you lose the way we lost the past two games it’s difficult because they’ve worked hard and they didn’t get any reward for it.” In Wednesday night’s matchup against Harvard, however, BC decided to switch things up, coming away with a dramatic 64-57 overtime win. This victory was an important one for the Eagles—a win gives them some momentum as BC plunges back into ACC play. Additionally, it marked just the first time BC has beaten its crosstown rivals in the past seven years, and has brought the squad to eight wins on the season, matching last year’s total. In its 14 games leading up to Harvard this season, BC held a double-digit lead at some point in its contests 10 times. The amount of times that BC has won by more than 10 points? Just five. The easy conclusion is that this year BC has hard a hard time holding onto a lead, a formula that remained true against Harvard last night. BC stormed out of the gate from the opening tip-off, playing defensive-minded basketball that led to a slew of fast break oppor-

See Men’s basketball, B7 BY CONOR FINN For the Heights While the Boston College Eagles did not turn in a performance that will be featured in any how-to instructional basketball videos, they got the job done against the Harvard Crimson on Wednesday night. Along with that, the morale of the BC program got a boost as the Eagles put an end to a six-year skid against the Crimson, something that Olivier Hanlan noted in his press conference after losing to the Crimson both times in his first two seasons on the Heights. In a game that featured an 11-2 run for the Eagles to start the game and as much as a 15-point lead in the first half, the Eagles allowed Harvard to get back into the game in the second half, a problem which has cost the Eagles wins already this season. This game was very similar to the one against Pittsburgh, when the Eagles surrendered large leads to the Panthers before dropping the game in overtime. It was crucial for the Eagles to gain the confidence of finishing off a game that they controlled most of the way. In this overtime, the Eagles received a clutch performance from Patrick Heckmann, the senior forward out of Germany. Heckmann scored seven points in overtime, including a 3-pointer that pushed the lead to five points with only 46 seconds remaining before throwing down a dunk with 17 seconds that sealed the game. BC had big performances from its whole starting lineup, ac-

See Notebook, B7

SQUARED

BY BRIAN BROOKS

The Eagles’ Crimsonhot start fell apart, but BC held on in overtime, 64-57. ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Kickham’s ﬁrst goal highlights dominant win for BC BY PASQUALE DIFILIPPO For the Heights On a quiet Sunday afternoon in Chestnut Hill, Boston College women’s hockey clashed with Northeastern in game two of a home-and-home. The Eagles had come off a 7-3 win against the Huskies Saturday night. With freshman Katie Burt still unavailable because of her commitments with the United States U18 National Team, coach Katie King Crowley once again turned to junior goalie Taylor Blake. The Eagles came out shooting early, with Megan Keller beating Chloe Desjardins low to the glove side through lots of traffic in front with just over two minutes into the contest. Just over a minute later, Alex Carpenter took Huskies’ defenseman Jordan Krause wide and beat her to the net, decking Desjardins out and finishing on the short side for her 21st goal of the season. The Huskies sought to stymie the Eagles’ speedy attack by hanging a forward high when in the offensive zone, but were forced to abandon this strategy following BC’s two quick goals and their own poor start. Northeastern got an opportunity to seize the momentum after a Danielle Doherty tripping minor gave the Huskies the advantage. Coach Dave Flint’s Northeastern team set up the umbrella power play and sustained pressure in the BC zone. But Eagles’ defensemen Lexi Bender and Emily Pfalzer effectively blocked shots and forced the Huskies to shoot from low-percentage scoring areas.

Following the penalty kill, BC began setting up in the Huskies’ zone. Sophomore Kristyn Capizzano found Doherty on a nifty backhand feed through the legs of Desjardins. Capizzano made no mistake and buried it into the open net to give BC the 3-0 lead. Two late period goals by Kate Leary gave the Eagles a 5-0 advantage heading into the intermission. Following the intermission, Flint opted to switch goalies, allowing sophomore Sarah Foss to enter the game for the Huskies. Despite the change, BC did not let up and continued to sustain pressure and cycle the puck in the Northeastern zone at will. The Eagles continued to tire out the Huskies’ players, and eventually obtained a power play following a lazy body checking penalty by Ann Doherty. Senior Erin Kickham found a seam in the Huskies’ defense and slid the puck to Leary, who beat Foss over the shoulder on a rocket from the face off dot. This was Kickham’s first career point for the Eagles. Desjardins’ time on the bench was short-lived, as Flint opted to put her back in the game following the Leary goal to make it 7-0 Eagles. A Kenzie Kent tripping minor led to a Denisa Krizova power play goal, but could not create a spark for the Huskies, as Meghan Grieves responded with her second goal of the contest with a crossice pass from Bender, making it 8-1. BC set the tone early in the third period, moving the score to 9-1 just 48 seconds in on a quick wrister in the

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high slot from Kickham. This was a special moment for Erin as it was her first career goal. “It was an amazing feeling to score today especially at home in front of all my friends and family,” Kickham said. “I have to say that the best part was celebrating with all my teammates who along with my family have been my number one fans.”

The Eagles continue to get offensive production from all four lines, confirming that they are one of the deepest teams in the country. BC passed every test with flying colors, and has outscored its opponents this season by a 127-25 margin. The 9-1 win was the Eagles’ 18th straight win, continuing their season-long 21-game unbeaten streak, the longest in program history. 

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

BC’s senior captain celebrates after scoring her first points, playing in her 51st career game.

Point / Counterpoint: Can the Eagles get 12 wins?

Can the men’s basketball team surpass this mark? Michael Sullivan and Jack Stedman debate the potential milestone...............................................................B6

TOM DEVOTO On New Year’s Day, I told myself that I would start going to the gym more. “It will be good for you,” the voice inside my head said. “Dudes go to the gym, and you want to be a dude, right?” Now, roughly four percent of the way into the New Year, I have been to the gym exactly—carry the two—zero times. But just because I personally have no willpower doesn’t mean I cannot suggest what other people need to do differently in 2015. With that in mind, here are some resolutions that notable members of the Boston College Athletics community should consider in the year to come. STEVE ADDAZIO: Finish what you started. On Saturday, following his team’s third win in four games, Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown responded to the concern that the woeful Sixers were getting conditioned to lose by intentionally putting together a terrible roster. Basketball executives were worried that more than a year of losing and constant repetition of bad habits would negate the sky-high potential that exists in Philadelphia. Brown insisted that this season has benefitted his players, as they were forced to find new ways to win games, unable to rely on skill alone. “Having these guys learn how to win, close out games, and deal with situations—there are so many benefits that come with the situation we’re in,” Brown said in a press conference following the Sixers game against the Indiana Pacers. Like the Sixers are starting to do, BC football needs to learn how to win. Without the ability to pull in nationally coveted recruits year after year, skill itself will not power BC to a successful season. Instead, the Eagles need to find ways to do just enough to put them over the edge in tight contests. One of Addazio’s major concerns this winter needs to be establishing a winning culture at BC, one that recruits should know about before they arrive on campus and one that opponents should fear. He’s done a phenomenal job of turning the program in the right direction, but there is still plenty of work to be done. Addazio should be commended for leading the Eagles to two consecutive postseason appearances—however, defeats in both bowl games indicates this program cannot yet win on college football’s bigger stages. BC should establish itself as a team that can grind out tough victories and succeed in crunch time. Alumni Stadium needs to be known as one of the most menacing places to play in the ACC and not—as college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit referred to it prior to BC’s upset victory over Southern California—as “the worst big-game atmosphere in the country.” These are the next steps that BC needs to take in order to regain serious national relevance, and it all starts with Addazio. FIELD HOCKEY: Keep on keepin’ on. There are naturally lofty expectations for a team that starts out the year with the No. 13 ranking in the country. Despite finishing the season with an undesirable result, BC field hockey lived up to them. The team reached as high as the No. 9 ranking heading into the ACC Championships. BC fell to a superior Syracuse team in its first game of the tournament before dropping its first round matchup in the NCAA Tournament to Penn State. Obviously head coach Ainslee Lamb’s team hoped for better postseason results, but its performance should not be overlooked

See Column, B6

Scoreboard...........................................................................................................B7 Editors’ Picks.........................................................................................................B7