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
www.bcheights.com
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.