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BOSTON BANDS
ZONED OUT
MORE THAN LUNCH
SPORTS
METRO
SCENE
The Women’s Lunch Place provides a safe and dignified space for impoverished women, B10
The Scene looks at six acts to watch in 2014, including Moe Pope, Karmin, and Deer Tick, B1
Despite revitalized play and missed free throws, Syracuse defense stops BC’s upset bid, A10
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Thursday, January 16, 2014
Vol. XCV, No. 1
Leo Sullivan to step down from human resources BY CONNOR FARLEY News Editor After decades serving in the human resources department at Boston College, Leo Sullivan, vice president for human resources, will be stepping down this spring to assume his new position as senior advisor to the president. Nationally renowned as an architect of human resource policy and for his involvement in restructuring much of the business model currently employed by the University, Sullivan’s service to Boston College has been marked by his commitment to BC employees and to growing the department.
“Leo has had such a profound influence on the life and culture of Boston College,” said University President William P. Leahy in a statement to the Office of News and Public Affairs. “He has provided pastoral care, wisdom, and sensitivity throughout his decades of service. I am pleased he has agreed to continue his service to the University in this new capacity.” One of Sullivan’s most successful contributions within the field began in 1996, when he and then-Executive Vice President Frank B. Campanella initiated a University-wide undertaking called Project Delta. An unprecedented cost-cutting
project designed to reduce rising tuition fees, Delta resulted in accumulated savings of $10 million by 2002 and led to the creation of BC’s information system, Agora, among other innovative business structures—all without losing any employees. “Whatever systems and procedures we need to put in place to be sure comprehensive communication takes place we will do,” Sullivan said of Delta in the April 25, 1996 issue of The Chronicle. Although the project was closed on June 6, 2006, much of the policies birthed from Delta still exist today. “Leo’s decades-long contributions to Boston College and our employees have
been invaluable,” said Executive Vice President Patrick Keating in a statement to the Office of News and Public Affairs. “What Leo has done for the University will not be replicated, but this new role is a perfect way for him to assist in and ensure a smooth transition for his eventual replacement.” Before joining BC’s two-person human resources department at the beginning of his career with the University, Sullivan earned his master’s degree from BC and his undergraduate degree from Northeastern University. The human resources staff now consists of over 50
See Sullivan, A4
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF NEWS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Sullivan leaves HR to assume his new role as senior advisor to the president.
ATHLETICS RELEASES FINANCES Blackboard Vista to be phased out
Profits increased for the basketball and hockey teams while the gap between male and female financial aid continues to widen
Canvas Network will replace Vista in 2014 BY CONNOR FARLEY News Editor
EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR | GRAHAM BECK AND DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF
BC released financial data for 2012-13 in accordance with the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, revealing the distribution of athletically-related aid among students. BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Heights Editor
Profits for Boston College men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and men’s hockey increased drastically from the 2011-12 season to the 201213 season, while football profits decreased slightly, according to the University’s Equity in Athletics Data Report. While the BC men’s basketball team lost about $623,000 in 2011-12,
revenue increased by 9 percent and expenses decreased by 23 percent last year leading to an almost $895,000 net gain for the program. Despite the improvement, the program’s profit was the second smallest total among the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 12 institutions and was more than five times smaller than the league average of $4.97 million. After an expensive run to the National Championship in 2011-12, the men’s hockey program saw a 27
percent decline in expenses along with a slight increase in revenue during the 2012-13 season, which came to an abrupt end in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Providence. In 2011-12, the program lost more than $1.89 million, but that total fell to an approximate $662,000 loss last season. BC football, the school’s most profitable program, had the third smallest profit in the ACC in 2012-13 with a total of about $3.24 million—a decline
from the 2011-12 mark of $3.68 million. Revenue increased by more than 5 percent last season, while expenses increased by more than 9 percent. BC’s total was a little less than three times smaller than the league average of $9.62 million. Although revenue for the B C women’s basketball program fell by 9 percent from the 2011-12 season to 2012-13, expenses fell by 45 percent
See Financial Report, A4
Walsh sworn in as 54th Boston mayor in Conte Forum BY NATHAN MCGUIRE Assoc. News Editor On Monday, Jan. 6 at 10 a.m., Conte Forum hosted the inauguration of Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, an alumnus of the University and Boston’s first new mayor in two decades. The son of Irish immigrants and a Dorchester, Mass. native, Walsh earned his degree from the Woods College of Advancing Studies in 2009 while also serving as a representative to the 13th Suffolk District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He is the first undergraduate alumnus to become mayor of Boston—Kevin White, who served as mayor of the city from 1968-84, earned his law degree from BC in 1955. The choice of Conte Forum, named after former Republican U.S. Representative Silvio O. Conte, BC ’49, as the venue for the inaugural ceremony broke a longstanding tradition of holding the mayoral inauguration in downtown Bos-
ton. The last time the mayoral inauguration was held outside the downtown area was in 1980 when then-mayor White took the oath of office at the Strand Theatre in his native Dorchester, four miles south of City Hall. The most popular inaugural location is Faneuil Hall, where outgoing mayor Thomas M. Menino was sworn in for each of his five terms. Located about six miles west of Walsh’s new office in City Hall, Conte Forum is just within the city limits despite its address being listed in Chestnut Hill. Walsh’s inaugural committee, which raised $489,825 for the inaugural celebrations, chose the venue in part because of its proximity to public transportation and its parking and seating capacities—the building holds approximately 8,500 spectators. The morning of the inauguration, spectators flocked to BC from across the city to join numerous political dignitaries in welcoming Walsh as Boston’s
See Walsh, A4
TRICIA TIEDT / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Martin J. Walsh, BC ’09, chose his alma mater as the venue for the 2014 inauguration.
By the end of the academic year, Boston College will no longer use Blackboard Vista as its online course management network. Vista will be replaced with Canvas, a learning management system (LMS) produced by Utah-based educational technology company Instructure. Blackboard, the University’s online source for students and professors to access class information, course materials, and student schedules since 2001, has decided to retire its Vista product, resulting in the application’s waning capabilities. BC’s Information Technology Services (ITS) subsequently decided to begin researching a more advanced LMS. BC is now under a five-year contract with Canvas LMS after separating from a 12-year agreement with Vista. Recognizing the need for an updated platform capable of keeping pace with the growing technological needs of students and faculty, Executive Director for Academic Technology Rita Owens, alongside Associate Director of Instructional Design and eTeaching Services (IDeS) Cristina Joy, searched for the new LMS best suited for BC. “Blackboard has served us well for what it was at the beginning of the 21st century—a place to hold information, faculty PowerPoints … a safe and secure place to put all class materials,” Owens said, comparing Vista to “a big briefcase” intended to house class documents. When Blackboard announced its plans to phase out Vista, however—coupled with growing faculty frustration at Vista’s outdated interface—the administration began the search for a new higher-education LMS. The process for replacing Blackboard began with the IDeS department evaluating the forefront of online learning platform options, conducting extensive research on an array of higher-ed LMS that was guided by both the administration and student input. “This is a very thorough process, and it begins by asking the question, ‘What do we need to do, who needs to do what, and what is the rank order of those things in terms of the process [for selecting an LMS]?’” said Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Donald Hafner. “We wanted more ability to intersect with other tools like Google Apps to allow more dynamic discussion and student contributions in the classroom rather than just putting the materials there that students would passively
See Canvas, A4
TopTHREE
THE HEIGHTS
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Thursday, January 16, 2014
things to do on campus this week
Pub Series
1
Poe Statue Project Today Time: 8:30 p.m. Location: Hillside Cafe
The first UGBC Pub Series event of the semester is called “Let’s Get Sylli” in honor of syllabus week. The event is for students aged 21 and over, with beer and wine served at a cash bar and free food available.
2
MLK Memorial Gathering
Sunday, Jan. 19 Time: 3 p.m. Location: Devlin 101
The event will feature talks, followed by a panel Q&A, and is sponsored by the Edgar Allan Poe Foundation of Boston. To celebrate the author’s 205th birthday, a raven-themed cake will be served.
Monday, Jan. 20 Time: 7:30 p.m. Location: Robsham
3
Performances from FISTS, Sexual Chocolate, and United Voices of Freedom will be featured at the annual gathering honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. This year’s event is titled “Has the Dream Been Realized?”
FEATURED STORY
BC students interact with Pope Francis in Rome BY KAYLA FAMOLARE Heights Editor When Katie Rich and Ethan Mack, both A&S ’15, chose to study abroad in Rome, the two considered their future proximity to the Vatican, the governing body of the Catholic Church and residence of Pope Francis. They never imagined, however, that during their time abroad, they would have the opportunity to meet and exchange zucchettos with the pope during a papal audience. “When I was in Rome I didn’t really know about the audiences,” Rich said. “I could never imagine getting that close to [Francis], let alone having that kind of interaction.” Rich and Mack attended the weekly papal audience held every Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square. Thousands gather to witness the pope drive through the crowd, greeting and blessing those in attendance. He then makes his way onto a stage at the front of the Square where he reads the gospel and gives a short homily translated into six different languages. It was during their third and final participation in the papal audience—the same day Francis was honored as Person of the Year by Time—that Mack and Rich exchanged zucchettos, a cloth cap worn by Francis. “Ethan and I had known two other people who had tried the same thing,”
EMILY SADEGHIAN/HEIGHTS EDITOR
Katie Rich and Ethan Mack exchanged zucchettos with the pope in St. Peter’s Square. Rich said. “Both times [the pope] tried [the zucchettos] on and suggested that it was too big, so he gave it back to them, but they were still happy with that.” The two tried their own luck their last Wednesday in Rome after Mack had purchased his own zucchetto from a local store for 50 euros. Rich recalls receiving a call from Mack after his purchase, asking her, “Are you in?,” and she eagerly accepted. “At best, Ethan and I thought what happened with our friends would happen [to us],” Rich said. “We didn’t really have any expectations. Ethan was more
hopeful than I.” The key to what would be their success was buying a zucchetto that would fit Francis perfectly. “You have to magically know what size he is,” Rich said. “The two our friends had exchanged were too big, and that’s why he gave it back to them.” Rich and Mack ventured to the Vatican at 6 a.m. in order to get a spot at a barrier close enough to make the exchange with Francis. Inscribed in their zucchetto read, “Boston College loves our Jesuit Pope!” When Francis first drove by, he was
POLICE BLOTTER
1/2/14-1/15/14
Thursday, January 2
Thursday, January 9
9:17 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a traffic accident in the Newton lots.
8:15 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm activation in Greycliff Hall.
Saturday, January 4
Friday, January 10
9:48 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an unsecured room in Gonzaga Hall.
6:48 p.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a non-BC affiliate at Conte Forum.
Monday, January 6 12:46 a.m. - A report was filed regarding providing police services in Shaw House. 5:43 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a vandalism to a residence in O’Connell House.
11:43 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a suspicious person in Medeiros Hall.
Tuesday, January 14
3:43 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a vandalism in Voute Hall.
6:58 p.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student in Rubenstein Hall.
College Corner NEWS FROM UNIVERSITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY men who went to Harvard and Oxford would know that the future is not a happy one for them if they continue to disregard the liberties their people have fought for over centuries.” The Center for Security Studies at Georgetown, where Scheuer taught, declined The Hoya’s request for comment because the professor is a private citizen and not teaching a course this semester. A spokeswoman for the university, though, conveyed the institution’s commitment to academic freedom and “the free exchange of ideas and to free speech and expression.” “The views of every faculty member are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the university,” spokeswoman Rachel Pugh said in a written statement. “The answer to speech that one finds disagreeable or controversial is not censorship but more speech and more dialogue. As such, we welcome everyone’s right to disagree and to express their opinions openly."
Editor-in-Chief (617) 552-2223 Editorial General (617) 552-2221 Managing Editor (617) 552-4286 News Desk (617) 552-0172 Sports Desk (617) 552-0189 Metro Desk (617) 552-3548 Features Desk (617) 552-3548 Arts Desk (617) 552-0515 Photo (617) 552-1022 Fax (617) 552-4823 Business and Operations General Manager (617) 552-0169 Advertising (617) 552-2220 Business and Circulation (617) 552-0547 Classifieds and Collections (617) 552-0364 Fax (617) 552-1753 EDITORIAL RESOURCES News Tips Have a news tip or a good idea for a story? Call Connor Farley, 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. Sports Scores Want to report the results of a game? Call Connor Mellas, Sports Editor, at (617) 5520189, or email sports@bcheights.com. Arts Events The Heights covers a multitude of events both on and off campus – including concerts, movies, theatrical performances, and more. Call John Wiley, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email arts@bcheights.com. For future events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk. Clarifications / Corrections The Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. If you believe we have made a reporting error, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or questions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact Eleanor Hildebrandt, Editor-in-Chief, at (617) 552-2223, 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 Marc Francis, General Manager at (617) 552-0547. Advertising The Heights is one of the most effective ways to reach the BC community. To submit a classified, display, or online advertisement, call our advertising office at (617) 552-2220 Monday through Friday.
The Heights is produced by BC undergraduates and is published on Mondays and Thursdays during the academic year by The Heights, Inc. (c) 2014. All rights reserved.
CORRECTIONS
2:20 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a noise complaint in the Mods.
5:31 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm activation in Alumni Stadium.
The Heights Boston College – McElroy 113 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467
4:08 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a suspicious circumstance in Cheverus Hall.
Wednesday, January 15
Tuesday, January 7
An adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service is receiving support from the university after controversial comments made in recent blog posts. Michael F. S cheuer, a former Central Intelligence Agency official, criticized President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron in his post about their policies in the Muslim world, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. He also, however, indirectly alluded to assassinating the leaders as a legitimate method of removing them from power. He reiterated his comments in an interview with Georgetown’s student newspaper, The Hoya. “At some point, when push comes to shove, you kill people and get them out of the way,” Scheuer said. “But it’s the end of a very long process, and one would hope that supposedly smart
The student was later transported by ambulance to a medical facility.
Monday, January 13
7:53 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm activation in Walsh Hall. The Boston Fire Department responded.
BY JULIE ORENSTEIN Assoc. News Editor
facing the opposite way of the duo. “We screamed, ‘Papa,’ the Latin word for father, in order to get his attention,” Rich said. “When he finally looked at us, he was too far to reach the zucchetto we were holding out, so his guard reached for it.” When Francis finally received the cap, he read the inscription, placed their zucchetto inside the one he was currently wearing, and gave a smile—the zucchetto was the perfect size and their plan had worked. “He then placed ours on his head and gave the guard his own to give to us,” Rich said. “He then smiled at us. We can’t believe this whole thing happened.” The two plan on giving the zucchetto to an organization for it to be preserved. “Ethan took it home over break and showed his whole family,” Rich said. “I have it now in my apartment and everyone thinks it’s so cool.” Although the two have returned to campus this semester, they said they would never forget their exchange with Francis. “Whenever someone asks me what my favorite part of Rome was, I have to qualify with, ‘well, besides meeting the pope,’ because that was just crazy,” Rich said. “Ethan and I both agree that the zucchetto will mean a lot to us forever. It made me so happy to have that experience and to see him smile … it’s something I’ll remember forever.”
A Guide to Your Newspaper
—Source: The Boston College Police Department
This correction is in reference to the issue dated Dec. 12, 2013, Vol. XCIV, No. 48. The article titled “Shrayer’s memoir chronicles exodus from Russia” referred to the work as a novel instead of a memoir. The article also omitted Maxim D. Shrayer’s middle initial.
VOICES FROM THE DUSTBOWL “What are the chances of BU beating BC in hockey on Friday?”
“About as high as the chances of a BU student getting into BC.” —David Soares, A&S ’14
“Negative 10 percent.” —Chris Truglio, CSOM ’14
“Zero.” —Nick Chiappetta, A&S ’14
“As high as the chances of me hooking up with Kevin Hayes that night.” —Michael Sutton, A&S ’14
The Heights
Thursday, January 16, 2014
A3
Capturing the details
A&S senior awarded for migration research By Arielle Cedeno Heights Editor
Alex Gaynor I am a firm believer in the details. The nitty-gritty of our daily lives often seems to be lost to the greater ideals of society, larger life goals, or overarching historical themes and trends. I’ve always considered myself to be an appreciator of the little things in life, which I hope has led me to become a more astute observer over the course of my 20 years. During the next four months, I will attempt to record the daily details and pure moments that will encompass my life studying abroad with an alternative servicelearning program in the Philippines. The smell of the flowers, the hum of the traffic, the texture of the air, the sounds of my community—I want to be a voice for the things that normally go unnoticed to the average listener both at home and abroad. I seek to capture life in a unique way that can often be overlooked when one simply isn’t paying too much attention. A good friend recently said to me in reference to my upcoming abroad experience that I could “just write a book about [my] breakfast, let alone the entirety of four months.” This off-the-record statement has led me to sift through my thoughts about how I want to approach my abroad experience as well as my time next year back at Boston College. I don’t necessarily consider myself to be a writer. I feel like I best communicate through the visual world. As a photographer, I’d like to think that I have the ability to convey sentiments and ideas through events, people, scenery, and those pivotal, detailed moments that aren’t as easily described by a paper and pen. However, during the next four months, I will challenge myself to start recounting my experiences through mediums that I wouldn’t normally push myself to use. I can only hope to capture life in the most detailed and realistic way possible, but also in a way that can relate to everyone, both at BC and abroad. Photography is about capturing life’s everyday details in a creative and unique way that calls people to action, elicits a reaction, and makes people aware of something that they may not have been previously aware of. National Geographic writer Robert Draper said in a recent issue that, “a great photograph can explode the totality of our world, such that we never see it quite the same again.” Photographs and visuals have the power to impact our thoughts and emotions in a unique way to provoke compassion. I’ve tried to do just that: to explode my previous conception of the world by examining the details of everyday life—the people, the places, the things that make us all human. But maybe this phenomenon can also be accomplished through the written word, as well, and I make a promise to try to do just that this upcoming semester. So I challenge you, BC, take a breath, soak in the sights, sounds, and experiences presented to you over the course of this semester and hopefully your life. This doesn’t even have to come through a photograph, a column, a poem, a drawing—it solely entails being observant to the daily minutia of life. Try to understand the sacred silence blended within the cacophony of quotidian life. Notice the intricate details of campus architecture, spend a few moments traversing the rolling hills of Brighton campus, take time and listen to what’s being said around you, observe emotions so you know when a friend just needs a big hug, but most importantly examine the small details about yourself that contribute to who you are as a person. We are made up of thousands upon thousands of tiny details that are waiting to be observed within the context of society itself. Don’t be afraid, there’s a whole world out there waiting to be captured in whatever way you choose. I’m ready for the challenge if you are.
Alex Gaynor is a senior staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at news@bcheights.com.
Photo Courtesy of The Office of News and Public Affairs
Nancy Netzer, director of the McMullen Musuem of Art, receives the Durer engraving from Steven Rockefeller.
Nativity artwork donated to BC By Jennifer Suh Heights Staff A piece of original artwork by German artist Albrecht Durer was recently donated to Boston College by Kimberly and Steven Rockefeller, a fifth-generation Rockefeller family, in honor of the graduations of their two sons, Christian, A&S ’14, and Steven III, BC ’09. The Rockefellers presented the artwork to BC in a formal ceremony in December—Nancy Netzer, director of the McMullen Museum of Art and a professor within the fine arts department, received the piece. “[ The ar twork] had b e en passed down in their family,” Netzer said. “[The Rockefellers] said that they thought the nativity scene and a work of this quality would go very well with the collections at the McMullen Museum, so they earmarked this piece for the McMullen several years ago.” Titled The Nativity, the artwork is from the personal collection of Nelson Rockefeller—the great-grandfather of Steven III and Christian, who served as vice president under President Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977. It is an engraving on ivory-laid paper. “[Donations] are common. We get a number every year, and
they’re very important because they’re the major way that we build up our University collection,” Netzer said. “We do have a number of very fine prints. We don’t have anything of this quality—this is our best print by far. It’s the very finest that we have.” Durer was a Northern European artist from Nurenburg, Germany during the Renaissance, and though he is most well known for his prints, he was also notable for painting self-portraits, religious objects, and landscapes. “[The Nativity] is one of the great impressions by one of the great printmakers of all times,” Netzer said. “There are different kinds of prints—there are engravings, there are etchings, and there are woodcuts, and Durer is very good at all of them.” The engraving is currently in storage since the artwork is on paper and becomes subject to fading if displayed for extended periods of time. The piece will, however, be displayed periodically throughout exhibitions. “We think it’ll be very good for future exhibitions that we might want to organize and also a wonderful study piece for students,” Netzer said. “It’s very nice to have the students see not only a work of art by one of the great artists of the world, but also one of the great impressions of that work.”
Previous exhibitions hosted at the nationally recognized museum include Courbet: Mapping Realism (2013), featuring select paintings by French artist Gustave Courbet; Pollock Matters (2007), an arrangement of artwork by James Pollock and Herbert Matter; and Cosmophilia (2006), consisting of 123 works of Islamic art. All of the McMullen exhibitions since 1995 are archived by date on the museum’s website. The McMullen Museum produces one major exhibition each semester and has varying artistic expositions planned through 2017. The next exhibition, Paris Night & Day: Photography Between the Wars, opens on Feb. 15. The opening celebration will take place on the evening of Feb. 17 and will include music, desserts, and tours led by students who worked to create the exhibition. The museum is currently on the first floor of Devlin Hall but may relocate soon. “We’re very hopeful that in 2016, we’ll be moving to a new space on the Brighton campus on what was the former residence of the cardinal,” Netzer said. For now, the McMullen Museum continues to encourage students to attend its openings—museum entry is free to the public. n
Narintohn Luangrath, A&S ’14, was recently selected as an Undergraduate Research Award winner by the Forum on Education Abroad for her research on forced migration. The Undergraduate Research Award is presented to two undergraduates for their academic research during educational abroad programs. The winners will present their research findings to the Forum on Education Abroad at a conference held in San Diego, Calif. in April. Luangrath, whose work has also garnered her a Harry S Truman Scholarship, was recognized by the Forum on Education Abroad for her summer internship with the Irish Human Rights Commission in Dublin. At the time of the internship, Ireland had recently finished its human rights review by the United Nations Human Rights Council—a process called Universal Periodic Review, and it was given recommendations to improve Irish human rights policies. Luangrath was awarded an Advanced Study Grant to study Irish asylum policy for the nomadic immigrant populations, particularly the detention of asylum seekers in Irish prisons and housing of asylum-seekers in direct provision housing. “I studied the varying impacts of prison detention and other ‘housing’ policies on asylum seekers in Ireland, particularly the disproportionately harmful impacts on asylum seeker children, who are already potentially traumatized by having to flee their home country,” Luangrath said. “Working on these issues in Ireland sparked my interest in the experiences of forced migrants more generally, not just those categorized as ‘asylum seekers’ or ‘refugees.’” After studying the treatment of asylum seekers in Ireland, Luangrath returned to Boston College and took the course Children’s Rights in Comparative Perspective with Jennie Purnell of the political science department. Luangrath’s study of child asylum seekers in the class served as the basis of her research proposal to the Forum on Education Abroad. The issue of forced migration is one deeply personal to Luangrath. Her father, an immigrant from Laos, left during the Laotian Civil War to study in the United States on an academic scholarship from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Her father’s relatives, however, faced the difficulties of integration into society as immigrants in the U.S. Some of those who were unable to leave Laos were forcibly put into Laotian labor camps. The
Emily Sadeghian / Heights Editor
Netzer, also a professor in the fine arts department, said the Durer print is the best in the McMullen collection.
contrast of these two immigration experiences exposed Luangrath to the complexity of forced migration. “Seeing two very different immigrant narratives within my own family—that of Laotian refugees and that of foreign college students—sparked my interest in the varied experiences of migrants,” said Luangrath. Beyond her immigration research in Ireland, Luangrath also studied the print media portrayal of Muslim immigrants in France, particularly of women during the time of the burqa ban. “Studying religious minorities— North African Muslim immigrants in France—was a formative experience in terms of understanding immigrant integration more generally,” Luangrath said. Luangrath also studied at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM), a research institution on migration issues. She worked on the Crisis Migration project, studying the displacement of populations due to natural disaster, state fragility or collapse, and generalized violence. “These migrants are forcibly displaced due to circumstances that are non-persecutory and consequently, do not place them within the traditional definition of an asylum-seeker or refugee,” Luangrath said. “They are not protected by the UN Refugee Convention, and therefore do not receive any of the legal protection allotted to refugees. These forced migrants fall through protection gaps.” Luangrath attended the 2013 United Nations high-level dialogue on migration and development, through a civil society delegation by Georgetown’s ISIM. The delegation addressed the relationship between international development and migration levels, including the issue of the forced migrants who were uncovered by the UN refugee convention. “It was interesting to see how issues are addressed on a civil society level, yet it remains to be seen what will be done by these countries,” Luangrath said. “The difficulty is helping countries deal with protracted refugee scenarios when they do not have the infrastructure to help forced migrants and those of irregular status, and how to incentivize cooperation between countries in the global north and south on migration issues,” she said. “It will be up to these individual countries to have an incentive to cooperate with civil society organizations working with migrants ‘on the ground,’ and to cooperate with countries dealing with huge migrant flows.” n
Graham Beck / Heights Senior Staff
Luangrath will present her award-winning research at a conference in April.
BCPD officers recognized for efforts in campus safety By Julie Orenstein Assoc. News Editor When Boston College Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety John King arrived at BC in 2010, he resolved to take a community-focused approach to policing as BCPD moved forward under his direction. A veteran of campus law enforcement, King has been instrumental in supporting and expanding community-policing initiatives on campus. Under his tenure, BCPD has also met all the requirements for accreditation from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission and will officially receive its three-year accreditation in February. For these efforts, as well as his work over a career spanning nearly 40 years, the Massachusetts Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (MACLEA) named King the inaugural winner of the D. Joseph Griffin Award for Administrative Excellence. The award was presented at the association’s meeting on Dec. 19. The honor, named for Joe Griffin, a former chief of police at Northeastern
University, is intended to recognize Griffin’s contributions to the profession of campus law enforcement. King and Griffin worked together at Northeastern from 1975-85, and Griffin has served as a mentor to King throughout his career. “[Griffin] is the individual who gave me support and direction to remain in the field of campus law enforcement, and all throughout my career,” King said. “It was both a personal and professional joy to be the first recipient of this award.” By reorganizing the department and designating a specific officer to spearhead community-policing initiatives, King has expanded BCPD’s efforts at strengthening relationships with the campus community. King emphasized the importance of establishing a unified campus outlook. “We’re all part of the same community,” King said. “In policing in general, and certainly in the campus environment, there cannot be an ‘us and them.’ It has to be ‘we’re all together.’” King said that, beyond formal programming or BCPD officers’ acting as community resource officers
(CROs) in residence halls or student organizations, community policing involves building a personal dynamic with students and administrators. The style of policing is more comfortable and less confrontational, and establishing partnerships with community members goes a long way in making people feel safer on campus. “The interaction [with officers] becomes more natural,” King said. “The police officer, ideally, is not looked upon by a student or community member as someone who is out there looking for me to do something wrong.” A large number of the calls BCPD receives, King said, are service calls, in which someone is in need of assistance and is seeking the police’s help as part of the team to improve the situation. A goal of the community-policing efforts is to make people more comfortable in approaching a police officer as a resource. “Our role is not to be out there merely looking for community members doing things wrong … as much as it is looking for ways to help you out,” King said. In addition to King, two other
BCPD officers were recognized at MACLEA’s December meeting. Officer Keith Holland was acknowledged for his efforts to assist a student with a medical emergency while serving as member of the Bentley University Police Department last year. King noted how fortunate BCPD is now to have the benefit of Holland’s services here on campus. “He used his alertness and his training and immediately acted to take the steps to help that student who was in respiratory distress,” King said. Recently promoted, Lt. Jeffrey Postell received the inaugural Sean Collier Award for Innovations in Community-Oriented Policing, named for the MIT police officer who was fatally shot by Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev last April. Prior to joining BCPD, Postell experienced a similar situation involving domestic terrorism as a young officer in North Carolina. While on patrol one night in 2003, Postell arrested and took into custody a suspicious man whom he believed was a burglar, but who was eventually discovered to
be Eric Robert Rudolph, one of the FBI’s Most Wanted Fugitives and the man behind the bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Once at BC, then-patrol officer Postell was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 2011 with the specific responsibilities of strengthening BCPD’s crime prevention and community-policing efforts. Under his leadership, the CRO program has grown to its highest level of officer participation, and the department’s social media presence has significantly expanded. In his nomination of Postell for the award, King called him a “highly motivated police officer with a strong commitment to community-policing, a passion for crime prevention and community relations, and a warm and engaging personality which frequently found him conversing with community members while on patrol and establishing strong partnerships.” “Hearing from some of my colleagues about what Sean did at MIT, I think Lt. Postell certainly emulates that same commitment and approach here at BC,” King said. n
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Thursday, January 16, 2014
Athletic dept releases 2012-13 financial data Financial Report, from A1 as the team went from a $3.77 million loss two years ago to a $2.55 million loss last year. Of the nine ACC programs that reported a net loss for women’s basketball in 2012-13, BC had the fourth smallest profit. Florida State University and the University of Virginia both reported breaking even in the sport, while Wake Forest University reported a net gain of $1. The data for the report is compiled annually by the U.S. Department of Education from all institutions that receive federal student aid from the government. Last year, BC decided to remove institutional support from the reported team revenue for ticketed sports, allowing men’s and women’s basketball as well as men’s hockey to join football as the four sports in which true profit figures are available. This is the second year under that system and the first under Athletic Director Brad Bates. All other BC sports included in the report are shown as breaking even, since institutional support is included in the team revenue. BC, along with Duke University, the University of Miami, and Georgia Tech, reported no total profit for 2012-13. The University’s total revenue and expenses both equaled about $60 million. Total revenues and expenses amounted to around $66 million in 2011-12. The report also includes average coaching salaries for the University’s men’s and women’s teams. The average annual salary for head coaches of men’s teams at BC jumped nearly 38 percent from 2011-12 to 2012-13, rising more than $96,000, from $254,000 to $350,000. There were 12 head coaches included in the average. Despite the increase, BC’s average ranked second to last in the conference and stands at about 59 percent of the
league average of $594,000. The average annual salary for head coaches of women’s teams at BC ranked last in the conference, with the $85,000 total standing at 57 percent of the league average of around $149,000. The gap between aid for male and female student athletes at BC continues to widen, according to the report. BC reported 336 male participants and 360 female participants in last year’s figures, according to the report’s unduplicated count, which eliminates student athletes involved in multiple sports from the total. “Obviously, we have a responsibility to the University to make sure that our equity distribution satisfies the federal government’s guidelines,” Bates said. “We’re perpetually monitoring that to make sure that we’re within acceptable guidelines. “What we try and do is look at all of our programs, the programs that we can best invest in and satisfy federal government guidelines to ensure that we’re satisfying the requirements of Title IX.” A participant is defined in the report as any student who is listed on a varsity roster, receives athletically related student aid, or practices with a varsity team and receives coaching from a varsity coach. Male student athletes, on average, received about $27,000 in athletically related aid last year, while females received around $20,500. The nearly $6,500 difference between male and female aid was the second largest in the conference, and BC was one of five institutions in which males, on average, received more financial aid than females. During the 201112 season, male student athletes at BC received $5,000 more than females on average, while the difference was about $1,700 in favor of males in 2010-11. n
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Walsh was welcomed by University President Rev. William P. Leahy as well Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick on Jan. 6.
Mayoral inauguration hosted at BC Walsh, from A1 new mayor. “Together, we have much to do and a lot of hard work ahead,” Walsh told the crowd, which nearly filled Conte. “It’s appropriate that we start today here at my alma mater, at the Conte Forum, home to the Boston College basketball and hockey teams. Whether on the hardwood or the ice, this is a place where teamwork matters and makes a difference. This is a place where you win when you work together—even when it means taking a few elbows under the basket or in front of the net. I stand here today profoundly grateful to the team that brought me to this moment and to all the people of Boston I am honored to serve.” The ceremony included remarks from notable public figures, including University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Governor Deval Patrick. Amid criticism from the Boston media, Menino did not attend the ceremony due to vacation plans. World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Irish Tenor Ronan Tyran, and students from the Boston Renaissance Charter Public School—who also sang a song written by Mel King after President Barack Obama’s 2008 election—all performed at the event, which was produced by the Cambridge-based Brattle Entertainment. During guests’ remarks, Walsh was seated on a blue-carpeted stage alongside his mother, Mary, longtime partner Lorrie Higgins, and Higgins’ daughter, Lauren Campbell. The special guests were seated to his far right and the 13 members of the City Council, who were also sworn in to
their offices, were seated across the stage to his left. “In this new chapter, Marty Walsh will work hard to make sure that everyone has a fighting chance to make something solid,”
Whether on the hardwood or the ice, this is a place where teamwork matters and makes a difference. This is a place where you win when you work together—even when it means taking a few elbows under the basket or in front of the net. - Mayor Martin J. Walsh Warren said. “I am optimistic because we have a new mayor who will be a mayor for all of Boston.” Patrick called the inauguration a day of
new beginnings, and attested to Walsh’s kind and caring character and his dedication to public service. In his speech, Walsh laid out the framework for his agenda, calling to quell city violence, grow the local economy, and strengthen public schools. He endorsed a nationwide search for a new superintendent who will commit to closing the achievement gap between white and minority students, expand technical training, and create universal early childhood education opportunities for Boston Public Schools (BPS), which serves 57,100 students and has a budget of over $857 million. Walsh, who was a founding member of the Neighborhood House Public Charter School, was endorsed by the Boston Teachers Union—the local affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)—on Election Day. It was revealed in late December that the AFT, under the political action committee One Boston, funded a $480,000 television commercial supporting Walsh in the days leading up to the election. Walsh defeated City Councilor John Connolly by about 5,000 votes. Before being elected as the city’s 54th mayor, Walsh worked as a union laborer and most recently served as the leader of the Building and Construction Trades Council of the Metropolitan District. He resigned after two years at the helm in order to run for mayor. “Everything we aim to accomplish, every dream we want to realize, requires the faith and trust of the people of Boston,” he said. “We must increase transparency and make clear that Boston’s interests come first, always.” n
Photo courtesy of the office of news and public affairs
The administration plans to name a successor to Sullivan within the next four to five months.
Sullivan moves to new role Sullivan, from A1 members who specialize in nine areas within the department. Sullivan is confident that the administration will exercise a high degree of scrutiny when considering prospective applicants and appreciates the opportunities afforded to him through his former position. “I am very grateful to Boston College,” he said in a statement to the Office of News of Public Affairs. “It
has been a privilege to be a part of this community, and I am looking forward to my new role with great enthusiasm.” The administration has recently compiled an executive search team in an effort to fill Sullivan’s former position—the search is estimated to take about four to five months with a vice president to be selected near June 1. The search is not limited to internal hiring and is focused on evaluating all possible candidates. n
Canvas learning management system to replace Blackboard Vista Canvas, from A1 see,” Owens said. “Canvas has a lot more capabilities to bridge students and empower faculty to invite people to their courses.” When comparing different technological systems, the team sought to address the needs of faculty and students rather than being sold on a product, and looked for tools that would develop interaction between students and their professors—all while ensuring that the security and background of Instructure was vetted thoroughly by ITS and other administrative offices on campus. Members from IDeS also worked with Brown University’s information technology department, which also recently adopted Canvas as its LMS, to better understand its capabilities and potential advantages over Blackboard Vista. “[Canvas] has some interesting tools within it that will allow students to interact more with professors … In a lot of
ways it now allows faculty and students to be more human to each other through the system,” Hafner said. Unlike Blackboard, Canvas allows its users to submit video and audio recordings; choose customizable interface displays; upload and connect with Google Apps; receive immediate text or email notifications whenever grades, assignments, and announcements are posted; host virtual study groups and share desktops; and conduct video conferences among other features. “It’s elegant, it’s simple, it’s modern, it integrates the fact that all students are on Gmail, you can work in groups … it’s just great,” Owens said of the new technology. “I think that the collaboration tools for canvas are fantastic—that’s really one of the highlights.” Once Canvas was selected, IDeS coordinated a pilot program last fall consisting of eight “early adopter” faculty members who volunteered to test the product. Throughout the program
the IDeS staff gathered feedback, held information sessions, and focused on the difficulties students and professors encountered. “We supported them as best we could, but we were still learning a lot,” Joy said. In her role with the launch of Canvas, Joy works closely with the manager of Learning Technologies in addition to making sure communications regarding the new LMS are communicated effectively to students and faculty. She is also responsible for the marketing and training-related aspects of the project. Joy said the department grew from the pilot program through the feedback it received, which allowed her team to respond to challenges they didn’t expect or weren’t prepared for. “The pilot did really well—they succeeded with very little support and we did get very good feedback.” After the early adopter pilot, the Canvas project team recruited a bigger
group to begin implementing Canvas for the spring 2014 semester. Canvas LMS now encompasses roughly 150 faculty members and spans across 460 courses with 5,600 students currently enrolled in at least one Canvas class— more than half of the undergraduate population. Owens said that IDeS started with early adopters to provide them with the necessary attention and support before entirely replacing all courses with Canvas, and in doing so to gauge student reactions for a smoother second semester. “The IDeS staff has been dedicated to the support of faculty members in ensuring they were prepared and trained on the system,” Joy said. Joy and other IDeS members have been holding twice-weekly meetings since October for professors and will begin hosting feedback meetings for Canvas-enrolled students in February. Alhough ITS and IDeS have been moni-
toring student reactions this semester, everyone will be on the system by the fall of 2014. Owens hopes Canvas will help varying teachers from multiple academic departments in the early adopter group reunite with an LMS after resisting the inefficient Blackboard Vista—Canvas also updates itself every two weeks, preventing prolonged updates evidenced in BC’s previous LMS. New users are also encouraged by Instructure and IDeS to seek support when adjusting to changes between the two systems. While faculty members would be the first point of instruction, students are welcome to consult Instructure’s website or the BC ITS help desk, which is now aware of all students enrolled in Canvas and equipped to field questions. “I hope students will exploit [support resources] also because we will learn from the questions they will ask,” Hafner said. n
CLASSIFIEDS
The Heights The Heights
Thursday, January 16, 2014
A5 A5
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Level: 1
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Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit, 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku.org.uk SOLUTION TO SATURDAY’S PUZZLE
1/13/14
© 2014 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All rights reserved.
Directions: The Sudoku is played over a 9x9 grid. In each row there are 9 slots, some of which are empty and need to be filled. Each row, column and 3x3 box should contain the numbers 1 to 9. You must follow these rules: · Number can appear only once in each row · Number can appear only once in each column · Number can appear only once in each 3x3 box · The number should appear only once on row, column or area.
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The Heights
A6
BCPD awards focus on community policing
Thursday, January 16, 2014
QUOTE OF THE DAY Man can embody truth but he cannot know it. -William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet and Nobel Literature Prize recipient
Holland, King, Postell have positively impacted campus in their time at BC Three members of the BCPD were honored in December with awards from the Massachusetts Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, including Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety John King. Since King arrived at BC in 2010, he and fellow honoree Lt. Jeffrey Postell have been instrumental in expanding and supporting community policing initiatives on campus. A community-oriented approach to policing is essential for creating an effective partnership between the police department, students, and other community members. When the community sees police officers as helpful resources, rather than simply enforcers seeking to punish individuals for wrongdoings, interactions between the police and community become more natural and less confrontational. This type of dynamic contributes to a safer and better-functioning campus environment, and King and Postell have led the BCPD’s strides in making this a reality. As the officer in charge of community policing, Postell has used his talents to significantly advance the
department’s programming, as well as its social media presence. Under Postell, the community resource officer program has grown to include 26 officers, more than ever before. His commitment and outlook on policing match those of slain MIT police officer Sean Collier, for whom Postell’s award was named. While serving in a North Carolina police department in 2003, Postell displayed the same commendable police aptitude and courage that Collier embodied. Then a rookie police officer, Postell was credited with arresting widely sought fugitive Eric Robert Rudolph, the man responsible for the bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. It is noteworthy that BC has such an engaging and accomplished official as Postell working to keep our the campus safe. Also honored was Officer Keith Holland, who was recognized for his efforts in saving a student in respiratory distress last year while working for the Bentley University Police Department. Like Postell, Holland exemplifies the alertness and law enforcement skill that the BC community is fortunate to have serving on its behalf.
Athletics has contained costs, improved revenues BC still must address gap between financial aid for male and female student-athletes Boston College’s four ticketed sports—men’s and women’s basketball, men’s ice hockey, and football— for the most part saw major financial improvement during the 2012-13 season, according to the University’s Equity in Athletics Data Report. It was also the first year under new Director of Athletics Brad Bates, who was hired in October 2012. After reporting the smallest profit in the Atlantic Coast Conference and finishing as one of only two conference members to post a loss in 2011-12, the BC men’s basketball team saw a slight rise in revenue as expenses fell last year. The move helped the program go from a $623,000 net loss two years ago to an $895,000 net gain last year. The BC women’s basketball and men’s ice hockey teams also cut their losses significantly last year. After losing $1.9 million in 2011-12, men’s ice hockey cut the net loss to $662,000 last year, while women’s basketball lessened its losses from $3.77 million to $2.55 million. Revenue increased for the football program despite a two-win season last year, but expenses also increased, leading to a 13 percent profit loss for
the program. Although profitability is not, and should not be, the main goal of the athletic department, the improvements to three of the four ticketed sports—as well as the increase in revenue for the football program during a woeful season—are positive signs that the financial side of BC Athletics is headed in the right direction under Bates. One finding in the report, though, is potentially cause for concern. The difference in the average amount of athletically related aid provided to male student-athletes was greater than the average amount provided to female student-athletes for the third consecutive year. This was also the third straight year that the margin increased. Three years ago the difference favored male student-athletes by about $1,700 per participant on average. That number climbed to $5,000 two years ago, and then further increased to $6,500 last year. This is a trend the athletic department must investigate, especially since BC reported the second highest aid gap in favor of male student-athletes in the ACC last year.
Sullivan successfully developed HR over tenure BC should ensure smooth transition, draw on his experience when finding a replacement After years of service to the University, Leo Sullivan, vice president of human resources, announced that he will step down from his position to undertake new responsibilities as senior advisor to University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J. Sullivan’s long-standing dedication to improving employee relations and his continual participation in developing administrative policies throughout the course of multiple University presidents is truly remarkable, and he should be recognized for these efforts. Additionally, Sullivan’s immense contribution toward student-faculty relations and his efforts to combat rising tuition costs, promote campus-wide cost-cutting measures, and improve the overall quality of student life at
BC are all worthy of note and commendation. After expanding the human resources staff from two to more than 50 members who now serve over 3,400 employees, Sullivan not only enlarged the scale of the department but also enhanced its effectiveness for BC’s personnel. Although the transition leaves a position now marked with high expectations to be filled, it allows BC to continue to consult Sullivan on all matters pertinent to the University’s development. When conducting its search for a new vice president, the administration should use Sullivan as a resource for guidance and consider the precedents he set during his tenure at BC.
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Letters to the Editor BC student gave unreservedly in wake of Marathon bombings I wanted to take a moment to let you know of a student at your college who helped me after the marathon tragedy. I would appreciate it if he could be provided with recognition. Given Boston College’s endeavor to educate a new generation of leaders … with a concern for all of the human family, your student’s example and kindness to a stranger is being talked about with family and friends and will long be remembered. I only know that his name is Jackson, he is an International Business major and was getting up Tuesday morning at 5:30 a.m. for soccer practice. When I was stopped near Kenmore Square and found out my family was unable to meet me on the course and that they were at Riverside T-station, Jackson walked me to Cleveland Circle. On the way, he asked if he could get me something to drink and let me call my family so they would know we were making progress. When we arrived at Cleveland Circle and there were no taxis to be found and traffic was at a standstill, Jackson continued to walk me to the Boston College stadium, the
nearest landmark that my family could plug into a GPS and drive to. Jackson was not headed in this direction. He didn’t have to take the time he did. He also refused my husband when we tried to give him some money as a small appreciation for his time, cell phone, and kindness. I’m glad that Jackson choose Boston College and I am thankful that while leaving downtown himself on the way to his destination, he took a tremendous amount of time to help someone he didn’t know. Last Saturday was my first time to run “Heartbreak Hill” as a charity runner for the 2014 Boston marathon. Another charity runner I was with was telling me of her being stopped during the marathon and her challenging experience. As she was crying and running, I told her about my incredibly positive experience with your BC student. It’s people like Jackson who represent the best of Boston College and are still providing inspiration into this year. Jill Judah Boston Marathoner #21744
Lessons to learn from the Harvard student government They ran on a slogan saying, “You Could Do Worse.” On Nov. 21, Sam Clark and Gus Mayopoulos won election as the President and Vice President of the Harvard Undergraduate Council. Known for being satirists, one of their central platform points was increasing the availability of tomato basil soup. Surprised at their win, the duo articulated what most Harvard political insiders were thinking, “…really?” The majority of students there, however, as evinced by the astonishing social media support that the campaign generated, must have been thinking, “Why not?” The election of Clark and Mayopoulos shows that, even for a school as intellectual and engaged as Harvard, student governments (SGAs) are at risk of becoming at best irrelevant in the eyes of students and at worst self-important and out-of-touch resume builders. There is no mistake that student governments are much less prominent than they were during the vocal 1960s and 1970s. Especially at private institutions where students are most likely not represented on an institution’s Board of Trustees, students could not care less about their respective SGAs. Why? Because it seems like the issues just aren’t worth fighting for, and if there is a problem, then why not give Mom and Dad a call to get it sorted out with the appropriate administrator? Student governments do an exceedingly bad job of campaigning for issues. Once the popularity contests that we call races end, SGAs have a tendency of becoming insular, even close-minded. They resort to complex jargon. They spend most of their time engaged in internal politics. Most of their close friends end up being in the government. As a result, elected students and staffers grow out of touch with the times and crowd. They spend so much time harping on issues that they “think” matter but have not really even asked the everyday student. Worst of all, they are resistant to criticism from all angles. Levy any charge against an SGA die-hard, and you’re bound to get one of the following responses: 1. You don’t know what I know. I have privileged knowledge. 2. I have been here longer than you have. 3. What do you do on campus? All of these stereotypical responses point out one uneasy fact. SGAs have devolved into self-important, self-serving, and self-perpetuating elitists. SGAs have become the Vaticans of their respective schools, and its time for a Pope
Francis-style catharsis. We can learn a lot from the example set by the Pope. First, we need to get our hands dirty again. No one in the government should be spending more time in an office than he or she is spending with other students. Second, we need to be humble. You’re a senator—so what? You’re Vice President, but you’re still a 21-year old neophyte by the scheme of things. Students no different from us put us in these roles, and students are those whom we serve. Third, we need to use simpler language. Jargon, acronyms, and political correctness are just veils by which to justify our own ignorance or accuse others of it. Fourth, we need to be doing things, not just saying them. Pope Francis puts his money where his mouth is, and when he does speak, each of his words carries weight. Granted, I myself have fallen to the typical sins of a SGA leader, and in many ways, our government has been stepping down this harmful path. It’s harmful not simply because these mindsets threaten the organization, but because I sincerely believe that SGAs can still be compelling and dedicated student advocates who can make an impact. The desire to serve is still there, and students will be as visionary and passionate as ever. We just need to become better at re-uniting thought with action, politicians with constituents, and lobbying with campaigning. It is only by becoming a simpler, humbler, and more down-to-Earth government that we can avoid the fate of many other SGAs across the country. We shouldn’t be laughing at what happened at Harvard, nor should we be overly concerned with the well-being of our SGA peers across the river. Instead, we should take Sam’s and Gus’ win as a tell-tale sign that we too should be connecting better with our fellow students. Sam and Gus originally intended to resign their seats, but Gus stayed on pointing out that he wants to help the Harvard UC bridge the disconnect between it and the student body. The truth may not be as savory as tomato soup. We should be doing better.
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The Heights
Thursday, January 16, 2014
A7
Ignore the voices around you
Kimberly Crowley “Silly Week” - With the first week of school almost over, here is the obligatory Thumb’s Up to Syllabus Week. Although it is certainly cliched, it is also completely necessary because, well, what’s not to like? It’s a great way to ease back into school with classes devoted solely to going over the syllabus, the class requirements, the reading, the scheduling, and not much work. Further, since so many classes cannot spend nearly the entire allotted time doing those things, many classes get out early. Once again, what’s not to love? So, fellow BC students, take advantage of this time to catch up with friends after winter break, hit the gym, watch entire seasons of TV shows, and go to MA’s on weeknights, because it won’t last long. Soon enough, we’ll all be mired in papers, exams, and projects as far as the eye can see and we’ll be pining for the good ol’ days of Silly Week. unseasonable weather - We here at TU/TD have been pleasantly surprised upon our return to campus this last week. Unusual for the Northeast at this time of year, the cold weather has been incredibly mild. Hailing from south of the Mason-Dixon line, we are incredibly grateful for this, as it is always a rough transition coming back from warm weather to the bitter, stinging cold of the Northeast after Winter Break. dining halls - The beginning of the school year offers many great new things—new classes, fresh starts, and the opportunity to get back to the Plex to keep those New Years’ resolutions. One often-overlooked benefit to the new year is the fresh stock in the dining halls. As each semester winds down, the dining halls don’t necessarily replace all of their consumed stock because of the impending departure of masses of students. Come the beginning of each semester, students are greeted upon their triumphant return to campus with fully stocked dining halls—working fro-yo machines, fridges full of Honest Teas, and shelves full of many different kinds of chips. A source close to The Heights has even told TU/TD that the salad bar has feta.
The bookstore - There has got to be a better system than the one that we have in place. The bookstore becomes a warzone this time of year—books are flying, students are yelling, two girls are fighting to the death for the last textbook, and some scared employees are huddled in the corner trying to escape the carnage. It looks like those scenes from Mean Girls where Cady imagines the world around her in terms of the jungles of Africa where she had once lived. Well, maybe that was a gross exaggeration, but the long lines, overpriced books, and crowded quarters are certainly unpleasant. That one professor - Everyone has that one professor—you know, the one that completely disregards that established standarad operating procedures of Syllabus Week and assigns real work during the first week. The worst offenders are the ones who start off their first classes running by teaching the whole first class and saying that students can read the syllabus on their own. Oftentimes, the only ones running are the students—right out of that professor’s class into an easier section.
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Each December, my huge Irish family hosts a Christmas bash, which is normally one of the highlights of my year. However, this year, halfway through my senior year, I found myself less than thrilled by the prospect of attending because I knew that each of my 30 first cousins, their parents, and friends of the family would be asking one question: “What are you going to do with your life?” I began preparing answers and bracing for the worst—that is, until days before the party, in the midst of intense panic, when I received a card from my mentor with the message “magic words enclosed” written on the envelope. Inside, all that the card contained was a single quote by author Cheryl Strayed that she wrote when trying to give advice to a soon-tobe-college-graduate: “You have to pay your own electric bill. You have to be kind. You have to give it all you got. You have to find people who love you truly, and love them back with the same truth. But that’s all.” Now, it’s not that this quote inspired me in a way that others hadn’t. I mean, I definitely liked it. It had that idealistic quality that all of us seniors are currently desperate to hear as practicality is being all but forced down our throats, but it was simply another piece of advice to add to the pile. Rather, this quote was a turning point for me in helping me to realize something rather obvious: I could find hundreds of these articles instructing recent graduates on the “best way” to live life after college, and it is likely that none of them would agree with each other. Heck, there’s a whole industry behind helping poor, confused college students survive the transition into the “real world.” Exhibit A: My sister recently bought me a book
called Life After College: The New Undergraduate’s Guide. It’s over 400 pages long and covers topics from “Home Away From Home: Finding Your First Post-College Pad,” “Adult Life: What’s That?,” and “Adult Etiquette, Dress Codes, & More.” If the part of me that was completely terrified wasn’t so prominent, I would probably laugh. Yet, you realize when you’re a semester away from graduation that everyone and anyone has and feels compelled to share an opinion on what you should do with your life and/or a piece of advice to help you get there. Become an engineer—the field is growing and there are going to be a lot of jobs in the future. No matter what you do, don’t become an engineer—everyone is becoming an engineer and there will definitely be no jobs by the time you graduate. Go to graduate school right out of college—you’ll lose your momentum otherwise. Don’t go to graduate school right away—you need to work and experience the world first. Chase your passions, no matter how absurd—you’re only young once. Try to mold your passions into something practical—then you’ll be successful as well as happy. Friends, family, teachers, mentors, co-workers, boyfriends, girlfriends, ex-boyfriends, ex-girlfriends, store clerks, hairdressers, dentists, strangers … they all think they have that nugget of wisdom that’s going to point you down the path to the “right way to live” after you graduate. So, to you fellow seniors, contrary of where you were likely thinking this article was going, I’m not about to attempt to contribute to the seemingly infinite pool of advice on how to live life “the right way.” This isn’t one of those columns. Frankly speaking, I wouldn’t expect anyone to listen to me if it were. I am in the same place as many of the seniors reading this—confused and unsure about what life after graduation means. I have no amazing insight into how to become happy and successful and, even if I did, I surely can’t say it any better than those prolific thinkers who have already tried.
Instead, I’m going to impose a dare. I dare you to stop listening to the advice. Now hear me out before you roll your eyes at the corniness. Yes, a certain amount of advice is not only helpful but also often necessary in life. Many of us would flounder on a daily basis without a little structure—however, as graduation draws nearer and the reality of the unknown we are all about to face becomes more salient, the opportunity to simply accept someone else’s definition of where our lives should go is going to grow more and more tempting. Rather than accepting this transformation into someone more practical-minded as inevitable and losing your youthful idealism before the age of 23, I dare you to just stop listening. Stop listening to all of the people who seem to know you better than you do. Stop listening to everyone else’s opinion of what will make you the person you want to be. Actually, go even farther than that. Stop listening to everything and everyone trying to tell you that you even need to have an answer to the question “What are you going to do with your life?” right now. Instead, I dare you to answer with, “I don’t know.” I dare you to accept—and I mean actually accept, not simply nod and move on—the fact that you, the person truly you are with all of your strange quirks, random skill set, and seemingly impractical passions, are ready for this. Some drastic change doesn’t have to occur in you before graduation. Don’t become an engineer because there may or may not be more jobs. Don’t start stressing about graduate school if it doesn’t interest you. Don’t choose a career just because some chart or guidebook tells you it is more practical. I dare you to set your own path. In fact, I dare you to accept that your “right way to live” might seem absurd to other people. And I dare you to be proud of it.
Kimberly Crowley is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.
Why the Ring
Patrick Angiolillo This Christmas, I was quite surprised by one of my presents. In a small gift bag, wrapped in white tissue paper, concealed in a little black box, was my father’s Boston College class ring. Forty years ago, in 1974, he graduated from BC. That ring has always been a part of my imagination of him. In whatever context—whether at work, church, out with the family, on vacation, or just about anywhere else—I always envision that gold ring and ruby stone on my dad’s right hand. In a way reminiscent of an ancient tradition, time-honored but little observed these days, he has given me his ring. In keeping with the mood, he had my initials and my graduating year, 2014, engraved beside his signature on the inside of the ring band. And now, I proudly bear the ring on my hand. The human fascination with the ring is not a recent one. In fact, it is indeed an ancient, time-honored custom. Rings have long played a part in humanity’s cultural consciousness. As early as the ancient Egyptian Old Kingdom, rings were employed in different capacities. They could signify any range of things, depending on the wearer—whether he or she was an official at court, a soldier, a member of the royal family, or a religious person. The Greeks, perhaps influenced by their counterparts across the sea, also employed rings in their societies in similarly various fashions. The Romans, too, made particular (even practical, in a quite Roman way) use of the ring: during the Republican period, for instance, every male citizen had the right to wear an iron ring signifying this status as a free citizen of Rome,
Lecture Hall
regardless of his social standing. Of ring-wearing, the later Roman historian Appian of Alexandria is said to have claimed that the shared Greco-Roman and Egyptian custom of wearing a ring on the left hand ring finger was derived from the anatomical “fact” that a sole vein ran from this finger directly to the heart, a highly esteemed organ in antiquity. The ring has, then, in the course of its history on our hands, been an integral way of symbolizing or signifying any number of meanings, realities or purposes. The ring as a symbol in itself is not insignificant. As a circle, it can express eternity or infinity, unity or oneness, wholeness, inclusivity, protection, and even masculinity and femininity. For the Neo-Platonists, the circle represented the “uncircumscribable” God. For mystics around the world, the shape of the heavens and cosmos is circular. For King Arthur, a circle was the only acceptable shape for a table of equal knights. As the shape of the sun, the circle is masculine, but equally, as the shape of the moon, it is feminine. All of this meaning weighs on the ring, and whether we are conscious of it or not, this symbolism is a part of our implicit understanding of things, of the world we inhabit and the societies or cultures we engage. In today’s culture, ring-wearing is sometimes a matter of pure fashion, but still quite often it serves a symbolic function. I have already mentioned the class ring, but there is also the wedding ring (not to be confused with the engagement ring!), the ecclesiastical ring (think of the pope’s ring), the memento mori ring (a reminder of death), the mood ring (a popular tchotchke item), the promise ring, the claddagh ring (a piece of traditional Irish jewelry), the signet ring (traditionally used to imprint a seal in wax), and many more. Many of these rings have been and continue to act as tangible representations of deeper realities, truths,
vows, or purposes. A signet ring, for instance, not only serves the practical function of imprinting a certain sigil upon a wax seal, but also points to the office or status of the one whose sign is embodied in the seal. What is more, the seal, in turn, can imply any manner of truths about the office of the owner. A royal signet ring, for example, serves the practical function of identifying the owner of a sealed envelope, and it even indicates who that owner is or of what kind of nobility he might be. But it also speaks to the power of that office, the authority of noble’s status relative to other nobles, and perhaps even the origin of the office itself. My class ring does the same thing. Not only is it a tangible sign of my baccalaureate institution, BC, and not only is it a representation of my degree of accomplishment (come May!) at this institution, but it is also a symbol of the deeper truths that uphold this institution. Adorned with depictions of the University seal, Gasson Hall, and eagles, the ring speaks to the roots of BC’s Catholic heritage, academic tradition, and popular customs. The ring, then, should not be underestimated as a symbol. It has been a part of man’s many accoutrements for millennia and should not be overlooked in function, purpose, or meaning. In particular, when a ring contains a certain symbolic purpose (such as a class, claddagh or wedding ring), to understand the symbolism of that ring is to own the meaning of the ring itself, to possess for oneself the tradition or values or customs of the culture or people who created that ring. To wear a ring, then, is to have a responsibility to the very tradition which is enshrined in the meaning of the ring. Such responsibility is not a thing we ought to bear lightly.
Patrick Angiolillo is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.
BY PAT HUGHES
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.
Choosing the classroom Tiffany Ashtoncourt A sea of students huddled in jackets has flooded the Quad, the smell of oily goodness escapes from Hillside, and unidentifiable noises once again emanate from the Mods. Welcome back to the Heights, everyone! And with classes officially resuming at Boston College, so begins the mad shopping binge formally known as add/drop week where academic halls and their classrooms are traded and scrutinized like prime real estate. Let me explain: add/drop is the time to overload, get a “feel” for a class (a.k.a possibly save your future GPA), or get an override into that “offered biennially” course—but it is also the time to switch into a class that is in a building that fosters the appropriate environment for a particular course and consequently sets the mood and the mindset necessary for the semester-long marathon of papers, midterms, and lectures. Make no mistake, I don’t mean this in a shallow way or as the sole reason why someone should take a course. Here’s an example of what someone shouldn’t do: I actually received an email during this past add/drop period from a student who wanted to trade his geoscience course for the one that I was enrolled in, simply because mine was held in Fulton 511, which he said was a quoteunquote “more awesome lecture hall than Cushing 001.” That being said, ambience does matter, and honestly speaking, when you have the opportunity to take another section of the same course or you are equally torn between two great courses, the choice does sometimes pivot on which building the class is held in. For example, Gasson is BC’s landmark building, arguably its most beautiful, and in my opinion, the ideal place to take Theology and Philosophy courses. The moment you enter through the heavy wooden doors, the place seems to envelop you with a sense of sacredness that almost compels to lower your voice. The statue of Archangel Michael and the intimate chapel on the main level may influence some of these feelings, but I believe that Gasson’s aura originates from more than just its religious associations, for it seems to stem from a collective reverence for the pursuit of knowledge and the good that it can create. In other words, it’s like having a class in Bapst’s Gargan Hall! Fulton is, of course, the headquarters of CSOM, but I think that it also has a playful touch of whimsy that complements its more staid goal nicely. After all, who doesn’t love the Wizard of Oz-inspired atrium? Now that I think of it, that theme choice seems to be a cautionary metaphor for America’s future CEOs … Never mind. Although I’m an economics major, I’m proudly in A&S and not corporately inclined, so my experiences with Fulton have been largely with non-econ courses—however, the progressive atmosphere of the place is contagious and invigorating. Actually, I think that it’s one of the few buildings that is humming with chatter at eight in the morning, as welcome on a sub-zero morning as a shot of espresso, which is why I personally like morning classes to be held here. Perhaps novelty also plays a role in classroom choice. After all, how many of us are guilty of being seduced by courses that were held in Stokes when it first opened? I am sure many more will fall prey to St. Mary’s enchantments when it opens its doors in 2015 (unfortunately, I’m a senior and will not get to know St. Mary’s). Stokes Hall is a great space and the hum from the Chocolate Bar adds a nice touch and scent to a class-to-class jaunt, and the humanities departments have truly made Stokes feel like their home in such a short period of time. With that being said, however, I must admit that Campion 231 is, oddly enough, one of my most favorite classrooms. Campion itself has a wonderful library, Lynch students are as friendly as everyone says, and the Campus School has added a beautiful dimension and depth to what would have been just another academic hall—but for non-Lynch students the classes that are typically held there vary so much that the place doesn’t have a defined image or meaning. Thus, needless to say, I really did choose my Religious Quest section of Buddhism for the professor, not the building. Campion 231 is rectangular and a bit narrow, which makes our semi-circle seating arrangement a little tight and awkward for bathroom breaks, yet I can’t imagine having this class elsewhere. Our cozy seating has made everyone collectively chatty before class (a rarity for a class of nearly 40 students who really didn’t know each other previously) and our professor has routinely come up with fun ways to arrange us for small group work because of the shape. So, I guess what I would like to say is, regardless of which building or classroom you’re in this semester, it ultimately won’t make or break your experience. It can even enhance it—unless it’s in Carney!
Tiffany Ashtoncourt is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.
THE HEIGHTS
A8
Thursday, January 16, 2014
BC vs. Syracuse Men’s Basketball, from A10
PLAYS OF THE GAME JERAMI GRANT’S SENSATIONAL SLAM Grant’s highlight reel jam capped off Syracuse’s 18-3 second half run. The sophomore forward’s outstretched right arm stuffed a miss by Fair through the rim.
COONEY’S THREE FAST BREAKS On consecutive breaks, the sophomore guard went to the rim before stealing the ball and rushing up the floor to finish with a monster jam, giving the Orange a 32-23 lead.
KEY PLAYERS
equipped for exactly that. “The first half, our concentration was just trying to direct feed it into me, and in the second half, we started to use more screening action to get the guards into the middle to kick it out to the guards for shots,” Anderson said. “I thought the screening was a little bit more effective just because of how big they are. It’s hard to just straight pass it in there.” The high screens helped Olivier Hanlan, who finished with six helpers, which started when he assisted Lonnie Jackson, who shot six of nine from behind the arc, for the junior’s first triple of the evening after the Orange collapsed on the sophomore in the lane. Christmas, Fair, and Grant mobbed Anderson under the rim throughout the first half, severely stalling BC’s inside game. The junior forward overcame the trio’s size using his skills in the lane. “It’s all about footwork and things like that,” Anderson said. “If a certain guy has an advantage over you, maybe physically, you just have to try and beat them mentally. I was just trying to use a lot of head fakes, pivoting, and stuff like that to just get clean looks.” Those “clean looks” were key, as outside
shots kept the Eagles in the game. In both halves, the team nailed 50 percent of its shots, which was key to beating the zone. “There’s a couple things that you have to do and one of them [is]: you’ve got to keep adjusting,” Donahue said of Boeheim’s defense. “The best thing that they do is they adjust.” Once the Eagles’ 3-point shooting picked up, Syracuse quickly took those opportunities away, forcing BC to move the ball from east to west. Tyler Ennis and Cooney quickly shut down BC’s passing lanes and spurred the Orange’s counter. Cooney went to the rack on consecutive breaks, one of which came from a steal of his own and the other after a steal came from Ennis. A theft by Cooney moments later turned into a dunk to cap off the visitors’ run, which gave them a ninepoint, 32-23, lead. While Boeheim’s zone was working, the performance of Jackson, who finished with 18 points, was hard to stop. “I’m just starting to find a rhythm,” Jackson said. “He [Donahue] has confidence in me, and I have confidence in myself that I can knock down that shot.” After Jackson started the half with a three, BC began to work the ball inside. It was just another one of the many changes the Eagles
would have to make. “Halftime we said a couple things,” Donahue said. “We’ve really got to attack it [the zone] off the dribble. Now it’s hard and we did it. We did it well. But they made the adjustment.” After the break, Anderson began to find his place. Throughout the first half, he battled with Christmas in the paint, fighting for position. When he got the ball in the high post, he was trapped quickly. “I have a second or two where it’s just a 1-on-1 matchup, so if I can attract two guys off being aggressive then I can open up a shot for someone else too,” Anderson said. The junior forward was able to get to the line, putting Christmas into foul trouble. The Syracuse big man picked up his fourth foul just over 1:30 into the second half, rooting him to the bench for remainder of the night. “If you pass it against guys that are that big, you’re not going to be successful, so we were just trying to attack them and he [Christmas] ended up fouling us a lot and we got to the free throw line,” Anderson said. With Keita inside, Anderson began to hit from inside the paint and his 10 second-half points were tremendous in the team’s upset bid. When Anderson’s game in the lane
picked up, the Eagles did well to beat another part of Boeheim’s defense. “Part of it was we were trapping and we had good traps, and they made two great plays to get out the traps and not only get out of the traps, but get him [Jackson] the ball in cross-court pressured pass and he stuck it,” Boeheim said. Even with his defense being tested by an in-form BC offense, Boeheim retained his confidence. “I wasn’t as concerned as I would be because there was time—there was time left,” Boeheim said of what he was thinking when his team trailed by eight. “We knew they would take their time, but we just wanted to find—can’t remember his name—Lonnie Jackson. Yeah, I know his name. We just wanted to make sure we didn’t let him shoot. Let somebody else shoot the ball. And I thought we did that.” Syracuse used its time well. Its massive second half run was capped by a highlight reel jam from an otherwise quiet Grant. The dunk shook Conte Forum and sealed the game, but BC’s performance against the zone was enough to give the team a muchneeded confidence boost. “I think they have great hope in that locker room,” Donahue said.
BOSTON COLLEGE LONNIE JACKSON 18 POINTS 2 REBOUNDS 6 OF 9 FROM BEHIND THE ARC
RYAN ANDERSON 14 POINTS 5 REBOUNDS 6 OF 13 FOR FREE THROWS
SYRACUSE TYLER ENNIS
12 POINTS 6 STEALS 5 ASSISTS 40 MINUTES PLAYED
TREVOR COONEY 21 POINTS 3 STEALS 4 REBOUNDS
QUOTE OF THE GAME “It just didn’t really feel comfortable up there at the line. I’ve been shooting it pretty well before that this year, I think in the 70s, but it’s just nothing but repetitions—it’s something I just have to keep practicing every day.”
- Ryan Anderson BC Forward
GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF
BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK
Many missed opportunities spoil Eagles’ spirited effort NUMBERS TO KNOW BOSTON COLLEGE
20
Points from the bench
50
Three-point percentage
SYRACUSE
32
10
Missed free throws
14
Assists
13
Points in the Steals paint
19
Points off turnovers
0
Field goals in last 4:43
BY CHRIS GRIMALDI Heights Senior Staff
In a duel with No. 2 Syracuse that featured seven lead changes, the Boston College men’s basketball team looked to meet Conte Forum’s energy and cement a monumental upset via the big play. Yet Monday night’s 69-59 loss came down to execution of fundamentals at the charity stripe and beneath the rim. Getting Back to Basics The Eagles entered their matchup with the Orange as one of the nation’s top foul-shooting teams. By night’s end, their uncharacteristic miscues at the line translated to a missed opportunity for a momentum-shifting victory. “If you’re going to beat the No. 2 team in the country, you’re probably going to have to shoot fouls,” said head coach Steve Donahue after the game. Despite a solid 50 percent shooting performance from the field, the Eagles only managed to convert on 16 of their 26 free-throw attempts. Juniors Ryan Anderson and Eddie Odio were responsible for nine of the team’s 10
misses from the charity stripe in the 10-point loss. “It just didn’t really feel comfortable up there at the line,” Anderson said on Wednesday. “I’ve been shooting it pretty well before that this year, I think in the 70s, but it’s just nothing but repetitions—it’s something I just have to keep practicing every day. “ Donahue recognized that missed chances to steal points from the nation’s second-ranked squad can quickly derail an upset bid. “If we shoot them [free throws] tonight, we may win besides everything else,” Donahue said. “That’s something that we’ve proven we’re good at, but we just weren’t tonight.” While the Eagles struggled at the line, they were also haunted by their inability to compete with their opponent’s depth. After tweaking his ankle during warm ups, BC center Dennis Clifford withdrew to the sidelines as his team struggled to limit Syracuse’s second-chance opportunities. The Eagles allowed the Orange to tally 14 offensive rebounds and only mustered seven of their own, paving the way for a 32-12 Syracuse advantage in points in the paint.
As a close struggle entered its final minutes, the visiting team was bolstered by roster depth that Donahue’s squad could not match. Syracuse’s ability to sub in a steady rotation of players maintained its quickness on the court—a quickness that translated to 13 steals. When the dust settled, the Orange bench had outscored BC’s subs 18-0. The BC Defense’s Valiant Effort Although BC’s defense was vulnerable to Syracuse scoring runs—including a 14-0 second half rally that put the game out of reach—it managed to control the defensive glass and stall the Orange offense enough to keep the contest within reach for much of the game. The effort to stall the opponent’s offensive attack was also enough to earn recognition from Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim. “Our defense is the only thing that allowed us to have a lead at the half court,” he said. While marred by the defeat, Donahue saw his defense’s performance as a step forward after already surrendering
80 points or more on seven different occasions this season. He credited the improvement to challenging shots with a restored pride in guarding the opponents in front of his players. “We’ve done a good job with our core principles over the last three weeks to a month,” Donahue said. Jackson Shines Coming off his game-winning shot in a victory over Virginia Tech, junior guard Lonnie Jackson provided another clutch performance with a team-high 18 points—all from behind the arc. “My teammates were looking for me,” Jackson said, “and that instills confidence in me.” Jackson’s accurate shooting from deep catalyzed BC’s upset threat, and Donahue sees the guard’s contributions on the court in the wake of missing time due to injury as a vital asset to the Eagles moving forward. “I think he’s made us a much better basketball team,” Donahue said. “Not only because he can make shots, but he has a sense of where to be, where to put other people, and understanding what the coaches are trying to do.”
THE HEIGHTS
EDITORS’ EDITORS’PICKS PICKS
Thursday, January 16, 2014 The Week Ahead
Standings
Women’s basketball plays Miami tonight at Conte Forum. BC hockey is set to host a doubleheader on Friday and Saturday. Women’s hockey plays Vermont twice, while men’s hockey hosts Boston University and Maine. Men’s basketball will travel to match up with North Carolina on Saturday at noon.
A9
Recap from Last Picks
CONNOR MELLAS
0-0
MARLY MORGUS
0-0
ALEX FAIRCHILD
0-0
HEIGHTS STAFF
0-0
Jameis Winston beat out Andre Williams and a field of four more to win the Heisman Trophy. The football team dropped the Advocare V100 Bowl against Arizona. The men’s basketball team failed to win its ACC opener against Maryland. Women’s basketball beat New Hampshire. New England was knocked off by Miami.
Women’s Basketball
Boston vs. College
Guest Editor: Bennet Johnson Asst. Metro Editor
“Dangle, snipe, and celly.” CONNOR MELLAS
This Week’s Games
Sports Editor
MARLY MORGUS Assoc. Sports Editor
ALEX FAIRCHILD BENNET JOHNSON Asst. Sports Editor
Asst. Metro Editor
Men’s Basketball: BC vs. UNC
UNC
UNC
BC
BC
Men’s Hockey: No. 4 BC vs. BU
BC
BC
BC
BC
Women’s Basketball: BC vs. Miami
BC
Miami
BC
Miami
Manchester United
Chelsea
Chelsea
Manchester United
EPL: Chelsea vs. Manchester United
Miami
The women’s basketball team returns home after a two-game thrashing by the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the nation to play Miami. The ’Canes are coming off a 64-62 victory against Virginia Tech. BC is in need of a win to balance out its ACC record. Both teams carry 10 wins into the game, and the matchup could be decisive for either team’s conference season. This season’s ACC has six ranked teams set to fight for the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. The Hurricanes will be the last unranked team that head coach Erik Johnson’s Eagles play until Jan. 26, as games with No. 9 North Carolina and No. 20 North Carolina State are on the horizon.
Tonight, 7 p.m.
Teams start 2014 strong
BC and BU to meet on Friday night
Under the bubble, the Eagles will have to work to fill significant holes that Kasim Edebali, Ian White, Alex Amidon, Chase Rettig, Nate Freese, and Williams left in their wake. On the court, the road ahead is full of potholes, twists, turns, and even downright obstacles, with the bulk of the men’s basketball team’s ACC schedule ahead of it. You’ll start the semester feeling great, but slowly, too much homework and not enough sleep will draw you closer and closer to the soda fountains and farther and farther from the Plex. It’s one thing to start the year off with high expectations and commitment to your goals. It’s entirely another to make those last.
Column, from A10 many positives during 2013 with bowl eligibility and Andre Williams’ outstanding season, has plenty that it would hope to leave behind after an embarrassing shutdown at the AdvoCare V100 Bowl. The hockey team has yet to lose a game in 2014, and the football team is already introducing new blood to BC for a spring semester of practices and preparation, but these positive starts are just the beginning of a long year. For the hockey team, the next few weeks produce significant hurdles. BU comes to visit on Friday night, and while the Terriers are hardly the toughest team that the Eagles will face this year, the rivalry will make the game intense and physical. The next day, BC will face Maine, hoping to turn around the result from earlier in the season, and the rest of the schedule doesn’t provide much respite.
Men’s Hockey, from A10 that one and another one springs loose,” Quinn said after the Maine loss, according to The Daily Free Press. “We have to find a way to put all our fingers in all the holes and stop that dam from leaking all over the place.” If the contrast of the state of each respective program was on display in early November, the Eagles—sitting in first place in Hockey East and moving up in all the national polls—could conceivably obliterate that dam altogether on Friday. One major way in which BC has improved since the first meeting of these two teams is the power play. BC has had the best offense in the country for almost the entire season, but only recently has the power play matched the Eagles’ even-strength potency. York and his staff have made some technical adjustments on the power play, such as utilizing more of a 1-3-1 formation with four forwards and one defenseman, as well as some personnel changes, including the utilization of freshman forward Adam Gilmour at the point. The biggest changes that York has noticed are simpler ones, though. “I think just the cohesiveness, it looks like we’re using each other well, we’re moving pucks, we’re getting more shots to the net,” York said after practice on Tuesday. “So I’d say [we’re] more cohesive as a unit, getting out of the zone, setting up in the zone, and now we’re getting more shots on net.” Throughout BU’s season to date, penalties and the penalty kill have been an issue. Maine converted its first three man advantages against the Terriers, and Quinn’s squad has committed 18 penalties in its last three games combined. “Right now we’re in a situation where it’s one thing after another,” Quinn said. “It’s a different problem every game right
Game of the Week
Marly Morgus is the Assoc. Sports Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.
EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS STAFF
Johnny Gaudreau will look to extend his point streak to 17 games against the Terriers Friday. now, and that’s something we’re going to have to correct.” The main problem BU faced in the first Commonwealth Ave. showdown was that it could not contain BC’s top line of Austin Cangelosi, Bill Arnold and Johnny Gaudreau. The trio combined for three goals and six points that night, and Cangelosi has since been replaced by power forward Kevin Hayes on that line. “Ever since we put them on a line together, they’ve been very, very good,” York said of his top unit consisting of Hobey Baker finalists. “I like how they’re playing.” When asked what role all these divergent factors between the two teams could play Friday night, though, York expressed faith in the rivalry. “I think the rivalry is such a big thing for us, and you need rivals in sports and BU-BC is something our kids really get excited about, and we’re really looking forward to Friday’s matchup,” he said.
“We’re not concerned about recent records, it’s how you play Friday night. The team that plays best Friday night will win 95 percent of the time. Some nights there’s crossbars and posts. But it’s not how we played last week or how BU played last week, but it’s how each team plays on Friday night and we’re [going to] prepare really hard for it. “You know, it’s a weekend that brings BU here and Maine here, but all our preparation is for BU,” York said. “Saturday morning we’ll wake up and prepare for Maine, but we’re really concentrating on BU here.” York even went so far as to invoke the Patriots as an example of a team succeeding despite injuries to dispel any notion of a drop off in skill for BU. The Eagles will be focused on getting ready for Friday, and according to York, they will need to be, because the rivalry is real. How powerful the rivalry is remains to be seen until the final horn on Friday, because what is also real is the gap between these two hockey teams.
EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR
The basketball team has improved in the new year, but the challenge is sustaining the change.
ROUNDUP
Men’s and women’s ski teams open their seasons at UVM Carnival CONNOR MELLAS Sports Editor
The Boston College ski team opened its season on Jan. 10 in Stowe, Vt. at the UVM Carnival, finishing in sixth place as a team. Sophomore Chase Ryan’s 14th-place finish and 2:03.30 total time paced the Eagles in the men’s giant slalom. The next quickest skier for the men’s squad was freshman Ryan Barney with a 23rd-place finish and a total time of 2:04.79. Coming in shortly behind him was freshman Trevor Lennox, landing in 32nd place with a total time of 2:06.52. The University of Vermont’s Dominique Garand won the event with a 1:58.88 time. On the women’s side, Taylor Burgart raced fastest for BC in the giant slalom, recording a 32nd-place finish and 2:14.81 total time. Following right behind her was Kristie Ryan in 33rd place with a 2:15.39 total time, and Brayton Pech in 36th place with a 2:16.45 total time. Also finishing for the Eagles were Michelle Solomon and Katie Benjamin, in 42nd place with a total time of 2:17.91 and 48th place with a 2:21.77 total time, respectively. UVM’s
Kate Ryley claimed first place with a 2:02.71 time. Moving from the slopes to the rink, the women’s hockey team has continued its successful first half of the season, losing one of its past eight games and most recently defeating Northeastern 3-2. Sophomore forward Haley Skarupa
a 1.83 goals-against average through 18 games played. On defense, senior Meagan Mangene has led the blue liners with a plus-16 rating, second only to Boyles on the team. On the hardwood, the women’s basketball team has won three of its past five games, dropping its past two contests
against Notre Dame and Duke. Head coach Erik Johnson’s team is 10-7 and 1-2 in conference play, and it has been led by Kristen Doherty’s team-high average of 14.4 points per game. With an important chunk of its ACC schedule coming up, the women’s basketball squad will look to improve its conference record down the stretch. Like their fellow Eagles on the slopes, the men’s track and field team recorded a sixth-place finish in its first competition of the new year. With a team score of 25, the majority of the Eagles’ points at the Dartmouth Relays on Jan. 12 were scored in the 800 meter run. Junior Tim Ferris finished second in the event at 1:58.93, and just behind him were sophomore Tom Hennessy and freshman James Zingarini in third place at 1:59.66, and sixth place at 2:00.48, respectively. The remainder of the Eagles’ points came from a third-place finish by Hennessy, Collin Fedor, Tyler Hanson, and Ferris in the 4x800 at 8:00.86, and a sixthplace finish by Obinna Nwankwo, Connor O’Neill, Darren James, and Devaun Bovell in the 4x400 at 3:30.69. With 120 points, Dartmouth finished first in the meet.
GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR
The women’s basketball team has emerged victorious from three of its past five games to bring its record to 10-7 on the season, 1-2 ACC. m. hockey
scoreboard
is fourth in Hockey East scoring with 14 goals and 26 points, and close behind her in seventh and eighth place are forwards Emily Field and Andie Anastos, with 10 goals and 20 points, and nine goals and 19 points, respectively. Veteran goaltender Corinne Boyles has been a rock in the net, recording a .935 save percentage and
Providence, RI 1/11
BC Brown
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BC syr
59 69
demko 29 sv BC Lamacchia 2 g Prov chestnut hill, ma 1/13
chestnut hill, ma 1/10 w. hockey
m. hockey
5 2
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jackson 18 pts BC ennis 6 stls VT
62 59
Matheson 3 A BC McKenzie 1 g NE
3 2
blacksburg, va 1/11 w. basketball
anderson 12 reb BC Smith 12 pts Duke
57 78
boston, Ma 1/12
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Boyles 32 svs savage 2 a
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chestnut hill,Mama11/11 1/11 Boston,
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cooper 21 pts bc jackson 17 pts nd
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skarupa 1 g desjardins 40 svs Newton, MA 11/09 south bend, in 1/9
doherty 5 a mcbride 20 pts
SPORTS THE HEIGHTS
A8
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Thursday, January 16, 2014
THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2014
Battle of the Green Line set for Friday BC and BU meet for the second time this year with the Eagles playing host MICHAEL HOFF For The Heights
Back in November, Boston College celebrated head coach Jerry York’s just-announced contract extension through 2020 by dismantling rival Boston University on the road, 5-1. After that game, first-year Terriers boss David Quinn said, “the score was indicative of the game that was played … I want it to sting … we need to feel this
pain. It was a mismatch.” As the rivals prepare to face each other again Friday night in Chestnut Hill, Quinn and his players are feeling more pain than Quinn would probably deem necessary. BU was blown out 7-3 against Maine at Fenway last Saturday, and has lost its past four games. Without a win in their last six contests, the Terriers have also recently suffered substantial personnel losses. Wingers Jake
New Year brings new optimism
Moscatel and Evan Rodrigues have been injured since Jan. 4, and sophomore defenseman Matt Grzelyck—who Quinn called his “best player” at the Frozen Fenway practice press conference—suffered a separated shoulder last Thursday in practice and is “going to be out for a while,” according to Quinn, as reported by SB Nation. Forward Sam Kurker, a former second-round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues, also left the university on Monday. “We are in that little funk where you fix one hole in the dam and the other one springs loose, and you put your finger in
See Men’s Hockey, A9
EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR
The Eagles hope to extend their lead in the Hockey East standings with a win over BU.
SIGNS OF LIFE
Alex Fairchild Asst. Sports Editor
MARLY MORGUS Around this time of year, you’re probably feeling pretty good. Maybe you’ve already made it to the Plex twice this week like you resolved to, or maybe you haven’t lost a game since the start of 2014. It could be that you haven’t let that first sip of Diet Coke slip past your lips, or that by some unexpected twist of fate you managed to hang with and even lead the No. 2 team in the country for most of your game on Monday night. The beginning of January allows for a lot of optimism. The mistakes that we made during the previous year haven’t vanished, but there is a sense of a new beginning that can be revitalizing. While you’re still feeling the twinges of your Diet Coke addiction born from a highly-caffeinated finals week, or carrying some extra weight from an indulgent fall, the start of 2014 and the spring semester still feels fresh, motivating you to stay on top of your new habits. If you’re the Boston College men’s basketball team, the end of 2013 is probably still weighing on you. It’s impossible to erase or even to forget losses to mediocre opponents like Auburn, or the 4-9 start to the season. The team that entered the season riding a wave of optimism after showing promise in last year’s ACC schedule transformed into the target of cynicism as it struggled through early season play. All of a sudden, though—call it a New Year’s miracle—there was Monday night. Well, no. First there was Sunday, when the Eagles snapped a four-game losing streak—which doesn’t sound that bad until you hear that the last win was over Division II Philadelphia University, and that before that win, BC had dropped three straight—with a win over Virginia Tech. Do I think that the Eagles somehow managed to gain that much confidence going into the Syracuse matchup with their win over the Hokies? Hardly, but it was a sign of life in their third game of the new year. Then, there was Monday night in sold-out Conte Forum. It wasn’t pretty— BC was 16 for 26 from behind the line and gave up 16 turnovers, but the Eagles somehow managed to keep pace with the Orange, the tremendous favorite, right up until the last 10 minutes of play. While BC eventually fell by a 10-point margin, it definitely outperformed expectations for the night. The Eagles, a team that has seemed lackluster at times in its young season, actually showed some renewed intensity. Similar stories can be told for the men’s hockey team and even the football team. While it would be hard to argue that the Eagles had a weak start on the ice—as they finished 2013 with a record of 10-4-2—bumps along the road such as a loss to Michigan in the season opener, the failure to win a game outright at Minnesota in late October, and, most recently, a Hockey East loss to Maine kept the Eagles from cementing themselves at the top of the Hockey East for much of the beginning of the season. Even the football team, which saw so
Although Boston College fell to No. 2 Syracuse, the Eagles led by eight points with 15:52 remaining.
Joe Rahon faded away in the lane after putting up an awkward jumper that missed the rim. As Eddie Odio grappled with Baye Moussa Keita, Ryan Anderson lurked on the left side of the paint’s block. He was waiting for the ball to drop into his open hands. After a frustrating first half, the junior was starting to get hot in the paint. He had unlocked Syracuse’s defensive shape and was about to change the game. Leading by three points, the Eagles knew they would have to build their lead without haste to have a chance to knock off the Orange—and that is exactly what Anderson did. As a monstrous trio of C.J. Fair, Jerami Grant, and Keita converged on him under the hoop, Anderson fought his way to the rack, which he had done all night. His lay-up passed through the net, and once the whistle blew, he lost it. He squatted in front of the baseline to let out an intimidating roar. It was a release of emotion. Anderson drained his shot from the line. The junior was in business, and the Eagles were 16:31 away from pulling off the biggest upset of the Steve Donahue era. Conte Forum was an electrifying environment again. When the Eagles took the court on Monday evening, the visitors were primed. Syracuse, No. 2 in the country, was ready to advance to 17-0. Despite BC leading by as much as eight after a dunk from Anderson with just under 16 minutes left in the game, Syracuse mustered an 18-3 run which spanned from 11:57 to 4:43 in the second half. The spurt distanced the Orange from the Eagles, giving the visitors a dramatic 69-59 victory. Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim’s famous 2-3 zone defense thwarted any chance the Eagles had of working the ball inside early in the game. Anderson was used to penetrate the high post, the most vulnerable piece of the Orange’s defense, but BC’s guards could not find the junior. Steve Donahue spent time going over the complex zone with his team in the days leading up to the game. “It was just about repetition, repetition, repetition,” Anderson said on Wednesday. “We put a big lineup against our starters and just trying to rep getting the ball to the middle, then getting it out.” When the Eagles pushed down the floor, they faced Syracuse’s Trevor Cooney and Tyler Ennis. The pair of guards stood ahead of Fair on the wing to BC’s left, with Grant on the right, and Rakeem Christmas playing the role of anchor under the hoop. The zone limited BC to shots from the perimeter, but Donahue’s offense is
See Men’s Basketball, A8
Post Progression
BC screened Syracuse’s 2-3 zone, freeing up Ryan Anderson in the second half after a frustrating start. Field Goals Free Throws
1st Half 1-3 2-4
2nd Half 3-4 4-9
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PHOTOS BY GRAHAM BECK, HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF, AND EMILY FAHEY, HEIGHTS EDITOR
See Column, A9
I NSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE
Roundup: Ski teams warm up The Eagles had their first race of the year at the UVM Carnival................A9
Game Of The Week: BC vs. Miami Women’s basketball takes on the Hurricanes in an ACC matchup.................A9
Editors’ Picks........................A9 BC Notes...............................A8
THE HEIGHTS
A2CRITICAL CURMUDGEON
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
PICKING THE PERFECT PLAYLIST FOR LONG CAR TRIPS, PAGE B2 SCENE STYLE
WINTER WINDS
BOSTON COLLEGE STUDENTS WRAP UP FOR THE COLD WEATHER, PAGE B5
Thursday, January 17, 2013
ALBUM REVIEW
‘HIGH HOPES’
DESPITE SEVERAL REDEEMING TRACKS, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’S NEW RELEASE IS UNDERWHELMING, B4 THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2014
Breaking Boston
Six Local Acts to Follow in 2014 BY JOHN WILEY, ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR ARIANA IGNERI, ASSOC. ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR MICHELLE TOMASSI, ASST. ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR
The median age in Boston is just over 30, and although the city is small, it has an unusually strong concentration of musical acts attracted to the greater metro area . Boston might not be the Nashville of the East Coast, but its large population of university students and young professionals—and elaborate bar scene—makes
it a hotbed for musicians willing to walk a less traveled path, working through Boston’s small venues. The Scene lists six local acts worth seeing in 2014, exploring their roots and projecting how they might grow in the year to come.
See ‘Boston State of Mind,’ B3
JORDAN PENTALERI / HEIGHTS PHOTO ILLUSTRATION
THE HEIGHTS
B2
OUTSIDE THE LINES
An unfamiliar familiarity
Thursday, January 16, 2014
SCENE AND HEARD
BY: RYAN DOWD
MICHELLE TOMASSI Syllabus week no longer exists in my third year at Boston College, and I fear my 500-page printing allotment may not be sufficient this time round. That said, I’ve never felt more excited for an upcoming academic semester. And the reason can be summed up in two words: movies and television. Don’t get me wrong—I’m always up for a good literary analysis or comparative essay. There’s nothing more satisfying than reading a book to the final period on the last page, and having that moment when the world seems to stop as you close the book and ponder the fictional journey you just completed. But there’s something so satisfying in saying out loud that three of my assignments for my first week include viewing an Italian film, watching an episode of The Simpsons, and studying the fashion in Downton Abbey. In the midst of readings about the Victorian era and 18th century theories, it was refreshing to get visual doses of the modern world, and even more rewarding to discuss them in the context of literature of the past. Some of the most memorable classes and lectures I’ve witnessed over the past few years are the ones that expanded beyond the course descriptions, incorporating artistic elements that I never would have considered merging with subject matter that can sometimes seem far removed from our immediate existence. Whether it was discussing She’s The Man as a modern day adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or watching two professors act out a scene to illustrate the linguistic habits of a Norwegian culture, having that external component allowed me to remember almost the entirety of the lesson in these particular moments. There’s this connection between memory and motion that enhances the learning experience, allowing the words in textbooks and novels to manifest themselves in these real-life applications. Professors often use the phrase “real-life applications” as a selling point for their academic field. It has become an essential aspect of various courses to emphasize their relevance for students in the present, and the phrase seeks to repel labels such as “useless” or “pointless” once the student steps outside the classroom. But what does “real-life applications” actually mean? It’s become so overused that almost any course can be argued to possess this quality. Yes, academics should be relevant in a past and modern sense. But maybe this concept can be challenged and taken one step further. By incorporating some aspect of our lives that we encounter every single day, a course not only garners interest and excitement, but also keeps us thinking about the material long after the class has ended. Whenever I turn on an episode of The Simpsons, I’ll undoubtedly remember the connection to my English course, and I will be more likely to notice any instances of 18thcentury “thing theory” in my 21st-century life. She’s The Man is no longer just an excuse to watch Channing Tatum (although that is a valid excuse for most life decisions), but an opportunity to think about gender roles and expectations. The familiar become unfamiliar, which seems to be a paradox—the movies and television shows that we know better than the books we’re reading for class suddenly become new again. The key to creating real-life applications is not just modernizing an old concept—it’s about challenging what we think we know and love about our lives. It serves a twofold function: to turn the old into the new, and to make the new even newer. This can be achieved by juxtaposing an element of the course with a current representation—TV shows are only one of the many possibilities. Field trips have value beyond the single-file lines of middle school, and movies are not just for days when the teacher is absent. There’s nothing wrong with things that are genuinely “fun,” and sometimes adding in quirky videos or going to see a play in Boston can revitalize students’ eagerness and interest in a course. And the best part? Lying in bed with Netflix and your snack food of choice, minus the side of guilt. Even if it’s just for one assignment.
Michelle Tomassi is the Assistant Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.
1. A CAST FAR, FAR AWAY
Following the ever-evolving cast rumors for the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII is a foolish, useless endeavor—but let’s dive in anyway. The latest line has Jesse Palmer slated for a leading role among the original three stars. Palmer has had prominent roles in Breaking Bad and Friday Night Lights. Apart from the speculation over Palmer, Michael Fassbender, Hugo Weaving, and Benedict Cumberbatch are just a few of the rumored parade of auditioning contenders.
2. ‘POEHLER’-IZING NIGHT The Golden Globes was once again the most-watched office party of the year. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler returned as hosts, to the delight of the general public. Stars won awards. Stars drank champagne. Stars drank fruity concoctions. Poehler, BC ’93, and Bryan Cranston received redemption for previous snubs, while Andy Samberg crashed the adult party, winning Best Actor in a TV Series (Musical and Comedy) and Best TV Series (Musical and Comedy) for his freshman entry Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
4. BRACE YOURSELVES
From its ivory tower of godly programming, HBO made a couple of announcements for us mere mortals. First of all, Aaron Sorkin’s love-it-orhate-it Newsroom will return for its third and final season. But more importantly—and probably a bit redundantly—HBO released the first trailer for the fourth season of Game of Thrones, confirming a new season of the show. Unlike The Newsroom, fortunately, Game of Thrones has given no cue for viewers to brace themselves for a final season anytime soon.
3. LABEOUF’S SICK ADDICTION
5. OUTKAST IS BACK IN 2014
“In light of the recent attacks against my artistic integrity, I am retiring from all public life,” embattled artist Shia LaBeouf tweeted last Friday. The Transformers star found himself under fire after adapting a comic for his short film without consent. Plagiarism is a slippery slope. LaBeouf couldn’t stop there: he went so far as to plagiarize on his apology for his already committed plagiarism. Let’s hope LaBeouf can work through this painful addiction in his retirement.
Rap group Outkast will take to the road this spring and summer, in celebration of the duo’s 20th anniversary. Outkast is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed rap groups ever and will hit the festival circuit starting with Coachella in April. Although Outkast has been on hiatus since 2007, it remains the only hip hop group ever to win the Grammy for Album of the Year—won in 2004 for Speakerboxxx / The Love Below.
THE CRITICAL CURMUDGEON
On the road again: picking music for a long drive MATT MAZZARI
Welcome back! I hope everyone had a relaxing Winter Break with minimal lifethreatening brushes with the Polar Vortex. Thus far, 2014 has presented itself as a year full of promise and peril for the music industry, so be sure to stick with The Scene to guide you through the tumultuous days ahead. For instance, we’ll be hearing from U2 again with an album release set tentatively for this June. At the Golden Globes, Bono announced a fast-approaching single, and I frankly can’t bear the suspense. Will Invisible reflect the mediocrity and shrill preachiness of the band’s more recent LPs—or stick with the mediocrity and shrill preachiness of its earlier work? As always, stay tuned with me, the Critical Curmudgeon, for your Thursday dose of pseudo-relevant music news. Today I want to talk about a subject that is always pertinent to music aficionados. On my return trip to Boston College from home in New Jersey this past weekend, I undertook the challenge of selecting music from my own iPod that both my mom and I could enjoy. As I was deliberating between artists,
I realized that hundreds of other passengerseat DJs were probably doing the same exact thing—not necessarily frantically looking for songs without explicit sexual innuendos in them, as I was, but rather, more broadly trying to find the right road music. Road music is the crux of every car ride over an hour long. What can we listen to and enjoy that won’t (a) become infuriating halfway through the trip, (b) create a fatal distraction, or (c) make one passenger’s country sing-a-long concert another’s endless torment? Road music inhabits a listening genre of its own: people make driving playlists, keep CDs in their cars, and pre-set their radios to specific stations, all because the wrong music can turn a tubular road trip into a mind-numbing exercise in counting “99 Bottles of Beer.” On that subject, are the bottles in that song supposed to be on a shelf, or are they somehow suspended in the air perpendicular to the wall? “Shelf” and “wall” are both one syllable and there’s no rhyme, so why not just say “99 Bottles of Beer on the SHELF?” Wouldn’t that be more accurate? As a child, this question haunted me. I digress. My point is, since road music
is such a universal phenomenon, is there a formula for what makes road music good? I’d argue that, while there’s a practically infinite spectrum involving personal preference within them, there are two types of road music of which all music-listening drivers are inherently aware. I’m calling the first type “windows-down music”—that’s the full-blast soundtrack everyone has that really isn’t any good unless it’s audible from halfway down the block. It’s the song with that really sick double basspedal part that sounds like the Tazmanian Devil trying to escape a footlocker, the one with the brain-frying drop that you essentially wait 3:14 for, the heavy-metal and hard-rap that makes people look at you when you pull up to a stoplight and think, “He can’t be comfortable in there with the volume that high.” And they’re right: it’s not comfortable. It’s rockin’ out. “Windowsdown music” is for the shorter end of car rides, particularly during the 2 a.m. drive when you really just need to stay awake. As for specific kinds, there’s a wide variety. Some people use Rage Against the Machine, others prefer Beastie Boys; some people blare Childish Gambino or Macklemore or
Metallica or dubstep remixes of other dubstep. Heck, it could be Mozart’s “Symphony No. 40” if you wanted, so long as you crank it up for the turnaround. It’s just gotta be loud. The other kind is for the longer rides, the true road trips: it’s called “rambling music.” Rambling music is more structured: truck-drivers in the Midwest have been perfecting the art ever since the first vagabond with a bindle full of dreams tooted the first harmonica. Rambling music is definitely folksier, more organic, more jam-bandrelated. The best of it all came out in the ’50s and ’60s (Grateful Dead, the Band, Woody Guthrie, etc.), but that’s not to say no advancements have been made. Beck’s Sea Change, Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and the Mountain Goats’ Sunset Tree are three of the best albums to drive to I’ve ever heard. Still, you haven’t lived until you’ve listened to all of American Beauty while you’re out on the open highway. It’s why the album was freaking made.
Matt Mazzari is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.
THIS WEEKEND in arts
BY: ARIANA IGNERI | ASSOCIATE ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR
BRUCE IN THE USA CONCERT (SATURDAY 1/18, 8:30 P.M.)
NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL CONCERT (FRIDAY 1/17 8 P.M.)
Bruce in the USA, hosted by Cambridge’s restaurant/ music venue The Sinclair, casts musician Matt Ryan as legendary rocker Bruce Springsteen in a concert paying tribute to “The Boss” and his legacy with the E Street Band. Tickets are $20 in advance and $22 at the door.
After more than a decade-long hiatus, the indie-pop group Neutral Milk Hotel is coming to Boston’s Orpheum Theater for their reunion tour. Tickets are available online starting at $44.25.
ONCE (FRIDAY, 1/17 8 P.M.)
CUFF ME! 50 SHADES OF GREY PARODY (FRIDAY 1/17, 8 P.M.)
Presented at Citi Shubert Theatre, Cuff Me! is a sexy and hilarious parody show satirizing E.L. James’ best-selling book, while also spoofing hit songs from Britney Spears, Madonna, and even Carly Rae Jepsen. Tickets start at $48.75 through the citicenter.org box office.
ILLUMINATING STAINED GLASS (ONGOING)
The Level Three Gallery in O’Neill Library is hosting an exhibit of select stained glass windows from the Bapst and Burns Libraries. Boston College photographer Gary Wayne Gilbert took the featured photos, which will be on display through September.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MMXIV PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION
JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT (OPENS FRIDAY, ONGOING)
Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, and Kevin Costner star in director Kenneth Branagh’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, an intense action flick about a CIA agent who saves the world from global chaos. The movie opens in theaters this Friday.
The Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Once is playing at the Boston Opera House. After running for a week, the show will be closing this weekend. Although subsidized tickets through BC2Boston are sold out, limited tickets are still available through ticketmaster.com.
PLAIN WHITE T’S CONCERT (FRIDAY, 1/17 10 P.M.)
The “Hey There Delilah” band Plain White T’s will be playing a free show in Robsham Theater on Friday night. Sponsored by Nights on the Heights, free tickets are available at the box office until Friday at 4 p.m. Two per BC student ID.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Boston ST
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Moe Pope Genre: Indie Rap Select Tracks: “Amy Winehouse,” “Dead Kennedy’s,” and “Rock Me” Sounds like: Lupe Fiasco at a dinner party with Marvin Gaye and Woody Allen Sounds like: Lupe Fiasco at a dinner party with Marvin Gaye and Woody Allen When rapper Moe Pope was announced as the opening act to O.A.R. for September’s Fall Concert, Boston College was not impressed. When Moe Pope took the stage as the opening to O.A.R. for September’s Fall Concert, BC was still not impressed. When Moe Pope won the Hip-Hop Artist of the Year last month at the 2013 Boston Music Awards, nope, still nothing. Sadly for the budding rap icon, Moe Pope remains a very distant second in the running of popular “popes” at the Jesuit University. Put simply, BC doesn’t want Moe Pope—Francis is enough. So why care about Moe Pope? After all, Time Flies—another Boston hip-hop act—was far better received than Pope performing at Conte a year beforehand for the 2012 Fall Concert. Heck, most convocation speakers have been better received than Pope. Precisely for the reasons Pope failed in Conte
Forum, it’s unlikely he’ll meet success in the national arena—and that’s why he’s so important. Pope is Boston’s rapper, a complex, creative type who isn’t trying to sell you on anything. His booming, electric sound is big enough for arenas, but relatively unmoving to big crowds. Pope has a dark story to tell in songs like “Amy Winehouse” and “Life After God.” It’s not mainstream rap, but rather the counterculture to a counterculture, an intelligent blend of genres with lyrics that create no caricature and make few appeals to the ego. Pope also benefits greatly from his stage partner Christopher Talken, who plays coolly off Pope’s verses with raspy vocals, and producer Rain, who keeps the duo honest on stage with powerful production techniques. Boston is no Vatican City, but Moe Pope certainly has his enclave, and a faithful following of fans and critics who respect Pope as a voice of Boston. -J.W.
Kingsley Flood Genre: Folk Rock Select Tracks: “Waiting on the River To Rise,” “Sigh A While,” and “I Don’t Wanna Go Home” Sounds like: Bob Dylan with a punch of punk The six-piece local band Kingsley Flood has been making quite the splash in Boston ever since its fulllength album Dust Windows debuted in 2010. The record’s rootsy Americana feel and symbolism-laden lyrics enabled the group not only to garner a significant following, but also to receive recognition and acclaim from critics. With its lively, front-porch blend of twanging fiddles, blaring trumpets, and roaring guitars, Dust Windows roped listeners in. Riding close behind their first album’s success, Kingsley Flood released its EP Colder Still, featuring tracks such as “I Don’t Wanna Go Home,” which were plugged by mainstream media outlets including NPR and Esquire. Their first two projects allowed band members Naseem Khuri, Jenee Force, Chris Barrett, George Hall, Nick Balkin, and Travis Richter to establish a reputation for Kingsley Flood in the Massachusetts area and to begin expanding the group’s influence across the country. Over the past few years, the band has toured with Grace Potter
and the Nocturnals and other big-time acts. It was its third and most recent album, Battles, however that launched Kingsley Flood into the spotlight. Battles preserves the retro vibe—the Kinks-inspired melodies, the Dylan-like lyrics, and the Clash-esque energy—the band has come to be known for, while simultaneously amplifying it, proving that these New England rockers are no joke. Its sound exemplifies Kingsley Flood’s raw talent to make music that seems as dynamic recorded as it does live. The Boston Globe praised Battles, saying that it “underlines the difference between a local band ascending to a national stage and one that is finally ready for and deserving of it.” And that it is. Kingsley Flood won twice at the Boston Music Awards as well as in the Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll, and it’s unlikely it will stop there. So, as Kingsley Flood moves forward, wades out of Boston, and dips its toes into the national airwaves, it will be interesting to see whether it sinks or swims. -A.I.
Bad Rabbits Genre: R&B/Soul Select Tracks: “Can’t Fool Me,” “Dance Moves,” “Doin’ It” Sounds Like: Earth, Wind & Fire at a dance party with MIKA Take the rhythm of Bruno Mars’ soulful “Treasure,” add in a full band, and top it off with lustful lyrics, and you can begin to imagine the lively experience that is Bad Rabbits. The band, founded in 2007, has a sound that simultaneously embraces the past and the future—blending the flavor of classic R&B artists such as Bobby Brown while hinting at dance-pop elements. They started off as the backing band for rap legend Slick Rick from 2007, and they made an appearance at the 2011 Vans Warped Tour. Most recently, Bad Rabbits was named Artist of the Year at the 2013 Boston Music Awards, in addition to winning Pop/R&B Artist of the Year. Their most recent album American Love displays lead singer Fredua Boakye’s versatility—ranging from impressive high notes to deep, throaty vocals in tracks
Karmin Genre: Pop Select Tracks: “Brokenhearted,” “Look At Me Now (cover),” and “I Want It All” Sounds Like: Ke$ha and Jessie J with acoustic and rap fusions
such as “Can’t Fool Me” and “Doin’ It.” Bad Rabbits touches on many of the high-energy choruses that we saw in 2013 chart toppers such as “Get Lucky,” but they stand out in their ability to layer instrumentals and vocals without the autotuning or dubstep that artists often rely on. American Love’s tracks are not tremendously different from the songs on their self-released Stick Up Kids, but there is a sense that they are coming into their own style. With an Artist of the Year win under their belt, Bad Rabbits have proven that they are not only worthy of our attention, but also that they have potential for the year to come. -M.T.
Starting from a YouTube video, and quickly making it to a highly praised rap performance on Ellen, Karmin has certainly proven to be a group on the rise. Composed of Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan, the duo gained popularity after releasing a cover of Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now” on their YouTube channel, and they were subsequently invited to perform on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Karmin released their major EP Hello in 2012 with chart-topping singles such as “Brokenhearted,” which hit No. one on Billboard’s Dance chart. Heidemann is probably most distinguished for her ability to rap at impressive speed, and that talent shines in the majority of their original tracks and covers of artists such as Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne. Heidemann and Noonan formed Karmin while studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and they are currently engaged—“Brokenhearted” was inspired by the early stages of their relationship. The
name is a fusion of the word “carmen,” which means “song” in Latin, and “karma.” Heidemann has described Karmin’s sound as “swag-pop,” an apt label for a group that goes beyond traditional dance-pop songs to produce an original and unexpected sound. Just listen to “I Told You So,” which starts off with Heidemann’s rap verses and is followed by a chorus bouncing with playful acoustic and trumpet undertones. Most recently, Karmin released a lyric video for “I Want It All”—while it does not feature any of Heidemann’s rap, it does allow her voice to fuse with a disco-inspired beat, perhaps hinting at some new styles and experimentation in the near future. This dynamic duo’s energy and range of musical styles make for lively hits, and they will be the ones to follow in 2014 with the release of their first studio album Pulses in March and their U.S. tour, launching on Jan. 29. -M.T.
Redwood Deville Genre: Folk Rock Select Tracks: “Lighthouse,” “Oh May,” and “Running” Sounds like: Pearl Jam doing a case study of Bon Jovi’s country phase “Lord, there’s a light burning in Los Angeles, and it’s burning bright in every one of my dreams,” sings Redwood Deville front man Charles Johnson in the folk rock band’s track “Lighthouse.” Although the seven-piece band hails from California, the group has made Boston its primary musical home. Led by powerful vocalist and adept guitarist Johnson, the band brings the unwieldy folk sounds of the West Coast to Boston’s vibrant indie music scene. Redwood Deville performed at the Berklee A&R Showcase last October, and it is continuing on this track, booking with some of the city’s most influential venues. The group performed last year at the Boston Book Festival, where passersby might stumble upon something they did not bargain for, such as Redwood Deville’s fresh cover of the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down.” Vocalist Hadley Kennary joined Johnson to complete a compelling duet, showcasing a chemistry between their voices that the group should play with
more often. There’s a lot of promise in 2014 for Redwood Deville—the group is bent on a bona fide folk image, without dabbling in the pretentious impulses of such acts that often drive a mainstream audience away. Redwood Deville keeps with the joyful energy of the folk tradition, but it doesn’t shy from more haunting themes. On the band’s track “Oh May,” the song’s rousing rhythm is accented by Connor Dugan’s violin, and it drives through triumphantly to the completion of the song. “Pray,” on the other hand, shows a side of Redwood Deville’s sound that is not quite as obviously uplifting (“Her daddy died on the first of the month / They told us that we should get away / It’s getting hard to look her in the eyes”). Redwood Deville will perform on Feb. 12 at the Berklee Performance Center where, hopefully, they can prove that 2014 will be their year. -Ryan Towey, Heights Editor
Deer Tick Genre: Alternative Rock Select Tracks: “Twenty Miles,” “The Dream’s in the Ditch,” and “Just Friends” Sounds like: Delta Spirit with a sharp bite of country Deer Tick has been around, in one way or another, since 2004, but after playing last fall’s Boston Calling Music Festival, the Providence-based band left dedicated fans and casual concertgoers alike itching for more. After making its record debut with War Elephant in 2007, the group released a new album or EP almost every year after that, so there’s no denying Deer Tick is well acquainted with the music scene—not only in Boston and the U.S., but also in other countries, as well. Its second project, Born on Flag Day, was such a hit—Rolling Stone dubbed it the “Country-Rock break-through of the Year”—that they started touring internationally, playing shows throughout Europe. And after Black Dirt Sessions, its third album, Deer Tick extended their influence even further, landing a spot on the Late Show With David Letterman. Over the years, Deer Tick has become better known, appealing to listeners with front man John McCauley’s Tom Waits-esque
vocals and their raucous rock and roll performances. Its next project, Divine Providence, found the band capturing this very fiery essence of their live shows in their recorded songs, earning them comparisons from music critics to legends like The Rolling Stones and The Replacements. And the accolades don’t stop there. In December, it took home the Boston Music Award for “Best Rock Artist,” beating out Aerosmith, among others, and this month, it has been nominated in several categories at the New England Music Awards, including “Band of the Year” and for its latest album, Negativity. Such recognition, in addition to its decade-long history, just proves that this group won’t be disappearing anytime soon—Deer Tick’s here to stick. -A.I.
THE HEIGHTS
B4
Thursday, January 16, 2014
‘High Hopes’ and low returns for Springsteen’s new album
CHART TOPPERS TOP SINGLES
BY SEAN KEELEY Heights Senior Staff Whatever else may be said about it, there is no denying that High Hopes is an anomaly in Bruce Springsteen’s career. Whereas Springsteen’s other studio albums are defined by a unifying theme, musical style, or political perspective, High Hopes is decidedly unorganized. It’s a grab bag of outtakes, covers, and re-recordings alongside a few new originals. At times the album feels like a musical survey of The Boss’ last few albums. Take some of The Rising’s post-9/11 melancholy, place it alongside the populist political outrage of Wrecking Ball, and weave in some of the Celtic flavorings of The Seeger Sessions and you will have some idea of what is in store. What you won’t have is any reason why this album needs to exist—and unfortunately, the album itself does little to clarify this point. High Hopes is a curiously disjointed album with a few standouts mixed in alongside clunkers and misguided covers—it’s anomalous, yes, but not especially interesting. What it lacks in artistic cohesion, however, High Hopes occasionally makes up for with sheer musicality, making the ride a fitfully enjoyable one. The album
kicks off with the title track— a brassy, propulsive number greatly energized by the grungy guitar work of Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. The song, which showcases lyrics combining working-class anxiety with transcendent hope in classic Springsteen fashion, is such a natural fit for The Boss that it’s hard to believe he didn’t write it. But no, “High Hopes” is an obscure 1987 song by Tim Scott McConnell, first recorded by Springsteen in 1995 and rerecorded here with the help of Morello and the E Street Band. Morello’s influence is all over the album. The distinguished guitarist—who appeared on 2012’s Wrecking Ball and its subsequent tour—had a hand in the song selection and lends his distinctive sound throughout the album. Morello’s contributions enliven old material like “American Skin (41 Shots)” and “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” two classics that get expansive sevenand-a-half minute treatments on High Hopes. The first is based on a 1999 Bronx police shooting, an event Springsteen turns into a tragic anthem of racial profiling: “It ain’t no secret, no secret my friend,” he sings, “you can get killed just for living in your American skin.” The song itself
PHOTO COURTESY OF COLUMBIA RECORDS
With both its original and cover songs, ‘High Hopes’ falls short and disappoints.
1 Timber Pitbull feat. Ke$ha 2 Counting Stars OneRepublic 3 Monster Eminem feat. Rihanna 4 Dark Horse Katy Perry feat. Juicy J 5 Say Something A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera 6 Let Her Go Passenger 7 Royals Lorde 8 Wake Me Up Avicii
HIGH HOPES BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN PRODUCED BY COLUMBIA RECORDS RELEASED JAN. 14, 2014 OUR RATING
TOP ALBUMS PHOTO COURTESY OF COLUMBIA RECORDS
In the context of the rest of his work, Springsteen’s latest project seems superfluous and generallly uninteresting. is one of Springsteen’s most powerful, deftly building from the hushed, repeated cr y of “41 shots” that opens the song to be a bombastic anthem of righte ous rage. Yet e ven a s the new recording does justice to the song, the question remains: Why include it? Scattered among the album’s other tracks, the studio version lacks the contextual power it receives in concert—like, for instance, when Springsteen revived it in early 2012 as a response to the Trayvon Martin shooting. The new version of “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” however, is quite affecting, turning the sparse acoustic ballad into an electrif ying duet between Springsteen and Morello. The album’s most problematic material, distressingly enough, is found in the new original songs. “Frankie Fell in Love” desperately wants to be a cute little love song, but it’s lazy and full of coy jokes that don’t come off—including appearances from Einstein and Shakespeare, and lines like “World peace’s gonna break out, from here on in we’re eating take out.” Even worse is “This is Your Sword,” a song drenched in Celtic musical vibes which seems to find Springsteen as a knight delivering sage wisdom to his children. Needless to say, Springsteen should stick to modern New Jer-
sey and stay away from the Middle Ages; the song features some of the laziest lyrics he has ever written (“Well this is your sword, this is your shield / This is the power of love revealed”).
“‘High Hopes’ is a curiously disjointed album with a few standouts mixed in alongside clunkers and misguided covers—it’s anomalous, yes, but not especially interesting.” At its best, though, High Hopes does remind us of what a great songwriter Springsteen can be. He channels a Ground Zero worker on “Down in the Hole,” a strong track cut from 2002’s The Rising. The song is
a slow, haunting, sensitively arranged character portrait. Beginning with a rhythmic metallic pounding and a hushed, distorted vocal from Springsteen, the song quietly builds to a lovely, sad string part before the melancholy final lines: “I’m gonna dig right here until I get you back / Fires keep on burning, I’m here with you in the cold / Down in the hole.” The song demonstrates how good Springsteen is at first-person character portraits—as does “Hunter of Invisible Game,” another album highlight, set to a brisk waltz and full of biblical overtones. For the dedicated Springsteen fan, it’s worth digging through the uneven terrain of High Hopes for such gems. It’s hard to deny that the album has plenty of filler, though—in fact, you could even say that the album is filler. This impression isn’t helped by the closer: “Dream Baby Dream,” a cover of the 1979 song by Suicide. As Springsteen keeps intoning banal pop cliches— “dream baby dream,” “we gotta keep the light burning,” “come and open up your hearts,” and so on—over the song’s increasingly treacly five minutes, you keep waiting for the song to develop, for something to happen that will redeem the song, or maybe even the album. It never comes, though. Keep dreaming.
‘Fading West’ has energy but fails to switch up the sound BY HARRY MITCHELL For The Heights
After travelling the globe together in search of inspiration, the band of 40-year-old Christian surfer dudes from San Diego—alternately known as Switchfoot—have broken their silence with the release of Fading West, the group’s ninth studio album. The record accompanies a documentary, also titled Fading West, which chronicles the band’s travels, giving the audi-
ence a behind-the-scenes look at their journey. The album aims to reveal the importance of faith and family in the midst of great change. Fading West demonstrates a newfound energy that the group seemingly lost with the release of their previous album, the dark and intense Vice Verses. With its standouts including “Love Alone is Worth the Fight” and “All or Nothing At All,” the album provides a return to the vivacity felt on The Beautiful Letdown, Switchfoot’s fourth and
most successful album. “Love Alone is Worth the Fight” is largely representative of the band’s 18-year history, in which they recorded nine studio albums, released a motion picture, and took home a Grammy. In the song’s creepily contagious chorus, lead singer Jon Foreman sings, “We Find what we’re made of / Through the open door / Is it fear you’re afraid of? / What are you waiting for? / Love alone is worth the fight.” Combining the group’s signature strong rhythm
FADING WEST SWITCHFOOT PRODUCED BY ATLANTIC RELEASED JAN. 14, 2014 OUR RATING
PHOTO COURTESY OF ATLANTIC RECORDS
Although ‘Fading West’ revives Switchfoot’s energy from previous albums, it fails to take any risks in sound.
section and the indie-pop influenced vocals, the song introduces the album with optimistic vibes and energy. Similarly, the ninth song on the album, “All or Nothing At All,” shows off Foreman’s strong vocals and offers an infectious sound reminiscent of the group’s earlier works. Coinciding with the album— using U2’s album-documentary combination Rattle and Hum as inspiration—the group created a film similarly titled Fading West that it described as “part rock documentary, part surf film, and part travelogue.” Focusing so much on the movie was a considerable risk, as fans will likely overlook the film’s content and simply listen to the album. Some might argue that the presence of the film only reduces the overall effectiveness of the record, yet the gorgeous locations and diverse cultures the group visited throughout the film helped to inspire some equally beautiful songs. Even if fans ignore the documentary, Switchfoot did well with balancing the two, and the music accordingly doesn’t seem to suffer. Much like Beyonce’s recent self-titled album, Switchfoot’s Fading West actually builds on the experience of the album with its video components. Fading West can—in broad terms—be considered a success simply because of how bright and revitalized the group sounds
throughout. After a recent trend of low-spirited releases from the band, Switchfoot seems refreshed and hopeful, and perhaps even to have grown a little in its sound. In the penultimate song of the work “Saltwater Heart”, Foreman sings “Maybe I could was clean / All my landlocked dreams,” but ultimately assures his listeners of the group’s regeneration and the enlivenment of the band’s aims. While the album succeeds in escaping back to the more spirited nature of previous albums, and has something to show for itself with the corresponding documentary, the record fails to present any truly outstanding songs. Fading West’s tracklist is consistently safe and is overall uneventful. Although Switchfoot seems reinvigorated on the new album, it is missing the raw, unprocessed hits like The Best Yet’s “Dare You to Move” and “Meant to Live.” As a consistent, albeit slight, album that adheres more to the genre of pop than alternative, Fading West provides a pleasant and refreshing record that will not disappoint in any profound way. If you’re expecting a diverse set of sounds and more than a couple notable tracks in the package, or a moment that will make you get out of your seat and dance, though ,you’re definitely out of luck. Fading West is a safe and balanced work that succeeds in bringing back the band’s liveliness of character, yet fails to present anything of exception.
1 Frozen Original Soundtrack 2 Beyonce Beyonce 3 My Own Lane Kid Ink 4 The Marshal Mathers LP 2 Eminem 5 Pure Heroine Lorde
Source: Billboard.com
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK BY KATLYN PRENTICE
“GOODNESS GRACIOUS”
ELLIE GOULDING
Spring Breakers came out last year, right? Ellie Goulding’s new music video for her song “Goodness Gracious” is all neon-clad juveniles (or I guess you could call them “spring breakers”) running around some SoCal / Florida locale without much going for them other than their light-up sneakers—because light-up sneakers are supposedly cool again. Directed by Kinga Burza, the video itself has really nothing to do with the lyrics. Goulding sings about wanting to call her ex repeatedly, and yet, never is there a cellphone in the video or anything about her character to show that she is remotely sad or frustrated by her constant need to keep calling. Maybe the overused inverted color scheme is supposed to represent her discontent, but the overall message of the song makes no sense juxtaposed with bad tap dancing that belongs in a ‘90s Skechers commercial. The music video itself is fun and bright, but I can’t help myself from thinking about all the stereotypical portrayals of youths at parties. Have you ever been to a party on a beach with glow sticks and black lights? Yes? Well then, you are a stereotype. It’s a fun video that reuses imagery over and over again and where nothing really happens but the supposed cool kids partying. Although it is customary to have the artist sing in the video, it just felt strange seeing Goulding sing an electronic song while riding a glowing bicycle or running around palm trees in the middle of the night. I didn’t know what was going on, but everyone seemed to have a good time. Music videos should still represent the story of the song—even to a minimal degree—but in this case, the two just did not fit.
SINGLE REVIEWS BY JOHN WILEY ALOE BLACC “The Man”
YG FEAT. DJ MUSTARD “Left, Right” Soul artist Aloe Blacc first made his way into the national arena as the voice to Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” and he returns with hip-hop flare in “The Man.” The track reached number two on the iTunes charts this weekend after being revealed in a new Beats commercial. The song is lyrically a nod to Elton John’s “Your Song,” and vocally harkens back to the sounds of the Rocket Man.
BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB “Luna” West coast rapper YG continues his relatively uneventful career of ass-centric anthem rap this week with “Left, Right,” a song about shaking it in a horizontal direction. The song benefits slightly from the vaguely creative orchestrations of producer DJ Mustard (2 Chainz’ “I’m Different”), but frankly, there’s nothing much different about this single.
British indie rock quartet the Bombay Bicycle Club teased some of the sounds of its upcoming album So Long, See You Tomorrow with “Luna,” a punchy synth tune heavy on harmonies, but light in its overall feel. The track features the vocals of Blackpool singersongwriter Rae Morris and is likely to make some ripples in the indie scene this January.
The Heights
Thursday, January 16, 2014
B5
Wiley’s Follies
Scene Style Award shows’ Winter winds: Boston combats the cold of January decline in the Edem Dela-Seshie, A&S ’14
Internet age
Thais Menendez, A&S ’14
John Wiley
Edem Dela-Seshie, A&S ’14: Winter is a time to explore shades of gray. Thais Menendez, A&S ’14: A gold scarf brings sunshine to a rainy day. Kiran Mani, A&S ’15: Coordination is key when bringing brighter items into the equation. Alex Pear, CSOM ’16: A black umbrella is a versatile frame for any look. Olivia Stinnette, A&S ’16: The right sweater can make or break a winter in Boston.
Kiran Mani, A&S ’15
Alex Pear, Csom ’16 By John Wiley
Olivia Stinnette, A&S ’16
Arts & Review Editor Boston winter and bona fide fashion seldom seem a convenient mix. Last week’s polar vortex left behind reasonable uncertainty in the dress of Boston College students, creating an unusual context for campus style this coming semester and, for some, opportunity. The response to this week’s shifty weather has been broadly defensive. Conservative dress seems the common thread among most students passing through O’Neill Plaza—winter fashion in Chestnut Hill runs primarily on the dark end of the grayscale, with richer browns most commonly accenting a trend of understated tones. The warmer weather patterns leading out of last weekend, however, confounded the bleaker tendencies of winter fashion. The not-so-subtle shades of spring made an odd appearance with the start of classes. The constraints of a warm but rainy Tuesday turned into a call to creativity. Scarves became headpieces, black umbrellas became a backdrop for high fashion, and while the January afternoon wasn’t exactly sweater weather, the 48 degree temperature was occasion enough for some. n
John Wiley / Heights Editor
Fashion Forward
Making fashion resolutions you can keep for the new year This can be your best-dressed year yet, but updating a wardrobe takes sacrifice and careful planning
Therese Tully January means resolutions for many people: hit the gym, cut out sweets, start making your bed, or think positively. Resolutions can be tough to stick to, but they don’t have to be. This year, why not make a resolution that you actually want to keep? It’s time to update your wardrobe for the days ahead. Here are my fashion resolutions for the new year. There are many simple ways to update your look with just a little bit of creativity. First of all, it’s important to clean house before filling up your wardrobe with this year’s newest trends. There are always those pieces that never leave your drawers or closet. Why do we hold onto these dated, ill-fitting, or just plain ugly items? Treat your closet with respect—if it isn’t inspiring or aiding your wardrobe in an important way, it’s time to toss it. This process can take a while, but it can be a good motivator to know that every piece you get rid of leaves space for something new. Jeans can be a big space waster, and really, how many pairs do you need? Try them all on, and if you don’t feel comfortable in them, you aren’t going to wear them. Let them go. But you don’t simply have to throw them out—try consigning your old clothes for some extra cash, or donate them. Most areas have clothing banks, Goodwill stores, or church drives that will collect clothes that are clean and in good shape. Now that you know all the contents of your closet, and that they all are in good shape and fit nicely, it’s time to get
creative. Do you always wear that black sweater with that maroon skirt? Time to find a new way to wear it. Rethinking the items in your wardrobe is almost as good as getting new clothes. Combine your pieces in new ways and rethink the possibilities. At this point, it’s also a good idea to check out your basics. You need good starting blocks to build a beautiful wardrobe. A great pair of dark jeans, a classic white t-shirt and black t-shirt, an exceptional pair of leather boots, an appropriate pencil skirt and blouse, a fabulous party dress, and a perfect pair of black pumps are simply a must. Though these are maybe not the most fun or flashy purchases, it is important to keep your basics looking good. You will wear them a lot, so they will need to be replaced every few months. Now that we have taken care of the tough parts of our resolution, the fun can begin. Be smart with your shopping this year: plan your seasonal splurge. Are you going to buy something wonderful each season, or twice yearly, perhaps? Plan, search, and think hard about what trendy items you can’t stand not to have. Trends are tough, because they just come and go so quickly, but they are also fun. Don’t let yourself get left in the dust! Treat yourself to a nice splurge each season, big or small. You don’t have to shop just once a season. It is winter sale time! I am behind any sort of resolution that lets me shop. Grab up some of those great winter sale items, if you can stand to look at winter clothes any longer. Great new boots, cozy sweaters, and outerwear are mostly on sale at this time. Although you may be tired of dressing for winter already, you can pack these new pieces away and save them for next year. After a long, hot summer, it will be a pleasant treat to open up your packed away winter treats and add those pieces to your wardrobe.
The icing on the cake is the accessories. Even if you can’t afford to add lots of fabulous new pieces to your wardrobe, updating your accessories is a great way to give your outfits a boost. Add some new light spring and summer scarves to a simple outfit of white jeans and a white t-shirt, pile on tons of bangles, both cheap and expensive, for a luxe look, or find a great new beaded headband to take a simple outfit and make it special. If you set up your wardrobe right, every day can feel special. You will feel
more organized, you will know all the pieces you have and won’t overlook the possibilities that are lying dormant in your now cluttered and crazy closet. Revamping your wardrobe does not have to be an expensive project. All it will take is a little bit of creativity and time and an eye for what works for you, so let’s make this the most fashionable year yet.
Therese Tully is a senior staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.
Craig Ruttle / ap photo
The new year will come with unrealistic promises, but a new you can start with a new look.
It feels unnatural, nearly sacrilegious, hearing names like Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar uttered in the same breath. A very strong argument could be made that the “award show” is an outdated institution, that programs like the Grammys are occasions for the elite to make haphazard comparisons between artists and ultimately slap the general public on the wrist for valuing the “wrong” kinds of things. With the opinions of critics now made conveniently available—and broken down by percentage—on websites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, it becomes difficult to see any distinct value in an unsupported, often politically influenced consensus on what was best this year. The reality of the award show, however, is far more troubling than that. To begin seeing the more sinister implications of the system, we must go beyond the caricature of a bunch of old men making these decisions in a smoke-filled room. Most awards are given out through a system of checks and balances, and while major distribution companies have lobbies built into these deciding institutions, the processes themselves operate—by loose standards—with some established notion of fairness. While a list of the Grammy winners of Album of the Year since the award’s founding in 1959 will give you a very incomplete portrait of the last five decades, it will still likely appeal to what you believe to have happened in music over the last 54 years. Contrast this with a list of the bestselling albums over the same period, and two things will stand out. The first is the tendency of the general public to occasionally behave in ways we can now hardly imagine—Billy Ray Cyrus did, indeed, have a no. 1 record in 1992. The second item we notice, however, is the strong relationship between the two lists—what appears to be an extraordinary ability of the Grammys to steer the general public. For decades, it seems like the institution had kept public opinion at bay, at least in my interpretation. But then enters a strange catalyst—it could be defined more broadly, but for the sake of simplicity, I call it the Internet. Leading out of the ’90s, there appears to be a newfound conservatism in the picks of these institutions: resistance. But in time, something wild begins to happen—the elite bow to the general public, if not in how they pick the winners, at least in how they pick the nominees. Expert decisions become defensive maneuvers, and critical opinion becomes clear for what it always was, or at least what it is waiting to be: consensus. Perhaps in a more accurate showing of the industry, stars would gather in a large performance hall, and crowd around the iTunes homepage, or Youtube’s most-played to see where music is going. If this is the direction we’re headed, a new history of art ridden of an institutional footprint, the results will be mixed. For one, the award shows themselves will start heading— as I believe they already have—in the direction of MTV’s Video Music Awards, and awards themselves will become secondary to the spectacles surrounding them. Depending on your point of view, a potentially more troubling consequence might be that the artists themselves will begin to see less incentive to create meaningful work. I’d like to argue, though, that something made for the approval of critics and colleagues is hardly meaningful work, and the leveling of opinions between critics and the public might ultimately have favorable consequences. I am not suggesting the general public is superior in opinion to well-established art institutions, but rather, that they are far less reliable. Any measure of popular opinion is superficial at best, and the Internet has confounded our impulses to trust opinions. We are now in contact with so many lists of “what’s best” that it begins to feel like nothing is. Often the best art is what we can’t agree upon. How will our music be remembered? Maybe it won’t. There’s something to be said for music that’s made to be made, and not for any legacy.
John Wiley is the Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.
THE HEIGHTS
B6
Drink tap water. And before you know it, you can stash away $14,000. You don’t always have to drink bottled water. A $3 bottle a day x 365 days x 10 years x 6% interest is $14,694. That could be money in your pocket. Small changes today. Big bucks tomorrow. Go to feedthepig.org for free savings tips.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
THE HEIGHTS
Thursday, January 16, 2014
B7
THIS WEEK IN... BY KELLY COLEMAN | FOR THE HEIGHTS
MUSIC
COMEDY
Jay-Z is coming to tow n! The hip-hop guru’s Magna Carter World Tour stops in B oston this Saturday, Jan. 18, at 8:30 p.m. at TD Garden. The star’s tour has been promoted by his 12th album Magna Carta Holy Grail, with hits including, “Holy Grail.” The album comments on his struggle to balance fame, family, and celebrity. The concerts thus far have been very well received. Critic Katie Fitzpatrick of the Manchester Evening News gave the concert four out of five stars and said, “If we aren’t arm-waving along to modern anthems such as ‘99 Problems’ and ‘Empire State of Mind,’ we’re standing with respectful attention as though we’re beholding a life-altering church sermon.” Other critics rated the concert similarly. Jay-Z will be performing in Washington, D.C. and Connecticut before heading to Boston on Saturday.
Jan. 14 through 1 8 , c o m e d i a n Ji m Gaffigan will be performing his renowned standup at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston. Rumor has it he will address his recently published hilarious autobiography, Dad Is Fat, which he advertised on his official website: “It’s all about the joys and horrors of my life with five young children. I’m not sure if it’s a memoir, a confession, an apology, or cry for help.” Gaffigan kicked off his standup career in the ’90s, and has since become adored nationwide for his casual, honest, occasionally selfdeprecating humor. Gaffigan has recently been using his comedic talent for the greater good. On his official website, jimgaffigan.com, one can download his 75-minute standup routine “Mr. Universe” for $5. A dollar of every purchase is donated to the Bob Woodruff Foundation, an organization focused on helping veterans and their families.
MBTA
SPORTS
NORTH END
On Sunday, hundreds of Boston locals rendezvoused at Government Center. Donning their usual winter garb minus pants or skirts, hundreds of good-humored passengers rode the T around Boston. Most didn’t speak or act as if anything was amiss—they simply went about their day a little more out in the open than usual. It was Boston’s annual “No Pants Subway Ride,” a quirky tradition executed by 50 cities worldwide. The winter prank comes from humble beginnings: in 2002, seven men of Improv Everywhere rode the New York City subway sans pants. The prank is meant to celebrate silliness. While gathered at government center, the commuters were instructed to take certain routes to allow for maximum exposure. The event ended with an after party at McGreevey’s on Boylston Street, where themed cocktails such as the “Berry Nice Undies” were served.
On Monday night, Celtics star R ajon Rondo announce d his return to the court in a bit of a riddle. Rondo revealed via Twitter the number of seconds between the time of his injury and the time he would return to the court: 29,233,380 to be exact. This tweet suggests he will be back in the game on Friday, Jan. 15, to face the LA Lakers at TD Garden. Celtics coach Brad Stevens was originally not so optimistic. After Tuesday’s practice, however, he hinted Friday may actually be a realistic day to expect Rondo back. Celtic s trainer Br y an D o o re p o r te d l y i s p u tt i n g R o n d o through another extensive workout on Wednesday and practice on Thursday to gauge his preparedness for Friday’s game. Rondo’s teammates, coach, and fans are eagerly awaiting the thumb’s-up from Doo.
Anthony Gesualdi, co-owner of Davide Restaurant on the North End, made a Facebook page announcing his intriguing new venture after Davide’s recently rumored closing. The attraction’s page reads, “An adults only tour of Boston’s Historical North End.” Gesualdi’s idea for this historical tour with a twist sprouted because he felt other historical tours around Boston were boring. He feels that North End tour guides give inauthentic tours because they did not live the history found in the guidebooks. G esualdi, on the other hand, “will take you all the places in the neighborhood us natives would go to.” The tour culminates with a homemade Italian dinner made by Gesualdi’s mother in their home. “You get to see an Italian home in the North End,” which is situated in a neighborhood of many other Italian families, Gesualdi adds.
BOSTON POLICE BLOTTER
BOSTON FOODIE
A new gem in Kendall Square
Thursday, Jan. 9 Breaking & Entering - About 2:25 p.m. Officers received a radio call to Clevemont Avenue for a Breaking & Entering Report. Victim stated she went to an appointment and returned home to find that unknown persons had pushed in her air conditioner to gain entry to her apartment. Bank Robbery - About 4:05 p.m. Officers received a radio call to Citizens Bank on Beacon Street for a bank robbery. Teller reported the suspect produced a note while holding his side. No weapons shown. Friday, Jan. 10 Larceny in a Building - About 5:47 p.m. Boston Housing Police reported that at the Patricia White Apartments on Washington Street a suspect broke into their vending machine, stole merchandise, and damaged the machine. Breaking & Entering Day Time- About 5:37 p.m. Officers received a radio call to St. Luke’s Road for a Breaking & Entering Report. Victim reported black Sony camera, black and white ski goggles, XBOX and XBOX controller, and other electronic devices were stolen. Saturday, Jan. 11 Breaking and Entering Night Time -About 3:50 a.m. Officers received a radio call to Cambridge Street for a Breaking & Entering report. Victim reported that he heard a noise coming from his kitchen area. Victim reported an Oster Cooking Pan and some “tasty” dumplings were stolen.
Source – The Boston Police Department
HOUSE AD
PHOTO COURTESY OF COMMONWEALTH CAMBRIDGE
Commonwealth Cambridge brings a new restaurant and market to Boston area BY MAGGIE POWERS Heights Editor Kendall Square, an area of Boston that sees about 60,000 people each day, lacked a place to buy a few simple items like a gallon of milk or a lemon. That is, until the opening of the new farm-to-table restaurant/ market hybrid Commonwealth Cambridge this past November. After working everywhere from Buenos Aires to Fenway Park, chef and owner Steve “Nookie” Postal decided to open Commonwealth. He never intended to open a market, but the location made this a reality. “I was looking for a restaurant space it was never my intention to open a market,” said Postal. “I’ve never run a market before, but I found the space that had all the qualifications that I wanted.” “I wanted it to be in Cambridge, I wanted it to be on the Red Line, I wanted it to have parking and to have outside space,” he said. “The only problem was it was much larger than a restaurant could handle. So the area kind of dictated the market. I couldn’t open a 6,500-square foot restaurant. So I was like, what are we going to do?” Nookie’s solution was to fill the void he saw in Kendal Square. “We’re just a place where if you want some dinner, you can pick it up and bring it home, or the wife says get some milk and eggs,” said Postal. He clarified, though, “We’re not a grocery store. Some people come in and say ‘This isn’t a grocery store.’ We’re not trying to be a grocery store.” The mission of Commonwealth is far deeper than that. The goal is to service the Kendall Square community with local produce, allowing the food to transform and evolve with the seasons. Postal considers one of his signature dishes to be the whole crispy fish. “We’re working with a black bass right now, but it changes,” he said. This, in essence is what Commonwealth is all about, a great dish that changes based on the seasonal needs. Because of the seasonal ingredients, opening in November posed some challenges for Postal. “We talk all the time about how different our menus are going to look,” Postal said. The outdoor seating on location near the water will offer added appeal in the summer months.
Currently, there is focus on winter vegetables in entrees such as a beet and goat cheese salad on the lunch menu and the baby kale on the dinner menu. “They’re good but they’re not asparagus,” Postal joked. “We’re dealing with it, it’s part of being a chef in New England.” And dealing with it they are. Lunch provides options such as hot pastrami sandwiches or spinach and honeycrisp apple salads. For dinner, warm, comfort dishes are offered. “People really love the short rib,” Postal said. Sides such as homemade mac-and-cheese or crispy risotto cakes add a “Sunday dinner” feeling to the dishes. In addition, there is a full bar with craft cocktails. The rustic, vintage atmosphere of Commonwealth is juxtaposed against the otherwise technology-focused, sleek, and modern area. Reclaimed shipping pallets act as tables amid unique and homey items found everywhere from antique markets to warehouses. “It’s always been my dream to open my restaurant and I did it,” Postal said. Of course, as expected when
LOCATION: Kendall Square CUISINE: American SIGNATURE DISH: Short Ribs opening a restaurant, there have been challenges. “You can only plan so much when you’re opening a restaurant,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about this for years and years, I’ve run it through my head and planned it, but then when you finally open you’re like, well, that didn’t work.” Even when things break or he faces staffing issues, Postal remains positive. These are issues he has faced anywhere he has worked, “but at least now they’re my problems,” he said. Commonwealth has also started offering brunch, which serves up a spirit that captures what Postal is all about. Not only is stuffed French toast or quiche are served, but a true sense of fun, as well. “We do Marky Mark and the Funky Brunch and we play cheesy ’90s,” Postal said. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously, we have fun.” Filling a void Kendall Square probably did not know existed, Chef Nookie Postal has managed to create a space that is enjoyable and casual, and provides great local food—in both a restaurant and market form—in casual environment that will please families and foodies alike.
The Heights
B8
Bennet’s Banter
Steer clear of workout supplements
Bennet Johnson “You swoll, bro?” I heard this phrase repeated by multiple guys as I passed through the entrance of the Plex last week. For those who are not familiar with this new macho-manly phrase, “getting swoll” refers to getting buff at the gym. Boston is a fit city. In fact, Boston has seen a 10.8 percent increase in health club memberships since 2009, according to a study by the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association. Boston College students are no exception. In hopes of “getting swoll” to start off the new year, an obscene amount of students swarmed the Plex floor yesterday in order to hit the treadmills, weights, and tennis courts. After I walked through the Plex doors, I entered the gym to see about 100 people waiting in line for various ellipticals and machines. It was nothing like I’d ever seen before. Most notably, I saw a group of students—both men and women—taking scoops of powder out of giant tubs of various supplements and mixing them in water bottles. When I asked what they were drinking, one woman answered, “an energy booster.” Another man replied, “dietary supplements.” As many of these people start their New Year’s resolutions by hitting the gym in hopes of “getting swoll,” should we be concerned about what they’re consuming? Just ask Christopher Herrera. Herrera, a 17-year-old student from Katy, Texas, walked into the emergency room at Texas Children’s Hospital one morning last year. His chest, face, and eyes were “almost highlighter yellow,” according to the story from Anahad O’Connor in The New York Times. Herrera suffered severe liver damage after taking high doses of a concentrated green tea extract he bought at a nutrition store, labeled as a “fat burning” dietary supplement. The damage on his liver was so extensive that he was put on the waiting list for a liver transplant. According to the FDA, Americans spend an estimated $32 billion on dietary supplements every year. We are attracted by various claims that these powders and pills help individuals lose weight, gain muscle, and even fight off the common cold. Americans line up in crowds outside their local GNC to buy these items. In fact, about half of Americans use some form of dietary supplements, and most of them mix more than one product at a time. Although doctors were able to save Herrera’s liver, he can no longer play sports or spend much time outdoors because he might strain the organ. He also has to take monthly trips to the doctor’s office to evaluate his liver—all because he hoped to lose weight quickly by using a dangerous dietary supplement. The problem with some of these supplements is the fact that they are largely unregulated. Since they are not classified as drugs, the various pills and powders are not made according to minimal standards of manufacturing. Usually, the agency has to wait until individuals are harmed in order to remove a product from stores. This sort of honor system has caused the market to fill with illegal products. In fact, many are often mislabeled, and the ingredients are not as safe as they may seem. Dietary supplements account for nearly 20 percent of drug-related injuries that occur in hospitals in America, according to a study done by a national network of liver specialists. This is up from 7 percent a decade ago and is continuing to rise. The research found that many of the products that caused liver injuries were body-building supplements full of unlisted steroids, pills, and powders promising to help increase energy and help people lose weight (“get swoll”). Herrera believed he could accelerate his weight loss by taking a form of a dietary supplement. What he didn’t know was that the unregulated powder contained dangerous ingredients that almost cost the boy his liver. Like Herrera, many of us are hoping to get an edge in order to be in great shape this year. My advice to all of the Plex-goers fulfilling their New Year’s resolutions: know what you’re taking.
Bennet Johnson is the Asst. Metro Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Fund to increase assistance to marathon victims One Fund, from B10 James Gallagher, the executive vice president of John Hancock and president of One Fund Boston, also spoke concerning the most effective way to assist those touched by the April 15 tragedy. “The severity of the injuries suffered by so many last April is almost too much to comprehend and we understand money alone cannot replace all that was lost,” he said, according to Boston.com. “But the outpouring of love
and overwhelming generosity and support from thousands of individuals, businesses and non-profit organizations from all over the world helps offer hope for a brighter future.” The One Fund was created in the immediate aftermath of the bombings to help offer such hope, both for the survivors as well as the city of Boston. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and then-mayor Thomas M. Menino established The One Fund Boston on April 16, 2013, just a day
after the attacks. Despite a recent scandal in which two brothers attempted to cheat The One Fund Boston out of $2.2 million, the nonprofit has secured widespread success in its receipt of donations, consistently increasing the $73 million it has already raised to assist Marathon victims. The charity is also moving to raise awareness. The Boston Athletic Association, the corporation that organizes the annual run, gave the One Fund 50 charity bibs to
form a team of runners. The applications to join the team were accepted until Jan. 7 and focused on the individual’s connection both to the One Fund as well as to last year’s marathon attacks. In addition, the nonprofit has teamed up with Adidas to announce that a portion of the sales from the 2014 Boston Marathon Celebration jacket, which will be worn by the almost 50,000 competitors, race officials, and volunteers, will be donated to The One Fund Boston. n
Day shelter provides safe space for women
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3 Ryan Towey / Metro Editor
1. Volunteers help out at the Women’s Lunch Place, which serves breakfast and lunch six days a week. 2. The shelter offers art therapy programs. 3. A resource center is available for the women.
Keeley, from B10 ating Suffolk Law, Keeley always volunteered at various shelters, but she said that some of her ability to sympathize with the less fortunate is rooted in her legal career. A prosecutor for 29 years, Keeley said that she has always had an eye on the marginalized, as she tried many domestic abuse and child abuse cases. Keeley’s legal career helped teach her to pay attention to those whom others ignore. Early in her career, another lawyer approached her and told her that the clerks and court officers are the most important in the courtroom—they are the people who can make a lawyer’s life that much easier. “To this day, I have friendships with clerks and court officers that go back almost 30 years,” Keeley said. In her role as executive director at the Women’s Lunch Place, Keeley applies the same principles. She tries to start her day at 7:30 a.m., reaching out to the guests at the shelter with a smile, a gentle hand, or
conversation. Despite this, one guest at the shelter called Keeley “tough.” Keeley said that people have always told her she is “nice but tough,” and that this stems from a long career in the courtroom, where she had to have thick skin and be aggressive when advocating for her clients. “To that extent, I am tough,” Keeley said. “But I am such a softie, really.” She told one story about a women at the shelter who struggles with alcoholism. The woman had been sober for five or six weeks. “She looked wonderful, and it was right before Christmas and it was a tough time for her, but she was positive,” Keeley said. “I just saw her a week ago, and she’s been drinking and it just breaks your heart.” Alcoholism is one of the many struggles that often accompanies homelessness, according to Keeley. Such problems make the issue of homelessness that much more difficult to solve. Putting homeless individuals in housing without helping them find
jobs, resolve addictions, or deal with mental illness, Keeley said, means that they are not likely to keep their housing for long. To combat the cycle of homelessness, the Women’s Lunch Place has a resource center—complete with several computers and assistants who are there to help—helps women at the shelter with their resumes so that they can find jobs. “We help women to help themselves,” Keeley said. “We don’t presume to tell them what they need. We give them opportunities, we offer them choices, but we encourage them to make decisions for themselves, to empower themselves.” The Women’s Lunch Place also provides basic healthcare for the women, as well as less formal methods of healing, including art therapy and writing programs that allow the women to work through traumatizing experiences. “One of our guests talks about how she went to the writing program, and she discovered her inner self,” Keeley said of an older guest. “She never focused on
herself. It was always external, taking care of other people. So that’s a wonderful program that we have. And I think it offers the women that much more than just coming in and having a meal.” While the challenges of homelessness remain omnipresent and the divide between society’s haves and have-nots continues to grow, Keeley is confident that little differences can be made. “Many of our guests walk the streets and are totally ignored and marginalized in so many ways,” she said. “So every day we feel that we have made the lives of many of our guests better. And then the successes are small, but they are so rewarding.” As the guests at the Women’s Lunch Place search for those successes, Keeley does not want them living in the shadows. She referred to the temporary sign that alerts guests and pedestrians to the presence of the day shelter. Keeley knew that the church had a black sign the shelter could use, but she opted for a white one. She wanted it to stand out. n
Walsh discusses education and crime in inaugural speech Speech, from B10 this together—every race and religion. We are in this together, every man, woman and child. For our seniors and our students, for rich and poor, and everyone in between … Together, we can create one Boston—one Boston, a hub of opportunity, community, and equality for all.” As he outlined the issues to be tackled immediately by his newly appointed cabinet and staff, Walsh made it clear that the work begins now. Although nothing in Walsh’s speech contradicted any platform points made in his campaign, the order in which he plans to face those issues piqued the interest of Monday morning’s listeners. His campaign team promoted Walsh as a champion of organized labor, a man able to collaborate
with various members of the political landscape to break down barriers that precluded taking active measures—such as the hushed truths concerning racial profiling within the Boston police force. At his inauguration however, Walsh discussed his desire to bring down violence and crime in local communities by addressing the parties plagued by issues of crime every day, such as the police force, the recovery community, and, most poignantly, the affected families. “There were fewer murders last year—40 homicides in our city,” Walsh said. “And while that lower number is good news … 40 homicides still represent 40 grieving mothers too many.” After the ceremony, Walsh convened a meeting between the parties listed above to formulate possible steps that could be taken to diminish crime and violence on the
streets of Boston. Walsh discussed other platform points, such as caring for senior citizens and connecting with the youth culture—which he sees as integral to Boston’s “responsibility to every generation”—in broader, more generic terms, and he also gave mention to the restructuring of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). While Walsh promised a speedy overhaul of the BRA during his campaign, he backpedaled in early December, saying that he was not in a rush to deal with the powerful city agency that has overseen development in the city of Boston in recent years—including developments on BC’s own campus. With the resignation of BRA director Peter Meade in effect the same day as Menino’s exit from office, however, Walsh may need to face the agency’s redevelopment sooner rather than later.
Walsh reiterated the importance of education, which took center stage during the campaign season. During his speech, he announced that he planned to launch a nationwide search for the next superintendent of Boston Public Schools the following day. Early in his speech, Walsh cited examples of citizens directly telling him the changes they want enacted as he assumes this new role. Early on, he made a promise to the residents of Boston: “I will listen. I will learn. I will lead.” While only detailing plans for a few of his campaign platforms in his inauguration speech, the mayor gave his listeners a clear takeaway before leaving Conte Forum: “I am inspired every day by the people of our city by your hopes, by your dreams, by your determination,” he said. “I am listening. I will keep on listening. We will move Boston forward together.” n
Gaming Commission denies Walsh’s request for delay Casino, from B10 an updated casino plan. After the failure of Suffolk Down’s original plan in November, the site struck a deal with Mohegan Sun for a $1.3 billion resort style plan. The drafted blueprints include space for restaurants, shops, and a spa. In November, 59 percent of Revere voters supported the casino plan—the advocacy group “Revere Says Yes” hopes to raise that percentage in the vote to take place on Feb. 25. The group, made up of longtime Revere residents and small business owners, hopes the casino will boost the economy of the blue-collar town. Miles Lang-Kennedy, chief of staff to the mayor of Revere, confirmed that the casino
project also has the support of Mayor Dan Rizzo: “The mayor has been very favorable about this project since the beginning. The main focus is to bring in new revenue and help the local business economy and bring local jobs to the city.” According to LangKennedy, the project is expected to bring as many as 4,000 permanent jobs to Revere. On Monday, Walsh defended the previous outlines: “The fact that [Mohegan Sun] may have attempted to shift the casino so that it is located solely within the city of Revere in an effort to address the failure of the East Boston vote should not change the agreed upon commitments as articulated in the city’s existing [host agreement] for the Suffolk Downs property,” Walsh’s law department wrote Monday to the state
gambling commission. This statement comes after tensions arose last week between the mayor and the gaming commission when the commission denied Walsh more time to review casino plans. In order to clarify whether the city of Boston could be considered a host community for one or both of the potential projects, Walsh requested an extra month to review documents. Instead of allowing the delay, the commission suggested that Walsh accept the offers from the casino companies to designate Boston as a surrounding community. Representatives further encouraged Walsh to, if desired, “press any claims to the more powerful and lucrative position of host,” according to The Boston Globe. Under state
law, host communities hold far more leverage on planning and discussions and have the right to vote on casino proposals. Upon this decision on Friday, Walsh released a statement expressing his disappointment in the commission’s “arbitrary” deadline. “The commission has refused to grant Boston a mere 30 additional days to review 43,000 pages of documents, the vast majority of which we are seeing for the first time,” said Walsh via a press release from the mayor’s office. No further developments have been made since Walsh begrudgingly accepted Boston’s involvement as a “surrounding community” on Monday. It is possible, however, that Walsh will continue to press the city’s involvement to gain more access to the casino plans. n
THE HEIGHTS
Thursday, January 16, 2014
B9
Walsh makes key picks for new administration BENNET JOHNSON Asst. Metro Editor Last week, Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, made some crucial moves on his first day in office. Walsh officially took over as Boston’s new mayor last Tuesday, signifying the first changeover of the city’s top elected leader
since Thomas M. Menino took office two decades ago. Walsh’s first day was anything but normal. “I felt like it was my first day of school,” Walsh said in an interview with The Boston Globe. He dealt with a variety of first-day assignments and duties, including his announce-
ment of his picks for his administration. Walsh appointed eight members to his cabinet, with a few picks still left to come. Walsh’s personal staff will oversee various day-to-day tasks with the goal of helping Boston thrive during the next four years of Walsh’s tenure. Walsh declared that his selections are individuals with “a lot of expertise” in their
areas, who will “bring a lot of new energy” to their jobs. He explained that four of the candidates backed his mayoral campaign, and two of them have just six months to move into Boston, according to The Boston Herald. Below is a highlight of four of the appointed individuals to serve under Mayor Walsh.
THE HEART OF THE CITY
Thoughts on my Boston New Year
A LOOK AT WALSH’S PICKS MAGGIE POWERS
CHIEF OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Felix Arroyo
POLICE COMMISSIONER William Evans
CHIEF OF POLICY Joyce Linehan
CHIEF OF STAFF Daniel Arrigg Koh
Arroyo, a former City Counselor, will work with Walsh in an administrative role as chief of health and human services. Arroyo was co-chairman of Walsh’s transition committee, which helped appoint new members to Walsh’s staff after Menino left office. Arroyo has served as a city councilorat-large since January 2010. Before his election to city council, Arroyo served as a organizer and political director at Local 615 of the Services Employees International Union, and was New England field director for Healthcare for America Now. After being eliminated in the mayoral preliminary vote, Arroyo was a minority candidate whose endorsement of Walsh helped propel him to victory over his opponent, City Councilor John Connolly. “Felix brings a wealth of knowledge and city of Boston experience to my administration,” Walsh said in a statement. “Felix knows how to bring people together and work collaboratively. He values and understands the importance of directly addressing the needs of Boston’s most vulnerable residents, and he will have a huge impact on our city in this role.”
Evans, a 31-year veteran of the Boston Police Department, has significant experience in leadership roles within the department. These include roles in response to the Boston Marathon bombings, along with the capture of alleged terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Evans joined the police force in 1982 as a patrol officer, and rose to become a captain in 2006. He has also been serving as interim police commissioner since Ed Davis stepped down on Nov. 1. Evans is a 2008 graduate from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and he recently completed a certificate program for senior executives in state and local government. “Commissioner Evans shares my belief that we all must work together—in the community, across departments, and with state and federal partners —to build collaborations to attack the root causes of violence and make sure everyone feels safe in our city,” Walsh said in a statement. “He understands that we can’t just react to crime—we must work together to prevent it from happening in the first place.”
Joyce Linehan was Walsh’s campaign policy director. Now she will be doing the same job in City Hall, as Boston’s chief of policy. Linehan—no relation to City Council President Bill Linehan—is an arts publicist and grass-roots political organizer from Dorchester. Until recently, she was best known for her role as a publicist for some of Boston’s top nonprofit arts organizations, including ArtsEmerson, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and First Night Boston. Despite being close to other potential mayoral candidates, Linehan supported Walsh. She joined Walsh’s campaign in its infancy, and has directed Walsh’s policy from day one. According to Boston Magazine, Linehan’s friends refer to her as “the decider.” Perhaps seen as his closest political advisor, Linehan has been seen as one of the engineers of Walsh’s mayoral platform. Linehan, evincing separation anxiety, insisted for months that she would not continue her job in the administration. She later changed her mind when Walsh offered her the position. “I would be nuts to turn it down,” Linehan told The Boston Globe.
Before accepting the job to be the Mayor ’s chief of staff, Daniel Koh served as the general manager of Huffington Post’s online news network, HuffPost Live, where he was named one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” in Media. Koh, an Andover native with a degree in government from Harvard and a masters in business administration from Harvard Business School, also served a year as an advisor to former mayor Menino. “I’m excited to have Daniel joining our administration and bring a fresh, new energy to the Mayor’s office,” Walsh said in a statement issued on Jan. 4. “He has a broad experience about City Hall and a deep understanding of managing a large, fast-paced organization.” Koh was somewhat of a surprise to the public eye. Instead of choosing a chief of staff from his own political staff, Walsh selected a younger and less-experienced Koh. His ability to connect and interact with the community, along with his skills in business administration, make him a distinctly modern option for Walsh’s chief of staff.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF YOUTUBE, ELISE AMENDOLA / AP PHOTO, BOSTON MAGAZINE, BOSTON.COM (LEFT TO RIGHT)
COLLEGIATE ROUND-UP BY MAGGIE MARETZ | HEIGHTS STAFF
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Harvard scientists produce new type of battery A new type of battery developed by a team of scientists and engineers at Harvard may prove to be a significant step in the seemingly never-ending search for a source of reliable and renewable energy. The battery is a device that seeks to transform the storage of energy captured by existing mechanisms that harness wind and sunlight. The team hopes that making energy more accessible—not only when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing—will make energy both economic and reliable. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency saw the need for a grid-scale battery, and subsequently provided the funding for the Harvard team to make the idea a reality. The battery is metalfree, and relies on the electrochemistry of molecules known as quinones, which are naturally abundant
MIT MIT engineers announced on Monday that they have successfully worked out a way to determine the mass of particles with a resolution more accurate than that of an attogram, or one millionth of a trillionth of a gram. Having the ability to determine this information about such small molecules—which may include synthetic nanoparticles as well as biological components of cells—will gives scientists a better understanding of the composition and function of these particles. The system, which builds on a previously-existing system known as a suspended microchannel resonator—used to measure the mass of larger particles such as cells—measures the mass of particles as they flow through a narrow channel. “Now we can weigh small viruses, extracellular vesicles, and most of the engineered nanoparticles that are being used for nanomedicine,” explained Selim Olcum, one of the engineers responsible for the new technology, in an article on MIT’s official website
and inexpensive to acquire. Lead scientists Roy G. Gordon and Alan AspuruGuzik designed, built, and tested the new technology in the laboratory of Michael J. Aziz at the Harvard school of Engineering and Applied Sciences. This battery is remarkable in that it is a flow-battery, which means that it stores energy in chemical fluids stored in external tanks instead of within the battery itself. This means that the quantity of energy that can be stored is far less limited than with regular batteries. This is not the first flow-battery ever created, but is unique in the cost-effective nature of the fluids used to store energy. The Harvard team is optimistic about this battery’s potential to move society away from the use of fossil fuels while still keeping energy economically viable.
NORTHEASTERN The Community Business Clinic of Northeastern University’s School of Law announced on Tuesday that it will join up with IDEA, a student-run venture accelerator that was previously unaffiliated with the university. The clinic is run by law professor Peter Sessa and offers Northeastern law students with the opportunity to gain real-world experience by providing free legal advice to businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs in the Boston area. With the new partnership with IDEA, the clinic will offer three of its clients the ability to receive business support from IDEA that was previously restricted to Northeastern-affiliated businesses only. This means that they will have the opportunity to receive IDEA funding from the organizations Prototype Fund Grants. “The value added is the coaching, mentoring, and business planning support we can provide them. This was a community outreach opportunity for us,” said CEO of IDEA Max Kaye according to an article on Northeastern’s official website.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA
BOSTON UNIV. This week, Boston University has defeated 25 major companies in technological patent-infringement suits filed last year. Giants including Apple, Sony, Amazon, Microsoft, and BlackBerry, among others, have agreed to pay BU a licensing fee for an undisclosed dollar amount after infringement on the patented technology of Theodore Moustakas, a College of Engineering professor. Negotiations of the settlement were coordinated through San Francisco patent litigation firm RPX, however, multiple remaining firms who aren’t part of RPX remain in the trial process with Boston University. Moustakas initially submitted a patent in 1991 for his LED technology surrounding the production of blue light-emitting diodes that was then officially issued in 1997. This technology, commonly referred to as LEDs, can be found in products ranging from the iPhone 5 to the Kindle Paperwhite 6. The frequency of the use of Moustakas’ technology reflects the amount of defendants, which numbered at around 40 including manufacturers both of LEDs and products using LEDs, as well as the demand for his invention.
New Year is a vastly overrated holiday. Any night filled with such expectations of confetti and bubbles for everyone is only bound to disappoint. As the clock rolls to midnight and the calendar flips to a new year, glitter, corks, and noise swell around us to usher in change when, really, you feel no different at 12 than you did at 11:59. January 1 also seems like a silly time to reflect and change anything, especially in Boston. By this point the charm of winter has already worn off and everything seems to be blanketed in a grey reminiscent of the dust bunnies we all promised we would purge from our rooms when the calendar rolled over to 2014. Even the ocean and the sky can’t seem to muster the strength to be their required blue. All it seems to inspire is a desire to drink warm beverages and hide under the covers—the exact opposite of the resolutions we make for productivity or fitness. As students, our real New Year’s is in September. With its bright blue skies and potential, September fills you with the desire to learn something, the desire for positive thinking. With the turn of the semester and the return from our month-long hiatus from Boston College, we students are granted a mid-year checkpoint, a student’s half New Year’s, if you will. An opportunity to re-up on the promises that we made to ourselves in September, promises of organization, health, good study habits, calm. I would be shocked if any of my readers actually come to my column in search of Boston-related semester resolutions, but I am choosing to ignore that niggling fact in the back of my brain and provide it anyway. Perhaps my musings will spark some inspiration for these last four or so months left on campus this year (or, even better, encourage you to venture into the city. Isn’t that the whole point here?) Maybe some of you will even fall in line with resolutions you’ve made already. For example, go for a run or on a bike ride. Boston is the sixth-fittest city in the United States, according to TIME. Partake in this positive culture. Biking on the Esplanade or running the Comm. Ave. Mall may make your normal exercise routine more interesting. Go to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum right off the JFK/UMass stop on the Red Line. Not every city has a presidential library, and JFK is a huge piece of pride for Boston. Plus, it has beautiful views of the ocean. History with a view, what else could one ask for? Support a local business. Try a restaurant like Commonwealth Cambridge in Kendall Square that not only has local owners but also features local products. Support of businesses such as this one helps keep the unique personality of the city. Learn more about the lesser-known attractions of Boston. We all know Boston has a multitude of textbook tourist sights, but did you know the Mother Church of the Christian Science and the picturesque Christian Science Plaza are located right on Mass. Ave.? Or have you ever seen “The Skinny House” in the North End? This house is over 100 years old and just over 10 feet wide. Not only is it quirky, it also makes for great Instagrams. Show all your friends from home how much cooler Boston is than their school in a cornfield. Attend a speaker at a different college. According to the official website of the city of Boston, there are 50 universities and colleges in the metropolitan area. Think of it this way: the number of speakers available to you just multiplied 50 times. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of that? Go to the observatory at the top of the Prudential Center. Take in the bird’s eye view of the city. Stand quiet a moment, no texts disturbing you, no Facebook pushing you away from reality. Take time this semester. Stand quiet for a moment in a pocket of peace, on the top of the Pru or not, and reflect on how truly lucky we are to share in BC and Boston itself.
Maggie Powers is an editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@ bcheights.com.
METRO THE HEIGHTS
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Thursday, January 16, 2014
THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2014
BC alum works to assist Boston’s impoverished JORDAN PENTALERI / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC
EDGE OF TOWN
Taking a quick look
After 29 years as a prosecutor, Elizabeth Keeley fills a new role at the Women’s Lunch Place RYAN TOWEY Metro Editor
RYAN TOWEY In Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, the protagonist Emily looks back on her lost life from beyond the grave. “We don’t have time to look at one another,” she says, remembering her parents and the simple pleasures of life that she took for granted. Indeed, it appears that people pass through life too quickly to ever really look at another human being. On Monday, for example, I walked down Newbury St. toward the Women’s Lunch Place, a daytime shelter for homeless and poor women. It was a mild day, and I was enjoying the sun on the top of my head when I saw a woman on the sidewalk. “Change, please?” I did what everyone does. I did not look at her. There I was, a healthy and privileged young man, on my way—of all things—to interview Elizabeth Keeley, a woman who dedicates her life to prevent the marginalization of such people, to prevent them from being ignored. It is amazing, how sure one can be of one’s own goodness and decency until it is actually tested. When I met these impoverished women in a new context—in the basement of the Church of the Covenant while they enjoyed some lunch—I did not avert my gaze. I put my hand on the shoulder of a particularly outgoing woman, and we talked about Elvis Presley, of whom she is a fan. This underprivileged woman became a person—not a panhandler ignored on the side of the street. Here at Boston College, there is a lot that we do not really look at. We sit perched on our hill, straddling the border of the city, away from the poverty hidden in the affluent streets that we at least occasionally call our homes. The shelter at the Women’s Lunch Place is not hidden in a dark corner of Boston, but on the well-lit Newbury St. This shelter is located where you shop, where you eat, where you indulge. There is nothing wrong with enjoying these material pleasures—even Emily from Our Town lamented the loss of “new ironed dresses and hot baths.” People should not fail to enjoy life simply because there are others that struggle, but I do believe that one cannot achieve the fullest potential of one’s humanity without paying attention to those who are less fortunate. And that is one of the many mysteries of humanity—we are only potentially moral beings. There is room for us to fail. I failed when I ignored that woman on the street, even though I did what so many others would probably do. I could have nodded, smiled. The money is not the necessity of that exchange—almost certainly not. I owed her no money, but I owed her the chance to feel real. As I present my first column as the Metro Editor of The Heights, I exhort those who attend BC not to sit here on the edge of town, waiting for something to happen. There is so much good here, yes, but there is so much more than our beloved campus. But I do not need to use this column to present my own exhortation. Emily from Our Town does it for me: “Let’s really look at one another!” When Keeley and I walked out of the Women’s Lunch Place together to have a look at the shelter’s garden outside the church, she had to pull a discarded Ugg bag out of the bushes—cast aside, perhaps, by someone who did not care enough to know where he or she had thrown it. Keeley, however, was bothered by it for only a moment, because then she saw a woman she recognized panhandling on the side of the street. Keeley bent down and gently tugged on the woman’s beanie cap. They laughed together.
Ryan Towey is the Metro Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.
Elizabeth Keeley’s first order of business was to put up a sign. When Keeley, BC ’76, took over as executive director of the Women’s Lunch Place six months ago, there was no indication that a daytime shelter for homeless and impoverished women rested in the basement of the Church of the Covenant on Newbury St. Now, a temporary white A-frame sits on the sidewalk to trumpet the shelter’s presence, conspicuous among the signs that line the street to advertise some of Boston’s most expensive retail. Although Keeley said that a permanent sign will be put in place soon, she said that she will miss the way the temporary sign draws the eyes of passersby. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of, and people who walk up and down ought to know what’s
happening,” said Keeley, sitting in a chair of the shelter’s library section. There were children’s books behind her, which act as one form of entertainment for children while their mothers grab a shower, take a quick nap, or enjoy the shelter’s titular function by eating lunch—chicken, brown rice, squash and spinach on Monday. Serving women since 1982, the Women’s Lunch Place was founded by Jane Alexander and Eileen Reilly, who chose their Back Bay location to allow struggling women a reprieve from more troubled areas of the city, according to Keeley. Then, the Women’s Lunch Place was open only three afternoons a week and served only lunch. Today, the shelter is open six days a week, serves breakfast and lunch, and can greet up to 250 guests in a given day. A prosecutor for 29 years after gradu-
See Keeley, B8
RYAN TOWEY / METRO EDITOR
Elizabeth Keeley has been the director of the Women’s Lunch Place for six months now.
WORDS AND ACTION BY TRICIA TIEDT | HEIGHTS EDITOR
In his inauguration speech, Walsh sets the stage for his mayorship
Casino becomes Walsh’s first challenge during his early days in office
In a space more often occupied by goalies and point guards than politicians, new Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, had one simple message to share from his platform above the floors of Kelley Rink last Monday, Jan. 6: we move forward as one. Walsh, the 48th and newest man to be elected Mayor of Boston, chose to be inaugurated in Conte Forum at Boston College, his alma mater. His choice of location breaks with tradition—set more than six miles away from City Hall, it is the farthest site from the city’s political hub ever chosen for a mayoral inauguration. Those who followed his campaign, however, know that this decision is the first of many traditions Walsh plans to break as he enters office. As the city’s first new mayor in two decades, Walsh holds nearly unlimited political power—a thought formerly unfathomable to any man in Boston except outgoing mayor Thomas M. Menino, who announced last March that he would not seek reelection after 20 years as mayor. While Menino has been lauded for his success as mayor, critics point out the domineering effect he had on his own administration. David Bernstein, a contributing editor and leading political voice at Boston Magazine, wrote that Menino’s efforts to control personally the vast majority of decisions within the city of Boston have “served to keep good ideas out for years, and good people, too.” As Walsh took the stage to speak for the first time as mayor, his message held a different kind of power—a power that does not rest within one man, but within thousands. “When I say we are sworn in together, it means we’re in this together,” Walsh said in his inauguration speech. “We are in this together—every neighborhood. We are in
Plans for a casino have sparked controversy in multiple areas of Massachusetts over the past year and continue to cause strife as deadlines approach for potential surrounding communities, including the city of Boston. On Monday, Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced that he wants to mirror the deal that Thomas M. Menino, the former mayor of Boston, struck with Suffolk Downs, the racetrack currently competing for a casino license. Suffolk Downs straddles the Revere and East Boston city line—after East Boston residents rejected the casino plans in a referendum last year, the potential site decided to move forward with the construction plans solely on the 42 acres of Suffolk Downs that lie within Revere’s city limits. Mohegan Sun, the casino that has partnered with Suffolk Downs, is one of two casinos currently competing for a sole license to be given for a gambling site in the greater Boston area. The state Gaming Commission is expected to grant the license in May to either Mohegan Sun at Suffolk Downs in Revere or Wynn Resorts in Everett. The license is repudiated to be the most lucrative in the state. The former deal between Menino and Suffolk Downs track officials included $33 million in upfront payments and at least $20 million per year to allay whatever effects the casino may have on the city of Boston. Revere is located only five miles from downtown Boston, allowing the latter city to be considered a potential surrounding community—should the Mohegan Sun casino be approved to build on the property at Suffolk Downs. Before any more plans can move forward, however, the residents of Revere must take another vote to approve
See Speech, B8
See Casino, B8
One Fund prepares to distribute money in July Nonprofit aiding Marathon bombing victims considers changing criteria for funding SARAH MOORE Heights Editor The charity created in the aftermath of last year’s Boston Marathon bombings, The One Fund, announced recently that additional funds are expected to be distributed to both survivors of the attack as well as to families of those who were killed. Since the initial $61 million expenditure which kick-started the charity’s giving success last July, The One Fund Boston has received an additional $12 million dollars as donors across the globe continue to give. The fund’s board of directors and community council are planning on distributing these donations, as well as more that are expected as the anniversary of the attack approaches, in the near future, according to a recent statement. The nonprofit group has formed a
I NSIDE METRO THIS ISSUE
Walsh’s Picks
council comprised both of victims’ families and survivors in order to determine how to distribute these new donations. Questions facing the committee include whether to give money to those traumatized by witnessing the Boston Marathon attacks even if they were not physically injured. The goal of the One Fund is still to help “those most affected, but the definition of that, with more education, might change a bit,” said One Fund Treasurer Mike Sheehan, according to The Boston Globe. Survivors of the attacks were notified about the new funds last Thursday. Currently, however, the $12 million is expected to be distributed in early July. Unlike last year, the council may choose to keep some of the money in reserve to aid victims in any future costs related to their injuries. To date, the council has met twice—in October and again in December. “We just
want to make sure that we’re really, really thoughtful and thorough about it,” Sheehan said. “It’s not going to be perfect, but we have an obligation to help those who need it most.” The distribution of the initial $61 million received by the One Fund was marred by criticism about the amount of people excluded as well as the amount of money given to individual victims. By July 29, 2013, the nonprofit had distributed all of the money in a systematic way to those who were directly affected by the attacks. Double amputees each received at least $2.2 million, and anyone who stayed overnight in a hospital was given about $125,000. Other victims, however, including those who needed psychological help after trauma induced by the events, were unhappy with the specified aid given by the distribution plan. “There is going to be a new process, and we haven’t decided whether it gets expanded or focused even more,” Sheehan told The Globe.
The Metro section examines four of Walsh’s picks who will help fill out his new administration..................................................................................B9
$61 MILLION WAS DISTRIBUTED LAST JULY DOUBLE AMPUTEES EACH RECEIVED $2.2 MILLION ANYONE WHO STAYED OVERNIGHT IN A HOSPITAL RECEIVED $125,000 THE ONE FUND HAS RECEIVED $12 MILLION SINCE THE INITIAL DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS
See One Fund, B8
Boston Foodie: Commonwealth Cambridge...............................B7 Collegiate Round-up...............................................................................B9