BASEMENT BATTLE
RIGHT NOW!
HALFTIME
SPORTS
METRO
SCENE & HEARD
BC was victorious in a matchup of ACC’s cellar dwellers, A10
The Somerville concert will raise funds for typhoon relief, promote climate change awareness, B10
With the Super Bowl this Sunday, ‘The Scene’ picks the five best and worst halftime shows, B1
www.bcheights.com
HEIGHTS
THE
The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College
established
1919
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Vol. XCV, No. 4
CANDIDATES CONTEND FOR UGBC OFFICE
ESE
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ETTIAR & M
H C R A
BY NATHAN MCGUIRE Asst. News Editor
Nanci Fiore-Chettiar and Chris Marchese, both A&S ’15, hope to use their extensive experience in UGBC to enact change in the organization that they say has a diminished image. Marchese, who is running for executive vice president, sought out Fiore-Chettiar as a running mate in October, and throughout the semester persistently encouraged her to run with him. Fiore-Chettiar, a native of Westerly, R.I., admitted she was not completely comfortable with the idea of running as the presidential candidate at first, but made the decision to run right before she left campus for Winter Break. Both Fiore-Chettiar and Marchese began serving in UGBC as freshmen, and have served as colleagues in the Student Assembly since the fall semester. They cited their experiences with the current UGBC leadership as something that has prompted them to run on a platform of transparency and accountability. “The student body really needs to regain its trust in UGBC,” said Marchese, a double major in history and political science. “And the only way that is going to happen is if the leadership starts to run on promises and then deliver.” Echoing Marchese, Fiore-Chettiar, who is on track to earn her master in social work a year after she graduates next May, described her own disillusionment with the organization. “I felt like I had become very disillusioned with UGBC,” she said. “There was so much more we could be doing, and even this year, I felt like we [went] even more [in] a direction that I wasn’t always comfortable with, so that kind of motivated me to run.” They highlighted concerns with the UGBC website, which doesn’t list senators’ contact information, as one of the things they hope to change in order to make the organization more transparent and responsive to student concerns. Fiore-Chettiar and Marchese said they hope to improve UGBC and its relationship with students and University administrators. In order to do so, they say they will deliver on their promises of increased transparency and accountability.
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BRECK WILLS / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC
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BY CONNOR FARLEY
BY JULIE ORENSTEIN
News Editor
Assoc. News Editor
UGBC election candidates Lucas Levine and Vance Vergara, A&S ’15, have not been involved in the undergraduate political sphere at Boston College for very long. In fact, neither has ever been a member of UGBC. They have, however, committed to a number of leadership positions throughout various student organizations on campus, and are now looking to expand their responsibilities to encompass those of the president and executive vice president of UGBC. Levine, an international studies and political science double major with a minor in management and leadership, developed a greater interest in politics upon founding the BC chapter of Syria Deeply—a club devoted to promoting awareness about conflict in Syria—and through his involvement with the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy. Vergara, a mathematics major with a minor in computer science, began taking a more serious interest in representing the views of other students when he joined the Consulting Club of BC, of which he is now the president. Together, Levine and Vergara plan to rely on their outside perspective and leadership experiences independent from UGBC to bring reform to policy and shed light on advocacy issues. “Being an outside team, I feel like we bring a new perspective to UGBC,” Vergara said. “I think that that’s something we want to stay true to—our outside perspective. Something we want to do is make a direct impact on student’s lives.” Referencing last year’s low voter turnout and the recent split between programming and advocacy, Levine also hopes to re-establish the connection with students who may feel UGBC has distanced itself from the matters that are most important to undergraduates. “First and foremost, what we are trying to do with this campaign— and what we would hopefully do when getting into office—is to engage that remaining 70 to 80 percent of the student population,” Levine said. “This is an opportunity for UGBC to rebrand itself.”
The only team looking to serve as UGBC president and executive vice president as juniors is made up of Michael Moazampour and Robert Watt, both A&S ’16. Although neither have previous UGBC experience, they hope to bring fresh ideas to the organization, making it more accessible to the student body. “One of the main reasons we chose to run was that there is no open discussion between UGBC and regular students,” Watt said. “No one knows anything that goes on.” The candidates said that, as freshmen last year, they often felt uninformed with what was going on around campus and with UGBC. They said they will bridge the gap by publishing the minutes from Student Assembly (SA) meetings online and increasing their own visibility on a weekly basis. Moazampour emphasized that the team is aware of the challenge they face as the youngest candidates in the race. “We’re not in this race because it’s easy, we’re in it because it’s a challenge,” Moazampour said. “We aren’t here to represent one particular class year. We’re here for the entirety of undergraduate students at Boston College … we urge students to put aside class affiliations and to look at the issues objectively amongst all candidates.” Among the ideas they say they would pursue if elected include establishing a connection between the student body and notable varsity athletes, holding more online polls regarding school-sponsored concerts, and increasing awareness of the culture surrounding women’s issues on campus. The team also said they would give some of the stipend they would receive as president and executive vice president back as additional funding for UGBC initiatives. “We believe it should be a volunteer job,” Watt said. “If you’re going to be here for the students, taking away that monetary incentive could definitely change the playing field,” Moazampour said. “A lot of people don’t know about that incentive. We will voluntarily give back at least half of our stipend to UGBC and Boston College if elected.”
BC grads raise $15M for WePay
Athletics clarifies aid allocation
BY ANDREW SKARAS
Department reports increasing aid for female athletes at BC
Heights Editor Before he had even matriculated at Boston College, Bill Clerico, CEO of WePay and BC ’07, met his future roommate, business partner, and friend Rich Aberman, vice president of Product of WePay and BC ’07, at Boston Logan International Airport while waiting for a bus to pick them up to take them to BC. Now, their joint venture, WePay, an interface for facilitating payments, has just raised $15 million to fund further growth and development. “We just raised our Series C financing of $15 million,” Clerico said. “This was led by Phil Purcell, former CEO of Morgan Stanley and creator of Discover Card.” The WePay that is on the market now is not the same product that Clerico and Aberman created just a year and a half after graduation. Clerico explained that, when he quit his job in investment banking in August of 2008, it was because he and Aberman wanted to “make it easy for friends to collect money from friends.” “We reached a point where this is what we wanted to do,” Clerico said. “Rich left a full tuition scholarship at NYU, and we started working on the idea. We built
See WePay, A4
BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Heights Editor
Center, an alumni panel, and guest speaker Alesia Latson. Janet Costa Bates, associate director of the BC Career Center, commenced the program with a discussion of on-campus, career-related resources available to students. The Career Center offers services such as workshops and career fairs, career counseling, and self-assessment tools. The newest addition is an online resource called CareerEdge, which informs students of various internship
Of the 336 male and 360 female participants in Boston College athletics during the 2012-13 season, 164 men and 187 women received athletically-related financial aid, according to data provided to The Heights by the BC athletic department. The totals were consistent with the numbers from the 2011-12 season, when 157 male participants and 179 female participants received athletics-related aid. In both years, of the students who received aid from the athletic department, around 53 percent were female and 47 percent were male. A participant is defined 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. “The fact is, the percentage of aid allocated to females has actually increased over the course of the past three years,”
See CWBC, A4
See Athletic Aid, A4
GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF
The Council for Women of Boston College offered career advice to female undergraduates in the Cadigan Alumni Center on Tuesday.
Alumnae offer counsel on personal brands BY ARIELLE CEDENO Heights Editor
On Tuesday evening, the Council for Women of Boston College (CWBC) hosted “Preparing for the Journey: What’s Your Brand,” an event aimed at assisting undergraduate students with career development. As an initiative started by CWBC several years ago, “Preparing for the Journey” is an annual program that includes career and networking presentations for undergraduate women. The series features
opportunities for students to network with accomplished alumnae from a variety of career fields. Through panels and discussion, the alumnae provide career advice on interviewing, networking, and future internship and career opportunities, offering knowledge and experience as a resource as a resource for young undergraduates seeking to make connections in various career fields. This year’s program focused on the importance of identifying and establishing a personal brand, and it included counsel from the BC Career