The Heights 01/31/2013

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Men’s basketball outdueled at home by UNC, A10

Proposed changes include an effort to keep the T open until 2 a.m., B10

The Canadian rocker sisters make hearts throb on their latest release, B5

TEGAN AND SARA

HEIGHTS

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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Vol. XCIV, No. 4

Light the World campaign hits

$1 billion

Largest Jesuit fundraising campaign now 2/3 complete

BY SAMANTHA COSTANZO Special Projects Editor Boston College announced today that it has raised $1 billion for its Light the World campaign, which aims to raise $1.5 billion for University development by 2015.

The campaign’s major initiatives, in addition to raising $1.5 billion, are to increase the number of alumni who donate annually to 40,000; to increase the number of legacy and estate gifts; and to expand volunteer service to BC. “Campaign gifts go to support the entire University,” said Vice President for Development Thomas Lockerby.

“Our effort is to match each donor’s passion with a particular aspect of the University that means the most to them, because BC is such a complex and vibrant place.”

These combined funds have been earmarked for improvements in six major areas: $300 million for undergraduate financial aid; $575 million for academics; $125 million for Jesuit, Catholic heritage and student

formation; $100 million for athletics; $225 million for new building projects; and $175 million in annual giving.

Light the World is the largest fundraising campaign in the history of Jesuit, Catholic education. Traditionally, university fundraising campaigns aim to double the amount of money raised in the previous campaign. This would have meant $880 million for BC—twice the $440 million it raised in the “Ever to Excel” campaign that ended in 2003.

“The campaign goal was an outcome of the University’s strategic planning process,” said Senior Vice President for University Advancement Jim Husson. This process included input from University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., as well as the University’s trustees, faculty, deans, the larger University community, and an outside consulting company. After gauging both the donor potential and interest for the campaign, the University officially launched Light the World in October 2008.

GOAL: $1.5 billion

Mass. senator takes on international role CAMPAIGN FUNDS TO DATE

See GLC Social, A4

See Kerry, A4

JORDAN PENTALERI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

BY ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT News Editor

See ALC Ball, A4

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

GLC’s Freshman Outreach Head Coordinator Martin Casiano talked at Monday’s Spring Welcome Social about BC’s GLBTQ resources.

Social highlights GLBTQ resources at BC For The Heights Both the graduate and undergraduate GLBTQ communities of Boston College came together on Monday night for the first-ever Spring Welcome Social. Sponsored by the GLBTQ Leadership Council (GLC), in conjunction with Allies and support groups Prism and Horizon, the event sought to promote the resources available at BC for students who identify as GLBTQ. The social began on an optimistic

note with Jill Claridge, GLC co-director of programming and LSOE ’13. A leader in the “Ellen 2 BC” effort, Claridge publicized four action teams currently being developed, and encouraged attendees at the social to consider applying. “The GLC cannot reach the entire campus on our own,” Claridge said. “We hope that bringing Ellen DeGeneres here, as an GLBTQ icon, would help us to raise awareness and to educate the BC community as a whole about GLBTQ resources.”

David Riemer, president of Allies and A&S ’14, promoted the endeavors

News Editor

on the part of the Allies organization to advocate for the GLBTQ community at BC, including an upcoming Valentine’s Day awareness event and a day of silence. “Our aim is to facilitate discussion and really open people’s eyes to what it means to be gay at BC. We seek to foster a better, more tolerant atmosphere,” Riemer said.

Representatives from support groups Prism and Horizon were also on hand to discuss the services their programs offer to

The $1.5 billion that the University hopes to raise is divided amongst six areas: undergraduate financial aid; academics; Jesuit, Catholic heritage & student formation; athletics; new building projects; and annual giving.

See Light the World, A4

BY JENNIFER HEINE

BY ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT Senator John Kerry, BC Law ’76, was confirmed Tuesday as the next United States Secretary of State. Kerry will take over from current Secretary Hillary Clinton as she leaves the position following the conclusion of President Barack Obama’s first term. Kerry was confirmed with a vote of 94-3, with three Republicans—Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn from Texas and Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma—voting nay.

Kerry went to Yale University for his undergraduate education, graduating in 1966 with a B.A. in political science.

He then spent four years in the navy, returned from service in the Vietnam War in 1969, and was formally discharged in March of 1970.

Kerry matriculated at BC Law in September of 1973, earning his J.D. in 1976. He had previously run for Congress in Massachusetts—winning the Democratic primary but losing to the Republican candidate, former Representative Paul Cronin—and so was already residing in the area. “Although my family lived in a lot of places as I was growing up, Boston’s always been home,” Kerry, then a presidential candidate, said in a 2003 interview with BC Law Magazine for its Fall/Winter issue. He went on to discuss his history at BC Law: “I was drawn to BC Law mostly because of Father [Robert] Drinan, whose first campaign for Congress I ended up chairing after I got out of the Navy and got involved in politics. In fact, the first time I ever came to BC Law was to meet with Father Drinan about his campaign.”

Rev. Robert Drinan, S.J. served as dean of BC Law from 1956 to 1970, and then as a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from 1971 to 1981. Like Kerry, Drinan actively advocated against the Vietnam War. After graduating from BC, Kerry worked in the office of the District Attorney of Middlesex County until 1979.

Kerry then ran alongside Michael Dukakis in his successful 1982 gubernatorial campaign, and served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts until 1985, when he transitioned to his long-term position as senator from Massachusetts. He has held the Massachusetts Senate seat since 1985, making him the seventh most senior U.S. senator. In addition, he has chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since January of 2009.

As Kerry steps into his new role next week, he will bring his experience at BC Law with him. Kerry did a more recent interview with James F. Smith of BC Law Magazine for its Spring/Summer 2012 edi-

ALC plans masquerade The AHANA Leadership Committee (ALC) is putting on its first-ever themed ball to be held at the Westin Copley Hotel in downtown Boston on Saturday, Feb. 16, from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m. the next morning. The ALC Ball is the second of the committee’s two major programming events of the school year, following the fall’s ALC Boat Cruise, and is both larger and more formal than the cruise. The theme of the ball this spring is “Masquerade,” and the planning committee intends to hand out masks at the event—as well as unveil a larger surprise.

The ALC is asking attendees to find their own transportation to the event before the doors close at 10:30 p.m.—a relatively simple request, considering that the Westin Copley is located right by the MTBA Green Line’s Copley station.

Buses back to BC after the event will be provided by the ALC. After the success of the casino theme at the boat cruise in October, the planning committee decided that they wanted to bring something new to the ball. “There is a surprise in store for this event as well,” said Gabriela Mejia, A&S ’13, adding that the surprise would not be revealed until the ball itself.

“Our goal for every event that we’ve had, starting with last year—I saw a big push for this—is to get a lot more people to come, from different backgrounds,” Mejia said. “Socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, even international students, we’ve been able to kind of tap into that pool too—because that’s the point of our events, is to get as many people as we can together and celebrate everyone’s backgrounds.” Denise Pyfrom, A&S ’14, added that she was pleased by the turnout at the boat cruise, and expressed a hope that the crowd at the ball would be similarly diverse.

A joint committee has been planning the ball since planning for last fall’s boat cruise commenced, but according to Pyfrom “heavy” planning began last November. Apart from Pyfrom and Mejia, the committee includes Esther Pacheco, A&S ’13; Alisha Wright, A&S ’15; Cristian Lopez, CSOM ’14; and Stanton

BC Law alum Kerry named Sec. of State

Student-taught language night classes kick into gear

BY PARISA OVIEDO Heights Editor Northeastern University took the initiative, and now Boston College is following along.

When Hannah Lee, A&S ’13, came back last year from her fall semester abroad, she was eager to continue practicing the French she had learned and become fluent in. However, as a student already double-majoring and trying to maintain a rigorous curriculum, she simply could not find space in her schedule to pick up a new class.

“I wanted a place where you could speak and learn French or another language without having to take a full-time class,” Lee said. Having heard of a program at Northeastern in which students could take informal language classes, Lee created BC’s version: BC Nighttime

Education: Students Teaching Students (NESTS). “Having that alternative, especially at night when students have more time, was something that I thought our school really needed,” she said.

BC NESTS is the newest program of three within Education for Students

by Students (ESS), and, Lee noted, “fits perfectly with ESS’ mission statement of undergraduates teaching other undergraduates their knowledge.” BC NESTS began only last spring upon Lee’s return from her semester abroad, when she realized the necessity of such a program.

“People are going abroad, becoming fluent in another language, and then losing their fluency upon return.”

Over 50 applicants applied to teach in 10 available sections. Classes are taught by well-qualified undergraduate and graduate

See NESTS, A4

CHRISSY SUCHY / FOR THE HEIGHTS

Students gather in a Stokes classroom to learn a foreign language from a fellow student.

TopTHREE

THE HEIGHTS

A2

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Thursday, January 31, 2013

things to do on campus this week

1 2 3 Lowell Humanities

Justin Nozuka

Today Time: 7:00 p.m.

Location: Devlin 101

Elaine Pagels, the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton, will speak as part of the Lowell Humanities Series. She will be discussing her writings on religious subjects.

‘Picasso’ at Robsham

Friday Time: 9:30 p.m.

Location: Robsham Theater

Indie singer-songwriter Justin Nozuka will be peroforming in Robsham Theater Friday night. Nozuka is 22 years old and has been writing songs since he was 15.

Thursday, Friday Time: 7:30 p.m.

Location: Bonn Studio

A student directed production of Steve Martin’s play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, is being shown in the Bonn Black Box Theater on Thursday and Friday nights, as well as a matinee on Satuday.

FEATURED STORY

Lynch shares experience in work, philanthropy

BY ANDREW SKARAS Asst. News Editor “With your first sentence, light a fire,” said Peter Lynch, treasurer and founder of the Lynch Foundation, vice chairman of Fidelity Management and Research, trustee of Boston College, and BC ’65. “With your second sentence, build a bridge.”

These were lessons that Lynch learned during an English composition course he took during his time at BC. Returning to BC on Wednesday as a part of the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics’ Lunch with a Leader program, Lynch spoke about his time as an undergraduate at BC, his experience working for Fidelity Investments, and his current philanthropic efforts with the Lynch Foundation.

His father was a professor in the math department, so Lynch always had a close connection with the University growing up. Describing his time at BC, Lynch said that it was an experience that changed his life, and that courses such as his English class, as well as courses in logic, metaphysics, and epistemology were some of the most influential courses that he took at BC. He also talked about a Jesuit, Rev. John Collins, S.J., who inspired him.

“Fr. Collins was a Jesuit who went to Wharton in the ’40s, which was unusual,” Lynch said. “It used to

EMILY STANSKY / HEIGHTS STAFF

Lynch lectured about his experience at BC and Fidelity during Lunch with a Leader. be hard to get a job from BC. Fr. Collins ran the placement office and helped lots of students get jobs.”

After Lynch graduated from BC, he applied for a summer position at Fidelity, before he began graduate studies at the Wharton School.

“There were 75 applicants for three spots,” Lynch said. “But I caddied for the president of Fidelity, so, short of punching someone, I had a job.”

He returned to Fidelity full-time after completing his M.B.A. program and serving time in the Army. Lynch joined the company as an analyst when there

were only 80 employees. He worked his way up until he was running their Magellan Fund in 1977, which he ran until 1990. Under his management, the Magellan Fund averaged an unheard-of 29.2 percent return. This has led him to be classified by Forbes as one of the Top Five most successful investors of all time.

“As an analyst, they give you an industry and you have to learn everything about it,” Lynch said. “With investment decisions, being right seven times out of ten is good. It’s not like pure research. You have to take risks. Trying

POLICE BLOTTER

to predict the future is really tough.

I don’t deal with what the market is doing. At the end of the day, it’s what happens to earnings. When a business goes from—this is a technical term—s—ty to semi-s—ty and you can catch the turn-around, you can make money.”

After retiring from Fidelity in 1990, Lynch devoted his time and energ y to philanthropic efforts through his Lynch Foundation. He discussed his reasoning behind starting the foundation and what he felt that he could do with it. By putting his money in a foundation, he knew that he could get more out of his money by letting it grow tax-free.

“We have done this for the last 25 years,” Lynch said. “We were one of the first 10 givers to Teach for America. Our first [major] gift to BC went to the school of education.

We started a leadership program for charter and public school principals.”

Lynch spoke about how he has always focused on education. One of the factors behind this was his experience at BC and his belief in how education was crucial to improving people’s quality of life.

“Education is the key to everything ,” Lynch said. “It’s a meritocracy—but you’ve got to know English; you’ve got to know how to use a computer.” 

1/25/13-1/28/13

Friday, January 25

in the Mods.

8:57 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student whow was transported to a medical facility from Fenwick Hall.

2:46 a.m. - A report was filed regarding vandalism in Keyes Hall.

3:53 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance to a BC student who was transported by ambulance to a medical facility from the Cushing Hall Clinic.

3:42 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an activated fire alarm in Yawkey.

6:08 a.m. - A report was filed regarding larceny in the Mods.

9:55 a.m. - A report was filed regarded a student who was transported to a medical facility by ambulance.

Monday, January 28

9:16 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an intoxicated person of legal age in Maloney Hall.

7:21 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a BC student who was ejected from Conte Forum during an event.

Saturday, January 26 12:01 a.m. - A report was filed regarding property that was found in Edmond’s.

12:28 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an underage intoxicated student on Campanella Way. 1:05 a.m. - A report was filed regarding vandalism

10:31 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a non-BC affiliate being placed under arrest in the Upper dorm lots for possession of a Class D drug with the intent to distribute.

On Wednesday, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities released a report entitled “Federal Student Aid: Access and Completion” that presented possible methods that universities could balance admissions sele ctivity, increase access to university education, and improve graduation rates.

The project leader, Michael Tanner, suggested that the federal student financial-aid programs needed to be structured to support both achievement and access.

One of the considerations that the report suggested the eligibility guidelines should take into account is the varying backgrounds of the students at different universities. In addition, the report suggested that default rates be analyzed as well.

Regarding institutional eligibility for programs like Pell Grants, the report suggested an overhaul to

1:22 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a motor vehicle accident with no injuries on Lake Street.

Sunday, January 27 2:05 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an intoxicated BC student in the Mods who was transported by ambulance to a medical facility.

College Corner NEWS FROM UNIVERSITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

BY ANDREW SKARAS Asst. News Editor

12:02 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a motor vehicle accident in the Beacon Street garage with no personal injury.

the way institutions lose eligibility.

Tanner recommends that eligibility depend on the particular risk factors of students at each university.

He cited the repayment and default rates as factors that should determine eligibility.

In addition to restructing eligibility criteria for institutions, the report also suggested creating an incentive system for universities with high retention rates and completion rates that would give them more per-student financing.

On the national level, the report recommended career advising network to help students decide on and find a career path. The report also suggested putting conditions on military and veteran benefits, such as mandating that students show progress toward a degree.

This report was comissioned by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a part of series of 16 reports for the Reimagining Aid Design and Delivery project. 

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

A Guide to Your Newspaper The Heights Boston College – McElroy 113 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467 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 Eleanor Hildebrandt, News Editor, at (617) 552-0172, or e-mail news@bcheights. com. For future events, e-mail, fax, or mail a detailed description of the event and contact information to the News Desk.

Sports Scores Want to report the results of a game? Call Austin Tedesco, Sports Editor, at (617) 5520189, or e-mail 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 Sean Keeley, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or e-mail arts@bcheights.com. For future events, e-mail, fax, or mail 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 David Cote, Editor-in-Chief, at (617) 552-2223, or e-mail editor@bcheights.com.

CUSTOMER SERVICE Delivery To have The Heights delivered to your home each week or to report distribution problems on campus, contact Jamie Ciocon, General Manager at (617) 5520547.

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) 2013. All rights reserved.

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

VOICES FROM THE DUSTBOWL “What’s your perception of the housing process?”

“It makes me want to cry.”

—Michael Keefe, A&S ’16

“It’s very cumbersome.”

—Eliott Chapuis, CSOM ’16

“It’s very stressful and creates lots of drama.”

—Alex Pear, CSOM ’16

“It’s complicated and dramatic.”

—Andrew Lee, A&S ’16

The Heights

Thursday, January 31, 2013

A3

Puriefoy speaks on U.S. education challenges

A Jesuit tradition

By Connor Farley Heights Editor

Matt Palazzolo Years ago, two Boston College professors, one of whom was Jewish, were having a conversation. The Jewish professor joked that BC’s “men and women for others” programs were so inclusive that he felt like he could be a Jesuit himself. The other professor earnestly replied that you don’t have to be Catholic to become a Jesuit.

Moving past the hilarious image of Father Leahy’s reaction to this story, I feel that this anecdote has a solid point. Over the past few decades, volunteer organizations at BC have exploded in popularity.

The Student Service Organizations homepage lists over two dozen programs. In addition, hundreds of students join the PULSE program, simultaneously learning philosophy in the classroom and engaging in community service in the greater Boston area. In his inaugural address, former President George H.W. Bush likened volunteer organizations to “a thousand points of light … spread like stars throughout the nation doing good.” BC’s numerous service organizations embody this idealistic vision of selfless volunteerism.

This explosion in service programs creates a conundrum, however. The Volunteer and Service Learning Center’s mission statement claims the Center promotes “conscientious service in the context of Catholic social learning and contemporary Jesuit education.”

This bold statement reminds me of a conversation I recently had with an ordained faculty member. He praised the rapid increase in student service participation, yet questioned the legitimacy of its underlying Jesuit foundation. “Men and women for others,” he claimed, “could have been Gandhi’s slogan, and Gandhi was neither Catholic nor Jesuit.”

This point became clearer after I compared my recent Kairos retreat with his own Kairos experience many years earlier. I explained that Kairos was an amazing experience for me.

I was blown away by the powerful themes of love and spirituality that reverberated throughout this three-day retreat. My professor then recounted his own Kairos retreat with other clergymen years ago.

His retreat completely focused on Jesus—the retreat schedule was even structured to emulate Christ’s life. After hearing this, I reluctantly conceded that my own Kairos experience, though incredible, lacked a similar Catholic or Jesuit undertone.

The aforementioned Jewish professor would have been perfectly comfortable on a BC Kairos retreat.

Let me be clear, I am in no way criticizing any BC service program, nor suggesting that they be infused with orthodox Catholic doctrine. The evolution of BC’s service programs mirrors the growth of the University itself. Leaders of both groups realized that in order to attract more students and applicants, they needed to secularize their respective organizations.

The rapid growth of both BC and its service groups confirms the wisdom of this decision. I view BC’s service programs with pride, knowing that students from all walks of faith spread like a thousand points of light across the Boston community, making the world around them a better place.

Instead, I suggest that in this secularization process, BC service programs have lost their fundamental identity. Despite his massive presence in front of Higgins in statue form, I did not encounter St. Ignatius’ life story until I took a Capstone class last semester. His inspirational personal journey toward God took me completely by surprise. I wish BC retreats and service programs placed a greater emphasis on St. Ignatius’ life and teachings. To quote a grossly overused cliche, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. By deemphasizing their spiritual nature, BC service programs have attracted a huge influx in volunteers. I am perfectly fine with this transformation. Just don’t claim these programs are still fundamentally Jesuit, because they’re not.

Matt Palazzolo is a Senior Staff Columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at news@bcheights.com.

alex gaynor / Heights Ediitor

Peter Krause and Timothy Crawford, BC political science professors, spoke at the Middle East 101 Lecture series.

BC professors give talks on Middle East

By Katarina Katsouri For The Heights

Last night, the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Student Association (MEISSA), in coordination with the Al-Noor Journal, the Iranian Culture Club, and the Islamic Civilization and Societies Department, hosted the first in a series of speeches as part of Middle East 101 Lecture series.

The program gives students an opportunity to understand the complicated issues involved within the Middle East. Boston College’s political science professors Peter Krause and Timothy Crawford spoke about the United States’ presence, strategy, and military interactions in one of the least understood but strategically important regions of the world today.

“I want to touch upon the prospect of a declining American military role in the Middle East,” Crawford said.

After introducing certain trade-offs that arise from this decision, Crawford briefly “tried fitting them in” with prevailing schools of thought in American politics. Krause dug deeper into the overlaying debate of budget and strategy issues.

Across administrations, there have always been concrete material interests in defending America’s military involvement in the Middle East. At its most practical level, U.S. presence ensures direct protection over geopolitical values and assets.

Krause believes that oil supply

is tightly interwoven with our economy without a “free flow of oil,” the whole market system would collapse.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. has vehemently been trying to minimize terrorism at its source.

America is also interested in Middle Eastern affairs to prevent any regional hegemon that may emerge with unchallenged dominance. Whether single or in a group, such hegemonies develop “a leverage over U.S. inter-trade negotiations, offshore balance, and even market rights,” Krause said.

With a very educated population and powerful institutions, Iran serves as a potential hegemon that America is trying to contain. The White House has been particularly concerned about Iran’s nuclear program, employing negotiations, sanctions, and sabotage, to end it.

Nuclear proliferation leads to regional arms race and, as Krause put it, “in many ways, the most dangerous time for nuclear weapons is the beginning of a nuclear problem.”

Another interest at stake supporting Middle Eastern intervention is the spread of democracy.

Republican and Democratic U.S. presidents have pushed for this expansion through words and actions, based in part on the idea of liberalism.

All these concerns will break off when a significant reduction of militia begins in the region.

As Crawford mentions, conser-

vatives-nationals can accept the trade-offs of these implications by supporting smaller governments across the border. Neo-conservatives want to sustain defense or even increase defense budget levels. The greatest dilemmas occur for the progressive liberals. “They want to shift away from guns toward butter,” Crawford said. A smaller U.S. military role abroad will bring about more investment in schools, science or education, which tend to fall into oblivion when “we pour resources into defense schemes,” he said.

The professors asked whether costs of the U.S. presence in the Middle East outweigh the benefits.

On the one hand, being in this region provides reassurance and safety but on the other it is neither affordable nor internationally acceptable.

“Let’s conclude with the supposition that there is likely to be a reduction over time of U.S. military presence in the Middle East,” Crawford said. “As demands for austerity mount, pressure on the American domestic spending increases.” But where will this U.S. presence stretch? The Obama administration, under the “Rebalancing Asia” program, has been trying to redirect material and political resources in Asia. As the area will become a geopolitical center of gravity in the coming century, it is important to sink in investments.

“We do a good job when moving into a place, but then can we ever pivot out of anywhere?”

Krause asked. n

“Is education a fundamental right?” Wendy Puriefoy, president of Public Education Network (PEN), asked. “In a democratic society, you bet it is.”

As part of an ongoing lecture series put on through the Boston College sesquicentennial celebration and organized by professors of the Lynch School of Education, the University invited Puriefoy to discuss the challenges with public education in America on Tuesday afternoon.

A nationally recognized expert on public school reform, particularly in low-income regions of the country, Puriefoy spoke to both the organization’s approach to civil society and how educators can participate in “public engagement.”

“We have an education system that really is failing to educate large numbers of poor and disadvantaged children,” Puriefoy said. “A democratic society requires that the public be educated … you can’t talk about equal justice under the law if we are not providing education … [people] have institutionalized inferiority and racism.”

S i n ce th e o rg a n i z at i o n’s founding in 1991, PEN, under the leadership of Puriefoy, has developed into an international network of regional education funds that positively impact nearly 8 million children through education reform initiatives in school finance, the promotion of an informed public, and enhanced academic opportunities for underprivileged children.

“But there is still a great deal of work to be done,” Puriefoy said.

“Improving school systems is a community effort.”

Puriefoy addressed the inequality that largely characterizes modern educational systems and their affect on measurable data, like graduation rates and higher educational opportunities among certain socioeconomic groups, by noting a study conducte d by Kenneth and Mamie Clark.

The Clarks’ experiment measured children’s perception of race by presenting them with two dolls to choose from—one with white skin and yellow hair, the other with brown skin and black hair. When asked which doll they would rather play with, the majority of children chose

the white doll —reflecting the “internalized segregation” many children experienced during the time of the experiment. “The challenge of our educational system is figuring out how to construct it for all students,” Puriefoy said about the social divides that detract from educational endeavors.

PEN currently focuses its attention on the growing disparity in education between particular social groups and the need for the public to realize this growing gap. “We’ve got to develop a narrative. The next step is to develop specific goals that we want to achieve,” Puriefoy said, addressing the inconsistency of educational opportunities for varying students.

Puriefoy’s philanthropic efforts are also focused on engaging the public to facilitate a relationship between educators, families, students, and local governments, generating a broader, more cooperative effort in public education reform.

Before her involvement with PEN, Puriefoy also served as the chief executive officer of the Boston Foundation—a community foundation consisting of over 900 charitable funds whose mission aims to address crucial community issues.

The civic leader in education also drew attention to the substantially lacking wages teachers receive, claiming that “studies on salaries have shown most daycare teachers are not paid any more than the parking lot attendant,” and raising concern about the desire of future generations to undertake teaching positions.

“It’s just too dangerous too live without people being educated,” Puriefoy said.

However, Puriefoy sees hope in the de velopment of ne w educational opportunities for all given the societal progress our nation has made in recent history. “I think we are living in a great moment in this country,” she said. “We have a great opportunity in this country, but if we’re going to make that kind of change, we need to get about it now.”

For many seeking equal opportunities through the reformation of contemporary public education, Puriefoy leads the front for narrowing the achievement gap. “We can do something about this problem,” she said, “and it’s up to us to make this change.” n

Spin classes at Plex to raise money for rare cancer research

By Maggie Burdge Heights Editor

After Meghan Wilda, CSON ’13, learned that her friend and fellow Boston College senior Christen Heye, CSON ’13, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma over winter break, Wilda paired up with seniors Alyssa Rose and Julianne Wojno, A&S ’13, to create a team to ride in the upcoming Cycle for Survival event.

Cycle for Survival is an annual, nation-wide event, founded in 2007

by Jennifer and David Linn to raise money for rare-cancer research.

The event linked with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKC) two years later, and now 100 percent of the more than $23 million raised in the spin-a-thons goes directly to MSKC. Wojno, a spin instructor at the

Plex, decided to hold spin classes this Saturday at the Flynn Recreational Complex to raise money for Cycle For Survival. Although not all BC students may be able to participate in the national event at the Equinox Gym in Boston, students can help fundraise by attending one of the classes offered at the Plex.

Signups for the three classes—at 1, 2:30, and 4 p.m.—will take place at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2 at the Plex. Each 50-minute class will cost $10.

Even though the event is held nationally, the event has a direct impact on the BC community.

“Whenever I teach a spin class, in the beginning I ask people to dedicate their rides and things like that, and try to make it more than just us,” Wojno said.

“She’s from Seattle, she’s get-

ting treated in Seattle, so there’s nothing I can do for her from here,” Wilda said of Heye. “But I love doing this because it’s reminding her that people here love her, and are thinking about her, and want to do something for her.”

“They’ll definitely have a focus on dedicating these rides to people that we know that have survived, that are battling currently, or that have passed, and to specially dedicate these rides to them,” Wojno said.

By National Institute of Health (NIH) standards, a “rare cancer” is one with fewer than 200,000 people in the United States affected by it. According to Cycle for Survival, half of all diagnosed cancers are considered rare, with pediatric cancers falling into this group. Because of this, Meghan and the other team members feel as

though their money is benefitting Heye, and other members of the BC community, directly.

“There’s actually another senior here who’s been diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma and he’s being treated at Sloan Kettering, which is where all the money is going towards,” Wojno said. “So it very much happened to hit very close to home.”

A student at the nursing school, Heye has had the experience of working in an oncology unit, but is also familiar with the patient’s side through battling her own disease.

“I know that the science and research behind this therapy is made possible by funds including those raised during ‘Cycle for Survival,’” Heye said.

This year’s Cycle for Survival will take place over five days, in 10 cities, with 13,000 participants so

far. On Feb.10, the Boston chapter of the event will be held at Equinox Gym on Franklin Street.

At Equinox, teams will take place in four-hour relay rides, splitting the time between their members. The fundraiser at BC came about as a way to raise the $1,000 bike-minimum required to participate.

Individuals can donate directly to the BC team by visiting the Cycle for Survival website and looking up the team name “The Spinning Eagles,” under team captain Julianne Wojno.

“It’s events like this that mean the world to me because, although the money raised now may not directly benefit my cancer treatment, it could help find a cure for those who are diagnosed in the future—a cure that this world so badly needs,” Heye said. n

The Heights

A4

Thursday, January 31, 2013

GLC hosts spring social

Ambitious campaign still successful in its fifth year Light the World, from A1 According to Husson, about twothirds of the total amount raised so far has come from about 700 families.

“You can look at that and say, well, it’s really about a sort of upper echelon of donor and that’s what matters,” Husson said. “On the other hand, we have more than 100,000 donors to this campaign.

100,0000 people and organizations have made at least one gift to the campaign since it’s been launched.”

Making BC a priority in the lives of as many alumni as possible is key to ensuring the success of the campaign, Husson said.

“As we want to engage all alumni, many people won’t be able to give a gift that’s large enough, say, to endow a faculty professorship,” Lockerby said. “But their gift can be amalgamated with the gifts of all other people, and that really makes an impact on the University.”

Lockerby said that this year an increase to 35,000 annual alumni donors, or 25 percent since 2008, is expected.

Support for all areas of the campaign, from recruiting volunteers to reaching out to donors, was done via direct mail and email and one-on-one conversations.

According to University Spokesman Jack Dunn, BC is one of only 21 private universities that offer need-blind financial aid and commit to meeting the full demonstrated need of a student. Of these universities, BC has one of the smallest endowments.

“That’s a very expensive undertaking,” Husson said. “A family who is interested in supporting financial aid through the campaign would contribute money to establish their own personal endowment that would be designated for an undergraduate student’s scholarship.” These scholarships would be awarded yearly according to a student’s financial needs.

The campaign’s commitment to financial aid also extends to supporting athletic and Presidential Scholar Program scholarships.

Light the World supports improvements in academics through the creation of endowed professorships, or the permanent support of a particular faculty position, and donations to faculty research.

Although one of the campaign’s goals is to add 100 faculty positions, Lockerby says it does not attempt to make specific hires because the University’s needs will change over time.

“Even if we knew the need was to add 10 faculty members in physics, we wouldn’t want to necessarily want to go out and raise 10 professorships in physics,” Lockerby said. “We’d love alumni and parents to maybe think about professorships in A&S, maybe with a preference for the sciences, but then the provost and deans can really make those decisions about where the need is.”

The University’s commitment to Jesuit, Catholic education and student formation is supported by gifts made to the School of Theology and Ministry (STM) as well as undergraduate initiatives in mission and ministry.

Support for athletics takes the form of donations to both scholarships and the needs of individual programs for travel, uniforms, and other expenses. “[Buildings] are probably the most literally concrete examples of how the strategic plan led to this campaign,” Husson said. Prior to launching the Light the World campaign, BC did not have a master plan and did not own the Brigh-

ton property, where the STM is located.

“We were able to purchase that, but the purchases we were able to make and the building projects that reflected the master plan were really only something we could envision with philanthropy through the campaign,” Husson said.

Stokes Hall, the Cadigan Alumni Center, and the naming of Stokes and Maloney Halls were also partially funded by gifts made to the Light the World campaign, as were smaller spaces and renovations in Conte Forum and labs in Higgins Hall.

Raising money is not, however, the only goal for this campaign. Organizers considered increasing volunteer involvement just as important to the University’s development.

“We felt very strongly that the campaign needed to be about something that was broader than the contributed dollar amount,” Husson said. “When we thought about the campaign, we really thought of it as an engagement effort in full.”

BC’s volunteers lead local chapters and plan engagement events for alumni in their areas, help organize reunions, solicit classmates and potential donors for gifts, and provide advice to the University while serving on the Board of Trustees and the Alumni Board.

Ensuring that volunteers have a meaningful experience while donating their time is especially important.

“If they really find some meaning in the volunteering that they’re doing, they’re going to repeat it over and over, and that’s how they’re going to help us,” Lockerby said. “One of the litmus tests we have is, could a volunteer answer a question about Boston College without any professional staff in the room? ... Can they talk about BC as well as the people who are here on campus every day? That’s critical to us.”

Because the campaign was launched in 2008, when the recession was at its worst, Lockerby said that organizers were surprised at the enthusiasm that alumni demonstrated.

“Things were slower than we would have otherwise projected for the first three or four years, but they didn’t stop,” he said. “That was a real testament to some alumni and some parents who recognized that, even in the face of some economic challenges, they still had the means, and they felt an even greater responsibility to make an investment in BC at that point … We wouldn’t necessarily have predicted that we would have had such great news so often in those times, but we did.”

Husson said that the fact that they had raised more than one-third of the $1.5 billion before officially launching Light the World also helped it survive during the recession. Called “quiet fundraising,” this method is traditional of most fundraising campaigns because it allows the organizers to see if their projected goals are feasible.

While reaching the $1 billion mark during BC’s sesquicentennial year is significant, Husson said that the campaign was intentionally designed to end after 2013. This was partly due to how long the committee estimated it would take to raise the money, but also to preserve the integrity of this year’s celebration.

“There are so many other things that are part of the sesquicentennial celebration,” Husson said. “We’ve just crossed the $1 billion point at the 150th celebration timeframe, but now we can move on to complete the campaign in the time after the sesquicentennial celebration has been completed.” n

GLC Social, from A1

daniel lee / heights senior staff

BC Law alum John Kerry stood with University President William P. Leahy, S.J. last April.

Kerry moves to world stage Kerry, from A1 tion, in which he spoke about his leadership style. “I’ve learned to be patient and to really listen and explore what others believe to seek out common ground,” he said. “You have to listen actively. You can’t dictate. You have to keep discussions civil even when you’re very passionate. I had a great classroom for this kind of active listening not just at BC Law, but in the U.S. Senate … I learned over

the years that if you want to really achieve change, you’ve got to be willing to take the time for that extra meeting and that additional work to bring people closer to you.

They need questions answered. They need to know you’re not trying to jam something through. And I’ve found that both allies and opponents come to appreciate when you invest the real time needed to get somewhere.” n

NESTS enters third semester NESTS, from A1 students who, once selected, have an orientation and special training. Such training brings BC language professors together with students in order to teach the students how to properly conduct a language class and to design syllabi for the courses.

“A bunch of our teachers, as students, even have teaching certifications,” Lee said.

“Some are graduate students, have done summer programs, and have experience doing this sort of thing.”

Students sign up to enroll in the classes online on the BC NESTS website, and can, this semester, sign up for varying placement levels in French, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Italian, and Chinese.

For the first week, classes are open to all students in order to allow them to test out different sections, languages, or language levels and determine their own placement before the classes are closed off. After the first week, students commit to participating once a week in the program, which is 10 weeks, for only an hour a week. “That’s not that much for a language,” Lee said. “When you come out of classes, you’ll know how to do the basic things. But if you’re not coming every week then the basic stuff is

not going to stay.”

Despite the fact that a 10-week duration might scare a typical time-conscious college student, Lee emphasized how minimal the time commitment is, and how little pressure the program puts on students.

Unlike a full-time language course, there are no extra discussion or practicum sections, no tests or midterms, and there is no homework.

Right now, with just over 150 undergraduate students signed up to enrolled this semester alone, BC NESTS is rapidly gaining a dominant presence on campus.

Lee saw her goal of reaching 200 students by the end of registration on Feb. 4 as realistic. “People want to learn languages for a lot of different reasons,” she said. “We have people from abroad, and people from every department and from every school who just want to learn the basics of a new language.”

The name BC NESTS isn’t particular to languages and remains ambiguous because one day Lee hopes to see it expand past languages and into other subjects that student are curious about teaching or learning.

“Ideally, we can turn it into a program that allows students to shine and show off their passions,” she said. n

Princeton professor lectures on Western political culture

By Connor Bourff For The Heights As snow descended early Monday evening, students, administrators, and faculty alike gathered in Gasson Hall’s Irish Room for the first Clough Center lecture of the spring semester.

The Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy chose Robert George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, to begin their Distinguished Lectures in Jurisprudence series for the spring, nearly filling the room to capacity.

The series, funded by its namesake Charles Clough, BC ’64, is one of the many avenues through which interdisciplinary speakers are brought to discuss the intricacies of constitutional governance. Vlad Perju, director of the center, stated that the purpose of the series was to “speak to the most important questions of political thought,” although he added the speakers include more than just political scientists.

George began his introductions by addressing Clough in the audience, thanking him for seeing the need to “set up a center to understand constitutionalism.” The professor went on to apologize jokingly for the

graham beck / heights editor

George spoke on constitutional structure. admittedly dry title of his lecture, “Constitutional Structures and Political Culture.”

A theme carried throughout George’s lecture was the nomenclature the citizens of Western democracies use to describe their elected leaders: not “rulers,” but “public servants.” “They’re servants in a special sense,” he said. “The people that rule us,

serve us by ruling us … Common good requires that there be rulers, and that they actually rule.”

Much of the political theory of George’s lecture centered on an issue with which most students at Boston College are well acquainted: the question of justice. “Justice is itself a common good and a central aspect of the common good … every single one of us has an interest in that,” he said.

Shifting from the abstract to the exemplary, George posited that the inadequate civic education system in the United States is the reason even the most learned of his students can’t answer the simple question, “How did our founding fathers protect us against tyranny?” He argued that the answer was to severely limit the powers of the U.S. federal government, stemming from the Constitution that George called “the best in the world.”

Venturing into the applications of this Madisonian reasoning, George watched as some of his assertions made the crowd, especially students, a bit uneasy. Speaking of what he viewed as the unconstitutionality of the judicial activism of the Supreme Court, George reasoned that incredibly significant decisions like Roe v. Wade and the upholding of the individual mandate component

of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law were both unconstitutional.

Although not as direct, George also stirred the room with implied notions that American government had an obligation to preserve traditional marriage between a man and a woman. “Poor decisions by wellintentioned public officials can … undermine or weaken the marriage culture, and with it everything in society that depends on the health and vibrancy of marriage and the family,” he said.

The end of George’s lecture was met with tempered applause, but not before he praised BC as being an outstanding example of private religious educational institutions, which he considers are the best systems for instilling virtues in citizenry. Those people, he finished, are the bulwark for preserving “our freedom.”

Ellen Contois, A&S ’15, agreed with George that the degree to which the U.S. has strayed from the founders’ vision was “provocative.” “I feel like the preservation of traditional marriage is seemingly outdated and not in tune with liberal social thought,” she said. “As a political science major myself, I thought his argument was thoroughly defended but not necessarily something that I fully agree with.” n

gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning women and men, respectively. Both emphasized the openness of their groups. “We basically talk about different topics and issues that may be of concern to gay men on campus,” said Horizon coordinator Matthew Paek. “Feel free to come, we would love to have you.”

Prism representative Molly Kocher expressed a similar sentiment. “You’re welcome to always stop by,” she said. “Everyone is very welcoming and kind. Feel free to stop in just to say hi and see what it’s about.”

The theme of support persisted throughout the evening, as Stacy Green, assistant dean for student outreach and support and GLSOE ’13, attested in her address. “We recognize that BC is a large and complicated bureaucracy in some ways, and hopefully this can help you cut through some of that red tape and figure out what you need,” Green said. “I really want you to feel comfortable coming to BCPD or someone in our office—we’d really love to help you.”

She also promoted the upcoming retreat, Spectrum, as an opportunity for students from all levels of the GLBTQ community. “Spectrum is a special opportunity to get away from campus for a little bit, meet people, explore your own self and build on the wonderful community we’ve been developing tonight,” Green said.

For attendees, the faculty and accessibility of this community proved both surprising and gratifying, particularly given BC’s Catholic identity. “I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of resources available to the students, especially at a religious school like BC,” said new Allies member David Querusio, A&S ’16.

As several event coordinators noted, it was not always this way. “My freshman year there was no event like this for freshman to learn about the resources available to GLBTQ students,” said Josh Tingley, GLC president and A&S ’13. “I had to put in a lot of legwork to find things out.”

Freshman outreach head for GLC, Martin Casiano, A&S ’15, takes it as his duty that no current freshman has a similar experience. “In my freshman year, it was very difficult for me to find any resources,” Casiano said. “When I was named head of freshman outreach, I realized this event was really necessary.”

The success of the fall social only emphasized the importance of such an event for Casiano. “It enables students to learn about the resources available to them without necessarily committing themselves to an organization,” he said.

“It’s really important for this community to come together and learn about the resources available. No one should go through freshman year questioning, or needing help,” Casiano said. “Especially with our Catholic identity, it’s harder to identify as GLBTQ. With events like these, it’s really important for people to see an entire roomful of people, a whole community, who support you and know what you’re going through.” n

Ball set to be held in Copley ALC Ball, from A1 Fields, CSOM ’14.

Pyfrom and Mejia both worked on last year’s ALC Ball, which was held at the Westin Copley for the first time. Pyfrom expressed her appreciation for the elegance and the spaciousness of the hotel: “It’s really interesting, because people get there, and everything’s so grand and professional, and they think, ‘Oh, the administration planned this event’—but no, it’s the eight of us who work really hard,” Pyfrom said. “We manage our budget to a T, and we really want everyone to have fun.”

The two also addressed the work that ALC has been doing to cut down on transports and alcohol-related issues at their events. “We pushed for this at the boat cruise, but we are holding the student body to a higher standard this year,” Pyfrom said. “As with any student government event, sometimes we have alcohol-related issues, so we’re really asking the students to be responsible, be smart.”

“We definitely saw a difference for the boat cruise,” Mejia said. “We didn’t have nearly as many alcohol-related issues as we did the year before. Even BCPD and the University administration have commended us on really pushing the student body to be more responsible and be accountable for their own actions.”

Tickets for the ALC Ball will go on sale on Monday, Feb. 4, and can be purchased online and picked up at Robsham Theater. Sales will run through that Friday, Feb. 8. About 800 tickets will be sold, and Pyfrom stressed the fact that tickets sell out quickly. “We definitely are going to go all out with the masquerade theme,” Pyfrom said. “We just want people to come with an open mind, prepared to have fun.” n

CLASSIFIEDS Thursday, January 31, 2013

THE HEIGHTS THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, January 31, 2013

COMMUNITY HELP WANTED Cash for one time study participation. Participate in a Psychology research study for cash. Use the Sona Systems link (http:// bc.sona-systems.com) to access our studies. You will need to click “Request an account here” and then sign up using your BC email address. $$ SPERM DONORS WANTED $$ Earn up to $1,200/month and give the gift of family through California Cryobank’s donor program.

Convenient Cambridge location.

Apply online: SPERMBANK.com.

MISCELLANEOUS Self Analysis Workshop Do you want to enjoy life more?

Attend this one day workshop and learn the “Laws of Survival and Abundance.” Based on the Best Seller - Self Analysis by L. Ron Hubbard this workshop will take you through the steps to increase your enjoyment of life, raise your level of happiness and help you survive better.

“Here begin the lists of questions by which the individual can explore his past and improve his reactions toward life.”

-L. Ron Hubbard

Cost: $50.00 Note: Workshop includes Book and Study Materials Contact: James Phone: 617-266-9500 E-mail: info@scientologyboston. org.

Email books@dianeticsboston. org.

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.

A5 A5

THE HEIGHTS

A6

Light the World combines several worthwhile goals

Thursday, January 31, 2013

QUOTE OF THE DAY Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American author and philosopher

The Heights commends the University for seeking to reconnect alumni with Boston College In 2008, Boston College began its Light the World campaign, the biggest fundraising campaign in the history of Jesuit, Catholic education. Now, in its sesquicentennial year, the University has reached the $1 billion mark of its $1.5 billion goal. This marks a great feat, especially considering the state of the economy when the campaign was begun. It is a testament to the

In its sesquicentennial year, the University has reached the $1 billion mark of its $1.5 billion goal. It is a testament to the commitment to BC, both on the part of the University and those who donated, that BC was able to generate such substantial support during a recession. commitment to BC, both on the part of the University and those who donated, that BC was able to generate such substantial support during a recession. These funds have been designated for the advancement of academic excellence, undergraduate financial aid, intercollegiate and intramural athletics, annual giving, new campus buildings, Jesuit, Catholic heritage, and student formation.

These goals were the result of strategic planning based on what trustees, faculty, and deans thought would be essential to the University’s development and improvement. In addition to fundraising, Light the World seeks to increase the amount of both alumni who leave legacy gifts, and volunteers for the University. In addition, the campaign hopes to raise the num-

ber of alumni who donate yearly to 40,000. These goals, which aim to strengthen alumni involvement with BC, are just as important as reaching the campaign’s financial goals.

By emphasizing that no gift is too small, Light the World appeals to a wide range of alumni, especially to recent graduates who may not have the ability to make a large donation.

Having one-on-one conversations about which specific area, such as athletics or the College of Arts and Sciences, an alumna or alumnus is interested in supporting has also been instrumental in reaching the campaign’s goals.

Over 100,000 individuals and organizations have made donations to the Light the World fund so far, and organizers project that the number of alumni donating annually will surpass 35,000. These numbers are a testament to the campaign’s success in making BC a priority in its alumni’s lives.

The campaign hopes to provide volunteers with a meaningful experience, further cementing their bond with the University and encouraging them to continue serving it. Just as in providing financial support, alumni are encouraged to find an area they are interested in supporting and donating whatever time they can.

Current students have already seen Light the World funds at work in the construction of Stokes Hall and the creation of endowed professorships. Such projects show that alumni are invested not just in improving BC as an institution, but also in the success of each of its students. Students should be aware of the far-reaching and devoted network that BC alumni constitute.

Not every college and university can boast such commitment, both financial and interpersonal, from its own graduates. Whether contributions take the form of an hour spent volunteering, a check written to the University, or a conversation with an undergraduate about career opportunities, BC’s alumni keep the school strong and ensure that future graduates have their own chance to light the world.

BRENNAN POWER / HEIGHTS ILLUSTRATION

BC NESTS promises to be a fruitful program The ESS program providing nighttime language courses teaches a useful skill in a fun, easy way In the third semester since its founding, Boston College Nighttime Education: Students Teaching Students (BC NESTS) has emerged as a successful program. One of three programs under Education for Students by Students (ESS), BC NESTS embodies the mission of the organization, offering a comfortable and flexible forum for students to take language classes taught by fellow students for no cost.

By creating a 10-week program that enables students to take notfor-credit language classes once a week, founder Hannah Lee, A&S ’13, offers time-conscious students the opportunity to learn and practice various levels of different languages on a weekly basis.

The Heights commends ESS for creating this program and for achieving such success in so short a time. This program is a testament to students’ ability to take initiative in designing programs to supplement the University’s offerings.

BC NESTS course registration is open to undergraduate students until Monday, Feb. 4, and over 150 undergraduate students have

already enrolled in the language program. BC NESTS has grown exponentially in the short period of time since its founding, a testament to its success and sustainability.

While the program had to recruit applicants for student-teaching positions last year, this year it welcomed over 50 applications for 10 available positions.

The Heights is supportive of the mission of the program in allowing students a relaxed and fun forum to teach their passions and interests to other students. A long-term goal of BC NESTS is to not only teach language classes, but also to offer classes pertaining to other student interests. Some of the classes could, for example, potentially include a class teaching finance basics and essentials for non-CSOM students, or InDesign/web-programming classes for those interested.

Learning new languages will benefit students immensely in their search for employment, cultural access, and self-development. We commend ESS for establishing a successful and innovative program, and look forward to BC NESTS’ continued success in the future.

HEIGHTS

THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 DAVID COTE, Editor-in-Chief JAMIE CIOCON, General Manager JOSEPH CASTLEN, Managing Editor

EDITORIAL

KENDRA KUMOR, Copy Editor ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT, News Editor AUSTIN TEDESCO, Sports Editor MICHELLE TOMASSI, Features Editor SEAN KEELEY, Arts & Review Editor TRICIA TIEDT, Metro Editor MARY ROSE FISSINGER, Opinions Editor SAMANTHA COSTANZO, Special Projects Editor GRAHAM BECK, Photo Editor LINDSAY GROSSMAN, Layout Editor

The Heights welcomes Letters to the Editor not exceeding 400 words and column submissions that do not exceed 700 words for its op/ed pages.

The Heights reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity, accuracy, and to prevent libel. The Heights also reserves the right to write headlines and choose illustrations to accompany pieces submitted

to the newspaper.

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

BUSINESS AND OPERATIONS MAGGIE BURGE, Graphics Editor ELISE TAYLOR, Blog Manager MARY JOSEPH, Online Manager HENRY HILLIARD, Assoc. Copy Editor CONNOR FARLEY, Asst. Copy Editor DEVON SANFORD, Assoc. News Editor ANDREW SKARAS, Asst. News Editor CHRIS GRIMALDI, Assoc. Sports Editor MARLY MORGUS, Asst. Sports Editor CATHRYN WOODRUFF, Asst. Features Editor

ARIANA IGNERI, Assoc. Arts & Review Editor JOHN WILEY, Asst. Arts & Review Editor RYAN TOWEY, Asst. Metro Editor ALEX GAYNOR, Asst. Photo Editor MAGGIE POWERS, Asst. Layout Editor JORDAN PENTALERI, Asst. Graphics Editor JULIE ORENSTEIN, Editorial Assistant PARISA OVIEDO, Executive Assistant

MARC FRANCIS, Business Manager AMY HACHIGIAN, Advertising Manager ADRIANA MARIELLA, Outreach Coordinator DONNY WANG, Systems Manager MUJTABA SYED, National Advertising Manager WILL LAMBERT, Account Manager CHRIS STADTLER, Account Manager ANDREW MILLETTE, Collections Manager ROSIE GONZALEZ, Project Coordinator

The Heights

Thursday, January 31, 2013

A7

It’s because I’m brown

THAR she blows - A heartfelt Thumbs Up goes out to people who have no shame violently blowing their nose in the middle of class. I mean it. We’ve all been there, we all know the feeling. This person is the hero of our generation: daring to be different, not taking s—t from anyone. Each time we see someone take out that tissue and—with pride, no less—make a sound like a dying duck as they blow their nose into it, we are essentially witnessing the American dream. questions or comments? - While trying to come up with things to Thumbs Up for this issue, we realized that up until this point we had neglected the most obvious TU of all: comments on Youtube videos.

They deserve a thumbs up first, because they are endlessly entertaining—even more so, we would argue, than the videos themselves.

And secondly because, upon reading them, you inevitably realize that you are probably smarter than at least half the people in America. This large, mysterious sect of the American populous that comments on Youtube videos are an odd bunch. They range from extreme hot heads to religious fanatics, but share the undying bond of indecipherably poor spelling, nonexistent grammar knowledge, and a Tourrette’s-like impulse to ‘laugh out loud’ at the beginning, middle, and end of every sentence.

Saljooq Asif When my friend posted a diagram on Facebook entitled ‘Build Your Own Survival Team,’ I was initially tagged as the person ‘First To Die.’ There was obviously only one rational comment I could write.

“This is because I’m brown, isn’t it?”

It’s been my go-to phrase for the longest time. I’ve used it when my mac and cheese order at McElroy was mixed up and whenever my roommate wants me to throw him a water bottle. Even when I helped organize the Secret Santa for our floor last semester and discovered I was the last person to get picked the very last day before the gift-giving, I had only one response.

“It’s because I’m brown.”

Needless to say, I’m joking whenever I whimsically declare such things. It’s great making my friends laugh with comments like that, especially when I know they’re unable to say such things. Although I may be brown-skinned, I also have to admit that I am extremely lucky to have never faced any sort of discrimination or prejudice at all. Growing up in a small town officially designated as a ‘hamlet’ and studying at a predominantly white university, I am more than grateful to have never legitimately blamed my skin or race for some sort of tribulation.

Some of my friends always ask me why I don’t hang out with more students from my culture and why the majority of my friends are white. Don’t get me wrong—I do believe that Boston College could benefit

Where’s the chocolate? - We don’t want to thumbs down the new Chocolate Bar in its entirety, because it is so pretty, and who doesn’t like gelato?

But we have some points of contention. Mainly, where’s the chocolate?

The most blatantly chocolate-y thing there is a large cookbook displayed on the back shelf entitled “150 Chocolate Cakes & Cookies” which mistakenly suggests that such products are created there. This is not so. We have to settle for a chocolate croissant or some chocolate gelato. But, like we said, who doesn’t like gelato?

YOU PUSH, I PUSH, JACK - Okay, this is kind of a personal problem because we at The Heights spend a lot of time on the bottom floor of Mac, which not many other people can say, but bear with us. If you want to walk up one flight of stairs to, say, Eagle’s Nest for a scrumptious lunch/mid afternoon snack, then BOTH doors you encounter—the one into the stairwell on the first floor and out of the stairwell on the second floor—are doors you push to open. This is all fine and good, until, your hands full of Tuscan chicken and chips and a pickle (or “pickles and a chip,” depending on who serves you), you encounter TWO doors you need to pull in order to get back to where you started.

Isn’t there some law that requires uniformity in door-opening operations depending on whether you’re entering or leaving the stairwell? All we’re saying is, when Mac is torn down, good bye and good riddance to those damn doors.

Like Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down?

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more comfortable in their native tongues, and I understand; even I rarely have full conversations with my family in English, but as for those of the same background who willingly don’t want to speak in English, I’m a bit taken aback. It’s surprising to me that they want to sustain a public conversation in a foreign language, and I cannot help but think it alienates ourselves from those surrounding us who don’t grasp a word we’re saying.

I also comprehend the fact that some of these people want to preserve and retain their culture—and I’m totally fine with that and understand their sentiments. I personally know the pressure of attempting to maintain the integrity of a native culture while becoming a part of a new, more popular one. The aforementioned groups of people, however, create the feeling of exclusivity and act as if their culture is inassimilable with mainstream society, and I think that’s irrational. As a college student born and raised in America, I love my culture and background and have always been able to find a way to properly integrate them into my life. Who doesn’t love some samosas or halwa on a Thursday morning?

I don’t need to join other people of the same background to enjoy my culture, and I think the greater community needs to realize that as well. We all come from different places with different stories and different lifestyles. Some of us may have different colored skin and identify as Hispanic, Chinese, Peruvian, Japanese, or caucasian, but in no way should that prevent us from interacting and getting to know one another.

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

The health of nations

Ryan Giannotto

oh my manti - All this Manti Te’o business just keeps getting worse.

While it was always sad, we could at least laugh at the hilarity of it all.

Now, the cast of characters is too vast and the plot too complex for us to even know who we’re laughing at.

Manti? Ronaiah? And does Ronaiah even have a cousin? If so, does that cousin have anything to do with anything? Thank God Dr. Phil’s on the case ... said no one, ever.

from obtaining a more variety of students, but the recurring question of why I don’t have many ‘brown’ friends irritates me. The real question is why is it necessary I should have brown friends? Why is there the need to group ethnicities and certain peoples together?

BC may not be the most diverse school in the world, but it definitely has some prominent culture clubs. The problem with these clubs, one of my friends says, is that “they form a large niche of people who only congregate for the reason of being ‘cultural.’” It’s important to note that this friend isn’t caucasian—she’s a Chinese-American born in Japan.

Many students growing up in America with diverse backgrounds face a culture clash—they’re different from the majority of people in the U.S., but at the same time cannot fit in with the established bubbles or ‘culture cliques’ at their schools. The opposite situation can also occur: another friend of mine on campus identifies as Hispanic, but when visiting her native country of Peru, she is viewed as a white American.

It may be difficult for some people, but I fully understand what my friends are trying to say. The feeling of not belonging to any specific group and being caught between two worlds is infuriating and confusing to say the least, which is why my ChineseAmerican friend stays away from culture clubs altogether. I’m open to interacting and being friends with anyone, regardless of their skin color or race, but I would be lying if I said I’m sometimes wary of being sucked into a culture clique. In my experience when I converse with people of the same background, many of them want to speak in their native language—despite the fact that they’re fluent in English.

Of course, I personally know people who can’t speak English very well or are

It is hardly a secret that we harbor a near universal fear of death, the prospect of no longer existing simply being too daunting. Indeed, we would commit most any act, no matter what the cost may be, to stave off the inevitable, and understandably so—it is death we are talking about, after all. As far as fears go, however, the problem that emerges is that while my fear of spiders incurs no economic cost, save for a few cans of Raid perhaps, the evasion of death proves an exceedingly expensive fear to possess, for individuals and society as a whole.

While this fear, if left for individuals to contend with singly, remains manageable, it is politics that exacerbates this fear into a true catastrophe. Politicians from a certain party (I’ll let you guess from which one) have realized they can capitalize upon this fear, buying votes through offering an elixir of life, often known through the euphemism of healthcare reform. The best part of this magical concoction for eternal life, of course, is that it is financed by taxpayers who make more money than you, so it is a win-win, because who cares about those people? Sarcasm aside, the difficulty with this politicization of fear and death by Democrats is that no matter how many resources are expended, people will never be content as they will still invariably die. People simply have an insatiable demand for life, no matter what the cost.

Thwarting death is not only futile, but immensely expensive, and as clear as this reality may be, misconceptions continue to abound. For instance, the foremost tool people use to combat death is health insurance, but the operation of this institution is widely misunderstood. People believe fervently that they are owed coverage by insurance companies regardless of circumstance, that to be denied insurance constitutes an egregious injustice.

Reasoning reveals, however, that this

Imbroglio

position is fallacious on two key counts.

Foremost, contrary to popular belief, health insurance is not an omnipotent force that miraculously pays for all medical expenses without cost. In actuality, it is a system a user pays into regularly from early age so as to disperse the cost of medical care over the entirety of one’s lifetime instead of facing insurmountable bills at a few critical periods, such as when death approaches. Health insurance can be thought of as a loan—it is certainly not free money to cover expenses and must be paid back overtime.

It simply bewilders me why people equate medical insurance with free healthcare, when it is merely an alternative means to pay for medical costs.

Second, people are flabbergasted that health insurance companies deny coverage for preexisting conditions, acting as though it were a crime against humanity, but this allegation amounts to brazen immaturity. Consider the following: what would happen if you applied for auto insurance after you crashed your car?

Something suggests you might not be in “Good Hands.” It would be ludicrous to expect health insurance to operate any differently, but nonetheless people do.

Once you already suffer from a preexisting condition, you voided your opportunity for coverage by not beforehand paying into the system. To expect otherwise is to demand free healthcare.

Nowhere do these misconceptions become more evident than in the sphere of politics, where certain breeds of people politicize the fear of death for their own advantage and great cost to society.

No more notorious example exists than the recent Patient Affordable Care Act, colloquially know as Obamacare, which codifies into law these misguided perceptions on what health insurance actually constitutes. To begin with, the mandate for carrying insurance is patently absurd, since it is only another way to pay for your medical expenses. For some it may be more convenient, for some it may not, but individuals’ liberties have long since been rendered obsolete, so moot point.

The real difficulty is that Obamacare, in effect, automatically grants insurance to people who have made the choice not to pursue medical insurance, and rather to pay medicals bills as they arise. These individuals essentially received free

medical care, to the injustice of all those who have paid into health insurance all along! In principle, the Democrats have bestowed a free elixir of life to those who skirted the option of medical coverage, while the individuals who have been paying responsibly for health insurance receive bupkis.

Now arises the particularly thorny issue in this whole cheating death endeavor: the resulting bill and who it should burden. People harbor this wild perception that medical care is an endowed right, as if their own life is sacred to the cosmic fabric of space-time. Despite the narcissism, the reality is that medical care is no different from any other good or service in the economy, whether it be sailboats, wristwatches, or Subway sandwiches, in that no one is by default entitled to anything. If more health care is desired, the proper response is not to ask society to foot the bill, but to either substitute more of your earnings toward healthcare, or to increase your earnings. The equation is startlingly simple.

Modern medicine and its ability to prolong life has indeed proven too strong a temptation for reason, sense, and in particular, responsibility.

Only a century ago, indeed only half a century ago, people died on a regular basis from all nature of maladies, but with the advances in medicine, people clamor for the immortality it affords, no matter what the cost. Furthermore, this expense has grown markedly as medicine has advanced, demonstrated by the degree to which Democrats have allocated funds to the pursuit of life, and votes, everlasting. In 1939, Social Security in its first year consumed only 1 percent of the federal budget, but 70 years later, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and countless other safety nets collectively comprise 54 percent of the budget, all in the foolish attempt to buy immortality.

For us as a society, the question begs itself, what is just one life worth? We will very shortly find out what 300 million are worth.

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

BY KALEB KEATON

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 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.

Your life is important Monica Sanchez College students, and teens especially, tend to believe that they’re immortal or indestructible, like Superman or Baldwin the eagle. With so much of our lives ahead of us, we tend to believe that nothing can hurt us—unless we get anything short of straight As, of course. Unfortunately, several people, including many young people just like us, die each day as a result of car accidents because they were not wearing seatbelts. Devastatingly, one of these people happened to be my best friend.

Back from studying abroad in Italy in mid-December, I was more than ready to finally spend some quality time with family and friends. Amidst catching up with loved ones, all of the Christmas and New Years preparations, and two-a-days at the gym trying to get rid of all that pasta and pizza I had abroad, these few weeks home felt nothing out of the ordinary. But when I had least expected it, at 11:13 p.m. on Christmas Eve, I received the call.

Rollover crash on highway I-15— female not wearing a seatbelt fatally injured when thrown through the car’s rear window, pronounced dead at the scene.

The news turned my world upside down, and it hasn’t quite been turned upright yet. I can’t say in all certainty that it ever will. I lost my other half, my sister, my confidant, my partner in crime. I lost the person I could confide in, the one I could always be myself with, the one who I could laugh at random things no normal person would reasonably understand, the one who understood me the best. No one can fill the void I now possess. No one can imitate nor duplicate the relationship or the experiences that we had once shared. Her impact on my life cannot be measured, and I think of her, praying for her everyday that she is now in a better place. I told her I loved her constantly, but even I wonder if she really knew how much of an impact she’s made on the lives of each and every one of us who shared the very blessing of knowing her.

Walking around campus, when I see students without seatbelts on, walking alone at night, especially when blasting music with their big Dr. Dre Beats headphones on, or texting and/or making phone calls while driving, I’m often taken aback. People not in the same frame of mind as I, having had experienced such a heartbreaking loss that could have more than likely been avoided if the proper precautions had been taken, don’t necessarily understand the danger they’re putting themselves in. As a little girl, when my mom told me to put on my seatbelt before she drove me to school, I sometimes would throw a fit, thinking how uncomfortable and constraining that strap of fabric was and treating it as just a silly part of our morning routine.

As kids, and even now as young adults, we are repeatedly warned against walking alone at night, especially with headphones in, and against texting or making phone calls while driving, each of which significantly impair the awareness of one’s surroundings. We hear of accidents on the news everyday, but often put those realities in the back of our minds, saying, “That’ll never happen to me.” Well, what then if it does? We let our guards down, on purpose nonetheless.

Danger may often feel like a distant reality, but realistically speaking, life is truly fragile—too fragile to disregard what little precautions we do have. I am by no means saying live your life in fear or on defensive mode. But, next time you consider not fastening your seatbelt, walking alone in the dark, texting while driving, or anything else that might seem trivial at best, if not for yourself, think of those you love and care about. Think of your family, friends, teachers, mentors, mentees, coworkers, or even some familiar faces. I believe that one of the lifetime achievements we strive to meet is making a positive impact or being a valuable presence in the lives of others.

We cannot be important to others if we fail to treat ourselves as important in our everyday actions. Everything we do—the negative and the positive—impacts those who surround us, whether we acknowledge that or not.

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

The Heights

A8

Thursday, January 31, 2013

North Carolina vs. Boston College Key Stats

Boston College 50%: 3-point shooting rate for BC in the first half 20%: 3-point shooting rate for BC in the second half 22: Points by freshman guard Olivier Hanlan

UNC

13: Total offensive rebounds leading to 20 second-chance points 14: Points by PJ Hairston in 12 minutes of play 9: Minutes that play stopped during Hairston’s injury

Top performers

boston college Olivier Hanlan 22 points 6 rebounds 3 assists 37 minutes 2 steals 6-7 FTs Ryan Anderson 16 points 7 rebounds 3 assists 32 minutes

Hanlan leads struggling Eagles in loss to UNC Hanlan, from A10 score on the next possession and cruised to a 82-70 victory.

Every time Hanlan tried to will his team into contention with the Tar Heels on Tuesday, something beyond his control went wrong.

After jumping out to an early lead, BC allowed UNC to grab a 21-12 advantage midway through the first half. Unfazed by the moment and the pressure, Hanlan drilled a three with a hand in his face to end the Tar Heel run and bring the Eagles back within reach.

His efforts were negated seconds later, as the BC bigs allowed one of the 13 UNC offensive rebounds on the night to turn into points. From that point on, the game turned into a tug-of-war between Hanlan’s offensive ability and his teammates’ deficiencies on both ends of the court.

Hanlan stripped UNC point guard Marcus Paige on the way to the rim a few minutes later and then tried to get a fast break started, but the Eagles didn’t run with him and Danny Rubin eventually turned the ball over. Fellow freshman guard Joe Rahon then allowed Paige to drive past him from midcourt all the way to the rim before giving up a soft foul leading to an and-one bucket.

Hanlan, who played 37 minutes in the loss and contributed 22 points along with six boards and three assists, is still cruising past the freshman wall that Rahon has hit lately.

“Joe [Rahon] has probably hit a bit of a wall here in the league play, ” Donahue said, “but I think he’s really competing.”

Rahon and the rest of the Eagles put in the effort Tuesday night, but there was also widespread hesitancy on the offensive end. Clean looks were

taken a split-second too late. Open passes weren’t thrown because the gaps closed before a decision was made. Dribbles that should’ve been at the rim were taken toward the sideline. North Carolina came in to Conte Forum unranked, but the moment, with the first packed house of the season, still felt big.

And Hanlan was the only one to step up.

“I knew they were going to be aggressive so I was just trying to be aggressive like every other game,” Hanlan said. “I was getting by guys and I was trying to find Lonnie [Jackson], or whoever was open, open shots, but they played good defense on me too.”

Hanlan had his way with Paige and UNC’s other guards on the perimeter. Time after time he would slow down the offense, call for the ball, set up a pick-and-roll, and then easily make his way into the lane. As the defense collapsed around him, though, it constantly became more difficult to get up good shots with four or five defenders focused on his penetration. Sometimes he found a way to finish, but other times he’d have to kick it out and the offense would stall again.

BC never got closer than within 10 points of the Tar Heels in the second half, yet Hanlan never let the game get away from the Eagles either. UNC would stretch the lead, but Hanlan always answered with a sweet floater or an aggressive attack leading to free throws.

Closing the margin to single-digits was the problem. The deficit always proved too insurmountable to be taken down by a lone freshman guard.

Sophomore center Dennis Clifford’s injury has put a significant burden on everyone else to play longer and perform better. Hanlan is doing that, and if the wins are going to come over the big name schools in front of the full crowds, the other young Eagles will have to catch up to his pace. n

Graham beck / Heights Editor

Hanlan led the Eagles with 22 points on Tuesday night.

Inexperience hurts BC, especially on defense Basketball, from A10 big shots when necessary.

The team struggled to find flow in its offense, and there were continuous substitutions executed by head coach Steve Donahue. By the end of the game, five players had approximately 30 minutes of play, with two more trailing in the mid teens. Team captain Dennis Clifford only played four minutes, and is still battling a painful knee injury that Donahue feels will affect him for the remainder of the season.

“To be honest Dennis, is really struggling physically,” Donahue said. “Going in, he’s a cornerstone of our team,

and he was terrific all off-season, the Spain trip, and we just thought he was going to have a monster year.”

Defense proved to be extremely difficult for the Eagles, something Donahue also recognized.

“All these guys are trying, and that’s a hard thing for me as a coach, because obviously we’re poor defensively and that bothers me,” he said.

The team was regularly beat off the dribble, and shied away from the physicality of the Tar Heels.

The Tar Heels felt comfortable making shots over BC defenders, as well as fighting for offensive rebounds and capitalizing on them, allowing them second-chance shots that the Eagles could not afford to give. In the final two minutes of the game the Eagles were able to come

within ten points of the Tar Heels, but with the clock winding down, the Eagles were out of opportunities, and fell 82-70.

The game did showcase moments of excellence from the Eagles. BC shot 58 percent from the 3-point range, and were 75 percent in free throws. Hanlan showed his prowess as a point guard, leading scoring in the game with 22 points. Eddie Odio was able to bring momentum to the Eagles at multiple points in the game, culminating in a spectacular block followed by a dunk in the final five minutes of the second half. In the four short minutes he played, Clifford was able to show his dominance as a center with a huge block. Anderson contributed 16 points and seven rebounds to the Eagle effort. n

UNC James McAdoo 17 points 10 rebounds 3 assists 1 steal 34 minutes

Marcus Paige 8 points 6 assists 4 rebounds 1 turnover 32 minutes

Plays of the game

Eddie odio’s 2ndhalf putback dunk Olivier Hanlan tried a layup that rimmed out, but Odio came from the left side of the rim and threw the ball down with one hand for the slam.

Reggie Bullock’s Clutch layup Bullock missed a three, but cut to the rim after his team got the offensive board and scored a key layup that shut down a BC comeback attempt.

Graham beck / Heights Editor

UNC head coach Roy Williams and everyone else in Conte on Tuesday was briefly shook up by the injury to Tar Heel guard PJ Hairston that stopped the game for nine minutes.

Hairston’s injury screeches energetic game to a halt Hairston, from A10 closed his eyes tightly, his face contorting in pain, as his trainer and coach looked on.

Meanwhile, the music at Conte Forum continued to play. Players went back to the bench, talked if they could, maybe even listened to what their coach or assistant coach had to say. But through it all, they couldn’t help looking down to the baseline to see Hairston still lying there.

He was supposed to get up.

Finally, more than two minutes after he first went down, Hairston gave a slight nod to his trainer, and began to slowly ascend. His eyes still squeezed shut, Hairston sat up with the help of Williams, placing his arms on his knees as the trainer supported his back. The crowd gave a small round of applause, and players began to walk back onto the court, thinking Hairston was about to walk it off and the whistle would soon blow to resume the game.

Still, as he sat there, all Hairston could do was look down in pain. Seconds later, likely with some convincing, Hairston reached out his arms so that Williams and the trainer could pull him up to his feet. His face remained the same, in agony.

His feet planted firmly on the ground, Hairston was lifted up by the men on his left and right. It looked as if he was some top-heavy doll being pulled up from the ground.

The crowd gave a louder round of applause now that Hairston was on his feet, and two of his teammates came over from the bench to become his human crutches. They began to lead Hairston back over to the UNC bench, as his head sulked down,

too heavy to hold up on his own.

The three Tar Heels took two steps before the trainer came over telling them that Hairston should be headed in the other direction, to the locker room.

When they started to turn around, Hairston nearly went crumbling down back to the floor.

He began to fall backwards and to the right, as his teammates held on tightly for extra support.

Hairston buried his head into his teammate’s left shoulder, if only because it was still too heavy to hold up on his own.

A second later, Hairston had seemingly regained his power, and began to walk off to the locker room. His head sank down, looking like he was a marionette and someone forgot to pull up the string attached to his head. Slowly with his teammates, Hairston took it step by step toward the sideline. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. But on the next right step, Hairston stopped, and looked up. His face showed a mixture of pain and wooziness. He couldn’t walk any further. The trainer came over to the fallen, heavy head and helped Hairston to sit back down.

By this point, Hairston’s mother, Wendy, was on the court to tend to her son. She bent over, trying to talk to Hairston, and placed her hand on his arm, as they just began to wait.

A minute later, a stretcher was wheeled out onto the court to where the UNC guard was sitting, still along the baseline. As Jeff Savarino, an Eagle EMT, stabilized Hairston’s head, those eyes still closed in pain, the staff lifted him onto the stretcher. Williams said a few more words to Hairston and gave him a pat on the shoulder before he

was strapped in and wheeled off of the court to a standing ovation.

It lasted all of nine minutes.

Nine minutes between the second Hairston took an elbow to the head in midair on the drive

by Heckmann and the second he was wheeled off on a stretcher into the UNC locker room.

But those nine minutes seemed like eternity.

Seconds later, the game resumed. It was back to the action on the hardwood, and UNC went on to beat BC in the end.

By the second half, Hairston was walking around on his own power, and rejoined his team on the bench. He was officially diagnosed with a concussion, and sat on the bench with a towel draped over his head.

Heckmann’s drive to the basket—or any player’s drive to the basket—had happened harmlessly countless times before in the game of basketball.

Until Tuesday night, when an elbow found a head, instantly making the game itself seem meaningless.

What had once seemed like an important game became a terrifying scene. Once Hairston went down, the emotions went up. There was uncertainty. There was panic. There was grief. Later, there was relief.

And ultimately, somehow, there was still a game to be played.

All it took was one misplaced elbow to turn basketball into life, and nine minutes into eternity.

Greg Joyce is a senior staff writer for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@ bcheights.com.

THE HEIGHTS

EDITORS’ EDITORS’PICKS PICKS

Thursday, January 31, 2013 The Week Ahead

Standings

Men’s hockey hosts Vermont on Friday night. Women’s basketball plays NC State tonight at home. Women’s hockey travels to Maine for a Saturday night game. Men’s basketball has a home matchup against Clemson on Saturday afternoon. The Ravens face the 49ers Sunday night in Super Bowl XLVII.

Marly Morgus

6-4

Heights Staff

5-5

Austin Tedesco

4-6

Chris Grimaldi

4-6

A9

Recap from Last Week

Game of the Week

Men’s hockey was swept by Maine, losing 4-1 and 3-1. Women’s basketball fell to Virginia 69-57. Women’s hockey defeated UConn in an 8-0 rout. Men’s basketball lost on the road to Virginia 65-51. The Bruins won in their fourth game of the season by beating the Islanders 4-2.

Women’s Basketball

Guest Editor: Devon Sanford

Boston College

NC State

Assoc. Sports Editor

After a tough loss to Duke on Sunday, the Boston College women’s basketball team (8-11, 2-6) will host the NC State Wolfpack (10-11, 2-7) tonight at Conte Forum. The improved Eagle squad looks to tally its third ACC victory of the season despite having dropped its last four games. Meanwhile, NC State comes into action having won two straight conference matchups after suffering a four-game losing streak to start conference play. Tonight’s game should prove to be closely contested, as both teams sport nearly identical ACC records heading into the season’s stretch run.

“Go big or go home.”

Marly Morgus Asst. Sports Editor

Devon Sanford Assoc. News Editor

This Week’s Games

Austin Tedesco Sports Editor

Chris Grimaldi Assoc. Sports Editor

Men’s Hockey: No. 5 BC vs. Vermont

Vermont

BC

BC

BC

Women’s Basketball: BC vs. NC State

NC State

NC State

NC State

NC State

Women’s Hockey: No. 2 BC at Maine

BC

BC

BC

BC

Men’s Basketball: BC vs. Clemson

BC

Clemson

Clemson

Clemson

Super Bowl XLVII: Ravens vs. 49ers

49ers

Ravens

49ers

Ravens

Tonight at 7 p.m.

Men’s tennis sweeps and women’s fencing cruises

BY MARLY MORGUS Asst. Sports Editor Although there were struggles in Conte Forum for Boston College this past week, there were a few bright spots from around the rest of the Eagle athletic community.

The men’s tennis team put the cap on a solid week of play from around the BC athletic community with a 7-0 sweep of Southern New Hampshire in their home opener at the Flynn Recreation Complex on Saturday, Jan. 26.

Sophomore Phillip Nelson played the No. 1 spot for the Eagles and came away with a straight set singles win and, with the help of his partner Billy Grokenberger, also defeated the Southern New Hampshire No. 1 doubles set by a score of 8-6.

All of the singles players took com-

DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Junior safety Sean Sylvia and wide receiver Alex Amidon cut their shoulder-length hair for Locks for Love after the football season ended.

Amidon, Sylvia cut their hair for charity Locks, from A10 fect for the two prominent players, as the Eagles had just endured a dismal season on the field. While the team as a whole struggled, Amidon and Sylvia both made impacts, especially with Amidon breaking the school’s single season receiving record.

“Especially after the season, because we had such a rough season, it was more that

I wanted an absolute change, a total 180, to see if that could spark up some good luck” Sylvia said.

“We’re trying to get some good luck for the whole team,” Amidon said.

Even with all the reasons, they couldn’t help but be a bit nervous when they actually sat in the hairdresser’s chair.

“I didn’t think I was gonna be nervous, but I had anxiety about it,” Sylvia said. “It was over two years of my life ... but once I saw it being hacked away it felt like relief.

I felt like a normal person again”.

As for the future, neither is sure if they’d be willing to take their hair to such extremes again. It worked on the football field for the past few seasons, but that might not translate to later careers when their playing days are over.

“It’s funny, if we started to re-grow it we’d be out of college by the time it was long enough,” Amidon said with a laugh, “which probably wouldn’t be a great look for job interviews”. 

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Men’s tennis swept SNHU over the weekend.

manding wins in their matches, as they didn’t drop a single set on the entire day.

Both No. 5 Kyle Childree and No. 6 Matt Wagner were able to defeat their opponents without losing a single game.

The other two doubles sets—No. 2 Michael McGinniss and Kyle Childree, as well as No. 3 Jonathan Raude and Klaus Puestow—also came away with commanding victories with final scores of 8-1 and 8-4, respectively.

The No. 19 women’s fencing team was at Brown on Saturday participating in a series of Northeast Conference dual meets and came away with only one loss in six matches played. Commanding wins over Smith, Brandeis, and Vassar (21-6, 20-7, and 19-8, respectively) contrasted with tougher, closer matches against No. 18 MIT, Dartmouth, and No. 13 Brown.

A 17-10 fall to Brown was BC’s only loss of the weekend. Standouts for the Eagles included sophomore Cara Hall, who was 17 on the day in her Epee matches, and three members of the sabre squad—Marney Krupat, Olivia Curry, and Maria Schneeweiss—coming away with 14-4 records for the meet.

The No. 18 men’s fencing team was also in action in Providence, coming away with wins against Vassar and Dartmouth and losses against No. 16 MIT, No. 20 Brandeis, and No. 12 Brown. The Brandeis match was a close one with a final score of 14-13, but a large 2-7 deficit after the sabre round proved too much to overcome when it came to foil. Ha Min Lee was the Eagles’ strongest performer of the day, finishing with a 12-3 record, followed closely by his foil compatriot Patrick Riley who went 10-5.

Also faring well was the men’s swimming team as they made the short journey to Tufts on Tuesday for a dual meet against the Jumbos. Young members set the tone for the 205-146 Eagle win, with freshman Dan Kelley taking first in the 50-yard freestyle along with a set of relay triumphs in the 200 medley and the 200 freestyle. Sophomore Nick Henze also fared well with solo wins in the 100 and 200-yard freestyle races and participated with Kelley on the winning 200 freestyle relay team. Contributions also came from the diving side with senior Marty Long winning both the one-meter and three-meter events. Overall, the team won 12 out of 19. 

BC men’s hockey fights midseason slump Column, from A10

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Eagles suffered a rough weekend against rival Maine for the second year in a row. m. hockey

scoreboard

Chestnut Hill, MA 1/25

BC 1 Maine 4 m. basketball

BC Uva

rather attributed to the fact that BC hockey fans are generally unaccustomed to defeat. Dating back to York’s arrival in 1994, the crowds that have jammed Conte Forum every weekend have been spoiled with six Hockey East regular season titles, six Beanpot trophies, and four national championships. So when the Eagles hit a midseason bump in the road—which isn’t anything new—the sudden losing stings a bit more.

Yet the root of the pessimism and mutterings of “we lost to … Maine?” isn’t solely connected hockey on the Heights, let alone two regular-season

m. hockey

1 whitney 1 G BC ouellette 34 sv Maine 3 charlottesville, va 1/26

w. basketball

51 anderson 14 pts 4 reb BC 56 65 mitchell 16 pts 6 reb duke 80

games. As much as BC’s fan base has been treated to unprecedented success on the rink, it has also withstood another tough year in athletics.

The negative sentiment following Saturday’s loss probably stems more from frustration with a 2-10 football team looking to rebuild and waning patience with a young men’s basketball program than a single weekend in men’s hockey.

For better or worse, York’s squad has become the winning crutch that fans lean on—the infallible driving force that always finds a way to figure things out when the going gets tough.

One poor series is not the reason for panic, but the sight of BC’s finest looking all-too human on the ice is.

chestnut hill, ma 1/27

chestnut hill, MA 1/26 w. hockey

billett 26 sv BC swavely 2 g Uconn

8 0

carpenter 3 g chuli 36 sv

durham, nc 1/27 w. hockey

doherty 14 pts 4 reb BC peters 15 pts 13 reb pC

providence, ri 1/26

4 3

As York said after Saturday night’s game, “That’s always our objective—get better and better. I’m not sure if you can go back and say, ‘They beat us twice now, we’re going to win 19 straight games.’” History might repeat itself, but it isn’t easy for any team to repeat history. Is a midseason collapse out of the question? It isn’t, and there’s no debating the fact that the Eagles are down right now. But if there’s anything York’s teams have proven to the hockey world over the years, it’s that they will always fight to pick themselves up.

Chris Grimaldi is the Assoc. Sports Editor the for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.

chestnut hill,Mama11/11 1/29 Boston,

m. basketball

BC Unc

70 heckmann 12 pts 1 reb 82 mcadoo 17 pts 10 reb Newton, MAma 11/09 chestnut hill, 1/27

m. tennis

miller 25 sv bc buie 2 g sNHU

7 0

No. 1 Nelson 2 w

SPORTS THE HEIGHTS

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Thursday, January 31, 2013

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013

Momentum swings to the surreal

DOWN AND OUT

BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Sports Editor

Olivier Hanlan hit the floor hard, and as he lay on his back he let out a long grimace. He had returned to earth, moments earlier easing his way past North Carolina guards then soaring into the air for a finger-roll that rimmed out before a foul was eventually called.

It wouldn’t matter, though. Hanlan peeked at the scoreboard before getting up.

There was less than a minute left with Boston College basketball down 12 and the once packed student section behind him starting to clear out.

He took care of business, like he had all night, sinking the two free throws, but UNC went on to

GREG JOYCE In a matter of seconds, excitement turned into terror, a superstar turned into a son, and a basketball game turned into life.

Patrick Heckmann took the pass on the wing, juked past his defender, and drove into the paint for a contested two-point layup.

Bodies collided, the ball hit off the backboard, took one bounce on the rim, and then fell into the nylon waiting below.

Ryan Anderson went to pick up his teammate who had just made the bucket, and Heckmann jumped right back up to go to the free-throw line for the and-one.

Similarly, North Carolina’s Dexter Strickland and James Michael McAdoo went to extend a hand to P.J. Hairston to pick their teammate up off the floor.

But Hairston didn’t get up.

Instead, the 6-foot-5 sophomore laid face down on the court, his body extended over the baseline.

His legs were moving, but everything else seemed bleak.

The Tar Heels’ trainer came over to attend to Hairston. Soon, head coach Roy Williams was also kneeling down next to his sharp-shooter, as Hairston remained face down.

Then he rolled over onto his back, which gave those around him a sigh of relief that he could move on his own power. His face, though, grimaced with a look of excruciating pain. He clutched his hands together over his face, then covered it, as if it could erase what had occurred in the last 60 seconds.

Soon, Williams extended his hand to pick Hairston up like his teammates had tried to before, likely thinking he had just gotten banged up like he might on any other play.

But Hairston wasn’t ready. He

See Hanlan, A8

See Hairston A8

GRAHAM BECK/ HEIGHTS EDITOR

Lack of experience adds up

BY FELICIA FIGUEIREDO Heights Staff

A ball dribbled off of a foot. An easy layup bounced off the back of the rim.

The opposition beat a defender off the dribble with ease. These scenes exist in every basketball game, and would be inconsequential for most teams, but as Boston College fail to hit a stride offensively and defensively, these small mistakes add up quickly and cost victories.

Tuesday night the frustration in Conte Forum was palpable as the Eagles lost their sixth ACC game to the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. A significant and vocal Tar Heel fan section was able to drown out the Superfans in attendance, just as the Tar Heel players were able to overwhelm the now 9-11 Eagles on the court.

The game opened with the intensity that the Eagles have been showing in their previous match ups. Ryan Anderson scored the first points of the game with a 3-pointer, quickly followed by an uncontested dunk. The first minutes of the half were dominated by perimeter shooting, with the Tar Heels’ P.J. Hairston making two 3-pointers in two minutes, cutting the Eagles first and last lead of the game to two. Once the Tar Heels took the lead from the Eagles, the game quickly devolved into a contest of catch up, with the Eagles staying almost consistently 10 or more points behind the Tar Heels for the remainder of the game.

As the final minutes of the half wound down, Tar Heels player’s Hariston and Dexter Strickland collided under the net, which caused Hariston to sustain a concussion and leave the game.

Although the injury looked serious, Hairston was seen walking under his own power during the second half of the game. From there, the Eagles ended the half trailing the Tar Heels 48-33.

The second half illustrated the issues that plague the young Eagles squad.

Freshman guard Olivier Hanlon was the only player able to consistently penetrate the defense and open up shots for the Eagles. The communication between the players diminished as play continued, with the players appearing intimidated by the Tar Heels’ man defense. BC’s attempts to stay on the perimeter were undercut by the teams’ inability to drop

See Basketball, A8

Football juniors cut off locks for charity For York’s Eagles, history BC’s Amidon and Sylvia sport new repeats itself once again looks, look ahead to fresh start

BY FELICIA FIGUEIREDO Heights Staff

Next season it might be a bit more difficult to spot wide receiver Alex Amidon and defensive back Sean Sylvia making plays on the field. The two Boston College football team members have made some drastic

changes over break, and it has nothing to do with football.

Both Sylvia and Amidon chopped their infamous long hair to support the nonprofit charity Locks for Love, which uses donated hair to create wigs for children who have experienced hair loss caused by illness.

The need for the cut was a long time coming. Amidon had been growing his hair for about two years, while Sylvia was approaching the two and a half year mark.

Amidon lost a bet to his sister over Christmas break his freshman year, and he wasn’t allowed to cut his hair for a year. His sister and his Mom never liked his short cut. When the year was up, he decided to stick with it.

For Sylvia, football also served as inspiration for the long hairstyle. A huge fan of the television show Friday Night Lights, he modeled his long hairstyle after the shows’ star and Panthers football player Tim Riggins.

When it came time for the cut, Sylvia’s younger sister brought up the idea of donating his hair, as she had gone through the process of Locks of Love before. The plan was made even more poignant for the two Eagles because of the devastating influence of cancer that surrounded the BC community this past year. Lisa Gallup, BC ’06, daughter of Barry Gallup, director of football operations, was battling cancer during the Eagles’ 2012 season, and passed away in late December. The 26-year-old had been a vibrant part of the BC community, and the struggle of the Gallup family made an impression on both players.

“I knew Coach Gallup’s daughter was battling with cancer, so that was another driving force,” Sylvia said. “I had cut my hair before (Lisa passed away) so I was able to send them a picture of my haircut before, and it was cool that when I went to the funeral I had my haircut and could show my support”.

The haircuts also had a cleansing ef-

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS STAFF

Amidon and Sylvia saw the change as a cleansing effect after a losing season in 2012.

I NSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE

See Locks, A9

Eagle Roundup: Fencing cruises

The women’s team took victories in five of its six matches last week...A9

CHRIS GRIMALDI Right about now, the Boston College men’s hockey team isn’t just experiencing deja vu—it’s living it.

For those who watched a lowly Maine team relentlessly deal the Eagles their first home sweep in two decades, last weekend was the equivalent to a college hockey apocalypse.

Head coach Jerry York’s defending national champions were outscored 7-2 by an opponent who entered Conte Forum on Friday with only one conference victory and left on Sunday with three.

To rain on the proverbial parade a bit more, the Eagles have now dropped four out of their last five games. Yet for everyone wishing to press the panic button on BC’s season, my advice to you is this: chill out.

Sure, the last time BC was swept in a home weekend series was 1993 (ironically enough, by Maine), the last time it lost two consecutive home games was the 2008-2009 season, and the last time Parker Milner wasn’t starting a game between the pipes seems like never. But when was the last time BC appeared to be heading

Game Of The Week: W. Basketball

The Eagles look to get back into the ACC win column against NCSU.....A9

toward a midseason meltdown?

It was almost exactly this time just last year when the Eagles endured a grueling sweep at Maine (yep, you guessed correctly) that appeared to be a crippling blow on the eve of their stretch run. Just when everyone was about to write the 2011-12 season off as a lost cause, however, York’s BC squad bought into a timeless maxim: when life hands you a sweep from the Maine Black Bears, get mad and win 19 straight games. It was that disastrous weekend last year that spurred the Eagles’ legendary path all the way to a national title two months later.

Of course, last year’s BC team was graced with the likes of Chris Kreider and Tommy Cross, and the Maine team it was swept by had been a Hockey East contender instead of a conference cellar dweller. Yet it was still surprising to sense the dejection that ensued after this weekend’s series. While watching Saturday night’s game, it was as if Maine’s Jon Swavely single-handedly parted the Superfan section with his late-third period goal. A student section that spent two days waiting for its Eagles to make a defensive stop and execute with the puck realized that a mass exodus was the only way to wake up from the nightmare on ice.

Maybe the sudden letdown can’t all be blamed on last weekend, but

See Column, A9

Editors’ Picks........................A9 BC Notes...............................A9

The Heights

A2Column

Fashion Forward

ADVOCATING FOR THE CLASSIC STYLE OF THE BOW TIE, page B4 Star Value

Trinidad james

EVerything is gold for this hiphop sensation, page B4

Thursday, January 17, 2013

album review

‘hEARTTHROB’

tHE veteran cANADIAN DUO’s latest release pulsates with poppy hooks and harmonies, b5

Pride in

‘ rejudice’ P

Celebrating 200 Years

See B3 MAGGIE BURDGE / Heights PHoto illustration

THE HEIGHTS

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WILEY’S FOLLIES

Degrees of iSolation

Thursday, January 31, 2013

SCENE AND HEARD

2. 2013 SAG AWARDS Last Sunday, the 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards honored the best movies and television of 2012. The earnest 90-minu t e affair did not try to compete with the Golden Globes on glamor. It did, however, offer clarity in a t i g ht race between this year’s Oscar nominees. Ben Affleck’s Argo received the top honor of Outstanding Performance By A Cast, while Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence, Tommy Lee Jones, and Anne Hathaway took home the individual awards. PBS’s Downton Abbey and ABC’s Modern Family took televisions top awards.

JOHN WILEY The telephone call replaced the letter.

The text message replaced the telephone call. The social network replaced the text message. Each successive medium came with the promise of heightened intimacy, the assurance our friendships could now span greater distance. But, alas, technology has mutilated the connections it sought to preserve. What remains is an abstract, fragmented form of communication, that functions not on the basis of direct interaction, but rather the casual brushing of our beings, as we anonymously exchange interests, photos, and thoughts.

We are not closer with each other, but rather better informed of each other, at least on a rudimentary level. The language of our interpersonal dealings is exhaustive. “How’s it going?” no longer is a question demanding a response, but rather a loose display of interest. I’ve long believed in the magic of small talk, but its purpose too is tired when a question is no longer a sincere inquiry.

“How’s college?” “Anything exciting happen lately?” “Are you seeing anyone new?”

“Any good movies out?” “How about the weather?” Why ask? The answer’s only a few taps away.

The world is looking down. A study published by the Kaiser Family Foundation discovered the average 8 to 18-year-old in the United States receives just under 11 hours of media a day—this number far exceeds the recommended hours for sleep and the time the same kids are spending in school. Ten years ago, a similar statistic would likely be tracking hours of television, but today it testifies to the pervasiveness of the smartphone. Television has long been contested by parents, and although questioning it was valid, at least there was a precedent for television’s psychological effect. Television served as a distraction, while the smartphone follows our daily routine, making a distraction of everything else.

How then can we even begin to gauge its sociological effects?

The fault lies not in the iPhone, but rather how we grasp it with great religion.

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, he describes a dystopian society in which people turn to soma, a hallucinogenic drug, to rid themselves of life’s discomforts. The awkwardness of social engagements, feelings of love too difficult to express, moments of pain, notions of societal discontent—soma could cure it all. Have we found our soma?

Have we properly outsourced our pain?

The other day, when describing my iPhone, I caught myself referring to the “internal” and “external” camera—such jargon is relatively standard. But once we realize we’re not describing a flip phone, and indeed both cameras on the iPhone are external, a disturbing shift in our perceptions of ourselves is quite evident: the face of the iPhone has become synonymous with our own inner workings. We’re facing a wall, looking out at the world through a narrow window. If you pay attention, you’ll notice people take their iPhone out of their pocket when they sit down, as if to suggest it’s become a means of protection, or even a set of lungs, an apparatus through which we breathe.

I hope in 20 years, I can chuckle over that silly fad when people tried to live their lives in little boxes. I hope one day the phrase “iPhone” will strike up the same silly nostalgic sentiments “Nintendo 64” and “Sega Genesis” do today. But how do we get out of the box? How can we reclaim a world in which Manti Te’o would have to actually meet his fake girlfriend before she died? Of course, this isn’t just about the “catfish.” It’s about the real fish flopping into our boat that we simply throw off the deck. I am not suggesting the immediate deletion of all Facebook accounts, but perhaps we should start treating it more like a book and less like our face—something we can close and come back to in a day, as opposed to something that follows us around and thus defines who we are.

The epitome of iPhone absurdity is Snapchat, the mobile social network exclusively purposed for sending up to 10-second images (doesn’t it sounds strange attaching a duration to an image?), generally of oneself.

Behind these fleeting images of the self, there is little truly resonating with us, besides the fact human faces now strike us as unusual, funny, even uncomfortable to look at. It’s time to flip the camera, perhaps even put it away. We cannot understand ourselves simply by looking at ourselves, just as we cannot understand our friends by looking at their pictures and “likes.” Stop looking down, and start looking up. Chances are, the

John Wiley is the Asst. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

BY: JOHN WILEY

1. AN UNDECIDED DESTINY

Although members of Destiny’s Child have on several occasions denied rumors they will finally be reuniting on stage during Beyonce’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl this weekend, new evidence is suggesting just the contrary. It has been announced that group-member Michelle Williams will be missing this weekend’s opening of Fela!—the show is to be Williams’ third lead performance in Broadway musical.

4. FRANKLY DISTURBING

After a violent altercation over a parking space, R&B artist Frank Ocean is expected to press charges against fellow artist Chris Brown. Ocean was reportedly jumped by Brown and four other men when arriving at a Los Angeles recording studio. Ocean’s charges could cause trouble for Brown, who is currently on probation for assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009. Brown has made no official response, but did compare the situation to the crucifixion of Jesus on his Twitter account.

The Vatican has yet to reply.

3. A NEW HOPE WITH ABRAMS

5. ZERO BLACK COFFINS

Following Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm in October, J.J. Abrams was announced as director of Star Wars: Episode VII this week. Abrams, known best as director of Super 8 and 2009’s Star Trek reboot, initially declined Disney’s offer to direct. He will be joining Michael Arndt, screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine, and Lawrence Kasdan, screenwriter of Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi , for the project. Star Wars: Episode VII is expected to be released in 2015.

Rick Ross narrowly escaped gunfire Monday, while driving through Fort Lauderdale in his Rolls Royce with girlfriend Shateria Moragne-el. He returned to the studio the next day, dropping a verse about the attack over Kendrick Lamar’s “B—Don’t Kill My Vibe.” The recording was released by his labor later that day. Rick Ross, who refers to himself as “The Boss,” is no stranger to the law—he served several years as a corrections officer after attending Albany State University on a football scholarship.

THE CRITICAL CURMUDGEON

@GS ELEVATOR (GS ELEVATOR GOSSIP, PARODY ACCOUNT)

“#1: FLOWERS AND AN APOLOGY ARE A LOT EASIER THAN ACTUALLY CHANGING.” @JIMMYFALLON (JIMMY FALLON, LATE NIGHT PERSONALITY) PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE

John Paul Jones, shown above with Led Zeppelin, is the rare example of a bassist who makes his distinctive presence known.

Beginning to broach the basics of bassists MATT MAZZARI Did you hear about the God-awful bass player? He was so bad, even the lead singer noticed!

Ah, the wonderful world of bassist jokes. As far as instruments in popular Rock ‘n’ Roll go, few are as disparaged as the bass guitar. Even the guy with the unplugged acoustic might at least look sexy if you stand far enough away, but bass is never a sexy instrument. Rock bassists often get flak for their unglamorous role, the percussive string instrument that, for the larger part, hangs in the background of great tunes. Holding up a bass line looks tedious and unrewarding, since you’re usually being drowned out by the forefront sounds reserved for the front-men, the lead guitarists, and Clarence Clemens (R.I.P.). Audiences rarely concern themselves with that low rumbling noise propping up the guitar solo, especially when the loudest percussion onstage is coming from the guy in the back banging on them bongos like a chimpanzee.

Smash hits in the bass guitar world often go underappreciated by the general music populous. Jaco Pastorius, for one, was widely regarded as the guy who revolutionized bass forever, yet he’s hardly a household name.

Guys like McCartney, Sting, and Flea are iconic, of course, but that’s not so much for their phenomenal bass work as it is for either fronting the greatest band ever or for having a silly name. By the “greatest band ever,” I of course mean The Police. Who names their

kid Paul?

So was Stephen Colbert right when he said that bass players made a poorly worded deal with the devil? Was McCartney right with his original intuition, that the bassist is invariably the “fat guy who played at the back?” Of course not! Especially not since the latest trending music is positively sopping with opportunities for creative slap-bass, ambiance tones, and pulsating R&B phrases. Whether it’s Dubstep, Techno, House Music, or Drum & Bass, recent minimalism in the dance and pop scene has launched bass into the coveted limelight for a great deal of inexplicably popular music. It’s even popularized the battle cry of “Drop the bass!” followed by the desperate wub-wubs of a scared machine having a conniption. All that buzzing and whirring is bass guitar, right? It’s just distorted, digitalized, and played in a wind tunnel by the musician’s (or musicians’) genitalia flapping gloriously against the strings. Right?

Oh, cruel deceit! The awful truth of the matter is that many of those genres that have used bass as more than a simple rhythm instrument are computerized and simplified to a point where the actual bassist is unnecessary for the hydraulic-bumping sound desired. When T-Swift features those resonating open notes in the refrain in “I Knew You Were Trouble,” there isn’t much along the lines of string work going on in the studio. Nor is there much at a Skrillex concert, for that matter. Is inventing good, catchy bass really so simple a Mac can do it?

The reality of the matter is that con-

structing bass lines is simultaneously a science and an art, and the music you listen to, rock or otherwise, sounds tinny and strange without it. The problem is that, in its most basic (ha) form, the bassist hardly has to play more than seven or eight notes per chord progression to get the job done, if he wanted to be lazy. But there are a number of bassists, some celebrated and others less so, that take being the backbone of a melody to an entirely different level. For instance, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin shows off his creative chops on just about every rockabilly fill the group did, such as the brilliantly designed back-and-forth between him and Jimmy Page on “The Lemon Song.” John Deacon of Queen and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd wrote those fantastically imaginative riffs that you always find yourself caught up in, like “Under Pressure” and “Money”. And of course, dominating the game is John Entwistle of The Who. If you haven’t heard the isolated bass of “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” you have no idea what you’re missing. It’s as if he’s soloing for the entire 10 minute song, and he hardly even turns his neck once. The instrument is fascinating in its economy and potential, so don’t confuse bass being played with bass being dropped.

Sorry about the bassist jokes, folks. Here, I’ll make it up to you: what do you call a guy who hangs around three musicians?

A drummer.

Matt Mazzari is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

“JUSTIN BIEBER IS BEING INVESTIGATED FOR HITTING A SECURITY GUARD WITHA NERF DART. BIEBER COULD FACE UP TO 6 MONTHS IN TIME OUT. #FALLONMONO” @THEELLENSHOW (ELLEN DEGENERES, TALK SHOW HOST)

“WHY COULDN’T THE PIRATE PLAY CARDS? HE WAS SITTING ON THE DECK! #CLASSICJOKETUESDAY” @FRANK_OCEAN (FRANK OCEAN, R&B ARTIST)

“GOT JUMPED BY CHRIS BROWN AND A COUPLE GUYS. LOL. I ONLY WISH EVEREST WAS THERE” @COMMON_SQUIRREL (COMMON SQUIRREL, PARODY ACCOUNT)

“DIG DIG DIG”

SUBMIT YOUR FAVORITE TWEETS OF THE WEEK FOR CONSIDERATION AT ARTS@ BCHEIGHTS.COM.

The Heights

Thursday, January 31, 2013

B3

pride in ‘prejudice’

200 years later, Austen’s powers have not diminished Sean Keeley Arts & Review Editor

Ariana Igneri Assoc. Arts & Review Editor

john wiley Asst. Arts & Review Editor

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a literary masterpiece, beloved by esteemed literary critics and general audiences alike since its first publication in 1813. Austen’s tale of love, manners, and marriage has proved indelible, inspiring a profusion of pop culture items from conventional TV and movie adaptations to outlandish literary pastiches. This week marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice, and to celebrate, The Scene looks at the extent of the novel’s continued influence, encompassing zombies, Bollywood, and everything in between.

The BBC Pride and Prejudice Miniseries

Bride & Prejudice

Arguably no other adaptation of Austen’s novel has received the accolades BBC’s Pride and Prejudice miniseries did when it premiered in 1995. The five-hour retelling of canonical romance novel was presented in six installments. It resonated with audiences as the proper marriage of Austen’s storytelling and riveting visuals of the English countryside—the series was praised for this faithfulness to detail. BBC’s Pride and Prejudice miniseries marked a revitalization of television drama, and served as inspiration for other shows about the British upper class, including PBS’s Downton Abbey. Additionally, the career of Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth was launched by his dishy portrayal of Mr. Darcy. Firth’s performance was brilliant enough to inspire Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’ Diary, a novel re-imagining Pride and Prejudice in the modern era. He later played Mark Darcy in the book’s film adaptation. In 2010, Firth won Best Performance in a Leading Role for his portrayal of another iconic Brit, King George VI, in The King’s Speech. – J.W.

Austenland

Although Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directing debut Don Jon’s Addiction and Daniel Radcliffe’s appearance in Kill Your Darlings stole the headlines, the 2013 Sundance Film Festival this week also saw the premiere of Austenland, the story of a 30-something woman’s pilgrimage to a Jane Austen theme park. Director Jerusha Hess—known as screenwriter for Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre—hopes to finally reach a female audience with this comedy, as she is admittedly “sick of making movies for little boys,” according to her interview with Time magazine. Throw Twilight author Stephenie Meyer into the mix as producer, and suddenly, all the ingredients are in the oven for the perfect disaster. The film examines the anglophobia responsible for Pride and Prejudice’s resurgence and Mr. Darcy’s timeless sex appeal. Critics panned Austenland for its lightness and questionable affinity with its source material. This 1 percent milk of Austen’s triumph is said to provide little sustenance for the true aficionado, and as Napoleon Dynamite once suggested, “You could be drinking whole if you wanted to.” – J.W.

Pride & Prejudice (2005 movie)

Released a decade after the widely popular BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries, Joe Wright’s adaptation of the beloved Austen classic inevitably faced high expectations. The film was more succinct than its predecessor was, and its screenplay deviated more from the original novel, but under Wright’s artistic direction, it went on to become a universally acclaimed achievement.

Revitalizing cliched period film conventions, Wright actually set Pride & Prejudice later in the 18th century, skillfully distinguishing it while tastefully and subtly modernizing it. Such directional decisions resulted in an adaptation that, though not entirely accurate historically or literarily, seemed more hone st and genuine. The movie’s impeccable cast, including Keira Knightley, Matthew McFayden, Donald Sutherland, and Judi Dench, was also vital in enabling the film to attain the widespread appeal that it did. This, as well its visually stunning cinematography and brilliant orchestral score, allowed it to transcend typical genre stereotypes and to solidify itself as a true cinematic masterpiece. Nominated for four Academy Awards, Wright’s Pride & Prejudice certainly holds its own amongst the many other Austen adaptations.

Its continued success, however, lies in the fact that it’s more than simply a literary remake—it’s a real work of art, one that will absolutely “bewitch” you, “body and soul.” – A.I.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Perhaps Mr. Bennet never properly prepares his daughters for their suitors in the original Pride and Prejudice, but he most certainly does prepare them for zombie attack in Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2009 novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

After losing the colonies to an incorrigible gang of yankees, the Brits must surely be up in arms about this American bastardization of an English classic—especially considering Jane Austen is credited as a coauthor. A considerable digression from the subtlety of 19th-century literature, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies unabashedly restrings Austen’s novel to work in the context of a zombie-ridden English countryside. In a morbid restructuring of events, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy gradually let go of their “pride and prejudice” as they de-brain, decapitate, and otherwise dismember the pesky undead population alongside each other. If Jane Austen’s original tale can only address the reluctance of love, this 21st-century masterwork speaks to its fullness of it integrity, in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, nonetheless. – J.W.

The 2005 release of Bride and Prejudice truly put the universality of Austen’s “universal truth” to the test. Switching Empire waistlines for traditional Indian saris and classical pianos for bhangra beats, the movie proves that a rich man, regardless of his culture, is usually looking for a wife. Essentially, Bride & Prejudice is a modernized, Bollywood adaptation of the 200-year old, Austen classic. The storyline hardly veers from the novel’s: a young girl, a wealthy man, a doting father, an eccentric mother, and spirited sisters are all staple elements of any Pride & Prejudice spin-off. Some of the characters, including Mr. Darcy, even keep their names. Others, like the film’s protagonist, Lalita, receive more localized names that are similar in pronunciation to their original counterparts. Directed

by Gurinder Chadha and starring actress Aishwarya Rai, Bride & Prejudice provides viewers with a vibrant picture of Indian culture. It includes a number of energized Bollywood dance numbers too. More than that, though, the film proves the vitality of Austen’s work: change the time, the place, and the names, and her stories are still as lively and colorful as ever. – A.I.

Death Comes to Pemberley

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies isn’t the only genre mashup derived from Austen’s classic novel. Occupying a more elevated level of literary pastiches is P.D. James’s 2011 follow-up Death Comes to Pemberley, which picks up six years after the events of Pride and Prejudice and recounts a mysterious murder case on the grounds of the Pemberley estate. James, the 92 year-old British writer most famous for her long-running Adam Dalgliesh detective series, merges her usual mode of intelligent, literate mystery stories with a narrative voice and style straight from Austen. The last time James attempted such a dramatic change from her usual style was the dystopian science-fiction novel Children of Men, which inspired the acclaimed 2006 movie.

It’s not likely that Death Comes to Pemberley will make as much of a splash as that book—most agree that Pemberley is an enjoyable but minor work by James. Still, reviews were largely positive, with the New York Times Sunday Book Review singling out the author’s “unforced, effortless, effective voice” which gave “the impression that it is Austen herself at the keyboard.” For any writer, it’s hard to receive higher praise than that. – S.K.

Lost in Austen

In 2008, screenwriter Guy Andrews gave a postmodern spin to Pride and Prejudice with the four-part miniseries Lost in Austen. The show begins by introducing us to Amanda Price, a young London woman who recovers from an unfortunate relationship by taking solace in Austen’s classic work. One night Amanda finds Elizabeth Bennet in her bathroom and soon discovers a portal into the world of the novel. Amanda and Elizabeth switch roles, with Elizabeth stepping into 21st-century London and Amanda becoming, well, lost in Austen, as she is courted by Mr. Darcy and tries not to derail the novel’s plot. The British series’ goofy premise and sharp writing proved irresistible to critics and audiences alike, and the show made the jump across the pond when it aired in America in January 2009. A rumored movie adaptation of Lost in Austen, backed by impressive Hollywood talent like Nora Ephron and Sam Mendes, has been stuck in development hell since 2009 and may be on hiatus following Ephron’s death last year. Regardless of the movie’s status, though, curious Austen fans can always catch up with the loopy, playful original miniseries on DVD. – S.K.

Bridget Jones’s Diary

Modern, fun, and fresh, Bridget Jones’s Diary takes Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and turns it into a lighthearted romantic comedy. Before it was adapted for the screen, the 2001 movie was actually a best-selling novel by Helen Fielding. The storyline, of both the book and the film, follows a British woman, Bridget Jones, through a process of self-improvement, in which she is determined to find love. In order to do so, however, Bridget must reconcile her prejudices—recorded in her personal diary—against Mark Darcy. Through a series of entertaining ups and downs, their relationship develops in a story that is intentionally analogous to Austen’s cherished, original plot.

Though the film stars big names such as Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant, it was the casting of Colin Firth—the original Darcy—that made the symmetry between the two versions especially exciting. A Pride and Prejudice veteran, Firth truly enabled the film to bridge the gap between old and new, garnering the adoration of several distinct generations. Bridget Jones’s Diary, dealing with timeless themes, is just another example that attests to the durability of a classic story like Austen’s. – A.I.

THE HEIGHTS

B4

Thursday, January 31, 2013

KEELEY’S CORNER

STAR VALUE BY KWESI AARON

Celebrating the Trinidad has the Midas touch with ‘All Gold Everything’ neglected art of the album WHO: Trinidad James

BORN: September 24, 1987 (Age 25) WHERE: Atlanta, Georgia

WHY HE MATTERS: James is seeking to prove he’s more than a one-hit wonder after the success of “All Gold Everything”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

Somewhere in the incoherent, semi rhymes of the chart topping single, “All Gold Everything”, was the catapult that launched new rap star, Trinidad James, into the public eye. Seemingly overnight, the young rapper went from being a small time southern rapper to features in publications like The Source Magazine. He is not accused of having released the song of the year—some hard-core, brilliantly lyrical, gem of a track. Instead, James prides himself on simply making a very catchy tune with catchy phrases, the catchiest of which may be “Popped a molly I’m sweating, Whoo!” This phrase, along with the other equally questionable lyrics is characteristic of the new subset of rap music (ratchet, if you will) that has taken popular culture by storm. James is indeed a pioneer of the newfound trend of anti-lyricism.

While criticized for being detrimental to hip-hop, this trend only represents the more superficial aspects of life that are enjoyed by all, leaving the deeper allusions to other subsets. Many have called him a one hit-wonder, and so far he is indeed the Carly Rae Jepsen of the rap scene, but James insists that should people dig into his work, they’d find a consistent body of quality music. 

FASHION FORWARD

Learning to bow to the bow tie The bow tie is a bold, classic choice with an illustrious history

ANDREW SKARAS For many centuries, men have been adorning their necks with different shapes, sizes, types, patterns, and colors of fabrics. Originating in 17th-century Croatia, the cravat is the predecessor of all modern-day neck apparel and was a Croatian innovation adopted by the French. Over the course of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, the cravat morphed and changed into the recognizable neckwear of today. But this column is not about your ordinary, run of the mill, four-inhand long tie. Rather, I would like to praise the virtues of the oft-unsung bow tie.

While the exact sequence of changes to the cravat that led to the modern bow tie is unknown, we do know that the bow tie emerged in the 19th century as a popular neckwear choice for men. However, in the 20th century, one can see the neckwear trend move towards long ties and, by the second half of the century, bow ties faded from everyday usage in the business and political worlds.

This is not to say that bow ties disappeared entirely. The realm in which they have always held a preeminent position of sartorial superiority is that of formal dress. Here, I speak of the quintessential James Bond look—tuxedo jacket and trousers, pleated white shirt, cummerbund or waistcoat, and black bow tie. While the ’60s and ’70s saw some abhorrent innovations in the traditional tuxedo, the black bow tie was always and still remains the standard choice of neckwear for men’s formal dress.

Although the bow tie has remained standard in the realm of formalwear, there has been a decline since its early 20th century heyday in day-to-day usage. However, it has not altogether disappeared, but rather occupies certain niche spheres.

Most commonly, the bow tie is associated with academic look. By this, I mean tweed coat with suede elbow patches, slightly frayed pants, sweater vest, and bow tie. While most students reading this column will scoff, as they notice their young professor walk into the room wearing jeans and a button-down, this attire, though dated, can be seen around campus. I have seen a number of faculty members and administrators wearing bow ties, including (but not limited to) Karl

Bell and Hiroshi Nakazato. Though it is certainly true that this academic style has declined on the modern day college campus, there is still a public association of bow ties with the collegiate academic.

Another bow tie association is with the ironic hipster. In the last two decades, in a time in which bow ties were not cool, hipsters have been seen wearing bow ties ironically. Many times, this has been in the form of pre-tied bow ties hanging unclipped around the neck. As a bow tie aficionado, I have always condemned anyone ever donning a pre-tied bow tie.

Recently, however, bow ties have started to break out of this stereotype. From the Northeast to the SEC, preppy schools across the nation have seen a re-emergence of the bow tie. Looking at recent collections of Vineyard Vines and Brooks Brothers, both staples in any preppy wardrobe, the bow tie has made noticeable appearances in their lines for the collegiate crowd.

In this day and age, I think that there is a place for the bow tie in the young man’s wardrobe. While some still perceive the bow tie as something best left to the old and erudite, the bow tie has come a long way. The key is in how and when to wear.

First and foremost is the point I mentioned earlier—never wear a pre-tied bow tie. It makes you look like a little kid being dressed by his parents for a wedding. Second, the pattern, color, and material are crucial for avoiding looking like an old man. If it’s spring or summertime, go with bright and bold colors. You will already be wearing a bow tie, so you have committed to making a fashion statement. Material can be standard silk or a little edgier seersucker or madras cotton. In the fall and winter, wear more subdued colors but keep it up to date by avoiding gimmicky patterns and non-silk ties. One of the other crucial elements for picking out your bow tie is size.

You don’t want it so big that it’s floppy, but you don’t want it so small that it is comical next to your head.

After picking out your bow tie, the next thing is where to wear it. It would be best to eschew wearing it to a job interview or any other professional function. It is, however, excellent for more casual, private affairs—a trip to the theater, a nice dinner out, or a Sunday brunch.

I’d like to conclude with why I think people should wear bow ties, so I’d like to quote New York Times writer, Warren St. John, who wrote, “Most of all, wearing a bow tie is a way of broadcasting an aggressive lack of concern for what other people think.” So express your individuality and wear a bow tie.

Andrew Skaras is an editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

Though bow ties are often associated with aging academics (see top image), they are more versatile than typically given credit for, and can serve as a bold compliment for younger fashion-conscious gents (see bottom image).

THIS WEEKEND in arts

BY: LUIZA JUSTUS | HEIGHTS STAFF

Friday 1. FUN. CONCERT (FRIDAY 2/1)

One of the leading bands for the indie rock movement into popular audiences, this young band will give a rather, well, fun performance at the Orpheum Theater this weekend.

2. WARM BODIES PREMIERE (FRIDAY 2/1)

Saturday

Sunday

3. RICK JENKINS AND GUESTS AT THE COMEDY STUDIO (SATURDAY, 2/2 8:00PM)

4. MARIO TESTINO “BRITISH ROYAL PORTRAITS” EXHIBIT AT MFA (ONGOING)

Kick back, relax, and be amused by this hilarious show with comedian Rick Jenkins. All shows begin at 8 p.m. at the Comedy Studio in the fun and artsy area that is Harvard Square.

It’s only natural to feel drawn to the compelling faces of the British Royals. Mario Testino’s portrait features images of the world’s most famous royal family, including the world’s most renowned newlyweds, William and Kate.

5. THE GLASS MENAGERIE AT THE AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE (SUNDAY 2/3 AT 7:30 PM)

Following pop culture’s latest trend of zombierelated entertainment, Warm Bodies provides a unique perspective on this apocalyptic world, featuring an unusual relationship between an undead guy and a human girl he feels the need to rescue.

A play by John Tiffany, former Broadway director, The Glass Menagerie follows the story of a family as each member deals with their own issues. The play premieres this Sunday at the American Repertory Theater in Harvard Square, and will continue through mid-March.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

SEAN KEELEY Anyone who’s read a single think piece about the music industry in the past, oh, decade or so, is undoubtedly familiar with this basic story: the industry is undergoing a paradigm shift, physical media are on the verge of extinction, and digital music is the new king. By now it’s a pretty trite and obvious narrative, and I don’t really have any interest in rehashing it. Nor have I ever really felt the passion of those audiophiles who decry these changes as fundamentally harmful. Yes, it’s true that digital music files are lower quality than vinyl, but for me the increased ease of access to music that iTunes, Spotify, and the like provide are largely more significant than the potential downsides.

Still, I do have one caveat. It’s occurred to me several times recently, whether I’m bouncing around campus with headphones stuck in my ears, listening to relaxing homework-friendly music, or queuing up the playlist I fall asleep to: I don’t listen to albums much anymore. I’m not sure anyone does, really. Songs, yes—creatively themed playlists, sure, but albums? In the age of iTunes, where songs are so easily available for individual purchase, the art of the album is too often neglected.

I find this trend a little sad, because I think the album is the ultimate musical art form. Too often, the album can be seen as simply a vehicle for songs or a convenient way to smother a few singles between a bunch of filler. Many, maybe even most, albums fit this bill, regardless of the quality of their individual tracks. But at its best, the album offers something more interesting: a thoughtfully composed, thematically integrated sonic experience.

The first album that I loved as an album, rather than just a collection of songs, was The Beatles’ 1967 masterpiece Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

It’s the ultimate concept album, from the iconic cover art to the progression of the tracks, which often flow directly into each other rather than beginning and ending discretely. The title track gets a reprise toward the end of the album, forming a nice circularity, yet the album isn’t wholly uniform. The Beatles make way for fascinating experiments, channeling Indian sounds on “Within You Without You” and ending with the complexly layered “A Day In The Life.” From beginning to end, it’s a fascinating and inexhaustible work. As a 7-yearold I wore out the CD from repeated play, listening again and again to fully explore its contents, even the parts I didn’t quite get.

That’s the kind of listening experience that is all too rare today.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that I measure watershed moments in my musical development in terms of albums, not songs. Two albums ultimately sealed my unfathomable love for Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen: Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks and Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town. Dylan’s is the ultimate breakup album, written in the lead-up to his divorce and encompassing every contradictory emotion about love you can possibly imagine. Darkness is the Boss’ angriest album, a sad and gritty look at working-class characters stuck in a rut and trying to rise above their circumstances. I am neither a lovesick poet nor a Jersey steelworker, yet these two albums formed a pivotal component of my soundtrack in high school. Eventually, albums become such familiar companions that you treasure every little detail of the sequencing—like how the long keyboard outro of “Racing in the Street” transitions to the pumped-up anthem “The Promised Land,” or how Dylan’s brilliantly ferocious, nasty howl of a breakup song, “Idiot Wind,” moves into the lovely, lilting harmonicas of “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.” These songs, to me, are inseparable from their location in their respective albums, and the ways in which they speak to each other.

Is the art of the album dead? Far from it, but perhaps we need to remember how to listen. For a long time, I tried but couldn’t get into Bon Iver, the celebrated indie folk group. I liked the popular song “Skinny Love,” but beyond that was left cold. All the songs I heard seemed the same, defined by Justin Vernon’s wispy falsettos and titled with random place names. Then I finally took some time to listen to the group’s two albums all the way through. I haven’t stopped since. Songs that didn’t click as individual tracks suddenly made so much more sense within the context of the album.

It’s a friendly reminder that sometimes we need to turn off Shuffle, ignore our playlists, and have the patience to listen to our music as it was originally intended.

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

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, January 31, 2013

B5

Tegan & Sara revitalize their sound with pop influences

CHART TOPPERS TOP SINGLES

BY DMITRY LARIONOV For The Heights Anybody that has been following Tegan and Sara throughout their 15-year recording career would be surprised by their latest release, Heartthrob, not for the commitment with which the two sisters reinvent their sound, but for the integrity with which they break top-40 turf. The 7th studio album surely represents the biggest shock to their stage presence since the introduction of bass and drums, but T&S’ musical identity doesn’t suffer from additional production.

On “Goodbye, Goodbye,” vulnerable Tegan is as confidential as ever, Sara is just the right mix of repression and angst, and when the two are together—damn, it’s synthetic, unadulterated bliss.

Remember that middle school girlfriend with the Hot Topic wardrobe and the shrine to Gerard Way in her closet? She’d love this song too, but T&S’ genius takes a retrospective approach to what some might write off as “tween nip.” When the harmonies collide in “I Was a Fool,” it is the dueling voices of heartbreak coming into synchronicity—it is the voices in the head of anybody at a disconnect with love finding their way to peace.

Most songs clock in at around three minutes, amounting to a series of short, gorgeous melodies

and brief glimpses into a love-battered mind. The songs do sometimes bleed into each other, which wouldn’t be a problem in a concept album if they followed looser structures. Listening to the CD front to back is kind of like following a sin(x) graph, oscillating between intense, pregnant verses and the collision of striking hooks. Then again, perhaps this is just another display of Tegan and Sara’s understanding of genre. Pop albums are no longer a linear experience, and if we’re meant to pick and choose these songs every time we plug in, there are too many winners on Heartthrob to write similarity off as laziness.

The jump to pop does come with its drawbacks—the lyrical depth boasted so confidently in their earlier work was substituted for airy, dance simplicity. But T&S have always been bold about performing the emotion that most musicians only allude to, and they manage to take their fans towards Passion Pit complexity rather than to mindless Bieber-land. Echoes of “please stay” temper the sonic optimism on “Now I’m All Messed Up,” and who hasn’t lost somebody and wondered “whose life you’re making worthwhile?”

Perhaps Heartthrob’s greatest triumph is its role as an oasis of female independence in a genre that fetishizes starlets into doe-

1 Thrift Shop Mackelmore & Ryan Lewis Feat. Wanz 2 Locked Out Of Heaven Bruno Mars 3 Ho Hey The Lumineers 4 Suit & Tie Justin Timberlake Feat.

Jay Z 5 I Knew You Were Trouble Taylor Swift 6 Scream & Shout will.i.am feat. Brittany Spears

HEARTTHROB TEGAN & SARA PRODUCED BY SIRE RECORDS RELEASED JAN. 29, 2013 OUR RATING A-

PHOTO COURTESY OF SIRE RECORDS

‘Heartthrob’ balances Teagan & Sara’s established indie reputation with a new, more mainstream style. eyed schoolgirls, sex-addicts, or “liberated” druggies (I wasn’t going to mention any names, but those would be Katy Perry, Rihanna, and Ke$ha, in that order). Sure, it’s a romance album. Tegan and Sara are screaming out into the lovelorn abyss—that’s what they do. Sure, too, their move to breakup pop will undoubtedly attract the generation of tweens looking for something

to express their vague sexuality now that Twilight has ended. But the album goes out on a high note with “Shock to Your System,” and Heartthrob is consistently less guilt and more pleasure.

Careful with the word “sellout.”

T&S have managed to avoid a common pop faux pas—the lyrics dictate the delivery, not the other way around. The voices are breathy,

wistful to demonstrate weakness— steady, aggressive notes capture the strength that seems to win out in a battle for self-acceptance. Tegan and Sara are great female role models in an objectifying industry.

Their music is fragile yet daring, and their chart-friendly release succeeds in being that which pop should be, and avoiding what it shouldn’t. 

TOP ALBUMS

1 Long Live A$AP A$AP Rocky 2 Kidz Bob 23 Kids Bob Kidz 3 Pitch Perfect Soundtrack 4 Red Taylor Swift 5 Unorthodox Jukebox Bruno Mars Source: Billboard.com

Bluesy ‘Get Up!’ brings Harper and Musselwhite together

BY MATT MAZZARI Heights Staff Blues is one of those genres where no matter how well you interpret it or how many years you practice, there’s some old geezer out there still playing small-time

gigs out in the Midwest who’s a million times better than you. He also probably only has about one eighth of a working lung to his name, not to mention that his first instrument was one guitar string and three rusty nails. Dammit if he can’t still jam, though.

So when the young and eclectic multi-instrumentalist Ben Harper decided to make his 12th studio album a blues record, his first stroke of genius was inviting the legendary Charlie Musselwhite, the original “white-guy” blues player. (He swears he’s part Native American,

GET UP! BEN HARPER & CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE PRODUCED BY STAX RECORDS RELEASED JAN. 29, 2013 OUR RATING A PHOTO COURTESY OF STAX RECORDS

Featuring the legendary talents of Charlie Musselwhite, ‘Get Up!’ will attract both old and new blues listeners.

but he’s still deciding on which tribe.) Though often overlooked, Memphis Charlie’s claim to fame back in the ’60s was as a harmonica player good enough to play alongside Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Tom “Grizzly-Balls” Sawtooth. I made up that last one, but seriously, Musselwhite’s a big deal. Most people nowadays are familiar with his persona without realizing it, since he was reportedly the inspiration for Dan Akroyd’s Blues Brothers.

The second brilliant stroke for Get Up! was the devastating riff in “I Don’t Believe a Word You Say,” which ultimately won me over as a fan of the LP on the whole. The combination of Harper’s staggering, soul-heavy vocals atop the raucous and technically masterminded harmonica blast is enough to have any blues aficionado stomping angrily around their house. For the uninitiated, that’s how blues aficionados express uncontainable glee when they aren’t drinking heavily.

From the first merciless note of the track, which opens brazenly on the refrain, it feels like everyone in the studio is trying to rip apart a brick

wall with just the sound of their loneliness, their resentment, and their massive stones. As far as an original release off a modern blues album goes, this very well may be the most genuinely true-to-form howler I’ve ever seen. The immense talent in this collaboration manages to churn-out the whole works, from skuzzy instrumental duels between musical generations to clever, striking lyricism that’s often blacker than B.B King’s pinky toes. That’s saying a lot, because the pinky toes are, like, the sixth blackest body part on B.B. King.

Really, though, the wordplay here is almost too brainy for the blues, which thrives on dark simplicity. The second verse of the opening track lays this gem on you, so right off the bat you see what you’re in for: “If your ship hasn’t come in / Don’t have a problem with the shore / If you’re locked out of your house / Don’t have a problem with your door.” Little words of bluesy wisdom like that are constantly cropping up, and they’re usually bracketed by the group rising to flat-out harmony with a cymbal clash and a

harmonica wail.

Despite his more extensively published background in gospel and reggae, Harper does the Blues proud by crushing the vocals on killer originals like “Blood Side Out” and “I Ride at Dawn,” which both manage to be precisely as badass as their titles would suggest. His lyricism and timbre are exceptionally in tune with the archetypes ranging from wistful Worryin’ Man laments like “Don’t Look Twice” to gruff-and-tumble monologues like “I’m In, I’m Out, and I’m Gone.” He can preach and he can croon, and whichever one he’s doing you won’t want him to stop. Returning to his roots in slide guitar becomes Harper well, as he delivers the licks that make him fit to shred beside Musselwhite’s tremendous presence.

The power coursing through the studio is infectious, as the whole group clamors to back the Musselwhite-Harper partnership with thick, full-bodied groove. The whole album is a pleasure, a good-time had by the performers, songwriters, and listeners alike. Get Up! is a stellar recommendation for seasoned listeners and dabblers in the genre alike. 

Though cliched, ‘Charlie’ features smooth vocals and production

BY DAN LYLE For The Heights With Valentine’s Day approaching, Love, Charlie should be declared the official album of the 2013 lover’s season. However, early before the album is over we get to a point when we’re like: “Yes, Charlie we get it. You like this person a lot.

Now tell me something I don’t know.” Wilson tends to fall into popular conventions that anyone who has listened to 30 minutes of the radio has heard more than once. What keeps us listening to this album, though, is Wilson’s expert vocal abilities in combination with the superb level of production present on nearly every track included.

For this reason, “My Love is All I Have” is probably the best track on the album. Even though, as the title suggests, these lyrics don’t pose much of a new concept, every inflection of his voice just carries the track to glory.

Also, this downbeat, deep range of music suits his tone perfectly,

and is used a few places on the album.

The same is true for the bedroom ballad, “Turn Off The Lights.” While being very unapologetically similar to songs (both in and outside of his repertoire) that pose the same theme, Wilson pulls it off gracefully.

His vocals soar. Regardless, the musical production on that track deserves credit for making the song work. The whistling is reminiscent of some of 2012’s biggest hits and is comforting because it is really catchy as of late. However, we could still do without the “erupting like a volcano” imagery.

The last of the three best tracks comes right after on the track list. “A Million Ways to Love You” represents the most skillful writing on the album.

Again, not a very foreign concept, but compared to the other songs it is the least cliche driven track. Backed by only a wellcrafted percussion section and a few keyboards, this song gives Wilson a place to vocally embar-

rass many other acts who considers themselves to be singers.

The strongest part of this album besides Wilson’s vocals is the production. While for the modern R&B listener these combinations might come off as a bit outdated, most arrangements are familiar enough to appeal to the modern listener.

This comes with the exception of the upbeat track “My Baby,” which sounds like a song off a 1980s urban contemporary movie (which probably didn’t do well). This song ridiculously includes scatting, a funky bass pattern, and a weird electronic lead arpeggiator.

On the other side of the spectrum another fail comes to the forefront in the form of the song, “Oooh Wee.” Unlike the last, this song falls onto the opposite extreme of unworthiness to be on this album. It falls into the trap of mimicking the contemporary production style of our time, and in its attempt to make something original and fresh the track comes off as forced and

unnatural.

Love, Charlie as a whole, however, overcomes the common mistake made by the lesserknown greats to create a work that will “sell” to the masses.

Usually that formula typically makes the music much worse than it would have been had the

artist stayed true to themselves.

And with an artist like Charlie Wilson, who has worked with every hip hop artist from Snoop Dogg to Kanye West, this album could have easily become like most contemporary R&B: a collection of beats with a voice happening to sing above.

As a result, this album represents a noble effort by a great in his own right who does not have to try hard to stay relevant. We thoroughly see that he definitely has what it takes to create great music, and even with the subtle mistakes, his album is worth a few listens. 

LOVE, CHARLIE CHARLIE WILSON PRODUCED BY RCA RECORDS RELEASED JAN. 29, 2013 OUR RATING B

PHOTO COURTESY OF RCA

Wilson’s suave voice complements his tender lyrics, making ‘Love, Charlie’ a perfect release for Valentine’s Day.

SINGLE REVIEWS BY DAN LYLE Lil’ Wayne “Love Me”

Calvin Harris “Drinking from a Bottle” Released off his 2012 debut, 18 Months, Calvin Harris gives the clubs and DJs a new track to add to their playlists. This is the one they’ll use because it pretty accurately describes what people will be doing at the club, and it serves as a nice transition to a better song that will actually make the crowd excited.

Justin Bieber “Nothing Like Us” Even for Lil Wayne, the new single “Love Me” is unnecessarily over-the-top. This is definitely the overtly rude Wayne that we are used to.

But lacking the lyrical wittiness that made him popular just reveals the many other things that are wrong with this track. Unfortunately, features by trendsetters Future and Drake add little to the track.

“Nothing Like Us,” a bonus to Justin Bieber’s new acoustic album, gracefully complements the newfound emotional depth that the old arrangements blanketed.

With a well-played piano accompaniment (which should be noted for its perfect touch), Justin’s voice does more than appeal to listeners.

B6

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, January 31, 2013

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, January 31, 2013

B7

THIS WEEK IN...

BY TRICIA TIEDT| METRO EDITOR

POP EDUCATION CULTURE HackHarvard, a student organization with the mission to “bring hack back,” concluded their annual “Hack Week” this past Sunday, Jan. 27. Hack Week, HackHarvard’s winter incubator program, takes place for students looking to advance their computer science projects over the finals days of winter break.

The week consisted of 21 seminars dedicated to furthering the students’ projects, all of which were created in Harvard’s Innovation Lab on campus.

Hack Week participants received feedback from TechStar, spent a day in Kendall Square, and spent time with Google and Hubspot companies.

Participants created 17 products throughout the week, demonstrated in the final showcase on Sunday. Projects included an online evaluation system of Harvard professors and mobile applications for businesses to communicate with customers in store.

Well, it’s not the Real Housewives of South Boston, but it’s close enough. Southie Rules, the newest reality TV series by the A&E Network, premiered Tuesday night at 10 p.m. The show follows the lives of the Niedzwiecki family, much to the dismay of local business owners and residents in Southie. Weeks ago, accusations circulated that the show was scripted, and that the producers were determined to depict South Boston in a negative light. Cast members and the show’s crew workers fought these accusations, yet after the premiere, Southie Rules star Joey Broadway admitted to the preplanned scripts. South Boston residents can clearly spot the forced nature of the show—from skewed plot lines, awkward dialogue, and forced encounters.

However, all eyes will be on A&E to see the drama that will “unfold” with the Niedzwiecki family.

NEWS

PLAYING IT SAFE

NATIONAL

B o ston Mayor Thomas M. Menino delivered his Annual State of the City Address on Tuesday, taking a hard line on educational advances, improving the city for working women, and public safety. Menino’s hopes for Boston public schools are currently in the hands of his External Advisory Committee on School Choice, which will soon release an education proposal. On women, Menino cited the U.S. Census Bureau when he claimed that females make up less than 30 percent of business owners, a number that is above national averages but unsatisfactory to Menino, who plans to appoint a Women’s Workforce Council.

Menino also said that he will work with other mayors to prevent gun violence. “I ask you to stand with us on guns to say enough is enough,” he said.

Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police at Boston College John King issued a community safety notice to all BC students via email yesterday.

The safety notice alerted students to reports of two armed robberies at non-campus locations, including the intersection of Reservoir and Lee Road in Newton and 200-222 Lake Street in Brighton. The suspects involved in both cases are described in the notice as two white males in their 20’s with “slim builds.” In both cases, the suspects drew handguns before stealing belongings. While the victims were not members of the BC Community, the notice urged those in and around the campus to walk in well-lit and commonly travelled areas, to walk with friends when possible, and to be aware of one’s surroundings as well as the location of BC’s Blue Light phones.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry (BC Law ‘76) secured the Secretary of State position by an overwhelming 94-3 majority vote on Tuesday evening. Kerry will become the 68th Secretary of State, succeeding current Secretary and former First Lady Hilary Clinton. Kerry has been a Senator since 1985 and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the past four years—the same panel that unanimously approved his nomination Tuesday. According to a statement by United States President Barack Obama, Kerry has received “overwhelming bipartisan support” since his nomination in December. Newcomer to the Senate Elizabeth Warren is now the state’s senior senator, and will be joined by a newly elected senator to take Kerry’s place in the coming months. Kerry’s election marks him as the first Cabinet member to join Obama’s second presidential term.

RESTAURANT REVIEW

Hot pot new dish in Boston

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

BY KATHERINE BU For The Heights

HOUSE AD

Hot pot, also commonly known as Shabu-Shabu among the Japanese, or Steamboat among the Chinese, has been growing in popularity across Boston.

On a bitter cold winter day, what could be better than boiling-hot soup in which you can cook an assortment of fresh meats and vegetables? Simple, yet delicious, hot pot is sure to satisfy you every time.

Additionally, the ability to cook your food at your table makes the experience even more social. While places like Shabu-Zen and Kaze-Shabu are delicious destinations for a dinner of hot pot, I highly recommend venturing out to Swish Shabu.

Located on 86 Peterborough Street in Fenway, Swish Shabu is one of the newer hot pot restaurants in Boston. Students can easily hop on the T at Reservoir and take the D line to the Fenway stop and walk about two minutes to the small row of restaurants on the street behind Burger King.

While perhaps there is less to do in the area than Chinatown or Harvard Ave., Swish-Shabu has college-friendly prices and open, young ambience.

Swish-Shabu is a medium sized restaurant, equipped with a bar if you are unwilling to wait for a table. If seated, you will sit at a table with a built in burner for every four people, and begin to look over the vast array of meats, soup bases, and vegetables available. Swish Shabu offers an impressive mix of sushi as well, but the hot pot is what keeps customers unable to stay away.

You begin by choosing up to two soup bases per pot. The house soup (at no additional charge) is homey, while their other options like Kimchi, Tom-yum, and Szechuan are spicy and extremely flavorful. These come at an additional cost of $3 and will be topped with the house soup upon request.

Swish-Shabu offers a dozen different soup bases, including a vegetarian option, allowing you to mix and match different bases each time you go.

In addition to choosing a soup base, you get to pick what type of add-ins you want for your meal.

Each of the 20 combinations comes with a mix of vegetables and a choice of rice, udon, vermicelli, yam, or vegetable noodles. The vegetable assortment includes lettuce, watercress, corn, taro, carrot, and more. The combinations are flexible ranging

from single types of meat like beef, lamb, and chicken, as well as choices of two meats and even surf and turf. The single choice combos are about $12.50-14, while options like the seafood platter combo are more expensive ($15-23). Beef is the most common and traditional protein, but adventurous eaters can try less common meats like tripe, preserved duck egg, and their extremely popular ostrich. Their pork dumplings, a daily special, are also very good.

Swish Shabu offers various appetizers and “small eats,” including miso soup, salad, and scallion pancakes that you can enjoy either before or with your hot pot meal. After you order, the waitress will bring out a large bowl of hot soup and place it on LOCATION: 86 PETERBOROUGH STREET CUISINE: HOT POT SIGNATURE DISH: SHABU SHABU ATMOSPHERE: 8/10 AVERAGE MEAL: $15 OVERALL EXPERIENCE: A

the burner until the soup starts boiling. At this point you add your meats and vegetables until everything cooks. Part of the fun of the experience is cooking your own food and watching your beef turn from red to brown in a matter of seconds. There is always a bit of uncertainty as to how long you should cook everything the first time you try, but mostly everything cooks quickly and the staff can offer guidance.

The meats and vegetables are unseasoned, but you can add plenty of flavors to your individual taste with the chopped chili peppers, garlic, scallions, and satay sauce served to each diner.

Swish Shabu is a fun, social experience and the hot soup is extremely satisfying, especially in the winter. The food is healthy and economical. I usually order beef ($6.75), watercress ($2.75), and rice ($2.00) and after tax and tip spend about $15 for an extremely filling dinner. I highly recommend Swish Shabu and for you to try the hot pot craze that has been spreading across Boston.

THE HEIGHTS

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BOOKISH BOSTONIAN

Chasing Ernest Hemingway

RYAN TOWEY A favorite high school English teacher of mine once told me that Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises was responsible for inspiring her to spend a significant amount of time in Europe.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the novel also invigorated a passion in me to live in Paris, Milan, and anywhere else Hemingway happened to set foot. For a man that travelled as much as Hemingway did, however, I find it ironic that his legacy ultimately lives in Boston, a town to which he had no known connection.

Boston’s John F. Kennedy Memorial Presidential Library and Museum houses the Ernest Hemingway Collection, a dynamic gathering of manuscripts, letters, and photographs, including 44 hand-written drafts to the ending of A Farewell to Arms.

The online information regarding the contents of this collection is exhaustive; including a potentially irritating stipulation stating that one needs an appointment before viewing the archive. This, however, will not deter me.

I always thought I would have to travel to Europe to feel any kind of closeness to Hemingway, but the presence of the Hemingway Collection in Boston has removed the “one day” attitude I formerly had to hold towards seeing a slice of his life. No longer do I have to talk to my friends about traveling to France and Spain to feel his life—though I probably still will. No longer will I be forced to say to my friends—when I am feeling particularly manic and bad about my own life—that I just want to move to Paris, grow a perfect white beard, and become Hemingway. When I catch their dubious and frightened glances, I stroke my cleanshaven face and say, “You’ll see! You’ll all see!”

But they will not see. I cannot grow facial hair like Hemingway’s to save my life.

And more importantly, I can’t have his life.

Traveling to the places he has lived and letting my facial hair follicles give it their best effort will not allow me to live a piece of his life. Taking the trek to view Boston’s Ernest Hemingway Collection and reading all of his works will bring me no closer to being the man that wrote the words.

I am the type of person that cannot transmit what I do not have. I have to live it to write it.

I like to think that Hemingway may have been a similar type of man, that if he had never been in World War I or lived in Paris or suffered losses that he could have never written the words he wrote.

I am only a 19-year-old boy. There is more for me to see, more for me to live. I find it interesting that this chapter in my life, my time in Boston, takes place in a city towards which Hemingway doled out no literary affection. My path starts in a place that my idol’s footsteps and words never graced.

Because of this, I have decided that where one lives a life is far inferior to what one lives.

Perhaps I have not lived long enough to identify with the disillusionment of Lieutenant Frederick Henry in A Farewell to Arms, and in a way I hope I never feel that variety of loss, just as I hope to never live long enough to understand Hemingway’s alcoholism and suicidal demise.

But I have lived long enough now to know how it feels when Jake Barnes turns to the woman he loves in The Sun Also Rises, thinking about the life they cannot have, saying, “Yes. Isn’t it pretty to think so?” And I have lived long enough to know how it feels when Hemingway himself expunges his first wife of blame in his incomplete, largely autobiographical A Moveable Feast.

My chase to live Hemingway’s life, therefore, will never be complete, because the only way to find an understanding of someone’s life is to chase one’s own.

Might take a while.

Ryan Towey is the Asst. Metro Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

MBTA updates systems, paves way for changes MBTA Updates, from B10 other electronic devices, and pluck them out of their hand at the last moment before the doors close. The transit police noted that this nationwide trend is most often a “crime of opportunity,” which can be avoided by staying alert and keeping electronic devices out of sight, according to a new MBTA public service announcement about the safety of electronic devices.

The MBTA hopes to combat some of the major problems that plague the users of public transportation with a number of modern updates to the subway system included in Patrick’s new transportation plan entitled “The Way Forward: A 21st Century Transportation Plan.” The aspect of the plan that would appeal most to college and young adult users of the T is the proposal of running the subway and bus system until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings to better accommodate Boston’s active nightlife. This proposal would greatly benefit those who stay out past 12:35 a.m., the time that the T shuts down on both weekdays and weekends.

In addition, the MBTA plans to put in place a number of new high-tech upgrades that would improve rider experience. The first of these upgrades would allow Green Line passengers to track trains on the B, C, D, and E lines in real-time with the use of a smartphone. The Green Line currently uses a more basic tracking system than the Red, Orange, and Blue Lines, which all allow riders to track exactly where the trains are and when they will arrive. The MBTA hopes to update the

system on the Green Line by 2015.

The updated system would also allow “countdown clocks” to appear on the digital message signs which are currently in use on underground Green Line stops and on stops on the Dbranch. The Green Line is the second most used line of the T system (after the Red Line), yet it has fewer features than the other lines, which run mostly underground.

Another high-tech update to the subway system would be the addition of digital screens that would update riders on train and subway conditions and also feature advertisements. These digital screens are already present on the Red Line at South Station in the form of two 17-foot wide screens as well as at Harvard Station. The selling of advertisements on these digital screens could help bring a necessary increase to the MBTA’s revenue.

The transportation plan also hopes to expand bus service into the greater Boston area, especially to the Berkshires, an area popular among tourists.

It has a strong focus on increasing rail travel, including a reconstruction of South Station to be able to accommodate more trains as well as a commuter rail expansion from Boston to Springfield and from Boston to Cape Cod. The transportation plan backed by Patrick has been met with resistance and criticism because of the heavy financial burden it would put on the shoulders of the Massachusetts tax payers in order to implement the proposed plan. If approved, it could raise sales tax to 7.75 percent and income tax to 5.66 percent. Most of the updates are projected to be completed within the next 10 years. 

EUN HEE KWON / FOR THE HEIGHTS

COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

The Boston Globe offices are located near the JFK/UMass station off the MBTA Red Line.

Globe provides office space Globe Office Space, from B10 To Mayer, then, the purpose of employing the second-floor vacancy in this way is twofold. Not only will it foster new business relationships and create buzz surrounding the paper, but it will also have an enlivening effect on what has become a regrettably arid work environment.

Perhaps more important, though, is the potential this space has to become a source of revenue for a paper suffering from a serious lack of income, staff, and prospects for the future. By offering emerging innovators, musicians, and other business prospects space in which to work free of charge, they encourage what might end up being successful ventures to join The Globe in partnership, as well as offering them a chance to be featured in what is still a prominent news source.

Oftentimes these partnerships do not involve a monetary transaction.

Jeff Moriarty, the vice president for digital products at The Globe, told The New York Times that many projects involve “mutual benefit with no money exchanged.” For example, an app-building company called TapWalk is in the process of creating an app for The Globe in exchange for access to a workspace.

There is also a radio station that operates out of the space on the second floor called RadioBDC, as in Boston Dot Com, an homage to the website that founded the station, Boston.com. The station, which is owned by The Boston Globe, is comprised of four DJs that play indie and alternative rock tracks for listeners in the Boston area. It went on air in August of 2012 and has since become the broadcast that serves as the playlist for background music for The Globe’s online readers while they look at articles on the website. When they can, the radio’s staff brings in bands to perform live on the show, including the Lumineers, who performed on RadioBDC last year. This helps both the show’s ratings as well as the bands’ reputations.

The Boston Globe is not the first newspaper to try to be productive with the space vacated by staff cuts. The Daily News transformed an empty office building into a condominium complex, and the Los Angeles Times opened up their offices to house movie production for big titles such as Argo, Dreamgirls, and Moneyball. Even airports and churches have advertised empty spaces as community areas during tough economic times, allowing it to be used in innovative ways similar to those used by The Globe under Christopher Mayer. 

Patrick to include taxes on popular items in 2014 budget 2014 Fiscal Budget, from B10 the current economic climate. Even President Barack Obama and Congressional Republicans agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans. Obama had made the extension of the tax cuts for most Americans a cornerstone of his 2012 reelection campaign.

There is concern that an extensive tax increase would deter private sector hiring, Michael Wildmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation, told CBS Boston. “I can be sure it will cost us jobs,” state Rep. Brad Jones, the House Minority Leader said in an interview with The Boston Herald.

In contrast, Patrick has asserted that the tax increases will help stabilize the economy.

“History has shown us that investing in transportation and education is a winning strategy,”

he said in reference to the concern. The plan secures an additional $553 million for the Commonwealth’s educational initiatives and $269 million for transportation. The Department of Health and Human Services is also to receive an additional $1.4 billion under the proposed plan.

The plan calls for the expansion of the sales tax into everyday products like soda and candy, which had previously been exempt from the state sales tax. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has pioneered the movement to tax, and in some cases ban, soda and candy. Under the plan, cigarettes will also see a $1 increase, bringing the state tax to $3.51 per pack.

This is not the first time tax increases on such products have been proposed. In fact, Patrick’s proposed budget in 2009 featured similar tax hikes on gasoline, candy, soda,

and alcohol. Those proposals were eventually removed from the final budget after extensive debate in the state legislature and replaced by a 25 percent increase in the sales tax. Last year’s proposed budget also called for an increased tax on cigarettes but that was also removed after debate.

Patrick’s plan is far from a finished product, and the budget will likely dominate discussions on Beacon Hill throughout the coming months.

Both the state House of Representatives and the Senate will submit their own budget proposals.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr told the Boston Business Journal that the plan “lacks credibility,” because of its proposed widespread spending increases in light of the fact that the state is currently running a $1 billion deficit, and is still recovering from an economic recession.

Republicans and Democrats in the legislature have noted that the proposed budget offers virtually no spending cuts.

In the meanwhile, Patrick has taken to the road to drum up support for his budget with leaders across the Commonwealth. In a speech at the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s annual convention at the Hynes Convention Center late last week, Patrick reminded his audience what was at stake: “We can choose to invest in ourselves, in a growth strategy … or we can do nothing.”

Many of the mayor’s responses reflect the uphill battle Patrick may face in passing his budget. Agawam Mayor Richard Cohen told masslive.com he was hesitant about the income tax hike given the state’s unemployment: “Is there another way to do it? It’s still very early.

I’m very cautious at this point.” 

PERSON TO WATCH BY: DANIELLE DALTON | FOR THE HEIGHTS

At nearly every hour of the day, at least one Boston College student can be spotted jogging around the Reservoir. Boston Public School teacher Liz Byron, BC ’06, may have graduated, but will keep the athletic spirit of BC alive as she runs the 155-mile Marathon de Sable (Marathon of the Sands) in April 2013 in an effort to raise $50,000 for laptops for her students.

The ultra-marathon is a six-day race across the harsh terrain of the Sahara Desert. The equivalent of six marathons, the race is grueling to say the least.

Runners must carry all supplies and food on their backs—totaling nearly 25 pounds—as they race in temperatures that regularly rise to 120 degrees by midday.

Byron, however, is not new to the competitive world of sports. She has previously competed in traditional marathons and an Ironman triathlon. During her undergrad years, she was an All-American Swimmer on the BC swim team. “Swimming made me more disciplined, it extends your pain threshold, and instilled in me an appreciation of competition. I think about swimming, my coaches, and teammates while running— they’ve all had a very positive influence on me,” Byron said.

It is the discipline learned in the pool that enables Byron to train rigorously for the competition, which she found by typing “toughest running race on Earth” into Google. “Simply put, I run a lot,” Byron explained.

“I typically run between 40 and 120 miles a week.”

As if Byron’s passion for her students at Gardner Pilot Academy, where 92 percent of students live at or below the poverty line, wasn’t evident enough by her commitment to run through the Sahara Desert, when asked a simple question of what she wished more people realized about her motivation for running the race, she responded passionately, “Technology and access to the internet is a fundamental staple for students in 2013. How many times a day do you use a computer? Don’t low-income middle school students deserve the same? Yet, sometimes I get responses that technology isn’t as important as other causes. If we are to end the achievement gap and close the cycle of poverty we have to provide our highest need students with an exemplary education. Then these students can and will be more successful adults and more likely to be productive members of society.”

In a school announcement, Gardner Pilot Academy School principal Erica Herman stated, “[Liz Byron] is incredibly

dedicated, innovative, and tireless on behalf of our students and families. Her willingness to undertake this tremendous endurance challenge speaks volumes about both her physical strength and the strength of her character.”

Covering all transportation costs to the race and WHO: Liz Byron, BC ’06 WHAT: Running the Marathon of the Sands in order to raise money for her students in the Boston Public School system WHERE: Sahara Desert WHY IT MATTERS: Bryon embodies the BC motto “Men and Women for Others” as she uses her gift of running to serve the student body.

the entrance fee herself, Byron is proud to acknowledge that all donations, which are tax deductible, go towards purchasing laptops for her students. As of Jan. 27, Byron had raised $19,091 of her goal of $50,000. To make a donation to support local students or to receive updates about Byron’s progress, supporters may visit runforlaptops.org. 

The Heights

Thursday, January 31, 2013

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MIT under fire for suicide of Swartz Swartz, from B10 also co-founded the Internet activist organization Demand Progress, which launched a campaign against the Internet censorship bills Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), through which Swartz reflected his passions for sociology, civic awareness, and political activism.

While fulfilling the position of a research fellow at Harvard University, Swartz was arrested on Jan. 6, 2011 and charged with 13 counts of felony for entering a restricted-access computer-wiring closet at MIT where he allegedly downloaded large portions of JSTOR (short for Journal Storage), a U.S.-based digital repository for academic journals and data, in order to release it to the public for free use. The charges included wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, and recklessly damaging a protected computer. Swartz made his court appearance this past September, where he faced a possible sentence of a $1 million fine and up to 35 years in prison. The impetus behind Swartz’s actions laid in his opposition to JSTOR’s practice of compensating publishers instead of authors out of the fees it charged for access to articles, fees which limit public access to academic work that is supported by public funding.

An official statement released by Swartz’s family alludes to how their son was bullied into taking his own life, and states that MIT and the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office played a role in contributing to the suicide. The hacktivist group Anonymous responded to Aaron’s death in its own way, compromising several high-profile websites,

MassEDchusetts

Considering the impact of technology

including that of the U.S. government, on which it placed a video making a statement that the government had “crossed the line.”

Additionally, more than 48,000 people signed an online petition to the White House demanding that U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz be removed “for overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz,” and a similar one has been created for prosecutor Stephen Heymann.

“[MIT] refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community’s most cherished principles.”

-Larry Lessig, Harvard Professor MIT in particular has been under fire for its role in the prosecution and subsequent death of Aaron Swartz, rendering it an easy target for Anonymous, whose members hacked two websites in MIT’s domain and replaced them with tributes to Swartz. The hacked web pages called upon the Internet community to carry on Swartz’s legacy in advocating the open access movement, and to demand that the U.S. copyright system make improvements.

At any point in the prosecution of Swartz,

Jacqueline Parisi PHOTO COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

only underdeveloped in their social maturity, but also undeveloped biologically. The human brain is far from fully developed at the age of seventeen. The unstable children cannot be forgiven for the crime at hand, but many of them, with the help of educators, are capable of becoming stable enough to live without posing a threat to society. Fifteen years or more of life in a controlled environment separated from the brutality of gang violence, from destructive parents, or from any other factors that lead the child to murder another person could potentially transform him or her into a completely different person than when he was incarcerated. Perhaps children who develop a relationship with a counselor while incarcerated should be released on parole with this figure as their continued mentor. He or she may potentially be less likely to return to a life of crime if he feels that he is disappointing a stable parental-like figure.

The plan that Governor Deval Patrick is proposing will in no way assure convicted children future parole, but only propose this as an opportunity.

Although their crimes are unforgivable, many incarcerated children deserve a life outside of prison bars.

Whenever I hear the term “virtual education,” I immediately think back to my 11th grade physics teacher, who attempted to have us complete online module lessons while she was absent one day. These included videos of her explaining certain physics concepts as well as online quizzes.

Needless to say, her attempts were unsuccessful. Looking back, I’m not sure if the lack of success was due to the fact that she mistakenly opted not to have a substitute teacher and instead trust 25 16-year-olds to sit in class alone and focus on online lessons, or if it failed simply because virtual learning does not work… for anyone.

I have since been a firm believer that, if there is the option to have the teacher in front of the classroom or on a computer screen, educators should always opt for the former. It is more conducive to active learning and engages the students more than a computer screen can. However, never once did I think about virtual education with regards to students who cannot easily attend school because of a disability or students prone to violence.

On Jan. 3, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed legislation that establishes guidelines for the approval and operation of public schools in which teachers provide all or most instruction online for students who cannot be present in a school building for reasons such as these.

Under this new law, a single school district, a group of two or more districts, an education collaborative, an institution of higher education, a nonprofit, two or more certified teachers, or parents would be eligible to submit a proposal to the state to develop a virtual school. Preference will be given to applications that focus on serving students with physical challenges, students who have been expelled or dropped out of school, and those who are pregnant or already parents. Districts would be responsible for paying a per-pupil fee for students attending a virtual school not operated by its home district.

“Anything we can do to keep kids in school, I think, is beneficial,” said Superintendent John E. O’Connor of Tewksbury.

“And if this can help some students maintain their academic focus, I’m all in favor of it. We just don’t have the resources, financial and manpower, to establish a school from scratch.”

Currently, Massachusetts has one virtual school that was founded in 2010: The Massachusetts Virtual Academy at Greenfield. Educators in favor of this legislation hope that, with more virtual schools, Massachusetts will no longer be falling behind other states that have already harnessed technology’s potential to benefit its students.

At this point, the legislation would not allow for more than 10 virtual schools to operate at one time. Additionally, no more than two percent of students statewide can be enrolled full time in virtual schools.

Educators are a bit wary about virtual schools and are not rushing into this venture too fast. Superintendent Frederick Foresteire of Everett added that school departments want to hear more about the advantages and disadvantages of virtual schooling before definitively deciding “how much we want to get into it.”

Paul Dakin, the school superintendent in Revere, voiced some concerns about virtual schools that echo some concerns that I immediately think of when hearing about online classrooms regarding active learning.

“A lot of what we do in the schools not only imparts the content of knowledge, but there are elements of democracy where kids learn how to work out differences and debate and talk and be contributing members of a group,” said Dakin. “Where someone just works in isolation online, that can lead, in my own opinion, to a society that doesn’t look out for one another.”

The debate is not a black and white one. The question is whether these risks are worth taking to maintain some semblance of an education for students who may not otherwise be able to attend school at all.

Meghan Kelleher is a staff writer for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

Jacqueline Parisi is a staff writer for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@ bcheights.com.

The group of hackers that call themselves Anonymous claimed the gov. “crossed the line.” the activists argued, MIT could have disagreed with the allegations of computer fraud and harm, which likely would have led Ortiz to drop the charges or not insist on prison time. Harvard professor and friend of Swartz, Larry Lessig, said that MIT placed institutional interests ahead of compassion, while Swartz’s family similarly claimed that MIT “refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community’s most cherished principles.”

On Jan. 18, MIT’s email system was taken out of use for 10 hours as a result of more Anonymous group activity, and on Jan. 22, emails sent to MIT were redirected by hackers to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology. Previously, MIT had maintained an “open campus” policy with an open computer network, but in the wake of the hacking incidents, MIT ap-

pointed professor of electrical engineering and computer science Hal Abelson to do an internal investigation of the university’s role in Swartz’s prosecution.

Last Friday, Anonymous led peaceful protests in honor of Swartz outside of the John Joseph Moakley courthouse in downtown Boston, with a simultaneous protest occurring on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. These protests were part of the group’s “#OpAngel” mission, which came to fruition following Swartz’s suicide, in an effort to stop the federal bullying that included an unfair prosecution against crimes that were “victimless and non-malicious.” In a release last week by Anonymous, the group wrote, “We will not be silenced as he was and we have the ability to continue his work in providing open access for all.”n

Boston schools to reconsider student placement process Boston Public Schools, from B10 School Choice,” a committee which will soon make a final reccomendation to restructure school assignments for Boston students.

According to bostonschoolchoice.org, three main plans have emerged from almost a year of discussion. One is a 10zone plan and the other two are homebased plans.

The 10-zone plan is exactly as it sounds. There will be 10 geographic zones created across the city. Families will then get school choices within the zone that they live in and rank schools in order of preference. As mentioned, sibling preference and walk-zone schools will be taken into consideration. These zones will be drawn “to balance access to quality schools,” more predictability

for families and close-to-home options for the students. In addition, elementary schools would have a linked middle school that would provide predictability for elementary students progressing to middle school. Students would have the ability to select other middle schools, but feeder middle schools would be established to maintain consistency.

There are two home-based plans: plan A and plan B. In home-based plan A, every family will receive a list of schools based on where they live. Each list is guaranteed to have both quality schools and walk-zone schools. Quality of schools would be based on Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), Massachusetts’s standard based testing system, to gauge both academic performance and growth of schools. Based on the standards, schools would be broken

into four tiers. Each family would receive a list of the two closest Tier I schools, the four closest Tier II schools, and the six closest from Tiers I, II, and III. Some family’s lists may have overlap depending on where they live. In addition, all walkzone school would be included. Finally, there would also be “capacity schools” that, according to Bostonschoolchoice. org, “can usually seat any student who requests it” to ensure proper supply and demand. Each family will have the three closest capacity schools on their lists.

Home-based plan B is similar to plan A but has a few distinct differences. Again, each family will get a list based on the location that they live. In this plan, however, each list will contain three schools from Tier I, six schools from Tiers I and II and nine schools from Tier I, II, and III. Again there is the possibility of overlap, the

consideration of siblings and walk-zone schools and capacity schools. The ranking process based on MCAS will also remain the same in plan B. In addition to the basic framework provided by these three plans, the advisory committee wants to provide more alternative school options. According to bostonschoolchoice.com this would include “in-district charters, Innovation schools, dual language and inclusion programs.”

These plans each have their own individual intricacies, benefits, and drawbacks. Each one, however, was carefully crafted to improve on the currently flawed Boston Public School System. According to the official website of the city of Boston, Menino has stated that a key focus of his this year will be “promoting public school success.” n

THE ISSUE:

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is proposing a plan to change the punishment of juvenile murderers. This new plan would change the defined age of a “juvenile” from 16 years old and under to 17 and under. When the convicted has been behind bars for as early as 15 years and if the prisoner has behaved in a way that would allow parole officers to believe that he or she is no longer a threat to society, he or she would receive the opportunity to get parole. Is this just?

Remembering the lives lost Youths deserve second shot Ryan Towey The recent proposal to handle murder trials involving a teenage defendant with a greater emphasis on rehabilitation has good intentions, but ultimately ignores the most important issue at hand.

It seems that in an effort to rehabilitate the lives of teenage murderers, lawmakers have forgotten the lives lost. If lawmakers move to decrease the likelihood of a life sentence for a teenage murderer, they will ignore the sanctity of life that was destroyed by human hands—regardless of how youthful those hands may have been.

With that said, cases involving young offenders ought to be treated with the utmost sensitivity, especially by the media, not only for the sake of shocked and confused families, but also for the sake of a young individual who may have only been an innocent person in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In the event that a young offender is deemed guilty, however, one must remember that the court system is not designed primarily around the rehabilitation of criminals. Rather, the court system’s most important charge ought to be to protect the citizenry. A murder is no ordinary crime. It is understandable to issue little more than a warning and a mandatory driving class to a reckless driver on the road, especially if his actions have yet to harm fellow drivers.

But in the case of a murder, the damage has already been done. No warning—no rehabilitation—will return the murdered to life.

The Supreme Court may have been misguided in last year’s Miller v. Alabama case, in which it decided that laws that levied automatic life sentences without parole for juveniles should be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

It is hard to see what is cruel and unusual about a life sentence when a life has already been lost. While some cite evidence that younger offenders may be more easily rehabilitated than older offenders, it is important to remember that rehabilitation, at least in cases of murder, should not be the primary goal of imprisonment.

Rather than try to rehabilitate an individual that has already committed a crime, more time and effort ought to be put into preventing issues that may have caused the murder in the first place, such as a lack of attention to mental health.

The goal of imprisonment should be to keep criminals far removed from innocent citizens. If there is even the slightest chance that a murderer could repeat his crimes, then he ought to remain imprisoned, for fear that another innocent life—an irreplaceable one—will be taken.

Ryan Towey is the Asst. Metro editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

Meghan Kelleher Murder will always be the most horrid and unforgivable crime known. Someone, at any age, who is capable of taking another person’s life is, without a doubt, a threat to society. However, children who commit the crime may not be entirely educated on just how horrifying the act truly is. Our media is flooded with warfare games and talk of gang violence. Many children are brought up in communities that do not portray murder to be the heinous moral failure that it is. For example, children raised in places ridden with gang violence are likely to grow up around weaponry and constant talk of violence, crime, and, most pressingly, murder. These children have been raised to believe that problems are solved through violent acts. These children have been desensitized to the horrors of killing another human being because violence and death are so prevalent in their lives.

But, who is to say that a fourteen year old is incapable of understanding what he or she has done and why the act was so unforgivable by the age of twenty-nine? Education and mentoring are crucial in the upbringing of any child. Children without proper guidance will grow into unstable, and often dangerous adults. Children under the age of seventeen are not

METRO Apps, apple picking, and accessibility THE HEIGHTS

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Thursday, January 31, 2013

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2013

BREAKING BOUNDARIES

Fighting off winter

Updates to the MBTA

TRICIA TIEDT

BY BRENNA CASS

Tricia Tiedt is the Metro Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

For The Heights

On Wednesday, Jan. 23, the MBTA left many riders disgruntled as an early morning shut down of Arlington Station due to a smoking cable at 8 a.m. forced numerous commuters to wait outside in the cold or find alternate forms of transportation on their way to work. In the wake of this mishap, the spotlight was turned to a new plan from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. The new transportation plan includes many much-needed updates to the often faulty systems of subways, buses, and trains.

According to Boston Fire Dept. officials, the MBTA shutdown was caused by smoke being released from a cable about 100 feet from the inbound platform of Arlington Station on the Green Line. The smoke was said to have been caused by the week’s extremely cold temperatures. Service through the station was immediately stopped, and some riders had to be evacuated from underground trains and taken through the tunnels by MBTA staff. The power of the station was then shut off around 8:15 a.m., suspending subway service from Kenmore Station to Government Center until 11:00 a.m. The morning commute is one of the busiest times for the MBTA, and the delay in service left hundreds outside in the cold, despite shuttle buses transporting riders from stop to stop.

Another issue plaguing MBTA riders is a recent increase in theft on the T in the form of “apple picking,” a term referring to the theft of high-end cell phones, the majority of which are iPhones. The thieves are known to stake out riders who sit near the door and use their cell phones or

LINDSAY GROSSMAN / PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

Newsflash, y’all: It’s cold outside.

And even if you have been in mourning since Boston College hockey’s double loss to Maine this past weekend (my deepest condolences), you still know of the frigid temperatures and gray skies outside your window. And how do you know about them?

Because it’s all anyone is talking about.

Yes, BC, it’s January in New England.

Let’s all be shocked that we need boots and a scarf.

Now, don’t take this personally. I probably deserve the criticism more than anyone else. I’m shivering as I write this in the basement of Mac, and my bow adorned ballet flats are not cutting it in the snow this afternoon (whoops). But the cold, hard fact (pun intended) is this: burrowing under a blanket in a dorm will not make spring come any faster. January can be the gloomiest and most dreary time of the year in New England, but it doesn’t have to be. The city does not disappear with the snowfall. In fact, it gets a little more special. Here are some cold weather activities to brighten even the bleakest of your winter days in Boston.

Boston Common Frog Pond: Ice-skating is a New England tradition, hands down.

The Frog Pond epitomizes a classic pastime, and is readily available for your enjoyment.

Public skating hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m on Fridays and Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays, and Sundays.

College Nights are held every Tuesday, offering admission for just $2 with a valid college ID from 6–9 p.m. The Frog Pond plans to remain open until mid-March.

2012 Sundance Shorts: The Coolidge Corner Theatre (290 Harvard Avenue, Coolidge Corner, Brookline) is one of the nation’s most prominent independent cinemas, known for screening lesser-known films in addition to some of Hollywood’s best. If you’re itching to get off campus but need to huddle inside, the theatre’s cozy screening rooms provide just the place (P.S.—There’s a bar). The theatre is currently showing the Best of Short Films from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, an out of the ordinary screening more than worth your time. Discounts are available with a college ID, and your movie stub acts as a discount at JP Licks, the ice cream parlor across the street.

Museum of Bad Art: If you’re starved for some artistic culture other than the different brands of snow hats on campus, check out the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA).

Located on the top floor of the Brookline Access Television studio. The MOBA is easily accessible at the Brookline Hills T stop on the D-line. Six hundred pieces compose the collection—between 20 and 40 of those pieces are exhibited at each location (additional museum sites are located in Dedham and Somerville, MA). With the museum’s slogan as “Art too bad to be ignored,” milling about the collection is sure to provide a good laugh on a wintry weekend afternoon.

Admission is free every day from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Ugly Sweater Party: Time to bring Grandma’s Christmas sweater out one last time. The House of Blues is hosting an Ugly Sweater Party tonight from 7 to 10 p.m., courtesy of the Esplanade Association.

Tickets are available for $25—all proceeds benefit the Charles River Esplanade. Ticket price includes: signature moonshine cocktails by Onyx Spirits, appetizers, dancing, raffle items from Timberland and Patagonia, and of course, a prize for the most hideous sweater on site. Who says the holidays are over?

It’s no secret that Boston has an unlimited list of activities and opportunities for its residents. However, most of us forget all about the city’s attractions in the heart of winter, choosing to commiserate with our roommates instead. The point is this: the city is alive and kicking on the grayest of days.

Shouldn’t you be, too?

See MBTA Updates, B8

Hackers in protest over death

Boston public schools hope for transition

BY LAUREN TOTINO

BY MAGGIE POWERS

Heights Staff

Heights Editor

On Friday, Jan. 11, computer programmer, political organizer, and Internet activist Aaron Swartz was found dead in his Brooklyn, NY apartment.

The untimely death of the 26-year old was ruled suicide by hanging. The news was confirmed in The Tech, the student MAGGIE BURDGE / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC newspaper of the Massachusetts Insti- The new plan includes a tax on popular consumer goods: soda, candy, and cigarettes. tute of Technology (MIT), which had received confirmation from Michael Wolf, an uncle of Swartz, and from Swartz’s attorney, Elliot Peters. Swartz’s girlfriend, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, was reported to have discovered the body. The aftermath of the tragedy, including the investigation of MIT’s role in his death, demonstrates the astounding impact Swartz made on the BY HENRY HILLIARD largely by higher income and expanded advocacy of free and open Internet.

Heights Editor sales taxes. The state income tax would Swartz was perhaps most associated be increased from 5.25 percent to 6.25 with social news site Reddit, which he Ma ssachusett s G overnor D e v al percent. Gasoline, cigarettes, candy, and cofounded along with Creative Com- Patrick unveiled his $38.4 billion bud- soda would also see tax hikes. mons, the licenses for which he helped get plan for the 2013-14 fiscal year “The ultimate objective is to raise code as a teenager. Additionally, the last Wednesday, Jan. 23. Coming off sufficient revenue so that we can invest gifted programmer and technologist of the heels of Patrick’s State of the in things we know accelerate job growth,” created the Python framework web.py Commonwealth address last week, the Patrick said in defense of his proposed as free software, and was a member of plan promises additional spending on tax increases in a press conference last Harvard’s Ethics Center Lab. Swartz education and transportation. The bold Wednesday. budget proposal marks the beginning of Lawmakers on all sides of the poSee Swartz, B9 a contentious debate leading up to the litical spectrum have been hesitant to fiscal year that begins July 1. raise taxes across the board in light of The plan features an 8.9 percent increase in statewide spending, balanced See 2014 Fiscal Budget, B8

Boston Public School System, long in need of reform, may see some change in the near future. This Tuesday, three proposals were revealed in hopes to improve the current public school system in the city.

Presently, Boston Public School placement is determined by a lottery system. There are general zones that parents can request, but a lottery is a lottery, and large parts of the process are left to chance. Boston Public School students are often traveling across the city, some for an hour or more by bus or public transportation, to attend school.

According to Boston Magazine, parents and students alike want quality schools that are closer to home. They also call for less frequent transitions between schools when possible. The positives of the system, consideration of sibling preference and walk-zone schools, defined as schools within one mile from home, even if it is across a district border, will be considered in all three of the newly proposed plans.

According to a press release regarding Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s State of the City address on Tuesday, Menino recognized the “tremendous work of his External Advisory Committee on

Governor Deval Patrick proposes fiscal budget

See Boston Public Schools, B9

Boston Globe loans space to startups

BY MAGGIE MARETZ For The Heights

PHOTO COURTESY OF REDDIT

Swartz was the cofounder of Reddit and a contributor to Creative Commons.

I NSIDE METRO THIS ISSUE

It’s no secret that newspapers have been suffering lately—with the digital age upon us, print sources of media lose their readers to free online databases dangerously often.

As a result, newspapers like The Boston Globe are forced to make layoffs, and consequently, find themselves with unoccupied and unutilized office space.

When Christopher Mayer was named

On the Flip Side

publisher of The Globe in 2010, however, he started to make a series of changes in an effort to dig one of Boston’s oldest papers out of debt by pursuing new business relationships. One of these changes comes in his recent decision to put the office space of nearly 100 former employees to use by redecorating it to resemble a living room and offering it as a productive space—free of charge—to anyone from startup brands, new technology companies, entrepreneurs, and everyone in between.

Should juveniles on trial for murder be given special preferences as a minor in the court system?............................................................................B9

“You don’t want to underutilize an asset,” said Mayer in an interview with The New York Times. “I have a building here that we can use for a variety of things. Bringing bands in, bringing events here, it reminds us and folks in the community what we do.” In doing so, Mayer hopes, he can get the staff of the Globe excited about what they do and, as a result, get the readers excited, too.

See Globe Office Space, B8

Restaurant Review: Swish Shabu..........................................................B7 Person to Watch: Liz Bryon.............................................................B8