The Heights 03/13/2014

SEASON OVER

PARADE DEBATE

BOSTON BALLET

SPORTS

METRO

SCENE

BC men’s basketball came to a close in the ACC Tournament, A8

MassEquality, parade organizers disagree on GLBTQ participation in St. Patrick’s Day parade, B10

The Scene previews the dance company’s adaptation of Cinderella,, opening tonight, B1

www.bcheights.com

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

HEIGHTS

THE

established

1919

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Vol. XCV, No. 13

Dean of A&S Quigley named provost

BY JULIE ORENSTEIN Assoc. News Editor

ANNIE BUDNICK / FOR THE HEIGHTS

Current A&S dean Quigley will take over the position of provost and dean of faculties on June 1.

Dean of both the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences David Quigley has been named provost and dean of faculties for Boston College, according to a press release from the Office of News and Public Affairs released Tuesday. He will succeed interim provost Joseph Quinn, who has served in the role for the past year.

Quigley, who will assume his new position on June 1, has been at BC since 1998, first as an assistant professor of history, and later as associate dean for

first-year students, and then dean of A&S. He is also a founding director of the Institute for the Liberal Arts.

University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J. was quoted in the press release as saying that Quigley has excelled as a teacher and scholar, and that his five years of experience as dean of A&S will benefit him in his new role.

“David Quigley is well suited to be the next provost of Boston College,” Leahy said in the statement. “[He] both understands and supports BC’s mission, especially its Jesuit, Catholic dimensions.”

Theology department chair Cath-

Symposium responds to sexual assault statistics

BY CONNOR FARLEY News Editor According to a Boston Globe article published on Feb. 3, 2014, reports based on federal statistics of sexual assault on Boston-area college campuses have increased considerably in recent years.

In response to the upward trend of reported instances of forcible sex offenses throughout Boston-area colleges and to discuss impending legislation on enhanced efforts toward sexual assault prevention, the Office of the Middlesex District Attorney Marion T. Ryan hosted a college safety symposium on Feb. 27 titled Sexual Violence, Dating Abuse, and Stalking on Campus.

The symposium, along with Ryan, featured Director of the Office of First Year Experience Rev. Joseph P. Marchese, BCPD Chief and Director of Public Safety John King, Dean of Students Paul Chebator, and Warren Setti, Mayor of Newton

and BC ’93. Also present were five other panelists representing student affairs offices from Boston College, MIT, and victims’ rights law firms.

“The symposium that we are conducting today is perfect timing,” Ryan said.

“Many of you saw the article written last week in the Boston Globe where President Obama talked about what he called an epidemic of sexual assault—something that he described as an affront to basic decency—and we who do this type of work everyday know that it has become an epidemic, and none of us would say that our work is not needed.

“We wouldn’t say that the numbers are not increasing—that the numbers of reports and the numbers of actual incidents are both going up—and that decision by the president to create a task force in response to the issue is the first real opportunity to shine some light on

See Sexual Assault, A3

TATIANA PETROVICK / HEIGHTS STAFF

Ten panelists addressed the issue of rising reports of sexual assault on college campuses.

For The Heights

Football players are often seen as larger than life, hero-like, and even unapproachable. Matt Ryan proved to be an exception to the stereotype. While he is certainly one of Boston College’s football heroes, he is humble and approachable, and looks kind of skinny. He’s a downto-earth guy.

On Wednesday night, Ryan and his wife Sarah, both BC ’07, spoke to students at the Brennan Symposium in Leadership and Ethics, run through the Carroll School of Management. Topics ranged from properly fostering teamwork and chemistry as leaders to the lessons they both have learned through their life experiences as athletes. The event

See Quigley, A3

CEO Club hosts NBA’s Adam Silver New commissioner discusses goals for league moving forward

BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Heights Editor EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The second annual event provided students with buttons to show support for feminism.

Feminist Coming Out Day highlights gender issues

BY MARY ROSE FISSINGER Special Projects Editor Boston College’s maroon and gold were more visible than usual around campus on Monday. Many students and faculty members sported buttons bearing both BC’s colors and the words, “This is what a feminist looks like” on clothing and backpacks in honor of BC’s second annual Feminist Coming Out Day. Arissa Oh, an assistant professor within the history department who has been the driving force behind both of BC’s Feminist Coming Out Days, came up with the idea for the buttons as a way for the BC community to reclaim the word “feminist”—a term that has gained an increasingly negative connotation over the past few decades.

“The reason I had the idea for this last year was because of this statistic that was going around that women were graduating from Boston College with less self esteem than they had when they arrived, and I just thought that was really, really sick and terrible,”

Oh said. “I’ve only been here for four years, and one thing I’ve noticed is that people here are very reluctant to say that they’re feminists.”

She noted that she was struck by the homogeneity of BC when she arrived as a professor, and said she feels that homogeneity results in and perpetuates a very narrow definition of gender on campus.

“I feel like that really damages the way people feel that they can be women or men,” she said.

Oh acknowledged that the reluctance to embrace the term “feminist” is not specific to BC but rather is part of a larger, generational trend, but she expressed concern at the lack of resources and forums for discussion of the topic.

In particular, she felt BC was not doing enough to engage the community at large in conversations on feminism.

“People who are interested in gender will take Women and Gender Studies classes,” Oh said. “People who are not,

See Feminism at BC, A3

NFL star Matt Ryan, wife Sarah talk team chemistry

BY GUS MERRELL

erine Cornille, who led the provost search along with Executive Vice President Patrick Keating, expressed confidence in the search committee’s choice of Quigley, also noting his dedication to the Jesuit educational model.

“During his tenure as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, David Quigley has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to liberal arts education in the Jesuit tradition,” Cornille said in the statement. “He knows Boston College from the inside and he has the vision, the experience, and the dedica-

ended with general questions from the audience.

Many of the questions the Ryans fielded about lessons they learned were life lessons that they wanted to pass on to the students. As an athlete, there are a lot of highs and lows that come day-to-day through the season, and part of the process of becoming successful is learning how to deal with that rollercoaster.

Ryan has clearly had many rollercoasters, like any other athlete, but the one he emphasized was the swing from winning 13 games in the 2012 season, riding on what he called a “six-month high,” to winning only four games in the 2013 season, where each week was difficult.

“One of the biggest things you have to

Although the new commissioner of the National Basketball Association Adam Silver has loved the game for most of his life, basketball has not always loved him back. Silver was a freshman undergraduate at Duke University in 1980, and he was randomly selected to participate in a fan contest during a break when attending his first game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. He had to hit a free throw.

“It was probably one of the most shocking things that had ever happened to me,” Silver said yesterday, speaking at Boston College’s Chief Executives’ Club of Boston event. Boston Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck hosted Silver at the event, which brings together local CEOs and is put on in association with the Carroll School of Management.

If Silver hadn’t been sitting in the student section surrounded by people who knew his name, he would’ve tried to hide, but he was inevitably forced out onto the court.

“All I have to do is hit something,” he thought. Rim, backboard—anything solid.

Thank f ully for Silver, the b all bounced off the front of the rim. He was safe.

“I’m sure I’d not be standing here today if I had shot an air-ball,” Silver joked.

Silver also wouldn’t have been standing at the podium in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel if the event had taken place two months ago. After 22 years working for the NBA, mainly as an assistant for previous commissioner David Stern, Silver took over on Feb. 1 following a unanimous vote by the league’s owners.

“My game hasn’t improved much sense then, but the popularity of the game has grown tremendously over the years,” Silver said.

He went on to cite what he called “A Tale of Two Plays.” A few months after Silver successfully bricked that free throw, the Celtics were playing the Houston Rockets in the 1981 NBA Finals. The Celtics held a 3-2 series lead and had a strong advantage going into the fourth quarter of Game 6, but then the Rockets started to come back.

Larr y Bird, a second-year budding superstar for Boston, rattled off three clutch plays to secure a Celtics victory

DREW HOO / HEIGHTS STAFF

See Ryans, A3

Atlanta Falcons quarterback and BC alumnus Matt Ryan spoke on leadership and teamwork.

See CEO Club, A3

The Heights

A2

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Kidder recalls importance of trusting a good editor

By Carolyn Freeman Heights Staff Tracy Kidder met Richard Todd in 1973, when Kidder was a 29-year-old writing his first article for The Atlantic.

Forty years later, the two have partnered on several articles and books and fostered a strong literary friendship. At the Lowell Humanity Series-sponsored event on Wednesday evening, “Tracy Kidder: Another Set of Eyes,” Kidder discussed the influence Todd had on him.

Kidder received a B.A. from Harvard University in 1967 and an M.F.A from the University of Iowa in 1974. Between 1967 and 1969 he served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. In 1982, he won a Pulitzer Prize for The Soul of a New Machine, a nonfiction narrative that he wrote with Todd about the creation of a new computer.

While at Iowa, Kidder’s peers edited his work at writing workshops. At the time he found these student editors to be unhelpful and ineffective, though.

“Young writers are more likely to envy their peers,” he said. “In workshops I sometimes said harsh dismissive things about some other students’ stories simply because they were no worse than my own.”

Eventually, Kidder began to write non-fiction, partially because there was less competition at Iowa in that area.

Kidder’s first meeting with Todd was over the phone, after a contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly recommended him

Juseub Yoon / Heights Staff

Kidder discussed his close relationship with his editor at a Lowell Humanities Series event. to Kidder. Their first meeting was about an article Kidder wanted to write about a mass murder in California, he said.

“For months afterward, Todd remained a voice on the phone delivering bad news,” Kidder said.

Kidder and Todd’s relationship developed from there. Eventually, Kidder learned that sharing his writing troubles with Todd could help him move forward.

After a particularly rough time early in their collaboration, when Kidder had written and re-written the opening sentence of an article over 100 times, he decided to go to Todd with his writing troubles.

Todd recommended that he drink a gin and tonic and try again.

“His advice was a relief from the competing voices in my head,” Kidder said.

“On the next day I actually started making progress, so I decided that sharing my writing troubles with him is something I should do more often.”

Kidder writes at least 10 drafts of each book before it is published. He writes his drafts in chunks that he sends to Todd as soon as he finishes each one. Todd emails him back with encouragement, even though Kidder is not sure if Todd actually reads these very early drafts. This process goes on for at least a year, Kidder said.

“I’ve never actually asked if he reads my rough drafts,” Kidder said. “I don’t want to know. Each one is usually, though not always, closer to the final thing, like golf shots.”

Although the two have gone over manuscripts in restaurants and offices, the ideal location is a large room where Todd can pace, Kidder said. When editing a close-to-final draft of the manuscript, Todd prefers to lay out the papers and pace around them while discussing the necessary changes with Kidder. Kidder used to believe that independence was crucial to writing well, but now trusts Todd to find out what is wrong in the manuscript.

“I had sometimes imagined that complete independence was a precondition to writing well, like drinking or living in a garret,” he said.

An editor at The Atlantic once told Todd that Kidder would never make it as a writer. Todd told Kidder this recently—40 years after the fact.

“I guess he thought I was stable enough to take it,” he said. “He was right to withhold that remark for that long.”

The relationship these two men share is deeply personal—Kidder has worked with other editors, but never to the extent that he’s worked with Todd; and Todd has worked with other writers, but Kidder has never experienced a bond similar to what he has with Todd.

“I really haven’t had any other editors,” he said. “I’m very lucky. It would have been hard for me to proceed without his help.” n

Maher credits teamwork in CCE’s improv festival win

By Nathan McGuire Asst. News Editor Boston College improv comedy group The Committee for Creative Enactments (CCE) recently won first place at the 2014 College Comedy Festival’s Beanpot Championship.

Produced by ImprovB oston—a nonprofit comedy and improv theatre organization—the festival began in 2005 and has since hosted comedy teams from the New England area at its annual tournament. The CCE has competed at the festival since its creation, but its first place finish on Feb. 22 was the first time it achieved such a feat.

The CCE was created in 1988, and it has since performed a number of improv shows and scripted murdermysteries across campus. Currently, the group performs two student-written murder mystery shows each year and holds three open practices every week.

The group, which typically has between 30 and 40 members, is a hybrid organization. Part of it is a murder mystery group in which select members perform one show every semester in the O’Connell House. Students write a script in the spring and then vote on the best one. Practices usually take a whole semester, and then the group performs the mystery the following semester.

This was the group’s original performance format, but over time the group developed an improv component, and

it now has a separate branch devoted only to improv shows. There is, however, considerable overlap between the two branches of the organization.

“We try to keep trust as an overarching theme through our group as a whole,” said Kelsey Maher, a four-year member of the group, current improv coach, and A&S ’14. That theme proved important to her team’s victory at the College Comedy Festival.

The festival is strictly improv, so the CCE selected eight of its improv members to compete. The competition featured 14 New England-area teams—including My Mother’s Fleabag, another BC improv group—and challenged teams to multiple rounds of improv performances.

In the first round, teams performed a short form improv. Teams individually performed a short skit in front of judges from the ImprovBoston staff and were scored in three areas—story, skill, and entertainment. The second round was a long form round in which teams improvised a performance for 15 minutes.

“We’ve invented a new kind of longform—which we actually were awarded for last year—which the judges seem to like a whole lot,” Maher said.

In their invented form, CCE actors ask audience members to make up a word. Then, the team creates new definitions for the word and improvises a scene based on them.

The tournament also features short bonus rounds, during which teams tell

quick punch lines. Judges don’t add up the teams’ points until the completion of both main rounds. The top three teams advance to the final round. The CCE placed third and just made the final round, in which My Mother’s Fleabag and UMass’s Mission Improbable joined them.

“It’s actually really hard to gauge [how well we’re doing] because we don’t have the chance to watch the other teams,” Maher said. “But we were pretty confident that we were doing well as a team—we were working well together.”

As in most sports, successful improv teams require exemplary teamwork. Ac-

tors go into a show not knowing what will happen or how it will end, so they must work well together in order to move the performance along in a way that keeps the audience engaged.

Going into the final round, Maher credits her teammates’ ability to trust each other and communicate well as an important factor in their victory. “[Throughout the year] we try to make sure that everyone has that kind of trust with each other, that kind of skill, so that when we are choosing a team for Beanpot, that we can be sure that everyone has an equal chance going in,” she said. n

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 Connor Farley, News Editor, at (617) 552-0172, or email news@bcheights. com. For future events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the News Desk.

Arts Events The Heights covers a multitude of events both on and off campus – including concerts, movies, theatrical performances, and more. Call John Wiley, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email arts@bcheights.com. For future events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk.

Clarifications / Corrections The Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. If you believe we have made a reporting error, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or questions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact Eleanor Hildebrandt, Editor-in-Chief, at (617) 552-2223, or email eic@bcheights.com.

CUSTOMER SERVICE Delivery To have The Heights delivered to your home each week or to report distribution problems on campus, contact Marc Francis, General Manager at (617) 552-0547.

Advertising The Heights is one of the most effective ways to reach the BC community. To submit a classified, display, or online advertisement, call our advertising office at (617) 552-2220 Monday through Friday.

The Heights is produced by BC undergraduates and is published on Mondays and Thursdays during the academic year by The Heights, Inc. (c) 2014. All rights reserved.

CORRECTIONS This correction is in reference to the issue dated Feb. 27, 2014, Vol. XCV, No. 12.

Alex Gaynor / Heights Senior Staff

The CCE won first place in the College Comedy Festival for the first time in its 10 years of competition.

The article titled “CSON Ph.D. candidate named Jonas Scholar” was misattributed to Jennifer Heine. Jenn Suh authored the article.

A delicate balance between ship and port, beauty and suffering Alex Gaynor Some could say that I grew up on the sea. While I’m no Herman Melville, I frequently traveled on cruise ships as a part of my mother’s work, and thus I was raised in a slightly kitschy worldview, despite my knowledge that life did indeed exist outside of what I like to call “cruise ship mentality.” On a cruise, one can live his or her life perfectly well without ever leaving the Lido deck or the promenade or journeying off the ship at the nearest port. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with this mentality—it

3

Top

things to do on campus this week

is perhaps an easier and more agreeable view of the world. There is, however, a dichotomy in the nature of this cruise ship mentality and the “port mentality” of going out and experiencing the sometimes gritty and harsh reality of the world.

This past week, I was able to visit an extensive slum community on Manila Bay near the shipyards. The community itself was visibly suffering: no running water or electricity, trash strewn about, people piled on top of one another in run-down homes, and everything else that one would expect from a modern urban slum. Next to the neighborhood, however, there was a large cruise ship docked in the port. This visual representation of the dichotomy of my past and my present reality was startling to me, and I have been grappling with it

Starting tonight at 7:30 p.m., the Boston College Dance Ensemble will perform its annual spring show in Robsham Theatre. The group will feature performances on Friday and Saturday night at the same time. All proceeds will benefit the Campus School.

1

ever since. This harsh gradient of reality is only a microcosm for the wealth and standard of living gap in the city of Manila and throughout the world in general.

How can we hold these two realities—as each one is real in its own way—in equilibrium with one another? How can we accept the suffering and pain of the world in tandem with the beauty and wonder that make us happy? The direct symbolism of a past filled with comfort and peaceful ignorance was staring in the face of harsh and unsettling reality and all of its inherent suffering and struggle.

The short answer to these questions is that I don’t know if there actually are answers. The question of how to hold these two extremities in life is one undertaken by philosophers, theologians, filmmakers, artists, and your everyday Boston College student over

the centuries. What is important to acknowledge, however, is that in our lives, we are frequently given the choice to make our world small or extremely vast, and each mindset comes with its own set of blessings and challenges. By living your life on a metaphorical cruise ship, you could miss the painful realities and encounters that are difficult to accept, but that are a natural part of life and have their own lessons to teach. But by living life in the metaphorical ports, you have the tendency to become what some may call “ruined for life,” wherein your blissful ignorance is broken and the continual pull of wanting to immerse yourself and push of wanting to run away from it all is at play. But perhaps by discovering which mentality you hold true to yourself, the sooner you could come to answer of how to hold them together as parts of the

A cappella groups B.E.A.T.S. and the Dynamics will perform selections from their repertoire at a spring show on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Devlin 008. Selections will include popular R&B and soul, alternative, hip hop, and other genres.

2

same whole.

It’s a step beyond simply acknowledging the kitsch or the reality of life, especially since these two cumbersome, difficult, and conflicting mentalities are so present in everyday life. The choice is: Which one do you adopt as your own? Is it possible to hold the two in a delicate balance? Seeing a cruise ship docked next to a slum community is a visual representation of these conflicting natures in life, but the challenge is to find the symbolic meaning of these dichotomies in concrete terms in your own life.

Once we experience how to hold the two in a delicate balance, the challenge then becomes whether we sink or swim.

Alex Gaynor is a senior staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at news@bcheights.com.

The Fashion Club of Boston College will host its first annual fashion show in the Rat at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Street fashion, high fashion, professional wear, and cultural selections will be featured. Will Bolton of Times New Roman and DOBC will perform.

3

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Heights

A3

Adam Silver discusses NBA’s global popularity CEO Club, from A1

Drew Hoo / Heights Staff

Sarah Ryan, a former BC basketball star and current sales executive in the WNBA, recounted her experiences with leadership.

Ryans reflect on BC leadership roles Ryans, from A1 learn is staying even keel,” Ryan said. “It’s been a hard lesson to learn, because for a lot of your life, a lot of guys in the NFL have never really had a hard time, but it’s a reality check because a lot of the guys there are really talented.”

Both of the Ryans emphasized the need for good chemistry and teamwork in order for an organization to be successful. Matt said that the teams with the best chemistry were the winning teams. Sarah stressed the presence of senior leaders when she came to the BC women’s basketball team as a freshman, saying how large a role their locker room presence played in making the team a cohesive unit.

When talking about the 2007 BC football team that beat Michigan State in the Champs Sports Bowl, Matt likened the team dynamic to a Native American camp.

“We had a great mix of chiefs and Indians,” Ryan said. “We had certain guys that knew how to be a leader, but

we also had the other guys who had to do the grunt work.”

He said that an important part of a team was this combination of leaders that knew how to lead and bring out the best of everyone else and other people who knew that it was their job to follow and learn.

Matt also highlighted the need for a common purpose and direction for a team to be successful. As his offensive coordinator liked to tell him in college, “you have to drive your bus, and your bus is going in this direction, and you have to get everyone on your bus. If you have people going in the wrong direction you got to get them off the bus.”

There are always going to be people whose bus doesn’t go in the same direction as yours, Ryan said, and in the NFL those people are usually gone quickly. He said that in college it is the leader’s job to try and get those buses back on track.

“You have to find what motivates people,” Ryan said. “Finding what is your teammates’ ‘why,’ and getting them back on track.”

Attending BC was a major part of the Ryans’ lives and both of them touched on how it prepared them for their postgraduate careers. Sarah acknowledged that the academics and the athletics prepared her through hard work, as she developed a tremendous work ethic that she still practices today. Matt recognized the importance of the network BC provided to him, and of his communication major, which he said prepared him to lead a successful life if the NFL did not pan out.

“There could not have been a better major to prepare me for being a quarterback in the NFL and the things it asked me to do off the field,” he said.

Matt parted with wisdom about fostering good chemistry through developing close, personal relationships.

“When you live with someone in Walsh, you are close with them,” Ryan said.

Whether they were aspiring residents of Walsh Hall or upperclassmen, BC students in attendance understood exactly what he was talking about. n

Panel sheds light on campus sexual assault Sexual Assault, from A1 this problem.”

The keynote address, delivered by Ryan, enumerated several statistical figures on increased collegiate occurrences of sexual assault.

As the 23rd most populated county in the U.S., Middlesex County is home to 25 colleges and universities.

Of the 22 largest colleges throughout the greater Boston area, the Globe reported that forcible sex offenses surged by 40 percent between 2008 and 2012—a statistic, the panelists discussed, that could reflect a breakdown in the obstacles victims face when deciding whether to report an instance of dating violence or sexual assault.

According to statistics presented by Colby Bruno, a featured panelist at the event and senior legal counsel at the Victim Rights Law Center, and Djuna Perkins, an attorney with more than 20 years of experience regarding Title VII and Title IX issues, approximately one in five women

reports having been raped at college during her undergraduate career.

Reports also concluded that 7 percent of college males admitted to engaging in sexual violence, and 63 percent of that group admitted to having committed an offense more than once.

The symposium also focused on currently existing legislature on collegiate crime reporting—namely the Clery Act, which requires all colleges and universities to disclose crime on or near campuses—and recently approved revisions to that legislature that enhance efficiency and safety for victims of sexual violence.

The Clery Act, Perkins said, encompasses three main areas of procedure.

“The first is that it requires colleges and universities to report more crimes under the Clery Act than before,” she said. “It requires universities to adapt and distribute institutional policies, and it require colleges and universities to conduct certain disciplinary procedures.”

On March 7, 2013, Obama signed a bill that reauthorized the Violence Against

Women Act (VAWA), and within that bill is the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act. The SaVE act added the requirement of reporting crimes involving domestic violence and expanded hate crimes to include those based on gender identity, among other additional requirements. The bill became effective on March 7, 2014.

The symposium panelists were tasked with discussing the potential implications of the VAWA reauthorization and how college communities can better implement those policies on campus.

Ryan summed the symposium as needing to address three predominant facets of the legislation. “[The first is] the challenges to the implementation beginning next week of the new campus safety act—and there are going to be challenges,” she said. “The second is how colleges and universities are going to achieve compliance with the regulations that are contained in the statute.

And finally, how you impact the college culture to adapt to these changes.” n

and the organization’s 14th national championship.

“You might guess that Celtics fans across the country were in bars and their homes jumping of stools and their couches and celebrating, but, of course, you’d be wrong,” Silver said.

The game, like many at the time, aired tape-delayed on CBS later that night.

Silver then shifted to Game 6 of last season’s NBA Finals. The San Antonio Spurs were also holding on to a 3-2 series lead on the road, and with 28 seconds left in the game they led the Miami Heat by five points. Heat fans started exiting the building. Shockingly, though, Miami came back and a thrilling 3-pointer by former Celtic Ray Allen sent the game into overtime, helping the Heat eventually win the series.

“Ray’s shot was literally a shot seen around the world,” Silver said.

As opposed to being tape delayed like Bird’s moment in 1981, Allen’s shot was seen live by around 900 million people. Twitter set a then record for traffic in the moments following

Allen’s shot.

“The dramatic contrasts in those two games shows us how much the world has changed and where things are going,” Silver said.

Silver pointed out that most of the kids who pick up a basketball will never have the chance to see an NBA game in person.

“While we have hundreds of millions of fans around the world, only a minuscule percentage of them will ever go to a game, and only a select few will ever get that choice, courtside seat,” he said. He then joked that most of those people, including Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Bruins owner Charlie Jacobs, were in the room.

Silver said that one of his goals as commissioner is to capture that courtside experience, which he believes is not just one of the best in sports but in all of entertainment. He’s looking to expand the game as a part of an NBA 3.0 movement that involves an even stronger global reach, something to which the CEOs in the room could relate.

“Basketball is global, mobile, and social,” Silver said. “Simply put, basketball is the sport of the 21st century.” n

Dean of A&S Quigley to take over role of provost in June Quigley, from A1 tion to carry the University forward on its trajectory of excellence.”

During his time at BC, Quigley has been recognized for attracting and hiring young faculty members, developing additional interdisciplinary majors and cross-school collaborations, and playing a key role in designing Stokes Hall. He has also served as interim director of the A&S Honors Program since 2011.

Quigley acknowledged that his experience as dean of A&S has exposed him to a wide range of departments and programs across the University, preparing him for the position of provost. “[Serving as dean of A&S] has educated me regarding the challenges and opportunities for liberal arts universities today,” Quigley said in an email. “I’ve worked with many talented students and faculty, and I’ve learned a great deal about how to build strong, collaborative relationships with colleagues across disciplinary and divisional lines.”

Over the past year, Quigley has been a central figure in the undergraduate core curriculum renewal. Despite his new role, Quigley said he intends to remain active in the process.

“Moving beyond this semester, I look forward to helping advance the core renewal process as I believe strengthening our undergraduate core curriculum must

be a central strategic priority for Boston College,” he said.

Quigley said in the statement that it was an honor to be asked to assume the role, and that he hopes to further the work that he and his colleagues have started in his 16 years at the University, as well as maintain the quality of the BC faculty.

“It’s an awesome responsibility to sustain and advance what they have achieved here, but it is also incredibly exciting to think of our opportunities, of the ways in which we can strengthen our undergraduate and graduate programs and develop an extraordinary cohort of young faculty to position Boston College even more firmly among the world’s great universities,” Quigley said.

Quigley also said that a decision regarding leadership in A&S will be made later this semester, and that his successor will be responsible for the A&S Honors Program until a new permanent director is named.

“I am committed to hiring, developing, and retaining the ver y best in all disciplines, and we’re confident that we can hire talented scholar-teachers who are drawn to our distinctive culture,” he said in an email. “Faculty stand at the heart of the University, and I look forward to serving as the chief academic officer for my nearly 800 faculty colleagues.” n

History department, WRC, others collaborate on second annual Feminist Coming Out Day Feminism at BC, from A1 will not,” she said.

The goal of Feminist Coming Out Day is to engage that majority of students who do not seek out opportunities to discuss gender.

Oh hopes to do the same thing when she teaches a core history class next year, by tying issues of gender into her presentation of the course material. She remarked that last year, she took several female history students out to lunch in order to gauge how they felt about the department, and she learned that students wished topics like race and gender would be discussed in more classes and not delegated only to those classes which contained the words in their titles. Oh hopes that more professors will do this as well, making these topics relevant and accessible for all students.

She also hopes that Feminist Coming Out Day continues to grow in momentum as the years go on. Last year, the sudden appearance of 1,500 “This

is what a feminist looks like” buttons was the only indication of the celebration, and while this resulted in photos that the history department could post to its Facebook and Twitter feeds, Oh knew she wanted to do more this year.

With the help of Robin Fleming, chair of the history department, as well as the Women’s Resource Center, the vice provost, and several academic departments, Oh was able to purchase 2,000 buttons as well as several cakes in order to create a more central event. Another new addition to the day was a small piece of paper that accompanied each button and gave several definitions of feminism.

Throughout the day, students and faculty posted to the BC Feminist Coming Out Day 2014 Facebook event page with pictures of them or their friends wearing buttons or links to feminismrelated articles. One post by the BC history department told of a student handing out buttons who had been mocked by a group of boys. The post read, “’Yeah right,’ they said. ‘Like I’m

going to wear one of those.’ Well, why not? Ask yourself. Ask your friends and classmates. Why not?”

Oh summed up her goals for Feminist Coming Out Day: “I want the people who are feminists to be proud of it and not to run away from the stigma of calling themselves ‘feminists,’” she said. “I want people who say, ‘Oh I’m a feminist but …’ to embrace that they are feminists … I want people to talk about why they don’t want to identify as feminists, and then I want the people who are actually sexist to have their assumptions shaken, even if they’re not converted.”

Oh and Fleming both hope the message of Feminist Coming Out Day continues throughout the semester, and that the day grows in strength in future years as more and more people embrace the term and come out as a feminist.

“It is our dream to have guy sports teams or the cops wearing the buttons,” Fleming said. “We hope to see the buttons on people’s backpacks for the rest of the semester.” n

photo courtesy of the office of news and public affairs

Before becoming dean of A&S, Quigley was a history professor and dean of first-year students.

The Heights

A4

Editorials

Letters to the Editor

Selection of Quigley as provost will benefit BC Quigley’s BC experience suits him well for new role, though he leaves much to do in A&S

David Quigley, dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, will serve as Boston College’s new provost and dean of faculties beginning on June 1, the University announced Tuesday. Quigley, who has been in his current role since 2009, has demonstrated successful leadership of A&S and is a highly qualified choice for the important position of University provost.

As an inside promotion, Quigley brings considerable experience with faculty and administrators to his new leadership role. Having served as a professor within the history department and as the dean of first year students in A&S, Quigley is in a strong position to build better relationships between the administration and the faculty at BC. As a former professor, he is well situated to understand the needs and concerns of the academic departments. Working across departments, he has also been successful in the development and promotion of interdisciplinary majors and minors within A&S, which have been positive developments for the University.

Although BC will certainly benefit from having Quigley in this new position, there are also many projects within A&S, thus far overseen

by Quigley, that remain unfinished.

While the Core curriculum renewal project affects all undergraduate students, the faculty members who teach those classes all come from A&S. Quigley served as the cochair of the Core Renewal Committee—this process has stalled over the last year and is one that still requires

considerable administrative attention. Currently, Quigley serves as a member of the Core Foundations Task Force, which is the focus for this semester, as the administration rethinks the Core renewal process.

Although he has said that he hopes to continue to be involved and help advance the core renewal process beyond this semester, it is uncertain how much attention he will be able to devote to it.

A d d i t i o n a l l y, s i n c e M a r k O’Connor stepped down as the director of the A&S Honors Program in the fall of 2011, Quigley has served as its interim director. The program has remained in a state of uncertainty, as no permanent successor has been appointed. Whoever replaces Quigley as the dean of A&S will have the responsibility of determining the direction of the program, establishing consistent leadership, and resolving many unanswered questions.

So that the projects in progress within A&S—especially the Core renewal process—don’t stall from lack of direct oversight, the University should move quickly to name a new, qualified dean of A&S. Quigley’s experience and successes as dean make him an excellent choice for provost, though, and it is further reassuring that the search committee found a successor within a year of former provost and dean of faculties Cutberto Garza’s decision to step down from the position. Despite all that is left unresolved in A&S, the administration’s decision to promote from within the University for this position is a positive one.

Feminist Coming Out Day sparks conversation Faculty, students should collaborate to engender greater participation in discussion of feminism Buttons bearing the provocative message “This is what a feminist looks like” once again appeared all over campus on Monday, marking Boston College’s second annual Feminist Coming Out Day. The event, which was created last year by assistant history professor Arissa Oh, was devised as a way to respond to the statistic indicating that female BC students, on average, lose selfesteem during their undergraduate careers. Oh hopes to use this day to reclaim the term “feminism” from the negative connotations that have engulfed it in recent years, and, in doing so, show female students that they are supported.

One goal of the day is to prompt reflection among BC faculty, staff, and students on the meaning of this term, hopefully compelling everyone to decide whether he or she considers himself or herself a feminist, and to be able to defend that. This goal is certainly a valuable one, as it encourages the kind of critical thinking that BC pledges to foster in its students and hopefully allows the BC community to view the buttons now dispersed throughout campus as an invitation to investigate individuals’ feelings on the topic.

This year’s Feminist Coming Out Day built upon last year’s—which featured only the appearance of buttons—by adding a small flier with each button listing different meanings of feminism and giving out free cake in the history department for most of the day. While these features did

provide the day with a more concrete focus and perhaps engaged some students who would not have otherwise sought out a button or handout, more can be done in future years to engage the vast majority of students, who shy away from discussions of feminism and gender issues.

The history department received support from several academic departments, as well as the Women’s Resource Center and the vice provost for faculties, in order to put on this year’s Feminist Coming Out Day, indicating fairly widespread interest among faculty and administrators in the day and the issues it brings up.

Oh has expressed her concern about the limited chances at BC to engage issues of gender and feminism, and the success of her first two Feminist Coming Out Days have created the perfect platform from which to launch a more far-reaching and visible annual event. She and the history department have taken the important and commendable first step of introducing the day to BC, and now those passionate about the topic should seize the opportunity to make it an institution. By tapping into the groups and departments that have expressed support for the idea, Feminist Coming Out Day has the potential to grow immensely in future years, perhaps by adding greater student-to-student outreach or a more accessible event, such as a lecture, which could provide more opportunities for the types of discussions the day is aiming to provoke.

Heights

The

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 Eleanor Hildebrandt, Editor-in-Chief Marc Francis, General Manager Joseph Castlen, Managing Editor

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Editorial

Kayla Famolare, Copy Editor Connor Farley, News Editor Connor Mellas, Sports Editor Kendra Kumor, Features Editor John Wiley, Arts & Review Editor Ryan Towey, Metro Editor Andrew Skaras, Opinions Editor Mary Rose Fissinger, Special Projects Editor Emily Fahey, Photo Editor Maggie Powers, Layout Editor

BC students protest at the White House I’m not saying I’m not jealous of your tan, but Henry David T would be proud of what went down last week (and Boston College should be, too).

Over Spring Break, hundreds of college students were arrested for engaging in civil disobedience by cuffing themselves to the White House fence, as thousands of others cheered them on. Why? To demand climate justice, beginning with a presidential rejection of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. And yes–BC students were among the crowd of activists and supporters, as well as among the 398 who were peacefully, intentionally arrested. “They were incredibly brave and stoic and have earned tremendous respect,” one BC activist said of her peers. “It was a truly alternative Spring Break.”

I was one of the 16 BC students and alumni who attended the youth-organized event (called “XL Dissent,” to signify that our generation doesn’t consent to more fossil fuel business-as-usual). Hosted in Washington, D.C., the divestment convergence brought together thousands of college students from over 100 universities to listen to speakers, brainstorm organizing strategies for their divestment campaigns, and network with fellow climate justice leaders. The training sessions sent fired-up activists back to their colleges across the country with new skills and strategies for escalating their divestment campaigns, which together compose a tactic in the growing movement for climate justice. XL Dissent took place over two days, culminating in an astonishing protest of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline at Obama’s doorstep.

But let’s back up. Why were we willing to go to jail to stop this pipeline? Or maybe the more pressing question is, why would anyone go to freezing cold, drizzly D.C. for Spring Break? It’s because young people are getting serious about showing the world that the climate issue is really a human issue. We don’t want to see a pipeline carry 830,000 barrels a day of carbon intensive, injustice-spewing bitumen from a ravaged Alberta to a still-recovering Gulf Coast. (That’s right BP, we haven’t forgotten.) We don’t want to see climate chaos and lives lost in more super-storms like the typhoon that devastated the Philippines. What we want to see is swift, bold leadership to combat climate change. What we want to see is climate justice.

It’s important to understand that bitumen, aka “tar sands,” is not the same thing as oil. Tar sands are solid hunks of sticky sandstone that need to be heated and mixed with liquid carcinogens and then highly pressurized in order to even get them to ooze down a pipeline.

So when the pipeline leaks, (and let’s be real, it will leak ...) we aren’t just dealing with a regular oil spill, we’re dealing with an explosive gush of poisonous, cancercausing sludge. Plus, tar sands emit 17 percent more of the carbon pollution that contributes to climate change than conventional oil production does. NASA’s James Hansen has called them the dirtiest of fuels on the planet and said they’d be “game over” for the climate. On top of it all, tar sands operations are the largest user of Alberta’s groundwater, and as climate change is already bringing on more droughts and water shortages (like in California), we need to be making sure people have clean water to drink, not squandering what little we have like we’re Danny McBride in This is the End. I haven’t even begun to mention all of the opposition to the pipeline and tar sands extraction among frontline communities that will be bearing the burden and the risk of the project, like indigenous peoples and the farmers of our country’s heartland. They’re the ones being put in harm’s way so this foreign TransCanada Corporation can make a quick buck when they export their product to China.

What I’m getting at is this: at a time that calls for dramatic, immediate steps to quit our addiction to the fossil fuel infrastructure, it’s insanity to build even more of that infrastructure for the most toxic fossil fuel there is. The XL Dissent protest in D.C. was in opposition to the KXL pipeline, but it was also an expression of our opposition to dependence on fossil fuels in general.

We need a just and sustainable infrastructure, and we need it fast. The world is waiting on the U.S. to act, and whether it’s fair or not, it has become our generation’s responsibility to demand a huge and swift transition to a stable future.

BC—With our endowment tied up in fossil fuel interests, we won’t have a chance to “set the world aflame” because the Board of Trustees is doing it for us. Talk is cheap, and if our leaders do not act swiftly, they give us no choice but to escalate our tactics. At the White House last week, we demonstrated our conviction as we zip-tied our wrists to Obama’s fence in a call to action. But trust that our resolve will only grow in strength as more of us become aware that we are fighting not just for our own future, but also for the poorest and youngest around the globe whose already imperiled future becomes bleaker the longer we wait.

Tory Kaltner BC ’13

Divestment at a Catholic University A word of praise for the students who make up the Boston College Fossil Free organization. These students have taken up the one issue that will be the main concern of all your lives, the progressive contamination of the very planet we live on by chemical elements that will radically change the climate of the entire earth, critically limiting the earth’s resources of food, arable land and living space for your generation and, much more, for your own children.

Sixteen members of BCFF devoted their Spring Break to lobbying in Washington for a more serious approach to this fundamental threat, six of them strenuously enough to get arrested for upsetting politicians. Some 1,200 students have signed their petition, and at least 40 are constantly engaged in innovatory programs and outreach, which must make this one of the strongest student activities on campus. Students at 328 U.S. universities are organizing for this purpose and the movement has gone global.

We are a Catholic and Jesuit university. I understand very well that people of your generation have less respect for institutions than has been customary in the past, for the good reason that the institutions so often fail to live up to their own principles. You expect more of those institutions. They should at least know and recognize the principles to which they are committed.

Catholic teaching on this subject has been increasingly strong for many years now. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, in its 2004 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (ch. 10, Safeguarding the Environment, Part IV, A Common Responsibility, pp. 235-8) quotes extensively the teachings of Pope John Paul II dating back to 1987. The Pope described, to a study group of the Pontifical Academy of Science, climate as a good that must be protected, and called on both consumers and industrialists to recognize their responsibility for it. He incorporated these ideas into his Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis in 1988 and his address to the 25th General Conference of the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization in 1989. That it could not be adequately safeguarded or promoted by market forces is asserted in his 1991 Encyclical Centesimus Annus (No. 40).

We can buttress these statements by Benedict XVI’s address for the World Day of Peace in 2010 when he spoke of a “duty to protect earth, water and air as gifts of God the Creator meant for everyone, and above all to save mankind from the danger of self-destruction.” Pope

Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium this year wrote that “The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenceless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued its Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines, much as have the Catholic bishops of Germany, of Australia, and other countries. We can add to that strong statements from the General of the Jesuit order.

Our BCFF students are interested in divestment from companies involved in the fossil fuel business that is pouring more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than our planet’s inhabitants can afford, and may already have done irreparable damage to your lives and, even much more so, those of your children. Nothing, of course, terrifies university administrations more than the prospect of upsetting the donors who keep our heating systems working and pay our salaries and student aid. Only 10 colleges/universities have agreed to divest so far, those small and none Catholic. None of the big-league institutions has broken ranks, although it should be evident that the one which does will have enormous influence, even in guiding investors who are our friends and donors to safer and more moral investments.

We are indeed a Catholic and Jesuit university. We have our share of scientists, some of great distinction. But scientists are, culturally, reluctant to become activists. We have the resources of our Catholic Department of Theology and the School of Theology and Ministry, with all their ranking ethicists, and our School of Law, with its strong Catholic leadership, which could lead the charge on our legal system, national and international, to recognize the demands of intergenerational justice to protect the lives and welfare of the generations—yours first—which will be devastatingly harmed by what our fossil fuel industry is doing now. We can be proud of our BCFF students who are actively making their fellow students aware of the greatest threat they will face in their lives. They’re worth joining!

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.

Jordan Pentaleri, Graphics Editor Nicole Suozzo, Blog Editor Austin Tedesco, Online Manager Corinne Duffy, Assoc. Copy Editor Evan D. Gatti, Asst. Copy Editor Julie Orenstein, Assoc. News Editor Nathan McGuire, Asst. News Editor Marly Morgus, Assoc. Sports Editor Alex Fairchild, Asst. Sports Editor Samantha Costanzo, Asst. Features Editor

Rev. Raymond G. Helmick, S.J. Instructor, Department of Theology

Ariana Igneri, Assoc. Arts & Review Editor Michelle Tomassi, Asst. Arts & Review Editor Bennet Johnson, Asst. Metro Editor Emily Sadeghian, Asst. Photo Editor JT Mindlin, Asst. Layout Editor Breck Wills, Asst. Graphics Editor Arielle Cedeno, Editorial Assistant Sarah Moore, Executive Assistant

Business and Operations

Mujtaba Syed, Business Manager Chris Stadtler, Advertising Manager Tricia Tiedt, Outreach Coordinator Donny Wang, Systems Manager Pamela Taylor, National Advertising Manager Katie O’Connor, Account Manager Jessica Turkmany, Account Manager Catherine Duffy, Collections Manager Russell Puleo, Project Coordinator

The Heights

Thursday, March 13, 2014

A5

Another way to spend Spring Break

Jovani Hernandez Utensil Dispensers - Returning from Spring Break to Boston College, there are a number of things that everybody expects—tanner bodies, warmer weather, stories from your friends about how awesome their service trip was, just to name a few. Then there are those changes that nobody expects. For example, over the break, BC Dining Services changed the utensil dispensers in Lower. While we rarely think about how we obtain our cutlery for our noonday meal in any given day, we must say that we are rather impressed with this change. No longer are all of the eating implements subject to the often grimy and unwashed hands of the average BC student rummaging through the old bins for a fork or knife.

Now, we can eat our meals confident that our utensils are clean and sanitary.

Also, perhaps this new system will cut down on the theft of utensils, decreasing unnecessary expenditures by the Dining Services and hopefully translating that into lower prices for our exorbitantly priced meal plan … but that’s just wishful thinking.

Ice Cream Cones - Sometimes, it’s the little things in life—you know, somebody holding the door for you when you’re late for class, putting on your favorite sweatshirt while it is still warm from the dryer, getting that last free donut at work—that really makes a day.

Well, we think that the bottom of ice cream cones should be on that list. Although it is always sad to reach the end of something as great as an ice cream cone, it’s always nice, upon getting there, to find a mini-cone of chocolate in the tip. It’s as if the world is saying to us, “We know you are sad that you are at the end of this ice cream cone, but look, we put in this little morsel of chocolate to make it all alright. See, it’s all okay.” And that just makes our day sometimes.

Boston College students are expected to be “men and women for others,” but through how many students are St. Ignatius of Loyola’s beliefs actually manifested?

Due to its Jesuit tradition, BC heavily promotes service to its students. Programs such as PULSE and 4Boston are popular and, in return, highly selective. Although the thought of being rejected the chance or being under-qualified to volunteer boggles me, I understand the politics behind volunteer work a bit more now that I’ve participated in a service trip.

Over 10 days, 25 participants explored the first European colony of the New World through the Dominican Republic Service and Immersion trip run by the Learning to Learn office. The trip focuses on the country’s educational system and aims to give students a firsthand experience of what Dominican culture consists of through food, art, history, music, and people. Despite the fact that not every participant of the trip was fluent in Spanish, those on the trip learned that solidarity, smiles, and selflessness transcend cultural and language barriers.

Whenever I had the chance to connect to Wi-Fi—which was rare—I would check Instagram and Facebook and was overwhelmed by the number of pictures of friends in Cancun, San Juan, and Punta Cana with “#sb2014” in the captions. Spring Break is supposed to be exactly that, a break, but instead of basking in the sun and buying drinks, I was learning about the issues that aren’t plastered all over resort brochures in the Dominican Republic. Although those vacationing in the Caribbean and myself

Like Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down?

Follow us @BCTUTD

many Dominicans are, despite poor living conditions. Therefore, it’s only right that I bring that positivity back to my daily life, but this is the difficult part—the post-trip.

Similar to how I felt when I was on Kairos, being in the Dominican Republic allowed me to feel removed from the daily routine I experience here at BC. Toward the latter part of my stay in the Dominican Republic, I kept thinking to myself that the situation I was in was not reality, but instead, an interruption of the actuality I left back in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Believing that every moment I experienced during my time in the Dominican Republic was just a fantasy would be a disservice to the boys and girls that impacted me in ways that words cannot convey. Now back in the States, I reflect on my situation—I attend one of the best universities in the U.S., don’t have to share a bed, have access to a working shower, and am surrounded by family and friends and can’t help but feel guilty because I’m able to remove myself from the poor living conditions I had to deal with for 10 days. A lot of kids can’t do the same.

Although I feel as though I added to the misery these kids that embraced me deal with because I left them after only a week, I know they don’t think the same.

I’ve been so focused on this idea of changing the world—the bigger picture—that I haven’t realized how much of a difference I’ve through the little things. The struggle is taking what I learned and internalized over the course of the trip and applying it to my everyday life, but this struggle is miniscule when compared to the obstacles some of the people I’ve met face. The saying goes, “nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something,” and I’m starting to believe that I’m changing the world, even if it’s one small gesture at a time.

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

Reflections on Appa

Emma Vitale

Misplaced Payphones - Have you ever been behind the elevators in Hillside on the first floor? Well, for those of you who haven’t, we will inform you that there—in the 21st century, mind you—a solitary payphone is located, right across from the bathroom. Why is it there, we ask? Setting aside the whole payphone-in-the-21st-century thing, it is a rather odd place for a payphone. After all, who is ever going to find it there?

We know that we certainly don’t often go searching for devices with which we can make a call while looking for a restroom. We don’t imagine that many other people do, either. We speculate that somebody accidently lost it there.

They could have been removing it (like one would expect to be done with a payphone) and left it in the wall, while they were going to the bathroom. More importantly, though, is the question of why on earth we have a payphone in the 21st century. Really though, why do we?

Is there actually a concern that someone might have neither a phone nor access to one such that he or she might phone home? Is it in case someone needs to leave an anonymous tip with BCPD? Is it so that someone can call the local independent student newspaper with some information on deep source? Other than facilitating difficult-to-trace calls with which one might enable the movement of illicit narcotics or, perhaps, engage in the cross-border trafficking of Russian arms, we cannot think of a legitimate purpose for that phone. Really, BC, you should get rid of it.

were around palm trees, beaches, and warm weather, we operated in different worlds. I traded 5-star hotels for run-down inns where the water runs sporadically, lively nightclubs for gravel-ground playgrounds, and access to the Internet for dialogue and nightly reflections. I know these people worked hard for and are deserving of their leisure time, but I think more students should explore the volunteer and service opportunities BC offers, especially those outside the U.S. Traveling to an unfamiliar city or state within the U.S. is exciting and different, but traveling to an unfamiliar country allows for more growth because one is forced to adjust to how things run in places in which one is not comfortable. I saw similarities between the Dominican Republic and Mexico—the only other place outside the country to which I’ve traveled—but, even then, I felt out of place in a land inhabited by people who speak Spanish, my native tongue.

The U.S. and the Dominican Republic have similar problems, but these problems— education disparity, poverty—occur more severely in the Dominican Republic. The DR has a literacy rate of 87 percent, as opposed to 99 percent in the U.S. Over 50 percent of Dominicans live under the poverty line, whereas only 15 percent of Americans live under the country’s poverty line. People might question groups such as the one I was part of as to why they are going to a foreign country to do service when there is so much work to be done in the U.S., but just because these problems are occurring in another country, this does not mean they should go unattended. Poverty and illiteracy are terrible things no matter who they affect, but it is easy not to care about a situation by which you aren’t impacted. The opportunity to learn about a different culture and volunteer with kids that are seldom surrounded by people they can look up to arose and I took it. Being in the Dominican Republic taught me a lot about the culture and allowed me to personally see how happy

I thought I was strong, that I could avoid it, that it wouldn’t affect me the way it has affected people in the past. But it hit me the moment I embarked on the 12-hour bus ride down to Virginia and has grown deeper every day—I’ve got the Appa high.

I was excited to go on the Appalachia service trip for Spring Break, but in the few days leading up to it, my excitement was a bit subdued. I had heard so many people talk about their plans to relax at home with their families or tan on a Caribbean beach, and part of me honestly just wanted to take a breather and bum around for a week. I was also a little concerned because my group, Exmore, was the largest of the Appa groups.

With 19 people, I didn’t know if we would all be able to click as well as the smaller groups.

But, as soon as we met that Friday night before the long bus ride, I knew I had made the right decision, and by Monday, I could tell that this was going to be one of the best and most rewarding weeks of my life thus far.

Our trip was through Habitat for Humanity, but due to more crazy winter storm weather (it snowed a whole 1.8 inches on Monday), the first half of the week was more of a retreat than a service trip, with plenty of bonding activities. As childish as they may be, there is something so magical about playing games and singing together like a family—which we did a lot—and there were so many moments of pure joy and laughter that could not have happened any other way. Building relationships without texting or social media was also especially meaningful for me. Nowadays, the way we meet and develop friendships with people is so contingent on technology—we check out Facebook or Instagram to try to determine

Lecture Hall

what kind of person someone is, we check out Twitter to try to determine how funny someone is, and we text to try to determine if we connect with someone—but none of these involve truly getting to know a person. Spending a week building relationships based solely on face-to-face contact, conversation, and laughter was unbelievably refreshing and made our friendships that much stronger.

Perhaps the most surprising part of the trip for me was how much we were able to interact with the community around us. Because we were a habitat trip, I assumed we would just be building a house rather than getting to know the people of the area like you would in a community trip, but I was pleasantly surprised by the reality. We stayed in an Episcopal church in the small town of Onancock, and the members of the church were some of the most welcoming people I have ever met. Several folks brought us food (they were very concerned about our wellbeing during the “snowstorm”), and many contributed air mattresses, which was greatly appreciated for our sleeping arrangement.

We were able to have two dinners with the church community, and I appreciated the opportunity to talk with and learn from such down-to-earth and loving people.

At the first dinner, I talked with Nick, a psychiatrist helping schizophrenics in the greater Eastern Shore area. We discussed the progressive nature of the church, which I was not expecting because, I’ll admit, I had stereotypes about most rural and southern communities (especially religious ones) being socially conservative. The priest, Rev. Ford, broke this stereotype down even more when he talked with us Wednesday night about the similarities and differences between the Episcopal and Catholic faith traditions, and how his church deals with controversial issues like gay marriage, abortion, and female priests. Although older people constituted much of the community, it was refreshing to see how much Rev. Ford cared about the youth and our connec-

tion (or lack thereof ) to the church—he genuinely wanted to understand why our generation is generally more ambivalent toward organized religion, and what churches could do to change that sentiment. Talking to him and the other members, I was struck by how happy they were to be in such a small town with a small and close-knit community. One man I talked with at the second dinner, Bruce, told me how he used to work in Manhattan making more money than he ever knew what to do with, and he wished he had moved to Onancock much sooner because he is so much happier here. It was so powerful to see how they lived so happily with so little, and how they welcomed us as family in such a short time.

Building the house itself was quite the experience—when we got to the work site the only finished part of the house was the foundation. This meant our job was to build the exterior framing. Few of us had done anything like that before, and it took us a little while to get the hang of things. But working on a project like that as a team, with a clear goal in mind of helping build a real live house for someone, and the many, many laughs along the way made it more rewarding than I could have ever imagined.

Despite the less than optimal weather conditions and shortened time frame, we were able to get all four walls up by the end of the day on Friday, which was so satisfying—especially after meeting Sharon, the house owner, and seeing how much it meant to her. By the time we left Friday night, all 19 of us were unquestionably on the “Appa high,” and loving every second of it.

So, I would say I’m sorry about all of the obnoxious “Appa love” taking over campus and social networks, and about the friends who won’t stop talking about their respective “Appa highs” even when you’ve clearly reached your limit hearing about it—but I’m really not sorry at all.

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

BY PAT HUGHES

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

The reasons for service Patrick Angiolillo The mark of spring might be here. I do not mean the warm weather, chirping birds or even longer days. What I mean are the service trips! With everyone returning to campus from Spring Break, I have already gotten word of the many service trips BC students went on during the break—whether it was Appalachia Volunteers (Appa), one of the Magis Service Immersion trips, or any of the other domestic or international volunteer programs.

Volunteerism is a big deal at BC. With dozens of volunteer organizations, students on this campus have numerous opportunities to give their time and energy to serving the people of Boston, the people of the U.S., and even the people of countries around the world. We are lucky to have these many opportunities to do good work, aid those in need, and learn about those we encounter and even about ourselves. Personally, I have never joined one of these trips or any of the big-name groups, like 4Boston or Urban Immersion. I have, though, volunteered my time, both in high school and at BC, and I am grateful for the occasions I have had to serve.

Volunteering today has, however, become just a part of what many people do to get into college, to put on a resume, or to stand out as an applicant to a program or for an award. Surveys conducted by Do Something—an organization that tries to encourage young people to volunteer—found that admissions officers at the top American universities are increasingly looking at not just volunteer work alone, but long-term commitment to a single service, in order to distinguish among applicants and determine admittance. I think this kind of mentality might be on the rise in the U.S. as more and more students seek to set themselves apart from their fellow students. This kind of volunteerism, though, can turn service work into a means for a gain.

I do not mean to paint all volunteering as ruthlessly exploitative. But, when it is reduced to a resume builder or the key to college admission, it loses its inherent value as charity done for others. I do not mean to say that this is the mentality of all who serve at BC, but I do think it is a present danger and a real risk of becoming the norm, should the trend in mentalities like volunteering-toget-into-college continue to rise.

In the same vein is the rise of “voluntourism” today. Numerous organizations exist to invite people to spend time in foreign countries working on a project while at the same time touring and experiencing the new place.

The problem with this, though, is that too often (even a little is too often, in this regard) these organizations focus more on catering to the needs and wants of the volunteers at the expense of the volunteer project. In some cases, this has even led to the criticism of such organizations being labeled as “big businesses” that are only concerned with themselves, sometimes even turning profits at the expense of needy communities by keeping them in dilapidated states while harboring funds intended for community projects.

None of this is to say that BC’s programs are even remotely like these. But a criticism of the mentality that allows for this kind of abuse—a mentality that sees volunteerism as a means and not as an end—is still warranted because this mentality can be found in even the most mild-mannered or well-intentioned people. In an article on Good, a social site that fosters a community seeking “creative solutions for living well and doing good,” the author argues that high school service work can give a competitive edge to college admission: “Of course, we all want students to volunteer for altruistic reasons, but it’s good to know that all those hours committed students spend trying to make a difference can give them a college admissions edge.”

This is precisely the mentality with which I have qualms and I think it generates lazy service and, if in the right hands, exploitative volunteerism. It is not a mentality we should be fostering in our students—or in anyone, for that matter.

I am not advocating we throw out all our service opportunities at BC. With these considerations, I am simply asking my friends, peers, and fellow Eagles who serve to be mindful of why you serve and to remember that your service is for the betterment of those you serve. Any other reason would make the people you help nothing more than a means to some personal end.

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

A6

“

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, March 13, 2014

”

Amanda wasn’t able to finish playing, but has been a great off-the-ice kid. She’s been a kid that will kind of keep the

team together off the ice. She’s that kid that takes the younger kids under her wing and tries to show them the ropes here at BC and within our program … she has taken on her own role within that. - Katie King Crowley

Forced off the ice, Movsessian contributes in the locker room

BY ALEX STANLEY Heights Staff

Seven numbers are painted on the board in front of the home bench in Kelley Rink on Feb. 22. It’s senior day, and the women’s hockey team is celebrating the graduating class’ last regular-season game. While the numbers correspond to those on the jerseys of the graduating seniors, one of the numbers, 12, is not on the game roster: No.12 has not been on a roster since 2011.

Senior defender Amanda Movsessian’s time skating on senior day was the closest she has been to playing in a game since her freshman year.

“It’s the best time of your college career, senior year, and we’re winning,” Movsessian said. “How much would you love to be out there? Even just on the bench. I got to skate through the ceremony at our senior game, but that was it. I was sad because I just wanted to stay out there, you know?”

The women’s hockey team is currently seeded No. 6 in the country, going into the NCAA tournament, with a 27-63 record and national championship potential surrounding it. Movsessian is

“100 percent” sure that the team will take home the national championship.

Hockey is a family affair in the Movsessian household. Movsessian’s father and aunt both grew up playing hockey competitively. Her aunt, Vicki Movsessian, played at Providence and holds a gold medal from the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

“I just remember being a kid and watching [Vicki] play, and that’s when my dad got me more involved,” Movsessian said. “I started skating a few years previous to ’98, but that was when I started playing in games and for my town.”

In high school, Movsessian played at Lawrence Academy, where she shared the ice with current BC teammates Emily Field and Danielle Doherty. Her performances helped spur her dream of coming to BC, which had always maintained the top spot on her list of colleges to attend.

In addition to this, Movsessian knew some of the players on the team and was familiar with the coaching staff. Associate head coach Courtney Kennedy is from the same town as Movsessian, and head coach Katie King Crowley played on the same ’98 Olympic team as Vicki.

When it was finally her time, Movses-

sian made the trip from Woburn, Mass. to Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Movsessian played in nine games her freshman year, and remembers one in particular—an away game against Vermont. She vividly recalls going in for a shift, alongside defenseman Meagan Mangene. Movsessian was in clear scoring position, and eagerly awaited a pass from Mangene. Movsessian received the pass but botched the shot, missing the only scoring opportunity she would have at BC. Her freshman and sophomore year, Movsessian played forward, but in the spare moments when she is healthy enough to step onto the ice, she now practices defense.

After featuring in nine games as a freshman, Movsessian sat out her entire sophomore season due to an influx of players on the squad.

“We just had like 30 people on the team, so I didn’t really get to play,” she said.

Her junior year, stress fractures in both of her legs kept her from playing, and this year Movsessian had mono at the beginning of the season, came back for two practices, and then tore her MCL.

She gave one word for the physical therapy that she has had to undergo—awful.

“It’s all in your head, it’s just annoying to go in the training room every day and do the exact same thing every day,” she said. “Most days you don’t want to be there and it doesn’t feel like it’s getting better, but then obviously it’s worth it in the end.”

Having to deal with so much injury has forced Movsessian to adjust her role as a player into a mentor, friend, and social mainstay for the team.

“Amanda wasn’t able to finish playing, but has been a great off-the-ice kid,” head coach Katie King Crowley said on senior day. “She’s been a kid that will kind of keep the team together off the ice. She’s that kid that takes the younger kids under her wing and tries to show them the ropes here at BC and within our program … she has taken on her own role within that.”

Movsessian has been unable to contribute on the ice, but she hasn’t stopped helping the Eagles—she goes out of her way to befriend newcomers who seem to have difficulty fitting into the women’s hockey program.

“I can always pick out of a class who

is going to be the shy one or who is going to be the one that needs a little help getting through, and those are the kind of kids that I attach myself to,” she said.

Movsessian recalled teammates Kaliya Johnson and Meghan Grieves as specific cases of players struggling with the transition. She said that their eccentric personalities took some time for the team to adapt to, and Movsessian worked to help the rest of the team to realize that “quirkiness is cool.”

“I feel like I’m just kind of weird with everyone,” she said, smiling.

This “weirdness” is much-needed for the unit and fulfills a necessary role for the team to operate with the right chemistry. She admitted that at first it was upsetting to not be able to play, but she said she is happy with her role as a mentor and unofficial social director.

“Right now, I would have loved to be on the ice, but I’m really happy with the relationships that I’ve made with my teammates,” Movsessian said. “In past years, I’ve been more distant, because [I am] on [my] own schedule doing [my] own thing. But, now I’m on a team schedule, I’m where anyone is and doing whatever someone wants.” 

Eagles’ season ends with loss to Georgia Tech at ACC Tournament From Men’s Basketball, A8 per—we were just really confused how it got there. We don’t know who the source is. I’ve never spoken like that to anybody. So there’s no truth to any of that. I’m looking forward to coming into the off-season with these guys and working hard.”

Even with rumors out there, the Eagles still had a game to play. Shooting the ball was a struggle for both teams to start. Miss after miss cost each side the opportunity to edge its nose out in front. In what was a poorly played first half by the standards of both teams, the first basket of the game was met with an ironic cheer as Patrick Heckmann hit from the line.

Junior center KC Caudill was thrust into the paint again by Donahue, who gave the BC big man another start. Not known for his shooting prowess, Caudill was able to spin and knock down a jumper from in front of the charity stripe to give BC a bit of momentum.

His duties came mostly on the defensive end, though, as he was tasked with guarding Georgia Tech center Daniel Miller. Caudill and Magarity switched when covering the No. 11 seed’s threat, but Miller was always able to fend off the pair, as well as Anderson.

BC had an advantage that was as big as six in the first half, but a run from the Yellow Jackets gave them a lead they would not relinquish until the back end of Olivier Hanlan’s 1-and-1 with 5.2 seconds remaining.

As the Eagles failed to find their touch from behind the arc, Georgia Tech’s offense was able to capitalize. With Caudill taken out for most of the second half as well, the Eagles were left with Anderson to size up against Marcus Georges-Hunt and Robert Carter Jr.—not to mention Miller.

But defensively, the Eagles began to click.

Down the stretch, traps occurred on every possession and Georgia Tech gave in, turning the ball over. It gave BC a path back into the game. The momentum swung when Garland Owens forced his way to the hoop, getting a

three-point play to halve the Yellow Jacket’s lead with under three minutes remaining.

BC had hope.

Hanlan went to the line with just 5.2 seconds remaining and was able to collect himself at the line and knock down the second foul shot after he missed the first.

After Golden could not hit a buzzerbeater to win the game, BC was able to jump out to an advantage in the extra period, though the Yellow Jackets kept it to a onepossession game.

Golden’s three-point play gave his team a 69-67 lead in the game’s final minute.

Defense from the Yellow Jackets kept the Eagles from penetrating, though, and the ball went down low to Anderson. With the season in the hands of the junior forward, he leaped across the lane, only to miss a hook shot from the right side of the rim.

Heckmann fouled senior forward Kammeon Holsey, who made both his foul shots to ice the Eagles. The game was over, despite a last-gasp triple from Jackson.

The biggest question still revolves around the team’s head coach Steve Donahue, who many believe is on the hot seat in Chestnut Hill after his team finished 8-24—the worst record in his four-season tenure.

In front of the media, however, Donahue was calm, and lauded the team’s improvement over a wild season.

“This has been the craziest year in my 30 years of coaching in the sense that I said this all along,” Donahue said. “I thought we played really good basketball for the 19 games in the ACC, and I counted five bad halves. I’ve done that before with teams and we have 13 or 14 bad halves and still have a good record.”

Donahue also said that he looks forward to continuing to work with the program in order to get it to where it needs to be.

“I can’t wait to get back on the court and get better and get ready for next year,” Donahue said. “I just think we are so darned close with all the things we discussed.” 

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

THE

ROUND U P

BY MARLY MORGUS | ASSOC. SPORTS EDITOR

BASEBALL

SOFTBALL

W. HOCKEY

TENNIS

SKIING

The baseball team started off last week on the right note with a 7-6 win in extra innings over Villanova.

The win was Boston College’s sixth of the season. From there, however, things went downhill for the Eagles as they faced a string of tough opponents.

A loss to Western Michigan came first, then two straight losses to Florida Atlantic, one of which went to extra innings. Then, in the final series of the week against the University of Miami—which is currently ranked 22nd in the country—the Eagles dropped another three straight, 6-2, 5-2, and 4-3.

The bumpy stretch brought the Eagles to 6-9 on the season.

The softball team pl aye d 11 g ame s over the course of eight days from Saturday, March 1 to Sunday, March 8.

While the Eagles started off their busy stretch on the wrong note with a loss to Georgia Tech on the first, they quickly turned it around and won the last two games of the series against the Yellow Jackets.

After a loss to Florida, BC then won its next five games, which were played at the University of South Florida Tournament over St. Johns, Southern Illinois, Villanova, Cleveland State, and Northwestern. The win streak brought the Eagles to 14-7 on the season.

The women’s hockey team participated in the Hockey East Tournament last week.

While the regular-season champions cruised through the opening round with a dominant 8-0 win over the University of New Hampshire and were successful in the second round with a 3-1 victory against the Vermont Catamounts, they could not pull off the tournament win. BC met rival Boston University in the final on Sunday in Hyannis, Mass., and though the Eagles had topped the Terriers four times during the regular season, they could not pull off another win, falling in the final by a score of 3-2 after BU goalie Kerrin Sperry put up an enormous performance of 40 saves.

The women’s tennis team played two matches over break, one at Florida State University in which the Eagles fell to the Seminoles 6-1, with Lexi Borr earning the Eagles’ only win in the No. 3 singles spot when her opponent retired from the match, and another at Florida International University in Miami where BC came out on top by a score of 5-2. In the win, five different Eagles posted at least one win.

The men’s side also had its fair share of action over break with a match at UC Irvine. The Eagles failed to snap their two-game losing streak and fell 6-1 with the doubles team of Jonathan Raude and Alexandre Thirouin earning the only scored win.

T h e m e n’s a n d women’s ski teams finished off their regular seasons at the Middlebury Carnival. In the women’s giant slalom, Michelle Solomon and Kristie Ryan finished back to back in 37th and 38th place, respectively, while Paige Kozlowski and Katie Cutting also competed in the race.

In the men’s GS, Chase Ryan led the Eagles with a 14th place overall finish.

He was followed by Keith Schuman in 23rd and Trevor Lennox in 44th.

Chris Keating and Ryan Barney did not finish their second runs. In the women’s slalom, Cutting finished in 25th and Ryan finished 44th. For the men, Ryan led the way yet again with a ninth place finish—his season best.

Schuman finished in 31st.

THE HEIGHTS

EDITORS’ EDITORS’PICKS PICKS

Thursday, March 13, 2014 The Week Ahead

Standings

Baseball takes on No. 3 Virginia in a threegame weekend series. Men’s hockey starts the Hockey East Tournament with a best-of-three series with Notre Dame.

Lacrosse travels to Canisius. The ACC tournament is in progress, and while the Eagles have been eliminated, the conference champion will be crowned on Sunday.

A7

Recap from Last Week

CONNOR MELLAS

21-7

ALEX FAIRCHILD

20-8

HEIGHTS STAFF

19-9

MARLY MORGUS

18-8

Series of the Week

Baseball beat Villanova on the road.

Women’s basketball fell to No. 9 Maryland in penultimate regular season game. Men’s basketball fell to Florida State by a narrow margin of only four points. The Penguins and the Blackhawks battled through a snow storm, the Blackhawks coming out on top in the Stadium Series.

Men’s Hockey

Boston vs. Notre Dame College

Guest Editor: John Wiley Arts Editor

“She doesn’t even go here.”

CONNOR MELLAS

This Week’s Games

Sports Editor

Baseball: BC at No. 3 Virginia (Series)

MARLY MORGUS Assoc. Sports Editor

ALEX FAIRCHILD

JOHN WILEY

Asst. Sports Editor

Arts Editor

2-1 Virginia

Virginia

Virginia

Virginia

M. Hockey: No. 2 BC vs. Notre Dame (Series)

BC

BC

BC

BC

Lacrosse: No. 5 BC at Canisius

BC

BC

BC

BC

Duke

Virginia

Duke

Duke

Who will win the ACC Basketball Tournament?

As the puck drops on the 2014 postseason, the Boston College men’s hockey team will duel with rival Notre Dame in the Hockey East Tournament’s first round.

The contest offers a rematch of BC’s final regular season game, which the Irish stole by a 2-1 final count.

Hobey hat trick contenders Johnny Gaudreau and Kevin Hayes will look to power the Eagles’ prolific offensive arsenal in front of an electric home crowd at Conte Forum. As two dynamic rosters square off and rookie Thatcher Demko faces his first playoff test as a collegiate goaltender, look for this one to be decided in the final frame.

Friday, 7 p.m., Saturday, 4 p.m.

Conference tournaments dilute the importance of the regular season

BY MIKE HOFF March Madness is the most illogical postseason in sports, relative to the regular season. The only other major American sports that decide a champion in one-game increments, through the finish, are the NFL and college football. Of course, the college basketball regular season is about twice as long as the NFL’s, and the teams don’t play games once a week. College basketball also hasn’t settled any three-quarter-billion dollar concussion lawsuits recently.

Yet March Madness is worth the $10 billion-plus, per ncaa.com, that CBS and Turner will cobble together over 14 years because it is so, so much fun, and that entertainment value makes bastardizing the regular season acceptable. The buzzer beaters and upsets that define March are incredible and indelible. From memory, Eric Maynor toasting Greg Paulus in the final seconds in 2007, 15-seed Lehigh holding off two-seed Duke with two lottery picks in 2012, and Joe Alexander single-handedly carrying West Virginia to the brink of the Elite Eight in 2008 on his way to becoming a legendary NBA bust still resonate with clarity, and those are just the upsets I remember in which Duke, by the grace of God Himself, bowed out early.

Thanks to March Madness, regular season success is overlooked. Even worse, though, is the effect of conference tournaments. Conference tournaments marginalize whatever sliver of big-picture worth the regular season holds at all, without the entertainment and nostalgia that the

NCAA tournament holds. One of the greatest conference tournament games in my lifetime was the 2009 Big East quarterfinal between Syracuse and UConn, and that game is only remembered because it lasted six overtimes.

Conference tournaments distort the whole purpose of the regular season in college basketball—which determines the best teams, in order, for the conclusive postseason—and damage the overall product that comprises the bulk of the sport. The incentive for the top teams in the country, aside from internal improvement, to push through the November to February slog is to better their chance at a higher seed and an easier path to a championship. But if one bad or good week in mid-March changes that seed by even one or two slots, the incentive to drive for a regular season title (excluding the Ivy League, which has no conference tournament) is little more than another chance for a student section to rush the court—if a team clinches at home.

By awarding automatic bids to conference tournament champions, the NCAA’s cash cow is hurt, too. If Boston College had stunned in Greensboro this week and taken home the ACC crown, the Eagles would still have been well under .500 and would have zero business wasting a spot in the 68-team field.

Besides denying another deserving at-large team of a bid, ACC or not, such a scenario could also worsen the seeds of ACC teams that have fought all year in through the buzzsaw of an ACC in-conference schedule.

This argument is somewhat diminished

by the fact the NCAA tournament does not include the 68 best teams. There will probably be teams in the field that are even worse than BC because their conferences, no matter how bad or small, receive the same number of automatic bids as the Big 12 or 10—one. Top teams are more susceptible to upsets when the Cinderellas belong on the same floor as the Goliaths.

If a low seed is awful, yes, that would make an upset even better, but there’s a reason no one watches one seed vs. 16 seed matchups.

The Cinderella that garnered the most attention in my life was George Mason in 2006. The Patriots, an 11 seed, knocked off one-seed UConn—a team littered with future pros—to go to the Final Four, capturing the hearts of anyone paying attention in the process. Yet they finished the year ranked 20th in kenpom.com’s overall rating—four spots ahead of arguably the best BC team ever. George Mason (barely) made the 2006 field as an at-large, but what if it was left out because it didn’t beat Hofstra in the CAA final? By properly rewarding both the mid and high-major teams that performed the best from November through mid-March, not for a week at the end of that stretch, the best part of college basketball would be more scintillating than it already is.

Conference tournaments are, at best, inconsequential and a waste of time before the fun starts. Best or worse-case scenario, there’s no need for them.

Mike Hoff is a staff writer for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@ bcheights.com

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

Mediocre teams could potentially make tournament runs, negating regular season performance.

Court storm guidelines From Column, A8 and just two were eligible, let alone ranked.

While it was quite the coup to whip the football program around, bowl eligibility at this school was the standard just five years ago—not the goal. On the last day of Syracuse’s season, the Orange became bowl eligible and no fans broke down the gates to get on to the field in the Carrier Dome.

No. 3: The field can also be rushed if an unbelievable ending happens.

Especially if you get that instinct that something like it will never happen again to conclude a game. See last year’s Iron Bowl.

No. 4: Finally beating a rival that has eluded defeat for more than five years.

Imagine Duke beating North Carolina in basketball for five years, before having a down year. If North Carolina beats Duke after that timespan, it’s time to head onto the floor, because the win has kept the rivalry intact. If one school becomes dominant like that, it isn’t a rivalry anymore, which would explain why BC and Holy Cross have gone so long without playing a football game—though they will down the road.

So if the circumstances permit, go wild, and in the name of your ancestors, make Jack Black proud by “sticking it to the man.”

Alex Fairchild is the Asst. Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Andre Williams recently worked with a sports psychologist to improve his pass catching abilities, and the results are evident: Williams handled bullets from Rettig with ease on Pro Day.

Williams focuses on his hands heading into NFL Draft From Football, A8 knee deep in the familiar script, Williams has spoken openly about his philosophical memoir, called Johnny Manziel a “freaky guy” for wearing size 15 shoes, and critiqued 2014 Heisman winner Jameis Winston’s table manners. Given his somewhat unorthodox track record, it doesn’t come as the biggest surprise that Williams is taking an outside-the-box approach to improving his reception

m. basketball

scoreboard

BC FSU

70 74

softball BC JU

5 0

CHESTNUT HILL, MA 3/4

game.

Williams participated in two-hour sessions with Thierfelder, talking, catching Ping Pong balls with two fingers, practicing juggling, and engaging in various other little drills.

For the most part, the activities were small and nothing too special. The important part was the way Williams carried them out.

“He wasn’t saying it’s really what you’re doing, it’s how you’re doing it,” Williams said. “Like I said, meet-

w. basketball

HANLAN 20 PTS BC THOMAS 26 PTS UVA

59 74

ORLANDO, FL 3/5 w. lacrosse 15 Cooper 13 pts BC Mcbride 19 pts 3 reb USC 10

GREENSBORO, NC 3/5 ZENEVITCH 14 PTS FRANKLIN 23 PTS

ing the ball with energy and going through the ball, just putting your mental state in a different place—not being afraid of the ball. You want the ball, so you have to go get it.”

Williams was a believer in meditation before meeting Thierfelder, and the recently adopted strategy and outlook is paying off.

“I’m really proud of how I was able to perform today,” Williams said. “I ran a better 40, I caught the ball better than I did at the combine, so, you

CORAL GABLES, FL 3/7

baseball BC UM

know, it was a great day for me.”

After stripping out of his No. 35 neon-green accented NFL Combine hoodie in favor of an “EXCELLED” t-shirt the same shade of maroon of his old No. 44 jersey, Williams caught pass after pass from his former quarterback Chase Rettig, his maroon and white Under Armour gloves flashing with each ball he hauled in.

For a guy who had 10 receptions throughout four years of college football, it looked pretty damn natural. 

CORAL GABLES, FL 3/9 Boston, Ma 11/11

baseball

2 6

HERNANDEZ 2 H LOPEZ 2 H

BC UM

LOS ANGELES, CA 3/6 w. hockey 2 BARRY 3 G BC 3 CORDREY 3 G BU

HYANNIS, MA 3/9 TRIVIGNO 1 6 SPERRY 40 SVS

softball BC NU

3 4

BOURDON 2 H THOMPSON 3 H

Newton, MA 11/09 CLEARWATER, FL 3/9 4 3

DIMASO 1 H ALLARD 3 H

SPORTS

A8

THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2014

Go ahead and storm ALEX FAIRCHILD “Sticking it to the man” is an American pastime. Whether by revolting against the British or subjecting the world to those uniforms and facial hair at the 1994 World Cup, Americans have long been storming past security to do the outrageous.

So for all the college students who witness upsets and have their schools win titles—rush the floor. Just do it. Breeze by those security guards, don’t listen to “the man,” and juke through those seated on the floor. If you trip and fall, just remember that there are hundreds of more fans coming and that television cameras are rolling to watch you go down. Have fun with it.

Stomp on the center of your team’s circle and just lose yourself. If you are one of those sad souls cheering for an SEC basketball team, make your school pay that fine.

Protecting the floor has become a conflict for college basketball teams around the nation, whether on the floor of a game that decides the ACC regular season title or a matchup between Hawaii and UC Santa Barbara. Some have called for conferences and the NCAA to ban court storming in order to protect coaches and players. Colleges do not need to be the fun police, but they do need to use common sense.

If you are the away team, get yourself off the floor. Don’t let that intoxicated 21-year-old get under your skin, because no matter how burned you’re feeling, you are better than that. For years, court and field storming have been a marquee piece of college tradition. It would be an insult to students and the game to get rid of it.

An unabridged rushing of the floor is the best moment a home team and school can have in a season that might have ended poorly. Court storming can celebrate a championship, upset, or defeat of a rival that has tortured your team for years.

The most anti-climatic event of the college basketball season occurred when Virginia topped a flailing Syracuse team to win its first ACC title in a couple of decades. A pitiful string of yellow jackets formed a crease around the players, and jubilation commenced without the Virginia players being able to join in with their fans.

Let the kids have fun and create an experience they will never forget. It is an experience for the players and coaches—just ask Boston College football head coach Steve Addazio.

Storming the court has to be reserved for special occasions though, otherwise it isn’t special. Some conditions have to apply.

No. 1: Winning a championship.

In college basketball, especially at the major level, championships are rarely won at home because conference tournaments are played at neutral sites. So when Virginia won its title against Syracuse, heading onto the floor was justified. Even though winning a regular-season title only gets you as far as the NIT, it is still a cause for celebration. Some mid-major tournaments are held at campus sites, so if the home team is headed to the Big Dance, it is definitely cause for a rush. And Grantland’s Mark Titus is right—away fans shouldn’t be shy, either.

No. 2: Teams that are unranked should only rush the floor if they beat a team in the top five.

Penn State needs to check itself for a pathetic showing after beating Ohio State.

The Nittany Lions are a 15-16 program headed into the Big Ten Tournament, and before the No. 22 Buckeyes came to down, Penn State had already gone to Columbus and pulled off a victory in overtime. Let me get this straight, Happy Valley—you’re rushing the floor to commemorate beating a team that is not even favored to make a run come March, having already beaten them?

Maybe a little time for reflection is overdue.

The same applies to BC. While it was allowed and encouraged by the school that students head onto the field after the team picked up its sixth win of a turnaround season against NC State, that win doesn’t constitute rushing the field. Addazio turned the program around in one season, but that does not call for students to mosey onto the Alumni turf to celebrate a team beating six schools, and eventually seven.

None of those teams won bowl games

See Column, A7

One

And Done GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

BC’s season ended with a familiar feeling in Greensboro

BY ALEX FAIRCHILD Asst. Sports Editor As his body clattered to the floor of the Greensboro Coliseum, Georgia Tech guard Trae Golden yelled, “and one,” and a whistle blew.

His teammates pulled him back up, and he walked with a bit of swagger to the line. The senior was brimming with confidence, and it showed. His free throw with just over 30 seconds remaining in overtime gave Georgia Tech the advantage it sought. It proved justice for Golden as well, as an unsuccessful attack of the basket in the closing seconds of regulation failed to give his team the victory.

Boston College basketball fans have watched the same film countless times this season, and if there was a game that could sum up the BC’s men’s basketball program, it came in the team’s first-round loss in the ACC Tournament. Down by 13 with 8:17 remaining, the Eagles fought back, only to fall short–once again.

The 73-70 defeat to the Yellow Jackets cost BC its season. Taking the court with controversy swirling around the team, the Eagles were down, but not out, and were

able to force overtime against Georgia Tech. Earlier in the day, a report in The Boston Globe said that Olivier Hanlan, Joe Rahon, and Ryan Anderson were considering exiting the program. Junior forward Ryan Anderson commented after the game.

“Right now, I’m focusing on kind of just letting everything sink from the season,” Anderson said, before dismissing the question of what his status will be next year.

Another response to the article came from Hanlan, who finished the game with 16 points.

“It’s up in the air,” Hanlan said. “You still focus on this team and trying to get better this summer and everybody’s gonna be here for the summer sessions.

So we’re just trying to get better as a team and see what happens in the future.”

Rahon denied the report, which he said he found out about through friends and family.

“My parents were shocked,” Rahon said. “We’ve never even talked to them about it, so that coming into the pa-

See Men’s Basketball, A6

Williams shows off catching ability at BC Pro Day

BY CONNOR MELLAS Heights Editor Andre Williams did many things over the course of 13 games in 2013. He transformed into a human battering ram 355 times, for a total of 2,177 yards. Williams scored a plethora of touchdowns, finishing the year with 18. He lowered his shoulder and deployed a neck-realigning stiff-arm innumerable times, and he even flipped vertically over a defender once.

Along the way to a Doak Walker Award, the 6-foot-0, 227-pound running back crushed so many defensive backs that they easily could have formed a mini conference of afflicted defenders, or at least a “Destroyed By Williams” support group.

There is one thing that Williams did not do all season, though, and with the NFL Draft looming in the distance on May 8, it’s slowly become the biggest question surrounding his game.

During the 2013 season, Williams did not catch a single pass.

Yet on Wednesday afternoon under the dim lights of the Alumni Stadium bubble at Boston College’s Pro Day, Williams went deep, Williams went wide, and Williams caught the ball over and over again.

“I couldn’t tell you, I don’t know where it was,” Williams said with a laugh, fruit-

I NSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE

lessly searching for the words to explain his old catching mentality. “I’m definitely in a more focused place now, and I know kind of what to do, and I just have to get more reps at it, get more experience at it so it’s more and more natural.”

Less than two months away from the NFL Draft, Williams is finding success in the air, and it started with a change in his head and fresh ideas from a new mentor: Dr. Bill Thierfelder, a sports psychologist and president of Belmont Abbey College.

“He told me a lot about what you need to be doing with your eyes and energy in your hands,” Williams said. “You need to meet the ball with energy. He said God is ever present, and when your mind is focused on the past or future, you’re hurting your performance because you can only really be in union with God when you’re thinking in the present, in the very moment that you’re acting.”

Continuing, Williams said that Thierfelder taught him that the secret to a high level of performance is being in the moment—reaching that fabled zone—and that the feeling of being in the zone is the product of being in union with God. Williams has never been the most conventional player—whereas many athletes are always tight lipped and stuck

See Football, A7

Conference tournament chaos

The regular season is cheapened by superfluous conference tournaments....A7

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Andre Williams is focusing on playing in the moment and meeting the ball with energy.

Off the ice leader:

Hobbled by injury, Amanda Movsessian hasn’t stopped contributing to the women’s hockey team...A6

Editors’ Picks........................A7 Scoreboard.........................A7

Column

Scene Style

‘pinterest’-ing your next relationship, Page B3

a Look abroad at st. petersburg, Page B3

Fashion Forward

Street fashion: Russia

column

Critical Curmudgeon Aging rockers turn to memoirs for money, Page B4

SCENE Thursday, March 13, 2014

THE

Ariana Igneri Assoc. Arts & Review Editor The Boston Ballet’s adaptation of Cinderella, premiering tonight at the Boston Opera House, is not just about a fairy godmother, a pair of glass slippers, and one girl’s dream come true.

It’s about how all of the show’s characters and everyone involved with the production—including dancer Boyko Dossev, choreographer Frederick Ashton, and even the audience—sought or are seeking a “happily ever after,” too.

Raised in the African nation of Mozambique and Sofia, Bulgaria, Dossev has lived his own kind of Cinderella story. He studied ballet in several countries before settling down in Boston in 2006.

His journey here was not easy, though. It was one of trial, error,

and a great deal of hard work. Dossev’s mother enrolled him in ballet school when he was just a boy—when his family returned to Sofia after Bulgaria’s tumultuous changes of 1989—after the Cold War and perestroika.

Dossev was hesitant to dance at first, worrying about what his friends would think of him, but his mother was encouraging, seeing ballet as something he would benefit from, even if he decided not to pursue it in the end. She saw ballet, like language, music, and even classic literature such as Cinderella, as a way for Dossev to celebrate and preserve his Bulgarian heritage. To her, ballet exemplified the culture of the body.

Once he passed his physical exam, completed his training, and graduated from the National Ballet School in Bulgaria, Dossev worked with companies throughout Europe, including Jeune

Ballet de France, which he called the military of dance. It was “the toughest time of my life as a dancer,” he said.

“I had to learn a completely different style of dancing,” Dossev said—in Bulgaria, he had mainly focused on classical ballet.

Becoming skilled, then, in French contemporary ballet, which he would need to know later to work with the Boston Ballet and star in Cinderella, was a challenge for Dossev. “It was really hard,” he said. “It was really painful. It was really depressing.”

Despite its difficulties, Dossev said his time in France was invaluable because it made him understand how important it was for a dancer to be able to work through all genres. “I realized you have to be able to do everything not only because you need

See Boston Ballet, B2

BRECK WILLS / HEIGHTS PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

The Heights

B2

Thursday, March 13, 2014

outside the lines

A case for spontaneity Michelle Tomassi

I am writing this column fully aware that my computer might crash and burn at any moment. Today, I thought there was some sort of alarm going off in my building, until I realized it was my Mac beeping obnoxiously for reasons unknown. The screen froze, I powered down, and was greeted by a lovely message from an antivirus software that I don’t remember installing. I am not sure if I could live without my laptop for a week while he is getting fixed, so right now I’m praying that Jerry (I named him the day I brought him home from the Apple store) pulls through until I can get him the proper care that he needs.

If it weren’t for the flash drive keeping my documents safe and sound, these words might be lost forever. I don’t have a very good memory, so I would definitely not do my original piece justice. This isn’t just the case for my columns—it goes for most of my writing. Most recently, I realized that relying on memory can actually be detrimental to a creative piece.

Monday night, as I was in bed ready to get a full eight hours of sleep before Tuesday at 9 a.m., a poem came into my head. I know some writers claim that they think of ideas, lines, or full-out narratives in their sleep, but I’ve never been one to be a creative drowsy thinker. I don’t know how it happened, but all of a sudden my brain was composing line after line, begging me to get myself out of bed so I could record them in my journal. My blanket and pillow, however, proved supreme—I refused to get up, promising myself I would write the poem down first thing in the morning.

Unsurprisingly, my memory failed me.

I remembered in the middle of class that I did not fulfill my promise, so the first thing I did when I returned to my room was grab some paper and attempt to recollect the poem I had envisioned the night before.

I wrote the words that I remembered, rearranged the lines, but ultimately, it just wasn’t as good as the original. My lost poem may not seem a big deal to some, but to me, I feel like I had abandoned a friend. My first creative writing professor stressed how important it is to record any semblance of a poem or story, even if it’s just in fragments, the first time it comes to you. It’s hard enough to generate ideas on command, which is why such classes are implemented for aiding the process, so writing that comes naturally should be celebrated and pursued further. I let down my professor, my unwritten poem, and myself—how can I ever be a writer if I don’t listen to my creative impulses?

I think the problem is that I’m too much of a planner. I’ve been trained not to start an essay unless I have a fully formulated and arguable thesis, so I would never attempt to write a paper unless I have planned and outlined my points. I can’t write these columns unless I’ve planned out my idea and ensured that it will get me 700 words. I’m afraid of the spontaneous and the impulsive, yet some of my favorite writing is when I surprise myself—when I derail from the original plan. Following a structure can be beneficial for the uncertain writer or artist, but abandoning the plan can be just as satisfying.

One thing I’ll never be able to abandon is my organizational personality—I panic if I have misplaced my planner, and I make to-do lists for every day of the week. I have lists stored of movies to watch, books to read, restaurants to try, lunch dates that need to be scheduled— the list of lists is endless. I do believe, however, that there’s value in embracing spontaneity, whether in writing, traveling, or deciding to type on a precarious device. My roommate recently changed her desktop background to Daniel Burnham’s quote that begins, “Make no little plans,” but maybe it’s equally valid to scratch that adjective, and simply make no plans.

Once in a while, it’s okay to surprise yourself and live by the moment, rather than by the pre-planned hour.

I would be sad to have Jerry gone for a while, but maybe a break would do us some good—after all, the greatest authors had only a pen, paper, and whatever their minds had to offer.

Michelle Tomassi is the Asst. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

Glass slippers & Ballet shoes In the studio with the Boston Ballet

emily sadeghian / heights Editor

Boston Ballet, from B1 to find a job—and the more versatile you are the better—but also as a need, artistically,” Dossev said. “You can’t just stick with one thing or you’ll restrict other areas of ways to express yourself.”

When Dossev left France, he traveled to Germany, joining two major companies in Hamburg and Dresden. He felt, though, after spending nearly a decade there, that he needed to leave Europe “to discover more” and to chase his dreams, all the way to America.

Coming to the United States, however, was filled with obstacles for Dossev. He tried to make the Boston Ballet’s auditions in London, which was only an hour and a half away from Paris, but couldn’t because of problems with his visa. He tried to join a small Indianapolis-based company, but it closed four months after he started there.

He tried to make connections in D.C., but that, too, failed, since that company was trying to unionize. Every door seemed to close on Dossev, until he had the opportunity to audition in Boston, meet artistic director Mikko Nissinen, and become a part of the Boston Ballet.

“It’s all been crazy, but in the end, I

think destiny puts you and drives you where you need to be,” said Dossev.

In the Boston Ballet production, Cinderella aspires to become a great ballerina, just as Dossev did in real life, but Dossev’s main role in the performance is that of the younger ugly stepsister who dreams of being a dancer but lacks the self-assurance.

The character is dynamic, largely because the ballet’s original choreographer, Frederick Ashton, created it to reflect his own personality. He was the first one to play the part. “He was shy, like the little sister,” said Dossev, “and he was never confident about his choreography, even though he was one of the best.”

Ashton longed to be better than he was, just as the younger stepsister did. He wanted to be as good a dancer as his idol, Anna Pavlova, who, according to Dossev, was “a Russian legend.” This notion of insecurity coupled with hopefulness, which characterized Ashton, was integrated into the role.

Like his characters and like Dossev, Ashton had big dreams. One of them was choreographing Cinderella. Created in 1948, it was the first full-length British ballet. Dossev said that Ashton completed Cinderella in just four weeks, which even

by today’s standards is impressive. “It’s so crazy that it’s crazy,” Dossev said. Driven by the prospect of achieving his goals, Ashton made a significant achievement in both European and global ballet history with Cinderella.

Cinderella’s characters, Ashton, and Dossev, too, illustrate how the Boston Ballet’s adaptation of the centuries-old fairytale is just as much about dreams that do come true as ones that don’t. Sometimes, there are disappointments and failures in life, Dossev said—sometimes the clock strikes midnight, sometimes the shoe doesn’t fit, and sometimes wishes aren’t fulfilled. In these cases, though, he said the key thing is to remember why you do what you do.

For Dossev, there have been two letdowns he has had to reconcile as a dancer. One of the hardest things he’s realized is how competitive the business can be. “You put so much passion, effort, and time and dedication into it that when you don’t get the role yout think you derserve, you start to think you’re not good enough,” Dossev said.

The second thing Dossev said he struggled with is the fear of failing. Over the years, however, he’s come to realize that mistakes on stage are inevitable, and

obssessing over them prevents the conveyance of emotion to the audience, which is the point of dancing. “You have to make peace with it in order to let your soul and spirit go to grab those people in the audience and take them away,” Dossev said.

With Cinderella, Dossev said, viewers will be captivated not only by the pure physical beauty of the ballet—by the princess’ crystal-encrusted white tutu, the decadent ball scene, and the shining precision exhibited by the entire cast—but also by facing the different dreams, destinies, and lives of the characters. To Dossev, “It’s these characters and how the dancers portray their struggles, and their failures, and their craziness, fun, and stupidity, ugliness, and beauty, and everything that adds to the beauty of the ballet.” It’s these things that make the production as enchanting, timeless, and relatable as it is.

“No matter what, these are things we will always be concerned with as human beings,” Dossev said. Cinderella’s story will always be relevant, he said, no matter how it changes and regardless of whether there’s a Prince Charming or a magic pumpkin carriage in it, because throughout its history, Cinderella has kept the same message. It will always be about the dreams. n

This weekend in arts

By: Ariana Igneri | Associate Arts & Review Editor

5. ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ (ongoing)

1. BADASS (Friday 3/14, 7:30 p.m.)

Moonrise Kingdom director Wes Anderson tells the comical story of a European hotel concierge and his lobby boyfriend in his latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, which is playing at AMC Loews Boston Common 19.

R&B-soul a cappella group B.E.A.T.S. is partnering with the Dynamics for its annual show. The performance will take place in Devlin 008. Admission is free.

2. Battle of the Bands (Friday 3/14, 8:30 p.m.)

6. Hope ’N Mic Night (Thursday 3/13, 7 p.m.)

The Arts Council, in conjunction with UGBC, Nights on the Heights, and the Music Guild, will be hosting a competition between seven of BC’s premier music acts in the Cabaret Room this Friday: Seaver’s Express, Bobnoxious, Times New Roman, Free Alley, The Mints, Comeback City, and Juice. Doors open at 8 p.m.

3. flashdance (Friday 3/14, 8 p.m.)

In the musical Flashdance, Alex Owens dreams of escaping her life working as a bar-dancer and becoming a professional performer. Limited tickets for the show are sponsored by BC2Boston for $20, but student rush tickets may also be available at the Citi Performing Arts Center for $27 one hour before the show begins.

PHOTO courtesy of daisy spade

4. FCBC Fashion Show (Saturday 3/15, 7 p.m.)

The Fashion Club of Boston College is hosting its first fashion show, highlighting various kinds of styles, in the Rat on Saturday night. The event will feature designs by Daisy Spade, Rubex, and Stella & Dot, as well as a concert

by Times New Roman.

Organized by BC’s chapter of To Write Love On Her Arms, Hope ’N Mic Night will be an evening of music and conversation dedicated to people struggling with depression, self-injury, and suicide. The free event will be held in the Vanderslice Caberet Room. Seventy-five percent of donations will be sent to TWLOHA.

7. ‘Spotlight’ (Thursday 3/13 to Saturday 3/15, 7:30 p.m.)

The Boston College Dance Ensemble is presenting its spring showcase, Spotlight, in Robsham this weekend.

Tickets are $10, with all proceeds benefitting the Campus School.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, March 13, 2014

B3

WILEY’S FOLLIES

SCENE Style

FROM RUSSIA (WITH LOVE)

A portrait of the critic as an old man

JOHN WILEY

SEAN KEELEY / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

While Russian soldiers occupy Crimea, traditions in St. Petersburg are relatively unchanged as Russians celebrate centuries’ worth of culture at the annual Maslenitsa festival.

BY SEAN KEELEY Heights Senior Staff For the past few weeks, the Western view of Russia has been inevitably tainted by the reckless actions of its president, Vladimir Putin, who caught the international community off-guard by invading Crimea in response to last month’s revolution in Ukraine. As alarming images of heavily armed Russian soldiers flood newspapers, stoking fears of war throughout the world, the situation seen from St. Petersburg looks rather different, at first glance.

Ukraine may be on everyone’s mind, but outward appearances hardly suggest the crisis unfolding some 1,350 miles away.

For most Russians, daily life continues as usual—and so do the traditions that have sustained Russian culture for centuries.

On Sunday, March 2, huge crowds gathered at the Peter and Paul Fortress to celebrate the final day of Maslenitsa, the Russian version of Mardi Gras. The sights,

sounds, and smells on display represented long-established traditions for the Orthodox holiday—the eating of delicious thin pancakes known as blini, lively recreations of Russian folk dances, colorful costumes, and the burning of a straw effigy to symbolize the beginning of spring and Lent.

If the holiday was purely traditional, though, its celebrants’ fashion was not quite so straightforward. Instead, the event’s attendees showcased the diversity of fashion styles regularly on display in St. Petersburg.

In some way, the visitors represented a microcosm of Petersburg society, a city long torn between its Russian and European identity.

Some of the event’s older visitors perfectly matched most Americans’ view of Russian style—lots of grey, and lots of fur.

Most middle-aged women sported kneelength (or longer) grey coats, some of them equipped with elaborate furry hoods. Their husbands generally wore shorter coats, but preferred even darker shades, with navies

and blacks dominating. As for headwear, berets were especially popular, injecting a dose of French style into a largely Russian ensemble.

Many younger Russians, though, displayed more explicitly European styles, with color palettes that went beyond the various shades of grey preferred by their elders. Two young Russian women walking arm in arm, for instance, both accented their outfits with strong splashes of red. One wore a light beige jacket enlivened by a red scarf, gloves, and purse—the other sported red boots and a red knit hat. One young man wore a lumberjack-style red plaid jacket, looking more Canadian than Russian. His girlfriend, meanwhile, wore a darker plaid pattern on her pants, but introduced some brightness into the outfit with a pink scarf wrapped snugly around her neck.

The most colorful outfits of the day, though, were seen in the costumes of the folk dancers, musicians, and puppet masters who provided the day’s entertainment.

Special mention goes to one stilts walker, who strode proudly among the crowd wearing clown makeup and red and yellow pants, while waving a massive blue and white flag.

Families young and old continued to file in and out of the fortress all day, happily taking part in a longstanding Russian tradition on an unusually warm March day. Taking in the festive atmosphere, it almost seemed as if Russia’s current troubles were temporarily forgotten in favor of comforting tradition.

Perhaps the day’s festivities represented a welcome break from a week of worry about the tensions brewing in Crimea.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, anti-war protesters assembled at St. Isaac’s Square to protest the invasion of Crimea, only to be violently dispersed by riot police.

The alignment of the two events on the same day was a potent reminder that even as tradition’s roots grow deeper with every year, the future marches onward—sometimes in unwelcome directions. 

FASHION FORWARD

Picking out gifts on Pinterest for a boyfriend who doesn’t exist The problem of a single girl obsessively scrolling through and pinning men’s fashions online

THERESE TULLY It all started on Pinterest, as it usually does. It’s always my downfall. One minute I am being productive, the next I am scoping out $400 men’s bathing suits—but really, I don’t think it’s my fault. This love for fashion is a sort of disease, an all encompassing, liferuining disease. I am sick—that’s it.

I realized how sick I was when I spent more time than I would care to divulge— let’s say upward of 20 minutes—seeking out a men’s swimsuit I had seen on a blog and subsequently pinned. It was just too cute. The pattern was an aerial view of a pool filled with people. Aquamarine water is dotted with tiny swimmers, floaties, rafts, waves. So chic! I had to track it down—it would be the perfect present. The problem is: I have no one to buy this for. I was spending all of this time shopping for my invisible boyfriend. And then the bathing suit turned out to be almost $400, so I reasoned that even if I did have a man to buy this for, he could hardly be worth it, and there are definitely things I would rather spend $400 on—let’s be serious.

I don’t claim to know a ton about men’s fashion, but I do know what I like. And I liked this suit. Every once in a while I come across an item that is just too perfect, and I am tempted to buy it and save it for when that special someone does come along. This is how I know I am sick—I am shopping for a man who doesn’t even exist. Now, this is not a socially acceptable thing to do. I must hide these pinned ideas away on a secret Pinterest board, hide them away from the prying eyes of my eager followers. They can’t know the outfits I am plotting and planning to dress the next man who so stupidly stumbles into my life in. But now, I guess the cat is out of the bag. Oh, well.

The Pinterest board, however, is not the only secret. Tucked away in my desk drawer is a newspaper clipping. This isn’t

unusual, as I have lots of these. But this is from months ago and shows a fabulous pocket square wallet hybrid called Hank. It’s a small fabric pouch big enough to hold a gentleman’s—I’d expect no less of my imaginary boyfriend, you see—smartphone, ID, credit cards, and cash. Tucked into a pocket it could look like a fabulous pocket square, but it’s sneaky and chic and oh so 21st century, and I think it would be a great present. Alas, it remains an unrealized present. I need to stop being so thoughtful toward my imaginary boyfriend. He hasn’t done that much for me lately.

The problem—or at least, what feeds the disease—is that men’s fashion is just so wonderful. It’s so understated at times, and to the untrained eye, even boring. But au contraire! Dress shoes with brightly colored soles, vintage watches, sneaky tech accessories, Fair Isle sweaters, hipster glasses, fine leather goods, a classic pair of Ray-Bans, nautical striped t-shirts, patterned bowties—trust me, it’s an imaginary wardrobe to die for. Cufflinks, monogrammed golf shirts, fabulous leather boots. Suspenders. All of this male fashion sensibility is going to waste in my single girl mind.

I would love to say that the men here at Boston College dress horribly, but as a whole, they really don’t. They are doing pretty well all on their own. I applaud them, even though I am sure none of them are reading this. It’s hard to admit to myself that they don’t need me to hunt down overpriced swim trunks for them. That’s okay, however—the offer still stands. Keep up the good work, gents. It does not go unappreciated on this campus, nor will it ever go unappreciated in life—remember that.

Men, if you are reading this and are in need any fashion advice, you know where to find me. I am always available for a free consultation. I have enough knowledge, and hidden pictures of men’s fashion, to help you through any crisis or question you might encounter. Just a last side note—barely worth mentioning—if any of you fellas are looking for an LTR, chic dressing tips guaranteed, hit me up.

Therese Tully is a senior staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

Therese Tully

to Imaginary Boyfriend

Therese Tully

to Imaginary Boyfriend

Therese Tully

to Imaginary Boyfriend

JORDAN PENTALERI / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION

The New York Times television critic Mike Hale spoke to the crowd in a dry tone, prefacing his lecture with the admission he might just be the least important person ever to speak at one of these events. His audience seemed broadly disinterested in his introduction. In time, the Fulton auditorium started thinning.

Questions revealed many in the crowd were only interested in how Hale got his job, and the rest seemed bent on the opportunity to talk television with one of the industry’s elites.

Hale, however, was far from an elitist, working hard to denigrate his profession, speaking in simple terms about a job he described as little more than sitting down on a couch, watching television.

His tone was dry, particularly when speaking about his career—but his eyes lit when he spoke of the “golden age” of criticism. Going to college, he’d spend days reading The New Yorker, moved by a team of writers who, according to his calculations, were doing better work than anything out there today.

The critic and the reporter once lived very different lives. Movies were a rarity, and reviews needed to be neither timely nor straight to the point. The critic wrote about the world as it was, and the reporter wrote about the world as it happened. Evidently, the reporter won.

Hale’s pattern of reading as a young adult in the 1970s is unlikely to experience a resurgence. He read by the issue, waiting for the next batch of reviews and reading in bulk. Seeing a movie was a luxury then—there still was a legitimate fear of wasting time and money on the wrong one. Today, reviews only have a strong effect in the aggregate, and in many ways, technology has managed the risks associated with entertainment. Critical consensus has never been more powerful, while critical opinion grows into little more than a formality, qualifying these scores for an impatient audience As a writer, I get frustrated when publications like Rolling Stone magazine, given a national audience, keep most reviews no longer than a skimpy paragraph. As a reader, however, I seldom find myself motivated to read more than that.

Hale spoke of a changing climate working at The New York Times, how younger writers are encouraged to keep Twitter accounts and blogs and expected at once to report and review, two functions Hale considers in part irreconcilable—it’s near impossible to write a review on someone’s work without considering the fact that same person is a source of information and potential interview.

Around the conclusion of his talk, Hale addressed the question of how much his reviews influence the opinions of television viewers. At that point, I anticipated his answers: not much at all. At best, he reckoned his reviews might encourage producers to give a floundering series another season. His was a dismal science, and he spoke to the crowd of students knowing well they would never make a career doing the work he did.

I wonder if anything will be lost in our records as criticism turns to recap.

As technologies for valuing entertainment become more refined, our sense of what they’re actually gauging grows increasingly abstract. While most can sense a good movie, album, or television series, this sense of “goodness” is seldom experienced as more than a feeling.

Walking out of a movie, it’s commonplace to argue about a piece of the plot, but it’s never clear that any one of these points, or even the aggregate of them, constitute a good film. There’s an incessant want in viewers to create arguments justifying an inexplicable sense of “like.”

Should the death of the critic then be taken as a welcome development?

Were a critic’s opinions always arbitrary, or is criticism the lost art Hale suggests it to be?

Pure reporting on the arts inevitably omits many of the important details.

Even the most thorough recap is unlikely to convey what a television show’s about.

The trouble in removing criticism from the way we write about the arts is that the arts don’t “happen” in the way a news story does. A murder is a murder, regardless of who observes it, apart from anything that murder might have meant.

The arts, on the other hand, never happen objectively—the real story is in the observation of the act.

Kill the critic, end the show.

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

THE HEIGHTS

B4

Thursday, March 13, 2014

THE CRITICAL CURMUDGEON

Selling out: trouble with aging rockers and autobiographies MATT MAZZARI A few days ago, a former member of the American rock group Kiss said something in an interview that wasn’t unequivocally stupid. This is perhaps the most newsworthy revelation that this week’s column will contain.

Guitarist Paul Stanley criticized the trend of obnoxious self-absorption and phoniness that is oh-soevident in former rockers from the Golden Age-era of rock music who have survived to become the oblivious and irrelevant human-raisin hybrids that they are today. In an interview with Billboard, Stanley said, “95 percent of the autobiographies by any of my contemporaries would be better suited on a roll of soft paper.”

Sick burn, Paul Stanley! Wherever did you get the inspiration to compare literature that you don’t appreciate to toilet tissue? Was it while you and the rest of the ’80s were wiping your collective butt with everything decent

about Rock and Roll?

Ahem. Sorry about that image.

But in spite of my unrelenting hatred for all things Hair Rock, I do think that Stanley has a point. Rock star autobiographies (or “rock memoirs”) are some of the most blatantly pandering and egomaniacal heaps of sell-out trash ever to grace the New York Times bestseller list. The fact that the same people who rose to fame as part of a revolutionary, energetic, talent-driven movement in music would so readily release dull, redundant, self-obsessed, and ghost-written memoirs for extra cash is an even greater testament to how hopelessly drug-addled “former rockers” are than the memoirs themselves.

Regular and semi-regular readers may find themselves asking: “Why is Matt being so harsh on rock memoirs? Isn’t he more in love with rock music than anybody? Doesn’t he probably own like six biographical novels about The Beatles? Doesn’t he research musicians, like, in his spare time? Like a loser?” The fact is, loyal

readers, you’re right: I am that loser.

I read the most recent collection of John Lennon’s personal letters.

I own The Who documentary, The Kids Are Alright, on DVD. Heck, I even peruse Led Zeppelin’s Wikipedia page to see how many times the phrase “borrowed from Robert Johnson” comes up in reference to their “original” tracks.

I’m not objecting to learning more about an artist, however. What I object to is that people like Keith Richards, Steven Tyler, Gregg Allman, and momma-frikkin’ Gene Simmons get to publish “self-written” novels based solely on the credentials of being “former rockers.”

These are not authors. What they produce is not non-fiction writing.

Typically, first-person accounts of rock band rises and break-ups are not only outrageously biased but also ludicrously lacking in self-awareness.

I mean, have they forgotten everything that made them successful?

Did they forget the anger they felt as young men lashing out against stag-

nant notions of art and politics and love? Did they forget that sitting on a million-dollar patio with a Mai Tai while you dictate the insipid details of your life story to a for-rent journalist is precisely what they WEREN’T originally about?

They didn’t become icons for being contemplative. Artists like Pete Townshend became successful because he channeled all of his eloquence, skill, and electric resentment through a medium of sheer sexual energy, adrenaline, honesty, and unrelenting externality. Not because he was able to cash in on some 40year-old fame! That’s, like, everything The Who Sings My Generation is deliberately not!

So in other words, do I think Townshend has some neat experiences and some interesting things to say? Heck yeah, that’s why I’ve listened to his entire discography.

It’s what I’ve always said: just because an artist demonstrates impressive talent in one field doesn’t mean he’s automatically qualified for all

things creative. Just because an actress can act doesn’t mean she can sing or write music. Just because a musician can play the drums doesn’t mean he can paint. The challenge of building a creative style and reputation from scratch in a way that can revolutionize a medium is undoubtedly a central theme of most, if not all, of these “rock memoirs.” Isn’t it just so bitterly ironic, then, that their publication relies entirely on shallow self-branding?

So, yes, Paul Stanley, I agree that your bandmates’ accounts of Kiss’ rise to and subsequent fall from fame are probably wildly inaccurate, mediocrely written, and (most importantly) blatant scams. Thanks for saying what’s been on everyone’s minds.

The irony, of course, is that Stanley made this comment—wait for it—in an interview regarding the publication of his own autobiography. Yeah.

After the breakthrough release of “Wake Me Up” last summer, it seems only natural that California soul singer Aloe Blacc’s third studio album Lift Your Spirit would follow it. Released in parts of Europe last fall, the record comes to the U.S. with a few added punches, some tracks rearranged, and others added. Record executives have been scrambling to posture Lift Your Spirit for a success that Blacc’s career prior to “Wake Me Up” hardly could have hinted at.

The 35-year-old singer flops

around like a child dressed in his father’s shoes throughout the record—it comes off as something that started as a far simpler project, since inflated by Blacc’s growing popularity.

Blacc has an extraordinarily likeable sound—his deep voice is riddled with bright overtones. His lyricism is infectious: innocent, hopeful, and rare. Lift Your Spirit suffers from uneven production—producer DJ Khalil suffocates Blacc’s simple, playful songs under the weight of enormous faux-orchestrations. Blacc would have been served well performing with one live band throughout the

album. Instead, the instrumentals on Lift Your Spirit are heavily mechanized—much of the record keeps to a manufactured, big band sound that tries to force a hit out of every track. It feels studio-oriented and controlled. Lift Your Spirit is never sure whether it wants to sound like Michael Buble, Otis Redding, or Justin Timblelake. It grows into an awkward cocktail party of sounds that are unwilling to start conversation with each other.

Although it well may be the breakthrough record listeners have been waiting for, Lift Your Spirit is far from the album it

LIFT YOUR SPIRIT ALOE BLACC PRODUCED BY INTERSCOPE RECORDS RELEASED MAR. 11, 2014 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF INTERSCOPE RECORDS

‘Lift Your Spirit’ overshadows Aloe Blacc’s impressive vocals with excessive manipulation and studio-produced sounds.

could be. DJ Khalil’s overbearing production takes over later in the album in what seems to be an effort to give it a second life.

This is an especially frustrating effort considering how many exceptional songs are included in the collection.

The original version of Lift Your Spirit released in Europe last fall was rearranged so that the three strongest songs would open the album. “The Man,” “Love Is the Answer,” and “Wake Me Up (Acoustic)” make for one of the most promising starts of any recent album. “Love Is the Answer,” the one track on the album produced by Pharrell Williams, was moved from the fourth slot to the second, while the record’s lovable, albeit offbeat, title track was moved from being the seventh track to the 11th.

This excessive rearranging was a brilliantly strategic, but artistically uninspired decision.

Blacc’s 2010 single “I Need A Dollar” never saw the success of his later bluegrass-EDM partnership with Avicii on “Wake Me Up,” but both stand as milestones in Blacc’s career. His voice on these two tracks does a wondrous thing, bringing together disparate—and before unreconciled— styles of music. Blacc brought classic soul into a conversation with the mainstream.

Lift Your Spirit is far from a

disappointing record, and it’s refreshing to know there’s an audience for artists like Blacc in 2014—his work borders on campy, but never quite gets there.

He sings in preachy verses that are too earnest to discredit and too fun to be annoying.

Blacc’s playful energy comes out particularly in “Can You Do This,” a call-and-answer dance song that gives the listener no clue as to what sort of dance it’s describing—a chorus of “Can you do this (Yeah I can do that)” is repeated ad nauseam, eventually concluding with the lyrics, “I know you think that you can move / But can you groove the way I groove?” It’s silly writing, an absurd moment mixed in with Blacc’s otherwise sentimental verses. Peeling away the layers of mechanical production, Blacc is an appealingly weird dude with a sense of humor and acute manner addressing somewhat platitudinal topics.

An awful lot was done to dress Blacc up on Lift Your Spirit and make a superstar of an artist who’s already come into his own.

The record feels too manipulated to come across as a cohesive project, and yet, Blacc’s so likable that it’s easy to overlook the album’s shortcomings and just appreciate Lift Your Spirit for an exceptional voice and all the promise in Blacc’s career. 

Ross fails to diversify his sound with ‘Mastermind’

BY HARRY MITCHELL Heights Staff

For South Florida-based rapper Rick Ross, living in excess—and telling everybody about it—is a high priority. The confident, arrogant, and sometimes offensive musician grunted his way to the top of the game by rapping about his multiple Maybachs and his past drug-dealing experiences, and otherwise flaunting his absurd amount of wealth. On his sixth studio album, Mastermind, Ross delivers a product fans have grown to expect: a well-produced, starstudded compilation record that falls short of being the masterpiece its title suggests it might be.

On the record’s third track, “Drug Dealers Dream,” Ross lets the listeners know just how enormous his fortune is as the song begins with an automated voice announcing his “$92,153,158.28” checking account balance. In typical Ross manner, the references to his riches are seemingly infinite. On the second song “Rich is Gangsta,” Ross boasts about giving fellow Maybach Music Group rapper Wale a $44,000 Cartier watch as a welcoming gift to the label, and explains a similar gift of a Range Rover to Meek Mill—another member of MMG—in the following lyric. If it is not already overtly apparent, Ross is rich, and he’s not afraid to talk about it.

Over the past year, Ross has been met with broad disapproval, catalyzing great controversy through his lyrics. Last March, Ross was featured in Atlanta rapper Rocko’s hit single “U.O.E.N.O.”—Ross’ lyrics on the track were met by a heavy storm of criticism. He raps, “Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it / I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.” Rozay’s explicit and repugnant rape reference was rightfully received terribly, resulting in his biggest sponsor, Reebok, withdrawing its endorsement.

Despite criticisms of his past lyrics, Ross unleashes another scandalous lyric on “Blk & Wht,” the 11th track of the collective. “Trayvon Martin, I’m never missin’ my target,” the former correction officer raps.

By completely ignoring the consequences of his previous mistakes, Ross solidifies his image of arrogance and lets his listeners know that he simply doesn’t care.

Along with the controversial lyrics and boastful rhymes, Mastermind offers a set of very enjoyable songs. With featured artists including The Weeknd, Kanye West, Meek Mill, Jeezy, French Montana, Jay Z, Lil Wayne, and Big Sean, it is hard to go wrong.

Jay Z teams up with Ross to create the song that generated much of the album’s hype, “The Devil is A Lie.” The aggressive beat complemented by striking bursts of horns build a perfect canvas for Jay and Ross to effectively

make into a masterpiece.

While “The Devil is A Lie” does help the record along, the 14th track, “Sanctified,” is the true highlight of Mastermind. With Big Sean as the facilitator, a gorgeous chorus with striking lyrics launches the track, pairing hip-hop with the vocals of Betty Wright, a 60-year-old R&B singer-songwriter. Sean’s desires are made quite clear in the record’s chorus: “All I want’s a hundred million dollars and a bad b—h.” He also confesses, “That paper chasin’ it done turn me to a savage / God,

I’ve been guilty, fornicatin’ from my status.” Kanye West follows with a powerful verse in which he addresses many of his fan’s pleas to return to the “old Kanye West.” He explains, “when Ali turn up and be Ali / You can’t ever change that n—a back to Cassius,” referencing Muhammad Ali’s transformation from Cassius Clay, and using him as a metaphor for his own experience with change.

Finally, Ross closes with a verse littered with clever punch lines and a proclamation of his future goals.

Other notable tracks on Master-

TOP SINGLES

1 Happy Pharrell Williams 2 Dark Horse Katy Perry feat. Juicy J 3 All of Me John Legend 4 Talk Dirty Jason Derulo feat. 2 Chainz 5 Pompeii Bastille 6 Team Lorde 7 Drunk in Love Beyonce feat. Jay Z

TOP ALBUMS

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

‘Lift Your Spirit’ weighed down by heavy production

BY JOHN WILEY Arts & Review Editor

CHART TOPPERS

mind include “In Vein,” “Thug Cry,” “Rich is Gangsta,” “What a Shame,” and “Paradise Lost.”

With his record Mastermind, Ross delivers a solid work strewn with hard-hitting beats and extremely impressive features, yet as a whole, the project is repetitive. Mastermind is another Ross album that entertains and provides a number of great tracks, but lacks lyrical depth from “the boss” himself, and is missing variety from song to song. The album is enjoyable, but is far from the work of a mastermind. 

MASTERMIND RICK ROSS PRODUCED BY MAYBACH MUSIC GROUP RELEASED MAR. 3, 2014 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF MAYBACH MUSIC GROUP

Ross raps about his usual themes of wealth and drugs on ‘Mastermind,’ resulting in an album without originality.

1 Mastermind Rick Ross 2GIRL Pharrell Williams 3 Frozen Soundtrack Various Artists 4 Louder Lea Michele 5 10,000 Towns Eli Young Band Source: Billboard.com

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK

BY RYAN DOWD

“MOVE THAT DOPE”

FUTURE FEAT. PUSHA T, PHARRELL WILLIAMS One might hope that “Move That Dope” ft. Pusha T and Pharrell Williams might be some blow-by-blow episode or tale detailing a particular movement of dope that stands out as triumphant or tragic. That video would be pretty fun, full of action—almost an adventure.

But when Future issues the hook “Move that dope / They move that dope, they move that dope,” he doesn’t say it like an order or a question, but as a statement of fact.

The song and subsequent video represent more of a reflection on the alleged drug dealing pasts of Future and Pusha T. Therefore, the song has a throwback feel to it with what seems like an archaic beat and a head-drumming hook. The video responds with Ronald Reagan masks and a souped-up, old-school ride. It seemingly unveils shady flashbacks to a life of dealing dope and driving away from the cops, but the video mostly focuses on the performances of its three rappers as they each take a crack at the souped-up beat.

They do fine. Future goes a bit overboard with the hand motions but sets a good tone for the piece as the first up to bat.

Pusha T seems to live for these scenarios wherein he’s not on the center stage, and he can bring up his actual dope-dealing history.

Clad in his self-styled “Gandalf hat and weird ass clothes,” Pharrell proves to be more than a competent rapper, sidestepping into issues like drone warfare and overconsumption. He may forever be known for “Happy” but seems plenty happy here.

But here’s the problem. Despite three solid performances, the video suffers from a lack of ownership. Although his name is on it, it’s not really Future’s song. It’s a wandering, orphaned music video. 

SINGLE REVIEWS BY ARIANA IGNERI FUN. “Sight of the Sun”

JENNIFER LOPEZ FEAT. FRENCH MONTANA “I Luh Ya Papi” A dropped track from Fun.’s chart-topping album Some Nights, “Sight of The Sun” doesn’t offer much in terms of innovation, but it deftly builds on the alternative-pop style the band established for itself with its last record. While the song is a power ballad much like “Carry On,” it seems like it could have more of a “We Are Young” kind of success on the airwaves.

After a couple of flop collaborations with Pitbull, J.Lo is back with a single that’s as racy as its title is ridiculous. “I Luh Ya Papi”—with its sexual innuendos (“Pull your trigger, go and get your gun up”) and looping hook of sliding synths, clanking beats, and repetitive lyrics—is catchy for sure, but it might not be the kind of song you’d want stuck in your head.

YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE “Pressure” “Pressure” is the first new material from L.A. indie-rockers Youngblood Hawke since the band’s debut Wake Up was released last year.

An electronic rock anthem merging synthesized beats with driving guitar rhythms, the song is very much in the same vein as the 2012 single “We Come Running,” but somehow sounds slightly more mature.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Heights

B5

Takeout can eat up your savings.

Pack your own lunch instead of going out. $6 saved a day x 5 days a week x 10 years x 6% interest = $19,592. That could be money in your pocket.

Small changes today. Big bucks tomorrow. Go to feedthepig.org for free savings tips.

B6

The Heights

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Would you rather have $46,000 or a whooooole lotta take-out?

Cook your own dinner instead of ordering in. $9 saved a day x 5 days a week x 10 years x 6% interest = $46,694. That could be money in your pocket.

Small changes today. Big bucks tomorrow. Go to feedthepig.org for free savings tips.

CLASSIFIEDS Thursday, January 17, 2014

The Heights The Heights

B5 B7

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Community Help wanted $$ SPERM DONORS WANTED $$ 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.

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.

It Takes Some Courage, But Saving Money Is Worth The Leap.

Get Free Savings Tips

Put Away A Few Bucks.

Feel Like A Million Bucks.

Feed The Pig.org

The Heights

B8

Bennet’s Banter

Boston in the South Bennet Johnson

One might think that Bostonians don’t like to venture very far when they go on vacation. In fact, many of the popular vacation destinations like Cape Cod or Martha’s Vineyard are so close that many New Englanders don’t feel the need to travel very far at all. With this in mind, Boston might seem isolated from the rest of America, tucked away in its own little corner in the Northeast.

I’ve seen that Boston has a big influence outside of the New England bubble, though. One area with a distinct Bostonian flavor includes Fort Myers & Sanibel Island, Fla.—otherwise known as Boston South.

Florida’s Boston influence is rooted with the Red Sox. JetBlue Park at Fenway South, the site of the Red Sox’s Spring Training complex, opened in March 2012, taking over the previous City of Palms Park in Ft. Myers. The new complex offers fans a quainter version of Fenway Park—the outfield is an exact copy of Fenway, and it even contains a Green Monster. The stadium’s mix of the old Fenway charm and Floridian sunshine is one of the main things that lures Bostonians to southwest Florida to escape the New England snow storms each spring.

Besides the Red Sox, what else makes Bostonians feel at home in Florida?

One easy answer: Dunkin’ Donuts.

Florida currently has more than 660 Dunkin’ stores statewide. It seems that with the southern migration of many Bostonians, their love of Dunkin’ has followed. Dunkin’ CFE Grant Benson explained this rationale to Bloomberg in 2011: “The Sunshine State is a priority growth market for Dunkin’ Donuts.”

According to a 2013 survey statistics on Florida tourism by Skift, Florida was ranked as the number one major destination that Bostonians journeyed to via air travel. Last week, I was part of this migration toward warm weather. Along with numerous students leaving the campus of Boston College to hit the beaches of Florida, I hopped off of the airplane and soaked up the powerful rays of the Floridian sunshine.

What really surprised me—besides the beaches and spectacular weather— was the number of Bostonians I saw throughout southwest Florida. These were not just BC and other college students. Instead, the group ranged from senior citizen snow birds to parents with young children—all proudly sporting Boston Strong t-shirts, Patriots gear, Bruins wear, and Red Sox hats.

I didn’t just see them. I heard them.

They were at the golf course, speaking with their unmistakable Boston accents.

Besides struggling on the golf course, the Bostonians were scattered all over the beach. With cans of Sam Adams and lacrosse sticks in their hands, they casually tossed a ball around, exerting a dominating presence on a beach that was crowded with seagulls and grandparents.

Another notable Boston influence in Florida was the restaurants. Boston’s passion for prime seafood has also moved south, and Floridians are taking advantage of it. The most crowded restaurant in Ft. Myers last Friday was The Clam Bake. People lined up outside the door in order to get a taste of fresh New England seafood. Their famous cup of chowdah is just one more element of the Northeast that has acclimated to Floridian culture.

Despite all the similarities, there is one important difference that brings people south: the weather.

The temperature in Boston is cold and blustery, while the temperature in Florida is 75 degrees and sunny almost everyday. The allure of a warm climate in March might be the catalyst that drives New Englanders down to the Sunshine State.

In Boston South, many people may not know your name, but you will feel right at home. If you stop and think about it, you will realize that Boston’s culture expands far beyond New England. Bostonians are proud of their heritage, and they carry these aspects with them across the country.

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

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Walsh looks to increase city’s cultural clout

By Tricia Tiedt Heights Editor

Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, announced his efforts to streamline Boston into a “world-class city” to hundreds of business leaders last Friday.

As the keynote speaker at the Boston Municipal Research Bureau’s 82nd Annual Meeting, Walsh highlighted three major ways in which he plans to upgrade the city’s cultural status in his first year as mayor: streamline permits for new businesses, draw international business, and create a task force that will look into extending Boston’s nightlife.

City officials are informally calling this final goal the “late night task force,” a group of 10 to 15 members who will investigate the feasibility of extending restaurant and bar operating hours in the city. Members of the task force will include bar and restaurant owners, college students, young professionals, and community leaders, among others. Walsh has included a mandate to examine shutting down businesses at 3:30 a.m., a substantial change from the current laws that prohibit any establishment from staying open past 2 a.m.

The task force will consider how the city’s public transportation would relate to extended hours and will take into account the effects later operating hours would have on Boston’s neighborhoods and residents. While substantial limitations such as these will weigh upon the task force, many agree that it is time for Boston to adopt a more modern timetable that will appeal to the young professionals that Walsh hopes to draw to the city.

Greg Selkoe, creator of the Future Boston Alliance, a group focused on improving the quality of life for young professionals in the city, told The Boston Herald that “no one is advocating losing the charm and livability of Boston,” but asserted that the city cannot reasonably “retain young talent” if it does not make an effort to be open 24 hours per day.

Should the task force yield positive results in its findings, the group will

Ap Photo / Steven Senne

Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced on Friday that a new task force will strive to make Boston competitive in the global community. seek to create a pilot program to test the extended nightly timetable. In order to test a later closing time, restaurants and bars in the Seaport District, a hotspot for Boston nightlife, will be allowed to serve alcohol until 2:30 a.m. and stay open until 3:30 a.m. Theoretically, patrons could continue dancing and socializing in bars and clubs for the extra hour after last call.

The extended hours could also help eliminate 2 a.m. traffic jams, which occur every Friday and Saturday night as bar-goers try to secure cabs at closing time long after the MBTA has stopped running. The MBTA is set to implement a pilot program of its own to extend weekend service hours, however—subway and trolley lines, as well as 15 bus routes, will run until 3 a.m. The MBTA’s extended hours are expected to begin in late March or early April.

“In a global economy, retaining talent is just as important as recruiting

employers,” Walsh said, according to a press release from the mayor’s office.

“For that reason, an international business hub needs a truly cosmopolitan culture.”

In his keynote address, Walsh announced that he plans to meet with dozens of diplomats currently stationed in Boston this upcoming week. According to The Boston Globe, the mayor is now concentrating his efforts on making Boston into “each nation’s number one business partner.” In order to streamline the permit process, Walsh has set what he calls “aggressive new benchmarks” for the Inspectional Services Department on issuing permits throughout the city in a fast and orderly manner.

The department has been ordered to respond to questions within one business day and approve 75 percent of basic permits in 20 days or fewer. Additionally, Walsh will tap into the budding technological resources in the city by

hosting a “hackathon,” where he will invite local computer programmers to help overhaul the department’s website and permit application processes.

While Walsh’s task force has received much praise as being representative of a move in the right direction for the city, there are multiple steps still necessary before the city can implement change.

Walsh must convene the task force, analyze its report, condense its findings into language fit for a bill, and then send the bill to the State Legislature for approval.

Moreover, the task force may not report the positive or hopeful findings many community members and the mayor are expecting. “They could come back and say there is no path forward,” said the mayor’s Chief of Staff, Daniel Koh, according to Boston Magazine.

“But obviously the mayor is hopeful there is and that they will be able to find ways to make it work.” n

Packer advocates for Boston’s filmmakers Engine Room Edit, from B10

Photo Courtesy of The Boston Student Film Festival

A film still from ‘Just Play,’ which was written, directed, and produced by Jehan Madhani.

Festival to include an ‘eclectic mix’ of films Film Festival, from B10 films, the panel provides the filmmakers with constructive feedback.

Submission requirements are simple.

To submit a film, a student must be from New England originally or attending college in the New England area. The film must be no more than 30 minutes long and have been made within the past year.

There is no copyrighted material allowed in the films—this includes music and external footage.

“We try to create an eclectic mix,” Soule said, adding that the film fest will accept anything from documentaries to experimental films.

In past years, the films have been screened online before being premiered at the physical film festival. This year, that will not be the case. All the films, not only the 13 finalist films, will be screened together at the premiere. The screening will be on Saturday, March 22.

In addition to changing parts of the film festival itself, the BSFF will also add an extra night for students to network with industry professionals. On Thursday, March 20, the BSFF will host the Filmmakers Networking Reception, allowing filmmakers and film lovers to socialize and network with local industry professionals. According to the BSFF’s official website, this event is open to all student filmmakers and film professionals in New England—it is free and will take place at the Lir, an Irish pub and restaurant on Boylston Street.

Saturday’s events will include the aforementioned film screening, which is open to the public. Tickets can be purchased online—$10 for general entry and $5 for students. The films will be aired, the organization will host a question and answer session with the filmmakers, and an afterparty will follow, at which the “Best of the Fest” will be announced. This event will take place at the Bright Family Screening Room at Emerson College. A reception and awards presentation at the Marriot Courtyard Downtown will follow the screening event. “I wanted to give the finalists a chance to share the creative process with the audience,” Soule said of the networking night. “It’s a major accomplishment to produce a film, and it’s also an opportunity to share what you have learned with other aspiring arts students.”

As founder, Soule said that she is thrilled with the growth of the film festival over the years. She noted that submissions this year increased by 75 percent and that the number of female participants has skyrocketed as well. In the BSFF’s first year, 10 percent of the participants were female, whereas half this year’s participants are female.

Boston University graduate Jacob Bann, a participant in this year’s festival whose film is entitled “Deterrence,” speaks to the growth of the film festival: “I think this year’s fest has a great collection of films from around the area. I remember last year’s movies were incredibly strong.” n

aspects of a video.

While Engine Room Edit has experienced plenty of success, Packer said that the company is always looking to expand and improve. It recently opened up a partnership with Nice Shoes, a New York-based design, animation, visual effects, and color-grading studio. It hopes that the partnership will augment the company’s ability to create inspired and impressive projects.

Packer is particularly excited about the opportunity for the company to use remote color correction, a capability which not many film-editing companies have, and he said that the companies hope to collaborate to provide some high-level graphics that have not been presented in Boston in quite some time.

The Massachusetts Production Coalition, of which Packer is a founding member and is the recently elected president, is advocating for the film tax incentive offered to filmmakers by the state of Massachusetts. State legislators recognize that filmmaking is a risky business, and they offer a 25 percent state

tax credit on qualified spending for a film. The incentive has already increased business in the movie-making world, and postproduction figures have quadrupled in past years. MPC leaders are continuing to push forward with this incentive in the hopes that its success in Massachusetts will only continue.

Although Engine Room Edit is committed to maintaining a presence in the local community, it also wants to be able to depict subjects from around the world. Recently, one ERE crew returned from shooting in Kenya for two weeks.

Currently, another crew is working with Rough Water Films to shoot a commercial about a microbrewery community currently blossoming in Vermont, known as Brewland. Both crews are facing the task of compressing huge stories into small commercials.

There is, of course, an inevitable difficulty in compressing such a shoot into a compelling 30 seconds of video. Therein, Packer says, lies the secret of great film work: “we want to be good commercial editors and storytellers, and there is a big difference between making a commercial and telling a story.” n

Photo Courtesy of Don Packer

Don Packer is an owner of Engine Room Edit, a popular film editing company in Boston.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, March 13, 2014

B9

‘Globe’ plans to alter its digital businesses Looking at

THE HEART OF THE CITY

BY BENNET JOHNSON Asst. Metro Editor

This past week, The Boston Globe laid out a new plan that included a number of changes to its digital businesses.

First, The Globe launched BetaBoston last Monday—a new website designed to cover the tech and biotech industries.

“The site builds on our reporting of the extraordinary innovation that is unfolding daily in our region, the deals and the drama, the creativity and the culture,” Globe editor Brian McGrory said in a memo.

Most notably, The Globe made the switch from a full paywall system to a metered model. The Globe launched a paywall site, BostonGlobe.com, in September 2011.

Boston.com, however, remained as an independent site with some Globe content. The newly proposed model will allow readers 10 free stories every 30 days before ending the free article previews online. Instead, the program will cut them off and require them to pay for an online subscription.

“The meter is used by most papers now—we are late to that party,” Boston Globe owner John Henry told Boston Magazine. “It’s the least confusing format that allows the world access to your content while still requiring subscriptions from regular users.”

McGrory also announced several additional changes to the business operation in a memo on March 4. McGrory wrote that Boston.com will no longer display any content from The Globe, leaving Boston. com responsible for its own information.

In addition to this, all Boston.com staff will be move out of The Globe’s newsroom and into the building’s media lab area.

Although the two sites are parting ways, the move is designed to promote a wider variety of news in the city of Boston, with no major overlaps between each other.

“The intention over the next many weeks is to move all Globe-originated content— staff blogs, chats, videos, and more—to bg.com, where it can be widely read by a larger audience not hindered by a paywall,”

McGrory wrote in his memo. “This will allow bg.com to reflect the full, vibrant, lively personality of this entire room. At the same time, boston.com will remain a news site at its core, but with a sharper voice that better captures the sensibilities of Boston.”

In addition to the technical changes, there were also a number of staffing changes to the organization. BetaBoston hired Mike Dennis Keohane from a startup site called VentureFizz and Kyle Alspach from The Boston Business Journal.

The combination of Keohane and Alspach is “a combination of young, savvy, semi-frantic reporters and editors who are as connected to this community as they are smart about what it does,” McGrory said. “It only gets better when you factor in Globe business reporter Cal Borchers, who we embedded in Kendall last summer.”

Two of the people previously responsible for operating Boston.com no longer hold their current positions. Ron Agrella, the editor of Boston.com, will leave his role on Morrissey Boulevard, according to

McGrory.

Bennie DiNardo, who had run The Globe’s deputy managing editor for digital as well as numerous other responsibilities with Boston.com, is moving over to the paper’s business section.

“We are going to revitalize and re-launch a completely different website with a new format, differentiated from BostonGlobe. com’s content and a dedicated staff, Henry told Boston Magazine. “The work has really just begun in earnest.”

In order to fill some of the vacant positions, Henry made some key acquisitions.

Most notable was the decision to appoint Hilary Sargent to news editor of Boston. com. Sargent will be working to make sure that there will be no overlap between the two websites, McGrory wrote.

Although Sargent promises to bring some improvements to Boston.com, the website still lacks a current editor since the departure of Ron Agrella. The Globe is currently searching for someone to fill the role as editor of Boston.com. 

Parade organizers look to maintain their traditions Parade, from B10 Yesterday, MassEquality publicized the contents of a letter sent to the Council that denied the alleged duplicitous nature of its application to march in the parade.

The letter was signed by 12 veterans who identified themselves as members of the GLBTQ community who would have marched in the parade had they been allowed to do so openly.

The letter insisted that Council was wrong to deny their application to march in the parade openly as GLBTQ veterans, and objected to the Council’s accusation that MassEquality was unable to provide a sufficient number of veterans to march in the parade: “We are quite disappointed that the Allied War Veterans Council will not let us fly our colors as we march,” the letter read. “More importantly, however, we respectfully request that they cease to allege that we do not exist, that we are ‘supposed’ veterans and that we never intended to march.”

The letter cited the 2010 repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy as one reason that they refused to hide their identities in order to march in the parade. “We sought only to march with integrity behind

the colors that represent our multi-faceted identities as veterans, LGBT people and, for some of us, as Irish-Americans,” the letter read. “But we fought too long and too hard to be able to serve our country openly to retreat back into the closet in order to march in a parade.”

The Council’s invitation to MassEquality would have broken a precedent that has stood firmly since a Supreme Court decision in the 1990s, which asserted that the First Amendment protected the Council’s right to control who could march in its privately organized parade, thus upholding the Council’s decision to exclude the GLBTQ community from the parade.

Executive Director of MassEquality Kara Coredini, BC Law ’01, holds that the resistance of the parade organizers to the inclusion of the GLBTQ community has been more aggressive this year than in any year since that Supreme Court decision.

“Just because the Supreme Court ruled that the parade organizers have the legal right to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender applicants does not make it the morally right thing to do,” Coredini said in an email.

Coredini said that MassEquality’s last direct conversation with the Council was

on March 2, when MassEquality felt that negotiations were positive. According to her, MassEquality learned that GLBTQ veterans would be invited to the parade with conditions through an article in The Boston Globe, and not directly from the Council. MassEquality rejected the conditions because they felt that the GLBTQ community should not have “to silence who they are” to march in a parade.

When the parade organizers ultimately rescinded their invitation to MassEquality, Coredini said that they “were surprised by the abrupt and hostile tone of the Parade organizers’ rejection,” and that the Council’s reasons for rescinding the invitation were unfounded. “No other applicant to this parade has the burden of presenting every marcher before their application is accepted,” she said. “That is pretext for what was really going on—the parade organizers don’t want MassEquality to march because we insist on marching openly.”

In a March 6 press release, however, the Council maintained that MassEquality had been misleading in its application to march in the parade and thanked members of the public who wrote letters lending their support to the Council. In

the press release, the Council asserted that they had always strived to consider “a changing community and political correctness” but stated that MassEquality had tried to mislead them in order to march in the parade touting a message contrary to the Council’s values.

“We will not allow anyone to express harmful or inappropriate messages,” the press release read. “This was a decision we made for the good of this parade.”

Alex Taratuta, the chair of the GLBTQ Leadership Council at Boston College and A&S ’14, said that the exclusion of the GLBTQ community from the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Boston could have a strong impact on college students and other young people struggling with their identities. In Taratuta’s view, the absence of the GLBTQ community from the parade could lead young people to believe that their sexualities are inconsistent with an Irish heritage.

“I think it’s unfortunate, especially in a city like Boston which has had marriage equality since 2004,” Taratuta said. “Any time an organization or group specifically excludes the gay community, it directly says to a younger generation that this type of lifestyle is not okay.” 

BOSTON FOODIE Pier 6 provides seafood on the waterfront Restaurant will offer St. Patrick’s Day specials this weekend

BY CLARA LEE

For the Heights Located at the end of the Freedom Trail and using only the freshest of ingredients from the sea, Charlestown’s Pier 6 presents its customers with all that Boston has to offer. With a clear view of the Boston city skyline from the window, Pier 6 provides a refuge for those who want to relax with a drink at the end of the day or for those who just want a satisfying meal.

According to Pier 6’s official website, the space is newly renovated and features decor that revolves around a mostly nautical theme, reflecting the waterfront views that can be seen outside of the restaurant’s floor-to-ceiling glass doors. The restaurant includes three dining levels, including a roof deck and a mahogany bar. The restaurant is also very close to the USS Constitution, which is the oldest commissioned naval ship in the world.

Over the past seven months, Pier 6 has made its way to its current location.

Only months ago, it was Tavern on the Water, a small bar where people would

stop by for a beer or two. Now, it has been renovated into a restaurant, with a different name and different executive staff, with young businessmen stopping in for lunch and young families enjoying their dinner.

Pier 6 has continually thrown together different events in order to get the word out about its restaurant as well as to create an inviting space for different residents nearby.

“We are a restauLOCATION: rant, but we like to 1 Eighth St., Charlestown do some fun, casual events as well,” CUISINE: said Sal Boscarino, Seafood managing partner of Pier 6.

SIGNATURE DISH: Celebrating not Maine Crab Cake only its first spring season but also its first

PHOTO COURTESY OF PIER 6

St. Patrick’s Day, Pier 6 plans to mark this milestone with Irish specials this weekend and the opening of its patio bar. The special menu features a traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage and other dishes with Irish twists as well as special alcoholic drinks, including the Fighting Irish, Shamrock Showdown, and a specially brewed South Boston Irish Whiskey.

The owners hope that this St. Patrick’s Day event will not be the last of its kind.

They will continue to plan more for the community—their next event is planned for Cinco de Mayo. Pier 6 not only continues to build its reputation as a great restaurant but also as a place of relaxation and fun for all.

Throughout the year, Pier 6 highlights some of the strongest cultural staples in the Boston food scene. Pier 6 prides itself on its ability to take a classic dish and add a twist. Whether by adding a lemon chive

aioli to their crab cakes or serving their salads with a new inventive vinaigrette, both Boscarino and Greg Deeves, the restaurant’s executive chef, are always looking for ways to spice things up. Deeves hails originally from Green Street Cambridge and B&G Oysters.

The restaurant strives to serve only seasonal ingredients, changing its menu every couple months or so to provide its customers with fresh and new flavors.

Since its opening, Pier 6 has already changed its menu multiple times. The lobster roll, served with fries and a red cabbage slaw, and the Maine crab cake, with a side of fennel and apple slaw, have been the two items that have stayed on the menu since the opening of the restaurant.

Nevertheless, Pier 6 continues to the deliver the same standard of service and taste every day. 

‘ZooMass’

MAGGIE POWERS “Ah, ZooMass,” followed by a knowing glance, was the predictable reaction when someone from my high school said he or she was going to attend UMass Amherst. Of course, the party school reputation is somewhat unfair—UMass Amherst is currently number 180 on Forbes’ ranking of top colleges and is number 81 in research universities. However, with the school’s partying reputation, the current buzz surrounding the “Blarney Blowout” fiasco did not come as a huge surprise.

The multiple Boston Globe articles and news reports portrayed this as a particularly out-of-control UMass gathering, so at first the reports did not seem very alarming or out of the ordinary.

But with the dawn of national attention came the predictable open letters and blog posts that my generation seems to deem a reasonable response for something like the Blarney Blowout—anything from Miley Cyrus to national news events.

While Oliva Kennis’ “An Open Letter to the UMass Amherst Community Regarding Blarney Blowout: A Student’s Perspective” and Emily Crocker’s “If I Were A UMass Administrator…” are riddled with too many bolded words and sweeping generalizations, each challenges readers to consider a different perspective. The news presents a picture of mass mobs of unruly, drunken students who assaulted officers. But the information coming from blogs like Her Campus and First World Thought—sadly, the news sources the college-aged generation chooses to share via Facebook and Twitter—paints the students as victims of police brutality.

“Other schools across the country have similar sized events involving alcohol, but unlike this past Saturday at UMass, the police that are on call for those scenes are present for the safety of the students and not to brutally attack the participants,” wrote Kennis.

Crocker echoed her sentiments in a different corner of the Internet. “I would take the same approach as the one taken for tailgates: have your fun until ____ o’clock, and then you’re done,” she wrote. “After that time, consequences may be implemented.

Do it in this area so the town can be aware and police can be there in case of emergency or injury. The purpose of the police is to protect, not to instigate, which is exactly what they did on Saturday.”

It was not the story or even the buzz in the community that piqued my interest. Rather, it was the stark contrast in the perspectives. Do I actually believe the claims made on the various blogs that the students were not at fault, that “the only blatant demonstration of destruction and harm came from the policemen themselves,” as Kennis so dramatically wrote? No, not at all. The students taking to the Internet should call a spade a spade—no one actually believes the Blarney Blowout is simply a “fun and celebratory day” like Kennis claims. It is an excuse to get smashed in the names of St. Patrick and Spring Break. It is one thing to give the event itself a misnomer, but to draw comparisons between your drunken melee and the recent events in Ukraine is simply unacceptable and completely undermines any credibility the arguments held before that.

It is easy, as students, to paint the administration and the police as the villains, but it is well documented that bottles, cans, rocks, and snowballs were thrown at officers. Did the police overreact? Probably. As most of these responses are quick to point out, there are two sides to every story.

The real tragedy here is the tarnished name of UMass Amherst. In recent years, UMass was beginning to be looked at as a top public university, not just “the Zoo.” National attention began this but the UMass students are fueling the fire with writing open letters rooted in emotion and taking to Facebook. A mutual understanding from the administration and the students to prevent a fiasco like the Blarney Blowout in the future is the concrete positive response to once

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

Metro

B10

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Edge of Town

Lessons from Emerson

MassEquality strives for more inclusive parade Parade organizers, gay rights group disagree on GLBTQ participation on St. Patrick’s Day

By Ryan Towey Metro Editor

Ryan Towey During my first visit to Emerson College, I almost turned to my little black dog and told him we weren’t at Boston College anymore. Then I remembered that I don’t have a little black dog and that I ought to invest in some medication to prevent still more delusions, including the delusion that a reference to The Wizard of Oz in the opening of my column will not come across as cheap and aggressively overused.

Suffice it to say, Emerson and BC are very different places. Our suburban campus is allegedly the home of all things bro. Their urban atmosphere near the Common is seen as a hipster haven. These stereotypes, however, do not adequately distinguish between Emerson and BC. A more apt way to look at the differences between the schools is to examine the way they relate to the world.

On March 8, Emerson launched the week-long series of events that marks the grand opening of its new campus in Los Angeles. Emerson Los Angeles (ELA) is housed in a 10-story building that looks like it was constructed out of a techie’s fantasy world. The $85 million building includes high-tech screening rooms, performance studios, editing and mixing labs, and sufficient dormitory space for a little over 200 students.

ELA is a representation of Emerson’s education focus. It will connect students to the city that often becomes the home of people seeking careers in television and media. Kevin Bright, an Emerson graduate, is the founding director of ELA and serves as a prime example of that progression in the industry. After being educated in Boston, he founded popularity and acclaim as the executive producer of Friends, which was filmed in Burbank, Calif.

At BC, studying outside of the University is, of course, not uncommon. One does not have to talk to many students to hear a myriad of destinations—London, Paris, Madrid, Buenos Aires, St. Petersburg—but not L.A. BC does offer semester-long programs within the U.S., including one at Georgetown and another at Syracuse, but the focus is certainly on sending students to other countries, not other U.S. cities.

The purpose of studying abroad is to encounter different cultures and to have strong experiences. A semester in L.A., some might say, will keep a BC student within a finite American context and cost him or her the chance to see the world from a new perspective. This suggests, however, that all American cities are somehow the same—if you have lived and studied in one, you have lived and studied in them all.

But different cities in the U.S. have distinct identities that can contribute to a student’s worldview. Before coming to BC, I was fairly confident that New York City was the only urban environment one needed to see in order to understand an American city. This was proven decidedly untrue through my experiences in Boston, and I am confident that a semester in L.A. would further open my eyes to entirely different aspects of American culture.

It does not seem likely that BC will suddenly build a multi-million dollar campus in California to cozy up next to ELA, and it would not make much sense to do so anyway, but it is important to remember that one does not need to travel to Europe to encounter a new and strong experience.

Perhaps BC students can learn something from our friends at Emerson besides how to have increasingly offbeat music taste. While it is my own intention to spend a semester in London next year, I can see the value of spending time studying in another American city. Chicago or Seattle might be nice, so long as I can bring my little black dog to let him know when we are encountering an entirely different place.

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

MassEquality, the leading gay rights organization in the state of Massachusetts, yesterday released the contents of a letter sent to the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council—the organizers of the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in South Boston—regarding the contention between the two groups that has marked the weeks leading up to the parade scheduled for this Sunday.

At the urging of Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, the parade organizers extended an invitation earlier this month for MassEquality to send marchers to the parade, so long as the marchers did not wear shirts or hold signs that used the word “gay” or referenced sexual orientation. MassEquality rejected this condition, and the Council rescinded the invitation

last week, accusing MassEquality in a press release of having misled parade organizers.

In the press release, the Council said that it received an application for 20 GLBTQ veterans to march in the parade, but that MassEquality was able to produce only one GLBTQ veteran to march in the parade.

The Council called MassEquality’s application “a ploy” that it was using to march in the parade “under false pretenses.” The Council thanked Walsh for his efforts in trying to “mediate this issue,” and went on to reemphasize the Council’s commitment to honoring veterans and celebrating Irish traditions at the parade.

“We will fight to keep our parade and its traditions,” the press release read.

See Parade, B9

AP Photo / elise amendola

Mayor Martin. J. Walsh, WCAS ‘09, has been a supporter of MassEquality in parade negotiations.

Young Filmmakers

Film Stills Courtesy of the Boston Student Film Festival

Clockwise from top left: ‘Sherwin and the Scout,’ written by Lucien Flores and Michela Smith. ‘Flesh Eaters,’ written by Jason Hellerman, directed by Matt Hollis-Lima, and produced by Hollis-Lima, Ginny Riley, Jason Kashdan, and Aimee Delaporta. ‘Delicate Cycle,’ written, directed, and produced by Bryan Sih.

Boston Student Film Festival supports young filmmakers and analyzes their work

By Kelly Coleman Heights Staff The Boston Student Film Festival (BSFF) will make its third annual appearance between Thursday and Saturday, March 20-22. The BSFF, produced by The Boston Student Arts Network (BSAN), was founded with a simple mission. Kelly Soule, a 2011 Northeastern University graduate, grew frustrated with how difficult it was to find other students to work with on film projects. “In a city like

Boston, it shouldn’t be that difficult,” she said. With a background in film and communication studies and experience with both the Los Angeles and Sundance Film Festivals, Soule created BSAN, from which the festival was born.

The BSAN addresses the void Soule thought needed to be filled when she was in college. It aims to connect students interested in film and other art forms in Boston and the greater New England area. Soule hopes the BSFF will continue to give

students the opportunity to work alongside each other, learn from other young filmmakers, and share their experiences with the filmmaking industry. BSAN seeks to foster success by providing students with the necessary tools, equipment, crew, support, artistic advice, and performance opportunities. The latter is provided primarily by the BSFF. The BSFF allows undergraduate and graduate students to submit their short films so that they can be viewed and critiqued by a jury comprised of

individuals experienced in the field.

This year, the jury will include several executives of other film festivals, including the Arlington National Film Festival and the Rhode Island Film Festival, as well as notable film critics and other industry professionals.

Some well-known figures on the jury include Garen Daly, George Thomas Marshall, Tom Meek, Michele Meek, Mike Oliver, J. Alberto, and April Guzman. After viewing the submitted

See Film Festival, B8

Engine Room Edit takes on films, commercials

By Maggie Maretz Heights Staff When most people think of film editing, they envision a cramped, windowless room filled with a few people hunched over glowing computer screens. A little over eight years ago, Don Packer and Scott Knowlton decided to pursue a higher standard of the practice. At the time, they were working for another editing house and decided that they needed the creative and financial freedom that would come with starting their own place. The duo thought it could offer something new and different to the film market, and Packer and Knowlton saw no reason to deny themselves an

i nside Metro this issue

incredibly comfortable workspace.

With that, Engine Room Edit (ERE) was born—Packer and Knowlton’s very own postproduction facility. Like many film editing companies, Engine Room Edit takes on all sorts of projects—including commercial, film, web, and promotional— but is unique in its level of involvement.

According to Packer, the ERE editors like to be present throughout production, including for the design of the shoot, the execution, and the aftermath.

“The mistake a lot of people make is that they make something and then hand it off to the editing company afterward,” Packer said. “We fix it before the process starts.”

Changes come to ‘The Boston Globe’

Packer, who began his career in L.A. but has since become an advocate for the Boston film community, said there is no way to definitively outline the clientele that ERE attracts. Sometimes it will take on projects for large companies, like Toyota and Progressive, and other times people will come in and ask it to do special projects, devoted to promoting ideas and depicting subjects in a certain way. The company has also been called in to work on television shows, covering everything from the pilots to the title designs to the packages and the entire presentation for the show.

Packer recalled a time that Putnam Investments, a company with which Engine

Boston’s most notable news source is undergoing big changes, including modifications to its online subscription policy.................................................B9

Room Edit has a longstanding professional relationship, called him in early to work on a commercial for the corporation.

“I found myself on a Sunday afternoon basically lining up the shots with the director,” Packer said. “When we were done, we basically used 100 percent of the shots we laid out beforehand. We were able to make three commercials in one day.”

The editors of ERE are well versed in the music and audio mixes that combine with certain visual aspects to make a great project, which means they can make recommendations to companies and inspire creativity that goes beyond the visual

See Engine Room Edit, B8

Boston Foodie: Pier 6 ...............................................................................B9 A task force will examine the city’s nightlife.....................................B8