The Heights 03/31/14

GOOSE CROSSING

HOLI GROUNDS

FLYING TO PHILLY

FEATURES

ARTS & REVIEW

SPORTS

BCTV’s new sketch comedy division creates BC-focused videos, B8

Students colored Brighton Campus for the celebration of Holi, sponsored by SASA, A8

Men’s hockey advanced to its 24th Frozen Four with wins over Denver and UMass Lowell, B1

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The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

HEIGHTS

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Monday, March 31, 2014

Vol. XCV, No. 18

New student programming board to finalize restructuring

BY CONNOR FARLEY News Editor

Within two weeks, the structure of a new programming board independent of UGBC is slated for completion. In December, the UGBC Student Assembly (SA) passed an amendment to its constitution that would detach two of its three programming branches—on-campus programming and BC2Boston—to a separated board.

The split, which will become operational

with the board’s inception, will result in the elimination of the Division of Student Programming—an executive-level office.

In response, a committee comprised of members from the former on-campus programming division of UGBC, BC2Boston, Nights on the Heights, and members of the Student Programs Office (SPO) began planning the creation of a new board that would function solely to program activities on campus. These organizations will now all fall under one organization independent

of UGBC. “Our goals are to create a more fluid organization where people support each other better,” said Frankie Paleno, coordinator of athletics for on-campus programming and A&S ’15. “We are trying to break the stigma on campus that UGBC programs for UGBC’s friends. We feel as though we’re taking a good step in changing that.”

The funds from the student activities fees (SAF) that were previously allocated to UGBC for programming purposes will now be

directed toward the new programming board.

It is yet to be determined how the Nights on Heights budget and the SAF funds will be specifically differentiated within the board.

In order to construct a framework for the new board, the committee performed best practices reviews, which surveyed other universities of similar size, locations, and social environments; conducted internal reviews of currently existing structures and leadership roles; and sent out a student survey to gain a fuller understanding of demands from stu-

dents outside of programming departments.

“We delved into the actual structure of what we’re dealing with now and leadership roles—what works, what doesn’t work,” Paleno said. “There was a student survey sent out to try to include as many people who aren’t as necessarily involved with UGBC and programming to see what they think would be better moving forward. That prefaced what we think the programming board should look

See Programming Board, A3

UGBC yet to confirm act for 2014 Modstock show

BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Heights Editor

Despite tweets from indie rapper Hoodie Allen posted last Thursday, the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) has denied that any contracts with an artist have been signed for this year’s Modstock.

Hoodie Allen, the stage name for New York artist Steven Markowitz, replied to a tweet on Thursday evening that read, “Wait @HoodieAllen for modstock……..” with the message, “yeah thanks to BC!” He tweeted a few other messages that night about the show, including ones that read, “haha sorry if that disappoints man I’ll try to be fun,” and, “ppl [sic] had been tweeting me i assumed it was bc [sic] it was announced so I was just striking friendly convo back! Haha and thank you :).”

Reached for comment on Friday, Denise Pyfrom, UGBC vice president of programming and A&S ’14, said that no contracts for an artist had been signed yet. She declined to comment on the tweets posted by Hoodie Allen.

In past years, Modstock has been a free concert hosted by UGBC that was open to all BC students on the last day of classes, which will fall on Thursday, May 1 this semester. Seattle rapper Macklemore headlined the show last year. It was the first ticketed Modstock, as BCPD, University administrators, and city officials determined the popularity of the artist required heightened security and a limit of 6,000 tickets.

UGBC has given no indication if this year’s Modstock will similarly have a cap on attendance or whether tickets

See Modstock, A3

Franco wins Romero scholarship ROBIN KIM / HEIGHTS STAFF

Last Saturday night, three finalists were presented with scholarships at the 22nd Annual Oscar A. Romero award ceremony.

Oscar Romero remembered at 22nd annual award ceremony

BY CAROLYN FREEMAN Heights Staff

Jessica Franco, A&S ’15, who is studying economics, theology and international studies and is a mentor through the Learning To Serve program, won the 22nd Annual Archbishop Oscar A. Romero Scholarship Award on March 29. Franco, who was one of three finalists, won a scholarship of up to $25,000.

All three finalists earned a scholarship of up to $3,000 as well as a $1,000 gift certificate to the Boston College bookstore.

The other finalists were Francisco Bernard and Rosemary Concepcion, both A&S ’15.

The scholarship is named after Archbishop Oscar A. Rome-

ro, who spoke widely out about social injustice and poverty, and was assassinated in 1980 in El Salvador. The scholarship in his name recognizes a BC junior who has not only demonstrated excellence in leadership, service, and academics, but also has been involved with the Hispanic and Latino communities on and off campus, and qualifies for financial aid.

The scholarship started 22 years ago, in 1992, with a small committee and an award of just a few hundred dollars.

Throughout the years, it has grown into the major event it is today.

Stephanie Valencia, BC ’04, presided over the event. Valencia, who won the award in 2003, is now the deputy chief of staff to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Though there is just one official winner, all three of the finalists have done impressive

See Romero Scholarship, A3

ALEX GAYNOR / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

UGBC has stated that no artist has officially signed a contract to perform at Modstock.

Academic Advising Center to host student-run advising sessions

BY NATHAN MCGUIRE Asst. News Editor

The Academic Advising Center’s Student Advisory Board (SAB) will host three walk-in hours this week to answer students’ questions about the fall 2014 registration, majors and minors, or any other academic topics.

With only one month of classes left before finals, it’s once again time to start thinking about next semester.

The faculty advising period began last

week and students can set up a time to meet with their advisors to obtain their degree audits and registration codes. As always, students can find information about their advisor through Agora Portal.

With its walk-in hours, SAB aims to offer students another forum to discuss any questions they might have about courses and their academic paths.

“The walk-in hours are not meant to replace student meetings with their assigned academic advisors ,” said

Samantha Sklar, co-chair of SAB and LSOE ’14, in an email. “They are meant to encourage students who have been reluctant or too busy to go to departments, faculty, or advisors to begin to ask questions they have about majors, minors, or courses.”

The fall 2014 registration period begins on April 8. The Class of 2015 will register from April 8-9; the Class of 2016 will register from April 10-11; and rising sophomores will register from April 14-15. Students can find their

registration time under the “Academic Advisor” tab in Agora. Once students register they can add or drop courses online until Sept. 10.

SAB has hosted a number of other events this year, including a fall panel for freshmen to hear upperclassmen discuss their academic journeys, and a Major Exploration Week earlier this semester.

The sessions will be run by students from SAB, something that the board hopes will facilitate a relaxed environ-

Up all night for a good cause Relay for Life took over the Flynn Recreation Complex last Friday as participants walked from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. See A8

ment, but staff from the Academic Advising Center will also be available to answer any more technical questions that students might have.

“The sessions are aimed at addressing whatever questions students have,” Sklar said. “Students tend to trust other students’ stories or recommendations and feel more comfortable when a direct referral to a faculty, advisor, or center is made.”

See Peer Advising, A3

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things to do on campus this week

Tonight at 5:30 p.m. in Robsham, the School of Theology and Ministry will host a discussion about how Catholics can respond to Pope Francis’ call to be advocates for the poor.

The panelists, honorees of Catholic Extension’s Lumen Christi Award, come from across the country.

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Monday, March 31, 2014

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the award-winning producer of the documentary Miss Representation, will speak on Tuesday at 3 p.m. in the Heights Room about how media depictions of women restrict their paths to positions of leadership and power.

On Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in Fulton 511, Richard Primack, a biology professor at Boston University, will discuss how he and his colleagues have used Henry David Thoreau’s writings and records to document climate change around Walden Pond in Concord, Mass.

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Fight for LABC hosts inagural leadership conference a cause

By Connor Farley News Editor

Adriana Mariella If you’ve ever seen Mario Savio’s 1964 “put your bodies upon the gears” speech—a part of the Free Speech Movement (FSM) at UC Berkeley in which he fearlessly urged his fellow students to take on a university that he saw as oppressive, tyrannical, and corrupt—then you know that you’ve probably never seen a display of conviction as passionate and as brazen as his at Boston College.

Around the same time that the FSM was engaging in its unprecedented protests, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which formed in 1960 at the University of Michigan was gaining speed and support, too. College students, while at times disorganized and aggressive, were orchestrating movements so massive and so undercutting that modern history books feel compelled to recount their effects. It’s hard to imagine BC students organizing a movement that would not only be as substantial but also as direct in its criticism of authority.

I have often noticed a degree of complacency in my peers, if not because they are apathetic about the social, political, and economic issues they know exist, then because they simply aren’t aware and don’t care to be aware of them. There are those students who dedicate themselves to a cause and fight for it, but they are the exception, and rarely are they able to rally significant student involvement. I’m guilty of the same indifference sometimes, too—whatever slips of paper get handed to me in the Quad either end up on the ground or in the bottom of my bag, unread and completely disregarded.

I’ve thought that maybe this complacency exists because we don’t think we have anything to object to, at least not at the local level, but I just can’t accept that as an excuse. We are at a similarly cacophonous cultural moment, in which the combination of economic decline, international unrest, and domestic disunity has left us with an uncomfortable social disjuncture that, instead of mobilizing us as it did for SDS and the FSM, has paralyzed us.

We are watching as an incompetent Congress decides our futures for us. We are watching as partisan politics slowly swallow our country whole. We are watching as poorly researched Facebook debates replace real sources of awareness. And we are standing by. Or are we?

Debates like last Wednesday’s about fossil fuel divestment and events like BC Ignites are a start to effectively waking up BC students from their apathy-induced slumbers.

It’s not that students won’t leave their rooms. Many of us are involved in clubs and organizations, and many of us end up at the same bar on Tuesday nights. It’s not hard to get 1,000 students to go to the same place at the same time, provided that there’s dim lighting and a DJ. I know it’s possible to get BC students to rally.

I’m not advocating for the kind of cataclysmic upheaval that the FSM caused at Berkeley, nor am I claiming that there’s anything going on at BC that should warrant that much attention, but I am advocating for a student body that is eager and willing to question and scrutinize when it’s necessary to do so. We need to wake up and recognize that not only do we have things to fight for, but we also have the tools, the capability, and the right to fight for them.

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

Last Saturday while most students were eating lunch, just a few yards away from Corcoran Commons in the Heights Room, CEO of Citigroup Latin America Francisco Aristeguieta was delivering a keynote speech to the Latin American Business Club (LABC) of Boston College.

An organization with a focus on exposing Latin American students on campus to various business and internship opportunities, LABC hosted its inaugural Latin American Leadership Conference, which featured several talks from corporate innovators and a panel discussion from notable Latin American business leaders.

“In accordance with our mission, this conference aims to expose students to the endless financial and business opportunities that exist in the emerging markets of Latin America,” read the conference’s introductory letter, which was distributed to attendees. “Moreover, it is our desire to promote greater awareness of social and political issues currently facing the Latin American region.”

The event was co-hosted by five other BC organizations, including the BC chapter of Enactus, an entrepreneurial club; the Organization of Latin American Affairs; Boston College Entrepreneur Society (BCES); Heights Capital, a campus-based securities trading group; and the AHANA Management Academy.

Led by an executive team comprised of 15 members and headed by co-presidents Ana Julia Gill, A&S ’15, and Federico Pineda, CSOM ’15, LABC also maintains an open discussion on the political and governmental climate of Latin America with respect to business and socioeconomic events.

Beginning with opening remarks at 9:30 a.m. and preceded by an

Assoc. News Editor A key administrator in the advancement and development of Boston College for the last decade, Vice President for Development Thomas Lockerby will leave the University in June to assume a new role at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass.

Lockerby came to B C in 2004, first serving as the associate vice president for gift planning before being named to his current position in 2008.

Having spent his entire career in the field of consulting on major or planned gift fundraising, some of Lockerby’s previous positions include director of gift planning at Dartmouth College and director of development relations at Harvard Business School.

As of June 1, Lockerby will

POLICE BLOTTER Wednesday, March 26 2:42 p.m. - A report was filed regarding regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported to a medical facility by ambulance.

5:09 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a lost parking permit.

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Daniel Lee / Heights Senior staff

Aristeguieta, CEO of Citigroup Latin America, delivered the keynote at the Latin American Leadership Conference. introduction from Associate Dean of the Carroll School of Management Richard Keeley and subsequently Gill, the conference commenced the first panel discussion on the subjects of business and entrepreneurship.

The panel was led by Chairman and CEO of Casa Noble Tequila Jose Hermosillo, Chilean business leader and former Harvard Kennedy School Fellow Mario Valdivia, and Director of Enterprise Development at Coporacion Andiana de Fomento Daniel Spechar. With a main focus on applying individual leadership to a corporate setting, the panel addressed topics ranging from entrepreneurial style to leadership within the Latin American business community.

Following the first panel was the keynote address delivered by Aristeguieta, who oversees the operations

of Citi in Latin America—a branch of Citigroup spanning 23 countries, encompassing approximately 30,000 employees, and generating 16 percent of the Global Net Income of Citigroup.

The conference’s second panel took a politically focused approach and covered an extensive set of issues ranging social responsibility to international relations.

The panel consisted of Carols Garcia-Perez, the director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting; Leopoldo Martinez, a Venezuelan lawyer and current managing director at LMN consulting; and Director of PetroMagdalena Energy Corporation Nelson Ortiz—all discussed the entrepreneurial identity and governmental actions both in Latin America and in the U.S.

The conference’s lineup of notable speakers concluded with the second keynote speaker Maria Emma Mejia Velez, a Colombian journalist and current president of Pies Descalzos Foundation—a Colombian charity for poor and impoverished children.

“Budgeting was an essential part of the event planning,” said Sarah Padial, LABC Social Action director and A&S ’16. “Our treasurer, Ibrahim Velutini, had to organize a budget that included the transportation, catering, [and] marketing equipment, among other things.”

“The cabinet and e-board of LABC have been planning the event since October,” she said. “The majority of our efforts were concentrated on getting amazing speakers for the conference and luckily, we did.” n

Lockerby to leave post as VP of development

By Julie Orenstein

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become secretary of the Academy at Phillips Andover, where he will oversee the Office of Academy Resources, according to the BC Office of News and Public Affairs. The office is responsible for development and alumni communications and engagement.

In a press release from Phillips Andover, Lockerby said he is “deeply honored” to be joining the Academy.

“I have long had great admiration for Andover, and as I have come to know its students, faculty, staff and administration, I have learned how special the community is,” he said.

Speaking to the Office of News and Public Affairs, Lockerby expressed his appreciation for those with whom he worked closely at BC, such as University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., and Senior Vice President

for University Advancement Jim Husson.

“While I am very excited about the new horizons at Andover, I will miss my colleagues at Boston College,” Lockerby said. “In the past 10 years, I have been introduced to the treasure of Jesuit education and have been the recipient of many acts of friendship and kindness. I appreciate the opportunities that Father Leahy and Jim Husson have given me, and I wish the very best for BC as it continues its amazing path forward.”

While at BC, Lockerby has been instrumental in the Light the World campaign—the largest fundraising campaign in the history of Jesuit, Catholic education—as it seeks to raise $1.5 billion for University development by 2015. Under Lockerby’s direction, the campaign has raised over $1 billion from more than 100,000

donors since its launch in 2008.

The campaign’s central goals include improving undergraduate financial aid, expanding volunteer service at BC, funding new building projects, and supporting endowed professorships. Light the World also hopes to increase alumni and legacy giving.

“Campaign gifts go to support the entire University,” Lockerby told The Heights in January 2013.

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

In addition to his work at BC, Lockerby is the chairperson of the board of directors for the Polaris Project—an organization that fights human trafficking and modern-day slavery—and serves on the board of the Partnership for Philanthropic Planning. n

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 For future arts events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk. Call John Wiley, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email arts@bcheights.com.

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-inChief, at (617) 552-2223, or email eic@bcheights.com.

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

3/26/14-3/28/14 ing a past larceny at O’Neill.

Friday, March 28 12:45 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an underage intoxicated person in Kostka Hall.

1:50 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an underage intoxicated person at Campanella Way.

If you were in a Miss America pageant, what would your talent be?

“Oh God, I’m talentless.”

—Maria Valdivia, A&S ’17

“Making dragon tattoos with henna.”

—Isra Hussain, A&S ’17

Thursday, March 27 3:11 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a suspicious person off campus.

3:50 p.m. - A report was filed regard-

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

“Ballet is my passion.”

—Matt Troy, A&S ’17

“Speaking four different languages.”

—Greta Quintini, A&S ’17

The Heights

Monday, March 31, 2014

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Modstock artist still unconfirmed by UGBC Modstock, from A1 will be free.

Macklemore’s show came after the announcement that UGBC had cancelled its usual Spring Concert and diverted its entire concert funding—a total of $95,000—into Modstock.

In the fall, UGBC’s programming department hosted one of the least financially successful concerts in recent history. With O.A.R. as the headliner and local rapper Moe Pope opening, there were 995 tickets sold, bringing in $23,325 in revenue against $133,701 in expenses. That total of $112,376 lost was the most since the 2010 Spring Concert, which lost $131,394.

Last weekend’s Plexapalooza, which featured Washington D.C. artist DJ Enferno, sold 900 tickets and broke

even, according to Melanie MacLellan, programming manager of on-campus events and A&S ’14.

The Student Assembly voted in December to separate programming from the student government, making this year’s Modstock the last large-scale scale concert put on by UGBC. Previous headliners for Modstock have included Reel Big Fish in 2012 and Sugar Ray in 2011. While Macklemore’s performance was announced by UGBC in late February last year, Reel Big Fish and Sugar Ray were not announced until late April.

Seaver’s Express, Juice, or Bobnoxious & the Master Craftsmen will open this year’s show after advancing to the finals of BC’s Battle of the Bands. The winner will be determined during this year’s Arts Fest. n

Student advisors to hold informal walk-in hours Peer Advising, from A1 The first session will be on Monday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.; the second will be on Tuesday at the same time; and the final session will be held on Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. All sessions will be held in Stokes S139.

“We hope that the students who come to the walk-in hours will leave knowing that there are many great resources on campus for them to turn to—including the Academic Advising Center, their own advisors, and us,” said Sklar.

“We also hope that the students will leave with more clarity than they came.”

In addition to a student’s faculty advisor, the Academic Advising Center is available to answer students’ academic related questions. Its website offers

information about advising, general degree and core requirements, and lists other resources for students.

The center also holds regular events throughout the semester. Professors and Pastries is a weekly series that allows students to meet informally with faculty, advisors, and other professionals.

This is the first time SAB will hold walk-in hours. Sklar said the board will review the outcome once all sessions end.

“Sometimes all a student needs is a slight bump in the right direction or to learn about a resource that can help them,” she said.

“Sometimes a student needs a listening ear to discuss their own academic experiences and ideas. We hope to be flexible and help the students who come with whatever they need.” n

Robin kim / Heights staff

Romero award presented Romero Scholarship, from A1 work, Valencia said.

“The bar really has gotten higher every single year,” she said. “It really is amazing to see the phenomenal work that the finalists have done over the course of their time at BC, and what they are going to do once they leave here.”

The event started with a buffet of traditional Hispanic food like rice and beans, ceviche, and pork shoulder, and ended with hours of dancing. In addition, Grupo Cultural Canaris, a traditional Ecuadorean dance group made up of children and adults, performed three separate times.

Speakers also included University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J.; Rev. Donald MacMillan, S.J.; Marcela Norton and Ines Maturana Sendoya, co-chairs of the Romero Committee; Milvia Sanchez and Monica Mendoza, co-chairs of the Selection Committee; Arivee Vargas, 2004 Romero Award recipient and BC ’05; Eva Maynard and Janelly Rodriguez, co-chairs of the Alumni Committee; and 2013 Romero Award recipient Jessica Vallejo, A&S ’14. In addition, Andy Petigny, associate director of AHANA, graduate advisor Chelsea Kott, and M. Brinton Lykes summarized the finalists’ accomplishments.

“Our world is a broken world—lots of unjust structures abound. Winning a scholarship that has Monsignor Romero’s name on it is an honor, ” MacMillan said. “You need to be an advocate—to be a voice for the voiceless, for the poor, for the sick, the immigrants, the homeless, the racial minorities. This is the message of the gospel—it is the message of Romero.”

Franco exemplifies Romero’s values through her work at the Center for Human Rights and International Justice’s Human Rights and Migration Project, Lykes said.

Through this project, she has been able to provide workshops like “Know Your Rights”

to immigrant families. Franco is also involved in the Learning To Serve Program, which helps freshmen adjust to BC life as it relates to racial and ethnic characteristics.

“I would like to claim that I found Jessica, but the truth is that Jessica found me in her first year,” Lykes said. “It has been a distinct privilege and honor to work with her over these past three years. She takes great pride in serving others and describes herself as a ‘woman for others.’”

The event is a celebration of each of the finalists and of their families, and of all of the hard work it took to reach this point, said Vallejo, who won the award last year. She addressed the audience in both Spanish and English, because many family members in attendance did not speak English, she noted.

“Perhaps the most important thing I have gained as a Romero recipient is a newfound source of motivation and inspiration,” Vallejo said. “As a Romero recipient I cannot stop and rest on my laurels. This award keeps me focused. It reminds me that my work with the community must continue, no matter how difficult it becomes—not only because I have people holding me accountable, but because it is the only way to serve justice to Archbishop Romero’s legacy.”

Romero is a source of strength that has inspired Franco to become a woman for others. She congratulated her fellow finalists and then thanked Lykes, her friends, God, and—in Spanish—her family, for helping her to reach this point. Her dream is to represent marginalized populations and to become a voice for the voiceless, she said.

“We must become catalysts for enabling change,” Franco said. “It will be an honor for me to go forth and fight for his life’s work by standing up for others who don’t have a voice and striving against inequality. I will be the voice for those who are voiceless and will work for justice for our people, because my greatest reward is being a woman for others.” n

New board to plan student programs Programming Board, from A1 like structurally.”

The committee to form the new board has yet to determine who will comprise the new board. While it is considering interviewing prospective applicants with the desired amount of experience to run the new board, the committee has not confirmed that it will conduct interviews, nor does it have a time frame for when the potential interviews would occur.

“I envision that through the use of the creative minds behind our marketing effort we will devise an ad campaign to reach out to as many students as possible,” Paleno said in an email, of attracting students to become involved in the new programming organization. “I think we need to make a genuine effort in person to immediately connect with the student body and give them interest in order to successfully attract the wealth of talent on campus.”

The committee had originally set April 1 as the date for completion of and recruitment for the new board, but as the semester grows closer to ending and the deadline is soon to be passed, the committee has begun increasing its weekly meetings to ensure completion within the next two weeks.

“That’s why we’ve bumped up our meetings to twice a week to get this rigid structure, so that people can start preparing for next year to be in these various leadership roles,” said Jono Keedy, on-campus programming and A&S ’16.

The decision to eliminate UGBC’s two main programming departments was the result of its desire to focus more extensively on policy implementation rather than concert planning and programming for other campus events. Although UGBC retains its third programming branch—heritage programming, which puts on events for the AHANA Leadership Council and the GLBTQ Leadership Council—events such as the Fall Concert, pub series, and Modstock will all fall under the new programming board’s responsibility. n

The Heights

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

New programming board needs student input

Committee should consider selection and membership of new programming board, as well as role on campus When UGBC voted to split off its programming department, a committee was formed under the Student Programs Office (SPO) to establish the form that the new Programming Board will take, as well as the guidelines under which it will operate.

Since the committee began meeting at the beginning of this semester, it has made little quantifiable progress toward finalizing the structure of the new board, and has announced that it will push back its original April 1 deadline by two weeks.

Given how important the beginning of this new board is in setting the precedent for its operation in the subsequent years, it is worrisome that it has fallen behind schedule so early in the process, as the new structure must be put in place and the members of the inaugural Programming Board must be chosen before the current semester ends. The students on the board say that they have done literature reviews, best practices reviews, and internal reviews of the UGBC programming department’s structures, as well as reviews of similar schools, but the structure of the new board is still uncertain.

The committee has decided that there will be an interview process to determine the board’s membership, but the format of those interviews has not yet been determined. As its direct supervisor, SPO will likely have some say in choosing membership—however, it should not unilaterally pick members. SPO will already have significant oversight of the board, and since the board will be spending the Student Activities Fee (SAF), its decisions, as well as its composition, should represent the needs of the student body. To this end, students should have a direct role in determining who is on the new programming board. As the people most familiar with the new board and how it will operate, it would make sense for the students working on the committee to weigh in.

With only two weeks left until the committee’s new midApril deadline, it needs to move quickly to hammer out the rest of the details for the new board.

The board’s timeline is also concerning. With the committee’s revised plans to finish in mid-April, there is little time left in this semester to conduct a thorough recruitment process. The committee has yet to determine what its publicity plans will be, but it should ensure that as many students as possible are aware of the opportunity to be on the board—one method would be in an email blast to the entire student body. In the past, the leadership of the UGBC programming department has been mainly comprised of upperclassmen, leaving few experienced students around the following year to provide institutional memory, continue successful practices, and prevent the same mistakes from being made again. The committee should save entry-level spots for current underclassmen, in order to avoid extreme turnover from year to year. While it might be convenient and tempting to draw people from within either the current structures of Nights on the Heights (NOTH) or the UGBC programming department, whoever

is selecting the board should strive to include students from outside of those groups.

Since it will be separate from UGBC, the new board will also have to seriously consider its marketing plans going forward. Although it has been ineffective at times, UGBC’s publicity department has been a resource for its programming department. Without that access, the new board will need to develop in-house marketing capabilities and should spend considerable effort doing so.

Marketing programming to students and getting them excited about upcoming events is important and, if the new board hopes to be successful, it will need to do a better job than UGBC has done in this past year.

It is currently unclear exactly what the budget will look like for the new board, but it has been determined that it will be receiving most of the money formerly allocated to the UGBC programming department, as well as all of the funds allocated to NOTH. The board would be stronger and have greater flexibility in its programming if it combined all of the budgeted money into one fund to distribute to various programs, as opposed to keeping it separated for each of the entities that have gone into making up the new board—NOTH, BC2Boston, and on-campus programming. So far, BC2Boston programs and the NOTH-sponsored free concerts at Robsham Theater have been some of the most successful programs at BC, and they could be strengthened with access to greater funding.

In the process of restructuring programming on campus, the new board should also reconsider the role that each aspect of programming plays and how they can be improved.

It should not tamper with what is currently working very well with BC2Boston. It should, on the other hand, rethink the role of NOTH at BC. NOTH currently hosts events every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but many of these events appeal to a limited audience. Whatever form NOTH takes in the structure of the new board, it should make an effort to use its funds more judiciously, and try to host events that appeal to larger audiences.

One area in which UGBC programming has frequently been lacking is in communication with the student body. In developing guidelines for the new board, the current committee should emphasize the need to communicate regularly with students about what works and what does not.

As the new board will have no formal method of getting feedback—such as the representatives that the Student Assembly provides to the executive branch of UGBC—it ought to go about doing this itself. The board will be spending the students’ money, and so it is responsible for remaining accountable to the student body.

With only two weeks left until the committee’s new mid-April deadline, it needs to move quickly to hammer out the rest of the details for the new board. If it has taken this long to get to this point and the committee is still trying to fill the board before the academic year ends, it risks stretching the process into finals, which would jeopardize the board’s successful commencement. To this end, the committee should not get too tied up in structure—the new board does not need a large bureaucracy.

Rather, the committee should focus on creating an efficient board that is equipped to provide the programming that the student body desires.

Heights

The

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

Monday, March 31, 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

There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified, and new prejudices to be opposed.

-Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), British author, linguist, and lexicographer

Letters to the Editor Demand justice for the minorities in Syria During our four brief years at college, we rightfully focus on engaging with our direct surroundings. However, exceptional circumstances in faraway places occasionally deserve our full attention.

For the dozens of Boston College students with Armenian backgrounds, the past week has been painfully preoccupied with the horrific situation in Kessab, Syria. Until a few days ago, Kessab was one of the last areas of historic Western Armenia still populated by Armenians, having survived Turkish attempts to wipe out its residents during the 1915-23 genocide. Though civil war raged throughout Syria, Kessab’s Armenians remained strictly neutral, hoping their strategically unimportant location would allow them to live quietly.

On March 21, rebels associated with Al-Qaeda’s al-Nusra Front, Sham al-Islam, and Ansar al-Sham crossed from Turkey into Kessab. According to eyewitness reports, the rebels passed freely through Turkish military barracks; international media has confirmed that the Turkish Air Force provided the militants protection. In a chilling echo of the genocide, the rebels sacked Kessab, forcing the entire Armenian population

to flee for their lives. Rebels took the remaining Armenian families hostage, desecrated the town’s three Armenian churches and pillaged local residences.

In the wake of this act of ethnic cleansing, little has been reported in the Western media, and our government continues to offer Turkey its unflagging support. Even more troubling, although Kessab is far from the first Christian or Armenian area to be directly targeted by Syrian rebels, our government has taken no concrete steps to assist these vulnerable minorities.

As students who pride ourselves on courageously speaking out against injustice, we are called to raise the alarm about the Syrian crisis.

In the words of Holocaust martyr Dietrich Bonheoffer, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.

Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

For us, the choice is clear—sit silently and allow entire peoples to vanish, or stand in protest and demand justice for the minorities of Syria.

Hagop Toghramadjian UGBC Senator A&S ’17

The following letter is in response to “Not afraid of quitting” by Kendra Kumor, originally published on 3/24/14:

On quitting the marathon From the viewpoint of a Campus School Marathon Team Chair who contributed to the decision not to send Campus School runners to the Boston Marathon this year, I would like to address Kendra Kumor’s column, “Not Afraid of Quitting,” published on March 24.

Firstly, I respect and understand Kumor’s choice to discontinue her marathon training given the unique circumstances of this year. As she indicates in her column, my fellow chairs and I were forced to cancel the Campus School’s busing to Hopkinton on Marathon Monday after the Boston Athletic Association announced shortly before Spring Break that unofficial or “bandit” runners would be strictly forbidden from running this year and subject to removal from the course. Our immediate next course of action was to organize and publicize a “Campus School Bandit Marathon” to be held on Sunday, April 13 (“Marathon Sunday”), in which runners who trained with us and raised money for the program can run the 26.2 mile Boston Marathon course from Hopkinton to Boston. The idea, although it began as merely a fallback plan, has been met with a highly enthusiastic response from the Boston College student body, and we currently anticipate a high turnout at lunchtime on the 13th, when most of our runners will be passing by, needing a loud BC cheering section to propel them to the finish.

Of course, the Bandit Marathon is not the Boston Marathon—nothing is. Thus, I take no issue with Kumor’s decision to end her training. I do believe, however, that her portrayal of that decision implies (maybe by accident) an inaccurate perception of the approximately 150 students, of which I am one, who have made the decision to continue training and run the Bandit Marathon.

Kumor’s stated history of avoiding “quitting” throughout her life is admirable in sentiment, but (need I say it) clearly untrue or at least unspecific to the point of meaninglessness. Cliches aside, every

one of us “quits” every day, many times over. Haven’t we all quit on class readings, lectures, and study sessions? Haven’t we ended relationships or dropped classes? Haven’t we canceled social commitments?

Haven’t we ordered food and not finished it? It is difficult for me to believe that an anti-quitting mantra can be anything other than a mantra. We’re all quitters, like it or not.

So Kumor’s portrayal of quitting as an extraordinary, unusual decision is off the mark. Her decision is certainly reasonable and faultless and seems to have been made with careful consideration, but quitting is not extraordinary; on the contrary, it’s the most ordinary, common thing in the world.

What’s extraordinary and unusual is when we don’t quit, especially when it involves continuous, unrecognized effort, the type of effort that we all expend on something at some time or another during our four years here and which drains us of our time and energy but makes us, in the end, more proud of ourselves than anything we’ve ever done, and, in fact, different people altogether. Quitters though we all are, on occasion we aren’t—and those occasions are the things that truly matter about us. For me, and for the prospective runners of the Campus School Bandit Marathon, one of those occasions will be training for and running the Boston Marathon, official or not.

My fellow runners and I are not “afraid”—that unsavory word in Kumor’s column title—to quit, but we are determined not to, maybe even brave enough not to, because we know that we quit far too often already, and for better or worse we’ve decided that, just this once, we won’t. Runners, I’ll see you at the finish line.

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

Jim Andersen Campus School Marathon Team Chair A&S ’14

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

Monday, March 31, 2014

A5

The devil filed into Conte

Nate Fisher Cranberry Nut Muffins - We think that the art of baking reached its pinnacle when the cranberry nut muffin was invented. It is as if God Himself came down from on high and, after dictating to Moses the 10 Commandments, also gave him the recipe for the cranberry nut muffin. Inconveniently for all of mankind—well, all of mankind that is not gluten intolerant, that is—it seems as though that recipe was lost for the subsequent thousand years or so. For that reason, we should consider ourselves lucky to have been born in a time in which cranberry nut muffins are no longer just the Platonic form of the greatest breakfast pastry, but are also incarnate upon this good earth. That is a real accident of history, if you ask us, but one for which we are grateful. Now excuse us while we see if Mac has any cranberry nut muffins right now.

Dining Hall Juice Machines - These machines often seem to be rather fickle creatures—one second, they are pouring that sweet nectar of the gods that is 100 percent juice from the delectable fruits of the earth into our Mac cups, the next second, the bag of concentrate has run dry, and there is nothing but filtered water dripping gracelessly into our cups.

Why do you torture us so, dining hall juice machines? When all we want is that delicious concoction of raspberry lemonade iced tea that delights the taste buds and excites the soul, you condemn us to drinking our iced tea unflavored. It is like going into a restaurant expecting a gourmet meal and then getting, well, Mac food instead.

College Football Unionization - On Wednesday, the regional National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that covers Chicago ruled that the football players of Northwestern University are primarily athletes, and then students. Because of the scholarships that they receive, this qualifies them as employees of the university and thus able to be represented by a union. We are Thumbs Downing this for a number of reasons. First of all, what is this business of being athletes first and students second? While we recognize that this is effectively how student-athletes and the athletic departments for which they play at major universities around the country treat the situation, that does not make it, in our mind, an acceptable understanding. Although it may reflect reality, we do not believe that it should be ensconced in law, rather than being changed. The entire raison d’etre for a university is education—education of the undergraduate and graduate students through teaching, and education of the society as a whole through research. Athletics were designed to be a part of what education was once understood to be everywhere, but what is now seemingly more and more limited to Jesuit and other like-minded institutions—education of the whole person.

Although we recognize that universities care more about the money and prestige that comes with high-performing athletic departments—as seen through the preferential treatment given to athletes, in addition to the many financial benefits that athletes receive—than the integrity of their educational purpose, that does not justify such an attitude. Allowing college athletes the ability to unionize will only further separate university athletic departments and student-athletes from the educational life of the university by treating college athletics more and more like the business it actually is.

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Three young men sit in the stands watching a hockey game. For the two seniors, it’s their final game at Conte—the last of many.

Their conversation is resigned and detached—Boston College goes on to lose this game and faint worry is only just starting to set in. Mostly, the three young men make big pronouncements, each pronouncement anchored in the 20/20 hindsight of old age.

They’re seated pretty high up.

“These are the best seats.”

“It’s like watching it on TV. See, we’re right next to the cameras.”

The second period is over, and “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” starts playing. Eyes turn to the jumbotron. The jumbotron kicks into high gear, and fiddlers of all ages sprout from their seats. Enough people forget the scoreline that a wave of energy sweeps across Conte, and we have our jumbotron to thank for that. The jumbotron shines the spotlight on a few excitable souls, and so enamored are they with their own image way up high that they wave to the jumbotron instead of the camera photographing them. People must know that looking at the camera would probably make them look less silly, but is it worth the expense of not being able to watch themselves? The jumbotron was created and continues to be loved because it offers us the chance to look at ourselves megabig—as big as we feel we deserve to be seen. The jumbotron giveth and never taketh. All it asketh is our undying attention.

The three young men spot the Fiddle Kid. “Look,” the two seniors groan. “I thought everybody loves him,” the youngest of the three says. But not everybody loves him.

Conte hardly loses its mind over its beloved Fiddle Kid the way it has before. The seniors have theories.

“He pushes kids out of the way now. He doesn’t smile, it’s just ‘Look at me, I’m the Fiddle Kid.’” “His parents did it to him. They started a Twitter account in his name. They’re cashing in on his fame.”

“All the fame went to his head, right away.”

“I think at first, most people would immediately try to get him accepted into BC if he ended up applying. Now, I know I would campaign hard against him not to get in.”

Soon the jumbotron turns to its prodigal son. There’s a group of young kids dancing for the camera, but here comes the Fiddle Kid, crashing his way to the front. The jumbotron projects what looks like a shove, and what looks to the three young men like the disinterested sneer of someone who’s been doing this for far too long. From high up in the TV camera section, the applause is muted. Some boos are heard. Fame has made him “insolent.”

The kid is eight years old. He has a Twitter account.

It all began innocently enough. These kinds of things do. Somebody does something special, and the crowd in all its appreciation showers him or her with praise. It makes that somebody “Somebody Special.” It cheers on his jumbotron moment, and so he gets more jumbotron moments. The crowd devours those moments, and so it demands more. And the eager jumbotron provides, harvesting Fiddle Kid and shipping him to the crowd as a consumable.

The saga of Fiddle Kid is the standard celebrity narrative, with fame as something engineered by an audience desiring a hero figure it can consume and then dispose of once the hero becomes self-aware. The jumbotron eventually moves on to another section, other fiddlers, looking for a different

soul to steal. The jumbotron taketh. One song later one of the seniors notices Fiddle Kid: “Look down. He’s still fiddling. Alone.

They changed the song and he’s still fiddling.”

The youngest of the three young men wants to write about Fiddle Kid. His friends who go to every BC hockey game aren’t convinced that people have turned their back on Fiddle Kid. “And you’d have to know a lot about him to know how he really feels,” one of them says. Maybe, maybe not. The kid that fiddles has a private life in the safe confines of a house somewhere. Fiddle Kid dances in Conte and has 650 followers.

“Shoving kids?”

“I saw what I saw on the jumbotron.”

We don’t know what the future holds for Fiddle Kid. We’ll have to wait for the next season to come out. Maybe he’ll come back more sullen, more weathered with age. Less “cute.” He won’t be what we want him to be anymore. Why should he give that to us?

What have we done for him?

The jumbotron moved on from Fiddle Kid. Later in the song it settles on another fiddler. The kid absolutely shreds. He raises the roof. He goes off, goes in, turns up, whatever prepositional musical nomenclature you want to use. He’s adorably dorky and a natural showman—he caps his set off with a perfectly executed slide down the railing.

And the crowd goes wild.

“New Fiddle Kid!” somebody shouts.

He continues to be a topic of conversation as we file out of Conte toward Lower.

“He was the man!” “That slide was awesome.”

We wonder if he’ll get renewed for another season.

Who knows, maybe he’ll start a Twitter.

The kid is eight years old.

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

Raising the minimum wage

Mary Kate Nolan When studying the debate over the minimum wage for my internship, I began to consider the effects of campus wages on the student experience at Boston College. Year after year, on-campus prices increase. Football games, theater productions, and charity events are additional costs that are not factored into a semester’s tuition. These costs can be quite a heavy burden. Thus, as our nation looks to increase the minimum wage, student employees should join the movement to increase their on-campus wages and improve the overall quality of life at BC. When it comes to the American economy, the burgeoning gap between the rich and the poor is causing President Barack Obama to persue an increase in the minimum wage. The proposed spike from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour will account for the increased cost of living and alleviate the burden for those who are struggling to get by.

Currently, the federal minimum wage is about $3 lower than the calculated living wage.

Living wage is defined as the hourly rate necessary to meet the minimum standard of living.

In Newton, the living wage for one adult is $12.62 per hour, to account for the cost of food, housing, transportation, medical expenses, taxes, etc. Yet, the statewide minimum wage in Massachusetts is only $8 an hour. This means that the typical Dunkin’ employee, Bluestone Bistro waiter, or City Co. cashier cannot afford the minimum standard lifestyle near BC. The benefits to increasing the minimum wage are astronomical. To begin, we look toward our international allies who generate a more impressive minimum wage. Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, and France offer a standard wage of over $10 per hour.

Australia, with a minimum wage of $16/hour, was the only country to avoid the global

Bird Flew

recession completely. Obama and legislators in Congress are using this evidence as stimulation to drive the federal minimum wage up to $10.10 per hour. Republicans in Congress remain opposed to the plan because they fear it will cause unemployment. Reputable studies indicate that the increase in minimum wage has very little impact on unemployment rates, however, because most firms that employ minimum wage workers are large corporations that can afford to spend a few extra bucks on their employees.

Likewise, research suggests that higher wages actually save employers money in the long run. It causes a reduction in employee turnover and increased productivity. Consequently, employers are not forced to waste time and money training new workers. In addition, their employees are more likely to provide better customer service and improve the overall image of the company.

Further, an increase in the minimum wage can stimulate the economy. If workers have more money in their pockets, they will spend more on consumer products, increasing the U.S. GDP. As the economy booms, job creation will follow, causing a better outcome for all parties involved.

When it comes to college life, BC students are lucky to attend an institution that is generous with on-campus employment. The dining halls, academic departments, and recreation facilities offer myriad federal work-study and on-campus job opportunities. The majority of these jobs pay between $8 and $10 dollars per hour. Yet, every BC student knows that the cost of living here is especially high. Tuition, textbooks, and room and board are just at the base cost of a semester at BC. One point of contention is the mandatory meal plan. Nearly every freshman and sophomore is required to cough up a whopping $2,500 per semester for food, with no option to purchase something smaller.

At the end of my sophomore year, I had a remaining balance of $800 on my meal plan, with no refund or rollover from the University. That is a sunk cost of $800 that could have covered two semesters’ worth of textbooks, a month’s rent in an off-campus apartment, or four

months’ worth of groceries from Star Market.

While I had a job at the Plex, my full year’s paycheck was not enough to cover the loss. As the typical hour’s pay can barely cover the cost of a meal at BC, the average wage should be increased to support the standard of living that the University provides.

Further, an increased wage for on-campus workers may have alternative effects that will stimulate campus involvement. Many students argue that the price of on-campus events prevents them from attending ticketed events. On average, a student ticket for a single football game is about $20, and for hockey and basketball games, ticket prices are $15. Also, plays, musicals, a cappella concerts, and charity events have entry fees ranging from $10-15.

Students probably opt out of at least one show or game they would otherwise attend because prices are so high. This could be changed with higher on-campus wage.

Not only would the quality of student life improve on campus, but also a higher wage would encourage students to leave the BC bubble to explore what the greater Boston area has to offer. Concerts at the House of Blues, Red Sox games at Fenway, and dining out in the North End are some of the main attractions that lure students to Boston. Yet, like nearly everything in our beloved city, these come at a hefty price. Because most students work under 10 hours a week, attending an event in Boston could cost upwards of two weeks’ pay. This deters students from taking advantage of all that Boston has to offer.

As Obama attempts to increase the federal minimum wage to improve the standard of living, administrators at BC should do the same to improve campus life for students. Alleviating everyday costs and increasing campus involvement are just a few perks that will result from this change. With all of the costs students and families of BC have to endure, higher wages could make BC an even more enjoyable place to be.

Mary Kate Nolan is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

BY DOLAN BORTNER

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.

A different kind of Core Kimberly Crowley As an education dork fascinated by policy issues, I recently spent a lot of time reading about the Common Core. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, the Common Core is a set of academic standards and learning goals that outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade. Forty-four states voluntarily adopted and are moving forward with the Common Core. The standards have also been a cause of controversy, however, as many states feel as though they represent an attempt by the federal government to gain control of what has always been a state’s right—namely, the ability to set a statewide curriculum. In this vein, the Common Core made news this week, when Indiana became the first state to drop out.

What inspired me to write my column this week was not the debate about the Common Core, the fact that Indiana opted out, or my own personal interest in the topic. Instead, what motivated me was my shock at turning on my computer the morning Indiana dropped out and realizing “Common Core” was trending on Facebook.

When people hear I’m interested in education policy, they inevitably ask me what I would change if I had the power.

The first thing I always say is that I would make people pay attention to the issues. As a society, we largely ignore the problems in our own education system, aided by a Congress that continues to push discussions about our nation’s education system onto the back burner, despite the fact that these discussions could be some of the most important for our country. When the 113th Congress returned for its second year in January, nearly every major education law remained overdue for reauthorization—a fact which hasn’t changed since and shows few signs of doing so in the future. The most well-known among the pending legislation is the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or “No Child Left Behind,” which has been pending renewal since 2007. The Higher Education Act was last renewed in 2008, and the primary law governing special education—the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—was last amended in 2004. Even the list that the Department of Education provides on its website of laws governing education policy in this country hasn’t been updated since 2002.

And, for the most part, no one is talking about it.

I was optimistic in 2012 when the issues related to education policy in America were addressed early in the first presidential debate. Unfortunately, that excitement quickly faded as I rarely heard the topic broached again and, on the rare occasions that it was, it was not what my friends or the people around me were talking about the next day. On the one hand, I understand how it happens. Our country has a fair number of problems to address, and I’m not narrowminded enough to think that more immediate issues of debt, foreign policy, and unemployment should always take a backseat.

Nevertheless, I also firmly believe that we could benefit from a more concerted effort to look beyond the immediate. Education policy change is not going to be easy. It’s not going to happen quickly, and it’s definitely not going to happen within some politician’s four-year term. A dedicated effort to make positive changes for future generations, however, will not only alter the face of education for our children, but also will likely help us solve many of the problems we see as more immediately pressing.

Thus, once I had pulled my stunned self off the ground, I realized that with my shock over seeing the Common Core trending on Facebook came another emotion—hope.

I’m glad that people are inspired to talk about the Common Core. It’s a debate that could be critical to the future of education in this country. To me, however, the enthusiasm surrounding the conversation means more than the actual standards.

It demonstrates that issues related to our education system are still important to the voting public and that people are still looking for change. As someone who still wants to retain faith in democracy, I believe that, if we can just expand this popular interest to other issues in addition to the Common Core, this change may just be in our future.

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

THE HEIGHTS

A6

Monday, March 31, 2014

Jason Bateman gets into trouble with directorial debut ‘Bad Words’

BY GRACE GODVIN For The Heights

In his directorial debut, Bad Words, Jason Bateman plays 40-something Guy Trilby, a misanthrope who finds a loophole in the National Spelling Bee competition, allowing him to enter. In his route to the top, Bateman bullies, teases, and belittles fellow competitors, who are just a fraction BAD WORDS of his age.

Jason Bateman Along th e w ay, he meets Chaitanya Chopra (Rohan Chand), a young Indian boy also competing in the tournament. They forge an unlikely friendship, with one especially memorable montage of Guy and Chaitanya out on the town, wreaking havoc and playing pranks on unsuspecting victims.

Chand shines under Bateman’s direction, playing Chaitanya with impressive

confidence for only a 10-year-old. He easily plays off the racist jokes and humiliation directed his way, and he makes Bateman’s job a lot easier. You can’t help but think, however, that Bateman has cast Chand to do just that, as he often exploits Chand’s racial identity for a good laugh, at one point telling him to “turn [his] curry hole around” and, after a particularly violent episode, tells the young competitor that “your boy Gandhi wouldn’t like that.”

Also notable is Kathryn Hahn’s performance as a reporter who sponsors Trilby in the tournament, and who occasionally engages in sexual—albeit utterly unromantic—encounters with Trilby.

Hahn, like Bateman, is familiar with this comedic supporting role, having played it many times over (see: Step Brothers or How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days). Her strange sexual interactions with Trilby provide some laughs, however cheap they may be.

Under his own direction, Bateman capitalizes on what he does best: impeccable comedic timing and charm.

The funniest moments are often the most outrageous, most notably in his exchanges with the other contestants. In his first competition, the slightly chubby boy sitting next to Trilby asks him, “Why are you up here, loser?” He replies, “Your chair called me for help.” The humor in making children cry is something Bad Words cleverly exploits, whether it’s tricking a young girl into thinking she has gotten her period, or convincing an innocent nerd that his mom has been sleeping around.

What Bateman’s film lacks is any sense of originality. The generic performances and his inability to escape a corny and predictable storyline undermine the film’s promising premise. He underestimates the intelligence of his viewers, notably in the unnecessary voiceover explaining parts of the film that the audience has already

PHOTO COURTESY OF AGGREGATE FILMS

‘Bad Words’ lacks a unique storyline and mostly relies on mean-spirited humor for laughs. figured out themselves. Bateman also manages to downplay his finest feature in films—his innate ability to gain the audience’s sympathy. Instead, he comes across as excessively mean-spirited and too often straddles the line of what is and is not appropriate, even for its R-rating.

While the last third is chock-full of corny sentimentality and has an ending that

can be seen coming from a mile away, Bateman successfully navigates through these cliches by playing on strengths. Had it been any longer than its brisk 89 minutes, Bad Words would have risked imposing on its viewers. Its quick time and easy-rolling humor, however, let it pass by for what it is—a couple of laughs and some redeeming but easily forgettable performances. 

‘Noah’ goes overboard with special effects

1 PHOTO COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES

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PHOTO COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Aronofsky’s version of the Genesis story sacrifices narrative depth for dramatic visuals and is weakened by unrealistic CGI.

BY AMY CHAPPELHOW For The Heights Darren Aronofsky’s latest project has inevitably become an object of controversy, faced with criticism from religions around the world (the film was banned in Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates before it was even released). Withholding these theological concerns, and viewing the film simply as a piece of art, Noah still sorely disappoints, as AronofNOAH sky introDarren Aronofsky duces unnecessary narrative and special effects into a film that could have been epic in the true sense of the word.

Ari Handel and Aronofsky’s screenplay attempts to elaborate on the Noah story from Genesis. Noah (Russell Crowe), his wife (Jennifer Connolly), and his three sons live in a world fraught with sin—descendants of Cain, these savage murderers cannot feel the same love for the world that Noah’s family does. For this reason, God speaks through Noah in coded visions.

God tells our protagonist to build an ark and fill it with his family and two of every animal to ensure creation will live on when God sends a flood to kill the sinners of mankind. Aronofsky’s version also includes giants made of stone, who are actually fallen angels. This strange addition to the story has the giants assisting Noah in making the ark (ensuring the job gets done a lot more

quickly) and protecting his family. As the ark nears completion, the descendants of Cain—led by Tubal-Cain, who is played by Ray Winston, in his usual gruff way—are eager to be saved, too, believing they are made in God’s image and therefore worthy of his salvation. Save for maybe the stone angels, the film does not deviate too dramatically from the well-known narrative, even including some of the ambiguous aspects of the Genesis story.

Similar to his 2006 film The Fountain, Aronofsky truly focuses on the visuals rather than the narrative in Noah, and while the biblical story lends itself to beautiful imagery and grand locations, Aronofsky’s decision to use CGI where it is not needed undermines the film. The story of God’s creation and the fall of Adam and Eve is told numerous times, and although aspects of this retelling are visually interesting—look out for a sobering version of the Cain and Abel story—the film makes no attempt at realism with its CGI. The bright green, impassive snake is perhaps the worst rendering of Satan’s serpent that I have seen on film. Aronofsky’s vision of the dystopian world pre-ark conjures an imagining of times long past, as the stars can be seen clearly night and day and the colors of the sky are glorious. This is an instance wherein CGI is used to magical effect, but unfortunately, this is not a common occurrence in Noah. The stone angels are perhaps the most distracting visual. This addition to the story takes away from the realism that Noah was expressing

and actually made its action scenes more boring rather than striking. Regardless of what initiated Aronofsky’s misguided decision to add in these creatures, it inevitably weakens the overall film. With strange hybrid animals and CGI babies, most of the visuals are distracting and undermine the movie’s serious tone.

Matthew Libatique’s cinematography is also disappointing. Although he previously worked on Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan with Aronofsky, in Noah the camera does not involve the audience as much as it has done in his previous work.

Their other collaborations were painful to watch because you felt the anxiety that the characters were feeling through Libatique’s use of shadows, close ups, and quick camera movements. Noah’s visions would have been the perfect opportunity to display these successful methods, but instead, the scenes feel like a cheap re-do of Scorsese’s work in The Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun.

Although none of the actors stood out in Noah, Russell Crowe did a decent job as the conflicted hero. It is difficult to draw the audience’s attention when surrounded by a CGI boat, animals, landscape, and sea—certainly there was a concerted effort to do so, but it seems that Aronofsky was too focused on his grand vision to worry about the details.

Noah truly is a disappointing version of a fascinating story, especially when it comes from a director who has more than proved his talent in the past. 

WEEKEND GROSS

WEEKS IN RELEASE

1. NOAH

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9. FROZEN

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3 PHOTO COURTESY OF WALT DISNEY STUDIOS

PHOTO COURTESY OF SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT

BESTSELLERS OF HARDCOVER FICTION

1. MISSING YOU Harlan Coben 2. RAISING STEAM Patricia Briggs 3. THE GOLDFINCH Donna Tartt 4. POWER PLAY Danielle Steel 5. THE INVENTION OF WINGS Sue Monk Kidd

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3 6. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR Jeffrey Archer 7. THE BOOTLEGGER Clive Cussler and Justin Scott 8. WORDS OF RADIANCE Brandon Sanderson 9. STONE COLD C.J. Box 10. NIGHT BROKEN Patricia Briggs SOURCE: New York Times

The Heights

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Monday, March 31, 2014

Reasonable Dowd

Oliver Stone & activism in the arts Ryan Dowd

From ‘For Colored Girls,’ A8

John Wiley / Heights Editor

Boston College celebrated the Hindu festival of Holi at Seminary Field on Saturday, welcoming spring with a mix of colorful powders, electronic music, and water guns.

Hundreds head to Brighton Campus for Holi festival From Holi Festival, A8 in South Asia earlier this month, playing more to the tastes of the crowd.

The collaboration of SASA and ESM extended the appeal of the event, and overall, Saturday’s Holi celebration was a compelling case of cultural convergence.

Traditional Indian foods were served at the event, with an abundance of coconut water to finish the spread—perhaps the

warm coconut water was a little less than ideal, but for the hundreds of students running around Seminary Field, it was a welcome offering.

Following the second wave of powder distribution, water guns were brought out, and alternately, buckets of water were made available to be dumped on the crowd. At this point, a little over an hour into the festival, it was picture time for most, and Smartphones became an unfor-

tunate casualty of the ongoing battle.

About 90 minutes in, the crowd began to thin. The event, advertised to run until 4 p.m., left latecomers little to work with as powder became scarce. Overwhelmingly, however, those who made it out to Brighton within the first hour had a long shower ahead of them. On Lower Campus, the gradual return march of the colorful festival-goers crowd was an awesome sight for the observer, and an

awful sight for BC Dining—signs on the door of Corcoran Commons begged that participants of the “color run” wash up before being served.

While development on Brighton Campus isn’t in the University’s immediate plans, there is room for an expansion of undergraduate offerings on the space.

For those who made it out early enough on Saturday, the Holi festival felt right at home on Seminary Field. n

BC arts groups contribute to Relay for Life efforts From Relay For Life, A8

Emily Sadeghian / Heights Editor

A mix of musical acts performed at the 12-hour Relay for Life event in the Plex.

groups including the Heightsmen, the Dynamics, Sharps, and Shaan, as well as a guest performance by Vermont alternative rock band Dionysia. These brief sets provided variety to the night and gave participants something to watch while they sat in the Plex waiting or walking the track.

The Dance Organization of Boston College also performed later in the night. The group’s first dance was choreographed around chairs, and had an upbeat feel to it. DOBC’s second number was inspired by the Jazz Age. The performance concluded with a hiphop number—the same they shared at the Fashion Club’s first annual fashion show two weeks ago.

The highlight of the evening was a performance by the Acoustics. The Acoustics were part of the Luminaria ceremony, which honored those fighting or who have survived cancer, as well as those who had lost their fight.

The a cappella group’s renditions of Mumford & Sons’ “White Blank Page”

and Coldplay’s “Fix You” were moving and beautiful. The somber, somewhat solemn ceremony was enhanced by the musical performance. The room was darkened and slowly illuminated as the crowd held up glow sticks, with special attention brought to the survivors present in the Plex. The glow sticks were placed in bags in honor of those who have fought cancer. The music of the Acoustics brought the audience into a state of reflection, and remembrance—a poignant tribute to those affected by cancer, some gone and others living.

The 12-hour event brought the crowd through a range of emotion, but ultimately, it was the musical and dance performances that tied together the night and kept participants engaged.

Many members of the dance and music groups actually participated in the event, as well.

Relay for Life was a night of solidarity for the various acts featured—a chance to perform, as well as an opportunity to contribute to the cause, in a quiet way. n

‘James bOp!’ brings together classic and contemporary

Robin Kim / Heights staff

Saturday night’s James Bond-themed bOp! concert featured several numbers iconic to the popular secret agent franchise, including the Bond theme song and Adele’s ‘Skyfall.’

From BC bOp!, A8 The final performance before intermission also contained a number of solos. It began with a low, strumming string base by Austin Wong, A&S ’17, creating an interesting thematic effect.

It was a fun performance, and a great way to end the first half.

Following intermission, audiences finally got to hear some Bond. Arranged

by Steven Bass, the band played the “Bond Theme” as director Sebastian Bonaiuto introduced the members. The band smoothly transitioned into Adele’s “Skyfall”—Castanos once again took lead. It is not an easy feat to cover Adele, but Castanos took on the challenge head on and gave a soulful performance, and the results were incredible. Not only was her voice strong, but she exuded confidence on stage, forcing the audi-

ence to take note.

From there, they moved on to alltime jazz legend Duke Ellington—the band performed “Such Sweet Thunder,” a smooth, sly tune. The trumpets took the lead on this number, which was a nice change of pace. Peter Julian, CSOM ’17, had a very strong solo on trumpet. It was great that bOp! included a piece like this one—bop is often best performed on the trumpet because it can give both

a jazz and swing aspect. This song was preceded by a solo performance—Amber Glavine, A&S ’17, gave a proper vocal rendition of “Skylark.” Glavine took the audience by surprise: her petite figure housed some remarkably large vocals, and her performance ended the show sweetly. It was an evening of classic jazz merged with contemporary style and flair—genuine bOp!, through and through. n

There’s been some fanfare here at Boston College over some new and exciting projects in the arts—bands, aspiring filmmakers, a cappella groups, creative thespians. All of which is welldeserved and indeed exciting. We’re a talented and ambitious group of students, and that should be acknowledged and celebrated. It’s something we should acknowledge more often, not in the way the faculty and administrators pat us on the back as “the most talented group to come through BC,” but in going to more events, crediting good work, and ultimately, challenging each other more often and more rigorously.

Oliver Stone is set to speak on campus this Saturday in conjunction with American University historian Peter Kuznick, addressing their “The Untold History of the United States” documentary series. The event is free and at Robsham Theater. And as you’ve hopefully acknowledged, Stone’s appearance here at BC comes at a very interesting time for this budding artistic community.

Stone remains one his generation’s most controversial yet productive filmmakers. He wrote and directed Platoon in 1986, the best Vietnam War film and one of the top five war films of all time.

He’s continually taken on the legacy of presidents in JFK, Nixon, and W, as well as capturing Wall Street in the aptly named Wall Street and professional football in Any Given Sunday. Stone is an unflinching director, never shying away from subject or style. Stone works under the assumption that his films matter, that the stories a filmmaker tells matter. But how is he different than any other filmmaker, the great many who strive to create something true and honest (save for the Michael Bays of the industry, of course)? Stone’s different in that his films and his subjects are often intrinsically connected. In Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, the subject of Wall Street works behind the character of Jordan Belfort. It’s a setting for Leonardo DiCaprio to snort cocaine and other ungodly acts of id. But in Stone’s Wall Street, Gordon Gekko and Wall Street go hand in hand Most filmmakers and artists would insist that their work matters. Stone’s films, however, matter in a different way. His characters are usually pitted within a greater struggle—a war, a conspiracy, the economy, and must define themselves in relation to this struggle.

How will Chris Taylor, the central soldier in Platoon, confront the horror of war? With grace and goodness like Sergeant Groodant (William Defoe) or with brutality like Staff Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger)? This dynamic replays itself in most of Stone’s work, and in doing so, he asks the audience to define itself within these greater movements time and time again. Stone’s films matter in a different way, because unlike most, they ask the audience to face the same crises his characters face—war, greed, and power. For Stone, a film should make the audience think. It should challenge the viewer.

Lately, however, Stone has traded the feature format for the documentary format. He’s working in a more direct manner now, confronting the previously undocumented and sometimes unsavory aspects of recent American history. He has called the project his most ambitious yet. He’s more direct now—using facts, not characters.

So how does this affect us? Oliver Stone comes to campus. Some go.

Some don’t. Those that go get to say they saw Oliver Stone once. Maybe their parents are impressed. Maybe they’re not and are worried that because their child lost three hours on a Saturday, he or she won’t get an internship this summer, and thus be forever homeless.

But Oliver Stone coming to campus with his message that art can work toward a greater message—awareness is critical to the burgeoning artistic community we have here. So we can challenge each other to be more aware of the power of our art, and its ability to inspire and inform. Hopefully, we can make some friends and money along the way, but we keep in mind that these projects can mean more than we think.

Obviously, Stone is at a different point in his career as an artist than most of us are which probably gives him more responsibility in his endeavors than college students still trying to hone their skills and develop their voice. His work should remind us, however—agree with it or not—that as we develop these technical skills, we must also develop the desire and skill of injecting meaning into the art we create.

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

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ARTS&REVIEW Holi Grounds MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2014

THE FINER THINGS

A theory on conspiracies

BY JOHN WILEY

Arts & Review Editor

It was barely noon—a thin veil of haze hung over Brighton Campus as a mix of students filed onto the old Seminary Field.

It had been a frigid, rainy Saturday morning, but by the time the crowd arrived, the weather had improved considerably. Still, the majority of the crowd was underdressed for the brisk 50-degree weather, most wearing white t-shirts and sweatpants, with a few of the heartier festival-goers wearing shorts. The occasion for their meeting was Holi, a Hindu festival of spring recently popularized in the West. The actual holiday took place a little over a week earlier on March 17, the date chosen in accordance with the vernal equinox.

Holi is a festival of colors, a religious holiday broadly observed in India.

There, entire cities will take to the streets, throwing colored p owder at strangers, family, and friends.

The holiday has spread beyond its Hindu origins,

ARIANA IGNERI On Thursday afternoon, I found myself caught in a conversation with a homeless man about conspiracy theories.

As we sat together at a table in the shelter, my new friend Valentine claimed that all of the information he told me was true and verifiable—he got it from professional journalists who report on a local AM radio station between one and four in the morning during the week. I should’ve known what kind of chat I’d be having after finding that out, but I simply couldn’t walk away.

Lies or not, Valentine had me hooked long before he mentioned aliens.

Here’s what I learned: The arc mentioned in the Bible was not rectangular. It was round, despite what I was taught in years of Sunday school lessons and regardless of how the ship is depicted in the new Russell Crowe movie Noah. Apparently, some museum in London has proof.

George H. W. Bush went to war in the Middle East not for oil or for Kuwait’s protection, but to retrieve a magical piece of quartz from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

He hid the stone underneath his armpit. It had healing powers and was called, for some reason or another, the Blue Apple, which is why blue is such a common color.

The Virgin Mary was not Jesus’ real mother—Mary Magdalene was.

The most important thing I discovered, though, was that the weirder a discussion’s subject, the more fascinated I am by it.

I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, for the record, but I think I, like most people, find it difficult to resist hearing about them.

We’re captivated by what we don’t know and by what we don’t understand.

Since John F. Kennedy’s assassination in the ’60s, conspiracy theories have become an odd aspect of our culture. They generally have a negative connotation, and society as a whole often looks down on those who consider them to be true, yet there’s little denying that even if we don’t believe them, we think they’re intriguing.

Just look at the media—it knows what we deem interesting, and it takes advantage of that by creating TV shows and films that feed into our desire for mystery, suspense, and conspiracy.

Why else would the National Treasure movies be so popular? It definitely isn’t because of Nicholas Cage, that’s for sure.

The success of hits like those movies, or like Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, or Oliver Stone’s 1991 JFK, or even the special features on the History Channel, suggest that we’re a culture that might claim to want straight information, but at the same time, we’re irresistibly absorbed by all kinds of potential inaccuracies and lies—because sometimes the truth is, well, boring.

It’s so much more entertaining to complicate reality, read between the lines, and surmise the darkest possible explanation of a scenario.

No wonder, then, that today, there are conspiracies about everything, from President Barack Obama’s American citizenship, to the existence of extraterrestrial life, to Paul McCartney being dead.

Just last week, actually, a conspiracy theory two decades in the making resurfaced and garnered vast public attention—Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain’s suicide. Because of the 20-year anniversary of the rock legend’s death, investigators decided to look back into the case. They found 35 never-before-viewed pictures from the scene, which some conspiracists hoped would confirm the idea that Cobain didn’t kill himself, but was, instead, murdered. While the pictures revealed no such thing, the example, again, alludes to our culture’s beguilement by life’s grey areas—we may think we do, but we really don’t like when things are so black and white.

We may not all be extremists, part of conspiracy groups such as the Illuminati, the Freemasons, or Skull and Bones, but most of us have heard of them and of what they believe. Most of us have fallen victim to the lure of their theories.

So, although I didn’t learn much in the way of what I thought was the cold, hard truth from my discussion with Valentine the other day, I did realize how easy it is to be swept away by a well-told or bizarre story.

I realized how important it is to always be skeptical of what you see and hear—to always be questioning things—and to be a little bit of a conspiracist yourself.

Ariana Igneri is the Assoc. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com

transcending lines of religions to become a universal occasion in certain cities in South Asia.

The South Asian Students Association (SASA), in conjunction with Electronic State of Mind (ESM), the University’s electronic music collaborative, planned the Boston College event. Around 12:20 p.m., students began to gather around five-gallon buckets, and they scooped up powder with small plastic cups from these central locations.

Then, it was a free-for-all.

The crowd became a canvas. At first, students seemed hesitant to stage attacks outside of their immediate friend circles, but in a matter of minutes, the powder drops became far more spontaneous and liberal—it was a skirmish, and as the few odd festival-goers with DSLR cameras soon discovered, no one was safe.

On the outskirts of the field, ESM DJs traded off spots at a mixing rig setup under a canopy. Music is traditionally part of the festival, and having skilled mix artists on hand became especially important as the first wave of powder ran out—anything to distract the crowd from the weather. ESM kept away from the traditional Indian dance music that would have been played at similar gatherings

See Holi Festival, A7

A cappella, dance groups unite for Relay for Life in Plex

BY ABIGAIL FARR For The Heights

On Friday, roughly 1,500 people packed the Flynn Recreation Complex for Boston College’s sixth annual Relay for Life.

Camped out with sleeping bags, blow-up mattresses, pillows, and blankets, the BC student body prepared to spend the night. The fundraiser for the American Cancer Society incorporated BC dance and a cappella groups into the

program as well as activities to keep students awake for the all-night fundraiser.

These performances kept up the energy of the participants and entertained the audience.

The first performance of the night was by BC Irish Dance. The group’s first dance was a tribute to breast cancer, with the girls wearing pink shirts adorned with the pink breast cancer ribbon. This theme of the performance was incorporated in more ways than just their costumes. The performance

reached its climax when the girls changed formation and revealed letters on the backs of the shirts spelling, “She’s a fighter.”

The next dance was another lesstraditional Irish dance to Bastille’s “Pompeii.” To close, the performers returned to something a little more traditional with “I’m Shipping Up to Boston”—a crowd favorite. Overall, it was an innovative performance, bringing in elements of traditional Irish dance, and tying them together with

contemporary tunes.

Dance Ensemble took the stage next with performances in a variety of genres. The troupe began with ballet and then transitioned to lyrical dance, before finishing up the performance with an upbeat jazz number. The energy of the performance increased as it went on, engaging the crowd.

The next two hours were punctuated by performances by different a cappella

See Relay For Life, A7

Jazz group presents smooth show ‘007 James bOp!’

BY MELISSA ABI JAOUDE For The Heights Despite a rocky start, the BC bOp! managed to pull off a memorable night on Saturday for the jazz group’s 007 James bOp! show. The show featured a variety of styles and a lovely array of solos. Bop, also known as bebop, is a music style developed in the early 1940s that combines the fast-paced swing elements with the smooth nature of jazz. Bop, like jazz and the blues, was founded and made famous by American musicians.

Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis both influenced the development and the popularity of bop. Today, the influences of bop are considered modern jazz. BC bOp! did a great job sticking to the riveting style of bop while choosing classic and current music.

The opening piece, “Fly Me to the Moon,” performed by the band was a bit choppy and uncoordinated, despite a strong solo by David Bonaiuto, A&S ’14, on trombone. Unlike their band counterparts, the vocalists had an incredible first act—a performance of “Crazy,” featuring a voice solo by Adriana Castanos, A&S ’17, was one of the show’s highlights. She had an extraor-

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dinarily rich color to her voice, and the background vocals accompanied her perfectly. The solo by James Hooper, A&S ’14, on the tenor sax, fit in quite nicely. The performance was followed by an upbeat swing instrumental piece and then a slow love song in which the vocalists sang a cappella.

The band finally hit its stride with “Cafe Caliente.” As one of the best performances of the night, this piece was fun, upbeat, and expertly executed with incredible solos by Ryan Dusenbury, LSOE ’16, on alto sax and Mattthew Passanante, A&S ’17, on tenor sax. The percussion was spot-on throughout the piece, giving the number a Latin American flare. This was followed by another of the night’s most powerful moments. Adam Murray, A&S ’15, sang “Fever” while the band accompanied him. Murray had a pronounced stage presence— he stayed true to the humorous nature of the song, not to mention utilizing an extensive range throughout the performance. The band accompaniment complemented his voice well, and it added a level of depth to the overall sound.

‘Noah’ fails to stay afloat

ROBYN KIM / HEIGHTS STAFF

See BC bOp!, A7

With its excessive visual effects, director Darren Aronofsky’s retelling of the Genesis story sinks, A6

BC bOp! performed classical jazz numbers and contemporary ones, including ‘Skyfall,’ Saturday.

Reasonable Dowd

Oliver Stone’s upcoming visit to campus encourages students to ask what their art at BC means, A7

Bestsellers...............................A6 Box Office Report........................A6

SPORTS

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MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2014

[ northeast regional ]

Spectrum: from tears to cheesesteaks

RIVERHAWK DOWN

CONNOR MELLAS “Thwack!” “Thwaaaack!”

Like a pair of bullets fired at the clouds from within a crowd of wailing banshees, the sound of Ian McCoshen’s stick rapping against the ice pierced the cacophony of the UMass Lowell horde. For a nanosecond, the resonating desperation caused by the slap of the stick on the ice overpowered the rapturous blob of Riverhawks fans. It was a wooden plea for the puck—and instants later, as McCoshen howled for the pass, Teddy Doherty obliged his defensive partner in crime. The 6-foot-3 tree trunk of a freshman saw daylight with the puck on his stick, and, gunning a wrister for the open space in Connor Hellebuyck’s net, McCoshen could not miss.

Down went the Riverhawks, 4-3.

Half an hour later, UMass Lowell senior winger Josh Holmstrom pressed a towel to his sweaty, pink, and emotion-torn cheek and faced the press. Dried tears on his face and reinforcements quivering in the corners of his bloodshot eyes, Holmstrom steadied his shaking voice and held it together. He endured forced, rambling questions about his legacy at Lowell and his second period goal, and then escaped for the locker room where he could be with his teammates and slip off his red, white, and blue Riverhawks sweater for the last time.

Holmstrom remained composed. The forward credited Boston College and faithfully did everything student-athlete protocol demanded he do, but it would be hard to blame him if he had just laid his head flat on the table, cursed Jerry York, Ryan Fitzgerald, and all things maroon and gold, and sobbed, because on Sunday night, his team lost one of the best games of hockey in years.

BC and UMass Lowell fought like demons in each of the three periods of the NCAA Northeast Regional Final, beating the hell out of each other physically and mentally for the entire time. There were 60 minutes of back-and-forth grappling in that game, and there was not a single time in which it was remotely clear who would win—even with 10 seconds left, it took a desperate clearance from McCoshen to keep the game from going to overtime.

It’s easy to buy into the whole “best defense vs. best offense” narrative and chalk the game up to the poetic parallelism of yin versus yang, but in reality, the Eagles defended responsibly and attacked like springloaded mavericks, and UMass assaulted BC’s zone better than most teams have this year and defended with highly focused com-

UML

BC

4 3 Top Down This weekend, the top line scored all but two of the Eagles’ goals and played a part in all but one.

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BY MICHAEL HOFF Heights Staff Early in the second period, Boston College goalie Thatcher Demko closed off the left post as a UMass Lowell attacker poked away on the short side. Demko had no idea the puck was already behind him, idly straddling the goal line, but he noticed before Lowell could take advantage. The Riverhawks could have taken the lead there, and may have won if they did. Demko somehow turned around without touching the puck, though, and UMass Lowell’s season was over. The two best teams in the Hockey East left all they had at the DCU Center on Sunday night, but BC left more, barely, and won a trip to the Frozen Four in Philadelphia.

“As excited I am with the championship of the region and going to the Frozen Four, I’ve gotta tell you how impressed I am with the Riverhawks,” said BC head coach Jerry York. “They battled and competed so hard, and pushed us to the very zenith of our effort.”

“I wouldn’t change too much,” said Lowell coach Norm Bazin.

Two BC miscues on the first shift of the third period left the Eagles close to spending the next two weeks relaxing at home. Lowell forward Evan Campbell

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intercepted Bill Arnold’s egregious cross-ice pass at the Eagles’ blue line and turned the corner on BC defenseman Scott Savage. Campbell sent the puck back toward the slot, but it hit Savage’s blade in the midterm, just as Demko came off his post, and the puck skirted in on the short side 43 seconds into the frame to give Lowell the 3-2 lead.

The defensive Riverhawks finally had a lead to sit on, but BC freshman Ryan Fitzgerald came across the offensive blue line on the next shift, took a pass from Patrick Brown, and split defenseman Dylan Zink and Zack Kamrass before deking Connor Hellebuyck forehand to backhand. Hellebuyck flailed like the Hockey East’s first-team goaltender rarely does, and Fitzgerald went five-hole and tied the game before Demko had a chance to ruminate on the potential season-ending softie.

“That goal by Ryan Fitzgerald was unbelievable,” Arnold said.

The two teams went back and forth for the rest of the third, but just over halfway into the period, BC forward Kevin Hayes battled with and beat two Riverhawks for the puck in the right corner of the offensive zone, dished the puck back to pinching defenseman Teddy Doherty, who carved toward the net when

See Hockey, B3

See Column, B3

Shea Field’s condition dependent on warming temperatures

BY ALEX FAIRCHILD Asst. Sports Editor Expect Shea Field to be ready for Boston College baseball’s game against Connecticut on Tuesday afternoon. If the field is not ready for Tuesday, BC Athletics believes it will definitely be set for the team’s series with North Carolina next weekend. Multiple events have been relocated due to the field’s condition this spring, including two series for the baseball team—against Wake Forest and No. 1 Florida State. Four softball games have been moved off campus as well.

For the field to be in shape for play, temperatures have to consistently remain above freezing overnight, which has yet to happen in Chestnut Hill this season. While some believe that the problem lies in new sod used on the field, the problem is actually the infield.

“It’s not the sod that’s stopping us from playing,” said Assistant Director of Athletics Matt Conway. “It’s really the infield dirt and the infield clay that was affected by that overnight freeze and then thaw during the

day factor.”

When the temperature freezes and then warms up in the afternoon, the infield clay turns to mud. Overnight, the moisture from the thaw ends up inside of the clay, and the infield freezes over again. As temperatures warm up during the day, moisture comes out on the infield clay and turns the area into mud again, rendering the field unplayable.

Baseball has had to relocate games to turf facilities in Brookline, Mass. which is where Northeastern University plays, and to the University of Rhode Island’s Kingston, R.I. location. Another game was moved to Smithfield, R.I., which is the home of Bryant University. Softball’s three-game set with Florida State was moved to Bryant as well.

The former two are turf fields, and the only dirt part of the field is the mound, which can easily be covered overnight. Bryant’s diamond was available because temperatures have been warm enough for the field to be used.

While baseball and softball series have been moved in the past due to weather, the school’s future plans for an expansion to a

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Brighton Campus facility will serve as a solution to the problem. The new fields, which will be located across Comm. Ave., will be a synthetic surface, similar to those of what URI and Northeastern have, with the whole infield being turf, and the only dirt being on the mound.

The coaching staffs of both teams have been able to deal with the changes, but the wear-and-tear on the bodies of student-athletes is a concern for the athletics department.

“We really want to try to make a great experience always for our student-athletes,” Conway said. “It’s hard on those guys, because it really creates another weekend of travel for them, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid.”

Each year, games for the start of both teams’ seasons are scheduled in the south and west of the country, where the temperature is warmer in the late winter and early spring. Baseball has already played in California, Florida, and Virginia, while the softball team headed to Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia, and Florida before returning home. 

Lacrosse: BC falls to Maryland

The Eagles lost their second in three games, this time to the Terrapins..........................B2

MARLY MORGUS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The baseball team has had to move seven home games so far this season due to field conditions.

Baseball: Eagles swept by FSU The Seminoles dominated the Eagles in a 3-0 series win this weekend...................B2

Roundup...................................B4 Sports in Short.........................B2

THE HEIGHTS

B2

Monday, March 31, 2014

BC narrowly falls to Maryland for second top-five loss in three games

BY TOMMY MELORO Heights Staff The Boston College women’s lacrosse team had gotten off to a fast 10 start this year, Maryland winning seven Boston College 9 of its first eight games, but the Eagles have lost two of their last three. The two losses have been to top teams, but they were largely due to the Eagles’ inability to put forth a strong start in the beginning of their games. Against the University of North Carolina, the Eagles went down 2-0, eventually losing 14-13. Facing Harvard on Wednesday, BC went down 3-0 before it roared back to beat the Crimson 13-9.

The Eagles continued their trend on Saturday at Maryland, as the Terrapins leapt out to a 4-0 lead. BC recovered to take the lead late in the second half, but they were unable to finish out the game, and Maryland beat BC 10-9.

Despite having a strong year, one Eagle who did not have her best game against the Terrapins was BC goalie Emily Mata. Maryland tallied 15 shots in the game, 13 on target. Mata made just three saves, two in the first half and just one in the second. Maryland deserves much of the credit for being so ruthlessly efficient with its offensive opportunities, but Mata’s performance was her first truly sub-par one of the year. Mean-

while, Maryland’s Abbey Clipp made four saves in the 40 minutes she played, with Emily Kift making three saves of her own to keep the Eagles off the board in the final 15:09 to seal the win.

The first half was lacking offensively for the Eagles, who managed just three goals and were held scoreless for the first 12 minutes. It was Sarah Mannelly who finally broke through for BC. Mannelly ended up with three goals and an assist, adding yet another game to her recent string of strong performances.

By the time the end of the game rolled around, BC’s usual suspects had racked up their stats, but the team’s quiet first half had already doomed the Eagles.

Covie Stanwick had two goals and two assists, and Mikaela Rix scored twice.

With Mannelly’s points, the Eagles’ three leading scorers tallied 10 points, but just three came in the first half.

Whatever BC head coach Acacia Walker said at halftime got the Eagles rolling early. Within the first 11 minutes, BC turned a three-goal deficit into a two-goal lead, as the Eagles scored five straight.

It would be the first and only time BC led in the game, as less than three minutes later, Maryland tied the game up at eight. Just over a minute after that, the Terps took a 9-8 lead. Caroline Margolis had been given a yellow card, and when Maryland’s Taylor Cummings earned herself a free position shot, she did not

hesitate to convert for her third goal of the game, which paced the Terps.

After Stanwick tied the game 21 seconds later, however, Walker’s magic dried up—as did the Eagles’ offensive ability, as BC failed to score for the rest of the game. When Erin Collins scored her second goal of the game and 12th of the year, Maryland just needed to continue its strong defensive play to clinch its 13th win of the year.

The Terrapins won the game in the fundamentals. Maryland turned the ball over just five times, and just once in the second half. Although BC forced the four turnovers in the first half, it also turned it over four times, negating its defensive effort.

Maryland also fouled BC just 10 times, giving up three free position shots. The Eagles were only able to convert on one of those free position shots. BC won 11 of 20 draws in the game, lower than its season average.

The Eagles fouled Maryland 15 times, and the Terrapins converted on two of three free position shots, including their final goal.

It was the third game in a row in which the Eagles put themselves in an early hole. Against Harvard—a good team but not a great team—BC was able to roar back and win. Against top five teams in North Carolina and Maryland, however, the Eagles ended up being unable to overcome their early deficits. 

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

Mikaela Rix had two goals in the Eagles’ narrow 10-9 loss to Maryland on Saturday.

Florida State dominates BC in final game of weekend series

BY JOHNNY CAREY Heights Staff After suffering a double-header sweep, bookended by a backbreaking ninth inning collapse on Friday, the Eagles looked to 10 Florida State stave off a Boston College 1 series sweep against the No. 1 Florida State Seminoles on Saturday. The ’Noles showed once again how good they are, though, pummeling Boston College 10-1.

“You see why Florida State’s the No. 1 team in the country and why Coach Martin has so many wins,” said BC head coach Mike Gambino. “That’s an unbelievable baseball club.”

Sophomore Jeff Burke took the mound and was solid for the Eagles, logging six innings of work while allowing only four hits. Five runs were scored while Burke was on the mound, though just two were earned. Burke got off to a shaky start in the first inning, walking three batters and allowing three Seminoles to score. After giving up five walks in only four innings against Georgia Tech last weekend, it was deja vu early on for Burke, though he bounced back in a big way by retiring the last 11 batters he faced on the day.

Following Burke’s up and down day, Gambino called upon his bullpen in hopes of keeping the Eagles in the game, but it was to no avail. The Seminoles

came out hot in the seventh inning and made it an eight-run blowout, scoring four runs on three hits, which was highlighted by a triple from Jose Brizuela.

The Seminoles added another run in the eighth, building their lead to 10-1.

Five of FSU’s starting nine registered an RBI on the afternoon, including three RBIs apiece from Jose Brizuela and John Sansone. The Seminoles hit pretty well, tallying nine, but the main catalyst for their offense was their patience at the plate. BC allowed nine walks on the day, continuing a trend of wildness on the mound, which had Gambino frustrated.

“I wasn’t real happy with us today,” Gambino said. “I wasn’t really happy with

all the walks we had, and I wasn’t really happy with how we played defense. You can’t do that against, arguably, the best team in the country.”

Florida State had no such problems.

FSU’s pitching was simply too much to handle for the Eagles. BC batters were overpowered all day by one of the nation’s best pitching staffs, tallying three hits on the afternoon. Bryant Holtmann improved to 4-0 on the year, pitching six innings of one-hit, shutout baseball.

Despite the lopsided score, Brandon Johnson was able to earn a save on the afternoon, as he pitched throughout the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings.

Coupling dominant pitching with a stellar defense that committed no errors on

the day—the Seminoles were superior in all facets of the game.

Highlights for the Eagles were few and far between, as the only run the team scored came in the bottom of the first inning, already trailing 3-0. The run came via a Chris Shaw sacrifice fly, bringing in Gabriel Hernandez. After the first inning, the Eagles did not notch another hit until the fifth, which would end up being the team’s final hit of the game.

Saturday’s game was a microcosm of two teams in the same conference sitting in polar opposite spots. The Seminoles played a smart, tidy game with plenty of timely hitting, while the Eagles played sloppily and didn’t give themselves a chance to win. 

Beats, ball, and life: How the game can make up for lack of conversation AUSTIN TEDESCO

SPORTS in SHORT

By the time I was old enough to remember any of them, my dad and I stopped going on vacations together.

We didn’t stop traveling—far from it.

We just realized that vacations were the opposite of how we wanted to spend our time. A vacation is relaxing. A vacation is the futile embrace of nothingness. A vacation, to us, is boring. So, instead of vacationing, a few times a year we would pack our bags and turn into basketball barnstormers. In place of short shorts and dirty finger rolls, we brought secondhand tickets and sweaters.

My dad, Fred, set a goal when I was about 13 to see a game at every NBA arena by the time I graduated from high school. It was a little ambitious. I’m a year away from college graduation now, and we still have five cities left: Portland, Denver, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Toronto.

We’ve rarely visited a city for more than 36 hours, and during those hours there’s as little downtime as possible.

To outsiders, it’s slightly insane. There are two kinds of trips. Sometimes we fly into a city during the afternoon, grab dinner at a local place he thinks I spent weeks researching when really I just checked my phone for something with a few stars in the near vicinity, head to a game that night, and fly out first thing in the morning. Other times we get there late at night, explore the city a bit during the day, and then start the regular afternoon routine. Or, we forget both that it’s daylight savings time and that we are flying to Arizona where daylight savings time isn’t a thing, realize when we’re checking in at the airport that our flight has already landed without us, finagle our way onto another one, and somehow arrive in our seats in downtown Phoenix before halftime.

There was the time we saw the Space Needle for five minutes. With a few hours to kill before a Sonics game, we rode up the elevator, did a lap around the concourse, nodded affirmatively, noting we’d seen everything, and asked an attendant when the next elevator

ACC Atlantic Baseball Standings Team

Conference

Overall

Florida State

10-2-0

22-5-0

Clemson

17-9-0

17-9-0

Wake Forest

19-10-0

19-10-0

Maryland

5-6-0

16-8-0

NC State

3-9-0

15-11-0

Notre Dame

1-11-0

9-17-0

Boston College

1-11-0

7-18-0

was coming. He shot us a confused and somewhat disappointed look. The elevators only ran every 20 minutes. We asked if there were stairs. There weren’t.

I have no idea if my dad liked basketball before I was born. If he didn’t, he doesn’t show it. Basketball is my favorite thing in the world—it’s an obsession unmatched at times by friends or family or my real life. Any time I wanted to play, my dad would come outside and rebound shots or challenge me to oneon-one.

As I got older, he’d drive me hours across Texas to games wherein I might only log single-digit minutes. When I could drive myself, he’d still be there, sitting or standing in the corner of the bleachers, watching calmly with a smile. He rarely missed a game. If it ever looked like he might not be there because of work, he made sure to look into every possible flight that would get him home in time for tip-off.

Despite all of this, my dad and I don’t talk much. My last 100 text messages to him are some variation of “Okay cool,

sounds good to me.” The 100 before that look pretty similar.

We don’t have silent trips. He’ll ask me about the Eastern Conference playoff race, my grades, how Kevin Durant is doing, then my grades, colleges I was interested in, the grades I’d need to get into them, classes I’m taking, and my grades in those classes. But, through 21 years together, there are few conversations with my dad that I can remember.

We’ve never been like that. My dad’s only ever found out I was dating someone because she told him about it. It’s not my style to share, and it’s not his to ask.

Maybe we don’t need that, though.

I can’t remember anything we said, but there are some moments with my dad I know I’ll never forget. Our sinking disappointment surrounded in a crowd of newly befriended Memphis fans as Kansas’ Mario Chalmers hit a dagger 3-pointer at the 2008 Final Four. The anticipation as the referees spent seven minutes reviewing Patrick Sparks’ buzzer-beater at the Elite Eight in

Austin between Kentucky and Michigan State in 2005. The hundreds of games we’ve been to, and how, inevitably, by the end of the first quarter he’ll be holding a beer and a salt-free pretzel, with a grin tucked underneath his cap.

And that, even though I toggled between being the second- or thirdstring point guard on a decent at best team, he was there for my high school senior night and couldn’t have looked more proud.

I didn’t play much in that game, and I left the gym pissed off even though we’d won. My dad was waiting for me in the kitchen when I got home. He let me vent for a bit, he told me he loved me, that he was going to miss watching me play, and then he left me alone because he knew that’s what I wanted.

So, maybe we don’t have to talk.

We have basketball, and we have those memories, and that’s more than enough.

Austin Tedesco is an editor for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.

Numbers to Know

Quote of the Week “He’s gonna fake that shot, he’s gonna try and The number of games that Johnny get that goalie to go down, Gaudreau played for BC before scoring Emily Fahey / Heights EditorCupicatuidet L. Fulessedo, querfecta, nihilicii ineri fic he’s gonna go for the wraphis first hat trick. around on the far post, but until you see that creativity, The lead that the Eagles had going and you see that head fake into the ninth inning against Florida State on Friday. and the shoulder drop, you don’t realize...”

117

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

5

4

The lacrosse team’s margin of defeat over three games against top-five teams.

Denver head coach Jim Montgomery on Johnny Gaudreau

—

THE HEIGHTS

Monday, March 31, 2014

B3

Eagles grind it out against UMass Lowell for Frozen Four berth Hockey, from B1 he heard Ian McCoshen calling for the puck.

“He’s always talking, he’s always loud, he’s one of the louder guys on the team,” Doherty said of McCoshen. “When I was coming down I was thinking shoot all the way, but he was screaming, and thankfully I passed it over.”

Lowell didn’t hear McCoshen though, and Doherty fed him as he crept into the left circle. McCoshen fired before Hellebuyck’s right arm could cover the red line, and BC was 8:44 from a trip to Philly.

“He wasn’t gonna miss that one,” Arnold said. “He has one of the hardest shots I’ve ever seen.”

Earlier in the game, neither side granted the other much in a wellcontested first period that finished tied at one apiece, and BC took the lead late in the second when Arnold scooped up a blocked shot in the slot and rang the puck inside of the right post before the puck snuck past Hellebuyck at 17:34.

A minute later, as BC regrouped in its own zone, McCoshen sent to puck to the right half-wall where Matheson was, but Matheson wasn’t looking and kept retreating. Lowell took possession and Holmstrom eventually hammered a rebound in front of the net past Demko to tie it at 18:43.

Following McCoshen’s goal, Lowell pushed until the end, but BC held strong on the game’s final shift. Matheson blocked a shot, McCoshen cleared a dangerous rebound, and Hayes’ dive as the clocked waned down to zero knocked the puck out of BC’s zone.

Just like that, the Eagles were going to the Frozen Four.

“Are we are fortunate to come out with a trip to Philadelphia?”

York said. “Absolutely. It easily could have gone the other way tonight.”

“When you get an opportunity against a good team, you better finish it,” Bazin said. “Because it’s going to come back to haunt you.

And it certainly did.” 

EMILY FAHEY/ HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Eagles advanced to Philadelphia and the Frozen Four with a 4-3 win over UMass Lowell in the Northeast Regional final last night in Worcester.

Gaudreau nets first hat trick

Top line dominates Pioneers

BY MARLY MORGUS Assoc. Sports Editor

BY CONNOR MELLAS Sports Editor Going into the weekend, the last time Johnny Gaudreau scored three goals in one hockey game was the season before he came to Boston College, when he was playing in the U.S. Hockey league (USHL). Back then, his team was the Dubuque Fighting Saints, his coach was a former NHL center named Jim Montgomery, and over the course of 60 games, Gaudreau scored 36 goals.

On Saturday night in BC’s NCAA Northeast Regional game, after almost three full seasons of college hockey, 74 goals, and 90 assists, Gaudreau netted his first collegiate hat trick in BC’s 6-2 win over the Denver Pioneers, his former coach’s team. Nearly four years later, it seems that being around Montgomery still brings out the goals in Gaudreau.

“Johnny Gaudreau—he’s the one, he’s the straw that stirs the drink,” Montgomery said after the game.

Before many of the fans in attendance at the DCU Center in Worcester even had a chance to put down their own drinks, Gaudreau had already put the Pioneers down a goal. Just 25 seconds into the first period, Gaudreau slid into the slot and belted a pass from Kevin Hayes past Denver goaltender Sam Brittain.

The Gaudreau-Hayes-Bill Arnold line had the Pioneers by the throat within the first minute of the game, and it never let go.

“The first shift was our worst nightmare,” Montgomery said. “We didn’t have our center down low, and our wing rotated high without

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Johnny Gaudreau scored his first hat trick as an Eagle against Denver. communication, but they did make a high-end play, and Johnny made no mistake about it.”

Five minutes later, Arnold fed Hayes to double BC’s lead, and four minutes and four seconds later, defenseman Michael Matheson sprung Gaudreau on a breakaway. Tearing toward the boards, Gaudreau swept behind the left side of Denver’s net and wrapped around the back, dropping the puck through the inches of space between Brittain’s sliding blocker and the post. With more than 10 minutes remaining in the first period, the game was, in effect, already over.

“His ability to find open ice, and like that third goal, you know, we scouted it—and I know coaching him that he comes down the strong side, he’s gonna fake that shot, he’s gonna try and get that goalie to go down, he’s gonna go for the wrap around on the far post,” Montgomery said. “But until you see that creativity, and you see that head fake and the shoulder drop, you don’t realize.”

From that point on, the hat trick watch was on, and every time Gaudreau touched the puck in open ice, a buzz of energy spread through the crowd. By game’s end, BC’s top line

would account for all six of the Eagles’ goals, and less than halfway through the second period, Gaudreau had the hatty.

Comparisons are often drawn between Gaudreau and Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane, and Gaudreau’s third score was of the opportunistic Kane variety. Trapping the puck in the corner by the boards, Gaudreau saw an opportunity and banked a shot off the back of Brittain. It wasn’t a pretty finish, but the puck knuckled down to the ice and slid into the goal.

“It’s hard not to produce on the score sheet when you’re playing with Kevin and Bill,” Gaudreau said.

Arnold would get on the score sheet for BC’s sixth, and though Denver netted two goals in the third period, BC cruised to a confident finish with the third and fourth lines icing out much of the game.

After the game, a resilient Montgomery credited BC head coach Jerry York and his players for their win.

Asked what he wants a little more of for his team going forward and what his squad needs, Montgomery’s answer was simple: “John Gaudreau.”

“No, I don’t mean him,” Montgomery elaborated. “I mean a clone.” 

BC is officially Philly-bound, but UMass was never out of contention Column, from B1 posure. Anyone watching the action at the DCU Center didn’t witness opposing forces of nature dueling it out for narrative justice—they saw two great hockey teams adapting to each other and scrapping it out however the game demanded.

There’s been a lot of punditry about and questioning of BC’s depth, lately—which is absurd, considering that each forward on BC’s second line has scored more than 25 points this season—but BC’s depth is what edged it past Lowell.

Twenty-one seconds after the Eagles gave up a momentum-crushing, slip-up howler, Fitzgerald scored his first point in four games by tearing off on a breakaway and deking Hellebuyck halfway back to Lowell.

Every single one of BC’s defense-

men looked sharp throughout the night—Michael Matheson in particular had the puck glued to his stick all game, and it’s shocking the third line didn’t score. Quinn Smith, Michael Sit, and Brendan Silk ran the Riverhawks ragged on every shift.

Even the fourth line excelled in its select minutes of ice time—Adam Gilmour looked like a younger Kevin Hayes, picking out passes and creating space.

All the while, the Riverhawks threw everything they had at BC. Despite how well-matched the birds of prey were, one team had to lose, and on this night, it was Lowell.

The great cruelty of sports isn’t anything that happens on the ice, field, or court—it’s what happens when the game is over, the fans are gone, and you have time to think.

York and the Eagles are headed to Philly to grab some cheesesteaks and maybe a sixth star for the back of their jerseys, and Holmstrom and his fellow seniors’ college hockey careers are over.

And yet, it could have easily gone the opposite way. BC won two games and tied another against Lowell this season, but these teams could play 10 times and end up 5-5. One tiny moment could have flipped the script on Sunday night, and if Doherty had failed to hear McCoshen’s stick pounding on the ice, it would have been Bill Arnold with a towel pressed to his cheeks, and tears welling in his eyes.

Connor Mellas is the Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@ bcheights.com.

Typically, when it has been a long time since you’ve done something, it can take a while to get your legs back under Boston College 6 you.

Denver 2 Maybe you can’t shoot a free throw the same way you did back in your days on the basketball team, or maybe the material from the beginning of your calculus class will need some refreshing come finals.

For the Boston College hockey team, this waver in focus and confidence was very possible. After a season of playing competitive games at least twice a week, the Eagles had played just four games in the month leading up to Saturday’s NCAA Northeast Regional first-round matchup with the Denver University Pioneers. Each of those four games had been played against the same team—Notre Dame—and the Eagles lost three of them.

“It was rough losing to Notre Dame,” said senior forward Kevin Hayes. “Not being able to play in the Garden kind of hit everyone hard. I thought the coaches did a great job the last two weeks getting the guys ready.

The motivation, like Coach says, is we have nine freshmen and we want to show them how it’s done, and I think they got a pretty good taste of how hard they have to play.”

For those nine Eagles, this was the lead up to their first-ever NCAA tournament, and for BC, it was not an ideal way to enter the biggest tournament of the year. While the Eagles were forced to make do with practice instead of game play, the Pioneers were in the midst of their first NCHC tournament, capturing wins over Nebraska Omaha, Western Michigan, then Miami (Ohio) in the final for the conference title.

This dynamic could have been dangerous for the young BC team, but the Eagles thrived on it, putting forth a convincing 6-2 performance and advancing to the regional final.

The Eagles leapt out from the very beginning, immediately showing that a few weeks without frequent gameplay wasn’t about to slow them down. Rather, they made an early statement, as Johnny Gaudreau put up the first goal of the night 25 seconds into the first period. The offense didn’t end there, though. In the first 10 minutes of play, the Eagles scored three times, with Hayes tacking on the second point about five minutes after Gaudreau’s opening strike, then Gaudreau making it 3-0 just before the 10-minute mark of the period.

“We started very, very quickly,” said BC head coach Jerry York. “We got some terrific play out of Billy Arnold’s line ... I thought tonight they were really sharp, moved pucks well.”

All four lines saw playing time on Saturday night, but only the first saw any tallies on the score sheet. BC was playing in a dominant style, with goaltender Thatcher Demko seeing little action on his end of the ice. Denver took only three shots on goal in the first period. “[They] competed really hard, coming back and playing good defense,” York said.

The Eagles’ barrage continued into the second. Denver managed to stoke the fires of its offense a little, getting off six shots to the Eagles’ 10, and one from Trevor Moore slipped

by Demko to score as the clock dipped under the one-minute mark for the period.

Before Denver scored its first goal, though, the Eagles had already tacked on another three—Hayes tallying his second, Gaudreau with his first hat trick as an Eagle, and Arnold completing the scoring sweep for the line.

With a comfortable margin heading into the third period for the Eagles, the fourth line, which was expected to see very little playing time during the tournament, started taking regular shifts, cooling down the first line that was blasting on all cylinders during the first two periods of play.

“We can play them a lot more minutes because of the [television] timeouts,” York said. “Two-minute timeouts three times a period, so our game plan was to at least play them 24 minutes. I think they exceeded that, but at the end we sat them for the last six or seven minutes … You can’t do that during the regular season.”

The Pioneers also made a change, pulling goalie Sam Brittain in favor of Evan Cowley. Those changes calmed the Eagles’ onslaught, as Cowley stopped each of BC’s seven shots.

Decreased offense did not come with slacked defense, though. The Eagles’ PK stayed perfect for the day, killing off 14 minutes of penalties taken by various BC players throughout the night. Two of those successes came in the final frame. There was only one blip in play—with the Eagles still up by five going into the final 15 seconds, a lapse in concentration allowed Evan Janssen to slip the Pioneers’ second goal past Demko.

It was much too late for a comeback, though, and the game ended with a final score of Eagles 6, Pioneers 2. On those six goals, only two of the nine freshmen gained a single point.

Scott Savage had an assist on the game opener, and Demko was credited with an assist on Gaudreau’s third. The top line of Gaudreau, Arnold, and Hayes combined for 13 points.

“We want to have a good offense,” York said. “If it happens to come from three players, then it comes from three players. I think when they watch from the bench they can see some of the plays they make, and how they protect pucks—it helps all of us.” 

THE HEIGHTS

B4

Monday, March 31, 2014

Eagles’ offense turns on to drop Bryant in mid-week matchup

BY JIM HILL Heights Staff The Boston College softball players arrived at Conaty Park on Thursday with the goal of rebounding and recovering from their losing Boston College 6 streak . The y Bryant 3 had already familiarized themselves with the ballpark over the course of an exacting weekend series against No. 10 Florida State, during which temperatures—and BC’s batting average—plummeted. The Eagles had struggled through three consecutive losses, with 23 strikeouts and 12 hits in 66 at-bats. Furthermore, they had watched, through two frigid Smithfield, R.I. afternoons, as the mighty FSU generated 18 total runs against them.

The pitfalls appeared to be far behind the players by midweek, however, after being addressed in their team meetings and practices.

A certain confidence seemed to characterize the players’—or at least their coach’s—perspectives, as they prepared to play the Bryant University Bulldogs, the hometown team, in that very same Conaty Park.

“Coming off of a disappointing series against Florida State … we want to get out there and play some games,” said BC head coach Ashley Obrest prior to the contest.

“We’re ready to go again.”

This confidence manifested itself in the final score of Thursday’s matchup, as the players defeated Bryant 6-3. It also showed

in the way in which the team seized victory, through power hitting and power pitching—things that, for the BC ballplayers, were largely absent from their series against the Florida State Seminoles.

With the temperature hovering around 50 degrees by game time, an early and figurative thawing of the BC bats occurred. The Eagles scored their first runs in the second inning. After outfielder Tory Speer drew a walk, and after Taylor Coroneos reached on a single, freshman catcher Tatiana Cortez hit an arcing shot beyond the outfield fence, driving in three runs and giving BC a 3-0 lead.

The Bulldogs responded to Cortez’s three-run home run quickly. In the fourth inning, with two outs and with two Bryant runners—leftfielder Haley Haas and third baseman Emily Bouthillette—in scoring position, second baseman Liana Ogata struck a grounder beyond the reach of BC first baseman Jordan Weed. The hit, which was eventually stopped in right field, drove in two runs and abruptly closed the gap between the two teams, with Bryant behind by one.

Both the closeness of the game and the Bulldogs’ comeback rally were short-lived, though. In the fifth inning, Cortez would provide another clutch hit—the effective deathblow. Once again with two runners on base, Coroneos and second baseman Alana DiMaso, who both reached on fielders’ choices, the BC batter launched a home run, with an aggressive uppercut swing, into deep

left. Cortez’s second three-run shot would give BC a 6-2 lead. Although Bryant scored another run in the sixth with a homerun hit by first baseman Elle Madsen, the hometown team could not match or overcome Cortez and BC’s offensive production and fell to the visiting Eagles.

While Cortez’s power hitting enabled BC to take the lead over Bryant, power pitching helped the Eagles hold it. Starting pitcher Nicole D’Argento surrendered three runs, but the right-handed hurler succeeded in getting key outs—outs that prevented the Bulldogs from mounting a concerted comeback rally. In the third inning, she stopped a jam—with the bases loaded and nimble Ogata on third—from becoming a Bryant scoring spree, securing two outs to end the inning. In the sixth, after Madsen launched her no-out homerun, she composed herself and retired the side without incident, striking out three batters. Over the course of her six innings on the mound, D’Argento struck out a total of eight Bryant ballplayers, stifling the opposing team’s offense.

By way of power hitting and power pitching—through the tremendous outings of Cortez and D’Argento—the BC softball team performed exceptionally well this past Thursday. Furthermore, in defeating its regional competitors in this midweek game and conquering Conaty Park, the BC players achieved an important goal: the snapping of a three-game skid and the reversal of a narrative created by the Seminoles. 

Eagles give up five-run lead to FSU

The Eagles’ offense was hot against Bryant on Thursday, tallying a total of eight hits.

BC shut out by FSU to open weekend series

BY MICHAEL HOFF Heights Staff

BY BRIAN BROOKS For The Heights Three outs away. Boston College entered the top of the ninth with a comfortable 7-2 lead, needing three outs—just three measly outs—to send 11 Florida State the No. 1 team Boston College 7 in the country packing. Everything was going right for BC. The bats were producing, plating seven runs over the course of the afternoon. Starter Andrew Chin was dealing, eventually leaving in the eighth inning after having surrendered two runs on just three hits. Then, head coach Mike Gambino decided to make the move to the bullpen, which went on to surrender a ninerun ninth. After the Eagles failed to mount a comeback in the bottom of the ninth, they fell, 11-7, to Florida State.

BC got the scoring started early. In the second inning, John Hennessy laid a bunt down the line, moving Joe Cronin to third base.

Gambino then decided to go with the suicide squeeze as Logan Hoggarth laid another dribbling bunt down the first base line. The Seminoles opted to take the out, and Cronin crossed the plate to take the 1-0 lead.

FSU struck back in the top of the third, getting a pair of runners on first and second with one out as BC starter Andrew Chin walked Hank Truluck and then plunked Josh Delph. Seminoles shortstop Justin Gonzalez found the gap between left and center on the next at-bat, turned on the jets, and headed to second for a bases-clearing double to give the ’Noles a one-run lead. Chin would manage to strand Gonzalez on third base after the BC infield closed out the inning.

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Andrew Chin started the second game of the Eagles’ series against Florida State.

After his third-inning hiccup, Chin was electric, throwing the ball hard and hitting his spots. Not only was he inducing weak contact for easy outs, but Chin was also responsible for sending plenty of ’Noles batters back to the dugout before even leaving the batters’ box, recording eight K’s on the day, while only walking two.

Gambino, sticking with what was working, played a little more small ball in the bottom of the third, as BC had been struggling recently while swinging away. Blake Butera recorded a bunt single, moving Gabriel Hernandez, who reached himself on a single to right center, over to second. ’Noles starter Mike Compton couldn’t handle a shot right back at him from Eagles center fielder Tom Bourdon on the next at-bat, loading up the bases with no outs.

Compton then did an admirable job pitching out of the bases-loaded jam, striking out two and getting Hennessy to foul out to third basemen Jose Brizuela to end the inning, but not before Cronin smacked a deep sac fly to right, allowing Hernandez to score and tie up the ballgame.

After a scoreless fourth and fifth, the Eagles got the bats going once again in the sixth inning, further extending their lead. Cronin, continuing his big day, sent a one-out shot to right field, beating the throw and sliding

ROUND U P

safely into second base. Two batters later, Hoggarth knocked him in with an infield single to third, one of his four RBIs on the day. A Tyler Hinchliffe single up the middle sent Hoggarth to second, and a Nick Sciortino single to right allowed Hoffarth to turn the corner around third and touch home, giving BC a comfortable 4-2 cushion.

Swinging the bats well, the Eagles got going again in the seventh, with a trio of insurance runs, although they would soon find out that it wouldn’t be enough. Cronin smacked a single through the right side to send Bourdon to third and Butera home to score. After Cronin moved to second on a wild pitch, Hoggarth knocked in two runs on a single to right, plating both Cronin and Bourdon and putting the Eagles up 7-2.

Three little outs. That’s all that was asked of the Eagles’ bullpen in the top of the ninth, but the carousel of Jesse Adams, John Nicklas, and Steve Green could not get the job done. Adams immediately found himself in a no-out, basesloaded jam, spelling the first signs of trouble.

After walking in a run, the snowball effect set in, as the Eagles could not buy an out. The Seminoles eventually scored nine runs that inning, giving them an 11-7 lead and the victory, as the Eagles dropped the second game of what would become a three-game FSU sweep. 

Boston College baseball hosted Florida State at its latest home, Bill Beck Field in Kingston, R.I., for a double header Friday 6 Florida State and dropped Boston College 0 the first bill 60. The Seminole offense steadily padded the scoreboard, but starting pitcher Luke Weaver didn’t need most of the support.

Weaver granted the BC offense just one hit and two walks and struck out four in a complete game shutout.

“It’s something I have always strived for,” Weaver said regarding his first complete game. “It was one of those games where I’m not going to strike a lot of people out, it’s tough conditions, it’s cold, it’s windy, and I just had to battle the whole game … I was throwing the off speed for strikes and getting them to chase that as well. I was really trying to control myself out there today and not let the factors get the better of me.”

BC starter John Gorman worked around a leadoff walk in the first inning after catcher Nick Sciortino hosed down Florida State right fielder Josh Delph at second base, but he got touched up for two runs on two hits in the top of the second and third innings.

Gorman left after the third, allowing four hits, walks, and strikeouts on the outing.

“We got some key hits early on, and that was no question a big part of the game,” said Florida State head coach Mike Martin. “To get a couple runs in the second and third off Gorman was big. He is one of their best pitchers. On days like

today, you got to take advantage of every opportunity, and we did that today.”

Eagles relievers Mike King, Nick Poore, and Tyler Hincheliffe stemmed the Seminole tide for the balance of the game, giving up just two hits and one walk along with two runs. King replaced Gorman and sat down the first six batters he faced, before Florida State cleanup hitter John Nogowski hit a double to lead off the seventh. Nogowski later scored on a leadoff double that pushed the score to 5-0.

King finished the frame and Poore took over in the seventh, and he, too, retired the first (and only) six batters he faced in clean seventh and eighth inning showings while punching out Delph looking and Nogowski swinging.

Hinchcliffe mopped up the ninth and struck out Jose Brizuela before allowing a hit and walk that led to Florida State plating the final run.

The BC offense kept up its ways throughout the game, offering zero support or hope for its bullpen. Eagles’ right fielder Chris Shaw managed a single in the seventh after Tom Bourdon’s two-out walk, but shortstop Joe Cronin ended the faint (and only) threat when Weaver struck him out swinging on three pitches. The two runners that Cronin stranded were the only two Weaver left on base the entire game. Weaver didn’t allow another hitter to reach base after that, and he struck out Blake Butera to end the first half of the twin bill in the ninth.

“A great performance by Luke Weaver,” Martin said. “He went out there and was very professional in his approach.

It was a good win for this baseball team.” 

BY SCOTT HILL | HEIGHTS STAFF

TENNIS

TRACK

ROWING

SOFTBALL

SAILING

The struggling Boston College men’s tennis team (4-8, 0-4 ACC) lost to Georgia Tech (7-6, 1-2 ACC) and No. 20 Clemson (16-3, 3-1 ACC) last week by scores of 6-1 and 7-0, respectively. The Eagles’ lone point against Georgia Tech came by way of a forfeit on court six of Georgia Tech’s Colin Edwards, which allowed Kyle Childree to come away with the win. Women’s tennis suffered a 6-1 defeat to Clemson. While Jessica Wacnik and Lexi Borr were able to knock off Clemson’s No. 26 pair, 8-4, and Heini Salonen and Jennifer Ren earned the team a point winning 8-5, it was not enough for the Eagles. The Tigers were dominant in singles play, sweeping all six matches. 

The BC men’s track and field team competed in the Raleigh Relays this past weekend. Junior Richard Lucas earned second place in his flight in the 10,000-meter race.

Junior James Newhouse finished 10th in the same race with a time of 31:46.31. Both Lucas and Newhouse, along with freshman Kevin Sullivan, ran fast enough to earn automatic qualifying times for the New England Championships. The women’s team also competed in the Raleigh Relays this weekend and saw the 4x1500m relay team take first place. Additionally, freshman Fallyn Boich established a new BC record in the javelin at 40.09 meters in what was only her third collegiate attempt. 

The BC women’s rowing team started its season off on the right foot by sweeping the Jesuit Invitational, hosted by St. Joseph’s University, for the third year in a row. The Eagles’ varsity eight came in first place after finishing with an impressive time of 6:43:29 in the last race of the day, allowing the Eagles to take home the coveted Robert M. Gillin, Jr. Trophy. Furthermore, the Eagles also prevailed in the second varsity eight with a time of 6.44.04. BC’s A and B boats in the varsity four event took home first and second place, finishing with times of 7:48.5 and 7:56.4, respectively, on the 2000-meter course. 

The softball team played a three-game series against Virginia Tech this weekend. In Blacksburg, the Eagles were supposed to play a Saturday double header but were forced to push back the first pitch due to a rain delay.

When the first game finally did start, the Eagles were overcome in the sixth inning when the Hokies scored to bring the final score to 4-3. Nicole D’Argento suffered a loss on the mound after giving up nine hits and registering three strikeouts in six innings. The Eagles started a second game, but it was postponed due to rain until Sunday afternoon. The Hokies finished BC off in that one, topping the Eagles 5-4. To close the series, Virginia Tech won the last game 4-3. 

BC’s sailing team most recently hosted the Team Race Invitational on Dorchester Bay, placing second behind Roger Williams . Prior to this, the Eagles had finished third at the Jan T. Friis Trophy Intersectional Regatta that was hosted by Harvard. As a result of these consistently strong showings, the women’s team may have a legitimate shot at the national championship, something that it hasn’t done since 2012. Conference championships, the qualifiers for nationals, begin April 18, leaving the Eagles with less than three weeks to prepare. Up next for the Eagles is the Admiral Alymers Invitational, held on April 5. 

CLASSIFIEDS Thursday, January 17, 2014

The Heights The Heights

B5 B5

Monday, March 31, 2014

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THE HEIGHTS

B6

HEALTH & SCIENCE

Monday, March 31, 2014

PROFESSOR PROFILE

Choosing to Bourg pioneers mix of culture and intellectual history vaccinate

BY CORINNE DUFFY

JOSEPH CASTLEN When we hear the word, “epidemic,” we usually think of the 14th century Black Death, the 1918 Spanish flu, or crippling 18th century smallpox outbreaks. These historic events, which were actually pandemics, not epidemics, due to their widespread nature, are fortunately just that–historic events.

Today, we don’t face the question of whether going to work will expose us to some horrifying disease. Although in some countries there are still epidemics of measles, the vast majority of places where citizens know the merits of and have access to vaccinations see only isolated incidents of diseases which once plagued the entire world.

Why then is there such a polarizing and volatile debate ongoing in Western society about whether to vaccinate children? It is not as if these diseases just disappeared. Part of the problem is a single research paper, published in 1998 by the esteemed medical journal The Lancet. The author of this paper had significant financial interest in discrediting the vaccine that was on the market, and The Lancet retracted the paper in 2010, saying that it had done serious damage to public health.

Of course, there are two sides to every story, and to say that the anti-vaccine movement is fueled by a single discredited study would be grossly misrepresenting the situation. In reality, people aren’t vaccinating their kids because they have found what they consider to be enough evidence against vaccinating, and they cling onto it without stopping to fully consider the overwhelming evidence for vaccinating. Biasing where they gather their evidence and which evidence they give credence to, they are committing the same logical fallacy as deniers of global climate change and creationists. This is a vicious circle in which nobody wins, especially the unvaccinated children who are susceptible to infection. It seems like we’re facing an epidemic of close-mindedness more than anything else.

A Croatian high court recently upheld a law that makes it mandatory for children in its country to get vaccinated, regardless of parental beliefs. While this may topically appear to be a victory for public health, it is in fact just a perpetuation of the epidemic of close-mindedness.

In all U.S. states, schools require an immunization record in order for a child to enroll. In all but two, schools will enroll students whose parents have religious reasons for not vaccinating their child, and 18 accept personal reasons for not vaccinating as valid grounds for exemption from the rule.

Notice that there is no penalty for not vaccinating, and that ultimately, the decision to vaccinate is left up the parents of the child (the beauty of states’ rights—you can always just move to another state). These measures taken

by U.S. schools are reasonable, since they are simply strongly encouraging vaccinations, not forcing them on people. Forced medication violates the basic principles upon which not only our country is founded, but basic human rights with which we are all born.

A 3-year-old may not be old enough to decide what goes in his or her body, but that doesn’t mean that it’s up to the government to medicate him or her under the pretense of public health concerns.

Don’t get me wrong—vaccination against measles, mumps, pertussis, and now even HPV is certainly a public health concern, and it is the duty of the government to protect its people and to take certain steps to ensure the public health. Governments have been overstepping their bounds for years, however, and the diseases that vaccines prevent are no longer the predominant public health concern of the day. Educating and encouraging parents to vaccinate, not forcing them, is the direction that governments should take.

The real public health concerns we face nowadays are things that we can prevent, but cannot necessarily vaccinate against—drug abuse, insufficient sleep, and heart disease.

People who would impose forced medication are falling into the same trap as “anti-vaccers,” labeling others’ viewpoints as objectively wrong.

Let’s start by fighting the epidemic of close-mindedness, and the rest will be (low-fat) cake.

Joseph Castlen is an editor for The Heights. He can be reached at features@bcheights.com

Heights Editor

WHO: Julian Bourg

In studying history and its manifold implications, it is imperative that an individual derive information from its origin, necessarily forging connections between past and present to glean significance from them. Language, too, provides import by its foundation—the French term “bourg,” for example, denotes a market town and is the root of the word “bourgeois,” or, a member of the middle class.

It is therefore appropriate that Julian Bourg, an associate professor within the history department, specializes in 19th and 20th century European intellectual and cultural history, with particular emphasis on modern France and French theory.

Bourg was born and raised in Nashville, Tenn.—which he referred to as the “New South” due to its high level of integration— wherein his father taught sociology at Fisk University and he, “like most other people,” played guitar throughout his youth. For his undergraduate education, Bourg moved to Providence, R.I. to attend Brown University.

Initially, Bourg pursued philosophy, but he became more interested in its evolution in the concepts of art, society, theory, and perspective as they progressed over time—or, intellectual history: the progression of ideas and culture.

“I got the bug to study intellectual history,” he said. “I thought that European history and ideas were different enough from American history … I found that very intriguing.”

While studying European history, Bourg grew particularly passionate about France.

He spent the spring semester of his junior year in Paris, which further reinforced this interest in the nation and its history, language, and culture.

“I was horrible at French before the trip, but I definitely improved through learning by doing—out of necessity,” he said. Additionally, he advocated heavily for the study abroad program, reflecting on the positive experience

TEACHES: History of Terrorism EXPERIENCE: Has studied in Paris and graduated from Brown University FUN FACT: Is writing the textbook for his class on terrorism due to the current lack of one

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

he had while in Europe.

“I learned more about myself there, outside of the U.S., than I did within any course I took at college,” Bourg said. After obtaining his B.A. in history from Brown in 1992, Bourg left for San Francisco, where he worked in restaurants and as a teacher’s aide for two years.

Having searched for employment during a recession, Bourg talked about how he can relate to and sympathize with individuals who have graduated in the last five years with degrees and negligible job opportunities.

“I was bus boy with an Ivy League degree,” he said. “I have lots of empathy for students now, what with the very tough job market.”

Bourg’s duration as a grammar school teacher’s aide helped him recognize not only his areas of interest, but also that he wished to continue his education and pursue graduate school. He therefore went on to attain his master’s degree in history at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley in 1996.

“It was a good foundation for studying the history of ideas, given that I was researching a lot about the history of religious thought,” he said, noting how religious thought often influ-

ences societal conception and the progression of ideas. After, he attended the University of California, Berkeley for his doctoral studies, and he earned his Ph.D. in 2001 with a dissertation on contemporary French thought and ethics in France from 1968 to 1981.

Following graduation, Bourg researched at the French Archives for three years while editing and adding to his dissertation, which he worked on from 2001 until 2007, when From Revolution to Ethics: May 1968 and Contemporary French Thought was published as his first book. He compared writing and editing his dissertation to an apprenticeship. “It is a very modest thing—the conversation begins before you and goes beyond you … you’re just contributing to it,” Bourg said.

Bourg then worked at Berkeley, Washington University in St. Louis, Bryn Mawr College, and Bucknell University before coming to Boston College in 2010. At these universities, he taught courses on European intellectual history since the Enlightenment, the history of film, and postmodernism. “It was very exciting—I got to teach what first got me interested in history,” he said. Additionally, in

response to student interest concerning Sept.

11, Bourg devised a class on the history of terrorism, which followed the development of terror and terrorism from the Reign of Terror through the present with primary sources and historical interpretations of terror.

Bourg brought the course to BC and will be offering it for the first time in two years this fall. For the class, he is writing a book about terror over the past 200 years due to the lack of such a textbook at present. “I have to invent the wheel—something to be useful for students,” he said. In addition, Bourg teaches History 300; graduate research seminars; the history core, which the department is in the process of rethinking; and he will instruct Theories of Violence next spring.

“I find the faculty amazing, and the students are incredible and seem excited, which makes me excited, because I am learning alongside them, in dialogue with them,” Bourg said about his experience at BC. “There is one thing, though: BC students are so smart, so hardworking, but we would all have more fun if they challenged more, if they were more critical.” 

OPEN LETTER

The six people that students meet in O’Neill Library ting approached two Saturdays ago, I took a break from my African-American migration paper and started to notice the other fine sorts of people who were in my same situation on that bright and cheery St. Patty’s Day weekend. O’Neill, you have a lot of variety in terms of friends. There are a few types of O’Neill goers: First, you seem to have a lot of the “This Isn’t Bapst, So I’m Not Doing Serious Work” type: this is the person who is such a library connoisseur that he has his massive pile of work divided into two sections: to Bapst, or not to Bapst?

He’s hanging out with you, O’Neill, now, so he’s probably only doing his online Spanish homework and maybe his Philosophy of the Person reading, if he’s feeling ambitious.

Next is the frantic studier. This person puts the “dying” into studying because she looks so unhappy. She has a whole table of the aforementioned fifth floor to herself, and you know it’s covered in flashcards and bookmarked textbooks. Probably wearing glasses and sweatpants. Definitely looks sad.

Then you have the opposite of the

CAROLYN FREEMAN Dear O’Neill, I think I need a break from you. I’ve spent more time sitting at the same desk, on the same floor, in the same library, these past two weeks than I have sitting in homesweet-Cushing with my friends.

The fifth floor of O’Neill holds a special place in my heart, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing. I can only spend so much time gazing at the Boston vista (that’s partially obscured by that random roof) and avoiding my homework.

I can only spend so much mental energy strategizing my seat location to get an outlet and hungrily contemplating making a dash to Hillside. It’s time you and I started seeing a little bit less of each other, because your loving embrace is starting to feel more like a jail cell.

That being said, I have learned a lot from my hours in that straight-backed chair, headphones in, laptop in front of me. I look like I’m doing work, but I can assure you, I’m probably not.

As hour 11 of consecutive library-sit-

frantic studier: the college pamphlet library-goer. This type is maybe the most confusing—how can someone study in a blazer and statement necklace?

Isn’t she uncomfortable wearing skinny jeans all the time? She looks so nice that I feel like she wandered in here almost by mistake—brunch is that way. This type of person is necessary for the promotional pamphlets in order to keep up the deception that all Boston College students always look perfectly polished.

Then you have the cross between the previous two. This person exemplifies BC’s personal motto: J. Crew with a hangover.

Probably a boy wearing a nice sweater and a grimace and reading about macroeconomics. Vaguely depressed-looking, but impressively devoted to his studies. Most likely counting down the hours until he can retire to Walsh and be the reigning beer pong champ.

Then, there’s the high-energy studier.

She probably is wearing an all-spandex neon outfit and Nike Frees. She’s the type that jiggles her foot while reading and will definitely summon the energy to run five miles at the Plex after finishing her work.

CLUB SERIES

Impressive in many facets of life.

The last category of O’Neill-goer is the one I fit into most: I’m just trying to survive and finish my work, but first I have to figure out what kind of bagel I am, which secondary Harry Potter character I am, and what I should eat for lunch. Thanks, BuzzFeed, for telling me more about myself than I ever thought was possible. Now that I’m thoroughly psychoanalyzed, I can get down to work.

So, O’Neill, you’re always an educational experience for me. I can’t say that I love you, but I feel some fondness growing between us. Did you miss me on Friday? It must have been hard for you, not seeing me for the first time in two weeks.

At least you had your various friends hard at work on floor five. I’m sensing a really good movie about the dynamics between the regular cast of characters. I’m sure we could round up a criminal, athlete, brain, basket case, and princess–let’s call it “The O’Neill Club.”

Carolyn Freeman is a staff writer for The Heights. She can be reached at features@bcheights.com

FEATURING BC’S STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS

Coaching Corps connects sports and life lessons for impoverished students

BY CAROLINE KIRKWOOD Heights Staff

Boston College is teeming with students who, upon looking back at their high school careers, have fond memories of the times spent with their teammates on the field or on the court as high school athletes. Many of the students, however, are forced to give up that portion of their life upon arriving at college and can only participate in athletic competition through intermittent intramural games.

As a new club on campus, Coaching Corps at BC seeks to give students the opportunity to reignite that passion for sports through coaching various youth athletic teams at local Boston schools and recreation clubs.

For the club’s founders, Coaching Corps seemed like a natural fit for the BC community.

“I think that Coaching Corps fits well at BC because the culture around here is very athletics-oriented and service-oriented,” said Will Relle, the club’s president and CSOM ’15. “This club hits on both of those points of the BC culture very well.”

Coaching Corps is part of a national organization started in California that aims to bring sports and the values it instills to youth in struggling communities. The BC chapter is only the second to have started on the East Coast.

Colin Pavano, vice president and A&S ’15 , explained that BC’s chapter exhibits the larger goals of the national organization.

“At Coaching Corps, we strive to eliminate the gap of disparity that exists between underprivileged children and their access to sports,” he said.

While many students at BC began playing organized sports as soon as they could walk, this is not a privilege that impoverished children receive. Coaching Corps’ goal is to bring that opportunity to the children it serves.

“Through sports, not only do you stay active and involved in your community, but [you] learn a lot of things like teamwork, hard work, and dedication,” Pavano said. “It is these values that children can gain through sports and relationships with coaches that Coaching Corps attempts to instill.”

“The way that we serve the kids is half through coaching them about how to play

the sport and half through coaching them about life,” Relle said.

“There are so many positives that come out of sports and working together,” said Daiva Siliunas, treasurer and A&S ’15. “The kids who miss out on that opportunity never get those values instilled.”

Coaching Corps at BC offers a variety of ways for students to get involved and flexible scheduling. Depending on their sport of interest and the time they are able to commit, volunteers are assigned a different placement where they will be responsible for coaching particular teams in practices and games. Sometimes, volunteers will be the primary team coach, while other times they will serve as assistant coaches.

Sports that one can coach include basketball, running, flag football, squash, lacrosse, and soccer. The club is always looking to expand those options as well. The programs that Coaching Corps works with include the Oak Square YMCA in Brighton, Jackson Mann Elementary School, Thomas Edison School, and the Cambridge Boys and Girls club, to name a few.

“The overall idea is to have as many op-

portunities as possible so everyone can find what suits them best,” Siliunas said in summing up the premise of the organization.

Before becoming an official Coaching Corps volunteer, all students must go through a comprehensive training program that offers guidance and preparation for the coaching world.

“Coaching Corps has an online training program,” Relle said. “It goes through what our aims are first, how to run a practice, how to communicate, and the challenges you may face.”

Aside from the typical coaching placements, Coaching Corps at BC is looking to expand the opportunities for its volunteers.

For those students who may have a limited amount of time that they can commit, Coaching Corps sends volunteers to help out at Special Olympics every Saturday.

The club is also looking to collaborate with other organizations on campus.

“We are also partnering up with other on-campus organizations like the athletic department to see if we can create a coaching clinic with some of the sports team to get them involved as well,” Siliunas said. 

THE HEIGHTS

Monday, March 31, 2014

Lent brings new events Lenten Season, from B8 ment” that takes participants from prayer, to mediation, to peace. “The services only last about 20 minutes, so it is a great way for students to take a quick study break, relax, and then get back to work,” she said. LAG and Cura Council sponsor all of the Taize Prayer services, and the next service will take place at 8:30 p.m. on Monday, April 28.

Students looking for more informal ways to reflect on the Lenten season can attend Theology by the Slice, a weekly program held by the St. Thomas More Society on Monday nights in the Gasson Commons. Preceded by a more formal holy hour, Theology by the Slice allows students to reflect in a more casual setting with friends and ministers. “It’s one of those programs that I recommend everyone try at least once—plus, it’s free pizza,” McEwen said.

Perhaps the most challenging program that Campus Ministry initiates during Lent is Give it Up, Live it Up. Due to the prevalence of the drinking culture at BC, students are encouraged to give up alcohol in some capacity during the Lenten season. Students can pledge to give up alcohol for the entire 40 days, one week, or one night each weekend.

“The great part about this program is that students can chose their own level of commitment—what they personally feel comfortable with,” McEwen said. “Also, students can stop by the Campus Ministry office to pick up the purple bracelets that remind you and let others know that you are participating.”

McEwen explained that due to all of these services and programs, it is the busiest time of the year for LAG. “Right now, we are preparing for our Arts Fest performance, but in addition to that, we are all over campus because we co-sponsor a lot of these events,” she said. “We also have to learn new songs for the different parts of the Mass during the Lenten season—but Lent music has always been my favorite.” LAG is open to all singers and musicians, regardless of talent level, time commitment, or religious affiliation.

McEwen’s involvement on Cura Council requires extra hours during the Lenten season as well. Cura Council is a Christian life community that provides students with a weekly meeting to build lasting friendships that “challenge the deeper questions of meaning and faith operating all of their experiences,” according to the Campus Ministry website.

“My group meets on Thursday nights, and we really have a lot to discuss at this time of year,” McEwen said.

Throughout the year, the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) provides students with services so that they may gain full participation in the Catholic community. Easter is the culmination of the RCIA’s hard work, as the sacraments of Baptism, First Eucharist, and Confirmation are administered for the first time. “I‘m lucky to get to be a part of those students’ journey, as LAG sings at the Masses during Holy Week,” McEwen said.

Although it’s nearly impossible for students to participate in every event Campus Ministry and its affiliated organizations have to offer, McEwen encourages students to try.

“Everyone should take advantage of the season and the sacred spaces around campus,” she said. 

B7

THE HEIGHTS throughout the century SPRINGTIME ON THE HEIGHTS

roomed with Schettino and Campbell last semester.

“I feel like the hardest breakaway from the video is to get people that we don’t know to watch it,” Campbell said.

“There’s a threshold you have to break there, and I think that’s the first video where we broke it.”

Schettino said that members are currently working on Marathon Monday and other BC-related sketches in hopes of replicating that success.

“That was like lightning in a bottle, and we’re still trying to capture it,” Campbell said.

Schettino characterized Goose Crossing’s first year as a series of mistakes and gradual improvements. Even choosing a name for the group was a hassle.

“There’s no explanation,” Campbell said. “It’s kind of like a joke within our friend group—Jesse will say ‘It was a goof!’ whenever he does something stupid, and for some reason it transformed into ‘goose’.” The name had some relevance to its founders, and so it stuck.

“We also found a really handsome goose to be our emblem,” Schettino said. Campbell recalled having seen a picture of a goose wearing a top hat and monocle before and found artist Donald Lim’s drawing of it online.

After emailing Lim for permission to use the drawing on t-shirts and in videos, the group adopted it as its mascot and nicknamed it Hank the Fancy Goose.

On the more technical side, every-

Days, hours, and minutes

Boston College students have always welcomed springtime with new wardrobes and outdoor events

BY CAITLIN SLOTTER Heights Staff Spring is in the air, although this winter seems cruelly prolonged, and March is not quite going out like a lamb.

A look at how past Boston College students celebrated the first days of spring can serve to remind us of the warm days that are to come.

One of the most prominent changes around campus has been expressed through BC students’ fashion choices. The signs of spring are evident, as students have gradually been shifting from boots to Toms, Sperrys, and flats. Sweaters are slowly being weaned out, puffy winter jackets are being replaced with lighter North Faces, and skirts and dresses are becoming more common.

As Jessie Rosen describes in the March 31, 2005 edition of The Heights, BC students are “pushing summer,” as “Jeans have been cuffed and paired with sockless ’mocs. Puff y North Faces have been replaced by blazers and ponchos.

One in 10 people are wearing flipflops on a regular basis.

We’re going to bars without coats, intentionally.”

Rosen goes on, explaining that even though “the ‘feels like’ didn’t make it over 40 degrees,” students are still dressing as if it’s 20 degrees warmer, in anticipation of the weather to come.

With spring also comes the opportunity to actually spend time outside, instead of bundling up and strategically speed-walking from building to building, trying to minimize the amount of time spent in the cold winter air.

You begin to see students you’ve never seen before—as Annie Barrett wrote on April 4, 2000, “Classmates whose existence has been doubted for months suddenly emerge, bleary-eyed, from the depths of darkness (their dorm rooms).”

The walk from Lower to Middle Campus is becoming enjoyable, and more people can be seen on Stokes Lawn or by the St. Ignatius statue eating lunch, tossing a Frisbee, reading, or sitting with friends.

In the March 31, 2005 issue of The Heights, Meg Beste writes, “The weather’s getting warmer, and that means spring is just around the corner. With it comes tons of fresh fruits and veggies.”

And while in 2005 fresh fruits were added to the salad bar, today’s added selection of fresh blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and mangoes by the registers are a welcome change to the dining hall menu.

Events at and around BC also become more numerous in the spring. Most March editions of The Heights contain spring events previews. The March 26, 2009 issue, for example, highlights the Sleeping Beauty Boston Ballet performance (reminiscent of this year’s Cinderella version), the Independent Film Festival of Boston, and performances at the Boston Symphony Hall.

Sports also feature prominently, as headlines about March Madness, the Frozen Four, and the start of baseball season appear frequently throughout the months of March.

Commonly mentioned BC performances include a cappella Spring Cafes, Showdown, BC bOp!, and Dance Ensemble shows.

The March 31, 2014 edition also recommends getting outside and taking advantage of the city by going to Red Sox games, spending time in the Boston Common and the Public Gardens, shopping on Newbury Street, or, in case of rain, seeing some of the spring movies.

The Spring Concert, depending on the year, generated much excitement or disappointment around campus. Acts such as Talib Kweli, Howie Day, and Robert Randolph in 2005 “failed to deliver” (March 31, 2005), whereas 2006’s Kanye West and 2007’s Third Eye Blind Spring Concerts generated much excitement on campus.

Anticipation is also evident for Marathon Monday, as columns and articles were written weeks in advance.

Although Boston Marathons of the past didn’t have the same significance as they do this year, they still represented the coming of spring, as BC students celebrated together and cheered on their fellow Bostonians.

With all these past BC traditions to remind of us the spring that is to come, a look at Jacquelyn Herder’s column in the March 29, 2010 issue puts it best: “The long, lazy days that I have spent outside with my friends are among my favorite BC memories.”

In Herder’s words, “So, March, when are you going to stop this whole lion business and start showing us that gentler side?” 

Goose Crossing brings BC-focused comedy to BCTV Goose Crossing, from B8

FOR THE RECORD

thing from editing to directing has had its ups and downs.

Initially, finding someone to edit the videos after filming proved difficult, so with no previous editing experience, Campbell took on the role “The fist time I edited, I just had two tabs open—one was on Google, and one was on the editing software.

So I’d just Google ‘How to’ everything,” Campbell said.

The work that used to take Campbell up to seven hours per sketch now takes two to three, depending on the complexity of the effects needed.

Jeffrey Lee, A&S ’17, has replaced the tripod that the group initially used to film and become Goose Crossing’s go-to cameraman.

“We call him Jeffrey Steadyhands,” Campbell said.

Having a committe d and more mobile way to film, thanks to Lee, has allowed Goose Crossing’s members to make more visually complex and betterdirected videos.

Julian Breheny, an Australian exchange student, brought his directing experience to the sets this semester.

“I think he’s really what changed our sketches,” Campbell said. “The key with comedy is kind of a lot of camera changes, and if you watch our old videos, it’s really static. As soon as Julian comes in, our first sketch is miles ahead.”

Breheny directed the “Housing of Cards” sketch and considered everything from which angles to use, making Peter Donahue, A&S ’15—who played Frank Underwood—the biggest in the frame at all times, to how to make the

lighting more ominous.

“He was saying things where I was like, ‘I would’ve never thought of that,’” Schettino said. “It’s things that people probably go to school for, and he just knows.”

Actors and actresses like Julianne Mason, A&S ’17, have also been a huge part of Goose Crossing’s development.

“Every time we cast Julianne, she makes an effort to come out,” Schettino said. “She’s a great actress.”

Campbell said that having such committed underclassmen will make it easy for Goose Crossing to sustain itself after he and Schettino graduate next year.

“I want to see this survive after we

leave,” Schettino said. “It’s inclusive, it gives a chance to so many different people to get their ideas made, and it’s such a cool process to see.”

Campbell is confident that the already-committed underclassmen will continue long after the two graduate.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that by the end of senior year, there will be people who’ll want to keep it alive and that there will be a demand for our videos,” Campbell said. He’s hoping for so much demand that Goose Crossing could go national.

“All the way to the Letterman Show,” he said. “To Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” 

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOSE CROSSING

Goose Crossing’s ‘Eagle Escort’ video poked fun at transportation around campus.

SAMANTHA COSTANZO A Showdown performance lasts five minutes, and yet, groups have poured hours of their academic years into preparing for that one moment. The Boston Marathon’s course is 26.2 miles and takes, for the average runner, around four and a half hours, but students have been devoting far more time and hundreds of miles to training. Organizations at Boston College spend weeks planning speaker events that last all of two hours, if that.

Why do we put so much time, effort, and energy into something relatively fleeting?

For most people, how well they do in events for which they’re training won’t lead to a job. I spend hours each week practicing a dance for Arts Fest, and I can confidently say that I’m not looking for a career in the arts. But there I am, every Wednesday night, practicing the same sequences over and over, seemingly just for the fun of it. I wasn’t born to perform— though I think some of my fellow dancers definitely were—but I get a certain joy out of it, nonetheless.

So many extracurricular activities that we as college students take on are for the sake of our resumes. If we’re in enough volunteer groups, clubs, and teams, we tell ourselves that we’ll be okay. Maybe we stick with these seemingly pointless activities because we just like them, no matter the end result. We like being able to do something that’s not terribly important for a little while.

The thing is, half of the time these “just-for-fun” activities can still stress you out precisely because you’re not doing more important things. I know there are days when the last thing I want to do is go to dance practice, whether it’s because I’m exhausted or because it’s too cold outside and I have work to do.

Do we just like being busy? In class a few weeks ago, one of my professors said that we students seem to like to keep ourselves so busy and stressed out that we’re two steps away from our breaking points.

That seems pretty accurate to me—I hardly know what to do with free time anymore, on the rare occasions when I get it. All of these activities that lead to a few sparkling minutes might just be another way to fill up the time in between classes.

And what happens when those minutes are over, or worse, what if they never even happen?

For hundreds of students across Boston, their marathon training has come to an abrupt end. Many BC students will be able to run in the Campus School’s separate marathon, but just as many have decided that if it’s Marathon Monday or bust, they’d rather bust. What now?

That’s something only those runners can answer, but it does circle back to the same question: why do we work so hard toward something so ephemeral?

Eventually, I won’t have to perform my dance anymore. We’ll hit that final spin, Arts Fest will be over, and eventually, I’ll forget every single sequence of moves that I spent all year learning. I will feel good about it, because I completed the goal I set out for myself, and I’ll have a cool video to email home in order to prove that I do, in fact, have some kind of coordination and balance, but that’s about it.

What’s it all for?

I can’t say that I know the answer, but I think there are a lot of factors. Yes, we like to do things we enjoy just for fun, and yes, we like to be busy. But we also like to achieve. Humans, I think, are more goal-driven than any other creature. We do well in high school to get to college, study hard in college to get a job, and get a job to make money and live a comfortable life.

Everything has a purpose, and we might not be able to justify doing anything unless it results in something good for us or for other people.

Think about it. If, as a kid, your parents told you to take out the trash, you probably didn’t ever want to do it. Your incentive, though, was probably to avoid getting yelled at and to gain the peace that comes with that. Now, we’ve moved on from trash duty to dance practice, marathon training, and event planning. As long as whatever we do leads to some sort of accomplishment, no matter how small or short-lived, we can justify all that time we spent on it in the first place.

So, we keep planning and scheming, because for every goal we hit, we feel a little bit better about ourselves, a little bit prouder, a little bit more special.

Samantha Costanzo is the Asst. Features Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at features@bcheights.com.

FEATURES CAUTION: GOOSE CROSSSING

B8

MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2014

The goofs of Goose Crossing have been bringing their signature brand of BC humor to BCTV since September, but they’re now well on their way to becoming YouTube stars.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOOSE CROSSING

Goose Crossing’s “Housing of Cards” sketch, a spoof on ‘House of Cards’ that makes fun of BC’s housing process, got over 2,000 views after the ResLife and BC Alumni Twitter accounts shared it.

BY SAMANTHA COSTANZO Asst. Features Editor

Boston College T V puts out sports, news, and celebrity gossip segments each week—things that a majority of BC students might care about. A key element that’s missing, however, is laughter.

Enter Goose Crossing, a new sketch comedy group on campus founded by John Schettino and Jesse Nicholas, both A&S ’15.

“They were all just lacking a little bit in humor,” said Schettino, who acts as co-executive producer alongside Nicholas. After a few phone calls to gauge interest over the summer, the two founded the group at the beginning of this school year.

“At first it just started with me and Jesse pulling in random people each week, but now we have a core group of committed people who come to our weekly meetings, help

us brainstorm ideas, and then act in our sketches,” Schettino said.

“We’re not even friends with all of them,” added John Campbell, video editor and A&S ’15. “It’s a legitimate group.”

Campbell said that they currently have about 10 members who consistently show up to meetings, but that they sometimes bring in friends as needed to take on character roles with specific qualities, such as height.

“Each week we have different actors in different sketches, we have different locations and scripts,” Schettino said. “We have to try to accommodate all of that every week to create a new sketch.”

The ideas for these sketches come from members and non-members alike, something that Schettino said sets Goose Crossing apart from other comedy groups on campus.

“We’re very much open to any-

one’s idea and making that idea happen,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s half a page, we’ll see if there’s something there to work with.”

So far, the group has put out one four-minute sketch each week since October, a goal that’s important to Schettino.

“No matter what, I want to have one sketch to our name every week,” he said.

At the beginning, most of these sketches weren’t BC—or even college-specific, Campbell said.

“Then we realized that we weren’t playing to our best audience, which is obviously BC people,” he said.

“The way that the videos are going to spread is someone sees it and says, ‘Hey, I relate to this, and I know these people who’ll also relate. I’m going to tell them about it.’”

Their most popular video, “Housing of Cards,” is a spoof on Netflix’s House of Cards series and pokes

fun at both BC’s housing process and the often cutthroat methods students will take to get that eightman room.

“That was the one where I decided that, I’d been doing well with the editing, but this one is going to be as good as possible,” Campbell said.

It had over 2,000 views—far more than the usual 150 or so that the group normally gets on a single sketch—in a matter of days.

“Around the time ‘Housing of Cards’ came out, we got a lot of Twitter interest, and we didn’t even have a Twitter,” Campbell said.

By digging around in the statistics that YouTube provides for channel owners, they eventually found that the BC Alumni account had found and tweeted the video.

“That started the snowball,” Campbell said, and the group created its own Twitter account to publicize videos after that.

It’s even got an international viewership, thanks to an exchange student from Australia who

See Goose Crossing, B7

ILLUSTRATION BY DONALD LIM

Campus Ministry provides special retreats, events for Lent Lenten Busy Student Retreat, Taize Prayer, Theology by the Slice give students opportunity for informal relfection

BY KENDRA KUMOR Features Editor

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

Gasson Chapel will host a variety of events this Lenten season, including monthly Taize Prayer services.

I NSIDE FEATUR E S THIS ISSUE

From giving up alcohol to writing term papers to attending Monday night meditations, Lent is a busy and challenging time for all students.

Boston College’s Campus Ministry and affiliated student organizations provide myriad ways to celebrate the Lenten season, no matter what busy schedule students are juggling.

Annie McEwen, president of the Liturgy Arts Group (LAG), co-leader of Cura Council, and A&S ’14, is an active participant in most of the Lenten programs Campus Ministry has to offer. “The best part of the season is getting to celebrate it with your peers,” McEwen said. “There is something different about getting to talk about all that is going on in an environment where everyone is the same age as you.”

Because there are so many programs taking place for Lent, many of them provide flexible meeting times to make sure students can attend as many as possible. For example, the Lenten Busy Student Retreat has

“no requirements or prerequisites,” according to the Campus Ministry website. The retreat takes place throughout the season and serves to encourage students to incorporate prayer in their everyday lives.

There are three components to the retreat. The first is a call for participants to commit to 20 minutes of prayer each day. The second is three hour-long meetings with a spiritual companion—usually a campus minister or faculty member—who will discuss issues relating to the student’s faith and life experience throughout the semester. The third is optional gatherings that provide the opportunity for everyone participating in the retreat to gather for community prayer and reflection.

“Everyone loves the Busy Student Retreat because it lets you work at your own pace and gives people the chance to set their own schedule instead of setting aside a whole weekend for a retreat,” McEwen said. “What many people may not know is Campus Ministry does the same retreat in the fall, too.”

In addition to participating in

Heights Through the Centuries After long New England winters, BC students have always welcomed spring in style...................................................B7

a retreat, many students seek opportunities to receive the Catholic sacrament of Reconciliation during Lent. Campus Ministry provides three services during April at the various chapels around campus. A small group of LAG members provide the music for each service. “The services are always intimate and pretty,” McEwen said.

For students who do not wish to participate in Reconciliation, there are several other options for quiet Lenten prayer and meditation. Taize Prayer, a service that takes place once a month during the spring semester in Gasson Chapel, provides a less formal outlet for prayer than the sacrament of Reconciliation.

“If I could sum up Taize in three words it would be singing, silence, and candles,” McEwen said. “Most people come in their pajamas and bring pillows.” The services include traditional chants that originated from a Catholic establishment in Taize, France. McEwen described the experience as a “spiritual move-

See Lenten Season, B7

Health and Science.........................B6 Editor’s Column.........................B7