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A series of photos tell the stories of the many faces at BC, B10
A modern adaptation of Chekhov’s classic tragedy was performed this weekend, A10
After a win over Illinois, women’s soccer will face FSU in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight round, B1
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The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Vol. XCIV, No. 46
HEIGHTS
THE
established
1919
Monday, November 25, 2013
Alum helps launch app for students
BY ANDREINA BANQUERO-DEGWITZ For The Heights
CONCERT RAISES $1,200
Performers collaborate to fundraise for victims of Typhoon Haiyan BY REBECCA MORETTI Heights Staff It was hard to find an empty seat last Thursday at the Philippine Typhoon Recovery Charity Concert, which took place in the Rat. The concert was hosted by UGBC, RHA, and the Philippine Society of Boston College, and sound was managed by the BC Music Guild. These groups joined in an effort to raise money for victims in the Philippines, who are suffering in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. The event succeeded in raising over $1,200, all of which will be donated to Catholic Relief Services and will go toward helping the typhoon victims. The concert featured 16 student performers and performance groups who volunteered to take part in the charity event. Among those performing were the Heightsmen of BC, BC Masti, Uprising Dance Crew, and Sexual Chocolate. The concert began with Isabella Rosales, CSON ’17, who sang the national anthem, followed by acoustic performances by Jammin Toast; Terry Peng, A&S ’14; Thomas Harpole, A&S ’14; Mike Lapointe, CSOM ’14; and Amanda Adams, A&S ’16. The songs performed were diverse, ranging from peaceful, inspirational pieces to upbeat, pop tunes. Peng and Harpole sang an old, Southern gospel song as well as a song they wrote themselves. Caroline Portu, A&S ’16, sang and played songs on the keyboard, including Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and a song she composed herself. William Bolton, CSOM ’16, whose stage name is Times
ALEX GAYNOR / HEIGHTS EDITOR
With the mere download of an app, life on the Heights can be made much easier thanks to BC alumnus Frank Stamos, BC ’98, and his partner Ari Kalos. The pair invented and created StudentNation, a social app for students that is set to launch in January 2014. “The app is going to be kind of like a social network, specifically for college students, but we wanted to do something a little bit different and put more of a business strategy behind it,” Kalos said. “What do college students really want to do aside from attend events, listen to music, and get to know each other? They want to save money.” StudentNation will partner with local and national businesses that will offer incentives and discounts for college students with the app. According to Kalos, this is a “win-win for everybody,” because students will be able to save money while the traffic for these businesses increases. The businesses will include restaurants, dry cleaners, retail shops, bookstores, and any other company that offers beneficial services for college students. Through previous experience with their first web company, a global social network for Greek people, Stamos and Kalos learned the dos and don’ts of tech building. This led them to decide that, for their next project, they needed to have a
See StudentNation, A3
See Benefit Concert, A3
Columbia prof talks illness in art
Keenan speculates about potential female cardinals
BY SOO JUNG RHEE
Less than two weeks ago, Boston College hosted a panel designated to consider women’s role in the contemporary Catholic Church. Even before that discussion on Nov. 12, though, one of BC’s Jesuits was making headlines on that very same topic by suggesting that Pope Francis name women to the College of Cardinals this February. Founders Professor in Theology Rev. James Keenan, S.J., posted on his Facebook page earlier this fall asking for the names of women who would make good candidates for cardinals. “I think there are a lot of people, right now, who feel great joy over the papacy of Francis, and he’s only been pope, what—eight, nine months,” Keenan said. “There’s been a little ambiguity about … what is he going to do about the presence of women in the Church. He’ll say, ‘The Church is feminine.’ Yeah, okay, fine. So where are they?” Historically, most of the power that women had in the Church, Keenan said, was either as nuns or as abbesses. Wealthy women, he said, also exercised
BY ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT News Editor
Heights Staff “I gave you Rothko’s paintings as a backdrop to what I want to invite you to do with me,” said physician and Columbia University professor Rita Charon, the author of Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness, as she opened her lecture with a slide of Mark Rothko’s painting Blue and Brown. “I bring you here Blue and Brown. And if what you do for the next 40 minutes is stare at it and let it change and evaginate and alter and summon you into the blueness and the greenness, then that’s better than listening to me, because what I want us to think about together is how we are summoned to self and others by virtue of art.” Last Friday in Higgins 300, a group of students, faculty members from multiple departments, and others gathered to hear Charon’s keynote speech about how stories of illnesses affect both the afflicted and others. Referring to herself as a narratologist, Charon recognized
CARA ANNUNZIATA / HEIGHTS STAFF
Columbia’s Rita Charon spoke about how illnesses are treated in narrative works. her imperative duty to pay attention to how the accounts of illness and risk are given, and study what becomes clear to us through not only the experience of illness but also the telling and writing of it. She questioned, “how is anyone heightened by virtue of the known risk?” and began to form her answers by introducing her narrative as accounts of risk and doubt, which would bring to light how we tell ourselves and others what we go through. “The state of having health, whether it’s good health or bad health or iffy
health or health at all, is itself characterized by virtue of the restrictions and the possibilities, and even the condemnatory power—that they’re characterized in a heightened way by risk and doubt,” she said. She continued her argument by saying that in matters of health, the power of risk and doubt magnifies because our bodily functions and physical characteristics define our lives and who we are. By quoting Tony Judt, a historian and NYU professor who finished his last
See Story of Illness, A3
influence, but were largely confined to their own region. Since women are not permitted to be ordained in the Catholic Church, they have limited influence in any official capacity. “If there’s anything where people are waiting with more than curiosity—let’s say concern—it’s, do we see how is [Pope Francis] on women,” Keenan said. “It’s a recurring question—what will he say or do? I wouldn’t be surprised if he says or does something positive on cardinals, simply because it’s a good way to talk about women in the Church without going directly to the ordination question. We’ve been doing that for such a long time—let’s try another way of getting women at the table, and have access to the pope.” The College of Cardinals is responsible for electing the pope, but Francis has expanded opportunities for influence somewhat by forming an advisory committee of eight cardinals. “So I thought, well, why not have women in that circle?” Keenan said. “And why not have women as advisors to the pope just as men are? And if cardinals
See Cardinals, A3