The Heights November 10, 2016

HANDS TO THE TASK BOP! TO THE TOP

HUSTLE, LOYALTY, RESPECT SPORTS

METRO

SCENE

Kyran Bowman looks poised to electrify Boston College basketball, C3

A new Boston-based NGO is working to end gender violence in Venezuela and Latin America, A4

How Boston College’s jazz ensemble has evolved over its nearly 30-year run, B3

www.bcheights.com

HE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Vol. XCVII, No. 45

established

1919

Thursday, November 10, 2016

KELSEY MCGEE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

ÊEFK DP GI<J@;<EK%Ë

K_fljXe[j [\jZ\e[ lgfe :fddfe kf gifk\jk Kildg m`Zkfip 9P AL8E FC8M8II@8 D\kif <[`kfi 8E; ?<@;@ ;FE>

<o\Zlk`m\ 8jj`jkXek

On Boston Common on Wednesday evening, the crowd hurried toward the Parkman Bandstand. There, one of the organizers of the protest grabbed a microphone, stood on the top step of the rotunda, and led the chant that would come to represent the mood of the night: “not our president.” The crowd, thousands deep, was protesting Tuesday night’s election of Donald Trump as president of the United States.

The discontent among the audience was palpable, with many still struggling to comprehend the events of the past 24 hours.

Protesters arrived armed with signs of all shapes and sizes that expressed support for minorities and resentment toward Trump.

The messages emblazoned on the signs ranged from “Love Trumps Hate” and “One Day at a Time” to “Soon the Poor Will Have Nothing to Eat But the Rich.”

Boston Socialist Students, Movement for the 99 percent, and Socialist Alternative organized the event, with more than 4,000 present, according to a spokesperson from the Boston Police Department.

The protest mirrored many more taking JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

See Protest, A8

:c`ekfe :Xii`\j DXjj%# Ylk Kildg KXb\j <c\Zk`fe Kildg jgXibj dXjj`m\ Zfd\YXZb fe <c\Zk`fe ;Xp kf n`e gi\j`[\eZp 9P AL8E FC8M8II@8 D\kif <[`kfi 8E; D@:?8<C QLGGFE<

=fi K_\ ?\`^_kj

Republican nominee Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States . Early Wednesday morning , Trump won the electoral contest with an unexpected victory over his Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton. Presidentelect Trump carried many of the states that had voted for President Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012. One of the most significant aspects of his victory was the support he received from all areas of the country in states he was not expected to carry.

This election cycle, one characterized by constant scandal and incessant controversy, came to an end with a result that was at odds with the predictions of the majority of news outlets and pollsters. Before the polls began to close, The New York Times predicted that Clinton had a 70 percent chance of claiming the election, a number that was quickly disproved by the vast support Trump enjoyed throughout the night, especially in states such as Pennsylvania and Florida, where he claimed important victories.

While Trump obtained the necesary electoral votes to claim the election, Clinton claimed a higher percentage of the popular vote, in a situation similar to

Al Gore’s defeat in 2000. The Republican Party also claimed a majority in both the House and the Senate.

Clinton carried Massachusetts with 60 percent of the vote. Turnout for this election in the state surpassed that of 2012 and 2008, especially early voting, according to staff at the 5th ward polling center at the Boston Public Library.

The state was called as soon as the polls closed.

Two Massachusetts ballot questions did not pass, and two did. Question 1, which would allow a second slots site, and Question 2, which would raise the statewide cap on charter schools, were defeated despite support from high-profile political figures such as Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican. Question 3, which prohibits farm animal confinement,

See Elections, A3

AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Gfjk$Kildg N`e# X JfdY\i :Xdglj K_\ 9: Zfddle`kp i\XZkj kf k_\ \c\Zk`fe 9P JFG?@< I<8I;FE E\nj <[`kfi Thick g ray clouds loomed over Boston College Wednesday morning as students walked to class. Some students stopped to hug

friends and exchange brief words of empathy and support, but most walked in silence.

The somber mood on campus followed the announcement early Wednesday morning that Republican nominee Donald J. Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Trump secured 279 electoral votes to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s 228, as of late Wednesday night. The results shocked BC students and the rest of the nation. Most of the polls leading up to Nov. 8 predicted Clinton would win by a large margin.

Following the announcement, several professors cancelled classes. Many more students didn’t attend classes on Wednesday. Professors who did hold class invited students to engage in conversation about the election rather than discuss the day’s material. Most of these conversations elicited tears of disappointment, fear, and concern.

Resident directors also sent emails to their residents, inviting them to come talk with them. The emails also encouraged students seeking help to visit the Office of the Dean of Students, the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center, and University Counseling Services.

The Women’s Center, which has office hours Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., welcomed students throughout the day Wednesday who were in search of a place to talk about and reflect on the results of the election.

Katie Dalton, the director of the Women’s Center, said that she invited students to the center on Wednesday for food and discussion because she knew students would have a strong reaction to the results of the election.

See Reactions, A8

A2

THE HEIGHTS

3

Top

things to do on campus this week

The GLBTQ Leadership Council (GLC) and the Dean of Students Office will hold a reflection on the Orlando shooting that took place in June.

Part of the talk will be led by queer Latinxs, who will share how it impacted them. The discussion will be held today at 5:30 p.m. in McGuinn 334.

1

Thursday, November 10, 2016

The Office of International Programs will host a summer study abroad fair on Friday at 4 p.m. in Corcoran Commons. Students who wish to go abroad in summer 2017 will have the opportunity to learn about BC’s summer abroad programs, internships, and scholarships.

Monan Professor in Theatre Arts Sheri Wilner will host a discussion on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Robsham Theater advising students on how to start professional careers in performing arts. She will discuss graduate theatre programs, finding an agent, and networking.

2

3

NEWS Kn\e^\1 >\e O `j :feÔ[\ek Xe[ ;\gi\jj\[ BRIEFS

By Alex Benthien For The Heights

9: CXn IXebj Kfg ,

On U.S. News and World Report’s list of law schools in which starting salaries exceeded student debt, Boston College Law ranked at the top for private universities.

BC Law ranked third on the list overall, including both public and private institutions.

According to U.S. News and World Report, 2014 BC Law graduates made a median starting salar y of $145,000 while working in the private sector.

The same 2014 graduates had, on average, $97,006 in student debt post-graduation.

The University of Texas at Austin topped the list with a median starting salary of $160,000.

The University of Alabama placed second with a lower starting salary, but also less student debt.

BC Law ranks number 30 on U.S. News and World Report’s overall list for top law schools.

U.S. News and World Report said that a law degree used to guarantee graduates a financially secure future. After the Great Recession, however, law graduates faced a more difficult time when looking for jobs. There is also a large pay gap between the industry’s top performers and entr y-level lawyers, the list said.

“The effects of the recession have lingered in the legal sector, and jobs for law graduates remain scarce,” U.S. News and World Report said on its website.

D`kZ_\cc KXcbj <[lZXk`fe Former United States Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell spoke to students at International Education Week’s (IEW) opening event on Monday in McGuinn 121. The talk was sponsored by the Global Leadership Institute.

IEW was created in 2000 by the U.S. Departments of State and Education. Its purpose is to bring awareness to the world’s issues.

The theme for BC’s IEW is “Beyond Borders: Identities and Perceptions in Today’s World.”

Mitchell played a key role in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. He was also involved with diplomacy between the U.S. and the Middle East. He is the honorary co-chair for the World Justice Project and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Liberty Medal. He was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to foster peace in Northern Ireland.

There are several other events for IEW happening this week, including a Career Chat on searching for internships and jobs internationally this afternoon from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Stokes South 201. On Thursday, international Jesuits will talk to students about their lives and experiences from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in O’Neill Library 253. The final event of the week will be a lecture by Robert Ross, a political science professor and an associate professor at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. Ross will discuss China’s role in the world on Nov. 17 at 4:30 p.m. in Stokes South 295.

Jean Twenge thinks the iPhone is making teenagers depressed.

Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, hosted a lecture based on her new book, Generation Me, on Monday afternoon.

The novel centers on the increase in confidence yet simultaneous increase in depression that current teenagers have compared to those in past generations.

Twenge explained that her findings, derived from surveying 11 million teenagers, come from data spanning from 1966 to 2015. Twenge said that she believes modern media has had a sizable impact on the culture and emotion of “iGen,” the generation encompassing all of those born from 1995 to the present day.

Twenge began her talk by outlining the three previous generations, the Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Gen X (1964-1981), and the mil-

lennial group (1981-1994), and then explained what makes those born during the iGen so unique.

“If you were born in the iGen, you have literally never known a world without the internet,” Twenge said. iGen has grown up alongside new media, and for many, Facebook and the first iPhone were invented just as they were old enough to type words on a keyboard, Twenge said. This underscored how ingrained concepts like a touchscreen and social media are to college students today.

Twenge then went on to talk about other cultural shifts that have taken place in the most recent age.

She explained that individualism, or focusing more on one’s own selfworth than on others, has been on the rise for a number of reasons.

Twenge said that self-esteem has become more important in the last 30 years. Teenagers are now encouraged to be themselves and stop striving to imitate others, such as celebrities. Studies on word frequency have

also found that the usage of phrases like “love yourself” and “I am special” in books has increased steadily since the mid-1970s. Twenge had some objections about the true impact of self-content, however.

“Those getting [better] grades gain higher self-esteem, not the other way around,” she said.

Twenge believes that self-esteem is not a cause, but an effect of success. Twenge said that self-confidence is not the key to success. She also highlighted that Asian-American students statistically have the lowest self-esteem amongst their peers, yet have the highest average scores on the SAT. Although individualistic culture has inflated youths’ confidence, Twenge also showed that adult behavior exhibited by high school seniors in the aforementioned dataset has been on the decline. By “adult behavior,” Twenge referred to dating, getting a driver’s license, getting a job, and experimenting

with alcohol. The rate at which teens are showing these behaviors has declined greatly since 1966, and sharply since around 2010. Twenge acknowledged that this data sounds like positive news on the surface, but that it has greater implications.

Twenge thinks that this could be caused by the immediate access to news, which perpetuates an obsession with safety. She also thinks that devices like the iPhone have provided a distraction from real-world experience and human interaction. She claimed that this new obsession over digital news and games is creating a pattern of “slow and safe” growth in parenting as well. This drives freshmen in college, who may be unprepared for the real world, to be more overwhelmed and depressed. “[The iPhone might] not have committed the crime, but there are fingerprints … evidence at the scene that points in that direction,” Twenge said.

Gif]% ;`jZljj\j 9\e\Ôkj f] >i\\e 9l`c[`e^j

By Gibran Caroline Boyce For The Heights In an effort to change the way people think about the role of the environment in public health, Joseph G. Allen, a professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health and BC ’98, discussed his project, “The Impact of Green Buildings on Cognitive Function Studies” on Monday night.

Allen began his talk by explaining that humans spend 90 percent of their time indoors and only 10 percent of their time outdoors. Given these statistics, it is clear to see that the time spent indoors plays a crucial role in an individual’s health.

Allen was inspired to find ways to optimize the indoor environment for human health and activity. He and his team of researchers conducted two studies to find the best possible solutions for indoor living.

Allen’s first study showed that cognitive test scores doubled with an improvement in indoor air quality. According to Allen’s research group’s website dedicated to the two studies, TheCogFxStudy.com, cognitive performance scores averaged 101 percent higher in buildings with enhanced ventilation compared to those in normal buildings. The website also adds that the most significant differences in cognitive function were with how the the participants reacted to high-intensity situations and the application of information and strategy.

Allen defined conventional buildings as typical office spaces, green buildings as buildings low in volatile organic compounds (VOC), and enhanced green buildings as buildings that are low in VOC and have high ventilation. VOCs are organic chemicals that have a high

vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature. Allen compares the three different building types in order to observe whether the buildings have any significant effect on participants’ health results and productivity.

“This study suggests that indoor environments can have a profound impact on the decision-making performance of workers, which is a primary indicator of worker productivity,” Allen said.

The results suggest that VOCs and carbon dioxide levels typically found in conventional buildings correlate to poor work performance.

In a second study, Allen looked into what is called “Buildingomics,” or a study of examining all of the factors of the building-related environment that have an impact on public health and productivity.

One of the key things Allen’s team notes in this study is that the use of

blue-enriched light, such as daylight, during the day, improves sleep and cognitive thinking. The blue-enriched light results in a greater production of the hormone melatonin, allowing for an increased ability to sleep at night.

In regard to the study, when sleep quality was 25 percent higher, cognitive function increased by 2.8 percent the following day.

Participants in Allen’s study also noted that there were 30 percent fewer “sick building symptoms”—illness or symptoms of illness due to the building quality—in green buildings than in conventional buildings, and had fewer complaints about temperature, air movement, air dryness or humidity, and specific odors.

“Our goal is to improve the lives of all people, in all buildings, everywhere, every day,” Allen said on ForHealth.org. “We see health as the primary motivator for action.”

DXib\k`e^ <o\Zlk`m\ <oXd`e\j k_\ ?Xggp C`]\

By Katherine Murphy For The Heights The Carroll School of Management marketing department welcomed Javier Sánchez Lamelas, the founder and CEO of Top Line Marketing, to speak to students in Fulton Hall as part of the Distinguished Marketing Lecture Series on Monday afternoon.

Originally, Lamelas was on track to be a lawyer, following in the footsteps of his father who was a judge. But after a year of law school, he discovered that his true passion was working in marketing.

Lamelas began his talk on Monday by taking questions from the audience. The questions surrounded both his career and his personal life. He explained how

POLICE BLOTTER Monday, Nov. 7 12:34 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a cruiser repair at the Middle Campus Lots.

growing up in Equatorial Guinea and living throughout Europe, including Vienna, Athens, and Brussels, and in the United States helped to give him a better perspective in his work.

Lamelas then went on to talk about the basis behind his sixmonth campaign entitled “Choose Happiness” that he designed while working at Coca Cola. Lamelas believes that happiness is the aim of every human life. Throughout the creative process, Lamelas and his team asked different sources, including anthropologists and the Dalai Lama, what they thought happiness was. Lamelas came to the conclusion that “the purpose of our lives is to maximize net present happiness.”

Lamelas said that happiness is not the same thing as optimism and

Lamelas has been uncompromising with his values, he has found the most success.

While explaining the different convictions, Lamelas showed students a few different Coca Cola commercials that were based on those themes. Each commercial featured individuals making active choices that brought them joy and happiness, all while drinking Coke. One of the commercials he presented was based on the “do something good” conviction and showed people doing small, good deeds, and also drinking Coke.

Lamela’s intent was to show students a strong marketing campaign, but also how to live a successful and happy life.

“I wouldn’t have changed anything I’ve done with my life,” he said.

K_\ ?\`^_kj 9fjkfe :fcc\^\ Æ DZ<cifp ((* (+' :fddfen\Xck_ 8m\% :_\jkelk ?`cc# DXjj% ')+-. <[`kfi$`e$:_`\] -(. ,,)$)))* <[`kfi`Xc >\e\iXc -(. ,,)$)))( DXeX^`e^ <[`kfi -(. ,,)$+)/E\nj ;\jb -(. ,,)$'(.)

Jgfikj ;\jb -(. ,,)$'(/0 D\kif ;\jb -(. ,,)$*,+/ =\Xkli\j ;\jb -(. ,,)$*,+/ 8ikj ;\jb -(. ,,)$',(, G_fkf -(. ,,)$(')) =Xo -(. ,,)$+/)* 9lj`e\jj Xe[ Fg\iXk`fej >\e\iXc DXeX^\i -(. ,,)$'(-0 8[m\ik`j`e^ -(. ,,)$)))' 9lj`e\jj Xe[ :`iZlcXk`fe -(. ,,)$',+. :cXjj`Ô\[j Xe[ :fcc\Zk`fej -(. ,,)$'*-+ =Xo -(. ,,)$(.,* <;@KFI@8C I<JFLI:<J

E\nj K`gj ?Xm\ X e\nj k`g fi X ^ff[ `[\X ]fi X jkfip6 :Xcc Jfg_`\ I\Xi[fe# E\nj <[`kfi# Xk -(. ,,)$'(.)# fi \dX`c e\nj7YZ_\`^_kj%Zfd% =fi ]lkli\ \m\ekj# \dX`c X [\kX`c\[ [\jZi`gk`fe f] k_\ \m\ek Xe[ ZfekXZk `e]fidXk`fe kf k_\ E\nj ;\jb%

8ikj <m\ekj =fi ]lkli\ Xikj \m\ekj# \dX`c X [\$ kX`c\[ [\jZi`gk`fe f] k_\ \m\ek Xe[ ZfekXZk `e]fidXk`fe kf k_\ 8ikj ;\jb% :Xcc :_i`j =lcc\i# 8ikj Xe[ I\m`\n <[`kfi# Xk -(. ,,)$',(,# fi \dX`c Xikj7YZ_\`^_kj%Zfd%

:cXi`ÔZXk`fej & :fii\Zk`fej K_\ ?\`^_kj jki`m\j kf gifm`[\ `kj i\X[\ij n`k_ Zfdgc\k\# XZZliXk\# Xe[ YXcXeZ\[ `e]fidXk`fe% @] pfl Y\c`\m\ n\ _Xm\ dX[\ X i\gfik`e^ \iifi# _Xm\ `e]fidXk`fe k_Xk i\hl`i\j X ZcXi`ÔZX$ k`fe fi Zfii\Zk`fe# fi hl\jk`fej XYflk K_\ ?\`^_kj jkXe[Xi[j Xe[ giXZk`Z\j# pfl dXp ZfekXZk :Xifcpe =i\\dXe# <[`kfi$`e$:_`\]# Xk -(. ,,)$)))*# fi \dX`c \`Z7YZ_\`^_kj%Zfd%

:LJKFD<I J<IM@:<

;\c`m\ip Kf _Xm\ K_\ ?\`^_kj [\c`m\i\[ kf pfli _fd\ \XZ_ n\\b fi kf i\gfik [`jki`$ Ylk`fe gifYc\dj fe ZXdglj# ZfekXZk QXZ_ N`ce\i# >\e\iXc DXeX^\i Xk -(. ,,)$',+.%

8[m\ik`j`e^ K_\ ?\`^_kj `j fe\ f] k_\ dfjk \]$ ]\Zk`m\ nXpj kf i\XZ_ k_\ 9: Zfddle`kp% Kf jlYd`k X ZcXjj`$ ]`\[# [`jgcXp# fi fec`e\ X[m\ik`j\$ d\ek# ZXcc fli X[m\ik`j`e^ f]ÔZ\ Xk -(. ,,)$)))' Dfe[Xp k_ifl^_ =i`[Xp%

K_\ ?\`^_kj `j gif[lZ\[ Yp 9: le[\i^iX[lXk\j Xe[ `j glYc`j_\[ fe Dfe[Xpj Xe[ K_lij[Xpj [li`e^ k_\ XZX[\d`Z p\Xi Yp K_\ ?\`^_kj# @eZ% Z )'(-% 8cc i`^_kj i\j\im\[%

CORRECTIONS

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

11/7/16 - 11/9/16 1:25 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm at the Mods.

8:04 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a larceny of a bicycle at Lower Lots.

How are you feeling today? ÈGi\kkp jlii\Xc% @ nXj lg lek`c *1*' X%d% kip`e^ kf gifZ\jj \m\ipk_`e^%É ÇJfliXY_ 9Xek_`X# :JFD Ë(.

1:43 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a medical transport at Cocoran Commons.

Tuesday, Nov. 8 1:24 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a medical incident at the Mods.

1:32 a.m. - A report was filed regarding found property at Higgins Hall.

that seeing the glass half full does not mean that an individual is happy.

Instead, the individual must take the necessary steps to “fill the glass” to be truly happy.

Once Lamelas determined the basis of the campaign, he came up with seven principles to live by that stemmed from the idea of choosing happiness. Lamelas imparted his wisdom on the audience: the future is up to you, get to know yourself, goals are important, love is like a bucket, be principled, do something good, and happiness can be taught.

Lamelas stressed that goals are important. Without goals, an individual can not create a plan to achieve happiness.

He then described how being principled has helped him find happiness in his life. Because

8 >l`[\ kf Pfli E\njgXg\i

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

È8n]lc% @ Zi`\[ `e k_i\\ flk f] k_i\\ ZcXjj\j% 8cjf ^fk Xe Fi^f \oXd YXZb%É ÇA\ee`]\i B\\eXe# D:8J Ë(0 È;`j^ljk% @kËj aljk [`j^ljk`e^ _fn k_\ Zflekip Zflc[ kXb\ jf dXep jk\gj YXZb%É ÇDf_Xd\[ ;`Xccf# D:8J Ë(0

ÈJklee\[% <oZ`k\[ Xj n\cc% >\e\iXc \oZ`k\d\ek ]fi n_XkËj XYflk kf _Xgg\e kf 8d\i`ZX%É Ç;Xe`\c ?XclcX# D:8J Ë)'

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, November 10, 2016

A3

8 EXk`feXc GifYc\d1 :feki`m\[ :`m`c`kp 8ccfnj 9`^fkip kf =cfli`j_ KWESI AARON In the wake of a controversial presidential election, most universities across the nation will offer support to those in distress over its results, Boston College included.

In addition to the resources various offices and organizations will offer, in general, there will be offerings from school officials and students alike for a chance at coming together. Like during past periods of strife, solidarity will be held up as the shining beacon of hope through which all good things emanate.

As President Barack Obama, Stephen Colbert and others have already urged, good faith in our fellow human beings conquers all. Except when it doesn’t, like

this week.

The American conscience dictates that hatred is negative and tolerance is positive.

We strive to temper hostility, even at the price of silencing anguish. Through all our coaching many have forgotten revulsion completely. It is never a problem to find it hard to hate, until you find yourself unable to hate racism. Tolerance was once a pure disposition, until far too many people seemed to tolerate overt sexism in our politics. Institutions like BC would have you believe that all opinions are equally valid for the sake of appearing bipartisan. But what very few institutions, if any, ever have the courage to do, is to recognize the moral questions of partisanship and to take a position, even at the risk of offending those who might believe that Muslims are predisposed

to sympathy of terrorists. For here all are one in legitimacy, and the cloak of togetherness has room for xenophobes.

Therein lies the root of what has become a national problem. Peace and quiet has anesthetized a generation to the ever-present fears, pain, and strife of peers who have always lived in an America that appears openly hostile to their rights and their safety. That’s the unique feature of this election: a man wielding the power of the executive branch who says, in no uncertain terms, that he’s coming after me; backing him, a massive constituency comprised of Islamophobes, anti-Semites, white nationalists, and those willing to stand beside them to advance themselves.

Now more than ever it is time to decide who we are and who our neighbors are.

We can no longer afford to ignore sinister sentiments if they are mildly put. There is nothing on Earth that is worth sharing as humans if not a seething disdain for ideas that routinely produce violence and squalor for groups of people. We have run from contempt for so long that it has become the norm to go easy on the forces of evil. Only court judges that don’t hate sexual assault award three-month sentences, as in the case of Brock Turner. Only voters that don’t hate xenophobia can accept a religiouslybased immigration ban, as their grandparents once accepted Japanese internment.

Only university administrators that don’t hate institutional racism could so easily accept that its dismantlement relies solely on righteousness and good intent. People of color, the LGBTQ+ community, women,

Muslims, and the like have for too long accepted a poisonous species of unity with their demographic counterparts and with each other. That contrived song of civility that we dance to does nothing to challenge Western culture’s biggest moral downfall, but instead allows bigotry to incubate and continue embodying who we collectively are. I encourage everyone, in the wake of a potentially volatile period of history, to demand of all their relations a joint conspiracy against the shameful tradition of butchering the livelihoods, bodies, and dignity of marginalized groups. What we need isn’t a binge of togetherness. We need a purge—to send the deplorable in exile.

Bn\j` 8Xife `j X d\dY\i f] k_\ 9fjkfe :fcc\^\ :cXjj f] )'(-%

8^X`ejk 8cc Gfccj# Kildg KXb\j k_\ N_`k\ ?flj\ Elections, from A1

and Question 4, which legalizes the use of recreational marijuana for people 21 and over, passed overwhelmingly. By approving the latter, the state joins others like Colorado, which approved it in 2014, and California, which also approved its use tonight, as part of a growing coalition of states that have legalized marijuana.

On campus, the Eagle Political Society (EPS) held an election results viewing event in the Vanderslice Cabaret Room until 1 a.m.

Students at the event engaged in political discussion as the results came in. A recent survey of Boston College students conducted by The Heights found that 75 percent of respondents intended to vote for Hillary Clinton, compared to 8.4 percent who indicated that they supported Trump.

Luis Cardenas, MCAS ’18 voted at Alexander Hamilton Elementary School in Brighton, Mass. Cardenas voted for Clinton because he was offended by Trump’s comments about Mexicans and immigration, as his hometown is along the border between the United States and Mexico.

Cardenas believes that the U.S. economy benefits from being close to the Mexican border because of trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement, which accounts for about 14 million U.S. jobs. He disagrees with Trump’s belief that a wall should be built along the border. Cardenas felt that it was disrespectful to his family and his culture and believes that Clinton is the most qualified candidate.

Chloe Kargodorian, CSOM ’19, is from California, where taxes are relatively high. She voted for Trump because she feels as though he would ensure her taxes go to a productive cause.

“I voted for Trump solely because my family has worked very hard for everything that it has earned,” Kargodian said. “My dad

worked really hard to get into dental school, make a living for himself, and to establish his own practice.”

Anthony Masi, CSOM ’19, voted in favor of a third-party candidate who felt that voting for Trump or Clinton went against his morals.

He believed that Clinton would provide the most economic stability, but that she could not unify the country.

During the months leading up to the election, various organizations and academic departments at BC hosted speakers with experience in politics and government who have commented on the election. In October, the Council for Women of Boston College hosted a panel that featured Mary Matalin, a campaign director for former President George H. W. Bush, and Donna Brazile, the interim chair of the Democratic National Committee. The discussion focused on the role women in political leadership, although both panelists expressed their thoughts on the presidential race.

More recently, the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics invited former Attorney General Eric Holder to speak at its fall 2016 Clough Colloquium. Holder emphasized the need for the creation of a new Voting Rights Act with the aim of protecting voters from rigid Voter I.D. laws that have recently been passed in many states. The EPS also hosted screenings of the presidential and vice presidential debates in an effort to encourage students to become informed on the two major-party candidates in the race.

All students at BC have access to TurboVote, an online application that helps students register to vote, apply for absentee ballots, and remain informed on local and national elections. Additionally, the Office of Student Affairs offered students rides to polling locations in the Boston area during Election Day. Students from out of state with absentee ballots had the chance to have their ballots notarized at Lyons Hall on Oct. 19 and 25.

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Local voters turn out to cast their ballots at the Boston Public Library on Tuesday.

KYLE BOWMAN / HEIGHTS STAFF

Ê;feËk >`m\ Lg fe Pflij\c]1Ë Jkl[\ekj# Gif]\jjfij KXcb Fm\iZfd`e^ FYjkXZc\j

By Miranda McDonald-Stahl For The Heights Julia Bogiages, MCAS ’18, faced rejection her freshman year. She told one of her mentors that everything was perfect even though she had been rejected from 14 clubs.

“That was a flat out lie, and she called me on it,” Bogiages said.

Her mentor shared a quote from the Ignatian prayer “The Slow Work of God.” “Don’t try to be today what time will make of you tomorrow,” Bogiages said, quoting the poem.

At the Bounce Back BC: Stories of Resilience panel on Wednesday, seven members of the BC community answered this question in their own ways through stories of adjusting to college life and finding meaning in overcoming obstacles. The event was held in Devlin 221 at 4 p.m. and was sponsored by the Office of Health Promotion.

Bogiages is now a Residence Assistant and an Orientation Leader, something she never would have imagined she would be doing three years ago. She encouraged students to reach out to their peers for support.

For Thomas Harwell, assistant director of Career Services, resilience meant accepting rejection.

When Harwell was in college, he was so determined to join one men’s organization that he applied twice. Both times, he did well in interviews but was rejected.

Hartwell was devastated and decided to reflect on what he really wanted from the organization. He valued the connections and relationships his friends formed and set out to accomplish just that.

“Resilience to me is understanding that challenges will come, and how you respond to them is what impacts how

you move forward,” Hartwell said.

For Chris Anselmo, BC ’16, that was as simple as asking someone to carry his backpack.

Anselmo has Miyoshi Myopathy, a form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy. Through asking his friends and professors for help, he found trust and support.

He also said that it was important to keep a clear goal for what you want out of life.

Knowing that all he did was for a greater purpose helped him overcome challenges and achieve his long term goals, Anselmo said.

Bethany Candage, MCAS ’18, also told students to open up to others.

“Staying silent isn’t always the answer,” she said. “Reach out because people are there, and people will listen.”

Candage had experienced anxiety and depression since high school and felt alone as a freshman. A University counselor suggested she try a new therapist at home. Her new therapist convinced her to return to BC for sophomore year.

“Don’t give up on yourself,” Candage said.

Community was also essential for Frances Hartnett, MCAS ’20.

Hartnett has Crohn’s disease. This fall, she was hospitalized and had to return to her hometown of Chicago for several weeks.

“My entire vision of what would happen in college was completely shattered,” Hartnett said.

Her family reflected on why she wanted to return to a university that was hundreds of miles away. Hartnett thought back to her new friends and facilitators from the Emerging Leader Program who had visited her in the hospital. She said that while academic opportunities were widespread, the people who cared about her made BC unique.

She defined resilience as “doing your

best to be yourself,” despite circumstances you cannot control.

Finally, David Storey, professor of practice in the philosophy department at BC, and Becky McGeorge, MCAS ’19, talked about how their communities helped them lighten the load of being overcommitted.

As a new professor, Storey said yes to everything: teaching commitments, helping students, and volunteer work.

He told his fiancée his life was fundamentally disordered.

Both Storey and McGeorge realized that the urgent was clouding the important.

After getting involved in too many clubs and focusing less on school work during her freshman year, McGeorge changed her lifestyle to prioritize the organizations that were most meaningful to her. She also focused on her health by sleeping and exercising more.

She described resilience as a continual process rather than a one-time solution.

“I’m continuously looking for this balance, even now, and even when I stumble,” she said.

Storey also reduced his commitments and focused more on what made him happy in his personal life after his fiancee told him it’s okay to scale back.

Ultimately, all the speakers said they hoped to end the culture of perfectionism at BC and encouraging the audience to seek support. Their stories will be posted on the Office of Health Promotion website, along with other resources and contacts for students.

Anselmo hoped that sharing his own story of resilience could empower others.

“If I could be that [support] for somebody else, even for one person, then I’ve done my job,” he said.

A4

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, November 10, 2016

D@K J\\bj kf ;i`m\ @eefmXk`m\ JkXiklgj n`k_ K_\ <e^`e\

By Leo Confalone For The Heights Massachusetts Institute of Technology President L. Rafael Reif has announced the launch of The Engine, the university’s new startup accelerator project. The enterprise seeks to provide Boston-area entrepreneurs with the resources to get their startups off the ground. The venture was created specifically to support companies working to improve society through innovative ideas in the fields of science and technology.

The Engine will connect budding companies with investors and advisors, supplying the capital and expertise necessary to take ideas out of the lab and into the market. It has set out to raise $150 million for its initial fund, with $25 million being supplied directly by MIT, and the rest coming from larger venture capital investors. The accelerator hopes to form connections between entrepreneurs and established companies in order to create a network of innovation.

Affordable office and workspace can be hard to come by in Boston.

Startups participating in The Engine will have access to 26,000 square feet of space at its headquarters in Cambridge, with plans to add an additional 200,000 or more in Kendall Square and its surrounding neighborhoods currently in the works. Additionally, participants will utilize MIT’s many lab and equipment rooms for research and the development of physical products.

“The Engine will support toughtech firms working on big societal problems, by providing a distinctive package of resources: Patient capital, affordable local space, access to highly-specialized equipment, streamlined legal and business services, and expertise, from prototype to scale-up,” Reif said at the launch announcement. “The Engine will also connect them with a network of MIT alumni, like-minded entrepreneurs, and major corporations in other innovation nodes near and far.”

The Engine is modeled around supporting and accelerating two specific stages of startup development: the transitional outset of an idea becoming a commercial product, and

the later phase of introducing developed prototypes to the market.

The enterprise hopes to support up to 60 participants at one time, with each startup remaining in The Engine for a period of up to a year.

The Engine is unique in that its selection process will seek companies looking to transform society in the long term, rather than provide large returns on short-term investments.

“What truly sets The Engine apart is the emphasis on impact: In assessing candidate companies, it will prioritize breakthrough-answersto-big-problems over early-profit,” Reif said.

The Shea Center for Entrepreneurship at Boston College sponsors its own startup accelerator program called Start@Shea, which provides students from all four schools at BC with the resources to develop their ideas and connects aspiring student entrepreneurs with accomplished alumni. In addition, the Shea Center sponsors weekly workshops and a Lunch with an Entrepreneur series, both of which give students access toexperienced professionals.

“The idea is to help students go from an idea to something that is closer to a commercializable entity by providing a systematic set of steps and helping them with everything from understanding customers better, to what types of experimentation make the most sense,” Mary Tripsas, the director of the Shea Center, said.

“The second thing is to have experienced entrepreneurs help students through mentoring, of which part of the mentoring is getting access to a network of people who can help you as you continue your endeavor.”

One of the final goals of accelerators like The Engine and Start@ Shea is to produce companies that can succeed locally, contributing and attracting investment to the Boston economy.

“If you look more generally at what role entrepreneurship plays in promoting both local and broader regional economies, it contributes a ton,” Tripsas said. “There are so many universities around Boston, and what Massachusetts would love to see is those students who have entrepreneurial ideas coming out of all those

DANIELLE FASCIANO / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

The Engine, aims to aid the development of innovative Boston-area startups. local universities stay in Boston.”

In the past, the disparity of available assets like startup capital in Boston has caused many innovators to seek to grow their companies elsewhere. As the city’s startup and technological scene looks to expand, MIT believes that institutions like The Engine can help retain local talent by providing an alternative to the abundant resources available in rival tech-oriented regions such as Silicon Valley.

Reif believes that many entrepreneurs can never find sufficient

support, which discourages both them and others from trying, a phenomenon that leaves them stranded in the lab. This was one of the things they identified when creating a new environment for entrepreneurs at the university.

“In effect, we keep seeing that, in fields like energy, manufacturing, robotics, biotech, and medical devices, innovators are finding it extremely difficult to secure the stable funding, space, equipment, expertise and networks to fully develop their technologies,” he said.

E>F M\e\ql\cXe Nfd\e `e 8Zk`fe =fjk\ij JfZ`Xc :_Xe^\ `e 9fjkfe

By Meghan Hokr For The Heights . This month, a group of Latin American activists in Boston created a new organization to fight both gender discrimination and violence in the region. Venezuelan Women in Action or Mujeres Venezolanas en Accíon (MVA), the brainchild of its executive director, Ana Julia Jatar, aims to amplify the voices of survivors of violence by allowing women to tell their stories.

Victims of gender violence can often feel trapped in a cycle of opression, one that silences them through fear and perpetuates the status quo. When violence manifests itself in the form of political violence, as it has in Venezuela, the

cross-sectional population of those who are oppressed from multiple sources, such as women, experience an incomprehensible trauma.

Working within the city, Jatar has created a network of Venezuelan women who share her passion toward ending gender violence.

The goal of MVA includes raising awareness through victims’ stories in order to promote international solidarity and to ultimately end gender violence in Venezuela. It works to inspire people to stand in solidarity with Venezuelan women by informing the public about the violence that they have faced and continued to endure.

Venezuelan Women in Action is currently working on its upcoming event, 16 Days Against Gender

Violence, which will highlight 16 different women who have been victims of political violence who are willing to share their testimonies despite their fear. It will commence on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Nov. 25, and end on Dec. 10, the International Day for Human Rights, so that people around the world can engage in defending women’s rights and provide a common platform to connect with world-wide suffering.

Jatar, who has lived in the U.S. for 13 years, is a journalist who was worked for human rights, women’s rights, and prisoner rights, and is the chief editor of El Planeta, a Latino community news source in Boston.

She mentioned that currently, MVA

has taken priority over any other occupation despite her eclectic life.

“I have seen along the years an increasing lack of freedom in Venezuela,” Jatar said. “So many women have suffered violence from the public forces.”

When living in Venezuela, she once asked the local police about how women were treated when taken by the police, to which they said that their practices were uniform, regardless of gender. This encounter, coupled with many other physical examples of violence, fed her passion toward the injustices around her and the need to make the world aware of the violence against women in Venezuela, despite institutional denial and backlash. She has seen so many interviews of victims that

she has a special appreciation for the powerful effect their words have.

As for MVA’s location in Boston, Jatar marveled at the immediately positive reaction she received from the community in the beginning stages of the NGO. With a fantastic board of advisors, Jatar has fostered her passion as well as cultivated the same feelings in those around her, and she was surprised just how committed and inspiring the help of others has been. Very soon after starting, 60 people showed their eagerness to help in MVA’s efforts, which led to the development of an ambassador program within the NGO. Next year, MVA has chosen to focus on political violence around the world, not only toward women, but including all forms of violence.

She also recalled how incredible it has been to witness the unity and strength of women who, despite being subject to so much violence, still foster the desire to fight against the injustices at hand and speak out and collaborate toward social change.

The effects of bringing women together for this type of action prove astounding in her eyes.

“Since I have taken this journey, I will defend women’s rights until I die,” Jatar said.

For the future, Jatar’s hopes for Venezuelan society are simple: to see a genuine respect for women as people, not objects. This goal, one that sits at the zenith of many progressive movements around the world, for her, is of the utmost importance.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, November 10, 2016

A5

9\Xi[ GXgXËj 9i`e^j 8`ip AXgXe\j\$Jkpc\ :i\Xd Gl]]j kf 8ccjkfe

MADELEINE D’ANGELO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

After opening its Allston storefront in tandem with Chatime this past July, Beard Papa’s serves customers customizable Japanese cream puffs.

9P D8;<C<@E< ;Ë8E><CF 8jjk% D\kif <[`kfi

Step through the wide, glass doors of Beard Papa’s, and a warm and spectacular smell will cocoon you. At first, you might struggle to actually define this smell. It certainly isn’t savory by any stretch, but it lacks the cloying sweetness that often hovers around popular bakeries and dessert shops. As you drift towards the back of the shop—past the low white tables crowded with groups of people happily chattering away—you might even close your eyes for a brief second and inhale, losing yourself completely in this buttery, doughy, and slightly sweet scent.

That smell you’re smelling? It’s the smell of a freshly baked cream puff.

First sold from Beard Papa’s original Japan location, which opened in 1999, these cream puffs quickly became a

phenomenon. In a little over a decade, the brand has opened over 200 stores worldwide—over 160 of which are located in Japan—but just five are located on the East Coast: one in New York, one in Virginia, one in Washington, D.C., one in Boston’s Chinatown area, and, most recently, one in Allston—just a 15-minute ride down the B Line.

Beard Papa’s Allston location, which opened this past July, opened to the public in tandem with Chatime, a bubble tea chain that has proven popular in the Boston area. Although Beard Papa’s and Chatime are separate brands—the former originated in Japan and the latter in Taiwan—Beiwei Ye, the regional manager for both Beard Papa’s and Chatime, explained that opening both restaurants within the same storefront was a carefully developed business strategy.

In order to make both restaurants more competitive in Allston, an area

already packed with many small businesses that serve the bubble tea and dessert customer base, Ye proposed combining the two brands after closely monitoring their individual Chinatown locations. Although both Chinatown stores were successful, Ye noted that while Chatime maintained popularity mainly within Boston’s vibrant Asian community for its authentic, handshaken bubble tea, Beard Papa’s mainly attracted a customer base that existed outside of that community. By combining Beard Papa’s and Chatime in Allston, Ye hoped to merge the two distinct customer bases and use the popularity of the Beard Papa’s cream puffs in order to eventually educate more customers about bubble tea.

“We tried to get the people who love cream puffs to recognize Chatime, so it’s our strategy to bring Chatime to the next level with Beard Papa’s,” Ye said.

The popularity of Beard Papa’s cream puffs—-a popularity that Ye hopes to harness in the Allston store—certainly stems from the unique nature of the dessert. One of the only vendors in the Boston area completely devoted to cream puffs, Beard Papa’s are made in the European-influenced Japanese style, which makes them light and subtle instead of the highly sweet and whipped cream-based American ones. Ye noted that this allows customers to eat multiple cream puffs in a row without getting tired of the fillings, or overdosing on sugar.

The intense freshness of the pastry and custard sets Beard Papa’s puffs apart. Chefs bake countless batches of the shells of the cream puff, a thin and crunchy dome of choux pastry, throughout the day in order to keep the pastries as fresh as possible. All day long, customers can smell the fresh puffs as soon as they open the door. They can see it too: a large window behind the counter reveals the bakers in the back pulling fresh cream puffs out of the oven and putting fresh batches in.

After the puffs are cooled, they arwe filled with a combination of custard and cream to order. Though the process is time-consuming when it comes to serving a rush, it maintains the essential crunch of the pastry shell and allows the customers to customize their cream puffs.

For such a straightforward dessert, customers have a wide range of options.

After choosing a pastry shell, either the traditional, a choux puff topped with powdered sugar; the eclair, a choux puff with a chocolate shell; or the Paris Brest, a ring-shaped choux, customers select their fillings.

These fillings range from a soft and subtle vanilla, a sweet but earthy green tea matcha, a powerful dulce du leche caramel, to rotating monthly flavors such as November’s pumpkin cara-

mel—a custard completely reminiscent of pumpkin pie filling. As bakers prepare the cream puffs after the customers place their orders, each puff is weighed to ensure a carefully developed ratio of custard to pastry.

Each day, fresh batches of custard are made with natural ingredients sourced from carefully selected local vendors.

Each vendor was carefully chosen by the company heads in order to allow the Boston locations of Beard Papa’s to serve cream puffs that taste exactly like the ones served in Japan, which is a tricky feat. This could put Beard Papa’s at the whim of the vendors—if something happens to the milk delivery they will have nothing to sell but it pays off in the complex yet delicate flavors that Beard Papa’s packs into each cream puff.

Ye highlighted the vanilla custard as an example, as it gets its flavor from seeds that the bakers scrape out of vanilla pods instead of just vanilla extract, a subtlety of flavor evident in all of the puff fillings.

Ye hopes Beard Papa’s ethos comes across clearly to each customer.

“We want to present [Beard Papa’s] as a joyful place,” Ye said. “Our customer service [is very] friendly and we want to bring joy.”

MADELEINE D’ANGELO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

=`e[`e^ Pfli G\XZ\ N`k_`e D\\k Pfli 9X^\c N`k_ ?XimXi[ JkXiklg k_\ 8`jc\j f] X >ifZ\ip Jkfi\ ;Xk`e^ Xgg :f]]\\ D\\kj 9X^\c `eefmXk\j D8;<C<@E< ;Ë8E><CF

Name a grocery store that is even vaguely accessible from Boston College’s campus—either the Newton Campus or Main—and the chances are that I’ve been there.

Over the past year and a half, I’ve taken T’s, buses, shuttles, and (as I got more comfortable in the area) walked using my own two feet and the valuable assistance of Google Maps to get to these havens of food. For long stretches of the academic year, I will make my way toward a grocery store at least once a weekend, although twice (sometimes even to the same grocery store) is not unheard of.

I think that the obsession started with Wegmans. Early on, freshman year, when I found myself surrounded by unfamiliar names like Star Market (where was Giant, or even Safeway?), I looked around in confusion, certain I needed to buy lots of snacks, but unsure of where to go. With so much change already taking place, the thought of attempting to navigate a new grocery store just seemed too daunting.

Much to my delight, I quickly discovered that there was a Wegmans in Chestnut Hill. Although it wasn’t my everyday grocery store, Wegmans was more than a familiar name. It was the place that my family stopped in to get lunch on long road trips. It was the grocery store for special occasions, the first step toward a weekend vacation.

And here it was! There even was a little shuttle that took you right there, depositing you in a wide parking lot surrounded by a conglomeration of shops and restaurants that all seemed to center around this magnificent Wegmans.

Entering through the sliding glass doors was a soothing process in and of itself, and I made a beeline for the sub station, where I placed an order for a wonderfully familiar lunch. Then I wandered through the aisles, carefully choosing pieces of fresh fruit (something that suddenly seemed like an incredibly valuable commodity) and considering impractical items—with no kitchen, I

probably don’t need a block of cheese.

But somehow, it was comforting to hold onto them all the same.

By the end of my first visit, I was hooked. I went back the next weekend, and the weekend after that, oftentimes not buying much more than a sub sandwich for lunch, but still wandering through the aisles. Just wandering among the brightly colored items neatly stacked and organized on shelves, and navigating around the people rushing by—although they seemed oddly determined to leave Wegmans and get on with their day— made the tense muscles in my back relax.

As the year went on, I branched out a little bit. I made my way down the C Line and perused the extensive frozen food options and adorable snacks. On Saturday mornings, I began walking to Whole Foods, where I discovered the unexpected beauty of Squishy Fishies and Icelandic yogurt. One day I even treated myself to a block of cheese.

This semester, I finally made my way to Star Market, determined to see the inside of this mysterious place once and for all. And it was actually pretty nice, but it wasn’t Wegmans.

While this habit of essentially loitering in grocery stores might be normal for some with a kitchen in any capacity, for a student whose main access to a kitchen is through her low-power microwave, the habit is decidedly eccentric.

Beyond snack food—which is expendable by nature—I never really need anything from these grocery stores.

Sometimes, like when I’m sitting there making my way through a giant bag of dried mangoes, I’ll wish that I hadn’t even bought the food in the first place.

And then I’ll ask myself why I even went to the grocery store.

The answer might seem odd, but for me, this pseudo-grocery shopping imposes a sense of structure on my life. Once classes are over, my life can devolve all too easily into laziness and aimless ambling, and being somewhere where everyone around me has a sense of purpose helps a little. Even if I don’t put much into it, just pushing a shopping cart through the aisles alongside all the other shoppers helps remind me where I should be heading.

DX[\c\`e\ ;Ë8e^\cf `j k_\ Xjjk% d\kif \[`kfi ]fi K_\ ?\`^_kj% J_\ ZXe Y\ i\XZ_\[ fe kn`kk\i 7dX[jV/',%

a safe and exciting dating opportunity. The app achieves reliable safety through its strict privacy settings, protection of each user’s first and last names, and requirement to connect through Facebook.

“We want to really champion the dating experience for women and a lot of that has 9P >I8:< >;FM8J to do with safety,” Kang said. “But it doesn’t =fi k_\ ?\`^_kj stop there.”

The three categories provided in the Dating in college can be hard. It can be profile offer space for each user to be especially hard when, according to an analysis genuine, honest, and open. The application’s done by the dating application Coffee Meets website provides stories of couples who are Bagel, you attend an institution home to engaged, in a year-long relationship, and the most attractive girls and the pickiest newlyweds—all of whom met through Coffee guys—Boston College.

Meets Bagel.

But in 2012, three sisters—Arum, Soo, Despite Coffee Meets Bagel’s current and Dawoon Kang—set out to redefine and success, the construction of the app was not champion this dating experience for both without difficulty. The Kang sisters are not men and women by honing in on safety, coders, and therefore had to go through an privacy, and quality through their dating app, outsourcing company named Elance to find Coffee Meets Bagel. Although the application a developer. Dawoon noted this as one of the was initially Harvard-based, drawing on the first struggles Coffee Meets Bagel faced. innovation and technology integral to the “How do we bring somebody on board to Boston technology scene, it has achieved join us when we are three sisters?” Dawoon the success that many local startups hope said. “That fourth person joining obviously for by spreading into the rest of the U.S. and overseas. had to take a kind of leap of faith in terms Coffee Meets Bagel, a free app for all of being able to trust and put faith in our iPhones and Androids, requires all of its product.” users to connect through their Facebook The Kang sisters eventually found a profiles, allowing users to more easily meet developer in Asia who developed their up with other individuals in their areas.

MVP (model view presenter). They then The application also promotes reliability, decided to test the application on a number as it reduces people’s ability to create fake of their friends for a two-week period that profiles. A user’s basic profile includes a allowed them to thoroughly understand the photo, in addition to his or her age, height, application’s strengths and weaknesses, and ethnicity, religious affiliation, employment, ultimately determine whether the product and education. Users are then given three was worth pursuing. categories that allow for further description: The Kang sisters received positive “I am…,” “I like…,” and “I appreciate when feedback, so they continued with the my date…,” production of Coffee Meets Bagel and When a user opens Coffee Meets Bagel brainstormed ways to spread the word.

After moving the startup’s base from the Boston area to New York City, and acquiring approximately 1,600 email addresses of interested singles through friends and friends of friends, the Kang sisters sent an email blast that opened Coffee Meets Bagel to the public, and began spreading news of the app through word of mouth.

Coffee Meets Bagel has also appeared on Shark Tank, where the trio turned down a $30 million offer from billionaire Mark Cuban. Hopeful that Coffee Meets Bagel can expand to be as popular and as successful as Match.com, the Kang sisters were not willing to sell their creation. A long way from the Boston startup hub where it was born, the application has achieved the success that many Boston innovators dream of as it has spread beyond the U.S. to international COFFEE MEETS BAGEL levels including Hong Kong, Singapore, Created by the three Kang sisters, Coffee Meets Bagel aims to revolutionize modern dating. London, Sydney, and Canada.

`e 9fjkfe Xe[ Y\pfe[

for the first time, they’re designated ‘Coffee,’ while the other users are ‘Bagel.’ Every day at noon, Coffee Meets Bagel provides the user with a list of other ‘Bagels’ in their area, after which they’re given 24 hours to either like or pass on ‘Bagel’s’ profile based on the picture and information provided. When someone likes a user’s profile, the user is immediately notified.

“We don’t reveal any personal information, including last name or first name, until you actually match through a mutual like,” Dawoon, one of the three founders, said.

“This way, people can’t really stalk you. Even when you do actually match, we only reveal first names.”

The three sisters initially came up with the idea for Coffee Meets Bagel by searching for something that, while still occupying a large and viable market, would make a positive impact on people’s lives. According to Dawoon, the treacherous world of dating remained high on the sisters’ radar as they continued to observe their friends struggling to meet people that they felt truly compatible with.

The Kang sisters then decided to research the current industry for interactive dating programs, and found that being perpetually single has become a global phenomenon. In turn, this phenomenon further expanded the demand for a safe and genuine platform for people who were interested in meeting and interacting with other singles in their area.

But according to Kang, the current industry has struggled to meet these demands.

“There is an extreme lack of programs that understand the way women want to date,” Kang said. “The industry has always had difficulty recruiting and retaining women.”

Coffee Meets Bagel attacks this persisting problem through creating an app that provides

THE HEIGHTS

A6

EDITORIALS

Thursday, November 10, 2016

QUOTE OF THE DAY “The things that we love tell us what we are.”

;\jg`k\ Kildg# k_\ =`^_k ]fi TO THE EDITOR Gif^i\jj Dljk :fek`el\ LETTER A Response to “En Route to Off-Campus Residence, -St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

The nation woke up Wednesday morning to the news that Donald Trump—a businessman and reality TV mogul who has said women should be punished for abortion and Muslims should be part of a national registry—had been elected president of the United States of America. The sky was gray and flat over a quiet Boston College campus. Professors cancelled class, or devoted the entire time to comforting students about the ramifications of a Trump presidency. Groups huddled in corners.

Everywhere, people hugged.

Snippets of conversation floated between people on their way to class, in the Chocolate Bar, and in the Rat: “It’s like we’ve gone back 100 years,” and “all I’ve learned today is that people are so much more selfish than I could have imagined.”

According to a Heights survey, 75 percent of BC students indicated that they supported Hillary Clinton. Tuesday morning, The New York Times indicated that Clinton had an 84 percent chance of winning the presidency. But Trump dominated rural counties in middle America, in the majority of cases surpassing Mitt Romney’s vote totals of four years ago.

He earned 279 electoral votes, outpacing Clinton’s 228, based on electoral votes awarded as of late Wednesday night. As votes began to roll in Tuesday night, shock reverberated around the political establishment and in the mainstream media, neither of which had even considered the possibility of a Trump presidency.

All over campus, the words came up: How did this happen? How could this happen? In one class, after the professor spent 10 minutes discussing the implications of Trump’s foreign policy, one student raised her hand: “What do we do now?”

This is what we do. We don’t stop fighting. Change comes slowly, in fits, in bursts, with one step forward and, maybe, a fouryear leap backward. But the motivation to make this country better is still there. If the only people who voted in this election were between the ages of 18 and 25, 44 states would have been blue. And, in two years, the midterm elections will reshape the House and the Senate.

But first, there is the period of shock and mourning. All across campus, groups opened their doors to allow students a space to work through their anger and emotions.

UGBC’s Diversity & Inclusion branch hosted meetings, as did the Office of the Dean of Students and the Women’s Center. And, less formally, students worked out their feelings in classes and with each other. This is important, and the University is right to carve out space for these thought processes. For change to come, it must be intentional, thoughtful, and targeted.

BC students volunteer abroad and in the city. This campus takes service seriously and takes pride in its well-bred “men and women for others.” Understand that political activism is a form of service. It’s serving those who will really be affected by Tuesday’s outcome. It’s serving those who are looking for an ounce of positivity under a leader who speaks mostly of hate and exclusion. It’s serving people who will lose family members, benefits, or, even more

devastating, hope.

It’s okay to mourn. It’s okay to be in shock. But soon, it’s going to be time to spark an era of change.

Already, in Boston, thousands of protesters surged into Boston Common Wednesday night, shouting “He’s not my president.”

This action, rather than complacency and acceptance, is the action that citizens must take to continue forward momentum during the next four or even eight years. To insist upon change is to advocate forcefully and consistently for equality and accountability.

The bewilderment on campus at the election results is a testament to the bubble that students in a liberal city, often from other liberal cities, live in every day. Generally speaking, many students at BC are out of touch with the realities many face in middle America. For many, it is challenging to understand the motivations that would compel someone to vote for a man with no political experience over one of the most qualified women in political history.

:_Xe^\ Zfd\j jcfncp# `e Ô kj# `e Ylijkj# n`k_ fe\ jk\g ]finXi[ Xe[# dXpY\# X ]fli$ p\Xi c\Xg YXZbnXi[% 9lk k_\ dfk`mXk`fe kf dXb\ k_`j Zflekip Y\kk\i `j jk`cc k_\i\%

Female Student Sexually Assaulted” Why is it that ‘white’ people are often presumed innocent in media accounts of violence? “The other male [white], who was not directly involved in the assault…” The report states he did approach the female— perhaps he was a lookout? As a bystander, shouldn’t we hold him responsible in trying to prevent the attack? Why are ‘white’ people not described in the same way that ‘black’ people are—and in particular black males? We receive more description on the black male and little to nothing on the white male. Why wasn’t his height reported?

What was his haircut like? And what were these two wearing? We acknowledge the female may not have noticed further detail of the white male, but it should be so stated in the report. Seeking a more objective report, free of racial subtexts, should be at the forefront of The Heights’s reporting. We wonder why students continue to rise up and ask that Boston College address institutional racism. Here’s one easy way—let’s stop racial profiling.

Deborah Piatelli, Ph.D. Part Time Professor Department of Sociology, Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Management and Organization, Carroll School of Management Faculty-in-Residence, Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center

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.

Letters and columns can be submitted online at www. bcheights.com, by e-mail to editor@bcheights.com, in person, or by mail to Editor, The Heights, 113 McElroy Commons, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467.

And United Front E-board Jacquelyn Andalcio, LSOE ’17 Jessica Stephens MCAS ’17 Gbidee Roberts, CSOM ’17 Omonosa Owens, MCAS ’20 Najat Goso MCAS ’18 Titilayo Odedele MCAS ’18 Nanayaw Appiah-Kubi LSOE ’19 Adrien Apollon CSOM ’18 Erinma Ifegwu Anya, CSON ’20 Zachary Patterson, LSOE ’19 Taraun Frontis CSOM ’19 Jasmin Addai, MCAS ’20 George Boateng MCAS ’18

But until those motivations are understood, it will be impossible to continue moving forward. For as long as the opposition is a business tycoon shouting obscenities, hope can be hard to see. But if the opposition were a policy or a set of grievances—well, that could be something to work with.

It is important to note what Trump claimed to have run against: as someone with no political experience, he ran against an established political system that many of his supporters see as motivated by Wall Street and elite interests. Many of those who voted for Trump see him as someone who will advocate for them in a way they haven’t been represented recently. And that is not how those voters saw Clinton.

It is necessary to understand the motivations of those who voted for the other side because, until voters do, the chasm between them will grow only wider, and national change will come more slowly.

Trump’s political rhetoric has focused on exclusion. To the benefit of his own goals, he has excluded women with comments endorsing sexual assault. He has excluded immigrants with his demands to close borders.

He has insulted, mocked, and belittled people of color and people with disabilities. Young people voted overwhelmingly against exclusivity, against hate. The future is for us.

So, take the week to digest the news.

But then it’s time to organize for advocacy.

Change comes slowly, via compromise and lost battles and hard fights. Change comes from advocacy and empathy and understanding and a true motivation to make this country great for everyone. Change comes from you, and your peers, and your tireless efforts toward the persistence of peace.

See this blank space? Want to fill it?

Draw a weekly comic for

THE HEIGHTS Email opinions@bcheights. com for more information.

The views expressed in the above editorials represent the official position of The Heights, as discussed and written by the Editorial Board. A list of the mem-

bers of the Editorial Board can be found at bcheights. com/opinions.

HEIGHTS

THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College <jkXYc`j_\[ (0(0 :8IFCPE =I<<D8E# <[`kfi$`e$:_`\] Q8:? N@CE<I# >\e\iXc DXeX^\i D8>;8C<E JLCC@M8E# DXeX^`e^ <[`kfi

<;@KFI@8C :FEEFI DLIG?P# :fgp <[`kfi KFD ;<MFKF# 8( <[`kfi JFG?@< I<8I;FE# E\nj <[`kfi D@:?8<C JLCC@M8E# Jgfikj <[`kfi A8D<J CL:<P# =\Xkli\j <[`kfi :?I@J =LCC<I# 8ikj I\m`\n <[`kfi AL8E FC8M8II@8# D\kif <[`kfi 8I:?<I G8IHL<KK<# Fg`e`fej <[`kfi ALC@8 ?FGB@EJ# G_fkf <[`kfi B<8KFE D:8LC@==<# CXpflk <[`kfi

9LJ@E<JJ 8E; FG<I8K@FEJ 899P G8LCJFE# >iXg_`Zj <[`kfi 8C<: >I<8E<P# Fec`e\ DXeX^\i J?8EEFE B<CCP# 8jjfZ% :fgp <[`kfi B8PC@< ;8E@<CJ# 8jjk% :fgp <[`kfi K8PCFI JK% ><ID8@E# 8jjfZ% E\nj <[`kfi :?I@J ILJJF# 8jjk% E\nj <[`kfi I@C<P FM<I<E;# 8jjfZ% Jgfikj <[`kfi 8EE89<C JK<<C<# 8jjk% Jgfikj <[`kfi B8PC8 =<IE8E;F# 8jjk% =\Xkli\j <[`kfi :8C<9 >I@<>F# 8jjfZ% 8ikj I\m`\n <[`kfi

?8EE8? D:C8L>?C@E# 8jjk% 8ikj I\m`\n <[`kfi D8;<C<@E< ;Ë8E><CF# 8jjk% D\kif <[`kfi 8D<C@< KI@<L# 8jjfZ% G_fkf <[`kfi J8M8EE8 B@<=<I# 8jjk% G_fkf <[`kfi >I8:< D8JKIFG8JHL8# 8jjk% CXpflk <[`kfi B<CJ<P D:><<# 8jjk% >iXg_`Zj <[`kfi ?<@;@ ;FE># <o\Zlk`m\ 8jj`jkXek =I8E:@J:F IL<C8# 8jjk% Fec`e\ DXeX^\i

9<EE<K AF?EJFE# 9lj`e\jj DXeX^\i A8:B GFN<IJ# 8[m\ik`j`e^ DXeX^\i J8I8? DFFI<# Flki\XZ_ :ffi[`eXkfi >I@==@E <CC@FKK# Jpjk\dj DXeX^\i D<8>8E CFPJK# Fe$:Xdglj 8[m\ik`j`e^ DXeX^\i A8:B ;FE8?L<# 8ZZflek DXeX^\i 8M@K8 8E8E;# 8ZZflek DXeX^\i >LJ D<II<CC# :fcc\Zk`fej DXeX^\i

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, November 10, 2016

A7

I\d\dY\i`e^ FYXdXËj C\^XZp

E8K?8E ;8?C<E FEELING LIKE THE WORLD’S BEEN TURNED UPSIDE DOWN Wooooaaaaaahhhhhh.

KEEPING THINGS THE SAME EVERY WEEK - Get it? Get it? Get it? It’s flipped around. Get it? … Do you get it? No? Don’t worry, we’re not going to stop bringing it up.

GREASE - You’re sitting across from your best pal Roderick , enjoying a fine lunch at John M. Corcoran Commons, discussing ancient houses and premature burial, as you often do. Roderick takes a big ol’ bite of his steak and cheese and as he puts it away, you see an explosion of grease coating the entire lower half of his face. It’s a strange and horrifying combination of steak fat, chipotle sauce, bread crumbs, and vegetable juices. Being a polite little chipmunk, you don’t show your disgust, expecting Roderick to reach for a napkin. Instead he just continues the conversation, his lips smacking together as grease dribbles down his lips and flies with every syllable. The glint of light off of his greasy, greasy, greasy chin is nearly blinding. You try to speak, but find that every few words you gag loudly. Keeping your head lowered to avoid eye contact, you casually pick up a napkin and clean Roderick’s face.

It had to be done.

WALKING DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE STAIRS - Stay on the right. Or even the left, if you want to be a nonconformist. Just please don’t slowly meander down the middle of the stairs so that no one can pass you. Some of us have rutabagas to harvest, pal.

By the time this column is published, the next president of the United States will have been chosen by the American people, bar any sort of electoral controversy like that of GoreBush in 2000. As we all look forward to the next four years, I would like to take a moment to look back at Barack Obama’s presidency and offer a provisional assessment of his legacy.

His domestic and international policy efforts were a mix of failures and successes, some of which were his fault, some not. But his legacy, I believe, will transcend his policies.

Obama will be remembered for being a very presidential president—humble, charismatic, and virtuous—the kind of president our country deserves.

Obama’s 2008 campaign was special.

He stirred in our hearts a real sense of hope for the future, a hope that we could come together and transcend divisions. The nation, weary of war and downtrodden by the Great Recession, yearned for change and an end to partisan gridlock. Though we perhaps unfairly projected those lofty hopes on Obama, he did promise to be the solution.

After taking office, the naïve idealism of the campaign gave way to pragmatism, and the promised era of government cohesion and spiritual unity failed to materialize. While I believe that Obama will be remembered primarily for his presidential qualities, he did manage to legislate change for millions of Americans and alter the course of the country.

History will look favorably on his domestic policy achievements, with some caveats.

When Obama entered office, the economy was mired in a deep recession. Utilizing bailouts and a massive stimulus, among other measures, he prevented the economy from nose-diving into a full-blown crisis—a fact that is almost universally agreed upon by economists. As the economy began to stabilize, he introduced Dodd-Frank, an initially bold piece of financial reform, with the aim of preventing future financial crises. While Republican congressmen and litigation have eliminated much of its bite, some promising measures, like the Consumer Financial

Protection Bureau, have strengthened our financial system. And with Obama at the helm, our economy has returned to near fullemployment, and the economy has regained much of its steam. Wages, however, have remained stagnant, which some will see as a blight on his economic legacy.

Obamacare was a step in the right direction. Though it is riddled with problems and its future remains uncertain, for now it can be viewed on balance as a success by two key metrics: the expansion of health insurance coverage to millions more Americans and its role in slowing America’s out-of-control growth in health care spending.

Some domestic policy failures stand out, perhaps chief among them the inability to pass even moderate, common sense gun laws that were supported by 9 out of 10 Americans in the wake of numerous tragic mass shootings.

But on this and many other issues, the blame lies largely with the party of “No” for the past eight years—the GOP. Indeed, much of Obama’s domestic policy moves were shaped by the GOP’s relentless opposition to anything he touched, which forced him to legislate via unilateral actions.

Highlights include the Climate Action Plan, which allowed the EPA to order severe restrictions on carbon emissions, the veto of the Keystone pipeline, and raising the minimum wage for federal contractors.

The legacy of his international efforts is trickier to predict. On some key issues, it may be too early to judge. The success of the Iran deal, for example, will not be seen for years.

It seems likely, though, that his action, or lack thereof, in some key conflicts will leave stains on his record. He has received substantial flak for his non-intervention in Syria, his premature withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the chaos that followed the removal of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, and the rise of ISIS. The final outcomes of these conflicts, and the extent to which Obama shaped or could have shaped them, will comprise much of his foreign policy legacy.

Obama’s diplomatic, non-military efforts on the international stage should not be overlooked. The Paris Climate Agreement took a historic step toward mitigating climate change. He initiated a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations. His Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is the world’s largest free-trade agreement, would mark a significant shift in the nature of our relationship with Asian-Pacific countries,

although it currently languishes in Congress.

I think it is unlikely, though, that Obama will be remembered much for any of his policies. After a 2016 campaign marked by the candidates’ scandals and character failings rather than productive policy discussions, Obama will be remembered most as a presidential president, one who acted with the gravitas, class, and moral character that our country deserves in its leaders.

In moments of national crisis, Obama responded with eloquence and poise, demonstrating genuine empathy and presenting a lofty vision of unity for our country. His speeches set forth high-minded aspirations for what we as Americans could be. He stood above the fray, never attacking and always collected. Consider the way he handled a protester at one of his speeches last week. He hushed the passions of the crowd and honored the man, rather than inciting violence like we saw throughout this election season.

As I watched this election unfold over the past year, I often found myself wondering: Where is the leader with the grand vision of hope and unification for our country? Where is the leader who understands the hopes and dreams of Americans from all walks of life?

Where is the leader who commands respect, who can work across the aisle, foster dialogue and form consensus? Where is the leader who brings out what is best in us, who inspires us to be better individuals, a better nation?

In this election, Americans were presented with no such candidates, arguably even in the primaries. These questions arise, I have realized, from a deep sense of nostalgia for the last eight years.

So while presidential legacies take some time to coalesce and policies take some time to realize their impact, I can say with confidence that history will view Obama favorably.

Though stymied by a Republican Congress at every turn and presented with some of the most intractable problems, Obama never failed to conduct himself as a president should: with poise, fortitude, class, empathy, eloquence, and vigor. As we all reflect on the last election cycle and look forward to the next four years, I think Obama’s virtues as president will only become more and more evident to all.

EXk_Xe ;X_c\e `j Xe fg$\[ Zfclde`jk ]fi K_\ ?\`^_kj% ?\ ZXe Y\ i\XZ_\[ Xk fg`e`fej7YZ_\`^_kj%Zfd%

K_\ Dpk_ f] X Ê9XcXeZ\[Ë :fcc\^\ C`]\

B<CJ<P :FEEFIJ TRAILBLAZING - Has anyone ever reversed the Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down order before? I don’t think so. There’s nothing quite like blazing a few trails, exploring new worlds, leaving your mark permanently etched in the pantheon of college journalism. Look at this.

It’s like Neil Armstrong taking his first step on the moon, except Stanley Kubrick isn’t involved.

CLASSIC TU/TD - Dropping moon landing conspiracy theories left and right, reversing orders of things, being unbelievably full of ourselves. Yessir. Only two more of these left, gotta get all this stuff out there before the power of the thumb is passed on to someone else.

SUDDENLY REMEMBERING THAT YOUR TIME ON EARTH IS LIMITED AND EVERYTHING YOU DO IS FINITE AND WE ARE ALL SLOWLY DECAYING - This can be a somewhat unpleasant sensation. Oh wait, this is Thumbs Up now because of the order switch.

Shoot. Well, rules are rules …

Don’t you just love thinking about death? It’s a real blast.

Like Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down?

Follow us @BCTUTD

I am sitting down to write my column two hours late, with an exam worth 45 percent of my grade in two days. There is a lot left to study and two other classes to read for. Already, I am thinking about the hours I spent away from my books and computer screen this weekend and the ways I could have better organized my time. Tailgating on Saturday was not exactly necessary, nor were my two episodes of Criminal Minds with my roommates yesterday afternoon. I am feeling stressed, frustrated with myself, and slightly guilty for all the minutes I may have wasted.

We all strive to live balanced lives, but we are not perfect, no matter how often we pretend to be. If you were to talk to my friends, teachers, and club leaders, they would describe me as involved, eager to learn, and, probably, organized.

But I, like the rest of us, am not a robot, and still often fail when it comes to time management. My own procrastination and forgetfulness aside, I often wonder if there are enough hours in the day, enough days in the week or weeks in the semester, to live what we would call a “balanced” college life.

When we really consider all there is to accomplish in our days, it can be eye opening, because we don’t often think about everything all at once. First, there are 12.5 hours of class each week. The work we do for these courses often seems constant and all-consuming. I can’t recall ever hearing a friend or classmate say, “I don’t have any work to do,” because even when everything due tomorrow is done, the rest of the week’s work needs attention, and that longterm research project is always lingering in the back of my mind.

To be a balanced college student, one must also participate in at least two clubs, regularly visit professors’ office hours, eat

healthy food, work out at least a few days per week, and be constantly applying to internships and attending interviews with potential employers. College is also supposed to be fun, and we have to make time for our social lives, for our friends, roommates, and significant others. We have to foster relationships with professors, network, and connect. Our Jesuit education also encourages us to foster our relationship with God, so many of us shuffle into church each week. Finally, we must of course remember to call Mom and Dad. This is what a balanced college life looks like. A balanced college life looks unattainable.

What we expect of ourselves really is a lot, maybe even too much. But there is something else that every student is thinking about regularly, either consciously or subconsciously, that keeps us working at the ideally balanced college life. We recognize that all our schoolwork, all our commitments, all our friends and classes and clubs, are incredible privileges. We are so fortunate to have the education, the opportunities, and the relationships that we do, so all of our commitments are really fortunes. The things we balance are more than mere obligations, they are the things we enjoy and the things that make our lives individualized and fulfilling. With so many privileges in our lives that take up so much of our time, it can truly be difficult to remember and appreciate these things. Living our lives mindfully is difficult, but often I am reminded of how much I appreciate this busy, difficult college life.

Last week, as I walked out of an exam, my professor handed me a piece of Halloween candy with a big smile, wishing me a nice weekend and making my completed test feel that much sweeter. In the Stylus office, as I worked to lay out our fall semester magazine, a fellow editor looked at my work with excitement at seeing the pages come together. In that moment, I was thrilled and proud that I was actually making our magazine, a medium that would publish the work of so many talented students. And often, as I walk through campus

on these fall days, I am still amazed by the beauty of my college. Every minute of my busy life—albeit some minutes more than others—has something good in it. These are the things we have to look for when stress starts to feel consuming.

We also really need to recognize that what we view as a balanced life at Boston College is just not always possible, and we shouldn’t constantly expect it of ourselves.

When I realized I had forgotten about my column on top of all the work that still remained for me to complete, I briefly considered heading into the shower for a good cry. Instead, my roommates began offering suggestions for my topic, solutions, and help. It made me feel cared for and loved, so now it was certainly not a time to feel sorry for myself or beat myself up.

I am still not happy that I let my deadline slip through the cracks, but I have the selfawareness to recognize my flawed self and my humanness. To live a good life, we all must come to terms with these unavoidable aspects of ourselves.

So no—I cannot tell you how to balance your life at college. As you can see, mine is not balanced, either. Instead, I try to prioritize the things and people and projects that matter most to me each day. When something or someone really needs attention, I give it that attention. We need to stop being so hard on ourselves for missing a workout, laundry day, class reading, or even an application deadline. The most balanced college life we can hope for is one where we do the best we can by participating in our classes and putting our best effort into our assignments—our best effort is not perfect.

A balanced college life is one where we mess up or forget or wait too long, learn, and repeat. We find passions and leave clubs and lose friends and gain friends. We get A’s and we get C’s. There is no perfect, there is no ideal, there is only living and trying, though not always succeeding, to be our best selves.

B\cj\p :feefij `j Xe fg$\[ Zfclde`jk ]fi K_\ ?\`^_kj% J_\ ZXe Y\ i\XZ_\[ Xk fg`e`fej7YZ_\`^_kj%Zfd%

K_\ fg`e`fej Xe[ Zfdd\ekXi`\j f] k_\ fg$\[ Zfclde`jkj Xe[ ZXikffe`jkj Xgg\Xi`e^ fe k_`j gX^\ i\gi\j\ek k_\ m`\nj f] k_\ Xlk_fi fi Xik`jk f] k_Xk gXik`ZlcXi g`\Z\# Xe[ efk e\Z\jjXi`cp k_\ m`\nj f] K_\ ?\`^_kj% 8ep f] k_\ Zfclde`jkj Xe[ Xik`jkj ]fi k_\ Fg`e`fej j\Zk`fe f] K_\ ?\`^_kj ZXe Y\ i\XZ_\[ Xk fg`e`fej7YZ_\`^_kj%Zfd%

?pgfZi`jp fe :Xdglj

J8A8K I8998E@ There is something very dangerous about a person who cannot tolerate other people, a person who believes that he or she has the correct view of the world, and seeks to marginalize anyone who disagrees with that view by calling them rude names or slandering their characters. There is something horrific when people use media outlets to further their bigoted ideas. Even more so when respected persons in the media espouse such bigoted ideas. These people want to be able to decide how events should be interpreted and how to react to them for you. They self-anoint themselves as the moral arbiters of society and judge everyone from their very narrow points of view. These people have become more and more common on campuses across the country, and it is sad to say, but the time to stand up against them may have past. It may be too late to confront the bigotry that has sprung up in front of our very eyes, and that is held by some of our most beloved celebrities and institutions.

Of course, I am talking of liberal bigotry.

This new, self-appointed group has decided to give itself the responsibility of deciding for the rest of the country how it should be run. It has appointed itself by discriminating between people who hold the “correct” views or people it will call “bigots” and “racists.” This column is an expression of something that I have begun to notice more and more. I believe that many others who read this will, if they think back on their experiences, agree that liberals rule on college campuses. The “self-appointed” liberal does not see the hypocrisy when he chooses what is and is not correct for other people, but will stop at nothing if someone expresses a view he does not like.

For example, abortion is seen as a pretty divisive topic. Anyone who disagrees with the liberal position of pro-choice is immediately branded as sexist, fundamentalist, or misogynistic, however. Rarely does anyone in the popular media give voice to the other side’s opinion. The “self-appointed” has decided for the rest of society that if you are not pro-choice, you must be a fundamentalist, or someone who does not care for women’s rights. It is even worse when it comes to today’s hot topic, the transgender movement. The “self-appointed” has concluded that his views are the correct views and anyone voicing any contrary view must be a bigot. Why? The logic of the “self-appointed” is that because he views himself as the group that stands up for people’s rights, or fights for equality, that he must therefore hold the correct views. He cannot fathom that other people might have genuine reason for opposing some of the liberal views that have nothing to do with race or gender.

The “self-appointed” celebrates his views as tolerant and loving, but seeks to silence any opposing view. I ask you, the reader, if you have not had similar experiences with liberals who view themselves as “morally superior” because they have decided what is good, and if anyone that does not line up behind their views is automatically castigated as an enemy to progress. The “self-appointed” deem them racist, sexist, or extremist without ever engaging in conversation with the opposing side. The liberal constantly wants to have a “dialogue,” but will immediately use derogatory terms whenever the other side says something they do not like.

This is what liberals today do on college campuses all across the country. They oppress the voices of those that speak against them while at the same time claiming that those voices against them are oppressing them. I have seen liberals on TV programs like Full Frontal with Samantha Bee or The Late Show with Stephen Colbert use language that would cause outrage if a conservative had used it. This is because the “self-appointed” wants to decide what is correct and appropriate, and subsequently wants to have the power to silence anyone who does not agree. We must try to free ourselves from this by simply not taking part in the bigotry and hypocrisy.

We must assume that any side is correct whenever we first engage in dialogue. We must be more critical whenever people claim to be offended, and especially when people use the “offense” card to silence someone else. We must actually engage sincerely with all sides.

JXaXk IXYYXe` `j Xe fg$\[ Zfclde`jk ]fi K_\ ?\`^_kj% ?\ ZXe Y\ i\XZ_\[ Xk fg`e$ `fej7YZ_\`^_kj%Zfd%

THE HEIGHTS

A8

Thursday, November 10, 2016

8e^\i# :fe]lj`fe Xk 8ek`$Kildg IXccp Protest, from A1 place around the country, including a march in New York City that ended in front of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.

The protest began with three speakers: a student with the Student Immigrant Movement, a woman with Fight for Fifteen, and a worker with Boston Socialist Alternative. Sabrina, the daughter of immigrants, was the first student speaker, and she spoke of the fear that many of Trump’s racist comments have incited within the immigrant community.

“I was afraid to get out of my house today [as] I didn’t know what was waiting outside the door,” she said. “You can’t take my mother away from me, and you can’t take my father ... [he] is not a rapist, [he] is not a criminal.”

With helicopters flying overhead and police within sight in every direction, the crowd moved through the Common toward the State House. One of the protesters was a young woman with a broken ankle, struggling along the uneven terrain using a knee scooter but still determinedly moving forward.

Young people made up a large proportion of the crowd, and universities were wellrepresented, judging by the number of hats and sweatshirts from Boston University, Northeastern University, BC, and Emerson College. Alex Rougeau, MCAS ’18, was one of many showing

his discontent with the result and expressing his fear for the future of the nation.

“What just happened poses a lot of threats to a lot of different groups of people, and the country,” he said. “Many are worried …

LGBTQ, women, minorities are worried that a Trump presidency and a red Congress poses a threat to their rights … a lot of people are angry, and I’m definitely one of those people.”

Calling behind the crowd, one of the organizers reminded them that this rally was peaceful, saying, “we will be united.

Our weapon is a mass movement—that is our weapon.”

Protesters’ voices echoed into the streets as they chanted about Black Lives Matter, stopping the Dakota Access Pipeline, immigrant rights, fighting sexism, and fighting for LGBTQ+ rights.

As many exited the Boston Commons , a young woman walked into the flow of traffic.

Facing oncoming cars, with her backpack still on, she screamed: “Ain’t no power like the power of the people, ’cause the power of the people don’t stop!”

This Friday from 2 to 7 p.m., another peaceful rally will be held on the Common. Around 10,000 people have indicated that they are either interested in going or are going on the Facebook event page. During the same time, another rally will be held at Washington Square Park in New York.

No protesters were arrested at Wednesday night’s peaceful rally, according to BPD.

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

F]ÔZ\j# L>9: ?fjk JgXZ\j ]fi ;`jZljj`fe 8]k\i Kildg M`Zkfip Reactions, from A1 “The election has carried a lot of hostility and divisiveness just in the way in which the rhetoric was formed around it,” she said.

“We felt that our students needed a place to process it.”

Dalton expected the Center to host a day of celebration after Clinton was elected the first female president of the United States. But after the unexpected win by Donald Trump, feelings on Wednesday were not that of celebration.

“The overall tone is a tone of disbelief, a tone of anger, and a tone of anxiety,” she said. “I think we can all make assumptions about what we think a Trump presidency will look like, but we don’t really know. I think that unknown comes with a lot of anxiety.”

Even though Clinton’s loss meant that the Center would no longer be holding a day of celebration, Dalton still welcomed students into the office.

“As Clinton said, ‘We’re stronger together,’ so I emailed my staff and asked if we could get together and start to grapple with these results and be there for each other,” she said.

When the office opened around 10 a.m.

Wednesday morning, the first students to arrive were graduate students. They were very quiet, Dalton said, and no one spoke because no one knew what to say. But as more undergraduates came to the office, the conversation picked up. Students spoke in small groups and watched the various speeches aired Wednesday morning, including one by Clinton and one by President Barack Obama.

Dalton understands that not all students on BC’s campus have the same political views.

She wanted to bring students together so that they might come to terms with the results of the election and then learn how to talk with

roommates and friends who have differing political stances.

“This isn’t a time where we just cut that off and create new friendships or form new rooming situations,” she said. “We really need to be able to mourn ourselves so that we’re in a place where we can come together.”

Dalton noted that not all BC students voted for or supported Clinton.

“The best part of our country is that we can vote and we have the free will to be able to do that, so we also need to be able to recognize that not all students are feeling the same way,” she said. “And how do they feel being in spaces where perhaps they can’t identify as Trump supporters?”

The Women’s Center will continue to hold its normal office hours throughout the week with the understanding that students will want to come in to talk about their reactions to the election.

Caroline Davis, assistant dean for Student Outreach and Support in the Office of the Dean of Students, held an open house for students in the conference room in the office Wednesday afternoon.

She initially invited members of the LGBTQ community to engage in dialogue but welcomed all BC students and faculty. She hoped to give students a place to talk about their reactions to the elections.

“It’s more about affirming that students have a safe space on campus to talk about whatever they need to talk about,” Davis said.

Students and faculty talked among each other in small groups. Some students in the room had tears in their eyes.

Jupiter Yao, a third-year student studying abroad from Peking University, said he would have voted for Clinton if he had the right to vote. He believes that Trump won because

he is not part of the political elite, and he was more honest and candid during the campaign.

He does not see Trump’s win as troubling.

“It’s just fine—it’s not a disaster,” Yao said.

He does see that students are upset with the results. But no matter who you voted for or who you wanted to win, he said, Americans should still be thankful for their right to choose their leader.

“You still have a very good, solid, strong democracy,” he said.

Cora Ives, MCAS ’17, had a different point of view on the election. She was disappointed in Americans and unimpressed with the new president of the U.S. “Do you already have ‘disgusting?’” she asked in reference to other BC students’ reactions to Trump winning the election.

Many students at the LGBTQ open house on Wednesday did not want to comment on their feelings on the results of the election.

In order to support continued conversation on the elections, Davis said she will host support groups and other programmings, which she already hosts each week, throughout the week.

The Undergraduate Government of Boston College will also hold events throughout the week. On Wednesday night, the Diversity and Inclusion Programming board of UGBC held a “Recovery and Processing” event to provide a space for students to take a step back and reflect on what a Trump win means for the country.

Students of all backgrounds came together in Higgins 310 to meditate, color, sip tea, and vent. Ives, president of the Buddhist club at BC, held a group meditation for students.

Then, Collin Pratt, the director of Diversity and Inclusion and MCAS ’17, led a group examen for students to deeply think about what affects

them in today’s political age.

Pratt said it was important for students to have a safe space on campus to express their feelings. By meditating, Pratt hoped students would become grounded in the present.

Before leaving, students were asked to write down affirmations and swap them with each other to confirm each other’s importance in society, regardless of the election results.

Throughout Trump’s campaign, the president-elect made derogatory statements toward the LGBTQ community, people of color, Muslims, and women. Pratt felt it was necessary for Diversity and Inclusion, a group on campus dedicated to representing marginalized groups, to have a space for students to share their frustrations.

“I think to see him win has a lot of people in very dire straights about the future of this country and their livelihood within it,” Pratt said.

Pratt said that his conversations with students have ranged from angry to disgust to shock. He stressed, however, that the work that college students are doing is vital for future elections.

“We have the ability to speak on the national stage,” Pratt said. “This election showed that we had the responsibility to step up and speak out and we didn’t do that. It was really to the detriment of the rest of the country.”

The BC Eagle Political Society (EPS) held a discussion Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. in Stokes 103N. Like so many other events, it aimed to provide students with a space to talk about their reactions to the election.

There were 10 students in attendance, all of whom were members of EPS. The students discussed Trump’s plans for his first 100 days in office and forecasted which of Trump’s policies would pass the House of Representatives

and the Senate.

“Really, we are just trying to help each other see a way forward for the country,” Nathan Dahlen, member of EPS and MCAS ’17, said.

UGBC will host an open house Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in its offices in Carney. The event is open to all students who want to share their thoughts with one another about the election, Meredith McCaffrey, UGBC executive vice president and MCAS ’17, said.

Matt Sanborn, co-president of the BC Democrats and MCAS ‘17, does not believe that Trump can accomplish all that he claims he can as president. When the American people realize Trump’s inabilities, he said, the Democrats will welcome them with open arms.

Although Clinton did not win the election, he said, the Democrats will continue to work toward achieving their goals.

“The country may have elected the most sinister man to ever run for president, but Democrats are the ultimate winners,” Sanborn said. “Progressivism faces an uphill battle, but we’ve always known this. Tonight’s results just mean working harder than ever before these next few years to realize our goals.”

Mariella Rutigliano, president of the College Republicans MCAS ‘17, said that Trump’s election shows the country’s desire to remove the political elite and return to a smaller, transparent, and accountable government.

“The people have spoken and this election is proof that our democracy is alive and well,” Rutigliano said. “What we saw unfold tonight was unpredicted and unthinkable. This victory proves that Trump’s message and appeal was grossly underestimated throughout his campaign.”

REVIEW

‘FLOTUS’

LAMBCHOPS’ LATEST MUSICAL FORAY IS LACED WITH COMPLEX STYLE, PAGE B4

COLUMN

THE WORLD’S A STAGE

JOHN HINDE PAINTS A PRETTY PICTURE, BUT HOW REAL IS IT? PAGE B3

REVIEW

‘Eternally Even’

JIM JAMES USES BITTERSWEET LYRICS ON SOULFUL ALBUM, Page B4

THURSDAY | NOVEMBER 10, 2016

THE

ABBY PAULSON / HEIGHTS EDITOR

THE HEIGHTS

B2

Thursday, November 10, 2016

A FULLER PICTURE

C`m`e^ `e ÊCX CX CXe[Ë

:?I@J =LCC<I

Over the years, I have often obsessed unhealthily over the newest songs I’ve added to my iTunes library. Whether it be Vicki Lawrence’s “The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia” back in 2005 or Night Moves’ “Colored Emotions” just over a year ago, these “latest hits,” as I’ve deemed them, get played over and over again to the point where those that spend enough time with me either join me in my fixation or vow vengeance upon me for the torture I submit them to. My latest infatuation has me scared, though. As much as I like this song, I can’t help but feel that I will wear it out for myself before it could have the most impact.

This might seem like a strange fear, but it’ll make sense in a second. For the past week and a half, I’ve been walking around campus whistling a beautiful tune from writer / director Damien Chazelle’s latest flick, La La Land. This song, “City of Stars,” has etched its many facets into my brain, I think irreversibly. Everything from Ryan Gosling’s smooth whistle to the song’s simple piano melody and lyrics pop up in my mind every couple hours throughout each day. As much as I think I watched the trailers for the last Star Wars movie too many times, I’ve probably watched the “City of Stars” La La Land trailer just as much, if not more.

It’s not just because of “City of Stars” that I’m continuously watching the La La Land trailer, though. The visuals of Chazelle’s newest film looks stunning and like it could hold a fresh, captivating love story. Emma Stone and Gosling star as down-on-theirluck artists—she as an actress and writer, he as a piano player. The trailers do a nice job of stuffing a lot of pretty shots into two-minute previews that don’t ruin any of the movie’s plot. This basis is all that’s really available to viewers. Seeing as La La Land is a romance, it can be assumed that Gosling and Stone’s characters will fall into some of the typical romantic tropes, but generally it looks as though La La Land might be a lot more than your average rom-com musical.

For those unfamiliar with his work, Chazelle wrote and directed 2014’s darkhorse Oscar nominee Whiplash, a film about a beyond-dedicated drummer student and his less-than-amicable ensemble director.

Whiplash won J.K. Simmons his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, while Chazelle was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and the film itself was up for Best Picture.

Birdman walked away with the Best Picture Oscar, but Chazelle’s work earned its fair share of praise throughout Oscar season.

Though I was first enamored with Birdman, I started to realize that I would have chosen Whiplash as 2014’s best movie. I go back to it every couple of weeks, sometimes just to watch a couple scenes, sometimes to go through it entirely.

Upon watching the trailers for La La Land, I instantly noticed I held the same fascination for the visuals in La La Land as I had for Whiplash. Chazelle, at least as we see in these commercials, has repainted Los Angeles as we know it, injecting it with a vibrancy few films have given the City of Angels over the last few decades.

We see Stone and her friends strolling through the streets in lush blues, yellows, and oranges, while Gosling plays piano in dimly-lit bar exuding a pertinent red flair. The Hollywood set pieces Gosling and Stone run through in these few scenes are mesmerizing and clean. The L.A. backdrop, usually filled with smog, as fascinating for all Southern Californians to behold.

Generally, I’m afraid I’ll whistle away my love for “City of Stars” before I get to see it in its full use in La La Land. I would stop myself from playing it if I could, but it’s too beautiful for me not to keep resorting to it when I’m looking for something to listen to. I am comforted, on the other hand, by the fact that this movie seems to have much more to offer than just this one song. La La Land shows signs of being the classic American musical of this generation. With original songs, a great central cast, and a visionary director who spent a year editing the film, La La Land looks like it might capture and bottle some Hollywood magic for everyone to have.

:_i`j =lcc\i `j k_\ 8ikj I\m`\n <[`kfi ]fi K_\ ?\`^_kj% ?\ ZXe Y\ i\XZ_\[ Xk Xikj7YZ_\`^_kj%Zfd%

KAITLIN MEEKS / HEIGHTS STAFF

Ê:fejk\ccXk`fejË <ogcfi\j Xe <m\i$:_Xe^`e^ Nfic[ 9P A8:F9 J:?@:B ?\`^_kj JkX]] How do things change over time? Do events or situations ever really repeat themselves? These are the types of questions found at the heart of Bonn Studio’s newest play.

Constellations: A Play was a play written by Nick Payne in 2014. The play is the winner of the London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play. The Boston College Dramatics Society presents Constellations through Dramatists Play Service from Nov. 10 through 12.

Director Ted Kearnan, MCAS ’17, does a great job of providing an experience that seems very true to what Constellations is supposed to be. The directorial style is complemented by appropriate choices in music and sound, with Julianne Mason, MCAS ’17, on sound design.

The play opens with a man and a woman. The woman casts shy glances in the man’s direction, hoping he will notice her. She finally summons the courage to approach him and awkwardly asks, “Do you know why it’s impossible to lick the tips of your elbows?” He uncomfortably responds that he is in a relationship. She walks away. The characters then reset.

The woman goes to him and asks, “Do you

know why it’s impossible to lick the tips of your elbows?” with a hand on his leg this time. He again rebukes her and moves to sit elsewhere. She follows him across the stage and asks, “Do you know why it’s impossible to lick the tips of your elbows?”

This time, they introduce themselves as Marianne (Meghan Hornblower, MCAS ’17) and Roland (David Makransky, MCAS ’17). While they try in vain to lick their elbows, Roland tells Marianne that he is married. Reset. Marianne asks, “Do you know why it’s impossible to lick the tips of your elbows?” Roland’s story this time is that he is a beekeeper and he makes honey.

Marianne, incredulously, asks if he is able to make a living keeping bees. He replies, with laughter, that he manages to do so.

In the next scene, Marianne is sitting on the floor talking to Roland. She tells him that she doesn’t think she can go back to work. The scene changes again, this time with Roland and Marianne during an earlier stage in their relationship, arriving back at her apartment. Roland thinks it best that he leaves, but she offers him a place to stay. They reset. She asks him to leave this time. The scene is repeated many times, often with the same lines of dialogue.

The changing variable is the inflection and following events. The feelings and emotion that Hornblower and Makransky inject into

these two characters are what makes each scene, similar though they may be, so very different and special.

They both work very well with each other, as evidenced by the chemistry that can be felt simply as an audience member.

These two really become their characters.

Even the minute details of their facial expressions fit perfectly with the situation and scene. At one point in the play, they have repeated a scene a few times, but when they reset to repeat it again, there is a remarkable change. This time, the dialogue-heavy scene is performed entirely with sign language. There is a lag between watching them gesture with their hands, completely silent, and the realization that they are repeating the lines in what is really a different language. Scenes like these make Constellations engaging and work to challenge the viewer to play an active role in the play-going experience.

Constellations is performed in the Bonn Studio Theater. Those familiar with the room will know that it has a unique arrangement. The play takes place on a ground-level thrust stage. This means that the stage is situated so that the audience is seated on three sides of the space, a set-up that makes the audience feel like the action is taking place right between them.

The play definitely causes some initial

confusion to a viewer unfamiliar with the source material. If you stick with it, however, and allow yourself to fall into the story that Constellations is telling, it can definitely be a very interesting experience. The play is filled with a multitude of very deep and profound topics, with an emphasis on theoretical physics and quantum mechanics.

Marianne brings up the uselessness of the construct of time and the power to take life into one’s own hands in the face of disease and death. Constellations also portrays, on the other hand, more relatable problems, such as love, betrayal, and hope. Constellations also toys with the idea of time. None of the scenes take place in chronological order, and there are moments when it is difficult to keep up with Constellations’s multiple leaps forward, backward, and sideways in time.

Constellations, as Kearnan puts it, is about, “the temporality of theatre.” No two shows, no two production nights, no two scenes are ever exactly the same. Constellations certainlyembraces this philosophy.

The play sets out to reach a very artistic goal, and it succeeds. While the play might not be for everyone, Constellations is a unique experience that, if viewed properly, is a great and enjoyable experience as well.

KAITLIN MEEKS / HEIGHTS STAFF

THIS WEEKEND in arts

BY: HANNAH MCLAUGHLIN | ASST. ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR

‘ARRIVAL’ (OPENS FRI.)

MY MOTHER’S FLEABAG: FALL SHOW (FRI.THROUGH SAT. AT 10 P.M.)

When a fleet of spaceships lands on Earth, the fate of the world lies in the hands of an elite group of investigators.

Amy Adams stars as cunning linguistics professor Louise Banks in this fusion of science fiction and mystery.

Join My Mother’s Fleabag for wild antics and hilarious hijinks at this semester’s fall show. Hosted in O’Connell House, the imaginative improv group promises an entertaining showcase of comedic talent.

‘BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK’ (OPENS FRI.) A young soldier is deemed an American hero after his admirable efforts in Iraq. Based on the Ben Fountain novel of the same name, this film is a flashback-ridden, perception-shifting showcase of the stark realities of war.

MARCLAY’S ‘THE CLOCK’ (NOW SHOWING) Esteemed visual artist Christian Marclay invites viewers to consider the mysterious transience of time. Movie lovers and art enthusiasts alike can appreciate this creative timepiece, now playing at the MFA.

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

‘CONSTELLATIONS’ (FRI. THROUGH SUN. AT 9 P.M.) Directed by Ted Kearnan, MCAS ’17, this story of Marianne and Roland’s rocky relationship is romantic, endearing, and incredibly suspenseful. In the Bonn Studio, this evocative performance is expected to be a stellar expression of theatrical prowess.

GOOD CHARLOTTE (SUN. AT 7 P.M.) This weekend, the House of Blues will play host to Marylandborn band Good Charlotte. The American pop-punk group will play hits like “The Anthem” and “I Just Wanna Live” to a Boston crowd this weekend.

‘SHUT IN’ (OPENS FRI.) Naomi Watts plays a child psychologist whose life changes drastically after a car accident kills her husband and leaves her teenage stepson in a catatonic state. When a young patient goes missing, the family fears it is being haunted by the boy’s ghost.

UNIVERSITY CHORALE: CARINA BURANA (FRI. THROUGH SAT. AT 8 P.M.) This weekend, head to Trinity Chapel for a captivating music collaboration and Carl Orff’s most famous composition. Accompanied by the Boston College Symphony Orchestra and the Newton Country Day School’s Cantilare, the University Chorale will perform at its annual fall concert.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, November 10, 2016

B3

A MCLAUGHLIN MINUTE

Jl^XiZfXk\[ :flekip ?8EE8? D:C8L>?C@E

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

All That Jazz

Over nearly three decades, BC bOp! has made itself a pillar of the BC arts community.

9P :?I@J =LCC<I 8ikj I\m`\n <[`kfi

When you walk into Conte Forum on a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon for a hockey or basketball game, you might hear something you didn’t expect. Sounds from horns, bells, whistles, and tunes echo throughout the main auditorium and halls of Conte, toward the north-facing side of the building, near the Gate C entrance.

You can just make out the first couple notes of Frank Sinatra’s classic “Come Fly with Me.” “If the Boston College band is playing in the stands, who could that possibly be?” you might ask.

And the answer is BC bOp!, BC’s one and only jazz ensemble, amid of one of its twice-weekly two-hour practices.

Sebastian Bonauito, the BC Bands and BC bOp! director, stands at the front of the somewhat open rehearsal space. Tubas line the back wall. Drums are secured behind locked cages. In the middle of the room sit the majority of BC bOp!’s instrumentalists, taking their cues from Bonauito as he asks them to go through different measures throughout the song.

To an outsider, the group’s rehearsals may seem a bit tense. Bonauito goes back and forth between several measures, pointing out particular notes, and having different combinations of members from the ensemble play a note or two until he feels that the certain segment has been perfected. He doesn’t go through this process in a harsh tone, however. Instead, he speaks softly, noting to the students what precisely they’re doing incorrectly and correctly.

“State of mind is always essential when you’re playing music,” Bonauito said, trying to explain to one student how he should focus both on playing his own instrument, and on the intricate sounds of the instrument being played behind him.

As the rehearsal goes on, Bonauito proceeds through bits and pieces of “Come Fly with Me” in the same manner, focusing in on individual students and larger sections of the ensemble, pointing out to them when he hears what he’s looking for and what needs more improvement. Again, to an outsider, this can all sound like very detailed, almost obsolete instruction, but it is apparent that Bonauito’s students are picking up all of his criticisms and praise readily.

They do not seem insulted or wronged when Bonauito focuses his feedback. Instead, they are perfectly attentive to the point at hand, and do their best to adjust their playing accordingly, no matter how minute the change might appear.

This scene is emblematic of the dedication, attention, and love that bOp! students put into their art. At a bOp! concert, the whole performance seems masterfully put together. The apparent ease with which the ensemble’s members deliver the music in front of them is deceptive. Sure, bOp! members enjoy their work and are especially skilled at their individual components of the whole ensemble, but there’s more than a fair share of hard work and practice going on behind the scenes.

Over the years, Bonauito has juggled teaching his ensemble members both the notes they are going to perform and the dedication that students must put into their craft if they really hope to perfect it.

He highlights the fact that, working at BC, he feels like he can always depend on two things from musicians he hopes to pick up: that they’re smart and usually open to the commitment necessary to be a part of bOp!.

There is, however, one aspect of working at BC that hasn’t always made recruiting students to play in the jazz ensemble an easy job.

“The interest has been consistent relative to the pool of musicians coming to BC each year,” Bonauito said. “Since

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Boston College doesn’t have a specific music school, there is not that attractor for a consistent number of musicians to come in. So we really rely on the law of averages. Sometimes it works really well for us, sometimes it doesn’t.”

Despite this drawback of bOp!’s recruiting process, the group has always brought in talent to fill the ensemble’s constantly rotating seats. Since 1987, bOp! has been a home for students looking for an exciting facet of BC’s arts landscape in which to express their love for music and performance.

Though the band has faced years when it has lost a lot of great students, it has also consistently found new talent to constantly evolve both the face of the group and the music that it delivers to the BC community and beyond.

Back in 1987, David Healey, a BC student at the time and now the assistant director of Bands, approached Bonauito, hoping that he would direct an ensemble of students that Healey would gather together. BC did not have a jazz ensemble at the time. These students, without funding from the school, performing with their own instruments, formed the first iteration of bOp!. That school year, Healey found bOp! a spot on the Robsham stage in the spring. Since then, bOp! has had at least one show a year in the ever-so-difficultto-book theater.

At its first show, Bonauito recorded the group’s performance and sent the tape he had to agents down at Disney World in Orlando. The people at Disney were so impressed with what they heard that they booked BC bOp! five performances over six days at various venues around the park. This invitation set a precedent for the group of traveling and performing around the country that’s been upheld over its nearly three-decade career.

Over the years, bOp! has performed all over the country. It has played in competitions like the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Idaho and the Reno Jazz Festival in Nevada. bOp! has placed in finals or won both of these competitions. For the past three years, bOp! has gone down to New York City in the spring to do a series of workshops and clinics with some New York’s best musicians, as well as to attend some of city’s premier jazz concerts. This year, the group is planning on traveling to Nashville in the spring, and it already played at a smaller jazz festival in New Hampshire.

This aspect of bOp! can be seen as just one example of the amount of dedication these students put into the ensemble.

Students are asked to pay for their own transportation and food on these trips, though the BC Bands program takes care

of students’ lodging these days. While these aspects of their work, along with the practice that must go into perfecting the music the students produce, make being apart of bOp! sound almost harrowing, both Bonauito and the students find a multitude of rewarding experiences come out of their time with the ensemble.

“There are so many talented musicians in the group who I see on stage one day and in class the next, and that never ceases to amaze me,” said Mike Mastellone, a vocalist and CSOM ’18. “The fact that I know the band to consist of peers who are full-time students just like myself is something that makes the group very special.”

In a sense, the students that make up bOp! see the group as a sort of family. They spend a lot of time together between the road and performing and practicing on campus. Each student appears to hold a fascination with his or her colleagues’ talents, and each student is proud to be one cog in the holistic machine that is bOp!. This camaraderie is apparent at bOp! shows on campus, especially when soloists step up for their moments in the spotlight. At these shows and in these moments, one can see bOp! members encouraging each other, sharing a small laugh, and congratulating each other on the performance they all came together to give their audience.

One such show, traditionally bOp!’s last of the year, where these dynamics and many more within and outside the band are all on display, is the Arts Fest’s Dancing with bOp!. At the event, bOp! performs live for a number of different BC dance crews. With this eclectic gathering of BC dance crews comes a range of genres of music that must be adapted and adopted by the jazz ensemble. Working with dance groups like Masti, BCID, and B.E.A.T.S., bOp! must learn to work with pieces in Hindi pop, the traditional Celtic style, and hip-hop and rap.

Bonauito noted that, while it is difficult for the group to adapt these different genres to the ensemble’s style, bOp! members are perfectly happy to put in the effort needed to master the performance and that they are more than rewarded for the work they put into memorizing the set.

This, Bonauito said, is not only secluded to the Dancing with bOp! performance at the end of the year, but that it is apparent to him throughout the entirety of the year and over the years.

“Watching these students grow is huge,” he said. “When I can sit back and say, ‘This is so joyful, not just for me, but visibly for them.’ To see them perform so well and to really enjoy what they’re doing after seeing all the work they’ve put into what they’re doing—two thumbs up.”

SAVANNA KIEFER / HEIGHTS EDITOR

In 1966, armed with little more than his 4 x 3 Graflex Crown Graphic camera and an idealized vision of a vibrant Irish nation boasting unparalleled natural beauty, prominent English photographer John Hinde took a photo.

And then, because he deemed it less than perfect, Hinde altered the image entirely.

By applying a concoction of chemicals and drastically manipulating the original image’s coloration, exposure, and saturation with a series of complex editing strategies, Hinde created what he believed was a beautified representation of an idyllic—and endearingly exotic—Irish landscape. The iconic photo, which pictured an amped-up, whimsical depiction of everyday life in rural Ireland, features electric blue skies, lush green hills, a kindly miniature donkey, and two young children whose curly red hair seem to radiate the kind of energy and vitality that Hinde hoped to symbolically convey about Ireland through his highly edited photographs.

Presumably, at some point in the process of transforming his original image, Hinde probably deemed the modified photo appealing enough, pat himself proudly on the back, and made a pretty penny by selling an artificial vision of Ireland to a postcard company.

Hinde’s brand of heavily edited photography catered to a rapidly growing demographic of the tourist type. Specifically, this wanderlust-loving group of his was composed predominantly of American people clinging wistfully to a carefully contrived perception of Ireland. His postcards glorify Ireland’s beaches, illustrate the potential for picnics with majestic mountain views, and advertised carefree citizens dwarfed by the country’s mammoth green-colored cliffs.

The nation was publicized as both an unrivaled rural paradise—a blissful escape to a simpler lifestyle—as well as a hub of urban activity in the densely populated parts of the country. Hinde’s dramatic manipulation of Ireland’s natural colors did much to control the positive global perception of a less-thanperfect Ireland. He made it brighter and more likeable. He sacrificed realism and instead strived for his own, cherry-picked brand of perfection.

Hinde sought to sell a fabricated façade of Ireland—to turn a profit on perfection.

Americans ate it up.

Personally, I think Hinde’s revered work is best equated to a sugar-sweet Carly Rae Jepsen track. It’s nauseatingly bright, feels eerily fake, and you just have a hunch that cheap elements like auto-tune or poppy synths have been haphazardly thrown at the thing. I imagine Hinde’s experimental darkroom to have been just like a modern music chopshop—a studio capable of rendering original content poked, prodded, and edited beyond recognition so as to evoke a positive response from the masses.

Simply stated, it’s a glossy and exaggerated veneer that distracts from the natural, untouched state of things. He relies on a tactic of persuasion, while opting to omit the honest expression of the way things really are.

If a scene looked better with pink flowers, Hinde would see to it that a few brightly colored branches from a few miles away were cut down and staged exactly where he deemed necessary. He’d manipulate the land so that it looked how he wanted, not how nature intended. He worked tirelessly to create an Ireland that would seduce an audience.

I think this state of mind is horrifically misguided.

Such an artistic decision perpetuates a fabricated fantasy world, removing entirely the opportunity to appreciate the beauty of an untouched image. This beauty, I think, includes the potential to recognize imperfections in a picture—to acknowledge their presence, and look for a way to improve or avoid or surmount ’em next time if necessary.

While I realize Hinde’s edit-happy artistry was all in the name of good advertising, I wonder why he wasn’t satisfied with the natural order of things. Did he ever appreciate the breathtaking beauty of a candid moment in time? Had he always seen the natural world as a thing he had to manipulate?

But if “all the world’s a stage,” as I assume Hinde and Shakespeare would be willing to bet, then what does that make us? Merely players?

?XeeX_ DZCXl^_c`e `j k_\ Xjjk% Xikj i\m`\n \[`kfi ]fi K_\ ?\`^_kj% J_\ ZXe Y\ i\XZ_\[ fe Kn`kk\i 7_adZcXl^_c`e%

THE HEIGHTS

B4

Thursday, November 10, 2016

CXdYZ_fg =fiXpj `ekf E\n Dlj`ZXc >ifle[ fe Ê=CFKLJË CHART TOPPERS TOP SINGLES

9P :?8E;C<I =FI; ?\`^_kj JkX]] Last Friday, alternative country artist Lambchop released its newest studio album, entitled FLOTUS (an abbreviation of For Love Often Turns Us Still not First Lady of the United States). By no means is it the next big hit in pop culture, nor is it the strongest work ever released by the band.

But in some strange, sneaky way, FLOTUS quietly grows on listeners until it has its roots dug into their minds.

Though it may toe some questionable lines as far as composition and structure go, FLOTUS is an altogether solid

album. And if nothing else, it certainly does not lack in creativity.

For readers who are not aware, Lambchop is not a band with a set structure, genre, or lineup. Beyond frontman Kurt Wagner, the band has cycled through over 15 different members since 1990 (the release year of his first cassette, Secret Secret Sourpuss). As artists become tired of the project, they exit the scene, leaving room for more to enter into the evermorphing band.

Comparing 1996’s How I Quit Smoking to this year’s FLOTUS reveals not only a major progression of thought and style, but a slow shift in

genre as well. The album does have a consistent style throughout—something like a blend of post-rock and soul with a slight techno-alternativecountry twang (yes, seriously)—but the effect of an ever-changing end goal is certainly felt. This, perhaps, is the price to pay for a band that encompasses so many sources of talent—pieces of each album feel as though they run in separate directions, incoherent to one another. In the case of FLOTUS specifically, the album lacks smooth transitions between tracks. The jump between the first two songs, “In Care of 8675309” and “Directions to the Can,” is jarring.

MUSIC

FLOTUS LAMBCHOP PRODUCED BY MERGE RECORD RELEASE NOV. 4, 2016 OUR RATING

MERGE RECORDS

Unfortunately, this is a problem that never really is alleviated as FLOTUS plays out.

Another frustrating detail of FLOTUS (perhaps a consequence of Lambchop’s structure) is the differential between each song. It is not out of the ordinary for an album to contain some weaker songs and some stronger songs, of course, but the disparity between FLOTUS’s weakest and strongest songs is massive. “In Care of 8675309” is the first song off of the album, and even standing at nearly 12 minutes, the work is a joy to listen to. On the other end of the spectrum, “Howe” feels like a bit of a slog, even at only four minutes. FLOTUS closes with “The Hustle,” which is purely upbeat, high-focus fun. But getting to this point requires trawling through “NIV” and “Harbor Country,” both of which feel incredibly dull in comparison. The highs of FLOTUS are extremely high, but the lows are enough to turn off anyone who is not an uber-fan of Lambchop, sadly.

Even with all of the back-and-forth of FLOTUS, though, there is a quiet charm that pervades the majority of the album. The genre that Lambchop has explored (and continues to explore, hopefully) is not an easy one. Post-rock is not the core of the music industry, and thus not the core of fandom or profit. FLOTUS feels as though it was done for the sake of art

and self-exploration, and there is an undeniable respect in such a pursuit.

The added benefit of that pursuit is that it carries into one’s music. Even if FLOTUS is not perfect, it is clear to every listener that an immense amount of love and effort has been poured into the work. Putting it as plainly as possible, FLOTUS is objectively better because of it.

Lambchop’s track organization is an exercise in boldness, too.

Bookending the album with two 10-plus minute songs has such a high potential to, again, turn off casual fans that are not familiar with post-rock. As it stands, over one third of FLOTUS’s one hour and eight-minute runtime consists of “In Care of 8675309” and “The Hustle.” Leaving these tracks as they are may not make FLOTUS particularly accessible, but it does become a far more beautiful work of art when it exists in its truest form.

FLOTUS is not the next big thing in the music industry. Even if postrock was widely-loved, the album is in no way without its flaws. It is extremely apparent, however, that FLOTUS is a labor of the band’s love and creativity. Though it may not be topping the charts anytime soon, already-existent fans of Lambchop would be doing themselves a favor by listening in. In fact, most non-fans would as well.

Ê<k\ieXccp <m\eË `j Jfc`[# JXk`j]p`e^ Jfcf ]fi A`d AXd\j 9P >I@==@E IF9@CC8I; ?\`^_kj JkX]]

It is no coincidence that Eternally Even was released shortly before Election Day, so it’s easy—and not entirely untrue—to say that this is Jim James’s most topical work yet.

That, on the other hand, does everyone a disservice. For a songwriter who has built his career’s work in a realm beyond language (we are referring to a man who wrote a song called “Wordless Chorus”), this album feels like a move toward the explicit rather than the implicit, albeit only slightly. Even with the album’s more explicit political task in mind, it never feels intrusively literal. This is still James we are talking about.

For a long time, it seemed almost inconceivable that James, the frontman of My Morning Jacket, would make a solo album. My Morning Jacket’s Tennessee Fire came out in 1999, and it was 14 years until James released his solo debut, Regions Of Light And Sound Of God. My Morning Jacket has made excursions into folk, psychedelic, and everything in between, but at its heart it is still a rock band. The band has an eclectic taste, but it was easy to underestimate James’s holistically differing tastes. His projects with Monsters of Folk, a collaboration with Conor

Oberst, Mike Mogis, and M. Ward, and the New Basement Tapes demonstrate a stunning versatility, the former an experiment with what one might call electro-folk, and the latter a project that put music to Bob Dylan’s famed basement tape lyrics from the late ’60s.

What has become even more apparent on Eternally Even is James’s love of soul, and this love subtly informs each track. By no means is the album a throwback, but on songs such as “The World’s Smiling Now” and “True Nature,” the influence of soul is clear. Horns and strings grace the album in beautiful textures and add a similar ethereal openness that pervaded Regions.

“Even some of our great heroes like Neil Young and Bob Dylan project a lot of darkness … But then you listen to Curtis Mayfield or Stevie Wonder or Bruce Springsteen and you see these brilliant artists projecting hope,” James said in a 2013 Rolling Stone interview.

There is no doubt he has gravitated toward Mayfield and Wonder’s territory, as strange as that may seem. In what could be a dark record about the current political climate, filled with pessimism, James stays levelheaded.

On “Here in Spirit,” James sings, “No compromise / But willing to sacrifice / Go on be who you are,”

and it is here where the political and the personal merge. One could extrapolate these lines as much as he or she wants to, but, “The stone is thrown / It’s a common fact.” While not the title track, the essence of the album seems to be contained within this song. None of the songs make grand, sweeping statements—that’s never been James’s style. Particularly, “Here in Spirit” is more indicative of finding a way of peace between one’s inner life and the world at large rather than grappling with an oversized universal struggle.

Another pleasant surprise on

this record is a different presentation of James’s voice, which has always been otherworldly in My Morning Jacket, a faraway voice drenched in reverb. More forward in the mix, his voice is just close enough to us on Eternally Even that there is a sense of connectedness. If James’s vocal production could be likened to Ziggy Stardust before, we now have a James that is more along the lines of David Bowie on Lodger. It’s not that we didn’t believe James before, but he talks about the extraordinary in ordinary terms, and it’s quite the treat.

On the closing title track, a somber organ begins the track.

It is shortly followed by a dreamy vocal. “Ooh, sun’s out but not a thought about the rain / No trace of tears or pain,” James sings. Like Victoria LeGrand of Beach House, James achieves a soul-penetrating tenderness by pairing two seemingly opposed concepts, singing with both detachment and intensity. When James sings, “I hope you have a wonderful life,” it’s bittersweet.

It’s real. We have no choice but to hope that, too.

EVENTUALLY EVEN JIM JAMES PRODUCED BY CAPITOL RECORDS RELEASE NOV. 4, 2016 OUR RATING

CAPITOL RECORDS

CALEB GRIEGO As Westworld passes the midseason mark, one thing is certain: Nothing is certain. As hosts like Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve (Thandie Newton) begin to stretch into the untapped recesses of their minds, the fates of hosts and humans alike seem to exist in the shadows.

This makes for due speculation about the show and the possible paths it could take in the weeks to come. A more optimistic route sees the show exploring ideas about transcending humanity and, like Prometheus

TOP ALBUMS

1 Trap or Die 3 Jeezy 2 Cosmic Hallelujah Kenny Chesney 3 DC4 Meek Mill 4 The Stage Avenged Sevenfold 5 Joanne Lady Gaga Source: Billboard.com

MUSIC VIDEO

CAROLINE MCCORMACK

“DANGEROUSLY” CHARLIE PUTH

MUSIC

?9FËj ÊN\jknfic[Ë =`e[j MXi`flj J_X[\j f] >iXp `e ?ldXe`kp giving fire to the primeval man, releasing the created hosts to govern themselves. Pessimistically, the show could fall to the convoluted fate of a show like Lost, becoming entangled in its own grandiosity and mystery.

Starting with the potential negatives, the show has a lot going on right now, which leaves the door open for confusion. Though we have been given some insights into issues like creation and the programming and maintenance of the park, there are many aspects that have yet to be explained sufficiently, namely trans-

1 Closer The Chainsmokers 2 Starboy Weeknd ft. Daft Punk 3 Heathens twenty one pilots 4 Let Me Love You DJ Snake ft. JB 5 Broccoli D.R.A.M. ft. Lil Yachty 6 Side to Side Ariana Grande ft. NM 7 24K Magic Bruno Mars 8 Juju On That Beat Hilifigerrr & McCall

portation about the massive park. For the hosts, it would seem that there are two copies of their bodies. Their consciousness could be uploaded to either to allow for the administrators to communicate with them.

Seemingly supernatural elements, like Arnold and the voices, surely have causes rooted in the real world, or at least that is the hope, lest we delve into some overly complicated metaphysical journey. It would be a bad move to inject such an element into a show that should be about discerning whether the hosts are

TELEVISION

HBO

“human” or “people.” Simplicity can manifest itself in such a complicated story with concise delivery.

This show has the potential to drive home a universally human message—that maybe the things that make us human are found in the dreadful parts of life—is just what the show needs to enthrall its viewers.

Following ideas like this brings the show from a fun, but substantively light Western shoot ’em up, to a more compelling sci-fi fantasy.

As such, it is hard to tell who we should be rooting for in the world— the seemingly immortal hosts or the misguided administrators and guests.

Logan (Ben Barnes) tells Williams (Jimmi Simpson) wholeheartedly in episode five that there are no heros and villians in Westworld. Whose stakes are higher? Are there stakes at all?

With so much ambiguity for and about its characters, viewers can relish in the level of speculation that a show like Westworld allows. The possible host origins of Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), Ford (Anthony Hopkins), Theresa (Sidse Knudsen), and

others have viewers looking at the characters in much the same way the guests on the show look at the hosts, wondering who is human and who is not. From a narrative standpoint, the show has succeeded as viewers ask more questions. As these questions become more difficult to answer, the show reaches its moral crux. If you can’t tell if the hosts are real or not, the show asks, does it matter?

I hope this show is not simply a stepping stone for a large, inconsequential series. Who knows whether the show will follow suit with Medieval World, Ancient Romanworld, and others as in the original films.

Westworld in its current state seems to have more of a story to tell.

The Man in Black is searching for purpose, a deeper meaning in the park. Purpose is something the real world lacks. When we look at this show, much like a park, we must look for purpose and a deeper meaning.

:Xc\Y >i`\^f `j k_\ 8jjfZ% 8ikj I\m`\n <[`kfi ]fi K_\ ?\`^_kj% ?\ ZXe Y\ i\XZ_\[ Xk Xikj7 YZ_\`^_kj%Zfd%

A single arrow shot in the darkness. A bloody fist clenched in pain. The face of a girl responsible for the heartbreak to ensue. These images flash on the screen accompanied by beautiful pizzicato beginning a tale of heartbreak.

The raw fists, still covered in blood, put a physicality to the pain in the relationship, seen in Charlie Puth’s newest music video, “Dangerously.” He expresses the wrenching, distressing feelings of this lost love in a way that the audience can truly see. With every arrow falling from the sky, each time glass breaks, and each contortion of the body Puth creates, the audience is able to see and understand the toll of the painful experience that is marked by the end of this love.

Puth toys with the idea of both reflection and reflecting through his use of mirrors. As he gazes into the eyes of a previous girlfriend, she appears hollow. In mirrors throughout the video, the singer is confronted with the past he is forced to reflect on and with his current reflection. The message is about Puth’s moving forward after this relationship, and also his looking back and trying to look at himself in the present and the future.

This video is so beautiful in part because of its simplistic portrayal of this message of heartbreak. Using a plain, black background, doubling as a mirror in some instances, the message was essentially up to Puth to tell. The artist and storyteller was up to the task and perfectly conveyed the message giving new meaning to different parts of the song.

The flow of this video is seamless. Enhancing the music and drawing the audience’s attention to different parts of the song with certain imagery, this video is fantastic. This is the first piece of new music the public has seen from the artist since the summer. The bold approach of this new music video may signify a change in the singer’s upcoming music.

SINGLE REVIEWS BY BARRETTE JANNEY CHAINSMOKERS “Setting Fires”

VICETONE FT. GRACE GRUNDY “Kaleidoscope”

BRUNO MARS “Versace on the Floor” “Setting Fires” ignites an impassioned defiance of a one-sided relationship through a coalition of pop and indie vibrations. Vibrant techno sound-mixing and XYLO’s glassy vocals electrify the poignant lyrics of “Setting Fires,” producing another hit for the in-vogue DJ duo.

Bruno Mars ventures into the realm of the ’90s in his new single “Versace on the Floor,” revitalizing the framework of dance-pop with a sensual twist. Mars’s light yet velvety voice, joined by a frisky keyboard, produces a swanky kind of ballad that will leave you wanting more.

“Kaleidoscope” meshes surreal starkness with an addictive EDM sound to create a colorful hit. Grace Grundy’s whimsical, and at times haunting, voice upholds chimerical lyrics effortlessly, and the transition from light piano chords to a thrilling beat drop ensures that Vicetone has produced the newest club jam.