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Sexual Chocolate shared the stage to honor its rookie members, B8
Bio professor looks to the past to understand viruses today, A4
Men’s hockey won games against UMass and Providence, B3
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The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Vol. XCVII, No. 42
established
1919
Monday, October 31, 2016
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SAVANNA KIEFER / HEIGHTS EDITOR
K?< JKI<8B @J FM<I 9: ]ffkYXcc \e[\[ `kj ()$^Xd\ cfj`e^ jki\Xb `e k_\ 8:: Yp Y\Xk`e^ E: JkXk\# )($(+# 9(
:A9: IXcc`\j 8^X`ejk =fjj`c$=l\c @em\jkd\ek @e gfli`e^ iX`e# jkl[\ekj Z_Xek\[ ]fi k_\ Le`m\ij`kp kf [`m\jk 9P :FEEFI DLIG?P :fgp <[`kfi About 40 students stood in the biting rain on Friday afternoon in front of Gasson Hall at Climate Justice at Boston College’s (CJBC) “non-protest rally,” as members of the group sarcastically referred to the event. Members and supporters of CJBC stood in the Quad holding signs and mirrors that read “No Coal” and “Boston College Supports Climate Violence.” Demonstrators also chanted “Board of Trustees, hear our cries. Invest in our future, not our demise.” CJBC’s primary goal is to push the University to divest its endowment from fossil fuel-related assets. Representatives from the University have stated that they do not view the endowment as a tool to promote social justice. CJBC responds that to not divest is a violation of the University’s ethical investment guidelines, which state that BC “is firmly committed to the promotion of the dignity of the individual,
A female Boston College student was followed and assaulted on Sunday at 2:30 a.m. She was returning to her off-campus residence from Mary Ann’s, a bar in Cleveland Circle. According to an email sent to the off-campus student community by the Boston College Police Department Sunday night, the student was walking behind 2000 Commonwealth Ave. when two males approached her. A black male introduced himself as Jimmy and is believed to be between 5-foot-8 and 6 feet tall, with a flat-top haircut. The other male, who was not directly involved in the assault, was described as white with brown hair. The suspect grabbed and physically assaulted the student, according to the email. The student was able to break free and flee the area. John King, executive director of public safety, said that the Massachusetts State Police and BCPD are investigating the case. BCPD told students to avoid walking alone at night, to take advantage of Eagle Escort, to walk in well-lit areas, to know where to get help if they were to need it, and to report suspicious behavior and activity to authorities.
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personal freedom, and social justice.” “You don’t have to be a CSOM major to understand divestment,” said Sissi Liu, a member of CJBC and MCAS ’17. “Morally, it’s sending a clear a message that if it’s wrong to wreck the planet, then it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage. … Even if [divestment] doesn’t immediately impact the bottom line of these industries, it’s starting this dialogue.” At the beginning of the rally, Liu said that the group had tried to obtain permission to use a megaphone at the rally, but that its request was denied by the Office of the Dean of Students. Instead, speakers used a rolled-up piece of poster paper with “Not a Megaphone” written on the side to emphasize their discontent. Dean of Students Thomas Mogan said in an email that general policy on amplified sound is that it is only approved for use after 4:30 p.m. He said a megaphone would have interrupted classes in Fulton, Gasson, and Lyons during the protest, which began at 3. Alex Kontopoulos, MCAS ’17, had choice words for members of the BC administration. “They never really wanted to listen to us when we call into question their ethics and
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The Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) partnered with the Connell School of Nursing to provide T passes for nursing students traveling to their clinicals. UGBC contributed $3,500 to the initiative, which is still in its pilot stage. Russell Simons, UGBC president and MCAS ’17, acknowledged that the funding will not cover the entirety of travel costs for every nursing student. Simons said that the pilot program, rather, is meant to assess the feasibility of the entire structure of the initiative. UGBC and the Connell School of Nursing will assess the processes of ordering and distributing the T passes. In past years, students have raised JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR
See CJBC, A8
A student holds a sign encouraging the University to divest from fossil-fuel companies.
See MBTA, A3
I\jfclk`fe ]fi =`eXeZ`Xc :fdd`kk\\ N`k_`e J8 =X`cj kf GXjj K_\ d\Xjli\ nXj jkilZb [fne Jle[Xp Yp X mfk\ f] ))$) 9P K8PCFI JK% ><ID8@E 8jjfZ% E\nj <[`kfi A resolution that would have established a financial committee within the Undergraduate Government of Boston College’s (UGBC) Student Assembly (SA) was not passed on Sunday night. The resolution, which was proposed by Raymond Mancini, CSOM ’19, and Michael Proietta, MCAS ’19, was struck down by a vote of 22-2. The two assent-
ing were the co-sponsors of the bill. Because the resolution would have created a change in the structure of UGBC, the group’s constitution would have to be amended. This would have required a two-thirds vote. Mancini and Proietta hoped to create an external committee to handle UGBC finances. It would be composed of the UGBC president, the executive vice president, the vice president of financial affairs, and four outside appointees. The four appointees would have been drawn from the student body and confirmed by the SA. Currently, the Executive Council is responsible for creating the annual budget, through the UGBC president,
executive vice president, and the vice president of financial affairs. The SA must approve the budget before it is enacted for the year. Mancini and Proietta were concerned that the Student Assembly does not have thorough debate when it comes to approving the budget. According to Mancini, budget proposals are often voted for or against unanimously. “I think that the way that the allocation is now aligns a lot with the Student Assembly’s interests,” Mancini said. “Because of that, and because the SA has one ideology, they don’t feel the need to debate.” Mancini and Proietta hoped that their proposal to create an external
committee would remove bias when it comes to financial matters. During the debate period, SA members raised concerns about the proposals. Members were concerned that without ample knowledge of the inner workings of UGBC, the appointed members of the financial committee would not have the knowledge necessary to deal with the group’s budget. For example, a majority of the allocations within the Diversity and Inclusion Programming Board go toward the AHANA Leadership Council (ALC) and the GLTBQ Leadership Council (GLC). Less funding currently goes toward the Council for Students with Disabilities
(CSD). SA members were concerned that an outside budgetary source would not understand that ALC and GLC put on more programming than CSD, therefore, requiring the additional funding. Nikita Patel, UGBC’s vice president of financial affairs and CSOM ’18, did not support the resolution. Patel said that the budget already goes through a number of checks before being presented to the SA. The budget is created with the financial advice of several divisions of UGBC and does not carry a heavy bias, she said. “I think [it] is a really unnecessary step to add into the budgetary process,” Patel said.
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THE HEIGHTS
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things to do on campus this week
Lunch with an Entrepreneur, featuring Peter Bell, will be held on Tuesday at 12 p.m. in Cushing 208. Bell is a Boston College alumnus and is currently the Senior Advisor at Highland Capital. Lunch will be provided by the Shea Center for Entrepreneurship.
Monday, October 31, 2016
Rena Finder, one of the Schindler’s List survivors of the Holocaust, will speak on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Heights Room. Finder will be returning to share her story of loss, heartbreak, and inspiration with the BC community. The event is sponsored by the Emerging Leader Program.
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Psychology professor Barry Schneider will speak about the impact of “screen time” on youth development on Wednesday in the Cadigan Alumni Center. Refreshments will be available at 6 p.m., and the program will begin at 6:30 p.m.
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:Xi\\i :\ek\i ?fjkj CXleZ_ Launch, a one-day conference designed to help students explore career options, was held on Oct. 14. The event featured keynote speaker Pili Montilla, an Emmy-winning television personality. Students also broke out into sessions that covered various topics, including “Strength, Skills, and Your Professional Success” and “Powerful Storytelling: How to Stand Out and Get the Position You Want.” The sessions were meant to customize the conference to students’ personal needs and interests. The conference also featured a panel discussion with young alumni, who discussed their transitions from undergraduate students into careeroriented individuals. Montilla, considered the “go-to” host in the bilingual entertainment world, is the creator, producer, and host of VidaLexus presenta: Té Para Tres con Pili Montilla. She shared with students her challenges on the road to success. “See your failures as opportunities, love the unknown, and keep on keeping on,” Montilla said. Launch was co-sponsored by the Career Center and the Office of Residential Life. Launch is part of a new series of career events this year. The Career Center is also partnering with First Year Experience to assist new students at orientation. The Career Center is also hosting Career Fest and BC’s inaugural STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) Career & Internship Fair. Conference organizers hope the event, which was attended to capacity, will become an annual tradition. Isaacson Michel, MCAS ‘17, said that the event was helpful in taking his next steps toward a career. “Part of what I wanted to get out of the Career Center was a plan for the future,” Michel said. “I gained more insight into what I want to accomplish before the year ends.”
Gif]% Cffbj @ekf >\e\k`Zj David Wirth, a Boston College Law School professor and director of international programs, combines his knowledge of international law and sustainable, developmental issues in order to tackle debates over climate change and genetics. Wirth is currently serving in Moscow as a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Sustainable Development at Russia’s National Research University Higher School of Economics. “Governance issues are so challenging,” Wirth said in a Skype interview with The Chronicle. “Policymakers and academics are looking for something that works to move a system enough. It requires creative solutions.” At a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine workshop last year, Wirth presented his idea of a gene-editing technique that could change or extinguish a population of harmful organisms in the wild. Organisms such as mosquitoes would be stopped from transmitting diseases to humans. This gene-drive process still requires further research and testing. “These issues, gene drives and climate change, engage every country,” Wirth said. “They, of course, require buy-in from every country. So there’s a great deal of interest in the subject matter and they require a great deal of collaboration.”
The Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics sponsored a student discussion with former Attorney General Eric Holder Thursday afternoon in the Fulton Honors Library. The audience of about 25 people included undergraduates as well as students from Boston College Law School. The discussion preceded the Center’s Fall 2016 Clough Colloquium at Robsham Theater, which featured Holder as the keynote speaker. Holder began the discussion by examining present concerns regarding voting rights in the United States, which was the primary topic of his speech at the Colloquium. He has been a vocal critic of the 2013 Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder, which struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The case stripped the Justice Department of its ability to pre-clear changes to existing voter ID laws in certain jurisdictions. This has allowed several states to pass stringent voting restrictions that were previously considered discriminatory and illegal. “I think that there is a need for a new, redone Voting Rights Act that is more conduct-based and not geographically like the original,” he said. Holder considers this to be a priority because it is impossible to unwind an election after it occurs. Holder then allowed the students to guide the discussion and to ask him questions about his career and positions on key legal issues. “We have to reform the criminal justice system,” Holder said in response to an inquiry about the implicit bias of police officers. “But, I think that the media
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LUCIUS XUAN / HEIGHTS STAFF
Former Attorney General Eric Holder spoke to students in a small-group setting on Thursday about voting rights. has done a disservice to people in law enforcement.” Holder believes that while highprofile shootings get a lot of attention, there is not enough discussion about the police officers who put themselves in dangerous situations and do the right thing. This has resulted in a trust gap between law enforcement and communities of color, Holder said. Holder also emphasized the fact that he was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election because he believes that if elected, she will prioritize criminal justice reform. The discussion then shifted to the topic of terrorism prevention. “I think we have to do away with racial profiling, as we cannot assume that someone of a particular ethnicity is more likely to commit a criminal act,” he said. “We can’t base prevention activities on stereotyping.” Holder believes racial profiling is dangerous for national security because a large part of what has been done to prevent terrorism in the U.S.
is due to people in Muslim communities speaking up. He believes that several countries in Europe have recently struggled to prevent terrorist attacks because of the lack of trust between Muslim communities and law enforcement. Holder explained that during his tenure as attorney general, he focused on cases with which he could become intimately involved. He often had to make difficult rulings that were unpopular with Democrats and Republicans, such as his decision to drop corruption charges against Senator Ted Stevens after evidence of prosecutorial misconduct surfaced, and his decision to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act. He likened the Department of Justice to the biggest law firm in the world. “The hardest decisions I made as attorney general were death penalty decisions,” he said. Holder thinks that there are “very few people beyond redemption.” Holder came under scrutiny when the U.S. made the decision to target and kill a terrorist named Anwar al-
Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, with a drone strike. Critics have argued that al-Awlaki’s death was an unlawful execution that breached his right to due process. Holder believes that al-Awlaki’s killing was lawful because he posed a clear and present danger to the U.S., and the only way to protect the American people was to execute a drone strike. As a general principle, Holder is supportive of efforts to minimize prison time for those convicted of low-level offenses, particularly related to drugs. “The president has tried to undo some of the excesses of the war on drugs,” Holder said. Holder often thinks about what it would have been like for him and his brother to have been raised without a father, like many of the young people who committed offenses while he was the U.S. attorney for D.C. “When it comes down to it, there are very few people beyond hope,” he said.
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Jkl[\ekj ;\jk`^dXk`q\ Fg`f`[ 8[[`Zk`fe 9P :C8@I< D<PC8E =fi K_\ ?\`^_kj An estimated 2.1 million people in the United States suffer from substance abuse disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). An estimated 467,000 people are addicted to heroin. The number of unintentional opioid deaths has more than quadrupled since 1999, according to NIDA. Alarmed by the growing severity of the opioid crisis in Boston, a group of 14 Boston College students created a photo exhibit titled “Overlooked and Overdosed: Stories of Recovery Road.” The group of students aims to share the untold stories of Boston’s opioid crisis and works to destigmatize addiction. The exhibit is funded in part by The Heights, as well as the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics, University Health Services, and the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center, as well as 18 other groups. The photo exhibit will be held this Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Murray Function Room in the Yawkey Athletics Center.
The idea for “Overlooked and Overdosed” came out of the group members’ various community service experiences in Boston this past summer, when members did an abbreviated six-week PULSE program through the Gabelli Presidential Scholars Program. Many of their placements were near Recovery Road, a one-mile stretch of Massachusetts Ave. in the Boston Medical Center area also called Methadone Mile, and dealt with several facets of the opioid crisis. For example, one group member worked at a correctional facility and another worked at a women’s shelter. When they found out that Recovery Road, close to their everyday service, was the epicenter of the crisis, they started to inquire more. “We did some more digging and found that the opioid crisis is something that intimately interacts with all of our experiences, but spans across race, class, and gender,” said Sydney Apple, a group member and MCAS ’19. “And that intrigued us enough that we decided to pursue this line of investigation to try to understand this multidimensional issue.” The group hopes to make the BC
POLICE BLOTTER
community aware of the crisis and to destigmatize those affected through the photo exhibit, which is set up to be similar to Humans of New York, a photo series in which every picture is accompanied by a quote from an interview with the subject. The event will begin with a talk from Brendan Little, the policy director at the Mayor’s Office of Recovery Services (ORS), which coordinates addiction recovery efforts in Boston. ORS is the first and only addiction recovery office in the United States. Little will talk about his experience working in the Mayor’s Office and how the opioid crisis has touched him and given him an important perspective. The photo exhibit, which is the main event, will feature photos of everyone the group has interviewed and photographed. Video excerpts from the personal interviews will play at the event. “We hope that people come away feeling like they’ve learned not just about the crisis itself and the scope of it, but how it affects individual people in Boston,” said Reed Piercey, a member of the group and MCAS ’19. “The student body isn’t very well
informed, which is why our project is so important,” Apple said. Through its photo exhibit, the group seeks to humanize and destigmatize the people affected by the opioid crisis. it views the opioid crisis as one of the most serious public health issues facing the U.S. today. There will not be just one policy that changes this problem, Apple said, but some steps need to be made to improve the policy. “I think that it needs to be something more coming from society, because it’s all about stigma,” Apple said. “And if people don’t feel comfortable calling EMS to get someone help after they’ve overdosed, then that person is not going to live.” Through this project, group members interviewed and learned from a diverse range of people involved in the opioid crisis, opening them up to new ideas and perspectives. “One of the things you’re told a lot is find your passion, find what you love doing, which is obviously way easier said than done,” Piercey said. “But all the people that we talk to are working on this issue because they deeply care about it, and it gets them going, it sets them on fire.”
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CORRECTIONS
Please send corrections to eic@bcheights.com with ‘correction’ in the subject line.
10/26/16 - 10/28/16
Thursday, Oct. 27
Friday, Oct. 28
7:57 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a cruiser repair. at BCPD headquarters.
12:39 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a medical incident at Welch Hall.
5:42 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm at Brighton Campus Gymnasium.
12:49 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a suspicious circumstance at Stokes Hall.
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9:33 p.m. - A report was filed regarding larceny at Quonset Hut. 9:59 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a traffic crash at Campanella Way.
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—Source: The Boston College Police Department
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THE HEIGHTS
Monday, October 31, 2016
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EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS STAFF
L>9: kf =le[ KiXm\c ]fi Jkl[\ek Elij\j MBTA, from A1 concerns that the University does not cover travel costs for clinicals, Simons said. Now, there is something tangible for students to give feedback on. Simons hopes the initiative will ease the burden of unexpected travel costs for students. He hopes that when the trial period is over, there will be a followup survey that will assess the implementation of the program and give administrators a data set to make funding decisions going forward.
This initiative was originally a part of Simons and Meredith McCaffrey’s, executive vice president and MCAS ’17, campaign platform when running for their positions in May. Their platform noted that travel costs are often an overlooked expense at BC. According to their platform, Simons and McCaffrey also hope to subsidize travel for education students. “We saw this initiative as a first step in what will be a larger commitment to working with students in the school of nursing to meet financial needs,” Simons said.
Former United States Attorney General Eric Holder began his remarks at Boston College Thursday night by saying that the voting rights of many Americans, foundational to every other right, are facing a vigorous assault nationwide. “There is a movement in America that attempts to make [voting] more difficult,” Holder said. “Too many in this country are trying too hard to make it too difficult for the people, their fellow citizens, to express their views.” Holder spoke about the continuing struggle to preserve voting rights at Robsham Theater in a keynote speech that was part of the Clough Colloquium speaker series and was sponsored by the the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics. Though Americans have always had to demonstrate their identities at the polls, many state legislatures have begun to pass overly prescriptive and unfairly restrictive laws limiting the forms of identification that citizens can present before casting their ballots, Holder said. Many states now require a stateissued identification card, which many voters lack, while many more accessible forms of identification that were formerly acceptable, such as
utility bills, are no longer permitted at the polls. One law in Texas prohibited voters from using university-issued ID cards to vote, while a state-issued concealed weapons permit was deemed acceptable. The reflexive justification for stricter identification requirements is that the integrity of the electoral process is under threat from voter fraud. Holder said that he finds such arguments dubious, as the only voter fraud that these new mandates could possibly prevent is the physical impersonation of individual voters. Successfully distorting the results of an election by this method of fraud, Holder said, would be an impossibly massive undertaking. Considering that impersonating a voter is a felony, Holder said that the high risks involved and the huge numbers of fraudulent voters that would be needed to change an election’s outcome make in-person voting an unlikely source of electoral corruption—and explain why no attempts at such a scheme have ever been detected. Holder, who prosecuted voter fraud cases during his tenure at the Department of Justice, said that there are only 31 known cases of in-person voter fraud out of 1 billion votes cast in the U.S. from 2000 to 2014. For most of America’s history, fears of voter fraud were virtually non-existent, until the 2008 elec-
tion, when African-American voter turnout surged to record levels and helped elect Barack Obama, Holder said. The ensuing nationwide effort to tighten voting regulations was sudden, unprecedented, and conducted largely along party lines. “Let’s be frank,” Holder said. “Faced with demographic changes that they perceive as going against them and saddled with a governing philosophy at odds with an evolving nation, some Republicans have decided that, if you can’t beat ’em, change the rules. Make it more difficult for those least likely to support Republican candidates to vote.” The relatively recent idea that widespread voter fraud threatens the republic is illusory, yet useful, Holder said. Republican legislators are using the specter of pernicious electoral mischief to justify more restrictive voter identification laws, which do little to solve a non existent problem, but do much to depress the voter turnout of the poor, the young, and people of color, he said. Earlier this year, a federal appellate court in North Carolina ruled that, based on recovered official government emails, Republican lawmakers had used voter identification laws to target AfricanAmericans “with almost surgical precision.” “This is done with the knowledge that by simply depressing the
vote of certain groups, elections can be affected,” Holder said. “This is how elections are rigged.” Research suggests that the appellate court was correct, Holder said. He cited a study conducted by the University of California, San Diego that discovered that restrictive voter ID laws disproportionately affect Democratic voters, finding that Democratic turnout tended to decrease by 7 percent, and Latino turnout by 10 percent, after such statutes were enacted. Holder said that although many federal courts have struck down such laws, the current struggle over the future of voting in America rages on. Fifty years after the passage the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the most essential of rights, the right to vote, is being suppressed once again in the interests of short-term political expediency, Holder said. While the integrity of America’s electoral process is being threatened by politically motivated efforts to warp the outcomes of elections, Holder believes that the American people, as they did 50 years ago, are capable of reversing this alarming trend. “Now is not the time to retreat in the face of a partisan assault on the most basic of American rights,” Holder said. “This is not just a legal issue—it is also a moral imperative.”
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Fifteen students were challenged to pitch a business idea in just 60 seconds for the Elevator Pitch Competition Finals on Oct. 27. Theodore Chapman, CSOM ’17, won Best Pitch for Darkroom, a web-based platform to sell photographs. The night was divided into three different sections: social impact, services, and miscellaneous ideas. Each section was composed of five different competitors. After the students completed their pitches, the audience was encouraged to use the provided “thunder sticks,” two large blow-up sticks, and applaud for them. The contestants were judged on various aspects of their pitch, including feasibility, impact, and engagement. The four judges, Greg Strakosch, BC ’84, Peter Bell, BC ’86, Sam Spector, BC ’85, and Andrea McGrath, BC ’89, had two minutes to ask any questions they had regarding the pitches. After each group, the audience members were asked to vote for their
favorite pitch via text, and at the end of the night, the audience voted on a crowd favorite. Students were granted awards, including Social Impact, Best Service, Crowd Favorite, and Best Pitch. Over $1,500 was given to winning students, with the first-place pitch taking home $500. Chapman took home both the Crowd Favorite and Best Pitch for his idea Darkroom. Darkroom is a web-based platform for anyone to sell professional-quality prints. All a photographer has to do is upload a photo, set a sales goal, and set a time limit. If you sell your goal within that time, Darkroom will fulfill every order for you. This means amateur photographers can sell a large number of prints without the financial commitment of buying them in bulk. Chapman found inspiration for his idea through a previous project he worked on, Pstcrd.com, a platform for Instagram. Then, he networked with photographers and took an interest in photography himself. Through this process, he recognized that many
photographers do not know where or how to sell prints of their work. Chapman developed Darkroom to make it easier for amateur photographers to sell prints at the same economies of scale as a professional. “Get involved with the {Shea Center for Entrepreneurship}, the entrepreneurship events,” Chapman said. “That’s the most important thing that I’ve done at BC, just getting exposure to this environment, because people get so pumped about startups and ideas and creativity.” The winner of the Social Impact award was Pedro Guimaraes, CSOM ’20, with his product BusWays. BusWays is an app that grants parents the ability to track their children when they are on the bus to school through a GPS tracking chip. For Guimaraes, the inspiration for his product was personal. He saw his own mother worry about his 4- and 12-year-old brothers when they got on the bus. His mom was constantly calling him to check on his brothers and make sure they were on the bus. With his product, parents will always know if their kids are on the bus and
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Educator and writer Tamura Lomax gave a lecture to students on Thursday titled “Imagining Black Resistance in the House that Slavery Built.” During the lecture, Lomax described the digitized world where signification of “blackness” takes place in both mass and popular media. The Black Lives Matter movement, the killing of Michael Brown, and the 2016 election are all examples of blackness being wrongfully portrayed in the media, according to Lomax. Lomax began the presentation with something she said is unusual for her, a warning. She asked the audience for its thoughts to help her create a solution as she described the problem. “The warning is, I didn’t come with the answers,” Lomax said. “I’m really struggling through this talk.” Lomax argued that the conception that people have of AfricanAmericans is not objective, but rather based upon the images and understandings that the world has pressed upon them. Lomax then quoted words from Franz Fanon’s book Black Skin, White Masks to explain her argument. “At the heart of white terror and black trauma is the issue of
interpretation, signification, re-presentation,” she read. “The black man is the symbol of evil, the torturer is black, Satan is black, one talks of shadows, when one is dirty, one is black. It would be astonishing if the trouble were taken to bring them all together to see the vast number of expressions that make the black man the equivalent of sin.” Lomax pointed to Ferguson, Mo. police officer Darren Wilson’s comments on the appearance of Michael Brown to illustrate how these ideas of African-Americans are inherently tied to evil and affect reality. After the shooting, Wilson explained that Brown looked like a demon and that while grappling with Brown, Wilson felt like a 5-year-old holding onto Hulk Hogan. Lomax argued that this is the result of a world in which media representations of black men are always hyper-violent, hyper-aggressive, and something different from human. Lomax then said that tactics aimed at demolishing the racial hierarchy cannot only focus on material brutality, but rather must interrogate the code by which blackness is defined. “The work, I think, of black radical resistance must include unbinding blackness from the discourses on dirtiness, sin, and evil,” she said. Throughout the presentation,
Lomax repeatedly emphasized the need to confront this particular moment in history. A defining feature of this moment, she argued, is the more democratized nature of media and images in the world of the internet. Black scholars have overlooked this development. They must engage in black digital studies, analyzing the way African-Americans attempt to change their image in the digital world, she said. “The digital world allows for the decentralizing of the production of knowledge and the mass mediation of alternative structures of meanings and representations,” Lomax said. “In this context, neo-colonial, white supremacist texts and meanings don’t get to have the last word.” At the same time, Lomax counseled against a view of the internet and modern media outlets as a cureall to problems of race and signification. She believes that social media and other information dissemination systems are not immune to the racist undertones that have characterized media in the past. Lomax said that her method of research is one of analyzing the conditions that enable racial oppression in order to chart the horizon toward a better future. “What I’m calling for is deconstructing what is and imagining what should and could be,” she said.
LIZZY BARRETT / HEIGHTS STAFF
Theodore Chapman won with a 60-second pitch for an online platform to sell photographs he called Darkroom. get to their destination safely. “What I believe really helped were my mentors and the people behind it who gave me the experience,” Guimaraes said. Guimaraes said his mentors were fellow entrepreneurs with real-life experience who knew the process and had business contacts. Guimaraes said his biggest challenge was putting himself into the corporate world and connecting with professionals. Dan Marino, CSOM ’19, won
Best Service with his product VenU. VenU aggregates data to provide the best experience for audiences of live entertainment. It acts as an intermediary between artists and sports teams and their audiences. Users download the app to gain first access to certain content and can partake in visual VIP experiences. Marino’s product has been evolving since last November. After doing a different elevator pitch alone, he took on Ben Li, CSOM ’19, as his business
partner. The night the application for the Elevator Competition was due, something clicked for Marino, and he and Li scrapped everything they had been working on since November. That night, they conceptualized their idea for VenU. “The biggest thing we’ve learned is though all our failures,” Marino said. “Because being an entrepreneur you have to be comfortable with failure and you have to a way about your that you just push through barriers.”
THE HEIGHTS
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Monday, October 31, 2016
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Service work is a major underpinning of Jesuit philosophy and, thus, is a cornerstone of Boston College’s mission. Within BC’s programs, few things embody that principle as well as the McGillycuddy-Logue Fellows Program, a multi-semester study abroad program in which students tackle global issues through the avenues of service and social justice. The Fellows Program falls under the broader umbrella of the McGillycuddy-Logue Center for Undergraduate Global Studies. Founded in 2008 by husband and wife Kathleen McGillycuddy and Robert Logue, the center aims to help BC students develop a more informed perspective on global issues. The center has a few major functions in facilitating this development, but the most noteworthy is providing over $100,000 a year in travel grants to students on the basis of financial need and merit. Beyond this, the center sponsors a variety of programs and events, like its upcoming International Education Week, which kicks off on Nov. 7, and the Fellows Program. McGillycuddy and Logue both had hugely successful careers in business—Logue headed a Fortune 500 company, and McGillycuddy served for years as vice president at a large financial firm. Throughout their time in the private sector, the couple traveled abroad extensively and often encountered things that profoundly moved them and
altered their outlook on the world. Inspired by what they saw abroad, the duo sought to give students a similar experience. They felt that the best way to share this experience was to create a center for students to develop their worldviews and help them escape the all-too-common United States-centric view of the world, and to develop the tools they need to be successful in life. “What we wanted to do was create an opportunity to learn, to understand and to have empathy for the way things are done differently around the world,” Logue said. “We wanted to give students a different view of things because we found that if we could do that in an age where the students are developing their thoughts, their ideas, and the ways they operate, that they could have a better understanding and, quite frankly, put them in a better position than other students.” The Fellows Program, originally titled the Global Service and Justice Program, was revamped over the past two years, with the first cohort of students arriving in 2015. Students undergo a multi-semester journey that begins during the spring of their sophomore year with a course entitled “Global Ethics and Pragmatic Solidarity: Taking Action Towards Transformative Change.” Then, in their junior year, fellows embark on a semester abroad that includes practical learning and service experiences to complement the academic experience. The program culminates in the fall of senior year, when students write a final reflection that combines their in-classroom knowledge and practical experience abroad with a research component.
“The Fellows Program is a multi-semester experience that combines academics, core curriculars, service and the broad experience to help students over the course of a few semesters to really reflect on their lives,” said Nick Gozik, the director of the Office of International Programs. “Students are looking at issues of race, ethnicity, and culture that are challenging students sense of who they are and where they are in the world.” While abroad, students have the flexibility to participate in a range of activities, from environmental work in Ecuador to working with Syrian refugees in Rome. Fellows typically head toward developing countries in regions like Latin America, for example.
This separates them from the mass of students headed to more popular destinations like London or Paris. Students do have the option to go wherever they choose, however, which can include common destinations for study abroad, such as Western Europe or Australia, as long as they engage in a practical experience. “While abroad, students are expected to engage in some kind of practical learning experience,” Gozik said. “That could be an internship, a service-learning program, or could be volunteerism. When they do that it’s a chance for them to take these ideas, these theories, and immerse on a deeper level in their host country.”
Students apply for the Fellows Program during the fall of their sophomore year. The program is competitive: Of the current cohort, only 13 students were admitted out of 76 applications. One member, Omeed Alidadi, MCAS ’18, said that the program meets a need for conversation on campus. “I believe there aren’t enough spaces on campus to engage in meaningful conversations about often controversial topics such as privilege, capitalism, and volunteerism,” Alidadi said. “The MLFP definitely fills that void, as it provides a regular forum where students can pause and reflect on the purpose of their academic experience here on campus.”
JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR
McGillycuddy-Logue participants study abroad with a focus on service projects, culminating in a final reflection on their experiences.
9: Gif]\jjfi N\cb`e Af_ejfeËj I\j\XiZ_ fe N_Xk DXb\j Lj ?ldXe 9P ;A I<:EP ?\`^_kj JkX]] After years of work, Welkin Johnson is changing the way that we understand the human genome. Johnson, chairperson of the biology department at Boston College, is currently involved in a project that studies endogenous retroviruses and how they have altered the course of evolution over hundreds of millions of years. Johnson began his work at BC about five years ago after transferring from
Harvard Medical School. Invited by a colleague to give a seminar, Johnson immediately fell in love with the atmosphere BC had to offer. Later, he accepted a job offer. A question he often fields pertains to his decision to abandon a scientific powerhouse like Harvard for a university like BC, which lacks the prominence and many of the resources of Harvard. Frankly, Johnson said, it all comes down to the money. At a university like Harvard, most
researchers receive their salaries as a portion of a grant they receive for their work, rather than as a fixed figure from the university itself. As a faculty member at BC, however, Johnson receives his salary from the University, meaning that he can apply all of his grant money toward his research, making him a much more effective scholar. In addition to this, Johnson recognizes that BC is an up-and-coming research power with a great support system for researchers like him. But, he noted,
JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Johnson’s research illuminates the incorporation and evolutionary conservation of ancient retroviral genes in the human genome.
researchers do need to love teaching to work at BC. “It has been a very supporting place to work, but you have to love teaching,” he said, noting his contributions to the classroom as well as the lab. “And although I don’t do as much of it now, I’ve always enjoyed teaching as well.” Having shifted his focus to the lab in recent years, Johnson has concentrated his work on viruses and genomes, specifically on how retroviruses can alter an organism’s DNA so that certain viral traits are passed down to later generations. Retroviruses, which include HIV and other immunodeficiency diseases, are a family of virus that spreads by inserting itself into a host cell’s RNA. The virus then converts this RNA to DNA, which is the genetic building block of life. As a result of becoming present in a cell’s DNA, the virus’s traits can then be replicated within the organism and can eventually be passed to an organism’s offspring, solidifying the virus’s genetic traits in future generations. As Johnson suggests, this implies that a massive amount of genetic material currently alive on earth derives a large percentage of its heritage from viruses. “[Replication of this manner] has happened millions and billions of times,” Johnson said. “So much so that something like 8 percent of our DNA is from retroviruses.” This percentage may seem small, yet as Johnson points out, about 2 percent of our DNA is genes. This means that we, as humans, have more retrovirus sequences in our DNA than genes that make us who
we are. These molecular “fossils,” as they have been called, allow scientists like Johnson to ask important questions regarding who we are as humans and from where we have evolved. This research is made possible by the genetic simplicity of viruses, but their simplicity does not translate to unimportance. Seasoned veterans like Johnson and his army of student researchers have linked viral traits in modern genomes to all sorts of differing factors, such as climate change and changes in a species’ natural niche. Using this “fossil record,” researchers use modern genomes much like a paleontologist would use a fossilized dinosaur bone. “Our goal is to understand to what degree viruses have affected the evolution of humans,” Johnson said. “My guess is that it is enormous.” As Johnson noted, there is no form of life that does not have the remnants of an ancient retrovirus in its DNA. When you look at this mystical 8 percent of human DNA, that is when you can see that the viruses have been infecting humans and our ancestors for hundreds of millions of years. People have the tendency to study viruses that are “sexy,” as Johnson puts it—common viruses that kill many. But as Johnson said, studying all viruses, not just deadly ones, is essential to understanding the human genome. “There has never been a time when viruses did not spread,” he said. “That’s when you realize that the viruses we know about are just the tip of the iceberg. We have to keep going.”
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Though just a few years old, the Global Public Health Program at Boston College has established itself as a unique presence on campus. From making video public service announcements about issues facing college students, to serving rural communities in Ecuador, students in the program learn about public health in a powerfully hands-on and interdisciplinary way. The Global Public Health Program at BC starts with courses that introduce students to public health topics domestically and around the world. In addition to the three-course sequence, the program also helps students preprofessionally through events like the STEM Career Fair, alumni panels for students interested in the master’s of public health degrees, research opportunities, and partnerships with the Office of Health Promotion, the Career Center, and clubs like BC EMS. Faculty in the program aim to expand students’ awareness of health as a global social justice issue, not just help them pursue interests in public health.
Joyce Edmonds of the Connell School of Nursing co-teaches the two courses Public Health in a Global Society and Contemporary issues in Public Health. She explained that the program’s founding vision included three goals. “It’s global, it’s interdisciplinary, and it has a strong ethical foundation,” Edmonds said. “It’s building on the strengths of our BC community.” To that end, each course is co-taught by faculty from CSON and the Lynch School of Education or the School of Social Work. According to Kimberly Austin, a graduate of the program who is now enrolled in BC’s direct-entry nursing program, Edmonds often shared stories of her experience working with patients as an R.N. Guest speakers from departments such as economics and communication also emphasize how multifaceted the field of public health is. Meanwhile, Summer Hawkins, who teaches in the School of Social Work and co-teaches with Edmonds, brings a slightly different, informatics-minded approach, again speaking to the diversity of the program. “I bring the perspective that we
always need to be collecting data and using that to inform our public service programs and policies,” Hawkins said of her responsibilities. “It creates a wonderful contrast.” Nicholas Raposo, a former enrollee in one of the introductory courses last year and CSON ’17, agreed that this contrast enriched his experience. His experience with the program exhibits the interdisciplinary liberal arts values that the classes hope to embody. “Once I realized how interconnected the web of health actually is, I began to understand how different parts of my education fit together,” he said. He also learned that health is not always related to a germ or to genetics, but is shaped by our environment and habits. For example, students pick a topic such as sleep or healthy eating that relates to their lives as college students. They then write and film PSAs to raise awareness of these issues. Hawkins and Edmonds described this project as a highlight of the course because it is an opportunity for students to be creative, but also connects to issues that impact their daily lives. This focus on the social determi-
nants of health strongly relates to BC’s values of social justice. In the third course, Public Health Practice in the Community, Austin volunteered at an elderly center in Allston-Brighton and explored how certain factors, such as transportation, affected that community. “Every single class, we talk about health disparities,” Hawkins said. “Why is it that certain groups are at higher risk and what can we do to address that?” The program also encourages students to address current issues beyond BC. Austin’s class discussed the impact of Affordable Care Act policies on nursing. Students can study abroad and volunteer in Ecuador through a for-credit program. Hawkins noted that when her class studies cholera epidemics, students often think issues remain in the past, when in reality, they are still problems. While students in the Global Public Health Program have majors as diverse as biology, education, and management, and go on to many different paths in research and graduate school, they share a common understanding that health is
not an isolated issue. When Raposo started his clinicals for CSON, he felt helpless because there was little he could do for his patients, who were often in poor health by the time they arrived at the hospital. “I realized that I can do the greatest good for my patients in primary care: helping to promote and maintain health,” he said. Similarly, although Austin already planned on applying to medical or nursing school, the program had a powerful influence on the kind of practitioner she wanted to be. Now, she works at a flu clinic as part of her graduate program, and she feels more attached to her work because “these issues are at the forefront of people’s lives.” Professors hope to develop the Global Public Health Program into a minor and even a major at BC. According to Edmonds, the student demand is there. She aims to engage more faculty in the program. “I didn’t even know what public health was as an undergrad,” Edmonds said, but “if there’s one thing I’d want students to take away, it’s that public health is everywhere.”
THE HEIGHTS
Monday, October 31, 2016
A5
;\jg`k\ FYjkXZc\j# :Xdglj JZ_ffc =`^_kj ]fi Jg\Z`Xc E\\[j 9P :?CF< C<< =fi K_\ ?\`^_kj Outside of Campion Hall, school buses arrive to drop off students at the Campus School, a private, publically funded, special education school at Boston College. As a part of the Lynch School of Education, the Campus School serves special-needs students from ages 3 to 21. Many of these students have multiple and severe disabilities and need services that the schools in their respective districts can’t provide. In addition to education, the Campus School provides therapy and health care services for its students. The school opened in 1970 with a mission: to provide education, therapy, and health care services to improve the quality of its students lives. “Our mission is to work through the expertise of our trans-disciplinary team in providing education, therapy, and health care services to improve the quality of lives for our students and to ensure all of our students lead active and meaningful lives,” said Don Ricciato, director of the Campus School. Ricciato became involved with the Campus School during his years as a graduate
student at BC. “I found it to be such a remarkable place that I have thrown all of my professional life working for the Campus School,” Ricciato said. Students at the Campus School are grouped by age and work with staff of specialeducation teachers and licensed therapists. In addition to the special-education teachers, many graduate students studying in the special -needs program of the Lynch School work as teaching assistants. One of the main struggles of running a special-education school is the financing and having adequate resources to pay salaries, provide instructional materials, and keep up with operational costs. A few years ago, the Campus School saw enrollment numbers decline and ran into financial struggles that jeopardized its future. In response to the University’s decision to relocate the school, parents worked to keep the Campus School in Campion. In the greater Boston area there are many private specialeducation schools, and the Campus School was competing for enrollment. In order to combat the declining numbers, the Campus School increased its outreach to get its name out to hospitals, schools, and
parent organizations. It also increased its presence on social media and added admissions and outreach coordinators positions to raise awareness and help increase the enrollment. The goal was to promote the Campus School to anyone who could potentially refer students. For years, the Campus School relied on its reputation, but since 2014, there has been an increase in advertising and outreach. In addition to increased outreach, the school has also increased its fundraising. The Campus School now works closely with the Advancement Office at BC and hosts fundraising events to encourage donations. Every year, the Campus School Volunteers raise over $100,000 for the school. The Campus School Volunteers, or CSVBC, is a club that allows students to get involved with the Campus School, whether that be through planning events or becoming a buddy. Annually, the CSVBC has about 350 members. Through CSVBC, students can be a part of the buddy program, which pairs a BC student with a Campus School student. These relationships are meant to be friendships that last throughout the four years the BC student is an undergraduate. Students can also apply to be on one of eight different committees of
the CSVBC. The three types of committees include the direct service, fundraising, and awareness committees. There are four fundraising committees, A Cappella, Broom Hockey, Golf, and Racing, that put on events throughout the year to raise money for the Campus School. One of the main events is the Newton Chilly Half Marathon, which will take place on Nov. 13. Formerly, fundraisers ran as “bandit runners” in the Boston Marathon, but since the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, increased security has made that impossible. The half marathon campaign, which happened for the first time last year, is an attempt to make up for the money lost without the Boston Marathon fundraiser. “We also have opportunities for general membership,” said Gina Iozzo, co-president of CSVBC and MCAS ’17. “We keep people on our listserv so that they get all the dates and times for all of these events.” General membership is a way for students to volunteer on their own time. In addition to the Campus School Volunteers, PULSE students volunteer, and students with work study can work at the Campus School. One of the important aspects of the Cam-
pus School is its location on BC’s campus. The Campus School is able to use BC’s resources and facilities, like the Plex. BC has also provided two wheelchair vans to take the students on off-campus excursions. There is also a sense of community that forms from being on a college campus. Students at the Campus School form friendships with BC students and get the opportunity to have experiences that are difficult to recreate off campus. “The cool thing about the fundraising events is that [Campus School] students will show up to these events with their families” said Katie Hendrickson, chief education officer and LSOE ’19. “Last year we had a few kids come to cheer on people running in the half marathon. It’s really fun to have that [community] aspect.” The sense of community that comes from the university setting is what makes the Campus School unique from other special education programs and draws many BC students to volunteer at the Campus School. “For our students and their families, the Campus School is more than just a school experience,” Ricciato said. “It really changes the quality of life they are able to have by being part of the University community.”
8?8E8 DXeX^\d\ek 8ZX[\dp K\XZ_\j Xe[ <hl`gj 9lj`e\jj C\X[\ij 9P D8;@JFE D8I8E@ =fi K_\ ?\`^_kj In just the last year, one of Boston College’s premier pre-professional clubs, the AHANA Management Academy (AMA), has grown by half, jumping from 250 to nearly 400 members. AMA is a club that works with students of color on things such as resume-building, creating a LinkedIn, networking, and interviewing through events and workshops. AMA is different from other pre-professional clubs in that it caters to the biggest group of people, said Brian Yoon, AMA’s treasurer and MCAS ’18. AMA is not careerspecific, nor does it focus on any one letter of the AHANA acronym. Instead, it focuses on creating events that may interest a wide range of people in various areas of business. “We hope to open the eyes of students to various professional paths that are available to them while connecting them with the resources and people that will aid them in
pursuing their professional interests and passions,” said Andrew Lim, AMA’s co-president and CSOM ’17. It is also important to note that AMA is not CSOM-exclusive. In fact, Yoon started off as a pre-med bio major, and AMA was, for him, the catalyst to break into the business world. The club is an opportunity for anyone who is interested, to any degree, in business. AMA’s objective is particularly important to address right here on the BC campus. People aren’t entirely aware of how difficult it might be for AHANA students to make it in the business world. While AHANA students may get the internship, it’s what follows that often proves to be a struggle for them. Some students come to BC more privileged than others, said Michael Jang, AMA’s vice president and CSOM ’18. In short, explained Jang, the underprivileged student just doesn’t have the same connections that others do. It is AMA’s goal to level that playing field. Thus, AMA seeks to focus on honing interpersonal
skills as well as affording students opportunities that they wouldn’t normally have. “I think Boston College, CSOM in particular, has such a bad rap of being just snarky, rich, white business folks,” Yoon said. “But in reality, there are a lot of students in there who are passionate, they just don’t see those faces being highlighted.” One of AMA’s particularly successful events was its AHANA Networking Night. Last year was the first time it ran the program, and it attracted nearly 80 attendees, AHANA and non-AHANA students alike. They reached out to 25 AHANA alumni from around Boston, ensuring a diverse selection of professions, to create a panel. The panel was assembled to create a transparent conversation between AHANA professionals and students about what it is like to be a person of color in the business world. For the future, AMA hopes to transform the event into an AHANA recruiting night to connect more students to recruiters and increase internship
opportunities. AMA debuted another event last weekend. On Saturday, AMA hosted ABLE: AHANA Business Leaders Experience Conference. The conference was in collaboration with the Career Center, its biggest endorser, and included speakers and workshops for students. The conference was meant to create a dialogue on being a person of color, or even being a woman, in the workforce is like. The hope is that, after attending any of the AMA events, students leave feeling more confident about their pre-professional development and could really see themselves in a certain profession, Brian said. Though AMA’s main focus is business, it also creates a community among its members. AMA’s main way of creating a sense of community is through its mentorship program. Not only has it met great success—about 70 percent get an internship by the end of freshman year—but it acts as a type of stepping stone for freshmen into the AHANA
community. It’s all about fostering a sense of community while also equipping them for the business world. “We’re not considered a culture club on campus,” Jang said. “But we want to be considered half-business, half-community.” Moving forward, AMA hopes to grow the mentorship program, see more high-profile speakers, and connect more companies to its members, Lim said. With the advent of fall recruiting, events to train students for recruitment are happening at the same time recruitment actually starts. AMA hopes to target freshmen and sophomores more, so as to train them early for internships. No matter where AMA finds itself in the future, however, AMA’s chief goal will continue to be promoting diversity within the workplace. “I think every student that we have at BC, they’re all amazing people,” Michael said. “We have such a unique background and education. I think we are very marketable in industries.”
THE HEIGHTS
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EDITORIALS
QUOTE OF THE DAY
L>9: =`eXeZ`Xc :fdd`kk\\ GifgfjXc NXj D`j^l`[\[ On Wednesday night, the Student Assembly (SA) of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) considered a proposal that would create a financial committee to oversee UGBC’s expenditures. The committee would be external to UGBC and would include the UGBC president, executive vice president, vice president of financial affairs, and four outside appointees who would apply and eventually be confirmed by the SA. This would change the current process, in which members of the Executive Council—the UGBC president, executive vice president, and vice president of financial affairs only—create the annual budget, which is then approved by the SA. The proposal, presented by Raymond Mancini, CSOM ’19, and Michael Proietta, MCAS ’19, failed to pass an SA vote, losing 22-2. The purpose of the proposal, according to Mancini, was to encourage debate when passing the budget. He argued that the SA has one ideology and often passes or rejects proposals unanimously without debate. Encouraging increased debate within the SA is an admirable goal, but this proposal did not adequately address the multiple issues and internal complexities that go into drafting the UGBC budget. As was brought up in the meeting, the proposal would bring in four students, unaffiliated with UGBC, to make budgetary decisions. One problem with this is that students with a purely financial interest could lack the knowledge to understand how financial allocation is handled by UGBC. One example of that is the funding of the Council for Students with Disabilities (CSD), which is part of the Diversity and Inclusion Programming Board. Compared to the other two groups in the board, the AHANA Leadership Council and the GLTBQ Leadership Council, CSD
Monday, October 31, 2016
receives considerably less funding. This might appear to be financially unequal, but it comes at the request of CSD, which requested less money for its yearly budget as it holds fewer programs throughout the year. This kind of internal knowledge helps UGBC operate as it should, and a purely outside perspective could easily lack the information necessary to understand issues such as this. Another potential issue with the proposal was the fact that the four outside students would be confirmed by the SA. If the SA shares a similar internal ideology, which was presented as the problem the committee was meant to address, its role in confirm-
N_`c\ k_`j gifgfjXc Xkk\dgk\[ kf X[[i\jj X mXclXYc\ `jjl\# `k cXZb\[ k_\ e\Z\jjXip befnc\[^\ f] L>9:Ëj fg\iXk`fej% ing the students could easily undermine the diversity of opinion it is meant to address. This means that the proposal could easily remove the SA’s internal understanding of the budget without actually removing any potential SA bias. While this proposal attempted to address a valuable issue, it lacked the necessary knowledge of UGBC’s operations. Improving transparency is a major goal of this year’s UGBC, and should be pursued. Although this proposal was an interesting attempt to improve the functionality of the organization, it was misguided. In the future, attempts to pass proposals that would make large changes to UGBC should be internally consulted beforehand to better prepare for the voting process.
“The most beautiful act of faith is the one made in darkness, in sacrifice, and with extreme effort.” -Padre Pio
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
A Response to “Faculty FitBit Competition May Step Over the Line of Fair Play”
I am writing this letter on behalf of my Walk Across Campus Challenge team, Conte Force, because we felt it was unfair to portray a dedicated BC employee as a “cheater” and/or “liar” in a public fashion through The Heights article titled “Faculty FitBit Competition May Step Over the Line of Fair Play,” written by DJ Recny. If someone took the time to reach out to “the carpenter” to learn how he averages 40,000+ steps per day, you may not have made the statements you did attacking his character and the integrity of the WAC Challenge—something that is meant to make people healthier and build them up. The carpenter referred to in the article has worked at Boston College for over 30 years, his name is Giovanni Buonopane, or more commonly known as Bono. Bono loves the BC WAC challenge. Prior to the start of each competition, he hosts a team pizza party to get our members motivated to walk. Throughout the competition he visits with teammates to check in on their progress and encourages them to help the team by boosting their own averages. He has made walking a priority and leads by example. Bono wakes up early to walk before work. The nature of his job has him always on the move, walking (and working with his hands verses at a desk) from one
project to the next, constantly on his feet. After his work day, he walks around his neighborhood or in the basement on the treadmill. His daughter recently said she was happy to move out of the house because she was tired of hearing the treadmill going from the moment she got home till the moment she went to bed. The ironic thing is, leading Conte Force to victory is his motivation, not the $100 gift certificate to Bitten he receives if he wins the competition on his own merit. Last year, he took home that gift certificate for first place, and the second place winner received four football tickets to Wagner, valued at less than $150. In the article, these things were referred to as significant financial reward. Clearly, they are not. Before we judge how people are achieving their steps, I think you should put yourself in their shoes … literally. I would suggest any skeptics to accompany Bono for a day at the office or a home football game to see the amount of effort he puts in on a work day, which will help people realize that what he does is possible. In the process, you may just realize that Bono and the WAC Challenge deserve an apology.
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Last Friday, Climate Justice at Boston College (CJBC) held a rally outside Gasson Hall as part of its efforts to convince the University to divest from fossil fuel-related stocks, such as oil companies. The effort came after a protest during the week of Oct. 11, which also urged the University to divest and asked “Which Side are You On?” Friday’s rally was an improvement on this previous event, in that it was better promoted, including a table set up in the Academic Quad that told people about the planned demonstration and CJBC’s cause. One issue with the rally was an ad hominem attack on Dean of Students Tom Mogan, who attended the beginning of the rally but left early due to a prior commitment. Mogan’s departure was cited as evidence of the administration’s lack of support. While CJBC should continue attempting to grow and put itself in a position to be heard by the administration, attacks like this are not the way to do that. Mogan has been one of the most visibly supportive administrators at the University when it comes to student groups like CJBC. He contacted CJBC before the rally and is currently attempting to arrange a meeting to discuss its goals. Beyond this, he has maintained an active physical presence at protests and other demonstrations carried out by the student body, including the “Silence is Violence” march on Sept. 29. When a group is trying to get something accomplished with a stubborn administration, attacking one of the administrators who is trying to help only serves to alienate the people that must be convinced. The comment was not sanctioned by CJBC, but the organization’s horizontal power structure seems to have prevented
complete organization of what would be said at the rally. In order to effectively promote the cause of divestment, professionalism and oversight are necessary so that these demonstrations can convince and persuade the administration instead of isolating and further entrenching it in its current positions. An example of this occurred at Boston University, where a pro-divestment demonstration included the presentation of a document proposing the changes that Divest BU would like to see, including increased efficiency and efforts to improve sustainability and combat the effects of climate change.
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.
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HEIGHTS
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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
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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.
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THE HEIGHTS
Monday, October 31, 2016
A7
K_\ Nife^ NXp kf C\^Xc`q\ DXi`alXeX ;\]\e[`e^ k_\ I`^_k kf ;`\ D8KK?<N 9<;L>E@J APPLE CIDER - Only a few days ago, I sat out by the Reservoir, jacket pulled up to protect my neck from the biting fall winds, the smell of pumpkins and rotting corpses in the air. “Fall,” I said. “Nothing quite like an autumnal day.” As I sat on the bench, someone walked up to me and sat down next to me. “Stranger danger,” I said, but instead of yelling it, as one would assume I did, I whispered it in a very quiet and affectionate tone of voice. “Hey there,” this strange person said. “Are you feeling all right? You look a little bit cold. Would you like to try this cup of warm apple cider?” My heart warmed and I took the Styrofoam cup from the stranger. Sipping the cider, I realized that apple cider is the best fall drink of all the fall drinks. It blows pumpkin spice-flavored anything clear out of the water. Drinking my cider, I appreciated the world around me and felt tears coming to my eyes at the beautiful simplicity of sitting outside under a gray sky, looking out at the water, and knowing that everything will be all right. “OK, sir,” the stranger said. “Now I’m going to have to ask you to come with me.” “What’s that?” I said. “It’s all right, sir,” the stranger replied. “It’s all going to be O.K. We’re just going to find you some pants and bring you home.” The stranger pulled me by the arm, wrapped a towel around my waist, and led me away. MONSTER MASH - There is one, and only one, king of Halloween music and that is Boris Pickett. Do we know a single one of his songs besides “Monster Mash?” Nope. Does it matter? Not at all. Halloween is the Monster Mash and the Monster Mash is Halloween. If it wasn’t for our crippling insecurity, deathly fear of embarrassment, physical awkwardness, lack of balance, general clumsiness, excessive facial warts, emotional instability, strange and unhealthy obsession with pumpkins that causes us to burst into tears at the sight of every Halloween-decorated home, and, above all, hatred of happiness, we would definitely get up and dance to this wacky Halloween tune. EVIL TWINS - They are everywhere. A little-known secret of TU/TD lore: Exactly one year ago, a Heights columnist wrote a column about a Halloween journey to Mike’s Pastry. In that column, his evil twin showed up for only a few lines. In those few lines he made one gesture: The Thumbs Up. GASP. TERROR. AWE. FEAR. REVELATION. This whole time TU/ TD was the maniacal ramblings of an evil twin, forecasted by an obscure year-old column as part of a master plan to slowly take over the University. Hahahahahahaha. And now my plan is almost complete. It’s too late to stop me. The clocks have been set to IIII, the laundry machines have been rigged, the vending machines have been sabotaged, and your puny lives are all under The Thumb.
FAST ZOMBIES - This is one of the most terrifying Halloween concepts ever. We don’t even like writing about it. Just take a moment to consider how unbelievably horrible it would be if the zombie apocalypse included fast zombies. It would be like the regular zombie apocalypse, but they’d be so freaking faaaaasssssst. Think about it. Fear it.
Question 4, one of the important decisions facing Massachusetts voters in the coming days, would open the door to legalization of marijuana in the state. The question is a complex and multifaceted issue that bridges several social and partisan divides. State government is almost unilaterally opposed to the proposition, including Republican Governor Charlie Baker and Democratic Mayor Marty Walsh. People from all walks of life are finding themselves supporting or opposing a question with fellow voters from equally diverse backgrounds and viewpoints. Opposition to or support of Question 4 isn’t necessarily equivalent to opposition to or support of marijuana. As a proposition, Question 4 is deeply flawed. So, too, is the path it would open to legalization. I’ll be voting no on Question 4 not out of spite for the drug or its users, but rather in the hope of a more responsible and measured path to legalization from the state legislature in the future. I’m impartial when it comes to the legalization of marijuana. I’ve never smoked it, and I never will. I’m generally opposed to mind-altering substances, even alcohol, but I cannot deny the right of fellow citizens to enjoy themselves as they see fit. I would prefer that no one smoked marijuana, but I know that many do. And it seems evident that it should probably be within the rights of responsible adults to do so, however irksome to me personally. Supporting Question 4 on the principles of freedom and responsibility of choice was my intent, but after some research I don’t believe this ballot question presents the right path. Legalization at any cost isn’t the answer. Voters who turn out in favor of Question 4 without understanding the implications of the decision do a disservice to themselves and to the state. We cannot simply decide that marijuana
should be legal without first considering the ramifications. Many suppose that legalization will be a boon to the state coffers, providing a steady stream of state revenue and getting illegal money off of our streets. This logic might support a cause I do not personally condone, but the revenue system that Question 4 would establish is woefully inadequate, with a tax almost one-tenth that of Washington State. A 3.75 percent tax on marijuana compared to other states like Washington (37 percent) and Colorado (30 percent) that have pursued legalization is almost comical. A tax that low would barely cover the cost of setting up regulatory infrastructure and the adaptive training needed for our law enforcement. We also need complex oversight of this transition to ensure a smooth process and to study the effects and potential fallout it might have. We need to ensure that regulations are being strictly followed and that the end of this prohibition is a positive change for society that helps to get drugs off the street, not put them in the hands of minors. Before the state sees any tax revenue, it will need to regulate the approximately 1,300 new businesses that are expected to spring up from the new industry. The onus will fall almost entirely on the state for this oversight since marijuana will still be illegal at the federal level. If Washington can get away with a 37 percent tax, surely we need to do better than 3.75 percent to offset all the costs that will come from legalization. But the economics of the issue isn’t the only problem with Question 4’s path to legalization. Question 4 would open up a legal gray area twice as convoluted as the state’s decriminalized system. If Question 4 passes, people 21 and older could legally possess marijuana as of Dec. 15—just a little over a month from the upcoming Nov. 8 vote, but marijuana can’t be legally sold for more than a full year later, on Jan. 1, 2018. It doesn’t take a legal expert to see what a cockamamie and unenforceable situation this contradiction represents. Question 4 would also leave a vestigial medical marijuana licensing system in place, needlessly redundant since any adult could legally
purchase the drug. Residents will be limited to growing just six plants at home, but surely this restriction just adds another murky and unenforceable complication to the process. Simply put, the system that Question 4 would create contains more crossed wires and egregious faults than a condemned house. Selfishly, I don’t want marijuana to be legal. I don’t respect or condone its use, and I’d like to stay safe in my bubble, in which marijuana is at least culturally taboo to some extent, but I realize the impracticality and utter futility of this perspective. I have seen the devastating effects of alcoholism up close enough to make an educated guess that legalized marijuana will likely do no more harm to our society than the depressants already readily available on store shelves. Prohibition will be ended at some point whether I like it or not, and the most constructive thing I can do as a concerned citizen is to help choose a path that I believe will lead to the smoothest transition. Question 4 is not that path, and it is not the answer to the plea that marijuana proponents have been making for years. It is a way forward fraught with legal contradictions and economic risk. For those who think that this is their only chance at legalization and that the legislature will never consider it of their own volition, I urge you to have greater faith in your elected officials. They know that this is a pressing issue which requires their attention. Entrust them with the time to draft a plan toward legalization that is responsible and beneficial for all Massachusetts citizens. And, if they don’t act in due time, demonstrate your discontent with your votes and elect leaders who believe in making the issue a priority. Though I strongly oppose marijuana, I am amenable to legalization—just certainly not in the form of Question 4. I urge my fellow citizens not to give in to the selfish urge to legalize at all costs, but to truly consider the possible fallout of passing this ballot question and to decide if it is worthwhile in the end.
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8EE@< >I8P 9LI>< On the inside of a stall door in the pre-renovation girls’ bathroom on the second floor of Mac, the phrase “SHOWOFF!” used to confront unassuming tinklers with black-Sharpie ferocity. The juxtaposition of this phrase with its location has always intrigued me. The word “showoff ” and the exaggerated exclamation that the author afforded to it suggest the presence of an audience within the stall, moreover that the bathroom-goer is being garishly impressive, enough to warrant an unasked-for response. But, the reality of the situation could not be more opposite. In their traditional use, bathroom stalls do not promote observable performance, much less impressive observable performance. With the exception of those located in middle schools and college bars, bathroom stalls do not harbor an audience, let alone a peanut gallery. Yet it is exactly this contradiction between the reality of the bathroom stall and the conventional implications of the word “showoff ” that the graffiti in the old girls’ bathroom plays off of. The phrase “SHOWOFF!” is intentionally paradoxical, dramatically sarcastic, as if to say, “You are alone here. Of course you are alone.” It emphasizes the solitude of the domain. The phrase must do this. It must make you unequivocally aware of your aloneness in order to make its point: “Yes, you are alone, but you alone—sitting here on this toilet, wiping your hiney, zippering your pants, and doing absolutely nothing noteworthy—you alone are impressive.” Is this not the poetic purpose of a bathroom stall? To validate our existence in its most organic form? To give us a self-satisfying purpose? To allow us to feel accomplished
without another’s commentary creating that feeling for us? I will be arguing yes to all of the above. In order to do so, I will have to momentarily fulfill a stereotype associated with my femininity when I ask: will you come to the bathroom with me? Historically, graffiti is a form of expression that is considered deviant and unwanted. Often washed away or painted over once it is found, graffiti rarely finds itself in the right place at the right time. But what happens when it does? Graffiti that stays has the ability to entirely change a domain, to redefine a surface—dull to colorful, silent to speaking, dormant to alive. Bathroom graffiti is no different in this respect. It speaks on behalf of the rickety, dull-rust colored dividers that can’t. Let’s lend an ear. In the handicapped stall of the girls’ bathroom on the second floor of O’Neill, various quotes create a halo around the toilet paper dispenser. Three stick out in particular. The first, written in blue ink: “you are enough,” followed by a heart. A penciled-in edit puts a carrot between the “are” and “enough” of the original line to add “so much more than,” all underlined. Altogether: “you are so much more than enough,” with a heart. The second, written in green ink: “Like wildflowers you must allow yourself to grow in all the ways people thought you never would.” And the third, in black marker: “I love you. – God.” These quotes express a poetic purpose. The first: a two-fold validation of one’s unaccompanied, unaffected existence; an insistence in the weight and the wonderfulness of you. The second: support and encouragement for the tinkler to move in the direction of her own dreams; to not only exist, but to flourish in her own right. And the third: even to the non-religious (like myself ) this statement holds some weight—it suggests the existence of an unspoken, yet omnipresent appreciation of the you. Together, these quotes serve as an advertisement for the self. Condensed onto a billboard, they would likely read: “Self-
hood: Pass It On.” The bathroom stall’s ardent promotion of selfhood encourages an answer to the seemingly unanswerable question of our time: who are we when we’re alone? For college students, this question is especially difficult to answer. We share classrooms, hallways, dining halls, rooms, and, yes, bathrooms. The frequency of our interactions with others causes us to live our lives as responses, rather than proclamations—our actions resonate as a projection of the world around us, rather than an externalization of our internal selves. Yet this truth does not remain within the bathroom stall. The base purpose of the bathroom stall is to externalize that which we hold inside. In a less crude, metaphorical sense, this can be seen as an externalization of the lone, unaffected self—the self that the world tries to have a say in and distort. This is not to say that our affected selves are less than our authentic selves. Both are integral to our beings, yet they are seldom regarded with the same weight. In a society that thrives on its connectivity, we are led to believe that our connected selves are more impressive than our lone beings. We are afraid to be alone. The bathroom stall supports our aloneness by giving purpose to it. In their promotion of selfhood, bathroom stalls remind us of the impressiveness of our lone selves. Within the bathroom stall, aloneness is not something to be feared, but rather something to be appreciated, explored. There is a beauty in being alone, and it takes the form of a tan-tiled, creepily overheated public bathroom. Where else in the world can you sit on your hiney, half-naked, staring at a wall, and feel like “you are so much more than enough?” That’s right. I’ll see ya in the bathroom, showoff.
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8C@J ;@:G@E@>8@K@J Roger M. Kligler, a 64-year-old Falmouth resident with metastatic prostate cancer, filed a lawsuit this week arguing for his right to obtain a lethal dose of medication from a physician to end his life on his own terms and to avoid unnecessary suffering. This calls into question Kligler’s legal and ethical claims to such a decision. We must assess whether an individual’s right to die is protected by the Constitution. In the landmark 1997 Supreme Court case of Washington v. Glucksberg, Warren Glucksberg and physicians argued that assisted suicide and the right to die is protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Although the district and circuit courts upheld this opinion, the Supreme Court disagreed. In his decision, Chief Justice William Rehnquist ultimately concluded that the matter is at odds with the history and tradition of the American nation, that the “right” to die necessitates a right to assistance in doing so, and that there is legitimate governmental interest in the preservation of the life of individuals. According to this ruling, Kligler does not have a legal claim to deciding his own death. There are several problems with this. First, cases like these expose the weakness of traditionalist interpretations of the Constitution. That validating a claim to physician-assisted suicide would “reverse centuries of legal doctrine and practice,” as Rehnquist wrote, is a paltry excuse for dismissal and in fact establishes a dangerous precedent of legal orthodoxy. For matters such as these, we must adopt a “living” interpretation of the Constitution, one that appropriately acknowledges changing temporal and contextual attitudes (we think differently about social issues now than we did in the early 20th century). The argument for state interest in the preservation also falls flat because it subordinates “medical and personal needs” for strictly “medical needs.” This logical framework advocates for the prolongation of unwanted suffering. Rehnquist’s claim about a tacit secondary right to assistance in death may be valid, but does not bear importance because procedures are performed by willing physicians complicit with the desires of the patient. As with most Supreme Court rulings, what we see here is the imposition of the personal morality of the justices. The Enlightenment philosophy of John Stuart Mill is frequently invoked in matters of bioethics and medical law for purposes of justifying patient autonomy. Mill’s declaration that “over his body every individual is sovereign,” seems reasonable enough; that an individual should decide what he wants done to his body seems self-evident. I think it applies well to cases of physician suicide and validates (at the very least) Kligler’s ethical claim to his decision to die. A retired physician, Kligler has the mental capacity to make a reasonable and informed decision about his own body that trumps any state interest in preservation of life. The precedent for removing treatment or not even starting treatment in the case of terminal illness is well established; such practice is legally permissible and ethically justifiable. Yet, all methods of willing euthanasia fall within the scope of murder and are considered by some to be ethically reprehensible. To me this represents a logical inconsistency insofar as there appears to be a morally irrelevant distinction between removing means to life and deciding to end one’s life by active means. It is this same ethical framework that forces me to struggle with the permissibility of requesting direct lethal injection (significantly distinct from prescribed lethal medication) in cases of competent terminally ill individuals. Autonomy and self-determination must be honored, but I’m not quite sure what the limits ought to be. A legitimate counter-argument is that physician-assisted suicide is a slippery slope that will implicate the elderly, the impoverished, and other underrepresented minority groups. Moreover, statistics show that most people who seek out physician-assisted suicide are plagued with mental illness, usually depression. However, it seems that stringent background assessments of patients suspected to be mentally ill or members of a “targeted” group will correct for this possible danger. Ultimately, the popular conception of the purpose of medicine, “saving lives,” is a reductionist take on the enterprise. If this were the case, medicine is always doomed to fail. Instead, the goal of medicine is to treat illnesses that have the possibility of improvement and to alleviate suffering. Physician-assisted suicide and its correlates fall under the umbrella of the latter category.
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THE HEIGHTS
A8
Monday, October 31, 2016
9: 9ffb$X$K_fe 9i`e^j C`k\iXkli\ 8Zifjj 9fi[\ij# :lckli\j K_\ \m\ek n`cc kXb\ gcXZ\ fe Efm% (, `e :Xdg`fe ?Xcc 9P 8I:?<I G8IHL<KK< Fg`e`fej <[`kfi Everyone has a story, but not every story can be understood by everyone. Native languages mean that students around the globe do not have the same access to reading material as an English-speaking student does. An unexpected meeting between Erik Owens, the interim director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, and his former student Amie Harris, BC ’11, at a conference in Washington, D.C., sparked an attempt to address this problem. Harris works at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), where she is a central figure in a pilot program, a Book-a-Thon, that takes stories written by anyone in the world and brings them across borders, across cultures, and across languages to children in need. Owens has worked to bring this pilot program to Boston College with an upcoming event, titled “Stories That Move,” which will bring a new software called BLOOM to campus. With this software, anyone can write in his preferred language and upload his final product, a short book, to an online and free digital library, where the book is translated into over 50 languages and
made available to download. This makes a wide variety of writing from across the globe available for consumption to those who would otherwise go without. “Everyone has an identity that’s really valuable,” said Omeed Alidadi, MCAS ’18, an undergraduate research assistant who has been vital in the planning of the event. “Any small story that you have can be framed in such a way that can really inspire people around the world.” Children’s literature is the main emphasis of the event, as each attendee will be given the chance to write his own story that will be made available throughout the world to improve literacy resources. The event will be held Tuesday Nov. 15, from 4:30 to 7 in Campion 016. It will begin with an introduction from Harris and Christie Vilsack, a senior adviser for international education at USAID. Then, a keynote presentation will be given by Peter Reynolds, a New York Times bestselling children’s author who has sold 20 million books in 25 languages worldwide. His 2003 children’s book The Dot, about the power and universality of artistic creation, has even started an international movement to inspire youth creativity, including a specific date called International Dot Day. During the speech, attendees will have notecards available to brainstorm and plan out the stories they want to create. “This will fuel some imagination among the audience,” Alidadi said. Each attendee will be able to plan out what they would like
to write and then interact with the BLOOM software on laptops that will be available for them to use. They can then use the software to translate their writing and make their work available for the promotion of literacy worldwide. It is this promotion of international education and literacy that interested Alidadi, who also founded a writing group for international graduate students. “I think all of us can find our voices through writing and be able to use our writing as a way to help and serve others,” Alidadi said. The event offers this opportunity directly, as the short books that students write are made available and can directly benefit the education of children in underprivileged nations. This cause has received University-wide support, as the event is sponsored by the Lynch School of Education, the Morrissey College of Arts of Sciences, and the School of Social Work, as well as the Boisi Center. Owens believes the event embodies many important themes of a BC education that the University wants to emphasize. To promote the idea of men and women for others, for example, the event works toward social justice and achieving worldwide literacy. It brings together many of the concerns of BC students and faculty—education, literacy, international issues, and more—and allows participants to do something that directly benefits these causes. “Each of these different schools … they all have a unique and special interest in this kind of thing as well, and that’s why we’ve had
such an enthusiastic response,” Owens said. In the relatively short time that Owens and the others have planned this event, they have received considerable support and are looking forward to learning from the pilot program and continuing the work of promoting international literacy. The Book-a-Thon is planned to be a yearly event. After this year’s pilot program, USAID is planning to launch a full program in the future, and BC would be able to continue hosting the events and generating writing to help children
across the globe learn how to read. Students who are interested in being a part of this effort must register to attend the event, as the space is limited. The event will also be promoted through a student committee and through social media campaigns, such the hashtag #BCbookathon. “We’re trying to really have more of a long term impact, more longevity,” Aladadi said. “So the program doesn’t just sit as a program, as an event on a single day, but is more of a long-term impact.”
JAMES LUCEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR
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JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR
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point out their hypocrisy,” he said. “I just think this should be a reason we should mobilize even more in the future and get even louder, until they can’t ignore us. That way they’ll be able to hear us all the way in their cushy offices in Maloney.” Kontopoulos was criticizing Mogan in particular, who was at the rally when it began, but had a prior commitment and had to leave early. Kontopoulos said the lack of administrative attendance was evidence of a lack of support for divestment. Mogan said that he reached out to Alyssa Florack, CJBC’s president and MCAS ’17, to see if the group would be interested in meeting with him to discuss its goals. He expects CJBC will reach out to him with possible dates and times to meet next week. Up until a week-long protest beginning on Oct. 11 called “Whose Side Are You On?,” the group had been largely silent this school year. In the past, CJBC has been a source of tension on campus. In March 2015, Liu received disciplinary probation for leading CJBC in an unregistered vigil that took place the month before. Liu appealed the decision, but it was rejected by Mogan. CJBC received formal recognition from the University in September 2015, which allows the group to register protests, post fliers, and reserve rooms to host meetings on campus. Liu said in an email Sunday that CJBC’s goal of divestment is likely very long-term given what she called a lack of engagement from higher-level administrators on the topic. She also said the group was not aware beforehand that Kontopoulos was going to criticize administrators directly. “We held this rally in part to affirm and assure the rest of student body and administration that Climate Justice at BC is not going anywhere,” she said. “We will not rest
until BC divests.” Matthew Thacker, a junior at Boston University, also attended and spoke at the demonstration. According to Thacker, BU has an advisory committee that recommended divestment from fossil-fuel companies to its Board of Trustees at a meeting in April. That includes companies that are searching for additional fossil-fuel sources to tap in the future. Kenneth Feldman, chairman of BU’s Board of Trustees, said in a letter dated Sept. 20 that the Board would avoid tar sands and coal investments on a best-efforts basis, though he acknowledged potential difficulties with implementation—much of BU’s endowment is invested in commingled funds spread across many different companies and industries. “It’s incredibly vague, non-specific language, and it’s specifically working away from divestment, so we’re very skeptical of it, but they have been a lot more supportive than the administration has here,” Thacker said. CJBC’s mission has also attracted the attention of some local alumni. Robert Ryan, BC ’66, found out about CJBC four years ago at a talk by writer and activist Bill McKibben, who spoke about public relations efforts by fossil-fuel companies to disrepute climate change activists. For Ryan, who has always been interested in environmental issues, McKibben’s talk made him realize the importance of divestment, and he’s been involved with CJBC’s efforts ever since. He said he is frustrated with the lack of action by BC’s leaders. “I care deeply about the place, so there’s a part of me that’s just sad,” Ryan said. “It’s just mind-boggling to me on these crucial, societal issues that they’re coming up short. … I don’t know why the president and trustees don’t want to be part of the colleges and universities that are stepping up. Why not?”
The 2016 presidential election has been characterized by a series of events that suggest that today is a time devoid of political normalcy. These events, like the popular rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, as well as the division of the Republican Party, suggest that something bigger is taking place. This election looks like a pivotal moment, the sort of event that is the culmination of historical trends that were driving the political system in the long term, outlasting the noise that usually accompanies each present moment as time passes. An insightful way to look at the current political moment and what it will bring is through history. Heather Cox Richardson, a professor who studies 19th century American political and economic history, does exactly that. For her, the 160-year history of the Republican Party, around which much of the special circumstances of this election seem to be taking place, is integral to understanding what has occurred to the American political system and what will follow from that. “My work takes a look at the conditions and ideas that gave rise to the Republican Party,” she said. “I’m an idealist in the sense that I think ideas change history. So I look at the relationship between image and reality, between ideas and reality, and how it drives history.” To her, the fractures seen in the Republican Party today are not recent, nor are they between populists and conservatives, as most people think. It is a fracture going back to the Republican Party’s beginning that has shaped American politics deeply. “The Republicans emerged to counter the expansion of slave owners’ power in the political system with an ideology that claims that every person should have control of his or her destiny and have the opportunity to rise, to have equality of opportunity—not equality of outcome, but equality of opportunity,” she said. Cox Richardson observed that the Republicans’ rise to power in 1861 and the formation of the Confederacy created a government that responded not just to those at the very top, but to those at the bottom as well. The Republican Party provided land, education, and railroads to access natural resources, and Republicans restructured the financial system to help individuals rather than financiers. Later, the party would support the end of slavery in America to, theoretically, give every man the equal right to rise through the ranks
of society. However, this expansion of the government into an activist role was costly, requiring the Republicans to institute the first system of national taxation. This, Cox Richardson said, produced a backlash from people who disliked the idea of an activist government helping everybody, especially African Americans. “[People] began to complain that the idea of the government helping everybody was simply a way to redistribute money from white taxpayers—the people who are putting up the money for these programs—to lazy Americans who don’t want to work, in this case African-Americans,” she said. This backlash ultimately drove Republicans to tie themselves to big business and libertarianism in the 1870s to keep themselves afloat. This pro-business section of the Party strongly believed in individual and property rights as a fundamental principle, and would forever be in conflict with the founding wing of the party, which believed strongly in the principle of equality of opportunity. From that moment on, the Republican Party has moved throughout history in cycles of dominance by either faction, profoundly affecting American politics. The “big business” faction of the party faced harsh criticism in the 1890s, leading to the dominance of the Progressives led by Theodore Roosevelt. The Progressives soon faced racist and xenophobic backlash, with Republicans re-aligning themselves once again with big business in the 1920s. The stock market crash in the 1930s led to yet another switch in popularity within the party. Cox Richardson sees that Republicans are still feeling the political influence of Dwight Eisenhower. Cox Richardson considers the alternating dominance of the two factions as the driving force behind the fractures in the Republican Party, not the fairly recent split between Trump’s faction and Republican moderates. “When movement conservatives organized to oppose first the New Deal and then Eisenhower’s Middle Way, they went back to that construction that had come straight out of the Civil War, which was the idea that an activist government costs tax dollars, and those tax dollars would be paid by generally white taxpayers and redistributed to lazy, greedy, and undeserving people,” she said. This ultimately drove the Republican Party farther to the right, to the place it is today. “Trump is not actually a movement
conservative himself, but he is playing to that audience,” Cox Richardson said. “Trump is just speaking to some of what this audience believes that will garner him support, while at the same time mouthing the rhetoric of economic populism.” While she considers herself “a prophet of the past, not of the future,” Cox Richardson said that historical patterns suggest that with a very likely victory by Hillary Clinton, the Trumpian faction of the Republican Party should splinter and leave organized politics in the medium term, given the problems of its distrust of authority pose to its ability to organize itself. She suggests the Republican Party should also move back to the center to resemble the party of Eisenhower. “I think that, having accepted Trump, the movement conservative wing will go down with him, and we are going to get the return that history suggests we should have to a moderate party that looks much like Eisenhower’s, pushing the Democrats left to where they belong, and giving us the interplay of the two, which is always when America operates best,” she said. Beyond just this election, however, history has a role in the understanding of all political moments, as it is a fundamental factor in them. Professor Cox Richardson made certain to emphasize the importance of awareness of and respect for political traditions that have shaped American democracy to the very present. According to Cox Richardson, these traditions transcend purely academic settings and contribute to a constructive discourse that, ideally, should underlie politics. According to Cox Richardson, political traditions of peaceful exchanges of power, of voting, and of equal access to the vote are fundamental to the American system of democracy, and go beyond these mere academia. These political traditions speak to who we are as a people and they speak to the concept fundamental to the values of the United States, that democracy is most powerful when everybody has a say in it. “I think it’s important for people to recognize the importance of our history,” Cox Richardson said. “By looking at history you also get a much better idea of where you stand in relation to what people are doing today, because each one of us will respond to what’s in front of us differently. You have to see where we started, and then the pieces all make absolutely crystal-clear sense and, you have a much better idea of what people are doing and why they’re doing it.”
SPORTS
B1
MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2016
FOOTBALL
FINALLY.
SAVANNA KIEFER / HEIGHTS EDITOR
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RALEIGH, N.C. — Patrick Towles took a step back and handed the ball to running back Davon Jones. Jones appeared to eye a run to the right. Instead, he lofted a pass into the end zone. Tommy Sweeney, unbothered by North Carolina State University defenders, gathered the ball in for an easy touchdown. Seconds later, Towles tossed a pass across the field to Sweeney again to successfully complete the two-point conversion. Steve Addazio screamed on the Boston College sideline while his
21 14
WOLFPACK
team erupted. He pounded his chest and put his hands in the air, ripping off his headset and running around looking everywhere for some to high five. A trick play when you least expect it? You bet. “We had worked on it all week long,” Addazio said. He had confidence in Jones to find Sweeney in the end zone. Jones knew that if the pass wasn’t there, he shouldn’t force it. Luckily for BC, the pass was there. It was gift-wrapped and handed to the Eagles: a very early Christmas present from their opponents down south. BC football never makes it easy, as everyone knows by now. Bolstered by a huge kickoff return, the Wolfpack quickly drove down the field, setting up a first-and-10 at the 2 yard line.
Kamrin Moore had different plans. He intercepted quarterback Ryan Finley in the back corner of the end zone. What was going through Moore’s mind in the seconds immediately after the interception? “Game over.” At long last, the pain is over. The curse has ended. The Eagles are free. With sunny skies, a comfortable breeze, and a temperature of 68 degrees, these were much nicer conditions than you can find in Boston this time of year. And the Eagles played much better than the team fans
See Football vs. NC State, B3
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D@:?8<C JLCC@M8E Let me take this opportunity to apologize. In a way, this curse was partially my fault. You see, I am a mush. My fandom has always been me as a mush. Everything I touch—the Mets, Giants, Knicks, and Islanders—turns to trash. By trash, I mean losses. Losses and sadness. And so when I took over the sports editor job on The Heights in January 2015, that meant touching Boston College football, too. Prior to Saturday, I had personally covered and been in attendance for 16 of BC’s 19 games in the 2015 and 2016 season, plus the Pinstripe Bowl in 2014. My record in those games is 6-11. I suppose that could be worse, in hindsight.
But nine of those losses come as part of The StreakTM. Yes, The Streak, the stretch of Atlantic Coast Conference games that BC participated in without a victory. Since Nov. 29, 2014, the Eagles had not won an ACC game in football. Some of the defeats were embarrassing blowouts. Others were punches to the gut, face, and throat all at once. The long string of losses made not just the athletic department, but the University, a national laughingstock. As is custom on The Heights, the three sports editors chose our road trips prior to the season. I took Wake Forest over Thanksgiving in an effort not to see my family, and Florida State under the Friday night lights, because honestly, when else will I go to Tallahassee? Riley Overend took Virginia Tech at Lane Stadium, the site of great BC memories and, from what I hear, a Chipotle that delivers via drone. That left Annabel Steele with the North Carolina State game on Halloweekend, the one no one wants to take.
INSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE
NC State isn’t a flashy opponent, Raleigh isn’t a typical college town, and God forbid an 18- to 22-year-old misses one of the treasured nights of dress up (or for me, little packets of candy). Look at us now. I was left in my off-campus room looking on in shock, happiness, pride—a whole mess of feelings—as Steve Addazio and a very deserving group of players left to cheers off the field at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C. for that elusive, first ACC win. Annabel was down there writing the gamer I had been waiting to get for so long. She listened to the new rallying cry of the Eagles—”Grove St. Party” by Waka Flocka Flame—on the flight back to Boston, while I was stuck listening to Muzak while grocery shopping after the game. She’s got the golden touch, and I’ve got the kiss of death. I’m sorry, it’s my fault. It’s the life of a mush, I suppose. But hey, I get to write the column afterward. So let’s let that soak in one more
time. BC won an ACC game. And it’s a party, it’s a party, it’s a party in the Eagles’ locker room. Now what? Now it’s time for them to finish the job. The silverback gorilla of an ACC losing streak is off BC’s back, once and for all. The team couldn’t do it against Georgia Tech, when it had every opportunity to do so and got burned on a 4th-and-19 in the fourth quarter. It didn’t do it against Syracuse, the team many expected the Eagles to beat but instead was torched through the air by Eric Dungey. And before we get into what’s right, don’t forget, too: the Eagles easily could’ve lost this game in the same, devastating fashion they lost the last two. They lucked out when a Stephen Louis touchdown got called back for an ineligible man downfield. Patrick Towles’s interception deep within NC State territory that led to the Wolfpack’s second touchdown gave off a sense that
Men’s Soccer: Wolfpack Collapse
Men’s Hockey: Eagles Stay Unbeaten
Ed Kelly and the Eagles received a gift from above with an overtime own-goal..............B3
With wins over Providence and UMass, BC is still undefeated in Hockey East....B4
another late-game meltdown was in the works. And some of the coaching staff’s tactical decisions—such as calling a timeout prior to essentially freeze Mike Knoll before his 42-yard field goal got blocked—were questionable. But there’s a quote from yesterday’s press conference that speaks miles more than anything about BC’s on-field product. “Tough times don’t last,” Addazio said. “Tough people do.” There are a lot of great Xs and Os coaches out there. Ones who have tactical genius, and can out-think you at every turn. They know the plays to call. They know what the other coach is thinking before even they do. Many of those coaches are successful. No one is saying Addazio falls into that category. But his style is more than that. He’s a great motivator. The guys want to play for him—quotes from
See Make a Bowl, B3
TU/TD...................................B2 Volleyball..................................B2 Women’s hockey........................B4
THE HEIGHTS
B2
Monday, October 31, 2016
FIELD HOCKEY
THUMBS UP AT LONG LAST Kamrin Moore sealed BC’s first ACC win in 700 days with an interception in the end zone against NC State. And with gutsy play-calling down the stretch, head coach Steve Addazio proved all those Twitter tough guys wrong (or right all along about conservative play-calling?). WINS APLENT Y BC football wasn’t the only team that broke a winless conference streak over the weekend. On Sunday, the volleyball team earned its first ACC victory after 11-straight conference losses to open the season. SHOT IN THE FOOT - After a tough stretch, Ed Kelly’s men’s soccer team edged NC State, 5-4, in overtime. The game-winner? An own goal by the Wolfpack. The Eagles aren’t the only team that loves walk-off errors (*cough* Birdball *cough*).
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Boston College field hockey stormed down the field toward the net. Goalkeeper Audra Hampsch ran alongside 4 Connecticut the atBoston College 3 tack. Hampsch slipped out at midfield, leaving the net wide open and allowing Carly Kauffman to sub in. With one extra player on the field, the Eagles had two minutes to score. But they only needed 15 seconds. After a series of crisp passes and a powerful shot that sent that backboards ringing, the game was tied. The stands and sideline erupted—this battle was going to overtime. No. 12 BC fought back to tie No. 3 UConn twice in regulation on Sunday. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the Huskies captured the 4-3 overtime victory in Newton. Three minutes into the game, a UConn (18-1, 7-0 Big East) player took a shot three yards in front of the goal, with no defender in the vicinity. It was the perfect opportunity for the Huskies to strike early, but Hampsch made an incredible save, batting the ball away with her hand protector.
FRANCONA, THE FOODIE - What would you do if you couldn’t sleep before one of the biggest days of your life? If you’re Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona, you order a ton of ice cream, of course. Tito, we salute you, but pulling an all-nighter before game five of the World Series could come back to haunt you in your dreams while you’re asleep in the dugout. ANGRY LAMAR JACKSON - Buckle up, folks, we might be in for a long ride next Saturday. Heisman favorite Lamar Jackson is coming to Chesnut Hill with a chip on his shoulder, as his Louisville team has narrowly escaped upsets over the past couple weeks. The last thing BC needs after last week’s win is to be carved up by Mike Vick 2.0.
SPORTS in SHORT
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After the football team grinded out its first ACC win in nearly two years on Saturday, Boston College volleyball (6-16, 1-11 Atlantic Coast) snapped a conference losing streak of its own on Sunday against Wake Forest (9-14, 5-7). Senior Julia Topor totaled a career-high 20 kills and seven digs as the Eagles earned their first ACC
win of 2016, three sets to one, over the visiting Demon Deacons. Anna Skold helped get the squad off to a hot start, tallying a block in the first set that extended the BC lead to 12-8. Wake battled back later in the set and cut the deficit to 23-22, but the Eagles came away with the final two points, holding on to a 25-22 victory. BC took a two-set advantage after Topor and McKenna Goss recorded back-to-back kills, giving the
Eagles a lead that they would never relinquish. The Demon Deacons pulled within a point again at 22-21, but BC continued its stellar play late in the set en route to a 25-23 win. The Eagles struggled in the third set, dropping the first 10 points. They could not recover from their slow start, though, and lost their first set of the afternoon by a score of 25-12. The fourth set was a game of runs, as Wake streaked out to an
early 9-6 lead. BC responded with a 7-0 run, maintaining a comfortable 15-10 cushion with its first conference win only 10 points away. But the Demon Deacons made things interesting when they went on a 5-1 run and recaptured a 16-15 advantage. Head coach Chris Campbell called a timeout to talk things over, and the Eagles came out firing after the break. Shortly after, they regained the lead and put the back-and-forth affair to bed with a 25-22 win. After
weeks of brutal conference losses, Campbell & Co. registered their first ACC win of the season. The all-around team effort included stellar play from Cat Balido, who racked up 10 kills and three blocks up front. Jill Strockis also filled the stat sheet with six kills, three blocks, and two aces. Now that the team’s least-favorite streak is behind them, BC will look to start a new, more flattering streak at home against Syracuse on Wednesday.
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A month and a half ago, Boston College women’s soccer was unbeaten. As conference play commenced and the 1 Syracuse back end Boston College 2 of the season approached, Senior Day was marked as a night that would be one to remember—an ACC match with playoff implications and the final home game for BC’s all-time leading scorer, McKenzie Meehan. Neither would prove to be true. The game had no effect on postseason seeding, as both Syracuse and BC were mathematically eliminated from contention prior to Thursday night’s match. And Meehan, currently at the top of the conference’s scoring leaderboard with 12 goals, was sidelined with a leg injury from Sunday’s loss to Virginia. Yet both teams played as if there was a playoff bid on the line. While the downpour might have been detrimental, the game was certainly unforgettable. BC entered the game on a fourgame losing streak, which dated back to its upset win over then-No. 2 Florida State on Oct. 6. Having lost all three games in a row on the road, the Eagles were looking to end the
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Huskies allowed a diving Haverhals to slip the ball outside, extending the game to overtime. When overtime started, the tone of the game completely flipped. The Eagles slowed down the tempo, with hopes of working their way into the circle. UConn waited for them to make a mistake, which would enable them to break away across the field. While both methods were effective, no goals were produced. With three and a half minutes remaining, BC drew a penalty corner. Emily McCoy wove through the defenders after receiving the insert and headed toward the goal. Her shot was saved, but Frome retrieved the rebound and was inches away from sneaking the ball past Klein. Seconds later, the Huskies received a penalty corner and then a stroke. With a minute left in overtime, Casey Umstead took the stroke and scored, ending the game. The Eagles bench instantly lost all its energy, and their heads hung heavy. “It’s just unfortunate the outcome did not happen this way,” Doton said. “Hopefully, these guys have some faith they did everything they could to win that game.”
WOMEN’S SOCCER
regular season the way they started. Meanwhile, the Orange was riding back-to-back losses to Wake Forest and North Carolina. Contrary to BC’s and Syracuse’s playoff fortunes, this game wouldn’t be decided till the end. The Eagles captured their eighth and final win this fall on Newton Campus Soccer and Lacrosse Field, 2-1. The wet conditions inhibited play throughout the game. The ball skipped across the pitch, forcing players to adjust their touch, especially when sending teammates downfield. Regardless, both teams quickly created offense. In the fourth minute, Lauren Berman passed the ball to Andrea O’Brien, who found Rosie DiMartino. The senior lofted a shot to the right side of the net, but Syracuse goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan dove, making the save. Just four minutes later, the Orange (8-8-3, 1-7-2 Atlantic Coast) was even closer to striking first blood. Following a deflection off of a Syracuse ball, Eagles goalie Alexis Bryant leapt in the air to gain possession. But Bryant bobbled the ball, and Stephanie Skilton grounded a shot into the heart of BC’s now-empty goal. Inches before the ball crossed the line, Caitlyn Keenan swooped in to clear it. The Eagles (11-7-1, 3-7) made their first move in the 17th minute.
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crossing in front of the net, BC caught Klein off guard, allowing Sheenan to sneak one into the net, making it a 1-1 game. Less than three minutes later, Leah Frome sent the ball to Emily McCoy, who ripped a shot into the far corner, giving the Eagles a 2-1 lead. Needing to regroup, UConn called a timeout. Following the break in play, the Huskies received a corner after a foot penalty inside the circle. UConn converted and tied the game at two. Twenty-one seconds later, the Huskies stormed towards goal, scored again. Down 3-2, the Eagles decided to pull Hampsch with two minutes remaining. The decision paid off. Only seconds later, Frederique Haverhals sent the ball into the circle. Eryn McCoy slapped the ball towards the far post past Klein to make it a 3-3 game. With 30 seconds left in the game, UConn was given a corner. It let the clock expire, in order to make it the final play of the game. The Huskies sent all of their players to the top of the circle, attempting to make a wall around the perimeter. But their barrier was not strong enough, as the
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BELIEVELAND? - The Cavs are NBA champs and the Indians are a win away from a World Series victory, so it’s only fair that the Browns absorb the city’s entire losing tradition this year. The Jets outscored the Browns 24-8 in the second half yesterday to prevent them from earning their first win of the season.
Brittany Sheenan inserted the ball, and the Eagles took three shots on goal, all of which failed to find the back of the net. UConn goalie Nina Klein sat on the ball during this chaos, which resulted in a penalty stroke for BC. Emily McCoy took the stroke and flicked the ball highleft, but Klein’s stick was there to make the stop. In just a span of 30 seconds, the Eagles missed two giant opportunities to take a goal lead over the talented UConn squad. The Huskies outshot the Eagles 6-2 in the first half, but after 35 minutes of play, the score lingered, tied at zero. Opening up the second half, the Huskies continued to get looks right in front of Hampsch. They were granted a penalty corner, and a goal appeared inevitable. Charlotte Veitner put the ball in play, and after two crisp passes, Barbara van den Hoogen snuck one inside the far post to give UConn the one-goal edge with 28 minutes left in the game. After 13 minutes of pure UConn domination, the Eagles took a timeout. BC went on an offensive attack coming out of the break. Once downfield, the Eagles broke into the circle. With passes crissVOLLEYBALL
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THUMBS DOWN
UConn continued to dominate on the offensive end and easily dropped defenders to get looks on net. The BC (10-8, 3-3 Atlantic Coast) defense did not give up during the Huskies’ bombardment of Hampsch. With 16 minutes left in the half, the Huskies were awarded a penalty corner. The Eagles crouched behind the goal line, preparing to fly out as soon as the ball was crossed. Lucy Lytle sprung out of the net and instantly blocked Anna Middendorf’s shot at the top of the circle. The physicality increased—green cards galore. But the penalties did not deter either side, as BC and UConn continued to move the ball offensively. Yet both goaltenders refused to budge. Head coach Kelly Doton highlighted Hampsch’s defensive efforts—play that kept the Eagles in the game. “She’s a special goalkeeper,” Doton said. “There is no other person we’d rather have in cage.” With four minutes remaining in the half, UConn was issued a yellow card, giving BC a one-player advantage for five minutes. The Eagles hustled into the circle and earned their first penalty corner of the game.
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A Samantha Hiatt and Gaby Carreiro exchange ignited the scoring opportunity. Carreiro delivered a beautifully placed cross that fell at the feet of O’Brien. Only a few yards from the goal, O’Brien knocked the ball into the bottom right corner of the net. Hiatt and Carreiro were credited with the assists, their fifth and eighth respectively. It was the senior forward’s third goal of the year. With the exception of a few small scoring opportunities, like Hayley Dowd’s free kick that caught the top right corner of the crossbar in the 30th minute, the remainder of the first half was relatively stagnant. But from the second half tap, everything changed. Immediately after Hiatt received the pass from midfield, she coughed up the ball. Eva Gordon pounced on the miscue, stealing the ball and dribbling into open space. With only the keeper to beat for the pursuing Orange, Bryant came out of the net to pressure Gordon. The junior forward adjusted and easily guided the ball past Bryant for her fifth goal of the season. Thirty-four seconds into the period and the game had returned to a “0-0” outlook. Syracuse’s Sydney Brackett sped down the left side of the pitch in the 55th minute. As Allyson Swaby closed in, Brackett took her shot, aiming
Numbers to Know
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for the right side of the goal. Bryant dove, batting the ball away. Rebecca Pongetti located the rebound near the top of the 18. She wound up and launched a shot that soared over the goal. The score did not budge, and for most of the remaining portion of the game, Brosnan and the Orange defense would be the ones bracing themselves. Olivia Vaughn led both teams with six shots on the night. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the freshman forward could not find the perfect touch in the box. On several occasions, Vaughn came just shy of giving BC its second goal. For instance, in the 81st minute, she doubled back inside the box, evading her defender, crept closer toward the right side of the net, and released a shot. Once again, Brosnan made the save. The 90th minute was solely a testament to Brosnan, “one of the toughest goalies we saw all year,” according to Eagles head coach Alison Foley. Berman found Swaby on the right side of the field. Swaby turned to O’Brien, who directed a cross to Vaughn in the heart of the box. Vaughn, getting yet another chance, shot, but Brosnan reacted by making a brilliant kick-save. Berman instantly gathered the rebound and whirled a shot of her own—it was blocked.
The crazy sequence concluded with a Swaby header sailing high over the goal. Overtime. BC outshot Syracuse 22-7 in regulation—a typical performance for the team that leads the ACC in shots taken. But, to this point, the stat was meaningless. It wouldn’t be until the 95th minute that the game-winner found the back of the net. Berman passed out to Carreiro on the left side, who then crossed the ball to Vaughn inside the 18. Vaughn trailed toward the right, but cut back and let loose a line-drive shot that whizzed by Brosnan. With her fifth goal of the year, Vaughn, a freshman, sent the seniors home with a win. Although the win will not do BC any favors in terms of its postseason desires, it serves as a building block. Vaughn, scoring in what would have most likely been Meehan’s place, is in a sense a passing of the torch. Even though the regular season may be over, the full potential of the Eagles’ youth is still to come. The matchup may not have been what was expected in September, but it won’t leave the seniors’ minds anytime soon. “They’ll always remember that last regular-season game on their field as a win,” Foley said. “And I think that’s a great memory for them all.”
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THE HEIGHTS
Monday, October 31, 2016
B3
FOOTBALL
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Football vs. NC State, from B1 have seen in Chestnut Hill for the past couple of weeks and even years. The proof is in the pudding. On this beautiful, sunny day in Raleigh, BC broke the 12-game ACC curse that has plagued it since the start of the last season. On this beautiful, sunny day in Raleigh, BC defeated North Carolina State—an ACC team—by a score of 21-14. It is the first ACC win for the Eagles since Nov. 29, 2014, a 28-7 victory over Syracuse. The first quarter was sloppy for both teams. BC (4-4, 1-4 Atlantic Coast) received the opening kickoff, but failed to do anything with its first drive. After a 27-yard rush along the right side for Myles Willis, the offense stalled when Patrick Towles had a pass deflected and Charlie Callinan couldn’t hold on to another pass. On the first possession for NC State (4-4, 1-3), the BC defense made a sloppy mistake and helped the Wolfpack move down the field. Quarterback Ryan Finley found Bra’Lon Cherry for 17 yards and a first down, and the defense gifted the Pack with another 15 yards because of a facemask. After the penalty, the defense toughened up and stopped the Pack short of the end zone, resulting in another punt. Throughout the first quarter, neither team could build up enough momentum to see results in the endzone. Towles tossed the ball to Davon Jones, who spun around a defender and managed to stay on his feet despite being off-balance. He eluded a couple more defenders before being brought down—and fumbling in the process. NC State recovered the ball,
ruining the impressive play and stopping BC short. At the end of the quarter, BC put an impressive drive together. Towles connected with Sweeney for 21 yards, then Jeff Smith for seven and another first down. A trick play saw Smith, the former quarterback, attempt a pass downfield. The pass was incomplete, but a questionable roughing the passer call gifted BC with 15 yards and a fresh set of downs anyway. The drive brought the Eagles all the way to the NC State 7-yard line, but there the offense stalled once again. For the very first play of the second quarter, Towles overthrew Smith in the end zone and the offense was whistled for both holding and ineligible receiver downfield. Out came Mike Knoll to attempt a field goal. His attempt was good, and it gave BC a 3-0 lead mere seconds into the second quarter. The lead would not last long for the Eagles. On third down, deep in his own territory, Finley found Cherry cutting across the field towards the right sideline. After he caught the ball, Cherry put on wheels to outrun the BC defense to the end zone. The play was good for 79 yards and gave NC State a 7-3 lead. Smith, not to be outdone by Cherry, put on his own display of speed a few minutes later. He received the handoff and took off downfield, taking it 60 yards to the house and recapturing the lead for the Eagles. His touchdown run completely silenced the once-rowdy NC State fans, who were stunned at the speed and agility of Smith, one of BC’s biggest offensive threats. BC had one more chance to put
SAVANNA KIEFER / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Steve Addazio calls for a two-point conversion after BC’s go-ahead touchdown.
SAVANNA KIEFER / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Jeff Smith (6, B.R.) runs for a 60-yard touchdown in the second, while NC State’s Matt Dayes (21, T.L.) struggled. points on the board in the half when Knoll attempted another field goal. The Wolfpack defense came up big, though, with a blocked field goal, and so the Eagles only carried a 10-7 lead into halftime. It was the first time since Nov. 29, 2014 against Syracuse, that BC held a halftime lead against a conference opponent. Nov. 29, 2014, was also the last time BC won against a conference opponent. BC opened the second half with a huge play. Finley, sensing pressure from his left, tried to move to his right, looking downfield for an open receiver. But Harold Landry was ready and waiting for him. Landry took him down, pinning Finley against the turf. The ball popped out and Zach Allen fell onto it, giving BC possession deep in NC State territory. The turnover, however, didn’t turn into a touchdown for the Eagles. BC just couldn’t find the end zone despite having excellent field position, resulting in yet another field goal for Knoll. Early in the third quarter, BC held a 13-7 lead—but it could have been
17-7, or even 20-7 if NC State hadn’t blocked the field goal. With such a tight game going on, tensions were high. Both quarterbacks made questionable decisions that turned into huge mistakes. Finley took a shot downfield, but his receiver bobbled the ball. Before it hit the turf, Ty Schwab secured the ball, giving BC a crucial interception and halting a promising NC State drive. What did the Eagles do with the ball next? Well, under pressure, Towles attempted to find Michael Walker, but it was an ill-advised throw and resulted in a Wolfpack interception. NC State now held the ball at the BC 23-yard line, giving it excellent field position. The Wolfpack took advantage of the field position. Finley connected with Harmon for a touchdown initially dismissed and then, upon review, accepted. NC State was up 14-13 and held all of the momentum. It looked like the Wolfpack would escape a close game with the win. Nobody told that to BC. The
Eagles drove down the field, culminating in the touchdown pass from Jones to Sweeney and then the conversion from Towles to Sweeney. The gutsy move gave BC a 21-14 lead with just a few minutes remaining. It wouldn’t be BC football without the Eagles making it unnecessarily stressful for themselves, however. The Wolfpack marched down the field and it looked like it might score a game-tying touchdown. Then Moore had his game-preserving touchdown in the back of the end zone. Time expired. BC still held the lead. “To win this game, it took something from everyone,” Addazio said. “We have a collection of guys who are battling every day.” Fans decked out in red left CarterFinley Stadium with somber faces. They were in utter disbelief. “I can’t believe they got that last touchdown,” one said sadly. Believe it. The curse is broken. The Eagles are free.
MEN’S SOCCER
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The Eagles got the hell out of dodge. Boston College men’s soccer defeated 4 NC State North Boston College 5 Carolina State in a 5-4 overtime thriller to end the regular season. But the postgame feeling was one of immense relief rather than celebration. After roaring out to a 3-1 halftime lead, the Wolfpack (5-11-0, 1-7-0 Atlantic Coast) battled back to tie the game at 4-4 and force overtime, but BC (7-7-2, 3-3-2) escaped with the win due to an NC State own-goal after a truly bizarre 95 minutes. Five minutes into overtime, BC sent a harmless long ball over the top. Wolfpack defender Jake Dykes went to head the ball back to his goalie but completely whiffed. Turned around and facing pressure, Dykes looked to pass the ball back to his goalie Alex McCauley on the ground, but McCauley had already come out and wasn’t expecting the back pass. As the ball rolled past McCauley and dribbled across the goal-line, many BC players just fell to the ground in disbelief like a tennis star after a grueling 5-set championship victory. All BC could do was get out of there quickly without questioning what had really just unfolded, while perhaps thanking a higher power. “Someone is looking after me, that’s all I can tell you,” head coach
Ed Kelly said. There weren’t many other words to accurately describe the game, one can only look at the series of events to understand how erratic the game was. The game started off with a bang when Trevor Davock scored his first goal of the year in the third minute. After chasing down a deflected through ball from Zeiko Lewis, Davock took on a defender into the right side of the box. Beating him to his outside, Davock calmly slotted past the keeper into the far corner with a low, hard shot. The bizarre nature of the game first showed itself in NC State’s equalizer. In the 12th minute, a high boot and dangerous play call in the box from BC led to an indirect free-kick from 15 yards out. BC goalie Cedric Saladin lined up in from the wall, in an attempt to run out and save the shot from close range when the first player touched it. But forward Julius Duchscherer powered it through everyone for the goal. The action continued in the 23rd minute when Davock scored his second after a scramble in the box, just beating out the keeper with an outstretched foot to tap it into the net. Four minutes later, Callum Johnson shocked every onlooker with a blast from 25 yards out that went off of the post and in. The helpless goalie, frozen in place, was an accurate depiction of how this game would end. Like on Tuesday against UMass Lowell, BC couldn’t keep a two-goal halftime lead for long. Sloppy de-
fending from BC led to a wide-open Tanner Roberts turning and slotting far-post from close range in the 59th minute. Ten minutes later, NC State tied it up off of a corner kick, which had troubled BC all game long. With the Wolfpack stacking the 6-yard box around Saladin, Duchscherer whipped in a dangerous ball that was flicked into the far post. Duchscherer put in a man-of-the-match performance for the Wolfpack, highlighted by his corner kicks—every one of which was hit with pinpoint accuracy into the 6-yard box. A minute and six seconds later, BC answered through Davock, who completed his hat trick with a sublime goal. Receiving the ball at the top of the box, the sophomore cut through two defenders to take him one-onone with keeper McCauley. Davock danced around McCauley with a deft touch to his left before tapping it into the net. For Kelly, Davock is a weapon he has been waiting for all season. “The last goal he scored was a thing of beauty, just phenomenal,” Kelly said. “He’s back.” The soccer gods were not done just yet, though. In the 85th minute, NC State easily moved the ball down the sideline and cut a ball back to an open Lukas Zarges, who only had to pass the ball gently into the far corner from close range. Amid the chaos that unfolded on the pitch, a few talking points stick out. Most notably, it was senior night
and Lewis’s last regular-season game on the Newton field. It was emotional night for Lewis and fellow four-year seniors, Ike Normesinu and Ado Kawuba, but Lewis was up to his usual tricks. In the process of leading the attack with speed and skill, he tied the BC record for career assists with 26. The win ensured the seniors at least one more home game in their careers, as BC will host Virginia Tech next Wednesday in the first round of the ACC tournament in the 8 vs. 9 seed matchup. Going in, BC knew a win would secure home field advantage and that any other result would send them on the road. While it’s nice for the seniors to get another home game, it’s crucial for the whole team
to not have to travel, as BC will most likely need a good run in the tournament to secure an at-large berth into the NCAA’s. The renaissance of Davock and an offense that has been fallow for the last stretch of the season is a good sign going forward. A win on Senior Night sparked BC’s amazing run last year, and with a new formation with Davock at central striker and Lewis and Normesinu playing higher up the field, the run for the Eagles starts now. Regardless of whether the game ends 1-0 or 5-4 with an overtime own-goal against NC State, this year’s Eagles just need to continue to survive and advance.
JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Younes Boudadi (3) jumps on his teammates after a goal against NC State.
Towles, Harold Landry, Kamrin Moore all include an element of loving this program and loving their coach. Addazio has done something that many great Xs and Os coaches can’t do. He kept the locker room together. To many outsiders, the blowout losses to Clemson and Virginia Tech, the defeated look to BC in the second half of each—those indicate a broken team. But a road victory against an ACC opponent shows that this team still has plenty of fight left in it. It is not a prideful thing to finish a season with six wins, nor is it an accomplishment on a grand, national scale. Administrators may have set that as a goal for Addazio and Co., but fans expect better. Contrary to the current narrative, BC is not completely incapable of becoming a national powerhouse. The program has shown that it can recruit well enough on its unique pitch—academics, ACC, Jesuit values, near a big city—to hit the rankings regularly, as it did under Tom O’Brien only a decade ago. BC isn’t a team that had been mired in years of failure, like Duke, pre-David Cutcliffe, or Baylor, pre-Art Briles/rampant unlawfulness. It’s one whose fans should expect, and have been conditioned to expect at minimum competitiveness, at most a bowl every year. But reaching a bowl is a stepping stone that was thought to be impossible as recently as last week’s defeat against Syracuse. Now that this blockade of an ACC streak has vanished, the Eagles are back on the path to that goal. The road is pretty clearly defined. BC has four games left. Two are against nationallyranked opponents in No. 5 Louisville and No. 19 Florida State. Those two, for obvious reasons, won’t be easy. The Eagles have struggled against spread offenses like the one Lamar Jackson and the Cardinals have run. While BC has a more realistic shot against Florida State than the other big names on its schedule because of its Dalvin Cook-based offense—ask NC State’s Matthew Dayes what he thinks of BC’s run defense—that game is still in Tallahassee and the ’Noles are still great. But those other two games are against Connecticut and Wake Forest. The Huskies are 36, including an embarrassing loss in the Civil ConFLiCT at home. Though the Demon Deacons have two ACC wins (Duke and Syracuse, but still), they’re trending downward considering their loss to Army. The Eagles match up well against both, and at this point, they have a lot more to play for. So now, the Eagles have a mission to complete. The ACC win is nice, but they must defeat Connecticut and Wake Forest to make this season salvageable. In the process, these players who seem to love Addazio so much may save his job. Whether that’s rightful can be up to your interpretation. I believe getting this team to the bowl justifies one more shot. It would mean that he had been given an expectation and met it. If the Eagles can’t get to a bowl, it’s hard to justify no changes. But it’s difficult for any program to keep starting over with new coaches every four years. That cycle does not work. They’re aren’t in the clear yet. Far from it. But, at long last, there’s reason to believe they can get there. I’d like to be there to see it this time.
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THE HEIGHTS
B4
Monday, October 31, 2016
MEN’S HOCKEY
Jg\Z`Xc K\Xdj Jki\e^k_ Gifg\cj <X^c\j GXjk D`elk\d\e 9P E@:FC< GC8 =fi k_\ ?\`^_kj Amherst must be good luck for Jerry York, as the last time he had two goals while being short a player was in JanuBoston College 7 ary at UMass 4 the same rink—the site of his 1,000th career win. Only one day after taking home its first conference win of the season against Providence, Boston College men’s hockey made its presence known in Amherst by skating past the University of Massachusetts Minutemen, winning 7-4. The Eagles took charge early in the first period, with Luke McInnis taking a shot only 10 seconds into the game. The momentum didn’t last
long, as Christopher Brown was called for high-sticking, giving the Minutemen (2-4, 0-2 Hockey East) their first power play of the game. Being short one player didn’t faze BC (6-2-1, 2-01), as J.D. Dudek broke up the UMass cycle and whipped the puck into the back of the net, scoring the first point of the game 38 seconds into the power play. BC continued to keep control of the puck as Jesper Mattila was able to break through the Minutemen defense to score his second goal of the season to help the Eagles take a 2-0 lead on the Minutemen. With 6:17 left in the first period, Kurt Keats went to the box for elbowing, giving BC its first 5-4 advantage on the ice. During the power play the Eagles and the Minutemen wrestled for possession of the puck, but Aus-
tin Cangelosi broke through UMass’ defense and found the back of the net, giving the Eagles a 3-0 lead. The Eagles looked to convert again after another penalty by Callum Fryer for interference, but the Minutemen’s defense wouldn’t allow it. UMass looked unsettled going into the beginning of the second period, as Griff Jeszka was sent into the box for holding only 1:57 in. BC wasn’t able to convert after taking three shots on the goal, but as soon as all men were back on the ice Ryan Fitzgerald ripped the puck into the back of the net, increasing the Eagles’ lead to 40. Scott Savage was soon put in the box for hooking, but the Minutemen were again unable to convert on the power play, as the Eagles’ defense made sure none of their shots made
it into the net. Less than two minutes after the end of the power play for UMass and 10 minutes into the period, the team sent another player into the box as Riley McDougall was called for hooking. Only 12 seconds into BC’s advantage, Colin White ripped the puck into the net from the slot, pushing the Minutemen even further behind as the Eagles took a 5-0 lead. Looking more restless as the period went on, UMass had another penalty called on Patrick Lee for holding only 44 seconds after returning to full strength. BC couldn’t convert, and the period ended with a 5-0 lead for BC. The third period started with BC a player short, as Chris Calnan was called for charging 12 seconds before the end of the second period.
Only one minute after the power play ended, Savage was sent into the box for the second time of the game for slashing. UMass was able to convert on its first power play advantage only nine seconds in, with Austin Plevy charging past the BC defense and getting the first Minutemen goal of the game. UMass was able to convert again as Fitzgerald (holding) and Savage (tripping) were both sent to the box, closing up BC’s lead 5-2. BC responded almost immediately with Colin White scoring his second goal of the game. The Eagles took their first major penalty of the season as McInnis was called for game misconduct and for hitting a player from behind, with David Cotton serving the five minute infraction. The Eagles weren’t fazed
by being a player short, as Cangelosi shot the puck into the back of the net for his second goal of the game, regaining the five-goal lead for BC. UMass responded by Ryan Badger’s winning the faceoff and immediately skating past the Eagles, and whipping the puck behind Joe Woll to earn the Minutemen another point. BC wasn’t able to get past the UMass defense again, and the game ended with the Eagles coming home with a 7-4 win. While the Eagles were able to keep the Minutemen at bay during power plays, they still had nine penalties to Massachusetts’ five, and need to continue to be careful with how many players they send into the box. With 36 total shots on the goal compared to UMass’s 18, there’s a reason BC is undefeated in conference play.
Nfcc I\Zfi[j ). JXm\j# ;fd`eXk\j `e N`e 8^X`ejk Gifm`[\eZ\ 9P D@:?8<C JLCC@M8E Jgfikj <[`kfi Immediately after the conclusion of the Boston College alma mater, Greg Brown went to his phone. 1 Providence The asBoston College 3 sociate head coach of the Eagles knew what the 6 p.m. start time meant: the game was on television. And if the game was on TV, that meant Jerry York was watching. York sat out his second consecutive game following eye surgery for an injury that has occasionally reoccurred since 2013. But that doesn’t mean the hockey grind stops. At the age of 71, York still shot texts to his partner-incrime throughout No. 8 men’s hockey’s 3-1 win over No. 14 Providence. Most of them were encouraging, especially regarding a third period in which the Eagles outshot the Friars, 17-4. But rest assured, Brown said. Each of them started with “Hey Brownie.” And he’s got his goaltender to thank for that. For much of the first two periods, the Eagles (5-2-1, 1-0-1 Hockey East) struggled to get anything going against the strong defense of the Friars (2-3-1, 0-1-0). Yet while their offense struggled, Joe Woll stepped up. The freshman and third-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs put together a masterful performance with 27 saves on Friday night. Woll squared to every puck, forcing the Friars to take many of their shots straight into his chest. He displayed an expert ability to drop into the butterfly and push shots to either side without giving up a juicy rebound. That poise is hard to find in a guy who hasn’t made it through his first semester of college yet. But, according to Brown, it lifted the Eagles up when they had little else going for them. “He was calm when the guys around him weren’t,” Brown said. Several times throughout the game, the Friars broke through
against BC’s defense. Yet for most of night, they couldn’t break through the Dardenne Prairie, Mo., native. In the first, Luke McInnis got beat and didn’t get back far enough to make a play on a streaking Josh Wilkins. In response, Woll skated far out of the crease, daring Wilkins to beat him. He left no space between the two of them, which forced the PC forward to shoot it right into Woll’s chest. On another, Woll was mauled at the top of the crease. Kasper Björkqvist got the initial shot off onto Woll’s pads. He made the quick save, but it made for a juicy rebound onto the stick of Bryan Lemos. The East Providence, R.I., product tried going back at the same place that Björkqvist did, but Woll had already reset to make the stop. These plays are the types that the Eagles cherished from Thatcher Demko last year. They’re getting them only six games into Woll’s career. And the immense value of a freshman who plays like a veteran isn’t lost on team captain Chris Calnan. “As a freshman, coming in here, doing what he’s done so far, it’s crazy,” Calnan said. “You love playing in front of a kid like that.” The Friars’ only goal came on the third minute of a backto-back power play at the end of the first, and it’s hard to even say it was his fault. Brian Pinho used the man advantage to create space on Woll’s right, where Ron Greco likely should have been to knock it in. Offensively, BC’s struggles came primarily on the power play. The team had five chances and failed on each, including a 5-on-3 in the third period. Providence’s defensive corps, led by Jake Walman and Josh Monk, prevented BC from getting momentum by stifling shots from getting to goaltender Hayden Hawkey. But the Eagles would make it up to Woll for their offensive inefficiency in the early goings
by preying on big mistakes by the Friars. Connor Moore and Mike Booth put heavy pressure on the PC defense at around the fiveminute mark of the first. Their efforts knocked the puck loose off the boards by Providence’s bench. This misplay allowed Zach Walker to skate down the ice 1-on-1 with Monk. When Monk thought Walker would cut inside, he stayed the course, beating Hawkey on his left for his first career goal. On the first shift of the second, Calnan stole the puck away from Walman, leading to a 4-on-1 for BC. As the Friars made a change, one of their defensemen couldn’t get onto the ice quickly enough. Because of that mistake, Calnan found Matthew Gaudreau all alone in between the circles to flick and fire the puck past Hawkey. Plays like that frustrated Providence head coach Nate Leaman throughout the night. “We’re finding ways to beat ourselves,” Leaman said. After attacking throughout the third, BC finally got the insurance it desperately needed with three minutes to go. Gaudreau won a faceoff, dishing it to Michael Kim at the right post. Kim found Greco at the top of the right circle, and the freshman made PC pay by launching it past Hawkey for his first career goal. By keeping the puck squarely in the Friars’ zone in the third, BC minimized any late threats. But without the strong play of Woll, the Eagles wouldn’t have been in that position at all. “I thought we had a pretty sloppy first period, not great in the second, much better in the third,” Brown said. “It was nice that our goalie was so strong in the first two periods to keep us hanging around.” It’s because of Woll, his goalie, that the Eagles got their first Hockey East victory of the year. Perhaps more importantly, however, Woll saved Brown from the worst injustice: an angry text from Jerry York.
9P D@:?8<C ?F== ?\`^_kj JkX]] In a battle of two young teams, Providence outplayed Boston College men’s hockey for most of Friday night. The difference in the game was that BC’s young guys finished and the Friars’ didn’t. Freshmen Zach Walker and Ron Greco both beat Hayden Hawkey, but none of PC’s underclassmen could solve the Eagles’ Joe Woll in a 3-1 BC win. Among other examples, PC freshman Josh Wilkins had good looks in both of the first two periods but couldn’t convert. Sophomore Bryan Lemos had the best shot at Woll in the last half of the third, before Greco put the game away. Lemos got stoned by Woll there, as did classmate Scott Conway on a couple other occasions. BC’s second goal came on a counterrush that started when Scott Savage intercepted a pass deep in the BC zone from Finnish Friars freshman Kasper Bjorkqvist. If those players keep creating those kinds of chances, Providence will probably be fine, but it couldn’t grab two attainable points on Friday. Head coach Nate Leaman said after the game that his team got great looks, but hasn’t finished on many of them. A lot of that he attributes to the youth. “When you’re young, you look for cute plays,” Leaman said. “We had breakaways, I think we had two four on twos, and on one of them we missed the net and on the other we didn’t get a shot. More mature teams know, you gotta bang those.” Greco and Walker do not have the
most gleaming pedigree out of BC’s freshmen, and their lines—third and fourth, respectively—did not possess the puck too much against the Friars, either. Yet, when Walker found himself on a breakaway in the first, he pumped down the ice and beat Hawkey short side before Josh Monk could alter his shot. Then, with less than three minutes left in the game, the puck deflected off of a couple people and fell to Greco, wide-open in the slot. The Philadelphia native took advantage and ripped a snapshot top corner for his first career goal. Walker’s geno was also the first of his collegiate tenure. “We need the freshmen to contribute, and it can’t just be the highlighted guys, the superstars,” associate head coach Greg Brown said after the game. “We’re gonna need depth scoring, and when two guys like that give you two goals, it’s enormous.” “It’s obviously good to get my first goal under my belt, but getting the two points is the most important thing,” Greco said, showing that he’s caught on pretty quick. “I love going on the ice and grabbing those pucks,” captain Chris Calnan said. “I remember scoring my first goal, and that’s just a dream come true.” POWER PLAY BC went 0-for-5 on the power play Friday night. In the first two periods, the man-advantage looked pretty bad, too. The Eagles didn’t score on either their 5-on-4 or their 5-on-3 in the third, but they probably should have. The coaching staff put Calnan up with
the first unit and that new fivesome generated several prime opportunities for Ryan Fitzgerald in the right-side circle. “There was a lot more energy, a lot more quickness to support each other,” Brown said. “It was sluggish in the first two periods, just didn’t have the crispness or the movement. In the third, it was really crisp. They were moving it well, a lotta shots, a lotta traffic, their goalie had to make some great saves.” Those power play opportunities were also big for BC, and not just because it’s harder for the other team to score when it is killing off a penalty, but because they shifted the tide of the game. After getting outshot in the first two periods by 14 attempts, BC outattempted Providence 24 to seven in the third, despite leading that whole period. “It helped us gain some confidence,” Brown said. “In the first two periods, there wasn’t a lot going on for us. I think they built momentum off our power plays in the first two, and in the third, it gave us more life.” NO GOAL Fitzgerald and top linemate Colin White were held off the board tonight, but they were on the board at one point. Their linemate, J.D. Dudek, tapped in a goal to make it 2-0 in the second period, but after a review, the officials determined that it was goalie interference by White. White did not receive a penalty, though, as is custom with goalie interference penalties, thereby making the call even more questionable.
LIZZY BARRETT / HEIGHTS STAFF
Captain Chris Calnan and freshman Ron Greco (right) celebrate after the freshman’s first career goal.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
8eXjkfj# E\nZfd\ij ;fd`eXk\ ?ljb`\j `e J\i`\j Jn\\g 9P J?8EEFE B<CCP ?\`^_kj <[`kfi When Boston College women’s hockey boarded the bus for its homeand-home series against the University of Connecticut on Friday, it was one teammate short. Rather than hanging around Storrs, Conn., for the evening, Megan Keller was about three hours south in East Meadow, N.Y., training for the Four Nations Cup, which will take place in Finland later this week. To leave without arguably the best defenseman in the nation spells trouble for any team. But the Eagles had a few tricks up their sleeves—namely the triumphant return of Andie Anastos and the contributions of younger players—to sweep the Huskies in the series. Gearing up for the second game of the series, the Eagles (6-2-2, 5-1-0 Hockey East) put the Huskies (4-4-1, 0-2-0) through the paces in the first period. With just a minute of play under its belt, BC earned the lead
from an outstanding play by Caitrin Lonergan. After streaking up the ice, the freshman was one-on-one with goalie Annie Belanger. While redirecting the puck past the goalie’s left side, she tripped on Belanger’s skate, sending her careening into the boards—but not until after the puck was already in the net. After a lull, BC struck again, this time from Ryan Little. In the middle of the faceoff circle, Little took a wellplaced shot in between the right post and Belanger’s right arm. The puck hit the back pipe and swirled around the edge of the goal, putting the Eagles up 2-0. Just as the clock was running out, Little notched another one, the third goal of her career. After Grace Bizal launched a hard-hit shot into traffic, Little was in the right place at the right time to tip it in. The Huskies neutralized the Eagles for the second period, staving off any goals and holding themselves to only one penalty, which they killed with ease. Though BC showed tremen-
dous talent from its younger players, it also showed that the team has not managed to perfect its power play. With five opportunities, including a 5-on-3, the Eagles didn’t come out as strong offensively as they have in seasons past. The third period began with the same humdrum tone of the second, but Serena Sommerfield broke it up after earning her first career goal. Though she can play both offense and defense, Sommerfield has dressed in her last few games as a defenseman. But for Sommerfield, much like Keller, it doesn’t matter if she is a defenseman—she can score goals, too. She took her shot from behind the faceoff circle, and it was powerful enough that it trickled in past the right post. Kenzie Kent stood in the crease just in case, but only had to watch the puck go in. “As soon I made eye contact with Haley McLean, I knew she was going to pass it,” Sommerfield said. “I thought, ‘As long as I get it low and
down deep, I’m in good shape,’ and it just hit a skate and trickled in, so lucky me.” The Huskies took advantage of an opportunity to retaliate just a couple minutes later. After Toni Ann Miano was sent to the penalty box for elbowing, UConn’s Theresa Knutson took a shot on Gabri Switaj from the faceoff circle and sent the puck around the inner post. It was an unlucky break for Switaj, who blocked 17 shots in her second appearance of the season. In true BC fashion, the Eagles scored their final goal while on the penalty kill and facing an extra skater. With the empty net, Anastos evaded the Huskies and took her shot at the left faceoff circle, sending the puck to the top right corner of the twine. Caught up in the play, a UConn player took her down, sending Anastos slamming her head into the boards, but the Eagles had clinched it. It was a relaxed game for Anastos compared to the first of the series, in which she carried the offensive play
with a hat trick for a 3-0 win. In this match, the Eagles fared much better when on the power play, with all of the goals coming on the man advantage. In the same vein, BC held itself to only one penalty in the game, which came late enough in the third period that it caused no impact. After a penalty on Rebecca Lindblad drew no offensive game for the Eagles, BC capitalized on a slashing penalty on Catherine Crawley four minutes later. Time was winding down quickly for the Eagles, but Anastos had young stars Makenna Newkirk and Lonergan to help her out. With a pass from Lonergan, Anastos launched a high shot that clanged in for her first goal of the night. The next power-play opportunity came five minutes into the second period, when Tristyn Svetek was called for tripping. Again cutting it close to the end of the power play with just 24 seconds left, Newkirk took her own shot into a crowded UConn defensive zone. Fortunately,
Anastos was there to bury it into the net. Her last goal took only seconds into the power play to happen. She won the faceoff and passed the puck off to Newkirk, the standard fourth forward when the Eagles have the man advantage. The two collaborated on a play to take it down to the goal, and Anastos finished it off. Anastos’ hat trick came fairly recently after her last, which took place in Feb. 2016 against Providence. While Keller was—and will be— sorely missed this week, the Eagles did well without her. Maybe there would have been a few more goals scored, but BC was comfortable enough in the series to take chances on less experienced players while giving the more seasoned players a break. Two painless conference wins will help set apart the Eagles as play gets harder—their crosstown opponent for next weekend, Boston University, has already faltered to 2-3-0 in Hockey East. The Eagles may not have Keller, but right now, they’re all smiles.
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B6
Monday, October 31, 2016
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Robert Langdon, world-renowned Harvard professor of religious iconography and symbology, has already found the Holy Grail and saved Vatican City from an antimatter bomb. Now it’s time to turn up the heat. Inferno is the third movie in the Robert Langdon film series, after The Da Vinci Code and Angels & INFERNO Demons. Columbia Pictures Each movie in the series is based on novels of the same name by Dan Brown. Ron Howard returns to direct what is hopefully the final installment of this film series. The movie opens with Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster), a billionaire geneticist in favor of drastic measures to reduce the human population, running from armed agents. When cornered at the top of a high tower, Zobrist jumps off, opting to end his life rather than be taken in by the authorities. In the
next scene, Langdon (Tom Hanks) wakes up, dazed and confused, in a hospital bed. He has no memory of the past few days. He learns, from Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), that he is in Florence and that he has mild amnesia. He is also plagued by visions of Hell on Earth. Out of nowhere, the two are shot at by the female assassin Vayentha (Ana Ularu) and they escape to Brooks’s apartment. They find a projection of Botticelli’s Map of Hell, an image based on Dante’s Inferno. The image contains letters and phrases that form an anagram to remind the audience that, in spite of all of this nonsense, yes, these characters are in a Dan Brown movie. They learn that Zobrist has created the “Inferno” virus, a pathogen capable of wiping out half of the world’s population. Now the movie can begin. Somewhere in this movie’s two-hour runtime, there is a decent mystery film. But Inferno is plagued by a few key problems. First, every scene feels like a repetition of the previous one, with the only difference that the background is of a different historical monument in Europe. Langdon and his
female sidekick uncover clues in historic Florence. They are discovered, chased, and eventually escape. And again. Langdon and his female sidekick uncover clues in historic Venice. They are discovered, chased, and eventually escape. Rinse, repeat. It becomes tiresome to watch, for the third movie in a row, Langdon, the world’s leading figure on symbols and icons, realize he was wrong. The characters follow a lead to a 500year-old monument, only to realize at the last minute that Langdon forgot to take into account some detail he certainly should have noticed. He then walks up to a conveniently knowledgeable tour guide to ask a question about an inane detail. Without fail, the guide gives him the answer he needs. The last two movies used the same plot device. There is one detail in particular that instantly and consistently pulls the viewer out of the movie. Langdon should know Italian. He is a religious iconographer. Much of Catholicism is centered in Italy, many primary sources that he studies would be written in Italian, and yet he consistently asks other people to translate some document for him. It is a small part of this movie, but with such
COLUMBIA PICTURES
With so many frustrating missteps, ‘Inferno’ is hopefully the last in the uneven Langdon series. repetition it quickly becomes frustrating. Inferno tries to spring multiple twists on the audience. None of them land with the impact that the movie would like. The actors all turn in a serviceable job. Christoph Bouchard (Omar Sy) is fine as a rogue World Health Organization agent. Elizabeth Sinskey (Sidse Babett Knudesen) does a decent job as Langdon’s love interest, even though that plotline feels forced. There is one character that does feel fresh. Harry Sims (Irrfan Khan), is the CEO of The Consortium, a private security firm. He only wants to be on the
winning side of things and injects some refreshing humor into his scenes. But he cannot save this movie. Not even Hanks and multiple Shyamalan-esque twists can rescue it from mediocrity. In spite of these “twists,” the movie ends predictably and everything is tied up with a neat little bow. If watching Hanks run around European monuments in a mediocre movie is the goal, then this movie is a must-see. But if watching a film that has good characters, dialogue, and story is what was in mind, look elsewhere.
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1 LIONSGATE
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE REPORT TITLE
WEEKEND GROSS
WEEKS IN RELEASE
1. BOO! A MADEA HALLOWEEN
16.7
2
2. INFERNO
15.0
1
3. JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK
9.5
2
4. THE ACCOUNTANT
8.5
3
Fitting an overall theme of a full and sprawling nature, Empire of the Sun cultivates its musical stylings by growing in new untapped directions.
5. OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL
7.0
2
9P M<IFE@:8 >FI;F
6. GIRL ON THE TRAIN
4.2
4
7. MISS PEREGRINE
3.9
5
8. KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES
3.3
2
9. STORKS
2.7
6
10. AI DIL HAI MUSHKIL
2.1
1
VIRGIN EMI
=fi k_\ ?\`^_kj Empire of the Sun’s third studio album, Two Vines, crashes over you in a wave of pulsating, synthesized beats. The 11 tracks explore simple, everyday themes like love and freedom with an eccentric sound that conjures up images of lush nature. “We’re just going deeper into paradise,” lead singer Luke Steele said in an interview with Billboard.com. “We’re always talking about that unexplainable feeling of waking up on a long beach and the sun’s rising. You can hear the birds, and they’re talking to each other [...] the dolphins are TWO VINES swimEmpire of the Sun ming, and you hear the waves tickling each other as they land on the shore.” The band harps on this theme of “paradise found” and this idea is found in the album’s strongest songs: “Before” and “High and Low.” Both exemplify the synth-heavy sound coupled with the band’s trademark breathy, falsetto vocals. The overall sound is an edgy breath of fresh air amid so much stale, mainstream output. “Before” leads with
a clean guitar riff that bursts into a fantastical sound by the chorus. Bringing the nature imagery back full circle, Steele sings, “Before I met you / I was lost at sea.” The intensity of sound in “High and Low” builds as the song begins and climaxes. The acoustic guitar kicks in as the chorus starts and the dance beat follows. The scenic theme persists in the album’s titular track “Two Vines.” The song’s beat sounds like a cascade of rain pouring down. This decision to create a theme for the album was no small or accidental one. “There was an image we talked about very early on with this record, before we wrote the title track, ‘Two Vines,’ and that was this image of a modern city overtaken by jungle, almost like mother nature taking back the planet,” Nick Littlemore, the duo’s other half, said in a press release. The track “Digital Life” drives this message home as Steele sings, “This digital life don’t keep me warm,” to a sweeping sound that makes you feel like you’re in a technological wonderland. This digitally-inspired sound is also found in songs “Ride” and “First Crush.” Both are reminiscent of French electronic music duo Daft Punk’s style. Outfitted with exciting, looped beats and vocals, both songs draw the un-
wanted comparison between the two bands that has been around since 2013. Eerily similar to Daft Punk’s “Instant Crush,” “First Crush” holds a steadily dazed, mid-tempo rhythm that grows into a dance anthem. But Empire of the Sun’s originality still manages to overcome the rivalry with other highlights of the album such as “Way to Go,” a more open, contemplative track, and “To Her Door,” a distinctly somber track that builds into an upbeat ballad. Although the band’s unique sound crafts a cohesive album, many songs act as fillers that feed off of the other tracks. “Friends,” “There’s No Need,” and “ZZZ” all pick up speed and then slow down to introduce a chorus that is all too similar to the rest of the songs. The composition of each song slowly but surely becomes repetitive, as the listener can easily anticipate the product of simplistically dreamy lyrics set to an intricate techno beat. This effort by Empire of the Sun, despite these points, is a triumphant one. The duo has succeeded in taking its sound to the next level and perfecting it. Where there may have been dull moments or inconsistencies in sound and style before, Littlemore and Steele have fortified their status as artists.
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2 COLUMBIA PICTURES
3 PARAMOUNT PICTURES
HARDCOVER FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. ESCAPE CLAUSE John Sandford 2. TWO BY TWO Nicholas Sparks 3. SMALL GREAT THINGS Jodi Picoult 4. THE OBSIDIAN CHAMBER Preston and Child 5. VINCE FLYNN: ORDER TO KILL Kyle Mills
6. SECRET HISTORY Mark Frost 7. COMMONWEALTH Ann Pachett 8. THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 Ruth Ware 9. HOME Halrlon Coben 10. TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT Maria Semple SOURCE: New York Times
:IO Lj\j E\n Jfle[ Xe[ E\n KXc\ek kf =`k `ekf `kj ÊE\n Jb`eË 9P 98II<KK< A8EE<P =fi k_\ ?\`^_kj CRX executed a running start into the music scene with the release of its first album New Skin this weekend. Lead vocalist and guitarist Nick Valensi embodies the album’s title, diverging from his acclaimed band The Strokes in this edgy combination of pop and heavy metal. Valensi finally decided to break into a solo project away from the success of The Strokes, much NEW SKIN like his CRX other band members already had, out of an itch to start playing live shows again. He still has plans to return to working with the band he has been loyal to since the early 2000s, but for now the 35-year-old musician aims to explore new creative possibilities with CRX, which was born out of Los Angeles in 2013. Valensi surrounds himself with band
members who are no strangers to the music world themselves, including Ralph Alexander of The Dose on drums, Richie Follin of Guards on keyboard, guitar, and vocals, and Darian Zahedi and Jon Safley of The Reflections on bass and guitar. Josh Homme, who gained his rock expertise as the founder and lead vocalist of Queens of the Stone Age, produced the album, aiding the band by catering to what each individual song required, whether that meant extensive research regarding one instrumental detail in bridge of one song or a hands-off approach for another. This flexible kind of approach lends itself to CRX, allowing members to collaborate freely and discover their unique collective sound. CRX released its first single, “Ways to Fake It,” on Sept. 7, establishing a lively rock style that is characteristic of New Skin. The steady yet pulsating drum line works with the electric edge of the keyboard to create a beat that matches the equally edgy lyrics about feeling repressed by expectations. The heavy repetition of a small range of words and phrases actually feeds into focus on the instrumental aspect of the song, a more pow-
erful representation of the song’s theme. CRX continued on to release its second single ,“Broken Bones,” on Oct. 20, this time amping up the instruments even more fiercely than before. The strong use of electric guitar chords and clashing drum cymbals produce a kind of charged dissonance that conveys the song’s message of violent brokenness. The other eight songs released with the full album follow the already constructed electricity of these first two singles. “Give It Up” includes an eerie build of vocals and claps that erupt into powerful drum and guitar features, while “Anything” utilizes backup vocals to create a full vibrancy of sound. “Slow Down” mimics its title with a slower approach to the band’s typical musical violence and focuses on a longing for more time. “Unnatural” returns to a race-like utilization of drums and guitar, and “On Edge” conveys a similar punch of instruments to produce a warp-like atmosphere. “Walls” imitates “Ways to Fake It” with its reference to “When everyone is faking it,” and doesn’t present any originality, unlike the other songs. “Monkey Machine” expresses a theme of restlessness with the spotlight on a potent guitar solo, similar to
COLUMBIA RECORDS
Sure to have a lasting presence in the rock scene, CRX makes its mark with debut ‘New Skin.’ “One Track Mind,” which is filled with futuristic, almost freakish anticipation. While CRX has noted The Cars and Elvis Costello as inspirations for its retro rock vibrations, artists that certainly live up to this designation, New Skin seems to encompass its own pop rock style. Valensi seemed to largely avoid resembling The Strokes, except for some slight overlap in sound that is inevitable when both bands encompass a modern revival of the older rock forms. Any overlap, however, seems to evaporate after the first
couple verses of each song reveal a fresher, more electric feel. New Skin ultimately accomplishes an impressive debut for the newly founded CRX, a coalition of musicians that, by the sounds of it, will command a lasting presence in modern rock. The band has successfully coalesced musicians from other hit groups and utilized their individual talents to produce a fully new sound. If anything, this feat is CRX’s most notable characteristic thus far.
THE HEIGHTS
Monday, October 31, 2016
B7
AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS EDITOR
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Amid the weekend’s slew of Halloweenthemed shows and programs featured across campus, one show dared to stray away, thematically, from the weekend’s festivities and, instead, bring attention to one of the many cultures that composes the arts landscape at Boston College. Saturday night, the Vietnamese Student’s Association took over Robsham Theater to present Saigon By Night, the VSA’s ninth annual culture show. While Robsham has certainly seen its fair share of colorful, vivacious performances hit its main stage, it’s hard to think of another show that has brought such an array of creatures, fashion, and music under one roof. Saturday’s show, inspired by the popular Vietnamese variety show Paris By Night (which the emcees likened to Saturday Night Live in many respects), showcased
a v ar ie ty of traditional Vie tname s e performances and more modern acts that exhibited more of a cross-cultural foundation. This dichotomy was apparent in the show’s splitting the two types of performances with an intermission. The first act was made up of traditional pieces, while the second was meant to emphasize modern Vietnamese performance acts. To a degree, this format held true, though mo dern and traditional elements of Vietnamese culture were apparent in both acts. This melding of the old and the new hampered the distinction the emcees tried to present to the audience about the symbolic purpose of the separate acts. The lion dance that started off Saigon By Night was probably the most fascinating number of the event, as it saw four dragons parading about the entirety of Robsham Theater and interacting with audience members. Each of the four dragons was comprised of two students. Each of the
students’ pairs of feet were used as the dragons’ paws and, as the student in the back would lift up the other student in front of them, the performers made the dragons wave to audience members as they passed them walking about the theater. It’s hard to tell how clear the performers’ visibility was under the large masks and “dragon skins” they carried, but their ability to do these extravagant improvisational acrobatics all around the theater was impressive. Two numbers that complemented each other well were the traditional couples dance found in the first act and the modern couples dance that appeared in the night’s second act. These two dances did the best job of showcasing how an aspect of Vietnamese culture has changed over time, as the traditional dance saw its performers enacting more conservative steps, motions, and interactions between the male and female dancers and the modern dance had a lot more hip-thrusting, swaying
movements, and intimacy between the performers . The modern dance also featured a hip-hop song, which made apparent the cultural crossover that now exists in Vietnamese arts performances. An evident sense of camaraderie was also on display between members of the VSA’s executive board, as well as the several groups of performers that made up the many pieces of the night. The audience could see those on stage giggling at each other, playfully pushing each other around, and encouraging those that were fortunate to have a solo in their number. This friendliness was extremely apparent during the fashion show segment, as pairs of people came onto the stage, did a goofy little interaction together, and lined up at the ends of the stage to root on their friends that appeared after them. These simple gestures and interactions made it clear to all in attendance that members of the VSA and the several groups of performers have
found meaningful friendships through their shared culture and their joy in showcasing it. While there is a multitude of cultural shows that BC sees every year, each brings its own unique taste and perspective of the world. Saigon By Night is no different in this respect. Though the VSA could have practiced the more technical aspects of its show a bit more, as the emcees were very apparently told to stall for time between a few performance pieces, this did not hinder the display of Vietnamese culture that was brought to Robsham Saturday night. Throughout the night, the emcees emphasized the influence that Paris By Night had on them and the rest of the VSA and their hopes that they could emulate the essence of the show successfully to the audience. Many that were sitting in the audience that night had possibly never seen or heard of Paris By Night, but the VSA’s passion for and enjoyment of its shared culture was evident to all.
AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS EDITOR
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Where could you watch the intense story of Ryan Seacrest murdering dinner party guests in a hibachi room with a refrigerator? Well, a short trip to the North End may have brought one to Improv Asylum’s Halloween show, “Stranger Danger Things,” on Friday night to see that comical nightmare unfold. The improvisation group brought out its best ghoulish comedy for a night of laughter that the audience will not forget. Many of the skits centered around the premise of hosting a campfire in the woods, which was especially amusing given the tiny electric campfire placed on the floor that made the scene hilariously awkward. Much of the material for the evening also pulled from current events, which made the show relevant and easy for the audience to interact with. One recurring issue throughout the show pertained to the horrifying clownsighting epidemic happening all over the country, which the group had a field day with. From staging a skit explaining the origins of this nightmare (some high school student’s immature revenge prank that went viral), to their sporadic interruption of amusing confessions of their characters (one confessed that she never went to rehab for an E-cigarette addiction, she just liked the attention), the clowns were an effective way to thread the show together and provide a scary and funny element to the narrative. Given that Election Day is right around the corner, the group came up with a humorous parody of Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin, by interrupting the Peanuts’ trip to the pumpkin patch with “The Great Trumpkin.” The amusement was increased by the Trumpkin’s vehement assertion that everyone was “WRONG!” to say he wasn’t the Great Pumpkin, and that it was completely obvious because, “you know it, I know it, we all know it.” Continuing on with pumpkinthemed jokes, the group had a skit with the “basic chick’s” obsession with pumpkin spice lattes. Calling for ideas from the audience, a girl’s PSL infatuation escalated to everything from PSL-flavored inanimate objects, to PSL-flavored people, to PSL-flavored PSL. Arguably, this was the most horrifying skit of all, as one can never truly escape the PSL craze that sweeps through coffee shops, grocery stores, and society at large during the upcoming holiday months, and this skit
capitalized on pretty much everyone’s visceral fear of a PSL-flavored slippery slope into madness and anarchy. The show also contained a number of entirely improvised skits, all of which were sufficiently strange and entertaining. One of Improv Asylum’s members asked an audience member for general information about her life and career, and the group acted out its interpretation of her life. The end result told the story of a nurse that was afraid of the dark, and her tragic missed opportunity of meeting a patient that could have turned her into a vampire and fulfilled her lifelong dream. Additional improvised skits involved a song about the horrors of candy corn (the candy everyone loves to hate), and an exchange between two characters about their bizarre hobbies. Calling on the audience for these hobbies, the skit showed an entertaining conversation about whittling and taxidermy, which turned twisted when an audience member suggested changing the bar of soap the guy was whittling into something entirely different. The comedian then stated that it was actually his dead grandmother’s bones that he was whittling, which elicited shocked laughter from the crowd and served as an excellent instance of Improv Asylum’s immense talent and skill for comedy during its shows. Further engaging the audience, a few members were selected to participate in a pumpkin-carving contest … to carve faces out of slices of bologna instead of pumpkins, which surely elicited a few shudders from the crowd and served as a chilling and amusing turn of events. Continuing with the night’s eerie comedy, the group performed a progressive song about how “girls can be killers too,” and brought up a disturbing question of why anyone who kills 650 people gets to have a Guinness World Record in gory recognition of the fact, potentially challenging others to exceed that infamous number. Observations such as this highlight the intellectual thought behind many of the group’s comedic skits, and showcase how well put-together the content and delivery of the show truly was. The comedians all maintained the hilarity and randomness that make for a perfectly entertaining spectacle, and by the time the werewolves and vampires and clowns had come to an end for the night, the audience left the theater knowing they had seen something really special.
AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS EDITOR
8 :Xgg\ccX# :fd\[p Le`k\ Xk @em`kXk`feXc 9P :?8E;C<I =FI; ?\`^_kj JkX]] “Need a raccoon? Need a zipper? You call Bryan,” one of the members of the Acoustics shouted to a large audience. Wait, what? If that doesn’t make any sense, don’t worry—it didn’t make a whole lot more sense to the Friday night audience of the Acoustics’ Halloween Invitational. On Oct. 28, one of Boston College’s premier a cappella groups, the Acoustics, hosted its annual Halloween event encompassing several facets of the BC arts scene. Blowing the doors off of Cushing 001, the Acoustics, the Dynamics, Fairfield University’s Bensonians, and BC improv group My Mother’s Fleabag put on one of the best shows of the year thus far. Opening the doors shortly before 7 p.m., the Acoustics welcomed students in a variety of states—swathed in head-to-toe dress-up, a simple Superman shirt, or even no costumes at all. As it always does at a BC a cappella concert, the air carried a sense of anticipation as every student, regardless of the state of his or her appearance, waited for the experience to begin. For the performers, looking out into the audience must have been the strangest of sights—the crowd was the perfect mixture of zombie, ghosts, ghouls, villains, supervillains, animals, and even some regular old human beings. And even in that unusual state, the lights went down at 7 p.m. on the dot. Attending an a cappella performance, especially one hosted by some of the most
talented performers that BC (and Fairfield) has to offer, is a fairly surreal experience. A person who has never heard a song performed in this style may be taken aback—it’s certainly not what one expects as the stage lights dim— but the outcome is truly extraordinary. The format is relatively basic: a group of around 10 or 15 people take the stage. One member steps up to the microphone, and as they sing, the rest of the group hums and harmonizes the music of the song for the leader to sing along to. Simple in theory, certainly, but beyond difficult in execution. Even trying to pick a standout point in the night is next to impossible. The Acoustics and the Dynamics both have such an incredible ability to contain every ounce of attention that the audience has to give. The effect is mesmerising. And as much of a treat as every Acoustics/ D y namic s collab oration is , Fair f ield University’s Bensonians capitalized on the night just as much. Particularly impressive was its lead singer (the ability to throw one’s voice will forever be fascinating), but in all truthfulness, making that claim absolutely begs for the same to be given to every group. A good a cappella event is one of the most fun events a person can go to, and strong lead singers can make or break a group. With that in mind, the Acoustics, the Dynamics, and the Bensonians have absolutely nothing to worry about. Jamming along to the a cappella-ified version of Neon Trees’ “Everybody Talks” was one of the most fun times on campus this year.
Of course, no discussion on the Halloween Invitational would be complete without a shout out to My Mother’s Fleabag. The troupe, once again, never ceases to send a room spiraling into fits of laughter. Friday’s Halloween Invitational was no exception. Especially of note was its movie-making skit, in which four members of the club rattle random movie titles off the top of their heads, come up with hilarious taglines for them, and act out scenes if the ideas are solid enough. In terms of pure entertainment value, it’s hard to beat the saga of Raccoon-ZipperBryan, a man with a monopoly on both the raccoon industry and the zipper industry. The improv skit ended with the star raccoon giving his Oscar speech—“Today I say to my haters: zip it!” If one were to listen carefully enough on a windy, fall afternoon, that person might just hear the sounds of an a cappella practice bellowing through the halls of any building on campus. It is not uncommon, in fact, to hear the voices of the Acoustics as they spend many hours a week perfecting their craft. The same, assuredly, can be said for the Dynamics, the Bensonians, and My Mother’s Fleabag as well. These teams of experts in their fields work tirelessly to bring BC the very best that they have to offer, and at last Friday’s Halloween Invitational, their long hours of effort most definitely showed through. Hard work breeds high rewards, and by the end of the night, no one should know this better than these four groups.
B8
ARTS& &REVIEW MONDAY , O,CTOBER 19,31, 2015 MONDAY OCTOBER 2016
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THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
CALEB GRIEGO
Recently, my brother gave me a selection from The Message in the Bottle by Walker Percy. In one chapter, Percy, an avid existentialist writer, writes about the notion of alienation, or, more simply put, feeling alone, out of place, or altogether detached. In it he details an interesting example of a man on a train. As he sits, gazing out the window at fields and neighborhoods, he experiences all of these feelings without knowing anything tangible. From his first voyage to his last, though he has passed them hundreds of times before, he remains no more knowledgeable of them. His feeling of alienation is immovable. Then Percy introduces another lonely man, this time engrossed in a book, also on a train. The book he reads details the thoughts of a lonely man on a train. His alienation is, in a peculiar way, reversed. Reading about the feelings one experiences does not augment their effect, but diminishes them. There is a power in reading, thinking to oneself, “Ah yes, this is exactly how I am feeling.” The second man is, by and large, far less lonely, as literature offers a gateway into the realm of understanding. He rejoices, as Percy puts it, in a “triple alliance of himself, the alienated character, and the author.” Experiencing a lonely world firsthand, one might find as little comfort as the man gazing out into a world he does not know. But looking into a book, which draws the same conclusions about the loneliness of the world, brings about the opposite emotional effect. When they have someone to be alone with, even in a book, they are then, categorically, not lonely. This seems a strange, yet true notion to me. As we traverse crowded streets, passing people by the dozens, we may feel alone and empty. But in the etchings of pages bound in a book, we find solace and solidarity. The subtitle of The Message in the Bottle, “How Queer Man Is, How Queer Language Is, and What One Has To Do With The Other,” seems to make more sense now. The words more clearly describe loneliness. Feelings are given a physical manifestation, as if we can point at the page and say, “THAT is how I feel.” Through the recognition of shared emotions in literature, loneliness is justifed. But the man on the train, gazing out with nothing in hand, can only wonder why he feels the way he does. This does not say that the man flipping pages has any more knowledge of his feelings than the man gazing out the window, but he has reason to believe there is hope. Literature seems to soothe the discontents of the mind. Reading allows for us to come away from our own loneliness and relish in the solidarity of it with another. Our alienation is both the cause of anguish and the remedy to it. If that sounds paradoxical and homeopathic, that’s because it is. With this in mind, I believe that reading about feelings and what we are experiencing helps us get over ourselves. Our passing emotions are not unique—our feelings at any given moment are not only subject to change, but easily changeable. As Percy puts it, it can take a change in our outlook in our environment or mind to transcend the swamp of emotions in which we can become mired. This idea transcends literature and makes itself known in other forms of art as well. When we’re sad, how often does listening to a sad song yield a less melancholy disposition? This can be met through a physical change of scenery, a song, or exploring the thoughts of others. Stagnation allows us to stop and sink into the quicksand of complacency. Allowing emotions to compound and grow will only find us feeling alienated. Percy, quoting Spanish playwright Michael Cervantes, says “The road is better than the inn.” Sometimes a book is better than the real world, I’d say. As we look at ourselves on the train or elsewhere, it is in our travels that we may find loneliness. Thankfully, in the same place we will also find our salvation.
AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Sexual Chocolate gives BC a taste of new talent at its Rookie Showcase. 9P D:B<EE8 GFC@:? =fi K_\ ?\`^_kj Lined up outside the Heights Room, students, parents, alumni, and faculty patiently waited for the Sexual Chocolate Rookie Showcase to open its doors at 6:30 p.m. Seeing that the event’s Facebook page had reached nearly 30,000 people around the Boston and Chestnut Hill area, it was no surprise that nearly 600 people attended the show. Spectators crowded into the Heights Room, finding any space they could—standing in the back, sitting on the floor at the stage’s edge (close enough to smell the sweat). Some people were even standing on chairs outside the room, looking through the doorway. To say it was a popular event is an understatement. With performances from the show’s host, Sexual Chocolate, Boston College’s all-male step team, and seven other dance groups, including Synergy, VIP, Phaymus, Full Swing, Patu, Fuego, and Dance Organization of Boston College, the show attracted a large range of spectators. On the elevated platform stage that took up the majority of the room, the Sexual Chocolate veterans opened the show with f lawless choreography and an energ y unmatched by the subsequent performances. In addition to its step performance, Sexual Chocolate introduced itself with comedic flair, performing a comedy skit in which SC’s captains had misplaced their rookies—a plot that was successfully interspersed throughout the show as a means to hype up the Sexual Chocolate rookie finale and to introduce each act. In setting the tone as they did, the Sexual Chocolate veterans promised an unforgettable
show—and that’s just what the audience got. Full Swing opened the show by jumping and jiving—quite literally—to jazz-infused tunes that felt reminiscent of the beloved musical Grease. Dressed in matching blue and white polka-dotted blouses to offset the crisp white dress shirts of their male counterparts, the women of the group seemed more like acrobats than dancers, as they were spun, twirled, and tossed over, under, and around the men. The times when the acrobatics complemented the dancing were few and far between, however. The dancers struggled to keep up with the music, and it became clear that the performers still have some work to do to perfect their act. Nevertheless, their efforts should be and were applauded by many. As one might imagine, swing seems much harder than it looks. Following Full Swing, Vida de Intensa Pasión’s performance kept the audience’s energy alive as its members salsaed and shimmed in a mesmerizing display of red and black salsa skirts and shoes traveling across the stage. VIP’s performance held its own compared to a performance from BC’s widely known (and loved) Latin dance team, Fuego de Corazón whose performance proved that its performers are talented enough to have mastered its memorable 2016 Showdown Routine from last spring. That’s not to say that Phaymus, BC’s all-female hip-hop team, whose performance preceded that of Fuego’s, was anything to sneeze at. The Phaymus rookies killed it, with energy and confidence indistinguishable from a veteran performer, it was clear the Phaymus ladies were not messing
around. Its performance hinted at a long year ahead before we are allowed to enjoy the hip-hop battles at this spring’s ALC’s Showdown. In response, Synergy showed off its stuff with a hard-hitting routine following Presenting Africa to You: BC’s African dance group (PATU). PATU placed first in Showdown’s cultural category last spring, so it was no surprise that PATU’s rookies nailed their first performance. It almost seemed like each dance group aimed at showing off the new additions to its teams as if to say, “if you think we’re amazing now, just wait until Showdown.” Following Synergy, DOBC presented its newbies to the audience with their masterful choreography only matched by each dancer’s clear expertise in her craft. The DOBC rookies were unfazed by a minor technical difficulty in the middle of their performance, dancing on in lieu of a beat to follow. As they say, the show must go on, and so it did. At last, the moment the audience long awaited, the debut of the Sexual Chocolate rookies. Having been finally “found,” the SC rookies showed the audience why they deserve to be on the popular and highly respected team, proving that step and dance in general are just as hard as they look. If you’re looking forward to following the rookies’ journey in dance, check out the next Sexual Chocolate perfo rmance as the opening for the Heightsmen this Friday in Robsham. As the first annual Rookie Showcase, this show promised that in the years to come, the showcase will stand as the perfect way for the newbies of the BC dance scene to assimilate into the rewarding lifestyle of a student-performer.
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I N SI DEARTS THIS ISSUE
‘Inferno’
Tom Hanks stars in this underwhelming third installment in the Langdon series, B6
‘Two Vines’
Electronic music duo Empire of the Sun released its third stubio album this weekend, B6
Weekend Box Office Report.........................B6 Hardcover Bestsellers....................................B6 ‘New Skin’.........................................................B6