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Students talk about on-campus jobs, social media, and entrepreneurship, B10
Free concert at the Hatch Shell draws music fans to the city this weekend, A10
The Eagles suffered another crushing defeat against Duke on Saturday, B1
Monday, September 19, 2011
Vol. XCII, No. 29
O’Neill opens newly renovated space Former reserve section of O’Neill Library re-opened and ready for student use By Anna Patrick Heights Staff
The former reserve room on the third floor of O’Neill Library re-opened on Friday, following a three-month renovation project. Friday’s re-opening revealed a large, naturally lit space filled with ample comfortable seating and, at the delight of many, an abundant supply of electrical outlets. With neutral earth tones and familiar
maroon and gold accented furniture, the new space is about 40 percent larger than the previous reserve section, and combined with the new study room in Gasson Hall, will add an additional 200 seats for academic study. “I think it’s great that they’re opening up new spaces, because libraries get so crowded. I like the group tables and chairs, I could see holding group meetings in here for six to eight people,” said Ryan Murphy, A&S ’13.
Daniel lee / heights staff
The newly renovated reading room (above) is now open for student use in O’Neill Library.
The additional seating in O’Neill and Gasson is a holistic solution to a 900-seat deficiency. Architectural metrics call for seating for about 30 percent of the undergraduate population, and the additional 200 seats will help alleviate seating pressure during examination periods. It will also boost library usage as a whole, which has already increased by 15 percent. “We’re trying to be a center for all things academic, and a good space does that. There are definitely lots of things that can happen here,” said Thomas Wall, University Librarian. The multi-purpose reading room includes long tables and booths for group work, as well as small tables and coffeehouse-style chairs for individual reading. “I think the booths will appeal to a lot of people. I like how it’s more open and inviting,” said Cara Kilroy, GCSON ’12. The arrangement of the space echoes the seating arrangement on the lower level of the building with booths along the side and individual tables on the opposite end of the room. Upon first glance the new reading room appears to be a hybrid between the seating area in the Chocolate Bar in McElroy Commons, combined with the lower level of O’Neill, but with an aesthetic all its own. “My philosophy is space. Get it going, see what happens. I hope it’s a place to see
See O’Neill, A4
First Year Convocation
Alex Trautwig / Heights Editor
Dan Sologuren (left) of BC Republicans and Nick Doffek of College Democrats on the year ahead.
Campus politicos plan to bring big speakers in 2012 By David Cote Heights Editor
As the new school year kicks off, the College Democrats of Boston College (CDBC) and the Boston College Republicans (BCR) are beginning a new semester of recruitment and events. Nick Doffek, CDBC president and A&S ’13, commented that the Democrats are “a very young club” with 1,700 listserv members and 25-30 active members. After a revamping and renaming of the club in 2009, Doffek remarked that the club has grown in activity and membership, much of it due to a program for freshmen, the Progressive eXchange Com-
mittee (PXC), which pairs freshmen with mentors. “The PXC spurs growth in the club and prepares freshmen for E-board leadership later,” Doffek said. “It’s a great way for freshmen to get involved in a club here at BC, which is sometimes a difficult thing to do.” As a part of their involvement in the club, the freshmen bring speakers or host events on campus, in order to gain experience in event planning and interacting with administrators and students. Furthermore, CDBC plans to host their annual Progressive Leadership Summit (PLS) which focuses on “how to foster a pro-
See Elections, A4
Campaign urges students to stay in ‘Green Zone’ Office of Health Promotion’s ‘Green Zone’ campaign promotes responsible drinking By Tanner Edwards Heights Staff
Daniel Lee / heights staff
Members of the Class of 2015 (above) take part in the traditional ‘First Flight’ procession before First Year Convocation last Thursday.
Author Colum McCann addresses this year’s freshmen By Maurice Jackson For The Heights
Best-selling novelist Colum McCann was the keynote speaker at the University’s eighth annual First Year Academic Convocation on Thursday. The Ireland native shared some words of wisdom with the freshman Class of 2015, “The thing is, that we failed is not the point, trying is the real courage.” McCann’s address followed the “First
Flight” procession across campus, an annual tradition that begins at Linden Lane where members of Boston College’s Jesuit Community offered a blessing and challenged BC’s newest students to answer the call to “set the world aflame.” During his talk in Conte Forum, McCann urged the freshman not to be afraid of the “f word” but rather to embrace it. He connected with the Class of 2015 by recognizing how much they value getting an ‘A’ and doing service projects to the
best of their abilities, but he also made it clear that there is true beauty behind failing. “Failure is vivifying,” he said. “Failure means you’ve tried something. The very best amongst you fail very well.” McCann used an excerpt from his Sept. 11 novel, Let the Great World Spin, where one of the characters finds a little light in the darkness, to encourage the freshman class to engage the darkness,
The newly created Office of Health Promotion is set to launch a “Stay in Your Green Zone” campaign for the new academic year. The initiative represents a multi-platform effort encouraging students to stay in their “Green Zone,” defined as maintaining a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .05 or less by the campaign. “The goals of the SIYGZ campaign are to: educate students about the definition of the Green Zone, inform students of how to calculate their BAC to set a limit in advance as the best strategy for staying safe if they choose to drink, and to implement strate-
gies for a lower-risk drinking style,” said Robyn Priest, assistant dean of Drug and Alcohol Education. The campaign will use a variety of tools and media platforms to reach students. Facets will include a Facebook page, vouchers for iPhone Apps on BAC info, signs posted in bathrooms to help assist students in deciding to seek medical attention or not, educational videos, and free Office of Health Promotion giveaways to inspire conversation about the “Green Zone” among the student body. The initiative brought together a diverse set of campus leaders, including Priest, Jack
See Green Zone, A4
mass of the holy spirit
See Convocation, A4
Student group teaches healthy living Peer Health Exchange reaches out to Boston high school students By Daniel Tonkovich Heights Editor
Increasing healthy lifestyle education for youth has been a focus of First Lady Michelle Obama, emphasizing the importance of exercise, nutrition, and accessibility to health resources. But what happens when health curriculum is absent in schools? For approximately 65 percent of Boston’s ninth graders, Peer Health Exchange (PHE) enters. PHE is a national nonprofit that partners with high schools in New York City, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles that lack health courses, and
where a majority of the students live at or below the poverty live. The organization – through local offices and chapters it funds at select colleges – recruits, selects, and trains college student volunteers to teach high school students a comprehensive health curriculum consisting of 13 inclassroom standardized health workshops. The curriculum includes instruction on topics such as healthy decision making, substance abuse, sexual health, nutrition, and mental health. Boston College is one of the 24 college sites across the country where PHE draws volunteers. In the Boston area, it is joined by chapters at Boston University, Northeastern, Harvard, and Tufts.
BC’s chapter, established four years ago and funded entirely by the PHE national nonprofit, boasts one of the largest volunteer bases in the nation with over 100 students teaching one class per week at area high schools, mostly in the Brighton and West Roxbury areas of the city. This year, the chapter plans to continue its wide reach in Boston high school health education, expecting approximately 160 applications and a realization of 120 volunteers. Rather than proposing regimented healthy lifestyles, PHE’s curriculum emphasizes healthy decision making to teenagers with the highest risk of engaging
See Peer Health, A4
Sara Davey / heights staff
University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., presided over the Mass of the Holy Spirit last Thursday, where the BC community gathered to begin the academic year.
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The Heights
Monday, September 19, 2011
things to do on campus this week
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Red Cross Blood Drive Today Time: 11 a.m. Location: Gasson 100
Make an appointment for the American Red Cross of Boston College blood drive and receive free food after your donation. Appointments are available every 15 minutes from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Wednesday. Look online at http://arc-bostoncollege.genbook. com/bookings/slot/reservation/30025409.
Poetry Reading by Meg Kearney
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Tuesday Time: 5 p.m. Location: Hovey House Library
Meg Kearney, winner of the 2010 PEN New England LL Winship Award and finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize, will be reading her poetry.
Sept. 11 Anniversary Panel Discussion
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Wednesday Time: 4:30 p.m. Location: McGuinn 121 Commemorate the Sept. 11 attacks in an event sponsored by the Jesuit Institute, which will feature professors speaking about the repercussions of the event.
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Class-action lawsuit filed against Kennedy Krieger Institute
On Campus Doctoral history student receives Catholic Press Association first place prize Boston College doctoral history student Peter Cajka received the 2011 Catholic Press Association first place prize in the category of Best Feature Article in a Scholarly Magazine for “Riding with Saint Paul in the Passenger Side: The Archdiocese of Milwaukee Enters the Automobile Age, 19201965” in the journal American Catholic Studies. Cajka received his undergraduate degree from University of Dayton and a masters degree from Marquette University. In 2008, he received the Richard Scharchburg Student Paper Award in Automotive History from the Society of Automotive Historians. Cajka’s is interested in the American Catholic experience from 1930 to 1985. “I focus on the intersections of lived experience, theology, institutions and print culture,” he said in a release by the Office of News and Public Affairs. The CPA award winners were announced earlier in the summer during the Catholic Media Convention in Pittsburgh. The contest recognizes works in various publications and websites, including Spanish language publications.
A class-action lawsuit was filed Thursday against the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a medical facility affiliated with John Hopkins University, for knowingly exposing African American children to lead poisoning from 1993 to 1999, according to a report by The New York Times. Families were provided with subsidized housing and were not told about the elevated levels of lead. The children’s blood was tested periodically, and many suffered permanent neurological damage. The Institute said that the research was conducted in the children’s best interest, and that overall blood lead levels stayed constant or went down for most children.
Plans approved for new Harvard Business School building On Thursday, the Boston Redevelopment Agency approved plans for a $100 million, seven-story academic and dormitory building which will serve as the gateway to Harvard Business School’s Allston campus, according to a report by The Boston Globe. Tata Hall, designed by William Rawn Associates Architects Inc., will be built along Soldiers Field Road, and will feature floor-to-ceiling windows on the first two floors, while the upper floors will be constructed from stone.The project will begin December and will create 210 construction jobs. The expected completion date is late 2013.
By Adriana Mariella Assoc. News Editor
Photo courtesy of Frank golden
Golden, Kozlak, and Lindo (pictured left to right) wearing the SEA brand of hats that they’ve brought to BC. the cause expand here.” The target consumers, both Kozlak and Lindo said, are college students. “Snapbacks are back in style, they’re the new thing.” Lindo said. “So you’re doing a good thing while still being fashionable. The hats are awesome already before you even know
about the cause.” The hats, donned by the likes of Kid Cudi and Mac Miller, support the causes of global poverty, domestic poverty, social justice, teen suicide prevention, developmental disabilities, and some special volunteer causes, Kozlak said. “The company calls [the hats]
‘Colors for Causes,’” both Lindo and Kozlak said. “But we like to call them ‘Swag for Causes.’” “You can be a big man on campus and still be conscientious,” he said. “College kids can do so much – we have the extra time and the support of our campuses.” The cause is a convenient one, Lindo said, as students can come directly to a representative and get a SEA snapback for the flat $20 dollars without paying shipping. “The cause is perfect for college kids.” In the future, there may be more causes represented by the brand, which means more colors, Kozlak said. “Something kind of cool is that if you sell 50 hats, you can design your own hat for a cause of your choice,” he said. With a new shipment arriving within the next week, Kozlak said he hopes to continue to expand the brand to the BC community. Bradley Klune, CSOM ’14, a member of the men’s golf team, and a friend of Kozlak and Lindo, presented the idea to other athletes, Lindo said. “We pitched the idea to the student athletes,” he said. “They seemed to have a positive reaction.” n
Police Blotter
Voices from the Dustbowl
9/14/11-9/16/11
“How do you feel about the shortage of Chobani yogurt in the dining halls?”
Wednesday, Sept. 14 7:53 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a party who arrived at BCPD headquarters reporting a minor burn after spilling coffee. The party was transported by cruiser to a medical facility for evaluation. 11:16 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an unidentified man who exposed himself to a female outside Campion Hall. The suspect could not be identified. A detective is investigating. 3:33 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a chemical spill and minor exposure for one individual in Merkert Chemistry Center. Once decontaminated, that individual along with two others present in the area were transported to a medical facility in a BC vehicle. The affected area was secured until cleaned. 9:26 p.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a subject who had fallen. The subject was treated on-scene and released.
Thursday, Sept. 15 1:15 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm activation in Ignacio Hall. The Newton Fire Department also responded. The officers discovered that chemical fire extinguishers had been discharged on the third, fourth, and fifth floors. There was no actual fire. The building was evacuated for an extended period of time and after the discharged
material was cleaned, the residents were allowed entry. The matter is being investigated further.
“I’m in Shaw House and everyone was really pissed off, but I don’t really eat it myself.” —Alexa Geraniotis, A&S ’15
11:49 a.m. - A report was filed regarding assistance provided to other University departments as they investigate the previous discharge of chemical fire extinguishers in Ignacio Hall. 12:12 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a book bag containing valuables that was reported stolen in McElroy Hall. A detective is investigating. 5:17 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a hit and run property damage accident in the Lower Lots. An initial check of the area for the suspect vehicle was negative. The suspect later contacted this department after realizing damage had occurred.
67° Mostly Sunny 49°
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70° Showers 59°
Wednesday
76° Mostly Sunny 65°
Local News
Snapback hat brand makes its way to BC
for it to explode elsewhere.” “At the D uke [fo otball] game, a kid walked up to me and told me he liked my hat,” Lindo said. “I told him I could get one for him and started explaining [what the hats were about] but he already knew the cause well. He said he had a ton at home, but was happy to see
Today
thursday
featured story
Wi t h i n t h e n e x t t w o weeks, the word ‘sea’ may begin to take on a different meaning for Boston College students. At Duke, Emory, and UNC, the word is already associated with the company SEA, a snapback hat brand that donates 25 percent of each sale to charity. Now, Zack Kozlak, A&S ’14, Brian Lindo, CSOM ’14, and Frank Golden, CSOM ’13, have brought the brand to BC. “My friend who goes to Duke wore a [SEA] hat home to Minnesota,” Kozlak said. “That’s how I got involved.” He got started in the company first as a representative, eventually selling enough hats to gain some creative control in the organization, he said. “I’m the North East’s guy.” The hat brand, whose hat colors represent the brand’s different causes, was originally launched as an experiment at UNC-Chapel Hill and Emory, but expanded to be extremely popular on Duke’s campus. “It’s really big at Duke,” Kozlak said. “But we’re waiting
Four Day Weather Forecast
“I’ve never eaten it.” —Kevin Carey, A&S ’15
74° Thunder Storms 65°
Source: National Weather Service
A Guide to Your Newspaper The Heights Boston College – McElroy 113 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467 Editor-in-Chief (617) 552-2223 Editorial General (617) 552-2221 Managing Editor (617) 552-4286 News Desk (617) 552-0172 Sports Desk (617) 552-0189 Marketplace Desk (617) 552-3548 Features Desk (617) 552-3548 Arts Desk (617) 552-0515 Photo (617) 552-1022 Fax (617) 552-4823 Business and Operations General Manager (617) 552-0169 Advertising (617) 552-2220 Business and Circulation (617) 552-0547 Classifieds and Collections (617) 552-0364 Fax (617) 552-1753 EDITORIAL RESOURCES News Tips Have a news tip or a good idea for a story? Call Taylour Kumpf, News Editor, at (617) 552-0172, or e-mail news@bcheights.com. For future events, e-mail, fax, or mail a detailed description of the event and contact information to the News Desk. Sports Scores Want to report the results of a game? Call Paul Sulzer, Sports Editor, at (617) 552-0189, or e-mail sports@bcheights.com. Arts Events The Heights covers a multitude of events both on and off campus – including concerts, movies, theatrical performances, and more. Call Darren Ranck, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or e-mail arts@ bcheights.com. For future events, e-mail, fax, or mail a detailed description of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk. Clarifications / Corrections The Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. If you believe we have made a reporting error, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or questions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact Michael Caprio, Editor-in-Chief, at (617) 552-2223, or e-mail editor@ bcheights.com. CUSTOMER SERVICE Delivery To have The Heights delivered to your home each week or to report distribution problems on campus, contact Dan Ottaunick, General Manager at (617) 552-0547. Advertising The Heights is one of the most effective ways to reach the BC community. To submit a classified, display, or online advertisement, call our advertising office at (617) 552-2220 Monday through Friday.
The Heights is produced by BC undergraduates and is published on Mondays and Thursdays during the academic year by The Heights, Inc. (c) 2011. All rights reserved.
Friday, Sept. 16 “I have absolutely no idea what that is.” —Airen Surzyn, A&S ’15
2:15 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an altercation between two students in the Lower Lots. The reporting party did not know the identity of the assailant. The matter will be investigated further. 4:05 a.m. - A report was filed regarding assistance provided to an intoxicated subject in Vanderslice Hall. The subject was transported by cruiser to a medical facility.
—Source: The Boston College Police Department
“I’m not a huge yogurt fan.” —George Jiranek,
A&S ’15
CORRECTIONS Please send corrections to editor@bcheights.com with ‘correction’ in the subject line.
The Heights
Monday, September 19, 2011
Meeting GSSW launches new program Social Innovation Lab promotes collaboration between them on New social workers and entrepreneurs to better solve problems their level By Adriana Mariella Assoc. News Editor
Joseph Pasquinelli This past summer I worked as an environmental science summer school enrichment teacher at an urban middle school. In other words, every one of my students either had emotional issues, behavioral issues, or learning issues. I don’t mean to sound disparaging of these students. They were—for the most part—wonderful kids who just needed a teacher to believe in them. As wonderful as the students were deep down, it was still the most difficult classroom that I have faced. I have always prided myself on my classroom management ability. Getting one over on Mr. Pasquinelli is no small feat for a student. There was nothing, however, that I could get to work with these students. While doing a lab that I thought would surely keep them somewhat calm, they threw muddy water and sand at each other. Yelling didn’t work. Ignoring poor behavior definitely didn’t work. Throwing kids out of the classroom didn’t work. So what, I asked myself and then my boss, could I do so I might be able to, at the very least, survive the week? Candy. I rewarded good behavior and positive participation with Hershey’s chocolate and dum-dum pops. It didn’t solve all my problems, but it certainly resulted in an improvement. Some might say I bribed them with candy, but is what I did really bribery? Or was I meeting my students where they were? They were hungry, and I fed them. They had just come from recess and needed more than the Title I lunch they were provided. They were hungry for a teacher who wanted to make them happy and comfortable rather than just survive his week in the summer school trenches. Do I think I changed any lives by giving them candy? No. Was everyone’s life a little easier because I gave students candy? I’d say so. Congratulations on making it this far through the column. I promise I’ll get to the point now. The administration’s response to the drinking culture is sometimes parallel to my initial responses to my students’ misbehavior. The Stay in Your Green Zone (SIYGZ) campaign is much like me yelling at my students. It’s good advice and makes sense, but who’s really listening? If college students are listening, some have chosen not to heed the advice. My sending students out of the classroom is much like the Student Programs Office (SPO) placing a hold on the Fall Concert. It shocks some, makes others angry, and does little to modify behavior in the long term. The administration needs to give college students their candy. They need to meet the irresponsible drinker where she or he is. Distributing alcohol at an event is out of the question, so long as the drinking age allows only a little over a quarter of the college population to consume legally. What is not out of the question, though, is providing students with a safe space to digest the alcohol they will inevitably consume. If students were trusted to consume responsibly because they no longer need to sneak drinks into heavily policed events, then maybe just maybe they wouldn’t need to show up so far out of their “green zones” that they need to be transported to a medical facility. As a student body we need to drink more responsibly than we have been, but students will continue to engage in unsafe drinking, and leave their green zones, as long as it is the best means to their end. Their end, I think, is maintaining a buzz at the concert or other large event. Considering the acts chosen to headline recent concerts and the way Boston College football has been playing, I can’t really blame them.
Joseph Pasquinelli is a columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at editor@bcheights.com
The Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) of Boston College, which celebrated its 75th anniversary earlier this month, launched the Social Innovation Lab. As reported by the Office of News and Public Affairs earlier this month, the program, which is the first of its kind, combines social work and business strategies into its curriculum to allow social workers to develop more cost-effective ways of serving the community during difficult economic times. The Lab will train both entrepreneurs and social workers to collaborate to solve problems that organizations and companies may face, said Alberto Godenzi, dean of GSSW. “The entrepreneur and the social worker are both problem solvers at heart,” Godenzi said in a statement. “But their worlds
are so different that there are few opportunities to bring these two groups of professionals together. The goal of the Social Innovation Lab is to provide that space
“The entrepreneur and the social worker are both problem solvers at heart.” -Alberto Godenzi Dean of the Graduate School of Social Work where both can work together to find solutions that can help organizations or companies and the people they serve.” Stephanie Berzin and Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, assistant and as-
sociate professors of social work in the GSSW and Lab co-directors, said they created the Lab to allow social work organizations to explore business innovations, something that is often put on hold in order to focus on the needs of those they serve. The program will admit four or five organizations annually and assign a team of graduate students and faculty to develop solutions and innovations for those organizations, which will eventually be tested in the real world. Two organizations, Home for Little Wanderers, a child welfare agency, and HouseWorks, an organization for seniors seeking to live independently, comprise the inaugural class of the program. Both had specific problems they wanted to address with the help of the Lab so that a practical and effective solution could be quickly implemented into their organizations. n
NEW BCPD MODEL INTRODUCES BICYCLES
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APPAREL-FOR-CHARITY:
HOW WE GOT CHOBANI:
SEA, the snapback hat brand that donates 25 percent of its proceeds to the designated charities associated with each color hat, is one of many apparel-for-charity companies. In fact, one could probably create a full outfit with the clothing and accessories from these types of organizations. Charity is now trendy.
-Jewelry for a Cause: Just what its name implies, the company sells jewelry and donates a portion of the proceeds to a variety of causes.
With the Chobani shortage in the dining hall at the forefronts of our minds, let’s take a few minutes to explore what it took to get those Chobani’s to our shelves. Yogurt, coming from the Turkish word for ‘curdle,’ was most likely invented by accident in Mesopotamia in 5,000 B.C. when milk was transported and stored in the stomachs of milk-producing animals, according to the website Cultures for Health. The digestive acids of those organs would force the milk to coagulate and thicken and allow the now-yogurt to remain edible for much longer than normal milk stored in a jar or bowl. Yogurt, sometimes spelt yoghurt, has been a staple of Middle-eastern, Eastern European, and some Mediterranean diets for centuries. In Greece, yogurt is used in many recipes but can also be eaten as a treat. Greek yogurt, which is the category under which Chobani falls, is thicker than the American version of yogurt. According to the Digital Journal, Greek yogurt consumption in the United States increased 2,500 percent in the last five years, equaling a projected $1.5 billion for this year. Chobani alone had $257.3 million in sales last year, making it the leader in the Greek yogurt sector. Yoplait and Kraft, both seeking to claim a piece of the growing market, introduced Yoplait Greek and Athenos yogurts, respectively. Long story short, Boston College is no anomaly in comparison to the rest of the country—Greek yogurt popularity is on the rise.
-Adriana Mariella
-Adriana Mariella n
-Product (Red): From iPods to Vodka to baby strollers to credit cards, Product (Red) makes just about everything. Their proceeds benefit HIV/ AIDS programs. -FEED: Benefiting those starving in poverty-stricken areas, FEED sells a variety of bags, pouches, and accessories, some of which can be seen around the BC campus. -TOMS Shoes: For every distinctive pair purchased, TOMS shoes donates one pair to a child in need. TOMS sponsors One Day Without Shoes, a day that urges the everyday person to go without shoes for a day. -Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Founded in 2004, the organization allows groups and schools to register their own lemonade stands to benefit childhood cancer, as well as sells a variety of accessories. Alex Scott, who raised $2,000 at a lemonade stand before losing her battle with cancer, is the namesake behind the foundation.
Allston-Brighton Crime Reports 8/29/11 – 9/10/11
Police break up BU party The BCPD has implemented a new policing model to better interact and monitor the BC community. The model includes officers on bicycle patrol, a tactic used here during the football game (pictured).
St. Ignatius featured on poster “Got Green?” awareness campaign promotes sustainability By Molly LaPoint Asst. News Editor
This month, students may notice that a new campus figure has been added to the “Got Green?” awareness campaign, an effort that is working to promote energy conservation at the University. St. Ignatius of Loyola, as portrayed by the statue in front of Higgins Hall, is featured with a green mustache to highlight the conservation cause, according to a release by the Office of New and Public Affairs. The campaign, which is a parody of the “Got Milk?” white moustache, began in 2010 with University Vice President Rev. William B. Neenan, S.J. Other posters have featured Frank Spaziani, head football coach, members of the national championship-winning men’s hockey team, and Baldwin. The campaign, which promotes environmental friendliness as both a cost-containment measure and a component of the movement toward campus sustainability, keeps a constant message despite changing the faces associated with it. The message, organizers of the campaign said, is that the actions needed to save energy are quick and easy, and require only small changes
in daily habits. “The [Boston College] community plays a vital role in energy savings,” said John MacDonald, energy manager, in a statement. Though the past winter was colder than usual, oil and gas use on campus over the last year were down by 6 percent, MacDonald said. Despite a warmer than average summer that caused an increase in electrical use, the University was able to come in 3 percent under its energy budget. Administrators said that there is still more that can be done to achieve the goals of conserving resources and reducing utility bills. “‘Turn off the lights before you go’ is a very strong message with significant savings behind it,” MacDonald said. “We want to continue to encourage the pursuit of energy savings with all groups on campus.” Among campus initiatives is a new agreement with NSTAR that calls for a cooperative effort to target energy efficiency opportunities. “Being able to tap into NSTAR’s vast experience of energy conservation will have a dramatic effect on our consumption,” MacDonald said. “We also continue to work closely with various departments to reset temperatures when spaces are not being used.” n
At approximately 10:50 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10, officers responded to the report of a party at 44 Pratt Street. Upon arrival, an officer observed a male standing in the backyard with a cup in his hand, which contained an alcoholic beverage. When he noticed the officers, he attempted to re-enter the house through the basement. He identified himself as a Boston University student when confronted by police. The officers then walked down to the basement of the residence, and 150 kids were filing out the rear basement door. Officers spoke to the resident, who said she attended Boston University. She was cooperative with officers, who seized one keg of beer, one keg tap, and one piece of paper stating who was in charge of working the keg and door.
Suspect found sleeping in victim’s bed Officers resoponded to a report at 11 Linden Street around 3 a.m. on Sept. 6, and upon arrival the victim stated he had been sleeping when he heard a loud banging. He thought it was one of his roommates, but when he looked down he found the suspect sleeping in his roommate’s bed. Officers spoke to the suspect, who was extremely intoxicated and stated that he walked in and just wanted to go to bed. The victim stated that he didn’t want to seek complaints on the subject, instead wishing to go to bed. The suspect gave the victim $13 for the door lock that he damaged. There was no sign of forced entry, and officers were told that the front door was left open.
Dropkick Murphys ticket stolen A victim on 75 Gardner Street called the police at approximately 9:49 a.m. on Sept. 6 to report that during a breaking and entering on his apartment that took place at about 7:45 p.m. on Aug. 29, a book bag containing two tickets to the Sept. 8 Dropkick Murphys concert at Fenway Park, was also stolen.
- Courtesy of the Boston Police Department, District 14
The Heights
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Monday, September 19, 2011
McCann says not to be afraid to fail Plans to renovate lower level, as well Convocation, from A1
as well. He also spoke of the need for change in the world, referring to the new freshman class as the 9/11 generation and reminding them of their power to make a difference. McCann elaborated on the theme of renewal and change by bringing to the students’ attention the failure of the generations before them and reiterating that their failure was okay. This same theme was expressed by University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J. in his brief introduction. Leahy recalled seeing several students admiring the beauty of the newly remodeled Gasson Hall, as it was lit up in the evening. Those students admiring the building helped him to admire the simple, yet admirable attributes of the new freshman class. Before handing over the stage to the keynote speaker, Leahy expressed his expectations for the freshman class. “We want you to be a part of our community,” he said. “We believe in you. We want you to develop the gifts that are yours, and we also want you to give life back to Boston College.” McCann closed his speech with a call to action for the freshman class. “Do the things that do not compute, be earnest, and don’t be afraid of sentiment,” he said.
The evening’s events concluded with McCann taking questions from the audience. While some wanted to know about his personal life, most of the questions focused on his novel. McCann’s novel, which was the required reading for freshmen, revolved around Phillip Petit, who walked a tight rope between the Twin Towers in 1974. The event serves as a thread that connects the lives of the book’s characters. Let the Great World Spin has been hailed by critics around the world and earned the 2009 National Book Award in the United States, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and the 2011 literary award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A best seller on four continents, the novel builds a narrative around Philip Petit, a French acrobat who walked across a tightrope between the World Trade towers in 1974. The event serves as the backdrop to introduce other characters – an immigrant Irish priest and his brother, an aging prostitute, a Guatemalan nurse, a mother who lost her son in Vietnam, a judge, and an artist – each who become connected in some way throughout the story. Members of B C ’s G olden Anniversary class of 1962 also joined in the festivities as honored guests. n
O’Neill, from A1 and be seen,” Wall said. Wall, along with University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., an undergraduate student advisory board and a graduate student advisory board, worked together to create the concept and design. Their plan is to allow the room to be adjustable for students’ needs. “It was a collaborative effort and a collaborative space. That’s the BC way,” Wall said. The former reserves room will be integrated into circulation at the main desk just outside the room, and another area on the third floor was remodeled as a business center for printing, scanning, and technology assistance. Despite the completion of construction, there are still minor alterations to be made, like adding electric outlets and several display cases, as well as the creation of
Daniel Lee / Heights Staff
Students process down the Higgins Staircase before convocation.
CDBC, BC Reps discuss elections Elections, from A1
Daniel Lee / Heights staff
Rev. Joseph Marchese, S.J., the featured author Colum McCann, and Leahy (left to right) stand together on stage at First Year Convocation.
an official name for the room. The construction, which began in June, renovated everything from the ceilings to the lighting. “We’re trying to create more space. We needed more seating, and I wanted to capture the natural light,” Wall said. Having worked at Duke for eight years and Pittsburgh for 13 years, Wall has always worked with space. “Students crave light and space. I saw we were missing an opportunity here,” Wall said. Following the successful opening of the new reading room, plans are also in the works to do a similar renovation in the lower level. To expand the natural light, the blue book cases may be moved and new seating areas added. The goal of any library renovation, according to Wall, is to transform space without losing function. “It’s about form. It’s about transforming into a 21st century library,” Wall said. n
gressive agenda at BC,” according to Doffek. The event is held in tandem with the Women’s Resource Center and the Black Student Forum. The Republicans have also recently attempted to change their image, focusing on recruiting students from a variety of backgrounds who are “tied together by being a Republican,” said Dan Sologuren, BCR president and A&S ’12. The Republicans have over 1,400 listserv members with at least 80 attending a recent general membership meeting. Sologuren said that several club members are working with the campaigns of Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, both Republican candidates for the nomination for president in 2012. They also have a similar mentoring program to that of the CDBC, where interested freshmen are matched with mentors on the Eboard. The Republicans have plans to bring a large scale speaker to campus in the spring, though the details have not been finalized. Sologuren said they might have a small speaker in the fall.
Sologuren also hopes to coordinate with the Massachusetts Alliance of College Republicans (MACR) in order to assist in campaign efforts for Republican candidates. Both clubs are participating in the annual College Republicans and College Democrats dodgeball game this Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Plex. When asked about the upcoming 2012 elections, both presidents stayed true to their identities as Republicans and Democrats. Doffek predicted that Obama would win in 2012. “If there is one thing that Obama can do well, it’s campaign,” Doffek said. “I think he’s in a much better situation than the media is portraying him as.” Doffek pointed out that Obama ran one of the best campaigns in history for his 2008 election, and that he will almost certainly raise the most funds for a 2012 re-election. On the other hand, Sologuren said voters need only “look at Obama’s record” to realize a change in leadership is needed. “Americans need a leader that they can be confident in,” he said. n
PHE provides Concert moratorium makes campaign timely many volunteers Green Zone, from A1
Peer Health, from A1 in potentially harmful behavior. “The risks present to them can be lessened with education,” said Sarah Collier, co-coordinator of BC’s PHE chapter leadership council and A&S ’12. “Statistics show teenagers are engaging in risky behavior at alarming rates. One in four teenagers this past year was offered, given, or sold drugs on a school campus. One in five is overweight or obese. One in three is sexually active. PHE responds to this crisis, certainly not by encouraging any risky behaviors, but by explaining risks in a language they understand and in an environment in which they feel comfortable.” “Curriculum is developed by industry professionals and educators in the field, covering health topics from nutrition, to drugs, and alcohol,” said Greg Sacharoff, a member of BC’s PHE chapter leadership council and A&S ’12. “We stress a peer relationship with students. The workshops are based on conversations with the students.” “We don’t tell any of our students in any of the workshops that there is one decision they should make,” Collier said. “It is important for teenagers to have the knowledge and skills to make their own decisions.” Peer volunteers provide training to each other, teaching workshop topics and teaching methods. “What is frightening is that many of these activities stem from a lack of information,” Sacharoff said. “Many just don’t have the knowledge of what their actions mean. The program makes sure we comprehend the topics and can present them effectively. We want to help them understand issues better and take them into consideration.” Though instructed by college students, the program has been effective. According to organization statistics, 86 percent of students who received PHE instruction stated they have used something presented to them in the course to make a decision about their lifestyle, and 96 percent of PHE students expressed that they anticipate using the health information to make a decision in the future regarding their lifestyle. “Often times it is challenging to volunteer and find a way to feel like you are making a tangible difference,” Collier said. “PHE is great because it gives college students an opportunity to develop skill sets and make a noticeable difference.” n
Dunn, University spokesperson, and Michael Kitlas, UGBC president and A&S ’12. For Kitlas, the efforts synched with his stated presidential campaign goal of a “Rethink Drink Week.” “What they showed me was a very articulate, wellthought-out campaign that looked to create a safer environment for students, so I immediately jumped on board,” Kitlas said. Kevin Wickersham, vice president of Eagle EMS and A&S ’13, also helped to spur the initiative. “My primary reason for becoming involved in this campaign is that binge drinking is a major public health concern on campus,” said Wickersham. “In my work with Eagle EMS, I have seen many people who have suffered traumatic injury resulting from their own or others’ intoxication, and I have seen students that are in life-threatening condition because of their alcohol consumption. I consider any effort that can be made to reduce alcohol related injury and illness on campus to be worthwhile.” For their part, both Priest and Kitlas not only attested to the campaign’s value, but its timeliness. They cited earlier campaigns and the temporary moratorium on large-scale concerts in Conte Forum due to rowdiness, as reasons for the effort’s prescience. “The SIYGZ initiative is an extension of our ongoing efforts to keep student healthy and safe,” Priest said, referring to the Help Seeking Policy established last year that encouraged students to get help for their peers in cases of alcohol-related medical emergencies. “The SIYGZ is the next logical step in encouraging students to prevent getting to that level of intoxication where they might need medical attention.” While the campaign was not established as a remedy for the medical issues at on-campus concerts, Kitlas believes it is a good step toward creating an environment where concerts can return. “[The ‘Green Zone’ campaign] had a much broader scope and was mainly to address the entire drinking culture and even touch on the drinking culture surrounding tailgates at football games,” Kitlas said. “However, once I found out that concerts would be on hold, with one of the major reasons being medical transports, I saw this as a great way to support the efforts of UGBC in trying to get the concerts back for the student body.” For the time being, all parties involved urged students to head to bc.edu/greenzone for information on staying in the “green zone” as the campaign becomes more visible this fall. n
photo courtesy of the Office of health promotion
The poster for the new ‘Stay in your Green Zone’ campaign (above) encourages students to set a BAC limit of .05.
CLASSIFIEDS
A5
The Heights
Monday, September 19, 2011
Community Help wanted Babysitter wanted for sweet Sixmonth-old Newton parents and Boston College grads seek responsible, friendly Boston College student for babysitter. Must be available some weekdays and weekends. Car is a plus but not necessary. Please have references available. E-mail rcriccardella@gmail.com.
HELP WANTED Have you thought about adoption? Loving and devoted married couple hoping to adopt. We hope you will consider us in your options. To learn more, please call us toll-free at 1-877-841-3748, or visit our website www.roseanneandtim.com. Please be assured all conversations are held in strict confidence. With gratitude, Roseanne and Tim.
Help Wanted Looking for a Responsible Babysitter for our two children (8 and 11 -years-old). Tuesdays 4p.m. - 9p.m. Responsibilities include taking one of them to an afterschool activity so a car and a good driving record is a must. We live very close to BC. demler@bu.edu. Looking for a baby sitter? Contact classifieds@bcheights.com.
For Sale
“Let’s call it something like ‘Community’”
Directions: The Sudoku is played over a 9x9 grid. In each row there are 9 slots, some of which are empty and need to be filled. Each row, column and 3x3 box should contain the numbers 1 to 9. You must follow these rules: · Number can appear only once in each row · Number can appear only once in each column · Number can appear only once in each 3x3 box · The number should appear only once on row, column or area.
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A6
The Heights
Editorials
Quote of the week
For programming funds, less is more
Monday, September 19, 2011
“Yes is how you get your first job, and your next job, and your spouse, and even your kids. Even if it’s a bit edgy, a bit out of your comfort zone, saying yes means that you will do something new, meet someone new, and make a difference.”
—Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google, Inc.
In revising the budget for programs such as NOTH, groups should consider bolstering the University’s most popular programs Offering fun late-night weekend options is the proclaimed mission of Nights On The Heights (NOTH) and at times, the organization accomplishes what it sets out to do, with well-attended and overall successful events in last spring’s Ryan Cabrera concert and this past spring’s Nick Swordson comedy show as exemplars of its potential. More
If some of the money allocated toward NOTH were to be redistributed toward BC-to-Boston, this problem would be addressed and BC-to Boston would have the opportunity to offer more events. often than not, however, the myriad of events offered by NOTH suffers from a lack of recognition and participation from the Boston College community. As a result, we urge the current UGBC
administration, which made NOTH collaboration a campaign platform, to keep up the good work with its BC-toBoston events. The UGBC’s BC-to-Boston initiative has a similar aim to that of NOTH and since its inception, has been extremely effective in bringing students away from campus and immersing them in Boston culture, giving them opportunities to see various theater productions and sports events. With most of its events, the demand has exceeded the supply, which is a testament to both their its popularity and efficiency. This year’s UGBC administration led by Michael Kitlas, A&S ’12, has made it a point to bring that same attitude to campus programming. He plans to work closely with NOTH to boost their programs in quality and accessability. By honing in on quality programming, NOTH would be able to put on bigger and better events, draw larger crowds and put its funds to good use. It is important to note that BC already has other registered student groups dedicated to providing alcohol-free activities on weekends. However, in order for these groups to be effective, their events need to be accessible, appealing, and recognizable. A reconsideration of the student program funding scheme might help to achieve these goals.
Convocation book covers common ground Colum McCann’s novel ‘Let the Great World Spin’ parallels the experience of a BC undergraduate Freshmen at last Thursday’s Convocation got to hear from award-winning novelist Colum McCann as he addressed the subject of success and failure before the incoming class. McCann’s novel Let the Great World Spin (required reading for the freshman class) offers a snapshot of a socially pulsing New York City in the early 1970s. Those who read the book (we recommend it) might notice a valuable connection between the freshman experience at BC and that of the book’s characters. In McCann’s New York, a wealthy socialite finds solace
in her friendship with a black Harlm-ite; a bohemian artist befriends a wayward Irishman whose brother she killed. By the end, the characters, who initially shared only the city in common, melt into one cohesive snapshot of humanity. Here in the corner of Chestnut Hill, hours away from New York, almost 10,000 people are similarly brought together sharing only space in common. But, over the course of four years, those students who came with little more than their own experiences blend into a cohesive class with a colorful story. Here’s to a great year.
Extending the Superfan culture beyond Alumni Lesser known fall sports on campus are having stellar seasons and offer outlets for celebrating victory With the recent performance of this year’s football team, it has undoubtedly become harder for the average Boston College student be a true Superfan this fall. However, The Heights would like to
Look beyond the traditional definition of being a “Superfan” only for football games. Just because our football team is struggling doesn’t mean our BC spirit should too. draw attention to two teams that are truly excelling at their craft this season: men’s soccer and women’s field hockey. Unlike our football team, both teams are
ranked in the top 15 in the country, with men’s soccer ranked No. 11 and women’s field hockey No. 8 nationally. In addition, not only do these teams having winning seasons, but also have had a slew of thrilling battles against ACC opponents. This weekend, soccer won in overtime against Virginia Tech, while field hockey barely lost in overtime against defending national champions Maryland. The adrenaline felt at these games is contagious. Their home fields on Newton Campus may not have the same “Division I” feel as Conte Forum or Alumni Stadium, but something can be said for the amenities. Tickets are free, students can bring in hot chocolate and share blankets with their friend and not have to worry about the hectic nature of big scale events. Not to mention, they can cheer for a winning team. The Heights urges all students to look beyond the tradition of being a Superfan only for football games. Just because our football team is struggling doesn’t mean the BC spirit should too.
The Heights The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 Michael Caprio, Editor-in-Chief Daniel Ottaunick, General Manager DJ Adams, Managing Editor
Editorial
Clara Kim, Copy Editor Taylour Kumpf, News Editor Paul Sulzer, Sports Editor Kristopher Robinson, Features Editor Darren Ranck, Arts & Review Editor David Cote, Marketplace Editor Ana Lopez, Opinions Editor Dan Tonkovich, Special Projects Editor Alex Trautwig, Photo Editor Lindsay Grossman, Layout Editor Mollie Kolosky, Graphics Editor
Robin Miller / Heights Illustration
Letters to the Editor Keep it classy, BC As I watched the football game this past Saturday, I noticed a now-growing trend that I think needs to end. After Eagles first downs, the student section adds a rather inappropriate word to their chant. It adds nothing to the cheer and quite frankly falls well outside any sense of propriety. While I have been known to take part in my share of “Sucks to BU” chants, this one crosses a line because it adds nothing to the game and can’t possibly affect the opposing team. Honestly it just makes us, as students of
Boston College, look coarse and vulgar. We ought to hold ourselves to higher standards because that is part of what being a heightsman entails. I hope that there are other students who share my opinion and this foul chant will come to an abrupt and necessary end. Adam Gross A&S ’12
The Online buzz Reprinting reader comments from www.bcheights.com, The Online Buzz draws on the online community to contribute to the ongoing discussion.
(Spaz)zing Out
In response to “Falling From Grace,” by DJ Adams:
Saturday night was just a disaster on all levels. Smilin’ Gene will have to swallow his pride and ask Spaz to leave or fire him way before his 2015 contract ends. Really the only good thing that happened on Saturday was that Sloppy (referring to NC State coach Tom O’Brien) dropped a “what just happened” game on Wake. If they don’t do something Spaz will be playing in front of 15,000 people in the near future.... there are simply not enough people willing to pay that
kind of money to see a totally unprepared, undisciplined and unexciting football team. Having watched a couple of weeks of football now and seeing so many teams that are exciting and passionate, I would go so far as to say BC has been as bad as any team I have seen. I feel sorry for the kids as there is some talent there but this ship is sinking fast. S.O.S!
Anonymous
An Insensitive Approach In response to “How To: Stalk Your Crush,” by Christina Bechhold: This article is kinda sick. If you have ever been truly stalked, then you know that it is terrifying. I think you were trying to be funny but it is a little scary to think
that you should give out tips to would be stalkers. Maybe a trip or two to the WRC will educate you as to the reality of what it is like to really be stalked. Anonymous
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The Heights
Monday, September 19, 2011
A7
Opinions
Keep ‘The Shore’ in Jersey
Thumbs Up Give ’em the Boot – The leaves aren’t turning and organizing an apple picking excursion would be excessive, but there’s no denying that the first signs of fall are in the recently brisk air. While scarves and a light jacket are definitely appropriate, those fashion-illiterate trekking the Heights in Uggs are severely misguided. Those bad boys really should never be worn, but if you’re absolutely indebted to wearing glorified slippers that make you look like Chewbacca, please refrain until after Halloween.
Thumbs Down Chobanicrisis2011 – You’ve heard it touted in the worried whispers of nearly all of the BC campus – men and women alike are up in arms at the prospect that, alledgedly, their dietary staple, Chobani Greek yogurt, may be pulled from the shelf due to “quality control concerns.” While TU/TD is in favor of avoiding food-borne illness as much as the next co-ed with the luxury of being borderline foodobsessed, there’s something fundamentally wrong about stripping the dining halls of something as prolific and celebrated on this campus as Superfan shirts. Join in @ BCTUTD’s dialogue on the crisis at #Chobanicrisis2011. Abandoning Apathy – With the dawn of the second week of school, the social and academic acclimation period is officially over. No longer can conversations revolve purely around the unimaginative question, “What did you do this summer?” or “How was abroad?” or class commitments be put second to … basically everything. Things just got real, real quickly. Rock Bottom – It’s probably not a good sign when one of the most trending Twitter threads on your campus on gameday revolves around how the head coach should be fired. Though fans were kept entertained by the football team’s honest attempt at victory until the end of yesterday’s game, we’re still awaiting the day when playing community cornhole in the Mods isn’t the peak of the BC football experience. The End of a Twopenny Era – Alright, so it’s only an increase of a dollar, but the recent price hike at Mary Ann’s has the of age population at BC in a tizzy motivated in part by low funds and in part by the fact we’ve lost our claim on frequenting the last place in the developed world that charges only $2.50 for a mixed drink. Might as well go to Cityside – after all, their upstairs typically features a dance party reminiscent of a sweet 16. Unequal Exchange – In the search for alternate health foods on campus, those recovering from the Chobani crisis will turn to the salad bar. Though BC’s salad bars often leave much to the imagination in terms of what they could offer, they leave absolutely nothing in the wallet. Charging nearly $11 for a bed of iceberg lettuce topped by a wimpy grilled chicken breast? Not everyone is paying BC Dining Services with monopoly money. Eating smart at these prices just isn’t sustainable. Twitter: @BCTUTD
Tim O’Connor Do you “work hard?” Do you “drink harder?” Do you “have friends who would throw fists for you,” know “bartenders who would pound fifths with you,” and “have a body that everyone is jealous of?” If so, throw on your best Southie accent, find your “Yankees Suck” T-shirt that is still covered with vomit from when you got wicked drunk at your last Sox game, and start filming your audition. BaDaddy Productions, working in conjunction with one of the executive producers of MTV’s The Jersey Shore, recently announced an open casting call for The Real Beantown – an attempt to bring the Shore model of reality show here to the Bay State. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. In 2010, Doron Ofir Casting tried to garner interest in a similar program entitled Wicked Summah. Thankfully, no one with the funding or connections to actually produce and air a television show took notice, and we were all spared the sight of a Paulie D. lookalike swaggering down Commonwealth Avenue. With Beantown’s notable early support, however, things could be different. MTV has yet to comment on the proposed show, but the mere association with Jersey Shore – which Summah lacked – lends the project a bit of credibility. Let that sink in for a moment: The Real Beantown actually has the potential to reach the airwaves. I can honestly (and rather proudly) say that I’ve never actually watched an
entire episode of The Jersey Shore. Of course, I’ve found myself in situations where Shore unexpectedly creeps onto the screen when I’m at a friend’s place. People gather around to watch and, not wanting to be a bad guest, I’ll usually oblige without complaint. The problem is, 15 minutes into the show I’ll find myself twiddling with my phone or talking in the corner with a similarly disinterested misanthrope. It never holds my attention. When I ask people to explain the appeal, it’s usually something along the lines of, “I like watching drunk people do stupid things.” In my defense, I love doing stupid
lowbrow entertainment. God knows I’ve watched – and enjoyed – some terrible TV shows in my day, and if you get kicks out of Shore, more power to you. I’m more concerned about the damage a show in Shore’s style could do to a city that I love. I never really had much regard for New Jersey to begin with, but the exploits of The Situation and Co. certainly haven’t done much to boost my opinion, even though I know that it’s all a scripted joke. On some subconscious level, Jersey (the show) and Jersey (the place) are forever linked in my mind. That’s what will happen to us, in the eyes of the world, if Beantown doesn’t die a well-deserved death before it ever gets out of production. But the effect will reach far beyond mere reputation. Imagine heading down to Mary Ann’s on a Friday night with a few friends, looking to enjoy the evening in that usual spot along the back wall that you always crowd into, only to find not-Snookie lambasting your favorite bartender in her most heinous imitation of a Boston accent. Rather than hang around and risk getting slapped by a living caricature, you say, “Screw it,” and head home to Mollie Kolosky / Heights Illustration watch the Sox. Unfortunately, the other half of the Beantown crew is things, particularly if I have a couple attending the game, and you miss the of drinks in me. I like watching my final pitch of Lester’s no-hitter because friends do stupid things, and I enjoy the cameraman was more interested doing stupid things with them. Occain grabbing a shot of not-Ronnie and sionally, I don’t mind watching people not-Vinnie getting into a brawl with a I don’t know do really stupid things on couple of actors posing as Yankees fans. YouTube. What I can’t stand, though, is If this “reality” show becomes realwatching amateur actors with sprayity, nothing you love about Boston is on tans and steroid-built bodies fight safe. The persistently late Green Line, for an ounce of celebrity in front of Fenway Park, and perhaps even Boston MTV’s cameras, particularly when it College itself will become nothing but is punctuated by crappy commercials set pieces in a terrible farce, and the every 15 minutes. They are actors, by rest of the world will judge us for it. the way. Literally actors. Same with The Trust me, folks: we don’t want this. Bachelor[ette], Survivor, and every other “reality” show out there. Hope I didn’t Tim O’Connor is a staff columnist for ruin Santa Claus for anyone. The Heights. He welcomes comments at Don’t get me wrong; I’m not reopinions@bcheights.com. ally here to disparage your choice in
‘Tis the season...to be sick?
Pooja Shah As September rolls around the corner, everyone knows that this is an undeniable reminder to go back to the comforts of Chestnut Hill and reimmerse into school mode. The last of golden beach glows fade away, homecooked meals are sadly replaced with instant ramen or Easy Mac, and cups of subsequent coffee next to Red Bull and 5-hour Energy shots are the key to all-nighters. This time I was prepared to take on the year, and to make sure I altere d my pre v iously established bad habits. Thanks to the housing gods who did not punish me this semester, I landed a kitchen in Edmond’s that inclined me to replace my guilty coffee obsession with green tea. My fridge remains lined up with gallons of milk, cartons of orange juice, and an abundance of fruits and vegetables which are a huge upgrade from typical mozzarella sticks and french fry cravings. I finally starting taking advantage of the Plex that conveniently only took 45 seconds to get to from my new residence. Yet, no matter how confident and careful I was about my healthier lifestyle, the thing I dreaded most happened: I got sick. Being sick while you’re in college
comes with a limited number of perks. For one, your roommates will feel obligated to do anything you ask them to (especially if you are a freshman and are attempting to become best friends with your direct in the first month). For the upperclassmen, bonding while being ill becomes an opportunity to strengthen existing relationships— this is a conclusion based on evidence that tomato soup and baked cookies go a long way. If you’re among the fortunate who have a boyfriend or girlfriend that live in the building over, that’s the ideal chance to give your relationship its ultimate test. But for the most part, being sick
walking to and from class. In the event that your hands are dirty, avoid touching your face, especially eyes, mouth, and nose. Believe it or not those are the most common channels through which germs and bacteria are spread. As college students, scheduling sleep into our routines always seems optional, but not getting enough sleep is probably one of the primary no-nos of college. How many times following one or two straight nights of staying up really late or surviving on less than three hours of sleep do you feel like you might come down with something? Sleep causes your body and brain to reenergize, which is important no matter how much work you have to get done. A last recommendation is to remember to get your annual flu shot. Nobody enjoys getting painful injections to Mollie Kolosky / Heights Illustration prevent illnesses, stinks. You don’t have your but taking this mother or father to take care of you, minor step could avoid putting you out going to see a doctor requires precious of commission for several days. Yet, study time, and attempting to do work if you are convinced that you will not with a runny nose or swollen eyes, is be vulnerable to the virus’ clutches, mostly unproductive. then continue to remember to eat well, Although, there is no magic remedy drink lots of water, and take your vitato prevent getting sick, there are cermins. If you fail to do all those things, tainly precautions that one can take. avoid stress. Not only does it cause I’m sure that most of these suggestions bad acne and bloating, it’s not healthy have already been ingrained in your for you. mind or can easily be found at the If you are lucky enough to be one of infirmary, but better to be safe, and the five percent who does not ever get reinforce them, than to be sorry. sick, then you can thank your mom for For one, obviously wash your hands forcing you to eat an apple a day. as often as you can. If you are not a frequent washer for whatever reason, Pooja Shah is a staff columnist for The there are multiple Purell and hand Heights. She welcomes comments at sanitizer dispensers found all over opinions@bcheights.com. campus that are accessible as you are
Bazoomie Wagon | Ben Vadnal
Call me Scrooge
Janine Hanrahan Suppose that over the course of four years, you pay someone $200,000. It is no small sum, especially when you consider that it amounts to $50,000 a year and the median household income in America was $49,500 in 2010. For just one service, you’ve paid more than the median American household makes in a year. It is unbelievable. What is even more unbelievable is that this person suddenly asks you for a gift. How greedy can he get? Well in this case, it is not a person, but a university. Boston College to be specific. After four years of paying for tuition, housing, books, meal plans, the infirmary, parking permits, and everything in between, BC expects a gift from the senior class. In order to facilitate our giving, they provide us with a piggy bank in which we should put our spare change. In the event that we forget the piggy bank is there, the University sends us e-mails from “The Pig,” reminding us that it is not the amount that counts, but participation. How nice.
Mollie Kolosky / Heights Illustration
BC is obviously not alone in asking for a gift from its senior class and the tradition is one that is long standing. But I cannot help but be irritated by the fact that nothing is ever enough for BC. Sophomore year, when I was sent to the infirmary against my will, was it free for me to stay there? No, even though a campus health fee is included on the tuition bill. Junior year, when I was offered work-study, did BC help me find a job? Nope. Now here it is, senior year, and it is time for me to pony up my “spare change” for the future of BC. Undoubtedly, the benefits I have received from my BC education are innumerable. In the three years that I have been here, I have taken excellent classes, studied with outstanding professors, participated in clubs, attended lectures, etc. But none of it has come for free, nor should it. But where is all of this money going if there is a dire need for the senior class’ spare change? According to the FAQ page about the senior gift, the University is funded by tuition, endowment, and alumni giving, but, “Almost half of the endowment is already spoken for, and the University doesn’t actually like raising tuition in order to make BC a better place. Gifts from alumni make the difference!” Whether or not BC “likes” raising tuition, that hasn’t stopped them from raising it every single year in spite of income stagnation among the American population. What about the sports teams, doesn’t BC make enough from them? The senior gift website informs us that the athletics department requires an annual $9 million subsidy from the University. If the football team keeps playing the way it has been, I guess they really are going to need our pennies. Why else might BC need the senior class’s nickels and dimes? It turns out that alumni donations are a factor in the US News and World Report college ranking system. The senior gift website says, “The higher BC’s ranking, the more valuable a BC degree is to all alumni.” Fair enough. Although the senior gift may do quite a bit of good, I personally would like to graduate before BC starts giving me the shakedown. Once I have a real job, maybe then I’ll start writing checks. But as of now, my spare change is going towards my $146 course pack that I can neither sell back nor return. It is also going to the overpriced food in the dining hall. And it’s getting left on the counter at Mary Ann’s. For now, I think $200,000 is quite enough for BC. Janine Hanrahan is a staff columnist for The Heights. She welcomes comments at opinions@bcheights.com.
The Heights
A8
Free concert at Boston’s Hatch Shell showcases new and old performers MIXFest, from A10 Fans took to their feet as Michelle Branch skipped onto the stage as the opening chords of “Everywhere” rang out. Sadly, her performance was lacking in soul, and at times felt weak and listless. It was a thrill to rediscover some of her hits, like “Are You Happy Now?” and “Goodbye to You,” but the audience did much of the heavy lifting, chanting the choruses as Branch looked on with a goofy smile. It could be that Branch’s voice was overworked, as evidenced by her confession that she was in the middle of a three-day promotional mega-tour of the country. Fans didn’t seem to mind when her voice stalled, filling in the gaps for her quite ably. Surprisingly, Sara Bareilles was third to perform. Of the bill, her star shines brightest, and her fan base is the most ardent of the bunch. Headliner or not, Bareilles blew the crowd away with her surprisingly cheerful demeanor and stellar showmanship. She briskly breezed through both hits and lesser-known cuts. Her “Many the Miles” gained a new sense of urgency as Bareilles plunked away at her piano keys, inviting the audience to join her in clapping. A dog howled his approval during the piano intro
of “Love Song,” as did nearly every member of the crowd. Bareilles closed her set with her most elegant song, “Gravity,” a number that brought with it sweeping waves of silence among concertgoers. Bareilles possesses a quietly commanding presence, one that was felt in abundance on the quickly cooling Saturday afternoon. It was the perfect ending to her concise but enjoyable set. It become quickly apparent that Bareilles had pull over the audience. As soon as she exited the stage, throngs of people swarmed the exits, clearly unaware of the spectacle that was about to unfold. The remaining audience, which still numbered in the thousands, was largely unfamiliar with the next act, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. “Boston’s the biggest city near my home,” said Potter in a preshow interview backstage, pointing out that, “It’s basically my home away from home!” Following an afternoon of soft rock, Potter and her band was the perfect antidote to a quickly tiring crowd. As she entered to the fiery “Hot Summer Night,” unfamiliar audience members cocked their heads. Potter’s blistering guitar playing was a jolt to the mellow crowd, but quickly most people were on their feet, thrashing about like they were
at the original Woodstock. During her last song, the blond-haired vixen disappeared and emerged quickly with a giant stuffed tiger that she flung into the audience as she ran about the screaming spectators. A slinky number, “Paris (Ooh La La)” pulsed with life with Potter’s inconceivable howls that never strayed off key. Potter and her Nocturnals have been touring for the greater part of two years now, but they still manage to bring an unbridled enthusiasm to all of their performances. It is abundantly obvious that this tight-knit bunch of musicians loves the band, loves the experience, and loves the fans. Lifehouse, a Nickleback-esque group that has its established hits but is widely ridiculed, took the stage last, performing to a widely empty audience. The set was as chilly as the temperature, the sun now as absent as the crowd. It was an unfulfilling end to an otherwise nostalgic and rollicking afternoon filled with singalongs and chocolate covered strawberry snacks. Luckily, the impact of the first four performers far outweighed that of the “headliner,” had the promoters chosen to end with the “Happy Birthday” ode to Boston, the memories would have been far grander. n
‘I Don’t Know How’ this movie ever got made
Monday, September 19, 2011
‘Lovers’ intrigues and engrosses paint giant pictures that inform the readers of idiosyncrasies that every relationship has. “Deciduous, adj. -- I couldn’t believe that one person could own so many shoes, and still buy new ones every year” and “flagrant, adj. – I would be standing right there and you would walk out of the bathroom without putting the cap back on the toothpaste”. Every few words or so, the narrator ruminates on some aspect of love and life, and these passages are always ridiculously spot-on. The definition for ubiquitous (adj) is pitch-perfect in its description of the pervasiveness of love: “When it’s going well, the fact of it is everywhere. It’s there in the song that shuffles into your ears. … It’s there as you open the door… It’s the temperature. The hitch, of course, is that when it’s going badly, it’s in all the same places.” The Lover’s Dictionary is masterfully put together, compulsively readable, and perfect for some quick pleasure reading. At 211 pages, it can easily be consumed in between Plato and the next awfully long orgo chapter. n
‘Lovers,’ from A10 life. No matter how many words there are, there will never be enough.” Despite the jumps from the fond memory of a lovely evening, “contiguous, adj. – you nestled in and whispered … I knew you understood,” to the bitterness wrought by the affair, “corrode, v. – I spent all this time building a relationship. Then one night I left the windows open and it started to rust,” the story is kept together by its sincerity. The reader is extended an open invitation to the narrator’s constantly shifting thoughts as he goes through the motions of deciding whether or not to stay with his cheating lover. At the word leery, the narrator says ‘It’s over,’ but at persevere, “You started to cry, and I quickly said, ‘No—I mean this part is over. We have to get to the next part.” By the end of Levithan’s lexicon, there remains a gnawing sense of uncertainty, and the ultimate fate of the relationship is left undefined, but there is also a sense of satisfaction and satiated voyeurism. Expertly crafted one-liners
Box Office Report title
weekend gross
weeks in release
1 photos courtesy of allmoviephoto.com
1. The Lion King: 3D
29.3
1
2. Contagion
14.4
2
3. Drive
11.0
1
Courtesy of Allmoviephoto.com
Star Sarah Jessica Parker loses the wittiness that made her ‘Sex and the City’ character so engrossing in ‘I Don’t Know How She Does It.’ By Therese Tully Heights Editor
The latest chick flick to grace the silver screen, I Don’t Know How She Does It, is quite simply forgettable. The movie shows us the lives of Kate and Richard Reddy, and their two small children Emily and Ben. At the i don’t know how heart of the she does it: story, we see Doug McGrath Kate, a workWeinstein Co. ing mother, struggle to stay above water as she juggles her high – powered job in the financial world, motherhood, friendship, marriage, and keeping her sanity. The movie falls flat in scene after predictable scene, and moviegoers are left asking, “What was the point?” In her maternal role, Kate, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, struggles to be a better mother than her own was. We see her trying to dress up a store bought pie, to make it look homemade, for her daughter’s school bake sale. She, as the working mother, is contrasted with the so-called good mothers, who don’t work. Kate believes they are perfect, but we see them as self-centered, and bored. The audience roots for Kate, who is usually appareled in a disheveled JCrew chic look, as she tries to balance it all. She really looks like such a mess. Kate and her husband Richard’s relationship is very one – dimensional. Kate appears to be the breadwinner of the
B+ C-
family, though Richard, played by Greg Kinnear, is hardly colored as a resentful husband. They argue after Kate accepts a big opportunity at work, causing her to travel more and more, become busier and busier, and disappoint the family time and time again. Richard shows little emotion, and any conflict that occurs between the two of them is shut down in mere seconds. There is no passion in their relationship, so when things inevitably fall apart when Kate starts traveling weekly from their Boston home, to New York, the audience feels little sympathy for the characters. Kate and Richard’s relationship is so unrealistic, and they switch from sickeningly sweet to dull and drab from one moment to the next. They spend their time constantly apologizing to each other, and sympathizing to every emotion the other feels. No real conflict exists in their relationship. Though it appears that the director is trying to convey a message about modern gender roles in marriages and relationships, the film ends much too unrealistically. At the closing scene, everything turns out too neatly, and all the loose ends are tied up. Real life is a lot messier then it is portrayed in I Don’t Know How She Does It. The movie doesn’t even attempt to show the protagonists’ hardships. For example, they mention in passing that they are having financial troubles, but we see no one desperately at the end of their rope. In following with the cliched story lines, Kate starts spending a lot of oneon-one time with her new boss, Jack Abel-
hammer (Pierce Bronson). Predictably, subtle hints of flirtation begin cropping up, although none are blatant enough to warrant much attention. A small kiss on the cheek while on a business trip, and the flirtatious e – mail sign off of “XOXO Jack,” are hardly enough evidence to justify his proposal that they run away together at the end of the movie. These moments are extremely reminiscent of the classic You’ve Got Mail, as they message over the computer, in a few unoriginal scenes. Kate rejects him kindly, and runs into Richard’s waiting arms, magically solving all of their problems. Though the film did attempt to cover some thought – provoking topics such as gender roles in relationships, not one issue was investigated in depth. The movie should have been a lighthearted, fun couple of hours, but instead tried to tackle everything from friendship, marriage, motherhood, careers, temptation, and judgment. The film could have succeeded with simply some more witty dialogue, or more romantic scenes - the only two ingredients necessary to make a perfect chick flick. I Don’t Know How She Does It tries to cover too many topics, and in doing so, covers none of them effectively. Every issue explored, has no heart. Nothing is delved into deeply enough to evoke any emotion in the viewers. Overall, the movie is successful if all you are looking for is a few hours of mindless entertainment in a cool, dark movie theater, far away from your homework. n
4
10
4. The Help
6.4
6
5. Straw Dogs
5.0
1
6. I Don’t Know How she does it
4.5
1
7. the Debt
2.9
3
8. Warrior
2.7
2
9. Rise of the planet of the apes
2.6
7
10. Colombiana
2.3
4
bestsellers of hardcover fiction 1. Kill me if you can James Patterson 2. the race Clive Cussler 3. Dark Predator Christine Feehan 4. A Dance with Dragons George R.R. Martin
5. The art of fielding Chad Harbach 6. Prey Linda Howard 7. Pirate King Laurie R. King 8. Flash and Bones Kathy Reichs
‘Straw Dogs’ remake hits just as hard as the original film By Joe Allen Heights Staff
“Everyone has a breaking point.” The tagline of the Straw Dogs remake couldn’t be more fitting, retelling the story of a mild-mannered man who is increasingly provoked until he taps into a violent nature he didn’t know he had. Straw dogs: In 1971, Sam PeckinSam Peckinpah pah (director Screen Gems of The Wild Bunch) released the original Straw Dogs, a psychological thriller starring Dustin Hoffman. The film was a small hit, yet wildly controversial, featuring brutal violence and a hard-to-watch rape scene. Aside from the dark subject matter, however, Straw Dogs remains a great movie. So, what of the remake starring James Marsden and Kate Bosworth? While not quite as impactful as its predecessor, the new Straw Dogs is an impressive effort to bring a twisted (but mesmerizing) tale to a contemporary audience. Writer and director Rod Lurie changes the thriller’s setting but makes few changes to the actual plot. This is still the story of a man who is pushed one too many times. Well-off L.A.
B+
screenwriter David Summer (Marsden) and his actress wife Amy (Bosworth) move back to Amy’s Southern hometown so that David can quietly write his next film. The couple hires some blue-collar guys from Amy’s childhood, including her high school boyfriend, Charlie Venner (Alexander Skarsgard), to rebuild the farmhouse roof on their secluded property. As the film progresses, tensions between the Summers and Venner’s gang escalate. The confederate flag-waving, football-loving work crew doesn’t respect the somewhat feminine David. But when Venner, his friends, and football coach Heddon (James Woods) take matters one step too far on the Summer’s property, David finds he will go to surprisingly violent lengths to protect his house and keep his honor. As this is a story of a meek, “principled” man becoming a killer, Marsden was a perfect casting choice. The actor has previously starred in 27 Dresses, Hairspray, and other films that most guys would have to be dragged to see. In Straw Dogs, it feels like both Marsden and his character are discovering their manhood, which makes the whole movie that much more refreshing to watch. Kate Bosworth also steps up in the film, playing David’s wife with passive-aggressive
gusto. One of the most interesting aspects of the original film was the tense relationship between husband and wife. Bosworth and Marsden bring that tension to the remake, increasingly straining the couple’s relationship as Amy pesters David for not standing up to the degenerate bullies. When Amy repeatedly hisses “You’re a coward” to David late in the film, the line really stings. Rounding out the main cast is Alexander Skarsgard as the main antagonist. For those who don’t know the actor, Skarsgard is frequently one of the most entertaining actors on HBO’s True Blood. The Swedish actor brings his A-game in Straw Dogs, creating a character who is always menacing but who also hides a small, small hint of humanity inside of him. Back to the big question: Is the 2011 Straw Dogs as good as the original? No, but it comes close. What the movie lacks is the quiet atmosphere of Sam Peckinpah’s version that made the film’s ever-mounting tension all the more unbearable. Lurie’s remake is generally louder, featuring much more music and dialogue. While the music sometimes enhances the movie’s mood, the additional conversations often only state the obvious. Marsden explaining the film’s title on-screen
is particularly forced. On the other hand, the remake actually improves on the original in a few surprising, specific ways. The new film’s greatest achievement is creating a better ending, an accomplishment which most remakes couldn’t even fathom. As the “hard-to-watch rape scene” implies, Straw Dogs isn’t for everyone. The movie has a pitch-black premise and is absolutely devoid of any moral compass. All of the characters in-
volved make horrifying decisions throughout the film, but still, many people in the audience cheered when David’s pride took over. Why? Probably because David and Amy are relatable characters and because the film illustrates a very human instinct to hurt those who hurt us. The movie increases the tension so well that its final 25 minutes become a cathartic release. While Peckinpah executed this end move brilliantly, Lurie’s version follows closely behind, often in exhilarating fashion. n
Courtesy of Allmoviephoto.com
‘Straw Dogs’ touches on violence in gender issues as James Marsden attacks his demons.
The Heights
Monday, September 19, 2011
Questioning the worth of Disney’s latest 3-D cash out ‘Lion King,’ from A10 sion? Companies seriously market 3-D film as if it’s the biggest thing since the invention of television. Which studio executive looked at Jaws 3-D, that unforgettable, SeaWorld-heavy, Dennis Quaidstarring delight, and said, “We should make this all the time now?” 3-D film technology has actually existed since the 1950s, but most studios found it too costly to become a major part of the film industry. Since the early 2000s, however, companies such as Disney and IMAX have found a way to market 3-D films. A few films have used this technology to enhance their films, with Avatar being the gold standard. I have to stress the phrase only a few films. Many 3-D films are actually shot in 2-D and are then converted to 3-D with a relatively cheap post processing technique. This result is many a 3-D film that looks only slightly three-dimensional and which has a lower picture quality than its 2-D counterpart. Not only does a 3-D film often prove to be a lower quality viewing experience, but it also costs a considerable amount more to see. Put it this way: it’s Friday night and you have $20. Are you going to spend a whopping $15.50 to see the battle for Pride Rock on a darker-than-average screen (thanks to the 3-D glasses) and four dollars on Skittles, or are you going to spend $16 on a case of Natty Lite and the change on an ill-advised 1:30 a.m. trip to Che-Che’s? Hopefully, 3-D in film will be kept in check by its strong incompatibility with the majority of films released each year. Studios thankfully haven’t tried to thrust 3-D upon most comedies or any dramas yet. The day when Samuel L. Jackson is saying “Mmhmm. That is a tasty burger,”
while fast food is popping out of the screen would be a dark day indeed. TIME Magazine declared in 2009 that 3-D is “the future of movies.” How can that possibly be the case? Movies have experienced many innovations since their birth, from the invention of film audio to Technicolor; from CGI to IMAX. Can the nausea-inducing, high-cost, picture quality-decreasing, mediocre spectacle that is the majority of 3-D films seriously make this list of inventions? Troublemaker Studios has already answered that with a “yes” and has decided to take things to the next level. Enter Spy Kids 4-D this past summer. “What could 4-D possibly look like?” one might ask the director, while picturing some kind of knowledge-expanding utopia that will bring humanity to the next stage in its evolutionary cycle. Writer-Director Robert Rodriguez would then answer, “No, we just hand out scratch and sniff cards before the movie.” One critic for the Orlando Sentinel noted that cards included smells such as “burnt artificial blueberry syrup.” TIME got it wrong. These “Aroma Scope” cards must be the future of movies. For those readers who disagree with my assessment of 3-D, I’ll admit that I’m a bit biased against the concept due to the fact that I already wear glasses. My dislike at being called “Six Eyes” during a movie aside, it’s hard to argue that 3-D is often little more than a gimmick. Thankfully, declining 3-D ticket sales this year might point to the moviegoer’s 3-Disenchanment. I can only hope that 3-D film’s fall comes before I have to review a Cats and Dogs sequel.
Joe Allen is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at arts@ bcheights.com.
Courtesy of Allmoviephoto.com
Does ‘Lion King’ need a 3-D remake? Joe Allen weighs out the pros and cons of the situation.
A9
A look at what’s coming to theaters this fall 50/50 With next week comes a comedy-drama about a man who is diagnosed with cancer and combats the disease with the help of Seth Rogen. To answer the immediate question: No, Judd Apatow is not releasing Funny People again. This new film, 50/50, stars Joseph-Gordon Levitt as the unlucky guy who struggles with his everyday life after his diagnosis. 50/50’s story is based on reality, as it is loosely based on its screenwriter’s personal experiences. Writer Will Reiser became sick while working on the set of Da Ali G show with Seth Rogen and some other friends, who urged him to write a screenplay about his experience and who later served as the film’s producers. Aside from the serious subject matter, 50/50, which costars Anna Kendrick and Angelica Huston among others, promises to be funny. Proof of this lies in the trailer, which already gives us one of the funniest movie quotes of the year (“I have cancer,” isn’t a good pick-up line, apparently). -Joe Allen Tower Heist In November, Eddie Murphy co-stars in a film that isn’t a sequel to Shrek or Daddy Day Care. Enticed yet? The movie actually places Murphy in one of his most missed role types, the wisecracking action comedy star. Finally! This upcoming movie, entitled Tower Heist, also stars Ben Stiller and features a well-known supporting cast, which includes Alan Alda and Matthew Broderick. Tower Heist tells the story of workers (led by Stiller) who conspire to rob their rich boss (Alda) after he involves them in a Ponzi scheme against their knowledge. To pull off the robbery, they’ll need the help of a low-level criminal, played by Eddie Murphy (finally!). Brent Ratner, the man behind the Rush Hour series, as director offers further proof of the film’s lighthearted approach. -JA The Thing It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s … The Thing. As Hollywood continues to burn through its ever-decreasing stash of original ideas, another remake-cum-prelude of a mediocre horror film joins the fall 2011 movie roster. The plot centers on some strange goingson at a scientific base in Antarctica. 2011’s film features Kate Lloyd, a paleontologist played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who stumbles across a suspicious looking alien spacecraft buried in the ice. Among the ruins, she and her team discover a bloodthirsty, dormant organism that is about to awaken. Keeping true to the original plot,
the alien life form has the deadly ability to mimic anything it touches, including humans. Lloyd and Carter, the crew’s pilot played by Joel Edgerton, must work together to prevent the parasitic creature from killing them all. - Christine Zhao
Anonymous In this fall’s upcoming drama Anonymous, director Roland Emmerich (2012, The Day After Tomorrow) tackles one of the biggest conspiracy theories in the literary universe: William Shakespeare (played by Rafe Spall) may not have been the author of the works attributed to him. Though there are many alleged “true” authors, this particular film will focus on Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (Rhys Ifans) and the incestuous lover of Queen Elizabeth I. A smattering of political intrigue is thrown into the mix as the tension between the Tudors and the Cecils over the succession to the throne rises and the Essex Rebellion threatens the queen’s hold over the kingdom. Armed with a spooky trailer and tagged with the incendiary question, “Was Shakespeare a fraud?” the film is sure to stir up some controversy of its own. - CZ Hugo Featuring a who’s who of British actors, Hugo is director Martin Scorcese’s first ever children’s movie, another experiment in the legendary man’s storied career. Fresh off a horror movie (Shutter Island) and a documentary (George Harrison: Living in the Material World), Scorcese now burdens himself with the tricky task of adopting a Caldecott Medal winning book with very few words into a feature length film. Though difficult to sum up as beautifully as the novel does, Hugo follows a young boy, who has been ostensibly abandoned by his father, as he tries to survive on his own in a Paris train station in the 1930s. Scorcese has certainly lined up the right cast for the job. In the role of Hugo is newcomer Asa Butterfield, coming off of minor roles in Nanny McPhee Returns and The Wolfman. Playing a friend and confidant of Hugo’s is the unmeasurably talented young Chloe Moretz, who only gets impossibly better with each role she takes. - Brennan Carley The Artist In his latest buzz-worthy project, director Michael Hazanaviciu creates an opus that is just as self-reflective as it is stylistically intriguing. The Artist, a concept piece already experiencing murmurs of Oscar consideration, takes an immediately appealing story of two jazz-age film stars
and sets it on a complimentary backdrop that brims with both nostalgia and renewal. The basic premise aside, the true drawing point of The Artist is the inventiveness of its chorographical theme: the movie is, itself, a “modern silent film.” From the trailer alone, one can plainly see a cast brimming with talent and an auteur with a true and honest vision. The homage to the silent film age is painstakingly crafted, but the use of new and superior technology gives the film a unique and intriguing charm. - Matt Mazzari The Rum Diary Enter the world of sun and sand in The Rum Diary, a take on Hunter S. Thompson’s hectic debut novel of the same name. Thirteen years since his lead role in another Thompson tale, Fear and Loathing Las Vegas, Johnny Depp continues his showcase of the famous writer’s catalogue by starring as disillusioned journalist Paul Kemp. Bored of the clamor New York City, Kemp travels to the sunny and stress-free island of Puerto Rico. Conforming to the traditions of Caribbean culture, Kemp dives head first into the world of rum-induced carousing. In the midst of the endless partying, Kemp sets his sights on Chernault (Amber Heard), a stunning and affluent fiance of a local businessman named Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart). Written and directed by Bruce Robinson, The Rum Diary is a dive into the crazed genius of Hunter S. Thompson at the beginning of his extensive writing career. - Dan Siering Ides of March Ides of March is the highly anticipated, tension-filled, political drama of this fall season. Starring Hollywood favorites, George Clooney and Ryan Gosling, the film takes place during the final days before the Ohio presidential primaries. Governor Mike Morris, played by Clooney, is the hardcore, liberal candidate determined to win at any cost. Gosling, in turn, plays his up-and-coming, idealistic press secretary. A chain of events finds Gosling involved in a political scandal that may overturn the governor’s shot at the presidency. Based off the play by Beau Willimon, the political thriller is sure to be full of lies, scandal, drama, and betrayal. Clooney directed the film himself and brings forth well-known names such as Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, and Evan Rachel Wood. The cast combined with a plot full of drama and scandal makes Ides of March a must-see fall movie. - Katie Lee
Courtesy of Allmoviephoto.com
Carey Mulligan returns to film as a mysterious neighbor whose husband (Albert Brooks) plans a raucous crime.
‘Drive’ a moody tribute to the film noir ‘Drive,’ from A10 (Carey Mulligan), a woman who has been singlehandedly raising her son while her husband is incarcerated. The movie’s first act serves as a means to establish both the pace of film and the relationship of the characters. In this portion, Winding Refn is not afraid to show long takes of the Driver cruising down the dark L.A. highways or the two budding lovers locked in each other’s eyes. The modern action movie fan might see these scenes as tedious and redundant, yet Winding Refn is simply using this deliberate introduction to build a foothill of suspense. The plot then picks up its pace when Irene’s husband is released from prison and returns to his family. While he initially backs away from Irene upon her husband’s return, Gosling’s character quickly throws himself back into the affairs of his neighbors after he discovers that Irene and her son could be in danger after her husband is not able to pay a debt to his former employers. As he looks to protect his love interest, Gosling’s character plunges into the trenches of the Los Angeles underworld and quickly discovers that he is involved is something much bigger than a simple payment of debts. In this turmoil, Winding Refn takes the time to reveal the emotional and moral depth of his main character. The opening scenes peg the Driver as a suave renegade that most audience members will champion. It appears that he has a strong moral compass but has perhaps caught a few too many bad breaks in his life. Yet as the Driver digs deeper into the crime
world, the integrity that is implied in the opening scenes slowly disappears. The lewd acts of torture and ferocity that the main character employs in his search for Irene’s safety and ultimately his own satisfactions forces the audience to seriously question his sanity. Gosling’s subtle style of performance gives his character a chilling sense of mystery. Be prepared to leave the theater with a redefined sense of Gosling’s character for those who only see him simply as the sappy Notebook romantic. Winding Refn places his character study on a stunning landscape of classic noir cinematography, a feat that won him best director at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Using minimal lighting throughout the film, the viewer never seems to be able to see Gosling face in its entirety. There are only partial glimpses – the flash of headlights of oncoming traffic or the single spotlight in the auto shop. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the viewer is never able to fully understand the complexity of the elusive character. Whatever Winding Refn’s reason, Drive is perhaps the most visually stunning crime drama since The Departed. Gosling’s plunge into his convoluted character study is also aided by a superb lineup of supporting characters. Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) employs his signature style of desperate and overwhelmed as the Driver’s liaison in both the criminal and movie industries. Mulligan (An Education) does her best to evoke strong emotions out of her critical yet limited role. However, the real star of the supportive cast, is film legend Albert Brooks. Whispers of Oscar nominations are already in the air for Brooks, who came out of semi-retirement to play the sociopathic crime boss Bernie Rose. n
A10
arts&review Monday, September 19, 2011
Wicked Cultured
Getting to Know the City Charlotte Parish There is such a thing as a dumb question. Teachers have lied about this not being so. I know there are dumb questions because all of them get asked when you work at a business that interacts with tourists on a daily basis. Obviously they don’t know the city, for which I cut them some slack. But when you are asked if an 80-person boat is airlifted onto the dock, you have to wonder where people get their ideas. Even so, working on a boat tour of the Charles River this summer (as in, I was the person saying, “If you look over the bow on your left, you will see the John Hancock tower…”) I gained a novel appreciation for the city. First of all, I do not think I have ever been on the Charles before this summer. Honestly, The Standells really turned me off from “that dirty water,” so the kayaks and wind surfing boards were never much of a draw. Even so, there is no excuse for such a travesty. Then – horror of horrors – after spending days pointing out some of the most impressive sights in Boston, I realized that I have only been to them a handful of times. Although my frequent haunts of Boston are ones that most tourists will never see, it still seems wrong to have neglected some of Boston’s most famous spots. Thus, my fall goal is to be a tourist (minus the wide-eyed confusion). Take the Hatch Shell for example. Almost everyone who came on the boats asked me to point it out – which by the way is difficult because of trees, and it is oh so much fun to have a fiveyear-old perpetually saying, “Where? Wait, where?” – but I have only been there for one day of the year, the Fourth of July. As spectacular as that show is, this weekend’s MIXFest was much more my speed than the Boston Pops. One of the best MC moments of the show was hearing “Grace Pottah and the Nocturnals” said about three times in a row with the strongest of Bahston accents. I still can’t decide if they did it on purpose or actually deny the existence of the letter ‘r’ like so much of the city. After the claims that Boston is essentially the second home of Vermont-bred Potter, Grace and her unbelievably talented band took the stage. The fact that she is perfection and essentially everything I strive to be in life is beside the point. There’s a whole other column waiting for the worshipful rant about her voice. What I really loved about this performance was the venue. There is a special place in my heart for all outdoor concerts because I think they are far more entertaining and authentic, even if sound systems seem to go on the fritz more frequently. Right next to the Charles, two blocks from the Common, and in view of the John Hancock, the Hatch Shell is a lovely center of Boston, a tucked away gem that you can easily miss when touring, but absolutely should not. Especially if GPN is in town because they know how to work large crowds, turning the autumn picnic into an upbeat, on-yourfeet performance. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on how other bands handled the majesty of the Hatch Shell because driving in Boston is still the most atrocious thing in the world. In fact, it can cause hour-long delays if you’re waiting for someone to make the cross town trek from Tufts. But that is a story for another time, and I still made it in time to see Grace in all her glory. Plus it turns out that the MGH stop is about a one-minute speed walk from the Hatch Shell, so proximity to the subway is another check in the column of reasons that the Hatch might be my favorite venue in the city. One last note: although it is in fact shaped like half of a shell, the site is called the Hatch Shell. As in Maria Hatch the benefactor. If you ask boat tour guides about the ‘Half Shell’ everyday and insist that you, the tourist, have the name right, they may get a bit peeved. You have been warned.
Courtesy of flickr
MIXfest brought a slew of artists, including alternative group Lifehouse, blues singer Grace Potter, rocker Michelle Branch, and ‘The Voice’ winner Javier Colon, to Boston.
Musicians ‘Mix’ it up at Hatch Shell Radio festival brings an eclectic crew of artists for performance
“W
Brennan Carley| Assoc. Arts & Review Editor
ho is that?” screamed the little boy from atop his father’s shoulders as the sun set over the audience at the DCR Memorial Hatch Shell late on Saturday afternoon. He, among countless other families, college students, and dogs were part of the thousands-large crowd watching Boston’s annual MIXFest, free for the first time this year. The masses were the most laid-back and appreciative seen in a long time; children played football between sets and babies were seen munching on cotton candy and caramel apples. The vibe of the day was overwhelmingly
positive and relaxed. The first to take the stage was arguably 2011’s most popular reality show winner, Javier Colon of The Voice. Though alone, Colon passionately ripped through his songs with fervor uncharacteristic of the early hour. His heartfelt take on “Time After Time” was mesmerizing thanks to his use of an acoustic guitar, magically sweeping over the massive audience. “I can’t thank you guys enough for voting for me and supporting my endeavors,” he said before breaking into a cover of “Stitch by Stitch.” His was the most pleasantly surprising performance of the afternoon.
MIXfest Sponsored by Mix 104.1 Boston Featuring Javier Colon, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Michelle Branch, Lifehouse, and Sara Bareilles When Sept. 17 at 3:30 p.m. Where The Hatch Shell
See MIXFest, A8
Less is more in the heartbreaking ‘Lover’s Dictionary’ By Christine Zhao Heights Staff
When some authors who predominantly write for the young adult sector attempt to transition into the grown up world, the product can be as awkward as the process of puberty itself. David Levithan does not have this problem. His debut adult novel, The Lover’s Dictionary, is written with the same level of poignancy as his young adult cult favorites Boy Meets Boy and The Realm of Possibility. The novel is written in the form of a dictionary, with a different word head-
ing each page. Levithan uses about 200 words to describe love, from “aberrant” to “zenith.” Each word’s definition provides a snapshot of a relationship gone awry. The narrator is straight-laced, dependable, and potentially nerdy. He comes from a stable family with loving parents. His lover, in contrast, is charming, but enigmatic. Their gender is also never clearly defined – something that is surprisingly easy to overlook.
Since the lover drinks often, the narrator describes their drunken state as aggressive, sometimes cruel. The protagonist’s lover comes from a dysfunctional family with divorced parents who left her (or him) traumatized and disenchanted by love. The two meet online, an incident described by the first word, aberrant – “adj. we comforted ourselves with what we really meant to say which was ‘I don’t normally feel this good about what I’m doing,” – and begin a whirlwind romance that quickly progresses to moving
in together. Early on, the cause of the growing chasm between the narrator and his untamed beloved is revealed to be unfaithfulness on the lover’s part. Levithan demonstrates his etymological prowess with the definition for infidel – “n. we think of them as hiding in hills – rebels, ransackers, rogue revolutionaries. But really, aren’t they just guilty of infidelity?” Right before this is perhaps one of the best parts of the book, in which Levithan describes the sheer impossibility of writing about love through
See ‘Lovers,’ A8
The new age of film ushers in the return of the ‘King’ Joe Allen For the next two weeks, the 1994 Disney classic, The Lion King, is being rereleased into theaters nationwide. Anyone searching for a good family film should drive to the nearest theater immediately. But wait! The Lion King isn’t just being rereleased. No, Disney is releasing it in 3D. Let me further emphasize for the sake of clarity. 3-D! Any time in the next two weeks, people can go
to their local cinema and watch Simba kick Scar’s a— in three dimensions. We’re talking so close that you feel the rush of wind as Simba dashes through crazed wildebeast. Close enough to smell Pumbaa’s body odor. To taste the grubs! I’m talking about in-your-face 3-D! Eyepopping, heart-stopping, JAW-DROPPING, CHART-TOPPING 3-D! For two weeks, the circle of life is gonna be redefined, baby! Perhaps that was overkill. But have you seen a promotion for 3-D recently, either in the movie theater or on televi-
See ‘Lion King,’ A9
this issue
Gosling thrills in ‘Drive’ By Dan Siering Heights Staff
Emerging from a hip concoction of muscle cars, poppy synthesizers, and good old-fashioned blood and guts, Drive is a calDrive culated and Nicholas thrilling ride Winding Refn that keeps both Bold Films your stomach and emotions churning. Designed as an ode to the classic noir tales of the ’70s and ’80s, director Nicholas Winding Refn artfully reveals an intricate and unique
A
Charlotte Parish is the Assistant Arts & Review editor of The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com
i nside Arts
Courtesy of allmoviephoto.com.
Despite playing a nameless character, Ryan Gosling brings depth and soul to his portrayal.
Movie Preview
After a lackluster summer, this fall promises to wow filmgoing audiences with these new releases, A9
I Don’t Know How She Does It
Does the new Sarah Jessica Parker comedy do its job as well as her character does?, A8
layer of character depth that grays the line between hero and villain. A crime drama has not been this compellingly chaotic in some time. Set in the urban Los Angeles jungle, Drive centers around an unnamed main character simply known as the Driver (Ryan Gosling) who spends his days performing stunt car chases for movies and his nights performing real life getaways for petty criminals. Amid the fury of his double life, the Driver begins to fall for his quaint neighbor, Irene
See ‘Drive,’ A9
Bestsellers..............................A8 Box Office Report........................A8
SPORTS The Heights
Monday, September 19, 2011
Section
B
Monday, September 19, 2011
conference realignment
Syracuse and Pittsburgh accepted in 14-team ACC Conference approved applications yesterday; it is unknown when the move will take effect By Greg Joyce
Assoc. Sports Editor As teams across the country keep moving from one conference to another, the conference realignment fiasco has finally hit home for the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University applied and were accepted as the newest members of the ACC, the conference announced yesterday morning. Since the Big East requires 27 months notice and a $5 million exit fee, it is unknown when the move will take effect. “The ACC has enjoyed a rich tradition by balancing academics and athletics, and the addition of Pitt and Syracuse further strengthens the ACC culture in this regard,” ACC Commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. “Pittsburgh and Syracuse
also serve to enhance the ACC’s reach into the states of New York and Pennsylvania and geographically bridges our footprint between Maryland and Massachusetts. With the addition of Pitt and Syracuse, the ACC will cover virtually the entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States.” For Boston College, this is an important addition to the conference. Before the move, the closest team to BC was Maryland. Now it will have opponents closer on the map, which could help develop better rivalries within the ACC. Pitt and Syracuse are coming from the Big East, the conference that BC left in 2005. Two other former Big East members, Virginia Tech and Miami, are also key ACC members, having made the official
See Realignment, B5
Coaching errors need to have real repercussions Alex Trautwig / heights editor
Lars Anderson (87) consoles Nate Freese after the sophomore kicker missed the go-ahead 23-yard field goal with under a minute left in the game.
Eagles kicking themselves over mistakes By Steven Principi Heights Staff
As Nate Freese’s last field goal attempt clanged off the left upright, the Duke sideline 20 Duke erupted in celBoston College 19 ebration. Facing the Blue Devils (1-2, 1-0 ACC) in a game that they needed to win, the Boston College Eagles (0-3, 0-1) lost in dramatic fashion. With an early loss to the perennial conference doormat, the Eagles need to act quickly to turn around a season that is quickly slipping away. “I think our guys played hard again,” head coach Frank Spaziani said. “We didn’t make enough plays. We had a
chance to make some plays, we just left some of them out there. Both offensively and defensively, as well as in the kicking game.” The Eagles jumped out to a 19-14 lead at the half, following an impressive two quarters from sophomore quarterback Chase Rettig. However, the offense was unable to get anything going in the second half, and Rettig ’s performance seriously dropped. Meanwhile, the Blue Devils moved the ball almost at will against a defense that ranked No. 13 in the nation in total defense just a season ago. Junior quarterback Sean Renfree tied a school record with 40 completions on 52 attempts, and
threw for a whopping 359 yards. The vast majority of these yards came on a variety of short passes underneath the 10-yard cushion BC’s defensive backs gave the Duke receivers. “That’s kind of what our defense is,” Kuechly said. “We play that soft coverage and let that stuff happen. But what we can’t let happen is those two deep balls. They had those two deep balls in the first half and that’s kind of what got to us today.” On the other side of the ball, BC’s offense almost disappeared after the break. Outside of their last drive, the Eagles mustered only 54 yards of offense
See Football, B4
Paul Sulzer When Nate Freese clanked a 23-yarder off the left upright with under a minute left against Duke on Saturday, Boston College lost more than the game. It lost hope. The Eagles are 0-3 for the first time in 20 years. In that time, they’ve endured a gambling scandal, conference realignment, and four coaching changes. None of those challenges have fazed them. The program has been solid but unspectacular. Just four years ago, BC was a top 10 team after going 11-3. The Eagles had a high-powered offense led by Matt Ryan, who threw for 4,500 yards. They scored 48 offensive touchdowns. Here are their offensive TD totals since then. 2008: 35. 2009: 38. 2010: 23.
Assoc. Sports Editor After losing a two-goal lead early in the second half, things were looking down for the No. 11 BosBoston College 4 ton College men’s Virginia Tech 3 soccer team on Friday night. But thanks to Charlie Rugg’s head, the Eagles pulled out an exciting, 43 overtime win over Virginia Tech on the Newton Campus Field in the ACC home opener. With the game tied 3-3 after 90 minutes of play, the two teams entered a sudden death overtime period. Two minutes in, Kyle Bekker had the ball in the right corner of the field, and delivered a beautiful cross into the middle of the box. All of a sudden, Rugg leaped above everyone else
and headed the ball into the back of the net for the win. “I just saw Charlie leaping like six feet above everybody else,” head coach Ed Kelly said. “I didn’t know where he came from. It was a great goal. He leaped so high and just buried it.” It was Rugg’s fourth goal of the young season, and one that he knew he needed to score after coming up short earlier in the game. “Going into the overtime, I was thinking I had to do whatever I could,” Rugg said. “I had had a few opportunities earlier in the game that I was a little too hesitant on. So I had that in mind to make sure I didn’t do that. I just saw an opportunity and went for it.”
See Men’s Soccer, B6
By Steven Principi Heights Staff
i nside S ports this issue
See Field Hockey, B2
See Women’s Soccer, B6
alex trautwig / heights editor
BC beats No. 4 Connecticut Asst. Sports Editor
alex trautwig / heights editor
and really sharp. We were in a very good place emotionally. Our intensity was at the right level. And it just really clicked for us tonight. Our ball possession was incredible. That’s been something we’ve been working, keeping the ball and just trying to maintain possession of it. I think that we really applied that today.” Lamb felt that this ability to maintain possession was the key to the Eagles’ impressive scoring. “[The ball possession] really gave our attacks a lot of opportunities,” she said. “And when we went to goal, we went in high numbers, not just one person or two people to the goal. It was high numbers to the goal.” Anna Wetherall had the decisive goal on Sunday after breaking through with a
The Boston College women’s soccer team continued its strong start to the season with a 2-0 Boston College 2 win over Virginia 0 Virginia Sunday on Newton Campus Field. The No. 18 Eagles (6-0-2; 1-0-0 ACC) got second-half goals from Casey Morrison and Stephanie McCaffrey in order to hand the No. 14 Cavaliers (7-2-1; 1-1-0 ACC) their first conference loss of the season. The Cavaliers controlled possession for the majority of the first half, but neither team was able to find the back of the net. The Eagles defense played strong and did well to limit the chances against them. Virginia then upped the pressure after the break, forcing keeper Jillian Mastroianni to stay alert. The score stayed deadlocked into the 52nd minute, when McCaffrey took advantage of a mistake from some shaky defense. She picked off a bad back pass intended for the Virginia keeper on the edge of the box and calmly placed the ball into the bottom right of the net. About 15 minutes later, Mastroianni was forced to make a diving save to her left from 15 yards. She managed to get a hand on it and push it past the post to keep her team up a goal. Not long after, in the 70th minute, Casey Morrison put the game away on a penalty kick. After Stephanie Wirth had
Wetherall (20) had the best weekend of her career as an Eagle, scoring the game-winner vs. UConn.
By Chris Marino
Charlie Rugg outmuscled the Virginia Tech defenders to get the ball in dangerous positions.
See Losing Hope, B4
Surging soccer team defeats UVa
Rugg’s header seals OT win for men’s soccer team By Greg Joyce
The Eagles have four touchdowns this year, putting them on pace for a season total of 16. In four years, BC’s production has been reduced to a third of what it once was. There are no good excuses for the recent ineptitude. The blame starts and ends with the coaching staff ’s poor clock management and questionable play calling. The coaches have to put the players in the position to succeed. Consider the following errors head coach Frank Spaziani and his staff made against Duke: 1. After Chase Rettig found Colin Larmond, Jr. deep for a 57-yard gain, BC had the ball on the Duke 7-yard line with 1:26 left in the first half. The clock wasn’t a factor because the Eagles were so close to the end zone, yet they called a timeout, leaving Duke with enough time to mount a drive should BC score. Andre Williams ran for a touchdown on the following play, giving the Eagles a 19-7 lead after Freese missed the extra point. 2. The Eagles squibbed the ensuing kickoff, a common tactic to prevent long returns at the end of the half. But there
In the second game of a tough weekend stretch, the No. 8 Boston College field hockey reBoston College 3 bounded from Connecticut 1 its 4-3 overtime loss against No. 3 Maryland. Travelling down to the University of Connecticut, the Eagles (6-2, 0-1) were up against perfection in the form of the No. 4 Huskies, who were riding a 6-0 record. BC moved past its devastating Friday night defeat and came away with a 3-1 win in Storrs, Conn. Head coach Ainslee Lamb was impressed with her team’s early game success. “I don’t even know how to explain it,” she said. “We just looked really confident
Amit Aburmad feature
Get to know the star winger on the men’s soccer team who got his start in Israel...............B6
Fans should put the game before grilling
Why should fans expect excellence at Alumni when they’re not even there for the game?......................B5
Numbers to Know.....................B2 Quote of the Week......................B2
The Heights
B2
Monday, September 19, 2011
Castle leads volleyball to success at Seton Hall Invitational tournament By Kim Schroer For The Heights
ALEX TRAUTWIG / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Wetherall’s two-gowl performance against Maryland and game-winner vs. UConn were huge.
Eagles defeat No. 4 Huskies Field Hockey, from B1
two-goal performance against the Terrapins. The graduate student did not waste any time in giving her team the lead. In the first few minutes of the game, she scored on an unassisted goal. Heading into the weekend, the New Zealand native did not have a single goal on the season. Also scoring for the Eagles were senior Carla Tamer and freshman Emma Plasteras. Tamer recorded her team-leading seventh goal of the season. Her score came in the 17th minute off a penalty shot. Goalkeeper Nicole Barry continued her strong play in the cage, recording three saves for the day after a strong performance on Friday night as well. “It’s kind of an obvious statement but you cannot win those games without great goalkeeping,” Lamb said. “And that’s what Barry gave us. On both Friday and Sunday, she gave us great goalkeeping. I don’t care how good you play, you have to have that in order to compete with the No. 3 and No. 4 teams in the country. So she put us in a position to win these games this weekend.” The closest UConn came to the Eagles was just after halftime, when Cara Silverman put one past Barry on an assist from Chloe Hunnable.
Plasteras provided some cushion for her team with 15 minutes left in the game. The forward received a pass from junior Kara Machintire and crushed a shot into the back of the net to make the score 3-1. BC has been unbeatable on the road so far this season, currently at 3-0. Lamb credits this to the work ethic of the players. “We just try to keep things very consistent in our game preparation and whether we’re at home or away, we just try to follow the same routine and same itinerary and stuff,” she said. “I don’t think it’s anything we try to do differently at away games. I just think that they’re just better prepared for those games.” This win was also the second over a ranked opponent for the season. The team will next travel down to Charlottesville, Va., to face ACC foe Virginia. The team will look to use this weekend’s momentum to push through the season. “I think that to split this weekend when playing No. 3 and No. 4 is a huge accomplishment,” she said. “But then to take No. 3 into overtime and to score three goals against No. 3 and then beat No. 4 is a really good sign. I think that what I am most excited about is that these kids really deserve all of these accolades, these opportunities, so I am excited to have these positive results for all of their hard work.” n
Three BC players had double-doubles in the match, marking the first time since 2006 that women’s volleyball has achieved this feat. Sophomore Cagla Sen and Castle each had career nights in the loss. Sen posted a season-high 44 assists and a career-best 20 digs, while Castle added a career-best 14 kills and 15 digs to keep the Eagles in the match. Senior captain Tsvetelina Dureva contributed with 21 kills and 14 digs. Campbell was encouraged with the team’s ability to fight back after yet another slow start. “I was quite happy with the team’s ability to stay focused,” Campbell said. “The fact that we came back after getting so far behind is a step forward.” The Eagles’ record now stands at 4-7 heading into ACC play this week. BC was just 1-19 in conference play last season, and Campbell is hoping that his young team will perform better this year. “ We’re star ting to for m an identity,” Campbell said. “We’re still very young and trying to learn a new system, but this weekend’s performance was encouraging for us.” With such a young team and a tough conference schedule, the Eagles have a challenging road ahead of them. The ACC is one of the most difficult conferences in the country for women’s volleyball. Despite this, Campbell remains optimistic about his team’s chances in the conference. “The ACC is strong and getting stronger. Every single team is better than they were last year,” Campbell said. “There’s no easy matches, but with Courtney coming back strongly this weekend and finishing the tournament with a victory, I think we’re starting to figure out who we are as a team.” The Eagles open conference play this Tuesday at 5 p.m. against Maryland. They hope the momentum of their tournament victory Saturday will fuel them to a strong performance against their first ACC opponent. n
The Boston College women’s volleyball team ended its trip to the Seton Hall Invitational tournament on a positive note Saturday, sweeping New Jersey Institute of Technology in three straight games, 25-17, 25-16, and 2515. The victory concluded an encouraging weekend for the Eagles as they improved significantly in each game heading into conference play next week. Freshman Courtney Castle led the way for the Eagles against NJIT with nine kills, five digs, four blocks and four aces. The performance was especially impressive considering Castle has been out with a stress fracture for the last month. Head coach Chris Campbell was pleased by the strong performance. “The fact that Courtney was able to come back almost completely cold after a month off and have a game like that is very encouraging,” Campbell said. “Especially heading into ACC play next week, it is great to see her back at full strength.” Freshman Kellie Barnum was also instrumental in the Eagles’ victory, adding a match-high 12 assists to go along with two kills, three digs, and a couple of aces. Junior Krystle Higgins chipped in with seven kills and five blocks while posting a .429 attack percentage. Saturday’s victory was even more significant considering the team’s slow start. In Game 1, the Eagles were swept by TCU, 2517, 25-16, and 25-15. Although Castle had another strong game with eight kills and nine digs, the Eagles were unable to overcome a slow start. Campbell attributes the loss to the team’s inability to start quickly. “We didn’t start well at all against TCU,” Campbell said. “We fought our way through it, but we weren’t able to close.” After the disappointing loss, the Eagles bounced back with a gutsy performance against tournament host Seton Hall in game two of the tournament. Despite falling behind early 2-0, the Eagles managed to push the Pirates to the limit before falling in five sets, 25-19, 25-19, 17-25, 18-25, and 15-8. ALEX TRAUTWIG / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Field hockey loses heartbreaker to Maryland in overtime on Friday By Chris Marino Asst. Sports Editor
SPORTS in SHORT
The No. 8 Boston College field hockey team entered the weekend in hopes of taking down the No. 3 Maryland Terrapins on Friday. Despite a hard fought fight at the Newton Sports Complex, the Eagles (5-2, 0-1 ACC) came up just short, losing 4-3 in overtime. The Terrapins (6-1, 1-0) began the scoring with an unassisted goal by Maxine Fluharty. The freshman launched a low shot at the 23-minute mark. BC responded within 10 minutes, though, on a penalty shot by Carla Tamer. It was the sixth goal of the season for the senior. The Eagles quickly took the lead when graduate student Anna Wetherall scored her first of two goals, putting BC up 2-1. Wetherall and sophomore Nicole Schuster performed an effective give-and-go to set up the go-ahead score. Fewer than two minutes into the second half, Maryland evened the score. At the 36th minute, with Eagles goalkeeper Nicole Barry blocking a Terrapin corner, Megan Frazer sent back the rebound. The Terps pulled ahead nine minutes later when Katie Gerzabek chipped in a corner by Ali McEvoy, making the score 3-2. BC nearly came back to tie the game once again on a breakaway by sophomore Virgynia Muma, but her shot missed the net, leaving the Eagles trailing with the clock ticking down. With less than six minutes left to play, Lamb pulled Barry out of the match to send out an extra fielder. This move, however, only evened the playing field, as BC had been playing down a player due to an earlier yellow card. The decision nearly proved costly, as junior Kara Mackintire made a clutch defensive stop to
hold the one-goal deficit. She was the last line of defense between the Terrapins and an empty net. The Eagles put together a solid drive in Maryland territory and with just over a minute left, Wetherall scored the equalizer. “She’s obviously a veteran player,” said head coach Ainslee Lamb of Wetherall. “It’s very exciting to watch her come into her own a little bit.
ALEX TRAUTWIG / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Carla Tamer helped lead the Eagles this weekend by scoring her seventh goal of the season in one of the contests.
ACC Football Standings Atlantic
Wake Forest Maryland Clemson Florida State NC State Boston College
Coastal
North Carolina Duke Georgia Tech Virginia Tech Virginia Miami
Conference 1-0 1-0 0-0 0-0 0-1 0-1 1-0 1-0 0-0 0-0 0-1 0-1
She was late in arriving to campus, because she was waiting for selections to the New Zealand Olympic team. So she’s really just sort of found her own, got more comfortable in our system and our style of play. And I think she’s just really having fun playing and feeling comfortable. And therefore I think it’s allowing her to perform at the level she is now.” With less than a minute left to play, the Ter-
Overall 2-1 1-1 3-0 2-1 2-1 0-3 3-0 1-2 3-0 3-0 2-1 1-1
Numbers to Know
6
The number of shutouts for women’s soccer goalkeeper Jillian Mastroianni this season.
8
The men’s soccer team’s number of program victories against Virginia Tech after Friday’s overtime win.
19
The football team’s season high in points scored in Saturday’s loss to Duke.
rapins came close to putting the game away on a corner, but senior Courtney Tavener stopped the shot, leaving the teams level at the end of regulation. Barry was a wall in overtime, shutting down the Terps with two huge saves. One shot came with eight minutes left in overtime by Jill Witmer, but the senior was able to keep it in front of her. The other potential game breaker came in the form of a corner, which Barry was able to reject. The senior had a solid night in net with eight total saves against a strong Maryland attack. Despite her greatest efforts, however, Barry faced too much pressure in the extra frame. On a cross from Jemma Buckley, Fluharty knocked in the rebound for her second score of the night and the victory. Despite the close score, the Eagles were outplayed in several aspects of the game. They were outshot 22 to nine and did not have a single penalty corner compared to 11 for the visiting team. The Terps were in possession more consistently than the Eagles, resulting in more scoring opportunities Regardless, the Eagles took advantage of their few opportunities and were able to come back from difficult deficits. Looking back on the competition, Lamb recognized advancements in the team’s growth and mentality. “I think what’s really significant for us this year is that we used to go into these games against Maryland and obviously later this weekend against UConn thinking that we had to be playing an outstanding, perfect game in order to compete with them,” she said. “I think what it’s like now is that we’re at a level now with our hockey and preparation and performance that we know we can compete with the top programs in the country.” n
Quote of the Week
“I trust [Freese] on every kick. No matter what the situation is, he’s going to put it through a great percentage of the time.” — Luke Kuechly, on
teammate Nate Freese
Monday, September 19, 2011
The Heights
B3
The Heights
B4
Monday, September 19, 2011
The sad state of BC football Losing Hope, from B1 was too much time on the clock. Duke took over on its own 37 with 1:21 left and all three timeouts. Four plays into the drive, Sean Renfree hit Conner Vernon for a 21-yard touchdown to trim the deficit to five and kill BC’s momentum heading into the half. 3. On their final drive of the game, the Eagles had the ball on the Duke 31, down 20-19. Andre Williams rushed off tackle to the left for a 17-yard gain. BC hurried to the line and spiked the ball with 1:01 left, even though the clock wasn’t a factor because the Eagles were within Freese’s field goal range. This was a critical mistake because it saved the Blue Devils a timeout, which they would have needed if BC had scored. Spiking the ball also cost the Eagles a down they could have used to score a touchdown instead of settling for a field goal attempt. 4. After Williams ran nine yards to the Duke 5, BC faced third-and-one from
the left hash mark. Knowing that the Eagles would have to kick a field goal if they didn’t pick up a first down and that Freese’s confidence might be shaky after missing the extra point earlier, the coaching staff should have called a run to the right to center the ball. Instead, Williams ran to the left for yard loss. Freese attempted the kick from the left hash mark and missed. The staff ’s call to run left on BC’s final third down of the game doesn’t excuse Freese for choking on a chip shot. He directly cost the Eagles a chance to win this game. But he shouldn’t have been in the position in which he had to attempt that kick from where he did. Freese’s miss is a symptom of the problem. Spaziani’s decisions are the disease. The only way to restore the hope the program has lost is to cure the disease.
Paul Sulzer is the Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@ bcheights.com.
Alex Trautwig / heights editor
Frustration set in for the Eagles after Nate Freese’s final miss doomed BC to its first 0-3 start in 20 years. Freese also missed an extra point earlier.
Mistakes cost BC winnable game vs. Duke Football, from B1
Alex Trautwig / heights editor
After Larmond, Jr.’s 57-yard reception, BC gifted Duke seven points with poor clock management.
in the second half and failed to add to the two-point lead they took into the locker room. Rettig had trouble throwing down the field. Although he connected with Colin Larmond, Jr. for a 57-yard pass in the first half, he often missed open receivers. He was quick to accept the blame for some of the throws, stating that it was something that he needs to improve on going forward. “There were opportunities throughout the game,” he said. “We took a lot of them. There’s one that will stick with me,
it was to Bobby (Swigert) in the second half. I just didn’t have a really good vision of where he was at the time and I was kind of throwing to a spot. I have to deliver a better ball there.” Despite their struggles on both sides of the ball, the Eagles had a chance to win with under a minute to play. With the ball on the 6-yard line, Nate Freese came in for chip-shot, 23-yard field goal. Having already banged one extra point off the upright earlier in the game, Freese took the kick from the left hash mark and delivered it directly into the left post, ending any chance the Eagles had. A number of teammates attempted to console the
devastated sophomore, who spoke of his miss after the game. “I caught the ball off the inside of my foot a little bit,” he said. “That made it head to the left and it ended up hitting the upright. Every loss is tough, but you’ve just got to come out tomorrow, get back to basics, and hopefully get a win.” The Eagles have to play smart, mistake-free football to get in the win column for the first time this season. That starts with hitting open targets, closing down better on receivers, and focusing on kicks. Unless BC gets back to basics, things will get worse before they get better. n
Old Big East rivals join newlook conference Realignment, from B1
Alex Trautwig / heights editor
Left: Students received red bandanas upon entering the stadium in memory of Welles Crowther. Right: Luke Kuechly roamed sideline to sideline to establish a new career-high in tackles.
Football Notebook
Kuechly wraps up career-best tackle mark in loss By Alex Manta Heights Editor
Amid the heartbreak and frustration that came with Boston College’s 20-19 loss at home this weekend to Duke, one player had another outstanding day on his way to becoming one of the best at his position in school history. Junior linebacker Luke Kuechly set a new career high in tackles with 23, 17 of which were solo. The player with the next-most tackles from either team had 11. Kuechly registered 11 in the first half alone. He also pushed his streak of consecutive games with at least 10 tackles to 25, which remains the longest current streak in college football. The combination of BC’s soft zone coverage and Duke’s tendency to throw bubble screens to wideouts and checkdowns to tailbacks meant that Kuechly was constantly running sideline to sideline trying to hold Duke’s players to minimal yards after the catch. Although BC’s run defense was pummeled in the first two games on 99 carries for a total of 512 yards, Duke ran the ball just 26 times for 86 yards. Duke’s focus on the aerial attack instead was evident throughout, as the Blue Devils finished with 55 total attempts through the air, of which they connected on 43. Kuechly did not record any fumble recoveries or interceptions in the game, as the ball bounced just out of his reach several times. Kuechly’s leadership
skills were evident not just on the field, but also off it in the form of support for his kicker, Nate Freese, who missed a 23-yard field goal that would’ve given the Eagles a 22-20 lead with 43 seconds left in the game. “I trust [Freese] on every kick,” he said. “No matter what the situation is, he’s going to put it through a great percentage of the time. If [the kick] is there again, I’m going to let him kick it again.” Offense comes up short in Brock’s debut Tight ends coach Dave Brock got his first crack at the offensive coordinator role this weekend as Kevin Rogers remains on a leave of absence. While the team did manage to score 19 points in the first half, the offense was completely ineffective in the second half and wasn’t able to add onto their total. The Eagles finished with 328 total yards, 220 of which came in the first half. The play selection slightly favored the passing game with 34 passes for 247 yards and 25 rushing plays for 81 yards. “I thought the play calling was good, and I felt comfortable,” quarterback Chase Rettig said. “When I got out there, it was like I was seeing the scout team.” The pass protection did improve, giving up only one sack compared to the seven the line surrendered in the first two games. The offense managed only 17 first downs in the game, with just six coming in the second half. Rettig completed 52 percent of his passes to eight different
receivers, but struggled to connect on throws of 10 or more yards. Welles Crowther honored The family of former BC student and lacrosse player Welles Crowther was honored on the field between the first and second quarter. BC fans gave a standing ovation to the family whose son died after saving many lives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In commemoration of Crowther’s heroic efforts on that day, BC distributed approximately 6,000 red bandanas to students, since he always carried one of his own everywhere he went, including the World Trade Center. Crowther’s family helped hand out the bandanas before the game. Odds and ends Defensive back Jim Noel recorded his first interception of the season on a pass that bounced off a Duke receiver inside the red zone. Noel gained possession and got one foot inbounds just before his momentum carried him onto the sideline. BC’s linebackers turned in a total of 44 tackles in the game. Kuechly lead the team with 23 while Kevin Pierre-Louis and Steele Divitto each broke into double digits having 11 and 10, respectively. Tahj Kimble got into the end zone for the first time in his BC career on a 31-yard screen pass in the first quarter. n
move in 2004. “The ACC is a strong united conference that is only going to get better with the addition of the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University,” said Duke University President Richard Brodhead, chair of the ACC Council of Presidents. “Both schools are committed to competing at the highest level of academics and athletics. We welcome them as full partners in the ACC.” The move puts the ACC in position to potentially become the premier basketball powerhouse conference in the nation. Both Pitt and Syracuse have consistently been in the Top 25 for basketball over the past decade. Another possible benefit of the new additions could be a new location for the ACC basketball tournament. Historically, the tournament has always been held in either North Carolina, Georgia, or Florida. Now, Swofford said the ACC is playing around with the idea of holding the tournament in Madison Square Garden. “I think we would be open to that as a part of the rotation,” Swofford said. “We’ve had some very good experiences with our rotation. The tournament has predominantly been held in North Carolina over the years, and that’s where much of its history is, and I’m sure will continue to be in the future. And with this 14member conference, I don’t think there’s any question that taking a look at New York and Madison Square Garden would be very appealing for Atlantic Coast Conference basketball fans and even more so now with more teams in closer proximity, and with that being the media center of the world, so to speak, we’d probably be remiss if we didn’t think of it in those terms.” The move to Madison Square Garden could be an attractive one in the eyes of BC, as it could draw a bigger fan base to the yearly tournament. BC has some recent history with Syracuse, as the two played in the football season finale last year and have agreed to a 10-game series over the coming decade. The Eagles defeated the Orange 16-7 at the Carrier Dome in the first game a season ago. With the Big East now falling apart, there were reports circulating on Sunday night that the University of Connecticut was also looking to jump ship to the ACC, though nothing was official. Once Pittsburgh and Syracuse officially leave the Big East, the ACC will have 14 members. Swofford said the league was “very comfortable” with 14 teams, though it is “not philosophically opposed to 16.” n
The Heights
Monday, September 19, 2011
B5
Varsity Club inducts 14 members to Boston College Hall of Fame By Paul Sulzer Sports Editor
Boston College enshrined 12 athletes and two administrators in the Varsity Club Hall of Fame on Friday at Conte Forum. The athletes inducted by the selection committee were Cara Blumfield, BC ’03 (softball); Scott Gieselman, BC ’03 (football); Jay Hutchins, BC ’84 (soccer); Amber Jacobs, BC ’02 (basketball); Brian Leetch, BC ’87 (hockey); George Ravanis, BC ’78 (baseball); Bill Romanowski, BC ’88 (football); and Katie Ryan Kieran, BC ’02 (track and field). Current Athletic Director Gene DeFilippo, and Peter Olivieri, the former director of the Conte Forum control room and BC ’65, were also chosen by the selection committee. Four athletes were honored by the newly established veterans committee, which considers the careers of players from before 1970. They were Jack Farrell, BC ’50 (football and baseball); Jack Flanagan, BC ’59 (football); Tom “Tank” Meehan, BC ’58 (football); and Bernie Teliszewski, BC ’57 (football and baseball). Don Croatti, former Varsity Club president, founder of the Touchdown Club, and BC ’60, received the final honor of the night, the William J. Donlon Special Achievement Award for exceptional service to the BC athletics. The award is bestowed periodically since its establishment in 1999. All the inductees spoke except for Teliszewski, who died in 1974. His son, also named Bernie, gave a speech on his behalf. “This is the only Hall of Fame I ever wanted to be in,” DeFilippo said, “and the only job I could ever want to have.” Here’s more on the inductees: Blumfield is the only All-American in the history of the BC softball program. A shortstop, Blumfield hit .445 as a junior to earn second-team All-American honors. She ranked among the top 10 batters that year in average. As a senior, she led the Eagles to the Big East regular season title and a berth in the NCAA tournament. She holds the school records in games played (208), batting average (.348), runs scored (123), and RBI (127). DeFilippo has served as athletic director since 1997. He guided the program through conference realignment, from the Big East to the ACC. Under his watch, the football team has made 12 consecutive bowl games, the two soccer programs and two basketball programs have all become regular NCAA tournament teams, and the men’s hockey team has won three national titles. Farrell won eight varsity letters as a football and baseball player. He served in the Navy in World War II before coming to BC to play outfield and running back/defensive back. An All-New England football player, he scored a touchdown against Holy Cross in
Annie Budnick / heights staff
Jack Flanagan (left) and Scott Gieselman (center) were enshrined in 42nd annual Varsity Club Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday. Bernie Teliszewski (right) represented his deceased father. his final game. Flanagan led the football team in receiving over his four years, earning All-New England honors. He missed one game in his entire collegiate career. After graduating, he played with the NFL’s Chicago (now Arizona) Cardinals. Gieselman played tight end for football and was one of Doug Flutie’s favorite targets. He was all-ECAC and All-East during his three years as a starter. The New England Patriots selected him in the fourth round of the 1986 NFL draft. Hutchins tallied 62 points, including 21 goals, in his collegiate career. A three-time all-New England choice, he scored seven career game-winning goals. He won the Greater Boston League MVP award in 1981. Jacobs, a guard, led the women’s basketball team to its first ever NCAA tournament Sweet 16 as a junior, hitting back-to-back game winners in the first two rounds. The Eagles won their first ever Big East tournament title in her senior year. She ranks sixth in the school record book for points (1,544) and assists (469).
Leetch played one year for the Eagles before embarking on a professional career that landed him in the hockey Hall of Fame. In his sole season, he won the Walter Brown Award as the top American-born player in New England and was an All-American. He represented the United States in the Olympics in 1988, 1998, and 2002. During his 18-year NHL career, he earned 11 all-star nominations, two Norris Trophies as the top defenseman in the league, and the Calder Trophy as the 1989 rookie of the year. He won the Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers in 1994. Meehan walked on to the football team as an offensive guard. As a senior, he captained the Eagles and was an honorable mention All-American. Instead of pursuing professional football, he enlisted in the Marines, serving as a combat pilot in Vietnam. Olivieri worked 20-plus years as the director of the control room in Conte Forum. While serving on the Carroll School of Management faculty, he supervised the student staff that provided technical support for all home games. He collaborated with the school’s coaching staffs to explore the ways teams could use technology.
Ravanis pitched for the Eagles for three seasons, recording 17 of the program’s 41 wins over that stretch. A two-time All-Greater Boston League selection, he pitched in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League. He holds the school ERA record at 2.49. Romanowski started all four years as a linebacker for the Eagles. In 1984, he was the Defensive MVP in the team’s Cotton Bowl win over Houston. He made 156 tackles as a senior and played in the East-West Shrine Game. During his 16-year NFL career, he won four Super Bowls. Ryan qualified for the NCAA championships as a freshman 3000-meter runner. In 2000, she was an All-American after finishing 24th in the national meet, giving BC a fourth-place team finish. She ran the third leg of the BC distance medley relay team that won the Big East indoor title. Teliszewski was a three-year starter as a running back and outfielder. In baseball, he hit .444 as a senior and led the Greater Boston League in homers and RBI. He finished with a .315 average. As a football player, he scored nine touchdowns and won the Scanlan Award as an outstanding senior football player. n
Hypocrites should be excellent fans if they want to see excellent football Matt Belnap
Alex Trautwig / heights editor
Late-arriving fans miss much of what makes the gameday experience at Alumni so special.
“I would care about the games more if we were good,” is a phrase that, unfortunately, I’ve heard around campus at least as often as “Eagles, first down,” so far this football season. While it is undeniable that the product on the field so far this fall has been less than stellar, we as a student body have no right to complain about a lackluster team until we at least care enough to stay for the whole game. While at the opening game of the season against Northwestern, I was sitting in the student section with a couple of my friends. In the row behind us was a visibly intoxicated member of what looked like, judging by his faded Superfan shirt, the class of 2009. He was loudly imploring the current students around him to get loud. In the middle of one of these exclamations, he turned to one of my friends and asked, “Don’t you guys ever get loud anymore?” “Well we kind of chill on first and second down and then get loud on third,” my friend responded. “[Expletive] that, we used to get loud on every down!” the older guy answered. While obnoxious, this former student
raises a good question: Why can’t we get loud on every down? How can we expect the defense to stiffen up and stop an opposing offense if we can’t even cheer for all three downs when they’re on the field? I remember watching the BC-Syracuse game over Thanksgiving break last year. ESPN put a box on screen featuring each school’s student traditions. The list for BC had Superfan shirts and Shea Field. Shea Field? One of the most hallowed traditions associated with BC football was something that had nothing to do with the game. This reflects a simple fact about Boston College students: to them, the tailgate is more important than the game itself. I am not saying that tailgating is a bad thing, but as long as fans tailgate well into the first quarter and leave the game early to resume drinking, they cannot reasonably expect a better performance from the team itself. If our team had been bad for the past few years, I could understand indifference on the part of the student body. But our team has been good. We haven’t had a losing season since 1998. We have gone to a bowl game after each of those seasons. While the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl isn’t exactly the BCS national championship, this is a level of excellence that few schools around the country have enjoyed over that
period of time. We may not always win pretty, but we win. The student section cannot use the “bad team” excuse to not get behind a team that has one of the longest active bowl appearance streaks in the country and has not had a losing season since all of us were in elementary school. College football is really all about recruiting. To win, you have to bring in the best talent. When coaches like Penn State’s Joe Paterno and Michigan’s Brady Hoke go into a recruit’s living room they can say that if they play at their schools, they will play in front of 100,000-plus fans and a rowdy student section. Can Spaz say the same? I know that if I was an elite college recruit, I wouldn’t want to play in front of our student section as it is now. Admittedly, the season hasn’t started well. Three bad losses to begin the year is not the way to inspire confidence in the fan base. I’m not saying that we as fans need to support a bad team until the bitter end. But we do have to put the game before tailgating. Until we become excellent fans, we have no right to expect that same excellence from our team.
Matt Belnap is a guest columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@ bcheights.com.
ACC Roundup
Florida State loses showdown with Oklahoma By Tim Jablonski Heights Staff
In the most hyped match-up of the young NCAA football season, No. 1 Oklahoma held off No. 5 Florida State, 23-13, in Tallahassee. Sooners quarterback Landry Jones’s 37yard touchdown pass to newly reinstated wide receiver Kenny Stills midway through the fourth quarter broke a 13-all tie minutes after the Seminoles evened the score with a long touchdown of their own. FSU backup QB Clint Trickett, who took over in the third for injured starter E.J. Manuel, gave the Seminoles hope with a 56-yard TD pass to freshman Rashad Greene. But Trickett threw an interception on the drive following Oklahoma’s go ahead touchdown, giving the Sooners the ball in Seminole territory. After driving down to the FSU 14-yard line, the Sooners used a Jimmy Stevens field goal with two minutes remaining to put the game out of reach. Georgia Tech 66, Kansas 24 Georgia Tech ran its option offense to perfection on Saturday, annihilating visiting Kansas, 66-24, in one of the most impressive team rushing performances in recent memory. The Yellow Jackets set an NCAA record by averaging 12.1 yards per carry, breaking a 38-year-old record held by Bear Bryant’s Alabama team. Head coach Paul Johnson used
12 different runners – with no player getting more than nine carries – as Tech racked up 604 yards, a school record. Tailback Owen Smith, who went over 100 yards rushing and receiving, started the scoring off immediately with a 95-yard touchdown on his team’s first play from scrimmage. It was one of four touchdowns of over 50 yards for the Yellow Jackets on Sunday, including touchdown passes of 67 and 52 yards from quarterback Tevin Washington. The junior Tech QB completed only four throws on Saturday but made the most of each pass, winding up with 164 yards through the air. After Kansas converted a late field goal to make the score 24-17 in the first half, the Yellow Jackets scored on their first six drives of the second half, breaking the game wide open. The stellar GT offense has averaged 59 points a game so far this season while running out to a 3-0 start. Clemson 38, Auburn 24 Clemson ended No. 21 Auburn’s 17-game winning streak, 38-24, Saturday afternoon at Death Valley, handing the defending national champions their first loss since a 2009 defeat to Alabama. The Tigers of Clemson racked up 624 yards of offense while ending their own streak – they had lost 14 straight games to the Tigers of Auburn. Clemson QB Tahj Boyd continued the hot start to his sophomore campaign, lighting up the SEC’s worst
defense for 386 yards and four touchdowns. Auburn jumped out to a 14-0 point lead on a Michael Dyer 52-yard touchdown run five minutes into the game and a Barret Trotter touchdown throw three minutes later. After a three-and-out on the ensuing drive, Clemson scored touchdowns on five of its next six drives, putting the homefield Tigers ahead for good. Miami 24, Ohio State 6 In a rematch of the 2003 national championship game, Miami knocked No. 17 Ohio State’s quarterbacks around in a 24-6 win at Sun Life Stadium. The Buckeyes have since fallen out of the top 25 for the first time in seven years. OSU signal callers Braxton Miller and Joe Bauserman combined to go four of 18 for 35 yards and an interception, the program’s most futile passing day in years. The Hurricanes’ stiff defense allowed the Buckeyes to score just six points on three trips into the red zone and conceded just 63 yards in the second half. Miami QB Jacory Harris threw for just 123 yards but added two touchdowns in his first game back after a one-game suspension for his involvement in the Nevin Shapiro scandal. Sophomore tailback Lamar Miller carried most of the offensive load for the Hurricanes, rushing 26 times for 184 yards, his second straight 100-yard game. n
The Heights
B6
Monday, September 19, 2011
From Israel to BC, Aburmad’s long journey has all been worth it By Andrew Klokiw Heights Staff
To say that Amit Aburmad of the men’s soccer team has taken the path less traveled to get to where he is today would be an understatement. Four years ago, Boston College was not even a consideration for the now-senior midfielder, perhaps due to the fact that Aburmad was making his college decision from literally halfway around the world, in Zofim, Israel. Aburmad ultimately settled on a small school with a big soccer pedigree in Mercer County Community College, located in West Windsor, N.J. “It was hard in the beginning, like every beginning,” said Aburmad of his decision to go to Mercer. “I thought about going to play professionally for a living, but then I got the opportunity to come to the States and use my soccer to get an education. I decided to do that and I’m glad I came here.” Though the initial adjustment may have been difficult off the soccer pitch, Aburmad fit seamlessly into a Mercer team that would make a run all the way to the semifinals of the national tournament, before falling to San Jacinto College, 2-1. In his debut season, the Israel native netted an impressive 23 goals to go along with 12 assists on his way to being named an All-American. His sophomore season in 2009 saw much more of the same excellence on the pitch as well as off of it, as he led the team in total points with 34, earned NJCAA AllRegion XIX accolades, and worked his way onto the Dean’s List while studying business administration. That is when BC head coach Ed Kelly came calling. Aburmad made another major transition in his life, as he moved from Mercer to Chestnut Hill to join a stacked Eagles squad that was coming off a run to the Elite Eight in 2009. “After my two years in Mercer, I had such a better perspective on how things worked, what were the best conferences, who is the best team, what’re the best programs,” he said. “I was offered a few scholarships from different schools, and I chose BC.” That decision has worked out well for both parties. Though he had only lived in the United States for two years when he arrived at BC, Aburmad did just as he had done at Mercer and skipped the adjustment period. In overtime of his first ACC home game as an Eagle last season against Maryland, Aburmad displayed some of the quickness that had earned him national praise at Mercer, beating a defender and firing a shot from the top of the box. However, Aburmad finally ran into something he couldn’t beat: the post. His shot clanged out, but BC
Alex trautwig / HEIGHTS EDITOR
The spark that Aburmad has brought to his team is evident, as BC has started off the season 5-1 thanks to his team-leading 14 points. won the game. More importantly, the nearly 2,000 fans present had a look at the catalyst for a prolific offense that has seen the team consistently ranked in the top 25 since his arrival. After the game, Aburmad told The Heights, “I tried to step it up in overtime. In a big game like that you have to push all the way to the end. But we
gave 150 percent all the way, all for the fans.” Despite the midfielder’s lengthy list of achievements on the field, it is clear that he is not seeking any personal glory, rather hoping that his play can do all the talking for him. When pushed to reveal the professional player that he would most like to emulate, Aburmad
pointed not to an individual, but the most successful team in the world, European champions FC Barcelona. For the senior, his passion lies not with the enormous success that Barcelona has earned, but rather the beautiful style employed by the Spanish giants. “I like to look at Barcelona as a whole,
Alex trautwig / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Aburmad took a penalty shot on Friday night and rocketed it into the top left corner of the net, scoring his fifth goal of the season for the Eagles.
the way they move the ball, the way they create chances for each other, the way they put their ego to the side and play as a team,” Aburmad said. “And this is something that I hope to accomplish here with the team at BC.” Aburmad’s fluid style of play, one that helps him fit in at nearly every one of the midfield and forward positions if necessary, has lifted the prolific BC offense to a new level. Last season, he chipped in with four goals and seven assists for a total of 15 points. Appearing in all 20 games with 19 starts, Aburmad led the Eagles in assists and validated the trust placed in him by his coach. Six games into the 2011 season, Aburmad is lighting up Chestnut Hill. The senior has already racked up an impressive five goals and four assists, both team-highs. Those numbers are even more striking when one considers that he has chipped in goals in four of six games to start the season, including his first two-goal game as an Eagle against Quinnipiac. To say that Aburmad has taken the adjustment to Chestnut Hill in stride would be another understatement. On a team that only rosters five seniors, he has been a steadying influence on the pitch. Aburmad’s leadership has infused his most apparent qualities, perseverance and humility, into his younger teammates. When asked to pinpoint what has gotten him and his teammates off to such a hot start to the season, Aburmad’s humble attitude was on full display. “Hard work,” he answered. “I’m happy that I’ve had such a good beginning to start the season, but none of that would have happened without my teammates’ help, starting from Justin Luthy in goal, to the defenders, to everyone. Today it is me, but next month it could just as easily be someone else.” This past Friday evening, Aburmad’s impact for the Eagles was evident for the nearly 1,000 fans on hand. Five minutes after assisting on a goal to put BC up 2-1 over Virginia Tech, Aburmad stepped to the penalty spot with a chance to go up 3-1. Keeping a cool head, the result of the penalty kick was never in doubt as the senior stroked it clinically into the top left corner of the net. With the fans on the Heights buzzing about the team’s 5-1-0 start, Aburmad had a message for all those who follow the team: “Come support us because I promise that you will enjoy every minute and every second of the game. Please show up for us and for the school, and give us the chance to give back to you.” Everywhere he’s been—be it Israel, Mercer, or BC—Aburmad has given back to the fans; and if he has it his way, his final year of college soccer may very well be his finest. n
Rugg’s header lifts Eagles in OT Men’s Soccer, from B1 Early in the first half, the Eagles fell behind after Virginia Tech’s David Clemens scored 9:18 into the game. The score remained 1-0 Hokies until the 29th minute, when Bekker’s foot assisted on another beautiful setup. This one came off a corner kick, as Bekker put a strike into the ball and sent it to where Chris Ager was set up in the box. Ager headed the ball off the right post and across the goal line to even the score at one. The goal was the first of Ager’s career. Just 1:53 later, the Eagles took their first lead of the game. Bekker sent in another corner kick and Amit Aburmad made an attempt to send a pass to his teammate. Ager got a touch on the ball, before it ended up in front of Diego Medina-Mendez, who finally sent it home for the 2-1 lead. Before the first half ended, BC struck once more. The play was set up by the flashy speed of MedinaMendez, as he got around multiple defenders before getting taken down in the box. That set up a penalty kick for the Eagles. Aburmad stepped up to take it, and clobbered the ball into the top left corner for
the 3-1 lead. The Hokies came back with a vengeance in the second half and tied the game at three with 17 minutes remaining in regulation. “They had us on the ropes a little bit there,” Kelly said. “The first half we played very well. Second half was scrappy because they got the goals early. But we played good.” Despite losing the lead, the end result was a big one for the Eagles. They were able to withstand the big comeback from a talented Virginia Tech team and stay toward the top of the ACC standings. “I think it showed a lot of character that we could pull out this win, even with how close it was,” Rugg said. “Definitely coming off the tough loss last week, we needed this win real bad.” It could have been a game overlooked by the Eagles, coming off a game against now-No. 1 Maryland and before Tuesday’s match-up against No. 2 Connecticut. Instead, it was a rewarding win for BC. “That was a huge game,” Kelly said, “beause we’ve got Connecticut on Tuesday. They’re No. 2 in the country, so it doesn’t get much easier. But it’s all good. Back to the drawing board. It was a great win.” n
ALEX TRAUTWIG / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Casey Morrison scored her second goal of the season on Sunday, helping her team stay undefeated on the season.
Eagles continue hot streak, win ACC opener at home Women’s Soccer, from B1
ALEX TRAUTWIG / HEIGHTS EDITOR
Chris Ager headed this ball into the net for BC’s first goal of the game, en route to a 4-3 win over Virginia Tech Friday.
her legs taken out at the edge of the box, Morrison stepped up and slid the ball into the left side of the net, completely fooling Virginia keeper Chantel Jones. Down two goals, the Cavaliers made a furious push to get themselves back in the game. They peppered Mastroianni with shots, but were unable to capitalize on any of their chances. The Eagles’ defense stayed strong throughout the last few minutes, clearing the ball every time and never allowing Virginia to get an easy goal off of a second chance. When the game ended, the Eagles had their first ACC win and Mastroianni had her seventh consecutive shutout of the young season. Both Morrison and McCaffrey scored their second goal of the season for the win. Mastroianni totaled five saves in the game for her 40th career shutout at BC. Virginia had six shots on goal throughout the game while the Eagles scored on two of just three shots they put on the net. The Cavaliers attempted 13 total shots. The Eagles, three. Virginia also had more corners than BC by a 10-3 margin. BC head
coach Alison Foley now has 199 wins in her career with the Eagles. She will attempt to pick up number 200 in their next game, which takes place Thursday at Maryland. Women’s Cross Country Dominates The BC women’s cross country team placed all five of its members in the top six of the UMass Invitational, and senior Jillian King began her 2011 season with a convincing win. Bridget Dahlberg, Hope Krause, and Elizabeth O’Brien all set personal records for the Eagles, who beat teams from Vermont, Amherst College, UMass-Amherst, and Maine. Dahlberg in particular was impressive, running the 5K in a time of 17:21.70, more than 30 seconds faster than her previous best time. Also impressive was freshman Brittany Winslow, who ran a time of 18:00.83 in her very first collegiate meet. With a total of 17 team points, the Eagles powerfully outran their competition, the closest of whom came in with 63 team points. The team takes a short break now, with its next meet taking place at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University on Sept. 30 at 10 a.m. n
The Heights
Monday, September 19, 2011
B7
Getting involved in student clubs is everybody’s business By Marye Moran Heights Staff
Evidenced by the tightly-packed tables at the Student Involvement Fair and the swarms of students weaving through them, clubs are certainly an important part of the Boston College experience. “Student groups are self-affirming, build life-long friendships, and contribute to life stories,” says Theresa Harrigan, Career Center director. Looking at those students browsing at the fair, one might be able to guess which table they’d end up at. That girl wearing Toms shoes and holding a reusable water bottle will probably find her way to EcoPledge, the boy in the pinnie will probably find the club sports, and those headed from class in Fulton Hall carrying their Blackberries will join the business clubs, right? Though the categor y of business clubs seems narrow, the wide range of groups actually appeals to a large and varied sector of the student population. Since the field of business is broad and draws many different types of people, clubs often distinguish themselves either by branch of business, like the Finance Academy, or by the group of students they wish to reach out to, like Smart Women Securities and the AHANA Management Academy. Though they all appeal to students interested in business, they vary in terms of club structure, objectives, and membership. The BC Finance Academy is one club whose members tend to be committed to that particular field, and aiming to get a head start on their future careers. Though it is open to all members of the undergraduate population, Parin Shah, co-president and CSOM ’12, estimates that around two thirds of the club’s members are in the Carroll School of Management (CSOM), and of that group,
most are finance majors. The Finance Academy’s goal is twofold, consisting of career development and peer advising. The club hosts speakers, provides mentoring to the members, and sponsors trips to Manhattan and Boston to visit financial services firms and expose interested students to opportunities in finance. “It’s not necessarily to find a job,” Shah says. “We don’t directly help anyone in that regard. We put members in touch with people who can help them.” In this regard, he says that the club does “serve as a conduit for networking.” Harrigan echoes these benefits in reference to all business clubs. “Employers do notice student involvement and leadership roles,” she says. “Active participation in these groups gives students opportunities to organize career, educational, and networking e vents . Thus , not only would they get themselves known on campus and with alumni and employers, they also develop key skills, including organizational and interpersonal skills, project management, team work, and relationship building.” The Finance Academy encourages the development of those skills, and ultimately prepares students for their careers. “Most active members definitely go into financial services,” Shah says. Other clubs distinguish themselves by which students’ particular needs they address, often focusing on underrepresented groups in business. With only 12.8 percent of women at BC in CSOM, as opposed to 30.2 percent of men, their smaller numbers both require and facilitate the formation of a gender-specific community. Smart Women Securities creates such a com-
munity, and is actually part of a larger nonprofit organization, with chapters at 14 schools. “Our aim is educational, not pre-professional,” says Laura Travers, co-chief executive officer and CSOM ’12. The group hosts an eight-week seminar series in the fall, and in the spring, researches and virtually invests in stocks, and competes with other chapters to gauge their relative success. “There’s statistics about how with women, especially on college campuses, it’s harder to join business environments and jump into investing,” explains Sayoko Kumamaru, co-chief executive officer of Smart Women Securities and CSOM ’12. Her club aims to combat this problem by providing an open community in which BC’s female population can learn financial literacy, whether for a potential career or just personal knowledge. “We really want everyone to feel comfortable coming,” says Lauren Wallace, chief research officer and CSOM ’13. “It seems intimidating, but you don’t need to know much about finance.” Upon completion of the year-long program, though, the club’s members certainly do. The AHANA Management Academy has a similar goal, but a different audience, as it is geared toward helping AHANA students network and understand management. “Regardless of who you are, there’s always struggles,” says James Gu, vice president and CSOM ’13. The specific needs of AH ANA student s entering the business field are not just negative, as the historic underrepresentation of this group in business has led to more targeted recruiting. “At our corporate events, people are looking for AHANA students,” Gu says.
Aside from helping facilitate interactions between students and these recruiters, the AHANA Management Academy has peer mentoring programs and hosts speakers, resume workshops, and other events. Though their targeted members are specific, the club presents a broad view of business. “In the spring, we’re bringing in a nonprofit to show how to do business in a ‘non-business firm’ and make a difference in the world,” Gu says. As for the alumni of the Academy, Gu says, “A healthy bunch does go into business, but there’s been instances where they go into other things.” Financial literacy is necessary in any field, so membership in a business club would be beneficial for every BC student. For those with more sp e cific ne e ds , though, whether this is because they face a p a r t i c u l a r ch a l l e n g e breaking into the field or because they want more detailed knowledge of a subset of business, there are clubs tailored to fit these individuals. Business club members may be stereotyped as the CSOM-educated, future tycoons who wear a sport jacket and carry a briefcase when everyone else still thought rolling backpacks were cool. In some instances, this may be true, but a club member could just as likely be an education student with no plans to go into business but have an interest in learning how to manage their money. The many business clubs do more than just ensure that BC will have a rising endowment once members become alumni. These clubs complement each other, with some educating and training students and others hosting events, but all striving to meet the needs of students as diverse as the field itself. n
Entrepreneurs turn ideas into action with great success Boston College organizations encourage motivated students to think outside the box By Juliette San Fillipo Heights Staff
It is hard to deny that oftentimes, being a full-time student feels like having a full-time job. “Work” becomes the term for homework, a class in Gasson Hall is a 12:00 meeting, and time at the office is a stint in O’Neill Library. College seems to be a grace period in which, on mostly all applications, a person is allowed to unabashedly write “Student” in the space where they ask for “Occupation.” Being at Boston College is certainly a career on its own, yet many venturous students across campus find that one career is simply not enough. For those voracious few, BC’s Entrepreneur Society (BCES) provides resources for budding business minds in search of start-up support. “What we basically do is prepare students to be entrepreneurs, and provide them with all the resources and support to understand the world of entrepreneurship,” says Laura Muller, president of BCES and CSOM ’13. “We work to prepare students for BCVC, the Boston College Venture Competition, in which you can win $10,000 by pitching your ideas to a jury.” To usher students into entrepreneurship, BCES holds several events throughout the year that take the form of panel conferences, visits to venture
capital firms – both innovative firms and start-ups – lectures, and sessions with BC alumni. “We want to get students into the real world, with more contacts on the outside,” Muller says. BCES also trains students for the Elevator Pitch Competition, a contest designed to let students practice the important, real-life entrepreneurial skill of pitching a business idea in 60 seconds or less – for a cash prize. BCES seeks not only to equip young entrepreneurs with the skills to succeed, but also to cull the right ideas and values to let BC students’ business plans go farther than they even thought possible. “Something we’re trying to do this year is add a second focus to the club: to teach students not just to start a firm but also to have a mindset,” Muller says. “We are currently discussing how to change the focus more to idea generation. We want to show students that an idea doesn’t have to be a venture but can be a project. It’s to think outside of the box.” Muller wants CSOM students to realize that their career path doesn’t have to correlate directly to their concentration, and that entrepreneurship is a great way to think outside of the box. “Most students in CSOM study finance and accounting, but our club aims at showing them that there are other paths in the business world and that entering the
photo courtesy of sustainablechillin.com
Sustainable Chillin’ was created by entrepreneur Justin Appold, A&S ‘13, and his brother.
world of entrepreneurship is another option,” she says. “We want students to think by themselves and be independent. Entrepreneur skills are really useful in life.” BCES, BCVC, and the Computer Science Club are putting their heads together to further cultivate student entrepreneurship at BC, and they aspire to one day create more of a presence on campus. “[In CSOM], we have a lot of entrepreneur potential that we’re not using or developing,” she says. “So BC needs clubs such as ours to do it. The three of us are training to show to people who have ideas that they actually can do something with them.” And in fact, many BC students, such as Justin Appold, A&S ’13, have embarked on their own upstarts that began as ideas and became something more. “My brother and I were on the beach [at home in New York], and my brother had this idea that he said to my friends, that whenever you are out somewhere, enjoying a place, you should pick up a piece of trash, and leave it nicer than you found it,” he says. “We all decided that was a good thing to live by, and we were going to start a Facebook group with people who would also agree to live up to that [rule]: to leave someplace nicer than you found it but also simultaneously enjoy it. So you’re chilling somewhere, but sustainably. That was going to be the name of the Facebook group. But then we thought of ways we could have the most impact, and that’s when we thought of the venture instead.” Appold and his brother now have a nonprofit venture project called Sustainable Chillin,’ a socially responsible clothing company with distinctly environmental roots, values, and goals. The two entrepreneurs designed T-shirts, which were made through a fair labor organization. Each shirt has a unique, sustainable message that consumers can wear. “So the idea is that for every product we sell [we aim] to have a net positive benefit on the environment,” he says. “For every shirt we sell, we have a tree planted by an organization that’s sponsored by the United Nations, the Plant A Billion Trees Campaign. Every shirt has a different environmental message, done in a “Life Is Good”-type fashion. [Once you buy the shirt], you can choose from 11 or 12 different countries in which the organization operates to plant your tree in.” One of the me ssage s include s , “Recycle Your Party,” which reminds college-age consumers that most party supplies, like plastic cups and aluminum cans, can be recycled and therefore responsibly discarded. The Appold brothers’ business is representative of just how much thought and decisionmaking must go into an entrepreneurial endeavor. It wasn’t enough to just start a business – they then had to make sure that all the different facets of that business would live up to their ideals and high standards. “So most clothing companies, when they sell a shirt, there are social and environmental impacts and costs – called externalities – associated with produc-
tion,” he says. “For example, producing clothing brings into question child labor laws, long hours laid on workers, the possibility of working closely with certain chemicals, workers being underpaid, etc. And when you commit to abide by fair labor regulations, you make a commitment to treat whoever is making your product fairly. The company that makes our shirts does so sustainably, and socially responsibly, and they sign agreements as a promise to their partners to make sure they’re going to act responsibly.” Add on to that the stress of being a BC student, and someone like Appold has a full plate. However, Appold seems unfazed by this double-load in the spirit of entrepreneurship and what it can do for not only oneself but also the world and the greater good. As a nonprofit organization, Sustainable Chillin’ allows Appold to garner fiscal support from outside sources to eventually raise to the point of self-sustainability, which Appold adds is good for the economy. Growing support is something they certainly have, too. The brothers have an up-and-running website with a video detailing their start-up and their environmental statement that is set to be broadcasted on the 12th most subscribed-to YouTube channel called Slightly Political. And that’s not all. Their business caught the eyes of the wider world. “In terms of successes, we sell at seven stores throughout Long Island and were selling them on the website,” Appold says. “We had a major article done about us – in Newsday – which is bigger than the NY Times on Long Island. We also got offered $40,000 to partner with a guy who started a solar panel company in start-up funds, but we [declined].” When it comes to balancing books and business, Appold ultimately decided that his BC education and being a diligent college student is what matters most to him right now. “When I was offered that [investment], I was going to take a semester off,” he says. “I had talked to the dean and he permitted me to leave for a bit, but I decided to stay and focus on my studies. While I’m here, I put school interests first, and put Sustainable Chillin’ second and work on it when I can. And that’s the great thing about having a partner – you can delegate tasks and don’t have to have everything on you. And since I work with my brother, we can always be straight up with each other.” Muller says that entrepreneurship enables people to think for themselves. “For me, what BCES brings to me is the mindset,” she says. “It’s me not thinking, ‘OK, I’m going to be an employee in a corporation.’ It’s that I can be a leader, and start a whole other way into entrepreneurship. It’s about creating your own values rather than following those of a corporation.” Appold, and the members and supporters of BCES, show that textbooks truly aren’t the only things students have the potential to tackle in college. n
the real world
A moral dilemma Karl Lockhart
We’ve all seen it before. The man on the street corner, often dressed in less than perfect clothes, walking around holding a sign: “Repent, the end is near.” Others pass out flyers or accost you on the street, insisting that you need to get right with God because time is just about up. Occasionally, there is a group of people surrounding someone with a loudspeaker listening to ranting about the coming Armageddon. I always walk by as quickly as I can, trying not to make eye contact, avoiding them like the Plague. And sometimes these doomsday prophets make it to the big time. Harold Camping is one such example. The president of Family Radio, he predicted the end of the world was coming soon. The rapture, a disputed, controversial Biblical doctrine that purports that Christians will fly up to meet Jesus when he comes back, and the Final Judgment were supposed to occur on May 21. (Unless I missed something, not the most accurate prediction. But hey, maybe I wasn’t paying close attention.) This date came from Biblical number crunching combined with heavy doses of quoting verses out of context. When nothing happened, the date was changed from being the date of the rapture to being merely a “spiritual judgment.” He has now changed the date of the rapture and physical judgment to Oct. 21. Get ready. While people like this are clearly an extreme, religion has become a major talking point on the national scene over the last few years, especially since the Sept. 11 attacks. On the one hand, many are becoming more wary of religious extremism practiced by certain Islamic fundamentalists. On the other hand, overzealous followers in other countries have called to attention the decline of religion in America. Conservatives complain that our country’s morals are in decay and that we need to return to our “Christian Heritage” (which is in itself ironic, considering that many of the founding fathers were deists, not Christians). On issues such as abortion and same – sex marriage, debates often become strongly polarized with religious views often brought to the forefront. Many politicians are trying to introduce laws that promote their own religious view on these ethical issues to try to stop the “decline of morality.” Is there a “decline of morality” in America? What is morality anyways? Morality is simply the discerning of right and wrong behavior. And in this area, there are really two choices. Either some actions are right, and others are wrong, or there is no such thing as right and wrong. People who believe that right and wrong exist believe in absolute morality. Those who think that good and bad are based more on the culture, society, or context are relativists. According to a recent New York Times article, more and more of us are becoming moral relativists. Christian Smith, a sociologist at some no-name school in South Bend, interviewed hundreds of 18-23-year-olds on different questions relating to ethics. Over two-thirds said they had not faced a moral dilemma or gave an example of something that was not a moral dilemma. When asked questions about what they would do in certain situations, many of the respondents simply said that it would depend on how they felt at the time. Other questions asked whether certain actions were right or wrong. Most people agreed that rape and murder were wrong, but for almost everything else, there was a lack of unity, even on issues like drunk driving and cheating. As one respondent put it, “‘It’s personal ... It’s up to the individual. Who am I to say?’” It appears our country is at a face-off between those who would legislate their absolute morals from the top and extreme moral individualists who say that it should all be left up to how someone feels. I think both sides are misguided, and yet both have something to offer. There are absolute rights and wrongs, and that doesn’t change how a person feels. Doing whatever you want is not okay. But morals can’t be legislated from the top down. As the relativists point out, the individual is important, not for deciding what is right and wrong but for acting in a way that is right. By doing the right thing, the individual shows others how to act for the greater good of all. What is good does not change depending on where you are or what culture you live in, but it is up to you personally to make the decision to do good. Good luck.
Karl Lockhart is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at features@bcheights.com
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The Heights
Monday, September 19, 2011
The Heights
Monday, September 19, 2011
B9
A call to That journey up and over the Million Dollar Staircase straighten priorities Alexandra Schaeffer
Brendan Kneeland It’s a bright September day. The air is crisp, the sun is shining, and the empty beer cans are strewn about the Commonwealth Avenue sidewalk. You’ve decided you’re going to get a head start on the day, maybe do a little extra studying as you cling to the absurd early-semester hope of a 4.0 GPA. But then the worst thing ever in the history of the world happens: You see someone you kind of know walking your way. Should you say hello? Ask how they’re doing? Give them some sort of burnt offering? An animal sacrifice, perhaps? As you agonize over your next move – after all, you want to be considerate – it happens. She pulls out her phone. Starts texting … or at least that’s what it looks like. The fake text, the fake phone call. Devastating. This is just one of about 1,000 different, passive-reclusive ways people at Boston College (particularly girls) interact with people they a) barely know, b) know but don’t like, c) might know but don’t remember, or d) some combination of the above. And it’s nonsense. I’m entering my senior year here at BC, and as the white light of the real world approaches, I am realizing what is truly important to me here at BC. More importantly, I’m noticing what’s not important. What is not important is just as important as what people perceive to be important, at least at first … do you see what I mean? For instance, I know that a lot of articles in September deal with the issue of college transition, and freshman year,, and such. An equal number of articles deal with the issue of graduation, and being seniors, and finding jobs, and purpose, and blah blah blah. I’m making it my (fake) job this year to navigate my way through all that and find what’s really important. Or, rather, what’s not important. In any case, I digress. The BC look-away. As I was saying, the BC look-away is a prime example of the absurd importance people put on their everyday experiences at BC. Oh, will that random semi-stranger remember that we had a class together for one semester three years ago? I’d better pretend I’m texting someone else so I don’t hurt anyone’s feelings. My question at that point is: Who cares? I’m thinking in the long term. This might sound cynical, but I don’t care. Think about it (even though, especially for you seniors, I know you don’t want to). What and who will matter to you in five years? I know this is a borderline impossible question to answer for freshmen especially, but it’s valuable in that it puts things in perspective. If someone told you that you had to leave BC tomorrow, what would you be sure to hold on to? Certainly not your Pink Floyd poster they sell at the beginning of every year. Definitely not (for the most part) your orientation roommate. What about this person walking by you on the sidewalk? What’s the difference? What I’m calling for is just a little authenticity. Stop pretending. Stop pretending you don’t know someone. Stop pretending to be polite if you don’t actually care for someone. Honestly, its shows more respect and backbone to go up to someone directly and say, “Hey, let’s just never hang out.” Everyone wins! Honestly, we’d all have a better time if we didn’t hold onto obligations we don’t actually have. I don’t mean to be a downer, especially when BC is on such a hot streak in football. I don’t pretend to have all (or any) of the answers, I merely think I’m asking questions that need to be asked. And of course, sometimes people are just texting and don’t happen to notice you. If that’s the case, feel free to disregard this whole column.
Brendan Kneeland is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at features@bcheights. com
Crouching with my head over the toilet I thought to myself, “What am I doing here?” No, this was not the result of a Saturday night gone too far. It was Tuesday, and I had just finished my homework only to be confronted by the terrifying declaration from my roommate that, “Someone needs to clean the bathroom, and I did it last week.” There was a momentary pause during which all of us in the room glanced at each other, and then quickly looked down. It was a matter of who would break first, and within seconds I blurted, “OK, I will.” That was that, and everybody went back to watching television. I sat in dread for 10 minutes before I bit the bullet and pulled out the cleaning gloves. I am a clean person and I like my bathroom to be that way too, but this was admittedly the first time that I had to bring it to that state myself. Not being one for nausea-provoking activities, I was scared out of my mind. So nagging was the need to rid myself of the cleaning process that I left Real Housewives mid-episode and plunged into the linoleum. It’s funny how a year ago, as a freshman new to campus, the last thing on my mind was cleaning bathrooms. In fact, living within the bubbles that are Upper Campus and Newton Campus, and never having experienced life on Lower Campus, it was difficult to imagine that there were other living situations at Boston College. I assumed that everyone lived in forced triples with two cubic feet of living space, jammed all his or her belongings into one tiny closet, shared public bathrooms with 30 other people, and ate every meal in McElroy.
It became normal to greet everyone I met with my name, residence hall, and potential major, constantly forgetting people and having to ask the person next to me to repeatedly introduce his or herself. Even as freshman year progressed and I developed a group of friends and a daily rhythm I still assumed that everyone’s life at BC was similar to mine. Though I knew differently, I still never imagined that all BC students weren’t running down crowded halls in a towel just to get to their rooms after they showered. In fact, even as my friends and I were going through the housing selection process in the spring, hoping to get a pick time for an eight-man suite, I adamantly believed that I would be fine with a placement in one of the residence halls on College Road. I never allowed myself to think about having a suite on Lower. It was not until I arrived on campus just a couple of weeks ago, and the eight of us settled into our new room that my eyes were opened to the enormity of BC. I immediately noticed how everything I had come to believe was a staple of my BC experience, was really only a minor part of it: The Chocolate Bar, the climb back to Upper, the 15-minute walk to the Plex, and the
familiar faces living in Fitzpatrick with me. Now as I sit here in my eight-man common room on a couch (a piece of furniture I often forgot existed during freshman year), it has become somewhat clearer to me just how big BC is. There are so many different people, having a multitude of differing experiences, and creating unique lives for themselves all in such close proximity to one another. Even after just going to the Student Involvement Fair last week followed by a trip to the Study Abroad Fair a few days later, it became even clearer to me how much BC has to offer. There are so many ways to construct one’s experience here that it can often be over-
whelming to contemplate – a major reason why freshmen often hole themselves off. Yet we should really take advantage of the mass of opportunities available to us as students here. It is impossible to do everything, and attempting to would be exhausting, but just being aware that there are diverse opportunities available can enrich one’s experience here. Stepping out of our personal bubble is necessary. Even if it means cleaning a few toilet bowls along the way.
Alexandra Schaeffer is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at features@bcheights.com
photo courtesy of Flickr.com
There are a variety of jobs Advertisers extend around campus for all students reach via social media From Student Jobs, B10 with the NHL team, the New Jersey Devils. The large commitment of her job, with roughly 15 hours each week and required attendance at all practices and summer training in August , doesn’t bother McClemens at all. “My hours are really structured so there’s never any surprises as far as schedule, and it’s really nothing compared to the commitment of the players,” she says. In addition to the opportunity to view all the football games from the sidelines, McClemens says that another one of the perks is the opportunity to travel with the team. “They need two of us at every game so we get to divide up the away games and go with the team,” she says. Though she was unfamiliar with operating c amera e quipment initi ally, McClemens learned the ropes quickly. “I was really nervous at first that I would get the wrong footage, but I picked it up pretty quickly, and really love the job and the opportunities it has afforded me.” Working in athletics at BC d o e s n’t a l w ay s m e a n w o rking with the athletic program. There are roughly 70 students
that call the Plex their workplace, though it’s by no means an easy job to acquire. One of only two freshmen hired by the Plex last year, sophomore Cole Rabinowitz, A&S ’14 is often recognized outside of work as “the guy who swipes the cards at the door.” “Working at the front is nice because I don’t have too much responsibility, but I still get to talk to people, and I can occasionally get some work done on the side,” he says. As far as his personal recognition of gym-goers is concerned, he laughs, “It’s sometimes really funny seeing people’s transformations from when they initially swipe in to their post-workout appearance.” Rabinowitz, who usually works about six to 15 hours each week, appreciates the consistency of the work schedule. “The only bad thing is that you can sometimes get a bad shift, like Friday from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., which I had last year, or the night shift on Friday from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.,” he says. Office work jobs are one way to avoid untraditional hours. Rachel Saunders, CSOM ’14, spends nine to 11 hours each week as the front desk worker
at the Student Programs Office. She, along with about 10 other students, performs traditional office tasks like such as answering phones, making appointments, copying, taking questions, and assisting walk-ins. “The first week of freshman year I wanted to get a job, and my mom suggested that I go to the Student Programs Office and see if they were looking for anyone,” Saunders says. It turned out to be a good thing that she applied right away. “There’s usually a four-year retention rate, so they only hire about two people a year,” Saunders says. She plans to stay with the office for the remainder of her time at BC. There are as many different on-campus jobs at BC as there are personality types. Ever ywhere on c ampu s there are examples of students getting paid to perform interesting or fun tasks, and often enjoying themselves in the process. So next time you’re in line at Hillside slammed against the back wall with a crowd of 50 in front of you, when you finally get to the front of the line remember to smile and say, “Thank you,” to the friendly face behind the counter. n
From Social Media, B10 historical example that could sway the most avid disbelievers onto the side of technological prudence. “Marconi invented the radio in 1909, but not until 1920 did we have the first commercial radio station, and even after that, advertisers didn’t use airtime for commercials until 1930.” Essentially, Fishman feels that it will require this same patience before advertisers will truly be able to cash in on the potential of social media websites. The next step after this “incubation phase” for advertisers is one that could potentially unsettle plenty of Facebook users due to its invasive nature. “These agencies are already trying to zero in on your every action so they know how to pertain to your likes and desires,” Fishman says. “If they continue with these aggressive tactics, we’ll definitely see our fair share of lawsuits.” Google has been under fire in the past for similar reasons when it revealed that it makes money off advertisements by remembering all of a user’s prior searches. If Facebook is looking to take off with this same style of advertisement, then one could consider Facebook stalking
to become a profession for some in the near future. While social media outlets will continue to displace a plethora of markets over the next decade, Fishman worries the most about the future of one aging practice: office hours. “Nobody shows up at office hours anymore,” he laments. “It’s just too easy to send an e-mail or set up an iChat conference.” And this list of conveniences with social media grows more and more. n
photo courtesy of Flickr.com
he said, she said I’m a senior and my friends are all about going out every night of the week. I want to have a fun senior year, but I still have lots of work to do for my classes. How do I balance everything? - Party Hardy
Unfortunately, we still go to school and I think it’s important to remember that. Of course there needs to be a balance between work and fun, but despite being a senior and possibly taking a lighter course load, it’s even more crucial to not mail it in. Although I think my counterpart would support a more “fun” senior year, I would prefer to finish off my academic career on a Alex good note. I would never suggest going Trautwig to the library on a Friday or Saturday night, or skipping an event that you know will be a lot of fun, but when it comes down to it, skipping trivia Wednesday night to get some work done might not always be a bad idea. In the least, I think time management is really the key. Some people have the ability to get up early, even after a night out, get work done and then have the rest of the day to do whatever. If you’re not one of those people, such as myself, you need to find that time during the week that allows you to be productive, but also feel as though you won’t be missing out on anything. Although this balance might take some getting used to and require some small sacrifices, getting things done in a timely manner can eliminate stress and ultimately free up your schedule to do more of the fun things.
A friend of mine always says “YOLO” (You Only Live Once). You only have one academic life, but at the same time you only have one life in college with the opportunity to be surrounded by your good friends all of the time. Senior year is a time for you to enjoy your last months of being a college student. It is definitely difficult to balance your busy schedule, but you have been in college for three years now and you should be able to use your time management skills effectively. Seniors Madeline have the chance to go out to bars and socialize Demoulas almost every night, but it is important to have a good balance of having fun and keeping up with your school responsibilities. I think seniors should get to know as many people in your grade as possible because this is the last time everyone will be together at Boston College. I’m not saying that you have to go out to bars in order to get to know all of these people, but it is fun to be at Mary Ann’s and chat with your fellow peers. As a senior, you should take advantage of all that Boston has to offer to a young individual. For example, try out a new restaurant with your friends instead of dedicating a whole night to drinking and/or going out to a bar. Keep in mind there will be those instances where it is worth burning the midnight oil in the library so you can spend the weekend having fun and new experiences without having to worry. Remember, YOLO!
Alex Trautwig is an Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at features@bcheights.com
Madeline Demoulas is a senior staff writer for The Heights. She can be reached at features@bcheights.edu.
features The Heights
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B10
Monday, September 19, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Welcome to the twenties
Brooke Schneider There is only one sound that I enjoy waking up to – that of the Boston College marching band parading through the Mods on a Saturday morning. Even my attempts to change my alarm ringtone to something bright and cheery like “Whistle your cares away” aren’t enabling me to jump out of bed in a sprightly manner. But every game day at 10 a.m. I am awoken by the thunder of the Screaming Eagles and it gives me the burst of energy, which nowadays only comes after the consumption of a Monster, that I need to kick off my day. Basically, what I am trying to say is that it sure does feel fantastic to be back at BC. The best part of being back, hands down, is being able to reunite with my friends – the ones that fate placed in my hall freshman year, the ones that I met on The Heights, and that one kid from my high school who likes to think that I followed him to BC. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my friends at home, but there is just a different connection that you have with your friends at school. It’s a kind of connection that inspires me to repeat, “I love my friends, I love my friends,” every weekend night – and despite my love of love, I am not the most affectionate person, so that’s kind of a big deal. Amid all my excitement though, in the back of my mind there lurks the thought that I am halfway done with my college career. The amount of time between when I first moved into Loyola 426 and when I moved into Edmond’s this year is what lies between me and the real world. I don’t think I am alone in saying that those first two years flew by pretty darn quickly. This realization is made all the more serious by the fact that I can say that I am finally in my 20s. I said goodbye to my teenage years on Aug. 5 (I know, I’m a baby), and it feels amazing. When I was younger, I always had this glamorous image of 20-somethings. In conversations, my best friend from home and I liked to refer to our 20s as our “LC years.” Yes, that stands for Lauren Conrad and yes, maybe we watched too many episodes of Laguna Beach and The Hills. To us, Lauren epitomized everything it meant to be living in your 20s. Basing our own future off her experiences, we projected that in a few years, we’d be strutting through the streets of New York City in our heels and high-waisted skirts and matching jackets on our way to an internship on the 20th floor of a high-rise. We would have lost weight since high school and of course, we would have serious boyfriends. We would have all the confidence in the world and there would be no question of what our goals in life would be. Well world, I am 20 and none of the above is true. But knowing that such a life is possible in the near future is good enough for me. For now though, I will embrace everything else that comes along with being in one’s 20s, including the things that aren’t as obvious. We’re at the age in which we can get all dressed up in our most professional attire and earn the respect of adults in the workplace. And then at the end of the day, we can walk around campus in sweatpants and act like a bunch of little kids with our friends without looking like complete fools. We can make it appear as though we’ve got it all together and then cry to our parents on the phone about being overwhelmed with schoolwork. And the most widely known advantage of being this age is our detachment from the obligations of securing a well-paying job to support financing a home, a car, or even childcare. I used to think that being in your 20s meant that you had it all together. I now realize that the beauty of being on the early end of this age range is that you don’t need to have everything figured out. You don’t need to know exactly what you want to be doing 15 years from now, or how many kids you want to have, or in which state you want to settle down. This is the time to make mistakes and to learn from them so that you will one day have this peace of mind. So, for those of you that are still awaiting your 20th birthday, don’t fret about the prospect of “getting so old!” And for those of you that are already in your 20s, I am pleased to join your ranks. Let’s live up these years in a fashion that would make LC jealous.
Brooke Schneider is the Asst. Features Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at features@bcheights.com
mollie kolosky / heights Editor
By Alexandra Schaeffer Heights Staff
Everyone has, at some point during his or her time at Boston College, has been stuck in the seemingly endless line at Hillside. It’s usually just after class has ended, right at the top of the hour, and everyone seems to be craving a panini. Of course, it’s so good that most people are willing to wait the 20 or so minutes it will take to get to the front of the line, but not without complaining to everyone around you about how ridiculously long the line is. Yet somehow when you finally get up to the counter, there’s someone waiting with your New England Classic in-hand and a smile on their face. Many people probably grab their long awaited sandwich and jump into the checkout line, not even thinking twice about what it’s like to stand behind the counter and serve the endless masses. Pressing panini after panini for a continuously growing line of impatient college students seems like it would be taxing, yet it’s estimated that approximately 40 students do so every week. Molly Cummings, A&S ’14, was hired on the spot at Hillside her freshman year. “Everyone on the staff is really friendly,” she
says. “It’s a unique work atmosphere because we’re really social, and that extends beyond the workplace. I met some of my best friends at work last year,” Cummings raves. She’s moving up in the ranks as well, joking that she had her first experience working behind the coffee bar last week. “It’s the most coveted position,” she says. “Last year only the senior girls got to do it.” Even after spending nine hours a week working, Cummings admittedly heads to Hillside even when she’s off-the-clock. “I love the Tuscan Cheese dipped in barbeque sauce,” she says. “I tried it once and now that’s the only way I eat it.” Cummings divulged a couple of delicious sandwich modifications not on the menu. Hillside’s arguable competitor, Addie’s Loft, boasts a similar workplace atmosphere. “I’ve made a lot of friends there, and with about 30 students under the management of other students, there’s a lot of co-worker bonding during shifts,” says Gracie Horner, A&S ’12. She was drawn to Addie’s in part due to her desire for a job and her belief in the Real Food movement that Addie’s adheres to. “Food production is a complex interaction between the earth, and humans, and animal well-being,” she says. “I really believe in the
ideals held by Addie’s regarding food production,” Horner says. The employees at Addie’s are a mix of genuine believers in the Real Food Movement, and students who just wanted a campus job. What are the perks of a position at Addie’s beyond supporting the Real Food Movement? “We always get a shift meal of $8 and a drink, and shifts are only about three to five hours with a lot of flexibility,” Horner says. Unique to Addie’s is the opportunity for students to join management, as it is studentrun with only one non-student employee, Francisco, who heads the cooking. Work opportunities at BC aren’t solely limited to food service, however. After contacting the athletic program upon arrival at BC her freshman year, Tori McClemens, A&S ’13, landed the coveted position of student video manager for the football team. “Basically we film all the practices and games,” she says. “Sometimes the coaches will ask us to get specific angles or players, and we send some of the footage to the coaching staff. Other footage is used to make the highlight reels,” McClemens says. She hopes to work in sports after graduation, and interned this summer
See Student Jobs, B9
The business of a digital social media revolution
By Ryan McGuill Heights Staff
D
on’t look now, but we are in the midst of a digital revolution. OK, you were probably already aware of this worldwide cultural phenomenon with your hours of precious lecture time in Devlin 008 spent on Facebook and Twitter and your ability to just as easily get back onto these sites by reaching into your pocket when you leave your 75-minute Sporcle session. For the majority of the 1822-year-olds, social media websites have become more of a presence in our daily routine than the newspaper and more convenient than having to tune in to the five o’clock nightly news. Why call your friend and risk being overheard by your insane roommate, when you can just as easily message him on Facebook? Why announce to your eight-man how sick to your stomach that order of New Hong Kong made you last night when you can express your malaise to 70 of your followers, half of which probably don’t want to hear it, in 120 characters or less? Whether the use of these sites comes from addiction or amenity, these are the exact questions that advertisers are asking themselves as they hone in on our collective “popcorn brain syndrome” and capitalize on this new era of technology. “We do have a sort of ‘popcorn brain syndrome’ in this new era of digitalization,” says Donald Fishman, professor of communication at Boston College. “It comes from this addiction, this mentality that something always needs to be happening, and advertisers are looking to exploit this.” Fishman says that even though this onslaught of advertisements on social media websites is still in the incubation phase, but its presence is still undoubtedly felt across cyberspace. If you’re having trouble recalling examples of this commercialization of social media, try to think about everything that annoys you on these websites. The right side of your Facebook news-feed shows you a better wireless plan and asks BC students to come check out a “huge 7 bed/2ba apartment right next to the Green Line!” Twitter goes into a hash-tag frenzy in order to promote a new Nicolas Cage movie, #seasonofthewitch. VEVO channels on YouTube offer a 30-second Clearasil endorsement before that Rihanna
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music video begins to play. Pandora interrupts your Roots station with an American Express Gift Card advertisement and totally kills the vibe. “This new age of digitalization circumvents traditional advertising,” Fishman says. “Newspaper and radio numbers are low, so advertisers are shifting their focus elsewhere.” Both YouTube and Pandora epitomize this shift as it becomes more and more difficult to make it through a few minutes on each website without running into a pesky advertisement. However, the exploitation of the popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter doesn’t strictly belong to huge marketing agencies. In fact, Fishman says that it’s as simple as creating a fan page that will allow BC students to be let in on this newfound cash crop. “If you have a product,” he suggests, “build a fan base and an audience on Facebook by creating a fan page or even an event invitation so that when you search ‘product x,’ and it has a large enough following, it will show up on Google.” This approach might sound simple enough, and according to certain students, it actually is. While he wasn’t looking to make a profit, Sam Gervase, CSOM ’14, essentially advertised himself on the mini-feeds of BC students for last year’s freshman Senate race. “I paid to put my ‘Vote for Sam Gervase’ page on Facebook news feeds for the day, and I actually ended up getting about 150 more followers,” Gervase says. In the long run, Gervase has reaped the benefits of this risky move when he went on to be voted into the Senate. The growing potential for commerce and marketing ventures on Facebook has not yet convinced many BC students to join the party. “You never know when one of these social media sites might turn into the next MySpace or when the next Google Plus might roll around,” says Patrick Mitchell, CSOM ’15. “I would worry that any given site could turn into a fad.” For the oblivious younger crowd, MySpace is a sort of prehistoric version of Facebook that has basically been rendered obsolete since the arrival of Mark Zuckerberg’s cyber behemoth. And while it’s still in its initiation phase, Google Plus runs the risk of turning Zuckerberg into the next Tom. Fishman disregards any notion that these websites could join an extensive list of fads that, over the past decade, has seemed to multiply. He even cites a relevant
Student Entrepreneurs
See Social Media, B9
Read about the stories of undergraduates that have taken the business world by storm. ...................................................................................................................................B7
The Real World.................................B7 Campus Chronicles.........................B9