The Heights, February 8, 2021

Monday, February 8, 2021

Chemistry Professor Chia-Kuang “Frank” Tsung Dies at 44

By Maddie Phelps Online Manager Ellie Kominiarek On-Campus Accounts Manager Annie Corrigan Associate Multimedia Editor and Haley Hockin Special Projects Editor

“Frank was a fount of energy,” according to Ben Williams. Chia-Kuang “Frank” Tsung—associate professor of chemistry at Boston College who died on Jan. 5 from COVID-19 complications at the age of 44—was a beloved colleague and mentor with a unique gift of creating long-lasting connections, according to those who knew him.

Williams, a current postdoctoral research fellow, was Tsung’s advisee when he was in graduate school at BC. After a difficult research experience as an undergraduate student, Williams knew he was in need of a very particular type of adviser. He had heard

PHOTO COURTESY OF BEN WILLIAMS

nothing about Tsung before arriving on campus, but it quickly became apparent that he had lucked out.

“From the moment I met him, he was so excited about science in a way that was so contagious,” Williams said.

Graduate school is no easy feat for any student, especially those pursuing a career in the STEM field, Williams said. Though there were times of darkness, there was always a source of

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALLISON YOUNG

light he could count on to brighten his day—that light was Tsung.

Tsung led the research group Williams was in while attending graduate school at BC in January of 2016.

Tsung’s background in synthesizing metal particles made him an adept leader for Williams’ group. Under his guidance, Tsung’s group aimed to build off the work he had done in previous years, specifically in his graduate and postdoctoral studies involving nanoparticles with particular shapes and sizes.

Throughout his career, Tsung had no shortage of duties. He was very involved in the department as the director for graduate studies and the Steering Committee. He also taught a mixture of graduate and undergraduate courses, including honors general chemistry. Tsung’s research group of four undergraduate students was submitting research grants and publishing papers up until Tsung was hospitalized last fall.

Tsung had a unique gift of making intellectual and communal connections while he was at BC, according to Dean of MC A S Re v. Gregor y Kalscheur, S.J., in an email to The Heights.

“Professor Tsung was a gifted teacher, a creative scientist, a generous collaborator, and an integral contributor to our physical chemistry group,” Kalscheur said. “Over these last few weeks I have been deeply moved by how many colleagues on campus recognized Frank’s important role as a mentor and as a friend.”

Tsung was just like the drink he used to order at the bar—an Old Fash-

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALLISON YOUNG

ioned, according to third year graduate student Victor Lo. Tsung would consistently dress up for their outings, reflecting his unique and creative side that made him stand out in any crowd.

“He was always willing to sacrifice to provide a better career for his students,” Lo said. “I think that’s pretty rare for faculty, which is a great loss for the community. I am really honored to have had him as an adviser and mentor.”

In addition to the profound impact he had on his students’ lives, Tsung’s ambition inside the lab made strides for the collaborative efforts of the department. When he first began working in the lab, Williams said, there was just one joint project in the works. By the time he graduated, there were five.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BEN WILLIAMS

See Tsung, A3

UGBC Meets To Address Vaccines Begin To Roll Out in Newton MLE Floor Vandalism Assembly approves official statement.

By Megan Gentile Copy Editor

The Undergraduate Government of Boston College held an emergency meeting Thursday night to discuss their response to the vandalism that occurred early morning Jan. 30 on the Multicultural Learning Experience (MLE) floor of Xavier Hall.

During the meeting, members of UGBC’s Student Assembly (SA) approved an official statement responding to the Jan. 30 incident, calling for BC to expand diversity education and increase its transparency to students, faculty, and administrators regarding bias-motivated behavior.

The act was co-sponsored by Mitzy Monterroso-Bautista, AHANA+ Leadership Council (ALC) policy coordinator and MCAS ’22, and Jhon De La Cruz, SA first-generation representative and MCAS ’22.

The statement, which was uploaded to UGBC’s Instagram account after the meeting on Thursday, said that UGBC condemns the actions of the perpetrators and the “silence” of the administration.

“As members of a Jesuit, Catholic university, these activities are contrary to our commitment to cura personalis,” the statement reads. “This issue is emblematic of the work that is yet to be done on the part of administration. A prejudiced and discriminatory culture of impunity cannot continue to harm the physical and mental well-being of BIPOC students at Boston College.”

The Thursday statement comes a day after UGBC faced criticisms for a prior statement that was first uploaded to the organization’s Instagram page on Wednesday, but was later deleted after

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some members of UGBC took issue with the fact that it had not been approved by the SA. Shortly after, a statement attributed to UGBC President Christian Guma, CSOM ’21, was uploaded to the account, which specified that the SA was in the process of writing an official resolution.

Guma’s statement said that UGBC has offered support to students and immediately opened discussions with administrators, just as they have done previously in response to prior instances of vandalism in residence halls.

“Since Saturday, we have discussed these events in multiple meetings with senior administrators and offered our support to those directly affected,” Guma said. “Through our actions, not simply words, we’ve made efforts to ensure that no students, especially students of color, feel unsafe in their residence halls or anywhere else on campus.”

Following Guma’s post, ALC released a statement on its Instagram page, condemning the vandalism and addressing Guma’s response.

“We, the AHANA+ Leadership Council (ALC), condemn the racist incidents that occurred on Saturday, January 31st and again yesterday night on the third floor of Xavier Hall, a Multicultural Learning Experience,” the statement reads. “ … Unfortunately, the executive administration of UGBC has failed to provide a meaningful response to the vile acts that cultivated this weekend, and have not effectively outlined or implemented ways to unify our community and make campus a safe space for all students.”

Alexandra Katz, SA representative and Lynch ’23, said that she was shocked when she saw the initial Wednesday post, as it had not been approved by the SA or the UGBC Community Relations Committee.

By Julia Remick Metro Editor and Maggie Leahy Assoc. Metro Editor

After a harrowing year, receiving the COVID-19 vaccine was an emotional experience for many Newton healthcare workers. The arrival of Phase 1 of vaccinations in December for healthcare workers and first responders in Massachusetts brought a long-anticipated sense of relief.

Nanci Ginty Butler, BC ’97, the director of mental health services in adolescent and young adult medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, who lives in Newton, received the first dose of the vaccination at Gillette Stadium on Dec. 17 and the second dose

ARTS: The Show Must Go On

mid-February solely for their patients at the former Boston Sports Clubs in the Wells Ave. Office Park in Newton, according to a statement from Fuller on Feb. 4.

Similarly, an additional clinic, run by Mass General Brigham will be opening a clinic at the temporarily vacant TripAdvisor office in Needham for their patients.

Eligible residents can visit the Massachusetts website to locate a nearby clinic, make an appointment, and fill out an attestation form.

The FDA authorized the emergency use of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in December, both of which use mRNA and require two doses.

See Vaccine, A10

PHOTO BY OF MC CLAVERIE/HEIGHTS EDITOR

“They need to implement more than just a forum.

This has to be structural change.”

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The cast of Proof will stream their performance from Robsham.............. A12

on Jan. 7. She said that waiting for the first dose was like waiting for Christmas.

“I was very anxious, excited with anticipation, and I think most of the people I worked with had the same feeling,” Ginty Butler said. “When it happened it was very emotional, like just a wave of hopeful relief.”

Due to limited vaccine supplies, the Commonwealth is not allocating resources to local health departments for vaccinations at public clinics, but is instead concentrating its vaccine distributions at Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium, according to Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller’s statement on Jan. 26.

Within Newton, Beth Israel Lahey Health will be setting up a clinic in

- Chinenye Ugocha, MCAS ’21

See BHM, A6 ‘The Heights’ Diversity Disparity

The Heights Editor-in-Chief releases diversity statistics ............................................. A8

INDEX

NEWS......................... A 2 OPINIONS..................... A8 Vol. CII, No. 1 © 2021, The Heights, Inc. SPORTS.................. A 4 METRO.................. A10 MAGAZINE..................... A 6 ARTS..................... A11 www.bchelghts.com 69

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There will be a virtual event on Thursday at 7 p.m. titled “I am Resilience: Ricky Kidd.” Kidd, who was wrongfully convicted of a double homicide, will share his story and discuss the prison system and how to be an advocate for change.

NEWS BRIEFS

Student Named To 30 Under 30 Forbes Magazine named Phillip HuiBon-Hoa, MCAS ’21, to its 30 Under 30 marketing and advertising list for the work of his marketing and design company Slope Agency.

“Yeah, my initial reaction was pretty speechless,” he said. “I did not expect that whatsoever.”

Slope has made over $70 million in revenue for over 100 partner companies including LEGO, Gravity Blanket, and Daily Harvest.

Hui-Bon-Hoa said he would rather be measured by his output than his awards. A more tangible effect of being named on the list, according to him, is the recognition it will create for his business.

“It’s definitely opened some opportunities thus far. The press that we’ve gotten has definitely led to deals,” HuiBon-Hoa said. “That’s like probably the most tangible thing. … There’s also a pretty strong community within that network.”

Before Slope, Hui-Bon-Hoa founded Abacus Growth, another marketing company that utilized social media platform TikTok in its strategy. The company matched influencers on the app with companies that wanted their products advertised.

Slope acquired Abacus Growth in 2020. Hui-Bon-Hoa was named co-founder of the company, which yields a 400 percent year-over-year growth in revenue.

Hui-Bon-Hoa attributed part of his skills set to associate marketing professor Linda Salisbury.

“I took an independent study with professor Linda Salisbury,” he said. “She was extremely helpful in helping me understand marketing from more of an academic and organized perspective. So that was one way school really helped with work.”

ERA to Present at Roundtable The Lynch School of Education and Human Development’s Experience, Reflection, Action (ERA) program was chosen to present in the 38th Annual Winter Roundtable: A Pandemic of Racism hosted by the Teachers College at Columbia University on Feb. 25 to 27 on Zoom.

The roundtable is the longest ongoing professional education program in the country devoted to examining cultural issues in education, psychology, and social work, according to its website. This year, the program will focus on the effects of systemic racism, including police brutality and health disparities that have arisen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The focus of the roundtable aligns with the ERA program’s curriculum this year, according to Julia DeVoy, Lynch’s associate dean of undergraduate students and programs and ERA director.

“What we had been doing was very much around raising awareness in the ERA program on racial injustice and environmental racism, and in fact, the collaboration of the provost’s office and the ERA program this fall was particularly designed on consciousness raising on environmental racism,” DeVoy said.

ERA’s submission is titled “Raising Racial, Environmental, and Social Justice Awareness in Predominantly White Higher Education Settings.”

DeVoy will present the submission alongside ERA co-coordinators Laura Gonzalez and Christopher Ceccolini as well as ERA instructor Lianzhe Zheng.

DeVoy said the ERA program will address complicated issues through an interdisciplinary approach.

“Enormous, multifaceted complex problems in the world will require collaboration across multiple disciplines and an interdisciplinary mindset, so that’s really a huge part of what the ERA team is doing,” she said.

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The Office of Student Involvement is hosting Leadership Day 2021 on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for students who would like to develop their leadership skills. The event will cater to students with different leadership styles, including freshmen discovering their own styles or seniors looking to transition into the workforce.

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The Lynch School of Education is hosting a panel discussion,“How COVID-19 has Changed the Landscape of Education,”Thursday at 6 p.m. Lynch faculty will discuss equity issues in public education, teaching in an online word, and future policy initiatives .that might be taken to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Report Sheds Light on Sexual Assault at BC

By Scott Baker Heights Senior Staff There were 23 reports of on-campus rape and seven reports of fondling at Boston College in 2019, according to the University’s Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report which was released last December. There were five more reported incidences of rape in 2019 than in 2018, but reports of fondling declined, down from 21 in 2018.

Associate Vice President for Student Health and Wellness and Deputy Title IX Coordinator for Students Melinda Stoops said that the report, which BC publishes annually in compliance with the Clery Act of 1990, is important as a measure of transparency, but also so that students know they are not alone and that their reports are being documented.

“We’re never happy to hear of a crime of sexual violence or any other crime on campus, but there is comfort in knowing it’s being reported to us,” Stoops said. “ … I’m pleased that those students came forward and made a report of those crimes.”

Stoops cautioned against taking the report as a definitive account of sexual violence on campus, noting that not all instances of sexual violence are reported to the University.

“When we look at this data, it’s important to remember that these are the crimes that we know of,” Stoops said in an interview with The Heights. “ … We cannot say that these numbers are an exact match with the number of those crimes that happened on campus. We can only say those were the numbers that were reported to us.”

The increase in reported instances of rape in 2019 follows the five-year low

reported in 2018. Because the statistics only include cases that were reported, though, it is not possible to make crossyear comparisons, Stoops said.

“It could mean there’s an increase in that crime,” Stoops said. “There could also be another explanation that people are more likely to report that crime than they were in the past. Or that people are more educated about that crime and recognize it as a crime.”

There was an overall increase in reported crimes that fall under the 2013 Violence Against Women Act between 2018 and 2019, according to the report.

There was one incident of dating violence in 2019 in the report, down from three in 2018, but instances of domestic violence and stalking rose from one to 14 and seven to 11, respectively.

The University has a variety of initiatives in place to increase reporting and prevent instances of sexual violence, including student education programming and employee training.

All freshmen at BC are assigned an online learning module on sexual violence, and the Women’s Center holds an event each spring called “Take Back the Night” to spread awareness of sexual violence.

The COVID-19 pandemic ha s forced BC to adapt its response to sexual violence, Stoops said. Stand Up BC, a bystander intervention program that focuses on training students how to spot and prevent sexual violence, has been moved online in order to comply with social-distancing guidelines.

Stoops has also had to adapt procedures for Title IX investigations, offering virtual meetings with students, though she said she gives students the option to meet in person if they are more comfortable meeting in that format.

Stoops also said that every employee at BC in a non-confidential role is responsible for reporting every account of sexual violence involving a student that they are made aware of. The University also provides faculty and staff with a guide on how to support students who come forward to them with reports of sexual violence, Stoops said.

“The care of the student comes first, and then giving [faculty and staff ] information about resources that they could refer the student to,” Stoops said. “ … It’s really advising them about the process, but also giving them information that helps them connect a student with resources.”

Crime statistics for the 2020 report will not be available until later this year—the deadline is typically Oct. 1 but was pushed back to Dec. 31 in 2020—but Stoops noted that the numbers are likely to be influenced by the shortened semester that resulted from BC’s decision to send students home in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department of Education,

led by former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, released new rules in May 2020 that significantly altered policies surrounding sexual assault investigations under Title IX, a civil rights law governing sexual violence in higher education passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972.

Last year’s changes bolstered the rights of accused students in the Title IX process, narrowing the definition of sexual harassment, mandating live cross-examination, and limiting the scope of Title IX, though Stoops said that none of the new Title IX policies were in effect by the end of 2019.

Stoops said that while it is unclear what will happen to Title IX under the Biden administration, a recent law in Massachusetts will force BC to amend its response to reports of sexual violence.

“I think we’ll see a quicker impact from the new regs in Massachusetts than from Title IX, because those have passed into law now,” Stoops said. “We have to work on those by the summer.”n

IKRAM ALI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Women’s Summit Explores Race, Gender

By Erin Shannon Copy Chief Maggie Leahy Assoc. Metro Editor Amy Palmer Asst. News Editor and Victor Stefanescu Asst. News Editor According to Chanel Miller, sexual violence awareness activist and one of two keynote speakers at Boston College’s annual Women’s Summit, the #MeToo movement was long overdue— it took far too many survivors speaking up to elicit a response from the public to the history of sexual assault.

“It reminds me of like, there’s a little light going on in your car and someone’s alerting you to something,” Miller said.

“We waited until all of the tires were blown and gone.”

Keynote speakers Miller and Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, discussed sexual assault and the intersection of race and gender at the BC Women’s Summit on Saturday.

The summit also included eight workshops which focused on a variety of topics, including women in software engineering and the importance of self-compassion.

In 2015, Brock Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer, sexually assaulted Miller at a fraternity party. At the conclusion of the trial, during which Turner was sentenced to six months in prison, Miller delivered a victim impact statement.

BuzzFeed published her statement anonymously in 2016, which quickly went viral and prompted a nationwide discussion about rape and sexual assault.

Miller discussed the unpredictability of the emotions that she experienced throughout her journey as a survivor of sexual assault.

“So I’m much more interested in hearing about just where our emotional peaks were,” she said. “And even with something like the verdict, you would think that’s my party day, like

my happiest day. It was so sad, I was crying so hard and I wasn’t even, after it was announced, I wasn’t even thinking about him.”

One of those emotional moments, she said, was telling her parents about her encounter at the party with Turner.

“I think about what moment the assault really hit me, and I think it was when I told my parents,” Miller said.

“And seeing the look on my mom’s face was so scary, right. It was like that seared into me, and that tipped something over.”

Miller said that being able to issue her statement anonymously made her feel secure, but she was also on edge because the public could discover her identity at any moment. It was her mother who gave her the courage to go public, she said.

“She’s a big reason why I feel bold enough to come forward,” Miller said.

“Getting her blessing was really important [to me], because your mom wants to protect you from everything in the world and she had to sort of let go of the idea that she could in order to let me just go out and let whatever happen, happen.”

Miller went public with her identity in a 60 Minutes interview in 2019.

She said that the experience of going public was not isolating because she joined many others who were telling their stories and building the #MeToo movement.

“When you come forward, you’re like stepping into line with all of us who are beside you,” she said. “You’re just like taking this place in this long line of powerful women who know your experiences rather than, like, ‘It’s me, I’m in the little spotlight, now you can ask me all the questions you want.’”

In going public with her story, Miller amassed a global audience. Her autobiography, Know My Name: A Memoir, landed a No. 5 spot on The New York Times Best Seller List. Still, Miller said that she focused on going at her own pace and suggested that others do the same.

“But again, you move as fast as you can go, and if anyone’s pulling you faster

than you feel like you should be going, cut it off because you don’t need to be going anywhere,” Miller said. “Truly, it’s all up to you.”

Miller contrasted Turner’s treatment in his trial to the killing of Philando Castile, who was shot and killed by a police officer in a suburb of Saint Paul, Minn. in 2016. Turner was given all the legal resources necessary to make his case, she said, but Castile was killed before he even got the opportunity to speak.

“I think it’s disturbing how much care there is around white reputations and carelessness around Black life,” she said. “The fact that, you know, Philando Castile wasn’t able to get a single word in and my assailant was able to fly in his high school French teacher, high school swimming coach, and devote a full day to their testimonies, really says a lot to me.”

Cullors touched on the intersection of race and gender, sharing her experience as a Black woman speaking out against mass incarceration and co-founding the Black Lives Matter movement. She defines herself as an abolitionist evangelist who calls for the end of mass criminalization, policing, and surveillance.

“I mean that every single time I wake up in the morning, I’m thinking about, ‘How do I build a city, a county, and a country that is invested in the care of human beings?’” Cullors said. “That is invested in the dignity of human beings?”

Cullors said that she became an advocate at 16 years old by creating a petition at her high school. Two years later, she became an organizer for the Bus Riders Union and since then, she has advocated for both environmental and racial justice, including working the last 15 years to push an abolitionist agenda.

Cullors also discussed how though she didn’t intend on writing her autobiography, When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, she decided to challenge people who called BLM a terrorist organization and share what she believes the movement is really about.

“Our intention from the very begin-

ning was for it to be a global movement,” Cullors said. “We set the seeds for that.

We spent our time going, literally, around the globe, meeting with Black people saying, ‘Go forth and set a flame.’”

When moderator Régine Michelle Jean-Charles, associate professor of French and of African and African Diaspora Studies at BC, asked about the common misunderstandings of the BLM movement, Cullors said the patriarchy has created false perceptions that Black women cannot lead galvanizing movements.

“I think people were really confused that three Black women created something this big,” Cullors said. “I don’t think they knew how to wrap their heads around it.”

In order to reinforce Black feminist history, Cullors said that it is important to tell the story of the movement and its founders.

“Tell the story,” Cullors said. “Black women created this movement, but also tell the story that Black women keep it going.”

Cullors said that being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize was an honor that she never expected, especially because accolades have never been a large focus of her work.

“I do this work so I can hopefully change the material conditions for the people who are most impacted by the system that we live in,” she said. “ … I see it as a nomination for all of us who showed up in the streets, and who have been showing up in the streets. I also see it as a nomination for all of the all the Black folks who have fought for centuries to try to get us closer to freedom.”

Cullors also discussed hope for the future, referencing the promise of a passionate young generation.

“What gives me hope?” Cullors said. “There’s a new generation of Black leaders and brown leaders and queer and trans and disabled leaders who are stepping up to the moment … and challenging all the things from race [to] gender to class. And they’re doing it in some of the most innovative, creative, and hilarious ways. That gives me all the hope.” n

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Monday, November 11, 2019

The Heights

Monday, February 8, 2021

President Biden Appoints Two More BC Alumni To His Cabinet

By Amy Palmer Asst. News Editor

GRAPHIC BY ÉAMON LAUGHLIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Boston College reported 39 undergraduate cases of COVID-19 out of 8,130 tests in its first full week of testing of the spring semester, a positivity rate of .48 percent, according to the University’s COVID-19 dashboard. One non-undergraduate tested positive for COVID-19 this past week out of 2,191 tests, a positivity rate of .05 percent.

Following the 76 undergraduate positives from pre-semester move-in testing that began on Jan. 19, 88 undergraduate students remain in isolation as of Friday, with 58 in isolation housing and 30 recovering at home. n

Tsung Remembered

by Faculty, Students Tsung, from A1 “Now, you can see different professors working together in all different ways,” Williams said. “It hasn’t always been like that in our department. Frank was a big driving force for that. He was so good at dealing with different personalities. He got everyone to focus towards a common goal and work well together.”

Dunwei Wang, Vanderslice professor of chemistry and department chair, also said Tsung made a lasting impact on him and many others. “[Tsung] was one of the key members in [the] chemistry community and in the community worldwide. I can’t say enough about how important he was to all of us,” Wang said.

Tsung was a beloved colleague, collaborator, and close friend to many, according to associate professor of chemistry Eranthie Weerapana.

“We will forever miss his laughter, his energy, his companionship, and his thoughtfulness,” she said.

Tsung, according to Wang, was very easy to get along with, and was someone who could always be heard laughing and making jokes, even in recorded lectures.

Tsung frequently joked that he was a “cartoon chemist,” according to Allison Young, a former member of Tsung’s research group.

“As mentors go, he was hands down

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one of the best,” Young said. “He truly felt and believed science to be a beautiful thing and one of the best ways to share that with people was to make beautiful visuals and to do beautiful chemistry that could ultimately have so many applications.”

Wang said that Tsung was the reason many undergraduate students decided to pursue science in their careers, and that they would frequently ask him for advice.

“He put himself in students’ shoes in trying to work with them,” Lo said.

“That was a big part of his personality.”

Tsung radiated kindness and he left a legacy of warmth and humility. He was always engaging those around him in conversation and making them laugh, Young said.

“Every time we would go to conferences if I got there first, when I was his graduate student, the entire conference would be asking if he was coming and when he was getting there because everyone loved him,” said Young. “Beyond that, he was also an incredible scientist and mentor.”

There will be a void in BC’s chemistry department without Frank Tsung, Lo said.

“He was the best mentor of all time,” he said. “I think what he taught us, what he achieved, and his legacy will be passed down.” n

President Joe Biden appointed additional Boston College alumni to the Biden-Harris administration in early January. Biden selected Evan Ryan, BC ’93, to serve as White House Cabinet secretary in the Office of Cabinet Affairs and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, BC ’09, to serve as secretary of labor in his cabinet.

Prior to this appointment, according to White House archives, Ryan worked from 2003 to 2004 as a deputy director of communications on John Kerry’s presidential campaign, who was appointed in November 2020 as the special presidential envoy for climate. Additionally, Ryan worked as deputy campaign manager for Biden’s presidential campaign in 2008, according to the archives.

In the Obama administration, Ryan served as assistant to the vice president and special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement from 2009 to 2013, according to the archives. She was then nominated and eventually served as the assistant

secretary of state for Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) from 2013 to 2017.

She served as executive vice president for Axios from 2017 to 2020, according to her LinkedIn. Most recently, she served as a senior advisor on the Biden-Harris transition team.

The Office of Cabinet Affairs, where Ryan will serve as cabinet secretary, is responsible for coordinating communications and policy between the White House and the cabinet, in addition to managing various issues regarding federal agencies, according to archives from the White House website.

“President Biden’s Cabinet reflects his pledge to appoint leaders of government agencies that reflect the country they aim to serve,” the White House website said.

Ryan is married to Antony Blinken, who was sworn in on Jan. 26 as the 71st secretary of state, according to the Department of State website. Blinken and Ryan have formed a close relationship with Biden, according to CNN, with Blinken having worked alongside Biden for almost 20 years.

“My family—especially my wife [Evan Ryan] and our children, John and Lila— is my greatest blessing,” Blinken said in his opening remarks on Jan. 19, then serving as secretary of state-designate.

“Our​ tradition of public service is a source of tremendous pride.”

Walsh, who was tapped as secretary of labor on Jan. 7., has a long-standing relationship with Biden, according to an article from The Boston Globe.

Pending Walsh’s Senate confirmation, Boston City Council President Kim Janey will serve as acting mayor of Boston according to an article from The Boston Globe. If Walsh leaves office before March 5, the city council will hold a special election 120 to 140 days following his departure. If he leaves after March 5, Janey will serve as mayor until the next election in November.

“Working people, labor unions, and those fighting every day for their shot at the middle class are the backbone of our economy and of this country,” Walsh said in a tweet on Jan. 7. “As Secretary of Labor, I’ll work just as hard for you as you do for your families and livelihoods.

You have my word.” n

PHOTO COURTESY OF BEN WILLIAMS

P r o f e s s o r C h i a - K u a n g “ F r a n k ” Ts u n g w i t h s o m e o f h i s s t u d e n t s , i n c l u d i n g B e n W i l l i a m s , a t B o s t o n C o l l e g e .

UGBC Debates Response To Vandalism on MLE Floor UGBC, from A1 It is standard for posts on the UGBC Instagram account to be released by the UGBC Community Relations Committee, she said.

“It came to my attention that Christian had produced the statement entirely on his own and uploaded the statement entirely on his behalf,” Katz said. “However, it didn’t seem that way to the outside viewer, as this statement seemed to be speaking on behalf of the entire organization when in reality a large portion of the organization was not consulted before this information was released.”

Community Relations Committee Chair Dennis Wieboldt, an SA representative and MCAS ’22, said in an email to The Heights that his first concern upon seeing Guma’s post was a lack of clarity.

“Not many students understand UGBC’s internal rules, so any public statements that don’t clearly delineate who the statement is coming from are likely to lead to confusion, as in this case,” Wieboldt said. “I am glad that the initial post was quickly deleted and replaced by another statement clearly identified as being the President’s and the President’s alone.”

Wieboldt confirmed that the statement had not gone through the committee, a required process outlined in the UGBC constitution for an organization-wide statement.

Some SA representatives criticized Guma’s statement and said that it outlined no plan for action.

“Christian’s statement omitted anything related to a tangible plan of action on how we as an organization were going to hold ourselves accountable for representing the student body,” Jack Bracher, SA representative and MCAS ’22, said.

Several members of UGBC, including

Katz, criticized Guma’s post for not explicitly referring to the incident as a “hate crime.”

“I disagree with the way that the statement was worded,” Katz said. “Christian’s statement did not openly condemn this incident as a race-based and misogynistic hate crime, which I firmly believe that it was.”

Monterroso-Bautista, De La Cruz, and Urwa Hameed, SA intersectionality chair and MCAS ’22, began working on an official UGBC statement after they heard about the vandalism on Jan. 30.

Monterroso-Bautista said she was disappointed that several SA representatives and UGBC members did not stay for an optional meeting following the Jan. 31 general meeting to discuss the drafting of the statement.

“It was definitely frustrating when Christian’s statement came out because I felt that it undermined our work and it wasn’t reflective of our voices, not to mention that it was the opinion of a white man,” Monterroso-Bautista said.

Much of Thursday’s emergency meeting was spent debating whether UGBC’s statement should have included the term “hate crime.”

Leonardo Escobar, SA representative and MCAS ’22, motioned to replace the phrase “bias-motivated act of vandalism” with “hate crime” in the first paragraph of the statement.

Some SA representatives, including Wieboldt, Doug Baker, student life chair and MCAS ’22, and James Freirich, CSOM ’21, said that UGBC should not deem the incident a hate crime until the Office of Student Conduct concluded its investigation.

“I think us calling it a hate crime at this point would be jumping the gun,” Wieboldt said. “Look, if it comes out that it was, then I have no issue saying that then, but I don’t

understand necessarily why we’d put ourselves at the risk about saying something inaccurate or outright false in advance of the information coming out.”

Baker spoke about the implications that the statement could have on UGBC’s reputation within the BC community.

“To call this a hate crime without it being finalized would basically make us a joke,” Baker said. “As much as we want to represent the student body, we have to have a sense of reason behind it, behind our actions. Calling it a hate crime without it being confirmed by the school is just not the road that I think we should go on.”

Some representatives said that the impact that the incident had on the women of the MLE floor justifies calling it a hate crime.

“I trust the words of the freshmen in the hall who had to suffer through a semester long worth of harassment,” Bracher said. “ … For me at least, I’m going to go with the words of my peers. That’s enough for me.”

Julia Spagnola, SA representative and MCAS ’23, also spoke about the responsibility of UGBC to be allies to the AHANA+ community.

“Language is important,” Spagnola said.

“But at the end of the day we need to get across a feeling, and the feeling needs to set a tone that we are here to make change—and positive change. … If this is how the AHANA students at our school are feeling and if this is the language that it requires to truly address the issue, then we need to do it.”

The amendment to include the language “hate crime” passed by one vote.

Wieboldt, who abstained from the final vote, said in an email to The Heights that the statement failed to reflect the research and advocacy of the SA Working Group on Student Policies & Conduct and the SA

Working Group on Policing.

“I abstained from the final vote because I agreed with the sentiment of support that UGBC has a responsibility to offer to the impacted students, but I disagreed with some of the statement’s language, especially around the specific policy changes that the Student Assembly will now supposedly pursue,” Wieboldt said.

After the statement was passed, Sasha Wong, SA representative and MCAS ’24, asked if there was anything that UGBC could do to delete Guma’s post.

UGBC Chief of Staff Jack Lewis, MCAS ’21, said in an email to The Heights that Guma’s statement was an important step to ensure transparency.

“As UGBC President, this statement was Christian’s way to make it clear that BC’s student government was in the midst of working on the students’ behalf, as the Student Assembly continued to deliberate on their more comprehensive statement, which was published the day after,” Lewis wrote. “Such actions by President Guma have helped to ensure better communication and transparency of the work UGBC has been undertaking for fellow students.”

Wieboldt, who serves as the organization’s parliamentarian, said that the post attributed to Guma that was on the Instagram page was permitted by the UGBC constitution.

Monterroso-Bautista said that the original unattributed post was not constitutional, as it did not go through the UGBC Community Relations Committee as a formal statement on behalf of UGBC. “That was a mistake and that’s why it was deleted shortly after,” Guma said.

Guma’s statement has since been deleted.

In an interview with The Heights, Mon-

terroso-Bautista said that unconstitutional actions made by the president can be handled in three ways: an impeachment process, censure, or by not responding at all.

“Student leaders should be held accountable for all of their actions, especially when they are in the highest positions such as the president, so I think that one of those options is definitely possible,” Monterroso-Bautista said.

On Thursday afternoon ahead of the emergency meeting, Kevork Atinizian, UGBC vice president and CSOM ’22, released a statement on his personal Instagram page in which he referred to the incident as a “hate crime” and said that there is a need to evaluate how BC handles hate crimes on campus.

Some SA representatives, including Wieboldt, said that there remains strong disagreement between members of the SA and the president as to how best to respond to this incident.

“I, for one, do not completely agree with the way the President responded, nor with the way that the Student Assembly responded in last night’s statement,” Wieboldt said in an email to The Heights.

Some representatives said that members of UGBC are failing in their responsibilities as student leaders.

“The failure of certain individuals within the organization to condemn and recognize this hate crime for what it was very dangerously diminishes the experiences of the marginalized community that this hate crime directly victimized, and that is the biggest issue here,” Katz said.

Bracher expressed a similar sentiment.

“I think we can be doing better,” Bracher said. “We should be doing better. At the end of the day, the responsibility falls on us.” n

The Heights

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Monday, February 8, 2021

SPRING INTO ACTION

JESS RIVILIS / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF AND MOLLY BANKERT / HEIGHTS STAFF

Thirty out of BC’s 31 varsity sports will compete this spring, including all of the fall sports which played abbreviated schedules in 2020.

By Emma Healy Sports Editor

If Boston College Athletics allowed fans to attend its contests this year, there would be no shortage of games to go to.

It seems like an oxymoron that in a year when so many daily activities are limited, BC’s varsity sports are competing more than ever. But because of the limitations of the 2020 fall season, not to mention the abrupt halt to spring sports last March, BC Athletics is taking every available opportunity to compete this spring. In addition to the next-to-normal schedules for spring sports such as baseball, softball, and lacrosse, fall sports will get a second crack at competition.

Out of BC’s 31 varsity sports, 30 will compete this semester, according to

Senior Associate Athletics Director for Communications Jason Baum. As winter sports finish out their seasons, both fall and spring sports are gearing up for an unconventional year. The lone outlier not competing this semester is football, which completed a full regular season schedule of games last fall.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from football is men’s soccer, which forgoed its 2020 fall season as a result of a low roster size. Though men’s soccer has yet to release a competition schedule for this spring, the Eagles are back on the field training under first-year head coach Bob Thompson.

Like many fall sports which would have normally just been a fall 2020 season, women’s soccer is now a 2020-21 season, as the Eagles will finish out their

full 16-game schedule with an eight-game slate this spring. The list features seven games against New England opponents and one against ACC foe NC State. After going 1-7 in ACC competition this fall— the Eagles’ sole win was against Syracuse in the middle of the season—BC is on the hunt for a rebound.

Early in the season, BC field hockey postponed five of its games due to a positive COVID-19 test and subsequent contact tracing within the program. The Eagles will make up for the games it missed by playing 11 games this spring, including matchups with Duke, Syracuse, and Virginia. Volleyball will also resume its season after finishing the fall without a win.

The intertwined fall and spring seasons present a unique dilemma

for cross country and track and field.

Women’s cross country will compete in two meets, the Winter XC Classic and the FSU Winter XC Last Chance Meet, before the NCAA Cross Country Championship on March 15. At the same time, the Eagles will be focusing on the ACC Indoor Track & Field Championship and the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship, which each take place in early March.

After the abrupt cancellation of spring sports last March, the NCAA granted athletes competing in spring sports an extra year of eligibility. Baseball and softball will play their usual 50-orso game schedules, men’s and women’s tennis begin their competition this week, and lacrosse continues the hunt for that elusive National Championship title. n

Eagles Split Rivalry Weekend Against BU

By Nick Pulice Heights Staff

As Boston College men’s hockey head coach Jerry York said on Friday, what makes hockey such an amazing sport to watch Boston College 1 is its intensity.

Boston University 3 Tensions run even higher in rivalry games, and in the 284th edition of the Battle of Comm. Ave., the tension was so palpable that you could practically cut it with a knife.

As a result, No. 1 BC (11-3-1) and No. 15 Boston University (6-2) combined for nine penalties—including two five-minute majors—on the night, and the teams traded big hits all game long. After an overtime decision in BC’s favor the night prior, BU came out with renewed fire and won 3-1, splitting the weekend series.

After Friday’s spectaculars, BC looked to carry its momentum into Saturday’s road tilt with the Terriers.

Shortly after the opening puck drop, however, the barrage of penalties began. Each team had a power play chance early in the first period, but neither the Eagles nor Terriers found the net. It was the second round of power plays that got the scoring started.

Eamon Powell lit the lamp first on a power-play goal just under 12 minutes into the first period. Off a

point shot from Friday’s hero Drew Helleson, Powell found the rebound in traffic and snuck a shot past BU goaltender Vinny Duplessis, who shined in his first career start. The goal underwent a lengthy review, but it stood, and the Eagles held onto an early 1-0 lead.

Coming into Saturday’s game, the Eagles had a meager 10.4 conversion rate on the power play. But since Alex Newhook’s return to the ice on Friday, BC’s power play unit has scored in two consecutive games.

“It’s been a work in progress with [Newhook] back in it,” York said.

“Now, it’s certainly more dangerous.

We’re getting better looks at it.”

The Eagles’ lead did not last long, as the Terriers leveled the score on a power play of their own two minutes later. Defenseman Alex Vlasic walked right in toward goal and laced a wrist shot past Spencer Knight to tie the score up at two.

In the final minutes of the first period, the Eagles faced their first major test of the night. Officials handed defenseman Marshall Warren a contact to the head penalty, prompting his ejection from the game and a five-minute power play for the Terriers, but BC’s penalty kill unit was in top form and outlasted the 5-on-4 chance.

Just about halfway into the second period, the Terriers took their first lead of the game. Luke Tuch,

the brother of former BC great and Vegas Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch, received a pass from Wilmer Skoog off a 2-on-1 chance which Tuch slotted home. The Eagles’ offensive aggression created the odd-man rush on the other end, and Knight couldn’t bail them out.

There were no penalties called in the second period, but the intensity grew with the increased even-strength play.

The Terriers doubled their lead just 23 seconds into the final period.

Tuch slotted home his second of the night off another great feed from Skoog.

Shortly after the Terriers’ third unanswered goal, a gift fell into the Eagles’ laps. BU defenseman Cade Webber cross-checked Casey Carreau late after the whistle, earning him a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct. Even so, the Eagles’ power play, as it has all season, struggled to muster any great chances. The Eagles failed to capitalize, and Mike Hardman took a slashing penalty to end the power play prematurely.

“I would have liked to go all five minutes [on the power play],” York said. “We can’t take penalties on a power play, that’s for sure.”

In his first collegiate start, Duplessis appeared to be a seasoned veteran. Besides Powell’s goal early in the game, he shut the Eagles down, tallying 40 saves on the night. BC’s

hard-fought defeat marked the Eagles’ first loss in regulation since Dec. 12 against UConn.

“We played significantly better tonight in all phases of the game than we did last night,” York said. “I thought we generated more offense. We got stellar goaltending again tonight. The one area that was lacking was that we gave up too many odd-man rushes. I was probably trying to do too much [on] offense.”

FRIDAY’S RECAP Drew Helleson stopped the overtime clock as it flashed 0.1 seconds, elevating No. 1 BC (11-2-1) over its principal rival from down the street, No. 15 BU (5-2).

Cue bench-clearing celebrations. After heading into overtime knotted at 3-3, BC walked away with a 4-3 win that will go down in the history books.

Helleson recently returned to the ice for BC after competing for the USA in the IIHF World Junior Championships where he took home gold with the help of two other BC teammates. This season, the sophomore has scored five points on 19 shots. His most important shot of the year, however, came against Comm. Ave. rival BU on Friday.

With Helleson’s goal, BC beat BU in the 283rd Battle of Comm. Ave. to get revenge on the Terriers for their double-overtime win over BC in last year’s Beanpot. This season’s Beanpot was canceled, so BC’s revenge was limited to the confines of an empty Kelly Rink. n

Unseen Revenue

Emma Healy

Running around the track of the Plex last January, I couldn’t help but remove my headphones to try to figure out what the source of yelling and screaming on the basketball court below me was. Upon further inspection, I realized I was watching a sport I had never seen before: fencing. Being unfamiliar with a sport is a rare occurrence for someone like me, who fills literally every free moment with sports.

After a few minutes, two other curious onlookers had gathered, and after some deliberation, we concluded that BC was winning. Of course, we were totally oblivious to what was happening, but the energy of the fencers was contagious.

As it turned out, BC was winning, and the meet (match? contest?) that we were watching was the Northeast Conference Meet. BC swept the men’s and women’s categories in the 2 conference, and I later learned that h the Eagles also took second place in s their version of the Beanpot (instead of BC, BU, Northeastern, and Har- w vard, the Fencing Beanpot includes n BC, MIT, Harvard, and Brandeis). r Other than my small cohort of r passersby, BC fencing didn’t seem to have many fans in attendance. a Fencing, of course, isn’t the revenue o sport that football or men’s basket- q ball is at most schools, which drove r me to wonder why it’s existed at BC i for at least the past 20 years. If not N money, what benefit does a team like fencing bring to the University? c The short answer is that non-rev- m enue sports don’t add anything ( nearly as concrete as cold, hard cash p to the University like football does. s What they do provide, although t oftentimes hidden from the naked e eye, is arguably more important in s the long run.

NCAA non-revenue sports, for s example, had an average four-year p graduation rate of 90 percent in i o

See Non-Revenue, A5

A5

The Heights

Monday, February 8, 2021

Wolfpack Trounces Eagles in BC’s Return to Action

,

By Ethan Ott Asst. Sports Editor

Not a lot went right for Boston College men’s basketball on Saturday afternoon. Down several key players as a result of continued COVID-19 precautions, the Eagles had trouble finding open shots and stopping NC State on defense. Even the Eagles’ wide-open shots often landed off target. Long stretches of the game followed that pattern of offensive mistakes by BC leading to easy NC State layups.

BC had its moments—notably a late comeback to cut the Wolfpack’s lead in half—but when the clock flashed 0:00, the Eagles were left on the floor a tired, beaten-down fragment of the team that seemed to be finding its footing almost a month ago against Miami.

BC (3-11, 1-7 Atlantic Coast) returned to action against NC State after three weeks off due to COVID-19 protocols. The Eagles had to postpone their last five games before finally taking the court to face the Wolfpack (8-7, 4-6), only to fall 81-65. Although the Eagles were still without key players such as Wynston Tabbs and Makai Ashton-Langford, three of their starting five were healthy and on the court to start the game.

“I’m proud of them,” BC head coach Jim Christian said. “That’s not easy to do, sitting out … 21 days without a game. It’s not easy to get yourself going and playing a really good basketball team in North Carolina State, but you can’t do anything but be proud of those guys [today].”

BC had plenty of bright spots despite the double-digit loss. Four Eagles scored in double figures, including Jay Heath with 20. Almost half of those points came late in the second half when Heath tallied nine points in a 1:17 stretch.

BC’s 15 turnovers matched the 15 from NC State, but the Wolfpack scored 11 more points off of turnovers than the Eagles did.

The Eagles’ obvious need for improvement greatly overshadowed the few upsides. BC scored the first five points of the game. NC State responded with five of its own and kept going, never looking back. The Eagles started out playing tight defense, but as the half went on and NC State’s press wore down BC’s diminished lineup, points became easier and easier for the Wolfpack to come by.

Eventually, the game fell into a pattern of BC taking the ball down the court, making a mistake, and NC State scoring without much of a fight.

This pattern morphed into a 37-3 run for NC State early in the first half. The Eagles eventually started scoring again, but it was too late. At halftime, BC was down by 20.

“If you don’t make shots, then obviously you’re going to be on defense a lot longer, and the energy levels probably are not going to be as high,” Christian said. “When balls go into baskets, guys tend to play a little bit harder. That’s just basketball.”

Shots were not going into baskets, at least not for the Eagles. BC shot 28.6 percent from the field in the first half and just 22.2 percent from beyond the

JONATHAN WIGGS / AP PHOTO

Guard Jay Heath recorded a team-high 20-point performance in BC’s double-digit loss to NC State on Saturday.

arc. NC State’s unrelenting press worked for a couple of Wolfpack takeaways, but its real effect was keeping the tempo up.

The press, combined with BC’s signature zone defense, kept the Eagles running all game.

“If you watch us play, we play a lot of zone, so … guys can’t get a rest,” Christian said. “It’s hard chasing guys around on offense and defense from a conditioning standpoint, and we’ll get better at it.”

It took until the end of the second half for BC to regain energy and shake off some rust. NC State came out of the gates

at halftime with a 9-0 run that eventually led to a 32-point lead. With seven minutes left in the game, NC State seemed poised to outdo Syracuse’s December blowout win over the Eagles. Just as all hope began to fade, BC hit its stride.

Heath led the late charge, but CJ Felder, Rich Kelly, and Steffon Mitchell contributed as well. Mitchell scored 14 points on the afternoon with six coming from 3-point range, a new trend for the big man this year. When the buzzer sounded, BC had reduced NC State’s 32-point lead to just 16.

Another main contributor to BC’s late run was Andrew Kenny, a player who has not seen much action this season. Kenny is part of a group of non-scholarship players dubbed “The Martians,” who earned their nickname for the green jerseys they wear in practice.

Saturday was Kenny’s biggest performance of the season so far, as he came off the bench and scored six points on two 3-pointers in 18 minutes of action.

Prior to Saturday, Kenny had just 11 minutes and five points all season. n

BC Basketball’s COVID-19 Issues Return

By Asa Ackerly Assoc. Sports Editor

SIGN UP FOR THE HEIGHTS SPORTS NEWSLETTER

A f ter hav i ng it s prev iou s t h ree games postponed due to a positive COVID-19 test within the program, BC women’s basketball finally returned to action on Thursday night.

Although the top-ranked Louisville Cardinals trounced the Eagles by nearly 30 points, it was a welcome sight to simply see the Eagles on the court after such a long delay.

B C s h o t 9 - o f-18 f r o m 3 -p o i n t r a n ge —t he E a g le s’ mo s t ef f ic ient shooting performance from long distance this season—and freshman Allie Palmieri added one of the triples in her debut on the Heights. Palmieri, a 5-foot-10 guard from Trumbull, Conn., graduated early from high school last semester and joined the Eagles this spring.

The Eagles’ return to play was short lived, however, as BC announced on Saturday that there has been another positive COVID-19 result within the program.

BC had been schedu led to face Clemson on Sunday and to play North Carolina on Thursday. Both games have now been postponed. The earliest the Eagles could return to the court is on

Feb. 14 against Virginia Tech.

The women’s basketball program is far from the only BC team experiencing COVID-19 issues of late, as BC men’s basketball finally returned to play on Saturday after a stretch of five postponements.

The program had its first positive test on Jan. 20, and the quarantine process forced BC to cancel its next four games: Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Clemson, and Louisville.

Just as the men’s basketball prepared to take on No. 19 Florida State on Feb. 2, BC’s hopes of returning to the court were foiled once more.

According to a statement from BC Athletics on Monday evening, a positive test, subsequent quarantining, and contact tracing procedures within the Seminoles’ program halted the playing of the game.

Even if the Eagles had been able to proceed with their scheduled game, the team would have looked vastly different than it had for the rest of the season.

Because of COVID-19 protocols, only four scholarship players would have been available, according to BC head coach Jim Christian.

Stef fon M itchel l, Jay Heat h, C J Felder, a nd Ka ma ri Wi l lia ms were set to take their starting spots. The

remainder of the lineup would have included four walk-ons, a group with a combined total of 15 minutes on the court this season at that point. Andrew Kenny, Sam Holtze, Will Jackowitz, and Quinn Pemberton, who all normally play scout team during practice, were set to take center stage.

W hy t he ad m i n i st r at ion determined that the game was essentia l even without a full roster is unclear.

The ACC doesn’t specify precisely how many players are necessary to field a team, but Christian said that the BC administration had said he needed just eight.

Even so, ma ny fa ns a nd col lege ba sketba l l exper t s expressed t hei r discontent with the decision to play the game despite an obviously short bench.

The women’s basketball program faced it s ow n sha re of shor t-sided struggles. Because of COVID-19 protocols, the Eagles did not even have enough players to scrimmage five-onfive during practice in the week leading up to the Louisville game and only had eight players available for the game, according to head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee. Kaylah Ivey, a usual mainstay of the Eagles’ rotation, and JoJo Lacey did not see the floor.

“We were down a couple kids, so it

was foul trouble and things like that,” Bernabei-McNamee said in her postgame press conference after the loss to the Cardinals. “It kind of messed up a little bit of what we could do on the court.”

The ACC’s COVID-19 guidelines stipulate that every member of ACC basketball teams and all other parties in close contact must be tested three times per week on non-consecutive days. The ACC also requires that a player who has tested positive or has been contact traced must either quarantine for 14 days without testing, for 10 days without testing and no symptoms appearing in that time, or for seven days with daily monitoring and no positive tests.

These personnel issues have compounded what have already been very frustrating seasons for both the men’s and women’s basketball programs.

The men’s team currently sits last in the ACC with a dreadful 1-7 conference record, leading to more uncertainty about head coach Jim Christian’s future on the Heights after the COVID-19 pandemic saved his job last year.

The women’s team has fared no better, compiling just a 1-8 record in ACC play and showing a marked falloff from the team that made the semifinals of the ACC tournament last season . n

The Underappreciated Benefits of Non-Revenue Sports Non-Revenue, from A4

2019. Revenue sports, on the other hand, hit only 78.06 percent in that same category.

It doesn’t seem like much, but when a high school prospect—revenue or non-revenue—does his or her research, student-athlete graduation rate can be a huge factor.

I’m not an athlete, but my college adviser in high school told me that one of the most telling signs of a quality school is a high graduation rate, and I took that to heart. I’d imagine the same is true for nonNARPs. If more students are drawn in to colleges by a high graduation rate, more students submit applications (with a hefty fee), and more students pay tuition (a heftier fee). The more students that apply, the more money the University makes—hidden revenue which the University wouldn’t see otherwise.

Plus, more applicants means the school gets to be more selective, protecting its yield and increasing its chances of a higher rating in other metrics.

As those metrics go up, appli-

cations go up again, and the cycle continues.

Plus, the phrase “non-revenue” doesn’t necessarily mean that the sport actively loses money at every turn. It just means that it doesn’t consistently generate immediate money for the University.

Most metrics don’t count men’s and women’s hockey as revenue sports, for example, but I’ve seen plenty of times where the Conte Forum stands were twice as full for a hockey game than they were for a basketball game. BC men’s hockey earned $2.67 million in 2016—over $100,000 per athlete who didn’t see a cent of it, but that’s for a different column.

Of course, there are non-monetary benefits to non-revenue sports, as the name would suggest. For the individual athletes, competing in their sport allows them to find their place or their home at BC, a goal which BC freshmen are told to anticipate from the moment orientation begins.

Sports have also been proven time and time again to improve the mental health of the participant.

Playing sports, whether or not there

are fans in the crowd, improves an athlete’s mental sharpness, stress levels, sleep patterns—the list goes on.

And, just like higher graduation rates, higher quality of life for students draws in more applicants, which draws in more money, and you know the drill. So, even if all the University cares about is money— which I am not saying is necessarily true—the benefits of non-revenue sports outweigh the costs.

As COVID-19 has shown us, however—in the cases of Dartmouth Swimming & Diving or Cincinnati men’s soccer, for example—non-revenue sports are the first to go when athletic departments begin to feel the hot breath of budget constraints on their necks.

Dartmouth cited its desire to draw in more “applicants who excel in other pursuits” as part of the decision to cut five sports, though the swim team’s class of 2024 had higher average ACT and SAT scores than the averages for the general class of 2024.

The Dartmouth administration eventually realized the decision was a mistake, reinstating the team on

the morning of Jan. 29.

Sports such as football and basketball exist for the same psychological benefit as non-revenue sports, but they also exist as a vehicle through which other sports can operate.

In no way do I wish to diminish the importance of revenue sports to the function of an athletics department as a whole.

Still, it’s obvious that the idea of cutting the men’s basketball team to save money would cause much more outrage than cutting the fencing team, even though BC men’s basketball has been known to lose money.

In the 2011-12 season, men’s basketball lost $623,000. It has since rebounded, and finished $353,139 in the green in the 2018-19 reporting year.

I would argue, however, that the distinction between revenue sports and non-revenue sports is actually wholly unimportant to the financial status of the University.

All together in 2018-19, subtracting total expenses from total revenue of all BC sports, the athletics department finished with just over $2 million in revenue.

Sure, $2 million sounds like a lot to you and me, but for a school with a $2.52 billion endowment, $2 million more in assets is a drop in the bucket.

The endowment doesn’t contribute to the athletics department’s funds, but if budget cuts at BC were to become necessary, athletics isn’t the place to do so. Cutting non-revenue sports only saves a couple hundred thousand dollars per year at most.

BC has made no indication that cutting non-revenue sports is or will be necessary. But one day down the road, if money is tight and BC does cut these programs, the school will be worse off for it.

Denying the importance of non-revenue sports in favor of saving the equivalent of a couple bucks is an obvious mistake in the long run.

For that reason, I’d encourage you, and hopefully those in charge of making financial decisions in athletics departments across the country, to go watch a fencing match (Game? Bout? The name doesn’t matter, but the sport and all that accompanies it does). n

The Heights

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Monday, February 8, 2021 A9

The day after Michael Sorkin d e f a c e d We l c h H a l l w i t h racist epithets, UGBC held an emergency meeting where t h e y p a s s e d a re s o l u t i o n demanding that the University expel Sorkin and that Leahy release a statement addressing the incident.

At the 2017 Silence Is Still Violence protest, students held up signs reading “No Justice, No Peace, No Racism at BC” and “Respect Existence or Expect Resistance” following a series of racist incidents.

PHOTO BY JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS ARCHIVES

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Heights has censored any obscenities and epithets.

BY ANNA LONNQUIST Head Magazine Editor STEPHEN BRADLEY Associate Magazine Editor MC CLAVERIE Assistant Magazine Editor

I

n the early hours of the morning on Jan. 30, residents of the women’s Multicultural Learning Experience (MLE) floor awoke to aggressive knocking on their doors and the sound

The Heights sent from ResLife on Jan. 30, the same day the first incident took place.

The rest of the BC community was notified about the incidents through an email sent by Executive Vice President and Acting Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Lochhead five days after the first incident.

“I hope all of us can learn from this incident, and realize the pain that can be caused by reckless behavior,” Lochhead said in the email. “No one at Boston College should ever be made to feel unsafe or threatened, particularly within

PHOTO BY IKRAM ALI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Students protest after the police officers who shot Taylor were not convicted. of commotion in their hallway.

Upon entering the third floor of Xavier Hall on Upper Campus, these students saw that decorations were torn off their doors, trash was spread along the hallway, and tiles were knocked out from their ceiling. Looking at the neighboring halls of Claver, Loyola, and Fenwick, they noticed that the vandalism was contained only to their hall.

MLE residents quickly began to wonder whether this incident was a targeted attack, and many were left feeling unsafe in their own living space.

“Looking down the hallway and seeing that no one else’s floor was trashed, it was a little bit like ‘What’s going on? Why is it only our floor?’” Sierra Sinclair, a resident of the MLE floor and CSON ’24, said in an interview with The Heights. “Why do we have to always hear loud noises that interrupt our sleep? Why us?”

The Boston College Police Department (BCPD) was able to identify the two individuals responsible for the vandalism.

The perpetrators, who did not live in the building, are currently facing disciplinary sanctions for their behavior through the Office of Student Conduct according to an email obtained by The Heights sent to the Claver, Loyola, Xavier, and Fenwick (CLXF) community from ResLife on Jan. 31.

Corey Kelly, director of the Office of Student Conduct, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Just four days after the incident in Xavier, MLE residents reported that two male students had walked down their hallway singing a song about “colored girls.”

Residents of CLXF were notified of the first incident via an email obtained by

the confines of their residence hall. This conduct will simply not be tolerated.”

When asked for comment, Lochhead directed The Heights to the statement in his email.

The Office of University Communications did not respond to a request for comment.

Rev. Michael Davidson, S.J., director of the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center (BAIC), said that these incidents have left students of the MLE floor feeling jeopardized and disrespected in their own home.

In order to alleviate this, BC needs to work more closely with non-AHANA+ students to make BC’s campus more inclusive, Davidson said.

“We need to stop teaching to the choir,” he said. “We need to have more robust diversity workshops for non-AHANA students.” hese incidents come just over two years after AHANA+ students at BC were threatened by a hate crime. On Dec. 9, 2018, Michael Sorkin, formerly CSOM ’21, defaced walls, blinds, and furniture in Welch Hall, covering them in racist epithets. Some of the graffiti read “n-----s are the plague.”

University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., never publicly responded to the hate crime, despite student pressure.

At a community gathering hosted by the Undergraduate Government of Boston College the following Wednesday, students asked why Leahy did not release a statement.

Vice President for University Communications Jack Dunn responded to student calls for Leahy to speak by stating that Vice President for Student Affairs Joy Moore and Provost and Dean of

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PHOTO BY MAGGIE DIPATRI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Faculties David Quigley are responsible for reaching out to students and faculty, but that Leahy’s beliefs are reflected in their statements.

Moore’s statement was released the same day as the Welch vandalism, asserting that acts of such hatred and racism will never be tolerated at BC. Quigley released his statement the following day, expressing how his outrage at the incident was heightened by the fact that 14 months earlier, on Oct. 13, 2017, Black Lives Matter signs were defaced in Roncalli Hall. A series of meetings between students and faculty ensued, leading to the creation of a mandatory student learning module on diversity and inclusion, along with a Student Experience Survey and commitments to hire more diverse faculty and increase the frequency of meetings with student leaders.

“This disturbing incident early Sunday morning reminds us that we have much as a community still to do,” Quigley said.

Despite recognizing the changes needing to be made, institutional reform has come at an unsatisfactory pace for many students. he murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in May of 2020 brought the long-standing pain of Black communities across the United States to national attention. His death brought renewed attention to countless other instances of police killings of Black individuals, from Michael Brown to Eric Garner to Tamir Rice to Philando Castile.

Although Floyd’s name and story was uniquely monumental in its impact, inspiring thousands of protests worldwide, Chinenye Ugocha, chair of UGBC’s AHANA+ Leadership Council (ALC) and MCAS ’21, said that from her perspective, the incident was mere commonplace.

“For me, this wasn’t anything new,” Ugocha said. “This has been something that’s been happening forever in America. It’s just that now, it’s something that someone got on camera.”

Lubens Benjamin, CSOM ’23, said in an email to The Heights that Floyd’s death rekindled his passion for activism.

Benjamin said that he participated in several anti-racism initiatives, including attending protests, advocating online, and donating to bail funds.

“We are called to do what we can to make our campus a place without bigotry or hate—a place with empathy,” Benjamin said. “I have encountered racism personally many times—some more traumatic than others. And when we see instances like we did this summer with George Floyd, we are forced to relive these traumas. You can’t help but think this could have been me or a loved one.”

Isabella Feliciano, CSOM ’23, recalled feeling powerless in the days following Floyd’s death, she said, in the face of such blatant racism and injustice.

Feliciano—alongside Elena Shaker, Julia Warchol, and Maria Ibanez, all MCAS ’23—penned a letter to BC affiliates emphasizing that without a tangible

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response to the national tragedy of Floyd’s death, BC was failing to fulfill its mission statement to “bear on the needs of the social and political community.” They also released a petition, which they circulated on their social media and emailed to over 200 BC professors, Feliciano said.

They hoped to push BC to do more than just release a statement full of empty promises, Feliciano said. Specifically, they called BC to donate to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Their petition garnered widespread support from students, with over 2,300 signatures at the time of publication.

“It is evident that too often most sentiments expressed towards the mourning Black community end up being empty promises,” the letter reads. “We have failed our minority communities time and time again, and it is simply unacceptable to flounder again during this historic period. We, the students of Boston College, are calling upon you, our faculty and administration, for action.”

In an email response to the creators of the petition which was obtained by The Heights, Moore said that BC is unable to make donations to other non-profit organizations. She suggested that the students instead look into hosting a joint event with the NAACP on campus, of which BC could cover the costs once in-person gatherings are allowed.

A day after the students’ petition— and eight days after Floyd’s murder— Leahy released a statement on June 2 that condemned “racial prejudice and profound injustice.”

His statement never said “Black Lives

said. “I just thought, ‘This is a time where we were ready to call for action.’”

One petition, which was organized by the Black Student Forum and eight other student organizations, also received over 2,000 signatures. Climate Justice at Boston College created a petition urging BC to divest from private prison companies, and the Young Democratic Socialists of BC petitioned for BC to fire BCPD Chief William Evans after BCPD officers were sent to crowd control a protest in Franklin Park on June 2.

Following Leahy’s first statement, a solidarity statement was released on June 5 by Rev. Mark Massa, S.J., director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, Rev. James Keenan, S.J., director of The Jesuit Institute, and Davidson.

Leahy was not listed as having signed the statement.

On June 10, Leahy released a second statement, alongside Quigley, Moore, and Rev. John Butler, S.J., vice president for University Mission and Ministry.

The letter marked Leahy’s first public endorsement of the Black Lives Matter movement and also announced the establishment of the Boston College Forum on Racial Justice in America.

The forum was created to sponsor panels and events geared toward addressing racial issues at BC, Vincent Rougeau, dean of BC Law and inaugural director of the Boston College Forum on Racial Justice in America, said.

Rougeau said that once he was asked to lead the forum, he began to grapple with how the forum could best enact change and create spaces to engage with discussions about racism at BC.

PHOTO BY IKRAM ALI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Over 50 students, staff, and faculty gather to discuss racism on Oct. 27.

Matter.”

“We did our whole petition and letter before his first statement because he took awhile to come up with that statement, and when he did it was honestly disappointing,” Feliciano said. “I remember it not really addressing anything, and kind of just saying their sorries and basically taking no action.”

Many other student groups also petitioned the University to commit to being actively anti-racist and offering more than just thoughts and prayers.

“A lot of people weren’t happy about the statement that came out, and I was one of those people as well,” Benjamin

“The announcement of it was a great, powerful, positive moment, but the big challenge was actually what can we do and when can we start,” Rougeau said.

“Once we committed to doing it, my biggest challenge was organizing people across campus to get things done and organize what steps we were going to take to do this work together.” n June 14, just four days after Leahy’s second statement was released, anonymous individuals created the @blackatbostoncollege Instagram account as a place for Black students to share their experiences of racism at BC. Since its launch,

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The Heights

Monday, February 8, 2021

Protestors in Franklin Commons knelt in solidarity with George Floyd on June 2, 2020. The park was filled with supporters raising fists and holding signs reading “Say their names,” “Black Lives Matter,” and “How many more?”

After the Women’s Multicultural Learning (MLE) floor was vandalized, residents and RAs hung up posters and paintings affirming the importance of protecting Black women.

PHOTO BY OLIVIA CHARBONNEAU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

PHOTO BY LIV CHARBONNEAU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

the page has posted 173 times and has gained 11,900 followers at the time of publication.

Many students and alumni began tagging the official @bostoncollege Instagram account in the comments of @ blackatbostoncollege’s posts. Ten days after the account was launched, the BC account removed @blackatbostoncollege posts from its tagged posts.

In response, @blackatbostoncollege released another post condemning this removal and calling out BC for silencing Black voices.

The first decision Rougeau made was to begin building up the forum steering committee, which would consist of a cross-campus representation of faculty, administration, staff, and two students.

This committee needed to spend time reflecting on the presence of racism on campus, thinking about how to move forward, and creating events where the broader BC community could have conversations about what it means to work toward racial justice, Rougeau said.

Led by Rougeau and the steering committee, the forum’s events during the fall

PHOTO BY ANEESA WERMERS / HEIGHTS STAFF

Multiple BC Libraries displayed over 130 @blackatbostoncollege posts.

A statement posted on BC’s Instagram story on June 26 said that BC untagged itself because the @blackatbostoncollege posts were anonymous.

“As with all Instagram account holders, Boston College routinely untags ads, posts unrelated to BC, and posts with unattributed comments,” the statement read.

“The @blackatbostoncollege account was temporarily untagged on Wednesday due to unattributed comments. A few hours later, after messaging with the @blackatbostoncollege account, we informed them that they could tag the BC account again. We hope this clarifies the situation for our followers.”

Ugocha viewed BC’s removal of the tagged posts as contradictory to the administration’s previous statements in support of minority groups, she said.

“You can’t in one post say you’re with the Black community … and then you’re censoring their voices,” Ugocha said.

In order to amplify the voices behind this Instagram account, BC Libraries displayed around 130 @blackatbostoncollege posts in an exhibit in October.

“A group of us at the libraries that had been working on equity, diversity, and inclusion issues for the libraries got together,” said Associate University Librarian for Public Services Scott Britton. “This is important. We want to do something to help the students. We want to do something with this Instagram account, the information in there, beyond just reposting or agreeing with the posts.” hile students and faculty of color were pushing BC to confront conversations about racial injustice on campus, Rougeau and the steering committee were also working toward the same aims.

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semester aimed to push BC toward being an anti-racist institution, Rougeau said.

Benjamin said he initially thought that the forum was going to be a disorganized, abstract organization for students to discuss racial injustice without any progress.

He is now optimistic that the forum will result in positive change, such as changes to course curricula or policies, he said.

After attending several of the forum’s events, including the Solidarity Walk, however, Benjamin was disappointed to not see the level of participation and engagement from the entire student body that he had hoped for, he said.

“One thing about BC students is that they make a school full of activists,” he said. “So, you’ll have people who are environmentally active, people active combating racial injustice, and active with their own passions and fighting whatever injustice that they see around the world.

So, I just really think we could’ve turned it up a notch coming back this semester.” tudents across the AHANA+ community have voiced frustration with disengagement from non-AHANA+ students, Rougeau said.

Many of the same faces are seen at all of the forum’s events, most of whom belong to the AHANA+ community, he said.

Following reports of the series of racially motivated incidents in Xavier Hall, Davidson visited the floor on Wednesday, Feb. 3, and held virtual meetings with the men’s and women’s MLE groups. His main intention, he said, was to listen to and affirm them, as well as to discuss with them next steps to make the MLE floor a place where transformations can take place.

A student who spoke to The Heights under the condition of anonymity said that opportunities to have these difficult

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conversations about race often exclude non-AHANA+ students who need to hear them most. Several members of the BC community have responded to last week’s racially motivated events, however, most responses have been geared towards MLE residents, which some believe puts a burden on AHANA+ students to drive change.

“I know they had a town hall for students on the MLE floor, but it kind of just again felt like we were the only ones having these important conversations,” the student said in an interview with The Heights. “Like yeah, we get that [BC wants] to give us a safe space to voice our concerns, but then it’s like we’re only voicing our concerns, and what is actually changing?”

Another anonymous student expressed frustration that victims often have to take responsibility to advocate for change.

“It’s obviously retraumatizing us and taking away from our schoolwork and our focus,” the student said in an interview with The Heights. “ … It kind of feels like [BC is] trying to make it our job to figure out what we need to do when it’s really not our job.”

Although the Boston College Forum on Racial Justice in America was not initially created to be a first responder to racially-motivated incidents on campus, Rougeau noted that there was a strong sense of concern and a push for action after the events of the past week.

“Clearly there is a sense across the community that more needs to be done,” he said. “And that the same types of problems seem to be coming up over and over again, and a lot of the students of color clearly do not feel welcomed or safe.”

The forum’s meetings in the week after the incidents on the MLE floor have raised questions about whether or not there are enough appropriate avenues on campus for AHANA+ students to feel comfortable reporting racially biased events, Rougeau said.

“The student conduct issues around following COVID protocols are taken very seriously, and I know students would like to see that issues involving racial bias and other biased incidents are treated with a similar level of seriousness,” Rougeau said.

Rougeau emphasized the importance of using academics to foster the formation of actively anti-racist students.

The forum does not have any power to mandate academic units, but can strongly suggest that departments further integrate discussions and teachings on racial justice into their curriculum, Rougeau said.

Student life also must be utilized, Rougeau said. In the upcoming weeks, the forum is sponsoring a “Courageous Conversation” about the book Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine, and working alongside the School of Social Work to screen a film about white nationalism and host an event about racial trauma, he said. Additionally, the steering committee is working with ResLife and

Student Affairs to integrate some of this programming into mandatory activities in residence halls or classes.

He urges students in all schools and of all interests to create events focused on racial justice and sponsor them under the umbrella of the forum.

“They don’t need the forum’s permission, but we want the forum to be a catalyst to get people thinking, ‘Oh, what kind of event might we do that’s going to be exciting and appealing to people in the business school or on the athletic teams,’” Rougeau said.

With the aim of being a catalyst to get the BC community to advocate for racial justice within their sphere of expertise or interest, Rougeau said.

For example, Laura Steinberg, executive director of the Schiller Institute and member of the forum steering committee, has devoted the first year of programming at the Schiller Institute to issues of environmental racism, he said. gocha said that she has been the victim of numerous racial incidents since her freshman year, and that despite awareness about these issues, the University has not changed.

“I’m sad to say that, after four years on campus, that I feel like it’s the same campus that I came to four years ago,” she said.

Sasha Severino, ALC assistant director and MCAS ’21, and Ugocha met with Associate Vice President for Student Engagement and Formation Tom Mogan to discuss small, incremental changes that can be made in order to begin creating an environment where AHANA+ students can feel welcome and comfortable, she

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events, like I know the African Student Organization is having a fashion show and that’s really fun—I wish that more people would show up to things like that … it’s not out of everyone’s control.”

Despite these student-run efforts to implement small changes in the BC community, Ugocha said that it’s up to the administration to make fundamental changes.

“They need to implement more than just a forum,” she said. “This has to be structural change.”

Various BAIC programs have had great success in supporting students of color—including the Options Through Education program which has had a 97 percent success rate—but events such as the vandalism in Xavier hold students of color back, Davidson said.

When asked if the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement this summer has altered his role as BAIC director, Davidson said that the intent of his role has not changed, but the importance of providing support to students of color has increased even more.

“It has not really changed,” Davidson said. “But what is important to me is that I have to love them a little bit more, listen to them a little more, and be present.”

Despite the strides made this year, such as BC acknowledging the harm created by structures of institutional racism, BC has a long way to go to change its culture, Ugocha said.

Many members of the BC community agree that for BC to move toward being an actively anti-racist institution, a much wider array of students must push the University to protect and fight against

PHOTO BY MC CLAVERIE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The women’s MLE floor displays banners in response to the vandalism. said. She suggested that the University change the cultural diversity core, update the DiversityEdu module, and make events run by AHANA+ students mandatory for all students.

Feliciano also emphasized the multitude of ways that her peers can advocate for racial justice and hopes that more students who are not part of the AHANA+ community will become involved.

“It’s the little things,” she said. “I feel like when people think of the word ‘advocacy,’ they’re thinking straight politically, but there’s so many ways to show advocacy and support for diversity and inclusion.

Even just showing my support at different

injustice for its historically oppressed students.

Anti-racism events during the fall semester had a large turnout from the AHANA+ community, but Feliciano said she was disappointed that there wasn’t more attention and awareness from non-AHANA+ students.

Ugocha said that although the University has made attempts to open conversations regarding race, it still has not done enough.

“Students, they’re tired of just statements,” Ugocha said. “They want acn tion."aa GRAPHICS BY MEEGAN MINAHAN AND EAMON LAUGHLIN / HEIGHTS EDITORS

GRAPHICS BY ALLYSON MOZELIAK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Heights

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Monday, February 8, 2021

EDITORIAL

AHANA+ Students Deserve Better From Boston College

Black Lives Matter. Recent events in Xavier Hall have called into question whether Boston College is a campus that holds this belief among its core values.

The vandalism and harassment that have taken place on the Multicultural Learning Experience (MLE) floor this week are a demoralizing reminder that this campus is plagued by racial prejudice and is unable to effectively combat it.

In recent years, BC has seen a pattern of racially motivated incidents on its campus. Most notably, the hate crime committed by Michael Sorkin in Walsh and Welch Halls in December of 2018, and the vandalism of Black Lives Matter signs that led to the Silence is Still Violence march in October of 2017.

Prompted by the murder of George Floyd this past June, more incidents of racism on campus have come to light on the @blackatbostoncollege Instagram account. The stories of BC students document racism as an everyday occurence on BC’s campus. The residents of the MLE floor reported that this week’s harassment is not a new occurrence.

Students have regularly demanded that the University take forceful action to combat racism on campus, yet again and again—despite their condemnations and their listening sessions—the administration has proven ineffective.

The University has censored the voices of its students of color. This past summer, the University untagged the official BC Instagram account from all the @blackatbostoncollege posts.

Rather than giving students an unmediated forum to discuss race on campus, the University created the Forum on Racial Justice in America. The forum may

have good intentions, but it is not satisfactory. The conversations that it fosters are led by University-approved panelists, which is not the genuine, uncensored platform that students asked for.

In response to the 2017 Silence is Still Violence march, the University implemented a prerequisite online course called DiversityEdu for first-year students. The course has consistently been met with negative feedback for not being comprehensive enough. Similar to the Forum on Racial Justice in America, DiversityEdu is well-intentioned, but has done little to address racism on campus.

Also in response to the Silence is Still Violence march, the University launched the Student Experience Survey, the first of which was conducted in December 2018. While the sur vey encourages students to share all experiences, both positive and negative, little change has taken place on campus since the launch of the survey.

BC has a pattern of creating surface-level solutions to racism on campus. This has happened every year since 2017, but students of color still do not have a voice on campus, and many have expressed that BC’s campus is not their home.

BC’s response to the vandalism of the MLE floor is another example of inadequate University leadership. While the people who vandalized the floor deny that their actions were racially motivated, that’s not what matters. Whether or not an act is classified as a “hate crime” is a legal issue, and it is not what we should be focusing on as a campus. Instead, we should be listening to the students of color who have said that the vandalism

on the MLE floor felt like a hate crime.

The fact that they perceived it as such says something significant about BC and the culture that exists on its campus.

BC is a predominately white institution—65.7 percent of currently enrolled undergraduate students are white—and it is easy for bigotry to thrive in such an environment, especially when the administration does not approach these issues with a sense of authenticity. We must continue to ask ourselves why racism continues to thrive on BC’s campus.

As a predominantly white newspaper—83 percent of our editors identify as white—The Heights recognizes its inability to truly speak to the changes that must occur in order to create a more inclusive environment on campus, but it is clear that the University must rethink its approach to how it fosters conversations about race on campus. Over the past four years, nothing has changed.

We have called for dialogue before, and no meaningful change has resulted. We are disappointed in our school. The fact that BC students have created a more effective and meaningful platform to discuss race than the University has is shameful.

While the onus should not rest on students of color to educate BC on racism, it is important to listen to them when they do speak out—something the University has largely failed to do.

The University should create a more meaningful platform for dialogues on race—not an online module or a panel of approved scholars, but rather an uncensored, authentic, and respectful discussion that centers on students’ emotions and voices.

A group of Heights editors who are committed to participating in the consistent writing of editorials comprise the editorial board. Editors who report on topics discussed in editorials are not permitted to participate in the discussion or writing of the editorial.

Members: Owen Fahy, Maddy Romance, Lauren Wittenmyer, Maggie DiPatri, Grace Mayer, Rachel Phelan, Eric Shea, Olivia Franceschini, and Gabriel Wallen .

Letter From the Editor :

‘The Heights’ Addresses Publication’s Lack of Diversity In the 102 years The Heights has served the Boston College community, our mission has remained the same: For a Greater Boston College. We have and will continue to strive to keep the community as accurately informed as possible. We are, however, aware that our newsroom does not accurately reflect the growing diversity of BC’s campus.

In order to continue to properly serve our readers, The Heights is taking steps to recruit diverse members to our organization.

At present, The Heights is composed of individuals of whom 83 percent identify as white. Ninety-four percent of our editors identify as straight, and 31 percent receive financial aid. Our lack of diversity is a problem and we are aware of it.

Throughout this semester, our outreach coordinator will be in contact with as many student groups and departments as possible to cultivate relationships with AHANA+ students and administrators. It is our hope that these relationships will open a line of communication between The Heights and the BC community which will allow us to more accurately cover all students and their stories.

Going forward, we will contact departments and stu-

dent organizations which serve AHANA+ students to give them the first opportunity to apply for positions at The Heights. We know that we are responsible for ensuring that we advertise our openings to all members of the community, so our outreach coordinator will prioritize cultivating a diverse applicant pool in the future. Our main priority during our next hiring period will be to add AHANA+ artists and columnists to ensure that all campus voices are being amplified.

Additionally, we will donate 30 percent of all revenue generated from advertisements to Blackowned businesses for the month of February in recognition of Black History Month. On top of our ongoing donations throughout February, The Heights will be allocating $10,000 of advertising space for nonprofits that are working to combat racism. Our team will work hard over these next few weeks to contact local and national nonprofits and ensure that they are aware of this offer. The offer will remain open until we reach our quota.

As of 2021, The Heights will be distributing an annual census to gather demographic data of our staff. Starting in 2022, after the second annual census is recorded, The Heights will release

an annual diversity report tracking our progress or regression in increasing representation of staff in many demographic areas.

Our editorial this week calls on the BC community to confront the presence of racism on our campus. We recognize that The Heights has contributed to the problem and we are committed to using our newsroom as a force to promote equality and inclusion in this community.

We understand that we are not free from fault and are worthy of criticism for our lack of diversity and the impact it has on our campus. But we hope that our actions over the coming year will demonstrate our commitment to making a positive difference.

In our first edition of the fall semester, I will write to provide updates of our progress in our efforts to diversify our ranks and our coverage. If any community member would like to reach out to us to offer feedback or discuss our initiatives and shortfalls, they can fill out a form on our website or email me.

Sincerely, Owen Fahy Editor-in-Chief

‘The Heights’ Demographics

Monday, February 8, 2021

The Heights

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Mass. Failing on Vaccine Rollout

Sophie Carter As 2020 finally came to a close, there was widespread hope that 2021 would be a better year than the last. With the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, a glimmer of hope for the eventual end of the pandemic is finally in sight. For Massachusetts residents, though—including all of us at Boston College— Governor Charlie Baker’s sluggish vaccine rollout program leaves much to be desired and ultimately lacks urgency.

Massachusetts seems to have it all when it comes to a successful response to a public health emergency—several of the world’s best hospitals, medical schools, and research universities are concentrated in Boston and its surrounding areas. Public health experts and logistical whizzes are a dime a dozen. All of these advantages are rendered useless, however, under the Baker administration and the Democratic-controlled, veto-proof state legislature that has done little to hold the Baker administration accountable. In examining the vaccine rollout in the United States, Bloomberg found that as of Feb. 7, Massachusetts had only given the first dose of the vaccine to 8.3 percent of the state population, as opposed to the national average of 9.8 percent. As of Feb. 7, Massachusetts is 46th in the United States for percent of the population to have been given the first dose —an unacceptable statistic.

To add insult to injury, Massachusetts has the additional doses it needs to catch up—only 58.3 per-

cent of the doses allotted to the state were administered as of Feb. 7, as compared to the national average of 70.9 percent administered nationwide. The blame for this lagging rollout rests on the logistical nightmare that the Baker administration has enabled—the lack of a centralized resource center for people seeking the COVID-19 vaccine, a convoluted and impossible to navigate website, and several technology crashes driven by high website traffic. This system has made it incredibly difficult for the most vulnerable members of the population—including the elderly, the unhoused, and those with disabilities—to gain access to the vaccine. The logistical problems, especially in a state that has several institutions of higher education that are renowned for expertise in information technology, is inexcusable.

It is also important to note that the difficulties in accessing the COVID-19 vaccine are not felt evenly among all Massachusetts residents. As of Jan. 29, 36 percent of those vaccinated in Massachusetts were white, while only 3.3 percent were Hispanic, and 2.6 percent were Black. Communities of color have been the hardest hit by the pandemic, and in order to address its effects equitably, the state government must act to mitigate racial disparities. On top of this, the more rural, less affluent region of western Massachusetts has far fewer vaccination sites than eastern Massachusetts. Mass vaccination sites are concentrated in and around Boston—including Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium—while western Massachusetts is left with an abandoned Macy’s that can only distribute 500 doses per day. If it was Baker’s goal to provide an equitable approach to public health, his execution certainly leaves much to be desired.

Now that the data has established that there is a significant problem with Massachusetts’ vaccination rollout program’s speed, efficiency, and equity, the more important question remains: What should

lawmakers do about it? From my point of view, the most frustrating aspect of the failure of the vaccination campaign is the inaction of the state legislature. Baker and the rest of the governor’s administration are falling flat, and it is certainly within the power and responsibility of the state legislature to jump in and move to correct these shortcomings. Specifically, they should take an active role in demanding briefings to keep them informed and active, as well as holding hearings and hearing testimony to keep the governor’s administration accountable to the public.

Instead, on Feb. 1, the State House of Representatives gaveled into session for a grand total of two minutes before promptly moving to adjourn, and when asked how the vaccine rollout was going, Speaker Ron Mariano answered, “I have no idea.”

It has become clear over the last several months that the state legislature is more interested in watching from afar than getting involved in the details of a pesky public health emergency. Rather than persisting as passive observers of a logistical nightmare, the state legislature and its Democratic supermajority should take a hands-on role in terms of oversight and accountability for those in charge of rolling out the vaccination program. It is the only acceptable course of action.

The failure to effectively manage the COVID-19 vaccine rollout has been a core pitfall of the Massachusetts state government. It is time for the Baker administration to correct its wrongs and employ the wide range of equitable and efficient tools at its disposal, and for the state legislature to step up and hold the governor accountable.

Sophie Carter is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at sophia.carter@ bc.edu.

Sledding on Campus As the winter weather rolls in, one of Boston College’s favorite pastimes becomes available again: sledding!

Whether you’re hitting the hills of Newton in a cardboard box or ski jumping on Upper, taking advantage of BC’s naturally hilly campus is a guaranteed blast.

Winter Wonderland Another bonus to the winter weather is that BC’s campus is undeniably beautiful when covered in a white, fluffy blanket of snow. The Quad looks like a postcard, and spending hours studying in Stokes or Bapst is somehow easier when there’s snowflakes fluttering down outside.

GRAPHIC BY MEEGAN MINAHAN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Ethics of Unpaid Internships

Grace Christenson When I got home for Winter Break, I was coming down from the finals high. Hard. I fell into the kind of caffeine-crash-induced stupor that can only follow spending every day slumped in the same couch cushion crater, being blinded by the blue light of your computer, and working the interlibrary loan system like it’s your full-time job. My rehab of choice? Two blissful, post-finals weeks of hibernating, binge-watching everything on Hulu, and vehemently refusing to open my Boston College email. When I did finally reopen Gmail, I waded through—and mass-deleted—updates from The New York Times (which I subscribe to in pursuit of an aspirational version of myself who reads more news … ha) before landing on a slew of terror-inducing Handshake notifications. That’s right: it’s open season on internships.

I’m applying (and praying) along with the rest of you—but the more internships I apply to, the more I’m reminded of the persistent problem facing college students: socially-accepted exploitation. Or, as it is more commonly known: the unpaid internship.

Internships are incredibly valuable. They provide students the opportunity to gain experience before entering the workforce, find mentors in their intended fields, and sometimes earn credits toward their degrees. They also prove advantageous in the job search process, as having an internship on your resume increases your likelihood of securing an interview by 14 percent.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938, these experiences and advantages are understood as payment in and of themselves, making it legal for employers to engage students in labor without financial compensation.

Scholars and students alike, however, find that unpaid internships are often illegal and

usually unethical. Experts posit that many unpaid internships violate the criteria of the FLSA— for example, having unpaid interns complete work that would otherwise be assigned to paid employees. While these violations mean unpaid interns may have grounds to sue for compensation, most are unaware of the illegality or are unwilling to report it, afraid of burning bridges just as they enter the job market. Uncompensated interns are further vulnerable to exploitation because, without employee status, laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, meant to ensure a safe and equitable workplace, do not apply to them. Students who receive school credit for their internships are ostensibly protected under Title IX, but the lack of enforcement renders the protection nominal at best.

The consequences of these vulnerabilities are far-reaching, with roughly three-quarters of American college students participating in internships, half of which are unpaid.

To a certain extent, this is true of my own experience. I have enjoyed many of my internships and found them deeply valuable, but my first job as a camp counselor—with a salary well below minimum wage—paid better than any internship I’ve ever had, simply by virtue of paying at all. Every college student I know has their own version of this painful anecdote, finding part-time babysitting gigs and waitressing jobs more profitable than eight-hour days working for prestigious corporations. Some can even do me one better: they’ve paid companies to allow them to perform free labor. This marks a sinister new development in which businesses like Absolute Internship will charge hundreds—even thousands—of dollars for a guaranteed placement at an unpaid internship.

The movement toward expecting free labor from college students comes at a time when more of us desperately need the money than ever. The American Psychological Association reports that over one-third of college students in the United States “lack enough to eat and stable housing.”

This problem only grows as more low-income students pursue higher education. What’s more, today’s university attendees are burdened by unprecedented student debt. A recent U.S. News & World Report study revealed that 2019 college

grads borrowed, on average, $30,062, representing a 26 percent increase in debt from graduates in 2009. Between pressing costs of living and looming loan payments, working for free often proves not just an unattractive option, but an impossible one.

I’ve been incredibly lucky. I can afford to take an unpaid internship. But I know every time that I accept an unpaid opportunity, I’m perpetuating a system that reinforces existing inequalities.

Unpaid internships help wealthier students get a foot in the door while those without significant economic resources turn to better paying—but less professionally advantageous—jobs, which reproduces barriers to upward economic mobility.

Because of the close relationship between wealth disparity and race, these inequalities fall along racial lines. The Survey of Consumer Finances reports that the average white family has eight times the wealth of the typical Black family and five times the wealth of the standard Hispanic family. This means that while the median white family in the United States has approximately $171,000 in net wealth, the median Black family has roughly $17,000. Students of color, therefore, are far less likely than their white peers to be able to afford to take an unpaid internship.

Between the pervasiveness and complexity of the problem and several lawsuits, which routinely end in settlements, it is clear that in order to achieve substantive change, legislation and the court system does not go far enough. The onus for change and the hopes of overworked college interns everywhere rests on the shoulders of employers.

I offer a plea: as companies voice commitments to diverse hiring practices, especially in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, their internship programs can and should be restructured to promote equity. The labor of college students is still labor—while we’re constructing a more equitable world, let’s build in the expectation that we compensate them accordingly.

Grace Christenson is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at grace. christenson@bc.edu.

The opinions and commentaries of the op-ed columnists appearing on this page represent the views of the authors of those particular pieces, and not necessarily the views of The Heights.

Cold Weather The downside to the winter weather is that it is winter weather. Meaning, it’s always cold. Even if the temperature is at a cozy 30 degrees, coupled with the windchill, walking outside feels like a punch in the gut. All the sleet, snow, and ice become permanent fixtures to campus which make the Million Dollar Stairs like a game of Russian roulette.

Icy Commute Public transportation also becomes a nightmare during the winter months. Something as simple as Ubering to Target becomes an overly complicated affair when the roads are less than safe. Not to mention, Massachusetts drivers are a different breed and the winter weather only seems to galvanize them. The buses also compete for their share of the roads and less-than-desirable conditions usually means calculating an extra half hour into your commute.

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The Heights

Monday, February 8, 2021

BC Alum Alex Gray Runs for Boston Council

By Emily Kraus Heights Staff

For Alex Gray, BC ’06, advocating for others has been an essential part of his extensive career in public service. Gray, a Democrat, is running for an at-large seat on the Boston City Council and has the potential to be Boston’s first blind councilor.

“I think nationally, it’s good to have representation,” Gray said. “For me, I am the first blind person to be running in Boston … and I think that’s important representation, especially in these times of COVID-19. You don’t really hear much from the disabled community, but I think it’s time to bring those voices forward. And I think it’s also time to have those voices wherever decisions matter, like in my position as city councilman.”

Gray currently works as a policy analyst in the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development and lives in Jamaica Plain with his wife. He announced his campaign for city council in September 2020 and the vote for city council will be held on Nov. 2, 2021.

Under Mayor Martin J. Walsh, BC ’09, he worked on starting Boston’s first Tuition Free Community College program, committing the City of Boston to paying for up to three years of community college for eligible low-income students. Prior to this position, he worked as former Massachu-

setts Governor Deval Patrick’s adviser on transportation and public safety, launching a commuter rail in Fairmount.

After graduating from BC, Gray went on to serve in the Jesuit Volunteer Corp in Sacramento, Calif., helping to give emergency services to the homeless. He then went on to become a legal liaison acting as an advocate and providing emergency services for the homeless for the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, which provides permanent housing for the homeless, and later attended law school at Suffolk University.

Following law school, Gray said he worked in every neighborhood in Boston, from Jamaica Plain to the South End, and said these experiences helped shape his enthusiasm for helping the city.

“I want to fight for these people and listen to their ideas and take action,” Gray said. “I want to be able to take people’s ideas and put them into action because I understand their frustration, especially in this pandemic.”

Gray said he plans to further the progress he has made with Walsh and Patrick.

He also said he wants to provide good wages for Boston residents and increase access to affordable housing, especially for seniors and the disabled.

Gray said he understands that people have challenges and barriers to overcome in life and that he hopes to fight for those

struggling and ensure their viewpoint is heard at council meetings.

“All people deserve to have their perspective, lived experience, and background represented,” Gray said.

As a member of the disabled community, Gray said he has witnessed how this group is affected by unemployment, access to housing, and feelings of isolation. As a result of the pandemic, forms of communication like Zoom have been more widely used.

“Some people don’t have access to WiFi or others don’t have the money to get devices that have access to WiFi,” Gray said.

“And there’s even accessibility issues, like for Zoom the words don’t come on the screen.”

With his perspective on accessibility issues being shaped by his own personal experience, Gray said he wants to bring disability to the conversation.

“I mean, I’ve seen again how [the disabled community has been] affected by unemployment, taxes to housing, and how they feel isolated in society,” Gray said.

“And, I want to change that and bring their perspective and have their background represented.”

After going blind due to a genetic condition at 11 years old, Gray said it taught him to become a good listener. He said he developed his skills by listening to sports games. This laid the foundation for him to make a career out of listening to others and

hearing their stories.

“It’s really helped me to make a career out of listening and hearing other stories, and really understand them and genuinely hearing them,” Gray said.

Gray emphasized the need to listen to his constituents.

“Through my work with the city, I was

able to listen to people and hear about their day-to-day lives,” Gray said.

Gray said he wants to provide access to

resources to those who need it most, while also giving a voice to those who aren’t as well-represented in society.

“It’s time to have a voice where decisions matter,” Gray said. n

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREW BRILLIANT

Alex Gray has the potential to be the first blind Boston City Councilor.

Bianca Opens Doors in Chestnut Hill Amid Pandemic

By Emily Kraus Heights Staff Opening a business during a pandemic is not an easy task, especially when the grand opening is based on a takeout menu alone. The husband and wife team of Tim and Nancy Cushman originally intended to open Bianca on March 19, but the opening was delayed by the pandemic.

Although the dine-in opening had been delayed, the restaurant chose to open for takeout only in the meantime. Bianca was recently opened by the Cushmans for dinein on Nov. 12.

“We had already done our soft opening, and our whole staff had been hired and trained, so going to takeout only was a huge pivot,” said Stephan Martino, the Cushmans’ concepts marketing manager.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN SAMUELS

Bianca is located in Chestnut Hill and offers grill items, pastas, pizza, and sushi.

When the initial opening date was pushed back, the owners decided to open with a smaller takeout menu called “Mr. Roni Cups” in August.

“We decided to start with Mr. Roni Cups and offer a taste of what was to come at Bianca until we could establish a model that would be sustainable and safe,” Nancy Cushman said in a press release.

Martino described Mr. Roni Cups as a restaurant within a restaurant. He said that Mr. Roni Cups is a takeout menu that offers items such as pizza, rotisserie chicken, and sushi and sashimi. Martino said that Mr. Roni Cups is great for a weeknight takeout dinner option.

The Cushmans are not new to the restaurant industry. They also own two Japanese restaurants—O Ya, located in Boston’s leather district, and Hojoko, located on Boylston Street.

Upon entering Bianca, patrons are greeted by a modern, spacious dining area that gives a refreshing, upscale taste to the Chestnut Hill area. The food and service are equally as warming and welcoming.

“Bianca has an eclectic vibe,” Martino said. “The Cushmans have traveled the world, but they also wanted to focus on the foods they like to eat.”

The restaurant has retro vibes with its cushioned seating and high walls, and also features a bar area.

“It’s a good place to go with the family, date night, or for a football game at the bar,” Martino said.

The restaurant offers diverse menu items like wood-fire grill items, pastas, sushi, and cocktails.

“The menu is wide-ranging, everyone will find something they like,” Martino said.

Servers are willing to make recommendations on dishes, explain popular dishes, and are quick to deliver orders.

Prices on the menu range from $5 pizza slices to a $42 steak entree and the food is presented beautifully enhancing the delicious experience. For example, the french fries are placed in a mug instead of on the plate. Each item has a good portion, so eating a full plate of food is manageable, and no one will be too full when leaving.

One dish, the spicy torched gamachi is a sushi taco made with tasty hamachi meat and a shell made from seaweed. While the dish may seem intimidating, filled with jalepeños and green onion, the spice is manageable.

Martino said that another popular dish, the “Big Rig,” is a unique dish with the flavors

it brings together. This dish contains rigatoni and braised short rib, served with braising juices, red wine, balsamic roasted onions, and parmesan cheese. The flavors pair well, mixing savory and sweet.

Mr. Roni Cups serves classic pizza in the shape of a square instead of a circle. The small pepperoni on the slice curl up when cooked, creating a small amount of oil in the center, adding even more flavor. Also worth noting is the sweet tomato sauce and crunchy crust.

Even the sides reimagine classic dishes.

Brussels sprouts are cooked with apple fennel mostarda and soy balsamic dressing, giving a sweet and savory flavor twist on a classic dish. Their truffle fries are small and covered in truffle oil and parmesan cheese, improving on the classic french fry and creating an unforgettable taste in a dish that is moderately greasy and easy to digest.

For a fresh take on some classic food, try Bianca. Customers can order food for delivery through Caviar, DoorDash, and Uber Eats, and in-person dining is open by reservation only. Curbside pickup is also available. The restaurant is located at 47 Boylston Street, open Wednesday through Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 4 to 8 p.m. n

COVID-19 Vaccinations Offer Hope for Newtonians Vaccines, from A1 Ginty Butler said that at Boston Children’s Hospital one of the program managers made appointments for the entire staff, and the hospital prioritized vaccinating staff in outpatient clinics.

Caitlin O’Brien, another Newton healthcare worker, received the Moderna vaccine at the Mt. Ida Campus of the University of Massachusetts on Jan. 27 and is scheduled to receive the second dose on Feb. 24. O’Brien is a live-in staff member at Specialized Housing, a congregate living facility for adults with special needs and disabilities in Brookline.

Despite a sore arm and feeling tired after the first dose, O’Brien said that she was relieved and excited. After a few days when the fatigue went away, though, she continued to live her life as cautiously as before.

Even after being vaccinated, Ginty Butler said that she also continues to follow the same precautions at work and refrains from making plans with friends.

“So nothing’s changed in how I do things, but definitely a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders, psychologically that I know that it’s very unlikely, if I were to get COVID somehow, that I would die,” Ginty Butler said.

Colleen Murphy Keenan is a registered nurse who has worked at Sherrill House, a non-profit nursing and rehabilitation home, for 13 years. Because the residents have to be separated from their own relatives due to the pandemic, she said, the residents are like a family.

Murphy Keenan received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Jan. 5 at Sherrill House, and the second dose on Jan. 26. She felt anticipation in the days leading up to her first vaccination, she said, but the injection itself only took about 30 seconds.

“I was slightly anxious and it wasn’t so much about getting sick,” Murphy Keenan said. “I wasn’t worried about that at all. I just couldn’t wait to get it and it was such a relief.”

When the director of nursing at Sherrill House was hospitalized due to COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, Murphy Keenan became the acting director. Murphy Keenan said she helped coordinate vaccinations for the residents and staff at Sherrill House with CVS Pharmacy.

Coord i nat i ng vacci nat ion s wa s a surreal and emotional experience, and Murphy Keenan said that she and her colleague at Sherrill House cried while planning them. Murphy Keenan said she told her friend that she never thought vaccination day would come.

“We really went through quite a bit working here, with people getting sick and dying, and it was very traumatic,” Murphy Keenan said. “Last March I never would have thought we would be able to get this vaccine so we were very grateful for it.”

For some healthcare workers, like Cori Leech, the decision to be vaccinated was not automatic.

When the vaccine first came out, L eech—who pre v iou sly worked at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and currently works for UnitedHealth Group

as an implementation director for Medicaid Health Programs—said she was not sure whether she would get it.

As a nurse, she knew that mRNA is a relatively new technology.

“I did quite a bit of research into what it meant, how the vaccine works, and how it’s different than other vaccines and if it was safe and all that,” Leech said. “So, I finally made the decision to get vaccinated and then made my appointment. I was excited.”

Nationwide, there has been a similar apprehension to the COVID-19 vaccines. According to a poll from Kaiser Health News, 47 percent of Americans surveyed in December do not want to get the vaccine.

In the interim period between first and second doses of the vaccinations, Murphy Keenan said that those at Sherrill House focused on educating the staff and residents who were hesitant to get the vaccine. Staff were asked why they did not want to get the vaccine and what they were afraid of, Murphy Keenan said.

“If you’ve been reading anything about other nursing homes, so many workers do not want the vaccine and I believe that’s from poor education at times, possibly not knowing enough and being scared, or misinformation,” Murphy Keenan said.

Leech received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine at Gillette Stadium on Jan. 25 and is scheduled to receive the second dose at the end of the month.

Although she is aware of the possible side effects—her friend felt sick after receiving the second dose—Leech plans

to go forward with receiving the second dose, because she feels it will outweigh the consequences of contracting the virus itself. The day after her vaccine, Leech plans to take the day off from work.

“I think getting a little bit sick from a vaccine is still better than getting the actual virus,” Leech said.

A not her hu rd le i n t he v acci ne rollout is scheduling an appointment.

Massachusetts entered Phase 2 of its COVID-19 vaccine distribution on Feb. 1, vaccinating those 75 years and older.

This phase also includes those 65 and older with certain medical conditions, as well as workers in areas such as transportation and early education.

According to Leech, the process of securing an appointment is “a pain.” After going through the process of making an appointment both for herself and her husband, Leech made a Facebook post in two Newton Facebook groups offering help for others making an appointment online.

“I’ve been helping other people, other elderly people, make the appointments because they can’t figure it out,” Leech said. “It’s very complicated.”

Leech said that making an appointment can feel conf using and overwhelming for people but after explaining the process to others, she found that most people, with the exception of very elderly people, were able to make an appointment on their own.

“So you know I feel like the state just really missed the boat on this one, all they had to do is step by step instructions and people would have been able

to handle it,” Leech said To make it easier for those who are unable to access the vaccination website, Governor Charlie Baker announced on Friday that his administration is setting up a call center to assist those who are 75 years or older and cannot access the vaccine website.

“Live call center workers will be available who can speak both English and Spanish and we’ll have translators available to support residents in about a hundred additional languages,” Baker said in a press conference on Friday.

“This resource is aimed at helping residents 75 and over access an appointment. Call center workers will have the same access to appointments that users will see if they go to mass.gov.”

For Newton seniors without access to a computer, or friends or family to help them make a vaccination appointment, they can call Newton Senior Center and a staff member will assist them, according to the City of Newton website.

Although scheduling an appointment can be difficult and receiving the vaccine may be coupled with anxiety for some people, O’Brien advises that ever yone who ca n get t he vaccine should do so.

“I think everyone should get it, and I think, you know, it’s a good thing even if there’s a lot of unknowns. I feel like it’s safe, I feel like it’s good for our community,” O’Brien said. “It’s good for Newton, it’s good for our country too, for everyone to get it, to hopefully just reach the light at the end of this tunnel.” n

The Heights

Monday, February 8, 2021

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‘Firefly Lane’ Follows Magnetic Friendship

By Shannon Carmichael Heights Staff The Netflix Top 10 in the U.S. Today trending page is no longer dominated by Bridgerton, or at least, momentarily it isn’t.

Taking the number one spot is the new Netflix original series Firefly Lane which promises comparable amounts of tasteful drama more or less directed to the same audience as its predecessor.

Firefly Lane was made to be binged. The addictive nature of the show is drawn from the magnetism of the book on which it is based: Kristin Hannah’s 2008 best-selling novel of the same name. The storyline is simple. The plot follows the long-lasting friendship between two childhood best

friends who meet as next-door neighbors.

The show follows the duo as they become college roommates and journalists all while fostering a friendship so strong they quickly become inseparable.

Despite the strength of their friendship, Tully Hart (Katherine Heigl) and Kate Mularkey (Sarah Chalke) could not be more different, but the “opposites attract” nature of the characters’ bond is part of what makes the show familiar and addictive. Kate is the careful, conscious, and kind half who provides the friendship with its unshakable foundation.

Tully, meanwhile, is the wild, spontaneous, and bruised one who leans on Kate throughout the adversities of her childhood while simultaneously pushing her outside

TV SERIES

‘FIREFLY LANE’ MAGGIE FRIEDMAN DISTRIBUTED BY NETFLIX RELEASE FEB. 3, 2021 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF NETFLIX

of her comfort zone. The friendship dynamic is nothing new, but the story simply wouldn’t work without it.

Program creator and executive producer Maggie Friedman made the decision to tell Tully and Kate’s story in a nonlinear narrative. The plot jumps between decades in a This Is Us-esque manner to juxtapose the different eras and emphasize how the characters spent every major stage of their lives by each other’s side.

One minute you’re watching the two young teenagers running around their childhood neighborhood (Firefly Lane) in the ’70s, and the next you’re brought to an ’80s club. Finally you find yourself in the early 2000s. The nonlinear nature of the series keeps the plot exciting, leaving purposeful gaps that can only be remedied by continued watching or binging.

With the decision to make the series nonlinear, Friedman emphasizes the glamour and aesthetics of each decade to make the series authentic to the time period in question. Fashion and music are the two main tools used to accomplish this and ultimately serve as two of the main drawing points of the series itself. In the ’70s, teenage Tully and Kate are adorned with blue eyeshadow, go-go boots, and suede skirts.

Tully’s mom is a flower child, and their home is therefore decorated with stained glass and ragged tapestries that hang from the ceilings and walls.

Quickly transitioning to the ’80s, when the pair is in their 20s, short feathered hair hides big hoop earrings that now accessorize the tight and colorful outfits of the characters. The more familiar style of the 2000s dictates the fashion of Tully and Kate in their 40s, who are now struggling to remain topical with cell phones and the changing journalism industry. Ultimately, fashion and trends help provide the show with a variation of aesthetics to appeal to a broad audience.

Music also helps to distinguish the decades, and more importantly makes them dazzle. Elton John, Duran Duran, and Billie Eilish are played within minutes of each other. The decade diversity in the series’ soundtrack not only makes the show a great recommendation for your mom, but also keeps with the authenticity of the different eras of Tully and Kate’s friendship—what the series is ultimately all about.

The story of Tully and Kate does more than just illuminate the dazzling diversity of aesthetics in the late 20th century, it highlights the importance of best friends.

The series does the important service of emphasizing the idea that friends are the true unchanging variable in life.

Firefly Lane equates best friends with soulmates. It’s not a story about finding the right guy or the right job, it’s about the journey of finding your way through life with a friend always in the passenger seat. n

Foo Fighters’ Dose of Unimaginative Rock

By Nathan Rhind Heights Senior Staff Over break, my family gathered in the living room to watch the Celebrating America program following the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Like many families across the country, we were celebrating the election results and eager to see live music, even if only through a screen. The next day, my aunt and grandmother drove from Rhode Island to have a late lunch with my family in Massachusetts.

After devouring a sandwich platter, we turned to discussing the election results and the performances from the Celebrating America program. Luckily, our mutual satisfaction with the election’s outcome prevented a family meal from devolving into contentious debate. But, on the topic of the musical performances, we were not fortunate enough to reach a consensus.

“You know, I thought most of the acts were good last night,” my aunt—a notoriously harsh critic—said. “But I was not a fan of whatever that guy with the shaggy hair and his band were doing.” That band is Foo Fighters. And the shaggy-haired man is their frontman and primary songwriter Dave Grohl.

Building on the outsider ethos of Nirvana, Foo Fighters continued the grunge movement and its characteristic use of heavy guitar riffs, angst-ridden lyricism, and red flannels. The youthful rebellion of

Foo Fighters’ tracks has endured despite Grohl and his bandmates resembling suburban dads more likely to spend their time at a microbrewery than an underground rave. It is this element of their music that perhaps dismayed my aunt and turned her off their performance.

Unfortunately, their newest project Medicine At Midnight sacrifices these rebellious sensibilities for dance groove-laden, arena rock that, while palatable, lacks the emotional potency of their prior work.

Part of the reason for this is perhaps the band’s renewed partnership with producer Greg Kurstin. While Kurstin is an excellent craftsman, he sands the edges of the band’s sound to the point where the roughness and basement-jam aesthetic of their earlier releases is indiscernible.

Take the first track, “Making a Fire.”

Here, the guttural roars and screeching guitar solos featured on earlier Foo Fighters albums are replaced by a chorus of “na na’s” and an uninspired riff ad infinitum. And the lyrics aren’t much better. Grohl’s hackneyed chorus is “But if this is our last time / Make up your mind / I’ve waited a lifetime to live / It’s time to ignite / I’m making a fire.” Grohl enters dangerous territory here, crafting a song that would fit perfectly in a dentist-office playlist composed of Daughtry, Imagine Dragons, and sleepy acoustic covers that function as worse versions of already terrible songs.

Although the album may be under-

whelming, an artist of Grohl’s caliber will undoubtedly have their moments of brilliance. One such moment occurs in the opening seconds of “Waiting On A War” where Grohl sings, “I’ve been waiting on a war since I was young / Since I was a little boy with a toy gun.” Grohl’s cadence and gruff tone here closely mirror his performance on “The Best of You” where he roars, “I’ve got another confession to make” at the onset of the iconic track.

In the promotional email for “Waiting On A War,” Grohl writes that the song’s inspiration came from his daughter who asked last fall, “Daddy, is there going to be a war?” His daughter’s anxiety about our current moment reminded him of his own

childhood. He writes, “As a child growing up in the suburbs of Washington DC, I was always afraid of war. I had nightmares of missiles in the sky and soldiers in my backyard, most likely brought upon by the political tension of the early 1980’s and my proximity to the Nation’s Capitol. My youth was spent under the dark cloud of a hopeless future.”

Like his email, Grohl’s lyrics capture the tumultuous last 16 months that saw Donald Trump’s ineptitude in combating a pandemic equaled only by his contempt for democracy. His commentary on the track is incisive and timely. It’s a shame he opts instead for uninspired platitudes like “love dies young” on much of the album. n

MUSIC

Heights Staff Although Netflix’s latest film, Malcolm & Marie, boasts two powerful leading actors—John David Washington and Zendaya—under Director Sam Levinson, creator of the hit show Euphoria, this star-studded cast fails to make up for the film’s lack of direction and incomplete plotlines.

The movie revolves around a Hollywood couple’s argument, thats catalyst is rooted in Malcolm’s (Washington) failure to thank Marie (Zendaya) in his film premiere speech. On a high from the event, Malcolm rambles about his movie’s success—which details the life of a recovering drug addict who is based on Marie—and how it will be perceived by white film critics.

While Malcolm drolls on about the

premiere, a simmering Marie prepares him mac and cheese. The movie is shot in black and white, a directorial decision that draws greater emphasis to the turbulent relationship. Devoid of color, the script-heavy plot and the actors’ facial expressions become the central focus of the film. Given how raw and personal the plot feels, it’s not surprising that the film’s plot and characters are speculated to be largely based on a fight Levinson had with his wife.

The film was written and shot during the COVID-19 pandemic with a limited crew over only two weeks. Traces of the pandemic can be found in some of the director’s decisions. As the movie opens, the camera follows the actors from a distance and from behind window panes, training its focus on Malcolm as he paces in circles around the room. The film is entirely shot in a desolate location—one house with spacious rooms which the characters

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‘MALCOLM AND MARIE’ SAM LEVINSON DISTRIBUTED BY NETFLIX RELEASE FEB. 5, 2021 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF NETFLIX

KIERAN WILSON

‘GLAD YOU EXIST’ DAN + SHAY

Dan + Shay’s first release of 2021, “Glad You Exist,” is a simple but powerful song about gratitude and love.

Upon first listen, it might seem like a love song for a significant other, but both artists remarked that they wrote it for everyone who plays an important role in their lives, including family, friends, and fans.

The chorus culminates with “Take a moment just to take it in / Cause every high and every low led to this / I’m just so glad you exist.”

This section slows listeners down, offering them a moment of self-reflection. Instead of dwelling on the past, the song focuses on living in the moment—a reminder that ups and downs are just a part of life.

Sometimes when artists release songs like “Glad You Exist,” the lyrics can feel contrived or feigned, but this is not at all the case with Dan + Shay’s new single. Honest lyrics carried with sparse accompaniments allow the listener to focus on the song’s theme of gratitude.

Every line flows smoothly from one to the other, building upon Dan + Shay’s gratitude message, and the melody is simple but catchy. The sweetly played guitar and piano riffs give the song an intimate sound—and surely make the listener glad that Dan + Shay exist. n

MUSIC VIDEO JULIA LANDWEHR

‘SKIN’ SABRINA CARPENTER

‘MEDICINE AT MIDNIGHT’ FOO FIGHTERS DISTRIBUTED BY RCA RECORDS RELEASE FEB. 5, 2021 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF RCA RECORDS

‘Malcolm & Marie’ Spirals Into Meltdown

By Orlinka Kereere

SINGLE REVIEW

n

weave through as they toss bitter remarks back and forth. Levinson discussed his need to adapt his filmmaking process in an interview with Esquire.

“I think that because of the restrictions that Covid was forcing upon us we had to reverse engineer this movie and work out the story we could tell in these conditions,” Levinson said.

The central moment of tension is caused by Malcolm’s successful film premiere. The film comments on the nature of Hollywood, as Malcolm dissects how white critics will without fail compare him to other Black directors, whose work only parallels his in that they were also created

by Black directors. Eventually the couple’s conversation derails into a full-blown argument.

If ever there was an example of a toxic relationship, Malcom and Marie’s would be it. The film switches between scenes of tumultuous arguments and passionate embraces. The couple’s toxic relationship and continual arguing is headache-inducing.

But, carried by a hefty script, Zendaya and Washington are up to the task, wielding lengthy dialogues scenes that are shot in long stretches.

Although audiences may grow tired of seeing Malcolm and Marie revive their argument over and over again, each cycle is met with plenty of screaming, brilliantly delivered expletive-filled arguments, and passionate kisses in between, and Zendaya and Washington shine in their roles. As the characters deliver their blows, they take turns channeling grief, anger, and

remorse. Carried by a repetitive plot, the film is a flop and the ending doesn’t offer any satisfaction, leaving the viewer with more questions than answers about the couple’s future.

What is most unfortunate about the film is the fact that it had two A-list actors (as the only characters) who despite the talent and passion they brought to their roles, could not save a script that lacked a developed plot. In an interview with Deadline, Levinson discussed his urge to rely only on dialogue to deeply explore a complicated romantic relationship.

“It became an opportunity to strip back all of the layers of this relationship,” said Levine.

Although the film resists the norm by not relying on plot, color, or various sets, the constant arguing and cyclical dialogue doesn’t compensate or deliver a pleasurable viewing experience. As a white director and producer, Levinson may have tried to create an eccentric movie, but his attempt fell short of expressing his frustrations with the relationship between film criticism and generalizing the work of Black artists.

The film did come at an opportune time with one week left before Valentine’s Day, and viewers may or may not see similarities and reevaluate the circumstances in their own relationships after watching Malcolm & Marie. But, despite it being underwhelming, the film begs an important question of what is worse: being needed but not loved or being loved but not needed by one’s significant other? n

If you’ve been online at all during the past month, you’ve likely heard talk of the messy drama between Disney stars—past and present—and the series of back-to-back music single releases fueling the speculation. Olivia Rodrigo’s song “driver’s license” has been breaking streaming records for weeks as it blazes through TikTok, Twitter, and other social media platforms, driving fans wild as they try to match lyrics with Rodrigo’s alleged dating history to High School Musical: The Musical: The Series costar Joshua Bassett.

Amid the media storm that has followed the song’s release, Sabrina Carpenter, a former Disney star herself and rumored girlfriend of Bassett, released “Skin” on Jan. 22. Some of the track’s lyrics seem to parallel Rodrigo’s, convincing fans that “Skin” is Carpenter’s version of a diss track. This week, Carpenter released the accompanying music video for “Skin,” a ’70s-inspired video directed by Jason Lester.

In the three-minute video, we see Carpenter in a vintage home cuddling with a love interest (Gavin Leatherwood). As the couple smiles at one another, the climate around them starts falling apart. The couple is blasted with rain, fog, snow, and earthquakes in their house, a not-so-subtle metaphor for the online hate and negativity that’s been threatening Carpenter recently.

Drama aside, it’s hard to ignore the disconnect between the modern pop sound of the track and the ’70s aesthetic. Carpenter and her partner lounge around at home while artificial snow and rain consume them, but the weather effects in the video aren’t convincingly real, diminishing her attempt at metaphorizing the backlash she’s received in the media.

But, while Carpenter sings outside in the rain, sitting on a Mercedes-Benz, she indicates that even though she tries not to let petty dramas affect her, they still do. Rodrigo’s “driver’s license” sets the bar pretty high, and “Skin” doesn’t beat it. The lyrics and beat are simple, at times repetitive and overdone. But, at its most nuanced, “Skin” seems to be Carpenter’s take on the emotional pain that comes with living out relationships in the public eye. It’s much more than a diss track. n

The Heights

A12

Monday, February 8, 2021

Budding artist, Maxwell Schenkel develops his artistic persona, channeling his creative work through personal paintings and developing his clothing line, Echoes.

By Grace Mayer

Arts Editor

If you saw Maxwell Schenkel on campus, it would be hard to miss him.

Dressed in brightly patterned hoodies and paint-splattered pants, right away he announces he’s an artist. Schenkel, MCAS ’22, is double majoring in neuroscience and studio art, but when he’s not studying he spends all of his free time creating. Armed with sketchbooks brimming with drawings and characters, Schenkel is only getting started with what he wants to do with his art.

During his time at Boston College, he’s enjoyed delving deeper into the artistic process.

“In those moments where you create something that you feel like you didn’t create yourself, that just existed, and you just like drag it kicking and screaming from your head and just spit it out onto the canvas, like that is a moment where it feels like you’re discovering it,” Schenkel said.

Schenkel grew up in a creative household. Both of his parents are artists—his mom is a production design artist and his dad is a studio artist.

When he was younger, Schenkel said he spent a lot of time copying drawings and creating whimsical sketches. By the time he started high school, he was beginning to explore realistic art. But with the thought of college looming in the background, Schenkel stepped away from art in high school to focus on academics.

But entering his freshman year at BC, he decided to take a few art courses to fulfill his arts core credit. Although Schenkel said he struggled at first in these courses, they reignited his passion for art.

“I still was realizing how much I enjoyed it and how important it was for my own happiness to do that,” Schenkel said about the courses. “Because if I have little things like art and painting, which are like daily catharsis for me, then it gives me the energy and the strength to kind of pursue more difficult things.”

By the time he stepped foot onto BC’s campus as a freshman, he was beginning to dabble in drawing again, an interest that would only grow over his first year. During that time, Schenkel came up with the idea for a graphic cartoon character in the spring of 2019, one that he said is still the most memorable piece of art he’s created. In under five minutes of sketching, Echo was born.

Although most of Schenkel’s artwork bustles with bold colors and angular shapes, Echo forgoes these frills for a black-and-white design. Sketched with smooth lines, the ghost-like character nursing a chest cavity faces a looming black shadow encircling a ballooning question mark. The character marks a time when Schenkel said he was grappling with shifting academic interests— uncertainties which were channeled into the design.

“The simplicity, the lack of identity, the hole represented in the chest was embodying a lot of the existential dread that was kind of like creeping into my mind at that time,” Schenkel said about Echo. “But I like the fact that it wasn’t embodied in an inherently negative way, like he’s not a negative character. He

actually looks like someone relatable and friendly even.”

The cartoon would become the face of a new artistic era Schenkel was entering in his life. Echo would eventually become the central graphic for Schenkel’s clothing line, Echoes, which began to take shape during the summer of 2019.

He started by just selling t-shirts, but over the year expanded the collection to include additional apparel which he sold on his Teespring site. The brand is an extension of his artwork, as the prints featured on hoodies, leggings, and beanies are directly pulled from Schenkel’s sketchbooks.

When he began superimposing his artwork onto clothing items, he hoped family members and friends would buy them.

But Schenkel also started to receive online orders from rogue customers.

“A lot of it has happened organically and it’s been a learning experience, because I’ve never worked in this capacity before,” Schenkel said. “I want to make sure that when people are receiving it that I’m perfectly happy with it and ready for them to receive it. And if I get a couple of sales here or there right now when I’m developing my fashion-related voice, then that’s just a side benefit.”

When he returned to campus as a sophomore, Schenkel decided to pick up a studio art major to take one step closer to honing his craft through courses at BC. Hartmut Austen, a BC studio art assistant professor, taught Schenkel in fall of 2019 in his introductory painting course. After observing his work in class, Austen said he realized pretty quickly that Schenkel was serious about his art.

“Max is a student that encapsulates why we have an arts program at BC and why it is ne cessar y,” Au s t e n s a i d .

“Because some students, espe-

cially in the sciences or in business, they need that outlet to articulate or visualize ideas where words fail them in a certain way.”

As an art and neuroscience double major, Schenkel’s studies are visible in his artwork.

While Schenkel was taking Painting 1: Foundations, Austen said he noticed Schenkel gravitated toward depicting figurations. His interest in captur ing the human figure in his work expanded to self-portraits, but Schenkel takes a different approach to figurations.

He often draws isolated hands, heads, and bodies in vibrant colors cast against barren canvases, instead of full figures. Yellow, purple, red, and turquoise shades are concentrated in his designs— contrasting colors that have an acidic and biting quality, Austen said.

Looking at his work, Austen said Schenkel captures a pulsating energy on canvas that gives his figurations life.

“He showed me his sketchbooks which were ju st over f low ing w ith activity, ideas, colors, shapes, and forms,” Austen said. “And it’s just a joy to look at it. I mean really goofy stuff, cartoonish things often done in markers ver y quickly—sometimes you wonder if he’s doing that in his neurology classes.”

Schenkel’s art style, although still in a development stage, is distinct, Austen said. He described Schenkel’s art as urban, com-

paring his work to earlier artists such as pop art painter Peter Saul, along with artists linked to the Chic ago Imagists movement from the ’60s, such as Ed Paschke, Jim Nutt, and Christina Ramberg. These artists explored figurations and portraits and filled their pieces with eccentric colors, patterns, and graphic components. A blend of these elements crop up in Schenkel’s work.

“His work is already recognizable, and it’s because of some of the colors he’s using, how he’s using the markers and the materials,” Austen said. “So there is an edginess to it, his gesture in his work, which is uniquely his.”

Although hundreds of BC students filter into introductory art classes to fulfill core credits every year, few students pick up art majors and minors, according to Austen. He also said there are nearly 24 art minors and on average eight art majors, many of whom double major, like Schenkel. Only a handful of students go on to graduate art programs to hone their core identities as artists, a path that Austen thinks Schenkel shouldn’t rule out if he decides to pursue it.

This spring, Austen is teaching Schenkel again, but this time in his Alternative Approaches in Drawing class. Although Schenkel is used to using an assembly of bright colors, Austen’s course will challenge Schenkel to draw in black and white. The art professor said he is excited to see Schenkel’s work progress, pushing him closer to his core artistic style.

“He really kind of reinvigorates the joy of painting, you know,” Austen said.

“He reminded me that painting is also an activity that should be joyful and playful.”

Riley Aquilano, MCAS ’22, recognized this energy in Schenkel when they met during their freshman year. With Schenkel decked out in an assortment of rings, baggy clothes, and a bandanna, Aquilano said he knew instantly from his style he was creative across all artistic mediums. Nearly every time he sees Schenkel, Aquilano said, they always end up doing something creative.

“It seems maybe a little cliché to say that everything you do is creative, like well life is creative, but there really is meaning to that when you are talking about Max, because he really does live and breathe art,” Aquilano said.

Spurts of inspiration bring about much of Schenkel’s work. When he’s inspired, Schenkel has created custom pieces for Aquilano, including a pair of sweatpants with graphic references to hip-hop and rap artists like MF DOOM and Kids See Ghosts—artists that connect to Aquilano’s music taste.

Watching Schenkel’s work progress since they met freshman year, Aquilano said he can tell Schenkel is starting to find his identity as an artist.

“I think what sets him apart the most is the boldness,” Aquilano said. “I think a lot of people try to maybe evoke some kind of intense emotion in their art, but I think Max is one of the better artists, at least at BC, that I’ve seen to actually express that boldness. I think it literally is just because Max himself is a really intense guy and he really knows what he wants, what he’s looking for with, what he wants to end up with [for] his finished product.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Schenkel’s creativity wasn’t stifled.

Instead, the virus influenced his work.

To cope with the uncertainty around the pandemic, he channeled that energy into his art.

Schenkel focused on personal projects such as a self-portrait that attempted to convey his emotions during the pandemic. Toying with themes of realism, interpretation, and the psychedelic, Schenkel attempted to ground himself through painting.

“I was kind of filtering all the negativity and the anxiety and all of these feelings of being just oppressed by this feeling of this virus … I kind of channeled that into a lot of my work,” Schenkel said. “I kind of wanted to distort reality in a certain way because that’s how I saw the COVID time, like as a distorted version of like our normal lifestyle.”

While tweets and memes have boasted that Shakespeare wrote King Lear and Macbeth while quarantined during the bubonic plague, Schenkel plowed away at his personal art projects and setting up an Etsy shop, which would house his clothing designs and art prints. Although he was more focused on painting than building up Echoes, he made face masks printed with miniature Echo graphics for his family.

Schenkel was invited to promote his work on a recently developed student art Instagram space called The Cubby.

Although he’s planning on exploring painting for his senior art project, Schenkel’s hoping to try his hand at the gallery scene one day.

“I’ve always wanted to just see a lot of my paintings in a gallery, just like on the wall and like to see other people looking at them,” Schenkel said. “I want to have that moment because I think it would be like the cherry on top of like the effort that I’ve put in to have that one moment to just see where other people in front of your own eyes are appreciating or at least engaging with something that you care yourself very much about." n DRAWINGS COURTESY OF MAXWELL SCHENKEL GRAPHIC BY MEEGAN MINAHAN / HEIGHTS EDITOR