The Heights, April 22, 2024

Eagles Down Syracuse 11–10

BY LUKE BELLAUD Heights Staff

Just five days after a 13–12 loss to No. 11 Virginia in which Boston College lacrosse couldn’t finish the job en route to its third loss of the season, the No. 6 Eagles bore down in their final game of the regular season against No. 2 Syracuse, and forced an overtime with less than two minutes left in regulation.

“I told them to play like

Running Group Sues Newton Police Department for Discrimination

During

2023 Marathon

TrailblazHers, a running club for women of color, sued the Newton Police Department (NPD) on April 11, arguing that NPD o ffi cers singled them out on race day.

Come July, 100 students pursuing associate’s degrees will step foot on Boston College’s Brookline campus to begin their studies at Messina College, a two-year residential program for rst-generation students and the ninth school within Boston College.

“I'm very proud of the institution—that we're doing this in such an intentional way for a group of students that we know face sort of an uphill battle to get there,” Erick Berrelleza, S.J., dean of Messina College, said.

BC announced its plan to establish Messina College over two years ago in Jan. 2022 as an o shoot of the Pine Manor Institute (PMI) of Student Success, the University’s initiative for supporting rst-generation students.

e purpose of Messina College is to set students up for academic success while supporting them in making independent decisions, Berrelleza said.

“While we understand what the barriers are, it’s the students themselves

who’ll tear the barriers down,” Berrelleza said. “So we want to make sure that they're the agents of their own journey, but we're setting it up so that they can do really well here.”

Berrelleza said his passion for this work stems from his own identity as a Spanish speaker and a son of immigrants, which helps him better connect with students from similar backgrounds.

“I was thinking, ‘What a great alignment it is,’” Berrelleza said.

Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that the incoming students come from various backgrounds and have diverse stories, Berrelleza said.

“While we have some shared identities, there's so much nuance and identity,” Berrelleza said. “We have to make sure that when we think about student success and supporting our students, that we get to understand them really well and get to know them and their unique set of experiences.”

NEWS

Class Action Lawsuit Against BC Can Go to Trial, Judge Rules

eir complaints claim that BC provided 401(k) retirement plans subject to excessive recordkeeping and management fees and that

themselves were imprudent.

we have a case where two BC employees, on behalf of a class of more plainti s … are bringing a claim in federal court under the federal law, ERISA, stating that when they turned their cash over to these trustees to invest and to manage it on their behalf, the trustees did not meet their duty of prudence,” said James Mulhern, a partner and law clerk at Mulhern & Scott PLLC and former executive editor of the Harvard Law Review University Spokesman Jack Dunn said that despite the court’s decisions to proceed with the trial, the recent ruling did not nd that BC or the investment committee acted in bad faith.

“While the court allowed the case to proceed, it considerably narrowed the open issues and found in BC’s favor on a number of points … including that the investment committe’s process to monitor investments was prudent.” Dunn wrote in a statement to e Heights

On Aug. 15, 2022, BC filed a motion to dismiss the case, which Young denied in a memorandum decision five months later. On Sept. 29, 2023, BC led a motion for summary judgment—a ruling in the University’s favor without a trial.

In his recent April 11 ruling, Young denied the University’s requests for summary judgment on two of the suit’s central three claims.

“This Court DENIES Boston College’s motion for summary judgment as it relates to the Recordkeeping Fees Claim,” Young wrote. “This Court also DENIES Boston College’s motion for summary judgment on the Challenged Investment Claim.”

e court granted BC’s summary judgment motion, however, on claims of imprudence.

“ is Court GRANTS Boston College’s summary judgment motion on the claims that it violated

the Plans’ documents and that it failed prudently to monitor its duciaries,” Young wrote. n

BC Law Rises One Spot in US News & World Report Ranking

Boston College Law School rose to No. 28 in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2024–2025 law school

rankings, a one-spot increase from last year.

“Boston College Law School continued its strong upward trajectory, moving up one slot to #28 in the US News and World Report’s

latest edition of best law schools and putting it nine places ahead of its ranking just two years ago” a BC Law Magazine article reads.

After an eight-spot drop in U.S. News’ 2022–2023 law school

rankings, this marks the second consecutive year in which BC Law’s rankings have risen under Odette Lienau, who started as dean of BC Law in January 2023.

After signi cant changes to its methodology last year, U.S. News maintained a similar methodology this year, the article said.

“The company’s most recent approach to calculating schools’ overall scores has shifted in some categories to two-year averages, presumably to mitigate the fallout from the earlier decision to weigh outcomes more heavily,” the article reads.

In addition to BC Law’s increase in the overall rankings, it also posted top-30 rankings in three specialty categories—business law, contract law, and international law—and a top-15 ranking in tax law.

BC Law also rose in rankings conducted by several other outlets.

“ e school moved up one spot to #15 in National Law Journal’s ‘Go-to Law Schools’ for big rm hiring,” the article reads. “Princeton Review ranks BC Law #8 for Best Professors and #9 for Best Quality of Life, while Boston College Law Review is ranked #16 in Washington & Lee’s ranking of top journals.” BC Law partially attributes this increase to its strong postgraduate outcomes.

“96.7 percent of the Class of 2023 was employed in full-time, long-term, bar-passage required or JD advantage positions, the gold standard for law jobs,” an April 10 BC Law Magazine article reads. The rankings boost did not, however, translate into more applicants. Despite a report from the American Bar Association that law school enrollment has been relatively steady over the last several years, BC Law saw a 5.8 percent decrease in applications. n

BC Professors Weigh in on Four-Day Workweek

BY JACK BECKMAN Asst. News Editor

When people imagine what the future of work will look like, arti cial intelligence and automation often come to mind.

But the most revolutionary transformation for workers might lie in switching to a shorter, four-day workweek, two BC professors say.

“You’re going to be saving a lot of time with AI, and what’s going to happen to that time, are you going to just make people work more?” said Juliet Schor, a professor of sociology. Schor, whose academic background is in economics, alongside her colleague Wen Fan, an associate professor of sociology, conducted a study testing the four-day workweek on U.S. and European companies while documenting how the change a ected productivity and well-being among employees.

e study was composed of companies both big and small across a variety of industries, including nonpro t organizations and local governments.

“People Are Really Struggling” The dominant mindset in the United States has long measured productivity in terms of inputs—the number of hours people work, according to Fan.

But hours worked does not tell the full story, Schor and Fan said. Since 1950, the average American’s productivity has increased by 400 percent, yet they still log an average of 41.9 hours per week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“I think it’s natural that if you produce the same output, then why should

companies care how many hours they are working?” Fan said. “If you get the same thing done, I just don’t think it matters that much how you get those things done, whether you spend 20 or 40 hours.”

Work hours are also linked to a variety of negative health outcomes including stress, burnout, fatigue, and sleep deprivation, the study found.

Overworking has also been shown to strain people’s relationships with their family and friends, Schor added.

“People are really struggling,” Schor said. “Especially in the United States, work hours are too long. It’s impairing families. It’s impairing people’s ability to get involved in civic life and politics.”

e lack of work-life balance in people’s lives leaves little time for re ection and intention—both Jesuit ideals rooted in BC’s mission, she noted.

“A Win-Win” for Employees and Businesses

After just a few months with a shorter workweek, measures of employee well-being increased across the board, the study found

“I think if there is anything that surprises me, it’s how consistent the ndings are,” Fan said.

Of the approximately 2,900 employees who participated in the U.K. study, 39% said they were less stressed, and 71% had reduced levels of burnout. Over half of employees said they found it easier to balance work with their family and social commitments. Issues related to anxiety, fatigue, and sleep also decreased.

While the bene ts to workers may seem clear, Schor and Fan said they were surprised to learn that companies

were also very pleased with the fourday model.

“I think everyone is surprised at how great it has been for the companies,” Schor said. “ ey report really high satisfaction with it.”

Employers saw higher employee retention, satisfaction, and attendance.

ey see improved productivity, they see reduced turnovers and voluntary exits, and their sick and personal days also are reduced,” Fan said. “I think it’s just a win-win for both employees and organizations.”

While it is di cult to empirically measure productivity, Schor and Fan said that companies rated their productivity as a 7.5 out of 10—a relatively higher result than either expected. “ ey report people being really productive—sometimes more productive—but in general, they’re not reporting a decline in productivity,” Schor said.

e uptick in productivity can be attributed to a more e cient structuring of employees’ time, as meetings and other time-consuming distractions are phased out, they said.

“So if we can get rid of these low priority or low productivity tasks, then it is achievable for organizations to deliver the same output even when they only work four days a week,” Fan said.

Of the 61 companies that participated in the trial, over 90% said they intend to continue the four-day workweek model, according to Schor.

“There are significant benefits in what you get from your sta when you do it because it’s worth so much to them—they become more loyal, they are less likely to leave, and they sort of work smarter,” Schor said.

Making the Four-Day Workweek a Reality

To many workers, a four-day workweek once seemed like an unrealistic fantasy—that is until the the pandemic ushered in a new era of work-life balance.

“I think that the common sense on this has changed, which is that when you say something about the four-day week to people, they’re like, ‘Yeah, why don’t I have that,’” Schor said. “Because there is a sense that it’s possible now.”

Slowly but surely, the movement is gaining traction with workers, labor leaders, and politicians alike, Schor said.

Legislatures in states such as Maryland and Massachusetts are exploring the possibility of a four-day workweek, and last month, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a bill that would reduce the standard workweek to 32 hours without reducing workers’ pay.

Schor has become a prominent voice in the four-day workweek movement, testifying before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions last month

“Given current robust rates of U.S. productivity growth, the promise of further increases as a result of Arti cial Intelligence, and the fact that over the last 85 years, the statutory workweek has been unchanged, I support the legislative effort to enact a 32-hour workweek,” Schor said in her testimony.

Her TedTalk, “The Case for a 4-Day Workweek,” has been viewed more than two million times, and her book e Overworked American: e Unexpected Decline of Leisure is a national bestseller.

“I care about this issue a lot, which

is why I’m devoting so much time to it,” Schor said.

By o ering companies tax breaks or other incentives, the government could help catalyze the transition toward a four-day workweek on a national scale, according to Schor and Fan.

“A more reasonable starting point is for some external forces to make change happen,” Fan said. “If there are government policies that could be implemented, for example, to give organizations incentive to participate in a four-day workweek, then that would help tremendously.”

Companies that pivot to the model early on are poised to reap signi cant bene ts, Schor said.

“I think there’s a lot to be said for being in the rst wave here—you get a lot of bene ts that once it becomes normative, if you haven’t done it, you suffer, you don’t necessarily get the bene ts of being ahead,” Schor said.

Fan said, in her experience, younger generations put a higher premium on exible work culture and work-life balance—a preference that could bolster support for a four-day workweek in coming decades.

“If there is sufficient demand from workers—especially younger workers—that might help to force employers to see the value of having a exible culture,” Fan said. “If they want to attract workers or to retain their current workers, they have to do something to make the workplace a more desirable place to work.”

First Class of Students To Start at Messina in July

Joy Moore, vice president and executive director of PMI and BC ’81, said aiding in the founding of Messina College was a way for her to give back to the community that once supported her.

“I believe fully in the mission of Boston College, as well as Pine Manor,” Moore said. “ ey’re very similar in the desire to use your skills and talents to help other people.”

Moore said the University’s decision to launch Messina College was a bold move, but one that signi ed notable progress at BC.

“I think that it’s important to—as much as we talk about how we reach out to those who are less fortunate, and so forth—to show it is a whole other ball game, so to speak,” Moore said.

Berrelleza said that throughout the development of Messina College, he considered the various components of ensuring student success.

“We know the challenges around nancial pressure, whether a student feels a sense of belonging to a place, sometimes mental health concerns, which you can never really anticipate—it can a ect any population of students,”

Berrelleza said. e fact that Messina College is also a residential education experience, eliminating transportation issues that students might face, is a key component as well, Berrelleza said.

“The balance of work and attending school as a commuter—usually at community colleges [and] also at other four-year colleges—those students often face a lot more challenges trying to complete [their education],” Berrelleza said. “Life can just get in the way.”

Although Messina College will have its own campus in Brookline, it is still an extension of the other colleges operating on BC’s campus, Berrelleza said. “When we think about the constellation of campuses that we have, there’s a lot of interest to get involved in this program,” Berrelleza said. “And so we’ll have faculty teaching from the di erent schools, from Morrissey and Lynch, Connell and Carroll. ey’ll all participate in helping support these students.”

Last week, the UGBC Senate passed a bill to create a Senate seat for a student from Messina College’s inaugural class. is is just one way in which Messina students will integrate into the greater BC community, Berrelleza said.

“The students do the best job of creating the synergy between the community,” Berrelleza said. “Our students will have full access also to the different clubs and organizations of this campus, aside from the facilities.”

By increasing representation for first-generation students, Messina College will bring a no -

table change to BC, Moore said.

“I think it will change the landscape down the road,” Moore said. “It’s not going to happen in the next five years or maybe even 10, but it’s that piece about access and opening the door a little bit wider for first-gen students and students from underserved and underrepresented communities.”

As students from Messina College transition to campus, it is important for the greater BC community to maintain a welcoming environment, Moore added.

“The more there is that warm welcome and outreach that I know our students are famous for, it’s going to make the new Messina students much more comfortable and ready to go,” Moore said. n

Senate Passes Bill To Introduce Messina College Seat

BY ANNIKA ENGELBRECHT Asst. News Editor

The UGBC Senate passed a bill to introduce a new senator from the inaugural Messina College class this fall during its meeting on Tuesday night.

“We have this ran by the associate dean of Messina College to make sure our language is okay, and they approved and are really excited about having Messina integration in our Senate,” said Katie Garrigan, UGBC vice president-elect and MCAS ’25.

The bill creates one special interest seat for a full-time freshman from Messina College for the 2024–2025 academic year. Garrigan said the legislation is a jumping-off point for UGBC’s relationship with Messina College and that she expects changes in it to occur once the position is filled.

“Obviously, this legislation is subject to change,” Garrigan said. “But that is hopefully going to be passed within our new Senate, so this is just for right now to get prepared for next year.”

Also during the meeting, the Senate discussed the possibility of providing mental health days for students. Student senator Andreas Pantazakos, MCAS ’24, brought up the difficulty of

getting mental health–related absences excused.

“I feel like if you get sick, you get a note, that’s fine, but there’s no system in place if you’re having a bad day, you have anxiety,” Pantazakos said. “No one would get a day off—that would be an unexcused absence.”

Considering the prevalence of mental health issues on college campuses and in the world today, this policy should be re-evaluated, Pantazakos said.

“I feel like we should give students more of an avenue to feel comfortable to tell their professors, ‘Hey I’m having a bad day, I can’t come in, I’m having a really stressed out week,’” Pantazakos said.

Minnah Abdel-Naby, student senator and MCAS ’27, agreed with Pantazakos and added that the current policy undermines the seriousness of mental health issues.

“It’s saying that mental health isn’t as important as any other sickness, which shouldn’t be the case,” Abdel-Naby said.

Cami Kulbieda, student senator and LSEHD ’26, noted that some students might be inclined to abuse allotted mental health days but that working with University Counseling Services (UCS)

could pose a solution.

“If everyone is given two mental health days, somebody who just wants to sleep in might just say it, and some people do need it, and some people don’t,” Kulbieda said. “So I think the idea of potentially working with UCS to get some type of note, although it might be kind of frustrating and seem like an inconvenience, to an extent really does make sense.”

At the end of the meeting, the Senate discussed the app GrubSwap, which allows students

with excess meal plan money to pay for another student’s meal in exchange for a Venmo payment of 50 percent of the meal’s cost.

Colleen Blascik, first-generation student representative and MCAS ’27, said that although BC Dining might not like the concept, the app could help students with declining meal plan balances.

“BC Dining might be freaking out, but so are the students who can’t eat, who have no money leftover, so, I mean, it’s pretty valid,” Blascik said.

Lindsay Meier, environmental and sustainability policy coordinator and MCAS ’26, said she agreed the app poses benefits, but noted that BC Dining relies on students’ leftover meal plan for their budget, so the app could also cause prices to rise.

“I think that the problem is when we do things like this, it seems right at first, but there’s always gonna be consequences for actions,” Meier said. “And I see the consequences of this is that prices are going to be raised again.” n

Kross Dissects the Psychology of the Inner Voice

BY ELL A CHAMPAGNE Heights Staff

We as humans spend between one-half and one-third of our waking hours not focused on the present moment, according to Ethan Kross, professor of psychology and management & organizations at the University of Michigan.

“ at’s a lot of time talking to a proverbial a-----e if that’s the voice that you encounter when you drift away,” Kross said.

Kross, author of the best-selling book Chatter: e Voice in Our Head, Why it Matters, and How to Harness It , gave a talk at Boston College on Tuesday in which he explained the role of the inner voice and how to e ectively manage it.

According to Kross, the inner voice can be a practical tool to

plan e ectively for the future, like when preparing for an important presentation.

“What I’m doing is I’m trying to prepare myself for a stressful encounter if it would occur,” Kross said.

In addition to preparing for the future, channeling the inner voice can play a role in shaping a sense of self and forming identity, Kross said.

“We try to make sense of what we are going through,” Kross said.

“What’s happening there is that we’re using our voice to really nd meaning and purpose in our experiences.”

But while the inner voice poses practical bene ts, it can also pose the problem of overthinking—this is when the inner voice becomes “chatter,” according to Kross.

“You don’t make any progress whatsoever,” Kross said. “You just keep digging yourself deeper and deeper into a hole.”

Kross noted that constant and heightened “chatter” can cause physical harm to the body.

“What does make stress truly toxic is when your stress response gets activated and then remains chronically activated over time,” Kross said. “ at exerts a wear and tear on your body that is physically damaging.”

Kross said “chatter” can also negatively affect interpersonal relationships.

“There are instances where people who genuinely care about you, they tend to pull away because there is only so much they can bear before you start to bring them down,” Kross said.

The good news, Kross said, is that the concept of “chatter” is well-researched by scientists and there are a variety of psychological tools that can be used to manage it e ectively.

ese are things you can do on your own—basic shifts in the way you think about your circumstances—that can push you down totally di erent trajectories when it comes to talking to yourself,” Kross said.

Kross used the example of Malala Yousafzai, who he said addresses herself by her own name and second-person pronouns while coaching herself through challenging situations. “What this does in your mind is it turns on a mental machinery to think about someone else, so it’s shifting your perspective,” Kross

said. “It’s putting you in advice-giving mode, which can be really, really helpful for thinking through a problem or objective.”

Kross also said that an overactive mind can be tempered through the tool of “mental time travel.”

“No matter how bad ‘the chatter’ is at 2 a.m., it is always better the next morning when my brain is fully awake and we think about things more constructively,” Kross said.

Kross concluded his talk by emphasizing the importance of fostering healthy relationships and nding outlets to talk about “chatter.”

“ e idea is to have a roadmap for how to steer those conversations and how to find people you should talk to about your ‘chatter,’” Kross said. n

NICOLE VAGRA / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

The inaugural class of students at Messina College will begin their studies on the Brookline campus in July.

The Senate created a seat designated for a full-time student from Messina College for the upcoming academic year. SARAH FLEMING / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Messina, from A1

BC Sweethearts Serve Up Sandwiches and Build Community at Newton’s Sandwich Works

Sandwiches, from A1

“We have the best customers,” Mara said. “Kind and understanding people.”

When the two met at Stuart Dining Hall in 1986, Mara was a senior and student manager, and Je was a freshman employee.

“I did whatever she said, but she wasn’t really a very good manager,” Je said, laughing. “She didn’t like telling people what to do.”

Mara said she looks back on her time in Stuart fondly.

“It was just fun,” Mara said.

While Jeff’s college job as a freshman led him to his future wife, it was his junior year job that led him to his future career.

“I had to get a job so I could a ord to go out and do those kinds of things kids like to do, so I got a job downtown at a bar, rst waiting tables, then at a bar,” Je said.

When Jeff’s boss at the bar opened a new location for a restaurant, Sandwich Works—based in West Newton at the time—he offered Je a position as its manager after he graduated in 1989.

Later, Je took over the franchise, which has since consolidated into a single location in Newton Centre.

“I had nothing planned, and I said, you know, if I’m ever going to do a business, now would be the time,” Je said.

Mara, who studied education

at BC, worked as a teacher after her graduation in 1985, then joined the business full-time after the couple had children.

“It was just better to come here,” Mara said. “Even when I worked, I would come here in the mornings and do stu , then go to work and come back. I’m always here.”

Je , who was an English and economics double-major at BC, said that because he hadn’t initially planned to enter the restaurant business, his culinary skills are selftaught.

“I’ve never had any formal training,” Je said. “I just learn as I go, which is a lot easier now with YouTube and Instagram and all that stu .” Sandwich Works spans far beyond its cozy Newton Centre location, with its catering that serves Newton’s community and government o ces.

“It’s so busy now, we do lots of catering, formal catering, lots of stu at BC, at the city, schools, the health department, the mayor’s o ce, all of that,” Je said.

e catering side of the business has grown over the years, according to Je

“It’s spread over time,” Je said. “People will go somewhere and have a sandwich during a meeting and [ask], ‘Oh where did you get that,’ and they’ll tell them and they’ll order it, so it kind of grows like that.”

ey also gained new customers during the pandemic, when few other restaurants were open.

“In that time, we got a bunch of new customers who maybe were going somewhere else, like going to Starbucks, before,” Je said. “ at was closed, so they came in.”

One such customer, Newton resident Patrick Knight, said he became a regular during the pandemic.

“ ey stayed open all through COVID,” Knight said. “I came in every day, got my lunch and breakfast. ese folks: awesome.”

Sandwich Works’s menu has grown with time as well, Je said.

“When we rst started, people would just come in and get tuna

on wheat or turkey on a sub roll,” Je said. “ at was most of it. Now people want, like, mozzarella tomato basil with pesto—a lot of stu .”

Now, Sandwich Works boasts everything from a classic reuben to the specialty “Newton Centre Gobbler,” which is a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce and stu ng. Customers like Sousa said some of these new additions to the menu are their favorites. “ ey do a grilled cheese with meatballs—that’s good, that’s my top,” Sousa said.

e DeBonees also serve the community as a part of a city-wide internship program where high school students who don’t plan on

going to college can join the Sandwich Works sta over the summer to gain work experience.

“You take a kid who doesn’t know anything in high school, then turn them into someone who can run a place like this—it’s pretty rewarding,” Je said.

Sandwich Works also donates ingredients to the Newton Food Pantry weekly, as well as prepared food to the Pantry’s “freedge,” which is a free refrigerator constantly stocked for people to take what they need.

“We like to help people out, make people happy, give them a nice sandwich, but even more than that,” Je said. n

B Y T OM M C N ULT Y Heights Sta ff

Newton Mayor Ruthanne

Fuller presented a budget that will increase by 5.1 percent from last year with increased investment in Newton Public Schools (NPS) and capital improvement projects, during her FY25 budget address on Monday.

“Tonight, I present to you a stable, strong, sustainable, and hefty budget for the city of Newton’s next fiscal year,” Fuller said.

provement projects, which include the renovation of three NPS elementary schools, the construction of the new senior center, and the renovation of the Gath Memorial Pool.

“We have increased debt service by 5.1 percent so that many important capital projects can move forward,” Fuller said. “This is in line with our financial management guidelines and our long-term financial forecast.”

e group said its members had been watching the marathon around Mile 21 when Newton police o cers singled them out and blocked them from the course. is culminated in NPD ofcers forming a human barricade to physically separate the running crews of color from the event,” the filing reads. “Similarly-situated white spectators received no such treatment.”

e group is also suing the Boston Athletic Association (BAA), which organizes the marathon.

According to the ling, police officers repeatedly yelled at the spectators to move back even though they were not obstructing the runners.

“In contrast to Plainti s’ cheer section, this area, comprising mostly of white spectators, lacked police presence or instructions to stay o the course,” the ling reads. “No one threatened or intimidated the white spectators to remove the obstructing balloon arch.”

NPD o cers at the plainti s’ cheer zone said they had been responding to a complaint from the BAA, the ling says.

After brie y leaving the scene, the NPD returned with approximately 20 o cers on bikes, who formed a human barrier between TrailblazHers members and the course.

In the days following the incident, the BAA released a statement from Jack Fleming, the president and CEO of the BAA, apologizing for the treatment of the spectators.

“It is our job, and we need to do better to create an environment that is welcoming and supportive of the BIPOC communities at the marathon,” Fleming said.

“NPD’s presence and conduct was creating apprehension, fear, and tension,” the ling reads. “NPD o cers continued to harass and hassle this specific Black cheer area.” e ling pointed to several instances where white spectators were not subject to the same level of policing, including a white woman and her child’s crossing of the course to hug a participant, and a white family’s placement of a balloon arch around Mile 15.

According to The Boston Globe, however, the NPD was unhappy with the statement, and the police chiefs said they would not help patrol the route for the 2024 race without an apology from the BAA.

Earlier this year, the BAA reportedly apologized to the NPD for how it had originally responded to the discrimination claims.

TrailblazHers is being represented by Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), which provides pro bono legal services for cases regarding the rights of communities of color and immigrant communities, according to their website.

“We focus on impact areas that represent the front lines in today’s battle for equality and justice,” their website reads.

In a press release, LCR Executive Director Iván Espinoza-Madrigal denounced the NPD’s behavior as “scary, triggering, and traumatic,” in the context of racial violence Black runners have experienced.

“Overpolicing and hate crimes help explain why running remains a heavily white sport,” Espinoza-Madrigal said in the release. “Ahmaud Arbery, an avid Black jogger, was killed while running through a residential neighborhood in Georgia.” n

According to Fuller, the budget increase is supplemented by the city’s projected $25.7 million revenue increase and the city’s strong cost management strategies.

“Newton’s tax base is strong and stable,” Fuller said. “While our village centers do have some empty storefronts and our office buildings do have some vacancies, we are not facing significant potential lost tax revenue like our neighbor, Boston.” Fuller also announced a 5.2 percent increase in funding for NPS, which she said will allow the schools to include more teachers, form smaller classes, and increase mental health services.

“For the Newton public schools, the addition of $14 million over last year’s budget will immediately be felt by our students,” Fuller said.

The school funding also includes the new NPS Education Stabilization Fund, which allocates $22 million in one-time free funding into an ongoing support fund for the school budget over the next five years. Of those funds, $4.1 million is allocated for the FY25 budget.

Fuller also emphasized the city’s investment in capital im -

Despite her optimism, Fuller addressed financial challenges in the budget, given national economic conditions and the city’s increased spending, some of which relies on one-time funding.

“At the moment, the rise in inflation is moderating a bit but we’re getting some mixed signals from the [Federal Reserve] about when interest rates might start declining,” Fuller said. “We expect to still see staffing shortages accompanying the low unemployment rates that we’re experiencing.” Fuller also spotlighted the work of the soon-to-retire Health and Human Services Commission-

who has worked for the

M AGAZINE

Rock-Torcivia Donates AEDs to Youth Organizations

At 14 years old, Kiersten Rock-Torcivia was gliding across the ice, figure skating when her vision suddenly faded to black and her heart went into an arrhythmia.

At 16 years old, Rock-Torcivia became one of an exceedingly small group of people diagnosed with the gene contributing to her condition, Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC).

“The gene that I have—the mutation—I believe I’m 1-in-11 people that have been discovered,” Rock-Torcivia, CSON ’27, said. ARVC is a combination of two typically distinct heart conditions: arrhythmia and heart tissue in ammation. e process of getting this condition diagnosed lasted over a year following the skating incident, Rock-Torcivia said.

“It’s more of a rare disease to see both components of the heart disease together,” Rock-Torcivia said. “It’s de nitely a weird way to have the condition. at’s why diagnosis took a lot longer.”

After finding out about her diagnosis, Rock-Torcivia started Heartfelt Harmonies, a nonpro t committed to helping other kids with heart disease. e initiative started, she said, from an abundance of free time following he rst heart surgery—during which she went into cardiac arrest. at rst surgery was ten days before COVID,” Rock-Torcivia said. “So basically like, school stopped, and then skating stopped, and then I was like, now what do I do with my life?”

During this time, Rock-Torcivia said she and her family grew increasingly connected to the heart disease community. As she got to know more people’s stories, Rock-Torcivia said she became aware that her experience was not entirely unique.

“I kind of realized that … all of these emergency hospital situations, they’re not rare at all,” Rock-Torcivia said. “You don’t really realize how stressful they can be until you’re in them three or four times, and for prolonged periods of time.”

With no shortage of time on her hands, and with a newfound understanding of other heart disease survivors, Rock-Torcivia decided to make an active di erence in her community.

Remembering how music got

her through countless nights in the emergency room, Rock-Torcivia started making music therapy kits—small bags with earbuds and Spotify playlist codes to give to younger patients.

“ ere were nights where I was just sitting in the ER all night,” Rock-Torcivia said. “And in an ER, it’s kind of impossible to get sleep or breathe and relax, so I started out my charity doing music therapy kits.”

Soon after she started distributing them around hospitals, the music therapy kits became a big success, Rock-Torcivia said. As the project started to pick up, she began calling her charity “Heartfelt Harmonies.”

“So I was putting together all of these kits, and there was an overwhelming amount of support from the community,” Rock-Torcivia said. “I started having way more donations than I knew what to do with.”

With all of the new cash ow, Rock-Torcivia said she wanted to expand Heartfelt Harmonies. She eventually landed on raising money to purchase and distribute automated external de brillators (AEDs)—devices used to regulate heartbeats during cardiac arrest.

The idea stemmed from her family’s troubles getting the cost of her AED covered by insurance, Rock-Torcivia said. Before she had surgery to get an internal de brillator, Rock-Torcivia’s doctor recommended that her family purchase an AED.

According to Rock-Torcivia, AEDs cost around $1,200, and their insurance didn’t cover the cost until around eight months after the purchase.

“Luckily, my family is well o enough that that wasn’t really a burden for us, and my mom also has the time in her schedule where she was able to ght with insurance to actually get them to approve it,” Rock-Torcivia said. “But I kind of realized that that is so not the case for everyone, and I very much had an advantage.”

Rock-Torcivia started reaching out to doctors to connect with families who weren’t able to a ord their AED, but because of HIPAA restrictions, doctors were unable to give her any contact information, she said.

Faced with a dead end, Rock-Torcivia said she switched focus to working with youth athletic organizations instead. e idea was inspired by her history of figure

skating

mias are often triggered during exercise, she said.

“I landed on this idea of donating AEDs to organizations that work closely with youth, especially in a more athletic manner,” Rock-Torcivia said.

Michelle DePascale, Rock-Torcivia’s high school guidance counselor, highlighted Rock-Torcivia’s compassion and said Rock-Torcivia cares deeply about the needs of others.

“She’s a really compassionate, kind, giving individual, which is why she’s doing what she’s doing,” DePascale said. “Like I said, she’s very sel ess because she was going through all of this and yet she was thinking, ‘Well, what can I do for others?’”

A couple of months after her rst AED donation, Heartfelt Harmonies became an o cial 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization. As it continued to expand, Rock-Torcivia said the organization started to focus more on AED fundraising and distribution than music therapy kits.

“Typically, the rule with an AED is that you want to be 30 seconds from any point in the building from an AED,” Rock-Torcivia said. “Because the quicker you get an AED, the higher the survival rate.”

With Heartfelt Harmonies, Rock-Torcivia said she hopes to do her part in ensuring more people are within the recommended distance of an AED.

“I believe that AEDs should be mandated to be everywhere, especially pools, sports elds, dance studios, di erent things like that,” Rock-Torcivia said. “But they’re

not even necessary in every public school. Some states have those laws, but not every state.”

When donating AEDs to youth organizations, Rock-Torcivia also said she intentionally targets underprivileged communities.

“Since they don’t have equitable healthcare, there’s less of a chance that those kids will get the heart screenings that they need, and therefore more of a chance that something will happen to them,” Rock-Torcivia said.

Additionally, through her experience speaking with heart-disease survivors, Rock-Torcivia said she learned that situations of sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, anywhere, and even without prior signs.

“I’ve unfortunately met a lot of people, and sadly, a lot of parents, who have lost their kids to cardiac arrest,” Rock-Torcivia said. “It’s such a large issue, and no one really realizes it until it a ects someone you know or someone in your school or in your town.”

One of these people is JoAnne Babbitt, who lost her son to cardiac arrest in 2006 and subsequentally started the John Taylor Babbitt Foundation in his name, alongside her husband.

According to Babbitt, the John Taylor Babbitt Foundation and Heartfelt Harmonies have the same goal: get as many AEDs as possible into places of public assembly.

“Your chances of survival, without using an AED and someone doing CPR, are about 7 percent,” Babbitt said. “Starting CPR within minutes and using an AED within minutes—your chances of survival increase to anywhere from 50 to

70 percent.”

Because of this statistic, Babbitt said Heartfelt Harmonies is doing vital work.

“Bottom line: you don’t have time to wait for the ambulance to arrive,” Babbitt said.

In addition to running Heartfelt Harmonies, Rock-Torcivia said she is also passionate about patient advocacy. At an event hosted by the John Taylor Babbitt Foundation, she was given the opportunity to share her story with an audience.

“The audience … hung off of every word she said,” Babbitt said. “And that’s because her story is compelling, you know, how many times she has skirted death.”

Now, Rock-Torcivia continues to run Heartfelt Harmonies on top of studying to become a nurse. ough she has always been interested in the sciences, Rock-Torcivia said her experiences in hospitals made her more interested in healthcare.

“I landed on nursing because I think they just kind of have a very special connection with the patient,” Rock-Torcivia said. “ ey get that face-to-face and that emotional connection.”

rough both Heartfelt Harmonies and her future career as a nurse, DePascale said that Rock-Torcivia’s most inspiring trait is that she strives to help others despite her own personal challenges.

“It’s hard for a teenager to have to stop doing the sport they love … and going through a multitude of procedures, being in a highly competitive academic program, and yet, here she is still saying, ‘What can I do for someone else?’” DePascale said. n

Different Types of BC Students at the End of the Year

B Y K ATE K ISSEL Copy Chief

Frigid February blizzards and dreary March windstorms have finally given way to beautiful 60-degree spring days on the Heights. As the weather gets warmer and the cherry blossoms decorate campus, Boston College students are lounging on the Quad and counting down the days until summer.

As finals season creeps up, BC students tend to take on different attitudes about the semester’s impending end. From chilling out to frantically cramming to save the A, here are the different types of BC students you may notice during these final few weeks.

Loungers

Everything seems to feel just right when the sun is shining over campus. BC students love nothing

more than to grab a coffee, find a few friends, and spend their time in between classes taking in the beautiful weather. The grass is no different than a desk, right?

Sure, you can pretend to be productive, but everyone knows those hours on the Quad are actually spent trying to get a tan and dreaming of summer days to come.

The “We Live On a Floating Rock”ers

As the chance of saving your grade in that one class becomes impossible, it’s easy to throw your hands up in the air and say, “Nothing’s real!”

Late nights at O’Neill and long hours spent figuring out what your difficult professor actually wants in an essay have taken their toll by this point in the year. Rather than fretting over a final group project, these students are thanking themselves for the work they’ve put in all semester by using these last few weeks to spend quality time

with friends.

Olympians

Some BC students just miss recess. These Eagles take their yard games seriously, and a casual game of Spikeball often turns into a full-on tournament, lasting hours at a time. Those with limited athletic ability can only dream of the never-ending fun that these games seem to garner.

Worrying about final exams and deadlines seems to evade these students, who now have a much more pressing task to tend to—defending their honor in the arena of outdoor games.

Homesick Freshmen

The anticipation, the dreaming of the perfect college life, and the aspirations to make a grand transformation have officially ended.

First semester came and went, and BC freshmen are no longer the newbies on campus.

As the excitement of new beginnings slowly dies out, many

freshmen are looking forward to reuniting with their high school friends and enjoying homecooked meals again.

Even with this impending lounge-around time, it would behoove these students to enjoy the last few weeks of their time on campus. It won’t be long before they’re dreaming of a return to Chestnut Hill.

Sentimental Seniors

Though we’re all feeling blue about leaving the Heights, nobody is dreading it more than the senior class.

The past four years become a blur as these Eagles look back on their time here—a journey that began back in a time of masks and weekly testing!

Though graduation felt lifetimes away back then, the day is now quickly approaching. Despite the waves of nostalgia this time often brings, the Class of

and the fact that arrhyth-

Rock-Torcivia started a nonprofit that focuses on donating AEDs to underprivileged communities.

PHOTO COURTESY OF KIERSTEN ROCK-TORCIVIA

OPINIONS

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

A Mosaic of Those You’ve Loved Most

As a kid, being called a “copycat” felt like the most hurtful insult I could receive. Well-meaning adults would attempt to o er consolation, saying “Imitation is the highest form of attery,” but this adage was no match for my crushed 10-year-old ego.

As I got older, unoriginality felt like an inescapable curse. Every relatable video I scroll through on TikTok reminds me that I’ve never had an original thought … ever. As comforting as it is to know you’re not alone in your most obscure thoughts, sometimes it’s nice to be di erent. But as with most things, time has taught me that the adults were right—imitation truly is the best way to atter those that you care about.

To take someone’s characteristics and adopt them as your own—whether it be how they dress or their favorite phrase—is a way of showing love.

It’s like taking a little piece of every person you’ve ever known, putting it in your pocket, and bringing it with you wherever you go. Even if you’re not consciously aware of how each trait came to be, embrace each as part of your own personal puzzle.

I can identify some pieces of my puzzle from the moment I selectively put them in place. In second grade, I started writing my lowercase-a’s with a little curl on the top because the girl sitting across from me in class did. In sixth grade, I taught myself every word of Luke Bryan’s best songs because my new best friend loved country music.

While I was clearly becoming the “copycat” I feared, I now see these qualities as an homage to people that I have chosen to let in and love.

Other pieces to the puzzle have fallen into place more gradually over time. What I know for sure, though, is that my most fundamental qualities are a direct re ection of my immediate and extended family—those I look up to most.

e way I enunciate each group of letters when I spell out my last name. My obsession

with the news. How I jump right into Google the second I hear something I don’t know. My interest in medicine. My love for shopping. How I pace back and forth around the house when I’m waiting for someone to arrive.

I can even identify the family member who introduced me to each of my favorite foods.

Knowing that it’s a direct re ection of those I love most, I can’t even resent my impatient and short-tempered nature.

Every fundamental piece of me—my personality, quirks, interests, and hobbies—is part of a mosaic of the people I feel closest to.

I’ve taken the good and bad from each of them, morphed it all together, and carefully lled it into my puzzle.

I know I’ve been a “copycat,” but I’ve combined these copied qualities into something beautiful and new. Only I have loved the exact set of people that make up my unique mosaic.

As time passes, I may forget where each trait, quirk, or passion came from. But while people come and go, their qualities remain ingrained in me forever. Wherever I go, I carry our history.

To love is to be unoriginal.

Jenny Hotchkiss is a columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at jenny.hotchkiss@bc.edu.

Testimony and Resilience in West Virginia

“What’s your favorite part of West Virginia?”

Ask this question to any native West Virginian, and you’ll see their eyes light up as they describe the rolling Blue Ridge Mountains stretching across the western panhandle, the sweet music of gurgling streams and creeks (pronounced “cricks”), and the dappled sunlight ltering through trees along country backroads. ey’ll say you simply must come in the fall to see the explosion of vibrant reds and yellows that overtake the forests. en they’ll proudly tell you that the Appalachian Mountains have stood tall since Pangea.

And perhaps, upon hearing their answers, you’ll smile and marvel at how vast and unshakable the West Virginian landscape must be if its mountains remain standing after hundreds of millions of years.But as you ask more questions, you’ll soon discover that while the land itself may be unshakable, its capacity to support the livelihoods of West Virginians has greatly weakened. I learned this the hard way on my Appalachia Volunteers (Appa) community service trip to Wheeling, W. Va.

When you ask West Virginians what they must do to support themselves and their families, you’ll watch the excitement fade from their eyes, see their shoulders slump forward, and hear a sigh so deep it seems to reverberate back through generations of exploitation.

Maybe you’ll meet someone like Kaden, a coal miner, who only feels truly free in the outdoors among West Virginia’s beautiful forests and rivers. Kaden, who spends a minimum of eight hours underground every day without seeing the sun.

Kaden, who works shifts so long that he’ll kiss his wife goodnight on Sunday and not see her again until the following Saturday. Kaden, whose sneezes are always accompanied by black dust, and whose nails are permanently blackened because no amount of scrubbing will ever erase the coal that coats them.

ey trap you with the money,” he’ll tell you.

Indeed, though Kaden graduated college with a degree in criminal justice, he soon found that the coal mining industry held such a mo-

nopoly over West Virginia that the salary for a coal miner was more than triple any other job.

If you continue asking questions, you might meet a fellow like Fallon, a 17-year-old boy only too excited to tell you about all the best shing spots. Fallon plans to follow in his dad and pap’s footsteps by working in the coal industry, a profession that has utterly ravaged West Virginia’s rivers. Indeed, the rivers have been so polluted that we heard of a young boy who colored a creek orange in his coloring book because he had never seen a clear stream before.

Lastly, if you travel to Appalachia and talk to enough people, you might even be lucky enough to meet someone like Heaven. An apt name because with her Goldilocks hair, pastel-green blouse, and unwavering commitment to doing what’s right, Heaven was nothing short of angelic when I met her.

Heaven graduated in three-and-a-half years while balancing internships in the Senate and White House. She was on track to pursue a law degree and could have easily skyrocketed to stardom in Boston, New York City, or Washington D.C. As she began to embark on this path, however, something gave her pause.

Growing up on a small farm in a town just 30 minutes from West Virginia, Heaven witnessed countless attacks on the health and autonomy of the people she grew up with. She watched art programs disappear as the education budget was slashed to subsidize fossil-fuel companies. She watched countless well pads get built in her town until one could be seen from every window of her high school. Most insidiously, she witnessed the health of her neighbors deteriorate as oil and gas companies came to cash in on the mineral rights beneath their houses.

Powerless to stop these injustices when she was younger, Heaven was now fully equipped to make a tangible di erence in her community. She knew plenty of people who worked in the big cities, but who would advocate for people in Appalachia? Immediately, Heaven rose to the challenge.

Now, as Organizing Director for the Center for Coal eld Justice, she receives daily calls from residents trying to resist the relentless encroachment of fossil-fuel companies onto their land.

Heaven’s direct access into their lives allows her to uniquely understand the many hoops residents must jump through simply to access clean air and clean water.

So there we sat on a sunny March afternoon, myself and nine other APPA volunteers, utterly captivated by Heaven’s testimony. She told us stories of how the arrival of fracking sites had led to increased cases of miscarriages or cancer.

WZBC’s 50th Anniversary is past week, BC’s favorite student-run radio station celebrated its 50th anniversary! With a focus on promoting small artists, WZBC has been connecting campus through the power of music since its establishment as an FM station in 1974. e station recently hosted a successful spring concert in O’Connell House, drawing in crowds to support many of BC’s talented student performers. Happy 50th WZBC—we can’t wait to tune in again!

Seize the Semester

e sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and we’re in the calm before the nals storm. From Mod weddings to picnics on the Quad, students have been taking advantage of the nal weeks of the semester to complete their BC bucket lists. Sing your heart out at Modstock, play a muddy game of volleyball on the last day of class, and soak in conversations with your favorite professors. Make sure to study hard for nals, but don’t let any opportunities to seize the day pass you by!

She told us how, despite these health risks, both West Virginia and Pennsylvania’s Departments of Environmental Protection (DEP) do not have jurisdiction to consider health risks when creating environmental regulations. Furthermore, she said, since West Virginia is the most extracted state in the country, its land has been mined for generations, making it nearly impossible to hold present-day coal companies accountable for adverse health impacts because they can easily claim that a previous mining company is responsible for any waste leaks.

Heaven could even personally testify to the restrictive omnipresence of the fossil-fuel industry. She lives on a family farm and told us that due to legislation favoring oil and gas interests, Pennsylvania does not allow community solar projects, making it illegal for her family to power their own farm through a shared solar array.

ese testimonies highlight the deeply entrenched and generational factors that force people throughout Pennsylvania and West Virginia to destroy what they love most about their state to survive: the environment. Heaven perfectly encapsulated this phenomenon: “People always say we love coal. No, we love to eat. We love to put food on the table and keep the lights on.”

Herein lies the true beauty of West Virginia’s continued resilience, despite the immense odds they face. I watched Kaden transform his harsh experience in the mines into genuine laughter as he told us there’s nowhere to go to the bathroom, “so you either go on a cinder block or in a corner!” I saw him speak candidly to groups of strangers about his story and answer even the most ignorant questions with unwavering patience.

en, sure as the Appalachian mountains still stand tall, I watched Heaven speak with absolute conviction as she told us, “ is is a ght I will be ghting for the rest of my life.” With her head held high and her voice steady and strong, I have never met a person so sure of what they know is right and so dedicated to making this world a better place than they found it.

So as Heaven goes door-to-door installing air lters, walks into meeting rooms to push for drafting regulations, and shares her story with 10 students studying at a school hundreds of miles away in Boston, she brings with her the most crucial component of change: hope.

Turkey Takeover

No stroll across BC’s campus is complete without crossing paths with a dozen squirrels and, if you’re unlucky enough, the occasional scurrying rat. But aside from these expected critters, the warm weather and blossoming tulips seem to have attracted a new species to BC’s campus—turkeys! ese territorial birds can be found blocking o staircases, dominating the walkways of Upper Campus, and holding up tra c over in Brighton, redirecting students from their typical routes to class. Let’s hope the turkeys nd a new place to call home so we can enjoy our nal weeks on the Heights undisturbed, but if they don’t we may have to resort to an early anksgiving here in Chestnut Hill.

Losing Streak

After a heartbreaking shutout in the NCAA hockey championship, sports fans thought things couldn’t get any worse. at is until six of BC’s top-scoring men’s basketball players announced their plans to transfer next year. Tough losses for the baseball and softball teams only added to this devastating string of events, sending morale into a downward spiral. is might not have been the best week to be an Eagle, but after an impressive overtime time win, women’s lacrosse proved that we can always count on them!

JENNY HOTCHKISS

EMMBROOKE FLATHER

“What does UGBC even do?”

You’ve probably heard someone ask this question.

While student governments are established to advocate for student needs and create actionable policies, the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) is a constant subject of jokes and slander. But how much can UGBC be blamed for its shortcomings?

Though UGBC maintains consistent success on small-scale issues, its efforts to tackle the larger issues that drive student dialogue are regularly squashed by the administration. As a result, students often misidentify UGBC as a useless body.

Look no further than UGBC’s most recent election. Three out of the four elections were uncontested—most students do not find value in running for UGBC.

The election itself garnered a record-low turnout of 543 student votes— it’s hard to care about an election when it’s uncontested.

But why don’t students care about an organization tasked with allocating a sizable $403,775 budget and fighting for student needs? Because they’ve seen the most passionate and well-reasoned efforts fail.

When Jonah Kotzen, MCAS ’24, and Meghan Heckelman, LSEHD ’25, ran for UGBC president and vice president in 2023, their platform built on pre-existing calls for an LGBTQ+ resource center and renovations to make Upper Campus accessible to people with disabilities—neither of which were achieved within the past year.

But when Heckelman and Katie Garrigan, MCAS ’25, ran this year, their platform was markedly more tame. Having

learned the challenges of implementing grand visions and ambitious plans, the duo acknowledged what University leaders would allow and opted for more pragmatic goals such as improving academic advising, expanding resources in the Connors Family Learning Center, and offering more subsidies for low-income students.

These medium-sized pragmatic steps have characterized UGBC’s efforts over the past year. From the subsidization of laundry costs for Montserrat students to the establishment of the Trans* Collective advocacy group, UGBC’s small victories highlight its contributions to student life.

UGBC recognizes the importance of the larger initiatives and maintains stances on them, but the organization also knows much of the political jockeying that accompanies change involves picking the right battles.

Consider past efforts to make Upper Campus accessible to students with disabilities. After UGBC passed a referendum and resolution calling for Upper Campus accessibility, the University ultimately halted the project due to high costs, blindsiding student leaders. No further University efforts to make Upper Campus accessible have been publicized since.

The conflicting interests of BC and its student body are shown in the absence of an LGBTQ+ resource center on campus. Decades of student proposals have seen nothing but consistent rejection and controversial substitutes.

The University does claim to promote discourse and dialogue.

“As an administration, we must carefully balance the sometimes-competing interests of the institution and its com -

munity to engage in learning, teaching, research and other University-sponsored activities, as well as promote and progress our mission,” Colleen Dallavalle, associate vice president of student engagement and formation, wrote in a statement to The Heights.

Time and time again, the University justifies its inaction with its duty to institutional values—never a simple answer, never a practical explanation, always vague institutional values.

Student governments can be effective and their efforts should not be looked down on as unrealistic—the Boston University Student Government outlined the establishment of an LGBTQ+ resource center as a goal in a November 2022 resolution. By February 2023, BU officially announced the opening of the center.

While the issue of LGBTQ+ support differs at BC because of the administration’s Catholic tension with the subject, BU’s success proves the viability of largescale, student-led change on college campuses. Administrators at similar schools actually implement some of the big ideas their student governments propose.

UGBC’s ability to carry out major action items ultimately relies on BC’s willingness to adjust to an evolving social climate and acknowledge the student needs that have emerged. UGBC accomplishes positive change. While the student body often sees its work as minor, the representatives of BC’s undergraduates do what they can to advance their objectives. In reality, it is the administration’s resistance that leaves large-scale progress stagnant.

ARTS

Swift’s New Album: Insightful, Yet Inconsistent

BY PARKER LEAF Graphics Editor

As Taylor Swift stood onstage at the 2024 Grammy’s to accept her rst award of the night for Best Pop Vocal Album, she thanked her fans with news of a new album: e Tortured Poets Department Swift’s 11th studio album was released on April 19 at midnight, and two hours later to her fans’ surprise, the 16-song album was revealed to be only the rst half. e Tortured Poets Department: e Anthology carried 15 more songs, an overwhelming addition to the night.

As the title suggests, TTPD is a dreamlike album with lyrics reminiscent of poetry. Some lyrics are beautiful and emotional, while others appear childish and even lacking in depth. With a grand total of 31 songs, the album becomes di cult to navigate.

Swift explores themes of fame and a great romantic loss, speculated to be about her six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn—two forms of heartbreak that seem to inform one another.

e rst song of the album, “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, is unfortunately one of only two features on Swift’s 31-song album. Post

Malone contributes to the song with background vocals, but does not add much to the song.

The other feature, “Florida!!!” with Florence + e Machine, beautifully blends the two artists’ vocals, highlighting TTPD’s relative lack of features.

The title track, “The Tortured Poets Department,” is ironically one of the least poetic songs of the album. The song’s melody feels like the perfect opening to the album, even though it is the second track, but the lyrics are rather unpoetic.

“You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate / We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist,” Swift sings.

In the chorus of the song, Swift references poet Dylan omas and songwriter Patti Smith. Swift draws connections between herself and previous famous artists throughout TTPD, illustrating to her listeners the e ect of fame on her internal image.

The final track of her original release, “Clara Bow,” is named after a silent lm actress from the 1920s who rose to fame as a 16-year-old and was named Hollywood’s “It girl.” Swift released her debut album when she was 16, further underscoring the comparison between the two stars.

In addition to Bow, Swift references Stevie Nicks, famous singer and songwriter and an idol to many female singers. All three women rose to stardom just to realize their life was no longer their own. In “ e Lucky One,” Swift portrays this reality of fame.

“And they tell you that you’re lucky, but you’re so confused / ’Cause you don’t feel pretty, you just feel used / And all the young things line up to take your place,” Swift sings.

In the outro of “Clara Bow,” Swift heartbreakingly sings her own name in the same line she sang Bow and Nicks’ names, showing how her life took the same turn as theirs.

“You look like Taylor Swift / In this light / We’re loving it / You’ve got edge she never did / e future’s bright / Dazzling,” Swift sings, as if replying to her younger self who wrote “ e Lucky One.”

Swift and Alwyn’s breakup was made public in April 2023 via Entertainment Tonight, a couple of weeks after e Eras Tour began. Swift’s song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” is a performative, overly-produced song which perfectly captures the smile she was forced to fake for her fans as she dealt with heartbreak. “ ey said, ‘Babe, you gotta fake it ’til you make it’ / And I did,” Swift

sings. e song’s upbeat nature is emphasized by the smile you can hear in Swift’s voice as she sings otherwise self-e acing and disheartening lyrics. The contrast between the melody and the lyrics is clever, re ecting the version of herself she had to project for her fans.

“Breaking down, I hit the oor / All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting ‘More!’” Swift sings.

“But Daddy I Love Him” is speculated to be about Swift’s relationship with Matty Healy from e 1975—a relationship many of Swift’s fans disapproved of because of his problematic reputation.

e title of the song is a quote from e Little Mermaid and also parallels a line from e Notebook Both movies rea rm the message

that although Swift does not appreciate the outside opinions about her love life, her fame doesn’t grant her the privacy to avoid them.

“I’ll tell you something ’bout my good name / It’s mine alone to disgrace / I don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empath’s clothing,” Swift sings. Swift’s fth tracks of her albums are known to be the most devastating and vulnerable songs. Previous albums’ fth tracks include “All Too Well,” “Dear John,” “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” and now on TTPD, “So Long, London.” e signi cance behind “So Long, London” is deeper than just its numerical placement in her album.

Read

Irausquin: This Year’s MarMon Fashion Trends

BY ALEXANDRA IRAUSQUIN Heights Staff

Boston College students ooded the Mod Lot for T-Pain and lined the sides of Commonwealth Ave. decked out in creative outfits to celebrate Marathon Monday. Let’s take a look at the trends for this year’s Mile 21 festivities.

As with every previous year, a macro trend that was impossible to miss was neon. Students wore hot pink, electric blue, and bright orange in a variety of di erent ways. Many wore neon leggings or athletic skirts paired with bright accessories making for a perfect blend of comfort and style. Others embraced neon with ’80s-inspired jackets and hairstyles. e neon color scheme paired perfectly with the warm spring day and the adrenaline coursing through Chestnut Hill as students cheered on runners.

Another fashion pattern was sports jerseys. My favorite variation of this look was any jersey for a Boston team, as it kept with the Marathon’s spirit of celebrating athleticism in Boston.

Hats were paired with outfits that incorporated both of the previously mentioned trends. A classic baseball cap was an extremely popular accessory for Marathon Monday this year. Many were decorated with grafti-style text making up phrases to celebrate the day, including “Marmon” and “Mile 21.”

Others simply had creative puns or jokes on them. Apart from being a fun accessory, hats were extremely practical this year. I de nitely found myself wishing I had chosen to wear one while trying to block the sun from my eyes during T-Pain’s set.

Speaking of T-Pain, I de nitely saw my fair share of T-Pain-themed out ts. From song lyrics to creative plays on his name, the Marmon rapper was definitely present in students’ out ts. My personal favorite was a T-shirt that spelled out “T-Pain” as the solution of the Wordle.

Another trend I wasn’t surprised to see make an appearance was Western-style clothing. Cowboy hats, boots, and denim were extremely pop-

ular fashion choices. People de nitely got creative with this. I saw many custom cowboy hats decorated with feathers, different colors, and even a picture of T-Pain. Another out t I loved was full denim including a vest, jean shorts, and even denim cowboy boots. e Western-style manifested in prints as well. I saw cow-print pants, skirts, and tops on numerous occasions.

Another trend featured American ags as the centerpiece of many outfits. Many wore American-flag print matching sets. I also saw a number of ags being worn as capes. My personal favorite variation of this out t was the full-body unitard with an American- ag print.

I noticed a novel common theme running through the group costumes this year: food. From the moment I stepped outside I was met with foodthemed costumes. In fact, the first group I saw was a group of over 10 dressed up as bananas. ere were also multiple groups dressed as condiments in matching branded t-shirts or pullover costumes.

Part of the reason I think this was such a popular costume is because of how easy it is to achieve in a big group. I mean, the more bananas you see walking around, the funnier the costume. Two out ts especially stood out this year. e rst was the group that painted themselves gold from head to toe. Both the dedication to the out t and the nod to BC’s colors made it the perfect costume for Marathon Monday. eir look was impossible to miss and easily my favorite of the entire day. A close second has to go to the girl who dressed as JoJo Siwa. So many

people joked about doing it, but I appreciate that someone actually followed through. I was surprised there weren’t more costumes like this referencing other pop-culture elements. I would de nitely love to see more of that next year.

Overall, the student body’s colorful and creative out ts added to the vibrant celebration of the Boston Marathon. From ashes of neon to Siwa, there was no lack of spirit anywhere on campus. Seeing what everyone put together already has me thinking of di erent elements to incorporate into my out t for next year. n

Kase: Why ‘Sex and the City’ is a Must-Watch

BY ISABEL KASE Heights Staff

Sex and the City has stood the test of time through movies, spino s, and reboots. e world simply can’t get enough of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda and the female archetypes they represent.

Despite the show disguising itself as a light-hearted show about, well, sex and the city, it’s an essential watch for women in college because of the realistic portrayals of everyday

problems that aren’t always represented properly on television.

It’s always a fun conversation to ask your friends which of the core four girls you’re most like.

Are you fashionable, creative, and erratic like Carrie? Are you poised, classy, and a hopeless romantic like Charlotte? Are you career-driven, confident, and adventurous like Samantha? Or are you sarcastic, organized, and loyal like Miranda? I rst watched the show because my older sister was watching it, and

it immediately sucked me in. e distinguished out ts, the clubs, the restaurants, the apartments, and the glamor build a compelling aesthetic for the show.

More importantly, the honesty with which the characters are written is what makes Sex and the City so universal and relatable.

While the show is great eye candy due to the aforementioned reasons, the most important aspect of the show lies within the dialogue between the friend group and Carrie’s narration and weekly column.

Watching this show alone lets you reflect on your own life and also escape it for a moment, but watching it with a friend opens up conversations and “aha” moments that uncover the true importance of the show.

While bedazzling my Marathon Monday out t, my best friend Josie Welch and I were lying on the oor with the show on in the background.

In Season 1, Episode 2, “Models

and Mortals,” Mr. Big says: “ ere are so many goddamn gorgeous women out there in this city. But the thing is, after a while, you just wanna be with the one that makes you laugh.”

Josie and I have both had our fair share of failed romantic experiences, and when relationships or situationships end, you always feel like there’s something wrong with you, even if it ended amicably. ere always seems to be that feeling of doubt that sneaks up on you when you’re getting ready to go out and you think to yourself, “Was it because I wasn’t pretty enough? Did he nd someone better looking?”

Mr. Big, my personal favorite of Carrie’s love interests, offers a reassuring insight when it comes to what men really think. It isn’t just about what we might be tempted to tell ourselves: Personality is more important in the long run.

Not only does Sex and the City provide genuinely useful advice, but it also rea rms a lot of the feelings

young women have. Specifically, the show portrays the many silly obsessions us women have, such as paranoia after not getting a text back or overthinking about what we’re wearing.

Seeing people on television have the same real-life insigni cant problems we have provides a sense of comfort in the idea that we are not the only ones. Not every problem we face is Game of rones level, so we obviously can’t apply such solutions.

I think the age gap is another element that adds to the show’s signi cance. While the women in Sex and the City are in their early-to-mid 30s in Season 1, and I’m 19, seeing women in their 30s still struggling with body image, men, and work shows me it’s normal to not have everything perfectly gured out, and I probably never will—and that’s okay.

SPORTS

“They just needed to be a little bit more disruptive and less reactive than we have been in the past,” Walker-Weinstein said. “And they did exactly that and that’s what it takes.”

e Eagles battled back immediately with long possessions leading to goals from Belle Smith and Molly Driscoll to take a 2–1 lead. But the Orange responded just as quickly with two goals in 1:57 from Emma Tyrrell and Emma Ward to close the quarter with a 3–2 lead.

e Eagles were unable to capitalize on early possessions in the second and after a turnover by Kayla Martello, Emma Muchnick found Adamson alone in front of the net who put it over Dolce’s head to make it 4–2.

“It’s a good zone,” Walker-Weinstein said. “ ey run the best zone in the country.”

Weeks got one back for the Eagles with a bounce shot through Delaney Sweitzer’s legs, but just 48 seconds later Natalie Smith dodged Ryan Smith and red the ball into the net, restoring Syracuse’s two-goal lead. e Eagles ine ciency in the o ensive zone continued throughout the second quarter. Turnovers, missed shots, and shots straight at Sweitzer left BC with just three goals at the end of the second quarter.

“I think the o ense actually was working,” Walker-Weinstein said. “It’s

just we got to continue to focus on shooting. If we put some of those early shots away, we would have been ne.”

It was a similar story for Syracuse with BC’s defense forcing ve turnovers, collecting ve ground balls, and only giving up two goals in the second quarter. According to Sydney Scales, BC’s emphasis on one-on-one defense led to its success defending Syracuse.

“We focus a lot on our one v. one defense, and I think that was something we executed,” Scales said. “ at was the backbone.”

Weeks took advantage of the player-up advantage early in the third quarter to slip along the goal line and cut to the top of the crease, ring a goal over Sweitzer’s head to cut the Orange’s lead to one.

e Eagles continued pushing. Rachel Clark made a quick pass to Martello who spun around her defender and whipped it low into the net, tying the game at 5–5. Belle Smith then added a third to cap a three-goal run to open the half for the Eagles.

“We’ve been talking a lot about resilience,” Walker-Weinstein said. “We have such a dominant senior class that I think they’ve just been in those moments before.”

After the Orange took the lead at the end of the third, Weeks continued her stellar play for the Eagles, nding Clark driving right down the middle who snuck it under the bar to tie it 1:13 into the fourth quarter.

“I mean, even going down like that we always know we have a ght, we’re always in the game,” Weeks said.

BY NICK FURSEY Heights Staff

In the bottom of the fourth inning of Boston College baseball’s matchup against Notre Dame on Sunday afternoon, the Irish’s Carson Tinney stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and a 8–0 cushion.

On the 1–1 pitch by Eric Schroeder, the ball flew over the outside part of the plate, where it met the bat of Tinney, who obliterated the ball the other way—well over the right eld wall. Tinney’s grand slam summed up a weekend of frustration and mistakes for the Eagles.

BC (20–19, 7–14 Atlantic Coast) fell in both Saturday and Sunday’s game against rival Notre Dame (20–18, 5–16), due to both poor pitching and cold bats.

e Fighting Irish stormed out the gate in the bottom of the rst inning of Sunday’s game.

Estevan Moreno jumped on a fastball hanging over the plate, sending the ball well over the center eld wall for a two-run home run.

Immediately after Moreno, Simon Baumgardt crushed a solo home run of his own to right eld against BC starter A.J. Colarusso, providing Notre Dame with an early 3–0 advantage.

In the second inning, the situ-

ation continued to worsen for BC. Notre Dame scored its fourth run of the game on a elder’s choice, and for the second time in the game, Moreno blasted a two-run home run, extending the Irish’s lead to six runs.

While BC’s pitching continued to struggle, its offense struggled even more.

Through three innings, the only o ensive progress the Eagles achieved was through Adam Magpoc, who was hit by a pitch in the rst inning and walked in the third inning.

Through stellar pitching the entire afternoon, Tobey McDonough, Rory Fox, Sammy Cooper, and Will Jacobsen held BC to zero hits for the game—by far the Eagles’ weakest o ensive performance of the season.

And after BC nally pitched a clean inning without allowing a run in the third inning, the wheels completely fell o for the Eagles in the bottom of the fourth.

With Schroeder pitching for BC, Jack Penney hit a lead-o home run that increased the lead to 7–0 for the Irish.

ree batters later, Tito Flores hit a scorching double to left eld, giving Notre Dame another run.

Tinney put the nail into BC’s co n with a grand slam later in the inning, putting the Irish in front by 12 runs.

An RBI single from Penney closed out a seven-run inning.

Although the Eagles’ pitching improved drastically over the next

three innings, the game ended in the seventh inning as a result of the NCAA’s run rule, and BC su ered a 13–0 defeat to Notre Dame and a series sweep.

Saturday’s game between the two teams wasn’t any di erent.

BC struck the rst blow in the top of the rst inning by virtue of a Kyle Wol ground ball that scored Magpoc.

The lead was short lived, though, as Notre Dame responded with a urry in the bottom of the rst.

David Glancy crushed a tworun home run to right eld to put Notre Dame on top.

Baumgardt and Flores each tallied an RBI in the inning to extend the Irish lead to 4–1.

Still, BC responded in the third inning through a Magpoc home run to right eld and a Vince Cimini RBI to cut Notre Dame’s lead to one.

Notre Dame’s offense, however, proved too much to handle for the Eagles in the third and fth innings.

Brady Gumpf provided the Irish a three-run cushion with a two-run homer to center eld in the third inning.

In the fth, TJ Williams, Glancy, and Penney each hit RBI singles to stretch the lead to 9–3.

Magpoc’s second RBI of the game in the seventh inning was not enough to gain any momentum, and BC fell to Notre Dame 9–4.

Throughout the three-game series, the Irish outscored the Eagles 36–7. n

“Everytime we went back in, it was just you gotta climb out.”

Savannah Sweitzer gave the Orange the lead 10–9 after rolling around to the front of the net, barely avoiding the crease line, but Clark came up with the tying goal with 1:27 remaining, streaking down the middle and bouncing it into the net sending it to overtime.

“We knew there were some weaknesses around the crease,” Clark said. “We have such dynamic crease players and we have such great cutters up top so we wanted to keep the ball low and look for the streaking cutters down the middle.”

Dolce came up with a point-blank save on Natalie Smith in the rst possession of overtime, giving the Eagles a chance to win the game.

Emma LoPinto found Weeks cutting through the middle who, while surrounded by three defenders, put it in the bottom right corner, winning the game for the Eagles 11–10.

“We ran through the whole play, and then were just being athletes after,” Weeks said. “ at’s a play that me and Emma have been practicing all year, so it was so easy in the moment to nish it.”

e win for the Eagles gives them extra con dence that they can work with as they head toward their ultimate goal, according to Walker-Weinstein. “ e con dence is going to help them work a little bit harder which is what we’re going to need heading into the tournament,” Walker-Weinstein said.

BY JONAS WEINMANN Heights Staff

In the bottom of the fth inning Gator Robinson stepped up to the plate. Despite playing sound defense at shortstop throughout the game, Robinson was 0–2 at the plate with a groundout and swinging strikeout, as she went up to bat for a third time.

With the bases loaded and two outs, Boston College softball was down 5–3, looking for a spark.

Four pitches later, though, Florida State was running to the bench after Robinson struck out looking. It seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for the Eagles, who did not score another run and let the Seminoles run away with the game.

In front of a packed crowd at Harrington Athletics Village, the contrast between the two o enses decided the game.

Despite an initial burst of o ense from the Eagles (25–19, 5–13 Atlantic Coast), they faltered down the stretch as the Seminoles (36–10, 15–3) continued their o ensive dominance to beat the Eagles 10–3 and sweep the Eagles in the weekend series.

The Seminoles started off the scoring early, notching a two-run home run in the rst inning thanks to freshman Jaysoni Beachum. BC’s Halie Pappion limited the damage by forcing two consecutive strikeouts and a y out. e Eagles failed to respond in the bottom of the rst and were shut down by the Seminoles.

A scoreless second inning saw su ocating defense from both teams, highlighted by a leaping grab by Robinson at shortstop, who then threw out Hallie Wacaser at rst base from the ground.

The third inning saw the Seminoles add to their total, as FSU’s Isa Torres’ sacri ce RBI sent Kaley Mudge home. But after BC catcher Hannah

Slike caught a foul ball that soared behind her head, as well as a ground out to rst base, the Eagles escaped the third down by three. Slike helped the Eagles o ensively in the third, as her single through the right side sent Katelyn Deguire home and put the Eagles on the board for the rst time.

Nicole Giery tied the ballgame with a two-run homer over the left eld wall. As her teammates surrounded Giery at home plate, it seemed that the momentum had shifted toward the Eagles. A Robinson strikeout, however, soon ended the inning.

A double from Mudge in the top of the fourth that sent Katie Dack and Devyn Flaherty through home plate put the pressure on the Eagles to respond.

Despite an unsuccessful effort from Jordan Stephens to complete an inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the fourth inning and a bases-loaded chance in the bottom of the fth, BC could not convert.

The Seminoles took advantage of the Eagles’ inability to convert and scored ve more runs in the top of the sixth inning to put them up 10–3. An onslaught of hits from four di erent Seminoles and a home run from Dack put the Eagles in a hole they could not recover from.

e Eagles could only muster one more hit in the last two innings, and as Giery grounded out to third base in the bottom of the seventh, the Eagles recorded their sixth straight loss, all to ranked opponents.

Saturday’s match between the two teams saw a similar result, but a di erent process.

e Eagles got on the board rst by the end of the rst inning, scoring one run off a homer from lead-off hitter Slike. BC held on to this one-run advantage up until the last inning, when the Seminoles scored four runs to take the lead.

n PAUL CRIADO / HEIGHTS STAFF

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