The Heights Centennial, November 19, 2019

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Tuesday, November 19, 2019

The Heights

Letter From The Editor: Media Landscape Changes, ‘Heights’ Mission Remains

By Steven R. Everett

Editor-in-Chief

I’ve read just about every Heights retrospective ever written in our archives. This newspaper has never shied away from an opportunity to inform its readers on its founding, history, and constant state of change. In the ’90s, someone even wrote a Heights thesis that still sits on my desk. While most editors don’t (and shouldn’t) spend that long thinking about this organization, our predecessors have worked tirelessly to preserve our history.

The 60th, 75th, and 90th anniversary issues were masterfully put together.

They included the storied founding of the organization by John D. Ring, BC ’20, and Rev. Peter V. Masterson, S.J. who served as the first “moderator” of the paper. But as excellent as these issues were, none of them were particularly future oriented. The 1945 look back iteration, for example, explained that unlike in the 30’s, The Heights reduced its circulation to a biweekly schedule because of World War II. That column ends abruptly, leaving the reader lingering on the image of a “dream of departed glory that will return again.”

Others are more lighthearted. They contain interviews with old Heights editors who recall nights that regularly stretched to 1 and 2 a.m. in McElroy 113 (our current space), O’Connell House, or 66 Commonwealth Ave. In the ’70s, we were briefly without a space after being kicked off campus after a few editors allegedly bugged and published the transcript of a Board of Trustees meeting. We found tmeporary homes in the corner of the UGBC office and an editor’s apartment in Cleveland Circle.

Earlier this fall, some of those same editors were among the 125 Heights alumni who gathered to celebrate the organization that defined their college experiences and beyond. Alumni who had not seen each other in decades met up with friends as if they just left a production, recounting old hijinks and stories of another BC era. Some are still in the industry at a time when the work of a journalist is more ridiculed, questioned, and ignored than it has been in recent memory. These alumni made The Heights what it is today, and as we move forward, they will be absolutely essential to our continued success.

There was never a plan for today’s

THE LEFT: Front page of The Heights, Volume 1, Number 1. This reproduction is the same size as the original six-by-nine inch, fourpage booklet that, at the time, was the smallest college newspaper to be printed.

RIGHT, TOP: The first masthead does not yet show positions of Heights editors. John Ring, BC ’20, would become the first editor-in-chief, and serve for both 1919 and 1920. Ring also played briefly on the BC football team, and became an insurance lawyer after graduation. Most of his grandchildren still live in Massachusetts.

RIGHT, MIDDLE: “About Ourselves” was the first editorial pubished by The Heights, and laid out the newspaper’s mission for Boston College and the student body.

BOTTOM: Heights mastheads from 1950, 1920, 1941, 2004, and 1987.

Centennial Issue to be the definitive history of the organization, both because we’d need a few hundred more pages, and because it’s been done before. While you’ll find annotated clippings throughout this insert of defining moments in our history, most of the writing comes from current editors who bring some insight about recent developments in their sections, and how they expect them to change in the future.

College newspapers are slow to adapt to changes in the media industry.

Perhaps that’s because many college papers rely on their respective schools for funding, leaving influential decisions beyond the reach of young journalists.

But independent newspapers such as The Heights cannot easily shake founding traditions, either. We printed twice per week until 2017, a time when only 5 percent of American adults considered a print newspaper their main source of news. Most of our print editions were in the hands of professors, not students.

This has left everyone in college media wondering about the value of the print product, and to what extent a print paper has shifted from necessity to novelty. It’s a terrifying question to editors who must straddle the line

between our love of print deadlines, process ink, and the thrill of seeing our names on something other than a screen. But these considerations don’t exist in a vacuum. Beyond our day-today or even year-to-year concerns, the mission of The Heights remains.

In “About Ourselves,” the humbly named inaugural Heights editorial copied below this letter, the founding editors wrote that The Heights “can be no respecter of persons amidst the student body, it can only serve an ideal—For a Greater Boston College. Hence, no single individual can be greater than the ideal for the attainment of which this paper is founded, nor can his personal considerations ever be allowed to obstruct the application of the fearless principles upon which The Heights is launched. The paper will live up to the purity and ruggedness of its name.”

As The Heights enters its second century, we will continue to use these timeless principles to keep us moving forward. Perhaps the greatest enemy of progress for any college organization is time: At most, our editors have just over three years of their college experience to give to the organization.

That stretch of time stands in the face

of changes that require months or years of planning, thinking, and doing that could never be accomplished during any one editor’s tenure on the paper. In this next century, it should be the goal of The Heights to always remember how much larger the organization is than any single editor, board, or decade. *** That all being said, there is one (short) story I’ll tell in full. In 1920, Gasson Hall was still the “Recitation Building”; The Heights wouldn’t suggest its current name for another few decades. May of that year might have been a slow month for news, as the front-page story from the May 21 issue covered trees being planted outside the building. Of the 27 newly planted linden trees, a few were “dedicated to some organization or activity closely connected with Boston College.” John Ring, The Heights’ first editor, was selected to plant the one dedicated to The Heights. The article included no pictures or indication as to which tree was which, but presumably, it’s still there.

And so are we.

Steven R. Everett, Editor-in-Chief 101st Board of The Heights

HEIGHTS For a Greater Boston College - Independent since 1970

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CENTENNIAL

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Tuesday, November 19, 2019

The Heights

Following the Story After the Story: News Then and News Now

By Jack Miller

News Editor

The very first issue of The Heights reads like an inside joke in the best way possible. The articles were nominally the same as today’s—fanfare over a big football win, coverage of the University president’s address— but something about this front page makes you feel like it was written by someone in the know, for someone in the know. The tone, casual and friendly, assured the reader that the editors behind the words are fellow students. In short, these early copies carried the voice of a community that had no other means of mass communication.

Today, the voice of the community has expanded to other channels: Twitter, student organizations’ group chats, the Facebook meme page. This change isn’t unique to Boston College or The Heights, of course—we’ve all heard that everyone with a smartphone can be a journalist these days, and in some ways, it’s true. But as members of the BC community, writing about that community, for that community, being a home for that voice is important. When graduates cross the stage at Commencement in May, do they see their experiences reflected on our pages? We are, after all, student-journalists—not that we go to class—and the subjects of our

articles live in our dorms, sit next to us in class, and stand behind us in the Eagle’s panini line. What is The Heights if not a place for their memories to be represented?

In my time with the paper, I’ve seen the news section operate at its full potential when editors look around and ask students what they are experiencing so they can find a place for them the page. Sometimes, our articles come from our own entrepreneurship or from keeping track of perennial storylines (did someone say another lawsuit involving BC?). Occasionally, we break news and spark a conversation on campus. But our best reporting happens when people feel like they can open up to us with their stories or when an administrator responds to a long-shot interview request.

This isn’t to say that the democratization of the news has forced our coverage to become reactionary. After all, 2017’s “Silence is Still Violence” march warranted more than one article, so we interviewed student leaders and administrators about DiversityEdu and the student experience survey—both responses to students’ demands—and a few months later, we interviewed them again. We didn’t stop our coverage of graduate students’ fight to unionize with the latest National Labor Relations Board ruling. Instead we covered the status of labor rights at

colleges nationally. We weren’t satisfied with hearing about the general plans for the Schiller Institute, so we spoke to department chairs from every corner of campus to see what they were excited to see come of it.

This task—writing the story after the first story, and then the story after that one—has become even more important in a time when the news passes around campus like the world’s most convoluted game of telephone. And as the paper of record for BC (Heights editors, self-important? Never!), we don’t just have the responsibility to follow these storylines for contemporary readers, but the opportunity to preserve them for future audiences.

Over the past decade, we’ve continuously covered the conversation surrounding mental health as the topic expanded and fully entered the campus consciousness. In 2016, we published “Walk the Line,” a 10,000word look at the progress and setbacks of the LGBTQ+ community on campus. Earlier this year, we scoured our archives to assemble a timeline on black history at BC, with input from the students, activists, and professors who helped shape it.

These are the stories of BC, yes, but they’re stories that are playing out across the country, on campuses, and in workplaces.

The point I’m trying to make isn’t that the digital age has forced us to

play catch-up all the time. Journalism at BC hasn’t been dealt a death blow by Twitter or smartphones—if anything, we now have more power than ever to sift through the voices of the BC community and find the perspectives we might have missed otherwise.

Keeping that mission in mind is difficult. A lot of stuff happens on this campus—in the past month we’ve written about two completely unrelated protests, a grand jury indictment, and the Irish Republican Army—and all that day-to-day activity can cloud the big picture.

Although we’d love to be The New York Times—and boy do we try to be—we’re much more part of the community we write about, and that’s great.

By my estimate, we’re approaching the 3,000th edition of The Heights to ever hit the newstands, which also means that there have only been 3,000 attempts at telling the stories of BC because The Heights does something that nobody else can do.

We have a bigger audience than ever before. Students, alumni, parents, and even other news outlets make the choice to consult our reporting on all sorts of news, big and small. Our coverage has raised discussion among both long-gone alumni on social media and current students in dining halls. Thousands

of people open our twice-a-week newsletter almost immediately after we send it.

As I write, I’m looking at some recent front pages and wondering what some far-future news editor will think about what will then be the Days of Old at BC. Will that editor see in our current pages the same sense of togetherness that I saw in issue No.1? I hope that the answer is yes—that our pages have saved the cultural touchstones and the inside jokes that make BC unlike the dozen-or-so other schools in the area. The challenge in the coming years will be to write for our growing audience—which in previous years couldn’t access The Heights without coming to campus—while continuing to preserve the voice of the student body, as we’ve aimed to do since that very first issue.

Writing for The Heights in 2019 comes with the realization that the nature of the news has changed. We must seek out the voices of our peers and encourage the discussion of the news by chasing follow-up article after follow-up article. Civic engagement is a virtue, albeit one we might not typically associate with campus life. Rather than compete with the democratization of the news, we can try to use it to be the voice of the community—now no longer limited to the confines of our pages—for a greater Boston College.

With the Rise of Social Media, Informed Opinions Still Vital

By Maddie Haddix

Opinions Editor

The thing about opinions is that people don’t need you as a newspaper to form them—they already have their own.

The other thing about opinions is that they never completely come from an 1,000-word news article. No one’s opinion is based solely on the bare-bones facts of what has happened. Our opinions are shaped by so many factors from our overall life experiences: from gender to socioeconomic status to race to sexual orientation to education to values to the places and countries we’re from to the groups with which we identify.

There is a deal of sorts any newspaper and its audience. We deliver the truth, as near as we can get. Readers, using the information we publish synthesize their own opinions about that truth.

Editorials are the opinions of the board. Our editorials are no more or less valid than any other opinion. What makes our editorials different from your average Twitter take is that we do our best to inform ourselves and to contextualize our stance, which is more important than ever in 2019. Our editorials today are very different than they were even 10 years ago,

both in form and function.

As student-journalists, it is our duty to the Boston College community to report objectively across campus. In doing this, we hear a lot of different points of view from students and faculty, on-campus organizations ,and University administrators. Additionally, editors spend hours—to the tune of 30 hours a week— reporting on what matters to students. This provides editorial board members with a more comprehensive understanding of BC. Today, in order to disseminate an opinion online, being well-informed is not always a prerequisite. All you need is a social media account and Wi-Fi. Publishing anything, especially opinions, is much different than it was even 10 years ago—back then, if your opinion was to be considered by a large audience, you had to write for a larger, reputable publisher. No one was going to read some column randomly written by a person with limited credentials.

Printing words and distributing them en masse is expensive (ask our business team). By and large, uninformed opinions could not be spread on a large scale because there was no other way to distribute your writing unless you had

the requisite financial backing.

Enter social media.

Writing this column is quite odd because it feels as if I’m writing about a bygone era. While the above was true a decade ago, the media landscape has changed drastically in so few years. In 2019, anyone can share their own opinions on a mass-scale in fewer than 280 characters quite easily.

This new phenomenon is a double-edged sword. These opinions are not subject to editorial approval from reputable press, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Often, people point to this and say that the Internet has made steps toward democratizing discourse.

It has—and this is good. Women, and people of color, for example, haven’t always had the opportunity to voice their opinions in such a capacity. Getting your opinion published required a degree of privilege that the vast majority of Americans did not have.

Now, anyone can share an opinion quite easily, which is simultaneously fascinating and scary. This is not a true democracy of ideas—such a system would imply a fairness about the Internet. Fairness and equality aren’t always one and the same. When truly anyone can share an opinion, that means that extremist views

are now shared alongside mainstream ones. There isn’t always an easy way to tell which ones are based on fact and which ones are manipulative or misleading.

Opinions that have been carefully researched sit right alongside ones that are angrily typed out during an 8 a.m. cheeseburger break.

Maybe that’s too abstract—we are a college paper. But what if it’s not? The Heights is here to keep the University accountable, foster student discourse, and train future journalists. Our editorials offer an informed opinion on BC issues, and, more importantly, it is our hope that our editorials can engage students in the BC community.

Previous Heights editorials called for what would later become UGBC. We named Gasson Hall. We suggested our mascot be the Eagles. Following Pearl Harbor, we declared that BC students acknowledged and were ready to undertake necessary sacrifices.

We called out the University for canceling a GLBT Dance in 2005.

I’ve been proud of the editorials we’ve produced throughout the past year. I’m proud of the ones previous opinions editors have published. It has nothing to do with them coinciding with my

personal opinion—I’m proud of these editorials because they are an informed view for BC students to consider.

The way opinions are published by major media outlets will continue to change. I very much doubt that what is in print will matter as much as what is published online. However these opinions change, both from The Heights and other publications, vetted, factually-accurate opinions will be displayed on Facebook and Twitter right next to ones that are not. Citizens in a democracy will need to be able to tell the difference between those in order to know which ones they should seriously consider.

The Heights will continue to provide an informed opinion through some form of an editorial, regardless of what turn media takes next. Just two years ago, The Heights printed twice a week, and a digital-only publication could occur sooner than later—point being, media changes rapidly. One thing that will remain constant is our responsibility to publish an informed opinion and voice the organization’s beliefs to the BC community. It will be up to future Heights board members to decide how to weigh that opinion, both at BC and beyond.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

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While Adapting Digitally, ‘Heights’ Sports Adheres to Print Standards

By Andy Backstrom Managing Editor

Boston College football has another week to prepare for the Holy War, a rivalry that looks vastly different today than it did in 1975.

BC has defeated the Fighting Irish nine times in program history, none more memorable than the then-No. 12 Eagles’ 41-39 victory on Nov. 21, 1993. Notre Dame orchestrated a 22-point comeback in the final 11 minutes of regulation to take the lead before BC kicker David Gordon drilled a game-winning 41-yard field goal as time expired to beat the top-ranked Irish.

The Eagles were featured on the Nov. 29, 1993 cover of Sports Illustrated. But before that, they were on the front page of The Heights.

BC’s upset win was the centerpiece of The Heights sports section on Nov. 22, with the headline “THERE IS A GOD! AND HE’S WEARING MAROON AND GOLD…” Twenty-six years later, the section remains the source of record for all of BC’s major varsity sports, equipped with informative and entertaining content and, of course, headlines with wordplay—week after week.

Heights sports has produced some of the organization’s most notable alumni. Bob Ryan, BC ’68, went on to become The Boston Globe’s Celtics beat writer one year after graduating before ultimately establishing himself as one of the more renowned columnists in sports journalism. Then there’s Mike Lupica, BC ’74, who ended up working as a columnist at the New York Daily News for four decades, all while publishing a number of sports and young adult books.

And, of course, Lesley Visser, BC ’75, became both the first female NFL beat writer and the first female NFL television analyst, in addition to covering events broadcasted worldwide, such as the Olympics, World Series, NBA Finals, and Super Bowl.

Since then, a handful of other Heights sports alums have made a name for themselves in media, each motivated by the last. Interested in pursuing a career in journalism or not, Heights sports editors have all shared a passion for BC sports, as well as a drive to tell the stories of the University’s finest athletes.

They’ve continually reflected on the paper’s past work and used it as a source of inspiration for new ideas.

And that’s more true in 2019 than ever before.

Since 2010, Heights sports has incorporated many of the same print components from year to year. For instance, sections such as “Editor’s Picks,” “Sports in Short,” “Scoreboard”—a significant part of the section’s makeup in the 2010s—existed up until the past two years. The scoreboard boxes, notebook-gamer splits, and point-counterpoint graphics are all either identical in design or very similar.

That said, with improving technology and an ever-evolving board structure, the section has placed a larger emphasis on design, leading to enhanced cover pages and much-improved layout. But the coverage—which mostly consists of news stories, gamers, notebooks, features, and columns—remains just as objective and engaging as ever.

Amid this 10-year span, however, Heights sports has transformed dramatically online—both on bcheights.com and on social media. Each year, the section has increased its web content, shifting to more of an online focus and even experimenting with multimedia, while still keeping an eye out for print every week.

During the past three years in particular, Heights sports has started churning out daily content that strays from typical print coverage.

Whether it’s publishing ACC Power Rankings for football and basketball, previews for high-profile games on campus, season reviews for all of the major varsity sports, or graphic-based analytical breakdowns, the section is constantly finding new ways to draw readers in online. After all, that’s where most of our readers are, especially after The Heights returned to a once-aweek printing schedule in 2017.

Today, managing social media is one of the most important jobs that a Heights sports editor has, and that part of the job has existed for only a handful of years. With the rise of Facebook and Twitter, it has become imperative for the section—more so than others on the paper—to extend beyond the confines of the website and our normal on-campus print circulation.

All stories are written, edited, and uploaded to the site with a sense of urgency, knowing that it’s somewhat of a race to beat the other outlets covering BC Athletics, even the popular aggregate-based blogs. After publishing articles online, the section posts all its stories to Twitter and those that are most newsworthy on Facebook, hoping to draw engagement from our following. This involves a sect of journalism that was previously untapped by The Heights—teaser writing, Facebook debugging, and Twitter card validating.

Although the print product is important, and the section’s editors remain in the office until Sunday night every week perfecting headlines, captions, and spacing, what is published online—and how it is presented—is what defines Heights sports in 2019. The incorporation of GIFs, photo galleries, videos, and graphics has made stories more visually appealing than ever before.

Not to mention that the section’s social media presence increases by the day.

The Heights sports Twitter account is verified and, at the moment, has close to 3,600 followers.

Each year, it’s up to the section to modify the look and brand of the account to reflect the changing times.

When I was in charge of the section in 2018, we changed The Heights sports logo and cover photo, displaying a handful of the section’s most recent print designs. For the better half of the decade, the section’s editors have created and constantly updated their own individual Twitter accounts, becoming insiders among the BC community for in-game and post-game coverage, not to mention injury and team roster updates. Twitter followers expect daily Heights sports content, in addition to the voices behind the articles.

Providing commentary on Twitter every day can be taxing, but it’s the direction journalism is going—

other college papers function the same exact way. What’s interesting, though, is how each sports section, Heights sports included, has integrated its print content online.

Tweeting out screenshots of the print design and promoting the issue is common, as is converting print-specific content to the website. So even though the section’s focus is online, its attachment to print has hardly disappeared.

There’s no denying that Heights sports is drastically different than it was 100, 50, and even 10 years ago.

If you look at the print product, you’ll notice enhancements in just about every regard. But if you turn to social media and bcheights.com, you’ll find a completely different section—one that competes on a day-to-day basis with The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald to curate the best BC sports content in the area.

Heights sports still covers every major varsity sporting event on and off-campus, features the University’s best and brightest athletes, and opines about BC’s athletic programs that demand both praise and criticism. In the past six years alone, the section has reported on some of the more monumental moments in BC Athletics history.

Football recorded its inaugural Red Bandana victory over a top-10 USC team and made its second-ever appearance on College GameDay. Baseball stitched together a run to the NCAA Super Regional. Women’s hockey started 40-0 before suffering a brutal National Championship loss. Lacrosse made three straight ill-fated trips to the national title game. Men’s basketball produced two NBA guards in Jerome Robinson and Ky Bowman. And BC hired its first black Director of Athletics, Martin Jarmond. Heights sports has been there to cover it all.

The section goes above and beyond to provide the most accurate and comprehensive coverage, even traveling to road games when the budget is tighter than ever.

While logistically difficult, driving 10-plus hours to Charlottesville and Blacksburg, Va., spending nights in a Summer Camp cabin and Sorority House, publishing stories in Burger Kings and a random Boston Market off the Mass Turnpike, and aimlessly wandering around to find various press boxes and media suites across the country is what makes this job so memorable. We do it all to the tune of a 24-hour news cycle.

Two years ago, Heights sports covered another upset of a No. 1 team. BC men’s basketball took down undefeated Duke on Dec. 9, 2017. The Heights delivered—but unlike 1993, the content didn’t have to wait till press time. Live tweeting the game, posting footage of the court storming, and filing the first version of the gamer as soon as the buzzer sounded was an expectation, not a novelty.

Nevertheless, the section has stuck to its roots during this digital shift. Each section head passes down the style guide, templates, and traditions from years prior, ensuring a consistency that makes Heights sports special. No one editor is redesigning the section—they’re building on what was created before them. And that’s something that will never change.

SPORTS

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

A9 @HEIGHTSSPORTS

FOOTBALL

KANSAS 48

BOSTON COLLEGE 24

Quarterback Carter Stanley led Kansas past BC, which was held scoreless in the second half and stunned on its home turf.

BY BRADLEY SMART Sports Editor It was Friday the 13th, and, well, Boston College football sure had a nightmare of a game. Despite entering the primetime matchup with Kansas as 21-point favorites, the Eagles turned in a night-and-day performance from the previous two weeks and were absolutely shredded by the Jayhawks, who handed BC a stunning 48-24 loss—ending Kansas’ 48-game road losing streak to Power Five opponents in the process.

The Eagles (2-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) built an early 17-7 lead but then watched it vanish as they were unable to create a defensive stop. Kansas (2-1), which had been held to a single touchdown in a loss to Coastal Carolina last week, scored on seven straight possessions after digging a 10-point hole.

That surge—which included 27 unanswered points to close the game—was enough to hand BC arguably its worst loss of the Steve Addazio era.

“I just think that we cut guys free in the back end. We left gaps open in the run game and couldn’t get off the field, and it started early and it didn’t stop and, you know, it’s my job to make sure that we get that fixed,” Addazio said. “There’s no reason why we should play the way we did on the field today.”

Kansas quarterback Carter Stanley— who had been held to a measly 5.6 yards per attempt against the Chanticleers—bounced back from an early interception and had a career day, throwing for 238 yards and three

touchdowns. His favorite target, Andrew Parchment, hauled in eight catches for 100 yards and a pair of scores, while the Jayhawks leaned on a two-headed rushing duo of Pooka Williams Jr. (22 carries, 121 yards) and Khalil Herbert (11 carries, 187 yards).

“These things are going to happen more regularly with this program and a great place like Kansas,” an overjoyed Les Miles, Kansas’ head coach, said after. “If anybody wonders why a guy would come back to college football, tonight shows how much fun this game can be.”

To make things worse, the Jayhawks’ defense made adjustments and was stifling in the second half. They held BC to just 10 yards and a pair of punts on the first two drives in the second half, which allowed them to extend the lead to three possessions, and it stayed that way the rest of the game.

The Eagles’ first sustained drive, at the end of the third quarter, was a 14-play, 69-yard effort—and fittingly ended in a 31-yard missed field goal from Aaron Boumerhi.

“You know, I felt like as long as we can keep this within a 10-point game, we still have an opportunity in the end to come back through,” Addazio said. “We moved the ball down the field and we got in field goal range … Well, we didn’t hit the three and then after that, I thought we got a little bit sideways.”

BC showed promise early, going on a seven-play, 75-yard scoring drive right off the bat that was capped by a two-yard AJ

See FB vs. Kansas, A11

LONG TIME COMING OCT. 18 , 2008

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MICHAEL DWYER / AP PHOTO

Until the Jayhawks stunned BC on Friday night, Kansas had suffered 48 straight losses to Power Five opponents on the road, dating back to Oct. 18, 2008.

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SEP. 13, 2019 | ALUMNI STADIUM

WIN 48-24

Addazio’s Preparation Woes After Seven Years Are Unacceptable PETER KIM “Obviously, I did not do a good enough job getting our team ready to play tonight,” Boston College head football coach Steve Addazio said Friday after a 24-point setback to Kansas, which entered as 21-point underdogs. “I’m responsible for that and it’s my job to make sure we get that fixed.”

Addazio is right, it is his job. But if he continues to do it improperly, like he did Friday night against Kansas and has done on several other occasions, it shouldn’t be his job anymore.

In 2015, Boston College football lost, 3-0, to Wake Forest. As you might expect,

INSIDE SPORTS

given the scoreline, it was a game rife with Eagles miscues. BC missed two field goals, from 31 and 26 (yes, 26) yards. The only points of the game came after Eagles running back Jordan Gowins fumbled at his own five-yard line. Throughout the game, Addazio alternated between quarterbacks Troy Flutie and Jeff Smith with seemingly no rhyme or reason.

But of course, nothing was as bad as the clock management at the end of the game. After BC’s defense miraculously forced a fumble at the Demon Deacons’ 11-yard line with just over a minute remaining, giving the Eagles’ offense one final chance to put points on the board, BC and Addazio put on a breathtakingly inept display of clock management.

With 19 seconds to play, and the Eagles on the one-yard line, BC inexplicably chose to run the ball up the middle with zero timeouts. When Tyler Rouse

was stopped short of the goal line, the Eagles were unable to reset and get the ball snapped in time, and the clock expired.

It was the cherry on top of a horribly coached game and undoubtedly was the worst loss of Addazio’s tenure at the helm.

Until Friday.

That was when BC lost, 48-24, to Kansas. Despite jumping out to an early 17-7 lead, the Eagles were doubled up by the Jayhawks, a team that lost, 12-7, the week prior to Coastal Carolina, a team in just its second season as a full-time FBS program.

Even though BC was favored by 21 points, and was playing at home, Addazio’s team was totally outclassed by a program that, coming into Friday, held a 19-91 record this decade. Yeah, you read that right.

19-91. Before beating BC, Kansas had lost 48 straight road games against Power Five teams. The last time the Jayhawks won one of those games? Oct. 4, 2008 against

Iowa State.

After its first two drives ended with an interception and a punt, Kansas scored on seven straight possessions, turning a 10-0 deficit into a 41-24 lead. Pooka Williams Jr. and Khalil Herbert, the Jayhawks’ running back duo, combined for 308 yards rushing, while Carter Stanley, the same quarterback that completed 13-of-19 passes for just 107 yards and two interceptions in the loss to the Chanticleers, picked apart the Eagles secondary, completing 20-of-27 throws for 238 yards and three touchdowns. To make matters worse, many of the receivers that Stanley found were wide open, without a BC defender in sight.

The Eagles were simply chasing shadows, unable to manufacture any sort of big defensive play, even if their lives depended on it. Defensive linemen were unable to hold their gaps in run defense, and Kansas repeatedly found big gains off the same

MSOC: Eagles Drop Conference Opener WSOC: BC Runs Unbeaten Streak to Eight

types of pitch plays and off-tackle runs. In pass defense, BC was no better, choosing to stay in its base personnel even when the Jayhawks put four wide receivers on the field, forcing linebackers to match up with wide receivers. Even worse, the Eagles stuck with a soft zone coverage for most of the night, leaving Stanley free to have his pick of easy short throws.

Now to be sure, there were missed assignments aplenty, and poor tackling, and some of that has to fall on the players on the field. However, a stubborn inability to adjust to a dominant Kansas offense and find an answer for Williams Jr. and Herbert, or play closer to receivers in order to make life at least slightly harder for Stanley, certainly didn’t help, and should fall on Addazio, Bill Sheridan, and the entire defensive coaching staff. Sheridan

See 48 Steps Back, A10

A10 A11 In a rematch of last year’s ACC Tournament matchup, BC Freshman Allie Augur had five saves for the Eagles, who FOOTBALL................................................. was shut out by North Carolina State................................A10 blanked Mississippi State in Starkville...................................A10 FIELD HOCKEY...........................................

A12 SCORES AND STANDINGS..................... ....

B4

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

In 2019, Arts Section Strikes Careful Balance Between Near and Far

By Jacob Schick A1 Editor

And Kaylie Ramirez Arts Editor The arts section has always been forced to focus on stories that are very close to Boston College and things that couldn’t be further away. It’s a section that covers on-campus events that range from a cappella showcases, dance performances, and concerts, to instrument ensembles, McMullen exhibits, culture club nights, and fashion shows. But it is also in charge of reviewing the week’s newest movies, television shows, and albums, as well as concerts in the city. In my experience, this has always been a delicate balancing act that the arts editors have done rather well.

The The Heights is primarily the independent student newspaper at BC, covering Boston, Newton or New England secondarily. Our priority is to tell our readers about what’s going on in the arts world closest to them. This is why the arts section usually devotes more space and more time to the BC community’s artistic endeavors. And this campus, even while it may not seem to be at a glance, is saturated with the arts.

This has always been something that’s surprised me when I worked, first as the assistant, then associate, and then head arts editor, on The The Heights. It’s what I think most people don’t realize about this college and about this section. We are very rarely starved for on-campus content. In fact, there is often so much happening that we would need three times the staff writers to cover all of it on the busy weeks.

BC has 16 dance teams, 12 a cappella

groups, four comedy troupes, numerous instrument ensembles, a handful of student bands, multiple culture clubs, art societies, music societies, theatre troupes that all produce their own plays (in addition to the BC theatre department), literary journals, library exhibits, and on-campus concerts.

There’s almost always something going on.

It’s vital that we cover these events and that we write features on singers and dancers and artists in the student body. It’s really cool to see what your fellow students do when they aren’t in class. But it’s also one of very few chances some students will have to talk about their passions. If there is a student in CSOM who paints beautifully in her free time, that’s a very interesting story.

It’s also likely one of the only times she will be written about in a non-business context.

If art remains a hobby, the arts section is the chance for her friends and family to see her name in print and online.

And as the head arts editor, it’s been my and many others’ jobs to write about people like this. This is not to say, however, that the arts section has been static, even in my short tenure.

When I first started writing for the paper, I was writing movie reviews for the Arts & Review Section. By the time I was Associate Arts Editor, my head editor, along with the editor-in-chief and the managing editor, decided to change the name to the scene section. The logic here was to return to our roots as “The Scene,” a smaller print booklet of arts content that used to be included inside the regular newsprint issues of The The Heights.

Unfortunately, it had been years since we had done this, and introducing our-

selves as “Scene editors” seemed only to engender confusion in the people we were trying to interview. So, when I took over the section, I felt it best to switch back, while dropping the “& Review.” Hence, the arts section.

Aside from this, the section has undergone fairly little structural change. Most of the variety in the arts section comes from the personal passions of the people who work very hard in running it. While on-campus reporting is always a priority, the main focus of the other half of coverage (movies/TV/music) appears to shift from year to year.

The two head editors I worked with (Chris Fuller and Caleb Griego) were both movie guys. So was I. So, when discussing coverage of arts in the world, we always had a very good grip on what was coming out, what was going to be talked about, and what people would want to read about. I, personally, have very little grasp on contemporary music. I don’t really know what people listen to today, or what our readers would be interested in. As such, I played to my strengths, and relied on the other two editors of my section. My associate editor, Kaylie Ramirez, succeeded me as Head Arts Editor, and has done a wonderful job, shifting our coverage to suit her area of expertise, and making the arts section look better overall.

And now, I’ll turn it over to her.

In my tenure as Jacob’s Associate Arts Editor and later as Head Arts Editor, I’ve found the worst part of the job is being inundated with press release emails all hours of the day. A lot of them are about things we would never cover. NEC Jazz Ensemble

concert invites, Boston Slam Poetry event updates, and a pitch about a book titled Killennials currently sit in the humble company of 900 other unopened emails.

Since taking over in January, I’ve made an effort to address the question: What do BC students actually do when they’re not “taking notes” (online shopping) in class or inciting shoddy group performances of “Mr. Brightside” in the Mods? The answer to that question is the needle in the convoluted haystack that is the arts inbox.

Watching the weekend Instagram stories of BC students, several themes emerge: brunch on Newbury, afternoon Red Sox games, and concerts around Boston.

Through overly enthusiastic back-andforths with the press people for artists such as The Black Keys, Vampire Weekend, and Mitski, the arts section has gradually shifted focus to the events happening beyond our immediate purview in McElroy 113.

Aside from documenting artists’ Boston shows, the arts section has also covered the Boston Calling music festival since its inception in 2013, and has watched it migrate from the boxy City Plaza to the sprawling Harvard Athletic Complex.

The question of BC student’s taste for journalism is part of a larger question being asked by 21st century journalists everywhere: How are people consuming news, and what news are they consuming?

Addressing the question of journalism in the Internet-era is twofold.

Presentation is key—a good lede catches the attention of the reader, but reading the lede first requires the reader to actually look at the page. With this simple logic as a guiding principle, I’ve consistently coordi-

nated with our photo, graphics, and multimedia sections to make the arts section dance off the page, in print and online. To mimic the longform feel of our print feature page, arts began publishing featured stories on The The Heights magazine site, which affords the stories all of the digital ruffles and frills they deserve.

Adjusting the actual content of the section is the second aspect the arts section’s attempt to confront the urgent crisis of print journalism. We’ve shifted away from our staunch commitment to grounding our featured stories in on-campus events hosted by arts groups to favor human-interest pieces born of the careful consideration of the arts editors.

A Campus Divided—a feature series that spotlighted various black arts groups on campus—and The Five Funniest People at BC list are products of this expanded approach to writing features about the arts.

Unlike the editors of past decades, current board members have the luxury of The Heights website, which affords them access to statistics that identify exactly which stories resonate with our readers. Aside from inciting friendly competition among editors, this development has undoubtedly contributed to our ability to index the exact taste of our audience.

The arts section’s attempts to address these questions are far from finished. It’s quite possible that the problems facing print journalism are insoluble. I am confident, however, that future arts editors’ consideration of these questions will continue to result in compelling journalism that accurately documents the robust arts scene on campus and around Boston.

ARTS

A9

Monday, october 7, 2019

@bcHeigHtsarts

Five

funniest

people

By Kaylie RamiRez Arts Editor

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Jesuit universities claim to do a lot more than just provide students with a degree that will land them a seat in an office with a doorman in Midtown Manhattan. Boston College specifically defines “student formation”—a lofty admissions term that is short-hand for producing graduates who can carry a conversation and behave like normal human beings in society—as one of its primary missions as a higher education institution.

In the 2019 institutional spot, BC identifies itself as “The Leader in Formative Education,” four words that mean almost nothing to your future employer. Although this claim sounds like it was workshopped in a PR focus group, this holistic approach to aca-

demia also gives students the opportunity to hone their wits, situational awareness, and big-picture thinking, all of which easily lend themselves to comedy.

Georgetown University—otherwise known as every BC student’s first choice—famously educated Big Mouth creators Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, while Chris Farley (Saturday Night Live, Tommy Boy) attended Marquette University. The classic BC example is, of course, Amy Poehler, BC ’93, who was a member of My Mother’s “First-Ever-College-Comedy-Group” Fleabag during her four years on the Heights.

In November 1992, Poehler told The Heights that she had “never done anything like improv before Fleabag.” On a whim, she decided to sign up. It was a spontaneous decision that put her on

a path from the O’Connell House to 30 Rock. Whether it’s the Catholic guilt, the delayed social progress detailed in a 1992 letter to the editor signed onto

by Poehler, or the acid in the Holy Water at your resident director’s weird 11 p.m. mass, Jesuit institutions can be incubators for comedic minds.

The Heights spent the past month vigilantly scouring Facebook groups, club rosters, and reader nominations to pull together a definitive list of the funniest campus comedians. The next Poehler walks among us, and they might even be on this list—or maybe they are the person who declined to be a part of the feature despite our gracious courting.

Or maybe they didn’t even make the short list for this year’s feature. What do we know anyway? We’re just a college newspaper that still prints in 2019.

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CELINE LIM /HEIGHTS EDITOR

Sam Harmon, MCAS ’21

CELINE LIM /HEIGHTS

The

Depths

EDITOR

If you have attended a My Mother’s Fleabag show in the past year, you know who Sam Harmon is. Harmon is the guy who knows a lot about history: During “185 Blanks Walk Into a Bar,” a game in which Fleabaggers have to riff off jokes about a given topic, Harmon always finds a way to bring it back to wars.

For the comedy group’s October 2018 café, Harmon channeled the intense accent and demeanor of a Polish pilot who had been reunited with his family after the fall of the Berlin Wall multiple times throughout the night. It sounds dry—and Harmon is the first to admit that—but between the wainscotted walls of Gasson 305, it’s a potent form of highbrow humor. This academic approach to comedy is reflected in the way Harmon describes what exactly makes a person funny.

“It’s kinda like a literacy,” Harmon said.

“It’s like a type or style of thinking that you can develop like anything else I think.”

If comedy is a scholarly pursuit, Harmon is an A student. Between descriptions of his personal experience on stage, Harmon perfectly recited quotes from Oh, Hello, a Broadway show about two older eccentric New Yorkers written

and performed by Nick Kroll and John Mulaney. For two relatively high profile comedians, it’s an unusually niche performance abounding with off-the-cuff one liners about polio and mezuzahs, but the show has garnered a cult following since its Netflix release. Harmon’s ability to effortlessly quote the play acts as an informal diploma—proof of his dedication to his studies.

A champion of dry, situational humor, Harmon also gave high praise to Nathan Fielder, the creator and star of Nathan For You, a show Harmon called “life-changing.”

Because Nathan For You requires Fielder to maintain composure even in the most precarious of situations—whether conducting a press conference for Dumb Starbucks, a fake company that went viral, or orchestrating an airport luggage mix-up just to have an embarassing story for a late night appearance. Fielder displays the same stoicism required of improv performers on stage: Total character immersion and outlandish imagination are prerequisites for getting crowds to laugh.

Harmon, who is majoring in English and political science, got his start in improv comedy when he was in high school in St.

Louis, Mo. Harmon attended St. Louis University High School, where he was in a sketch comedy club and participated in two improv shows.

“It was basically hanging out with those [comedy club] guys that completely rewired my brain,” Harmon said. “I had always been like a goofy kid or whatever, but I didn’t know how to actually be funny.”

When Harmon came to BC, Fleabag and sketch comedy group Hello...Shovelhead! were already on his radar, but it was up to him to court the comedic incumbents to gain entry into one of the clubs, both of which have gained a reputation for being highly selective. According to Harmon, it wasn’t his improv chops that got him a spot on the team. After looking at the notes Fleabag members took during his audition, Harmon noticed a common theme among them: the J.Crew pineapple print shorts he chose to wear to auditions.

“I thought he looked kinda goofy,” Brendan McGinty, a director of Fleabag and MCAS ’20, said. “I knew he was like an ROTC guy, and in his callback—with the pineapple shorts—he did not fit the mold. I was like this kid, there’s something off with this kid, and turns out I was right.”

We came. We wrote. We incorporated when we got in trouble. It’s

a long story. But it’s

our Centennial so you’ll hear about it!

EST. 1919

‘The Heights’ Dives into ‘The Depths’ for Comedic Commisery

By Kaylie Ramirez Arts Editor As the only independent student-run news publication on campus, The Heights is best positioned to report on University matters with an ardent dedication to objectivity and fairness. For a group of 40 or so college students with no professional experience in journalism and no official editorial advisors, it’s a lofty responsibility.

And at times, it wouldn’t be unfair to allege that we Heights editors take ourselves far too seriously as a result.

But once a year, The Heights board dismounts the high horse that is still printing weekly in 2019 to rummage around in the muddy trough of Boston College culture.

Welcome to The Depths.

Published on or around April 1, The Depths is our annual satirical issue. The New England Classic has consistently “served Boston College with chips and a pickle since 2007,” but The Heights was first to satirize campus culture with the arrival of The Depths in 1978. An earlier iteration of the satirical issue came in Nov. 1964 when The Heights published The Infidel, a parody of Holy Cross’s student newspaper, The Crusader, ahead of the rivalry football game.

At a glance, the inaugural Depths is proof of enduring criticisms made on behalf of the student body. “Exclusive: Monan To Visit BC” headlined the inaugural four-page book, playing up the appar-

ently longstanding University president tradition of being neither seen nor heard on campus. After The Heights’ reporting on the struggles of students who identifed as LGBTQ+ in 1977, The Depths reported on the strife of “closeted heterosexuals.”

The original Depths issue set a precedent for how The Heights approaches the satirical issue in the present day: Every year, Heights editors tirelessly (i.e. usually four hours before the 2 a.m. deadline) mine the year’s news stories for bits of comedy. The 2018 issue contained an article titled “Marriage is Only True Union, Fahey Says,” prodding the University’s stance on the proposed graduate student union.

Following the 2019 probe into Robert Kraft’s extracurriculars at the Orchids of Asia Spa in Jupiter, Fla., The Depths reported on “Raft’s” proposal for a new “five-finger discount” to cover tuition.

The 1978 issue proved to be a one-off until 2002, when The Depths, rebranded as “The Incoherent Student Weekly of Boston College,” re-entered the comedy scene with relatively tame fare. “Jesuit

community laments Mary Ann’s suspension” and “Student complains about Newton bus, no one cares” were among the offerings. Admittedly, both could be reprinted in 2020 with the same minimal impact. Hard-hitting or not, The Heights has continued to publish The Depths for the past 17 years.

pus in favor of trillionaire murderers who are directly responsible for every human atrocity since the dawn of civilization.”

When The Heights recently reported that the University was in talks with the Charles Koch Foundation to fund a political science program at BC, Climate Justice at BC released a similarly fiery statement. It condemned the political science EPTHS HE department due to JZ_ffc f] JfZ`Xc Nfib EXd\[ ]fi BfZ_ 9ifk_\ij L>9: GXjj\j P\k 8efk_\i I\jfclk`fe the Koch brothers’ “MAJOR ROLE IN THE TERRIFYING ACCELERATION 8ck$I`^_k >iflg 8jbj kf <e[ CXe^lX^\ DXe[Xk\ OF CLIMATE DISRUPTION AND 8iilg\ ;\dXe[j Dfe\p# KXb\j D`b\ ?fjkX^\ ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION” and “LONG HIS TORY WITH AND @e 8kk\dgk kf JXm\ )'''# I\jC`]\ JkX]] Jc\\gj `e <dgkp 9\[j STRONG CONNEC TION S TO WHITE SUPREMACISTS, RACISTS, INSIDE AND RABID ANOn occasion, the stories of The Depths TI-SEMITES”—both not unfounded acted as near-prophecies. The headline of allegations. the top story of the 2017 issue read “School Depths controversy didn’t stop with of Social Work Named for Koch Brothers.” the Kochs, however. The 2003 edition The article included fake Facebook post arrived with a disclaimer, something The quotes from made-up student activist Depths could have used in 2016 when group “Moderate Boston College Racism,” The Heights issued an apology to Boloco, which alleged that the University “yet a New England burrito chain, following again ignored the hardships experienced a satirical piece that insinuated the chain by literally tens of students on this cam- gave students food poisoning. The real

D

T

THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017

The Dependent Student Newspaper of Boston College

EST. 1919

WWW.BCDEPTHS.COM

Following an undisclosed donation made earlier this week, Boston College’s School of Social Work will be renamed for billionaire titans of industry David H. and Charles G. Koch.

“We’re not going to tell you how much money it was,” said University President Sr. Wilhelmina F. Maeby, R.S.H.M., getting closer to the mic, her mouth foaming, eyes blazing like a demon, “but it was so much money.

I didn’t know there was this much money.”

Per the Kochs’ specifications, some of the money will go toward establishing a European Studies Program.

Some of the money will also go toward campus beautification, including a hand-carved fountain and hedge maze on Stokes Lawn. The School of Social Work will establish a new online master’s degree in bounty hunting, and will develop a new core program called “Understanding and Ameliorating the

Tragic Plight of the Anglo-Saxon Coal Miner.”

“What better way to recognize the generosity of these extraordinary men than by making them the namesakes of our second-least-relevant school,” Maeby said between unexplained outbursts of doing that chest-beating thing from The Wolf of Wall Street. “It is in the great Jesuit tradition to care for our society, and only a slim supermajority of humanity cares for our society more than Charles and David.”

Student activist group Moderate Boston College Racism immediately condemned Maeby on Facebook , writing that, “Sr. Maeby has yet again ignored the hardships experienced by literally tens of students on this campus in favor of trillionaire murderers who are directly responsible for every human atrocity since the dawn of civilization.”

“Boston College is a diverse and

welcoming community for all of its students and faculty,” University Spokesman Zack Bunn said in an email. “Sr. Maeby continues to provide extraordinary leadership for this University, such good leadership that I c a n’t s t o p thinking about her. We went to dinner but she never called me. What do you think that means? Like she was sending mixed messages I guess but I really thought we had something.” 

Rusty Pepperman, MCAS ’18, is sweating. It drips down his face like the not-racist, not-homophobic, pro-jobs, national security wonk ice cream cone he is. You can see the veins pop out of his forehead, straining at his porcelain, not-racist, not homophobic, pro-jobs, national security wonk skin, threatening to break free into Trump’s America. He pounds his fist on the podium, his right arm extending straight in the air, his feet together. He scratches at his not-racist, not-homophobic, pro-jobs, national security wonk mustache. It’s narrow—a

new style, he says. His hair is slicked to the right. He wears a tan uniform.

Pepperman leads the Resistance here at Boston College.

“I started reading The Wall Street Journal when I was 8,” he shouts, shoveling a fistful of ice into his mouth. “I saw Trump coming before everybody else. All the snowflakes thought he was so dumb, but I knew he was the master.

An artist.”

Kicked out of the College Republicans of BC in December after a not-racist misunderstanding in the Eagle’s Nest

sandwich line in which he loudly referred to BC Dining workers exclusively as “muchacho,” Salzman has gone rogue, gathering together a group of similarly open-minded citizens of Trump’s America. The Depths went to their third meeting earlier this week.

“There’s a reason they call this the All Right,” he said. “We’re always right.”

Pepperman’s first move is an all-out assault on BC’s language core requirement, which he has described as a racist, homophobic, anti-jobs, and generally oppressive aspect of the student expe-

rience. Reached for comment, several administrators said they were monitoring the situation but had not yet made a decision regarding his demands.

“We are aware of his concerns and are weighing all of our options,” said Provost and Dean of Faculties Denise Wiggly.

“We take students’ concerns seriously no matter their political convictions.”

“Rusty is terrifying but he’s funny to watch up there in his uniform, so we’ve come to the last couple meetings,” said Tina McGurty, CSON ’19. “His look is very familiar but I can’t quite place it.” 

Two groups of students associated with Arrupe have allegedly taken ‘Mike at Mac’ hostage in an attempt to secure funds for a “totally life-changing experience” in Nicaragua or some other country just poor enough to make white people feel bad about themselves.

The situation thus far has unfolded

as follows.

Around 2 p.m., nearing the end of the lunch period in McElroy Commons, Arrupe members John Johnson, MCAS ’19, and Eric Erickson, CSOM ’18, had only received “like 12 cents” in donations to their service trip to build a house, or something like that. Despite the fact that

countless freshman girls will have $1,500 left on their meal plan at the end of the semester, Johnson’s aggressive neck beard and Erickson’s pungent musk appeared to turn them away.

In order to garner more support for their cause, they raised the Arrupe flag over Gonzaga Hall in an act of dominance, declaring the building “sovereign territory in the name of community self-service that doesn’t actually need to be done but makes us feel good about ourselves.”

Seeing the battle flag wave over Upper Campus, William Williamson, CSON ’20, and Steven Stevenson, LSOE ‘19, leaped into action. Pulling back the shower curtains of unsuspecting freshmen and screaming “DONATE TO ARRUPE,” the men were able to achieve another $7 in profit before being hauled off to jail.

Inspired by their comrades’ martyrdom, Johnson and Erickson decided it was time for more drastic measures. $7.12 was simply not enough to satisfy the desperate urges of these upper-class white men

to feel like they’ve achieved something meaningful.

Knowing that the entire freshman population in attendance was deathly afraid of gluten, the men reportedly grabbed a bagel and held it to Mike at Mac’s neck, dragging him to the kitchen while threatening to “do it.”

The men are currently demanding “$1 dollar,” stating that the “donation” would subsidize the cost of flights and five star accommodations as a “reward for their service.”

In speaking with a hostage negotiator during an exclusive interview with The Depths, the situation looks grim.

“I’m afraid these men have taken desperate measures to achieve desperate means,” said Michael Michaelson, a senior BCPD negotiator. “We’ll just have to wait and see what these men demand beyond one piece of salmon and some rice’s worth of food.”

This story will be updated as events unfold. 

After the Office of Residential Life left 100 beds open in 2000 Commonwealth Ave. this semester, its staff has attempted to resolve the issue by sleeping in the empty beds every night.

Also known as the Reservoir Apartments to ResLife and virtually no one else, 2000 has battled an apathetic reputation due to its distance from Main Campus, taking away the only thing Greycliff Hall ever had. The office also struggled with a developed strategy for filling the rooms, also known as “counting,” leading to the mishap.

“So we made a little mistake with the rooming situations, but really no harm done,” Alan Nohause of ResLife said. “If anything, it prepares

transfer students for never living on campus again after their first year.”

Instead of filling the vacancies with BC’s newest students or juniors returning from abroad, the office is instead sleeping in different rooms every night. The directors of the project plan on adding more fun aspects of the new undertaking.

“You know us, we’re all about community,” Nohause said, despite refusing to allow students who are just as much a part of the BC community to live in Walsh, the bathroom in the lounge of Cheverus, or, yes, even 2000. “We’re planning themed sleepovers and mug painting for all of

NEWS: CRUTCHIN’ ALONG

THIS ISSUE

Two kids who met in the back of Eagle Escort crutch in to the sunset........... A2

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our employees!”

Jane Err, an RA in 2000 and LSOE ’18, isn’t sure about the office’s decision.

“I just don’t know where I’m supposed to stand on this issue,” she said. “Like, when I’m on duty, do I check on them too? What if they’re being loud? Like, they’re my bosses, but they also told me I’m the boss of this hall.”

Others couldn’t care less.

“I am so out of here at the end of the year,” Tony Richardson, obviously MCAS ’17, said. “I don’t even know why I became an RA as a senior.

Free housing or all of the memories of my senior year—barbecues in the Mods, going to MA’s,

SPORTS: KERRY-ing ATHLETICS

John Kerry, BC Law ’76, was named BC’s newest athletic director............................. A3

INDEX

The Undergraduate Government of Boston College held a Student Assembly meeting Wednesday night to pass what was dubbed “the most important” resolution of the year—a resolution to affirm its name. The group spent four hours last night debating whether or not UGBC should be called UGBC. “We love affirming stuff,” said UGBC president Gus Cowell. “Next week we are proposing a resolution to affirm we are all students at this Jesuit institution we like to call ‘Boston College.’ We will actually be debating the University’s official title at a future Student Assembly meeting.”

Last night’s meeting was held because many members of UGBC said they have heard the organization called a slew of other names over the course of the year, and there was legitimate confusion over the actual name of the group.

“I’ve heard UGBC been called a bunch of useless goons, a group of highly functioning, yet low-achieving students, and worthless trash blowing through the Dustbowl,” Clancy McIntire, assembly member and MCAS ’19, said. “And those are all from today.”

A few students in the crowd snapped their fingers in agreement.

“My mom refers to UGBC as ‘a club that will be good for my resume and prepare me for the political scene,’ but the way this meeting is going right now, I am really doubting the validity of that statement,” Siobhan O’Grady, assembly member and CSOM ’18, said.

The crowd of students murmured for a few moments.

“Alright, order in my court!” Cowell shouted, using a glowstick from Plexapalooza as a gavel. “We need to answer the question at hand: should or should we not keep our name as UGBC?” Suddenly a man in the back of the room stood up and said loudly, “Maybe you can call the group ‘Spawns of the Devil!’

Look—you’re never getting a student center.

Or free speech. We just let you have these meetings so you feel like you have a say in this patriarchy. You should just stop with this garbage and shotgun a beer like normal college students!” The man, who then quickly ran out of the room, was later identified as University Spokesman Zack Bunn.

The students, shocked by this occurrence and tired of the hours of debate, moved to put the resolution to a vote. It was then affirmed that UGBC’s official title would remain UGBC. “It’s been a hard day at work,” Cowell said, sipping from a 64oz cup of what most presumed to be soda, but were not quite sure. “But it’s all worth it. We’re doing some really groundbreaking stuff here.” 

having an actual life? Who cares what ResLife does? They can’t hurt me anymore.”

There have already been several complaints regarding the program. Students in nearby rooms cited the Fuller House theme song blasting at all hours, burning s’mores, and the sight of squeaky-clean office camaraderie in the 2000 Commonwealth Ave. lounge areas.

“We’re just trying to make it through the year,” Nohause said. “Hopefully next year will be better.”

Elsewhere on campus, a student living in a double separated her megabed after ResLife noted she “could get a roommate.” 

ALTERNATIVE FACTS...A2 RECREATION.............. B1 Vol. LXIX, No. 17 © 2017, The Heights, Inc. BEANTOWN.................A3 www.bcheights.com

culprit, of course, was the Cleveland Circle Chipotle, which gave 80 students food poisoning in Dec. 2015. Unsurprisingly, 2016 was the first and last year The Heights published The Depths directly to the website.

The 2016 incident is yet another issue The Heights is forced to confront as it shifts its focus toward digital media. Since 2016, The Heights has opted to limit The Depths to print to prevent inflammatory articles from circulating beyond the immediate purview of BC. Additionally, The Heights opts to avoid defamation claims by using fake names to identify the subjects we parody in good faith. Obviously, the humorous musings of The Classic and student posts in the Boston College Memes for Jesuit Tweens Facebook group live online. But the level of scrutiny is rightfully higher for a newspaper that claims to—and does in fact—accurately report real news stories.

Currently, The Depths is a treat for our loyal print readers. Aside from providing a brief refuge from the seriousness with which we treat our jobs as Heights editors, The Depths creates a common space for commiseration in an era where the news forecast is almost consistently bleak. Once The Heights makes the inevitable shift to digital-only publication, it is my hope— and I’m sure the hope of The Heights editors who took pride in The Depths before me—that The Depths finds a new way to bring humor to The Heights.

Tuesday November 19 2019

The He ghts

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Blurring Boundaries: Magazine Tells the Stories of Eagles Everywhere

By Brooke Kaiserman Magazine Editor

Heights switched back to a weekly publishing schedule in 2017, the then-features section (which had always printed weekly) assumed the same frequency of publication as the rest of the sections, elevating its presence on the board.

So, how did we get to that turning point? And how did we find that consistency? In this column, we’ll take a look back at our section’s development in the past decade: from features to magazine, from page B10 to A4—and everything in between.

When I began my time on the board as the first associate magazine editor in 2018, the section entered its first year under the new name. Our goal was two-fold: to define the magazine section by carrying out its newly designated responsibilities, all while retaining the past aspects of features that we knew were working well.

The beauty of this section has always been its ability to adapt to the changing times and the interests of our readership.

The 2010 editors kicked off the year with a retrospective: Sesquicentennial Class Examines BC History. Not only would this provide an account of academics, athletics, extracurriculars, and social life since 1913, it would also define the section’s style as it ushered in a new decade. Accompanied by vivid, eye-catching layouts, features regularly rolled out witty introspectives about life on BC’s campus—whether that be a tellall on twins (“Seeing Double”) or a legacy piece about how BC is the gift that keeps on giving (“And that’s the way we became the BC Bunch”).

By answering the questions students were most curious about, features articles

While The Heights may be turning 100 years old, the newly named magazine section is nearing the age of 2.

Just two short years ago, the long-familiar features section was rebranded as “Magazine.” This would prove to be much more than just a nominal change, however—the motivation behind it was to give the section a clear identity, which past editors felt it lacked.

When you think about it, this makes sense. In profiling members of the Boston College community, the features editors had to ensure that their subjects did not fall under the realm of sports or arts. A breakout basketball star or a brand-new theatre professor, plucked right off the Broadway stage, ran the risk of encroaching. And with breaking, investigative pieces, editors had to avoid stepping on news’ toes. Any columns or satirical content, and the section broached opinions territory. Given this, our ensuing identity crisis was only natural.

The board members hoped that in scrapping the name ‘Features’ in favor of ‘Magazine,’ forthcoming editors would produce profiles of BC students, faculty, and alumni in the long-form style that appears in magazines, rather than the 800-word format similar to news stories.

We would still be putting out features, but would also begin to take on long-term investigative pieces.

These new responsibilities warranted the addition of a third editor, the associate magazine editor, to help with the new focus and increase in content. When The

brought the BC community together while also highlighting its uniqueness.

The team continued its hit True Life series, where students bravely shared their personal experiences regarding typically “taboo” subjects at the time. Topics spanned from the more lighthearted— training for the Boston Marathon, life as a male cheerleader on campus, and being addicted to the plex—all the way to the somber, such as in the groundbreaking Nov. 2008 narrative by Sarah Ottersetter, I Know Anorexia, which spoke of her personal struggles with an eating disorder while attending BC. The piece hit home for a lot of students, who saw their own struggles in her story, and respected the author’s lack of anonymity.

Other series included The World Record, which spanned the globe to chronicle Eagles’ journeys abroad, whether their travels be in London, Beijing, or Melbourne. And we can’t forget about the infamous Eagle Date, a popular sequence in which The Heights would set up two students to go on a blind date and then interview them about their experience, which included giving it a rating. “Don’t just go on a date… go on an Eagle Date!

Dinner on us, and then tell us about your experience in The Heights,” a 2010 ad read.

But beginning around 2016, the features section slowly began to shift its focus, mainly running shorter profile pieces on BC students, faculty, and alumni. Eagle Date gradually faded out, although columns remained as present as ever. Much of the section’s lighthearted subject matter would change with the team’s rebranding.

So, in our section’s first year as mag-

azine, we strove to preserve the profiles that had largely come to define it, all while integrating new touches. It was under our jurisdiction to pursue more long-term, investigative features as well as long-form, 2000-plus word profiles. In 2018, we kept a lot of the familiar, worn-in qualities of features. We peppered our content with columns centering on our personal experiences, and started incorporating more professor profiles that had a magazine-like feel to them instead of solely focusing on BC’s students. We took this one step further by focusing on alumni specifically, and running profiles on actor Matt Del Negro, BC ’94, comedian Gary Gulman, BC ’93, and Erik Weihenmayer, BC ’91, who climbed Mount Everest blind.

The year 2009 was the first year The Heights began to roll out the year-end Momentum Awards, directed by the then-features section, and this has continued with its shift to magazine. At the end of each academic year, we put out around six profiles of the BC community’s leading changemakers. Additionally, we churn out about 10 features on students running the Boston Marathon during the week leading up to Marathon Monday.

All of this has become more feasible in the digital age, which has allowed us to rely on bcHeights.com, and particularly the magazine website, to publish our long-form pieces.

In our transition from features to magazine, our content has become more investigative and long-form, all while preserving the profiles that have been an integral part of the section in the past decade. The presence of the profile has steadily grown throughout it, and The heighTs

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Monday, January 28, 2019

By Brooke kaiserman Magazine Editor

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Without Convocation, First-Year Seminars, or 18-plus nights at Machine, transfer students still manage to find a home on campus.

Asst. Magazine Editor

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Tuesday, January 22, 2019

THE HEIGHTS 2017 FOOD GUIDE

2019 WOMEN’S MARCH

char siu bao

ne week before move-in, transfer student Hannah Tucker, LSOE ’21, still hadn’t received her housing assignment. Worried that she would be placed in temporary housing, Tucker called a Boston College ResLife representative and asked point blank if she would be assigned to an overflow room. The ResLife representative assured her that wouldn’t be the case—she would have a comfortable bed and a place to live upon arrival.

The next day, Tucker received an email that assigned her, along with 10 other sophomores, to live on the Newton Campus in a converted lounge with the prospect of guaranteed senior housing. Formerly a communal space for the residents of Keyes Hall, the lounges were furnished with couches and tables for reflecting and floor bonding.

Tucker had applied to transfer to BC after winter break of her freshman year from Husson University in Bangor, Maine. The first time through the college process, she admits she knew she wasn’t making the right decision, and that her choice was swayed by her desire to continue playing field hockey. After her first week of preseason, Tucker knew she didn’t belong there and found herself ready to leave before classes had even begun.

Almost 1,000 miles south and 15 degrees warmer, Autumn Hauser, MCAS ’21, was in a similar situation.

Originally from New Hampshire, she flew down to UNC Wilmington, looking for a different experience in college, but found it overwhelmingly different—“superficial” and “surface level” were a few of the words she used to describe her experience. By Sept. 1, Hauser knew she wanted to move back to New England.

So, Hauser and Tucker both packed their bags, said their goodbyes, and joined the 38 percent of college students that transfer schools at least once. Once an overlooked demographic, transfer students are receiving increased attention from universities across the country, as undergraduate enrollment declines for the sixth year in a row.

While more people are willing to transfer, leaving a school and moving into a new unknown is daunting for any student. But the story of Hauser and Tucker shed light on the difficulties transfer students face after they’re accepted and moved on to their plan Bs. Meeting new friends at an unfamiliar school after missing out on the first year of campus acclimation is hard. It’s even harder when a new student is assigned to live in a freshmen community room turned bedroom 10 minutes from the closest person in his or her grade.

Tucker spent the entirety of many weekends throughout the Fall 2018 semester sleeping on air mattresses in friends’ rooms on Upper Campus, making every possible effort to resist Newton isolation and build friendships . Surrounded by unfamiliar freshman faces on Newton, many of whom seemed to already be friends, Tucker and Hauser both thought BC should’ve handled the overflow housing process better.

“On the Newton Campus, all the freshmen had their Welcome Weeks done, everything was scheduled for them, and all the upperclassmen already had their friends,” Hauser said.

“So we were in this weird limbo where

there was nothing for us to do. I just hung out in my dorm and did nothing.”

For 40 percent of BC’s freshman class, the initial difficulties of living on Newton make the transition to college life even more convoluted than it is for the average undergraduate.

Thankfully, for many, Newton quickly begins to feel like home. Surrounded entirely by other freshmen, many who are placed on Newton their first year quickly develop pride and boast about its superiority to Upper Campus.

But for a sophomore transfer student, Newton is the opposite of a cozy abode. As a transfer, anywhere on campus is uncharted territory—new classes, professors, and friends—but living on Newton presents yet another problem for incoming transfers.

Hauser remembers spiraling into near panic as move-in day crept closer—and yet, she had no indication of where she would be living. While the majority of her fellow transfer students had received dorm assignments on Upper Campus a month ago, Hauser was left in the dark. When she was finally notified that she would be living in Keyes on Newton, Hauser was disappointed—but overall, felt relieved that she had somewhere to live.

Director of Transfer Admissions, Mary French, admits that this year was a particularly unusual for transfer housing. French’s interactions with transfer students occur mostly during the application period and orientation. In fact, French wasn’t initially aware that certain transfer students had been placed in makeshift dorms in Keyes’ lounges, an indicator of the last minute nature of these overflow rooms.

“I hadn’t heard anything about [students] being placed on Newton Campus until several weeks into the school year,” French said. “I didn’t know until a student told me.”

CoMMON APPLICATION

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CELINE LIM / HEIGHTS EDITOR

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ALLYSON MOZELIAK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

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lthough B C just started housing transfers on Ne w ton this year, the housing process has always been difficult for them. Molly Wolfe, MCAS ’19, transferred from Fordham University.

Unlike Tucker and Hauser, Wolfe didn’t particularly dislike her freshman college experience—rather, it was a sense of too much familiarity that drove Wolfe to transfer, as she ended up being one of many from her high school at Fordham.

Initially enthused by the prospect of switching schools, Wolfe’s housing process turned her first few weeks into a nightmare. Against her hopes, she was placed in Greycliff—shortly after hearing the news, she obtained a doctor’s note to be placed elsewhere due to her allergies, avoiding ever stepping foot in Greycliff. Despite recognizing that she had cheated the system, Wolfe never thought she would have

orty-three years ago, Boston College’s undergraduate student government elected its first black leader. Twenty-eight years ago, it elected its second. As the 20th century turned into the 21st, and as racial tensions continued to flair in Newton, the town in which BC resided had failed to follow suit. So it turned to a hometown hero—a local kid who went from being the first black president of his high school, to the second black president of the town’s neighboring college, to the campaign trails, to Iraq, to the White House: Setti Warren, BC ’93.

After growing up in Newton, Warren attended Newton North High School, a short 10-minute drive northwest of BC’s Main Campus. There began Warren’s involvement in public service and leadership, as he was elected class president for all four years of his high school career.

“For me, a high school student, being class president there offered a really unique challenge in that the city was 3 percent African-American,” he said. “I had friends of all different backgrounds, all different walks of life, and I just felt so committed to the students, to find ways to bring people together wherever I was, [to] solve problems together and have fun together.”

Though Warren had strong ties to Newton, what brought him to BC wasn’t its proximity to his hometown—it was his boundless enthusiasm for the University. Warren remembers setting foot on campus in his early life to don maroon and gold for sports games at the Roberts Center, the precursor to Conte Forum, and studying with BC student tutor volunteers in his early education.

Warren didn’t wait long before getting involved on campus—his freshman year, he was appointed to serve as the coordinator of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College’s (UGBC) Lecture Series Program from 1990-91 by then-UGBC president Rick Culliton, BC ’91. Warren worked tirelessly to curate a collection of dynamic speakers that would bring different perspectives to campus.

After landing guest speakers such as Chris Flavin—a member of the World Watch Institute, which advised President George W. Bush on environmental matters—and ABC News Correspondent Gary Shepard—who spoke to his experience as the first correspondent to report the commencement of the Persian Gulf War on-site in Baghdad— Warren landed his most high-profile speaker: Senator John Kerry, BC Law ’76. On Sept. 24, 1990, he packed the O’Connell House.

“As Kerry took the podium, a packed floor greeted him warmly. No one in the audience was happier to see the politician, however, than the man responsible for bringing him to BC, Lecture Series Coordinator Setti Warren,” wrote David Fromm in a 1990 Heights article.

At the culmination of his tenure as Lecture Series Coordinator, Warren set his sights on the UGBC presidency.

Clinching the campaign would be quite the challenge—for one thing, Warren, a sophomore, was younger than most candidates in years past. Only a limited number of underclassmen had secured the coveted position.

From left to right: BC transfer students Grant Kalfus, MCAS ’19; Caitlin Mahoney, MCAS ’19; and Autumn Hauser, MCAS ’21. to go to those lengths to be placed in each school’s student body—while a different dorm.

Kalfus found Syracuse University too “Housing was a mess. … My friend big, Mahoney felt suffocated by the said get out of [Greycliff ],” Wolfe said. smaller size of Lehigh University. Both “No offense to anyone who lives there, had friends at BC, which ultimately but I’m a social person.” swayed their respective decisions.

She moved into 90 St. Thomas Kalfus experienced his own heartMore Rd. with five international ache when it came to BC’s housing students who were all best friends. arrangements. For him, one of the Transferring had been challenging most difficult things when he first enough, and rooming with an already transferred was living in 2000—this established friend group left Wolfe meant that he was surrounded by feeling very overwhelmed. So, once juniors and seniors as a sophomore. again, she began the process of trying Mahoney considers herself lucky, as to move out. she was placed in Vanderslice with a Eventually, Wolfe got her RAs in- few other spring transfers, making her volved to figure out a solution for her move to BC slightly more manageable. dilemma—but in the end, she was told For Kalfus, the help of the administhere wasn’t a good enough reason for tration made his transition easier as her to move. time went on.

Wolfe’s mom ended up getting inAccording to him, his transfer volved, calling almost everyday to try adviser was a bit of a saving grace—in and help her daughter. Finally, after fact, he found that the majority of a combined effort from both Wolfe the administration was ready and and her mom, she moved into 2000 eager to help when he reached out Commonwealth Ave. with a friend to them. Kalfus and Mahoney also who had also transferred. credit French for her efforts to help “I didn’t get help. I had to do it transfers integrate themselves into all myself,” she said. “And that’s most life on campus. of the stories I’ve heard from other French’s role as an adviser has transfers that moved. We just all did helped many transfers over the years. it ourselves. If I was to say one thing In an effort to help incoming transfers, about the housing process, I think it though, she is mainly involved in the fails a lot of transfers.” application process. French focuses on Like Wolfe, Tucker felt cheated. making sure they have all the tools and She understands that BC had to deal information they needed for the next with over-enrollment somehow and phase and giving them a handshake feels lucky that they were able to into the University. She has made sure provide her with a place to live. She to discuss specific needs with transfer admits, however, that she doesn’t students. For example, when transfer think BC handled the problem well students asked her if they could start by placing her on Newton Campus. a mentoring program, she helped start “They isolated us. I feel so isolated the transfer ambassador program and on Newton,” she said. “It’s all fresh- became the club’s adviser. or BC’s incoming freshmen, men, everybody knows each other, the immediate pressure to they all moved in a week before [the make new friends induces transfer students] did, and then we intimidation and dread. For incoming just showed up one day.”

Tucker and Hausers’ optimistic transfer students, however, it’s often attitudes have helped them both. even more daunting.

Even with programs in place, such Tucker believes she’s made the best of the Newton housing situation. She as the ambassador program, that atspent most of first semester crashing tempt to help ease them into the BC in her friends rooms on CoRo. Hauser community, making friends outside says the silver lining is the guaranteed of the secluded group of transfers is senior housing that those placed in no small task. Hauser described it as overflow rooms receive. a transfer bubble.

Both Tucker and Hauser will be “Once you know a few transfers, given senior housing on campus, they know a few transfers, and then unlike other transfer students, who your circle [inevitably] widens, but HE EIGHTS are only given one year of on-campus it’s kind of limited in a way,” Hauser housing. Hauser, however, takes the explained. term “guarantee” with a grain of salt.

Similarly, Tucker found it hard to Chuckling, she questioned how ac- fit into pre-existing friend groups. The countable a promise of housing from combination of living on Newton and ResLife really is. coming to a new school—at a time “We were guaranteed senior hous- where most students already have the ing too, but we didn’t get it,” said comfort of set friend groups—made Caitlyn Mahoney, MCAS ’19. “We branching outside of the transfer got ‘space available’ and then we were community hard for Tucker and the [eventually] denied in July. I feel like other students she transferred with. ‘space available’ means ‘go find an As she described it, the people at BC apartment.’” are incredible, but when she is with Mahoney and her boyfriend, Grant non-transfer friend groups, it can Kalfus, MCAS ’19, both transferred feel as though she’s sticking her nose to BC as sophomores. They decided into a conversation that she doesn’t to change colleges because neither belong in. was comfortable with the size of As for Mahoney, who came to BC

T

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HUbweek 2016

The heighTs

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Monday, February 4, 2019

‘I started with strangers, and I left with lifelong brothers and sisters’

‘This is my Place’

By Maeve Reilly

culminated when we made the switch to primarily publishing these types of features, rather than broad pieces on the BC community as a whole. When I joined the section, we increased the variety of our articles profiling the BC community, hoping to incorporate as many voices and backgrounds as possible.

Additionally, we’ve adopted a collaborative approach for many of our investigative stories. Rather than encroaching on news’ territory, we’ve been working in conjunction with them to complete ambitious projects. This past year, the news and magazine sections poured over the archives to profile the history of race at BC—and more specifically, the figures that instigated momentous change—during Black History Month.

We profiled the first black mayor of Newton, Setti Warren, BC ’93, who was the Undergraduate Government’s second black president during his time on campus, and interviewed Julius Harper, BC ’80, who spoke of his 1977 Letter to the Editor, which called for the integration of the Fenwick dorm.

It turned out that finding our own identity involved changing our outlook.

It’s only when we stop looking at the section as one with confining boundaries that its true power is realized. Though the identity of features and now magazine has changed dramatically even in the past decade alone, it should always be taken in the context of its entirety. One year barely skims the surface of everything our section is capable of—so while the magazine section may be only 2 years old, its history as features will live on in the past, present, and future.

as a spring transfer, making friends was even more difficult—to her, everyone already blended seamlessly into the fabric of BC’s culture.

While hundreds of students paraded with purpose across Stokes Lawn towards their classes, Mahoney was left in the dust, wondering where in the world Gasson was located. At first, she had a hard time asking for help.

“I didn’t realize this when I first arrived here, [but] it’s weird to be a transfer,” Mahoney said. “I thought if I announced to the world that I’m a transfer, that would make everyone want to be my friend. Apparently, you’re supposed to keep that on the down-low.”

Like Hauser, Wolfe remembers getting caught in the suffocating cycle of transfer students solely befriending other transfer students and still remembers struggling to meet people outside of the transfer community when she arrived at BC. Similar to her experience with the housing process, when it came to joining clubs, Wolfe felt as though she was on her own. Now, Wolfe loves her social circles. But, she acknowledged that most of her stress when it came to making friends stemmed from BC’s process to join clubs.

She was shocked to find out that many of the University’s clubs were application based. After being rejected from a few service clubs, Wolfe worried about finding her place at BC. Everyone was telling her the answer to making new friends was to join clubs—but in Wolfe’s experience, there were barriers involved.

Eventually, Wolfe joined Appalachia Volunteers because the service club didn’t have an application.

“I joined it because it was the easiest one, and that ended up being my saving grace at BC,” she said. “I don’t think I would’ve lasted without having more options of things.”

Though she’s forever grateful that the circumstances of BC’s extracurricular life landed her in Appa, she resents the unnecessary roadblocks she encountered. She found that whenever she asked for advice or voiced her concerns about making friends, people told her to get involved. She clarified, however, that no one provided any details about how or where to get involved, which can make social life at BC feel a little exclusive at times.

Mahoney also found it difficult to get involved on campus. Along with the many other challenges that being a spring transfer presented, clubs weren’t actively recruiting in the spring like they were in the fall.

By the time she went to the fall activities fair her junior year, she felt as though she was too far behind to start fresh. In the end, Mahoney, like Wolfe, joined Appa. And like Wolfe, it ended up being one of the most integral parts of her BC experience.

Additionally, BC’s homogenous student body had previously elected only one African-American UGBC president: Duane Deskins, BC ’76.

“No one thought I could win that race,” he said. “At the end of the day, I think many people dismissed my candidacy as a longshot because I was a sophomore and there was a very small AHANA population … I was universally dismissed.”

In the face of this adversity, however, Warren employed a skill he would use many times in his subsequent career: the ability to make connections with constituents.

“I knocked on virtually every dorm room I could and when I had conversations with people, the sort of dismissiveness came down, and we were able to relate to each other as two kids at BC that just wanted to see a better campus,” Warren said.

Warren’s charismatic campaign approach paid off. He not only won the election, but he did so handsomely.

Along with his running mate Elise DiCarlo, then-UGBC director of programming and BC ’92, students voted to elect Warren over Kevin Pulte, BC ’92, and Tina Castellano, BC ’92, by a margin of 1,748 to 650 votes.

“I really believe that BC is moving into a new era where students are integrated with the UGBC,” Warren stated after winning the election. “The BC community will come together in this new era.”

Warren soon set forth to actualize his campaign goals and set his agenda in motion—primarily, he hoped to make BC’s campus more inclusive. He increased the impetus he’d generated during his time as Lecture Series Coordinator to bring Spike Lee to BC to discuss his film Malcolm X—then in theaters—as well as topics like how to break down racial barriers. Lee had happened to be teaching a film class at Harvard that semester in the spring of ’92, so after a few flattering phone calls and the negotiation of a $15,000 contract by UGBC, Lee came to Conte Forum.

But the director’s presence wasn’t met with universal approval—some reacted to Warren’s inclusion initiative with hesitation and even hostility.

“I was met with a lot of resistance, and there were some really tense conversations that took place,” he said.

“Ultimately, having a diverse set of people, backgrounds, ideas, actually strengthened the campus, because we were able to have real discussions in the open and listen.”

The second major initiative Warren incited during his administration was the Book Tuition Fund, the combined brainchild of Warren, UGBC, and the BC Bookstore. During his candidacy for the UGBC presidency, a friend of Warren’s was caught while stealing a textbook from the bookstore.

Explaining his reasoning, Warren’s friend cited a lack of funds to afford the pricey textbooks, in addition to food.

Consequently, Warren was inspired to create the Book Tuition Fund for students, which gave those with the highest level of fiscal need and unmet financial aid $50 book vouchers. The first year, 80 students were provided with vouchers, and by the program’s second year, the number had doubled to 160.

“I remember when he was actually

running for UGBC president,” said William Power, a close friend of Warren’s and BC ’93. “At the time you put up sheets in the quad. I still joke with him to this day about [how] his slogan was ‘Setti is ready.’ And it was a fitting slogan then, and it sounds like he’s been ready ever since.” fter graduation in 1993, Warren remained in Newton and briefly worked in his father’s job-training consultant firm aiding underserved Bostonians. But it wasn’t long before Warren felt called to a career in public service.

He volunteered for President Clinton’s reelection campaign. Eventually, he was offered the opportunity to move to Washington and work at the headquarters of the campaign, and soon after was appointed to a position in the Clinton Administration. Warren spent four years as a White House staff member in the Advance Office, Cabinet Affairs Office, and Social Office during the Clinton Administration, which culminated in his appointment to be the Regional Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

“I really came to understand at a young age the importance of the presidency and the importance of national policy—how it affects people,” he said.

“I saw these decisions being made in an up-close-and-personal way.”

Warren’s time at FEMA was defined by a direct, hands-on approach to disaster control. As Regional Director, Warren worked hand-in-hand with towns, cities, and states to ensure their preparedness for all different types of emergencies. To achieve this, Warren and his team traveled to various regions, running live exercises and drills. When disaster struck, they were soon on-location, serving as first responders to help coordinate and allocate local, state, and federal resources.

“You need to be on the ground, you need to be listening to people, and you need to be able to make the right decisions—making that direct connection was incredibly powerful when I was FEMA director,” he said. “I don’t remember all the weather events and storms, but I certainly remember being on the ground in different communities and responding.”

After the culmination of his time at FEMA—the Bush Administration had cycled out Clinton’s appointees—Warren returned to BC in 2001 to work in the University’s Development Office as the assistant director for leadership gifts. During his second time on the Heights, Warren contacted alumni to raise funds for scholarships as well as fundraising.

“It was fantastic, and it reminded me of why I wanted to go there and why the experience was so important to me and the mission of the University,” he said. “I loved it. I loved coming back to campus.”

In 2002, Warren enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Growing up in a family peppered with military accolades—Warren’s dad was a Korean War veteran, and his grandfather had fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II—Warren wanted to serve his country. He served in the reserves for the next nine years.

The following year, Warren once again came into contact with a certain BC Law graduate—and previous Lecture Series speaker—when Senator Kerry began to ramp up his presidential

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Setti Warren now serves as the executive director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. campaign. Kerry offered Warren a campaign position as trip director, which required him to travel with the senator throughout the campaign trail. Warren was responsible for selecting Kerry’s schedule and setting up his meetings and events as they bused, trained, and planed around the U.S. “I was thrilled to be part of that campaign and that year traveling with him in October ’03 to election night in ’04—I gained an incredible understanding and knowledge for what it takes to run for president, and certainly an admiration for him, as he made his way through the campaign,” Warren said.

The appointment resulted in several long-lasting connections for Warren.

Also working on Kerry’s campaign was Elizabeth Tasker “Tassy” Plummer, who would later marry Warren in 2006, with Kerry serving as a groomsman. Kerry, still a close friend of Warren’s, would later be named godfather to the couple’s daughter. n 2007, Warren’s work for Kerry was interrupted when he was called to active duty from the reserves and deployed to serve in Iraq as a Navy intelligence specialist.

“You are committing to saying that if the Navy needs you and the country needs you, then no matter what you’re doing in your life, no matter what your political views…” he said. “I didn’t think we should go into Iraq, but I also love this country, and I’m passionate about it, and I felt very responsible to fulfill my duty, to be there.”

Around the same time, Warren learned that his wife was pregnant with their first child, which was constantly on his mind during his naval service. In the middle of his deployment, Warren was granted his only time off: two weeks known as R&R (rest and recuperation).

On his first day back in Massachusetts, his daughter Abigail was born. Returning to Iraq less than two weeks after that moment was one of toughest experiences of Warren’s life. The time he spent serving in Iraq in its entirety, however, made a tremendous impact on him.

“I’ll never forget [that experience] because I was on this base with people of so many different races, religions, backgrounds, sexual orientations, and we all had to work together, we all had to find a way,” he said. “I came into that year not knowing anyone, I started with strangers, and I left with lifelong brothers and sisters—it was a powerful experience that in many different ways when I came home shaped how I thought.”

Warren’s return to Newton coincided with his decision to run for the city’s mayoral position. Once again, Warren considered himself an underdog in the campaign and relied on forming tight connections with his constituents to emerge victorious. In 2010, Warren defeated Massachusetts State Rep. Ruth Balser and simultaneously became the first African-American mayor of Newton and the first popularly elected African-American mayor in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

“People thought he was crazy for thinking about running for mayor, because he wasn’t an established politician, and he was young,” said Andrew Stern, former Service Employees International Union president and a close friend of Warren’s since their time spent on the Newton Community Preservation Committee. “I think growing up in a military family and the military notion of discipline and leadership … certainly helped him and his being indefectible and knocking on so many doors, and introducing himself to and talking with

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the citizens on a one-on-one basis.”

Shortly after the election, Warren realized that, at the time, Newton was the only city in Massachusetts that featured both an African-American mayor (Warren) and governor (Deval Patrick). A team member had the idea to hang up portraits of the city’s leaders side-by-side in all Newton public school classrooms, at which point Warren recognized the magnitude of his achievement.

“I remember seeing that and I remember children of all different backgrounds seeing that and how powerful of a statement it was that hearing children of all different races [were talking] about the significance of it,” Warren said.

Upon his mayoral election, Warren confronted a fiscal crisis in conjunction with structurally unsound schools, roads in need of repair, the demand for greater public safety measures, and more police and fire employees. In 2013, Warren worked with his team to curate a tax override package, which included three proposals on the ballot to raise taxes over two and a half percent, or $11.4 million.

Warren planned to put the supplementary tax dollars toward education, infrastructure, and public safety in the form of schools and teachers, road and sidewalk work, additional police officers, and a new fire station. To advocate for such a measure would have been risky at any point in time—“Who wants to pay taxes, right?” laughed Warren—but he knew it was the right thing to do for the City of Newton and its constituents.

So, Warren turned back to the lessons he’d learned long ago when running for UGBC president. He and his staff went directly to the citizens, and when all was said and done, he and his campaign members had knocked on 11,000 doors.

“He doesn’t take anything for granted, he’s willing to knock on doors … I think he probably drew on his experience from BC in terms of knocking on dorm room doors to always listening to what students were saying just like his constituents in Newton,” Power said.

And ultimately, that extra effort to bring people from all backgrounds together under a common goal paid off.

All three measures passed, and he won his reelection in the fall of 2013. Today, Warren looks back on the tax override package as his proudest accomplishment during the eight years he served as mayor of Newton from 2010 to 2018.

On July 9, 2018, Warren started his first day as Executive Director of Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy in the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The center works to promote healthy democracy by fostering journalistic and political integrity through fellowship programs, outreach initiatives, and special events.

“I think he had kind of a civic-minded perspective on things from the beginning,” Power said. “I think he would probably tell you that he always saw himself in a service—whether it be service to his country or service to the community or to the city, it’s something he thought he would turn out to do.”

“I think he had kind of a civic-minded perspective on things from the beginning,” Power said. “I think he would probably tell you that he always saw himself in a service—whether it be service to his country or service to the community or to the city, it’s something he thought he would turn out to do.” n

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THE BREAKFAST CLUB Thousands of people marched on the Boston Common for the third annual women’s rights demonstration.

The 2019 Boston Women’s March: Until All Voices are Heard was organized by March Forward.

By CelIa CarBone Asst. Investigative Editor People flooded the Boston Common by the thousands to take part in the third annual Boston Women’s March: Until All Voices Are Heard, on Saturday.

The intention of this year’s march in Boston was to “re-energize, reinvigorate, and recommit to the mission of the original Boston Women’s March in 2017,” and to create a safe space for all allies who share the values of fairness, inclusivity, and dignity.

Massachusetts can lead by example for the world to follow, the march’s website said, by demonstrating the possibility of “radical inclusion.”

The Boston Women’s March was organized by March Forward Massachusetts, a non-profit organization that aims to create communities for advocates of social justice. A steering committee consisting of representatives from advocacy groups in Boston—including the Boston Women’s Fund, Mass NOW, and the NAACP—worked throughout the year to put on the march.

The Boston Women’s March is not organized by the same group that puts together the Washington D.C. Women’s March and the resulting sister marches around the country.

The Women’s March Inc., which the Boston march is not affiliated with, has been criticized this year after some of its leaders were accused of anti-Semitism.

The group released a statement in November saying that it denounces all forms of bigotry and discrimination, but acknowledged that they did not respond quickly enough.

The Boston Women’s March specifically denounced anti-Semitism, among other things, in its mission statement.

At the formation of the Women’s March three years

ago, some people worried about the direction it might take, said Sasha Goodfriend, president of Mass NOW. The 50-year-old organization advocates for “intersectional justice for people who identify as women and girls.”

“For a lot of long time serving gender equity organizations, there was a bit of nervousness around the new pop coming together of the women’s movement coming together in 2016,” Goodfriend said, “because whenever a … women’s movement comes together, it kind of naturally gives way to marginalizing minorities.”

The steering committee for the march this year is a better representation of the kind of intersectional feminism that the movement needs, said Goodfriend.

The organizations sitting at the table this year are the signal of change, showing the direction in which the march is headed. #WhyWeMarch The Women’s March is held on the anniversary weekend of President Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration, in which over 500,000 people crowded the nation’s capital on his second day in office, transforming it into a sea of pink.

In the months leading up to the election, a 2005 recording surfaced showing Trump using crude language to describe how he used his celebrity status with women to “grab them by the p—y.”

Several women came forward in the aftermath of the released tape to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct, but he dismissed his comments as “locker room banter” and disputed their claims.

The Women’s Wave Is Here Women have since reclaimed the word “p—y” by creating a social movement through fashion: a handmade pink hat peaked like cat ears.

Hundreds of women of all ages arrived off the T wearing their pink hats from home and vendors toured

through the crowd selling the merchandise that has become a symbol of female power.

A playlist of empowering anthems played over the speakers as more people arrived at the Common, the size multiplying in the hours leading up to the march.

The Black Eyed Peas’ “Where Is the Love?” had people singing the lyrics that still carry weight a decade later.

Attendees carried signs with messages from female empowerment to criticisms of Trump. Generations of women held hands as they walked the route near the Common. They traveled from far and wide to march alongside their allies and sisters, some traveling as far as 130 miles from western Massachusetts.

Speakers took to the bandstand before the march to excite the crowd and reiterate why they have gathered. Topics ranged from immigration and racism to LGBTQ+ and disability rights, but the overarching theme present in all of the topics was taken from the Pledge of Allegiance—liberty and justice for all.

Respect All Women Mni wiconi means “water is life” in the Lakota language. Mahtowin Munro of the United American Indians of New England explained how resource exploitation projects, like the Dakota Access pipeline, built partially on Native American reservation land, affect their cultural history.

The land and water are part of their lives, bodies, and families, and indigenous people are compelled to lay down their bodies to protect the land, she said.

“Nothing should happen to our bodies or our land without our consent,” she said.

Six women dressed in red cloaks and bonnets covering their eyes to raise awareness of the widespread epidemic of murdered and missing indigenous women.

They wore red to show that their “stolen sisters” are not forgotten, Munro said.

Out to Change What I Cannot Accept Tanisha Sullivan, president of the NAACP-Boston, addressed the crowd as a collection of sisters, acknowledging the male and female supporters as one.

She delivered a message of optimism and aspiration for what women as a whole hope to accomplish in this pivotal moment in history. She urged the crowd to not forget what she said she believes to be the country’s most persistent foe: racism.

“The humanity we seek to see in one another,” Sullivan said, “transcends any issue and any person because this movement is not about agreement on any issue, it’s about redefining how we engage, how we use our voices, and supporting the commonality in our values.”

Sullivan stood tall with a message for white women.

“We need you to show up for us. … Though justice is slow for all of us, justice has always been more inclined to the voices of our white sisters than it has been to our sisters of color,” she said.

If you see it, you can be it Mehreen Butt carries two things everyday: a copy of the U.S. Constitution and prayer beads. As the first Muslim-American women elected to a municipality in Massachusetts, she believes in “We the People.”

Butt is a Wakefield town councilor and knows that diversity, equality, and inclusivity are not only words that are aspirational, but must become a reality, she said.

“My religion taught me that I must be a voice for those that don’t have one,” she said. “To treat everyone equally.”

Congress has 36 newly elected women, a number once unimaginable, she said. She made the same plea to the crowd as she does to every woman she meets—run for office.

“I need more women sitting at the table with me,” Butt said. “They can’t tell all of us to wait our turn, to be quiet, to stop speaking.” n

G_ f fg_ D _X JXe[ KX b ; df X p X =Xe l =f ld 9P 8I:?<I G8IHL<KK< ?\`^_kj <[`kfi Only three hours before the most anticipated presidential debate in recent history, Bostonians gathered in Faneuil Hall to discuss the state of democracy in the United States. For the second year in a row Harvard philosopher, Michael Sandel hosted a philosophical discussion as part of HUBWeek, a week of events and promotions meant to highlight and bring together the educational, scientific, artistic, and technological communities in Boston.

Sandel, bestselling author of Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? and What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, encouraged audience members to participate in the discussion in a modern version of the Socratic dialogue, a public discussion of civic life and morality. He invited everyone sitting in the historic hall to engage in a discussion about what a democracy is for, with the hopes that this discussion can help us begin to figure out how to repair the tattered state of democracy in our country.

The discussion began with an exploration of one of the most fundamental democratic concepts, voting.

Sandel presented the audience with a proposal: What if a voter could engage in vote-swapping? If a Massachusetts

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voter wanted to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton and a New Hampshire voter wanted to vote for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and they came to an agreement to vote for each other in their respective states, would that be acceptable?

The questions brought up the issue of markets and their role in democracy.

Both parties would be better off, as the value of a Democratic vote is higher in a swing state like New Hampshire than it is in a Democrat-dominated state like Massachusetts. Sandel called on the audience to raise colored cards, red for approval of vote-swapping and green for disapproval.

After a near-even result, audience members were called on to stand and defend their decision. Those who disapproved argued that it was a slippery slope, that it could lead to inequality, while those who approved argued that the economic principle of free markets often leads to better results than government actions. Sandel moderated the arguments and used follow-up questions to challenge audience members’ assumptions.

The discussion of voting continued, as Sandel presented the idea of buying and selling votes and eventually moved toward the ban on “ballot selfies” in many states. While discussing whether voters should be allowed to

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take pictures of their ballots to post on social media, Sandel introduced an unexpected guest who had been sitting in the back of the room—Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09.

Walsh joined Sandel on the stage, where he joked that he supported the right to take a ballot selfie, “especially if they’re voting for me.” Walsh brought up the idea of voting as a civic obligation when he said, “if we have to incentivize people to go vote, I’m not sure that their vote is actually worth it in the first place.” Sandel pushed this point forward, bringing up the example of Australia, which has instituted fines for citizens who don’t vote. In response, Walsh said that the vote should not be mandatory, but continued to uphold voting as a civic obligation.

Moving away from the topic of voting, Sandel provoked laughter as he questioned Walsh about parking in Boston. Many residents shovel out spaces during the winter and save them using traffic cones or lawn chairs.

Citing John Locke’s theory that once we mix our labor with unowned space, we then have a right to that space, Sandel asked if this spot-saving was right or wrong. The audience poll revealed that many viewed it as wrong, to which Walsh commented, “the majority of people in this room didn’t grow up in a three-decker neighborhood.”

As the discussion continued, audience members brought up the idea of civic burdens, benefits, and responsibility, as it related to public space. Walsh joked that this is the biggest decision he has to make every winter, and his current policy is that space-saving is acceptable for 48 hours after a storm.

Sandel and Walsh then discussed parking tickets. Some citizens choose to pay parking fines because they believe they are cheaper than paying for an expensive garage. This brought up the idea of a fine versus a fee. Sandel referenced the shame he felt as a child returning a late book to a library, versus the nonchalance he felt returning a late movie to a video store.

In the second case, he was actually being a better customer because the video store’s purpose was to make money, while the library held a different position as a public facility.

In the discussio

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As Local News Shrinks, ‘Heights’ Metro Section Cotinues to Grow

By Colleen Martin Metro Editor Ten years ago, metro as we now know it didn’t have any words in the paper. Five years ago, it had some, alternating with the features section each issue when The Heights published twice a week. This year, it’s averaged at two pages per issue, with articles posted online throughout the week. There’s a staff and an interest in reporting on Newton and Boston. The mayor of Newton, the police, and local unions talk with The Heights about what’s going on in our community. Business owners share their thoughts on the recent vape ban, the poet laureate of Boston told us her story, and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, BC ’09, allowed us to join him for the Homeless Census with other major news organizations.

BC does not exist in a bubble. The Heights has an obligation to report on the place in which we live. Over the years, things in metro have changed. It began in 1999 as marketplace, a section that focused mostly on business and technology. In The Heights’ 90th anniversary issue, it announced that politics would also find a place in marketplace.

“While other Heights sections will place an emphasis on campus life, marketplace strives to inform students on possibilities in a cosmopolitan context,” wrote Brendan Benedict, a

Women’s Center and BC Dems Talk 2019 Women’s March

Heights editor.

Metro was born, expanding the coverage to arts, theatre, food, and the general happenings of the city. It still covered business—Jebbit, a startup owned by BC grads; Sistine Solar; Purr Cat Café. Forty food articles were posted in 2014. Some were reviews, announcements of openings, or columns about the experience of Boston dining. At the beginning of the transition, most articles were short features about groups in the city and what they were doing: organizations that brought offices to Boston, a post-production facility for film, renovations happening at the Boston Public Library.

Today, metro covers consistent beats and breaking news, more specifically in Newton than in Boston. Some things draw our reporters downtown: the Straight Pride Parade in August, the Climate Strike, the Women’s March.

More often, though, we stick to the blocks around campus.

The Newton elections for city councilors and school committee members were covered by new reporters—each candidate was reached out to and interviewed for a short profile if they replied. We covered a debate and the results for all seven of the wards in Newton. Vape bans, a statewide and local issue that has seen tangible effects in Newton, are constantly covered.

This year, the MBTA warranted its

By IsaBel FenoglIo Assoc. Metro Editor

Among the thousands of protesters who filled the Boston Common on Saturday for the third annual “Boston Women’s March: Until All Voices Are Heard” were a number of Boston College students. The College Democrats of BC sent a group of 30 students, some wielding hand-drawn posters and noise makers, and others came with roommates and friends. The message of the afternoon was clear: The Women’s March is still relevant and not going anywhere.

In the days before the march, the Women’s Center held poster-making sessions, and Kathryn Berman, vice president of College Democrats and MCAS ’21, hosted a poster-making night in her dorm. Conversation centered on the impact

of the march and the importance of continued civic engagement.

“It is always important for students and young people to get involved in politics, not only to go out and vote but also to campaign,” said Amir Orosca, MCAS ’19.

“A lot of candidates this year were saying it’s not enough to just vote anymore, you need to get out and protest and campaign and stand up for what you believe in. As young people, it’s important to show what we care about.”

College Democrats members stressed advocacy and action in the face of complacency.

“We live in a nation in which women continue to be marginalized through discrimination, being underpaid, and sexualization,” said Gabby Kastrunes, communications co-director of College Democrats and MCAS ’22. “Attending the Women’s March is just one way that we may urge

lawmakers to make a change.

“Although the situation for women has improved over the years, women’s rights still have a long way to go. We march to stand up against the injustices committed against women of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexual identities, abilities, socioeconomic statuses.”

The theme of this year’s march was “Until all voices are heard”—a message of inclusivity.

“We were inspired by the passion of all who used their voices to speak up against hatred, bigotry, and violence,” said Abbie Howell, a member of College Democrats and MCAS ’22. “We were especially excited that intersectionality was a main focus of the speeches, posters and sentiment of those in attendance.”

Orosca agreed.

“Barring all scandals, we just need to make sure that every person feels included and kind of re-

ally be acutely aware of a lot of the intersections and oppression that lie with being a woman, and being a woman and black, and to be a woman and trans is a separate experience and separate form of oppression,” she said.

Above all else, students asserted that the message of the Women’s March should not be a yearly reminder, but a daily goal.

“The Women’s March is similar to the Women’s Center as a space where women can feel community, and feel that they are supported in their efforts for remedying gender and equity on campus, in Boston, and across the world,” said Julia Barrett, a Women’s Center employee and MCAS ’19. “So we have that sense here in this office so we support people doing things that are going to help them feel that and help them feel that they are taking steps and action towards improving gender and equity.” n

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own category online as the majority of things we wrote about were T related. In print, to report on the closings scheduled for this winter and fall, we have a “T Closure of the Week” graphic with the info posted underneath.

At City Hall, reporters cover proposals in committees and city council votes. The mayor’s decision to veto the salary raise of councilors—and then the city councilors overturning her veto—was all reported in The Heights.

Columnists were selected to write for the metro selection this semester for the first time. They’ve written about the vape ban, a bill in Boston that aims to end natural hair discrimination and local housing in Newton, among other intriguing topics. The columns give students a chance to really consider what is going on in the city, and prompt their peers to do the same with their writing.

Local newspapers are closing— more than 2,000 in the past decade and a half, and for those still open, their staff is being slashed and their circulation is dwindling. Large companies are buying them and some college newspapers are trying to fill in the gaps. In October, The New York Times wrote about The Michigan Daily being Ann Arbor’s only newspaper—it’s been that way for a decade, and it’s the University of Michigan’s student newspaper. The paper has 300 staffers, four of which

are dedicated city reporters.

The Heights does not have hundreds of reporters, and we don’t print every day. The Boston Globe is our neighbor and Patch and Wicked Local work in Newton. We have company in our reporting. But as the rest of The Heights provides a record of what is going on at the University, metro is the record of the context.

BC students have shown up in Newton City Hall chambers to fight with Newton for Webster Woods, which the city is currently trying to take from the University via eminent domain.

Boston College’s graduate students have been fighting to unionize—it went to the Boston City Council where city councilors showed their support. In Newton, the teachers union is currently fighting for a contract.

BC students are calling for divestment, with groups like EcoPledge and Climate Justice BC spearheading the eco-friendly movement. Newton is working to decrease its carbon footprint with its Climate Action Plan and introducing a composting program to the city.

Even with the addition of local news reporting, metro is still doing the fun stories that it has been doing since its creation. We write about Boston theatre, covering shows with topics of race and education, childhood, and mental health. They go to restaurants,

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do coffee guides, and interview owners.

They go to museums and speak with artists about their work.

Metro works with our multimedia team to make metro a digitally engaging section—from videos of the women’s march to the video compilation from our recent Voice of the T profile, metro has plenty of opportunities to work with our creative team. It gives a glimpse into something people on campus might not be used to seeing— not to mention the city is rife with options for good videos, something that could be hard to find on campus.

Multimedia has plans with metro for the future: capturing the voices of politicians and including them with their quotes in the article is one step toward an even more engaging digital experience.

Journalism is changing: college and local. Local newspapers are closing.

College newspapers are competing with Twitter and other social media platforms as the main mode of communication in schools. Metro must adapt to both changes. It has been changing over the years, and it will always continue to change.

The section is young, and it’s still being molded. There is more local news to be reported on, more culture to be featured, and more people to hear from. Any step toward preserving and furthering local coverage is a good one.

JUAN OLAVARRIA / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Ethan Hayes-Chute spoke at the MIT List Visual Arts Center about his artistic vision.

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The Heights

The Future of ‘The Heights’ Continues to Be Off the Page

By Steven R. Everett Editor-in-Chief If Heights editors of the late ’90s could have imagined the importance of short domain names, we could’ve owned heights. com. That domain name wasn’t registered until May 1998, about 14 months after we purchased what has defined every subsequent email, social media channel, we’ve ever started.

In 1997, the average size of a website was about 15 kilobytes in size–about 0.375 percent the size of 2019’s bcheights.com.

The Heights’ first forays into what was unironically reported as the “information superhighway” began just a year earlier in late 1996, when Heights editors started publishing on what became personal web server (the vestiges of which somehow still exist). But by April, we had our domain name, and our first in-house advertisement at the bottom of the editorial asked, somewhat sheepishly, to “Check out the new and improved Heights on the web @ http://www.bchights.com Now featuring

the Police Blotter. Look for your friends’ most embarrassing moments.”

At that time, the website was almost entirely text. There was one photo and story on the “front” page, with the “more” link leading the reader to an unformatted text wall of articles from that week’s issue.

The site was more of a pet project than anything else—while Boston College had email system set up by 1996 (your_email@ cleo.bc.edu), there was, rightfully, never an indication that all students would one day be checking their email for everything from class updates to Heights newsletters. The Heights was printing thousands of copies weekly with more ads per week than we see in a month—the Internet was an aside.

Perhaps even more than the print edition, the Internet archives are a reminder of just how cyclical the news cycle and BC happenings can be. The first fully archived website from the 1990s offers a front page article of students outside the office of then-newly elected University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., that was essentially the print version ported to

an Internet that still required a telephone connection to use.

By 2001, the proverbial dot-com bubble had not-so-proverbially burst, and we did what any too-busy college student would with new technology: We outsourced to someone who knew what they were doing.

College Publisher, Inc. (a company that also, somehow, still exists) began providing the web infrastructure for our website, and all we had to do was post. Our logo became less Geocities-level debossed, and GIFs were still being used for their intended purpose of quick-loading, low-quality advertisements.

As dated as the website looks now with its weather widgets and kitschy polls, it was the best. We were the most visited weekly college newspaper among the 250 sampled in 2003-04, and while our scope of coverage was small, our website and layout was not dissimilar to the online presence of The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. Same thin layout, same links, and same weather graphics. There must not have been much else to look up online yet.

Despite some color changes and more

unnecessary gradients, the websites didn’t see a major facelift until 2009, occurring in conjunction with our 90th anniversary.

The paper was far from digital-first, but we started to expand our social presence as the Internet became more accessible, faster, and transitioned from its reliance on bulletin boards and IRC chats to blogs and walls and updates.

This was long before Instagram stories, but right around the time that “Your Wall” was the gateway to your presence as an Internet-literate, socially adept college student. In true early-2010s niche Internet fandom culture, The Heights started a Tumblr blog, the B-Line. The first Heights Facebook post on Sept. 30, 2009 declared, to an unknown audience, “Welcome to The Heights’ Facebook Page! Check back for updates!” That status, and many of the ones that followed, didn’t receive any likes.

In fact, a lot of our early engagements must have felt more like shouts into the void than worthy of anyone’s time to post.

Now we’re faced with an inverted version of this dilemma. We receive tens

of thousands of hits to our websites and social channels each month, but we print only a fraction of what we used to at half the frequency per week. We are digital-first, but the question of “digital-where” has become absolutely essential. Now, Facebook draws mostly an older crowd of alumni, Twitter is not really the home to many news-seeking BC students (but plenty of funny ones), and Instagram is great for building a Heights brand, cooking videos and all.

The power of readers to choose only continues to compound when these platforms are multiplied by their users. Anyone can choose, make, or be news to their followers, mutuals, supporters, or enemies.

Cutting through this noise convincingly will perhaps be the greatest challenge of the decade and beyond. College students know of the importance of a free and independent press when considering national issues, but wanting to read it is something else entirely.

It’s our job to make that desire as accessible and fair as we can, even if that means one more email in your inbox on Tuesday and Friday mornings.