The Heights February 11, 2019

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Monday, February 11, 2019

THE HEIGHTS ENDORSES OSAGHAE AND BROOKS FOR UGBC PRES./E.V.P. See A6

Celebration Opens Black History Month Steve Pemberton, BC ’89, served as keynote speaker for the event.

By Samantha Karl Heights Staff The Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center (BAIC) hosted a Black History Month Opening Celebration titled “Still I Rise” on Wednesday. During the event, BAIC hosted speaker Steve Pemberton, ’89, Hon. ’15, current member of the Board of Trustees, and featured performances by

F.I.S.T.S. (Females Incorporating Sisterhood Through Step), PATU (Presenting Africa to You), Voices of Imani, B.E.A.T.S. (Black Experience in America Through Song), and BC Slam! (Soul, Love, and Meaning).

The goal of the celebration was to kick off Black History Month by celebrating diverse cultures and traditions to acknowledge the significant contributions of black people.

Following the opening ceremony, Black History Month celebration will continue with more events throughout February, as the BAIC prepares to host more events intended to bring the Boston College student body together.

Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Joy Moore gave welcoming remarks, and Danielle Date, assistant director of the BAIC, led a prayer to set the tone for the celebration. Both addressed the importance of not only the celebration for BC’s black community, but also the significance of Black History Month for the world in general.

“Although our history is one which endured many struggles, challenges, and hardships along the way, we are not bitter, we are better,” Moore said.

Miya Coleman, MCAS ’19, opened the

See Black History Month, A3

Maggie Dipatri / Heights Editor

UGBC Candidates Face Off in Final Debate Admin relations were the focus of the last UGBC debate.

By Jack Miller Assoc. News Editor and Grace Christenson

Heights Staff

Photo courtesy of Thea bowman ahana and intercultural center

Break-In at Off-Campus Residence An unidentified man was found hiding in a bedroom closet.

By Abby Hunt Asst. News Editor A group of Boston College students found an unidentified man hiding in a bedroom closet in their off-campus house in the early morning hours of Feb. 3. The BC Police Department has since released a Community Awareness Bulletin regarding the incident, which occurred in the Grey-

cliff Road neighborhood of Brighton.

The residents were watching a movie in their living room, when Jess Deagan, MCAS ’20, went downstairs and saw a figure moving into the bedroom of Maria Tavierne, MCAS ’20, at about 1:30 a.m.

Deagan texted her roommates about what she had seen and told them to come downstairs, and they did so, with a boyfriend of one of the residents on the phone and 911 ready to be called. Two of the residents—Veronica Gordo, a former Heights editor and MCAS ’20, and Barrette Janney, The Heights centennial director and MCAS ’20—entered the room.

Gordo used a broom to switch the bedroom light on and to poke the bunched-up covers on the bed in the room to see if anyone was hiding under them. Gordo then turned around to use the broom to check the bedroom closet—which is when she saw a man in a black hooded sweatshirt begin to emerge from behind the wall next to the closet door.

The roommates screamed, ran out of their house, and called the police, who showed up within a few minutes. The police circled the house and found that a

See Break-In, A3

International Student Population Rising Chinese student pop. has grown by 730 percent over 10 years.

By Celia Carbone Asst. Investigative Editor The Boston College international student population rose to a record high 1,878 students this year, according to the statistics report released by the Office of International Students and Scholars.

Undergraduate and graduate students make up 66 percent of BC’s total interna-

tional population, which also includes practical trainees, faculty and research scholars, and dependents.

China has consistently had the largest international student representation at BC for the past 12 years, boasting 927 students during the 2018-19 academic year. Enrollment of Chinese students has increased by 17 percent, up from 793 students in the 2017-18. The Chinese student population has grown by just under 730 percent over the last 10 years.

Trailing second to Chinese student enrollment is South Korea, with 139 students represented at BC. South Korean student

enrollment hit its peak in 2013-14 with 183 students and has been declining since, save for a slight increase in 2016-17. Enrollment of students from South Korea has decreased by 24 percent since its 2013 record high, dropping by 14 percent since last year.

Asia is the region with the most representation across the board, with 1,262 graduate and undergraduate students. The second-largest region represented is Europe, with 301 students.

Five hundred thirty-six undergraduate international students, nearly 30 percent

See OISS, A3

Sexual Chocolate Celebrates 20 Years

Maggie Dipatri / Heights Editor

Sexual Chocolate offers a welcoming space for black students, See A11.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

PROFILE: Osaghae and Brooks

ALC Chair and Arts Senator speak on platforms in bid for UGBC office...............A5

The two teams running for the Undergraduate Government of Boston College president and executive vice president met in Robsham Theater on Sunday night for the final debate of the campaign. Student voters will select either Taylor Jackson, MCAS ’21, and Alejandro Perez, MCAS ’21, or their opponents, Michael Osaghae, MCAS ’20, and Tiffany Brooks, MCAS ’21.

While the first debate limited candidates to issues of diversity and inclusion—topics they largely agreed upon—its sequel opened up discussion to a wide array of questions, largely focused on working with University administrators. During intermission, the audience members were invited to submit their own questions for the candidates.

Candidates began by giving general opening statements. Jackson and Perez used the opportunity to express the three major themes of their candidacies: “community, commitment, and collaboration.” Jackson also described working with alumni as the campaign’s “red thread.”

Jackson works in Campus Activities Board’s (CAB) campus engagement division, while Perez serves as a senator for the Class

of 2021 in the Student Assembly (SA).

In his first statement, Osaghae emphasized the duality of experiences students face at BC and his intention to create more positive moments through their “intentional, innovative, and intersectional” approach.

“I’m running to be your UGBC president because I’ve experienced moments of gold, [and] I’ve experienced moments of pain,” Osaghae said. “I want to make sure we can change that with our student government, encapturing what has worked for us as a community, but also advocating and working to change what hasn’t gone right.”

Osaghae is the chair of the AHANA Leadership Council (ALC). Brooks serves as the senator representing Music, Art, and Performance Organizations in the SA. James Mangan, MCAS ’19, and James Tallis, MCAS ’19—members of the Elections Committee—moderated the debate.

They kicked off the evening by asking the candidates why the average student should care about UGBC. Jackson and Perez, who started with the microphone, emphasized that UGBC offers representation that is often hard to come by when working alone.

“I believe that you should care about UGBC because on a campus of 10,000 students, one student can make a difference, but it’s going to be really hard for them to do so,” Jackson said. “I think that the job of UGBC on campus is to take the beliefs, and take the desires, and take what the students

See UGBC Debate, A3

Law School Enrollment Down, Dean Optimistic Great Recession changed U.S. law school landscape.

By Jack Miller Assoc. News Editor Over a decade after the 2008 recession, law schools across the country—including Boston College Law School—are still grappling with the fallout of a shrinking labor market and decreased enrollment, trends that have only recently—and barely—reversed themselves.

Beginning in 2012, law schools around the country saw their enrollment numbers drop dramatically. Data from the American Bar Association (ABA) showed that basic law degree—a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree—enrollment peaked in the 2010-11 academic year at just over 147,000 students. That same year, there were a recordhigh 52,000 first-year law students.

Both figures consistently decreased over the next several years, falling to a record-low 110,176 J.D. students enrolled for

PROFILE: Jackson and Perez UGBC outsider Jackson teams up with first-year senator Perez in bid for office............................. A4

INDEX

the 2017-18 academic year—one year after first-year enrollment finally improved.

This year, things finally looked up for law schools. National J.D. enrollment increased for the first time since 2010-11, reaching 111,561, while first year-enrollment rose again. In an article published earlier this year, the Boston Herald interviewed several law professors and law deans, many of whom suggested that the Trump administration may have inspired college students to pursue law.

Boston College Law Dean Vincent Rougeau agreed that the “Trump bump” theory could have merit.

“There’s definitely a lot of interest amongst incoming students around public policy, making a difference, and understanding how the law impacts our democracy,” Rougeau said. “I think that what the President and this administration and this whole political era have done is awaken a lot of people to some basic civics lessons about how the government operates, how the legislature operates, and what the

See Law School, A3

NEWS.........................A2 METRO..................... A8

Vol. C, No. 4 MAGAZINE..................A4 SPORTS.................... A16 © 2019, The Heights, Inc. OPINIONS................... A6 ARTS..................... A11 www.bchelghts.com 69

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things to do on campus this week

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Kar yn Polito, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, will be speaking at a panel discussion titled “Civil Discourse in Politics Today” Monday at 5 p.m. in the Walsh Dining Hall.

Monday, February 11, 2019

The Campus Activities Board will be hosting a ’90s R&B Karaoke Night to celebrate Black Histor y Month on Friday at 6 p.m. in the O’Connell House.

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The McMullen Museum of Art and various BC culture clubs will be hosting a Lunar New Year Celebration—which will feature crafts, food from various countries, and a Lion Dance—Saturday at noon in McMullen.

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NEWS At First Debate, Candidates Agree on Diversity BRIEFS

New EIC for BC Magazine

Former editor-in-chief of Boston Magazine John Wolfson has been named the new editor of Boston College Magazine, according to a University press release.

Wolfson succeeds Anna Marie Murphy, who is retiring after 20 years of service at BC Mag. Murphy began working at the magazine as a freelance writer and editor in 1999 and was promoted to deputy editor the following year—a position she held for 18 years. She has served as acting editor of BC Mag since last August, when Ben Birnaum, the former executive director of the Office of Marketing Communications, retired after 40 years at BC. Wolfson ha s most re cently worked as the editorial director for Tufts University’s Department of Communications and Marketing and the editor of Tufts Magazine.

He has also worked for The Seattle Times and The Orlando Sentinel, and written extensively for various other publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.

“As a writer, John excels in the art of storytelling, and as an editor he has consistently demonstrated how to shape the stories that capture the essence of an academic community,” University Spokesman Jack Dunn said in the release.

BC Mag is published four times a year and delivered to faculty and staff, parents of current students, and 182,000 alumni free of charge.

“It’s an honor to follow a journalist as talented and dedicated as Anna Marie Murphy into the editor’s chair at Boston College Magazine,” Wolfson said in the release. “I am thrilled to have landed in a position where I can help one of the nation’s finest universities tell its important stories, and humbled by the opportunity to pick up on Anna Marie’s work leading this esteemed publication.”

Public Health Minor to Officially Launch A new minor in global public health and the common good will be launching at Boston College this fall, with a major scheduled to launch in 2021, Philip Landrigan, the program director and professor of biology, told BC News. The new public health program is the first academic initiative of the new Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society.

Students, faculty, and staff in the program are set to take on a variety of research projects over the next five years—with topics including the ways pollution affects cognitive function, cardiovascular disease, and risks of diabetes and chronic kidney disease.

They will also be researching the effects of global pollution on the health of children, as well as the role mercury plays in the total global “burden of disease.”

The program has been designed to align with the medical humanities programs, pre-health programs, and a three-course public health sequence that already exist at BC, Landrigan told BC News. It will also oversee service missions to countries of different economic statuses in order to allow students to see the factors that affect health and disease first-hand.

“Phil’s vision for this new program charts an ambitious course for the University, our faculty and students,” said Thomas Chiles, vice provost for Research and Academic Planning and DeLuca Professor of Biology, per BC News. “Our Global Public Health and the Common Good program aligns with our strengths in research and teaching, our Jesuit, Catholic mission, and the many critical issues the world faces when it comes to the health of the planet and the people who share it.”

By Danny Flynn Copy Chief

The Undergraduate Government of Boston College hosted the first of two debates between the two teams of presidential candidates on Wednesday. The debate’s focus centered on each team’s approach to issues of diversity and inclusion on campus—there was no disagreement between the teams over how such problems should be handled, and students were denied the opportunity to ask the candidates questions.

The duo of Taylor Jackson, MCAS ’21, and Alejandro Perez, MCAS ’21, faced off against the team of Michael Osaghae, MCAS ’20, and Tiffany Brooks, MCAS ’21.

James Mangan, MCAS ’19, and James Tallis, MCAS ’19—members of the Elections Committee—moderated the debate.

The format was as follows: One team is asked a question and is given two minutes to respond. The other team is then given two minutes to rebut, after which the first team gets one minute to rebut.

Neither team used the rebuttal to directly oppose the opposition’s points, however, as the candidates were often in agreement regarding the importance of an ongoing cam-

pus-wide conversation regarding inclusivity and diversity. If the rebuttal was used at all, it was often used to expand upon a previous point, whether made by the candidate or their opponent.

“If you are at a table and you look around, you ask, ‘Who is missing from this conversation?’, ‘What voices aren’t there?” Osaghae said. “That is where diversity comes in ... now what are you going to do once they’re there?

Are you going to listen to their voice? Are you going to process their experience?”

Perez expressed a similar sentiment, saying that dialogues regarding diversity and inclusion do not happen enough on campus, an issue which his team’s administration will look to address.

In response to a question regarding tangible support for LBGTQ+ students on campus, Jackson suggested an event similar to the Women’s Summit, where different LGBTQ+ leaders, activists, and figures could speak to students about their experiences in post-college life as members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“We also just really want to push the resources that UGBC offers,” Perez said.

“We have this great organization in [the GLBTQ+ Leadership Council] … I think

we can do a better job of advertising these resources to people on campus, as well as opening up more spaces for LGBTQ+ students to meet.”

As Osaghae does not identify as LGBTQ+, he said that it is important for him and Brooks to “step back” and allow other voices to be magnified, a sentiment which Jackson and Perez mirrored in their rebuttal.

Osaghae also articulated his support for transgender students having the ability to change their gender pronouns on the Agora Portal, a statement that drew a chorus of snaps from the sizable crowd gathered in the Heights Room.

“As an administration, we would definitely be working to create innovative and intersectional events that will happen throughout campus and throughout the year to make sure that the dialogue is always happening,” Brooks said in response to a question to how her administration will put on events that are “educational, serious, and entertaining.”

She also mentioned collaborations with different art departments to create a series depicting intersectional and diverse issues through different mediums.

Both teams voiced their support for a

November 2018 UGBC resolution that called for, among other provisions, increased prayer spaces and a resident chaplain for students that practice Islam.

“We’d work to create a committee between UGBC and MSA and make sure that Muslim students have a hand in every step of the way, so that they know what they need will be taken into account and that they have some control over the environment they’re creating for themselves,” Jackson said, as she explained her team’s plans to build on the previous resolution.

In regard to academic change, Osaghae advocated for the establishment of an official African and African Diaspora Studies department, which he said would open up the opportunity for students to be able to have conversations relating to race issues, specifically anti-blackness.

Jackson said that a change that she would like to see is making the admissions supplemental essay question concerning diversity compulsory—a demand that was included in UGBC’s resolution in response to the racist vandalism in December, but previously rejected in a letter to UGBC by Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Joy Moore. n

Co-Curators Discuss McMullen’s EagleMania

By Danny Flynn Copy Chief To celebrate the recent restoration of Boston College’s famous bronze eagle statue, a replica of which now famously sits atop its perch on a column on Linden Lane, the McMullen Museum of Art on Brighton Campus will present the exhibit EagleMania: Collecting Japanese Art in Gilded Age America, beginning Monday.

The exhibit is co-curated by Diana Larsen, McMullen’s assistant director of exhibition design, collections management, and curatorial affairs; and Victoria Weston, an art professor at University of Massachusetts Boston.

Since 1993, following significant weather damage, the original bronze statue has been retired to Skylight Studios, an art supply store in Woburn, Mass., where it was discovered in 2015 by Larsen and conservator Mimi Levesque.

“With the owner Bob Shure, we as-

sessed the condition of the eagle, finding it in a rather sorry state, covered in dust and in several pieces,” said Larsen in a lecture at McMullen on Nov. 14, 2018.

From there, the eagle moved from Skylight Studios to BC’s official warehouse in Newton, after which the restoration process started. The process included the repair of the eagle’s weather-damaged exterior, reattachment of the wings, and the fitting of an interior armature to hold the detached pieces together.

The bronze eagle originated from Japan and was sculpted during the Meiji period, an era in Japanese art from 1868-1912 when the Empire of Japan began to transition from a predominantly feudal society to a Westernized civilization.

The statue made its way to the United States when it was purchased by Larz Anderson, a U.S. diplomat, and his wife Isabel Weld Perkins on their honeymoon, part of which they spent in Japan. The couple’s estate, the Anderson Estate, was donated

to the town of Brookline in 1948 following Perkins’ death and became known as Anderson Park.

Part of the exhibit features the story of the Andersons, including pictures of the eagle proudly displayed on their famous residence.

The eagle was then given to Gus Anderson—no relation to Larz—who was born on the estate and served as Perkins’ personal secretary until her death. He kept the Meiji bronze on his property until he grew concerned for the statue’s safety from the weather, after which he donated the eagle to BC due to a special affinity that the Andersons had for the University, thanks to Larz’s noted enjoyment at a BC theatre production.

Larsen said in her November lecture that, according to Gus’ living relations whom she had contacted, the University gave Gus a single ticket to a football game against Holy Cross in return.

“I hope they won, at least,” Larsen said

with a laugh.

Stationed on Upper Campus until 1955, the eagle was finally paired with its famous pedestal when BC acquired a monument to Adm. George Dewey, which formerly stood before South Station in Boston. In the same year, the eagle was painted the same gold as its replica displays now.

In full, the exhibit displays Meiji period art, focusing mostly on the period’s attachment to eagles and other birds of prey—a peculiar subject, as raptors of this type were not indigenous to Japan—through an exploration of the period’s paintings, impressions, and figures like BC’s eagle.

“It’s really important to have [Weston] who’s an expert of Japanese art, because what we wanted to do was contextualize this eagle,” Larsen said. “So the whole idea of this exhibit is the bringing back of this newly restored work of art that belongs to Boston College. But to do that, we thought, ‘well, what are we going to do to make this thing come alive?’” n

Referendum Sponsors Discuss Its Importance

By Grace Christenson Heights Staff Each election cycle at Boston College, undergraduate students have the opportunity to propose referenda, which are non-binding questions put to a vote by the student body. This year, the question “Should Boston College withhold investments from the fossil fuel industry?” will appear on the presidential elections ballot for the Undergraduate Government of Boston College.

The official sponsors of the referendum are Kate Canavan, MCAS ’21, who serves as a UGBC senator;

Kyle Rosenthal, CSOM ’21, who is a member of Climate Justice BC; and the organization Climate Justice BC. The referendum has also found support from other UGBC senators and both teams running for UGBC President and Executive Vice President have endorsed a “yes” vote.

Canavan is working as a part of the campaign to elect Michael Osaghae, MCAS ’20 and Tiffany Brooks, MCAS ’21, as UGBC President and Executive Vice President.

Rosenthal is serving on the campaign to elect Taylor Jackson, MCAS ’21, and Alejandro Perez, MCAS ’21 to the same positions.

Student support for divestment, both Canavan and Rosenthal emphasized, is not a new movement on campus. Just last April, UGBC passed a resolution calling for the University to divest from the fossil fuel industry.

The purpose of the resolution, according to Canavan, was to demonstrate that the student body is in favor or divestment, and this year’s referendum builds off the foundation created by that resolution.

Canavan and Rosenthal hope that by further establishing widespread support for divestment, they can continue to build a case for why the administration should take action on this issue.

POLICE BLOTTER: 2/06/19 – 2/08/19 Wednesday, Feb. 6

At the very least, they see this as an opportunity to engage in additional dialogue with the administration and the Board of Trustees about socially responsible investing.

Both Canavan and Rosenthal stress the importance of climate justice-related University actions like divestment to creating a positive environmental impact that reaches beyond the University itself.

Rosenthal, who studies the intersection of sustainability and business, echoed Canavan’s sentiments, particularly emphasizing the potential impact BC’s divestment could have on other Jesuit and Catholic universities. n

Friday, Feb. 8 Thursday, Feb. 7

1:21 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a well-being check at 10 Wade Street.

9:23 a.m.- An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at Resevoir Apartments.

12:11 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a suspicious motor vehicle at Keyes Lot.

7:34 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at Resevoir Apartments.

7:45 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at Flynn Sports Complex.

6:47 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a suspicious circumstance at Walsh Hall.

1:28 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding an underage intoxicated person at Off Campus Misc.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

CORRECTIONS What song do you sing in the shower?

“I like ‘Forget You’ by Cee Lo Green, that’s definitely my favorite.”

—AJ Jalal, MCAS ’22

“Disney and musicals, that stuff bumps.”

— Franco Oh, MCAS ’22

“Frozen. ‘Let it Go’ is what I like to sing.”

— Jack McKeon, MCAS ’19

“Katy Perry, specifically ‘Firework.’”

— Adam Chappalear, CSOM ’22

Please send corrections to eic@bcheights.com with ‘correction’ in the subject line.

The Heights

Monday, February 11, 2019

Debate Outlines Differences in Outlook UGBC Debate, from A1 take the desires, and take what the students want to see happen on campus and make that happen for them or point them to the resources that are going to help them to do that in a timely fashion.”

Osaghae shared a concern that not enough people engage with UGBC, limiting its ability to represent the student body—not participating or caring about UGBC can create a hole in BC students’ potential experience, according to the candidate. Almost every question asked the teams to compare themselves to each other, whether in leadership style, qualifications, or platforms. While the teams largely agreed on how issues such as sexual assault, accommodating Muslim students, and supporting the LGBTQ+ student community should be handled, all four candidates laid out differences in how they would approach certain problems.

Perez was the first to draw a direct contrast between the two teams, promising that he and Jackson would expand UGBC’s reach to all BC students. In response, Osaghae said that a key point of differentiation between the teams is their platforms, with his focusing on “short-term, pragmatic changes that will hopefully be accomplishing [during their] presidency.”

Brooks cited her approach to leader-

ship, as well as her personal identity, as an important strength she would bring to the office of executive vice president.

“I know what it feels like to not really have a voice growing up mixed race,” Brooks said. “I never really felt like I belonged to both of the communities I’m a part of and that I had a strong or grounding voice in one, so that made me very empathetic and passionate about representing those who need to have their voices uplifted.”

UGBC’s president and executive vice president meet with the Board of Trustees three times during their terms, which led the moderators to ask both teams what issues they would raise in their initial meeting with the University’s governing body and how they would ensure progress going forward.

Perez, who responded first, committed himself to getting BC to withhold investments in the fossil fuel industry—the subject of an upcoming referendum question, which will also be on the ballot on Thursday. Osaghae and Brooks agreed on the importance of divestment, but also explained that they would prioritize allocating resources toward the LGBTQ+ community—which the other team signed onto during their rebuttal—through the creation of an LGBTQ+ center on campus.

Their platform contained proposals for this center—which they suggest could tem-

porarily be housed in Carney Hall—as well as a corresponding full-time position in the Dean of Students Office. In their platform, Jackson and Perez called for a “Pride Summit,” modeled in the image of BC’s annual Women’s Summit.

Audience-submitted questions asked about more specific issues, such as advocating for Muslim students during Ramadan and supporting LGBTQ+ students.

With respect to working toward continuity with the outgoing UGBC administration, the two teams held very differnet visions. Jackson and Perez highlighted their “outsider” status, arguing that the diversity of experience within their campaign allowed them to approach issues from a different angle. They specifically emphasized the way in which the “widespread” involvement of their team allowed them to source many of their campaign initiatives directly from students. Conversely, Osaghae and Brooks voiced support for many issues that the SA had incorporated into their resolution last December—namely hiring more mental health counselors of color—and vowed to continue initiatives pioneered by Ignacio Fletcher, UGBC executive vice president and MCAS ’20, such as regular meetings with UGBC senators and the continuation of a “Student Assembly Handbook” for writing resolutions. n

Residents Discuss Break-In Details Break-In, from A1 basement door in the back of the house, which had been locked earlier that day, was open. They assessed that the burglar likely escaped through it during the period of the time in between the students exiting the house and the police arriving.

The students found a pair of large footprints near the stone wall behind their house, which has led them to believe the burglar hopped over this wall into a wooded area on Brighton Campus when he escaped.

The police said that they found no evidence of forced entry into the house. The residents are unsure of exactly how the man got in, as all of the points of entry in their house had been locked earlier that day.

The students said that, following the incident, their landlord came over and showed them how easy it was to jimmy locks open just by sliding a credit or business card through the door. The detective they spoke

with said that a crowbar can be used to do the same thing even more effectively.

The detective also suggested putting wooden bars over their windows and replacing their doors that have windows with windowless ones.

While the burglar would have had to pass by four different bedrooms before entering the room where he was found—and had the opportunity to steal a laptop, a Canada Goose jacket, wallets, jewelry, and other valuable items that were out in the open—the residents said that the only thing stolen was a pair of AirPods. “[With] laptops, you have to wipe stuff, [and] credit cards, I would have had to just cancel all of them—whereas AirPods, they’re pretty easy, in terms of, he could just slip them in his pocket and doesn’t have to do anything with them,” Tavierne said. “I don’t know if this is true, but maybe [he did it] so that he’d be labeled as a thief and not a sex offender.”

The residents said that the people living in the unit next to them told them they

had seen a suspicious person trying to look into their house from the backyard earlier that week, who left in the direction of the woods.

To prevent a future incident from occurring, the students have changed their locks and door handles, began deadbolting their doors, put more lights outside, and implemented a new camera-based security system in their house. “[We’ve been] telling everybody to be really careful, especially with knowing about how you have to always deadbolt, and not just do the one little knob, because that can be easily opened,” Tavierne said.

The BCPD bulletin released after the incident encourages students to keep their doors and windows—including those on patios and upper floors—locked at all times, keep ladders and similar items secured and away from their residence, be aware of their surroundings, get to know their neighbors, avoid leaving valuables in plain view of windows, and immediately report suspicious activity to the police. n

BC Law Still Feeling Recession Effects Law School, from A1 consequences of certain political activities are.”

But while the current political environment may been drawing more attention to the field, law schools have a long way to go to reverse the overall negative trends in interest.

“There was a big drop off in interest in law school after the recession in 2008,” Rougeau said. “That was an economic reaction because people used to see law as a good way for someone with a strong liberal arts undergraduate background to enter a professional field that had good prospects professionally and economically.”

Following the recession, prospective law students changed course to more promising fields, especially the finance industry and Silicon Valley. He also explained that law school across the country purposely limited enrollment in the years after the crash—leading to the downward trends identified in the Herald report.

While national trends in first-year enrollment have turned around, BC is yet

to catch up. First-year enrollment fell nine percent from last year.

“We made the decision that we should decrease the size of our classes to account for the fact that the job market has contracted,” Rougeau said. “There were a lot of recent law graduates in that [post-recession] era looking for work, and it was taking them a lot longer to find it or they weren’t finding the same quality of work.

“Meanwhile, law schools were realizing, ‘we can’t keep graduating large classes of lawyers or large classes of graduates when the employment prospects have declined.’”

That decision compounded the natural aversion undergraduates had to law school at the time, leading to simultaneous lower application and enrolment numbers. Despite a decade of economic growth and the aid of a new generation of law students, Rougeau said that interest in law school is unlikely to fully recover to pre-2008 levels.

One factor is that the number of jobs has not yet bounced back to pre-2008 levels. The market for lawyers is less crowded than in the years following the recession, but mostly as a result of lower law school enrollment,

not new employment opportunities.

“There’s a better balance between supply and demand,” Rougeau said. “Demand hasn’t soared. It’s up, but it hasn’t soared. Now that there are fewer actual graduates looking for work, it’s a lot easier for those graduates to find work because demands has improved enough to absorb them.”

In the event of a future major recession, Rougeau sees the new generation of law students as a major asset. In his eyes, their interest in public service has inoculated them against chasing more profitable career paths—a mindset that pushed many away as the job market contracted.

“I’m not counting on law school enrollments to return to their pre-2008 levels, because I think that was the end of a different time for lawyers,” Rougeau said. “You can’t go to law school because you think that right after you graduate, you’re going to get a $180,000 job at a big law firm on Wall Street or downtown Boston. If you’re entering the legal profession these days, that’s because you really see the public side and the ways it really is essential to the way our democracy works.” n

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Increasing International Student Populations 2018-2019

927

2017-2018

793

2016-2017

641

2015-2016

585

2014-2015

487

2013-2014

366 320

2012-2013

Change in Chinese student population

2018-2019

1878

2017-2018

1751

2016-2017

1606

2015-2016

1462

2014-2015

1379

2013-2014

1277

2012-2013

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Change in total student population IKRAM ALI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

New Admissions Trends OISS, from A1 of enrollment, are pursuing degrees in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences. The economics major is the most popular among the group, with 178 students, followed by finance in the Carroll School of Management, with 108 students.

The economics department reclassified the major as a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) program from a social science this summer.

International students will benefit from this reclassification, because if they are participating in a 12-month practical training program after graduation, they may use a STEM degree to apply for a 24-month extension, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The extension may place students in a better position to find employment, according to

a Heights interview with department chair Christopher Baum that took place after the reclassification.

Currently, 495 BC graduates are undertaking a period of practical training in the United States, a 7 percent increase from last year. Two hundred eighty graduates from China have been placed in practical training this year, nearly six times as many students as South Korea, the second-most represented country.

Over the past 10 years, the international student population in MCAS has dominated the other schools’, sporting 795 undergraduate and graduate students. CSOM international enrollment has increased gradually over the past 10 years, from 109 to 159 students.

Overall, international student enrollment has picked up pace since 2013, increasing by an average of 8 percent each year. n

Pemberton Talks Diversity Black History Month, from A1 first portion of performances for the celebration and recited the poem, “Still I Rise,” by Maya Angelou. The performances that followed included a spoken word performance by Grace Assogba, MCAS ’22, and Latifat Odetunde, MCAS ’22, which revealed the injustices that black women faced in history and grapple with today, with the intention of turning “HIStory to HERstory,” as they said in the performance.

Introduced by Amaka Nnaeto, MCAS ’20, Pemberton spoke about how he overcame struggles in his life as a child, at BC, and as a person of color in the professional world.

He encouraged students to be the best they can be during their time at BC and to take advantage of the opportunities they are currently presented with. He noted that backing down and being defeated is not an option for black people, as it is always time to be the best you can be.

Students and faculty listened carefully to Pemberton speak about how hard it was for him to find belonging as a child raised in the foster care system, and his eventual search for his biological family. After getting in contact with his biological family, he read a letter that his alcoholic mother wrote to her father asking for money, Pemberton said. He discussed the implications this deviation had on his young life after he found that this letter included the names of all his mother’s children except him.

It was in that moment, Pemberton said, that he realized he was excluded from his biological mother’s letter because his father was black. Pemberton added that BC was the closest thing to family he could find growing up because of this letter, the injustices he faced as a black child in the foster care system, and his failed attempt to find connection with his biological family.

“I am not now, nor have I ever, been in

the business of retreat,” Pemberton said.

“Our ancestors will only smile at our responses to struggle, so [we cannot] accept any label that we are beneath or below, unaccepted, marginalized.”

With his story, Pemberton advised that students utilize education and become informed citizens as a means of rebellion.

He addressed the importance of protest but furthered his argument that education is the key for tangible changes in the black community.

“I see you, I see you want to respond to the incredible dissonance and cynicism in society, so sit in the front of the class, go to law school, so that you’re the African American female judge who sentences the police officer who thinks that it’s okay to gun down young black boys the age of my son,” Pemberton said.

As an adult, Pemberton said his professional counterparts would comment on how polished and intellectual he seemed for a black man, and told the audience that neither he nor any other black person should be considered an aberration or an exception. He said that black people are a strong reflection of the history that has been in their blood since the beginning of time, and closed by noting that Black History Month is the perfect time to keep this in mind now and for the future.

“It is time now to fully understand and embrace knowledge and celebrate our history, our contribution, and to direct it a purposeful way so that future generations who are counting on us know that this institution, this society, has a place for them too,” Pemberton said.

“That is our expectation, and that is our gift.”

After a standing ovation for Pemberton, Coleman performed “Ode to the Negro National Anthem,” followed by numbers from B.E.A.T.S. and F.I.S.T.S., featuring an appearance by BC’s first tenured Black professor, Charles F. Smith Jr., which resulted in a final standing ovation. n

Candidates For UGBC Office Emphasize Contrasting Perspectives

By Jack Miller Assoc. News Editor

And Grace Christenson Heights Staff The two remaining presidential teams in the Undergraduate Government of Boston College presidential election race disclosed their official platforms at Monday night’s election kickoff. Both teams also sent The Heights extended platforms with more policy details.

Students will choose between Taylor Jackson, MCAS ’21, and her running mate Alejandro Perez, MCAS ’21, and opponents Michael Osaghae, MCAS ’20, and his running mate Tiffany Brooks, MCAS ‘21, on Thursday.

In an extended platform submitted to The Heights, Jackson and Perez expanded on their campaign themes: “community,

commitment, and collaboration.” Many of their ideas focused on bringing oftenexcluded groups—prospective Eagles, alumni, and international students—into campus conversations.

The two sophomores outlined several major initiatives with specific goals for each, beginning with “Flight,” a program they described as a “pen pal” system.

Current BC students could choose to write to incoming freshmen and prospective applicants, especially high schoolers who identify as AHANA+. Flight would also help BC undergraduates reach out to alumni mentors. This program could serve as an addition to Compass Mentorship Program, which is geared toward freshman AHANA+ students.

Jackson and Perez endorsed the expansion of hall talks led by the Thea Bowman AHANA Intercultural Cen-

ter (BAIC) as part of their campaign’s broader focus on “conversation.” They also proposed an on-campus “Pride Summit,” modeled after the annual BC Women’s Summit, which took place last week. Jackson and Perez vowed to create “a ‘revolving door’ conversation” when approaching administrators.

Osaghae and Brooks, running on the slogan “Connecting U with UGBC,” also greatly elaborated on their initial platform in the documents they sent to The Heights, contextualizing their proposed initiatives within their goal that UGBC be truly representative of the student body.

The platform aims at “intentional, innovative, and intersectional” leadership.

They split their platform into five sections: “Health and Wellness,” “Intersectional Experience,” Campus Innovations,” “Academics,” and “Reinvigorating

UGBC.” Some of their platform echoed ideas from last December’s Student Assembly resolution. They called for the expansion of University Counseling Services’ group therapy sessions to include “more groups centered around marginalized communities,” such as LGBTQ+ students, students of color, and students with disabilities.

Other provisions called for the administration to add a democratically elected student position on the Board of Trustees and create a mandatory yearlong first-year seminar that would cover “issues of social identity, historic and contemporary structural injustice, and cultural competency.” Both policies were explicitly endorsed in the December resolution.

Their platform listed several reforms to BC academics, most notably the eleva-

tion of the African and African Diaspora Studies program into a full department.

Like their opponents, Osaghae and Brooks devoted a large portion of their platform to advocating for BC’s LGBTQ+ community.

Their platform includes proposals for a space in Carney and full-time position in the Dean of Students Office that would act as resources for LGBTQ+ students, along with the ability for students to enter their preferred name and gender pronouns on Agora Portal.

In one of their biggest proposals, Osaghae and Brooks declared support for the “Your UGBC Fund,” which allows students to submit a funding proposal for an event “that aims to uplift an issue, topic, or community,” in line with “UGBC’s mission as a student advocacy board.” n

The Heights

A4

Monday, February 11, 2019

Taylor Jackson & Alejandro Perez COMMUNITY * COLLABORATION * COM M IT M E NT

By Brooke Kaiserman

Magazine Editor

S

he’s felt a connection to Boston College her whole life. She’s a legacy who grew up merely 40 minutes from Chestnut Hill. Her mother graduated in 1998, and her grandfather worked on the janitorial staff. She knows every inch of campus—besides the Undergraduate Government of BC (UGBC).

But that’s no deterrent for Taylor Jackson, MCAS ’21, who hopes her fresh eyes and outsider status will be an asset to her presidency.

Her running mate, Alejandro Perez, MCAS ’21, has believed in Jackson from the moment he met her.

Their paths crossed early in their first year at BC—Jackson and Perez met through BC’s Emerging Leader Program (ELP), a mentorship and development program which accepts 50 students during their freshman year. The two remained friends into their sophomore year, and when Jackson reached out to Perez with the opportunity to join her team, she had his unwavering vote of confidence.

“I was like, ‘Absolutely,’ no hesitation,” Perez said. “Because Taylor is someone who I look up to a lot. She has this large network of people who can really vouch for her throughout this campus. Everyone that I told I was running with Taylor Jackson, [was] like, ‘Taylor Jackson!’ They immediately knew who Taylor was.”

Hailing from Boston’s South Shore, Jackson has never been far from BC. A formative moment of her adolescence— one in which she was forced to confront her identity and rectify what she saw herself as in comparison to what others saw—came early on.

In a fight with a kindergarten classmate, Jackson was called a “blacktop,” a racist epithet spoken by a clueless fiveyear-old. Still, the careless remark remains one of the most significant experiences of Jackson’s early years.

“That was one of the most defining moments I had,” said Jackson. “Just realizing part of my own identity, and then understanding how to cope with conflict.

And then going to school the next day, and having to still be her friend.”

When it came time to make her college decision, Jackson nearly missed the 11:59 p.m. cut-off in choosing to attend BC over Stonehill College in Easton, Mass.

“I ultimately chose BC because it’s kind of a family school for me, and I grew up here, and I’ve always felt comfortable on campus,” Jackson said. “So I knew, going here, [that] even if I didn’t love it, I’d be comfortable here, and I’d grow to love it, which I totally did,” said Jackson.

She soon immersed herself in several clubs and extracurriculars on campus.

One of the first organizations she joined was the Campus Activities Board (CAB), where she now works in the Campus Engagement Center to plan events such as bingo, movie nights, and the BC Boardwalk.

Jackson is also a proud member of the Committee for Creative Enactments (CCE), an improv group, as well as the dance troupe BC Full Swing. When she’s not unleashing her creative energy, Jackson is uplifting the women around her through her participation in Thrive.

“She definitely is super hard-working, super diligent—she’s involved in so many things on campus and gives everything her all,” said Meredith Sullivan, MCAS ’22 and Jackson’s CAB mentee. “It’s amazing to see and she’s super passionate about everything she does. She’s not just doing these things to get involved … and it’s super inspirational.”

One organization Jackson didn’t join, however, was UGBC. Her introduction to the Student Assembly (SA) arrived in tandem with her decision to run for UGBC president. erez remembers the day he sat in his kindergarten classroom on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as the first time he confronted his Hispanic identity, when Perez’s teacher instructed students to organize themselves into different groups based on their racial identities.

“She basically said, ‘If you identify

P

student is expected to fill in. After checking this box, Perez faced confusion as to how he should categorize himself racially.

“Hispanic [is] not a race, so all you really have are your options of white, black, Pacific Islander, Native American, and I just feel weird not knowing where to go on that scale,” said Perez.

Perez grew up slightly farther from the Heights than his running mate: He was raised in Providence, R.I., while his parents are both from Colombia.

When Perez was in high school, he participated in the Keith A. Francis AHANA Weekend, an overnight event which provides admitted students with a sampling of the opportunities and extracurricular activities that BC has to offer.

Over the weekend, all of the prospective freshmen in attendance piled into one room in the Yawkey Center to hear from administrators who waxed poetic about how BC would soon start to feel like a second home.

“At that point, it really didn’t feel like that for me,” Perez said. “They had invited like 50 or 60 AHANA kids, but could I really fit into the community like this?”

At the end of the day, it was a fellow student—not an administrator—who most influenced Perez’s decision to attend BC. The then-newly elected UGBC President Akosua Achampong, BC ’18, gave a powerful speech and assured AHANA+ students that their community was tightly-knit and resolutely supportive. That speech was ultimately why Perez chose BC, and its inclusive message is one he

“Commitment is one of the three C’s within our platform. ... we’re really pushing the agenda of students more than our own, because we have their interests in our minds when we’re running for these positions.”

-Alejandro Perez as black, get on this side of the room, as white, on the other side of the room,’” said Perez. “And I remember thinking to myself, at five years old, I was like, ‘Where do I fit in this scale?’”

To this day, Perez reflects on the experience—he credits it as a formative one.

Yet this feeling of uncertainty followed Perez throughout his adolescence, as he wondered why he was forced to fit into a box but didn’t feel like he belonged in any of them. He mentioned standardized tests, specifically the preliminary question of whether or not someone identifies as Hispanic or Latino—one that is separate from the ensuing race boxes that every

hopes to emulate if elected as UGBC’s Executive Vice President.

Perez is no stranger to student body leadership. During high school, Perez also served as prefect, the equivalent to the student body president. Hoping to capitalize on this momentum by representing his fellow BC students, Perez unsuccessfully ran to be a senator in the Student Assembly in the fall of his freshman year.

But this one mishap did little to hinder Perez’s desire to be a leader on campus.

“That’s really why I decided to get involved with it—I wasn’t going to give up after losing out that first time,” said Perez. “I really wanted to give it a second go because I’m not a quitter. So I gave it a second try, and I ended up winning that election, and for that I’m very grateful.” ackson notably did not partake in any of these experiences. While she’d been interested in joining student government since high school, Jackson didn’t have the courage to do so until this year.

“I originally decided to run because in high school I was scared to do everything, and I was like ‘Oh, I can’t do it, I’m gonna fail,’” Jackson said. “Last year, I was like, ‘Oh, I should totally run before I graduate,’ but I was like, ‘Oh, I’m too scared, I can’t do it.’ So this year, it just seemed more tangible—I had found my footing on campus.”

With Perez and Elizabeth LoPreiato, MCAS ’21 and the duo’s campaign manager, already on board, the team came together seamlessly. Perez was driven to run because he’s an RA in the Duchesne community on Newton Campus. He’s grateful to them for the inspiration they provide—if elected, Perez hopes to expand his efforts to bring people together to the student body as a whole.

“He passionately cares,” said Ana Luque, LSEHD ’21, who works in the Office of Student Involvement alongside Perez. “He really wants to make an impact. … I feel like he would really go out of his way to make sure he does what he’s promising and take it a step further, and just really live by what he says he’s going to do.” roadly, Jackson and Perez categorize their platform in terms of three “C’s:” community, collaboration, and commitment.

One of their major initiatives is to offer new opportunities for students to connect with others by expanding the scope

J

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF TAYLOR JACKSON AND ALEJANDRO PEREZ

Taylor & Alejandro “Flight” Mentorship Program for BC Applicants

LQBTQ+ Pride Summit

Strengthen Student Access to Alumni Network ALLYSON MOZELIAK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

B

CELINE LIM / HEIGHTS EDITOR

of the Compass Mentoring Program, a program for freshman AHANA+ students, to include local high schools. This would involve sending BC students from the AHANA+ community to visit local high schools to draw in a more diverse student body.

Additionally, the two want to establish a pen-pal program, coined “Flight,” which would link current BC students to

Jackson and Perez have continually emphasized their desire to create “spaces for change” on campus. Ultimately, they’re pushing for the creation of a student center, though they realize that this will not be feasible under their tenure.

It also falls under the jurisdiction of the administration. In the meantime, they want to make it known to students that there are spaces which currently exist

“I originally decided to run because in high school I was scared to do everything, and I was like ‘Oh, I can’t do it, I’m gonna fail.’ ... So this year, it just seemed more tangible—I had found my footing on campus.”

-Taylor Jackson high school seniors. These BC mentors would advise the high school students throughout their application process to BC—such as the BC student explaining how he or she went about completing a supplemental essay on the application.

Ideally, this person would continue to be a resource for the applicant as he or she becomes a student and serves as an older mentor to guide the new student during his or her initial months on campus.

This initiative overlooks the confidentiality of the application base and UGBC’s lack of accessibility. Jackson and Perez believe it could potentially result in a higher number of accepting students, particularly members of the AHANA+ community and provide inclusivity and support to new members of the freshman class.

As for students who already attend BC, they want to improve upon pre-existing community-building initiatives. The Campus of Difference workshops—which the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center (BAIC) pioneered last year with the Student Programs Office and the Office of Residential Life—involved students conducting mandatory cultural competency workshops with the residents of selected freshman residence halls such as Medeiros, Cheverus, and Kostka.

If elected, the two hope to expand the scope of these workshops to reach most, if not all, of the student body. They cited bringing these conversations about race, diversity, and inclusion to the sophomore and senior areas on campus, as well as expanding them within the freshman area.

Perez, who works for the BAIC as a Bowman Advocate for Inclusive Culture, noted that the office is currently working to reformulate these cultural competency workshops to make them more interactive. Jackson and Perez are in support of this. They believe the format should be changed from comprising mainly statistics to more personal stories that will resonate more strongly with students.

around campus.

“One that is currently in use right now is the UGBC office over in Carney—that is a safe space for anyone who’s willing to use it,” said Perez.

In terms of creating a new space, Jackson and Perez want to initiate a pride summit similar to the Women’s Summit for BC’s LGBTQ+ community.

“I’m not sure how feasible it is, because we just thought of it today [Feb. 6],” Jackson said. “But I think as we have the Women’s Summit [which] just passed, I want to say this past weekend, I volunteered at it, and a lot of the participants were saying, ‘This is an amazing experience, I came last year,’ and it’s one of the reasons they chose to stay at BC is because they went there.”

Regarding the administration, Jackson and Perez want to aim for a “revolving door” relationship in which the two bodies can have an open, continuous dialogue. One example the two cited was the University’s decision to switch from Early Action to Early Decision in the application process.

“This isn’t something we can specifically change, but we just want the administration to take a second look at this, because we don’t think it’s right,” Perez said. “That’s a huge thing we want to focus on.”

The final “C,” collaboration, involves efforts to strengthen the alumni-student body connection. They cited increasing efforts to bring alumni back to campus to share their success stories with students, as well as hosting events such as a recreational “winter event” and a BC Athletics sporting event in Conte Forum which alumni and students could attend together.

Beyond this, Jackson and Perez plan to break the “BC bubble” by reaching out to undergraduate governments from other universities—especially those with larger populations of international students. They believe that through this, UGBC can discover new ways to better

“[BC has] always been really close to my heart. It’s a place where I think it should come off as it is advertised— where it is a home for everybody and a place where you can grow and develop and find yourself.”

-Taylor Jackson “I know when I did DiversityEdu, like, I did it, and I paid attention, but I didn’t really retain it,” Jackson said. “So I think doing something in person, or something tangible, you can hold, or hear, or see, will definitely go further than an online program.”

Additionally, they want to implement a training module for senators in the Student Assembly, which would be formulated with the Bowman Center, and would be similar to pre-existing exercises currently offered in the BAIC office based on anti-bias education guidelines by Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

“We haven’t really talked about it too, too much, but it would be different than DiversityEdu as far as, I think it’d be more helpful to have faculty members or alumni or speakers come in and talk to respective RA’s, or group leaders, or senators, and say, ‘Here’s what helped me, or here’s something that happened to me that I didn’t appreciate,’ or ‘Here’s my story, and this is how it can relate to other people,’” said Jackson.

accommodate the University’s international population, in addition to providing stronger support for the entire student body in terms of diversity and inclusion, mental health resources, and dining accommodations and worship spaces for Muslim students.

“Commitment is one of the three C’s within our platform,” said Perez. “That’s something we really want to emphasize, that we’re really pushing the agenda of students more than our own, because we have their interests in our minds when we’re running for these positions.”

Jackson may have been far removed from UGBC up until this point, but she’s never felt closer to BC. “I think that—well not ‘I think that’—I know that I want it more than the other candidates just because BC is so close to my heart and it’s always been really close to my heart,” she said. “It’s a place where I think it should come off as it is advertised—where it is a home for everybody and a place where you can grow and develop and find yourself.” n

The Heights

Monday, February 11, 2019

A5

Michael Osaghae & Tiffany Brooks INTENTIONALITY * INNOVATION * INTERSECTIONALITY

By Timmy Facciola Assoc. Magazine Editor

H

e’s been an orientation leader and she’s been a citizen of Whoville. He’s been on a Jamaica Magis service trip, she’s been in Chicago. He’s been on the pitch, she’s been on the stage, and on Feb. 14, Michael Osaghae, MCAS ’20, and Tiffany Brooks, MCAS ’21, will be on the ballot running for president and executive vice president of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) on a platform of three Is: intentionality, innovation, and intersectionality.

As chair of the AHANA+ Leadership Council, Osaghae has been involved in a number of diversity-related initiatives, from the inception of DiversityEdu to the resolution passed in December in response to the University’s handling of racist vandalism.

While he and Brooks are proud of the student body for coming together in a time of crisis, they think there’s a lot more work to be done.

The team has both short and longterm goals with tangible policy initiatives, but they want to begin with the first “I,” intentionality, which informs their approach to UGBC’s relationship with the administration.

Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Joy Moore’s response to the December resolution raised a number of questions about both

was a celebration,” said Osaghae. “People were smiling, dancing, trumpets were playing, drums were playing.”

The trip rejuvenated his outlook on life, and when he returned to the United States, he began thinking much more critically about his role in the world. Osaghae went on to high school at Georgetown Day School, a coed K-12 school for which he credits his formation both academically and personally.

He took more of a leadership role in clubs and in life, serving as captain of the soccer team and president of the Black Student Union.

His time leading the Black Student Union has informed his activism on BC’s campus. He was part of the team who put together DiversityEdu, and, while he was happy it was implemented this year, he thinks there’s plenty of room for improvement.

Particularly, he wants to make the modules BC-specific. He also wants to make it more difficult for students to half-heartedly scroll through it just to get it done.

In addition to ensuring students have a common currency of terms to discuss issues surrounding race, Osaghae and Brooks would also like to see the African and African Diaspora studies program expanded into a full department, which would allow students to major in AADS. With the proper vocabulary and academic opportunities, the team

“One of our overarching goals is to create an intersectional community, and I think that we can’t really do that unless we’re listening to the voices of every party involved on this campus.”

-Tiffany Brooks the University’s willingness to work with the student body and UGBC’s understanding of its power dynamic with the administration. Some of the requests, like an immediate doubling of the funding of Thea Bowman AHANA Intercultural Center (BAIC), were simply not feasible in the middle of a fiscal year. Others, like the immediate expulsion of Michael Sorkin, CSOM ’21, violated University policy and federal law. “ We categorized those as ‘demands,’” Osaghae said. “Although we want to show how visceral the moment is for students, and how students are in pain, not everyone is open to that word ‘demands.’ So we can be more intentional about the language that we use. Invite [people] into the conversation rather than having it be a one-way ticket.”

Osaghae thinks his understanding of UGBC’s relationship with the University makes him the best candidate for president. But he hasn’t always been so confident. In first grade, according to a classmate, he “could never be president because you’re black.”

“That really just made me internalize my blackness in my experience at school. My school was great, but just that one interaction colored my experience,” Osaghae said.

Osaghae persevered and continued to work hard in school, but says after that day, he began to hold himself back and always answered the question “How’s it going?” with a generic, positive response.

In the summer b efore eighth grade, Osaghae experienced a wakeup call when his grandmother died.

He was particularly close to her and his grandfather because they often visited Osaghae and his siblings over the summer.

Growing up as Nigerian-American, Osaghae struggled with his identity, feeling torn between his father’s Nigerian heritage and his own American experience.

Osaghae went to Nigeria for his grandmother’s funeral, which he credits for changing his outlook .

The most eye-opening aspect was witnessing a Nigerian funeral and its stark differences from a traditional American one.

“Instead of a typical gloomy feel, it

also wants more informal gathering spaces where students can “study, collaborate, and relax,” both casually and academically as part of their second “I”: innovation. Their platform calls for the purchase of outdoor urban furniture to utilize existing outdoor spaces.

“Spaces” has been a common buzzword this election, with both sides calling for spaces of collaboration, as well as safe spaces for marginalized communities.

Although students can meet in a number of classrooms and other study spots, Osaghae and Brooks call for a permanent home for marginalized students, like an LGBTQ+ resource center, despite the administration declining to show interest in such a project.

They’d also like to see the Multicultural Living Experience floor expanded to Newton Campus because, according to Osaghae, there are students of color who don’t feel

from fossil fuels. But UGBC has no leverage to tell the University how to invest. While Osaghae and Brooks still call for divestment, in the meantime they are proposing a tangible alternative that would still bring change to BC—a rotating waste-disposal tray in McElroy dining hall similar to the one in Lower.

“We want to engage with BC Dining to make that happen because that’s something that I think is key,” Osaghae said. “If we’re going to be a leader, not only in Boston but globally, we have to lead from the bottom.”

But the y also lobby for more exciting things than a sustainable waste-disposal system.

As the Music, Arts, and Performance Senator, Brooks wants to incorporate activism with the arts and uplift student voices by highlighting their hard work outside of the classroom.

Together, Brooks and Osaghae brought an event to Robsham called POC Art Lab, which featured BC dance groups like Presenting Africa to You (PATU) and Fuego, as well as a Boston group called the Front Porch Art Collective.

If elected, Brooks hopes to continue fostering opportunities for students to express their activism through art. To her, the two go handin-hand.

She’s been on stage her whole life.

In high school, Brooks performed in two plays each year, while serving on student council, as well as playing softball and captaining the dance team for two years.

“She has so many passions I don’t e ven know [what she’ll do after graduating],” said her roommate Ally Lardner, LSEHD ’21. “She’s studying to be a doctor. … I can also see her in marketing because she’s so great with people. … She’s an amazing performer as well, so if she wanted to make it somewhere in the performance business I could see that happening too.” rooks grew up with her father serving in the Navy, so she moved around a lot as a kid.

Even after her family settled in Rhode Island when she was in fourth grade, they continued to move— Brooks has called six different houses in the Ocean State home. She found a permanent home during high school when she attended St. Mary Academy–Bay View, an all-girls Catholic school.

“I think being in an all-girls environment, there was just something so empowering about that and everyone was so supportive and caring of one another and really uplifted each other,” said Brooks. “I’m still friends on Facebook with teachers that I had and we’re really close.”

Brooks is drawing on her experiences with profound female empowerment—Osaghae is keeping close to heart his Nigerian roots and together

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more University Counseling Services (UCS) counselors but specifically more LGBTQ+ counselors and counselors of color.

“It’s important to not only have representation but also to have people in spaces where you’re able to have more critical conversations about how you are addressing mental health, but also how you are addressing mental health if you’re a person of color, how you’re addressing mental health if you identify as LGBTQ+,” said Osaghae.

“That’s a point where I think we’re very specific on our platform and

specific faculty members in mind to serve, but he has bounced the idea off some and has been happy with their responses.

“They all have been all for it.

They’re all like ‘yes, yes, yes’ and I think that is because the faculty feel as if their voices aren’t being listened to but also aren’t being centered,” said Osaghae. “Not only in conversations about the direction of our university but decisions as well.” saghae has taken it upon himself to immerse himself in the full student

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“Although we want to show how visceral the moment

is for students, and how students are in pain, not everyone is open to that word ‘demands.’”

-Michael Osaghae that’s not to discredit the other candidates.”

Just under 40 percent of UCS Counselors identif y as people of color, according to Joy Moore, which is proportional to the most recent student body diversity statistics. But this does not account for the fact that demand for UCS counseling has risen, despite it being demographically proportional.

Osaghae and Brooks hold representation as a priority, specifically intersectional representation. Intersectionality requires listening to all different experiences, including those of non-students.

In addition to uplifting their classmates’ voices, Osaghae and Brooks want to create a Faculty Senate composed of professors who feel the need to voice their concerns about working at BC. “The administration, they have a voice. Students, we have a voice with UGBC. We have someone to advocate for us, but where’s the faculty’s advocacy point?” Osaghae said. “Who are they going to to have a direct line to the administration and Board of Trustees to share concerns about what is going on with our university?”

The history of a faculty senate at BC has been somewhat fraught. The University Academic Senate dissolved in the late ’70s, and the most recent attempts to bring it back in 2006 and 2013 were met with resistance from the BC Board of Trustees. Some of the faculty who voted in favor of creating a senate in 2006, most notably Christopher Baum, chair of the economics department, still work at the University, but it’s unclear.

Osaghae said he didn’t have any

experience, from serving as an Orientation Leader to running for President for his final year on campus, and this has afforded him a unique purview into the ups and downs of students’ trajectories at BC. At orientation this summer, multiple parents of students of color pulled him aside to ask for his insight.

“They’re like, ‘Would you send your brother here? Would you send your family members here?’” said Osaghae. “And I often pause because I didn’t know what to say. You’d expect as an Orientation Leader [to say] ‘Yes, of course,’ but I’ve had really low lows here and really high highs, and in all that UGBC has been a place, a tool, a megaphone—that advocates when my voice has been low, when other students’ voices have been low, and when our voices have been high and heard.”

After a second semester serving as ALC chair, after racist graffiti that left BC’s black community in distress at the end of 2018, and after running a presidential campaign with one of his best friends, Osaghae’s answer remains.

“I still pause. Not because I don’t believe in our campus or if you can make your experience memorable, but I pause because I recognize that sometimes life at BC can be hard. It’s not going to be perfect,” said Osaghae.

“But I believe in the people here, I believe in the people in dining, I believe in the people in Residential Life, I believe in the people in culture clubs, I believe in the people in UGBC. … Something that isn’t always present at other universities but is here: when communities are targeted we always stand up for each other in solidarity.

We always fill those roles.” n

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF MICHAEL OSAGHAE AND TIFFANY BROOKS

“The administration, they have a voice. Students, we have a voice with UGBC. We have someone to advocate for us, but where’s the faculty’s advocacy point?”

-Michael Osaghae safe on Newton.

Like candidates before them, Osaghae and Brooks are asking for the University’s help in ventures it already said it would not entertain.

They recognize that BC has been unwilling to work in the past but feel it’s important to continue to advocate for voices they believe to be marginalized, even if it probably won’t go anywhere.

“We’re all working to make a better BC, but we do have different ways of going about it,” Osaghae said. “We have different mechanisms that we use, but we can stand firm in our positions and sometimes draw a line in the sand and say that we want this as a student body and we need this.”

Another UGBC rallying cry the administration has ignored in the past is for the University to divest

they are pushing their third “I”: intersectionality.

“One of our overarching goals is to create an intersectional community, and I think that we can’t really do that unless we’re listening to the voices of every party involved on this campus,” said Brooks.

At the diversity and inclusion debate, Osaghae acknowledged that although he and Brooks do not identify as LGBTQ+, they believe they have an obligation to listen to voices who are so they can better understand and advocate for those students.

They’re asking the University to use gender neutral bathroom signage on all construction projects in the future, a request made by candidates in the past.

In addition, Brooks and Osaghae not only want the University to hire

CELINE LIM / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Michael & Tiffany Rotating Waste Disposal in Mac

Outdoor Urban Furniture

Turn AADS into a Full Department IKRAM ALI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Heights

A6

Monday, February 11, 2019

Editorial

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Osaghae & Brooks Have Institutional Knowledge, Experience to Lead

The Heights Editorial Board endorses candidates Michael Osaghae, MCAS ’20 and Tiffany Brooks, MCAS ’21, for the 2019 Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) President and Executive Vice President (EVP).

The endorsement was made by The Heights Editorial Board after individual, hour-long meetings with the Osaghae and Brooks team as well as with Taylor Jackson, MCAS ’21, who is running for president, and Alejandro Perez, MCAS ’21, who is running as her EVP. Given Osaghae and Brooks’ well-established connections with the administration, their team can be trusted to work productively with the University. Their approach is practical and incrementalist, and their previous UGBC experience will ensure that they are efficient in realizing their goals. They will have an idea of what works and what does not work in UGBC—and are therefore expected to avoid simple mistakes during their tenure.

After the racist incident in Welch Hall in December and a UGBC resolution that was almost completely rejected by the administration, the student body needs confident leaders who are capable of bringing meaningful change that is welcomed by both students and the University.

Osaghae and Brooks’ platform focuses on using UGBC as a “megaphone for student voices,” citing an increased need for dialogue between UGBC and the student body. For the team to be successful, it will need to direct these voices carefully, and push back on infeasible or simply impossible requests made by the students or the SA. It is imperative that the team focus its energy—and that of UGBC as a whole—on what can, realistically, be accomplished in tandem with the administration.

Jackson and Perez, in contrast, lack vital institutional knowledge and prerequisite experience in UGBC to lead the organization. During its meeting with The Heights, the team often spoke only generally about its initiatives, rather than referring to specific tactics or plans for implementation.

One of their more novel campaign ideas was a pen pal program with potential BC applicants. During its meeting with The Heights, the team seemed unaware that it would not be given access to names of applicants from the Office of Undergraduate Admission. Perhaps more striking was that they were unaware that a similar program—where current students speak at high schools near their hometowns—is already in place through the Student Admission Program (SAP), called “Outreach.”

Other inaccuracies from Jackson and Perez were also encountered.

When asked about Joy Moore’s recent letter, they stated—wrongly—that the administration was willing to work on an admissions question about diversity per the UGBC resolution request.

They also stated that the tuition dollars are invested in the endowment, which is untrue.

Perhaps most striking is Jackson’s comparative lack of connections to UGBC. The team has emphasized its status as “outsiders” as a positive.

In this case, however, it is evident that being an “outsider” meant that the team lacked critical experience and insights into the organization and its standing relationship with the administration.

Osaghae has extensive experience as a previous member of the SA, a resident assistant, and an orientation leader. He is also the chair of the AHANA Leadership Council.

Brooks also has experience in the SA as the senator for the Music, Arts, and performance organizations. In its meeting with The Heights, the team was focused on their platform and elevating the student body, and also expressed its commitment to continuing initiatives from the current administration. Not only are Osaghae and Brooks familiar with UGBC history, but they also aren’t afraid to point out its past shortcomings.

Some meaningful, feasible platforms included free pads and tampons inside bathrooms and having a student artwork installation displayed throughout the campus.

Not all of Osaghae and Brooks’ ideas, of course, will be implemented.

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Solar panels and the Your UGBC Fund are unlikely to be taken into serious consideration by the administration, and it seems the team has not thoroughly discussed these ideas with the appropriate administrators.

Their proposal of rotating dish stations at Mac and Stuart Hall would be expensive at the least and would warrant more research.

Further, the administration has repeatedly signaled that the proposal of a student on the Board of Trustees is a non-starter. The team’s idea of a faculty senate has been implemented twice before at BC and was last shut down in 2013. There is no reason why the issues that prevented the initiative’s success before would now be different. UGBC can continue to call for these sorts of changes, but it should not be the focus of the body.

Resources must instead be allocated to feasible changes, or else UGBC will simply become a repetitious echo chamber.

Continued communication between UGBC and the administration is key, and Osaghae and Brooks understand that. Following the rejection of the UGBC resolution, Osaghae personally talked with Moore about why the resolution was rejected. Osaghae’s relationship with Moore and other administrators is paramount because UGBC does not have the authority to implement its resolutions, which are considered only as suggestions to the administration. Most sweeping resolutions—such as the one passed after the racist incident in December—are not recognized by the University.

Because of this, the most important role for a UGBC president and EVP team is for them to be leaders on campus. In order to act as a megaphone for student voices, the UGBC president and EVP must be in constant dialogue with the administration, and make smart choices about what changes they bring attention to.

Osaghae and Brooks’ experience in UGBC and inroads with the administration, combined with their commitment to listening to students, will serve them well in their positions as student leaders.

“Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys (and girls). Make your lives extraordinary.”

- Dead Poets Society, 1989

Letter to the Editor In Response to: CSOM Establishes Guidelines to Combat Grade Inconsistency I regret that I must write another letter to the editor, but my last one was insufficient or too late. I still have hope that Boston College can continue to be a place where learning is fostered and prioritized over grades and all students have the opportunity to do well based on their own abilities.

As the CSOM guidelines were developed, students were ill-informed. While student input is incredibly necessary and often lacking at BC, in this case, simply communicating with students about potential changes would have been sufficient. The only official input referenced was from recruiters, and I lack the word count to fully unpack our flawed success paradigm here.

Although, in general, grades may not change much, these guidelines set a precedent and do risk being restrictive. While claiming the guidelines are suggestions, untenured professors have implied that they are mandated to follow them. Any deviation from the norm by untenured professors is a risk, which is an underlying issue in this case and a larger one within our current higher education system.

One professor warned our class during add/drop week that he was difficult and a hard grader, so he would understand if we left. Considering the price of tuition, I want a hardworking learning experience, but it is not fair for my grades to suffer. Additionally, even if I wanted an easier class, due to my schedule, that section was essentially the only one I could take. Are we satisfied with a system where schedule conflicts increase my workload relative

to my peers?

The issue is not with inconsistent grades, but rather inconsistent workloads and teaching across professors.

This is to be expected and is not necessarily a bad thing, though we should recognize what it is, rather than refer to it as merely a grading issue.

While adamantly defending arguments in regard to grade inflation, the administrators simultaneously attempt to frame their decisions as a focus on consistency. This argument is flawed as not all professors nor workloads are consistent. They talk about students choosing professors because they are easy, yet the guidelines are focused on core CSOM classes, which are supposed to have relatively the same content and difficulty. Why is the focus on grades if there is an awareness that it is the work that is overly difficult or easy?

The statistics mentioned are also confusing as a .2 increase in GPA over 10 years is considered inflation, in a time when SAT scores increased by 90 points.

They even reference grading in the 1960s, a time when BC was a commuter school. Not to discount the abilities of those students, but BC has grown into a global, top-tier institution.

I respect and believe the fact that the administrators do not intend to hurt students. However, consistency in teaching practices must be evaluated more thoroughly before implementing such guidelines, and I hope that in the future, transparency, communication, and student input are valued a bit more.

Signed, Kyle Rosenthal, CSOM ’21

The Heights reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity, accuracy, and to prevent libel. The Heights also reserves the right to write headlines and choose illustrations to accompany pieces submitted to the newspaper. Letters to the Editor and guest columns respresent the views of the author and do not

necessarily represent the views of The Heights or the editorial board.

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Monday, February 11, 2019

“For All” Includes Black

A7

A Costco You Only Have One Best Friend Coming-of-Age

friend (2nd, 3rd, 4th place) 3. Friend(s) - Amount may vary depending on

what point you are at in life - You see each other in different

environments besides a desk in Stokes Fatoumata Sall | Guest Columnist Dani Thomas - Weekends are most likely spent Last column I talked about dating That might have caught most of you off

trying to out-drink each other apps and whether or not the Boston guard as a demeaning statement, but, in 4. Friend of a friend College hookup culture is something my opinion, we all need to stop brushing - Infinite branches of acquain- over the word “diversity.” I thought I knew for you. This week, I will be expressing

tances my opinion about “best friends” and the the meaning until I was bombarded with - You occasionally know their

person you spend the rest of your life the many questions about how I contrib name and possibly have their with (whether it’s a partnership, union, ute to diversity on campus, as if that’s my number because of that time you marriage, etc.). role at Boston College.

needed notes for that class you At BC, there are a lot of profesWe use the word to fill in a missing

didn’t go to Monday morning sors who have found their permanent hole in our vocabulary. We use it to make - More often, you acquired their co-author and sealed it with a ring and a sense of years and years of systemic rac Snapchat on a Friday night while signature. Others have found their lifelong ism, ignorance, and inappropriate action. you both were intoxicated in the passion, which holds more consistency Students, professors, admissions of bathroom than any human being ever could. Either ficers—we just spit out the word nonchaThose of you that are similar to Kim way, they all love to talk about the loves lantly as if it’s gum and smack it right on K and have 50 best friends … surprise, 46 the shaking, broken down wall that’s ready of their lives. During the fall semester, of them are just friends or acquaintances we see a lot of newly married couples to crack at any given moment. It’s here at who fulfill nothing in your life except your taking wedding photos in front of Gasson ego.

BC where I’ve realized that while we are privileged to be receiving such a renowned because they met their eternal tailgating Now that we have established and partner here. Whether that was in Walsh accepted that everyone can only have one education at a prestigious university that or in Courage to Know, they successfully preaches the practice of discernment and best friend, it is time to discuss the person connected with their best friend and now you cannot legally testify against after men and women for others, we do not practice what we preach. To sum it all up, their endless valentine. being pronounced, your partner in crime, With that being said, I believe that if it is men and women for others, why is it your for better but mostly for worse: your never white and non-black people of color if you are going to buy someone a gift forever partner. every February 14 for the rest of your life, for black students, faculty, and staff?

However, I feel that I need to clarify: that person should be your best friend.

It shocks me how often we say things Your life long partner/best friend does without considering their meaning. Think And no, you cannot have more than one NOT have to be your soulmate. Merbest friend. Grammatically and logically about it, what does diversity even mean? riam-Webster defines soulmate as “a When someone says it, do you think about speaking, your “best friend” is the “BEST” person who strongly resembles another in out of all your friends. the dance groups on campus, the culture attitudes or beliefs” (2019). Your soulmate The 4 Categories of Friendships in the could be your mother but she is not your clubs, the non-white students, or do you Modern Age: think that white people are diverse at all? best friend. As I stated earlier, none of 1. Best friend After my arrival at BC, I was hit with your family members are categorized in - Max category capacity: one a huge wave of culture shock. Being born these friend groups. But a family member - You cannot imagine living without can be your soulmate because of the and raised in Senegal, then immigrating

them on this earth to the Bronx and then later moving to possibility that they understand you on a First person you want to call when deeper emotional level that is impossible Harlem, you can only imagine my face the

ANYTHING happens first day of classes freshman year when to attain with someone who did neither 2.

Close friend(s) all of the diversity that was preached was raised you nor grow up with you.

- Inner ring of no more than three nowhere to be found. It wasn’t until I took Before getting down to business,

people a sociology class with professor Cedric consider these questions: What is a best - You know the big changes and friend to you? Is it more meaningful for Michael Simmons that I began to analyze

events that happen in their lives the word that we’ve been carelessly your best friend to be able to say someThe people you tell information thing you want to hear or something you flaunting around. Based on my personal

to AFTER you tell your best need to hear? Is a best friend the person experiences on campus, to me the word

Students

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who understands you better than anyone else?

In my eyes, a best friend is the one who gets you at times when you are asking the question, “what am I doing?” Pretend your relationship is a chess match, but your partner knows your move before you even know how to. Every emotion is able to be felt and expressed because you are willing to reveal all the parts of yourself to them without a second thought.

The key to a blissful best friendship is a mutual understanding of each other. Or if you just want a best friend who will never say “no” to a dumb idea, that’s fine too.

Now, what does your ideal timeless love look like? Have you ever thought about it, or am I talking to the wrong crowd?

Personally, when I have an endless love with someone, it would feel like a sense of home, no matter where we are.

It would feeling as if my honest, true self belongs in the arms of the other person (cliché, I know). There is an understanding that me and the other person have with no one else, nor do we want it with anyone else. We would be constantly showing thoughtfulness with situations that seem impossible to resolve. We are always willing to work together through the ups and downs because the other person is worth every ounce of what you can give. There is a sense of vulnerability that is comfortable because I know that the other person is just as exposed as me.

Or if you just want a travel partner who you can stand to be with on a seven-hour road trip to D.C. or a 13-hour flight to Japan or even a 2-5 month hike on the Appalachian Trail, that seems fitting too.

Based on the listed characteristics of both a best friend and your everlasting love, the person you want to spend the rest of your life with should be your best friend. What most people look for in a significant other is often what ends up being the same as what a best friend is to you. Just a note for next time, opposites do not attract in relationships.

Isabel Litterst I have a long and complicated history with the Costco enterprise. I suppose you could say that I was born into the Costco family, and in retrospect, I can see that the grooming began in my youngest years—aimlessly wandering the industrial isles and collecting pears and meatballs from sample booths are among my earliest memories. In fact, I still wonder from time to time whether or not Costco’s Platinum membership was created specifically for my dad, who frequents the “Big C” (as he calls it) more than the gym. I think that my dad, originally from Germany, views Costco as a sort of landmark or a staple of the American cultural experience. He often has international customers come to visit his company, and when they ask him to show them the sites, he is more than proud to present to his visitors one of America’s finest attractions: Costco.

For years, I developed a marked criticism of my father’s attachment to what I viewed as a large dumpster vaguely resembling a wholesale supermarket. It was the place where I had to spend my Saturdays and pretend that I wanted to bring my friends there for playdates. I will admit, I was not above dramatic outbursts to “subtly” convey my situational frustrations to my parents.

More often than not, large cups of “chocolate-vanilla frozen yogurt twist” and topping-heavy pizzas were offered to me by my parents to sweeten the deal and quell an impending public tantrum. As my mom so vividly recalls, there was one time when I took the childish antics a step too far. Rather than performing one my clichéd spectacles and attention-grabbing outbursts, I took the opposite approach, quietly disappearing from the frozen meats section and into the depths of the warehouse aisles. I was pleased with this choice until I realized that not only were my parents unaware of my

Dani Thomas is an op-ed columnist whereabouts, but I had no idea where to for The Heights. She can be reached at find them. After a moment of sheer panic, I opinions@bcheights.com. turned myself into a Costco employee and

actually is a code for a predominantly

was retrieved by my now-hysterical parents.

white institution with a sprinkle of a few

I was not a happy camper in my early days

black, Asian, Indian, Latino, and Native

at Costco.

American students that briefly talks about differences while dismissing the actual racism and animosity toward non white people on campus.

BC’s Actions Contradict Its Morals

It might be uncomfortable to some that this is the definition that I have generated from my experiences with the word, however, it really shouldn’t surprise those who are aware of racism. Let’s face it, being a Muslim black woman is only noticeable to me when other students, faculty, and the administration make it uncomfortable by

Vaughn Feighan

Many institutions in the modern There is nothing wrong with talking about age contradict the ideals which prop our differences—in fact, I support that them up. This is obviously a subjective completely, because our differences make statement and may be influenced by us unique. But participating in an open my cynical outlook on the monoliths to conversation is entirely different from be- which Americans bow on a daily basis. ing treated as “the other.” Asking me about Nevertheless, you do not have to agree the “black experience” as if I represent all with me in order to read this. In fact, black people treats me as an other. Would this column might make you angry, it really make sense if I asked each random which will hopefully make you question person about their [insert socially conwhat I am saying—that would be the structed identity here] experience? best-case scenario.

Does the school actually care about Companies like British Petrolium “diversity” or marketing? Tour guides (BP) market themselves as dead-set on often mention to mostly (physically) white investing in clean energy, yet continue tour groups how important diversity to transport oil in unsafe tankers. Acis. There are administrators, staff, and cording to the ITOPF, last year alone, students who do care about the actual 116,000 tons of oil were leaked into our physical, emotional, and mental health, world’s oceans from oil tankers alone. as well as the overall well-being of black Deepwater Horizon was the largest oil students on campus, but this cycle of spill in United States history and it took branding black students as the gatekeepCongressional pressure for BP to finally ers and solution to BC’s racism problem is release underwater video footage of the becoming redundant. spill. BP preached clean energy, but was If diversity is one of the most impornot willing to shed light on the reality of tant things on campus, why is there a the situation to protect itself. racist incident directly and specifically The counterargument to this example is, “Of course, BP didn’t want to toward black students every single year?

To say the very least, this is my opinion, release the footage. They represent the and I believe and have faith that the good intersection between human nature and people of BC will eventually realize that good marketing, this institution was to we, as black students, are not a threat, but try to save itself.” No. Institutions that rather humans, and we need to be treated serve society are more than organizaas such, not a picture on an admissions tional value. What is their image in the brochure to mix up some colors. public? What is their duty to society As a black woman, I am beautiful, I am and the environment? How is this landintelligent, but I am not magic because I scape changing before our very eyes?

Take Boston College for an example: am also flawed. I am human, and I have feelings. Just like any student from any BC is an institution in every aspect of background, I came to school to find my the word and a very powerful one at passions, build my business, influence for that. Every year, over 30,000 students vigorously pointing out my differences.

the better, and earn my degree. It becomes enervating when I am constantly compelled to represent “diversity” on campus because I refuse to be degraded. I am human before anything else, so I deserve to be treated as such.

from across the United States pour their entire being into their application so that a five-minute impression will be enough to receive an acceptance letter.

Additionally, think of the grants, breakthrough research, faculty, and lecturers who hope to land a spot on the Heights.

Extrapolate these 30,000 applications of last year, over the history of our school, and you have a very powerful institution.

I began questioning BC during my sophomore year when we became the only Jesuit institution in the United States that refrained from declaring our campus as a sanctuary campus for all immigrants. It was so powerful because it contradicted everything I was learning. In my classes, I learned that a certain set of transcendental and innate human rights belonged to every person, regardless of federal regulation.

To see that my college was not following through with what it was teaching was shocking. The impermeable Jesuit ideals of a BC experience, which had been ingrained into my identity through PULSE, Arrupe, the core curriculum, and the university’s mottos—“Men and Women for Others,” “Cura Personalis,” “Set the World Aflame,” etc.—underwent a drastic period of questioning.

I cast no blame on BC itself for the DACA rulings, individually-charged racist acts on campus, political upheaval in the Catholic Church, sexual assaults on and off campus, LGBTQ+ movements, or any other external event along those lines. However, BC is at fault when its response is opposite to the fundamental pillars on which a number of communities from across the United States believe it stands. That is called lying. In writing this, I wanted to refrain from anything that would seem like “attacking” a school that has most definitely had a positive impact on my future and self. Nevertheless, it is also an imperative for current students to

respond to the challenges on campus for future classes, and so far, the responses from this administration have been subpar.

It is no secret that BC struggles with racial diversity, but why is BC telling prospective students that its campus is 31 percent AHANA students when AHANA includes categories of “white” in that classification? A white-passing Latina is included as an AHANA student, for legitimate reason, but to market AHANA as being as racially diverse when 4 percent of the student body is black, 9 percent is Latino, and the last 11 percent is Asian seems like an easy overstatement to make (I am using the white-passing Latina as a mere example, this is not to undermine or discredit any part of someone who is a white-passing Latino/a). If BC truly wants to serve its students, it needs to accept applicants of greater of racial and socioeconomic diversity so that we may introduce a new set of backgrounds into each other’s lives.

The effects of this action would compound. As more diverse students and faculty are accepted at BC, the difference that each of us would bring would be incredibly revolutionary for ourselves and our education. We already know that there is an inherent disparity within educational systems across the United States, so it is harder for students of lower socioeconomic classes to achieve the same type of “success” within the academic realm. People simply need to be given a chance. This is also not to be interpreted as being given a “freebie.” With an endowment of $2.6 billion, there is more than enough to provide for a thriving student body of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and socioeconomic statuses.

My disdain for Costco only grew stronger with age, as I began to see the impracticalities of buying food in bulk quantities for three people. The problem with Costco seemed to be that the food was sold in disproportionately large quantities that far surpassed the intake needs of my tiny family. We simply could not eat a 15-pound container of potato salad by a reasonable deadline. There was an expiration date to my patience as far as Costco was concerned, one that I developed after many years of fridges filled with spoiled Kirkland “good deals.”

I began to distance myself from the Costco community, rolling my eyes when I was informed that the dinner that I was enjoying so much was a new Costco find. For me, it was never really about the wholesale style or the coupon frenzy, it was more than that. Costco had always been my dad’s thing, something that I now realize may have been an underappreciated part of my upbringing that I was destined to rebel against. How does the saying go? You can lead a girl to the wholesale supermarket, but you can’t make her shop...? I knew the way to my dad’s Costco like the back of my hand, but I had to find my own Costco on my own time.

As a college student, time is limited and supermarkets are expensive. I exhausted my resolve to be a City-Co “regular” during finals last semester. If only there was some kind of magical place where the food selection was abundant and the quality was verifiable. Somewhere to escape the underwhelming “deals” of niche supermarkets and still garner enough groceries to last a month … I know just where to go. Bubbling with anticipation, I start down the road en route to the only place that comes to mind.

I take out my card and hold it up eye-level for the security guard to see as I approach the entrance with my cart. The friendly gatekeeper gives me an affirmative nod, and I instantly feel like a member of an exclusive club. I cross the threshold, the dividing line between the outside world of normalcy and the kinder, brighter world of discounted produce and unlimited samples.

My face suddenly softens and my shoulders

Vaughn Feighan is an op-ed columnist relax. I feel a calm air wash over me as I take for The Heights. He can be reached at in this safe space, overcome by the familiar opinions@bcheights.com. smells of fresh rotisserie chicken and Kirk-

The opinions and commentaries of the op-ed columnists appearing on this page represent the views of the author of that particular piece, and not necessarily the views of The Heights.

Any of the columnists for the Opinions section of The Heights can be reached at opinions@ bcheights.com.

land brand chocolate-chip cookies that flood my senses. Everything around me seems to say, Welcome to Costco. Welcome home.

Isabel Litterst is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

The Heights

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Monday, February 11, 2019

Equitable Marijuana Licensing Proposed

By Colleen Martin Metro Editor An ordinance was proposed in Boston City Council to establish equity in the regulation of the cannabis industry by Kim Janey, councilor for District 7 and chair for small business and consumer affairs, on Wednesday afternoon.

One of the most important things to consider when granting licenses is not to “lock out” the people who have been “locked up” for cannabis related crimes in the past, Janey said.

Her proposal would give preference to people from the communities affected by the war on drugs over those who are unaffected.

“This is important because for generations the war on drugs targeted and criminalized poor communities of color, causing economic devastation, family separation, and emotional trauma,” she said.

The NAACP reported that white and black people use drugs at similar rates, but black people are incarcerated for it at six times the rate, Janey said.

“Ensuring equity in the emerging industry will help correct the harms and right the wrongs that have been inflicted by mass incarceration,” the councilor said.

Boston is going to have a minimum of 50 dispensaries, she said, which means that it will have roughly two in every neighborhood.

She would like to create a city-level equity program that would be put together by the mayor’s office and the city council.

It would be responsible for offering support and technical assistance for equity applicants, generating revenue to be reinvested in communities to support small businesses, creating a board to oversee the process, and making online registry with mapping for clarity and transparency.

Additionally, it would make sure the businesses are operating safely— namely not selling to minors.

The program would give preference for licensing to “equity applicants” during a two-year preference period.

After the two years, a 2-to-1 ratio equity to non-equity businesses would

have to be maintained.

“As the cannabis industry grows, it’s imperative that the economic benefits are directed to the communities that far too long have been negatively impacted by the war on drugs,” Janey said.

Without a program in place, she said, the City of Boston will miss the opportunity to help close the wealth gap.

“We have a chance to get the cannabis industry right from the beginning,” Janey said.

Janey was commended by several of her colleagues in the City Council who said they would support her as she moved forward to pass legislation.

Lydia Edwards, Michelle Wu, and Josh Zakim stood to speak in support, and six others voiced their approval.

“In the City of Boston we are going to be leaders,” Zakim said. “Not just on transparency, not just on entrepreneurship and innovation, but on equity.”

Andrea Campbell, president of the City Council, announced that the ordinance would move on to the Committee on Government Operations. n

Chilacates ‘Brings Street to The Street’

By Colleen Martin Metro Editor Every quesadilla brings a different experience.

This might sound a bit dramatic, since it is just tortilla and cheese, but it is not dramatic. It’s true.

The experience brought on by eating the quesadillas at Chilacates, now open at The Street in Chestnut Hill, is one of the better ones you can have. The classic chicken and cheese quesadilla has a perfect ratio, accompanied by satisfyingly attractive sides of guacamole, sour cream, and pico de gallo. It’s nothing fancy—but a quesadilla shouldn’t be.

Chilacates is a restaurant similar to that of an El Pelón: You don’t walk along the counter and point at the ingredients you’d like to add to your meal, but you do order at a counter and hopefully snag one of the few seats in the place.

It has the standard options—bur-

ritos, quesadillas, tacos, enchiladas, taco salads and plates, tortas, and bowls. Everything served is made fresh except for the quesadilla and burrito tortillas, owner Socrates Abreu said.

Soon, he hopes those will be fresh too.

While the dinner options might be typical, there is one very important thing that sets Chilacates apart from its competitors: dessert. The flan and tres leches are refreshingly cold, and are too good to resist no matter how many chips you ate with your guac and salsa.

The bowl is different from similar dishes at competing establishments— instead of putting the ingredients on top of each other in a dish, the plate is laid out with each food placed next to each other creating a map of colors.

You might not want to eat it, because then you won’t be able to look at it.

That’s a common theme at Chilacates: everything is visually appealing.

The moment you walk in, your eyes are glued to a giant mural of Frida Kahlo

on the right wall, one that was painted

by Ray Liriano— a Boston-based artist and musician— in just a few months.

Abreu said that it took longer than it normally would because the artist was working in the building in December—before it had heat.

Chilacates is expanding from its original Jamaica Plain location and the second location on Amory Street in Boston. Abreu said he’s had people traveling from far away to visit his stores—one family at the Chestnut Hill location told him they came from Wellesley to celebrate their son’s birthday.

Chilacates is next to Polka Dog Bakery in the strip that also has Legal Seafoods and Shake Shack. The Street is just a parking lot away from Star Market on Boylston Street, and Abreu’s selection of this new spot was intentional.

“I felt like there wasn’t a lot of flavor around here,” he said. “We’re bringing some street to The Street.” n

ALLY LARDNER / FOR THE HEIGHTS

Chilacates opened its doors to the hungry public on Friday, and its quesadillas and burito plates taste as good as they look.

MARY WILKIE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Elinor Lipman Delights at Brookline Booksmith

By Mary Wilkie Asst. Metro Editor “No cookies, but do you have vodka?” Massachusetts-born author Elinor Lipman asked from the podium in Brookline Booksmith’s basement on Thursday night while she read the first few chapters of her newest book, Good Riddance.

This statement is but one of the outlandish remarks that Geneva—a middle-aged filmmaker and across-thehall neighbor of the novel’s protagonist, Daphne—utters by the end of the second chapter.

Lipman told the audience before her reading that in 1992 she inaugurated the independent bookstore’s author reading series at the Brookline Public Library.

Now, having published 13 other books since her first, Lipman’s distinctly quirky literary voice has accumulated quite a following.

Some of the audience, most of whom were middle-aged women, had read every single one of her novels and were so eager for the more that they began reading Good Riddance as soon as they sat down.

Under the conspicuous red cover lies a story that transpires from an attempted disposal of a dead woman’s yearbook—one that contains layers of commentary following the lives of the Class of 1968.

It was dedicated to the yearbook moderator and an English teacher at the high school, June Maritch, who penned the reports, and who left the artifact to her daughter, Daphne.

Daphne tries to recycle it in a comically millennial act of decluttering, and inevitably ends up with her life even more cluttered when Geneva, a socially inept, “boundary-challenged chatterbox,” picks it from the trash and delivers it back to Daphne with the brilliant idea to make it into a movie.

The idea for the novel was born out of an annotated yearbook found at a flea market in New York, where Lipman now resides.

Her significant other, Jonathan, found and purchased a yearbook from Keene, N.H. that contained notes about students—who had gotten married, were divorced, looked old, wore the same thing at the last reunion. The important stuff.

They poured over its contents, and Lipman found drama, judgement, and the premise of a new book.

After her reading , she burned through a lot of topics: Aside from the new release, Lipman spoke about her mother, her other books, her characters, her late husband, the editing process and the necessity as a writer to be open to their suggestions, her son, Jonathan, and being an author.

She’s unreserved but thoughtful.

When asked about her writing process, specifically whether she keeps a running list of ideas in her mind while she’s working on one novel, she scoffed.

“Christopher, do you have a backlog of ideas?” she asked the back of the audience, where Christopher Castellani, author of six novels, was observing from the back. He said “no.”

“Good, because I don’t want to insult you,” she said. “I don’t trust people who have a backlog of ideas.”

Emphasizing exactly the right details that bring the humor out of the situation, Lipman has a fantastic gift of taking serious stories and making them funny. She’s a conversational speaker.

Her stories, already so personal and animated, become all the more intimate through the hiccups in her memory that prompt her to ask the crowd for help—mostly with local geographical discrepancies—with some hints presented in a “wait, wait, don’t tell me!” type of guessing game.

Lipman’s readers, laughing at every other sentence she spoke, absolutely adore her, which isn’t difficult because each audience member felt like everything she said was meant just for them.

Likewise, she has much respect for her readers and their dedication to her work.

Always remembering a piece of advice she received from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder at the beginning of her writing career, Lipman is constantly working on a piece of writing to feed her fans, to focus her nervous energy from a new book release, and to simply write for the act of writing.

“I’ve been to readings where authors—this happened once, I won’t say who it was—the author was in New York and she still had on her blue jeans, and she was huffing and puffing, and they’re saying ‘Oh, she had to take a train, and the train didn’t get in, and it was snowing,’ and, you know, there are people in the audience who want to write and are thinking, ‘If only my train would be late, and I could be there doing a reading,’” she said, smiling. “So I can’t complain.” n

Senator Warren Officially Announces 2020 Presidential Bid

By Colleen Martin Metro Editor Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren officially announced her candidacy for presidency in 2020 Saturday morning in Lawrence, Mass.

The site of her announcement was at the Everett Mill, where workers led the “Bread and Roses” strike in 1912 after their pay was cut.

She was introduced and endorsed by Representative Joe Kennedy III. Warren began her speech recounting the history of the mill, specifically citing that the strikes held in Lawrence were led by women—many of whom were immigrants and needed to translate their ideas for the strike into multiple languages to unite the English, Irish, Syrian, and Slavic workers.

Their work led to higher wages, overtime, and everyone returning to work, Warren said. Massachusetts was also the first state in the United States to institute a minimum wage a few months after the strike.

“The story of Lawrence is a story

about how real change happens in America,” Warren said. “It’s a story about power — our power — when we fight together.”

Working-class people are still at the hands of the wealthy and well-connected, she said.

Warren called out President Donald Trump as an example of this, calling him a “symptom of what’s gone wrong in America.”

Her goals for her presidency would fall under three general categories, she said: cleaning up Washington, changing the structure of the economy, and “chang[ing] the rules” to strengthen the United States’ democracy.

First, stopping corruption in Washington will be a priority, she said, since Trump’s administration is the most corrupt in living memory.

She listed some of the things she would institute economically as president, including stopping tax cuts for the wealthy, investing in the future of children, and spending money on infrastructure and the Green New Deal.

She mentioned tax reform, specifically saying that the rich would have to “start

doing their part.”

As for strengthening the democracy, she said she would work to protect the voting rights of every U.S. citizen by eliminating rules that unfairly target people of color, partisan gerrymandering, and overturning Citizens United, a Supreme Court case that ruled that the government cannot limit corporations from spending money to support or denounce candidates.

The country needs a large structural change in order to make the American dream actually work for everyone, Warren said.

She described her own middle class background growing up in Oklahoma.

Her father had a heart attack leaving him unable to work when she was young, but her mother was able to get a minimum wage job answering phones at Sears to support their family.

She said that her own ability to become a teacher, lawyer, and senator has shown her that there can be social mobility in America.

“So here is the promise I make to you today,” she said. “I will fight my heart out

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELIZABETH WARREN 2020

Senator Warren announced her candidacy in Lawrence on Saturday morning. so that every kid in America can have the same opportunity I had — a fighting chance to build something real.”

The Democrat has come under fire in the past year for how she has categorized her ancestry and background in the past.

She issued an apology to the chief of the Cherokee Nation this week for

claiming American Indian heritage.

She had recently released a video of herself getting a DNA test that said she was part American Indian, and it was received with criticism by opponents and supporters alike.

Warren didn’t address her apology in her speech Saturday morning. n

The Heights

Monday, February 11, 2019

A9

Raunch Trumps Romance in ‘My Furry Valentine’

By Kaylie Ramirez Arts Editor A “clusterf—k of passions.” An “emotional tour de force.” That is Valentine’s Day according to the ever pubescent middle schoolers of Big Mouth, the B.O. riddled, braces-wearing brainchild of Nick Kroll.

With an all-star cast and an often painfully relatable portrayal of puberty, the Netflix animated series has garnered a large following since it first aired in 2017.

In an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the second season—which was released on Oct. 5, 2018—Kroll and Co. rolled out My Furry Valentine just in time for Feb. 14.

The 46-minute extended episode han-

dles the heart-eyed holiday with ample humor and originality. Jessi (Jessi Klein) and Matthew (Andrew Rannells) poke fun at oddly specific Hallmark cards while sifting through the card aisle at Walgreens, where they find a card designed just for incestuous conjoined twins and Lola (Kroll) parades around in a Cupid costume while “chomping” on pink perfume. References to the Greek classic Oedipus even emerge—one comes when the Ghost of Duke Ellington (Jordan Peele) advertises Oedipal Arrangements: “Your mother wants to sleep with you so give her some fruit.” My Furry Valentine offers a healthy dose of Kroll and John Mulaney’s dynamic humor as well.

The opening scene, during which Maury the Hormone Monster (Kroll) and Andrew

television

My furry valentine Kim Arndt & Bob Suarez distributed by netflix Release feb. 8, 2019 Our rating

netflix

(Mulaney) tell the story of how they first met à la daytime talk show interview, features a Mulaney style anecdote involving several asides about rom-coms. Racoons also make an appearance in the episode while working as table waiters—racoons were a prominent topic of discussion in Kroll and Mulaney’s brilliant Broadway show Oh, Hello.

Unlike other Kroll-Mulaney creations, however, the special relies heavily on gimmicky subplots so outlandish they border on cringe-worthy. Much of the episode focuses on Jay (Jason Mantzoukas) and his sentient pillows who he has copious amounts of sex with throughout the other two seasons—in one instance in Season Two, Jay gets a pillow pregnant—and in My Furry Valentine.

Perhaps the weakest and most unnecessarily drawn-out subplot of the series, Jay’s screen time is graphic and visceral in the way that you certainly do not want a 13-year-old notso-dry humping his pillows to be.

For Big Mouth, the comedy lies in the oddities: Hormone Monsters run amok, scallops (all voiced by Jon Hamm) seduce Jewish men, and dogs are extremely selfaware. The same lighthearted humor finds a home in My Furry Valentine. For the Valentine’s special, the recurring ladybug (Kroll) makes an appearance to praise the episode’s abundance of cunnilingus, Jay eats cafeteria oysters, Andrew adopts a beret style Kangol hat, and Nick (Kroll) learns to love his unusually tender nipples—he

has higher levels of estrogen due to his Hormone Monstress (Maya Rudolph) who, like Nick, is navigating the path to manhood for the first time. My Furry Valentine also offers life updates for fan favorite characters Coach Steve (Kroll), Ricky the Hormone Monster (also Kroll), and the Ghost of Duke Ellington, although the Shame Wizard (David Thewlis) makes no appearance.

Coach Steve offers the funniest one-liner of the episode when he informs the audience that his new gig as a Walgreens clerk is less than fulfilling: “Not to brag, but I’ve never been closer to suicide.” My Furry Valentine further pulls from Big Mouth’s big bag of tricks by sprinkling dark musical numbers throughout. The extended episode opens with a cynical characterization of Valentine’s Day as the cast of characters start their mornings and Jessi and Matthew offer a dazzling Sharpay and Ryan-esque number while at a restaurant.

The real value of Big Mouth is its ability to portray the trials of puberty with uncanny accuracy—frankly, the show is scary relatable. Bogged down by auxiliary storylines, My Furry Valentine is less so (How many newly-pubescent boys actually f—k their pillows on a regular basis?). Although My Furry Valentine highlights the rejection and insecurity that often come around Feb. 14 during the pre-teen and teenage years, it could have done so with one less mention of conjoined twins or horny pillows. n

LCD Soundsystem Ends Hiatus With Live Album

By Gio Lavoile Heights Staff In September, as part of the great “Spotify Singles” series in which artists perform live renditions of tracks of their own as well as tracks they like, LCD Soundsystem released a live rendition of “Tonite,” its hit song from their most recent album, American Dream; “Home,” from its 2010 album This is Happening; and a cover of Chic’s 1978 song “I Want Your Love.” Soon after, the band announced that they planned to release a live album of songs that they recorded at the famous Electric Lady Studio in New York.

On Friday, the band, led by longtime frontman James Murphy, released its new album, Electric Lady Sessions via Columbia Records.

The album consists of past hits, records from American Dream, as well as Sound of Silver, and covers of songs from Chic as well as other acts like Heaven 17 and the Human League.

The band recorded Electric Lady Sessions during their 2017 tour in support of American Dream, which was their first new studio album since This is Happening. Electric Lady is their third live album, following 2010’s London Sessions as well as 2014’s The Long Goodbye: LCD Soundsystem Live at Madison Square Garden, which the band advertised as their last show ever after the announcement of their split. Electric Lady itself is no stranger to notable artists: Created in 1970

by Jimi Hendrix, the studios have since hosted notable artists ranging from John Lennon, David Bowie, and Daryl Hall & John Oates to J. Cole, The Strokes, Frank Ocean, and many more.

The album consists of essentially no new material, but the band manages to give new life to old tracks with the kind of personal and raw spin that comes with live recordings.

As is the case in a lot of LCD Soundsystem’s music, the energy and the sounds of the songs are more important than the lyrics.

Murphy, a musician at heart with a skilled knowledge of a range of production tools from the glockenspiel to the tambourine and more contemporary electronic tools, manages to create expertly layered tracks over which he contemplates whatever topics may interest him, whether it be the passing of time or his own views of himself.

It is often the case where a live version of a song is more moving than the recorded version. The listener is able to tune into the feelings and emotions expressed by the artist when their music is at its most raw form, untouched by the levels of altering that go into the typical song.

A perfect example of this is the version of their 2017 song “Emotional Haircut.” The song is more wild in this version than the one included on American Dream, and Murphy’s lyrics—which are at times lost in the frenzy of instrumentation—come through and hit harder than ever before. The last 30 seconds

of the song, in which the flurry of instruments reach its peak and Murphy repeats the lines “listen to it now,” scrambling over the surrounding sounds in order to even be heard, are extremely intense and reach a bizarre yet interesting emotional peak.

Other tracks like “Tonite” and “Call the Police” stand out as well, and the covers work well, as the band adds their own spin to classic tracks. The cover of Human League’s “Seconds,” which was originally recorded and written as a response to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, features lines like “Your knuckles white as your fingers curl / The shot that was heard around the world / For a second,” and “It took seconds of your time to take his life / It took seconds,” that,

ironically enough, are still timely, given the gun violence issues around the country.

Some of the album cuts don’t reach the same level, and many will find themselves simply listening to the original versions of these songs, but that’s not the point of the album.

These live sessions, as Murphy stated in a recent post, are about having fun with songs that they like and putting a new spin on them—seeing how different they can be without losing the essence of the original.

Electric Lady Sessions is a fun album from a band enjoying its return to the spotlight after a long hiatus, and will be a welcomed gift for fans of both their most recent work as well as older hits. n

music

electric lady sessions LCD Soundsystem produced By columbia records Release feb. 8, 2019 Our rating

Columbia Records

‘Lego Movie’ Builds on Previous Successful Storyline

By Jack Goldman News Editor How do you follow-up a critically acclaimed masterpiece? By not trying to.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, directed by Mike Mitchell and featuring a screenplay from Phil Lord and Chris Miller—the duo best known for both Jump Street movies and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs—doesn’t try to retcon the first installment’s story beats. It has fun with them.

The genius of The Lego Movie was derived from its premise, its defining metaphor, and an extremely unexpected yet far from outlandish twist. The Second Part’s best elements have more to do with self-effacing, humanity-mocking quips and an even more outlandish premise. The overriding metaphor is not thrown in the audience’s face nearly as strongly, but the

comedy—while remaining niche at moments—still holds up to Lord and Miller’s typical level of excellence.

The Second Part focuses on Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt), the main character from The Lego Movie, and his continued efforts to “make everything awesome” with his positive, unaffected outlook, despite the “Apocalypseburg” his hometown has become. His “special life partner” Lucy, also known as Wyldestyle (Elizabeth Banks), has asked him to toughen and grow up with the changing, desolate times the first installment’s crew lives in.

All the characters—minus President Business (Will Ferrell), who is present for only a few moments, and Vetruvius (Morgan Freeman)—introduced in the first movie are brought back for The Second Part, but get far less time in the spotlight this time around. Metalbeard (Nick Offerman) who had more than a few Yoda-esque lines in

film

the lego movie 2: the second part mike mitchell distributed BY warner bros. release feb. 8, 2019 Our rating

warner bros.

The Lego Movie is mostly a background character, as is Benny the spaceman (Charlie Day)—who provided perhaps the best animated film half-minute ever with his “SPACESHIP” rant. Instead, the dynamic between Emmet and Wyldestyle remains the primary lens the audience gets to enjoy the film through. They’re two profoundly different characters, but they always seem to find the best in each other, a tired trope that the dynamism of Lord and Miller’s dialogue provides a new and fun spin on.

The addition of Rex Dangervest (also voiced

by Pratt) to the fold provides a fun rabbit hole for both Emmet and Lucy to go down.

The toughened space hero forces both main characters to reconsider some of the values they’ve learned to hold dearest, while also bringing raptors whose yelps provide delightful subtitled lines. The Second Part gives the Queen quite a large stage to perform on, a signature flourish from Lord and Miller, whose characters—even in animated “kids” movies—are always more fully developed than typical animated fare.

The jokes about Dangervest’s backstory, which clearly references Pratt’s own rise to fame, as well as the continued mockery of how many Batman movies there have been—and how many are in development—provide the kind of comedy adults can get behind at a movie that appeals plenty to children. Parents, particularly, can relate to the movie’s penultimate scene.

It’s unclear exactly where the Lego Movie franchise goes from here with its original characters. A racing movie from director Jason Segel is on the way, as is a much-an-

ticipated Lego Batman sequel with plenty of storytelling to unpack, but the stories of Emmet, Lucy, and Co. doesn’t seem to have as much momentum as Lego Batman did. The lengths Lord and Miller had to go to to make the sequel worth the price of admission without being overshadowed by the achievement of the first sequel was monumental, but the lack of plot depth could make it difficult to delve deeper into the stories of the characters that fueled the beginning of what has yielded four successful movies so far. If this is the last audiences see of Emmet and Co.—whose future may be dependent on this weekend’s box office numbers—The Second Part is an excellent, if perhaps a bit fitting, end to the crew’s story.

“War hardens the heart,” multiple characters intone multiple times throughout the film, and perhaps the heart of the franchise is showing signs of hardening. Luckily, Batman will probably throw a batarang into that heart and make it explode for one more ride on the incredible Lego adventures of Emmet and his friends—there’s plenty of Lego universes for the crew to explore.

Perhaps labeling The Second Part a lesser movie than its predecessor isn’t fair at all: The killer dialogue and brilliant visuals speak from themselves—all that’s lacking from this brisk hour-forty-five is the level of emotional depth The Lego Movie and Lego Batman provided.

That doesn’t make it a mediocre movie, it makes it an excellent and worthy successor to two of the smartest animated movies released in the last 20 years, which is quite the accomplishment in and of itself. n

Single review kaylie ramirez

‘talk’

khalid

Loved-up ’80s-esque synths usher in Khalid and Disclosure’s collab “Talk.” The track pulls from various genres to construct a beat that captures the essence of various love song tropes with a fresh and innovative spin. Khalid opens with the chorus of the song, laying the foundation for a low-stakes pop song with tons of replay value. Lacking in depth lyrically, the song does not claim to be anything more than a fun-loving potential hit.

A slow R&B clap beat courses throughout the song’s veins as Khalid’s smooth voice glides over the chorus that questions “Can’t we just talk? Can’t we just talk? / Talk about where we’re going.” Produced

by Disclosure, twinkling flourishes loom around the easy-going lyrics. Disclosure does not attempt to overpower Khalid’s vocal strength with copious mixing on the track, resulting in a song that is palatable both lyrically and musically.

With suggestive lyrics, such as “Penthouse view, left some flowers in the room / I’ll make sure I leave the door unlocked,” the 20-year-old singer deals with more mature romantic subjects than he has in past hits like “Location” or “Young Dumb & Broke” without including unnecessary shock value.

In avoiding the raunchy or risqué, Khalid and Disclosure position the track as the perfect Valentine’s Day radio hit. n

music video austin hord

‘let me down slowly’ alec benjamin

“Let Me Down Slowly” is a story of heartbreak. In the music video for the version featuring Alessia Cara, Alec Benjamin sings alone in a rustic, empty room, cold enough to see his breath, as he laments the approaching end of a relationship with someone he loves.

This mysterious and dark start to the video sets the tone for the rest of the sad song. The only instrumental accompaniment at this point is a subdued but intricate guitar part, which gives the song a raw, acoustic feel.

“If you wanna go then I’ll be so lonely / If you’re leavin’ baby let me down slowly,” he sings right before he starts the chorus, joined by delicate piano chords and beautiful accents from background singers. Once this emotional chorus begins, viewers see snippets of couples of all different types and orientations as they share intimate moments together in places like a skate park, an arcade, and the back of a parked car. Although the atmosphere this creates in the video seems to contradict the theme and lyrics of the song, it makes sense if Benjamin is trying to depict the type of intimacy that he is trying so hard to hold on to.

The next verse and chorus are sung by Alessia Cara in an empty room.

Her beautiful, unadulterated voice is perfect not only for the emotions of the song but also for blending with Benjamin’s in the latter part of the song. Their harmonies truly drive the song forward and give it exquite closure.

Cara’s additions make the somber song worthwile. It’s a dark and sad video and her impressive vocal qualities create a raw, cathartic emotional depth.

“And I can’t stop myself from falling,” they sing together repeatedly for the bridge of the song, and this is where their voices come through and shine.

In general, the song is pretty somber and contained, but both the video and their voices match the spirit of the track and all the emotions it’s trying to convey. n

The Heights

A10

Monday, February 11, 2019

Compelling Steps, Story Impress at SC Big Show Love is a

By Jillian Ran

Asst. Arts Editor

Sexual Chocolate’s highly anticipated Big Show kicked off with a healthy dose of intrigue. After a video introducing the men of Sexual Chocolate, the audience was treated to a clip featuring the members discussing a mysterious incident that had occurred at their fictional Catholic high school.

Light flooded the stage as the men of Sexual Chocolate, dressed in sweatpants and t-shirts, chatted about who they were planning on bringing to the school’s upcoming winter formal.

The lighthearted gym class scene was made especially entertaining by an inept gym teacher and a student who was adamantly trying to convince the other guys that his sock puppet girlfriend was real.

The comical atmosphere suddenly shifted focus, as the members of Sexual Chocolate stood to attention before breaking out into dance.

At first they were accompanied by hip-hop music, but it soon disappeared, the silence filled by the rhythmic claps, stomps, and chants of the dancers.

At the formal, one member became concerned that the girls weren’t having a good time, but the others brushed him off and collectively went in for a kiss with their respective dates, only for the girls to suddenly vanish into thin air.

This strange occurrence led the men of Sexual Chocolate on a silly, step-filled journey to discover what happened to their dates.

After turning to the police, hacking into security footage, asking for help from Apple store employees and JCPenny salespeople, and sneaking into the girls locker room, the guys finally discovered the culprit among their own ranks.

But the real shocker is the fact that the girls left of their own accord. One of them (Djanan Kernizan, MCAS ’19) went on to explain that they wanted the guys to experience life without them because the girls felt that they were taken for granted. Her monologue drew passionate cheers of support from the mainly female audience.

As the stage faded to black, a video of the group thanking the audience for attending played. The audience began to tentatively applaud, but suddenly a second video began to play that assured the audience that the show wasn’t over.

The crowd erupted into cheers as sultry R&B music began to play and the members of Sexual Chocolate reappeared on stage. In front of a bright crimson backdrop, they performed a seductive routine using chairs as props.

A stream of girls from the audience then met them on stage and settled into the chairs as the members of Sexual Chocolate began a strip

Playlist Kaylie Ramirez

IKRAM ALI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Sexual Chocolate brought skilled dancing and storytelling to its Big Show on Friday.

tease and gave lap dances to their respective ladies. By the end of the show, the audience was in a swooning frenzy. Although the skits were

goofy, the message behind them was clear: Appreciate your loved ones.

Yet again, Sexual Chocolate lived up to its name. n

CSA x KSA Show Honors Old and New Traditions ByStephanie Liu Copy Editor

“Study hard, get a good job, find a good wife”—the 19th annual CSA x KSA Culture show “Have You Eaten Yet” showed off Asian culture while also poking fun at the stereotypes and expectations in East Asian culture. With

nearly 200 voluntary student performers, the many skits, music, and dance brought some of the spirit of the Lunar New Year to Chestnut Hill.

The night began with a strong display of festive spirit. Traditional Chinese and Korean performing arts ushered in the evening—the first performance was a traditional Chinese lion dance, a style that

JONATHAN YE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Nearly 200 students performed on the Robsham stage for the CSA x KSA Culture Show.

mimics the movements of lions and takes inspiration from Chinese martial arts.

The next three performances all showcased Korean culture. The first was samulnori, a traditional Korean percussion performance. Student performers sat on the floor with various different percussion instruments, changing tempo and volume in harmony. Talchum, a masked dance, came next. The performance started out in darkness, but as the lights came on and the masks—which traditionally tell stories—were revealed, the audience was delighted at the spectacle. Finally, the Korean fan dance, buchaechum, featured all girls wearing Korean hanbok—the Korean traditional dress—and arranging fans to show beautiful images.

The next performances were Chinese yo-yo and Chinese ribbon dance.

The Chinese yo-yo participants dazzled the audience with individual and group tricks, using nothing more than two sticks with a string and a giant yo-yo. The ribbon dancers started with an all-female group, creating flowing imagery with their ribbons to the tune of traditional music.

Boston College dance group AerodynamiK came on next with their dance performance to various Korean pop songs, including the hit “Fire” by BTS, and American music such as Logic’s “1800-273-8255” and Shawn Mendes’ “In My Blood.” After a short intermission, the show resumed with the performance of dragon lanterns, where performers with lanterns entered from offstage, with nothing but their bright circular lanterns leading the way to the stage.

Modern showcases of Chinese and Korean pop culture came next. In the C-pop showcase, dancers performed

to Chinese pop music, especially of the hip-hop genre, which recently saw a rise in popularity in mainland China. Singers came onstage and sang popular Chinese songs of both old and new. The K-pop dance showcase featured popular music from current Korean idol artists that elicited cheers from fans in the audience. The final performances were modern acts that saw different groups—boys, girls, couples, and seniors—come onstage to show the effect of culture changes and the diversity of Asian culture.

In line with the theme of the culture show, a skit about a couple going home for New Year’s celebrations was weaved throughout the show in between performances. The skit is about a more recent Asian American immigrant bringing home his fourth-generation Asian American girlfriend, and the difference in culture between their households. The skit also shows the different ways that Asian parents show love toward their kids—especially through food—and how cultural clashes between the traditional Asian and American cause rifts but also growth in immigrant households. The skit explores the Asian American experience, and the audience could clearly relate as different moments prompted laughter or groans: When the girlfriend asked for a fork because she “never learned how to use chopsticks,” the audience let out an exasperated sigh.

The CSA x KSA Culture Show blended the old with the new, showing both traditional culture and the evolution and impact of modern pop culture. The culture show included a dazzling array of performances that brought some of the cheer of the New Year to BC. n

Multiformity Exhibit Connects Culture to Ideology

By Jacob Schick A1 Editor

Carney’s 203 Gallery hosted the Multiformity Exhibit last week, showcasing the interplay between culture and societal ideology. This exhibit featured the work of local artists, including Ruth Belmont; Zhanna Cantor; Rocky Cotard; Brian Hoffman; Darren M. Lerhily, associate director of Boston College Media Technology Services; LVF//LVX; Jessica Tranvo; Kim Triedman; and Celine Lim, photo editor for The Heights and MCAS ’20.

Covering three walls of the gallery, these multi-medium pieces work at once to lift up minority culture and take a closer look at the political climate of today.

On one wall, three large fabrics painted with acrylics draw the eye with striking colors and imagery. Cotard’s pieces, “Yvrose, Know Your History Portrait V,” “Ketty, Know Your History Portrait IV, and Nahomie Know Your History Portrait III” depict three black women dressed in colorful pattern. The

faces—the focal point of each piece—are both lifelike and statuesque, creating a reposed movement that is very emotionally affecting for the viewer.

Hoffman’s digital prints occupy another part of one wall. His three pieces, “Age of Trumparius No. 4,” “Patriotic Baby,” and “Passage to Abyssinia” critique the current political climate. In these prints, Hoffman contrasts the innocence of children or the culture of the Middle East with the distorted claim to patriotism and isolationism that Trump represents.

One of the most striking pieces in the gallery is LVF//LVX’s “Diversity and Thought.” A number of prints displaying slightly obscured pictures of men wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats are enclosed behind a glass pane.

Painted on the glass across the pictures are the words “Not Racist” in black capital letters. This piece, according to the artist, is meant to “encourage inquiry and critical thinking.” The men pictured have all suffered from “some sort of physical or verbal attack, emotional abuse” not

IKRAM ALI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Multiformity Exhibit showcased thought-provoking works from local artists.

just for “how they vote, but for believing in a message that infuriated many.” The artist claims that these attacks based on ideology—even apparently racist ideology—is not coexistence. Whether the people pictured here are racist or not is not up to her to decide. The artist instead asks, “Are these actions warranted?”

Cantor’s work in digital prints, including “The Wonder in Her Eyes” and

“Almond Eyes” is designed to elucidate the differences between people of varying culture. Someone who is from a European culture might not be able to readily identify with the black women depicted here. Yet, through art like this, Cantor and the viewer can remember that “each individual deserves to be seen and heard as grouping often promotes prejudice.” n

Harry Styles, the object of my 15-yearold self’s affection, was born on Feb. 1, 1994. On Feb. 1, 2019, Rob Sheffield, the Rolling Stone writer whose words are the continual object of my amazement, wished Styles a happy birthday via a quote tweet of a photo of Styles reading Sheffield’s book Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time.

Since Sheffield tweeted the photo out for the world to see, the book has sold out on Amazon Prime. Alas, I sit here waiting for my used copy to arrive sometime between Thursday and Monday—an absolutely unbearable waiting period given my growing impatience due to my usually reliable Prime subscription.

I didn’t order Love Is a Mix Tape because it looked so perfectly placed in Styles’ hand, and I didn’t order Love Is a Mix Tape because I hope that someday I will be sitting in a job interview with Rolling Stone talking about all the auxiliary books I read in college that were written by its staff—I already own Sheffield’s Dreaming the Beatles, Joe Hagan’s Sticky Fingers, and Lizzy Goodman’s Meet Me in the Bathroom. I ordered Sheffield’s book because the title vocalized something that I had known to be true my entire life.

Love is a mix tape. Well, for my generation, love is a Spotify playlist haphazardly strewn together in an airport lobby or painstakingly queued on a long road trip.

No matter how the playlist enters this often harsh, seemingly loveless world, love is the words in a song that make us pause and feel something. Love is the comfort of a beat or a melody that takes us home.

Whenever I hear “Home” by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, I think of my sister. It might seem obvious: For roughly 18 years of my life, home literally was where she was. But even after I moved to Boston and she moved to Providence, I still feel that “home is wherever I’m with her,” whether walking the cold streets of the North End on Thanksgiving night or sitting in the sand on our favorite beach 3,000 miles away. Even the warm beat is the sonic version of a fuzzy blanket, each stitch an acoustic guitar note or a folkish background “huh” shouted in synchrony.

It’s a little less obvious why The Lumineers’ “Slow It Down” has always been a self-love song for me: The lyrics act as a mournful account of a relationship breakdown from one lover to another, lamenting “And when it came to love / We were not good enough.” Even so, the lyric “And when she stood she stood tall / She’ll make a fool of you all” is the one that sticks in my head. Music can be a very personal experience, and the meaning of that song has always been one of recovery and growth for me. I’ve always preferred the live version of the song—partially because I accidentally bought the live version on iTunes when I was 14, but mostly because the rawness of the sound reminds me that imperfection is sometimes what makes something beautiful.

There is no shortage of songs about romantic love: Hozier’s “Work Song,” Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love,” and Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” are some of the best in my humble, unexperienced opinion. There is one song that I have on reserve, much like the clothes that I don’t yet have an occasion for but leave in the “Saved For Later” bin on the Urban Outfitters app. Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” is not only my grandparents’ wedding song, but also a song that just holds so much weight. The idea of a force so strong that it is likened to a river flowing “surely to the sea” is somewhat foreign to me, but Presley’s dreamy ukulele strumming leads me to believe it’s out there somewhere.

Art is not real in the sense that it is not what it claims to be. You cannot smell Van Gogh’s bright “Sunflowers” or see the illumination of his “Starry Night” reflecting off your skin. But upon seeing either of the two pictures, you can recall a time when you got a waft of the fragrant sunflowers at Trader Joe’s or saw the stars hanging over your head on a cloudless night. Art is but a depiction of something that is real or that is made of real things. Songs can’t make you fall in love, but they can help you paint the picture of the time when you did.

Kaylie Ramirez is the arts editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

ARTS

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@BCHeightsArts

Monday, February 11, 2019

A Campus

EDITOR’S NOTE: Black students make up four percent of the Boston College student body. Despite limited representation throughout campus—in classes, in student organizations, and at events—black students compose a significant portion of the arts community at BC: 3 of 16 dance groups—Presenting Africa To You (PATU), Sexual Chocolate, and Females Incorporating Sisterhood Through Step (F.I.S.T.S.)—are historically black

Divided:

student groups, and Black Experience in America Through Song (BEATS) exists as 1 of 10 a cappella groups. This featured story is part of a series that celebrates black students’ invaluable contributions to the arts community.

These groups have exhibited distinct tenacity as student organizations intended to provide a space for black students to express themselves through art on a campus often divided by acts of racism and hatred.

Sexual Chocolate:

20 Years of Brotherhood HEIGHTS ARCHIVES

By Jillian Ran Asst. Arts Editor

When he arrived on campus in 1999, Cross Thompson, BC ’03, was looking for a community. He knew that since there was no Greek life on campus, he couldn’t join a historically black fraternity, but he wanted something similar—an organization that would provide a sense of belonging and instill key values in its members.

Thompson decided to take matters into his own hands and created the next best thing: a step team. Cue the birth of Sexual Chocolate.

When asked to describe in simple terms what stepping is, current Sexual Chocolate president Khari King, MCAS ’19, chuckled, stumped for a moment.

“It’s quite literally just hitting your body,” King said. “But there’s just so much more passion and intention behind it than just hitting your body. It’s very rhythmic, it’s very calculated...it’s very methodical.”

Step is c ategor i ze d a s a style of dance, but it is also a p e rc u s sive art form that uses the body as an instrument through clapping, stomping , and shouting. Step requires military-level discipline and precision, and it’s difficult for newcomers to ge t accustomed to. Still, it’s a rewarding endeavor that forges strong bonds between the members of Sexual Chocolate.

Today, 20 ye ars af ter i t s fo r m a tion, Sexual Chocolate has seen an increase in the

number of members—from six to 15—as well as an increase in their diversity. But while there are

INSIDE ARTS

now white members on the team, as well as Asian and Latino members in previous years, King emphasizes that Sexual Chocolate has never strayed from its purpose of providing a community for black students at BC. “It is still primarily a space for black men to come together and have a safe space to grow and learn different tenets of manhood,” King said.

Sexual Chocolate continues to maintain contact with alumni members who were instrumental in the group’s formation. D.J. Maverik of Jam’n 94.5, for example, was an early member of Sexual Chocolate. Maverik, AKA Kahleil Blair, BC ’04, continues to maintain ties with the group and has even lent his talents to recent performances.

At Sexual Chocolate’s Big Show in 2017, Blair served as the emcee, hyping up the crowd in preparation for the group’s entrance. The high level of alumni involvement proves that throughout its history, Sexual Chocolate has succeeded in its effort to make a lasting, positive impression on the lives of its members.

In light of recent racist events on campus, Sexual Chocolate’s function as a platform for black students has become increasingly important. King makes sure to foster an atmosphere of respect and affirmation among the group’s members.

“I tell all the guys every day at practice that when you’re in this space, when you’re in the practice room, w h e n y o u ’r e with us, there is no shortage of love, of overall gratitude of you just being a person in general— especially to my members who are directly affe cte d, who are African Americans,” King said.

Sexual Chocolate not only supports its members privately, King noted, the group also makes an effort to publicly respond to racist incidents.

“Whenever something happens like this, we always like to make sure that we are calculated in the way that we respond publicly so that we do it

‘Sexual Chocolate Big Show’

in a way that is noticeable,” King said.

For example, in response to the defacement of a Black Lives Matter poster last year, King and other members of Sexual Chocolate recited poems to an audience of around 500 at the Arts Festival Showcase.

It’s important, King said, to “acknowledge [incidents] in a healthy and digestible way so nobody feels as if they’re not being heard or listened to, and that all of our members feel safe and loved, and that they know that wherever they are on campus.”

Only four percent of students at BC are black, yet, 18 percent of dance groups at BC are comprised of majority or all black students. King explained that dancing in particular occupies a special place in black culture and history.

“Dance is so heavily embedded and ingrained in the African American and black community that … it’s something that I feel like a lot of people need, especially as an outlet of expression, as an outlet of stress, to sort of recenter themselves,” King said.

Step, especially, is an art form that has deep roots in black culture, evolving from traditional African drum-centered music and storytelling culture to its current status as a key feature of historically black fraternities and sororities.

“When we stomp and we step we feel that in our chest, and it’s something that even if you are not a lifelong stepper...you start to understand what that art form meant when it was first created, coming back to its roots,” King said. “It’s something that I feel a lot of pride for...It’s super important to keep that legacy going and that tradition going.”

Although stepping requires high levels of discipline and rigidity, Sexual Chocolate is also known across campus for its playful, frequently risqué performances.

“At the end of the day, it is dance,” King said. “We want to make sure that we’re having a good time with it, that that is reflected out into the crowd as well. We tell them loosen up a little bit sometimes.”

The group’s Big Show performance on Friday was the first time in recent years that there was a clear plot accompanying the dancing, King said.

Previous shows have featured more absurd scenarios, with the men of Sexual Chocolate traveling through time and finding themselves castaways on strange islands, for example.

This year’s winter formal-themed show, in contrast, included an entertaining mystery plot, as the groups members tried to sleuth out what happened to their missing formal dates.

Sexual Chocolate draws

predominantly female audiences at their on-campus performances, but King said that the gender balance is more even at other schools, since step is more widely known at colleges with Greek life. King cited the group’s performance in Charlottesville, Va. in November of last year as a memorable experience.

Still, there are relatively few step groups in the country, so it can be difficult to find inspiration for choreography.As a solution, King and the group’s two other captains, Chris Ferrari, MCAS ’20, and Mohamed Diallo, MCAS ’19, adopt hip-hop dance moves and incorporate them alongside the more traditional, fraternity-style step movements.

The captains also find inspiration in the drum beat of the songs they perform to: King mentioned that many of Sexual Chocolate’s routines include choreography that directly mirrors the beat of music. King and the other captains encourage the rest of the members to contribute ideas for moves as well, resulting in performances that include a blend of genres and ideas.

Sexual Chocolate not only fuses together genres in its own performances, it also teams up with a variety of on-campus dance groups, including its sister organization, Females Incorporating Sisterhood Through Step (F.I.S.T.S.), Sexual Chocolate’s all-female counterpart. Other frequent collaborators are Dance Organization of Boston College (DOBC), Fuego Del Corazón, and Synergy.

Sexual Chocolate prides itself on serving as a community that extends beyond just dance. Members form close relationships through the hard work and long hours dedicated to rehearsing.

The group spends four hours a week practicing, and in preparation for shows, members can spend as many as four hours a day together. Although King also works as an usher and house manager at Robsham Theater, most of

his time outside classes is devoted to the group.

“Behind the scenes, we call ourselves a brotherhood, and we take that very seriously,” King said.

“We make sure that we have study hall sessions, we make sure that we hang out with each other after practice if we need to do any kind of work or if

‘CSA x KSA Culture Show’

Sexual Chocolate celebrated its 20th anniversary with its The CSA x KSA Culture Show highlighted the beauty of East winter-formal themed Big Show...................................................A10 Asian culture of old and new.................................................. A10

anybody’s struggling with anything— we’re there for each other as a family first and foremost.”

This strong sense of camaraderie affirms that the values that Sexual Chocolate was built on continue to exist among its members today.

“Our mission is to provide a safe space for black men, but not only black men, to come into their own as individuals,” King said. “To instill concepts of discipline, hard work, respect, self-love, and love for others, and for them to then take those concepts, bring [them] out into the world, and just make the world a better place, and continue to do that for generations of Sexual alumni members.”

From its humble beginnings as a stand-in for a black fraternity to its current status as one of the most popular dance groups at BC, Sexual Chocolate has seen tremendous growth in the past 20 years.

It’s performed across the country, winning step competitions in Connecticut and Virginia, while continuing to be a formidable force on campus.

Sexual Chocolate won second place at last year’s ALC Showdown, and Friday’s Big Show sold out within a day.

When asked what he hopes Sexual Chocolate will look like in another 20 years, King empha si ze d relationships above all else.

“The only thing that I … am pretty confident that it will stay is that closeknit, tight group of guys who

battle adversity together, whether it be from outside sources like administration or from groups of students who don’t really understand us as people … guys that can stick together, stick in the trenches, have love for one another, that unconditional love that can only be forged through late practices and amazing shows and things of that nature, and just remain a family, because what I found here in Sexual Chocolate is a family— and that’s something that’s super important to me.” n

‘My Furry Valentine’...................................... A9 ‘Electric Lady Sessions’.............................. A9 ‘The Lego Movie 2’................................. A9

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HOCKEY

WOMEN’S Tuesday, Feb. 12 vs.

Northeastern, 5 p.m.

MEN’S Monday, Feb. 11 vs.

Northeastern, 7:30 p.m.

Freshmen Step Up for BC in First Beanpot Win Since 2015-16

By Bradley Smart Sports Editor

When Harvard’s Henry Bowlby knotted the game up at 1-1 with four minutes left in the second period of Monday night’s firstHarvard 1 round Beanpot Boston College 2 game, it seemed as if Boston College men’s hockey was once again going to fail to show up on the Boston hockey world’s biggest stage. After all, the Eagles had lost four straight games in the annual tournament, had failed to take advantage of numerous power plays and pull away from the Crimson, and had seemed to have lost all momentum.

When Crimson defenseman Adam Fox made an impressive save to deny a wraparound effort on what was practically an empty net from BC’s J.D. Dudek midway through the period, it appeared as if TD Garden had simply become an ill-fated place for the Eagles to play.

Then, with eight minutes left to play, two years of sobering first-round exits were alleviated by two players that haven’t been around for the losing streak. The freshman duo of Jack McBain and Oliver Wahlstrom worked in tandem, and it was McBain who eventually buried a centering pass with a wrister from the low slot, lifting the Eagles to a narrow 2-1 win over the No. 17 Crimson.

It was a cathartic victory for BC (1012-3, 9-4-3 Hockey East), which advanced to the Beanpot championship game next Monday for the first time since 2015-16.

Not only did they end a two-year drought in the tournament, they also ended a two-

year non-conference losing streak that dated back to November 2016.

It was especially positive for the team’s junior goaltender in Joseph Woll, who turned away 27 shots. Woll, after all, had kept his team in the game with several noteworthy saves—including a sprawling stop across the distance of the crease—and was finally able to shake off the burden of going winless in three previous Beanpot starts.

The Crimson (11-7-3, 8-5-2 ECAC) had the man advantage for the final 1:51 of game time after a penalty was called on Julius Mattila, but even though they boasted the nation’s most efficient power play coming in, they couldn’t crack Woll and the BC defense in what proved to be an insane final few minutes.

The Eagles found scoring earlier from an unexpected source: Patrick Giles. The freshman, who entered BC one of its lesser-known first year players behind the likes of NHL draftees Oliver Wahlstrom and Jack McBain, had registered just four points—all assists—in 22 games prior.

The 6-foot-4 forward plays on the team’s fourth line alongside J.D. Dudek and Graham McPhee, and his linemates had combined for just five points on the year.

On Monday, though, it didn’t take the line long to establish consistent rhythm, and the three teamed up for a strong opening goal just under five minutes into the game.

Dudek poked the puck loose in the neutral zone, sparking a 3-on-2 for the Eagles, and he quickly got it ahead to McPhee. The junior winger skated down the left side before centering it for Giles,

who buried a wrister past Harvard’s Michael Lackey in the high slot. It was an impressive way to open his scoring ledger in a BC sweater, even more so as the team had failed to score a single goal in last year’s first round Beanpot game against Northeastern.

The game quickly delved into a physical, sloppy affair. The team saw three penalties called in the opening period, two of which were for cross-checking. The Eagles had two called on them but managed to hold the nation’s best power play off the board, an impressive effort. They narrowly held the Crimson off once Marc McLaughlin went to the box with 1:39 on the clock, as goaltender Joseph Woll had to deny Reilly Walsh and Adam Fox, who both had good looks on net.

The physicality only picked up in the second period—it took just 10 seconds for Harvard’s Baker Shore to be whistled for boarding. In a trend that would hold true for the entirety of the period, though, BC’s power play was largely ineffective. The team had one sequence of tic-tac passing that nearly generated a goal, as the team’s first line of David Cotton, Logan Hutsko, and Christopher Brown strung together passes to set up a deflection in front of the net, but Lackey was able to turn it away.

Dudek and Harvard’s Jack Drury promptly got in a shoving match shortly after and headed to the box with matching minors, and setting the stage for a lot of time without full strength. Bowlby would follow by racking up back-to-back hooking calls, much to the chagrin of the Edina, Minn. sophomore, but BC

Celine Lim / HEIGHTS Editor

Freshman Jack McBain’s third-period goal lifted the Eagles to Monday night’s title game.

couldn’t do anything with them—and he redeemed himself quickly after.

Eventually, with a little over four minutes left in the second, Harvard’s John Marino scooped up a loose puck in his own defensive zone and skated the distance of the ice, settling to the right of the goal.

Bowlby freed himself in the crease, and a deft pass from Marino was finished off with a one-timer on one knee. Bowlby’s equalizer seemed inevitable at points in the second, as Fox had already hit the left post five minutes prior. It paved the way for a whirlwind finish—nothing new for the two teams, as they’d gone to overtime in the consolation game last year.

This time, though, it didn’t end with the Crimson scoring the game-winning goal. As Woll was called upon for save after save, the Eagles strung together a couple of looks on the other end of the ice and

eventually broke through. While it took Wahlstrom’s pass perfectly deflecting off a Harvard player’s skate and onto the waiting stick of McBain, it was a turn of events that seemed fitting for a team that’s been down on its luck.

The final two minutes—with Mattila in the box—were particularly stressful for head coach Jerry York and the Eagles. Still, they survived, securing a spot in the final against Northeastern, who beat Boston Unviersity in the nightcap. Another loss would’ve likely set the team up for a disappointing stretch run, but now the team will play one week from Monday for the program’s 21st Beanpot title. Snapping two losing separate losing streaks in one night does wonders for your confidence, and that alone could be enough to spark this team toward big things in the final few weeks of the season. n

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

For First Time in Seven Years, Eagles Lose in Beanpot Semifinals

By Lukas McCourt Heights Staff

After the completion of the first period, it looked like Boston College women’s hockey was well on its way to its eighth consecutive Beanpot fiBoston College 1 nal appearance.

Harvard 4 After all, No. 7 BC entered riding a six-game win streak and was pummeling an uninspiring Harvard team—it held a one-goal lead, a 19-6 edge in shots, and the host Crimson seemed to be reeling.

In remarkable fashion, though, the game completely transformed, and the Crimson scored four unanswered goals to hand the Eagles a shocking 4-1 defeat. Despite coming into the game as heavy underdogs, Harvard (8-11-3, 6-8-2 ECAC) used a stellar performance from goaltender Lindsay Reed and two goals from Brooke Jovanovich to pull off the upset. The win spoiled a chance for BC (19-10, 6-7 Hockey East) to claim its fourth-straight Beanpot title, sending a talented senior class to its first consolation game against No. 3 Northeastern next

Tuesday.

The first frame began at a rapid pace.

Both teams possessed great scoring opportunities within the first five minutes of the contest, but neither converted. As the period progressed, the Eagles began to take control. Daryl Watts and Delaney Belinskas led a 2-on-1 breakaway, but Watts’ shot was smothered by Reed. Just a few minutes later, Reed was called upon again, stopping a powerful one-timer from Caitrin Lonergan.

It was not until the final minute of the first period that BC, who’d been knocking on the door throughout, got on the scoreboard.

Makenna Newkirk picked up her 10th goal of the season by tipping in a slapshot from Watts. It was a fitting end to a dominant first period from the Eagles and seemed to indicate things to come.

The second period was a completely different story for BC. Despite once again outshooting their opponents by 13 shots, the Eagles couldn’t score—but the Crimson made the most of their limited chances.

After neither team could take advantage of early power plays, a storyline that would continue over the course of the game, Har-

vard evened the score eight minutes into the second frame.

Jovanovich slid a wrist shot through the legs of BC goaltender Maddy McArthur, who turned away 22 shots but allowed four goals for the first time since letting in five against Northeastern back on Jan. 12. Five minutes later, the Crimson pulled ahead for good, thanks to Dominique Petrie, who fired a high shot past McArthur. Harvard nearly added its third of the period, but crucial blocks from Lonergan and Cayla Barnes limited the damage.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, it did not take long for the Crimson to carry their momentum into the third period.

Harvard won the opening face off ,and, just nine seconds into the final frame, Lexie Lang fizzled a low shot into the back of the net for a decisive two-goal lead. BC responded by creating loads of offensive chances but failed to beat Reed in net.

After accumulating 37 saves through the first two periods and the end in sight, Reed wasn’t about to crack and piled up 15 more stops in the third.

Halfway through the period, Harvard squandered a chance to seal the game.

Jillian Fey was whistled for tripping, and Della Rovere got a chance on a 1-on-1 penalty shot, but McArthur stood tall in net to make the save. Rovere’s miss didn’t come back to haunt the Crimson, though, as the Eagles failed to make the most of their ECAC foe’s missed opportunity. Just three minutes later, after Petrie’s initial shot was denied, Jovanovich was there for the rebound and effortlessly tucked the puck away for another Harvard goal.

That was the final nail in the coffin, as the Eagles had sent eight shots on Reed to no avail in the previous five minutes.

Megan Keller and Lindsay Agnew both had chances late to make the score more respectable, but Reed would turn them away and finished with a remarkable 52 saves—the first time a Harvard goaltender cracked the 50-save mark since 2014-15.

Eagles head coach Katie Crowley will surely be frustrated by her team’s performance. Although BC outshot Harvard, 53-26, it struggled to create many legitimate scoring opportunities after the first

period. While the Crimson didn’t match up well with BC on paper, they made up for it with energy and aggressiveness.

The Eagles appeared to be blindsided by Harvard’s intensity out of the first intermission and could not keep up over the final 40 minutes of action.

This loss comes at an inopportune time for BC, which is already locked in a fight to keep up with Northeastern in the conference standings and was likely hoping to ride its recent success to a motivational Beanpot title. Losing to Harvard, a mediocre ECAC team, will cost the Eagles in the pairwise rankings, which determines the at-large participants in the NCAA Tournament. Currently six points behind the Huskies in the conference table—who it’ll face next Tuesday—BC will need to try and close that gap, or it could soon be faced with having to win the conference tournament for a chance to return to the NCAA Tournament.

Tuesday’s defeat was unexpected, and now it’ll be up to Crowley to rally her team and avoid what could be a massive underperformance of expectations. n

BC Responds to Beanpot Defeat With Rout of New Hampshire

By Nicole Pla Heights Staff

After suffering a shocking loss to Harvard in the Beanpot semifinals on Tuesday, Boston College women’s hockey faced a familiar foe in New Hampshire 1 New Hampshire Boston College 7 in a break from the tournament. The Wildcats have been tricky for the No. 7 Eagles this season, as UNH entered as the only Hockey East team to deny the Eagles a win.

Perhaps with a chip on its shoulder after being relegated to the consolation game, BC came out aggressively and rolled to a 7-1 win. The Eagles (20-10, 17-7 Hockey East) snapped the Wildcats’ (13-13-4, 10-12-1) five-game winning streak, simultaneously scoring the most any team has against UNH all season.

BC goaltender Kelly Pickreign, starting in place of Maddy McArthur, was tested immediately after the faceoff, but came up with the first of her 18 saves. The Eagles’ offense took its turn shooting on goaltender

Kyra Smith, but sloppy passes and missed rebounds saw BC unable to break through early in the period. Smith, who ranks third in Hockey East in save percentage, was always there to cover up holes, not giving the Eagles an inch to work with.

BC didn’t ease up on the pressure, though, and was soon rewarded for its efforts. In the seventh minute, Erin Connolly took a shot from the circle that the senior goaltender easily deflected, but Delaney Belinskas was right there to connect with the rebound, sneaking the puck behind Smith.

Following Belinskas’ eighth goal of the season, Caitrin Lonergan was called for hooking, giving the Wildcats an opportunity to even the score. Following two minutes of a heavy offensive push from UNH, BC managed to kill off the penalty. As soon as the game returned to full strength, the Eagles were given their own opportunity to increase their early lead, with Lauren Martin sent into the box for boarding in her own zone. The power play was short, as just 39 seconds in, Cayla Barnes was called for delay of game.

No team was able to best the other during the odd 4-on-4 play, and both players left their respective boxes without a change in the score. As the period wound down, the Eagles’ offense made a home for itself in front of Smith, desperate to increase its lead. All it took was for a well-placed pass from Belinskas to find teammate Megan Keller. With no one around her, the Olympic defenseman fired a shot from behind the circles that weaved its way through defenders, hitting off the post and into the back of the net, making Keller the sixth player in program history to reach 150 goals.

“I wouldn’t be able to accomplish that without my teammates, past and present,” Keller said after the game. “I don’t really score goals on my own, I don’t get assists on my own, you need teammates for that.”

The Wildcats took control in the early minutes of the second period, with it not taking long for the team to dial up shots on Pickreign. Under two minutes in, Abby Chapman took advantage of the freshman netminder recovering from a blocked shot and nudged the puck between her leg and

the post to put the Wildcats on the board.

The Eagles were given a chance to respond when Nicole Dunbar was called for high sticking. This time, BC didn’t let the power play go to waste, scoring in just 29 seconds. Keller logged her second of the night with a wrister from the circles after connecting with a pass from Cayla Barnes, setting a new Hockey East record for most goals scored by a defenseman overall in a single season with 15.

Looking to extend its two-goal lead, BC quickly got comfortable in front of the Wildcats’ net at the outset of the third period. Daryl Watts struck first, weaving her way past defensemen before slipping the puck between Smith’s legs. Less than a minute later, Kelly Browne snagged a pass from Lonergan in front of the frame and whipped it past Smith.

Following the success of Watts and Browne, it was clear the Eagles couldn’t be stopped. The top line—consisting of Watts, Makenna Newkirk, and Lindsay Agnew—closed in on Smith. With the defense focused on Newkirk and Watts,

Agnew jumped at the opportunity and tucked away a rebound. After six minutes of bloodletting, UNH called a much-needed timeout. After the short break, the Wildcats became more aggressive, but Pickereign was steadfast and denied them any opportunity to attempt to catch up to the Eagles.

A UNH goal on a power play was called off upon review, preventing the Wildcats from bringing it any closer, and BC would eventually add insult to injury in the final 30 seconds. On the one-man advantage, Browne centered a pass to Barnes, who logged the team’s seventh goal. It was a prolific scoring output, especially considering the Eagles managed just one goal on 53 shots in the Beanpot loss to Harvard. It was even more impressive considering the Wildcats had allowed just six goals over their last five games, all wins.

While the Crimson defeat will still linger, BC seems to have taken it in stride and refocused for conference play. No. 3 Northeastern awaits on Tuesday night, a game that has huge implications for the homestretch of the season. n

The Heights

A14

Monday, February 11, 2019

LACROSSE

Kent’s Nine Points Help BC Cruise Past BU in Season Opener LAX vs. BU, from A16 pable—they had won five of the first six draws; outshot BU, 6-1; and had yet to commit a turnover.

Perhaps in an attempt to slow down BC, the Terriers began to foul. Normally a physical opponent, BU tallied 18 fouls on Saturday—10 more than BC—including eight in the first 12 minutes of action. But the whistles did more harm than good for BU. Head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein’s team converted eight of its 15 free-position attempts, one of which resulted in the Eagles’ sixth goal of the game: Sheila Rietano sprinted to the cage and hurled a shot past Smith to cap a 6-0 BC run.

Eventually, though, the Terriers got on the board. Recording BU’s second shot on the day and first since the opening minute, Ava Barry made the most of a Kelly Matthews pass, finding twine for her team’s first goal of the year. For a moment, it appeared as if the Terriers were picking up speed, as they won the ensuing draw control—but a BU push would have to wait a few minutes.

In the meantime, BC scored five of the game’s next six goals. It all started with Kent, who tallied three in the span

of two minutes and 57 seconds. Facing a 9-1 deficit, Barry capitalized on a Christina Walsh foul and netted a freeposition goal. Yet that Terriers’ scoring play was simply sandwiched between two Eagles scoring spurts. The back half of the surge was piloted by Jillian Reilly and Apuzzo, both of whom recorded free-position goals of their own.

For Apuzzo, it was her first time finding the back of the net all day—an outcome that speaks to none other than the Eagles’ depth and Apuzzo’s selfless play style, according to Walker-Weinstein.

“Sam’s not thinking about her points, she’s thinking about the team production and offensive production,” she said.

“I knew that that was happening, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Sam wasn’t bothered by it at all.”

Leading 11-2, BC was clearly in the driver’s seat, but the Eagles’ offense came to a halt in the final 11 minutes of the half. Sloppy passing paved the way for five turnovers, allowing BU to see more time on the attack than ever before. Although the Terriers struggled to generate shots initially, Kaitlin Belval and Matthews soon turned a pair of rebounds into goals, entering the break down, 11-4.

The late-period scoring drought was only a blip on the radar for BC, though.

The Eagles came out of halftime looking like their normal selves. In fact, BC—a team that was victorious on 60.6 percent of its draws last season—won the first six in the back half of play, setting the stage for a 9-0 run.

Urbank and Lappin got things going with back-to-back scoring plays. Then, Kent and Apuzzo teamed up for two goals—on both occasions, Kent located a wide-open Apuzzo, and the senior playmaker finished with ease. Recording her ninth and final point of the game, Kent took matters into her own hands shortly thereafter, firing a shot past Smith from about five feet in front of the crease.

Once Rietano notched her second goal of the day, BC wrapped up its scoring spree with three consecutive free-position shots on net. First it was Arsenault who stepped up to the plate and delivered, and then Taylor Walker served as the anchor of sorts, logging the Eagles’ final two goals, chasing Smith in the process. BU tacked on a pair of lategame goals with under five minutes to go, but BC had already made a statement.

Kent is back, and so are the topranked Eagles. n

Maggie DiPatri / HEIGHTS Editor

Kenzie Kent (top) and Cara Urbank (bottom) combined for 13 points, as BC dominated BU.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Eagles Overmatched by Reddish, No. 2 Blue Devils in Durham MBB vs. Duke, from A16 half to pull away, piling up 52 total points in the period. BC (11-10, 2-7) had no answer, shooting just 33 percent from the field after the break, as it was outrebounded, 22-8, and committed 11 fouls while turning the ball over six times during the back half of play.

In the early going, both teams started with a quick pace in what was a packed Cameron Indoor Stadium. BC missed its first three shots but strung together an 8-0 run to take a four-point lead. The Blue Devils immediately responded with an 8-0 run of their own to regain the advantage, setting the tone for a back-and-forth opening stanza.

Nik Popovic, who entered the contest having made only three 3-pointers all season, drilled two in the opening five minutes. However, with Reddish and Zion Williamson (nine points, 10 rebounds in the first half) leading the charge, Duke built a seven-point lead midway through.

In a resilient manner, though, the Eagles fought their way back into the contest, with

the boost coming from an unlikely source.

Steffon Mitchell sparked a run with back-toback plays, first converting an improbable 180-degree layup and following that up with a put-back dunk. Buckets by Jairus Hamilton and Popovic further narrowed the deficit, and then Bowman came alive.

Up to this point, Duke’s Tre Jones had bottled up the junior guard in the scoring column, but Bowman was still creating quality opportunities for his teammates and attacking the glass—even with giants like Williamson patrolling the paint. In a short span, Bowman tacked on seven points to give the Eagles a four-point edge. Momentum was sapped from BC right before the break, though, as Bowman turned the ball over off an inbound with the clock winding down, and Reddish made him pay with an easy layup.

In the first half, the Eagles simply seemed to have a stronger desire to win than the Blue Devils. Duke—which came in as the second-best rebounding team in the country, logging 43 boards per game—lost the battle on the glass by three. BC was ulti-

mately able to stay in this contest, thanks to the Blue Devils’ putrid shooting. Perimeter marksmanship is not one of Duke’s greatest strengths—in fact, it only converts 30.9 percent of its triples—but in the first half, the Blue Devils went just 1-of-15 from beyond the arc.

Yet head coach Mike Krzyzewski was bound to make some adjustments in the locker room, and the game drew comparisons to when his team trailed to Georgia Tech at the break a few weeks ago and pulled away in the second frame. As many could’ve predicted, Duke rushed out of the gates with an 8-0 run to retake the lead. The Eagles didn’t have a counterpunch and couldn’t find any way to deal with the massive amount of talent on the Blue Devils’ roster. BC’s shots weren’t falling at the same rate that they were in the first half, and Duke began to pull away.

The Eagles looked like they were headed for a loss once the Blue Devils constructed a double-digit advantage, and it looked even worse when their star playmaker went down with an injury scare. In the middle of the

second half, Bowman planted his feet in an attempt to draw a charge on a driving Barrett. The junior took a hard fall, and Barrett landed on Bowman’s right knee. It took a long time for Bowman to get up, but he was able to eventually limp over to BC’s bench.

To add insult to injury, Bowman was called for his fourth foul of the game on that play.

The Havelock, N.C. native would reenter the game, but he was relatively ineffective, finishing the night with 11 points—his lowest scoring output since Dec. 22 against DePaul—as Jones continued to contain the volatile scorer.

With the Eagles being dealt a heavy morale blow, Duke continued run up the score, turning what was once a close contest into a full-fledged blowout. The Blue Devils, as they have done all season, dominated in the paint, picking up easy buckets and grabbing boards.

A big factor in Duke’s revival was its ability to convert from beyond the arc. After only hitting a single triple in the first half, the Blue Devils drilled six 3-pointers at a 66percent clip in the second period. Perhaps

the most telling stat came on the glass. BC’s ferocious effort allowed it to beat the Duke in the battle of the boards in the first half, but it was a far different story in the latter portion of play. With Williamson corralling a career-high 17 rebounds, he led his team to nab 22 boards in the second half, 14 more than the Eagles.

The loss was a painful one, but to be expected. Thinking that the fourth-best offense in the country by adjusted efficiency was going to stay dormant the entirety of the game would’ve been foolhardy, and it was clear that the combination of Jones, Reddish, Barrett, and Williamson were more than enough for Krzyzewski’s side to pull away. BC has now lost three straight in conference play and eight of its last 10, and the going won’t get any easier. Without Tabbs, the team’s scoring depth is tested on a nightly basis, and if Bowman is unable to get his supporting cast going, the Eagles are quickly susceptible to digging holes they can’t get out of. Tabbs is missed by BC, as is a more balanced effort night in and night out. n

Slow Start, Sloppy Offense Hampers BC in Fourth Straight Loss MBB vs. CUSE, from A16 lead and spurred a decent stretch of play from the visitors. When Jordan Chatman drew a questionable foul on a 3-point attempt in the corner and sunk all three of his free throws, the Eagles took a 17-16 lead. At that point, the team had rebounded from its woeful start by going 5-of-10 from the field—Bowman’s outsized impact on the roster crystal clear.

Then, just as quickly as it seemed like BC was going to give Syracuse a good run, the wheels came off. In a fitting manner, the Orange took the lead for good on a Buddy Boeheim 3-pointer—the freshman, who dropped 13 points on the Eagles in January, again acted as BC’s kryptonite with 16 points off the bench.

The Orange would close the first half on a 7-0 run, one that was alleviated by a Chatman 3-point play in the waning seconds to bring the deficit back to single digits, but the Eagles still trailed by seven.

Things got worse when shorthanded BC suffered yet another injury early in the second half. Nik Popovic, who led the team at the time with an inefficient 10 points on 10 shots, went up for a rebound amid teammate Steffon Mitchell and Syracuse center Paschal Chukwu. On the way down, Chukwu’s outstretched hand collided with his face, sending the junior power forward to the locker room and into concussion protocol.

To add insult to injury, Frank Howard knocked down a 3-pointer while Popovic was motionless on the floor under his own basket. It didn’t help that Popovic’s replacement, Johncarlos Reyes, was greeted by an emphatic block from Oshae Brissett on his first and only attempt from the field. Mitchell went down shortly after with what appeared to be an aggravation of a prior quad injury that has cost him four games this season.

He’d return later in the half but didn’t fill the stat sheet as much as he usually does.

Christian also used Luka Kraljevic off the bench to get size down low, but that move

had similarly bad results as the sophomore piled up three fouls in his first two minutes and was blocked twice underneath. You could feel that Syracuse was ready to rumble.

It had several scoring spurts, but each time Bowman would hit a 3-pointer to keep the Orange within sight. He ended runs of 5-0 and 7-0, launching his celebratory arrow each time, but there was only so much he could do. The rest of the team was lifeless on offense, with Chatman chucking up a particularly egregious mid-range jumper at the end of the shot clock in one instance.

Bowman’s aforementioned dribble to the corner and 3-pointer cut the deficit to 10—he’d scored nine of his teams last 12 points and saw no signs of help. Chatman would finally shake off his struggles with a 3-pointer, but it came right before an 8-0 run from Battle and the Orange. Christian took a timeout in the middle of it, furious when Battle rose up for an uncontested alley oop in transition—the layup marked a 21-0 edge in points off turnovers for Syracuse.

The Eagles woke back up, as they often do when the game is practically decided, and launched themselves on a 14-0 run that had the Orange reeling. It was your classic false hope from BC, with Jairus Hamilton converting a three-point play, Chatman sinking a 3-pointer before Syracuse’s defense was back, and Bowman capping his night with a tough corner deep ball. The run was inspiring, closing the gap to just six, but asking for 20 straight points and perfect execution down the stretch means the hole is too deep to get out of. The Orange hit four free throws before Chris Herren Jr. connected on a mid-range jumper, and after Chatman uncharacteristically missed twice from the stripe, Boeheim converted a pair of free throws to send BC home with a 11-point loss that will be excruciating to watch in the film room.

The same issues that have confronted Christian’s team throughout the year were on full display for much of the game. The Eagles often allow a relative unknown player

to heat up—Boeheim hit three 3-pointers in the first half and was left open way too many times for a guy that they’d seen beat them before. Battle once again couldn’t be denied in the second half—he scored 21 points in the final 20 minutes in Conte Forum and added 15 this time around. Turnovers were an issue, with BC piling up 18—one shy of its seasonworst, when it accrued 19 in an overtime loss to Hartford. The offense was often stagnant against a zone defense it knows, as shooters bricked shots left and right, and it got to the point where Mitchell—a career 25 percent 3-point shooter—was taking a shot from distance because of the shot clock.

At the moment, with four losses and any chance at conference success slipping away, it’s clear that as Bowman goes, so does the team. And, when the rest of the team is playing as bad as they did at points against Syracuse, it prompts the harsh fact that Christian and the Eagles are squandering a NBA-bound talent who is doing all he can and more for the team on the court. n

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Eagles Remain Unbeaten After Victories Against BU and Rhode Island

By Luke Pichini Asst. Sports Editor Last week, Boston College women’s tennis achieved arguably its biggest win in program history as it knocked off No. 10 Syracuse, the first time the team had ever defeated a top-10 opponent. It helped the Eagles stay undefeated, and they carried that momentum into the weekend. With a Saturday double header on deck against Boston University and Rhode Island, BC did not slow down, effortlessly completing the weekend sweep with a 6-1 victory over BU and a 7-0 triumph over URI. The Terriers (3-2) were the first team to visit the Flynn Recreation Complex, and while BU put up a solid fight—forcing four matches to go to three sets—the Eagles ultimately came out on top. Ever since the Har-

vard matchup, head coach Nigel Bentley has trotted out Jackie Urbinati and Yufei Long as his first doubles team. While Urbinati and Long lost a close 7-5 set last time out against Syracuse, they redeemed themselves with a solid 6-2 victory over BU’s Shelly Yaloz and Emily Kim. Kylie Wilcox and Natasha Irani then notched a 6-3 win to clinch the doubles point for the Eagles.

In singles, BC was pushed. Long looked well on her way to victory after dominating Remi Ramos in the first set, 6-0, but Ramos stormed back and forced a third set.

Long prevailed, though, and set the tone for a resilient singles performance. Kylie Wilcox found herself in a battle as well, but the junior sealed the win with a strong performance in the third set, beating Yaloz, 6-2. Irani notched a straight-set victory over Kim. Freshman Laura Lopez continued her

breakout season, topping Sabrina Faybyshev 7-5, 7-5. Elene Tsokilauri was the only Eagle to drop her singles contest, but it was a three-set fight. Maria Ross rounded out BC’s single lineup with a three-set victory of her own.

Compared to BU, URI has struggled this year, stumbling to a 1-3 record prior to Saturday afternoon’s match. The Rams once again faltered against the stiff competition that BC provided. While the Terriers made the match interesting by forcing several three-set matches, URI could not do the same—in fact, the Rams lost all of their matches to the Eagles in straight-set decisions.

BC was once again able to display its prowess in the doubles game. Urbinati and Long further developed their chemistry by winning 6-3 over Erin Chratian and Mihaela

Codreanu. Bentley switched up his doubles lineup for the second match of the day, and it worked splendidly as Reagan Posorske and Loren Haukova beat Halah Davis and Sydney Chratian, 6-0. So far this season, the Eagles have not lost the doubles point, and that allows Bentley’s squad to head into singles play each time with plenty of momentum.

Just like it has done for most of the season, BC dominated in singles. Long, after dueling with Ramos for three sets, found a much easier opponent in Erin Chratian, coasting to a 6-1, 6-0 win. Wilcox was also dominant, overpowering Codreanu in a straight-set victory. Not losing a step, Lopez notched a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Ariel Haber. Maria Ross and Haukova followed suit, but Marion Conklin faced more of a challenge. After Conklin won the first set,

6-3, Sydney Chratian forced a tiebreaker in the second, but Conklin triumphed to clinch the sweep.

Last year, the Eagles were plagued by inconsistency as they showcased their talent on numerous occasions, but they never quite reached their full potential, finishing with 13 wins. This season, though, ACC play hasn’t even fully kicked off, and BC has already picked up nine wins. With a combination of veteran talent like Wilcox and Urbinati and newcomers such as Long and Lopez, this team is firing on all cylinders and has a high chance of improving upon its mark of five conference wins from last season. Victories will be much harder to come by against tough conference foes, but as the Eagles demonstrated in their upset of Syracuse, they have the talent to make some noise in the ACC. n

The Heights

Monday, February 11, 2019

A15

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Losing Streak Hits Three With Decisive Defeat to No. 15 Syracuse

By Mike Malley Heights Staff

Conference play has been a harsh reality check for Boston College women’s basketball as of late, and things didn’t Boston College 69 get any b etSyracuse 96 ter when the Eagles traveled to the Carrier Dome to take on No. 15 Syracuse on Sunday afternoon.

Having lost five of its last six coming in, BC leaned on Emma Guy—she dropped a career-high 30 points—but it was far from enough. While the Eagles kept up with the Orange in the first five minutes, they were thoroughly outmatched the rest of the way in what proved to be a 96-69 setback.

Guy poured in 30 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in an impressive double-double, while teammate Makayla Dickens sunk six 3-pointers in a 21-point performance. Outside of that duo, though, BC (14-10, 3-8 Atlantic Coast) largely struggled to manufacture points.

With starting guard Taylor Ortlepp out with an ankle injury, the Eagles leaned on the tandem for almost three-quarters of the team’s total scoring output. The rest of BC went just 7-of-35 from the field, hitting at a 20 percent clip that was far from enough to keep up with a balanced Syracuse (18-5, 7-3) attack—the Orange had nine players with at least five points.

The first quarter started off sloppy for both teams, with the Orange taking an early 11-7 lead nearly four

minutes into the game. The trend of the first quarter, and of the entire first half, was the 3-point shooting of Syracuse. The Orange made nearly 60 percent of its shots from deep in the half, and it allowed them to take a big lead into the first intermission. Guy did her best to keep the Eagles in the game, however, completely dominating the offensive side of the ball. She also played a large role on the glass, where BC had a strong advantage in the quarter, winning the rebound battle,13-6.

But the main reason that the Eagles fell behind was their inability to make shots. The team converted just 29 percent from the field and missed lots of open layups off great passing to try and break down the difficult Syracuse zone defense. The quarter ended with BC down by nine, and things only went down from there.

The second quarter saw more of the same in terms of the Orange’s shooting. Miranda Drummond was the standout player for Cuse, totaling 18 points in just 12 minutes of game time. Perhaps the most amazing part of her performance was that she barely needed to dribble the ball to score. Drummond was very effective at finding space on the perimeter, knocking down her open looks with ease.

Guy, who is from the Syracuse area, did her best to keep the Eagles in the game, though, nearly notching a double-double in the first half alone. She scored 17 points on just over 50 percent shooting, grabbing nine rebounds and playing all but one minute.

Despite her great play, the inability to maintain the ball for very long harmed the team mightily. BC coughed up the rock 10 times, compared to Syracuse’s seven, leading to 11 points off turnovers for the Orange, while the Eagles were able to make nine of their own.

Going into the half, BC appeared to figure out how to dissect the Orange’s zone, playing cleaner than they had early on in the game, but the damage had been done and the Eagles went into halftime down by 19.

The third quarter was by far the best of the game for BC, which was only outscored by one point, 20-19.

Still, the Eagles were plagued by poor execution, with the team’s first possession of the quarter resulting in Taylor Soule diving on the floor after a poor pass to retrieve the loose ball and use a timeout.

The frame was also particularly aggressive, as BC picked up two fouls in the first three minutes, and there were six personal fouls in the first five minutes. That physicality pushed the pace even more, causing the Orange to run after inbounding the ball anytime BC scored.

This high tempo highlighted the great play of Syracuse junior guard Tiana Mangakahia, who piled up 12 assists on the day. She commanded the offense for Syracuse and even made a few key buckets inside when she was pressured off the perimeter.

This was just not the Eagles’ day, as they sleepwalked through the fourth quarter, turning the ball over on two of the first three possessions of the frame.

KEARA HANLON / FOR THE HEIGHTS

Emma Guy had a career-high 30 points, but it was far from enough in a 27-point loss.

Meanwhile, Syracuse kept the pressure high with its zone defense and continued to push the fast break at any available opportunity. Eventually, the Orange, who had 10 players play 10-plus minutes, coasted to a 27-point victory and finished two points shy of a season-high for points scored.

The most shocking stat of the night was the difference in bench production for the Eagles versus that of the Orange. BC’s bench did not man-

age to score a single point, whereas Syracuse’s racked up 43 points. This is not unusual, but the disparity shows what the upper echelon of ACC teams looks like.

It was clear from the fourth minute on that the Eagles didn’t have the players to run with Syracuse, but ultimately the blowout loss was a stark reminder that, early-season success aside, BC often doesn’t have the depth to keep up with the nation’s best conference. n

As Eagles Continue to Struggle, Christian’s Seat Only Gets Hotter Hot Seat, from A16 use the freshman. Compare Hamilton with Daniel Oturu, the freshman at Minnesota who was ranked only one slot higher than Hamilton. Oturu is currently averaging 10.8 points per game on 57.3 percent shooting, far better than Hamilton’s average of 5.0 points per game. A.J. Reeves, who was similarly ranked, has been a valuable contributor for Providence this season as the team’s second-leading scorer, and he even hit the tying 3-pointer to force overtime against BC back in November.

BC’s bench players have been sieves on the court, making mistakes and often posting negative efficiency ratings.

Bowman is averaging 38.9 minutes per game this year because there’s no else behind him who can even replicate a fraction of his production. Christian has been riding Bowman harder than any other player in the country—the junior leads the nation in percentage of minutes played. He is one of the only players—besides Nik Popovic, Tabbs, and Chatman—that Christian can count on for consistent contributions.

Defense has always been a weak point under Christian. For years, the Eagles have proven incapable of defending the perimeter. This has allowed opponents to race ahead with the deep ball. Whether the Eagles employ a 2-3 zone or man-to-man, their strategy may work for a stretch, but teams are quick to adjust, and BC is unable to counter.

Defensive effort from many players has been spotty. Bowman is too busy doing everything on the court, and he sometimes cannot give a full effort—the guard often looks to double team rather than defend his man straight up. Tabbs has been a good defender, but he’s been inactive for a while now. Popovic struggles as an interior defender, and Chatman cannot be counted on to play quality defense. While Mitchell has a reputation as a dynamic defensive player and Jared Hamilton has impressed since gaining eligibility midseason, the rest of the team struggles mightily to stick to its assignments and maintain defensive structure. It’s no wonder why teams are able to score so easily against BC. Christian’s coaching ability looks quite poor when compared with his ACC counterparts. It’s pretty telling that a decimated Notre Dame team swept the season series against the Eagles.

Mike Brey, who was working with a roster that was even shallower than BC’s, still found a way to outplay the Eagles, outcoaching Christian on two separate occasions. In the second contest, Brey made it a point of emphasis to attack BC on the perimeter, and the Fighting Irish—the 279th-best 3-point shooting team in the country, per KenPom—succeeded, converting 50 percent of their triples.

Perhaps an even bigger indictment of Christian’s coaching comes in the form of Jeff Capel, the head coach at

Pittsburgh. After going winless in the ACC last year, the Panthers hired Capel, who brought in several freshman recruits who have impressed so far. Three of the four top scorers for Pittsburgh— Xavier Johnson, Trey McGowens, and Au’Diese Toney—are freshmen. Capel, in his first year at the helm, is in the same position as Christian—who has been at BC for much longer—in the current ACC hierarchy.

Buzz Williams has achieved significantly more in five years than Christian has. Williams inherited a Virginia Tech team that won only two conference games during the 2013-14 season. After just one sub-.500 season, Williams has turned Virginia Tech into a perennial contender in the ACC, and the Hokies are currently ranked No. 11 in the nation. You can even look into the actual hiring of Christian, too, as former athletic director Brad Bates passed on Mike Hopkins—who is currently coaching Pac-12 leading Washington and finding much more success.

The future doesn’t look very bright for BC at the moment. Bowman, who is currently projected to be a late-second round pick in the NBA draft, will surely depart and Chatman is no longer eligible after this season. Tabbs looked the part of a secondary star, but it remains to be seen if he can carry over that same level play to the ACC. Hamilton has impressed at times, but his development has been slower than expected. BC will welcome four three-star recruits next

fall, but it’s too early to tell if they’ll be able to replace Bowman’s production.

Christian ultimately failed to capitalize in terms of recruiting this year despite producing a lottery pick in Robinson, boasting an NBA-caliber guard in Bowman, and notching an ESPN Top 100 recruit. A 2019-20 starting lineup that will likely consist of Wynston Tabbs, Jairus Hamilton, Popovic, Steffon Mitchell and one of the new recruits doesn’t inspire much confidence. If Christian is struggling to achieve production from his bench now, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be able to reverse course next year.

Christian hasn’t exactly had luck on his side, though. During the ill-fated 2015-16 season, half of the team was infected with norovirus after eating at Chipotle during the restaurant chain’s well-documented E. Coli outbreak. Last year, Teddy Hawkins—an Illinois State transfer and the Eagles’ most dynamic big man in recent memory—suffered a season-ending knee injury, just eight games into the season. Flash forward to 2018-19: BC’s recent matchup with Syracuse saw both Mitchell and Popovic leave with injuries. While Mitchell did return, Popovic remains in the concussion protocol. The game was simply a microcosm of a larger problem—the Eagles can’t seem to shake the injury bug.

What is the ceiling for BC? If the roster is firing on all cylinders, the Eagles could make some noise in the

ACC—as they demonstrated in their upset of Florida State—but this team would likely peak at around 20 wins.

That may be enough to make the NCAA Tournament, but even when they eclipsed that mark in 2010-11, they only earned an NIT berth, so nothing is guaranteed.

If Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond is content to let BC hang near the cellar in the ACC with the slight chance of a decent season, then keeping Christian is the right course of action.

But if Jarmond wants to revive the days of yore when the Eagles made the NCAA Tournament seven times over the course of nine years, then it may just be time to go in a new direction.

Jarmond has appeared to strike gold on his hires of Jason Kennedy and Joanna Bernabei-McNamee for volleyball and women’s basketball, respectively, so it’s clear that the third-year AD has shrewd eye in picking head coaches. A new leader could perhaps elevate the Eagles to be a mid-tier ACC team with consistent postseason aspirations.

Unless this team is somehow able to revitalize its play down the stretch—like the Eagles did last year when they made it to the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament—Christian is out of excuses, and his fate is all but sealed.

Luke Pichini is the Assistant Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached on Twitter @LukePichini.

SPORTS in SHORT MEN’S Basketball aCC Standings

Numbers to know

Conference overall Duke 9-1 21-2 North Carolina 9-1 19-4 Virginia 8-2 20-2 Louisville 8-3 17-7 Syracuse 8-3 17-7 Virginia Tech 7-4 18-5 Florida State 6-4 18-5 Clemson 5-5 15-8 N.C. State 5-6 17-7 Georgia Tech 3-7 11-12 Notre Dame 2-8 12-11 Boston College 2-8 11-11 Wake Forest 2-8 9-13 Pittsburgh 2-9 12-12 Miami 2-9 10-13

336

Days since Kenzie Kent wore a BC uniform, returning to lead the team in points (nine) and goals (five).

26

Field goal percentage for Eagles not named Ky Bowman against Syracuse, a reflection of a pitiful shooting performance by BC.

53 6

Shots by BC women’s hockey against Harvard— 27 more than the Crimson—but the Eagles still lost by three goals.

QUote of the week

“I told Joe Woll to make a lot of saves.”

— Men’s hockey head coach

Jerry York, on his team’s gameplan to shut down Harvard’s No. 1 ranked power play in the Beanpot semifinal.

A16 Monday, February 11, 2019

SPORTS

@HeightsSports

MEN’S BASKETBALL

KY’S THE LIMIT Second Half Sinks Eagles

As Ky Bowman’s poor second half against Duke and the five minutes he missed against Syracuse showed, the Eagles go as he goes.

Late Rally Not Enough

By Luke Pichini

By Bradley Smart

Asst. Sports Editor

Sports Editor

Last season, Boston College men’s basketball experienced a program-defining moment with its upset win over No. 1 Duke at Conte Forum.

Boston College 55 The miraculous Duke 80 89-84 victory was fueled by incredible performances from Jerome Robinson, Ky Bowman, and Jordan Chatman, with the trio combining for 76 points. Later that season, BC went on to accrue 19 wins and appeared in the NIT after a two-game run in the conference tournament. There was plenty of optimism surrounding the program, but that has mostly faded midway through this season. Injuries have decimated the roster, and the team has struggled to fill the void that Robinson created when he departed for the NBA. Facing No. 2 Duke this season—this time in Durham—there was not much hope that the Eagles could pull off another monumental win. BC came into the game as 24-point underdogs, and it was once again without guard Wynston Tabbs. The Blue Devils hadn’t forgotten about last year’s defeat, but they didn’t play with the same effort and drive that BC displayed in the first half. On the back of gritty play and poor shooting by Duke, the Eagles went into the intermission with a two-point lead.

While it was still highly unlikely BC could pull off an impossible feat twice in a row, there was a glimmer of hope. But that hope was quickly shattered, as Duke regrouped in the second half, more than doubling up BC in the last 20 minutes en route to a convincing 80-55 victory.

The Blue Devils (20-2, 8-1 Atlantic Coast) used 15 points apiece from Cam Reddish and R.J. Barrett in the second

Boston College men’s basketball point guard Ky Bowman dribbled the ball the length of the court, darted underneath the basket and out to Boston College 56 the corner, found Syracuse 67 an inch of space, and sunk a contested 3-pointer between two Syracuse defenders. Sometimes, that’s all a player can do when the rest of his team is lifeless.

It was the second straight 3-pointer from the junior guard, coming right before the host Orange extended its lead to 20 midway through the second half. While Bowman and the Eagles would go on a 14-0 run late in the half to make things interesting, the team was plagued by turnovers, defensive miscues, and poor showings from anyone wearing a number other than zero. Bowman finished with a game-high 21 points on 7of-12 shooting, but the rest of BC hit just a combined 11 shots en route to a humbling 67-56 setback defeat to Syracuse.

Bowman, who didn’t start for the first time this season after a “minor, internal team issue,” watched from the bench as his team came out to a listless start. The Eagles (11-11, 2-8 Atlantic Coast) started the day 0-of-10 from the field, with Jim Christian’s offense looking absolutely abysmal without its dynamic point guard. Luckily for BC, Syracuse (17-7, 8-3) was equally slow out of the gate, only building a 4-1 lead before Bowman came in.

The guard’s return was marked by a noticeable improvement in offense, with the junior hitting the team’s first field goal of the game seven minutes in, then following it with a high-arcing 3-pointer over Orange star Tyus Battle. It handed BC a one-point

See MBB vs. Duke, A14

Nick Lisi / AP PHOTO (top, rIGHT) And Chris Seward / ap pHOTO (lEFT)

See MBB vs. CUSE, A14

Christian’s Coaching Flaws on Full Display in His Fifth Year at BC

Luke Pichini

Boston College men’s basketball is seeing its season slip away in front of its own eyes. Saturday’s contest against Syracuse marked the Eagles’ fourth straight loss, and they have now won just two of their last 11 games. What started out as a promising campaign has quickly transformed into a lost season. BC earned nine wins in the non-conference slate, including victories over quality teams—Minnesota, Loyola Chicago, and DePaul—but it also gave away several winnable games, dropping close decisions to IUPUI, Providence, and Hartford.

But, when BC ventured into ACC

competition, the wheels began to fall off.

With a combination of injuries and being overmatched in terms of both talent and coaching, the Eagles have managed just two ACC wins. Some of these losses are excusable—Duke and Virginia are simply in a class of their own. On the other hand, the Eagles have blown several opportunities. BC dropped two games against a Notre Dame team that has arguably the thinnest rotation in the ACC. To make it worse, BC has suffered the same issues on the defensive end that have plagued head coach Jim Christian’s teams for years, as it has been unable to adapt to its opponents’ adjustments. This has resulted in botched leads against both Virginia Tech and Louisville.

Coaching is the ultimate source of the Eagles’ issues—and that’s where Christian comes in. With the Eagles greatly struggling, the fifth-year head coach finds himself on the hot seat, and

for good reason. It took four years for Christian to achieve the 19-win season from last year, and it was a long and brutal road that featured the Eagles going winless in conference play during the 2015-16 season.

Yes, an important caveat is that injuries have been a major culprit for BC’s struggles. Ever since November, there have been numerous shifts in the starting lineup. Jordan Chatman and Steffon Mitchell each missed multiple games, then things got worse with the prolonged absence of Wynston Tabbs, who emerged as a bonafide star early in the season. After injuring his left knee against Hartford, the freshman was in and out of the lineup and has now missed five straight games. With Tabbs walking around on crutches and Christian mum on his status, there’s no telling when—or even if—the guard will make it back to the lineup.

That being said, these injuries have

only caused BC to miss one or two players in the rotation at any given time.

The Eagles have a better supporting cast than last season with Jared Hamilton, Chris Herren Jr., and Jairus Hamilton.

They should have been able to replace the production missing in the starting lineup. Alas, BC has not accomplished that as it’s been quite tough and rare for the team to play a full 40 minutes.

With Jerome Robinson’s rise to prominence in 2017-18, BC garnered its first postseason appearance since the 2010-11 season and finished above .500. While the Eagles did let some winnable games slip away, they still defied preseason expectations by making a run in the conference tournament and appearing in the NIT. This year, even with Robinson departing for the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, many expected the team to take another step forward with Bowman returning as well as Jairus Hamilton—an ESPN Top 100 recruit—

and Tabbs arriving as new talent.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, they never reached the next level. In fact, BC has taken a colossal step back.

One of the issues has been Christian’s inability to develop talent on the bench. The reason the Eagles have a startlingly thin rotation is because the team has nobody to turn to. BC has had to rely on a small rotation of players—a group that’s grown even smaller because of injuries—while letting numerous players ride the bench and gain very little playing time. Christian has been unable to get the most out his players.

Luka Kraljevic averaged 1.5 points per game last season and has seen even less playing time this year, only averaging 0.8 points per game.

Jairus Hamilton came in as a fourstar recruit with plenty of hype, but Christian has struggled to find ways to

Hot Seat, A15

LACROSSE

No. 1 Eagles Kick Off Season With Blowout Victory over Terriers

By Andy Backstrom Managing Editor Kenzie Kent—a dual-sport athlete who redshirted last season to preserve her final year of eligibility for a full 2019 campaign— Boston University 6 hadn’t played a Boston College 20 game for Boston College lacrosse in 622 days before Saturday afternoon’s season opener against Boston University. Not only that, but she hadn’t worn an Eagles uniform since BC women’s hockey was bounced in the first round of last year’s NCAA

INSIDE SPORTS

Tournament: March 10, 2018, in other words, 336 days.

“It’s the longest I’ve waited since I’ve been in college, so I was very anxious and eager for this game to start—I’ve been looking forward to it for a very long time, over a year,” Kent said afterward.

Despite the time lapse, a period in which the program lost its second consecutive National Championship, Kent didn’t miss a beat. Instead, she picked up right where she left off—literally.

The graduate student found the back of the net within the first 24 seconds of regulation en route to a nine-point

performance, one shy of her career high, which she last tied against Maryland in the 2017 national title game. She was one of three Eagles to finish with four-plus points, as BC thumped its Green Line rival, 20-6.

The No. 1 Eagles (1-0) entered the game having beaten the Terriers (0-1) in each of the teams’ past nine meetings, totaling 15 or more goals in six of those victories. It wasn’t long before it was safe to assume that BC would once again reach that mark. In large part thanks to a Cara Urbank hat trick, the Eagles logged five goals in as many minutes, putting the

game out of reach in a heartbeat.

Reigning Tewaaraton Award winner Sam Apuzzo won the opening draw control and, seconds later, Dempsey Arsenault sped downfield, eying Kent on the perimeter. Her pass was deflected, but the graduate student corralled the loose ball and reset the offense. Soon after, she cashed in on her first goal of the season.

About two minutes later, Kent reentered the box score, only this time she was the one creating the open shot. After jogging behind the cage, she lofted a pass over the net to Urbank, who was cutting

WTEN: Eagles Sweep BU and Rhode Island MHOK: BC Advances to Beanpot Title Game

through the heart of the BU defense and promptly beat Terriers goaltender Kennady Smith to give BC a two-goal advantage. Following an Arsenault free-position goal, Urbank replicated her previous scoring play, lurking past defenders, receiving a behind-the-cage Apuzzo pass, and finishing on net for her second strike of the day.

Urbank tied off the hat trick with another goal just 24 seconds later, courtesy of a Jordin Lappin assist. Up, 5-0, the Eagles looked practically unstop-

See LAX vs. BU, A14

SPORTS IN SHORT...............................A15 After dropping just one total match in Saturday’s doubleheader Patrick Giles scored the winning goal late in the third period, as WOMEN’S BASKETBALL......................A14 BC moved to a perfect 9-0 in 2019..............................................A15 the Eagles snapped a four-game Beanpot losing streak.........A13 BEANPOT..............................................A13