The Heights February 19, 2018

Heights

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The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

EST. 1919

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Monday, February 19, 2018

New Voices ARTS

Three’s COmpany SPORTS

Taylor Badoyen and Michael Quinn discuss their original plays, ‘The Things We Do’ and ‘Get It Together.’

For the third straight year, women’s hockey was crowned Beanpot champions—only this time it, came on home ice.

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Graduate Employees Union Withdraws Petition With NLRB The action ended legal proceedings with the University.

By Jack Goldman Copy Editor The Boston College Graduate Employees Union saga entered a new stage Tuesday evening, as Vice President for Human Resources David Trainor issued a letter to the Boston College community explaining that the union had on Feb. 6 withdrawn its petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The union’s decision marks the end of the legal battle between the union and BC over entering into collective bargaining, but the beginning of a new chapter in the relationship between the two.

The union’s petition, which allowed it to win collective bargaining rights with BC through the NLRB, was being chal-

lenged by the University, which had appealed the NLRB’s May 2017 decision to grant the union an election. If the NLRB had ruled in favor of BC, the union would have lost its legal right to bargain.

Trainor’s letter explained that in response to the union withdrawing its petition to the NLRB, the board revoked the Certification of Representation gained through the union election held last September, through which the group won the right to collectively bargain with the University through the NLRB. This rendered the University’s appeal to review the NLRB’s decision in granting the election—which was still ongoing—moot, since there is no longer a legal effort taking place.

“In the simplest terms, this withdrawal and revocation of certification means that the effort to unionize graduate students by the UAW has concluded and the University’s Request for Review is now moot,” Trainor said. “As of today, there is

no action pending before the NLRB related to Boston College and our graduate students and there is no legally certified bargaining representative for graduate students at Boston College.”

Trainor then reiterated the University’s appreciation for the work graduate students at BC do. He has used that language in the past and in a previous letter sent on Jan. 24 gave examples of specific benefits BC gives to graduate students that it believes is an appropriate recompense for their work. The union believes those benefits are too easily revoked and not supportive enough. In the final paragraph of the letter sent on Feb. 6, Trainor repeated what those benefits are: tuition remission, stipends, and health care for doctoral teaching and research assistants.

In an email sent to members of the union last Thursday, the union’s organizing

See Petition, A3

The union will continue to demand voluntary bargaining.

By Jack Goldman Copy Editor Vice President for Human Resources David Trainor issued a letter Tuesday to the Boston College community announcing that the BC Graduate Employees Union — United Auto Workers (UAW) had on Feb. 6 rescinded its petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), with the intention of continuing to ask the University to voluntarily bargain with the union.

By rescinding its petition with the NLRB, the union ended legal proceedings with the organization, which could have compelled the University’s recognition of the union.

“In the simplest terms, this withdrawal

and revocation of certification means that the effort to unionize graduate students by the UAW has concluded and the University’s Request for Review is now moot,” Trainor wrote. “As of today, there is no action pending before the NLRB related to Boston College and our graduate students and there is no legally certified bargaining representative for graduate students at Boston College.”

The group took issue with these two sentences that could be, and by some have been, misconstrued to mean that the union has ceased its organization efforts altogether.

“I found the letter very misleading in a lot of ways, because we pulled our petition from the NLRB, and we continued doing office visits, [and] we continued asking administrators to come to the bargaining table even after we had pulled the

See Union, A3

Amid Talk of Impeachment, Two UGBC Senators Resign SA Seats DiPietro and Batsinelas resigned on Saturday morning.

By Samantha Karl Heights Staff On Saturday afternoon, Undergraduate Government of Boston College senator Aneeb Sheikh, MCAS ’20, called the Student Assembly (SA) to hold an emergency meeting regarding the Articles of Impeachment against senator Steve DiPietro, MCAS ’19.

Shortly after, DiPietro announced that he and a fellow senator—confirmed to be Matt Batsinelas, CSOM ’19—had resigned their seats in the SA. “There will be no meeting for any impeachment, as I and a fellow senator have already resigned due to the

actions of UGBC over the past few days,” DiPietro said in an email to The Heights.

Batsinelas also shared the reason for his resignation.

“I agree with the basic tenet of BLM – that people of color deserve better in this country,” he said in an email. “However, I strongly disagree with its intersectional components. It is disappointing that Steve could not express his disapproval of BLM without being flooded with harassment from students. UGBC and The Heights promote a hypersensitive campus climate that has created an intolerant student body to opposing viewpoints.

I have resigned due to UGBC and The Heights encouraging the harassment of students who threaten the current structure of UGBC.” The resolution, titled “Articles of

Impeachment against Senator Stephen DiPietro, MCAS ‘19,” was prompted by a Facebook post on Friday in which DiPietro commented on the results of the 2018-19 UGBC president and executive vice president election results. According to the resolution, the post, which has since been deleted, stated “Good thing those blm freaks aren’t anywhere near ugbc leadership #staywoke #yacoubian,” and was linked to a Heights article that covered the election results.

“The phrase ‘blm freaks’ explicitly refers to the Black Lives Matter movement and is clearly directed at Taraun Frontis and Aneeb Sheikh, their campaign team, many of their supporters, and Black students in general,” the resolution states.

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BC Startup Acquired by Nonprofit Harvard Student Agencies acquired Campus Insights.

By Myroslav Dobroshynskyi Heights Staff Riley Soward, CSOM ’18, is back in the media spotlight: His market research startup, Campus Insights, was recently acquired by the nonprofit Harvard Student Agencies (HSA).

The startup, which Soward cofounded with his brother Stephen in 2014, has provided various clients with feedback on how college students interact with their companies’ products or services.

Soward and his team were exploring different ways for the business to stay student-run. They were attracted to HSA’s national and international presence, in addition to its extensive connections.

“HSA is the absolute perfect fit for us,” Soward said.

The young entrepreneur thinks that under HSA, the company has a lot of potential. The Harvard student-run company has a track record of consis-

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Photo Courtesy of Claudia Quintana

Founded by Soward and his brother, Campus Insights is a market research startup.

tently growing businesses, while still dealing with the challenges of managing and turning over the student team every couple years.

“We think they will do a very good job at bringing in new talent, training them, scaling the business, and repeating that cycle again and again,” Soward said.

Harvard sophomore James Swingos will take over as CEO of the startup. Soward believes that to be a good CEO at Campus Insights, one has to be skillful in the various aspects of the job.

“You have to be good at research,

NEWS: Sexual Health

94 percent of voters supported referendum on contraceptive distribution......................A3

sales, and also managing a team, and we’ve seen [James] excel in all three of those situations,” Soward said.

Kelsey Bishop, head of business development at Campus Insights and CSOM ’18, is also optimistic about the company’s future under HSA’s management.

“Campus Insights will continue to grow while staying student-run, which is important in keeping our research valuable for clients and continuing to help companies improve their products for college students,” she said.

See Campus Insights, A3

METRO: Blue Bottle

Blue Bottle Cafe has opened its first location in Boston...........................................................A8

Katie Genirs / Heights Editor

Piercey and Fletcher

Elected UGBC Pres, EVP This year 2,880 votes were cast, about a 31 percent voter turnout.

By Cole Dady News Editor Reed Piercey, MCAS ’19, and Ignacio Fletcher, MCAS ’20, won this year’s election for president and executive vice president of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College on Thursday. They will hold these offices for the 2018-19 school year.

Piercey and Fletcher received 1,551 votes. The opposing team—Taraun Frontis, CSOM ’19, and Aneeb Sheikh, MCAS ’20—received 1,204.

Two thousand seven hundred fiftyfive total votes were counted this year, up from 2,431 last year, and 2,592 in 2016.

Frontis and Sheikh were penalized 125 votes by the Elections Committee for negative campaigning on social media, which consisted of a comment Sheikh liked on Facebook and a comment written by someone affiliated with their campaign that constituted a character attack against Fletcher. In total, 2,880 votes were submitted.

Piercey and Fletcher are currently both senators for their respective class years in the Student Assembly. While Piercey has been involved with UGBC since freshman year, this is Fletcher’s first year in the organization. The foundation of their platform is based on three key pillars: advocacy, reliability, and engagement. At the campaign’s kickoff two weeks ago, they explained

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that their mission is to compel the administration to create a campus culture of “challenge and change” based on the initiatives in their platform.

Their win follows 10 days of campus-wide campaigning. The pillars of Frontis and Sheikh’s platform involved bringing a student center to BC, diversity and inclusion, and campus improvements and sustainability.

Following the election, Piercey and Fletcher shared their reactions and thoughts on winning. At press time, Frontis and Sheikh were not able to comment.

“I thought the election could go either way right up until the last moment because of how committed and passionate both teams were,” Piercey said.

He and Fletcher explained that they aim to ensure proper follow through on diversity initiatives, such as DiversityEdu and the Multicultural Learning Experience program at BC. Piercey said they will work toward implementing an LGBTQ+ resource center, as well as “Eagle Exchange,” a physical on-campus location for exchanging clothing, room accessories, and non-academic books at discounted prices.

“We have to put in the work to realize our vision of UGBC with sensitivity to the context on campus and what we’re going through culturally,” he said.

Fletcher discussed the importance of meeting with the Montserrat Office and establishing a seat on the Student Assembly for Montserrat and first-generation

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Vol. XCIX, No. 5 MAGAZINE..................A4 SPORTS......................B1 © 2018, The Heights, Inc. METRO........................ A5 SCENE.......................B8 www.bchelghts.com 69

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things to do on campus this week

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On Tuesday from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Murray Function Room the Carroll School of Management and the Boston College Career Center will host the Sports Business Society Networking Night. The will feature representatives from a variety of sports-related companies and industries.

Monday, February 19, 2018

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The Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics will hold a Chambers Lecture Series titled “The State of Affairs in America: A conversation about race and immigration”, feautring Jason Riley a columinist for The Wall Street Journal .The lecture will take place on Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Murray Function Room.

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On Thursday from 9 to 11 p.m. in Hillside, the Campus Activities Board with host an event with the theme drawn from “Game of Thrones.” This is a 21+ event, and those who wish to get in must bring their BC and state ID. Bar is cash only.

NEWS Nimo to Speak at TEDxBostonCollege in April BRIEFS

By Aidan Latona

Cyber Experts to Gather at BC

Boston College and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will host the second annual Boston Conference on Cyber Security (BCCS) on March 7, with the goal of fostering collaboration between academics, private industry, and law enforcement to develop new methods to best prevent and respond to cyber attacks.

Last year’s conference featured then-FBI Director James Comey. In the midst of controversy surrounding President Trump’s claim that the Obama Administration tapped his phones, and Comey’s pushback against this claim, Comey said he planned to serve the remainder of his 10-year term.

“You’re stuck with me for another six and a half years,” Comey said. He was fired by President Trump two months later, on May 9.

This year’s conference features former United States Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh. C Johnson. Officials from several federal agencies and security firms will also be in attendance, including the National Security Agency and Raytheon.

“Our partnership with the FBI on BCCS 2018 is part of our efforts to build and strengthen the cyber security ecosystem here in the northeast region,” said Kevin Powers, director of the Cybersecurity Policy and Governance program to BC News.

“With every day that passes, cyberattacks become more frequent, complex, and destructive, and it will take all of us working together to address the threats of tomorrow,” said FBI Boston Division Special Agent in Charge Harold H. Shaw, to BC News.

“After all, we have a lot to protect,” he said. “We live in a target-rich environment, with Fortune 500 companies, hundreds of defense contractors, startups, colleges and universities, many of which have renowned research and development facilities.”

“Based on the overwhelming success of the inaugural conference, the FBI is very excited to partner again with Boston College,” Shaw added.

Prof. in ‘Nature Neuroscience’ The work of a team of Boston College researchers was published in the monthly scientific journal, Nature Neuroscience. Led by Gianinno Family Sesquicentennial Assistant Professor of psychology John P. Christianson, the team discovered that the brain’s insular cortex, which is responsible for processing senses and emotions, might be related to human reactions, including fight or flight, with the hormone oxytocin.

Seeking insights into complex social behaviors, the team hopes its research will aid further research into conditions like autism and schizophrenia.

“We were surprised that insular cortex activity was correlated with both social approach and social avoidance behaviors,” Christianson said to The Chronicle. “This suggests that the insular cortex works together with a distributed network to integrate features like the age and stress of other individuals.”

The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Mental Health funded Christianson’s research.

The report, entitled “Insular cortex mediates approach and avoidance responses to others in distress,” was coauthored by Maureen Ritchey, an assistant psychology professor; Morgan M. Rogers-Carter, a NSF graduate research fellow; Juan A. Varela, a research associate; and several undergraduates.

With this research published, Christianson and his team will now look into the “brain regions that receive input from the insular cortex to determine whether these pathways are necessary for interactions with stressed individuals,” according to The Chronicle.

Copy Editor

Nine Boston College students shared their thoughts on the topic of “bringing people together” at Thursday’s TEDx Student Speaker Competition. The competition, independently organized by TEDxBostonCollege, gave students a platform to individually showcase their rhetorical abilities and potentially win an opportunity to speak at the main TEDx conference at BC in April.

The students who competed varied in terms of school-year and background, with some even enrolled in BC’s graduate programs. While all nine centered their speeches around the given topic, students personalized their presentations by reflecting on past experiences where they were faced with the challenges of community and relationship building.

It was this process of reflection that made many of the speeches in the contest exceptional.

“We didn’t expect the quality of the speeches to be as good as it was, no disrespect to BC students, but it was just at a really high level,” said Jacob Kohzipatt, the lead curator and CSOM ’20. “We felt like it could have been a TED Talk itself.”

For the audience, one student who spoke stood out from the rest.

Kofi Nimo, CSOM ’21, delivered his speech, entitled “The Role of Acceptance in Bringing People Together,” in a manner

best described as inspirational.

He began by asking the listeners to close their eyes, and encouraged them to imagine the version of themselves that they choose to hide from others.

“Why do you hide from that person?

Are you ashamed of it? Is it because you’re not at peace with yourself?” Nimo asked.

Nimo went on to explain that many people tend to put on a mask, obscuring the part of themselves that they don’t want others to see. When he first came to BC, Nimo thought that he was the only one who was self-conscious in this way. He feared being judged for his socioeconomic background and he didn’t want other students to know about the poverty his family had endured.

Yet Nimo quickly found that his peers were struggling to hide what they were ashamed of as well—he discovered that he wasn’t the only one with a mask.

Nimo also emphasized that in order to accept others and build relationships, people must begin to accept their own differences and shortcomings.

“How can we expect to bring other people together if we can’t even bring the inner-folds of ourselves together?” Nimo asked.

Nimo said that he began to realize this—that he began to remove that mask— when he joined the step team Sexual Chocolate, a group which Nimo believes is about much more than dancing. Being among a diverse, candid group of people encouraged Nimo to open up about his own problems.

Young Kim / Heights Staff

Kofi Nimo, CSOM ‘21, spoke on becoming the person you’re afraid for people to see.

Through sharing his flaws and differences, Nimo said, he became incredibly close to the other members of the group.

Nimo ended his speech by asking the audience members to close their eyes again, and to imagine exposing their true selves to others by removing their masks.

“See yourself taking that mask off, see yourself becoming that person that you’re afraid for people to see, because that is the only way that you will make true friends, friends that care about you,” Nimo said.

Nimo’s story and message won the crowd’s support, and he was voted by the audience to speak at the conference in April.

Khozipatt believes that Nimo will rep-

resent BC community values well at the conference, and that the connection Nemo makes between diversity and community building was exceptionally important given that the BC population, he said, is largely homogeneous.

Both Khozipatt and TEDxBostonCollege head organizer Elizabeth Kopec MCAS ’18 agreed that the event Thursday was a huge success, with Nimo representing one of many talented speakers from that night. They also believe that the student speaker competition will only get better in the future.

“We think the student speaker competition could become a staple at BC in the future,” Khozipatt said. n

BC Launches Journalism Minor to Debut Fall 2018

By Colleen Martin Copy Editor Boston College unveiled a new minor on Wednesday that will be in effect for this spring’s course registration period: journalism. The newly developed program launched its website on Feb. 14, thereby releasing the application for the minor.

The minor will expand on the journalism courses already offered to include crosslistings in other departments and schools at BC. Program director Angela Ards believes that the new program will keep with BC’s goal of connecting studies with the outside world.

“The idea behind the minor was to do some of the things that BC does best,” she said. “Getting a liberal arts education and then engaging that with the world: We think that the heart of journalism does that splendidly.”

The minor will consist of six courses: one introductory course, one senior capstone course, and then four courses in between for which students will be able to choose from a wide range of options. The

introductory course will expose students not only to the craft skills of writing, but also to the larger topics of ethics, case studies, and the history of journalism. One of the four “in-between” courses must be a critical, or cross-listed, course that is housed in a different department, such as Reporting Civil Rights, Business of Journalism, or Health Journalism.

BC’s current journalism courses are largely focused on craft-based writing— Feature Writing, Broadcast Writing, and Music Writing serve as prime examples.

The aim of this new program is to reach beyond these courses to cover more issues and facets of journalism in greater detail.

These courses will be taught by BC tenured or tenure-track faculty, unlike some of the others that are taught by adjunct professors who are current writers in the field.

“The idea in terms of how the minor is expanding is to maintain those craft courses, which is kind of the foundation of the program now, but also the foundation of the skills of journalism, and expand the liberal arts part of it in terms of reaching out to other schools and disciplines and cross-

listing courses with them,” she said.

As for the adjunct professors, Ards hopes to continue to work with them to bring opportunities in for BC students.

She’d like to enhance the way in which faculty aid students in searching for internships, and establish a speaker series so that students can learn more about daily life in journalism. Based on the rate at which students have registered for journalism courses in the past, which has often left many unable to enroll due the courses filling up too quickly, Ards and the Educational Policy Committee are confident that the program will be popular.

Prior to the installation of this program, students could choose to minor in American Studies and, within the minor, concentrate in journalism. There are six courses in the minor: One is a course in the English department, one is a senior seminar, and at least three others have to be within your chosen concentration.

Carlo Rotella, the director of American Studies, has been working to cultivate and grow this new program beyond the confines of his department, as it will al-

low students to focus more specifically on journalism without having to take other American Studies courses that might not be as relevant to their preferred area of study. The program plans to phase out this aspect of the American Studies minor in order to focus more completely on the new program.

The minor application is now available on the website, and it will be due on March 15. It asks for students to submit their GPA, as well as any relevant writing experiences or samples they may have. If accepted, students will be able to register for Fall 2018 classes as journalism minors.

The full list of courses available for next year is also listed.

“As the program continues to develop the possibilities of its Boston location, forging fresh links between the Boston College campus and the city’s international public culture, students will also have more and more opportunities to work with the city’s deep roster of talented professional journalists, venture out to do original reporting, and intern at an array of media outlets,” the website reads. n

UGBC Calls for Creation of LGBTQ+ Staff Position

By Samantha Karl Heights Staff The Student Assembly (SA) of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College passed a resolution Tuesday evening calling upon the University to create a full-time administrative position within the Office of the Dean of Students that will serve the school’s LGBTQ+ community.

Entitled “A Resolution Concerning Bias-Related Incidents,” the resolution was sponsored by Hugh McMahon, MCAS ’20; and co-sponsored by Ellen O’Brien,

MCAS ’20; Aneeb Sheikh, MCAS ’20; and Patrick Madaya, MCAS ’18.

This position would exist under the supervision of Caroline Davis, the assistant dean for student outreach and support, and its duties would include organizing programs, coordinating outreach, administering training, and carrying out other duties delegated by Davis. The occupant of this position must be a professional with proficient understanding of LGBTQ+ identities and issues, as well as queer identities’ relationships to other intersectional identities.

The Office of the Dean of Students did not respond to a request for comment on the resolution.

McMahon’s resolution was in response to the argument that there are not enough hands on deck to focus on queer issues at BC. “Boston College has a socially conservative and Roman Catholic identity, which only contributes to a culture of anti-queerness, which can exacerbate this problem,” McMahon said.

He noted that homophobia and transphobia, both explicit and implicit on

campus, increase queer students’ risk of anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. He explained that collegeaged members of the LGBTQ+ community at BC face a unique set of challenges not faced by their straight and cisgender peers, which negatively impacts their academic performance.

“There is a lot of discussion on the lack of intersectional spaces for queer students of color, so we want to make it really central to this hiring process that intersectionality is on the forefront,” McMahon said. n

CORRECTIONS Who is your favorite president?

“George Washington. He started us off on the right foot.”

—Emily Walker, CSOM ’21 “Abraham Lincoln. He fundamentally changed the country.”

—Sean Thibault, CSOM ’19

“Barack Obama. He’s the only president I’ve really witnessed in my lifetime.”

—Jeff Coote, MCAS ’21

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

“Martin Van Buren. He is the only president for whom English was not his first language.”

—Shamus Miller, MCAS ’21

The Heights

Monday, February 19, 2018

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Union Withdraws NLRB Petition Petition, from A1 committee reaffirmed its mission and made it clear that it will continue to ask the University to voluntarily recognize the union, much like Georgetown University is doing with its graduate student union.

The group wrote that the decision to rescind its petition is “an important step in our campaign to engage in collective bargaining with Boston College.” The committee explained that the decision was made because the NLRB could use its jurisdiction to rule against the union.

“In recent weeks, the NLRB has issued decisions that make clear it is a partisan vehicle for limiting workers’ rights,” the organizing committee wrote. “We will not allow Boston College to use an anti-labor NLRB to take away our election and to re-

voke workers’ rights at religious institutions across the country.”

Following the election of President Donald Trump, conservatives regained control of the majority of seats on the NLRB, undoing a number of labor-friendly standards and opinions that were implemented under former President Barack Obama’s administration. The union feared that the NLRB would have ruled in favor of BC because of the current status of the board.

The organizing committee’s email delved further into Trainor’s previous email. It categorized the administration’s arguments as the following: “(1) that graduate employees should be denied the labor rights of other workers, and (2) that because BC is an institution of Catholic and Jesuit teaching they should be able to sidestep labor laws.”

Prior to the filing of the University’s ap-

peal, the NLRB had a longstanding position that private university graduate students are not employees, but students, making them ineligible for union representation under federal law. This changed with a 2016 decision in a case involving Columbia University, in which the NLRB ruled that graduate student workers at private universities were employees and therefore could unionize to gain collective bargaining rights.

The union expressed its commitment to fighting for graduate employees’ rights at BC. “Our position here at Boston College does not depend on a petition or any other formal legal procedure,” the organizing committee said. “We continue to demand that Boston College respect our vote and do what is both morally and democratically correct: bargain with our union.” n

Union Members Discuss Future Plans Union, from A1 petition,” said Bryn Spielvogel, a union member and LGSOE ’20.

Peter Berard, GMCAS ’18, said he was frustrated with the administration’s characterization of the union’s relationship with the UAW. The UAW acts as a larger union organization with the ability to represent graduate students’ rights. It serves as an advisory organization to the union rather than its driving force. Berard thinks the union should be identified as a group of BC graduate student employees—UAW does not control the union.

“Boston College graduate workers got together, talked about the problems we faced and the hopes that we had for organizing and for making a better university, and we reached out to the UAW,” Berard said.

“Frankly, to the extent that I’ve interacted with the UAW, the UAW hasn’t lied to me, [and] they haven’t patronized me in the way the Boston College administration has occasionally done.”

“We know the union isn’t dead, they know the union isn’t dead,” he said.

The union hopes to make it clear that the end goal for the group hasn’t changed, regardless of its rescinding the NLRB petition.

“Our goals have remained the same,” said Tori Gabriele, a second-year physics Ph.D. student. “This is one step in the greater goal of sitting down with Boston College to negotiate a contract.”

Berard outlined general guidelines the union will be following, such as engaging in outreach improving communication networks among different departments.

In terms of how this letter dampened the union’s efforts, Spielvogel doesn’t believe the statement will have a negative impact on the union.

“It definitely doesn’t feel like that huge a setback, since it doesn’t affect that much of our everyday workings,” she said. “We were going to have to mobilize to get BC

to the table with or without the NLRB, [so] now we’re asking for voluntary recognition, and we already, for all intents and purposes, proved that we have a majority of graduate students’ support.”

Gabriele stated that the union should look to the successes of other graduate student unions to advise its own efforts.

“I’m really impressed with the other Jesuit universities, in particular the stance Georgetown has taken to agree to negotiate if they vote yes, and also Fordham,” Gabriele said. “I wish BC would take that stance.”

On the same day BC’s union rescinded its NLRB petition, the graduate unions at Yale University and the University of Chicago also rescinded their petitions with the NLRB. At this time, Yale’s union has not responded to a request for comment or provided updates on its current status.

UChicago’s graduate employees union is in a similar situation to BC’s union. The major difference between the two is the reason behind rescinding the petition.

UChicago union member Daniela Palmer explained that the union believes that it is close enough to bargaining with the administration that it can continue on its path to recognition without the NLRB petition.

“We had to have a big, open conversation about everything we’ve been doing and what the next step should be,” Palmer said.

UChicago’s graduate student union is farther along the process of organizing than BC’s is. The group has drawn up governing articles and is preparing to elect officers. Although BC’s graduate union has indicated in the past that it was preparing to hold bargaining committee elections, the date for that occurrence is yet to be determined.

“We decided that the clearest and most direct path to recognition is really to seek recognitions here, now, on campus,” Palmer said. “We’re ready to negotiate and we expect [UChicago’s administration] to meet with us at the bargaining table.”

UChicago’s union also expressed this sentiment in a blog post on its website, which goes into detail about which factors affected the decision to search for voluntary recognition rather than let the NLRB deliberate on its fate.

Between UChicago’s and Georgetown’s efforts, the BC union has immediate evidence of universities coming to the bargaining table. Gabriele also cited the past union battles at New York University as evidence that BC’s union should be recognized.

Each union tends to share general goals—like improved health care benefits and better stipends to offset cost of living—even though their individual situations and policy issues can differ.

Columbia University’s graduate union actions stand out from the rest. The union won a court decision in 2016 that has served as a precedent for NLRB petitions for various graduate employee unions across the country.

Now, Columbia’s union is one of the few willing to risk an NLRB ruling, as the university has chosen to continue its appeal of the original decision. The Columbia graduate students’ response has been to call for a strike vote—the only union that appears to have even begun to talk about such drastic action. BC’s union has indicated its support of both of its counterparts in New York, even though it is taking much smaller and less combative steps to bargain.

“The main thing is getting out to people, and saying, ‘No, the union effort continues. We are going to organize. We are going to put pressure on the Boston College administration until they come to the table with us. You don’t need the NLRB to make a union—that has been done at other universities and I think we can do it,’” Berard said.

“Basically, it’s telling people the administration isn’t telling the truth on this.

They don’t get to decide, and neither does the NLRB, whether the union effort goes forward. We decide.” n

Student Assembly. Both of them released statements on Facebook condemning DiPietro’s Facebook comment, which read “Good thing those blm freaks aren’t anywhere near ugbc leadership #staywoke #yacoubian,” and was linked to a Heights article that covered the election results.

“I hope [DiPietro] realizes how wrong he is, because Ignacio and I both want the advocates and members of the opposing team to be as close and as involved in our leadership as we can possibly have them,” Piercey said. “If anyone thinks that we’re not going to take that approach, it’s a misconception.”

In the days before the election, Piercey and Fletcher received negative criticism online regarding their ability to advocate for students on campus who are members of minority and underrepresented groups.

He feels that their remarks come from a valid place.

“It was never our intention to make students of color feel underrepresented or not

spoken for,” Piercey said. “But it’s hard for me to feel angry or defensive, because it also helps us take a step back and consider where these sentiments are coming from.”

He and Fletcher plan to be active listeners in the upcoming year and make sure that they incorporate all students’ voices into policy decisions and discussions.

Piercey also received criticism because he was absent during the Silence is Still Violence march in October, studying abroad in China. He explained that he stayed as up-to-date as he possibly could while he was gone, but recognizes that it was impossible to understand the exact campus climate.

He recognizes that his voice is not necessarily the one that needs to be heard and believes in the importance of letting other students have the floor when discussing issues of marginalization and advocacy.

“I may not have been on campus for the moment, but I can be present and supportive for the movement that comes in the aftermath,” Piercey said. n

Katie Genirs / Heights Editor

Sexual Health Referendum Wins 94 Percent Support

By Abby Hunt Copy Editor Ninety-four percent of students who voted in this year’s Undergraduate Government of Boston College election voted in favor of a referendum on the ballot asking if Students for Sexual Health (SSH) should be permitted to distribute contraceptives to its peers and hold meetings on campus, without receiving official University recognition or funding.

The final counts were 2,825 votes in favor and 177 against, the Elections Committee announced Friday night.

The referendum was proposed by SSH, a sexual and reproductive health advocacy group run by Boston College students that is currently prohibited from operating on campus.

“I am absolutely elated and incredibly humbled to observe this astounding electoral victory and all that it means for improved student health and well-being on campus,” said Connor Kratz, SSH co-chair and MCAS ’18, in an email.

“Though we may not yet know in what form, we are confident that change is coming to Boston College on sexual health.”

The purpose of the referendum was to survey the student body on the issue.

The results are in no way binding. The University can still decide not to change its policy of prohibiting SSH from meeting and distributing contraceptives on campus grounds.

The referendum follows a comprehensive public health survey conducted

by SSH in December. 79.9 percent of respondents indicated that they have been sexually active while enrolled as a BC student, 42.4 percent indicated that they always use a condom during genital or anal sex, and 44.3 percent said they are not aware of locations proximate to campus where students can access contraception and sexual health resources.

The group says that it intends to keep the student body informed on the administrative results of its efforts, and it will continue its efforts to support BC

students with sexual health resources and information regardless of the University’s response to the referendum results.

“The results of the Referendum are abundantly clear that students care about their sexual health, need greater resources to protect themselves, and fully endorse the proposal to allow the Students For Sexual Health to exist at Boston College without receiving funding or support from the university,” SSH’s official statement on the outcome of the referendum read.

“We look forward to presenting the results of our research and the referendum to administrators, and deliberating with them about tangible solutions to improve sexual health on campus without compromising the university’s Jesuit Catholic heritage.

“We hope the university remains openminded and mindful of this important election outcome during our negotiations, and they express a willingness to achieve some form of consensus.”

On Thursday, a SSH member was forced to stop distributing condoms off campus on College Road by an officer of the BCPD, who Kratz said claimed that the group needed a permit to operate at the location since the sidewalk space is maintained by the University. According to Kratz, the City of Newton and the Newton Police Department both confirmed when contacted after the incident that the group does not in fact need a permit to distribute on College Road, as the location is public property.

Kratz said that this incident hindered the group’s ability to distribute condoms and campaign for its referendum, and it reinforced the need for the referendum itself.

According to Kratz, the officer was informed by BCPD that SSH does have a right to distribute on College Road and should not be disturbed when it does so in the future. Kratz, who said that members of SSH have been “harrassed” by BCPD on more than one occasion, intends to file a formal complaint with the City of Newton against BCPD in response to the incident. n

Harvard Student Agencies Buys BC Group’s Startup Piercey, Fletcher Unpack Election Election, from A1 students. He and Fletcher plan to begin attending the weekly UGBC executive meetings to aid the transition into their new roles. He will also follow through on the effort to implement the student experience survey to gather information on groups of students that BC has little data on, such as LGBTQ+ students.

“My mentality is that it’s time to work and walk the walk,” Fletcher said.

He and Piercey also expressed the importance of working closely with Frontis and Sheikh in the upcoming year.

“1,204 people voted for Taraun and Aneeb, so it would be unfair for us not to work with them,” Fletcher said. “How can we join forces together to get results?”

He and Piercey commented on the call for an emergency impeachment meeting surrounding Steve DiPietro, MCAS ’19, as well as his subsequent resignation, along with Matt Batsinelas, CSOM ’19, from the

Campus Insights, from A1

called Omni. She said working as part of the Campus Insights team was very valuable in terms of gaining exposure to all parts of a particular business. “[The work experience] has been valuable as I go on to work at a startup and can approach my job with a wholesome perspective of how businesses work,” she said.

The invaluable experience of working at Campus Insights was also echoed by Ameet Kallarackal, the head of UX strategy and research at the startup and CSOM ’18.

“There is no experience that compares to doing,” Kallarackal said. “The range and depth of education that came from figuring out how to take a good idea and make it a successful one stands light years ahead of what I have been able to learn in lectures.”

Kallarackal is currently the CEO of a new BC-based startup called Fisherman, where he is working with three other BC students on building technology that automates the development of websites, with a

focus on the restaurant industry.

As for Soward, he is fairly focused on helping oversee the transition of Campus Insights to HSA. In the future, he hopes to have the opportunity to once again grow a company from an idea to a business, whether by starting another company or joining a startup in its earlier stages.

“A lot of entrepreneurs, especially at BC, come up with a really cool idea that they are passionate about, but then three, six months pass, and they are still thinking about the idea, and there’s no business there,” he said.

Despite his own entrepreneurial accomplishments, however, Soward still credits his team members for the success of Campus Insights.

“The founders generally get a lot of attention for what is built, but we could not have done this without the amazing team members,” he said. “Each of them played a huge role in the business, and if we didn’t have them, Steve and I would be nowhere.” n

DiPietro, Batsinelas Resign From SA Amid Talk of Impeachment Resignation, from A1 According to the resolution, DiPietro had not only failed to represent the students who supported Frontis and Sheikh by calling them “freaks,” but discriminated against them on a racial level. It charged DiPietro with four vio-

lations based on guidelines set by the BC Code of Conduct and the UGBC Constitution.

The resolution was sponsored by Samuel Szemerenyi, MCAS ’20; Aneeb Sheikh, MCAS ’20; Ibrahima Mbaye, MCAS ’20; Ignacio Fletcher, MCAS ’20; and Connor Kratz, MCAS ’18.

“As far as the proposed resolution, any posts that I made on social media were not directed at Aneeb or Taraun directly,” DiPietro said in an email to the SA. “Instead, they were directed at some of his supporters who, in my opinion, used many racially charged comments, which as I suspect, due to their situa-

tions, will go unreproved.”

He encouraged other senators who felt that they were silenced or that UGBC did not represent their views to resign.

“I would ask that you reach out more to hear the thoughts and opinions of students who I know do not feel rep-

resented by UGBC,” DiPietro said in his email to the SA. “I also believe that their [sic] should be a public dialogue, representing all opinions, regarding the political climate and race at Boston College, as there are clearly many passionate opinions on the subject and I believe this would be beneficial for everyone.” n

The Heights

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Monday, February 19, 2018

After Cleaning Churches, Robinette Finds God in Uncertainty

By Shannon Lyons For The Heights Brian Robinette is a lifelong music enthusiast. He can sing, he can play the drums, and for a large part of his life, he considered becoming a professional musician.

Aside from his passion for music, there is one thing that grants him an even deeper sense of joy—one thing that lights his spirit up in a way that no song or instrument ever has—and that is the simple beauty of inner silence.

Raised in the rural factory town of Anderson, Ind., Robinette grew up in a community of Pentecostal Christians, who hold a significantly more literalist interpretation of the Bible than one might find at Boston College. Robinette was expected to embrace his community’s beliefs, and failure to do so meant ostracization. As a teen, Robinette teetered between the faith he inherited from his parents and his own growing doubts about the nature of existence.

“Internally, I felt that there were a lot of questions I had to ask myself,” he said. “These were very significant questions, like who am I? What is this all about? Is there a God and if not, then now what?”

In tandem with his doubts about God’s existence, Robinette was also conflicted by his desire to lead an ordinary, collegiate life and his growing ambition to pursue a career based on music. He knew that no matter what path he took, he would ultimately need to earn a degree first and so, upon graduating high school, he applied and was accepted to Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.

His freshman year courses in music business and music production weren’t enough to quell his fantasies of dropping out of school, moving to New York, and eventually going on tour.

“It really wasn’t until my sophomore year that the light turned on for me, and then intellectual endeavor became intrinsic, and my engagement in academics went through the roof,” he said.

That “light” was ignited by a survey of British literature class, which Robinette enrolled in just to fulfill his core requirement.

Before he knew it, he fell in love with the works of great British poets and essayists from the Victorian era, like Thomas Hardy, Matthew Arnold, and Walter Pater.

“I was particularly interested in writing and reading about the Victorian sense of mourning over the lost enchanted world,” he said. “That is, the sense that it was no longer easy, nor possible, to believe in God

and the sort of inner destitution that that can produce. So I was drawn to writers that were exploring what it was like to live in the twilight of the gods or of God, because that was going on in myself as well.”

With this appreciation for the written word came a fondness for the philosophies that guided the pens of these immortalized souls. Books were mediums for testing ethical systems and exploring the dynamics of the human mind. Suddenly, he found himself staring at the same question he had tried to run from: Is there a God, and if not, what do we do?

“By the time that I graduated college, I was perfectly confused,” he said.

But something within him knew that the sun would rise.

For his sharp writing skills and fondness for the intricacies of the English language, Robinette was immediately hired after graduation to be a contributing editor for a large public relations agency, Chaz Taylor Inc, where he was grateful for the secure salary right out of college—but something was missing.

That radiant sensation of inner light he’d experienced while reading British literature his sophomore year of college, or while playing the drums his senior year of high school, had suddenly grow dim. By his third month at the agency, he was already dreaming of a way out. Nostalgic for the classroom setting, he mused about becoming a professor.

“I was in this in-between spot where lots of things interested me, but no one thing commanded me,” Robinette said. “I looked at my wife Krista and said, ‘How do I early retire?’ She looked back at me and said, ‘You’ve got a few things to figure out.’”

Robinette began researching and exploring the prospects of applying to graduate school more seriously. It became clear to him that he needed to find a resolute path, but that he could not hurry in doing so. But, in an unexpected moment, clarity struck.

“I was outside, chopping and moving wood behind my apartment,” he says. “And … It occurred to me: What better thing to do than to become a janitor at a church?”

When he first approached his high school sweetheart-turned wife with the idea, the conversation was intense. But, ultimately she came around and recognized the necessity of him leaving his job.

After that, Robinette began to call churches during his lunch break at the office to ask about work. About halfway down the list, he got to a church called St. Bartholomew’s in Indiana and was informed

that it had lost its former janitor just the other day and was looking for someone to fill the position.

When asked what work experience he had, Robinette’s confidence faded to a mumble. “I’m a contributing editor,” he said. Though the rector, Fr. Ian, was initially skeptical, Robinette was hired shortly after, put in his two-weeks notice, and was soon learning the ways of being a janitor.

“It was during that year that I cut my hair and wanted to just be unknown,” he said. “I was able to live out this desire that had always been with me, essentially to live the life of the monk. That year is when it became clear to me which direction in my life I would go. The religious questions came back. I started to warm up to the idea of God again after a real flushing out and a purgation of it.”

It seems that as Robinette tried to re-familiarize himself with the idea of a present God, God himself intervened and led Robinette to stumble across a collection of the sermons by the medieval German theologian, philosopher, and mystic, Meister Eckhart, that explored Christian mysticism.

“There was such a resonance with what he was saying,” Robinette said. “It was a language around God that was so alive and piercing—so direct and awakening. It changed my life.”

After becoming enchanted by the ideas of Eckhart, Robinette branched out to read more mystics like Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross, and eventually more contemporary writers, like Evelyn Underhill and Thomas Merton.

“What was happening to me was a slow reenchantment with Christianity,” he said. “I realized there was this whole other dimension of Christianity that wasn’t just some esoteric side-show but something that was deeply radiating through me.”

Reading such intellectually stimulating Christian writing created a budding interest in Catholicism. Given his Pentecostal upbringing, however, there was still a lot that Robinette did not know about the Catholic faith. In his uncertainty, it occurred to him that if he was going to embark upon this path, he would need a spiritual mentor.

Once again, Robinette reached for the phone and began to call churches in the area.

Eventually, he came across William Nolan, once a Trappist monk who lived in monastery, cloistered from society, then left the community and integrated back into

Photo courtesy of bc.edu

Robinette encourages his theology students to embrace questions head-on. society with a professorship at Vanderbilt University.

“He helped me to see how I could integrate these deep inner promptings into ordinary life,” Robinette said. “It was really a crucial, providential intervention.”

Ultimately, it was Nolan’s guidance, as well as his wife’s unwavering support, that gave launched Robinette onto the path to become a professor.

After earning his masters at St. John’s University in Minnesota and his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame, he was offered his first position as a professor at Saint Louis University. It was during his time there that he became a father and gained tenure at the university.

Nearly a decade later, Robinette was offered a position to teach at BC. Initially, he and Krista were unsure—both of their families lived in Anderson, Ind. and they now had two young sons. But soon they packed their bags for Boston.

Today, Robinette has been teaching at BC for almost six years. He an associate professor of several senior courses, an administrator of the theology department, and the instructor of the beloved core pilot course Spiritual and Aesthetic Exercises.

Robinette’s class allows students to explore religion in the context of everyday life and to engage in a profoundly transformative study

of contemplative practices.

“I had always been taught traditions like, say, praying with the Rosary,” Gabby Silverman, MCAS ’20, said. “But this was something completely different that was not about action at all, but simply about being.”

Robinette’s open-minded approach toward students in conversations on faith rises from a place of deep understanding and experience. The best way to address feelings of doubt or distance from God, he said, is to look inward and to kindly welcome the questions and emotions that arise.

“We are always looking outwards, but really the questions and answers flow from deep within our own capacity,” he said. “Mediation grants you permission to explore the fundamental mystery of who you are.”

We cannot make sense of the external world until we have had a true encounter with silence—until we have retreated into the quiet space that lies at the heart of who we are. When we return to the noise and to the beautiful chaos that comprises reality, the music will be all the more powerful.

“There is a renewed intimacy with words, images, and manifestations if you give yourself totally to silence,” Robinette said. “Returning, it all feels so fresh—like the first day of creation, like the very first day you opened your eyes.” n

Lowery Helps Students Learn About Biology and Beyond

By Simran Brar For The Heights If you go up to any biology major or pre-med student on campus to ask about one of their more memorable professors, Laura Anne Lowery is often one of the first to come to mind. Known for her bubbly personality and passion for her subject, it’s no surprise that on her first evaluations as a TA in college, one student observed that she had an “enthusiasm for science that is almost scary.” Lowery’s excitement about connecting with and helping students fills the room whenever she begins to talk, whether about herself or homeostasis.

Before departing for college, almost every student is told how important it is to form relationships with professors by going to office hours to find that one professor who really wants to invest in them.

At Boston College, many students say to have found that mentor in Lowery. Her real-world anecdotes that preface each class are a highlight for many students—in fact, Lowery believes it’s her openness with her students that helps to create close

relationships with them.

I’ve heard my own roommates recount her stories, and when I told them about this interview, three of them immediately pounced on me telling me anything and everything that there was to know about Lowery and how lucky I was to have this time to sit and talk to her.

“Professor Lowery is one of the most powerful women I’ve ever met. She cares passionately about the education of her students and even their lives outside of the classroom,” said Madeleine Jenkins, MCAS ’20.

At the time, I think I smiled and nodded but was unsure if I could ever match their enthusiasm to simply sit down and talk with a professor. Once I was actually sitting across from Lowery, however, I was immediately aware of how excited she was to talk about her students. Suddenly, I felt as if my prepared questions wouldn’t be adequate enough to allow her to portray how strongly and passionately she felt about teaching.

Lowery’s decision to become a professor wasn’t something she had always planned on. Up until her senior year of

Photo courtesy of bc.edu

Lowery’s care for students extends beyond the classroom and past the red ink.

college at the University of California, San Diego, Lowery had been a biology major with little involvement in biology extracurriculars. It was during that last year that she began to get involved in research while simultaneously taking up a position as a TA. This was when she began to realize how much she loved teaching science, but continued to focus more on the research.

Lowery continued on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for her graduate work, where her primary goal was to be a successful researcher. Upon completing her Ph.D. at MIT, followed by post-doctoral work at Harvard Medical School, Lowery’s focus also began to encompass helping the next generation see all that they were capable of accomplishing.

“The reason that I became a professor was that I recognized that this would be the most powerful way for me to positively impact young people during a very transformative period of their lives,” she said.

Lowery said that her lab’s current research topics focus on cell machinery and its ability to drive cell movement.

Specifically, her lab is researching various properties and roles of microtubules, a part of the cell’s cytoskeleton. Lowery grasped at the air as she jumped from idea to idea, trying to explain to me through vivid hand motions the network through which all these projects are connected. As I came to learn, there are quite a few topics encompassed under the umbrella of cytoskeleton research. Lowery’s lab focuses on not just one, but a number of them.

Lowery was initially able to obtain funding to investigate how the development of the nervous system and irregularities in neural connectivity correlate with neural development disorders. Different grants allow her to examine the role of the cytoskeleton in cell movement during facial development so as to understand craniofacial defects. To broaden her research, Lowery is also working to understand cell movement in cancer metastasis—the underlying mechanisms for the way these cells move is likely related to

her research on cell movement.

She must have noticed the overwhelmed look on my face because she laughed and said, “Yes, there are a lot of different moving parts here.”

Another component to having such a large lab with so many projects going on is that it necessitates help from quite a few people—accordingly, Lowery is known to readily offer research opportunities to those who seek them. In contrast to many biology research labs that retain space for only one to two undergraduate students, Lowery seeks to maximize participation in her lab by involving 20 undergraduates, four Ph.D. students, one post-baccalaureate fellow, and a senior scientist, all of them working together to bring their varying levels of expertise to the table. When she started her lab, Lowery decided that she wouldn’t try to compete with those at Harvard or MIT, but instead the focus of her lab would be to motivate students in their learning process.

“I wanted to foster an environment where my students can learn and thrive and fail because it is really important to learn how to fail and succeed and grow as human beings,” she said.

Despite the fact that she had set out to create this environment that allowed for growth, both academically and personally, Lowery was still surprised at just how successful it has been. She reflected that keeping students focused on the entire experience—both its successes and failures—prompted stronger feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction in the students for the hard work that they had put in.

Seeing these results in the students helped Lowery realize that her involvement in her students’ lives had been much more meaningful than she anticipated. It helped her to transition her focus from heavy emphasis on research toward cultivating an environment where students could feel that someone really wanted them to succeed.

“I love teaching students about biology,” she said. “I love helping them to learn how to think critically … to see what we

can accomplish and the power we have as individuals to change the world.”

As she recounts the struggles of her own life and the struggles that came with figuring out what she wanted, Lowery feels fortunate to have found hersense of purpose and hopes to help the next generation do the same, prompting them to examine central questions such as, “What am I good at it?,” “What brings me joy?,” and “Who does the world need me to be?”

Lowery also emphasized how important failing is to not only answering these questions, but to understanding deeper truths about one’s self. When asked about her thoughts on how students can ever really appreciate the growth that comes from failure when our society is so driven by competition and being the best, she responded, “Comparing yourself to others and trying to be the best? You will fail at that every time. But what you will not fail at is being the best version of yourself.”

Lowery said that this notion of competing against our peers and needing to run from Point A to Point B as fast as we can is a misguided notion that is detrimental to our health. Just as she preaches to her students, she wishes that everyone could recognize that there are enough problems in the world to give people an opportunity to do something that is meaningful to them, without having to beat out someone else in order to do so.

From the outside it’s easy to see an image of seamless success as if all the pieces fell into place for Lowery. What you find when you look closer is that MIT, Harvard, and all the research funding was a product of hard work through a path laden with obstacles. Her journey to become a professor took an additional 13 years after graduating college and had to be balanced with the demands of motherhood as she had two children along the way.

“All the science and research has been great,” Lowery said. “But I realized that as by having the goal as supporting the students, that ends up being a lot more meaningful to me in the long run.” n

The Heights

Monday, February 19, 2018

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BetterMIT Innovation Week Emphasizes Value of Soft Skills

By Shan Rizwan Heights Staff With Elon Musk’s recent successful rocket launch, it feels like there is no limit to human ingenuity. BetterMIT Innovation Week comes at the perfect time—a series of events aimed to reflect upon current technological breakthroughs, as well as inspire a new generation of thought leaders.

During the week of Feb. 8, a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students organized and hosted the first-ever BetterMIT Innovation Week & Makeathon. Each day had specific workshops and talks geared toward topics ranging from “Ideation & Design Thinking” to “Innovation in the World.”

These talks and workshops were led

by an assortment of people with backgrounds in entrepreneurship, innovation, and industry.

Some of these included Linda Foster, head of innovation at Lockheed Martin; Rebecca Hui, founder of Roots Studio; Douglas Terrier, chief technologist at NASA; and Reinaldo Normad, entrepreneur-in-residence at The Martin Trust Center. They each touched upon their experiences and shared insight into what it truly means to be an innovator.

This event has been in the works since last fall, but one of the organizers for the event, Kaila Pfrang, MIT ’21, conceded that she has always had a fascination with the idea of innovation.

“I personally see innovation not just as the big tech or business buzzword,” Pfrang said. “It gets to the core of how you actually

change people’s lives. So innovation for me is … how can you not only change the way people think, but how can you change someone’s life for the better? I think that’s something I’m personally very passionate about.”

Such innovation at MIT, however, is still in its infancy. This year, Pfrang worked in tandem with a few underclassmen on an innovation committee to cultivate these big ideas on MIT’s campus. They had a common interest in addressing topics of leadership, social entrepreneurship, and most importantly innovation. With the committee being only a few years old, the group is mainly composed of freshmen.

“The innovation committee is supposed to be that Trojan Horse,” said Kaylee DeSoto, a committee member of MIT ‘21.

“We’re the ones that set out and do all those

Shan Rizwan / Heights Staff

Workshops were led by diverse groups of leading innovators with different backgrounds and insights into entrepreneurship.

crazy initiatives. We have more freedom.

We’re like the sandbox of the undergrad association.”

Longing for more innovation on campus and a desire to have MIT’s own version of a TED talk, Pfrang reached out to talk with Suzy Nelson, MIT Dean of Students, and pitch her idea. To her surprise, the Dean wholly supported the idea and advised Pfrang on how to proceed.

Shortly thereafter, the Innovation Committee contacted many resources on the MIT campus for innovation and received a generous amount of funding.

Groups such as the MIT Innovation Initiative, The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and the Bernard M. Gordon MIT Engineering Leadership Program were eager to get involved.

Similarly, the Innovation Committee attempted to reach out to anyone it thought could have interest in speaking.

It was open to anyone coming, ranging from former president Barack Obama to the head of NASA. Through much trial, error, and hundreds of emails, it was able to secure multiple unique speakers for the week.

These events delved deeply into topics of teamwork, leadership, and how to enact change in society. These were not surface-level conversations, but instead aimed to provide practical knowledge on how to innovate.

During a workshop by the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program, MIT Professor Joel Schindall detailed many misconceptions about teamwork and the skills needed to succeed. He explained

that people often study these skills, but fail to practice them and gain a real-world understanding.

In the world of entrepreneurship and innovation, Schindall explained that people often forget how having soft skills such as teamwork and communication is almost as important as having hard skills like engineering and computer programming.

These soft skills allow people to pursue great ideas and clearly advocate them for other people, whether it be a boss or a family member. Much of the crowd was made up of MIT students due to convenience, but the event was open to anyone willing to come. DeSoto summarized that Innovation Week has an “MIT centric audience, [but] not MIT centric ideas.”

There was a fair amount of people from all across the New England area enthusiastic to participate. Students from the Rhode Island School of Design, Harvard University, and various other institutions became aware of the event via Facebook and showed up hungry to learn.

“I think that’s really the goal of this week is to show that innovation is part technology, part entrepreneurship, but it’s also part social change and really understanding, you know, communication and how do you actually change the world,” Pfrang said.

In regards to future plans, Pfrang and DeSoto are already in the preliminary stages of planning for next year’s “Innovation Week.” In fact, they have almost filled up their entire roster for speakers and hope to expand to an even

larger audience. n

Three Years Later: The Maturation of BC-Grown Startup Jebbit By alessandro zenati Metro Editor

A productive silence pervades the office, as employees scour through emails and handle customer service requests as they come in.

A tall, clean-shaven man works at his standing desk, looking more like a club DJ than someone who is ensuring the smooth operation of a growing company. Unopened Amazon Prime packages pile up in the corner of the lobby, but once the dinner spread arrives at 6 p.m., the whole team leaves their desks and shares a meal together.

At Jebbit, the conventionally hard lines between work and play are deliberately blurred. Going to “work” should feel like coming home.

Building a startup from the ground up is a time-intensive endeavour. In addition to the challenge of gaining market traction, converting leads, and proving that the premise of the business is disruptive, the company must also stay faithful to its core values. Jebbit, a startup launched by Tom Coburn and Jonathan Lacoste that offers oneto-one marketing strategies, has stood the test of time on these issues.

Jebbit provides a unique businessto-business service that creates an engaging, personalized advertisement experience for each company’s target audience. This is done by harnessing declared data, a type of qualitative insight that offers precise feedback on the effectiveness of different marketing strategies by uncovering demographic and geographic information.

Since The Heights last ran a feature on Jebbit three years ago, the company has grown tremendously, not only in terms of its team but also its market relevance after recently announcing a partnership with Snapchat. Tom Coburn sat down to reflect on the past three years in Jebbit’s new spacious headquarters.

As Jebbit grew in potential, its former headquarters in Faneuil Hall became restrictive to the company’s operational capacity. It needed more deskspace for incoming employees and more flexibility afforded by multipurpose rooms for morale-boosting events and social gatherings. Thus, the decision to move into a larger office on Newbury Street was out of necessity rather than choice.

“There’s a lot more flexibility … to

create different environments in the office that are more work-focused or louder and collaborative,” Coburn said.

“There’s just more you can do with a bigger space.”

Jebbit has made a commitment to fostering greater collaboration within the team and recognizes the value of pairing work spaces with non-work spaces. For example, one of the conference rooms has been retrofitted to serve as a yoga studio once a week and a relaxation zone the rest of the week.

The company went so far as to bring in a certified yogi to lead exercises and coach the team through meditative practices. This is one of the ways that Jebbit is now able to create a greater sense of unity around a common goal.

With more space comes more responsibility. While the new office has allowed for Jebbit to hire more technical and non-technical talent, there are communication challenges that inevitably emerge at the same time. There’s a critical mass at which point companies need to expand their bandwidth to deal with these challenges. That has come in the form of developing the resources

to train new employees.

“When you’re 10 or 15 people and everyone’s sitting in a room, you don’t really need to train people because they learn on the job,” Coburn said.

“We’ve had to reinvent onboarding and training of new employees at the company as well as the way information gets handed down.”

In order to get everyone together on a more regular basis, Jebbit has started to host a number of companywide events throughout the workweek.

“Town Hall” meetings are designed to run through departmental updates and team tasks, “Product and Pancakes” serve as opportunities for anyone to hear about product changes, and “Innovation Nights” foster a creative indulgence on the part of employees by inviting them to experiment with prototypes.

“As a startup, the nice part is you can always just test different things and see what works and what people aren’t enjoying as much,” Coburn said.

Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, Coburn doesn’t hold any regrets but wishes he and his co-founders could’ve known when to make the tough business decisions. He concedes that

entrepreneurship does involve a great deal of trial and error.

“I think most of it is just trusting your gut more,” Coburn said. “There’s been a constant evolution in things we’re learning.”

Along the way, Coburn remembers being pressured to move Jebbit’s operation to other cities like New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

But Boston is special not only because it is the city that educated Jebbit’s founders, but also because of the rich entrepreneurial ecosystem it provides.

Particularly for young entrepreneurs, the accessibility of academic, financial, and mentoring resources in Boston is hard to come by elsewhere.

“We’ve been able to raise money, hire the team, and get great office space,” Coburn said. “Nothing but awesome things to say about building a company in Boston.”

Ultimately, Jebbit has found its footing in Boston and will always have a special connection to the city, despite confirming plans to open up headquarters in other cities in the coming year.

“If I’m gonna build a company, I’m gonna build it here,” Coburn said. n

‘Monuments to Us’ Highlights Under-Represented Social Issues By mary wilkie Opinions Editor Busts of friends, paintings of family, and sculptures representing abstract ideologies decorate the Edward H. Linde Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA).

On Jan. 27, the museum opened one of its newest exhibits, Monuments to Us, after two months of organization.

As its title suggests, the exhibit aims to identify and magnify works of art that display the significance of things often overlooked in displays of artistic expression.

Inspired by controversies surrounding Confederate monuments, curator Liz Munsell hoped to confront this issue by presenting a collection of works that embody those who are not often represented.

“For me as a curator, such discussions have affirmed the crucial role of the visual arts in shaping the politics of remembrance,” she said in an email.

“Through this selection of works from the MFA collection, I wanted to ask, “Whose stories are memorialized, and whose are erased?’” The small collection—three paintings, one photo, and six sculptures—challenges the conventional understanding of a

“monument.”

While they traditionally depict renowned figures of significant political or social standing, these pieces collectively create a more comprehensive understanding of monuments. Because the artists represented in this exhibit approached their works intending to portray personal subjects, they signify the importance of memorializing such intimate entities, from neighbors and cousins to the political involvement of the marginalized.

With such an intimate collection, the museum allows visitors to reflect on the personal significance of each work to its creator and the broader implications that accompany it.

Thus, in order to appeal to the political and social awareness of the audience with the artwork, Munsell wanted to “look to the recent past and build on these histories.”

The pieces were all created in the late 20th or early 21st centuries.

Munsell deliberately chose contemporary artists because of their creative responses to pressing social issues, such as the AIDS epidemic, the underrepresentation of women as artists, and the overlooking of nontraditional sexuality within art.

With this exhibit, visitors will not need great historical knowledge

mary wilkie / Heights Editor

At the MFA, the ‘Monuments to Us’ exhibit is inspired by recent controversies surrounding Confederate statues. in order to pull meaning from the works—the exhibit requires only a brief understanding of contemporary issues in order to appreciate the underlying significance of these works.

The exhibit’s focus on the current tensions regarding Confederate statues inspires viewers to contemplate personal experience with similarly unrepresentative political and social issues.

These reflections are magnified by the solemn atmosphere prompted

by the silence that typically occupies museums.

The silence, however, is occasionally broken with many events that supplement the exhibit.

Conversations with curators about the specific works, musical performances, and workshops are scheduled throughout the duration of the exhibit.

Ultimately, the museum aims to inform its audience of the creative response to issues of oppression that

plague society even today.

Each work of art featured in the museum delivers a message of inclusion based on a social problem personal to the artist, whether through experiences that are their own or of a loved one.

“At this particular moment in U.S. political and cultural history,” Munsell said. “I found it extremely important to speak to lives and experiences of individuals and groups whose stories have been systematically excluded.” n

The Heights

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Editorials

Monday, February 19, 2018

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Impeachment Talk Was Overreaction

On Friday, Feb. 16, Stephen a racial issue. Therefore, he has and about the broad group of DiPietro, a former UGBC sena- violated his oath of office and the students that supported Frontis tor and MCAS ’19, posted a link UGBC Constitution itself.” and Sheikh. But according to the on Facebook to a Heights article “The phrase ‘blm freaks’ ex- UGBC Constitution, “no individdetailing the results of this year’s plicitly refers to the Black Lives ual shall be discriminated against Undergraduate G overnment Matter movement and is clearly or organization denied recogniof Boston College presidential directed at Taraun Frontis and tion by the UGBC based upon election with the caption, “Good Aneeb Sheikh, their campaign race, color, religion, sex, sexual thing those blm freaks aren’t team, many of their supporters, orientation, gender expression, anywhere near ugbc leadership and Black students in general,” the gender identity, national origin #staywoke #yacoubian,” in or citizenship status, age, reference to supporters of disability or veteran status Taraun Frontis, CSOM ’19, [emphasis added].” This is “...DiPietro should not have and Aneeb Sheikh, MCAS an important distinction. faced possible impeachment and ’20. He later deleted the DiPietro’s comments post. were offensive and unremoval merely for his stance...”

In response, some membecoming of his elected bers of the Student Asposition. He should have sembly (SA) proposed an faced consequences for the impeachment trial for DiPietro, resolution stated. DiPietro dis- manner in which he communiwith Sheikh emailing a resolution putes that the phrase was directed cated his position—had he not to impeach DiPietro to the SA at Frontis and Sheikh, saying it resigned, perhaps the SA could on Saturday. DiPietro and Matt referred to some of their support- have formally censured DiPietro, Batsinelas, CSOM ’19, resigned ers, who are unspecified. although based on the UGBC from the SA on Saturday amid the DiPietro acted inappropriately Constitution, it’s unclear if that talk of impeachment. Batsinelas and rashly. As a senator in UGBC procedure exists. That said, DiPiresigned due to his belief that who represents fellow students, etro should not have faced pos“UGBC and The Heights [are] his position demands conscien- sible impeachment and removal encouraging the harassment of tious awareness of his actions. In merely for his stance—one with students who threaten the current accepting this role, he acknowl- which we disagree—on supportstructure of UGBC.” edged a responsibility to conduct ers of the Black Lives Matter The impeachment resolution himself properly and to recognize movement and of Frontis and justified holding a trial for DiPi- the consequences of his actions, Sheikh’s campaign. The proposed etro on charges of harassment including on social media. While resolution was an overreaction to and discrimination as defined his post demanded a swift re- DiPietro’s post. While DiPietro in BC’s Code of Conduct and sponse from UGBC—which it should have found a more conthe infringement of his oath to gave with a statement posted Fri- structive and civil way of comuphold the UGBC Constitution. day on Facebook—the charges in municating his point, diversity of It explained that the post threat- the impeachment resolution are opinion is a very important facet ened the “emotional or mental somewhat overblown. Although of a deliberative body with symwell-being” of the students it he insulted Frontis and Sheikh, bolic power among the underaffected. The resolution read, and supporters of the Black graduate population. In previous “Not only has DiPietro failed to Lives Matter movement, DiPi- years, some have accused UGBC represent the many students who etro voiced no concrete, targeted of inadequately representing all supported Frontis and Sheikh threats, and did not overtly dis- students on campus, saying that by calling them ‘freaks,’ he has criminate against any individual there is little variation among the discriminated against them on based on race. He said something opinions of its members. This a racial level, as the Black Lives offensive and imprudent about a proposed resolution continues to Matter movement is inherently race-based movement in general, reinforce that perception.

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“I like to think of ideas as potential energy. They’re really wonderful, but nothing will happen until we risk putting them into action.”

- Mae Jemison

Letter to the Editor In Response to: “Survey Indicates Need for Sexual Health Referendum” According to a popular proverb, the more things change, the more they stay the same. It has been seven long years since the I was a freshman at Boston College, and yet, the Students for Sexual Health (SSH) are still advancing their misguided project and The Heights is still doing all that it can to support them. Once again, both groups have shown a lack of respect to the Catholic character and mission of BC. A recent survey conducted by SSH revealed that a whopping 44.3 percent of BC undergraduates do not know where they can receive contraception.

This statistic would certainly be compelling, if not for the fact that a measly 4.2 percent of the undergraduate population took the survey at all. With a sample size that small, the phrase “not completely representative of the student population” in no way begins to cut it. These numbers are practically meaningless, yet somehow they warranted a front page article and an editorial to go along with it.

The debate over distributing contraception comes down to one simple question: Should BC strive to instill moral excellence in its students, or should it not? If not, then we can toss out some of our favorite phrases, such as “men and women for others” and “go set the world aflame.” If so, then we need to acknowledge that a university that values moral education must be rooted within a moral tradi-

tion with a concrete sense of what it is to live the good life.

BC, a Jesuit Catholic university, is rooted in the Jesuit Catholic tradition.

This tradition teaches that human flourishing is inseparable from the virtue of chastity. Sex outside of or before marriage is wrong, not because it breaks some arbitrary rule, but because it prevents the person from truly being happy in the classical sense. BC would be doing a disservice to every one of its students, past and present, if it allowed the distribution of devices that discourage chaste living. In essence, BC would be abandoning its role in guiding the moral formation of its students.

I don’t want to insinuate that SSH is deliberately malicious. I am sure these students believe their cause is just. However, the reality is that if they ever got their way, it would cause more damage to this university then they could possibly realize. Their accomplishment would only work to undermine the moral foundation of BC—the same foundation by which BC instructs its students to serve the poor, care for the ill, and fight for racial justice. If the Students for Sexual Health cannot sincerely embrace this Catholic moral tradition, I do hope they can at least bring themselves to respect it.

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 and columns can be submitted online at www.bcheights.com, by e-mail to editor@ bcheights.com, in person, or by mail to Editor, The Heights, 113 McElroy Commons, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467.

Ethan Mack MCAS ‘15

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The Heights

Monday, February 19, 2018

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Stop Minimizing Sexual Assault That Abroad Feeling 69

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Mahima Menghani PB&J sandwiches - In high school, my mom made my lunches every day. They were fantastic, and I definitely didn’t appreciate how good she was at making lunch until I had to start getting my meals myself. Still, very rarely did I receive my favorite lunch: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I think she only ever made them when we ran out of lunch meat and she hadn’t gone to the store yet or on Fridays during Lent. Her PB&Js are the greatest of all time for many reasons. She layers both sides of the bread with creamy Jif so that the bread doesn’t get soggy from the jelly and because peanut butter is superior to jelly in such a sandwich. The bread is always relatively fresh because PB&Js are infinitely better on soft, fluffy slices of processed bread, especially any kind of wheat bread—the jelly is grape. I’ve discussed this many times with a variety of friends, peers, and now-enemies, and I will stand by my conviction that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches can only reach their full potential if they have been made with grape jelly.

Grape jelly is significantly superior to strawberry jelly, but only when making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Jellies collectively are the least appetizing fruit that’s been preserved in ridiculous amounts of sugar and pectin. Strawberry jam, besides being better than strawberry jelly, is the most superior of all jams. Jam in general is significantly better than jelly, because it hasn’t been strained and still contains pieces of cooked-down fruit. Regardless, the strawberry and peanut butter combination doesn’t vibe as much as the classic peanut butter and grape jelly. But overall, PB&Js are timeless and classic lunchtime delicacies that continue to be underappreciated and have a reputation that is trivialized because of their association with young children who are picky eaters.

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For the past month, Michigan State University has faced an uproar from students who blame the University for failing to stay transparent on issues of student-onstudent sexual harassment. The administration’s inaction and denial of responsibility for accusations made by a female student against former MSU football player Keith Mumphery reveal the indifference of authority and the threat of public backlash that discourage survivors of assault from bringing to light issues of sexual violence.

Claims that the University had also covered up the crimes of former MSU doctor Larry Nassar only serve to emphasize the ever-present need for support systems and prevention initiatives on college campuses.

The prevalence of retaliation in response to women coming forward about their experiences presents a pattern that pervades society and ultimately prevents justice for survivors who wish to report crimes, yet fear the consequences of doing so. Furthermore, making blanket statements that patronize women by advising them to say “no” to sexual advances does not provide a solution, but rather twists the situation into victim-blaming. This degrading attitude is apparent in The New York Times column response to harassment allegations against comedian Aziz Ansari. Author Bari Weiss shames the victim for failing to verbally deny Ansari’s advances from the start. She describes the story as an “unpleasant moment” rather than an encounter with sexual assault, the definition of which applies to a range of unwanted sexual activity that extends to physical as well as psychological coercion. When facing distressing situations, Weiss advises women to “stand up on [their] two legs and walk out [the] door,” and suggests that the solution to the our “broken sexual culture” is for women to simply be more verbal in expressing their true desires.

While Weiss’s argument may present a prima facie logic to some, her defense of Ansari intends to shame the woman. Moreover, it embodies society’s all-too-frequent

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I am proud of the resources and sexual education courses that Boston College has provided to its students. BC requires that all incoming freshmen complete the mandatory Haven course that gives detailed information on sexual assault, and also requires students to attend Bystander Intervention presentations at orientation and throughout the year in residence halls. It’s crucial that college students learn the meaning of consent and apply these lessons to their own experiences with sex in order to eventually eliminate all instances of sexual assault on campus. Education represents a key step in promoting healthy sex habits among students that are not constantly associated with manipulation, forcefulness, and victims. BC has also made the important effort to make students aware of the existence of confidential, pressure-free support systems like SANet and counseling services.

Still, there is more work to be done to adequately educate students and remove the stigma toward sex that prevents students from engaging in active discussions about the behaviors that can be deemed healthy. BC’s administration should publicize the ability for students to receive STI testing at University Health Services and even provide students with information on where they may obtain contraceptives or additional counseling resources off campus.

The BC community must also stress how sexual behaviors can be enjoyable if clear consent is involved, rather than solely emphasizing the consequences of engaging in unhealthy or harmful behaviors in the sexual-education courses offered on campus.

Establishing an openness to talking about sex, reassuring students that their voices will be heard, and creating a caring environment that does not resort to victim-blaming all constitute actions that both BC administration and the student body should collectively pursue. Sexual assault should not be what is expected on college campuses, and universities can work toward healthier sexual cultures alongside an end to all sexual violence through the reconstruction of societal and institutional expectations.

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

Finding Jesuit Values in BC Athletics

But let’s be real, it’s probably a good thing my mom didn’t make them for me all the time—I’m sure I wouldn’t like them half as much.

fake pockets - I’ve never encountered anything more useless in my entire life than fake pockets, and I think it’s safe to assume that everyone in the entire world agrees with that statement. No one will ever be completely satisfied with an article of clothing—pants, jacket, skirt—that pretends to have pockets. For all I know, that could be final factor that influences someone’s purchase of any particular garment.

If producers are going to go as far as make it look like there are pockets, then why wouldn’t they spend the extra five inches of fabric to actually make them real pockets? There is no rational logic that one could provide to convince me that fake pockets are worth my while.

response of questioning the stories of victims instead of just listening and attempting to understand the circumstances. Walking away from uncomfortable sexual situations proves easier said than done, as worry of immediate or indirect retaliation often influences decisions of victims during those overwhelming moments. Take the case of 23-year-old Paris Sashay, who was pushed to the ground and lost consciousness after rejecting a group of men that had been harassing her. Twenty-four--year-old Caroline Nosal was shot after ending a relationship with a co-worker that she believed had become inappropriate. Just three weeks ago, 16-year-old Mujey Dumbuya was found murdered in the woods after she finalized a court date to testify against her rapist.

The end to unfounded retaliation against survivors of sexual violence will only come once we stop minimizing the seriousness of women’s experiences and begin fostering an environment of empathy and respect in place of blame and apathy.

We must additionally become aware of the gender socialization that impacts women’s decisions from a young age. The enforcement of gender complementarity, which teaches women to remain dependent on men and submissive to the impulses of their male counterparts, manifests itself in sexual encounters. By casting doubt on allegations of sexual misconduct, we minimize the seriousness of situations and do not consider the widespread, yet inconspicuous effects of placing women in roles of inferiority. We additionally exacerbate the guilt that women may feel following sexual assault, and consequently normalize placing all responsibility on a single individual while inadvertently urging women to justify what happened. Just because they don’t qualify as the extremes of sexual violence doesn’t mean that the actions of others are acceptable. Combatting the status-quo requires that we do not discredit the harm that women endure, but rather empower them by recognizing the context of the story and leaving open the choice of coming forward, without pressure to make any decisions.

We should also educate ourselves on the necessary qualifications of true consent and work toward ignoring the gut reaction to question those who have had the courage to publicize their encounters with sexual assault.

Everyone connected with the Boston College community is familiar with the story of Welles Crowther. In the panic and confusion of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the 1999 BC graduate spent his final moments helping others, bringing as many as he could to safety. Every fall, the football team honors the former lacrosse player’s memory with the Red Bandana game, and the Red Bandana 5k run is a staple on a brisk October Saturday morning each year.

Like Crowther before him, Pete Frates is another former BC studentathlete that has gone on to change the world and inspire many to be “men and women for others.” Since being diagnosed with ALS in 2012, Team Frate Train has raised millions of dollars to bring ALS research to the forefront of the scientific community.

The BC undergraduate experience is famous for its “cura personalis”—the care for the entire person. As much as we are encouraged to pursue our own passions and interests, it is also very important to look outward and tend to the needs of others. The extensive core curriculum—including philosophy, theology, history, fine arts, and social sciences—exposes us to radically different ideas and issues that confront the world today.

My education at BC doesn’t end once I leave the Quad. Every day I go to practice, games, or workouts and receive further lessons about what “Ever to Excel” truly means and how I can live in the spirit of “magis.”

Growing in character is emphasized as much as developing on-field skills.

Sharing meals with teammates and

engaging in the community are all a necessary part of creating a cohesive and consistent team. In my last column, I argued that much of the sustained success of the Patriots must be attributed to the elite culture of the organization.

There is a certain way to act once you become a Patriot. The same can be said for a BC athlete.

Teams at BC often have Jesuits on staff to help cultivate players’ spiritual side. Rev. Chris Calderon, S.J., is the team chaplain for the baseball team, and even though we have players of all different faiths, the Jesuit tradition still affects each player regardless of his chosen creed. Once a week at practice, Chris conducts one of his “Ignatian workouts.” He designs these activities to highlight the fact that we cannot win baseball games by ourselves, nor can we go through our lives alone. There will be times when we need help, and there is no shame in calling upon a friend for assistance.

During one of the more memorable Ignatian workouts, Chris brought out an 80-pound dumbbell to the field and asked a timid freshman to curl the weight in front of the team. Naturally, he couldn’t do it, but the team stood and watched him struggle for a few minutes before he soon gave up. He finally asked, “Can I ask for help?” Of course, that was the point of the exercise. You can feel quite isolated when confronted with tasks that seem daunting, almost impossible—such as curling 80 pounds, or needing to sweep Notre Dame in the final week of the season.

If you try to accomplish these things alone, then yes, they probably will be impossible.

BC athletes are trained to notice these instances—both when to ask for a friend and when to provide a helping hand. Once you embrace this mindset, it erases all sense of doubt in your ability. So what if I make an error? So what if I walk a guy? So what if I just gave up

a home run? We’ll get them back, I know one of my teammates will make a play.

Likewise, if I see a teammate struggling, I know I have to focus in and pick him up, help him out, and get back on track.

When the Jesuit mission creeps into athletics, you have the ingredients for a special team, perhaps even a special season. I know that culture alone doesn’t win games, but it certainly helps. In 2016, our baseball team was always talented enough to make a Super Regional, but in that season it was the culture and leadership of the team that pushed us over the top in the most pivotal moments.

But when these lessons that we learn as athletes carry over into everyday life, we have the recipe for some pretty extraordinary people. The Navy SEALs have a saying that when the situation gets hectic, you fall back to the degree of your training. In the face of unimaginable circumstance, Crowther fell back to his bedrock beliefs: If you have the ability to help others, do so. Pete Frates took the devastation of an ALS diagnosis and went to work. There would be no complaining, self-pity, nor worry. It was time for these athletes to go to work, time for them to change the world.

It would be unfair to attribute the impact of these two great BC men simply to the lessons they learned as a student-athlete. But I don’t think it is a coincidence, either. I believe Jesuit education has the power to change lives. As we become “men and women for others,” we are subtly pushed toward pursuing fulfilled lives of community involvement and social awareness. Armed with a Jesuit education, Crowther and Frates have shown that one person can change the world. I feel nothing has truly impacted my character as much as my daily dose of Jesuit brotherhood.

Jack. Nelson is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

The opinions and commentaries of the op-ed columnists and cartoonists appearing on this page represent the views of the author or artist of that particular piece, and not necessarily the views of The Heights. Any of the columnists and artists for the Opinions section of The Heights can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

Marta Seitz I’m at the point in the year where my Facebook’s “On This Day” feed has become inundated with memories from abroad last spring, painfully reminding me that this time last year I was running around Paris, Morocco, and Prague. On this day one year ago, for example, I spent my evening sitting along el Río Guadalquivir at sunset drinking Spanish Rioja wine with my roomie in Seville. Are you annoyed with me yet? Yeah, me too.

Most students who study abroad loved their experience and will happily share, solicited or otherwise, stories about their time romping around in foreign countries.

There is no shortage of interview-worthy anecdotes about overcoming language barriers or fostering newfound confidence and independence while navigating an unfamiliar space. But even as someone who went abroad and loved it, surprisingly, one of the greatest lessons I learned about abroad was from my friends who stayed right here in Chestnut Hill.

I was surprised to find that when I returned, my non-abroad friends had just as much fun as those of us who spent our weekends on the beaches of Portugal or at the baths of Budapest. It wasn’t in a competitive “let’s-have-more-fun-thanthe-abroad-kids” way. They just genuinely enjoyed their time here at Boston College.

When asked their favorite part about not going abroad, my friends shared stories of nights out at MAs, adventures in Boston, and lazy nights at our off-campus house. They not only grew closer to their existing friends, but also had the opportunity to make friends with other nonabroad students that they may not have otherwise interacted with. The common thread among non-abroad students was not any one crazy story in particular, but simply a general sense of gratitude for a semester at BC with the people they love.

Their perspective was just as inspiring as those of my friends who traveled abroad. After talking with them, I couldn’t help but feel a newfound appreciation for a place I had come to take for granted. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t take risks, push ourselves outside of our comfort zones, or explore new parts of the world.

Sometimes, however, our greatest adventures, blessings, and memories are those created right in front of us without us even realizing. We don’t need to travel thousands of miles across the world to find them, we just need to open our eyes to see how good we have it in this moment.

As I write this article, I’m sitting in O’Neill Library with a stack of assignments that puts my workload at Universidad Pablo de Olavide to shame—it’s certainly no weekend in Italy or Germany, but it’s 50 degrees and sunny, and Gasson looks especially fine today. I’m next to one of my best friends from freshman year, who looks up from his crossword every five minutes to distract me from my work and make me laugh. A nice stranger at my table let me borrow her laptop charger, and I realize I still haven’t gotten over how good the bowls in Eagle’s taste.

Despite what being abroad may trick your mind into believing, life isn’t going to be a relentless string of exciting adventures. While I certainly loved and appreciated my time abroad, I feel blessed that my friends taught me the value of finding happiness wherever you are, whether it’s the beaches of coastal Italy or the discolored walls of The Mods. I’d regret spending my last semester at BC looking back at old pictures and wishing I was back in Europe—some of my greatest memories are closer to home than I realize.

Maybe I’m just being a nostalgic second-semester senior trying to hold onto my final few months as tightly as possible, but don’t wait until the spring of your senior year to learn these lessons. Gain new appreciation for the people, places and things you normally take for granted.

Do little things that make you happy and find joy in their simplicity. Realize how good you have it now, because it won’t last forever. Soon enough, you’ll be tossed into the world as a new graduate with a full time job and rent payments, and you’ll crave those study days in O’Neill reading stacks of case studies alongside your goofy best friends from freshman year.

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

The Heights

A8

Monday, February 19, 2018

A Language Worth Speaking: Bodetti on Middle East Politics Bodetti has “studied abroad” in the most extreme sense of the word, taking his Arabic expertise with him to the Middle East.

By Sophie Nunnally

For The Heights

What do you do to throw off a guy who has spent the last four years traveling the world as a researcher, teacher, volunteer, and freelance journalist, using college grants and money out of his own pocket, and earned publication in over 10 media outlets? What do you do with a guy who seems to have it all figured out before he’s even graduated college? You give the guy pink eye.

Austin Bodetti, MCAS ’18, will stand among his peers this coming May and prepare to enter the proverbial ‘real world’ that looms beyond college graduation. Bodetti’s a busy guy, but he took the time to sit across from me at a table in Addies, which was packed, for a chat. There’s someone dragging a chair across the floor and someone else dropping a plate. A few fluorescent spotlights away, a girl waves excitedly in our direction. Bodetti, widely known as an amiable guy, hesitates to wave back. His newly blurred vision challenges his ability to see too far in front of him. He finally gives up and just waves back.

We’re not taking the headshot today.

I’d asked a photographer to sneak up on us at some point, to capture the interview in all its candidness, but called her off when Austin admitted he wasn’t exactly camera ready. While ‘redness of the eyes’ is harmless, pinkeye plays a sort of sick joke on the well-known idea of seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. Austin’s views of the world have certainly altered, if not in the last few days, over the last four years. It’s clear the path he seemed to follow is more muddled now, but the question is, did he ever see as clearly as he appeared to?

Bodetti’s parents, divorced, each have

an MBA. His mother lives in Connecticut and worked in banking. His father lives in Florida, and worked in telecommunications but now runs an Italian restaurant. He has two older sons from a different marriage, both of whom work in telecommunications, neither of whom went to college. From the moment Bodetti received his first college acceptance letter, his future was already shaping up to be divergent from his family’s.

In particular, politics, which had never been a hot topic at the family dinner table, slowly took hold of his life.

Bodetti studies Islamic Civilization and Societies and Arabic Studies. Each year of college seemed to mark yet another outstanding milestone in his academic career.

But his interest in the Middle East took hold back in his sophomore year of high school, when news of the Syrian Civil War peppered the media. But soon, the media’s interest fizzled, and Austin felt an absence: What went on in Syria when the media inevitably shifted its gaze to natural disasters and the stock market? So he did what any high school student would do when faced with a mystery: He logged onto Facebook and started stalking.

He talked to activists from Syria as well as members of the Free Syrian Army. His first encounters with the Arabic language were largely mediated by Google Translate, ample patience, and an absurd amount of free time that only a high schooler could have. It was then that this screen fiend of the virtual world assumed the decisionmaking persona of a college student: He told himself he would start learning Arabic to resolve communication issues, and formally begin studying the Middle East.

Unlike most freshmen, Bodetti knew exactly what he wanted to do the moment

he stepped foot on the Heights.

“When I was in high school I had a very clear goal, which was like ‘wow, this is a human tragedy in Syria, the government is killing its own people, I wanna figure out some way to help.’ Now I’ll say, the goal is a lot less clear.”

His goals were clarified in part by his impressive start at BC as a Presidential Scholar studying Arabic and the Middle East. After crafting such concentrated studies, Bodetti thought it was time to test his skills in the aforementioned ‘real world.’ The summer after his freshman year, the guy who used to quake in his boots before high school field trips planned a solo research trip in Southeast Asia to Burma, Thailand, and Indonesia. It was meant to be a purely academic excursion, but all the “moving parts” involved motivated him to reach out for assistance in his research to a freelance journalist he knew of who ran a blog called War is Boring. By the end of his trip, the journalist, not wanting to see Bodetti’s research go to waste, offered him a position writing for his blog. Bodetti achieved his first publication in August of 2015.

“I could not have predicted that within two years of graduating high school I would have been to South Sudan and Iraq. I also wouldn’t have seen the freelance journalism coming, because even now I don’t have a huge passion for journalism, and back then I didn’t,” Bodetti said while placing himself in his younger shoes. It was research and conflict resolution that had always interested him, but what to do with his research was another question.

“I wasn’t producing anything or using that knowledge,” he said. Journalism presented itself as a logical outlet for his

Kaitlin Meeks / Heights Editor

Though Austin Bodetti never planned on working in journalism, that’s where his interest in the Middle East led him.

research—it was never his dream. It was an unexpected curve in the road, but a curve that he accelerated through. Nevertheless, it was still an unwelcome jolt to be fired from War is Boring.

“I asked too many questions, I think, if I had to guess. Granted I was pretty annoying, but it was unexpected,” he said.

But if there’s one quality to be desired in any post-grad entering the workforce, it’s the ability to thrive in adversity. Although journalism was never Bodetti’s end goal, he felt a desire to reach out to other outlets that would publish him. Today, with his freelance journalism career in full swing, he’s been published on over 10 websites, including USA Today and Vice News. “The articles are very much in the weeds of American policy in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I guess like the nuances of conflict in Burma, or that sort of thing,” Bodetti explained. While he’s never been to Afghanistan, in the spring of 2016, Bodetti began preparations for his third solo adventure abroad: a trip to Iraq.

Austin had traveled to South Sudan from Dec. 2015 to Jan. 2016, but was met with the same challenge he’d faced in Southeast Asia: the language barrier. He was determined to travel to an Arabicspeaking country. He chose Iraq, a nation in the throws of civil war since 2014.

“Iraq I picked because it was the highest amount of risk I was comfortable taking,” he explained.

So there Bodetti was, on the verge of the riskiest experience of his life. And he knew the language.

Bodetti arrived in Iraq unbeknownst to all but his parents. Although equipped with proficient skills in written Arabic and promising skills in spoken Arabic, he knew a translator would be more than a language assistant: a translator acts as a much-needed guide in an unknown and dangerous country. After two days he fired his translator for incompetence. It took Bodetti half of his trip to find and hire another one, but he succeeded in conducting all his interviews in half the time. Upon his return, he kept his trip a secret from everyone for six months, so as to prevent his experience from being colored by outside opinions.

“I was happy that I did it, and I wanted to be content with that decision,” he said.

Bodetti knew that going to Iraq, in all its danger, would not be a popular decision among his acquaintances, especially his professors who would appreciate more the significant amount of danger involved in such an expedition. He wanted to have something to show for it, and the articles he was able to produce from this trip about Fallujah, the last major Iraqi urban

center ISIS controlled other than Mosul, spoke for him.

“I wanted to put enough time between when I’d taken the trip and when I told other people so that I guess I could confirm to myself that this has been beneficial. I took the trip, I did it, these are the results, and however you may feel about it, it’s allowed me to be able to do this or that,” said Bodetti.

When he finally opened up, his friends thought his adventure was surprisingly cool, and his professors were predictably shocked. By that time, however, Bodetti was confident in his past decisions, though he doesn’t plan to return to Iraq.

Like his experience in Iraq, Bodetti tried journalism and decided it wasn’t for him. So he’s hitting the refresh button.

After working remotely from all over the world, an office job is exactly what Bodetti hopes for. While he plans to slowly phase out journalism over the next couple years, he’s still putting the ‘real world’ and its office jobs off as long as possible, describing his current strategy as “apply to everything possible, see what works out.”

Ideally he’d get chosen for a Fulbright grant to Jordan to research youth unemployment and perfect his Arabic, then go to graduate school to get other academic credentials he says he needs. The Jordan program prefers graduate students, however, jeopardizing Bodetti’s desired path.

But where his physical direction has faltered, his confidence in his personal ideals has been clarified and strengthened.

“Before, I wanted to help Syria directly,” he said. “Now, I’m recognizing that is something that Syrians shouldn’t have taken away from them. My more nuanced goal now is to figure out how to guide American policy in the Middle East in the most positive direction it can go.” He believes American foreign relations doesn’t have to mean American foreign intervention, as intervention in the past has be known to cause as many issues as it claims to solve.

For someone with an uncertain future, he’s grown to exercise a decidedly pronounced ideology.

Anyone who believes an acceptance letter or a binding contract defines a graduate’s future has not taken the time to listen to Bodetti. Unsatisfied by the media in high school, dropped by his editor, and let down by his translator in Iraq, Bodetti has thrived in adverse conditions. As a result, he produced and became more than what was expected of him in each instance.

Bodetti has had plenty of things to fear, but he was never afraid to try. Though Bodetti suffers from pink eye’s blurred vision, antibiotics will soon handle that problem, and he can move, with clearer sight, to untangling his future. n

Blue Bottle Opens its First ‘Place to Kiss’ in Boston The cafe also has a mission to serve its community, and all sales on its opening day will be given to a local charity.

By Chloe McAllaster Assoc. Metro Editor When James Freeman founded Blue Bottle Coffee in 2002, the business was nothing more than a passion project. Freeman hand roasted beans in his Oakland, Calif. potting shed and delivered them to friends in his station wagon. Fifteen years later, Blue Bottle has expanded to a network of cafes across the globe.

After establishing itself in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., Miami, and Tokyo, Blue Bottle set its sights on Boston for its newest location. On Feb. 3, Blue Bottle opened its inaugural Boston cafe in Harvard Square.

“We’ve been really excited to get to Boston,” said Rose Bridges, a spokesperson for Blue Bottle. “We’ve been really well received in the area. People have been really excited

and asking us to be there.”

The concept of the cafe serving as an oasis for people to have “amazing conversations” over coffee is foundational to each of Blue Bottle’s locations.

At the Harvard Square location, the large windows overlooking the brick buildings of Plympton Street and the Harvard Lampoon create an inviting environment for those seeking a quiet space to study or meet up with a friend over coffee. A unique feature of each of Blue Bottle’s cafes is a spot to kiss.

“When we design cafes we like to ask our architects to design a place to kiss,” Bridges said. “There’s this really amazing nook that’s our place to kiss in the Harvard Square location.”

Conveniently situated between thedorms and campus, Blue Bottle is the ideal study spot for Harvard students with its ample table space and variety of food and

Photo Courtesy of Blue Bottle Coffee

drink options.

All culinary options are made in-house and include liege waffles, toast, and a grab-and-go section. Single origin, blend, and espresso coffees are available and crafted with Blue Bottle’s three core values in mind.

“We love all coffee organizations, but our main core values are deliciousness, hospitality, and sustainability,” Bridges said in regards to what makes Blue Bottle distinct from its competitors.

In terms of deliciousness, Blue Bottle strives to source the highest-quality coffees and use the best methods and techniques available to brew that coffee. Additionally, all staff and baristas undergo an extensive training program to learn the stages of the coffee-making process.

The pillar of hospitality hinges on the welcoming atmosphere Blue Bottle hopes characterizes its cafes.

“Everyone is welcome in our space,” Bridges said. “Our teams are hopefully the most welcoming, excited-for-you-to-bethere teams.”

Sustainability is a core value that Blue Bottle is constantly aiming to improve. As of now, all of the company’s disposable products are compostable, a fact that Blue Bottle emphasizes to its customers, who may be unaccustomed to such a practice.

“We try to source responsibly both with our culinary and coffee programs as well,” Bridges added.

Another unique facet of the Blue Bottle mission is a focus on bettering the communities the company serves. On each of its openings, Blue Bottle dedicates its first day of sales to a local charity and finds an opportunity to serve with the organization.

“We want those partnerships to be im-

Photo Courtesy of Blue Bottle Coffee

Blue Bottle, originally established in the Bay Area, has now opened in Harvard Square. pactful and helpful,” Bridges said. “We don’t just want to have a one-off experience with our charity partners, so we’re hoping to build up that relationship over time.”

In each of its cities, Blue Bottle selects a distinct mission to promote in its philanthropic partnership. For example, the Bay Area locations support food sustainability, while the Los Angeles cafes are partnered with the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

For the Harvard Square location and all future Boston cafes, the partnership is with Artists for Humanity. According to a press release, the mission of the nonprofit is to bridge “economic, racial, and social divisions by providing under-resourced urban youth with the keys to self-sufficiency through paid employment in art and design.”

Blue Bottle felt called to make art its next mission, as founder Freeman is a concert

musician, and the company has many internal art teams. Furthermore, Bridges believes everyone is an artist at heart.

“We wanted to work with an organization that really does amazing work providing artists’ mentorship for children,” said Bridges. “I think so often art programs are the first to go in schools, and it’s really important to keep the art dreams alive.”

Blue Bottle is not stopping with Harvard Square in its goal of bringing good coffee and great conversation to the people of Boston. Bridges confirmed plans for locations at the Prudential Center and the Exchange at 100 Federal.

These new cafes, as well as the Harvard Square location, will share the purpose of being “a safe place for everyone to come in and enjoy and experience just a little love and good coffee,” Bridges said. n

SPORTS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2018

B1

@HEIGHTSSPORTS

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Lacking Familiarity

Swept Under

37

BEN THOMAS With its win against Maine Saturday night, Boston College men’s hockey clinched its 16th-consecutive season with a winning record, a streak that dates back to 2001-02. The Eagles may be well on their way to another Hockey East championship, but it sure doesn’t feel like it.

BC has failed to exceed expectations this season by any measure. Ranked No. 13 by USCHO at the start of the season, the Eagles now sit at No. 19 in the nation.

The 18 teams seeded above them have a combined record of 7-2-1 against them, proving that BC simply can’t compete against the cream of the crop in college hockey in the same way it has been able to in years past. The Eagles’ current winning percentage of .547 is their worst since the 2002 season, and while they had been able to make the NCAA tournament sevenstraight years from 2010-16, it appears their youth is catching up to them.

Despite its top spot in the Hockey East standings, BC stands out for lacking a true goal scorer compared to its competition— a statistic that strongly indicates a team’s prestige. Four other conference teams have at least one player with 15 goals or more. Leading the charge is Beantown rival Northeastern—a group that embarrassed the Eagles at TD Garden earlier this month—whose star forwards, senior Adam Gaudette and junior Nolan Stevens, each have 20-plus goals. BC’s top scorer is sophomore Graham McPhee, who has only 12 on the year.

As far as experience is concerned, the team’s top-five goal scorers have all played less than two years with head coach Jerry York. This is mostly due to the fact that BC simply doesn’t have many upperclassmen. The Eagles’ roster includes four juniors, no seniors, and just one graduate transfer—defenseman Kevin Lohan, who leads his squad in plus/minus this season.

But a single 24-year-old doesn’t make up for the past stars that have left the program for the NHL. While 26 other teams have an average age of over 22 years, BC has just five other players at least that old.

Compare BC to a team like Massachusetts Lowell—the oldest team in Hockey East with an average age of 22 years and

See Lacking Familiarity, B2

Points

10

3-Pointers

70.6 Percent Shooting

MICHAEL DWYER / AP PHOTO

THE MATT

Matt Farrell ignited Notre Dame’s offense with 10 triples—one shy of the ACC record—on Saturday afternoon, paving the way for a series sweep of BC.

BY ANDY BACKSTROM Sports Editor Eleven days of anticipation, a two-game win streak, and home court advantage didn’t change a thing for Boston Notre Dame 84 College Boston College 67 men’s basketball on Saturday afternoon. Just like Notre Dame’s 96-85 win over BC on Feb. 6, the Fighting Irish exposed the Eagles’ increasingly inconsistent defense, shooting 63

percent from the floor, including 14-of-23 from downtown.

In the teams’ first matchup, T.J. Gibbs Jr. jumpstarted Notre Dame’s offense, drilling 5-of-6 from 3-point land and racking up 22 points in the first half alone. This time around, it was Matt Farrell who stole the spotlight. The senior couldn’t miss from beyond the arc: He went 8of-8 in the opening period, before tying the ACC record for most consecutive 3-pointers to start a game—a mark that Jordan Chat-

man set last year against Virginia Tech. Single-handedly, Farrell, who logged a career-high 37 points, built a 26-point Irish lead.

BC, a team that has struggled with slow starts all season, staged its typical second-half comeback.

The Jerome Robinson-led Eagles closed the gap, at one point cutting their deficit to single digits. But soon after, BC ran out of gas, and the Irish pulled away for an 84-67 victory, their 11th-straight win against the Eagles.

As dominant as Farrell was in the first half, he didn’t even get on the board for the first three and a half minutes of the game. Still, Notre Dame (16-11, 6-8 Atlantic Coast) more than held its own.

Knocking down three of their first four shots—all but one of which was from deep—the Irish quickly established a six-point lead. On the next possession, Farrell dialed up a 3-pointer, the first of his 10, one shy

See MBB vs. ND, B3

MEN’S HOCKEY

Woll Records First Shutout of Year in Rout of No. 21 Maine

BY BEN THOMAS Asst. Sports Editor Fans of the Maine Black Bears came to Alford Arena in full force for their team’s contest against Boston College men’s Boston College 5 hockey on SatMaine 0 urd ay nig ht .

The sold-out rink was consumed by a loud crowd that shook the stadium as the puck first dropped, but it didn’t

take long for the Eagles to silence them. The Black Bears proved to be no match for BC—even on their home ice—and by the time the final horn sounded, the Eagles had scored at least one goal in each period on their way to a 5-0 shutout victory—goaltender Joseph Woll’s first blanking of the season.

The scoring started quickly for the No. 19 Eagles (16-13-3, 16-5-0 Hockey East). Less than three minutes into the

game, BC found itself in the offensive zone with possession, while the No. 21 Black Bears (16-12-4, 10-9-3) hastily worked their way into a defensive set.

It wasn’t long before Casey Fitzgerald got control of the puck and fired a wide-open wrister from the point. The shot sliced by Jeremy Swayman—who was never able to see the shot thanks to a screen from Zach Walker—and wrapped around the net, giving BC the early lead.

Just seven minutes later, the Eagles were at it again. Julius Matilla won a defensive zone faceoff, springing BC quickly up the ice and, from behind the Black Bears’ net, the puck was passed to David Cotton. The sophomore launched a shot that was initially blocked before being redirected to Matilla, who finished what he had started by firing the puck straight back into the net.

The rest of the period remained

scoreless, in large part due to the Woll’s play. The Eagles’ goaltender had an astounding 16 saves in the opening frame. Woll was seen diving across his net to stop shots, including a couple of 3-on-1 chances that were byproducts of nothing more than poor puck control. The Toronto Maple Leafs prospect shut down the Black Bears in the second as well, and his dominant

See MHOK vs. Maine, B3

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

BC Caps Regular Season With Sweep of No. 10 Black Bears

BY NICOLE PLA Heights Staff Through 100 minutes of hockey this weekend, Boston College women’s hockey goaltender Katie Burt hadn’t let the University Boston College 3 of Maine Black Maine 1 Bears connect on a single shot. Unfortunately for the senior, her last two regular season games wouldn’t end in back-to-back shutouts. Five minutes into the third period, Brittany Kucera took a shot from the top of the far circle and it sailed above Burts glove. The Lynn, Mass. native could only turn her head

INSIDE SPORTS

to watch the puck fly past her.

Still, it was the only goal scored by No. 10 Maine (17-12-5, 11-9-4 Hockey East) throughout the weekend series.

After a successful Friday night showing, the No. 4 Eagles (28-3-3, 19-2-3) finished off their regular season with a 3-1 victory over the Back Bears.

After the initial face off, Maine attempted to put pressure on the Eagles, but the defense was ready. The Black Bears had the first point opportunity of the afternoon after Burt left the net empty after blocking a shot. Her teammates were right there to clear it out, robbing Maine of a chance to get an early lead.

BC’s offense soon proved to be just as lethal as its defense. Just under five minutes into regulation, Ryan Little intercepted a pass in Maine’s territory and sent it in the direction of Erin Connolly. The sophomore’s backhanded shot went right between goaltender Loryn Porter’s skate and the pipe, putting the Eagles on the board first.

Soon after her goal, Connolly knocked Cailey Hutchison down on the red line, forcing a whistle. Maine was aggressive throughout the power play, but the added pressure did noth-

BRADLEY SMART / HEIGHTS EDITOR

See WHOK vs. Maine, B3

Caitrin Lonergan was one of three Eagles to find the back of the net during the victory.

WBB: No. 5 Fighting Irish Blow Out BC WHOK: Eagles Claim Third-Straight Beanpot

SPORTS IN SHORT............................... B2

After trailing by nine at the break, BC imploded in the second On Tuesday night, BC outlasted Boston University in overtime, LACROSSE.................................... B3 half, allowing the Irish to coast to victory on Sunday.............B2 thanks to a Toni Ann Miano game-winner.................................B4 BEANPOT..................................... B4

The Heights

B2

Monday, February 19, 2018

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Eagles Blown Out by Fifth-Ranked Notre Dame on Senior Night

By Caroline Claar For The Heights

A few days removed from a 35-point blowout loss to No. 4 Louisville, Boston College women’s basketball didn’t get much of a reNotre Dame 89 spite. The Eagles Boston College 55 welcomed No. 5 Notre Dame to Conte Forum and, despite hanging with them through the halftime break, the end result was as predicted.

The Irish’s physicality and size allowed them to dominate the paint, outscoring their hosts by 25 in the second half, en route to a convincing 89-55 win. By the end of the game, Notre Dame (24-2, 12-2 Atlantic Coast) had scored 64 points in the paint, while the Eagles (7-19, 2-11) logged just 14.

“Their points in the paint numbers are unbelievable,” Eagles head coach Erik Johnson said. “They used their size advantage really, really well. We did everything we could to mitigate that but Notre Dame had answers every time we had an answer.”

Notre Dame needed just one 3-pointer to pile up almost 90 points, the product of a decisive size advantage. The Irish also capitalized on 15 BC turnovers, scoring 26 points off of them.

The Eagles took the court energized and ready to send their seniors, playing their last game at Conte Forum, out with a bang. For a large chunk of the first quarter, the teams were exchanging consecutive baskets. With no fouls or timeouts called until three minutes left in the first quarter, the pace of the game was extremely fast.

The Eagles were moving the ball around beautifully, but when it came to the actual scoring, it was a completely different story. While both BC and the Irish were finding ways to the basket, only Notre Dame was able to convert, while the Eagles struggled to finish.

Notre Dame went on a 10-0 run after about six minutes of play by slicing through BC’s defense. After a few solid layups early on from senior Katie Quandt, BC had lots of trouble with their 3-point shooting, missing five triples in the quarter.

With the Eagles struggling from beyond the arc, Taylor Ortlepp came up big and drained two 3-pointers to close out the first quarter, cutting the Irish lead to seven.

The momentum carried over into the second quarter for the Eagles. Ortlepp kept her team alive with her perimeter shooting, reaching 17 points by halftime while tying her own personal record for

most 3-pointers in a game. The outside shooting kept BC in it, even as the Eagles were drastically outscored inside. Still, despite the fact that BC was overmatched down low, the Eagles were only outscored by two in the quarter.

BC still had some serious work to do.

Entering the third quarter down nine, the Eagles brought the hustle. Even though they continued to go to work, their shots were simply not falling. Meanwhile, Notre Dame easily cut through the lane on the other end for easy buckets. The Irish opened the half on a 13-1 run and didn’t look back.

During the last four minutes of the third quarter, the Eagles didn’t make a single field goal. The crowd was growing silent and any momentum seemed fleeting, but when Milan Bolden-Morris hit a shot from downtown with less than three minutes left to go in the third, Conte Forum showed some signs of life. Just 20 seconds later, Taylor Ortlepp drained another triple, and a timeout was taken.

BC scored six points within a 20-second span, giving the Eagles some much needed confidence heading into the fourth. Still, the Eagles trailed by 19, and they weren’t able to get much closer.

At the start of every quarter, the Irish came out strong and scored quick

Celine lim / HEIGHTS Staff

Georgia Pineau (top) scored just nine points in the 44-point loss Sunday afternoon.

buckets. The same was true of the final frame: Notre Dame came out and plowed through BC’s defense for an easy two points. The Eagles were having trouble keeping up with the Irish, and it seemed like no matter what they did, Notre Dame had an answer. The Eagles could not put a stop to the Irish’s scoring, and Notre Dame pulled away for BC’s secondstraight 30-plus point loss.

Although the game was a tough way to send out the seniors, it was not all negative for the Eagles. Fourth-year player Katie Quandt had a very solid game, put-

ting up seven points and nine rebounds, the latter being a new career high.

Despite the margin on the scoreboard, Johnson came away pleased with his teams effort, a reversal in his eyes of the loss to the Cardinals earlier in the week.

“My guess is that when I watch this game tape tonight I’ll see a lot more consistency of effort,” he said. “I thought when Louisville came back on us, our effort waned in the second half. I thought our effort and our toughness shined through in a lot of places today.” n

SOFTBALL

Softball Splits With Nebraska, Indiana at ACC-Big Ten Challenge

By Bradley Smart Assoc. Sports Editor

The second mini-tournament of the year for Boston College softball went better than the first. After going winless in four games for the Aggie Classic, the Eagles rebounded with a respectable 2-2 mark in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, splitting games with Nebraska and Indiana over the weekend.

BC (3-6) wrapped up the weekend with a 3-0 shutout of the Cornhuskers (8-2). Jessica Dreswick went the distance, striking out four and allowing just three hits in the performance. The senior threw almost 20 innings over the weekend and showcased plenty of talent throughout.

She was lifted by three early runs from the Eagles, who have made a habit

of getting ahead early. Carly Severini had an RBI double and Cami Sellers knocked in a run with a single in the first, while Allyson Moore added an RBI single in the second. The three runs were more than enough with Dreswick dealing, as she held the Cornhuskers to 0-for-18 with runners on base.

The day prior, they dropped an 8-3 decision to the Hoosiers (1-7). Despite out-hitting Indiana and taking an early 2-0 lead, a four-run inning vaulted the Hoosiers ahead for good.

Dreswick was chased after two and two-thirds, walking four and allowing four earned runs on two hits.

After loading the bases in the third, she walked in a run, then gave up a bases-clearing three-run double to Katie Lacefield.

Ally Frei closed out the game, throwing the final four-plus innings, but let in four runs, two earned. The Hoosiers added late insurance runs as BC managed a lone run in the latter innings. Indiana reliever Josie Wood picked up her team’s first win of the season, going four innings and allowing a lone unearned run while striking out three.

On the challenge’s opening day, the Eagles split their two matchups.

Dreswick pitched well in the opener, throwing six innings and allowing two runs while striking out six, but it wasn’t enough against Nebraska. The Cornhuskers leaned on the duo of Olivia Ferrell and Kaylan Jablonski, who combined to allow just three hits.

One of those hits was a solo home run from Chloe Sharabba in the top of

the fourth, but it was offset by Dreswick’s only mistake of the game in the bottom of the same frame. She gave up a two-run shot to Madi Unzicker, a lead that Nebraska wouldn’t concede.

The Eagles bounced back in the second game and continued to impress in the circle, with Frei and Dreswick combining for a shutout. The duo struck out nine and allowed just two hits, en route to the 4-0 win over Indiana.

BC built an early lead in the first inning that would prove to be enough to hold off the Hoosiers the rest of the way. Annie Murphy drew a walk, Severini singled, and Sellers took four pitches to load the bases. A groundout from Jordan Chimento pushed across the game’s first run, then Lexi DiEmmanuele added an RBI single.

C.C. Cook’s first collegiate hit in the

sixth inning was a two-out RBI single, and Sharabba added another home run in the seventh.

Sharabba has enjoyed a torrid start to the season. She went hitless in the fourth and final game, snapping an eight-game hitting streak, but still finished the weekend with impressive numbers. Sharabba is 11-for-26 (.423) on the year so far with four doubles and two home runs, an impressive opening act from the senior.

The duo of Frei and Dreswick are a formidable rotation for the Eagles, and paired with a sometimes explosive offense, has BC poised for a strong season. Although BC is three games under .500, it has hung tough with elite competition all February and enter the five-game FIU classic having won two of its last three. n

Eagles’ Youth Finally Catching up to Them in Jerry York Era Lacking Familiarity, from B1 three months. The Riverhawks have had a combined record of 4-2 against the Eagles over the past two seasons, playing a total of 12 juniors and seniors in that time. Not the most talented team in Hockey East, UMass Lowell’s ability to find ways to win conference games stems from its experience with one another on the ice and, quite frankly, brute physicality.

The biggest reason why the Eagles have failed to find a long-term leader over the past two years is that as soon as a player is good enough to be the star of the show, they leave the team altogether. Obviously, the cost of being able to recruit top players is that they may only play for the team for a short time, but the past two seasons, Jerry York has had more trouble translating potential into wins than he’s had in more than a decade. Had certain players refrained from jumping to the pros, BC’s roster would be

studded with star upperclassmen this year.

Colin White, a rookie center on the Ottawa Senators, scored his first two career NHL goals this month, and it’s not hard to believe that he would have had an immense impact on the team had he chosen to stay at BC for his junior season.

Miles Wood, a third-line winger for the New Jersey Devils, is another former Eagle that left the team early.

Wood now has 26 points for his team this year, a season that included a hat-trick performance last November.

Alex Tuch is another would-be senior that would have made waves in the NCAA, but is now a fourth-round pick turned double-digit goal scorer for the Vegas Golden Knights. Wood and Tuch recorded a combined 69 points for BC two years ago, and both would hypothetically join White on a formidable first line for BC that would compete against Gaudette, Stevens, and Dylan Sikura as the

best forward combination in college hockey.

Also not to be forgotten is Zach Sanford, now a winger for the St. Louis Blues. Just like Wood and Tuch, Sanford left BC after the 2015-16 season, and although injuries have stalled his professional career, Sanford had five points in his first five games for his NHL club.

Not all of these players could have been expected to stay all four years after committing to BC, but having just one of them back on the team for 2017-18 could have dramatically changed the story for the Eagles, who are now desperate for veteran experience.

BC’s limited experience as a cohesive unit has resulted in a number of deficiencies the past two years, especially on special teams. One area the team usually dominates is power play success rate, but this year, BC has converted on less than 18 percent of its chances—the third-worst rank in

the conference. Even worse has been their performance on the penalty killthe Eagles have stopped just under 20 percent of opponent’s power-play attempts, and have not had a worse kill rate this century. The team’s failure to communicate with one another has been apparent in this regard, and its lack of group familiarity is to blame.

An even more obvious shortcoming for BC has been its struggles on neutral ice. BC has failed on the biggest stages—specifically in TD Garden during the Beanpot this past month, as well as in the Ice Vegas Invitational back in January. The Eagles, one of the youngest teams in the country, couldn’t rely on talent alone to defeat either Northern Michigan or Michigan Tech in Las Vegas, two of the oldest teams in the country. Two clubs BC has traditionally beaten with its speed and skill ended up providing the Eagles with a mid-season speed bump.

Due to its historic success, BC, like

many of the sport’s iconic programs, is one of college hockey’s closest models to your typical one-and-done NCAA team, but of late its prestige has done more harm than good. It’s become clear this year, in particular, that the Eagles haven’t been able to get away with being one of the youngest teams in college hockey.

Going forward, it will be imperative for York to hold on to some of his biggest names. Captain Casey Fitzgerald, David Cotton, Graham McPhee, Christopher Brown, J.D. Dudek, Joseph Woll, and even freshmen Aapeli Räsänen and Michael Karow have previously been selected in the NHL draft, and if they decide to forego any of their remaining years—barring an influx of superstar talent—the Eagles could be in trouble again next year.

Ben Thomas is the assistant sports editor for The Heights. He can be reached on Twitter @ben_heights.

SPORTS in SHORT hockey east women’s hockey Conference

overall

Boston College

19-2-3

28-3-3

Providence

12-7-5

16-11-7

Maine

11-9-4

17-12-5

Northeastern

11-11-2

15-16-3

New Hampshire

9-10-5

14-13-7

Boston University

8-11-5

13-15-6

UConn

7-11-6

13-12-9

Vermont

7-13-4

10-18-5

Merrimack

6-16-2

11-20-3b

Numbers to know

10

Combined turnovers for men’s basketball guards Ky Bowman and Jerome Robinson in Saturday’s loss to Notre Dame.

6

Goals for freshman Logan Hutsko in his last three games for men’s hockey.

14

Runs allowed in the seventh inning alone by baseball in a 20-9 loss to Santa Clara on Saturday afternoon.

QUote of the week

“The [hoop] looked real big tonight.”

— Notre Dame guard Matt

Farrell after a career-high 37point performance against BC.

The Heights

Monday, February 19, 2018

B3

MEN’S HOCKEY

For First Time in 18 Years, BC Blanks Black Bears in Orono MHOK vs. Maine, from B1 performance was just what the Eagles’ needed to see from their netminder, considering the team had allowed an average of 3.4 goals per game in its previous five contests.

Both teams got their fair share of chances in the second period, but Walker ended up being the only one able to capitalize. As Ron Greco worked the puck behind the net, Walker sprinted into the slot looking for action. He was able to launch a one-timer top-shelf into the net, almost startling Swayman. With a 3-0 lead going into the second intermission, the Eagles had silenced the once-energetic Maine audience.

The red-hot Logan Hutsko got

things going in the third period, scoring a goal just 18 seconds into the third period against the defeated Black Bears squad. Hutsko crossed the blue line himself and fired a missile from the top of the right circle that squeezed by Swayman’s blocker, leading head coach Red Gendron to relieve the starter of his duties in favor of backup Rob McGovern.

Amazingly, it wasn’t until over four minutes had passed in the third period that the game’s first penalty was called. A slash on Fitzgerald put Maine on the man-advantage, but even then the Eagles were able to keep the Black Bears off the scoreboard and get some shot opportunities of their own, shorthanded.

Other than a brief fight between

Tim Doherty and Michael Karow with four minutes left, the rest of the game went smoothly for the Eagles. BC’s Graham McPhee tallied an emptynetter with two minutes to go to seal the deal.

The win is just the start of BC’s three-game series with Maine—one that closes out the year.

With two more matchups against the Black Bears at Conte Forum next week, there is no reason why the Eagles can’t finish out the season slate with four more points. Both Northeastern and Providence won their respective games as well Saturday night, meaning the Eagles will have to wait a bit longer to clinch their third-consecutive Hockey East regular season title. n

Bradley Smart / Heights Editor

Joseph Woll logged 33 saves in the victory, his most in a game in over two months.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Eagles Suffer Setback at Hands of Farrell, Notre Dame MBB vs. ND, from B1

Celine Lim / Heights Editor

Jerome Robinson (above) and Ky Bowman (below) combined for 52 points in the loss.

of the conference record. BC (16-11, 6-8) head coach Jim Christian called a timeout, but there was no slowing down Farrell—he was already in the zone.

“The [hoop] looked real big tonight,” the senior told reporters following the game. “My first shot felt really good.

When that happens, I feel really confident in my shot.”

With a perpetual green light, the trigger-happy guard continued to fire away, often catching the Eagles’ defense off guard. A few minutes after polishing off a self-made 8-0 run, he connected on back-to-back 3-pointers, handing the Irish a 24-7 lead. Shooting just under 40 percent over the course of the first 20 minutes of play, BC was practically helpless on both ends of the floor. Robinson, who scored 18 points in the opening half, was BC’s saving grace, preventing Notre Dame from running away with the victory before intermission.

Ky Bowman and Nik Popovic temporarily revived the sellout Conte Forum crowd with an and-one conversion and a posterizing dunk, respectively, only to see Farrell hush the building with another trey. Midway through the half, the Bridgewater, N.J. native was outscoring

the Eagles. He wasn’t stopping anytime soon either.

It took two more Farrell 3-pointers to persuade Christian to make a switch on defense. As he’s wont to do, the fourth-year coach tasked Steffon Mitchell with guarding the opponent’s best player, in this case Farrell. Yet even he, one of the better defenders in the ACC, had no answer for the 6-foot-1 guard. Farrell brought the ball up the court, crossed up Mitchell and drilled a shot from NBA range. Gibbs Jr. put the finishing touches on the half—one in which Notre Dame shot 18-of-27 from the field—with an acrobatic floater.

The Irish picked up right where they left off in the ensuing period, scoring the first seven points of the second frame in large part because of the inside-out play of Gibbs Jr. Later on, Martinas Geben and John Mooney got in on the fun, as Notre Dame extended its lead to 23, but all it took was a pair of successive Robinson and Popovic triples to light a fire under BC. Running up and down the floor, the Eagles turned the six-point swing into a 12-0 run, cutting their deficit to 12. After trading baskets, possession after possession, BC made its move.

With just under six minutes to

go, Robinson attacked the paint and laid in an off-balanced shot, bringing BC within nine. The firepower was there—the defense, however, was not.

Right on cue, Notre Dame responded with a triple, signaling the beginning of the end. Popovic tacked on a few free throws, Robinson hit a contested 3-pointer, and Christian called for the full-court press.

A little extra pressure couldn’t buy the Eagles a stop, though. Fittingly, Farrell netted the dagger, his 10th and final 3-pointer.

The 23-point defeat marks the first time that BC has dropped a game at home by more than five points this season. Now, the Eagles will have to do their dirty work away from Chestnut Hill. Needing at least two more regular season wins to keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive, BC will have to steal an ACC game on the road for just the second time in more than two and a half years.

“They know what’s at stake,” Christian said. “I think these guys understand what we’re trying to do, and they understand the road to get there. It’s all about confidence. We’ve gotta get some guys playing with more confidence right now.” n

LACROSSE

Arsenault, Apuzzo Guide Eagles to Landslide Victory at BU

By Marc Occhipinti For The Heights The latest Inside Lacrosse Poll saw Boston College lacrosse jump from No. 6 to No. 4 in the nation. The rise involved the Eagles leapfrogBoston College 18 ging over SyraBoston University 6 cuse and North Carolina to become the highest-ranked team in the ACC. With elevated status came added pressure and expectations for head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein’s crew. A matchup on Saturday with Commonwealth Ave. foe Boston University would be the team’s first test as one of the nation’s top-four teams.

BC passed with flying colors.

The Eagles secured an 18-6 victory over BU in a game that was much less competitive than last season’s contest— one that modeled that of a back-and-forth affair and left BC with a 13-11 win. Its offensive juggernauts put up thirty-six

shots, converting on exactly half of them.

The Eagles dominated ground ball and turnover battles, and their superb defense, which has been a pleasant surprise early-on, allowed just six goals and was 18-of-20 on clearances. BC resembled a group that was clicking on all cylinders, en route to its second-consecutive nonconference win.

BC (3-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) opened the game with a stellar offensive attack.

In the first two minutes, Elizabeth Miller and Sam Apuzzo found the back of the net to grab a quick 2-0 advantage. In the next few minutes, BU (0-1) threatened, but the Eagles defense held firm, and two big saves by Lauren Daly kept the Terriers scoreless.

After a whopping three minutes without scoring, the offensive onslaught resumed for the Eagles. BC piled on six goals in as many minutes to extend its lead to 8-0, silencing the upset-minded Terriers fans. Apuzzo found the back of

the cage twice during the run, recording her second-straight hat trick within the first 10 minutes of the contest. Dempsey Arsenault also tallied two scores, one of which came off a beautiful pass from Apuzzo. The team thrived with strong individual open play early on, as only two of the first eight goals were assisted.

The Terriers decided to make a goalie switch to Bianca Smith after starting netminder Christine Laible allowed six goals without recording a save. Smith came on to make four stops in the final 20 minutes of the first half. BU finally ended the shutout 15 minutes into the frame off of a rebound scoop and score from Kailey Conry.

After the fiery start, the Eagles’ offense petered down into a more balanced attack to close out the first half. BC took its time on the offensive end, running clock while still setting up strong scoring opportunities. Cara Urbank and Carly Bell added their names to the long list of scorers,

extending the Eagles’ lead to 10-1.

Arsenault recorded her third and fourth goals of the half off a pair of free-position attempts. BC didn’t take advantage of Terrier fouls early on, but it capitalized on those opportunities to close out the opening frame. A late BU tally sent the game into the break with a score of 12-2.

The Eagles continued to create scoring opportunities early in the second half, but Smith came up with save after save to thwart the BC offense as much as she could. Urbank ripped twine for her second of the day on a free-position shot, but BU’s Avery Donahoe responded with a goal.

The Terriers picked up the intensity in the second period, and the possession battle was much more balanced than that of the heavily tilted first half. In the first 15 minutes of the second half, BU matched the Eagles’ two goals with a pair of its own, keeping the BC lead at 10 in a 14-4 game.

Then Apuzzo—the heart and soul of

the Eagles’ offense—took over. The junior applied pressure that led to a BU own goal, then facilitated a pass to Tess Chandler for the 16th goal of the game. Apuzzo followed up her six-goal performance against Holy Cross with eight points on Saturday, and her 12 total goals place her tied for first atop the nationwide leaderboard.

BU refused to quit, scoring two more goals to make it four in the second frame, but BC always had a response. Apuzzo netted her fourth, while Arsenault cashed in on her third free-position attempt of the day, giving her five goals to lead all scorers.

With Saturday’s win, BC moved to 9-0 against its crosstown rivals during the Walker-Weinstein era. The Eagles still have a few months to live up to and improve upon their No. 4 ranking, but having already mowed down Holy Cross this season, it’s becoming pretty apparent that the Eagles are the best team in the state. n

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Three Different BC Skaters Light the Lamp in Win Over Maine WHOK vs. Maine, from B1 ing to deter BC’s defense. The Black Bears couldn’t connect on their advantage, and both teams headed into the locker room with BC leading.

The Eagles were met with an aggressive offensive in the beginning of the second, as the Black Bears wanted to tie the game up. Tereza Vanišoá took the puck down the ice towards Burt without any BC defenseman in her way. The sophomore from the Czech Republic wasn’t fast enough, however, and as she neared the crease the puck got away from her before she could take her shot. While the Black Bears were having a tough time trying to figure out the Eagles’ defense, BC was having no trouble getting the puck close to Porter.

After a few minutes of back and forth hockey, the Eagles turned to their stars to increase their lead. Cai-

trin Lonergan picked up a pass from Daryl Watts and closed in on Porter.

She was able to get through the defense and take a shot that slipped past the freshman goaltender. With the assist, Watts matched the Hockey East single-season record with 55 points, a record set by Kendall Coyne in the 2015-16 season.

A slashing call sent Little into the box for the second penalty of the afternoon called on the Eagles. Maine tried to apply pressure in the Eagles’ zone, but the defense was right there to intercept its passes and rob the Black Bears of scoring opportunities.

Maine couldn’t connect, and BC kept its two-goal lead. With just 22 seconds left in the second period, Molly Slowe was whistled for slashing, giving the Black Bears a player advantage to open up the third.

Despite 15 minutes to come up with a game plan, Maine couldn’t

connect on its third-straight power play, and the Eagles kept their lead.

Just minutes later, however, Kucera tallied the first and only goal for the Black Bears of the weekend. They tried to tie up the game, but Burt and the defense was too strong for Maine to connect. The one-goal lead was short lived, as Little made sure to solidify the Eagles’ win with her sixth goal of the season. Following Delaney Belinskas’ backhanded shot, Porter left the cage wide open for Little to tip the puck through the crease to gain the two point cushion back.

Maine pulled Porter in the last 30 seconds, but the extra player did nothing to gain an advantage and secure a late goal. The Eagles closed out their season with a successful sweep, giving them plenty of momentum as they head into the Hockey East tournament, still eyeing the NCAA tournament down the road. n

8-1

record versus ranked teams

30

saves by goaltender Katie Burt

6

number of players that recorded points

THE HEIGHTS

B4

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2018

WOMENS HOCKEY

Miano Scores Overtime Game-Winner To Clinch Beanpot Title

BY SHANNON KELLY Heights Senior Staff For most people, it’s the third time that’s the charm. But for Boston College women’s hockey, the third time just means continuing to do what Boston University 3 it does best. For Boston College 4 the third time in as many years, the Eagles (26-3-3, 17-2-3 Hockey East) hoisted the iconic Beanpot trophy, defeating Boston University, 4-3.

BC showed expertly executed systems and an on-the-ball performance from Katie Burt in the first period. Yet the Terriers (11-15-6, 6-11-5) fought back, pushing the game into overtime.

Just over two minutes into the game, freshman phenom Daryl Watts struck. BU’s Corinne Schroeder left the right side of the goal wide open, allowing Watts to sneak into the middle of the faceoff circles and launch a shot high into the back of the net.

Ten minutes later, Molly Slowe lit the lamp for just the second time all season, marking her second career goal. Caitrin Lonergan streaked down the boards and passed it along to Watts. Slowe waited at the left pipe, and when Watts found her, she slid the puck behind Schroeder in the crease.

“Kinger [head coach Katie Crowley] puts her out there for 10 seconds and she scores,” Burt said. “She was huge tonight. I think she might’ve been the difference-maker.”

Victoria Bach proved to be the biggest threat to the Eagles, though, attempting multiple times to score on the breakaway.

Burt, however, played her into the crease, and Bach couldn’t finish it off until the second period. Four minutes into the frame, Bach raced up the middle with only Caroline Ross in front of her. She targeted the top left corner of the net, and all Burt could do was look back at the puck.

Before the goal was finished being called, BU capitalized on the vulnerable Eagles, who were now down a player after Lonergan got caught for hooking. Bach passed the puck to Reagan Rust just inside the Eagles’ defensive zone. Rust launched a shot, which made it through traffic to end up inside the unblocked left side of the net.

Minutes later, Rebecca Leslie took the lead for the Terriers. Bach weaved up to the goal, then centered the puck to Leslie, who had a clear shot on the cage.

The Eagles experienced a similar defensive breakdown in the preliminary round of the Beanpot against Northeastern. BC was up by two goals exiting the first, but the

Huskies caught up and put two on their side.

Eventually, the Eagles managed to score and stay on top to ride out the game. Crowley mentioned that the Terriers were quick to transition the puck back into the Eagles’ defensive zone.

“We need to clean it up a little bit,” she said. “They have some very dangerous players, and so you gotta be a little more careful with the puck, so we’ll keep working on that.”

BC and BU struggled in a stalemate for the remainder of the second period and most of the third, despite a power-play opportunity for BC and two for BU. Watts broke the scoring drought with less than five minutes left in regulation, tying the Eagles and Terriers down for overtime.

Slowe stripped the puck from BU, and Watts scored yet again for her third point of the game.

With the game tied, BC and BU headed into overtime. The Eagles maintained control over the puck for the beginning of the period, but struggled after Ross was sent to the penalty box for roughing. BC came out of it unscathed, and the pressure of the moment inspired the Eagles to be even more aggressive in front of BU’s net. While Kenzie Kent skated up to the Terriers’ defensive

Trophy Season

NCAA

ANNA TIERNEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Eagles have checked off two of the four trophies they’re aiming for in 2017-18. zone, Abbey Stanley tripped her, resulting in a power play. Right as it was about to expire, Toni Ann Miano launched the puck above Schroeder’s stick side, ending the game.

Watts won MVP following the game, and Burt won the Bertagna Award for best

goalie of the tournament. The Lynn, Mass. native holds the Beanpot in a special place in her heart.

“We won the Beanpot, and all the other awards, ya know, they’re just add-ons,” Burt said. 

KAITLIN MEEKS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

There was plenty of cause for celebration after Toni Ann Miano’s game-winning, overtime goal against Boston University, one that locked up the Eagles third-consecutive Beanpot championship.

H 2 0 1 8 B E A N P OT

KAITLIN MEEKS /HEIGHTS EDITOR

A second-straight winless Beanpot was in the cards for men’s hockey—despite Logan Hutsko’s third-period hat trick—the Eagles conceded a game-winner in overtime, falling to Harvard, 5-4.

MENS HOCKEY

For Second Year in a Row, Eagles Finish Winless in Beanpot

BY BRADLEY SMART

Assoc. Sports Editor

When Logan Hutsko scored the equalizer with 1:36 left on the clock in regulation, capping off an incredible third-period hat trick for the Boston College 4 freshman forHarvard 5 ward, it seemed like Boston College men’s hockey would carry its momentum into overtime, finally shake off the disappointment from last year’s winless Beanpot, and escape Monday’s consolation game against Harvard with a win.

But its first non-conference win of the season simply wasn’t in the cards.

Crimson forward Seb Lloyd scored the overtime game-winner at the 2:43 mark, one-timing a Jake Horton pass past a sprawled out Eagles goaltender in Ryan Edquist, subjugating BC to a 5-4 loss and its second-straight winless Beanpot.

“We had some good zone play in overtime but just couldn’t capitalize one more time,” said BC head coach Jerry York.

“Harvard made an excellent play to win it

in overtime.”

It spoiled a noteworthy comeback effort, anchored by the superb play from Hutsko—who recorded the first hat trick for the Eagles in the Beanpot since 2000.

The freshman, fresh off earning Co-Hockey East Rookie of the Week honors, helped BC erase a two-goal deficit. He scored at even strength, on the power play and as an extra attacker, all coming in an 11-minute, 23-second span.

“Logan Hutsko is becoming an emerging player in the Hockey East,” York added. “To score three goals in the third period, that’s pretty impressive for anybody. He’s going to be a real key player for us going down the stretch.”

Last Monday against Northeastern in the first round of the Beanpot, the Eagles struggled with rebounds in front of goalie Joseph Woll. Even with Edquist starting in place of Woll on Monday night, nothing changed. They conceded two goals off caroms and allowed another two off wideopen looks in front of the net. The overtime game-winner also saw Lloyd find himself

with plenty of room to convert.

Eagles defenseman Kevin Lohan, playing in his first game since he suffered a jaw injury at a Boston-area restaurant, didn’t get off to the greatest of starts. The graduate student was called for cross-checking eight minutes into the first period, a penalty that would prove costly.

After Edquist denied a shot from Ty Pelton-Byce, the puck slipped through and slid across the crease. An opportunistic Lewis Zerter-Gossage wasted no time in capitalizing, tucking away the easy finish to give the Crimson the game’s first lead.

Much of the first period leaned Harvard’s way, as the stout back line for the Crimson came up big, time and time again. It locked down its own defensive zone, holding the Eagles to just five shots as a product of strong poke checks and a presence on the boards. Harvard also easily killed a penalty off at the end of the period, clearing the puck out of its own zone and down the length of the ice twice.

BC came out firing in the second, though. Much like they played against

Northeastern at times, the Eagles seized the momentum with a flurry of chances.

Hutsko almost scored, and the deflection by Harvard goaltender Cameron Gornet was just missed by David Cotton on the other side. Michael Karow had a 2-on-1 chance that sailed high, while Ron Greco had a shorthanded rush later in the period, but tripped himself up and crashed hard into the boards to no avail.

Eventually, the pressure paid off. Despite being a man down, Christopher Brown forced a turnover and did it all himself, skating down the right side and beating Gornet short side from the wing for the equalizer.

It didn’t hold up for long. The Crimson scored twice in a span of under three minutes in the third period. First, it was John Marino on a rebound in front of the net, as the rebound from Henry Bowlby’s shot found its way to the defenseman for his first goal of the season.

Next, Bowlby got a chance of his own.

After a penalty on BC’s Casey Fitzgerald for cross-checking, Bowlby found himself alone with the puck to Edquist’s left. He skated into

the crease and flipped it by him to make it a two-goal lead.

The Eagles answered, as Lohan redeemed himself in the third period, flinging a puck on net that Hutsko tracked down and knocked into the back of the cage.

However, the momentum wouldn’t stay for long. Harvard’s Mitchell Perrault and Jack Donato connected after finding space in front of the net. Donato finished it off with a deft poke between Edquist’s legs.

Enter Hutsko, again. He converted a rebound on a power play, then added a backhanded goal in front of the net once Edquist left the net. Fitzgerald knocked one off the post late, and it proved to be BC’s last real chance before the Crimson won it in overtime.

For the Eagles, a winless non-conference slate raises more questions than they have answers for. BC may have a chance to go far in the Hockey East tournament, but anything beyond that is up in the air. Hutsko emerging is a big gain for them, but once again, they came up short on one of the year’s biggest stages. 

CLASSIFIEDS

Thursday, January 17, 2014 Thursday, April 7, 2016

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2018

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THE HEIGHTS

B6

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2018

‘Black Panther’ Sets High Cultural Benchmark

BY JACK ANDERSON For The Heights

Lately, Marvel movies have lost their confidence. Last year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming needed to borrow Robert Downey Jr.’s star power by featuring Iron Man in both the movie and the promotional material. Thor: Ragnarok succeeded by being a parody of its previous two iterations. Marvel has sensed a declining interest and has attempted to revitalize itself by putting ironic distance between it and its superheroes.

The earnest optimism that permeated the early Marvel Cinematic Universe is going out of fashion. Perhaps the Marvel powers that be sensed the cultural importance of the first truly blockbuster superhero movie starring a black superhero and are returning to form. Black Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler, does not just deliver a good episode

of Marvel’s blockbuster-sized silver screen TV show—it crafts a genuinely great film with the courage to stand on its own with a compelling story, setting, main cast, and message.

Black Panther tells the story of T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) who, after his father’s death, becomes the Black Panther as well as the king of Wakanda, an advanced but secret nation in Sub-Saharan Africa. All seems well, but when a dangerous new enemy with a mysterious backstory challenges his ascension to the throne, T’Challa must confront the mistakes of his nation’s past to restore order.The first thing to praise is the depiction of Wakanda, crafted not with connections to other films (usually involving some glowing crystal an alien wants for some reason), but with some good old-fashioned world-building to create its absorbing depiction of Afrofuturism. Thanks to a neverending reserve

FILM

BLACK PANTHER RYAN COOGLER DISTRIBUTED BY MARVEL STUDIOS RELEASE FEB. 16, 2018 OUR RATING

MARVEL STUDIOS

of an extraterrestrial metal called vibranium, Wakanda is far and away the most technologically advanced nation on the planet. Its self-sufficiency translates to a peaceful yet secretive way of life that it maintains through the facade of poverty it displays to the rest of the world. It’s fascinating that in a shared cinematic world of galactic possibilities, this small nation in Africa is most worth spending time in.

This sense of place is populated by a fantastic ensemble cast of characters.

T’Challa breaks the Marvel mold of cocky, quipping protagonists by being a an earnest, soft-spoken man with desires and insecurities. Most of his progression is directed to becoming the King of Wakanda by balancing his desire to help other nations with his duty to protect his homeland. Despite how excellent the protagonist is, the ensemble cast helps this movie really shine. This is a film where the main character’s absence for a long stretch of time is barely felt. His royal guard Okoye (Danai Gurira), is a stand-out role. Her fierce, honorable, and funny character will garner as many (if not more) fans as Black Widow did in The Avengers. Letitia Wright’s performance as T’Challa’s sister Shuri also proves to be a star-making role. She injects life into a warm relationship with her brother in addition to standing out as an optimistic scientist with endless humor. Most importantly, Marvel has finally produced a genuinely great villain with Erik Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan. Jordan helps bring this intimidating, charismatic, and intelligent villain to life, but much of his character’s greatness

is right in the screenplay. Numerous other performances round out this great cast, with Andy Serkis playing a maniacally funny villain, Lupita Nyong’o playing T’Challa’s love interest and moral conscience, and Martin Freeman nailing an American accent.The overall direction of this film is fantastic as well. At only 31, Coogler continues to establish himself as a real directing talent, having previously helmed Fruitvale Station and Creed.

His young voice was already an immense talent and cultural herald before this movie, and he does not slow down here. The cinematography is visually stunning, despite a few overusages of CGI (particularly during the third act). Jokes don’t compromise dramatic moments like they normally do in other Marvel movies, but instead serve to further flesh out the characters and universe.

Hopefully this kind of direction sets the tone for the rest of the MCU. If not, Coogler still has a bright future ahead.

The only serious thing holding this movie back is its pacing. The first half of the movie mainly revolves around a MacGuffin that has little to do with the rest of the film. The film apparently did not have the confidence to delve straight into the most interesting conflict: T’Challa’s guilt versus Killmonger’s hatred.

When compared to the entirety of the film, these are small complaints. This movie succeeds in places Marvel movies usually struggle with, from character to setting to tone to the impact of its message. This film is not only a cultural touchstone, but a great film in its own right. 

Born Ruffians Grapple with Nostalgia on New Album

BY CANNON FEW Heights Staff Born Ruffians’ front man Luke Lalonde wrote the first track of their new album the day David Bowie died. Open and vulnerable, he said he picked up a guitar and the song just came. “Forget Me” opens up Uncle, Duke & The Chief with an acoustic strumming of an open C chord, as if saying “Welcome!,” that turns into a blissfully melancholic insight into nostalgic loss and how people experience death. Lalonde sings, “I’ll face the light with you,” through heavy reverb and you can feel that he means it.

The familiarity and camaraderie evoked in the first track extend to the rest of Born Ruffians’ fifth studio album, each song bringing you back to somewhere you’ve been before. The album boasts only nine tracks, but the earnestness and sincerity make it feel much longer. Uncle, Duke & The Chief ends the band’s three-year hiatus from new material and delivers as, in Lalonde’s words, their “strongest work to date.” The vintage, low-fi production from Richard Swift strips the album of its bells and whistles, and the resulting straightforward sound is perfect for the high-energy vocals of Lalonde. The best example of Swift’s important production comes from the album’s marquee single, “Miss You.” This gem recalls the harmonious call-and-answer pre-psychedelic Beatles sound, driven forward by

a rapid, down-strummed electric guitar progression. Lalonde sings, “I walk with my head held high / Telling myself that I’m an average guy / But all these people know I’m faking / And they see that I am aching,” presenting a mix of ego and emotional turmoil that jests at people’s own hubris to think their feelings are unique.

“Side Tracked” begins with an ascending bass line that transitions into some psychedelic guitar effects with tones of ’70s soul music. This chorus really shows off Lalonde’s vocal capabilities and gives this slower track a little more bite. “Fade to Black” sounds a lot like Vampire Weekend with its rollicking drumline. “Love Too Soon” features high tonal progressions and reverberated whistling that sounds like a sad version of Edward Sharpe. Lalonde said he wrote it as an attempt to capture the feeling of South American word “Mamihlapinatapai,” which translates roughly to “a look shared by two people, each wishing that the other will offer something that they both desire but are unwilling to suggest themselves.” At the dead center of the track list, “Love too Soon” opens up the album and lets it breathe. There are plenty of albums that fail horribly at getting the right organization of its songs, but Uncle, Duke & The Chief isn’t one of them.

To continue the trend of references, the ambient guitar riffs in “Spread so Thin” are sharply reminiscent of The Shins. Lalonde says “Spread so Thin” makes him think of “an

underwater forest at night in slow motion,” which is actually the perfect image for this song. This leads into “Tricky,” which picks up the album’s speed and brings back the energy of the beginning of the tracklist. The lyrics on this one don’t really get too in depth and leave it as the “jump-around” song of the bunch. “Ring that Bell” continues the energy, and it stands out from the rest of the album with its rhythmic switch between the chorus and verses. The album ends, fittingly, with “Working Together,” a simple progression that features a chorus singing, “We’re working together, love comes to whoever wants it / All good things are free, wave to nobody,”

in a John Lennon-sounding melody. The song fades out with the singalong chorus to close the album in a way that says, “Thanks for coming.”

Uncle, Duke & The Chief isn’t a masterpiece. It doesn’t do anything particularly revolutionary, nor does it concede to the temptation of stepping out of too many boundaries. It is, however, colored with a spectrum of emotions and introspection that give it its own sort of authenticity.

The gritty, buoyant sounds and the strong songwriting propel this album forward and mark the triumphant return of the indie Canadians. 

MUSIC

UNCLE, DUKE & THE CHIEF BORN RUFFIANS DISTRIBUTED BY YEP ROC RECORDS RELEASE FEB. 16, 2018 OUR RATING

YEP ROCK RECORDS

Netflix’s ‘Everything Sucks!’ Lives Up to Its Name

BY STEPHANIE LIU For The Heights

The new nostalgia-trap Netflix series named Everything Sucks! is not as severe as its name—but is at best alright. Filled with ’90s references meant to make audiences forget about the forgetful plotline, Everything Sucks! could be more interesting.

Set in Boring, Oregon (a trope that quickly gets overused), the show follows several characters’ relationships with themselves, each other, and the small, suburban town that they have mixed feelings about.

Cheerleaders and jocks have no place in this coming-of-age story, as the conflict centers around the drama club and the AV club, two equally fringe organizations

within the school. The drama club kids are older and have the angsty, rebellious edge characteristic of the ’90s, while the AV club kids are almost stereotypical, Big Bang Theory-style geeks.

Luke (Jahi Di’Allo Winston), the male protagonist, goes into his first year at Boring High School with his posse of nerd friends, worried about losing his virginity and joining the AV club. Kate (Peyton Kennedy), a sophomore in the AV club and the principal’s daughter, uncomfortably deals with Luke’s obvious attraction to her as she explores the potential that she might be lesbian. Although the main characters are likeable, the turn comes when Kate says yes to Luke’s request to go on a date. She does this in order to divert suspicions about her

TELEVISION

EVERYTHING SUCKS! SEBASTIAN LELIO PRODUCED BY NETFLIX RELEASE FEB. 16, 2018 OUR RATING

NETFLIX

own sexuality. The matter becomes even more complicated after Kate pulls the fire alarm to escape from kissing Luke, ruining the drama club’s set. She also fails to admit her lack of attraction toward him until much, much too far into the show, after which they still stay together.

Luke and Kate have virtually no romantic chemistry together (likely due to Kate’s uncertainty of her own sexual orientation) and Luke’s moves to woo her are laughable. His actions go beyond endearing teen awkwardness and verge on comical. Kate’s clear attraction to the very sexual Emaline (Sydney Sweeney) from the drama club just complicates the story with a cliché love triangle. The unrequited love in the story could have been better written, as the yearning feels less heart-tugging and more uncomfortable. The supporting characters seem little more than caricatures. Luke’s two friends are rather one-dimensional stereotypical nerds whose comedy and reference are too exaggerated and cringe-worthy. The drama club kids burst out into spontaneous theatrics in the cafeteria—these include Emaline pretending to slit her own throat with a corn dog in a sudden rendition of Romeo and Juliet. Such attempts at humor call into question whether the show is actually trying to be funny. To add to the discomfort, Luke and Kate’s parents bond over being single and eventually kindle a romance, which seems out of place and rarely ties into the plotline. Everything Sucks! is full of

the awkward silences and stolen glances of high school life. The teenagers’ angst and self-discovery are the focus, calling back the sometimes not-so-fond memories of ourselves in that awkward stage. The show, however, can overdo it with the discomfort.

The jokes rarely hit, and are often forced and out of place. Everything Sucks! does pay loving homage to the time of VCR tapes, Tori Amos, and Surge soft drinks.

The soundtrack is full of old classics such as Oasis and Radiohead. The sheer amount of references and the constant name-dropping seems heavy-handed at times—it feels like the show is trying too hard to be nostalgic.

Other shows, such as Stranger Things, do a much better job of merging the nostalgia with a strong storyline and characters to genuinely care about.

Everything Sucks! faces the same problems of many coming-of-age stories. Adding in old clichés such as a parent walking in on masturbation and drinking alcohol for the first time does not add to the plot. Instead, it seems like the show is working through a checklist. Much of the dialogue is forced, and the supporting characters do not have enough depth to actually be interesting. The show lacks soul—something to really awaken old nostalgia without name-dropping artists and films. Without that, Everything Sucks! feels like a combination and recap of many other (and better) coming-of-age stories. Everything does not really suck, but it certainly is not very good either.. 

SINGLE REVIEW AUSTIN HORD

‘SUGAR’ JUICE

There was no shortage of love songs released last week for Valentine’s Day, yet “Sugar” seemed to stand out among the crowd. Boston College’s very own Juice has been playing shows ever since it won the Battle of the Bands in 2014, and it released its new single “Sugar.” The song’s first 10 seconds or so is a beautiful, fullsounding a cappella iteration of the hook, “I cannot get, I cannot get by without you, honey / Mercy, mercy, I can’t get out.” It reverts to a cappella later in the song too, which works great stylistically and gives the song a broad dynamic range. The organ sound Juice uses is subtle yet cool, the rhythm electric guitar sits perfectly in the mix, and the guitar solo is melodic and fresh as it blends minor and major modes. As if that wasn’t enough, lead singer Ben Stevens really hits a home run in this release as he shows off his powerful voice and range.“Sugar” is a very stylistically diverse song, which contributes a lot to why it’s so intriguing. It’s able to transition smoothly from Southern, sweet-sounding rock-n-roll to hip-hop and back again. Juice is able to throw a rap verse in the middle of it without it feeling out of place one bit. “Sugar” simply emphasizes that Juice is able to hold its own and make a name for themselves as a legitimate and serious group. 

MUSIC VIDEO EMILY HIMES

‘GOD’S PLAN’ DRAKE

“The budget for this video was $996,631.90,” reads the screen in the beginning of Drake’s new music video, “God’s Plan.” “We gave it all away.”

A few weeks ago, Instagram and Twitter blew up because Drake made surprise appearances at Miami Senior High and the University of Miami.

When word got out that he was filming a music video from the top of UM’s student center, the entire city was ecstatic. When people thought it couldn’t get any better, Drake gave UM student Destiny James a $50,000 check to help pay for her education.

A huge crowd formed around UM’s Student Center that day. Drake was perched on the top story, donning a Miami Hurricanes sweatshirt, singing to a crowd of hundreds of students.

The same happened at Miami Senior High— Drake was standing in a bucket truck, high above the massive throng of students enthusiastically singing and dancing below.

The rap star also made a $25,000 donation to Miami Senior High to develop a better after-school program.

His string of donations doesn’t end here: Drake paid for every shopper’s groceries at a local supermarket, provided toys for children at Lotus House (he shut down Brickell City Centre to allow the women in this same shelter go shopping), and made monetary donations to the Miami Fire Department and the University of Miami Frost School of Music.

The video is pierced with commentary from the diverse locals of Miami—people from all different walks of life—about being optimistic in a seemingly dreary world. “God’s plan, I can’t do this on my own, no,” Drake sings in the new single. He truly lived these lyrics on his trip to Miami—it is especially impressive how much he gave back to a single city, one that’s not even his hometown, in a single day.

Drake rocked the worlds of countless individuals on Feb. 5 through his philanthropic actions as featured in his music video for “God’s Plan.”

There’s no doubt that he is setting an example for other musicians—the video is currently #1 on YouTube.

They’d be stupid not to follow in his footsteps. 

The Heights

Monday, February 19, 2018

B7

‘Art and the Earth’ Exhibits Natural Beauty Under The Covers

By Tristan St. Germain Heights Staff

What is humanity’s relationship to nature? That question has been probed by countless artists over the centuries, continuously redefining what it means to live on our planet Earth. In continuing this tradition, Boston College artists bring their own interpretations of nature to O’Neill Library’s first floor gallery, where students may observe the great outdoors through a variety of diverse and unique media.

The installation begins with Tessa Flaga’s Scotland Series, three landscape photographs depicting the Scottish highlands.

Catching an ephemeral snapshot of objects that carry with them the weight of history, Flaga, MCAS ’18, pronounces the vivid immediacy of seeing these age-old landmarks

in person. The first and third are cast in monochrome, rendering each crag and shadow with a jet-black potency that invites the eye to stare and wonder. Icy rivulets course across the layered mountain stacks, as the wind-swept grass directs the viewer’s attention to the looming monoliths at center. Grasping the multifaceted character of these natural monuments, Flaga includes a a green-meadowed pastoral whose airy and lightful personality is quite the opposite of its sibling photos.

Sydney Bernal, MCAS ’19, takes us a few steps back from this epic orchestra of nature as a supreme and eternal being with with a pair of photographs humorously titled “To avoid student loans” and “He went to Australia.” Playing on the tendency for youths in particular to feign an insipid romanticization of nature, Bernal transforms the great

Jake Evans / Heights staff

‘Art and the Earth’ contrasts the diverse beauty of nature and manmade creations.

outback to a barely visible backdrop that the photo’s subject, a bearded young man sporting a Australian slouch-hat, spies from his car window. The second piece depicts the same man operating on his car’s interior. He smiles blithely, the outback’s blurred desert fringes lingering vaguely behind him.

In contrast to the vast and farcical, Grace Cummings, MCAS ’18, transports us to a nature that is vacuous and vulnerable. In Lake Matilda, a boarded dock extends from a lake house into a white-swathed piece of cardboard separate from the contents of the primary canvass. The dock’s end is empty, without foundations, a precipice bordering on oblivion. Cummings uses a frail and ghostly palette to achieve a similar effect in her second piece Res, in which a treestudded shoreline bends around a solemn and seemingly frozen lake. Violent, frugal brushstrokes enforce the bare yet evocative impression of an ominous landscape just coming into consciousness.

While her perspective of nature is reserved and economical in a manner similar to Cummings’s, Claire Kantor, MCAS ’20, focuses on the childish character of untouched American landscapes. Paint Mines in Colorado juxtaposes the snow-white mountains of early Native American settlements with a blue sky that assumes a Crayola-like simplicity. Arches National Park likewise evokes the unmarred purity of the Western frontier, accentuating the orangered buttes and canyons, which reign over their shrub-filled desert with the authority of royal castles. Not demanding anything ex-

travagant from the viewer, these few photos relish in their elemental quality.

Who’s to say nature is everything but human? Without resorting to apocalypse scenarios or scare tactics, Reginald Anadio, MCAS ’21, depicts industrial smoke towers as unified with the untouched and mundane natural environment they inhabit. There appears to be no underlying conflict between human constructions and the world from which we pilfer the materials for building them. It is a calm and quiet meditation upon the connection between nature and artifice. Whereas Anadio paints with a lax melancholy, as if channeling an earth not scourged by the negatives of human influence, Nicole Maloof, MCAS ’19, invests her world with a fruitful dynamism that exudes life and energy. Splotched with sponge-like textures that sweep in and out a variety of vanishing points, her three-panelled work Schartner’s Farm presents the countryside as it fades from noon to evening. The viewer yearns for a dusk that is never truly nighttime, for the sweeping interconnectedness of an ecstatic cosmos—best represented by fluid brushstrokes reminiscent of Van Gogh’s timeless pastorals.

Placed on the usual cork board that surrounds the first floor gallery in O’Neill Library, the artworks give glimpses of the natural beauty of the world outside. All around the world, nature paints pictures more beautiful than anything man can create. Yet these artists—in a small room in Chestnut Hill—have brought a little of that majesty here. n

‘Eagle’s Eye’ Displays Student Perspectives

By Emily Himes Asst. Arts Editor

From the Eagle’s Eye, a rotating student photography exhibit on the fourth floor of Maloney Hall, accepts submissions based on a new theme every semester. The Spring 2018 exhibit’s theme is “gratitude,” and the submissions were all extraordinarily touching and personal. Many of the pieces included a note about the picture—who it was taken of or why it’s important. Students who have no background in photography are also encouraged to submit their pictures, with the hope that the exhibit will allow viewers to get a glimpse of everyday Boston College life.

The exhibit contained pieces with subjects ranging from nature, to family and friends, to volunteer cohorts.

It truly illustrated just how diverse gratitude can be.

In a stunningly simple picture submitted by Lori Niehaus, MCAS ’18, two monkeys gently hold on to each other while looking out into the green, leafy horizon. The tender serenity exemplified in the monkeys’ stance instantly puts the viewer at ease. The photograph illustrates how important it is to enjoy the simplicities of nature.

Another nature-themed highlight was a picture of BC in the fall submitted by Jennifer Arruda, CSON ’19. The photograph encapsulates the bright

reds and golds of the New England foliage. The message accompanying the photo was simple: “I love fall in New England,” Arruda wrote. “I captured this on my way to class a few weeks ago.”

It is an important reminder to open our eyes and absorb the beautiful world we live in. Students should put down their phones and look up to the sky and around them to fully take in BC’s stunning campus, or else the time will pass right before their eyes—even the brightest fall foliage only lasts but a few days.

A picture submitted by Kassandra Phillips, MCAS ’18, depicts the shadowed outline of a girl looking up at the brilliantly green and orange Northern Lights. The entire photograph is dark except for the glowing sky. The photograph was taken in Iceland—a country not many get the chance to travel to. In the caption, Phillips wrote that she was “so thankful to get the opportunity to see something so amazing.”

Many students submitted photography taken on service trips or while studying abroad. These pictures were touching, as they often involved students interacting with the youth of an underprivileged country. Others were centered on unique landscapes that can’t be replicated or found anywhere in the United States.

An impressive shot from abroad was

Sam Zhai / Heights staff

‘From the Eagle’s Eye,’ in Maloney Hall, showcases the talent of student photographers. submitted by Sadiq Ervin, LSOE ’19, and featured a young child standing over a large crowd of pigeons. Ervin’s caption read “[pigeons] are much more beautiful outside of street corners and train platforms,” illustrating the sheer beauty of nature when one takes the time to truly examine it. This candid photograph looks professional—the child’s shadow is cast perfectly in a space without pigeons and the large group of birds contrasts with the water in the background.

Some of the pieces were organized strategically throughout the reception area. For example, two pictures with a strikingly bright blue as the main color were positioned next to each other. The photograph on top, by Kerri Evans, SSW ’20, was a close-up of beautiful bluish-

purple flowers. Directly underneath it was a picture of a baby crawling in the grass by Ivelisse Mandato, MCAS ’20.

The baby had large, clear blue eyes and was wearing a blue shirt and socks. The different shades of blue in these two pictures complemented each other, and the placement of the two pieces almost presented them as one whole.

There are 14,125 different ways Boston College is being experienced at this very moment. From the Eagle’s Eye strives to exhibit these different personal journeys. By displaying work of students from different walks of life, in different years of schooling, with different levels of photography skills, From the Eagle’s Eye effectively illuminates BC through the unique lives of its students. n

‘New Voices’ Links Humanity Across Time, Space

By Jacob Schick Arts Editor

The audiences sitting in the Bonn Studio Theater this past weekend have been unique in a very important way.

These audiences—composed of the friends and family of the playwrights and actors, along with some curious students—were the first people to ever see a live performance of The Things We Do and Get It Together. Each show made its debut as part of the Boston College theatre department’s New Voices 2018, a program that presents original plays written by BC students.

Both plays were directed by Scott T. Cummings, a theatre department professor. The two plays—only about an hour each—were shown back-toback, with a brief intermission in between. While there are clearly striking differences between them, and their juxtaposition allows for the highlighting of the unique aspects of each. In the playbill, Cummings outlines this contrast.

“The plays could not be more different in subject and style,” Cummings wrotes. “But in their shared concern with basic aspects of how it is to be a person in the world, I think of them as friendly cousins.”

Both The Things We Do and Get It

Together are tied together by a common thread of humanity. Whether this humanity is played on in a futuristic hellscape, or on the top floor of a house party, this thread is what binds the actors and the audience together as people.

The Things We Do is the first play performed in the double feature, written by Taylor Badoyen, MCAS ’19. The play begins as two women, Sam and Rae—played by Christine Schmitt, MCAS ’20, and Andrea Wisniewski, MCAS ’18, respectively—walk around a white square floor, lit by bright white lights. Rae begins to read from a large book at the center of the space.

Suddenly, a panel upstage slides back and a man leaps onto the stage. He is introduced as Lex (Michael Mazzone, MCAS ’20).

As the play progresses, the audience learns that these three people have been trapped in this place for an unknown amount of time. They continue to try and escape, or attempt to please whatever being has placed them there, which they call “The Divine.” They read from the book in an attempt to win The Divine’s favor and be released from their hellish prison. Yet each time they read and do not do it correctly, they must “fall.” Each consecutive fall lets them return and start again, but

every third fall erases their memories.

They begin alternating, so that one person can pass on the knowledge they have gained to the others before it is lost again. The Things We Do is a very thought-provoking conceptual play.

This sort of sci-fi/fantasy concept is not one usually seen in Robsham Theater, but it comes as a breath of fresh air—albeit one that is initially hard to wrap your head around.

Each of the actors in The Things We Do provide a great performance.

As they consecutively remember and forget, their ability to play their current state of memory is remarkable. Throughout the play, Schmitt, Wisniewski, and Mazzone must rotate between learning and teaching the others, and these dramatic shifts in confidence and understanding feel smooth and well-transitioned.

Get It Together is the second play in New Voices. Written by Michael Quinn, MCAS ’19, it focuses on a conversation between two semi-inebriated college students at a house party. Harold and Mary—played by Tristan Horan, MCAS ’21, and Noelle Scarlett, MCAS ’18, respectively—have gone upstairs away from the rest of the party in order to hook up. Before they do, however, the two begin to simply talk. Simply talking is what most of

Get It Together is, and it’s fascinating.

Harold and Mary cover broad swathes of topics, from smoking pot, to the nature of love, to dramatic performance.

Yet it feels like a conversation that many of the younger members of the audience might have had the previous weekend.

The play is incredibly funny and intensely relatable, especially for college students watching. This makes sense, as it was written and performed by college students, but Get It Together is a play that everyone has seen unfold in real life.

Horan and Scarlett play their characters like they are slipping on a second skin. They present awkwardness, sexual tension, anger, remorse, and laughter as if the situation was really happening to them. The play unfolds so easily and smoothly that it would be surprising to learn that something similar to this hadn’t happened to Quinn, Horan, or Scarlett.

Both plays are clearly very different from each other. They engage with different concepts, they play the characters in different ways, and they take place in settings that could not be further apart. Yet the two are linked by the same thread of human nature—adaptable to circumstance though it may be. n

Jacob Schick

Here’s a quick glimpse into my life. A few nights ago, my roommates and I were sitting in the common room listening to music. As usual, it quickly devolved into everyone playing the dumbest songs imaginable. Among them were “Water” by Ugly God, “U Guessed It” by OG Maco, and “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers (until the sound of my screams drowned out that horrible song). But finally, the night hit a low point. One of the geniuses in control of the aux cord (it was actually a bluetooth speaker but whatever) decided to put on “Attention.” The Kidz Bop cover of “Attention.” While admittedly the song isn’t as bad as you think, it got me thinking about covers. I wanted to give a little spotlight to great songs and the great covers they have begot. A word of warning: A lot of these songs are not originally by the people that I credit them to. Many of the songs were written for other bands or artists, but each song was almost immediately made iconic by the group I list first.

“California Dreamin’” - The Mamas & The Papas I know this song was originally recorded by Barry McGuire, but The Mamas & The Papas sang backup on that recording, and they released what I consider to be the real original version of this song. This is a landmark song in its own right, and it has spawned dozens of covers by artists and bands from many different genres.

My two favorite covers are by Eddie Hazel and Lee Moses. Hazel is one of the best guitar players who has ever lived. He was a pioneer of funk music in the ’60s and ’70s, and was one of the earlier members of the George Clinton-led sister funk groups Parliament and Funkadelic. His version of “California Dreamin’” is very psychedelic, featuring long instrumentals, a groovy guitar that ties the lyrics together, and drawn-out and slow vocals by Hazel himself. Lee Moses’s version of “California Dreaming” is also a slowed-down version of the remarkably fast-paced The Mamas & The Papas song. Moses is a pioneer of his own in the soul genre. His influence on soul music is very present in his cover, as his deep and solemn voice drifts between the music. Each version is fantastic in its own way. Hazel uses the song as a medium for a “funkadelic” guitar and psychedelic vocals while Moses lets his soulful voice carry the song through.

“I Heard It Through The Grapevine” - Marvin Gaye Again, I am aware that Gladys Knight & The Pips were the original band to record this song, but Marvin Gaye turned this song into what it is. He kills it. The cover version I like is great, but Gaye’s original version is nigh untouchable.

Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version, however, is fantastic. CCR lengthens the track considerably, from 3:16 to 11:05.

Most of this is admittedly instrumental, but John Fogerty’s rough voice adds a lot to the song. Gaye’s version is groovy and has a clear Motown sound. CCR’s version feels rough and coarse, casting a sense of rough betrayal and anger as the singer understands his love is leaving him.

“Papa Was A Rolling Stone” - The Temptations Another sad song, “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” was originally written for and recorded by The Undisputed Truth (a fantastic band, check out “Smiling Faces Sometimes”). The Temptations, however, changed up the original single.

They lengthened it and made it into the soul classic it now is. Phil Collins’s version exploits the psychedelic nature of the music. The Temptations have a unique vocal ability between the members of the band that Collins doesn’t have a chance at replicating, but he’s no slouch himself.

What really shines on Collins’s version is the instrumental opening. The cover builds the song one instrument at a time, like The Temptations, but I can only describe his version as somehow crisper.

This certainly does not make the song better, but it is different in a very interesting and good way.

I have like a million more of these, so this might turn into a “Deep Tracks” kind of column series where I just talk about great cover songs and their originals. Just a heads up.

Jacob Schick is the arts editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

ARTS

B8

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2018

@BCHEIGHTSARTS

KATIE GENIRS / PHOTO EDITOR

BY KAYLIE RAMIREZ Assoc. Arts Editor Hookup culture, Jesuit values, abortion, and the afterlife are just a few issues touched upon in The Things We Do and Get It Together, two original student plays brought to life on stage by the Boston College theatre department as a part of New Voices. This is the first time the theatre department has staged New Voices in five years.

Written by Michael Quinn, MCAS ’19, Get It Together observes the intimate interaction between two reunited high school acquaintances at a raging party in southeastern Pennsylvania. In the privacy of a spare bedroom, before they hook up, the characters address their lives trajectories. The two characters discuss relationships, intimacy, and marijuana use, and they touch on the sensitive subject of abortion in the height of the play, when the female character creates a scenario involving a fictional pregnancy for the boy to respond to.

Meanwhile, Taylor Badoyen’s, MCAS ’19, existentialist play takes place in an alternate realm where three strangers work together to earn entrance to a “gate.”

Bayoden’s characters find themselves in what she refers to as “cycles,” where there is always one person who has forgotten everything about their identity and must rely on the other characters to rediscover it. While leaving much of the meaning of the play open to interpretation, Badoyen acknowledges the overtly religious imagery associated with a gate and intentionally invokes this image to spur consideration of the audience members’ own views.

At first glance, the two plays seem as though they could not be more different: Quinn’s exists in the material world and addresses the relationship between two human beings, while Badoyen’s focuses on the individual’s self-concept in an ambiguous setting—but the concepts behind Get It Together and The Things We Do both take root in BC culture.

“I think [BC] is a good place for an artist because there is a very clear dominant culture and I think the role of the artist is to challenge the popular culture or the mainstream,” Quinn said.

Beyond the hook-up culture, Quinn discussed how BC students tend to be closed off emotionally, especially males.

This affected the way Quinn approached writing the characters for his work.

Quinn endowed the play with a strong female voice in order to create an open dialogue and express his views, since he believes such a tactic resonates more with femininity.

Badoyen looked to the Catholic identity of BC to write The Things We Do. Badoyen’s personal spiritual journey served as the inspiration—her freshman year was characterized by a lack of knowledge about BC’s Jesuit identity. Born in the tropical paradise of Maui, Hawaii, and raised in Las Vegas, Nev. Badoyen believes the laid-back nature of the West coast caused her to put off seriously addressing her spirituality prior to attending BC. She made sure to leave the question of faith up to the audience, however, citing her friends of many faiths and philosophies as a guide for posing important questions of mortality. Although she admits there is a plethora of religious imagery in the piece, Badoyen made sure to leave room for each individual audience member to insert their own views into the play.

“I’m sure that there are people like me who don’t come into BC with the Jesuit mindest,” she said. “I think this play might spur a thought [for them].”

Quinn relates Get It Together to his spirituality and the religious traditions of BC as well. Quinn, who attended a Jesuit Catholic high school before coming to BC, discussed the disconnect between the Jesuit tradition of reflection and how people make their individual choices.

While some students may find it easy to reflect on academic and religious principles in class, they often fail to apply the same introspection to their private lives.

“I see a lot of people with ashes on their foreheads, but I don’t see a lot of people saying, ‘Is it good for me to go out and get [wasted] and have sex with this girl I don’t want to have sex with?’” Quinn said.

Aside from responding to the notorious BC bubble, the two artists pulled inspiration from their personal lives for their plays as well. Quinn described himself as a “delayed mirror” when writing

the play, reflecting all of the influences of his surroundings throughout his life.

For the piece, he incorporated lessons learned from a previous tumultuous relationship and the pressure he feels in the first few years of adulthood. Quinn’s characters address the crushing pressure of responsibility that accompanies the freedom of their newly acquired autonomy as 19-year-olds. Quinn also felt that This Is Our Youth, a Kenneth Lonergan play he was directing around the time he was writing Get It Together, largely inspired the topic of the play. Quinn responded to the unfamiliar Manhattan elite rich kids of This Is Our Youth by creating characters that were familiar to him. An admirer of Lonergan’s use of dialogue to guide his plays, Quinn replicated the use of italics to direct emphasis and interaction between characters—the production’s driving force.

Badoyen also called upon the work of her favorite playwright to garner inspiration for writing The Things We Do. She cites Samuel Beckett’s tragic comedies as influencing the dark, mysterious nature of her play. Although her play does not fall under the tragic comedy genre, Badoyen admires Beckett’s ability to make people think through his work. Beckett’s Waiting for Godot was the largest single work that inspired her style of writing, although she regards Hamlet as her favorite play—she chuckled while recalling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a comedy that examines the secondary characters’ reactions to the shocking events of the iconic play. An English major, Badoyen views poetry as the intersection between literature and theatre and believes that the many poems she has encountered throughout her academic career may have influenced The Things We Do as well.

Despite posing questions that may leave the audience with lasting thoughts to contemplate, the plays were written in a surprisingly short amount of time—just four days for Quinn and 24 hours for Badoyen. Badoyen described a long day locked in her bedroom, typing away for hours and only taking short breaks for food. The Things We Do was born of a “word splurge” where the playwright free-writes a few intriguing words to gain

momentum, a method Badoyen swears by when undertaking any creative writing project. Sure to stay focused, Badoyen shut out the outside world by turning off her Wi-Fi and turning on the “angsty” classical stylings of Polish composer Andre Tchaikowsky.

Quinn took refuge in a cozy cafe to write, watching as bodies bustled by on the Philadelphia streets in front of him. Because Get It Together takes place in Philly, Quinn felt it necessary to immerse himself in the familiarity of his native surroundings to write the play.

Although a huge fan of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia—Quinn attended the same high school as Rob McElhenney, who plays Mac on the popular show—Quinn believes television and movies often offer an inaccurate portrayal of his hometown.

Part of the reason he decided to set his play in Philadelphia was for the purpose of responding to the inaccuracy of these descriptions. He incorporates his personal experiences from growing up in the city with obscure regional references that may be inaccessible to some who haven’t explored the city. Much like Badoyen, Quinn spent more time thinking about the play than actually writing it, jotting down little epiphanies he would have while going about his day.

Writing and submitting the play to the theatre department was not the end of the journey for Quinn and Badoyen. The plays were submitted and reviewed just after Spring Break last year. Once selected, the playwrights began a grueling revision process that didn’t end until the week before curtain call for Badoyen.

The two student writers also played a role in casting and rehearsal. Both were present for the auditions of their plays.

Quinn looked for a genuine connection between actors when casting—something the audience would see and relate to.

Although the casting directors settled on a freshman boy and a senior girl for the roles, Quinn believes the age difference did not affect the duo’s ability to connect on stage. Badoyen was interested to see how each actor interpreted the script during auditions—there was hardly any context provided in the excerpt from the script that alluded to what the production would look

like on stage. Badoyen selected actors who filled in the gaps and made the characters their own.

Quinn and Badoyen were also available for questions during the rehearsal process.

Although they wanted the actors to make characters their own, they responded to questions about the scripts to provide clarification for the actors. Their visions are further reflected in the stage design and effects.

“I tried to design my play with my stage directions, which is inadvertently putting my hand in the design concept without actually infringing on the designer’s domain,” Badoyen said.

This resulted in a rather barren stage with hardly any set pieces for The Things We Do. Quinn, on the other hand, ensured the actors had props to make the play “hyperrealistic,” placing beer bottles in their hands and inserting a scene involving a fidgety chapstick application. Quinn also had very specific ideas about what the music for the play would be like, settling on “That Easy” by Yellow Days, a mellow indie jam, as the outro song.

Despite having a clear voice in their plays, both Badoyen and Quinn wanted to leave “holes” for the director, actors, and audience to fill in during the play.

Both writers sang the praises of Scott T. Cummings—a professor in the theatre department at BC and the director of both plays—and the casts. Quinn added, however, that he doesn’t believe in telling the audience how to view or interpret a play. Quinn thinks the very concept of a director’s note is strange—the script itself should be enough to explain a play.

Clearly, playwriting is a rather formidable process that many students may find daunting, but Quinn and Badoyen are not the average students. Their vibrant personalities shine through each detail of their plays and they used their voices to pose questions about important on campus topics by taking their own experiences and extrapolating them to a more universal mindset. “[Through playwriting], I can ask a question and I don’t have to have the answer, and sometimes asking the question gets the point through enough,” Quinn said. 

Feminine Sexuality Championed in ‘The Vagina Monologues’

BY KAYLIE RAMIREZ Assoc. Arts Editor Audience members packed into McGuinn 121 as the musical stylings of femmes fatales Taylor Swift and Beyoncé played in anticipation of V-Day and Boston College’s presentation of The Vagina Monologues. The event is an annual celebration of femininity, celebrating 16 years at BC and 20 since its conception

by New York playwright Eve Ensler.

Michaela Chipman, MCAS ’19, and Samuela Nematchoua, MCAS ’18, served as the empowering program’s co-directors this year.

Composed of 18 episodes in which different women discuss their relationships with their vaginas, the cast included many fresh faces from all corners of campus.

In the minutes leading up to the event, a slideshow offered details about the humorous ladies. When asked what three words she would use to describe her vagina, Kathryn Wood, MCAS ’18, responded with “Mercury in retrograde.” Caroline Merrit, MCAS ’18, would dress her vagina in a “turtleneck sweater to keep it warm while digging [a grave].”

INSIDE SCENE

The play opens with the narrator who introduces each skit, Eve, played by Layla Aboukhater, MCAS ’18, discussing the origins of the play—women from all walks of life were interviewed and asked to discuss what is often a taboo topic: the female sex organ. Claire Raab, LSOE ’18; Daniela Poulat, LSOE ’20; and Amanda Bolaños, MCAS ’18, delivered a hilarious introduction skit, endowing the vaginas of Boston College with clever monikers like “C—-te Forum,” “Cum Ave.,” and “Agora Portal.”

Nematchoua’s character discussed the stigma about female pubic hair in a monologue titled “Hair.” She described her cheating husband’s obsession with her shaving and how he scapegoats her unruly locks for causing him to seek other sources of satisfaction. Nematchoua’s character concludes that you cannot “pick the parts you want” to be with.

Holly -Anne Grell, MC A S ’21, played a character who also discussed her unfortunate experiences with body shaming. During a youthful sexual encounter years prior, a boy shamed her for the smell of her “flood,” or vaginal discharge. This scarring experience at a

‘From the Eagle’s Eye’

tender age caused the woman to reject all sexual encounters thereafter. The audience felt the tragedy in Grell’s voice when she described how her character later had to have a hysterectomy due to cancer, to which her doctor responded, “You lose it if you don’t use it.”

Not all of the women had negative experiences with men, however. Later in the night, an enthusiastic woman portrayed

by Kim Chook, MCAS ’18, described how she came to love her vagina through a sexual encounter with a man who “liked to look at it.” By witnessing the man’s wonder and amazement at her vagina, Chook’s character began to see her vagina in the same light.

Bolaños and Jada Sanchez, MCAS ’20, offered a “Vagina Happy Fact” and “Not-SoHappy Fact” between skits, educating the audience on sex-related matters. Bolaños informed the audience that the clitoris has more nerves than anything else in the human body, including the penis.

“Who needs a lighter when you’ve got a blow torch?” questioned Bolaños, eliciting thunderous laughter and cheers from the largely female audience.

On a heavier note, Sanchez’s unhappy

Maloney Hall featured photographic works by various BC students, chronicling their emotional and life journeys.....B7

fact discussed the serious genital mutilation that is forced upon young girls in parts of Africa to this day, resulting in short-term and long-term side effects, including early death.

Lesbian and transgender women were included in the dialogue of The Vagina Monologues as well. During “The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could,” Chipman’s southern belle character detailed how a beautiful older woman taught her to love her “coochie snorcher” again despite a youth of horrifying experiences with men, including rape. Chipman’s touching delivery captured the hearts of all, receiving a robust round of applause upon her exit.

“They Beat The Girl Out of My Boy,” touched upon the culture of violence against transgender women in America.

The characters played by Maren Wilson, LSOE ’18; Sarah Hunkins, MCAS ’19; and Mia Tortolani, CSOM ’18, described how being assigned a sex at birth is as random as being assigned adoptive parents, but they still rejected their longing for an alternative gender identity because of societal pressure. Miya Coleman, MCAS ’19, closed the scene with her character’s tear-jerking story about how transphobic

‘Art and the Earth’

The art exhibit featured the disparate beauty of the natural world and humanity’s place in it...............................................B7

individuals killed her boyfriend because “they didn’t want him falling in love with ambiguity.”

Cassie Pearson, MCAS ’20, delivered the most emotional performance of the night—she walked the audience through her character’s stomach-turning recollection of a how a seven-day rape by multiple men with various foreign objects, including a rifle, ruined her relationship with her vagina. Her vagina became a “river of poison and pus” that she no longer touched. This story resonates with far too many women globally and at home—prior to the monologue, Aboukhater informed the audience that over 200,000 women are raped in the United States every year.

Despite moments of seriousness and tragedy, light-hearted scenes provided comic relief for the audience. Kenyé Askew’s, MCAS ’18, “My Angry Vagina” received shouts of solidarity from audience members when her rambunctious character decried that tampons are unnecessarily uncomfortable. Julianna Gerold, MCAS ’21, encouraged the audience to scream “c—t” back at her after assigning favorable traits to each letter of the usually offensive word in “Reclaiming C—t.” 

‘Black Panther’.............................................. B6 ‘Uncle, Duke, & the Chief’................................. B6 ‘Everything Sucks!’.................................... B6