The Heights February 25, 2019

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Monday, February 25, 2019

Six feet under

B.E.A.T.S.

SPORTS

ARTS

Men’s hockey was swept in a two-game road series by Maine, extending its losing streak to six.

B.E.A.T.S., BC’s soul and R&B a cappella group, marches to the beat of its own beatboxing.

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Sorkin Charged With Civil Rights Violation New court docs reveal separate racist comments.

By Jack Goldman News Editor Jess rivilis / Heights Staff

Thair Brown Awarded MLK Scholarship Brown, MCAS ’20, will recieve up to $19,000 in tuition.

By Tonie Chase For The Heights Thair Brown, MCAS ’20, was announced as the winner of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship on Tuesday night.

The Boston College Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Committee presented the award at their 37th Annual Scholarship Ceremony themed “Still I Rise.” Staff, faculty,

and family of the finalists gathered in the Murray Function Room to commemorate King and laud the accomplishments of the scholarship finalists, who demonstrated their commitment to the black community through on- and off-campus involvement.

The four other finalists—Sydney Boyd, Nwamaka Nnaeto, recent Undergraduate Government of Boston College presidentelect Michael Osaghae, all MCAS ’20, and Omonosagiagbon Owens, CSOM ’20, will receive $3,000 tuition scholarships while Brown will receive up to $19,000 for senior year tuition and a $1,000 gift card to the bookstore.

Brown spoke of his journey to understanding his identity as a Jamaican-American male in the United States during a prerecorded video shown at the ceremony.

“As I tried my best to cling to Martin Luther King’s famous quote, which asserts that, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice,’ I found myself waning in these convictions, for there was never any justice to be found,” Brown said. “Indeed, Marcus Garvey could not blame me for this decline in black pride and identity.”

He credits his inception of a more bitter

See MLK Scholarship, A3

Report Details Global Engagement Plans Diversifying intl. recruiting, financial aid considered.

By Abby Hunt Asst. News Editor The Boston College Global Engagement Committee has released a report that details BC’s current strengths and weaknesses in the way the University engages with the world and outlines steps for it to increase its global presence and impact.

The Global Engagement Committee consists of faculty and administrators from across the University, as well as one graduate and one undergraduate student representative.

The committee conducted interviews with more than 250 members of the BC community, analyzed 22 nationally ranked U.S. universities, and examined global trends in higher education and elsewhere

in creating the report. The committee used its baseline research to examine the current state of BC’s global engagement using a model of seven dimensions of internationalization.

“Oftentimes people think global engagement is just student mobility—our students going abroad and international students coming here—but that’s one dimension of seven,” said Alberto Godenzi, the vice provost for Global Engagement and co-chair of the committee.

Some of the issues the committee found in its research were a lack of strategic partnerships with international institutions outside of study abroad programs, limited awareness and financial support for faculty members’ international activities, and a relatively small international student population that could be better diversified—45 percent of international students currently hail from China.

The report then lists strategies for BC to increase its global presence and impact, one of which is giving the campus

an international outlook and establishing global learning outcomes in BC academic programs.

Initiatives that would help achieve this goal, according to the report, include infusing more global content into core and major curricula; enhancing programs that have a global focus, such as international studies—which recently made five new hires; and ensuring the inclusion and participation of international students and scholars on campus.

“After [a] course has ended, we would like to see that the student has gained insights on a global level, that a student is … more capable to have a conversation on the global dimensions of a specific issue,” Godenzi said. “A student who studies English or history, the sciences, the social sciences—whatever it is—should come out [of BC] hopefully in a way that he or she is really globally aware.”

Another strategy outlined in the report

See Global Engagement, A3

Students, Admin Discuss Faculty Hires Limited resources for tenure-track positions pose challenge.

By Abby Hunt Asst. News Editor Students and administrators discussed faculty and academic affairs at the second Student-Administrator Forum of the semester on Wednesday. Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Joy Moore; Akua Sarr, vice provost for undergraduate affairs; Billy Soo, vice provost for faculties; and Amy Boesky, chair of the English department, talked about the faculty hiring process and answered questions from students.

In the past, on multiple occasions, students have requested that Boston College continue to concentrate on making more minority hires—specifically in the wake of the Silence is Still Violence protests and after Michael Sorkin, CSOM ’21, allegedly

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

vandalized Welch Hall with racist epithets.

Boesky opened by explaining that her department wishes it could hire people in many different areas—such as ethnic American literature or disability studies—but that it can be difficult to get hiring requests approved by the administration.

“Resources are limited, and we’re competing with all the other departments in the Morrissey College, but also across the University,” she said.

Soo said that the basis for determining which departments get to hire is the number of student credit hours they are drawing in, but the University also sometimes chooses to invest more resources in a program because it deems it is important for the school.

Soo mentioned that the number of faculty who are retiring or leaving is another important factor in the hiring process, since this determines how many free slots for new faculty members there are. But the process is complicated by timing: When departments

FEATURES: Porsha Olayiwola

Boston’s newest poet laureate is wellversed in social justice spoken word......... A8

are given approval to look for hires—which typically happens around April or May— they don’t actually know which faculty are going to be retiring or leaving at the end of the next year.

“Often times we get really stressed out as the year ends, and the number of departures and retirements are falling behind the number of approvals that we give,” Soo said.

The number of hires that are approved in a given year is usually two to three times lower than the number of requests put in, according to Soo. He said that even the number of hires that is approved is still usually higher than the number of faculty that they anticipate leaving.

Boesky said that typically around 200 people apply for each tenure-track job that opens up. Each applicant submits a resume, writing sample, teaching portfolio, and an extensive set of letters, and the reading committee works through the fall to get the

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Heights has opted to leave the name of the Boston College student who submitted a witness report and is mentioned as the person who Sorkin allegedly committed a civil rights violation against out of this article.

New public records obtained by The Heights confirm that Michael Sorkin, CSOM ’21, is being charged with a civil rights violation, also known as a hate crime, in Middlesex County. This charge comes after a Boston College Police Department investigation led to Sorkin’s arrest last December after he allegedly vandalized Welch Hall with racist epithets.

Sorkin is being charged with six counts of criminal activity in Middlesex County, bringing the total number of criminal counts he is facing in Middlesex and Suffolk County to nine. Sorkin’s dorm room, Welch Hall, is located in Middlesex County, and Walsh Hall—where he is alleged to have falsely activated a fire alarm and damaged property using a fire extinguisher—is located in Suffolk County.

The description of the civil rights violation alleges that Sorkin did “by force of threat or force, wilfully injure, intimidate

or interfere with, or oppress or threaten” a BC student—whose name The Heights has redacted.

Welch residents told BCPD the racist epithets were written between 3:45 a.m. and 4:05 a.m., according to Officer James Ruth’s report. A student “challenged” the person responsible for the vandalism—who is alleged to be Sorkin—after it was written, but the student then walked away, according to the report. The same student later went to BCPD and filed a statement of witness form with Detective Brian DeMayo.

In addition to the hate crime, Sorkin is also being charged with underage possession of liquor, assault and battery of a police officer, resisting arrest, tagging property, and destruction of property worth over $1,200 with malicious intent.

These newly-obtained reports contain police narratives that further recount racist comments Sorkin made while he was in the St. Elizabeth’s hospital emergency department.

Two officers, Ron McGill and Jorge Ortiz, were assigned to accompany Sorkin while he was transported under arrest to St. Elizabeth’s hospital. Ortiz’s report alleges that while he was in the room, Sorkin made a number of disturbing and unprompted comments.

“Sorkin asked me ‘What kind of gun do you have?’ and ‘Have you ever killed a Blackman [sic]?’ while making popping noises,” the report said. “Throughout the

See Sorkin Update, A3

BC Remains Resistant to Fossil Fuel Divestment Climate Justice BC looking to stay engaged on issue.

By Abby Hunt Asst. News Editor After a non-binding referendum on the Undergraduate of Government of Boston College elections ballot asking if BC should withhold investments from the fossil fuel industry received 2,005 votes “yes” and 374 “no’,” University Spokesman Jack Dunn said that BC will not comment on student elections, but the school’s stance on divestment has not changed.

“Boston College remains opposed to divestment from fossil fuel companies on the grounds that it is not a viable solution

See Student-Admin Forum, A3

FEATURES: Valerie Lewis-Mosley The BC ’79 alum, a Black Talent Program recruit, created the term AHANA................... A4

to the important issue of climate change,” Dunn said in an emailed statement to The Heights.

“The University’s position is that the most effective way to limit climate change is for Boston College, along with corporations, organizations and individuals, to take active steps to reduce energy consumption and enhance sustainability measures.”

For this reason, the University has been actively engaging in pursuits directed toward sustainability, with efforts ranging from extensive energy conservation programs supported by faculty, students, and administrators to the construction of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified buildings on campus, Dunn said in the statement.

See Divestment, A3

Jonathan ye ./ heights editor

Eagles Roll Past Harvard

Kenzie Kent and Sam Apuzzo combined for 17 points in a 17-6 win over the Crimson.

INDEX

NEWS.........................A2 METRO..................... A5 Vol. C, No. 6 © 2019, The Heights, Inc. MAGAZINE.................. A4 SPORTS.................... A9 www.bchelghts.com OPINIONS................... A6 ARTS..................... A16 69

The Heights

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things to do on campus this week

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Former Connecticut Governor and visiting BC Law professor Dan Malloy, BC ’77 and BC Law ’80, will be giving a lecture titled “A Governor’s Trained Eye in Guiding Public Policy” Mon. at 6 p.m. in Devlin 101.

Monday, February 25, 2019

BC Theatre and FACES are presenting a reading and discussion of Kirsten Greenidge’s play Baltimore for the Critical Conversations Series’ inaugural event Mon. at 6:30 p.m. on the Robsham Main Stage.

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Award-winning fiction writer, critic, essayist, and author of Her Body and Other Parties Carmen Maria Machado will be giving a lecture Wed. at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100 as part of the Lowell Humanities Series.

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NEWS FACES Calls for First ‘Race Against Racism’ BRIEFS

Kraft Flagged for Soliciting Sex

New England Patriots owner and Kraft Group CEO Robert Kraft has been charged with two counts of soliciting sex at the Orchids of Asia spa in Jupiter, Fla., according to The New York Times. Kraft is a Boston College trustee associate and a member of the Board of Governors of BC’s Chief Executives Club, an organization that hosts forums several times a year that features keynote speeches from top CEOs in their fields.

Several law enforcement agencies have been conducting an extensive investigation into prostitution and suspected human trafficking in South Florida, according to the Times. For six months, police have been using video surveillance to monitor the activity inside multiple day spas and massage parlors being used for prostitution.

The investigation resulted in nearly 200 people being charged, though only a small portion of them have led to arrests, according to the Times. Police have said that all of the sexual activities that have resulted in charges were videotaped.

Around two dozen customers have been arrested, several people have been accused of racketeering and money laundering, and at least one person has been charged with human trafficking. Kraft’s name is the most prominent one to emerge from the investigation, the Times said.

“We categorically deny that Mr. Kraft engaged in any illegal activity,” read a statement release by a spokesman for Kraft. “Because it is a judicial matter, we will not be commenting further.”

IS Hires Build On Poli. Sci. Strategy In December of 2017, the political science department announced that students majoring in the subject would be able to enroll in international studies courses as they worked toward their degree. The policy came about as students reported difficulty getting into classes, especially introductory levels, during course registration. As the number of political science majors continued to climb over the next year, the department began to increasingly rely on cross-registration as a solution.

The University has doubled down on this strategy, reflected in the five latest additions to the international studies faculty. As political science students look elsewhere to fulfill major requirements, a larger—and more academically diverse—international studies program offers a tempting option.

Hirees include Ali Kadivar, Stacie Kent, Mara Willard, Danial Lashkari, and Jonathan Kirshner. BC News lists their collective accomplishments, which include involvement with Iran’s pro-democracy movement, publishing an award-winning book on international finance and war, and working for conflict alleviation and recovery initiatives.

“The common goal is to have new faculty members truly flourish at BC, eventually earning tenure and integrating themselves into the life of the University, and of course, their home program and departments,” Dean of Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Gregory Kalscheur, S.J., said to BC News.

Four of the faculty hold joint tenured or tenure-track positions in other departments: Lashkari in economics, Kent in history, Kadivar in sociology, and Kirshner, in political science. The fifth, Willard, will serve only in the international studies program for the next three years. The African and African Diaspora Studies (AADS) program utilizes the same practice for its faculty, which is designed to expand faculty rosters without actually hiring new professors.

By Jack Miller Assoc. News Editor

As Boston College’s students, faculty, and administrators reacted to the racist vandalism in Welch Hall last December, cries for change spread across campus.

But when everybody returned to campus in January, the conversation was was not what it once was. That disconnect between rhetoric and action inspired Phil McHugh, CSOM ’19, to step forward.

Frustrated with the outward-facing nature of the responses, McHugh sought to force organizations on campus to take concrete steps.

“I realized a lot of clubs, clubs that I was a part of, were so focused on what they would say and crafting the right statement,” he said. “It was all about, ‘What are we going to say, we have to get it out, we’ve got to post it on social media.’

“And I applauded that, I thought that was great. But then I was kind of like okay, we put out these statements, but then organizations felt resolved of all responsibility for actually doing anything.”

Under that mindset, the onus to respond inevitably falls to a handful of clubs, according to McHugh. The Undergraduate Government of Boston College, for example, passed an extensive resolution that the administration ultimately eschewed from adopting.

His first instinct was to reach out to Reed Piercy, UGBC president and MCAS ’19. He had already found his platform for change: a social media campaign, modeled in the style of the ALS Ice Bucket challenge, which went viral in 2014 and was led, coincidentally, by another Eagle: Pete Frates, BC ’07.

Piercy told McHugh to turn to FACES, an anti-racism organization on campus.

“So [the racist vandalism] happened first semester, and now it all feels a little bit complacent and normalized at school again,” Alina Kim, FACES council member and LSEHD ’20, said.

On Feb. 13, FACES posted a short, simple video describing their new social media campaign: the #RaceAgainstRacism. Three FACES council members—Kim; Nthabi Kamala, CSOM ’20; and Cameron Kubera, LSEHD ’20—sit together, describing the parameters of McHugh’s challenge.

Each nominee has 72 hours to complete the challenge, which asks that they publicize two short-term and one longterm actionable step toward fighting anti-

blackness on campus. FACES vowed to hold an open council meeting to improve transparency, provide a resource guide to all faculty, and upgrade their website so as to increase their presence on campus.

“We seek to combat racism and its roots, oppression, and dehumanization through conversation, academic forums, and direct action,” Kim said in the video.

Over the next 11 days, the video gathered over 2,000 views and garnered responses from 40 different clubs, organizations, and even offices in the University.

FACES nominated UGBC and 4Boston, a community service group—McHugh is a council member for the organization. The most recent round of nominees included the Office of Residential Life, the Public Health Club, and Presenting Africa to You (PATU).

“He wanted to do this very public social media challenge, and we all wanted that challenge to be about actionable steps, not just about creating a discussion or conversation about anti-blackness and racism on campus,” Kim said.

By tying participation to public statements, McHugh wants to ensure accountability.

“FACES is going to be following up after Spring Break to say, ‘Okay, you guys made these commitments [and] said you’re going to do this, so where are the action steps? Is it happening? Where are you in the process?’” he said. “It’s not about some statement to make the organization look good, but really holding them accountable to do what they say they’re going to do.”

Neither McHugh nor Kim know exactly how the check-in process might play out, although McHugh envisioned a combination of FACES members reaching out in private while publicly encouraging organizations to provide updates on the benefits of their changes.

“I think organizations maybe, on the down low, were making the steps they have already published though the challenge,” Kim said.

Another consideration was feasibility—a concern that gave form to the particulars of the Race Against Racism.

The 72-hour window isn’t something Kim said he believed was “strenuous,” giving clubs enough of an opportunity to come up with intentional ideas rather than unrealistic or unimportant changes that could potentially be encouraged by a shorter turnaround.

Beyond turning discussion into ac-

Ikram Ali / Heights Editor

tion, the Race Against Racism also aims at shifting the language used to discuss incidents like last December’s.

“One thing that we’ve reviewed and been talking about a bit is we want this to be explicitly about racism and anti-blackness,” Kim said. “And we found that we tend to equate that maybe with diversity, inclusion, and multiculturalism. But I think that’s kind of the bare minimum in which we can talk about racism explicitly targeted against black students.”

Recalling his role in crafting a response for 4Boston, McHugh was struck by the responsibility large clubs have to incite change.

“We have this organization that’s one of the largest organizations on campus, we have this mission of social justice—promoting it both on campus and in the city at large—so what are we doing?” McHugh said. “This should be the type of issue that’s central to what our organization is.”

Carly Anderson, the campus minister in charge of 4Boston, echoed his sentiment.

“I think that the incidents of racial violence that have taken place on campus last year and this year and the response of FACES give us an opportunity to dig in a little deeper and take a closer look at what goals we have and what things we might want to brainstorm to continue reflecting on ways we can make all of our work more inclusive,” Anderson said.

In response to the challenge, 4Boston vowed to send its volunteers to existing campus programs on race, bias, and privilege—replacing a weekly small-group reflection. They also decided to create a Campus and Community Engagement Coordinator, who will be tasked with promoting diversity and inclusion in programming.

“This is the reshaping of a number of

positions and this is a new responsibility,” Anderson said. “They will basically be a liaison in the same way all our leaders are liaisons without community partners. So it’ll be their responsibility to schedule meetings, say, ‘How are things going, how can we help?’”

4Boston turned around to challenge another community service group: Appalachian Volunteers of Boston College.

Appa, as it’s more commonly known, sends BC students across the country to build and repair housing in needy areas.

“We started talking about things that had obviously been a part of the conversation from the first semester,” Diana Dingle, a member of Appa’s formation committee and CSON ’19, said. “We didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. These things of race and bias and privilege and sexuality had already been part of the conversation.”

One short-term step they implemented—which had already been in the works—was adding reflections on biases, privileges, and racism throughout the service trip schedule.

Like 4Boston, they also decided to send all participants to at least one culture club event per semester.

McHugh and FACES see potential for the Race Against Racism beyond Chestnut Hill, although no formal plans are in place.

“Alina, the first time we met, mentioned ‘We want to take this to other schools and see if they could make it happen,’” McHugh said. “So definitely that’s something we’re hoping to explore, especially as it gets to kind of bigger organizations at BC.” n EDITOR’S NOTE: The Heights has been challenged as a part of the #RaceAgainstRacism, and the paper’s response can be found on our social media accounts.

UHS Confirms Three Cases of Norovirus at BC

By Jack Miller Assoc. News Editor On Tuesday afternoon, Tom Nary, director of University Health Services (UHS), sent an email informing the Boston College community that three recent patients had been diagnosed with norovirus, a highly contagious gastrointestinal virus.

This update comes after both Nary—in an email to the BC community—and Beth Emery, director of BC Dining—in an email

to The Heights—denied reports of norovirus on campus, instead explaining that UHS had observed flu-like, gastrointestinal illnesses in “several dozen” students. Nary explicitly denied the rumors of a norovirus outbreak in his original public email.

In response, BC Dining had restricted access to self-serve options in dining halls, later returning them as individually packaged and wrapped items.

“As I wrote in an update Friday, several dozen of our 14,400 students reported to

University Health Services last week with symptoms related to gastrointestinal illness,” Nary said in the email sent out midday on Tuesday. “The students were treated and all have recovered. However, today Health Services learned that laboratory tests from three patients treated early last week revealed the presence of norovirus.”

Nary closed out his Tuesday email by reiterating that BC Dining and Housekeeping staff would continue to disinfect common touch-points around campus. He

also advised students to take precautions to prevent the spread of illness, such as washing their hands and cleaning frequently-touched surfaces.

In 2015, over 120 BC students, including 10 members of the men’s basketball team, were infected with norovirus. The outbreak was later linked to a Cleveland Circle Chipotle employee, though it did quickly spread throughout the student body. BC Dining and UHS sent out similar emails and engaged in similar procedures at that time. n

10:23 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at Flynn Sports Complex.

Friday, Feb. 22

POLICE BLOTTER: 2/20/19 – 2/22/19 Wednsday, Feb. 20

Thursday, Feb. 21

10:00 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a fire alarm activation at Alumni Stadium 11:04 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at Health Services.

7:13 a.m.- An officer filed a report regarding a traffic crash at Newton Lots.

7:40 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at Conte Circle.

10:25 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding an elevator entrapment at Stayer Hall.

2:49 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding an assault and battery at Ignacio Hall.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

CORRECTIONS What is your favorite fruit?

“Grapes because the seeds make it a challange.”

—Mari Berry, CSON ’22

“My favorite fruit is a pineapple because of the clean taste and the amount of food you get from it.”

— Cameron Wilson, CSON ’22

“I’d say my favorite food is a pear, it’s nice to look at and it’s smooth going down.”

— Derrick Marble, CSOM ’22 “My favorite food is a kiwi because of its fun name and exotic look.”

— Brian O’Flannagan, CSOM ’22

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

The Heights

Monday, February 25, 2019

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No Divestment Prospects Divestment, from A1

Celine Lim / Heights Editor

Vice Provosts Featured at Gathering Student-Admin Forum, from A1 group down to 12 finalists who get inperson interviews.

Usually three finalists are invited back for a campus visit, where they will meet with an undergraduate committee, graduate student committee, the dean of the school, and then give a job presentation, which students are welcome to attend.

“We take very seriously our undergraduate committees … and it goes both ways, because the faculty who are coming here really like meeting with students,” she said.

Boesky said that while she believes her department has done well with hiring the best candidates in the past, things still aren’t perfect.

“We’ve made strides in becoming a more diverse community in our department—we have a long way to go, and fortunately there’s time for that, and I think we’re committed to it,” she said.

“It’s a process, a work in progress.”

One student asked about the possibility of the return of a faculty senate, which would serve as an official way for faculty members to voice their concerns to the administration. In the 1960s and 70s, BC had a University Academic Senate, in which faculty and students debated and made decisions about academic affairs.

The re-implementation of the senate was part of the campaign platform of the current president and vice president-elect of the Undergraduate Government of BC, Michael Osaghae, MCAS ’20, and Tiffany Brooks, MCAS ’21.

Soo said that while he knew that some faculty members were strongly in favor of the faculty senate, in BC’s case, there are many University or schoolwide committees that fulfill the same role as a faculty senate, such as the Faculty Grievance committee, the Faculty Hearing Committee, and the Provost’s Advisory Council, which are all filled with faculty members exclusively.

Soo also brought up the fact that there is a faculty forum held every semester, where faculty members can have a conversation with the University provost and president—while there are 860 faculty members, the turnout usu-

ally reaches around 100 at most.

“And so the question that has been raised is, if we have a faculty senate, how sure are we that all the faculty are committed to it?” Soo said. “Often times, when you have a faculty senate, you’re deciding on certain very important issues, and if it’s being driven by a small subgroup that doesn’t represent the interests of the entire faculty, is that really a good thing, or is that a bad thing?”

Soo also noted that many faculty members don’t want to serve on the elected committees—there are often only just enough candidates to fill the positions.

“I know that there’s some groups of faculty who feel very strongly that we should have a faculty senate, and I understand the feeling … but I would hope that if we ever got to that point, that there’s truly at least a majority of the faculty who support it,” Soo said. “But my sense is that based on past participation rates, if you get 25 percent, that’s a big number.”

The last time a faculty senate was considered was in 2013. The administration and faculty clashed over what kind of power a prospective senate would hold, specifically in regard to how the Board of Trustees had to sign off on an election. The last time any election took place was in 2006—turnout was just under 50 percent, meaning less than 400 faculty members voted—but 88 percent of faculty members who voted were in favor of creating a senate.

The students and faculty then discussed the topics of racism, sexism, and other sensitivities in the classroom.

Boesky emphasized that in this area, it is not the responsibility of the students to educate faculty and administrators, but for the faculty and administrators to keep themselves educated.

Soo said that there are are many programs designed around teaching faculty ways to be more sensitive and culturally aware—such as workshops run by the Center for Teaching Excellence and Office for Institutional Diversity—but much of the problem lies in getting faculty to participate.

One student asked if the Cultural Competence Engagement Modules

(CCEM), which are currently an optional training program for faculty, could be made mandatory in order for faculty to receive tenure. Soo said that it would take a long time to expand the bandwidth of the program enough to accommodate everyone, and if it were to be required, it would mean demanding one more thing from faculty who are busy teaching and researching in order to get tenure.

“I’m not saying it’s not important, but I think we need to balance it out in terms of what more we can demand from our faculty,” he said.

Soo said he suspects that if the program were offered immediately to everyone, the faculty who need it the least would be the ones who would sign up. To have the maximum impact, he said, he would like to see the CCEM target the groups that need it the most instead.

One student in the Connell School of Nursing asked about the hiring process in the nursing school and the Carroll School of Management, which she said seem to have had slower progress in this area in comparison to the other colleges.

Soo said that usually there is a lack of candidates of color for positions in these schools, according to the deans, but that the nursing school has hired one faculty member of color who will start next year and has extended an offer to another.

“The challenge … is that faculty of color are in demand,” Soo said. “If it’s a question of a higher salary, we will stretch as much as we can.”

Soo said that people will ask why the school doesn’t just stop hiring any faculty unless they are a person of color, but he noted that just bringing faculty members of color isn’t enough—it’s also important that they stay.

Soo noted that the University has been tracking faculty retention rates: In 2009, the retention rate for faculty of color was half that of white faculty—in the last four years, it has been slightly higher.

“I think we’re really doing a much better job of attracting the faculty who will stay. ... We’re getting there—I’m cautiously optimistic,” Soo said. n

Committee Says BC’s Future Is Abroad Global Engagement, from A1 is for the University to form more strategic alliances—specifically with schools in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, as well as Catholic institutions and organizations. The report also suggests the creation of more “collaborative hubs” in key areas around the world, in addition to BC Ireland, starting with one in Latin America and one in East Asia.

The committee also proposes creating better practices to help faculty be successful in international settings, such as an online database of information on BC’s international endeavors and an increase in financial support for their international undertakings. It also proposes establishing a visiting fellows program that would bring in international faculty for a semester or year, as well as increasing the number of endowed professorships with a global academic focus.

Godenzi noted that as current technology makes it easier for the University to advertise open faculty positions to anyone in the world, BC has been able to hire more international faculty members.

“I think that makes us stronger in so many ways,” Godenzi said. “I mean, the ultimate goal of this internationalization is not internationalization itself, it is to make this University stronger in everything that we do. If you internationalize your faculty and your students, it has the same effect if you advance any diversity and inclusion goals. … You will have a richer experience for students, and you will have a strong faculty and research.”

The report also recommends increasing students’ access to international

learning opportunities through financial support for study abroad programs and strengthening the methods by which BC recruits international students.

Godenzi noted that BC can’t be everywhere, so he and his colleagues try to think about where it makes the most sense for BC to have a stronger presence.

“Right now the global brand of Boston College is not very well known.

We haven’t developed it really enough. … Wherever you go, you say ‘Harvard,’ [and] people immediately say, ‘Oh, of course, Harvard.’ That’s not happening with Boston College.”

One of the hurdles BC faces, according to Godenzi, is the word “college” in the name because, in some countries, people identif y the term with high school.

“Once we overcome these kind of obvious things, we have to make sure that that the faculty research, the student outreach that we do, the alumni outreach are somewhat strategically connected and consolidated,” he said.

While BC currently does not offer financial aid to undergraduate international students, the committee suggests beginning financial aid to a select group of them, specifically international students from Jesuit high schools, in order to attract more high-achieving students from around the world.

To ensure that these strategies in the report are executed, the committee proposes creating, funding, and staffing a unit that would centralize all of the University’s global engagement activities.

The unit would also act as an umbrella

for existing international offices, such as the Office of International Programs and the Office of International Students and Scholars, according to the committee.

The report’s conclusion offers a hypothetical look into what BC would like in 2028 should all the initiatives be successfully executed: Publications in international journals, internationally funded research projects, and contributions from international donors will have increased, it says. The international percentage of the student body will see increases as well: It would rise to about 10 percent and consist of students from a more balanced proportion of countries, according to the report.

The description of the hypothetical BC 2028 also includes higher seeds for BC in world university rankings, enhanced ties with global Catholic networks, and stronger global employability for graduates.

Increasing BC’s global presence and impact was part of the University’s Ever to Excel strategic plan, released in 2017.

While creating the document, committee members met with University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., and Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley several times to receive feedback and ensure their work aligned with the larger strategic plan, the report states.

They also held two town hall meetings to discuss their work with faculty, staff, alumni, and students.

“There’s really room for us to be engaged, and so I think going forward, this has great potential to transform the University into [a] globally committed Boston College,” Godenzi said. n

“These initiatives have yielded significant gains in energy savings and efficiency while reducing the University’s carbon footprint,” Dunn said in the statement. “They will remain an important component of Boston College’s ongoing planning efforts in the years to come.”

The referendum was sponsored by Climate Justice at BC (CJBC); Kate Canavan, a UGBC senator and MCAS ’21; and Kyle Rosenthal, a CJBC member and CSOM ’21.

“We intend to continue a dialogue with the administration on how to best address climate change, especially in terms of the endowment,” CJBC said in a statement to The Heights. “Divestment is a process that will require a certain level of transparency as a first step and we recognize that it is not an immediate action.”

CJBC said that, in addition to the administration, it hopes that the Board of Trustees will reach out in order to “at least have a dialogue and proactively engage on matters of transparency, investments, and climate action.”

“We hope to continue to engage with and educate students, alumni, faculty, and the entire Boston College community on how our endowment practices affect our

entire world, as well as our local community,” the statement said.

Michael Osaghae, MCAS ’20, and Tiffany Brooks, MCAS ’21, the presidentelect and executive vice president-elect of UGBC, respectively, also weighed in on the subject. The two said that climate change is an important and urgent issue that will require a multifaceted approach. While they recognized that the University has and will continue to pursue sustainability efforts, they also acknowledged the referendum result shows that more than 2,000 students are in favor of divestment.

“In line with UGBC’s mission of representing the student voice, we will advocate that the University listen and build off our student body’s call for divestment from the fossil fuel industry,” they said in a statement to The Heights. “In addition to acknowledging the stance of our student body, we will advocate for more spaces for conversation and action about the fossil fuel industry and our University’s role in addressing climate change.”

UGBC passed a resolution that called for divestment from the fossil fuel industry last April. Canavan told The Heights earlier this month that the referendum built on the foundation created by that resolution, the purpose of which was to demonstrate the student body’s support for divestment. n

Sorkin’s Actions Detailed Sorkin Update, from A1 night Sorkin started to give me the middle finger with his two hands and had a smile while doing it. It appeared to me that he was enjoying it.”

Ruth’s police report says that he was dispatched to Welch Hall after a report of graffiti was made to BCPD. He found “KILL N---S” written on the wall between rooms 101 to 109, “N---R” written on the first floor restroom mirror, “I HATE N---S” in multiple locations in the Welch basement, and “F—K N---S” in the basement’s elevator lobby and vending machine area.

DeMayo’s police report said that he also found the phrases “N---S ARE THE PLAGUE” and “I F—KING HATE N---S” written in Welch.

Ruth’s report said that “after an extensive investigation,” Sorkin was identified as a possible suspect in both this case and the case of property damage and false fire alarm activation in Walsh Hall. DeMayo viewed video evidence of what he believed to be Sorkin in a blue t-shirt holding a black marker, according to his report. He also noted that a judge granted a search warrant of Sorkin’s room, where DeMayo found two partially consumed containers of alcohol.

Also located was Sorkin’s jacket—police searched for the black marker, but it was not found.

DeMayo noticed a chemical substance on Sorkin’s pants and the black marker ink on his hands, which DeMayo’s report alleges is “consistent with the marker used” in the hate crime.

Nowhere in the reports is it noted that the actual marker was found.

To document the evidence, DeMayo attempted to photograph the scene. Sorkin then allegedly became uncooperative, “aggressively [reaching] up towards [DeMayo’s] face and camera.” DeMayo then attempted to restrain Sorkin with the help of Ruth, since Sorkin allegedly physically resisted.

DeMayo felt a pinch on his left middle finger, which was close to Sorkin’s mouth, and DeMayo noticed he was bleeding from the injury—alleging that “[Sorkin] had bitten me.”

DeMayo and Ruth handcuffed Sorkin before reading him a Miranda warning.

At that time, Sorkin did not respond when asked if he understood his rights or whether he had taken any drugs or medication.

As mentioned in previous police reports, Sorkin is then alleged to have made comments about being a “Jew hater” and that he “don’t not like Jews [sic].” Sorkin was not asked questions about the alleged crimes because the officers were concerned that he may have been on drugs, according to DeMayo’s report.

Ruth’s report alleged that Sorkin smelled “strongly” of alcohol and was “extremely strong” when resisting arrest.

At 7:40 a.m., the attending physician in the emergency department alerted the oncall psychiatrist to further evaluate Sorkin.

It was determined Sorkin then needed be evaluated again, which led to the first delay in his arraignment.

The two cases against Sorkin were delayed again to March 25 in both Suffolk and Middlesex County, last week. Sorkin remains barred from returning to campus, and is on a summary suspension from the University. n

Major Admins at MLK MLK Scholarship, from A1 understanding of race to his mother’s reaction concerning his workout tendencies. “‘Stop going to the gym because the bigger you get, the more likely it is that police will see you as a threat’” his mother said.

He also recalled a mantra from his father.

“My father had always told me … that ‘USA stands for ‘U Suffer Alone,’ but in the wake of [President] Donald Trump’s new claim on America, I started to entertain this motto.

“This was the America that greeted me—its welcoming committee adorning me a shroud of constant, floating anxiety, as they rolled out the red carpet stained with blood and tears of innocent black bodies, each with a mother, a father, and … [a] ripple effect of grief,” he said.

Brown notes that in the spring of his freshman year, King’s beliefs on the power of love allowed him to see acts of kindness bestowed by his roommates and floormates of the Multicultural Living Experience, where he recalls each of the finalists living as well. This was the same love and kindness BC students on the Jamaica Magis Service Trip showed to him while he lived in Jamaica and is the same love and kindness he reciprocates in his leadership positions on campus, which include Ambassador and Leader for the Jamaica Magis Service Trip, leader for Dedicated Individuals of

the People (DIOP), AHANA+ Leadership Council (ALC), and president of the Caribbean Culture Club (CCC).

At the end of the ceremony and presentations, University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., congratulated the finalists on their contributions toward social justice at BC and presented the award to Brown.

He spoke briefly about the importance of pursuing social justice for all people, concentrating on two words to consider when thinking about what King stood for: memory and mission.

Leahy noted that it’s vital to remember what King believed in, but making it a personal mission to keep King’s vision alive by working to create a society that recognizes the dignity of all people is just as important.

Vincent Rougeau, dean of Boston College Law, served as the keynote speaker.

He spoke to the same issues Brown mentioned.

“The United States is still in many ways a prisoner to its racist history,” he said. “The failure of our political and economic systems to address the need for a more profound commitment to social justice, which was the focus of King’s thinking and activism in the final years of his life, has now become urgent and obvious. Social justice, and its intricate relationship to racial justice, is the aspect of Dr. King’s legacy that lies in the heart of the work these students have been doing on campus and in the community.” n

The Heights

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things to do in Boston this week

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On Tuesday, Feb. 26, Trident Booksellers & Cafe is hosting a movie night screening of The Big Sick.

Attendance is free and all are invited. Doors open at 6:30, and the movie is expected to run until around 9 p.m. A special drink menu will be offered along with a full dinner menu.

Monday, February 25, 2019

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On Tuesday night, Feb. 26, at 7 p.m. the Boston Public Library is hosting the lecture, “The History of Scientific and Medical Racism in America.” Admission is free, and historian Udodriri R. Okwandu will lead discussion on the ways in which conceptions of race have contibuted to health disparities in America.

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On Wednesday, Feb. 27, the Museum of Fine Arts will open its newest exhibit, Frida Kahlo and Arte Popular. This will be the MFA’s first exhibition on Kahlo and will highlight her lasting influence on the arte popular movement and folk artists, both past and present.

Without Words, ‘When Angels Fall’ Captivates Audience

By Mary Wilke Asst. Metro Editor

For the entire 70 minutes of When Angels Fall, no words are uttered onstage other than the chorus of a nursery rhyme, “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do”; indistinct shouts into the horn of a gramophone; and “you,” repeated hesitantly several times over the course of about a minute.

Creator, director, and choreographer Raphaëlle Boitel doesn’t want words to be the focus of her play, so there are none that carry much significance.

When Angels Fall relies instead on the actors’ exaggerated and acrobatic movements to develop the characters; the original, tense soundtrack by Arthur Bison to propagate the mood; and the barren set to create the tone.

At the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, for only five days—until Feb. 24—When Angels Fall depicts humanity’s fragility and resilience in a hostile alternate reality. Living in a society under the jurisdiction of machines, a young girl (Emily Zuckerman) tries to break the silence she’s inherited from her subservient human species.

With support, protection, and anxiety radiating from the other human characters, the interrelated dynamics are difficult to pin down. Although the audience doesn’t know whether their relationships exist in a romantic, familial,

or communal sense, they inevitably simplify and evolve into the most necessary and humane connections based on hope and support.

Considering the physical intensity demanded from them, this cast had to be versatile—the actors’ histories include performances in everything from ballets and plays to circuses.

In this play, they were challenged to emit love to one another and fear to the machines through only their physical projections. With their actions, they represent humanity, one collective against the rest of the world.

Boitel’s work, she said, is a societal critique—it mirrors our relationships with technology while also responding to humanity’s role in combating climate change. She characterizes the dystopian work as a tragic comedy: The society inspired by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave necessitates comic relief, which her Chaplin-inspired slapstick provides.

Yet, no matter the humor that comes from their actions—aggressive hushes, as much of a reflex as a sneeze; therapeutic arm flapping; and bodies playing with other bodies like they’re dolls—an underlying unease persists.

At times, they perform tragic dances with unwavering control. Other instances, their bodies jerk frantically, thrashing in unnatural contortions that convey the technological dominance in this society.

Boitel, having studied at the Nation-

al School of Circus Arts under Annie Fratellini since the age of 6, drew on her own experience with theatrical and circus performance. The play contains movements deeply rooted in aerial, dance, contortion, and traditional theatre—or as Boitel calls it, “poetry with the body.”

No matter how poetic their physicality is, the lack of words causes an uncomfortable awareness of their significance.

Without that essential aspect of theatre, When Angels Fall emphasizes the other elements even more than a play usually would. Daunting light fixtures make up the set. Dramatic lighting conveys distorted realities.

But a lack of words also enables the play to be an international and cross-cultural experience.

It doesn’t need to be translated because our bodies’ movements are a universal language: As long as the actors can physically perform the intended movements, the meaning will always remain.

Take Alba Faivre’s role. Faivre, a recognized aerial artist who has worked with Boitel for about five years, performs an extended solo routine on a Chinese pole, which is mobile as it is suspended from the ceiling but detached from the ground.

Climbing and falling with grace and deliberate exertion, her movements monologize the themes of hope and persistence

PHOTO COURTESY OF SOPHIAN RIDEL

The performers in ‘When Angels Fall’ executed complex aerial, dance, and contortion moves.

amid adversity. The audience’s gasps and focus were indicative of their recognition of that.Since the stage lacks the language to capture the audience’s attention, the play requires conscientious observance from the crowd so that its plot is not lost.

The responsibility doesn’t just lie on the actors. Odds are, though, parts of it won’t translate.

To conceive an entirely alternate reality is a challenge—to transmit a complete delivery of it without any verbal interactions is virtually impossible.

“They [audience members] don’t

have to understand everything,” Boitel said. “But I think they will understand the most important of what we want to say.

And what we want to say, what the message of this show is, is hope. Even if it’s a difficult one.

“An angel… is the best representation of all the good aspects of the human being. What I’m really interested in is human beings and the best aspects of human nature, which tend to be buried more and more by this society—confusing society—sometimes.” n

The College Freedom Forum Hosts Civil Rights Activists

By Owen Fahy Assoc. Investigative Editor

The Human Rights Foundation hosted the College Freedom Forum—a speaker series that hopes to inform students about democracy and human rights around the world—on Wednesday night at Harvard University.

A series of civil rights activists and public dissidents shared their stories and answered audience questions about their own stories and the state of the world.

The audience, comprised of college students, academics, and professionals alike, filled the majority of a lecture hall at the Science Center on Harvard’s campus.

The audience was given opportunities to engage with the speakers through a Q&A session and informal conversation following the event.

Steven Pinker, named one of 100 most influential people in the world by TIME in 2004, opened the event and gave his thoughts on the state of democracy in the world today. Pinker warned that “this year’s fashion is tyranny and dictatorship” and that media believes that “countries that are democratic are too boring.”

His outlook on the current state of

global affairs was positive, however, as he said, “the world has never been more democratic than in the last decade.”

Leyla Hussein, who spoke after Pinker, served as the host and speaker for the event.

Following Hussein’s introduction, Portland Trail Blazers center and Turkish dissident Enes Kanter Skyped in to share his journey to statelessness as a result of his outspoken criticism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“I think the president views me as a threat because I am in the United States and I have a public platform and am able to speak clearly and loudly,” Kanter said.

He went on to detail how the Turkish government canceled his passport during a trip back from Indonesia, where he was hosting a basketball camp.

When he learned that the government was looking for him in Indonesia, he escaped, in the middle of the night, to Singapore.

When he flew to Romania, however, he was stopped by customs officials and told his passport had been canceled.

Kanter’s father had been incarcerated in Turkey for seven days and now he and Kanter’s sister cannot find work.

Kanter joked towards the end of his talk by saying “the only thing I terrorize is the basketball rim” but wants young people to “speak out against injustice.”

Following Kanter, Hussein rose once again and spoke about female genital mutilation (FGM), of which she is a survivor.

Hussein noted that three million African women and girls are at risk of FGM and 500,000 European women and girls are survivors of it.

Hussein talked about her activism work in Britain, where she has brought awareness to female rights. Hussein said that she believes FGM is a global issue and that “girls deserve safety, but girls also deserve justice.”

“It’s not an African issue, it’s a global issue,” Hussein said, “but one thing I have learned is that you need allies to do this kind of work.”

Next, Abdalaziz Alhambra spoke on his experience fighting ISIS. Alhambra described Raqqa as a “forgotten city” before the Syrian Revolution in March 2011. During the uprising, he joined other protestors and found that with “[his] phone video, he could do something.”

Alhambra started sharing video of the protests when Syrian state-run me-

dia would not cover the protests, which would lead to him being incarcerated three times and even jailed for his journalistic efforts.

When ISIS took control of Raqqa, Alhambra joined with his friends to get information into and out of Raqqa.

He founded Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) to publish articles, photos, and videos that came out of Raqqa so that the world could see what was actually going on.

RBSS also distributed a magazine within Raqqa that looked like an ISIS propaganda magazine, but was in fact an RBSS publication.

RBSS has expanded to training citizens and working to combat the ideology that ISIS perpetrated because Alhambra believes that the fight is not over just because ISIS has been defeated. “You can’t fight ideology with a gun,” Alhambra said.

Ti-Anna Wang then took the floor to tell the story of her father’s imprisonment. Wang’s father was jailed by the Chinese government on terrorism and espionage charges and thrown in jail after a one day trial where no evidence was presented.

Wang detailed her struggle to see her

father, Wang Bingzhang, and her recent unsuccessful attempt that saw her be denied entry to China after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.

Wang was pulled off a plane with her infant child and detained by Chinese authorities before being eventually granted return home.

She never got to see her father and has not seen him since he was imprisoned.

The last activist did not speak as much as his counterparts, instead he performed two songs on his violin while scenes of the civil war in Venezuela played behind him.

Wuilly Artega, who has never been to school and taught himself to play violin, played violin amid the conflicts in Venezuela in 2017.

He was eventually arrested, beaten, had his violin broken, and was ultimately tortured in prison. He is deaf in his right ear as a result of the torture.

Artega, with the help of the Human Rights Foundation, has been moved to New York where he now plays his violin in the subway.

“I became the wizard of my own life,” Artega said. n

Colette Wine Bistro Joins Cambridge to Serve French Eats

By Mary Wilke Asst. Metro Editor

MARY WILKIE/ HEIGHTS EDITOR

COLLEEN MARTIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

In 1900, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette broke into the French mainstream with her debut novel, Claudine at School (Claudine à L’école). Although she didn’t get a ton of credit for her work until 1931, Colette continued to write through the 1940s, becoming a French icon and a literary inspiration.

A century later, Colette is inspiring more than writers. In early February, Loic Le Garrec and Sandrine Rossi opened Colette Wine Bistro. Le Garrec is the owner of Petit Robert Bistro, and the two co-own Frenchie, both of which are well-reputed South End staples—the former for its traditional French cuisine and the latter for its trendy personality and photogenic environment.

The new establishment breaks free of the mold, veering off the beaten path as it leaves the posh South End for the more laid-back kind of trendy in Cambridge.

Still, Colette is a page from the same book: On the ground floor of the Porter Square Hotel, it retains a

particular classiness that seems to be required for French restaurants, donning metallic tables, plush furniture, floral wallpaper, and pops of pink.

Colette is spacious, extending into a deep dining area with small tables comfortably dispersed. Antique mirrors decorate the floral wallpaper, and delicate light fixtures illuminate the space inspired by an unusual combination of French antiquity and clean, floral trends that somehow comes together elegantly.

Furnished prettily with a variety of plush chairs and couches around small gold tables, the environment is cute but not particularly practical. The tables are tiny, probably the perfect size for a dainty tea service that the restaurant doesn’t offer, but too tiny for the oblong plates and bulky mugs and saucers.

But more important than how the food is served is what food is served.

Colette offers a lot of traditional French flavors—numerous dishes feature béchamel and hollandaise sauces, plenty of root vegetables, and an abundance of buttery breads for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and (on

weekends) brunch.

The lunch and dinner menu consists of raw seafood, cheese and charcuterie boards, hot and cold small plates, and larger entrees, while breakfast offers pastries, a few small plates, and a couple of egg-based dishes.

On the other hand, the brunch menu is a happy medium, carrying a lot of elements of both and more, including waffles and French toast, as well as sandwiches and benedicts. It isn’t a particularly lengthy menu, but it doesn’t need to be—there are more than enough enticing options for an indecisive customer to get caught in a dilemma.

Sweet menu items are basically desserts—caramel-covered ice cream, Nutella-stuffed French toast, and black and white pudding are just a few of the options for brunch—while the savory options are excessively rich, with fatty meats, heavy sauces, and potatoes fried every which way.

Colette offers a decadent menu that begs its customers to indulge. As Marie Antoinette said, “Let them eat cake,” Colette implores, “Let there be brunch!” n

The Heights

Monday, February 25, 2019

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Answering Antagonism with an Acronym: Valerie Lewis-Mosley and the Birth of AHANA

By Maeve Reilly Asst. Magazine Editor

I

n the summer of 1976, before starting her freshman year, Valerie Lewis-Mosley, BC ’79, was walking through the halls of the Connell School of Nursing (CSON) on a tour for incoming black nursing students. Mary Dineen, then-dean of the Nursing school, spoke to the students individually about coming to Boston College. Ambitious from a young age, Lewis-Mosley asked Dineen about the honors program, because it would allow her to minor in the humanities.

The dean looked at Lewis-Mosley and said, “‘You have some mighty lofty goals don’t you. You just need to be focusing on being able to keep a C to stay in the nursing program,’” recalled Lewis-Mosley.

“Then I said to her, clear as day, ‘My name is Valerie D. Lewis, I suggest that maybe you read my academic transcript from the high school I came from, and you will understand that a C is really not something that I aspire to,’” she said, chuckling.

Now retired from clinical practice at the New York Hospital-Weill Cornell University Medical Center, Lewis-Mosley came to Chestnut Hill from an all-girls Catholic high school, which inspired her tenacious disposition.

When it came time to apply to colleges, her academic adviser guided her toward BC for the Black Talent Program (BTP), a program designed to attract students of color, which grew into the Options Through Education (OTE). The support system and dynamic of the BTP as well as the ability the program gave her to form a community on campus were some of the main reasons why Lewis-Mosley chose BC. Dineen wasn’t the only person on campus who doubted the students of color in the nursing program. Lewis-Mosley explains that even fellow black students worried for her, as Nursing had a reputation for how the faculty within the department treated their black students.

“Upon [my] arrival at BC, even during the first few days, when the African-American students asked me about my major and I said I was in the [Connell] School of Nursing … the universal response was, you won’t be here next year,” she said.

While the doubt of others weighed on her shoulders, Lewis-Mosley knew she had come to BC’s campus to stay.

In high school, although she was the only person of color in a graduating class of 110, she never felt ostracized from the community. The all-girls school was founded on a desire to empower women, a standard that was upheld by the Dominican nuns that served as the girls’ educational and spiritual directors.

When Lewis-Mosley transitioned to BC her freshman year, she found herself in a vastly different environment—antagonistic is a common word in her vocabulary when she describes the administration. She describes being in classes where faculty members didn’t even try to hide their lack of enthusiasm about having her in their classroom.

“It showed me that there were peo-

ple who would try and be destructive in the goals I had made for myself,” she said.

Lewis-Mosley arrived on campus in 1976, which she described as a very hostile time for the entire city of Boston. Amid the busing issues, students on campus began to criticize apathy toward the civil rights movement. In April 1976, a lawyer was attacked and beaten with an American flag in front of the Massachusetts State House.

“That was the environment that we were exposed to once we come into Boston during that time,” Lewis-Mosley said. “It was not unusual for students to be antagonized just walking across campus, particularly by white male students. We were always conscious about our safety.”

Surrounded by racial turmoil, Lewis-Mosley leaned on the other black students both in and out of the nursing program. At the time, Fenwick Hall was a safe space for students of color on BC’s campus. A year before the dorm started housing white males, it housed the accepted freshman of BTP, provided a haven for Lewis-Mosley and her peers, and offered a space for a multitude of cultural activities.

Lewis-Mosley and her friends were also able to rely on a select few faculty members for support. But it was the BTP that she relied upon for the most support. When the University changed the name to Office of Minority Programs in 1977, Lewis-Mosley and her peers in the programs felt that BC had unfairly left them out of the decision.

“For many of the years, it was students who were studying and taking the weight of trying to recruit, mentor, monitor, advise other students at the time,” she said. “It was students on active enrollment who provided us our admission to Boston College and worked on our packages for financial aid.” he name was a part of a bigger decision that pushed to include all “minority” students in the program. Lewis-Mosley had no problem with expanding the program to include other minority students. It was the nomenclature of the name and how it made her and her peers feel that made Lewis-Mosley upset.

“The premise of how BC even developed the ‘minority’ education told me a lot about the University’s actions,” she said. “[It was] more concerned about the look of a situation than the social justice validity of a situation.”

Additionally, Lewis-Mosley found the word “minority” offensive. Lewis-Mosley thought there was nothing uplifting about the term, culturally or spiritually. The title “Black Talent Program,” she explained, was an empowering name for the students who were part of it. By the end of her sophomore year, she began boycotting the office, due to the impending name change.

Though she was still eager to mentor her fellow students, seeing the sign that said “minority” every time she walked into the office began to toy with her psyche.

Toward the end of her freshman year, in the spring of 1976, Lewis-Mosley remembers attending a meeting with the students in the

T

Office of Minority Programs to form a plan for the following year. Lewis-Mosley can still recall the mood among the upperclassmen in the room as if it were yesterday.

“There was anger,” she said. “This was something that was being ripped from them.”

She found a few seconds to voice her concerns, but as a freshman, Lewis-Mosley did not have much of a platform to speak. So she kept the idea for a name change in her small notepad, knowing she didn’t have a chance of commandeering the conversation. She and her peers went home that summer disappointed and disheartened, and it showed.

While Lewis-Mosley’s core foundation helped ground her personally during her four years of college, she saw many of her AHANA peers fading—not because they were academically incapable, but because of emotional distress. Being on a nearly all-white campus and not seeing representation in the faculty was enough to make black students leave. And even though Lewis-Mosley’s sturdy foundation helped her navigate her way through this time, she felt the effect of her fellow black students’ pain.

“No one seemed to ask, ‘Is there not something wrong with the students of color, but something systematically wrong with the program?’” she said.

Lewis-Mosley continued to distance herself from the office while still providing emotional and academic support to her fellow students until her senior year, when Donald Brown became the director of the Office of AHANA Student Programs. He heard about a black student on campus who was protesting the new name and brought Lewis-Mosley in for a meeting.

For the first time since the change, Le wis -Mosle y felt like some one was listening to her concerns, and she began to inform Brown what it would take for her to be involved in the office again. Not only was he considerate of her concerns, but he agreed with them, calling the word minority “pejorative.” Brown became a very helpful mentor and advocate for Lewis-Mosley during her senior year, and, to this day, he and Lewis-Mosley have remained friends.

“She was highly regarded among students … not only AHANA students,” Brown said about Lewis-Mosley. “She [is] a powerful woman, extremely bright, and very outgoing.”

Fueled by the inclusive initiative that Brown had, Lewis-Mosley joined forces with fellow student Alfred Feliciano, BC ’80, around the end of her junior year.

Despite not being a part of the Office of Minority Programs, he was very involved as far as events and friendships are concerned.

Additionally, he was highly active in the Undergraduate Government of Boston College, which for many years had been exclusionar y—in fact, UGBC had elected its first black president, Duane Deskins, BC ’76, a year before Lewis-Mosley arrived on campus.

The first semester of her senior year, Lewis-Mosley told Feliciano about her concerns. Around the start

COLLAGE ARCHIVES

This image is from the Oct. 1979 issue of Collage which debuted the phrase AHANA in an article titled “The AHANA Concept.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF VALERIE LEWIS-MOSLEY

Valerie Lewis-Mosley was a tireless advocate for students of color, coining the term AHANA. of their second semester, students gathered in response to the UGBC administration’s proposal to dismantle the minority student caucus and the women’s caucus.

With an exclusionar y student government and a protest-minded group of students, Lewis-Mosley had to make her voice heard. No longer a freshman who silently scribbled down ideas in a notepad, she slammed her hand on the table to get everyone’s attention and began to present her argument. By the end, the UGBC representatives agreed to sustain the two caucuses.

“We sat in great celebration that out of our own agency, we were able to initiate those caucuses to stay,” she said. ropelled by this victory, they turned to the name change.

For a while, Lewis-Mosley proposed the acronym AHA—African-American, Hispanic, and Asian.

Feliciano was strongly against the name AHA. He pointed out that the acronym was asking for people to take it and use it as a joke, due to it sounding like a laugh.

As they sat around the table, bouncing ideas off each other, it occured to Lewis-Mosley how many of the black students on campus had native ancestry. Since they had always referred to themselves as black, the native aspect of their identity slipped their minds. They realized that under the initial acronym, AHA, they hadn’t included Native Americans.

In a spur-of-the-moment decision, Lewis-Mosley wrote down AHANA on a sheet of paper. Everyone agreed that was it.

“At that moment, immediately, everyone began to drum a beat on the table, using the acronym,” she said.

“We did it in multiple rhythms that spoke to all the different cultures.”

While the idea began in 1976, the name AHANA finally came to fruition in 1979. With acronym still in play 40 years later, Lewis-Mosley says Feliciano was the engine that pushed AHANA to where it is now. He knew his work was far from over after they had come up with the name, and proceeded to present the new acronym to the Board of Trustees. In the end, they agreed that AHANA would replace the word “minority” in every office on campus. According to Lewis-Mosley, the whole University is indebted to the work he put in.

“You can have a dream, you can have an idea, but unless it gets an engine that pushes it, it stays a dream and not a reality,” Lewis-Mosley said.

“Alfred [was] the engine.”

During her four years at BC, Lewis-Mosley stood tall in the face of antagonism, took fellow black students under her wing, and found a caring community. While it was a tumultuous experience at time, Lewis-Mosley is grateful for every experience she had. She said it taught her how to be

P

an agent of change.

This desire to help has not been deterred, and neither has her drive to make BC the most inclusive it can be. Frequently returning to BC to give talks to the student body, Lewis-Mosley says she does this because she believes BC has not changed a whole lot since she lived on campus. When Lewis-Mosley heard about the racist incident that took place in Welch Hall last semester, she was disappointed, but not surprised.

Driven by her love for BC—but also her disappointment in the University—Lewis-Mosley called University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J. to voice her concern. In response to her concerns, Leahy said that BC has a zero-tolerance policy and reassured her that the Jesuit ideal for social justice was being upheld. But For Lewis-Mosley, BC’s zero-tolerance policy is a poor excuse that lets years of racial discrimination fall by the wayside.

“At the [center] of BC, they have never dealt with a core perception that they have not been inclusive and diverse in dismantling the issues they needed to dismantle on their campus,” she said. “At the core, there is no understanding of zero tolerance on this campus.”

While Lewis-Mosley has no problem calling out BC’s gaps in their zero-tolerance policy, she’s grateful for her four years on the Heights. She thinks BC has issues surrounding race that need to be addressed in a greater capacity on campus, but Lewis-Mosley does not regret her time here.

In 1979, she graduated, along with three other black students in the nursing program. Out of 11 other black students in the program, Lewis-Mosley and the three others were the only ones to graduate on track.

One of the three had to return the following spring the repeat some classes.

To Lewis-Mosley, her peers were fully capable of graduating on time. But they were hindered by antagonistic attitudes, a lack of diverse faculty, and having to fend for themselves, which slowed their drives.

She also believes she took advantage of her situation, learning how to prevent the pressure she was under from shaping her. Instead, it taught her how to become an agent of change.

Taking what she learned from the nursing program during her time as an undergraduate, Lewis-Mosley recognizes that it’s not just a part of her duty to help make change in the world of health, but in society as a whole. “[It] made me look at what was in front of me and not subject myself to what was an oppressive environment. It made me look from a model of being Christian, ‘How do I engage this environment and not become like the environment?’” she said. “It gave me the power to stand my ground in front of antagonism … and to speak my truth.” n

THE HEIGHTS

A6

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2019

EDITORIALS

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Student-Admin Forums Must Be Valued by Students, University After Welch Hall was vandalized with racist graffiti last semester, the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) and interim Vice President of Student Affairs Joy Moore hosted a community gathering for students to ask questions and voice concerns to administrators.

UGBC also announced that it would host a series of town halls in collaboration with Student Affairs in the spring to address racism on campus.

So far, in place of these town halls, UGBC and Student Affairs hosted student-administrator forums open to a smaller number of students this semester.

The University has put noticeably less effort into the meetings: The second forum on Wednesday featured less prominent administrators than the previous student-administrator meeting in January, and approximately 30 attended students, below the maximum attendance number of 50.

Wednesday marked the first true open student-administrator forum, with a drastic difference from the approximately 700 who attended the town hall in December. The Wednesday forum required RSVPs and was advertised through UGBC emails and on the organization’s Facebook page.

The drop in attendance is concerning given that just over two months had passed between the December gathering and the most recent forum.

If the BC community wants actual change, it must show up for events such as these gatherings. The students directly affected by racism on campus make up a minority of the student population. They should not comprise the majority of attendees

for each meeting. In order for there to be University-wide change, more members of the student population must also show up at events that address issues of diversity and inclusion and put effort into combatting racism.

Clubs and individual students were happy to post statements on social media in December. For a large portion of the BC community, that passion to challenge racism now seems mostly absent.

Students seem to have forgotten or moved on from the hate crime that occurred less than three months ago.

Students do not have to simply stand by and watch. Phil McHugh, CSOM ’19, created the #RaceAgainstRacism, which challenged groups on campus, including The Heights, to publicize two short-term and one long-term actionable step toward fighting anti-blackness on campus within 72 hours of being challenged.

Students are not the only group that must continue to take action.

The University is also culpable in the decrease in attendance and overall decline of interest in battling racism at BC. The first student-administrator gathering featured handpicked student leaders in attendance, leaving out any students who would have liked the opportunity to talk with BC’s Executive Vice President Michael Lochhead. The second gathering was open to the community, but advertising was limited and not broadcast by members of the administration—only through UGBC. BC’s scheduling of these events is also questionable. The decline in student involvement in meetings that students themselves asked for is

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-The Sound of Music, Oscar Winner 1965

worrying. The most recent studentadministrator forum was held at the peak of midterms season. While choosing between studying for a midterm worth a significant part of an overall grade and attending the discussion was not a fair choice for BC to ask students to make, it does not mean students don’t have a role in the issue.

If the BC community is going to show initiative in its quest to establish a more welcoming campus defined by opportunity for all rather than those in the majority, students need to be willing to take an hour out of their day to enter into dialogue with the administration about the issues plaguing them, even if it’s a busy time of year.

The second student-administrator forum, which was under its maximum capacity of 50 students, featured administrators such as Moore, Vice Provost for Faculties Billy Soo and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs Akua Sarr. These administrators, however, are less well known to the general student body than the administrators who attended the first. Moore, Executive Vice President Michael Lochhead, Dean of Students Tom Mogan, and Rev. Michael Davidson, S.J., director of the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center all were present at the first studentadministrator forum that had only student leaders in attendance.

The passion for change that was apparent in December has largely vanished. If students, faculty, and the University actually wish to combat racism, we must remember the event in December and be careful not to push the issue of racism aside.

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The Heights

Monday, February 25, 2019

A7

Our Music Reflects Who We Are 69

Vaughn Feighan

Los AnGeLES — It’s another day of sun!

Thank God some of your friends go to USC. Hike in the Hollywood Hills, tap dance with Ryan Gosling, eat your weight in açai bowls and avocado toast, and go to Disneyland!

Home — Someone to do your laundry, free food, and your pets. To be honest, you miss your parents, and maybe even your siblings. Good thing Spring Break is only a week, though, because that’s about as long as you can stand to be in the same house with your family.

Curaçao — Like Amsterdam, but make it island. With cute, Dutch-inspired candy-colore d buildings , beaches dusted with powdered sugar, and water the color of, well, Blue Curaçao—who wouldn’t want to spend their break here?

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Similar to the types of people we surround ourselves with, the genres of music we listen to change as we move through life. I see it as a type of natural homeostatic fluctuation. This paradox explains that human beings try to remain safe and comfortable while simultaneously exploring ways in which we can grow and mature so that we may find purpose. What we strive to achieve in our lifetime is a personalized ordeal that each individual must discern for themselves, however, we are all connected because that sense of fulfillment is something that we strive toward.

Personally, the convergence of music and identity is one in the same.

When I look objectively at myself, now and in the past, there is a clear theme that seems to arise. Above all else, music has been a prime indicator about what stage—by “stage” I mean a time period that encapsulates my emotional health as well as my physical health—I am in my life.

When I was entering college, I was an avid listener to radio stations, iTunes accounts, and Spotify playlists that reflected the top hits (or just popular music).

It was a way for me to stay upto-date with pop culture and social attitudes so that I could relate to classmates, friends, and siblings more easily. Homogeneity was perfect at that point in my life, because I knew there would be many other characteristics that would immediately differentiate me from the Boston College population. I wanted to know the lyrics during the crazy college parties and did not want to be the kid mistakenly humming along to a song which everybody else was singing—my ideal at that time was conformity.

Florida — A weird place all around.

Where else would Robert Kraft’s recent headlines have come from? The beaches are nice, and sure, their version of Disney is what childhood dreams are made of, but any news articles that come up out of the state should probably serve as ample deterrent.

Ohio — A state of rest stops. All the cities start with “C”. It’s also between two mediocre states. It borders the worst Great Lake. Their flag is not even in the shape of a rectangle. There is actually nothing to do here. Please do not go to Ohio.

“Music

became a type of alone time that I could have with other people.”

What do you think this music says about you? (Ask your friends if you really do not know.)

Why do you think this is the case?

What point of life are you in?

Things have changed drastically since the beginning of my college career, in ways that I had never thought they would, but I believe that if there was a graph that tracked my listening preference since Aug. 25, 2015, it would be practically flawless at mirroring my life’s path. Streaming apps like Spotify allow such freedom because with the click of a finger, you can search millions of songs and find one that represents who you want to be at that moment or a song that encapsulates an exact

emotion.

For the past two years, I’ve been listening to music that is almost completely devoid of language. A series of beats, drops, rhythms, and Siren-like voices constitute my music preference. Electronic Dance Music (EDM)—trance, house, dubstep, techno, trap, and hardstyle—is the genre of choice. I occasionally listen to the hits, jazz, classical, and even the oldies, but EDM is the symbolic reflection of my present orientation as well as an indicator of the type of environment that invigorates me.

I did not want to listen to any songs that required effort to interpret or learn. Music became a type of alone time that I could have with other people. I was able to continue to spend time with people in dorm rooms, raves, concerts, lounges because that is what a college student is supposed to do, but at the same time, EDM transported me away from the people around me.

The abrupt beat drops and extreme volume swings mirrored my life. The pulsating rhythms that underwrote the song were what I was trying to grasp in my own. The complete brain overload that I got from hard EDM like Excision, Borgore, Apashe, Seven Lions, Zomboy, Rickyxsan, Skrillex, and Figure forced me to stop thinking and to simply react. It is much easier to react than to think.

My affinity for EDM music remains today. Yet my identity has changed so I now see the same set of circumstances in a different light and use the music for different purposes.

For me, EDM helps me define my future. The very basis of music is invigorating, intense, unpredictable (to a certain extent), high-energy, but also simple, also it lacks a need to analyze what the artist or artists are singing. Again, I think this reflects where I am in my life but also where I want to go.

Over the past four years, certain priorities have disappeared, some have been added, some have changed, yet there are a few that have stayed the same—in a nutshell, that’s the complexity of identity.

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

Rebounding Is Healthy Dani Thomas

Montréal —Why would anyone spend their Spring Break somewhere colder than Boston? Why would you purposefully surround yourself with more snow and negative temperatures? For the vin?

Non. Not Boston College students. Bon voyage les buvant(e)s.

At this point in the column, I would ideally have some sort of really neat graphic that shows the breakdown of the most popular music listened to on BC’s campus over the past year. Unfortunately, I am not that tech-savvy, nor do I want to spend my next week compiling surveys that ask students to self-report the music they listen to. Instead, I will pose a series of questions to the reader: Do a self-assessment. What music did you listen to most last year?

Anyone who has ever been in a romantic relationship (that has ended) involving emotional and physical closeness has had a rebound. As I have mentioned in previous columns, Boston College’s hookup culture is filled with optimistic, fun-seeking freshmen who have just broken up with their high school sweetheart and are wanting that “college experience.” To be honest, though, there is plenty of rebound potential in every class.

Using the word “rebound” to describe someone is not a derogatory term. It is simply a phrase encompassing the meaning of a person who is the immediate “romantic” connection after your previous relationship has ended. Rebounds play different roles depending on the type of person that is in need of a rebound. There are a few types of mindsets one can have during rebound mode: Mindset #1: The “I just got out of a serious relationship” mindset.

Mindset #2: The “I miss being in a relationship” mindset.

Mindset #3: The “I asked to get serious and got rejected” mindset.

Mindset #4: The “I can do better than them, they didn’t deserve me anyways” mindset.

Mindset #5: The “It was a mutual dumping” mindset.

The majority of the time, “the rebound” serves the purpose of consistent, emotional suppression (or removal) with the fulfillment of physical needs or ecstasies. However,

sometimes you will see people jump from relationship to relationship (most of the time, this is the case with celebrities). The practice isn’t bad—it is actually pretty impressive. That said, people do this because they have had problems with trusting the wrong people, and being in a committed relationship has grown into a sort of a necessity for their ego and self-confidence. But as I said, it is impressive either way, it’s just not most people’s cup of tea.

Now, you may or may not know this, but you have been a rebound or have had a rebound in your lifetime of dating and hooking up. A question you might be asking is, “how would I not know?” I’ll tell you how—because no one will actually tell you that you’re a rebound. The objective of having a successful Friday night in college culture is to be able to have a “connection” with someone, that ends with both of you agreeing to have future brief meetings or never seeing each other again. No person is going to walk up to another person and say, “Hey, want to be the person that I respect until I get what I need, and if I’m not feeling it, I won’t ever see again?”, because that will not result in needs being fulfilled. It’s a cold world out there for rebounds. But hey, if you want to be that escape for someone, more power to you.

If you are shocked by this information about yourself or your use of others and you’re wondering if you have ever been in this situation, let me give you two examples: Example 1: Imagine you are a opportunity-pursuing freshman who has made it to your first spring semester.

Your fall semester was filled with the BC weekend culture. Toward the end of November, however, you started dating someone exclusively until the month of January. The relationship

ends right before Valentine’s week, but you both knew it was the right thing to accept the breakup. Now, the moment when you both agree that your academics need to take precedence in life—as good BC students stereotypically do—and part ways, YOU are now officially in “rebound mode.”

Example 2: Let’s say someone asks you out on a proper date: ice cream, coffee, dinner, whatever tickles your peach. The date is going well, you like this person’s personality, but in the back of your mind you want to know their end game. Here is a sly question to slip into the conversation to help figure out what their end game is: “What is your ideal date?” I know, it seems too simple, but their answer can tell you a lot if you read it correctly. If they say some silly joke like, “anywhere with you,” they’re in rebound mode.

If they say, “I’m not quite sure, how about you?” … rebound mode. If they start the sentence with, “well my ex loved …” REBOUND MODE. Now, if they answer genuinely, like they have actually thought about something nice, that is NOT rebound mode.

Regardless of what other people’s intentions are, make sure you know if you are in rebound mode. If someone doesn’t know they are in rebound mode, they can potentially dig their partner into a hole that they cannot get out of. Although I am not a behavioral researcher, I am a college student and I have seen plenty of rebound situations in my day. Just remember, rebounding is healthy and I encourage people to get into this mode after a committed relationship because it has a weird way of putting you back to where you need to be with yourself after heartbreak.

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

Promoting Resources Rachel Bheecham Dating can be absolutely intimidating, especially with the popularity of dating apps. I don’t actually know anyone without a Tinder or Bumble account. It can be scary to go on a date or meet up with someone that you have never met before with only a couple of pictures and a handful of exchanged messages to go on.

While these apps are great for meeting people and do lead to relationships, they are also notorious for being ‘hookup apps.’ Hookup culture is huge on college campuses, and Boston College is not an exception. And while BC isn’t perfect, it is working toward making hookup culture safer for the students.

BC is a double-edged sword with hookup culture, as it does not do much to provide safe sex options for students. Because it is a Catholic institution, BC does not provide contraceptives and important sexual health information. It does provide STI testing through University Health Services (UHS), which is a good initiative by the University. However, BC provides neither male nor female contraceptives for students, with the exception of those who have specific medical conditions. As a result, groups like Students for Sexual Health have taken it upon themselves to do so. Having access to condoms is a great start, but there is still a long way to go in terms of female contraceptives which could easily be distributed through UHS. On the other hand, BC has a lot of resources that provide students with the necessary resources needed for their individualized situations.

The University offers the Sexual Assault Network (SANet), which helps students who are victims of sexual assault, in addition to listing a number of important phone numbers printed on the back of our IDs. Resources, such as Eagle Escort and the blue lights scattered around campus, help students feel safer and protect themselves. The Boston College Police Department (BCPD) is also very helpful in times of need and distress.

Last semester, I took a self-defense class taught by BCPD and found it to be very informative. It is run through a program called Rape Aggression Defense and offers classes for both men and women. The classes aren’t the same, as the male classes focus more on how to read situations and not push boundaries and just be aware of your actions. I think this is a great class to have because it teaches men about their actions and the negative impact they can have.

I took the women-only class. I really liked it, as I found the instructors were very knowledgeable and easy to talk to, and there wasn’t any judgment regardless of your athletic ability. They taught different methods of how to protect yourself. They taught ways to escape various situations, like being on a bad date or just standing at a bus stop. They also explained the importance of your voice and being able to stand up for yourself. It was quite empowering, and given the opportunity, I would love to participate in that program or a similar one again.

I think that BC needs to do a better job at promoting these resources. I happened to learn about the self-defense classes by overhearing a conversation in the Maloney elevators and took initiative from there. But BC has so many resources that are just underutilized by students because they are not aware of them or just don’t know how to access them.

At the end of the day, hookup culture is huge on college campuses, and I think that BC should promote these resources so that they ensure the safety of its students. Whether it is a bad Tinder date or an encounter at a Mod party, there should never be a situation where a BC student feels unsafe, and I believe that raising awareness of these programs can help make students more comfortable on campus.

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

Any of the columnists for the Opinions section of The Heights can be reached at opinions@ Rachel Bheecham is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at bcheights.com. opinions@bcheights.com.

The Heights

A8

Monday, February 25, 2019

Community and Social Justice in Spoken Word: Introducing Boston’s Poet Laureate, Porsha Olayiwola combination of majors for her former students is creative writing and international studies, Olayiwola said. The interdisciplinary nature of the majors makes it possible for the students to look at the relationship between arts and activism.

Olayiwola has thought a lot about that connection herself. Art is activism, she said.

She explains on her website that she writes “infra-politically to tell the stories that are silenced, erased, or difficult to release from the tip of the tongue.”

Her performance of “Angry Black Woman” is a powerful one about the stereotype of the emotions of black women.

She starts quietly, stating a disclaimer that she is, in fact, very beautiful, sweet, polite, and even a little awkward.

“And I just had to say that, only because I’m a little tired of this stereotype about the angry black woman,” she said.

“Whoop-de-doo, right? Because as you can see, I am black and a woman, and I’m not angry at all.”

She’s not angry at all, she continues, because she’s “pissed the f—k off.” She’s mad about how the education system privileges the wealthy, about the rich gentrifying poor neighborhoods, about Barbie being the standard of beauty, and about how expensive fruits and vegetables are.

“I hate that I’ve only got three minutes to say this poem,” Olayiwola said, “and I got about 10 minutes worth of angry.”

The crowd cheered as Olayiwola’s voice rose. Since the poem was performed as spoken word instead of just being read from a page, Olayiwola was able to control the tempo and volume of the words. Her body language showed her taking on the persona of the “sweet” girl that she satirized, and then took on a powerful stance while she condemned the systems in America that work against black people.

Last fall, Olayiwola performed “Black and Ugly as Ever,” her one-person choreopoem about what it means to “move through reality as a queer, fat, darkskinned woman.” She used poetry and song to talk about self-love for a body that

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herself available to people in the city who want her to be present for workshops or performances. Her email is jam-packed, but other than that, Olayiwola is pretty much free to do what she’d like with the position.

She’s noticed that there are a lot of communities for poets to find each other in Boston, but many of them are very separate from each other—she said she’s found that some of them are isolated.

There’s the slam community, but then there are people who enjoy reading poetry rather than speaking it aloud. Olayiwola wants to find a way to pull all of the people together into one community where everyone in Boston can enjoy poetry together.

“I think Boston is on fire with writers, historically,” Olayiwola said.

There’s a beautiful lineage of authors here—Sylvia Plath, Louisa May Alcott, and Robert Frost are all from Boston— and the number of schools here have made the city rich with intellectual capital. People are constantly thinking and working, she said. That’s one of the reasons Olayiwola moved here in the first place. She’s secretly a huge history nerd, she said, and was fascinated by Boston.

She’s thought of doing a retreat of some sort for writers, or establishing artist housing, where people can live together in a building of other people who are creating art too.

Olayiwola said she wonders how her career might have progressed differently if someone had given her guidance about what residency program to join to work on her poetry, or what writers to read for inspiration. As the poet laureate, she wants to create direct access to the arts for people who might not have an outlet.

Olayiwola recalled the first time she had ever encountered slam poetry, at Louder Than a Bomb years ago.

“I felt like I had entered a secret world where there are tons of cool, awkward teenagers, all into literature, all writing something from the depths of their being,” Olayiwola said. n

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is a member of multiple marginalized groups. The hour-long performance is split between two parts, Olayiwola’s website said: one criticizes the standards set by today’s society, and the other praises those who defy them.

Although most of Olayiwola’s work is performed through spoken word, she doesn’t necessarily think there’s much of a difference between how she writes for voice and how she writes for a page.

Sometimes they can seem interchangeable, but there are some poems that she does not expect to know in her body, like she does for spoken word, Olayiwola said.

Either way, all of them begin on a piece of paper.

Something about Olayiwola and her work caught the eye of Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, BC ’09, as he searched for the next Boston poet laureate for the 2019 to 2023 term. Olayiwola submitted an application and was called in for an interview at Boston City Hall.

She walked into a room with a large oval table—20 chairs were around it, and only one was left empty. She took a seat and looked around. She recognized the faces of people she had been reading about in the newspaper for years. Olayiwola read a few poems, answered some questions, and then left. From there, it was just a waiting game.

A few weeks later, Olayiwola got an email saying that she needed to have one final interview with the mayor before he made his decision. So, she went down to City Hall. While she waited, she chatted with some people from the mayor’s arts council and drank coffee until she was called into Walsh’s office. They talked about Boston and some poems as Olayiwola waited for the questions to begin.

Instead, Walsh said, “Congratulations.”

Olayiwola said she was able to stay pretty calm, despite the surprise of winning arguably Boston’s biggest honor for a poet.

As the poet laureate, Olayiwola makes

oo yf se km ‘cau gettin’ ready to bre a hoop I’m man.W ad, about The angry Bl ack wo

Porsha Olayiwola quietly commands a room.

When she sits and sips her tea, you lean forward to make sure you don’t miss anything she says. When she glances out the window as she talks, you do too because you believe there’s probably something interesting out there, otherwise she wouldn’t look. She isn’t loud or imposing or attention-seeking, but you probably wouldn’t blame her if she was. She just seems like someone who knows what she wants to say, and you want to listen.

Maybe that’s why she was awarded the title of Individual World Poetry Slam Champion in 2014.

And National Poetry Slam Champion in 2015.

And the City of Boston’s poet laureate—a four-year position awarded by the mayor to the best advocate for poetry, language, and the arts—in 2019.

Olayiwola is a 30-year-old Jamaica Plain resident, born and raised in Chicago. When she first moved to Boston in 2010, she was working as an AmeriCorps VISTA member for the National Coalition for the Homeless. It was a volunteer position, so money was tight. She also didn’t know anyone in the city. So she would clean her apartment, have a glass of wine, write some poetry, and then clean a little more.

For about three years, Olayiwola performed at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge. She paid $5 to get in, read a poem or two or three, and then spent the rest of her week writing more poems to perform.

That was her cycle, until the mood of the Lizard Lounge began to change. She no longer felt that it was the welcoming environment that it was when she arrived.

It was homophobic, she said, and didn’t allow any room for growth. One night, everything blew up and she never went back.

Olayiwola didn’t want to give up on performing her work, so she founded her own poetry slam venue: The House Slam.

Held at the Haley House Bakery Cafe, The House Slam gives poets a chance to perform at an open mic or in the competitive poetry slam in addition to a featured poet.

Poets flocked to the Roxbury location on the second and fourth Friday of every month from 6:30 to 10:30 to perform. The slams are temporarily on hold while the Haley House is closed for renovations.

The House Slam said its “see you later” on Facebook to its members, explaining that while the Haley House takes time to “refocus and reimagine” before reopening later this year, The House Slam will do the same. Olayiwola certainly won’t be anything short of busy as her Slam goes on hiatus—the 30-year-old is also an MFA student at Emerson College studying poetry.

“I think it was just the next step in writing,” Olayiwola said of her decision to enroll in graduate school.

She found her start with poetry in junior high—her earliest memory of writing any poetry is when she ran for vice president of her class in seventh grade, and her election speech was a poem. In 11th grade, a mentor told Olayiwola that she should check out Louder Than a Bomb, the largest youth poetry slam in the world.

She was awed by the number of people who took the time to write from the depths of their hearts, practice it, and then perform it with complete strangers.

More than that, there was a room full of people sitting and listening quietly to complete strangers. Olayiwola knew then that it was something she needed to try out.

She started to write when she was senior and continued to do so when she was in college at the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana. But she didn’t have a community of writers in college—she didn’t find that until she moved to Boston.

Young Bostonians who want to be poets don’t have to look far to find a community: Massachusetts Literary Education and Performance (MassLEAP) is a non-profit, where Olayiwola is the artistic director, that works to give young people a platform to share their stories.

Through spoken word, the kids who go there are able to make their voices heard, specifically about social justice.

They form teams to compete in Louder Than a Bomb—the same poetry competition that introduced Olayiwola to spoken word. Olayiwola has worked at MassLEAP for six years, and each year she’s had a different team. Some of her favorite writers have come out of that

program, she said.

Her oldest former team members are now in their second year of college.

Olayiwola calls them her babies. Some of them, she said, sit on MassLEAP’s board now, so she’s been able to see them grow from young teenagers she coached to adult colleagues she works with. Olayiwola enjoys working with young poets because of their flexibility and perspective on the world—they work differently than adults do, she said.

“Young people are ready to focus, and like just amazing artists, like individual artists and knowing themselves and also just so eager,” Olayiwola said.

Michelle Garcia was on Olayiwola’s team for Louder Than a Bomb for two years, and last year they co-coached a group of aspiring poets.

“She’s been a coach and a friend and a mentor,” Garcia said of Olayiwola.

When Garcia found out that Olayiwola was going to be her coach, before they had ever met, she wasn’t sure what to expect. Olayiwola had already gone viral with “Angry Black Woman,” her winning final performance at the Individual World Poetry Slam (IWPS) competition in 2014.

Garcia soon found that her apprehension was entirely baseless. Olayiwola knows how to talk to people and make them feel that they are on the same level without any sort of power dynamic, Garcia said.

She’s given kids transportation money if they couldn’t afford it. Garcia believes that Olayiwola is so successful because she’s doing the work that she actually cares about.

She knows how to coach without interjecting her own voice or artistic opinion. Olayiwola will talk you through it, but she won’t give you the answer. She doesn’t say how to write—she gives her students the tools to figure that out for themselves. Olayiwola told them that they were coaching themselves and she was just there for support, Garcia said.

“Beforehand, she had been teaching me how to be a better writer, a better person, but this time she was really helping me grow as a facilitator and as a coach,” Garcia said. “She’s really good at affirming you and telling you when you’re doing the right thing and motivating you and making sure that you’re okay.”

That support has allowed some of her students to carry their poetry careers into college. A common

And m ad

Metro Editor

But p rete ‘Cause as y nd t ou c a

By Colleen Martin

PHOTO COURTESY OF PORSHA OLAYIWOLA

GRAPHIC BY EMERSON DEBASIO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

SPORTS

Monday, February 25, 2019

NO. 1 BOSTON COLLEGE 17

A9 @HeightsSports

HARVARD 6

TRY TO KEEP UP

A Step Backwards

69

Peter Kim

JONATHAN YE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

No. 1 BC has piled up 76 goals in four games, the latest a 17-goal drubbing of Harvard.

By Bradley Smart Sports Editor Boston College lacrosse attack Sam Apuz zo won the opening draw against Harvard, and just 26 seconds later, Kenzie Kent set up teammate Dempsey Arsenault for a game-opening goal. Eight minutes and four different goal scorers later, the Eagles had staked themselves to a 6-0 lead, one they would never come close to relinquishing.

For the No. 1 team in the nation, the goals sure do come easy.

Apuzzo had four goals and two assists, piling up nine draw controls—more than the Crimson’s entire team total of four—and Kent added a goal and six assists as BC routed Harvard, 17-6, on Saturday afternoon in Newton.

Arsenault and Taylor Walker both netted hat tricks for the Eagles (4-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast).

The clocked rolled throughout the second half, and the outcome was never in doubt. BC’s defensive effort was a step up from its game prior, where it allowed 14 goals to Massachusetts, as it caused seven turnovers and committed just 12 fouls.

Caroline Garrity accounted for half of the Crimson’s (1-1) scoring with three goals, including one with 34 seconds left, but a run of 20-plus games without a victory against a ranked opponent continued. Harvard outshot BC, 10-8, in the final 30 minutes, but entered the break trailing by 11 and gave up two goals

See LAX vs. Harvard, A10

JONATHAN YE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Kenzie Kent had a goal and six assists in another dominant win for the Eagles.

One month ago, Boston College women’s basketball appeared poised to take the next step in its rebuild. The Eagles had traveled down to Coral Gables to take on Miami, a team that, at the time, was receiving votes in the AP Poll—and has since climbed to No. 14. BC had the lead with under a minute to play, and had multiple opportunities to win the game.

Those chances went to waste, though, as Marnelle Garraud missed two 3-pointers with under 30 seconds to play that would have put the Eagles on top, and BC turned the ball over on a five-second violation down 75-73 with 11 seconds to play.

It was a crushing loss, but late-game execution issues aside, the rebuild clearly looked on track for the Eagles. Back then, BC was 13-7 and 2-5 in one of the toughest conferences in college basketball—this was a vast improvement from the 7-23 team of 2017-18, which had an average scoring margin of -10.5, and thus likely wouldn’t have been in the game against the Hurricanes at all.

Flash forward four weeks, however, and the wheels have completely fallen off the bus. Since the Miami defeat, BC has lost seven of its last eight games, and the one win was a double overtime thriller against Duke that required a herculean effort from Makayla Dickens. The Eagles have looked like an entirely different team from the one that BC fans saw at the beginning of the season, and it has become rapidly evident just how much further head coach Joanna Bernabei McNamee’s crew has to go in its rebuild.

Nowhere has this been more evident than on the defensive end of the court.

The Eagles have given up 90 points six times over the course of the past seven games after giving up more than 80 points just twice over the first 17 games of the campaign. They’ve registered a defensive rating of under 100 just once in the past 10 contests. Some notable games from that stretch? How about a 91-58 defeat to Clemson—a team that scores just 68.9 points per game, 10th best in the ACC—in which the Tigers shot a whopping 59 percent from the floor and made 9-of-12 shots from behind the arc. Another example is an 11-point loss to Virginia Tech, where BC took a 71-55 lead with 1:38 to

See Regression, A10

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Durr, No. 4 Louisville Hand Eagles Seventh Straight Loss

By Lukas McCourt Heights Staff Boston College women’s basketball has shown great signs of improvement under first-year head coach Joanna Bernabei-McBoston College 51 N a m e e . Th e Louisville 87 Eagles have already doubled their win total from last season and play an exciting up-tempo brand of basketball. In recent weeks,

however, it has been abundantly clear that BC still has a long way to go in order to compete with the top teams in the ACC. On Sunday afternoon, the Eagles dropped their seventh contest in a row, falling to No. 4 Louisville, 87-51.

Louisville (25-2, 12-2 Atlantic Coast) did not waste any time to assert its dominance. At the first media timeout, BC (14-14, 3-12) already trailed by 11 points. Arica Carter and

Sam Fuehring got off to great starts for the home team, eventually totaling 11 and nine points respectively. The Cardinals closed the opening quarter with a comfortable 23-11 lead, holding the Eagles to their second-lowest first quarter output. BC started the game cold, only shooting 27 percent from the field in the first 10 minutes of play.

Conversely, Louisville shot over 53 percent from the floor and dominated the Eagles on the boards.

BC found an offensive rhythm in the second quarter, hitting half of its field goal attempts. Unfortunately for the Eagles, they failed to stop Louisville on the other end of the court.

The Cardinals piled up 22 points in the quarter, working their way inside with ease. Louisville took advantage of a foul-happy BC side to the tune of 10-of-13 shooting at the charity stripe in the first half alone. At one point, Louisville opened a 22-point lead, but

the Eagles cut the deficit down to 18 at the half behind a Taylor Ortlepp 3-pointer and a five-point spurt from Milan Bolden-Morris off the bench.

The same pattern from the second quarter continued into the third.

Once again, both teams were hot from the field. This time, though, BC was undone by turnovers. The Eagles coughed up the ball seven times in

See WBB vs. Louisville, A11

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Reed’s Scoring Outburst Too Much for BC in Loss to Tigers

By Andy Backstrom Managing Editor With one minute and 46 seconds remaining in Boston College men’s basketball’s Saturday afternoon road game at ClemBoston College 66 s o n , Ti g e r s Clemson 76 guard Marcquise Reed stole the ball from Ky Bowman and made a beeline for the hoop, drawing a Chris Herren, Jr. foul in the process. It was just the icing on the cake for Reed, who outshined Bowman all day. The senior recorded a season-high

I N SI D E SPORTS

31 points on 11-of-21 shooting, as well as nine rebounds and four assists.

Meanwhile, Bowman—who didn’t score during the opening 16 minutes of regulation—finished with just 17 points and a sub-36 percent clip for the fourth consecutive game.

Behind Duke’s R.J. Barrett and Zion Williamson—two locks for the NBA Lottery—Bowman and Reed entered the weekend as the ACC’s next two highest scorers. With Saturday’s performance, Reed is now neck and neck with Bowman in the league scoring ranks, averaging 19.2 points per game.

More importantly, Clemson has created a bit more separation from BC in the league standings and is one step closer to securing a first round ACC Tournament bye.

With the game tied at 60 and under four and a half minutes to play, Reed orchestrated a 10-0 Tigers run—during which he scored nine points—and the Eagles, without a fouled-out Nik Popovic, never recovered, letting a second-half rally go to waste for the second time on the road in the last four days with a 76-66 defeat.

The loss isn’t on Bowman by any

means. As a whole, the Eagles’ (13-13, 4-10 Atlantic Coast) offense predictably collapsed after starting the half 6-of-9 from the floor, extending a 14-0 run from the end of the opening frame and reclaiming their first lead since the 13 and a half-minute mark. It wasn’t long before BC went without a bucket for four minutes and 28 seconds and, at one point, had missed 12 of its last 14 field goal attempts. It’s also important to note that Bowman—who rounded out the day 6-of-21 from the floor but 4-of-9 from deep—often had no space on the offensive end of the court, in part

SOFT: Eagles Split at Pirate Invitational WHOK: BC Ends Regular Season With Tie

because of the absence of Jordan Chatman, who was sidelined with the finger injury that he re-aggravated against North Carolina State.

Even so, head coach Jim Christian’s inconsistent scoring attack had no problems whatsoever in the opening stages of regulation. With Bowman struggling and Chatman out, BC’s frontcourt stepped up, accounting for 21 of the Eagles’ 29 first-half points—including their first 10 of the game. Led by Popovic and Jairus Hamilton, BC shot

See MBB vs. Clemson, A10

SPORTS IN SHORT..................................A10 BC used a complete game shutout from Susannah Anderson The Eagles enter the Hockey East Tournament as the No. WOMEN’S BASKETBALL..........................A11 to beat East Carolina, but then fell to James Madison........ A10 2 seed after playing to a draw with UNH.........................A12 MEN’S HOCKEY.......................................A12

The Heights

A10

Monday, February 25, 2019

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Despite Late-Game Surge, Eagles Drop Road Contest at Clemson MBB vs. Clemson, from A9 out of the blocks, making its first four field goal attempts of the day. Clemson (16-11, 6-8), however, didn’t have trouble keeping pace. In fact, the Tigers didn’t waste any time before getting the crowd involved with a pair of Elijah Thomas and Aamir Simms dunks.

Trailing by three, in the early going, Clemson stitched together a 9-1 run that culminated in a David Skara 3-pointer. A Popovic layup and Herren Jr. triple erased the Eagles’ five-point deficit, but the game wouldn’t be tied for long. Foreshadowing his late-game scoring spurt, Reed—the first player to reach double digits on Saturday—came into his own in the back half of the first period. Scoring inside and out, the senior logged 15 of his 17 first-half points in the final eight minutes and eight seconds

in the opening frame, including 10 straight to break the 16-16 tie.

Reed was at the forefront of Clemson’s transition offense, which—when all was said and done—scored 20 points off BC’s 13 turnovers. Whether it was Bowman, Herren Jr., or Jared Hamilton, no one seemed to have an answer for Reed.

Fortunately for BC, Bowman stopped the bleeding, at the time a 12-4 run, with his first bucket of the game: a step-back 3pointer from the top of the arc. The Eagles closed out the half on a high note, sinking two straight jumpers, the second being a buzzer-beating, off-balance field goal from Steffon Mitchell.

Two of BC’s most potent scorers, Popovic and Bowman, carried over the momentum to the second period of play.

Popovic jumpstarted the second half with a putback and a layup before Bowman

dialed up a pair of 3-pointers in the span of one minutes and 10 seconds. Coupled with BC’s strong first-half finish, its 10-0 run to begin the second period created a 14-point swing, one that gifted Christian and Co. with a 39-33 lead. Much like the Eagles’ 15-0 second-half run at N.C. State, the surge came and went with too much time left on the clock.

Soon enough, Clemson started to make up lost ground, and BC’s leverage dissipated—quickly. Scoring six of the game’s next eight points, the Tigers clawed their way back within two points of BC. Then, Bowman and Shelton Mitchell traded 3pointers, signifying the beginning of what turned into something of a back-and-forth affair. Once again, the Eagles’ frontcourt flourished when it mattered most.

Popovic kissed a turnaround hookshot off the glass, Johncarlos Reyes—who tal-

lied six points and three rebounds in just nine minutes of play—got a shot to go, and Steffon Mitchell’s impressive shooting day continued at the line with a pair of free throws. It was Jairus Hamilton who stole the spotlight, though.

Just when it looked like BC was about to fold, facing an eight-point deficit with under seven minutes left, the ESPN 100 recruit—a Charlotte, N.C. native that left Littlejohn Coliseum with a season-high 17 points—took the game into his own hands. Redeeming himself for a turnover that resulted in a fastbreak layup on the Eagles’ previous possession, Hamilton drained his first 3-pointer of the day.

Then, a minute and 40 seconds later, he added another, upping his scoring total to 16 and cutting BC’s deficit to two. His brother, Jared, proceeded to tie the game at 60 points apiece, setting the stage for

another close finish.

Well, that’s what many expected it to be. In reality, it was more of the Marcquise Reed show. Aside from a few Bowman layups in garbage time, the Eagles’ offense looked out of sorts down the stretch, particularly after Popovic picked up his fifth personal with just over three minutes remaining. After all, the 6-foot-11 center is both a scoring presence and a facilitator, one that can space the floor for guards like Bowman, Hamilton, and Herren Jr. Fittingly, Clemson closed the game with Reed on the break—only this time, he didn’t score, but instead passed the ball ahead to Clyde Trapp, who promptly threw down an emphatic one-handed dunk.

Now, that’s a finish—something the Eagles, who have now lost second-half leads in six ACC games this season, can’t seem to do. n

LACROSSE

Kent, Apuzzo Lift No. 1 BC to Comfortable Victory Over Harvard LAX vs. Harvard, from A9 in the first 10 minutes.

The Eagles needed just eight minutes to reach the six-goal mark, and Kent had her hand in three of them. After setting up Arsenault, the redshirt senior connected with Cara Urbank and freshman Maggie Casey. The latter was the second goal in 16 seconds for Casey, the first multi-point effort of the Garden City, N.Y. native’s collegiate career.

Sheila Rietano and Apuzzo each added goals earlier in the stretch. Garrity would snap the skid after four scoreless minutes, tallying her first with 19 minutes left in the half, and the Crimson briefly cut the deficit to four when teammate Hannah Keating scored while on the man advantage.

In a familiar fashion, though, Apuzzo won the resulting draw control and Rietano scored her second of the day—and ninth on the year after logging just seven goals all of 2018.

Apuzzo got on the board four minutes later, recovering after missing a free-position shot prior by scoring a nifty behind-the-back goal that caught Harvard netminder Grace Rotondo off-guard. The Crimson would answer in the form of a Madison Conklin goal, but the next six goals—over a nine-minute stretch—all came from BC in dominant fashion. The Eagles outshot Harvard, 2412, in the first half, taking advantage of a monumental edge in draw controls with 15 to their visitors’ three.

The 6-0 run remarkably featured five separate goal scorers. Walker, Kent, Apuzzo, Arsenault, Jenn Medjid, and Walker again ended the half in dominant fashion. Walker had 23 goals in 18 games last season, but is on pace to clear that mark with ease in 2019.

The senior has posted multi-goal efforts in three of her four games thus far, completing a hat trick at the outset of the second half to extend the lead to 12.

Head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein held her team back in the second half, with

both teams registering three goals apiece.

Harvard got two from Garrity and another from Katie Muldoon, with the duo successively scoring in the final four minutes to close the final margin to 11 goals. BC’s came from Walker, Apuzzo, and Arsenault.

Apuzzo’s fourth goal merely reflected the continuation of an increase in scoring average. As a sophomore, she totaled 80 goals in 24 games, then bumped that up to 88 in 24 games in her junior year Tewaaraton Award-winning season. Through four games, Apuzzo has 18 goals and eight assists, a remarkable pace for the senior captain.

Kent, meanwhile, had six assists, the most by a BC player in a single game since Arsenault did so in the fourth game of 2018 against Navy. Two set up Apuzzo, but the other four went to different players, a clear marker of the depth that Walker-Weinstein is working with on the offensive side.

Through four games, the Eagles have had three or more players record hat tricks

JONATHAN YE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Three Eagles recorded hat tricks in the win, BC’s fourth in a row to start the year.

in three of the games. They’ve hit 17 goals in three of those and also showed in a two-goal win against Syracuse that they can grind out lower-scoring defensive battles. BC’s im-

pressive depth was on full display against the Crimson, and it’s surely not going to be the last game this season that is all but decided after the first 30 minutes of play. n

Progress Aside, Eagles’ Defensive Struggles Show Long Road Ahead Regression, from A9 play in the third quarter, then absolutely collapsed in the final 11-plus minutes, allowing 40 points to the Hokies.

The recent defensive struggles mean that the Eagles, despite a good start to the season, ranked 313th out of 351 Division I teams in points per game allowed and 260th in points per 100 possessions allowed entering the game against Louisville. Opponents are shooting 44.1 percent against BC, 327th best in the country and 37.1 percent from behind the arc, which means they’re the sixth-worst team in the entire nation at defending the 3-point line. It also doesn’t help that BC isn’t a good defensive rebounding team. The Eagles grab only 66.8 percent of opponents misses, the 123rd worst rate in Division I. The notable caveat, of course, is the quality of opponent. After all, there’s a big difference between holding Loyola University of Maryland—which currently holds a record of 4-22 and notches just 53.3 points a game—to 47 points and posting an impressive defensive rating of 72.6 and attempting to slow down defending national champion and current AP No. 5 Notre Dame, which scores 87.6

points per contest. It’s to be expected that there’s some form of drop off, but a step back this large raises more concerns.

After all, good defense is notably about effort. You don’t have to be the most athletic player in the country, nor the most skilled to be a great defender, and the same goes for a team’s defense.

It is nice to have ridiculous athletes that can jump passing lanes and create deflections with length and speed, but if a team is fundamentally sound with its rotations and willing to put in the effort to stay in front of players and contest shots, it can certainly be an excellent defensive team.

Right now, as the statistics above show, it doesn’t look like the Eagles are quite there, and that is also illustrated in the fact that BC also fouls way too much. The Eagles average 19.4 fouls per contest—290th best in the country—and also have a foul rate of 25.8 percent, which ranks 239th out of 351 Division I teams. A team that fouls a lot is often undisciplined or tired, failing to rotate quickly or cleanly enough and compensating by reaching too much or fouling on shot attempts after late closeouts. It would be harsh to criticize BC too much for this—after all, this group of players is learning an entirely new defensive

system that has also changed throughout the season, and many of the players are in their first season at the ACC level (seven of 12 players on the roster are freshmen)—but it further illustrates how much work the Eagles have to do, both from a fundamentals and conditioning perspective.

It’s also likely that BC’s offense, which, to be fair, has been a bright spot this season, has contributed to the decline in defense. The Eagles average the fifth-most points per game in the conference (75.3) and a respectable effective field goal percentage of 48.7 percent, but they also often play at a breakneck pace. BC’s 1,789 field goals attempted this season is the sixth-most in the entire country. However, that also comes with two issues.

First, it leads to turnovers. The Eagles turn the ball over 17.9 times per game— 272nd in the nation—and don’t defend well after those turnovers either. Opponents average 18.9 points per game off turnovers, and the number of giveaways and the easy baskets that follow certainly exacerbate BC’s defensive issues.

Second, that many shot attempts certainly make for a faster-paced game, which means that a high level of condi-

tioning is required, and as the defensive decline of late has showed, the Eagles simply aren’t at the required physical level to play consistently solid defense with that up-tempo game. This deficiency is offset slightly by BC’s offensive rebounding rate of 39.5 percent (12th best in the country and markedly better than its defensive rebounding rate), but even that advantage on the glass hasn’t been able to compensate over the past eight games.

It’s wonderful that Bernabei-McNamee has been able to institute her offensive scheme so quickly. But the past eight games have rapidly made it abundantly clear that the expectation before the 2018-19 campaign started—that any head coach had a multi-year reconstruction to undertake before the Eagles would be able to become competitive in the ACC again—was accurate.

In this conference, which currently has five teams ranked in the Top 25, it simply isn’t enough to excel on one end of the court and expect to win games.

If BC wants to return to relevance once again and make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005-06, or even make a postseason tournament for the first time since the 2010-11 WNIT, then a defensive rebuild under Bernabei-

McNamee is also in order. At least the first-year head coach has had a vision for what that rebuild looks like since her introductory press conference in April.

“My ideal brand of basketball is when you’re putting your opponent on their heels, you’re changing up your styles a little bit throughout the game defensively to where you keep them guessing, and you’re a little bit harder team to scout,” she said, per BCEagles.com.

In order for the Eagles to be more competitive in a conference where eight teams average more than 70 points per game, a defense that can morph to an opponent’s strength is probably not just another wrinkle, but necessary. BC has focused on implementing an up-tempo offense in the first year of a new era, and it’s found results, but for the Eagles to take the next step, the second part of Bernabei McNamee’s vision—that chameleon-like defense—must also come to fruition. If that can develop anywhere near as fast as the offense did, then the future is still bright for BC.

Peter Kim is the Assoc. Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached on Twitter @PeterKim4.

SPORTS in SHORT MEN’S HOCKEY EAST STANDINGS Conference overall

Massachusetts

16-5

24-7

UMass Lowell

12-6-3

18-10-3

Northeastern

13-7-1

21-9-1

Providence

12-7-2

19-9-5

Boston University 11-8-2

13-15-3

Maine

10-8-4

14-14-4

Boston College

9-9-3

10-18-3

New Hampshire

7-9-5

11-12-8

Connecticut

5-14-2

10-19-2

Vermont

5-15-2

12-18-2

Merrimack

4-16-2

7-22-3

Numbers to know

19.7

Goals per game for lacrosse, a mark that is tied for second in the country behind Northwestern (21 goals per game).

11

Program records set by the women’s swim and dive team at the ACC Championship meet last week.

0 6

Wins in the three-game season series for men’s hockey against Maine, the first time BC was swept by the Black Bears since 2013.

QUote of the week

“I’m proud of what these guys are doing, but yeah, I’ve got to think about it.”

— Men’s basketball head

coach Jim Christian, on his team’s state of mind after back-to-back narrow defeats.

The Heights

Monday, February 25, 2019

A11

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Eagles Dip to .500 After 36-Point Blowout Loss to Cardinals WBB vs. Louisville, from A9 the quarter, causing them to only score 12 points, despite shooting a better percentage than their opponents.

Louisville finished the frame on a 9-0 run, claiming a 66-39 lead.

The fourth quarter was also eerily similar to the third, even though Cardinals’ leading scorer Asia Durr played just two minutes of it. Once more, Louisville outscored BC, 21-12. Addi-

tionally, BC turned the ball over seven more times and failed to get good looks on the offensive end. The Eagles racked up 24 turnovers in the loss, three shy of a season-worst.

Sophomore Sydney Lowery led BC with a team-high 12 points and 5 rebounds, but Emma Guy was the only other Eagle to reach double figures, adding 10 points.

Durr contributed 23 points for the Cardinals, topping her impres-

sive season average of 20.6 points per game. Kylee Shook also had one of her best games of the season, notching 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field.

On Sunday afternoon, BC was dominated from the opening whistle. The Eagles could not handle the Cardinals’ initial run and failed to ever reduce the deficit to a manageable margin. Louisville outplayed BC in every aspect of the game. The Cardinals shot a much

better percentage from the floor, controlled the glass, and took advantage of BC’s poor ball security. Perhaps, most shocking is the fact that Louisville got to the free throw line 27 times. On the other hand, BC shot just four free throws. This speaks to the differences in offensive aggressiveness between the two teams.

After such a promising start, the challenges of the ACC have been on full display. Not only is this BC’s sev-

enth straight loss, but four of those games have been decided by 27 points or more. While these struggles were expected, they are still difficult to deal with. Bernabei-McNamee found early results and has kickstarted a rebuild, but it’s going to be a tough pill to swallow if the Eagles finish winless in February—something that is likely, as they close the year against a No. 16 Syracuse team that beat them by 27 points back on Feb. 10. n

TIMOTHY EASLEY / AP PHOTO

The Eagles were smothered by a suffocating Louisville defense, managing just 51 points and turning the ball over 24 times in the defeat—BC has lost seven straight and plummeted to 13th in the conference standings.

BASEBALL

BC Drops Two of Three to Bethune-Cookman in Weekend Series

By Bradley Smart Sports Editor After dropping the first two games of a weekend series with BethuneCookman as the result of issues in the back end of its pitching staff, Boston College baseball turned it around in the weekend finale, salvaging a win on the strength of an offensive outburst.

The Eagles rolled to a 14-5 victory over the host Wildcats, redeeming themselves after dropping consecutive decisions to start the weekend. The three-game series was marked by strong starting pitching and a dangerous lineup, with BC getting contributions from practically everyone over the weekend.

In the Sunday finale, head coach Mike Gambino gave the ball to Joe Mancini for his first career start, and he was rewarded with five innings of one-run ball from the freshman. Mancini had more than enough run support, with the Eagles striking for four runs in both the second and third innings and only adding to it from there.

Dante Baldelli went 2-for-5 with five RBIs out of the nine hole, homering and adding a triple for an excellent day at the plate. All but one player on the roster registered a hit on a 16-hit day for BC, while the bottom of the lineup was particularly impressive. Cody Morrisette went 3-for-5 with a home run and Joe Suozzi added a 2-for-5 day, with both

players scoring three times as well.

The Eagles chased Bethune-Cookman starter Carlos Lequerica in the second inning, and he was far from the first Wildcats pitcher to exit quickly.

Lequerica was charged with four earned runs , while reliever Alec Mendez entered and allowed four—only two earned—as his replacement. BethuneCookman never really found a pitcher to string together several consistent innings, with each of the next three arms out of the bullpen allowing a run or more.

BC, meanwhile, used two innings from Travis Lane—he gave up a lone run—to get to the later innings. There, Michael Marzonie allowed a pair of runs in the eighth and Jack Nelson closed out the convincing win by allowing a lone run in the ninth.

It was a dominant effort from the Eagles in basically every facet of the game. They swiped seven bases, one shy of a season high, and finished the weekend with 14 stolen bases. Sal Frelick and Chris Galland both stole two in the series finale, running their totals to 10 and 6, respectively—setting the stage for an exciting race for the team lead.

On Saturday night, Eagles starter Mason Pelio scattered five hits and two earned runs over four innings of work, John Witkowski allowed two runs over four innings with seven strikeouts, and BC used a four-run fourth inning

to take a comfortable 7-4 lead into the ninth inning. Gambino turned to reliable reliever Thomas Lane to close it out—and things went catastrophically wrong. Lane walked the first three batters he faced and departed, with replacements Sean Hughes and Marzonie not faring much better.

Hughes walked in a run, then allowed a game-tying two-run single to Danny Rodriguez. With nobody out and the game-winning run in scoring position, Gambino went with Marzonie, a redshirt sophomore making his first appearance of the year. It lasted all of two pitches, with Brandon Wilkes walking off an 8-7 win by lacing a double to center field.

It was a squandered victory for the Eagles, who led Bethune-Cookman by five runs entering the eighth inning.

Wilkes and the Wildcats struck first—he doubled in a run in the first inning—but BC would score five unanswered runs to take a comfortable lead.

The scoring came from all different spots in the lineup, with five players recording multi-hit games. Frelick knocked in a run with a double in the third, then the Eagles scored four in the fourth. Morissette scored on a throwing error, Baldelli had an RBI single, and Brian Dempsey capped the frame with a two-run single. Dempsey would be back just two innings later, answering a Bethune-Cookman run with a two-run home run.

That was it for BC’s scoring, though, as it failed to add to its lead in the next three innings. Wildcats reliever Seth Lovell, who entered at the start of the fifth, shook off the Dempsey blast to face the minimum over the next three innings. He retired the side in order in the ninth, setting up his teammates’ heroics in the bottom of the frame.

The first game of the series was once again defined by bullpen struggles. BC starter Matt Gill pitched into the sixth after a seven-inning game against Jackson State, and the Eagles erased deficits of 2-0 and 4-2, creating a tie game going into the home half of the eighth. Then, it all fell apart.

Reliever Joey Walsh needed 41 pitches to get through the inning, allowing four earned runs while walking three as Bethune-Cookman came away with an 8-4 win.

After BC first baseman Jack Cunningham hit his first career home run in the top of the eighth to tie it up at four runs apiece, Walsh trotted out and struck out the first batter he faced before giving up a triple to Over Torres. Two walks—one intentional—later, Walsh induced a ground ball to second base, and Morrissette made an impressive play to scoop it up and throw the go-ahead run out at home. In the end, it wouldn’t matter, as Joseph Fernando laced a two-out, two-run single into left field, and Isaak Gutierrez followed with a two-run double down the right

field line.

Walsh’s outing squandered what had been a resilient performance from the Eagles. Gill set down the side in order in the first, but Fernando got to him in the second with a double that brought in two runs. BC gradually answered, chipping away at Wildcats starter Anthony Maldonado. Frelick, en route to another multi-hit day with two stolen bases, had an RBI single in the second, and Jake Alu—who finished 4-for-4—tied it in the third with a single.

Gill largely cruised after the second inning, retiring 12 of the next 13 batters he faced before a costly throwing error from Alu halted his momentum in the sixth. He’d leave three batters later after he committed a throwing error to allow a pair of Wildcats runs to score with the bases loaded. BC rallied against the Bethune-Cookman bullpen, with a Jordan Pinto wild pitch bringing in Alu in the seventh, and Cunningham homered off Brandon Wilkes in the eighth.

While two-thirds of the series was defined by bullpen struggles, it’s a manageable problem for Gambino to fix. He has a strong rotation to work with and is getting plenty of offense up and down his lineup. Yes, the two losses will hurt now—they were winnable games and had BC poised for an impressive 6-0 start to the year—but they revealed that the bullpen is still getting sorted out, and that’s something that a lot of teams deal with at the outset of the year. n

SOFTBALL

Eagles Split With East Carolina, JMU at Rainy Pirate Invitational

By Bradley Smart Sports Editor Rain threw a wrench in what had originally been a three-game set against the likes of East Carolina and James Madison for Boston College softball, as the Eagles ultimately left Greenville, N.C., with a two-game split. BC knocked off the host Pirates in the series opener behind a dominant pitching performance from Susannah Anderson, then dropped a soggy Sunday afternoon matchup to the No. 18 Dukes.

JMU (4-2) starter Odicci Alexander was nothing short of lights-out against the Eagles (3-7) in the weekend finale, spinning a complete game shutout, as the Dukes rolled to a convincing 9-0 shutout in an abbreviated five-inning affair. Alexander held BC hitless until the final frame, slicing through the lineup with relative ease en route to her 15th career shutout.

The Eagles couldn’t say the same about their pitching staff. Camryn Dolby was unable to replicate her classmate Anderson’s performance from the day prior. In fact, she was tagged for five earned runs and walked six in just three and a third innings of work. Reliever C.C. Cook wasn’t helped by her defense, allowing four runs—none earned—in an inning of work. BC kept it close through three frames, only trailing by one, but

JMU scored four runs apiece in the final two innings for a comfortable win.

Hannah File opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly to left field to bring in a run, but it’d take another three innings before the Dukes would get back on the scoreboard. They did so convincingly, chasing Dolby after a two-run home run from Kierstin Roadcap and putting two more runners in scoring position with one out. Cook got a big lineout but wasn’t able to escape the jam, allowing a two-run triple to Alexander.

The bats stayed hot for JMU in the fifth—a frame defined by mistakes from the visitors. Back-to-back throwing errors from BC’s Carly Severini and Gianna Boccagno would bring in runs, then Anderson entered with two runners still on. She hit the first batter she faced, setting up a single from Alexander that brought in two more runs.

The Eagles didn’t have nearly enough firepower to keep up with the explosive Dukes lineup. Kristin Giery managed the team’s lone hit, and it came in the fifth after a leadoff walk from Jules Trevino.

A monumental comeback wasn’t in the cards for BC, though, as Severini flew out, Carlie Sanders struck out, and Lexi DiEmmanuele ended the game, fittingly, with a grounder back to Alexander.

In the early going of this season, the Eagles have had their fair of struggles in the circle, as evidenced by Sunday’s

poor showing. Replacing the likes of Jessica Dreswick and Allyson Frei was never going to be easy, especially with head coach Ashley Obrest having to turn to freshman arms to fill the bulk of the innings. On Friday night, however, that youth paid off in the weekend opener.

Anderson, making her second start of the year, spun a shutout, striking out four and scattering four hits and two walks. She was backed up by the bare minimum offensively from BC, as Maddison Hamilton beat a throw to the plate on an Ellie Mataya fielder’s choice in the third inning to lift the Eagles to a 1-0 win over East Carolina (8-2).

The Pirates entered having won five straight games, but went just 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position and couldn’t crack Anderson. East Carolina starter Erin Poepping, a sophomore, was handed her first loss of the year in five starts despite going the distance and striking out eight. Poepping only allowed two hits, but one of them—a Hamilton single in the top of the third—proved to be the difference.

Hamilton lined a single into left field to open the inning, and Trevino drew a walk. With two runners on, DiEmmanuele laid down a well-placed bunt to the move the runners over, and Mataya—a freshman who is hitting a team-best .409 thus far—grounded a slow roller to Pirates first baseman Tate McClellan.

ZACHARY FALLS / BC ATHLETICS

BC got two very different performances from its pitching staff in North Carolina.

She opted to go home with the ball, but Hamilton beat the throw to the plate.

The final four innings weren’t without drama, though. East Carolina’s biggest opportunity to tie the game up came in the fourth with one out. Rachel McCollum and Ashley Weingartz strung together back-to-back singles and pinch hitter Morgan Halo drew a bases-loaded walk. Yet Kendra Ziemba grounded one back to Anderson, and she alertly threw home for the second out. A huge strikeout of another pinch hitter, Keira Womack, saw Anderson escape the jam unscathed.

The split weekend is something many might come to expect from this BC team. Playing with a lot of freshman in the starting lineup means you’re more likely to suffer through an up-and-down season, and that was clear in North Carolina.

The Eagles managed just one run in 12 innings, which is troublesome considering the inconsistent pitching staff, but Anderson also looked the part of a staff ace—a promising development for a group that that entered the weekend with a 5.82 earned run average, second to last in the ACC. n

The Heights

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Monday, February 25, 2019

MEN’S HOCKEY

Maine Completes Series Sweep of BC For First Time Since 2013

By Sam Bresnick For The Heights

Boston College men’s hockey was looking to split a weekend series up in Orono against Hockey East foe Maine, following a disBoston College 1 appointing 2-1 Maine 2 loss on Friday.

Mitchell Fossier and the Black Bears had other ideas, though. In a game defined by missed opportunities, the Eagles faced a similar result, once again losing a 2-1 heartbreaker—this time in overtime.

This was merely the continuation of BC’s (10-18-3, 9-8-3 Hockey East) lateseason slide, with its losing streak hitting six games as it was swept in the season series by the Black Bears (14-14-4, 10-84) for the first time since 2013. BC hasn’t

had any semblance of a consistent offense over that stretch, totaling just nine goals in six games while conceding 19. Still, the last five contests have been decided by two goals or less, simply adding insult to a lost season.

The game started out right for the Eagles, who controlled the balance of play in the first 20 minutes of regulation. On a power play about halfway through the first period, after Maine’s Tim Doherty went to the box for tripping, forward David Cotton found the back of the net to put the Eagles up, 1-0. The goal was Cotton’s 18th of the season and came after Oliver Wahlstrom put a hard shot on net from the high slot—Cotton was able to deflect it past Black Bears goaltender Jeremy Swayman to light the lamp. The Eagles were on the attack the whole period and

were generating a lot of chances on the offensive end, putting Maine on their heels time and time again. The Eagles piled up a decisive 15-2 edge in shots, even hitting the post once, but couldn’t crack Swayman again and entered intermission with a slim one-goal advantage.

The inability to add to the lead proved costly for BC, as the tide shifted in the second period. The Black Bears became a lot more aggressive on the offensive end and created many chances, which eventually led to a goal in the last minute of the second period. Maine couldn’t convert on a pair of power plays during the period but had a 23-8 edge in shots, and the consistent pressure eventually paid off.

Black Bears forward Brendan Robbins was opportunistic, scoring in a manner similar to Cotton. Teammate Jakub Sirota

took a shot from the point after Maine had spent a lengthy shift threatening the Eagles and Joseph Woll, and it was deflected in past Woll by Robbins for his seventh goal of the year. This tied up the game heading into the third, with the momentum largely in Maine’s hands. Neither team seemed eager to press too hard in the final period, though, combining for few serious scoring opportunities. The third frame went by without harm to both sides, forcing overtime with the sixth seed in the upcoming Hockey East Tournament at stake.

The overtime period was winding down when Fossier came up big. With Woll’s vision obstructed by multiple skaters, Fossier scooped up the puck at the left face off circle and flung a backhander toward the net. It snuck in on the near post, securing a three-game sweep of the

Eagles for Maine—a team that finished 13 points back of BC in last year’s conference table.

This was yet another tough conference loss for the Eagles, who have plummeted to seventh in the Hockey East standings.

Things don’t get easier, either, as BC has a home-and-home with No. 13 Northeastern before closing out the season against No. 11 Providence. Feasibly, the Eagles could go winless down the stretch and further slide down the table entering the tournament. The consecutive losses this weekend knocked BC out of first round bye consideration barring an impressive late-season push, a fact that further reinforces the disappointing narrative around a season that started with high hopes for a second straight Hockey East regular season title. n

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

It was a weekend defined by the slimmest of margins, as Maine fought off a late rally on Friday night and then escaped the Eagles in overtime on Saturday night, sweeping the season series with BC..

BC Nearly Ties Game in Final Minutes, Still Falls to Black Bears

By Jeremy Khangi For The Heights

Boston College men’s hockey entered Friday night’s matchup against Maine after being swept by Boston College 1 Massachusetts Maine 2 the week prior, and was desperately searching for any sort of momentum. The Eagles didn’t find it in front of a crowd of almost 4,000 at Alfond Arena on Friday night, extending their losing streak to five games with a 2-1 setback.

BC’s (10-17-3, 9-8-3 Hockey East) last five games have been defined by offensive struggles, as it has been outscored by nine goals during the tough stretch. Eight of the past nine matchups for the Eagles have been against ranked programs, and BC has not fared well overall, the latest defeat coming

at the hands of a Maine (13-4-4, 9-8-4) team that leapfrogged head coach Jerry York and Co. in the conference standings.

The narrative of the majority of the season seemed to play out during Friday night’s matchup—the Eagles played solid defensively and generated some decent scoring chances all night but simply could not finish. They struggled to find the back of the net throughout the entire game, despite registering eight more shots than their opponents, only scoring once in the closing minute. Black Bears netminder Jerry Swayman had a solid night in net, stopping 32 of the Eagles’ shots.

Both teams ran into penalty trouble in the beginning of the night, as just five minutes in, it was Maine’s Mitchell Fossier and BC’s Aapeli Räsänen that went to the box for unsportsmanlike conduct. This set

the tone for the rest of the game—one that was defined by physicality and featured 10 combined penalties.

Eventually, the Black Bears managed to draw first blood a little after the midway mark of the first period. The Eagles committed a sloppy defensive turnover, and Fossier redeemed himself. He was off to the races, taking advantage of the giveaway and netting the puck off the left wing, beating BC netminder Joseph Woll short side.

The second frame proved to be the Eagles’ strongest offensive period, as they outshot the Black Bears, 15-6, but they could not manage to get one past Swayman. Their ineffectiveness on offense wasn’t replicated by their hosts, though, as Eduards Tralmarks doubled Maine’s lead at the 6:52 mark in the second period. BC initially blocked a shot from the point, but Tralmarks picked up

the loose puck in the slot and spun around to fling a low shot just inside the left post.

The goal was assisted by Keith Muehlbauer and Fossier.

Both teams traded decent chances, but it would remain a two-goal lead for the Black Bears up to the final minutes. The Eagles finally scored with a minute and 33 seconds left while playing with a two-man advantage, as Woll was on the bench and they were on their fourth power play after Brady Keeper was whistled for tripping.

The Maine penalty kill was strong all night long, with its defense blocking 11 of the Eagles’ shots, but it couldn’t hold off the Eagles while playing 4-on-6 hockey. Räsänen was the lone scorer for BC, as he netted the puck down low on a clean one-timer from Logan Hutsko at the top of the slot.

Immediately following that goal, the

Eagles made a valiant push in the final minute of the game with an extra skater.

Christopher Brown and Hutsko both had excellent scoring opportunities, but the Black Bears managed to hold off the Eagles’ last minute net-front scramble. Brown had a great look on a quick wraparound but was stopped on a solid play by Swayman. Hutsko tried to jam the puck on the left side, but the Black Bears ended up the victor in this doorstep scrum.

The defeat sunk the Eagles further in the conference standings, a late-season slide that has plummeted them to seventh. At this rate, BC is looking up at far from favorable first round matchups. The current matchup would be with No. 2 Massachusetts Lowell, a team that kickstarted this recent downward spiral by handing the Eagles a 3-0 defeat on Feb. 8. n

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Eagles Squander Lead, Tie UNH in Final Regular Season Game

By Nicole Pla Heights Staff

Hot off a four-game winning streak, Boston College women’s hockey entered its final game of the regular season against Boston College 3 N e w H a mp New Hampshire 3 shire looking to secure the second seed in the upcoming Hockey East Tournament. After an aggressive and fast-paced game, the No. 7 Eagles tied the Wildcats, 3-3, using a game-tying goal midway through the third period to escape the Whittemore Center with a point.

BC (23-10-1, 19-7-1 Hockey East) came out of the first puck drop swinging, and it didn’t take long for it to ramp up the physicality. Just 15 seconds into the frame, Megan Keller registered the first penalty for hooking.

Being down a skater didn’t faze the Eagles, though. Down in UNH’s territory, Mckenna Newkirk fed the puck to Lindsay Agnew, declining to take the shot herself. With no defenders in her way, Agnew fired a shot on Kyra Smith and secured an early shorthanded goal for the Eagles.

Just a few minutes later, UNH (1315-6, 10-14-3) drew its own penalty after Jenna Rheault took a two-minute trip to the box for interference. Despite the advantage, the Eagles couldn’t get past the defense to increase their lead.

BC was given the opportunity for another goal when Emily Rickwood was called for checking late in the period.

The Eagles didn’t get another chance on the power play, however, as an immediate retaliation hit by Delaney Belinskas resulted in a penalty of her own, and both teams were down a player for two

minutes. Neither team was able to best the other as the game returned to full strength.

With just four minutes left in the period, UNH made a costly mistake when Julia Scammell was whistled for checking. Just 20 seconds after she entered the box, Kali Flanigan took a shot from the blue line that sailed over Smith’s glove, giving the Eagles their second goal of the afternoon.

The aggressive tone of the game was showing, as BC soon drew its third penalty of the period. Caitrin Lonergan was called for tripping, and UNH capitalized on the special teams opportunity. Carley Turner came from behind the net and shot the puck off of Cayla Barnes’ skate and into the back of the cage.

Barnes was soon committed a checking penalty of her own, rewarding UNH an advantage BC couldn’t afford with just over one minute left. It was cut short, however, when the Wildcats were called for too many players on the ice, resulting in 4-on-4 to end the fast-paced period.

The Eagles started off the second period with a player advantage, and they seemed to make the most of the opportunity. Agnew passed the puck to Belinskas in front of the cage, but after a questionable push from her glove to get the puck into the net, the officials called no goal, and the Eagles remained just one goal ahead of the Wildcats.

UNH was much more aggressive throughout the second period, and, soon enough, the persistence paid off. Paige Rynne was left alone on the breakaway and quickly made her way down to Maddy McArthur. She was able to best the freshman netminder

and equalize the score.

Keller drew her second penalty of the game for hooking, once again putting the Eagles at a disadvantage. After two minutes of heavy pressure for BC’s defense, the Eagles were able to kill the penalty. As the period closed out, UNH’s Rynne was called for tripping, and after a period dominated by the Wildcats, they gave the momentum back to the Eagles.

Despite the opportunity, UNH retained its dominance. As the Wildcats returned to full strength, Taylor Wenczkowski pulled away from her defenders and slipped the puck past McArthur, giving UNH its first lead of the game heading into the final break.

Following five minutes of backand-forth play, BC registered the first penalty. Daryl Watts was cited for tripping—after entering the third behind, BC’s defense worked hard to kill the penalty. UNH dominated the first half of the frame, but eventually the Eagles finally made their move. Closing in on Smith, Erin Connolly fired the puck past the goaltender to tie up the game. After a relatively quiet period that saw just the one goal by Connolly and one penalty, the game headed to overtime.

BC controlled play over the course of the extra five minutes but couldn’t get a goal past Smith. After neither team was able to score on the other, the Eagles closed out their last game of the regular season with their only tie of 2018-19, but still secured the second seed in the Hockey East Tournament.

The only potential problem? BC will face No. 7 Connecticut in the first round, a team it easily swept this season but played spoiler in last year’s Hockey East semifinals. n

Tournament Preview

Note: the four remaining teams are reseeded after the quarterfinal round.

bradley Smart / HEIGHTS Editor

Tournament Favorites Northeastern (23-5-5) The Huskies have spent most of the season on top of the standings, and enter the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed. A complete team, they have the highest goalsper-game average in the conference, and a stellar goaltender in Aerin Frankel.

Boston University (19-7-8) Jesse Compher and Sammy Davis form one of the country's most formidable duos, ranking first and third in Hockey East in points per game, but the Terriers' hopes don’t rest only on them. BU also has the best scoring defense in the conference.

Boston College (23-10-1) The Eagles are playing their best hockey at the right time and enter the tournament having lost just one of their past 12 games.

Patty Kazmaier finalist Megan Keller—who leads the team with 41 points—will be key if BC wants to win the tournament

Providence (22-10-2) Senior goaltender Madison Myers allows the fewest goals-per-game in Hockey East for a Friars squad that is also peaking at the right time. They have wins over both Northeastern and BU in the past week, and have won five of the past seven games.

CLASSIFIEDS

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

The Heights TheTH heeights Heights

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Monday, February 25, 2019

p

2019-20 Student Grant Opportunities The Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy offers a variety of grants for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students whose area of study aligns with the mission of the Center.

available grants Graduate Fellows Program Receive up to $5,000 Deadline: March 30, 2019

Law School Fellows Program Receive up to $5,000 Deadline: March 30, 2019

Undergrad Civic Internship Grants $1,000 – $3,000 Deadline: April 13, 2019

Public Interest Law Scholars Receive up to $5,000 Deadline: March 30, 2019

how to apply Visit www.bc.edu/cloughgrants to view application requirements and apply online.

apply at www.bc.edu/cloughgrants

THE HEIGHTS

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2019

‘Paddleton’ Finds Humor in the Face of Death

BY JACOB SCHICK A1 Editor In the face of death, routine is a comforting thing. The greatest change that can occur in someone’s life is its end. But we can take the sting out of it by refusing to change anything. Michael (Mark Duplass) and Andy (Ray Romano) do the same thing every day. Their workday is mundane—Michael waving to Andy as he drives by every morning. They come home, and they spend the afternoon playing paddleton—a paddle ball-like game they made up. After that, they hang out in Michael’s apartment to do puzzles, eat pizza, and watch the same kung fu movie. Every night.

So, when Michael is diagnosed with

terminal cancer at the start of the movie, not much changes for the two neighbors. They continue to go about their routine, and it appears to comfort them both. But this routine can’t last forever. Michael opts to take a dose of pills in a form of medically assisted suicide rather than draw out a lengthy hospital and hospice process. To get the prescription, the two must go on a trip.

Here Paddleton finds its stride. The film presents a delightful cocktail of bleak mortality, awkward interaction, conflict deriving from the stress and friction of the situation, and, of course, the humor that regular people insert into every situation, no matter how incongruous it may be.

Paddleton makes the humdrum funny and the somber enjoyable. Seconds after Andy

FILM

PADDLETON ALEXANDRE LEHMANN DISTRIBUTED BY NETFLIX RELEASE FEB. 22, 2019 OUR RATING

NETFLIX

wakes Michael up in a panic—believing him to be dead—the film shares a light joke.

Andy says goodnight and moves to turn off the bedside lights. When the lights click brighter, a soft “oh” is all he says. After this repeats twice more, Andy finally manages to turn the lights off, and the scene changes. It’s this expert depiction of the slow walk toward death combined with these small bursts of comedy that separates Paddleton from other movies about impending mortality.

While the script lays out the humor in scenes and in Andy’s incessant mumblings and bits of dialogue, it’s the force of the two leads that brings it home. Romano and Duplass are at their best in these performances.

Both actors are nearly indistinguishable from regular people.

Romano seems to have mostly left behind his more boisterous efforts at comedy like Ice Age and Everybody Loves Raymond for movies like like this (and The Big Sick).

Instead, he is at once anxious, angry, sad, confused, and loving as Michael’s friend— much like we would expect a real person to be. Duplass is Romano’s foil. He is calm, he is aware, and he is well-adjusted. And it is this duality between characters that drives the emotional arcs of the film.

For much of the movie, it is Michael— who is dying—that is comforting Andy— who doesn’t know how to go on without his friend. Michael asks Andy to be with him at the end, and it is this emotional journey

to that end that fills the space between normality and Michael’s death. Andy seems ill-equipped to operate in the real world, especially without Michael there to ground him. He has no other friends, he can’t engage in small talk, he tries in vain to subtly bolster his own qualities or accomplishments, and he is flustered by every bump in the road.

And, even at just over 90 minutes, Paddleton isn’t afraid to take its time. It strolls through the scenes, stopping here and there to pursue a divergent side plot to its end—and then pick up right where it left off.

At times, this can feel slightly disconnected.

But, in the same way that Andy tries to put off the inevitable, the film is in no hurry to get to the end.

Paddleton is much like the other movies that show up next to it on Netflix’s category system. It plays like a small indie movie. It is a slow burn, with soft colors and muted scenes. It has a small cast, relying heavily on its dialogue and more heavily on the pauses between. This is all to say that there is a lot about Paddleton that camouflages it in its surroundings. But there is more to this movie than that.

In the great practice of adding things to Netflix queues and then just rewatching Friends and The Office, this movie deserves more. Paddleton is a movie to sit down and watch with purpose—to be at once unconscious of and deliberately reminded of the slow advance of death. 

Offset Details Personal Life, Struggles on ‘Father of 4’

BY GIO LAVOILE Heights Staff Opinions on the debate of who the best Migos member is vary, depending on who you are talking to. Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff have all been individually touted as the most skilled or most entertaining of the group. In all honesty, each artist brings something different, something that typically gets lost in the new Migos formula of quantity over quality.

With the trio having finally released their solo albums, one thing has become clear: At this point, Offset is the only member of the group who is willing to look inward and bring his fans along with him.

On this album, Offset attempts to tear down the layer of machismo and impermeability that surrounds the Migos, toning down the braggadocio and taking an introspective stance, bringing his fans into his world.Offset has undoubtedly lived a rough life—he was born into poverty and used the streets to make ends meet.

He has had to fight for all that he’s acquired, losing friends along the way, and, on occasion, it’s seemed like all that he’s acquired might just slip away, whether due to the prison system, a horrible car crash, or his own infidelity. But he is a fighter, and—as he’s previously emphasized—he has only one inspiration: providing for his children and ensuring that they never have to experience what he dealt with growing

up in Atlanta.

Offset’s message has never been clearer than on the intro track to the album. On “Father of 4,” over Metro Boomin and Southside production—the duo that produced the entirety of this album—Offset wears his heart on his sleeve, issuing an apology to his children for not being there for them all the time and committing to being a better, more present father. All this is established after a rousing intro by Big Rune, who proudly pronounces Offset as more than an artist, but rather a “reality-smith.”

While Offset is clearly willing to look inward, he is still more than willing to show off all that he’s acquired as well. On songs like “Tats On My Face,” “Made Men,” and the Quavo-assisted “On Fleek,” Offset happily flexes over-menacing production, making it clear that, while he is willing to let you into the mind of Offset, he is not past making the classic Migos hype tracks.

While these tracks do get repetitive and fail to stand out when compared to songs from the Culture series or his collaboration with 21 Savage and Metro Boomin, “Without Warning,” there are tracks which run with the formula and make it work. Standouts like the 21 Savage and Travis Scott assisted song “Legacy,” and “Clout,” the first Offset and Cardi B collab since their reconciliation, work perfectly, mixing the classic trap vibes with exciting lyrical work.

Offset has come a long way from the

days when he was trapping in Atlanta, doing whatever he could to keep himself afloat. He is now a multi-platinum artist, a millionaire, and a father. On this album he aims high, hoping to let you into the mind of the man behind the image of the untouchable, iced-out rapper.

And while at times Offset delivers on his promise—providing the listener with the sort of introspection and reflection that fans often want from their artists—the album ultimately falls short of his own lofty expectations.

The album is at its weakest when Offset reverts to the Migos formula with songs that pander to radio play and the charts, and a case would be made that the album

would be better—or at least closer to the album he promised—if these tracks had been left off the album. The final two songs on the album, “Red Room” and “Came A Long Way,” are the perfect blend of what the fans have come to love from Offset and the type of introspection that he aimed for and are arguably two of the best songs of his career, including his work with Migos.

Although Father of 4 is far from perfect, it is exactly what you’d want to see from an artist like Offset. Breaking from Migos, Offset provides a great album that will not only please his fans, but also shows the potential for the rapper to establish himself as the “reality-smith” that he promised he’d be. 

MUSIC

FATHER OF 4 OFFSET PRODUCED BY CAPITOL RECORDS RELEASE FEB. 22, 2019 OUR RATING

CAPITOL RECORDS

Experimental Film ‘Climax’ Embraces the Abstract

BY MICHAEL TROY Heights Staff Gaspar Noé’s Climax is an out-ofcontrol overdose of epileptic nightmare fuel. It is an unforgiving powerhouse that incessantly bludgeons its viewers over the head with portion after portion of the decadent horrors presented throughout its 95-minute fever dream.

And it’s brilliant.

Climax is not for everyone. In fact, it’s probably not for many people at all. This story of an international dance group’s party in an abandoned school gone wrong should not be viewed by anyone who either suffers from epilepsy or has a weak stomach, because Noé does not mess around. The on-screen atrocities in this French film are more than enough to deeply disturb even the most hardened of moviegoers, but somehow they

are presented in a way that makes them almost seem beautiful—and that’s just one of many things that makes Climax so great.

The pacing in this movie is methodical and purposeful, and all of that can be attributed to the aforementioned writer and director. Noé knew exactly what he wanted Climax to be before he even started filming it, and it shows in the production quality. Every single shot in the film is angled in the best possible way to capture what Noé wanted the audience to see, and there are multiple takes of over 20 minutes, in which the choreography is nothing short of perfect.

The opening dance scene in the film is absolutely breathtaking, as the single-take viewing of an impressive display of contortionism and abstract dance is followed by a 10-minute continuation of the same shot. Seemingly at random, the camera

FILM

CLIMAX GASPAR NOE DISTRIBUTED BY RECTANGLE PRODUCTIONS RELEASE MARCH 1, 2019 OUR RATING

RECTANGLE PRODUCTIONS

follows all of the characters around as they interact with each other during the post-rehearsal party, and subtle facial expressions or pieces of dialogue teach the audience all there is to know about everyone in the dance group. This is a perfect way to introduce the characters without ham-fisting their traits onto the audience with boring dialogue about who they are, and yet, this isn’t even close to the best part of the movie.

The second ultra-long take, which makes up most of the final half-hour of the movie, might be one of the best scenes in cinematic history. So many horrific things happen on screen throughout this nauseating depiction of a group-wide “bad trip,” and all of it looks terrifyingly real.

The punches look like they connect. The actors perform their own stunts. Characters hit their heads on the floor when they fall. A girl cuts herself on the cheek with a knife, and her skin reacts realistically: The cut turns white for a moment before blood slowly makes its way to the opening and seeps out. If that clip by itself was uploaded to the internet, it could easily pass as real. It’s just so immersive.

The acting in Climax is fantastic, especially considering all of the actors are likely completely unknown to any American viewers, which makes it easier to believe that they are really the characters they’re playing. Especially wonderful is Sofia Boutella who plays Selva, the character most closely resembling a main protagonist. She has multiple scenes where the camera follows her for 10 to 15

minutes at a time, and she is so convincing in her mannerisms that she might as well really be Selva.

The score for Climax is beautifully eerie, and the electronic-sounding synth bass perfectly matches the “acid trip” vibe the film was going for with its visuals. It is used sparingly enough that it doesn’t take away from the movie, but every time the mesmerizing chords rise above the rest of the audio, it’s obvious that Noé put it there for a reason, and it almost always enhances whatever scene it’s inserted in. Just like the rest of the film, the score is crafted ever so precisely to match the visuals and create a beautiful synergy of audio and video that is almost impossible to turn away from until the credits roll.

Despite the countless positives to Climax, it is not perfect, and there are a few things wrong with it. One of these problems is a pretty glaring one: Two scenes are just incredibly long scenes of dialogue, where the camera switches between static shots of characters standing still and discussing either themselves or the other people in the group. Some of it manages to be funny, but after a while it becomes a bit repetitive and dry, especially when certain characters dole out a bit of obvious exposition.

It’s painstakingly clear that Noé has mastered this type of film. Two of his previous films, Love and Enter the Void, utilize very similar styles, and he took the best of both movies to make Climax. With Climax, Noé proves that experimental films like this deserve recognition. 

SINGLE REVIEW EMILY HIMES

‘WALK ME HOME’ P!NK

A surprisingly upbeat song for such pleading lyrics, “Walk Me Home” is driven by a steady, strong drum beat that gives the whole song structure and unity.

P!nk’s incredible vocals are on full display throughout the entire song, which gives it an authentic sound only she can achieve.

The lyrics to “Walk Me Home” evoke mixed feelings—at first, the words come off as fun and lighthearted, but they become more jaded in the chorus when P!nk sings about her inner demons and all that is going wrong in the world.

The song’s biggest fault is its repetitive nature. “Walk Me Home” is pretty short, coming in at just under three minutes, and the chorus repeats four times. Additionally, each verse sounds exactly like the chorus, with no changes in rhythm or sound whatsoever. It makes two minutes and 57 seconds sound like an eternity.

“Walk Me Home” will undoubtedly be a hit—P!nk could sing her grocery list and it would probably go straight to number one. In terms of song quality, though, she was much better off during her previous releases from 2012’s The Truth About Love, or better yet, 2006’s Funhouse. 

MUSIC VIDEO KAYLIE RAMIREZ

‘HARMONY HALL’ VAMPIRE WEEKEND

Much like the winding acoustic guitar riff that slithers through “Harmony Hall,” a green serpent moves along a kitchen counter throughout Vampire Weekend’s Feb. 20 released video for the track. Shots pan from the snake to the band’s frontman, Ezra Koenig, making pancakes, drummer Chris Tomson and bassist Chris Baio jumping in a barren room, and the whole four piece (including guitarist Rostam Batmanglij) performing as the dark night sky is lit by billowing pyro effects.

The five-minute video is populated with ’90s tropes: Dramatically spotlit and morphed by a fish-eye lens, Koenig sings while holding direct eye contact with the camera in some shots. Others show the band playing in a shadowy room while surrounded by lit gothic candelabras. The video remains completely unserious, and Jonah Hill even shows up for some pancakes at the end of the video, during which the band stands around the flat-top griddle as Koenig cooks away.

Symbols from Vampire Weekend’s upcoming 18-track double album Father of the Bride are also revealed throughout the video. A white logo appears during the first shot of the video, in which Koenig peers out an orange window, and a coiled green snake icon appears once the video’s title fades from the opening shots.

Segmented in seemingly disconnected shots, “Harmony Hall” sends a message not through narrative but through cheeky clues. With its often encased settings, the video visualizes the overall feeling of being trapped expressed in the lyric from the chorus “I don’t wanna live like this, but I don’t wanna die”—a phrase borrowed from “Finger Back,” a track on 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City. White side frames also minimize the video frame, adding the same boxed-in feeling to the shots. Koenig dons a Columbia blue robe during the breakfast scenes, a possible nod to his alma mater, which is also home to a residence hall that shares a name with the song.

Overhead shots of Koenig’s robe floating as he twirls and a bright green frog graphic apparition when the frontman swats his spatula to the beat make the video effortlessly fun.

Known for combining lacing rock riffs with classical music elements and eloquent lyricism, Vampire Weekend masterfully pits pretentious lyrics and thought-provoking symbolism against comically amusing action throughout the “Harmony Hall” video. 

The Heights

Monday, February 25, 2019

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B.E.A.T.S. Builds Community Around Identity The Life of B.E.A.T.S., From A16

members. Some used to refer to the group as “K.E.A.T.S.,” replacing black with Korean.

“For a long time we were majority Asian and the black community did not see that we were fit to be called ‘Black Experience in America’ because of that,” Newton said.

“That was really hard to deal with because we just generally felt a lack of support from the black community with their views on us.”

“Being predominantly Asian negated our blackness,” Gonzalez added, speaking on the feelings of black individuals in the group at the time. “But all the songs we sing are black, all the messages and intentionalities are black, but because of how the group looked, we weren’t black. And that was hard for us because if we weren’t black, what were we?”

Blackness has always been central to B.E.A.T.S.’ identity—even during the years in which the group was not majority black—but the group feels a distinct twoness in regards to how its identity is perceived on campus. Much like W. E. B. DuBois described a “twoness” as a black man and as an American, B.E.A.T.S. feels a duality of identities as a black student organization and an a cappella group.

There is the perception within the a cappella community that B.E.A.T.S. is different, that it is the “culture group of a cappella,” as Newton put it. Within the black community, B.E.A.T.S.’ reputation is dependent on the year and the number of black members.

Caught between two communities and not always fitting into either, B.E.A.T.S. marches

on to the beat of its own beatboxing—with or without the support of those around it.

Reflection on the racist events on campus that have occured over the course of the past two years has caused B.E.A.T.S. to shift its approach to performing. For B.E.A.T.S., being an artist means being an activist. Much of this activism comes from the group’s intentional song choices.

“You’re in this predominantly white space, and you’re singing ‘Lift Every Voice,’ you’re telling everyone, ‘Please rise for the Black National Anthem,’ and they have to rise,” Gonzalez said. “Whether they believe that’s the national anthem or not, that’s a very powerful thing.”

Aside from “Lift Every Voice,” the group sings songs that served a role in progressing the Civil Rights Movement or provide political commentary on current issues. At last year’s Black History Month Invitational, B.E.A.T.S. performed Jorja Smith’s “Blue Lights,” a track that comments on police brutality. Also included in the set were Chance the Rapper’s “Blessings” and “Glory”

by John Legend and Common, a track that was written for Selma (2014), a film that documented Martin Luther King Jr.’s march from Selma to Montgomery.

The event bridged the gap between the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s and the current Black Lives Matter movement: As the powerful lyrics emanated out into the auditorium, the performers stood in front of a chalkboard filled with the names of 21 black people who were killed by police officers, all arranged around a single clenched fist—a symbol from the Black

Lagerfeld Emily Himes

HEIGHTS ARCHIVES

B.E.A.T.S. listed names of police brutality victims at its Black History Month show.

Power movement—drawn on the board.

Taking on such serious issues can be empowering in a group setting, but taxing on the individual, and Newton and Gonzalez recognize this dichotomy. In a show put on by the group last year, the setlist showcased a range of emotions felt during an individual’s journey through love, loss, and recovery.

With tracks such as Usher’s “U Remind Me,” Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours),” and Kodaline’s “All I Want,” the performance dispelled the notions cast out into the world by monolithic narratives about black experience.

“Black people are people too,” Gonzalez said. “They can be happy, they can be sad, they can go through struggles, they can go through grief. We’re people.”

A cappella is a performance medium that requires the coordination between

different voice ranges and, in many ways, embodies B.E.A.T.S.’ purpose to bring together students of different backgrounds— of different experiences—and create a sense of community around black identity. In the process, B.E.A.T.S. lifts every voice of its members and every voice of those who have felt silenced by the white noise around them, voices like those of Casper Augustus Ferguson and Charles F. Smith Jr. “Historically, black people have not been given the credit for a lot of different [art] mediums,” Gonzalez said. “You don’t think of black people discovering rock ’n’ roll music and all these different things like black country music. You don’t think of the amount of credit that black people [deserve] for creating American culture. I think that [participating in the] arts allows us to reclaim that.” n

Crafty Choreo, Precision Define BCID Showcase

By Colleen Martin Metro Editor

Robsham Theater was filled with little girls wearing dance t-shirts and red bows in their hair, current college students, and parents who drove in for the big show Saturday night. When the lights dimmed, the audience members

could no longer hold in their screams, as the silhouettes of the dancers appeared onstage.

Boston College Irish Dance (BCID) held its 12th annual showcase this past weekend, with the theme “Celtic Spirit.”

One of the first numbers of the evening, “Night Vision,” was choreographed by Erin McMahon, CSON

CELINE LIM / HEIGHTS EDITOR

BCID choreographed a number of high-energy routines for its annual showcase.

’21, and Claire Finnegan, MCAS ’21.

As the host Hart Ayoob, LSEHD ’20, introduced the pair, he read out their backgrounds with Irish dancing.

When Ayoob said Finnegan was a member of the O’Shea Chaplin Academy of Irish Dance, the girls in the red bows erupted with cheers and applause. The group of young dancers was there for a guest performance, later taking the stage much to the delight of the audience.

The members of BCID moved across the stage with clean speed. Even when their legs appeared to move 100 miles per minute, their torsos were still, arms straight down, fists clenched.

They formed, broke down, and reformed dance circles with such agility that you would miss it if you blinked.

The stage’s lighting worked with the choreography to highlight the dancing—during “Come Alive,” choreographed by Maggie Lane, LSEHD ’21, the lights only flashed on when the dancers clapped above their heads.

Throughout the show the bright lights were often dimmed, and the colored lights would shine so powerfully that the dancers would become silhouettes on the stage.

For the group’s second to last number of the first act, it stripped down the theatrics to a minimum in order to narrow attention to their incredible agility and footwork. The song began as “Sandstorm” before the music cut out and simple lighting was cast on the stage. The dancers wore hard shoes so that every step they took could be heard, making a kind of music of its own.

The number everyone was waiting for came in the second act: “SICKO Steps.” Mikayla O’Brien, MCAS ’20, choreographed a dance to Travis Scott’s hit “SICKO MODE” with the most modern moves of the night—the dancers moved their arms throughout, something relatively unheard of in the Irish dance world. They rocked to the beat, a move that looks like they are flattening their ankles to roll left and right.

When the lights went down in between performances, the former BCID members in the audience called out to the teammates lucky enough to still be onstage.

“Who are we?” they called out, waiting only moments before roaring, “BCID.” The seniors took to the stage for a special number before end of the show.

The five danced together to “Everlasting Love,” before each had a solo. As the each girl took center stage, a slideshow of pictures was projected on the screen behind them.

Competition photos from elementary school were displayed alongside current photos of the five during their time at BC. To close, the entire ensemble returned to the stage in a horseshoe, and each dancer got a chance to jig across the stage. From start to finish, BCID gave the audience every reason to remember why it’s such a respected and popular group on campus. If this twohour performance was any indication of what’s to come in the future, BCID could be looking to reclaim its 2017 title with a win at Showdown in April. n

BC Theatre Puts Modern Twist on ‘Hamlet’

By Stephanie Liu Copy Editor

Lies and madness are central to Hamlet, perhaps the most prominent Shakespearean play, in which the young prince of Denmark discovers the truth behind the foul death of his father and struggles over what to do about the revelation.

Eventually immersing itself in the madness of the work, the Boston College theatre department’s rendition reflected on the implications of revenge.

Directed by Scott T. Cummings, the production gave the traditional masterpiece a modern twist with updated technology and casting.

Hamlet began as one would expect— the characters emerged dressed in medieval garb adorned with spears and chainmail. With the first appearance of Hamlet (Michael Mazzone, MCAS ’19), however, it became clear that this production was not going to adhere to the production’s traditional renderings. Wearing a bomber jacket covered in skulls and the angsty teenager staple Dr. Martens, Mazzone’s Hamlet

mixes two seemingly very different worlds, with his modern-day pieces coupled with a large, Elizabethan ruff around his neck.

In the famous scene where Hamlet meets the ghost of his dead father, two extra actors (Jessie Shaw, MCAS ’19, Elizabeth Koennecke, MCAS ’19) suddenly appeared on the stage, and eventually the audience inferred that those actors were in fact, new manifestations of Hamlet.

From then on, Hamlet was portrayed by several actors at once, sometimes speaking in unison, and other times sharing lines, handing off speeches to each other seamlessly. Whenever Hamlet encountered an important moment, a new Hamlet entered, eventually filling out the roster of five different Hamlets (including Aidan Mallon, MCAS ’22, and Dustin Uher, LSEHD ’19, in addition to Mazzone, Shaw, and Koennecke), with different genders, different ways of dress, and their own specific personalities: One Hamlet was brooding, while another was flirtatious.

Watching different actors portray the same character of Hamlet, the audience could visualize the madness that enveloped

TIM HEALY / HEIGHTS STAFF

Multiple actors portrayed Hamlet throughout BC Theatre’s production of the classic play.

Hamlet over the course of the play.

The performance made use of the intimacy of the Bonn Studio—the audience could hear the actors running behind them, continuing scenes even after they had disappeared from sight. Every single audience member got a different experience of Hamlet, as different angles of viewing the play revealed hidden per-

spectives that an audience member sitting from a different angle would not have been able to see.

Screens and cameras were also introduced into the production, as one of the Hamlets always carried around a video camera that live broadcasted his surroundings onto the four screens in the room, creating an eerie atmosphere. n

It’s difficult to write about someone who was such a creative visionary but— and there’s no better way to say this—truly sucked as a person. Karl Lagerfeld, who died on Feb. 19, was best known for being the creative designer for Chanel and also made headlines by saying some insanely provocative and controversial things without remorse. He’s described Adele as “a little too fat,” and made countless comments along those same lines—for him, derogatory comments about any girl above a size 0 were commonplace.

He cruelly criticized Pippa Middleton’s face and, not so gently toeing the line of racism, Michelle Obama’s hair. He was not, by any means, a good person. But he was an intriguing one.

Thinking back to the complicated legacies of the likes of Andy Warhol, isn’t it strange how some of the most mesmerizing art came from incredibly twisted minds? Maybe it’s because these artists aren’t afraid to offend people. They create without fear of judgement, and in that quality there is something to be admired.

Lagerfeld was a man of many contradictions: The fashion icon had a thick German accent, yet spoke impeccable English. He was opinionated and condescending, but spoke in a methodical, calculated manner.

He directed some of the most ambitious, fashion-forward lines at Fendi, Channel, and his namesake fashion house, but stuck to a colorless uniform of a suit, tie, sunglasses, and leather gloves in his later years. Although a well-documented public figure, he has somehow maintained an aura of mystery, even in the era of the ever-invasive paparazzi that flocks to the fashionable few: We, the proletariat, haven’t seen his eyes in years, and no one knew his actual birth year until his birth certificate was published.

Even after this information was made public, he continued to lie about his age.

Despite growing up in World War II Germany, he purportedly didn’t know about the war while it was going on.

Lagerfeld was involved with Jacques de Bascher, a French model and aristocrat, and was aware of his affair with longtime friend Yves Saint Laurent—and he stuck with de Bascher anyway. There’s something to be said for Lagerfeld’s work ethic and drive—he took Chanel, a then fashion house on the brink of collapse, and turned it into a lasting powerhouse.

His 36-year reign at the now 109-year-old Paris fashion house revolutionized the world of modern fashion and allowed him to become one of the most prolific designers in the industry.

He made the oversight of multiple labels commonplace, as as creative director for Chanel, Fendi, and his own label Karl Lagerfeld simultaneously. According to The New Yorker, Lagerfeld’s workload was “staggering,” as he was “producing eight collections a year for Chanel, five for Fendi,” as well as several for his own label.

He is best known for his amazingly imaginative work, and based on his seemingly-endless array of controversial opinions, maybe that’s all he should be known for. I’m not really sure if Lagerfeld’s eerie persona amounted to much more than useless intrigue. wIt’s difficult to say whether Chanel will find a replacement quite as iconic as Lagerfeld. It isn’t unlikely, though, that it will be another uber-entitled person with an exponential number of controversial opinions.

Maybe artists like Lagerfeld need to be detached from the world, hovering over from their pedestal up in the sky—it gives them a viewpoint that no regular person could ever have. But with that lofty worldview should come a certain degree of impartiality. If you’re not living in our earthly, human world, you shouldn’t offer your speculation—it’s only fair. And while my last 700 words make an attempt to give a sweeping overview of his incredible work, as well as many shortcomings and faults, nobody can sum up Lagerfeld’s nature better than the man himself. In an interview prior to a fashion show in 2007, he said, “I have no human feelings.” And I think that’s all we needed to know.

Emily Himes is the assoc. arts editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com on Twitter.

ARTS

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@BCHeightsArts

Monday, February 25, 2019

A Campus Divided:

EDITOR’S NOTE: Black students make up 4 percent of the Boston College student body. Despite limited representation throughout campus—in classes, in student organizations, and at events—black students compose a significant portion of the arts community at BC: 3 of 16 dance groups—Presenting Africa To You (PATU), Sexual Chocolate, and Females Incorporating Sisterhood Through Step (F.I.S.T.S.)—are historically black student groups, and Black Experience in America Through Song (B.E.A.T.S.) exists as 1 of 10 a cappella groups. This featured story is part of a series that celebrates black students’ invaluable contributions to the arts community.

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

HEIGHTS ARCHIVES

B.E.A.T.S.: A Decade of Artistry and Activism

By Kaylie Ramirez Arts Editor

Casper Augustus Ferguson—a “mellow, kind gentleman,” according to his classmate and friend David Futransky, BC ’37—first stepped onto the Boston College campus as a student in 1933. The first black student to attend the University, Ferguson was an intelligent young man who graduated at the top of his class at Roxbury Memorial High School and was more than prepared to receive a college education. But was BC ready to receive Ferguson and his talents?

Finding no other students who could relate to his experience as a black man in a preBrown v. Board, pre-Civil Rights America, Ferguson was ostracized from the social scene and excluded from the school’s clubs and organizations. At BC, Ferguson found no comfort in community.

Eighty-six years later, Ferguson would find a vastly different BC: Today, 4 percent of students are black, and black students have grounded themselves in a community boasting a number of organizations intended for support and enrichment— ranging from the African Student Organization (ASO) and Black Student Forum (BSF) to black and majority black dance groups, such as Presenting African To You (PATU), Females Incorporating Sisterhood Through

Step (F.I.S.T.S.), and Sexual Chocolate.

Among these organizations, Black Experience in America Through Song (B.E.A.T.S.), a majority black a cappella group, acts as a sort of initiator, a booming presence that signals the opening of various black student-centric events with the signature performance of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a 1900 James Weldon Johnson poem that has since been set to music and converted into a song. Popularly referred to as the “Black National Anthem,” the song timelessly documents the harsh struggles endured by and unrelenting persistence of black Americans. Much like the sun peeking over the horizon in the early morning hours indicate the end of night, the familiar words transform a room into a space for the expression of unity and love.

“The reason why we always sing ‘Lift Every Voice’ before every performance is to show that we are all connected, no matter what,” Nikitaa Newton, president of B.E.A.T.S. and LSEHD ’19, said.

One particular performance of the song struck a chord with Charles F. Smith Jr., BC’s first black tenured faculty member and Professor Emeritus in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development. An attendee at this year’s Black History Month Opening Celebration, Smith remarked to Hanna Kim, a member of B.E.A.T.S. and LSEHD ’20, that he

remembered a time when he had to initiate the song, a time when there were too few black students at BC to create the symphony of unified voices that the members of B.E.A.T.S. and the event’s attendees created that night. Smith began teaching at BC in 1968.

Artist Carrie Mae Weems, whose exhibit Strategies of Engagement highlighted stories of African identity and American oppression at the McMullen Museum of Art in the fall, also asked the group to perform the song at the exhibit’s opening on Sept. 7, 2018.

B.E.A.T.S.’ unique ability to unify black students, faculty, and community members through song is an extension of the connectedness between its members.

Now 14 members strong, the group was founded with 13 members in 2009 by then co-presidents Titiciana Barros, BC ’11, and Amber Shackelford, BC ’11, along with Earl Edwards, BC ’10; Diana Morris, BC ’11; and Catherine Duarte, BC ’11. According to an article published in The Heights on Dec. 7, 2009, Barros took to the mic at the B.E.A.T.S.’ inaugural performance and declared the group’s mission: to “educate the BC community about the traditions and struggles of African-Americans through song.”

This mission has evolved over time to be more inclusive of black students who are not a part of the African Diaspora, however.

Rather than focusing exclusively on the experiences of African-American students, B.E.A.T.S. tries to incorporate elements of experiences of black American students of all different backgrounds.

“Although we are called the ‘Black Experience,’ we are not saying that we embody everyone’s black experience,” Bryan Paula Gonzalez, vice president of B.E.A.T.S. and LSEHD ’19, said. “But we do hope that we can be a space on campus where people feel represented, and if they don’t, we hope to

give people the platform to represent themselves, to be included in that experience.”

Newton added that the group has also shifted from representing black “traditions.”

While the organization prides itself as an R&B and soul group—both genres that are rooted in black culture—the B.E.A.T.S. president recognizes that there are far too many black traditions from all over the world to justly represent them all onstage.

“I don’t feel like it is our mission to share the traditions, because I feel like that would be too much to do since there are so many black traditions,” Newton said. “But definitely our struggles [are] perceived through our music.”

Although the group aims to encompass aspects of different black experiences, not all of the members are black—some of the members are Asian, Hispanic, and white.

Regardless of race and ethnicity, each member within B.E.A.T.S. wants to take part in the celebration of black identity and culture, and all of the songs the group performs are reflective of this central purpose.

“They’re singing [about] our experience, and trying to understand it and learn from it and love it,” Newton said.

“They very much strive to embody the message of B.E.A.T.S. without appropriating a culture that isn’t theirs,” Gonzalez added.

The prevalence of soul and R&B in Korean culture has made B.E.A.T.S.—as the only soul and R&B a cappella group on campus—a fitting home for Korean students throughout its history, and at one point, B.E.A.T.S was a majority Asian a cappella group.

“I think being an ‘other,’ [having] a marginalized identity, we grow up with certain types of music,” Gonzalez said. “Being at a predominantly white institution, B.E.A.T.S. feels like home. The other groups are obviously predominantly white, and I think

B.E.A.T.S. is very intentional in creating a space for people of color on campus and creating narratives that match some of those identities on campus as well.”

This “other”-ness is a unifying force within the group: B.E.A.T.S aims to provide a space where students who feel as if they do not fit into the BC social scene—who feel an otherness similar to that felt by Ferguson during his time at BC—can come together and be a part of a welcoming and supportive environment. During especially challenging times, B.E.A.T.S. allows its members to express their emotions without the added pressure of rebuttal that often comes with tough conversations.

“I particularly remember the day that Trump got elected was the day that we had practice, and—as black students—that was hard for us,” Gonzalez said. “That practice we literally just sat there and talked and we sang ‘Lift Every Voice’ and that was the most powerful moment.”

Spending long hours practicing and performing together, the members develop strong relationships and forge spiritual, almost metaphysical connections. Often times when Newton and Gonzalez are selecting songs for a performance, they can immediately match the music to a performer’s personality. This process pulls emotional, passionate solos out of the members during performances.

While students of different backgrounds were welcome additions within the group, members of the black community outside of B.E.A.T.S. were not so quick to accept outsiders into what is a sacred space for many on campus. This became especially apparent in the years during which the group was majority Asian, some of which occurred while Newton and Gonzalez were

See B.E.A.T.S., A15

F.I.S.T.S.: Bringing Sisterhood to Showdown

By Jillian Ran Asst. Arts Editor

Females Incorporating Sisterhood Through Step, better known as F.I.S.T.S., takes its name to heart. The all-female step team, formed in 1999 alongside Sexual Chocolate, serves as a tight-knit community for women at Boston College, especially women of color.

Djanan Kernizan, current captain of F.I.S.T.S. and MCAS ’19, didn’t intend to join the group before she arrived at BC. She didn’t even know what step was. But when a friend insisted she accompany her to tryouts, she came along, although she was sure she wouldn’t make it onto the team.

“As women, we’re taught that if we’re not good at something, it’s the end of the world, and I felt that,” Kernizan said.

But both Kernizan and her friend ended up making the cut, and Kernizan quickly grew to love both step and her fellow members, although step was initially unfamiliar to her.

“It’s something that no one’s good at, unless you’ve stepped before, but no one’s really stepped before,” Kernizan said.

Because most incoming members don’t have experience stepping, the first semester of each season is spent teaching them the basics. For choreography, F.I.S.T.S. draws inspiration from previous performances.

Older members and alumni incorporate moves that they remember learning.

Although F.I.S.T.S. is less known on campus than its brother team, or even sometimes referred to as “the female Sexual Chocolate,” the two groups are distinct from each other, partly because of societal expectations of how women should behave.

While Sexual Chocolate is known for

INSIDE ARTS

its risqué routines, it would be out of the question for F.I.S.T.S. to follow suit. Because the team is all-female, Kernizan said, provocative dances would be perceived in a more critical light.

“We’re not allowed to do a lot of things that they can do,” Kernizan said. “I definitely think that our images are very different just because as a female team, if we did do the same thing, it wouldn’t be applied or received in the same way.”

Nevertheless, there’s no doubt that F.I.S.T.S. can keep up with Sexual Chocolate in terms of skill.

Just this year, for instance, F.I.S.T.S. won first place at Tufts’ Break the Stage step competition, which featured teams from colleges throughout New England. It was the cherry on top for Kernizan, who was a freshman when F.I.S.T.S. won the same competition three years ago.

Now more than ever, Kernizan says, people understand that F.I.S.T.S. takes a different approach than Sexual Chocolate.

The two groups have their own styles and audiences. But they continue to maintain close ties. For example, F.I.S.T.S. and Sexual Chocolate participate in the annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. The event provides an opportunity for the groups to bond and get involved in the local community.

“We definitely want to always foster that relationship,” Kernizan said. “It’s something that we’ve always had since we were founded.”

As an organization dedicated to female empowerment, F.I.S.T.S. works with Strong Women Strong Girls to teach young girls in underserved communities to step. It’s a way to introduce girls of color to an important facet of black culture, as well as an activity

‘BCID Showcase’

that Kernizan says promotes confidence and assertiveness. As a Women’s and Gender Studies minor, she noted how women are socialized to take up less space from a young age.

In contrast, step requires dancers to move with confidence and unapologetically take up space. Kernizan can personally attest to the positive impact that practicing step can have on women’s self esteem.

“I was a completely different person when I joined F.I.S.T.S.,” Kernizan said. “I wouldn’t take up space or I would feel really small. I remember the first thing my captain told me when I was a freshman, she was like ‘Djanan you’re going to have to take up space, you have to be big!’”

In addition to stepping, F.I.S.T.S. performs small skits at their performances, so members have to be comfortable being loud and dramatic.

“You don’t realize it’s happening until you’re literally a senior and you’re like ‘oh wow, it’s easy to just do these things now and I’m going to bring that into my life and I’m gonna be heard and I’m gonna be seen.’ The confidence that you have to have to perform in front of thousands of people really transfers over.”

Like many of BC’s dance groups, the members of F.I.S.T.S. come from a broad spectrum of backgrounds. Although F.I.S.T.S. is designed to be a community for women of color in particular, Kernizan takes pride in the diversity of the group.

One of F.I.S.T.S.’ members is an international student from China. Another is a transfer student. There are black, white, and Asian members. Yet they’re all united through step, and the group serves as a platform to have serious discussions, whether they’re about being a woman at BC, romantic rela-

‘Hamlet’

tionships, or racism on campus.

“Because these teams aren’t just dancing, they become organizations that you’re able to have these conversations in and have people that support you, and not just look like you … but people who accept you and have your best intentions in mind.”

F.I.S.T.S. makes sure to check in with its members in the wake of racist incidents. Because of the alarming regularity of these events, older members become disappointed that they have to continually facilitate this kind of dialogue. But, Kernizan says, it’s important to support younger members who haven’t encountered these kinds of incidents before.

Last year, after a Black Lives Matter sign was defaced in Roncalli Hall, Kernizan said she took a simple but effective route in response: “Alright guys, let’s go in a circle and tell me how you feel,” Kernizan recalls saying to the group.

Following Kernizan’s invitation to express themselves, the group had an honest, emotional

BC Irish Dance moved across the Robsham stage with agility BC Theatre’s ‘Hamlet’ enlisted new technology and present and precision at its annual Showcase.........................................A15 day costumes for a new spin on the old classic.................... A15

discussion that she considers one of her most significant experiences as a member of F.I.S.T.S. As an organization committed to combating

racism and promoting diversity, F.I.S.T.S. maintains strong relationships with other AHANA+ groups on campus. Many of its members are involved with other cultural communities, like the Haitian Association and the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center, and this year, the group was invited to perform at the Black History Month Opening Ceremony.

For 20 years, F.I.S.T.S. has been showcasing step to BC, and in the process, maintaining a sisterhood of women who can speak honestly and support each other through thick and thin.

“You instantly have a community that loves and cares about you,” Kernizan said. “That’s the most important thing, but also knowing that at the end of the day we’re stepping and we’re gonna be strong and we have an outside appearance. Having step as the piece that connects us is just beautiful.” n

‘Paddleton’........................................... A14 ‘Father of 4’. ............................................... A14 ‘Climax’................................................... A14