The Heights February 26, 2018

HEIGHTS

THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

EST. 1919

WWW.BCHEIGHTS.COM

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2018

SINGER SPOTLIGHTS ARTS

SUPER 8 SPORTS

The contestants for ‘Sing it to the Heights’ talk musical influence and their upcoming performances.

After dispatching UVM with ease, women’s hockey is on to its eighth-straight Hockey East semifinal appearance.

B8

B1

With Appeal Moot, BC Won’t Bargain Voluntarily Statement cites in part lack of ‘overwhelming support’ for union.

BY JACK GOLDMAN Copy Editor Boston College responded Thursday night to the Graduate Employees Union’s continued requests for theUniversity to enter voluntarily into bargaining.

“The United Auto Workers’ (UAW) withdrawal of its petition to the [National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)] means that the UAW is no longer the exclusive bargaining agent for graduate students at Boston College and there is no action pending before the NLRB,” Vice President for Human Resources David Trainor said in an email. “Because of this decision, the election held in September is moot. As a result, there is no legal basis to require

the University to grant the graduate students’ request to bargain and, given our firm position on the matter, no intention on the University’s behalf to do so voluntarily. The decision to abandon the formal recognition process and seek voluntary recognition is nothing more than an attempt on the part of the UAW to gain what they were concerned they could not achieve legally.

“It is important to note that there was never overwhelming support for this unionization effort among graduate students. The now moot election resulted in approximately 1/3 of the eligible graduate students voting in favor of the union, 1/3 (although 46 fewer than the votes in favor) voting against the union, and 1/3 of graduate students not voting at all.”

In the past few months, the union has garnered further support through other

Five BC women’s hockey players won gold in PyeongChang, the first Eagles to do so in the Winter Games.

See Union, A3

JAE C. HONG / AP PHOTO

Assembly Closes Black History Month Wayne Budd was awarded the Judge David Nelson Award.

BY JACK GOLDMAN Copy Editor

NICOLE CHAN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Election Data Shows Variations by School This year’s voting turnout was the highest since 2015.

BY JACK MILLER Assoc. Investigative Editor Two thousand eight hundre d eighty students voted in the recent election for president and executive vice president of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College. The

winners, Reed Piercey, MCAS ’19, and Ignacio Fletcher, MCAS ’20, received 1,551 votes, while Taraun Frontis, CSOM ’19, and Aneeb Sheikh, MCAS ’20, received 1,329 in total, but were penalized 125 votes by the Elections Committee for negative campaigning on social media.

Turnout this year, coming in at 30.7 percent of the undergraduate population, is the highest since the

See Election Stats, A3

On Friday evening, the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center (BAIC) hosted a Black History Month Closing Assembly entitled “Still Black” in the Heights Room. During the event, BAIC presented the inaugural Judge David Nelson Award to attorney Wayne Budd, BC ’63.

The award is presented to an exemplary leader in the black community who, in the words of Akosua Achampong, Undergraduate Government of Boston College president and MCAS ’18, hails from Boston College and paves the road for people coming behind them while being thankful for those who came before them.

David Nelson, BC ’57 and BC Law ’60, was the first African American to be nominated to become a federal judge in Massachusetts. He also served as a member of BC’s Board of Trustees for five terms, and as chair from 1984 to 1987. Budd was appointed the Associate Attorney General in 1992, and served on BC’s Board of Trustees and the Board of Advisors for the Carroll School of Management.

During his acceptance speech, Budd

TAYLOR PERISON / HEIGHTS STAFF

Budd is a former U.S. attorney for Massachusetts and associate U.S. attorney general.

cited his personal relationship with Nelson as the reason the award meant so much to him.

“David Nelson was more than just a mentor—he was my friend and my role model,” Budd said. “He helped me in so many ways, including getting on the Board of Trustees here at this University. But the most important thing from my perspective with regard to Judge Nelson was he taught me. He taught me how important it was to take advantage of opportunities, and to establish a good reputation within the community.”

After a standing ovation for Budd subsided, BC sociology professor C. Shawn McGuffey spoke on the importance and nuances of intersectionality in America and at BC. His talk had the audience snapping after nearly every sentence.

“I am here because I come from a long line of people who clean buildings like this,” McGuffey said. “And I hold those people with me when I come into buildings like this.”

McGuffey told the story of how he came

See Closing Assembly, A3

Students Propose Legal Studies Minor, Survey Gauges Interest 130 students said that they would minor in legal studies if offered.

BY CHARLIE POWER Asst. News Editor A proposal for a legal studies minor began circulating among the Boston College community last week, with an attached survey to gauge student interest. Nishant Varma, MCAS ’21—one of the primary organizers of the proposal—said there were 195 responses as of Sunday afternoon.

Of the respondents, 45.7 percent

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

said they were pre-law while 47.3 percent said they were not. One hundred thirty respondents said that they would minor in legal studies if it were offered, and 52 said that they would consider it.

If approved, Varma sees the minor as an opportunity for students to become more familiar with the law, regardless of their future career interests.

“This minor would be the perfect way to get exposure, because you’re not committing yourself to anything, and you’re still learning about the law,” he said. “It would serve to give you knowledge about the law and develop

NEWS: Global Engagement

BC has created a Global Engagement committee...........................................................A3

the skills necessary for practicing it.”

“We feel that the current Pre-Law track at BC is insufficient, and there is extreme interest within the student body to learn about the law,” said Brigid Kelley, another organizer of the proposal and MCAS ’19, in an email.

“My hope is that the Legal Studies minor is an academic area where students can be supported beyond the classroom to have a community of other like-minded students to learn and grow from.”

She also added that the minor would be called “Legal Studies” rather than “Pre-Law” since it would be a collection of courses in and about the

legal field.

The minor would consist of 18 credits, with all students required to take an introductory course, Law I - Introduction to Law & Legal Process, a class currently offered in the Carroll School of Management’s (CSOM) business law department.

Additionally, successful completion of the minor would require enrolling in Philosophy of Law—a course designed as a senior capstone seminar.

Two classes must come from both the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences and CSOM. Most of the proposed CSOM electives are in the business law department, while

FEATURES: The Conversation Inside the resignation of two UGBC senators.............................................................A4

INDEX

MCAS courses would span several different departments, including history, economics, and political science.

Courses in the Woods College of Advancing Studies would also count for credit.

“There are already classes in the curriculum of both CSOM and MCAS that contain relevant information for this minor, and Nishant and I are hoping to show the administration that the bones for this minor are already in place, we just need some administrative organization to develop the minor,” Kelley said.

See Pre-Law Minor, A3

NEWS.........................A2 OPINIONS................... A6

Vol. XCIX, No. 6 MAGAZINE..................A4 SPORTS......................B1 © 2018, The Heights, Inc. METRO........................ A5 ARTS..........................B8 www.bchelghts.com 69

The Heights

A2

TOP

3

things to do on campus this week

1

On Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 5 p.m., former Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon will speak in Robsham Theater on human welfare and global citizenship. Students will need to pick up tickets, which begins today in Robsham starting at 9 a.m. Students are required to show their Boston College ID to secure a ticket.

Monday, February 26, 2018

2

Paul Farmer, of Partners in Health and Harvard Medical School, will be coming to campus on Tuesday, Feb. 27. The talk is entitled “Accompaniment in Practice: A Conversation with Paul Farmer” and will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Murray Function Room in the Yawkey Center. The evening is hosted by the Connell School of Nursing.

3

The BC Career Center with host a networking event on pursuing careers in health and health care. Students will have the opportunity to talk to alumni and professionals to learn about career options and graduate school. It is open to all BC undergraduates and will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 27 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Higgins 225.

NEWS Riley Doubts Representation, Prosperity Linked BRIEFS

By Katie Murphy

Prof. Wins APSA Award

Associate professor of political science Jennifer Erickson won the American Political Science Association (APSA) Foreign Policy Section’s Best Book Award for 2017.

Her book, entitled Dangerous Trade: Arms Exports, Human Rights, and International Reputation, surveys the record of failed arms export control proposals, in addition to tracking arms sales over time.

Erickson profiles the shift in attitudes concerning the international arms trade. Most countries, including major arms-exporting democracies, were historically not enthusiastic proponents of agreements to restrict arms sales abroad.

However, Erickson reveals that states gradually began to shift their policies out of concern for their reputation. Arms trade scandals can threaten both international and domestic credibility.

Recent efforts in the United Nations resulted in the passage of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in 2013. The agreement called for the compliance of all states with legally binding responsible arms trade standards. The U.N. is a signatory to the treaty, but the Senate has not ratified it.

“It is a thoughtful articulation of principles governments generally support, and having this on paper provides a tool to push back on countries that flout or ignore those tenets, and to hold them accountable,” said Erickson to BC News.

“The ATT is a means to bring about a change in behavior, and not surprisingly, this can be a slow process,” she said. “Transparency in the arms trade—which the treaty seeks to foster—is critical: If no one pays attention, governments will keep on doing what they want to do.”

U.S. Catholic Leaders Gather Fifteen United States Catholic bishops came to campus on Feb. 19 for a seminar and discussion centering around Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation on the family Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love).

University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., was in attendance to welcome the bishops. Cardinals Donald Wuerl of Washington and Wilton Gregory of Atlanta spoke at the event.

The conference builds on a twoday program at Boston College last fall, hosted by BC Jesuit Institute director and Canisius professor of theology Rev. James F. Keenan, S.J., and Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich. Amoris Laetitia was also the focus of that gathering. This event was also organized by Keenan and Cupich, as well as Vatican Prefect Cardinal Kevin Farrell.

The seminar focused on the opportunities presented by the Pope’s document and how the teachings might relate to an increasingly diverse U.S. Church.

The seminar at BC was the first of three scheduled gatherings to discuss Amoris Laetitia. The group will reconvene at the University of Notre Dame and Santa Clara University.

Other participants from BC in the seminar included Monan Professor of Theology Lisa Sowle Cahill, Libby Professor of Theology and Law Cathleen Kaveny, professor of theology M. Shawn Copeland, Joseph Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology Richard Gaillardetz, School of Theology and Ministry associate professor Hosffman Ospino, School of Theology and Ministry associate professor Jane Regan, and associate professor of theology Brian Robinette.

Heights Staff

Jason Riley, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, is not afraid to speak on issues that are often seen as controversial. As a part of the celebration of Black History Month and the Chambers Lecture Series, the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics sponsored “The State of Affairs in America: A conversation about race and immigration with Jason Riley.”

In addition to working as a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute as well as a commentator for Fox News. He is also the author of Let Them In, False Black Power?, and Please Stop Helping Us. Beginning with the main theme of his latest book, False Black Power?, Riley based his argument around the statement, “President Obama needed black voters more than black voters needed President Obama.” In saying this, Riley meant that political success did not fix problems that black people in America face. The political gains in politics that Obama and other black leaders have made have not been able to translate into economic success that poor black communities need, according to Riley.

“What I’m suggesting is that the

belief that a black president would make a big difference in racial inequality was a misplaced belief,” he said.

Riley listed off statistics showing that poor, black communities became worse-off during Obama’s presidency in comparison to the entire U.S. population, as well as poor, white communities. He cited these facts as evidence that the policies that Obama and other liberal leaders put in place are not producing the desired outcomes in raising people out of poverty.

In Riley’s opinion, gaining political capital is not the solution to helping black people in America. Instead, developing human capital and making economic gains outside of the political sphere is the right place to start.

“The reality is that most groups in America that have risen economically have done so with little or no political influence,” Riley said. “And groups that have enjoyed early political success have risen to prosperity more slowly.”

To back up this claim, he gave an example of German and Irish immigrants who were originally discriminated against when they arrived in the United States. Riley said that these groups first worked to gain economic clout and once they were economically stable, they entered politics and were able to make a difference to help

Jake Evans / heights staff

Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley spoke on race and immigration. their communities. This, he said, is what black people in America should try to do instead of focusing solely on political gains.

He cited examples from the period of the ‘40s through the ’70s, when black people in America made unprecedented economic gains while facing political oppression.

“Blacks today hear plenty about what they can’t achieve due to racism and the legacy of slavery, and not enough about what they did in fact achieve notwithstanding hundreds of years of bondage and political segregation,” Riley said.

He also talked about how a topic

that most people shy away from: the idea of personal responsibility within the black community.

“In many cases today you’re dealing with black leadership that considers any focus on black responsibility and accountability to be itself a form of racism,” he said.

He expressed that the only way to move forward is to have these types of hard discussions.

“More than anything else, black underclass needs human capital, the values, the habits, the attitudes, the behaviors, that facilitate economic advancement, regardless of who gets elected,” he said. n

BC Launches Committee to Expand Global Presence

By Cole Dady News Editor Aiming to expand Boston College’s global presence, the University has launched the Global Engagement Committee, a group of 25 students, faculty, and administrators who will advise BC on achieving this goal. Following the committee’s first town hall event last Thursday, Alberto Godenzi, co-chair of the initiative, former dean of the School of Social Work, and special advisor to University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., discussed the details and overall purpose of the initiative with The Heights.

One key focus within BC’s most recent strategic plan, Ever to Excel, is to increase the University’s presence and impact in the City of Boston, the United States, and around the world.

As Georgetown University launched an initiative with similar goals in 2006 and the University of Notre Dame in 2016, Godenzi believes there is a clear opportunity to explore BC’s global engagement and take a mission-driven approach to enhance it.

“BC has been growing from a regional university to a national one,” Godenzi said. “We have been engaged internationally, but not in a strategic

way.

“We can’t be everywhere, but we can make a few targeted investments given our strengths. We are in a point in our history in which it makes sense to bring this together in an integrated fashion so that our impact can extend and our collaborations can grow.”

In the committee’s first meeting in October, Leahy gave the group a charge: He told them to take stock of what’s going on at BC, to understand where the University is strategically, and to look at the internalization and global presence of its peer universities. Godenzi and the committee then began to evaluate 22 universities, as well as meet with approximately 200 members of the BC community to gather insight into what the University should do to enhance its presence on the global stage.

Although Godenzi and the committee still have more research to perform, they have gathered insight into a number of initiatives that BC can take on—he hopes the committee will lay out an official plan for the University in October. Some of his ideas are that BC could leverage its study abroad program in Ireland to become a “gateway to Europe,” foster collaborations in regions of the world where it has little presence, and give students who decide not to

study abroad a more “international experience” here in Chestnut Hill.

“I would only see this as a successful project if faculty, students, staff, and alumni were engaged wherever we choose to be engaged,” Godenzi said.

In Thursday’s town hall meeting, Godenzi and the committee discussed four areas that BC could improve: student mobility, faculty global engagement, internationalizing learning, and establishing global partnerships.

One finding that the committee has made thus far is that there is a lack of awareness across BC’s schools of the projects, research, and initiatives occurring. Godenzi suggested that BC could address this discrepancy by creating a repository database about what’s happening in certain regions of the world.

“There are so many things happening that faculty and staff are doing, but the striking thing is that people don’t know about them,” Godenzi said.

He also pointed out that BC has reached a new high in the enrollment of international students, but explained that the University could do better—its combined undergraduate and graduate international student population rose from from 1,606 last year to a record 1,751 this year, as The

Heights reported last month.

On the undergraduate level, this rate only represents around 6 percent of the student body, whereas other institutions currently have 15 to 20 percent international student enrollment.

Godenzi mentioned that international student applications to universities in the United States decreased last year, which could have a potentially negative ripple effect on BC. Additionally, as the majority of BC’s international student population comes from China, Godenzi believes the University should diversify its international student body.

Godenzi also suggested that BC could consider offering financial aid to international students to appeal to a wider variety of students, who otherwise would not be able to afford attending BC. He and the committee hope to engage the entire BC community in this effort to internationalize the school.

They see a prime opportunity to gain input from the community on what projects and initiatives the University should undertake to become a global leader in higher education.

“This internationalization is a means, not an end, to make the University better,” Godenzi said. n

POLICE BLOTTER: 2/21/18 – 2/23/18 Monday, Feb. 19

3:15 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a drug law violation in Gonzaga Hall.

ing a medical incident at Stuart Hall.

6:51 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a medical incident in the Flynn Sports Complex

Wednesday, Feb. 21

1:53 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a medical incident at Maloney Hall.

Tuesday, Feb. 20

12:24 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a property confiscation at Newton Lots.

1:06 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a traffic crash in front of Hillside Cafe.

2:43 a.m. - A report was filed regard-

Thursday, Feb. 22 10:22 a.m. - A report was filed regarding property confiscated in Voute.

11:26 a.m. - A report was filed regarding property confiscated at 66 Commonwealth Ave. 3:26 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a suspicious circumstance at the Middle Campus Lots.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

CORRECTIONS What would you win a gold medal for at the Winter Olympics?

“Figure skating because I could wear the cute costumees.”

—Julia Fuqua, MCAS ’21

“Downhill skiing because I’ve skied my whole life.”

—Daniel Coates, MCAS ’21

“Ski half-pipe. It’s something I like to do every so often.”

—Alex Kim, MCAS ’20

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

“Speed skating because it looks really pleasing to me.”

—Catherine Henckel, MCAS ’18

The Heights

Monday, February 26, 2018

A3

BC Sees Increase in Chinese Students

By Cole Dady News Editor

Taylor Perison / Heights Staff

Assembly Celebrates Black

History Month’s Importance Closing Ceremony, from A1 across a book entitled The Negro Travelers’ Green Book in college. At first glance, it’s just a list of restaurants and businesses, but upon closer perusal, it reveals something more startling: The book, released annually from 1936 to 1966, was a guide for black Americans to find safe havens as they began travel throughout their home country freely for the first time.

But in McGuffey’s opinion, his array of experiences—specifically being held at gunpoint by police in New York City and Boston—show that there needs to be an updated metaphorical version of The Green Book published in culture for all minorities.

Systemic racism is alive and well in American culture, McGuffey said, and he realized that The Green Book had begun to resonate with him in new, more personal ways due to his experiences with discrimination.

He suggested representation and individuals claiming their identities in public spaces were the best ways to rewrite The Green Book. He cited Sojourner Truth’s, bell hooks’, and Laverne Cox’s words on representation as his gospel on this matter. All three worked to establish the importance of existing in public space. In McGuffey’s eyes, there is nothing more important than defying “conventions if those conventions define [one’s] personhood.”

The professor cited his own experience as an example of what people can do to change the world’s experience with intersectionality.

“I proudly live my own truth as an unapologetically black queer man from Kentucky working in a predominantly and historically white universities,” he

said. “And I say all that because representation matters—both as a possibility model for others but also as a means of organizing action.”

Countless tragedies, including the ones involving Tamir Rice, Philando Castille, Alton Sterling, and transgender women Jasmine Sierra and Reecey Walker, along with the Pulse Nightclub Shooting, are examples of how hard it is for minorities to find safety, McGuffey explained. In particular, the less publicized tragedies involving Sierra and Walker stood out to him.

“Women’s bodies, and especially women of color’s bodies, and black trans women of color’s bodies in particular, are routinely threatened,” he said.

“We must demand more of others, we must demand more of ourselves, we must demand more of our college campuses, and we must demand more of our political leaders,” he said. “And that is why, despite the somberness of this, I am actually hopeful, because we are demanding and I am seeing progress.”

McGuffey closed by emphasizing how Black Lives Matter serves as both a symbol of black resistance and a symbol of black love. He called for a combined march of those supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and those in Florida advocating for gun laws, as well as taking a closer look at the way victims of different races have been treated in the aftermath of the Ferguson and Parkland shootings.

“In my opinion, we must respectfully juggle the fact that racism must color the way we see how amazing these activists are treated, very differently from the thoughtful leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement,” he said. “We must do both of these.” n

BC Says It Will Not Bargain With Grad Employees Union Union, from A1 petitions it has gained signatures on, as well as issuing an online form this week asking for the support of undergraduate students and faculty members. Those petitions do not obligate BC to consider recognizing the union, and the University has not changed its stance since those petitions began.

“In addition, contrary to what union advocates have suggested, the University provides significant support and benefits to its graduate students,” Trainor wrote. “Graduate research and teaching assistants are provided with tax-free tuition and generous annual stipends. Doctoral research and teaching assistants receive free healthcare—a benefit that exceeds that offered to BC employees, who pay up to 25% of the premium cost of their insurance. Similar to BC employees, doctoral research and

teaching assistants may also elect optional dental coverage at their cost.”

The union has pushed back against this argument in the past, but the University has remained steadfast in its argument, mentioned in previous letters sent out by BC to the community, that these benefits are enough support for its graduate students. Trainor closed his statement with a reiteration of the foundational arguments behind BC’s unwillingness to recognize the union.

“As we have stated from the beginning, the University believes that graduate student unionization in any form undermines the longstanding collegial mentoring relationship experience between student and faculty that is a cornerstone of this academic community. We will continue to uphold this fundamentally educational relationship, which we believe is in the mutual best interest of our students and faculty.” n

The number of Chinese students on campus increased 24 percent this year, from 641 last year to 793 this year, setting a new record for the University in Chinese student enrollment. John Mahoney, director for undergraduate admissions, and Adrienne Nussbaum, assistant dean and director of the Office of International Students and Scholars, attributed a variety of factors to this growth.

“This year’s increase in enrollment from China is largely driven by a three percentage point increase in freshman yield over last year,” Mahoney said in an email. “While this was unexpected, we’re pleased that such strong students from China are recognizing the quality of a Boston College education.”

Additionally, Nussbaum explained that Chinese undergraduates did not commonly come to the United States in the past. But a few years ago, the country started to encourage students seeking undergraduate educations in the U.S. and began offering for students to take the SAT.

Most American colleges, including BC, have seen a significant increase in applications from China over the past five to 10 years. BC, however, has not changed its recruiting methods as its enrollment of Chinese students has grown.

One added benefit of international students’ attending BC as undergraduates is that they are required to pay full tuition. But Nussbaum emphasized that the University doesn’t use international students’ tuition to supplement aid to other students, as she believes other institutions do to meet their budgeting requirements. She also explained that BC’s Global Engagement Committee, a group dedicated to increasing the University’s international presence, has discussed proposing giving limited financial aid to undergraduate international students.

But to accommodate increasing the number of international students on campus, BC would have to offer more resources and training programs to support them, as not all faculty and staff are equipped with proper cultural competency techniques.

“The whole University is trying to be more of an international institution, so we

have to ask what that means for everybody on campus,” Nussbaum said.

She also discussed the importance of diversifying BC’s international undergraduate student population, citing the need for a “back up” if their enrollment rate were to decrease dramatically.

She believes BC should source more students from Latin America and the Middle East.

“It’s not practical or wise to have the majority of your international students come from one country,” she said.

“They could have an economic decline, something could happen politically, or a natural disaster could occur—it’s not a good idea to have all of your eggs in one basket.”

Mahoney also noted that yields on high-quality students can vary from year to year, so it’s not a guarantee that enrollment from China will continue to grow at this pace.

“We’ve been fortunate to attract and enroll superb students from China,” he said. “As is true with most of our applicant pool, students from China are applying to the most competitive colleges in the United States.” n

Elections Committee Releases Statistics Election Stats, from A1 2015 elections, when 3,411 votes, which represented 37.3 percent of the undergraduate student body at the time, were counted.

In total, 1,958 students in MCAS voted, as well as 583 from the Carroll School of Management, 225 from the Lynch School of Education, and 154 from the Connell School of Nursing.

The election presented variation between the schools’ preferred candidates.

Piercey and Fletcher received 51 percent of the vote from the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences and 48 percent of the vote from the CSON, which was fairly close to the overall outcome. But students in the CSOM voted 70 percent

for Piercey and Fletcher, while those in the LSOE voted 60 percent in favor of Frontis and Sheikh.

There was also high variation in the turnout levels between the classes. This year, 750 freshmen, 988 sophomores, 665 juniors, and 515 seniors voted. That means that over 42 percent of the Class of 2020 voted, followed by 31 percent of freshmen, 29 percent of juniors, and 22 percent of seniors.

Like its voter turnout, the sophomore class’s majority vote differed from other class years. Although 53.8 percent of all classes together voted for Piercey and Fletcher, the Class of 2020 swung for Piercey and Fletcher by 66.4 percent.

There was an even greater divergence

between the Class of 2018 and undergraduates’ voting. 60 percent of seniors preferred Frontis and Sheikh, preferring them over Piercey and Fletcher. They were also the only class for which every school voted for the duo.

A small number of students only voted for the Students for Sexual Health referendum, which asked students whether SSH should be able to distribute contraceptives and hold meetings on campus. Students were able to answer this question on the ballot one day longer than the UGBC election, resulting in a different vote total. Ultimately, the referendum passed with 94 percent approval, 2,825 votes to 177, although the results have no required effect on University policy. n

Students Propose Legal Studies Minor Pre-Law Minor, from A1 A proposed minor must have significant faculty support and be approved by the Office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs to be integrated into BC’s curriculum, according to Amy DiGiovine, assistant director for career engagement at the Career Center. The Heights reached out to Joe Burns, associate vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs, for comment on the proposed minor, but received no response by press time.

“Students would get a feel for what a class in law school feels like, especially legal research papers,” Varma said. “So many students go into law school having never written one, but in every in business law class, you are required to write at least one.”

“It may not translate particularly to the LSAT score, but I know it would impact students’ performance in law school,” he said. “It’s all about exposure, [and] having the opportunity to talk to professors that have practiced law.”

He tried to dispel the notion that the Legal Studies minor would solely be intended for students interested in law school.

“Our biggest thing is that anyone can take this minor, you don’t have to want to go to law school, you don’t have to want to be a lawyer,” he said. “It’s for the people that have an interest in law and want to learn about it, and that’s what minors are supposed to be for.”

The American Bar Association does not recommend that students interested in applying to law school follow any specific course regimen. Instead, the association notes that it is most important to develop research and writing skills.

“Many law school admissions professionals I have spoken with do not value undergraduate law courses or minors,” DiGiovine said.

“Law-related classes are one way to explore an interest in law,” she said.

“However, there are many other impactful ways to explore a legal interest, such as job shadows and career conversations with attorneys; visits to law schools; mentor programs with current law students; government, policy, [and] law internships; pre-law student organizations; and fulltime employment after an undergraduate education.”

Nonetheless, Varma still believes a legal studies minor would be valuable for students.

“There’s obviously going to be a big overlap between pre-law students and the minor, and there’s going to be an overlap with those who do end up going to law school,” he said. “But this minor would serve as a way for someone to decide if law school is right for them.”

“I read somewhere that [BC has] a lot of pre-law students … and I thought that there would be a lot of opportunities, and I saw they had a business law department, so I was pretty excited,” he said. “After getting here, I realized there’s no concrete

curriculum offered.”

Varma recalled how he attended an event hosted by the Bellarmine Pre-Law Society, where they had a list of classes relating to law. According to Varma, a few years ago a group of students drafted a rough proposal for a minor, but they never got any traction. The Heights also published an editorial in 2007 in the midst of discussion surrounding a law minor at BC. “But students interested in taking a law-specific approach in their undergraduate careers should at least be offered a clear set of courses that might adequately prepare them for law school or an undergraduate program of study in law,” the editorial read.

Varma walked out of that Bellarmine Pre-Law Society event wanting to restart the conversation, and he remembered thinking, “We should just give this a shot.”

He hopes it will not be too challenging to get the minor approved.

“The reason why I don’t see this being that controversial is that it is just a minor,” Varma said. “People can still major in whatever they want. Let’s say you are in science but are considering law school.

Then you can enroll in the minor and get a feel for it.

“We have a pre-law advisor, but we don’t have a pre-law department. When it comes to opportunities, our law societies on campus do a good job with holding events, but we need a department with professors.” n

The Heights

A4

Monday, February 26, 2018

The Conversation: Inside the Resignation of Two UGBC Senators In the wake of a contentious election, students sat down to give their perspectives on BC’s racial climate.

By Timmy Facciola Asst. Magazine Editor After several racist incidents sparked a widely attended week of demonstrations in October, the Student Assembly (SA) of Undergraduate Government of the Boston College passed “A Resolution Concerning Bias-Related Incidents” with almost unanimous agreement on Oct. 24.

During questioning before voting, almost all of the senators agreed on the need for the immediate investigation and expulsion of the student responsible for vandalizing the Black Lives Matter signs.

Almost all agreed on the need for a cultural competency module similar to AlcoholEdu. Almost all agreed on the need for BC to hire more faculty members of color and to “revitalize traditionally colonialist curricula with histories and contributions of people of color.”

But nobody, according to Steve DiPietro, MCAS ’19, then a UGBC senator, could agree on the definition of a person of color.

“Now for them, they may use that term every day, and they happen to know what it means, but in reality, that’s not a technical term used in academia,” DiPietro said. “So I raise my hand and say, ‘What is a person of color?’ and half the

stand for and everything they do, and I don’t know if it’s smart to affiliate our university and our organization with that movement.”

DiPietro felt the need to distinguish the statement from the movement in light of the violent protests in Ferguson, Mo. “We are not referring to [the movement], we are referring to simply the fact that black lives matter,” said Aneeb Sheikh, a UGBC senator, Frontis’s running mate in this month’s UGBC presidential election, and MCAS ’20. “It was clarified then, we’ll clarify it now again that it’s just a statement of fact—literally black lives matter.”

Although Sheikh differentiated between the movement and the message, SA decided to keep “Affirm that Black Lives Matter” as the last demand in the resolution. When it came time to vote, DiPietro got up and left. On the UGBC website, he is on the voting record as “Absent,” despite actively questioning the resolution throughout most of the meeting.

After that night and into the winter, DiPietro continued to be a voice of dissent in the SA, disagreeing not just about topics up for debate but even the basic philosophy behind the organization.

“At the last vote we had on the LGBT-

There were plenty of people during the election ... who wanted to make the election about race.

-Steve DiPietro, MCAS ’19 room starts laughing as if it’s a joke.”

The need to more concretely define “person of color” was proven, DiPietro felt, when those who laughed at his question struggled to answer it.

“People were contradicting themselves back and forth,” DiPietro said. “‘If you identify as a person of color’ and I said ‘Well what if I identify as a person of color?’ No one could could give a legitimate answer to the question.”

But according to Taraun Frontis, the AHANA+ Leadership Council (ALC) chair and CSOM ’19, there are plenty of resources available to students to educate themselves on issues regarding identity.

“We have programs to engage in this,” Frontis said. “When you come into spaces when we’re talking about Dialogue on Race, or Campus of Difference, or when AHANA+ Leadership Council has a bunch of events, most of the time we explicitly say this is your time to ask these questions.”

DiPietro, who resigned his seat on Feb. 17 after a call for an emergency meeting regarding articles of impeachment against him in response to a Facebook post he made, had another question.

The resolution asked the University to “affirm that Black Lives Matter” and DiPietro wanted the SA to clarify what that meant.

“The bill included Black Lives Matter in capital letters, as in the movement—not just that black lives matter, but that we support the movement,” DiPietro said. “With that comes everything they

whatever resolution, I raised my hand and said, ‘Do we really want to pass this bill if we all know it will damage our relationship further with the administration?’ DiPietro said. “And some girl behind me says, ‘Our goal is not improve our relationship with the administration—we’re supposed to be activists.’ And that’s what people think it is, and it’s sad that that’s what it’s come to.”

Once this year’s UGBC election came around, DiPietro said he sensed a growing emphasis on race and identity, although he did not specify from whom.

“There were plenty of people during the election, most of which did not support [Reed Piercey, MCAS ’19, and Ignacio Fletcher, MCAS ’20] who wanted to make the election about race, and they did make the election about race,” DiPietro said.

He was not the only UGBC senator unhappy with the racial climate of the election.

“I was fed up with some of the comments made during the election, specifically directed toward Reed and Ignacio and their supporting base,” said Matt Batsinelas, CSOM ’19, a former UGBC senator who resigned in solidarity with DiPietro.

On Feb. 7, Reed and Ignacio for UGBC 2018 made an unassuming post on Facebook that attracted a wave of critical comments. It was a picture of its campaign team, captioned “Meet our team! We are so excited to speak to all of you during dorm walks soon!”

Six days later, someone commented on the picture, “Wow. As a black women [sic] I feel SO represented by your team…” The next day, a member of ALC, and a friend of Frontis since their high school days at Democracy Prep, shared the picture on Facebook and captioned it, “Where’s my representation?” The comments were in apparent reference to Piercey’s campaign team photo featuring fewer people of color than Frontis’s.

“Our campaign team was just a function of the people I asked and who agreed to it,” Piercey said. “It wasn’t representative of everyone I reached out to, and in terms of diversity, it wasn’t representative of the entire student body. I think ideologically, the thrust of our campaign was very similar to the other team in that both were very progressive and in line with a lot of the work UGBC has been doing.”

Frontis and Sheikh say they had no qualms with the lack of representation on Piercey’s team.

“Just because Reed is a white man doesn’t mean he can’t advocate for marginalized communities,” Sheikh said.

According to a screenshot obtained

by The Heights, during the elections, Sheikh messaged a member of Piercey and Fletcher’s team asking, “Question for ya’ll. [...] how come your campaign team has no black people? Especially considering the incidents last semester.”

Sheikh declined to comment.

Frontis and Sheikh feel the election was read as a situation of black-versuswhite because of their identities. The two maintain that they made no effort to present themselves as more caring about BLM issues and point out that there were black people and BLM supporters who voted for Piercey.

The Frontis-Sheikh 2018 campaign saw no problems with Piercey’s identity or his support for marginalized communities. For them, the distinction was in the people on each team.

“It’s what we experienced last semester as opposed to what they experienced in their BC careers,” Frontis said.

Frontis and Sheikh experienced a lot last semester in the wake of the racist incidents on campus, organizing marches, walkouts, and resolutions.

“Obviously this isn’t Reed’s fault, but I think the fact that he was abroad [last semester] and that Taraun and Aneeb were leading the charges against the shit that was happening on campus, I think coming back from abroad having not experienced the march and everything people were posting on Facebook, like campus has changed so drastically since then,” said Fidelia Ge, a policy advisor on the Frontis-Sheikh campaign and MCAS ’20. “I don’t think he can stand in for the marginalized voices we need to be listening to,” Despite the concerns of Ge and other students, who pointed to Frontis’s and Sheikh’s track record as proof of their ability to advocate for marginalized communities, the majority of voters believed Piercey would still be able to fulfill the role of UGBC president. He and Fletcher won on Feb. 15.

DiPietro took to Facebook shortly after, not to celebrate, he said, but to start

a conversation.

He posted: “Good thing those blm freaks aren’t anywhere near ugbc leadership #staywoke #yacoubian” and linked to a Heights article on the election results.

“The fact that Reed and Ignacio won the election, I thought there were a lot of feelings that were kept kind of suppressed now that the other two candidates didn’t win,” DiPietro said. “And honestly I knew that when I made that the post a lot of people were going to be mad about it, especially people in UGBC who already know how I feel with certain issues because I was in the Senate the whole year.”

But other students interpreted the

“Articles of Impeachment against Senator Stephen DiPietro, MCAS ’19,” and it was co-sponsored by Sheikh and Fletcher, among others.

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

“He called us freaks,” Sheikh said.

“Freaks is a very dehumanizing term …

What is a freak? Define a freak.”

“I figured, unless you identify as a ‘blm freak,’ you wouldn’t be offended by this statement,” DiPietro said. “It’s not

We were seen as more BLM than them, but Taraun is a black man—how could he not be seen as more BLM? -Aneeb Sheikh, MCAS ’20 post much differently.

“It was clearly [aimed at] Taraun and I, and you could extend it to—I know Steve had to redefine it to supporters—you could extend to whoever, but like it’s first aimed at Taraun and I because we were the ones running for UGBC leadership,” Sheikh said.

“We are currently in UGBC leadership by the way,” Frontis added.

DiPietro said his post was not aimed at Frontis and Sheikh specifically, but rather at the movement behind them, which he felt was only further dividing the BC community. “‘BLM freaks’ was not directed at any candidates in the election or anyone in particular,” DiPietro said. “It was directed at certain people during the election who supported some of the candidates who were running, who were using racially motivated statements throughout the entire election, and who themselves were saying things far worse than what I said.”

The racial divide between the two teams, which DiPietro insists is intentional, was never part of either team’s plan.

“In terms of our political viewpoint, I would say [we are] pretty in line with UGBC and the circles of people who’ve been really involved with these initiatives, but also I think our campaign had a broad appeal of a message that wanted to reach out to everyone, but where that becomes a danger is in encouraging people like Steve DiPietro because that was never our intention,” Piercey said.

Despite Piercey’s best efforts, the inevitable happened.

“We were seen as more BLM than them, but Taraun is a black man—how could he not be seen as more BLM?” Sheikh said. “It’s not an active effort that we made—it’s a reflection of our identities.”

Frontis and Sheikh say they and other senators received hundreds of emails from concerned students demanding DiPietro’s impeachment.

Samuel Szemerenyi, member of the Conduct and Student Rights Committe and MCAS ’20, wrote the resolution

necessarily targeted at the Black Lives Matter movement, but it was mostly targeted at individuals who wanted to the make the election about race.”

After the impeachment resolution was written but before the process began, DiPietro resigned, and Batsinelas resigned in solidarity with him.

“I was fed up with some of the comments made during the election, specifically directed toward Reed and Ignacio and their supporting base,” Batsinelas said. “And after Steve’s comment, I believe that within the SA, you should be able to advocate for the views that you want within reason. And Steve put out there his perspective on a political movement that not everyone on this campus agrees with.”

DiPietro asserts the impeachment resolution was not his primary reason for leaving UGBC. “It wasn’t that Aneeb introduced impeachment that made me resign,” DiPietro said. “Ultimately the reason that I wanted to resign was that UGBC decided because I made a post on my personal Facebook account that they had to come out and denounce my viewpoints publicly. I, as a senator, can’t have my own viewpoints without them coming out and publicly denouncing them. It’s almost like a thought police.”

DiPietro said there are other senators in UGBC who feel similarly to him who have yet to resign, but declined to name anyone.

“Unfortunately most people on this campus, one, are not represented by UGBC and, two, don’t care about UGBC, and as a result you have a number of students who have, in my opinion, extreme views on issues that are so far from what the average student at BC actually believes, and it’s just an echo chamber of outcasts,” DiPietro said.

But UGBC says it remains dedicated to welcoming different voices.

“To any student who doesn’t feel represented by UGBC, I would say join, don’t leave. Represent yourself and continue to challenge things,” Sheikh said. “How will we fix representation if the people who don’t feel represented are leaving?” n

Kaitlin Meeks / Heights Editor│ Katie Genirs / Heights editor

The Heights

Monday, February 26, 2018

A5

Harvard Conference Discusses Power of Design in Digital Age

By Alessandro Zenati Metro Editor Post-it notes line the concrete walls of the Harvard Graduate School of Design where student projects, ranging from plastic models to abstracted structural forms, are on full display for all those who now roam the halls and loiter in the lobby. Graduate students position themselves behind a long table near the conference entrance, handling check-ins through their smartphones and distributing gift bags containing branded notebooks and pencils—a hint at the learning that is to come.

The fully catered café drew attendees for an early morning caffeine boost before taking their seats in the impressive auditorium. At the annual HarvardxDesign conference, designers, engineers, psychologists, marketers, and corporate professionals rub shoulders in a powerful exchange of insights and experiences. Here, insecurities about the future of issues like social media reporting, multidisciplinary collaboration, and online agency are embraced.

The point of the conference is to illuminate the lingering questions that must be addressed and draw from the expertise of some of the world’s brightest design-driven problem solvers to propose solutions.

Created as a two-day conference starting Feb. 23 and hosted a stone’s throw from Harvard Yard, this year’s iteration of the sixth annual HarvardxDesign series was called InfluencexDesign.

Sponsored by Cognizant, a profes-

sional services company providing IT models, and in partnership with McKinsey & Company, the conference was a result of a cross-disciplinary collaboration between the Harvard Business School, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Harvard College. The day was organized into four temporally separate but thematically linked panels: the experience of individuals, the fabric of communities, the structure of organizations, and the dynamics of systems.

Each panelist was given the opportunity to present their professional work and personal views on one of the four issues to a intellectually curious crowd.

Many feverishly scribbled down notes as legibly as they could, raising their eyes from the page only to take pictures of the slides with their phones.

Others typed away at their computers, and some recorded voice memos for future reference in the hopes of savoring every word.

This was all done with good reason, as the lineup was an unorthodox mixture of leaders with backgrounds in academia, as well as self-educators working at small design consultancy and strategy firms. For example, the “Individuals” panel featured Ida Benedetto, a senior designer at SYPartners and formerly an experiential designer at Sextantworks.

Benedetto built a career around curating site-specific experiences inspired by generosity, location, intimacy, and transgression. Her stance was that the only way people engage in meaningful,

transformative experiences is by designing environments that challenge their way of thinking.

“If the only thing that happens because of your design is what you’ve anticipated, you’re probably leaving something on the table,” Benedetto said.

“Control is overrated.”

On the other side of the spectrum was Shannon O’Malley, an associate at BEworks, a management consulting firm combining behavioral science with strategy. O’Malley comes from an academic background in cognitive psychology with a particular focus on attention and visual processing, and has sought to use these insights to construct compelling marketing “nudges” that can influence decision-making simply by way of how choices are presented.

She also highlighted the impact of what she indicated as “social proofing,” which explains the tendency for humans to enjoy doing what others are doing.

In many ways, O’Malley said that this marriage of psychology and design is intuitive.

“We [humans] are predictably irrational ... We tend to be predictable in the way that we deviate from what is expected if we were optimal decisionmakers,” O’Malley said. “No matter what business you think you’re in—whether that’s design, product development, marketing, sales, human resources—at some level you are really in the business of human behavior.”

The other panels continued this theme of design as a powerful tool for directing human decision-making, applying it to diverse initiatives such as

Alessandro Zenati / Heights Editor

Conference panelists discussed the theme of design as a powerful tool for change. sustainable fashion supply chains and the elimination of privilege and power structures within racial, cultural, and social contexts.

Particularly in the “Communities” panel, emphasis was placed on how to offer agency to individuals through design instead of restricting it. In short, design is a collaborative endeavour that also acts as a double-edged sword and can be misused as a force for control unless democratized and shared with everyone.

“You can’t start a revolution if you don’t invite everybody,” said Kathleen Talbot, vice president of sustainability at fashion line Reformation. “This idea of accessibility and diversity is very important.”

The conference was diverse indeed, as other speakers included representa-

tives from the Obama administration’s digital strategy team, a research and development lead at WeWork, and even computational poets that designed algorithms to create poems based on Project Gutenberg archives.

Despite coming from seemingly unrelated fields and areas of expertise, the speakers approached the opportunity as more of an opportunity to learn rather than teach. There was humility in the discourse, even as they spoke of concerning issues plaguing the digital age.

“Intention tames uncertainty,” said Benedetto as the crowd filtered out of the auditorium after a day full of inspired conversation and networking.

Upon exiting the Harvard Graduate School of Design, attendees were challenged to consider the question: “How do you influence?” n

At ‘Conservation in Action,’ Visitors Witness Restoration

By Chloe McAllaster Assoc. Metro Editor

On the second floor of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), a thin sheet of glass and a few feet are the only barriers separating interested museum-goers from the meticulous restoration of two Rembrandt portraits.

While these paintings take precedence near the front of the studio, scattered around the galler y is a collection of nearly floor-to-ceiling Byzantine altar pieces that have been in the restoration process for the past few years.

Eventually, the space will become the permanent home of these revived altar pieces, and the restoration of the two Rembrandt paintings will move elsewhere, out of the public eye.

For the entire month of February, the gallery has been converted into a “conservation in action” studio, in which the public is granted the opportunity to witness the restoration of two Rembrandt portraits unfold in real time.

The two paintings—Portrait of a Man Wearing a Black Hat and Portrait of a Woman with a Gold Chain—are pendants intended to be hung side by side.

Donated to the MFA in 1893, the pieces were the first Rembrandt paint-

ings to join the museum’s collection.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to conserve these seminal paintings by Rembrandt, which normally have an important presence in our galleries,” said Ronni Baer, William and Ann Elfers senior curator of paintings, Art of Europe, in a press release. “Our hope is to gain a deeper understanding of these works, which were painted during an interesting, transitional, and intense time in the artist’s career.”

According to a press release, the two portraits have not been restored in about 50 years. The paint surfaces have been marred by old retouching and layers of discolored varnish.

Over the course of a year, Rhona MacBeth, Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo conservator of paintings and head of paintings conservation, will restore the two portraits to a quality closer to their original condition, revealing, according to the press release, the “beauty of Rembrandt’s brushwork.”

The MFA’s curators and conservators had discussed restoring the paintings for about a decade prior to the start of the project, but at a museum as large as the MFA there are many pieces that demand more immediate attention.

“They weren’t a burning prior-

ity,” MacBeth said. “There are certain things where we really feel we can’t put them on view without doing some work there—they don’t really represent what the artist intended.

The Rembrandt paintings never achieved high-priority status because they look relatively well-preserved in the MFA’s galleries.

“With the Rembrandts it’s pretty interesting because they look pretty good in the galleries,” MacBeth said.

“We have beautiful galleries with beautiful light. They don’t look bad, but we always knew they could look better.”

Funding for the restoration was another obstacle the museum had to overcome in order to initiate the project. The MFA approached The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) with the idea of a partnership to fund the restoration of the companion paintings.

The Portrait of a Woman with a Gold Chain’s treatment is funded by a grant from TEFAF, and the MFA is committed to restoring Portrait of a Man Wearing a Black Hat in turn.

“We would never treat one portrait,” MacBeth said. “They have to stay in balance.”

The curators and conservators work closely to determine when it is the best time to begin an extensive restoration, prioritizing pieces based

on their conditions and upcoming inclusion in installations and exhibitions.

“Within [the curators’] areas they have priorities, but it’s very much a dialogue,” MacBeth said. “We’re talking to them about which artworks could really benefit from conservation, and they’re thinking about what’s more important.”

Incentivized by the TEFAF grant and the fact that there are many other paintings of equal interest up in the galleries at the moment, the curators decided this year is an ideal time to restore the pieces.

After making the decision, interest in putting the pieces in the “conservation in action” space developed. MacBeth attributed this interest in part to the universal appeal of Rembrandt and fascination with the way in which he painted.

“I think the kind of intimacy of seeing them off the wall, out of their frames, people interacting and touching them, and also trying to explain to people what I’m seeing, I think there’s a lot of interest in that,” she explained.

Originating somewhat incidentally over a decade ago, “conservation in action” has become a highly popular program at the MFA. The conservators were working

on a project too large to fit into their typical studio and were forced to close a gallery to complete the restoration.

They were approached with a request for the gallery to have a window so that the public could view the process, and an overwhelming positive reaction made the program permanent.

None of the conservators work in the “conservation in action” studio full-time, but rather they rotate through at different times of the week, interacting with the public and answering questions when present.

Large-scale projects are typically those placed in the “conservation in action” space, but smaller pieces like the Rembrandts can be featured as well.

“It seems like there’s just a great deal of interest in—I think it’s a modern age phenomenon—seeing behind the scenes,” said MacBeth. “We really wanted to try and make some of the things that happen out of sight more front-of-house.”

Although the Rembrandt paintings will be taken out of the “conservation in action” space at the end of February, MacBeth said they may return at a different stage of the restoration.

“It’s just a different way of understanding and interacting and perhaps sort of giving a different way of looking into art,” she said. n

A Parasitic Relationship: Boston’s Bid for Bezos Empire HQ2 Alessandro Zenati While I’ve only been a resident for about seven years—a newcomer for New England’s highly legacydriven standards—Boston continues to impress me with every passing day.

It flexes its academic, innovative, and creative muscles to tackle any and all problems, from public policy to urban planning innovation, all while recognizing the potential for translating its work to a scale that can be shared beyond the city.

In my eyes, Bostonians have little to worry about in regards to the excellence and problem-solving ability of the city’s people and intelligentsia.

But there is one developing story that has put me on edge as of late: Boston’s determined campaign to be

crowned the home of Amazon’s second North American headquarters.

So far, every town and city, from middle-of-nowhere Connecticut to bustling metropolises like New York City, have stuck their necks out to sweeten their proposals.

This includes promising hefty tax incentives and abandoned plots of land that are marketed as prime locations for Amazon’s operations.

Here’s my first anxiety with all of this: Will it move be one step forward for the local job markets and two steps back for the culture of creative thinking?

With such a towering behemoth moving into the city, the potential is that they might clumsily, albeit inadvertently, stomp out the fire that currently drives fledgling startups and projects.

In its defense, Amazon has certainly proved its worth in recent years by pushing the envelope in how it captures market power in a dizzying number of industries.

Logistics, network services, groceries, it even tried its hand at the role of medical supplies provider.

With all this ambition and the capital to back it up, Amazon can afford to engage in a game of predatory pricing because it can handle the expensive transport of goods themselves.

While I really can’t complain when Amazon Prime delivers my extremely necessary wood-handle loofah back scratcher in two days, I do fear for what this might mean for the smaller companies hoping to enter markets alongside Amazon.

It’s possible my outsider perspective has blinded me to what’s actually going on inside the mind of budding entrepreneurs venturing out into the world.

Perhaps there’s been a change of focus: Is it now a matter of nibbling on the market share scraps that remain in the shadow of the Bezos empire?

One is challenged to turn a blind eye to the overt traces of monopolis-

tic activity that Amazon sometimes engages in.

I feel like the path of least resistance is either to plan for an Amazon buyout or target a market that has yet to be explored by Amazon—with a heavy emphasis on the yet part.

With Boston positioning itself as one of the strongest cities for startup culture, the effects of this move might be significant.

This is all to say that I’m not convinced that Boston is the right fit for the second North American headquarters of Amazon.

Bostonians are fueled by the products of their work and respond well to local initiatives.

Equity and accessibility are sources of concern whenever new projects are introduced in the city of Boston. In this context, I think there is an unbalanced exchange going on in this campaign.

It appears that Boston will be giving far more than it will be receiving, and Amazon might not

be prepared to become the engaged community partner the city is looking for. The relationship is quasiparasitic.

Whatever ultimately happens, Boston will adapt and find a solution to the new nature of business.

At the same time, it’s important to realize that Amazon’s arrival will not just consist of dropping a shiny new building on a plot of land in disuse and expect that all will remain the same.

People will factor into the equation, the constitution of communities will be disrupted, and the nature of collaboration might take on a different form.

Perhaps I’m indulging in an antimonopolistic stance and should just listen to the little morsel of sagacity that Ponyboy from The Outsiders offered me a while back: nothing gold can stay.

Alessandro Zenati is the metro editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

The Heights

A6

EDITORIALS

Monday, February 26, 2018

QUOTE OF THE DAY

BC’s Support for Protesting Students is Encouraging

After the tragic mass shooting writes in the letter, signifying at a Marjory Stoneman Douglas that BC is willing to prioritize High School in Parkland, Fla. on prospective students’ political Feb. 14, Boston College Admis- actions by protecting their First sions tweeted a link on Saturday Amendment right to protest. morning to a letter written by DiSome high schools have anrector of Undergraduate Admis- nounced that they will not allow sions John Mahoney. Addressing students to participate in demhigh school students across the onstrations while classes are occountry who have organized walkouts to advocate for stricter federal “...an affirmation of gun laws, BC followed the students’ acceptance is a actions of other universities, including Boston positive mark...”

University, MIT, UMass Amherst, and Dartmouth College, who announced last week that disciplinary ac- curring and that they would face tions against students involved in repercussions, such as three-day peaceful protests would not have suspensions. When students an impact on their admissions consider whether to participate decisions. “Applicants to Boston in protests calling for stronger College who respectfully speak gun regulations, some have to and act in support of these prin- determine whether they wanted ciples will not be penalized in to risk college acceptances as the admission process,” Mahoney well.

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.”

-Aldous Huxley, Texts & Pretexts: An Anthology With Commentaries

High school students who decide to participate would face disadvantages with potential notes on their school disciplinary records.

With support from numerous colleges across the country, students and supporters of the movement have also organized walkouts and a march in Washington, D.C. in the coming months to continue pressuring government officials to enact change.

When the University assures high school students that they will not be punished as they advocate for safer educational environments, it encourages students to exercise their First Amendment rights. Even an act as simple as an affirmation of students’ acceptance is a positive mark that shows BC’s dedication to recruiting socially conscious students and people for others.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

In Response to: “Impeachment Talk was Overreaction”

To The Heights Editorial Board,

A Guide to Your Newspaper The Heights Boston College – McElroy 113 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467

Editorial

Business and Operations General Manager (617) 552-0169 Advertising (617) 552-2220 Business and Circulation (617) 552-0547 Classifieds and Collections (617) 552-0364 Fax (617) 552-1753

Editor-in-Chief (617) 552-2223

General (617) 552-2221 Managing Editor (617) 552-4286 News Desk (617) 552-0172 Sports Desk (617) 552-0189 Metro Desk (617) 552-3548 Features Desk (617) 552-3548 Arts Desk (617) 552-0515 Photo (617) 552-1022

EDITORIAL RESOURCES News Tips Have a news tip or a good idea for a story? Call Cole Dady, News Editor, at (617) 552-0172, or email news@bcheights.com. For future events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the News Desk.

Metro Events Something going on in Boston that you think needs to be covered?

Have an event that BC students might be interested in? Contact Alessandro Zaneti, Metro Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email metro@ bcheights.com.

Sports Events Want to report the results of a game? Have an athlete you think should have his or her story told? Call Anders Backstrom, Sports Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email sports@bcheights.com.

Features Stories Is there a person at BC you believe has a story that should be told?

If so, contact Joan Kennedy, Features Editor, at (617) 552-3548, or email features@bcheights.com.

Arts Events For future arts events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk. Call Jacob Schick, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email arts@bcheights.com.

Photography Are you interested in photography? Do you want to take pictures for an event? If so, contact Kaitlin Meeks, Photo Editor, at (617) 552-1022, or email photo@bcheights.com.

CUSTOMER SERVICE Clarifications / Corrections

The Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. If you believe we have made a reporting error, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or questions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact Connor Murphy, Editor-in-Chief, at (617) 552-2223, or email eic@bcheights.com.

Delivery

To have The Heights delivered to your home each week or to report distribution problems on campus, contact Mike Rosmarin, General Manager at (617) 552-0547.

The views expressed in the above editorials represent the official position of The Heights, as discussed and written by the

Editorial

The

Heights Established 1919

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Connor Murphy, Editor-in-Chief Mike Rosmarin, General Manager Donovan Recny, Managing Editor

Advertising

The Heights is one of the most effective ways to reach the BC community. To submit a classified, display, or online advertisement, call our advertising off ice at (617) 552-2220 Monday through Friday.

The Heights is produced by BC undergraduates and is published on Mondays during the academic year by The Heights, Inc. (c) 2017. All rights reserved.

Editorial Board. A list of the members of the Editorial Board can be found at bcheights.com/opinions.

Heidi Dong, Investigative Editor Steven Everett, Creative Director Griffin Elliott, Technology Director Cole Dady, News Editor Anders Backstrom, Sports Editor Jacob Schick, Arts Editor Joan Kennedy, Magazine Editor Alessandro Zenati, Metro Editor Mary Wilkie, Opinions Editor Kaitlin Meeks, Photo Editor Abby Hunt, Copy Editor Jack Goldman, Copy Editor

Aidan Latona, Copy Editor Colleen Martin, Copy Editor Amanda Amorosi, Layout Editor Madison Mariani, Layout Editor Nicole Chan, Graphics Editor Anna Tierney, Graphics Editor Nathan Xie, Online Manager Barrette Janney, Social Media Director Emerson DeBasio, Multimedia Editor Max Roth, Outreach Coordinator Anthony Rein, Assoc. News Editor Charlie Power, Asst. News Editor Bradley Smart, Assoc. Sports Editor

During my time at Boston College, I have become used to seeing UGBC show tolerance for certain opinions and outrage at others. Senators such as Michael Proietta, Matthew Batsinelas, and Ray Mancini have all proposed or supported resolutions that were deemed “controversial” by the rest of the Student Assembly, and all three of them have since left UGBC in protest of that one-sided tolerance. It is my duty to protect free speech on this campus, but it is also my duty to enforce the UGBC Constitution and the Boston College Code of Conduct. If a fellow senator violates either of those documents, they can no longer be protected by free speech. As the author who wrote the vast majority of the impeachment articles against Steve DiPietro, I feel the need to defend my actions and question the integrity of your journalism.

I take issue with the fact that you published multiple articles about this incident without consulting the authors of the impeachment articles themselves or enquiring about the reasons behind why they’d been drafted at all. Instead, you made a weak effort at undermining the articles by highlighting the word “individual” in the UGBC Constitution’s anti-discrimination clause, conveniently forgetting the three other charges against DiPietro.

The only explanation you could possibly have for describing an impeachment trial as an “overreaction” is that you do not understand why the impeachment articles were created in the first place, which could have been easily rectified had you not failed to reach out to me before The Heights reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity, accuracy, and to prevent libel.

The Heights also reserves the right to write headlines and choose illustrations to accompany pieces submitted to the newspaper.

Ben Thomas, Asst. Sports Editor Kaylie Ramirez, Assoc. Arts Editor Emily Himes, Asst. Arts Editor Brooke Kaiserman, Assoc. Magazine Editor Timmy Facciola, Asst. Magazine Editor Chloe McAllaster, Assoc. Metro Editor Isabel Fenoglio, Asst. Metro Editor Keith Carol, Assoc. Photo Editor Katherine Genirs, Asst. Photo Editor John Kueny, Asst. Multimedia Editor Jack Miller, Assoc. Investigative Editor Catherine Cremens, Asst. Investigative Editor

publishing. We did not move to impeach DiPietro because he held a controversial opinion; we did so because he referred to fellow students as “freaks” for believing, quite simply, that black lives matter. I am a strong advocate for the protection of free speech, but that protection does not extend to speech that violates the UGBC Constitution or the Code of Conduct.

It’s very convenient that The Heights suddenly claims to support diversity of opinion barely a day after Batsinelas claimed that “UGBC and The Heights promote a hypersensitive campus climate that has created an intolerant student body to opposing viewpoints” in his resignation letter. You are only claiming to support diversity of opinion now because Batsinelas called you out, and people are agreeing with him. If you supported diversity of opinion, you’d have spoken out against those who harassed Batsinelas and Mancini, who actively supported different opinions on campus, for breaking from commonly accepted beliefs during their campaign last year, or perhaps you’d have condemned the individual who asked friends to literally treat Michael Proietta like a toilet because of his “controversial” opinions. But you didn’t. Instead, you tried to make excuses for someone who calls BLM supporters “freaks,” and you condemned senators who actually stand for justice.

If you’re going to support intellectual diversity from now on, try harder. Don’t try and claim that you did so before—you didn’t. Now, prove us wrong and get it right.

Sincerely, Sam Szemerenyi, MCAS ‘20

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

Business and Operations Kipp Malone, Business Manager Chris Chilton, Centennial Director Will McCarthy, Collections Manager David Goodfellow, On-Campus Account Manager Kristen Bahr, Local Account Manager Will Powers, Local Account Manager

The Heights

Monday, February 26, 2018

A7

Where is Boston’s Affordable Housing? Reflect and Relate 69

69

Robert Walmsley

seeing everyone outside on campus - Unless you were locked in a dark, enclosed room without access to the outdoors on Wednesday, you might have noticed that it was 70 degrees and sunny. When the weather’s like this, our campus, a wasteland in the winter, becomes a hub of activity—everyone stays outside for as long as they can, students sit on benches typing or reading, groups of friends lie on the Quad eating lunch and hanging out. Some people get so college that they’ll kick off their shoes and take out their frisbees. When this happens, everything changes. Even though it’s harder to go to class (most of my Wednesday classes were half empty), it’s easier to be on a campus that’s so happy and busy. Positive energy was radiating so strongly that it must have been nearly impossible for anyone to be in a bad mood. When friends and classmates find joy in such an uncontrollable phenomenon, the general energy on campus is truly extraordinary.

69

Whole Foods brand Oreos - I know, I’m an idiot for trying them.

But I did. And they’re just not good. Everything about them just falls so short of the classic trademarked brand. Personally, I prefer the cookie—I think the cream is pretty overrated, but compared to Whole Foods’s “chocolate sandwich cremes,” the Oreo cream is heavenly. When you peel open an Oreo, the cream is a comforting, fluffy, immaculately white circle lying on one cookie. The Whole Foods cream—which they call frosting, so that should’ve been my first red flag, but alas, I was young and naive then—is a greasy sheet that’s not the pure white of a normal Oreo’s cream, but a translucent white. As it lies on the cookie, it’s becomes gray and hopeless and just appears much less appetizing than a real Oreo.

You might now be wondering how the cookie itself can fall so short.

There’s something about the way a “chocolate sandwich creme” cookie breaks apart when you chew it that completely changes the Oreo-eating experience. Normal Oreo cookies are thicker and softer, while the Whole Foods brand cookies are much more crisp and dry (not in a good way). The difference is nearly impossible to put into words—so subtle, yet so profound.

Nevertheless, if worse comes to worst, Whole Foods brand Oreos are not completely revolting. If you really need an Oreo but all that you have access to in that moment is Whole Foods’s “chocolate sandwich cremes,” just coat the cookie in peanut butter (Jif—don’t get me started on peanut butter brands, now) and you can barely tell the difference.

Like Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down?

Follow us @BCTUTD

Twice a week, every week, I make the trek from the Andrew Red Line stop up Dorchester St. and down Old Colony Ave., where I arrive at my PULSE placement.

When I first started, I’d either have my eyes glued to the GPS (just to make sure), or be speed-walking with my eyes stuck to the clock on my phone due to yet another MBTA delay. It’s safe to say I did not give much attention to my surroundings. I did PULSE for two reasons: 1) to help others, of course, and 2) to see other parts of Boston.

But up to this point, all I saw was my phone.

I was being transported around the city, moving from BC to Southie and then back again. There was no city being seen. Until one day, I looked up.

In most Boston neighborhoods, like Allston-Brighton, there are old, mixed-brick buildings crammed together. When I began to examine my walk more thoroughly, I expected to see the same designs along Andrew Square and Old Colony Ave. That wasn’t the case. Colorful townhouses with sharp, modern edges filled the busy intersection. They looked like they belonged on Miami Beach, not in the historic, blue-collar Andrew Square of Southie. Since they are right near the beach and a minute’s drive from the financial district, I figured they’d be pretty pricey. It turns out, not even the rich could live there: it was Boston Public Housing.

Well, not technically. These were the Anne M. Lynch Homes at Old Colony, which were just recently renovated by Beacon Communities Services LLC., who now own the property. It was previously the largest plot of land BHA owned, but with the lack of government funds allocated to affordable housing renovations, they independently sought out a private contractor.

I wondered what the BHA thought about this privatization, so I contacted Gail Livingston, the deputy administrator for Housing Programs at the BHA. She said the move was necessary, but not optimal. “We need one-to-one public housing,” she said

with respect to the old and new developments. “But, the way they can manage to support those is to charge market rent for other units in that development.” The BHA is no longer allowed to monitor the housing, and the federal rule for public housing that limits it to 30 percent of income is not applied here. Although, Livingston said, the prices are almost identical.

After my new understanding of the modernized public housing at Anne M. Lynch, I wanted to explore the developments. So, the next time I went to my PULSE placement, I arrived early and decided to go straight down Dorchester St. instead of my usual left to see how long these developments stretched. A hundred feet or so past the intersection, I discovered while on Rev. Burke St. that I was on a divider between the past and future of public housing. On my right was the vibrant new development with manicured lawns and stone pathways, and to my left stood derelict, two-story brick blocks. These blocks make up the Mary Ellen McCormack housing project, the first ever public-housing facility built in the northeast in 1936. It was home to Whitey Bulger and and his crime syndicate back in the 70’s, and sadly aligns perfectly with the perceptions of public housing: unorganized, dirty, and riddled with crime. The number of drug busts and violent crimes that occured in the neighborhood forced them to install cameras in the community in 2016. The poorly-lit, cramped design of the blocked-off buildings doesn’t help crime rates.

When I looked across the street, I saw the answer to every problem the McCormack complexes faced: the buildings were gridded off so the front and back of each apartment—and they are apartments, not just rooms in a duplex—face a street lined with brightly lit light posts. The very cleanliness of the buildings is a crime deterrent itself. It also feels like a community, built with green spaces and a new learning center for youth and families living in affordable housing. It is the answer to the issues plaguing McCormack, and the BHA understands. They just signed a contract this past summer with WinnDevelopment Co., LP to renovate the old community and bring it into the 21st century. Ownership will be passed to WinnDevelopment, but that is a necessary sacrifice so that life can

be injected into the aged, troubled area.

Across Old Colony lies another development that demonstrates the biggest problem for most affordable housing hopefuls—Washington Village, a new set of apartments designed for young, working families. The contractor markets the building’s proximity to the beach, new bars, and downtown Boston. Fresh college graduates already populate the area shifting from its blue-collar roots. The Boston Planning and Development Agency works with developers to create affordable housing within their projects, but according to Livingston, it depends on how you define the term.

“When somebody says affordable housing, you need to ask them what that means for that particular development,” she said.

Typical affordable housing is for earners of 70 to 100 percent of Boston’s Area Median Income, standing at $98,500. Washington Village is set to provide 110 units that are marked “affordable,” but not to those who need it most. Applicants for public housing earn about 15 to 20 percent of the AMI. The renovations of these old housing projects are necessary and helpful, but the developers can only afford to build one new affordable space for each old one because there is an ever-decreasing amount of subsidies set aside for low-income workers.

BHA also cannot expand into other parts of the city due to private developers like those at Washington Village. BHA simply isn’t provided a budget to rebuild—they’re only meant to maintain. According to Livingston, there are currently 40,000 families and individuals on the waiting list for the brand new developments and other public housing around the city.

Boston is one of the most forwardthinking, progressive cities in the country—but it does face a housing crisis, as I’ve discovered through my journey along the streets of Southie. I had heard about gentrification and all its issues, but the magnitude never reached me. That is, until I opened my eyes to what always looked back at me.

When I asked Livingston if she thought there was enough affordable housing in Boston, she answered bluntly: “No, of course not.”

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

Respecting“Can Lady” in The Mods Rachel Loos If you have ever spent time in The Mods on early mornings or after football games, you may have noticed an older woman searching through the recycling bins for cans. Sometimes there are two or more women in The Mods at the same time, and they often carry a cart stacked with can-filled plastic garbage bags.

Wearing gloves, they pick out our empty cans of Natural Light and Coke bottles stained with the smell of rum. Most Boston College students refer to the women in the singular as “Can Lady.”

The practice of collecting discarded cans and returning them is pretty common among the poor and homeless across the United States. In Massachusetts, there is a five cent deposit on many beverage containers, and under the “Bottle Bill,” retailers must redeem these containers for the value of the deposit.

I found an article about can collecting in San Francisco, a city with a homeless population around 6,800—slightly larger than that of Boston. California has a similar “Bottle Bill” in place, rewarding recyclers with around five cents for returning found cans and bottles. The article told several stories about the competitiveness among can and bottle collectors, who must reach the recyclables early in the morning or late at night before other people get to them. It also addresses the hard times that led people to scrounge for extra money by digging through recycling bins. Most are unemployed, many are immigrants and retired seniors trying to supplement social security or welfare benefits.

During the 2008 recession, the Greater Boston Area saw an increase in individuals and organizations return-

ing empty cans and bottles for revenue.

The Boston Globe reported that bottle and can return locations saw increases in deposits, with retirees, unemployed people, and even young families looking for a few extra dollars.

When Michael McGee, CSOM ’18, lived off campus, he once witnessed a woman tearing open trash bags to look for recyclables, leaving a mess on the sidewalk that he then had to clean.

McGee also noted that he had seen the women on campus hundreds of times where they were not destructive. I think this story helps draw a distinction between digging through curbside trash and collecting cans from mod recycling bins. The bins outside The Mods are nearly always brimming with bottles and cans, and they are very easy to take without being too disruptive. It is no wonder that these women flock to lower campus for recyclables.

At BC most people seem to treat “Can Lady” as a joke. In 2016, the trashy clickbait outlet The Tab published a piece declaring Can Lady “the real MVP.” It featured photos of several clearly different elderly women hauling bags of recyclables. And, on April Fool’s Day of 2005, The Heights reported in a satirical article that the “Mod Can Lady earns her first million dollars,” poking fun at someone clearly very desperate for money.

This was in 2005, so people (most likely not the same women) have used BC as an ideal spot for collecting recyclables for at least a decade.

Is it supposed to be funny that there are desperate—possibly homeless—women collecting our recycling?

It seems pretty dehumanizing to reduce a group of women to a single caricature, giving them all one nickname. It assumes that they are similar enough to be regarded as one person. I also find it interesting that the word lady was chosen, as it connotes high status. This seems to be used to mock the perceived low status of the women.

BCPD officers have been accused in the past of forcing “Can Lady” to leave.

I spoke with one student, who wishes to remain anonymous, about an incident that occurred last fall after a football game. According to this student, three male BCPD officers surrounded the woman—one revved his motorcycle engine while another threatened to arrest her. Apparently the woman had relieved herself outside one of The Mods, and someone had reported her (honestly, who hasn’t peed or barfed near The Mods at least once?).

According to the student, the woman seemed to speak little to no English and looked very disconcerted and confused when accosted by police. The student intervened, and described the officers as being generally disrespectful to the woman and the whole experience as very upsetting. BCPD did not respond to a request for comment on this issue.

Some of my fellow Mod denizens support BCPD’s removal of can and bottle collectors—our campus is private property. But don’t people deserve to be treated with respect? And isn’t it the responsibility of a Jesuit institution to educate students—both in the classroom and in practice—to help people who clearly need it?

From talking to my peers, the BC community seems to know very little about these women. One student said that one of their names might be Theresa.

I’m not sure what the solution should be, but surely there’s a better option than treating people in need so disrespectfully. “Can Lady” seems like more of a joke in this community than it should be.

Clearly the cans and bottles outside the Mods are a reliable form of revenue for desperate people, but that doesn’t mean we can treat the people who collect them like trash.

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

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

Kelly Christ In his novel Paper Towns, John Green writes, “The longer I do my job, the more I realize that humans lack good mirrors. It’s so hard for anyone to show us how we look, and so hard for us to show anyone how we feel.” This quote has stayed with me since I first read the book almost four years ago (and the many rereads I have done since). The book explores the metaphor of other people being mirrors or windows to ourselves. We often struggle to see ourselves in other people and neglect to recognize that so many of us are facing similar dilemmas.

I recently went on 48Hours, a retreat for freshmen at Boston College.

We were separated into small groups with people most of us hadn’t met before.

As we gathered to discuss the challenges we have faced this year, we soon found that each story, though different, had very similar tones. We all struggled to adjust to life away from the comforts of home, to make new friends, and to figure out what academic route is best for us.

Despite these similarities, many of us never thought that other people were going through the same things.

We constantly view our peers from afar, wishing we could be as charismatic or well-dressed as they are. We neglected to consider the possibility that they themselves hadn’t yet figured things out either. In many ways, this is due to our difficulty—as Green says—to admit our own complicated feelings, and causes us each to put up our facades for others to envy.

Although a bit frightening and awkward at first, each member soon started to share the hidden parts of their lives.

We try so hard to keep up the appearance of having everything together, but by being vulnerable, the feeling of letting that facade go can empower us more than anything else. By pushing away our problems, our wounds are getting worse rather than healing.

In high school, teens are constantly trying new things to figure out who they are. They battle between the need to fit in and desire to stand out—stereotypes are the rule of the land. Often, these characteristics seem comforting. By conforming to one way of being, the internal question of “Who am I?” is quieted. But, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we try, or how much it might seem so, no one is the perfect example of any of the many high school stereotypes.

In college, we start from scratch.

While there are undoubtedly many stereotypes at universities as well, we often begin to find ourselves in parts of the attempted personas from high school that did feel right. The way we continue to perceive others, however, shows our habit of thinking with these stereotypes.

During freshman year in particular, we often view others through a lens of insecurity. When we see someone sitting with many people at lunch, we may begin to tear ourselves down and wonder why we don’t have as many friends—we neglect to consider that not everything is what it seems to be. We also forget that some aspect of one’s life that may be the most visible is not the only part of them. The insecurities in certain areas of our life often lead us to have tunnel vision.

We take for granted the other things in our lives that we have figured out. In Paper Towns, Green expresses this idea when Q, the protagonist, asks, “Isn’t it also that on some fundamental level we find it difficult to understand that other people are human beings in the same way that we are? We idealize them as gods or dismiss them as animals.” We consistently see people only in comparison to ourselves.

People are more complex than we can imagine: We each contain layers that obscure our understanding of the layers within others. Experiences like 48Hours encourage us to break through the barriers, to try and find the person behind our perceptions—escaping our own mind is the only way to understand others. As Green writes, “It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined.”

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

The Heights

A8

Monday, February 26, 2018

The Beautiful and the Famed: Lesley Visser, Sports Legend For years, she stood out in cold parking lots shivering to get the story. Now she has plenty of her own to tell.

By Joan Kennedy Magazine Editor I got bored reading the list of Lesley Visser’s accomplishments—she’s placed “first” in everything and “only” in some things. First and only woman enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, first and only woman to handle a Super Bowl Trophy Presentation, first woman assigned to Legendary Series - Monday Night Football, first woman assigned to a Super Bowl sideline, first woman sportscaster to carry the Olympic Torch, and first woman honored as a Lombardi fellow—more recently, she shredded her clavicle at the Super Bowl. And when I picked up the phone to talk to her—during the most exciting part of my week: two loads of laundry—she asked about me.

Though born to her loving and supportive parents Lesley Candace Visser, she has also been named one of Esquire’s “Women we Love,” one of GQ’s “Five Ideal Dinner Guests.”

When you speak to her, her vast accomplishments begin paling in comparison to her personality.

The only thing more American than the old pigskin that she made a career out of reporting on is democracy—the right to vote. She’s a lady of the people and for the people—voted to both the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, and Sports Writers Hall of Fame, and voted the No. 1 Female Sportscaster of All-time. She’s Obama’s “Change” with a “Yes We Can” for women beneath her portrait, and Bill’s “It’s the Economy, Stupid,” refigured—“It’s Sports, Stupid.”

Visser, BC ’75, was born in Boston and has spent much of her life in the Northeast. During her youth she moved around everywhere from Buckeye nation to the Golden State, because of her father’s job. But when

she says things like “I’m a child of the Red Sox,” and “Joan Kennedy, are you a Kennedy?” (queuing my well-practiced “I’m from Texas, do the math.”), she proves that you can take the girl out of Boston, but you can’t take the Boston out of the girl.

When it came time for college, instead of opting for the West Coast like her father—relatably admitting “I was never going to get into Stanford”—Visser heard “For Boston, for Boston, We sing our proud refrain!” ringing in her head. In 1971, she headed for the Heights as part of the first class of women to be admitted into the College of Arts and Sciences. Immediately, upon crushing another Jesuit president’s green grass with the print of her eager shoes, she headed for The Heights—the one with a capital “T” and italics—the student newspaper.

At The Heights, Visser found her first big break. She knew she wanted to be a sports writer all her life. Such clarity is hard to imagine, and such an appetite in the 1960s seems near impossible.

“Women in the early ’60s were just about three or four things. They were teachers, secretaries, or domestics,” Visser said.

It must have been strange for her mother to hear such ambition emanating from her 10-year-old mouth.

Yet Visser says the woman who raised her never dissuaded her. Instead, she engrained in her impressionable mind something that became a mantra for her life and has recently become the title for her new book: “sometimes you have to cross when it says ‘don’t walk.’”

“I thought ‘I am going to break through and I am going to make this happen,’” Visser said.

Her first jump toward recordbreaking came in The Heights news-

Photo Courtesy of Lesley Visser

Visser was part of the first class of women to be admitted into what is now MCAS.

room, where she found herself one of many soon-to-be greats writing about Boston College’s sports teams.

She spent long hours in the Mac basement—like me, a female editor she indirectly helped get in the game— crossing when it said don’t walk so that others could eventually cross without looking, with no fear.

She, Bob Ryan, and Mike Lupica had the same all-time favorite professor—Paul Doherty. He made her love Shakespeare, and learning, and creative writing. When asked about Visser’s success, he replied candidly, and perhaps too modestly, “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“She had a very winning personality—she’s open and frank … She had it all,” Doherty said.

Though her personality, good nature, and smarts helped her get where she wanted to go, Doerhty doesn’t downplay the struggle she faced, claiming that she probably would have been a really successful athlete (on top of being a naturally-gifted writer) had Title IX been passed a little earlier, and had women’s sports been given attention and funding—a thing Visser finds joy in finally seeing, stating she’s really proud of BC’s women’s field hockey team. In an article she wrote for The Heights in September of 1974, Visser describes them by saying, “They are the girls of autumn. They fight the football team on one side and the baseball team on the other.

They have little money and are understaffed, but they are just as dedicated as any team on this campus.”

“She really had to work hard to establish herself,” Doherty said.

But when asked about the hardships she faced, Visser laughs and points to the time she interviewed Billy Jean King and asked her about the pressure of always being in the Wimble don final to explain her philosophy. King laughed and replied “Are you kidding? Pressure is a privilege.”

Visser applied for a Carnegie Foundation Grant, of which 20 were awarded nationally to women who wanted to work in male-dominated fields, her junior year at Boston College.

“We’re not talking 1873, but it was like that. All the jobs were 95 percent white men,” Visser said.

After graduating from BC—she credits the Jesuits for giving her critical thinking skills and the Notre Dame rivalry for making her insufferable over email whenever there’s a game—Visser moved on to The Boston Globe, not wanting to stray farther than an arm’s-reach away from the reach of the polluted sprays of the Charles River.

“I had a lot of Boston in me …

Sports was so important in Boston,” Visser said.

So the sports-obsessed girl offi-

cially made her home in the Red Sox, Patriots, and Bruins-obsessed city, becoming a part of the sports section that Sports Illustrated voted the best of all-time in the eight years she was there. It was exciting and challenging, a golden age of sports and sportswriting in Boston—the perfect place for the golden girl of sports to nudge her way to creating her own legend.

“Everybody was a giant … It was intimidating but my passion outweighed the hurdles,” Visser said.

Though she had a run marked by triumphs at The Globe, successful enough for her to get recruited by CBS, it wasn’t untainted by the everlooming touch of mistakes. While helping take down the mob and reporting on BC’s point shaving scandal, Visser made a crucial error and falsely implicated an uninvolved hooper.

“I wasn’t dealing with CNN, or Google or published accounts, I was doing all the reporting myself and I was getting the information from mobsters—they aren’t the most reliable, as you might imagine, but they were the ones who knew the story.

They gave me names and I reported them,” Visser said in an email.

As soon as Visser and The Globe knew a name was incorrect, they published a retraction and gave the player a settlement. Visser said that the best thing to do in such a situation is acknowledge that you are wrong—that these things happen in news all the time, not necessarily due to negligence. The error never hurt her integrity because of how she handled it. After The Globe, she went on to work for CBS. “You really don’t have to worry about her too much … When she tells her story I know she’s going to have her facts straight, she’s going to have her story straight. She’s so prepared, she’s so honest about what she does and so fair about what she’s reporting,” said Suzanne Smith, CBS Sports director and producer, who worked with Visser.

Visser and Smith both partially credit Visser’s transition from print to broadcasting to her writing prowess.

“If you can’t write and tell the story properly … it doesn’t matter how you say it,” Smith said.

During her first seven years covering the NFL there were no provisions for equality, so instead of being able to walk into the locker room with other reporters, Visser had to wait in the dark, cold parking lot for the stars to emerge.

John Madden used to tell her she was “stuck in a two way ‘go.’” Sometimes she would be waiting for Terry Bradshaw, but then Steve Grogan would come out at the same time, and she would have to make a split-second decision of who to approach. Already writing on deadline, when she was finally able to get a quote, she had to run to write in

a sprint, darting behind the men who leisurely gathered their goods in the locker room way before her.

Instead of being angry at glaring inequalities, Visser said she was grateful, realizing how lucky she was to be doing things like covering the Olympics, for example. She even thinks the disparities she had to deal with helped make her a better writer—she had to go get a story, chasing words with hunger, and not just stick a mic in someone’s face.

Rather than being bitter about judgements and remarks from others (specifically the bias of the players she was writing about), she combatted them with humor. She laughs at how weird she must have looked to players, some of whom would quickly sign an autograph on her notepad before she could explain who she was. Others, probably hyped up on post-workout and definitely hyped up on testosterone, hit on her.

“I would say, ‘Now, your mother didn’t teach you to talk like that,’” Visser said.

Visser’s appreciation for sports runs deep. She dresses up as Celtics’ Sam Jones every year for Halloween to this day, no matter where she lives.

“Sam still calls me before Halloween and says ‘please Lesley, you’re 65 years old,’ and I say ‘too bad!’” Visser said.

She is impressed with the courage it takes to put it all out there and has respect for anyone who takes the court in any sport because their skin is made translucent by probing lights, and faults enhanced under the glare of spectators. On the court, everyone can see an athlete for who they are—playing a sport is opting for scrutiny, to be put under the strongest microscope or the most accurate liedetector.

“There are a lot of jobs you can hide behind the desk, or behind a piece of paper,” Visser said. “But in sports nobody cares who your father is or how much money your mother has. You either hit the jumper or you don’t. You can have all the money in the world but that doesn’t mean you make the team.”

When describing what she finds most impressive about Visser, Smith pointed again to the fairness and grace with which she upholds herself. She is able to navigate the locker rooms of losing teams, and firey situations with coaches. Because she was given chances in her life, she makes it her priority to give everyone a chance to tell their story. Sports are the business of underdogs—the only “even playing fields” in this world are even playing fields. So, Visser the underdog made her career writing about what she knows.

“My favorite day of the year is the semis of the Final Four,” Visser said.

“Because everyone has a chance.” n

At MFA, ‘Klimt and Schiele: Drawn’ Exhibit Breaks Boundaries

The exhibit showcases 60 provocative drawings from the Albertina museum on the centennial of the artists’ deaths.

By Isabel fenoglio

Asst. Metro Editor

“I’d like to begin with an anecdote that I find charming,” said Katie Hanson, assistant curator of paintings, Art of Europe, at the Museum of Fine Arts. She tugged the microphone free and began to move to the right side of the gallery, glancing back with a smile, “I don’t like to stand still.”

Hanson was presenting the MFA’s newest exhibit, Klimt and Schiele: Drawn, which opens to the public on Feb. 25 and runs through May 28.

The exhibit celebrates the centennial of the deaths of the Austrian artists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele and showcases 60 rarely seen drawings, on loan from the Albertina Museum in Vienna.

Though separated in age by nearly 30 years, the two artists were friendly rivals and shared a mutual admiration and respect for each other’s work.

Early on in their acquaintance, explained Hanson, Schiele proposed an exchange of drawings. He offered several of his own sheets to Klimt for only one in return, to which Klimt replied, “Why do you want to exchange with me? You draw better than I do.”

Drawn is the MFA’s first large-scale exhibition devoted to the the two

artists. It seeks to create a dialogue between them and engages viewers in a search for meaning and expression within the figures and forms presented.

“I was particularly excited for the exhibit to have this title, because I love that the word drawn has the additional sense to it about being drawn to something,” Hanson said. “It evokes a sense of attraction, but at the same time a sense of tension.”

“Many of the drawings are unsettling upon first glance,” Hanson added. Unidealized and unapologetic, the stark naturalism and provocative portrayal of the human body both artists practiced shattered convention and sparked scandal in their time.

“They give you the sense that there’s more than meets the eye,” he said. “Not just what something looks like or might feel like to touch, but a visceral impact.”

The exhibition begins on the dark walls marking the entrance of the gallery, with a work by Klimt and Schiele facing each other across the open space. Drawings by Klimt line the left side of the gallery, Schiele’s the right.

“The way they drew was quite different, and for that reason we thought we would organize the drawings on parallel but separate trajectories, while

highlighting the points of contact they had,” Hanson said.

Klimt’s drawings are largely delicate, while Schiele’s are bold. Klimt sketched figures in monochrome tones of black and white, with soft sinuous lines. Schiele sketched figures in bold blotches of watercolor to produce jagged outlines. But regardless of technique, the works come to life on the page, said Hanson.

Organized thematically, drawings are displayed by subject, which include nudes, portraits, plants, and places. The first drawings visitors see from both artists are taken from their academic beginnings. As visitors make their way through the gallery, they witness each artist’s break from tradition, the development of their own unique styles, and the scandal that resulted.

“Come up close, don’t be bashful,” urged Hanson, hovering her fingers along the outline of Schiele’s Nude Self-Portrait, completed in 1910. The piece has become a signature image for the show, Hanson said. “It shows you Adolf Schiele seeing himself.”

Schiele sketches himself with one eye closed and the other halfway open.

His body is elongated and decorated in colorful bruises of watercolor, outlined in a halo of white.

ISabel Fenoglio / Heights Editor

The exhibit commemorates the deaths of Austrian artists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele.

Hanson went on to emphasize the expressive nature of the piece, and the questions it sparks from viewers—of age, pain, life, and death. “The longer you spend with the works the more puzzling they become,” she said.

“There aren’t definitive answers in many cases.”

“That why we try to leave a lot of space for people,” she said. “To look, think, and feel—to form their own reactions.”

“It’s an exhibition worth seeing,”

said Matthew Teitelbaum, director of the MFA, at the conclusion Hanson’s tour. “These are two artists that were committed to the notion of freedom, and their commitment to this notion created some controversies in their time, controversies that some of their work elicits even today.”

“We believe that we are an institution that is engaged with the issues of our time, and when works of art raise those issues, we want to engage,” he said. n

SPORTS

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2018

B1

@HEIGHTSSPORTS

MEN’S HOCKEY

STEVEN EVERETT / HEIGHTS EDITOR

BC men’s hockey swept Maine this weekend, capturing the program’s third straight and 16th total Hockey East regular season title, clinching the No. 1 seed in the upcoming conference tournament.

BY DREW RASOR For The Heights This season, Boston College men’s hockey’s success has been more polarized than just about every other team’s in the counMaine 3 try: Not only Boston College 6 have the Eagles struggled outside of Hockey East, failing to win a single non-conference game (0-8-3)—they also finished last in the Beanpot for the second consecutive year, the first time that’s happened since 1974-75. When it comes to conference play, though, BC has been absolutely dominant. The Eagles’ 17-50 record against Hockey East foes is the program’s best conference mark in six

years, and the sole reason why they’re still ranked.

BC’s tear continued on Friday night—about a week removed from orchestrating a five-goal shutout in Orono, Maine, the Eagles put on another show against Maine, this time on their home ice. For the fourth straight game, BC found the back of the net four or more times, a remarkable stat considering that the Eagles are only lighting the lamp an average of three times per game this year. Graduate transfer Kevin Lohan logged his first two goals of the season, and BC tallied a total of six in the final two frames, pulling away for a 6-3 victory, effectively clinching its 16th Hockey East regular season title.

The No. 20 Eagles (17-13-3, 17-5-0

Hockey East) came out of the gates thriving on offense. After Maine (1613-4, 10-10-3) forward Patrick Shea’s shot was stopped by BC goaltender Joseph Woll in the first minute, the Eagles took control. They generated four shots on goal in four minutes, while preventing Maine from getting any shooting chances. Soon BC was given a power play that was then extended with another call, resulting in a brief 5-on-3 for the Eagles. Yet, even so, the one-man advantage failed to provide BC with an offensive boost, as it managed just one shot during the second half of the power play.

Instead, the Black Bears took the offensive momentum, getting on the board only 19 seconds after the pen-

alty kill. Mitchell Fossier dropped a slow pass across the blueline that was picked up by Veli Tiuraniemi, who fired a wrist shot past Woll to give Maine the 1-0 edge. BC took another hit when Jacob Tortora was called for hooking—luckily for head coach Jerry York, the Eagles killed what would be the Black Bears’ only power play of the game. BC returned to the power play itself a couple minutes later, but Maine netminder Jeremy Swayman stopped all three shots that got to him. The Eagles had a few more good chances in the closing seconds of the first, but finished the period down, 1-0, despite leading 14-8 in shots.

If Eagles fans were worried about the offense going into the second

period, they were quickly relieved.

Logan Hutsko skated the puck around a defenseman to the front of the net, and deked Swayman to tie the game, only 39 seconds into the period. After the goal, both teams created chances to break the tie, but the goalies kept the puck out of their respective cages.

A little more than six minutes into the period, BC defenseman Kevin Lohan looked to pass the puck to the front of the net. Instead, his exchange was blocked by a Maine defenseman’s stick, and the puck redirected past Swayman into the net. It was Lohan’s first goal of the season, and it gave the Eagles their first lead—one they would keep for the

See MHOK vs. Maine, B3

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Five Eagles Win Gold, Team U.S.A Returns to Top of Podium

BY ANDY BACKSTROM Sports Editor Boston College women’s hockey head coach Katie Crowley was one of the last American skaters to don a gold medal at the Olympic Games.

She, along with the rest of Team U.S.A., beat out Canada, 3-1, in the final round of the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan.

Twenty years later, Crowley once again had a hand in Team U.S.A.’s run to Olympic Gold, not as a player, but as a mentor: the 11th-year Eagles coach watched as five of her current and former players—Emily Pfalzer, BC ’15, Haley Skarupa, BC ’16, Megan Keller, BC ’19, Kali Flanagan, BC ’19,

and Cayla Barnes, BC ’22—edged their North American rivals, a Canada team that was gunning for its fifth-straight Olympic gold medal, on Wednesday night in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Just four years removed from letting a two-goal lead slip and ultimately falling to Canada in overtime in Sochi, Russia, the Americans executed a role reversal of sorts.

Team U.S.A. orchestrated a thirdperiod comeback, all thanks to the stick of Monique Lamoureux-Morando. Seconds after goaltender Maddie Rooney stopped a 2-on-1 rush, Lamoureux-Morando streaked down the ice with less than six and a half minutes remaining in regulation. Approaching the cage, the Grand Forks,

N.D. native elevated the puck into the top-right corner of the net, tying the game at two, effectively forcing overtime.

Following a full period of 4-on4 play, the game was still tied. The Americans would need the second of the two Lamoureux twins to get them over the hump. In the sixth round of the ensuing shootout, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson deked out Canadian netminder Shannon Szabados for the game-winning goal. To seal the deal, Rooney, a redshirt junior at Minnesota Duluth, stopped one last shot, returning Team U.S.A. back to the top of the podium.

See Olympic Gold, B4

JULIO CORTEZ / AP PHOTO

With the victory over Canada, BC women’s hockey upped its medalist count to 10.

In Wake of NCAA Scandal, One-and-Done Rule Must Go

ANDY BACKSTROM It’s no secret that the NCAA is defiled by corruption and hypocrisy—it has been for years.

Earlier this month, the organization stripped Louisville men’s basketball of its 2013 National Championship and vacated all of its wins from 2011-15 after discovering that the school had employed sex workers as a way to coax potential recruits into commitment. Back in 2014, another NCAA investigation revealed that North Carolina had cheated the eligibility system, allowing 3,100 student athletes—

INSIDE SPORTS

mostly football and basketball players—to enroll in “paper classes” that essentially exchanged minimal work for adequate grades over an 18-year span.

In case after case, the NCAA routinely places a new band-aid on top of a wound that’s very much susceptible to infection.

Always reactionary and never preventative, the sanctions seem as if they are designed to quench the thirst of public outcry, rather than address the compromised foundation of what has become a fraudulent system.

The effects have only continued to worsen.

On Friday afternoon, Yahoo! Sports’ Pat Forde and Pete Thamel reported that federal documents, detailing the expenditures of ex-NBA agent Andy Miller, his former associate Christian Dawkins, and his agency ASM Sports, expose at least 20 Division I basketball programs and 25 players, both current and former, of taking part in an underground recruiting

operation. Said records list not only cash advances, but also entertainment and travel expenses, some more generous than others, for high school recruits, college prospects, and their respective families.

The news isn’t all that surprising—the breadth of the accusations is.

The documents trace the illegal action back to some of the sport’s biggest programs—Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan State, Kansas, among others—and brightest stars, including the Spartans’ Miles Bridges, Alabama’s Collin Sexton, and Duke’s Wendell Carter Jr., not to mention some guys who have already made their way to the NBA. One-anddone North Carolina State and now-Dallas Mavericks point guard Dennis Smith Jr. accepted $43,500 in benefits. His fellow classmate, 2017 No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz, received a smaller payment of $10,000.

There’s no doubt that the controversy concerning the matter will dominate the narrative of the upcoming NCAA Tournament, but we all know that the NCAA will take its time before making any moves.

That’s not to say that the NBA should do the same.

It’s quite apparent that most of the players involved in the above case are the Association’s up and coming prospects.

These are guys that are simply using college as a stepping stone to get to the next level, for the most part—your prototypical one-and-dones. The “one-and-done” rule, which the NBA set in place prior to the 2006 Draft, requires all selected players to be at least 19 during the calendar year of the draft. Furthermore, any player who is not a CBA-defined “international player,” must be one or more years removed from high school graduation. But the statute has done nothing for the game of basketball

LAX: Eagles Coast to Victory Over Brown BASEBALL: BC Falters in Snowbird Classic

except incite trouble and promote overly dramatic storylines.

For the majority of the country’s elite basketball programs, the sport opens a revolving door for athletes with NBA aspirations. There is little to no consistency among top-25 teams, making the game harder for coaches to manage and fans to follow. Kentucky has sent a nation-leading 78 players to the League and since 2000, Duke has shipped off 25 of its own. No wonder these teams ruin people’s brackets year in and year out—their coaching staffs are practically starting from scratch every summer. As far as the players are concerned, neither a year of development nor 35-some games of collegiate competition are going to prepare them for the rigors of the NBA. Some, like Anthony Davis or Marvin Bagley III, are ready to post up the

See NCAA Scandal, B2

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

BC entered the second half of Saturday’s game only up one The Eagles dropped two of three in Florida this weekend, WOMEN’S HOCKEY................................. B3 before rattling off 15 goals to put the Bears away......................B4 falling back to .500 after a series win in Santa Clara..............

B2 OLYMPICS............................................... B4

The Heights

B2

Monday, February 26, 2018

BASEBALL

Ninth-Inning Rally Against Rutgers Salvages Snowbird Classic

By Bradley Smart Assoc. Sports Editor

Entering the ninth inning of Sunday’s Snowbird Classic finale against Rutgers, Boston College baseball trailed by two runs and appeared to be headed for its third straight loss. The Eagles had been outscored 24-5 up to that point during their visit to Florida. Even worse, their offense started the weekend with just one run in the first 21 innings of play.

Then, desperately seeking to avoid a winless trip down South, the bats came alive. BC rallied for seven runs in the ninth inning and ended the weekend with a 11-6 win over the Scarlet Knights (2-4). The Eagles (3-3) evened their record, bouncing back from consecutive losses before heading into an eight-game swing that goes through the Carolinas.

BC trailed, 3-0, early, with reigning ACC Pitcher of the Week Brian Rapp lasting just four innings. The Eagles answered with RBI base hits from Chris Galland and Brian Dempsey to cut the lead, but Rapp quickly

ran into trouble. He eventually exited, having given up six earned runs on nine hits, a far cry from his six no-hit innings against Santa Clara.

Down 6-2, BC gradually chipped away.

Anthony Maselli brought in a run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth and Dante Baldelli scored on a passed ball in the following inning. The floodgates opened in the ninth.

Rutgers reliever Kevin Blum walked Baldelli and Jake Palomaki to open the inning. Replacements Eric Reardon and Ryan Wares didn’t fare much better. Jake Alu legged out a bunt single, setting the table for a game-tying, two-run single from Gian Martellini. Scott Braren followed with an RBI single for the lead, Galland beat out an infield single for two more insurance runs, and Dempsey knocked in another two with a single.

Eagles relievers Will Hesslink, Carmen Giampetruzzi, and Thomas Lane combined to close out the final four innings. Hesslink, making his collegiate debut, spun a pair of 1-2-3 innings with a strikeout. Lane entered in the eighth, using a double play after con-

secutive walks to secure the win. It was a strong ending to the weekend for BC, even if it came down to the final inning for the bats to emerge from their slumber.

Minnesota rolled over BC in the Classic opener, chasing Jacob Stevens after just an inning and a third, en route to the convincing 14-1 win. Golden Gophers (5-2) starter Reggie Meyer held the Eagles to three hits over five shutout innings, and a methodical offense piled up the runs in support.

Stevens, coming off a strong season debut, gave up five earned runs on seven hits to take the loss. He didn’t get much help from his team, who couldn’t figure out Meyer and managed a lone run in the bottom of the ninth, with the game far out of reach.

The rest of the BC pitching staff didn’t have much luck either. Relievers Jack Hodgson and Jack Nelson were the only two of the Eagles’ six bullpen arms that didn’t concede a run, as the duo of John Witkowski and Brendan Spagnuolo combined to allow seven in just 2.1 innings of work.

The Gophers scored a run in the first off back-to-back singles, but quickly put

the game out of reach in the following inning. Minnesota used a pair of RBI singles, a groundout, and a sac fly to stretch the lead to 5-0 after just two. It went on to score in four more frames, including a three-run fifth and a four-run eighth.

Once the dust settled, the Gophers had 14 runs on 16 hits, seeing 11 different players record a hit while 10 had at least one RBI. Ben Mezzenga and Terrin Vavra each went 3-for-4, while the first four batters in the Minnesota lineup drove in two runs apiece. Cole McDevitt also homered in the win.

It was an ugly day for the Eagles, who were fresh off a pitching and defense-led win to close out the Santa Clara series the weekend prior. The Gophers never had any doubt that they’d leave with a win, as the bullpen combination of Sam Thoresen and Patrick Fredrickson held BC scoreless until the final inning.

The Eagles’ Reyce Curnane logged his first collegiate RBI after coming in as a pinch hitter in the ninth, the lone bright spot on a three-hit day for BC.

The following day, it was Indiana’s Pauly Milito that guided his team to a 40 shutout of BC. Milito faced one batter over the minimum, twirling a completegame shutout with eight strikeouts, surrendering just four hits while making the most of three double plays.

Milito was backed up by an early 3-0 lead—the product of a solo home run from Matt Lloyd, a sacrifice fly from Elijah Dunham, and an RBI single from Luke Miller. The Hoosiers (6-1) left eight runners on base, but with Milito dealing, it ultimately didn’t matter. Ryan Fineman added an RBI single to tack on some insurance. The loss went to Dan Metzdorf, who worked into the seventh inning but gave up three runs on 10 hits.

The first two games go to show how much the Eagles will lean on pitching this season—as the rotation and bullpen go, so will they. Scoring just five runs over three games is never a good sign for victory, especially when the pitching staff can’t seem to manufacture 1-2-3 innings when it needs them the most. n

SOFTBALL

Eagles Drop Three-of-Five at FIU Classic, Fall Twice in Extras

By Ben Thomas Asst. Sports Editor

Although Boston College softball is no stranger to double-headers—having already played three in its first 10 games—its weekend at the FIU Classic proved to be the biggest endurance test the Eagles have faced all season. BC played five games—two of which went to extra innings—over the course of just three days. The Eagles went 2-3, with a pair of their losses coming to FIU in 14and 11-inning marathons, respectively.

On Sunday afternoon, BC was able to notch its fifth win of the season against Central Connecticut State, 1-0.

The Eagles (5-9) scraped together the only run of the game without recording a single hit in the inning. In the third, Gianna Randazza first reached base after getting hit by a pitch that got away from Blue Devils starter Emily Sargent. She

then advanced on a sacrifice bunt from Jordan Chimento and scored on a Lexi DiEmmanuele sacrifice fly.

BC pitcher Jessica Dreswick did the rest on her own, tying a career-high in strikeouts with 11 in a complete-game shutout effort.

In the three games prior, losses to FIU (9-7) on Friday and Saturday night sandwiched an 8-0 shutout win over Siena College (0-4).

Against Siena, it was Dreswick doing most of the work on the mound again, striking out six Saints over five innings before being relieved by C.C. Cook.

The two combined for the Eagles’ third shutout of the season.

Most of the damage done offensively for BC came in the fourth inning. After being held scoreless through the first half of the game, the Eagles broke out of their drought with RBI singles from Cook and Randazza. A throwing error from Siena

catcher Amanda Dodson that went well wide of third base brought in two more runs. A three-run home run by Cook the very next inning more than put the game out of reach.

The two losses to the tournament’s host FIU, however, were heartbreaking.

On Friday night, the Eagles and pitcher Allyson Frei were stretched to 11 innings against the Panthers. BC’s only run of the game came from Chloe Sharabba on a fielder’s choice in the ninth inning, but FIU’s Michaela Mills was able to tie it up in the bottom half with an RBI single to extend the game.

In the 11th, it was Mills again, who lined a single up the middle to score Jessica Rivera for the 2-1 walk-off win.

The next night, BC was outlasted once again, this time falling, 1-0, in a grueling 14 innings. Frei held the Panthers scoreless until two outs in the 14th, throwing a mind-blowing 223

pitches. The senior showed great poise throughout the four-hour game, getting out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fifth. She looked close to getting out of another knot in the 14th, recording a strikeout and a groundout after loading the bases, but couldn’t pull the escape act again. With two outs, Frei threw the unthinkable: a walk-off hit by pitch. The result was devastating for the Eagles, who failed to make the most of their opportunities all day, leaving 12 on base over the course of the game.

Frei allowed just three runs against FIU over the course of 24.1 innings.

She may have gone 0-2 over the weekend, but she finished the trip with a combined earned run average of just 1.66 in the three games she appeared in.

The first game of the weekend series, a 9-5 loss at the hands of Michigan State, was dictated by Frei’s struggles.

She allowed three insurance runs in a single relief inning against the Spartans (5-6), putting the Eagles down four with just an inning to play. Although the team had scored three times in the fifth, the boost wasn’t enough to keep MSU within striking distance to open the weekend with a win. BC wasn’t able to capitalize on a three-hit game from Emme Martinez, who doubled twice but never crossed the plate.

The two-win weekend has to feel disappointing for the Eagles, who were left empty-handed in a pair of competitive, lengthy games against an FIU team that received preseason votes in the top 25 poll. Wins against Siena and Central Connecticut were somewhat expected, so three losses in bigger games against more competitive teams are indicative that the Eagles still have work to do before conference play starts next month. n

If Emmert Won’t Change NCAA, Silver Must Take the Initiative NCAA Scandal, from B1 best in the world the minute they leave high school—others, not so much. But the one-year hiatus doesn’t make a difference.

Besides, several players have been weaseling their way out of the rule for years now. In 2008, Brandon Jennings became the first player to join a European team and forgo college since the 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement. This practice is not unheard of today—in fact, you hear all about it, considering that LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball are overseas in Lithuania doing practically the same thing.

One prospect found an even bigger loophole: Three years ago, now-Milwaukee Bucks center Thon Maker reclassified during his junior year of high school, effectively cramming in the rest of his classes so that he could graduate in 2015.

Then, he doubled back and decided to reenter the Class of 2016, before ultimately changing his mind once more and declaring for the 2016 NBA Draft. In order to attain eligibility, the 7-foot-1 big man successively convinced the NBA that he had actually graduated in 2015 and used the ensuing school year as a postgraduate term.

When then-NBA commissioner David Stern instituted the rule more than a decade ago, most thought there’d be a reduction in the number of potential busts. Another year of basketball meant another year of tape. Yet Stern’s underlying intent was to get general managers and scouts out of high school gyms. His fear was that the game was being monetized at the youth level—well, he only prolonged the inevitable.

Academic institutions have been turned into athletic academies, fostering some of the greatest talents in the world.

They’ll do anything to move up in any sort of ranking, whether that be a top-25 poll or a nationwide recruiting list. Money is just the newest ploy to reel in prospects, and unless someone takes action, coaches and recruiters will just come up with an alternative tactic. Plain and simple, the academic year that is required of soonto-be NBA players is purely symbolic, rendering the one-and-done rule useless—after Friday’s report, it’s clear that the restriction is doing more harm than good and undoubtedly paints the League in a bad light.

Soon after Yahoo! Sports broke the news of this underground recruiting op-

eration, FS1’s Colin Cowherd went on the air and made a case for the change.

“College isn’t for everybody,” he said.

“For musical elite talents, elite basketball talents, it’s a waste of time. You’re better off getting them into an academy, getting the 10,000 hours ramped up. If you’re a prodigy in music, if you’re a prodigy in basketball, what’s the point? You can develop more quickly playing with others in your class.”

Everyone else can skip or drop out of college whenever they want. Heck, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, two of the top five richest people in the world, never graduated. We all have the right to make our own decisions. There’s no reason why NBA prospects shouldn’t. It’s not like the NFL, where players aren’t physically mature enough to compete with older athletes. If anything, youth is more advantageous on the court.

As Cowherd suggests, the solution lies in a developmental academy or program for players coming straight out of high school, one that would facilitate their talent for a year or two before they play in the G League or enter the NBA Draft at age 20—a system that breeds increased development and avoids crooked expen-

ditures, all while bridging the gap between high school and pro athletes.

Obviously, there should still be an option for those interested in pursuing a degree and playing in the NCAA. Like the MLB, the NBA could adopt a policy mandating college players to have either completed their junior or senior years or be at least 21 years old before entering the draft. Only then would the sport have stability and perhaps find a balance between its conflicting academic and athletic demands.

Those who point to a potential drop in entertainment value must remember that during the 34 years that high schoolers were allowed to jump ship to the NBA, following the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Haywood v. National Basketball Association (1971), fewer than 50 players made the abridged transition. Just as college is not for everyone, a proposed academy isn’t for everyone.

The NCAA will still have its fair share of blossoming stars. The only difference? We’ll get to see more Draymond Greens and Jimmy Butlers develop, rather than subjecting ourselves to the annual pilgrimage of

newly baptized ESPN 100 recruits to the draft. Give it a couple of seasons, and fans will grow attached to their teams’ established stars. The players too will forge a brand that will come in handy if they ever make it to the NBA. Josh Hart is just one example of this phenomenon. In true Villanova fashion, the Los Angeles Lakers guard stuck out his four-year tenure in the suburbs of Philadelphia, compiling thousands of local fans in the process. Now, despite being the last pick of the first round of this past year’s NBA Draft, he’s already nationally renowned.

A lot of logistics will have to be ironed out, but creating discourse is infinitely more productive than patching up the broken workings of the NCAA. As is, scandals are popping up by the month in college athletics. The clock is ticking, if NCAA president Mark Emmert isn’t going to take action, maybe it’s time for NBA commissioner Adam Silver to pull the trigger.

Andy Backstrom is the sports editor for The Heights. He can be reached on Twitter @AndyHeights.

SPORTS in SHORT ACC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Conference 15-1 Louisville 15-1 Notre Dame 12-4 Florida State 11-5 Duke 11-5 N.C. State 10-6 Syracuse 10-6 Miami 10-6 Virginia 6-10 VIrginia Tech 6-10 Georgia Tech 5-11 Wake Forest North Carolina 4-12 2-14 Boston College 2-14 Pittsburgh 1-15 Clemson

Numbers to know overall 29-2 27-2 24-5 22-7 22-7 22-7 20-9 17-12 17-12 17-12 13-16 14-15 7-22 10-19 11-18

14

Point lead that men’s basketball blew with six minutes left on Saturday afternoon against Miami.

8

Number of Hockey East semifinal appearances in a row for women’s hockey as it seeks a third-straight conference tournament title.

4:44.34

Time it took for junior Paige Duca to run the mile at the ACC Championships, good for the bronze medal and All-ACC honors.

QUote of the week

“I think I was more happy to see him score a goal than I’ve ever been for myself.”

— BC defenseman Casey

Fitzgerald, on teammate Kevin Lohan scoring his first goal of the season.

The Heights

Monday, February 26, 2018

B3

MEN’S BASKETBALL

BC Blows Lead at Miami, Postseason Chances Grow Slimmer

By Andy Backstrom Sports Editor A couple weeks removed from falling to Boston College men’s basketball on the road, Miami, losers of two of its last three, hosted the EaBoston College 78 gles on Saturday Miami 79 afternoon, needing a win to stay in the hunt for a top-four seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament.

Having been outrebounded by an average of eight boards in each of its last three games, head coach Jim Larrañaga sacrificed speed for size, starting Ja’Quan Newton in place of Chris Lykes. The strategy proved quite effective, as the Hurricanes racked up 39 rebounds—12 more than BC—including 15 on the offensive end of the floor. Yet, when it mattered most, the 5-foot-7 guard came up bigger than everyone else on the floor.

With his team down 14 with less than six minutes to play, Lykes—who had been getting beat by Ky Bowman all day—buckled down on both sides of the court. The freshman logged 11 of his 15 points down the stretch, seven of which came at the charity stripe. Lykes drew whistle after whistle, forcing Bowman to foul out with under two minutes to go. Without their point guard, the Eagles were helpless. Jordan Chatman was tasked with handling the Miami press and struggled to even get the ball up the floor. Eventually, the Eagles advanced the rock past half court, only to see their big men falter at the free throw line.

BC missed 11 shots at the line, including

three in the final minute of regulation, the last of which of gave the Hurricanes 18 seconds to set up a game-winning shot. Miami, namely Lonnie Walker IV, didn’t disappoint: After draining the clock, the NBA prospect stepped back and launched a 3-pointer with four seconds remaining. The ball swooshed through the net, all but sealing the deal, considering that the Eagles hadn’t made a field goal in close to three minutes and had no timeouts at their disposal. Nik Popovic inbounded the ball to Jerome Robinson, but the junior couldn’t get a handle on the pass before the buzzer sounded—the comeback was complete, Miami had won, 79-78.

The teams combined for just five field goals in the final three minutes of the game, but the first half was nothing short of a track meet. Firing on all cylinders, BC (16-13, 610 Atlantic Coast) shot 66 percent from the field in the opening frame, all while featuring a balanced scoring attack.

Of the seven Eagles to see action in the period, six got on the board. Days after taking a hard spill and apparently hurting his left elbow, Jerome Robinson looked like himself again, scoring from everywhere on the court. The Raleigh, N.C. native got BC going with a layup and led the charge with a game-high 30 points, but he was hardly the talk of the afternoon. Nik Popovic, who had only reached double figures once in the previous six games, scored 12 points in his first 12 minutes on the court. The 6-foot-10 center cut to the basket, using his acceleration to finish at the rim, utilized his post moves, and even knocked down a

baseline jumper.

Although the Hurricanes (20-8, 9-7) only converted 52.8 percent of their shot attempts—a mark that would normally ensure victory—they were still going toe-to-toe with BC, all thanks to their work down low.

Led by Dewan Huell, Anthony Lawrence II, and Ebuka Izundu, Miami made a home for itself in the paint. An abundance of offensive boards gifted the Hurricanes a handful of second-chance opportunities, and they made the most of them. The Eagles and Hurricanes traded baskets throughout the entire half, but BC got the last laugh. Reclaiming the lead for the first time in more than 11 minutes, Robinson hit a fadeaway jumper in the waning seconds of the period to cap a 6-0 Eagles run and send head coach Jim Christian’s team into the break with at onepossession advantage.

For a while, it looked like the second half would model that of the teams’ last meeting.

All of a sudden, Miami went cold, at one point shooting a mere 21.7 percent from the field in the half. Not only did the Hurricanes continue to chuck up missed 3-pointers, but they also had a hard time finding the same success they once had inside. BC stepped up its game in the key, tripling its rebound total in the half. Steffon Mitchell and Bowman were at the forefront of the movement, both snaring four boards in the period.

Walker IV didn’t score for the first 16 minutes of the frame—it wasn’t until then that Miami really started to piece together any sort of run. A few possessions down the road, Lykes scooted by Bowman for a layup

Pedro Portal / Miami Herald via AP Photo

Chris Lykes fueled Miami’s comeback, scoring 11 points in the final four minutes of play. and Dejan Vasiljevic drilled a 3-pointer.

Just like that, the Hurricanes had cut their once 14-point deficit in half. Robinson and Popovic fought back with a series of buckets, but the pair of scoring plays served as nothing more than a band-aid on a wound that wouldn’t stop bleeding.

With under two minutes to go, Lykes drew a Bowman charge, sidelining the Eagles’ electric point guard with five personals.

Soon after, the freshman absorbed contact on his way to the basket, causing Mitchell to be called for the blocking foul. Cashing in at the stripe, Lykes used both free throws to shrink BC’s lead to three. He’d sink a couple more approximately a minute later, this time

closing the gap to one, ultimately paving the way for Walker IV’s game-winner.

The loss gives the Eagles a taste of their own medicine. After all, they turned a six-point deficit into a nail-biting onepossession victory in the span of just four minutes when the two teams met earlier this month—only now, it comes at an increased dosage. Up double-digits with less than six minutes to go, the Eagles had Saturday’s game in hand. There will be a lot of questions concerning what happened toward the end of regulation. Now that its NCAA Tournament bubble has popped, and the NIT is up in the air, Christian’s team will have a lot of time to come up with some answers. n

MEN’S HOCKEY

Eagles Explode for Six Goals in Final Two Periods Against Maine

32 saves by goaltender Joseph Woll

2 goals scored by Kevin Lohan

13 faceoff wins by J.D. Dudek

MHOK vs. Maine, from B1 rest of the night. After the game, captain Casey Fitzgerald had some praise for his teammate.

“That was great to see,” he said. “He’s one of the best character guys we have in our locker room … everyone was so happy.

Me, personally, I think I was more happy to see him score a goal than I’ve ever been for myself.”

The game continued as a back-andforth, until Michael Kim fed a great pass to Lohan in the middle of the slot. The former Michigan Wolverine then fired the puck into the net to stretch BC’s lead with five and a half minutes remaining.

Maine nearly cut its deficit two minutes later when Shea blasted a hard shot from the slot that Woll turned aside. The rebound was immediately picked up and shot by Sam Becker, but Woll managed to block that too, as well as a third rebound.

Neither team scored again in the second, though Jesper Mattila came close with a shot at the buzzer. Despite outscoring

Maine, 3-0, in the period, BC was outshot, 18-12. Quite simply, the Eagles had more of the high-danger opportunities.

BC carried its momentum into the third frame, forcing Swayman to make three saves in the opening minutes. Three minutes into the period, Zach Walker delivered the puck from one circle to Casey Carreau in the other. Carreau launched a wrist shot to beat Swayman and put BC up by three. As with Lohan earlier, it was Carreau’s first goal of the season. Maine was quick to strike back, however, with Patrick Holway getting off a shot that deflected off the skate of a falling Emil Westerlund. The goal was subjected to a lengthy review, but it was ultimately upheld.

BC responded three minutes later, off an extraordinary tic-tac-toe sequence from Hutsko to David Cotton to J.D. Dudek right in front of the crease. Dudek had a wideopen net and cashed in, putting BC ahead, 5-2. At the halfway point in the period, the Eagles received another chance on the power play that was once again extended to a 5-on-3. This time, they were quick to

capitalize, as Hutsko dished the puck to Fitzgerald from point to point, and Fitzgerald fired a slapshot past Swayman. When all was said and done, Hutsko—then acting as a creator rather than a scorer—recorded a goal and two assists in the game, continuing a five-game point streak.

Maine didn’t give up and pulled the game closer when Shea tapped the puck over Woll’s glove off a great pass from Tim Doherty behind the net. But Maine’s comeback would not progress any further.

The Black Bears got three shots to Woll, none of them dangerous, in the final five minutes of the game, and the Eagles coasted to the finish line.

With the win, BC locked up the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Hockey East Tournament, setting up another run to the conference championship game—all York can really ask for, given the circumstances.

“It’s been a year of ups and downs for our club, to close with the outright trophy for Hockey East, we really feel proud of that fact,” the longtime coach said. “That’s a huge accomplishment, of course.” n

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

BC Books Trip to Hockey East Semifinals With Sweep of Vermont

By Nicole Pla Heights Staff When Makenna Newkirk tripped over goaltender Sydney Scobee’s stick while skating in toward the crease, it looked like Vermont’s Vermont 1 sophomore Boston College 6 goaltender had successfully stopped Boston College women’s hockey from tacking on yet another goal.

Newkirk, however, while falling to the ice, kept the puck on her stick and deftly poked it into the wide-open cage. The impressive finish was the cherry on top for the Eagles (30-3-3, 20-2-3 Hockey East), who rolled to a convincing 6-1 win over the Catamounts (10-20-5, 7-14-4) to secure the Hockey East Quarterfinal sweep.

The Eagles got a slow start in the first period, as UVM outshot them through-

out the first 10 minutes and had a power play chance it couldn’t capitalize on. But the tide quickly turned thanks to Erin Connolly’s efforts.

Her shot from the circle was deflected off Scobee’s shoulder, veering wide, and Delaney Belinskas’ follow-up attempt was blocked as well. The third time was the charm, though, as the puck landed right in front of Connolly. Before Scobee could cover the hole between her feet and the pipe, Connolly tipped the rebound over the crease to give the Eagles an early lead.

With their season on the line, the Catamounts rallied at the start of the second to tie up the game. Kristina Shanahan took advantage of the traffic in front of goaltender Katie Burt to take a wraparound shot.

The senior was distracted with what was in front of her, and Shanahan was able to slip the puck between Burt’s legs.

The Eagles got an opportunity to regain

their lead when UVM’s Taylor Flaherty was called for high sticking, but they couldn’t connect on the power play. Almost immediately after leaving the box, Flaherty was sent right back in for checking.

The back-to-back penalties would spell doom for the Catamounts, who conceded the lead and wouldn’t recover.

Toni Ann Miano hit the pipe on the first power play, but got another chance during the second. Miano’s attempt from the circle made its way through multiple defenders and past Scobee, giving BC back its lead.

It was one of three points Miano tallied during the afternoon, pushing the her past the 100-career point mark. She’s one of three defensemen in the program’s history to do so, joining Emily Pfalzer and Megan Keller—two teammates who just won gold in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

“Just being an upperclassman and

being a senior, I feel the way [the alumni] felt, when they were here,” she said. “I’m just contributing everything I can to go out with a bang and hopefully we finish it off this year and stay positive.”

Following Miano’s goal, the Eagles’ offense took off.

Just over a minute later, Kenzie Kent wrapped around Scobee and deflected the puck off the skate of a defender and past Scobee. Two minutes after that, with UVM’s Courtney Menches in the box for hooking, BC capitalized again. Following a faceoff win, Daryl Watts delivered the puck to Newkirk, who immediately took a shot on an unprepared Scobee to complete a quick reversal of what had been a 1-1 game roughly five minutes prior.

After the Eagles knocked in another goal, the Catamounts became desperate. They amped up their aggression and it proved costly—UVM piled up 29

penalty minutes to BC’s 10 in the game.

The physicality peaked in the third period, when Flaherty sent Belinskas flying into the boards, leaving the sophomore crumpled on the ice. The hit drew a major game-misconduct call, and the ensuing 10-minute penalty—served by Shanahan in Flaherty’s forced absence—was all but a death sentence for the Catamounts. Both Grace Bizal and Newkirk scored late goals to bury UVM. After slipping by the Catamounts the day prior, 3-1, head coach Katie Crowley was pleased with her team’s effort to lock up a spot in the semifinals—BC’s eightstraight appearance.

“I thought we were much better today than we were yesterday,” she said. “We’re really excited to be moving forward to the semifinals. We talk about trophies a lot, and that’s our next step on our way to another trophy.” n

Sam Zhai / Heights Staff

After kicking off their postseason with a two-goal victory over the Wildcats, the Eagles erupted for six goals, including four in the second period alone, on Saturday afternoon, en route to a decisive 6-1 win.

The Heights

B4

Monday, February 26, 2018

WOMENS BASKETBALL

BC Scares Syracuse, Cannot Cash in on Road Upset Bid

By Michael Bacon For the Heights Once again, Boston College women’s basketball’s inability to put together a complete, polished 40-minute p er forBoston College 63 mance proved Syracuse 69 too much to overcome. The Eagles were outlasted on the road by Syracuse, 69-63, despite a 28-point, career-best performance from sophomore guard Taylor Ortlepp.

Despite continuity being something that BC (7-22, 2-14 Atlantic Coast) head coach Erik Johnson has been emphasizing throughout the year, the struggles have been especially prominent in recent games. The Eagle’s tendency to drift in and out of games has led to increasing frustration for Johnson and Co. What has now become a characteristically sluggish start for BC was again to the fore, as they were caught napping in the first quarter, finding themselves down by eight, 19-11, after just 10 minutes of play.

BC’s lackluster shooting reflected the opening exchanges , with the team’s leading scorer Milan BoldenMorris struggling to find her rhythm early on, as she went 0-for-5 from the field. The beginning of the second quarter signaled a marked improvement in both BC’s and Bolden- Morris’ fortunes, as the Eagles managed to pile up 19 points of their own in the quarter behind three 3-pointers from the freshman guard.

This coincided with an equally elevated level of energy on defense, which allowed the Eagles to hold the Orange (22-6, 10-6) to just 13 points for the quarter. The intensity it originally came out with on offense, however, gradually faded, and BC failed to register a single point in the final two and a half minutes of the half. This reduced any hopes that the Eagles had of heading into the break with a slender one-point lead.

Another lapse in BC’s concentration down the stretch permitted the Orange’s Tiana Mangakahia to find space in the corner, and the Australian knocked down the 3-pointer with just

30 seconds remaining to send Syracuse into the intermission with the lead, as the score stood at 32-30.

The Eagles went blow for blow with the Orange at the start of the second, as Ortlepp started to catch fire en route to a career day. She would end the half with six 3-pointers, one of which pushed BC into the fourth quarter with things tied up at 45.

Yet the Eagles suddenly found room hard to come by inside the paint, preventing them from picking up easy buckets. They also had a hard time booking trips to the line. Much of the success BC has had this year has been based upon the frequency with which it can get to the charity stripe, but with this avenue blocked, points were difficult to come by.

Still, the Eagles remained afloat, and Ortlepp sunk a crucial 3-pointer while being fouled to complete a fourpoint play with just seven minutes left.

BC, somehow, was leading by three, heading into the final five minutes.

But it was only a matter of time before it yielded a seven-point run to Syracuse. Ortlepp, again, was responsible

Kaitlin Meeks / Heights Editor

Taylor Ortlepp’s (top) career-high 28 points weren’t enough to upset the Orange. for cutting into the lead with a crucial 3-pointer. She willed her team back to a one-point deficit with 2:53 to play, but Mangakahia would come up big in the clutch. When the Orange needed her most, the sophomore closed out the game with seven points in the final two minutes.

The result handed BC a 2-13 final record in conference play, good for the 13th seed in the upcoming ACC tournament. The Eagles will face No.

12 North Carolina on Wednesday, looking to make at least some noise in postseason play.

Still, Johnson and BC will undoubtedly be disappointed with their showing for this year. The Eagles have flirted with consistency at times over the past 6 months, which will give the group cause for optimism looking ahead to next year—but they managed just seven wins, two less than last year’s paltry mark. n

LACROSSE

Eagles Surge in Second Half for Convincing Win Over Brown

By Erin Walsh Heights Staff The first five minutes of Saturday afternoon’s game between Boston College lacrosse and Brown was nothing short of Eagle-domiBrown 12 nation. In the Boston College 22 fourth minute, sophomore Cara Urbank scored a freeposition goal following a foul called in Brown territory. Soon after, junior Sam Apuzzo cut through the Bears’ defense to score an unassisted goal, marking her 17th scoring play of the season. This offensive success persisted throughout the contest, bringing the Eagles 15 secondhalf goals and a resounding 22-12 victory over the Bears.

BC’s (5-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) gameopening fortune, however, did not last long. Brown (2-1) responded with success on the counterattack in the sixth minute, as junior midfielder Zoe Verni’s missed shot was collected by junior Hafsa Moinuddin for an unassisted goal.

Just two minutes later, Risa Mosenthal capitalized on a foul called against an

Eagles defender. Mosenthal swiftly cut through BC’s defense and sent the ball into the back of the net for her 10th goal of the year.

With the game tied at two, it seemed as if there was no stopping the Bears.

Mosenthal put away her second goal of the half as her explosive attacking nature took over, slicing through the Eagles’ defense for another goal. BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein called the first timeout of the game as Brown snatched the lead.

The Eagles were in desperate need of a change in pace, but they could not turn things around. With 16:41 left in the half, Brown’s freshman attacker Maggie Fowler received the ball from Verni and netted her first of the game, bringing the score to 4-2 for the Bears. Under a minute later, Brown capitalized on a BC error in the offensive end: The Bears gathered the turnover, sped down the field, and cashed on an Elizabeth Miller foul, scoring a free-position goal.

Thanks to a 5-0 run, Brown led the game by three, and the Eagles seemed to be falling apart. BC struggled hard to

respond to Brown’s explosive offense, while failing to break through the Bears’ solid, intact defense. Balanced play on both ends of the field gifted them a comfortable lead and a great deal of momentum.

The Eagles finally managed to halt Brown’s offensive run with just under 15 minutes left in the half. The Bears’ Marissa Hudgins was shown a yellow card for making contact with Apuzzo’s head. BC brought the ball down the field, and senior attacker Kaileen Hart scored her first goal of the day, cutting the Eagles’ deficit to two. Apuzzo followed in her trail with a goal of her own, assisted by Hart.

Down by just one, a newfound energy spiced up the game, as both teams scored within a minute of each other, each eager to keep pace with the other. With a 5-1 run, BC finally overtook the Bears before the half came to a close with two goals from Jordan Lappin and one from Sheila Rietano to take the lead, 7-6. The Eagles’ one-goal advantage was its first lead since the opening five minutes of the game.

BC kicked off the second frame just the way it started the first, quickly put-

ting up two goals, this time from Hart and Tara Schurr, respectively, who assisted each other on the scoring plays.

Within a span of 20 seconds, the Eagles lengthened their lead to three. BC’s scoring frenzie continued with a goal from Lappin, who netted her third of the game, forcing Brown to call its first timeout of the contest.

In a familiar scene, Brown retaliated with a full-force comeback. With 22:04 left, the Bears started to make their move, as BC’s Jillian Reilly received a green card for a delay of game, which Walker vociferously disputed on the sidelines, yelling for the officials to call a fair game.

Following the decision, Brown’s Mason Warble scored her first goal of the game, but the Bears didn’t stop there.

Brown carried a three-goal run, closing the gap to just one with 20 minutes left to play. Accompanied by energy pouring from the Bears’ bench, Brown was taking over.

Apuzzo had other ideas. She corralled the ball from Hart’s blocked shot and scored her third goal of the game, unassisted. Just 20 seconds later, Hart netted

her third goal of the game, and the two hat-tricks restored the Eagles’ previous three-goal lead.

The Bears disrupted the Eagles’ run with a free-position goal from Mosenthal, but Hart quickly fired back with her fourth goal of the game—a career high— to extend BC’s lead to 16-11. After one last goal from Mosenthal, the Eagles went off, stringing together a 6-0 run to close the game, with two more goals from Apuzzo, three from Arsenault, and one from Tess Chandler, sealing the deal for BC. All in all, the Eagles outperformed Brown in most aspects of the game. They outshot the Bears, 40-23, committed three less turnovers, and won double the amount of draw controls.

Although the first 30 minutes were too close for comfort, the Eagles upped the ante in the second half, winning the game by a convincing 10-goal margin. Walker links the scoring burst back to conscious leadership.

“We just needed a little wake up call,” she said. “We were asleep in the first half.

We needed our leaders to be leaders, and they were in the second half.” n

WOMENS HOCKEY

Keller-Led BC Contingent Caps Run With Upset of Canada Olympic Gold, from B1

pHOTO cOURTESY OF Ap photo

Eagle alums Emily Pfalzer and Haley Skarupa celebrated with current players Cayla Barnes, Kali Flanagan, and Megan Keller.

wouldn’t have been necessary if it wasn’t for Team Canada’s scoring spurt in the second frame—a period that the Americans had dominated throughout the tournament. Not only did the Canadians light the lamp twice, but they also halted a Team U.S.A. attack that ended up outshooting Canada, 41-31, and was hot off Hilary Knight’s firstperiod goal.

When it mattere d mo st , the Lamoureaux twins kicked their game into full gear, capping off one of the most dramatic Olympic finals in recent memory.

All five BC skaters played in each of Team U.S.A .’s five tournament games, and the Eagles’ four defense-

man—Pfalzer, Keller, Flanagan, and Barnes—logged major minutes in the gold medal game, particularly during the 4-on-4 overtime period. Keller led the group with two points over the course of the five-game spread, recording a pair of assists.

The victory ups the program’s medalist count to eight. Kelli Stack, BC ’11 (silver medals in both 2010 and 2014), Molly Schaus, BC ’11 (silver medals in both 2010 and 2014), and Alex Carpenter, BC ’16 (silver medal in 2014) were BC women’s hockey’s first three skaters to ever make their way to the podium.

Earning Team U.S.A.’s first gold medal since the sport was introduced to the Games in 1998 undoubtedly immortalizes the five women in both Olympic and BC history. n

Crowley Reflects on Team U.S.A.’s Historic Olympic Journey

By Michael Sullivan Heights Senior Staff For the sport of women’s hockey in the United States, Wednesday evening (or Thursday afternoon, Pyeongchang time) represented a watershed moment. Team U.S.A. won its first gold medal at the Winter Olympics since the introduction of the sport to the games back in 1998, ending a 20-year run of Canadian dominance. NBC marketed the game as the best rivalry in the Olympics, and it certainly didn’t disappoint: a 3-2 shootout victory sparked by the heroics of twins Jocelyne and Monique Lamoureux, two of the sport’s most vocal ambassadors.

For Boston College women’s hockey head coach Katie Crowley, the win was even more special. First, as a young skater out of Brown University, Crowley, then Katie King, represented Team U.S.A. on the gold medal-winning team

at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics.

But secondly, she had five skaters on the team—two alumni, Emily Pfalzer, BC ’15, and Haley Skarupa, BC ’16; two current skaters, Megan Keller and Kali Flanagan, both MCAS ’19; and incoming freshman Cayla Barnes, MCAS ’22—all earn gold medals around their necks.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling, and you go into that game and you’re never quite sure what’s going to happen. I mean, that is the best game in women’s hockey that you can have,” Crowley said after practice on Thursday, where the Eagles were gearing up before their Hockey East quarterfinal game against UVM. “To see those teams battle like they did, it was just a tremendous hockey game to showcase our sport and it’s an unbelievable feeling to get the gold medal around your neck.”

Crowley said one of the biggest challenges of playing in the gold medal

game against Team Canada is separating the off-the-ice friendships and on-theice rivalry. One of her best friends at Brown was teammate Rebecca Kellar, who played for Team Canada. The sport continues to be tight-knit, with many girls playing on the same youth and high school teams, not to mention college. This year in particular separated two major rivalries. Team U.S.A. featured the aforementioned five BC skaters as well as six from the University of Minnesota, while Team Canada had two players from Boston University—including Canada team captain Marie-Philip Poulin—and five from Minnesota’s main rival, the University of Wisconsin (the Badgers also had four on Team U.S.A.).

Those ties run deep to the Eagles.

Three current freshmen players are Canadian—Maegan Beres, Willow Corson, and Daryl Watts, the last of whom is a frontrunner for the Patty Kazmaier

Award—who have at some point played for a junior team nationally. Crowley said the girls did a good job balancing the two loyalties.

“I’m sure Daryl and Maegan and Willow wanted those five to do well, but also they were probably rooting for Canada,” Crowley said.

She hasn’t spoken to her players since the game, but Crowley made sure via text message to remind them to have fun, enjoy the moment, and take it all in entering the gold medal game against Team Canada. No matter what, she said, the women needed to recognize that they made it to the pinnacle of their sport with the eyes of the world watching. Crowley also noted that the number of girls who play hockey seems to spike up every four years because of how electric the game is between the United States and Canada—even if this one had to end in an unsatisfying shootout.

“I kinda wish they kept playing because it was such a great game and you tend to not win or lose in a shootout,” Crowley said. “But hey, a win’s a win and we’ll take that no matter what.”

The women she did actively talk to, however, were the members of her 1998 team group chat. NBC color commentator A.J. Mleczko noted during the game that the team members’ group text was popping, and Crowley said that the team plans to have a 20-year reunion at some point over the summer.

“We had a good text chain going with our whole group, talking back and forth,” Crowley said. “And leading up to the Olympics we’ve all been in contact and it’s just bringing back unbelievable memories.”

Crowley did, however, confirm that there was not going to be a 1972 Miami Dolphins moment of popping the champagne if they had in fact remained the only team to bring home the gold. n

CLASSIFIEDS

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

THE HEIGHTS THETH HEEIGHTS HEIGHTS

B5 B5 B5

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2018

Interested in placing an ad or a classified? email ads@bcheights.com

Directions: The Sudoku is played over a 9x9 grid. In each row there are 9 slots, some of which are empty and need to be filled.

Each row, column and 3x3 box should contain the numbers 1 to 9. You must follow these rules: · Number can appear only once in each row · Number can appear only once in each column · Number can appear only once in each 3x3 box · The number should appear only once on row, column or area.

Receive the latest Boston College news straight to your inbox.

FOR DAILY UPDATES,

GET YOUR BC

NEWS ONLINE AT

BCHEIGHTS. COM.

Sign up for The Heights’s twice-weekly newsletter at bcheights.com/newsletter.

THE HEIGHTS

B6

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2018

‘Red Sparrow’ Grounded by Bulky Plot Progression

BY MICHAEL TROY For The Heights Red Sparrow is an adaptation of the 2013 novel of the same name by Jason Matthews, and is the seventh film directed

by Francis Lawrence, who also directed The Hunger Games trilogy, Water for Elephants, and I am Legend, all of which were novels before being adapted for cinema. It stars Jennifer Lawrence, who is quite familiar with Francis Lawrence (although despite sharing last names they are not related) from their time together working on The Hunger Games movie series. Unfortunately for the Lawrence duo, just like in their other three projects, their passable performances as star and director were unable to save Red Sparrow from the awful script they were tasked with bringing to life.

This film is about a young Russian

dancer named Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) who is thrust into the world of Russian Intelligence by her uncle, Vanya.

She is put through rigorous training and becomes a Sparrow, which is a Russian agent who uses the power of seduction as a means of gaining trust and getting information from persons of interest. This premise is actually quite interesting, but the way it was presented in the script is its first downfall. There is no consistency with the pacing of Red Sparrow, as the first act of the film flies by. This poor pace is due to rushed editing and no setup whatsoever. Before the audience can comprehend anything that has occurred, Egorova is already a spy and is thrown into her first assignment.

More irritating than the pacing is the way Egorova’s character develops. At the beginning of the film, she is an elegant dancer who is injured in a freak accident during a

FILM

RED SPARROW FRANCIS LAWRENCE DISTRIBUTED BY 20TH CENTURY FOX RELEASE MAR. 2, 2018 OUR RATING

20TH CENTURY FOX

performance. But, about five screen-time minutes after her injury, she has already violently attacked two people in a public place and lied about it to the police. There is no precedent for or indication about this behavior, and it is completely off-putting. From this point forward, Egorova is described as having “incredible potential” in the intelligence business by her uncle on no established grounds whatsoever. The movie spends the first three-quarters of its runtime explaining to the audience that Egorova is deceptive rather than showing it, and it becomes ham-fisted and repetitive really fast. In fact, there are maybe only one or two instances throughout the film before the climax that actually showcase any sort of exceptional deceptive talent that Egorova might have, and even those are brief and far from telling about her character. She spends the entire film being bad at her job, and it is difficult for the audience to understand why she has even been given her assignment in the first place.

While Francis Lawrence does a great job with the shot composition of this film, there were quite a few scenes he was required to shoot that were less than comfortable to view. Red Sparrow is filled to the brim with sexual violence, with two instances of rape and a few entirely unnecessary shots of minor characters’ phallic areas. While this is of course not off limits in cinema by any means, it feels like meaningless torture porn rather than an important detail that drives the plot in any way. On the other hand, the physical violence is incredibly well shot and choreographed, with realistic practical

effects for knife fights and torture scenes.

But, while those actual torture scenes, which only occur on a handful of occasions throughout the film, are agonizing and well done, the sexual violence is an unnecessary addition that adds very little to the story.

There are some other positive things about Red Sparrow though. Francis Lawrence’s shot-direction is generally better than the script deserves, but the film does look gorgeous. Jennifer Lawrence was great, managing to convincingly show emotions even as a character who is trained to be emotionless. Joel Edgerton is fantastic, as always, in his supporting role, and the rest of the supporting cast does a great job. The twists at the end of the film are actually quite satisfying, but the credit for these goes to Jason Matthew, the author of the original book, instead of the screenwriter. Other than those few things, however, there is very little to enjoy about this film.

There were a few small issues that added to the unwieldiness of the script.

There were a few occasions early in the film where certain lines were dubbed into the shot, and they were done horribly. The score is boring and repetitive, and while a redundant score can sometimes be a good thing (see Inception), the recurring sound is not satisfying enough to always be pleasant listening. The editing is far too inconsistent throughout the film—some scenes are edited to last no longer than 10 seconds and others are relatively unedited, lasting five minutes too long. Because of this, the already-too-lengthy runtime of 139 minutes feels even longer. 

Lack of Invention Dooms ‘Annihilation’ to Mediocrity ‘

BY TRISTAN ST. GERMAIN Heights Staff Buzz has been circulating around this season’s latest sci-fi extravaganza, Annihilation, the sophomore effort of English writer and film director Alex Garland, whose A.I. thriller Ex Machina garnered rave reviews for reinstilling a sorely-missed brand of “intelligent” science-fiction. Indeed, the very same label has been thrown onto Garland’s latest project, but in an unfortunately pejorative fashion. Though geek culture may fan over whatever defies a stagnant sci-fi status-quo dominated by Star Wars Disney-flicks, viewers should not be deceived

by Annihilation’s thin philosophizing and uninventive genre throwbacks.

As evidenced by the film’s first 10 minutes, Garland signals the interior world of its characters using overused tropes and sci-fi conventions that reek of teenage cynicism. Cancer researcher and professor Lena (Natalie Portman) gives her students a brief rundown on cell-division, though the thematic takeaway is dully reductive, full of smugly dramatic pessimism that runs throughout the rest of the movie. Perhaps this is warranted for Lena, whose husband Dan (Oscar Isaac) went missing on a military combat-mission seven years prior.

Vulnerable but determined, Portman portrays Lena with an unwavering ambition that sends her on a tactical expedition into

a jungle where ecological evil is manifesting. Bubbled in by a rainbow-colored blob referred to as “The Shimmer,” it is the same territory trekked by Lena’s husband, who left behind video evidence of his mission’s horrifying experiences.

Garland’s strong suit is no doubt his affinity for scenarios where people are isolated from society. Before we even enter the lush and densely-foliated wasteland of The Shimmer, the film feels cut off from any world of events with which we’re familiar.

Lena’s home-life is a quarantine zone of depression, restricted to jocular but often ominous interactions with her presentlyabsent husband. Anya (Gina Rodriguez) fears The Shimmer’s transformative effect upon her body in a thinly-veiled metaphor for her battle with drug-addiction. It is a common narrative reflex for modern storytellers bent on a nihilistic diversity of truth: Several people of different perspectives stare into an abyss and get different things out if it, often concluding that their efforts of interpretation are hopeless.

But the abyss Garland paints is nonetheless beautiful. For all its frivolous thrills and cheesy soap-opera nonsense, Annihilation provides a quiet meditation upon humanity’s relationship to the outdoors-gone-wild. While an alligator whose mouth is a vagina-dentata tries to eat the crew, deer with cherry-blossoms grown on their antlers suggests that this world

isn’t all too awful. This isn’t to say nature is deceptive in Annihilation. Nature, the main antagonist, is truly ambivalent—it harms our heroes only when they reach out to contact it.

Despite its high-concept craftiness and stellar visual salad of sci-fi motifs, Annihilation is often hindered by the awkward interactions between its characters. The film starts with a cautious exercise in conversation between Lena and her colleague, Dan, that is no more than an unconvincing excuse for exposition.

Whereas Garland often dilutes his inadequate understanding of science through

colloquial statements that pass off as “realistic,” the attempt at personal philosophy is often juvenilely pessimistic. Leigh does her best to capture the disaffected edge of a dying psychologist intent on discovering the truth behind a global catastrophe, but this cannot save the undue melodrama that pervades even casual encounters—perhaps it is a curse of the sci-fi genre, to lift people beyond their normal circumstances and thus transform them into mouth-pieces of existential wondering. Annihilation has trouble balancing the realism of its subjects with the film’s otherworldly goals and aspirations. 

FILM

ANNHILATION ALEX GARLAND DISTRIBUTED BY DNA FILMS RELEASE FEB. 23, 2018 OUR RATING

DNA FILMS

‘Game Night’ Gambles on Laughs, Can’t Back It Up

BY CANNON FEW Heights Staff

If you’ve seen The Game (1997), you know the plot of one’s estranged brother returning with the gift of a real-life mystery game. And you probably also know the uneasy feeling you get when everything goes awry, and the suspense that might be real or fake that builds as the characters are subject to plot twist on top of plot twist.

But whereas in The Game the younger brother gifts the experience to the rich brother, the roles are flipped as the rich brother gifts the experience to his younger suburbanite brother in Game Night.

And this time, it’s even more unclear as to who is in on the game.

Contrary to The Game, Game Night is one of those star-driven studio comedies that usually falls quickly into stasis. Starring Jason Bateman as Max and Rachel McAdams as Annie, it focuses on a game-loving married couple who host weekly game nights at their suburban home for their pals Ryan (Billy Magnussen), the dim-witted bachelor who always brings a clueless date, and Kevin (Lamorne Morris) and Michelle (Kylie Bunbury), the other married couple who have been together since they were 14. Constantly trying to get his way into the tradition is Gary (Jesse Plemons), the divorced and hilariously

FILM

GAME NIGHT JOHN FRANCIS DALEY PRODUCED BY NEW LINE CINEMA RELEASE FEB. 23, 2018 OUR RATING

NEW LINE CINEMA

eccentric neighbor.

In a creative introduction montage, we find out Max and Annie fell in love over their shared passion for trivia, board games, video games, etc. Their wedding dance was even a shared round of Dance Dance Revolution. But as they proceed to form alliances in Risk and effortlessly win every charades game they participate in, they soon face real life issues with their inability to have kids.

The doctor thinks it might be a result of Max’s stress as his older, megasuccessful and smug brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) is coming to town, re-surfacing Max’s lifelong insecurities. Brooks’s tendency to belittle Max seems to continue when he offers to host the next game night at the luxury mansion he is renting for his stay. And this game night, Brooks promises, will be something special.

Brooks’s game night, it seems, is modeled after an interactive murder mystery, but when he gets violently kidnapped midway through, the audience begins to suspect something might not be going as planned while the characters laugh along as if it were part of the game.

This sets off a chain of reactions that carries all the way through the movie.

The events get increasingly more hectic and absurd—with slapstick and ironic humor constantly running alongside.

The plot twists persist, but the enter-

tainment, unfortunately, does not.

Like some real-life game nights, this movie drags on a little too long and, like some of the forced laughs heard in the audience at the premiere, it tries a little too hard to have fun. After the umpteenth major twist of the plot in the third act is followed by the umpteenth dead joke from one of the characters, it’s finally time to say enough.

With that said, Game Night does have its appeal. The sincerity and redeemable qualities of its characters save it from the aggravation of other dark comedies like Horrible Bosses (2011).

The supporting roles from Jeffrey Wright as a fake FBI agent and Michael C. Hall (Dexter) as the criminal known as The Bulgarian are exceptional, as is the overall casting. Many of the jokes are witty and culturally relevant, though indeed others are overdone.

If you’re a middle-class suburban adult, or someone who doesn’t take anything seriously, you’ll probably love this movie.

Either way, its impact won’t stay with you very far beyond the doors of the movie theater. Game Night won’t win any awards, nor will it leave a legacy of greatness, but it doesn’t need to. Despite its flaws, it certainly falls on the upper end of the spectrum of studio comedies, and if you have nothing else to do this weekend you might as well enjoy it. 

SINGLE REVIEW ISABELLA DOW

‘DJANGO JANE’ JANELLE MONÁE

Janelle Monáe dropped hip-hop track “Django Jane” off her upcoming album, Dirty Computer, and brought sharp social commentary to clever bars. The song features Monáe’s cool, calm vocal style alongside a hazy riff and a tough beat that exudes confidence. With lyrics like, “Remember when they used to say I looked too mannish? / Black girl magic, y’all can’t stand it,” Monáe has fans eagerly anticipating her return to her throne. The single runs wild with pointed allusions to The Vagina Monologues, the Emmy winning television show Scandal, and the 2016 Academy Award Best Picture winner Moonlight, a film in which the actress portrayed Teresa, the compassionate girlfriend of Juan. These references underscore the black and female empowerment messages of the song. Monáe reflects on her humble beginnings and alludes to the work ethic of her parents with the lyric, “Momma was a G, she was cleanin’ hotels / Poppa was a driver, I was workin’ retail.”

Monáe juxstaposes the cutting lyrics with a breezy beat that features flourishing harp sounds and light bass hicups. 

MUSIC VIDEO ISABELLA DOW

‘IGNORE ME’ BETTY WHO

Australian pop diva Betty Who released her music video for “Ignore Me,” which presented a playful visual vibe that didn’t exactly match the lyrical theme of the song. While the music portrays an upbeat musing on moving on after a breakup, the lyrics are a slightly more bitter. The visual concept for the video inhabits the murky middle ground between playfulness and bitterness, without fully committing to either one.

It opens with Who gingerly pulling her stretchy white turtleneck off her face, before sauntering into a sparse hangout space to mingle with her ex and her friends. After throwing on a warm smile and canoodling with the ex on the sofa, Who sings, “The best thing you can do is just to ignore me / Forget I was born / Baby, ignore me since you don’t need me anymore.” At this point, the guy’s face goes totally blank, and he moves away from Who, who seems a bit annoyed and confused by the guy’s change of heart. But given her blatant request in favor of his behavior change, viewers remain unsympathetic to Who’s reaction.

To add to the awkwardness of the situation, Who’s declaration is a strong one, as the breakup must have been pretty dreadful to warrant forgetting each other’s existence. Yet after telling the guy that he can’t come to her parties or spend time with her friends, Who dances alongside the ex, both of whom seem to be having a dandy old time.

The gray studio space even gains a purple strobe light that makes the scene more flirtatious and lively. One of the few indicators that anything was ever amiss is that the pair are sometimes physically divided by a partition, which eventually lifts to accommodate the carefree dancing.

With the above considerations in mind, the video is still entertaining to watch. Who and her dancer ex bring a lighthearted feel to the effervescent song, and share positive vibes with listeners. At least by the end of the video, Who is finally dancing on her own, before stuffing half her face back into her turtleneck and posing dramatically while rainbow confetti rains down. 

The Heights

Monday, February 26, 2018

B7

B.E.A.T.S. Skillfully Sings Social Commentary Deals With the Devil

By Austin Hord Heights Staff

The B.E.A.T.S. (Black Experience in America Through Song) a cappella show at the Black History Month Invitational on Saturday was no ordinary a cappella show.

With its combination of extraor-

dinary talent and moving social and political commentary, it was the kind of show that gives you chills for two hours straight.

Displayed on the chalkboard at the front of the Cushing 001 auditorium were 21 names of black people, mostly young, who were wrongly murdered by police officers. “These are the people

katie genirs / Heights Editor

This board names 21 people, most of them African American, murdered by police.

we’re singing for,” said B.E.A.T.S. copresident Nikitaa Newton, LSOE ’19, as she pointed to the names.

Newton also spoke to the controversy surrounding a recent discriminatory comment made online by a former B.E.A.T.S. member, saying, “We are disappointed and appalled by the statements … we are here to show through our music that black lives truly matter.”

B.E.A.T.S. describes themselves musically as an a cappella group that blends traditional soul music and contemporary R&B. They formed in 2009, and they focus on music that has had a strong impact on the black community in the United States.

They opened the show with a chilling performance of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” sometimes referred to as the Black National Anthem, before diving into beautifully-arranged renditions of “Blessings” by Chance the Rapper and “Glory” by John Legend and Common.

Since “Glory” was written for the

movie Selma (2014), the song was introduced by a reference to the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery led by leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Fighting for equality isn’t just one step…it’s an ongoing fight.”

Next came performances by special guests the Harvard Lowkeys and Paul Sherban MCAS ’16, as well as a song from BC’s Voices of Imani. The show also included heartfelt poetry from Zach Patterson, LSOE ’19, and Miya Coleman, MCAS ’19. B.E.A.T.S. returned to the stage to close out the show with two more songs, the final one being “Blue Lights”

by Jorja Smith. Soloist Nthabi Kamala, CSOM ’20 delivered a powerful and emotional vocal performance, but she first gave a brief but compelling introduction for the song.

“The constant fear of being wrongfully profiled and prosecuted is ingrained in the schematic of the black community,” she said. “Music is a powerful medium of communication, and I hope tonight our message has reached you.” n

Winter Concert Showcases BC Student Bands

By Luis Fialho For The Heights

Hosted by the Music Guild and Charity Water, the Boston College Winter Showcase on Saturday night proved itself to be one of BC’s hidden gems. A free entry (with a suggested donation) into the Vandy Cabaret Room gave students a fun night and a wonderful taste of the amateur music scene within BC. Composed mostly of BC students, a total of eight groups performed a variety of music, with sounds ranging from punk and rock to jazz and R&B. Each group performed so well they made it all seem easy, and the intimate crowd present was treated to quite the show.

The night opened up with Shady Lady playing a one-track set with “Orion,” a mellow but happy track that started the night off with some fun. Shady Lady is composed of Nicole Rodger, MCAS ’19; Alex Eichler, MCAS ’20; Katie Kelleher, CSOM ’18; Caroline Rooney, MCAS ’19; Rachel Moon, MCAS ’19, and Alex Moran, MCAS ’19. The members were on stage laughing, helping to create the informal, almost familial atmosphere that would last the night.

Following them was News Screen, a lively punk band that ramped up the energy. News Screen is composed of Joe Malone, MCAS ’21, Tim Fortin, Christian McClanan, and Kyle Kane.

With a sound that was both excited and messy, News Screen combined McClanan’s ardent vocals and occasional shouts with a chaotic energy, finishing its lively set with a bang.

After News Screen was one of the highlights of the evening—a great performance by Funky Giant. Funky Giant is composed of Mario Borges, MCAS ’18; Nicholas Rocchio-Gior-

dano, MCAS ’18; Chris Vu, MCAS ’17; Matt Chilton, CSOM ’18; Moon; and Jaclyn Chan, MCAS ’18. Starting off with just some instrumental fun, this group’s part jam band, part funk sound worked very well, with Chan’s soulful R&B vocals providing the perfect tone for the group’s wavy sound.

After finishing strongly with “Me, Myself, and I” Funky Giant made way for the next group, Common Wealth.

Common Wealth is composed of Elias Masri, MCAS ’19; Stephen Porritt, MCAS ’18; Daniel Saillant, MCAS ’20; and Abby Marzec, MCAS ’18.

This group’s gritty vocals and metallic beats were well executed, with a raw sound that worked into the informal atmosphere of the night well.

After Common Wealth was Phew, a group with a soulful but funky rock vibe that was supported by some great displays of individual talent and well executed solos. Phew is composed of Nicolas Sucre, MCAS ’19; Alex Wong, MCAS ’20; Eichler; Daniel Pflueger, MCAS ’20; and Jake Hermann, MCAS ’20. The group’s setlist was lively and fun, raising the energy of the growing crowd as the night got truly underway.

Up next was the prolific Little Saturday, performing at its peak.

Little Saturday is composed of Eichler; Andrew Hammond, MCAS ’18; Peter Toronto, MCAS ’20; Zach Pugliares, MCAS ’19; Isaiah Rawlinson, MCAS ’18; and Zach Moelchert, MCAS ’21.

The members played with a relaxed and jovial air that proved they had done this before.The crowd responded well to their high energy and the group putting on a stand-out performance. Their song “Running” was one of the best of the night.

After Little Saturday’s set, a few

Julia Hopkins / Heights senior staff

Ryan Bradley, the keyboardist for Oddly Sexual, performs for the crowd at the concert. familiar faces rejoined the stage for K.C.Q., a group whose name (which stands for Kale Chicken Quinoa) was inspired BC dining. K.C.Q. is composed of Derek Cho, CSOM ’19; Luke Martin, MCAS ’21; Saillant; Pflueger; Justin Panzarino; MCAS ’20; and Hammond.

This group proved to be another strong point of the night, with its jazzy beat-driven sound supported by members who seemed to be having the time of their lives. Pflueger and Panzarino had some wonderful back-and-forth playfulness between the guitar and keys respectively, made possible by the group’s largely improv style. Without any vocals, K.C.Q. simply went up, jammed, and soloed, and did so in fantastic fashion.

Continuing the improv vibe, but now with some vocals, was Amanda Bloomfield, a group with a funky and smooth style mixed with an incredible energy. Amanda Bloomfield is composed of Frank Cascone, MCAS ’18; Pugliares; Will Van Dalsem, MCAS ’18; Hammond; and John Stanco, MCAS ’18. Cascone, on drums, had many of the best fills of the night and

was joined by the other members in putting on a show of impressive talent and carefree vigor. The members jumped around the stage, feeding off their own incredible chemistry and energy, putting on a show that was yet another highlight of a talent-packed night.

Rounding off the event was Oddly Sexual, an indietronica group that struggled to find its feet as it was plagued with sound complications.

Oddly Sexual is composed of Liz McGovern, MCAS ’18; Ryan Bradley, MCAS ’18; and Evan Otero, MCAS ’18. Despite these problems, the group continued on in a lighthearted manner with some jokes and beatboxing, with McGovern’s wonderful vocals fitting the group’s sound perfectly and easing the night into its close.

Multi-band man Andrew Hammond summarized the Showcase during his performance in K.C.Q. when he said, mid-set, “We’re just having some fun up here.” The night was one dominated by an incredible display of not only personal talent, but also of group chemistry and wonderful showmanship. n

Hello...Shovelhead! Looks Back in ‘Best Of’ Show

By Tristan St. Germain Heights Staff

Two Boston College police men posing as undercover strippers broke up a house-party last Saturday evening in Fulton 511, where BC’s premier sketch comedy group, Hello…Shovelhead!, exhibited their “best-of” sketches from the past four years. Mishmashing violent police stereotypes with obnoxious party anthems, this particular sketch was representative of Shovelhead’s tendency to attack audience expectations. The ensemble touched on topics that ranged from life at BC to generational trends between teens and their parents.

How did Shovelhead come into being? Though no one went in expecting a history lesson, the ensemble nonetheless provided an insightful glimpse into the events precipitating the group’s formation.

A Star Wars title card and John Williams theme music transported the audience to a galaxy far, far away—BC circa 1989.

A modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, Shovelhead originated in a rivalry between two competing sketch groups: “Hello,” a party of “low-key” Frenchmen obsessed with baguettes, berets, and bad accents, and their competitor “Shovelhead,” full of zanily dressed weirdos who spoke in a language of crude potty nonsense.

These founding members engaged in

such pastimes as shouting at pedestrians to attend their performances, painting in the nude, and eventually waging war over an incident of forbidden love between their members. The ending battle scene, arranged to DMX’s classic ballad “X Gon’ Give It To Ya,” depicted the glorious deaths of these rivaling comedy connoisseurs. The two lovers—one a dog, the other a blind mime—also died by suicide. But as they say, rough beginnings lead to happy endings—and the remaining group members who didn’t die in the massacre united to form Hello…Shovelhead!.

This nonchalantly crass attitude that characterized the perhaps revisionist history of Shovelhead was evident in the evening’s first performance, wherein a duo of tie-dye shirt wearing camp counselors informed arriving parents of the unfortunate demise of their children. The two took glee in riffing on popular camp activities suitable for first-graders, but which here assumed a dissonant morbidity. “1, 2, 3, we lost your son!” the two counselors shouted, as if throwing a surprise birthday party.

In an attempt to tell a scary story, they recounted their own experience canoeing.

Their routine becomes increasingly unlawful, until they finally admit to starting a forest fire that killed the scouters—conflating childlike naivety with amoral behavior.

Such innocuous depravity continued in many of the ensemble’s ensuing sketches.

Another sketch involved three BC students who returned from a semester abroad.

While contrasting the benefits of mac ’n‘ cheese at the Rat and dining hall food to the niche selection offered by foreign cultures, one girl alluded to the practice of hunting her own game during the October harvest.

A would-be victim of numerous attempts at ritual sacrifice, as well as a participant in seances and the reading of hieroglyphics, the student is oblivious to what her friends recognize as a cult. The sketch ended with two men in cloaks, one of whom she recognized as Tom Cruise, entering the stage to steal her away.

Aside from humor targeted specifically at college students with a penchant for dirty jokes and references to their community, Shovelhead explored issues of family and modern social conventions through scenarios that were both on the nose and biting. A girl brings home a boy with whom she plans to study, and though nothing lewd or covert is implied necessarily, the mother can’t help but fiddling in their business, at one point returning to collect her Kindle Fire. “I’m not looking, not looking!” she announces to them, thus impressing a hilariously unintended relationship upon the schoolmates. Though the comedy stands magnificently on its own, the set designs contributed immensely to the production, effectively immersing the audience in the particular fashions of the

lifestyles and cultural attitudes parodied.

A sketch satirizing Dora the Explorer,” in which Dora and her sidekick Boots (played by a student dressed in a blue monkey jumpsuit) are professional morticians, made use of stretchers carrying dead bodies—the victims of Swiper’s illegal organ trade. While investigating the cause of death, Dora dug up a series of bloody intestines that were shockingly realistic.

But nothing can beat the final sketch’s ingenious costume-design, which consisted of red leather jackets and fishnets, bizarre nose piercings, and a “Nothing More” Tshirt which perfectly complimented the UK band Piss District’s rebellious fashion statement.

Shovelhead showed off their inclination toward a betrayal of expectations when the supposedly authentic and anarchist Piss District sang the lyrics “I don’t want to go to school, I don’t want to follow your rules, I just want to play with pretty dollies.” They ended their barrage of deceivingly quaint content with an amalgamation of every lullaby ever conducted—“I want to eat my vegetables, I just want to ride my tricycle,” sang the frontman Johnny Cockstain over a mild piano measure. As characteristic of their best projects, the sketch clashed conflicting attitudes to subvert typical norms—a manner of degradation I find hilarious. n

Jacob Schick

Where is Satan in our music nowadays? It’s been a while since I’ve seen Lucifer. It’s been a minute since I’ve heard any new songs about Mephistopheles. The Accuser has remained uninvoked.

Bring God back into our schools? I tell you no. I want to bring music back to the days of Robert Johnson.

For those who don’t know, Johnson is generally regarded as King of the Delta Blues Singers. Johnson was a ’30s blues singer and guitarist, whose skill and pioneering in blues guitar went on to influence blues rock legends like Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Robert Plant, and Bob Dylan.

Johnson is likely one of the greatest guitarists of all time. He could play guitar in any style that existed at the time. He used his guitar ability to literally revolutionize blues as an entire genre. He could learn the guitar parts of any song he heard by ear and replay it after only a few listens. He also was one of the first people to use his voice microtonally. He sang in and out of regular pitch, adding a dimensionality and mournful emotion to his songs.

He also used his guitar as another voice in a solo song, in much the same way that B.B. King would later use his guitar, Lucille. In between sung verses, Johnson would play the guitar in such a way as to almost sing back to himself with musical notes.

But Johnson is also famous for something else. When he first started gigging at bars and clubs, and playing on street corners, he was considered to be pretty horrible at the guitar. After failing to improve in any meaningful way, Johnson disappeared. Six months later, he returned as one of the best guitarists to have ever existed. While some attribute this increase in skill to his intensive study with a guitar player in Arkansas, most people believe that Johnson got this skill in a more supernatural and Faustian way. Johnson is one of the most famous musicians rumored to have made a deal with the Devil. In this account, Johnson sold his soul to the Father of Lies at a Mississippi crossroads to be the best at blues guitar. A few years later, Johnson died, at age 27. This comet-like rise and fall of talent, coupled with an early death, only served to contribute to the superstition.

In my opinion, it doesn’t really matter if Johnson struck a deal with Old Scratch or if “making a deal with the devil” was really just another way of saying that Johnson was a ramblin’ man. I love the artist because he is a great musician and because I like to listen to his songs. But what I think is important and interesting is the idea behind him. I can’t name any musician alive today who is rumoured to have traded their eternal soul to The Evil One for musical talent. I think that this means modern music is missing a certain degree of mysticism and obscuring fog.

Even 40 years ago, and about 40 years after Johnson, The Beatles played up the idea that Paul McCartney had died in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike. This is a really cool idea for fans of the band to toy with.

There’s the supposed death of Avril Lavigne to consider, but I can’t tell if fans are being ironic or not with that one.

The closest thing I can think of is the urban legend about Marilyn Manson’s rib, which isn’t really the same thing.

We don’t have to believe it, but if I asked John Mayer how he got so good at guitar, and he told me that the Son of Perdition tuned his guitar, imbuing him with musical powers, that would be pretty neat. But, so far, that hasn’t happened.

Until then, I’ll stick with Johnson’s soul-pact at a 1930s Mississippi crossroads with a tall dark stranger to play the blues.

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

ARTS

Your ‘Sing it to The Heights’ Contestants

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2018

BY JACOB SCHICK Arts Editor

This year marks the 14th annual Sing it to the Heights competition at Boston College. The main stage of Robsham Theater will be the setting for BC’s own musical showcase. The competition features musical performances by BC students who have auditioned and been selected based on their vocal talent. In previous years, the event was known as BC Idol—as inspired by the hit competition show American Idol—and has been a mainstay of the arts on campus for the better part of 15 years. Organized by the Emerging Leader Program (ELP), a program for developing leadership in first-year students, Sing it to the Heights is a benefit event with the intention of raising money for a charitable donation. This year, as in others, the funds raised will go directly to St. Columbkille Partnership School, a Catholic school in the Brighton area that educates children from pre-k to eighth grade. The winner of the competition is chosen by audience vote and typically receives a cash prize. This year, 11 contestants will be competing in the big event—in past years, there have been only 10 students competing.

Madeleine McCullough, MCAS ’20 Madeleine McCullough is a political science and economics double major who has been singing and playing music essentially from the moment she spoke her first words. She began playing music formally at age five, when she started taking piano lessons. Between ages nine and 13, McCullough studied viola, guitar, and saxophone, while teaching herself to play bass and the drums. Sing it to the Heights is, first and foremost, a vocal competition, and McCullough is no slouch here either—she has been involved in choir since age 10.

Music is an integral and important part of McCullough’s life.

“For me, music has served the dual function of connecting force and emotional outlet,” McCullough said in an email. “It definitely serves as a way to bring everyone that I love together.”

McCullough’s role models include Tori Kelly and Mandy Lee (MisterWives), talented women whose abilities inspire her, along with her family and friends.

Auditioned with and performing: “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” - Michael Jackson Influences: Jason Mraz, John Mayer, the Indigo Girls, Lady Antebellum, Queen, and Frank Sinatra, the Vassar Devils, Pentatonix, and the Nor’easters Guilty Pleasure Songs: “No Good Deed” - Wicked Soundtrack, “Bright Lights Bigger City / Magic” - Pitch Perfect Soundtrack, and “She’s So Gone” - Lemonade Mouth Soundtrack Other Involvements: Common Tones, University Chorale, Undergraduate Government of Boston College senator, student manager at Hillside Cafe, Thrive program, and intramural soccer team The Benchwarmers.

Jade Hui, University of Hong Kong Jade Hui is focusing on her philosophy major while here at BC as an exchange student, but is a double major in philosophy and comparative literature with a minor in counseling. Hui has mainly been a band vocalist throughout her life as a musician. She has tried her hand at playing instruments and songwriting, but has had little success due to her lack of “foundational knowledge in musical theory.” Instead of playing music, Hui prefers to say that she

INSIDE SCENE

B8

@BCHEIGHTSARTS

can “feel” it—she does not have the training for analysis, but she has a more organic and personal understanding, allowing her to sing as well as she does. Hui loves singing because it allows her to release any negative energy she may be feeling into the music.

Her primary inspiration for working harder has been her mother, but in a very different way than most might expect.

“She’s been telling me ‘[You] can’t sing,’ ‘[You] don’t have the voice for it’ ever since I was little,” Hui said in an email. “It took me so many years to prove her wrong.”

She poured her energy into singing competitions until she began to win some recognition.

Auditioned with: “We Don’t Talk Anymore” - Charlie Puth Performing: “Thinking Of You” - Katy Perry (but she is considering changing her song) Influence: Japanese group ONE OK ROCK Other Involvements: Happily embracing her queer identity at BC in support groups, GLBTQ+ Leadership Council, and Spectrum retreats .

Molly Cahill, MCAS ’20 Molly Cahill is a sophomore studying political science and perspectives. She has been singing in church choir and in musicals since she was 10-years-old. In high school, she began taking voice lessons and now sings in BC’s Sunday night masses every week, as well as with the Liturgy Arts Group. Cahill loves how singing brings people together, lifting them up in difficult times. One of her role models is Kerry Cronin—Cahill was a student in her Perspectives class during her freshman year. Cronin’s instruction has pushed Cahill to think differently about her interactions with people. Aside from Cronin, Cahill has always looked up to her mother, her nana, and her “wise beyond her years” younger sister Nora.

Auditioned with and performing: “She Used to Be Mine” - Sara Bareilles Influences: Broadway, Demi Lovato, Alicia Keys, Adele, Beyoncé, Whitney Houston, Jessie J, and Sara Bareilles Guilty Pleasure Songs: Aside from “Fergalicious,” Cahill loves and misses every song on the playlist of Duchesne’s reflection room dance parties (but does not feel guilty for loving “Kiss Me Thru the Phone”) Other Involvements: Arrupe.

Nina Mojares, MCAS ’21 Nina Mojares is a pre-med freshman studying psychology. She has been singing since she was four and cites her karaoke machine as a pivotal instructor in her learning to read. She has always enjoyed performing in drama club productions while in high school and, at age 10, was on America’s Got Talent and The Maury Povich Show. After lots of practice, Mojares performed twice at Carnegie Hall and sang the national anthem at Madison Square Garden and the U.S. Open. She is also the proud title-bearer of 2016’s Miss New Jersey’s Outstanding Teen. Singing has always brought her very musical family together, especially when everyone is home for the holidays. Her main role model is her mother, as she was the first person to introduce her to music and has been a source of encouragement throughout her life.

Auditioned with and performing: “Feeling Good” - Michael Bublé (originally

by Nina Simone) Guilty Pleasure Songs: “Bohemian Rhapsody” - Queen, “Chunky” - Bruno Mars, and “If I Ain’t Got You” - Alicia Keys

BC Band Winter Showcase

Other Involvements: BC’s Latin Dance Team Fuego del Corazon.

Stavros Piperis, MCAS ’19 Stavros Piperis is a junior studying political science with a minor in history.

He has been singing since he was 14 and took piano and guitar lessons throughout his adolescence. As a high school senior, he joined the choir. Over the past few years, Piperis has been writing songs and playing gigs in Boston and in his hometown, Omaha, Neb. He draws a great deal of support and encouragement from his parents, who filled his house with music. His voice teacher in Omaha, Anne Marie Kenny, gave him warmth and instruction, allowing him to reach this place in his artistry. Professionally, his role models include Jason Mraz, John Mayer, and Ed Sheeran. The vocal sensitivity and acoustic talent on Mraz’s We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. “blew everything open for” Piperis.

Auditioned with: “Delicate” - Stavros Piperis (an original song) Performing: “Colder Weather” - Zac Brown Band Influences: Third Eye Blind, Coldplay, Ben Howard, Zac Brown Band, Death Cab for Cutie, and Bon Iver Guilty Pleasure Songs: “Fireflies” - Owl City and “Mine” - Taylor Swift Other Involvements: Hellenic Society, Kairos, and Appalachian Volunteers

Michael Lyons, MCAS ’21 Michael Lyons is a freshman studying mathematics and economics. He has been singing since he knew the words to the hymns at mass as a child. Lyons sang in his high school choir, in addition to performing in masses and local talent shows. He finds that music is one of the best ways to interact with and get to know someone, while also sounding good. In addition to his vocal talent, Lyons plays the piano and has written a substantial piece of music: a sequel to Aida, Elton John’s musical.

“It’s probably the greatest musical of all time, but due to current copyright laws, it can’t legally be performed until 2120,” Lyons said in an email. “But hey, Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime, so I’m optimistic.”

Lyons finds inspiration from Tom Brady and Frank Sinatra. Both figures weren’t supposed to be anything special, and yet they rose to the top of their respective fields through hard work.

Auditioned with: “The Way You Look Tonight” - Frank Sinatra Influences: Brahms and Schubert (Not) Guilty Pleasures: “Best Love Song” - T-Pain and Chris Brown and “Stacy’s Mom” - Fountains of Wayne Other Involvements: The Heightsmen, BC bOp! Vocalist

Esther Chung, CSON ’18 Esther Chung is a senior nursing major at BC. She has been singing for her entire life, but began to take it more seriously while here in college. In middle and high school, Chung was a member of the chorus and participated in musicals. She was a

finalist in Kollaboration Boston, a singing competition to empower and elevate AsianAmerican artists.

She also traveled to South Korea to compete in K-Pop Star. Now, she gigs and collaborates with various artists, most recently a Berklee College of Music group called Ilban Music. This is not Chung’s first time competing in Sing it to the Heights—she was a finalist in 2015. She loves to sing because it allows her a free expression of her emotions—it provides her a criticismfree medium to connect with. She credits her mother as her source of strength and encouragement on long road trips, late nights, and small shows—even when her mother had to sacrifice to provide her these opportunities.

Auditioned with and performing: “Don’t You Worry ’Bout A Thing” - Tori Kelly Influences: Tori Kelly, David Choi, Clara Chung, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Jessie J, and Adele Guilty Pleasure Songs: “Any Korean Ballad or R&B song” Other Involvements: Against the Current as a freshman and sophomore, Korean Students Association, and Campus Ministry

Christopher Sundaram, MCAS ’21 Christopher Sundaram is a freshman who intends to apply for the international studies major at the end of the year. \ Sundaram began to get seriously involved in singing while in high school, but he had taken piano lessons for a number of years in his youth. Music provides Sundaram with feelings he finds he is unable to access anywhere else. His parents provide immediate sources of inspiration and admiration, while he looks up to classic rock greats like Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and Joni Mitchell as musical role models.

Auditioned with and performing: “Yesterday” - The Beatles Guilty Pleasure Songs: the occasional Hannah Montana song Other Involvements: University Chorale, Sports Broadcasting Club, and The Acoustics.

Daniel Paulos, CSOM ’19 Daniel Paulos is a junior concentrating in finance and information systems. He has been singing ever since he can remember— his father worked on Broadway, so music has always been a large part of his life. To complement his voice, Paulos writes his own songs and can play acoustic, electric, and bass guitar; French horn; and piano. While in Boston and home in New York, Paulos plays gigs in coffee shops and restaurants.

He was a member of the band in high school, and when he arrived at BC, he joined The Acoustics to deepen his talent for singing.

Paulos has always held onto music in difficult times, especially after his father’s passing when he was 10.

“He always wanted me to play guitar, and my mom finally signed me up for lessons,” Paulos said in an email. “My first lesson was the day after he passed away.”

Paulos took this as a sign and proceeded to dedicate his musical career to his father.

While his career is carried out in his father’s honor, Paulos’s mother inspires him with her incredible strength on a daily basis.

Auditioned with “Demons” - Imagine Dragons Performing: “Titanium” - David Guetta, with vocals by Sia Influences: Imagine Dragons, Sia, Jessie J, Maroon 5, Panic! At the Disco, The Rolling Stones, the Eagles, and Led Zeppelin

Hello...Shovelhead!’s Best Of Show

Music Guild’s Winter Concert displayed the talents of various The comedy troupe reenacted everyone’s favorite skits from student bands on BC’s campus................................................. B7 the last four years...........................................................................B7

Guilty Pleasure Songs: “Demons” Imagine Dragons, “Chandelier” - Sia, “Danza Kuduro” - Don Omar, “September” - Earth, Wind & Fire, and “She Will Be Loved” - Maroon 5 Other Involvements: The Acoustics, coordinator in International Assistant Program, ELP (as a freshman), Music Guild, Student Admission Program (SAP), and BC Splash!

Patrick McGrath, CSOM ’20 Patrick McGrath is a sophomore concentrating in marketing and management & leadership. As long as he can remember, he has been singing in the car and the shower, but he got into music more seriously when he joined the chorus and two a cappella groups in high school. McGrath refers to singing as a stress reliever at the end of a bad day, and the main reason for his good days.

He believes that music can change the world—McGrath has never met someone who does not like some kind of music—and can bring people together in spite of differences. He draws inspiration from Bruno Mars—McGrath doesn’t think the artist can be beat in terms of charisma and musical ability, claiming Mars “sings like Freddie Mercury, dances like Michael Jackson, and wows the audience like James Brown”—a belief McGrath holds even more deeply after seeing Mars live in Boston last semester. McGrath is also a big fan of Kendrick Lamar and his ability to write and rap so well. He also believes, in spite of his love for Bruno Mars, that Lamar deserved the win at the Grammys.

Auditioned with: “Perfect” - Ed Sheeran Influences: Zac Brown Band, Queen and Freddie Mercury, Chance the Rapper, Luke Bryan, and Carrie Underwood Guilty Pleasures: “Drag Me Down” and “Live While We’re Young” - One Direction and any song from High School Musical Other Involvements: PR Director (and member) of the Heightsmen, Sports Business Society, SAP, 48Hours point guard, intramural sports.

Savanah Freitas, MCAS ’20 Savanah Freitas is a sophomore majoring in international studies and minoring in Hispanic studies.

She has been singing for as long as she could form words.

Freitas has been involved with singing in some form throughout her entire life, from when she could carry a tune to nwo.

Freitas loves to sing, she describes it as “a gift from God” and a great way to connect with people. Freitas complements her voice by playing piano, guitar, bass, and drums.

Her role models are not specific people in her life.

Instead, she admires “anyone whose passion for justice has led them to live a radical existence in pursuit of changing the world” and she draws inspiration from people like these that she meets. It may be surprising, but Freitas doesn’t listen to music very much, unlike many of her fellow contestants.

She does love Christian artists and bands that create music that has given her another conduit to her religion.

Auditioned with: “Misery” - Maroon 5 Performing: “A Song for You” by Donny Hathaway Guilty Pleasure Songs: “Night Changes” - One Direction, “Obsesión” - Aventura Other Involvements: Bostonians, Zumba instructor at the Plex, 4Boston, church involvement. 

‘Red Sparrow’................................................ B6 ‘Annihilation’.............................................. B6 ‘Game Night’.............................................. B6