The Heights, March 27, 2023

March 27, 2023

Two Tickets Announced for UGBC President, VP

By Beth verghese Assoc. Magazine Editor

Before Jordan Nakash’s college counselor suggested she take a tour of Boston College, she did not know a single thing about BC. But from the moment she stepped on campus, Nakash knew BC was meant to be her future home.

“There was something, maybe it was just a gust of wind, but it felt like it was meant to be,” Nakash, MCAS ’24, said. “After touring and hearing from the panel of students, I knew I wanted to apply early decision. I got in and I’m here, and I absolutely made the

school in Jamaica. In this role, she represented the student body, and Nakash knew she wanted to continue pursuing similar roles when she got to BC.

Nakash is involved in numerous organizations and clubs on campus, from the Caribbean Culture Club to the dance group PATU. She is also a BAIC ambassador and was formerly a member of the Student Assembly (SA).

During her freshman year at BC, Nakash ran for UGBC vice president alongside Kevork Atinizian. Although the election season did not end in victory for the pair, Nakash still wanted to take on a higher advocacy role in the BC community.

“There’s definitely advocacy to be done to make more students feel at home and truly enjoy their time at BC,” Nakash said. “Once I really saw the capabilities of what I’d be able to advocate for and do as president, I was like, this is something I want to do. Being president or vice president is the best position you can have to truly get advocacy done.”

Two Juniors Win Romero Scholarship

B y O livia J Oung

News Editor

As a night of dancing and celebrating came to a close, audience members suddenly erupted into gasps as they learned this year’s Saint Oscar A. Romero Scholarship Award would go to not one but two recipients.

“You heard that the selection this year was quite difficult, and in fact we have a tie,” Rev. Gregory A. Kalscheur, S.J., announced to shocked faces and murmurs. “We have two recipients this evening— Kevin Lopez and Jonathan Mora.”

The Saint Oscar A. Romero Scholarship Award recognizes a Boston College junior who has

demonstrated an outstanding record of involvement in and service to the Hispanic/Latino community at both BC and beyond. The 31st Annual Saint Oscar A. Romero Scholarship Award Ceremony took place in the Murray Function Room Saturday night.

Lopez, MCAS ’24, and Mora, LSEHD ’24—who won the award— were finalists alongside Sebastian Cota, MCAS ’24. All three will receive $1,000 from the BC Bookstore, and Lopez and Mora will both receive roughly 75 percent of their senior year tuition.

“A great accomplishment—hard work and dedication—[this award] really demonstrates the commitment of service and values of Saint

Jonah Kotzen and Meghan Heckelman

By spencer steppe Asst. Magazine Editor

As someone who grew up alongside a sibling with a genetic disorder, Jonah Kotzen said he is devoted to advocating for individuals with disabilities—a commitment that eventually motivated him to join student government.

“My brother specifically is someone who has really defined my relationship with advocacy,” Kotzen, MCAS ’24, said.

When he came to Boston College, Kotzen quickly became involved with UGBC. Currently, he serves as the Council for Students with Disabilities policy coordinator and the Student Assembly (SA) Intersectionality Committee chairperson. Now, Kotzen is running to be the next UGBC president.

“UGBC has given me a community on campus and a place where I can advocate for my fellow students in terms of accessi bility and in terms of just general student concerns,” Kotzen said.

When Kotzen was brain storming who would be his running mate, he said Meghan Heckelman, LSEHD ’25, was the first person who came to mind. Kotzen said Heckelman

is exactly the type of person he wants to work closely with.

“To be able to run with someone you trust, and you’re actually friends with, and you know will have your back in those high-pressure, high-stakes situations … is a really good feeling,” Kotzen said.

Heckelman is currently the director of Student Initiatives (SI) in UGBC. When she was confirmed to this position last year, Heckelman said she was asked what she would do differently to improve SI. Seeing that SI was disconnected from the SA, Heckelman promised she would attend every SA meeting.

Flowers Excels at Pro Day

By graham Dietz Sports Editor

Oscar Romero,” said Marcela V. Norton, co-chair of the scholarship committee.

Juan Alexander Concepcion, former assistant director of BC affinity programs and BC ’96, delivered the keynote address, emphasizing the importance of serving others.

“ Tonight, we celebrate com

munity,” Concepcion said. “We honor excellence, leadership, and our commitment to one another in community service. As the late Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. once reminded us: ‘He who is greatest among you shall be a servant.’”

Nolin Prepares To Lead Newton Schools

By shruthi sriram Assoc. Metro Editor

Anna Nolin, the next superintendent of Newton Public Schools (NPS), attributes her desire to become an educator to her high school English teacher, who advocated for her to apply to college and helped her through the process.

“The entire reason I went into teaching was because my high school English teacher helped me get into college,” Nolin said. “He just took a very personal touch with us. And I’ve always tried to carry that forward. I’ve always tried to really invest in people and pull them forward.”

Opinions

Exploring the reasons behind her burnout, c`olumnist Punnya Kalapurakkel asks a question: Is creativity as deep as a well or as needy as a garden?

INDEX

Vol. CV, No. 7

© 2023, The Heights, Inc.

Chestnut Hill, Mass. Established 1919

Nolin, an employee of Natick Public Schools for 20 years, including four years as superintendent, will begin her position as superin-

tendent of NPS in July.

She said she hopes to emphasize connecting individually with students, teachers, and the com-

munity when she begins her new position.

Nolin said she is excited about the opportunity to work within NPS.

“Newton has an amazing reputation and really good resources for us to serve students,” she said. “So I’ve always been attracted to the district and I’ve always followed what has happened here because it’s such a powerhouse in the educational scene.”

One goal Nolin has as superintendent is to cater to the community’s desire for a developed profile of a graduate.

If countless mock drafts weren’t enough to convince the minds of the football world that former Boston College football wide receiver Zay Flowers will become a first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, his performance at BC’s Pro Day surely helped solidify that belief.

On Friday morning, Flowers was back in Fish Field House doing exactly what he does best—running routes and making eye-dazzling catches—but it wasn’t for BC’s spring season that he’s participated in the past three seasons.

Instead, Flowers was participating in position drills in front of former teammates, the media, and a representative from all 32 NFL teams. Most viewers were solely there to watch the Chestnut Hill product, who holds the program record for receiving yards, total receptions, and receiving touchdowns.

After taking reps in three stages of the field—underneath, intermediate, and deep ball—Flowers, with his self-confident but humble demeanor, expressed his own belief in himself and the type of person he is.

“This is what I expected—this is what I worked for,” Flowers said. “I’m gon’ always just try to have my expectation high because I put the work in for it.”

Flowers said it was refreshing to be back on the Heights.

See Romero, A2

Jordan Nakash and Yosan Tewelde

See Nakash, A6

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

See Nolin, A4

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISTOPHER SOLDT

Kotzen, A6

GRAPHICS BY PAIGE STEIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Matiangai

Sirleaf, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law, will visit BC Law School Monday to present about the

2 3

Two Recipients Named for Romero Scholarship

Concepcion also received this year’s Rev. John A. Dinneen S.J. Hispanic Alumni Community Service Award, which honors a BC alum whose service best reflects both Romero’s ideals and Dinneen’s commitment to the Latino community.

Following Concepcion’s keynote, Karl Bell, associate director of TRIO Student Support Services; Danielle Date, associate director of field placement and outreach in LSEHD; and Mariela Páez, an associate professor in LSEHD, introduced Cota, Lopez, and Mora, respectively. During his acceptance speech, Lopez spoke on his plans to continue serving his community.

“There’s still a lot to do,” he said.

“There’s still a lot of people out here living in pain, suffering, cold, lonely—and we should change that, right?”

As a first-generation student at a predominantly white institution, Lopez began working in the Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center to help mentor students in a similar position, according to Date.

“He took pride in providing resources, guidance, emotional support, and built invaluable friendships with many incoming students,” Date said. “Kevin also often likes to say ‘share the love’ is his way of life.”

While accepting the award, Mora also thanked his family, attributing his work ethic to his parents as well as his freedom as an American citizen.

“A lot of people in not only my family but around my community—they did

not have the same resources,” he said. “They didn’t have that gift that I have, and I’ve been able to cherish it because with that I’m able to have this access that opened a lot of doors.”

According to Páez, Mora’s appreciation of his rights and resources as a U.S. citizen further strengthened his commitment to serving undocumented Latino immigrants, which he plans on

continuing as an immigration attorney.

“To know Jonathan is to know his family and his community,” Páez said. “He will definitely make an impact in this world.” n

BC Hosts Student Conference About Racial Justice

By Karyl Clifford Editorial Assistant olivia Joung News Editor

The United States is more segregated today than it was 100 years ago, according to Thomas W. Mitchell, the Robert Drinan, S.J., Professor of Law at Boston College.

“I’m talking about barriers to people acquiring property in the first instance,” Mitchell said. “And because there had been these barriers, and African Americans and Latinos and other subordinated people of color in this country, [they] couldn’t access the traditional system.”

Mitchell kicked off BC’s Critical Conversations and Student Voices, Addressing Racial Justice

in America Conference with his keynote address on Friday night, discussing the impacts of racialized practices as well as potential solutions.

Mitchell said there were many laws prior to 1933 within municipal and local governments specifically designed to ensure there would be segregation within the United States. According to Mitchell, one of the efforts put in place to create segregation was racial zoning, even after it was made illegal.

“Although racial zoning was out the window, there ended up being an infrastructure of various laws and policies that essentially accomplished the same purpose,” Mitchell said.

One example Mitchell cited was the town of Grosse Pointe,

Mich., where the neighborhood association created a 100-point scale, testing the eligibility of those who could live there.

“They didn’t have direct racial categories, but they literally had a category that said, ‘How swarthy is somebody?’ That’s just a fancy language like, ‘Are they dark skin?’” Mitchell said. “And they were then denying people based on this alternative test.”

According to Mitchell, there were also laws put in place to justify the discrimination of Native Americans.

“Essentially what the Supreme Court said is that the Native Americans basically are secondclass citizens, that under our property system, they don’t get full ownership of a property,” Mitchell

said. “But to justify that you had to paint the Native Americans [as] deviant, as being marginalized as being less than human.”

This perception was also carried through to Asian Americans, Japanese Americans, and Black people to justify their marginalization, Mitchell said.

“A similar thing happened with respect to African Americans under Jim Crow,” Mitchell said. “So one of the things that in terms of our popular popular perceptions of lynching in this country, so one of the popular perceptions and it was typically a Black man who had an inappropriate relationship or communication with a white woman.”

Mitchell then discussed the displacement of families following the Great Recession in the 2000s. According to Mitchell, the recession not only created economic problems but also led to the erasure of culture and history in the Black community.

“Then a number of the families there have been [targeted] and ended up losing their property,” Mitchell said. “They didn’t just lose their property, but they lost an important part of history that has been kind of erased.”

Implicit Bias Impacts Healthcare from a Nursing Perspective” provided an insight on the dangers of implicit bias and tools to use to address bias.

“The actual breakout sessions were designed to have specific facilitated discussions about different topics,” Devianna Smith, one of the conference’s keynote speakers and MCAS ’23, said. “So it could range from wealth distribution, or social inequities, or various topics related to racism on a systemic level.”

Another option for attendants was “Movies, Television, and Social Media’s Impact on Racial Identity Development”—a session focused on reflecting on the role of media in one’s identity and understanding others’ identities.

Smith said she appreciated the opportunity to share her personal experiences and she hopes the conference continues to grow.

LILY TELEGDY / FOR THE HEIGHTS

After Mitchell’s address, attendants had the option to attend two breakout sessions of their choice. Sessions such as “How

New App From BC Students to Launch Wednesday

By Will MarTino Asst. News Editor

The reign of aux cord tyrants may reach an end this Wednesday when MCEE, an app created by three Boston College students to allow communal control of the music played in group settings, launches in the Apple App Store.

“MCEE is an app that is trying to crowdsource music at social gatherings,” said Jack Russell, co-founder and CEO of the app and CSOM ’23. “So everyone can join a ‘party’ that a host creates, and you can request songs on a common cue. Then, you can upvote and downvote songs so that the most liked songs of everyone are played at the party.”

MCEE—pronounced “emcee”— was co-founded by Russell; Rhett Somers, CSOM ’23; and Gianna Jarmain, chief technology officer of the app and MCAS ’23. Russell first developed the concept in the fall of 2021, when he noticed the difficulties of crafting an all-pleasing party playlist.

“I would always get berated with song requests from people ranging from, you know, Drake to Kesha, and I always felt like there was a better way to have everyone’s songs that they wanted to be played at a party be heard,” he said.

When Russell told Somers his idea for the app, Somers asked to flesh out the idea in his Entrepreneurial Manage-

ment class, which was taught by Doug Shaw. Working with his team in class in addition to Russell, Somers said they further understood its potential.

“Towards the end of that class, we had to give a whole presentation, and [Shaw] came up to me afterwards and said, ‘Hey, I’m not sure if you’re planning on continuing to pursue this, but I would definitely recommend you do,’” Somers said.

Recognizing their need for someone to then develop the app, Russell and Somers originally enlisted their friend Jarmain to recruit someone savvy in iOS development who could code MCEE.

“I kind of got in touch with the [computer science] department, since I’m a CS major, and kinda helped run newsletters out, or like emails,” Jarmain said. “I was trying to see if we had anyone interested to come in.”

When this search churned out few viable candidates, Russell and Somers realized they had overlooked an obvious option.

“Jack and I kind of looked at each other at one point and were like, ‘Wait, why don’t we just have [Jarmain] come on board?’” Somers said.

Though Jarmain was not yet fluent in Swift, a programming language primarily used for creating apps for iOS, she said it was less expensive for her to learn it than to outsource another coder to develop MCEE’s software.

“We kind of came down to the

decision of either spending, like, tens of thousands of dollars to outsource someone, or I would kind of just spend the summer learning Swift and iOS development,” Jarmain said.

The co-founders also participated in two accelerator programs to develop the app, including Accelerate@Shea, an on-campus program at BC’s Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship, and the Soaring Startup Circle (SSC) Venture Partners, a summer accelerator program founded by BC students and alumni.

“We got a substantial amount of money through the SSC, our summer accelerator, and then some of our closest mentors came from that program, too,” Russell said.

Russell said MCEE is only compatible with Spotify, and users need Spotify

Premium to add songs to the common queue. But, Somers clarified that users will not need a Spotify account to join a ‘party’ on MCEE and vote on songs.

“It still kind of gives people a way to contribute even though they may not have a Spotify Premium account,” Somers said.

Though the app only incorporates Spotify now, the co-founders hope to eventually include Apple Music in the future, according to Jarmain.

In preparation for the app’s launch, Russell said the MCEE team will be specifically marketing the app toward BC students throughout the week.

“We have eight MCEE ambassadors throughout different grade levels who represent us,” he said. “They’re gonna host parties, you’re going to get to see us tabling around campus, and

then we’re having a launch party next Thursday for it as well.”

Somers added that the utility of the app is highly impacted by the number of users who engage with it.

“We really want to emphasize the fact that this app becomes exponentially more valuable the more people that are on it,” he said.

As for MCEE’s future after its three co-founders graduate from BC this spring, Russell said much depends on its success following Wednesday’s launch.

“We have representatives on campus that will continue marketing it, so it’s definitely going to be something that continues on Boston College campus and with us after our graduation, but it might turn into a part-time thing for some of us,” he said. n

histories of human rights.

Mitchell kicked off BC’s Critical Conversations and Student Voices Conference with his keynote address.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN RUSSELL Russell said MCEE attempts to provide a solution to the difficulties of crafting the perfect party playlist.

Romero, from A1

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRISTOPHER SOLDT

Of the three finalists, Lopez and Mora were named recipients of the scholarship at Saturday’s ceremony.

UGBC Candidates Talk DEI at First Debate

By OLivia JOung News Editor

After launching their campaigns on Tuesday morning, the two teams running in this year’s UGBC presidential and vice presidential election faced off for the first time in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) debate Thursday night.

Presidential candidates Jonah Kotzen and Jordan Nakash both highlighted the importance of DEI in their respective campaigns.

Nakash and her running mate Yosan Tewelde, AHANA+ Leadership Council (ALC) general coordinator and MCAS ’24, expressed the necessity of representing students of all backgrounds on campus.

“To us, to me, diversity, equity, and inclusion is tackling every identity of the person,” said Nakash, BAIC ambassador, former Student Assembly representative, and MCAS ’24. “It’s appreciating and accepting every identity of every person and ensuring that we can make a campus that is best suited to all of those people.”

Kotzen—standing alongside running mate Meghan Heckelman, UGBC director of student initiatives and LSEHD ’25—spoke about his experience

with on-campus advocacy through his work as policy coordinator of the Council for Students with Disabilities (CSD).

“What we want to do is put diversity, equity, and inclusion at the front stage of our administration and make sure that students’ voices … are heard,” Kotzen, MCAS ’24, said.

Both teams emphasized the importance of expanding support for Boston College’s LGBTQ+ students, particularly by bringing a queer resource center to campus.

“[LGBTQ+ students] have a centralized place to go for support, but they need a physical space,” Nakash said. “Every other marginalized group on this campus has one, and I think they deserve one just as well.”

Heckelman pointed to the lack of a resource center for LGBTQ+ students as a shortcoming of the administration.

“After talking with my colleagues in [GLBTQ+ Leadership Council], I’ve learned that year after year, GLC puts forth a proposal to the administration about a queer resource center,” Heckelman said. “And year after year, it’s denied because our school has prejudice under the guise of religion.”

Both teams also stressed the

need for more transparency between students and the administration, especially with regard to bias-related incidents against AHANA+ students on campus.

“One problem affecting AHANA students on campus is just the lack of not only accountability, but the lack of acknowledgement of the problems that they’re going through on campus,” Tewelde said. “And one of that being specifically to bias-related incidents and hate crimes and not having the follow-up.”

Kotzen added that he and Heckelman hope to redefine the relationship between the University and the student body surrounding racially motivated incidents.

“What we’ve learned through talks with ALC is that what the administration wants for the student body to do is define the bias-motivated incident process for them,” Kotzen said. “That’s not a burden that should fall on the students.”

Both teams addressed the needs of students with physical disabilities as well, specifically pointing to the lack of physical accessibility on Upper Campus.

“[Upper] still has a horrible staircase to get up, which could be hard for

Both UGBC teams discussed the importance of DEI on Thursday night.

students, and if you can’t make it up the staircase, there’s a big hill that you have to follow as well,” Nakash said. “We do have Eagle Escort that students can utilize, but there is not one way that every student can use to truly have accessibility on Upper.”

Nakash said if BC does not build a pavilion to make Upper Campus more accessible, one solution she and Tewelde would consider proposing is placing an accessible bus stop on Upper.

Kotzen also suggested bring -

ing increased and more convenient transportation to address the lack of accessibility in Upper Campus.

“As [Nakash] said, we need to increase Eagle Escort in terms of how we track them, the amount of buses that are wheelchair accessible, and also even installing another road behind Upper Campus as well,” Kotzen said.

Karl Bell to Head New Pillar at Pine Manor

By OLivia JOung News Editor

Karl Bell will serve as director of the new Mentoring and Academic Achievement pillar at Boston College’s Pine Manor Institute for Student Success, according to Joy Moore, University vice president and executive director of the Pine Manor Institute.

“These organizational changes will enhance the overall student experience and provide consistent, high-quality support and mentoring to our [Pine Manor Institute], Messina and Boston College students,” Moore wrote in an email to The Heights BC first established the Pine Manor Institute in 2020 to help provide first-generation students and students from historically underserved communities with a secondary and post-secondary education.

The Pine Manor Institute is now composed of four pillars: Mentoring and Academic Achievement; the Academy, a readiness program for students from grades 8–12; Messina College, an incoming two-year associate-degree granting residential college division of

BC; and Alumni Support.

According to a BC News release, Mentoring and Academic Achievement will unite the student support programs; Learning to Learn, Options Through Education (OTE), TRIO Student Support Services, and the McNair Scholars Program under one pillar.

“As we began to plan for the structure and work of the institute it became clear that grouping all of these programs under one pillar made a lot of sense,” Moore wrote. “As a support center for students, having all of the services under one roof benefits the students in many ways [like] first and foremost ease [of] getting resources when needed.”

Moore also clarified that the Pine Manor Institute, including all the programs now under Mentoring and Academic Achievement, will continue to be housed on the Chestnut Hill campus.

“The Institute will not move to the Brookline campus as some inaccurate information is circulating,” Moore wrote.

Bell—the current associate director of the TRIO Student Support Services Program—said he is excited to continue supporting underrepresented

students as the director of Mentoring and Academic Achievement.

“As a first-generation, low-income student myself, this is an opportunity to serve the University and more importantly, our students in a way … I couldn’t have imagined,” Bell said. “So it’s … a very big opportunity, and it’s rare that you find a startup in higher education.”

Bell also said while it is difficult to predict the immediate outcome of the new pillar, he believes the Pine Manor Institute’s recent organizational

changes, including the establishment of Messina College and the Academy in January of last year, will ultimately benefit its student body.

“These changes have been vetted at the highest levels of the institution,” Bell said. “And we are absolutely open to continuing to receive feedback from our alumni, currently enrolled students, and even our eighth … and ninth graders, who are coming to us this summer, around those things that we might do to improve.”

B y L ucy F reeman

Asst. News Editor

Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney addressed an overflowing audience at Boston College on Thursday, stressing that she never doubted former President Donald Trump should be impeached following the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.

“I knew then because of everything that we had lived through since the election, that we needed to move articles of impeachment against President Trump,” Cheney

said. “I believed then as we were being evacuated, that he needed to be removed from office immediately.”

Cheney spoke at BC as part of the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics’ Clough Colloquium. Cheney represented Wyoming’s at-large congressional district in the House of Representatives from 2017 to 2023. She also previously served as the chair of the House Republican Conference, or the third highest-ranking GOP member in the House.

Cheney actively spoke out

against the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots and worked as vice chair for the House Select Committee to investigate these attacks. According to Cheney, as long as the Republican Party continues to embrace Trump, it will not be fit to serve its members.

“As long as the Republican Party instead embraces this dangerous man and perpetuates the lie, then the party will make itself unfit for decent people to support, and that is not good for the country,” Cheney said. “So we have got to get back to a place where we can

actually be having debates based upon substantive politics.”

One audience member asked Cheney if she has considered running for president, and Cheney responded that she has not decided yet.

“I haven’t made any decision about that,” Cheney said. “You know, I feel very strongly about where the country needs to go, and I feel very strongly about how important it is that Donald Trump not be president ever again.”

Cheney said one issue the Republican Conference must address is voicing opinions that should not be political.

“There are some viewpoints and perspectives that must always at all times be outside of the bounds of political debate, and that is a very small number of viewpoints,” Cheney said. “But it includes anti-semitism—it must be rejected—it includes racism, [and] it includes white supremacy.”

When asked about her support of the Iraq War, Cheney maintained that invading Iraq was the right decision, saying that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein posed a threat to democ-

Moore said Bell’s experience helping underrepresented students makes him the ideal candidate to lead the Mentoring and Academic Achievement pillar.

“He thinks and plans like an entrepreneur and that is exactly what is needed to integrate all of the programs into the Mentoring and Academic Achievement pillar,” Moore wrote. “Karl has been an employee of Boston College for nearly 20 years and the knowledge he’s gained is invaluable.” n

Cheney Urges Students To Run for Office at Lecture

racy.

“I think there’s no question that the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power—it doesn’t mean that we got everything right over 20 years,” Cheney said.

Cheney then spoke on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and said the United States must provide resources to Ukraine to defeat Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“If the United States does not provide Ukraine with the resources that they need to defeat Putin, then we will, in fact, see that conflict spread and we will see NATO threatened,” Cheney said. “We will see countries across Europe threatened.”

According to Cheney, the United States must continue to play a leading role in global conflicts, such as the forming China-Russia alliance. Cheney said if the United States does not provide resources to Ukraine, it will embolden China in its relations with Russia.

Read the rest of this story at www.bcheights.com Read

Liz Cheney encouraged a room full of students to run for office at a Thursday night lecture.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

BC hired Karl Bell to serve as the new director of the Mentoring and Academic Achievement pillar at Pine Manor.

NEWTON

Newton’s Next Superintendent Outlines Goals

“The community has been asking for us to develop a profile of a graduate, so what do we want every child in the district to be able to demonstrate to us before they leave us, and creating that is a whole community engagement process that will ultimately result in a new strategic plan,” she said. “So that’s what we’re going to do next year, is set the table for that work.”

Nolin said she hopes to develop a close working relationship with teachers across Newton Public Schools and that she has had a phone call with Mike Zilles, president of the Newton Teachers Association.

“He has to be my first and most important partner in working with teachers who then work with students,” Nolin said. “So he was my first [phone call] and I hope that we will develop the same type of positive union-superintendent relations that I have had with my Natick Association.”

Zilles said he told Nolin to con-

tinue to fight for adequate funding for Newton Public Schools.

“I hope Anna is a strong advocate for the Newton Public Schools, and in particular, in light of the failed override vote, that she’s a strong advocate for the Newton Public Schools to receive the steady sources of funding that it needs to thrive,” Zilles said.

The failed override vote, in addition to other existing disagreements among parents about Newton Public Schools, has caused division that will need to be addressed by Nolin, according to Alison Lobron, a Newton parent and community activist who leads the Parent-Educator Collaborative.

“We just had this override that partially passed and partially didn’t pass, and there were parents on both sides of that at the Newton Public Schools with very different views,” Lobron said. “I think we need someone who’s going to bring people together and I think we also need someone who’s going to work collaboratively with the teachers, and I believe she’s going to do that,

so I’m hopeful.”

While Nolin is not yet aware of the specific impacts of the failed override, as she is not officially on staff, she hopes to work with teachers and administrators to find a sustainable way to address the effects of the vote on the Newton Public Schools’ budget. Some proponents of the override voiced concerns that the tax increase was crucial for construction at Countryside Elementary School and maintaining funding for teacher pay.

“Anytime there’s budget cuts, it’s a grieving process over what’s been lost and what we really wanted for our students for that year, so I’m going to be listening and helping folks grieve but then also try to build solutions for the future,” Nolin said. “What are those things that we really can’t live without? And what’s the impact of the cuts that have been made? And it will be my job in the future to advocate to repair negative impacts from that cut.”

Despite these challenges, there are a lot of community members who are hopeful for her success, according

to Lobron. “There are a large number of parents who are hoping for her success,”

Lobron said. “And they are hoping for the continuation of excellence and equity in the Newton Public Schools.” n

Women in World Jazz Educates Through Music

By SHrutHi Sriram Assoc. Newton Editor

An enthusiastic audience shook maracas in a conga line, while others danced and sang along with Women in World Jazz at Druker Auditorium in the Newton Free Library on Monday night.

“Coming together through music, and the joy of making music

together, makes these performances worth it,” Tal Shalom-Kobi, the group’s leader and upright bass and accordion player, said. “There’s a lot of energy, a lot of interest, care, and good intentions.”

Women in World Jazz is an educational band that performs musical styles from around the world.

The group emphasizes its mission of social justice and spreads awareness of the advocacy efforts of

the artists whose compositions they choose to perform.

They opened their set of seven songs with “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” by Annie Lenox and Dave Stewart.

Drummer Diane Gately counted the band in and the music quickly filled the auditorium and had the audience singing along.

The group selected the works of other recognizable artists like

Joan Baez and Nina Simone, but also some pieces by artists that are less well known, like Misia and Angélique Kidjo.

The mission of educating others on social justice has informed the group’s choices on artists to include in its sets, according to Shalom-Kobi.

“When I was looking around and selecting the musicians or the groups, I selected them on people that I know are very well resonating with the same moral values that I have,” she said.

Before every song, members of the group took turns giving a brief history of the musicians and their prominent social justice efforts.

Shalom-Kobi said she hoped this would paint a fuller picture of the artists as more than just musicians.

“Let’s bring people that did all of this [music] and try to shed light on what they are doing not just musically, but also as ambassadors for change,” she said.

Beth Munn Griffin, a longtime fan of Women in World Jazz and friend of Shalom-Kobi, said she values the emphasis on social justice.

“What they’re doing besides being incredible musicians, is what they’re bringing to light, particularly in March, Women’s History Month,” Griffin said. “They bring to light everything that we’re working for, social justice and whatnot—I loved it.”

The performance was a wel-

come surprise to some audience members like Liora Newson, who said she did not know what to expect upon arriving at the event.

“I don’t like jazz,” Newson said. “I came here and I thought, women in jazz—I have to give jazz a chance. And it wasn’t really what I thought it’s going to be, it was much better.”

The band also has a Women in World Jazz junior group, composed of high school students that perform one or two pieces along with the band.

Shalom-Kobi said she values the perspective these young performers bring.

“They are ambassadors for their generation, and trailblazers in their own right,” she said. “While, you know, a lot of attention is going to the media and everything, these young women care enough to learn about their predecessors, and the people that paved the way for them as women to be having a musical education today.”

The audience engagement makes these performances gratifying, according to Shalom-Kobi.

“We have a number of open spots where we say, clap your hands or raise your hands, and when everybody’s doing this together, that is my favorite part,” she said. “When we engage with the audience in the same way that we had on Monday, that was a good example, it makes it worth it.” n

Green Energy Consumers Alliance Hosts Webinar

B y H enry B lancH ette Heights Staff

Massachusetts Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Stone Creem addressed incentives for utilizing energy-conscious ways to power the home and buying or leasing electric vehicles (EVs) with representatives from the Green Energy Consumers Alliance during a webinar on Wednesday.

“There’s no question that in order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, we have to stop using gas and other fossil fuels to heat our homes and run our appliances,” Creem, who represents parts of Newton, Brookline, and Wellesley, said. “The most readily available option is electrification. Massachusetts has to convert as many homes as possible to heat pumps in the coming years.”

Larry Chretien, executive director at Green Energy Consum -

ers Alliance, began by explaining the need to transition toward heat pumps, devices that extract heat from the outdoors for indoor heating.

“If we’re going to meet our greenhouse gas goals, we have to essentially stop installing new combustion appliances that heat with gas, oil, or propane, and we have to electrify,” he said. “So, that means heat pumps.”

Multi-family units can receive rebates of up to $10,000 as long as the heat pump is the sole source of heating for the building, while rebates of $1,250 are available for those who may not want to fully invest in electric heating, according to Chretien.

“In order to get the $10,000 per home, you have to demonstrate that you’re able to meet 100 percent of your heating needs,” he said. “However, you are not required to remove the old fossil

fuel heating system that you have.” Green Energy Consumers Alliance provided information for rebates specific to Massachusetts, based on national standards.

Chretien said that energy efficiency tax credits will be available through 2032 following the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA).

900,000 vehicles on the road by 2030.

The IRA introduced new provisions regarding federal tax credits for EVs, extending them through 2032, according to Anna Vanderspek, the electric vehicle program director at Green Energy Consumers Alliance.

“The way it used to be set up, a manufacturer was eligible for the federal tax credit up until they sold 200,000 electric units,” she said. “The Inflation Reduction Act does away with that … which is really good news because that is the kind of confidence we need consumers to have, that they know that that tax credit will be there when they decide to purchase a vehicle.”

hicles, according to Vanderspek.

“If you purchase an electric vehicle or lease one for at least 36 months, once you’ve taken possession of the vehicle you can go to mor-ev.org, fill out an application, and the state will send you a check in the mail,” Vanderspek said.

Referencing Massachusetts’ 2022 climate bill H.5060, Vanderspek listed many policies that will soon be implemented.

“It extends the MOR-EV rebate to used vehicles,” she said. “There are additional rebates in the law for low income drivers and those who are trading in gas cars.”

After Chretien’s presentation, Creem shifted the focus of the webinar to electric vehicles. She said Massachusetts hopes to have

At the state level, Massachusetts Offers Rebates for Electric Vehicles (MOR-EV) provides rebates, with restrictions, of up to $3,500 for battery electric ve -

Above all else, Chretien said that residents should remain open-minded yet realistic when considering options for renewable energy.

“We encourage you to move towards electrification and to clean energy,” Chretien said. “But, it’s not a sprint.” n

The Newton School Committee unanimously approved Anna Nolin.

Women in World Jazz is a New England-based organization that educates audiences through musical performances.

SHRUTHI SRIRAM / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Nolin, from A1

“It created energy efficiency tax credits of up to 30 percentYou can get a tax credit of up to $2,000 for heat pumps or heat pump water heaters.”

Newton Bakery Provides Authentic Taste of France

By BrendAn O’frieL Heights Staff

Marion Bonte, who recently moved to the United States from France, offers Newton residents a taste of authentic French baked goods with her home bakery business, hoping to build connections with members in her community.

“I think food is a wonderful way to share with people and to meet them,” Bonte said. “That’s how I arrived to bake.”

Bonte’s family has moved countries every three years due to her husband’s job. She relocated to Newton from Sao Paulo, Brazil with her husband and three children in April 2022.

While she misses the liveliness of Sao Paulo, she said she appreciates the tranquility of living in Newton.

“When we arrived here and we had squirrels in the garden and rabbits, we were like, ‘Oh my God. It’s so calm. It’s so peaceful,’” Bonte said.

While Bonte enjoys baking, she does not bake professionally. She consults parents on how to raise their children, a job she does remotely in

French.

“[Baking] gave me the opportunity to meet people, not to be like on my computer all day long in my office, speaking French to French people,” Bonte said.

Bonte began baking around 10 to 15 years ago when she moved to China, as she struggled finding French products there. Since then, baking has become a passion for her.

Bonte received a home inspection from the city of Newton in July 2022 to certify her kitchen was up to code to operate the business. She officially began accepting baking orders in October.

She accepts orders weekly through her website by Tuesday at midnight and she delivers them every Friday.

“I really enjoy the delivery day because sometimes I meet the clients, and I can talk to them, practice my English,” Bonte said.

Bonte completes all deliveries herself without an additional delivery fee.

Bonte values using sustainable packaging materials in her business. Even the tags that she places on all of her

baked goods use seeded paper that can either be planted to turn into flowers or composted.

“For me, it’s really important to reduce the impact on the environment,” she said.

Bonte said she uses only high-quality and organic ingredients,

just as she would for her own family.

Bonte keeps her menu small since she’s the sole baker and does not have a professional oven. She carefully picked out everything on the menu, which consists of several mouth-watering, classic French baked treats. She sells madeleines, which are small sponge cakes made with lemon. She also sells cannelés, which are miniature pastries filled with custard and made with vanilla and rum. Bonte’s chestnut cream cakes are typical of the French Alps, the region of France she is from.

Other menu items include crepes, dark chocolate pound cakes, and french baguettes.

Bonte said she hopes to add diferent items to her menu in the future, as she is currently perfecting recipes.

“I’m working on the French brioche like right now,” she said. “I’m hoping it will come out soon.”

Bonte’s primary method of promoting her business is by word of mouth. A customer spoke highly of Bonte to Lynne Robbins, the owner of Lynne’s White Robin Vintique in Newton Upper Falls, a store that sells both vintage and antique items. Robbins then contacted Bonte to ask her about baking something to accompany the teas that she sells in

her store.

“She called her goods a taste of France, but to me, they tasted like heaven,” Robbins said.

Bonte started making meringues for Robbins to give to her customers along with their tea purchases at no additional cost.

Robbins said she feels grateful for Bonte’s generosity in making the meringues for the customers at her store, where she sells vintage and antique goods, according to her website.

“I hope to continue to feature Marion’s creations for as long as possible,” Robbins said.

Bonte said she will be leaving the United States in a few years. While she does not know where the family will end up after their three years in the United States, she has an optimistic outlook no matter where it is.

“Each time, I put myself in a mindset to make the most of the country where I live,” Bonte said. “For me, the nicest memories are always the contact with the community and the people.”

In the meantime, Bonte will continue to bring the Newton community a taste of France.

“It’s rare to find a truly skilled creative baker,” Robbins said. “Newton is lucky to have her.” n

Newton Farm Set to Reveal Solar Panel Installation

By Annie Li Heights Staff

After years of work, the Newton Community Farm’s (NCF) solar panel project is slated for a grand reveal as part of an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 6, 2023, marking an important milestone in the farm’s broader goals of sustainability.

“It’s always been a goal from the start of the farm to have it be as sustainable as possible,” Sue Bottino, executive director of NCF, said. “And part of that was you know, considering having solar panels on the roof of the barn. The barn is super visible from the road. It’s perfectly oriented for maximum sun exposure.”

Solar panels will provide 99 percent of the electricity needed for the agricultural operations of the farm, according to Bottino. The farm is also planning new programming and educational outreach regarding renewable energy, adding to its existing curriculum on sustainability, agriculture, and climate change, she said.

“We want to be a model,” Bottino said. “We want people to come and ask questions and see what we do. We try to connect people with resources that they can use so that they can, you know, more easily, maybe put solar panels on their own house or their own farm or their business or speak to people in other cities about having more municipal buildings run on solar.”

The solar power transition initiative began nearly a decade ago, according to Dede Vittori, co-president of the board of NCF. Longtime supporters and members of the

board Sam Fogel and Margaret Fogel first proposed the idea to provide the farm with an affordable, environmentally friendly energy source, Vittori said.

“Sam and Margaret did a whole bunch of analysis to look at the viability of solar on the barn and on the farmhouse and just on the farm in general,” she said. “And they did a lot of work to show that it was possible and show that it would be cost effective.”

The next step in the project was to find funding, according to Bottino.

The Climate Smart Agriculture Program (CSAP) grant offered by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources presented an opportunity, she said. The CSAP grant provided support on two fronts: obtaining equipment to help boost sustainability and labor efficiency and supporting projects to boost resilience to climate change, according to Bottino.

Once the grant was awarded to Newton in October 2021, the NCF worked closely with members of the city’s climate and sustainability team, the Farm Commission, and contractors to implement the solar power transition plan, Vittori said.

The work has paid off, she said.

“We’re in a really visible spot,” Vittori said. “You know, we’re at this busy corner and we’re this little farm and people notice it because it’s just there and it’s sort of unusual. And now they see solar panels, and it’s a reminder of what’s possible to people out there so it’s, you know, it can be sort of a visually inspiring project.”

stallation, the NCF has pursued several other sustainability initiatives. The NCF still desires to innovate in pursuit of its mission of sustainability, according to Bottino.

“We have, you know, sort of a threefold mission,” Bottino said.

“We have farm operations where we grow 50,000 pounds of produce on less than two acres every year.

In addition to growing produce, we also have a lot of opportunities for education and engagement for the community. And then the third part of our mission is that we preserve the open space and the culture of farming.”

The NCF continues to engage in its classic programs and practices, such as the annual seedling sale fea-

turing 28,000 farm-grown seedlings this year, and the annual donations of produce to the food pantry and community fridge.

At the open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony in May, NCF will unveil a new greenhouse, Vittori said. The greenhouse will provide new growing spaces and protection from weather conditions, allowing the farm to continue cultivating its crops beyond the growing season, she said.

In addition, the NCF is part of a state-wide food plan that focuses on regionally sourced supplies and climate resilience, according to Vittori. As part of this effort, the NCF’s farmer has received grants from federal agencies for farm equipment

that help pilot new farming techniques.

The transition to solar power is just one example of addressing broader sustainability efforts, according to Bottino.

“We continue to look for ways to improve,” she said. “We’re hoping to get an electric vehicle at some point that we’ll be able to charge from the solar array so that we can add that to our transportation options. We’re a small farm and you know, we’re always looking for ways to improve so now that we have the solar panels and our electricity will be from those for the most part, you know, the world is our oyster. We can consider other ways to make use of that.” n

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARION BONTE

Bonte’s French roots inspire her baking, a hobby she began 10 to 15 years ago when she moved to China.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NEWTON COMMUNITY FARM

The Newton Community Farm, located near Newton’s Upper Falls, will unveil the solar panels in May.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARION BONTE

Bonte’s menu includes madeleines, chestnut cream cakes, dark chocolate pound cakes, and more.

M AGAZINE

Kotzen and Heckelman: Acceptance and Accessibility

“That was a promise I made and a promise that I executed on, because it was a practical promise,” Heckelman said. “And I think that’s what our campaign is also about … what can we accomplish even on the micro-level that’s going to make a difference on the day-today for students.”

This emphasis on practicality is central to Kotzen and Heckelman’s platform, they both said. Though they have big projects they hope to accomplish as long-term goals, Kotzen said their platform is focused on feasible policies.

“We recognize the importance of, you know, an LGBTQ resource center or Upper Campus accessibility,” Kotzen said. “But, we also have policies that work to address how we can build towards those ultimate goals.”

Kotzen said his specialty is tackling issues of accessibility. Some examples of policies he wants to implement in this area include expanding Eagle Escort’s services, increasing the amount of wheelchair-accessible vans, increasing Panopto recordings, and starting an accessibility conference on campus.

Though Kotzen is especially passionate about disability advocacy, he said he feels connected to all groups within UGBC from working alongside them. If elected, Kotzen said he plans on using these connections to effectively address the concerns of all groups.

“One thing that sets us apart is that the connections we’ve already made are so extensive,” Kotzen said. “We have the foundation that can allow us to hit the ground running.”

Kotzen and Heckelman’s cam -

paign is centered around people, said Ryan Milligan, the team’s campaign manager and MCAS ’26. He said the team wants to get input from the student body regarding key issues and then brainstorm solutions to these issues.

“I think that things change when you hear what’s wrong, and when, you know, you can turn around and make changes based on the things people are telling you,” Milligan said.

Kotzen said his team’s biggest strength is its experience. During his time on UGBC, Kotzen said he has already worked on DEI initiatives, talked to administrators, and attended events put on by all groups within UGBC.

From her experience leading SI, Heckelman works with different offices on campus. She said she has also familiarized herself with many of the concerns students have through attending SA meetings.

“Because of both of our involvement in different pockets of campus, we reach a lot of people and we’ve heard a lot of opinions, and I think that those inform the ideas that you bring,” Heckelman said.

As two students who are already involved with UGBC extensively, Heckelman said the presidency and vice presidency would come naturally to them.

“I think that we have already started, and this will be a continuation of all of the things we’ve done so far,” Heckelman said.

Milligan said he noticed how well connected the two candidates are to many groups on campus leading up to the recent UGBC debate, when Kotzen and Heckelman spoke with representatives from GLBTQ+ Leadership Council, AHANA+ Leadership Council,

as well as the Montserrat student coordinator in preparation.

“When you are in a room like that, and you get to hear a diversity of perspectives, and they’re sitting there listening and you can tell that that’s important to them,” Milligan said. “They’re ready, based on the input that they are given and the things that they see, to go out and put in the hard work and make the changes.”

Listening to this input, Heckelman said she and Kotzen came up with a four-pillar platform—acceptance, academics, activity, and adjustment—that aims to address students’ day-to-day needs.

“There are issues that affect every single person, every single day,” Heckelman said. “And I think the Student Assembly can be a launch pad for those initiatives that will better the everyday life

of students.”

Within these four pillars, the two candidates have an abundance of smaller initiatives they want to implement into student life, Heckelman said.

In the acceptance pillar, Kotzen said he wants to have an administrator on campus who is dedicated to serving as a resource for queer students. Within academics, Heckelman said the team wants to improve the academic advising process.

In the activity pillar, the two candidates said they want to work closely with the Center for Student Wellness and University Counseling Services to improve the mental health services offered to students.

Lastly, the two candidates hope to adjust UGBC’s structure by narrowing the scope of certain positions and promoting collabo -

ration between different councils.

“It’s very obvious where we fall short and where we can improve,” Heckelman said. “But we want someone to look at our four policy pillars and think, ‘Wow, they thought of everything.’”

Kotzen said that their slogan, “Eagles for Others,” encapsulates the goal of their campaign. The two candidates both said they aim to advocate for all students.

“No individual goes through a problem alone,” Kotzen said. “It’s not on them to be their own advocates.”

The entire student body should feel unified, Kotzen said. If elected, Kotzen said he and Heckelman plan on uplifting student voices to make sure everyone is heard.

“It’s not every Eagle for themselves,” Kotzen said. “It’s Eagles for Others.” n

Nakash and Tewelde: Dedication and Unification

Nakash, from A1

Yosan Tewelde, Nakash’s running mate and MCAS ’24, said she has been a leader within the BC community as the AHANA+ Leadership Council general coordinator and therefore knows what issues need to be addressed. The role of vice president would give Tewelde a platform to address these issues, she said.

“After hearing how frustrating it can be for students, I can bring what I’m hearing everyday to administration,” Tewelde said. “I am fueled up to help. I need to get in a room and see how we can make change happen.”

On New Year’s Eve, Nakash had finalized her decision to run for UGBC president, and she called Tewelde to ask if she would consider running alongside her as vice president.

“She was like ‘absolutely, yes,’” Nakash said. “I remember being nervous to ask [Tewelde] because

she didn’t like her time on Student Assembly, but then she said, ‘But I think we can change that—we can work to change the things that made it unenjoyable for us to make it enjoyable for others.’”

Thompson Penn, the team’s campaign manager and CSOM ’25, said Nakash and Tewelde immediately had his support when they asked him to join their campaign team.

“After having a conversation with them, I realized that they are two of the most compassionate and selfless people that we have on this campus and would basically do anything to improve the quality of student life,” Penn said.

Nakash said the most important aspect of the team’s policies is practicality. While there may be many policies that are not achievable in the near future, there are efforts they can get started immediately to serve the student body.

“A majority of the policies are things that we could take to admin

today, and then tomorrow they could be implemented,” Nakash said. “While we can not promise everything, we can still promise that we’re going to advocate for everything.”

Tewelde said one of the most important parts of their campaign is the focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion at BC. The pair wants to make students of all different identities feel they have a place on campus.

“We talked about getting a prayer room for Muslim students,” Tewelde said. “We sometimes forget about subgroups that make up the AHANA community, and we forget that those little things do matter.”

Nakash said the Office of Transportation and Parking is relevant to many of their policy points. Nakash previously worked to bring back the grocery store shuttle for Montserrat students and subsequently for all BC students during her time in the SA.

She wants to continue to work with the administration to expand accessibility around campus.

“We’re talking about having a shuttle that could run up to Upper, or go to 245 Beacon Street, and have different bus stops to make it accessible,” Nakash said. “Apart from the shuttle that already goes to Star Market and Wegmans, we are also talking about putting another shuttle that goes to Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and also have stops on Newton.”

Tewelde said they will take an intersectional approach to transportation to best utilize BC’s resources.

“A lot of people wouldn’t think of looking at transportation through all these lenses, like accessibility, Montserrat students, what everyday students need,” Tewelde said.

Nakash said her and Tewelde’s involvement in numerous cultural organizations and connections to administration in many different departments will help the pair to be a voice for many communities within BC.

“There’s many ways for people to feel represented through our leadership,” Nakash said. “Even for the communities that we cannot represent through our identities, we can represent them through our allyship.”

Nakash also pointed out that out of the past 11 UGBC presidents, only two have been women.

“It is always inspiring to see a woman in these types of roles,” Nakash said. “I never would have thought I could be a VP of student affairs, but after seeing Shawna Cooper Whitehead, I was like, ‘Well, maybe I can go into higher

education.’”

Nakash said both she and Tewelde are outgoing people who want to be seen as a voice and friend to all students.

“When people see somebody they can relate to, or even somebody that they know and are friends with, it’s easier to tell them their problems,” Nakash said. “We are two people that are friends to each other and everyone, and hopefully the wider student body will see that they can come to us and ask us anything. And if we don’t know the answer, then we’ll find it out.”

Penn said Nakash and Tewelde’s dedication to the BC community is evident from their commitment to several extracurriculars and the changes they have already spearheaded on campus.

“They never complain about how much work they have,” Penn said. “They never complain about how much of a burden sometimes it is to be with administration. They always do it with a smile on their face because they know they’re improving the quality of student life through every opportunity they get to make a change.”

The team’s slogan—Unite the Heights—captures their mission to find the intersections between all communities at BC.

“If you want to go fast, go alone—if you want to go far, go together,” Nakash said. “There’s not just a divide among the students, there’s a divide between the students and admin as well. And if we can unite the Heights, or at the very least lay the foundation for the unification to take place, we can be the start of uniting the Heights.” n

Kotzen and Heckelman are running on a four-pillar platform: acceptance, academics, activity, and adjustment.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JONAH KOTZEN

PHOTO COURTESY OF KAYLEE ARZU

Kotzen, from A1

Nakash and Tewelde plan to expand the shuttle services offered to Boston College students.

Tips on Exploring the City in the Springtime

By Karolina BerTulis For

the Heights

As the weather slowly grows warmer, it is the perfect time to start exploring the nooks and crannies of Boston. The city is constantly evolving, and there are plenty of new places and activities to explore this spring. The city caters to all types of people— shoppers, foodies, adventurers, sports fanatics, art and history buffs, music fans, and more. Here are some tips on how to make the most of Boston this spring.

Take a Visit to Museums or Exhibits

Boston is a city rich in history and culture—and its art is a precise reflection of that. Nearly each of Boston’s areas has its own museum. If you prefer to stay close to campus, Boston College’s very own McMullen Museum of Art on Brighton Campus is a quick walk from Lower Campus. Its current exhibit is titled Landscape of Memory: Seven Installations from the Barjeel Art Foundation. The Harvard Art Museums are just a brief 15-minute drive away in Cambridge. These museums house pieces from world-re

nowned artists like Pablo Picasso

and Vincent van Gogh. Other museums in Boston include the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. Be sure to check and see if reservations are required, as they are for many museums.

Go to a Sporting Event

Boston is a major hub for some of the United States’ finest sports teams—between the Celtics, the Bruins, and the Red Sox, there are plenty of opportunities to catch a game sometime this spring. If you’re looking to venture to TD Garden, you can purchase Celtics tickets here. The Red Sox will soon take over Fenway Park on March 30 for the team’s opening day. A perk of being a college student in Boston is Student 9s tickets for Red Sox games, where tickets begin at $9 for select home games.

Enjoy Boston’s Outdoor Dining Scene

Calling all foodies—there is no better way to spend spring in Boston than checking out its outdoor dining scene. With all its neighborhoods, such as Back Bay, Seaport, and the North End, there is no doubt that you can

locate outdoor or patio seating. One notable spot is Time Out Market, which currently features 16 spots for food and drinks, including restaurants such as Ms. Clucks Deluxe, Nu Burger, Gogo Ya, Union Square Donuts, and more. Another up-and-coming Boston landmark is Cisco Brewery, located in the heart of the Seaport. If you are looking for a great view, I also recommend

local rooftop dining, including Felipe’s Taqueria in Cambridge, Lookout Rooftop and Bar, and Deck 12.

Visit the City’s Many Parks and Gardens

If you prefer to stroll outside and take in the scenery, take a visit to some of Boston’s finest parks and gardens. You can never go wrong with the Boston

Common, the Public Garden, the Greenway, the Esplanade, Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, the Harborwalk near the New England Aquarium, and Copley Square. If you are feeling extra adventurous and would like to make a day out of your activity, you should head over to Blue Hills Reservation in Milton for a hike, which is about a 20-minute drive from campus. n

Plater Saves the Snail Darter Species From Extinction

By Juliana Parisi Heights Staff

Some have called him a “fringe lunatic,” but Zygmunt Plater, an environmental law professor at Boston College, has made waves in his field. Most notably, he saved a fish from extinction. In 1976, he filed a lawsuit to protect the snail darter fish from extinction, and by 2019, the species’ numbers had recovered.

“The thing that really grabbed me, of course, was this little Tennessee River and this little fish,” Plater said. “The first law of ecology is that everything’s connected to everything else, and so that little fish was connected to the corrupt economics. It was connected to the corrupt politics.”

Plater started his career in Ethiopia, where he taught law for two years while working for the nation’s national parks, he said. He then earned his S.J.D. at the University of Michigan in 1973, and studied under Joseph Sax, who is known as one of the founders of the field of environmental law. While working toward his degree, Plater said he found himself working on about a dozen projects concerning wetlands, mining, litter, and more.

Later in the 1970s, he moved to Tennessee, where he worked on roughly 17 projects examining coal mining, parks, and wildlife, he said. During this time, Plater said

the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) had put up 68 dams. When the last dam was built by the TVA, the citizens in the surrounding area were upset. This small dam was not only an eyesore, but it would also corrupt the river’s ecosystem and disrupt surrounding wildlife, Plater said.

“The TVA was so powerful,” Plater said. “There was just no way politically to go against it.”

Hank Hill, one of Plater’s students, discovered there was an endangered fish, the snail darter, living in the middle of this dam project. Plater said it was impossible for him to overlook this little fish.

So, Plater filed the lawsuit in 1976, seeing it as an opportunity to aid the fish population and halt the dam project. He worked with the farmers in the area to craft an environmental impact statement, a government document that examines the environmental consequences of a proposed project. Plater said this case was different from many others because the situation threatened an endangered species.

“The Endangered Species Act isn’t just pushing paper, which is what an environmental impact statement is,” Plater said. “You have to do enough paper to show all the bad things you’re going to do, but this act says a federal agency cannot destroy an endangered species.

And that’s what they were going to do.”

Sara Grigsby, a graduate student at University of Tennessee in Knoxville at the time, was one of the many civilians who got involved in this case. When she heard there were environmental law courses being taught by Plater, she signed up. Through this course, she gained knowledge of the snail darter case.

“We had this general appreciation of the environment we were armed with—it was just beautiful flat farmland on both sides.” Grisby said. “We formed a group. It wasn’t a formal organization like a nonprofit, but we called ourselves the Tennessee Endangered Species Committee.”

Her committee had its own logo, t-shirts, and campaign booth where it fundraised at the university’s student center. With the help of this committee, the case reached the Supreme Court in 1978, bringing Plater closer to ending the construction of the dam and ensuring the survival of the little fish.

“Citizens were critically important from the very beginning,” Plater said. “You have to rely on citizens doing everything possible, sometimes bringing a lawsuit, sometimes protesting, sometimes writing something that gets published all over the world.”

Although many people helped push the case forward, Grisby said

Plater was crucial because of his passion and leadership.

“I can remember being down on the river with him, with our group and, at times, the press,” Grisby said. “He was more than just the attorney, way more. He was our inspiration for all the work we did and in that regard I took inspiration and direction from him.”

Plater was passionate about his mission to ensure the safety of the species. He said the first law of ecology is exceedingly important and reflects the future of human well-being.

“There are things that a society should worry about that aren’t directly utilitarian to humans,” Plater said. “We are only one species out of a million, and we have the power to destroy more than any other species. If we don’t think about that power, then we will destroy. What goes around comes around.’”

Plater and his supporters were not satisfied with the way the media portrayed this case, he said. Plater said journalists described the fish as much smaller and the dam as much bigger than reality, minimizing the negative impacts of the dam on the fish.

To negate the influence of the media over the justices’ decision, Plater introduced scaled images of the snail darter and the prospective dam to better communicate the size of each. He also explained how, economically, this dam would not bring much benefit because it did not provide flooding protection or hydroelectric power.

“This project should never have been built, and it was 95 percent complete and still not worth finishing,” Plater said.

Plater and his team’s arguments proved to be convincing, as his case won in front of the Supreme Court in 1978 and the fish were subsequently put on an endangered list. But, Plater said this was not completely successful. The dam was finished while the fish were transported into various other rivers. Plater said that oxygen was pumped into the rivers with the transported fish to fuel their metabolism and keep the species alive.

This artificial sustaining of life was not optimal in many ways, Plater said. Plater was displeased with the case’s outcome as it was

economically inefficient and not an effective long-term solution to ensuring the survival of the fish, he said.

Fast forward to 2019—the snail darter species’ numbers had recovered, and the fish could therefore be removed from the endangered species list. Plater then filed an application to delist the fish. He hoped the fish would still keep some of its protections if he went about the delisting in a careful way.

“We didn’t want to do it, but in 2019 we heard that Trump was going to delist the fish so that the law wouldn’t be at all applicable—there’d be no protections,” Plater said. “By filing a petition for delisting based on a transplant I thought I was going to save the fish from being delisted without protections.”

Plater approached the BC Environmental Law Society, hoping to offer a student the opportunity to gather a team who would write comments about the snail darter delisting. Abigail LaFontan, a BC law student, led this project and recruited seven first-year law students, teaching them how to write a comment to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Under the Administrative Procedure Act, an agency has to consider the comments it receives,” LaFontan said. “If there’s signs that the agency hasn’t considered its comments, a commenter can sue the agency for not doing so. It’s an enforceable right. If a civilian submits a comment and it’s addressing a really important part of the rule, the agency has to consider it.”

LaFontan’s group consisted of students from various backgrounds. This group examined how the current climate crisis and natural disasters may affect the snail darter, how taking away life supports would biologically affect the species, and how a fish on life support is not truly conserved, she said.

Almost 50 years after Plater honed in on the snail darter case, the fish was officially delisted from the list of endangered species, but it also retains its life support protections.

“The dance of democracy is something that doesn’t have an end, but if you ever stop, you lose things,” Plater said. n

PAIGE STEIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Plater, an environmental law professor at Boston College, has made waves in his field and saved a fish from extinction. PHOTO COURTESY OF ZYGMUNT PLATER

The opinions and commentaries of the op-ed columnists appearing on this page represent the views of the authors of those particular pieces and not necessarily the views of The Heights

Creativity: A Bottomless Well?

to explore during recess time, and dance to songs with choreography that only I seemed to understand.

You see, my childhood self claimed my creativity. I would only ever use it for my own pleasure. And now, I wish I had the ability to take ownership of it as an adult.

daily obligations. I no longer treat it as a sacred possession, but I look at it more like something I must extract from the natural landscape of my mind.

I wish creativity existed within me like a bottomless well.

It’s a rather odd confession to make, but I must say I’ve reached the point in my semester where I am starting to regret that my creativity is not boundless. Now, I participate in a number of commitments, which require my constant creative output. As a dance team captain, social media content manager, and a writer, I have lately found myself racking my brain for any last drop of that special creative juice.

I admit this with a sort of wistfulness. After all, creativity is not the sort of thing you should have to wrung out of a sponge. Forcing creativity seems counterintuitive to its spontaneous nature. In my buoyant and joyous childhood, I remember how my creativity existed like a box of ideas floating above my head, always present for me to reach up and grab from when I wished. Being creative served as more of a personal leisure activity, not something I employed for others. I would use my creativity to write fan fiction and other original works, invent imaginary worlds

Given how fast modern life moves due to technological innovation, more work, effort, and attention are demanded from young people every day. Whether in college or the workforce, society desires youthful innovation for new ideas to implement, inventions that can improve efficiency, and visions no one has dared to dream yet. In short, the world’s desire for creative output is at an all-time high.

I have noticed this trend in my classes (where creative project ideas or discussion contributions are highly rewarded), in my job (where fresh ideas are the most celebrated), and in my extracurriculars (where the reinvention of past events and programs is constantly sought).

This thirst for creativity is truly everywhere, and it makes me feel … tired.

I have relished the opportunity to push my creativity to its limits and uncover what I am truly capable of, but I feel this uphill battle has come at a cost: By dedicating my creativity to the organizations I belong to, I have lost ownership over my creations. I do not interact with my creativity the way my child self used to: carefree and for leisure purposes. Instead, my creativity has become the finite gasoline that allows me to carry out my

After all this commentary on the role of creativity in my life, I wish I could say that I have a solution to creative burnout. Unfortunately, though, the societal advancements that keep the world moving fast aren’t stopping anytime soon.

I do have one piece of advice: It is never too late to reclaim your creativity. There is nothing preventing you from using some of your creativity on yourself, whether you plan a spectacular outing for yourself, take 20 minutes out of your day to sketch a nearby object, or put together a new outfit. As exhausting as it may get to constantly give away your creativity to school, work, or extracurriculars, you can choose, at any point, to pour it back into yourself.

I have made a pact with myself to do one activity everyday that allows me to reclaim my creativity. While some days are better than others in this respect, I have found this practice allowed me to heal some of my creative burnout. In the process, I found that my creativity is not the bottomless well I had hoped for—it turned out to be a needy garden that requires upkeep and care. Though my creativity may not always be at my fingertips in an instant, it will never fully run out as long as I take care in properly tending to it.

The Most Interesting Man in the World

retrieving them by scuba diving. And Jim dives into the lake everyday, no matter the weather or the temperature—and trust me, the water gets cold.

Occasionally, Jim will float in a tube on the lake. But even this is no small task. Lake Champlain boasts winds, currents, and waves that can reach four feet high. But Jim’s tube doesn’t move unless Jim wants it to.

Jim is the most interesting man in the world.

Lake Champlain is my happy place. Located in upstate New York, it is, by all standards, a huge lake: 120 miles long and 12 miles wide in some areas. My family has lived by the lake for generations, and I have spent nearly every summer there since I was an infant. So, it has rightfully earned a spot in my heart forever.

When I visit the lake, I stay at my aunt’s house. It is pretty far north in a small town that boasts no more than one restaurant, two churches, and a shop that is half gas station, half grocery store—the locals endearingly call it “Phil’s.”

But one of the more exciting facets of the town is actually my aunt’s neighbor, who I will call Jim for the purpose of this article.

Jim is the quintessential rugged outdoors man. He’s retired and about 75 years old, but he’s in peak physical condition. Jim assembles and disassembles his dock by himself every year—a job which I have seen take more than five adults to successfully complete. Once, I watched Jim clear his lakefront property of massive rocks with nothing but a white bucket hat and gloves, a job many people would hire contractors for. Jim practices his golf swing by hitting balls way out into the lake and then

Fitting with his mysterious stereotype, Jim doesn’t talk too much. But you can tell he enjoys all of the little day-to-day activities he does. He takes pride in his dock and cleared beach. He no longer has any job obligations, so he spends his time doing what he wants. Swimming. Golfing. Floating.

I aspire to be like Jim. (I mean really who wouldn’t?) I already have my own matching white bucket hat, although my outdoors expertise is still lacking in many departments. But I don’t want to wait until I am 75 to live like Jim. Why should I? That is why I am looking to have a career where I can work outdoors. I want to do something I love, and I want to do it outside—just like Jim.

I personally love the outdoors, if you couldn’t tell by my previous columns that all focus on nature and seek to convince people to spend more time outside.

Working outdoors allows you to reap all of the normal benefits of being outside, including stress relief, lower blood pressure, and heightened immune function. But, an outdoor career also has particular benefits for work—it increases your pro-

ductivity, focus, and creativity.

In a survey done by L.L.Bean in 2018, 65 percent of people reported the largest barrier to spending time outdoors was their job. This barrier, however, is not an issue if your job requires you to be outside!

I have already held positions in outdoor fields for about four years at this point. This past summer, for instance, I sampled water and soil in Boston marshes—a job that required me to be outside for most of the day. I didn’t wake up everyday and groan as I pulled on a blazer to spend hours on my computer. Instead, I strapped on my waders and prepped coolers with ice for my samples. As I did so, I felt like Jim. Jim doesn’t wake up to an alarm to spend his day toiling at a task he doesn’t care about. Jim wakes up early to happily make sure that his beach is clean and his dock is structurally sound.

As Boston College students, most of us are hoping to find a secure job post-graduation. As we go through the long job search ahead of us, I think it is imperative that we find careers that don’t feel like jobs. For me, that means an outdoor job. I would of course hope that my bias for working outside would implore you to consider an outdoor career, but I know that everyone is different.

So the best I can do is encourage you to be like Jim, becoming your own version of the most interesting person in the world. And remember, sometimes Jim just wants to float on the lake, and those quiet breaks are quite alright too.

Welcome, Class of 2027!

This past Thursday, Boston College released its admission decisions for regular decision applicants for the Class of 2027. Now, with the May 1 college decision deadline fast approaching, it is up to us to convince the new generation of admitted students to join us on the Heights. If the beautiful campus and service-oriented academics are not enough, perhaps the vibrant atmosphere will provide enough allure to attract these students to our wonderful University. Whatever their criteria is, let’s take these next few weeks to get out and advertise the wonderful experience that BC can offer!

Boba & Poke

CoRo Cafe has begun to expand its horizons!

In addition to sushi, the coffee shop now serves boba tea and poke bowls. These options are a good choice for students hoping to try something new for lunch or a snack. Boba tea options include tiger milk and classic milk teas, and they are also customizable—boba is a possible addition to any of your favorite coffee drinks. As for poke, the combinations are endless. These choices are quickly becoming popular among students, so if you haven’t yet, head over to CoRo and give them a try!

No Ticket, No Flo

One of the best features of Marathon Monday is the new addition of a Mile 21 concert, beginning last year with a performance from Jason Derulo. This year, students were beyond excited to see Flo Rida on the docket—that is, those who got tickets. Many students have been left ticketless in advance of the concert. Apart from watching from the top of the parking garage, there might not be an easy remedy to this unfortunate situation. And with the Mod Lot being so large, it is too bad the concert currently can’t seem to accommodate more of the student body.

Laundry Is Lacking … Per Usual

As if it wasn’t hard enough to find time for all your little mundane cleaning tasks like laundry, BC’s washers and dryers aren’t making the situation any easier. Whether they are soaking your clothes, not drying your clothes after three cycles in the dryer, or simply not turning on, most BC students can report one laundry-related crisis. Until BC starts to remedy the terrible laundry situation, we will continue to pay $1.75, $3.50, $5.25, or maybe even $7.00 in a series of failed attempts for truly clean clothes.

Punnya KalaPuraKKel

alli Hargrove

GRAPHICS BY ALYSSA ANDERSON / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Do you often bring nostalgic Pinterest boards to life? Have you relaxed and watched waves on the beach silently in the last year? As a Boston College student, do you walk through campus simply to admire its beauty? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you have romanticized life.

It isn’t always easy to see the good in this challenging world—but it can always be romanticized. Many members of Generation Z consciously romanticize the mundane and subsequently post ordinary daily moments on their socials. In the era of social media, this practice often feels like a requirement. Whether you do it “for the aesthetic” or to recenter your soul, romanticizing your life should contribute to your happiness.

This whole concept blew up in 2020, when idealizing one’s ordinary life allowed the pandemic-ridden world to destress—even the tiniest bit. In a viral TikTok video, Ashley Ward introduced the idea of “romanticizing our life.” To practice it, a person must intentionally find as much beauty as possible in their surroundings. This tactic for increased awareness and positivity is often likened to the ancient practice of mindfulness, and it shares many of its benefits.

Here’s an example of romanticizing life. On any given Saturday morning, my friends

and I will put on our cutest outfits, fill our tote bags with books and laptops, put our hair up in a claw clips, and make the journey from Chestnut Hill into the scenic city of Boston. Usually, we will find a quiet coffee shop and work for a few hours. The pastry and/or lattes we will buy round out the image of a romantic afternoon and make our homework enjoyable. Afterward, maybe we’ll stroll around the quaint Beacon Hill, window shop on Newbury Street, or visit a museum. We will try to experience every moment of this outing to the fullest. Even the 40-minute commute to and from the city is a blessing, as it gives us more time to connect with each other.

In a world where working yourself to exhaustion is respected as part of “the grind,” it is important to create moments of peace. These Saturdays of romanticism, for me, allow my pace to slow and my eyes to open. During the week, my peripheral vision is blinded as I focus on my school work and personal advancement. But when I attend to the world around me—when I find beauty in the ordinary and when the world feels much bigger than myself—that is when life matters the most.

To be mindful of the world around me, I look up from my phone and stare at sunsets. I take long walks, laugh loudly, and set aside time for quiet. I count my blessings and explicitly declare my gratitude toward people, flowers, the sun, and whatever other glorious thing is in my line of sight. “Boring” things can be the most wonderful things.

In addition to weekends in the city, people love to romanticize institutions of higher education, including BC.

Part of why I love my time at BC is be-

cause the school focuses intently on personal reflection. For centuries, the Jesuits have engaged with Examens, a practice that involves attentiveness to one’s lived experience. Here at BC, organizations like Campus Ministry and Mindfulness Club offer moments of peace for students and staff alike. In addition, events like 48Hours and Ignite provide powerful events where students can reflect on their lives. With gothic buildings, an abundance of trees, philosophical and theological conversations, and a mission to spread good, life at BC is easy to romanticize for me and many others.

Though it’s not a requirement, I also think social media can act as a modern-day scrapbook—a perk to living romantically in the 21st century. For instance, historic buildings and Instagram-able locations surround students on campus. Our lives here are set in an attractive location and are thus easily translated into enviable online presences. I personally curate my Instagram feed to reflect the romantic life I

live. These posts are the visual snapshot of how I choose to experience life. An aesthetically pleasing feed can be a positive tool in your discovery of a beautiful life, too.

Romanticism can be a healing medication for the stressed and a powerful tactic for those who have fallen out of love with this earth. As a part of mindfulness, it can treat maladaptive thinking and calm a chaotically charged world. If captured and posted, the concept can even elevate your social media feeds to be more aesthetically pleasing.

So go fall in love with your life. I have fallen in ove with mine. Despite struggles and stressors, the love interest in my life’s movie is life itself. The phrase “romanticize your life” may be young, but life has always had the possibility for romanticism. It is your job to discover what beauties have been obscured by the world’s difficulties.

elise Jarvis

Left to right: Boston College softball played a double header against North Carolina on Friday, March 24, 2023, where both teams won one game. UGBC hosted a DEI debate between the two president and vice president candidates, highlighting topics such as campus accessibility and a resource center for LGBTQ+ students on Thursday, March 23, 2023. At a Clough Colloquium event hosted by the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics with former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, an audience member asked a question on

CHEN / HEIGHTS STAFF

BC football player Zay Flowers hugged a football staff member at BC Pro Day on Friday, March 26, 2023.

Lana Del Rey’s Album Traverses Music History

B

y l eah S titzel Heights Staff

No one does sad-girl pop like Lana Del Rey.

Her new album Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd , released March 24, is a hodgepodge history of sad music and the feelings it evokes in listeners. From lyrics to instrumentals, the album is crafted to chronicle both personal memories and universal feelings associated with the music.

The album opens with “The Grants,” a nostalgic and melancholy first of many tribute songs to artists that have shaped Del Rey. The song begins with a gospel choir prelude, then unfolds layers of emotion between the few repeated lyrics.

“When you leave, all you take / Is your memory / And I’m gonna take mine of you with me,” she sings over and over.

The album is packed full of

memories, all strung together by music. She weaves other artists’ powerful words and voices with her own in each song, whether it’s through collaborations with other artists or obscure lyrical references.

Del Rey’s album is a dream for pop radio listeners and music snobs alike. Thoughtful lyrics with hidden references make the album feel like a musical scavenger hunt.

The title track alone mentions the Eagles’ “Hotel California” and Harry Nilsson. “Candy Necklace” jumps genres, referencing hiphop group A Tribe Called Quest. And these are just the first few songs. While her references aren’t necessarily sad, the memories she associates with them usually are.

In “The Grants,” she sings about yearning for the memory of “‘Rocky Mountain High,’ the way John Denver sings.”

Specific songs and artists can replicate the feeling of pivotal moments or periods of our lives, and Del Rey shares her most raw

moments with listeners through her references.

“Put the Beatles on, light the candles, go back to bed,” Del Rey sings on “Let The Light In.”

Bittersweet and sentimental, her collaboration on the track with folk-rock artist Father John Misty is reminiscent of past relationships.

“Let The Light In” is just one example of how Del Rey blends other current artists’ sounds with her own. Typically enigmatic and packed with cultural references, Father John Misty’s own brand of sad-girl indie fuses well with Del Rey’s. The song tells the story of a couple who can’t stop going back to each other. The two singers’ voices soulfully compliment each other.

Despite a daunting hour and 17-minute run time, it is easy to look forward to the next song. Del Rey also uses her collaborative tracks as breaks between sad-pop anthems, with spoken-word tracks featuring Jon Batiste and Judah

MUSIC ‘Ocean Blvd’ Released March 24, 2023

Smith. These tracks—and the album as a whole—prove that sweeping, complex instrumentals aren’t necessary for dramatic effect.

Most of the tracks feature simple piano melodies, barely penetrating Del Rey’s own voice. “Paris, Texas” is a playful waltz, while “Kintsugi” uses only a few simple repeated chords to complement the lyrics.

The song feels lonely—in the spaces between instruments, Del Rey communicates loss and sor-

row. “I don’t trust myself with my heart / But I’ve had to let it break a little more / ’Cause they say that’s what it’s for / That’s how the light shines in,” she sings.

Time and again, Del Rey’s best songs tend to also be her most gut-wrenching ones. This album is no exception, but the project as a whole means something more than each individual song.

Every track is a piece of her personal musical history. n

New Play Addresses Phones’ Impact on Connection

By Jack Weynand Heights Staff

In today’s day and age, cell phones have become a necessity for many college students. Students use their phones to call their roommates and friends when they’re stressed or need help, keep track of their day-to-day tasks with digital calendars, and answer their queries with the press of a button. Dead Man’s Cell Phone serves as a reminder that the more people become connected through phones, the more they personally disconnect from one another.

Dead Man’s Cell Phone, written by

Sarah Ruhl and directed by Lily Telegdy, LSEHD ’23, is a look into the mental spiral of Jean (Abigail Wachter, MCAS ’25) as she finds the cell phone of a dead man, Gordon (Benjamin Burke, MCAS ’25). After going through his phone, Jean becomes obsessed with fixing Gordon’s wrongdoings from his past life.

The theme throughout the play is that interconnectedness through phones leads to disconnected people. The theme is supported by ironic and often funny acting that is propped up by clever lights and sound.

Once Jean finds Gordon’s phone, she reaches out to many of his contacts.

Whenever Jean tries to connect with them, she’s always interrupted by her own cell phone in one way or another.

Early on in the play, Jean attends Gordon’s funeral because she was the last person with him before he died. Gordon’s mother (Leah Temple Lang, LSEHD ’23) is giving Gordon’s eulogy before she is quickly interrupted by Gordon’s phone ringing on Jean’s person. She tries to carry on and just as she’s getting emotional again, Gordon’s phone rings a second time.

Temple Lang sets the comedic tone of the scene by initially shaming the audience—who functioned as the audience of the funeral—with a straight face for going on their phones when they go to the bathroom.

The fact that a eulogy is being interrupted by Jean in possession of Gordon’s phone isn’t lost on the audience. Jean is carrying on Gordon’s livelihood with his cell phone at the cost of genuine human connection. Gordon does not get a respectful and peaceful funeral thanks to Jean.

A similar scene occurs when Jean is trying to have a romantic moment with Gordon’s brother, Dwight (Jack Krukiel, LSEHD ’25). Krukiel embodied Dwight’s presence as a socially awk-

ward introvert with weird quirks and mannerisms.

Despite Dwight’s character, he and Jean form a close bond after they connect thanks to Gordon’s phone. As the two are leaning in for a kiss, Gordon’s phone rings. After multiple missed calls, Jean can’t help but answer the phone and ruin her own romance.

The cell phone gets in the way of grief and love, but it also brings Jean the opportunity to meet all of these new people to begin with. There’s a duality between the connection people expect and the disruption they don’t always see.

In the romantic scene between Dwight and Jean, the light was especially important to express the multitude of emotions present as they kissed and were abruptly interrupted by Gordon’s cell phone.

Sophia Lombardo, MCAS ’23, is the light director for the play. She said she designs the lighting based on how she believes the scene should be interpreted.

“I wanted to bring everyone in close with them,” Lombardo said. “I created just like a kind of a single orb of light around them, so it felt like we were there with them and I had like warm

tones. When they kissed … I had these like flashing lights on the side to kind of show how their love like exploded all around them.”

Similarly, the sound was an effective way to emphasize the dual nature of cell phones. One scene in particular, affectionately known as “The Cell Phone Ballet,” utilized a chaotic sound tape of voices and sounds.

The tape was paired with a performance of peaceful, illuminated umbrellas on stage that floated gracefully throughout the chaos.

“We knew that the cellphone ballet wanted to definitely be a little different,” Bailee Herrera, sound director of Dead Man’s Cell Phone and MCAS ’23, said. “I listened to a lot of music and then what I did was, we took recordings of all of the cast members saying different phrases that you would hear over a cell phone.”

Herrera included a mix of foreign phrases, random words, and music in the tape to get pure chaos. There were so many connected elements that could be heard, but the audience was disconnected from any formal understanding, which is more of what the play says about connection and disconnection at the hands of cell phones. n

King Tuff Embraces Weirdness at Boston Show

By RoRy Quigley

For The Heights

Kyle Thomas, who goes by the stage name King Tuff, brought a slice of Vermont life to Boston on Thursday night at The Sinclair. Thomas and his four-piece band consisting of a bass, lead guitar, keyboard, and drums, delivered a high-energy, varied, and ultra-fun set, which showed off his newly released album, Smalltown Stardust.

Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with an ash-gray felt vest, loose dangling tie, and black baseball cap, he

personified the stereotypical Vermonter look. He and his band kicked off the concert with the titular song from the album, “Smalltown Stardust.”

Not knowing what to expect from his rugged, traditional-looking Vermont band, the crowd was hesitant to dance and sing at first.

“Jeez you guys are quiet,” Thomas said. “This isn’t the Boston I remember going to!”

But quickly the crowd warmed up to him as he played through a couple more songs and proved himself as a multi-instrumentalist, playing both the electric guitar and keyboard.

By the time he got to “How I love,” an easy-going groove interspersed with dreamy electric guitar licks, he clearly had the audience in his pocket. His laid-back charm and his band’s extremely high-quality sound set the audience at a comfortable ease as it drifted into Thomas’ rustic world, evocative of a cold Vermont stream and a warm evening by the fire.

He then delved further into his catalog, drawing from various types of songs—some were introspective and reminiscent tracks while others were blistering, head-banging rockers. He seemed to be reminiscent throughout the night, remarking on his past time spent at the famous Harvard Square Pit, and mentioning his lead guitar player’s status as a Berklee College of Music drop-out.

“Look at him now!” he joked.

An hour in, the show took a wild turn. Claiming that he had forgotten something backstage, he snuck off for a few minutes while the other three members of the band stalled. Then, he emerged from the shadows dressed as a wizard in a satin pink robe adorned with an emerald sash. His wizard outfit was complete with a pointed green

wizard hat on his head and aviator sunglasses on his face.

Suddenly the traditional Vermonter had become a fantastical wizard of rock. It was downright hilarious.

“I will still be a freak once I’m dead,” he exclaimed before launching into “Freak When I’m Dead,” a proclamation of his unapologetic weirdness. Once quiet and reserved, the audience was now expressive and free, taking his irresistible strangeness and running with it.

At the end of the show, he and his band thanked the audience and went backstage, but the lights stayed dimmed. After a few minutes of the

stage being empty and pleading chants from the audience, he walked back out onto the stage by himself to play one more song.

This one was called “I Love You Ugly,” a song about someone he loves even if they might “smell like rats,” a detail he juxtaposed with Boston, saying that it has more beautiful people than anywhere else.

Finally, he coaxed his band into coming out with him too, and they played one final song, “Bad Thing.” King Tuff and his band then withdrew, perhaps leaving the audience feeling a little more relaxed and a lot more empowered. n

FOR THE HEIGHTS King Tuff sat at a piano and sings indie pop songs off his new album.

Dressed in jeans and vest, King Tuff showed off a traditional Vermonter look.

The cast of ‘Dead Man’s Cell Phone’ somberly gathered around a table. NICOLE WEI / HEIGHTS STAFF

The Architectural Evolution of the McMullen Museum

B y K aryl C lifford Editorial Assistant

When Nancy Netzer arrives at her office in the McMullen Museum of Art each morning, she is captivated by the high ceilings and the light pouring in from windows in all directions.

“It puts you in the mood to be cerebral and calm and enjoy the aesthetics of what you’re going to see inside,” Netzer, the museum’s director, said. “Everybody who walks in says, ‘My gosh, this place is beautiful.’”

Sitting on the crest of a hill on Boston College’s Brighton Campus lies the Charles S. and Isabella V. McMullen Museum of Art. Once a two-story museum in Devlin Hall with only enough space to put on two to three exhibits annually, the McMullen Museum is now housed in the renovated former residence of Boston’s archbishop.

The McMullen Museum officially opened at its current location in September 2016 after the relocation from Devlin Hall, where it had previously existed for 23 years.

According to BC historian James O’Toole, the museum originated in 1993 as part of an initiative former University President Rev. J. Donald Monan, S.J., started to promote art on campus.

“But really the impetus, I think, came during Father Monan’s presidency, you can see it in the construction of Robsham Theater,” O’Toole said. “Prior to that, there

was really no place for dramatic productions or concerts or things like that. … I think the interest in pulling together an effort that led to the establishment of the museum came from his interests.”

In 1996, the University renamed the Boston College Museum of Art to the McMullen Museum of Art after the late parents of BC trustee John J. McMullen, honoring his donation to the school.

At that time, there were only two partial stories of limited gallery space in Devlin Hall, according to Netzer.

Netzer said this limited room forced the museum to make every square foot count. While BC could not give the museum more space at the time, the galleries were still highly professional, according to Netzer.

“So we had great security and great, great climate control, which meant that even though we didn’t have a very strong or large collection of works of art upon which to found our museum, we could borrow great works of art because we had the right kind of facility,” Netzer said.

According to Netzer, the small space did allow the museum to focus on the quality of its team of scholars and the culture within the museum.

“We’ve told some really great stories in our exhibitions, and we’ve contributed substantially to the history of scholarship in the history of arts and humanities,”

Netzer said.

Devlin Hall is constructed in a neo-gothic style, which Netzer said makes the building look very beautiful but is not conducive to a gallery setting.

“It was long and thin, almost like not quite like a bowling alley, but it was long and thin and it had a big staircase because it was on two floors,” Netzer said. “That ate up a lot of the space of the museum.”

BC proposed moving the McMullen Museum to the former residence of Boston’s archbishop as a part of its Master Plan—a series of construction projects approved in 2007.

Randy Kreie, principal and president of architecture company DiMella Shaffer, said his company began to analyze the project after the City of Boston approved the Master Plan. But, the proposal took four years to go into effect due to the 2008 economic recession.

“The first time we looked at the building was in 2011,” Kreie said. “I recall we did several studies to look at options to see if a museum was even feasible within the building. Like most projects, we began to look at the conceptual idea [and] feasibility before being asked to begin further study.”

Cardinal William Henry O’Connell had originally commissioned the archbishop residence’s construction in 1927 after receiving an inheritance from a local benefactor, according to O’Toole. Boston

Cardinal Bernard Law vacated the

premises in 2003, and the archdiocese put it up for sale in 2004 to pay for settlements in the clergy sexual abuse scandal, allowing BC to buy the residence and surrounding land.

O’Connell had built the former residence in Roman Renaissance revival style, a choice that O’Toole credits to O’Connell wanting to make a public statement to the broad Boston community, which O’Connell believed was suspicious of the Catholic Church

“He wanted to make a statement that said, ‘Look, we’re here and we’re staying here,’” O’Toole said. “That was a kind of consistent motive for him. You can see it in some of the churches he built as well. You know, not tiny little out of the way places but great big, ornamental cathedrals. And I think the design of the house … fits with that program.”

The style of the old residence presented a challenge for builders, as the new construction brought up questions about if the additions to the existing buildings were too modern or if they matched the existing style, according to Kreie. Kreie said DiMella Shaffer tried to both maintain the integrity of the original architecture while modernizing and enhancing the design.

“By making the addition primarily glass, we provided the enclosure we needed for the functional spaces and we minimized the impact to the architectural massing of the existing building,” Kreie said.

“This maintains the clarity of what the original structure once was.”

The 30,000 square-foot Brighton Campus location includes nearly double the gallery space of Devlin Hall, LED lighting, and climate control, along with a loading dock and freight elevator that ensures the safe movement of artwork.

According to Kreie, the goal of the company’s building process was to optimize the functionality of the building to support the art on display.

“We lifted the roof in one wing and maximized ceiling heights in other areas to provide flexibility for larger art collections,” Kreie said. “New lighting systems were installed to allow for constantly changing exhibitions. New mechanical systems were installed for temperature and humidity control.”

Kreie said that the new addition allows the galleries to make the art the center of attention.

“The goal [was] to keep them simple and minimize distractions and keep the art within, as the focus,” Kreie said. There is now a subliminal feeling of calm and beauty that hits everyone when they enter the new McMullen space, according to Netzer.

“In the past when you walked into Devlin Hall with hordes of people going to the admissions office,” Netzer said. “So it wasn’t quite the same feeling you have walking through the atrium now.” n

Devlin Hall housed the McMullen Museum of Art from 1993 to 2016, where it put on exhibits such as “Portugal, Jesuits and Japan” and “Wifredo Lam: Imagining New Worlds.”

Beyond canvases and frames: the first installment of a two part series about a BC art landmark

SPORTS

FLOWERS CONTINUES TO BLOSSOM

In front of NFL representatives and dozens of spectators, former Boston College football wide receiver Zay Flowers performed at BC’s 2023 Pro Day, showcasing his route running skills and muscle gain.

Football, from A1

“It’s just good to see everybody’s faces again, good to see the coaches, and just be back in Boston,” Flowers said. “Missed the weather a little bit,

on, just being able to train, don’t really have school, put work in, and play football, and, like, prepare for my dream,” Flowers said.

Having quarterback Emmett Morehead—the Eagles’ projected starter for

After going through a series of stretches and conversing with NFL scouts, Flowers eased into his workout, jumping into quick slants. One of his best catches of the day showcased a quick hitch step into a slant and then a 180-reverse grab. Flowers continued his progression with comeback and out routes and then moved into intermediary dig routes. Lastly, Flowers performed post-corner and lightning routes, exhibiting his downfield abilities, and ended with punt returns.

“Just show something different,” Flowers said. “Dynamic at all parts of the field … and just show off everything that I showcase on film.”

Flowers said that since the end of the 2022 season, he’s learned certain aspects of what it takes to succeed at the next level and has tweaked his training regimen to reflect those lessons.

able Mention defensive back Jaiden Woodbey, 2021 All-ACC Honorable Mention defensive lineman Mar cus Valdez, defensive lineman Chibueze Onwuka, and wide receiver Kobay White—all former BC football play ers.

Woodbey, who recorded a 35-inch vertical jump and a 9-foot-6 broad jump, spoke of his versatile abilities.

gained 13 pounds of muscle, something that was put on display at the NFL Scouting Combine on March 4.

“It’s a moment I’ve been waiting

was coming out this year, so just to have him out there and be able to share that moment with him was great, ’cuz he’s the next one up.”

“Just take care of your body,” Flowers said. “I love ball, so, every part of it I enjoy so there’s not a part of it that I didn’t enjoy. I’ma just keep enjoying the process and just keep looking ahead for the next day.”

Other notable participants at Pro Day were two-time All-ACC Honor-

“You know, my mindset since a kid was to compete in every facet, and, you know, become a starter from day one,” Woodbey, who recorded 131 tackles in 20 games at BC, said. “If they want to have me in sub package, linebacker, strong safety, Will backer, strong—I’ve played it all and I’ve done it well.”

Woodbey also spoke about his

fullback. So it was a lot in a short period of time, but I was able to show them my conditioning, my versatility.” n

A Look Into BC Football’s Fifth and Sixth Practices

By Jack Bergamini Assoc. Sports Editor

Boston College football returned for another week of practice on Tuesday and Thursday, during which it implemented situational gameplay while utilizing its new additions and picking up its intensity from last week.

“This is the most physical spring that we’ve had,” BC head coach Jeff Hafley said. “Because we have more numbers and we have more depth.”

While the Eagles are still not participating in much live gameplay, Hafley emphasized how important it is to continue to teach different situations.

“Hopefully in time, we’ll be able to progress, put the ball down, and just play more football, but we got to teach situations too right now,” Hafley said.

As the competitiveness is picking up, here is a look at a few more units of the Eagles’ roster after practices five and six.

Receiving Core

While Zay Flowers is no longer on the Heights—the projected first rounder competed at BC’s Pro Day at Fish Field House on Friday morning—the Eagles have a solid group of receivers that includes Central Florida transfer Ryan O’Keefe, Jaden Williams, Joseph Griffin Jr., and Dino Tomlin. The group will look to ease the transition away from Flowers.

“It’s a good group,” Hafley said. “I think Darell [Wyatt’s] done a great job with them. You know, Zay’s a first rounder. So yeah, we miss him. I’d be lying to you if I said we didn’t. But I think we have a really solid group.”

O’Keefe, a 5-foot-10 graduate

transfer, has lightning speed that has naturally drawn comparisons to Flowers. O’Keefe said he sees the similarities himself.

“I feel like we are similar in certain ways, but I feel like I’m more of a downfield guy,” O’Keefe, who chose to sport Flowers’ No. 4, said. “He’s a downfield guy for sure, but he’s also really good in the intermediate short, agility stuff. We are similar, but I’m really more vertical downfield.”

O’Keefe stressed how BC’s playbook is different from Central Florida’s, but he likes how it will prepare him for the NFL throughout his learning process.

“It’s a lot more technical for me, like more thinking,” O’Keefe said. “So, you know, I’m really just trying to slow that down, you know, just focus on small details and getting that stuff right.”

The wideout will presumably be starting quarterback Emmett Morehead’s top deep threat during Morehead’s first full year as BC’s starting quarterback, helping replace the explosiveness Flowers brought to Chestnut Hill for four years. But it won’t be a oneman show at the position, according to Griffin.

“I feel like we’re all going to step up,” Griffin said.

Griffin, who had a minor surgery this offseason, and O’Keefe both said they were excited about playing with Morehead. Griffin notably caught a game-winning touchdown from Morehead in BC’s upset over then-No. 17 NC State on Nov. 12, 2022.

“I call him touchdown Jesus,” Griffin said.

Tight end George Takacs, who also had a minor procedure over the

offseason, is back for a sixth year, his second at BC. The Naples, Fla. native registered seven catches for 84 yards in BC’s 2022 season opener against Rutgers, but injuries limited him to only eight games. This year, he’ll look to emerge as another consistent option for Morehead.

“A healthy George is a really good tight end,” Hafley said. “He’s faster than we thought. He’s a great athlete. He just was hurt all year. So now, he got a chance—I think George could be one of the better tight ends in the ACC.”

Running Backs

To put it bluntly, BC’s run game was nonexistent last season and finished dead last in the nation in total rushing yards with 758 and rushing yards per game with 63.2.

And while the Eagles have inherited reinforcements on the offensive line, their running back room looks mostly the same, with returners Pat Garwo III, Alex Broome, Xavier Coleman, and Cam Barfield. Kye Robichaux, a

transfer from Western Kentucky, is the lone notable addition.

The depth chart has not yet been determined, but each back has been involved thus far in practice.

“It’s spring ball,” Hafley said. “No one’s gonna just sit here and not practice. … So they’re all doing a pretty good job. They all have their different roles. And we’ll see, again, I just think the competition is pushing all those guys.”

Garwo began the 2022 season as BC’s starter after a 1,000-yard rushing season in 2021, but 5-foot-6 Broome slowly phased him out. In nine games, the freshman rushed for 225 yards and one touchdown, displaying a quickness that Garwo lacked.

But Broome said he knows the whole group has to be better.

“We’ve harped on running the ball this year,” Broome said. “That’s what you have to do to win games. So, collectively, o-line, running backs, tight ends, all just buying into the schemes that we have and being attention to detail, like our tracks and on our reads.”

Coach on the Field Linebacker Vinny DePalma is back for his sixth season on the Heights. And throughout a multitude of coaching changes and winning and losing seasons during his college career, DePalma has supported BC’s new staff.

“They’ve been great,” DePalma said. “Coach Hafley, he’s always made an emphasis of bringing guys that are a great fit at Boston College, have a great rapport with the players, you know, care about being at Boston College, care about the mission about Boston College.”

Co-Defensive Coordinator Aazar Abdul-Rahim offered a similar sentiment toward DePalma last week, penning him as a coach on the field.

“That’s kind of my role, you know, being able to use my mind a little bit on the field, you know, helping younger guys,” DePalma, who recorded 49 solo tackles last season, said. “I think a big part of defense is anticipation. So if you can anticipate yourself and then be able to communicate that to the other 10 guys on the field, like that’s gonna be huge.”

DePalma described how seamless the transition has been with Abdul-Rahim and Sean Duggan at the helm of the defense—both were a part of the team’s staff last year—but also said he can sense a shift in tone within the program compared to last year’s 3–9 team.

“What happened is behind us,” said DePalma. “I think everyone’s taken that attitude. And I think everyone’s hungry to get better. … It’s a taste in your mouth that you want to get rid of. And the only way to get rid of that is to go to work every day.” n

Eagles Collapse in Sixth, Fall to UNC

By MaTT Capaldi Heights Staff

A common issue during conference play for Boston College softball has been allowing one big inning from its opponent. Coming into Sunday’s game, the Eagles had allowed at least three runs in an inning in three of their five ACC games, including the second game of Friday’s doubleheader against North Carolina.

BC’s series finale with the Tar Heels on Sunday followed that trend, and a single inning haunted the Eagles once again.

Plagued by sloppy mistakes, BC (16–13, 1–5 Atlantic Coast) fell to the Tar Heels (13–21, 3–6) 8–3 Sunday afternoon at Harrington Athletics Village. North Carolina scored six runs all with two outs in a pivotal sixth inning to cruise ahead of the Eagles late.

“These innings where we’re giving up runs with two outs and making mistakes—we’ve just got to shut it down,” BC head coach Amy Kvilhaug said. “We’re right there. We just didn’t execute today.”

BC jumped out to an early lead in the first inning when Nicole Giery lined a one-out single to center to drive in Maddy Carpe. Giery was an on-base machine for the Eagles all game, reaching base safely in all four of her plate appearances.

BC’s starting pitcher Abby Dunning cruised through the first three innings, allowing just one baserunner and racking up six strikeouts.

The Eagles continued to give Dunning run support when Hannah Slike launched a two-run home run over the left field fence in the bottom half of the third inning. Slike blasted the first pitch she saw from Kenna Raye Dark for her sixth home run of the season.

Dunning ran into some trouble in the fourth inning when the first two Tar

Heels singled. Alex Brown and Skyler Brooks each drove in a run in the frame, and North Carolina threatened further with runners on first and third with two outs, but Dunning recorded a big punch-out to end the inning.

“Abby Dunning did a great job this series,” Kvilhaug said. “I think we got all that we could have gotten from Abby Dunning in a positive light.”

Leading 3–2, the Eagles had several opportunities to increase their lead in the fourth and fifth innings. With a runner on third and one out in the fourth, Slike hit a sharp ground ball to shortstop, and Carpe broke for home where she was tagged out.

The Eagles’ struggles with runners in scoring position continued in the fifth inning when they stranded runners on first and third after Zoe Hines struck out and Meghan Schouten popped out to second. BC was 2-of-8 with runners in scoring position during the game.

“We have had a lot of missed opportunities this season,” Kvilhaug said. “I mean, the great news is that we’re getting the opportunities, we’re getting ourselves in a position, but we have just got to do a better job of executing in those situations.”

North Carolina’s sixth-inning rally began when Brown and Brooks each singled with one out. Kvilhaug then pulled Dunning in favor of Susannah Anderson. And the first batter that Anderson faced, Kiersten Licea, poked a ball through the right side to load the bases.

Anderson forced a ground ball from the next batter, and the Eagles got the force out at home to record the second out of the inning. It appeared like BC was going to escape the jam unscathed when pinch hitter Gaby Katz grounded a ball to third, but BC

No. 17 Eagles Earn WalkOff Win After Falling 12–2

By RoBeRT BRennan Heights Staff

After inclement weather on Saturday pushed the second game of No. 17 Boston College baseball’s three-game series with No. 24 NC State to a Sunday doubleheader, the two games quite literally could not have gone differently for the Eagles. The first game turned into a blowout loss, but the second featured an extrainning walk-off with the bases loaded courtesy of outfielder Travis Honeyman.

“Honestly, I’m not surprised with this group,” BC head coach Mike Gambino said. “They’ve shown all year that they respond no matter what gets thrown at them. They respond, so I’m not surprised. It says a lot about the toughness and grit and how much they care about each other.”

After defeating NC State on Friday, BC (17–5, 6–3 Atlantic Coast) split Sunday’s doubleheader against the Wolfpack (17–7, 3–6), with the first game ending 12–2 in eight innings, and the second ending 8–7 in 10 innings. With their victory in the second matchup of the day, the Eagles clinched their seventh ranked win of the season.

While the Eagles pitched their right-hander ace Chris Flynn in the first game, NC State put out its best starter in terms of ERA in Dominic Fritton for the second game, who let up one run in 4.1 innings of work.

NC State broke the scoring stalemate in the third inning, driving in Parker Nolan on a sacrifice fly that almost cleared the center-field wall at Harrington Athletics Village. Chase Nixon drove in two more runs

with a double, ending John West’s start after three innings.

BC responded with a run in the fourth inning to make it 3–1 on a two-out rally and recorded another run in the fifth when Patrick Roche singled and flung around to third on a base hit from Honeyman. Joe Vetrano hit into a fielder’s choice that sent Roche home to make it 3–2.

Nevertheless, NC State increased its lead in the top of the sixth inning, scoring four runs. Payton Green started the action with a home run off reliever Matthew Nunan.

After Nunan gave up a double and hit a batter, BC brought in Joey Ryan, who let one of Nunan’s runners score and gave up two more runs of his own, continuing his recent relieving struggles.

Behind an amped dugout, the Eagles responded ferociously in the bottom of the inning. Peter Burns posted a two-run single, and a tworun homer from Nick Wang snuck just over the left field wall to cut the Eagles’ deficit to one run.

Wang then hit his second home run to the hill in left field—which has become a popular seat for fans in recent games—tying the game 7–7 in the bottom of the eighth.

Despite getting runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth inning, BC could not break the tie, and the doubleheader went to its 18th inning.

Julian Tonghini’s 1-2-3 inning in the top of the 10th sent the Eagles back up to bat yet again.

“You cannot overlook what Julian did,” Gambino said. “He was electric today. … We kept getting back to the dugout. It feels like a constant rally and he allowed us to do that.”

Burns walked to first to leadoff in the bottom of the 10th inning, sending Wang up to the plate. While some might have expected the big

right-hander to swing for the fences, Wang also walked, sending Burns to second.

“[Wang had a] lead off walk in the 10th, I mean, that’s a bunt situation,” Gambino said. “And I looked at it and they walked him, but I just felt like we had the hardest hitter in the state of the plate. I just didn’t want to take the bat out of his hands.”

Barry Walsh beat an infield single to load the bases for Honeyman. NC State shifted its infield to try to get an out at home, but it couldn’t do anything about the fly ball that Honeyman belted to right field, which sent the final runner home for the 8–7 victory.

The front end of the doubleheader started off well for BC, with a tworun home run from Vetrano putting the Eagles up 2–0 in the third inning. But nothing went right for the Eagles after that.

Green foreshadowed what was to come when he ripped an RBI single in the fourth inning to cut BC’s lead to 2–1. Flynn strung together two straight outs to conclude the inning mostly unscathed.

But the damage truly started when Cannon Peebles took Flynn deep in the sixth inning. Jacob Cozart then singled to right-center for two more runs to make it 6–2, and the Wolfpack never looked back.

“I do think Chris Flynn will bounce back and here’s my message postgame: Flynn has been awesome, Schroeder’s been awesome all year, and they both scuffled a bit today,” Gambino said. “To me, you get blown on that first one, that’s an easy one to turn the page because that’s not gonna happen very often.”

NC State poured in six more runs in the eighth inning for a run-ahead rule 12–2 win—its only win of the series. n

Dolce Bounces Back, BC Records Win Over Hokies

By luke evans Asst. Sports Editor

The last time that No. 7 Boston College lacrosse fell to an unranked opponent was on Feb, 8, 2020, when the Eagles lost to UMass Amherst in their season opener.

On Saturday, in a constant backand-forth game with Virginia Tech, BC once again faced the possibility of dropping a game to an unranked opponent over three years later. But BC (7–3, 4–1 Atlantic Coast) pulled away in the final quarter to edge out the Hokies (5–6, 1–4) 14–12.

“I’m happy,” BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. “And I’m sure a lot of people are wondering if we’re happy about it, like a win’s a win. The ACC’s competitive, and I’m proud of how our girls competed today.”

While the Eagles dropped three places in the national rankings after a six-goal first quarter deficit led to a 13–8 loss to then-No. 6 Denver six days earlier, Walker-Weinstein still gave freshman goalie Shea Dolce the nod to start the game against the Hokies, and she played the entire game.

“I was really proud of Shea,”

Walker-Weinstein said. “I think she saw some really tough shots. Those girls are really good shooters … but she was really resilient. I think she hung around and made some really good saves and the defense did really well for her and I was proud of her.”

Dolce recorded eight saves with a .400 save percentage in the win—a bounce-back performance for the freshman.

The game itself was a call and response affair.

Virginia Tech struck first just under five minutes into the game, but at the 8:38 mark, Courtney Weeks knotted the game at 1–1 after Mckenna Davis fed her a pass that left the Hokies’ goal wide open.

Kayla Martello threaded the needle between two Virginia Tech defenders and the Hokies’ goalkeeper, Jocelyn Torres, to give the Eagles their first lead of the game at the 7:04 mark, and Jenn Medjid found Weeks on a backdoor cut to extend BC’s lead to 3–1 entering the second quarter.

Less than a minute into the second quarter, Medjid barrelled toward the crease and buried the ball to extend BC’s lead to three on a free-position goal. This goal marked the 200th of her career, and she became the third BC player to ever reach that milestone—the

others being Charlotte North and Sam Apuzzo.

“Her ability has always been such a constant,” Walker-Weinstein said. “She’s always been such an incredible lacrosse player but I have just been so overwhelmed by her growth as a leader and her ability to pull excellence out of her teammates has really, really made her stand, I think higher than she’s ever stood before for our program. And I’m just so proud of who she has become.”

Virginia Tech refused to let the Eagles run away with the game, however, potting four straight goals to reclaim a 5–4 lead at the 8:08 mark.

Cassidy Weeks stopped the bleeding as she scored on a bounce shot to tie the game with 6:27 remaining, and Ryan Smith scored on a free-position goal to regain the lead.

But Virginia Tech’s Ella Rishko notched her second and third goals of the game at the 2:47 and 2:02 marks, respectively, which put the Hokies back on top, 7–6.

“They have really great players, and their really good players stepped up at very critical times,” Walker-Weinstein said. “And I think the biggest thing was that they stepped up to prevent us from going on three-, four-goal runs.”

That lead lasted for just 40 sec-

onds, as Medjid split the legs of Torres to knot the game at seven apiece. With nine seconds left in the half, the Hokies potted their eighth goal, and took an 8–7 lead over BC.

It did not take long for the Hokies to extend their lead in the second half as a free-position goal put them up by two 45 seconds into the third.

The Eagles rattled off three goals in response, and by the 9:22 mark, they had taken a 10–9 lead.

Rishko recorded her fourth goal of the game to tie it, but with 7:14 left in the third quarter, Shea Baker launched the ball into the net to give BC an 11–10 lead.

Both teams added one more goal apiece, and BC entered the final quarter ahead 12–11.

The Eagles added two more goals to their total in the fourth quarter

while giving up just one. BC held its lead for the remainder of the game en route to a 14–12 victory.

“There were some errors that we still need to clean up,” Walker-Weinstein said. “But again, we made some significant changes this past week, and I think the girls got on board and did what we asked, and I think we just have to do more of that.”

The Eagles added two more goals to their total in the fourth quarter while giving up just one. BC held its lead for the remainder of the game en route to a 14–12 victory.

“There were some errors that we still need to clean up,” Walker-Weinstein said. “But again, we made some significant changes this past week, and I think the girls got on board and did what we asked, and I think we just have to do more of that.” n

Dunning Dominates Game One of Doubleheader

By Kevin Comerford Heights Staff

Having not played at home in 364 days, Boston College softball welcomed its return to Harrington Athletics Village on Friday for not one, but two games, as it played a doubleheader against North Carolina.

“Just a nice vibe to be at home,” BC head coach Amy Kvilhaug said. “The kids were loving it.”

Having gone winless over the past 12 days, the Eagles (16–12, 1–4 Atlantic Coast) managed to snap their four-game losing streak with a 3–1 win over North Carolina (12–21, 2–6) in the first game behind Abby Dunning’s six-strikeout performance. But not long after, the Tar Heels bounced back, blanking the Eagles 5–0 to hand BC its first loss on its home soil. North Carolina’s Kenna Dark pitched 10.1 straight scoreless innings spanning for two games.

“The name of the game today was we weren’t able to execute that second game,” Kvilhaug said. “But the first game was a different story.”

Dark pitched all seven innings in game two, holding BC without any runs.

“We made a couple adjustments throughout the game in terms of where we’re standing in the box,” Kvilhaug said. “We adjusted, we just didn’t get the result.”

Center fielder Kali Case made a diving catch in the first inning for BC’s first out, and BC’s starting pitcher Susannah Anderson made quick work of the rest of the lineup, getting out of the inning in just four batters. Dark then went three up three down in the bottom of the first inning to send the game into the second inning with no score.

Dark and Anderson traded scoreless inning after scoreless inning, with each squad’s respective defenses making some big plays, stranding a combined 12 runners on base over six innings. That is, until the top of the seventh inning.

“I think we let them hang around far too long,” Kvilhaug said.

North Carolina’s rally started with an Alex Brown single, and after Anderson hit the next batter, Kiersten Licea, with a pitch, the Tar Heels had a runner on first and second with no outs. Pinch hitter Carlie Myrtle sent them home the very next at-bat with an RBI double to

left center to make it 2–0.

The Tar Heels quickly got two runners on base again, and Destiny Middleton hit a triple to drive both runs in to go ahead by four runs. And after a passed ball at third on the same play, Middleton scored, causing Kvilhaug to pull Anderson out of the game and replace her with Sofia Earle. Earle shut down the scoring barrage, but it was too little too late.

The Eagles showed promise in the bottom of the seventh inning when Kamryn Warman reached first base on a walk. But Dark’s pitching proved to be too powerful, as she and North Carolina’s defense took care of BC’s next three batters, leaving BC with a 5–0 loss and splitting the day. But it was Dunning who was near perfect in the first game, as Dunning put on a throwing clinic. And through the first two innings, both teams remained scoreless.

North Carolina’s Carsyn Snead snuck one past second base for a hit in the third inning, and pinch runner Destiny Middleton stole second to put her in scoring position. With two outs, Abby Settlemyre sent one deep to right field, sending Middleton home for an RBI double.

The Eagles, however, responded in the bottom of the inning as Maddy Carpe blasted a hit to the back right corner of the field, beating the throw for a triple. Hannah Slike then stepped up to bat and drove Carpe home for an RBI single to tie the game at one apiece.

One at-bat later, Nicole Giery drove a line drive to left, advancing Slike to second, and Warman delivered with two outs, ripping the ball deep to right center to send both Giery and Slike home to put BC ahead 3–1 to end the third inning.

That was all the scoring the game featured, though, as Dunning played all seven innings, allowing three hits and

striking out six.

“We were super super prepared for what they were going to throw at us,” Kvilhaug said. “We practice all of the on the run type plays, all the quick plays, all the short plays, the fun plays.”

With BC down two runs in the top of the seventh inning, Zoe Hines displayed a highlight reel diving catch, laying out in foul territory to grab the first out of the inning. Licea then popped out for the second out, leaving North Carolina’s comeback hopes in the hands of Isabela Emerling. But Dunning delivered, as she struck Emerling out after bringing her to a full count, grabbing the Eagles their first home win of the season. n

BC Grabs Win in ACC Home Opener

By madelyn lawlor Copy Chief

For its ACC home opener, No. 16 Boston College baseball was treated to passionate crowds throughout the stands and the outfield hill at Harrington Athletics Village. The BC community came out strong to support the Eagles in their contest against No. 24 NC State on Friday afternoon.

“The boys noticed, we all noticed,” BC head coach Mike Gambino said. “I mean, this place was packed, the hill. … I also want to win baseball games, but we want to give the students especially and the fans, we want to give them something they’ll want to be excited about for the spring. It’s important to us. So when they come out and recognize that it’s really cool, and they’re a part of this thing, they affected the game and they got the boys going.”

With a rowdy atmosphere behind it, BC (16–4, 5–2 Atlantic Coast) took a 3–0 lead in the bottom of the third inning and never looked back, responding to adversity with poise to get its first home conference victory of the season with a 4–1 win against the Wolfpack (16–6, 2–5).

“To start this at home and give you a chance to win another series against a really good ranked opponent,” Gambino said. “The season is about putting together a resume so at the end of the year when the selection committee looks at you they, they put you in the 64 or like, as we continue to go on, hopefully we can start talking about being hosts,

so, the more ranked wins you can put together and the more series you can win, the better chance you have to be in those things.”

The Eagles escaped danger in the top of the second inning to keep the game scoreless. Carter Trice hit a single to left field to get on base for NC State, and BC starter Henry Leake then walked the next batter to give the Wolfpack two baserunners. A wild pitch allowed the runners to advance to second and third, but Leake struck out the next batter, Eli

the first pitch of his at-bat—clobbered a home run to left field to give BC a 3–0 lead.

The Wolfpack responded in the top of the fourth inning, however, as Jacob Cozart hit a double to the right field corner to open the inning. Cozart advanced to third on a groundout by Payton Green, and Will Marcy also grounded out to drive Cozart home, making the score 3–1.

The Eagles extended their lead to 4–1 in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Patrick Roche annihilated a ball to

After six innings, right-hander Joey Ryan came in relief for Leake in the top of the seventh inning. NC State again threatened to score, getting two runners on base, but Ryan finished the seventh inning without giving up a run and recorded two strikeouts in the process.

In the eighth inning, Andrew Roman—who closed out Wednesday’s game against Sacred Heart—replaced Ryan on the mound for the Eagles. Despite NC State’s rally, BC escaped the inning unscathed. On a fielder’s choice, Wang threw out LuJames Groover III at home, preventing the Wolfpack from getting another run.

The eighth inning found BC unable to score another run, despite getting close. Honeyman blasted a double to left-center to start the inning. NC State pitcher Andrew Shaffner tried to pick Honeyman off but threw the ball into the outfield, allowing Honeyman to advance to third. After Sam McNulty walked, Cameron Leary hit a pop fly to the catcher that turned into a double play as NC State catcher Cozart tagged Honeyman out at the plate as he tried to come home.

Serrano III, to get BC out of the jam.

BC got on the board first in the bottom of the third inning with a Travis Honeyman three-run home run. Honeyman sat out for BC’s first home game of the year with an undisclosed injury on Wednesday.

Nick Wang got on base by hitting a blooper over the pitcher for a single, and NC State pitcher Logan Whitaker hit Cohl Mercado by a pitch to put runners on first and second for the Eagles. Honeyman stepped up to the plate and—on

right-center field for a double, and a Peter Burns’ single to center field scored Roche.

“This is game one of the series, the difference today was to see [Leake] throw the ball like he did,” Gambino said.

“Generally he gives a really good outing and a chance to win and he just kept getting us back in the dugout and giving us a chance. They scored in the fourth, Travis goes up in the third, three-run home run, got the boys going, then they respond, and then we respond, which was huge.”

In the top of the ninth inning—NC State’s last chance at redemption—pinch hitter Chase Nixon singled to right field to start things off, and Roman hit two batters to let the Wolfpack load the bases with the tying run on first. Roman was not fazed, though, notching two clutch strikeouts to end the game at 4–1.

“Obviously, it’s not exactly how you’d draw it up with a three-run lead in the ninth to hit two guys,” Gambino said. “But then for [Roman] to regroup and go punch out punch out … he looks like a veteran.” n

Captains Bilka and Barnes Transfer to Ohio State

By ethan ott Outreach Coordinator

After nine combined seasons and 186 total points, Cayla Barnes and Hannah Bilka’s time as Boston College women’s hockey players is over. The pair of captains will take the ice for Ohio State next season, as announced by the Buckeyes on Saturday.

Sixty of Barnes’ and Bilka’s 186 points came during the 2022–23 season. Bilka led the Eagles with 41 points this past season while Barnes took the lead on defense, leading BC’s roster with 63 blocks. The duo will join the National Championship runner-up Buckeyes in 2023 under head coach Nadine Muzerall. Bilka and Barnes each leave behind storied careers as Eagles under BC head coach Katie Crowley.

Bilka burst onto the scene in 2019

during her freshman year, earning Women’s Hockey Commissioner’s Association and Hockey East Rookie of the Year honors while leading the Eagles in points with 37.

Bilka recorded a career-high four goals against Holy Cross as a freshman.

As a sophomore she was named a Hockey East Third Team All Star, and as a junior she earned Hockey East First Team honors following the 2021–22 season.

Bilka was chosen for the 2022 IIHF

Women’s World Championship roster, scoring 12 points while helping lead the United States to a silver medal.

Barnes first laced up her skates as an Eagle during the 2017–18 season, but she played in just five games before being called to the U.S. Women’s National Team in preparation for the Olympics. She won gold in 2018 at

the PyeongChang Olympics as Team USA’s youngest skater, appearing in all five games.

Barnes returned to BC as a redshirt freshman for the 2018–19 season, playing in 36 games and tallying 19 points before being elected to the Hockey East All-Star Third Team and All-Rookie Team. The next season, Barnes was promoted to the Hockey East Second Team and named one of three finalists for Hockey East Player of the Year.

Barnes became the 10th junior captain in BC history during the 2020–21 season and then returned to the Olympics during that offseason, missing BC’s 2021–22 season. She played all seven games for Team USA in Beijing, coming home with six points and a silver medal. During the 2022–23 season, Barnes registered 19 points on six goals and 13 assists in her fifth—and final—year

as an Eagle.

Barnes and Bilka’s departures mark the end of an era for BC, with the pair contributing to all aspects of BC’s game during its time on the Heights—Bilka attacked the net as a forward while

Barnes fought for blocks on defense. Barnes and Bilka depart BC with just one remaining year of eligibility. The Buckeyes came up a goal short of the national title in 2023, while BC failed to qualify for the tournament. n

Abby Dunning struck out six batters in Friday’s first game.

NC State Boston College

Bilka And Barnes combined for 60 points

The Eagles scored three runs in the third inning to take a 3–0 lead.

NICOLE WEI / HEIGHTS STAFF