The same week Julia Spagnola was planning to reach out to Lubens Benjamin about running together for a UGBC leadership position, Benjamin asked Spagnola if she would run with him as president and vice president. “Julia was always someone that I admired in UGBC and her dedication to the work,” Benjamin, CSOM ’23, said. “So when I kept thinking about
When Kudzai Kapurura was a freshman in high school, she walked into her principal’s office with a list of proposals for improvement within the school.
“I typed out a whole document of all of the things about my school that I felt could be better and also a whole bunch of solutions,” Kapurura, MCAS ’23, said. “Some students didn’t have
laptops at home. [I asked,] ‘Why don’t we provide students with the opportunity to check out the laptops that we have here at school?’ … I remember my principal was like, ‘Who are you with? What club is this?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I’m just here. … I’m just here as Kudzai.’”
Seven years later, Kapurura is taking a similar approach to her campaign for UGBC president.
“What I understood then, and what I understand still now is that
leadership does not come with a requirement,” Kapurura said. “You don’t need to have done certain things in order to be a leader or to change things. You just have to be somebody who understands, ‘This is a problem, [and] here’s an opportunity for a solution. I’ve heard these experiences. I’ve heard these stories. Now how can we move forward and get things taken care of and get things done?’”
See Kapurura, A7
who I’d want to run with as president, Julia was the only person I could think of, and I think if I wasn’t with Julia [it definitely] wouldn’t be the same experience as it is right now.”
Spagnola, MCAS ’23, said that although she had known Benjamin through UGBC, their experience as Appa co-leaders led her to consider him as a running mate as she was thinking about running for a leadership position in UGBC.
“We’d just been paired together
to be Appa leaders just before Winter Break, and I spent all that break thinking about who else I would want to maybe run with … and I kept coming back to him, because he’s the one person I trust the most,” Spagnola said.
Benjamin, who described his relationship with Spagnola as a “dynamic” team, said he is excited to run alongside her.
By ViCtor stefanesCu Metro Editor
Congressman Jake Auchincloss said the United States should consider threatening sanctions against China at a Newton rally for Ukraine on Friday—the same day U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNBC such actions would not be appropriate.
Auchincloss said China has implicitly supported Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
“China needs to know that they
cannot sit on the sidelines of history,” said Auchincloss, who represents Massachusetts’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. “They will be judged, and they must stand on the right side.”
Auchincloss joined Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, other Massachusetts politicians, and over 100 residents in calling for more efforts at home and abroad to support refugees and bring an end to the conflict.
Both Auchincloss and Fuller said they hoped the U.S. would accept
more Ukrainian refugees following the Biden administration’s announcement on Thursday to accept up to 100,000 refugees.
“Our country is ready to take in 100,000 refugees from this war,” Fuller said. “I hope we can do better. I actually think we must do better.”
State-level politicians at the rally said the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a role to play in the conflict as well.
Mikayla Sanchez wiped away tears as her parents rushed to embrace her after University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., announced her as this year’s Saint Oscar A. Romero Scholarship recipient.
“As a second generation American, I feel the need to persevere and utilize the opportunity so selflessly provided and presented to me by my parents,” Sanchez said.
The Saint Oscar A. Romero Scholarship Award recognizes a Boston College junior whose life demonstrates an understanding of and commitment to the values and ideals demonstrated through Romero’s life. The 30th Annual Saint Oscar A. Romero Scholarship Award ceremony took place Saturday night in the Yawkey Athletic Center.
“[Students] must show dedication to learning in service of the Hispanic Latino community, not only at Boston College but also outside in the wider community,” said Milvia Sanchez, co-chair of the scholarship’s selection committee.
The other two finalists were Maribel Andrade, MCAS ’23, and Alberto Juarez, MCAS ’23. All three finalists will receive a $1,000 gift certificate to the BC Bookstore, and the winner of the scholarship will receive up to $25,000 toward senior year tuition. The other two finalists will receive up to $3,000 toward their senior year tuition, according to the Romero Scholarship website.
O. Ernesto Valiente—an associate professor of systematic theology—delivered the keynote address, exploring three virtues that he believes capture the life of Romero.
“Firstly, the virtue of honesty,” Valiente said. “Second is the virtue of solidarity … and thirdly, the virtue of hope that allowed Romero to be faithful to the end and to put his life in the hands of God.”
After the keynote speech, several previous Romero Scholarship recipients spoke, and the Latin student dance group VIP performed. Leahy then congratulated each finalist before presenting the award to Sanchez.
Students wielding Ukrainian flags and posters marked with words of solidarity crowded O’Neill Plaza on Saturday afternoon to advocate for increased efforts to support Ukraine.
“This isn’t a fight just for Ukrainians, but for all people who believe in freedom,” said Betty Lo, a social justice advocate who works for Lumenor Consulting Group. “If Ukraine wins against its oppressor, we might all win against ours. If Ukraine wins against a dictator, all dictators will be put on notice.”
Lo was one of eight speakers, including Andrew Nynka, Matthew Howe, Viktoria Sadlovska Anshu, Dima Paznukhov, Oleksii Chuiev, at the rally.
Several students also manned tables that provided information about local Ukrainian businesses to support and organizations that provide relief to Ukraine to donate to.
The first speaker was Chuiev, a Ukrainian soldier currently serving in Kyiv. He delivered his speech through a voice message sent to one of the rally’s organizers. Chuiev stressed the importance of staying informed about the crisis and working to support Ukraine.
“In my personal opinion, the greatest thing to help is to connect directly with trusted volunteers,” he said. “Search your network and your friends’ network to find people and ask them how you can help raise awareness about their work. Make a donation directly to local volunteers or smaller organizations that can help critical needs.”
Chuiev ended his speech with Ukraine’s national salute “Slava Ukraini.” Ahura Shadfar, one of the event organizers and MCAS ’24, explained that this salute translates to “Glory to Ukraine.”
According to Shadfar, the Ukrainian conflict has serious geopolitical ramifications for the United States.
“These dictators that we see
around the world threatening countries [are] going to lead to a more unsafe world,” he said. “Since we are the world’s sole superpower at this time, that’s going to get us involved in some capacity. … If this escalates even further, we could see actual Americans being threatened.”
Shadfar said that BC students should care about the conflict because it is symbolic of the world’s struggle for freedom and democracy.
“The things that we wake up to every day, the ability to even protest—this is something that, you know, in Russia, they’re not able to even [have] entertained at all,” Shadfar said.
Shadfar then introduced Howe, MCAS ’25.
Howe said that he believes it’s the responsibility of citizens in a free and privileged country—like the United States—to speak out against the crisis in Ukraine.
“Too often we take for granted the small things that not everyone has,” he said. “I’m certain that most of you woke up today with working power and a roof over your head. You all likely left your home this morning without fear that they might not be the same when you return.”
Nynka, editor-in-chief of Ukrainian newspapers Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly, then shared his experience living in Ukraine as Russia invaded.
“As I was trying to process the news and understand what was happening, a wail of air raid sirens started in the air,” he said. “I spent much of that day hunkered down with family in their home in a high-rise apartment building where we had a good view over the city. We didn’t know how big the war would be at the time.”
Jack Villa, a rally attendee and
“Nynka lives in the U.S. but was just visiting Ukraine,” Villa said. “I could relate to him. I could feel his pain in his story. I could imagine the fear. It was the first time I ever heard someone share their experience in Ukraine in such detail. It was powerful.”
Villa said all of the speakers gave him a new perspective on the Russia-Ukraine Crisis.
“A lot of times when you hear about these global issues on the news, they feel distant,” Villa said. “Having this event makes it more personal and real. It makes you aware of the fact that these are real people with real families who are dealing with unimaginable tragedies and pain.”
According to Villa, he followed the conflict closely for a while, but was unsure of how to best support Ukraine.
“It’s really powerful to see everyone holding Ukrainian flags and signs of solidarity,” he said. “I’ve been following this on the news, and I thought it was important for me to
come out and show my support. The tables have also been really informative in showing how I can continue my involvement.”
After all of the speakers finished, Shadfar and the other rally organizers led the attendees in a campus-wide march.
Attendees chanted for Ukrainian freedom and peace, shouting “Stand with Ukraine” and “Stop the war in Ukraine” as they walked around campus.
Shadfar said that overall, the rally was successful and informative for attendees.
“It helped that we had a strong group of people committed to the cause at hand. That was key to getting this rally going.”
Nynka gave a final call to action to rally attendees as he closed his speech.
“Hold rallies, support various humanitarian causes and efforts, donate money, volunteer your time to help in any way you can,” Nynka said. “There’s so much we can all do, and every little bit that you can do helps.” n
Silence is used as a weapon to protect perpetrators of sexual violence and assaut, according to Shawn McGuffey, the keynote speaker at the Boston College Women’s Center’s annual Take Back the Night event.
“We must stand behind survivors, listen to them, and change the culture to help prevent rape, and implement programs and enact laws that protect survivors when it does occur,” read Victoria Garcia, assistant director of intersections in BC’s Division of Mission and Ministry, who delivered McGuffey’s keynote address, as he could not attend the event.
Students gathered outside of O’Neill Library for Take Back the Night as part of the Women’s Center’s C.A.R.E. (Concerned about Rape Education) Week on Wednesday evening.
“Tonight we join together as a community to reflect, heal, and advocate for change,” said Gracie Kwak, a Women’s Center staff member and MCAS ’23.
Take Back the Night is not only a
BC program, it is an annual worldwide event that aims to break the stigma surrounding sexual violence and to empower assault survivors, according to Abigail Iafolla, Women’s Center staff member and MCAS ’22.
“Initially, Take Back the Night stood as a response to the conditions that caused women to feel unsafe being alone at night, but night has also come to serve as a metaphor for all those who have felt fear, isolation, and coercion,” Iafolla said.
McGuffey—an associate professor of sociology and African and African diaspora studies—recounted the story of a survivor of sexual assaul who he refered to as “Sarah” in his speech.
When McGuffey told Sarah about his plan to speak at Take Back the Night as a cisgender male, he said Sarah emphasized the importance of allies and survivors working together to combat sexual violence.
According to McGuffey, Sarah said it is crucial that survivors and allies engage in uncomfortable dialogues about power and privilege to find potential solutions.
McGuffey also stressed that themes of identity should be incor-
porated into discussions about sexual assault.
“Identities, however, are not neutral,” Garcia read from McGuffey’s speech. “They’re laden with power and often layers of unearned privilege. Certain voices are amplified while others are marginalized”.
A BC student and survivor of sexual assault then approached the podium to share their story.
In the speech, the student discussed misconceptions about sexual abuse.
“The idea that perpetrators are these random people in alleyways or strangers is the exception,” the student said. “I am the reality that more often than not, people know their assailants.”
Another BC student shared an original poem written specifically for the Take Back the Night event.
In the poem, the student illustrated the physical and emotional damage caused by sexual assault, highlighting the challenges of the healing process.
“And no one talks about how hard it is to write about the healing process,” the second student said. “To put your thoughts into words and bring
such a delicate reality to life.”
Events like Take Back the Night are essential for college campuses, according to one attendee.
“[Sexual assault] is just important to know about and be informed about, and having big events like this across college campuses just ensures that more people hear about it and it’s something that’s talked about,” she said.
Kwak and Iafolla later read a pledge which written by the Women’s Center’s Bystander Intervention program to encourage advocacy in the BC community and end sexual assault on campus.
“In summary, I will support every-
one in the Boston College community by listening, continuing to learn, intervening wherever I perceive any form of oppression, and committing to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for all,” Iafolla said.
The Women’s Center concluded the event by highlighting resources on BC’s campus available to individuals dealing with the impact of sexual assault, such as SANet, University Counseling Services, and the Women’s Center itself.
“Above all, we want to recognize that healing is not a linear journey, and there’s so much courage in reaching out and asking for support,” Kwak said. n
Romero, from A1
“I congratulate each of them for their hard work, for their integrity, their desire to help improve our award,” Leahy said. “That’s powerful. And we’re all beneficiaries for their example and their commitment.”
In her acceptance speech, Sanchez said she first became interested in the Romero Scholarship during her freshman year.
“Saint Oscar’s legacy serves as inspiration for me to be a person for others and support my fellow Latinos as we overcome barriers and face imposter syndrome head on,” Sanchez said.
According to Rev. Gustavo Morello, S.J., Sanchez grew up watching her parents, who are Dominican and Colombian immigrants, confront poverty and
discrimination.
She later interned in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where Morello said Sanchez furthered her knowledge about the realities of racism in the American justice system.
“Having interned at the U.S.
the U.S. justice system firsthand through her internship inspired her to pursue a career in immigration or defense law, she said.
“Hearing about Romero’s devotion to human rights, scholarship, and faith led me to focus on discernment and identify parallels between pivotal moments in Romero’s life and my own,” Sanchez said.
At the ceremony, Ronaldo Rauseo-Ricupero, BC Law ’07, received the Rev. John A. Dinneen, S.J., Hispanic Alumni Community Service Award
Attorney’s Office, she began to gain a greater understanding about systemic racism that exists within the justice system,” Morello said.
Sanchez said witnessing Black and Latino families affected by the systemic racism ingrained within
This award is given to a BC alum of Latin American descent whose work and service reflects both Romero’s and Dinneen’s leadership.
“I think we have all received such powerful messages about the meaning of life, the importance of commitment, of dedication, and a
Boston College faculty met on Thursday to discuss the University’s involvement in COP26 and the larger climate crisis facing the world today.
Philip Landrigan, director of BC’s global public health program and Global Pollution Observatory, discussed the present dangers of climate change and the way the crisis is unfolding around the world.
Two candidates vying to be elected president of UGBC faced off for the first time in a Thursday night debate, explaining how they plan to confront issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on Boston College’s campus.
Standing in front of a crowd of students in the Walsh Function Room, Lubens Benjamin and Kudzai Kapurura both highlighted their experiences as AHANA+ students at BC and outlined how they intend to foster dialogue and tangible change on campus.
Benjamin—standing beside his running mate Julia Spagnola, chair of UGBC’s Academic Affairs Committee and MCAS ’23—emphasized his experience working with the administration to accomplish institutional change during his time in UGBC.
“We know how to get things done on this campus,” said Benjamin, chair of the AHANA Leadership Council (ALC) and CSOM ’23. “We know how to walk around the red tape we sometimes see here at Boston College.”
Thursday was Kapurura’s first appearance beside new running mate Caleb Wachsmuth, a member of UGBC’s Council for Students with Disabilities and MCAS ’24, after Lawrence Zhang, MCAS ’23, withdrew his candidacy for personal reasons.
Kapurura, this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship recipient and MCAS ’23, spoke on her experience entering BC as a student in the Options Through Education Transitional Summer Program, which is designed for incoming BC students who displayed excellent leadership and scholarly potential despite challenging academic or socioeconomic circumstances.
“There’s an opportunity to show others that you can still succeed and be great students and thrive in college, even if the majority does not necessarily represent you,” Kapurura said.
Kapurura and Wachsmuth placed a heavy emphasis on the importance of equity in their policies. There are currently no UGBC policies concerning the equity aspect of DEI, as the “E” was just recently added to the DEI acronym, Kupurura said.
“But equity was not even a part of the UGBC initiative, and I think that shows inherently that marginalized students on campus were not a priority to UGBC,” she said.
Both pairs of candidates then addressed bias-related incidents on campus. Benjamin highlighted the importance of educating incoming students on racial issues.
“It seems like every year it gets worse and worse, and I think the first way we start combating biasrelated incidents is by changing the
culture here at BC and educating our students before they even … step foot on campus,” he said.
It is crucial to find the causes of bias-related incidents on BC’s campus, Spagnola said.
“We want to get to the root of the cultural issue of bias around us,” she said. “We have to do that by being proactive and not reactive. We have to do that by getting to the root of what bias means and what it is on our campus.”
Benjamin also said that victims of bias-related incidents at BC should be offered professional support—other students and RAs should not be solely responsible for helping these victims, he said.
“It’s very important that when these incidents happen, that we take the time to really care for the victim, and I think it shouldn’t be the job of students to just care for students,” Benjamin said. “Students aren’t trained in mental health, it should be coming from a professional.”
“It’s heartbreaking,” Kapurura said. “I’ve watched fellow members of UGBC and [the GLBTQ+ Leadership Council] push year after year from this resource center, and they’ve even taken a missionbased approach and tried to appeal to these Jesuit ideals, and then continue to fall short.”
Read the rest of this story at www.bcheights.com
“Last November, another chapter of the University’s global engagement opened when BC sent its first delegation as an official UN observer organization to the UN’s Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland,” James Keenan, S.J., vice provost for global engagement, said.
The Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society sponsored the event, which featured three faculty presentations followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with students.
“The Schiller Institute is leading the organization of BC’s participation in COP26 and developing programming that creates dialogue on the pressing need to address climate change,” Keenan said.
David Deese, a political science professor who led one of the delegations at the conference, discussed the climate initiatives agreed upon at COP26 and steps the global community needs to take to address the climate change crisis.
“If fully implemented, the national commitments that were made in Glasgow would get us to somewhere just under 2.2 degrees Celsius, which of course is not adequate,” Deese said.
The goal of COP27 is to establish long-term strategies across the globe to reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 and phase out domestic fossil fuels like coal, according to Deese.
“We can surely reach a zero carbon future by deep decarbonization of energy and agriculture with specific limits on carbon pollution and prudent fiscal policies,” Deese said.
“The key message here is that climate change is here today,” Landrigan said. “Yes, it’s going to get worse as the century rolls out, but it’s killing people today.”
According to Landrigan, the climate crisis has shown its impact across the globe through air pollution, natural disasters, drought, and famine, creating a new type of crisis—environmental refugees.
“One of the consequences of drought, of course, is famine,” Landrigan said. “When people starve, they start to try to go someplace where they can find food for their families and for themselves. They go through all of the horrors of migration.”
The 2022 COP27 conference, which BC will send another delegation to, will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Kurt Straif, a visiting scholar and co-director of the Global Pollution Observatory, related the global climate crisis to BC, specifically the University’s position on divestment.
“I think divestment is most critical and central because really, money makes the world go-round, and you really need to put your finger on where the problems are created,” Straif said. “What we discuss is really global policy, but where the rubber hits the road is locally.”
Andrea Vicini, S.J., Michael P. Walsh professor of bioethics and professor ordinarius, said the issue of climate change is a shared problem.
“I think we experienced that we cannot focus only on ourselves,” Vicini said. “The problem of the other is my problem. What is happening to the other is what’s happening to me. We are all in this together. So there is sort of urgency, gravity, and complexity, but we all share it.” n
“Saint Oscar’s legacy serves as inspiration for me to be a person for others”B y A lexis T hom A s Heights Staff
Rally, from A1
Cynthia Stone Creem, a state senator representing the 1st Middlesex and Norfolk district, which includes Newton, said Massachusetts is terminating all of its contracts with Russian state-owned businesses. The State House also approved $10 million in mid-year spending to assist Ukrainian resettlement this month, according to WBUR.
Auchincloss co-sponsored the “Yachts for Ukraine Act” on March 18. The bill proposes using liquidated, sanctioned assets of Russian oligarchs and senior officials to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine. At the rally, he also said that he is exploring how the U.S. can target Russian forces with electronic warfare.
“I’m working with the administration and my colleagues in Congress to chart a path forward for how we can tighten the sanctions on Russia, how we can provision more lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine, and how we can target electronic warfare against Russian forces in Ukraine so that they are undermined and impaired at every turn,” Auchincloss said.
Auchincloss spoke at the rally just under two weeks after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy implored the U.S. Congress to do more for his country.
“This hero closed powerfully in English,” Auchincloss said about Zelenskyy’s March 15 address. “He said to us directly, said ‘Be a leader. Be the leader of the world. Be a leader for peace.’ How do we lead for peace?”
For Martina Jackson, one of the protest’s organizers and a member of the Newtonville Area Council, the war in Ukraine is personal.
“My father was born in Ukraine,”
she said. “I think that the travesty is so overwhelming that … it really goes right to the heart of war crimes and crimes against innocent people. And I think we all have to be out here making it clear how much we disapprove—how much we are revolted by it.”
The conflict was personal for many others in the crowd, too. Julia Zis, a participant who found out about the rally through Instagram, immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine when she was nine.
“I’m from a town … which hasn’t really been impacted highly as of yet,” Zis said. “But [for] the friends I do talk to, that I have still there, sirens just go off every single day, and it’s something that they’re just used to, which is crazy.”
Viera Proulx, another Newton resident, immigrated to the U.S. from Czechoslovakia after the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968.
“It’s very close to my heart, and I’m trying to not think about it, because if I do, it hurts too much,” Proulx said with tears in her eyes.
Jackson said she thought of the idea for the rally on Monday. She said the March 25 date of the protest coincides well with Biden’s trip to eastern Europe.
Olga Kissin, a Newton resident who learned about the protest through Fuller’s newsletter, said she felt called to attend the protest because the conflict in Ukraine affects everyone.
“I think it’s important to understand that everyone’s lives are impacted—that it’s not somebody else’s world,” Kissin said. “The whole free world needs to step up.”
At the rally’s 4:30 p.m. gathering time, only a few residents and a sound crew populated the Newton Centre Green at the corner of Centre and Beacon
Streets. But in the next half hour, droves of attendees filled the greenspace.
Rally-goers positioned themselves at the intersection, some wielding anti-war signs and almost all sporting blue and yellow colors representing the Ukrainian flag. Passing cars honked in support as the participants waved their flags.
The crowd included Eastern European immigrants, a plethora of children waving miniature Ukrainian flags, and adults wrapped in larger versions of the flag.
Fuller was the first to speak, starting around 5 p.m. She condemned the Russian government while voicing her support to Ukrainians everywhere.
“Today as we stand for Ukraine, we also stand to defend our values,” Fuller said. “We abhor the evil of Putin and his regime. We rail against the reckless violence, the selfish land grabs. We despise the motives of these tyrants and kleptocrats. And we know what is at stake goes beyond the borders of Ukraine. A denial of human rights and dignity anywhere is a threat to people everywhere.”
Ruth Balser, a state representative of the 12th Middlesex district and a speaker at the rally, said she is grateful that Ukrainian refugees have countries to go to.
“I think about when the Jews of Europe needed refuge, the countries of the world closed their doors,” Balser said. “And I am so glad that that’s not happening now.”
Peter Koutoujian, the Middlesex County sheriff, also spoke at the rally. He talked about his family’s story.
Koutoujian’s grandparents fled the Armenian Genocide, and his grandmother gave birth to three sons and one daughter, he said. All the sons served in the military. With the ongoing Russian invasion
of Ukraine, Koutoujian said he sees his grandparents’ experiences in the plight of Ukrainians fighting against Russia.
“We all think of our ancestors, and together we say we stand for them,” Koutoujian said. “We stand for Ukraine, we stand for democracy, and we must be a voice against all tyrants present and future who try to follow this very blueprint as we know they will.”
The rally closed with the singing of the Ukrainian national anthem. A Ukrainian immigrant sang as elected officials stood behind her and young Newton residents stood in front of her.
Auchincloss said people’s attitudes across the country are unified against the war effort. He encouraged local organizing like Friday’s rally.
“President Zelenskyy himself called for these rallies to commemorate the one-month anniversary of this unjust, unprovoked aggression, and what it demonstrates is the solidarity of the free world with the Ukrainian cause,” he told The Heights
After the rally, Fuller told The Heights that local efforts like Friday’s protest are crucial to fundraising efforts to help Ukrainians displaced by the conflict, as well as to supporting immigrants locally.
“We bring people together,” she said. “We let them know good organizations to donate to, and we support both our Ukrainian and our Russian neighbors who live here.”
Speakers at the rally encouraged participants to support funds like the Sunflower of Peace, an organization committed to helping those affected by the invasion, according to the organization’s website.
Giving money to local organizations is
just one way Newton residents can help the cause, according to Richard Lipof, Newton City Council’s vice president.
“I think there’s a sense of helplessness from most people when they see what’s going on over there,” Lipof, who attended the rally, said to The Heights. “It’s far away—how do we help? I can give money. You know, I can show my support in many different ways. This is just one way we can show support is to come together as a community.”
Bill Humphrey, councilor of Ward 5, said he hoped the conflict can be resolved through peaceful solutions.
“I do wish that we had done more rallies for the other countries as well, but this is certainly an unprovoked act of aggression,” Humphrey said. “And I hope that a peaceful and diplomatic solution happens soon to stop the fighting and save lives.”
Jackson said she was happy to see a large attendance at the protest. She said local activism and rallies cannot stop now.
“What we’ve been saying is … ‘Glory to Ukraine,’” she said. “That’s the message, but also, whatever is happening in Ukraine is really happening to all of us.”
At the rally, Auchincloss said the public must support the Ukrainian effort even after the war in the country might subside.
“But we must continue to show up for as long as this crisis demands,” Auchincloss said. “It’s in the headlines right now. It’s salient right now. It is in our beating hearts right now. But we know sadly that this is going to be with us for a long time to come. The violence will end. Ukraine will prevail, but they will then need to rebuild, and we need to be there for them as they rebuild as well.” n
IMAGES BY VICTOR STEFANESCU / HEIGHTS EDITORThe Newton Historical Commission (NHC) voted to not nominate the existing Newton Senior Center building as a landmark, removing an obstacle against its demolition for a brand new Newton Center for Active Living (NewCAL) building.
NHC’s decision means that the NewCAL project will not face any delay or relocation caused by the landmarking process. NewCAL’s groundbreaking will occur in approximately 16 months, and the construction will take about two years, according to Public Buildings Commissioner Josh Morse’s statement at a previous community update meeting.
Since the selection of the site, located at 345 Walnut Street, people from all over Newton and the nation have sent more than 1,900 emails and letters voicing their opinion—ranging from full preservation to total demolition—on the site selection, according to Peter Dimond, NHC chair.
Formerly the Newtonville Branch Library, the building opened in 1938. Robert Frost read his poem “Mending Wall’’ at the dedication ceremony, according to Tarik Lucas, councilor-at-large for Ward 2.
Lucas and Ward 3 City Councilor Julia Malakie co-nominated the site as a landmark.
“When I undertook this effort, I knew just the basics about the history and the sights,” Lucas said. “But over the past few months, I have learned a great deal about the building and its history.”
Lucas emphasized the building’s historical architecture in his presentation. Lucas gave special attention in his presentation to the stained glass panels designed by Newtonville artist Charles J. Connick. One of these panels depicted “Mending Wall,” the poem that Frost read at the dedication ceremony.
“We have a world-famous poet, a world-famous artist, and a nationally known architect all coming together to create a building in one of our village centers,” Lucas said. “And this happened during the Great Depression. Can we think of another example of this in Newton? How about Massachusetts?”
Malakie emphasized the importance of the open area at the existing center. While it is not an official park falling under the Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC), Malakie said, it functions as one, and the city has invested in it accordingly.
Malakie said the pocket park at the senior center has served Newton residents young and old.
“The park at the senior center has succeeded in its goal of providing a convenient, accessible place for rest, socializing, or passive recreation for people of all ages,” Malakie said. “Notably, it continues to be the only public green space in Newtonville village center.”
The NewCAL team began its site selection process in 2019, taking nearly 200 prospective sites into consideration before settling upon the current site, according to Morse.
Morse said that after the site selection, the team presented plans involving either addition, renovation, or new construction. Morse said that the plan for new construction received overwhelming support from multiple municipal bodies of authority, including the Newton City Council.
Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype, Inc. serves as the architectural firm on the NewCAL project. Dan Chen, a principal at the firm, said that the building’s original design as a library made it unfit for a senior center. Repurposing the building would require herculean efforts yet yield results that fall short of those a brand-new building could offer, Chen said.
Representatives from Epsilon Associates, which provides historical preservation consultation for the project,
said that the architectural merits of the existing structure are insufficient compared to other similar Colonial Revival buildings to warrant a landmark designation.
Morse, however, said that the NewCAL team is willing to further work with the NHC to preserve or relocate specific historical assets within the building, such as Connick’s stained glass panels.
“[Demolition] does not mean that the Newton Historical Commission cannot work to preserve the parts that are often more historically valuable than the structure itself,” Morse said.
Morse also said that nominating the building as a landmark would cause up to six months of delay to the NewCAL project due to the further studying and public hearings required. The delay could have cost around $250,000, according to Morse.
“If you believe that we have proven that this building does not meet the bar to be designated as a landmark,” Morse said. “Then I believe it is responsible to consider the financial implications that are tied to the nomination vote and subsequent project delays.”
Dimond, who supported the landmark nomination, said that it is unfair for Morse to leverage the NHC using the costs of delay.
“I think it’s grossly unfair,” Dimond said. “Josh—as tenacious as he is, and I applaud him for that—made it saying, ‘Well, if you do another study, that’s going to cost us a half a million dollars.’ It’s totally an unfair way to present to the Historical Commission.”
NHC Member Amanda Park said that the NHC should examine the building based on its historical value, as it is not the NHC’s job to make political or utilitarian considerations.
“I feel like what we are tasked with is to assess the historical value and to say, ‘well, we don’t want to see this building adaptively reused because it’s too inconvenient or because we’ve had
these meetings,’” Park said. “That’s just a different issue. And I think we need to keep it very black or white.”
NHC Member Doug Cornelius said that historical preservation, while important, must yield to the greater good. He said that accessibility for the disabled is both a civil right and a legal requirement and urged other commission members to join him against landmarking the building.
“I can’t think of a building more important to have full universal accessibility than the senior center,” Cornelius said. “I don’t think the Historic Commission should be usurping the hundreds of meetings and thousands of hours of time the city’s put into planning, designing, and programming the senior center.”
Fellow NHC members John Rice, Harvey Schorr, and Mike Armstrong joined Cornelius’ voice. Rice said that building a new center allows the city to use the land to its fullest potential.
Schorr and Armstrong agreed with Epsilon’s assessment that compared to other Colonial Revival architectures, the senior center was not representative enough to merit landmark designation.
The NHC defeated the motion to nominate the building for further landmark study by a vote of 2–5. NHC Member Katie Kubie was not present at the meeting to vote.
The next community update meeting on the NewCAL project will be on April 21, according to the project’s website. n
By Caitlin Clary Heights Staff
The History Book Club of Historic Newton hosted a discussion among Newton residents on Stephen Smith’s book Russia in Revolution , focusing on the similarities between violent actions of Russian regimes in the 20th century and today.
“After reading this book, I found that I had no idea what a mess Russia was—different factions, groups, and warlords … I had no idea how complex a country it was,” Michael,
one of the History Book Club’s members, said.
Russia in Revolution covers the causes and outcomes of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The book outlines Russia’s history from the last years of the Russian Empire to the beginning of Joseph Stalin’s regime in 1922, with the revolution as the focal point.
The Russian Revolution of 1917, led by Vladimir Lenin, resulted in the end of centuries-old czarist rule and ushered in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. There were an estimated seven to 12 million ca -
sualties during the revolution, most of which were civilians, according to the book.
“It’s an awful, dark history,” said History Book Club member and discussion moderator Peter Terris. “Nobody was united. It’s extraordinary, the way the sides keep changing, people going from one side to another side—the absolute mayhem. But the violence was what really struck me.”
Another member, Allen Cohen, noted the consistency of violence throughout Russian history, extending into Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine.
“The [violence] continued into World War II, where more than 20 million Russians died between combat and what Stalin did. And it still continues today,” he said.
Another member, Palmer, noted similarities between Stalin and Vladimir Putin’s violent rule of Russia.
“People like Putin and Stalin were able to exert enough self-control not to reveal their [violent] characters,” she said. “The only difference between Putin and Stalin
is that Putin has a 700-foot yacht.”
Palmer also noted the striking similarities in oppressive, tyrannical leadership between Putin and Stalin.
“It seems pretty clear to me, Putin is Stalin-esque in the way he wants to control the state,” Palmer said.
The latter half of the club meeting focused largely on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The major consensus among members was that Russia’s lengthy and complicated history with violence resulted in Putin’s aggressive, dictatorial rule.
“In the long arc of history, Russia was invaded by France, then Nazi Germany,” said member Ken Boger. “Then they felt wrapped around by NATO and the Cold War. It’s understandable that people would feel they’re under attack, and they need to make sure their walls are standing strong, so to speak.”
Michael said he believes Putin’s strategy resembles Adolf Hitler’s in World War II. He drew comparisons by noting that Hitler also invaded countries under a false premise of protection.
“I think [Putin] has claimed he’s
after countries that are Russian, but a lot of that rhetoric sounds identical … to what Nazi Germany was saying,” he said. “[They said] they were protecting German speaking people and wanted them to be part of their nation.”
Concluding the discussion, Cohen talked about the future of Putin’s military action in Ukraine and how it could affect other European countries.
“If Putin was logical, he would not have invaded Ukraine,” Cohen said. “It’s about going as far as he can. … But I think this might be the last stand for the bully. He may eventually win in Ukraine, but he will go no further. If he goes past Ukraine, he’s going neck and neck with NATO. I think he’s crazy, but he’s not stupid.”
Currently about 1,000 Ukrainian civilians and more than 1,300 Ukrainian military members have died since the Russian invasion according to CNN
Fighting continues across Ukraine, including in major cities such as Kyiv, Mariupol and Chernihiv. n
COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS A stained glass panel in the existing building depicts Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall.”enjoying my plate being filled with them.
Although it’s impossible to master my mom’s special touch, I’m thrilled to share this hearty, healthy pasta recipe with you all, along with a taste of my childhood.
Optional: Squeeze of lemon juice 1–2 tablespoons of butter
RECIPE:
Every family has the recipe—the reliable dish that it can count on being served at least once a week and that it will never grow tired of, no matter how many times it’s made.
For some, it’s spaghetti—for others, it’s Domino’s pizza. In my household, it’s my mom’s special pepper pasta. For as long as I remember, my mom’s pepper pasta was a staple. I n fact, we’ve been eating it for so long that I remember my taste changing from wanting absolutely nothing to do with the sautéed peppers to
DISH: Pepper Pasta
INGREDIENTS:
8 oz. (4 servings) farfalle pasta
3 bell peppers (I like to do a range of colors, but pick your favorite!)
2–3 garlic cloves
1 small yellow onion or ½ large yellow onion
⅓–½ cup crumbled feta cheese
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon garlic powder Salt, pepper Water Olive oil
Cut all three peppers into 1 c.m.–thick strips, keeping the length of the pepper. Move the peppers aside. Slice the onion into pieces of the same size. Be sure to separate the onion layers to reduce cooking time. Then, mince the garlic and set aside.
Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Salt the pasta water to your taste.
Put a large sauté pan on medium-high heat. After about one minute, add one to two tablespoons of olive oil, and allow the oil to heat up for about a minute.
Add the cut peppers to the pan, stirring constantly at first. Add a dash of salt and pepper. Once peppers have softened,
allow to cook on one side for a few minutes until charred (be watchful so they don’t burn). Stir and repeat this process until the peppers are charred to your liking. Place peppers in a heat-proof bowl off to the side.
Add pasta to the boiling water, allowing it to cook in accordance with the package directions, which is usually about eight to 12 minutes.
Using the same pan, add an additional one to two tablespoons of olive oil to the bottom of the pan and add the onion. Season with salt and pepper. Sauté the onion until translucent. If the pan becomes too hot, lower the heat to allow onions to cook through, rather than browning only the outside.
Once the onion is translucent, lower the heat to medium before adding the
garlic (be careful because garlic can burn easily).
Remove pasta from the water once cooked through, and drain. Add the butter to enhance flavor and prevent sticking. Season with salt.
If you’re using a gas stove, turn the heat of the stove down to low—if you’re using an electric stove, turn it off. Add the peppers back, along with the pasta. Stir to incorporate evenly. Add oregano and garlic powder as well as salt and pepper to taste. You can add the lemon juice at this point, if you’d like.
Add feta cheese and stir. (It shouldn’t melt completely, but its softened state makes the dish have a more saucey texture.)
Serve immediately, and finish with more feta and lemon if you’d like. Bon appetit!
After six years of planning and building, a pair of Auburndale residents finally achieved their dream and opened Ward 4 in June 2021, cheekily named after the fourth voting ward of Newton, where the community restaurant sits.
“They’ve never had that neighborhood spot to go to, so it was always a dream, just finally opening and having that spot,” said Doug Peel, General Manager for Operations for Ward 4.
“The whole concept is ‘neighborhood spot,’ so what better way to pay homage to the neighborhood than naming it after the neighborhood?”
On the western outskirts of Newton, Auburndale is the part of the suburbs that’s just shy of being considered “the country,” exemplified by the over 250 acres of preserved wildlife refuge across the Charles River from the town, marking the town’s border.
The small, sleepy town hasn’t changed much since Walter Devine and Chris Noble, Ward 4’s owners, grew up there, with the same small mom-and-pop grocery markets and hairdressers lining the streets for decades. Devine and Noble lived their whole lives in the tight-knit community.
They love the small-town life, according to Peel, but always lamented the fact that their Auburndale family never had a gathering place to celebrate the community’s closeness. This longing sparked their long-term dream of opening a restaurant to give back to the town they loved so much.
“[Residents] were saying they’ve never had that spot anywhere near here where they could [stay for hours],” said Peel, who has worked in the restaurant industry for 20 years. “And the fact that they can now— they love it, and that’s why we’re doing it.”
Peel has worked with the two owners since January 2020. From designing the menu to staffing or cooking on the line, Peel handles anything and everything in the restaurant. He had a large hand in
building the restaurant.
“Everything inside here—all the rich walnut —is all hand cut. We did it ourselves. There’s literal blood, sweat, and tears in these walls—I can show you the stains,” Peel said, pointing to the restaurant’s rough exposed brick wall with a hearty laugh.
During a snowstorm this winter, Peel had given his staff the day off, but he still opened the restaurant alone. He hadn’t expected the flocks of people that would come to Ward 4 that day for heat, Wi-Fi, and a home-cooked meal due to the many power outages across Newton.
It was a busy night for Peel, with many of the guests staying from open to close, but he promised to cook anything and everything the people wanted—even short rib, Ward 4’s most laborious recipe.
Ward 4’s high ceilings, dark wood floors, dusky stone bar top, and oversized, plush leather booths give the restaurant a warm, homey, and comforting feel. It’s the kind of atmosphere that makes you lose
track of time.
Only when the sun sets, sending a hazy orange glow through the floor-to-ceiling front windows and the many skylights across the restaurant, will you realize you’ve been at your table for two hours. It’s the perfect place to catch up with friends and enjoy fresh, made-from-scratch food and artisan cocktails.
“You want to have that neighborhood spot, but also a place where people are happy to come,” Peel said. “Happy to enjoy the food, thrilled when they can sit down at a really relaxed atmosphere and get a pan-seared salmon over a bed of risotto, ’cause why wouldn’t you want to have that?”
Peel’s motto in the kitchen is “if we can do it ourselves, we do it ourselves.” From the restaurant’s hand-cut french fries to made-to-order chicken tenders, Peel said he wants to make sure the guests at Ward 4 are getting a fresh, handmade meal that tastes delicious without having to spend $50 on a plate.
Everything on the Ward 4 menu is under $30, with some items—like individual tacos—listed for just $5.
Ward 4’s menu has something for everyone, from classic pub food like wings and various kinds of french fries to Boston classics like fish and chips, to tacos, burgers, bolognese, steak frites, and a variety of vegan options.
“When we were putting it together, it was like, ‘Okay, let’s take all the comfort aspects of things people love and make it so it’s an unforgettable dish that makes people say, ‘Yes, I’m coming back,’” Peel said.
Ward 4’s bolognese is made with fresh pasta and a sauce “done right,” according to Peel, utilizing three cuts of meat and a cooking time of three hours.
One of its newest menu items—a vegan cauliflower taco—has quickly become its second-most popular dish, only behind the crispy brussels sprouts with bacon. The team at Ward 4 is always looking to create new recipes and try new
ingredient combinations to keep its menu updated and give guests another reason to continue coming back.
Peel said that a lot of Ward 4’s menu items and rotating dishes come from the chefs throwing things together in the kitchen when making their own meals. He’s also inspired by Food Network competition shows when working in the kitchen, seeing what ingredients he has on hand and thinking about how he can modify them to create a new dish.
“It’s one of the best things about working in a restaurant like this,” Peel said. “We’re small, we’re local. There’s not someone down the corporate line screaming at you to use exactly two ounces of pasta. You get to play around with different things, experiment, and see what works.”
Ward 4’s bar operates with the same casual, experimental philosophy with over 60 whiskies and bourbons, 20 rotating taps, and 24 rotating wine selections. It also serves a variety of speciality cocktails—all with Newton-inspired names— that Peel said are subtle takes on many classic bar cocktails. The “Green Line,” for example, is a gin drink with lavender liqueur, green Chartreuse, St. Elder, cucumber, and lime.
Along with great food, drinks, and company, Ward 4 hosts many live events to help bring the community together, such as open mic nights every Wednesday from 7:30 to 10:00 p.m. and live music most Saturdays. A full schedule of Ward 4 events can be found on its website.
This summer, Peel said that a back patio with a beer garden feel may open at Ward 4, complete with an outdoor bar and designated performance area for live music. He said he may also introduce a whiskey club, allowing participants to get a special, engraved whiskey glass at the restaurant after trying a certain amount of different bourbons.
From an early age, Benjamin said he always centered himself around school. A native of Cambridge, Mass., Benjamin said he often found school to be an escape when home was not always the easiest place to be.
“Growing up in Cambridge and inner-city Cambridge, there’s a lot of different things you see go on in and around your hometown, and school was sort of that escape for me,” Benjamin said. “So school is where I thrived and really found myself to be the most like myself. … I just always cherished it. That’s where I seemed to always find my community and wanted to make change in my community.”
When Benjamin entered Boston College, he became involved in the UGBC Leadership Academy, a mentorship program that introduces firstyear students into the UGBC and BC community. It was through that program that Benjamin was able to finetune his leadership skills and learned the value of poise while making genuine connections with other students in his class, he said. In the second semester of his freshman year, Benjamin joined UGBC’s AHANA Leadership Council (ALC), which he has served on for the past three years.
As the current chair of ALC, Benjamin has worked to coordinate events from teddy bear initiatives— where issues of race and prejudice
on campus are discussed—to annual events such as Showdown, he said.
With three years of UGBC experience under his belt, Benjamin said he is ready to serve as the organization’s next president.
“I think right now at BC, we’re
I’m really hoping to continue those relationships and continue to advocate for students at the highest level because it’s one thing to have a seat at the table, it’s another thing to be heard at the table. And that’s really what I’m all about this year.”
Though Spagnola’s mother is a BC alum, she said her decision to come to BC was entirely her own.
“I think … looking back, what drew me [to BC] were the Jesuit ideals,” Spagnola said. “I didn’t go to a Jesuit high school, but I ended up applying to five Jesuit colleges, and I don’t think that was a coincidence because I think those values in those institutions kind of sunk in, and they were really attractive to me.”
Spagnola first got involved with UGBC when she ran for a seat in the Student Assembly (SA) her sophomore year. The combination of returning to campus for the first time since being sent home due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of a family member influenced her to run, she said.
just kind of wanted to be in the room where it happened.”
Currently, Spagnola serves as UGBC’s Academic Affairs Committee chairperson, and she said she joined the committee because academics touch every BC student. It is
most of that I see drawn to the student assembly and how much we can do, how much there’s still to do.”
Benjamin and Spagnola created a four-pillar platform to center their campaign. These pillars—inclusive culture, academic experience, student
at some sort of a crossroads coming out of the pandemic and moving into the University’s future plans for what they want to do with this institution,” Benjamin said. “I’ve expressed my concerns about different things, and they’ve been met with positive feedback from [the] administration. So
“I think what pushed me to do that was just a lot of emotions and feelings,” Spangola said. “I was kind of thinking a lot about how I had missed the BC community, and I knew when I got sent home how much I love BC, but I also knew how much … the decisions being made about COVID at BC were impacting the students. And I just wanted to be in a space where those decisions were being made. I
through this committee that Spagnola has been able to not only learn more about the academic process, but refine her experience with SA as well, she said.
Spagnola said her passion for SA is what led her to run for vice president.
“I think the decision to ultimately run for vice president for me came from the fact that I knew I was passionate about student assembly,” she said. “And when I think about UGBC’s potential for change as an institution,
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Kapurura, from A1
Kapurura said that growing up in the predominantly white Salem, Ore. as a dark-skinned Black woman and first-generation American from a lower-income family, she always felt alienated from her classmates.
Now, at Boston College, Kapurura sees that many students feel a similar
are left underserved as the majority benefits.”
Running alongside Kapurura as her vice president is fellow Oregonian Caleb Wachsmuth, MCAS ’24. The two candidates became friends through their shared interest in serving underrepresented communities in both Oregon and the BC community, Wachsmuth said.
“We’ve always kept in contact
a program designed for incoming BC students who displayed excellent leadership and scholarly potential despite challenging academic or socioeconomic circumstances. Wachsmuth participated in the Shaw Leadership Program Living & Learning Community (LLC), a leadership and service-focused group.
Since then, Wachsmuth has joined the Boston Health Care for the Homeless program through 4Boston and the UGBC Council for Students with Disabilities (CSD).
“I’m a part of the invisible disabilities committee [in CSD], and the reason is because I grew up with one,” he said. “I had one of the worst stutters you could think of growing up.”
Through his involvement in UGBC, Wachsmuth said he has led discussions on how to make campus more accessible for students with various types of disabilities. Although Kapurura has never been involved with UGBC before, she said she has a willingness to serve and sees her lack of experience as an advantage.
a residential assistant have informed her understanding of the issues that students around campus are facing. In February, Kapurura received the MLK Scholarship for her contributions to social justice.
Monica Lee, CSOM ’25 and the campaign’s chief of staff, said Kapurura’s continual push to enact change serves as a testament to her commitment to improve BC.
to make BC a better place, which I think is very rare to see.”
Kapurura is particularly passionate about TEDxBostonCollege, which she spoke at last year, shaping her understanding of the experiences of all types of students, she said.
“It was a really great opportunity, because the reception of that talk from students who have stories like mine and not like mine was incredible and to see people relate and get to connect and share experiences, and that’s what diversity means to me—the ability to share and enrich one another’s lives based on your personal experiences,” Kapurura said.
This understanding of diversity is at the core of Kapurura and Wachsmuth’s three-pillar platform—equity, transparency, and accountability—which seeks to serve all types of students at BC, Kapurura said.
way, she said.
“A lot of people are on the margins for a lot of different reasons,” she said. “That could be [that] your sexual orientation is not societally accepted, or you’re lower income, or you battle with depression or anxiety, or you don’t have the resources you need as an LGBTQ+ student. Those students need to be heard and served, and oftentimes, they
and talked about the things we care about [and] the issues related to BC,” Wachsmuth said.
Coming to BC from across the country, Wachsmuth and Kapurura both said they appreciated the support they received from specialized first-year programs. Kapurura participated in the Options Through Education Transitional Summer Program,
“I walk in with no UGBC experience, and some people may think that’s a downfall, but in all honesty, I think it’s actually a boost because it shows that I understand the experiences that I’ve heard from … students,” Kapurura said. “Leadership stems from a willingness to want to see change, a willingness to serve others to listen and then act.”
Kapurura’s experience with Courageous Conversations—where she organizes campus dialogues on issues of race and identity—and her role as
“She’s very well established at BC,” Lee said. “She’s incredible—dare I say, even perfect—but the thing is, it’s the fact that she still wants to leave something behind that is going to continue
One of the primary ways the two candidates plan to promote diversity and equity is by expanding the Multicultural Learning Experience (MLE) LLC, which is currently only on Upper Campus, to the Newton campus as well.
“I think the expansion of the MLE [would] not only … give more opportunities to students of color [and] marginalized groups that want to experience Newton, but also allows for more diversity on Newton,” Wachsmuth said.
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Despite the stormy weather Friday night, friends, family, and fans of BC bOp!, Boston College’s only jazz instrumental and vocal group, packed Robsham Theater. Though the name of the show alludes to a Disney movie soundtrack, the audience was met with a mix of classic jazz, latin beats, and even R&B instrumentals throughout the concert.
After two years away from the Robsham stage, BC bOp! made a triumphant return with its spring concert, entitled “The IncredibOp!s.”
The show started when BC bOp! director Sebastian Bonaiuto, director of bands at BC, took the stage and expressed solidarity for the people of Ukraine on behalf of the band. He then asked the audience to stand while the band played the Ukrainian national anthem.
The first jazz tune the band played was “Movin’ Uptown.” The up-tempo piece featured a number
of runs in the wind section and a fast-moving bass line, difficult passages that BC bOp! tackled with ease.
Andrew Schwarzman, CSOM ’22, played accordion and sang “La Cumbia Sampuesana.” The Latin-inspired beat, which Schwarzman arranged for the accordion, was a unique and enjoyable contrast to the prior jazz pieces. The audience clapped and laughed along to the catchy tune.
To end the first act, the band played a mashup of songs entitled “Sixties Medley,” featuring R&B classics like “Heat Wave” and “Dancing in the Street.” BC bOp! vocalists Bridget Brady, MCAS ’22, Sofia Burke, MCAS ’25, and Erin Abely, MCAS ’23, all performed solos while the rest of the vocalists backed them in close harmony, echoing the style of a ’60s R&B group.
The second act began with just the rhythm section on stage. As the stage lights went red and the musicians started playing the theme song to The Incredibles , Bonaiuto came on stage and introduced all of the
BC bOp! musicians by section. Each instrument section joined in until the full band was playing along to the recognizable song.
The classic jazz tune “At Last” by Etta James came next. Burke sang a solo with the band playing behind her and had a masterful command over the stage. She made the piece her own with a number of intricate vocal runs that perfectly showcased her singing abilities.
Halfway through the second act, Abely sang a solo on the classic Elton John song “Bennie and the Jets.” This particular version had a jazzier feel to it, and it was a fresh reimagining of a familiar song.
Band members Zachary Jekanowski, MCAS ’23, Michael Pelosi, MCAS ’23, and Jason Fan, MCAS ’24, performed on trumpet, trombone, and saxophone, respectively, as a featured ensemble with Abely. They donned Elton John–style glasses that added to the fun tone of the song.
Bonaiuto thanked the many people who helped put the concert
As
finished up with the piece “One Night Only.” All of the vocalists took to the stage one last time to add a rousing vocal part to
The
entitled “That Cat Is High,” marking the perfect end to the night of foot-tapping and head-bobbing performances.
One of the art studios in Devlin Hall was packed Thursday afternoon as Boston College students and faculty gathered to attend a lecture from Stephen Hamilton, a mixed-media artist presenting his work that features traditional West African textiles.
Attendees learned about South Nigerian weaving and dyeing techniques, felt samples of the handwoven fabrics, and inquired into Hamilton’s creative process. Hamilton also discussed the nine months he spent in Africa, mainly in southern Nigeria, learning these arts.
Hamilton described a selection of his works while sharing their personal and cultural significance. The presentation then moved on to an audience Q&A session facilitated by Greer Muldowney, assistant professor of the practice of photography at BC, and Kyrah Malika Daniels, assistant professor of art history.
Hamilton’s lecture was the last event
of the Currents lecture series for the semester. Currents invites contemporary artists to share their work with students and faculty of BC.
In addition to being a mixed-media artist, Hamilton is a researcher, arts educator, and current Ph.D. student at Harvard University. He will teach a course at BC in the fall semester.
Most of the pieces Hamilton focused on combine textiles and portraiture, including a mix of painted canvas, embroidered fabric, and hand-woven, traditionally dyed fabrics. Some particular highlights of Hamilton’s body of work are pieces that depict his friends and colleagues as important figures in West and West-Central African history and culture.
One of his works, called The Founders Project, re-imagines Boston high school students as some of the founders of West and West-Central African ethnic groups, which are the ancestral base of the African diaspora, according to Hamilton’s website. The project, which hung in Roxbury’s Bruce C. Bolling Municipal
Building in 2017, aims to portray powerful representations of Boston’s Black youth. The building is named in honor of Bolling, the first Black president of the Boston City Council.
Hamilton’s research and art investigate the complex aspects of West African cultures, including religion, gender, power, and the divine feminine. The divine feminine is one of the key ideas in his Between the River and the Forest project, which investigates the role of gender in pre-colonial African spirituality and is currently on display at Regis College.
In discussing the historical and cultural significance of African textiles, Hamilton placed particular emphasis on the role of indigo. In addition to detailing the process of making and using the distinct dark-blue dye, he mentioned its traditional connection to female power and the occult.
He also discussed his graphic novel, Itan: Part 1, which is influenced by stories from the Yoruba oral tradition of the West African ethnic group called the Yoruba people. Hamilton said he feels
that the comic book medium makes the narratives and traditions from this group more accessible.
“I’m a nerd, and I like comics,” Hamilton said. “My whole thing is ‘How am I going to relay this information to people?’ Not everybody’s going to read an academic paper.”
Hamilton also said that he received a grant to study traditional West African arts of weaving, indigo dyeing, and em-
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Continuing the tradition of promoting new cinema in the heart of awards season, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) returned to the city to showcase upward of 200 films over the course of 10 days. The festival,
which held mostly virtual events in 2021, lived up to its reputation as one of the best film festivals in North America.
SBIFF continues to offer cinema over a wide spectrum of genres, style, and content, and the 2022 festival was no exception. It is through festivals such as SBIFF where audiences can find a diverse set of films and filmmakers,
seeking to expand their usual taste and explore more that cinema throughout the world has to offer. Through The Heights , I witnessed the wide array of films on display as I viewed a nature documentary and films from around the world.
Starting as early as 8 a.m. and going until well after the sunset, a day at SBIFF means attending screening after screening after screening. Many of the featured movies are available to audiences for the first time. I had the opportunity to watch three films from three different countries during my one and a half days at the festival.
The Bastard King , an Austrian, French, and German co-produced documentary, kicked off my time at the festival. The film follows two rival lion clans and a cub born from a relationship between lions from each clan. The cub’s one yellow eye and one blue one signify the taboo that surrounds his identity as the offspring of lions from the warring groups.
The filmmakers follow the cub and his mother as they live ostracized from both clans, forced to hunt for each other and adapt to life in the savannah. Director Owen Prümm shakes up the regular expectations for a nature documentary, utilizing a dark filter for most of the daytime shots while also relying on David Oyelowo’s first-person narration. Oyelowo gives audiences insight into the cub’s thoughts and emotions.
The final result is a confusing and annoying viewing experience, where the choice to tell the story through the cub’s eyes takes all of the magic out of what could have come from a film on the kings of the jungle. The film fails to draw the audience in with its dull visuals of the savannah. The cub’s tacky, overdramatic lines about hunting techniques and complaining about the difficulties of life without a clan also miss the mark.
The Bastard King fails to deliver on mesmerizing visuals or engaging narration, instead
presenting a boring and limited reflection of how lions live in their natural habitat. The use of abrasive EDM as the score also doesn’t help the experience.
In an attempt to try something that strays from the traditional nature doc template, the film proves that the recipe followed by Planet Earth and National Geographic does not need to be changed.
The second screening I attended was The Righteous , a beautifully shot black-and-white Canadian film with a minimal budget and superb cast.
The film introduces viewers to former priest Frederic (Henry Czerny) and his wife Ethel (Mimi Kuzyk) as the couple is coping with the death of their young adopted daughter. Living in rural Newfoundland, Frederic is frightened when a suspicious man
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By Lauren Jasen Heights Staff
As the summer swiftly approaches, many will soon find themselves looking for the ideal album to play during splendid days spent under the sun. Peach Pit has created just that, releasing another remarkably introspective album, From 2 to 3, on March 4.
Recognized for its echoed acoustics and soft-spoken vocals, Peach Pit’s songs sound easygoing but earnest. There is almost a slightly beachy feel to the band’s instrumentals, and this album makes the wondrous feeling of summer feel eternal. It is the kind of album that is in its fullest glory if its tunes are accompanied by the picturesque sight of the golden sun
setting over the shore as the distant tides slowly roll in.
Neil Smith and guitarist Christopher Vanderkooy formed the indie pop band in 2014 while they were still in high school. Bassist Peter Wilton and drummer Mikey Pascuzzi joined soon after. Since the release of its two previous albums, Being So Normal and You and Your Friends, Peach Pit has developed a devoted group of followers who consume the feelings of nostalgia that its songs inspire.
The first song on the album, “Up Granville,” perfectly embodies the band’s dreamy quality. The tune is named after the street in Vancouver that is home to the Commodore Ballroom, the venue where Peach Pit will play three shows at the end of April as part of its North American and
European tour. The tour will also take the band to Boston on April 1, where it will perform at Big Night Live.
“Look Out!” takes a folksy turn with a blend of acoustic guitar strums and harmonica hums. Its lyrics encourage listeners to look out onto the world and recognize the hidden value in the ordinary moments of everyday life.
“Wading my way through this neighborhood / It’s all just my ordinary passing / Today I take it in,” Smith sings.
The song “2015” has a particularly reflective element to it, as it looks back on the splendor of being in love.
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By MaTTheW KeLLer Heights Staff
Ti West, best known for his work on the horror films The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers, made a splash with his new film X. Considered a slasher—a subgenre of horror involving extreme blood and gore—X gets right what a lot of other slashers get wrong: you still need a good story, even if it’s bathed in blood.
movie in the late ’70s. The group decides to rent out a farmhouse from an intimidatingly creepy older couple who doesn’t seem to know about the film. When the home owners do find out, things go sideways, and the crew looks to find a way off the farm.
Chainsaw Massacre. But West takes the concept, creates unique and interesting characters, and makes an original story out of the formula.
By pairing a throwback-style slasher film with an intriguing story and interesting characters, X is the fun and revitalizing type of movie that the horror genre needs.
The film stars Kid Cudi, Jenna Ortega, and Mia Goth as young filmmakers attempting to shoot a pornographic
The storytelling of X remains a key part of the movie, which is rare for a slasher movie. It’s common for overly bloody movies to ditch a story altogether in favor of gore for gore’s sake. But this movie doesn’t do that. Instead, there’s a reason behind each kill, all leading toward a single end.
What makes the story even better is that it makes an old trick seem new. Young kids stuck on a murderous farm sounds like the setup for Texas
Each actor’s prowess also propels the storyline, making it a unique slasher film. Cudi plays a cool, laid-back, Vietnam veteran enjoying his role in the pornographic movie. Ortega captures the curious, lurking bystander as she sits on the outside of the filmmaking crew looking in.
But no one is better than Goth as Maxine, the film’s protagonist. Maxine is a young actress trying to escape her past and make it big as a star, and Goth perfectly plays the type of dreamer that many people can deeply connect with.
This film wouldn’t be a slasher with-
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During a peaceful mother-and-daughter lunch, an unidentified armed man stands up from a nearby table—terrorizing the diners and triggering the mysterious un -
folding of events in the thriller Pieces of Her
The new drama series came out on Netflix on March 4. The show is an adaptation of Karin Slaughter’s novel and is composed of eight suspenseful, jaw-dropping episodes directed by Minkie Spiro. Despite its cliffhangers and mesmerizing acting, the plot is too unrealistic to enjoy.
Pieces of Her follows the protagonist Andy Oliver (Bella Heathcote) as she faces the realization that her mother, a seemingly grounded woman, is not the person she thought she knew. Andy’s perception of her mother changes as she struggles to piece together the identity of her puzzling
mother, Laura (Toni Collette).
The story takes place in the town of Belle Isle, Ga.—a safe and quiet setting where you would expect nothing interesting to happen. Andy’s boring routine reflects the mundane rhythms of life in Belle Isle. She rides her bike to her job, works her shift with little interest in what she’s doing, and returns home with the same lifeless expression on her face.
She is unhappy with what she has accomplished as she is in her 30s, still living with her mother and working a job that demands almost nothing from her but to sit and answer phone calls. At the same time, the protagonist does not make an effort to escape this dullness and gets irritated when
her mother tries to help, making Andy an unlikeable character who needs to grow and develop.
Although initially it seems like the plot follows the boring life of ordinary people, the shocking events that unfold after a few minutes completely transform the dull beginning, although to an unrealistic point. Characters go through traumatic event after traumatic event, creating an overwhelmingly agitated pace in which viewers are constantly expecting the next bad thing to happen. The excessive use of violence and mystery makes the show unbelievable.
Even though each episode lasts about 45 minutes, the duration is more than enough to inundate the
viewer with action. This show appeals to viewers who love suspense and are unafraid of blood and brutally explicit scenes. Its shocking, unpredictable scenes are followed by shallow and predictable dialogue. The underwhelming script makes the characters uninteresting when they are not facing dangerous dilemmas.
Andy’s mother is the enigma in the show. Laura, played by award-winning actress Collette, is an intriguing character with a secretive past that has come back to stir her peaceful present.
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Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of Landon Conrath—you’re not alone.
With just over 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, Conrath is still in the early stages of building a fanbase. But Conrath seems to be on his way to bigger and better things in the music industry.
With his genre-melding sound, bright electric guitar riffs, and chord progressions layered with nostalgia-inducing lyrics, Conrath is the up-and-coming artist to watch.
Conrath offers something for every
listener. He’s a can’t-miss artist. His lyrics are just the right amount of personal and abstract. Add in Conrath’s bright and free-flowing guitar riffs and chord progressions and his driving drumlines, and you get the perfect music for those hazy summer afternoons.
Hailing from Minneapolis, Minn., Conrath released his first song, “Pieces,” in 2020. He followed his debut single with “Acetone,” which is now his most popular song on Spotify, having amassed over four million streams. On “Acetone,” Conrath introduced his uncanny knack for creating a nostalgic tone with his lyrics.
As he describes a doomed relationship, he pairs lines that evoke specific images with lines that contribute to the general mood of the song. In the chorus, Conrath sings of feeling as though the world is dulled around him as he listens to a Bon Iver song.
“‘Skinny Love,’ ‘Skinny Love’ in my headphones … / Livin’ life, livin’ life in monochrome / I’m past it, closed casket,” Conrath sings.
Later in 2020, Conrath released his first EP, Paperbacks & Perfume. The song “Jericho” headlines the tracklist. Much like the rest of Conrath’s discography, the song’s genre is hard to
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by the U.S. to punish Russia, and this story is working. In a recent poll by Quinnipiac University, a vast majority of Americans from both parties support banning imports of Russian oil and gas, no matter what the price consequences may be at the pump. This patriotic attitude toward accepting sky-high prices in exchange for “defeating Putin” is misguided.
big corporations could easily afford to absorb, or at least offset, the staggering price increases that we are seeing at the moment, but they are simply choosing not to.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, photos of gas station billboards advertising prices up to $5.57 per gallon in California have shocked and stressed consumers. These record-setting prices, averaging $4.24 per gallon, are estimated to add $2,000 more in gasoline costs to the typical household budget this year. For everyday people who need to fill up to get to work, get their kids to school, or go to the doctor, these prices are a blow to carefully planned budgets, and disproportionately disrupt the lives of the more than 64 percent of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck. In a country that lacks a robust and efficient system of public transportation, these painful gas prices constitute a major crisis.
The prevailing narrative surrounding the cause of these skyrocketing prices is the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the United States’ subsequent response. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden instituted a ban on Russian oil and gas imports as a response to Russia’s aggression in Eastern Europe, sparking a 20 percent spike in oil prices. Against the existing backdrop of economic trouble caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation, it is easy for regular consumers to feel like these prices are just a natural result of the current state of affairs.
The spike in oil and gas prices is being sold to Americans as a necessary sacrifice in the attempts
Oil and gas companies in the U.S. are taking advantage of the tense energy situation of the moment to push toward higher profits at the expense of working people, when they could instead be acting to bring down these costs. Oil giants like ExxonMobil are expected to make up to $10 billion more in profit in 2022 than in 2021, not due to any special effort on their part, but because of artificially high prices. Beyond simply raking in the extra profit they are gaining from the sanctions on Russian oil and gas, these companies are capitalizing on the conflict in Ukraine to mobilize massive expansions in their business. The newfound fervor in support of domestic oil production is proving lucrative for oil companies. In the last week of February there were 650 operational oil and gas rigs in the U.S. and some have begun to make the “patriotic” case for increasing fracking, including on federal lands, as a “powerful weapon against Russia.” There is nothing patriotic about destroying American land and the health of the planet.
Despite this opportunity to expand their business operations, oil companies have not even produced more oil to alleviate the rise in prices—they are instead using these newfound profits to buy back their own stocks, putting extra dollars in the pockets of their executives at the expense of ordinary people who are needlessly paying thousands more on gas this year. The math shows that these
Congress should ensure that oil giants are not impeding the ability of people to get to work or heat their homes, and to do so, it should institute a windfall profits tax on the corporations that are benefiting from the combination of pandemic recovery, inflation, and sanctions on Russia. Some progressive members of Congress, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Ro Khanna, introduced the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax to institute a tax on the difference between current and pre-pandemic gas prices. This bill would not only serve to dissuade big oil companies from jacking prices up to above pre-pandemic levels, but it would also raise revenue that could be redistributed to low- and middle-income taxpayers who are struggling to pay the current prices. The bill is estimated to raise enough revenue to provide each individual with a rebate of about $240 a year. w
Even with all of the uncertainty and turmoil the world is facing in 2022, including the lasting effects of the pandemic on the economy and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, big oil companies are bringing in record profits while ordinary people struggle to stay afloat. Instituting a progressive windfall tax to discourage price gouging and distributing the revenue to those hit hardest by the high prices makes sense—companies that are choosing to artificially inflate the price of an essential good should face consequences, and working people deserve relief.
The news that new Eagles would be flying home to Boston College came out with BC’s regular decision announcement on Thursday. For all those who remember the torturous anticipation of repening their acceptance letters on decision day, there’s no doubt that we can share in the collective relief that these Baby Eags must be feeling right now.
Everyone has heard of the mythical land called Target. Entering a Target is like entering a parallel universe where time stands still and there is nothing but your shopping cart between you and the endless shelves of things you don’t need. And yet, if you go wandering in a Target with the sole intent of just making yourself feel a little bit better, then suddenly everything becomes something you do, in fact, need.
went on to become a movie franchise, raking in $865 million at the box office. Around the same time, Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series and James Dashner’s The Maze Runner grew in popularity. More dystopias—more young martyr-hero figures, mostly young women.
For my penultimate column, we’re going to time travel. Why? Because, unfortunately, all that’s old is new again. (And also it was better than other suggestions like settling scores and relitigating the 2016 Democratic primary).
It’s the early 2010s. Suzanne Collins has just dropped what will be a new kind of Bible for the children of the early aughts: The Hunger Games Emerging from the tradition of dystopian authors before her—your Orwells and your Bradburys and your Lowrys—Collins conjures a world popular enough to start a revolution. Her skinny, athletic, impoverished, post-apocalyptic, teen-girl protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, captures my preteen heart and those of roughly 100 million other readers.
For that, I will never forgive her.
This is because Katniss volunteers herself to be a martyr, to go to the Hunger Games, a government-sponsored reality TV show where children compete in a murderous gladiator competition—in order to save her sister from the same fate. Over the course of the trilogy, Collins paints a picture of a selfless and resilient young woman charged with saving not only her family but her society. For kids in the early 2010s, the books offered a gritty extension of the superhero genre, a gospel for a generation born into an America at war and raised in the shadow of 9/11. A world where buildings fall and people die and nothing feels particularly permanent or controllable. A world that could use a Katniss Everdeen to sacrifice herself and fix it.
In 2012, the almost $3 billion movie franchise burst onto the scene at the same time as a new series, Veronica Roth’s Divergent, gained notoriety in the preteen crowd. Divergent, too, focused on a young girl—Beatrice “Tris” Prior—leading the opposition against an oppressive regime. Roth took this new sub-genre to its natural conclusion, sacrificing Tris to the cause. These books, too,
That same year, in the midst of this dystopian teen martyr frenzy, a Taliban gunman boarded a bus and shot 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai in the head. The bullet slid between her skin and her skull, pushing through her eardrum before lodging in her shoulder. She doesn’t remember it, but later she was told that she covered her face when they raised the gun to her head. She thinks that must be right: when she woke up her hands were black with gunpowder.
The world reacted with justifiable and necessary horror. But in that horror, the media tilled the ground of public opinion so that people might plant seeds about the importance of young leaders like Yousafzai. About how other children, too, could hope to make the world a better place and how we must not give up even when terrible, inexcusable things happen—like someone shooting a 15-year-old girl in the head. I sat on the couch with my family, still in my school uniform, illuminated by the blue light of Diane Sawyer’s grief-pinched face as she talked about the bus and the bullet and the blood. A photo of Yousafzai floated next to her, captioned with bold, white letters: “Young HERO.”
Two years later, Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize—my friends and I were elated. We wanted to be just like her. “Young people,” we told each other knowingly, “are the future.”
Why shouldn’t we have thought that? Our favorite books and movies and even real-life heroes all suggested that the world was ours for the taking and ours for the changing. They showed us the value of hard work and sacrifice. The value of giving everything you have to a cause for the sake of principle. The glory of martyrdom.
In the midst of this, though, we missed something sinister.
Those books, movies, and societal seeds worked together to cultivate a mass consciousness that excused the inaction of the people who are really in power and instead bred a mythology where young people, so brave and virile and promising,
are charged with being change-makers. And those old people, with their resources and power, can sit back and feel good because they did what they could: they let us all hope that some young person, probably some young woman, could successfully bear the burden of saving us all. Malala Yousafzai or X González or Mari Copeny or Greta Thunberg. Katniss Everdeen. You.
A cursory review of the years since 2012 reveals a troubling perpetuation of massive problems—a substitution of savior figures for solutions. Instead of gun legislation, we got a courageous team of student survivors. Instead of infrastructure bills, we got the powerful Little Miss Flint. Instead of a climate plan, we got a slight teenage girl with a big voice. Instead, instead, instead.
Now, as we bear witness to another war with the potential for greater conflict to come, it’s time to face the painful truth: young martyrs probably can’t save us, at least not by themselves. And leveraging literature and media to convince children that there is glory in dying (here’s looking at you, Disney) feels like a shitty way to quell our fears about how to cope with the challenges we’re facing.
We can offer children better dreams than risking their lives—than martyrdom—without robbing them of their agency. We can tell them stories of what it means to surrender yourself to the reality that your future contains abundant joy and crushing grief and everything in between. To know that life will hurt as much as it is worth. The first step is rejecting the instinct to merely glorify courageous young leaders—we must find ways to support them by holding those adults with power accountable, and we must construct cultural texts that reflect this. We have to travel through the baseness of fear to access the parts of ourselves that enable progress—the compassion and grit and anger necessary to engage in meaningful change.
Above all else, we cannot continue to ask children to fight on their own. If we do, I fear that they will find themselves looking down the barrel of someone else’s gun only to wake up with the soot and ashes of the end of the world on their hands, wondering if they are to blame.
Mac’s shiny, brand-new soda machines, that look as though they would better grace a Century Theater, sadly frequently fail to deliver the thirst-quenching drinks that they promise. It seems as though these new machines can barely keep up with the demands of what must be an incredibly dehydrated student body. The feeling when you go to fill up your clear plastic cup with a delectable Diet Coke and nothing comes out is nothing short of soul-crushing disappointment.
Every once in a while the BC-renowned breakfast potatoes come out from the kitchens looking a little pale—like they haven’t spent enough time basking in their oily bath before being presented in their little metal tins under the heat lamps to the student body. Dragging yourself to the dining hall on a lazy Sunday morning is horrible when they don’t have breakfast potatoes, but arguably worse when the breakfast potatoes they do have don’t live up to their celebrity status.
The Office of Residential Life should implement more effective methods of communication during the housing selection process, including timely use of social media platforms, consistent instructions for registration and selection, and increased clarity surrounding any changes being made to the process.
Housing selection is a stressful time for Boston College students, and ResLife should play a key role in ensuring that the process is as smooth as possible. ResLife’s failure to properly communicate accurate information about available units and the process of confirming housing groups only compounds this stress.
In years prior, students did not have to accept an invitation for housing registration, instead only providing their group leaders with their Eagle ID number. This year, however, students had to accept an invitation for their group to register for housing—a change which many students were not aware of.
ResLife did not specify the change in the emails leading up to the first round of housing selection on March 15, nor did their website explain the adjustment. Especially for students studying abroad, clear communication from ResLife is crucial to ensuring that all students understand their role in the housing selection process. Due to subsequent IT server malfunctions, ResLife postponed
six-man pick times and the entire housing selection process.
The following day, ResLife announced that they would be switching four-person and two- and three-person selection days, but reversed this change less than 24 hours later after receiving complaints. Students received these updates over email, but they were not reflected on ResLife’s Twitter or other social media platforms, which in past years have often been used to track the progression of housing selection.
Though it is commendable that ResLife listened to student concerns and adjusted their timeline relatively quickly, this confusion could have been avoided if ResLife had not changed the housing process or schedule in the first place.
In addition to these delays, ResLife further complicated the housing process by failing to offer certain living arrangements at the correct time. They did not initially offer any of the coveted townhouses in Vouté and Gabelli halls during four-person housing selection, and some students with an early pick time were unable to secure their preferred housing as a result.
In order to remedy the situation, ResLife had to call the students with earlier pick times—who had already settled for another housing accommodation—to offer them the
townhouses while the selection process was still ongoing. This chaos trickled down to the rest of the student body. ResLife began rearranging student groups to the “appropriate” housing based on their original pick times. Even if a group of sophomores were unfairly able to secure senior housing, it is still frustrating to be moved from room to room—or even hall to hall—because of an organizational flaw.
Still, the student body is not without agency. BC students can reduce the stress of the housing selection process by lessening the social weight placed on the hierarchy of residential halls and dorm rooms. Though living in an eight-man suite is undeniably a better housing arrangement than a College Road double, it does not solely govern one’s social life.
During this year’s housing selection season, ResLife failed to properly do its job, leaving students confused, frustrated, and unsure of where they were going to live next year. In the future, ResLife should properly communicate with the student body when it makes changes and explain why they are being made. In the event of unintentional mistakes and miscommunication, ResLife must widely address these issues as quickly as possible and take responsibility for the job it has set out to do.
Boston College baseball and softball played their first home series of the season this weekend. As the two teams played at the Harrington Athletics Village on Saturday, BC Athletics dedicated the Pete Frates Center, a state-of-the-art baseball and softball facility, to Frates, a former BC baseball captain and BC ’ 07.
Each walk in a baseball game invariably slows the game down, each foul ball takes up time, and every time hitters leave the batter’s box, minutes tick by.
Baseball games have historically been long, and Boston College baseball’s series closer against Louisville was no exception to the trend. BC’s matchup with the Cardinals (19–5, 6–0 Atlantic Coast) on Sunday totaled nearly four hours, just for BC (9–14, 1–8) to give up nine runs in the eighth inning and fall to No. 18 Louisville 15–1.
Following three consecutive losses to Virginia the previous weekend, the Eagles bounced back with wins against Northeastern and Sacred Heart. But BC dropped two more games to No. 18 Louisville on its home turf on Friday and Saturday and finished the weekend with a blowout loss.
Louisville, unranked in national
preseason polls, has outperformed projections. The Cardinals have won 16 of their last 18 games and swept their series against No. 1 Notre Dame.
Mason Pelio started on the mound against the ACC-leading Cardinals and reached triple digits with extra life on his fastball.
But Louisville’s Dalton Rushing caught a piece of one in the bottom of the first and launched his second homer of the series and seventh of the year over the fence. From there, the Cardinals wouldn’t let Pelio—or any of BC’s rotation—get away with mistakes.
Pelio pitched 2.2 innings and recorded four earned runs on three hits and four walks in that time.
Louisville’s starting pitcher Riley Phillips went unscathed. Phillips, who entered Sunday’s contest with 27 strikeouts and seven walks on a 2.52 ERA, registered seven strikeouts and zero earned runs in seven innings.
Entering the eighth inning, BC
Boston College softball opened its home season on Friday, hosting Virginia for a three-game series. After the Eagles dropped Friday’s game, they looked to earn their first home win of the season.
But BC fell short, dropping its Saturday game 5–2 and its Sunday game 6–5.
BC’s performance on Sunday was a testimony to its grit and determination. After losing the previous two games in the series, the Eagles (14–14, 2–7 Atlantic Coast) struggled in the early innings and trailed 6–1 by the end of the fourth. BC rallied against Virginia—which sits second in the ACC standings—late in the game, only to fall short by one run.
In the first inning, Virginia (21–12, 8–1) hit the ground running when Tori Gilbert homered to left center in the second at-bat of the game.
But BC battled back in the bottom half
of the inning. Hannah Slike hit a triple to center field, putting herself in scoring position as Darien McDonough came up to bat. McDonough brought Slike in with an RBI single, and the inning ended tied 1–1.
The Cavaliers pulled away in the top of the third. Virginia catcher Donna Friedman singled to left field and advanced to second on a sac fly from Arizona Ritchie. Friedman then scored on Sarah Coon’s RBI double to right center. BC pitcher Abby Dunning then walked Gilbert.
When the Boston College baseball community came together on Saturday to officially unveil the Pete Frates Center at Harrington Athletics Village, there was a feeling of accomplishment in the welcoming spring air.
A mix of former BC baseball players, fans, and BC administrators listened as Frates’ family and those involved with the facility shared stories of his determination
and time with BC on Saturday. With sounds of faint glove pops from ongoing baseball and softball games nearby in the background, the maroon curtain draped over the building’s entrance gave way to proud white lettering reading “Pete Frates Center.”
Frates, BC ’07, was a captain of the BC baseball team and was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2012 at the age of 27. After his diagnosis, Frates and his family committed themselves to raising awareness of the disease
and raising funds for research. As part of his campaign, Frates helped start the ALS ice bucket challenge, a social media initiative that raised over 220 million dollars for ALS research in 2014.
“We have much to celebrate and many reasons to be grateful,” University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., said at the ceremony. “When people come by this building and see it, and they ask, ‘Who was this Pete Frates?’ I think it will, in turn, help inspire them to reflect on their lives.”
In its completed form, the Frates Center is a 31,000 square-foot baseball and softball facility featuring locker rooms, hitting tunnels, an indoor turf field, strength and conditioning spaces, and a hospitality area.
The facility is a far cry from the old baseball locker room players had to share with the hockey team, according to Jim Healey, a member of the Yawkey Foundation’s Board of Trustees and a speaker at the event. While it was first opened for use in the fall of 2021, the facility had
not been officially unveiled until Saturday.
BC Athletics Director Pat Kraft took the microphone first on Saturday.
“I’m very blessed and fortunate to be here because I had absolutely nothing to do with this gorgeous facility,” Kraft joked. “I want to recognize everybody that helped us. This is a family project. I’ve learned in my two years here that everything is about family at Boston College.”
Leahy’s speech was the longest of Saturday’s speakers, and he reflected on how far the BC baseball and softball programs have come, as well as on Frates’ inspiring story and his lasting effect on the BC community.
John Harrington, chairman of the Yawkey Foundation and the namesake of the Harrington Athletics Village— the complex including both the baseball and softball field as well as the Frates Center—took the mic next and used his time at the podium to reflect on the journey of the facility. He also gave special mention to the Yawkey Foundation, a partner of BC and major donor to the new facility.
Healey was next to the podium and talked about his involvement in bringing the facility to life and relationship with Frates.
“[When Frates first] told us about his diagnosis, … he wasn’t morose,” Healey said. “Instead, with a gray, steely determination, he told us he was planning to use all of his energy to raise awareness with the ultimate goal of finding a cure. This was Pete the fighter. … I felt like I was back on my high school baseball team, and he was my captain.”
Healey was the last speaker before Frates’ family took the podium.
Despite Frates’ moving story, few eyes watered over the course of the unveiling. Instead, Frates’ brother, sis -
ter,
First, Frates’ sister Jennifer Mayo, BC ’04, discussed her relationship with her brother and their overlap at BC.
“I had the great pleasure of being in my senior year at BC with Pete on campus,” she said. “We had a standing date at 9 p.m. on Sundays in the upstairs of our dining hall, which typically resulted in Pete coming to hang out with me and my roommates in our Mod afterwards. I looked forward to Sunday night all week.”
She went on to talk about how it
“When I look at his name … on the building behind us—on the campus of this school that he loves so much—built for the team that he dedicated itself to, I think of the little boy who grew up draping himself in BC clothes,” Mayo said. “I think of that college freshman sitting in my Mod in 2004 talking about life and what it would look like. Who could have known what a journey we would all take.”
Frates’ brother Andrew Frates then briefly took the podium before turning it over to Julie Frates, Frates’ wife and
In a heartfelt moment, she also expressed her hope that one day her and Frates’ daughter, Lucy, might come by the Frates Center with her friends and brag about her dad.
With Julie’s speech being the last of the ceremony, members of the crowd rose from their seats and made their way over to the entryway to the facility, where the maroon sheet still lay draped above the door. A priest briefly blessed the new building before, on the count of three, the red curtain fell to the ground revealing the text “Pete Frates Center.” n
Softball, from A12
With Coon and Gilbert on base, Katie Goldberg hit a three-run homer
Baseball, from A12
pitchers had tallied more walks than strikeouts, but the Eagles only trailed by four runs. By the end of the inning, BC trailed the Cardinals by 13 runs.
Louisville’s late-game rally started when BC pitcher Aidan Crowley relieved Evan Moore. Crowley walked Cameron Masterman, the first batter he faced.
Jack Payton was hit by a pitch, advancing Masterman to second.
Crowley walked Levi Usher to advance the runners, and with bases loaded, Crowley hit Logan Beard,
to left center, and the inning ended 5–1 in Virginia’s favor.
BC’s offense struggled to retaliate, and the Cavaliers kept pushing
forward to score again in the top of the fourth. After Dunning walked her, Lauren VanAssche advanced to second on a passed ball and ran home on a double to right field from Abby Weaver, extending Virginia’s lead to five.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Eagles’ offense broke through its five-inning rut. Abigail Knight began the offensive surge with a single to center field, followed by a double from Nicole Giery. With Djhane Valido—pinch running for Giery—on second and Knight on third, Kennedy Labshere hit an infield single to bring both runners home and cut BC’s deficit to three.
But the Eagles weren’t finished.
With Maddy Carpe pinch running for Labshere and Gianna Boccagno at bat, BC had a chance to cut the deficit even further.
Boccagno hit a rocket past the centerfield fence, bringing in Carpe for a two-run homer. Virginia’s comfortable five-run lead had shrunk to one run with only one inning left.
But after a scoreless seventh inning, Virginia secured a 6–5 victory and swept the series.
One day prior, the BC fell short after hanging with the Cavaliers until the seventh inning.
Virginia surged ahead in the first inning off a two-RBI single from Goldberg. Gilbert singled in the top of the
fourth to put the Cavaliers up 3–0, but BC answered. First, in the bottom of the inning, Labshere hit an RBI single that brought Knight home. In the fifth inning, Knight hit an RBI single that brought Slike home to put the Eagles within one run.
The Cavaliers pulled away in the seventh, scoring two runs to take the second game of the weekend with a 5–2 win.
Peyton Schnackenberg pitched the first 6.1 innings of Saturday’s game for BC, allowing eight hits and five runs in 28 at-bats. Susannah Anderson replaced Schnackenberg with one out in the seventh and allowed one at-bat in the final three at-bats. n
walking in a run with one out.
BC could only hold off Louisville’s offense for so long, and the Cardinals broke the game wide open. Payton scored on a wild pitch that sent Beard to second and Usher to third. Louisville followed that series with a hitting spree, which included singles from Isaac Humphrey and Ben Metzinger, doubles from Christian Knapczyk and Payton, and a homer from Masterman. The Cardinals scored nine runs in the inning.
Louisville tacked on another two runs in the ninth inning, putting the hours-long affair to a close. n
Boston College softball got out to a rocky start to its home season with a 5–3 loss to Virginia on Friday.
The Eagles (14–12, 2–5 Atlantic Coast) failed to mount a late comeback and left two runners on base in the seventh inning, handing the Cavaliers (19–12, 6–1) the win in the teams’ first game of a threegame series.
“I don’t think we came out as sharp as we have been coming out,” BC head coach Amy Kvilhaug said after the game.
Susannah Anderson pitched the first 6.1 innings for the Eagles, striking out five batters.
After going down by two runs early, the Eagles started their comeback in the bottom of the second.
Djhane Valido reached first on an error by Virginia’s Sarah Coon and then stole second. A double to center field by Kennedy Labshere sent Valido home for the Eagles’ first run of the game.
In the next at-bat, Gianna Boccagno grounded out to second but advanced Labshere to third. Kamryn Warman reached on a fielder’s choice, but Virginia threw out Maddy Carpe—pinch running for Labshere—at home. Warman advanced to second, but Ellie Mataya struck out, leaving the Eagles with one runner left on base, and the inning ended with Virginia up 2–1.
The tying play came in the fourth inning. Darien McDonough hit a
single to second base but was called out after leaving first early on an attempted steal. In the next at-bat, Valido grounded to first base and then was called for interference.
But on the third at-bat of the inning, Labshere doubled to left field with two outs. She scored the Eagles’ second run after Boccagno reached first on an error by Cavalier shortstop Katie Goldberg and advanced to second on the throw.
With one out in the seventh, Peyton Schnackenberg replaced Anderson at pitcher. After Schnackenberg took the mound, the Cavaliers scored three more runs off a two-run double from Gabby Baylog and a sacrifice fly from Leah Boggs, putting them up 5–2 over BC.
Boccagno hit a homer to center field in the bottom of the inning,
cutting the Eagles’ deficit to two, but with Mataya on second and Hannah Silke on first, Abigail Knight lined out to the third baseman, ending the game.
The Eagles will face Virginia two more times in the weekend series. Kvilhaug said she hopes BC can make adjustments in all facets of its game. n
Allowing leadoff hitters to reach base is often an Achilles’ heel for pitchers. A leadoff base runner forces a pitcher to throw from the stretch, and in MLB, a player that starts an inning on first has a 42.7 percent chance of crossing home plate.
On Saturday, Boston College baseball was the pattern’s latest victim. Despite a pair of strong rallies, the Eagles fell to Louisville 10–6 as a result of an 11th-inning collapse sparked by the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter reaching base.
Head coach Mike Gambino lamented the trend after the game.
“In general, a leadoff walk, I think it scores like 73 percent of the time,” Gambino said. “I think we had four lead off walks today. … I think that was a big difference.”
Louisville (18–5, 5–0 Atlantic Coast) hit the ground running early, leading off
with a double from Christian Knapczyk. Ben Metzinger drove him home in the next at-bat with an RBI single. Facing runners on first and second base, BC starter Sean Hard escaped the jam.
Over his four innings, Hard allowed eight Louisville base runners, but he limited the damage to only one run—a critical performance given the Eagles’ slow offensive start.
“[Hard’s] making really, really good progress,” Gambino said. “You see the stuff—the stuff’s elite, and he’s got a chance to be frontline stuff.”
BC (9–13, 1–7) did not record a hit until Travis Honeyman snuck a ground ball past Louisville shortstop Knapczyk in the fourth inning. But after starter Jared Poland retired BC’s next two batters, the Cardinals appeared to be on the verge of quelling the Eagles’ surge—until Joe Vetrano stepped up to the plate.
Vetrano launched an opposite-field home run over the left-field fence to give BC its first lead of the game. With Vetrano’s homer, the Eagles’ bats were rolling. The next three batters followed with base
hits, culminating in an RBI double from Patrick Roche.
The Eagles could not hold onto their 3–1 lead for long, as John West—in to relieve Hard at the top of the fifth inning—allowed three runs, including a three-run blast from Dalton Rushing. But just as the Cardinals seemed primed to blow the game open, the Eagles’ bullpen, led by 2.1 innings from Joey Ryan, held Louisville to one run over the next five innings, giving BC’s offense enough time to attempt another rally.
“[Ryan] settled that thing right down,” Gambino said. “He’s become a go-to guy for us, and he threw the ball great.”
Sam McNulty kicked off the bottom of the seventh inning with a leadoff double that caused Louisville coach Dan McDonnell to pull Poland for Kaleb Corbett. Honeyman capitalized, roping a deep double down the left-field foul line to cut Louisville’s lead to 6–4. Two at-bats later, Luke Gold homered, tying the game at six runs each.
Taking over for Ryan, Brendan Coffey threw three more scoreless innings. With
the Eagles unable to break the tie in the ninth inning, the game headed to extra innings.
As the clouds darkened and rain loomed, Gambino handed the ball over to Eric Schroeder to open the 11th inning. But the Cardinals made quick work of him.
A series of singles gave Louisville a 7–6 lead. Following a bunt by Cardinals’ pitcher Michael Prosecky to put runners on second and third, Gambino swapped Schroeder for Charlie Coon. After a bases-clearing double and a sacrifice fly, the Eagles entered the bottom of the 11th inning down 10–6.
Fans headed for the exits as the rain began to pour, and Prosecky put the Eagles down in order, ending their hopes of a final rally.
Gambino saw glimmers of hope in his team’s performance.
“There’s only two guys in the field that had much experience coming in,” Gambino said. “The results right now are not where we want them, but the progress and the growth is awesome.” n
By roBert Brennan Heights StaffAfter losing its first game of the season against North Carolina one week prior, Boston College lacrosse entered Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh looking to prove that its heartbreaking loss to the Tar Heels was not a sign of slowing down.
But the No. 2 Eagles came out slowly on a snowy day in the Steel City, allowing the Panthers (5–6, 0–5 Atlantic Coast) to jump out to a 5–1 lead in the first quarter. Despite being behind early, the Eagles (9–1, 3–1) used their offensive firepower and two quick goals from Belle Smith to climb back into the game and close the gap, ultimately securing a 19–12 victory.
The weather appeared to be a factor for both teams throughout the game as snow fell and Pittsburgh hit low temperatures. Saturday marked the second time this season that the
Eagles have faced imminent weather, the first being their matchup against Denver, which was cut short due to freezing temperatures.
“The girls did a really good job of digging through it and focusing on the X’s and O’s,” BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein said after the game. “And nothing will be as crazy as the Denver game.”
While BC cut its deficit to two goals by the end of the first quarter, the Panthers—whose women’s lacrosse program is in its first season—would not let the Eagles run them over in the second quarter. Pitt opened the second quarter with a quick goal from Maureen McNierney. Then, a fast break by the Panthers left BC goaltender Emily English—in her first collegiate start—to defend two Pitt players. The play led to a Pitt goal, and the Panthers were up 7–3.
The momentum changed again in favor of the Eagles, though, and this time, the momentum shift was permanent. The Eagles scored five
consecutive goals in the second quarter, including a goal from Mallory Hasselbeck on a drive from behind the net to tie the game. Jenn Medjid scored with 43 seconds remaining in the quarter, but Pitt responded with 13 seconds lef to tie the game at eight apiece entering the third quarter.
“They have some great players
and were stunners to start the game,” Walker-Weinstein said. “They played really hard, and I credit Pitt 100 percent for the way they came out.”
The second half included a return to the type of play Eagles fans are used to seeing from the defending National Champions, as BC dominated the draw controls and pace of play. Pitt
scored two goals in the quarter, and goalie Paulina DiFatta posted a stellar performance in net for the Panthers, saving a few Charlotte North 8-meter chances and intercepting several centering passes from the Eagles. It would not be enough, however, as the Eagles pulled away in the third quarter with six goals. n