The Heights, Nov. 6, 2023 by The Heights

November 6, 2023

ExxonMobil CEO Talks Sustainability

The executive, who some students opposed, said the world needs a broader sustainability solution.

By Maria Stefanoudakis For The Heights Carina Murphy For The Heights

According to C EO Darren Woods, ExxonMobil is a leader in the oil and gas industry, bringing innovative solutions to the field that

other companies cannot. “Anyone that’s out there that needs to work with companies in our industry sees us as the preferred partner in spreading innovative solutions, using our technology to provide solutions that others can’t,” Woods said. Members of Boston College’s

Chief Executives (CEO) Club gathered on Wednesday afternoon at the Boston Harbor Hotel to hear about Woods’ experiences as CEO of the world’s largest publicly traded oil and gas company. Some members of the BC community did not support the CEO Club’s choice to have Woods speak. Climate Justice at Boston

College (CJBC) condemned the club for hosting Woods in an Instagram post on Wednesday morning. “[ExxonMobil] is famously controversial for publicly denying climate change and casting doubt on climate science—despite the fact that its own scientists accurately predicted climate change as early as 1977,” the

post reads. According to C JB C ’s post, ExxonMobil represents the powerful oil and gas corporations that profit off fossil fuels, and it is therefore not aligned with “any organization that claims to support climate action.”

See CEO Club, A2

Community Kicks Off Heritage Month By Elise Kirwin For The Heights Ella Champagne For The Heights

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY

Maroon, Gold, and Green As global temperatures rise and international conversation centers on sustainability and waste reduction, students, clubs, and Boston College offices aim to create an environmentally friendly university. See A6

Gabriella Mendoza stood before the crowd at the Native American Heritage Month opening ceremony, wearing a painted red hand over her mouth to call attention to the oppression and violence that Indigenous women face. “My hand on my face is a representation of advocacy for missing and murdered Indigenous women,” Mendoza, MCAS ’25, said. Members of the Boston College community gathered on Thursday night to commemorate the beginning of Native American Heritage Month, which is celebrated in November each year. A member of the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes, Mendoza said she believes in the beauty and power of her identity. “I am from the remains of my culture, the wind in the trees, the grass that flows in that night breeze,” Mendoza said. “I am half Native American.”

As a Native American woman, Mendoza said she is familiar with the struggles of belonging to an under-represented population. “I always asked myself, ‘Who am I?’ especially when it came down to my Indigenous roots,” Mendoza said. “The ways of my people are foreign to the majority of people I’ve encountered.” Mendoza highlighted the struggles of Indigenous children living on reservations. Having grown up on a reservation herself, Mendoza explained how limited access to education and support causes children in these communities to resort to crime. “Kids are really starting to imitate gang-like behaviors,” Mendoza said. “Instead of turning to education, and art, and the most beautiful things in the world, they turn to violence.” Mendoza said on July 31 of this year, she lost a close community member and friend to a drunk driving incident. According to Mendoza, many youths who live on her reservation have turned to alcohol.

See Heritage Month, A3

Video Portal Sparks Global Conversation By Lyla Walsh Copy Editor

Students do not always have the opportunity to connect with people across the globe through genuine, meaningful conversations. It is even more rare that they have an immersive, intentional space that attempts to mimic the experience of an in-person conversation. The Global Engagement Portal allows Boston College students and faculty to have just that. “It’s an opportunity to see the humanity of the distant other, to meet with people in different life circumstances than our own, and to have real conversations with them,” said Erik Owens, director of BC’s international studies program and organizer of BC’s portal. Created by Shared Studios, the Global Engagement Portal joins two small rooms across the world through high-definition internet video connection to facilitate natu-

ral conversations, according to BC’s website. BC’s portal—held inside a shipping container near O’Neill Plaza—arrived on Oct. 23 and will remain on campus until Nov. 16, connecting with locations in 12 countries throughout this period. The portal is available for faculty and students to reserve hour-long sessions, and it also hosts walk-in sessions. “Step outside your world,” reads the message on the outside of BC’s portal. “When you enter, you come face-to-face with someone in an identical space, somewhere else on Earth.” The screen inside the Global Engagement Portal allows for a life-size view of the participants in the connecting portal, according to BC’s website. Owens said the design of the portal creates a more engaging experience than other forms of long-distance communication.

See Portal, A7

BC Secures Bowl Eligibility PHOTO COURTESY OF AIDAN GROELING / THE DAILY ORANGE

By Jack Bergamini Assoc. Sports Editor

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Boston College football is no stranger to close games. Six of its eight games heading into Friday have been decided by a touchdown or less. Even a fourth quarter finish with two interceptions, a fumble, a fake punt, and a game-winning touchdown doesn’t faze BC head

coach Jeff Hafley. ” Great things happen with our team in the fourth,” Hafley said. “I said to my mom—she’s 75—I said you got to stay up late. Because we win every game in the fourth [quarter]. She said ‘can you make this easy?’ I said no, just tune in for the fourth quarter.” BC (6–3, 3–2 Atlantic Coast) defeated the Orange (4–5, 0–5) 17–10 on Friday night in the JMA Wireless

Opinions

Inspired by BC’s homecoming week, columnist Andrew Lim shares the differences in school spirit and student government between the U.S. and Australia.

See Football, A14

Opinions

Detailing her curly hair journey, columnist Mary Perez shares the self-love she is developing for her natural curls and the professional impacts of her hair.

INDEX

Dome behind four interceptions and a staunch defensive effort. BC quarterback Thomas Castellanos’ fourth-quarter rushing touchdown put BC ahead by a touchdown with 2:23 left in regulation, and Cole Batson’s interception sealed the victory despite a rough offensive showing for most of the night.

Basketball Previews See A12 and A13

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

NEWS........... A2 OPINIONS.. A9 NEWTON....... A4 A R T S . . . . . . . . A10 MAGAZINE.. A6 S P O R TS . . . . . A12

NEWS

Monday, November 6, 2023

This Week’s Top 3 Events

The Heights

The Career Center is hosting an in-person networking night for students interested in careers in social impact on Monday night. Connect with employees and alumni in the field of social impact from 4 to 6 p.m. in Gasson 100.

Come together for an evening of discussions centered around the theme of “Color Consciousness: Know Your Racial Identity.” Dinner will be provided at the event in McElroy Commons from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Join professor Fang Lu for a workshop to learn how to pronounce the Chinese names of your colleagues, classmates, and friends. Gain a stronger appreciation for the Chinese language from 12 to 1 p.m. on Friday at 258 Hammond St.

CEO of ExxonMobil Discusses Sustainability CEO Club, from A1 “We find it extremely hypocritical for Boston College to engage in public-facing climate action while simultaneously making money off an exclusive club that endorses ExxonMobil,” the post reads. Woods spent most of his talk discussing sustainability within the oil and gas industry and addressing alternative methods of energy production, such as wind and solar energy. “They’re a necessary part of the solution, but they’re not sufficient in [themselves],” he said about alternative energy. “There’s got to be a broader solution set.” Woods said although more sustainable energy sources are capable of incremental change, none of them are realistically capable of being the

primary global energy provider. Most sustainable energy sources are also very expensive and therefore unfit to satisfy the energy needs of low-income communities, Woods said.

“We’re going to need a solid, consistent policy that is thoughtful, that helps the transition.” “Extrapolating back to the entire world’s energy system, and at the same time comprehending the billions of people who are living in

poverty, whose needs are going to have to be addressed on an affordable basis,” he said. Woods said companies within the oil and gas industry need to proceed with caution when selecting to support sustainable sources of energy. “We’re going to need a solid, consistent policy that is thoughtful, that helps the transition,” he said. “Big discontinuities are going to disrupt society and we’re going to set ourselves back.” Despite his concern surrounding currently available climate-friendly alternatives, Woods expressed a sense of urgency in addressing the negative effects of oil and gas production globally. “At this stage, given the challenges associated with transforming the entire global energy system, we

need as many solutions out there as possible,” he said.

“They’re a necessary part of the solution, but they’re not sufficient in [themselves]. There’s got to be a broader solution set.” Woods addressed public criticism that ExxonMobil has not be-

come involved in solar power generation, stating that solar power is not within its realm as a fuel producer. He clarified that oil and gas companies do not necessarily produce power, but rather the fuel that allows other companies to produce usable power. “My view is that we don’t read a lot into that space, other than a checkbook,” he said. “And frankly, I don’t think our investors need us to write that check for them.” Woods went on to argue that ExxonMobil is an industry leader in helping to fight the climate crisis. “We feel like we have traditionally been a leader in the industry,” he said. “And we challenge ourselves to demonstrate what leadership looks like in this space, and the transition space that focuses on the molecule side of the equation.” n

Keum Earns Three Early Career Awards From APA By Angelina Li Heights Staff

Ava Sjursen Heights Staff

Assistant professor Brian TaeHyuk Keum received three early career awards from the American Psychological Association (APA) this summer that recognized his research contributions toward ethnic minority issues. “I am really appreciative of these awards,” Keum said. “I really hope that this helps other students who might be thinking about this field, particularly in regards to if they were in a community where psychology or the way that we speak about multicultural issues is not something that was straight forward.” Keum, the Buehler Sesquicentennial Assistant Professor in the department of counseling, develop-

mental, and educational psychology (CDEP) in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development (LSEHD), was honored with the Distinguished Early Career Professional Contributions to Media Psychology and Technology Award, the Emerging Professional Contributions to Research Award, and the 2023 Fritz and Linn Kuder Early Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Counseling Psychology. All three awards are presented by the APA to an individual who makes significant contributions to their respective fields in their first 10 postdoctoral years. At Boston College, Keum said he studies how to prevent discrimination on online platforms. As the lab director of the digital equity and anti-oppression lab in LSEHD, Keum said he is working to design education methods that will help the next generation of computer pro-

grammers create culturally inclusive social media platforms.

“I found him to be someone who really cares about and has empathy with folks who have had to struggle and fight through those sorts of circumstances.” “We are really trying to empower these students and how they can take this infusion with cultural competence and move forward,” Keum said. Keum said growing up in a low-income, Korean immigrant

PHOTO COURTESY OF HEIGHTS ARCHIVES

Keum is an assistant professor in the department of counseling, developmental, and educational psychology in LSEHD.

family, he never thought a career path in psychology was an option. “I never thought that I would be in psychology because when I was growing up, psychology was not a thing in my community,” Keum said. “Growing up in a low-income, Korean immigrant community, it was not something that was normalized or seen as acceptable.” St anton E .F. Wor tham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of LSEHD, said Keum’s unique background explains why he is so empathetic with his work. “He has personal experience as an immigrant, so he knows what it’s like to not be exactly mainstream,” Wortham said. … “He understands that some of the folks that counseling psychologists are trying to work with and support have these different experiences like he did or the people he knew when he was growing up.” Wo r t h a m e mp h a s i z e d h o w Keum’s prior experience and expertise align well with the counseling program in CDEP in LSEHD. According to Wortham, the CDEP has a strong emphasis on the experiences of people from various backgrounds, including immigrants, minorities, and LGBTQ+ individuals. “We have a lot of faculty expertise in how you provide counseling and mental health support for people who the society doesn’t always treat fairly,” Wortham said. “[Keum] fits right in with the colleagues who are interested in doing that.” Wortham also praised Keum’s humility when working with vulnerable populations.

“I found him to be someone who really cares about and has empathy with folks who have had to struggle and fight through those sorts of circumstances,” Wortham said. Keum expressed that by winning these awards, he hopes to inspire students of Korean descent to pursue psychology. “[One of my students] came into my office hours and told me, ‘I went to Boston College for undergrad and all throughout my life, I have never seen a Korean male professor in my classes and so just seeing you is refreshing and empowering,’” Keum said.

“I am really appreciative of these awards. I really hope that this helps other students who might be thinking about this field.” Keum said inspiring students like this is the reason he is so passionate about his research and studies. “I think those kinds of experiences really represent the reason why I am so passionate about studying these issues and the fact that I am able to get recognized for doing that just goes to show that there’s a lot more work to be done,” he said. n

Kearney Promotes ‘Salvage’ at Boston Public Library By Sarah Vergura For The Heights Richard Kearney’s Salvage is one of the best novels on the market right now, according to Irish singer and writer Nóirín Ní Riain. “The—and I’m using that superlative carefully—the most powerful and prophetic book to come out recently,” Ní Riain said. Kearney, Boston College’s Seelig Chair of Philosophy, recently published Salvage, which focuses on the tension between progress and tradition. At an event promoting his book at the Boston Public Library on Tuesday, Kearney revealed the process of writing his novel and the inspiration behind it, while also discussing Celtic traditions and their prevalence in modern society. The evening started with a video from Ní Riain, who sang a Celtic song and described the significance of someone writing about the Celtic tradition. “[It’s] a gripping novel, lyrically

set against the backdrop of a stunningly researched old Ireland,” Ní Riain said. While many people view Celtic traditions as lost, Kearney said they are seeing a resurgence among young people due to their emphasis on nature. “There is a new interest in the young generation now, in ecological spirituality,” Kearney said. “Even if we’re not going to have everybody speaking Irish again in Ireland—that’s not going to happen … this spirit I think will continue and is undergoing a revival.” Kearney said the novel’s title, Salvage, is an ode to the fact that this book is the sole way to recount the stories of some of the people he discussed the Celtic tradition with, as they have died. “I found myself saying, it’s also about salvaging the language, and salvaging the local names in Gaelic and to salvage that memory … that I was able to record in the book,” Kearney said. Kearney also said that through music, tradition, and now, hopefully, his novel, the Celtic tradition will be preserved in the modern world. According to Kearney, his main

character—Maeve O’Sullivan—is torn between practicing the traditional Celtic healing methods of her father or studying modern medicine on the mainland. “[O’Sullivan is] caught in the between of these different conflicts,” Kearney said. “The Orthodox Christianity versus Celtic Christianity, modern healing versus vernacular, folk, natural healing, the English language versus the Irish language, and the warring parties in the Second World War.” According to Kearney, the pressure to assimilate to new cultures while also acknowledging the deep history and culture of the past was a struggle many Irish citizens faced in 1939, when the book takes place. “[1939 was] sort of a transition year, because the war is on, and the Irish are very divided in the first world war, and the second,” Kearney said. “So there’s that sense of neutral Ireland in this transitional space.” Because this book honors Celtic traditions, Kearney discussed the most popularized Celtic tradition in Amer-

ican society—Halloween. The timing of this talk was no accident, Kearney said, as Halloween has its roots in the culture Kearney is trying to restore. “This was constructed by the Celts, millenia ago, and it has survived through the millenia right down to the present in the case of Samhain, [a Celtic religious ceremony], and it became

Halloween,” Kearney said. To wrap up his talk, Kearney said he has faith in the resurgence of interest in the Celtic tradition due to modern migration patterns and interests of the younger generation. “I don’t think I’d have written a book called Salvage if I thought it was irredeemably lost,” he said. n

SARAH VERGURA / FOR THE HEIGHTS

Richard Kearney’s Salvage discusses Celtic tradition in modern society.

The Heights

Monday, November 6, 2023

NEWS Kerry Unpacks Climate-Related Health Issues By Ava Sjursen Heights Staff Solving climate change–related health complications requires equitable political, social, and health agendas to support the health systems of developing countries, according to Vanessa Kerry. “The disproportionate effects of COVID on historically marginalized communities around the world clearly showed how unjust social, economic, demographic, and political contexts threaten our well-being and cost the lives of millions,” Kerry said. “As we continue to emerge from this crisis, there is an opportunity for all of us to lean into this understanding.” Kerry, the co-founder and CEO of Seed Global Health and director of the program in global public policy and social change at Harvard Medical School, delivered a lecture on the solutions to climate change– related health issues on Wednesday in the Yawkey Center as a part of the Connell School of Nursing’s Pinnacle Lecture Series. To begin, Kerry shared stories from countries she has worked in, including Malawi and Zambia. “I’d like to share stories specifically from Malawi, a country where

Seed Global Health has worked for over 10 years,” Kerry said. “In 2022, Seed was battered by two powerful tropical storms that damaged homes, displaced thousands of people, and sparked the longest and deadliest cholera outbreak on record.” She told the story of Chancy Banda, a Malawian midwife, who, right after Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit, advocated for the transformation of hospitals into emergency sites for women dealing with pregnancy and birth complications in the wake of the storm. “We need health professionals, like Chancy, whose knowledge and confident actions in the wake of the storm embody what we need when we say we need climate resilient health systems,” Kerry said. Kerry then shifted to discuss what the health sector can do to both mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. Kerry said that while 5 percent of carbon dioxide emissions are produced by health-related industries, 95 percent of these emissions can be reduced. “I do want to really stress that there is hope,” Kerry said. “I am a diehard optimist and pragmatist. We know a considerable amount of what we need to do already and the actions

that we need to take. The world we want to live in, though, is going to require us all to engage.” She urged the audience to embrace human health as a foundational building block of society, reframe investments in it as cost effective in the long term, and to spend money ambitiously to strengthen global health care systems, and she cited Seed’s work in Sierra Leone as proof. The government of Sierra Leone reached out to Seed, Kerry explained, and asked it to help implement a midwifery program to curb its high maternal mortality rates. Since the partnership began, the country has seen a 60 percent decrease in year to year maternal deaths, Kerry said. “We have trained midwives to be able to engage in the community to provide nursing,” Kerry said. “As a result, after a short year and a half building with partners locally, the country that has had the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, had zero maternal deaths for the first five months of this year.” Kerry concluded her lecture by demanding accountability from the leaders in the health care industry and government. “There are no shortcuts to the

work we need to do,” Kerry said. “In fact, our attempts to find a faster, more efficient means of delivering health care has often meant that we have ignored the fundamentals.” Olivia Yang, CSON ’24, attended the event and said she was surprised by the effects that the environment can have on human life. “The statistics were really compelling,” Yang said. “I did not realize that one in four deaths were caused

by preventable environmental causes.” Yang said it was motivating to hear about the global impact nurses can have outside the hospital. “Just learning about the ways that nurses can make an impact that is not just streamlining into a hospital is really cool,” Yang said. “It is really important to know how to be a global citizen, and you can learn a lot by listening to other people’s stories.” n

OWEN BIENEN / HEIGHTS STAFF

Kerry discussed the effects of climate change on public health.

BC Honors Native American Month Heritage Month, from A1 “He died due to a driver who was under the influence, alongside other teenagers from the reservation as well who were under the influence,” Mendoza said. “A lot of my peers are under the influence right now. A lot of them don’t know that they can get where I am right now.”

ALINA CHEN / HEIGHTS STAFF

UGBC Plans Coming Meeting With BC Dining Workers By Will Martino Asst. News Editor

The UGBC Senate prepared for an upcoming meeting with BC Dining during its meeting on Tuesday night. “I think one of the biggest issues with BC Dining is the lack of transparency on a lot of things, especially cost,” said Daniel Wise, chair of the Senate’s Student Life Committee and MCAS ’25. “I think that’s the main goal for them to be transparent about how they operate and why things are the way they are.”

“I think one of the biggest issues with BC Dining is the lack of transparency on a lot of things, especially cost.” The Senate plans to host BC Dining Director Beth Emery and her colleagues at its weekly meeting next Tuesday to ask questions and engage in dialogue about BC Dining. Wise said it is important for senators to ask questions that go beyond the basic scope of BC

Dining’s functions. “Make sure you know how things work on a more general basis and then ask more complex questions,” he said. Lindsay Meier, Environmental and Sustainability Division policy coordinator and MCAS ’26, said that it is crucial to be particularly prepared for this meeting. “I think we have to have an argument,” said Meier, who serves as the Senate’s BC Dining representative. “You can’t just be like, ‘Oh, it’s a problem that it’s expensive.’ You need to have other things to say because they hear that all the time.” One way to formulate detailed questions is to consider how BC Dining can improve on a micro-level, like ensuring drinks are restocked faster in Lower Dining Hall, Meier said. “Think of smaller things we could fix instead of trying to take on all of [BC Dining],” she said. U G B C Vi c e P r e s i d e n t Meghan Heckelman, LSEHD ’25, added that while many people in the Senate have pushed for an all-you-can-eat, swipe-to-enter dining hall system in the past, senators who like aspects of the current system should share their thoughts as well. “Bring those different opinions and get them out, and we can have a discussion,” Heckelman

“People should really respect and just really take the time to understand the history. That’s most important.”

said.

“You can’t just be like, ‘Oh, it’s a problem that it’s expensive.’ You need to have other things to say because they hear that all the time.” E arlier in the me eting , UGBC Heckelman applauded the Division of Student Initiatives and all UGBC volunteers for their work organizing Project Life, an event to swab the cheeks of students and add them to the national registry for blood stem cell and marrow donors, on the Quad last Wednesday and Thursday. “We swabbed nearly 700 cheeks this year, which is about 100 more than we did last year, which is awesome,” Heckelman said. This influx in participants was partly due to a celebrity appearance, Heckelman said. “I think having Luke Kuechly there definitely did us some favors,” she said. n

Mendoza said she seeks to amplify the message that Native American people deserve increased support and resources. “I think it starts somewhere deep inside of pushing that message of what Native power is—and that’s being resilient,” Mendoza said. After Mendoza’s personal account of her experiences , Sebastian Ebarb, an associate teaching professor of art and design at Northeastern University and member of the Choctaw-Apache Tribe of Ebarb, described the prominence of Native American culture in modern art and media. “It is important to recognize

that Native Americans are not about violence, but are a series of diverse cultures and histories,” Ebarb said. At the ceremony, Ebarb showcased Native American movies and books to demonstrate the role that Indigenous art plays in society. “ Traditional Native ar t forms—including bead work, pottery, basketry, quill work— hold great cultural significance, and they are the backbone of native pop-culture,” Ebarb said. Ebarb explained that the incorporation of Native art within the media protects Indigenous culture. “Art plays a vital role in preserving and sharing cultural traditions within Native communities, ensuring that critical aspects of our culture are not lost,” Ebarb said. According to BC graduate student Luis Silva, who attended the ceremony, people must begin to acknowledge the history of Indigenous people. “People should really respect and just really take the time to understand the history,” Silva said. “That’s most important.” Ebarb emphasized that the Native population is still prospering, despite common beliefs that the population is dwindling. “It is the popular perception that Native folks have disappeared, that we are no longer here,” Ebarb said. “This is of course not true. We are here, we are healthy, and we are thriving.”n

ELLA CHAMPAGNE / FOR THE HEIGHTS

People gathered to celebrate the start of Native American Heritage Month.

NEWTON

Monday, November 6, 2023

4 AA4

The Heights

NPS Officials Talk Safety Protocols By Brooke Ghaly For The Heights

PHOTO COURTESY OF NEWTON FOR EVERYONE

Newton Petition Protests Save Newton Villages’ Lawn Signs By Emily Roberge For The Heights Newton For Everyone, a coalition of organizations that support the Village Center Overlay District (VCOD), created a petition on Monday protesting lawn signs created and distributed by Save Newton Villages, an anti-VCOD organization. According to the city’s website, VCOD is a proposed set of zoning regulations for Newton commercial centers and surrounding residential areas, meant to increase housing accessibility. Newton City Council will consider the rezoning proposal on Nov. 15, following the Zoning and Planning Committee’s recent approval of the third version of the plan on Oct. 23. VCOD sets limits on building heights from two-and-a-half to fourand-a-half stories, depending on the location. The Save Newton Villages lawn signs feature a graphic of a nine-story building and a six-story building, which the petition argues is misleading. “Newton residents deserve accurate information, and that seems like the right thing to do fundamentally,” Newton For Everyone member Dan Powdermaker said. “The event that organizations are putting out and printing and posting misleading information is a disservice to our city, and it is very sad.” Charles River Regional Chamber President Greg Reibman expressed similar complaints about the building heights in the lawn sign

graphic. “It is a disservice to the public to continue to use those signs and to continue to use that logo because it misrepresents what the upzoning plan is about,” Reibman said. Save Newton Villages argued that the lawn signs are not dishonest and instead are a part of its efforts to protest the proposed upzoning. “Our signs are not misleading, [but] they are a rallying cry for residents to stand up and have their voices be heard on the issue of our villages,” Save Newton Villages said in an email. The organization said the lawn signs distributed by Newton For Everyone—which feature a graphic meant to reflect the diversity of people in the Newton community—are more misleading than its own signs. “Does anyone really think their signs represent “everyone?” Save Newton Villages said. “Given the tidal wave of opposition to this zoning plan, and the amount of people speaking out that the plan does not represent their wishes.” Save Newton Villages said that the proposed rezoning itself is a much greater issue than the complaints against its lawn signs. “Newton’s rezoning plan is severely flawed and loaded with incentives for developers,” Save Newton Villages said. “Additionally, the Planning Department simply has done nothing to project the impact of this plan; they claimed projections were too hard, not accurate and actually referred to projected impacts as being

‘irrelevant.’” Those in favor of VCOD argue that upzoning will aid the housing shortage in Newton. “I think the rezoning plan represents a very needed change for Newton,” Reibman said. “We have a housing shortage in Newton, and we have a shortage of different kinds of housing, especially housing for workers, young families, and places where seniors can go when they no longer can keep and maintain a big house.” But, there are also opposers to VCOD who believe the rezoning proposal will have the opposite impact. “Not just in Newton, but across the country, there is a market-based solution to our housing issues through the zoning process,” Newton architect Robert Fizek said. “There are often claims attached to equity, inclusiveness, affordability … but we see little to no evidence that any of that is a result of the upzoning or rezoning process.” Moving forward, Newton For Ever yone member Joshua Herzig-Marx emphasized that remaining civil about the zoning debate is important for the community. “We are still going to be neighbors, and we still will be living together, shopping in the same shops, sending our kids to the same schools, going to the same village days, going to the same town-wide events, so I hope that we are both able to argue with each other and convince each other on the merits of our arguments rather than try to mislead each other,” Herzig-Marx said. n

Newton Public Schools (NPS) officials are committed to ensuring that all students, faculty, and staff are prepared to stay safe in the case of an emergency at any school in the city, according to speakers at a webinar on Wednesday evening “We’re always in strategic planning and training mode,” Toby Romer, assistant superintendent for secondary education and special programs at NPS, said during the meeting. NPS officials and representatives from the Newton Police Department (NPD) and the Newton Fire Department (NFD) hosted the webinar to inform parents of students about the safety procedures and policies administrators have in place, according to Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller’s newsletter. Romer spoke about the logistics of the NPS emergency response systems and the everyday management of a safe learning community, created in collaboration with safety partners. “Our goals tonight are to share how Newton Public Schools and our safety partners create a safe and supportive school environment,” he said. “We’re also going to talk more about how we create those safe school communities focused on wellness and wellbeing because those really are the undergirding of safe school communities.” Romer said there are three tiers of school safety: universal, targeted, and intensive. Universal tier actions, or tier one actions, are taken on a daily basis and include tasks such as keeping doors locked and assigning visitor badges, he said. According to Romer, tier two actions, or targeted tier actions, include regular evacuation and lockdown drills and addressing bullying concerns, and tier three actions, or intensive tier actions involve swift responses to any emergencies or threats, such as evacuation or shelter-in-place orders. “Those tier one supports ensure that everyone in our schools have the health and medical supports they need on a day-to-day basis and are prepared for medical emergencies as well,” Romer said.

Romer also discussed security measures taken in NPS buildings. While high school students are allowed to leave campus during lunch, many policies are in place to keep the buildings secure, according to the presentation. “Any visitors coming into the building are to enter through specific doors to sign in and have restricted access to the different areas of the building,” he said. Amanda Henrickson, a lieutenant for NPD, said the department directs four police officers to train in dealing with juvenile incidents and work closely with NPS to ensure safety in both daily situations and emergencies. “Our youth officers are trained to handle and investigate sexual assaults,” Henrickson said. “They’ve also received various training in handling incidents with youth with mental health issues.” Romer mentioned the NPS emergency operations plan, a plan for emergency situations within schools that was revised this year after its creation in 2019. The plan details the necessary responses for a variety of potential contingencies. Posters outlining this plan hang in every classroom and illustrate four main responses to emergencies: evacuation, shelter in place, lockdown, and hostile event response, he said. The entire plan, which is accessible to teachers and school administrators, outlines the procedure for more specific incidents. Romer said there is an important distinction between sheltering in place and lockdown. “Shelter in place is a response to a security threat that’s outside the building,” he said. “The hostile event response is summarized by the phrase ‘run and hide,’ and that’s a response to an active shooter.” Michael White, a lieutenant in the NFD, said NPS often engages in drills for each of the four responses, and evacuation drills are led and scheduled by the fire prevention bureau. “The students practice getting better at each one with our fire prevention guys,” White said. “We also do quarterly inspections going through the schools to ensure the fire safety regulations are being met.” n

Fair Housing Committee Talks Landlord Training, Affordable Homes Act at Meeting By Brooke Ghaly For The Heights The Newton Fair Housing Committee discussed fair housing training, the newly announced Affordable Homes Act, affordable housing data, and lottery data integration at its meeting Wednesday morning. The committee consists of 11 members appointed by Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller who meet monthly to discuss housing affordability and availability in the City of Newton and advise the city on issues related to affordable and non-discriminatory housing. “If I could manage getting everyone to understand that renters pay real estate taxes, I’d feel like I was accomplishing something right there,” Steven West, a Newton Fair Housing Committee member and former renter, said. Committee Chair Esther Schlorholtz discussed the progress

of the annual fair housing training by Suffolk Law School’s Housing Discrimination Testing Program, which provides training for Newton real estate agents, landlords, and tenants. “This is U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development– funded training,” Schlorholtz said. “We think there will be substantial interest in it, especially from tenants of the Newton Housing Authority and landlords of tenants there.” Jini Fairley, the committee’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) coordinator, said unfair landlord behavior exists in Newton. “They refuse reasonable accommodations, and they get away with it because it’s hard to bring them to justice,” Fairley said. “It’s not unique to New York City. The stories exist here.” The committee also discussed the findings of a Case Western Reserve University study on Cam-

bridge, Mass. residents’ experiences in their buildings and housing complexes. The study focused on residents living in inclusionary housing programs (IHP) and their experiences with bias. “Forty percent of all renters and 41 percent of all owners in the affordable IHP—inclusionary housing program units—reported encountering bias or discrimination at least several times in the past year,” Schlorholtz said. “Race was seen as the primary cause of bias—also being an IHP participant or having a low-income level was seen as a trigger for bias.” According to Schlorholtz , the study was the first of its kind, and the data produced allowed the committee to reflect on how the City of Newton approaches inclusion in affordable housing. “As we’re growing in the numbers of units, to be sure that we’re not only building the housing but that the people who live there will feel

welcomed and supported and not experience the bias that they might otherwise feel,” Schlorholtz said. The group also discussed its methods for retrieving data from the fair housing lottery. The group has a subcommittee dedicated to the procurement and organization of this data in a spreadsheet, where its logs race, disability, and voucher status of lottery applicants. “The fair housing analysis of performance is a key way for us to further our efforts to affirmatively further fair housing,” Schlorholtz said. “So, that is really important for us to have actual data to be able to evaluate.” The committee discussed the implications of the $4 billion Affordable Homes Act, which Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey proposed in October. The bill would allocate funds to creating more affordable housing via investments in public housing production and

preservation. The bill supports the construction of over 40,000 homes, according to an overview posted on the commonwealth’s website. “[This bill] will spur the creation, preservation, and modernization of nearly 70,000 housing units and gives communities the tools they need to enact local solutions to their housing challenges,” Healey said in a November press release. Schlorholtz said that if the bill proceeds, it could generate great resources to help support those in need of affordable housing. “One of the things they ’re proposing is to allow accessory dwelling units to be built by right in single-family zoning districts in all communities,” Schlorholtz said. “Another thing they’re proposing is establishing a local option real estate transfer fee of between 0.5 and 2 percent to be paid by the settler of properties on the portion of the sale over one million.” n

The Heights

Monday, November 6, 2023

NEWTON

Family Restaurant Warms Hearts of Newton Residents By Kate Kissel For The Heights Family owned and operated since 1995, New England Soup Factory has warmed the hearts of Newton residents with its inviting atmosphere and homemade soups and sandwiches. “It’s the thing that sets us apart from the other 30 restaurants on the street … that you’re able to walk in here and we know you … versus walking into an average store and just kind of getting a robot on the other side [that] doesn’t care whether you come or not,” Paul Brophy, owner and founder of New England Soup Factory, said. “We kind of put a little bit more into it.” Paul has run the business with his wife Marjorie Druker for over 30 years. Druker and Paul met while attending Johnson & Wales University for culinar y school, before opening up their restaurant using Marjorie’s recipes, according

to Paul. The Brophys opened the first New England Soup Factor y in Brookline in 1995 before moving to their current location at 244 Needham Street in 1998, according to their daughter Emily, event co o rd i n ato r a n d f ro nt h o u s e manager at New England Soup Factory. Over the years, the most rewarding aspect of the family’s success, Paul said, has been getting to spend 75 hours a week working together. “That’s what you’ll realize, like it’s all about not necessarily running around and doing other things,” Paul said. “It’s being able to spend quality time with your kids and your wife, and that’s what we do.” The customers are what keep the Brophys going, according to Emily. “I have great customers who keep me busy constantly but are so caring, so nurturing, and we just have a great community,” Emily said.

Emily said she has been working for her parents’ business since she was 13, growing up to eventually follow in their footsteps by attending culinary school at Johnson & Wales and coming back to help run the business. According to Emily, customers frequent the Factory so often they do not even need to order. “We can see people in the parking lot, and I already know what to put in their bag and they haven’t even walked into the restaurant yet,” Emily said. “So that’s how regular our customers are.” The Factory is adjacent to the sit-down side of the restaurant, the Modern Rotisserie, and often customers will stop by to get soup for lunch before heading over to the Rotisserie for dinner. The Factory has daily soup specials ranging from spicy chickpea and butternut squash to double onion and sherry. Stocking the fridges are a wide range of quart

KATE KISSEL / FOR THE HEIGHTS

The Factor y of fers daily soup specials, to- go meals, and fresh salads for New ton residents.

KATE KISSEL / FOR THE HEIGHTS

The business prides itself on its development of a regular customer base.

to-go soups, chicken pot pies, and pasta salads. House soups include classic chicken vegetable, New England clam clam and corn chowder, and chili con carne—a house favorite. Paired with a piece of multigrain or french bread, these soups make the perfect meal for a cozy fall night in. Fresh salads complete with homemade dressings ranging from roasted red pepper vinaigrettes to simple mixes of olive oil, parsley, and lemon juice, are another healthy option. Local resident Nina Butong said she keeps coming back to the store for its plethora of soup flavors. “I like that they have a lot of varieties and not just for you know, takeout like ready to go, but also frozen so that I can take stuff home,” Butong said. “So it’s very convenient for me.” The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Brophys to rethink their business model, according to Emily. Instead of having a sit-down

restaurant, Emily said New England Soup Factory became more takeoutoriented. “It was almost a weird blessing because we pivoted our whole concept and we went from sit-down dining into more of a marketplace to fill people’s refrigerators and fill people’s cabinets and make it more of a one-stop shop,” she said. “It’s actually been very successful for us to move in that direction.” Paul said the pandemic allowed his family to shift its focus toward spending time together and life outside of the business. “That was actually a good thing for us where it helped us regain our quality of life, and things changed,” he said. “For us, business became even stronger as we refocused and turned things around.” New England Soup Factory serves soups and grab-and-go items including fresh sandwiches, salads, and sweet treats. It is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday at 244 Needham Street. n

NPS Officials Detail Portrait of a Graduate Initiative By Annika Engelbrecht For The Heights Meredith Syms For The Heights Newton Public Schools (NPS) is working to redefine the vision and direction of the school system through Portrait of a Graduate, a project that defines the common objectives and aspirations of every student in the district, according to its website. According to NPS’ website, Portrait of a Graduate seeks to define the abilities, proficiencies, and characteristics that every student should have by the time they graduate

from the district. It aims to take into account how the world has changed and what skills students will need to succeed in the learning environment of today, the webpage reads. NPS Superintendent Anna Nolin said the initiative began because the Newton School Committee (NSC) asked her to create a vision for the future of NPS. “The school committee asked, as part of my new role, to set a vision and guidance for the district,” Nolin said. “[Portrait of a Graduate] seemed the perfect way to energize our community about next steps for our school system.”

STEVE MOONEY / HEIGHTS ARCHIVES

NPS officials say they hope to unify the district through Portrait of a Graduate.

NPS Communications Director Julie McDonough said the project is a uniting tool for Newton, creating a complete understanding of what it means to be an NPS student. “What you wind up with at the end is a set of skills that you want every student to graduate with,” McDonough said. “But the power is that it’s a collective vision that the community, the staff, and the students have helped to develop. So everyone is on the same page.” Although Portrait of a Graduate is still new, Ward 6 NSC member Paul Levy said he hopes it can act as a way to ensure accountability within NPS. “My hope is that we will have a broad community and school system consensus on what we’re hoping for from the schools, which, in turn, will create the ability to hold the school system accountable,” Levy said. According to McDonough and Levy, Portrait of a Graduate will guide NPS in making sure that its programming accurately reflects the district’s goals for its students. “[Portrait of a Graduate] serves as kind of the North Star for the schools … it provides a framework around which the school can organize [and]

can make sure that all of the initiatives and things that we are doing fall within the skills that the staff and students and community have said are important for graduates,” McDonough said. The Portrait Design Team will have 300 people—approximately 50 percent will be residents and 50 percent will be NPS educators— ensuring everyone can weigh in on the future of NPS students post-pandemic, according to Nolin. “Having everyone together in the room is also a powerful activity—to create togetherness, build understanding, and [possibly] provide healing in a post-pandemic educational world that was focused on conflict and problems only, not a vision for an exciting future,” Nolin said. Levy said the Portrait Design Team will set a good example for students in terms of navigating differing opinions. “It brings out the disagreements that people have too, and then in the process, people talk it through and they reach a consensus,” Levy said. “And so in that respect, it’s also a nice learning lesson for the students to watch how to disagree among yourselves and still come up with

something, which I think we could use more of.” At the NSC meeting on Oct. 23, Nolin voiced concern over voluntary teacher participation in the Portrait of a Graduate initiative due to the ongoing NSC and Newton Teacher Association contract negotiations. “It’s a key worry, a deep worry,” Nolin said. “We have discussed and will discuss with our principals that, should we not be able to do this in a volunteer capacity, would we turn to staff meetings.” NSC Chair Tamika Olszewski also emphasized the importance of teacher support for Portrait of a Graduate. “I hope we can get that level of participation as we know our educators’ voices [are] key—it’s essential,” Olszewski said. Levy said he hopes that Portrait of a Graduate will serve as a way to emphasize communication between NPS and the Newton community. “I’m hoping that the people who participate, really enjoy it and learn from one another, and that we, the school committee and the superintendent, in turn learn from the community,” Levy said. n

Group Advocates for Affordable Housing in Newton By Celia Hood For The Heights Bia Pessoa For The Heights Since its founding in 2013, Engine 6 Newton Housing Advocates has dedicated itself to increasing accessibility to affordable, inclusive housing in Newton. “We want to expand housing opportunities in Newton because we want Newton to be a more welcoming city to people of all ages, economic levels, backgrounds, etc.,” Lynne Weissberg, a member of Engine 6’s leadership team, said. According to Engine 6’s website, Newton residents founded the orga-

nization after former Newton Mayor Setti Warren refused funding for a Metro West Collaborative Development affordable housing project for the Engine 6 firehouse, which would have housed nine chronically homeless individuals. Now, Engine 6 focuses on advocating for projects and policies that increase general housing availability in Newton, according to Weissberg. “We lobby our city council to approve specific proposals to build more housing,” Weissberg said. “We’ve also been involved in some changes to laws, like Newton’s Inclusionary Zoning law and Newton’s accessory dwelling law.” Nancy Zollers, a member of

Engine 6’s leadership team, said the cost of housing in Newton makes it hard for children who grew up in the city to find housing in the area once they stop living with their parents. “[My] adult children had to move to Waltham … they’re one of the many, many post-college students who couldn’t stay,” Zollers said. Engine 6 also prioritizes sustainability in its projects, specifically focusing on how public transportation accessibility and greater housing density help minimize carbon emissions. “New types of housing in Newton will help create more walkable, vibrant villages which reduce the burden on our environment,” its

website reads. “Allowing more people to live in Newton near transit compared with distant suburbs is critical for addressing climate change.” Weissberg said that restrictive zoning laws have been a significant challenge for Engine 6 projects. According to Newton City Council’s website, it has been over 60 years since Newton’s current zoning code underwent significant changes, resulting in outdated laws inhibiting the expansion of the city. “There is this zoning proposal before the council,” Weissberg said. “We certainly hope it will pass, and we think it would be taking a big step toward making Newton a more

welcoming, open, and inclusive city.” According to Zollers, Engine 6 also endorses local politicians who share its views on sustainability and housing affordability in Newton. “We endorse based on housing views and we have chosen the candidates who are most likely to do the hard work, the courageous work of creating housing for more people to live in Newton,” Zollers said. Zollers shared the testimony of an Engine 6 project resident, Peter Marquart, who expressed his gratitude for the project. “It has been like a dream,” Marquart said. “If you had told me six months ago that I would be here now, I never would have believed you.” n

M AGAZINE Monday, November 6, 2023

The Heights

Maroon, Gold, and Green: A Look Into Sustainability Initiatives on BC’s Campus

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY

By Eliza Hernandez Projects Editor Ernie Romero Editorial Assistant This is the first installment of a two-part series about sustainability and the climate change conversation at Boston College. Lo oking to the f uture of environmental sustainability at Boston College, Margaret Ryan said the University should prioritize creativity—it could even reimagine a more eco-friendly version of the Mods. “They’re not really supposed to be permanent, but what if they replaced them one at a time with more permanent structures and made that a green community for the future?” Ryan, MCAS ’25, said. “You could do solar panels. You could plant more trees to really make it like a whole experience.” Ryan said initiatives like the green transformation of popular campus buildings are only achievable with enthusiasm and support from the entire BC campus. But students and the University itself are already spearheading initiatives to make BC more environmentally friendly, she added. “Personally, I feel like BC is a little behind other campuses, but I feel like we’re making really great strides to make the campus more sustainable and raise awareness among students as well,” Ryan said. Ryan is a sustainability intern for the BC Office of Sustainability— an office within the University that collaborates with BC Facilities Management, B C Dining , and student groups to support multiple sustainability initiatives and projects. The office’s sustainability goals include topics such as waste reduction and recycling, leadership and social justice, and energy and climate change, according to its website. “The Office of Sustainability at Boston College serves as a resource and catalyst to advance University goals for campus-wide sustainability,” the website reads.

more eco-friendly behavior, Ryan said. As a sustainability intern, Ryan said she mainly coordinates the office’s communication and social media efforts. “I really just try to bring the environmental and sustainable events to the forefront of students’ attention on campus,” Ryan said. Bruce Dixon, sustainability program manager for the Office of Sustainability, said he oversees sustainability programming within BC Facilities Management, including collaborative programs with sustainability interns and student organizations like Real Food BC and EcoPledge. “I love all of these initiatives, because they do somehow, one way or another, engage with different groups of students, whether it’s EcoPledge students, or just the campus community in general,” Dixon said. In collaboration with the Office of Sustainability, Dixon said Real Food BC—a food justice and sustainability student club—manages a University garden between Hammond Street and Beacon Street. “What that garden does is provide vegetables not only for Real Food, but also for the Centre Street Pantry that provides food for those in need and within our Newton community,” Dixon said. Similar to the garden, Dixon said the Fulton Hall beehive is a creative way of increasing students’ awareness of the University’s sustainability efforts. A camera at the beehive monitors a hive that was donated in 2020 and still provides habitats to bees, according to the website. “You can’t see it live stream, but we will do videos of the beekeeper coming in to perform general maintenance on the hive,” Dixon said. “It also covered food for the bees and so and then we replay it on our website on our sustainability website.” Out of ever y Office of Sustainability initiative, Dixon said the Green Ambassador Program—a program of students that encourages

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY

This summer, BC hosted sustainability tours for multiple groups. Ry a n a n d t h e t w o o t h e r sustainability interns are just one part of a large web of resource development, events, and programs created by multiple groups around campus— including students and BC employees— to protect the environment, she said. A main goal of the Office of Sustainability’s initiatives is to encourage students to participate in

fans at football, hockey, and basketball games to recycle—is his favorite. The green ambassadors give away prizes to people who win trivia games about BC sports teams and recycling. “During football, we just give away items, and that is a nice icebreaker to inform the fans about using their blue bags and to be aware of recycling in general on campus,” Dixon said.

“They can win gift cards to Playa Bowls, gift cards to Subway, and gift cards to Los Amigos.” Di xon said the Of f ice of Sustainability and EcoPledge recently collaborated to create BCShares, a platform that allows students to share unwanted items with other students. This is another way the University collaborates with students to reduce waste, he said. “The inspiration for a lot of it was literally just from Facebook Marketplace,” said Molly Bardong, copresident of BCShares and MCAS ’25. “But why would students be paying for things when they could be two doors down in the residence hall?” Because of its partnership with the University, Bardong said BCShares maintains the University’s desire to promote Jesuit values in all it does. The Jesuit emphasis on serving one’s community inspired BCShares to stay committed to on-campus exchanges, Bardong said, rather than facilitating exchanges with other universities. “As we started B CShares , Bruce, who works in the Office of Sustainability, emphasized that we wanted to exemplify St. Ignatius,” Bardong said. Dixon said BCShares and the other student projects demonstrate the importance of grassroots movements. By encouraging younger students to make sustainable strides on campus, Dixon said that BC’s current students are taking part in a culture that normalizes sustainable behavior. “I truly feel that it’s important to allow students and to allow faculty and staff to build upon each initiative so that as years go on, and we have more new students coming in every year as a freshman class, they see that ‘Oh, this is what we’re doing—I want to jump into this, or we do it this way here at BC,’” Dixon said. BC Dining Director Beth Emery said that, like the Office of Sustainability, BC Dining has implemented a number of initiatives to be more sustainable throughout her 10 years working at the University. “I just have always been interested and saw opportunity for improvement, and I had a student come to me who had a number of questions and some suggestions,” Emery said. “And so I hired her, and she was our first sustainability intern.” Today, BC Dining has six interns as well as one student manager. Emery said the importance of incorporating students in sustainability efforts cannot be understated. “The students inspire me,” Emery said. “I find that our best ideas come from students, and they also get feedback from other students.” One sustainability initiative centered around the student body is Green2Go, a reusable to-go container program launched in 2021. “We’ve tried to convert almost everything to compostable containers with the exception of our current flatware, but we’re going to make that switch soon, maybe in January,” Emery

said.

Emery said that BC Dining offers incentives like receiving 10 percent off the price of any non-packaged food items with every use of the reusable containers. Still, Emery said BC Dining interns work hard to increase student engagement with the Green2Go initiative. “We’re trying to really encourage students to do the Green2Go,” Emery said. “So that’s the one thing we’re hoping that we can get more students excited about.”

in lessening food waste throughout campus. BC Dining has even started to donate leftover food to local charities, Emery said. “There’s an outside company called Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, and then they deliver that to area locations that accept food donations,” Emery said. Emery said there are many moving parts to reducing food waste while also prioritizing student engagement and BC Dining’s business. Though it may be more expensive for BC Dining to offer more sustainable food and resources,

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY

BC Dining implemented Green2Go in 2021 to reduce single-use waste. Emery said BC Dining also incentivises students to use reusable water bottles when getting beverages and hopes to eliminate single-use product usage for other beverages, such as coffee. “We’re doing that [at Lower], like you can go down and pour your own coffee here, and if you had a container that was able to take hot coffee, and fill it to the top, you get charged small,” Emery said. And similarly to the Office of Sustainability, BC Dining emphasizes initiatives that reduce waste. BC Dining utilizes The Boston College Dining Services Sustainability Report as a tool to track its successes in reducing waste and set new sustainability goals. “From waste management, to food rescue, to more regional and socially just purchasing, it is exciting to see how much progress we are making and the wonderful recognition that we have received,” Emery said in the report. To address the goals in the report, Emery said that she leads a partnership with LeanPath—a food service organization that aims to prevent food waste from university, hospital, and hotel kitchens across the country. In this partnership, Emery said that multiple BC Dining kitchens on campus weigh and take photos of their food waste at the end of each day and brainstorm ways to reduce this waste. “So there were a couple things that came out of that here at Lower,” Emery said. “The frontline employees that do the salad bar said ‘Why are we putting out full big pans of produce at closing and why don’t we put in smaller pans, and still have the selection to make a nice salad, but you’re not wasting all the produce,’” Emery said. Emery said dining workers’ detailoriented changes in Lower, Mac, and the Rat create a large cumulative impact

Emery said it is the right thing to do. “I just think it’s the right thing to do, particularly being on a university campus and trying to educate students to make good decisions for the future,” Emery said. Ryan thinks BC Dining and BC Facilities do a good job at engaging with freshmen, especially when it comes to Green2Go and composting, she said. But, she does notice a disconnect between the University’s sustainability initiatives and the student body at large. “I think the main issue there is that not all students follow these programs but once again, there can be more educational opportunities to get kids understanding the importance of composting and making sure people keep separating their waste that way,” Ryan said. This lack of engagement from students could be a result of students navigating busy schedules and disregarding some emails they receive, Ryan said. Despite this, Ryan said that she has high hopes for the future of sustainability efforts across campus— this includes work from student clubs and the University’s programs. “I do feel like things are growing just because more students are interested in sustainability,” Ryan said. “So I feel like the interest on campus is growing.” Ryan said she thinks smaller sustainability initiatives encourage students to look at the “bigger picture” and consider the growing importance of sustainability moving into the future. “Sustainability is going to be so important going forward,” Ryan said. “It doesn’t matter what your career interest is, or, you know, your individual interests—It’s going to apply to so many different disciplines, so I think it’s important for students to view it as something they should be paying attention to and being proactive about.”..n

The Heights

Monday, November 6, 2023

M AGAZINE

Academia Adapts to Generative AI Advancements By Henry Reichman For The Heights From the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down race-based affirmative action to nationwide declining enrollment rates, universities like Boston College confronted several major upheavals this year. Perhaps the last thing universities needed was a generational, seismic technological disruption that many said could change the future of education for decades to come. But generative artificial intelligence (AI) emerged as a societal talking point. This new technology’s most widely known form is ChatGPT, a generative AI released in November of 2022 known for its ability to type out information and analysis in response to any prompt. ChatGPT brought along a host of concerns on college campuses, with many administrators and professors expressing uncertainty, fear, strained optimism, or anxiety regarding this new technology. For every headline discussing the pitfalls of AI tools, there are half-wondrous, half-foreboding stories detailing how ChatGPT can ace a Harvard-level essay when prompted to do so. So with many people left in the dark about the significance of this ambiguous technology, the question becomes, how has academia handled its collective anxiety about ChatGPT? And how should academia react to changes in AI’s capabilities? BC’s official literature regarding AI encourages professors to address the subject from the get-go. The Center for Teaching Excellence’s website gives two possible sample statements for professors to insert into their syllabuses. There’s the strict, “Any work submitted using AI tools will be treated as though it was plagiarized,” juxtaposed with the more lenient, “If any AI-generated content is used for your assignments, you must clearly indicate what work is yours and what part is generated by the AI. In such cases, no more than 10% of the student work

should be generated by AI.” Instead of simply banning all AI use, the center recommends that professors engage with the technology and its limits “In the long run, instructional responses that engage the technology and its limits — rather than seek to simply ban them — promise to be more effective ways to meet learning goals across disciplines,” the University’s website reads. But, student use of AI has led some professors to question whether ChatGPT can ever truly be at home in the classroom. These professors opt to move away from assigning take-home papers and toward assigning more in-class exams. Gerardo Blanco, the academic director for the Center of International Higher Education, said AI disrupts how professors approach assessing their students. “How we evaluate our kids is really, really subjective at times, and we really don’t know the right way forward—and [AI] is quite a disruption,” Blanco said. “I think by definition, exams are not authentic assessments. In the sense that when you graduate and go to your jobs, you’re not going to be taking an exam, right? You’re going to have to demonstrate what you know, through your ability to produce things.” But across BC, and universities as a whole, opinions on how exams should be adapted differ depending on where you look, according to Chris Glass, a professor of the practice in the department of educational leadership and higher education at BC. “[Academia] gets a lot of criticism for not being innovative,” Glass said. “That said, there are parts of the university that are slow and bureaucratic. Universities are large, complex organizations, and they’re not single entities.” Glass said that approaches to AI are varied within different facets of BC. “We’re not really a university— we’re many different types of organizations,” Glass said. “What parts of our institution are going to be able to respond quickly to this phenomenon, and what parts of our institution will

respond slowly but in ways that are really about kind of grounding in values that are really important to a liberal arts education?” And, crucially, most people don’t want to repeat a historical error by attempting to resist the changes brought about by new technologies. Nobody wants to emulate the teachers one reads about in articles from the 1970s—the kinds that say with misplaced confidence that “the calculator will never have a place in my classroom!” Blanco is not too concerned about these attitudes forming in academia, he said. “Higher education institutions have been resilient because they tend to resist change,” Blanco said. “But when confronted with the reality that change is the only option, we usually figure out a way forward.” Ronnie Sadka, the senior associate dean for faculty at the Carroll School of Management, said he does not see BC’s faculty as resistant to innovations like ChatGPT. “I don’t necessarily think of faculty as this kind of old school—that there’s no innovation,” Sadka said. “On the contrary, many of our faculty have made significant impact on their fields of interest, which manifests their ability to innovate and think outside of the box.” But opinions about AI’s role in education are diverse among BC faculty members, as some express their doubt that it could ever have a place in the classroom. Betty Lai, an associate professor in counseling psychology at BC, said there are psychological reasons why academics tend to feel anxious about new technologies. “One of the things that we know in psychology is that we each develop what we call schemas or ways to understand and organize the world,” Lai said. “And something like AI really disrupts our existing schemas, our ways of understanding how the world functions, and that’s why it can be really challenging for somebody who’s a little bit older.” Lai pointed to the generational

ADITYA RAO / HEIGHTS STAFF MOLLY BRUNS / HEIGHTS STAFF

ChatGPT, a generative AI software, was released in November 2022. divide that dominates the technological have to rebuild what the connections debates of the AI age. These schemas are and figure out and understand explain the stereotypes about young where those connections should be,” people harnessing new technology Lai said. As Lai said, society’s thinking needs better than older people, she said. These schemas also influence to be re-evaluated because AI can young people’s understanding of the work in ways that nobody anticipated. internet. Younger generations have AI’s capabilities go beyond what some accepted technological innovations people can even imagine, Glass said, as natural, Lai said, while older people because AI pulls from a vast wealth of have struggled to adapt, which caus- information. es friction, and in this case, anxiety “I can point it to any specific essay, about AI. improve this business logo, and it can One of Lai’s specific areas of ex- draw on the right knowledge,” Glass pertise is how young minds adapt said. “[AI] has watched every video, and change in relation to massive read every book.” ecological disasters, often caused by Now that a software holding such climate change. Lai said there might an unthinkable amount of knowledge be a legitimate analogy between this is available on every single student’s and how the minds of adults adapt to computer, can any class be taught in a change like AI. the same way? “When you’re younger, you’re used Those who do not adapt to embrace to the world constantly being disrupted AI often fear they will be left behind, and how you understand the world,” Lai Glass said. said. “So, for example, when you’re very “AI will not replace you but somelittle, you learn to walk on flat ground, body who knows how to use it will,” but all of a sudden, you encounter a big Glass said, quoting what he described challenge like stairs, and you have to as a popular mantra. Among all of AI’s ambiguity, Sadka rethink how movement works.” As for the minds of professors un- said there is hope that if any commucertain about AI, Lai said their existing nity can adapt to the technology well, schemas are seriously shaken up by it is academia—he said he sees a bright these technological changes. future ahead. “I think that that’s where the anxiety “Change is a very hard thing,” Sadka comes from—when you have a schema said. “It’s hard in any organization. But and a sense of how the world works, but the type of people we have here to begin that’s been disrupted because now you with are the best.” n

Portal Cultivates Immersive Conversation Space Portal, from A1

“So immediately, I felt that we should do this for longer periods and let more people experience it,” Owens said. “Then, since that time, we’ve had engagements from two weeks to 15 weeks long … six other times.” According to the schedule, the BC portal will connect with portals in Mexico City, Lagos, and Johannesburg, and more over the next two weeks. Owens said each connecting portal has specific characteristics about its location that guide the focus of conversations. “One in Barbados is at a climate research center, and so the people you would talk to are those who are working there, helping to restore the ecosystem in this particular part of the island,” Owens said. “But in some of the places like in East Africa, in Addis Ababa, or in Kigali, those are in places where you might meet with entrepreneurs or artists.” Shared Studios hires local staff in each of the portal locations to facilitate conversations and recruit local experts to join portal sessions, Owens said. These people are called conversation curators.

“They use the sort of museum metaphor of a curator of art, only “The camera is placed in the these are curators of conversations,” middle of the screen, so that you look Owens said. “So they hire staff people, at the people you’re talking to at eye paid staff people in all these countries, level, unlike with Zoom where you’re wherever the portal is to work and looking either at your screen or at the host the conversations on their side.” camera but not both at once,” Owens The portal is often booked by said. entire classes at BC, which break The choice to place BC’s portal into smaller groups to discuss a topic inside a shipping container is symimportant to the class curriculum, bolic of the overall goal of the portal, according to Owens. according to Owens. “We’ve had classes within the “It’s emblematic of a kind of English program, in the English department, about writing narratives commerce in the world—a movement and migration,” Owens said. “We’ve of things,” Owens said. “Usually they had music department classes come go on ships and trains and trucks and in for world music where students carry all the things we buy from one sing or play their favorite songs, and part of the world to another, but it’s people on the other side sing or play a metaphor in the sense that we’re their favorite songs and talk about changing that kind of commerce for what’s meaningful about them.” exchange of conversation.” Owens said the portal has not Owens said he received a grant only been used by classes but also by from the Henry Luce Foundation in BC sports teams and clubs. the fall of 2017 to bring the portal to “We’ve had members of the socBC for a week. He said it was a huge cer team come in and teach juggling success, but he wanted more students skills to young people in a refugee to be able to experience it. Since then, camp or an [internally displaced peothe Global Engagement Portal has ple] camp in northern Iraq,” Owens come to BC six more times. said. “So there’s all sorts of ways in which students can engage in these in a structured way as part of the curriculum, but also, you know, we have clubs—the Gusto food magazine came in last week and talked about food with one of the groups.” While sessions reserved by classes and groups often have a more focused conversation topic, Owens said the walk-in sessions involve more open discussions. “They might talk about music, or food, or politics, or what their daily life is like or whatever, and they’ll ask us NICOLE VAGRA / HEIGHTS EDITOR questions and we ask them questions, The portal arrived on Oct. 23 and will stay on campus until Nov. 16. and you kind of get to know them in

an informal way while learning about the different experiences,” Owens said. According to Owens, students with reservations about entering a walk-in session should view it as an opportunity to step out of their comfort zone. “Bring a friend or two if you want, if that makes things feel better, but there’s always a curator—a student, an undergraduate student—who will be there in the room, helping to lead the conversation if needed and to introduce people,” Owens said. Moira Ujda, head student curator and MCAS ’25, said student curators have the unique opportunity to build relationships with curators in other countries because they often connect to the same portal multiple times. “So part of the upsides of being a curator is that you do get to connect with the curators in other portals too, and you kind of get to see that repeatedly [and] build that connection, which is really valuable,” Ujda said. Olivia Absey-Allen, student curator and MCAS ’27, said she formed a friendly relationship with a woman who was present during her two sessions with the Mexico City portal. “I came in last time for the open hours, and that’s when I actually got to talk to her one-on-one, which was cool, because then I just got to know more about how she came to work at the portal and it felt like much more of a friend conversation … just laughing and making jokes,” Absey-Allen said. Her experience as a student curator helped her gain insight into other people’s lives, Absey-Allen said. “We spent a long time talking in the open hours yesterday about the differences between college experiences here and in Mexico City

as well as just cultural expectations and moving away from your family,” Absey-Allen said. “Like for them, it’s not really common to move away from your family when you turn 18, and I feel like here it’s kind of your expectation.” Owens also emphasized that the student curators gain enormous benefits from their experience. “Their lives are shaped by this because they have much more time to both talk to the people on the other side during the sessions because they’re in there running them, but also they get to see how BC students respond to this, and they help the conversations move along and they help recruit people to come into it,” Owens said. Owens is trying to find a more permanent space for the Global Engagement Portal at BC, he said, so that students and classes can use it more frequently. “Seeing how powerful it’s been for students and for myself over the years makes me confident to say that … this is not a pilot project, this is a proven engagement that really mattered to people and I’d love to see it be more permanent,” Owens said. The overarching goal of the portal is that each participant can have their own unique and enlightening experience based on their interests, Owens said. “I think our minds and our hearts are opened, and I think that’s what I hope people encounter, but in what ways and on what topics … that’s the beauty of it, that people ask questions that interest them,” Owens said. “They think about their own commitments or experiences and share those with others, and each encounter is personalized and distinct.” n

The Heights

Monday, November 6, 2023

M AGAZINE

Global Eats Documents Immigrant-Owned Eateries By Juliana Parisi Heights Staff Unrequited love, betrayal, and the earthy smell of Russian cuisine hang in the air as seven restaurant-goers lift their glasses—Prohibition has just ended, and so has the night’s theatrical production of One Sunday Afternoon. The cast members of this show celebrate their efforts as they dine at Russian Bear Restaurant on Newbury Street, owned by L.B. Mandova, a refugee from St. Petersburg, Russia. This scene occurred nearly 90 years ago, and Boston College history professor Marilynn Johnson recently publicized it, courtesy of the Boston Herald-Traveler Photo Morgue collection in the Boston Public Library. The photo headlines the webpage of Global Eats, a digital humanities project run by Johnson. Global Eats documents immigration history in the Greater Boston area through the lens of various restaurants’ origins. The project records who owned immigrant restaurants, where they were located, where the owners were originally from, and why these immigrants came to Boston. “This work is important because it’s easy to forget that we are in a city with such historical importance,” said Lila Zarrella, BC ’22, who worked alongside Johnson on the Global Eats project. “You see a Paul Revere statue or his house in the North End—you have these figures, but it’s also important to remember other people, the immigrants who have paved the way for Boston today.” Johnson said that the project’s mission is to tell the stories of immigrants and educate the public about who they are, what they contribute to our society, what their backstories are, and what struggles they have faced. “There’s a tendency in American society at large to think, especially among Euro-Americans, ‘Well my

ancestors, they worked hard and they struggled and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps,’ but then to be very negative about immigration today,” Johnson said. Through Global Eats, Johnson also hopes to move the discussion of immigration forward by drawing comparisons between immigrants of the past to those of today. “This website is a way to try and bring the experiences of the older groups and newer groups together,” Johnson said. “They’re not identical. There’s definitely some differences, of race in particular, but there’s also a lot of similarities. If we can get people to understand the similarities of their struggles and hostility that newcomers face, hopefully, we can move the discussion forward.” Global Eats is only one component of a larger project Johnson has worked on for several years. Her book The New Bostonians: How Immigrants Have Transformed the Metro Area since the 1960s, published in 2015, examines post-1960s Boston immigrants along with changes in immigration law. Johnson first established the website Global Boston as an accompanying bibliography for this book, and it soon grew to encompass further immigration research. Since there are approximately 19 pages on different immigrant groups, Johnson said that genealogists, K-12 teachers, professors, historians, and all those in policy fields studying immigrants can benefit from Global Boston. According to Johnson, the information from these pages can be applied to many different fields of study. “I wanted to put vital information from the book onto this website to make it available in a way for different kinds of people and different kinds of purposes,” Johnson said. The most recent addition to the broader Global Boston website is the Global Eats project, Johnson said. She

said that researching immigrant-owned restaurants and studying the cultural transactions facilitated by food are things she has always been interested in. Compared to her book, Johnson said Global Eats allows her to look farther into the past. The webpage’s research starts in the 1890s and jumps forward 30 years into the future when immigrant-owned restaurants boomed in the 1920s. “It’s not just looking at a restaurant, which is cool, but there are more layers there if you choose to see them,” said Meghan McCoy, GMCAS ’30, a graduate student contributor of Global Eats. “It shows communities’ history, how communities have evolved in Boston, and how other communities have been impacted, whether it be by racism, classism, or various ethnic-discriminatory practices.” Global Eats was created with the assistance of undergraduate and graduate students at BC in the 2021 course, Street Life: Urban Space and Popular Culture. The class was a way for Johnson to source data and use digital humanities tools such as ArcGIS Online—an interactive web-mapping software—to conceptualize data in ways the public could understand. This project allowed students to collaborate with each other and with Johnson, she said. Undergraduates researched restaurant owners’ ancestry through the BC libraries to find which restaurant owners were foreign-born. Graduate students acted as leaders for small research groups and cleaned up the data that undergraduate students accumulated. “I didn’t know if it was gonna work, frankly, when we tried it,” Johnson said. “When we had the first presentation, just before Thanksgiving, they showed the first maps, and we were like ‘Wow, we’ve got results!’” Global Eats was an opportunity for history students to generate new

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARILYNN JOHNSON

Global Eats’ mission is to tell the stories of immigrants and their food. knowledge and dig up information on those who have no historical scholarship—resurfacing average people’s history, Johnson said. Johnson’s students collected data using tax records, city directories, licensing records, and more. “Working in digital humanities is harder than writing a traditional article or scholarly essay—it requires an incredible amount of knowledge,” McCoy said. “Digital humanities projects have a really fabulous way of communicating and translating information in highly engaging ways.” Johnson also said she looked into the Boston Licensing Board—the agency that gives liquor and food licenses to service industries. At the back of every annual report, Johnson said it lists where each license holder was born and their countries of origin. “It was a goldmine,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t cover all restaurants because some were very small and did not serve liquor, but there were thousands of restaurants listed over 30 years. That’s where we found what were the most numerous groups.” Zarrella, who has done additional

research and editing on the Global Eats project, conducted work outside of class alongside Johnson at the Jamaica Plain Historical Society’s archives. She said they did this to find the names and origins of restaurant owners who were more difficult to find. “We were sitting with the books in front of us, and I was finding these names we couldn’t find anywhere else, and that was really cool,” Zarrella said. “I remember when we left, my hands were dirty. I was like, ‘I have 100-yearold grime on my hands!’ and that was really exciting.” The Global Eats project is not over, Johnson said. She said she plans to get more students involved by having them go out, interview people, and write stories about “legendary” immigrant-owned restaurants. “Learning about food within immigrant communities is not just learning about recipes—it’s learning about the entire generational history,” McCoy said. “To care about someone’s history is to care about the person—it’s just simply to care. The more caring that we can all do, whatever avenue that’s coming from, the better off we’ll all be.” n

Kearney Uncovers the History of an Overlooked Island By Veronica Pierce For The Heights Have you ever scrolled in on a map so closely that you could see tiny islands off the coast of massive countries? When you zoom in even closer, you discover that there are even smaller islands adjacent to those original islands. You might wonder what is on those islands, who lives there, and what their story is. In his new novel Salvage, which was published in May, Boston College professor Richard Kearney centers the story around salvaging the stories and histories of such islands. The novel follows the life of 14-year-old Maeve O’Sullivan and her family members who live on the tiny Rabbit Island. “An uninhabited island invites you to fill the gaps because there’s nobody there anymore,” Kearney said. “So you kind of salvage their memory. You salvage their life for the future.” Kearney, the Charles B. Seelig Chair of Philosophy at BC, was born and raised in Cork, Ireland, where he became interested in philosophy while studying at Glenstal Abbey, a Benedictine monastery. From there, he went on to study English and philosophy at University College Dublin and Paris Nanterre University (formerly Paris-X). He then served as a professor at University College Dublin, University of Paris, Sorbonne, the Australian Catholic University, and the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis before landing at BC. “When I came here, one of the things that I liked was the continuity of philosophies applied to real living,” Kearney said. “We weren’t just addressing abstract, speculative questions. It was dealing with real issues of suffering and struggle.” Kearney’s love of applied philosophy would eventually bleed over, sometimes unpurposefully, into his literary work.

He began to look at the connections between nature and humans through stories of islanders, he said. Growing up, Kearney lived across from the actual Rabbit Island, previously known as Oileáin Brighide, or St. Brigid’s Island. The island was inhabited until the 1930s, when the line of the last remaining family ended. Kearney often wondered about the stories of these past inhabitants when he returned home each summer. “I was very much just listening to what was going on in the landscape and sort of being inspired by that landscape—particularly the island itself,” Kearney said. “Everything in the book is kind of overheard in some respects, and then, of course, I fictionally recreate that.” Throughout the book, readers can find certain Irish phrases and words that describe the flora and fauna of the natural setting. These words, many of which Kearney said he heard during conversations with locals in Cork, showcase how the Irish language describes the natural environment. “There’s a name for the way the currents of the water move along the shore: súitú,” Kearney said. “When you hear the word, you see and hear the thing, but if you don’t have the word, the thing doesn’t exist. So, there’s a sense that we need to recover our relationship with nature.” Sheila Gallagher, an associate professor of studio art at BC, is a close friend of Kearney’s. Like Kearney, she said she grew up with a deep connection to nature as she lived next to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Vernon, N.J. “Like the main character, I spent a lot of time outside in nature surrounded by a lot of animals,” Gallagher said. “My mother let us get any animal we wanted. I was a totally free child.” It’s important to look back to our roots and examine our past relationship

with nature, Gallagher said—especially when considering the current state of the environment due to climate change. “I think Salvage is about that which is most beautiful and wise about pre-modernity and especially about wisdom of nature and animals,” Gallagher said. “It’s salvaging a kind of healing wisdom and an ability to see human life within a much larger ecosystem.” Kearney’s main character, Maeve O’Sullivan, is a Celtic healer who uses natural herbs to aid her friends and family. Kearney said he starts each public reading of his novel with a scene where O’Sullivan is scavenging for magical plants in the ancient shipwrecks near the island. “With our ecological crisis, we need to be able to have a new relationship to nature and the maritime world,” Kearney said. “It’s the conflict between that way of life and the modern way of life and how Maeve tries to bring the two together.” Hosting Earth, another book of Kearney’s, is coming out next year. This novel also confronts the question of how humans can create a new relationship with nature, he said. Through its story, Kearney said, Hosting Earth argues that the Earth is the ultimate host to all life. Joseph Nugent, a professor of the practice in the English department and professor of Irish studies, said he regards Kearney’s concern toward nature and people as one of his greatest strengths. “I don’t know that you can write a serious novel unless you actually have an understanding of and a concern for people,” Nugent said. “And the setting, which, of course, is based on his own area, suggests his deep involvement in the landscape and local culture.” Nugent, who was born and raised in Mullingar, Ireland, has connected with Kearney particularly through the Irish studies program at BC, he said. Kearney’s passion for many different

PHOTO COURTESY OF RICHARD KEARNEY

Salvage explores the history of tiny islands off the coast of larger countries. fields of knowledge strengthens his approach to the practice of philosophy, Nugent said. “His areas of interest expanded beyond the purely intellectual into what you might call the more profoundly deeply cultural and social areas,” Nugent said. “Increasingly, I think he’s looking towards heritage and the past and spirituality. That wouldn’t have been his original area of focus.” Heritage and remembering are key themes in Kearney’s most recent novel. The title itself is a nod to these concepts, Kearney said. In the literal sense, salvage is defined as something gathered from shipwrecks. In the metaphorical sense, the word salvage means saving something whether it be, in this instance, Irish placenames, history, or the Irish language.

Kearney said the title is largely about salvaging the traditional Celtic spirituality. For ecology’s sake, Kearney said humans should stray from the idea that nature is just a reservoir of objects. “One of the earliest Irish philosophers, Eriugena, talked about God as a current running through all things— animals, plants, the seas, the skies, and humans,” Kearney said. “That view we lost with the loss of Celtic thinking.” When readers finish his book, Kearney hopes they walk away with a feeling of joy for the natural world and those tiny islands that are often overlooked on maps. “I’d like the reader to take away a sense of love for those places,” Kearney said. “You know, a joy in that way of being, which is not just in our past, but our future, and if it isn’t our future, we’re finished.” n

OPINIONS

Monday, November 6, 2023

The Heights

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

My Hair, My Problem

Mary Perez People have talked about my hair for my entire life. They aren’t proud of the fact that I merely grew it out of my head (although some appreciation would be nice)—rather, they obsess on its curly texture. “I love your curls!” “You look so much better with straight hair.” “Why don’t you wear your natural hair more often?” Because it is such a talked-about subject, I have always resented my hair. I, like many other people with curly hair, know the struggle of making it look good. I don’t have the privilege of being able to wake up and walk out the door. At least 20 minutes of my morning are spent playing with my hair and debating whether it’s time to cut my losses and chop it off. That said, as I have gotten older, I have learned to appreciate my hair—but I’m still working on loving it. When I popped out of the womb, my head was covered in thick curls. My mom and grandmother also had curly hair. They understood how to make me look presentable. This was easy to do in my original neighborhood, which had hairdressers who catered to people with different hair types. When we moved to an area filled with straight-haired neighbors and classmates, though, suddenly the topic of my hair was thrown to the forefront of every

conversation. Once I arrived in this new neighborhood, I was the odd one out. My curls were called frizzy, and I felt a strong pressure to conform to my town’s standard. I spent the majority of my middle and high school years trying to make my curly hair fit in. Rather than wearing my big curly hair with pride, I would brush out my curls and put my hair in braids. This all changed in 2020. When the pandemic locked all of us up in our homes, I didn’t care anymore. Who was going to see me? Literally no one. I didn’t need to flatten and manage my hair, and it was free to fall in every which way. During that time, though, I grew to hate my hair even more. After years of damaging my natural pattern, my curls were thrown out of their shape, and they appeared ragged in my mind. I was home then, but after the pandemic, my “not caring” attitude transferred over to the public eye. I just didn’t touch my hair. It already looked bad, so why bother? You were probably expecting isolation and time to play with my hair and products to bring on some type of epiphany—that my natural hair is beautiful, and that I shouldn’t hide my true self from others. Honestly? This is not that type of story. I really didn’t begin to love my hair until I cut off half of it. Suddenly, with half of my hair missing, I had to take serious care of it—and I had to leave it curly. Wearing my hair straight would demonstrate the blunt cuts and crooked lines of my hair-cutting “expertise.” I had to force a hair-loving journey on myself. I tested out different products, new hairstyles and cuts, and learned to love my God-given hair. As my hair started to heal and

develop long-lost ringlets, I started to receive more comments about people’s preferences toward my hair. When you wear your hair one way, and people tell you they prefer it another way, it’s not a good feeling. Especially when you’re an overthinker like myself. Some people still say that to me, and it leads to thought patterns that feed into my self-esteem and make me uncomfortable. Why do people feel the need to talk about my hair? I couldn’t care less about anyone else’s hair, so why does every conversation with people I meet on the weekends first begin with “you have a lot of hair?” Thank you, Captain Obvious. I know that others with curly hair understand this struggle. On top of personal judgments, the topics of hair and hairstyle are inevitably wrapped in racial overtones about “professionalism.” At my job, a coworker once made a comment about the frizz that came off my curls on a humid day. They said I needed to look “professional,” and that I needed to wrap my hair up. Why isn’t frizzy hair “professional?” Would it be professional if I straightened my hair and killed my curls? To her, the answer would probably be yes. I’m done trying to conform to an unobtainable standard. My hair is curly, and I have to let the curls breathe. If I don’t do my hair one day, the world will keep on spinning—but please leave my hair out of conversation. I don’t want to know how it makes you feel. I’m trying to love it on my own, and that is a personal journey I have to embark on alone.

The Holiday Season

November brings a great deal of anticipatory holiday cheer, and perhaps a bit of controversy over the ever-important question: Is Nov. 1 the start of the holiday season? For those who spend the year dreaming of mistletoe and candy canes, this past week marked the start of winter festivities. But to those who love Thanksgiving, an early-November arrival of Christmas music and an impertinent Elf on the Shelf should not show up weeks before we set up our fall-themed Thanksgiving tables. No matter which camp you fall into, try to avoid feuding with your roomies too much. Instead, remember the joy and gratitude that ought to surround all holidays.

Mary Perez is a columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at mary.perez@bc.edu.

Pre-Finals Work Lull

Although it sometimes feels like the schoolwork never ends, the lull between midterms and finals can be a refreshing break. By now, we have figured out our class patterns, gauged the relative importance of our readings, and figured out how long problem sets really take. So, at least for a while, we can organize our schedules and stress levels to fit in a little break here and there. With finals fast approaching, it is important to take advantage of the current assignment lull to fit in “me time”—and a good amount of roomie bonding and relaxing movie nights. All of this will give us the energy to power through when the work picks up again.

GRAPHICS BY PAIGE STEIN AND PARKER LEAF / HEIGHTS EDITORS

Homecoming and Holistic Education

Andrew Lim The marquees are going up, the brisk autumnal air is creeping in, and the Aussie delegation is left to shiver into the colder months (less slip, slop, slap, and more brr … brr … brr … ). Even the red and yellow leaves echo the colors of the day. In other words, homecoming week recently took place at Boston College—and spirit is in full swing. But that school spirit so joyfully displayed at BC is all but unimaginable back in Australia. To the Aussie mind, being a student is just one of many things you do. Blokes will pop into uni for a morning lecture, then head out for an afternoon shift at work, before maybe catching up with mates down at the pub in the evening. I go to the University of Melbourne—but the ‘UniMelb spirit’ or the ‘UniMelb bubble’ doesn’t really exist. By contrast, here, as documented by past Heights writers, many students’ weekday lives are bounded by the streets of Chestnut Hill. Where UniMelb’s admissions website discusses “career outcomes” and “degree[s] with global reach,” BC’s speaks of “the formation of the whole person” and questions of “character”: the university as encompassing more than just academics. In the United States, college football is a staple from coast to coast, replete with tailgating, cheer squads, and designated stadiums. In Australia, players jump into the footy draft straight after high school—leaving university players to be watched by their mates, not a TV crew! It’s not just a sporting thing, either. Take student government, for example. Here at BC, you have UGBC—whose last budget reached

$362,450—much of which goes to student initiatives, dinners, and balls. UGBC works within bounds set in a quasi-paternal way by the college itself. Student governance is a way to achieve the University’s aims: to aid in holistic education, both intellectually and socially. And, its activities almost never have repercussions outside the University—candidates are not affiliated with or endorsed by major political parties. Its very name—undergraduate government—offers a vision of the college as a microcosm of the country, its own miniature civilization of young minds being shaped and molded into leaders of tomorrow. Back home, the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) couldn’t be more different. For starters, there’s the name—it’s a union, connected to the trade union movement (duly-belted refrains of Solidarity Forever here remain optional …). Its last annual expenditure totaled a whopping $8,194,425—over 22 times its UGBC equivalent! Proudly independent of the university itself, UMSU manages all clubs and societies, runs a welfare program (from food banks to legal aid), and even influences federal and state education policy. With elections aligned to federal factions and producing notable Aussie pols, it’s serious business. Indeed, as famously shown in the documentary The State of the Union, UMSU’s predecessor fell apart in an electoral fraud and media suppression scandal by way of a $44 million property deal gone south. It goes beyond bus trips, balls, and bonhomie. To its supporters, UMSU is a brave advocate standing up for student interests when the university doesn’t or can’t—to its detractors, it is full of union thugs as drunk on power as their full-time counterparts. Whichever you agree with, it couldn’t be more different from the almost paternalistic U.S. approach. But why? Why on earth would two British settler colonies have diverged so drastically on the purpose and form of higher education? Well, to answer that, we must go back to the United Kingdom. You see, in Oxford and

Cambridge (or, as a certain fictional pommy snob would put it, ‘the universities … both of them’), the terms “university” and “college” have particular meanings. Those two universities are comprised of constituent colleges—the colleges organize housing and welfare, as well as small group seminar teaching, while the university arranges lectures, exams, and awarding degrees. Seven years after the colony of Massachusetts was founded, Harvard got its start in 1636. It was seen as equivalent to the Oxbridge colleges, not the universities—the academic commune where students lived together, not the administrative hub. Perhaps its founders even envisioned, once enough colleges had been formed, connecting them into a university. But, with a paucity of colleges over the coming years (what a 1911 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica called a certain “colonial poverty”), the holistic college-based part of Oxbridge education became central—with America offering college as the cornerstone of an integrated education system It was a great experiment to forge a learned society. By contrast, Australia, born of a penal colony, took a long time to conceive a university. Its first, the University of Sydney, did not get started until 1850, some 62 whole years after the first colony was founded. Indeed, my home university was explicitly founded as secular, non-residential, and for both undergraduates and graduates—an Oxbridge University sans colleges, if you will. Perhaps because of its late development, uni was never as central to education in Australia as in the United States— where five of the first six American presidents attended university, only two of the first six Aussie prime ministers did.

Andrew Lim is a columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at andrew.lim.3@bc.edu.

No Night Games!

Very little will deter Boston College students from finding their way to home football games—we show up rain or shine at any hour of the day. All students hope is that just one game will occupy the night instead of taking over an entire Saturday. But so far this year, there have been exactly zero home night games for BC football! We at Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down encourage you to continue to keep supporting our team in spite of this. We must hold hope that next year will bring our well-deserved allotment of night games.

BC Throat Tickle Returns

With classmates increasingly absent, meetings moving to Zoom, and coughs echoing through the library, the inevitable college fall cold has hit BC’s campus once again. Whether your symptoms consist of a headache, chills, or a sore throat, finding yourself sick mid-semester is both frustrating and inconvenient. Doesn’t the flu realize that we have things to do?! If you do get sick though, give yourself a break. Take an extra few hours of sleep, relax, drink plenty of fluids, and look at this as a chance to refuel before the end-of-semester push.

ARTS

The Heights

Monday, November 6, 2023

A10

The Struts Prove Rock Is Not Dead With New Album By Maddie Mulligan For The Heights In a time where pure rock and roll is starting to fade from popularity, The Struts’ fourth studio album Pretty Vicious, released on Friday, proves that rock is not dead. The Struts, a British band formed in 2012, rose to fame with their first album Everybody Wants, which features their hit song “Could Have Been Me.” The Struts strive for a rock persona, drawing inspiration from artists like Queen and The Rolling Stones. Opening for bands like The Who and Guns N’ Roses and even co-headlining with the Foo Fighters, The Struts are truly leaders of the next rock generation. And with their new album Pretty Vicious, it is clear that their prominence in rock is deserved. This album is perfectly rock, with its consistent use of strong drum lines, guitar riffs, and a thumping rhythm. Its songs cover the spectrum of bold and loud to quiet and thoughtful, demonstrating the band’s range within the rock genre. The album starts off with the song “Too Good at Raising Hell,” which was released as a single on June 30. Unapologetically catchy, this song is without a doubt one of the best displays of The Struts’ skill, playing on pop music’s foot-tapping rhythms while also delving into rock in its best sense. The electric guitar melody remains stagnant throughout the track, allowing the lyricism to shine as lead singer Luke Spiller

draws the listener in with his vocals. “Think I’m getting too good, too good at raising hell / But I’m wearing it well / I’m getting too good, too good at raising hell / Oh I’m ringing the bell,” Spiller sings. This chorus, backed by the wellknown clanging of cymbals often seen in rock songs, is one that can get stuck in the listeners’ heads for hours. With quickly spoken, rhyming verses to separate the choruses, this song is organized in a way that all the focus goes to the song’s message of the tiring nature of partying. Since The Struts are the modern embodiment of rock and roll, it is only natural that they would sing about the idea of enjoying life too much. With “Too Good at Raising Hell,” however, the band aims to show the benefits of slowing down. On this track, partying becomes excessive—even for a rock star. “I run a hotel without any beds / Run a catwalk without any threads / Driving myself right into the storm / Burning my cash to keep myself warm,” Spiller sings after the chorus. When paired with a bridge of simple yet gripping vocals, “Too Good at Raising Hell” sets up this album to be the epitome of what rock should be: carefree, extravagant, and entertaining. Following “Too Good at Raising Hell” is the title track of the album. While “Pretty Vicious” does not lean into the realm of pop music like “Too Good at Raising Hell” does in its danceable beat, it nonetheless holds

MUSIC

‘Pretty Vicious’ Released Nov. 3, 2023

the same intrigue with its moodier tone set by a slower tempo and mellower instrumentals. The lyrics once again are the star of this song—the only showy aspect comes from Spiller’s powerful voice. This song swings to the other side of rock, focusing less on being loud and boisterous and more on being sentimental and reserved. “You can be pretty vicious / I guess nobody gets you like I do / I know you too well, but I’m under your spell / ’Cause you’re pretty, pretty, pretty,” Spiller sings. These two rock sounds—the classic, bold, and loud version and that of the more gentler version of rock that often relates to love—are carried through the rest of the album. Songs like “Hands on Me” and “S omeb o dy S ome day ” are defined by their more tender tone and are slower and more stripped down compared to “Rockstar” and “Do What You Want,” which are the embodiment of pure rock and roll with their shouted lyrics and flashy instrumentals. The album can ultimately be represented by “Gimme Some Blood,” a song with a style that is simply rock. Starting off slower, the song suddenly opens up as the chorus comes in, the instrumentals swelling and shifting the song from simple and reserved to grandeur and bold. This song includes both the gentler side of rock in its beginning before becoming louder, the chorus exploding similarly to other rock songs like “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis and “Everlong” by Foo Fighters. As a whole, The Struts have managed to make Pretty Vicious a perfect rock and roll collection. If there is any band that is worthy of leading rock into the modern age, it would be The Struts. n

MUSIC

‘DANSE MACABRE’

Released Oct. 27, 2023

’80s Band Shows Off Sinister Sound By Maddie Mulligan For The Heights While Duran Duran may no longer be a household name, the band’s new album DANSE MACABRE shows that it has not lost the musical talent that cemented its popularity in the ’80s and ’90s. Duran Duran was one of the most successful bands in the 1980s, with 21 singles in the Billboard Top 100. Its classic synth pop sound became a facet within the new wave genre. The band—a leader in the second British Invasion—was finally inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year after having been in the music industry for over 40 years—the band released its first major hit “Girls on Film” in 1981. Just five days before its induction ceremony, Duran Duran performed a one-off Halloween concert, which, according to the band’s interview with Rolling Stone, eventually became the inspiration for a Halloween-themed album. DANSE MACABRE was thus born, and Duran Duran released the 13-song album on Oct. 27—just in time for Halloween. The album features a mix of original songs, covers, and mash-ups and remakes of the band’s deeper cuts. Duran Duran hones in on the darker side of its musical prowess with each song’s eerie tone. Although the band is known most for its upbeat hits like “Rio”

or “Hungry Like the Wolf,” some of its lesser known songs like “New Religion,” which has a darker undertone, show just how easily Duran Duran can swing to mystery and drama. “NIGHTBOAT” starts the album off strong, clearly setting a Halloween mood with sinister instrumentals. Duran Duran delves right into its classic synth sound, creating a creepy atmosphere with the tolling of a bell underscoring a hauntingly hollow rhythmic beat. Add this to the mysterious story in the lyrics, and it is clear that the band is attempting to create an album meant for the Halloween season. “Stillness overcomes me in the nights / Listen to the rising water moan / I’m waiting / Waiting for the night boat,” Simon Le Bon, the band’s lead singer, sings. The following song, “BLACK MOONLIGHT,” is where Duran Duran truly demonstrates how little time has altered its sound. With its quintessential and intriguing guitar lines and layering of voices in the chorus, this song easily could have been released in the band’s heyday. Le Bon’s voice, sounding unchanged, is what draws this song into being quite possibly the hit of the album. The chorus sounds as if it was written for one of the band’s 1980s singles.

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Compilation Contest Features Student Work By Julian Roch-Hernandez Heights Staff For students looking to test the waters of music production, the Boston College Music Production Club’s (BCMPC) Compilation Contest offers a rare chance to have their work uploaded to leading streaming platforms, from Spotify to SoundCloud to Apple Music. “The first compilation contest attracted me to the club because it gave me an outlet to share my music with other BC students,” Harry Zhang, last year’s contest winner and MCAS ’26, said. According to the club’s Instagram, the Compilation Contest is a submission-based contest, in which club members and interested students can submit originally produced songs or live recordings. BCMPC is hosting a release event for the finalists of the contest on Friday at 6 p.m. in the Vanderslice Cabaret Room. Finalists’ submissions are edited and uploaded to streaming platforms. The event will feature live DJ

performances by club members Daniel Mayzlish, MCAS ’24, and Juan Gomez, CSOM ’24, followed by an opening speech from Alexander Aboutaam, president and MCAS ’24. Then, the club will then play edited versions of the finalists’ submissions. Aboutaam said the goal of the contest is to motivate and encourage students on campus to share their music with others. He said the club’s executive board aims to expose members to different steps of the production process, from brainstorming sounds to distributing finished records. Aboutaam said after the submission deadline on Oct. 22, e-board members gathered to select their favorite songs based on their production quality, lyrics, and instrumentals. “We review songs together, essentially, like a label would, but we also give critical and technical feedback,” Aboutaam said. “Maybe the kick drum was thumping too much, maybe the vocal sample didn’t match quite right. There’s a lot that sounds acceptable during a casual listen, but it takes

trained ears to pick out smaller inconsistencies or errors in production.” Michael Bader, program coordinator and MCAS ’24, said students receive feedback through a mixture of email messages and in-person comments at general meetings following the announcement of the contest’s finalists. Bader said there were over 30 different submissions in this year’s contest, and the e-board confirmed there are 16 winners whose tracks will be played on Friday. According to Aboutaam, all submissions for the Compilation Contest are edited to play one after the other without drastic or imbalanced shifts in volume levels between each track. Aboutaam said after the Compilation Contest, e-board members spend extra time in the studio fine-tuning the final submissions with their creators. The e-board reviews certain audio elements including dynamics, compression, and frequency to perfect each track before it is released on streaming platforms. For some, including Harry Hol-

man, club vice president and MCAS ’24, the largest appeal to the club is the Compilation Contest itself because the submissions chosen as finalists are uploaded to streaming platforms. Holman handles the distribution process, which he said is a difficult job given how competitive today’s music market is in the digital age. BCMPC was created in the fall of 2021, making it a relatively new student organization on campus. Aboutaam said he has been a member since the club’s inception. “There weren’t more than 10 students and it was hardly a club,” Aboutaam said. “There were no scheduled weekly meetings and at the start of the fall 2022 semester, there were two members: myself and Saama Sane.” After the student involvement fair at the beginning of the fall semester and the creation of the Compilation Contest last spring, Aboutaam said the club saw over 70 new faces at its first general meeting at the start of the semester. As president, Aboutaam said he has led

the e-board to increase outreach on campus. “There are so many freshmen in the club … probably half our members are freshmen, and more than half are people who were not in the club last year,” Aboutaam said. Bader said the club welcomes all students and club members do not have to participate in the contest or feel pressure to produce high-quality, finished sounds. In addition to being a place for students to learn about the technical software and creative processes involved in production, BC Music Production Club is a community where students can meet and share their own projects, according to its members. “I love being in a place where everyone is so passionate about making music and willing to offer feedback and sort of expand on each other’s creativity,” Griffin Bassett, club member and MCAS ’24, said. “ I think it’s really cool for that.” n

Editors’ Picks: Single Reviews By Josie McNeill, Sofía Torres, Jack Weynand MGMT

The Beatles

“Mother Nature”

Conan Gray

“Now And Then”

For listeners familiar with MGMT’s early, electronic-indie releases, the acoustic sound of “Mother Nature” may come as a welcome surprise. The slow guitar strumming and comingof-age lyrics bring the listener on a pleasant adventure back to their childhood.

“Killing Me” “Now And Then,” released on Nov. 2, is a nostalgic song that features the voices of all four members of The Beatles with the help of AI. “And if I make it through it’s all because of you,” Lennon’s vocals repeat, making the song a homage to the band’s time together.

“Killing Me,” released on Oct. 31, is the perfect Halloween companion. The song embraces Gray’s new retro-sounding style as the story of a failing relationship is paired with a metaphoric murder. “I wanna die, but you keep me alive / You’re killin’ me,” Gray sings.

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The Heights

Monday, November 6, 2023

ARTS Sofia Coppola Gives a Voice to Priscilla Presley By Ernest Romero Editorial Assistant If there were any legitimate complaints regarding Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, it is that there simply was not enough of it. If audiences are looking for a whirlwind of romance, womanhood, and betrayal, Priscilla is undoubtedly the movie to watch. Priscilla, which follows Priscilla and Elvis Presley’s 14-year romantic relationship, is the film adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s 1985 biography, Elvis and Me. Directed by renowned filmmaker Coppola, the film tells the story of how love consumes the young Priscilla, leaving her devastated after

Elvis’ return to the United States after he fulfills his military obligations. Despite criticism from Elvis fans and even the late Lisa Marie Presley, Priscilla beautifully unveils the truth of Priscilla’s experience living under Elvis’ control through masterful cinematography, stellar acting, and subliminal storytelling. The story starts in West Germany in 1959 as 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) passes idle time in a diner that is littered with American soldiers and their families. Life is dreary for Priscilla, who has just moved from Austin, Texas to begin high school with the rest of the army brats.

MOVIE

‘Priscilla’ Released Nov. 3

Things seem bleak for the young Priscilla until a soldier takes it upon himself to invite her to a party thrown by none other than 24-year-old rising rock and roll sensation Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi). Her life is altered forever. Priscilla’s ensuing love for Elvis begins a tumultuous relationship filled with manipulation, infidelity, and loneliness, as Priscilla navigates her new life as Elvis becomes a shining star. Following the success of Elvis, a biopic of Elvis’ life starring Austin Butler, Priscilla is a story of womanhood that challenges the victimized image of the king of rock and roll on screen in a way that has never been depicted before. With a series of costume, wig, and makeup changes, Priscilla elegantly captures the stark contrast between Priscilla’s various facets. Slight alterations to Priscilla’s appearance mark new stages in the titular character’s life. From the infatuated and bare-

faced ingénue of the late ’50s to the dazed newlywed drowning in eyeliner and hairspray, Priscilla’s costumes and makeup help the audience understand the elegant woman emerging from the shackles of Elvis’ control. In tandem with stellar costuming, so much of the film’s central messaging is found subtly in frames of quiet moments in Priscilla’s life as Elvis’ muse. Recurring sequences of Priscilla wondering who she is without Elvis compel the audience into a state of solitude and despair. This focus on the mundane, yet quintessential, intricacies of girlhood that characterizes the majority of Coppola’s projects fits perfectly into Priscilla’s narrative. In contrast to past depictions of Elvis as a star fallen from grace, Priscilla humanizes Elvis in the eyes of the woman he loved. Without pulling the film’s focus away from Priscilla’s growth over her and Elvis’ relationship, Elordi depicts the star as an insecure yet conceited man-child, incapable of viewing Priscilla as more

than a timid teenager he could mold to his liking. Spaeny’s talented performance paired with Elordi’s nuanced portrayal of Priscilla’s reason for being invites the viewer into the devastatingly stunning lives of one of Hollywood’s most infamous couples. Despite her age, Spaeny flawlessly encapsulates the journey of the impressionable Priscilla and the turmoil surrounding her first and greatest love from ages 14 to 28. Through erratic outbursts of frustration, longing stares, and periods of complete despondence, Spaeny wholly dedicates herself to the dramatization of every stage of Priscilla’s life. Dependent on Priscilla for reassurance and adoration depicted through delicate touches in bed to crazed acts of violence, Elordi and Spaeny beguile the audience with an unrivaled chemistry from the moment of their meeting until the rolling of the credits to show the audience Priscilla’s real story. n

Maisie Peters’ Album Lacks Poetic Lyricism By Alexandra Irausquin For The Heights Maisie Peters is at her best when she allows her honest and poetic lyricism to shine. In The Good Witch Deluxe, her lyrics don’t always hit that mark. Peters introduced six new tracks to her sophomore album, The Good Witch, on Oct. 27. The new songs convey a message about the nonlinear nature of moving on. Peters fully embraces a new sound—marked by synth-pop production—on the majority of the deluxe tracks. The loud and exciting tones are seen most on tracks where Peters expresses her self-confidence and reclaims her identity in the wake of her break up. The sounds match her vocal volume to help announce that she is healed. Peters’s new style doesn’t always work in her favor, though. The heavy

focus on production and one-off lines often takes away from the lyricism that drew many to Peters in the first place. This created the feeling that Peters was looking more to create the next viral TikTok sound than a cohesive song. The new additions kick off with “Holy Revival,’’ where Peters is clear that she is ushering in a healing phase of her life through tongue-and-cheek lyrics. “Guy on a Horse” expands on this idea, with Peters criticizing her ex’s tendency to look down on her from a high horse. Comparing herself to Joan of Arc, Peters uses religious imagery in both songs to show that she is becoming an elevated version of herself. But Peters gives returning fans something to look forward to with “Yoko” and “Truth Is.” “I meant, ‘Don’t go’ / It came out as, ‘Goodbye’ / You said, ‘Fine,’ when you should’ve said, ‘Or we could try?’

/ So, now we’re seeing other people,” Peters sings in “Yoko.” Peters draws a comparison between herself and Yoko Ono in “Yoko.” Ono is often credited with breaking up The Beatles, but the topic is debated. The comparison mirrors the complicated end of her relationship with the misunderstanding that commonly surrounds Ono and The Beatles. In “Truth Is,” the struggle of moving forward is explored in a more transparent and open way than in the previously discussed tracks. Without the use of metaphors, the listener can see how Peters really feels about her emotions. “But it doesn’t stop the lump in my throat / Time will heal / But I’ll always be a little bit broke,” Peters sings. “Truth Is” dials back on production as Peters opens up about how it seems that she was the only one to walk away from the relationship in

any pain. “Still you believe there’s no wound and no grudge / Who took all of my trust then abused it / Truth is, you did,” Peters sings in “Truth Is.” “The Last One” ends the album on a high note, introducing both a sonic and thematic shift. With honest lyrics against the backdrop of guitar and drums, Peters gives the listener the best she has to offer. “With your wax wings in a back room / Got my arms out, tryna catch you / As you’re fallin’ through the ceiling,” Peters sings.

Peters draws a comparison between someone in her life and Icarus. She explains that despite the person’s self-destructive tendencies, she will be there for them when they fail. The beautiful song emphasizes the importance of understanding and empathy in a friendship. Despite weak production in some tracks, Peters’ additions to The Good Witch do elevate the album. Listeners, both old and new, have a reason to return to the album and to continue exploring Peters’ discography in its entirety. n

MUSIC

‘The Good Witch Deluxe’ Released Oct. 27

Taylor Swift Keeps Reinventing Herself in Re-Release By Parker Leaf Graphics Editor When the clock struck midnight on Oct. 27, Taylor Swift released 1989 (Taylor’s Version), an album of experimentation and new

beginnings, including five “From The Vault” tracks. “I was born in 1989, reinvented for the first time in 2014, and a part of me was reclaimed in 2023 with the re-release of this album I love so dearly,” Swift wrote on Instagram.

MUSIC

‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ Released Oct. 27

In terms of the re-recorded tracks, the production of each song was more clear than the original album, and, while her new harmonies on “Bad Blood” were an added surprise, her changes to “Style” were too drastic so that the original version may be preferential to listeners. On the morning of Oct. 27, Swift released a 1989 (Taylor’s Version) [Deluxe] which included only one additional song, “Bad Blood” (feat. Kendrick Lamar). In her original 1989 album, Kendrick Lamar sang on “Bad Blood,” and one of his lines became a tradition at the

Eras Tour. Swift’s five vault tracks were: “Slut!”, “Say Don’t Go,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” “Suburban Legends,” and “Is It Over Now?” Each of the songs fit the overarching theme of Swift’s reinvention of her self image as she moved to New York City and cut her hair. As a result of the provocative title with an exclamation point, it is fair to expect “Slut!” to be similar to “Bad Blood” or “Shake it Off.” However, upon the first note, it becomes clear that this song fits into the category of the slower songs of the album like “You are in Love.”

“But if I’m all dressed up / They might as well be lookin’ at us / And if they call me a slut / You know it might be worth it for once,” Swift sings. When Swif t relea se d the original 1989 album in 2014, she was the target of a lot of criticism and slut shaming, and her relationships were put under a microscope. The chorus of “Slut!” highlights the frequency of her experiences with name-calling, while turning it into something

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SPORTS “BREAKING THROUGH” The Heights

Monday, November 6, 2023

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2023–24 BC MEN’S BA SKETBALL PRE VIE W

With new facilities, a Preseason All-ACC Second-Team center, nine returners, and a third-year head coach, Boston College men’s basketball has its horizons set on a potential March Madness berth.

CHRIS TICAS / HEIGHTS EDITOR AND KELLEN DAVIS / HEIGHTS STAFF

By Jack Bergamini Assoc. Sports Editor Jaeden Zackery doesn’t care about Boston College men’s basketball’s ranking in the ACC preseason poll. Facing dismal rankings and low expectations has become almost a yearly tradition, according to Zackery. This year, BC is ranked No. 12. “We’re used to it,” Zackery said. “We expect the same thing every year coming into the season that we’re gonna be at the bottom. Nobody expects much from us. And we take it as disrespect. And we’re gonna show that this year.” Heading into year three of the Earl Grant era, outsiders do not expect the Eagles to take a massive leap forward, but the program itself thinks overwise. Along with receiving a hefty investment in the Hoag Pavilion, BC returns nine players—and four starters in Zackery, Quinten Post, Devin McGlockton, and Prince Aligbe—from last year’s squad. “Year three is when you really expect to make that kind of leap,” senior Mason Madsen said. It’s also fresh off a summer tour in Europe playing against teams in Italy and Spain. The tour was made possible because of BC’s large number of returners, according to Grant. “Once we had them coming back and we were going toward the tour, that gave me a lot of confidence our program is on the right path to get to year three,” Grant, BC’s head coach, said. But is all that enough for the Eagles to break their 14-year NCAA Tournament drought? “The goal is that we play in March and have a chance to advance in March,” Grant said. “I don’t know what that means, but I know that means progress, that means breaking through to the other side.” BC certainly made progress in 2022, going 9–11 in conference play compared to 6–14 in Grant’s first season. Last season, however, ended underwhelmingly, as North Carolina blew out the Eagles in the second round of the ACC Tournament. The biggest difference this season, though, is the return of one player— Post.

Returners Centers/Forwards Perennial 7-footer Post opted to return to the Heights for his fifth year of college basketball after testing the NBA draft waters. The 2023 ACC Most Improved Player and 2023 Preseason All-ACC Second Team member said he always knew he wanted to return to BC if the NBA wasn’t calling his name. “The transfer portal is such a big deal, and the NIL money is a whole big deal, but I always knew that I wanted to be here at BC,” Post said. Post averaged a team-high 15.1 points in 19 games in 2023. He also became the first college basketball player in 10 years to have a 50/40/80 shooting percentage line while scoring more than 15.0 points per game. But the key for Post will be staying healthy. His foot injury that kept him out of BC’s first 13 games last season hurt the Eagles’ postseason chances

later in the season after rough non-conference losses to Maine and New Hampshire. And his late-season ankle injury essentially ended any ACC Tournament chances despite Post suiting up against the Tar Heels. “That’s the biggest thing, right?” Post said of staying healthy. “Being a 7-footer, sometimes it’s hard, like, with your body and things, but I feel good. I feel in great shape, and I’ll be there against Fairfield 100 percent.” If Post does get hurt, the Eagles have the means to attempt to replace him. Sophomore Armani Mighty, fresh off a summer playing for Canada’s U23 national team, is positioned to back up Post after playing sparingly in 2022. The 6-foot-10 center gained 20 pounds of muscle this offseason, according to Grant, and while he can’t shoot like Post, Mighty can certainly body up around down low and command a defensive presence. “I think it’s time for him to go get some minutes and play,” Grant said. Redshirt sophomore power forward McGlockton was perhaps BC’s most surprising player in 2022. After not playing freshman year, McGlockton broke into the Eagles’ lineup as a nonstats player who’s also an emphatic roller and finisher around the basket. McGlockton only got better as the season progressed, starting in 10 of BC’s final 11 games after beginning the season coming off the bench. “I’m gonna still work for my teammates,” McGlockton said. “I’m gonna go on the glass, set screens for my teammates, and do everything I can for the team.” Forward Aligbe joins Post and McGlockton at BC’s 3–4–5 starting tandem, as the sophomore is poised to take a step up this year. Aligbe averaged 6.1 points and 4.3 rebounds in 2022, displaying his athleticism and hitting clutch shots for the Eagles. But he often struggled with confidence, appearing confused on offense and hesitant to shoot—not always living up to his four-star potential. That will need to change this season if BC wants to be a legitimate ACC contender. Guards Zackery, Madsen, Chas Kelley III, and Donald Hand Jr. round out BC’s returners in the backcourt. Depth won’t be an issue at the position, and there will certainly be a battle for playing time between Madsen, Kelley, Hand, and freshman Fred Payne. But it will be Zackery manning one of the two starting guard positions with transfer Claudell Harris Jr. when the season begins. The junior Zackery has commanded BC’s offense the past two seasons alongside Makai Ashton-Langford. But with Ashton-Langford and his 12.4 points per game in 2022 gone, it’s up to Zackery to help fill that gap—out of everybody, Grant says he has seen the most improvement this offseason from Zackery. “He’s been a really steady hand day to day,” Grant said. “He’s been more aggressive getting to the paint making decisions.” But aggression and passing up open

shots is something Zackery struggled with at times last season, citing confidence issues. Zackery, however, said that will change this season. “I feel like this year I need to step in that role to be more aggressive and not even just get points but just create for anybody,” the 10.7 points-per-game scorer said. It won’t just be Zackery replacing Ashton-Langford, though, as Grant sees the replacement more as a collective effort. “That’s a committee job, in terms of just a lot of guys doing a little bit more to make up [for Ashton-Langford’s departure],” Grant said. Kelley will be a big part of that committee as BC’s likely sixth man. The sophomore found himself playing a lot last year due to Hand tearing his ACL in the second game of the season. Expect Kelley, who showed his potential with 17 points in a win over Virginia Tech last season, to only improve in 2023. Sharpshooter Madsen is looking to bounce back after struggling in his first year in Chestnut Hill in 2022. Madsen averaged just 5.8 points on 30 percent 3-point shooting. He did manage to provide solid defense and cameo offensive spurts amid mistake-free basketball. Madsen, however, revealed he was recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, which is likely why his play took a hit last season. He said his new medication should make him feel as good as he’s ever felt. “I still have pain, so it’s like an everyday thing just to get through practice,” Madsen said. “But I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel kinda, and I’m just excited to play healthy for the first time since my freshman year.” Hand, a sophomore, returns with only one college basketball game under his belt. Fully recovered, the highly-touted recruit brings scoring and shooting to the Eagles’ rotation—something BC desperately needs to improve on after shooting 31.9 percent as a team from three last season. But throughout the offseason, and now the preseason, the Eagles have improved in those areas, according to Grant and Post. “This is the best shooting team I’ve been a part of in my three years at BC—100 percent,” Post said. Hand expects to make an impact immediately. “I feel like I’ve put in a whole bunch of work to get back,” Hand said. “So once I get into position to be in a game, make plays and stuff, I’m gonna make it happen.” Grant, however, is a bit more cautious with Hand returning to form right away. “ Yo u ’ r e gonna have to under-

stand—you miss a year, you’re gonna have to be patient and find some peace in knowing this process might take a little while,” Grant said. Acquisitions BC acquired only one transfer this offseason, but it’s a significant one in Harris. Harris averaged 17.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.3 assists last season at Charleston Southern. He’s a long, athletic guard who can create his own shot while also stretching the floor, seamlessly fitting into the Eagles’ needs. “I feel like I’m a big piece in the offense when it comes to scoring the ball and making plays,” Harris said. “I’m kind of filling in [Ashton-Langford’s] shoes, expected to do what he did, plus more.” Harris described how he’s come to learn from the play of teammates like Zackery and Post, including where they like the ball on the court, when they like to cut, and more. Being a new scoring threat, Harris said, will only help the others find more open looks. “The next level of my game is to make plays for others,” Harris said. “I feel like me scoring opens the floor up, attracting two, three [defenders].” BC’s freshman class consists of guard Payne, forward Elijah Strong, and center Jayden Hastings. With BC’s plethora of returners and depth, it may be challenging for these freshmen to see the court. But that decision is becoming harder day after day, according to Grant. “The young freshmen—I’m gonna have to give some of those guys a chance,” Grant said. “Fred Payne and Elijah Strong have

both been really really good.” Post couldn’t even highlight one of them because each has been so impressive in the preseason. “All three of them have played at a very high level,” Post said. “They’ve fit right in the system. They’re learning, they’re eager … they don’t give up a lot of the defensive end.” The 6-foot-2, left-handed Payne brings a fun-loving energy, but also a furious defensive

mentality. “Anything Coach Grant needs—if you need to stop, you need a bucket,” Payne said. Hastings likely won’t see the floor barring injuries, as he’s behind Post and Mighty. But the IMG Academy product brings front depth the Eagles haven’t had since Post backed up James Karnik in 2022. Strong is in a similar position, as he brings some raw, youthful athleticism that could be utilized if Grant needs to reach deep into his bench. Outlook This is easily the most talented team of Grant’s tenure so far. Not only should Post be an All-ACC First Team candidate, the returning core of Zackery, Aligbe, McGlockton, and Kelley will only improve, and the addition of Harris and recovery of Hand cannot be understated. BC has historically suffered terrible non-conference losses early in the season under Grant. The season opener against Fairfield on Nov. 6, though, should be smooth sailing. Richmond, however, on Nov. 15, and St. John’s on Dec. 10 are two games to keep an eye out for. The rest of the non-conference matchups are more than manageable for the Eagles. Expect a 9–2 non-conference finish. The Eagles open up ACC play against NC State on Dec. 2 in Conte Forum, 10 months after getting trounced by the Wolfpack at home. Other notable home ACC games include North Carolina on Jan. 20, Syracuse on Jan. 30, Miami on Feb. 17, and Virginia on Feb. 28. BC will take on Duke on the road on Feb. 10. Continuing Grant’s upward trajectory in the conference, expect BC to win more than last year’s nine total conference victories. An 11–9 conference record seems like a reasonable leap, with confidence that, if the Eagles are rolling come March, an ACC Tournament run is in the cards. Going all the way is the goal, according to Harris. “We’re trying to win the ACC Championship,” Harris said. “Nothing below that. Honestly, I got high hopes for this team.” There should be high hopes in any coach’s third year. That’s what “breaking through to the other side” means. But overblowing expectations leads to disappointment, as we’ve seen time and time again with BC. And it’s no easy task making the NCAA Tournament in the ACC—Clemson finished with a 14–6 ACC record in 2022, and missed the tournament. Expect BC to firmly qualify for the National Invitation Tournament for the first time since 2018. n GRAPHIC BY PARKER LEAF / HEIGHTS EDITOR

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“2023–24 T H EBC WOMEN’S U N DBAESKETBALL R D OPREG VIES ”W

Behind returning guard JoJo Lacey and sixth-year head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, Boston College women’s basketball looks to break through the bottom third of the conference and establish a winning culture.

NICOLE WEI / HEIGHTS STAFF

By Robert Brennan Heights Staff Matt Capaldi Heights Staff JoJo Lacey knows the drill. The Douglassville, Pa. native has been a part of Boston College women’s basketball for as long as anyone currently in the program. She’s no stranger to disrespect. “We’re always going to be the underdogs,” the senior guard said. “We’ll always be looked at as the underdogs because we feel like BC’s name hasn’t really been put on the map in a few years.” BC hasn’t qualified for the NC AA Tournament since 2006, and a side f rom a pair of decent seasons in 2019–20 and 2021–22 where the Eagles finished 20–12 and 21–12, respectivel y, B C h a s been a bottom-dweller in the ACC for the past decade. It has lived in the bottom third of the conference for the majority of the last 15 years and clocks in at No. 13 in the ACC preseason poll this year. “We all kind of feel like there’s a chip on our shoulders where we’re underdogs ,” B C head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, who led the Eagles to a 16–17 record last season, said. “We want to surprise people. We want to play well.” Bernabei-McNamee’s squad this year has a lot of unproven pieces. The Eagles are without much of their production from last season’s roster, due to the departure of ACC All-Freshman point guard Taina Mair and starting center Maria Gakdeng . Mair and Gakdeng combined to average 22.4 points per game a year ago. Gakdeng

herself averaged 11.3 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game and led the program in points, rebounds, and blocks. Bernabei-McNamee has struggled to retain talented players in recent years—starters Taylor Soule, Cameron Swartz, and Marnelle Garraud all left the program after the 2021–22 season in addition to Mair and Gakdeng this past offseason—but that’s not stopping the sixth-year head coach from expecting big things from her group. “[This season] really can go as far as I think these women want it to go because I think we’re very talented,” Bernabei-McNamee said. “We have a lot o f young players coming in the mix, but we also

have finally some seniors and people that know what’s going on.” A Re vamp e d Offense One w ay that B er nabei-McNamee said she is trying to boost BC’s chances of competing in the ACC is

with a new offense. In a new era where positionless basketball is becoming more common, BC is trying to use its versatility to its advantage. “It’s a four-out, one-in, but it’s not like a four-out, one-in where there’s a post player,” Lacey said of the new offense. “We’re all versatile guards. So it’s like a four-out, one-in high post. Like you can drive, you can kick it out to the shooters, you kind of like, everyone has a chance to score at that moment in time.” Although adapting to a more modern style of play might have to come organically, Bernabei-McNamee said the play style of her players, along with some injuries, forced her hand somewhat in changing up the system. Junior Ally VanTimmeren, who played in all 33 games last season and averaged 5.7 points, is out for the season with a knee injury, according to Bernabei-McNamee. “We changed the system to fit the personnel,” Bernabei-McNamee said. With the absence of VanTimmeren, players like senior 6-foot guard Dontavia Waggoner, who plays bigger than her size, will need to step up on the glass for BC. “Me personally, I’ve always been like, one to rebound, so I mean, I don’t think that much of my game is changing in the sense that we do have to, we do have Teya [Sidberry], we do have Andrea [Daley]—everybody on our team can rebound,” Waggoner said. Waggoner led BC in points per game, rebounds per game, and steals per game last season, averaging 13.2 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 2.9 steals. New Pieces in the Mix On the defensive end, Lacey said she thinks the Eagles might be more fluid even without Gakdeng and Mair. Gakdeng ranked third in the ACC last season in blocks per game with 1.8. “I feel like when [Mair and Gakdeng] were on the court—

no shade against them—but it felt like they had to guard one position or we had to hedge the guards because we couldn’t switch the small guard [Mair] or we couldn’t switch the post player [Gakdeng] because she couldn’t guard,” Lacey said. Sidberry, a sophomore transfer from Utah, is one player expected to make a big impact on both ends of the court. The 6-foot-1 forward averaged just 4.6 points and 3.4 rebounds in just 10.8 minutes per game a year ago, but should be a starter for the Eagles. “She just has a knack for scoring and then she has a knack for making plays happen, whether it be getting a big rebound or a steal on the defensive end,” Bernabei-McNamee said of Sidberry’s game. Rounding Out the Starting Five Joining Sidberry, Lacey, and Waggoner in the starting lineup are junior Andrea Daley and redshirt junior Kaylah Ivey. Daleyhas made the biggest jump this summer, according to Bernabei-McNamee. “Andrea Daley is really taking her game to becoming a three-level scorer on the offensive end, and defensively she’s picked up,” Bernabei-McNamee said. Daley became a solid player for BC last season, bringing grit on the defensive end and a willingness to attack the rim on offense. She averaged 9.6 points and 6.4 rebounds, but struggled with her outside shot, shooting just 25.4 percent from behind the arc. Ivey is a name that many Eagles fans will remember from BC’s 2021–22 squad. The point guard missed all of last season with a knee injury, but she is back for what will now be her fourth season with BC. She will likely begin the season as the team’s starting point guard and will provide a veteran presence. “Honestly, I feel really excited about the season,” Ivey said. “I mean, I did miss all of last year, and it was tough sitting out, but now I feel 100 percent healthy, getting my knee right, having trust and

confidence in my knee, so I feel ready to help my team get wins this year.” Youthful Depth Having Ivey back will be key for a fairly young BC team. One of the young players that will benefit from her tutelage is JaKayla Thompson, Ivey’s presumed backup. The freshman floor general out of Louisville, Ky., is one of the team’s most promising young players, and she will likely grow into a larger role as she gets more experience at the collegiate level. Another intriguing member of the freshman class is freshman forward Lili Krasovec. It’s unclear what the Budapest, Hungary native’s role will be on the team this season, but her height and wingspan along with her shooting ability—which she showed off at the program’s open practice—will make it tough to keep her off the court. Sophomore guard T’Yana Todd will be another key rotational piece for BC this year. Todd was one of the Eagles’ best pure shooters in 2022–23, shooting 30.3 percent from three, and should continue to provide a threat from the perimeter. Outlook With a loaded schedule, which includes matchups against ranked opponents like No. 7 Ohio State on Nov. 16, No. 10 Notre Dame on Jan. 11, and No. 8 Virginia Tech on Feb. 11, BC will certainly be tested. While the Eagles will not be intimidated and will stick to their underdog mentality, according to Bernabei-McNamee and Lacey, just a few conference wins could be in the mix due to their transformed roster. More conference wins than last year could be out of the picture, but BC will likely be right around the same five-ACC victory mark. “I feel like this year it’s just coming at every game and just being like, ‘Alright, we’re gonna start from the beginning and we’re gonna finish it,’” Lacey said. “I feel like teams should be scared or should not want to play BC because we’re gritty, so I feel like that’s something to look forward to.” n GRAPHIC BY PARKER LEAF / HEIGHTS EDITOR

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Defense Paves Way in Win at Syracuse Football, from A1 It appeared BC would initially break the 10–10 tie with just over 12 minutes remaining in the f o u r t h q u a r t e r. C a s t e l l a n o s completed a 21-yard pass to tight end Jeremiah Franklin, and Kye Robichaux followed with a 3-yard rush. But on the ver y next play, Robichaux received the ball on a short route without seeing Syracuse Boston College 17 defender Syracuse 10 Justin Barron. Barron flattened Robichaux, causing the Eagles’ primary running back to fumble and hand the ball back to the Orange. Robichaux did not return for the remainder of the game, and BC’s additional running backs, Alex Broome and Pat Garwo III, had already been ruled out prior to the start of the game. “ He ’s hu r t i n g r i g ht n o w,” Hafley said of Robichaux, who finished with 77 yards on 23 carries. “I have a ton of respect for that guy. He’s a heck of a football player.” Elijah Jones, however, gave BC the ball right back at the 11:38 mark, as he ripped an interception out of Umari Hatcher’s hands for his second pick of the game and fifth of the year. B u t th e E a g l e s ’ o f fe n s i v e struggles continue d, and B C settled for a punt on 4th-and-4. While BC ran a fake punt for Sam Candotti on BC’s 31-yard line prior to the stop, which converted for a gain of six yards, Hafley opted to punt on the following 4th-and-4 on BC’s 41-yard line. Syracuse’s offense proved no better, as it punted back to BC. This time, however, the Eagles to ok adv ant age. C a stell ano s

orchestrated an 11-play drive capped off with a 7-yard touchdown to put BC ahead by seven points, which ultimately secured the win. Injuries forced fifth-string running back Andre Hines Jr. into the game, and he finished with five carries for 32 yards, helping Castellanos get the field position for his touchdown. “I gave him the game ball in there,” Hafley said. “He had tears in his eyes—guys [picked] him up. And it’s a moment he’ll never forget. That’s college football. That’s why you stick it out. That’s why you don’t leave.” Syracuse starting quarterback Garrett Shrader was ruled out an hour before the game, forcing backup Carlos Del RioWilson to take the reins. The redshirt sophomore had a rough introduction, as BC freshman CJ Clinkscales hauled in a pointblank interception six minutes into the defensive back’s first start. BC subsequently started its second drive of the game on the

50-yard line, capping it off with a 24-yard Liam Connor field goal to go ahead 3–0. While Del Rio-Wilson may have started slow, the backup burned BC on the ground on the Orange’s first scoring drive. After running back LeQuint Allen bursted for a 32-yard run, Del RioWilson took a 27-yard designed quarterback run to the house, torching the Eagles’ unprepared defense in the process to put the Orange ahead 7–3 with 33 seconds left in the first quarter. But the Eagles’ defense didn’t go away, as Jones hauled in his first interception of the contest at the 8:47 mark of the second quarter, tracking Del Rio-Wilson’s deep ball immediately. “He’s playing the best football he’s ever played,” Castellanos said of Jones. “He’s a next-level guy.” BC took advantage, as offensive coordinator Steve Shimko finally committed to the run, calling 12 ground plays en route to a 19play, 80-yard drive that chewed up the clock. Castellanos capped

it off with a wide-open pass to linebacker Owen McGowan to put BC ahead 10–7 heading into halftime. Haf le y ’s aggressiveness to go for it on fourth down—he converted on 73 percent heading into Friday’s affair—backfired on him in the third quar ter. Castellanos couldn’t extend his reach past the Orange’s defensive line on 4th-and-2 with 1:04 left in the third quarter, handing Syracuse the ball on its 24-yard line. Allen exploded for a 56-yard run, setting Syracuse up for a 36yard field goal to tie the game at 10 apiece 42 seconds into the fourth quarter. But Castellanos’ game winning drive proved to be just enough for the narrow, 17–10 win. “We find a way to win, and that’s how it is,” Hafley said. I don’t care how we win. I don’t care what it looks like. That’s five in a row. We’re 6–3 and we’re bowl eligible. I mean, I think our guys kind of felt disrespected being picked to lose this game.” n

PHOTO COURTESY OF AIDAN GROELING / THE DAILY ORANGE

Dino Tomlin, pictured, collected a team-high five receptions for 41 yards against the Orange.

Notebook: Elijah Jones Stars in Sixth Win By Graham Dietz Sports Editor Owen McGowan’s toothy grin said it all. Stumbling into the post-game press conference with sweat-matted hair, sporting a Boston College football tracksuit from top to bottom, McGowan panted before he responded to the media’s questions on Friday night in the JMA Wireless Dome. McGowan, a redshirt sophomore out of Canton, Mass., has played in all three levels for BC—special teams, offense, and defense. His 2-yard touchdown reception at the end of the second half grabbed a 10–7 lead for the Eagles in their 17–10 takedown of Syracuse, and it marked his first-career touchdown. Echoing BC head coach Jeff Hafley’s sentiments, McGowan talked about the fact that depth made the difference in the Friday-night road matchup. Players such as McGowan, Andre Hines Jr., and CJ Clinkscales had to step up amid injuries. “It speaks to the culture at BC,” McGowan said. “There’s guys who haven’t played, and they get their moment and they’re ready.” McGowan wasn’t the only contributor from the lower depth chart Friday, as Hines stepped into the backfield for an injured Kye Robichaux and ran for 32 yards on five carries in the fourth quarter. Clinkscales, a redshirt freshman defensive back, recorded his first interception, picking off backup quarterback Carlos Del Rio-Wilson on the Orange’s first drive of the game, which BC converted into a field goal. And redshirt sophomore Cole Batson, though a starter in most games, sealed the victory with a late interception. An all-out effort from the entire Eagles’ roster was the benefactor and paved the road to glory for the fifth

straight week. No BC team has won five in a row since 2010. Here are three observations from the win. Dominating Unseen Battles, Failing to Convert For the second straight week, BC defeated its opponent by just seven points despite totaling at least 40 minutes of possession. In both matchups, the Eagles ran at least 80 plays, which has thwarted the other teams—Syra-

plays down the field into its points. The Orange were few and far between in terms of scoring, but when they did, it was noticeable. On Syracuse’s first touchdown of the game, running back LeQuint Allen shook off a defender on the right side of the offensive line to burst over midfield for 32 yards. A gaping hole in the middle of the field let up a hole for Del Rio-Wilson, who exploded for 27 yards to go up 7–3 just before the end of the first quarter. BC, on the other hand, scored

PHOTO COURTESY OF AIDAN GROELING / THE DAILY ORANGE

E l i j a h J o n e s b r o u g h t i n t w o i n t e r c e p t i o n s i n t h e v i c t o r y.

cuse and Connecticut—by at least 40 more plays. It’s slightly astounding to see that BC has beaten these opponents by just one score despite accumulating total control over the football. Hafley shrugged and shook his head when he saw the numbers for himself. “Gotta score, gotta score,” he muttered quietly before taking questions. “You know we’re down a lot of guys,” Hafley said. “It’s a gritty win. We scored when we needed to.” While the Eagles led in total offensive yards on Friday at a 350–246 margin, its 3.7 average yards per play signaled out one thing—BC didn’t really complete a huge play down the field, unlike the Orange. In comparison to the Eagles’ touchdowns, which involved chipping away yard by yard and clearing out the clock, Syracuse transformed big

on drives that both lasted just around eight minutes. Injuries were a part of this, as BC’s top playmakers in Ryan O’Keefe and Alex Broome were both out, and some frisky throws from BC quarterback Thomas Castellanos also subscribed to the matter. The signal caller only averaged 4.5 air yards per attempt. All that being said, BC managed a near 50 percent success rate on third down, going 9 for 20, and went 3 for 4 on fourth down. The Eagles also pulled off a fake punt in the fourth quarter to keep a drive going that ended in, ironically, a punt. Getting into the final fourth of the field was an issue all game, but when BC did get into the red zone, it scored on all three of its trips. Elijah Jones for Defensive MVP? Cornerback Elijah Jones came into

the week with just 11 catches allowed on 35 targets—one of the best marks for any defensive back in the country. On Friday, Jones added his second multi-interception game of the year, playing lock-down defense all night long and terrorizing Del Rio-Wilson. On Syracuse’s final offensive drive of the matchup, a Jones pass deflection led to the backup’s fourth pick of the night. He is now tied for second in the nation in total interceptions with five. “I trusted the defense to stop them,” Hafley said. Castellanos gave credit to Jones specifically. “He’s playing the best football he’s ever played,” Castellanos said. “He’s a next-level guy.” On his first interception of the night, Jones tracked backwards, covering Syracuse’s Donavon Brown all the way into the end zone on a go route. Jones pivoted, turned his head on a swivel, and let a few seconds pass before pinning the ball to his chest with both of his arms out. Jones secured the pick cleanly for the touchback to give BC the ball back with 8:47 left in the first half. Jones’ second interception, and the Eagles’ third of the game, displayed an even more impressive defensive awareness. After a costly fumble on a Robichaux catch and run gave the Orange the ball with 12:27 left in regulation, it took just three plays for Jones to snatch another one. Del Rio-Wilson dropped back and fired a dart to wide receiver Umari Hatcher on his backside. Draped below the wideout, Jones reached his hands into the pocket between Hatcher’s hands and the tucked football, quite literally ripped the ball out of its socket, and came away with the turnover. The Eagles entered the matchup ranked second to last in interceptions in the ACC. After the four-interception game, they are now sixth with eight on the year.

Injuries Limit the Run Game It is clear that the rushing burden has been placed on Castellanos, and it stems from the injuries to BC’s run depth. This burden has firmly shut a padlock on the quarterback’s ability to work in tandem with the rest of the ground attack, and with so much rotation on the depth chart, the load is solely being put on his back. After posting a 128-yard, two-touchdown performance on the ground against Georgia Tech in Week Eight, Castellanos has managed just 132 rushing yards since starting running back Pat Garwo III was ruled out for the season. Broome was out for Friday’s contest and Robichaux got decked into an injury during the affair. This could be a serious problem for a team that still has three remaining conference games. With an empty backfield due to an injury-rattled roster, Castellanos has been forced to turn to the air, which is definitely a less reliable option. Offensive coordinator Steve Shimko mostly ran screen passes against the Orange, and while some worked for gains of 5-plus yards, a good chunk of them lost yards or went for no gain. When Castellanos did look downfield to throw, there wasn’t a reliable chance he was going to convert. The man under center completed just 20 passes in 37 attempts for 165 yards and a touchdown. His longest pass was for 21 yards. He recorded 87 yards on the ground, which is no small feat, and it’s a huge step up from his 45-yard rushing performance against the Huskies. But if the Eagles want to remain hot and continue their five-game win streak, Castellanos is going to need options to both sides of his hips in order to not get battered play after play. The “one-man offense” is definitely starting to apply to the Eagles, and it will likely remain that way until the injuries stop piling up. n

IN FOCUS

Monday, November 6, 2023

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The Heights

Eagles Open Hockey East Play Undefeated No. 1 Boston College men’s hockey swept UMass Lowell in its first conference series.

PHOTOS BY PAUL CRIADO AND OWEN BIENEN / HEIGHTS STAFF