The Heights, Sept. 11, 2023

September 11, 2023

Assets Up, Lobbying Down: Inside BC’s Tax Filings

Top Five FY 22

NPS Union, Officals at Odds

By annie LaDD reiD Asst. Newton Editor

After almost a year of negotiations between the Newton Teachers Association (NTA) and the Newton School Committee (NSC), the two organizations are at odds.

Ariana Foster, a fifth grade teacher at Lincoln-Eliot Elementary, said Newton teachers are organizing to settle a new union contract with the district as soon as possible.

Narrow Escape

By Graham Dietz Sports Editor

If people attending Boston College football’s Week Two matchup against Holy Cross thought the Crusaders looked like the home team, they wouldn’t be totally incorrect.

When severe weather suspended the game with 1:58 left in the fourth quarter, there was an unmistakable presence emerging from only one side of Alumni Stadium. It wasn’t BC’s. The Crusaders had just received the ball after the Eagles failed to convert a third-and-long situation and punted to Holy Cross’ 10-yard line.

Officials then penalized Quintayvious Hutchins for unsportsmanlike conduct,

adding 15 yards to the spot of the dead ball.

As players exited the field, a sea of purple-adorning fans made it blatantly clear who wanted the win more.

Four points away from Holy Cross’ first win over BC since 1978, students weren’t going to let a strong drizzle and lightning keep their energy down. As the Crusader faithful embraced the rain with open arms, tearing off shirts, screaming “Mr. Brightside,” and streaking across the turf, more and more Eagles fans walked away from the game.

After a rain delay that lasted for two hours and 12 minutes, it took one play for Holy Cross (1–1) quarterback Matthew Sluka to take a designed run all the way to the Eagles’ 40-yard line.

Three plays later, BC avoided disaster, as Sluka drifted out of the pocket to his right and fumbled the ball, which Vinny DePalma recovered, to give the Eagles (1–1) a 31–28 win.

“I don’t care what it took, there’s a minute and 58 seconds left,” Hafley said of the Crusaders’ final drive. “Anything that happened in the game, throw it out, just go play and find a way to win the game, and we did.”

BC utilized a run-heavy approach on its first offensive possession. Third-string running back Kye Robichaux danced through the goal line to complete a 14-play, 85-yard scoring drive.

Freshmen Gather for Convocation

By KaryL CLifforD

Asst. News Editor

In the minutes leading up to 6 p.m. on Thursday night, thousands of freshmen gathered on Linden Lane, readying to march down the street and head to Conte Forum for the 2023 Freshman Convocation.

After they arrived, author and convocation speaker Trady Kidder asked the assembled freshmen to imagine themselves in the shoes of the many homeless people living in Boston.

“How, for instance, can you keep yourself clean in a city that has almost no public bathrooms?” Kidder asked. “Such deficits can make some homeless people seem incurably primitive or even alien, but that’s only if we see them from the corners of our eyes.”

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Kidder, the author of Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People, also spoke on behalf of Jim O’Connell, who was unable to attend due to health reasons.

“I want to separate that there was supposed to be someone else here with me, the main character in the book that I’ve written, Dr. Jim O’Connell,” Kidder said. “He is ill in the hospital.”

O’Connell not only serves as the president of Boston Health Care for the Homeless, but he also established the nation’s first medical respite program in 1985 and created the nation’s first digital medical record for a homeless program, according to BHCHP’s website.

The union asked for higher wages, but the district has met its request with pushback, Foster said.

“The last thing we want to do is to be in this process all year long,” Foster said. “So I think we want it to be as short and sweet and low impact for our students as possible.”

The current negotiations come after a campaign to raise taxes, which would have provided additional funding for the NPS budget, partially failed in the spring.

And the district faces continued scrutiny after it announced plans to cut staff positions earlier this year as a result of the failed override vote.

See NPS, A4

NewMo Cuts Rides

By Connor Siemien Newton Editor

On Sept. 5, Newton in Motion, also known as NewMo, reverted its pool of eligible users to select groups in the city, such as lower-income individuals and the elderly, due to a decline in outside funding and grants.

“[NewMo] had city support, but the city was also very instrumental in getting a lot of funding from grants,” Josh Ostroff, director of transportation planning in Newton, said. “In the fiscal year that ended in June, NewMo’s budget was almost $1.3 million, and that was done with only $275,000 of taxpayer funding. So, while it was very successful, those grants did not keep pace with our needs.”

The city launched NewMo in 2019 to provide door-to-door transit service for seniors, expanded the number of cars in its available fleet, and eventually allowed all people in Newton to use the rideshare service.

See NewMo, A4

Elise Jarvis

ALINA CHEN / HEIGHTS STAFF

KELLEN DAVIS / HEIGHTS STAFF

This Week’s Top 3 Events

Convocation Speaker Talks Jim O’Connell’s Life

Convocation, from A1

Kidder then began to discuss the life of O’Connell and the journey he took to become a doctor.

“He was a gifted working class kid, got one B in his four years at Notre Dame,” Kidder said. “It took him about 10 years to sift through all the various opportunities that he had, and he decided on medicine.”

O’Connell wanted to attend the University of Vermont for medical school, but the school thought he was too old to be a doctor at age 30, believing he would not have sufficient stamina, according to Kidder.

“So he settled for Harvard Medical School and went on to receive his residency at the

Massachusetts General Hospital,” Kidder said.

Before beginning his fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, two Massachusetts General doctors asked O’Connell to interrupt his training and spend a year helping create a health care system for Boston’s homeless people.

“Jimmy didn’t want to make that detour in his career,” Kidder said. “He didn’t have time to go … He accepted it because he thought he couldn’t refuse.”

O’Connell went on to serve the homeless community for 35 years, eventually founding and becoming the president of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.

“It has become a model of what can be done to alleviate suffering

among the city’s poorest people, ” Kidder said. “The program serves about 11,000 homeless people a year, offering them a wide array of services, filling prescriptions— about 1,500 a day—fixing teeth and making dentures.”

Kidder concluded his convocation address with advice to students on how to break out of the bubble at BC and help the homeless community in Boston.

“The biggest thing that Jim would say … would be talk to them, look at them, smile at them,” Kidder said. “We can even estimate that is the biggest devastating problem homeless people suffer from, which is the sheer loneliness of their condition and that they’re just invisible for so many of us.” n

Remembering Chemistry Professor Jeffery A. Byers

By NaTalie arNdT News Editor

Chemistry professor Jeffery A. Byers, who taught at Boston College for 13 years before he died in August, was a world-class scientist, according to Dunwei Wang.

“First and foremost, he was a great scientist,” Wang, chair of BC’s chemistry department, said. “In his area of inorganic chemistry, polymer chemistry, he was world-class. And this was reflected by the research achievement, research papers, and research grants for our work he has received.”

Byers began teaching at BC in 2011 after receiving his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the

California Institute of Technology.

According to assistant chemistry professor Jia Niu, Byers primarily focused his research on the chemical recycling of plastics.

“Jeff had a very strong interest in developing new chemistry that allows a new generation of plastic that can be reused and recycled,” Niu said. “And he developed a new chemical method, where you can depolymerize this type of plastic.”

Niu said the method Byers developed will allow scientists to break down acrylic plastic and turn it into recyclable plastic.

“This actually creates a circular economy, meaning that you are changing the lifecycle of the plasma from linear into a circular, such that you can very efficiently recycle

and reuse those plastics,” Niu said. According to Niu, Byers also established a program for high school students called “Paper to Plastics,” where students visited BC’s campus to learn about polymers and plastics.

to inspire students to just take the common waste papers and then, through a chemical and biochemical approach, convert them into recyclable plastics,” Niu said.

Kyle Lee, a student of Byers and MCAS ’24, said Byers’ active work toward environmental sustainability through recyclable plastic made him stand out as a professor.

“I think his impact really stretches in the fact that he is one of the only few professors in the department working on this kind of broader environmental impact in a way, specifically, in the focus of chemical recycling,” Lee said.

Outside of his research, Byers also loved to teach, said Bill Thompson, a member of Byers’ research team.

“He designed this new program

“Most research faculty here only have to teach one class a semester,” said Thompson, who is a 3rd-year Ph.D. candidate in GMCAS. “He would teach his class, and then once or twice a week he would teach us a different class on top of that because he really valued learning, and not just learning what you were working on, but learning a variety of related chemistries.”

Byers’ passion for teaching and learning helped his students greatly, Wang said.

“[His students] benefited tremendously from his deep and broad knowledge,” Wang said. “Whatever you talk about, he just [had] so much to say, because he

was so insightful. He was just very, very helpful. Outside the classroom, he really had the students’ well-being and futures and career development in mind.”

Thompson also noted Byers’ ded ication to his students, not only as a teacher, but also as a mentor.

“Jeff was really a great mentor,” Thompson said. “He really could get into the weeds about things and he really did care about … each of his students progressing and learning and becoming a better chemist. Regardless of how that was, he just wanted to see that you were growing.”

Lee said the trust that Byers’ placed in him to assist with his research inspired him to apply to graduate school.

“His trust in me to do research for him and to work on these important projects kind of really solidified my goals and my desires to pursue graduate school and to also pursue maybe becoming a professor like him in the future,” Lee said.

The chemistry department will continue doing the work that Byers loved in his memory, according to Wang.

“We can’t change what has happened,” Wang said. “We couldn’t revive him, but we’ll cherish the memories left behind and then we just need to continue doing what he loves the most, which is science—chemistry.” n

Hafley Remains Highest-Paid Employee at BC

By NaTalie arNdT

News Editor

Football head coach Jeff Hafley and men’s basketball head coach Earl Grant were the highest-paid employees at Boston College during the 2022 fiscal year (FY22), according to the University’s 990 tax filings. Hafley earned $3,057,985 and Grant earned $1,857,901.

After Hafley and Grant, the next highest-paid employees were John Zona, BC’s chief investment officer and associate treasurer; Jim Christian, former men’s basketball head coach; Frank Cignetti, former football offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach; Patrick Kraft, director of athletics, and James Husson, senior vice president for University advancement.

Zona earned $1,198,230, Christian—who was fired in February 2021 after six and a half years at BC—earned $933,595, Cignetti earned $839,875, Kraft earned $838,951, and Husson earned $759,472.

BC’s net assets totaled $6,546,399,748 by the end of FY22, increasing $234,463,310 from the previous year.

The University donated $75,000 to the Allston/Brighton-Boston College Community Fund, $20,000 to Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa, and $50,000 to the Friends of Turkana in FY22. BC donated $70,000 less than in FY21.

According to the 990, BC paid $75,000 to Cassidy & Associates—a lobbying agency—to “assist management in the identification, development, and presentation of institutional initiatives for consideration by committees of Congress, federal regulatory agencies, and others.” This marks a $155,000 decrease in pay from last year.

The University also paid the Jesuit community on campus a total of $5,315,176, which is a $324,093 increase from the previous year, for “instructional, administrative and institutional services, which include the ser-

vices rendered by the University’s Jesuit officers.” BC earned $774,559,212 in tuition fees—a $38,984,101 increase from last year—and gave $251,425,222 in financial aid to 8,838 students. The University

also gained $2,537,577,210 from its equities, $125,352,801 from real estate, $455,390,903 from fixed income, and $440,635,191 in cash, according to the 990.

During FY22, BC received $291,578,587 dollars in dona -

tions. Over the past five years, BC has accumulated a total of $1,038,654,562 in grants, gifts, and contributions. BC also received 14 pieces of art totaling $21,897,634 as well as various books and publications totaling $107,332. n

“He was a great scientist. In his area of inorganic chemistry, polymer chemistry, he was world-class.”

UGBC Senate Holds First Meeting of the Year

B y W ill M artino Asst. News Editor

UGBC’s Senate held its inaugural meeting of the 2023–24 academic year on Tuesday night, highlighting plans to enact change within the organization and around Boston College’s campus.

“At our core, we’re trying to leave BC a better place than we found it,” Meghan Heckelman, UGBC vice president and LSEHD ’25, said.

The Senate appointed various members to procedural positions, including Ryan Milligan, academic affairs committee chair and MCAS ’26, as parliamentarian, and Katie Garrigan, intersectionality committee chair and MCAS ’25, as president pro tempore.

Heckelman also nominated Senator Cristina Gregory, MCAS ’26, as secretary.

The Senate appointed two new members. Jackson Sigalove, a member of the track and field team and MCAS ’24, was named

student-athlete representative.

Lindsay Meier, MCAS ’26, was appointed as the environment and sustainability policy coordinator—a position created by the Senate in its last meeting of the 2022–23 academic year.

Speaking with The Heights after the meeting, Heckelman said she wants to encourage the Senate to talk less about problems and more about solutions.

“That’s gonna be our goal— really to just take action steps [and] introduce practical things to drive real change,” Heckelman said. “By the end of the year, we want to have real results for students.”

Heckelman also added that another of her goals is to build a stronger direct line of communication between UGBC and the student body to better share its progress on initiatives.

“I think that people often hear about UGBC from a second-hand source and don’t hear from us directly,” Heckelman said. “Those second-hand sources are great, and it’s good

to connect with students, but we want to be really in the room where it happens and touching base with students on a more regular basis.”

Looking at the year ahead, Heckelman said the Senate will once again strive to focus on the

Lima Shares Experience With Sexual Violence in Colombia

B y C hristine l ee

For The Heights

Jineth Bedoya Lima, a Colombian journalist, women’s rights advocate, and survivor of sexual violence, shared the difficulties in living with and learning to overcome trauma during an event on Wednesday.

“You learn how to transform the pain, transform your tears and the oppression in your heart, into something that allows you to live,” Lima said. “Because it affects you physically, emotionally, and there is no court of justice that can repair that.”

Lima spoke to Boston College students and faculty about her experiences as a victim of sexual violence at an event co-sponsored by the Women’s Center, journalism department, women’s and gender studies program, and the Center for Human Rights and International Justice.

Lima was kidnapped and sexually assaulted in both 2000 and 2003 while she was reporting amid armed conflict in Colombia. After these abductions, Lima said she has yet to feel entirely safe, regardless of where she is.

“I have seven guards because my head has a price in Colombia,” Lima said. “Even being in Boston, knowing that here I am safe … in my mind I am never safe. Perhaps I will never feel safe in my life. What happened to me, it happens to thousands of women and people around the world who have faced sexual

violence—who have to survive through a war.”

Lima criticized the Colombian government for failing to provide reparations to victims of sexual violence during wartime and disregarding the stories of thousands of women. Sexual violence was used as a way to spread fear and exert power during the decades-long conflict between paramilitary groups and guerrilla groups in Colombia, she said.

Lima also noted the discrepancy between Colombia’s official data and her own research on sexual violence. While Lima’s and other women’s research found that close to two million Colombian women were raped in one decade, only 35,000 cases were listed in official government data, she said.

The Colombian government’s lack of commitment to tackling sexual violence is a crime, according to Lima.

“In this moment, what we would like to see in Colombia is the justice court recognizing that the biggest harm that the war has caused is sexual violence,” she said. “The human beings who are in that office lack a lot of empathy to put themselves in the shoes of the victims. The court has not opened the cases of sexual violence, and this is one of the worst crimes that Colombia has committed.”

Lima filed a lawsuit against the Republic of Colombia in 2011, alleging the Colombian government failed to protect her

from her abductions, torture, and rape. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled in Lima’s favor in 2021, holding the Colombian state responsible for the abduction, torture, and sexual violence she endured while working as a journalist.

According to Lima, however, Colombia did not take any measures to provide her with appropriate reparations. With a lack of support from Colombian justice courts and the government, Lima said she had to take action by telling her story and enabling other women to share their stories of sexual violence.

“I decided that if the state’s not going to do something about it, I will figure it out,” Lima said. “I have the will and the strength to do it because I’m a journalist and I learned that I couldn’t stay silent, but also because there are a lot of people who cannot speak up as loud as I do. And I am not speaking on their behalf. I am trying to empower their voices. They need to be heard.”

Lima said that through journalistic activism, she hopes to open the discussion on sexual violence during war and prompt the Colombian government to prioritize the issue. She said she hopes other women who are fighting against sexual violence will gain justice in the near future.

issues that affect all BC students.

“Things like dining, laundry, [and] housing,” Heckelman said. “It’s a little bit harder to get stuff done in those areas because they’re so long established, but we’re hoping to kind of chip away this year by being more diligent.”

Heckelman said she holds high hopes for the progress the Senate will be able to make in the coming year.

“I think that last year was a great step,” Heckelman said. “But I think that we could be great this year.” n

BC Law Student Runs Campaign for Malborough Mayor

By Will Martino Asst. News Editor

On Boston College’s Newton Campus, law students grind through long days of classes, lengthy readings, and grueling essays with their eyes on the J.D. prize. Among them, one student is balancing this challenge with another mission.

Samantha Perlman—a thirdyear student at BC Law pursuing a dual degree in urban and environmental policy and planning from Tufts University—is running for mayor of Marlborough, Mass.

According to her, local government needs the touch of a new generation.

“I felt like if I wanted to see young people in office, I needed to also be willing to do it myself,” Perlman said.

Marlborough, a city of just over 40,000 residents, is a halfhour drive from BC’s campus. It is also Perlman’s hometown.

Pitted against four other candidates, Perlman is the only woman in the running and the youngest in the pool. If elected, she would be the youngest mayor in Marlborough’s history. But in this election, Perlman said age might not equal experience.

“I’m the only one who’s running who’s been elected city-wide before,” Perlman said.

Following her graduation from Emory University in 2017, Perlman said she initially worked for a civic engagement and education non-profit before deciding to return her focus to Marlborough.

“I was helping all these young people in their own communities make a difference and was also living where I grew up,” Perlman said. “It was really important for me to also be making an impact where I am.”

Perlman said this realization led her to join the Marlborough Cultural Council in 2018. According to Perlman, she then noticed how few women and young people were active in local politics— especially in the Marlborough City Council.

“It was a different perspective on the city, and I didn’t think it represented me,” she said.

So in 2019, Perlman made history as the youngest woman ever elected citywide to Marlborough City Council.

Shortly thereafter, she decided to pursue one of her long-term goals of earning a law degree. She then enrolled in a dual program at BC Law and Tufts University.

“I really believe in equality and justice and wanting to make a difference and the law being a tool to help advocate for people,” she explained.

With Marlborough City Council elections operating on a biannual cycle, Perlman said her seat came up for re-election in the fall of 2021—during her first semester at BC Law.

But while balancing her education and life as a public servant may pose some challenges, Perlman said it is important for her to use her education to give back.

“What is our degree if it’s not for the public?” Perlman said. “The education isn’t for me, right? It’s really to serve.”

Perlman added that the resources BC Law offers are helpful to running a political campaign— not to mention the support of her peers and mentors.

Lloyd Hancock, BC Law ’24, met Perlman in the summer before their first year of law school. He said his expectations for her future achievements are high.

“She’s not going to have an aura or, like, an air of a lofty politician about her,” Hancock said. “She sits down and talks to you just like a person—someone you would wanna be friends with.” councilor, she said.

Though she is trying to reach a wide range of voters, Perlman said she considers herself the most progressive candidate in the running. Issues of housing, transportation, and environmental sustainability have been major focuses for her as a city councilor, she said.

“All these issues are still pertinent even if I’m in a different position, but I’d have more of a capacity to help impact them,” she said.

The UGBC Senate held its first meeting of the academic year on Tuesday in the Thomas More Apartments. VIKRUM SINGH / HEIGHTS EDITOR

NEWTON

NPS Negotiations Stall Following Failed Tax Hike

NPS, from A1 Newton Public Schools (NPS) will operate on a budget deficit of $4.9 million for the 2024 fiscal year, former interim superintendent Karen Smith said at a budget presentation last April.

“Last year, we reduced teaching positions and support staff to balance

our FY23 budget,” former interim superintendent Kathleen Shields wrote in an April letter included in the FY24 school committee budget. “While these cuts were painful, we were able to maintain essential academic and social emotional supports for students.”

The current negotiation disagreements stem from these budget issues,

according to Anna Nolin, superintendent of NPS.

Nolin said the school district does not have enough money to meet the teachers’ demands for higher salaries.

“They are at a place where they were so far apart in their financial proposals for what the union was wanting and what the district was saying it can afford that

there was just no place to go,” she said. “There were like $15 million apart or $10 million apart or something that’s not, that’s not just something that can be easily remedied.”

While the contract negotiations occur every three years, Jayme Ellis, an art specialist at Burr Elementary and NTA webmaster, said the negotiations are not as cooperative this time around. Since the override vote failed in the spring, she said the district has not worked well with the union.

“It felt very, almost hostile and not like the communication was really challenging,” Ellis said. “And just not like a super collaborative environment. We did make some tentative agreements, so some agreements on smaller things, but it hasn’t felt super collaborative.”

Foster and Ellis emphasized that raises are essential. Foster said that she could no longer afford to live in Newton and had to leave NPS.

“I couldn’t afford to buy a house in Newton with my husband, so we had to move pretty far away,” Foster said.

“We live in Shrewsbury now.”

The NSC’s proposed deal does not allow room for fair negotiation or transparency, according to Foster.

“It feels like we really are having to fight tooth and nail for what we deserve, which I don’t think is how it should be,” Foster said. “We are presenting proposals. We’re going in and trying to be prepared and advocate for what our membership [wants and needs], but I don’t feel like there is an open-mindedness on both sides of the table.”

Teachers are also concerned continued negotiations will distract from their ability to focus on their jobs, Ellis said.

“We want a fair contract with a decent cost of living adjustment, protecting our health care, protecting our kids and their needs,” she said. “And like just able to move on because we don’t do this job for the bureaucrats or to work with adults.”

Foster concluded that NPS should better compensate Newton teachers to keep pace with the rising cost of living in the city.

“We want to move on and continue to make Newton a place where educators will stay and be respected and not be forced to leave due to, you know, bad money management and politics,” said Foster. “That’s not what Newton should be.” n

City Shrinks Eligible Customer Base for NewMo

NewMo, from A1

In Feb. 2022, Jake Auchincloss, the U.S. representative for Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District—which includes the city of Newton—took a drive in a NewMo car with Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller and praised it as innovative.

NewMo provides an important service particularly for people who work in Newton, but also students and parents, according to Greg Reibman, the president and chief executive of the Charles River Regional Chamber.

“It helps workers with their last mile trip from the T station or wherever to their job, helps students do the same thing—either to get to their job or their internship,” Reibman said. “So it was a really good idea to help people with that filling in that gap for transportation and ultimately, you know, the way it was set up, you can go anywhere in Newton to any other place in Newton.”

Ostroff said that NewMo is helpful because of its relative affordability compared to other rideshare services.

“[NewMo] provided transportation options where public transit is not available in much of the city or as frequently as people need,” he said. “Frequently people would find—rather than riding alone—they may have two or three passengers in the car, which really

helps to keep the cost down for everybody.”

Both Ostroff and Reibman said that NewMo relies heavily on outside funding, which was the main reason for the recent drawback of services.

One organization that has provided funding to NewMo, Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), worked with the city through its Community Connections program, according to Ethan Lapointe, the transportation improvement program manager at Boston MPO.

The Boston Region MPO contributed funding to NewMo’s initial launch and allocated $727,000 to the project’s first phase in fiscal years 2021 to 2023, according to a document from MPO. In total, MPO has committed $1,617,574 to NewMo in the fiscal years 2021 to 2025, Lapointe said in an email to The Heights

Specifically, the NewMo service will only be available to older adults, individuals with disabilities, lower income residents, and a limited number of students with high needs in select Newton Public Schools (NPS) programs, Fuller announced in her newsletter on Aug. 17.

One reason NewMo could not keep up its services was due to a lack of corporate sponsors, according to Reibman.

“The original plan was to get companies, colleges, and things

like that to buy corporate memberships so that their customers and employees can use the rights as often as they wanted to,” he said. “The real way that was gonna help [NewMo] in the long term was to get companies, or nonprofits—or anybody—to buy memberships to underwrite the cost.”

Ostroff said that the news is disappointing, but the city will continue to assess if NewMo’s services can return to serving all

people in Newton.

“I feel that we were able to make this happen through Mayor Fuller’s leadership, and I’m confident that we will be able to bring the service back with that leadership and with state support,” he said. “We don’t have a timetable for when that will be, but every other city around looks to Newton as a success story.”

He said that, operationally, NewMo was a success, but that

the city needs to solve the financial issues.

“Operationally NewMo was successful, serving 140,000 riders, you know, since its inception, but not everyone can achieve what Newton did,” Ostroff said. “But financially, it’s a challenge to provide that service. So we just need to find a way, you know, we know how to make it work, operationally, we just need to find a way to fund it sustainably.” n

City Council Set to Publish Updated Zoning Plans

By LyLa WaLsh

Copy Editor

Deborah Crossley, Ward 5

comments all the time … I’ve lived here for 38 years. This is the most overt and extensive outreach the city has ever done on any topic.”

city’s comprehensive plan.

meeting.

councilor-at-large

and chair of Newton’s Zoning and Planning Committee, refuted claims that the city hasn’t been transparent about its rezoning process and doesn’t have materials available online for the public during the committee’s meeting on Thursday night.

“If anybody asks you or suggests that somehow this is closeted, it’s absolutely not true,” she said. “Everything is available for public viewing and we are getting

Last April, the committee published version 2.0 of the maps that will eventually update the zoning laws of the city’s village centers, which have not received any major zoning updates in over 30 years.

The zoning update process, which began in April 2021, will conclude at the end of 2023, according to the city’s website.

During the rezoning process, Ward 2 Coun - cilor-at-Large Tarik Lucas expressed concerns

about which villages the committee considers regarding specific amendments council members consider. He cited approvals to remove multi-residential transit zones in Newton Centre but a lack of progress in Newtonville.

“These amendments that I presented on Walnut Street are clear, and they are in the city’s comprehensive plan, and we are just completely ignoring … myself and [Emily Norton, Ward 2 councilor], who also supported these amendments as well,” Lucas said.

Lucas said his issue is not about competing but about being considerate and abiding by the

Crossley said there is no competition between villages and this issue is one the committee could take up at a later date.

“We’re trying to do what’s best for each village center and the committee vote is a straw vote … if there are amendments left to deliberate at full council, which I fully expect there will be, we can take them up there,” she said. “But, we should not be wasting our time talking about competing from one village to another.”

The committee also refined proposed zoning maps set to become public next week at the

“For the immediate future, what we’re doing right now and continue to do today and Monday is to continue to refine the maps,”Crossley said. “So anything that we vote—on a temporary basis of straw votes—at tonight’s meeting will be reflected in a version 3.0 that is going to go out next week immediately after we finish our meeting on Monday night.”

The Zoning and Planning Committee will discuss the rezoning of the villages of Nonantum, Newton Corner, and Auburndale in its upcoming meeting on Monday night. n

NICOLE VAGRA / HEIGHTS EDITOR

NewMo launched in 2019 as a rideshare service solely for seniors but quickly expanded over the following years.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The negotiations have been ongoing following the recent failed override vote and annoucement of position cuts.

M AGAZINE

In Shad’s App, Users Embrace Emotional Awareness

By erin Flaherty Magazine Editor

Linda Shad was living in a “hacker house” near Silicon Valley, Calif. with several other coders when she said she had an intense mental breakdown. She had just graduated from Boston College with a degree in computer science and decided to move across the country and work for a startup.

But things were not going according to plan. Shad, BC ’20, said she was broke and depressed—she felt hopeless.

And then she started to draw. She channeled her emotions into her drawings. She drew her anger and her anxiety as creatures. These drawings soon became the basis of Shad’s first successfully launched app: Voidpet.

“It started with me just having a really bad day,” Shad said.

Voidpet is an app where users adopt and befriend their emotions. Emotions are depicted as pets, and the user chooses which self-care activities they want to implement in real life to earn points and level up their “voidpets.” Shad launched the app in February of 2023. Since its debut, Voidpet has garnered around 500,000 users, she said.

Shad described Voidpet as a Pokémon-style game that improves your emotional awareness and mental health by encouraging users to incorporate self-care into their daily lives.

“I think the goal of the app specifically is just to make self-care more entertaining and more accessible for everybody, like even for people who have no familiarity with mental health, people who have never considered going to therapy or never been able to afford therapy,” Shad said.

Shad dreamed of being a CEO as a child, but she never imagined she would become an app developer. She loved playing Pokémon, and in high school she designed a simple online game in class, but her favorite part of the process was bringing her drawings to life. She loved designing things and creating art.

“I realized I just really liked connecting the wires behind the scenes to make my art or my stories come to life,” Shad said.

When Shad met John Gallaugher, who teaches an IOS development course at BC, he solidified her interest in app development. During her freshman orientation, Gallaugher ran a panel featuring BC graduates who started successful apps after learning to code at BC.

“That was actually the thing that really sparked me to fall in love with BC,” Shad said. “It’s so cool that there’s this community and these people who are building great things at such an early

age from what they learned in college.”

Shad enrolled in Gallaugher’s IOS development course. Gallaugher said he designed it to arm students with the technical skills they need to build their own apps.

“The reason that I started that class was because we would have a lot of students that were ‘Want-trepreneurs’ with a W,” Gallaugher said. “And the reason why they couldn’t make the transition to entrepreneur was because they didn’t have the technical skills to build their vision.”

The course, which Shad said was crucial in elevating her coding capabilities, is all-encompassing—by the end of the semester, each student walks out with a technologically advanced app they can show to recruiters as a display of their skills.

“We’re really the only course in the country that allows students to learn how to be serious app developers in a single semester if you’ve never programmed before,” Gallaugher said.

In the class, Shad produced an app called Mac Daddy that allowed students to anonymously share their BC dining dollars with each other. This app was an early indicator of Shad’s inclination to build products that bring people together, Gallaugher said.

“I think that that really showed that Linda has always had an interest in building community connecting

she said, as they provided her with a new sense of direction and an outlet for expression. One day, she posted her art on TikTok. Soon enough, her drawings drew attention, with many of her videos getting over hundreds of thousands of views.

“I was just posting drawings on social media instead, and that turned out to be doing better than all of my startups,” Shad said.

After she suddenly gained TikTok fame, amassing over 200,000 followers in just a year, Shad got a job at Beacons, an AI platform offering tools for online creators. The company is known for its “link-in-bio” tools that allow influencers

After seeing the impressive engagement Shad had on her posts of her drawings and hearing about Shad’s idea to turn those drawings into an app, Awad suggested that Shad take two actions to launch her game-building journey—first, post 100 TikTok videos a week about the app, and second, create a waitlist for the game so interested people can add themselves to it.

“I literally did exactly that,” Shad said. “I did 100 videos in the first week. And then I got ten million views and like 300,000 signups on my waitlist.”

The waitlist signups kept coming in. At this time, Shad started to seriously think about how she would make Voidpet a reality. She and Awad, who is Voidpet’s co-founder, spent a year building a beta website version of the game, which they released to the public a couple of months before the full app launch in February of 2023.

the app is developed and improved. Compared to other apps, Voidpet’s development team is extremely sensitive to user demand, Ashlynne said.

“It’s cool how I, a random person on the internet, was able to meet with Linda and we developed a working relationship where I can kind of have an influence on the game,” Floyd said.

Most self-care apps feel disingenuous to Ashlynne, but Voidpet feels real. Taking care of your Voidpet “pets” is both fun and healthy for the user, she said.

“These are pets that aren’t like extensions of us or anything, but we engage them in a way to kind of understand our mental health,” Floyd said.

others,” Gallaugher said.

During her time at BC, Shad balanced her interest in graphic design with her drive to become the best coder she could. She later worked as a teaching assistant for Gallaugher’s IOS development course—this experience gave her more confidence in her technical competencies, she said. Outside of the classroom, Shad designed and drew content for BC’s Computer Science Society and the Asian Caucus.

After graduating in 2020, Shad dove headfirst into the world of startups. When she moved to California, Shad worked for several startups. But she said these experiences were unfulling—both financially and personally.

Shad’s drawings were what saved her from spiraling in Silicon Valley,

to link to multiple websites within their social media profiles.

Through working with online content creators at Beacons, Shad said she learned how to turn app designing into a business. She realized the power that influencing and promoting your ideas on social media held in determining the popularity of your app.

“You don’t have to just build an app and then hope it turns into a business,” Shad said. “You can build an audience and then use that to build the app that then turns into a business.”

Just when Shad had finally put all the pieces of launching an app together in her head, Ben Awad—a social media influencer who makes content about gaming and coding—pushed her to start pursuing the concept full-time.

Since the app’s full launch, Shad said the Voidpet team has raised around $800,000 in funding. Recently, the app was financially backed by Speedrun, a gaming accelerator program run by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a technology-focused venture capital firm.

The first versions of the app did not have many mental health–focused features. But Shad listened to user feedback on Discord, a messaging app home to many gaming community forums, and started to notice just how many users valued the mental health features the app did have. Users who had never meditated before tried it for the first time after the app suggested it and said it changed their lives, Shad said.

Ashlynne Floyd, who manages the Voidpet Discord page, said the user community surrounding Voidpet is compassionate and unique. Within the Discord page, users create inside jokes and check in on each other. And, because Shad speaks frequently with users and Floyd, users get a say in how

By making a list of what they are grateful for, meditating, or setting goals for themselves, users can level up their emotion creatures in the app. Shad said little actions like these are the key to taking care of your mental health during a stressful day.

“That can be the breather that people often need to recalibrate after spiraling downwards,” she said.

In many inventive ways, Gallaugher said, Voidpet encourages users to invest time into their emotional well-being and mental health.

“When you speak to a counselor, they’ll mention things like ‘label your emotions,’ and that that’s a useful exercise to be involved in and that’s actually precisely what Voidpet is doing,” he said.

When users take small but meaningful steps in their self-care journey, they improve their relationship with their emotions, Shad said. With Voidpet, by taking care of lighthearted drawings of little creatures, anyone can work to strengthen their emotional awareness.

“Something that you might have thought was stupid or trivial is actually really game changing,” Shad said. “A little goes a long way.” n

Campus Cocktails: Three Easy Tailgate Drinks

B y S tephen B radley Heights Senior Staff

The Saturday morning pre-tailgate rush is a core part of the Boston College experience. You’ve missed your first few alarms, you’re just a bit hungover from the previous night, and

you need to quickly throw on your best basic-but-not-too-basic BC gameday ’fit. Amid all of this hurry, students don’t have time to prepare a complex cocktail before gallivanting around the Mods. Having an easy-to-make beverage that you can throw together as you get ready can both relieve the stress of

early morning tailgates and expedite the gameday fun. If you want a beverage more complex than a typical beer or seltzer, here is a list of three simple cocktails that will make your next tailgate experience all the more enjoyable. This goes without saying, but the optimal vessel for these

beverages is a red Solo cup.

BEVERAGE #1: The Noonosa

INGREDIENTS: Orange Juice One can of High Noon (whatever flavor you like)

Optional: Chopped fruit

RECIPE: Pour orange juice until you fill about one-quarter of your cup. Pour in your High Noon until you fill your cup. Lightly mix the two liquids together. (If you mix them too roughly, you will flatten out the carbonization of the High Noon). Optional: add in chopped fruit of whatever flavor High Noon you chose. Sip and enjoy!

BEVERAGE #2: Bailey’s and Coffee

INGREDIENTS: Coffee

2 oz. Bailey’s Irish Cream

Optional: Ice

RECIPE:

If you’d prefer to have an iced spiked coffee, pour as much ice as you want into your cup. (If you’re using a Solo cup, make sure the coffee has cooled down a bit). Instead of milk or creamer, pour in Bailey’s to your liking. I like about 2 ounces. Stir together and cheers!

BEVERAGE #3:

Fall, Football, and Fireball

INGREDIENTS:

Apple cider (hot or cold) 2 oz. Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey

RECIPE:

Pour apple cider—either hot or cold—into your cup. (As with the coffee, make sure the cider is not too hot). Pour in Fireball to your liking. I prefer about 2 oz. Mix, sip, and enjoy! n

Shad and her co-founder, Ben Awad, both harness the power of social media to promote Voidpet.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDA SHAD

The “pets” in Voidpet represent the user’s various emotions. PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDA SHAD

Elevating Your MBTA Riding Experience

By Riley davis Heights Staff

This summer, I sat (well … more frequently stood) alongside the 216 million annual riders of the MBTA subway as I commuted from Boston College to my internship in Charlestown, Mass.

On my 40-minute rides to and from my office, I couldn’t help but observe the variety in the city around me.

From nurses in scrubs to button-downed business men and women, double-strollers and fast walkers to the infamous loud talkers, no ride was ever the same. Despite this, I did pick up some patterns and establish routines to romanticize my rides. Whether a quick trip down the C line from Cleveland Circle or a trek to North Station to transfer to the commuter rail, here are some suggestions to make the most of your T riding experience!

Map Out Your Course of Travel

The MBTA can be confusing for a new rider. What are all the colored lines? And why do some have letters attached to them? To brace yourself for a smooth ride, it’s important to be familiar with

plex, travels east and west and has four divisions, each numbered B through E. As the train heads west and reaches Kenmore station, it diverges into offshoots from the city.

This line is the most relevant for BC students, as three stops— Reservoir, Cleveland Circle, and Boston College—are within a mile of BC’s campus.

To avoid getting off at the wrong stop, plug in your route before stepping foot on the T. Most map applications have a transit feature to identify your path. Mark the station before your exit so you know when to push the sidebars to signal your stop is next.

If you will be in a time crunch or have a set time for arrival, allow yourself more travel time than needed in case of unexpected inconveniences.

No matter the distance or line traveled, each one-way T ride currently has a fare of $2.40. You can pay in cash upon arrival, but for the quickest travel, purchase a CharlieCard and load it with money in advance. You’ll simply tap your card on a kiosk either at the station or after you step on the train.

It’s frustrating when a 20-minute commute turns into a 40-minute ride because the train car shows up 10 minutes late due to ongoing traffic lights. And don’t get me started on the B line’s indefinite construction. Yet there

early.

The MBTA is full of surprises, so it’s best to give yourself plenty of time to embrace them. Be patient when a train suddenly stops running at Kenmore, and you have to hop off and onto another line.

Clap along with fans warming up their vocals on their way to a concert, or soak in the lively energy of Red Sox nation after a win. Surprises make life more interesting—be the person who welcomes spontaneity.

Keep Personal Belongings in Order

Alongside preparation for your travel itinerary, prepare yourself for the journey on the train. Before you board, have your method of payment ready, whether it’s your stocked Charlie Card or $2.40 in cash.

No one likes to wait behind the person blocking entry into the train.

you turn your earbuds down but leave them in your ears to listen to the conversations and sounds around you.

On the T, embrace this moment. Not to eavesdrop on the gossip and giggles around you, but to gather further awareness of your environment. You’re bound to notice something new in your surroundings.

Amid the chaos and uncertainty of the world, the everyday scenes are filled with great excitement. It’s the subtle risk a young boy takes to stand in the doorway so an elderly man has time to step on the train with his walker.

It’s the smile I receive from the little girl waving in her stroller, and the compliment on my Colorado water bottle that makes me proud of my home state. These little moments of connection surround us every day.

the ins and outs of the MBTA.

There are four main lines of the MBTA system, each with a color name and distinct pathway through the city: green, blue, orange, and red.

The green line, the most com-

Brace Yourself for Surprises

I’m here to help you further optimize the MBTA system. But to do so, I need to be upfront that the MBTA isn’t the most reliable transportation system out there.

are pleasant surprises, like when I’m greeted with a new tram at Government Center and get first pick of the seats, or when it’s announced that a train will be express from Fenway to Reservoir, and I arrive home 15 minutes

You’ll want to shuffle through your belongings as little as possible, so organize your bag to easily pull out your AirPods, a granola bar, or sunglasses. Have a podcast or playlist downloaded in case the internet becomes spotty when the train goes underground. Put your phone away in a closed pocket so you can hold onto a handlebar when the train is too full to claim a seat.

Pause ... and Pull Out the Patience

We’ve all been there: When

On the T, many of us are so caught up in our own worlds that it’s hard to be patient during disturbances.

Try to take a breath after you get cut off boarding the train. Look up after you turn on that playlist and smile at the six-yearold who keeps bumping you with their backpack. Say thank you as you exit.

The drivers might not be the only ones who need to hear it. Riding the T reminded me of the significance of everyday routines. I just had to unplug for a few minutes to see them more clearly. n

Homemade on the Heights: Chicken Teriyaki

By Jenny fox Heights Staff

It’s only been a week since I’ve returned to campus, and I’ve already spent most of that time experimenting in my apartment’s kitchen.

I have committed myself to the trial and error of testing new dorm recipes I can quickly make during busy weeknights.

When classes inevitably pick up, I want to have a rotation of full-flavored meals that I can whip up with the limited amount of energy I possess by the end of each day.

My favorite recipe so far is this easy teriyaki chicken dish. The star of this dish is the sauce itself—I recommend making a large batch of sauce that you can store in the fridge or freezer for future use.

This sauce is lifesaver because it makes for the best marinade, dip, or glazed topping.

I usually marinate and top a protein with my teriyaki sauce and complete the dish with a microwavable rice packet and frozen veggies,

creating a simple and balanced meal.

Ingredients:

Sauce:

1 cup water

1/2 cup soy sauce

4 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon crushed ginger

Slurry:

2 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup water

One chicken breast

Instructions:

Teriyaki Sauce:

In a saucepan, combine water, soy sauce, and honey. Mix over medium heat until honey is dissolved. Then mix in garlic powder and ginger.

In a separate bowl, mix together cornstarch and water to create a slurry.

Once the sauce comes to a boil, add cornstarch slurry into the saucepan and reduce heat to a

simmer.

Continuously mix until sauce thickens to a sticky consistency that coats the spoon.

Let cool before storing in an airtight container.

Teriyaki Chicken:

In a plastic bag, place one

chicken breast and enough teriyaki sauce to cover the chicken completely. Let marinate for 30 minutes— ideally, marinate overnight. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place the chicken on a baking sheet in the oven for 15 minutes,

then flip and cook for another 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

The timing will depend on the size of the chicken breast. Drizzle teriyaki sauce on top of cooked chicken and pair with any sides. I use rice and steamed vegetables. n

PAIGE STEIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

An MBTA train pulls out of a Green Line D branch station near Cleveland Circle and BC’s campus. NICOLE VAGRA / HEIGHTS EDITOR

columnists appearing on this page represent the views of the authors of those particular pieces and not necessarily the views of The Heights

A Mormon Among Catholics at BC

iation, which is a common topic in BC classrooms. A devout Catholic, a Catholic on technicality, an ex-evangelical, and a Mormon—myself—sat down and discussed our faiths. While explaining my faith, I reverted to the “we believe…” statements that children in my church memorize to better and more concisely know what it is they’re meant to believe.

guilt.

While the Jesuits have done me good, placing me at a school with students eager to inquire, excel, and give back, I feel I must make a radical change in my life to end the guilt that follows failed, performative activism and underwhelming service events.

I’m Mormon. More appropriately, I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—and I know of only four other undergraduates at Boston College that share my faith.

Sometimes it feels alienating to be the only sober person in a room or the only dancer skipping Sunday rehearsals, but most often this uncommon aspect of my identity is the one most compatible with BC’s mission. In whatever way we embody the motto—whether through religious or secular motivations—we are “people for others.”

Before we begin, I’d like to summarize the answers to all your questions: I am not a polygamist, I do not have horns or magic underwear, and I am not a swinger, I did not grow up in Utah, and I do not conform to the menace that is closed-minded Christian America. As you might have guessed correctly, though, I do not drink.

The expectations of my church— whether abstaining from drugs or dressing modestly—do not inhibit me from enjoying the BC experience: I party, albeit soberly, and I engage in controversial, thought-provoking conversations with my peers and professors. These conversations have been my favorite part of the first-year experience at BC.

One of my earlier discussions with friends centered around religious affil -

“You keep saying, ‘we believe,’ but what is it that you believe, Elise?” the Catholic on a technicality asked. Big question.

It’s hard to see clearly what I believe— or what we believe, for that matter. I even find it easy to half-jokingly “pilot” new beliefs with my friends that might directly conflict with everything else I hold dear. At 2 a.m., my friends and I would delve into the inner-workings of Karl Marx, become momentary communists, and realize we like money too much to be devoted to the cause. When we walk to Newton Center, we might vent about the American economic system that many of us benefit from—but, on the walk back, we always return to the institution that maintains our privilege. I might eat a salad at Mac, only to interrupt myself with a crisis about whether my friends and I are feminist enough. BC has not stopped me or my friends from questioning our beliefs.

But I do know that, like many BC students, I believe in service for others. I am among the 90 percent of BC students who volunteer in one way or another. When I do this, I feel proud to have helped society in some small way. Still, there is a constant weight that I am not doing enough. After all, when I work to help others, I always leave my volunteer work to return to my studies, my career advancement, and my life. My life is so nearly perfect that it often fills me with

The expectations of the Church of Latter-Day Saints that I listed earlier are not all radically uncool. In addition to not drinking and dressing modestly, we are also expected to love our neighbors as ourselves, show kindness, seek to be peacemakers in a world of turmoil, aim for financial stability, give back after taking care of your family, and live a life full of joy.

Young adults of my faith are also encouraged to serve missions. I knew growing up that I would do this someday, but my first year at college—a most wonderful experience—did not make me all that eager to leave. A mission would place me in a formative scenario where I am meant to think and act for the good of others. In this mission, I must think of myself only when it pertains to my relationship with God. I have realized the past few months, however, that this would be the perfect opportunity to epitomize what my heart has been longing for: time to think of others and ask tough theological questions. How can I best serve someone today? And, do I believe what we believe?

I will return in the fall of 2025 a sophomore, while all my friends are preparing to graduate. The awkward timing of my college experience, though, will be minor in comparison to the growth I will have made in becoming a “person for others” after my mission.

Friends Old and New

From exchanging handshakes to running into hugs, Boston College students are excited to see each other. With the arrival of a new class and the return of recent alumni for football games, the campus is full of friends. If you’re struggling with the inevitable small talk that follows the question, “How was your summer?” don’t stress—your friends are just happy to see you! So take a look at the mix of smiling faces around you and embrace this year and your friendships—the familiar ones and the new ones.

Hiya, Barbie!

After this summer’s record-breaking premiere of the Barbie movie, the phenomenon seems to be finding its way into every corner of our lives. It’s fantastic. Not only are weekend dance parties taking the theme to another level, but the stunning metaphors of the Barbie world have found their way into our classrooms and our masses (if you were at the Mass of the Holy Spirit, you know what we are talking about). So don your favorite pink shirt and hone the Barbie message for yourself. “Imagination, life is your creation!”

Feelin’ Like Florida

Embracing Extremes of Change

as country. Now, I know this rough 1 percent isn’t that dramatic, but when you throw in my passionate, self-proclaimed hatred for country music and my tendency to stick to extremes, I get a little scared seeing “Thinkin’ Bout Me” show up in my recommended songs.

in, I am going “all in” on embracing my openness. Perhaps this realization is just me trying to justify the change, but I still think I am staying true to the extreme views I have always carried.

I have always been an extremist. In my opinions, beliefs, and actions, I have long thought that it’s all or nothing. I can’t semi-like brussels sprouts. I either like to eat them or I don’t. So, I overcompensate for the lack of other green things on my plate with heaps of broccoli. I like broccoli. But I dislike every other vegetable— there is no in between.

Lately, however, I feel I’m losing my extremity. And I can’t tell if this is holding me back or if it’s helping to push me out of my comfort zone.

One thing I always used to avoid is country music. If Morgan Wallen came on the radio, I would instantly find another station. If every other station was playing commercials, I would turn the radio off altogether, telling myself to enjoy the silence over my country nemesis. And if a country song came on one of my friends’ aux, I made sure to voice my disdain for the genre. But in the last year, my taste has changed. Twenty-one of my 1,512 liked songs on Spotify are classified

So, what happened to me? It feels like I sold my soul. I have spent 20-plus years—20 PLUS—building a musical identity around a belief that all of a sudden seems irrelevant. And, to make matters worse, I have now curated a false identity by saying the phrase, “I hate country.” I feel I am not holding true to myself, and it aches to know that I am not embracing that extremist side I have grown so fond of.

So now, when a country song comes on, I often find myself beginning to utter the line, “I hate cou–” before stopping and replacing it with the sentence, “I have started to appreciate country.” And this is a true statement. I have started to appreciate country. The raspy voices. The jiggy tunes. The folk lyrics. I am learning to value the sounds. At the same time, this statement doesn’t actually deviate from my persona. “Starting to appreciate” is not only a way of saying, “I’m changing,” but it also implies that I am open to the change.

In being open to my growing appreciation of country music, am I not fully embracing myself? Am I not acting extreme in a new sense? Extreme as

I think it is a healthy habit to introduce oneself to new things. Allowing ourselves to be open to new ideas gives us new experiences to enjoy. And, apparently, the more likely one is to accept change, the more likely one is to have a greater understanding of different perspectives. The more we push ourselves out of our comfort zones, the more comfortable we become with ourselves.

Just because we college students have 20-plus years of experience living with ourselves does not mean that we know everything about ourselves. Oftentimes, I find myself thinking I need to have everything figured out at this very moment, but in reality, that’s for the rest of my life.

Right now, I need to figure out what I want to figure out. Country music isn’t bad, and in five years I might even completely enjoy country music. In believing this, I am still staying authentic to myself—this time I am just putting all my cards in the hands of change.

So, if you take my advice, embrace a willingness to change and maybe even make time for a new adventure or two this year.

For students excited to return to the four balanced seasons of New England, a week of highs nearing 100 degrees is becoming tedious. And it’s not just the heat. Between hazy skies, the ever-threatening promise of rain, and a general feeling of being sticky, the weather has simply not been cooperating. When all we want is to take a Res walk, play a round of Spikeball, or do our reading on a bench, we find ourselves choosing between feeling constantly sweaty or heading inside (and God forbid you don’t have air conditioning). So, whether the recent weather has been a mild or major inconvenience to you, no Eagle can deny it— right now, it feels like we are going to college in Florida.

Elevator Politics

At 8:51 a.m., would you rather you wait in line for the elevator from Lower to Middle Campus or trudge up the Million Dollar Stairs? How about at 8:53 a.m.?

And which route is really the fastest?

Every BC student has their own preferred morning route to class, but late wake-ups and long elevator lines can complicate everyone’s plans. Once everyone has figured out their routine, mornings will be smoother. Until then, just take a breath—you will get to class, we promise.

ElisE Jarvis

opinions and commentaries of the op-ed

GRAPHICS BY ALYSSA ANDERSON / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Elise Jarvis is a columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at elise.jarvis@bc.edu.

Pat ConnEll

Pat Connell is a columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at patrick.connell.3@bc.edu.

Boston College Must Prioritize Diversity in Admissions After Affirmative Action Decision

Boston College should develop creative solutions to maintain and continue improving diversity on campus after the top court’s decision to axe race-based affirmative action in college admissions.

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College overturned 45 years of legal precedent by ending race-conscious admissions at universities that receive federal funding, which includes BC.

Major Catholic universities such as Georgetown and Notre Dame have made announcements about continuing their commitment to student diversity in response to this decision. BC did the same.

In August 2022—months prior to the Supreme Court’s decision—BC filed an amicus brief, along with 56 other Catholic colleges and universities, that expressed support for affirmative action at their schools on religious grounds. The brief noted the importance of affirmative action “to build student bodies whose diversity deepens student learning on campus and helps prepare graduates for leadership in an increasingly competitive, multicultural world.”

By signing this brief, BC put itself at the forefront of progressive and racially inclusive Catholic higher education institutions. University leaders backed up this action with

effective comments. In a response to the decision, University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., said that “the University intends to remain faithful to its Jesuit, Catholic intellectual and religious heritage by enrolling talented, diverse students from across the United States and the world within the new parameters set by the Court.”

In his statement, Leahy cited BC’s needbased financial aid program and participation in QuestBridge—a nonprofit that connects low-income students with top universities—as ways of ensuring that low-income students of color can attend BC.

Race-conscious admissions accounted for historical underrepresentation of college students in the AHANA+ community. But after the Supreme Court’s decision, there is more BC can do to uphold this value of justice-oriented admissions.

Leahy’s promises are similar to those of leaders at other universities—yet these universities also included more concrete next steps.

At Syracuse University (SU), Allen Groves, senior vice president and chief student experience officer, points to “wider geographical outreach and alterations to admissions questions as a means of legally sourcing a diverse class of students.” In a similar vein, Georgetown University has publicized several com-

munity initiatives aimed at “investing in the next generation” of students. As the admissions season for the Class of 2028 approaches, the University should clarify its new efforts to retain a high AHANA+ student population. Academics have proposed several methods of retaining students of color at major universities. Colleges can recruit from specific ZIP codes with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in hopes of attracting applicants of color. They can also look out for extracurriculars that students of color frequently lead. The University can also emphasize a supplemental “diversity statement” in its Common Application, as the Court stated that any prospective college student is still free to discuss how “race affected his or her life” in their application.

The University should consider these methods and others—while also relying on BC’s “strong relationships with community-based organizations”—to recruit future AHANA+ Eagles from across the country.

BC’s mission statement calls for students to seek solutions to the world’s largest problems. A diverse college campus can more effectively highlight these problems and bring unique student talent together to solve them. In the wake of this Supreme Court ruling, the University has a new opportunity to live up to this mission.

Stitzel: Trade Sad Girl Autumn for a Cozy One

By LEah StitzEL Heights Staff

It’s finally September, a month that for most of us marks the beginning of our favorite things: pumpkin spice drinks, tailgating, or just a relief from Boston College’s un-air-conditioned August heat. But, if you’re a Spotify user like me, September also marks the start of the dreaded “sad girl autumn.” wFor those unfamiliar with the idea: each fall, Spotify starts pushing playlist after playlist of the most melancholy music pop has to offer.

Between Phoebe Bridgers’ slowest ballads and the yearly comeback of Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You,” the typical fall picks are enough to send anyone into musical hibernation until the snow melts in April.

As an autumn lover, I can’t help but wonder why we force ourselves to wallow in musical depression every fall. This year, I’ve vowed to turn a blind eye to Spotify’s home page and reinvent my fall playlist. If I’m going to be sad, I’m going to do it with a chai latte and a big sweater. I’m going to have a cozy girl autumn with a playlist

to match.

Kicking off my fall playlist is Phoebe Bridgers. While she is a staple for sad music lovers, she reinvents the yearning indie song in her collaborations with Conor Oberst (yes, another sad indie artist). Their song “Sleepwalkin” is a perfect representation of that uneasy feeling you get when the seasons change, but it’s masked in a melody too catchy to be sad. Up next is “Up Granville” by Peach Pit from an album that’s been on repeat all summer. This song is on the more depressing side, but it’s just dreamy enough to feel like fall.

“Even at the golden light of morning / Leading you away from all this strife / Having ordinary company / That always leaves you dry,” the band sings. Just don’t think too hard about the lyrics. My perfect autumn song is one that I feel better after listening to—you’re allowed to wallow in the sadder lyrics on these tracks, but the

‘Gateway to Himalayan Art’ Premieres at the McMullen

By Erin PEndEr Heights Staff

Visitors to the McMullen Museum this semester have a chance to travel to the Himalayas in the Rubin Museum of Art’s traveling exhibition Gateway to Himalayan Art. The pieces displayed are not only beautiful, but they are part of the Rubin’s broader educational effort entitled Project Himalayan Art.

“The whole initiative was to get … students and professors to study or incorporate more aspects of Himalayan art into their curriculums because that’s not usually something that’s taught at the college level,” said Aurelia Campbell, an associate professor of Asian art history at Boston College.

The exhibition begins with a section that explains common Buddhist symbols and their meanings in artwork, as well as common religious figures depicted in the art. The entire second floor of the exhibition is devoted to how art is used in religious practices and includes a setup of a meditation room in the back, complete with meditative music and small pillows.

Elena Pakhoutova, senior curator in Himalayan art at the Rubin, explained that the exhibition was curated closely with the Rubin’s education department, as it was intended to be used for teaching.

“[The exhibition is] meant to create a much deeper understanding … [of a] culture that is very much alive,” Pakhoutova said. “People are still making things like this, and the practices that these objects represent are still very much ongoing.”

In the back room of the exhibition’s first floor, visitors can see step-by-step explanations of how different artworks are created, including

sculptures, paintings, and drawings.

“It’s really instructional in a way that, hopefully when people see the exhibition, they come out of it knowing a lot more about Buddhism, rather than just, you know, getting an aesthetic experience, even though that’s obviously part of it,” Campbell said.

Campbell contributed an essay to the project’s book, Himalayan Art in 108 Objects, which Pakhoutova wrote. The book serves as a textbook for teaching Himalayan art and culture.

The Gateway to Himalayan Art exhi-

it’s historical, but it’s also part of a living tradition,” Campbell said. “I mean, there’s so many Buddhists in the world, many people creating these works of art. It’s not like we’re only dealing with the past. So this [exhibit] presents a really long stretch of history and also a really wide geographic territory.”

When asked which piece was their favorite, both Campbell and Pakhoutova said they could not pick just one.

But Campbell said she was in awe of the “Panjaranatha Mahakala” when

song itself shouldn’t leave you crying on the way to class. “Think Fast (feat. Weezer)” by Dominic Fike and “Hammer And A Nail” by the Indigo Girls are songs from near opposite genres, but I swear they get me out of bed on cold fall mornings in the same way.

For those who actually crave those heart-wrenching, wallowy songs, I’ve been listening to a lineup that perfectly describes how a lot of us face the emotional turmoil that is the autumn season. “History of Lovers” by Calexico and Iron & Wine is a bittersweet folk song, which I followed with “invisible string” by Taylor Swift—an actual history of her lovers. Wrapping it up is Hozier’s new song “First Time,” the most sob-inducing song of the bunch.

“But you spoke some quick new music / That went so far to soothe this soul / As it was / And ever shall be / Unearth without a name,” he sings.

I identify Hozier with dreary

weather, and this track fits those Sundays in Boston when it feels like it’s going to rain forever. A close second for when you want to cry just a little less would be “Surf” by Mac Miller, which is more of a drizzle than a downpour song. A brief interlude is necessary to pay tribute to Gilmore Girls—a show that most teenage girls would agree induces immediate nostalgia for fall. “My Little Corner of the World” by Yo La Tengo is featured in the first episode, and its soft humming about being in a familiar place brings me back to my childhood.

Finally, I’ll take it back to where all fall playlists seem to end up: a place of hopefulness. Because even when the season feels like it’ll never end (especially here in Boston), it will. “45” by Bleachers and “Chicago” by Sufjan Stevens are here to remind me that, as Stevens sings, “all things grow.” Despite what Spotify says, sad girl autumn is not forever. n

Rodrigo’s ‘GUTS’ Establishes Her as Pop Punk Princess

By aLExandra O’nEiL For The Heights

If Olivia Rodrigo has proven one thing in her 2021 debut album SOUR, it’s that she’s the Queen of Teen Angst. From her first hit “drivers license” to rage-fueled “good 4 u,” Rodrigo established herself as a teen icon fresh to the pop music scene.

sion that comes with heartbreak. With a strong percussive line, electric bass, and layered harmonies, Rodrigo creates an anthem for the female breakup experience. Through her witty one-liner lyrics, Rodrigo spends the song debating getting her revenge or loving him again, but either way she plans to get him back, even if it means she’ll “kiss his face with an uppercut.”

bition is another piece of the project and will travel to a number of undergraduate institutions through 2026.

The Rubin also has an accompanying digital interactive platform that people can visit to learn more about the artwork, to read the essays from the book, or to simply take a second look at some of the pieces.

Campbell said she hopes students will realize that the practices shown in this exhibition are not dead, or long lost, but rather alive and vibrant today.

“It’s a good exhibition, because

she visited, while Pakhoutova said she admired the graceful sway of the deity Tara’s body in the tiny statue entitled “Green Tara.”

“I really hope that people, when they see the exhibition … they come away with an understanding of what Himalayan art is and how it’s been instrumental in cross-cultural exchange,” Pakhoutova said. “I really hope that they understand that this is not something that is kind of ancient and a beautiful gem from the past, but this is something that is very much alive.” n

On Sept. 8, Rodrigo earned herself a new title: Pop Punk Princess. In GUTS, Rodrigo’s music grows up with her as she delivers the heart-wrenching ballads her fans have come to expect while building out her repertoire of upbeat music and refining her “good 4 u” style. GUTS opens with the hard-hitting track “all-american bitch.” The song begins with a simple guitar riff, allowing Rodrigo’s lyrics to shine through as she expresses the pressure she feels to be a perfect public figure. The sweet tone of the verses contrasts the cathartic explosion of sound in each chorus.

“I know my age and I act like it / got what you can’t resist,” Rodrigo belts as rock-and-roll guitars roar. She closes the track by returning to her ironic sweetness, denouncing the forced graciousness she must express while being sexualized and adored for her heartbreak. “I’m grateful all the time / I’m sexy and I’m kind / I’m pretty when I cry,” she sings.

“get him back!” defines the indeci-

In “the grudge,” a ballad, Rodrigo captures the grief of a relationship’s end and the inability to forgive and move on. Simple piano is supplemented by building strings as Rodrigo’s heart-wrenching vocals soar. Her lyrics are straightforward, but they cut deep. “I know, in my heart, hurt people hurt people / And we both drew blood, but, man, those cuts were never equal,” Rodrigo sings. The song poignantly represents the emotions that linger, even when wanting the heartbreak to pass.

At its core, GUTS is about the unique experience of being 19 and on the cusp of adulthood. Through cry-worthy ballads and scream-in-thecar anthems, Rodrigo’s work encapsulates female rage, desire, insecurity, growing pains, and grieving love, even when it isn’t healthy. Rodrigo spilled her guts and created some of her most promising work to date, leaving listeners excited to hear what she’ll write next, now that her teenage dream years are past. n

VICTOR STEFANESCU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Buddha Shakyamuni, a golden sculpture, is on display at the McMullen Musuem.

PAIGE STEIN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Paintings hang in the Gateway to Himalayan Art exhibit the McMullen.

VICTOR STEFANESCU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

IN FOCUS

2023 Convocation

The Class of 2027 began its journey at BC by marching down Linden Lane.

SPORTS

WEATHERING THE STORM

Despite handing the ball to Holy Cross with 1 : 58 left in regulation, a game-winning fumble recovery secured Boston College football’s 31

Holy Cross, from A1

A Jordan Fuller 2-yard rush knotted the contest at seven apiece at the start of the second quarter, but there wasn’t any quit in the Eagles’ offensive mentality on their second drive of the game.

Robichaux stomped over a huddle of Crusader defenders to push BC over the 50-yard line. On second down from the Crusaders’ 14-yard mark, Ryan O’Keefe received a handoff and pummeled through the flat, knocking over a Holy Cross linebacker for BC’s second touchdown at the 7:06 mark.

“It’s two weeks in a row, we’re rushing for five, six yards at a time, and that’s what it needs to be,” Hafley said. “The holes were there, I thought Kye ran the ball really well. He’s a bright spot. He put his shoulder pads down and ran through tackles.”

Going into the game, BC start-

ing quarterback Thomas Castellanos didn’t need to prove anything as a ball carrier, having notched a rushing touchdown and over 50 yards on the ground in Week One. There was, however, a question mark surrounding Castellanos’ passing abilities after he garnered a 46.2 completion percentage in the same outing.

After completing a 47-yard heave to Jaden Williams, Castellanos dashed to his right on third and short, high-stepping below the line of scrimmage, and shoved a pass to an unmanned George Takacs in the endzone.

“That O-line up front, those receivers that I have, they took a step,” Castellanos said. “Up front, got good, veteran O-lineman [who] protect.”

An errant kickoff handed the ball right back to Holy Cross on the 50 yard-line, and Sluka notched an 8-yard rushing touchdown. But the Eagles’ response time was quick, as Liam Connor drilled a 37-yarder

28 victory over the Crusaders.

–

to keep BC’s advantage at 24–14. Containing the run, especially Sluka, proved to be the Eagles’ achilles heel in the first half. The start of the second didn’t fare much better in that respect.

After Fuller recorded a gain of 45 yards at the 14-minute mark, Sluka took another quarterback sneak to the house, tacking on his second rushing touchdown of the game.

Mental mistakes added up for BC toward the end of the third quarter, as Castellanos received a taunting penalty after converting a long third-down rush. One drive later, though, Castellanos flicked a 5-yard touchdown to Jeremiah Franklin, who stumbled into the endzone over the near-left pylon.

“I definitely regret it,” Castellanos said. “It kind of killed us there. I wasn’t even focused on the first down. It was an intense game. I was talking, he was talking. … There will be [consequences].”

An illegal hands to the face

penalty on Neto Okpala gifted the Crusaders a first down after facing third and 21. Fuller then ripped into the endzone from 15 yards out, and Holy Cross cut the deficit to 31–28 with 7:26 left in regulation.

BC turned the ball over on downs to allow the Crusaders one more chance to score, and just over two hours and a chorus of lightning strikes later, a Sluka run of 35 yards appeared to seal the deal. But, after officials reviewed the play, Sluka had stepped out of bounds on the 40-yard line. Okpala then forced Sluka to lose a grasp on the ball, which DePalma recovered to secure the victory.

“At the end of the game, we get a personal foul that should’ve been at the 9-yard line,” Hafley said. “That’s not how I coach. … Guys who do that, they’re not playing, period. We’re not gonna have late hits out of bounds, we’re not gonna have personal fouls, we’re not gonna let people bait us into doing anything.” n

Notebook: Penalties and Pass Rush Almost Cost Eagles

By Jack Bergamini Assoc. Sports Editor

When you’re ahead by just three points against an FCS team and your oldest New England rival that you haven’t lost to since 1978, receiving a taunting penalty probably isn’t the smartest decision.

In addition, you’re in your own house, coming off one of the most disappointing Boston College football losses in recent memory, and you’re making your first career start for a new program.

Clearly BC quarterback Thomas Castellanos wasn’t thinking about these repercussions when he made an obscene gesture after picking up five yards on a quarterback scramble on third and long—a scramble in which he didn’t even pick a first down. Instead, the Eagles were sent back 15 yards and forced to punt.

“I wasn’t even thinking about getting the first down,” Castellanos said. “It was an intense game. They were talking, we were talking.”

Castellanos’ penalty was just one of 10 penalties the Eagles committed on Saturday—a week after BC head coach Jeff Hafley emphasized that BC’s nine penalties in Week One killed its chances.

Nineteen penalties across two games isn’t just on the players, though. It’s on the coaches. Mostly the head coach, but also the entire staff.

“Undisciplined penalties … I’ll put that on me,” Hafley said. “It’s gotta go right down to our position coaches. We got to ... teach these guys and show them what’s acceptable, what’s not. Ultimately, [I] won’t play players that do it.”

Until Hafley’s words reach the

field, the Eagles will likely continue to play in painstakingly close games where they shoot themselves in the foot and execute sloppy football.

Here are three observations from BC’s Week Two win over Holy Cross.

Penalties, Penalties, Penalties

If it wasn’t obvious what the biggest issue on Saturday was, here it is: BC’s 10 penalties accounted for 109 lost yards, and many of them occurred during crucial moments that almost cost the Eagles the game. There was Castellanos’ lapse of judgment, but none was worse than Neto Okpala’s fourth-quarter penalty.

On 3rd-and-21, on BC’s 38-yard line, Vinny DePalma brought down Holy Cross quarterback Matthew Sluka, which would have become the Eagles’ second sack of the season. But the play was scrapped, as Okpala committed a hands-to-the-face penalty that resulted in an automatic first down. Three plays later, the Crusaders scored on a Jordan Fuller 15-yard rush to cut BC’s lead to 31–28.

Two of the Eagles’ penalties occurred on kickoffs, either giving the Crusaders better field position or hunting BC’s. Four seconds into the second quarter, Joe Marinaro committed a personal foul on a Holy Cross kickoff, forcing BC to start its drive at its own 9-yard line. On a BC kickoff later that quarter, Sione Hala picked up a personal foul of his own, allowing Holy Cross to start its drive on the 50-yard line. Four plays later, the Crusaders scored to cut BC’s lead to 21–14.

After recording zero penalties in the first quarter, BC had three in the second quarter, four in the third, and three in the fourth. Luckily for

the Eagles, Holy Cross committed 11 penalties for 98 lost yards.

Where are the Sacks?

Heading into the season, BC’s defensive line was touted as one of the Eagles’ best units. Led by junior Donovan Ezeiruaku, who was named to the 2023 All-ACC Preseason Team and totaled 8.5 sacks in 2022, BC featured a deep roster of pass rushers. Graduate student and defensive end Shitta Sillah was a force in 2021, Okpala boasted a solid training camp, DePalma returned for his sixth season on the Heights, junior Bryce Steele returned—but has yet to play due to a medical issue—and Kam Arnold was coming off a promising season. Transfers George Rooks and Caleb Jones also joined the mix.

Yet, the Eagles have notched one sack through two games this

season.

Across both games, Northern Illinois and Holy Cross quarterbacks have managed ample time to let plays develop and scramble out of the pocket to pick up easy yards. The Crusaders ran all over BC on Saturday, registering 264 yards—62 more yards than BC—and four rushing touchdowns.

Holy Cross’ 6.8 yards per carry was also a staggering number. The Crusaders only registered 130 non-rushing yards all game, but BC couldn’t prevent Sluka and Fuller from manhandling them on the ground. It’s an issue that needs to be addressed, or else Florida State might put up record-breaking numbers at Alumni Stadium next week.

Offensive Line Revival

Perhaps the biggest surefire positive from the game was BC’s

offensive line success. The Eagles allowed zero sacks, and Castellanos had plenty of time all game. It’s a refreshing sight to see after watching Phil Jurkovec and Emmett Morehead get pummeled all of last year and hardly have any room to attempt deep passes.

Most importantly, the line held up when it mattered most. BC was 5 for 5 on redzone trips on Saturday, and is now 7 for 7 on the year. The Eagles’ rushing attack has subsequently been reignited, as transfer back Kye Robichaux, who played in place of an injured Alex Broome, rushed for 94 yards on 19 carries and tacked on one touchdown. Robichaux averaged 4.9 yards per carry.

Castellanos also rushed for 69 yards on 16 rushes. Wide receiver Ryan O’Keefe even took a handoff for a score—a 14-yard rush in the second quarter. BC now has three rushing touchdowns on the year. In 2022, the Eagles accumulated just six rushing touchdowns in the entire season. BC totaled 45 rushes on Saturday, and such success warrants the Eagles to lean heavily into the ground game, which is something they just couldn’t do last season. It all comes down to the O-line, composed of Kyle Hergel, Logan Taylor, Drew Kendall, Ozzy Trapilo, and Christian Mahogany, which opens up gaping holes in the ground arena and protects from the pass rush with its blocking.

New offensive line coach Matt Applebaum has this unit playing the most disciplined out of any unit on BC’s roster, which is something that will need to continue if the Eagles want to continue winning football games. n

Bergamini: What Has Happened to BC Football?

By JaCk BergaMiNi Assoc. Sports Editor

Two years ago, amid a 3–0 start where Boston College football outscored its opponents 124–31, Jeff Hafley made a proposal to BC students before the Eagles’ heavily anticipated Week Four matchup against Missouri.

“Tailgate early,” Hafley said. “If you don’t want to wake up early, don’t go to bed. Just come out right from the night before and be there and be loud because we felt you last time, and we need you again.”

BC ended up defeating Missouri in overtime on a walk-off interception. Alumni Stadium roared, students stormed the field, and “bring on Clemson” was a legitimate claim for the Eagles and the great state of Massachusetts.

How far have Hafley and co. fallen? Well, it’s hard to say exactly. But it’s no secret that BC football has taken a nosedive in years three and four of the Hafley era.

Personally, I’m in a unique situation. I cover half of the games in the press box and am a normal student for the other half, watching from the bleachers at Alumni Stadium.

After leaving Saturday’s game against Holy Cross when the lightning delay was announced, I returned two hours later to a feeling I hope to never experience again. Alumni Stadium had been taken over by Holy Cross fans, sporting a student section that showed no intent of backing down, stationed behind the south endzone. But when I turned my head to the

right, I saw a measly three rows of BC students representing our school. For the first time since coming to BC two years ago, I felt embarrassed wearing maroon and gold.

I am aware that fans were asked to leave when the delay occurred. But once the game resumed, those three rows grew to four, five, maybe six.

Crusader fans likely outnumbered BC six to one. Obviously those fans had no dorms to go back to. But the damage was done. And that’s without mentioning BC’s third-quarter delay of game penalty due to Holy Cross’ rowdy and passionate fans, which put the Eagles under pressure to get the snap off.

The Holy Cross takeover really put into perspective the state of BC’s football program. Yes, students should stay for more than two quarters— most live right here on campus. Most students left at halftime against Northern Illinois last week too. But can you really blame the students when the product they’re watching is in such a discombobulated flux?

Holy Cross didn’t come to Chestnut Hill on Saturday scared.

Holy Cross fans didn’t come to Chestnut Hill on Saturday thinking they would handily lose like they have the previous nine times these programs have met. And I’m not sure a single “true” BC fan thought the Eagles would win after the two-hour and 10-minute delay, which resumed with Holy Cross having the ball on the 25-yard line with a chance to win the game.

But one more unforced error could have very well cost the Eagles the game on Saturday. A 33-win

streak against FCS opponents would have been snapped. Holy Cross fans would have probably stormed the field.

What would have been Hafley’s explanation after that?

The real question is, can BC football be fixed? Can Hafley, once thought as someone who would lift the Eagles above mediocrity, revive his coaching career on the Heights this season?

Hafley is 6–15 since that Missouri game. Hafley won three games last season. Hafley also couldn’t make a definitive decision on who to roll with for Week One after an entire training camp.

There are third-year coaches who haven’t survived a 3–9 season like Hafley had last year. Coaches at Stanford, Arizona State, and Colorado all departed after finishing with three wins or less last season—ASU and Colorado fired their coaches midseason.

But BC isn’t like most schools. It’s a university that undoubtedly values academics and character first. On multiple occasions, Hafley has said that himself in response to questions about the transfer portal.

Sure, BC got unlucky with injuries last season and didn’t have the coaches, or depth, to help them win.

Former offensive coordinator John McNulty and offensive lines coach Dave DeGuglielmo got dismissed. Defensive coordinator Tem Lukabu also departed for a job in the NFL. Heading into the 2023 season, Hafley hand-picked his guys, hiring everyone from within (besides linebackers coach Paul Rhoads) and

preached that BC had more depth than last year. Hafley and his players dubbed Emmett Morehead as the leader of this squad, and the staff was determined to forget their disastrous 2022 campaign.

In came the 2023 season: Morehead wasn’t named a captain and he wasn’t playing after two drives. BC was back to disappointing against inferior, non-conference opponents after months of promise that this year would be different. Sure, Thomas Castellanos has proven to be the better option going forward. But the plan to open the season with two quarterbacks was jarring.

This year’s team may be different according to Hafley, but on paper, it was mostly the same. To the average student, we’re simply underwhelming.

And yes, the Eagles did win on Saturday, and they’re officially .500 on the season. Yes, BC did showcase some promise—the offensive line looked vastly improved from last season and Castellanos certainly has promise. But if there’s a definition of a bad win, Saturday’s win was as close as you’ll get.

So what exactly has changed from last year?

For one thing, the defense looks worse. Giving up 27 and 28 points to Northern Illinois and Holy Cross speaks for itself. Hafley’s defensive background has not been showing. And if that’s not showing, what is Hafley bringing to the table that’s unique? I’m not sure I can pinpoint anything.

The penalties have also been excruciating. Nineteen flags across two games, including a mind-

numbing taunting penalty called on Castellanos on Saturday, have plagued the Eagles. Seeing Hafley amped up about BC’s penalties during Saturday’s press conference was welcoming, but when will we see a difference on the field?

The pressure is clearly mounting onto Hafley. He is, after all, the highest-paid employee at BC. He should know he hasn’t achieved what he set out to achieve. Receiving a contract extension through 2026 two years ago has ultimately proven to be a premature move—one that could cost the University millions of dollars if Hafley doesn’t complete his contract.

Overall, Hafley is a genuine person who’s always a pleasure to speak to in press conferences, it’s nothing but unfortunate what his tenure in Chestnut Hill has come to.

I’m merely worried that Hafley has lost the locker room and there’s no coming back. Players liking tweets like these surely help that case.

Nothing I’ve seen this year has proven to me that this is a different team. Nothing I saw on Saturday proves to me that there have been any major changes from Week One to Week Two. And if no changes are made for Saturday’s game against No. 3 Florida State, it will not be pretty.

I truly want to go back to that feeling of the Missouri game. The excitement was unreal, and BC football had true promise. Fans showed up and stayed, alumni were bought in with spirit and vitality, and the sky was sort of the limit. Just two years later, it’s not crazy to say that was the pinnacle of the Hafley era. n

Eagles Dominate Iona Classic With Three Sweeps

By Matthew Capaldi Heights Staff

Coming off a disappointing showing at the San Diego Invitational, Boston College volleyball traveled to New Rochelle, N.Y., this weekend looking to regain its form against some lesser opponents.

The Eagles (6–3) perfectly capitalized on this opportunity and left the Iona Classic with three convincing victories. BC didn’t drop a set over the course of the entire tournament, collecting wins over Long Island (1–9) on Thursday, Iona (3–7) on Friday, and Fordham (7–1) on Saturday to sweep its way to an undefeated weekend. Katrina Jensen earned tournament MVP honors, and two other Eagles, Julia Haggerty and Anna Murphy, were named to the

All-Tournament Team.

The toughest task of the weekend for BC was Saturday’s tilt against previously unbeaten Fordham. The Eagles fought back from a few deficits to upend the Rams by scores of 25–19, 25–19, and 25–22.

With the score tied 11–11, the Eagles went on a 7–2 run to pull away in the first set. The second set was more comfortable for BC. The Eagles raced out to a 9–2 advantage and never relinquished the lead.

Fordham led the third set 17–12,

but BC stormed back to win the final set of the match by a three-point margin. Jensen and Jenna Pollock each tallied three kills during the late surge.

Haggerty recorded six kills, three blocks, and two digs against the Rams, but Jensen was the Eagles’ best player once again, finishing the match with 14 kills in total.

The Eagles faced off just 16 hours prior with Iona. BC commanded each of the first two sets, 25–20 and 25–21, respectively, before exploding in the third set, 25–9.

The Gaels held 15–14 and 19–18 leads in the first and second sets, respectively, before BC took control. The third set was lopsided from the start, with the Eagles jumping out to a 10–1 lead.

Jensen posted 12 kills and Murphy registered 23 digs against Iona.

Schroder had another impressive performance with nine kills and six digs, while Jen Soto led the Gaels with six kills.

Jensen was a dominant force for BC against the Sharks on Thursday in BC’s first match of the tournament. The senior totaled 14 kills and three blocks. Freshman Halle Schroder was also a standout performer, finishing with eight kills, 13 digs, and two blocks.

BC used a key 7–0 run to take the first set, 25–12, and get the early advantage over LIU. The Eagles coasted in the second set, 25–13, thanks to a 6–1 start, and they fended off a late push in the third set to seal the victory. The Sharks then cut BC’s lead to six before the Eagles rattled off three consecutive points to win the final set, 25–16. n

BC Takes Down Sacred Heart 3–2 on Senior Day

By NiCk Fursey

For The Heights

After an emotional pregame for Boston College women’s soccer on Senior Day, the leadership of BC’s seniors and the play from forward Aislin Streicek stole the show following kickoff.

The junior boasted an impressive statline with two goals and an assist to lead the Eagles (3–3–2) to a 3–2 victory over Sacred Heart (1–4–2).

“She’s been such a gift off the transfer portal for us,” BC head coach Jason Lowe said. “I think today we saw a little bit of what she was capable of.”

The Eagles got off to an explosive start with a dangerous shot by Streicek in the third minute of the game that narrowly missed wide of the right post. Streicek’s next attempt was to the contrary.

Following a pass interception from Ava McNeil in the fifth minute, Streicek received the ball toward the edge of the penalty box and scored a screamer with her left foot past Sacred Heart’s goalkeeper Elyssa Kipperman. The strike was Streicek’s

first goal of the season and gave BC an early 1–0 advantage.

Immediately following the Eagles’ early goal, Sacred Heart went on the attack with two corners of its own in the 10th and 11th minutes. The second corner produced an opportunity for the Pioneers’ Lindsay McShea, who made a lob pass attempt inside the box. BC goalkeeper Wiebke Willebrandt slipped and fell trying to block McShea’s pass as the ball trickled into the back of the net to even the score 1–1.

The Eagles seemed shaken up with multiple poor pass attempts and interceptions, but quickly found success in attacking the Pioneers through the right side of the field.

In the 31st minute, BC junior Ella Richards found Streicek on the run, who maneuvered her way past three Sacred Heart defenders and took a shot that caught the inside right post and put BC back on top 2–1.

“Anytime we’ve scored early in the game, it just allows them to play a little bit more free,” Lowe said.

Entering halftime, the Eagles tallied nine shot attempts to the Pioneers’ four. Much of their success in the first half can also be attributed to

the leadership by seniors on the team.

“This senior class has done a fantastic job of just really taking ownership of the team,” Lowe said. “They do such a great job from the day our freshmen got here in July. Just making sure that everybody’s focused, everybody’s motivated and just, you know, leading by example.”

In the second half, BC took its foot off the pedal offensively and played with a more conservative and patient strategy, controlling the possession of the game, continuing to make good passes when needed, and running into the gaps once space opened up.

“We really focused in on the final third play this week,” Lowe said. “And just being a little bit more patient kind of in the final third and just giving ourselves a chance to get better chances.”

Along with the offense, BC’s defense continued its strong play by preventing Sacred Heart from gaining any momentum until the last moments of the match.

The nail in the coffin for the Pioneers occurred in the 73rd minute. BC defender Claire Mensi won a free kick just past midfield and directed a pass to the red hot Streicek on the left-

hand side of the field. Streicek drove down the left side and proceeded to cross the ball into Sophia Lowenberg, who calmly tapped the ball into the net. This gave BC its third goal of the game, the most goals it has scored in a single game all season.

In the 87th minute, BC’s defense fell asleep for the first time all game and allowed Morgan Bovardi of the Pioneers to slip through and score, narrowing the lead to one. Sacred

Heart received a free kick in the last minute of the game in an attempt to tie, but it could not capitalize.

The victory marks the first time this season BC has won without shutting out its opponent.

“The thing I really like is that the team is able to execute a game plan,” Lowe said. “That’s what we’re gonna need for each ACC game, and I’ll take them one at a time and just try and chip away.” n

Laura Gouvin, pictured, is one of just five seniors on BC’s squad.

VAGRA / HEIGHTS

CALLIE OXFORD / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Alayna Crabtree (left) leads the Eagles with 93 points this season.

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Eagles Shutout Terriers with Three-Goal Quarter

By iSaBella caliSe Heights Staff

Caroline Kelly stepped into the cage of New Balance Field on Friday night, familiar with both the view and the faces. In Boston College field’s hockey Battle of Comm. Ave, the graduate goaltender stepped into the goal against her former teammates—this time as an Eagle, playing for BC.

Kelly barely had to lift a finger in the ensuing 60 minutes. Following a two-game scoring drought, the Eagles dominated their matchup against the Terriers Friday night with two goals in just two minutes. Upholding uninterrupted passing and rigid offensive pressure, No. 16 BC (3–2) looked like a different team with a three-goal second quarter. The Eagles converted three corners and found the back of the net on a breakaway to take home their seventh straight victory over BU (1–3) by a final score of 4–0.

“Our defense is going to carry us,” BC head coach Kelly Doton said. “Like I said to those guys after the game, [this

is] our third straight game of not allowing a goal in regulation. That’s gonna be critical for us down the stretch.”

Kara Heck took to the field with energy for BC, firing shots only for them to be knocked back by BU goaltender Kate Thomason. In their meeting last October, Heck notched the game-winning goal for the Eagles as they took the victory.

And although BC was met with two straight corner tries in the eight-minute mark on Friday, none were able to reach the back of the net.

That was, until the second quarter, as BC put up three goals. At the 18:06 mark, Margo Carlin took the insert on BC’s fourth penalty corner. Senior Juliette Hijdra converted the opportunity with a shot that flew over the stick of Thomason, tallying her first career goal and BC’s first goal in three games at 1–0. Carlin’s assist marked her 100th career point.

“That’s been the focus, that was the focus, going into this week, getting some goals early,” Doton said. “I’m happy to see that she got one.”

Less than two minutes later, BC took to the corner again. This time,

Simone Hefting fired a shot on the goal that fell to Carlin, who redirected the ball to the back of the net, putting BC further ahead 2–0. BC’s defense continued to be as strong as its offense. After a foul inside the shooting circle, BU attempted its second corner, but the Eagles clogged shooting opportunities and took the ball back into offensive possession.

At the 27:11 mark, Kendall Hanlon created a takeaway into the midfield and sent a shot in front of the cage. Waiting

was Martina Giacchino, who landed the shot on net to make it 3–0.

“Limiting the fast rate turnovers because our counter defense is set and everything like that—that is always going to be the focus,” Doton said.

The Terriers struggled to generate offensive possession against BC’s defensive line during the rest of the matchup, only tallying six shots that night compared to BC’s 15.

BU tried to test BC’s defensive zone, but the Eagles retained control around

the Terriers’ shooting circle. Taking the ball out of play, BC held BU scoreless for the second half and the entire game.

The Eagles managed to capitalize on their eighth penalty corner of the night at the 51:55 mark. While Mia Garber missed the initial shot on net, Peyton Hale found possession and redirected a shot from the right side to Garber, solidifying a 4–0 victory for the Eagles.

“I was happy with the way that they performed,” Doton said. “They deserve that four–nothing victory.” n

NC State Hands Eagles First ACC Defeat

By Graham Dietz Sports Editor

In the top corner of the box, NC State men’s soccer’s Gabi Velez turned on the jets and paced the ball ahead of him. Velez trapped the ball with his left foot just inches before it drifted out of bounds, made a quick cut to the inside, and chipped the ball to Junior Nare in the high slot.

Just after Nare’s right cleat made impact with the ball, Boston College goalkeeper Brennan Klein dove with his hands stretched toward the heavens. Nare fired a blistering shot to the far post, which had no shot of being stopped as it rose linearly into the top-right corner of the goal. Just over 23 minutes into the game, BC looked despondent. The only thing Klein, defender Diego Ochoa, and midfielder Xavier O’Niel could do was stare at Nare in celebration and put their hands on their hips in disbelief.

Nare’s rocket lit a fire in the Wolfpack (3–2, 1–0 Atlantic Coast) student section, who waved flags, banged drums, and danced amid a smoke machine behind the net. The fan environment at Dail Soccer Field overcame the Eagles right from the beginning. After falling behind 1–0 early in the contest, BC (2–2–1,

0–1) never recovered, surrendering another goal in the 89th minute en route to a 2–0 loss in its first ACC matchup of the year.

In the first half, a 10–2 shot margin in favor of NC State rippled through the Eagles’ chemistry and game plan. Despite earning a corner kick just 3:29 into the game and notching a shot, the Wolfpack marched down the field and garnered four shots in a row between the seventh and 20th minutes.

Just three minutes after NC State’s Will Buete roped a ball to the bottom-center position of the net, which Klein halted, Nare recorded his second goal of the season. The velocity of Nare’s tally was evident, as the ball made a beeline straight for the twine between the top shelf and the threading in the back of the net.

After a slew of yellow cards—two to the Wolfpack and one to BC—the Eagles developed a set-piece opportunity in the third minute of the second half off a corner kick. Ted Cargill received the attempt just a foot away from the corner flag and unleashed a cross into the box, which CJ Williams connected with. Williams’ header dribbled right of the goal.

Another dangerous opportunity for NC State in the second half occurred with 18:18 left in regulation, when Jonathan Murphy blundered a simple side pass to his defensive partner, handing Yuta Toya a break-

away run. Klein picked up on the mistake and tip-toed to the top of the box, landing on his knees to make the save.

Klein kept NC State off the board for a second time until the very last minute of the contest, but part of the reason for BC’s defensive success was its ability to block shots and break off downfield passes. In the latter half of the game, the Wolfpack only outshot the Eagles 5–2.

With 30 seconds remaining in the contest, Luke Hille captured the ball in the attacking half and took it all the way into BC’s box on his own. After making Williams miss a tackle with an in-and-out, throughthe-legs move, Hille inched closer to the net and stutter-stepped. Hille faked a shot—making Moritz Gundelach drop to the turf—and lifted a bouncer into the goal to put the cherry on top. n

BC Takes Season-High 18 Shots Against Dartmouth

By mackenzie Shea Heights Staff

After a grueling day of heat, and trailing Dartmouth 1–0, Boston College women’s soccer’s Claire Mensi set the ball down on the penalty kick line after a handball in the box with a chance to tie the game.

The whistle blew, Mensi wound up, and she hammered the ball hard and low past Dartmouth goaltender Emily Hardy to tie the game at one apiece. The game marked a season-high 18 scoring opportunities for BC (2–3–2), none of which were capitalized on during Thursday’s game against Dartmouth (3–0–2). Dartmouth’s three-game win streak was snapped.

While BC fought to find its footing in the first half of the game, Dartmouth pounced on its weakness and struck first.

Fourteen minutes into the game, Dartmouth moved the ball down the field into the Eagles’ left

corner. Big Green forward Carly Retterer crossed the ball through the box to midfielder Danielle Burke, who shot the ball behind BC goaltender Wiebke Willebrandt to put Dartmouth ahead.

BC couldn’t make it past the wall of Big Green at the top of the box. Even though they had two

corner kicks, the Eagles only had two shots on goal, both by senior forward Emily Sapienza.

“I think we lost control of the midfield a little bit,” BC head coach Jason Lowe said. “We had a lot of space to play, but we didn’t take advantage. You know, defensively, they didn’t really have too much.”

A particular struggle was at the top of Dartmouth’s goaltender box.

“I knew they were gonna work hard, and I knew they were gonna be, you know, solid defensively,” Lowe said. “We know [Dartmouth head coach Taylor] Schram when she starts to play, and I just think we had more opportunities to get in behind them and get around them.”

But the energy shifted after the whistle blew to start the second half. The Eagles visibly had more energy and more offensive attacks in the last 45 minutes of the game—it just took some time for BC to gain its composure to generate better chances in the face of roster obstacles.

“Yeah, it’s just been kind of our thing getting off to a fast start against teams,” Lowe said. “And, you know, we’ve been getting some sickness and some injuries and things were pretty low in numbers today. And I think it just took some time for some people to rally and step up in those roles.”

There were many scoring op -

portunities throughout the game for the Eagles, especially from Sapienza. She sent a shot right over the crossbar with 25:37 left in the second half, and with about five minutes remaining she had a close shot on goal. She accounted for half of the team’s shots on goal with three and had eight shots overall.

“I mean, we created 18 chances on the attacking side,” Lowe said. “We definitely created enough [chances] to, I think, win the game.”

The Eagles’ sole goal came from Mensi’s penalty kick.

BC managed to hold Dartmouth scoreless in the second half, which had a lot to do with strong goaltending from Willebrandt. Willebrant made a diving stop to block Hailey Rorick’s roaring shot on goal with 22 minutes left in the game and also made a crucial save to prevent Kellie Sutton from scoring with two minutes remaining.

“We just kind of rush things a little bit,” Lowe said. “So we’ve just got to be more disciplined.” n

The Eagles limited Boston University to six total shots during Friday’s road game. BRODY HANNON / FOR THE HEIGHTS

ADITYA RAO / HEIGHTS STAFF

Diego Ochoa, pictured aboved, registered one shot in Friday’s loss.

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