The Heights September 30, 2019

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www.bcheights.com

Monday, September 30, 2019

Taking on pops

Saturday sweep

SPORTS

ARTS

Behind goals from three different players, No. 8 women’s hockey swept Merrimack College.

Natalie Marsan, the student singer at Pops on the Heights, traces her joruney from nursing to theatre.

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Judge Questions BC Disciplinary Process Recently released court docs, transcript revealed details about the alleged sexual

The new lawsuit could offer the First Circuit of Appeals the chance to define fundamental fairness.

By Steven Everett

By Jack Miller

Editor-in-Chief

News Editor

and Jack Miller

and Abby Hunt

News Editor

Assoc. News Editor

The overturning of a Boston College student’s suspension in late August was largely due to a federal judge’s finding that BC’s investigatory model failed to adequately address questions of credibility in cases of sexual assault, according to recently released court proceedings.

A document submitted by the student’s legal team noted that he is a student-athlete. When weighing the decision to stay the suspension, the judge also wrote that the student’s “extracurricular activity is central to him,” according to the court transcript.

The University suspended the student, “John Doe,” on June 18 after finding him responsible for sexual assault in violation of BC’s Student Sexual Misconduct Policy. Last November, another BC student, “Jane Roe,” informed Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Student Title IX Coordinator Melinda Stoops that Doe had engaged in a non-consensual sexual encounter with Roe while she was intoxicated. The University denied his appeal to this ruling on July 24.

On Aug. 20, presiding Judge Douglas P. Woodlock ordered BC to allow Doe to register for classes and participate in all University activities, according to his order of preliminary injunction.

BC filed an appeal of that decision on Aug. 28. The transcript of this hearing is yet to be released.

Associate Vice President for University Communication Jack Dunn, and Stoops both declined to comment, citing student privacy in an ongoing disciplinary matter.

Woodlock said in the transcript of the injunction hearing that the investigator-based model that BC uses failed to provide an opportunity for the two parties to propose lines of questioning and violated Doe’s right to a fair process. In cases of reported sexual misconduct, the University’s policy is to conduct an investigation that allows for the parties to sit for interviews, put forth evidence, name witnesses, and review the evidence collected. In this case, the investigators were Assistant Dean of Students Kristen O’Driscoll and external investigator Jennifer Davis.

The confidential investigatory report, which was submitted by O’Driscoll and Davis to Stoops and Associate Dean of Students Corey Kelly on June 11, detailed the investigative process and the ultimate findings. The University provided this document to the court ahead of the preliminary injunction hearing.

After Roe confirmed to Kelly in December that she wanted to go forward with BC’s sexual misconduct process, Kelly sent both parties “stay away” orders, which prohibited them from contacting each other. Doe and Kelly met three days later, according to a summary submitted by his attorneys.

Investigators began separately interviewing Doe and Roe in January, beginning with a two-day session with Roe. After her interview, the investigators sent a written summary to Roe, who had five days to provide comments. The investigatory report noted that O’Driscoll and Davis considered these comments, and all other post-interview comments, in the final summaries and the

A recent lawsuit alleging that Boston College violated a student’s fair process rights could force colleges and universities across New England to reevaluate how they investigate accusations of sexual assault.

In late August, federal Judge Douglas P. Woodlock ordered the University to allow a student-athlete—identified as “John Doe” in court documents—to enroll in courses this semester after finding that the University’s investigative model violated the principle of fundamental fairness. BC suspended Doe on June 18 after finding him responsible for sexual assault in violation of the University’s Student Sexual Misconduct Policy.

BC employs a “single investigator model,” in which either one or two investigators interview the accused student, the complainant, and any witnesses before compiling the evidence and sending a report and finding to the Student Title IX Coordinator and what was then the Dean of Students office. In Doe’s case, the investigators were Assistant Dean of Students Kristen O’Driscoll and external investigator Jennifer Davis.

The lawsuit arises as courts in both Massachusetts and across the country work to clarify how colleges and universities should conduct sexual assault investigations. Woodlock’s comments at the hearing suggest that Doe’s lawsuit could reconcile the different standards that private and public universities are held to.

This began with the 2000 Schaer v. Brandeis University case, where the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that private colleges and universities have to provide students accused of sexual assault with “fundamental fairness.”

The decision drew on principles of Massachusetts common law, which holds that inherent in all contracts is a promise of fundamental fairness. The court upheld the argument that students and their universities agree to a contract, usually detailed in a student code of conduct or equivalent document. This ruling laid the groundwork for a litany of breach of contract and fundamental fairness lawsuits against institutions of higher education.

Private colleges and universities in other states argue that by following the procedure laid out in their student codes of conduct, they assure fundamental fairness. Private colleges and universities in Massachusetts, however, must show both that they followed their own procedures and that those procedures are fair.

Under the Obama administration, the Department of Education issued a “Dear Colleague” Letter in 2011 that reinterpreted Title IX—the federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex from education programs receiving federal financial assistance—to issue specific guidelines for colleges to use in their adjudication of student-on-student sexual assault cases.

As colleges adapted their investigation and adjudication procedures to the Dear Colleague Letter, several Massachusetts schools faced lawsuits alleging separate charges of breach of contract and violations of fundamental fairness—raising the yet-to-be answered question of what fairness actually requires when it diverges from

See Investigation, A3

See Fairness, A3

Celine Lim / heights editor

27th Pops Raises $12.3 Milllion for Scholarships Leslie Odom Jr. headlined the Parents’ Weekend concert.

By Emily Himes Assoc. Arts Editor Longtime alumni and parents of freshmen alike crowded into Conte Forum for the 27th annual Pops on The Heights, excited to experience a performance by the Tony

and Grammy award-winning Leslie Odom Jr. Upon entering the venue, attendees encountered a dazzling display—multicolored string lights and glowing orbs hung from the ceiling, twinkling above the bustling, soldout crowd. This year’s theme, “Broadway at The Heights,” featured songs and showtunes all generations know and love—and as an original Hamilton cast member, Odom Jr. fit right in with the night’s theatrical essence.

Pops on The Heights has been one of

See Pops on the Heights, A3

Baker Announces FourMonth Ban on Vape Sales He said the move is in response to a “public health emergency.”

By Colleen Martin Metro Editor Vaping product sales will be banned for four months in Massachusetts, as Governor Charlie Baker announced a public health emergency. The temporary prohibition will last until Jan. 25, 2020, according to a press release.

“The use of e-cigarettes and marijuana vaping products is exploding and we are seeing reports of serious lung illnesses, particularly in our young people,” Baker said in a statement.

“The purpose of this public health emergency is to temporarily pause all sales of vaping products so that we can work with our medical experts to identify what is making people sick and how to better regulate these products to protect the health of our residents.”

Sixty-one cases of unexplained pulmonary disease related to vaping have been reported to the Department of Public Health this month, the press release said. The U.S. Surgeon General has called youth vaping an epidemic, as mysterious reports of deaths related to vaping have been announced across the country.

“Our priority is protecting the public health,” said Monica Bharel, the public health commissioner, in a statement. “The Governor’s actions today will help prevent more cases of this dangerous lung disease while getting people, especially young people, the help they need to quit.”

During the ban, Baker will work with medical experts as well as state and federal officials to learn more about vaping illnesses and decide what further steps should be taken. Those groups will also work together to make sure the ban is enforced, per Baker’s press release.

Shop owners were taken by surprise when the ban was announced yesterday.

See Vape Ban, A14

Leahy Signs Letter Voicing Concern Over Visa Delays The letter addressed recent trends in visa processing times.

By Jack Miller News Editor

Celine Lim / heights editor

Explosive Offense Not Enough to Beat Wake AJ Dillon ran for 159 yards, and the Eagles racked up 536 total yards, but still fell to Wake Forest, 27-24. See A9.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

FEATURES: Grocery Showdown

Grocery shopping on a budget still allows for gourmet dishes, recipes included........A4

METRO: Man Rescued from Res

Boston College President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., joined the presidents of 42 other Massachusetts colleges and universities in signing a letter expressing concern over recent developments in how the United States processes visas.

The Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts (AICUM), of which BC is a member institution, sent the Sept. 16 letter to the state’s

A runner saved a man who was attempting to help a dog in distress at the Reservoir............A14

INDEX

congressional delegation.

“As presidents of colleges and universities throughout Massachusetts, we write to share our concerns that recent developments in federal immigration policy are making it increasingly difficult for the Commonwealth’s colleges and universities to attract and retain international students, faculty and researchers,” the letter said.

The letter made note of the 68,000 international students that attend Massachusetts colleges and universities and noted four specific areas of concern: increased visa processing delays, increased processing delays for Optional Practical Training, increased requests for evidence for H-1B visas, and

See Leahy, A3

NEWS.........................A2 METRO..................... A13

Vol. C, No. 17 MAGAZINE..................A4 SPORTS.................... A9 © 2019, The Heights, Inc. OPINIONS................... A6 ARTS..................... A18 www.bchelghts.com 69

The Heights

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things to do on campus this week

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Playwright, performer, recording artist, and director Daniel Alexander Jones will be speaking about the rules of theatre, his current projects, and the value of mentors on the Robsham Theater main stage on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Monday, September 30, 2019

Susan Rice will be speaking about her experience serving in President Obama’s administration as national security adviser and permanent representative to the U.N. on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the Heights Room.

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CAB is hosting an apple picking event on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Honey Pot Hill Orchards in Stow, Mass. Transportation will be provided. Tickets include a bag for apples, a hayride, and access to the hedge maze.

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NEWS C21 Panelists Propose Inclusivity, Accountability BRIEFS

Pine Tree Preserve Officially Opens

Boston College held an opening ceremony for Pine Tree Preserve, the recently renovated park located between campus and the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., joined Frederick Laskey, executive director for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), in offering opening remarks.

The University added paths, irrigation infrastructure, and lights ahead of the official opening to the public this fall. Although the MWRA owns the Preserve, the University funded the improvements and performs maintenance.

Laskey spoke first, offering a history of how the project began. He expressed that while he was initially hesitant to once again attempt to discover a useful function for this plot of land, he was incredibly pleased with how the idea turned out. Laskey then went on to thank the board of directors that had been in charge of the project.

He concluded by encouraging people to relish in the beauty of the preserve.

Leahy went on to credit a commitment to the common good and effective public-private partnership for the endeavor’s success “If there is one word that sticks out for me in regard to this dedication ceremony, it’s partnership,” Leahy said.

“This is a moment where we see the benefits of partnership. And I think we also might reflect on what we can do in the future together with this particular institution of higher education, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, and the surrounding community. What opportunities are there for other ways in which we can enhance the quality of life in the commonwealth at large, but also our neighborhood in particular?”

Leahy concluded by stating the driving forces behind the completion of the project.

“This is a result of great ideas, tenacity, energy, and creativity,” Leahy said. “And we will enjoy this for years to come.”

BC Grad Competes on ‘Survivor’ Molly Byman, BC ’13, is competing on the 39th season of Survivor, which premiered last week.

“I have wanted to compete on Survivor since I first watched Elisabeth Filarski jump off that cliff in the Australian Outback,” Byman said to CBS News. “I want a behindthe-scenes look at the show I love, and I want to test my mind, body and social prowess. The opportunity to graduate [from] law school with zero debt is a bonus.”

Byman said she is optimistic about her chances of coming out on top.

“I am smart, strong, and not annoying,” she said to CBS News.

“Discomfort and being dirty don’t bother me. I can fit in anywhere and form relationships with anyone.

Being the oldest child and being a teacher taught me how to manage chaos, how to be adaptable and considerate to others’ needs, and how to use subtle powers of persuasion to get people to do what I want.”

Byman majored in international studies during her time at Boston College, while also participating in 4Boston, Korean Students Association, APPA, and the Student Admissions Program.

Following her graduation from BC, Byman joined Teach for America and taught in San Antonio, Texas.

She then taught at Spark Academy in Lawrence, Mass., where she was a language arts teacher for eighth grade students. She is currently attending law school at Duke University.

By Scott Baker Copy Editor

As part of the Church in the 21st Century Series, the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life hosted a panel titled “How Would You Reform the Catholic Church?” on Tuesday.

Moderated by Rev. Mark Massa, S.J., of Boston College, the panel spoke on the biggest issues it sees in the Catholic Church.

The four invited speakers focused on two main themes—expanding the voice and role of marginalized groups in the Church, particularly women, and increasing the accountability of the Church to its communities.

Phyllis Zagano, an author and professor at Hofstra University, argued that the Church needs to reinstate women as deacons in the Catholic Church. Zagano has served on the Vatican Commission on Woman Deacons, which studied the history of woman deacons. She emphasized the need for the Church to return to its historical roots and allow women to become deacons.

Zagano argued that there is strong historical evidence to support the claim that women used to serve as deacons, such as historical records of female deacons examining bruises on women from domestic violence.

“Why do we need woman deacons?”

Zagano said. “Well, to provide ministry to women, to let women rejoin the clerical state, and to support the

Church’s teaching that all are made in the image and likeness of God.” In a similar vein, Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a religious studies professor at Manhattan College, pushed for the Church to be more inclusive of marginalized groups, namely women and cultures in the Global South.

To illustrate her point, Imperatori-Lee shared the story of her son’s all-male school. She met with her son’s English teacher, who laid out the authors they would read that semester, from Edgar Allan Poe to Sophocles to Shakespeare.

“And then it hit me: ‘Oh my God, what if he never reads a woman?’” Imperatori-Lee said. “What if, in this very elite, single-sex Catholic environment, my son never finds out that women have something interesting to say about history, or story-telling, or theology?

“Here’s the thing: What I don’t want for my son, I don’t want for my Church. It sounds simple, but the execution of this probably won’t be. My institutional contribution to the reform of the Church would be to dismantle the seminary system as it currently exists.”

Imperatori-Lee argued that the isolation that comes with the seminary system is at the heart of the abuse crisis, and seminarians should undertake their formation alongside the laity, while also being exposed to a wider variety of theological writings, especially those written by women and people from the Global South.

Bishop Mark O’Connell of the archdiocese of Boston stressed the need to hold bishops accountable for child sex abuse within the Church.

He argued that Church policy has been inadequate, especially in giving bishops too much discretion in deciding how to address accusations against priests.

O’Connell said that in investigations, bishops who have allowed these priests to remain in service have been following Church rules, although he made a point to not excuse that complacency.

In response, O’Connell said he would mandate lay involvement in decisions over what to do with accused priests and priests who have been found to act immorally, which would give the decision-making process a wider perspective and increase accountability in the Church.

“I do not think the [canon] law is strong enough,” O’Connell said. “It still leaves aspects to the discretion of the bishop, assuming the bishop would act prudently, and I would rewrite that law.”

Richard Gaillardetz, chair of the theology department at BC, focused on what he sees as a disconnect between the Church hierarchy and the laity.

With papal appointments becoming more common and two-thirds of bishops actually overseeing a diocese, being appointed as bishop has become an honor rather than a service, Gaillardetz said.

The Church, he argued, should return to the practice of letting local communities choose their bishop.

“Many will agree that a lack of episcopal accountability lies at the heart of our clerical sexual abuse crisis. A return to the active role of the local Church in the selection of a bishop would go a long way toward helping us recover that accountability.”

While most speakers expanded on their earlier points when given a second opportunity to speak, O’Connell changed his tone and focused specifically on reintegrating people back into the Church.

Focusing too much on specific rules early on, he argued, is counterproductive—instead, the Church should focus first on integration and then on the rules.

O’Connell proposed a program for returning Catholics that is similar to the current program for potential Catholic converts, the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA).

This program would excuse potential returners from attending Mass while they are in the process of reintegration.

“You fall in love with baseball long before you learn the infield fly rule,” O’Connell said. “Sometimes when people come back to church, instead of falling in love with the liturgy, we start with the infield fly rule. Are you divorced? Are you gay? Are you married in the Church? Are you committing mortal sin by not going to Mass?” n

AADS Celebrates 50 Years With ‘New Directions’

By Gavin Zhang For The Heights Cynthia Young, former director of the Boston College African and African Diaspora Studies program and the current head of African American Studies at Penn State University, launched the 2019 New Directions Lecture series with a reflection on her time at BC. This year’s lecture series celebrates the AADS program’s 50-year anniversary—Young served as the program director for black studies as it transitioned into its current form in 2006.

While on the Heights, Young reshaped the Black Studies program from the ground up, starting with the name. She rebranded the program to “African and African Diaspora Studies” to reflect her vision of an interdisciplinary future with broader scholarly perspectives.

Hoping to expand the program and lacking the momentum to get going, Young and her colleagues made a decision that was, in her words, “unheard of ” in academia: searching for new hires from every field they could imagine.

“As a result, we got 691 applications for two positions,” Young said. “And I read every single one of them. Unbelievable. I’m still bitter.”

The program began looking to other departments at BC for faculty, utilizing joint appointments to double up on new hires.

Young also talked about the administrative obstacles that she faced during the program’s expansion phase, beginning with her frustration that it never developed into a full academic department.

She emphasized the importance of department status, which she called “the intellectual and administrative currency of colleges and universities.”

She noted that departments have a greater degree of freedom, including more control in hiring new faculty and the opportunity to develop master’s or Ph.D. programs.

“Departments demand respect,” Young said. “Programs inspire tolerance and pity, but not typically respect.

Not at the level of the upper administration and not at the level of other universities and other institutions.”

Young said that Black Studies, which spread across higher education in the late 1960s as a result of black students’ activism, is inherently designed to challenge and transform academia, rather than integrate into it.

Those students were not merely focusing on matters like greater equality in college admissions, but envisioned a

POLICE BLOTTER: 9/25/19 – 9/27/19 Wednesday, Sept. 25

11:33 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a trespass warning issued at Fulton Hall.

1:58 p.m.- An officer filed a report regarding malicious destruction of property valued under $1200 at Middle Roadways.

1:49 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a secret video/photo partial nudity at Hardey Hall.

6:51 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at Lower Lots.

Black Studies program that reached out to struggling communities and worked to fix social ills, she said. “[If we agree that] racism is the state-sanctione d pro duction and exploitation of group differentiated vulnerabilities to premature social, civil, corporeal death, then we can understand just how high the stakes are,” Young said.

She said that Black Studies should first and foremost be characterized as an exploration of the many ways to be human, which, if taught successfully, challenges the notion that the white experience is the default experience.

Young also said that disregard for black culture and history—which she referred to as the “black studies, small B, small S” mindset—is not limited to academia, nor does it primarily come from faculty and students.

“The Western world calls itself the correct way… and that had been imposed upon all of us,” Young said. “And as such … it can be changed, it can be tested, it can be overturned.”

Citing an article by Darlene Clark Hine, Young highlighted two key elements of Black Studies: practicing solidarity and a focus on oppression.

While Hine focused on solidarity within the African diaspora, Young said she believes that such solidarity should

be expanded to populations across the globe. Young spoke of a trip she took to Palestine during which she saw a fellow black scholar on the trip had difficulties passing through checkpoints.

“And so that for me was a kind of profound moment,” Young said. “He was telling me the story for me to think about the ways in which what was happening in Israel [and] Palestine was so familiar to those of us who have been harassed, contained, caged, and surveilled. It was really a profound moment for me to think about what it means and what my obligation is.”

Young said that people should talk more openly about all the various ways that they resist and refuse oppression every day.

She added that one does not need to look at big, faceless organizations to effect change—local institutions can have just as much of an impact.

Young also pointed out that servicelearning programs, a prominent part of BC’s curriculum, are important in Black Studies programs as well.

“If we remain open and attentive to its imperative,” Young said, “I think doing that kind of work can make not only Black Studies really important and relevant for the 21st century, but I think you can also just make this a better place to be.” n

Thursday, Sept. 26

Friday, Sept. 27

1:25 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at Campanella Way.

12:32 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at Rubenstein Hall.

3:22 p.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a medical incident at McElroy Commons.

12:55 a.m. - An officer filed a report regarding a suspicious person at Commonwealth Garage.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

CORRECTIONS What’s your favorite movie?

“Inception” — Jeeval Mehta, MCAS ’21

“The Sound of Music” — Claire Sheller, MCAS ’21

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

“Avengers” — Chiara Rabeno, MCAS ’21

“Surf’s Up and Good Will Hunting” — Lindsay McManus and Cory Easton, MCAS ’23

The Heights

Monday, September 30, 2019

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Student Lawsuit Could Set Precedent Fairness, from A1

Celine Lim / Heights Editor

‘Hamilton’ Star Sings at Annual Fundraiser Pops on the Heights, from A1 Boston College’s flagship events for quite some time now—and over 27 years, it has raised over $80 million for over 3,000 scholarships. This year alone, the event amassed $12.3 million—giving 427 students the opportunity to receive a BC education. This year, there was an unprecedented focus on BC students.

Time and time again, performers, organizers, and guests honored the students who form the patchwork of the BC community, often offering uplifting words to those in the audience.

“You are the heart and soul of this great institution,” said John Fish, co-chair of Pops on The Heights and a member of the Board of Trustees. “Continue to dream big.”

The event began with the Boston Pops and Conductor Keith Lockhart performing various well-known songs from Broadway plays new and old, from the 1980 musical 42nd Street to Frozen. From the very first song, it was clear it would be a joyful night, as Lockhart danced onstage during “42nd Street” while a fellow musician skillfully placed his hands inside tap shoes to recreate every aspect of the song. Those playing the bass even spun their instruments around to the beat of the song, allowing for an unusually playful atmosphere to kick off the evening. The University Chorale, directed by John Finney, joined in on the lighthearted music on the following song, “It’s A Grand Night For Singing,” from the 1996 Broadway production of State Fair.

As the night progressed, the visual effects and lighting only grew more impressive. Colorful orbs floated just above the heads of those sitting on the floor. Bright screens formed a gold frame around the stage, making Conte look like an old Broadway theater in New York City. The atmosphere continuously shifted from opulent to playful and back again, ultimately reflecting the dual-realities of the event itself—as if to showcase pride in a multi-million dollar gala without forgetting that it’s taking place in a college hockey and basketball arena.

Songs from popular Disney musicals were a guaranteed hit—the audience lit up as the Pops performed “Let It Go” under a dazzling array of blue lights twinkling magically across the arena. Deep blue glowing orbs moved in a wave across Conte, prompting many to take out their phones and snap a video of the impressive effects. “Circle of Life” was another fan favorite—The Lion

King is beloved across generations, and it showed on the faces of audience members as the Pops were once again joined by the Chorale for the classic tune.

Pops on The Heights wouldn’t be complete without its annual student performer, and this year was no different. Natalie Marsan, MCAS ’21, stunned the crowd as she sang “When I Look at You,” from The Scarlet Pimpernel, alongside the Pops. She sang the ballad with passion and purpose, and was immediately rewarded with an explosive standing ovation.

After the intermission, the moment everyone was waiting for arrived and Odom Jr. stepped onstage. The crowd erupted in cheers when he immediately launched into “Wait For It,” one of his most popular songs off the Hamilton soundtrack. His smooth voice slid into every nook and cranny of the arena as he sang into the lenses of thousands of cameras with FaceTime and Snapchat open. He shifted away from Hamilton for the majority of his set, instead performing a variety of jazz songs that suited the evening perfectly. Lights above the stage twinkled and glistened as he sang a stripped-down version of “Mona Lisa” by Nat King Cole—it was just him and a piano. He included a song from Rent, one of his pre-Hamilton broadway ventures—in which he awed the audience with his impressive vocal talents, hitting amazing notes left and right, seemingly without effort.

“I know there are a lot of grateful, grateful kids here tonight,” Odom Jr. started, making his way down the stairs into the audience, a glass of champagne in his hand.

“Let’s raise a glass to all of them tonight.”

He reflected on the show’s lasting legacy, one which “created a table to share with everyone … people my age share the show with their kids and their parents, regardless of age or party…”

From there he launched into “Dear Theodosia” and ultimately the token piece, “The Room Where It Happens.” Those who weren’t familiar with Hamilton were rightfully confused, but most of the audience sang along, thrilled to be seeing one of the show’s original performers in person.

As Odom Jr. left the stage, the Pops were joined by BC’s marching band to close out the show with a rendition of “For Boston,” followed by the patriotic “Stars and Stripes Forever,” complete with the yearly tradition of thousands of balloons falling from above and loudly exploding upon another widelysuccessful gala. n

Leahy Signs Visa Letter Leahy, from A1 the uncertainty faced by students hoping to travel overseas.

A University-high 1,878 international students attended BC in the 2018-2019 academic year, according to the Office of International Students and Scholars. Compared to other schools in the state, BC has the ninth-most international students as a percent of total students in the state, according to US News.

The letter cited a report from the American Immigration Lawyers Association that found that the average processing time for visa applications had increased 46 percent over the 2017-18 fiscal year.

The letter said that students facing these long processing times rarely receive regular updates and often miss portions of the academic year.

“These delays are directly impacting the competitiveness of U.S. companies by denying them access to high-skilled labor and limiting the ability of international students to contribute to the U.S. economy,” the letter said.

Also included was a reference to the travel ban, which prevents most citizens from Syria , Iran, Libya , Somalia, Yemen, North Korea, and Venezuela from visiting, working, and studying in the United States.

The AICUM letter said that the lack of clarity in the waiver process has left students and scholars from these countries unsure of their status.

Leahy condemned the travel ban in January 2017, just after President Donald Trump signed the original order.

The college and university presidents also pointed to recent delays for Optional Practical Training applications, the timeframe of which has increased from the previous 90 days to five months.

Optional Practical Training allows student visa holders to gain up to a year of employment in their field of study either before or after graduation. The letter noted that the 90-day pre-application window has left students missing up to two months of their employment.

The letter also said that U.S. Customs and Immigration Services has started to ask for more information from visa applicants, postponing the issuance of H-1B visas, according to the letter.

Requests for additional evidence have more than doubled between the third and fourth quarters of the 201718 fiscal year, according to the letter.

“These requests delay the issuance of visas for our faculty and staff by months, increase legal costs, and place our students and employees in limbo by prohibiting employment and travel while we await their status,” the letter said.

The letter ended with a general description of the uncertainty faced by international students, explaining that students have even had valid visas revoked or been barred from reentering the country as they attempted to

student-college contracts.

In 2016, Doe v. Brandeis University became one of the most high-profile cases in Massachusetts to land in front of a federal judge. Brandeis University had employed the single-investigator model to determine that the plaintiff had sexually assaulted his ex-boyfriend several times over their 21month romantic relationship. In court, the university’s lawyers argued that its Special Examiner faithfully followed the procedures detailed in Brandeis’ Student Handbook.

The judge ruled that while Brandeis had not breached its contract with the plaintiff, the investigation process lacked fairness.

Brandeis had not permitted the accused student to see the charges levied against him, denied him a right to counsel, and prevented him from examining the evidence or witness statements.

But the ruling did little to define which procedures protect fundamental fairness in the college disciplinary process.

The pattern arose the next year in Doe v. Amherst College, in which a federal judge allowed a male student’s lawsuit alleging breach of contract and a violation of fundamental fairness—again, as separate infractions—to proceed. In that case, Amherst failed to consider exculpatory texts sent directly after the alleged assault.

Even more relevant to the current Doe v. Trustees of Boston College lawsuit is a case of the same name that appeared before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in 2018. Drawing on the 2000 Schaer v.

Brandeis University case, the First Circuit made a distinction between breach of contract and fundamental fairness claims.

Public institutions, however, have had to face a different standard: constitutional due process. On this front, Massachusetts

has lagged behind other states in ordering schools to revisit their disciplinary processes—with the most recent example being Haidak v. University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The First Circuit found that while UMass Amherst did unconstitutionally suspend Haidak because he was not provided with prior notice or a fair hearing, the university did not violate his rights in expelling him, as he was provided with a fair expulsion hearing.

Haidak had argued that his expulsion hearing was unfair, in part, because he was unable to directly cross-examine his accuser. The court ruled that due process in a disciplinary setting does require some form of real-time cross-examination, but that this questioning does not necessarily have to come from the students or their representatives.

In the hearing for the preliminary injunction, BC argued that Haidak, which occurred at a public university, did not raise questions of fundamental fairness. In response, Woodlock suggested that he sees the obligations of public and private institutions as “more or less the same thing.” His reading could set up a major shift in how private colleges and universities investigate sexual assault allegations.

BC also rejected the notion that its procedure wasn’t already in compliance with some level of cross-examination.

“With the assistance of counsel, Doe was able to comment on the evidence and point to any inconsistencies or gaps in the evidence that he perceived,” the University wrote. “This also gave him the opportunity to propose additional questions or areas of inquiry for the investigators to pursue. That the investigators did not deem additional information material to the outcome, or did not give any additional information the

weight Doe would have preferred, is not actionable.”

At the hearing, Woodlock questioned the University’s single-investigator model, with regard to credibility assessments in the absence of the real-time cross-examination of witnesses.

When Woodlock explained his rationale for staying Doe’s suspension, he detailed the similarity with which he viewed the due process requirements in Haidak and the fundamental fairness question before him. He called BC’s lack of real-time cross-examination, or a robust substitute, a “fundamental deficiency” in the wake of the Haidak ruling.

After staying Doe’s suspension, Woodlock also ordered there to be a new disciplinary process with both new investigators and the inclusion of real-time cross-examination.

Elsewhere in the country, single-investigator models like BC’s have fared much worse under the due process standard.

The Sixth Circuit ruled in Doe v. Baum the University of Michigan’s single-investigator model violated due process in every case, as it lacked the opportunity for the parties to question each other directly.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos revoked the Dear Colleague letter in September 2017 under the basis that it “ignored notice and comment requirements, created a system that lacked basic elements of due process and failed to ensure fundamental fairness,” according to a Department of Education press release.

Under DeVos’ proposal, schools would have to hold live hearings with cross-examinations conducted by the parties’ advisers, although the complainant and respondent would not be allowed to engage in personal confrontation. Schools would also be prohibited from using a “single investigator” or “investigator-only” model, as currently does. n

Judge Orders New Assault Investigation Investigation, from A1 eventual report.

Following her first interview, O’Driscoll notified Doe that he had been accused of violating BC’s Sexual Misconduct Policy, specifically by “engaging in sexual contact … without [Roe’s] consent while [Roe] was incapacitated.” This initial notice also included a second charge of non-consensual touching, which was alleged to have occurred before the sexual contact.

Doe sat for an interview with the investigators six days later. Like Roe, he was given an opportunity to provide comments on a written summary. Doe also submitted photos of his bedroom, which is where the sexual encounter took place, and provided Uber receipts from that night.

The investigators conducted another interview with Doe and two more with Roe, again allowing them to submit comments on a written summary each time. Before his second interview, Doe requested to view the evidence that had been collected to that point, but the investigators informed him they would not share evidence with him before the follow-up meeting, according to the summary provided by Doe’s attorneys.

The investigators interviewed 17 witnesses, according to the investigatory report.

They also reviewed Eagle ID records for Doe, Roe, and 11 other witnesses; several photos and videos taken of Roe throughout the night; Uber receipts belonging to both Doe and Roe from before the encounter; and text messages sent by the two parties to other students.

On April 5, O’Driscoll informed Doe and Roe that the completed evidence binder was available for review. Both parties and their representatives had 10 days to review the evidence binder and submit comments.

O’Driscoll told Doe that they were still finalizing their report on April 24, May 1, and May 21, according to the summary provided by Doe’s attorneys. On June 11, the investigators submitted the report to Stoops and Kelly, finding him responsible for sexual assault.

On June 18, Kelly informed Doe that he had been found responsible by a preponderance of the evidence for non-consensual penetrative sex. The investigators reported that while he neither knew or reasonably should have been able to know that Roe was incapacitated by alcohol, she did not give “clear and voluntary agreement” to sexual intercourse, regardless of her level of intoxication.

Although the Student Sexual Misconduct Policy states that consent cannot be obtained from an individual incapaciatated due to drugs or alcohol, the investigators seemed to base much of their finding on Roe’s testimony that her refusal to let Doe remove her underwear constituted a physical boundary to their interaction.

Throughout this process, BC’s policy permitted the investigators to determine

the relevance of all submitted evidence. BC does not specify what these interviews must include or whether one party’s questions and comments are actually raised during the other’s interviews.

Woodlock said that because the fundamental question in this case was one of witness credibility, BC must institute a robust investigatory model, including an opportunity for real-time cross-examination of witnesses, to qualify as “fair process.”

At the hearing, Woodlock equated “fair process” in sexual misconduct cases to one’s constitutional due process rights during investigations at a public university.

Throughout the hearing, he made several comparisons to Haidak v. University of Massachusetts at Amherst, in which the First Circuit ruled that public universities must provide an opportunity for real-time cross-examination.

In its motion to deny Doe’s request for injunction, the University argued that it affords students with fair process rights so long as the University’s policy, as laid out in the Student Guide, was followed. BC also holds that as a private university, it does not need to provide an opportunity for cross-examination.

Furthermore, BC said that Doe was afforded the opportunity to review the evidence—including the summaries of witness interviews—and provide additional lines of questioning for the investigators to review.

“That the investigators did not deem additional information material to the outcome, or did not give any additional information the weight Doe would have preferred, is not actionable,” the University said in its pre-hearing motion to block the stay of the suspension.

During the interview process, the investigators at times informed each party of conflicting or key testimony from the other’s interviews, according to the investigatory report.

Real-time cross-examination does not require the accuser and the accused to be in the same room with one another or even to speak directly to each other, according to Woodlock. Instead, he suggested that such a process can be mediated through a hearing panel or representatives.

Woodlock again referenced the Haidak case, which states that a university must do more than presume that the investigators’ version of events is accurate. To do so, he argues, requires the use of real-time crossexamination to better inform the investigators of information they might have not otherwise obtained based on their model of investigation.

Woodlock also questioned the role of the Dean of Students Office and the Student Title IX Coordinator in the investigative process. In cases of alleged sexual misconduct, the Dean of Students Office and the Student Title IX Coordinator receive the final investigatory report “for their review and approval,” according to the 2018-19

Student Sexual Misconduct Policy.

In the 2019-20 policy, the Office of Student Conduct and Student TItle IX Coordinator are charged with reviewing the report to “verify that the investigation was conducted in accordance with this policy and that the report adequately outlines the basis for the investigator’s findings.”

Stoops said in an email to The Heights that the University revises the policy every summer.

The University responded that the offices reviewed the report to make sure that the investigation was in compliance with BC’s policies and Title IX law.

Woodlock remained unsatisfied with this explanation, asking again if there was anything in BC’s procedures to suggest that the review period was anything but a formality.

As in his questions about the lack of real-time cross-examination, Woodlock suggested that in “subcontracting” credibility decisions to the investigators, BC had violated Doe’s right to fair process by combining the investigatory and adjudicatory processes.

Woodlock also ruled that the balance of hardships fell in Doe’s favor, explaining at the injunction hearing that he would suffer significant harm if the suspension were to be enforced before Doe’s complaints about fair process could be fully addressed.

The University argued that Doe failed to establish irreparable harm, as lost educational career opportunities are compensable damages. Woodlock disregarded this argument, especially because of Doe’s “particular skills” and the opportunities afforded to him at BC. Doe’s team retained an expert, who provided information regarding the harms Doe would face as a result of lost earning potential. The expert’s affidavit is heavily redacted.

In response to the University’s claim that Roe would suffer hardship from Doe’s return, Woodlock expressed sympathy but ultimately decided that Doe’s presence on campus would just be “the status quo.” He said that with the suspension stayed, the parties returned to the exact position they had been in throughout the six-month investigation.

The University also argued in the motion to deny that staying the suspension would undermine its authority to address student misconduct and interfere with its duty to provide a hostility-free environment for its students. Woodlock said that he did not consider Doe’s return to campus a major harm to the University because staying the suspension would serve to establish an environment in which students feel protected as much as upholding it would.

The judge concluded that to rectify this situation, there needs to be a new disciplinary process with both new investigators and the inclusion of real-time cross-examination. n

The Heights

A4

Monday, September 30, 2019

ON THE MENU, OFF CAMPUS

By Timmy Facciola Assoc. Magazine Editor Like some of the greatest discoveries in history, I found out that goat cheese melts with hot pasta into a creamy, tangy sauce by mistake. I was cooking for roommates last year but didn’t have the time to go to the grocery store beforehand. I had one red onion, weeks-old frozen Italian sausage, pasta, and some goat cheese left over from the previous week. I decided to follow in the philosophy of the great pasta makers before me, mixing whatever tasted good in the same bowl and finishing it with cheese. But when I stirred in the crumbles of goat cheese (it can dry out a little in the fridge), they melted from the steam of the freshly-strained pasta and turned into the softest, most sophisticated cream sauce I had accidentally ever made.

After that evening, and after unanimous affirmations from my roommates, I ventured to see what would happen if I did it on purpose.

And so, goat cheese pasta was born.

The key to this dish is mixing the goat cheese with the pasta as soon as it gets out of the water. The steam adds moisture to the goat cheese and together they melt into something that tastes like it’s been layered with flavors by a restaurant chef—but it’s just goat cheese.

Because the dish has such simple ingredients, it’s important to maximize the flavor of each component. When sautéing the onions, get the pan nice and hot (not smoking) first, then drop them and the garlic in and listen to the sweet sizzling chaos. After a couple of minutes, lower the heat and let them soften. This will take the longest—15 to 20 minutes. If you’d like some more heat, extra cracked black pepper and red pepper flakes add a warmth that wraps up the sweet goat cheese like a plaid blanket on an autumn day. When it comes to choosing a pasta shape, you can go in any direction. I like farfalle (a fancy name for bow ties) because the goat cheese gets in all the ridges, but you could use whatever box or bag you have sitting around. For an extra edge, try making it with gnocchi or ravioli from Trader Joe’s, or with another favorite leafy vegetable like broccoli rabe.

Warm Apple Sundae MEEGAN MINIHAN / HEIGHTS EDITOR

EMERSON DEBASIO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

EMERSON DEBASIO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Goat Cheese Farfalle WITH SPINACH, RED ONIONS, AND SWEET ITALIAN SAUSAGE Start to finish: 45 minutes Servings: 4-6 Ingredients: 2 red onions 3 cloves of garlic 2 tablespoons of olive oil 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar 1 pound sweet italian sausage 1 pound of bow tie pasta 1 ½ cups fresh spinach 1 8-ounce sleeve goat cheese Dash of crushed red pepper flakes 1 tablespoon sugar Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions: In a cast-iron skillet, sauté onions, garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper.

As onions begin to soften and release their moisture, add sugar and 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.

Stir the onions until soft and sweet. Then remove them from the pan and set them off to the side.

Remove the sausage meat from its casing and add to the pan. Mash it up with a wooden spoon into bite-size chunks (if you want to make this vegetarian, you could skip the sausage all together and it would still be delicious).

Bring a pot of salted water to boil and add the bow ties. Stir the bottom of the pan so they don’t stick.

When the sausage is almost finished, add your onions back into the pan and combine.

When the pasta is nearly done boiling, add the spinach to the onion-sausage mixture and sauté it quickly until it wilts—about one to two minutes. Remove it from the heat once it’s cooked to preserve the bright-green color of the spinach.

Strain the pasta and pour it directly into a big bowl without straining all the water off it.

Break up the goat cheese into spoonsized pieces and stir throughout the pasta.

Continue stirring until the goat cheese melts and the pasta looks like mac and cheese.

Stir in the sausage, spinach, and onion mixture. n

Four Ingredients Every Off-Campus Cook Needs Goat Cheese: Mix it in salads or add it to a grilled cheese sandwich, put it on crackers or scoop it with your fingers. Or my favorite—boil howe ver much pasta you plan to eat and, immediately after, spoon in crumbles of goat cheese and stir until it spreads and starts to look like mac and cheese. Add whatever protein or vegetable you like—spinach and sweet Italian sausage are easy—and impress your roommates or significant other simply by saying the name of the dish: Goat Cheese Pasta.

Tip: Keep an eye out for when the 8 oz. log goes on sale at Trader Joes. One $6 log will give your meals two weeks of creamy tang. Package tightly in plastic wrap after using.

Eggs: On toast for breakfast, softboiled with instant ramen for lunch, and

baked into a frittata with goat cheese and sweet potatoes for dinner. Out of pizza rolls? Satisfy substance-induced cravings by frying two sunny-side up with lots of cracked black pepper. Drench chicken breasts in them before coating with breadcrumbs, or save the yolks and whisk them up in a bowl for a comforting Weeknight Carbonara: Take three egg yolks, some parmesan cheese, and whisk them together in a bowl and then add freshly cooked pasta straight from the boiling water.

Stir it and let the steam from the pasta cook the yolks into a thick, warm sauce. Add as much cheese as you wish and photograph it for VSCO. Sweet Potatoes: Probably the easiest and most versatile starch. Bake them whole and add goat cheese for a simple side, or roast them with olive oil, salt and pepper,

and add a dash of cayenne (or five) for a spice to play off the natural sweetness.

Cut them into fries for burger night or mix them with beets or carrots for a vegetable medley that puts Eagles’ bowls to shame.

On a cold rainy Sunday, make Sweet Potato Soup: bake four in an oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, mash them with butter, milk, goat cheese, or cream, and add to a pot with sauteed onions and vegetable stock. Bring it to a boil and let it sit on the stove for a couple of hours while you work on Canvas responses.

Garlic: You won’t always taste garlic in a dish, but if you start cooking with it regularly, you’ll definitely notice its absence. Simply putting garlic next to stuff while it cooks gives your dish a warmer, more rounded flavor that will elevate even the quickest weeknight meal. Put a

clove in any pan on the stove or any tray in the oven, on carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, or kale, in marinades, next to steaks, salmon, pork or lamb in pans, or spread on toasted Italian bread. DO NOT under any circumstances buy pre-peeled or minced garlic. Peeling a clove of garlic takes about eight seconds—just put your knife over the garlic, smash it with your fist, scrape away the peel, and toss the whole smushed blob into your sauté pan (watch a YouTube video to learn). All of the oils will have been released to flavor your dish and you’ll never have to worry about burning your garlic and setting off the smoke alarm.

Tip: Put a smashed clove in your sauté pan when searing a steak, let it get crispy and golden brown. Then take it out, crunch it with your knife, and sprinkle a pinch of salt. It’s one of the best chef’s treats. n

What Groceries to Buy Off Campus, and Where Stretching a college budget without a meal plan isn’t easy. Of the many grocers around Boston College, there are four that should be on your radar, each for its own reasons.

It would be a waste to buy onions at Whole Foods and downright foolish to buy cheese at Wegmans. Star Market’s meat is almost always the cheapest—and of comparable quality. Ease the transition out of the dining hall, and the strain on your wallet, by taking note of what you buy and where you buy it.

Trader Joe’s: Efficient, affordable, fast-paced.

When you go to the Trader Joe’s on Harvard St. in Allston, make sure you have your list written and athletic shoes laced tight before entering the free-for-all in the post-hipster landscape. Avoid the more expensive meat and some of the pricier produce and pick up chips, frozen dinners, spinach and other boxed greens,

butternut squash ravioli, $1 bags of pasta, and Gyoza Potsticker Sauce (an excellent base for meat marinade—add honey, rice vinegar, scallions, chili flakes, anything really). Skip the faux-healthy granola bars—they’ll just sit in your cabinet—and check out their cheese selection, which has endless options, many under $5 a wedge. Their cranberry goat cheese screams fall.

Whole Fo o d s: Whole Foods has a reputation for being too expensive, but it’s been working to shed that perception since its recent partnership with Amazon. Now, Prime members can enjoy specials and coupons at prices that rival Star Market, but with the quality for which Whole Foods is known. In the dead of winter, head to Whole Foods for the sweetest and least disappointing of grocery store fruit options—fresh blueberries for pancakes, pineapple and bananas for smoothies. Download the

Prime app (or mooch off your roommate’s account) and keep an eye out for the specials it offers on meat and seafood.

When they go on sale, pick up a pound of Extra Jumbo, 16-20 count shrimp (16 to 20 shrimp per pound, making them rather large). Marinate them in olive oil, lemon, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, and red pepper flakes (or just buy Italian Seasoning), sauté them in a pan for four minutes per side, and toss them with spinach for a salad or spaghetti for an easy weeknight pasta.

Star Market: Steady and reliable, when your parents offer to take you to the grocery store before dropping you off, head to Star Market and stock up on everything from olive oil and paper towels to eggs, garlic, and onions. It may not be as glamorous as Whole Foods and the employees won’t remind you of grad student TAs like at Trader Joe’s, but Star Market has

the best prices on meat, eggs, milk, and Gatorade (your hangover will thank you for that 10 for $10 deal next Saturday morning). Make dinner easy with the pre-marinated chicken they have at the butcher's counter and a basil plant, both to season your food and decorate your kitchen. Always make sure to check out their sale freezer for emergency frozen pizzas for the darkest of study days ahead.

Wegmans: More of a family grocer, it can be difficult to stretch a dollar at Wegmans, but the booze selection is well worth the upcharge. The butternut squash ravioli and steel cut oatmeal are notable as well, not to mention the Fishers Island Lemonade—if you’re over 21. The $6 EZ Meals are a much cheaper and higher quality version of chicken and two sides, and, of course, Wegman’s has the best grocery store bakery in the land. n

It’s a cool Wednesday night in October. Halloweekend is three weeks out, there’s no reading due Thursday, and Hocus Pocus is on ABC Family.

The leaves have begun to change color, squirrels have started their acorn collections, and fall has descended on New England.

Suddenly, it's dark after your 5:30 p.m. class lets out, and the crisp fall air beckons a warm, cinnamon-scented treat.

Summon your studious roommates from their rooms and tempt them to take a break—or to just read in the morning—and join you in the common room for a take on apple pie that has all the warmth of a grandma’s touch but takes half of the effort.

The “Warm Apple Sundae” is the cousin of apple pie with all the sweetness and none of the carbs. And the best part—it takes no planning and only a few ingredients.

With just a couple of apples, sugar, and cinnamon, you can make any weeknight feel like home and block out spooky midterms looming in the distance.

If you want to make it for the entire house, just cut up a couple more apples and add a bit more sugar—or if you’d rather whip up a quick treat just for yourself, make it in an instant with one apple and scurry out of the kitchen before anyone can ask for a taste.

Throw in some granola clusters for a “Deconstructed Apple Crumble,” and let the ice cream melt into a creamy soup. Or my favorite: Add two pieces of a white chocolate Kit Kat bar. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream—after years of loyalty to Häagen-Dazs, I now think Trader Joe’s makes the best—and hit play on one of the easiest recipes of fall.

WARM APPLE SUNDAE Start to finish: 20 minutes Servings: 1-2 Ingredients: 2 apples 3 tablespoons sugar 4 dashes of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice Blend 1 cinnamon stick 1 tablespoon butter Something crunchy (Kit Kats, granola, or walnuts) Instructions: Peel and cut 2 apples into uniform slices—the thinner the better.

In a non-stick frying pan (or a cast-iron skillet if you’re fancy) melt 1 tablespoon of butter and wait for the pan to heat up.

Add apples to the pan and stir them to separate any pieces stuck together.

Add 1 tablespoon of sugar, a few dashes of Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice Blend, and a cinnamon stick for Snapchat purposes. Stir to incorporate throughout.

Let the apples cook, become soft, and brown slightly. About 8-10 minutes depending on the size of the slices.

With about two minutes left, stir in remaining tablespoons of sugar and let it brown for two minutes (if you let it go too long, the apples won’t burn, but the caramel will cook off and you’ll have less of a sauce). Serve in a bowl with vanilla ice cream. n GRAPHICS BY ALLY MOZELIAK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Heights

A5

Monday, September 30, 2019

Shane Leonard Steps off the Field and Into the Studio

By Isabella Cavazzoni Copy Editor These days, Shane Leonard, CSOM ’20, finds himself reaching for a paint brush instead of a pigskin. Up until his sophomore year at Boston College, Leonard spent his days on the football field—the former offensive lineman committed to play for the Eagles his junior year of high school. But a couple of years, a few too many concussions, and a clothing brand later, Leonard prefers art to the gridiron.

Leonard grew up in a football family, playing the sport at 9 years old while his father stood on the sidelines as his coach all the way up until high school. Leonard began to receive offers from colleges up and down the East Coast. A local, he grew up around an hour from BC in Marshfield, Mass., and started attending BC football camps to play for his dream school as a freshman at Marshfield High School. But Leonard has always been an Eagle at heart.

“BC was my dream school growing up …” Leonard said. “Every local kid’s dream is to come play football at Boston College.”

Finally, just before he entered his senior year of high school, the Eagles made Leonard an offer. On the spot, Leonard committed to spending his next four years playing at Alumni Stadium. Yet, after redshirting his freshman year and battling injuries the following season, his football career came to an abrupt stop in December of 2017 when concussion specialist Micky Collins of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center decided that Leonard could no longer play following his last visit to the medical center. Having sustained too many concussions, one being from a major car crash he endured in high school, Leonard was forced to cut his football career short. His concussion symptoms wouldn’t go away, but football was all he’d ever known.

“It was a little bit like a screeching halt in, like, everything I’d ever done because it’s all I knew,” Leonard said. “And then once that stopped, I really didn’t know what to do with myself, like shaved my head, started doing weird stuff, played a lot of video games…”

Ultimately, though, Leonard took a chance, one that fostered his newfound

creativity before turning to painting.

While studying alongside his longtime friend and roommate Mitch Bishop, CSOM ’20, the two decided to start a clothing brand. Deep into a study session, right around the time that get-rich-quick schemes start to take over a thought, Leonard turned to Bishop with the random business idea to kickstart their own brand. The pair aptly named their new business and creative venture Begin Apparel. With this, Leonard started another journey, this time with a new passion. “[Leonard] had this, like, artistic ability inside him, but, like, he didn’t really know yet,” Bishop said. “So I think he was trying to do something with it. And yeah, we just were talking one day and just said, ‘Why don’t we just give it a shot?’”

And give it a shot they did. With Leonard trying out logo design and Bishop managing the business end of their brand, the two friends started to produce apparel—hoodies, t-shirts, and hats with the logo Leonard designed, one that simply inscribed the word “Begin” in a flowing font across the front of their apparel. While Leonard never had any formal art instruction, the beginning of his clothing brand tapped into his lifelong artistic potential. “[In] high school, I never took any art classes,” he said. “And even here, I haven’t taken any art classes. But I’ve always been interested in it.”

Although the pair modeled their business to have Bishop strictly on the management side and Leonard working creatively, demand got the best of them, making it difficult to accurately order the appropriate sizes and turn a profit.

Eventually, each ended up taking on a role in the other’s position. With multiple rounds of orders, Leonard and Bishop managed to sell a number of their pieces—mostly to friends, though they did have a few random orders through their Facebook page.

The support Begin Apparel garnered even led them to a collaboration with Laced—a minimalist, brick-and-mortar apparel company in the heart of Boston— for a fashion show.

After reaching out to the store via Instagram, Begin Apparel showcased a total of eight pieces at a local bar. Though the opportunity presented itself and Leonard and Bishop ran with it, the Laced fashion

show didn’t hit their target demographic—leaning more toward an older crowd than the young college students they wanted to attract.

Begin Apparel then hit a creative roadblock due to the busy schedules of two college students—and eventually, their production stopped.

“We just kind of had the logo and a few really basic items,” Bishop said. “And we wanted to start like making things more creatively, but we couldn’t do any of the manufacturing on our own.”

Begin Apparel was just that: a beginning for Leonard to kickstart his creative career. In February of 2019, a mutual friend introduced Leonard to Henry Dunkelberger, a student artist and MCAS ’20, who encouraged Leonard to pick up a paint brush.

“One of my friends introduced me to Henry … we’re on, like, the same wavelength and kind of got along really well,” Leonard said. “And he was just saying, like, it seems like you’d be good at painting.”

The next day, with canvases and paint in tow, Leonard started to put paint to paper, unlocking a creative instinct he had but never capitalized on. The shift in his interests is obvious. His Instagram (@sleonxrd), once flooded with photos of Leonard geared up in gold and maroon, has shifted to humble brags of paintings he’s done. In one of his earliest artistic posts, Leonard is pictured holding a painting of a shark, which he aptly named “Sharky.”

His style is simultaneously dark, yet fantastical. “Sharky” is not your standard sea creature. In half of the painting, “Sharky” is streaked with colorful stripes on a dark, melancholy backdrop. On the other half, the painting is beautifully realistic, yet placed in front of neon green.

Leonard finds a way to make his paintings seem authentic yet obscure. With a style as unique and somewhat scary as Leonard’s is, his inspiration demands explanation: Most of his paintings are influenced by vivid dreams.

The way that Leonard dreamed changed following a major accident in his life. Late one night, in the March of his senior year of high school, Leonard’s car hit black ice, flipping him and his vehicle.

He pulled himself out, escaping the wreck with a concussion and a sprained wrist,

MAGGIE DIPATRI / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Leonard played football at BC for two years before he pursued a career in the arts. but this near-death experience changed the way that Leonard dreamed.

“I have crazy vivid dreams and a lot of the stuff that I see or paint or that goes on my painting is largely influenced by my dreams and everything,” Leonard said.

“Sounds weird, but that’s like, what’s changed the course of like, my dreams and stuff.”

A prime example: a painting he’s dubbed “Carl.”

“It’s just like this blue face that I saw at one point,” Leonard said. “I named it ‘Carl’ just to make it like a little less weird.”

Wanting to show people what he saw in his dreams, Leonard painted “Carl.”

The vividness of his dreams helped, because “Carl” came out on canvas exactly as he saw while dreaming, he said. But, it wasn’t “Carl” that pushed Leonard into the world of professional studio art.

In the thick of applying for internships at the end of his junior year of college, Leonard’s mom took it upon herself to show his artwork to a local artist, Adam O’Day. O’Day—who has painted murals all around Massachusetts, from Walpole to Worcester to TD Garden—took Leonard on as an apprentice for the summer after Leonard showed him “Sharky.”

So, O’Day started instructing Leonard like he had never painted before, beginning with the foundational aspects of formal painting.

“I just feel like you have to do that stuff before you inject your own style into it,” O’Day said. “Eventually, when you’re painting in your own style you need a nice

arsenal of skills.”

Even though O’Day started instructing Leonard with the very basics, his summer apprenticeship was anything but ordinary. Leonard attended his first NHL game by doing a live painting for Jack Daniel’s and the Bruins alongside O’Day—set up next to the Jack Daniel’s ice luge, Leonard and O’Day painted bear and a whiskey bottle surrounded by text saying “We Want the Cup.” Next to the Jack Daniel’s ice luge during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup, Leonard and O’Day completed their first commercial painting together. The Bruins lost, but Leonard got to be a part of a commercially commissioned painting in TD Garden.

Despite the business degree he will receive in May—Leonard’s majoring in marketing and information systems—O’Day doesn’t see Leonard pursuing a typical career in the corporate world. With plenty of painting commissions under his belt at less than a year into painting, Leonard’s success doesn’t lie in business, O’Day said. But for Leonard, his future is very much up in the air. When asked about his plans following graduation, he tossed out ideas like getting his own studio, going to graduate school for fine arts, or getting a job—but all of his plans involve art.

“I feel with how far I got into it, especially this summer I’d be a fool not to keep doing art,” Leonard said.

“I probably wouldn’t have found out that I’m good at art, or painting in general [if I kept playing football],” Leonard said.

“So, it’s kind of a blessing and a curse.” n

Green Helps Implement Sustainable Dining Hall Initiatives

By Maddie Phelps For The Heights Picture the worries that run through the mind of an 11-year-old on a given day—they’re likely grappling with the seemingly difficult decision of whether to pack a turkey or ham sandwich for lunch. But for Anne Marie Green, MCAS ’20, this deli-meat debate was the least of her worries. The fuel efficiency of cars around her, on the other hand, posed a true concern. So, she took it upon herself to find answers, surveying her neighbors on how many miles per gallon their cars ran on to get to the bottom of this pressing mystery.

This was just the beginning of Green’s environmental efforts. She read books about climate change, focused her fourth grade science project on water conservation, and loved being surrounded by nature. At the Friends School of Baltimore, a Quaker high school, she was a member of the UNICEF Club and became one of the co-club heads during her sophomore year.

It wasn’t until her sophomore year at Boston College, however, that Green began to consider a career in the field.

After switching from psychology to a political science major, she enrolled in a course called Writing Out of Place, where she traveled to Mussoorie, India.

For one week, the class visited Delhi,

Rishikesh, and Agra. The visit to Rishikesh and the Ganges river, Green says, was the most inspiring, as she pondered how such a holy city was cluttered with trash, sewage, and factory effluent. After writing a research paper on the Ganges River and how its sacredness interacts with its polluted state, she realized that environmental activism was something she wanted to pursue.

“Sustainability was always on my mind,” Green said. “In college, I found that environmental work was my calling and I really got into it.”

Green cites another class at BC that sparked her interest in making these changes. Taking PULSE with Matthew Kruger, she said, allowed her to discover and then write about the importance of environmental studies.

She also acknowledged Kruger’s influence, as he pushed her to create positive change as a political science major. Kruger emphasized the necessity for environmentally conscious people in all areas of the workforce, which provided Green with a sense of encouragement for pursuing this in her future.

“We need environmentalists everywhere,” she said. “[Kruger] helped solidify the path I wanted to go on, and taught me that there are many pathways of being [one.]”

The same year, she decided to pick up an environmental studies minor,

JONATHAN YE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Green interned with BC Dining and helped bring Green2Go to Stuart Dining Hall in 2018.

and after taking a variety of sustainable development courses, Green began to notice the sheer volume of non-recyclable plastic utensils in the dining halls at BC. Aware of the weighty consequences of throwing away plastic every meal, Green was upset that her peers weren’t as conscious.

Green quickly turned her frustration into action, emailing BC Dining Services in search of a solution. Not thinking much would come of this, she was surprised when she quickly received a response. Within that same week, Green met with Beth Emery, director of Dining Services; Megan O’Neill, associate director of operations; and Juli Stelmaszyk, sustainability manager.

In this meeting, the staff acknowledged that abundant amounts of plastic in the dining halls was a problem they had struggled to tackle for years. Green asked how she could be more involved in helping the team find sustainable solutions to these problems. Shortly after, BC dining hired Green to help them focus on waste issues on campus.

As the current student sustainability intern manager at BC Dining, Green works with six other BC student interns to develop initiatives that help make BC more environmentally friendly.

Stelmaszyk, who has been working as the sustainability manager at BC Dining Services since January of 2018, admired the prominence of Green’s work. Stelmaszyk has previously worked in Italy running an environmentally-friendly food and gardens program and has appreciated Green’s dedication to sourcing local ingredients and reducing waste at BC. “Anne Marie has really brought a passion to the team that resonates with students and dining employees alike,” Stelmaszyk said. “She brings a positive energy and a thoughtful focus to our initiatives. She has really helped take things from concept to implementation in the short time she has been with us.”

Their work is funded through the Henry P. Kendall Foundation grant, which encourages local food production and sourcing in New England. BC is part

of a team, along with Tufts and Harvard, that was awarded a $250,000 Food Vision Prize to work with both new and emerging farmers to increase their land under cultivation.

During the spring of her sophomore year, Green began working at the Sierra Club, a grassroots organization with over 3.5 million supporters, where she assisted with advocacy projects and electric vehicle campaigns. That summer, Green began working on Green2Go, a reusable container program the BC Dining team piloted in Stuart dining hall last year.

“We just want to bring it to people’s attention that you should choose to reuse in the dining halls,” she said. “The Green2Go program helps students to choose the most environmental option, which is reuse.”

In addition to the Green2Go initiative, Green has helped develop a number of other useful practices in campus dining halls. The staff started selling bamboo utensils and metal straws, as well as keeping plastic straws behind the register with their “out of sight, out of mind” policy.

Samples of free food are offered to students every Wednesday through F.R.E.S.H. to Table. These food offerings are either fairly traded, regional, equitable, sustainable, or healthy, which are all practices that correlate to the F.R.E.S.H. acronym. Since its implementation, Green has been granted the opportunity to tour farms and seafood suppliers in the surrounding community.

“It’s been so fun to learn so much about local producers in Massachusetts,” she said. “It’s been really great to learn about food sustainability and disposables working through BC Dining while teaching others about it, too.”

This past summer, Green also worked with the Boston Environment Department on its Zero Waste Boston initiative, which will seek to divert 80 percent of their waste from landfills.

“Working on that initiative was really cool,” she said. “I know I want to work in waste—that’s definitely where my passion lies.”

Now a senior, Green has chosen to

write her thesis on waste, specifically on the American recycling system in the wake of China’s strict regulation on imports of waste through their National Sword Laws. An alternative energy class she took last year, taught by Jonathan Krones, granted her more insight into plastics and how recycling can be improved. Krones has experience working in and studying waste systems and is now the primary supervisor of Green’s thesis.

Green and BC’s additional attempts to educate students, including additional signs, have been successful in Green’s eyes, but she recognizes that becoming more sustainable as a school will continue to be a long process.

“I’m very proud of the work we’ve done,” Green said. “But sustainability obviously takes a long time and it takes everyone to get on board.”

One change Green said she would like to see in the future is stopping the culture of disposability on campus, an attitude that isn’t as prominent as she would like.

“If we want to continue living the life that we do, we need to start paying attention to the environment,” Green said. “BC kids are good people and they care about things, but we often don’t pay attention to what we’re doing and how it affects the environment.”

Soon, BC Dining will start sourcing all of their plastic utensils from Preserve, which is the same company that makes the Green2Go containers on campus.

These new utensils will be comprised of 100 percent recyclable material.

“This is definitely a very positive step,” Green said. “We’re supporting the recycling culture and giving a new life to plastic, which is great. That is a huge win in my mind.”

Through her abundance of her work both on and off campus, Green has sought to promote one simple message: The environment is important to every living thing that calls earth home.

“It really bothers me when politicians, companies, and people say, ‘Let’s save the planet,’” Green said. “No, let’s save ourselves. We depend on this planet for our way of life.” n

The Heights

A6

Monday, September 30, 2019

Editorial

Mass. Ban on E-Cig Sales Fails to Give Sufficient Notice and Compensation to Businesses, Workers As of Sept. 24, Massachusetts temporarily banned sales of all electronic cigarette products, per a public health emergency declared by Governor Charlie Baker. The ban followed an outbreak of 805 vaping-related illnesses and 12 vaping-related deaths across the country. At the time of publication, Massachusetts accounted for 61 of those illnesses.

The science on the side-effects of vaping is murky and inconclusive at best, but Center for Disease Control (CDC) officials caution that, especially for those under 25, it is best to not vape at all.

The ban had serious financial implications for local businesses: There are more than 300 vapingspeciality stores in Massachusetts who learned of the ban the moment it came into effect on the 24th and have been all but forced to close.

Massachusetts is one of five states that have completely banned sales of the products, and though the ban is set to last four months while the state conducts further research into the safety of vaping products, it will

no doubt leave a lasting impact on those businesses.

Since the ban declared as part of a wider public health emergency, unlike most legislative moves, it was instituted simply by the stroke of the Governor’s pen. The vaping industry in Massachusetts employs over 2,500 people, who were left shocked by the sudden banning of the source of their livelihood. Even if the ban is in fact temporary, four months of no business will put vape shops who have to worry about paying rent, distributors, insurance, and other overhead costs during the period of closure at a significant economic disadvantage.

Many vape shop employees have been effectively laid off and must now find new work. These businesses were not properly prepared or reimbursed by the state.

With no time to plan and no other products to keep them afloat, some vaping stores will likely have to close in the wake of the ban. The lack of sufficient notice and care on the part of the state is unfair to the

QUOTE OF THE week “The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.”

- Mulan, 1998

more than 300 businesses and 2,500 workers affected by the emergency declaration.

Some local businesses that are affected include Vape Daddy’s, Garden City Vape and Smoke, and The Vape Shop at Cleveland Circle, all of which are in close proximity to Boston College and frequented by BC students.

No specific substance has been found to be the definitive cause of the vaping-related injuries, but in reported illnesses, 77 percent of patients had vaped THC and 55 percent nicotine-based products. The ban includes sales on both cannabis and nicotine electronic products (cannabis and nicotine products not in electronic cartridge form are not affected by the ban). One concern with vaped THC products in specific is that, in pure form, it is extremely expensive, so illegal distributors will mix cartridges with Vitamin E oil and THC, as they are similar in thickness, color, and odor. Experts think vitamin E oil is extremely dangerous when heated and inhaled.

Car Yaeger/ For The Heights

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The Heights

Monday, September 30, 2019

Dining Halls Should Prioritize Healthy Eating On STEM vs. to go five days a week with bowl after bowl of green leaves. However, beyond this salad bar is, in most cases, extremely unhealthy food.

A trip to the dining hall menus paints a portrait of what BC students are expected to eat. For breakfast you have pancakes, waffles, french toast, and bacon. The healthy options are typically limited to eggs. That is to say, several carb-loaded, cholesterol boosting, highly fattening options to one option that is only debatably healthy. The limited selection of yogurt and fruit is stored away in the fridges, far from fresh and far from visible.

For lunch and dinner there are burgers, deli sandwiches, pizza, burritos, grilled cheeses, and numerous packaged sandwiches, such as chicken-bacon-sriracha and peanut butter and jelly. You will find chicken and steak, but that’s as far as you will typically get. Just as with breakfast, the ratio of fatty, high-calorie food to healthy food remains just as imbalanced.

Most of the healthy food available is also comprised of animal products or gluten, so if you are vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free, you are even more out of luck.

This is all on top of the absence of healthy snacks, in favor of vending machines that contain everything from Skittles to Cheez-Its to Coke and shelves filled with nothing but different varieties of chips. In the fridges you can also find cake, cupcakes, highly sugary pudding (trust me, I’ve tried it), and cookies the same diameter as my face.

The issue is not the availability of junk food, as we are all adults tasked with making our own decisions. The issue is the lack of availability of healthy food. It is not my belief that BC, like a parent, should help guide 69

Louis Gleason Confession: I used to be 250 pounds. While a small fraction of this could be attributed to an Italian grandmother who had little to no regard for portion sizes, most of it could be attributed to late-night stress-eating coupled with the easy availability of junk food.

As is the same with many college students across the country, weeknights in high school for me often entailed very little sleep. I juggled upwards of three AP classes per semester, as well as extracurriculars, community service, and some semblance of a social life. The mounds of coursework that accompanied high school led me into the early hours of the morning, which came with very serious health and weight implications. A continuation of this lifestyle at BC leads many students to repeat my mistakes as they study until 2 or 3 a.m.

The issue is simple. BC offers very little healthy food to its students, which is particularly damaging in an environment where stress-eating and late-night eating are rampant.

Every dining hall should prominently feature healthy food, with the unhealthy options being the exceptions.

Of course there are salad bars, but they alone do not offer people all of the nutrition they need—nor should it. Eating multiple salads a day is not enjoyable unless you really love salad, and, even then, I can’t envision anybody wanting

us wayward children to nutrition. The cultivation of an environment where sleep is seen as optional and general health less important than academic success is already very unhealthy. Add copious junk food into the mix of highly stressed students, and college campuses—including BC—become the perfect storm for excessive (and rapid) weight gain, as well as a general deterioration of health.

While BC has tried to address this issue by introducing the produce bar, it’s simply not enough. Water refilling stations could be more common and should be able to be found throughout dining halls. BC could carry snacks such as unsalted and unbuttered popcorn, fruits, and other options, rather than limiting us to overpriced fruit that has lost its taste due to being vacuum sealed away in a plastic container.

There are dozens of ways that BC could improve the food it gives to students. We already live in a highly stressful environment—one that engenders bingeeating and late-night snacking. Placing everything from pizza to burritos to burgers and fries at every corner makes health, which should be a non-negotiable aspect of life, a very difficult decision to commit to.

As students, our eating habits are on us, but it would be much better if BC shared that commitment to health.

A7

the Humanities

Alicia Kang

As an English major, I know I’m not the first to experience the stigma surrounding the humanities. The age-old judgment seems to be that the humanities are simply easier than STEM. There’s just less work—not every question has one right answer, so many answers can be correct. Even now, as I attend a Jesuit, liberal arts university, I’ve faced the insulting stigma that my major is simply easier than others.

The idea that the humanities are easier than STEM has frustrated and confused me for a long time. And for an equally long period of time, I’ve defended the humanities and myself for choosing them. But I want to ask why I’ve even had to defend myself and my English major in the first place. Why have I had to explain myself? Why have I felt as if I am letting down others by not being a “woman in STEM?” Where has the ridiculous stigma concerning the ease of the liberal arts even come from?

I’d like to start by investigating whether the stigma is supported by even a grain of truth: Are the humanities, in fact, easier than STEM? Factually, in 2010 throughout all liberal arts colleges, the five majors that see the highest GPAs are all within the humanities (education, language, English, music, and religion). On the other hand, the five majors with the lowest GPAs are within the STEM field (chemistry, math, economics, psychology, and biology).

This difference can be chalked up to the fact that professors of STEM classes only ever take one right answer, whereas the humanities are much more openended. But these sweeping results don’t take into account factors like specific teaching styles and the strength of these programs. Across the board in America, more and

Louis Gleason is an op-ed columnist more colleges are simply putting more effort and attenfor The Heights. He can be reached at tion into their STEM programs of study. In fact, colleges opinions@bcheights.com. spend a significantly greater amount of money on majors

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: Fall!

in science than they do on those in the humanities, like philosophy and English. Of course, science classes will require more equipment than literature or French classes, but regardless, America is clearly putting more funding and attention into STEM education. This discrepancy might explain why STEM programs are often more developed and more difficult—because American colleges simply care less about the humanities.

Another aspect that people fail to consider is that no one can really do what humanities majors do—just like I couldn’t do what a STEM major does. There are countless students going into STEM who actually hate math and

Everyone’s Sick And probably gave whatever’s going around to their parents this past weekend. Sorry mom and dad. At least it’s not mono again. Or norovirus.

No Heavy Coats Yet Show off your cute Urban Outfitters jacket with no need to cover it with a shapeless comforter designed to insulate Antartica.

Leaves Pumpkin Spice The trees are naked! That Have you ever tasted intro to IS class frustrating an actual pumpkin? It you? Stomp your anger out tastes like tofu. Chai on some beautiful, inno- lattes will forever be the cent, and dead leaves on superior fall Starbucks your way to discussion. drink.

First, Be a Man or Woman for Yourself from the very beginning of freshman year.

Meanwhile, you aren’t even cognizant of what you’ll be wearing to the next football game, much less what profession you wish to commit to once you’ve graduated. There’s a party at the Mods next Friday, you don’t really want to go, but you fear that if you stay in your dorm to binge-watch Rick and Morty on Netflix, you’ll miss out on consequential happenings. And God forbid that you attempt to stop holding the universe together at any given time during a busy week.

student should look like.

There is this inherent fear on campus that if a student fails to follow these so-called rules, they’ll cease to be part of the community. This is where we go wrong.

The type of attitude of unstopping excellence that we’ve managed to develop as a Bianca Tjoeng community is not healthy, and it definitely isn’t What does it mean to be a Boston College sustainable. We get disappointed whenever student? we achieve anything less than what we deem This was the question that instructors “enough.” We despise ourselves for failing posed to me my first week here at BC. This is to succeed with flying colors the first time the question that all new freshmen are asked around. when they come and sit down on the squeaky We place so much pressure on ourselves to red chairs of McGuinn 121 during their reach the point of perfection when, in actuality, orientation session. This is also a question no such thing exists. I fail to see how anyone that’s answer is readily given to us in a sparse can keep this up without burning out or withnumber of words: Being a BC student is being out placing additional mental and emotional a man or woman for others. stresses on their person.

Like the school’s motto states, we are I’m not saying that it’s wrong to try and rattle the stars—after all, there is no excuse to expected to excel beyond the goals that we set for ourselves. But in all this ever to excel-ing, stop growing. What I am suggesting is, howwe need to look into the state of our liveliever, that it is perfectly acceptable for you to hoods and well-being. As great as it is to put yourself first. exceed expectations, it is significantly more Maybe you don’t want to change the world important to truly care about yourself first. today. Maybe you don’t want to have to dress As soon as I started my first week of up and attend the next Career Fair. Maybe the classes here, I found this saying to be more of last thing you want to do is go to your profesan accepted fact of BC life than just a set of sor’s office hours in the hope of ensuring that words attached to the school logo. By the end he or she will match your name to your face of September, it appeared as if every single correctly the next time you answer a question person was doing every single activity imagin your lecture of 137 students. That’s okay. inable: a cappella groups, CSOM societies, You’re allowed to take breaks. You have Model UN, The Heights—it didn’t really matThe problem here isn’t that the University has the right to take a little time for yourself to ter what people were a part of, really. What breathe. You can read that novel that you beAlyson Mozeliak / Heights Editor truly mattered seemed to be the fact that they gan before your classes started and demanded were at least doing something. established a set of expectations that it wishes its more and more of your attention. Your happiYou are expected to join clubs that comple- students will achieve and surpass. BC’s reputaness and well-being matter so much more than ment your interests and passions—and should tion as a prestigious school perpetuates the idea the standards that you subconsciously adhere you be accepted into said clubs, it would only that all students should always be in motion. to because of the indirect pressure you receive make sense for you to eventually apply for There exists this internal pressure to always be from others. and receive an executive board position. The doing something or to always be a part of someAfter all, how are we supposed to be men reality is, however, you’re up to your eyebrows thing at all times, and this is the case for many and women for others when we can’t first be with work, and you cannot even begin to highly regarded universities. men and women for ourselves?

With this mindset, if you fail to conform to imagine what the added pressure of running an organization would do to you. Your friends this expectation or dare to contest it through any Bianca Tjoeng is an op-ed columnist for The have already begun applying for internships sort of action—or rather, inaction—you’ll some- Heights. She can be reached at opinions@ early in the fall, or they’ve started networking how erase yourself from the image of what a BC bcheights.com.

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

science but are told that a STEM major will help them in the career field. Some of these students probably have a real passion for other majors such as film or English, but they’re barred from studying what they actually enjoy.

Naturally, if these students are forced into majors they won’t enjoy, their GPAs will be lower, and they will care less about their education.

You rarely see students nowadays being forced into the humanities, though. Instead, we have to fight to study what we want. And so when we do pursue our fields of passion, we excel. And we record those higher GPAs that make our school look good. It’s a shame that we get so few resources in comparison. Even at BC, opportunities like career fairs and workshops are geared toward students in business and STEM. Students in the humanities are made to hunt for the few career opportunities the school provides.

I’ve always wondered where this stigma even originates and on what grounds it grew to become the prejudice we see today. For example, whenever I mention to STEM students that I’m an English major, they always exclaim, “Whoa, I could never do that!” Then they tell me about how they hate writing essays, how they can never find the right words, and how it’s really cool that I’m studying English. But there’s always that subtle subtext of the question, “So what are you going to do with that?

What are you going to do with an English major? What is there to do? Teach?” All of these questions make me feel as if they view English as a second-rate major. As if they believe teaching is all English majors can do and as if it’s a mediocre way of life.

For starters it should be said that teachers are some of the most diligent and underappreciated employees in America. None of the STEM students I see on campus would be where they are today without the teachers that showed them the way, from kindergarten through college.

But teaching isn’t the only thing an English major can do.

Regardless of the fact that business is actually booming for humanities majors, my field of study is no less valuable than one in STEM simply because it’s less quantifiable. And to use the words of STEM students themselves, students in STEM often can’t do what I do as an English major. They don’t have the same affinity for it just as I don’t have have an affinity for, say, biology.

I, as a humanities major, don’t need to constantly justify my choices. I don’t have to apologize for myself or my passions, and you don’t have to either. I wish I could say that the world will change, and that the tides will turn in favor of the liberal arts. But I can’t say that with confidence.

More and more people turn to the STEM field and forget about the beauty and culture that lives within the humanities. They forget about the communication and writing we need to build lasting bonds and understandings of each other.

But the one thing I do know is that I am done defending my interests. I am done trying to prove that I work just as hard as the STEM kids. Humanities students are passionate about their studies, and they are successful after graduation. Both STEM and humanities studies are important—the existance of one does not negate the other. So to the next person who dubiously asks me what I plan on doing with my English major, I’ll happily tell them that they can worry about themselves.

Alicia Kang is an op-ed columnist for The Heights.

She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

The Heights

A8

Monday, September 30, 2019

Lynch School Launches Two Online Master’s Degree Programs They are educational leadership and policy and global perspectives: teaching, curriculum and learning environments

By Abby Hunt Assoc. News Editor The Lynch School of Education and Human Development launched its first two online degree programs in January—a master’s program in educational leadership and policy and another in global perspectives: teaching, curriculum and learning environments.

B oth programs consist of 10 three-credit courses, which most students will complete within two years. Students can begin the programs in the fall, spring, or summer semesters. Susan Bruce, a professor in the global perspectives program, said that the program partly grew out of concerns faculty and students had about increasing nationalism in the United States. Many were worried that Americans were thinking too much about their own concerns and not enough about how their actions affected people in other countries.

Students and faculty, she said, also expressed a desire to reach

learners across the globe and to hear non-American and Euorpean voices in their readings, discussions, and curriculum.

“We also were asked by our new dean at the time, Stanton Wortham, to really engage in some innovation and to think more expansively about what we do in the Lynch School,” Bruce said.

In response, Lynch built the global perspectives program—which did not already exist as a face-to-face program—entirely from scratch, with support from the Center for Teaching Excellence. The program consists of three parts: Students learn how to create curricula with a more global perspective, teach diverse groups of learners in a manner that maximizes their life opportunities, and create learning environments that are conducive to students, according to Bruce.

“Each of these things obviously are connected to one another,” Bruce said. “When you look at the different courses, greater emphasis might be

on curriculum in one … and teaching might be emphasized more in another.”

The program also benefits oncampus students, Bruce said, because students in the curriculum and instruction master’s degree program can take two courses in the online global perspectives program.

Unlike global perspectives, educational leadership and policy already existed in the Lynch School as a faceto-face program, but now students can complete the program entirely online or with a combination of online and face-to-face classes.

The program is aimed at people in or aspiring to be in school leadership roles, as well as people who are working in non-profit agencies that deal with education or educational policy, according to Martin Scanlan, the program director.

Lynch wanted to put the educational leadership and policy program online in order to broaden its outreach and reach an audience of students that was more diverse racially,

socioeconomically, and linguistically, Scanlan said.

“A lot of times providing access in an online venue breaks down some barriers to people, so they don’t have to come into class here,” he said.

“A lot of people who are taking the courses in our program are teachers in schools and are working full time, and so physically coming in to BC is an added barrier to those students.”

Both BC alumni and students who live in other countries have enrolled in the new online programs in Lynch, according to Bruce and Scanlan.

Putting the educational leadership and policy program online has also led to increased proportions of Asian, African American, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students taking the course, Scanlan said.

Both programs require students to work on real projects in their communities, and both allow for students to interact with one another and their professors through technologies such as interactive discussion boards and Zoom calls.

“That’s tricky to do across time zones, but people are getting up at unusual times ... and we’re working it out,” Scanlan said.

Scanlan recalled a conversation he had with a BC alumna who now works at Harvard and is taking an online class through the Lynch School.

“She said to me, ‘Martin, my online class, it’s one of the most engaging classes I’ve ever had, compared to even my face to face classes, because you have to do so much all the time in the online [class], it forces you to actually engage in a way that I didn’t expect,’” he said.

Nineteen students have started the online global perspectives program, while 51 have started the online or hybrid educational leadership and policy program. Scanlan emphasized that Lynch has a mission of creating a more just and humane world.

“We’re very mission-focused in education, and I feel like that has been central in our online program, and that’s something that we feel very, very strongly about,” he said.n

‘Choir Boy’ Explores Legacy, Alienation at Elite Prep School

The coming-of-age story raises questions about the academy’s culture and what it means to be a black man

By Stephanie Liu Copy Editor Choir Boy, in its first post-Broadway production and New England premier, brings the hallowed halls of the fictional Charles R. Drew Prep School, an elite academy dedicated to instilling excellence in young black men, to Speakeasy Stage Company in Boston.

Written by the screenwriter of Oscar-winning movie Moonlight Tarell Alvin McCraney and directed

by Maurice Emmanuel Parent, Choir Boy’s cast consists mostly of Bostonarea students and alumni, many of whom are making their Speakeasy debut . While on Broadway, the show ran at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

A multi-dimensional coming-ofage story and an examination of black culture and the black church, Choir Boy is both entertaining and thought provoking, raising questions about what it means to be a black man.

The show follows Pharus Young (Isaiah Reynolds), an ambitious student who seeks to take the lead at the gospel choir, which is the pride of the school and, most importantly, a draw for donors to bring in the funding the school needs. Pharus, immensely talented, was voted almost unanimously to be the head of the choir as a senior.

Despite his unquestionable genius and love for music, Pharus finds trouble holding the leadership of the choir because he is openly gay, which the nephew of Headmaster Marrow ( J. Jerome Rogers), Bobby (Malik

Mitchell), takes issue with.

Struggling to find a place in his school and in his community, Pharus can be both brazenly confident— championing his flamboyance in defiance of the expectations to how he should behave—but painfully insecure, fully aware of his otherness in a community that already feels marginalized from the greater world.

Pharus tries to figure out the balance between being himself and fitting in through his interactions with the other boys at the school, including his roommate and best friend Anthony (Jaimar Brown)—a straight athlete who is always supportive despite not being able to fully understand—and David (Dwayne P. Mitchell)—a reserved, struggling student who wants to be a minister.

Choir Boy examines alienation and conflict within the black community, which is a thoughtful deviation from usual works that comment on race and the black experience that often place blackness in a white context.

Far from being just a play about schoolboys, Choir Boy makes very potent commentary about the black experience as a whole. Bringing up themes such as the fixation with the past, Pharus makes a poignant argument about prioritizing the present and passing down feelings and emotions that people feel in the present, rather than endlessly guessing about a past that no one in the current day has experienced.

The conflict between legacy and scholarship students comes into play, as the other students endlessly remind Bobby of his privilege—Bobby con-

stantly forgets to call the headmaster by his title, usually calling him “Uncle Matt,” before correcting himself. Marrow is also caught in the conflict, both trying to ensure fairness in the school, but also pressured by his own biases toward his nephew.

There is only one white character in Choir Boy—Mr. Pendleton (Richard Snee). Pendleton is another teacher at the school, coaxed out of retirement

by Marrow. Pendleton often struggles to relate to the students because he is not black.

His good intentions cause conflict between him and his black students, who question his efforts to teach them about their own culture.

Pendleton dedicated his life to civil rights, having walked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but his despair highlights the distance between the races.

Choir Boy handles very grim subjects, yet the play is entertaining from beginning to end.

Opening with a spirite d step number, Choir Boy is filled with music and dancing , highlighting specifically black gospel music, while also venturing into slave songs and important modern black artists like Boyz II Men. The cast boasts impressive vocal and dancing ability, with intricate step numbers executed to perfection. The performers did not use microphones, relying on only the raw power of their voices to project into the audience, both giving an authentic performance and showing off their incredible vocal prowess.

Although Choir Boy ends on a sad

photo courtesy of nile scott studios

Pharus Young struggles to balance his desire for acceptane and his pride in his sexuality. note, the cast did not let the audience leave the theater dejected.

Springing a surprise onto delighted audience members, who were expecting bows, the entire cast broke into a fierce number to “Nails, Hip, Heels,

Hair” by Todrick Hall, a queer, black artist who is a champion of the LGBTQ+ community, leaving the audience with a high-spirited conclusion and hopes for a future of inclusion and acceptance. n

‘Nixon’s Nixon’ Illustrates Evening of the President’s Downfall

Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger become increasingly unhinged as they discuss the inevitable resignation

By Chloe Pingeon For The Heights As audience members walked through the doors of The New Repertory Theater, they were met with a scratchy recording of Richard Nixon’s voice filling the theatre.

Ninety minutes later, they heard it again.

This time, instead of background noise, the recording served to announce Nixon’s 1974 resignation from his position as the 37th president of the United States.

The set of Nixon’s Nixon appears to be a formal and elegant living room where two well-dressed men are conversing.

The living room is in the White House, the men are President Richard Nixon and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and the conversation is about Nixon’s inevitable resignation.

In the wake of the Watergate scandal, Nixon called Kissinger into his office to talk about what they should do next. Nixon’s Nixon imagines this real situation through a fictional, sa-

tirical, and eerily relevant lense.

Jeremiah Kissel, acting as Nixon, and Joel Colodner, acting as Kissinger, skillfully display the tension that existed between the real politicians throughout Nixon’s time as president.

On the evening of their downfall, the pair frantically reenacts their glory days, stepping into the shoes of those who have complimented them in the past.

They pause to revel in their prior praises or to insult each other.

As an increasingly unhinged Nixon downs drink after drink and an increasingly uneasy Kissinger urges him to resign from the presidency, the deeply personal agenda of both men surfaces. Nixon is concerned not with the state of the country in the wake of his betrayal, but rather with the fate of his own legacy. While Kissinger originally expresses the voice of reason, this takes a sharp turn when he realizes that he too is implicated in the incriminating tapes.

Kissinger, upon realizing that it is in his own best interest to keep Nixon in office, changes tune, and it is only

when the fate of both men’s egos begin to ride on the same agenda that the play, while remaining humorous, becomes significantly more disconcerting.

In an almost manic state, Nixon and Kissinger discuss their options, which range from colluding with the CIA to triggering a nuclear war from which Nixon would then save the United States. At this suggestion, Nixon is seen gleefully standing on his chair and miming the explosion of bombs with shouts of “KABLOOIE, KABLOOIE.” Glimpses of Nixon’s softer humanity are shown when he mentions his daughter, Julie, and when he ultimately recounts the number of deaths that have been caused in some relation to his presidency, and yet these themes are in direct conflict to the motives of his ego that drive the plot.

On a surface level, Nixon’s Nixon both showcases and satirizes a significant historical event through the eyes of the men involved. On a deeper level, however, the play exhibits the way power corrupts and how, once acquired, it can be incredibly difficult

Photo Courtesy of andrew brilliant / brilliant pictures

Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger talk through the fallout of the Watergate scandal. to let go of.

The simple set and small cast allow the focus of the play to entirely surround the characters and the conversation. Although the setting and characters stay consistent from beginning to end, the logic, reason, and arguable sanity of Nixon and Kissinger alarmingly devolve.

Nixon’s resignation is, as we know, ultimately inevitable, but the play

closes with the clear sense that Nixon is resigning not out of morality but out of necessity, and Kissinger is left behind, still desperate to save his own skin. The performance speaks about power to serve the ego, not the world, and through a humorous lense tinted with a touch of reality, it sends an ominous message as to how far those who gain this power will go to maintain it. n

Monday, September 30, 2019

SPORTS

A9

@HeightsSports

FOOTBALL

WAKE FOREST 27

BOSTON COLLEGE 24

“I’M A HALF SECOND WRONG. THAT’S LIFE.”

CELINE LIM / HEIGHTS EDITOR

BC’s game-tying field goal attempt in the fourth quarter went awry after taking a delay of game penalty and botching the ensuing snap, and the Eagles went on to lose by three points.

By Bradley Smart Sports Editor

MICHAEL DWYER / AP PHOTO

Addazio had three timeouts left when his field goal unit didn’t get the snap off.

With 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter against Wake Forest, Boston College football kicker Aaron Boumerhi lined up for a 44-yard, game-tying field goal. The hold was good and his ensuing kick was right through the uprights. A flag flew, however, and it was a five-yard delay of game penalty on the Eagles.

The ensuing attempt from 48 yards?

Boumerhi didn’t even get a foot on it. The snap was botched, and holder Dennis Grosel’s last-ditch effort to scramble and find tight end Danny Dalton downfield was batted down by the Demon Deacons.

Those three points that the Eagles badly needed came back to haunt them. After the two teams swapped punts, Wake Forest marched downfield for a touchdown, and while BC had an answer with a halfback pass that resulted in six, it went on to suffer a disappointing 27-24 setback in front of a strong Parents Weekend crowd.

The Demon Deacons (5-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) converted 17-of-24 third down attempts, a prolific 70.8 percent clip that allowed for lengthy drives that chewed up clock—especially in the final few minutes with a slim lead.

And, while the penalty and botched snap stood out the most, BC (3-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) also went for it on 4th-and-3 from the Wake Forest 21-yard line in the third quarter instead of kicking a 38-yard field goal, and quarterback Anthony Brown promptly threw an interception. “[There were] two scoring opportunities in that game, one on a fourth down call and then of course our inability to kick a field goal,” head coach Steve Addazio said.

“They were two scoring opportunities in a tight game like this where even though all of our rushing, throwing statistics were superior, we lost out on those scoring opportunities.”

Running back AJ Dillon ran for 159 yards on 23 carries, and Brown finished 21-of-29 for 268 yards and two touchdowns

and two interceptions.The Eagles racked up 536 yards of offense, but it was the Demon Deacons offense—which ran 87 plays—that managed 11 more minutes of possession and fought off a comeback.

The Eagles didn’t get off to the best start, as Brown was picked off by Wake Forest cornerback Amari Henderson on the first drive of the game. That interception—the first from Brown in 102 pass attempts this season—set up a methodical Demon Deacons drive. They went 57 yards in 11 plays, taking a 7-0 lead on a physical five-yard run from Cade Carney.

The offensive struggles continued on the next drive, as consecutive screen passes totaled negative yardage for Brown and BC, resulting in a punt. The Demon Deacons added to their lead with a 22-yard field goal from Nick Sciba, but the Eagles showed the first signs of resilience. Wake Forest ran Carney twice from near the goal line to no avail, then quarterback Jamie Newman was

See FB vs. Wake Forest, A11

Recent Tourney Drought Under Kelly Reflects Absence of Stars

Peter Kim There was a time where Boston College men’s soccer was always a near lock to make the NCAA Tournament. From 2000 to 2012, the Eagles missed the tournament just three times: In 2003 (when BC finished the year ninth in the Big East), 2005, and 2006—the two seasons after the Eagles joined the ACC. Since then, it hasn’t quite been smooth sailing for BC.

INSIDE SPORTS

In the past six years, the Eagles have made the NCAA Tournament just twice, in 2015 and 2016, and finished with a losing record in each of the other four years. This season, BC is 5-2-1, but has failed to notch a win in three ACC contests. So what went wrong? And why are the Eagles all of a sudden struggling to make the postseason? The answer might be as simple as this: BC simply hasn’t had the top-tier talent it needs to consistently compete in the ACC, nor the attacking stars necessary to make noise in the NCAA Tournament.

Consider this. In 2015 and 2016, when the Eagles won a combined 20 games and made it to the second

round or further in the NCAA Tournament both years, BC had the dynamic Zeiko Lewis running the attacking show. The 2013 ACC Freshman of the Year—who finished his career with 18 goals and 26 assists—gave the Eagles a source of pace and skill from his hybrid midfield/forward role. The Bermuda native, who was drafted No. 17 overall in the 2017 MLS Superdraft, was able to win games pretty much by himself. In 2016, he scored the lone goal as eighth-seeded BC upset No. 1 overall seed North Carolina in the ACC Tournament. Later that season, in a first-round NCAA Tournament game against Fordham, Lewis repeated the feat, finding the

back of the net in the 82nd minute for the game-winning goal.

Before that, when the Eagles broke a two-year postseason drought in 2007, they had Alejandro Bedoya, who now has 66 appearances for the United States national team and played in the 2014 World Cup, at the heart of the team. The attacking midfielder totaled 26 points in 21 games that year, an output which stands as the sixth-most points any BC player has ever tallied in one season.

Also on that team was Sherron Manswell, the player with the second most points in a single season in Eagles history. A second-team All-ACC selection in 2007, Man-

WSOC: Eagles Falter Against Louisville VB: BC Sinks Yellow Jackets in Five Sets

swell was the perfect complement to Bedoya, scoring 11 goals as BC won the conference regular season title.

In the ACC Tournament, Manswell then scored the opening goal of the championship game, helping the Eagles knock off Wake Forest— which went on to win the national championship—for their first and only ACC Tournament title.

Manswell graduated after his excellent final season, and Bedoya left the program a year later, but it didn’t take Kelly long to reload. In 2009, goalkeeper Justin Luthy—who still leads the Eagles all-time in wins (43) and minutes played (7,400)—burst

See Star Power, A10

SCORES AND STANDINGS.................. A10 ....

A11 BC wasn’t able to score against No. 22 Cardinals until it The Eagles opened up conference play with consecutive FOOTBALL................................................. was too late, falling in a nailbiter......................................A12 wins, beating Georgia Tech on Sunday.......................... A12 FIELD HOCKEY...........................................

A12

The Heights

A10

Monday, September 30, 2019 WOMEN’S SOCCER

Despite Carreiro’s Late Goal, BC Can’t Complete Comeback Against Cardinals

By Tom Dickson For The Heights On Thursday, B oston College women’s soccer bounced back from a loss to No. 6 Florida State with a commanding Louisville 2 4-0 shutout of Boston College 1 Miami. The Eagles’ opponent on Sunday afternoon—No. 22 Louisville—provided another shot at a resume-defining win against a ranked opponent.

Even with an unbeaten record at home on the line, though, BC wasn’t able to crack Cardinals keeper Gabrielle Kouzelos until the 88th minute, and it was too little too late. A pair of first-half goals lifted Louisville to a 2-1 win, in which BC (8-2-1, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) almost doubled its visitors in shots.

In the early stages of the game, the Eagles looked to capitalize on forced turnovers and apply pressure on Louisville’s (9-1, 2-1) half of the field. Midfielders Gaby Carreiro and Jade Ruiters tested the Cardinals’ back line by sending passes toward forwards in the box. The Eagles’ aggressive mentality carried them to an early lead in shots, as they looked for any opportunity to get an early goal on the board.

Despite BC’s determined offense, it was Louisville that opened the scoring gates in the 14th minute when junior midfielder Emina Ekic received a pass at the top of the box and chipped a shot by goalkeeper Allie Augur for her fifth goal of the season.

The goal marked the first time this year that the Eagles did not score first in a game.

Just minutes later, BC forward Olivia Vaughn nearly evened the score when a creative touch freed her in front of the net and gave her a chance on net. Her ensuing shot beat Kouzelos and seemed to hover in the air before finally bouncing off the crossbar and away from goal. The shot was one of three for Vaughn in the first half, as the senior continued to search for the back of the cage after her two-goal performance against Miami.

The E agles fell into a de ep er hole with 13 minutes left in the half, though, after a costly BC turnover in its own half turned into a Louisville a 2-on-1.

Ekic slotted a pass through to

Ikram Ali / Heights Editor

Sam Smith and BC didn’t score a goal until the 89th minute in a loss to No. 22 Louisville. teammate Delaney Snyder, and she made no mistake in tucking a shot by Augur’s outstretched arms and into the far corner. BC went into the break leading 13-4 in shots but trailing by two goals—the first halftime deficit it had experienced this season.

If the Eagles were fazed by the halftime score, it did not show in the second half. BC came out of the locker room looking motivated to attack on offense and get back in the game. Its efforts in Louisville territory led to the Eagles being awarded nine corners in the second half alone. Carreiro and Ruiters continued to whip the ball into the box, but Kouzelos and the Louisville defense stood tall and never faltered under the continued pressure.

While the BC offense looked to find the net in the second half, Augur kept the Eagles in the game with her stellar play in net. The freshman made multiple confident plays, highlighted by a fantastic diving save to stop a sure goal on a great chance for Louisville. Later in the half, with time dwindling down and BC still trailing by two, Augur made another strong play when she shut down a Cardinals scoring opportunity right in front of the goal mouth.

With under two minutes left in the half, BC made the game interesting when it was given a penalty kick after a jump ball led to a foul in the box.

Carreiro stepped to the spot with the game on the line and calmly placed a shot away from a diving Kouzelos and into the lower left corner for her third goal of the season.

The goal left the Eagles down one with a minute left, and they had one last chance when they received their 12th and final corner. The ensuing cross from Carreiro was well placed, but BC’s attackers could not find a clean shot as the ball bounced in front of the net and ended up in Louisville’s possession.

While the Eagles have lost two of their last three matches, the quality of their opponents has been undeniably high. But in order to get back to the postseason, they’ll have to find a way to steal these kinds of games, as the path doesn’t get any easier. BC will have a slightly easier stretch with road games against North Carolina State and Pittsburgh over the course of the next two and a half weeks, both unranked foes, but if they stumble into the back half of the season it could be a long few weeks for Jason Lowe’s side. n

For Eagles to Reach Postseason Again, Kelly Needs to Find Next Big Talent Star Power, from A9

Margo Carlin After tallying twice against Saint Joe’s, the freshman now leads field hockey with 10 goals.

Closing Quarters Field hockey gave up a goal in the final minute of the second, third, and fourth quarter against Saint Joe’s.

Weekend Sweeps Women’s hockey beat Merrimack twice to begin its season 2-0.

Getting Off the Field Football allowed Wake Forest to convert 17-of24 third downs in a 27-24 loss.

Composure Despite losing a two-set lead, volleyball recovered to best Georgia Tech in five frames.

Midseason Struggles After a tough loss to Louisville, women’s soccer has won just two of its last five games.

onto the scene. He was named to the All-ACC Second Team, as BC advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament. Also on the 2009 squad were Charlie Rugg—an All-ACC Freshman Team member who would become a prolific goal scorer for the Eagles as a target forward—and Kyle Bekker, a playmaking midfielder who eventually became the third overall draft pick in the 2013 MLS Superdraft.

Rugg finished his career with 28 goals, while Bekker dominated the midfield for the Eagles, recording 22 assists and playing 80 career games.

Both were mainstays on All-ACC Teams—Rugg made the First Team in 2010, 2011, and 2012, while Bekker cracked the Second Team in 2010 before joining Rugg on the First Team in each of the next two seasons. Behind its three stars, BC and Kelly made the NCAA Tournament every year from 2009 to 2012.

After they left, the Eagles missed the postseason in two straight seasons, waiting for their next star to come along. Then, Lewis broke out to become one of the most dangerous attacking midfielders in the country.

Since he left in 2016, BC hasn’t sniffed the tournament and has decidedly lacked a game-changing talent who possesses the ability to take over a game single-handedly. Simon Enstrom, who graduated in 2018 and finished his career with 30 goals—good for fifth-most in Eagles history—was

certainly talented, but also was more of a pure goal scorer who couldn’t control games by himself.

The available evidence suggests that, for BC to consistently make the postseason, it needs bonafide attacking stars. Now that’s true for every team, but especially true for the Eagles. After all, they compete in the ACC, which has historically been one of the deepest and most talented conferences in the country. It has had a representative in three of the last five National Championships and has won 12 national titles since 1990. In fact, in 2018, nine of the 12 teams in the conference made the NCAA Tournament—BC wasn’t one of them.

To make matters worse, BC can’t rely on reeling in the best players either—none of the top 150 recruits in the country for the class of 2019 committed to the Eagles, though many of those same players chose to pursue a professional career rather than go to college. And many of the other top recruits ended up committing to other ACC powerhouses. All in all, five of the top-25 recruiting classes in 2019 belonged to other teams in BC’s conference.

So, under Kelly, the Eagles have had to rely on local talent and overseas products to unearth stars. Lewis attended high school in Berkshire, Mass., and Rugg hails from Roslindale, Mass., while Bekker was born in Ontario, Manswell played in Trinidad and Tobago before accepting a scholarship to BC, and Enstrom also played abroad in Sweden. The only excep-

tions were Bedoya, who was raised in Weston, Fla., and the Dublin, Ohio, native Luthy.

The next logical thing to wonder is where the Eagles’ next great talent will come from. There are several candidates already on the roster.

Amos Shapiro-Thompson—who has a team-high seven points in 2019—is one. Stefan Sigurdarson, who scored a spectacular game-winning goal against Rhode Island, and Mike Suski, another local recruit, are two others. And don’t discount Kristofer Konradsson, the Gardabaer, Iceland native who earned a spot on the 2018 All-ACC Freshman team and finished second on the team in goals last season.

The fact remains, though, for BC to break its tournament drought in the next couple of years, one or more of its promising underclassmen will have to become the next Lewis or Bekker. Eagles fans have ample reason to have hope that one of them will become a star—Kelly does have a better-than-average record of developing talent, after all—but also plenty of reason to worry. After all, given the way things have played out for BC since joining the ACC, a team full of simply solid players won’t nearly be enough for the Eagles to reach the postseason again. They need another hidden gem or two.

Peter Kim is the assoc. sports editor for The Heights. He can be reached on Twitter @PeterKim_4

The Heights

Monday, September 30, 2019

A11

FOOTBALL

BC Can’t Make the Most of Explosive Offense, Falls to Wake Forest FB vs. Wake Forest, from A9 stood up on 3rd-and-Goal.

BC parlayed that into a drive that featured its first points of the game, with Dillon rumbling 33 yards on the first play.

Zay Flowers added an 18-yard sweep, and eventually, Boumerhi buried a 22-yard field goal. The offensive momentum carried over to the other side of the ball, as the Eagles forced a punt. Six plays and 85 yards later, BC had tied it up at 10 apiece. David Bailey featured prominently, running for 25 yards and catching an 11-yard pass out of the backfield, but it was Flowers who hauled in a 26-yard touchdown after a well-executed play-action pass.

After the teams traded punts, Wake Forest retook the lead after a pair of big third-down conversions. First, Newman took a quarterback draw on 3rd-and-1 and

found a massive seam, sprinting for a 50-yard run. Then, on 3rd-and-6, he found Kendall Hinton for a nine-yard reception that kept the drive alive.

Three plays later, Sage Surratt, standing an imposing 6-foot-3, withstood a defensive pass interference call on BC’s Brandon Sebastian to haul in a onehanded touchdown.

The Demon Deacons were unable to take the lead into the break, though, as the Eagles bounced right back. BC engineered a nine-play, 48-yard drive punctuated by a four-yard touchdown grab from Bailey on a shovel pass from Brown—who had converted a 4th-and-1 with a keeper earlier in the drive.

The offensive fireworks were limited in the second half, though. After BC’s first drive ended in the disappointing interception from Brown on 4th-and-3, Wake Forest took

over and plodded down the field. It went on a program-record 20-play drive that covered 78 yards, and eventually settled for a 22-yard field goal after eating up nearly seven minutes of game clock. When BC’s offense went on to punt after just two minutes, there was worry that the Demon Deacons—holding a slim 20-17 lead—would have a chance to put it away. Instead, Newman overthrew his receiver and Eagles free safety Mike Palmer came up with a diving interception.

It didn’t translate to points, though, as BC left three on the board with the botched field goal snap after the costly penalty.

“We didn’t execute the field goal and that’s inexcusable,” he said. “I saw the clock ticking down and was going to call a timeout, but I thought we were still going to get it off in time and I didn’t want to lose a timeout.

“I was trying not to burn it, and it was

hair-close. Obviously, we lost that decision by half a second.”

Regardless, the six points left on the board would prove costly. Newman found Scotty Washington for a 27-yard touchdown that stretched the Demon Deacons’ lead to 10 with 9:47 remaining, and the Eagles were forced to play catch-up. They found an answer, churning forward with nine straight runs before a trick play—Bailey took a handoff and then threw a halfback pass to Jake Burt in the corner of the end zone—but the defense couldn’t come up with a stop on the ensuing drive until it was way too late.

Even with BC using all three of its timeouts, Wake Forest went on a 12-play drive, converting a trio of third downs before finally punting. Punter Dom Maggio, who averaged 46.2 yards per punt and landed three inside the 20, saw his effort downed

at the five-yard line with 28 seconds to go. The Eagles, without timeouts, eventually resorted to a lateral play, but Brown fumbled it out of bounds around midfield to end the game.

“This was two good teams fighting each other and it came down to a thin margin,” Addazio said. “The thin margin in the end was three points. It’s a hard deal.”

The three-point margin of defeat makes it easy to pin just where it went wrong. The Eagles had almost 100 more yards than their visitors—who were also held to 27 points despite entering as the 10th-best offense—but still lost because of two questionable decisions while in field goal range.

It wasn’t the same as when Addazio’s team failed to get off a game-tying field goal attempt against Wake Forest in 2015, but watching the botched snap sure harkened back to that dismal day. n

Demon Deacons vs. Eagles Drive Chart A look at BC’s 27-24 loss toWake Forest, possession by possession:

BRADLEY SMART / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Brown’s Accurate Day Offset by Third-Down Woes in Defeat

By Peter Kim Assoc. Sports Editor With 3:01 to play in Boston College football’s game against Wake Forest, the Eagles defense needed to make one final stop. Trailing by a field goal, BC had forced Jamie Newman and the Demon Deacons’ offense into 3rd-and-4. An incompletion or run short of the sticks would have given Anthony Brown and the Eagles—who had few problems moving the ball all day—a chance to send the game into overtime or win it outright.

It wasn’t to be. Newman found Jack Freudenthal on a short route over the middle of the field to move the sticks for Wake Forest’s 17th third-down conversion of the day. By the time BC got the ball back at its own five-yard line, just 28 seconds remained, and the Eagles weren’t able to manufacture a miracle drive, falling to the Demon Deacons, 27-24. It was an odd loss for BC, which played very well but made mistakes in key moments that ended up costing it the game. Here are two up and two down from the Eagles’ second loss of the season.

Two Up 1) Brown’s Accuracy It’s stating the obvious that an accurate quarterback can do wonders for an offense—even one that relies heavily on the run like BC’s—and it’s certainly been the case in the past that when Brown is on his game, the Eagles have been virtually unstoppable on offense. The Wake Forest game from last season and BC’s first half against Virginia Tech this season are two examples that immediately come to mind. Saturday, after two mediocre

games against Rutgers and Kansas, Brown was once again back on the mark against the Demon Deacons.

He threw an ill-advised interception into double coverage on the Eagles’ first series of the game, but then bounced back to complete 13 of his next 14 throws.

It began on a 3rd-and-8, when the redshirt junior threaded the needle between two defenders for a completion to Jake Burt that moved the chains, but Brown continued to drop passes into his receivers’ laps throughout the day. Six plays after the completion to Burt, Brown delivered a strike to Kobay White on a slant route in the end zone while being hammered by Luke Masterson. Unfortunately for BC, White wasn’t able to haul the ball in, and the Eagles had to settle for three points.

Brown continued to dish out good throws for the remainder of the game.

All told, Brown finished the day 21-of29 for 268 yards and two touchdowns.

Though two interceptions blemished his final stat line, the performance was definitely among the redshirt junior’s better games with the Eagles.

2) Dillon’s Explosiveness AJ Dillon entered the game with 486 yards rushing—good for sixthmost among FBS backs—but put on his best performance of the season against the Demon Deacons.

Throughout the game, the New London, Conn., native showcased the best of what he had to offer, finding the edge with speed on sweep plays and other outside runs, while also busting through tackles and dragging defenders on runs in between the tackles.

Dillon finished the day with 23 carries

for 159 yards and was rarely stuffed behind the line, even when Wake Forest insisted on stacking the box with eight defenders.

He provided the BC offense with the spark it needed in the first quarter, busting up the gut for 33 tough yards before being tackled at the Eagles’ 45yard line. The carry flipped the field and gave BC—which trailed, 10-0, at the time—offensive momentum. In total, Dillon finished with five runs that went 10-plus yards, in addition to his sixth reception of the season. On a trademark Brown rollout play, Dillon found himself all alone and took a short throw before turning upfield and gaining 33 yards, wrapping up the play by staying inbounds and pushing over a pair of defenders.

Two Down 1) Missed Scoring Opportunities In a game decided by three points, BC will certainly rue two opportunities that left a total of six points on the board. First, on the Eagles’ first possession of the second half, BC steadily marched the ball down the field but faced 4th-and-3 from the Wake Forest 21-yard line. With the wind blowing in the Eagles’ faces, Steve Addazio elected against trying a 38-yard field goal with Aaron Boumerhi and went for it. Brown rolled out, but fired a pass toward the sideline that was intercepted by Essang Bassey.

Then, in the fourth quarter, with the wind now in BC’s favor, Addazio elected to try a 44-yard field goal.

Boumerhi’s kick was good, but the Eagles were whistled for delay of game, backing them up five more yards. On the ensuing try from 49 yards out, Dennis Grosel bobbled

CELINE LIM / HEIGHTS EDITOR

AJ Dillon ran for 159 yards on 23 carries despite Wake Forest stacking the box.

a low snap, and then rolled out and threw up a prayer toward Danny Dalton that was batted down. A made field goal would have tied the score at 20. Instead, the Eagles left three points on the board in what ended up as a three-point game. In a game that had such fine margins, BC couldn’t afford those mistakes—especially the delay-of-game penalty.

2) Third-Down Woes When it really mattered, the Eagles could not get off the field. Wake Forest finished the game 17-of-24 on third down, an unacceptable clip for any defense. Before the crucial completion to Freudenthal, Newman also completed a nine-yard pass on third down to Kendall Hinton that kept the chains moving as the Demon Deacons looked to kill clock.

Earlier in the game, Wake Forest also embarked on a 20-play, 78-yard drive that featured three crucial third-

down conversions. It only ended in three points, after an important Jason Maitre pass breakup, but the methodical march also sapped nearly seven minutes off the clock. Finally, on the Demon Deacons’ final touchdown drive of the game, Newman threw a perfect 27-yard touchdown pass to Scotty Washington on 3rd-and-7, just a play after offsetting penalties had negated an incomplete pass.

All told, Wake Forest converted in a variety of ways, whether it was Newman squirming up the middle on a quarterback draw, Hinton on out routes toward the sideline, or Surratt on comeback routes on the boundary.

A third-down stop or two could have flipped the momentum of the game— especially when the Eagles trailed in the second half—but for all the good things BC’s defense did Saturday, it wasn’t able to make a third-down stop when it mattered most. n

The Heights

A12

Monday, September 30, 2019

VOLLEYBALL

BC Defeats Yellow Jackets Despite Blowing Two-Set Lead Boston College Georgia Tech

3 2

FIELD HOCKEY

Saint Joe’s Scores Late to Beat Eagles in Nine-Goal Thriller

By Ryan Bayne For The Heights

Boston College field hockey entered Sunday’s game with No. 11 Saint Joseph’s aiming to avoid the defensive breakdowns Saint Joseph’s 5 that plagued Boston College 4 them in Friday’s loss to sixth-ranked Louisville.

Instead, the Hawks scored three times with less than a minute remaining in a quarter, eventually tucking away the gamewinner with 46 seconds left on the clock as they handed the Eagles a second straight loss, 5-4, in a back-and-forth game that came right down to the final buzzer.

Penalty corners were a significant factor for both sides in Sunday’s match, yet Saint Joe’s (8-1, 1-0 Atlantic 10) got the best of BC (4-5, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) in that department. The Hawks won nine penalty corners on the day, converting three for goals, whereas the Eagles were awarded five and failed to convert on all of them.

“I don’t think we played terribly—Saint Joe’s did a great job of executing on some corners and we made some mental mistakes that allowed them to put some points on the board,” head coach Kelly Doton said. “[But] if you score four goals in a field hockey game you should be able to win that, and our defense certainly let us down today.”

Despite eventually spelling BC’s doom, the Eagles’ defensive shortcomings weren’t prevalent in the early stages of the game, as both teams’ defenses withstood several scoring chances in the outset of the first quarter. BC freshman Charlotte Von Huelsen ended the scoring drought off a rebound with 5:44 left in the first quarter, firing a shot past Hawks keeper Victori Kammerinke. Saint Joe’s answered, though, as it forced a penalty corner three minutes later that led to a conversion by Tonya Botherway to even things out—immediately after which Emily Sayre took a centering pass from Sara Hayes and slipped the ball past Eagles keeper Jonna Kennedy

to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead going into the second quarter.

The first half of the second quarter again provided a number of opportunities for both teams, including a rush by junior Jaime Natale that ended with a shot that went just wide. Senior Brigid Wood broke away and recorded BC’s equalizer, though, with just under six minutes to play in the half. It looked as if Saint Joe’s might have had a response, as the Eagles gave them another penalty corner with 47 seconds left in the half, but the defense cleared the ball, and the teams went into the second half with a brand new game ahead.

The Eagles’ offense got off to a good start in the back half of play, as freshman Margo Carlin extended her scoring streak to six games, stealing the ball from a Hawks defender in the circle and sending a shot past Kammerinke to give BC a 3-2 advantage. The Eagles had a chance to extend that lead even further within the next minute as they were awarded a penalty corner, but the pass was mishandled and Saint Joe’s broke

out of the zone.

Shortly after BC’s missed corner chance, the Hawks were awarded one of their own, and Kathrin Bentz scored to even things out once again. Following several more scoring opportunities for both sides, Carlin tapped in a pass in the circle from Natale for her second goal of the game and team-high 10th of the season. It looked as if BC might hold a lead going into the final quarter, but Saint Joe’s rallied again and created a rebound chance that Kacie Patton finished to once again tie it up and set the stage for a dramatic final 15 minutes.

The fourth quarter presented a myriad of opportunities on both sides of the field right up until the final buzzer. Both teams took penalties that resulted in man-advantages for the opposition, but neither resulted in goals. The Eagles also gave the Hawks four penalty corners, one of which resulted in a player hitting the post, and others where Kennedy made huge saves.

As it turned out, the fifth penalty corner of the quarter was the charm for Saint Joe’s,

with just 48 seconds to go—and Pepa Serrano fired what would be the dagger into the cage to hand the Hawks a 5-4 lead.

The final seconds would see Doton pull Kennedy in a last-ditch attempt to force overtime, but Saint Joe’s shut BC down to wrap up the Eagles’ heartbreaking loss..

BC competed and nearly defeated a streaking Saint Joe’s team but was ultimately outdone by penalty corners and defensive lapses that tipped the scale in favor of the Hawks.

“It’s about everyone getting on the same page right now [defensively],” Doton said. “If you want to be successful in this league, the consistency at defense has to be there.”

BC needs to find that page quickly, as the conference features some of the country’s more explosive offenses. As Doton pointed out, a four-goal output should be more than enough to secure a win, but struggles to contain resulted in a second straight loss that drops the Eagles back below .500 on the season. n

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Excellent Special Teams Help BC Complete Sweep of Warriors

By Bradley Smart Sports Editor

Last season, Boston College women’s hockey finished just seventh in Hockey East on the penalty kill while racking Boston College 3 up a conferMerrimack 1 ence-high 10 penalty minutes per game. Through two games this season, the Eagles have already logged 16 penalties—but they’ve killed off every one of them.

On Saturday against Merrimack, that was the difference, as BC—playing without a key piece in assistant captain Delaney Belinskas, who left Friday’s game with an injury—held the Warriors to an 0-for-8 powerplay mark while making the most of its chances. The Eagles tucked away a pair of power-play goals and left North Andover, Mass., with a 3-1 win, completing a season-opening weekend sweep.

Savannah Norcross scored her second goal in as many contests for BC (2-0, 2-0 Hockey East), and it proved to be the game-winner in the second

period. Freshman Hadley Hartmez erased an early one-score deficit with her first career goal, and teammate Olivia Finocchiaro capped the scoring in the third period, as the Eagles took their 15th win in 16 all-time meetings with Merrimack (0-2, 0-2).

It was a disjointed game—the result of a combined 16 penalties—but BC managed to largely stay within its system and keep the Warriors in check. Goaltender Maddy McArthur, fresh off a Friday night shutout, came away with 23 saves, including 11 in the final period. Merrimack only broke through once against the sophomore, and it came with five minutes to go in the first.

Warriors winger Sam Lessick launched a shot on net from near the blue line and McArthur poked it away, but two Merrimack players—Megan Fergusson and Gabby Jones—were right on top of it. Without any BC defensemen in the slot, Jones got her stick on it and backhanded it in for the Warriors’ first goal of the year.

BC picked up its defensive intensity, though, and soon found itself on

the two-man advantage when Keisha Dicaire (hooking) and Chloe Cook (cross-checking) both went to the box. The Eagles settled in the Merrimack defensive zone and peppered shots on net, as Lea-Kristine Demers was called upon for three quick saves.

Eventually, BC cracked Demers, with Kelly Browne winning a face off and directing it to teammate Hannah Bilka. The freshman then registered her first career assist, sending a cross-ice pass that set up Hartmetz for a one-timer that Demers had no chance on.

Momentum in hand, BC went back on the power play at the end of the period, but a trio of shots were blocked and the two teams went on to trade penalties. Near the 15-minute mark of the second period, the Eagles were killing off an Alexie Guay penalty when Merrimack’s Mack Emery went to the box for interference. Twentytwo seconds later, Guay returned, and BC made the most of the 5-on-4.

The Eagles cycled the puck and eventually it was Cayla Barnes—who finished with a pair of assists for her

seventh multi-point game in just 38 career appearances—who found teammate Caroline DiFiore in the right circle. DiFiore, from the face off dot, threaded a pass under a defenders stick to Norcross, who one-timed it past Demers to put BC ahead for good.

Just 21 seconds had elapsed by the time the Eagles found themselves on the power play again, but Merrimack beared down defensively. Jones had three blocks during the two minutes alone, and the ability to frustrate BC’s efforts was a common trend. The Warriors finished with 26 blocked shots, more than double the Eagles’ 11, and helped Demers—who already needed to make 27 saves in the loss.

The killed penalty at the end of the period didn’t shift the momentum out of the break, however. It took just 39 seconds for Finocchiaro to find the back of the net, thanks to an impressive sequence where Bilka handled the puck into the middle of Merrimack’s defense before finding Barnes along the boards. The sophomore defenseman alertly saw Finocchiaro with

space in front of Demers, played it to her, and the Warriors’ goaltender had no chance on the ensuing redirect.

McArthur was busy down the stretch, but the outcome was never in doubt. The Eagles held Merrimack without a shot when Browne was serving a penalty for cross-checking, then McArthur had seven saves in the final seven minutes to put away the comfortable two-goal win.

It was a strong defensive effort, even if the penalties were frequent.

BC’s penalty kill is a perfect 14-for14 to start the year, and McArthur has impressed with 48 saves and just one goal allowed. Coming into the weekend, the Eagles were tasked with showing they could still find the back of the net without Daryl Watts, Caitrin Lonergan, Makenna Newkirk, and Megan Keller.

They responded by having four different goal scorers and piling up 64 shots on net. While BC’s not a finished product, it managed to go on the road and take two games from a Warriors team that finished fifth in the conference last season. n

Kayla Brandt / Heights Staff

Savannah Norcross (left) scored the game-winning goal on both Friday and Saturday, helping Kelly Browne (right) and the rest of the Eagles open the season with a two-game weekend series sweep of Merrimack on the road.

The Heights

Monday, September 30, 2019

A13

Pouring a Pot of Coffee for Peace: Cafe Landwer Comes to Boston

By Isabella Cavazzoni Copy Editor According to Nir Caspi, Starbucks failed in Israel. But, luckily for him, the lack of a major American coffee chain left plenty of room for the Israel native to pioneer his own business: Caspi opened Cafe Landwer in Tel Aviv in 2004.

Just 15 years later, Cafe Landwer now has 80 locations in Israel and its first American store right here on Beacon Street.

Before opening a major cafe chain that now sells Landwer coffee in three countries, Caspi served in the Israeli army—an experience that greatly contributed to his business ventures, he said.

After leaving the army and traveling across the world alongside one of his best friends, Caspi planted his roots back in his home country and decided to bartend in Tel Aviv. For Caspi, Tel Aviv is the city that never sleeps— making it an ideal stomping ground for a young guy looking to make a few dollars in the nightlife business.

“Tel Aviv is the New York of Israel,” Caspi said. “It’s the main city, the party city. It’s much more vibrant and party than New York.”

So, Caspi started off his career working behind the bar, only to open his own shortly after.

But the nightlife wasn’t for him. Still looking to turn dimes to dollars, Caspi decided to capitalize on a venture that was already halfway laid out for him— and one that started in Berlin in 1919.

Moshe Landwer founded Landwer Coffee, a small coffee roastery in Germany, 100 years ago. In 1933, Landwer and his family moved their lives and their coffee business to Tel Aviv, setting the stage for Caspi’s Cafe Landwer.

By the 1980s, Landwer Coffee became Israel’s second largest coffee producer, and, fortunately for Caspi, it was now in the family.

Caspi’s uncle acquired the Landwer Coffee brand. Though Landwer coffee only sold its roasted coffee in supermarkets, Caspi saw an opportunity to make the Landwer name bigger.

“I told [my uncle], ‘Listen, why don’t we take this amazing name with a heritage of a century, almost a century, and we will tell the story,’” Caspi recalled.

Within a couple years, Caspi and his team at Cafe Landwer were brewing enough coffee to sustain the nightlife of Tel Aviv. In 2018, Caspi brought the beans and the business to Beantown, opening his first American location on Beacon Street near Boston University.

The Cleveland Circle location of Cafe

Landwer opened shortly thereafter, with two additional locations in Toronto. Across the globe, Cafe Landwer is estimated to serve 7.2 million guests and 2 million cups of coffee annually.

When he was first deciding where to open up his first American Cafe Landwer, Caspi explored New York and Miami. The father of four boys, he wasn’t satisfied with the massive expense of living in those two major cities. But, Caspi knows Boston. Having visited Harvard University and being familiar with the Israeli-Jewish community of Boston already, Caspi decided that Boston would not only be the ideal place to raise his growing family but also to plant new business roots.

“There is a huge Jewish-Israeli community here that really hugs us …”

Caspi said. “The best part of it is my kids have a better, much better, English than mine and they won’t speak with a broken English in their future life.”

The arrival of American Cafe Landwer locations has created new opportunities for Caspi and his family, but all Cafe Landwers are alike. Caspi notes significant differences between the original Israeli coffee shop and its American counterpart.

“Over here, [Cafe Landwer is] more of a bistro, more of a restaurant,” Caspi said.

In Israel, Cafe Landwer tends to attract a different kind of business.

Whereas the American crowd of Cafe Landwer gravitates more toward the typical restaurant experience—wait service, a full menu, the works—Cafe Landwer in Israel is more of a coffee shop, the Israeli equivalent of a Caffè Nero or Fuel America.

“In Israel, we will have a ton of students that will come sit in Landwer, will learn, will study, and will spend hours in Landwer,” Caspi said.

This practice is what Caspi is trying to create for Cafe Landwer in the United States. With such close proximity to Boston College and Boston University, Caspi invites students to order coffee, take out their laptops, and spend a day at a table in Landwer.

“Because it’s a full service [restaurant], people sometimes feel intimidated from coming in and spending three hours on a computer,” Caspi said.

To attract more students, Cafe Landwer is hosting a National Coffee Day celebration. From Sunday, Sept.

29 to Friday, Oct. 4, customers can get an authentic Turkish coffee, latte, cappuccino, or any other caffeinated concoction for $1—an offer that even The Chocolate Bar will have to rival.

Additionally, Caspi has created a

menu at Cafe Landwer worth spending a study day and a few dollars on. It’s not Mediterrean by definition, he says, but Cafe Landwer’s cuisine definitely fits into the Mediterrean Diet pop culture has dubbed as all the rage. Both of Caspi’s parents were born in Morocco, and Cafe Landwer’s menu was built on food that Caspi ate as a kid most days of the week. Over pita, hummus, and shakshuka, Caspi described the nature of the food he ate in his youth.

Israel, he said, is the melting pot of the East, taking inspiration for food from all over the Middle East and Mediterranean.

“Israel established [as an independent state] 70 years ago, and people came to Israel from all Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, from all over the world,” Caspi said. “And each group came with their own culture and their own food.”

So, Caspi and his family were not tied down to just traditional Mediterrean food.

As Caspi recalls, his mom used to make schnitzel—a staple Austrian dish—four or five times a week.

Now, with storefronts in Boston, Cafe Landwer has taken on twists of American staples.

“Over here, you can’t have breakfast without eggs benedict,” Caspi said.

“Another thing, in Israel, in breakfast, nobody will eat sausage, bacon, all those stuff.”

To compromise, Caspi balanced out the kebabs and chicken shwarma on the menu with burgers and halloumi sticks, Landwer’s take on mozzarella sticks.

And while Cafe Landwer definitely sees guests who tend not to stray from American classics, he notices more and more people coming in for authentic Mediterranean food. But, the food isn’t the only important aspect of the restaurant world.

“I came here for business, but I feel like I have another mission now,” Caspi said.

The mission: peace. Caspi, aside from his career as a restaurateur, is also a board member of the Israeli American Council of Boston. His wife, three of his sons, and Caspi were born in Israel—his fourth son was born just the other day right here in Boston—and immigrated to America.

Still, his sons didn’t spend enough of their life in Israel to be truly Israeli or truly American, he said.

The Israeli American Council strives to create a community for people like Caspi’s family. Without a place in both the Israeli and American communities, Caspi, as part of the Israeli

PHOTO COURTESY OF DREW KATZ

Nir Caspi’s menu features a mix of American and Mediterranean food.

American Council, makes room for them, fostering a peaceful relationship between neighboring communities.

With this, Caspi hopes to bridge the gap between the Israeli community and America as a whole, making a place for them in society where there is none.

He creates lasting relationships not only between Israelis and Americans, but Arabs and Israelis, too. He notices in the Beacon Street location of Cafe Landwer that many Arabs come to enjoy food that reminds them of home—a fact that makes Caspi believe that peace between groups is achievable.

“I believe, by the way, that peace will come only from gathering like this

and not from our leaders,” Caspi said.

“The idea is to create this environment in each state, in each city …”

His next city and next stop to peace is Los Angeles.

With a new Cafe Landwer location opening in L.A. in the near future, Caspi’s Cafe Landwer isn’t slowing down anytime soon, making its way all the way to the opposite side of the States.

From Tel Aviv to Boston to L.A., Cafe Landwer is moving toward a big goal with Caspi at the helm.

It’s no small task, but Cafe Landwer is expanding with Mediterrean American dishes, served with a side of love. n

Sam Trump, Harold Green Bring ‘Soul and Stanzas’ to ISG

By Mary Wilkie Asst. Metro Editor On Sept. 26, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISG) hosted the latest installation of its new music series, Thursdays Live.

A collection of jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and spoken word performances, “Soul and Stanzas” brought to Boston two Chicago-based performers , Sam Trump and Harold Green.

With a ukulele, a bongo, a synthesizer, a trumpet, and his voice, Trump casually demonstrated his musical versatility, a skill he refined while earning a degree in Jazz Studies (trumpet) from Columbia College Chicago.

Likewise, Green wasn’t shy, speaking slow and steady with a voice that’s deep but has a touch of an unusual twang that makes his verse all the more captivating. Every once in a while, he’d make sure to tell the audience to tune back in when an especially good part was coming up.

Catherine Morris, manager of Public Programs at ISG, introduced the show and the series, which aims to “[celebrate] the personal and cultural in Boston.”

Morris came to the Gardner in 2018 as the public programs manager.

For years, she has planned cultural events around Boston and has overseen music programs and radio stations. Morris also founded Boston Art

and Music Soul (BAMS) and directs a summer festival that recognizes and celebrates artists from communities of color around Boston.

Trump’s video for his song “Brother” caught Morris’ eye years ago, so she brought him to Boston for BAMS Fest in 2017. Recently, she saw a video of Green’s “Permission,” and invited them to perform together at ISG. The show opened with NwaSoul, a Boston-based jazz/rock/hip-hop band. A group of Berklee alumni, the band is currently in residency at Darryl’s Corner Bar and Kitchen.

Singer Tricia Reed stood at the front of the stage surrounded by her bandmates: Aaron Venable (drums), Antonio Loomis (guitar), Craig Hill

MARY WILKIE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Sam Trump points up toward the yellow spotlight as he sings about the sunshine at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

(sax), Daniel Abraham (keyboard), and Ben Stepner (keyboard). When she wasn’t singing, she took advantage of the space, swaying and spinning to whatever instrument played the next solo.

Rain-soaked but happy, a steady f low of visitors—many of whom knew one another—streamed into Calderwood Hall. The audience was an eclectic bunch, including families and couples, groups of friends, a pair of strangers dancing in the left corner, and Morris’ young son perched on a red seat with his feet swinging above the floor.

The artists curated a specialized setlist for this performance that merged their respective works together.

The collaboration brought the performers’ respect for one another to a new height, each of them often pausing between songs to incite a round of applause for the other.

The performance hit the ground running and only gained traction, despite a few issues with the audio.

Trump excited the audience with many promises of “new stuff,” checking himself as he nearly fired off an expletive.

Considering Tr ump’s rela xe d countenance, his performance had an unexpected energy that made its way into the crowd.

Even after having extending their performance by an easy 40 minutes, though, the pair still had to cut a handful of songs from their set. The set was pretty divided into two parts, each with its own theme. Trump and Green began with a series of “self-affirming songs,” featuring titles such as

“Acceptance,” “Ain’t It Amazing,” and “Goods and Services.”

“Ain’t it amazing that there’s enough room for everyone’s purpose to be fulfilled?” Trump said and had the audience repeat.

About halfway through the show, they asked the light booth to turn the lights red when they transitioned to works about love—some of which were kind of like carpe diem poems, but with respect.

“If your faith ever been dried up, please let my poetry be lotion,” Green said in his verse.

Trump and his bandmates—Joshua Griff (bass), Leonard Maddox (drums), and Justin Dillard (keyboard)—had an easy rapport, often laughing and sharing looks in between songs.

By the end of the show, the same could be said about the interplay between the performers and the audience.

Once Green brought to the stage and serenaded an audience member, the audience lost all its inhibitions, laughing and snapping to the verse.

The ways that Trump and Green can play with the meaning of words, molding metaphors, rhymes, and double entendres aplenty, ensures that the depth of their content contends with the linguistic structure of the work.

To them both, life and love are intertwined—to love is to live. In both the works they performed and the ways they performed them, the pair made that very clear.

“The closest I ever got to living was the closest I ever got to you,” Trump sang. n

The Heights

A14

Monday, September 30, 2019

Marathon Runner Rescues Dog Walker from Res

By Mary Wilkie Asst. Metro Editor

Katie Kellner was running the path around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir on Monday morning before she threw off her shoes and swam into the middle of the water.

In the middle of her run, Kellner saw a dog jump into the water chasing a swan.

Its walker—a man who had been walking two other dogs and appeared to be in his 30s, according to Kellner—scaled down the embankment and dove in after him. Once he reached the dog, however, he struggled to stay afloat. He started screaming for help, which was when Kellner quickly pulled off her shoes, climbed down to the shore, and swam out to them.

“All I could think about was just getting to that guy,” Kellner said. “It was such a singular, in-the-moment focus, like, I was not thinking about consequences.”

Formerly EMT certified, Kellner’s instinct drove her to act quickly. When she first reached the pair, however, she struggled under the weight of the two of them.

“I just immediately sunk. And it was kind of this moment of panic where I was like I might drown with them,” she said.

Once she reached them, she directed the dog toward the shore and hoisted the man on her back. They made it to the shore, where Kellner and the dogwalker remained until the EMTs arrived on the scene. The man was taken to the hospital and later released, the dog’s owner told Kellner.

Closure of the Week MAGGIE DIPATRI/ HEIGHTS EDITOR

A dog walker strolls along the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, where a man was rescued last week by marathon runner Katie Kellner.

BCPD officers Patrick Rose and John Buckley were first to report to the scene.

Officer Jeff Postell arrived shortly after with Captain Kevin Buckley. Rose, Buckley, and Postell descended the embankment to check the situation. The man was alert and conscious. Once the fire department arrived, the man was brought up to the path and treated by EMTs. It is unclear whether or not the dogwalker knew how to swim, Postell said.

Postell, having worked in law enforcement for two decades, has seen a handful of incidents occur at the Reservoir and similar locations, and many that have resulted in dire outcomes.

“The credit goes to her. She was the one

that jumped in,” he said. “She certainly saved a life that day.”

The New Jersey native isn’t a swimmer, but she has been an avid runner since the seventh grade. Kellner continued running in high school and went on to run both track and cross country at Cornell University, where she was an Ivy League Champion in both sports.

In 2016, she moved to Boston, where she has continued running as an elite runner for the Boston Athletic Association, during which time she qualified for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials with a 2:41:06 marathon time. Kellner has been training for the Olympic Marathon Trials; started her own virtual coaching program, Forward

Focus Running, in January; and recently earned her masters in public health from Boston University.

Just days after the incident, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) reached out to Kellner, offering her a Compassionate Action Award for her consideration for the dog in that moment.

Kellner has been contacted by many people, friends and strangers, who have expressed their gratitude and appreciation for her heroic actions, she said.

Kellner runs every day, but not every run takes her around the Res—luckily, Monday was one of those days. Even after the catastrophe that nearly was, she finished her workout and ran another five miles. n

Green Line: B Branch Bus Shuttles will replace B line service between Boston College and Washington Street from 8:45 p.m. Friday, Oct. 25 to Oct. 27.

Bus shuttles will replace B line service between Boston College and Babcock Street over three weekends, Nov. 1-3, 15-17, and 22-24, starting at 8:45 p.m. on Friday night.

C Branch Bus shuttles will replace C line service between Cleveland Circle and Saint Mary’s St. from 8:45 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27 to Sept. 29.

Bus shuttles will replace C line service between Cleveland Circle and Kenmore from 8:45 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18 to Oct. 20.

D Branch This week, bus shuttles will replace D line service between Kenmore and Newton Highlands after 8:45 p.m. n

Majority of Boston Public Schools Meet Guidelines, Report Says

By Gavin Zhang For The Heights

Roughly two-thirds of Boston Public Schools improved from last year, according to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) annual accountability report for schools across the state.

The report designated the Boston Public Schools (BPS) as making “substantial progress towards targets.”

BPS is within the medium range among the other districts of Massachusetts, from which 64 districts are evaluated as “meeting or exceeding the targets,” 218 districts as making “substantial progress categories,” and 124 districts that are in lower categories or not classified.

The report shows that, in most categories, the BPS maintained their

performance from previous years, with increased achievements in mathematics and science in non-high school grades.

There was a sharp decline in the performance of the lowest-performing high school students in the BPS, largely due to their lower achievements in English Language Arts.

The year 2019 also saw increased drop-out rates among high school students in BPS. Academic achievements and growths are calculated using the results from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), a standardized test administered to students in public schools and some private schools.

The report also shows the performance of different demographics that are created based on race and disabilities, among other factors.

In most subgroups, there was an

overall increase in the annual criterion-referenced percentage, with the “students with disabilities” subgroup improving by 17 percent, the greatest among all subgroups. The performance of high school students in the multirace, non-Hispanic or Latinx subgroup has decreased significantly—specifically in mathematics and science performance, in addition to overall high school completion.

“While we celebrate the schools making progress today, we must urgently focus our efforts on supporting those in need of more intensive support and attention,” said Brenda Cassellius, BPS superintendent, in a statement. “ We n e e d n o t h i n g s h o r t o f high-quality learning environments where children are learning and thriving in every classroom.”

Two BPS schools are designated as

a “school of recognition” for their high growth, namely Nathan Hale Elementary School in Roxbury and the Winship Elementary School in Brighton. According to the press report of the BPS, the Winship Elementary School was designated to be among the lowest 20 percent schools in the state when its current principal, Mona Ford Walker, took over in 2016. Now, for the second year in a row, the school has been recognized for its improvement. Including Nathan Hale and Winship, 14 other schools in the district are designated as “meeting or exceeding targets.”

The William Channing Elementary School in Hyde Park was previously designated as “in need of broad/ comprehensive support,” which is the lowest category, previously known as “turnaround,” according to the press report of the BPS.

There are eight schools that are still designated as “in need of broad/ comprehensive support,” with none of them being newly added to the category this year.

“I’m proud of the great strides we’re making to ensure that every school across the district is preparing our students in the best possible way for their bright futures ahead,” said Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, BC ’09, in a statement.

“With this good news of more improvements being made, I want to recognize the educators, administrators and support staff in our schools, who we owe a debt of gratitude for the amazing work they do. They go above and beyond to make sure our students receive a high-quality education and are given the greatest opportunity to excel in school.” n

Newton Commission for Energy Works to Advance Climate Plan

By Eric Shea For The Heights

The Newton Citizens Commission on Energy is working to advance the Climate Action Plan for the City of Newton.

At a meeting Wednesday night, members of the commission and the Newton community gathered with Andreae Downs, a Newton City councilor, to discuss the steps being made to get the Newton City Council to vote on and eventually pass a Climate Action Plan.

The plan aims to make Newton carbon neutral by the year 2050.

The night’s debate centered around the next steps that the commission should take to ensure its proposal reaches the Council Floor and eventually Mayor Ruthanne Fuller’s desk. The Newton Citizen Commission on Energy,

headed by Helina Brown, is in ongoing talks with the Newton area utility companies about how best to approach its goal of carbon neutrality—a topic that has been a source of conflict.

The Climate Action Plan should include a biannual collection and public release of the city’s carbon emission data in order to ensure Newton stays on pace for its 2050 goal, the commission said.

The utility companies disagree, causing tensions at meetings between the commission and the utility companies according to commission members James Purdy, Puja Vohra, and Steven Groudy.

“A strategy without numbers is not a strategy and a plan without choices is not a plan,” Groudy said.

The utility companies have not supported the inclusion of metrics and action steps, but the commission said it

won’t submit a plan without them.

This reluctance to commit to specific annual figures is shared by Fuller’s office who has been working with both parties involved to create Newton’s Climate Action Plan.

The official plan is said to have been in development for nearly a year and is set to be introduced to the City Council within the coming weeks. There have been several drafts of the Climate Action Plan which have been authored by the Newton Citizens Commission on Energy and the utility companies.

The most recent draft was a large revision made by the Newton Citizens Commission on Energy which was said to include specifics about how exactly Newton’s progress would be tracked.

The Newton Citizens Commission on Energy is pushing for the creation of an “energy coach.” The energy coach,

appointed by the City of Newton, would be in charge of keeping Newton on track to hitting its 2050 carbon neutral goal.

Members of the Newton Citizens Commission on Energy said that Fuller promised to create a similar role on several occasions but never delivered.

Downs said that it was time to remind the mayor of the many times that energy positions were not funded with money that was set aside for the creation of an energy coach position in Newton.

“The mayor is not committed to spending any money on this issue,” a member of the commission said.

The member said that money for a similar position had at one point been put into hiring a sustainability director. The possibility of a sustainability director was short-lived and the post has been left vacant, however, with its responsibilities spread around to other

employees.

The gripes with Fuller continued as the Commission repeatedly cited that the only reason the mayor’s office had to be included in such talks is because the mayor sets the annual budget and would therefore have to allocate money from the annual budget to fund the position.

There was some uncertainty within the Newton Citizens Commission on Energy that the mayor would be willing to find money in the annual budget to fund the position.

“There are monies that have been saved on rebates, the energy efficiency, that are theoretically supposed to be going in [to an energy-related project] and aren’t,” a member said.

The Newton Citizens Commission on Energy plans to present the Climate Action Plan at the Oct. 2 Joint Committee meeting. n

Sales, Purchases of Vape Products Banned Until January Vape Ban, from A1 Some stores scrambled to sell the remaining vape products they had before they had to be taken off the shelves.

“We learned about this ban when everybody else did, which was 2:30 [p.m.] yesterday,” said Stacy Poritzky, one of the owners of Vape Daddy’s, on Thursday. “So, we have, you know, four stores and several employees and this is putting us out of business.”

The four stores—located in Newton, Framingham, Braintree, and Norwood—are temporary closed the day after the ban, while the owners try to decide what to do next. Poritzky anticipates they will have to close at least one of the stores since almost all of

their products have been banned from sale. Her other concern is that the ban will not be lifted in four months, as is currently anticipated.

“It is me and my business partner’s livelihood,” she said. “So it’s really so wrong on so many levels.”

The illnesses and deaths that are being reported are not typically caused by vape products that are purchased in a shop, Poritzky said—most of the products that make people sick are black market cartridges.

Vape Daddy’s is extremely strict with minors, Poritzky said, noting the issue of youth vaping. Customers are carded as soon as they enter the store, Poritzky said. The adults that come into the store use the vape products as a way to quit smoking cigarettes, and

Vape Daddy’s has helped thousands, she said.

“This is a terrible decision,” tweeted Shaleen Title, the commissioner of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission.

“Purposely pushing people into the illicit market—precisely where the dangerous products are—goes against every principle of public health and harm reduction. It is dangerous, short-sighted, and undermines the benefits of legal regulation.”

Newton and Boston had recently proposed regulations for curbing youth vaping. The City of Newton proposed in August to limit e-cigarette sales to adult-only retailers starting in December.

The two adult-only stores were

Vape Daddy’s and Garden City Vape.

The proposal was largely in response to the Newton Fall 2018 Youth Risk Survey, which found that 15 percent of high schoolers in Newton use e-cigarettes.

A public listening session for the draft was planned for Oct. 4, when residents and retailers could express their opinions.

The impact on Newton small businesses was addressed in the FAQ section of the proposal, which said that the possible strain on businesses will be weighed against protecting Newton teens.

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, BC ’09, released a similar plan last week, under which mint and menthol nicotine and tobacco products could

only be sold at adult-only retailers in Boston.

They planned to move forward with a public comment period and public hearing, according to the City’s press release.

“Teen vaping is an epidemic that is particularly alarming because we know that nicotine use at a young age can have the power to lead to a lifelong dependency. The data is undeniable in showing that these amendments would save lives,” Walsh said in a statement.

“I believe that now is the time to act, and I thank our public health staff for bringing forward a proposal that will ensure Boston has some of the strongest regulations in the country to protect our young people.” n

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‘Always Sunny’ Pokes Fun at Itself in New Season

By Grace Lyons For The Heights For a show that is known for being, at its worst, tone deaf, the season 14 premiere of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia contains pitch perfect moments of self-awareness.

The episode follows Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Dennis (Glenn Howerton) as they attempt to orchestrate “meet-cutes” with people who rent out a room in their apartment through Airbnb. Mac’s complete investment in helping Dennis seduce women is both endearing and unexplained.

His devotion to the basically nonexistent romantic nature of their plot makes Mac a more likeable character and almost has the viewer wishing the plan would work. As

soon as you feel yourself adopting Mac’s rose-colored vision of his fake meet-cutes, Dennis slithers into the scene with all of his trademark sleaze.

Mac and Dennis welcome their tenant into their home only to discover within their first conversation that she is married. Mac eavesdrops on the couple and constructs an elaborate backstory about infidelity in the marriage from the few words he hears, which leads him to encourage both Dennis and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) to pursue them. A high point in the episode is Mac’s plan to get the husband to meet Dee: He clogs the toilet while the husband is showering and plans to have him pick up a plunger at the hardware store, where Dee will be waiting.

All goes according to plan until the tenant

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it’s always sunny in philadelphia Rob McElhenney distributed by fxx Release september 25, 2019 Our rating

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asks who clogged the toilet, as the only person it could have been was Mac. This exchange is not dwelled on or drawn out, which is what makes the scene so incredibly well-executed. Dee’s main scene in the hardware store is a watered down version of her funniest moments in previous seasons.

Charlie (Charlie Kelly) and Frank (Danny DeVito) have a similar scheme in progress, buzzing over the fact that two European women have rented out their “one-bedder” for the week, but then discover that “Alexis” and “Nikki” are two old Austrian men. The irony of Frank lamenting about how weird the situation is to his possible biological son and roommate, Charlie, while wearing clog-like shoes to bed is a stroke of genius placed in the episode. They half-heartedly cram into their sofa bed with the two men and go to sleep, in keeping with the “might as well” attitude that each member of the gang needs to cope with all of their antics. Charlie and Frank form an unlikely kinship with the two men, bonding over heating cheese on a radiator and cleaning their toes.

The best moments in the show come from the quick one-liners that reveal the self-awareness of It’s Always Sunny, a show that has been filled with politically incorrect and cruel humor since its premiere in 2005.

While discussing the renters’ marriage with Dennis in Paddy’s Pub, the bar that the gang owns, Mac comes to the conclusion that the husband might be gay. Mac dismisses Dee

from the plan and decides to take up the pursuit himself. Dennis says, “It might not play in middle America” but supports Mac’s decision. This line extends beyond the show and reflects on the entertainment industry itself. Many of the programs aired on television lean toward homogeneity rather than diversity when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identity, for fear that it might not “play well.”

The show breaks the fourth wall again when Mac confronts the husband about his feelings and desire for them to be together, explaining that he knows about his marital issues. The husband says that he and his wife were not speaking about infidelity, but about their son who died of leukemia. Dennis and Mac share a look, and once the couple leaves their apartment, Dennis states that the outcome was “not comedic at all.” Mac says, in reference to Airbnb, “Do you think they will leave us a bad review?” This is a sly nod to the fact that Always Sunny constantly attempts to turn tragic or upsetting topics into a humorous plot line, which often leads to heavy criticism.

The beginning of the 14th season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has a different tone than previous seasons. It is self-aware and less provocative, relying on one-liners and facial expressions for laughs instead of the usual shock factor of its story lines, hinting at a slow departure from the depraved show it started out as. n

Pornographers’ ‘In The Morse’ Sends Mixed Signals

By Emily Kaderabek For The Heights For the noncommittal music-goer in your life, The New Pornographers offer something strikingly unique and initially off-putting, an album that presents all the elements of a concept album without actually being one. Returning for their eighth studio release, In the Morse Code of Brake Lights is only the second album from The New Pornographers since the band decided to cut ties with Matador Records and instead release from their own label, Collected Works Records, with some distribution help in the United States by Concord Music Group.

Following this transition, The New Pornographers find themselves testing the waters yet again, after a disappointing drop in the charts with their latest Whiteout Conditions only peaking at No. 35 in the United States in 2017 following well-received Brill Bruisers, which climbed the charts to No. 13 in 2014. Seeking a bold return to mainstream relevance, the Canadian supergroup is now eager to to spark dialogue on what appears to be a crumbling society.

Unfortunately, their roundabout way of doing so detracts from their message’s ability to shine through. Toggling back and forth between power pop and melancholic rock, The New Pornographers struggle with consistency on Morse Code. And while a solid and singable hook is anything but unexpected for the group, it cannot reclaim

the seemingly shallow attempt at narrative that the album has to offer.

While the album itself falls short of its ambitious goals, several tracks offer a sufficient recovery. When explaining the inspiration behind the album’s single, one of the few original group members—singer, songwriter, lyricist, and now producer—Carl Newman told Pitchfork about how “Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile” aims to question how ideals such as love and happiness are attainable in the modern world.

“When current events are stressful, that makes a stress on people’s relationships, and you’re trying to figure out how to be happy in this loving relationship in this world that seems ugly at every turn,” he said. A wellintentioned, mellow addition, “Falling Down the Stairs of Your Smile” achieves what the rest of the album only attempts: That delicate balance between catchy and purposeful.

Inconsistency was a far too prominent evil that continued to impact the album despite its standouts. Transitioning abruptly from the soft, contemplative, and ultimately insightful “You Won’t Need those Where You’re Going” to the synth-infused, upbeat “Need Some Giants,” it’s almost like The New Pornographers can’t make up its mind.

On an album that seems overrun with automobile allusions and car-song rhythms, it is difficult to determine whether or not the band wants to run away or sell you a Ford Focus.

The album does manage to offer dis-

tinctive highlights, such as the previously mentioned single, along with falsetto-driven “Dreamlike and on the Rush,” which couples a piercing string quartet with haunting harmonies. Pointed and intentional, The New Pornographers—while remaining airy and light—serve a taste of opinion with the line, “Anger has a momentum of its own / Call it up from the minors, it’s going into the show,” the only time we explicitly know what the group is feeling. And while implicit emotion is an essential aspect of any well-produced album, to be questioning how you’re supposed to be feeling for the majority of the album serves as testament to a more deeply ingrained flaw.

Whether or not the album should be

summed up to an overused metaphor or lyrical poetry is only to be determined by the listener. The tragedy, however, lies in instability.

For those seeking momentary intent, the album is worth a listen. Keep in mind, Morse Code is not a concept album—not because it doesn’t have the potential to be one, but because it only narrates half a concept.

Maybe Morse Code just isn’t sending the right signals, but The New Pornographers will have to offer more than a vision if it wants to double dip into hooky pop and pensive rock. Regardless, Morse Code is guaranteed to offer distinct renditions and interpretations for each playback, considering you’re committed enough. n

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Through Melodrama, ‘Politician’ Parodies Politics

By Grace Mayer Heights Staff Today’s political climate is polarized. With growing divisions between conservatives and liberals, campaigns rampant with celebrity and wealth, and an easily parodied president in charge, a time like this begs the question of what Americans expect and want from their appointed leaders.

The Politician, Netflix’s latest television production created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Fulchuk, and Ian Brennan, portends an ominous message: People like to think of their presidents as characters they see on TV. The Politician is a blend of Murphy’s previous works—Glee, American Horror Story, Scream Queens, and Pose.

Yet it most closely resembles Glee. The Politician, like Glee, focuses on the lives

of high schoolers, each with personal ambitions and steadfast dreams—minus all the musical numbers (though the show does give Ben Platt’s character, Payton Hobart, a shining solo early in the season). Set in Santa Barbara, Calif., its characters come predisposed with wealth, college admissions shortcuts, and power and money-hungry agendas.

Payton, the protagonist of The Politician, is no exception. In fact, he’s leading the charge. Payton, nimbly played by Platt, is set on becoming president of the United States, a dream he’s cultivated and crafted since he was 7 years old. But first, he must claim the title of Senior Class President. Though this election may seem trivial, in Payton’s eyes, Senior Class President is only the beginning. It’s the finishing touch on a polished resume, the ticket to admission into Harvard, and the foundation for his future elections.

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It’s unclear to audiences—and to Payton—what he intends to gain from winning this election. His motive bounces between power, celebrity, and the pure promise of creating change, while his control freak personality borders on a psychotic break. Platt’s portrayal is a balancing act: As his character struggles to discover his true motivations, he gives in to emotional outbursts only to harness himself back into composure. Whether one wants to root for or against Payton remains uncertain.

While his reasons for running aren’t entirely clear, Payton is so steadfast in his ways that there’s no changing his mind.

Payton’s election committee, a team comprised of McAfee (Laura Dreyfuss), James (Theo Germaine), and his girlfriend Alice (Julia Schlaepfer), approaches the election with the same severity as Payton.

They truly believe their futures depend on the outcome of this election. They’re enraptured with polling numbers, hosting campaign and fundraising events, sabotaging the other opponent. Winning is the only option—through blood, sweat, and tears, they plan to come out on top.

The Politician is deliberately melodramatic to the point of comedy. Its frantic energy, generated by the seriousness in which these high schoolers approach the election lends it a comedic tone.

Overarching parental figures, including Georgina Hobart (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Dusty Jackson (Jessica Lange), draw out two parodied extremes. Paltrow plays the nurturing, garden-dwelling mother

replete with compassion for her son, while Lange plays the diabolical nana bent on free-riding the benefits of her granddaughter Infinity Jackson’s (Zoey Deutch) cancer treatments. Both Paltrow and Lange command their roles—they’re two characters who skillfully take charge of their scenes.

As is to be expected, the plot is a tangled parody of high school. It jumps from characters and plot points, introducing new disruptions to the election, but it always remains on track. Yet The Politician, for all its twists and turns, tackles hot political topics including gun violence and gender fluidity, and the show properly manufactures a plot adept at doing so. As with any election, its candidates lean into the ideas that best appeal to their targeted voters.

Visually and stylistically, the show is stunning, ornate, and over-the-top. The show also has its own trove of clichés: Gwyenth Paltrow’s character falls in love with one of the stable workers, Payton’s twin brothers are the embodiment of evil step-brothers, and rich girl Astrid (Lucy Boynton) runs away to live a life of poverty for a few days.

The Politician is a comedy that twists the tropes of high school for the sake of entertainment. But a show like this can grow past its characters’ high school personas, a consideration its creators must have kept in mind. Senior Class President is just a trial run for the real deal—the White House is just around the corner for Payton and his friends. n

Single review jillian ran

‘lonely’

diplo ft. jonas brothers

When Diplo joins forces with the Jonas Brothers, the result is bound to be as mediocre as one would expect.

Fortunately, “Lonely” only lasts 2 minutes and 19 seconds, a marvel considering the fact that this song is practically begging to be played on pop radio.

“Lonely” isn’t particularly offensive, it’s just lazy. It gathers together all the necessary components of a hit song and simply spits them back at the listener. Acoustic guitar dripping with reverb? Check. Cowboy imagery on the album cover? Check. The lyrics, a mish-mash of generic platitudes, manage to say a lot without saying much. Evidently, the songwriters were out of steam by the time they got to the chorus, which consists of the phrase “Don’t have to be lonely” repeated four times.The whole affair is remarkably dead-eyed. The Jonas Brothers have shown, since their return, that they can embrace pop without selling their souls.

The brothers’ 2019 album Happiness Begins packed a punch and garnered begrudging praise from critics.

The band doesn’t need to stoop to levels as low as “Lonely.” They’re doing just fine on their own. n

music video Ismael Sánchez

‘to be loved’ Askjell and AURORA

Nobody shows us how to be loved, but at least we have AURORA to make us feel this absence in the video for the song “To Be Loved.” The video starts with a thought: In black and white we are introduced to the idea of wanting to be loved.

Images flash before our eyes, and we sense how they are something intangible, almost nonexistent. The video flips to AURORA in the center of what looks like the aftermath of an explosion.

The image is clear. Toward the middle of the song, however, the visuals take a twist.

A couple begins to appear and flames rise up from the ground above AURORA. It is almost as if she could touch this feeling of love, but just before she does, she sees herself trapped in between the flames—something that could have been but never was.

The video was directed by Shopia+Robert, who have produced various music videos for the likes of David Guetta, The Kooks, and Pale Waves.

Their impressive experience is influencial throughout the video.

The song, a collaboration between the Norwegian producer Askjell and singer AURORA—who is also Norwegian—feels personal and intimate, but is arranged in a way that makes it feel chaotic.

The visual representation, in a sense, aims to inspire the same mix of feelings in its viewers.

It explores an aesthetic of chaos where quick cuts and turns take the lead to bring about the narrative and rhythm of the song. A catharsis of feeling creates an atmosphere of love, making you vulnerable and defenseless. The video is extremely engaging and sucks the viewer in from the very beginning.

Once you are in love, you cannot escape it, and you end up craving it when it is no longer there. Love, in itself, is the foundation for human life.

And for AURORA and Askjell, it is central, beautiful, and exploratory in “To Be Loved.” n

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Monday, September 30, 2019

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Chainsmokers Ignite TD Garden with Pyro, Hits Last Chance

By Ciara Santry

For The Heights

The Chainsmokers lit up TD Garden on Friday during their Boston stop on their World War Joy tour not only with their contagious energy, but also quite literally with torches and lots of pyro-

technics.

Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, the duo that makes up The Chainsmokers, have been making music since 2012, and their experience in the music industry was well presented. The tandem has had a lot of radio success over the past few years, with “Closer” featuring Halsey, “Who Do You

JESS RIVILIS / HEIGHTS STAFF

5S0S (bottom) was one of two openers for The Chainsmokers (top) at TD Garden.

Love” featuring 5 Seconds of Summer, and “Takeaway” featuring Lennon Stella.

Lennon Stella opened the night with a 30-minute set of original music. Her look and sound mimicked Ariana Grande, with slower songs and a very smooth voice. Stella bled one song into the next, only stopping to talk to the audience once or twice for a few seconds at a time.

5SOS then took the stage, drawing roars of approval from the now-packed arena. The band opened up with an assortment of news clips and award presentations on their behalf, which increased the volume of screams. As soon as 5SOS stepped out on the stage, it captivated everyone’s attention—even the obvious Chainsmoker fans were enjoying the show.

The beginning of the setlist, however, felt slightly rushed, as the band worked its way through some of its newer music: One song morphed into the next, and none of them were fully finished. It gave fans the chance to hear many of their favorite newer songs, but the hype around each one was compromised by trying to squeeze them all in.

The band engaged with the audience more than Stella did, with screams coming from the audience each time they mentioned Boston or asked how everybody was doing. All four members talked casually with one another, giving the show a very inclusive and comfortable feeling.

The Chainsmokers made an explosive entrance onto the stage with the duo and their drummer carrying flares to center stage. If anybody had any expectations of what was going to happen during the concert, they were shattered as they stood

with their flares burning for a minute before they headed to the drum kit and DJ stand.

The pyrotechnics didn’t end there: Fire of all sorts was scattered throughout the night, with curtains of sparklers and other flames popping up during different songs.

The most impressive showing of fire, however, came when the drummer executed a drum solo with flaming drumsticks.

The shock value didn’t end with the fire, though, as the band brought motorcyclists on stage to ride around the catwalk, and later all over the metal walls of a spherical cage lowered down from the ceiling. At one point, Taggart climbed on board a levitating bridge, which proceeded to raise him up toward the ceiling of the arena.

The Chainsmokers queued up a wide array of music, running the gamut from their old and new music to samplings from “Seven Nation Army” and “Shout,” among others. The Chainsmokers covered their biggest hits with care, piping in the voices of the featured artists while Taggart sang along.

Taggart made sure to engage with fans during some of the guest artists portions of the night, jumping off the stage and giving hugs to fans in the pit.

The musical climax of the show was when 5SOS joined The Chainsmokers on stage in the middle of their set to perform their hit, “Who Do You Love.”

The whole audience was up on their feet, jumping and screaming along to the lyrics. It meshed perfectly with The Chainsmokers’ setlist, and gave a moment of sanity to a show that seemed like a drug trip gone right. n

Dinnerstein’s ‘Fulbright Triptych’ Inspires Reflection

By Nathan Rhind For The Heights

It’s hard to miss Simon Dinnerstein’s “The Fulbright Triptych.” Upon entering the Monan Gallery at the McMullen Museum, the viewer is immediately confronted by Dinnerstein’s famous three-paneled painting that spans the entire length of the wall.

Originally conceived by Dinnerstein in 1971 while he was studying in Germany, the painting’s three-panel design is inspired by the Northern Renaissance altarpieces Dinnerstein encountered abroad. Although similar with respect to design, the subject matters between Dinnerstein’s work and those of Northern Renaissance artists could not be more different.

Whereas altarpieces often depicted saints and holy figures on the side panels with a religious scene in the middle, Dinnerstein depicts his family on the side panels with his workshop in the middle.

His wife is seated with their baby daughter on her lap, staring out at the audience as Dinnerstein does on the other side panel.

They are both relaxed and content, with the exhibit lights illuminating them against the wood texture painted behind them and the darker hardwood beneath their

feet, lending a cozy and rustic ambience to the scene.

The lack of distinctive landmarks imbues the setting with an ambiguity, allowing the viewer to consider their own experiences and places of safety and comfort. This could be your grandmother’s lakehouse, or your uncle’s cabin. Yet, one thing is clear: For Dinnerstein, this is a place of great importance, for it includes the support of his family.

Upon taking one or two steps toward the painting, the viewer spots numerous reproductions of paintings, drawings, and other notable works pinned to the wall. And then, after examining Dinnerstein’s desk with tools, pens, and pencils, it is clear that this is his studio.

The overall work is calming and contemplative, as every new glance reveals a new clipping on the wall or blemish on the hardwood, influencing one’s perception of the work as a whole and how the setting relates to one’s own families and professions. Dinnerstein’s work declares that his devotion lies with his family, and with his art. Perhaps the most cutting edge aspect of this exhibit as a whole is its self-referential nature. The painting itself is a melding of two of his studios: “The Fulbright Triptych”

ANEESA WERMERS / FOR THE HEIGHTS

Dinnerstein’s work is divided into different panels that depict separate aspects of his life.

is art about the production of art itself.

More interestingly, the circular piece being created on the workshop table is actually found in the exhibit.

On the other wall, the viewer can examine this work, “Angela’s Garden.” This circular engraving depicts a tranquil path winding through a garden. This piece could easily be looked over, yet its inclusion is instrumental in conveying the self-referential nature of the exhibit and, furthermore, its hidden garden subject matter remains in

line with the exhibit’s introspective mood.

After walking out the glass doors of the Monan Gallery, it is easy to forget the specific wall clippings or tools on the workshop table painted by Dinnerstein in favor of Spanish vocabulary quiz words or chemical formulas. That said, the inspirational intensity of Dinnerstein’s devotion to his family and artwork will remain long after the stress of midterms. Dinnerstein’s work inspires one to consider what is truly valuable and worthy of love and commitment. n

Rome Discusses Iconic Sublime Hits, New Album

By Kaylie Ramirez Arts Editor

Sublime doesn’t practice “Santeria”— the band has no need to rehearse the popular surf rock song that has been permanently etched into popular music consciousness since its 1996 release. In a recent interview with The Heights, Rome Ramírez, known as Rome onstage, discussed the band’s latest album, Blessings, and life on the road.

“It’s totally muscle memory at this point,” Rome said of playing Sublime’s classic hits. “It’s the new stuff we gotta really practice all the time.”

Although Rome chalks up performances of the band’s foremost songs to muscle memory, the musical legacy of “Santeria”

extends itself into the band’s current creative process. The band sampled parts of the song on “Goodbyes,” a cover of a Post Malone track that Sublime with Rome released on Sept. 13.

“We noticed that the song was like really close to ‘Santeria,’ so we were just like, ‘Yo, we should just like, use the tune,’” Rome said. “So I put the guitar solo of ‘Santeria’ over the song, and it worked out really good.”

This reinvention allowed Rome to claim a small piece of what the band’s original lead singer, Bradley Nowell, established with bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh in the late ’80s and carried into May of 1996, when Nowell died of a heroin overdose—just two months before

FUELED BY RAMEN

Sublime with Rome is currently touring to promote their most recent album, ‘Blessings.’

Sublime was set to release its now-iconic, self-titled album. Sublime exalted the band to rockstar status with hits including “Santeria,” “Wrong Way,” and “What I Got.” Prior to releasing Sublime, the band released a string of albums that established it as a wave-maker in the ska punk genre that surfed radio airwaves through the ’90s.

Rome joined the band in 2009 when surviving members Wilson and Gaugh reformed as Sublime with Rome. (Nowell’s estate threatened legal recourse when the band performed under its original name at the Devore, Calif.-based Smokeout Festival in October 2009.)

Aside from refreshing the Sublime catalog with covers from contemporary artists, the original band’s songs have been given new life with recent covers: Lana Del Rey included a cover of 1996’s “Doin’ Time” on Norman F—king Rockwell! this year. Sublime with Rome has also been releasing original music since 2011. Blessings, released on May 31, is the band’s latest update to the surf rock genre with smooth modern production elements and more mature subject matter—on the lead single “Blessings,” Rome sings, “They try to kill us in the streets / Oh Lord put your blessings over me.”

“Honestly for me, it was just kinda being a little bit more honest with myself and digging a little deeper,” Rome said of making the new album. “I’ve always kind of wrote from a more reserved standpoint, but this time around I was just kinda like ‘F—k it.’”

To make Blessings, the band went into the studio a couple of times while it was still touring 2015’s Sirens, and the full album was completed in June of 2018. The 11-track album is ultimately a product of a highly collaborative process that consisted of writing, jamming, and eventually recording over the course of the past couple of years.

“Eric, being that he’s older than me and he comes from a different time from me, his influences are always a lot different than mine,” Rome said. “It’s kinda rad—he’s constantly showing me stuff and I’m constantly showing him stuff. It makes for an interesting recipe.”

For Sublime with Rome, current influences include Blacktop Queen, a Los Angeles-based rock trio. Rome hinted at more new music to come, stating that the band is hoping to drop more songs “at the top of next year, and maybe something before the year ends.”

Sublime with Rome also plans to tour abroad and explore areas the band hasn’t experienced yet. In 2019, it’s all about new horizons for the veteran band, but regardless of where Sublime with Rome performs, it stays true to the distinct California sound that launched its career.

“People want to escape to that,” Rome said. “That’s what music is. Music is an escape, so it’s like, in an essence, it doesn’t really matter where you are.”

Sublime with Rome will perform at the House of Blues in Boston on Oct. 6. n

to Be Loud Emily Himes

Nearly every song on The Beatles’ Abbey Road is so eminent, so utterly recognizable, that we rarely remember that it was recorded by real people. It’s claimed such a high status in society that it’s ingrained in our minds—we can instantly picture the album cover, and most can name a handful of songs off the record.

Abbey Road was just reissued for its 50th—yes, 50th—anniversary, and the nature of the changes remind the listener that four humans worked through these songs line by line, slowly, and not without disagreement. It brings an exalted album down to our level, where we can open the door and peer inside to get a better grasp on what it’s all about.

Abbey Road might be the first album I listened to in full. “Mean Mr. Mustard,” much like “Silver Hammer” and “Octopus’ Garden,” was a sigh of relief as a child—it seemed like it was written for a kid. And as far as I was concerned, all of them were—they were written just for me, skipping over half the songs on the album so I could hear the “bang, bang” of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” once again. “Here Comes the Sun,” a track that has punctuated my 21 years on earth at various points, is a song I loved back then and love even more now. I always treasure the image of George Harrison writing the tune on Eric Clapton’s back porch, and I love the song when the Boston “ice is slowly melting.”

But, as such pervasive music has a tendency to do, the album’s meaning changed as I grew. I couldn’t care less about “Octopus’ Garden” as a senior in college—but suddenly the trio of songs at the end of the album is one of my favorite pieces of music to listen to. The steady, unwavering, and repetitive lyrics of “Carry That Weight,” switching abruptly without transition to “The End,” flowing right into the intricate simplicity of “Her Majesty” might be the best ending to any album, ever.

And I stand by that statement completely. Even more easily-forgotten songs such as “You Never Give Me Your Money” have been introduced in my rotation more recently—lines like “Oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go” take on a whole new meaning when you virtually have no free time, even on weekends.

Songs I once overlooked—“Oh! Darling,” “Because,” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”—are now heavily featured on my playlists. The rolling guitars in the latter songs never fail to captivate me— the revolving instrumentals of “Because,” accompanied by the group’s near-haunting harmonies spin around in my head all too often. “I Want You” has played an even bigger role in my life, appearing on what I’d imagine is nearly every playlist I’ve ever made for myself. The point at which a heavily bogged-down, trudging-through-quicksand feel evolves into a more bluesy, smooth song is impressive, but when John kicks in with the dramatic lead guitar, it feels like the most organically executed instrumental drop you could possibly hear. And then it all ends, so abruptly you might check to see if the CD has a scratch or if your Wi-Fi went out.

The song is indeed “so heavy,” and it gets me every time. All eight minutes of it.

During the new “I Want You (She’s So Heavy) 2019 Mix,” the listener can hear a neighbor asking the group to turn down the music. After deciding they’ll try the next take quietly, John exclaims, “Okay… one last chance to be loud!,” nearly foreshadowing the split of the group soon after the release of Abbey Road. The album was indeed their last chance.

My dad’s old vinyl copy of Abbey Road sits on a ledge in my room. It’s one of many physical albums in there, but is easily the most recognizable. I don’t think I can argue that it’s one of the best albums of all time, as some might. I can’t even tell you it’s my favorite Beatles album—I think they’ve done better. But it’s an iconic album nonetheless, one that showcased the most influential band of my childhood in its final moments and has lived and evolved with me for two decades, and likely will continue to do so for the rest of my life.

And I’m definitely not the only one.

Emily Himes is the assoc. arts editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

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Monday, September 30, 2019

@BCHeightsArts

In The Room Where It Happens: Marsan Takes on the Pops

CELINE LIM / HEIGHTS EDITOR

By Stephanie Liu

Copy Editor

Dazzling lights and a packed arena—this is what dreams are made of for Natalie Marsan, MCAS ’21. On Friday night, they came to life. As this year’s Pops on the Heights performer, Marsan earned the chance to take on the largest performance of her life, one that she hopes will be experience for the future.

Pops on the Heights brings the famous Boston Pops Orchestra to Conte Forum every year to raise money for financial aid and scholarships. For 27 years, Pops on the Heights has been both an important night for student scholarships, as well as a celebration of everything BC. Not a stranger to the stage, Marsan has been a part of the Boston College musical theatre scene since she was a freshman, performing in Chicago, a concert version of Mamma Mia!, and 9 to 5. Currently she’s also rehearsing for Murder on the Nile, which will run from Oct. 10-13 in the Robsham Theater.

Despite her experience, Marsan was still nervous about her performance.

“I feel like when I’m in a show, I’m not really me, like I’m being the character, so it’s a little easier for me to be like a little less nervous,” Marsan said in anticipation of the event. “But now that it’s me standing on the stage in front of like, thousands of people, it’s going to be completely different. It’s a little more nerve wracking.”

Coming into BC as a nursing major, Marsan soon felt something wasn’t right.

When struggling in her sophomore year to figure out whether nursing was the career path she wanted to pursue, Marsan credits BC and the Halftime retreat for helping her find her way.

Still in the nursing school, Marsan was part of Endeavor program over winter break, a three-day program for sophomores in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences and the Lynch School of Education and Human Development to explore their career paths. Marsan also went on Halftime, a three-day retreat for students to reflect on their major and future career, and how that fits with their passions and talents.

Marsan was already ambivalent about her major. She felt that nursing was no longer what she wanted to pursue, but her practicality kept her from diving head first into an artistic career. Halftime, however, helped her really reflect on what really was her calling.

“And then I went to Halftime and just, listening to other students who had gone through similar things as me—like being on the fence about what they wanted to do,” Marsan said. “And looking at those three questions like, ‘What is your purpose?,’ ‘What are your gifts?,’ ‘How can you contribute to the community?’—all of the answers pointed to theatre.”

Born in Washington, D.C., Marsan shifted around the Midwest as a child, moving to Indianapolis in first grade and to Wisconsin during her sophomore year of high school. Her parents, a college counselor and an energy lawyer, were

INSIDE ARTS

not particularly artistic people, but her mother enrolled Marsan in theatre classes—her older sister was taking theatre classes, and for convenience’s sake, Marsan also went to theatre classes so her mother could pick up and drop off the children at the same place.

This introduction to theatre quickly turned into something more, as Marsan fell in love with the stage. She continued with theatre classes and summer camps all through her life, and kept on pursuing it on the side before fully deciding to commit in college.

Having seen over 50 musicals in her life, Marsan’s favorite musical is Bye Bye

my mind off of it and do something that I love to do.”

Marsan attended Pops on the Heights last year and marveled at the spectacular event. The student performer, Molly Cahill, MCAS ’20, left a strong impression.

Pops on the Heights is an especially valuable event for BC, Marsan explains, because it’s a rare moment when the entire BC community comes together to focus on the arts, a field she believes that is often overshadowed.

“Everybody is there to enjoy the music and just spend a night kind of appreciating the arts—we don’t get a ton of that,” Marsan said. “But it’s when like

theatre background, and “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from Funny Girl to showcase the power of her voice.

Marsan was notified through email in May about her acceptance.

“I had woken up early that morning.

It was like six in the morning, and I noticed I got an email the night before,” Marsan said. “And I was jumping up and down and I called my parents and my friends. It just didn’t feel real.”

Busily preparing for the performance since, Marsan was set up with a voice coach by the Boston Pops coordinators, who practiced with her weekly or biweekly over the summer and at the

“Everybody is there to enjoy the music and just spend a night kind of appreciating the arts—we don’t get a ton of that.”

- Natalie Marsan

CELINE LIM / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Birdie, one that she has loved since she was a kid.

“I originally saw the movie version, and I could say every word from the movie version, do every dance move,” Marsan said. “And then when I saw it on stage, it was just as magical.”

Her love of theatre comes from her love of singing, dancing, and acting. She credits theatre with giving her more confidence, as well as offering a welcome escape from her life off the stage.

“I love to sing. It really makes me kind of forget about all the craziness of life, and I can just go up there and take

‘The Chainsmokers’

the entire BC community comes together to not only raise money for such a great cause, but also just listen to some music and performers. And I just feel like the energy is always so high and warm.”

After receiving an email about auditions in April, Marsan sent in a video of herself singing two contrasting pieces, then received a callback where she and around a dozen others got the chance for an in-person audition in front of a panel.

For her video audition, Marsan chose to sing “Fly, Fly Away” from Catch Me If You Can, a more delicate song that showcased her soprano voice and musical

beginning of the school year, all the way up to the performance. The first rehearsal she had with the entire orchestra was only hours before the big performance, but Marsan has been working with the coordinators and the conductor, Keith Lockhart, to perfect the piece.

The song Marsan performed is “When I Look At You” from The Scarlet Pimpernel, a classic Broadway musical that debuted in 1997. Interestingly enough, Marsan performed the song in her callback audition, and the coordinators liked the song so much that they asked her to perform the song at Pops

‘The Fulbright Triptych’

The Chainsmokers packed their original hits and samples from Simon Dinnerstein’s ‘The Fulbright Triptych’ explores the popular songs into a lively set at TD Garden............................ A17 artist’s personal and professional lives...................................A17

on the Heights.

Her performance was incredibly well-received. She commanded the stage in a red ball gown after a warm welcome from Lockhart. Her showstopping performance was immediately followed by an enthusiastic and lengthy standing ovation. Later in the night, the crowd showed Leslie Odom Jr., the Tony-winning guest performer for Pops on the Heights, who was also part of the original Broadway cast for the hit show Hamilton, the same levels of appreciation.

When Marsan learned Odom Jr. was selected to perform, Marsan was ecstatic. She is a big fan of Hamilton and saw the musical in Chicago, but not with the original cast.

“I didn’t get to see Leslie Odom Jr., but I listened to the soundtrack,” Marsan said of her trip to Chicago. “I know every word of every song. I was so in awe.”

To prepare for the big night, Marsan listened to his jazz album to try to get into his vibe. On Friday, Marsan expressed her hopes that he would sing something from Hamilton, but felt privileged just to get the chance to perform on the same stage as him.

With her first close experience with a Broadway heavyweight, Marsan, now studying theatre and psychology, plans to move to New York after graduation with her own hopes of pursuing theatre professionally.

“I would think I’m going to move to New York,” she said. “I think that’s the plan. And hopefully, do some regional theatre, some off-Broadways, I would love to get some auditions for that.

Hopefully, one day, the big dream— Broadway.”

With her dreams in mind, Marsan sees herself in every musical she goes to. She picks out characters that she could play, every song she could master, imagining her future on the stage.

Marsan looks to Broadway legends like Sutton Foster and Bette Davis, people who she grew up admiring.

Having powerful figures like them in the industry sets an example for her own aspirations.

“Just watching other people be so successful and perform with such emotion on stage, it makes me want to do it,” Marsan said. “I see them and I want to be like them up on stage.”

Marsan’s passion for theatre is evident. At BC, besides acting in shows, Marsan also works in the staging side of theatrical productions, where she helps build sets in the scene shop to make sure each production is perfect. Marsan believes the appeal of theatre lies in the different characters that she gets to play.

The ability to change into someone else is a magical experience, and coupled with her love of singing and dancing, Marsan’s true calling is in musical theatre.

“I think you kind of get to get out of your body and get out of your head for a second and you get to live,” Marsan said. “I feel like it’s the only profession or only activity where you get to like live someone else’s life. It’s really empathetic if you think about it.” n Emily Himes contributed reporting.

‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’..........A16 ‘In the Morse Code of Brake Lights’...........A16 ‘The Politician’.........................................A16