2-22-2018

BU MEMES, 2

SEAPORT SEESAWS, 6

GUN CONTROL, 9

LOSERS NO MORE, 11

The BU meme page on Facebook has reached 15,000 members.

The swings at the Lawn on D may have just met their match.

The solution in the gun control debate might be controlling ammo, not guns.

Men’s basketball ends its five-game losing streak with win vs. Lafayette.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2018

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY

YEAR XLVI. VOLUME XCIV. ISSUE VI

BU community concerned over active shooter preparedness BU to require

sexual conduct course this fall

BY SOPHIA BROWN

DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

As mass shootings in the United States have become increasingly prevalent in recent years, the issues of gun safety and active shooter attack preparedness at Boston University have come to the forefront of the community’s concerns.

Despite the fact that BU prohibits guns on campus, guns are allowed in the city of Boston, and BU is an open campus. If someone wanted to bring a gun onto campus, it would be possible, according to Kelly Nee, chief of the BU Police Department.

Nee said the BUPD holds annual active shooter drills, but any additional drills are not mandated. However, the BUPD will hold extra drills with students and faculty of any on-campus building, including dorms, if asked.

“It is important for us to get more aggressive in making sure all the deans and faculty — anyone who’s interested — know that we have this capability,” Nee said.

“If they want it for their building, we’re more than happy to do it.”

Nee said she doesn’t know why the drills are not mandatory at BU, but that the size and age of the student population is likely a factor.

An active shooter drill with students would typically have two parts. First, BUPD officers would highlight areas of a building that could be used for escape or hiding. The second part would be a live drill where officers use

BY ANDRES PICON

DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

PHOTO BY SARAH SILBIGER/ DFP FILE PHOTO

A law enforcement official on the scene after a hoax call was made to BUPD’s dispatch center warning of guns and bombs in Mugar Memorial Library last year.

Simunition ammunition — nonlethal ammunition designed for training exercises — to provide an opportunity for participants to use the information taught in the first part under a semi-realistic setting.

Lindsey Wilcox, a junior in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said she had not heard of student training before, but would potentially be interested.

“I think students may not be super prepared,” Wilcox said. “I can only hope that the facilities are more prepared.”

The most recent drill was held at the Fitness and Recreation Center on Jan. 10, said BU spokesman Colin Riley. The drill involved BUPD officers, Boston Police officers, Brookline Police officers, FitRec staff, student workers and an Armstrong ambulance.

Other drills have included scenarios where the situation begins at the medical campus and migrates to the Charles River campus. However, Riley added that there is no way to drill the entire campus due to its size.

College of Arts and Sciences

junior Colin Chiakpo said he would be interested in participating in a drill, but that he thinks it is more important to focus on changing American gun access laws so that drills are no longer necessary.

Chiakpo said he is concerned about the safety of BU’s residential buildings, especially considering their large populations and that security personnel are not armed.

“BU might not necessarily be at risk, but if the situation occurred, I think the death toll at CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

The rise of sexual misconduct accusations in recent months, especially within entertainment and higher education, has prompted calls for reform and heightened awareness among these institutions.

On Wednesday, Boston University Provost Jean Morrison announced that all BU students, faculty and staff will be required to take an online sexual misconduct education course starting next fall.

The imposition of the mandated course is meant to expand on the existing online training courses, which the university has offered for the last few years. In 2014, the university implemented mandatory online trainings for faculty and staff and in 2016, the administration added voluntary online trainings for students.

The new online course, which is offered on EVERFI, the same platform that supports AlcoholEdu, will consist of three modules, each one designed in accordance with the needs of students, faculty or staff.

Katherine Cornetta, the assistant to the dean of students, sat on the committee that designed the sexual misconduct trainings for Blackboard in 2014 and 2016.

The new program is built to be more mobile-friendly than the Blackboard program, streamlining the implementation process.

Cornetta said BU has taken CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Possible MBTA fare hike Wheelock president discusses merger

BY HANNAH SCHOENBAUM DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is considering an increase in its riders’ fares as it expects to face a $111 million deficit entering the new fiscal year in July.

The amount of increase from current prices has yet to be determined, as the MBTA is in the early stages of discussing fare and budget changes for the upcoming fiscal year, Luis Ramirez, the general manager and CEO of the MBTA, said in a statement.

Although a fare increase is not outlined in the MBTA’s current budget proposal, Ramirez said, the organization would consider alternatives to shrink the deficit.

“As part of our process, we continue to look for ways to reduce the deficit,” Ramirez said in the statement. “[A] mission critical to this process is keeping expense growth rates below revenue growth rates.”

Fare increases will likely not be considered before the MBTA

attempts to decrease the deficit using alternative methods, Ramirez said.

“In the coming weeks, we will present how lean productivity programs, like the recently concluded bus maintenance agreement, help close this gap,” Ramirez said in the statement. “In addition, we will review other management initiatives to find cost savings, improved efficiencies, and result, ultimately, in a better service for our customers.”

Michael Matta, 23, of Allston, said he does not think fares are currently too expensive, but believes other riders might take issue with paying higher fares.

“I honestly wouldn’t care [if the fares were raised] because I’m going to use it either way,” Matta said. “That’s the problem. It’s something I need. I don’t want to have to pay for it but I do have to, so it’s kind of a lose-lose for me and a win-win for them.”

Matta said although a fare increase would not affect his ability CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

BY ANDRES PICON

DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

With less than four months to go before Wheelock College officially merges with Boston University, many students have questions and concerns about the implications of the transition and what the two schools are doing behind the scenes throughout the process.

The Daily Free Press sat down

Wheelock President David Chard.

with Wheelock President David Chard this week to talk about the struggles and successes of the transition so far, as well as his vision for the new Wheelock College of Education and Human Development.

DFP: What were your thoughts when you began to realize the merger was going to happen, and have those thoughts changed at all?

PHOTO BY ANDRES PICON/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

DC: There were a lot of sleepless nights, to be honest. With a college that’s 130 years old, you’re not sure you want to be the president who causes this kind of change to happen.

We are financially healthy today. In two years, we wouldn’t be financially healthy, and so I knew that a decision made sooner rather than later would benefit the college in the end … I think BU’s proposal and my subsequent conversations with the president gave me confidence that it was the right decision. Honestly, BU has done nothing except prove over and over and over again that that was the right thing to do …

DFP: How do you hope to integrate yourself and Wheelock students into the BU community?

DC: I think it’s already started.

BU hosted [Transition Information Day] on the 27th of January. I think it was a really nice welcome for our students into BU … We’re also trying hard to encourage our student government to reach out to student groups at BU and begin to forge CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

2 NEWS

15,000 students find one common interest: memes

BY LAURA AL BAST

Crime Logs

DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The typical Boston University student could scroll through their Facebook news feed and find an absurd post or image that would be confusing to most. But for many students, these posts have deeper meanings that help foster a sense of community on campus.

BU’s “Stolen Memes for Unoriginal Teens” Facebook group, which was created last February, has recently hit its 15,000-member mark.

Group creator Mac Parker wanted to keep the meme page alive after he graduated. Following an informal application process last May, he selected Hanaan Yazdi and Claire Tran to serve as the new group administrators.

Yazdi said the group was created after BU elected not to cancel classes for a snow day last year.

“Students were really mad about that and already [started] posting memes about it,” Yazdi said. “I remember people were discussing how a lot of other universities had meme pages but we didn’t. All of a sudden the BU meme page popped up and it gained a crazy amount of popularity in like a couple of weeks.”

The group is public and anyone is welcome to join, Yazdi said. She said the group gives a sense of community to BU students who don’t otherwise know each other.

“People just like memes,” Yazdi said. “People like to have a space to talk about the university, events or things that are relevant [to students].”

Tran, a senior in the College of Communication, said the meme page allows students across campus to share and laugh about the same things.

“My favorite part about memes is how [they] reference current events, pop culture [and] things that happen around campus,” Tran said. “Whenever something big happens around campus there’s always a bunch of memes that come out.”

CAS sophomore Dan Portnof said he likes the BU meme page because he thinks memes are “a really interesting way that a lot of people convey comedy.” “[A meme] is very simple to understand and generally only takes

BY SOPHIA BROWN

DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The following reports were taken from the Boston University Police Department crime logs from Feb. 15-17

Cyclist struck on BU Bridge A passerby reported at 9:27 a.m. on Thursday that a bicyclist had been struck by a motor vehicle at the intersection of the BU Bridge and Commonwealth Avenue. The caller reported that both parties had stopped.

Reported group disturbance at 14 Buswell St.

PHOTO COURTESY ARMAND MANOUKIAN/ STOLEN MEMES FOR UNORIGINAL TEENS

The BU memes page, “Stolen Memes for Unoriginal Teens,” has just surpassed 15,000 members on Facebook.

a few seconds to receive, interpret, and appreciate,” Portnof wrote in a Facebook message. “Nowadays, since everything is moving in that direction, it’s a great way to digest comedy that addresses a lot of different subjects in a very short period of time.”

But the simplicity of memes and the way they are made and shared throughout the community has its drawbacks too.

CAS senior Zachary Thomas said that while he finds the BU meme page a good source of stress relief, it’s not without its problems.

“The only thing I don’t like is that some of the things that are posted are issues we should try and change on campus,” Thomas wrote, “and I think it takes away from that.”

Stanislava Labetskaya, a senior in the Questrom School of Business, said she thinks the quality of the memes posted has decreased.

“When I joined the group, I thought it was hilarious, but now I find it slightly annoying,” Labetskaya wrote in a Facebook message. “Sometimes the jokes are not even funny, but people laugh at them because they have certain clichés … that are kind of outdated.”

Tran said part of the group’s popularity comes from people’s love of tagging their friends in posts.

“The memes that that are most relatable [receive the most engage-

ment],” Tran said. “They’re the most successful because people tag their friends and they’re like ‘Ha ha this is so you.’”

CAS junior Mackenzie Starnes, who has often been called the “Meme Queen” on the page for the popularity of her memes, said tagging friends in memes is a way for students to show support for each other.

“It makes us feel special, recognized, and hopefully reassured that we aren’t going through this funny hell alone,” Starnes wrote in a Facebook message.

Starnes said her prolific meme-posting career began as a way of coping with the difficulty of adjusting to a new location.

“I’ve always been a super sarcastic person and a bit of a pessimist,” Starnes wrote. “I found it hard adjusting to Boston after moving here from California, so making fun of BU was therapeutic.”

Starnes wrote that she receives an average of 1,000 likes on her posts every time she posts a meme in the group. “[It’s] insane,” Starnes wrote, “people have approached me at parties and have literally recognized me from the page.”

Starnes doesn’t think it’s the worst thing to be known for — she said she actually very much enjoys it.

“Laughing at ourselves and our oddly-specific university culture

makes us all closer,” Starnes wrote.

“As cheesy as it is, it’s the common thread that binds us all.”

When the group was created a year ago, it consisted primarily of Parker’s friends. Now, with more than 15,000 members, it has taken on a more useful purpose.

“I’ve definitely heard from people that it’s kind of helped [create] a sense of campus culture that maybe wasn’t there before,” Parker said. “To some extent it also gives people a place to vent about things and work out differences and stuff like that.”

CAS junior Tal Salomon said he thinks the group is a good reflection of the BU community and the ways in which its members have changed together since the group was created.

“If you look back far enough, you can easily see how our focuses as a collective have changed over time,” Salomon wrote in a Facebook message. “[The group] is a great way for the BU community to grow and develop stronger bonds with one another.”

Salomon added he appreciates the group’s accessibility to students across BU. “I think it’s great that it’s accessible to anybody because its low entry requirements mean that everybody has the capacity to make a meme and potentially see it featured,” Salomon added.

University recognizes gun violence, preparedness GUN VIOLENCE, FROM PAGE 1 BU would be very high,” Chiakpo said.

Riley said that even though BUPD responds to an on-campus call within two minutes, it is important for students to know what to do. He suggested students look at BUPD’s web pages on responding to an active shooter situation.

“Run, hide, fight,” a defense technique endorsed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, are the key terms students should be aware of in order to know how to respond in a life-threatening shooter situation, Riley said.

Nee said the technique, which many U.S. high schools teach, is

CAMPUS

the soundest message, but that people also have to be aware of their surroundings and be able to think for themselves should they find themselves in an active shooter situation.

“The situation in an active shooter situation is that the first person responsible for your safety is yourself,” Riley said.

In the School of Public Health, an initiative called “#Enough” is working to get people, especially lawmakers, to view firearm violence as a public health issue instead of as a criminal problem.

“Declaring that this is a public health problem would mean declaring that we are not going to accept this level of violence in our society,” said Michael Siegel, a fire-

arms researcher and community health sciences professor.

Classifying firearm violence as a public health problem would mean that the role of society and the United States’ gun culture could also be examined, Siegel said. It could also break through governmental disinterest in funding firearms research.

Siegel said his research showed a correlation in all 50 states between high availability of guns, high rates of household gun ownership and high rates of suicide and homicide. He said these rates were lower in states that had stricter gun access laws.

But not everyone is convinced that public health is the way to get the government’s attention.

Avery Hellen, a freshman in the College of Engineering, said he thinks criminology is a more powerful lens through which one may view the issue of firearm violence.

“People are kind of notorious for not really taking [public health issues] seriously and just doing what they want,” Hellen said.

For Wilcox, legislation changes of the kind that Siegel’s research promotes are the only real solution for preventing a continued increase in active shooter situations.

“I think it’s very easily preventable if our government gets their butts in gear and actually passes some legislation,” Wilcox said.

“Until that happens, I can’t foresee anything getting better.”

A resident reported at 11:49 p.m. on Friday that there was a group of people making excessive noise in front of 14 Buswell St. Upon arrival, an officer found no people and no source of noise.

MIT student breaks arm in front of Kilachand Hall

An officer reported at 12:15 a.m. on Saturday that a female had fallen in front of 91 Bay State Rd. and appeared to have broken her arm.

Silent holdup alarm from Bank of America A silent holdup alarm was triggered at 8:40 a.m. on Saturday at 540 Commonwealth Ave. The bank was not open for business.

CITY

Crime Logs

BY ELEANOR HO

DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The following reports were taken from the Boston Police Department crime logs from Feb. 18-20.

False alarm reported in Allston An officer responded to a fire alarm and forced entry call at 220 Kelton St. at about 9:56 p.m. Sunday.

The Boston Fire Department was already on the scene when the officer arrived. The BFD lieutenant told the officer that firefighters had entered the apartment forcefully only to discover it was a false alarm.

Probable cause buy conducted The District 14 Drug Control Unit conducted an undercover “probable cause buy” at around 9 a.m. Monday. They were assisted by a Boston Police confidential informant. Officers purchased a quantity of drugs which were logged and

Downspouts stolen from cemetery Seven copper downspouts were reported missing from Evergreen Cemetery’s main building at about 8 a.m. Tuesday. Additionally, three were found bent out of shape and discarded on the ground. Officers canvassed the area and checked surveillance footage but found

NEWS 3

Ed Markey announces push for universal flu vaccine

BY ELEANOR HO

DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey introduced the Flu Vaccine Act Thursday, a bill that supports comprehensive research to create a universal flu vaccine — a total investment of $1 billion over five years.

The hy pothetical vaccine could be administered once or twice and provide protection for the rest of an individual’s life, according to a press release from Markey’s office. The investment would start in 2019 and be carried out through the end of the 2023 fiscal year, with $200 million given to research every year.

This winter, the United States saw an increase in hospitalizations and deaths due to inf luenza, spreading concerns among Bostonians. The country has already seen 63 pediatric deaths, according to the release.

Experts believe this is in part due to reduced effectiveness of the vaccine created for the 2017-2018 flu season. The current flu shot is only 60 percent effective at best, with some evaluations marking it as low as 10 percent operative.

Paul Auwaerter, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said each year scientists try to anticipate the virus that will circulate and build a concurrent vaccine, though predictions didn’t go according to plan this year.

“Although the [vaccine] was a match for the circulating virus, there were some problems with the production,” Auwaerter said.

“The virus probably mutated during production, so the match is working at best about 36 percent

[of the time], according to CDC estimates.”

Wendy Parmet, professor of health law, public policy and urban affairs at Northeastern University, said seasonal f lu vaccines often struggle to provide effective protection because the process requires a lot of time to develop.

“There have been significant advances, but we’re always guesstimating or playing catch up,” Parmet said. “The determination of what should be in the vaccine is made quite some time before the f lu starts circulating in the community. The more likely the f lu mutates, different strands come in, and what you end up with is situations like this year where they didn’t get it quite right and the vaccine isn’t as efficacious as we would hope.”

Russell Baldwin, 71, of the South End, said a disastrous f lu wave hasn’t occurred in years.

“There was the 1990 inf luenza epidemic and people died like crazy,” Baldwin said. “I didn’t realize people still got the flu.”

Supporters of the bill, including seven other state senators throughout the country, hope to circumvent these issues through development of the Universal Influenza Vaccine.

It would protect against almost all strains of the flu and provide longer-term protection.

Seasonal inf luenza costs the nation up to $87 billion as an indirect consequence of people falling ill, and overall, the f lu costs the nation $10.4 billion in medical bills each year.

Auwaerter said the invest-

What are the costs of the flu?

The flu costs the nation

$10.4 billion in direct medical costs annually

The U.S. has seen

63 pediatric to the deaths related flu this season

Seasonal influenza costs the United States $87 billion each year.

ment, though slight, will still be effective.

“People miss work, children miss school, people have to stay home, so there’s a lot of collateral economic impact even if people are just routinely ill, not seriously ill,” Auwaerter said. “The [$]200 million per year is a small investment to try to drive [development]. A billion dollars is less than an aircraft carrier.”

Parmet said though the benefits of a universal inf luenza vaccine are clear, very little is known about the effect its development will have in the health care field.

“One of the things we’re seeing now is new drugs and new vaccines are extremely expensive,” Parmet said. “[Will] the provision of the [Affordable Care Act] that requires vaccines to be covered

The NIH spent an estimated

$64 million on universal flu vaccine research in 2017

Source: Outbreak News Today Source: Outbreak News Today GRAPHIC BY SHAUN ROBINSON/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

without cost sharing still be in place a year from now? If [health care providers] weren’t required by law, [would they] find it economical to cover it?”

Parmet said though much is unclear, change is healthy and much needed.

“Years ago, there were other diseases that were considered facts of life,” Parmet said. “Polio would come and ravage communities and children every summer.

We have an effective vaccine, and we don’t worry about kids in the summer anymore. Imagine life without inf luenza, [if ] your annoying winter disease was a cold but not a flu.”

Mac Brzakala, 29, of Brighton, said he didn’t recognize the importance of protecting against the possibly fatal virus.

“I don’t schedule it every year,” Brzakala said. “If I have a chance to do it, then I’ll do it.”

Marla Daniels, 68, of Brighton, said a universal f lu vaccine is an extraordinary development in health care coverage.

“It’s a worthy research project because in the end, if we could eradicate the f lu, many people would benefit, especially the elderly and those with chronic illnesses,” Daniels said.

Markey sent an addition letter Thursday to the Secretary of Health and Human Services with questions regarding the way in which their department is arranging for and reacting to this year’s flu-related illness data.

Jordan Kimmel contributed to the reporting of this article.

David Chard talks transition implications and WCEHD vision

PHOTO BY CHLOE GRINBERG/ DFP FILE PHOTO

Wheelock College in Boston.

Q&A, FROM PAGE 1 relationships there. [We’re] trying to bring faculties together for social events so that they get to know one another as well … Between now and [the merger] we really have to make an intentional effort … to get individuals talking and engaging with one another.

DFP: What does the end of Wheelock as an independent institution mean to you and to the Wheelock community?

DC: It’s a very poignant time for us on campus … We’re celebrating our 130th anniversary

and focusing on the impact of the college … I think people are trying to remain hopeful about the future … And at the same time there’s, not surprisingly, tremendous sadness about the closing of the college as an independent institution. I think the real challenge is how to be appropriately mournful, but also excited about what we can accomplish as part of Boston University.

DFP: What are some of the characteristics of the two institutions that you think make them compatible for a merger?

DC: We both have long histories of working closely with Boston schools and nonprofit agencies around improving school outcomes for children and working with families to ensure that their children’s lives were as productive and fruitful as possible … I think we both have … a focus on social justice … of wanting to improve the community through education. I think those are both critical foundations of what we’ve started.

DFP: How have students reacted to the announcement of the merger and to the beginning

of the transition process so far?

DC: I would say the initial reaction from our students was one of shock … Initially they wanted this to be a good thing and they were committed to it being a good thing.

I think over time, with some of the realities that came with the planning of the transition, there have been some things that have angered some students, but with … retuning to BU to get assurances around some of those [things], a lot of that anger has subsided. If they had their choice, [it] probably wouldn’t be to merge, but I think many of our students are trying to see the silver lining in this.

DFP: What have the administrations of both institutions done to appease students’ concerns? Do you think it’s enough?

DC: Both administrations have worked really hard to establish as many options as possible for students to complete their degrees. BU has agreed to not raise Wheelock tuition beyond the normal inflationary increases … We’ve also made ourselves very available to talk to parents … and what we still have to do, of course, is individual advising …

DFP: The student bodies of the two institutions are very different in terms of size and demographics. What do you know about any preconceived notions BU students have of Wheelock students

and vice versa?

DC: I’ve read … about BU students claiming that Wheelock students don’t deserve BU degrees … I think Wheelock’s [students’] assumptions about BU students is that they’re elitist and uncaring and don’t understand our mission … I think probably … there’s an element of truth on both sides, but what I think our students have begun to understand … is that we have a lot of common interests … The closer we can get students to each other … the less concern there is about differences, and we find that we’re actually much more alike than we are different.

DFP: What are you most worried about going into the merger and what are you most confident about?

DC: Probably one of my biggest worries is the ongoing relationship between the college[s] and the [alumni] because [they] are going to see their connection to their time change. Somehow, I’ve got to figure out how to make them see this new college as an interest to them so that they’ll continue to be engaged … [But] if history tells you what’s going to happen in the future, the way we’ve been treated

by BU up until now says that everyone’s going to be working hard to make this a smooth transition and I suspect that that will continue in the future.

4 NEWS

Massachusetts residents continue to fight for more gun control

BY CAMILLE MOJICA DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Community members gathered at the State House Thursday in support of a proposed bill that would give family members, caregivers and health care providers in Massachusetts the ability to file for a temporary extreme risk protective order.

The rally was organized before the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people died on Feb. 14. However, the shooting called more people and organizations to action to fight for this legislation, including Attorney General Maura Healey, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence.

This written protective order would prohibit someone deemed at risk from having, using or purchasing any firearms or ammunition for a period of 10 days. In that time period, a hearing would be held in which the person filing for the ban and the respondent would both have the opportunity to present evidence to make their case.

If the respondent is not deemed to be of danger to anyone, the ban is lifted. If they are determined to be a risk, the ban will continue for a year. During that period, the respondent can file a request to have the ban lifted, during which time they will have the opportunity to make their case at another hearing.

The original order is issued by an on-call judge who will read the filed report. Once the order is

issued, law enforcement will confiscate all firearms and ammunition from the respondent for the initial period of 10 days.

This bill is not only meant to keep the public safe, but moreover, save people from themselves, said Massachusetts Rep. David Linsky, the presenter of the bill.

“Very frequently, when someone is planning on or thinking about committing suicide or committing a horrible act with a firearm, they tell people about it,” Linsky said.

Under current Massachusetts statute, law enforcement aren’t able to confiscate any firearms or ammunition if they received a complaint. Linsky said this issue likely contributed to the recent school shooting in Florida.

Police had been called to the home of Nikolas Cruz, the shooter, several times during the past several years. However, Cruz was a legal owner who had never committed any crimes, rendering the authorities powerless, Linsky said.

“It’s unfortunate that the FBI or the local government [are] being blamed here,” Linsky said. “They couldn’t do anything anyway.”

Muna Jama, 32, of the South End, said gun violence is connected with mental health, referencing Cruz.

“I think this boy wanted to hurt people, to get something out,” Jama said. “He would have found another way to hurt people, using a gun or not.”

Jim Wallace, the executive director of the Gun Owners’ Action League, said in practice, he thinks the bill would be an “incred-

The Garden of Peace in Boston, a memorial to victims of homicide.

ibly cruel and dangerous piece of legislation.”

The legislation will only exacerbate gun violence, Wallace said, potentially making respondents more angry and dangerous without any guarantee they will seek help.

Wallace said also said people don’t need guns to harm themselves or others if they’re truly determined to do so, citing the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995, which was carried out with the use of an incendiary device.

“If we’re going to do this, it absolutely has to be a very comprehensive piece of legislation,” Wallace said.

Wallace said people deemed

to be extreme public safety risks should not have access to firearms, but it shouldn’t just stop there.

“They also shouldn’t have access to anything else they can cause harm with,” Wallace said.

“For instance, if you are deemed by the court an extreme mental health public safety risk, can you still practice medicine? Can you drive a tractor?”

Olivia Barry, 37, of the Chinatown Leather District, said measures should be taken so children should do not have to worry about their safety in schools.

“We need to get serious about keeping these guns out of children’s hands,” Barry said. “I want there to

PHOTO BY HANNAH ROGERS/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

be a day where we don’t have to have drills and PSAs in schools about how to survive a school shooting.”

Edward Robert, 58, of Back Bay, said those who strongly argue for anti-gun policies are often misinformed and motivated by feelings of grief. Therefore, there should be a more nuanced and balanced approach to gun control, he said.

“We can’t have a gun-free zone [in] America,” Robert said.

“Countries like Japan where that’s been the norm since day one make it work, but that can’t happen here.

We already have guns out and about. What we need is to make getting guns harder and to close the loopholes.”

Deficit may force increased MBTA fares MBTA, FROM PAGE 1

PHOTO BY MAISIE MANSFIELD-GREENWALD/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Center on campus.

New misconduct course

MISCONDUCT, FROM PAGE 1

inspiration from other universities in addressing issues of sexual misconduct.

“The university is following those peer institutions, as we did in 2014 and 2016, to help create awareness and give students, faculty and staff that direction when it comes to how to address these issues within the community,” Cornetta said.

The fact that the course will be required for all current members of the BU community will allow them to hold people accused of sexual misconduct accountable.

“We want to make sure that people have the opportunity to be educated so that the notion of, ‘Well I didn’t think that was sexual harassment,’ is not a viable rationale anymore,” Morrison said.

The overarching goal, Morrison added, is to ensure that BU is the safe and productive community that it should be.

“It’s an important indication

of our commitment to doing what we can to create a culture for learning and working at BU so that it’s really the place where people want to be to work and learn,” Morrison said.

The final touches for the course and its full implementation are still in the works, with Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs Julie Sandell, the Dean of Students Office, the Equal Opportunity Office and BU’s human resources department leading the effort. While the project is still a work in progress, Morrison said, it represents an important step for the university in educating the community on the implications and severity of sexual harassment.

“This online training is not the magic solution to the issue of sexual misconduct,” Morrison said. “… This is just one thing that we’re doing, but it’s an important thing.”

Jen Racoosin contributed to the reporting of this article.

to ride the T, it could create difficulties for low income residents who rely on the MBTA’s low prices for convenient transportation around the city.

“It’s definitely going to make it a lot worse [for those people],” Matta said. “Some people literally won’t be able to use it because even if it’s half a dollar [increase], that’s a lot for some people — I think it’s terrible.”

MBTA’s tentative budget plan for the 2019 fiscal year lists “no fare increase; or expansion of other fare revenue initiatives” as one of its status quo budget assumptions. However, Lisa Battiston, deputy press secretary for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press that her department plans to discuss potential changes to the transportation budget at their upcoming meetings.

“The FY19 budget assumes no increases in fares or parking fees,” Battiston wrote. “At the March 5th [Fiscal and Management Control Board] meeting, there will be a discussion about potential methods for shrinking the projected deficit in the FY19 budget.”

The MBTA stated in its 2019 plan that its priorities are to provide safe and reliable services for riders and employees and invest in infrastructure, technology and accessibility.

“I feel like the fact that they are in debt isn’t surprising,” Colleen Walsh, 24, of Brighton, said. “It’s the MBTA. What do you expect?”

Walsh said she was concerned with the reliability of the MBTA system, which often leaves her waiting on her bus for 20 minutes to an hour before she reaches Kenmore station, due to the constant delays.

“I think it could be problematic for people who are already struggling to use public transportation,” Walsh said. “I think if the MBTA was more reliable, people would be more OK with the fare hike. But it’s not very reliable.”

Stacy Cruz, 26, of Dorchester, said she was “not even a little bit” surprised to hear the MBTA was considering another fare increase.

“I know they have gone up in the past multiple times and it kind of is what is,” Cruz said. “There really isn’t much of another option besides maybe taking Ubers but they’re not horrible, I guess. But in comparison to the service and the delays, sometimes it does get a little frustrating.”

Cruz said she understands that the riders’ fares contribute to necessary changes, like accommodations for riders with disabilities, but believes many riders will not tolerate higher than a four to five percent fare increase.

“If it jumped to a significant increase,” Cruz said, “I feel like people would have a lot of issues with that for sure.”

Sarika Ram contributed to the reporting of this article.

PHOTO BY VIVIAN MYRON/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

An MBTA bus entering the Kenmore Square stop.

FEATURES 5

COMMUNITY

BUNITED diversity conference ‘gets to the root’ of oppression

BY HANNAH EDELMAN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Hundreds of university students from the Boston area gathered at Metcalf Hall Sunday for a daylong diversity conference. Hosted by the student group BUNITED, participants explored the theme “Get to the Root” through ongoing dialogue, workshops and cultural performances.

“We really want to provide our attendees [with] a full day to talk about what’s on their mind,” said Bejeana Breneville, the event’s co-director.

Breneville, a junior in the College of Communication, worked on a team of 17 BU students to plan this year’s conference. She helped organize 50-minute interactive workshops on a plethora of issues ranging from mass incarceration and cultural appropriation to the MuslimAmerican experience. Of the 18 workshops, Breneville said, 13 were student-led.

“So many people are here because they want to be able to expand their perspectives,” said Gloria Ihenetu, the BUNITED public relations and marketing committee chair. “They see that there are a lot of voices that don’t have a chance to be heard, and they want to make sure that they’re making the space for those voices to be heard. This is the best way to do so.”

Ihenetu, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, attended BUNITED’s inaugural conference her freshman year, and has worked on the committee ever since. She explained that giving students at culturally diverse universities the opportunity to learn about issues

The BUNITED planning committee during the 2018 Student Diversity Conference on Sunday.

they are unfamiliar with is of the utmost importance.

Taylor Robinson, a workshop leader and BU alumna, agreed students should learn about new perspectives. Her workshop titled “Trauma for Sale?” explored the trend of people of color writing essays about their pain for admittance to universities.

She sees this frequently as a college advisor at New Mission High School in Hyde Park, a district in which students are predominantly low income and racial minorities.

“I hope that when [attendees] leave here, they’ll use what they learned to improve what’s going on around them,” Robinson said.

“It’s good to be an attendee, but it’s

better to be a participant.”

She said she was pleasantly surprised that the students in her workshops represented both those who had to “display their pain for a ticket to white academia” and others who simply wanted to learn about different perspectives and experiences.

Robinson said the goal of the conference is to open dialogue and teach people about diversity, especially students pursuing fields of study whose schedules wouldn’t allow room for classes on these subjects otherwise.

Naveed Ghani, a recent graduate from the Graduate Medical Sciences program at BU, was one of these attendees that came to learn about issues inaccessible to him in the classroom.

PHOTO COURTESY TAYLOR CAMRI

“There’s a lot of different issues and problems in this country and in the world that they’re addressing here, and there’s no easy answer to what we can do about it, so coming together and seeing everybody’s perspectives about what we see, what we think are the problems, what we think are the solutions is what drew my interest,” Ghani said.

Ghani chatted with fellow attendee Tatiana Dardompre in Metcalf Hall over lunch, after their first two workshop sessions.

Dardompre, a junior at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, was one of the many participants from schools across the area.

At the tables around them, students of all races, genders

BUSINESS

and ethnicities conversed about the workshops as well as their personal lives. They hailed from a variety of colleges, including Emerson College, Tufts University, Harvard University and Wellesley College, with some students coming from as far as the University of Rhode Island.

“I’ve been thinking more about how I should take advantage of opportunities like this as a young adult, especially as a college student,” Dardompre said. “I think it’s important for me as a person of color to be inserting myself in these conversations.”

The lunch, catered by a local black-owned restaurant, was followed by a cultural show featuring a lineup of dancers, singers and spoken word artists.

Jaisun Lewinski, a recent graduate from Northeastern University, performed his original slam poem, titled “White Boy Dance Moves.” He said the piece was an attempt to combine comedic elements with the more serious issue of white privilege.

“I like to try and make people think through a specific emotion that I’m trying to tap into,” he said.

“I don’t like how much intentionality behind my writing there tends to be, but it’s always there.”

After the cultural show, attendees participated in a final workshop before author and activist Feminista Jones delivered the keynote speech.

“We talk about making a change, but you can’t make a change without talking about it first,” Breneville said.

“That’s what BUNITED is here for –– to give you the space to talk so that you can actually make the change.”

Millennials prompt digital-first shift in American banking industry

BY SAMANTHA DRYSDALE DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

As millennials have become more prominent in the workforce, they have been blamed for “destroying” innumerable American industries, including banking, according to an article from Tech Crunch. But whose fault is it really: the millennials or the banks?

As the age group who grew up surrounded by technology and amid the economic crisis of 2008, millennial attitudes toward banks are different than those of previous generations, according to Max Rofagha, founder of Finimize, a London-based financial news service designed to help younger generations make more knowledgeable monetary decisions.

Friday, Finimize held its first event in the United States. At CIC Boston, a group of young entrepreneurs, new homeowners and progressive bankers met to discuss the future of financial institutions in the United States.

Panelists discussed the transition the industry is currently making: Banks are moving steadily toward executing all money transactions online. In this plan, physical banks would be used as spaces for specialized financial advice rather than

places to deposit or withdraw money.

Millennials’ growing presence in the workforce has forced older, more traditional institutions to look for new and more creative ways to build relationships with these customers, often prompting a turn toward the internet, according to an article by Business Insider.

Michael Brown, regional manager and vice president for Citizens Bank, said he believes banks are moving more toward changing to fit millennial needs.

“The banks are doing a lot now to meet the needs of millennials,” Brown said. “Five or six years ago it was ‘this is the offer take it or leave it.’

I think now we have this huge educated population, and they are really actively asking for more. So if we want to be competitive in this field we have to meet their needs.”

Seventy-one percent of millennials say they’d rather go to the dentist than listen to bankers, according to studies conducted by First Data, a global payment technology solutions company.

In an effort to regain public trust, panelists said, banks have adopted new reforms meant to provide a sense of security not given to customers prior to 2008’s recession.

John Battaglia, senior vice president of mortgage operations at The Cooperative Bank, said banks are trying to hold the trust of the public through new policies.

“The banking industry has a lot of new regulations. We now have something called the ability to repay,” he said. “We have to show that the customer has the ability to repay a loan.

So, I’m not going to give you 20 bucks if you’re not going to pay me back. It’s the same thing with lending, now there’s the ability to repay standard that banks and lenders have to meet.”

Morgan Farrar, a sophomore in BU’s College of Arts and Sciences said she feels there is a generational disconnect between financial institutions and college students.

“I don’t think that banks trust college students,” Farrar said. “I feel like if I did go into investing in something it would just end up bad for me because of that relationship. Not that it’s totally them doing everything wrong, but there’s just not a general sense of mutual trust.”

In an effort to try and close these gaps, more and more banks have opened up programs catered to student life and needs, like private loans and even college credit cards, Brown said.

PHOTO BY FELIX PHILLIPS/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Majrila Gavrilov, Michael Brown, John Battaglia during the “#Finimized: Millenials and Banks” event in Boston on Friday.

He added that building a relationship during a young adult’s college years is important for facilitating conversations with financial professionals when issues arise later in life.

“The best recommendation I make for student loans is come see us,” Brown said. “Go online, do your research. I know you want to be educated on it, but come hang out with us. If you want to build your credit we have resources to help you do

that. We will show you all the different types of loans that we have. Your parents can come along with you or you can do it by yourself.”

As the foundations on which banking was built are starting to tremble under the weight of the technological age, panelists said, companies must either adapt or be “destroyed.” Meeting the needs of millennials will be key to “avoiding extinction,” they said.

6

FEATURES

ARTS

LED seesaws bring light and music to cold winter Seaport

BY ARCHELLE THELEMAQUE DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

People play on the Seaport seesaws on the Seaport Common both during the day and at night.

BY ARCHELLE THELEMAQUE DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Just steps from the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston’s Seaport district, ringing tones echo throughout the air and bright lights gleam. As visitors approach, they see an installation composed of a bunch of LED-lit, sound-producing seesaws.

Friday, the “Impulse” art installation made its debut in the Seaport Common, located in South Boston. The installation features 15 illuminated seesaws that emit sound when users hop on.

“Impulse” combines both light and sound to create a unique play space, said Lola Sheppard, who was part of the development team for the installation. In order to make the lights brighter and sounds louder, visitors must physically interact with the seesaws.

“There’s this kind of pulsation of sound that ebbs and flows according to how users are activating [the seesaws],” Sheppard said.

The sounds emitted by the seesaw were created by Torontobased composer M itchel l

Akiyama. All the seesaws are equipped with the same ability to make sound, but the volume depends on the user. As a result, the “Impulse” installation becomes a landscape of scattered ringing creating unconventional sounds of music.

“When you get different people on it, they will kind of be in and out of [sync] with each other depending on [the] person rocking it,” Sheppard said.

She said the installation was created as an innovative way to transform public space and bring people outdoors when temperatures drop “I think the fact that it requires physical motion makes it something that makes it work well in the winter,” Sheppard said.

The project, which Sheppard refers to as an “urban instrument,” was originally designed for placement in Montreal and has since toured all over the world.

“It was a design competition about how public space is used in the winter time, how one could think about the role of sound and light in

public space,” Sheppard said.

And although “Impulse” operates during day, the real magic happens at night. Sheppard said public spaces tend to fall asleep at night and that “Impulse” is one way to keep the Seaport district awake after dark.

“It is so interactive and engaging, and in some ways is more evocative and more powerful at night,” she said.

Jessica Feroli, marketing manager for WS Development’s Seaport branch, said that developing “Impulse” appealed to the firm because it was uniquely suited to attract crowds to the up-and-coming Boston neighborhood. The Seaport district is quickly developing a major art scene and becoming “a new hub spot of the city,” she said.

“The installation is somewhat of a mix of art and architecture,” Feroli said. “It fits in pretty well with everything that’s going on in Seaport.”

Sheppard said its placement near the Institute of Contemporary Art is perfect to

PHOTOS BY MALAIKA MOYER AND JOHN LITTLE/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

attract an art-minded audience and passersby.

“We’re particularly excited to be so near the ICA, which I think is an amazing building and amazing institution in terms of thinking innovatively about architecture and technology and art and how they intersect,” she said. “It’s a particularly gratuitous place to have it installed.”

Not only does “Impulse” fit with Seaport’s aesthetic but also, Feroli said, the installation is “another reason to bring people down to the neighborhood,” and to get people outside when they normally wouldn’t be playing outside.

Getting outside during the winter can be a challenge due to seasonal mood disorders that develop from little exposure to light. Feroli said “Impulse” has therapeutic elements that help combat these winter blues.

“There are proven facts that LED light boosts your mood and your overall happiness,” she said.

Montreal-based f irm CS Design did the installation’s light-

See our staff’s best photographs...

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ing design, and they collaborated with EGP Group and Lateral Office to create a user-friendly experience that could be used as an interactive play space for all, Feroli said.

“Everyone has a memory of being on a playground as a kid,” she said. “It’s something that brings together people of all ages … little kids were running up to it, and young adults coming out of work. It’s an adult playground.”

While some visitors liked the family-friendly aspect of the installation, others said they enjoyed the whimsical nature of the lit-up seesaws. Alice Li, a freshman at Bates College, tried the seesaws for the first time on Monday.

“You f ly when you get to the top, and it makes music,” she said.

“Impulse” is located at the Seaport Common (85 Northern Ave.) and is now open daily from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. until April 8. The installation is free to visit, family-friendly, and is built to withstand snow and extreme weather conditions.

FEATURES 7

SCIENCE

Boston’s black community voices health care concerns at town hall

BY ALLEGRA PEELOR DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Black Bostonians experience higher rates of morbidity and mortality from numerous common conditions, including obesity, HIV, diabetes and asthma, according to the Boston Public Health Commission’s Health of Boston report for 2016-2017.

The report, released Feb. 8, also found that the premature mortality rate for black residents was 31 percent higher than the rate for white residents in 2015.

Jonathan Jackson, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, has not trained as a public health expert, but when he sees numbers like these, he said, he has to do something to try to fix racial disparities in the health care system.

That’s why Jackson started the event series Black Health Month, formerly known as Black Lives Matter in Health, Too. He said he wants to spread the word that there are actions African-Americans can take to improve their own health outcomes despite a historically racist system.

“The point of the event series is to promote black health empowerment and more specifically, individual health empowerment,” Jackson told The Daily Free Press. “The idea is that when it comes to your health and the health of your loved ones, you’re not powerless.”

The last of three Black Health Month events took place on Saturday at the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building in Dudley Square. The “town hall” featured a panel of three Boston health care experts and one

PHOTO BY ALLEGRA PEELOR/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Jonathan Jackson (narrator), Bernadette macon-bell, David Ryan, Cheryl Clark, Thea James at the Black Health Month discussion.

black cancer survivor who was treated at MGH, with time at the end for questions from the community members in attendance.

David Ryan, a panelist and gastrointestinal oncologist at MGH, said the key to removing barriers to health equity in the black community is by listening to actual patients, and a town hall like Saturday’s was a great way to hear from them.

“I think that it’s incredibly important to hear from the patients directly and hear the struggles that people have in the real world,” Ryan told The Daily Free Press.

“Sometimes working in a health institution, you can feel isolated … from the struggles that people are going through.”

Sometimes, making patients feel more comfortable and open to receiv-

ing care is as simple as hiring a more diverse staff, said Bernadette MaconBell, another panelist. Macon-Bell received radiation treatment for breast cancer at MGH in 2015. She said she could make the choice between receiving treatment at MGH or Boston Medical Center, and she didn’t want to be “just another woman of color” at BMC. “When you walk into a hospital or a doctor’s office, I think it’s important to have somebody familiar because we live in a world that is so colorful that it’s inexcusable to go into any facility and not have a person [of color],” Macon-Bell told The Daily Free Press.

Jackson, who moderated the panel, said he wanted to focus on disparities in research in particular because most of the research partic-

ipants at MGH are older, white and upper class.

During the panel, he said that despite Boston being a majority-minority city for more than two decades, the individuals who come in to MGH for treatment and to participate in research do not reflect the diversity of the city.

Eoin Bradley, a pre-med student at the Harvard Extension School who attended the panel, said it is important for researchers to be “upfront and transparent” when trying to recruit participants.

“I’m working with a lot of organizers in Boston who are talking about strategic goals and I’m like, ‘Well, what if we just talk to the community?’” Bradley said.

Jackson said attitudes about black health in Boston have changed over

the past year since Donald Trump became president because he has been able to implement a “racist” agenda based on systemic issues that have “always been there.”

“Because Boston is located in a northern state that largely considers itself free of these biases and free of these systems, it has been a bit harder to advance the conversation locally,” Jackson said. “But I think that there is a new fervor and fire in the community to push for these things.”

As somebody who grew up in a poor immigrant family in Brooklyn, Beverly Moy said she understands what it means to be part of an underserved population. She is now the director of community outreach for the MGH Cancer Center and the clinical director of breast oncology.

“We have to be responsible in health care to make sure that every person has access to quality health care, and I feel like now I have the opportunity and a platform to do it,” Moy said. “It’s personal.”

Jackson said the Black Health Month series is a way to respect the community he is trying to serve by informing them about issues they should care about.

“Even though this is not what I originally envisioned spending my career doing, I recognize that there is a profound need within the black community, and I recognize that if we can’t get communities of color on board for research, [they] will be left behind for decades to come,” Jackson said. “We have to find a way to fix this, because time is really of the essence.”

Researchers treat cancer survivors’ fatigue with placebo pills

BY MINALI PRASAD DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Even after conquering tumors, cancer patients are often still plagued by fatigue. This exhaustion creates a barrier for those seeking a return to their regular lives.

In a study released earlier this month, researchers at Harvard Medical School partnered with researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and discovered that administering placebos, even with full disclosure, correlated to a decrease in fatigue.

“If you go to a horror film and you have a physiologic reaction, you know it’s not real and yet you have that response,” said Dr. Kevin Fontaine, chair of the Department of Health Behavior at UAB’s School of Public Health.

Fontaine and Dr. Teri Hoenemeyer, a scientist at UAB’s Comprehensive Care Center, spearheaded the study. Hoenemeyer’s said interactions with patients undergoing end-of-life care spurred her interest in the study.

“After practicing yoga or meditation, [patients] were saying that they felt better, that they could perform more activities,” she said.

“Even when they were within a couple of weeks from the end of life … they still felt like these therapies were helpful to them.”

From this, Hoenemeyer developed an interest in the placebo effect as a way of trying to explain what

might be going on physiologically during these therapies.

“Fatigue is [cancer patients’] number one complaint. It seems to last not only through treatment, but also long after treatment ends,” Hoenemeyer said. “It is the most distressing [symptom] that patients say they have after treatment because it impacts their social activities and work life.”

Hoenemeyer said that she wanted to investigate how to alleviate their tiredness without the onslaught of side effects traditional medications can impose.

The 74 individuals used in the study, all cancer survivors, were randomly assigned for 21 days to either the “open-label placebo” group, placebo pills with full disclosure, or the “treatment as usual” group, which had minimal or no medication.

According to Fontaine, individuals resided in five rural and urban counties surrounding the university, with nearly a quarter African American people. “It was the first open-label placebo study that had that many African Americans,” Fontaine said.

Fontaine explained that participants received placebo orientation before being randomized into an experimental group.

“We primed them to learn about the placebo effect and to at least potentially be willing to try it,” he said.

The results, which Fontaine said showed no correlation between a par-

PHOTO BY JOHN LITTLE/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The Harvard Medical School.

ticipant’s belief in the placebo’s success and its shown effect, surprised Hoenemeyer “[This] adds layers of fascination and confusion about what’s going on for me,” said Hoenemeyer.

Annie Heyman, a sophomore in Boston University’s Seven Year Liberal Arts/Medical Education Program, has learned about the placebo effect in several classes.

“If you can tell your patients up front that what you’re giving them is not actually going to do something or not expected to do anything, that’s amazing … and more ethically acceptable.”

When asked about the mech-

anism behind the success of the placebo pills, Hoenemeyer said the brain-body connection could play an important role.

“When someone takes a placebo, those areas of the brain light up as though it’s an active drug,” she said. “And those are the areas that help us feel better, help us not be so depressed, help us with pain management.”

Fontaine said the pill may have succeeded because of an expectation, even though participants knew it contained no active ingredients.

“We associate pill-taking with feeling better in a sort of classical, Pavlovian conditioning,” he said.

While the study’s results could have great implications for treating cancer patients, acquiring further funding to continue research has been difficult, Fontaine said.

“It has been very difficult to get funding because we haven’t really nailed down what the mechanisms are and that’s an issue because the effects are very large and it seems worthy of federal funding.”

Both researchers said they believe in the power of the placebo in improving patient care.

“We have a moral obligation to treat them and not just focus on curing,” Hoenemeyer said. “You treat the patient and not just the disease.”

8 OPINION

EDITORIAL

Higher parking meter fees are a necessary cost for alleviating traffic Over the last year, the introduction of increased prices for metered parking has yielded successful results. Boston, a densely populated city, is notorious for its heavy traffic on winding streets and lack of empty parking spaces on these streets. The pilot program, which was launched in January of last year, was a trial run to see how effective hiking metered parking prices would be in alleviating congestion on the streets and controlling illegal parking. In a city where these things are hard to control, instituting a program like this is the most promising way for cities to collect revenue on parking — and to get residents to pay for it.

Now, Boston officials, including Mayor Martin Walsh, are considering making such fees permanent. However, the change has been controversial, frustrating residents who cannot afford paying up to $4 per hour in some neighborhoods to park and enjoy services offered by the establishments there. While higher fees may discourage people from driving, and promote alternate forms of transportation like ride-sharing services, biking and using public transportation, Bostonians are complaining about having to pay the price, and more specifically, how higher fees apply to only certain neighborhoods.

While the $3.75 parking charge in Back Bay may seem like a hefty price, this is about the same price as street parking in some areas of New York City. In order for a city to collect a decent amount of revenue to maintain infrastructure which supports transportation, charging this much is an effective way to raise funds. And these prices serve to lower inci-

dences of illegal parking, which is beneficial to police officers and helps curtail unnecessary expenses.

Moreover, the Back Bay area is home to Boston’s Newbury Street, and attracts many tourists, making finding parking a nightmare for many. Neighborhoods that attract many shoppers, diners and tourists struggle the most

sive than parking. Anything to relieve the congestion on the streets and sidewalks in the area is a necessary measure to take and for the city to adopt permanently in the future.

These prices not only help the environment by reducing pollution, but they’re also a safe decision for bikers who often get hit by people opening their car doors and hitting

PHOTO COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

with a lack of parking spaces. By making these areas more expensive to park in, officials can force residents to consider driving there and using other means to get to their destination such as taking an Uber or the T. After all, a trip on the T costs $2.25, and using an Uber Pool for a short distance could end up being less expen-

CROSSWORD

moving bikers in the process. While some of these doors can be accredited to Uber or Lyft passengers, these accidents are also caused by drivers and passengers in their own cars. In an environment where biker safety is always under threat, a small measure like this provides bikers with at least some reassurance.

The main argument used against the program is that it isolates drivers who cannot afford to drop $4 every time they need to park.

While this is certainly not the most equitable way to handle the situation, it seems like it’s most effective way to help a problem that seems to have no end in sight. By charging different neighborhoods different fees, the pricing seems to discriminate against poorer residents from frequenting wealthier neighborhoods. In fact, Seaport charges each block different prices, charging an hourly fee ranging from $1 to $4. There are concerns these prices will create a rift between those who can and can’t afford prices, deepening the divide between the upper and lower classes in Boston.

However, there are a lot of people in Boston who certainly can afford paying $4 for parking, and not necessarily just wealthy residents.

People who drive their cars will surely not be entirely deterred by the cost to park. Many of them will continue driving and pay the price.

It seems like a reasonable price to request of residents who live in a city which is expensive to live in as is.

This measure mostly affects people who have to rely on street parking every day. Most workspaces or office have separate parking spots or offer a discounted price to park. Thus, hiking prices does not affect most people by any means. There are parking garages in Boston that are more expensive than metered parking on the streets. Residents who drive can certainly afford this cost. Equitable or not, this program assures a steady source of revenue for the City and prompts others to use other more cheap and environmentally-friendly options.

This week’s crossword puzzle is brought to you by Randy Showstack COURTESY OF MIRROREYES.COM / CROSSWORD ANSWERS AVAILABLE ON http://dfpress.co/2Cc18Mn

ACROSS 1. Seaweed 5. Binge 10. Shade of blue 14. Cleave 15. Mission 16. Breathing organ 17. Castrate 19. Tardy 20. Bovine 21. River horse 22. Novices 23. Replies 25. Anagram of “Peril” 27. Reverence 28. Profligates 31. Come from behind 34. Comportments 35. 52 in Roman numerals 36. Egg-shaped 37. Demands for payment 38. Fender blemish 39. Do it yourself

DOWN 40. Means 41. Soft creamy candy 42. Ravenous 44. G 45. Consecrate 46. Not devious 50. In progress 52. Anaglyph 54. A sizeable hole 55. Match 56. Awkward 58. Strip of wood 59. Outsider 60. Smell 61. If not 62. Darlings 63. Heredity unit

1. Betel palm 2. A tart fruit 3. Chews 4. Commercials 5. Escort for a woman 6. Inexpensive magazines 7. Harvest 8. Rules of evidence 9. French for “Summer” 10. Akin 11. Argued 12. “Do ___ others...”

13. How old we are 18. Requiring much chewing 22. Cans 24. Bulwark 26. Focusing glass 28. River muds 29. Jewelry 30. Location 31. Was a passenger

32. Keen 33. Idlers 34. Small 37. Life stories 38. Affaire d’honneur 40. Weight loss plan 41. Stench 43. Dress 44. Putting surfaces 46.

Yellowish-brown 47. Lyric poem 48. Also called Peter 49. Cubic meter 50. Adept 51. A young horse 53. Dogfish 56. Knave 57. Soak

Ellie French, Editor-in-Chief

Rachel Duncan, Managing Editor

46th year | Volume 93 | Issue 6

Andres Picon, Campus Editor

Noor Adatia, Editorial Page Editor

Caitlin Fisher, Blog Editor

The Daily Free Press (ISSN 1094-7337) is published Thursdays during the academic year except during vacation and exam periods by Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc., a nonprofit corporation operated by Boston University students. No content can be reproduced without the permission of Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. Copyright © 2018 Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

Breanne Kovatch, City Editor

Vivian Myron, Photo Editor

Kaya Williams, Multimedia Editor

Jenni Todd, Features Editor

Shaun Robinson, Layout Editor

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t h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t u d e n t n e w s pa p e r a t b o s t o n u n i v e r s i t y

Nicole Havens, Sports Editor

OPINION 9

COLUMNS

LESSONS FROM THE LEFT:

BEARING WITNESS:

‘Trauma for Sale’ in college essays The solution to the gun problem

O

BY ARIEL STEIN COLUMNIST

ften times when applying to colleges, we are told to tell a narrative of adversity and explain the lessons learned. A loved one’s death, a sickness or injury, experiences with sexual assault and poverty fill the pages of college admissions essays nationwide. The reason for this seems to be two-fold. The first is to show character — to prove that you are a good and moral person. The second is to account for academic performance. Not only do colleges want to get a glimpse into your personality, but the essay can be used as as supplement to explain grades. But life isn’t an easy ride, and sometimes there may not be a lesson from adversity.

What happens then?

Aren’t we more than our pain?

This past weekend, I attended a workshop that was a part of the BUNITED Conference — something that I think every BU student should attend. The workshop was titled: “Trauma for Sale? How POC Display Their Pain for a Ticket to White Academia.” It was led by Taylor Camri, a recent College of Communication graduate with a degree in journalism, and a current graduate student in the School of Education. She also works full time with the national College Advising Corps.

In the workshop, we addressed this pressing question: “How can we judge someone on how they overcome their pain?”

When a student writes about adversity, pressure is put on that student to overcome.

Sometimes it’s OK to not be OK, and there isn’t always a miraculous lesson learned.

On the contrary, it’s necessary to display pain in cases where students need to explain their academic standing. For example, for a student who has mediocre academic performance but suffered from a traumatic experience, an essay explaining their circumstance can be accounted for and taken into consideration.

Camri explained that college essays are often the first time students are asked to share their stories. The problem is that when at-risk students write about their pain and don’t get accepted, it could potentially devalue their pain, thus making the act of sharing mentally harmful.

Psychologists say that keeping a diary and displaying your pain is indeed therapeutic.

Not only is it therapeutic, but it is essential for democracy to teach kids that their story matters as it represents the varied American experiences of childhood.

In terms of “selling your pain” to get into college, I’m not so sure how well it works. I would imagine that the child who has better academic performance and talks about their passions will almost always get in. They have grades to assure the university that they can achieve academically. The inherent problem with this is that people with a low socioeconomic standing do not have the chance to explore passions, live freely and think about identity and social change. The entire system of getting into college is based on where you come from and your access to resources. People say that the system is based on merit, but there is no merit in the education system.

In the workshop, Camri brought up the idea of “the 24-hour education,” in which students who come from upper middle-class backgrounds are constantly learning. This matches the sociological research of Annette Lareau, who studied differences of child rearing styles in her study “Invisible Inequality: Social Class and Childrearing in Black Families and White Families.”

Concerted cultivation is commonly practiced by middle-upper class parents, and accomplishment by natural growth is usually practiced by lower-class parents. In the childrearing approach of concerted cultivation, parents orchestrate daily leisure activities that often match the child’s talents, interests or skills. With accomplishment by natural growth, the child “hangs out” with whoever is around them due to convenience purposes.

This occurs because parents are busy struggling to make ends meet. This inequality creates a further divide in education, where children whose parents practice concerted cultivation are more equipped at school due to the advantages from extracurriculars.

This research is just one example of the inherent inequality in America’s education system. Until we tackle issues of inequality in elementary and secondary education, there will always be inequality in higher education admissions.

BY ANNA STROINSKI

T

COLUMNIST

here was another mass shooting on Valentine’s Day of 2018. This time, the victims were high school students and staff, and the perpetrator was a former student who trained with a white nationalist militia group. Seventeen people died — two of them teachers shielding kids with their bodies — and 14 were wounded, including a boy named Anthony Borges who took five bullets while locking a door. I could go on about the details, but I’ll save you the trouble.

I don’t want to say that nothing will change, because I’m unusually hopeful after this particular shooting thanks to its unrelenting teen survivors. But this time, I do think it’s going to take an awful amount of time, energy and effort before something tangible comes to fruition.

Admittedly, there have been some efforts — on the part of the White House and the Florida State House — to regulate guns, but the latter voted down an assault weapons ban and we certainly can’t count on the former for civility, let alone action.

However, there is an interesting solution that’s come to my attention, a solution you may have heard about if you’ve watched Chris Rock’s stand-up or seen the eighth season of “West Wing.” It’s one that seems silly, but one that — once fleshed out with evidence — is kind of brilliant. I’m talking about regulating bullets and ammunition.

The initial appeal of regulating bullets lies in how it treats the constitutional issue that crops up in regular gun control debates, that is, banning or restricting guns is unconstitutional and thus completely disallowed. The Second Amendment reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” “Arms” usually refers to firearms, rifles, handguns and muskets to a great deal of people, but it’s not entirely intui-

tive that should include bullets and ammo. It’s a much grayer area constitutionally, but maybe the argument that could hold up in court. I mean, it’s held up in places like California and Connecticut, which regulate bullets and have seen death-by-firearm rates plummet in recent years as a result.

Second, we might be able to spot a mass shooting in the works if we’ve got our eyes on bullets. Plenty of people buy guns, and plenty of people buy lots of guns — be it for show, hunting, collections or what have you. Buying upwards of 10,000 rounds, though? I doubt the purchaser will use those to shoot a couple of deer in the woods behind his house. Given we live in the era of the net, spotting something as suspicious as that would be easy, and checking up on the buyer would be even easier.

It’s also worth mentioning that more people support bullet regulations than they do gun regulations — 80 percent compared to just 67 percent.

Now, there are counterarguments I should address. The first has to do with creating a sort of “black market” for bullets. This meaning, if we regulate bullets, we’d force their purchase underground especially because it seems like a bullet would be easy to obtain, hide and reproduce.

The problem with that argument is that the same can be said about guns. In fact, it’s an argument that gets so beat to death that I’m sure you’ve heard it on CNN. I agree that they can, and even in places like the United Kingdom and Australia — where they have many regulations on guns — shootings still happen. I’ll grant that much.

However, just because gun deaths still happen after firearms are banned or regulated does not mean we ought to abandon everything and run. The shootings that do happen after sweeping legislation are passed are few and far between — Australia has had zero mass shootings since 1996, compared to the United States’ 30-something this year alone. And it’s not like there aren’t examples in the United States. Like I said before, both California and Connecticut moved to regulate ammunition and saw gun homicides decrease exponentially.

When Connecticut passed comprehensive gun legislation after Sandy Hook, gun deaths fell from 226 in 2012 to 164 in 2016.

Sure, regulating bullets won’t rid the country of gun deaths for good, but it will help. In the wake of a school shooting that not only claimed 17 lives but also stole the innocence away from the 3,000 students that got up and went to school like they would any other day, we owe it to the future of our country.

CARTOON BY KYLE PATTERSON/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

INTERROBANG

Fergie sang the national anthem at the All-Star Game Sunday night and went viral for her poor performance of the song. We here at the ol’ Free Press want to know — what would BU students absolutely botch?

COM: Elementary Statistics

CGS: The SATs

West: Being best

President Brown: Lowering tuition

BU Beach: Being a beach

Hockey: Winning the Beanpot

Freshman guys: Getting into frat parties

Warren: Leaving Warren

FreeP: Making money

10 SPORTS

Fresh off sweep, women’s hockey gears up for playoffs

BY KYLE PATTERSON DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

After ending the 2017-18 regular season with a sweep over the University of New Hampshire, the Boston University women’s hockey team looks toward a bestof-three quarterfinals matchup against the University of Maine, beginning on Friday.

The Terriers (13-15-6, 8-11-5 Hockey East) ultimately finished the season ranked sixth in Hockey East.

“We’ve had some trouble getting over the hurdles this year,” BU head coach Brian Durocher said. “But I commend the kids for coming back, sticking together and putting themselves in a position to win.”

In a season that has been wrought with numerous ups and downs, the concluding series was an uplifting end to the Terriers’ regular season, providing hope for the games to come. BU bested UNH (14-13-7, 9-10-5 Hockey East) 2-1 and 2-0 in a home-andhome series last weekend.

The Terriers’ first-round opponent, Maine (17-12-5, 11-9-4 Hockey East), ended its season on a downswing, with only one win its final nine games.

Nonetheless, the higher standing of the Black Bears, in third place, will give them home-ice advantage for the entire series.

Last week’s series against the Wildcats saw familiar faces, such as senior forwards Rebecca Leslie and Victoria Bach, add to their

tally of goals.

In Saturday’s matchup, Leslie added two more goals to her total, which were both assisted by sophomore defenseman Abby Cook.

Leslie has now clocked in 21 goals for the regular season and continues to lead the team in assists with 30.

Bach, who holds BU’s program record in total goals and leads the NCAA in goals per game (1.20), also found the back of the net in Sunday’s game, adding another goal to her now 36 total goals for the season.

Also putting points up on the board last week was freshman forward Kristina Schuler, who fired one between the posts. The goal was her third of the season, as she also scored in the Terriers’ previous outing against UNH and against Northeastern University.

On the other side of the rink, Cook’s contributions can also not be overlooked.

Despite seldom being in a scoring position, Cook has provided BU’s offense with 23 assists over the course of the regular season, a number only beaten by Bach (25) and Leslie (30).

Cook is tied for the lead in assists among defensemen in the nation, making her not just a force to be reckoned with on defense, but on offense as well.

“Reagan Rust, Abbey Stanley and Cook have certainly been leaders back there,” Durocher said, complimenting the defense as a whole. “Not everyone’s job is

Sophomore defenseman Abby Cook has 23 assists this season, third best on the team.

to be a pure point producer, and the season.

O’Neil ended the regular seathese people have had a real run son with a goal save percentage of for the last 10 to 12 games.” .916 and goals against average of In net for the second game of 2.81 over 11 games. the series was senior goaltender As for the Black Bears, sophand assistant captain Erin O’Neil. omore forward Tereza Vanisova Although not in the limelight stands out.

Vanisova’s 13 recorded as often as her fellow goaltender goals make her the team’s leadfreshman Corinne Schroeder, ing scorer and her team-high 26 O’Neil got an opportunity to prove herself on Sunday, making assists give her 39 points.

Senior forward Brooke Stacey is 32 saves and letting no shots in.

This marked the senior’s third second on the team with 25 points, shutout of her career and first of consisting of 10 goals and 25 assists.

PHOTO BY MADDIE MALHOTRA/ DFP FILE PHOTO

Also of note for Maine is its starting sophomore goaltender Carly Jackson, who sports a goal save percentage of .927 and goals against average of 1.88.

Durocher noted the importance of his team staying consistent in all facets of the game come Friday afternoon.

“We’ve been doing good on defense, good on the penalty kill and we just have to keep that consistency,” Durocher said. “Every little thing matters in the playoffs.”

Women’s lacrosse earns first win of season against UMass Lowell

PHOTO BY MADDIE MALHOTRA/ DFP FILE PHOTO

Junior midfielder Kelly Mathews had a goal and an assist in BU’s 14-10 win over UMass Lowell.

BY NICHOLAS MIATA DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The Boston University women’s lacrosse team earned its first win of the 2018 season Wednesday afternoon, defeating the University of Massachusetts Lowell 14-10 on the road.

After last Saturday’s 18-6 defeat to then-No. 4 Boston College, the Terriers (1-1) were eager to get back on the turf and and rebound.

Their matchup against the River Hawks (0-1) is the f irst of four consecutive road games for BU. Last season, the team struggled

slightly on the road, going 4-6.

However, the Terriers got off to a good start this season with an offensive outburst.

Junior midfielder Kendyl Finelli opened up the scoring for Lowell just under four minutes into the first half.

Just two minutes later, BU senior attack Aver y Donahoe tied the score up with her second goal of the season, assisted by sophomore attack Kailey Conry.

Donahoe was one of three players for the Terriers who scored a hat-trick Wednesday afternoon

and BU head coach Liz Robertshaw commented on her team’s ability to score.

“We have a good handful of goal scorers,” Robertshaw said. “It wasn’t just one person doing it. I was happy with that fact that we found open looks. I thought we had more people going to the cage confidently. And even a lot of our players who didn’t necessarily score had better shot looks and that was great.”

Later in the half, the Terriers went on a 4-0 run, increasing their lead to 6-2. They would not relinquish that lead for the remainder of the game.

In the second half, BU maintained its offensive pressure.

Goals from freshman attack Bridget McCa rthy, Con r y a nd Donahoe extended the Terriers’ lead to 10-5. McCarthy and Conry also finished with three goals apiece.

The River Hawks came within two goals of tying the game up with less than seven minutes remaining, thanks to a successful shot from senior attack Austin Trasatti and Finelli’s second of the contest.

However, sophomore goalkeeper Bianca Smith was able to make key saves for the Terriers to prevent the River Hawks from tying the scoreline, making three crucial saves in the final seven minutes of the game.

On the day, Smith recorded seven saves, and has a .450 goal save percentage to start the season.

“I thought she did a great job in cage,” Robertshaw said of Smith. “I think she really showed confidence.

She made some really big saves at crucial times. She was seeing the ball better especially as the game went on. In the second half she was able to settle in.”

BU’s offense was the story of the day.

The Terriers led in almost all offensive categories. They had at total 32 shots, 28 of which were on goal, led 14-11 at the faceoff dot and collected 25 ground balls.

Seven different players scored for BU, compared to only four players who scored against BC (4-0) in its season opener.

Conry also tallied six assists,

giving her nine points on the day.

She now leads the team with 13 on the season. McCarthy and Donahoe both follow behind tied for second with four. “ S h e ’s a co m p o s e d p l a y e r,” Robertshaw said of Conry. “She sees the field very well and she is constantly looking for her teammates and I think when the ball is in her hands good things happen.

Her teammates are making great cuts and reading their defenders well and finishing well. It was fun to see the offense pick up a little bit today.”

Ju n ior at tack Ja ne D ud ley, Lowell’s leader in points last season, was limited to only one goal and one assist on the day, as BU’s 14 faceoff wins allowed it to maintain offensive possession for much of the game.

The River Hawks were further prevented from seeing consistent offensive opportunities, only getting 17 shots on goal.

The Terriers are now 2-0 against the River Hawks in the short history between the two teams, and will hope to maintain its offensive momentum when they take on Duke University next Sunday. “ We j u s t n e e d t h e p l a y e r s to remember what it feels like,” Robertshaw said. “We need to remember what we’re doing when we’re playing well. That we’re battling and competing for ground balls, draw controls and scrapping for rebounds.

If we can remember how that feels, that’s how we’re going to mimic it and go from there.”

SPORTS 11

Men’s basketball ends five-game losing streak, beats Lafayette

PHOTO BY MADDIE MALHOTRA/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Freshman forward Walter Whyte put up 14 points against Lafayette Wednesday night after returning from injury.

BY NICOLE HAVENS DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Fr e s h m a n f or w a r d Wa lter Why te quite possibly returned for the Boston University men’s basketball team’s most-needed game of the 2017-18 season.

The New Haven, Connecticut

native was just another in a series of injuries that have plagued the Terriers (13-15, 9-8 Patriot League) this season.

Whyte returned to the court Wednesday night after missing four games, in which BU had continued to accumulate a five game

losing streak.

However, the freshman put up 14 points alongside freshman guard Javante McCoy’s career-high 21, and the Terriers effectively completed their first regular season sweep with a 81-65 win over Lafayette College at Case Gym.

“He affects the game in a much for the remainder of the half. different way than other guys on At 6:11, the Leopards led by our team,” BU head coach Joe Jones as ma ny as 15 points. But four said of Whyte. “… We can put him a nd th ree poi nts f rom W hy te on the team’s best offensive player and McCoy, respectively, cut the and he can have an impact on the Terriers’ deficit to five points before game. He’s really important to heading into the locker room at our team and when we lost him, half time. we lost a lot.”

Five of BU’s players tallied six While the Terriers grabbed or more points during the first. the win in their final home game The momentum shifted in the of the regular season, the contest second half for the Terriers as they began much differently. opened frame with a 17-2 run within The Leopards (9-19, 7-10 Patriot a six minute timespan.

League) took a 41-36 lead at the T h is r u n g ave BU a lead it halfway mark before BU exploded would hold onto until the end of offensively in the final 20 minutes, the contest. outscoring Lafayette 45-24.

The Leopards got the score This was a positive change of within a five point margin twice, pace offensively for the Terriers, but the Terriers appeared unstoppawho were recently limited to just ble and led by as many as 27 points 48 points against the United States with 3:48 remaining.

Naval Academy last Saturday.

“They ’re such a tremendous “I’m not surprised we played well offensive team, they move the ball tonight because we looked really so well, they kind of get you out of good [Tuesday] in practice,” Jones rhythm defensively because they do said. “We got back to being who we so many great things,” Jones said. are and it shows. I’m proud of the “But I thought we kept pressure guys, they’ve been through a lot. on them and then we were able to They kept at it and tonight they put break the game open.” together a nice team performance.”

During the second half, BU BU led the game for the first shot 54.6 percent (18-for-33) from f i v e m i nute s a f ter t w o t h r e e the field and 47.1 (8-for-17) percent pointers from senior guard Cedric from behind the arc.

Hankerson and McCoy as well as The Terriers also converted field goals from sophomore for- Lafayette’s 13 turnovers into 21 wards Ma x Mahoney and Tyler points during the frame as well.

Scanlon.

McCoy led all players in points, The Leopards knotted the game while Hankerson, Mahoney and at 13 with a lay up from for ward Whyte notched double-digit scoring Paulius Zalys, who led his team during the night. with 11 points over the first half.

“I feel like we’re hitting our Senior guard Eric Stafford added stride at the right time,” Jones a layup to extend Lafayette’s lead, said. “I could tell from practice which the team proceeded to keep [on Tuesday], you could just feel it.”

It might be time for the Olympics to look into esports in 2020 BETWEEN THE LINES, FROM 12

sitting in front of a television for hours watching sports we only care about every four years anyway.

But between deals over networking rights (NBC has $12 billion of rights fees in the Olympics until 2032), sponsors and advertisements, the Olympics isn’t in a position to go crazy with innovation to attract millennial and generation Z interest.

Just like other media outlets such as ESPN, they are struggling to figure out a sustainable method to monetize clicks and views online the same way they do with TV ratings and viewership.

So while the Olympics and NBC are doing their best with coverage of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on social media, the mode of delivery can’t be the only evolution.

Namely, the Olympics need to look at accepting new games into its lineup.

In the 1998 Nagano Games, the Olympic committee controversially added a sport that was on the fringes — a sport rejected by the mainstream and only accepted by a subculture. And while many fought to keep it out of the games, the undeniable fact of the matter was that its audience was young people. That sport was snowboarding.

Many thought of snowboarding as a weird pseudo-sport, and snow-

boarders as rebellious, pot-smoking kids. Some lengths were even taken to ban snowboarders from ski resorts before the 1990s.

Now 20 years since its Olympic debut, snowboarding is perhaps the most watched and most beloved Olympic winter sport. This kind of bold acceptance of a non-traditional sport could again save interest in the Games.

And as many would hate to admit, the 2018 equivalent of snowboarding in the ‘90s is esports.

There is a good chance I lost most of you at esports, and that is because of the perception video games carry in our culture.

Like the snowboarders before them, professional gamers have been viewed in a negative light. Like the rebellious, pot-smoking snowboarders, gamers are seen as lazy weirdos that live in their mothers’ basements.

I’m not trying to convince you of the legitimacy of professional gamers’ excellent hand-eye coordination, speed, precision and work ethic; I want to point out the obvious fact that it would be better for everyone if the Olympics added esports.

The esports industry is massive and is projected to surpass $1.1 billion in revenue by 2019. That growth will continue as more and more money

Snowboarding made its Olympic Games debut in 1998 at Nagano.

and media attention come its way, especially if it was to be put on the world stage at the Olympics.

Brands have already bought in too. Coca-Cola, Geico and Red Bull are just a few of the major sponsors who have bought into the legitimacy of esports. And that legitimacy can only be measured by one metric: fan interest.

Millions of young people stream casual and competitive gaming on websites like Twitch and YouTube Gaming already so the audience is there for the taking.

The largest esports event of 2017, the Intel Extreme Masters, which included Counter Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends and Starcraft II, was the most watched

PHOTO COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

esports event ever, with 46 million unique viewers. That is compared to Sunday night’s prime-time Olympic coverage, which drew 18.2 million viewers.

So, until the Olympic committee decides to give young people what they want to see, they will have to endure the increasing age of their loyal viewers and their falling ratings.

Follow along with BU Sports on Twitter: @DFPsports

“Every little thing matters in the playoffs.”

- BU women’s hockey coach Brian Durocher on the upcoming Hockey East playoffs. p.10

BETWEEN THE LINES:

It’s time for a new Olympic event: esports

Sports

“I think when the ball is in her hands good things happen.”

- Women’s lacrosse head coach Liz Robertshaw on sophomore attack Kailey Conry. p.10

Thursday, February 22 , 2018

Women’s hockey finds steady second line

BY MICHAEL ALCARAZ COLUMNIST

W hen t he Oly mpic Ga mes started in Olympia, Greece over 2,000 years ago, people traveled from all across Greece to watch the spectacle. The athletes played for glory, and when they won, statues were built in their honor. The Olympians were idolized like gods — larger than life figures — much like athletes today.

But in the modern Olympic Games, there lies a big, looming problem.

The median age of Olympic viewers in the United States continues to rise. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it was 47 years old. In the 2012 London Games, it was 48 years old, and in the 2014 Sochi Games, it was 55 years old.

While some people can argue that this is the age demographic the Olympics wants to have, they would be ignoring the evident rise in age as the years go on. This not only means that the audience is getting older, but it also means that the Olympics are not attracting a new audience.

The same late 40-somethings that tuned in for the games in 2012 are the same early 50-somethings that watched in 2016, and if the Olympics don’t do anything to bring in a younger audience, the trend will continue.

But that is easier said than done.

Young people no longer have to come home and watch the Olympics because it’s what their family watches during dinner for two weeks while everyone else they know is doing the same and rooting for their home country. Now there is unlimited content on — whenever you want, wherever you want — just waiting to be consumed.

While broadcast television is still the biggest outlet for the Olympics, millennials and generation Z just don’t consume their media through TV as their parents and grandparents do.

They prefer streaming, Snapchat stories or just scrolling through the conversation on Twitter rather than CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

PHOTO BY MADDIE MALHOTRA/ DFP FILE PHOTO

Sophomore forward Deziray De Sousa is part of the women’s hockey’s integral second line this season.

BY LILY BETTS

DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

On a young team that added eight new players over the summer, the Boston University women’s hockey team has found its shutdown second liners in forwards freshmen Jesse Compher and Nara Elia and sophomore Deziray De Sousa.

An injury bug led to the Terriers’ (13-15-6, 8-11-5 Hockey East) lines being shuff led throughout the 2017-18 season, but the De SousaCompher-Elia line has become a mainstay in this season’s play.

BU head coach Brian Durocher noted that it took a little longer for the second line to fall into place than for the first line made up of senior for wards Victoria Bach, Rebecca Leslie and Nina Rodgers.

“Sometimes things are a little bit lucky or circumstantial,” Durocher said. “I think when [the second line] first got together, they were a solid line, but I don’t think each one of them knew exactly how important it was to protect the puck. Now, they’re all doing an unbelievably good job on hanging onto it and ultimately making the other team defend.”

As the tallest set of forwards, Durocher emphasized the line’s strength and size as a benefit to its play when it came to puck possession, which he noted is important in limiting the opposing team’s opportunities and shots.

It is a role that has resonated with the players as well.

“We don’t score ton of goals, but I think we can set the momentum,” De Sousa sa id. “ We work wel l together, work [the puck] in the corners, keep it our zone and tire out the other team. If the team is in a down spot, I think we can go out there, generate shots and turn it around a bit.”

The line has put up a combined 239 shots on goal, and have seen a fair share converted into points as well.

De Sousa has scored two goals and earned si x assists over the year, and generated four shots in the team’s most recent 2-0 win a ga inst the Universit y of New Hampshire.

Elia has notched eight goals and six assists in her inaug ural season, and leads the line with 30 blocked shots.

Over the course of the season, Compher has accumulated eight goals and 15 assists.

Compher has also spent valuable time on the Terriers’ special teams, with her most recent goal coming on the power play against Harvard University in the Beanpot qualifying round, her sixth consecutive game with a point.

Compher attributes a lot of her success to her line partners.

“My linemates are helping me a lot, there,” Compher said. “I’ve

BOTTOM LINE

THURSDAY, FEB. 22

FRIDAY, FEB. 23

Women’s tennis will face Bryant at

Women’s hockey will begin their best-of-three quarterfinals series at Maine, 2 p.m.

Men’s lacrosse will have its first conference matchup against Navy at Nickerson, 2 p.m.

will compete in the Last Chance Meet,

Men’s hockey will face off against Vermont at Agganis, 7:30 p.m.

Women’s basketball will host Army for Senior Day at Case Gym, 2 p.m.

Men’s tennis will face Dartmouth,

the BU Track and Tennis Center, 2 p.m.

SATURDAY, FEB. 24

been getting some good passes, serve as exciting opportunities. “[Play ing with this line] has and luckily they ’ve been going made for a exciting year,” Elia said. in. Normally after the first one, “We work hard every shift, or I like a couple more come after that, so to think of myself as doing that, that felt good.” but I know for sure [Compher and While De Sousa has experience De Sousa] are.

No one slacks off.” producing in collegiate playoff After ending the regular season hockey from last year’s successful with a sweep against UNH (14-13quarterfinal push, during which she 7, 9-10-5 Hockey East), BU will put up an assist, Compher and Elia are no strangers to high-intensity be entering playoff hockey on a games either. high note.

Before coming to BU, Compher The best-of-three series quarwon t wo gold meda ls w ith the terfinals series for the Terriers U.S. Under-18 Team at the IIHF will begin against the University Women’s World Championship in of Maine this Friday, Feb. 23.

2016 and 2017.

BU has faced off against Maine The Northbrook, Illinois native (17-12-5, 11-9-4 Hockey East) three also competed for three consecu- times throughout the season, and tive national championships with while not having won the previous the Chicago Mission U19 team matchups, the De Sousa-Compherand made three deep runs for the Elia line made for a total of seven national title, including winning points. it in 2015.

G oi n g i nto t h is weekend ’s Across the ice, Elia took home series, Durocher said he will be a silver medal for Canada in the looking for more steady pressure 2017 IIHF Women’s World U18 from the second line over anything Championship, and has represented “too fancy.”

Saskatchewa n in the Nationa l “‘Consistent’ is a fantastic word Women’s U18 Championship and for the three of them,” Durocher the 2015 Esso Cup. said. “They all have the chances, Both freshmen put up points ability and strength to hold onto in the recent Beanpot tournament, the puck. Once they’ve worn peoas wel l, including a n assist for ple down, gotten them to make a Elia in the Terriers’ 4-3 overtime mistake, it’s their time to cut to loss in the final to crosstown foe the net. They might not dazzle Boston College. with their fantastic foot speed, For them, the high-pressure but they can definitely be ver y games like those of the Beanpot effective with their perseverance.”

SUNDAY, FEB. 25

MONDAY, FEB. 26

Men’s and women’s track and field all day.

3:30 p.m.

Women’s golf will continue the Kiawah Island Classic, all day.