10/13/2010 - V2I1

December 7, 2009

Volume II, Issue 1

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October 13, 2010

Bye, Bye Books?

How digital-age students affect BC libraries

Economic Growth

How taxes could work better for the economy

Highbrow Theater A look into upcoming Reefer Madness

The Inherent Progressivism of Jesuit Ideology Photo by Robert Rossi

News

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Research examines correlation between sleep, GPA

Photo courtesy of smart-kit.com

By Michelle Martinez News Editor Between the midterms, extracurricular activities and social events, it is not surprising that many college students often do not get the ideal eight hours of sleep.

Frequent sleep deprivation and the unwanted effects that it may have on students’ GPAs were the focus of a series of articles posted by the Huffington Post in the past month.

In these articles, sleep expert Michael J. Breus cites a 2001 sleep study that showed that only 11 percent of college students slept well consistently and 73 percent experienced occasional sleep problems. Then in 2007, researchers found that those who were “night owls” would average a GPA of 2.5, and as each person became more of an “early bird,” their GPAs would gradually increase to around a 3.5.

Lichuan Ye, professor in CSON, recently conducted a survey at Boston College which sought to explore whether sleep quality and sleep patterns had any effects in aspects such as college students’ academic performance.

“Poor sleep quality in college students, particularly caused by self-imposed sleep deprivation and irregular sleep schedules, can lead to significant emotional imbalance, fatigue, poor concentration, impaired memory, and generally lower life satisfaction,” according to the study. “In fact, sleep difficulties have been consistently rated as a top impediment to academic performance in college students.”

Some BC professors, however, recognize that though sleep is an important determining factor in students’ lifestyles, one should be cautious when interpreting these correlations with GPAs. “You can’t infer causality from correlation though,” Ellen Winner, professor and chair of

the psychology department, said. “Night owls might be less organized and that’s why they stay up all night to finish a paper.”

Elizabeth Kensinger, a professor in the psychology department who studies sleep and memory, agrees with Winner’s caution.

In spite of this, Kensinger acknowledges that sleep might play a critical role in students’ academic performance.

“I do think there is evidence that sleep can benefit memory, and this in turn could have an impact on GPA,” Kensinger said in an email.

“My research shows that people retain information better after a night of sleep; if someone studies material and then goes to sleep, they will remember the material better the next day than will someone who studies the information but does not get a good night’s sleep.”

Because of this link between sleep and memory, Kensinger recommends that rather than pulling an all-nighter, students could boost their academic performance by studying the most relevant material just before drifting off to sleep.

Regardless of this significant advice, some students prefer to follow their unique sleep and study schedules.

Joshua Berk, CSOM ’11, is one of these students who admits to having a particularly odd and irregular sleep schedule, but he has a high GPA. “On average, I get about six hours of sleep per night, but it’s almost never on a consistent schedule,” Berk said. “I might go to bed at three in the morning and wake up at seven on Mondays, but on Tuesday, I’ll go to bed at 11 p.m. and wake up 12 hours later.”

Berk acknowledges that academics play a

significant role in determining his sleep schedule, given that like many other students, he tends to do most of his work in the evenings.

In her study, Ye also accounted for the important roles that nighttime technology use and excessive caffeine intake play in determining college students’ sleep patterns and quality.

“Nighttime technology use, such as the Internet, cable television, text messaging and video games, are turning college students into night owls,” according to Ye’s study. “We hypothesize that daily activities, including nighttime technology use, caffeine intake, and exercise, have significant impact on sleep quality in college students.”

To some students, however, using technology around bedtime has become a habit.

“Generally, since I’m doing work mostly at night, anything from e-mail to interview prep, there is usually extensive computer use before bed,” Berk said.

Sean He, A&S ’13, who also has a high GPA and sleeps eight hours on an average night, also admits to frequently using technology right before going to sleep. “I browse the Internet while on my bed until I start getting sleepy,” He said.

Though research has shown significant correlations between sleeping patterns and college students’ academic performance, both BC faculty and students are skeptical of the causal relation that at times may be inferred.

“Making a statement about ‘bad’ sleeping habits and the negative impact on GPA would be ignoring too many things,” Berk said. “In my humble opinion, it’s quite possible to have a horrific sleep schedule and still have an excellent GPA. That being said, I wouldn’t recommend anyone try it.”

Students assist in groundbreaking research

By Kevin Fagan Assoc. News Editor Helping Boston College professors with their cutting-edge research, students are frequently employed in science laboratories as research assistants. One way this occurs is through the Undergraduate Research Fellows program, which provides grants for students to assist faculty with research on campus.

One of the Undergraduate Research Fellows is Sarah Swanke, A&S ‘11, a biology major who works with Anthony Annunziato, professor of biology, on his research into histone modification.

The goal of Annunziato’s research is purely exploratory. He wants to figure out in more depth the mechanics of a cell by studying histone modification. “A huge misnomer about science is that we’re always trying to find something,” Swanke said.

Furthermore, she said that often research that is intended for one purpose ends up discovering something unexpected.

Histones are proteins found in cell nuclei that package and order DNA, and are modified in order to be either opened

or closed, determining which genes are turned on or off. Understanding what causes this modification will allow scientists to better understand how cells become cancerous.

Such research is not only important, but is also a huge commitment for participating students. These students spend many hours in the lab each week, often late into the night. Research is not something that can be taken lightly, and frequently, labs can take many hours to complete without opportunity for interruption.

According to Swanke, safety within the laboratory is a key concern, given that much of the equipment and chemicals used in the lab can be hazardous if one fails to take the proper precautions. The only problem visible to Swanke in BC’s laboratories is the lack of state-of-the-art equipment that can prevent some accidents from happening.

Swanke said the most interesting aspect of research at BC is attending the poster sessions that are held during the spring for biology and physics, and in the fall for chemistry. Students and faculty have the opportunity to view the wide range of re-

search going on throughout BC’s different laboratories. She said that she wishes more students attended the poster sessions as the research being done on campus would appeal to a broad range of students.

Photo courtesy of Armin Kübelbeck

Students can learn more about research being done by undergraduates by picking up a copy of Elements, the undergraduate research journal at BC, which showcases unique ideas developed by students.

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BC Libraries adapt to digital age, students Libraries add e-books to catalog

By Sue Byun Assoc. News Editor Transitioning into the digital age, Boston College libraries are acquiring more e-books as well as modernizing their catalog search engine. The current collection is at 2.8 million, but according to Robert Gerrity, associate of library systems, the Office of University Libraries is in the early planning stages to downsize the print collection and expand the digital collection.

Gerrity said that moving towards a more

Photo by Sue Byun

digitized collection would have a two-fold benefit, allowing libraries to increase both seating capacity and their collections.

O’Neill Library plans to replace a few shelves from the reference book section with a seating area. Which shelves will be removed depends on how well suited that book category is to digital format.

“For most of the run-of-the-mill academic books, the future is definitely digital,” Gerrity said.

The digital format is also more searchable, and in the Internet age that has rendered

“Google” a commonplace verb, tools that help find relevant information have become invaluable. Libraries hold vast amounts of information that could be put to good use if the print format were more navigable.

“More and more we see Google as the starting point for people seeking information. Libraries absolutely need to compete with that,” Gerrity said.

BC Libraries also soft launched Holmes One Search, what Gerrity referred to as the next-generation library catalog. It essentially conducts a streamlined search of the entirety of BC’s print and online collection.

An option for Holmes One Search is available under the Library Resources and Serviced homepage, though it has not been publicized yet as computer programmers in the Office of University Libraries work out kinks.

Gerrity said that Holmes One Search will officially launch in January 2011.

Quest searches 2.8 million print volumes, 43,904 e-journal titles, and 363,385 e-books.

“Holmes’ ‘blended’ search feature searches all that plus hundreds of millions of journal articles and other online, full-text content that you previously had to find via separate searches and databases,” Gerrity said.

Quest has been the main search engine

but for 11 years. Its underlying technology organizes data in an intricate inventory that accords with the call numbers, which serve as inventory ID numbers, denoting the title, author, and publication information of the book.

Holmes, set to replace Quest as the main library collection search tool, takes descriptive data, such as key words relevant to the book or journal article’s topic, and indexed it into a searchable database. Search results are determined by key word, conceptually similar to a Google search. A Holmes user can start very general and then narrow down to title, publisher, and author.

Despite mobile services, self-checkout, shrinking shelves, streamlined search engines, and more e-books, not everything is set to thrust into the digital age. The Burns Library collection, for instance, will never die out because it contains rare, old books in print.

For some, Quest will not be replaced by Holmes. The way it conducts searches is better suited for a specific kind of research that 10% of faculty do, such as those focusing on rare print books or in a very narrow niche, for which a general key word search engine such as Holmes would be too broad.

“Quest will be around a couple years,” Gerrity said.

O’Neill, Bapst respond to greater student usage

By Meghan Smith Editorial Assistant Although Boston College students and professors have been moving in the direction of greater digitization, using electronic resources such as Blackboard Vista and e-reserves rather than print books and handouts, foot traffic has increased at both O’Neill and Bapst Libraries since 2007.

According to Gerrity, library foot traffic at O’Neill Library is higher than ever, increasing 12 percent from 738,318 total students in 2007-2008 to 827,048 in 2009-2010.

Bapst Library has also seen an increase in foot traffic over the last few years. Student library usage at Bapst Library increased 10 percent in the 2008-2009 academic year.

The data on foot traffic in the libraries is also helpful for responding to student needs.

These numbers are recorded in O’Neill by security gates located at the entrance. Bapst has a different system of counting visitors, which makes it difficult to count exact numbers.

Because admission tours entering the library would skew the numbers, a security guard or a student employee goes around the library and physically counts how many people are currently in the building four times a day.

The BC libraries have been undergoing changes over the last few years to accommodate this spike in student usage, extending library services and open hours.

The significant increase in foot traffic despite a decreasing emphasis on the traditional

print resources that libraries hold indicates the impact of BC libraries’ efforts to better accommodate students, as well as the traditional charm of using libraries as a cozy study space.

Bapst used a questionnaire to adapt to changing student requests. As another example, students can now have food in Bapst, which was not always true in the past.

Despite recent efforts by both libraries to make collections more digital and to create e-books and databases, students are still coming to the library to study. While students are using fewer books, they are still utilizing what the library has to offer.

“The library provides a quiet environment without the distractions of roommates or other things going on in your room,” Caroline Conole, A&S ‘13, said.

BC Libraries have extended hours, which according to Margie Battaglia, head of access services at O’Neill Library, has been a large cause of increase in foot traffic at both libraries.

As of September, O’Neill stays open until 3 a.m. Bapst’s Gargan Hall is open all night during the week, which has led to more students using Bapst in the early morning and late evening. Bapst now opens at 11 a.m. instead of 1 p.m. on Sundays as in previous years.

“After those hours, the building is filled almost to capacity with students studying or doing group work,” Battaglia said.

Both libraries have taken steps to make the

Photo by Robert Rossi

libraries more accessible to students. Battaglia mentioned that O’Neill Library opened the second entrance on the ground level to allow easier access from Lower Campus. There are also new study booths and the study rooms have been updated. More vending machines were also added. This year, some shelves were removed on level three to allow for more study desks. More print stations were also added to accommodate an increase in printer usage in both libraries.

This is the seventh year that Bapst has had a student art gallery in the basement lounge area, which has also increased the number of visitors.

“Many students come to Bapst because they feel a sense of place,” Adeane Bregman,

head librarian at Bapst, said of the library’s appeal. She also cited the association people make of the look of Bapst with Hogwarts from the Harry Potter books as another possible factor on why Bapst has been becoming more popular over the years.

Bregman said that because of Bapst’s physical appeal, it sees a lot of visitors to campus and perspective students on admission tours.

To her, it seems as though a lot of freshmen use Bapst Library because they are new to campus and they remember it from the admissions tour.

So while there may seem to be a push toward books being digital and being available on the Internet, there will always be a place in student life for the library.

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November Elections: Mass. Candidates’ Platforms

By Paige Heckathorn Assoc. Opinions Editor

Congress Barney Frank The Budget and the Economy: As Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank has overseen passage of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and the $700 billion Recovery Act. This past summer, the eponymous Frank-Dodd Act — cowritten by Senator Chris Dodd (D-NY) — passed, with reforms included for financial companies on Wall Street.

Although instrumental in many of President Barack Obama’s economic initiatives,

Sean Bielat The Budget and the Economy: Deficit reduction has been identified as a core issues in Bielat’s campaign, and he favors restructuring and cutting funding from many nondiscretionary programs in order to achieve the reduction. He has also come out in favor of an “intelligent tax,” which would promote a flat, fair tax to replace our current system.

he has also banded together with Republican members of Congress, including Ron Paul (R-TX) in order to urge to Deficit Reduction Committee to reduce defense spending in order to deal with the growing spending gap.

prove benefits received by veterans returning from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

National Security: Frank has been very vocal about his belief that the defense budget be cut in order to take control of the deficit. He has recently singled out the F-22 Fighter Jet Engine program and the nuclear weapons budget as primary targets. He has also co-sponsored legislation that would im-

Energy and the Environment:With his committee posts elsewhere in the House, Frank has not played a large role in enacting energy and environmental measures. He has, however, been in support of past climate change legislation, including the WaxmanMarkey Climate Bill that passed in June 2009. He has also worked with other Massachusetts legislators to protect certain areas, including Buzzards Bay.

National Security: As a former Marine Corps officer, Bielat feels as if the discretionary funds spent on defense should be tightened but not reduced. He cites Ronald Reagan’s belief in “peace through force” as an argument for a continued policy of strong military defense and deterrence. Bielat also calls on Frank, saying that cutting defense in order to support social programs is avoiding the tough choices, and putting social policies ahead of our national security.

Energy and the Environment: Bielat is in support of becoming more energy independent as a means of avoiding many of the security issues that our dependence on oil has brought to the United States. Beyond the argument of whether or not climate change is real, Bielat believes that investment in alternative energy can spur long-run economic growth so that the United States will continue to be competitive compared to countries such as China and India.

He also says that legislation he helped push through has saved residents on their health care premiums.

than a quarter of a billion dollars.

Governor Deval Patrick Health Care: In many ways, Massachusetts served as the model for the health care reform that took place in Washington in 2009 and 2010. Patrick cites his involvement in health care reform in the state that covers over 97 percent of residents, and also ended the risk of losing coverage based on unemployment or preexisting conditions.

Tim Cahill Health Care: Cahill says that under the 2006 reform law, premiums have become much higher for individuals, families, and small businesses. He says there is an anticompetitiveness in the system that is driving up costs, leading some employers to drop their health benefits. He recommends “market-led growth and competition” as the way to extend coverage at a lower price.

Charlie Baker Health Care: As the CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Baker has played a relatively active role in lowering costs for residents. He is opposed to many of the mandates that the Massachusetts health system currently imposes, citing its inability to lower costs as a reason to try other methods. He is in support of reforming Medicaid reimbursements in the state, and also implementing malpractice reform to help drive down the

Transportation: Backed by a Democratic Party slamming Charlie Baker for his role in the Big Dig, Patrick has made sure to highlight some of his own cutback in transportation, including eliminating the Turnpike Authority, which he claims has saved state residents more

Jobs: Patrick has been citing his leadership as governor during the recession with gains in private sector jobs gains of over 60,000 since December 2009. He cites federal and state programs that have invested $300 million in training programs for the unemployed. He also is emphasizing green jobs as a way to increase job growth in the long run.

Transportation: The candidate refers to past projects the other two candidates have undertaken, including Baker’s involvement in the Big Dig and Patrick’s MassDOT program. Cahill claims the basic financing behind transportation projects has been unsustainable and should be reformed. He believes that projects need to be reprioritized, with the most necessary - rather than politically popular - projects taking precedence.

Jobs: Citing his experience as a small business owner, Cahill says the traditional Massachusetts model of “retaining and recruiting” large companies needs to be reconsidered, and that promoting start-ups and entrepreneurs will be the economic future of the state. Like Baker, he wants to loosen regulations and taxes. Cahill also would like to develop “jobs teams” to engage local leaders to promote job and economic growth.

cost of premiums to individuals and small businesses.

often include transportation infrastructure improvement.

Transportation: Any policy related to transportation has become a sore spot for Baker, who has had to endure repeated attacks regarding his own record in the state.

The fact that transportation has become an issue the other two candidates have focused on seem to be a direct correlation to this, especially as federal stimulus funds continue to stream in with shovel-ready projects that

Jobs: In order to bring more jobs to the state, Baker has proposed a more lenient tax program that would entice companies to make Massachusetts their home, by reducing taxes not only on businesses themselves, but also on the income tax for all residents.

He also proposes loosening some business regulations and streamlining government programs to make them more efficient.

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Trends appear in student club funding allocation

By Sue Byun Assoc. News Editor An analysis of club budget allocations from 2004-2009 provides insight into how the Student Organization Funding Committee (SOFC) allocates money.

The 17 members of the committee collectively hold the purse strings to an average of $580,099 of money collected from student activities fee included in Boston College tuition. The yearly amount in the SOFC coffer has fluctuated between $431,499 in 2004 and $769,779 in 2007.

Every fall and spring semester, SOFC essentially cuts every student organization a slice from its $600,000 pie.

Despite SOFC‘s purported neutrality in not favoring any one student activity sector or specific club,

data show that a large piece of the SOFC pie consistently go to the cultural sector, followed by athletic, political, and community service.

According to Hang Wei Zhang, CSOM ’12 and treasurer of SOFC, culture clubs by nature require funding since food is essential to sharing their culture and also tend to be a hefty expense.

Culture-related clubs constitute 18 percent of the student organizations that are registered and receive BC funding, and receive 43 percent of the SOFC funding budget. Community service related clubs constitute 24 percent of student organizations and receive only 13 percent of the pie. This data is reflected in Image 1: Allocation of Total SOFC Funds by Club Sector.

Data also show that certain clubs receive a large slice every year.

From 2004-09 to date, the clubs

that have received the biggest slice of the funding budget can be seen in Image 2: 10 Clubs That Received the Most Funding 20042009.

SOFC bases funding decision on criteria such as the club’s impact on the BC community, past successful events, and how well the club can justify their need for funds.

“Generally we try to be as objective as possible especially since clubs fall into different sectors,” Zhang said. “A culture club and a political club are very different, so overall we try to evaluate each club in isolation by looking at its impact on the BC community.”

Other clubs receive very little to no funding from SOFC. For data on the clubs that received the smallest pie between 2004-9, see Image 3: 10 Clubs that Received the Least Funding.

Image 3

Image 2

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Tea Party Movement creates buzz, lacks unified platform

By Marina Lopes Asst. News Editor “President Obama are you listening?,” Rick Santelli, a financial commentator on CNBC, said, turning to a crowd of traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

“This is America,” he said. “How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?”

The traders cheered in the background as Santelli continued his impassioned speech.

It was February 2009, and the country was in a state of gridlock. Congress had just signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and all over the country, conservatives were waving their arms in objection to little avail.

“We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July,” Santelli said. “All you Capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I’m going to start organizing. We’re going to be dumping in some derivative securities.”

He had them at “This is America.”

Within days, the video known, as “Santelli’s rant” became a rallying cry for all of those who felt betrayed by the recovery act.

A mere eight days later, 48 protests were held nationwide. Websites like OfficialChicagoTeaParty.com sprung out of thin air.

Leaders emerged all over the country and took on the form of the unlikeliest people: college students, stay at home moms, retirees. Together they organized the best they could, fueling a grassroots movement that would paralyze the nation politically.

66-year-old Diana Reimer quit her job as a Macy’s saleswoman to become a fulltime Tea Party volunteer and coordinator.

For Reimer and other Tea Partiers, their involvement with the movement after the passing of the Troubled Asset Relief Program marked the first time they were politically active in their lives.

“The TARP bailout was passed to the benefit of major corporations, but it was passed by the state,”said Paul Christensen, associate professor in the political science department. “So if you are ordinary people, where are you going to deflect your anger?” he asked. “Insofar as the state is very tightly connected to the corporate structure of the country…I find that to be completely understandable.”

Reimer agreed that the TARP bailout spurred her involvement with the Tea Party.

“It made us realize we had to be informed.

We’re the American people, we’re responsible, because we weren’t paying attention”, she told New York Times reporter Kate Zernike. By April 15th, half a million Tea Partiers protested the bailout all over the country.

The birth of this sudden movement caught Americans off guard.

With their signs and reactionary chants, the media was not sure whether or not it should take Tea Partiers seriously. Liberal

commentators waved the Tea Party off as little more than an object for their jokes, and Republicans, unsure of the potential electoral response to the movement, hesitated to take it under their wing.

But it quickly became clear that the Tea Party movement was here to stay. Its festive anger empowered disenchanted Americans to realign an economy spiraling out of control. Both Republicans and media pundits scrambled to claim the movement as their own, hoping that its fervor would fuel the next election.

And it did. In Massachusetts, Scott Brown’s election, widely attributed to the Tea Party’s campaigning, placed a Republican in a Senate seat that hadbelonged to the Democrats for nearly 60 years. Rand Paul beat the Republican-anointed Trey Grayson in Kentucky for the GOP’s Senate nomination with over 60 percent of the votes. Most recently, Tea Partier Christine O’Donnell won the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat over veteran Republican representative Mike Castle.

The impact of the movement on the Republican Party can be felt on campus, according to Tomas Castella, president of the College Republicans of BC and A&S ‘11.

“I definitely think that there are certain group members that can relate to the aims of the Tea Party along the lines of strong fiscal conservatism,” Castella said. “That has really been the strength of our growth this year.”

Yet for all the movement’s fanfare, its ideology is hard to pin down.

“The problem is that I have no idea what their economic demands are and/or what their model or view of the economy is,” Richard Tresch, professor in the economics department, said. “Slogans such as ‘take back the government’ make absolutely no sense to me: from what, for what, to what?”

Over 90 percent of Tea Partiers oppose the way President Barack Obama is handling the economy, health care and the federal budget, according to an April 2010 New York Times/CBS News Poll of Tea Party Supporters. But when pressed, Tea Partiers have difficulty coming up with alternatives.

52 percent of Tea Partiers do not believe the country needs a third political party to compete with Democrats and Republicans. Tea Partiers were equally divided on whether cuts to the budget deficit or taxes are most important.

“There is nothing there that is positive in a sense,” Christensen said. “In fact, I think they claim to be revolutionary, and yet I think that they are reactionary, backward looking not forward looking.”

Lacking political centralization and a common ideology, the Tea Party, to some, seems to be all dressed up with no place to go. Its impact on American politics will only be felt when a true leader harnesses the Tea Partiers’ anger into viable solutions for America’s concrete problems.

Photo courtesy of Picasa Web

Poll shows young voters still expected to ‘rock vote’

By Mason Lende Editorial Assistant Rock the Vote, an organization dedicated to promoting electoral enthusiasm among youth, recently released results of a poll conducted in August that found that 77 percent of voters are likely to participate in this election, even though 59 percent say they are more cynical about politics now than two years ago.

With less than a month to go until Election Day, political pundits have already held the funeral for the Democratic majority in Congress.

Rock the Vote’s poll results indicate that while voter cynicism is prevalent, it does not predicate a low voter turnout. Young voters may be upset with the current political climate, but it most likely will not deter them from voting.

In an article discussing the poll results, Heather Smith, executive director of Rock the Vote, said, “What we found is that young voters are tired of politics as usual, and this sentiment gives them all the more reason to vote on November 2.”

Kristoffer Munden, president of the College Democrats of Boston College (CDBC) and A&S ‘11, is also positive about the impact that young voters will have in the upcoming election.

“There definitely is a degree of excitement and anticipation for the upcoming election,” Munden said. “CDBC has seen a large increase over last year in club meeting attendance.”

“I would not call the sentiment among voters to be cynical. Rather, I would characterize it as frustration,” Munden said.

While the results of the poll focused on potential voters, Rock the Vote also questioned voters who do not plan to participate in the election for their reasoning.

Respondents could choose from the response that candidates are either controlled by corporate interests or simply don’t care about the issues that are important to voters.

The majority of those who do not plan to vote, 62 percent, answered that corporate interests exert too much power in American politics, so it makes little difference whether or

not they vote.

Only nine percent of those questioned indicated that they either do not know why or have a reason different than the options provided.

According to Munden, the percentage of people that opt not to vote in midterm elections might be much higher.

“I’d probably say it’s ignorance,” he said.

“Statistics show that voter turnout in midterm elections is always much lower than in presidential elections.”

Widespread anger at Washington, however, is not prevalent in either the Rock the Vote’s poll or in Munden’s experience.

“I think anger toward Washington is limited to a very small portion of the population - the Tea Partiers,” he said. “While it may encourage these people to vote in greater numbers, I think overall they won’t make a significant impact on the election.”

While the Rock the Vote’s poll results focused solely on youth aged 18 to 29, these young people came from all ends of the political spectrum. The number of liberals and conservatives polled was relatively equal at 24 and 29 percent, respectively. Moderates accounted for 39 percent.

Recently, much media attention has been devoted to a sweeping national movement of conservatism that reflects a roundabout turn from the 2008 election, where 55 percent of those polled listed themselves as voting for Barack Obama.

Though voters may be upset with the Democratic majority in Washington, this new data does not support the trend that Republicans are preferred over Democrats.

The Democratic Party received a favorable vote from 46 percent of those polled while the Republican Party only attained a 36 percent favorability rating. This poll only takes general party affiliation into account and does not account for distinct candidates in this election.

“Turnout among young voters in the last election increased significantly,” Munden said.

“If we turn out in similar numbers this year, we will have a huge impact in making sure that Congress stays blue.”

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Addition to football first down chant sparks debate

By Lauren Viola Asst. Features Editor The debate happening throughout campus and online over the past few weeks has centered on how we, as Boston College students, can best cheer on our football team. It is hard to image how what seems to be a simple, unified cheer for our team’s first downs can become such a heated controversy across campus. Nevertheless, the debate continues.

A few short years ago, nothing followed the snippet of our fight song that was played to celebrate a first down. The end of the song was played, and the traditional “woo” was heard throughout the student section. It seemed like no sooner did the “Eagles, first down” cheer catch on, than people were making additions and variations.

A 2010 alumnus claims to have started the addition of “bitch”.

“When we started it, it was an early season game last fall,” the alumnus, who requested to remain anonymous, said.

“I can’t remember if it was Kent State or Northeastern, some team that had no business being on the same field as us, and we were blowing them out. Frankly, my friends and I were bored and wanted to experiment and see how many people we could get to tack the ‘bitch’ onto every first down.”

He and his friends were shocked to return to

Alumni Stadium for this year’s first game and hear the chant going strong.

“We were shocked when we went back to the student section for the opener this season and every freshman was continuing the tradition,” he said.

As excited as this alumnus and his friends were to hear the chant live on, an opposing view was soon to follow from a portion of the BC community. With concerns for how the chant made BC look to outsiders, and a general dislike for the use of profanity in organized cheers, students and faculty alike began expressing their concerns.

“I think it’s rather unnecessary,” Kristin Borrero, CSOM ’11, said. “The point of cheers is to come together and support each other and our school, and foster school spirit. I just don’t know that this is the way of doing it.”

One alumnus, Grant Salzano, A&S ‘10, decided to take action.

“Basically, I heard the chant start up sometime last year and grow,” Salzano said in an email. “Most of my friends cringed every time they heard it, but it just kept getting louder each game.”

In an effort to bring together those students who were against the addition, Salzano created a Facebook event called “The day the Superfans stop saying ‘Eagles First Down…Bitch!’,” which attracted over 2,300 members.

“I figured if I started a Facebook event,”

Photo courtesy of Kristoffer Munden

Salzano said, “maybe people would realize that they aren’t the only ones who feel that way and will try and get the people around them to stop doing it at games.”

With similar thoughts coming in various emails and announcements to the entire student body from Coach Frank Spaziani and BC administrators, the debate grew on campus, peaking during the game against Virginia Tech.

The verdict? It seems as though the marching band are the ones with the real power. In conjunction with a general lack of first downs during the game, the marching band stopped playing any music in celebration of the rare achievement. Without the traditional tune, the fans had nothing unifying their cheering and

the chant seemed to die off all together. No “woo”, no “Eagles, first down”, and definitely no “bitch”.

Against Notre Dame, the first down chanting lingered throughout the student section as the marching band came back to life with a revised version of their song. Chanting “Eagles!

Whoop there it is!” after a shortened tune, the band has tried to revamp the cheering section, much to the pleasure of many faculty members (including a Jesuit who mentioned it while presiding over a mass).

The outcome is still unclear as to whether or not this will become a tradition at football games. But both sides are passionate, which will only extend this debate further into the season.

New group drives for campus-wide green initiatives

By Mason Lende Editorial Assistant Single-stream recycling, in-room recycling containers and friendly reminders on light switches and bathroom mirrors asking for conservation are familiar to students. Yet, they are only a few ways students can be involved in environmental issues.

Amid the various environmentally friendly groups, a new face shines on the green horizon. This year, in addition to EcoPledge and other previously established groups, UGBC has taken green action into its own hands.

At the heart of this new group is involvement.

“UGBC’s Sustainability Team,” Julianne Hall, A&S ’13, said in an email, “is a new group this year that was part of Micaela and Pat’s grassroots plan to get more students involved in different initiatives on campus.”

However, this does not mean that EcoPledge will be going away or contributing less. In fact, the Sustainability Team and EcoPledge plan to cooperate on a number of projects.

Both EcoPledge and the Sustainability Team offer ample opportunities for student involvement.

“UGBC Sustainability team has a rolling application,” Daley Greun, A&S ’11, said in an email. “And EcoPledge needs as many people as possible on their events and initiatives.”

Student involvement is an important as-

pect of sustainability, but more than that, both groups maintain that the many organizations and activities on campus need to become more aware of the push for greening the campus.

“We hope that through the collaboration of EcoPledge with UGBC,” Elizabeth Barthelmes, president of EcoPledge, A&S ’11, said in an email, “more groups than ever before will be able to get involved, making it an interdisciplinary effort to improve BC’s impact on the environment.”

Involvement is not, however, limited to contributing to events, club participation in green activities, or attending meetings. Hall said, “One of the things that we are starting work on is a series of short informational videos to keep students informed on how to

Photo courtesy of shutterbooth.com

sort recycling from trash and compost, what BC is already doing to decrease our environmental impact, and other general information and campus initiatives.”

Knowledge about both what can be done and what is already being done to promote sustainability is also vital. Information can be found at the UGBC Sustainability Team website, which is in the process of being updated.

One of the most important missions of the Sustainability Team is to provide a connection between green activities and student government.

“While UGBC’s Green Team developed to support our initiatives,” Barthelmes said, “they have the important role of connecting these ideas back into the structure of our student government. Together we hope to create the foundations for lasting change at BC.” The sustainability team is in the process of increasing awareness, both through student involvement and the UGBC website.

In regards to making recycling both more visible and readily available, Gruen said, “We want to help dining make the recycling area more clear. And we would like to address the lack of any clear recycling in the Rat and Eagles Nest.”

Both the Sustainability Team and EcoPledge aim to achieve the same objectives without competition.

“We will also be teaming up with EcoPledge to reach out to other student organi-

zations to help them understand the importance of environmental issues,” Hall said.

However, students should not necessarily expect more green “events”. Instead, UGBC will focus on initiatives to actually promote sustainability.

“Events risk preaching to the choir,” Gruen said, “and not contributing to the bottom line of reducing Boston College’s energy, water, and material waste.”

As UGBC’s Co-Directors of Sustainability, Gruen and Hall are in charge of planning meetings, which occur on a bi-weekly basis.

“We hope that by reaching all of the different groups,” Hall said, “we can promote a much more comprehensive effort on campus because more people will see a new reason to turn off lights or recycle that directly affects them.”

The UGBC Sustainability Team is promising both in terms of future environmental efforts and membership.

“The Sustainability Team just started,” Gruen said, “but we already have an awesome tone to our group, where we all joke around and get along very well.”

If students are interested in getting involved with green progress on campus, sustainability leaders offer many suggestions.

“Our campus is quickly getting involved with these efforts, so find a group that works with your interest and sign up!” Barthelmes said. “EcoPledege, UGBC Green Team, Sustain BC, and Real Food are great places to start.”

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My Elle Woods Moment

By Michelle Martínez News Editor Question 4. Michelle: I have maintained a high GPA during my four years at Boston College, participated in extracurricular activities and had valuable internships. Logically, I will thus get into a good law school.

What is an underlying assumption of this argument?

Answer: B. Michelle also had a high score on her LSATs. My post-college graduation plans have never really been unclear to me. Growing up surrounded by lawyers, a legal career was essentially engrained into my head from early on.

Therefore, once I got to BC, I opted to major in the stereotypical pre-law equivalent that is political science.

Every summer, I’d hunt for the ideal internship that would give my resume a boost, as well as some invaluable experience in actually determining whether or not law was the career for me.

Now that I’m nearing the end of these four years at BC, I have the grades, the enthusiasm and hopefully most of what law schools are looking for. There was only one thing missing: the LSATs. And they had to be high.

The first time I bought a LSAT-prep book, I learned that this is supposed to be an exam that tests your level of logic and how you apply it. My first impression: Thank goodness there’s no math.

After that, I quickly turned to the Logic Games section, and finally understood why for the past few months, so many people’s Facebook statuses would always say something like “I hate you, Logic Games,” or the ever melodramatic “Logic Games will be the death of me.”

Needless to say, I initially did not find the alleged logic in these games. Since these quickly began to infuriate me, I decided to take the LSAT-prep class at BC, which took up a good eight hours of my week.

Evidently, most of my class readings have yet to be done, and my roommates might have forgotten what I look like.

So after months of going through three different LSAT-prep books, doing zillions of practice tests, and trying to figure out the supposed “logic” behind a few of the question stems, the moment of truth was finally last Saturday.

I did pretty much everything that the books suggest: I previously went to verify the test location; I had a fish-rich meal for dinner the night before; prepared my Zip-loc bag with all the necessary (and allowed) materials; woke up a good few hours early and had a sugar-free breakfast, and read something so that the LSAT wasn’t the first thing that I did that morning. In spite of my preparations, the morning was not free of drama and stress by any means.

Once we were separated by last names to go to our respective classrooms, I followed the protocol of presenting the proctors my ID (which is my U.S. passport, seeing as my Puerto Rican driver’s license never gets accepted) and admission ticket.

I assumed that the next step would be the fingerprinting, but she just turned to me and said, “We can’t admit you. Your last names are different. You can take it in December.”

Because of a miniscule difference in the way my last names were written, I had to essentially beg and bawl until they finally let me take the exam on Saturday.

After all this waiting and studying, there was no way I was going to take the exam a few months later. So needless to say, the day did not start off the way I would have wanted.

After this dramatic moment, it was time to begin the gruesome endurance process that is the LSAT. Following three (darn you, experimental sections) Logical Reasoning sections, one Reading Comprehension, one Logic Game, and one Writing Sample, I was finally free. And shockingly, the section I was most confident in was the Logic Games section.

So I might not have an Elle Woods moment where all my sorority sisters will run to me with my score and I’ll scream “179!” But hopefully two weeks from now, when I open my email, I’ll see a number I’ll be proud of.

Maybe I’ll at least be wearing hot pink.

Photo courtesy of Entertainment Weekly

Meet Valiant, the Mod dog Photo courtesy of Brittany Baker

By Lauren Viola Asst. Features Editor About a month into fall semester, and without a mention of their brothers, sisters, or parents, many students can be heard expressing how much they miss their dogs. That loving pet which you can always count on to welcome you home is something that seems to be constantly missing from the life of a college student. Sure, ResLife may allow pet fish in the dorms (and the occasional turtle if you’re really discreet), but certainly nothing of the canine variety.

Until now.

Valiant is Boston College’s youngest ever resident of the Mods, and also probably the cutest. At just over three months old, this yellow lab has captured the hearts of everyone he has met. But there is so much more that he has to offer.

Valiant has landed a spot in the most popular housing area on campus with the help of owner and trainer, Brittany Baker, A&S ’11.

Baker will be taking care of the pup for 12 to 18 months, training him in the first process of becoming a guide dog.

“My best friend from home attends the University of Georgia and has raised dogs for Guide Dogs for the Blind,” Baker said in an email. “I wanted to do a similar thing at BC.” After finding an organization local to BC, Guiding Eyes for the Blind, Baker was able to begin the process of being assigned to a dog.

“I applied online and received information on pre-puppy classes,” Baker said. “I attended pre-puppy training classes this past summer and Valiant was placed with me the day after I moved on campus.”

Baker’s job is to socialize the dog in different situations so he learns how to interact with people. In addition, Valiant has guidelines he has to follow in order to learn how to perform this special task.

“I have to teach him basic obedience, house training, and general manners,” Baker said.

“He has certain rules that he has to follow because he is in training to become a guide

dog, especially regarding how he interacts with other people while he is on walks and in public.”

Valiant has quickly become noticed on campus, especially around the Mods.

“It is interesting living with a puppy in the Mods because most students are confused as to why there is a puppy at all on campus,” Baker said. “Seniors in the Mods got used to Valiant quite quickly and now don’t seem to be as fazed by him running around the Mods and in backyards.”

Baker’s roommates, as well, have embraced the experience.

“My roommates are very enthusiastic about helping me raise a guide dog puppy that will hopefully become a gift of independence for a blind individual,” Baker said.

She and her roommates, however, have had to deal with the consequences of having a puppy in their rooms.

“There are definitely times when Valiant stays true to his puppy instincts which can be frustrating,” Baker said, “but overall he is very fun to have living in our Mod.” Baker said that Valiant will eventually begin to attend classes with her but for now he stays at home when she has to go out.

At the end of Valiant’s stay at BC, Baker will finish her role and eventually pass him on to the next step in his guide dog training.

“Given that he passes all of his training requirements, [Valiant] will go back to the Guiding Eyes center in New York to have further training on specific tasks that he will perform as a guide dog,” Baker said. “He will stay there for approximately another year and if he is successful at that stage of training he will be placed with a blind individual.”

Though she will not be able to be Valiant’s owner for the duration of his lifetime, Baker said it is a rewarding experience.

“I know that the attachment that I will have to him cannot possibly outweigh the positive benefit he will hopefully have in a blind individual’s daily life,” Baker said. “Passing all of the requirements to become a guide dog means that Valiant will be a gift of independence for another individual.”

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BC Dining brings fair trade coffee to campus

By Amy Walsh Assoc. Features Editor This semester is one of change for Boston College, from Gasson and the Dustbowl down to your morning cup of coffee.

While most BC students were enjoying summer vacation, Dining Services was doing their homework. Since second semester of the last academic year, Dining Services has been conducting research, doing tastings, and speaking with students and student groups about coffee; fair trade coffee, that is.

“We had to look well beyond the label of fair trade,” Helen Wechsler, director of Dining Services, said.

Unfortunately, there are venders who claim that their products are fairly traded because they meet the technical guidelines, but who do not necessarily meet BC’s ethical guidelines. As a result, Dining Services must do its own research.

“The acceptance of large plantations and corporations such as Nestlé into the Fair Trade labeling system calls into question the very underpinnings of the certification system of which we are a part,” the Equal Exchange website explains.

As a result of much research, there are two new fairly traded, organic coffee roasters on BC’s campus. Equal Exchange is now found in Hillside Café, and Dean’s Beans is found in BC Catering and in the major dining halls.

Equal Exchange was founded in 1986

by Rink Dickinson, Jonathan Rosenthal, and Michael Rozyne. A local roaster with headquarters in Massachusetts, the company started with the goal of transforming the relationship between the public and food producers. Equal Exchange’s mission has grown “to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farm-

ers and consumers and to demonstrate, through our success, the contribution of worker co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world.”

A worker cooperative is owned by all the employees in equal portions. Farmers and managers alike receive equal shares of any profits or losses. Equal Exchange is currently partnered with these worker cooperatives all over the world including Latin America, Africa, Asia, and even the United States.

In 1991 the company established itself as a Fair Trade specialty coffee company and in 1996 began their Interfaith Program. This initiative partnered Equal Exchange with over 10,000 communities of faith across the United States who began using the company’s fair trade coffee.

Equal Exchange also works with Catholic Relief Services, who donates a percentage of purchases from Equal Exchange to the Catholic Relief Services Fair Trade Fund.

Their mantra “small farmers, big change” has led the company to include more fairly traded products such as tea, chocolate, bananas, and snacks like almonds, pecans, and dried cranberries.

Dean’s Beans is also a local roaster located out of Orange, Massachusetts, offering 100 percent organic and fair trade products. The company was founded in Orange in 1993 by Dean Cycon. The company promotes “local empowerment and selfreliance through our Fair Trade purchases and our work with local grassroots development and human rights groups.” The company only purchases beans from small farmers and cooperatives. Additionally, the company only purchases shade grown coffees from these same producers. Retaining the natural flora around and over the cof-

fee plants, the method of shade growing coffee provides needed shade, nourishment and erosion control necessary for a healthy environment, which also supports healthy environments for coffee growers, Dean’s Beans explains. Shade grown coffee also protects critical migratory bird habitats for birds such as Baltimore Orioles and Bluebirds that winter in coffee lands.

Cycon works extensively with villages to better economic opportunity, improving health as well as nutrition within the communities. The company also helped found Cooperative Coffees, Inc. This is the first roaster’s cooperative created to buy direct, Fair Trade coffee from farmer coops, making it available to any small roaster who wants to participate in the Fair Trade movement, Dean’s Beans explains.

Other products, such as organic sugar, organic java drops, organic hot cocoa, and organic baking cocoa, are also offered by the local roaster. Besides edible items, Dean’s Beans also sells soccer balls made in the only Fair Trade certified ball factory in Pakistan and reusable grocery totes made

by Somali refugee women in Springfield, Massachusetts. Cycon leads by example in hopes that more coffee companies will join the Fair Trade movement.

At BC, Real Food BC was a main component in encouraging Dining Services to look into more fairly traded coffee for the campus.

“As one of over 250 colleges under the national campaign for the Real Food Challenge, we hope (as the mission of the campaign states) to have 20 percent ‘real food’ in BC Dining by 2020,” Anabelle McLean, A&S ’11 and Real Food BC president, said.

Real Food BC constantly works to bring more sustainable products to the BC com-

munity. This is especially evident in Real Food’s support of locally sourced and organic foods in The Loft at Addie’s in Corcoran Commons.

“For a food to be considered a ‘real food,’ one of the specifications must follow: the food must be organic, local, fairly traded or humanly raised,” McLean said.

As Dean’s Beans and Equal Exchange both meet these qualifications, Real Food is thrilled to have their coffee available on campus this year. However, this was no easy feat.

“With the bureaucracy that one might face at any school or institution, it’s difficult for a small group on campus to bring even just one new product into dining services each year,” McLean said.

However, Real Food is thankful for the positive reception they have received from Helen Wechsler over the years. Coffee was one success in their goal of bringing more sustainable products to BC’s campus. And with the apparent popularity of the new roasters, Real Food hopes success will be brought to implementing the coffee campus-wide.

Alyssa Rutherford A&S ’12 said, “I like Equal Exchange better than I liked the Starbucks offered in Hillside last year.”

“The flavor was really enticing, but in terms of taste, I was not a huge fan,” Lauren Zajac A&S ’12 says of Equal Exchange coffee. “Overall, it wasn’t a big change for me from Starbucks to Equal Exchange, but I still like Peet’s the best.”

While the dustbowl is fenced off, Gasson is under construction, and Devlin’s main walkway is nothing but rubble, BC is going through nothing short of a transition period. However, there is one thing that has already changed for the better, and it’s right inside your morning cup of coffee.

Profile: Pedro Jimenez, a vital part of Equal Exchange As a representative of the Las Colinas coffee cooperative in Tacuba, El Salvador, Pedro Antonio Ascensio Jimenez has come to the United States. This month, he is touring with his Equal Exchange partners to express the importance of fairly traded coffee both for his cooperative and his community.

In addition, he is looking for more partners and to share how their coffee is produced.

Jimenez’s father helped found the cooperative in 1980, and though Jimenez began his work with the co-op in 1987, he has worked with coffee since childhood. Jimenez was first involved with agricultural work through pruning and weed control. Eventually he served as secretary of the marketing committee, then secretary of the administrative committee of which he later became president. He now resides as manager of coffee processing and marketing operations.

Jimenez’s wife, Rosa del Carmen Rivera, also works in the cooperative. During the

harvest she picks coffee and during the rest of the year she works as a janitor at a local school. Together they have five children: Daniel, three years old, Damaris, ten, Josue, twelve, Wendy, fourteen, and Misael, sixteen. All are currently enrolled in school.

The Las Colinas Cooperative, however, did not start selling to Equal Exchange until 1992. The agrarian reform of 1980 redistributed land throughout El Salvador. The ownership of land shifted from large-scale coffee growers to coffee pickers and laborers. However, there were extremely high interest rates placed on the loans to buy the land, so many farmers still struggle to pay off the debt from those loans.

The government policies also restricted benefits to cooperative coffee producers. Additionally, Hurricane’s Mitch and Stan both hit El Salvador in 1998 and 2005, respectively, devastating coffee crops. In 1992, Las Colinas cooperative partnered with Equal

Exchange, which now purchases a majority of the cooperative’s coffee crop and is working with Las Colinas to readjust their debt.

“The previous buyers were capitalist individuals buying at the lowest price without the farmer’s interest in mind,” Jimenez said.

Equal Exchange offers flexibility and better options and choices for the cooperative.

“Sitting down with the purchasing manager we don’t feel like we’re beggars asking for a handout, we’re bargaining for a fair price.”

Choosing to be organic is also a better choice for the community. “The value of organic coffee guarantees our people are not drinking chemicals, and we’re taking better care of our land and environment by not using chemical fertilizers and pesticides… we’re very proud of our high quality, organic coffee.”

Not only does the cooperative work to improve the lives of its farmers, but it works

to help other producers as well. Jimenez explained that there are numerous coffee producers in El Salvador, yet many lack the organization of the cooperative.

“We’re trying to organize them to achieve organic certification so they can reap the benefits, namely getting higher prices.”

Some producers react very positively because they believe there’s benefit to getting organized; however, others are fearful.

“They’re afraid they will lose what they have as individuals,” Jimenez explained.

But Jimenez believes very strongly in the mission and organization of the cooperative.

“The most important thing I want people to know is we’re an organization striving for our common good, our best interest, and we want to encourage students to buy our coffee. Every time you buy our coffee you help us better educate our children and help improve our living conditions.”

Photo courtesy of farminton-pres.org

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Go, Set the Sociopoli power in the hands of the few.

Class and the Economy “[People must give] not just love, but power,” Knitter When the BC community works to form men and women for others, it should extend beyond service trips to said. “Not just charity, but opportunity.”

The only way to change the way that people are systemMexico or Virginia. It should exceed the idea of charity or putting aside a few hours a week to help others and ically denied opportunities is to change the system. Indipermeate every aspect of daily life, including the estab- viduals working cohesively to provide charity are contributing to a step in the right direction, as many BC students lished political and economic systems.

On Oct. 7, Professor Paul Knitter of the Union Theo- have actualized through involvement in clubs and organilogical Seminary delivered a lecture to a packed audi- zations oriented toward service. However, it is not enough ence in the Heights room entitled “Profits and Prophets: to stop there — people must be progressive in order to act in accordance Economic Dewith Cathovelopment and “Unequal access to the resources of any sort, lic ideology.

Inter religious from rights to water, is the starting point of They must Dialogue.” In any progressive movement.” advocate his lecture, he — Dr. Paul Knitter, Union Theological Seminary real, systemic addressed conCenterfold change. cerns about the “Unequal acconflict between religion, which dictates that people should care for and cess to the resources of any sort, from love their fellow men and women, and a market system, rights to water, is the starting point of which allows so many of those men and women to go any progressive movement in the without basic necessities like health care, food, clean wa- world,” Knitter said.

Dr. Jenny Aker, an associter or adequate shelter.

“The free market must be a moral market,” Knitter ate professor of development said. “Ethical values have to be built into the system. … economics from Tufts UniverThere will be no economic flourishing without a constant sity, responded to Knitter’s commentary. balancing of differences.”

“Theology alone cannot answer However, those differences are undeniably imbalanced, as people throughout the United States and throughout moral questions, especially if the the world have drastically different opportunities for suc- morality of decisions is dependant on cess based on access to basic survival necessities and to their effects.”

Religious idealism must translate into luxuries such as education.

According to Knitter, monotheistic ideology requires progressive, multi-faith action for ecothat people be concerned about the economic well-being nomic change — it’s not enough to believe of all and balance the necessity of the culture of individu- in equal opportunities if people are unwilling to work alism with the dangers presented by the concentration of and make sacrifices to achieve it.

Sexual Health Sexual health is one of the most divisive issues between political progressives and Catholic ideology.

From progressive campus group BC Students for Sexual Health to the controversy about condoms in Africa, sexual health and protection from unwanted pregnancy and sexual disease is a difficult issue to broach in the context of the modern world and Catholic ideology.

On campus, students deal with the issue of sexual health resources on a daily basis. BCPD and BC’s Sexual Assault Network generally directs assaulted women not to health services or to St. Elizabeth’s, but to the less conveniently located Brigham and Women’s Hospital or Beth Israel Medical Center, because the neither BC nor St. Elizabeth’s offer emergency contraception.

Sexual activity is a reality on college campuses, regardless of the institution’s religious affiliations. Although there is still work to be done in order to adequately meet students’ sexual health needs, the University has acted responsibly to protect its students by adding information about sexually transmitted infections to the school website and making testing and treatment available in University Health Services. The only mention of preventative care, however, refers to abstinence and not safer sexual practices.

Progressive students have joined to work toward protecting the student body’s bodies by bending (and breaking) campus policies, distributing over 10,000 con-

doms last year on College Road, which is technically public property, and through established “safe sites” in students’ rooms in residence halls.

On a broader scale, sexual health is a global issue that the Catholic Church faces, and clergy members are divided.

For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 22 million people — more than two-thirds of the region’s total population — are infected with HIV. Many people seek to educate the people about safer sexual activity and to offer resources, such as condoms, in order to curb the spread of disease.

However, the official stance of the Catholic church detracts from aid efforts — Pope Benedict XVI stated in March 2009 that condoms are a threat to the hope and stability of African people.

However, many Catholic aid workers working directly with the African people aim to reduce the rate of infection not only through abstinence, but also through practical consideration of the culture. They disagree with the Pope’s stance and say that ultimately, it is the physical safety of the people that is the primary concern, and the distribution of condoms may be necessary for the betterment of public health.

Although abstinence may be the only method of protection from STIs and pregnancy that is 100 percent effective, it is not always a practical solution on a societal level.

By Maeve Kennedy Gormly Managing Editor In today’s bipolar political climate, it is easy to clump media organizations into categories. Fox is conservative, NPR is liberal, and C-SPAN is moderate and only suitable for those who can maintain concentration through hours of congressional hearings.

Through the bipolar lens, it is conservatives, not progressives, who often possess the monopoly on incorporating religion into their political views. However, although progressives generally hold the separation of church and state as an essential piece of the political system in the United States, it does not mean that personal religious beliefs cannot heavily influence or share roots with progressive political ideology.

At its core, the progressive movement is about equality: equal rights and opportunities for men and women, equal rights and opportunities among races and classes, and equal rights and opportunities for people at all points on the spectrum of sexual orientation.

Although traditional Catholic ideology clashes with some progressive goals, and it is not difficult to focus on the areas in which the progressive political movement and traditional Catholic dogma diverge, most of the fundamental ideas behind progressive goals share common ground with Catholic values: social justice, love, and equality.

In his statement on the Boston College website, President William P. Leahy, SJ, writes about striking the balance between the way technology allows for a

Same-sex rights To be a progressive man or woman for others means not to remain unaffected when other men and women in the United States feel rejected when they are told that they cannot marry — in a civil, legal sense that would not infringe upon anyone’s personal religious practices — the love of his or her life. To be a progressive man or woman for others means to become angry when children go without parents while responsible, loving adults who want nothing more than to adopt must go without children solely on the basis of the gender of their partners.

Last spring, fellow Jesuit institution Fordham University reflected on the correlation between the values of progressive proponents of same-sex rights and Jesuit ideals by extending faculty benefits to legally domiciled adults (LDAs).

Previously, only heterosexually married couples could share faculty benefits, such as the extension of health care packages, facilities access and tuition redemption, according to a May 5 article in the Fordham Observer. This excluded all LDAs, including elderly parents for whom faculty members may have been providing care or people in committed long-term relationships who were not legally married. Now, Fordham (like BC before it) extends its benefits to LDAs, including domestic partners and other dependent adults, thereby covering people in same-sex partnerships.

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itical System Aflame constant inundation of new knowledge, and the way these advancements must fit in with the Catholic, Jesuit identity of BC. “Boston College endeavors to educate a new generation of leaders for the new millennium — men and women who will be capable of shaping a new century with vision, justice, and charity — with a sense of calling, with concern for all of the human family,” Leahy said.

Progressives and Jesuits alike advocate that conventionalized injustices that marginalize specific groups or individuals are a problem everyone must address.

The United States may have a history of valuing individualism, but when individualism fails, it is time to change the system.

John Dear, SJ, a peace activist and author who adCenterfold dresses issues of Christianity, wrote about the failures of our present political system when honoring the twentieth anniversary of the deaths of six Jesuit priests in San Salvador in a Nov. 2009 piece for the National Catholic Reporter.

“The martyrs denounced war, poverty and violence as ‘social sin,’” Dear said. “They knew these tragedies were unjust, immoral and impractical, but they went further and named systemic injustice as a violation of God’s will. ... We are all guilty of mortal sin by allowing billions to suffer under poverty, war and violence, they taught, and true repentance means working to eradicate these injustices.”

“Set[ting] the world aflame” is inherently progressive — it means to stand up for change and make a difference.

Although the Bible, at times, has been interpreted as condemning same-sex relationships, progressives and Catholics can still find common ground on the contentious issue of same-sex rights. Ultimately, fewer people will suffer if unions between adults are respected — such as the children in need of homes and opportunities or the people in loving, mature relationships — and it is difficult to object to that, morally.

In the United States, marriage is a legal agreement, not only a religious one. When two people marry legally outside of the realm of the church, their union does not impact the religious practices of anyone else or infringe upon anyone else’s freedom of religion, and as such, their legal benefits are directly a state matter, not a church concern.

reject every form of violence, from nuclear weapons to War & Peace The correlation here is direct: political progressives chemical weapons to Trident submarines to handguns. are more inclined than conservatives to be advocates of We oppose the Stealth Bomber, the B52, the F22, the maintaining peace and to fiercely oppose war and exces- MX, the cruise missile, the latest nuclear technology, sive military spending; the Ten Commandments state, Livermore Laboratories, the S.A.C. Base, the marines, the CIA, the FBI, the army, the navy, and all perpetrators “Thou shalt not kill.”

The Ten Commandments do not say, “Thou shalt not of violence and their arsenals.

“We renounce war and violent self-defense, tear up the kill unless ye suspect thy enemy of possessing weapons of mass destruction;” they do not say, “Thou shalt not kill just-war theory, and embrace gospel nonviolence.”

A year later, when the United States experienced the unless thou are feeling a surge of anger and patriotism after a terrorist attack.” They certainly do not say, “Thou September 11 attacks, Dear’s words were especially poishalt not kill unless there is some fierce competition for gnant. While many called for the blood of the perpetrators in the name of vengeance or, as then-President resources such as oil.”

George W. Bush was “Thou shalt not kill” — it is wont to say, preempstraightforward, simple, and “Put your sword back into its sheath, for all tive strikes against direct. who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

Iraq, Dear was a conIn May 2006, BC invited — Matthew 26:52 tinued proponent of then-Secretary of State Conpeaceful responses. doleezza Rice to the comAccording to Dear’s interpretation of Catholic theolmencement ceremony and awarded her with an honorary doctorate degree, at which time 19 Jesuits from ogy, there is no such thing as a just war. Although the around the globe spoke out against the decision due to Catholic Church has not always practiced peacefulness her role in the war in Iraq. They wrote an open letter of and is marred by its bloody history — see, for example, protest that expressed outrage toward the continued mili- the Crusades — the Bible advocates peace because, as tary actions of the United States, which defied morality, Dear says, “violence begets violence.”

Matthew 26 reveals Jesus instructing his disciples not to Jesuit values and mainstream progressive political beliefs.

“The military occupation of Iraq has brought with it react violently when he is being arrested. Although the a variety of other illegal and immoral practices, includ- physical killing of Jesus would have been the ultimate ing the abuse and torture of prisoners by U.S. forces and time for justifiable violence if there were ever to be such the inordinate killing of innocent civilians in Iraq,” the justification from a Christian viewpoint, the Bible is clear: violence is not an effective response.

Jesuits said.

In Matthew 26:52, Jesus directs his disciples: “Put your Many members of the Society of Jesus spoke out against the war from sword back into its sheath, for all who take the sword will its inception, and some were vocal perish by the sword.”

When progressives spoke out against the war in its early dissidents of all forms of military conflict before the United States be- days, they were often deemed unpatriotic. Patriots reprecame involved in the Second Gulf sented their love for the country through yellow ribbon War. Dear is a prime example of ac- bumper stickers and big banners declaring, “In God We tivism stemming from the Jesuit com- Trust,” while dissenters were lumped into a category of munity. Throughout his work as an people who were anti-American or anti-Christian radicals.

However, Dear’s views, expressed as a Jesuit priest, are activist, he has been arrested more than 75 times, spent time in jail, arguably more radical and progressive than the sentipublished 19 books and lost his vot- ments expressed by the majority of anti-war protestors. ing rights as a result of his civil dis- Dear examined the role of nonviolence in the everyday obedience. In Jan. 2008, Archbishop lives of people who identify as followers of Christ.

“Does this mean that Christians cannot be employed by Desmond Tutu nominated Dear for the Pentagon, the police, or the nuclear-weapons manua Nobel Peace Prize for his activism.

In 2000, responding to the violence facturers?” Dear wrote. “The question goes to the heart throughout the world and the envi- of Jesus’ message. If we will obey the last words of Jesus, ronment, Dear wrote of nonviolence then we will not, like Judas, side with the imperial authorities — and we will not employ their means of violence. in his book, Jesus the Rebel.

“Those of us who would follow Je- We will refuse to carry weapons, even for the noblest reasus are precluded from drawing the sword,” Dear said. son, and we will not work for any institution that inflicts “We are people who love our enemies; who prefer to violence. We prepare, instead, to undergo what Christ undergo violence rather than inflict it upon others; who undergoes.”

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A Farewell to the Dustbowl

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Editorials

No excuses for ignoring civic duty In November of 2008, voters between the ages of 18-29 turned out in massive numbers, constituting 18 percent of the vote — overwhelmingly for Barack Obama — and making a clear statement with their electoral power.

Two years later, 18 to 29 year olds have the chance to make a similar statement, as many seats in Congress and state governments are up for grabs. And yet, young voters have been conspicuously absent in the primary elections. There have long been problems with getting the youth vote out — resulting in less attention from our nation’s politicians regarding issues we care about the most.

Knowledge of current events and issues does not constitute political activity. It does not bode well for our generation that we consider demonstrations of political ideology to be useless, even, perhaps, too dangerous for our tastes. Extreme, hateful rhetoric and lying for the sake of political gain is never acceptable. But rejecting such tactics is also not an excuse to become complacent in our political lives.

Yes, politics is more polarized now than ever before. The louder, more obnoxious, and usually more unreasonable a politician is, the more attention he or she gets. So to fully combat how “politics as usual” works, people have to vocalize their discontent, not to shy away from it now and plan only to participate when it gets better — it may not without us demanding it.

Civic duty is much more than our extracurricular activities or hours of service.

It is important to enrich our souls, our campus, and the lives of others through our efforts. Indeed, many groups on campus have been successful in implementing change at Boston College, including the great achievement that happened last year when the Asian American Scholarship was finally given a name. The Corazon and Benigno Aquino Scholarship honors two figures who did not sit back and watch their country fall into the hands of people they did not trust or respect — they stood up for their beliefs, and helped bring democracy to the Philippines.

Organizing events and fundraising for service trips are important factors in our lives at BC, but they are no substitute for engaging our elected officials in meaningful ways. Most importantly, young people must take their knowledge of issues and events beyond polite, dilettante conversations among peers, and straight to the ballot box.

It is imprudent to suggest that activities on campus can ever replace our civic duty of being active political participants and, most importantly, voters. Whether we like it or not, we all must leave Chestnut Hill at the end of four years and engage in real life. By not using our power now, we are putting our generation at a serious disadvantage.

In November, the way to extend our already admirable efforts on campus is to vote in our local and state elections. Especially in this extreme and divided political environment, our generation can exercise our electoral voice by choosing candidates who can restore our confidence in government through effective and entrepreneurial policy-making that will create the society we wish to see.

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New Superfan shirts encourage size matters New freshmen become integrated into the Boston College community by getting their Superfan t-shirt. This fall, it is easier than ever to identify a freshman football attendee because of the brighter shade of yellow of the new Under Armour brand Superfan shirts.

While these new shirts may seem like improvements next to the more faded cotton shirts of the past, these shirts have one particular feature not present in those from previous generations: Under Armour shirts have their size printed on the outside.

The small letter denoting the size usually resides on the inside tag, safely tucked away where only the wearer can know what it represents. In a society where body image is a highly sensitive issue, few want to display to the world his or her clothing size.

The Superfan shirt is supposed to be fun — a symbol of school pride and a connection to your classmates. While the size of the shirt is not a big deal for most, to some it may be a trigger for self-esteem issues, especially if one feels they do not wear the “right size.”

Why Under Armour would not realize the implications of printing size on the outside of a t-shirt is baffling. It would not seem that there is anyone interested in publicly displaying what size clothing they wear, since it is a personal matter.

We are constantly subjected to images of anorexic models, super-thin girls whose bodies are plastered across billboards, fill the pages of magazines, and walk on the runways. They are also in most of our favorite television shows and movies. There is no way we can avoid seeing what the media deem as beauty, but that does not mean that we should have to perpetuate body size self-consciousness through the clothes we wear.

This environment of body consciousness, in large part perpetuated by the media and technology of which our society is so fond, has contributed to a college culture where eating disorders are at an all-time high. Every university has their share of anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders, and BC is no exception.

Perhaps printing the size on the outside of a t-shirt is not such a big deal, but it does not seem that the general public is ready to let go of all body issues and feel comfortable enough to announce to the world the numbers by which we measure and weigh ourselves.

One day it may be that we reside in a world where girls do not skip meals or purge their food, where the models and actresses in advertisements and on our screens are healthy instead of just thin, and where people are not judged so harshly by their appearance. However, until then, it may be wise for clothing companies, especially popular companies like Under Armour, to be a little more sensitive to the fact that size matters to many people.

All in all, printing the size on the outside of clothing seems like an overall poor decision, one that brings to light a host of issues regarding the way we feel about clothing and the way we view ourselves.

Got opinions? Let us know at www.bcgavel.com.

The Gavel is the monthly print edition of Gavel Media, a student-run organization. It is published with support from Campus Progress / the Center for American Progress — online at www.campusprogress.org — and the College Democrats of Boston College. We are, however, editorially independent.

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Opinions

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Citizens United case allows unlimited corporate donations Paige Heckathorn Citizens United recently released the documentary Fire From the Heartland, showcasing prominent conservative women in America, including Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, and Michelle Bachmann. Citizens United has released a number of films that focus on promoting conservative values, with one of its most notable helmed by the renewed conservative darling, Newt Gingrich.

While the films have found a definite niche, the organization has gained notoriety not because of its releases, but by a Supreme Court case handed down in January of this year that has lawmakers scrambling to find legislative alternatives.

The case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, struck down parts of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, better known as the McCain-Feingold Act, prohibiting certain kinds of donations to campaigns. The case focused on another Citizens United release, Hillary the Movie, a political piece aimed at damaging the then-candidacy of Hillary Clinton for the presidency that was banned by the Federal Elections Committee for violating the McCain-Feingold Act. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court favored Citizens United, citing a violation of First Amendment rights to free speech for corporations. The Court’s decision to classify corporations as individuals in how they can fund campaigns raised the most concern because of the potential for special interests, with lots of money reserves, to influence elections on an

even wider scale.

The participation of corporations in elections is nothing new, nor something at which the media should have feigned such derision when the decision in Citizens United was handed down. While many politicians and media correctly warned that this was a decision not to be taken lightly, it also overstated its immensity in many ways, while understating the significant interest corporation, unions, and other groups already play in electing our officials.

Corporations have long had the ability to set up the Political Action Committees (PACs) that act as large benefactors to various campaigns, and in turn have great leverage to influence policy.

During the health care debate, PACs related to the health care profession poured millions into the coffers of Congress, including a cool million dollars for Senator Max Baucus (DMT) from 2008 to 2010, the lifespan of the often-heated health insurance reform. Baucus, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, aligned himself with many other Blue Dog Democrats to stall the bill, bucking Democratic leadership at many points of the legislative process.

While donations from companies have usually been traceable to the organizations and interests behind them, the more troubling development from the Citizens United case has been the rise of 501(c)(4) organizations that have made millions of dollars in donations to campaigns, all while keeping their donor lists totally anonymous because of their non-profit status.

The DISCLOSE Act, a legislative response

to the case sponsored by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), aims to make these organizations more transparent by limiting corporate spending in elections (by barring donations by domestic companies that are foreign-controlled, expanding on a law banning contributions and expenditures by foreign nationals) and ensuring the transparency of advertisements and other communications paid for by these corporate funds.

The DISCLOSE Act is not perfect and there is political posturing apparent on the part of the Democrats (in particular, the ban on contributions from foreign-owned, domestic companies), but it is a step in the right direction for increasing the transparency behind much of the campaign funding being spent this year.

The GOP and its candidates are benefiting from these third party campaigns more than their Democratic counterparts (in some estimates, by a 3-1 margin). Senate Republicans have defeated the DISCLOSE Act twice, most recently failing to break through a filibuster on Sept. 23.

While it may not stop special interest spending (only publicly financed campaigns will solve that problem), it will help to reveal the people behind the scenes that currently work with money from anonymous collections funding these campaigns. Most importantly, it may help to stop the rise of the “Super-PACs” funding (mostly Republican) campaigns in these midterm elections.

These organizations, able to function under secrecy and shield their donors from the public eye, may have been keeping the Citizens Unit-

ed case out of the general consciousness of the American people.

While much of the hype based on corporate expenditures was overblown (in part due to their already prevalent and powerful PACs), the more shadowy political interest groups that have used the ruling to pursue their goals freely with anonymous money should cause more concern.

Most recently, the Democratic National Committee has singled out the Chamber of Commerce, airing commercials emphasizing the massive investment the Chamber has made for Republican candidates — and, alleges the DNC, doing so with money from foreign corporations.

There are legitimate issues that the people of the United States are facing, such as stagnant unemployment rates and rising poverty rates. The midterm elections will be a real showing of voter frustration with both parties.

However, just as the town hall outbursts and many of the Tea Party rallies have been supported by powerful, wealthy benefactors (such as Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks), the midterm elections are in jeopardy of being influenced by groups who are falsely claiming that they are independent, grassroots organizations.

Real reform to expose the anonymous contributors behind these third party organizations should be undertaken soon. While only publicly financed campaigns will eliminate the pull of corporations in elections, legislation to reveal these donors is a step to returning elections to real voter dissatisfaction, not the agenda of opaque organizations.

American education system needs to be reformed Kenneth St. John Education in America is at a crossroads.

The high school dropout rate is roughly at 30 percent. America’s global educational prominence is sagging. Public confidence in the public school system has been decreasing since the 1970s.

In response to these concerns, earlier in the past decade, former President George W. Bush signed “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) into law.

NCLB intended to raise educational standards by defining goals, creating a “core” of knowledge for each grade which students are expected to master, and requiring states to create a comprehensive series of standardized tests for grades at the elementary and middle school level. These tests serve to track students based on race and income level, and emphasis is placed on closing the gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students.

However, NCLB is an unfunded mandate which forces America’s schools to increase their average spending per pupil. The consequences of this are of such great concern because when the current school-age generation moves into the workforce and into society, America will inherently become segregated. This segregation will not be, for example, based on an individual’s ethnicity, but on the

fact that he or she happens to be in a minority group that was failed by the public school system where the student grew up.

This is what our nation is facing: segregation on the basis of education. This, combined with the myriad problems in the public education system, such as inefficient financial management of schools and illegal drug use among students, presents an enormous challenge. If the inequalities of the American public school system continue, we will have a new social class system that will be almost impossible to reverse, and set us further along an overall nationwide educational decline that will allow even more countries around the world to surpass ours.

In the United States, unlike most other countries, the implementation of educational policies is left to the states or the local governments. Ever since the implementation of NCLB, the government has mandated states to create a series of standardized tests for each grade level and test students for proficiency in areas such as reading and math.

However, who defines proficiency? And who creates the standardized tests? That task is left open to the individual state. This creates a great opportunity for the states to lower their standards and create easier tests for their students. The states do this out of necessity: if students do not do well, the federal govern-

ment will deny or reduce funding for the state educational system. However, this funding is going back to the state to do a disservice to their students: by not properly educating them and creating an illusion of progress.

As a result, overall math proficiency across the country on these state standardized tests has gone up among fourth graders from 1990 (13 percent) to 2005 (36 percent). For eighth graders, math proficiency has gone up from 15 percent in 1990 to 30 percent in 2005. For reading in the fourth grade, there has been a constant state of proficiency at roughly 30 percent between 1992 and 2003. In the eighth grade, the proficiency rate is still 30 percent between 1992 and 2003.

There are areas, such as science, that decrease in proficiency and beyond from eighth to twelfth grade. For science, in 1996 and 2000, the proficiency and beyond rate for students was about 30 percent in the fourth grade. For the eighth grade, the proficiency and beyond rate was about 30 percent in 1996, and about 33 percent in 2000.

But in the twelfth grade, in both 1996 and 2000, proficiency and beyond rates decreased to 20 percent.

The conclusion is that the states lack the ability to administer competent tests that accurately test students’ knowledge. There is no federally run standardized test to ensure that students are learning sufficiently when com-

pared to others across the country.

So what can America do to fix its education system and avoid the segregated society that it is almost destined to become again? Step one would be for the government to fund NCLB. This way, states and school districts will not be strapped for cash and will be able to maintain stable budgets.

NCLB also needs to be amended to reduce standardized testing at young ages and, instead, redirect its aims to teach elementary school children problem solving and critical thinking skills. These will help all students for the later grades, where standardized tests will measure their college readiness.

NCLB should also create national educational standards, set them at the level of the highest performing state, whatever that may be, and devote funding to help the other forty nine states perform at that level.

The Obama administration needs to amend NCLB so that it is fair to all, increases learning among students, and restores America’s place at the educational forefront of the world. The possible future of a segregated society does not need to happen. We need to fix this before it is too late. The children today are tomorrow’s adults, and will be taking care of today’s adults in the future. Hopefully, the federal government will make amends to its educational policy. America’s future depends on it.

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You Be the Judge: Should bookstores be protected from online outlets?

Christopher Fegan If I had to pick how to spend a rainy day, a visit to the Barnes & Noble near my grandfather’s house would be high on my list.

You’ve probably been to one like it. Two stories, moderately sized; a full music and film section and a small coffee bar tucked to one side. People pepper the aisles in an attempt to find something that will stimulate their interest. Perhaps a bit of the history of shipbuilding. Maybe a peek into The Savage Detectives.

I love all of these details in the store. But the best thing about this Barnes & Noble is also the one that’s slowly killing it.

Chairs.

Big, comfortable chairs scattered throughout the top of the store. People can spend an entire day reading at no cost to them. On the one hand, this is wonderful. On the other, it’s an unsustainable business decision that’s only going to hasten the decline of the modern bookstore.

Recent news reports have detailed the closure of both major book retailers and independent book shops throughout the nation.

The reason? People don’t want to pay for the services they provide. The chairs I mentioned encapsulate how customers can peruse the store’s goods all they want but never actually cough up any coin. Perhaps that’s why Barnes & Noble recently put itself up for sale. How can it stay in business when fewer and fewer people are buying their products?

I’m sad to see this happening, but people, through their spending habits, are making their decision loud and clear: physical book outlets are not the sales medium of the future. Online vendors like Amazon are what people want.

Online retailers are effectively straddling the physical and digital book market. Amazon in particular is the nexus for printed information, with its new/used books division and it’s wildly popular Kindle e-book reader.

Considered by many to be the premier device for digital reading, the Kindle has already seen a 207 percent increase in sales since last year according to Network World. Although e-books only account for about 15 percent of the book market, they’re going to expand in the coming years. Amazon is best poised to take advantage of this increase while effectively meeting demand for physical copies.

How do they do this? Choice, portability, and price.

Amazon’s system is a perfect example of the long tail — where a market exists for lowdemand products that wouldn’t normally be worth stocking on vendors’ bookshelves. It’s unlikely that I’ll find R.F. Foster’s Luck and the Irish in a local store, but I can get it easily delivered to me from Amazon. This combination of endless choice, along with the ease and affordability of purchase, make Amazon

a richer option with more variety than any local store.

If you’re not a fan of physical books, the Kindle (and other readers like the iPad) offers unmatched portability and ease of transport.

These devices are lighter than the average hardcover or paperback and also allow you to save multiple books for greater choice on the go. Not only is this efficient for the busy commuter, but it’s environmentally efficient as well — fewer resources are being used for the production of unnecessary hard copies.

Price is the hammer that bangs the nails of choice and portability into the physical bookstore’s coffin. Take, for example, when I found a copy of Arcade Fire’s newest CD retailing for a whopping $18 in Barnes & Noble. $10 was the highest price for online vendors; Amazon, in a special promotion, was selling the CD for only $3. Though such a price isn’t the norm, it still stands that Barnes & Noble was charging six times the best deal and 80 percent higher than the standard market price. That’s absurd.

I’ve been using Barnes & Noble as the representative of all physical bookstores. While this is a generalization, all stores are facing insurmountable volleys from the online retailer camp. The combination of the three factors I’ve mentioned pose a significant threat to their livelihood in the coming years.

Ultimately, the free market is the arbitrator in this situation.

If the ultimate value from online vendors exceeds that of local stores, then the stores should close. They need to devise a plan to get visiting customers to purchase their products, through either lower prices or other ingenious methods.

I disagree with most government intervention to “save” a dying industry unless it’s an extreme case. In this situation, there should be no government intervention. The government already sponsors a “public good” involving books. It’s the library, where you can take out any book for free. Most libraries have a surprisingly modern collection of both books and media. For the government to support two separate institutions that provide an identical service is a waste of taxpayer money and entirely unnecessary.

I highly doubt that physical books will completely die out. To feel the weight of a solid volume in your hands is a sensation that e-book readers can never imitate. I’d argue that bookstores will become like vinyl records stores today: niche shops that nonetheless have a dedicated fan base.

I’ll miss the Barnes & Noble quite a bit if it closes, and I intend to do my share by purchasing the occasional book when I have the money. Unless other customers pick up the slack, though, I’m prepared to start frequenting the stacks through my browser.

Jamie Zhang

Photo courtesy of publishersweekly.com

I love Barnes & Noble. I love Amazon. They both serve important functions in our society, enhancing our relationship with the written word.

Yet recently, brick and mortar bookstores have come under intense pressure from online booksellers for their business, losing sales to websites like Amazon that sell both printed and electronic books for lower prices. As a result, they are gradually shutting their doors, chased away financially by their online counterparts.

The benefits of using a website like Amazon are obvious — we’ve all done it before. Online, books are almost never out of stock, prices tend to be lower, and, once ordered, they’re delivered right to your front door. More impressively, if you buy an e-book for your iPad or Kindle, you can download it and read it almost instantaneously.

Try to imagine a world without actual, physical bookstores, and the problem with their decline becomes obvious. The truth of the matter is that bookstores today aren’t just places where we can go to buy our books.

First off, they’re places where you can browse books. Ever walked into a Barnes & Noble or a Border’s Booksellers and perused the Bestsellers section to see what the newest thriller was, or what scholarly works were shaping the political discussions of the day? Once you’ve found a book that catches your eye, you’d be able to flip through it — maybe even find a nice, soft couch and spend the next hour gripped by Malcolm Gladwell’s latest work.

Yet, while we the customers get a great experience, the bookstore often does not profit from it.

Most of the time, we don’t end up buying the book — why spend money when we’re already at the perfect place to read it for free? On those rare occasions when we do decide to add the book to our collection, do we buy it at the bookstore?

Sometimes, but more likely, we’d go home, open up Firefox, and buy it at a discounted price on Amazon.

In essence, the bookstore does the hard work of getting us interested in a book, only to lose its sales to a competitor. Bookstores tend to lose the sale because online websites like Amazon have lower costs to operate, since they don’t have to

VS.

pay rent for a physical storefront. Because of this advantage, these websites can price their books lower than Barnes and Noble can, making it in the best interest of any shopper to spend their money online.

So what’s wrong with letting the free market decide the fate of our bookstores? In economics, brick and mortar bookstores provide society with what are known as “positive externalities.”

That’s a phenomenon where the bookstore makes our lives better without reaping any gains from it themselves. We get to browse their books and sit in their comfortable seats, but they don’t end up getting our money.

This lack of connection between service provided and profits derived from it is a cause for concern, since we’re all hurt if the invisible hand of the market shuts down our bookstores.

Think about it this way: in a fully efficient market, the consumer “votes” with his wallet to keep certain stores alive. In the case of brick and mortar bookstores, however, customers who derive a benefit from bookstores don’t necessarily cast a vote for them. Without these votes, the business has no choice but to shut its doors.

You might still reasonably ask, though, why we need physical bookstores. After all, can’t we just read reviews about books or find the bestsellers list somewhere, thus allowing us to skip the task of looking for books at a store? Well, yes, if you know what you’re looking for ahead of time. Most of the time, however, you’d go into Barnes & Noble not knowing what you want to read, and after some browsing, find one that piques your interest. It is that ability to find what you’re not actively looking for that makes bookstores so valuable to our society.

Yet on an even simpler level, a bookstore is a great place to be. Amidst all the hustle and bustle of our busy lives, isn’t it nice to just have a place where you can relax with a new, crisp book, or even the latest issue of your favorite magazine? In a sense, the bookstore is truly a twenty-first century version of the public park, a place where you can go to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee while catching up on world events.

In between our daily meetings and appointments, it’s a place where we can make a pit stop, recharge, and go back out into the real world.

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Call for a progressive tax agenda Protectionist policy may remedy American economic woes Jamie Zhang

First, let us be clear: there is absolutely nothing wrong with letting people keep the fruits of their labor; that tax policy should not be used to “punish” the wealthy for their success. As a finance major myself, I’m hardly sympathetic to Marxist policies or socialism — but I do believe in having common sense when looking at tax policy, going beyond ideology to find reasonable solutions to our problems. From that perspective, it is fairly obvious that some “progressive” changes would be good for our country, in that the end-result would be a fairer distribution of wealth without undue impacts on market incentives. Or put more simply, with some progressive changes, we can split the economic pie more evenly without reducing its total size.

The first change would be to increase the federal estate tax for the ultra-wealthy. More commonly known as the “death tax,” the estate tax currently affects only those who pass away with a net worth of above $3.5 million.

Then, for inheritance amounts above and beyond $3.5 million, the tax rate currently stands at 45 percent. For instance, if you leave $7.5 million for your heirs, $4 million of that will be taxed at 45 percent, leaving the after-tax inheritance at (3.5m + 4m (1.45)) = $5.7 million. Not exactly chump change. But the focus shouldn’t be on those with “only” a few million dollars — it should be on those with more massive fortunes, in the tens of millions of dollars or more.

Our country was founded on the premise that we rise and fall on our own merits; that we should eschew the establishment of a permanent aristocracy so that our wealthy class would always be comprised of those who, through talent and hard work, earn their way to the top. Hefty inheritances are anathema to this notion, since it gives enormous wealth to those who lucked into it through birth. It is entirely understandable that parents would want to leave their children with some degree of financial security, but a few million dollars really ought to be enough to get the job done.

A reasonable proposal, then, would be to tax inheritances above, say, $10 million at a higher rate, perhaps in the neighborhood of 60 to 80 percent. If the offspring of the fabulously wealthy want to have the kind of material extravagance that their parents enjoyed, maybe it is not unreasonable to ask them to work for it.

Opponents to the estate tax claim that it reduces the parents’ incentive to work – but that’s hogwash. Two of the wealthiest men in our time, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, have made it known that they will not leave great inheritances for their children, instead committing their vast fortunes to be donated to charity after they pass away. To the best of my knowledge, Buffett and Gates still work plenty hard – they do so not to pass their wealth to their children, but for a myriad of more substantial reasons.

It is simply ludicrous to claim that the wealthy will suddenly stop working after a hike in the estate tax. These are people who

Kenneth St. John

Photo courtesy of CalCentrist.org

work for a sense of achievement, people for whom money is merely a way to “keep score” with other heavy lifters. Whether their children will inherit $100 million or $200 million is the least of their worries.

History provides ample proof of this.

Throughout the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, an era which most historians regard as our American Golden Age, the estate tax rate stood as a whopping 77 percent for the wealthiest Americans. It is no surprise that income distribution was more equitable during this period than at any other point in American history. Yet growth was hardly sclerotic during this period, a fact conveniently forgotten by conservatives who oppose the estate tax.

Another common sense reform to our tax code would be to tax the income of hedge fund and private equity managers as…well, income. Let me explain. Currently, there are loopholes in the tax laws that allow money managers to treat their earnings as “carried interest,” which is then tax at the capital gains rate of 15 percent, or less than half the tax rate for the highest income bracket.

Let’s take a hedge fund manager as an example. Say he manages $1 billion, and he achieves a 20 percent return, for a gain of $200 million. Then, of that return, he takes for himself 20 percent, or $40 million (that’s his compensation). Yet instead of paying the top bracket income rate of 35 percent, he pays a measly 15 percent. The difference between the two rates amounts to a solid $8 million for the manager. Or, put differently, the government is deprived of $8 million in tax revenue.

Now, you might ask, wouldn’t raising the tax rate for hedge fund managers discourage them from working harder? No. Imagine if you were the hedge fund manager, and you had a pre-tax income of $40 million. After paying 35 percent of it in taxes, you’d still be left with a whopping $26 million. Surely, having to pay the 35% tax rate won’t affect your desire to earn that $26 million. In any case, hedge fund managers (and their private equity/trading counterparts) use their earnings as a way to keep score with each other, so as long as the higher tax rate affects them all equally, there shouldn’t be any market distortions. George Soros isn’t about to blow up his Quantum fund just because he has to pay taxes like any other American citizen.

So there you have it: two ways to easily raise government revenue without slowing down economic growth.

In my sociology class, my professor asked the class to take a look at the tag on back of their shirts and to find what country the shirt was made in. Students called out, “China,” “Mexico,” “The Philippines,” and “Bangladesh,” to name a few. I wasn’t alone in wearing a shirt made in a foreign country; my shirt was manufactured in Vietnam.

The professor wrote all the countries’ names that were called out on the blackboard. Out of approximately 30 students in my class, only one person was found to be wearing a shirt made in the U.S.A. Doesn’t anyone see a problem with this?

On that fateful day in class, my peers seemed to shrug this troubling find off. But who can blame them? Ever since my classmates and I were born in 1992, America has become more than ever a nation of purely consumers rather than a healthy mix between producers and buyers. Our generation has become complacent with the fact that a whopping 97 percent of our clothes are manufactured in foreign countries, and that most American brand cars are made overseas.

The year I was born, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was ratified by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, which created a free trade bloc between the three countries. At the time, it seemed like a good idea. The Soviet Union had just dissolved, and America had emerged as the sole world power. Both George H.W. Bush (who signed the treaty) and Bill Clinton (who signed the implementation of the treaty in the U.S.) had intentions of further solidifying America’s economic standing.

And for a time, NAFTA was regarded as a success. American businesses were able to sell their products in Canada and Mexico without consumers having to pay a tariff.

However, NAFTA spearheaded a mass movement by American corporations to outsource jobs and factories to other countries, primarily Mexico, while putting many American factory workers on the unemployment line. Maquiladoras (Mexican border factories that were originally from the U.S.) have seen a 15.5 percent increase in income since NAFTA’s implementation.

This income helped Mexico’s economy immensely, at the expense of American labor.

But throughout the 1990s and into the mid 2000s, this troubling turn of events was largely ignored.

Corporations found new markets for their goods and extremely cheap labor in largely developing countries, and were turning a massive profit. Government, seeing that the economy for the time being was prospering, and that consumers were buying more than ever before, took no action to help those that were unemployed as a result of outsourcing.

This inequity in the American economy finally came to a head in the stock market crash of September of 2008. All kinds of American businesses, from banks to manufacturers, suffered greatly as a result. Com-

panies that were the prime culprits of outsourcing of jobs, such as General Motors and Chrysler, received government bailouts in order to remain afloat. Here, I believe, was one of George W. Bush’s worst mistakes as president.

There were two options the government could have taken in response to the economic crisis. The first option would have been to use the bailout and stimulus money to pay off everyone in America’s outstanding mortgages in order to prevent foreclosure and homelessness. At the same time, regulations could have been put into effect that would finally reign in and control sub-prime loans and prevent loans being taken out by people that ultimately could not afford to pay them back. By essentially paying off the American public’s mortgages, the money saved by the people would go back into the economy and revitalize American business.

Call it a “trickle up” policy if you will.

The second option that government had, which it ultimately chose, was a straight-up bailout of American business. Since the first option was not taken, I believe that the concept itself of a bailout of corporations was necessary in order to prevent an American and a worldwide economic depression.

However, this would have been a great opportunity for Bush to affirm the government’s responsibility to the American people and to reestablish government superiority over business interests. Several conditions could have been laid out to American corporations as a result of taking the bailout money, including the restoration of American factory jobs that were previously outsourced overseas.

By playing hardball with big business, Bush would have left office on a positive note. Instead, the American public got shafted, American businesses got their free money with little to no strings attached, and Bush’s last major act as president was a perfect ending to eight imperfect years in office to say the least.

It is now the year 2010, and after numerous bailouts and stimulus packages, the recession has slowed, but is not yet over. NAFTA is an outdated treaty that has ultimately proved harmful to the American public. I would ask our leaders to seriously consider proposing a protectionist bill that would restore American factory jobs, hold corporations accountable through tariffs, and other measures that would discourage outsourcing and provide incentives for companies that choose to put “Made in the USA” on their products.

A protectionist economic policy sends a message to the American people that the government stands for them, and not for corporations, and is essential in a tough economic climate. By embracing our history as a leader in manufacturing and production, America will emerge from the economic downturn stronger than ever before and send a strong message to big business that the loss of American jobs due to outsourcing will not be tolerated.

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Culture

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Kuechly complements standout play with humility

By Robert Rossi Assoc. Culture Editor Coming into last season, the state of Boston College’s football team was chaotic to say the least. In January 2009, head coach Jeff Jagodzinski was fired for interviewing with the New York Jets. In May, team leader and 2008 ACC Defensive Player of the Year Mark Herzlich was diagnosed with cancer. The next month, starting quarterback Dominique Davis was suspended for academic reasons and decided to transfer.

Despite starting the year with a new coach and without its most important defensive player or a quarterback who had ever taken a snap in college, the Eagles managed to finish with the same number of losses in 2009 as in 2008. Losing the 2008 ACC Championship was a disappointment; finishing 8-5 in 2009 exceeded expectations.

To compensate for the lack of experience at quarterback, running back Montel Harris and the offensive line performed spectacularly. On defense, however, one 18-year-old true freshman came as close as imaginable to singlehandedly compensating for the absence of the best linebacker in America.

If not for Herzlich’s absence, it is doubtful that Luke Kuechly would have seen a minute of playing time last year. Nobody expected him to have the most dominant freshman year seen in Chestnut Hill in decades.

Kuechly led the Eagles in tackles in 12 of their 13 games; he also only started in 12 of them. He recorded the most tackles (158) by an Eagle since 1993 and finished the season with the second most in the nation.

Along with winning numerous awards and accolades, Kuechly delivered the play of the year for BC when he leaped over the Maryland offensive line to stop an attempted Ter-

rapin fourth-down conversion.

Number 40 has continued his dominance in 2010, recording double-digit tackles and leading the team in all of the Eagles’ first four games. Three weeks after being named ACC Defensive Lineman of the Week and one week after winning player of the game against Virginia Tech, Kuechly recorded his 200th career tackle against Notre Dame, becoming the fastest BC player to ever reach the milestone. Despite his phenomenal success, he retains the humility and studies-first work ethic that has come to define the ideal BC athlete.

“Why I’m coming to BC is to get a great education. If it ends in two years, three years I still have a great degree… I’d like to play in the NFL, but if it doesn’t happen I’m not going to be disappointed,” Kuechly said.

Coming from a star linebacker at a different school with a greater emphasis on football and a lesser one on education, this type of statement may not seem genuine. However, coming from someone who just got out of a three-hour marketing class typically taken by students a year ahead of him, it seems honest. Even with the All-American athletic honors, Kuechly remains a studentathlete in that order.

Coming along with such humility is a relative lack of recognition. Despite earning the nickname “Boy Wonder” among dedicated fans and the college football media last year, among BC students Kuechly has yet to attain the universal name recognition of Mark Herzlich or Montel Harris. And while the student body may eventually catch on as to who is making the majority of the stops on each Eagles defensive stand, the last thing to expect is for Kuechly himself to do any self-promotion.

Photo by Sean Meehan When asked why he is able to make so many more tackles than any other member of the team, Kuechly essentially gave all the credit to the coaching staff.

“I think our coaches put us in a great position each week,” he said. “The position I’m at allows me to make a lot of tackles… I’m in a great spot, prime position to be in the middle of everything.”

Many other linebackers have played the same position, and none, not even Mark Herzlich in his Defensive Player of the Year campaign, have been able to make as many stops. Either Frank Spaziani is the most middle-linebacker-oriented defensive mind in BC history, or Kuechly puts more into memorizing the playbook than anyone who has come before him.

Barring Brian Toal-like injuries, the day will come when Luke Kuechly will emerge as the face of BC football. Most likely, it will not be until his senior season in 2012, when Mark Herzlich and Montel Harris have left Chestnut Hill and Chase Rettig will (hopefully) almost have blossomed into the second coming of Matt Ryan.

If Kuechly continues at his current performance level, this will be a sad thing for the classes of 2010, 2011, and 2012. Most of its members will graduate without knowing that they spent their Saturdays watching one of the greatest defensive players to ever play for BC. To view the entire Gavel Media interview with Luke Kuechly, visit bcgavel.com and search “Kuechly.”

“Literary Lives” offers portraits of Ireland’s authors

By Samantha Green Gavel Media Reporter “Literary Lives,” Boston College’s fall exhibition in the McMullen Museum of Art, presents an array of portraits of distinguished Irish writers done by other Irish artists.

Beginning with writer Jonathan Swift and ending with novelists like Edna O’Brien, the showcase chronologically maps the various artistic reactions to Ireland’s political and economic standings. Upon entering the venue, visitors can peruse the many oil paintings, charcoal sketches, photographs, manuscripts, personal sketchbooks, letters and other relics of the varying social movements in Ireland over the past 150 years.

The visions of each portraitist offer a window into the worlds of people like W.B. Yeats, a poet from the literary revival of the 1880’s who strove to create an authentic Irish culture and national unity. At the same time, the portraits of Liam O’Flaherty and

Brendan Behan, two famed Irish storywriters of the mid-1900s, reveal the economic stagnation of the period in which they worked. Charcoal sketches and oil on canvas were common mediums used to depict earlier writers; however, the growing popularity of photography was evident in the many portraits of contemporary writers who reflect the more recent economic boom and feminist movement in Ireland.

BC collaborated with the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin to bring over fifty of these renowned pieces to Chestnut Hill. With Irish culture so rooted in the BC community, they, too, made their fair share of contributions to the exhibit. In fact, BC’s own Burns Library supplied dozens of pieces, mostly manuscripts and books, to the showcase.

“BC has a strong sense of Irish culture,” Walter Dorraine, an employee of the McMullen Museum, said. “It seems that the school does something every few years to honor its roots.”

The exhibit also flaunts a spectacular mini-theater for the screening of 10 short films that play on a 10-day rotation – one film each day. Each movie, running from forty-five minutes to an hour, is dedicated to a different Irish literary figure, such as James Joyce and Frank McCourt, the famed author of the novel Angela’s Ashes. An audio tour, available at the Museum and in a downloadable file on the museum’s website, is also offered to give visitors an even more thorough explanation of the exhibit content.

Unfortunately, the McMullen Museum is, for one reason or another, fairly underutilized by the undergraduate population at BC. “A majority of the students who visit the museum are assigned to do so by a certain class,” Dorraine said. “Sometimes visitors from the greater Boston area come into the museum saying that they had a difficult time finding it on campus because many of the students could not even point them in the

right direction.”

Many students are surprised and confused by the inconspicuous nature of the museum which goes unnoticed by so many in the undergraduate community.

“I never realized what a great resource we have right on campus,” Robin Phillips, LSOE ‘12, said, as she examined a portrait of Lady Augusta Gregory - a revivalist who co-founded what ultimately came to be the Abbey Theatre. Phillips was assigned to visit the showcase as part of her Teaching Social Science and Arts course. “Now that I know about it, I will definitely be coming back to see other exhibits.”

Although it is imperative for undergrads to break out of the notorious BC bubble, sometimes we do not even notice the precious gems that lay right before us on our own campus. “Literary Lives” will be on display until Dec. 5th, so there is still ample time for students to enlighten themselves with Irish culture and experience all that the McMullen Museum has to offer.

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El Pelón serves as nearby source for sufficient burritos

By Robert Rossi Assoc. Culture Editor Prior to the spring of 2010, the students of Boston College suffered one of the greatest injustices to ever occur on a college campus: a complete lack of a burrito joints within a five minute walk of the dorms. Whenever a hardworking member of the student body wanted to indulge in the most amazing food item to ever emerge from the Western Hemisphere, he or she was forced to spend countless valuable minutes waiting first for the Comm. Ave bus, or — even worse — the T. But last semester, an independent restaurant, El Pelón Taqueria, opened its doors on Commonwealth Avenue, directly across the street from St. Ignatius Church. Replacing the gone-but-never-forgotten College Sub, El Pelón assumed the massive responsibility of providing the BC campus with the satisfying burrito that McElroy Commons could never deliver. The question must therefore be asked: Is El Pelón the Burrito Messiah we have been waiting for? The Mexican Eagle’s Deli?

No. When I walked into El Pelón, I had to spend a good ten seconds examining the menu above the cashier before finding the burritos. For a taqueria, this is an egregious, unforgivable error. When a man wants a burrito, he wants to see how many different things he can fit inside it, and that’s it. Had I been slightly hungrier when I arrived, I could have passed out looking for the burrito section of the menu. Clearly El Pelón needs to re-evaluate the needs of its customers.

Once I did find what I was looking for, my despair turned to a feeling of pleasant surprise. The prices at El Pelón are very reasonable, with most burritos costing between $4.50 and $5.75. If a person wants to add

Photo by Robert Rossi

guacamole, he or she need only part with 75 extra cents. El Pelón obviously cares more about its guacamole-minded customers (and this is a Mexican restaurant, so all of them) than its evil corporate rival, Chipotle, which charges an entire $2 for the lovely green condiment.

The time it took to make my burrito was far shorter than the typical wait for the assembly line burrito on campus. When I held the aluminum-wrapped dinner in my hand, an assortment of “that’s what she said” jokes raced through my head. The El Pelón burrito is the biggest I have ever encountered in the Boston area. The Spanish suffix “-ito”

indicates diminutive stature. It does not apply here.

Sadly upon opening the burrito, my excitement diminished. Very poorly wrapped, the tortilla had already cracked open to reveal the meat, dairy and vegetables inside. When a burrito is not wrapped well, eating it can become very hazardous. The ideal burrito experience entails a feeling of relaxation and bliss. When the burrito is liable to fall to pieces in the eater’s lap, the stress can be unbearable. My burrito did eventually explode, and my undying allegiance to Anna’s Taqueria was reaffirmed at the first bite.

The ingredients in El Pelón’s burrito are

lacking. The tortilla is too thin, and feels nearly stale in the mouth. The rice is overpowering and dry. The steak is flavorless and makes up a far too minor portion of the burrito’s contents. I did not even remember that the burrito contained cheese until I was halfway through it. The guacamole was the only non-rice item I could even taste, and even then, I understood why it was so much cheaper than Chipotle’s (not that Chipotle’s $2 charge can ever be justified).

And, speaking as a 19-year-old American male with a penchant for all things burrito, this burrito was just too big. Unless El Pelón can figure out an Everlasting Gobstoppertype way to make a burrito pack a new punch in its bottom quarter, there is no reason for any food item to make me feel this full when I finish it.

Despite its flaws, BC students should not write off El Pelón. It does not come close to the amazing, life-changing experience that an Anna’s burrito always delivers, but Eagles can access El Pelón without the dull, timeconsuming ride to Coolidge Corner that a trip to the nearest Anna’s requires. I will concede that Chipotle, for all its goofy marketing and price gouging, provides a better burrito. However, unless the burrito connoisseur is already making a trip to Cleveland Circle for another purpose, I cannot in good conscience recommend passing on El Pelón solely for the slightly better product at Chipotle. And as for Bocolo, I would never suggest going to any Boloco anywhere, unless there is no other burrito available.

To sum up El Pelón’s significance in a sentence, the taqueria serves as a good alternative to campus dining (especially when Corcoran shuts down between dinner and Late Night). But if one is in the mood for a delicious burrito and is not in a rush, the journey to Anna’s still must be made.

Crazy Dough’s abandons traditional pizza conventions

By Lea Freeman Asst. Culture Editor Admittedly, I am somewhat of a pizza snob. So when I found out that a Crazy Dough’s was opening across from St. Ignatius Church, I was pretty excited. Crazy Dough’s offers gourmet specialty pizza, both regular and Sicilian crusts, as well as salads in dough bowls, calzones and sandwiches.

The menu is unique, and the pizza is high quality.

Although they were pretty busy when I went, the service was still quick and, most importantly, correct. One of the main things I appreciated about their employees was that they all had an extensive knowledge of the menu. There’s nothing worse than ordering food at a place where the employees can’t describe the menu.

According to one of their employee’s their most popular specialty is the “potato bacon cheddar” pizza, which combines three culinary favorites of many college students. Although I was apprehensive to order such a daring slice, I took a chance and was glad

Photo by Robert Rossi

I did.

This curious creation is a white pie topped with mozzarella, bacon, cheddar and red bliss potatoes. It was totally loaded with toppings — definitely worth the $3 per slice.

Personally, I judge a pizzeria by its barbecue chicken pizza. For the most part, Crazy Dough’s did not disappoint in this area. The

dough was thick, but still light and crispy, and the barbecue sauce had a touch of spice without being overpowering. My only criticism is that my particular slice was pretty low on the chicken.

Another unique slice that caught my eye is their new balsamic glaze pizza. This wouldn’t appeal to those looking for a tradi-

tional slice, but was definitely unique and flavorful. A slice like this is the right choice for ricotta lovers. The pizza includes balsamic glaze, three cheese, mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan and basil. It was served on the same thick Sicilian crust.

For those looking for a good slice of pizza, Crazy Dough’s definitely holds its own against other Boston College favorites like Pino’s and Presto’s. Although this is a matter up for serious debate, I thought Crazy Dough’s pizza’s crust was fresher and was, in general, less greasy.

The food at Crazy Dough’s is extremely affordable. A slice and a small soda was a substantial meal for me and was under $6.

Though cheaper pizza can be found elsewhere, Crazy Dough’s is thicker, loaded with toppings, and thus more filling.

If you’re tired of dull, generic pizza, I suggest you make the brief trip over. Just be sure to hit up Crazy Dough’s at an off time or for take out, because there’s minimal seating inside the restaurant, and though they offer outdoor seating, the weather won’t cooperate for much longer.

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Book review: Stephen King’s Gunslinger

By Daniel Monan Culture Editor

Photo by Eliza Duggan

BC Catches Reefer Madness

By Eliza Duggan Print Manager The term “Reefer Madness” may conjure myriad strange images, but whether good, bad, or weird, it’s certainly an intriguing title.

For the members of Contemporary Theater, “Reefer Madness” means a whole lot of music, madness, and fun.

Seth Byrum, A&S ’11, is directing this year’s production in the Bonn Studio Theater, which will play from Oct. 27th through the 30th. Byrum is excited for the show, noting its stylistic mix of music and comedy.

The rock musical is based on the 1936 public awareness film designed to warn against the dangers of marijuana. An overdone and sensational film, it became a source of cult comedy in the 1970s, when marijuana was gaining significant popularity. The musical version was written in 1989, and incorporates a lot of the original dialogue.

The main characters are Jimmy and Mary, two generic, high school sweethearts. In trying to learn how to be cool, Jimmy gets involved with Jack, a local mobster who gets him addicted to reefer. The corrupted young lovers then become part of a crazy, convoluted plot involving sex, violence, an appearance by Jesus Christ, and a lot of marijuana.

“It’s so ridiculous, I think it resonates well with college students,” Byrum said, adding that in addition to the absurd and amusing plot, the play boasts a repertoire of songs from jazz to Tom Jones parodies to big band numbers.

Audience members can expect a large, revolving set, over eighty costumes and many props. Because the Bonn Theater is small, it can be difficult to negotiate acting space, but the challenge has taught Byrum the importance of teamwork in creating theater.

“The collaboration process is so important,” Byrum said, noting how vital careful communication between designers and actors was to make the show the best it can be.

“It’s very demanding from a design perspective,” he said.

The cast is a mix of new and familiar fac-

es, with freshmen playing the two leads, and many juniors and seniors in supporting roles.

“We were very lucky with the casting,” Byrum said. “Essentially what I was looking for were big character choices.”

“Reefer Madness” depends upon wild, larger-than-life characters, and Byrum is confident his cast has the talent to pull it off.

The cast is a vibrant, cheerful group who all seem excited about their upcoming production. Allison Russell, A&S ’12, plays the part of Mae, a “reefer” addict. “It’s a really funny show,” Russell said, “I think it appeals to a lot of people because it’s cutesy and hot and heavy.”

Newcomer Jake Alexander, A&S ’14, has the title role of Jimmy. “This is my first show at BC, and it’s been a great experience so far.”

There is much enthusiasm for the controversial and varied subject matter; highlights of which include smoking pot, zombies, and an appearance from Jesus, according to Pat Connolly, A&S ’11.

“In what other show can you find an orgy, a murder, and a bong?” asked Ted Moller, A&S ’11.

“This is more fun than any other show I’ve done at BC,” Evan Cole, A&S ’11, said.

When asked whether he anticipates controversy over the play’s material, Byrum appeared unconcerned.

“I almost hope we do get some controversy—I think the writers would have wanted it,” he said.

The musical is indeed about marijuana, but Byrum said that it is also a political commentary on how outrageous issues can become.

The actors have a similar attitude. “There’s potential for controversy,” Cole said, “but the point is not to be serious about it.”

Stage manager Marc Franklin had this to say about why “Reefer Madness” is worth seeing: “It’s a funny show—so incredibly smart, and it addresses heavy topics in a fun, cheesy way.”

“Everyone needs a good laugh and this show’s got five thousand,” actor Nate Richardson, A&S ’13, said.

Opening on Oct. 27th, “Reefer Madness” will run for four days.

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”

So begins Stephen King’s great, understated (and often underappreciated) epic. The Dark Tower series, as it is known, includes seven books written over the span of some 30 years. This is arguably King at his best, and although some claim the series declined in the later books, it’s easy to understand why King considers it to be his magnum opus.

The Gunslinger, the first of The Dark Tower series, follows Roland, the last of the “gunslingers,” a caste of knight-like warriors, as he travels his dead world chasing the man in black, a vague, villainous, figure. Roland’s motivations are unclear, but seem to involve the titular Dark Tower, a mysterious structure that is often alluded to but rarely elaborated upon. The central question of the book is just how much Roland will sacrifice on this quest.

While the fundamental plot remains simple (the opening line cited above says it all), conveying the atmospheric feel of the books is a far more difficult proposition. The story is sprawling, massive and baroque, an epic in the true sense of the word.

Stephen King explained the origins of the story as the culmination of a teenage obsession with The Lord of the Rings, and watching The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. That about sums up the tone of The Dark Tower books: take The Lord of the Rings, replace Frodo with Clint Eastwood, and stir in a healthy mix of apocalyptic horror and gore.

To attempt to do justice to the entire series here would be absurd. So for the time being, I will concern myself mainly with the first of the books, The Gunslinger.

The Gunslinger opens on Roland traversing a vast, seemingly endless desert. It is apparent he has been chasing the man in black for years, although time and distance remain unspecific. While the setting first appears entirely fictitious, loosely based on the American West, Roland eventually encounters Jake, a 12 year-old boy with half-remembered memories of living in 1970’s New York City.

Though Roland suspects Jake is an unwitting trap designed by the man in black, he takes Jake along, gradually forming a close bond with the boy.

If any of this sounds bizarre, it should.

This is a profoundly strange book, set in a profoundly strange world, and I mean that in the best possible way. Specifics such as just what the Dark Tower is, remain largely unanswered. I enjoyed this because these details really didn’t matter: the characters and the storyline were compelling enough to make such explanations almost unnecessary.

What makes The Gunslinger stand out? It might be how much King does with so little. This is a book that trades in archetypes in their purest forms, avoiding any of the usual straightforward exposition. Roland is the gunslinger, the nameless anti-hero from a thousand spaghetti westerns, he’s an ele-

Photo courtesy of Reader Store

ment of our cultural unconscious brought to life. With that foundation to work from, King needs few specific details to keep the story moving.

Were I writing a college essay on the book, here is where I would begin to compare the plot to the pilgrim’s quest for enlightenment, and other fine examples of academic masturbation. But I’m not, and neither is King.

The Gunslinger tells an epic story, but without any of the usual airs of epic storytelling. Unlike Tolkien for example, King understands the importance of saying less and allows the reader’s imaginations to fill in the gaps.

Everything about the book from the characterizations to the setting is vague, blurred, and beautifully foreboding. The reader must piece together the backstory through suggestions left scattered about the world and in Roland’s thoughts, a process that never quite yields a full picture.

If I were not the epitome of self-control that I am, I might simply state that the first hundred pages of The Gunslinger are probably the best modern storytelling that I have ever read, and leave it at that.

I won’t say that, but part of me really wants to.

I have to recommend The Gunslinger, and the rest of The Dark Tower series, for that matter. The story really is a unique take on the classic quest plotline. Especially to any Stephen King fan, considering these are the books he named his finest work.

It should also be mentioned that after residing for years in development hell, a Hollywood adaptation of the books is being planned. In a remarkable show of cross-medium cooperation, the current plan is a trilogy of movies, with two seasons of television (using the same actors and sets) linking them together.

All that said, they always say the “book was better,” and in this case The Gunslinger will be hard to top.

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‘Love, Other Drugs’ combine to capture life perfectly

Courtesy of 20th Century Fox

By Andrew Schofield Opinions Editor Love and Other Drugs is the type of movie everyone thinks they have seen before. Just another typical “Rom-Com” in which the charismatic ladies’ man, Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhaal) falls in love with the one woman he can’t quite have. And if films were to be

summed up in one sentence capsules that description might be fitting. But luckily, I have a few more paragraphs at my disposal – and Ed Zwick’s latest production has a bit more depth than those other modern, contrived romance movies usually grouped under the umbrella term of ‘chick flicks.’

Set in the 1990’s, Zwick (Blood Diamond, Traffic, Glory) follows Jamie Randall, a phar-

maceutical drugs saleman, as he navigates the corporate jungle physician by physician.

Along the way he meets the lovely Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway) who plays his love interest throughout much of the remainder of the film. However, despite the movie’s seemingly trite plot line, Zwick does his best to make this film differ from the Hollywood norms. The end result is a polished, wellmade film that transcends the lines of genres.

While the movie has its extremely entertaining parts coupled with the strong displays of romance and of love, I struggle to call it a romantic comedy as the true drama of the film – Maggie Murdock’s Stage 1 Parkinson’s – takes an increasingly dominant presence within the plot line.

However, the ambiguity surrounding the genre takes its toll on the film’s narrative, and the direction of the film is muddled by this same confusion. The relationship between Maggie and Jamie and the role that Parkinson’s presents itself as a subject matter is not light enough for a romantic comedy. But the aspects of comedy in the film still hold enough weight in the narrative to limit much of the film’s potential dramatic effect – as the most dramatic scenes feel out of place alongside these comic portraits.

Despite this genre confusion, Zwick is able to create a compelling tale utilizing tremen-

dous lead performances from both Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal. Hathaway’s portrayal of the struggles of a young person with Parkinson’s is both believable and moving; as the disease plays an increasingly important role, the relationship becomes more and more serious. However, as Jamie begins to experience a steady increase of business success, his relationship with Maggie becomes strained.

Much to the delight of my nostalgic side, the score was principally composed of songs from the decade of my childhood -- the 1990’s, which, along with the boom boxes and the flip cell phones, skillfully immerses the viewer in the time period. But Zwick’s true skill is revealed through his capturing of the initial emotional distance between Jamie and Maggie and the subsequent emotional development between the two as the story continues.

On a whole, Love and Other Drugs is a tremendously well made film with solid performances from its cast and wonderful production from its director. But in the end, the film is held back by the constraints of the romantic comedy – as the narrative follows a formula that is seen in movies year after year. However, where many romantic comedies fall short, Love and Other Drugs excels by capturing life for what it truly is: a comedy, a drama, and a romance.

Better Cooking BC: Stuffed Peppers

By Gabrielle Chwazik-Gee, Rachael Matvichuk & Rhonda Chan Total time: 30 min

Level: Medium

Yield: 4 peppers

Ingredients 4 long Italian peppers (not bell peppers) 1 lb. ground turkey (can also use ground beef) 1 can whole kernel corn with liquid 1 can Italian style stewed tomatoes blend 1 cup Minute rice 1 tsp. salt (or to taste) Directions - Cut off the tops of peppers. Parboil* peppers for about 10 minutes.

- Sauté ground turkey in frying pan. When no pink remains, add 1 can of whole kernel corn with liquid and mix. Add rice and continue to stir. Add tomatoes and 1 tsp. of salt. Keep cooking until all the liquid is absorbed by rice. Fill peppers with stuffing. *Editor’s Note: Parboiling, also called blanching, is a cooking method in which a food is boiled in water until partially cooked. It is then placed in ice water (a process called shocking) to stop the cooking process and to preserve the food’s color. Parboiling is a method most commonly used with vegetables.

Photos by Rachael Matvichuk