Massachusetts Daily Collegian: Feb. 26, 2014

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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Pitch Perfect

UM to increase financial aid $148 million will be directed to aid

By Marie Maccune Collegian Staff

ALEX LINDSAY/COLLEGIAN

Trombone players from the UMass Brass and Trombone Choirs perform original music in Bezanson Recital Hall on Monday night.

UMass team wins chef competition

Students bring home gold from Montreal

By Kristin LaFratta Collegian Staff

UMass dining was recognized across national borders on Feb. 8, when three UMass students won gold in the first ever International Inter-University Chef Competition held at McGill University in Montreal.

Students Evan White, Nick Becker and Tiffany Thompson were coached by Hampshire Dining Commons chef Anthony Jung, who Becker described as a “great inspiration.”

“We all had a blast because of the way Chef Anthony trained us. There was no nervous feeling going into it,” Becker said. “Everything ran extremely smoothly for our team.”

Becker and White, both senior hospitality and tourism management majors, were recruited from a HTM 355 Menu and Food Production Management class, while Thompson, a junior kinesiology major, was asked to attend the competition by her manager at Berkshire Dining Commons.

Jung used his experience in cooking competitions when coaching the team.

He held multiple training sessions for the three competitors in the weeks before the competition, which Thompson described as difficult.

“He would test us really hard, like give us a half hour to make dishes because he really wanted us to get the timing right,” Thompson said. “He wouldn’t help us out at all to try and prepare us more. But he was awesome about everything.”

During the competition,

teams had to make at least two dishes, one vegetarian and one non-vegetarian, in less than two hours. Each team had a mystery basket of five ingredients and a pantry list with items they could use. The mystery basket included black pepper corns, pork tenderloin, pearl jade rice, maple syrup and quinoa, all of which are a part of the fair-trade, “Real Food” that UMass also uses in its dining commons. This includes organic, humane and local foods.

“It’s obviously healthier for people and it’s just better to be eco-friendly and economically conscious about stuff like that,” Thompson said.

Thompson focused on creating the hors d’oeuvre, a fried rice ball with a crème fresh emulsion and applemango slaw made from a lime and maple syrup vinaigrette. White created the

vegetarian dish, a puff pastry filled with tofu, zucchini, mushrooms, peppers and a charred tomato sauce, while Becker worked on the entrée, a pork loin with a parmesan quinoa herb crust served with sweet potato hash and grilled asparagus.

The contestants were judged on their organization and neatness in the kitchen, the “plating” or presentation of the food and the overall flavor of the meals. All techniques were taught to the team by Jung.

“Working with flavors that matched each other well was his big thing,” Becker said about Jung. “The biggest thing he taught us was to be organized and everything’s gonna kinda fall into place with you from there.”

White described Jung as “pumped” when the UMass team won and said that he see

IRON CHEF on page 3

and fees goes into paying for a poorer student’s,” she said. Scales said that the University would now be directing more of those funds toward financial aid.

“Other sources of financial aid have gone flat, so more and more is coming from the University,” Scales added, referring to the plateau of funding the UMass system has seen from the state.

When asked about the University’s plan to keep up with the growing demand of aid, she said, “The concern going forward is how we are going to help the students who absolutely need it to go to college.”

According to Scales, this concern is one of President Caret’s biggest reasons for supporting and pushing for the 50/50 plan, in which the state covers half of a student’s tuition and fees and the student’s family is responsible for paying for the other half.

“In the Fiscal Year ‘14, the state allocated UMass $40 million in funding, which helped us to implement a tuition and fee freeze. We have asked the governor and legislature for a second year of increased funding to really help those students who need it the most,” Scales said. According to a January 2014 Boston Globe article about financial aid, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimated national student debt to have approached $1.2 trillion last year.

According to the article, student debt in Massachusetts is the 12th highest in the country.

Despite the growing need for aid, UMass remains the most affordable option for in-state students, according to Caret’s report. In-state cost of attendance per year, including tuition, fees and housing, averages to $25,855. Private colleges in Massachusetts average about $58,536.

U n ive r s i t y of Massachusetts President Robert Caret, in an announcement to the Board of Trustees earlier this month, said that the UMass system would direct $148 million of its own funds toward student financial aid.

Last year, UMass students borrowed or were awarded a record high of $728.3 million in financial aid, according to a University press release.

That number is expected to grow this year.

“More and more students need help paying for college, and we are committed to helping them so that the doors of opportunity remain open on all five of our campuses,” Caret said in the release.

“I commend the chancellors for working to ensure that students with financial need get the assistance they need. It is critically important that we keep UMass affordable and not burden students with unmanageable college debt.”

A report by the president also said that 80 percent of UMass students applied for financial aid last year, and students graduating from UMass this year carry an average of $29,400 in debt.

According to the financial aid website, UMass Amherst provided $198 million in aid to 20,000 students last year.

Caret’s report also stated that 71 percent of total aid given to students is funded by the University and the federal government in the form of grants and loans.

According to the report, UMass met 88.4 percent of in-state student need.

Ann Scales, director of communications, explained how financial aid at UMass works.

“In simple terms, some Marie MacCune can be reached at portion of a student’s tuition mmaccune@umass.edu.

Higher Ed commissioner testifies on 2015 budget

By PatricK HoFF

began in fiscal year 2014 in service of building one of the nation’s top systems of public higher education,” Higher Education Commissioner Freeland said in his testimony.

Richard Freeland came to the As higher education commissionUniversity of Massachusetts on er, Freeland is directly responsible Tuesday to testify in front of the for the nine state universities and Joint Ways and Means Committee 15 community colleges in the comabout the 2015 fiscal year budget. monwealth and has knowledge of the “The year ahead will be pivotal for UMass system, which is headed by public higher education as we seek to President Robert Caret. advance the historic investments that In an interview with the Collegian Staff

Massachusetts Daily Collegian, Freeland said that the state funding provided to the systems in the 2014 fiscal year helped to move Massachusetts’ per student support ranking for higher education up a bit, but the state remains in the “middle of the pack.” Moving this ranking up out of the 20s is a “matter of investment,” he said.

The commissioner said the government provides an average level of

JUSTIN SURGENT/COLLEGIAN

Higher Education commissioner Richard Freeland testified in front of the Joint Ways and Means Committee at UMass on Tuesday.

funds to the higher education system, resulting in mirrored results.

“If you look at institutional performance … it’s pretty average,” Freeland said.

The problem, he continued, is that educated minds are what the state has to offer to the outside world in terms of investments. It’s impossible to sell tax breaks or the weather to potential investors, he said, so Massachusetts has to make sure there is an educated workforce to provide to businesses. This means increasing the excellence of education and graduation rates across the higher education system. At UMass, the six-year graduation rate of firsttime freshmen is below 60 percent.

Freeland said that while affordability of education is definitely important, excellence of education should be the primary goal. He added that affordability also should not mean cheap – it should mean a good education for a reasonable price.

In order to increase affordability, Freeland said, public institutions across the state have begun sharing resources, such as IT departments and software vendor agreements.

This way every state school and community college is not spending money on the same things.

“Campuses don’t love that,” he said, adding it makes financial sense.

In the 2014 fiscal year, Massachusetts ranked among the top five states in the year-to-year

increase of state funding to public universities, according to Freeland’s testimony.

“I believe our public campuses are providing a solid return on investment for the heightened support we have received while also making good progress with respect to cost savings,” Freeland said in the testimony.

Freeland likened the increase of funds for higher education to the increase of funds for K-12 education in 1993. Beginning in 1993, Massachusetts began investing more into its K-12 education system and continued to increase its investment each year. Massachusetts now ranks among the top performing K-12 systems in the country, and Freeland believes that a similar investment could produce the same results in higher education.

The problem, Freeland said, is that while K-12 was getting a higher investment, higher education was being disinvested in. Freeland said it does not make any sense since the higher education system is what students are being prepared for in grades K-12. If the systems do not match up, neither will the results.

If the legislature decides not to increase its investment in higher education, Freeland said he fears colleges and universities will be forced to choose whether to invest in quality see

TESTIMONY on page 3

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

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THE RU N D OW N ON THIS DAY...

In 1993, a truck bomb parked beneath the North Tower of the World Trade Center exploded, killing six people and injuring over 1,000. The bomb was intended to knock down the two towers but failed.

AROUND THE WORLD

Ukraine MOSCOW — Ukraine’s acting president said Tuesday that it would be at least another two days before an interim government is in place as further negotiations are needed to ensure that a genuine “coalition of national faith” agrees to see the divided country through to May 25 elections.

Interim President Olexander Turchynov made the announcement to the parliament now dominated by opposition figures and defected members of fugitive ex-President Viktor Yanukovich’s Party of Regions. A provisional government, on which sympathetic Western countries are waiting to work out an urgent bailout for deeply indebted Ukraine, had been expected on Tuesday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists at a Moscow press conference that Russia would refrain from interfering in Ukraine’s domestic crisis and expected other countries to do likewise.

Los Angeles Times

Nigeria ABUJA, Nigeria — Suspected Islamist militants attacked a school Tuesday and killed 43 people in northeastern Nigeria, local officials and hospital sources said.

More than 50 gunmen thought to belong to the Boko Haram group stormed the school in Buni Yadi in Yobe state in the early morning, a member of the school committee said.

Sources at a hospital in Yobe capital Damaturu confirmed that 43 bodies had been deposited in the morgue. It was not clear how many of them were students and staff. dpa

United Kingdom LONDON — Former British tabloid editor Rebekah Brooks testified in court Tuesday that she was unaware phone hacking was illegal but was shocked to discover someone at her newspaper had tapped into the voicemails of a kidnapped teenager who was later found slain.

Brooks, onetime editor of the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World, said the first time she’d heard that the cellphone of 13-year-old Milly Dowler had been hacked was in July 2011, nearly a decade after the event.

Los Angeles Times LONDON — A former Guantanamo Bay detainee was among four people arrested Tuesday in central England on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offences, British police said.

Moazzam Begg, who spent nearly three years in the U.S. military prison, is suspected of having attended a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas, according to West Midlands police.

A police spokeswoman said that Begg, 45, was being publicly named “as a result of the anticipated high public interest,” but added that this does “not imply any guilt.” dpa Distributed by MCT Information Services

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

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UMPD sees an increase in nighttime escort requests

Unmasking Sam the Minuteman

Rise comes after recent robbery

Student talks about being the mascot

By ChanCe Viles Collegian Correspondent The University of Massachusetts Police Department has seen an increase in the number of students requesting escorts this semester after the robbery of a female student on North Pleasant Street last month, according to UMPD Deputy Chief Ian Cyr. This semester, the service has been utilized 21 times, a significant increase from fall 2013, when the service was used on only two occasions.

UMPD, in conjunction with Residence Hall Security and the Cadet

Program, offers escorts to students who do not feel safe walking alone at night.

These escorts are normally provided by RHS, although UMPD will step in if they are busy at the time of the call.

RHS will transport the students in a shuttle and a police cadet will walk with them until they reach their destination.

“The positive aspect is that (the escorts) exist in general ... if people feel unsafe walking there is a remedy to that,” Cyr said.

The escort service has been around for over 20 years. Escorts are offered nightly from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. and each request is logged by radio to make sure that the students have arrived safely to their destination.

Despite the recent inci-

dent, Cyr said, “Surveys among students show students do feel safe walking on campus.”

UMPD also conducts an annual check to make sure that campus is properly lit at night. According to Cyr, the amount of lighting and frequent traffic around campus is generally the reason why students say they feel safe.

The service is primarily used on weekdays, and calls are less frequent on the weekends. Cyr cited the rise in the amount of people walking in groups, as well as cell phones, as the reasons why there isn’t a larger demand for escorts.

Those in need of an escort can call 413-545-2123.

Chance Viles can be reached at cviles@umass.edu.

Bitcoin virtual currency is on the verge of collapse

By Chris o’Brien and andrew tangel Los Angeles Times SAN FRANCISCO — It was supposed to revolutionize the global monetary system. Instead, the bitcoin virtual currency that has captured the imagination of investors and financiers is on the verge of collapse.

In a stunning blow to a novel way to buy products and services, the world’s largest exchange for trading bitcoin currency shut down Tuesday, triggering a massive sell-off and sending many prospective investors away - perhaps for good.

“This is extremely destructive,” said Mark Williams, a risk-management expert and former Federal Reserve Bank examiner. “What we’re seeing is a lot of the flaws. It’s not only fragile, it’s fragile as eggshells.”

The mysterious circumstances that triggered the failure of the exchange, Mt. Gox in Tokyo, is only adding to the renewed anxiety over the virtual currency, which just a month earlier had been gaining momentum and supporters.

After saying users could not withdraw their funds, Mt. Gox suddenly ceased all operations, including shutting down its website.

Mt. Gox users may have lost more than $300 million worth of bitcoins in what was the latest and biggest in a series of recent setbacks for the virtual currency.

The currency exists only online, and its value is based on an algorithm. Investors buy bitcoins with dollars, euros and other real currency. A purchase with bitcoins typically involves transferring an amount from the buyer’s bitcoin “digital wallet” to the seller’s wallet on the Internet.

The blow to bitcoin’s credibility has highlighted all the fears critics have been trying to raise. Because it is unregulated and anonymous, there is probably no way for users to know who may have seized the thousands of missing bitcoins and no way to recover them.

This sudden reversal of fortune is particularly painful for enthusiasts who believed just a few weeks ago that bitcoin was on the cusp of mainstream acceptance because of growing support from venture capitalists, banks and regulators.

Instead of triumph, the bitcoin community is now focused on repairing the damage. Mt. Gox is nothing more than a “collapsed

tower of toxic sludge,” said Williams, who is also a finance professor at Boston University School of Management.

The recent weeks have been troubled ones for bitcoin. In late January, the chief executive of another bitcoin exchange was arrested on money-laundering charges, Russia banned the virtual currency, and Apple Inc. pulled a popular bitcoin app from its App Store over concerns about its legality.

But the fall of Mt. Gox trumps all of these stumbles in size and scope, and has clearly left many in the bitcoin community stunned and confused. Although there are other exchanges where people can buy and sell bitcoins, Mt. Gox was the biggest.

“Having Mt. Gox shut down is to bitcoin what having the New York Stock Exchange shut down is to our equity market,” said James Angel, a professor of finance at Georgetown University.

Problems at Mt. Gox first surfaced earlier this month when the exchange stopped letting users make transactions because of what appeared to be a glitch that was also affecting other exchanges. But although the other exchanges came back online, Mt. Gox remained dark through last weekend.

On Monday, users noticed that the site seemed to be disabled and the home page was blank. Later that day, a “Crisis Draft Strategy” document was obtained by somebody and posted online, purporting to be from Mt. Gox. The document, whose authenticity has been questioned, raised further alarms because it indicated that Mt. Gox may have lost 744,000 bitcoins to theft over several years. It also explored whether to shut down Mt. Gox completely or re-launch it under a new name.

What really happened?

Mt. Gox issued only a short statement Tuesday: “In light of recent news reports and the potential repercussions on Mt. Gox’s operations and the market, a decision was taken to close all transactions for the time being in order to protect the site and our users. We will be closely monitoring the situation and will react accordingly.”

Across the bitcoin community, Mt. Gox faced swift and harsh criticism for its handling of the crisis.

“This tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt. Gox was the result of one

company’s actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of Bitcoin and the digital currency industry,” read a joint statement from several bitcoin companies posted on the Coinbase blog.

“As with any new industry, there are certain bad actors that need to be weeded out, and that is what we are seeing today.”

Created in 2009 by a programmer using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin is based on a software standard that runs across a wide number of servers around the world for regulating the creation and trading of bitcoins. It is not controlled by any nation, governing body or business.

The original computer code established the number of bitcoins in circulation and tracks ownership of the currency. The absence of government or corporate interference made bitcoin popular among technophiles with strong libertarian views.

But the same attributes that made Bitcoin so appealing to some may be its greatest weaknesses, critics say.

“Concerns regarding Mt. Gox’s potential insolvency highlight the fact that one of bitcoin’s most attractive qualities - rapid transactions that are non-reversible - are also flaws,” said Alex Ferrara, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, who has been exploring possible investment opportunities over the last year in the bitcoin industry. “If Mt. Gox or any of the exchanges are hacked and bitcoins are stolen, they cannot be replaced.”

That bitcoin’s reputation has been so badly battered is all the more painful for backers who had been seeing venture capital starting to flow to bitcoin start-ups.

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen recently revealed his venture firm had invested about $50 million in bitcoin startups. Bitcoin incubators and accelerators had begun popping up around the country. On the very day Mt. Gox appeared to collapse, SecondMarket, a New York City firm, announced plans to create a new exchange with some major banks as possible partners.

Many Bitcoin backers insisted there was a silver lining to the collapse. Bad firms like Mt. Gox would be weeded out and replaced by trustworthy ones that would make bitcoin more credible and secure, they argued.

By Katrina BorofsKi Collegian Staff

beginning of the semester of all the dates in the next couple of months when Sam is needed, and we just tell them when we can do it,” she said.

While there are technically no secrets to the job, there is one rule, Goonan said.

“We can’t talk,” she explained, and added that she learned this lesson her first time on the job.

“I made that mistake when I was walking outside of Boyden Gym. A man walked by and before I realized I wasn’t allowed to talk, I said, ‘Hello there!’

I’m pretty sure he was an important figure in the Athletics Department, and he told me, ‘Sam, you’re not supposed to do that,’” Goonan said.

“So I put my hands on the big head and shook it.

That’s how I found out I can’t talk.”

Some of the biggest venues for Sam are sporting events. The mascot can always be found at hockey, football and basketball games at the Mullins Center and Gillette Stadium.

“Since the basketball team is doing so well, Sam has been needed a lot more, not just for the games themselves, but for things around the community relating to the team,” Goonan said.

Goonan said that playing the role of Sam is enjoyable and satisfying.

“I knew I always kind of wanted to,” she said. “It always seemed super fun.”

Goonan hopes to continue with her role as Sam, and she is particularly looking forward to being Sam during the upcoming football season.

“I’m hoping that as I stay Sam when I get older, I get to be Sam at bigger events,” she said.

To the student body, there is only one face of Sam the Minuteman, the University of Massachusetts mascot.

Sam’s job is fairly clear.

His role in the crowd at nearly every large-scale event that takes place at the University is unmistakable. Although silent, one can always find Sam giving high-fives and posing for pictures with students, family and other members of the crowd at events like New Student Orientation and UMass sporting events.

What most people do not know, however, is the face – or multiple faces – behind the suit. The job has been held by various students in the past, including Josh Duboff (UMass Class of 2007), who brought Sam all the way to the Capital One All-American Mascot Challenge in 2006, according to the UMass Amherst Magazine for Alumni and Friends. Since then, Sam has been taken over by students eager to continue the tradition.

Emily Goonan, a freshman Sustainable Food and Farming major, is currently taking on the role of Sam. Goonan shed light on what it is really like to be the University mascot.

“It’s so much fun because you forget that people can’t see who you really are, but they’re so excited to see Sam. Everyone comes over for high-fives and hugs and pictures,” said Goonan, who first took on the role as Sam at the beginning of the semester.

Goonan is one of four undergraduate students whose job it is to be Sam. Katrina Borofski can be reached at “We got an email at the kborofski@umass.edu.

IRON CHEF immediately jumped up in excitement.

Jung gave credit to the team’s positive attitude in a recent press release. “They are always asking, ‘How can I make this better?’” he said.

The three all said they had a blast on the trip. “The team we had was great, all the people were fun to work with, it made everything a lot more enjoyable,” Becker said.

He added that the competitors from other schools were all friendly and congratulatory. “We came into Canada and everybody respected us and it was a fun competition,” he said.

Both Becker and White plan to pursue careers in the hospitality industry.

continued from page 2

Becker, who moved his way up from a dishwasher to head chef at Fazio’s Restaurant in his hometown of East Longmeadow, hopes to work somewhere as an executive chef in the future.

Thompson said she plans to work as a physical therapist after she graduates, though cooking will always be a big part of her life. She added that her “big Italian family” celebrates cooking, and that she enjoys cooking as a hobby to relieve stress.

“I just love making food and eating food,” she said.

“It was the perfect competition for me.”

Kristin Lafratta can be reached at klafratt@umass.edu.

TESTIMONY of education or financial aid, quickly pushing costs up.

Freeland said that Massachusetts ought to aspire to be a top tier system and make it a goal to move out of the middle of the pack.

Following his testimony to the Joint Ways and Means Committee, Freeland spoke with student leaders at UMass about their differ-

continued from page 2

ent groups, including the Center for Multicultural Advancement for Student Success, the Center for Education Policy and Advocacy, and Divest UMass.

Patrick Hoff can be reached at pphoff@umass.edu and followed at @Hoff_Patrick16.

Opinion Editorial THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

“Maybe the dingo ate your baby.” - Elaine Benes

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Editorial@DailyCollegiancom

Five steps to law school admittance

Why we ran a full-page ad on the front cover of today’s Collegian Dear readers, Today, you may have noticed that the front page of the Collegian features

Stephen Hewitt a full-page advertisement instead of our daily’s top news stories.

While this might not raise any immediate red flags, we thought we should take the opportunity to explain this decision anyway.

It’s not a secret that revenue numbers, and particularly print advertising revenue, are declin-

ing at newspapers across the country. This trend is affecting newspapers, big or small, and even at the college level. So although the Collegian is in a rather uniquely fortunate position, with a community that remains vested in supporting collegiate journalism and truly values our daily missions, we’d be lying if we said times weren’t a bit tough and all is not so quiet on the financial front.

So, we’re innovating – but only a bit. As our readers who have been here for more than one year may note, we’ve cut down on

circulation and cut the Friday paper. Those decisions were difficult, but they allow us the financial stability to continue to produce excellent journalism for you, in-print and online, every day. Today’s unusual ad placement was a decision made for similar reasons.

Don’t anticipate on seeing front page ads all that often (truthfully, they’re expensive). As a staff, we also determined that if major news were to break, the ad would be moved before publication. In sum, we recognize that our mis-

sion to continue to serve the community is of utmost importance, and while this ad is an innovative (though not unheard of ) tactic to help aid our funding, we certainly prefer just getting straight to the news.

For today though, we’re opening up about this ethical conundrum to the community, in hopes that you’ll share your insights and continue to turn the page on how to support collegiate journalism with us.

With applications down 15 percent last year, now is the perfect time to apply to law school. The competition is still fiercely aggressive, so there’s still no time

Brandon Sides

Stephen Hewitt is the Collegian’s Editor in Chief. He can be reached at editor@dailycollegian.com.

Progressive defense budget proposal for future On Monday, Defense Two concurrent wars in Secretary Chuck Hagel out- Iraq and Afghanistan are lined sweeping defense cuts responsible for the Army’s as part of the Obama admin- growth over the past decade.

But, with the rise of China Zac Bears and other Asian nations, future foreign policy and milistration’s budget proposal itary action will focus on the to Congress. The proposal archipelagic Pacific, where would reduce the size of the any war would be fought by army to 1940 pre-World War sea and air, as evidenced by II levels, retire two entire the U.S. WWII campaign. classes of airplanes and In The New York Times an significantly cut the Army unnamed senior Pentagon National Guard. official said, “You can’t carry The proposed $522 bil- a large land-war Defense lion defense appropriation is Department when there is down from the $682 billion no large land war.” spent in 2012, but still larger than the military budgets of China, Russia and the United Kingdom combined.

Prominent conservatives immediately struck back, arguing that the cuts will severely impede the ability of the U.S. military to combat threats. The foxnews. com story on the proposed The cuts accommodate budget describes the cuts as “drawing criticism that the broader fiscal austerity as drastic changes will hurt Congress and the president U.S. security” in the lead continue to cut the federal budget, even as unemployparagraph.

Just hours after the ment stays high and growth announcement, former Vice remains low. Although miliPresident Dick Cheney came tary budget cuts are necesout against the budget, call- sary in the long-term, the ing the cuts “absolutely dan- continued reduction of the gerous.” He continued that federal budget, regardless of threats faced from many its distribution, is detrimenparts of the world would lead tal to short-term economic him to maintain or strength- growth and employment en military capabilities, not prospects.

Still, Republicans would cut them.

Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) rather cut Medicare and feels that Obama and Hagel Social Security than touch are attempting to “solve our the defense budget. Rep. financial problems on the Michael McCaul (R-TX) said that the cuts will hurt milibacks of our military.”

Bellyaching from the tary readiness and that the right is more a symptom of military budget is “being the “Blame Obama” ideol- sacrificed … on the altar of ogy, and less a statement of entitlements.” facts. While conservative The defense budget is the outlets slander the budget as last item to come up to the a reduction in capacity, it is chopping block over the past simply the budgetary solu- five years, as nutrition assistion to the U.S. foreign policy tance, unemployment benepivot from the Middle East to fits, tax relief for the middle the Pacific. class and other domestic

discretionary spending were already cut. The mandatory outlays for Medicare and Social Security and GOP intransigence to proposed Democratic entitlement reforms are the only political forces that have kept Congress from slashing those budgets as well.

Individuals with close ties to the army have qualms about the budget as well. In addition to the reorganization of the army, the proposal also includes cuts to housing allowances for military families and subsidies to on-

“By adding new funding for research and development of cyber warfare and drones, the U.S. attempts to enter an era of indirect conflict that puts fewer American soldiers in danger.”

to a multitude of smaller crises.

Even more budget cuts are unpleasant but politically unavoidable. Hagel and the Obama administration have used the 2015 budget proposal to shape future budget cuts and ensure that they are handled strategically, and not with brute force as they were with sequestration.

This defense budget reduces the absolute size of the Army, but, through this reform, it focuses the bulk of U.S. defense funding on future challenges, both geopolitical and technological.

By adding new funding for research and development of cyber warfare and drones, the U.S. attempts to enter an era of indirect conflict that puts fewer American soldiers in danger. There are broader moral implications for drone strikes and cyber attacks that endanger human lives, but those are questions for civilian leadership and the democratic process to solve, not the budgeting process.

In a time of unrest, geopolitical uncertainty and economic turmoil, the demilitarization of the largest political power in the world sends a positive message. The 21st Century will be either the century of human solidarity in the face of unimaginable collective challenges, or the century of global violence, where countries fight for the last drops of oil and fresh water left on Earth.

Hagel’s proposal puts America squarely on the side of human solidarity, and, while humanity often fails to plan for the long-term, at least we have a government that is actually trying.

base grocery stores. A vote for the budget will be framed as a vote against military constituents, a bitter pill for any congressperson to swallow in an election year.

At face value, the budget is remarkably forward facing. Realizing the growing importance of cyber warfare and special operations, it includes increases in funding to drone programs, the planned growth of special forces and maintaining the size and strength of the U.S. Navy and Air Force, including the 11 operational aircraft carriers and their associated battle groups. Hagel plans to retire the A-10 “tank-killer” and the Cold War-era U-2 spy plane, the first rendered obsolete by newer aircraft and the second by the massive network of U.S. spy satellites.

While ending U.S. ability to fight two large-scale wars at the same time, the bud- Zac Bears is a Collegian columnist. He get makes the military more can be reached at ibears@umass.edu nimble and able to respond and followed on Twitter @ZBPolitics.

for slacking off. Here are the top five most important factors in determining your success as an applicant.

1) Pick a major you love. Yes, Mathematics, Philosophy, Economics and Physics majors score highest on the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), but you shouldn’t pick a major you don’t love. If you’ve gone to school for four years without obsessing about your studies, then your lack of enthusiasm will show. It will show to those who write your letters of recommendation and to the admissions officers who read your statement of purpose. Your GPA will likely be lower than it would otherwise be. The only way for you to stand

nize information presented to you, balance the rest of your life and produce highquality essays and return practice sets with ease.

Such a skill is undoubtedly useful not just in law school, but in the legal world as well.

4) Perfect the “soft factors.” “Soft factors” are any factors besides your GPA and LSAT score – leadership ability, work experience, diversity and the like.

These factors, though by no means the determinants of your admission, may catch the eyes of an admissions officer and save your file from the garbage bin.

Consider emphasizing your political activism, sports team captainship or dedication to a job, because anything you can do to stand out won’t hurt.

5) Take some time off.

Applicants often doubt whether they should take time off. Consider doing so to gain work experience, take a legal studies intern-

“With application submission rates down, now is the best time to crack down on the books, take some time off to pursue your passions, and consider whether law is right for you in the first place.” out is for you to truly enjoy what you’re reading outside of class.

2) Study for the LSAT – the right way. The LSAT is not like the SAT – it’s the most important factor in law school admissions, not just one among many.

Given the variety of colleges and difficulties of majors, the LSAT offers the only standardized playing field for all applicants to test themselves with. Those who have scored in the top percentiles frequently cite studying for at least three months, taking at least 40 practice tests and stimulating the test day environment. And with only one attempt allowed in most cases, you’d better enter the testing room prepared.

3) Raise your GPA. It’s important to maintain a consistently high GPA throughout your college career for yourself and for your law schools. After all, they’d like to brag about high GPAs, too – it’s part of what raises their prestige.

Unfortunately, students who took a while to adjust to college may forever be troubled by a low first-year GPA. However, admissions officers do appreciate recoveries from low overall averages. High GPAs are important because they measure an applicant’s success at doing one thing – being assigned various tasks and successfully completing those tasks. A high GPA shows that you can orga-

ship, travel and think hard about what you’d like to do with your life. If you truly want to be a lawyer, then your time off is not wasted because school is always there. It’s great if you find yourself hiking the Appalachian and can’t wait to start writing applications – that’s how you know law school is for you.

The opposite isn’t true, for if you graduate from the University of Virginia with several thousand dollars of debt and doubts in your mind, it might be too late, and you probably should have thought about your future beforehand.

If you complete these five tasks, then you’ll likely be prepared for a life of the law. With application submission rates down, now is the best time to crack down on the books, take some time off to pursue your passions and consider whether law is right for you in the first place. Make sure to consider, of course, the reasons why the number of applications is so low – law school debt is piling high, graduates from even the top schools are out of jobs and the law degree is no longer a job safety net. If you ultimately decide to take the risk, these five tips may pay off in the end.

Brandon Sides is a Collegian columnist and can be reached at bsides@ umass.edu.

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The Massachusetts Daily Collegian is published Monday through Thursday during the University of Massachusetts calendar semester. The Collegian is independently funded, operating on advertising revenue. Founded in 1890, the paper began as Aggie Life, became the College Signal in 1901, the Weekly Collegian in 1914 and the Tri–Weekly Collegian in 1956. Published daily from 1967 to 2013, The Collegian has been broadsheet since January 1994. For advertising rates and information, call 413-545-3500.

WEB PRODUCTION MANAGER - Jesse Mayfield NEWS DESK EDITOR - Aviva Luttrell O p /E d DESK EDITOR - Maral Margossian ARTS DESK EDITOR - Cory Willey SPORTS DESK EDITOR - Mark Chiarelli | Anthony Chiusano COMICS DESK EDITOR - Tracy Krug GRAPHICS DESK EDITOR - Gabe Scarbrough

Arts Living THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

“Dead or alive, you’re coming with me!” - RoboCop (1987)

Arts@DailyCollegian.com

FILM REVIEW

‘RoboCop’ update lacks the humanity it pretends to have Story is sacrificed for stunning visuals

By Jan Dichter Collegian Staff

Hollywood’s latest valentine to the 1980s, Brazilian director José Padilha’s first English-language feature “RoboCop” released on Feb. 12, is a slick, kinetic reboot of Paul Verhoeven’s campier, gorier 1987 sci-fi action classic.

The plot broadly follows the original – a Detroit cop (Joel Kinnaman’s Detective Murphy) cut down in the line of duty is saved from death’s door by corporate experimenters, who transform him into a cyborg. Struggling to recover his humanity, he investigates his own attempted murder and winds up on a rampage against corrupt cops, organized crime and the corporation that created him. Both films spin violent satires about technology, power and greed into nearly plausible near-future thrill

rides through a city that represents all of America’s anxieties about deindustrialization.

Padilha, however, offers us a more complex protagonist, in a vision for the age of drone strikes, surveillance and digitized identities, where cybernetic systems monitor and manage human existence on every scale.

Like the original, the remake opens with a newscast with Samuel L. Jackson, hosting an “O’Reilly Factor”style show. He calls for the domestic deployment of military robots shown “pacifying” Tehran, railing against “robo-phobic” politicians prohibiting their use in policing during the opening. Michael Keaton’s smirking, self-righteous CEO – a “visionary” tech entrepreneur unlike Verhoeven’s coked-up, avaricious yuppies – wants to sway public opinion with “a figure they can rally behind: a product with a conscience.”

Traumatized, drugged and installed in a powerful mechanical body, the resur-

rected Murphy becomes an emotionless law-enforcing machine, electronically controlled but with “the illusion of free will,” embodying the corporate greed and feckless scientific curiosity that created him. As the prosthetics researcher overseeing Murphy’s transformation, Gary Oldman’s latter-day Dr. Frankenstein says “fear, instinct, bias, compassion will always interfere with the system … consciousness is nothing more than the processing of information.” Of course, Murphy’s soul – or whatever we should call it – rises from the abyss and overcomes his software at the crucial moment.

It’s in this climactic crisis that “RoboCop” risks becoming a metaphor for itself, since it has the same problem as Murphy – it, too, wants to be a “product with a conscience.” Though sleekly executed, it’s yet another over-charged, mostly synthetic commodity whipping along just fast enough to avoid collapsing under its own weight.

DIRECTOR RETROSPECTIVE

To be sure, today’s special effects surpass 1987’s by an order of magnitude, with plenty of gunfire and queasy touches of body horror that owe more to Neill Blomkamp (“District 9,” “Elysium”) than to Verhoeven. Padilha foregrounds the psychological aspect of Murphy’s transformation, making his wife and son major characters.

But mostly, the audience finds itself, like Murphy, a helpless passenger in his war-machine of a body, driven by the coldly efficient preoccupation with speed and design that dominates any sector of technical development today, from weaponry to entertainment. Although it pulls off some genuinely startling moments, the mood is simulated more than set with formulaic gestures, the battle scenes closely resemble video games, and the cinematography is a jerky, hyperactive mess.

Not every mindless killing machine of a techy actioner bothers with philosophical questions about consciousness, identity and will. But

where “RoboCop” wants to be deep, topical and exciting, it often comes off, well, robotic. Its sparse, mechanical attempts at levity are vague, brusque callbacks landing like so many spent shell casings. Padilha’s grim, tortured hero has the excessive gravitas of Christopher Nolan’s “Batman,” and where the genre needs a good villain to be fun, his is basically Steve Jobs (a crucial scene involves him watching C-SPAN – seriously).

Meanwhile, Verhoeven had Kurtwood Smith (“That ’70s Show”) as a gleefully psychotic gangster, doped-up punkers and maniacal executives blowing each other to pieces. Oldman manages to bring an air of dignity to at least some of the proceedings, as usual, but only Jackson really livens things up.

It was more of a typical big-budget blast of CGI than the think piece it at times pretends to want to be. As a remake, it’s better-looking and more nuanced, but its thoughtfulness sinks

into melodrama. Where Verhoeven’s film dealt with social bankruptcy and the re-conquest of chaotic urban space, Padilha’s takes on the militarization of normalcy in a metropolis obsessed with security and overloaded with control devices.

Ultimately, it’s about the irreducibility of the human element in any such system – the impossibility of the “product with a conscience” and its ideal linking of “man and machine,” politics and technology – which is where it resonates most with the dystopian vibe of the original, even as it feels most contemporary. It raises weighty, gruesome questions about drone warfare, medical ethics and state power, but declines to say anything substantial about them. Padilha has given us a hipper, more human “RoboCop,” but not necessarily a more interesting one.

Jan Dichter can be reached at jdichter@umass.edu.

FILM REVIEW

The many different works of Shorts nominated for Oscars 2014’s animated prolific director Joss Whedon nominees deliver From Sunnydale to the heli-carrier By toMMy VerDone Collegian Staff

For the man who began his career on top of a demon-spitting Hellmouth, Joss Whedon has made quite the name for himself.

Whedon, possibly known best for his creation of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel,” has accomplished a lot more than that.

Interestingly enough, he is seen as one of TV’s first thirdgeneration writers, his father having written for “Golden Girls” in the 1980s and his grandfather having written for “The Donna Reed Show” in the 1950s.

Before having the opportunity to shape his own lore, Whedon worked often as an uncredited writer and a script consultant for a number of shows and movies. He co-wrote “Toy Story” and “Titan AE,” as well as “Alien: Resurrection.”

However, he has expressed great dissatisfaction at the latter two for not having the opportunity to direct his vision himself. He also wrote the often overlooked film “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” from 1992, which was directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui. Whedon and fans alike seem to share bitter memories of this movie to this day.

In 1997, Whedon’s Buffy character finally had the chance to take off in the way he had hoped she would.

The pilot aired in March of 1997 and was produced by Whedon’s own production company “Mutant Enemy Productions,” where he started to produce “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The series ran seven seasons until 2003, having switched networks from WB to UPN in 2001.

“Buffy” follows the story of none other than Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who just moved to Sunnydale, Calif.

Buffy is your typical average, yet not-so-average, teenage girl coming to terms with growing up, the social jungle

that is high school and her prophesized fate as a vampire slayer. Whedon’s “Buffy” plots often draw parallels between high school drama and hellish supernatural chaos. The character of Buffy originated out of “the idea of some woman who seems to be completely insignificant who turns out to be extraordinary,” according to Whedon.

By Season 4 the show had its own spinoff, “Angel,” starring the broody vampire with a soul himself, Angel (David Boreanaz). In this series, which exists in the same universe and occasionally overlaps with the plot in “Buffy,” viewers follow Angel, who has moved from Sunnydale to Los Angeles, and forms a supernatural private detective agency with some B-list characters from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” as well as some fresh faces.

While many fans and most of the Internet seem to agree that “Angel” lacked some of the charm of “Buffy,” it’s hard to find a source that actively dislikes the series.

While it paled in comparison, it was still popular enough to receive a follow-up comic book series on Dark Horse Comics, just as “Buffy” did.

Next up on Whedon’s list of creations is one of the most infamously famous cult series in recent memory – “Firefly.”

“Firefly” was a space-western hybrid TV show that aired for a brief 14 episodes in 2002 on Fox. This show followed the Mal Reynolds’ (Nathan Fillion) crew of veterans on the space ship “Serenity,” following a great Unification War between rebels and an alliance that aimed to unite colonized planets under one government. Needless to say the “browncoats,” or rebels, lost the war and the show follows them on their corrupt, but ever vigilant, space cowboy adventures.

The series was officially cancelled after 11 episodes, but many cult fans argue that it was never given a chance.

Strangely enough, the series was aired out of order, giving fans another excuse to cling to. In an interview published in The Pittsburgh

Post-Gazette, former Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman claimed that “it was a wonderful show and I loved it and I loved working with (Whedon) on it but that was a big show, a very expensive show and it wasn’t delivering the numbers.”

However, there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and in 2005 cult followers were graced with “Serenity,” a “Firefly” film made to tie up all the loose ends of their short-lived but greatly beloved series. The film was a hit and was lauded even by fans who hadn’t seen “Firefly.” Even Roger Ebert went so far as to give the film a “Two Thumbs Up” rating.

But it doesn’t end there for Whedon. In 2008 he created the short web-series “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” starring Neil Patrick Harris, with his brother Jed Whedon in the throes of the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike. Supposedly, the concept was to make a small and relatively cheap series that would work around the issues the strike was protesting. This series, which aired for free on an online blog, received great critical reception. Whedon also created “Dollhouse” which aired from 2009-10, cowrote and produced the horror movie “The Cabin in the Woods” in 2012 and wrote and directed the film “Marvel’s The Avengers,” which also came out in 2012.

Whedon is currently working on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D,” an “Avengers’” spinoff of sorts which began airing on ABC in 2013.

Not many writers or directors have had such a deep stake in entertainment media in the last 20 years, and even fewer would be trusted to take the responsibility of the entire Marvel universe. However, it’s no surprise that Whedon was tasked with this duty after he kept a high school drama/horror crossover on the air for seven seasons, and almost single-handedly made vampires cool again in the 1990s.

Tommy Verdone can be reached at tverdone@umass.edu.

By yoshi MakashiMa Collegian Staff

With the Academy Awards swiftly approaching, awards like “Best Picture,” “Best Actor and Actress” and “Best Director” will be stealing most of the attention.

Meanwhile, other categories will get pushed out of the spotlight.

Among these “lesser” categories is “Best Animated Short,” which definitely gets shortchanged. Most audiences don’t take notice of the nominees for this category, unless they come bearing the Disney symbol.

However, even the nominees without the brandname recognition represent some of the most entertaining and innovative storytelling in the film industry.

All of the nominated shorts are available online, but if you’d rather get the traditional movie theater experience, Amherst Cinema will be screening the entire program of Oscar-nominated animated shorts this week.

The program, hosted by a hyper-realistic CG ostrich and giraffe, who claim to be filling in for Woody and Buzz Lightyear of “Toy Story,” kicks off with “Get a Horse” from Disney, starring the company mascot Mickey Mouse, who attempts to rescue his girlfriend Minnie from the wicked Peg-Leg Pete. The short starts off as a 1940s-style cartoon (even using sound clips of Walt Disney performing Mickey’s voice) before it explodes into 21st century CG. Peg-Leg Pete chases Mickey and his friends off a movie screen, into a three-dimensional theater, and back again, tearing bright holes of color in the black-andwhite screen. The CG characters discover that they can control the world inside the screen, spinning and flipping it to change the physics of the cartoon,

and eventually trapping the villain in the frame.

Next up is “Mr. Hublot,” starring an obsessive-compulsive cyborg living in a steampunk dystopia. The protagonist, the titular Mr. Hublot, is a catalog of compulsions, constantly adjusting picture frames, flicking light switches and arranging a window box of mechanical flowers. One day he decides to adopt a rambunctious robot puppy, who turns his neatly ordered life upside down.

The world of “Mr. Hublot,” all brass, gears and rust is rendered in luminous CG – a radically different aesthetic from the third film in the program “Feral.”

This story of a wild boy torn between the civilized world and his forest home appears onscreen like a delicate oil painting in muted colors. Layers of hand-drawn images are manipulated by computer.

Beautifully textured panes move smoothly, so that sunlight streams through trees, and towns and buildings emerge from mist as though from the haze of the imagination.

Just as compelling as the animation is the film’s young protagonist. The boy may be “feral,” but he is also deeply vulnerable. The tall dark wolves and humans dwarf his tiny pale figure. The boy’s bared teeth are unthreateningly rounded – even his wolfish growl is soft and gentle. Eventually, his identity crisis, as he is pulled between two worlds, threatens to tear him apart. This beautiful, dark meditation on nature and nurture is definitely one of the strongest nominees in the category.

The fourth offering is “Possessions,” in which a traveling repairman in feudal Japan seeks shelter from a storm in a tiny hut haunted by broken household objects. The story carries the flavor of a folktale. The repairman meets several challenges in the forms of different groups of abandoned objects – umbrellas, silken cloths,

dishes and other debris – possessed by Yokai, traditional Japanese ghosts.

However, instead of being frightened, the repairman sees the value in the broken things, and comes up with an ingenious solution to exorcise the demons.

The final, and longest, animation in the program is “Room on the Broom.” This 26-minute short tells of the adventures of a witch and her animal friends. “Room on the Broom” (based on the popular children’s book of the same name) was commissioned as a Christmas special for BBC – so it’s no wonder the short attracted A-level voice acting talent, including Gillian Anderson, Simon Pegg and Timothy Spall.

The program also includes three “Highly Commended” films – honorable mentions, if you would. The lineup includes “À La Française,” “Blue Umbrella” and “The Missing Scarf.”

This selection of animated shorts reflects the direction in which the medium of animation is headed. For years, proponents of traditional animation have been bleating about how CG has come to dominate the field, fearing that wider use of computers will lead to a less authentic aesthetic.

But if this list of nominees is any indication, traditional animation isn’t going away anytime soon.

About half of the shorts in the program were made through a combination of traditional animation techniques and machinemade images. As technology improves, the most innovative animators will be the ones who combine traditional and modern animation techniques – the authenticity of the past and the creative freedom of the future.

Yoshi Makishima can be reached at emakishi@smith.edu.

6

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

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GUARD PLAY Williams, Gordon and Davis were the three leading scorers for the Minutemen in their latest win over VCU last Friday, combining for 49 points, eight assists and eight steals.

Individually, the three bring their own different strength and style to the game. Williams has the ability to make a play out of any situation, Davis is a pure shooter who can knock down a 3-pointer at any time and Gordon is a defensive specialist who likes to attack the basket.

Put them all on the floor at once and it’s an opposing team’s nightmare to match up defensively.

“You add extra ballhandlers and it’s just great because we can spread the ball out a lot more and other guys can make plays,” Williams said.

The reemergence of Gordon as a scoring threat has added to the high level of play in the backcourt for UMass. To begin the season, he struggled to find his shot, missing easy floaters close to the basket. But over the course of the last month, Gordon has become the Minutemen’s second-best scoring option thanks to a renewed confidence.

“I’m just not putting a lot of pressure on myself,” he

AVENGE

RHODE ISLAND

continued from page 8

JAMES JESSON/COLLEGIAN

Chaz Williams (3) directs teammates as Derrick Gordon (2) looks on. said. “I talked to (Kellogg) a lot about that and he said, ‘Just be yourself and go out there and do what you know how to do,’ so that’s what I’ve been doing and it’s been paying off.”

But maybe the biggest surprise in how well the three-guard combination has worked so far this season has come from the play of Davis.

Davis’ role was virtually unknown entering the season, but he’s proven his worth so far. He’s the most consistent 3-point shooter on the team and he’s displaying the maturity that he gained in his first year and over the summer in his play as a sophomore.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

“I really learned over the summer and I like to listen,” he said. “I listened to what people were telling me and I think just not turning the ball over and being able to score is really helping me.”

With an A-10 Championship well in reach and the Minutemen’s first NCAA Tournament berth in 16 years becoming more and more of a reality, the play of Williams, Gordon and Davis is going to be crucial in how far this team goes.

“The three of us is going to be the main reason why we win games,” Gordon said.

Matthews will have that performance in mind on Wednesday night.

“They’re going to come in here and look to get revenge back,” Gordon said. “So we gotta make sure (when) they come in here (we) stay focused and do what we did down there. … It’s going to be a good matchup, I heard the tear they’ve been on, but it’s gonna be exciting.”

Munford and Matthews combined for 43 points in the loss. Gordon acknowledged their talent, but also knows he plays an important role as a defensive stopper.

“Don’t let them get the ball,” he said. “When I’m in my zone, I’m in my zone.

So my job is on me to, even if (they) get the ball, my job’s going to be to make sure (they) don’t really get shots off. If (they) do, it’s going to be very hard for him to get those shots off.”

Gordon’s coming off one of his best games of the season in UMass’ win over Virginia Commonwealth.

MURPHY

7

continued from page 8

He scored 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting in 24 minutes and looked comfortable on both ends of the floor.

“I think Derrick Gordon’s gotten his confidence back to a certain extent and played at a much higher level,” Kellogg said.

Closing in on milestones With just four games left in the season, a pair of Minutemen have a chance to create their own personal accolade.

Se n i or forwards Raphiael Putney (985) and Sampson Carter (903) are both close to crossing the 1,000 point mark for their respective careers. Both players entered UMass as a part of a recruiting class which included Terrell Vinson, Freddie Riley and Javorn Farrell. Vinson and Riley both crossed the 1,000 point threshold as Minutemen while Farrell reached the milestone at

the Texas El-Paso, where

“I think Derrick Gordon’s gotten his confidence back.”

UMass coach Derek Kellogg he continued his career as a postgraduate student.

It’s a proud development for Kellogg, who recruited all of those players.

“It shows that early on, we made the right choices on who we were trying to have as the foundation,” Kellogg said. “To have five guys out of your five-man recruiting class all get 1,000 points, it looks like we did our homework.”

Williams is also chasing some history. The point guard enters Wednesday’s game 17 assists behind Chris Lowe for UMass’ alltime assists record.

Mark Chiarelli can be reached at mchiarel@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @Mark_Chiarelli.

continued from page 8

Patrick Strohecker can be reached at pstrohec@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @P_Strohecker.

continued from page 8

the Minutewomen’s 22 shots went in, McMahon said the key for the team will be to continue to capitalize on those scoring opportunities, adding that the goal is to convert on at least 50 percent of the team’s shots.

“I think if we can get to cage but put away our opportunities that we get and have a good shooting day, then I think that that will bode well for us,” she said.

After a few fairly warm days where the weather got up to the 40s, tomorrow’s forecast has a high of just 25 degrees with a low of 5 and a 60 percent chance of snow, according to weather.com.

So the game is shaping up to be similar to last week’s home opener against Holy Cross, where players had to play on a snow-patched field that had been plowed just moments before.

But McMahon is not

fazed by the prospect of cold weather.

“I think it should be fine,” she said. “Definitely not as bad as some of the other days we’ve faced, so I think that should be a great spring game for us.”

The game is set to start on Wednesday at 3 p.m.

CADE BELISLE/COLLEGIAN

Jesse Mayfield-Sheehan can be reached at jmayfiel@umass.edu and can be followed on Twitter @jgms88.

Hannah Murphy (17) is tied for the team lead in draw controls with five. helps them to prepare for our opponents,” McMahon said.

McMahon added that Murphy’s success on faceoffs has also eased McGovern’s transition back to playing in regular-season games, as the senior defenseman is coming off an ACL surgery last summer.

Aside from draw controls, McMahon said that she is encouraging Murphy, along with the Minutewomen’s other underclassmen, to

maintain a high level of confidence against BU and as the season progresses.

“We want her to continue to be really aggressive,” McMahon said. “Sometimes, I think our team and offense relies on our upperclassmen to be the ones to take it into goal, but now we want everyone to step up, with (Murphy) included.”

Murphy said that she acknowledged the importance of staying aggressive by comparing her college

playing experience with her high school years.

“Everyone’s faster and a lot more aggressive, but the transition has been pretty easy with everyone, including my coaches and my teammates helping me out,” Murphy said. “I’m just hoping to work hard and take advantage of every opportunity that I have.”

Anthony Chiusano can be reached at achiusano@umass.edu and can be followed on Twitter @a_chiusano24.

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

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Standing guard

UMass set to face BU

3-guard package leads UM

Minutewomen host Terriers at McGuirk

By Jesse Mayfield-sheehan Collegian Staff

The No. 10 Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team will have a chance to avenge a loss from last season. And for a team that finished 18-3, that’s a rare chance.

The Minutewomen (3-0) will be hosting Boston University on Wednesday afternoon in a rematch of last year’s 9-8 overtime loss to the Terriers. UMass coach Angela McMahon said her team is excited for the match.

“I think they’re pretty fired up,” she said. “It’s such a good rivalry for us.”

The Terriers (0-2) should be excited as well. After the team faced some tough competition to open the season in No. 1 North Carolina and No. 3 Maryland, McMahon believes BU will be extra motivated for Wednesday’s game.

“They’re going to be hungry for a win and they’re going to be hungry for a win against us, where we’re up there in the polls, and I think they’re going to come in pretty confident.”

McMahon said.

The Terriers are led offensively by Mallory Collins, who has scored five goals through the team’s first two games. But McMahon said the biggest threat BU poses is its physical style of play.

“They are big, strong girls that play a very physical game, unlike some of the other opponents that we may have faced or will face,” she said. “We’re just going to have to be mentally prepared for that, play through it, not hoping or expecting any whistles or anything like that.

We’re just going to have to be tough.”

After a good shooting day against Holy Cross, when 12 of see

AVENGE on page 7

By PatriCk stroheCker Collegian Staff

CADE BELISLE/COLLEGIAN

Chaz Williams leads a potent three-guard lineup for the Minutemen, which is tasked with shutting down Rhode Island’s explosive backcourt .

UMass defends home court vs. URI

By Mark Chiarelli Collegian Staff

Fans of polarizing guard play need not go any further than Mullins Center on Wednesday night.

The Massachusetts men’s basketball team hosts Rhode Island at 7 p.m., marking the second meeting between both squads this season in UMass’ second-tolast home game. The Rams (1216, 3-10 Atlantic 10 Conference) have endured a shaky 2013-14 campaign, but one of the few constants has been the scoring prowess of guards Xavier Munford and E.C. Matthews.

The duo has combined to average 30.6 points per game, with Munford (16.6) just edging Matthews (14.0) and they have accounted for 45 percent of Rhode Island’s total scoring offense this season. Yet the backcourt’s big-

“Those two guys are the two best scoring guards in the conference together.”

UMass coach Derek Kellogg gest strength may be its unpredictability.

Munford exploded for 32 points in 38 minutes against St. Bonaventure on Saturday, just three days after scoring just seven points against Saint Joseph’s.

Matthews – a freshman who garnered recruiting interest from the Minutemen – is on a personal hot streak since his first encounter with UMass on Feb. 9. He scored 24 points on 7-of-15 shooting then and has averaged 23.8 points per game in his four appearances since. He’s the reigning Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week.

“Those two guys are the two

HOCKEY EAST

UML’s comeback forces tie with BC, Northeastern outdoes Maine By yoni Monat

Collegian Correspondent

With a record 7,649 patrons jamming the Tsongas Center in Lowell for a matchup of the top two teams in Hockey East, the UMass Lowell hockey team stormed back from a 2-0 thirdperiod deficit against the nation’s top team, Boston College, to force a 2-2 draw on Saturday.

BC (25-4-4, 16-1-2 Hockey East), fresh off of a 3-0 blanking of the River Hawks (20-8-4, 10-5-3) the prior day in Chestnut Hill, potted two goals in the second period after a scoreless first.

Junior forward Johnny Gaudreau tallied his 29th goal of the season in traffic on the power play at the 9:04 mark. Freshman forward Ryan Fitzgerald, the beneficiary of assists from Isaac MacLeod and Patrick Brown, padded the Eagles’ lead with a pointblank tip-in just 1:54 later.

BC entered the second intermission with a 2-0 advantage, primed to set UMass Lowell, ranked No. 7 in the nation, further back in the Hockey East standings.

After Eagles goalie Thatcher Demko kept the River Hawks off the scoreboard for the prior 1:47:03 of game action over two days, BC’s Chris Calnan was directed into the penalty box with

a high-stick minor.

A mere 15 seconds into the man-advantage, Adam Chapie broke through for UMass Lowell, wristing a shot over Demko’s blocker-side shoulder. The powerplay goal at the 6:42 mark of the third period brought the River Hawks within a goal.

Back at even strength, the River Hawks kept peppering the BC end of the ice. Zach Kamrass’ shot from the left point was kicked out by Demko, but A.J. White stepped into the puck and fired a bullet past the goalie low blocker side, sending the masses into euphoria.

With UMass Lowell attempting to complete the comeback, Demko held off the River Hawks for the rest of regulation, and so did Doug Carr at the other end of the ice against the Eagles. The fiveminute overtime likewise elapsed without a goal, so the game ended in a 2-2 tie.

Both sides will next take the ice over the weekend against Hockey East foes as the regular season concludes, with UMass Lowell traveling to Vermont for games on Friday and Saturday and BC hosting Notre Dame on Saturday.

The Eagles will enjoy the No. 1 seed in the Hockey East Tournament, which begins March 7, while the River Hawks’ seed will be determined by this week-

end’s results.

Northeastern downs Maine in battle for seeding Northeastern (18-10-4, 10-6-2 Hockey East) asserted itself in a matchup with Maine (15-11-4, 9-6-3), never trailing in a backand-forth, 4-3 victory at Matthews Arena in Boston on Saturday.

After the two sides played to a 4-4 tie in the same venue on Friday, sophomore forward Kevin Roy’s four assists lifted the Huskies to take a one-point advantage over the Black Bears in the Hockey East standings for third place.

Clinging to a 3-2 lead, Northeastern’s Zach Aston-Reese beat Maine goalie Martin Oulette at 10:56 of the third period. Ben Hutton responded for the Black Bears at 17:19, but on the power play and with the net empty, Maine couldn’t muster the equalizer against Northeastern netminder Clay Will.

The Huskies close their Hockey East slate with matchups with their crosstown rivals, Boston University, at Agganis Arena next Friday and on Northeastern’s campus the following evening.

Maine hosts Providence for a pair on the same days.

Yoni Monat can be reached at jmonat@umass. edu.

best scoring guards in the conference together,” UMass coach Derek Kellogg said.

“Especially with the way E.C. (Matthews) is playing, they can really put the ball in the basket and I think they both have pro potential.”

It’s an intriguing matchup for a Minuteman team which has a prideful defensive backcourt in Chaz Williams, Derrick Gordon and Trey Davis. In the first matchup, UMass upped its defensive intensity and closed Rhode Island out on an 18-6 run to win 73-68.

Gordon knows Munford and see

RHODE ISLAND on page 7

At the beginning of the season, Massachusetts men’s basketball coach Derek Kellogg proposed the idea of using three guards at once in specific situations.

Now, coming off back-to-back wins over George Washington and Virginia Commonwealth, UMass sits in third place in the Atlantic 10 thanks in part to that very same lineup, making Kellogg’s three-guard system seem more genius than mad-scientist.

The triple-threat combination of Chaz Williams, Derrick Gordon and Trey Davis in the backcourt has given the Minutemen consistent performances in the last month.

“It’s been a good maturation process for those guys and it’s kind of what you envision as a coach when you’re trying to keep a program going, not just for one year, but for years to come,” Kellogg said.

At the start of the season, it was always a question about how well the three guards would play with each other while sharing the floor. But as the season progressed and UMass continued to win games against stiff competition, the question switched from, “Will they work well together?” to, “How high is the ceiling for these three?”

The three have different styles of play, but they complement each other more than they interfere with the flow of the game. “(Teams) are connecting to Chaz,” Kellogg said. “Trey can do his thing and if it isn’t there, then he can hit Derrick Gordon, get out of the way and let Derrick Gordon make a play. … They have the freedom to go make a play.” see

GUARD PLAY on page 7

WO M E N ’ S L AC RO S S E

Murphy takes on increased role Freshman midfielder strong on draw control By anthony Chiusano Collegian Staff

Late in the first half of the No. 10 Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team’s game against Holy Cross last Wednesday, freshman Hannah Murphy lined up for a free position attempt following a foul against her in front of the Crusaders’ net. As play resumed, Murphy took four steps forward and fired a low shot beyond the goalkeeper’s reach and into the back of the net.

The goal was Murphy’s first of her three-game collegiate career as the Minutewomen (3-0) went on to win 12-6.

“I just really wanted to get it in,” Murphy said. “I was thinking positive and I didn’t really have any other thoughts.”

Along with her goal, Murphy finished last Wednesday’s game with a team-leading four draw controls, which earned her praise from UMass coach Angela McMahon.

“She was extremely confident and extremely poised on the field,” McMahon said. “Sometimes freshmen can play to not make a mistake, but (Murphy) was just being aggressive and was ready to step into her moment.”

McMahon said that her performance against Holy Cross will only lead to further success, which includes the Minutewomen’s next game against Boston University (0-2) this Wednesday at McGuirk Stadium.

In particular, McMahon said that Murphy will be a key part in winning the crucial draw control battle with the Terriers. “(Murphy) has really bought into our whole draw control philosophy and work ethic,” McMahon said. “I think she’s perfect for that role.”

For the season, Murphy has registered five draw control wins, which is tied for the team lead along with seniors Kelsey McGovern and Kelsey Sheridan.

Murphy credits McGovern, who broke the UMass single-season record with 110 draw control wins last season, with helping her improve on faceoffs in recent weeks.

Murphy said that just by watching McGovern compete on faceoffs in practice has helped her hone her own skills in the area. In addition, McGovern personally works with Murphy twice a week in practice on draw controls, according to Murphy.

“To have two really strong players really push themselves and each other in practice, it really see

MURPHY on page 7