Vol. XCVII, No. 5 Thursday, February 4, 2016

HEThe Independent

Student Newspaperof Boston College

www.bcheights.com

e s t a b l i s h e d 1 9 1 9

After meeting the GPA and disci-

plinary requirements set out by the Of-

fice of Student Involvement (OSI) and

acquiring and submitting the necessary

250 undergraduate signatures by Jan.

29, three teams have been nominated

for the Undergraduate Government of

Boston College president and execu-

tive vice president in this year’s UGBC

presidential elections.

The three pairs that will make their

first appearance at the Feb. 21 campaign

kickoff are Anthony Perasso, LSOE ’17,

and Rachel Loos, MCAS ’18; Elizabeth

Foley, MCAS ’17, and Joseph McCarthy,

CSOM ’17; and Olivia Hussey, current

Beginning in early October, the fourth fl oor of

Walsh Hall, where Victoria Johnson, MCAS ’18, lives

with her suitemates, began its battle with the mice

of Walsh. Lasting over five months, select Walsh

residents struggled with sharing a living space with

mice. Th roughout the fall semester, Johnson and her

roommates fought their unwelcomed guests with pest

control, strongly worded work orders, and a tweet to

the Offi ce of Residential Life—even their parents joined

the fi ght. By the beginning of spring semester, however,

Boston College’s custodial services had built up Walsh

residents’ resources.

“It might have been specific floors, but I don’t

think it was building-wide,” Nekesa Straker, director of

residential education said. “I don’t even think specifi c

fl oors, but maybe specifi c locations.”

Winter is coming, however, and with

cooling weather comes an undeniable

migration of animals from out-

doors to indoors.

“Mice generally don’t

like being outside in

the colder weather,

so they try and fi nd

a way into the

build-

ing, and it doesn’t take much of an opening for them

to get into the building,” Gerry Boyle, associate director

of custodial services said. “It happens. We’re not mice-

free on campus. Students have to put the work order

in. Once it’s put in, it’s an email to our outside vendor,

who can then respond.”

After seeing—and fi lming—that fi rst mouse scurry

across their fl oor, Johnson and her roommates put in a

work order. Th e resulting action was standard—three

mousetraps in response to the information provided

in the work order—but the mouse did not fall for any

of them. With growing frustration about the mouse

roaming around their apartment, Johnson and her

roommates phoned a friend to help.

“Our friend was there for like three hours, and fi nally

managed to capture it,” Johnson said. “So he did more

than pest control did. But even after we got rid of the

fi rst one, we kept seeing another one roam around.”

By putting in work order after work order with

each mouse sighting, Johnson and her roommates

followed what Boyle stated to be the correct protocol.

According to Johnson, however, the helpfulness of pest

control seemed to decrease with every work order they

fi led.

Boyle explained that if traps are set, yet mouse

activity is still being reported, pest control will go to

the unit and react based on the information given.

Generally, they will look around the mentioned loca-

tions of mouse sightings for holes or other ways of

entry for mice, then block them. Pest control will also

lay down more mousetraps, as needed, in response to

the content of the work order. Straker and Boyle both

said they were unsure about the exact number of suites

in Walsh aff ected.

Boyle continuously emphasized the importance of

the work order, as this is all pest control has to react

based on. What Johnson experienced, however, left

her and her suitemates increasingly frustrated with the

seeming inaction from pest control, despite strongly

worded work orders.

“Sometimes they’d just put an extra sticky paper pad

or something, but they weren’t really doing anything,”

Johnson said. “We’d have mousetraps that just weren’t

even set anymore, like they snapped and they just didn’t

fi x them. Th ey weren’t really doing anything.”

Johnson’s seemingly futile eff orts against this unwel-

comed fuzzy foe carried on until Winter

Break. During Winter Break,

custodial service’s action

was fi vefold, according

to Boyle. Its fi rst

order of busi-

ness was to

check in

o n t h e

apart-

SPORTSThe Eagles embarrassed Harvard, 8-0, en route to the Beanpot fi nal, B8

CRIMSON REDMETRO“Hiro: Photograph” exhibit at the MFA features 24 iconic Hiro photographs, A5

STRANGE NEW WORLDSCENEThe BC band sits down to talk about its upcoming EP, ‘Big Steal’ and its evolving style, B3

TALKING SMALL TALK

National Signing Day is upon us,

bringing much excitement to athletic

departments around the country. At

last, schools can officially announce

which high schoolers and graduate

transfers will be joining their respective

football programs for the 2016 season.

And, as head coach Steve Addazio

would likely say, Boston College is ex-

cited to bring a new pack of dudes to

Chestnut Hill.

The Eagles have announced that

21 players will join the program. This

list includes 18 freshmen (two early

enrollees) and three graduate transfers

(one early enrollee). These recruits have

many of the typical backgrounds one

would find in the types of prospects

Addazio likes to recruit: 11 come from

Catholic or private high schools and

14 were team captains at some point in

their careers. In addition, 10 attended

BC camp this summer, and 15 of the

freshmen were First Team All-State.

The head coach confirmed that 83 of

the scholarships have been filled and he

aims to fill the full class by the beginning

of spring practice—he did not confirm

if those scholarships will be given to

incoming freshmen, graduate transfers,

or current walk-ons.

The 2016 incomers come from 13

states, with only eight within a five-

hour radius of the University, only two

of which come from Massachusetts:

offensive l inemen Shane Leonard

(Marshfield HS) and Sean Ragan (St.

John’s, Shrewsbury). This is a vastly

different strategy from last year’s class,

which featured 15 of its 26 players

within the “fence” that Addazio wants

to build in the New England area. Yet

the head coach said in his Wednesday

afternoon press conference that his re-

cruiting strategy has not changed that

much in the region. Rather, Addazio

expressed his staff ’s effort to ex-

pand his reach throughout the

whole the country.

“We are expanded na-

tionally in the Catholic

leagues, into Texas, New

Orleans, and California,”

Addazio said. “We’ve always been in

the Catholic leagues in Ohio and India-

napolis, that’s always been strong for us,

we want to continue to grow that.”

Addazio also emphasized his focus

on one area in particular: New Jersey.

He implied that this strength comes

from the way his staff is currently con-

structed, specifically defensive back

coach and recruiter Anthony Campani-

le. A Rutgers alum and former assistant,

Campanile has many connections in the

northern New Jersey area—his brother

coaches at Bergen Catholic, one of the

region’s powerhouse football schools.

Also unlike last year’s class, which

was evenly balanced across both sides

of the ball, this year’s recruits have more

of an offensive flavor to them. Of the 21

players, 12 are offensive players, with

seven on defense and two special teams

specialists. By position, the Eagles will

bring in two quarterbacks, two wide

receivers, two tight ends, five offen-

sive linemen, three defensive linemen,

three linebackers, two defensive backs

(Addazio confirmed that Mike Palmer,

listed as an athlete, will likely be a DB),

and two punters.

Despite the mass exodus of running

backs—Marcus Outlow, Jordan Gowins,

and Sherman Alston all transferred

See Recruits, B6

OF MICE AND EIGHT-MEN

The GLBTQ Leadership Council

of the Undergraduate Government of

Boston College has created a gender

identity and gender expression report

to present to BC’s administration, in

the hopes of modifying the University’s

non-discrimination policy to include

gender identity.

The U.S. Department of Education

requires that every federally funded

university adopt a non-discrimination

notice under Title IX, the federal law

that ensures gender equality on cam-

puses. Title IX also protects against

See Mice, A8

DREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Last year, UGBC presidential candidates gathered for the official campaign kickoff. See UGBC, A3

See GLC, A3

UGBC executive vice president and

MCAS ’17, and Meredith McCaffrey,

MCAS ’17.

According to Adam Rosenbloom,

co-chair of the UGBC Election Com-

mittee and MCAS ’16, there were a few

teams who submitted intent forms to

run, but never submitted the required

signatures.

Now that the three teams have been

qualified to run, they will prepare for

the Feb. 21 campaign kickoff. The event,

held in the Vanderslice Cabaret Room,

will begin with each team giving a short

speech about its platform, followed

by games the Election Committee has

prepared for the teams, said Megan

sexual assaults on campuses.

BC’s notice explains how the Uni-

versity is committed to creating a safe

living and learning environment for

all students. It makes special note of

students who are vulnerable to dis-

crimination based on their race, color,

national origin, sex, religion, disability,

age, marital or parental status, sexual

orientation, military status, or other

legally protected status.

GLC, however, would like to see

gender identity and expression included

in BC’s policy. Collin Pratt, director of

policy for GLC and MCAS ’17, is lead-

ing the group’s initiative to modify the

document.

Currently, the University has gender

identity and gender expression in mind

when dealing with Title IX, Pratt said.

He believes that BC treats sexual assault

and discrimination equally, regardless

of students’ identities.

“The actual institutional change

would not be that difficult to do,” Pratt

said. “It would basically be changing the

wording of a document.”

Under Title IX, BC is not legally

required to include gender identity or

gender expression in the policy. The

federal law only mandates that non-

discrimination policies include the

term “sex.”

“In our modern society and espe-

cially in the queer community, sex and

gender have vastly different meanings,”

Pratt said. “To use them in the same

sense is archaic and it’s also very limit-

ing.”

In BC’s Sexual Misconduct Policy

it states that sexual misconduct can be

committed by persons of any gender and

can occur between people of the same

or different gender.

“Our response is the same regardless

of how students identify,” Associate Vice

President of Student Affairs Katherine

O’Dair said.

After researching Title IX’s restric-

tions, Massachusetts law, and 28 other

universities’ policies, Pratt and GLC

drafted a report outlining the reasons

that the group believes the policy needs

to be changed. They plan to present it

to the administration in the near future.

Pratt hopes to have the document’s

wording changed by the end of the

academic year.

“The University’s policy of non-dis-

crimination, which complies with state

and federal discrimination laws, reflects

UGBC Elections<<<

THE HEIGHTS

The Gaelic Roots and the Irish Studies Program is sponsoring a concert of Scottish, Que-becois, and Celtic music, featuring cellist Natalie Haas and guitarist Yann Falquet. The event will be held in the Cadigan Alumni Cen-ter on Feb. 4 at 6:30 p.m. 1

Students can travel with College Democrats of Mas-sachusetts to Nashua, N.H., on Feb. 6 to knock on doors and “get out the vote” for presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The bus will leave at 8:30 a.m. and stu-dents must register prior to leaving. 2

Thursday, February 4, 2016 A2

The Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center will be holding an opening ceremony on Feb. 4 to kick off a series of events throughout February in celebra-tion of Black History Month. The event will take place in the Fulton Honors Library.

Top

things to do on campus this week

3 3

—Source: TheBoston College

Police Department

Where is the snow?

NEWSBRIEFS

Heather Cox Richardson,

a history professor at Boston

College, served as a consultant

for PBS American Experience series on President James Gar-

field that premiered on Feb. 2.

The episode, “Murder of a Presi-

dent,” tells the story of Garfield’s

unprecedented rise to power, his

assassination by Charles Gui-

teau, and the aftermath of this

tragic event.

Richardson, an expert in

19th-century American history,

made sure that the script was

historically accurate and helped

to provide political context.

She also provided on-air com-

mentary.

POLICE BLOTTER 2/1/16 - 2/3/16

Monday, Feb. 1

6:55 p.m. - A report was filed re-

gardng a fire alarm activation in

Ignacio Hall.

7:36 p.m. - A report was filed

regaring a fire alarm activation in

Voute Hall.

Tuesday, Feb. 2

8:19 a.m. - A report was filed

regarding a party who was trans-

ported to a medical facility via

ambulance from Cushing Hall

Clinic.

9:19 a.m. - A report was filed

regarding a party who was trans-

ported to a medical facility via

ambulance from Lyons Hall.

8:48 p.m. - A report was filed

regarding medical assistance pro-

vided in Maloney Hall.

9:30 p.m. - A report was filed

regarding medical assistance in

Stayer Hall.

8:57 p.m. - A report was filed re-

garding a fire alarm activation in

Stayer Hall.

Hound Labs, Inc. recently

became the first company to

solve the challenge of calculat-

ing whether or not someone is

driving under the influence of

marijuana. This is an important

issue, given that 165 million

Americans now have legal access

to marijuana, but there had not

been a way to know if a driver

was under the influence. The

previous methods only allowed

one to tell if a person had used

marijuana in the past 30 days.

Jenny Lynn, CSOM ’91, cur-

rently heads up marketing as the

CMO at the start-up. She has

been working at the company

since its inception. Her hus-

band, Dr. Mike Lynn, founded

the company. He works as an

emergency room physician and

reserve deputy sheriff, and no-

ticed that there had been a spike

in marijuana-impaired driving.

He set out to find a way to detect

whether or not a person was

under the influence, founding

Hound Labs, Inc. in 2014.

By Shannon Longworth

Heights Staff

Alan Gross heard knocking

on the door of his Havana hotel

room on the night of Dec. 3, 2009.

Moments later, he found himself

confronted by three men, and was

taken into custody by the Cuban

government. He had planned to

leave on a flight back to the United

States in several hours but never

made it.

“I say that I was kidnapped,”

Gross said to the audience of

students, faculty, and community

members on Tuesday afternoon.

Gross was invited to speak as a

guest of the Clough Colloquium,

a program meant to bring leading

figures to campus to share the in-

dividual experiences they have had

in their respective fields.

As a humanitarian in the public

eye, Alan Gross was asked to share

his journey in Cuba. He originally

traveled overseas as an employee

of Development Alternatives Inc.,

an international development

company. His task was to bring

communication equipment to

Cuba, set it up, test it out, and

train the local people in how to

use it. Gross spoke passionately

about the gratification he felt as

he introduced the Internet to the

people of a shrinking Jewish com-

munity he was assigned to. At the

time, Cubans only had access to the

Internet if they worked for the gov-

ernment—he estimated that only 2

percent of the population had such

capability. Foreign guests could

connect to the Internet for $6 per

hour, but that was too expensive

for the local people.

Gross played videos of the lo-

cals’ first moments utilizing such

technology, and then described

their excitement in being able to

connect to such information.

“They had access to informa-

tion, and in Cuba, information

flows only go up. They don’t go

down,” he said.

This became problematic for

Gross because the Cuban govern-

ment saw his actions as a threat.

“They didn’t see it as a techni-

cal project. What they saw was

a contra-Cuba project,” Gross

said. “They said that I was going

to overthrow the government

by myself.”

Thus, Gross was captured and

tried for two days. In that time, the

court sentenced him to 15 years in

a maximum security prison. For

three and a half years, neither the

Cuban nor the U.S. government

would give him any information.

“I was a prisoner of two govern-

ments,” Gross said.

He explained the less obvious

reason why he was not receiving

assistance from the United States.

Working with his lawyer, Scott

Gilbert, they found out that the

U.S. government had imprisoned

five Cuban men who were found

guilty of conspiring to commit acts

of espionage. After discussing the

situation with the U.S. Justice De-

partment, Gilbert found out that

ideally, the U.S. could exchange

the spies for Gross’ release, but it

did not seem to make sense to the

government to trade five spies for

one non-spy.

Therefore, Gross found himself

spending the first year of his cap-

tivity entirely in a cell. After that

year, he was allowed some more

time outside, and he established

three factors that would help him

survive his ordeal. First, he would

never forget his strong roots and

the family he had that survived the

horrors of the Holocaust. He also

prioritized physical exercise, and

did whatever he needed to in order

to get his 10,000 steps in each day,

even if this meant walking around

in circles. Finally, he always made

sure to find something to make

him laugh.

“Humor is good for the heart, it’s

good for the mind,” he said.

Although he was a prisoner,

Gross sometimes received visitors,

ranging from his family to political

figures. He recalled one day when

President Jimmy Carter and his

wife, Rosalynn, came to speak with

him. Carter explained that he had

met with Raúl Castro the night

before. He said that Castro had

acknowledged that he knew Gross

was not a spy. When Carter asked

why Castro continued to hold him

in custody, he replied he had to, oth-

erwise the rest of the government

would find serious fault in him.

“Castro is a pragmatist, but

he doesn’t have the power that

his brother did at one point,”

Gross said.

On Dec. 17, 2014, Gross was

finally freed in exchange for the

remaining three Cuban intel-

ligence agents.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get the

whole story behind my liberation,”

he said.

He also described the initial

confusion he experienced when

he arrived home in the United

States and encountered people in

public who would stop him to take

pictures. For months he could not

understand, until one day he had

an epiphany. He realized that all

of those people were emotionally

invested in him and his story. Step-

ping off the plane and coming home

reassured them in their hope.

“I was the return on that invest-

ment,” Gross said.

He also spent time answering

questions about his story, and

discussing his disapproval of the

U.S. embargo against Cuba. When

asked about his opinion on Cuba’s

transitioning government, he said

that he knows most people would

not appreciate his response.

“I’m not sure that democracy

is what Cuba needs,” he said. “The

changes have to be their way, not

our way.”

Monday’s Title IX article indicated that a student who filed a suit against the Uni-

versity was the same student who filed a civil complaint in court in 2012. The Title IX case was filed by a different

student.

CORRECTIONS

Rev. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, S.J., speaks on conflicting faiths in Africa.SARAH HODGENS / HEIGHTS STAFF

Boston College’s mathematics

department is teaming up with

the Lynch School of Education

for the third year to help graduate

students prepare exemplary math

teachers to work in high-need

school districts in the Boston area.

The National Science Foundation

received a $1.6 million grant, al-

lowing them to pair each early-ca-

reer teacher with a master teacher

and a mathematician.

The eight early-career teachers

in the program spent one year in

the Lynch School’s master program

as Donovan Scholars. They are

now working in schools across the

Boston area. Master math teachers

with at least four years of experience

serve as their mentors.

“I am tremendously pleased

by the community of teachers

that is taking shape,” Solomon

Friedberg, a co-principal inves-

tigator and McIntyre professor

of mathematics, said. “I see our

teachers supporting and enrich-

ing each other with thoughtful

feedback and well-thought-out

professional activities, and a

community that builds on and

joins the expertise of the many

individuals concerned with math

education. I am also impressed

and pleased by the interest of

the teachers in deepening their

understanding of mathemati-

cal topics and incorporating

this understanding into their

teaching.”

By Connor Murphy

Heights Editor

In front of a packed Gasson 305

Monday night, Rev. Agbonkhian-

meghe Orobator, S.J, spoke about

Africa’s complex religious heritage:

a confluence of traditional African

spirituality, Christianity, and Islam.

Orobator is the president of

the Hekima College Jesuit School

of Theology and the Institute of

Peace Studies and International

Relations in Nairobi, Kenya, as

well the former Jesuit provincial

of East Africa, where he headed

the Society’s operations in Kenya,

Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, South

Sudan, and Sudan.

“You can take an African out of

African religion, but you can’t take

African religion out of an African,”

Orobator said, highlighting what he

thinks is the defining characteristic

of religious heritage on the conti-

nent. “African religion is the deep

anchor that secures the foundation

of Christianity or Islam in the soul

of the converted African.”

Last week, Orobator delivered

the first part of the lecture, which

focused on general religiosity in

Africa, including its high histori-

cal rate of conversion to Islam and

Christianity. He continued that

thread this week, cautioning that

any conversion statistics should

be taken with a grain of salt, rather

than simply praised as Pope Bene-

dict XVI did in a 2009 speech. He

laid out a couple of reasons.

First, statistics on religious con-

version generally understate the

influence of traditional African

religion. Orobator even argued that

“traditional” is not an accurate de-

scription, because it carries a conno-

tation of irrelevance, while African

religion is actually firmly established

not only on the continent, but also in

places like Brazil and Cuba.

Second, conversion to Chris-

tianity or Islam can cause some

problems, considering that terrorist

groups claim both religions as jus-

tification for violent attacks—Boko

Haram in Nigeria and the Christian

Anti-balaka militias in the Central

African Republic, as well as pockets

of al-Shabaab in East Africa and

Al-Qaeda in North Africa and

the Sahel.

Religious conflict in Africa has

historical roots in tribal disputes,

efforts by Muslims to establish po-

litical and economic dominance in

North Africa, and missionary activ-

ity by Christians.

According to Orobator, it is

important to remember that Mu-

hammad was both a prophet

and a statesman, and that early

followers of Islam were heavily

focused on nation-building. He

also cited Chinua Achebe’s novel

Things Fall Apart, which is partially

about Christian missionaries in

late-19th-century Nigeria, as an

example of the tensions caused by

Christianity in Africa.

The current religious conflicts

in Africa are not unprecedented,

but their severity and extremism is

thought to be worsening.

“It can no longer be plausibly

maintained, as many do, that reli-

gion in Africa is nothing but a force

for good,” Orobator said. “Event

after event points to the escalating

bellicosity of religion in Africa.”

Exacerbating that worsening, he

added, is that Africa, with its relative

political and economic instability,

is especially vulnerable to religious

fundamentalism. In addition to the

other terrorist groups operating

around the continent, Orobator

mentioned Joseph Kony’s Lord’s

Resistance Army, an East African

rebel group that cites Christianity

as its inspiration and is accused of

human rights violations like child

abduction and slavery. Capturing

and prosecuting Kony was the sub-

ject of the viral Kony 2012 film and

failed campaign run by the advocacy

group Invisible Children, Inc.

As a response to Africa’s grow-

ing religious fundamentalism, Oro-

bator suggested that traditional

African religion can be a moderat-

ing force.

“African religion is a bulwark

against extremist attempts to dis-

solve the essence of religion in

a pool of sectarianism and hy-

pocrisy,” he said. “The authentic

spirituality of this continent is a

repository of experiences for the

renewal of humanity.”

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, February 4, 2016 A3

Azzalina, the graduate assistant for the

UGBC Election Committee and GLSOE

’17. The games will be both fun and com-

petitive, and are set up to show the skills

of the participating teams, while getting

the crowd involved and excited, Azzalina

said.

“We want to show teamwork between

the teams,” Azzalina said. “The games

are meant to show how well the vice

president and president work together

and things like that.”

The kickoff will then be followed by a

debate in the Cabaret Room on Sunday,

Feb. 28., when the candidates will discuss

their platforms and engage in a formal

debate. This will lead up to the voting

booths opening at 12 a.m. on Mar. 2 until

8 p.m. on Mar. 3. The results will then be

released at 8:15 p.m. on Mar. 3.

“We’re really trying to make, as al-

ways, the election season as fair as pos-

sible,” Azzalina said. “We’re completely

unbiased and we’re trying to reflect that

in all of our actions, and we’re definitely

really excited about it and about getting

involved in this campaign … This is our

time of the year, so we’re ready.”

Perasso, who is an editor for satirical

campus newspaper The New England

Classic, and Loos noted the similarities

between their campaign and those of the

U.S. presidential candidates.

“For example, part of us wants free

college for everyone, and part of us wants

to build a big wall,” Perasso and Loos said

in an email. “We would tell you more, but

we don’t even know what exactly we’re

doing because we’re still being molded

into the politicians our Big Corporate

Donors want us to be.”

Foley and McCarthy both expressed

their excitement for their team’s candi-

dacy, explaining that it has been their

goal since their freshman year. Foley said

that her various positions on campus as

an RA, and in the Office of First Year Ex-

perience, the First Year Service Program,

and the Bystander Intervention Program

have given her insight into the real issues

facing BC students.

Foley noted that in the past two years,

the number of students voting, along

with student engagement in UGBC, has

decreased. She said that the pair hopes

to change that by encouraging students

to see the opportunities and resources

offered by UGBC, and by being as trans-

parent as possible about their ideas for

their campaign.

“Over the course of the past three

years, Joey and I have committed our-

selves to what we like to call ‘boots on

the ground’ student affairs work,” Foley

said in an email. “It is with this spirit of

engagement and conversation that Joey

and I are hoping to revitalize UGBC.”

McCarthy noted that the two are

considered outside candidates, and

expressed his hope that people will not

quickly dismiss them for that. As the two

move forward, McCarthy said, the focus

for their campaign is to “Run for BC, not

UGBC” by presenting tangible ideas with

the support of the BC community.

“With our diverse campaign team,

we plan on giving this election our all,”

McCarthy said in an email. “Although

we cannot go too much in-depth, we

just want people to know that we plan

on being honest, transparent, and fun

as possible as we can in the upcoming

weeks.”

Similarly, Hussey and McCaffrey

expressed excitement for the upcoming

elections. The two said they look forward

to listening and engaging with students

all over campus.

“Elections are a great time for stu-

dents across campus to rally together

and share their ideas, and we encourage

all members of the the BC community

to be engaged and aware throughout the

campaign process,” McCaffrey said in

an email. “We cannot wait to share our

vision for a better BC with the student

body, and we wish the best of luck to all

the other teams.”

In the meantime, the Elections Com-

mittee is aiming for a smooth, successful,

and fair season as it prepares for the

upcoming events, Rosenbloom said.

Because this is his fourth year on the

committee, he said that he is hoping to

avoid any personal attacks against other

candidates, which he experienced in the

2013 elections.

“This is really about explaining your

stance and what you believe the issues

are at BC, and then just really going out

and persuading others to also believe

that and vote for you,” Rosenbloom

said.

By Ryder Lee

For The Heights

John Cho, famous for his roles in the

Harold & Kumar films, Star Trek, and an

extensive array of TV appearances, spoke

in front of an audience of several hundred

students in Robsham Theatre on Monday

night.

The Asian Caucus, AHANA Manage-

ment Academy, FACES Council, and the

International Club of Boston College col-

laborated to bring the Korean-American

actor to BC. Cho’s visit marks the second

speaker organized by the Asian Caucus

Cabinet under its newest speaker initiative.

Last January, the Cabinet hosted original

Star Trek actor and social advocate George

Takei.

The group’s speakers are meant to bring

attention to issues that are not often dis-

cussed in detail at BC, including diversity,

culture, and race, Asian Caucus co-presi-

dent and MCAS ’16 Andy Chen said. He

said the initiative is designed to bring in

people who have been able to break the

mold that often “traps” Asian-Americans.

Chen used the example of mental health

awareness in Asian-American society.

“There’s a huge East Asian stigma about

not discussing mental health issues,” Chen

said. “There’s this ‘if you’re sad, try harder’

[state of mind]. We really find it a priority,

especially on college campuses, to develop

a culture of talking about mental illness

and trying to [improve] education and

support.”

Cho became the first Asian-American

romantic lead in U.S. television history

when he was cast in Selfie in 2014. He

also played a small but memorable role in

American Pie.

Cho was born in Seoul, South Korea

in 1972, but immigrated to the United

States in 1978, settling in Los Angeles. He

attended the University of California at

Berkeley, where he developed an interest in

acting. That interest burgeoned into a ca-

reer, leading to appearances in blockbuster

movies and primetime TV shows.

During the talk, Asian Caucus Cabinet

members Andrew Lee, co-director of the

AHANA Caucus and MCAS ’16,and Suraj

Mudichintala, co-president of the South

Asian Students Association and CSOM

’16, interviewed Cho, asking questions

pertaining to his career, personal life, and

his thoughts on Asian-Americans in the

entertainment industry.

Cho discussed his struggles finding his

personal identity as an Asian-American

man. He described a visit to his birth

country of South Korea to promote Star

Trek. He recalls needing a translator to have

lunch with old relatives, an experience he

called “awkward,” but also “revealing” and

“memorable.”

Several of the questions posed by Lee

and Mudichintala prompted Cho to de-

scribe the adversity he faced as an Asian-

American in a white-dominated industry.

In particular, Cho pointed to the standard

hiring practices of talent agencies as an ex-

ample of difficulties Asian-American actors

face in pursuing traditionally white roles.

“If a part doesn’t specify ‘open to all

ethnicities,’ it’s unavailable to minority

actors,” Cho said, explaining that the in-

dustry defaults to white actors for the vast

majority of roles.

When asked what individual actors

could do about changing mindsets in

Hollywood, Cho argued that any actor

can avoid roles that stereotype certain

ethnicities “as long as they’re willing to

lose the money.” Cho himself described

cases where he refused to play traditional

Asian-American characters, like “the ef-

feminate male, the bucktoothed nerd, [and]

the guru mystic.”

While much of the conversation be-

tween Cho and the moderators was

directed toward the changing status of

Asian-Americans in such fields as enter-

tainment and film, not all of the subject

matter was heavy.

Due to his roles in the Harold & Kumar

stoner-comedies, Cho was asked about his

opinion on the legalization of marijuana.

He declined to comment.

FRANCISCO RUELA / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

Second Meet @ Shea event encourages problem-solving and innovation skills.

UGBC, from A1

FRANCISCO RUELA / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

By Taylor St. Germain

Asst. News Editor

Through the use of competition, cre-

ativity, and collaboration, the Shea Center

for Entrepreneurship’s “Meet @ Shea”

event on Tuesday night brought students

together to put their problem-solving

skills to the test. This was the second

Meet @ Shea event the Center has put on

this year.

The event, which was put on by four

student leaders from the Start @ Shea

board, featured information systems

professor George Wyner. He shared his

personal experience with innovation

and offered attendees problem-solving

methods.

Sixteen students attended the event,

and were broken into groups of four to

perform three challenges of differing dif-

ficulties.

“I’ve never done anything like this

before,” Will Hennessey, CSOM ’17, said.

“I’m looking forward to picking at my

creativity.”

The groups were first pitted against

each other in competition to build the

tallest tower out of only index cards. When

the time clock began, students rushed to

open their packs of cards and immediately

started configuring the paper into different

shapes.

The groups’ methods to build their

towers differed. Some groups started by

individually trying to find the best method

to stack, while others stuck to their original

blueprint plans. By the end of the seven

minutes, some towers stacked over two

feet tall.

Students then deliberated over ways

that they could have improved their tow-

ers, and then were given two minutes to

put their improvements into place. All

innovation takes reflection and revising,

Pamela Taylor, organizer of Meet @ Shea

and MCAS ’16, explained.

The next challenge was intellectually

focused, and forced students to describe

the color yellow to a blind person. All four

of the groups came to similar conclusions:

the only way to describe a color to a person

without sight, is to use other senses.

“We wanted to describe it with senses

that blind people do have,” Lizzie Manning,

MCAS ’16, said. “We said it would feel

like the warmth on your face, you could

play songs like “Yellow Mellow,” and you

could have them taste lemonade or yel-

low cake.”

The third challenge was centered

around Wyner’s method of problem-solv-

ing: drawing a picture. Using personal

anecdotes, Wyner explained his definition

of “progress thinking.”

“Sometimes you only see what you’re

doing now, in this moment, and not the

future,” Wyner said. “If we open up our

minds, we can open up new ideas.”

Weyner then instructed the students to

come up with a plan to solve the problem of

food waste within a 12-minute period. The

students were meant to express their ideas

in a drawing, showing the different activi-

ties of each counterpart of the process.

Some students drew on real-life ex-

periences. One group came up with an

agenda to reduce food waste in Eagles Nest.

Another participant drew upon his time

working in a deli and used his personal

experience to find a solution to excess food

production.

Groups also took into account BC

culture, human nature, and societal issues

when trying to solve the issue of food

waste.

Wyner explained that the project was

meant to be difficult. When students ran

out of ideas, the visual diagrams would help

them see the big picture ideas, he said.

The Meet @ Shea events are intended

to bring together students from all of BC’s

schools and allow them to discuss innova-

tion and start-up ideas. The Shea Center

for Entrepreneurship also hosts Acceler-

ate @ Shea, a program for students who

already have start-up ideas.

“We want to bring together students—

who may have otherwise never met—in an

environment that encourages the cross-

pollination of ideas and makes entrepre-

neurship more accessible,” Taylor said.

our commitment to inclusiveness

and our Jesuit, Catholic mission and

identity,” University spokesman Jack

Dunn said. “All individuals are wel-

come at Boston College and the Uni-

versity does not discriminate against

anyone based on their uniqueness or

identity.”

At the end of the fall semester, Pratt

and Nick Minieri, chair of GLC and

CSOM ’16, met with administration

and graduate students in an LGBTQ

roundtable discussion to talk about

issues of inclusivity on campus.

Pratt hopes to have another meet-

ing in the coming weeks to further the

discussion of equality at BC.

GLC has also created three con-

crete initiatives, in addition to the pol-

icy change, for the spring semester.

The group hopes to work with

housing to start discussion about

gender-neutral dorms, change the

single-stall bathrooms in Gasson

and Campion to gender-neutral, and

add gender options, other than male

and female, to BC enrollment docu-

ments.

“If we could start changing the

mentality that we don’t always have to

stay in line with our peers, we can be

ahead of the game, and we can make

changes and lead the communities

that we are apart of as universities, I

think that could be really important,”

Pratt said.

GLC, from A1

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, February 4, 2016 A4

JUAN OLAVARRIA

As soon as I stepped out of the

car, I saw it, the tangible reminder

of things no more. Out of the thou-

sands of times I had taken the short

walk down Beacon Street and right

on Miner toward Fenway, this was

the most significant.

I had heard and experienced the

often strange and terrifying force of

sudden change, but this instance in

particular struck me as both odd and

weirdly uplifting.

The Elephant Walk, at the corner

of Beacon and St. Mary’s, had served

as my point of reference for the en-

tirety of freshman year. When all else

failed, the Elephant Walk was always

there to guide me home—until last

semester, that is.

For a very long time, all that

remained of one of my favorite

quirky sights of Boston was a hole in

the ground and a promise for a new

development to take its place.

As the months went by, however,

its perpetual stillness left me feeling

like something had been ripped from

the area’s character. That corner felt

to me as indigenous to Boston as

the T, the Red Sox, and bad driving,

although in its own unique way—but

I digress, back to my walk this

weekend.

The hole was now filled by a

brand new building—just the outer

metal beams, that is—but the fact re-

mains that the new construction had

managed what I believed impossible

only a week prior-to fill that tangible

and metaphorical empty space.

It’s a testament to the thriving

redevelopment sector of the city over

the past few years. I remember com-

ing to Boston when I was 15, and the

sights from that visit, especially from

the Financial District and the Fenway

area, are overwhelmingly different

from the actual state of the city.

Just in the past year, the Fenway

area has seen the opening of the City

Target, Wahlburgers, and several res-

idential buildings, among others. It

has become the epitome of up-and-

coming neighborhoods in the city.

The innovation bug has also

bitten many colleges and universi-

ties, BC included, and they have

embarked upon several projects that

will undoubtedly bring individuals in

the area much-needed income.

The city has emerged from the

depths of the Great Recession with

intent, and not only in the redevel-

opment sector. General Electric re-

cently announced that it’s moving its

global headquarters to Boston, a new

casino is set to open in Suffolk, and

the Government Center T station is

scheduled to re-open in late March.

CareerBuilder recently released

a new study that outlined how each

major city in the U.S. performed in

job creation and evaluated whether

they met the projections. Boston,

although not in the top 10, managed

to keep pace with the national rate.

What this shows is that we are

currently experiencing a new renais-

sance in the city, with every aspect

of the city seeing at least marginal

improvement.

What I hope to see is that during

this rapid expansion of the city, the

features that make the city what it is

are not lost in the process. I cannot

imagine Boston without its trade-

mark brownstones, road-sharing

subway cars, Citgo sign, or hell, even

the annoying-yet-quaint cobblestone

streets of the North End.

It may have been too late for the

Elephant Walk, and I may be alone

in this quasi-obsession with that

place, but it is sights like those that

made the city feel that much more

like home.

It turns out that the intersection

of the bizarre and the beautiful is not

so far away. Just take a 40-minute

ride down the Green Line, and you

will arrive at the the Museum of

Fine Arts. There, you will find your

destination: the MFA’s most recent

exhibit of fashion photographs,

“Hiro: Photographs.”

The exhibit, located within the

cozy Herb Ritts Gallery, features 24

arresting photographs that all but

jump off the wall. The photographs

are all the work of the iconic fashion

photographer Hiro.

Hiro, born Yasuhiro Wakabayas-

hi in 1930, began pursuing a career

in fashion photography in the early

1950s. Inspired by the work of pho-

tographers such as Richards Avedon

and Irving Penn, Hiro was able to

find employment as Avedon’s assis-

tant. Before long, Hiro’s own talent

was recognized, and his career took

off. Although his work was featured

in many major magazines, such as

Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, Hiro

remained relatively unknown to the

public, making this his first solo ex-

hibition in an American museum.

The idea for the exhibit was

conceived almost two years ago by

curator Anne Harvigna. After first

admiring Hiro’s work while put-

ting together the MFA’s “History

of Fashion Photography” exhibit

on 2007, Harvigna could think of

no one better to feature when the

MFA’s former director asked him to

compose one more fashion photog-

raphy exhibit. Although Hiro and

Harvigna had met over the years,

she was thrilled that he accepted

her proposal after maintaining a low

profile in the public eye throughout

his career.

“If you know anything about

his work you would have seen that

he hasn’t had very many exhibi-

tions,” Harvigna said. “The reason

for that is that he doesn’t seem to

put himself forward in that way.

He was interested in making his

work, and he didn’t feel the need to

promote himself beyond what he

was doing.”

But fortunately for viewers, this

exhibit offers the perfect first taste

of Hiro’s unique aesthetic. The

photographs, some in color and

some in black and white require

deep consideration on the part of

the viewer. Many present fascinating

juxtapositions, like the photograph

featuring a jet black horse’s hoof

draped with a-glimmering ruby and

diamond necklace. These photo-

graphs push viewers to reconsider

their opinions of fashion and beauty,

all while allowing them to relish in

the elegance that is a Hiro photo-

graph. Very aware that this would

be many viewers’ first experience

with Hiro’s work, Harvigna worked

closely with Hiro to compose the

exhibition, traveling to his studio

many times to consult.

“I was looking for images that I

thought were particularly strong,”

Harvigna said of the selection

process. “[Hiro is] best known for

his color, but I wanted a few black

and whites, I wanted to make sure

that what makes him so distinctive

was readily apparent, that sort of

dynamic, graphic punch of his work,

and the fact that it has this incred-

ible elegance and at the same time

is surreal or almost creepy.”

Hiro’s individual aesthetic is cer-

tainly obvious in the exhibit. After

entering the room, it is impossible

to drift from picture to picture in

a daze as many museum-goers are

apt to do, for each photograph is

shocking and completely different

from the one that came before. The

exhibit flows naturally, but is filled

with excitement and energy, two

qualities that are essential for both

exhibits and fashion photographers

alike.

“Most fashion photographers

have the challenge of trying to cre-

ate work that fits the expectations

of the job that is at the same time

creative and expresses something of

their own aesthetic,” Harvigna said.

“But more importantly, [work that

is] eye-catching, so that when it’s in

a magazine and people are turning

the pages they’ll maybe slow down

and actually look—really look—or

remember the picture.”

And the photographs featured in

the exhibition are certainly impos-

sible to forget. Each one is infused

with a sense of confident ease, but

still made interesting with visual

risks. Hiro’s black and white photo-

graphs are elegant, and his colored

ones are shocking, burning into

the viewers’ minds and conveying

a sense of joy. His photographs are

not just pleasing to the eye, but exist

on an intellectual level, betraying the

care with which he composed each

photograph.

“If you see current fashion pho-

tographers, you can see that [Hiro’s]

work has inspired them,” says Har-

vigna. “He took a very long time for

his shoots, he would plan what he

was going to do very meticulously,

the making of each picture is a long,

slow deliberate process, and I think

you see it in the work.”

THE MFA

Even after 87 years, Charlie’s

Sandwich Shoppe leaves Bosto-

nians licking their fingers and

hungry for more.

In June 2014, when Char-

lie’s announced its closing ,

locals were heartbroken and

distressed—but a regular cus-

tomer with a deep affinity for

Charlie’s, Evan Deluty, saw an

opportunity to bring back the

jewel of the South End.

Owner of another restaurant

called Stella, Deluty quickly

bought the Charlie’s and im-

mediately saw to the renovation

of its interior. Plumbing, elec-

tricals, and city certifications

went underway in more than a

year-long process.

“[We’re] very excited and

honored to have reopened

Charlie’s, and look forward to

another 87 years,” Deluty said

over the phone.

Nest le d in the bust l ing

streets of the South End, Char-

lie’s Sandwich Shoppe had been

an iconic establishment for over

eight decades, serving hearty

portions of its famous turkey

hash alongside dozens of other

delectable classics.

Since 1927, Charlie’s has

been open 24 hours a day, seven

days a week.

With only 32 seats and no

bathrooms, the loyal customers

present at the shop collectively

described Charlie’s as “equal

parts old-school diner and

neighborhood coffee shop.”

In many ways, Charlie’s has

become successful in not only

cultivating a business but also

a sense of family within the

restaurant itself.

“I’m psyched,” Deluty said in

an interview with Boston.com.

“It’s been a complete rehab,

the building was gutted to the

bricks, but we tried to maintain

the integrity and wonderful

charm that Charlie’s had.”

Inside, the walls are adorned

with gleaming photos of past

patrons, ranging from Duke

Ellington to Sammy Davis Jr. to

President Barack Obama.

Countless athletes , poli-

ticians, and celebrities have

perched on one of Charlie’s

bright red barstools, mopping

up grease from a famous seared

burger or digging into a creamy

tuna melt.

With the numerous awards

it has collected over the years,

including a James Beard Award

in 2005, it’s no wonder such a

humble establishment has be-

come legendary.

“I used to bring my kids in

there so they could spin on the

stools like I did when I was a

kid,” Deluty said. “My kids go to

school around the corner ... I’m

a South End guy, and have been

going for years.”

Deluty tried to keep the

place as original as possible,

maintaining the overall layout

inside the establishment right

down to the number of seats in

the place.

For him, it is all about keep-

ing up the legacy of the previous

owners, as Charlie’s is now as

much a part of Boston as the T

or the brownstones that align

the streets of the city.

The new owners are very

excited for the prospects of a

reopened Charlie’s, as they see

the tradition continuing for

decades to come.

After months of hard work

and back-breaking renovations,

Deluty and his family were

delighted to re-open Charlie’s

Sandwich Shoppe last month

to a lined-up crowd awaiting

breakfast fare.

He has kept the breakfast

menu intact and has annouced

that Charlie’s will begin serving

lunch fare in future months.

Crowds of hungry locals

packed the restaurant during

the early hours of of the re-

opening day, eager to return

to the delectable classics they

nostalgically remember.

Harry Winston Necklace (left) and Foot Series #8 with Ant (right) are two of the 24 photographs in the Museum of Fine Art’s “Hiro: Photographs” exhibit open now.

and takes time to travel to, but the

experiences I have had in Boston have

always made the trip worthwhile.

But, instead of visiting the city fre-

quently, my daily routine now takes

place entirely on campus.

To be clear, I don’t mind this. At

BC, I have eye-opening and interest-

ing experiences almost every day

on campus. All my friends are on

campus, which is something I greatly

appreciate and take for granted.

But sometimes, when I feel

weighed down by the midterms and

meetings I have on campus, I find

myself dreaming of the elusive city

and wishing I could go explore.

I can only hope to make Bos-

ton—which can seem so far, but is

truly closer than I realize—a part of

my everyday life as much as Sydney is

in my friend’s.

And maybe one day, I’ll be able to

pay my own phone bill as well.

THE HEIGHTS A5Thursday, February 4, 2016

By Laura Galligan

For The Heights

By this August, Chelsea Theatre

Works will open new doors to the

youth population of Chelsea, Mass.

In the summer of 2014, Trip Ven-

turella and his colleagues noticed that

the Factory Theatre, which housed

several small theatre companies, had

closed down, leaving the companies

without a home to perform in.

They decided that their company,

Apollonaire, should open its arms

and welcome them inside to a co-

working black box theatre.

This plan will allow children from

the ages of eight to 18 from Chelsea

and its neighboring communities of

East Boston, Revere, Winthrop, Cam-

bridge and downtown Boston to act

on stage, Venturella said.

“We kind of looked around and

said ‘there really is no place where

young people can do art,’ so we are

building a home for that in Chelsea,”

he said.

Venturella is looking to help tal-

ented, motivated, excited kids who

would start in the program by tak-

ing classes, but eventually progress

to producing shows, interning with

their companies, and moving on to

higher education.

Many of the students who will

be attending come from the lower-

income Hispanic community of

Chelsea, MA.

“We welcome anybody who is mo-

tivated, but [the students] tend to be

the bilingual kids from the Chelsea

area,” Venturella said.

Lynch School of Education profes-

sor Julia Whitcavitch-DeVoy believes

theatre changes the lives of many,

having seen it in scholarly journals

as well as in her own children.

It enhances one’s communication

skills and overall development, she .

“It creates a context where you

need to work together with one or

more people, so there’s that social

development piece,” Whitcavitch-

DeVoy said.

“I think for most people who

are involved there’s an emotional

development as well because as you

progress through the programming,

you feel more confident in your abili-

ties,” she said.

Venturella agreed, noting that

there are studies that demonstrate

that theatre has an impact on not only

the artistic part of the child, but also

academically and socially.

“It helps improve high school

graduation rates and how many kids

go on to higher education,” he said.

“It’s very much a positive force in the

kids’ lives,” he said.

Kate Weidenman, LSOE ’16, who

also majors in theatre, believes that

theatre has an impact on anyone, but

particularly those who are willing to

be vulnerable and impressionable.

It enhances self-confidence,

self-concept, and self-presentation,

Weidenman said.

Weidenman then points to the

parallel between play and learning,

and the close proximity of the theatre

to the students’ neighborhoods as

key. She believes kids will be much

more willing to attend without having

to travel far away.

“Theatre also allows its partici-

pants to make mistakes,” she said.

“I think these factors distinguish

PHOTO BY CHELSEA THEATER WORKS

Chelsea Theatre Works stage allows local children and teens a chance to express themselves artistically and learn in a safe environment.

One of my friends pays her own

phone bills, and if that doesn’t

scream “adulthood,” then I don’t

know what does.

And her independence does not

stop there.

Even though she is a college

student as well, she does not live in

a traditional dorm and instead pays

her own rent for her own apartment.

She buys all her own food. To sup-

port herself, she works several jobs.

She writes for publications around

the world.

Despite being the same age as I

am, she graduates this year and is

actively job hunting.

You know what screams adult-

hood more than paying your own

phone bills? Job hunting.

Needless to say, my friend is the

most independent and adult friend

I have. I value her friendship im-

mensely, as she is the kind of friend

who makes you better by being her-

self. Over Winter Break, I was lucky

enough to have the opportunity to

visit her.

I forgot to mention earlier—on top

of everything else that makes her so

independent, she moved to Australia

a few months after she graduated

high school and currently lives on her

own in Sydney.

Sydney is stunning. While the win-

ter—which, although warm, was still

winter—dragged on in Boston, the

summer sun was shining in Sydney.

We visited the Opera House,

which was a surreal experience. I

attempted to find 42 Wallaby Way.

We stayed out for New Year’s to

watch the fireworks over the bay and

promptly fell asleep on the train ride

back home.

We ate so much delicious food. We

visited a farmer’s market. We finally

got to go surfing—the first two at-

tempts had been canceled, one due to

a shark sighting. We watched the sun

set over the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

We had a number of incredible

experiences in Sydney for the two

weeks I was in Australia. But the

most incredible thing to me was how

much the city was an essential part

of my friend’s life, more so than I had

ever imagined.

Not only does my friend work

there, but she also goes into the city

frequently on weekends and nights.

For her, Sydney seemed to be a part

of her routine and everyday experi-

ence in Australia.

When I returned home to Boston

before school started, I was struck by

how this was not the case for me. The

city remains elusive to me.

Although Boston has always

been a presence in my life—I lived

in a suburb about 30 minutes away

and grew up hearing stories of my

parents’ childhoods in the city—it

still seems like an unattainable dream

sometimes.

It is not a part of my routine or

everyday experience like Sydney is for

my friend. Instead, Boston seems—

and has always seemed—like a place

that only exists for occasions. A place

to visit for a birthday party, a play, a

homework assignment.

When I returned from Australia, it

felt like I had spent more time every

day in a city that takes two flights and

a day to travel to, than I had spent in

Boston in my everyday life.

Reflecting now, this seems almost

wasteful. How many opportunities

and interesting experiences had I

missed in the city?

Yes, Boston can be expensive KELSEY MCGEE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

theatre from just another extracur-

ricular because you are not simply

trying to ‘win’ or even trying to learn

a new skill.” He said.

“You are creating a version of

yourself and attempting to give it

away to people who want you to suc-

ceed [and thrive].”

Whitcavitch-DeVoy added that

giving students an improved space

has a large impact on the students’

self-worth.

“I think theatre gives you some

tools to say, ‘Yes, you do have that

opportunity and you do have that

potential,’” she said. “So I think it’s

particularly important where there’s

low-income and some economic chal-

lenges and demoralization.”

One of the main upsides of the

project is having a theatre of their

own, said Venturella, by making the

children feel more comfortable and

at home in the space.

Currently, he and his colleagues

are “neck deep” in the expansion proj-

ect, which they hope to have open for

the 2016-2017 season that begins in

August, and they are very excited to

broaden their impact on the Chelsea

children and teens.

One of the most significant as-

pects of having a bigger space is that

it allows the company the liberty to

conduct more ambitious projects.

“It means more participants, more

resources, more audience members,

and finally a bigger community,” Wei-

denman said.

PHOTO BY CLIQBIT

The two CliqBit founders, Hannah Wei (left) and Olivia Joslin (right), discuss their new app.

By Pasquale Difillipo

Heights Staff

Frustrated with the lack of an ideal plat-

form to share funny moments, Olivia Joslin

and Hannah Wei, both Wellesley ’18, created

CliqBit. CliqBit is similar to Snapchat, allow-

ing users to share their photos, videos, and

posts with a specifi c group of friends for a

limited time frame that can range from only

fi ve seconds to as long as 48 hours.

CliqBit’s inspiration occurred when Joslin

and Wei were discussing their days and were

upset that they had missed the opportunity

to share a funny moment with their friends.

“No one really posts statuses on Facebook

anymore, Twwitter is also a fading network,”

Joslin said. “Th ere wasn’t anything we could

fi nd with the funny focus that we wanted.”

Joslin and Wei leveraged their computer

science backgrounds to create a polished,

user-friendly app featuring a newsfeed and

“Blazin’ Bits,” which highlights trending posts

shared on the app. Users can create groups,

known as “cliqs,” which allow you to share

privately with specifi c groups of friends. Us-

ers can sign into the app using Facebook and

share their posts to their friends’ “walls” as

well. If users like a post, they can give feedback

by tapping the “cheers” button. Th ere is no

public counter, removing the anxiety over

likes on your post.

A unique feature is CliqBit’s ability to

allow users to share posts for as little as fi ve

seconds to as long as 48 hours. Wei believes

this versatility is one of many attributes that

separates CliqBit from many of the other

apps.

“In the app world right now, there are ei-

ther very permanent platforms or anonymous

disappearing platforms,” Wei said. “We hope

to be a bridge of sorts and be somewhere in

between.”

Currently, the app has around 800 users,

which has allowed the founders to identify

potential issues before offi cially launching.

Th ey expect to see growth following the Feb.

3 launch, Joslin said.

CliqBit is designed to be a place for mem-

bers to interact casually and make people

more aware of their own individual, humor-

ous moments. Joslin hopes people recognize

their funny content and share it in a positive

environment.

Initially, both founders said it was diffi cult

to get everything up and running and needed

to learn along the way how to manage their

time. Both founders indicated that starting

your own app can be diffi cult, and one needs

to wear multiple hats in the process.

“We were running from class to class,”

Weid said. “Cutting out other parts of our

lives in order to keep up with all the roles we

have to play.”

Joslin and Wei hope to target college stu-

dents and hope users will be able to fi nd and

follow funny users through trending posts.

Th ey want to set themselves apart from the

social media app YikYak, popular among

college students despite having a divisive

atmosphere with the shroud of anonymity.

CliqBit is meant to be a haven, they said.

“We want social media to be more positive

and want people to share some of the nicer

moments in their lives,” Joslin said. “Many

don’t want to deal with negative content in

their lives.”

CliqBit hopes to advertise in the future,

with ads displayed as posts, as well as host-

ing events to promote the product. Th ey also

fl oated the idea of having a paid account for

comedians. Th is account would include an

ability to sell tickets, along with a link to a

website, Joslin said.

Th e app launched this week and is avail-

able on the iOS App Store. Joslin and Wei

hope to release an Android version in the

future. Th ey believe that an Android version

will allow for expansion into Asia, a heavily

Android-based market.

In the future, the founders believe the app

will continue to make social media fun.

“We are defi nitely going to keep updating

it to keep up with the younger generation,”

Wei said.

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, February 4, 2016A6

HEIGHTSThe Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

THE

“It’s a strange thing to discover and to believe that you are loved when you know that there is nothing in you for anybody but a parent or a God to love.”

-Graham Greene, The End of the Affair

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The Heights reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity,

accuracy, and to prevent libel. The Heights also reserves the

right to write headlines and choose illustrations to accom-

pany pieces submitted to the newspaper.

Letters and columns can be submitted online at www.

bcheights.com, by e-mail to editor@bcheights.com, in

person, or by mail to Editor, The Heights, 113 McElroy

Commons, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467.

EDITORIALS

The views expressed in the above editorials

represent the official position of The Heights, as

discussed and written by the Editorial Board. A list

of the members of the Editorial Board can be found

at bcheights.com/opinions.

John Cho, famous for his work on

films such as the Harold and Kumar

series and 2009’s Star Trek, spoke at

Boston College on Feb. 1 as part of the

Asian Caucus Cabinet Speaker Initia-

tive.

He spoke about his life and work in

the film industry as well as addressed

issues of importance for the Asian-

American community.

This is the second example of the Asian

Caucus successfully bringing an influen-

tial Asian speaker to campus—the first

being George Takei last January.

Through the success of these events,

it is clear that the Asian Caucus has de-

veloped a strategy for securing speak-

ers that should be emulated.

By pooling funds from the eight cul-

tural clubs that make it up, the Caucus

is able to bring interesting and notewor-

thy speakers to campus that not only

attract attention for the event itself,

but also bring positive recognition to

the Caucus.

As an organization whose mission is

to “creat[e] a unified voice that is neces-

sary to create awareness of issues that

affect the Asian-American community,”

the Asian Caucus has successfully used

these notable speakers to bring those

who might normally be uninterested in

hearing a talk about Asian-American

issues to their events.

With fast-paced and tightly-sched-

uled college students as the main

audience, one of the only ways to at-

tract them to events and bring their

awareness to causes is to grab atten-

tion with a name that draws people’s

attention, just as John Cho did this

past Monday.

Other student organizations and

initiatives would do well to notice this.

By focusing a great deal of the funds

on one event, the Caucus is able to

generate interest and success in a

more meaningful way than if it had

dispersed the funds among several

lesser events.

BC students, and people in general,

are drawn to these larger and more

notable events over small, underpub-

licized events.

By focusing the majority of funds on

large events, groups are better represent-

ed and develop a name for themselves

that is synonymous with high-quality

speakers and occasions. This, in turn,

brings in more members and generates

more interest, allowing the group to

continue producing and supporting suc-

cessful events.

Over this year the Asian Caucus

has demonstrated skill and commit-

ment in bringing two big-name Asian

speakers to campus. Its skillful use of

funds to support one event is some-

thing other student organizations

should take note of, especially when

trying to generate interest for their

own specific causes.

When I first read this article, my initial

reaction was to condemn Boston College’s

administration for attempting to punish an

anti-racism protest. Just more ways that

the administration refuses to work with

the outspoken students, right? But after I

reread some sections and thought about it

a little more, I came to support the admin-

istration’s decision to discipline “Eradicate”

members. Their protest was illegal—that’s

all there is to this matter.

The article suggests that the adminis-

tration is open to working with the group,

as long as it is registered. If Eradicate had

repeatedly tried to register their protests

and signs but were denied, this would be

an entirely different story. A group cannot

get special treatment around the rules just

because they support an important and just

cause. Eradicate should have protested in

accordance with the rules or, if they found

the rules unfair or used against them, fought

them through a lawful and institutional-

ized process. I have already discussed this

issue with many people, and I want to be

an advocate for the administration in this

case; they are just following standard pro-

cedure, and would like us to do the same.

If there exists some problem within the

procedure itself, then disobeying will not

accomplish anything. We need to work

with the administration if we want anything

done, and immediately causing friction is

not the answer.

A Reponse to “Eradicate’ Members Receive Disciplinary Action in Response to Unregistered Protest”

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

In an attempt to expand the admin-

istration’s non-discrimination policy

to include gender identity, the GLBTQ

leadership council—an offshoot of the

Undergraduate Government of Boston

College—has prepared a “gender iden-

tity and gender expression” report that

it will present to the administration.

BC’s current non-discrimination policy

already protects against discrimination

based on “race, color, national origin,

sex, religion, disability, age, marital or

parental status, sexual orientation, mili-

tary status, or other legally protected

status.” GLC believes, however, this

should be expanded to include “gender

identity and gender expression,” as its

proposal specifies.

This portion of the non-discrimi-

nation policy already exists at other

universities such as Boston University,

Yale University, and Georgetown Uni-

versity, a fellow Jesuit school. GLC’s

efforts to expand the non-discrimina-

tion policy are commendable, but the

decision lies almost entirely with the

administration. The extent of GLC’s

power ends with its presentation, re-

port, and proposal. As an organization

of student government, it can organize

and fight for its cause, but cannot ac-

tually implement any of the policies it

proposes for the University.

Despite this , the proposal st i l l

remains a good first step toward its

goals and, even if rejected, acts as a

symbolic gesture declaring UGBC’s

stance when it comes to this issue.

In a situation in which its power is

severely limited, it has done as much

as it feasibly could.

The final decision remains in the

administration’s hands, with the success

of the proposal still questionable. In

the past, the administration has moved

to expand the policy to include sexual

orientation, and has not demonstrated

discrimination against students based on

gender identity or expression, including

in incidents of sexual assault in which

the response does not change based on

a student’s gender identification, accord-

ing to Katherine O’Dair, associate vice

president of student affairs.

Despite Georgetown’s inclusion of

this gender identity and gender expres-

sion clause, a number of other high-

profile Catholic institutions, such as

Fordham University, Marquette Uni-

versity, and the University of Notre

Dame, have not included any such

clause within their non-discrimina-

tion policies.

This gives BC a chance to establish

a precedent for gender identity and ex-

pression, as well as non-discrimination,

among Catholic universities but also

opens it up to backlash from Catholic

organizations that do not agree with the

expansion of this policy.

While working toward achieving this

policy change is a commendable effort

for the GLC, the decision will ultimately

rest on the administration and its view

of the situation.

A Reponse to “Winning Over Millennial Republicans”I read Nicholas Hissong’s Feb. 1 op-ed, “Win-

ning Over Millennial Republicans,” with interest;

while I am not sure if I (having been born in 1997)

count as a “Millennial” (my dictionary gives a 1994

cut-off date, but Neil Howe and William Strauss,

who coined the term, give it as 2004), I am a young

Republican, and I concur and sympathize with Mr.

Hissong’s statement that “A young Republican is

an increasingly difficult thing to be.”

When I first glanced over Mr. Hissong’s piece,

I thought that he was a libertarian (vide “Many

Millennials who prefer Republican economic

policy…”) —something that I am not, but all well

and good for him. Surprisingly, however, he is no

libertarian, which he goes out of his way to point

out in his third paragraph. Pourquoi? Well—“They

[Millennial Republicans] adhere too firmly to the

proactive social reforms of the Left…”

While I agree that many young Republicans

are, unfortunately, wed only to the call of lower

taxes and free markets at the expense of the rest

of conservative principles, they do tend (I have

found) to be libertarians rather than rabid social-

justice warriors of the Left. But no!—the surprise

is that these “neo-neoconservatives” (honestly,

“neoconservative” was a silly enough contradic-

tion in terms. Need we augment the problem by

adding another “neo”?) “…are…shaking their heads

at Republican climate change denial and cruel,

reactionary immigration policy.”

I will pass over the implications of the words

denial and reactionary, but accusations of “climate

change denial” and “reactionary immigration

policy” already betray a deeper liberalism. Think

of it this way: say that Hissong is completely right

on these issues (he’s not). He wants the govern-

ment to do something about them (“proactive

social reforms”). That would imply a powerful,

progressive government that could work against

conservatives who disagree. It would need high

taxes and increased spending, taking away rights

from Christians and imposing Almighty Progress

(and possibly putting Kim Davis in jail again)—and,

voila, we have orthodox liberalism!

Now, of course, Mr. Hissong’s piece does not

endorse the party platform of every liberal in

modern politics—I can’t see Hissong voting for

Bernie Sanders, with his anti-business agenda—but

it seems in accord with the majority of modern- day

liberals. Former Senators Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Joe

Lieberman (I-Ct.), both of whom I admire, would

be too conservative for Mr. Hissong’s taste.

It is difficult and ultimately untenable to be a

“fiscal conservative with passionately liberal social

leanings,” especially if those passionately liberal

social leanings spill over into passionately liberal

economic platforms as well. The problem is not

that Mr. Hissong is a liberal. He has a right to it

as much as I have my right to be an unrepentant

conservative (on all issues, not just those pesky

fiscal ones). The problem is that we already have

a party that tends to be liberal and “progressive.”

But they’re not called “the Embarrassed Repub-

licans” (although it might be more fun if they

were)—they’re called the Democrats.

tisan surge calling for a drastic change

in the status quo? Well, to put it bluntly:

the American Dream has disappeared

over the past 30 years. Since 1980,

wages have only increased 8 percent,

while productivity has simultaneously

increased 63 percent. At the same time,

however, as motionless wages are a

reality for 99 percent of Americans, the

richest among us continue to do better

and better with the top .01 percent now

owning as much wealth as the bottom

90 percent. This disparity has direct

consequences for the working class, as

yearly wages for the average American

family would be $17,867 higher if not for

the explosion of inequality since 1979.

Unfortunately, this trend shows no signs

of stopping, and while the country is still

suffering the devastating aftermath of

the Great Recession, the top 1 percent

has captured 95 percent of the gains in

income since the 2008 economic crash.

The causes behind this massive shift

in wealth are too complex to go into

in this short column, but, in short, the

middle class began its decline during

the Reagan era, when policies became

increasingly pro-corporation. Reagan-

omics has never been challenged, whic

has lead to the current radically unstable

status quo. This is no longer a moder-

ate and restrained society, so why would

people be looking toward moderate,

restrained candidates who simply re-

brand the very policies at the root of our

country’s problems?

This imbalance also extends beyond

the economic sphere. Due to Citizens

United, the wealthy and the corporations

they run can buy candidates and basi-

cally decide who gets elected with their

ever-inflating profits. This led to Princ-

eton’s recently declaring that America

is no longer a democracy, but rather an

oligarchy, as the average citizen has next

to no influence over our political system.

The American Dream has a companion

in the morgue: American democracy.

Even if people aren’t aware of these

facts (or refuse to believe the truth

behind them), they still feel their effects.

With an entire generation frozen in

economic limbo, citizens are starting to

feel the icy chill of our radically imbal-

anced society. Throughout this eco-

nomic winter, politicians have promised

hope and change time and time again,

just to leave the middle class out in the

cold. No wonder the fiery rhetoric of

the likes of Trump or Sanders appeals

to the ones left behind. Due to the loss

of faith in a system turned against them,

voter turnout continues to be extremely

low, especially among the most dis-

advantaged. A recent Pew Research

Center survey found that 61 percent of

Americans believe the economic system

favors the wealthy, and 75 percent think

that politicians are corrupted by the

abundance of money in politics. This has

traditionally translated into indifference,

but this election cycle is different. Apa-

thy has eroded into anger, and fed-up

citizens are finding hope in the prospect

of dismantling a defunct system.

Herein lies the crux behind the bur-

geoning popularity of populist rhetoric.

As more and more people find them-

selves unable to find a full-time job, are

drowning in student loans, or are filing

for bankruptcy because of medical bills

(due to circumstances outside of their

control), they will turn toward so-called

radical candidates who are blaming

the death of the American Dream and

democracy on a dysfunctional economic

and political system. Pundits say these

radicals are bound to go out of fashion.

But doesn’t a radically broken system

warrant a radical solution?

This is why the calls for the neces-

sity of moderate candidates fall on deaf

ears. Moderation in politics implies the

status quo only needs a facelift, while in

reality our modern society desperately

needs reconstructive surgery. People are

tired of plastic politicians, with more

corporate sponsors than a NASCAR

driver, promising change that will

forever be on the horizon. The sun is

setting on the age of apathy, and voters

are starting to realize that they have the

power to counter the might of money

in our political system. A charming

politician with empty promises will not

quell the anger reverberating through

the nation. People want a politician who

cannot be bought. If we have four more

years of a “moderate” candidate, this

election cycle’s anger will pale in com-

parison to the next one’s rage.

THE HEIGHTSThursday, February 4, 2016 A7

WEIRDLY WARM WEATHER - The

warmth of the sun, the smell of

freshly melted snow soaking into the

grass, people wearing long-sleeve T-

shirts and light sweaters: it all comes

together to make the least seasonal

beginning to February we’ve ever

seen. It felt like the end of the school

year, or the spring thaw. Luckily,

it should only last a few days and

then we can get back to the wind-

whipped, snow-flying fury of New

England winter.

CLOSED DOORS - Remember fresh-

man year, when your RA told ev-

eryone to keep their doors open if

they wanted to make friends and

share the good vibes of community

and love? That was stupid and dumb.

Closed doors are the best. They keep

people out. There’s nothing better

than spending 27 hours in one room

with a closed door, two bottles of

milk, 17 empty mason jars, and a

vial of your own tears.

BEING RELATABLE - You all get what

I’m saying, right? Everyone locks

themselves in small rooms with

various strange items? This is all to-

tally normal and everyone can relate

because there’s nothing better than

ubiquitous, uninteresting platitudes

that everyone can be part of.

UBIQUITOUS - If you ever want to

sound pretentious, feel free to use

the word ubiquitous. People will

respect you and want to spend more

time with you.

RUNNING OUT OF SOCKS - Everyone

knows you can re-wear underwear

for at least eight days, and you never

have to wash your pants or shirt, but

when it comes to socks, it’s one and

done. You wake up one morning to

find yourself searching desperately

for a clean pair of socks, only to

find you’ve once again run out. The

rest of your clothes are in perfectly

good, clean supply, but you still have

to do laundry because the terrible

stench of your godforsaken footses

has destroyed every pair of socks

you own.

BEING POLITE IN EMAILS - Dear Frank-

lin, How are you today? It’s been

three days since I last saw you and

I do miss you so. I hope you’re feel-

ing fantabulous and that every day

brings you peace and goodwill. I’m

writing to you on this fine day to

inquire as to whether you will ever

decide to get off your lazy hindquar-

ters and do your work for our group

project. I hope I don’t sound harsh

or overly serious, but I promise that

I will destroy every facet of your

existence if you don’t respond to this

email. Other than that, everything

seems great, positively dandy. Best

wishes, Jeremiah J. TennyPenny.

BROKEN HEADPHONES - You pay $7

for a pair of headphones expecting

that they’ll last for the rest of your

life. But no, they break and now you

can’t listen to your rad tunes while

strutting through the mean streets

of Newton. It’s a shame, a damn

shame.

Like Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down?

Follow us @BCTUTD

In less than one month’s time, Boston

College will make its way to the polls (read:

online election form). It will commit to a future,

with the fate of the University hanging in the

balance. Of course, by “Boston College,” I mean

approximately one-third of undergraduates.

And by “fate of the University,” more reasonably

we’re referring to the fate of the Undergradu-

ate Government of Boston College, which is

still a big deal. And for those of you who don’t

think student government matters, consider

this: in the 2015-2016 academic year, UGBC’s

total budget was $319,351, with $17,500

given in direct stipends to its leadership. Each

undergraduate commits roughly $35 to this

government via the student activities fee. For

all intents and purposes, we’re paying for the

services these student leaders provide.

Already in the 2016 UGBC election cycle,

we’ve seen an editor for satirical newspaper The

New England Classic commit to running for

the highest student office. And given that this

self-declared satirical candidate successfully

secured the 250 student signatures required for

a UGBC run, it’s safe to say we all have some

soul-searching ahead of us this election cycle.

Does student government really matter?

Is it even a legitimate concept to believe a

modern university could, in part, be governed

by students? In his campaign, current president

Thomas Napoli, MCAS ’16, proposed an

overhaul of free-expression policies on campus,

particularly in regard to University rules which

punished students for unapproved fliers and

protests. The proposed reforms, which at the

beginning of the summer were said to be virtu-

ally a done deal, were completely squashed in

September. The Office of the Dean of Students,

which had the ultimate authority in approving

the proposal, rejected it on the grounds that un-

fettered speech was something that would neces-

sarily work against the interests of administrators.

In hindsight, this was an unsurprising con-

clusion to this particular student effort, but it

does offer great insight into how decisions are

made at BC: student interests can never win

without significant buy-in from administra-

tors. Come this time of year, there will almost

inevitably be some snarky opinion piece re-

marking on the futility of the incompetence of

UGBC. Of course, we should be critical of our

student leaders whenever necessary, but I also

think it’s worth considering how many vested

University interests stand to benefit from the

belief that our student organizations are sim-

ply incompetent, and student advocacy only

really ever touches on superficial problems.

As a BC undergraduate, you should be wor-

ried about how the University’s leaders perceive

the concerns of students. A recent piece in Psy-

chology Today, written by a researcher at BC,

detailed the organized administrative response

to the declining “resilience” of BC undergradu-

ates. This piece has been modified from its

original version, when the researcher discloses

his relationship with the University. The piece

details some distressing opinions coming from

the University’s senior leadership, essentially

characterizing BC students as petulant children,

unwilling to accept responsibility and in need of

thorough “handholding” from faculty in making

even the simplest of decisions. It goes so far as

to describe administrators and faculty members

as victims of a sort, held captive by the id of an

infantilized undergraduate population. Aside

from being heavily insulting, this narrative is

really helpful to understand why BC insists that

“unsupervised” student protesters deserve to be

punished, why student government constantly

struggles to maintain legitimacy at BC, and

why—as one administrator put it—student

groups at BC should not tell the University what

to do. Which brings us back to our election, and

the baffling reality of a University—with an increas-

ingly diminished perspective on the legitimacy of

student advocates—allocating over $300,000 a year

to an organization devoted to student advocacy.

If BC undergraduates truly are as men-

tally distressed as the “resilience” narrative

maintains, it should be the University’s top

concern to work with student leaders to better

understand these problems and develop solu-

tions. The natural conclusion should be that

University policies are failing us. Instead, BC

has become the poster institution for framing

the expressed needs of students as a major char-

acter flaw. Student interest needs to be considered

a compelling force in University politics. When all

decision-making happens at the top, it’s unsurpris-

ing that students (and faculty) exhibit a diminished

sense of responsibility and mental wellbeing. It’s

unsurprising that students doubt the legitimacy of

the organizations said to represent them.

It’s also unsurprising when, year after

year, BC’s best and brightest fall short in

delivering on their campaign promises. To

borrow from the rhetoric of national politics

today, the system is rigged. We don’t need

better leaders. We need a model of Univer-

sity decision-making that transcends the nar-

row perspective of administrative interest.

Students are not the problem.

and emotional—and we suddenly find

ourselves confessing our pains like

secret sins. I’ve seen this happen in

particular at some retreats, where an at-

tempt to create community results in an

overwhelming number of people sob-

bing, gasping as they tell their stories to

people they met the night before.

I worry that at times these “quick

fixes” and “retreat highs” serve as

sugar pills for a society fearful of tak-

ing proper medicine: they encourage a

delusion of security and health, while

avoiding those issues that endanger

both. We confess our sorrows, and then

pronounce ourselves cured and satiated.

We don’t have to “confess” any-

thing—our pains shouldn’t be trans-

lated as shame. Simple as it sounds, we

should treat our pains as pains. The

way I see it, an arm can be broken any

number of ways—by one’s own fault, by

the fault of another, or by variations of

other causes and consequences—but the

fact remains that there’s a broken arm

that needs to be fixed. The fact remains

that someone is suffering the pain of

that broken bone. If we are a society

that knows its values, then we’ll take

the whole process seriously: even after

the bone has set and the cast comes off,

we’ll continue to check in. We’ll recog-

nize that sometimes healed bones can

ache with the coming of rain.

People are enigmatic creatures,

always changing. Therefore, it stands to

reason that mental illness is equally—if

not more—complex. So let’s let the

doctors be doctors. Let’s assist those

with broken arms and continue to look

after each other, even when we appear

completely healed, simply because we

appreciate the importance of creating a

supportive community.

these symptoms grow into a disorder

or illness, we can’t suddenly lose our

humanity. Yet we fear being character-

ized as the disorder, and as a result we

often cover the more riddling parts of

ourselves. The senior struggling with

an eating disorder, the optimist secretly

burdened with anxiety, the friend who is

a borderline alcoholic—they’re all in the

Boston College community, appearing

at unexpected moments and hiding be-

hind locked doors. And when we’re not

“those people,” we fear discussing them,

because we associate mental illness with

the lady frothing at the mouth. We don’t

like to think that we, so similar to these

suffering students, could in turn be as-

sociated with her.

The funny thing about the stigma is

that it often reveals itself quietly. I don’t

think I’ve ever heard someone teased

for being depressed or suffering from an

eating disorder—BC students (as far as

I’ve seen) are pretty upright people. We

know better than to bully each other.

But what we will do is deny, deny, deny.

“I don’t think that’s true,” I heard

someone say to a friend who tried to

explain her mental illness. “I mean, I

support you if you are, but that just

doesn’t sound like you.”

It’s like we strip off our masks for a

moment and those who see gently slide

them back on for us. “Let’s not make

this an issue,” they seem to say. “Let’s

forget that this happened.” In this way,

we protect our friends and ourselves.

We view mental illness as an extreme—

it’s not something that happens to this

friend or that kid in class. We’re all fine.

Because otherwise, these BC students

become something separate from the

community.

In allowing ourselves to view mental

illness within such extremes, we also

jump to the extremes of denial and

silence. Inevitably, however, these is-

sues cannot remain forever under the

surface—they’re simply too complicated

I was in my sophomore year of high

school, visiting Chicago for the first

time with my family. Soon after we

boarded the train, a large woman swag-

gered over, yelling so aggressively that

spit flew from her mouth. She focused

on a man sitting alone and insulted him

with words that I wouldn’t repeat here—

even if The Heights allowed me to. The

victim just stared straight ahead, obvi-

ously angry, but ignoring the woman as

best he could to avoid trouble. And then

the subway stopped, and we all went our

separate ways.

For me, that incident serves as a

snapshot, a personification of mental

illness at its worst. Since then, I’ve run

into numerous other individuals suffer-

ing from a variety of other mental and

emotional pains—depression, eating

disorders, anxiety, trauma, and abuse,

to name a few. Judging by common

reactions toward and treatment of these

problems, I sometimes wonder what

image society as a whole has of mental

illness. I fear that too often we paint it

in extremes. That lady, nearly frothing

at the mouth in uncontrollable rage, is

mental illness as we understand and fear

it—and we remain sitting on the train,

watching a single mind’s chaos unfurl.

But what we fail to realize is that,

more often than not, our understand-

ing is exaggerated unto falsity. We turn

passive in fear and stigmatize something

that affects all of us in manifold ways,

thereby granting it power over us.

The greatest problem with our per-

ception of mental illness is that we for-

get that we’re all a little unbalanced and

illogical. We fail to realize that when

If you’re like many Americans, you

may be asking yourself, “Why does this

election cycle have so much anger?”

Much has been written about the

potent populist ideas dominating the

airwaves—especially regarding Donald

Trump and Bernie Sanders—and it’s ap-

parent that this style of political rhetoric

is in vogue.

Yet the prevailing sentiment is that

these cries for systemic change are

nothing more than a passing fad, a craze

destined to dwindle as people come to

their senses. Many act as if the angry po-

litical discourse is an anomaly divorced

from material reality, as if politicians

are inventing the frustration behind this

election’s narrative. In actuality, this

fiery upwelling has been a long time in

the making. Over the past three decades,

we’ve seen moderate politicians on both

sides of the aisle who have propped up

the increasingly unequal status quo and

led to the disappearance of the middle

class, which is now looking for someone

to blame.

As much as the mainstream media

likes to hype up election drama, the in-

creasingly palpable anger in this country

is not just a tool politicians use to get

elected. Yes, fear has been and always

will be a powerful political instrument,

but the rush by every candidate to frame

him or herself as anti-establishment

proves itself beyond the normal scope

of political maneuvering and taps into

deeper rumblings within American

society. Even traditionally pro-business

Republican candidates have pivoted to

include income inequality and campaign

finance reform in their campaign plat-

forms—even if their actual policies will

only exacerbate the problem. Jeb Bush

states, “If you’re born poor today, you’re

more likely to stay poor. We need to

deal with this.” And, attacking a corrupt

campaign finance system, Trump says, “I

will tell you that our system is broken.”

So why is there this massive bipar-

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, February 4, 2016 A8

Boston College’s Committee for

Creative Enactments (CCE), an impro-

visation comedy group on campus, will

host an Improv Comedy Showdown on

Saturday in Stokes South 195 at 8 p.m.

The group, which has been on cam-

pus since 1988, competes in Improv

Boston’s Annual Comedy Beanpot, a

tournament between 18 New England

colleges and universities, every Febru-

ary.

This year, the group decided to or-

ganize a preview of the event on BC’s

campus.

CCE will host four groups: Boston

University’s Liquid Fun, Suffolk Univer-

sity’s Seriously Bent, and Northeastern

University’s NU and Improv’d.

“I wanted to build off of that spirit [of

the Beanpot] of different Boston schools

competing and bring that aspect to the

comedy,” Elisabeth Ryden, vice president

and secretary of CCE, said. “It’s a good

way to bring Boston together.”

CCE also decided to host a preview

of the event in order to strengthen its

relationships with the other colleges’

teams, Starlin Shi, MCAS ‘16 and co-

coach of CCE, said.

“This is the first time we’ve had a

collaborative event with off-campus

improv groups,” Ryden said. “And that’s

really exciting because one of the main

themes in doing improv is teamwork. It’s

all about communication. So taking that

to a larger scale and doing it with other

teams is really exciting.”

The competition will consist of three

different events—short form, long form,

and line games. The short form game

lasts for a few minutes and involves

suggestions from the audience, whereas

the long form continues for about 20

minutes.

For the line games, all performers

stand in a line on stage and are given

an idea by the audience. They are very

quick one-liners, Ryden explained.

“You always get your inspiration

from the audience,” she said. “So the

person running the game can ask for an

object or thing, but they usually just take

anything the audience gives.”

The improv club performs about

once a month and participates in three

events beyond BC’s campus each year:

the Boston Comedy Arts Festival in Sep-

tember, Nationals in November, and the

Annual Comedy Beanpot in February.

CCE is open to all students—no

previous improv experience is neces-

sary. Therefore, many of their meetings

revolve around practicing improv. Ray-

mond Santos, MCAS ‘16 and co-coach

of CCE, and Shi teach lessons on improv

and work to develop the skills of every

member.

The group has about 45 members,

but there are different levels of commit-

ment, Shi and Santos said.

“We try to keep things as casual as

we can,” Shi said. “It’s improv—you want

to have fun and it’s not exactly a life or

death issue, but there are definitely some

people who get super into it.”

They are taking a nine-member

team to the Beanpot. There was no of-

ficial tryout for the team—it was based

off of their performances at the club

meetings.

CCE meets on Sundays, Tuesdays,

and Thursdays in Gasson.

“It’s more practice than rehearsal,”

Shi said. “Practice is more to see if we

can react in the moment because we

don’t know what kind of inspirations

we’re going to get from the audience.

So it’s just sort of honing those skills so

we can react in real time.”

The Beanpot in Boston generally

attracts a different crowd, Ryden said.

Audience members usually consist of

Boston residents and BC graduates

rather than current BC students.

“The show we’re doing this weekend

is much more directed towards BC stu-

dents,” Ryden said.

The group’s goals for this weekend,

Shi said, are for the event to run smooth-

ly and to get a strong turnout.

“It is a very unique event,” Shi said.

“I think that improv isn’t necessarily the

best-advertised thing on campus.”

Improv, Shi said, makes some audi-

ence members feel uncomfortable. Shi

ensures that the environment will be

relaxed and comfortable and no one will

have to unwillingly participate.

Santos and Shi hope to win the Bean-

pot this year. If they do, it will be their

first win since 2014, when the women’s

and men’s hockey teams also won the

hockey Beanpot.

“It’s just a blast because you get

18 teams together, and they’re gener-

ally just a bunch of goofy people,” Shi

said.

Workers checked, reset, and cleared traps as needed.

Once existing traps were addressed, they put ad-

ditional bait and traps in the ceilings.

As Boyle mentioned before, it does not take much of

an opening for mice to enter buildings.

To best ensure that the outside mice remain mice

outside, the custodial staff checked the exterior door of

Walsh, making sure that when they were closed, there

weren’t any places that mice could enter.

After break, about a week into the spring semester,

door sweeps—meant to keep mice from scurrying into

units from under the door—were put on every door in

Walsh Hall.

The last step the staff is taking is patching up the pipes

in the ceiling, where it had noticed openings within while

creating a minefield for mice in the ceilings.

“We tried to button up the building a little tighter,”

Boyle said. “We’re doing everything we can on our

end.”

Johnson came back after the month-long break to

find two dead mice in her suite. Though Johnson and her

roommates were disgusted, Boyle saw this as a positive.

“That means the mice took the bait and died,” he

said.

Boyle explained that the custodial staff had gone

through the units that had mouse traps in them and

tried to clean out any dead mice the workers found while

checking the traps that had been set throughout the

semester. Thus, finding dead mice after break—while an

unfortunate sighting—means that the new bait the staff

had set was effective.

A decrease in the number of mice is good news for

Walsh residents, and with a drop in mice count comes

a drop in the effects that mice have on sanitation. Mice

carry around bacteria and infections, much like any

other animal does. And, mice come with their urine

droppings.

Boyle and Straker were both very clear that any mice

droppings and other visible excretions were promptly

cleaned up by pest control. With the reasoning that there

is no way to really detect mice urine, however, Straker

stated that, if there were mice found in a bathtub, for

example, that there would be rigorous sanitation mea-

sures taken, but other than visible excretions, action is

not taken.

“I’m not aware of any students going to the infirmary

because of mice-related infections or anything,” Boyle

said, backed by Straker’s nodding in the background.

Johnson and her roommates are hopeful that from

now on, their only guests will be those who are invited

to the room.

With Walsh’s newly established armory, equipped

with ceiling traps, door sweeps, sealed holes, and fortified

exterior doors, Walsh residents are armed to conquer the

outsiders this semester.

Over the past few months, I’ve become

convinced that the Boston area doesn’t get

enough credit. People who view the area

from afar see a veritable mountain of snow

covering pink whales, boat shoes, and re-

spectable businessmen who can trace their

family history back to Plymouth Rock.

There is the ever impressive Museum

of Fine Arts and the Orchestra peeking

out from the snowdrift because we are, of

course, talking about a metropolitan area,

which means that it not only has history

but also culture.

But, once you really start looking at Bos-

ton, and the cities surrounding it, you might

notice that they walk themselves back from

the abyss of stuffiness (something that can

come naturally to cities with just the right

amount of history) because they have

developed a trait coveted in both people

and cities alike.

The Boston area refuses to take itself

too seriously.

Take for example one of the newest store-

fronts in Cambridge, Cash for Your Warhol.

If you walk past it, located in Inman Square,

the aggressive yellow signs in the windows

might make you pause for a minute.

Cash for your Warhol? Are there people

who wonder what to do with all the extra

Warhols they have lying around their

homes? Who are those people? They must

be really rich.

You may be intrigued enough to start

peeking inside the windows of the store,

which at first glance looks authentic

enough, kind of like those stores that dra-

matically announce that they will ‘buy gold

for cash.’ But there are no Warhols of any

kind in the store. There are only more of

the brightly colored Cash for Your Warhol

signs and a few checks hanging on the wall.

At this point, you might be so curious as to

how this establishment functions that you

actually go into Cash for Your Warhol.

If you do get to that point, you will

discover that the whole thing is but a joke,

with conceptual art projects all wrapped

into one storefront.

Cash for Your Warhol is the brainchild

of Geoff Hargadon, a Somerville resident,

whose day job is managing a wealth man-

agement practice. Hargadon’s passion for

photography and conceptual art lead him

to begin the project in 2009 with just a few

Cash for Your Warhol signs. Hargadon

intended to comment on the financial crisis

of the time, and the way art is sold in the

modern world, according to the Boston

Globe. The project gained momentum from

there as public interest grew, and separate

galleries began featuring Hargadon’s War-

hol signs. Cash for Your Warhol even has

a function phone number and a website

proclaiming that you can “Raise cash!” and

“Avoid bankruptcy!” with your “Confiden-

tiality assured!”

For me, the fact that this form of store-

front can exist within the Boston area is a

victory. Cash for Your Warhol is a platform

that opens up a discussion for more serious

topics, like the nature of art or the financial

crisis, while allowing people to laugh at the

absurdity of it all. It is the kind of place that

lends an important element of lighthearted-

ness and sends out the signal that Boston is

the kind of city that you want to actually be

in, not just look at from afar.

I guess that cities are not too dissimilar

from people. The enjoyable ones are con-

stantly changing, with just the right about

of stuff staying the same. Like people, they

also need the ability to disassociate them-

selves from the stressful expectations of

their past and their present so that they can

make people laugh. They need to be a space

where conceptual artists feel comfortable

setting up transient shops that will brighten

someone’s day and give them something

amusing to discuss at the dinner table.

Like Hargadon, the Boston area needs,

and seems to have, a practical side, where

they manage wealth, balanced by a side

where they can express—or provide a place

for others to express—their passions.

“

” —Victoria Johnson, MCAS ’18

JOHN WILEY / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

Mice, from A1

‘MARTYRLOSERKING’SAUL WILLIAMS’ LATEST ALBUM ELEVATES HIS IMAGE TO A ROYAL LEVEL,

PINK LADIES AND T-BIRDSDID FOX’S ‘GREASE: LIVE’ LIVE UP TO FANS’ LOFTY EXPECTATIONS?

PAGE B4

REVIEW

REVIEW

‘The Choice’PAGE B2

COLUMN

ROSS KATZ DELIVERS AN UNSUCCESSFUL ADAPTATION OF A NICHOLAS SPARKS NOVEL,

ABBY PAULSON / HEIGHTS EDITOR

THURSDAY | February 4, 2016

THE

Page B4

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, February 4, 2016B2

A FULLER PICTURE

If you ever notice a guy walking around

campus every day with a Pink Ladies pin on,

that’s me. FOX sent it to me about two weeks

ago, along with a press package/treasure chest

of other Grease goodies, as a reminder of its

Grease: Live musical that aired last Sunday. I

ate all the popcorn and cotton candy and gave

away a couple of flags and t-shirts, but the Pink

Ladies pin is mine. It’s sleek and it’s pink, and

pink’s my favorite color. That’s all there really

is to it. Plus, it emblematizes my love for what

I consider to be the best of the best when it

comes to American musicals.

Now, I know, that’s a bold and arguable

claim. But in this case, it’s personal. I can’t

thoroughly argue that Grease is the technically

best musical out there, but for me, it’s funky, it’s

funny, and I grew up watching it. No show tune

could possibly match Frankie Valli’s “Grease”

theme. It’s not possible. “Grease” exudes rock-

solid coolness and suavity. “Grease is the way

we are feelin‘.” That’s all that needs to be said on

the song’s and, really, the movie’s account.

So when I received this press package

from FOX, I actually got kind of excited. I say

“actually” because I’ve been skeptical of and

disappointed by the string of live musicals that

NBC has broadcasted over the last couple of

years. To quote Brian Lowry’s Variety review

of Carrie Underwood’s The Sound of Music Live!, “the actual production too often felt as

lifeless as [its] alpine backdrops.” Some might

find this a bit over-dramatic, but honestly, I

fully agree with Mr. Lowry. It’s not that Carrie

Underwood didn’t sing well or that the sets and

props were atrocious. Everything felt so stiff.

It seemed like everyone was uncomfortable

trying to make the production as great as they

wanted it to be, which came off as overdone

and inauthentic.

When Peter Pan Live! came around next,

I thought my ears would start bleeding at the

sound of Christopher Walken’s pirate shanties.

Apparently making the jump from singing

in Hairspray to prancing about as Captain

Hook was a bit too much for the beloved actor.

And don’t get me wrong, I love Christopher

Walken, but try watching an excerpt from

Peter Pan Live! without curling over in tears,

laughing at the monstrosity of a performance

that unfolds before you.

With these two examples in mind, I was

shocked to find myself intrigued by FOX’s

Grease: Live. Maybe it was the fact that I

actually enjoy Grease, whereas I’m pretty

indifferent toward The Sound of Music and a

musical Peter Pan. I didn’t know any of the cast

members for Grease: Live except for Vanessa

Hudgens, and I was pretty indifferent toward

her, too. Nevertheless, last Sunday came and,

as the day went on, my hopes for Grease: Live

actually got pretty high.

That is, until the show started. At that

point, I realized my fatal mistake. The worst

part was, I should have seen it coming.

I’ve seen Grease with John Travolta

upwards of 10 times. I don’t put it on very

often because seeing it more than ten times is

realistically a large enough fill of Grease for a

lifetime, but when I haven’t seen it for awhile

and I think about watching it, I embellish to

myself how much I actually like watching it. It’s

never as satisfying as I remember it, which is

sad, but true.

The other thing I forgot was that I don’t

like renditions of Grease. I’ve seen stage

productions of it twice and both times

nothing felt engrossing or fleshed out with

the same tone and authenticity as the mov-

ie is. The actors in both stage productions

didn’t break past the point of being actors.

I wasn’t watching Danny Zuko strut around

“Greased Lightning.” I was watching some

guy do his best Danny Zuko impersonation.

And that’s exactly what happened with

Grease: Live. It didn’t own Grease’s essence

at all. Full of “live television” gimmicks and

unnecessary celebrity cameos (except for

the original Frenchie as the waitress at the

diner), Grease: Live was a plastic, lifeless

imitation of an American classic. Every line

felt like it was spewed from a 1950s dialec-

tic robot with a jammed on/off switch.

Renditions of Grease are supposed to

revive a sensibility. They’re supposed to

exhibit, to quote Frankie Valli, “the time,

the place, and the motion.” But, at least for

me, Grease: Live didn’t have the groove and

it didn’t have the meaning.

THIS WEEKEND in artsBRUCE SPRINGSTEEN(THURSDAY AT 7:30 P.M.)The renowned American rock band is headed back to

Boston’s TD Garden this week for a lively performance of

classic hits. Springsteen and the band that has backed him

since 1972 is set to entertain audience members young

and old.

‘THE CHOICE’ (OPENS FRIDAY)This Nicholas Sparks novel turned feature film

tells the sentimental story of lovebirds Travis

and Gabby. Through obstacles and adversity, the

two attempt to preserve a seemingly unbreak-

able bond.

FETTY WAP(SATURDAY AT 5 P.M.)The New Jersey-bred hip-hop artist will take top hits

like “Trap Queen” and “679” to House of Blues next

week. On Monday, Fetty Wap will perform as part of

Monster Energy’s “Welcome to the Zoo” event.

‘HAIL, CAESAR!’(NOW PLAYING)When chaos erupts at Capitol Pictures, and the studio’s

star actor is kidnapped, Eddie Mannix is the man who

must set things straight. Starring George Clooney and

Channing Tatum, the comedy hits theaters on Friday.

JUICE & WILL BOLTON @ BRIGHTON MUSIC HALL(NOW PLAYING)Juice, William Bolton, CSOM ’16, and others from the

Boston area will take the stage to perform some new tracks

and old fan-favorites.

‘PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOM-BIES’(OPENS FRIDAY)This zombie-filled film adaptation of the parody

novel by Seth Graham-Smith attempts to incorpo-

rate fantasy elements into a time-honored classic

by Jane Austen.

RUMOR(OPENS FRIDAY)The Dance Organization of Boston College takes

over Robsham this weekend with “Rumor,” the crew’s

first dance show of the semester. Get ready for this

high-energy collaboration featuring Synergy and

The Heightsmen.

‘VAGINA MONOLOGUES’ (NOW PLAYING)McGuinn 121 is your destination for this semester’s

production of The Vagina Monologues. As always, the

entertaining event is sure to draw a crowd for every per-

formance this weekend.

BY: HANNAH MCLAUGHLIN | HEIGHTS EDITOR

DREAMWORKS ANIMATION

Here’s a surprise to absolutely no

one at all: Miley Cyrus is a controversial

topic lately. Ever since her divergence

from Disney Channel-child-star role

model several years ago, her career has

been the topic of non-stop debate. More

conservative homes and families have

demonized her for her actions, while

more tolerant groups have accepted her

radical split from her old self. What-

ever the prevailing opinion may be, the

dichotomy between the family-friendly

Hannah Montana and the independent

Miley Cyrus begs an interesting ques-

tion: is it possible to separate an artist’s

actions from her art?

Unfortunate as it may be, artists as

a whole sometimes get a bad rap. Many

are well-known philanthropists, like

Bono, lead singer of U2 and environ-

mental activist. One of Jon Bon Jovi’s

greatest non-musical achievements

is the founding of the Jon Bon Jovi

Soul Foundation, and actress Angelina

Jolie is well known for her work as a

Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N.

Refugee Agency. Wherever you turn, it’s

relatively easy to find the creatives who

love their fellow man.

Of course, there are two sides to

every coin. For every artist-philan-

thropist working to make the world a

better place, there’s a bad apple spoiling

the bunch. A prime example of this is

Ian Watkins, lead vocalist for the band

Lostprophets. The alternative metal

band was formed in 1997 and produced

five studio albums in its time together.

Though somewhat unknown, Lost-

prophets were undeniably talented and

clearly had a bright future.

In 2012, Ian Watkins was charged

with crimes far too disturbing to print. I

will spare you the very dark details, and

I recommend that you do not pursue

the topic any further if you have a weak

stomach. Needless to say, Watkins was

found guilty and sentenced to 35 years

in prison, thus ending the band’s story

for good.

I was left in a dilemma—one indica-

tive of a much larger social issue in the

art world. How is it possible to reconcile

the detestable actions of a singer, actor,

or performer that is so well loved? Fans

of the late Michael Jackson (myself be-

ing one of them) know this pain all too

well. The music that Jackson created

brought the world together, but the man

who created it was rooted in extremely

poor life choices (or at least appear-

ances). I’ve discussed this reality many

times with friends and family, and it’s

an incredibly divisive issue—naturally, it

has taken me quite a long time to figure

out just how I feel about Watkins, Jack-

son, and any other artist that falls under

this umbrella.

Here’s where I fall on the issue: Even

if a person is morally bankrupt, it is still

okay to enjoy the work that they publish.

This might not be a popular conclusion

to draw, but it’s the only way to come to

terms with the pain caused by the actions

of those we look up to. Morals and ethics

are tricky little things—it’s possible to live

a good life with them, and it’s possible to

live a good life without them. Regardless

of the worldview a person holds, how-

ever, there will always be someone who

disagrees. Vilifying artists’ work in light

of disagreeable life choices only leads

to closed-mindedness. By no means do

I believe the crimes of Watkins and the

supposed acts of Jackson are acceptable,

but I do very much believe in the value

that their art still holds.

Earlier in this column, I alluded to the

life and career of Miley Cyrus. Though

not a criminal by any means, Cyrus is

still very often criticized for the path

that her life has taken. It saddens me to

see such a talented woman be crucified

by critics, especially when the music

that she produces is at the very forefront

of pop culture innovation. It is for this

reason that I implore all readers to think

about the happiness an artist can bring

to the world before beating said artist’s

reputation into the ground. In the words

of the great Kevin Smith, “Discourage

an artist, you get absolutely nothing in

return. Ever.” If critics would, for only

one moment, take this idea into consid-

eration, the world might be that much

better of a place.

CHRIS FULLER / HEIGHTS EDITOR

CHANDLER FORD

As Nick Rocchio-Giordano, MCAS ’18,

Mario Borges, MCAS ’18, and Henry Ricciardi,

CSOM ’18, all saunter over from Mac to the

Stokes Amphitheater, it becomes very apparent

that the three sophomores won’t lack for con-

versation. Rocchio-Giordano rolls over on his

skateboard, sporting his eclectically patterned

t-shirt spotted with myriad colors, while Mario

and Henry burst out laughing at something one

of them had just said.

Rocchio-Giordano, Borges, and Ricciardi

make up one of Boston College’s unique up-

and-coming bands, aptly named Funky Giant.

The band came together after Rocchio-Giordano

and Ricciardi met in their Music Theory class.

Ricciardi, the lead guitarist of Funky Giant, was

intrigued to hear Rocchio-Giordano played

the bass, and the two almost instantly hit it off.

While the two played together throughout the

fall semester, Funky Giant finally came together

when the two met Borges, who was, at the time,

a drummer on the BC marching band.

“Back home I played in some other bands,

recorded some albums, and did some shows,

so when I came here I wanted to try something

different,” Borges said. “Over the year, I found

out [marching band] wasn’t for me and when I

met up with Henry [Ricciardi] and Nick [Roc-

chio-Giordano] and I saw pretty quickly that we

could all work together.”

Working together, it seems, is the group’s

main priority. In talking with Funky Giant,

teamwork and sound-layering are at the forefront

of the conversation. Rocchio-Giordano, Borges,

and Ricciardi want to produce as many different,

vivacious sounds as they possibly can with their

drums, bass, and guitar. As Rocchio-Giordano

puts it, “On the drums, Mario [Borges] can play

just about anything you ask him to, consistently.

I sort of bolster that, playing the bass, adding a

bit of beef to it. And then Henry [Ricciardi] just

drizzles the perfect sauce right on top of that.”

Describing Ricciardi’s guitar as the perfect

sauce on top, while an eccentric metaphor, is

an accurate way of characterizing his riffs and

chords that flick Funky Giant’s tracks with energy.

Borges’ eclectic and steady drum beat centralize

Rocchio-Giordano’s and Ricciardi’s guitar and

bass, and Rocchio-Giordano gives Funky Giant’s

tracks the perfect tinge of groove that the band’s

name necessitates.

While Funky Giant doesn’t have a singer

right now, they’re open to the possibility of tak-

ing someone in.

“I think we’ve still got a great sound with just

the instrumentals, but it’d be cool to bring in

someone who could help with some of our cov-

ers that are actually supposed to be sung,” Borges

explained. “It’s about expanding our possibilities

as much as we can.”

In the meantime, Funky Giant can carry

on with its sound triumphantly and without

worry. The few tracks posted on Funky Giant’s

SoundCloud page exhibit a marvelous genre-

melding style that exudes old-school funk.

“Herbie Hancock was one of the first to

take a really competent jazz music theory

with a highly technical background and put it

into more mainstream funk music,” Ricciardi

said about the band’s influences. “He would

record these epic 16-minute jams. I think

that’s why we like him so much. We like to take

our backgrounds in different types of music

and bring them together in an epic track like

Herbie did.”

In talking with Rocchio-Giordano, Borges,

and Ricciardi, it’s evident that each musician

cares deeply about the music he plays person-

ally and the multi-faceted craft that they bring

together. Unfortunately, however, it hasn’t

been exceedingly easy for Funky Giant to

come together and record its tracks. The band

played at last semester’s Music Guild Winter

Concert and attends many of the Guild’s open-

mic nights, but recording space can be hard to

come by around campus.

“The Music Guild’s helpful in setting up

gigs, but when it comes to recording, it’s hard

to organize things because BC’s focuses are

more directed towards aiding the academic

programs and their students ,and the academic

departments, it seems, don’t always agree

on what the equipment should be used for,”

Rocchio-Giordano explained. “The priority

for these departments is their students’ tak-

ing classes.”

It might be simple for Funky Giant to

find its way into the recording studio, but in

the meantime the group is enjoying jamming

together and playing at venues on and off cam-

pus. Last week, Funky Giant played at the Great

Scott alongside fellow BC and Small Talk.

And, for now, that’s all Funky Giant is look-

ing for. Rocchio-Giordano, Borges, and Ric-

ciardi want to explore Funky Giant’s musical

frontier. They’re not looking to revolutionize

the music scene at BC, but they want to see

if they can add their own distinct flavor to

the mix.

THE HEIGHTSThursday, February 4, 2016 B3

On Monday, Feb. 1 at approximately 10:40 p.m., a horrific series of events transpired on planet Earth. Raging fires and major flooding decimated human civilization, the world’s 8.7 million species suddenly ceased to exist, and our entire life-sustaining space rock was not simply tipped off of its axis, but hurled violently into the depths of a vast and unforgiving universe.

Well, at least that’s what I assumed must have happened due to the depressing series of snapchats I received that night from a high school friend of mine. Just seconds before my friend sent me the first somber selfie, Boston University defenseman Doyle Somerby took advantage of an empty net to secure a 3-1 Beanpot victory for the Terriers at TD Garden. If this article’s apocalyptic premise didn’t make

it abundantly clear already, the aforementioned friend goes to Northeastern.

As GPA-paranoid students by day and bloodthirsty sports fans by night, we BC undergrads sure know a thing or two about com-petitive rivalries, be they academic or athletic in nature. Together, we comprise a flock of Eagles who gleefully gloats about how it “Sucks to BU” whenever the chance arises. When it comes to the savage support of our alma mater, we are certainly not alone. Just ask a group of BU stu-dents which B-Line school would win in a fierce battle to the death, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone backing BC.

As individuals, it’s the same story. Who hasn’t secretly sneered at our best friend when she scores higher than us on a medieval history midterm? We’re constantly consumed with who’s best, what’s best, and how we could become the best (if we’re not already). Despite this mindset making for some messy situations and needless anxiety at times, I think the whole competition thing is kind of fun.

Maybe it’s the over-the-top arts enthusiast in me (it is), but I like to think that the same

exists in the entertainment world—and to an even larger extent, really. More often than not, people identify themselves with the Hogwarts house they think they belong in, the rock group they’re most loyal to, or even their favorite member within a single band. I’ve actually had a guy proudly introduce himself to me as “the Ringo Starr of [his] friend group.” If that’s not a foolproof pickup line sure to get all the girls swooning, boys, then I don’t know what is.

Fandoms exist at all levels within entertain-ment—from dueling film franchises to music genres to even specific songs within a single Bruce Springsteen album (quick, which is better: “Born to Run” or “Thunder Road?”). Even late-night TV forces us to choose channels wisely, pitting Jimmy against Jimmy at the same time every night.

Star Wars or Star Trek? Dumbledore or Gan-dalf? Graduation or My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy? Vampires or Werewolves (okay, I don’t get the hype surrounding that one either)? The Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh! debacle is easy, though. Any franchise with a crime-fighting turtle called ‘Squirtle’ wins the fantasy anime card game

throne, no question.The frustrating thing about entertainment

rivalries, however, is that there is no definitive way to decide who’s best. Hockey has indisput-able bits of data to it—team records, player stats, all of those good things. For instance, you could like Peyton Manning and his annoying Nationwide commercials all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s got one ring to Brady’s four.

Based entirely on opinion and personal preference, entertainment is different. There exist no numbers to crunch that can determine the superiority of 30 Rock over Parks and Rec or one Powerpuff Girl over the other. I could claim that Michael Buble is the worst cover artist plaguing our generation today, but dammit, I just can’t prove it.

Sure, I’d like to give those who claim Kevin Michael Richardson’s cartoon Joker is superior to Heath Ledger’s realistic one a swift right hook to the face and ask them if they kiss their mother with that mouth. Unfortunately, my argument would have no fact-based leg to stand on.

In the Boston area alone, BU claims it’s

best, while Harvard rolls its Ivy League eyes. Northeastern might make a strong case for its swanky fitness center, but we Eagles know that what sweltering Plex heat doesn’t kill you makes you stronger (MIT doesn’t trouble itself with any of this petty competition, because it’s too busy building robots who run faster than cheetahs and solve world peace in its spare time, thank you very much).

If my going off on a tangent has taught us anything here, I think it’s this: much like award season is a catalyst for tumult and tension in the entertainment industry, the annual Beanpot tour-nament causes major rifts among Boston’s finest academic institutions. The only difference is that The Academy’s decisions regarding superiority have no math or factual evidence to back them up, whereas hockey games do.

In conclusion, according to mathematical proof and hockey statistics, BC is better than Harvard.

HANNAH MCLAUGHLIN

In a dreamy, ethereal way, words jet-

tison out from the void. “Love, love love,

how do I?” What does he mean? What

is he calling to? As in most of its songs,

Small Talk’s “Undercover” continues to

linger in the mind, long after its flour-

ishing piano accompaniment fades into

a resolute silence.

Small Talk is a Boston College-based

band with psychedelic indie influences.

As the band, comprised of Conor Gal-

lagher, CSOM ’16, Chris Southiere,

Berklee ’16, Adam Dubuc, University

of Rhode Island graduate, Sean Seaver,

MCAS ’16, and Zoe Ainsburg, Berklee

’16, prepares to release its latest EP, The Steal, it is apparent that, through this EP,

the band is continuing to evolve in sound

and musical style.

Individually, the members of Small

Talk come from diverse musical back-

grounds. In both their tastes and in

their own musical pursuits, this kind of

melange aids in the varied sound heard

in the band’s own work. When building

EPs and tracks, vocalist/guitarist Seaver

and synthesist and sampler Dubuc start

crafting Small Talk’s music by working off

demos that they created in each other’s

absence. Though Small Talk may not, as

a group, be influenced specifically by the

reggae, jazz, or indie rock that its mem-

bers enjoy, the varied views and tastes

lend to the progression and complexity of

the band’s sound, seen especially in The Steal. Such diversity does not interfere

with the synchronicity of the EP.

“There is a lot more details, sonically,

in these songs,” Seaver said about The Steal in relation to previous releases.

Where songs from previous EPs,

like “Brothers,” were layered with 46

tracks, new songs, like “Zelda,” contain

an impressive 176 tracks. Such volume

within a single song, Seaver explains,

aims to make the songs nuanced and

multifaceted.

“We didn’t want someone to hear the

song once and be done with it,” he said.

“We want you, on your 10th listen, to

still be able to get something new out

of the song.”

Much like watching a movie and

catching things upon the second view-

ing, songs rife with nuance and craft in

The Steal will not only warrant repeat

listens, but demand them, to heighten

the musical experience. Instrumen-

tally and lyrically, each song offers up

so many interesting features that single

listens cannot possibly do them justice.

Songs like “Zelda” will allow attentive

listeners to relish in the silences, brief

instrumental additions, bassline, and

qualities reminiscent of psychedelia in

subsequent hearings.

Small Talk does not shy away from

more cerebral aspects in its songs. Simi-

lar to past releases, like “Brother,” which

includes audio bits from the Seaver

family’s home videos, The Steal promises

more in terms of interesting sampling.

Dubuc, the band’s sampler, called the

inclusions “sonic spelunking.”

“I think it’s cool to have atonal sounds

and sounds that have more of a texture

and setting,” Dubuc said. “These last

songs actually have quite a bit of those

sounds. Tapping on empty glasses and

banging on some wooden stuff in my

basement—basically anything that could

be hit with a stick was fair game.”

The additional sounds do just that to

bring a whole new face and feel to songs.

“Undercover” offers sounds of crickets,

while “Zelda” opens with children at

play and “Ellipse” gracefully slips in the

subtle beating of a heart. The genuine

human connection felt by the heartbeat

strengthens the emotional effectiveness

of the song. These additions are not only

aurally pleasing, but beautiful in their

simple inclusion.

For Small Talk, that kind of nuanced

differentiation extends its ways across

songs as well, as the band reaches for dif-

ferent sounds between pieces of the EP.

“We don’t want to be a band with an

11-track album and every song is in the

same style with the same arrangement,

with the same tones,” Seaver said. “We

want it to be eclectic.”

The Steal contains entrancing synths,

beautiful vocal harmonies, and vibrant

baselines. With so many enticing musi-

cal elements present in its work, it would

not be surprising if Small Talk garners a

considerable following in the future.

But Small Talk is not concerned with

being accessible to everyone, wishing to

instead “challenge and confuse our audi-

ence, rather than pander to their expecta-

tions,” as Seaver honestly puts it.

This is in no way off putting, as it

speaks to the core of the art of music. As

in most artistic endeavors, these works

are meant to elicit responses, feeling,

or emotions in listeners. Though the

members of the band would love if ev-

eryone could appreciate its music and

find something that resonates with them,

the integrity of the artistic process pre-

dominates any attempts to be universally

comprehensible.

“It’s not making it for ourselves or

anyone, it’s just what we feel, we put

it out there,” Southiere said. “It doesn’t

mean anything until someone gives it

meaning.”

To the credit of Small Talk, within

The Steal, there are many opportuni-

ties to find something that resonates

with you. Amid all the musical variation

and flourishes, the lastest EP speaks

to a variety topics. Instrumentally and

lyrically, the band is capable of spanning

the emotional spectrum. The Steal is an

engaging binaural experience.

The dynamism of the band translates

to a slew of interpretations of its content.

Within the band, Southiere points out

that each member can interpret songs

differently, each listener bringing forth

his or her own subjective interpretation

of the same work. And if this sentiment

is true within a musical group, it can

certainly be deposited among listeners

outside the group. Therein lies the beauty

of its music.

“We are all listeners,” Seaver said.

Caleb Griego | Assoc. Arts & Review Editor

Small

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The evolving band goes ‘sonic spelunking’ in the outer reaches of music.

Talk

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, February 4, 2016B4

It’s not often that the world

celebrates a broken heart. In fact,

female songwriters are often criti-

cized for writing about their pained

emotions—for example, Taylor

Swift’s receiving hate after suppos-

edly writing 1989 about ex-boyfriend

Harry Styles. Yet Kelly Zutrau, the

lead singer and driving force behind

indie-pop trio Wet, has crafted the

perfect balance between heartbreak

and beauty on the group’s debut,

full-length Don’t You, an album

that is making the world rethink the

heavy-hearted ballad.

Th e album begins with “It’s All in

Vain,” the band’s current number-one

track on Spotify. Th e emotional track

narrates someone’s losing trust in his

or her partner, lamenting, “I don’t be-

lieve you when you / Tell me that you

love me most / And when you tell

me I’m the only one.” Culminating

in Zutrau’s lyrical character’s leaving

her unfaithful partner behind, the

slow piano and drum machine-based

track show more powerful resolve

than helpless heartbreak. “Deadwa-

ter” continues along the same trend,

yet with a more bubbly melody. Th e

lyrics recount Zutrau’s suff ering in a

relationship and “shaky” feeling upon

it ending, but end in her claiming

that “there are better things for me,”

and that when the breakup occurred,

TOP SINGLES

1 Love Yourself Justin Bieber 2 Sorry

Justin Bieber 3 Stressed Out

twenty one pilots 4 Hello

Adele 5 My House

Flo Rida 6 Roses

The Chainsmokers 7 Hands to Myself

Selena Gomez 8 Same Old Love

Selena Gomez

TOP ALBUMS

1 25Adele

2 PurposeJustin Bieber

3 DystopiaMegadeth

4 Blurryfacetwenty one pilots

5 Death Of A BachelorPanic! At The Disco

Source: Billboard.com

CHART TOPPERS

Zayn Malik’s departure from

boy band One Direction in March

2015 was one of the year’s largest

pop culture stories, sparking more

than 4,600 tweets per minute on

the topic and breaking the hearts

of teenage girls everywhere. After

the initial shock, fans were poised

to wait anxiously for his solo music

career. On Jan. 29, Malik delivered.

His single “PILLOWTALK” was

released with its accompanying

music video, sparking yet another

frenzy of Internet chaos. Now

recording under the name ZAYN,

the pop star used this new video to

distinctly separate himself from his

past as a preteen icon.

Between racy lyrics, such as

“So dirty and raw / Be in the bed

all day,” and clips featuring nude

female models, the video is beyond

anything a “Directioner” would be

able to view past their underage

web sensors. “PILLOWTALK”

embraces the track’s raw sexuality

with images of fl owers blossoming

in front of actresses’ most x-rated

features, intimate scenes between

Malik and rumored girlfriend Gigi

Hadid, and 3-D outlines of female

bodies pulsing toward the screen.

The sensuality of the video,

however, is not its most com-

manding aspect. “PILLOWTALK”

is crowded with visual manipula-

tions that mimic Photoshop on a

2006 MacBook—after every few

frames, the screen transforms

from a kaleidoscope of Malik

and his models to a color wheel

of pixels dragging behind the

heartthrob’s deliberately “sexy”

movements.

ZAYN’s fans had a lot to pro-

cess with the drop of the “PIL-

LOWTALK” video. Th e racy visu-

al and lyrical content made it clear

that Malik wishes to be treated as

an adult rather than a boy band

member, yet the production of the

video appeared much closer to the

work of a middle school student’s

fi rst trip through iMovie. ZAYN

might have bitten off too much in

his fi rst video as a solo artist. While

the single is impressive, the video

is debilitating.

“PILLOWTALK”ZAYN MALIK

COLUMBIA RECORDS

WETDON’T YOU

PRODUCED BY COLUMBIA RECORDS

RELEASEJAN. 29, 2016

OUR RATING

to mind while listening to most of

the album’s soulful, bare ballads.

“Small and Silver” follows, using the

same strong percussive devices, but

invoking none of the sugary energy

supplied by “All the Ways.”

“You’re the Best” is another track

from Wet’s EP, starting with Zutrau

performing a cappella through

electronic eff ects. By the third verse

of the song, these eff ects are shed

in favor of a bubbly guitar riff , un-

like the strident chords found on

other tracks. Lyrically, this song is

particularly interesting, mentioning

a “Rosalie” in the back of her lover’s

mind. Zutrau claims in “You’re the

Best” that the couple will be able to

“work out all the rest,” a promise that,

unfortunately, did not come true.

Th e album’s next track, “Move Me,”

actually begins with a similar style of

fi nger-picked electric guitar as found

in “You’re the Best,” a skill the band

chose to keep till the end of the al-

bum. Th e track is a challenge for her

signifi cant other to choose between

“saving” her or “moving” her—loving

her or letting her go.

“Body” is an anthem of self-doubt

that describes an attempt to find

solace in another person’s aff ection.

Th e painfully relatable sentiment is

engaging lyrically and instrumen-

tally. Th e album’s fi nal track, “Th ese

Days,” returns to the more wistful

tone of its fi rst songs. Welcoming a

swell of stringed instruments and

little other accompaniment, the

track fades out with a diminished

piano medley.

Proven by the exceptional craft-

ing of its fi rst full-length album, Wet

might just be the band to watch

in 2016. Because of its incredible

emotional draw, this is not the last

listeners will be hearing of Don’t You’s power-breakup songs.

Somewhere in a picturesque coastal town in the Carolinas lives a thriving community of good-looking guys with thick Southern drawls. Day in and day out, they use their hunky handyman capabilities and un-conditional love of furry animals to woo incredibly attractive

women. Or, at least that’s what all Nicholas Sparks novel-turned feature films want their fans to think. Almost always set in the South and containing the classic boy-meets-girl love affair, each new novel and its subsequent adaptation for the silver screen churned out by the revered ro-mance writer seems to be noth-ing but a slightly reconfigured version of its predecessor.

Despite the evident plot consistencies from one mushy romance movie to the next, the films bring throngs of senti-mental viewers flooding theaters with every Sparks release. Con-taining all of the aforementioned elements of the novelist’s typical drama-laden love stories in its premise, The Choice is perhaps the best example of the quintes-sential Sparks-inspired film.

That said, The Choice is also one of the worst movies to come out of Hollywood in a very long while.

A literal girl-next-door type, Gabby encounters her noisy neighbor when she angri ly marches the six yards separat-ing her front porch from Travis’. She demands that he turn of his terrible music. The two engage in a lackluster fight of flirty fool-ishness. They take turns lobbing minor insults at each other as Travis tries unsuccessfully (sur-prise!) to seduce Gabby.

Utterly dull and decidedly underwhelming, the movie plays out in an even more monotonous manner than one would expect. From the minute Travis (played by Benjamin Walker) first flashes his carefree, crooked smile at the overly studious Gabby Holland (Teresa Palmer), the audience knows that there is absolutely no way that the two will not eventu-ally end up together.

Anticipating the mind-numb-ing predictability and reckless overuse of stock scenes in a Sparks-based movie is automatic and almost integral to the view-ing experience. Moviegoers pay-ing for a ticket to a Sparks flick enter the theater having already moved past the realization that

there will likely be no “will they or won’t they” plot twist to keep them on the edge of their seats. The film lacks any divisive or convincing conflict between the two main characters that might potentially pose a prob-lem for their inevitably perfect relationship.

Another disappointing aspect to add to the film’s ever-growing laundry list of missteps is the ac-tors’ lack of onscreen chemistry. Despite their supposed undying romance being the story’s central conflict, lovebirds Gabby and Tom just don’t seem that into each other. The characters are vapid, and their interactions merely cringeworthy.

Simply stated, the one hour and 51-minute film is approxi-mately one hour and 49 minutes too long. Instead of a high-budget film adaptation of the novel, a two-minute summary would suffice. Perhaps better suited as a bedtime story—one that drags on long enough and contains few to no engrossing plot points—the film is a perfect remedy for insomnia.

True love stories ask how far the heart will go in the face of true love? The Choice raises is this: How far will film critics go to avoid the next Sparks film? LIONSGATE

THE CHOICEROSS KATZ

DISTRIBUTED BY LIONSGATE

RELEASEFEB. 5, 2016

OUR RATING

MUSIC

FILM

SINGLE REVIEWS BY SHRAVAN CHALLAPALLI

DIIV concluded 2015 with a handful of shows opening for early shoegaze pioneers Ride—drawing inquiry from Ride’s lead-singer, Andy Bell, as to the band’s pedal setup. DIIV was apparently worthy of inspection. Its single, “Is The Is Are,” coming off the album of the same name, is psychedelic rock at its fi nest.

DIIV“Is The Is Are”

When an artist becomes a generational fi xture, it’s easy to relegate his best work to history. The best he can do is rerelease alternative mixes in the growing market for nostalgia. By teaming up with Josh Homme and other contemporaries, Iggy Pop offers something a bit more inspired.

IGGY POP“Gardenia”

Fashion and art often meet in tight places, and it would be unusual to fi nd both in search of new talent. Primal Scream’s new single draws the power of synth-pop and the sort of whimsical coalescence that typifi es duets. Sky Ferreira brings an edge to the enterprise that justifi es the transition to pure pop mechanics.

PRIMAL SCREAM “When the Lights Get In”

MUSIC VIDEO

Concept albums are beautiful, wonderful beasts. Each one is a new experience, often an exploration of the mind, the human condition, or some similar theme. It is hard to pin down exactly what Saul Williams’ latest studio album is, but whatever the case may be, MartyrLoserKing is a work of haunting genius.

Saul Williams’ newest album

would be its quintessence. Th e use of synthesizers and distorted voices creates an incredibly unnerving feel for every song and a general tone of tension for the album itself.

MartyrLoserKing progresses for-ward with “Horn of the Clock-Bike,” a premier melding of classical music with electronic stylization. The eerie tone continues with “Ashes,” perhaps the most agitating song on the album. Over and over, Williams repeats, “Dancing on the corpse’s

ashes, dancing on the corpse’s ashes.” He quite masterfully creates high levels of unease in his listeners, which further serves the ideas he presents in the entirety of the con-cept album.

MartyrLoserKing is not without its own problems. Certain pieces of songs around the middle of the tracklist feel more like sound-mix-ing errors than thoughtful nuances. Williams’ lyrics could use some clarifi cation as well, as there are a number of occasions in which it is diffi cult to discern particular words. Still, despite its errors, the profes-sionalism of MartyrLoserKing carries it beyond any real criticism.

Perhaps the biggest problem that concept albums face—monotony—does not apply to MartyrLoserKing. Each track feels like its own special labor of love. Th ough they blend to-gether nearly seamlessly, every song from beginning to end has its own particular fl avor, and this is perhaps what drives Williams’ album to be the very best of the best.

Other standout tracks on Mar-tyrLoserKing include “All Coltrane Solos at Once,” “Burundi,” and “No Diff erent.” Particularly, “All Coltrane Solos At Once” serves Williams very FADER LABEL

MARTYRLOSERKINGSAUL WILLIAMSPRODUCED BYFADER LABEL

RELEASEJAN. 29, 2016

OUR RATING

MUSIC

well. Like all the other tracks, it cre-ates a very tense feeling, keeping listeners on their toes at all times. “All Coltrane Solos At Once” tran-sitions directly into “No Diff erent,” and is eventually rounded out by “Homes/Drones/Poems/Drums,” an extremely strong fi nish to a stel-lar set of songs. As the drums beat ominously and Williams chants the same lines over and over, it exudes a sense of panic and worry, almost connected to the visual of a tribal dance around a pit of fi re.

MartyrLoserKing, from begin-ning to end, is an absolute roller coaster, and any fans of the concept album style should absolutely make it a point to listen to Williams’ lat-est work.

Concept albums are inherently a risky venture—if the audience rejects the message, they reject the work as a whole. Saul Williams has made a massive gamble with his newest studio album, but it would seem as though his hard work has paid off . MartyrLoserKing is a mas-terpiece, worthy of being held in the highest regard, and despite its problems, artists everywhere would do well to emulate what Williams has created.

it happened “for a reason.”

Don’t You continues with “Don’t

Wanna Be Your Girl,” a heartfelt

explanation for ending a relation-

ship that originally appeared on the

band’s self-titled 2014 EP. Th e track

has over 17 million listens on Spotify,

has garnered nearly a million views

on YouTube, and has been covered by

pop artists like Troye Sivan. Th e next

track on the album looks to mimic

this success, and is no disappoint-

ment after the older track. “Weak”

is currently Don’t You’s best-seller

on iTunes, and marks a signifi cant

uptick in energy on the album. In one

line she claims that “If you’re leav-

ing / You’ll only take from me.” Th e

motivational pop vibe of this song

is a beautiful mask for the apparent

pain in the lyrics—the scar tissue

over what was an open wound.

“Island” follows with the vocals of

a Bon Iver cover and the accompani-

ment of a late-90s R&B track. Wet’s

constant juxtaposition of its R&B and

indie infl uences is an integral part of

its unique, pop-ish sound, which is

setting it apart from similar groups.

“All the Ways,” one of the album’s

highlights, follows “Island,” imme-

diately kicking into a vibrant drum

rhythm unlike any other song on the

album’s purposefully unpredictable

percussion set. Zutrau’s vocals on

the track are multiplied and layered

to create the appearance of a girl

band, an image that would not come

is an impressive mix of styles. It is grounded in electronica, with mix-tures of spoken word, rap, classical, and hard rock. Th e uniqueness of MartyrLoserKing makes it a standout work alone, but the album is so much more than a piece of innovation. Th e fi rst track, aptly titled “Groundwork,” sets the tone for the rest of Williams’ album. It is difficult to ascribe a genre to his songs, but if “musical horror” existed, “Groundwork” and the entirety of MartyrLoserKing

LEIGH CHANNELL

THE HEIGHTSThursday, January 17, 2014 B5

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$$ SPERM DONORS WANTED $$Earn up to $1,200/month and give the gift of family through Cal i fornia Cryobank’s donor program. Convenient Cambridge location. Apply online: SPERM-BANK.com.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, February 4, 2016CLASSIFIEDS B5

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Directions: The Sudoku is played over a 9x9 grid. In each row there are 9 slots, some of which are empty and need to be fi lled.Each row, column and 3x3 box should contain the numbers 1 to 9. You must follow these rules:· Number can appear only once in each row · Number can appear only once in each column · Number can appear only once in each 3x3 box· The number should appear only once on row, column or area.

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, February 4, 2016B6

The Eagles began cold on defense, allowing the Crimson to score two easy goals on Thatcher Demko. But in the final two periods, Casey Fitzgerald (not pictured) and Co. locked up the Crimson.SAVANNA KIEFER / HEIGHTS EDITOR | DREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

following the 2015 season—

Addazio did not offer any back

a scholarship this season. He

asserted in his press conference

that it was a mix of feeling con-

tent with his current core and

not finding the perfect man for

his system.

“What we didn’t want to do

was stack up a bunch of numbers

at that position,” Addazio said.

“I’d like to bring a big back.”

Because he believes he al-

ready has the necessary skill

players in the running game in

Jonathan Hilliman, Tyler Rouse,

and Myles Willis, Addazio and

his crew turned their attention

to rebuilding a passing game that

finished 125th out of 128 in yards

per game through the air in 2015

(111.2). A key component of that

is utilizing the tight end position

with freshman Korab Idrizi.

At 6-foot-3, 228 pounds, Idrizi

comes out of Bergen Catholic.

He set a school record for tight

ends with 30 catches for 432

yards despite missing a month

with a back injury.

Idrizi recently flipped from

Rutgers, likely because of Cam-

panile and his connection to

Idrizi’s alma mater. Along with

incoming freshman Ray Marten,

rising junior Tommy Sweeney,

rising sophomore Jake Burt, and

larger wide receivers in Chris

Garrison and Charlie Callinan

(whom Addazio describes as

“hybrids”), the program now is

much deeper at the position than

it has been in recent years.

And although the Eagles have

previously used blocking tight

ends, Addazio and tight ends

coach Frank Leonard stated a

desire to get the position more

involved in the offense.

“That’s a direction that we’re

heavily looking into right now,”

Addazio said. “That’s reflective

in our recruiting. And it’s a

direction I want to take advan-

tage of.”

Addazio also adds two three-

star wide receivers to the roster:

Kobay White and Christian Mc-

Stravick. White is an all-around

athlete who played both sides of

the ball in high school, as well as

basketball, and threatened sev-

eral Pennsylvania state records,

including receiving yards. Mc-

Stravick, a Strake Jesuit (Hous-

ton, Texas) graduate, is a key

recruit as Addazio continues his

national focus.

The Eagles will add two quar-

terbacks to the roster as well:

graduate transfer Patrick Towles

and freshman Anthony Brown,

both of whom are already on

campus as grayshirts. Brown, a

three star recruit from St. John

Vianney in Tinton Falls, N.J., has

been verbally committed since

May of last year and is the 11th-

ranked dual-threat quarterback

in the Class of 2016. This now

gives BC six quarterbacks on

the roster, joining the rehabbing

Darius Wade as well as last year’s

primary starters: Jeff Smith, Troy

Flutie, and John Fadule.

“ It ’s a b e aut i f u l th ing ,”

Addazio said on the prospect

of the impending quarterback

competition.

But what Addazio is most

proud of is the prospects he has

recruited on the offensive and

defensive line. Some of the play-

ers to focus on from this group

are freshman Bryce Morais and

graduate transfer Jimmy Lowery.

Morais comes from the same

Georgia high school (Grayson)

as Ole Miss star Robert Nkem-

diche and may be a candidate

for a redshirt. Lowery, a transfer

from Eastern Illinois, is viewed

by offensive line coach Justin

Frye as a player who could have

a big impact on the younger play-

ers this season.

Addazio insisted that these

are the areas that BC must put

the most effort into when re-

cruiting to emphasize its niche

as a “tough, physical football

team” that runs an old school,

power run attack as opposed to

a spread offense. Addazio would

rather concentrate on a game

focused on the lines rather than

a skill-skill game. And based

on the players he has brought

in, Addazio thinks his line has

the potential to be more than

just great.

“There’ll come a day in the

next two or three years when we

will have the most dominant [of-

fensive] line in the ACC,” Addazio

said. “In a couple of years, every-

one will be talking about the great

line at Boston College.”

Most recruiting sites aren’t

impressed with the haul Addazio

has brought in. Rivals ranks this

year’s class 72nd in the nation,

24/7 Sports at 77th, and SportsIllustrated at 70th, to name a few.

But Addazio dismissed the star

ranking system as a legitimate

way to measure recruits for this

program, given other factors,

such as facilities and academics.

Rather, Addazio has placed the

onus on himself and his staff to

develop the players that he already

has and build this young roster

from the ground up on the return

tour to legitimacy. And, in terms

of his whole recruiting process,

the Eagles are right where Addazio

believes they need to be.

“Now our roster is full ,”

Addazio said. “We’re young, but

it’s exciting young, because it’s

talented young. And now what

we just need to do is work like

heck to develop it.”

Recruits, from A1

FOOTBALL

MEN’S HOCKEY

percent of their opportunities.

The Crimson began the day with a 31.9

power-play percentage, second-best in the

nation—its kill, on the other hand, was at

an impressive 85.5 percent. But on Monday

evening, it was BC that made the most of

its chances, scoring on each of its first two

power plays while the Crimson came up

empty.

“We hadn’t been moving pucks too well,

and tonight we were just moving them quick,”

freshman Colin White said. “That’s what we’d

been working on in practice this week.”

BC dominated the flow of the game early

on, rattling off three quick shots in the di-

rection of the goal in the first minute. As

Harvard scrambled to clear the puck, its

defense left Casey Fitzgerald open in front of

the net. His brother, Ryan, found him just a

few seconds later, and Casey blasted it in on

the left side, giving him his third goal of the

season and BC a speedy 1-0 lead.

The Eagles’ defense continued to control

the pick for most of the period, holding Har-

vard without a shot for the first 10 minutes.

Unfortunately for Demko, this came on a

breakaway spring for Ryan Donato, who

had been in the right place at the right time

on a rebound that flew out from Harvard

goalie Merrick Madsen. Two BC defenders

raced neck-and-neck with Donato, but he

kept ahead and slipped one by Demko on

the right side.

Five minutes later, the Crimson took its

second shot on net and notched another goal.

And again, there wasn’t an easy chance at a

stop for Demko.

As Harvard forward Jimmy Vesey sprinted

down the ice, he was swallowed up by BC’s

defenders, causing him to lose the puck and

his footing. He toppled over and slid straight

into Demko, who lost his own stance as he

partially fell over the top of Vesey. Demko

lost his stick as he stood back up, but no

whistle had blown. Just a few seconds later,

Adam Baughman got the puck in the middle

of the ice and shot it straight under Demko’s

legs, where it trickled in for Baughman’s first

collegiate score.

But then that was it. Demko became an

impenetrable wall for the rest of the game,

stopping all 21 shots he faced after. He had

a few especially strong saves on the first of

Harvard’s two power play opportunities to-

ward the end of the first period.

Then in the second period, BC got back

on top.

BC capitalized on its first man advantage

in the second frame. Ian McCoshen—who

had been up to his usual strong enforcing

during the first period—fired a rocket from

just in front of the blue line. Madsen got in

front of it enough to knock it off to the side,

but the puck found Alex Tuch, who in turn

hit his open linemate Zach Sanford for an

open goal.

They weren’t done there. Captain Teddy

Doherty sold an interference call midway

through the period, giving BC its second 5-

on-4. This time, it was freshman Colin White

getting in on the scoring action, putting away

his team-leading 16th goal of the season.

With scores on both power plays, BC has

continued a recent trend of improvement

with the man advantage. Head coach Jerry

York credited Greg Brown after the game for

establishing the “no dust rule,” which is aimed

at preventing stagnation on power plays.

“We’re trying to go tape to tape to tape

without stick handling,” York said. “I think

that was a big change in our power play.”

The lead BC got from those two was all

it would need.

Austin Cangelosi was called for slashing

in the latter half of the third period, but the

Eagles successfully killed Harvard’s second,

and final, power play. This win gives BC

a spot in the Beanpot final, where it will

face the winner of the other first-round

game b etwe en B oston Univers i ty and

Northeastern.

“As we prepared for this tournament—

my 22nd Beanpot—of those, this is the most

balanced field of major players in college

hockey now,” York said. “We’re all on top

of our games.”

Boston College men’s hockey took on Harvard

University in a Beanpot semifi nal game on Feb. 1.

Each team was whistled for two penalties, but BC

managed to convert on both power play opportunities

and limit Harvard each time. It was a tight game, but

after 60 minutes of competitive hockey, BC claimed

a 3-2 victory to advance to its ninth Beanpot fi nal of

the last 11 tournaments.

Main Takeaways

Resiliency: Th e Eagles struck fi rst when Casey

Fitzgerald slipped a shot past Harvard’s Merrick

Madsen less than two minutes into the fi rst period.

BC didn’t celebrate for long, however, as the rest of

the fi rst period would be largely dominated by the

Crimson. Just under 10 minutes into the period,

Ryan Donato netted the equalizer on a breakaway.

Five minutes later, freshman Adam Baughman scored

his fi rst collegiate goal to give the Crimson a 2-1 lead

heading into the fi rst intermission.

But the Eagles showed their resilience in the

second period, coming out fi red up and ready to play.

BC took advantage of Harvard’s fi rst two penalties

of the game, scoring on both power plays to reclaim

the lead. In the third period, they bounced back from

a slashing call on Austin Cangelosi and killed the

penalty without any real danger to preserve their 3-2

lead. In the fi nal minutes of play, Harvard desperately

tried to even the score, launching shots at Demko and

keeping the pressure on. So far this season, BC has

had some shaky third periods. Th e team has erased

multiple-goal defi cits to win games. It has squandered

multiple-goal leads to lose games. Against Harvard,

the Eagles didn’t falter. Th ey put pressure on Madsen

and kept up the defensive intensity.

Winning the Special Teams Battle: Penalties

and power plays ended up determining the outcome

of the game. BC’s victory stems directly from its abil-

ity to take advantage of its own power plays while

killing Harvard’s.

Coming into the night, Harvard averaged an 85.5

percent kill rate and an impressive 31.9 percent power

play percentage. BC had an 86.1 percent kill rate and

converted on 19.6 percent of its power plays. Based

on these statistics, some might think Harvard would

score power play goals on the Eagles. Instead, the

Eagles won the special teams battle. Each team com-

mitted two penalties, but BC killed both of Harvard’s

power plays and scored on both of its own.

Harvard coach Ted Donato praised BC for its

special teams play.

“Th ey won the special teams game going two-for-

two on the power play,” he said. “Th ey did a good job

against our power play, which has been pretty suc-

cessful all year … I give BC a lot of credit for that.”

Side Notes

Van Kula Suited Up: BC’s backup goaltenders

haven’t been able to stay healthy this season. Concus-

sions and ligament injuries have limited the playing

time of Chris Birdsall, Alex Joyce, and Ian Milosz.

Roughly half an hour before the start of the game,

college hockey journalist Scott McLaughlin tweeted

that BC’s backup goalie would be Chuck Van Kula,

a student manager.

Van Kula, a freshman, played high school hockey

at St. Joseph’s Prep in Pennsylvania before becoming

a manager of the varsity hockey team at BC. He did

suit up for the game, and Jerry York said that he was

ready to go in if Demko sustained an injury.

“It’s either him or me,” York joked.

Crowd Control: As the minutes trickled down

toward the start of the fi rst period, waves of Eagles

fans made their way to their seats. Harvard’s student

section remained almost completely empty. By the

time the puck dropped, the BC faithful were loud

and rowdy, while Harvard had only a handful of

fans on its side. Th e lack of a strong fan presence is

typical for Harvard, especially for the early game of

the Beanpot, and the imbalance between the student

sections was notable all night. Th roughout the game,

Eagles fans made their presence known. Th ey often

broke out into choruses of “Let’s go Eagles” and “We

are—BC!”

During breaks in play, the fans cheered raucously

when people in BC gear were shown on the Jumbo-

tron, and TD Garden was fi lled with booing when

Harvard fans got screen time. Several times through-

out the night, the Harvard marching band chanted

“Let’s go Harvard!” Whenever this happened, the BC

student section immediately drowned them out with

a louder chorus of “Let’s go Eagles!” After BC’s three

goals, its fans’ cheering fi lled the entire Garden with

noise. Th e overwhelming support from the student

section created an atmosphere similar to Kelley Rink,

and this Beanpot semifi nal game almost felt like a true

home game for the Eagles.

Men’s Beanpot, from B8

Goals shots saves PIMS pp GOALS

3

2

33

23

21

30

2-FOR-4c. fITZGERALD

sANFORD

wHITE

dONATO

BAUGHMAN 2-FOR-4

2-FOR-2

0-FOR-2

RECAP

THE HEIGHTSThursday, February 4, 2016 B7

Newton, MA 11/09

Boston, Ma 11/111-

scoreboardNORTH ANDOVER, MA 1/26

BCMERR

41

NEWKIRK 1 G 1 AMANU 1 G

M. HOCKEY SOUTH BEND, IN 1/29 W.BASKETBALL ATLANTA, GA 1/31 w. hockey

w. BASKETBALL SYRACUSE, NY 1/27BC CUSE

HUGHES 21 PTSBUTLER 22 PTS

M. BASKETBALL CHAPEL HILL, NC 1/30 m. BasketballM. hockey bOSTON, MA 2/16162

Boston, ma 2/2

Charlottesville, va 2/3

W. HOCKEYBCND

40

WOOD 2 APETERSON 35 SVS

BCGT

5662

FASOULA 23 PTSWHITESIDE 17 PTS

BC HARV

80

KELLER 2 G 1 ALAING 26 SVS

BC UVA

4761

CARTER 2-FOR-10BROGDON 27 PTS

HARVBC

23

MADSEN 30 SVSWHITE GWG

BCUNC

6289

CARTER 19 PTSJOHNSON 17 PTS

Sports Editor

MICHAEL SULLIVAN

RILEY OVEREND

Assoc. Sports Editor

ANNABEL STEELE

Asst. Sports Editor

They say defense wins championships (unless

this is Boston College football, that is). And as

great as Denver’s defense is, and as much as

they followed the “New York Giants Key to Suc-

cess Over the New England Patriots (TM),” we

cannot forget how dominant Carolina’s defense

is as well. Let’s all pretend like we’re sneez-

ing and dab it up, and scream “LUUUUUKE”

in celebration of BC’s greatest player ever.

Denver ’s defense is good, but the Pan-

thers have bulldozed over elite defenses all

year. Cam Newton and the Carolina offense

will have their troubles , and a turnover or

two in the biggest game of their careers is

inevitable. But with Luke Kuechly and Josh

Norman opposite Peyton Manning on of-

fense, the Panthers should have no prob-

lem keeping the Broncos under 20 points .

I know, I know. Picking against the Panthers is

probably seen as insane. But I just can’t ignore Peyton

Manning. Th is is his last game in the NFL, and it feels

like a part of my childhood is dying. (Sorry, Patriots

fans. I’m an unapologetic Manning supporter.) But I

feel an upset coming. It won’t be a high scoring game,

but it’ll be exciting. Th e tough Broncos defense will

stop Cam Newton in his tracks, so don’t expect a lot

of dabbing. Peyton will have a fi nal game worthy of

his storied career. Maybe next year, Luke Kuechly!

Prediction:CAR 24, DEN 14

Prediction:CAR 27, DEN 16

Prediction:DEN 17, CAR 14

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Emmert, from B8

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

mert and his gang of lawyers

fought it with all of their

resources. Millions of dollars

in legal fees went to fighting

the athletes that make college

sports a multi-billion dollar

industry.

To be fair, Emmert has

made some progress advocat-

ing for the rights of student-

athletes. He recently praised

athlete activism and has made

efforts to increase the voices of

players in the decision-making

process. He even laughed off

a recent story where a former

college athlete sold shirts with

Emmert’s face on them to

illustrate the partiality of the

NCAA’s current policies.

Unfortunately, the truth is

that Marcus Lattimore is not

laughing.

Emmert’s inaction on the

subject is costing players hard-

earned money that they could

be earning from their name,

images, and likenesses, afford-

ing them a hint of financial

security in case of injury.

Rather than pursue a solu-

tion to the problem, though,

Emmert has devoted most of

his time busting schools for

minor recruiting violations and

looking for a legal means to

keep student-athletes unpaid.

The same corrupt sys-

tem that Emmert is trying to

reform is also the one that

enabled his rise to power in

the first place. He condemns

school officials for failing to

blow the whistle on rule viola-

tions, but has yet to address

his own cover-ups of the past.

I don’t think Emmert is a bad

person. But I don’t think he

has changed since his days at

Montana State, UConn, and

LSU, either.

To answer Pelto’s question

from earlier: Yes, he does know

what’s going on, and he’s not

doing anything about it. Only

now, it’s the matter of paying

college athletes and changing

century-old rules to reflect a

game that is evolving because

of big money and even higher

stakes.

In the next five years,

Emmert needs to prove that

he is really working for the

college athletes that he’s sup-

posed to be representing, and

that means implementing an

Olympic-style model that gives

players the liberty to profit off

their brand. If not, both his

tenure as president and the

decision to renew his contract

will be considered failures.

BC vs. UVA, from B8

Dennis Clifford gets stripped by two UVA players while attempting a layup.STEVE HELBER / AP PHOTO

ens brought BC within eight

points, the Cavaliers rattled off

an extended 34-10 run over the

next 15 minutes, running the

score to 61-36 and effectively

ending the contest. In its usual

fashion, UVA methodically ran

its offense in the half court, out-

executing the Eagles.

Multiple times, BC defend-

ers simply got lost in a maze of

screens, allowing open jump-

ers.

Additionally, they struggled

to keep UVA off of the free

throw line. Despite his early

struggles, Gill still finished with

a double-double—10 points and

11 rebounds—and attempted

10 free throws. His size proved

too much for Clifford and Idy

Diallo, both of whom were in

foul trouble almost the entire

game. In addition to defense,

these free throws allowed UVA

to win a game in which only

Brogdon made more than two

field goals.

Defensively, BC managed

only three baskets in the second

half before the Cavaliers pulled

their regulars at the last media

timeout. They did attempt 16

free throws in the second half,

but many of them came once the

game was out of hand.

For once, the bad offensive

performance didn’t stem from

an abundance of turnovers. The

team only had 11 turnovers, two

fewer than Virginia. The real is-

sue for the Eagles was their shot

selection. They relied on far too

many 3-point attempts, shoot-

ing 26 and making just eight. As

a result, they shot 26.5 percent

from the floor, the best mark for

UVA’s defense in ACC play.

BC seemed to try to rep-

licate last year ’s game plan

against the Cavaliers, with Er-

vins Meznieks filling the role

of Patrick Heckmann. After Eli

Carter was trapped coming off

of ball screens, he would toss it

back to Meznieks, looking for

the Latvian freshman to make a

play. As he has in all games dur-

ing conference play, Meznieks

struggled mightily, shooting just

1-for-9 from the floor. He failed

to take advantage of the defense

as it rotated back to him and

often didn’t effectively move the

ball to teammates.

Carter, who finished with

seven points on just 2-for-10

shooting, was more deferential

than usual in the early going,

taking just two shots in the first

half. He made the right bas-

ketball play when faced with a

double team, but his teammates

were unable to reap the benefits.

On a team devoid of secondary

options, even a seemingly advan-

tageous offensive setup failed to

produce points.

Much of the credit for this

failure goes to UVA’s stellar de-

fense, which held its opponent

to 47 points for the second con-

secutive game. Rotations behind

the ball were crisp, with Tony

Bennett’s squad quickly cutting

off any lane that appeared to be

open. The team forced the Eagles

to keep the ball on the perimeter,

in a position where they really

couldn’t do much damage.

Amid the blowout, BC closed

the game on an 11-0 run, trim-

ming the margin of defeat from

25 to 14, a slightly more re-

spectable number. The run

also pleased anyone who bet on

BC for this game, as the Eagles

entered the night as 23.5 point

underdogs.

In this brutal stretch of the

schedule, Vegas might be the Ea-

gles’ only hope for a victory.

marked Katie Burt’s 10th shutout

of the season.

The Eagles took control of

the game as soon as the buzzer

sounded for the start of the

first period, seamlessly cycling

the puck up to Harvard’s zone.

BC’s defensive coverage kept

the game in Harvard’s zone, and

any play the Crimson had in the

Eagles’ zone was kept away from

the front of the net. About four

minutes into the period, Meghan

Grieves took a shot at Masch-

meyer out from the blue line.

A rebound made its way to Tori

Sullivan, who tipped the puck

just to the right of Maschmeyer

17 seconds later.

Then, the floodgates opened,

and Maschmeyer was not enough

to hold the Eagles back.

A little more than a minute

later, a shot from the same spot

on the blue line was released

from Kaliya Johnson’s stick .

Maschmeyer couldn’t see the

play because defenders were

screening her, and the puck

slipped past to give the Eagles

a two-goal lead. Sullivan then

struck again at 8:09 into the pe-

riod, when Maschmeyer let the

puck slide across the front of the

crease and into the net.

While it would take eight

more minutes for BC to score

again, the Eagles’ defense was

relentless. It won several battles

from behind the blue line and

kept Harvard from the center

lane in front of the goal. The

Eagles’ offensive unit smoothly

passed to each other, and it

seemed as though where one

player left off, another would

take her place.

“It ’s definitely reassuring

knowing we have Katie [Burt]

back there, but at the same time

I think we’re looking to play all

three zones,” Carpenter said af-

ter the game. “So, you know, we

have her back there but I think

our defense, Megan [Keller]

leading the way, plays a big role

in playing all three zones.”

More than halfway through

the first, Harvard almost had a

breakaway starting at the Eagles’

blue line. It was soon taken away

by Megan Keller, who would

then turn around and score her

first of the game. BC then closed

out the period with a goal from

Carpenter with about one min-

ute left.

The second period began,

but with a slight difference. In

a game predicted to be domi-

nated by goaltending talent,

Har vard’s Maschmeyer was

replaced by back-up goalie

Brianna Laing, sister of profes-

sional women’s hockey player

Denna Laing. Her replacement

would remain for the rest of

the game, but Laing in no way

could stop the damage already

inflicted by the Eagles.

Harvard gained more trac-

tion in the second by aggres-

sively attempting to get the puck

on net. Laing stepped up to the

plate, keeping the game as close

as it could be. Five minutes

into the period, however, Dana

Trivigno skated down the left

side of the ice unguarded and

passed to Lexi Bender in front

of the net. Bender then poked

the puck past Laing, bringing

the Eagles up 6-0. Keller went

to score her second goal at 8:20

into the period, sending a shot

from out wide past the glove

side of Laing. A touchdown and

an extra point.

Almost halfway into the sec-

ond, Harvard received the first

penalty of the game—Nikki Fri-

esen for body checking. While

the Crimson defense rallied

to kill the penalty, its offense

could not generate energy on the

other end of the ice. The Eagles

kept the Crimson away from

the front of the net, giving Burt

easy saves.

The third period was much

quieter for both teams. BC’s of-

fense had a less rigorous attack,

but its defense continued to

prevent any opportunities from

Harvard. Carpenter brought the

final score of the game to 8-0

halfway into the period, giving

her 124 career goals. That breaks

Brian Gionta’s record for goals

by a BC player, male or female.

But in the end, another re-

cord for Carpenter didn’t really

matter, because she got what she

(and the team) really wanted—a

win and revenge on the Crim-

son.

Women’s Beanpot, from B8

After losing to Harvard last year in the Beanpot final and national semifinal, the Eagles took revenge by routing the Crimson at Walter Brown.JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Scoreboard....................................................................................................B7Football................................................................................................................B6

SPORTSB8

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2016

INSIDESPORTSTHIS ISSUE

In 2005, documents surfaced in an

investigation of a UConn construc-

tion scandal—a project ridden with

corruption that cost the university

$100 million—that found three high-

ranking administrators were aware of

the mismanagement and kept their

mouths shut. Two of the officials

resigned. The other is Mark Emmert,

now president of the NCAA.

Wherever Emmert goes, contro-

versy seems to follow. As a member

of Montana State’s senior manage-

ment team in 1993, he was involved

in a case of academic fraud, but the

NCAA didn’t rule on the university’s

“lack of institutional control” until

after Emmert had left two years later.

At UConn, Emmert’s own notes

revealed he knew about the project’s

issues, yet he has repeatedly denied

knowledge of a financial snafu. But,

again, before an official investigation

could release its findings, Emmert

was long gone—this time to LSU.

His tenure at the SEC powerhouse

as chancellor wasn’t as contentious,

although allegations of systemic

academic fraud resulted in an NCAA

investigation and five minor viola-

tions. His success at LSU helped pro-

mote him to the role of president at

the University of Washington, before

accepting the top job in college sports

in 2010. Despite some positive contri-

butions in his positions predating his

NCAA presidency, it’s hard to ignore

the odd pattern that tailed Emmert

as he climbed the ladder of collegiate

sports.

“When you Google ‘Emmert,’ you

do sort of see this pattern, which

is he’s a great front man, but there

always seems to be these problems

with the people around him,”Jonathan

Pelto, who helped lead the UConn in-

vestigation, told USA Today. “Does he

trust bad people? Is the problem that

he doesn’t know what’s going on? Is

the problem that he does know what’s

going on and doesn’t do anything

about it?”

Valid questions like these make the

NCAA’s decision to renew Emmert’s

contract as president through 2020 all

the more puzzling.

In his five years as head of the or-

ganization, Emmert has made strides

in curbing academic fraud, but has

chosen to maintain the status quo on

the front of paying student-athletes.

The NCAA’s stance on the issue has

remained rigid, despite the grossly

enormous TV deals that exceed hun-

dreds of millions of dollars annually.

The enormous revenue of the

NCAA, estimated at $1 billion, has

also translated into a growing salary

for the head honcho of America’s

most beloved non-profit. In 2013,

Emmert’s salary eclipsed $1.8 million,

an 8 percent increase from his 2012

figures. That’s like a CEO openly

exploiting undocumented workers

for million-dollar profits without any

backlash whatsoever.

And when college athletes pro-

posed a fair compromise that would

allow them to profit off of their

names, images, and likenesses, Em-

Perhaps more than any other team

in college basketball, the University of

Virginia (18-4, 7-3 Atlantic Coast) has

become known for its grit and intensity

over the last few years. The Cavaliers

play hard for the full 40 minutes, beat-

ing you methodically and grinding you

down with multiple efforts. And as Matt

Milon found out, UVA players continue

to hustle hard, even in blowouts.

Deep reserve Justice Bartley’s thun-

derous block with less than a minute

remaining dropped the freshman guard

to the floor and punctuated UVA’s 61-

47 victory over Boston College men’s

basketball (7-15, 0-9) on Wednesday

night.

Sammy Barnes-Thompkins led the

way for BC with a career-high 14 points.

He drilled four 3-pointers and was the

team’s only player in double figures.

The game lacked flow for the entire

first half, with UVA entering the locker

room with a 29-20 advantage. Both

teams struggled to penetrate deep into

the paint, with a Dennis Clifford dunk

with just over three minutes left before

halftime serving as the game’s first

points in the paint.

Barnes-Thompkins did virtually all

of his damage in the first, scoring nine

consecutive points for the Eagles on a

trio of 3-pointers, the last of which he

banked in from several feet beyond the

arc. His mini outburst allowed BC to

close within 23-18, the closest that it

would get for the rest of the night.

In his run, Barnes-Thompkins hit

threes running off of a screen, as a

spot-up shooter and off the dribble,

displaying his full skill set. Still, the

Eagles shot just 28 percent from the

floor in the half.

They managed to stay in the game

by making life hard on UVA’s offense.

Forward Anthony Gill, the Cavaliers’

top post option, struggled during

stretches of the first half as the Eagles

doubled him, forcing him into difficult

cross court passes. They closed off most

of the driving lanes and kept UVA off

of the offensive boards for the first 18

minutes of the game.

If it weren’t for Malcolm Brogdon,

the Cavaliers would’ve been in serious

trouble. Luckily, UVA’s quietly efficient

senior leader took charge, scoring 17

of his game-high 27 points in the first

half.

He finished a perfect 5-for-5 from

3-point range and 8-for-8 from the free

throw line.

In the second half, UVA finally

pulled away from the Eagles. After a

pair of free throws from Garland Ow-

See BC vs. UVA, B7

Editor’s Picks: Who Takes the ’Ship?Luke Kuechly is the only Eagle who will take the field in

Santa Clara, but who do our editors think will win?....B7

BOSTON — The groundhog may have

predicted an early start to spring, but as

Boston College women’s hockey showed Feb.

2, revenge is a dish best served cold.

In the championship game of the 2015

Women’s Beanpot, Harvard University

defeated the Eagles, ending their 29-game

undefeated streak and denying them the

title of Beanpot champions. Harvard goalie

Emerance Maschmeyer only let in two goals,

one from Haley Skarupa and another by

Andie Anastos. BC’s offense was stifled by

the Crimson defense, only having a total of

32 shots on net for the entire game.

Captain Alex Carpenter was as well—she

had a stunning total of three shots. The

Crimson, led by Maschmeyer, later defeated

the Eagles in the NCAA Women’s Hockey

semifinals. The game that knocked BC out of

the running for the National Championship

was decided in the third period. BC outshot

Harvard in the game, but its offense could

not figure out Harvard’s star goaltender.

This year, the Eagles eliminated any

doubt caused by last year’s game and were

prepared for the Crimson.

“They were on us right off the bat and we

weren’t ready for them,” Harvard head coach

Katey Stone said.

BC (28-0-0, 19-0-0 Hockey East) ad-

vanced to the championship game of the

Women’s Beanpot with a first-round final

score of 8-0 against Harvard (12-9-1, 9-6-1

Eastern College Athletic). This game also

See Emmert, B7

BOSTON — Thatcher Demko is a top-

notch goaltender. Ask anyone—especially

one of the eight teams that he has shutout

this season, or the nearly 6,000 people out

of 40,000 voters so far who have chosen

him as their pick for this year’s Hobey

Baker Award, the sport’s highest honor.

Of course, the fan vote is only a small

part of the overall selection process. But it

says a lot that the nation’s hardcore college

hockey fans think a goalie is worthy of an

award generally reserved for forwards.

Even on a night when he wasn’t at his

best, he held Harvard to just two goals—

both of which came at odd points—and

his offense picked him up, returning from

a first-period deficit and a loss in the first

round of the Beanpot last year to take a 3-2

win for Boston College men’s hockey. But

even the man who often carries this team

couldn’t do it alone.

Coming into the first game of the Bean-

pot—a rematch from last year’s consola-

tion round, which the Eagles won 3-2—BC

(18-4-4, 10-1-4 Hockey East) led Harvard

(12-5-3, 8-3-3 Eastern Collegiate Athletic)

in nearly every basic team statistic but one:

power-play percentage.

BC has maintained a remarkable per-

centage for its kill, entering the game lead-

ing Hockey East at 86.1 percent along with

eight short-handed goals. With an extra

man on the ice, the Eagles haven’t been

nearly as dominant, succeeding in just 19.6

See Women’s Beanpot, B7

See Men’s Beanpot, B6

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

SAVANNA KIEFER / HEIGHTS EDITOR

MEN’S BASKETBALL

See Emmert, B7

3 EAGLES CRIMSON2

8 EAGLES CRIMSON0