The Heights, April 8, 2024

25 percent of Boston’s young people plan to leave the city in the next five years. How are Boston College students approaching post-grad decision making?

college students. Still, 25 percent of Boston’s young people plan to leave the city in the next five years.

For Miles Kelly, BC ’22, the decision to leave Boston boils down to the city’s undergraduate population. Kelly currently lives in Washington, D.C.,where he moved after graduation.

“I think [Boston is] an amazing, amazing college town, I’d say the best in the U.S.,” Kelly said. “But my perception was that it was going to be a little too young post-grad.”

The cost of living in Boston also deters young people from staying, Olivia Gooch,

BC's dance teams spend months preparing their ALC Showdown performances. Masti, UPrising Dance Crew, and Fuego del Corazón, last year's award-winning teams, share how they are preparing for the event.

See A8

people leaving Boston, Rachel Greenberg, director of Boston College’s Career Center, said 78 percent of BC’s class of 2022 remained in the Northeast after graduation.

See Post-grad, A5

young

Heckelman, Garrigan Talk Intersectionality

outlined a seven-point platform that they said encompasses the entire student experience—from improving academic advising to promoting safety amid a slew of off-campus break-ins. “It encapsulates, hopefully, we think, every area of student life here at BC, starting with formative education as BC is seeking to become the national leader in formative education,” Heckelman said. “It’s the academic experience, but it’s also outside of the classroom.”

By Genevieve morriSon Assoc.

Newton Editor

Rick Lipof, candidate for the Middlesex 12th District House seat and 28-year Newton City Council member, wants voters to know that he’s a team player.

“Whatever I want to do, I know it's going to be taken even further by the collaboration of other legislators,” Lipof said.

Lipof, who’s sat on Newton City Council since 1996, was raised in Newton by an alderman and a rabbi, spending his time across the area that falls under the 12th district, which includes wards 5, 6, 7, and 8 in Newton, as well as a part of Brookline.

“Whatever I want to do, I know it's going to be taken even further by the collaboration of other legislators."

See Lipof, A4

NEWS

BC Unlikely to Consider Divestment, Senator Shares

The primary goal of Boston College’s investment portfolio is to grow the University’s endowment, not to champion social or political causes like fossil fuel divestment, Lindsay Meier, environmental and sustainability policy coordinator, shared at the UGBC Senate meeting on Tuesday night. “I talked to one of the investment officers a few weeks ago,” Meier, MCAS ’26, said. “His point of view was that it’s not about political or social views, it’s about increasing the endowment as much as possible so that admissions can use it for financial aid, and then the faculty can use it. So, I think right now, they’re not super open to changing that aspect.”

Each year, the University seeks to allocate approximately 4 to 6 percent of its $3.7 billion endowment toward financial aid, endowed faculty chairs, student formation, faculty research and scholarship, and campus maintenance, according to Meier.

Investment officers seek to offset these expenses with annual returns from a diverse investment portfolio, she said.

“The idea is that they have to make up the 4 to 6 percent that they spend every year in investments that they make,” Meier said. “So they’re never losing money—they’re gaining while still spending.”

The problem with trying to assess the size of BC’s investments in fossil fuels, Meier said, lies in the lack of transparency surrounding BC’s

endowment. Endowment investing is inherently competitive, and BC values privacy as it seeks to outperform peer universities and charitable trusts, she said.

“We can’t really know any of what they invest in because that’s how investing works,” Meier said. “You don’t want other people to know what you’re doing. It’s kind of a competition between schools.”

Examining other universities’ investment reports, however, can provide a rough estimate, Meier added. As an example, she cited Cornell University, which allocated roughly 4.2 percent of its endowment toward fossil fuel–related investments, according to the most recent publicly available data.

“So the guess is that [BC’s fossil fuel investment] is pretty small, but we don’t really know for sure,” Meier said.

Multiple senators acknowledged that passing a resolution would be a symbolic gesture, carrying little weight with administrators. Even still, Colleen Blascik, first-generation student representative and MCAS ’27, said doing so would continue a long tradition of BC students speaking out in favor of fossil-fuel divestment.

“Even if we get a statement or something out there, even if there’s no follow-up action, the fact that there’s history and there is documentation to show the students want this for the future,” Blascik said.

Because the endowment plays a crucial role in providing financial support for students and faculty, Meier said the Senate would need to

offer alternative investment strategies if they wanted to challenge fossil fuel investments.

“If they’re not increasing the endowment, it’s going to affect things like financial aid, faculty, and campus maintenance, so we kind of have to think about everything that it’s going to entail if we do ask them to divest,” Meier said.

H Edwards, QLC policy coordinator and MCAS ’26, said the University could consider more sustainable investments so that students do not have to choose between environmental priorities and increased tuition.

“I feel like it’s a little strange to have this growing fear of, ‘Do I have to choose between the safety of the environment in my world or my tuition raising,’” Edwards said. “I feel like BC has the ability to ensure our

financial safety while also divesting.”

Student senator Jonathan Shea, MCAS ’25, argued against issuing a unilateral statement without first gathering student input, noting that the student body holds a diverse range of opinions regarding divestment.

“There was a very wide range of beliefs, especially on investment, like ideas and policies that go way outside of this room,” Shea said. “I just think that it wouldn’t be fair to go out and say, ‘This is what the student body was interested in.’”

Later in the meeting, Varun Singh, student senator and MCAS ’26, recapped a recent meeting with Beth Emery, director of BC Dining, about expanding Late Night dining hours. According to Singh, BC Dining

used to offer Late Night dining on weekends, but repeated student conduct offenses made Emery reluctant to revive it.

“It was a lot of drunk students on Friday and Saturday night,” Singh said. “It was a human resources nightmare—they had to have a police detail just to make sure things didn’t go wrong, so they’re not too keen on doing that again.” Singh said that Emery was receptive to the idea of expanding hours at Addie’s until 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. on weeknights, as long as BC Dining could meet staffing needs.

“Beth said that she’s gonna talk to management [at the Rat] to see why they’re so successful in getting people to work there longer, and hopefully that can result in longer hours at Addie’s,” Singh said. n

Next UGBC President, VP Discuss Plans for University

Town Hall, from A1

Thursday’s event, sponsored and moderated by the Elections Committee, has traditionally taken the form of a debate in years past, providing presidential hopefuls with a forum to lay out their visions and make a final pitch to student voters.

But with the result of the election a foregone conclusion—this year marks the first time in Heights archival history that a UGBC presidential ticket has run unopposed—the format was changed to a town hallstyle event, a decision that the Elections Committee made in conjunction with Heckelman and Garrigan.

Without the added workload of managing a campaign, Heckelman and Garrigan said they are in a good position to begin laying the groundwork for next year.

“Kind of a funny year this year with no opponent, but we see it as a great opportunity to kind of smoothly transition and work with our outgoing leadership team, get some new people in, and really take it by storm over the summer,” Heckelman said.

Originally planned for last Thursday, this year’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) debate was canceled, but the topic of DEI nonetheless permeated the moderator’s questions during the town hall.

Garrigan, current UGBC Senate intersectionality committee chair, said her role has taught her that students’ identities are not monolithic. Both UGBC and University policies should reflect that, Heckelman added.

“No one is just one identity,” Heckelman said. “Everyone has kind of a constellation of different things and different things that make them special.”

Above all, Heckelman said that she aims to work collaboratively with established campus groups that advocate for under-

represented students—such as the AHANA Caucus and culture clubs—to listen to student needs before making decisions.

“Let’s go to culture club meetings,” Heckelman said. “Let’s bring some food with us. Let’s be there. Let’s expand AHANA Caucus. To have these initiatives that we’re really going to students and asking, ‘Well, what do you need?’”

When asked what they thought was the biggest challenge that students with disabilities face, both Heckelman and Garrigan acknowledged the lack of accessibility on Upper Campus, but said progress has been slow since plans for a pavilion were abandoned by administrators.

“We see it as a great opportunity to kind of smoothly transition and work with our outgoing leadership team.”

“I know there was a proposal a few years ago to build a pavilion [on Upper Campus],” Garrigan said. “However, obviously, we’ve seen that those plans are not gonna be happening in the short term.”

A more practical solution, Garrigan said, lies in working collaboratively with transportation services officials to add a bus stop on Upper Campus to serve students with disabilities as well as those grappling with short-term injuries. Heckelman also said she plans to prioritize student experiences and resources at the Connors Family Learning Center.

“When it comes to finals season, and those rooms where people can take tests fill up, it becomes fairly challenging for those students who are entitled to the resource,” Heckelman said.

Without the efforts of the Queer Leadership Council (QLC), there would be almost nothing in the way of programming or support for LGBTQ+ students on campus, Heckelman said.

“[QLC Chair Aidan Seguin] said to me a couple of times in our conversations before student affairs and DEI meetings that if it weren’t for QLC, a lot of the queer resources on this campus would just vanish,” Heckelman said.

To ease the burden on QLC and better serve LGBTQ+ students, the ticket said they would try to work directly with individual administrators and offices to institutionalize support.

“While there isn’t a lot of institutional support … I think there’s a lot of administrators and faculty and staff and people

at the University who are supportive and who lead with love to people from all identity backgrounds, and I think that we can really leverage that as we work to make BC more inclusive and welcoming,” Heckelman said.

“I think there’s a lot of administrators and faculty and staff and people at the University who are supportive.”

Nevertheless, Heckelman abstained from promises made by previous candidates, acknowledging that past efforts to garner LGBTQ+ support on a University-wide scale—such as calls for a standalone LGBTQ+ resource center—have fallen on deaf ears

with administrators.

Garrigan, who served as Montserrat student representative last year, said that while the University offers generous financial aid, there are still many hidden costs that can accumulate—especially for the 2,000plus Montserrat students.

“Socioeconomic concerns are honestly one of the largest barriers to education, whether it be getting your textbooks, getting laundry detergent to get your laundry done, getting food on the table,” Garrigan said.

Garrigan said she hopes to find new ways to reduce financial barriers for students while also continuing ongoing UGBC initiatives, such as the Montserrat laundry subsidy that the Senate expanded earlier this year.

“We’re working with our Montserrat representative as well as the Montserrat office to understand how we scale that program to support students,” Garrigan said. “All the student feedback that came was ‘this was immensely helpful.’” n

By reeTu AgnihoTri Heights Staff

Coming to Boston College, Sophia Barrett hoped to find a more welcoming environment where she could navigate her Asian identity. Barrett said she found just that through the many student organizations comprising BC’s Asian Caucus. “What’s remarkable about these groups is not just their celebrations or specific cultures, but the welcoming and inclusive communities they cultivate,” Barrett, MCAS ’24, said.

Students and faculty gathered in Gasson 100 on Tuesday evening to kick off Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in a ceremony filled with performing arts, cultural offerings, and heartfelt speeches.

Barrett delivered a speech about her adoration for the Asian community she found at BC.

“There are many things that

I’ve come to love and admire about the Asian community,” Barrett said. “From the kindness and mentorship that the community shows to each other to the endless laughs and breakthroughs that I’ve been provided.”

Various joint events within the BC Asian Caucus allow Asian students to not only learn about their own cultures, but other Asian cultures as well. This creates unity among different organizations and allows Asian students to embrace their identities, Barrett said.

Before finding her place at BC, Alyssa Santos, LSEHD ’25, said she found it difficult to embrace her identity as someone of mixed race. She read a personal poem about her experience as an Asian American.

“There is simply not enough of me to part into the three directions I wish to take,” Santos said. “And the choice of one means that I must turn my back on two others.”

While grappling with her identity was initially difficult, she soon found a community of people who taught her to embrace herself, she shared. “Rooting myself into this earth, I make my stance,” Santos read from her poem. “First and last. I decide that I am all or nothing. As I finally look at myself and see more than just me, but the pieces of you that I love too.”

The ceremony also included student vocal musings, a traditional Chinese lion dance, and a performance from BC’s K-pop Dance Club.

Wan Sonya Tang, director of the Asian American Studies Program, spoke about how she has often struggled to celebrate her cultural heritage amid stereotypes and prejudice.

“Embracing an identity that comes from a set of stereotypes and marks you as a minority is not always easy,” Tang said. “But it is much easier when you do so

in the company of others.”

Tang stressed the importance of finding a community of people who share the same cultural heritage or have experienced marginalization. If nothing else, finding any community that shows appreciation and respect can be incredibly helpful, she said.

“My identity as an Asian American woman who teaches and writes about Spain has been happiest when it has allowed me to connect with others,” Tang said. “To sit down with a strong community that sees through stereotypes and shares the burden when things are hard.” n

Edible Books Festival Inspires Pun-Filled Creations

By kATe cugno Heights Staff

On a cold and dreary Wednesday afternoon, O’Neill Library’s third floor lobby was filled with creativity and confection. Most students entering the building were not aware they were about to stumble upon an edible books festival.

The primary criteria for the festival, “Titles with Taste,” was that entries be related to a piece of written word and “mostly edible,”

according to Scott Britton, organizer of the event and associate University librarian for access, administration, and diversity.

“Yeah, baking skills aren’t required at all,” Britton said. “It’s just assembling different things together.”

The edible books festival began at Boston College in 2013, though this year marks its first return to campus since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ashlyn Stewart, digital specialist at BC Libraries, said her

winning entry, “Around the World in Seventy-Two Dates,” took inspiration from the book Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, by Nellie Bly.

Using a large styrofoam ball as a globe, Stewart pierced toothpicks holding dates across the surface of the sphere. An array of crackers adorned the base of her culinary sculpture.

“[I feel] pretty vindicated because it was harder than I thought it would be,” Stewart said.

She was awarded a BC-maroon apron for her appetizing artistry.

Britton entered the contest as well, submitting a “Heart of Darkness” cake, inspired by Joseph Conrad’s novella of the same name. Kristina Walker, CSOM ’27, said the cake was not only a feat of literary finesse, but tasty as well.

His other entry, “The Wizard of Utz,” included a variety pack of individually packaged Utz potato chips bags with glittery black witch hats plastered over the “Little Utz Girl.”

“It’s really just getting people engaged in another aspect of loving books and the written word,” Britton said.

Students gathered around the

tables to sample sweets and peruse puns such as “Plum Loving,” based on the Janet Evanovich novel of the same name, and “Butter Battle Bar,” inspired by Dr. Seuss’ The Butter Battle Book When it came time for festival attendees to finally eat the edible entries, Britton warned them to be careful. “Use caution, because a lot of toothpicks are holding these things together,” Britton said. Fifteen creatives entered this year’s competition. Though the majority

were members of the library’s staff, one intrepid team of undergraduates dared to enter “Crumbling Hierarchy,” a giant rice krispie treat covered in several layers of fondant, inspired by Pierce Brown’s Red Rising.

“If we’re being honest, we didn’t know about this until we came into the library to study, but we thought that this was a very creative initiative,” Mia Lagunas, MCAS ’27, said. “I feel like it definitely sparked an interest and we’ll be keeping [it] in mind for next year.” n

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Kicks Off T-Pain Tickets Impacted by Third-Party Vendor Glitch

first ticketing issue related to a third-party vendor. Last February, multiple students experienced fraudulent credit card activity after purchasing tickets through the University’s third party-vendor, Audience View.

When Jordan Paul, MCAS ’26, tried to secure her ticket to the T-Pain concert, she accidentally received two, she said.

“The site was just being weird and wasn’t loading and kept crashing, and I thought that I didn’t get one,” Paul said. “But I accidentally got two because it wouldn’t let me remove them from my cart, and then I got two. I got the confirmations for them.”

After being notified that some students received multiple tickets, BC reached out to students to resolve the issue, according to Byrnes.

“Upon Boston College being notified, we worked with the vendor to rectify the issue, notified impacted students, and ensured only one ticket per student would remain active,” Byrnes said in her statement.

Paul said she knew many students who had issues acquiring tickets for the event.

“I know a lot of people that didn’t get one or had a bad time getting one, which is kind of weird because it’s literally in a parking lot,” Paul said.

“I know a lot of people that didn’t get one or had a bad time getting one, which is kind of weird because it’s literally in a parking lot.”

Trieste also said the website has also crashed in the past, which makes the ticketing process frustrating for students.

“I feel like the site never works and just always takes so long, and is just really frustrating,” Trieste said.

Ticket sales went live again by 2 p.m., and the concert was officially sold out around 4:45 p.m., according to Byrnes.

Ian Lee, MCAS ’26, said he was able to get his ticket that afternoon.

“I know in the morning they released it, and I heard it was full—or it was sold out—and then my friend told me to check their website again to see if they released some more, and I checked, and I

got some,” Lee said.

In the future, Paul suggested BC implement a new system to stagger entry to the ticket portal and improve the site’s functionality.

“I think make it just so if you’re a student, you can just get a ticket,” Paul said. “I’m not sure how to do that because I know it crashes online, but maybe something where it could go in waves based off of your grade or your last name.” n

SHANE SHEBEST / HEIGHTS STAFF Students and faculty delivered speeches at a ceremony celebrating APAHM on Tuesday.

SHANE SHEBEST / HEIGHTS STAFF

SHANE SHEBEST / HEIGHTS STAFF

Students gathered around tables in O’Neill and sampled edible entries on Wednesday.

The festival returned to campus for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

NEWTON

Ward 8 Newton City Councilor Rick Lipof Emphasizes His Commitment to Collaboration

Lipof, from A1

On the city council, Lipof’s business career allowed him to balance the city’s overall economic well-being with individual interests, according to Ward 2 Councilor-at-Large Susan Albright.

“He could speak to the owners of businesses, speak to … the councilors, each in their own language and their own way of thinking [to] show the benefits of something,” Albright said.

Over his career, Lipof has served as Newton City Council vice president for four years, as well as chair of the Land Use Committee, Public Safety and Transportation (PST) Committee, and the Real Property Reuse Committee.

Lipof said his work on the city council has demonstrated an ability to create change in Newton, such as his creation of the Newton Traffic Council.

Lipof said the Newton Traffic Council, which he formed with former city council colleague Brooke Lipsitt, grants the council the ability to focus on small issues facing the city, while still leaving time and energy for the bigger ones.

“We identified that the PST Committee was not able to look at macro issues because we were dealing with stop signs and smaller—just as important—but smaller items that bogged us down,” Lipof said. “We created a brand new com-

mittee, which stands today, called the Traffic Council.”

As chair of the Land Use Committee, Lipof also led a project for the Riverside Green Line station in Newton that brought housing and commercial development close to the MBTA line.

“It took years, but we have approved [development] for two towers of lab and office and over 600 units of housing and restaurants and retail right there at the train station—very proud of that,” Lipof said.

Lipof also sits on the executive board at Temple Beth Avodah. He said that in lieu of the rising number of hate incidents against Jews, he would do more to prevent antisemitism at the state level.

“Our schools need funding to meet for programs to combat hate and bias of all kind,” Lipof said. “Maybe early on, we need to talk about this. We should direct dollars to law enforcement agencies to track and stop hate groups that are on the rise.”

Ward 4 Councilor-at-Large

Josh Krintzman emphasized that while Lipof embraces political change, he takes a careful approach to it.

“Rick has never been opposed to change, or modifying the way things are done,” Krintzman said. “He’s never been set in his ways or regimented like that, but he’s also careful to understand why things

work the way they do before looking to change.”

Albright also highlighted Lipof’s ability to foster cooperation and compromise in government.

“He has progressive values, but he brings them to the front and he uses them in a sort of a moderate way, so that he doesn’t scare off progressives and he doesn’t scare off conservatives,” Albright said.

Lipof’s career, however, hasn’t come without controversy. Last December, former city councilor Brenda Noel said she received “unwanted” text messages from Lipof, resulting in the council discussing the creation of an ethics code for councilors.

Lipof said he hopes voters won’t make their choice for the state election based on his unsolicited text message.

“It was stupid,” Lipof said. “And I wish I didn’t press send because, you know, you never know what’s going to be sent out to the world, but I hope I’m not judged by the one text in my life, but by my 22 years of public service to my community.”

Lipof has raised $50,000 for his campaign thus far and will be knocking on doors in Newton and Brookline to meet his constituents face to face.

“I’m going to be spending six hours a day from now until September 3 knocking on doors and

introducing myself to people and listening and learning,” Lipof said.

Lipof joined the race for the state representative seat for Massachusetts 12th district after Ruth Balser stepped down. She held the seat for 26 years.

Current Ward 5 City Councilor Bill Humphrey and former Newton City Councilor Greg Schwartz are also running for the seat.

According to Lipof, his experience is what makes him the strongest candidate running.

“I believe that the choice in this election is about sending the most prepared person to have the best chance to be effective for our communities,” Lipof said. n

By Genevieve Morrison Assoc. Newton Editor

The Newton School Committee (NSC) approved a new food service vendor for Newton Public Schools (NPS) in a unanimous vote on Monday.

NSC Approves New School Food Vendor Public Facilities Committee Talks Geothermal Energy Pilot

and co-executive director of HEET, explained that the circulation of water within these underground loops allows for heat energy to be taken from inside buildings and stored underground.

“You can store, for instance, heat in the ground in the summer, until you need it in the winter,” Schulman said. “And when the gas utilities do this … they move entire streets to decarbonize heating and cooling, but we’re moving from this ‘building by building transition’ to whole streets at a time.”

Geothermal energy is a cheaper alternative because fewer customers are paying for more infrastructure, according to Schulman.

“Essentially, in our project, we have a series of four fields, which are just pipes going in the ground about 600 to 700 feet, and they create loops through which water is circulated,” Luz said. “Instead of each individual homeowner having their own geothermal system that connects to their building, we’re creating this network system where

According

HEET’s website, Eversource

its intention to pilot three geothermal pilots based on HEET’s networked geothermal concept back in 2020. The results of the pilot projects will serve as examples of how to replace gas with renewable heating and cooling through sharedloop geothermal.

Audrey Schulman, co-founder

Luz also explained that heat pumps allow heat to be pulled from building to building so that the energy is being used in the most productive way.

“You could send that [energy] to homes that are on the network,” Luz said. “If it wasn’t networked, that kind of energy exchange between buildings on the loop, in addition to pulling it from the ground … can’t really happen.”

Eversource chose Framingham for its program because it was searching for a community that had a lot of diversity in the types of pre-existing heating fuels with a mix of customer loads.

Framingham also supports soil that is especially conducive to this underground work, according to Luz.

“The mastic rock that Framingham has … depth [down] to bedrock,” Luz said. “The closer you are to that [bedrock], the more economical it is because it’s harder to drill through dirt than it is to go through rock with the equipment that they use.”

Schulman said networked geothermal is a promising alternative to fossil fuel and that HEET continues to develop and progress in implementing this technology.

“We have a research team in national labs and a whole bunch of others who will be creating integrated open-database normalized data,” Schulman said. “You need everybody doing their due diligence, and by having an open database, everybody can sort of check information and can learn from it as quickly as possible.”

Schulman expressed her hope that as the technology improves and becomes more cost-effective, geothermal can become a reality beyond just the pilot program communities.

“Each install becomes better and better and cheaper to install and functions more efficiently,” Schulman said.

The pilot project is set to finish construction in Framingham sometime in the late summer, according to Luz.

Following the discussion, Newton’s Public Facilities Committee decided to hold off the discussion about implementing geothermal energy until more data was available from the project. n

“We’ve got somebody who is excited to partner with us and talked about the priorities that are critical,” said Amy Mistrot, NPS director of business operations.

The committee approved Chartwells Schools Dining Services as the district’s new food service management company following the end of its five-year contract with Whitsons Culinary Group.

Mistrot said of the four vendors Newton considered, Chartwells best matched the district’s priorities in food service, which included handson management and rigorous staff training.

“You must be in the schools and you must train the staff,” Mistrot said. “We are only as good as our weakest school, we are only as good as our weakest service worker.”

Some school buildings have older kitchen facilities than others, but Newton’s food services are working to ensure consistent quality of food, Mistrot said.

“We’ve done some work in the last year to replace a lot of our old equipment,” Mistrot said. “We’ve also bought freezers for all of our elementary schools to be able to have food on hand and take some of the urgency out of food delivery each day.”

NPS’ new grant to purchase blast chillers—a refrigerator that quickly lowers the temperature of food—for all the elementary school buildings will also help food services standardize high-quality food, according to Mistrot.

“It’s to purchase blast chillers to put in each of the three newer elementary school kitchens and then we’re going to employ teams … to create meals, blast-chill them, and create a new level of freshness,” Mistrot said.

NSC member Amy Davenport recommended the district make note of whether students at the high school level eat at the school cafeterias more often with the new vendor.

“I’d be curious to see with both increased quality and support towards new district initiatives, whether students vote with their feet, so I’d love to get a glimpse of that in the future,” Davenport said.

Chartwells has designated a position for promoting any new food and sustainability initiatives to families, which could prompt more students to take advantage of the better food, according to Mistrot.

“[Chartwells will be] sharing it out to our community of parents so they know what’s happening in the schools and build some confidence about what their kids are eating,” Mistrot said.

NSC Vice Chair Emily Prenner said she looks forward to working with Chartwells for Newton’s schools.

“I’m very much excited to get to know them and see the changes that they enact,” Prenner said. n

M AGAZINE

Should I Stay Or Should I Go: Some Grads Stay in Boston, Others Depart for New Cities

Post-Grad, from A1

“Living in the city is expensive, so the cost is kind of a downside, but I feel like you have that in a lot of different cities,” Gooch said.

Though there is a trend of young people leaving Boston, Rachel Greenberg, director of Boston College’s Career Center, said 78 percent of BC’s Class of 2022 remained in the Northeast after graduation.

“The most popular location for students to look for jobs immediately after graduation is, by far, the Northeast,” Greenberg wrote in a statement to The Heights “Within that, Massachusetts (the Boston area) and New York are most popular.

Not Done With Boston Yet

Despite perceiving Boston as mainly a college town, Kelly said Southie has a particularly strong post-grad culture.

“There’s a pretty big split between being in college and your first couple years of working,” Kelly said. “I’d heard that a lot of people end up down in Southie, and it’s sort of a smaller area and population of post-grads.”

Gooch has lived in Boston since graduation but said her initial post-grad job search wasn’t guided entirely by location.

“It mostly depended on where I got jobs,” Gooch said. “I was mostly interested in looking in either New York or Boston.”

While many graduates are looking for a change, Caroline Bald, BC ’23, said living in Southie allows her to maintain a connection to her BC roots.

“I think a big pro, especially for BC students, is that there’s a strong sense of community, so a lot of my friends ended up living here post-grad too,” Bald said. “It’s easy to go back to BC for games or to catch up with people in younger grades or meet with professors that you’ve had a strong connection with.”

Living near many of her fellow BC alumni in Southie, Gooch said she enjoys having her friends nearby.

“We can all walk to each other's apartments,” Gooch said. “It's nice having that college group all sticking around and being close.”

But aside from connections

or community, some alumni choose to stay in Boston to make up for time lost and experiences missed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“For us, it was a little bit different because we were on the tail-end of COVID,” Gooch said.

“So all of my friends stayed in Boston after, and now they’re kind of starting to shift and go more towards different cities, but most of them definitely stuck around.”

Though Rozie Moylan, BC ’21, left Boston, she noticed most of the Class of 2021 stuck around.

“People weren’t quite done with Boston yet,” Moylan said. “Versus some years, I think you get at least a taste of that, so some people are ready to leave.”

New Experiences in New Places (But Mostly Just in NYC)

Though Moylan moved to New York City after graduation, she said the decision was largely influenced by where she was able to find work, not location.

“It wasn't so much the location I chose as much as the job,” Moylan said. “New York ended up being my only option, but I was

students consider when deciding where to go after they graduate, but I’d say that at the top of that list for BC students are where their friends and family are located and where there are opportunities for the career field they want to enter,” Greenberg wrote.

City, Moylan said she made an effort to branch out from the BC community, which ended up being the best part of leaving Boston post-grad.

“Even moving to New York, I easily could have gotten a roommate who went to Boston College, but I decided to do a random

connections BC offers, Greenberg said it is easier for students to get local jobs after graduating.

really open locationally.”

But aside from job opportunities, Greenberg said one of the main factors students consider in their post-grad plans is the location of their friends and family.

“There are many factors that

Dora Capobianco, BC ’23, said she chose to live in New York City because she knew there would be a strong network of family, friends, and former BC classmates.

“My family is a part of it, and also like all my friends I went to high school with, they’re kind of in New York as well,” Capobianco said. “And a lot of people obviously from BC were moving to New York. So I knew I was going to have a really good network.”

In June, Kelly is planning to make the jump from D.C. to New York City—a decision partially influenced by his desire to be near BC friends again, he said.

“I wouldn’t have changed my decision at all, DC was great,” Kelly said. “It just started to feel a little small and repetitive, and I was ready to switch it up again and reunite with some college and home friends up in New York.”

Though there is a large community of BC graduates in New York City, Capobianco said living in New York offers more new experiences than living in Boston does.

“I’ve heard from people I know that live in Boston, like it is very much just an extension of BC, going out with the same exact people that you went out with in college,” Capobianco said. “Personally, I really liked the fact that New York isn’t an extension of college.”

When moving to New York

roommate finder because I wanted to be able to branch out and make other friends,” Moylan said.

After a year in New York, Moylan moved to San Diego. She said she didn’t align with the work-centric, urban lifestyle and wanted to live somewhere with a more laid-back culture.

“The way of life and emphasis put on your personal life versus work out here, especially when I’m in finance, is amazing,” Moylan said. “Compared to New York where I felt like I just had to be in the office to be in the office sometimes.”

In general, Moylan said she was grateful to have left Boston and made experiences in new cities.

“What I really loved was being able to meet new people and people outside of who I was friends with in college once I moved,” Moylan said.

Current BC Students: Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Ella Sirakovsky, MCAS ’24, plans on moving to New York City after graduating this May.

“I was prioritizing New York City and San Diego, just based on where my friends were gonna be next year, my family, and where I thought I had the most opportunity,” Sirakovsky said. Because

“BC has a vast alumni network in the Boston area and many local companies and organizations know the value of a Boston College degree,” Greenberg said in her statement. “Additionally, the Career Center offers many opportunities for employers and alums to come to campus and connect with students.”

While many BC grads have opted to stay in Boston in years past, Sirakovsky said most of her friends are planning on leaving the area after graduation.

“I thought I was gonna stay in Boston up until this year, just because all my friends who graduated previously stayed in Boston, but most of my friends that are in my grade, graduating this year, were moving outside Boston,” Sirakovsky said. “I didn’t really want to be here by myself.”

Sirakovsky added that the many job opportunities in New York encourage BC students to move there.

“I feel like maybe the trend is just because a lot of people were able to get internships [in New York] there last year, they got return offers—there’s just so much opportunity in that city,” Sirakovsky said.

Though she is still looking for a job, Sophie Larbalestier, MCAS ’24, said she is ready to leave Boston.

“I think that I’m wanting something with great culture, great restaurants, fun going out, places I have friends, places I’m comfortable in,” Larbalestier said. “I’m also excited to explore other regions, like I don’t really need to be in Boston for another few years.”

Larbalestier is currently looking for jobs in New York City, Los Angeles, and London. She said she got her fix of the Boston experience during her four years at BC.

“After four years, I’m kind of ready to spread my wings—as the saying goes—and explore somewhere new,” Larbalestier said. “I have my favorite restaurants, I have my favorite bars, my favorite breakfast spots, all the things, my favorite museums, but, I’m kind of ready to explore a new area.”

As a city with over 50 colleges and universities, Larbalestier said Boston is characterized by the undergraduate experience. For that reason, she said she’s ready to try somewhere new.

“I’ve done Boston, and I love Boston, but it’s also kind of fun to keep Boston to my college four years,” Larbalestier said. n

GRAPHIC BY PARKER LEAF/ HEIGHTS EDITOR

GRAPHIC BY SPENCER STEPPE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Wang’s Lab Provides Insight Into Ocean Chemistry

By AThenA Vinch Heights Staff

When a cargo ship carrying fertilizer sank into the Red Sea on March 2, reporters sought out expert insight from none other than Xingchen Wang, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Boston College.

“It was carrying 21,000 tons of fertilizer,” Wang said. “That’s a nutrient enrichment experiment here in the ocean. The same mechanism happened eight million years ago and dumped nutrients into the ocean.”

Wang seeks to understand the ocean’s current and past biogeochemical cycles through the Wang Stable Isotope Biochemistry Lab, which he leads at BC.

“My interest spans the entire range of Earth history, nutrient cycling, and exploring the ocean and how it affects the climate system,” Wang said.

The lab specifically examines the isotopic composition of natural samples collected from oceans at two facilities in Devlin Hall and 245 Beacon St.

Wang said the lab’s technology makes it unique—the Devlin facility is a “clean lab,” specifically designed with HEPA filters and water filtration systems to minimize contaminants.

“It’s clean air, clean water, and then that’s how we make very good measurements about the ocean,” Wang said.

Through experiments performed in the Center for Isotope Geochemistry, the goal of the lab is to analyze nitrogen in minuscule quantities.

The center houses an isotope ratio mass spectrometer, an instrument capable of performing analysis on liquid or solid samples. While liquids are aerosolized to be examined, solids samples need to be broken down and diffused.

“There’s a very high power laser and the laser can just blast a solid particle and kind of blast out particles, and those particles get swept up into a gas stream,” said Andrew Lonero, assistant director for the Center for Isotope Geochemistry.

The ability to analyze solid samples is particularly useful for Wang’s lab research, which inspects coral and fossils from the ocean.

“Then we can say something about nitrogen cycling or nutrient cycling,” Wang said. “It’s connected to the climate system. More nutrients encourage more phytoplankton growth, and then that will increase so-called ocean productivity that can increase the uptake of CO2 in the atmosphere into the ocean.”

In 2020, Wang co-authored a research article centered around his work and the role of the Southern

Ocean in moderating carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

“During the Ice Age, you could increase the phytoplankton growth in that region and then the more phytoplankton growth means more carbon uptake from the atmosphere and more storage of CO2 in the deep ocean, and as a result, lower CO2 in the atmosphere,” Wang said. “That was the hypothesis proposed 40, 30 years ago.”

Wang and other researchers worked to prove this hypothesis by gathering coral samples from the region and dating them through isotope measurements. Their research discovered phytoplankton growth was more efficient about 20,000 years ago.

“The nutrient status or the future uptake of the carbon in the Southern Ocean area is also going to influence the remaining CO2 concentration in the atmosphere,” Wang said.

The lab is currently researching ocean dead zones, which are areas in which the water contains little oxygen, Wang said.

“These dead zones pretty much didn’t exist until like eight million years ago, and the reason this didn’t exist eight million years ago is because there was less nutrients in this area, or in the global ocean in general,” Wang said. “Less nutrients in the ocean means less phytoplankton productivity. Less phytoplankton

Wang

activity means less oxygen consumption. So the nutrient cycling is also closely tracking to the oceans’ oxygen content.”

But while this transition eight million years ago occurred naturally, Wang said the fertilizer recently released by the cargo ship in the Red Sea could have significant ecosystem implications.

“You will cause phytoplankton growth because algae grows and then there’s a lot of corals in the area that people are concerned about because corals don’t like algae blooms,” Wang said. “One message I was trying to convey to the reporter is if we could salvage the boat before the fertilizer leaks out, we could still avoid ecosystem disaster.”

Six PhD students also currently work at the lab with Wang, pursuing their own research interests involv-

ing oceans, waterways, and nutrient cycles. Many of them have also been able to travel for their research.

Heather Donnelly, a third-year PhD student, researches nitrogen cycling in coral and how humans have altered nitrogen cycling. Donnelly’s research has taken her to the Gulf of Mexico to collect samples.

“It was a five-day long cruise aboard the research vessel or RV pelican,” Donnelly said. “We take these big like CTD—which is conductivity temperature-depth—this big giant thing with a bunch of tubes on it. They throw it down to the bottom of the ocean. They get the depth and temperature from each place that we go to.”

Read the rest of this story at www.bcheights.com

The Future of Studying: Sophomores Create Synopto

By

According to Eamon Coffey and Max Pintchouk, all it took to win the 2023 Penn Blockchain Conference Hackathon was a week of coding and a generous supply of energy drinks.

“The idea was born after four Red Bulls on a Saturday,” Pintchouk, CSOM ’26, said.

For several hours last February, the then-freshmen brainstormed ideas for the Penn Hackathon, part of the University of Pennsylvania’s annual blockchain conference to promote student-led, crypto-based innovation.

“We were just discussing ideas, and we started to think of the things we hate doing most, and we all came to the agreement that we all suck at studying,” Pintchouk said. “I’ve never really met someone who confidently says, ‘Oh, I’m really good at studying and I don’t have any issues with it.’”

So, they crafted the blueprint for their award-winning application, Synopto—a study tool that enables students to master a subject through emphasis on strict schedules and rewards for consistency.

“To put it in short, Synopto is a study app that not only promotes memorization and helps you study for a test, but also really enforces your understanding of a topic,” Pintchouk said.

Coffey, MCAS ’26, said that while

he and Pintchouk initially heard about the hackathon through a club on campus, they pursued the competition independently.

“We didn’t go with the club officially,” Coffey said. “They were just like, ‘There’s this cool thing that you guys should check out.’”

Despite their limited coding experience at the time, Coffey and Pintchouk decided to enter.

“We heard about this competition and, at this point, we’d coded for maybe four months collectively,” Pintchouk said. “We were like, ‘What if we just go and win?’”

After the judges released last year’s theme, “Real World Utility,” Pintchouk called Michael Muzafarov, a friend from home, to enter the competition with them. The three stumbled through several bad ideas before reaching a good one, Pintchouk said.

“Once we got onto a call and just started yelling at each other—that’s when something good came out,” Pintchouk said.

As they commiserated about their poor studying habits, the idea for Synopto hit them.

“We were like, ‘Why don’t we make this third party that will get me off Instagram reels and do all the work for me?’” Coffey said.

Unlike applications like Quizlet, Synopto aims to help students study within an extended time frame and

prevent them from cramming at the last minute, according to Coffey.

He and Pintchouk said they wanted to create an app that could promote studying over long periods of time without relying purely on student discipline—or lack thereof.

“If you learn something over a period of time, you’re going to retain it better,” Pintchouk said. “However, there’s currently no platform online that really forces you to do such a thing.”

He added that they took inspiration from Opal, an app that blocks notifications and limits users’ screen time.

“They’ve done unbelievably well for how simple the concept is,” Pintchouk said. “We want to take that concept and apply it to a bit of a more niche context: studying.”

With an idea now formulated, Coffey and Pintchouk scrambled to code the application within a week.

“We did not do anything except code,” Pintchouk said. “I remember we were in the Williams basement and people would look at us funny because we wouldn’t leave.”

The weekend of the competition, the three freshmen drove to Penn with a lot of math coded, but very little crypto.

“Those three nights that we were there, we did nothing but learn how to code smart contracts,” Pintchouk said. “I remember we sat at a Buffalo Wild Wings for maybe six hours—like, I’ve never been to a restaurant for that long

in my life. It torments me to this day.”

Pintchouk also admitted that during Hackathon week, day-to-day schoolwork took a backseat.

“So many assignments missed, so many emails sent … it was hectic,” Pintchouk said. “What’s really cool is that most professors really do understand that these types of things do come up.”

After their makeshift coding marathon at Buffalo Wild Wings, it was time to present.

“We show up to this auditorium at the Penn Museum, and all the different teams are scattered all over the auditorium,” Coffey said. “They went one by one, team by team, just calling them up into this room behind the stage. Then you went in and all the judges were just sitting in a row.”

A week’s worth of blood, sweat, and code all culminated in a mere four-minute-long presentation, Pintchouk said. Operating within such a limited window, the Synopto team had to delegate their time efficiently.

“The time included us presenting and the judges asking us questions,” Coffey said. “So, we knew that if we presented too much and they didn’t get enough time to ask us questions that we wouldn’t be able to elaborate on things they were unsure about.”

Coffey and Pintchouk said their strategy paid off, and they each walked away with $200 Amazon gift cards.

Though they were excited about the reward, Coffey and Pintchouk emphasized that the priority was always to help fellow students.

“At the end of the day, I feel like we’re getting a little bit more than money out of it,” Pintchouk said. “We didn’t really go there expecting to win money—that was not our goal.”

So, rather than simply pocketing the gift cards and flaunting their accolades on LinkedIn, Coffey and Pintchouk decided to continue developing Synopto.

“We weren’t supposed to win,” Pintchouk said. “We’d never coded, we didn’t make something so spectacular technologically, and our blockchain stuff was pretty obsolete. The idea, however, was super coherent. So we thought about it and we decided, ‘I think they actually liked it.’”

Maira Samary, undergraduate program director for the computer science department, encouraged Pintchouk to continue developing the app through an independent study last spring.

“I really think that they have a high chance of becoming something big,”

Samary said.

From there, Coffey and Pintchouk contacted friends, venture capitalists, and professors for feedback on their original pitch. After reframing and refining the app several times through, Synopto’s code is no longer based in blockchain and is unrecognizable from its prototype, they said.

“I don’t even know where that code is anymore,” Pintchouk said.

But building an application as fulltime college students hasn’t been easy, Coffey and Pintchouk both said.

“When we finished the Hackathon and decided to keep working on it, we decided to make the project architecturally sound,” Pintchouk said. “Every time we build something, it’s usually paired with double the time spent researching and planning before the actual coding.”

As a student juggling rigorous classes, a job, and a start-up, Pintchouk said sharpening his time-management skills and maintaining a positive attitude is essential

“Everything kind of flows together in computer science—every concept builds on one another,” Pintchouk said.

“So I can’t really say it’s made my academic life harder. It’s also fun.”

Although he said he enjoys the work, Pintchouk added that he and Coffey’s mutual lack of time is frustrating because it continuously delays Synopto’s release.

“So we hoped for September 23, and then we hoped for February 24,” Pintchouk said. “If we were to have designated time on a paid schedule to make this app right now, it would be done next week.”

While Synopto is slated to officially launch by the end of 2024, Coffey and Pintchouk said they are not sure when students will be able to access it on the App Store. Either way, before its release, Coffey and Pintchouk said they hope to squeeze in a few more features and enhance the user experience.

“We’re planning to add an entire game ecosystem to it,” Pintchouk said.

“In short, it’s going to be fun.”

Samary, who worked in the computer science industry for over a decade, said she truly believes these two sophomores are going far.

“You know, they are amazing guys who are very creative and very capable,” Samary said. “I joke with Max, I say, ‘When you get back, you have to pay me a very good dinner at a very fancy place.’” n

PHOTO COURTESY OF XINGCHEN WANG

KATe nuechTerlein Heights Staff

Synopto

PHOTO COURTESY OF EAMON COFFEY

seeks to understand the ocean’s current and past biogeochemical cycles.

OPINIONS

Emcee Duo Available

One of my good friends, Thomas, and I have a running joke that before we graduate, we must emcee at a campus production. The joke began during sophomore year after we attended our friend’s dance show and determined the show’s emcees delivered a less-thanstellar performance.

In between dazzling dance numbers, the emcees awkwardly shuffled on stage, read off their phones like a kid being forced to read a letter from the Corinthians at family mass, and then shuffled back behind the curtain before the dancers reclaimed the stage. Surely, surely we could do better, we thought. What’s life without a little pizzazz? A little risk?

As more time passed and more performances were attended, we only became more convinced that we’d make great emcees. At first, we had our sights set on a huge debut like Showdown, but we figured we should probably leave that to the people who actually help organize the competition (selfless, I know).

But with unwavering conviction, we continued to believe in our ability to absolutely crush it as an emcee duo. “We’re so personable! And funny! And we love to talk! What could be better than the opportunity to grandstand for one-minute intervals before introducing our amazing classmates?” And so the joke continued to grow.

Of course, part of the joke is that we sound like a group of guys that one day declares, “Bro,

we should start a podcast!” In the past three (and a half) years, we’ve spent way too much time creating ridiculous hypothetical skits and drafting material for when we finally make our big break. At one point, we even considered creating flyers to offer our services, sporting all the inexperience and overconfidence of freshly licensed high schoolers driving their parent’s car.

Still, there is a real-life component to our gilded emcee dreams. During my senior year of high school, I was asked to co-emcee a dance show. Feeling bad that only one other person had volunteered, I agreed. Ironically, in high school, I spent a lot of time overthinking every word I said and struggling to find even a shred of self-confidence in the person I was becoming. I really couldn’t think of anything I’d rather do less than emcee in front of a crowd of people.

When the performance day finally came I was a ball of nerves, and right as I was about to take the stage, I was informed that my co-emcee had bailed at the last minute. So here I was, mic-ed up, with all these dance teams waiting for me to find the courage to help the show go on.

I stepped out in front of the crowd and froze. The notes in my hand shook, and the entire audience of parents, uninterested siblings, and teachers stared back at me. If you’ve ever had to give a speech, present a project, or speak publicly in any way, you know that when you’re up there, and it’s total silence, it’s anything but silence in your head. It’s this highpitched buzzing noise that keeps getting louder and louder until you either pass out or start talking. I chose the latter.

I figured just about anything had to be better than nothing, so I ditched the notes, introduced myself, and then got rolling. Turns out, I have what some like to call “the gift of gab” (or yap, for those chronically online), and when you’re trying to kill time in a semi-entertaining way, the gab rules all.

The

Once I got over the initial stage fright I had a total blast—in fact, I probably had more fun than anyone in that auditorium that night. At one point, I had to stay up longer than anticipated so I started doing the Macarena and encouraging those in the crowd to join me for a “wedding classic.” Honestly, I couldn’t tell you if anyone in the audience even bothered to participate—I was too busy jumping around the stage and swiveling my hips. All I knew was that I finally had proof of the confidence I was hiding within me.

To be transparent, emceeing is much more difficult than it may seem, but isn’t that what life is all about? Yes, when I first stepped on that stage, I wanted to disappear, but if I hadn’t pushed myself, I never would have realized how capable of a public speaker I am. Even your worst nightmares can become your most wonderful memories.

If I’m being completely honest, sometimes I still get nervous before an important presentation or speech. Still, that night was a crucial moment for me—a lesson in both self-confidence and humility.

Unfortunately, to the dismay of many future fans, my emcee career began and ended on the same night. Stardom is a fickle thing, and with our senior year winding down, I don’t think it was ever in the cards for Thomas and I to take the world by storm in the least memorable part of any performance. But that’s okay! Oftentimes, your next challenge isn’t one that you’re actively looking forward to or hanging up flyers in search of. It’s the things that you really, really don’t want to do, where you stand to learn the most.

The above column holding true, if you do have an emcee opportunity for two somewhat qualified and extremely enthusiastic students, I implore you to reach out to my email listed below.

‘College Success’ Needs Reimagining

The measurement of intelligence should be based on one’s abilities to problem solve and think strategically about the future. Those two skills cannot be recognized in a GPA or standardized test score—they’re developed through practice and focus on work ethic. Institutions looking for students with high cognitive capacities need to break through the classic barriers of standardized metrics and adopt new ways of evaluating candidates and institutions.

During the pandemic, controversy surrounding standardized assessments sparked when many high school students were unable to take the SAT and ACT because of COVID-19 protocols. Those affected were given leniency when applying to colleges because of the unprecedented events that the pandemic brought on. Schools like Boston College offered a test-optional application, allowing students to submit their applications without any scores on standardized tests.

By removing test scores as a major factor in admissions, applicants got more room to highlight other qualifications like extracurriculars and sports. This change exposed the benefits of holistically evaluating young learners. Try viewing a university within the same

parameters as a firm or large corporation—the connections between hiring staff and admitting students are clear. The National Association of Colleges and Employers reported that the number of employers requiring a minimum GPA dropped by 50 percent between 2019 and 2023. Employers around the world are searching for new metrics to understand how capable a candidate is.

Only 13 percent of U.S. adults and 11 percent of C-level executives believe that college graduates are fully prepared for work. Statistics reveal that the average GPA has jumped dramatically from the 1990s to now, increasing the likelihood that a candidate will be qualified by this standard. This means that the quantity of students with high-level GPA qualifications exceeds the amount of available positions for a company looking to hire.

Jamie Dimon, one of the world’s most successful bankers, even criticizes universities today for measuring their success through graduation rate rather than the quality of jobs their graduates receive after their time at that specific institution. Colleges must remodel their admissions models by considering all factors of student potential. I am not arguing that the traditional standardized tests and grading scales should be thrown out, but it would be extremely beneficial for academic institutions to advertise metrics besides the classic ones like acceptance rates. That metric can be easily manipulated and has been by universities and colleges to earn a higher status in the universal rankings of colleges.

If you evaluate a school like Northeastern, its low acceptance rate of 6.8 percent makes it appear to be one of the best institutions in the

country, yet it ranks at number 53 in the U.S. News and World Report’s rankings. Northeastern changed its status by removing the essay section from its application and making the application process as simple as a few clicks, incentivizing more high school students to apply. This is just one example of how statistics can be manipulated to alter the evaluation of a school or a student. More emphasis should be placed on the quality of jobs of recent graduates, alumni networks, and other factors that ensure the longevity of a school’s success. A 2022 report revealed that 49 percent of recent graduates do not believe they are qualified for the job market. Most colleges fail to prepare students with the soft skills they need to compete in the post-grad world. Measuring soft skills is a challenge admissions teams around the world should investigate to improve the probability of a possible accepted applicant succeeding in their respective school.

These skills could be measured through cognitive games, interviews, more specific essay questions, or other tests to judge a candidate more effectively.

There is no perfect system, but there is always room for improvement. Expecting an admissions team not to have flaws is impractical, but mitigating those inefficiencies is a realistic possibility. There are many ways to evaluate institutions and candidates. Improving those metrics, standards, and perceptions is an attainable goal that should be at the forefront of everyone’s mind when applying to schools and considering accepting a student.

Back to Back to Back

The end of the semester is approaching fast, but there’s still time for festivities before our schedules are jam-packed with study sessions. Tune into the Frozen Four semifinals on Thursday, support BC’s talented dance teams at Showdown on Saturday, and wear your most atrocious attire for Marathon Monday. There may be some tough decisions about which events to attend, but there definitely won’t be any lack of excitement on campus this week!

Robsham Tickets

Hundreds of students were left ticketless at last year’s Mile 21 concert, and after last week’s ticket-purchasing fiasco, it’s safe to say history has repeated itself. The Robsham ticketing website crashed (again) due to heavy demand, temporarily preventing students from securing a coveted spot in the Mod Lot to watch T-Pain. The glitchy ticketing site and groups that will inevitably form on Maloney Lawn feel a bit too familiar—anyone getting Eras Tour flashbacks?

Tour Groups

With the recent release of regular decision acceptances, the Class of 2028 is preparing for its next four years on the Heights. Welcoming a new wave of Eagles is exciting, but it’s starting to feel like tour groups are taking over every inch of campus. Trudging through the muddy Quad to avoid mobs of overeager high school students is becoming a daily occurrence. We can’t predict which paths these tour groups will take each day, but we advise you to work a few extra minutes into your class commutes.

Olivia Franceschini

ARTS

Dance Teams Gear Up for ALC Showdown 2024

Akumala said. “Because a lot of us are new.”

ALC Showdown is the biggest day of the year for Boston College’s 17 dance teams. They spend months perfecting their sets in hopes to win the annual competition, which always impresses the BC community with displays of culture and complex choreographies.

This year, teams are excited to carry on the tradition.

Masti, BC’s Bollywood fusion dance team, won first place at Showdown in 2023. One of its goals with last year’s set was engaging storytelling, and its attention to detail paid off.

According to Sriya Jampana, Masti captain and CSOM ’26, the pressure of returning to the competition after its win motivated this year’s team.

“I’ve never seen a group of people work so well together, just the team in general,” Jampana said. “The spirit is really, really there. They’re just people who are willing to really help each other and show up and be there.”

Masti’s spirit is one of dedication and collaboration, according to Abhi Akumala, choreographer and CSOM ’25. The team started learning the choreography for its Showdown set in January, giving the group an extra month of preparation than it had last year.

“I feel like especially this year, we focused a lot on maximizing the strength of our choreographers,”

Twelve members of this year’s team are rookies. According to Akumala, this turnover hasn’t stopped the team from implementing complex choreography. The new dancers have taken on the challenge of preparing for Showdown skillfully and passionately.

“The goal of the captains or the board was to instill the values in the rookies that help them to succeed and grow and become better dancers,” Akumala said.

Masti has been developing its set since the fall. Although Jampana said the process is always evolving, the group has combined its technical skill with inspiration from different facets of Bollywood dance culture to craft this year’s set. Showdown’s popularity at BC adds pressure to the group’s performance, but also an important platform.

“It’s really nice because it’s such a big thing here that we can not only showcase dance,” Jampana said. “But we can also showcase

our culture.”

This year, Fuego del Corazón will open Showdown with a set that will encapsulate Latin culture like never before, according to president and MCAS ’24 Eliana Perez.

Innovative costume designs, new stunts , and unique storytelling are some of the novel elements that Fuego’s set will incorporate this year, according to Perez and Sebastian Gonzalez-Flores, LSEHD ’26.

Fuego has been brainstorming and preparing for Showdown since the beginning of the semester, and the team has been rehearsing and perfecting its choreography five to six days a week, according to Gonzalez-Flores.

Fuego placed third at last year’s Showdown and second in 2022. Perez and Gonzalez-Flores agree that this year, Fuego has decided on a theme that will allow the group to navigate the diversity and complexity of Latin culture through a broader range of music.

The 22 members participating in this year’s Showdown include

freshmen who will experience the adrenaline-inducing event for the first time.

“I’m excited to have the newbies experience that for the first time, because I feel like we’re always trying to explain what Showdown feels like,” Gonzalez-Flores said. “It’s so hard to really describe unless you go through it.”

Meanwhile, Perez prepares for her third and last Showdown performance as a senior.

“I’m really excited to share the stage with the team just one last time,” Perez said. “And also we’re opening Showdown this year, so that’s very scary in a way, but very exciting to be able to honor it.”

Last year, UPrising Dance Crew impressed at Showdown with its “Conformity” set that earned the team second place. This year, it’s trying to replicate that success, but UPrising is also taking a bit of a different approach.

“Last year, our theme was conformity, so we were like all coordinated and kind of like the exact

same person,” said Ashley Lee, one of UPrising’s creative captains and LSEHD ’25. “I think this year, there’s less of that. Like, I think we have a lot more individuality.”

UPrising can’t share too many details about its Showdown set, but there are definitely some things the group wants the judges to notice throughout its set.

“I feel like we definitely would want the judges to be able to tell the story that we’re trying to convey and the culture or like the message that we want to try to deliver,” said Rona Sun, president of UPrising and MCAS ’24.

The culture of UPrising is collaborative, with everyone able to contribute thematic ideas and dance sequences to the set regardless of their position.

“As captains, it’s definitely our responsibility to guide the team in terms of the direction we take with our dance,” said Sammy Kim, team captain and MCAS ’24. “But we also like to encourage the rest of the team to make their own dances to contribute to the set.”

UPrising had been practicing four times a week, but now it practices daily in anticipation of Showdown.

Despite all of the work and energy that goes into a Showdown set, the team said it’s feeling good about its performance.

“I feel like everyone on the team is just really excited because Showdown is such a big event,” Lee said. “It’s really exciting to think about how we’re going to be onstage just performing with each other with a team that we spent all year with. So I personally am really excited.” n

‘The Lifespan of a Fact’ Challenges Truth and Art

By karina Mirenda For the Heights

Boston College Contemporary Theatre’s thought-provoking and gripping production of The Lifespan of a Fact fearlessly challenges the boundary between fact and fiction while raising questions about ethics and artistic expression.

The play transcends its narrative to tell a deeply human story, a commentary on the struggles faced by all creators in juggling storytelling with factual accuracy.

Conan

By Jack

Weynand Assoc. Arts Editor

Conan Gray always finds his niche when he’s writing and singing songs about heartbreak and tragedy, and his third album Found Heaven is no different. The sound and production he presents, though, are completely uncharted territory for Gray.

You’ve probably heard of Gray from his TikTok viral hits like “Heather” off Kid Krow, or “Memories” off Superache His signature style captures a light, higher pitched vocal tone. There’s more of that sound on Found Heaven, but Gray also gives listeners a new range of lower vocals to pair with his new production style.

Found Heaven is an ode to ’80s synth-pop as Gray uses a variety of different rhythms that seem to fall into

two main categories. A few of the songs are more basic, with repetitive choruses reminiscent of background music at a neon-themed roller rink. The rest of the songs are classic Gray ballads, with the twist of the ’80s production.

For the most part, Gray makes both types of songs on the album work in his favor.

“Found Heaven,” the song which Gray names the album after, kicks off Found Heaven but is actually one of the weaker songs on the album. It leans into some of the ’80s cliches of music, so it’s a bit of a shock to ears that are used to a typical Gray song.

It sets up a nice transition, though, into “Never Ending Song,” the album’s lead single. While at times lyrically repetitive, Gray takes full advantage of his lower vocals to give listeners something catchy and easy to sing along to. It’s easy

In the process of fact-checking D’Agata’s essay, Fingal enters a heated debate with the journalist over issues of factual accuracy and poetic license.

Meanwhile, editor-in-chief Emily Penrose (Margaret Rankin, LSEHD ’25), is caught in the middle, torn between publishing the contentious piece or upholding journalistic integrity.

Directed by Makana Jorgensen, WCAS ’26, the play unfolds as determined intern and fact-checker Jim Fingal (Cameron Mysliwicz, MCAS ’24) clashes with legendary journalist John D’Agata (Casey Corcoran, MCAS ’26).

Jorgensen’s direction shines in managing a small cast, allowing for an intimate, raw, and emotional exploration of each character.

“I love a small cast because it really allows a director to give the amount of time required to fully flesh out their characters,” Jorgensen said.

According to Jorgensen, his goal, beyond audience reactions, was to make sure the actors are truthfully having fun and learning, in order to facilitate their growth.

Corcoran’s adept portrayal of D’Agata enhances the script’s emotional

to find yourself wishing this song would never end.

“I can hear your voice / In the music on the radio / And it goes on and on and on / Like a never-ending song,” Gray sings in his newfound low vocals.

Later songs on the album follow the same precedents “Never Ending Song” set, to varying levels of success.

“Lonely Dancers” and “Killing Me” were good ways to build upon Gray’s new energy, as the repetitive choruses are in lower tones while the verses jump up to Gray’s typical higher pitch.

The vocal combinations, along with the background production, give life to what would otherwise be basic songs.

“Bourgeoisieses” and “Boys & Girls” are stabs at the same type of song, but don’t sound as developed. It’s almost like for these songs the ’80s production was too heavy, and it outshines Gray’s

depth, while Myliwicz’s Fingal captures the unwavering pursuit of accuracy. In between these two characters, Rankin’s Penrose symbolizes the struggle between journalistic demands and the allure of creative freedom.

The play’s relevance in today’s climate of misinformation is not lost on Jorgensen.

“The questions raised about the role of media, the importance of truth, and the manipulation of facts are incredibly important given our current political circumstances,” Jorgensen said.

The intimate setting of the Bonn Studio Theater complemented the play’s themes, inviting audiences to closely reflect on the nature of art and the human experience. The set design, with a three-quarters stage thrust, effectively transports viewers into the worlds of New York and Las Vegas.

Olivia Emerick, one of the three stage managers and MCAS ’25, said she was deeply drawn to the play on a

voice. The repetitive choruses also aren’t as catchy and come off as annoying.

If there are any misses on Found Heaven, it would be those two songs. Gray’s best songs on the album, both lyrically and production-wise, are his ballads. They have Gray’s signature essence of longing and heartbreak in the vocals, but also lean into the ’80s theme.

One of the songs that helped carry the album was “Forever With Me.”

personal level.

“The play is about the broader struggles we all face as creators as we navigate truth and art,” Emerick said. Each character represents a facet of the human condition, blurring the lines between protagonist and antagonist.

In an era saturated with misinformation and political turbulence, The Lifespan of a Fact serves as a vital reminder of the importance of journalist integrity and the role of art in reflecting the truth.

Based on a true story, the play calls audiences to reflect on art, the status of art, and the human experience in a compelling depiction of the intersection between facts and fiction, ethics and artistic expression.

As the curtain falls on an ambiguous ending, The Lifespan of a Fact begs the question: In the pursuit of truth, where do we draw the line between fact and creative liberty? n

The piano intro, heartfelt lyricism, and impeccable vocals from Gray make it a clear standout on Found Heaven “I ain’t sorry / Though I should probably be / I think I’m gonna love you, you’re forever with me,” Gray sings with emotion and a guitar background.

PHOTO COURTESY OF OLIVIA EMERICK Jorgensen’s ‘The Lifespan of a Fact’ played from April 5–7.

SPORTS

“Win Everything. We Want to End Our Year with a Bang”

In its first season on the Heights, Boston College lacrosse’s class of 2024 won the program’s first national championship. As seniors, the Eagles are looking to end their time on the Heights in the same way they started it.

scorers in Smith, Clark, Emma LoPinto, Ryan Smith, and Andrea Reynolds.

“I’m proud of how all the seniors played,” Walker-Weinstein said. “I think they were composed and played at a really high level for the entire game. And I’m really proud of all of our seniors and putting together a day that we can really be proud of.”

BC’s offensive dominance started early. Less than three minutes into the matchup, the Eagles were already on the board.

Belle Smith received a pass from Rachel Clark and fired the ball past the Tigers’ Emily Lamparter and into Clemson’s cage, marking Smith’s 25th goal of the season.

“In order for your team to win, you need those people in the middle of the field,” Belle Smith said. “Everything I am doing from listening to my defenders and attackers, and my other middies is doing the best to be the best version of myself so that BC lacrosse can win another national championship.”

It didn’t take long for BC to get another goal.

Less than a minute later after the Eagles’ inaugural goal, a foul on Clemson’s Nakeeya McCardell allowed Clark to score her 50th goal of the season off a free-position shot.

Within the first frame, the Eagles scored six goals—five of which came from different

The Eagles’ defense kept up with their offense. Shea Dolce tallied seven saves in the first half alone, compared to the Tigers’ three.

Clemson didn’t score its first goal of the matchup until 9:11 remained in the second quarter. Then, 48 seconds later, the Tigers nailed another shot past Dolce.

But that would be Clemson’s last goal until the third frame, as the Tigers ended the matchup with four goals.

The Eagles ultimately concluded the first half with an eightgoal lead over Clemson, as the scoreboard at Alumni Stadium read 10–2.

“I loved the teamwork,” Walker-Weinstein said. “I love how we are sharing the ball. I love how our defense was our stabilizer today.

I think that’s always a good thing when the defense is the stabilizer of the team.”

Less than 30 seconds into the third quarter, Martello scored again off a free-position shot. The Eagles’ success continued on both ends of the field, as BC tallied three more goals in the quarter and limited Clemson to just one.

BC ended its scoring with a Belle Smith goal with 2:49 left to play in the final frame, bringing BC a 16–4 victory. Walker-Weinstein credited both sides of the ball for the win.

“I think some of the defensive

stops, the saves, but also the ground balls, the eight-meter, some of the transitions, and sharing the ball on offense are some things I am really proud of,” Walker-Weinstein said.

With the remaining two regular season games and postseason still to come, Martello described her team’s goals. “Win everything,” Martello said. “We want to end our year

with a bang. We call it bookending because we started with [the national championship]. We want to end with winning the ACC championship and the national championship.” n

Eagles Split Final Two Games

14 Florida State

By Emily RoBERgE Assoc. Sports Editor

The last time Boston College softball played Pittsburgh was in 2022, when the Eagles went 2–1 in their series against the Panthers.

Two years later, the roles reversed. BC (24–13, 5–7 Atlantic Coast) concluded the weekend 1–2 against the Panthers (11–25, 3–12).

On Sunday afternoon, the Eagles ended their two-game losing streak by defeating Pitt 3–2 at Harrington Athletics Village.

Unlike BC’s previous two matchups, in which the early innings were silent, Pittsburgh started scoring early in Sunday’s game.

At the top of the first inning with Abby Dunning pitching for the Eagles, the Panthers’ Kylie Griggs walked to first base.

Then, Macy Hamilton reached first base on a fielder’s choice, and Griggs was tagged out at second base.

The next play told a similar story as Kat Rodriguez reached first base on a fielder’s choice.

Cami Compson hammered the ball past the fence to give the Panthers a home run, and Rodriguez and Com-

pitch that scored Leary. said.

Kyle Kipp came in to pitch for Colarusso, and the Seminoles’ lead grew to 6–2 after Dinges forced a fielder’s choice.

Kipp managed to record a strike-

The Eagles failed to respond in the bottom of the

ELLIE EL-FISHAWY / HEIGHTS STAFF

Belle Smith, pictured above, scored three goals in the Eagles’ 16–4 win over Clemson.