2013 SPRING SPORTS PREVIEW www.bcheights.com
Vol. XCIV, No. 11
HEIGHTS
THE
The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College
An inside look at this year’s baseball, lacrosse, and softball teams, C1.
established
1919
Monday, February 25, 2013
MACKLEMORE FOR MODSTOCK
SPRING CONCERT CANCELLED, UGBC ANNOUNCES THAT ‘THRIFT SHOP’ SENSATION WILL HEADLINE OUTDOOR SHOW IN MAY BY DEVON SANFORD Assoc. News Editor
T
he Underg radu ate G ov ernment of Boston College (UGBC) has cancelled the Spring Concert and is placing the entirety of their concert funding into Modstock, UGBC’s annual outdoor concert held on the last day of classes. Macklemore, the Seattle-based rapper who recently gained worldwide attention for his single “Thrift Shop,” will be headlining the show. The concert will be held on Thursday, May 2, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m., and will be free and open to all BC students. Dan Rimm, CSOM ’13, and Mike Cavoto, A&S ’13, co-directors of campus entertainment began planning for the spring semester events last fall. After
receiving feedback from the Boston College student body, UGBC’s campus entertainment made the decision to cancel the Spring Concert and instead plan for a larger Modstock. The $35,000 budgeted for the Spring Concert has been added to the $60,000 budget for this year’s Modstock. “We were reevaluating how we do programming on campus and were trying to see how we can give students the most for their money,” Rimm said. “Looking back at the ticket sales over the past couple of years, people haven’t been as interested in the Spring Concert. We have consistently sold out the Fall Concerts and then roughly 1,000 to 3,000 people have attended the Spring Concerts, as opposed to the 5,000 we need for a sellout. And because of that, in the past, we have needed to downsize the Modstocks … We have been asking students for feedback this year, really trying to gauge opinions. It turns out that students like the idea of a Spring Concert but, because of the way it has worked out, no one really gets that excited for the shows. So we suggested the idea, what if we just do a really big Modstock and
Plex show?” In the past, Modstock has been a last-minute planned event. Money is limited and artists are generally booked within a week to two days before the end-of-the-year show. “Since attendance has been declining for Spring Concerts, the budgets that we can put toward Modstock are significantly affected,” Cavoto said. Student turnout to concerts has dropped dramatically in recent years. After hosting two consecutive concerts that featured between 30 and 40 alcohol transports, last year’s Fall Concert was cancelled. The 2012 Spring Concert, featuring Third Eye Blind and Nelly, was the first concert to start at 5 p.m., in attempts to limit students’ alcohol consumption. This year, Campus Entertainment decided to take a different route—putting their budgets for both spring shows into Modstock in the hope that the outdoor concert, and a bigger artist, would be
Kelley named USBWA’s ‘most courageous’ of 2013 BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Heights Editor In the 35-year history of the United States Basketball Writers Association’s “Most Courageous” Award, players and coaches have exclusively been granted the honor. Legendary figures such as Steve Kerr, who overcame the assassination of his father while in college, Jim Valvano, who dealt with bone cancer and championed cancer research among the sports community, and Pat Summit, the all-time wins leader in women’s college basketball who was diagnosed with dementia, are among the award’s most notable recipients. That changed on Thursday when Dick Kelley, an assistant athletic director and sports information director for Boston College, received the 2013 award, along with Beckie Francis, the women’s basketball coach at Oakland University. The award annually recognizes a player, coach, official, or administrator who has demonstrated extraordinary courage, reflecting honor on the sport of amateur basketball. Kelley graduated from BC in 1987 and has worked for the athletic department since
1991. He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in 2011, but has remained an integral part of BC athletics despite the disease’s strain on his movement and speech. He also received the first BC Varsity Club Medal last November. “I am overwhelmed and very grateful for this amazing honor,” Kelley wrote in a statement to the USBWA. “I have never sought recognition, but rather did what I did because I loved my job and everyone I had the privilege of working with.” While primarily serving as the sports information director for men’s basketball, Kelley has also been the secondary media relations contact for hockey and soccer. “I know DK doesn’t like recognition for all the things he has done for BC, particularly for the basketball team,” head men’s basketball coach Steve Donahue said on Twitter. “But an award that is given to someone in college athletics who has demonstrated extraordinary courage while facing adversity, could go to no better person.” The award will be presented to Kelley when BC hosts Virginia on Mar. 3 at Conte Forum. On behalf of Kelley, the USBWA is making a $1,000 donation to Compassionate Care ALS in West Falmouth, Mass.
See Concert, A4
Caucus takes a close look at mental health BY CONNOR FARLEY Heights Editor “I hope this encourages and gives a template for action to other organizations involved,” Matt Alonsozana, A&S ’14, said about Silver Week at Boston College. “If there’s going to be a change in regard to how we perceive mental health, and to how we help our friends avail [University] resources when they need them—that type of catalyst can only be held in a student community.” The Asian Caucus (AC) of BC, an organization consisting of BC’s Asian culture clubs, presented “Opening the Cabinet: Real Talk on Mental Health,” a collaborative performance-based initiative aimed toward promoting mental health awareness, last Thursday. The event focused on an array of themes pertaining to mental health. Ranging from the internal and often-hushed struggles of home life to the impending pressures of future endeavors, students of AC openly shared their experiences with those affected by mental health issues. EUN HEE KWON / HEIGHTS STAFF
Last week, the Asian Caucus put on ‘Silver Week,’ a push for mental health awareness.
See Silver Week, A4
Female BC students report lower self-confidence when leaving college BY MARY ROSE FISSINGER Heights Editor At a faculty forum in April 2012, amidst a slew of data presented by Vice President of Planning and Assessment Kelli Armstrong to the hundreds of faculty members who had gathered that day, one statistic stood out to the crowd: female students leave Boston College with lower self-confidence than they had as freshmen. In contrast, men generally gain self-confidence during their four years here, despite having, on average, lower GPAs than their female classmates. “I could see the shock and horror on some of the faces of the women faculty as Kelli
was talking,” said Vice Provost for Faculty Patricia DeLeeuw. After the presentation was over, a handful of senior female faculty, the majority of whom are department chairs, gathered in the hallway to discuss what could be done. “They called Kelli and me over and said, ‘Would the two of you facilitate a series of conversations among senior women faculty on, first, what do these data mean, and secondly, and more importantly, what can we as women faculty do about it?’” DeLeeuw said. This began a series of monthly meetings devoted to picking apart the data, gathering new information, discerning the causes of the
statistic, and brainstorming ways to improve the experience of female students at BC. The meetings culminated on Friday, Feb. 15, with a draft of a proposal outlining the data they had gathered over the past 10 months and suggestions for future action. “I didn’t think we’d be going this long,” DeLeeuw said. “We intended to be finished in a couple months with a couple meetings, and it has gone for just about a year.” This statistic that sparked the fire was the result of the analysis of two surveys administered by the Office of Institutional Research, Planning, and Assessment (IRPA) every other year: the survey taken at freshman orientation and the senior exit survey. The IRPA
is able to track specific students and observe how the answers to questions like “What do you think of your academic achievement” or “How would you rate your drive to succeed?” have changed over four years at BC. The fact that women report lower self-confidence as seniors struck members of the faculty forum as surprising and concerning, in part because it did not seem to fit with their experience with students in the classroom. “How come the women have a worse selfunderstanding after four years and men have a better self-understanding?” asked theology professor and director of the Presidential Scholars Program Rev. James Keenan, S.J., who was the only male faculty member to
take part in the monthly meetings from the beginning. “It seems to be counter to our experience.” In fact, the small collection of senior faculty that initially made up the informal, ad hoc committee realized after a few meetings that the pressures female students face at BC extend beyond the classrooms and what they, as professors, would have necessarily witnessed. “I think it became clear to us when we started having the conversations that it wasn’t just an academic thing, it was a cultural thing,” Armstrong said. “We needed people outside just the academic culture to
See Women at BC, A4