The Heights 02/28/2013

MOVING FORWARD

MENINO CHALLENGED MOVIE MAGIC

SPORTS

METRO

SCENE

BC unveils 2013 football schedule featuring a matchup at USC, A10

Councillor John Connolly announces his bid to challenge the popular incumbent in the 2013 mayoral election, B10

The Scene interviews James Franco and Sam Raimi of Oz the Great and Powerful, B1

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HEIGHTS

THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

established

1919

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Vol. XCIV, No. 12

COMMONS CONVERTED TO CHAPEL

BY ANDREW SKARAS Asst. News Editor When construction began on St. Mary’s at the beginning of this semester, a new space was needed for a chapel on Middle Campus. Staffed by the Jesuit community, the chapel in St. Mary’s offered Mass several times a day during the week, as well as Mass every Sunday. During the two years of construction, however, there will be no use of the building, and that prayer space will be closed.

At the beginning of the year, Gasson Commons underwent modifications to change it from a study space to a chapel. The Gasson Commons Chapel, as it is called, offers Mass three times a day during the week and once every Sunday. Although the atmosphere in the Gasson Commons is not the same as St. Mary’s, administrators have responded positively to the change.

“People are pleased with the placement of the new chapel

See Gasson Chapel, A4 GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Gasson Commons, which usually serves as the A&S Honors library, has been converted to worship space for the next two years.

Advisor evaluation system will launch this semester

BY JULIE ORENSTEIN Heights Editor

This spring, Boston College students will have the ability to assess their academic advisors through an online evaluation system as part of the University’s efforts to renew its focus on academic advising.

For the past three years, members of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) have collaborated with administrators and faculty members to develop the evaluations, which will be made available around the time students are registering for fall courses, when advisory meetings are still fresh in mind. The surveys, which are only about 15 to 17 questions in length, seek to get students’ feedback on topics ranging from their advisor’s availability and knowledge of degree requirements to the level of concern advisors show for students’ nonacademic lives.

Harry Kent, UGBC director of University Affairs and A&S ’13, emphasized that the goal of the evaluation is not only to identify departments that are doing well in advising and those that are not, but also to improve the interactions between advisors and advisees overall.

“With the evaluation form, we’re really hoping to signal what constitutes good advising to both students and advisors,” Kent said. “Hopefully this will affect students just as much as it does advisors,

because advising is a two-way street: students need to be better advisees, too.”

To help students further, the UGBC is also working to rebrand student advising guides, one-page “cheat sheets” that include topics and questions tailored to students in each grade. Students can utilize this resource to do more work in preparation for meetings with their advisors, which Kent noted have increasingly become nothing but brief five-minute interactions to receive the login code for UIS course registration.

The root of the problem with academic advising lies in the inherent disconnect between advisors and students. Students may claim advisors are not available to them, Kent said, while advisors often counter that many students do not show up for meetings.

The evaluation system, a project initiated in the fall of 2009 by members of the UGBC, including Anna Rhodes and Brian Jacek, both BC ’10, went through several years of development before being finalized for launch this spring. The students collected data, conducted focus groups, and met with faculty and administrators, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Donald Hafner chief among them.

“Out of that [research] was born the need for an advisor evaluation form. We realized that without a feedback system,

See Evaluations, A4

Women in business gain new sponsor

Petty shares insight on student affairs

BY ANDREW SKARAS

BY GIANNI MATERA

Asst. News Editor

Heights Staff

When Amy Gips, BC ’04, came to the Carroll School of Management in the fall of 2000, she followed the standard path for many CSOM students—she concentrated in finance, graduated, and got a job working at an investment bank in New York City. She has since broken this mold and has recently started an angel investor fund for female entrepreneurs: Astia Angels, located in the Bay Area.

“From investment banking, I went into private equity and credit funds,” Gips said. “I worked on Wall Street for seven years and was meeting with five companies a week. I could count on one hand the number of women on management teams I met. There were no women. I was frustrated with this. I asked myself, ‘What is the problem? Why am I not meeting more women?’”

After this experience, Gips decided to leave Wall Street and New York to move to San Francisco, Calif. She wanted to explore the question of why there were not more women in management positions. When she arrived in San Francisco, she began by meeting with organizations that were interested in women in business and the issues that faced these women. In doing this,

“It’s not brain science, but it is heart science.”

That is how M. L. “Cissy” Petty, Vice President for Student Affairs and Associate Provost of Academic Affairs at Loyola University New Orleans, described the process of building an Ignatian style of development in Jesuit universities. Last night she gave a lecture titled “Nexus,” specifically highlighting that Jesuit institutions must nurture an Ignatian community that helps to create “a seamless student experience.”

One of Petty’s objectives at Loyola University New Orleans is to ensure that her university embodies Ignatian development in all its programs. This Ignatian style can be summed up in the phrase, “the care of the whole person,” or as it is more commonly referred to in Jesuit circles, cura personalis.

“To get things done in a way that we [Jesuit institutions] need to in an Ignatian sense, in student affairs, you have to have

See Astia, A4

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

New football coach Steve Addazio spoke to Boston College students about the state of BC athletics in the Heights Room on Monday.

Bates, Addazio outline future for Eagles

BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Heights Editor The future of Boston College athletics will start to take shape in the next two months. Athletic director Brad Bates and the rest of the department are in the process of putting together a comprehensive strategic plan, Bates told students at Monday’s “State of the Heights,” sponsored by the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC).

“We’re in that process right now,” Bates said. “It’s going to define where we’re going and how we’re going to get there, with

very clearly defined timelines and common goals in places along the way.”

The strategic plan will include an overall look at BC’s programs and facilities, both of which were common concerns among the students at the event.

“We’re in the process of identifying how we resource our programs,” Bates said when asked about the possibility of reinstating varsity men’s lacrosse. “If you think about this, athletics is, in so many ways, a marketing vehicle for the entire University. When you picked up the paper this morning you didn’t see a physics section. And so, whether it’s right or wrong,

that’s the way our society is. We value sports, and so my responsibility, and the athletic department’s, is to take advantage of that social emphasis on athletics in ways that really expose Boston College to the country. So in our strategic planning process we are going to look at all programs and identify those that can be nationally competitive and nationally distinctive and figure out how we are going to resource those programs in ways that best serve the University.”

Bates was also asked about the depart-

See Student Affairs, A4

See State of the Heights, A4

UGBC holds candidacy meeting, new guidelines introduced

BY DEVON SANFORD Assoc. News Editor Last night in Stokes Hall, all prospective candidates for UGBC president and vice president—eight in total—gathered for a mandatory informational meeting.

Although the teams are not yet official, the students who attended were Matt Alonsozana, A&S ’14; Nick Barrett, CSOM ’14; Ricky Knapp, A&S ’14; Tim Koch, A&S ’14; Molly McCarthy, A&S ’14; Matt Nacier, A&S ’14; Tim Strakosch, A&S ’14; and Chris Truglio, CSOM ’14.

Chris Osnato, A&S ’13 and current UGBC President, opened the meeting.

Osnato discussed the challenges of the election process and his time as presidency.

He warned students not to take the position lightly.

“The election process can be a lot of fun,” Osnato said. “I encourage all of you to get on an election team and have a good time with it … Boston College has a very unique election process and the student body really joins together during elections. However, I will warn you, the election process is very rigorous. Your grades will go down and

there is a lot of stress. If you want to win, you have to put in the time and effort …

It’s an intense process and it’s an intense position. There really is no such thing as a week off.”

A presentation on the election process and regulations was then given by the Election Committee, headed by co-chairs Carter Bielen, A&S ’13, Christie Wentworth, A&S ’13, and Ross Fishman, CSOM ’14.

This year’s campaign kickoff, the night on which candidates can begin their campaigning, will be held on March 18 after the 7:00 p.m. UGBC meeting. Primary debates

will be held on March 20, and primary voting will be on March 25 and 26. The final voting for the top two teams,will be held on April 4 and 5.

This year, the Election Committee has altered the election process as a result of feedback from last year’s elections. A statement of candidacy, which can include the candidate’s platform, slogan, team color, and logo, is now required. Every team running for election must also appoint a student Elections Committee liaison. This

See UGBC Elections, A4

MATT LIBER / HEIGHTS STAFF

VP for Student Affairs at Loyola New Orleans, M.L. ‘Cissy’ Petty, spoke on Wednesday night.

TopTHREE

THE HEIGHTS

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Thursday, February 28, 2013

A Guide to Your Newspaper

things to do on campus this week

1 2 3 Amartya Sen

Black History Month

Today Time: 5:00 p.m.

Location: Higgins 300

The Clough Center is hosting Nobel Prize-winning economist, Amartya Sen, today to speak about the language and context of the Constitution. He currently serves as a professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard and is a senior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows.

Poetry Reading

Today Time: 5:30 p.m.

Location: Murray Function Room

The closing ceremonies for Black History Month are being held tonight in the Murray Function Room and will wrap up the “Sesquicentennial Celebration of Black History.” The keynote speech for the event will be given by Arthur Miller, a deacon in the Black Catholic Ministries of the Archdiocese of Boston.

March 7 Time: 1:00 p.m.

Location: Stokes 476S

Boston College creative writing professor, Kim Garcia, will be hosting a poetry reading as a part of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ 2013 annual conference. Garcia, Meredith Davies Hadaway, and Erin Murphy will all read from their own poetry collections.

FEATURED EVENT

Leaders in sports highlight path to success

BY JENNIFER HEINE Heights Staff Boston College students, faculty, and neighbors packed the Murray Function Room on Monday to hear a panel including Olympic swim coach Bob Bowman, Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long, and ESPN announcer Beth Mowins. Held as part of the Chambers Lecture Series under the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics the event took the form of a casual discourse, with Mowins as well as audience members questioning Bowman and Long on their Olympic careers and the secrets to their longstanding success.

For Bowman, this success is most famously evident through his mentee, Michael Phelps, the current most decorated Olympian of all time, with records for the most gold medals in one Olympics and the most medals overall. Bowman also served as a U.S. Olympic team assistant coach in 2004, 2008, and 2012, and coached a number of Olympic and world-class swimmers, winning a host of coaching awards.

Long has accrued accolades as a Paralympic swimmer—currently holding 20 world records, she most recently won five gold, two silver, and one bronze medal in the 2012 Paralympics and has won the ESPN Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Award twice. Long also received the Amateur Athletic Union’s James E. Sullivan Award—the first Paralympian to do so.

Although both used swimming as the source for their knowledge and advice, much of what they had to offer can be

EUN HEE KWON / HEIGHTS STAFF

Jessica Long (right) emphasized the importance of having passion for one’s work. interpreted on a universal level. Pressure on the Olympic stage emerged as an early theme, and both Bowman and Long shared similar tactics for dealing with it.

“Toughness is one of the keys to performance at the top level,” Bowman said. “I want my swimmers to be able to perform in any environment. You need toughness to do that, and the only way you build that toughness is to practice it. Can you stand up and give your best effort, one shot, knowing that if you don’t do it, you don’t have a chance for another four years? That’s the definition of mental toughness.”

For Long, minimizing that self-pressure helped her to perform her best. “For me go-

ing into London, it was my third Olympics, and I didn’t put pressure on myself,” she said.

“I really wanted to take it all in and have fun with my teammates. You train yourself to stay focused. It’s just another swim meet when it comes down to it, there’s just a lot more people watching.”

Both agreed that planning ahead is vital, both for calming nerves and setting goals.

“Olympic competition is doing something you’ve been trained to do, day in and day out.,” Bowman said. “Swimming the race isn’t the hard part, it’s doing it in a very abnormal environment. Routine is very important. Those things are decided ahead of time so that you don’t have to invest any energy into them, and

POLICE BLOTTER

2/22/13-2/24/13

Friday, February 22 10:01 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported to a medical facility from Higgins Hall.

11:41 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student in Gasson Hall.

7:31 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm activation in Ignacio Hall.

8:53 p.m. - A report was filed regarding an activated fire alarm in Hardey Hall.

10:22 p.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to an intoxicated BC student of age in Edmond’s Hall.

and battery with no injuries resulting in the Hillside parking area.

transported by ambulance to a medical facility from Conte Forum.

2:07 a.m. - A report was filed regarding vandalism in McElroy Commons.

Sunday, February 24

2:15 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student in Gonzaga Hall who was transported by cruiser to a medical facility.

2:23 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported by ambulance from Gabelli Hall.

2:51 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a BC student who was transported to a medical facility from Fenwick Hall by ambulance.

Saturday, February 23

1:27 p.m. - A report was filed regarding an assault and battery with no injuries in Keyes North.

1:39 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an assault

8:00 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a BC student

College Corner NEWS FROM UNIVERSITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

BY ANDREW SKARAS Asst. News Editor The University of Colorado at Boulder has recently created a new visiting professorship in “conservative thought and policy,” according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Funded entirely by private donors, the position is set to last for at least three years and is meant to increase intellectual diversity at the University. Currently, the selection committee is considering three finalists—Linda Chavez, Ron Haskins, and Steven Hayward.

Chavez is the chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity and a Fox News analyst. She worked in the Reagan White House and has written about labor issues and immigration.

Haskins is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institute. He served as a senior advisor to President George W. Bush in 2002 and has published on welfare and welfare reform.

Hayward is a fellow at the Ashbrook

that really helps. The key is not to expend emotional energy beforehand.

“I think planning is key,” he said. “I don’t like to waste time. Every minute is accounted for. I have a plan that fits into not only what we want to do today, but what we want to do tomorrow, and six months from now. I always say, you don’t manage time, you manage yourself. There’s always time, and plenty of it. You have to figure out what is important to you, and focus on that. If you’re really passionate about it, you’ll get it done. As long as a swimmer, or anyone really, has goals that are meaningful and exciting to them, they never have a motivation problem.”

Long emphasized passion as well. “My best advice for getting there is to really have to love what you do,” she said. “If you love something, you really have a passion for doing it and can be successful. But not only do you have to love what you do, you have to work at it. It takes a lot of passion, hard work, and disappointment.

“I love what I do,” she said. “I still feel like that 10-year-old who jumps into the pool and is a mermaid.”

Ultimately, they acknowledged, their work amounts to more than swimming.

“I’m giving my swimmers an experience that is more than just going up and down a box of water, because in the end, where does that get you?” Bowman said. “It’s the process of success: learning where you are, figuring out where you want to go, making a plan to get there, and going through with that plan. The medals aren’t important, it’s the process it takes to get there.” 

Center at Ashland University and has written a two-volume biography of Ronald Reagan.

The leader of the search committee, Keith Maskus, said that the position was created to balance ideological perspectives within the University.

While Maskus acknowledged that most faculty present balanced views within the classroom, he also stated that a conservative scholar would increase student exposure to different viewpoints.

Each of the three finalists gave public speeches on the campus and fielded questions from students. Some students, such as Zach Silverman, president of the College Democrats, thought that the position would help encourage a marketplace of ideas.

Others, such as a guest columnist for the local newspaper, Matthew Aitken, a graduate student in physics, questioned whether or not the creation of the position supported the idea that universities had an inherent liberal bias. 

1:10 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a BC student transported by ambulance to a medical facility from Fitzpatrick Hall.

1:14 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a BC student transported to a medical facility from the Mods.

1:20 p.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance to an underage intoxicated non-BC affiliate.

11:55 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a larceny from McElroy Commons.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

The Heights Boston College – McElroy 113 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467 Editor-in-Chief (617) 552-2223 Editorial General (617) 552-2221 Managing Editor (617) 552-4286 News Desk (617) 552-0172 Sports Desk (617) 552-0189 Metro Desk (617) 552-3548 Features Desk (617) 552-3548 Arts Desk (617) 552-0515 Photo (617) 552-1022 Fax (617) 552-4823 Business and Operations General Manager (617) 552-0169 Advertising (617) 552-2220 Business and Circulation (617) 552-0547 Classifieds and Collections (617) 552-0364 Fax (617) 552-1753 EDITORIAL RESOURCES News Tips Have a news tip or a good idea for a story?

Call Eleanor Hildebrandt, News Editor, at (617) 552-0172, or e-mail news@bcheights. com. For future events, e-mail, fax, or mail a detailed description of the event and contact information to the News Desk.

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Clarifications / Corrections The Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. If you believe we have made a reporting error, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or questions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact David Cote, Editor-in-Chief, at (617) 552-2223, or e-mail editor@bcheights.com.

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CORRECTIONS Please send corrections to eic@bcheights.com with ‘correction’ in the subject line.

VOICES FROM THE DUSTBOWL “What are you doing for Spring Break?”

“Going to New York City with the fam to eat steaks.”

—Paul Sherban, A&S ’16

“Going home to Cleveland, OH.” —Chad Agozzino, A&S ’16

“I’m an athlete, so I’m staying here. We have playoffs.”

—Kaliya Johnson, LSOE ’16

“Going home to Chicago.”

—Maria Rodriguez, LSOE ’16

The Heights

Thursday, February 28, 2013

A3

‘Globe’ writer brings experience to campus

Spending time wisely

By Mujtaba Syed Heights Editor

Matt Palazzolo Every one of my classes contains at least one disinterested student.

These scholars spend the entire period aimlessly surfing the Internet or hunching over their smartphones.

I have no personal objections to these people—without them I would have never discovered Sporcle and 9gag, two wonderful and devilishly distracting websites. I had a sudden epiphany last week, however, while observing one student meticulously read ESPN articles for a full 75 minutes. The class in question has no attendance policy, and the student was clearly not taking notes or even paying attention. So, why was he there?

During my Capstone class last semester I read Journey Into Adulthood, a University-commissioned study of student life at BC. It divides the BC experience into three dimensions: intellectual, social, and spiritual. While reading, I began to think that the intellectual dimension matters least in the long term. I have talked to BC alumni who met their future spouses, business partners, or lifelong friends while they were undergraduates. When my brother, a BC alum, and his college buddies tailgated at my Mod before the Notre Dame game, they swapped stories about old friends and parties, not former classes and professors.

Bill Simmons, a popular sportswriter, explained that in college he was an avid political science major who took multiple courses on Middle East relations, and now can’t even identify Iraq and Iran on a map.

Unless a degree directly correlates to post-graduate jobs, like for pre-med students, its importance will fade over time.

Upon further reflection though, I backed away from this overly pessimistic view of the intellectual dimension. One of my roommates has never voluntarily skipped a class, because he legitimately argues it would be foolish to pay a five-figure tuition to enroll in classes you don’t even attend. As an English major, he is also fond of lengthy soliloquies in which he eloquently and at times pretentiously extols the virtues of a liberal arts education. He argues that its purpose is not vocational training for a job, but rather a multi-faceted study of the human condition. As a freshman simultaneously taking political theory and philosophy courses, I felt the same way. Plato and Kant may not appear in a law firm job interview, but this does not make their writings any less important. Sitting in the back row of Gasson classrooms, I would dream that my studies could unlock the keys to the meaning of life and ideal form of governance.

This overly idealist dream I dreamed was dashed to pieces sophomore year when I foolishly crammed all my core requirements into two hellish semesters. Picking my senior classes while abroad, however, renewed my appreciation of the intellectual dimension of BC classes. For my fall semester, I was blessed with a completed core and nearly complete major requirements, as well as the absolute first pick time. Literally every Arts and Science class was open to me. Less than one percent of the world obtains an undergraduate degree, and less than one percent of that already miniscule group attends an elite top 50 university. Social and spiritual growth are not strictly limited to BC students, but the school’s exemplary intellectual environment is.

Coming full circle, my advice to the disinterested classmate is this: don’t go to class. Your tuition fee pays for the BC experience, not just classes and textbooks. As a second semester senior, I can assure you that the four-year BC experience flies by shockingly quickly: I didn’t even discover Addie’s until a few weeks ago. BC has an incredible academic faculty, but if you don’t care enough to pay attention in class, spend your time exploring the social or spiritual dimensions of BC. ESPN will be there when you get back.

Matt Palazzolo is a senior columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at news@bcheights.com.

robyn kim / Heights Staff

Kamenetz discussed the future of online education and its effects on social communities and traditions.

Author says college ed must change

By Brigid Wright Heights Staff Anya Kamenetz, author and me dia exp er t , sp oke to the B o ston Colle ge community on Tuesday afternoon about the future of te chnolog y in education. Kamenetz’s books, Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young and DIY U: Edpunks, Edupreneurs, and The Coming Transformation of Higher Education, speak to the rising economic problems that young people are facing and how university tradition is being infiltrated by technology. In her presentation, Kamenetz offered insight on the future of online university education and how the realities of expensive higher education could be aided by an online college experience.

In his introduction to Kamenetz’s talk, University Librarian Thomas Wall asked questions about how BC could incorporate technology better in its curriculum.

“The digital blend, as I call it, raises many questions for the academy, and some are related to whether the academy will thrive or survive and whether the digital blended world and will facilitate a convergence or create a divide,” Wall said.

Wall continued by explaining that the online experience of education poses a threat to what BC values in its traditions and unique campus community.

He explained that BC has been “practical and strategic” with its approach to online learning, and that the University has been exploring more ways to incorporate technology into the classroom experience. Wall said that the main goal is to enhance

faculty-student engagement and to incorporate technology into that experience.

Kamenetz began her talk by asking the audience, “What is the meaning of student engagement?” She explained that there is a range of things that people want out of their education, and there are three factors that contribute to how students engage with learning.

Kamenetz offered data that shows that with the rising cost of education, 67 percent of Bachelors in Arts graduates are in debt, and that the average student debt is $27, 253. She explained that students have to weigh the costs and benefits of seeking higher education, and that attendance at universities has fallen as a result of the cost.

The question of the relevance of higher education is looming as well, as students ask themselves if it is worth the cost, and whether or not the college curriculum will prepare people for careers in elite industries.

Kamenetz incorporated different research strategies, like Moore’s Law, which explains the evolution of microcomputing, to show the rising benefits of technology in education and how it will reduce costs and allow better access to higher education for more people.

Kamenetz illustrated many growing online programs that allow for self-directed learning, and provide corporate careers for individuals without degrees.

Github, for example, is an online workshop where members can work on different computer codes together interactively, and have their work recorded in an online portfolio. Kamenetz explained that many people

are being employed by major companies off of this website because the portfolio showcases their knowledge in programming and skillfulness, whether or not they have a degree in computer science.

Kamenetz’s main argument for online education experiences is that it allows for better access, especially for those the system is not serving. As for the question of what would happen to the traditional college experience, Kamenetz compared it to what the rise in technology has done for the music business.

She explained that while some artists and producers have suffered with the expansion of the online music world, as more people hear more music, they are compelled to go to concerts.

Kamenetz suggested that being a part of an online education community would actually inspire a social community as well, through study groups and other networks. She acknowledged the importance of human connection and how physical campuses are an important outlet, but argued that with online education, universities would be able to connect people on and offline through learning and course material.

Kamenetz suggested a hybridization of the current infrastructure of university education to incorporate a backdrop of technology in order to provide a college experience and also attempt to eliminate costs.

She also suggested that with online education, courses could be designed for basic needs and provide more specialized education in particular fields to make degrees more relevant for certain career paths. n

“I’ve only worked at one paper for 45 years,” said Bob Ryan, sports correspondent at The Boston Globe and BC ’68. “I promise you, you could parade in here the next 10,000 columnists in America and not one of them would say they’ve only worked at one paper.” Ryan spoke to a crowd of faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students interested in sports journalism on Tuesday in Gasson Hall. He was invited back to his alma mater to be the latest speaker in the “Career Conversations” program, sponsored by the Boston College Career Center.

Arriving at BC in 1964, Ryan began his collegiate career as an English major and a play-by-play commentator for WVBC, the original campus radio station. He joked about his initial thoughts about The Heights, indicating that he steered clear of the student newspaper because he knew he would not be able to cover his favorite sports during his freshman year. He went on to explain, however, how both his course of study and his primary extracurricular activity changed as his BC career progressed. Ryan would graduate a history major and a three-year writer for The Heights.

“The second year, I did go to The Heights,” he said. “One of my best friends had become an editor and I knew he would let me cover what I wanted.”

After discussing parts of his academic career, Ryan proceeded to focus on his career trajectory. While working in the sports information department at BC, he built powerful professional relationships with prominent BC athletics employees.

Drawing on these relationships as he graduated BC, Ryan was able to secure an internship with The Boston Globe—which would prove to be the final destination in his job search.

“If it weren’t through that connection through sports information, I frankly have no idea what would have happened,” he said. “It was very simple—my path was utterly atypical.”

Using his personal experience as a backdrop, Ryan went on to highlight perhaps his most sincere advice concerning careers: each individual’s career is so unpredictable that students should never get lost in planning their every move.

“People always ask me what they should be doing to get a job with a big newspaper,” he said. “This is the question I dread. I don’t know how anyone does it. I just know how I did it.”

After joining The Boston Globe in

1969, Ryan went on to work as the beat writer for the Boston Celtics throughout the 1980s. Moving on to a role as general sports columnist, he covered all four major Boston sports teams through championship seasons and reported on 11 Olympics and 20 NCAA Final Four tournaments.

Moving on from the discussion of his career, Ryan turned the focus of the discussion to contemporary issues in sports journalism, changes over time in his work, and his outlook for the future of printed press. He first focused on the art behind the work that has defined his career. “‘Sports writing’ consists of two words,” he said. “The second word is much more important than the first.

Writing is distinct and separate from sports—it is the hard part. Pride in writing was what got me in the business.” He continued, highlighting the necessity of sports journalists to possess a natural aptitude and affinity for the art of writing in addition to their passion for sports.

Transitioning to a slightly bitter note as a question geared the conversation toward the writer-player relationship’s change over time in sports, Ryan admitted that certain positive aspects of his early career could never be enjoyed again.

“In those days there was no feeling of an adversarial relationship,” he said. “Now, players take to social media to get their name out to the public instead of the press.

We’ll never have as much fun as we did.”

Finally, Ryan provided analysis on the future of print media. Signaling a large-scale move to digital news services, he indicated his belief that within 10 to 15 years, the last newspaper will have printed.

While some of the audience present may have been appalled at the prediction, Ryan accompanied it with positive sentiments about the breadth of talent in journalism that continues to grow.

“There’s never been so much good writing going on as there is now,” he said. “The writing aspect will never change.”

Amidst the predictions, analyses, and memories, Ryan provided a lasting reminder of what drives powerful sports writing—a demonstration to the aspiring writers sitting in Gasson Hall of the inspiration behind the man who had once been in the same position.

“I soaked up every minute I was covering sports,” he said. “I love the games, the competition, watching people winning and losing. I love the stories. And that transcends everything.” n

Professors challenge conceptions of poverty

By John Wiley Heights Editor “In his State of the Union Address on Feb. 13, President Barack Obama urged that the youth have the opportunity to obtain skills training and education that enables them to find a stable job in a modern labor force and work their way into the middle class,” said William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University. “As it stands, the chances that youth with a high school diploma or less who are disproportionately disadvantaged minorities will obtain such a job are much lower than they are for their counterparts who go on to college.”

Tuesday night, Wilson joined Susan Crawford Sullivan, sociology professor and Edward Bennett Williams Fellow at the College of the Holy Cross, and Eric Gregory, professor of religion at Princeton University, for a panel titled “Poverty and American National Priorities.”

Sponsored by the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, the event was devoted to poverty in the U.S. today and the priorities revealed how that poverty is addressed.

According to Wilson, black and Latino communities have experienced disproportionate unemployment as a result of the Great Recession. He attributes this to a clustering of workers in industries particular susceptible to cutbacks, as well as a

high density of blacks and Latinos in urban spacial structure. Additional, in spite of sizable educational achievement gains in recent years compared to white students, black and Latino students see considerably lower rates of high school completion and college enrollment.

“And among those who do remain in schools, there is strong evidence that low-income Latino and blacks receive qualitatively different educations,” Wilson said. “Not only are they more like to be in classrooms with other poor minority students, but they are less likely to be placed in advanced placement classes and more likely to be suspended or placed in special needs classes.”

“Because unemployment and underemployment are inimically linked with pervasive social problems and economic maladies that affect all workers, working or middle class, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or age, a more inclusive, far-reaching initiative would elevate the skills and marketability of many Americans,” Wilson said. “However, poor and working class blacks and Latinos have been on the ropes for much longer then the Great Recession.

Without coordinated, deliberate invention at the policy level, the outlook for their economic future is very bleak indeed.”

Susan Crawford Sullivan discussed poverty largely from the perspective of her book Living Faith: Everyday Religion and Mothers in Poverty. Her studies conducted for

robyn kim / Heights Staff

On Tuesday night, a panel of professors discussed United States poverty through lenses of race, faith and economics. the book concluded that marginalized women “theologically interpret their suffering in ways that give them hope.” However, many of these women did not belong to parishes.

“Although people think of churches as a haven for the poor, studies show that the poor are actually less likely to attend churches and be part of congregations despite often high levels of personal faith,” she said. Logistics and stigma, according to Sullivan, are the primary reasons for this. From her studies, people in poverty are generally aware of the disconnect between themselves and churches, and are in turn, suspicious of church-based social programs as an effective means of combatting poverty.

“It’s important to figure out ways that religious organization which provide services can best reach residents of poor neighborhoods,” Sullivan said. “Policy initiatives pro-

moting church-based or faith-based solutions to the problems of the poor must also first acknowledge a gap between churches and many impoverished urban residents.”

Eric Gregory argued that economic inequality and political inequality are often closely related.

As a theologian, Gregory acknowledged a need for religious critics who challenge “not just our supposedly disenchanted secular world, but our joyless world.” However, he pointed out the harder job of organizing to address “the unfulfilled promise of America, dreams of liberty and justice for all, without being hijacked by libertarianism or feelgood philanthropic capitalism.”

“We live imperfect lives, just as early Christians did, and I am not tempted for nostalgia for their economic system,” Gregory said. “I think the early Church’s ecclesial priority on poverty put to shame the

contemporary church in America, preoccupied with abortion, same sex relations, and its own moral affairs. Imagine a world where poverty was debated with only half the intensity of homosexuality in America.”

“Today, no more than five to 10 percent of religious giving in the U.S. goes to uses such as helping the poor,” Gregory said.

He emphasized the importance of religious conversations on poverty, however. He also suggested the sponsoring of coalitions aimed at influencing politicians to address the issue of poverty candidly.

“We should remember the dangers of the sin of sloth,” Gregory said in closing. “We should remember that the challenges that face us are the result of human choices, that markets are humans with created structures—they can be changed, even by sinners like us.” n

The Heights

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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Advising evaluations to gather feedback Evaluations, from A1 advisors weren’t really being held accountable for their advising, and there was no way to recognize advisors who were doing a good job,” Kent said.

“We had a vision, we knew this was a good idea, and we kept at it,” Hafner said. He underscored that the evaluation system was made possible by quality conversations with Kent and other UGBC representatives, open-mindedness, and similar goals on the part of everyone involved. By the time the plan was proposed before the Provost Advisory Council, a University-wide academic body that advises the Provost on issues of major importance to faculty and academics at BC, it was broadly accepted.

The evaluative questionnaire was successfully piloted in the Connell School of Nursing in 2011 with an 80 percent participation rate, and the Carroll School of Management followed in 2012. Kent said that the results of these pilots served as reassurance that

students actually want to talk about advising, even without incentives to participate such as those that are used for course evaluations.

A key element of the evaluations, Hafner stressed, is that responses are confidential, and will only be made available to the advisors themselves, the advisor’s department chair, and school deans.

“The important thing about this evaluation form is that it’s being used only for the benefit of the advisors,” Hafner said. “Students won’t be able to see the results, because what matters is the advisor’s response to the evaluation, not the students’.

“If we have wide student participation in the advisor evaluation, even though students may not necessarily have access to that information, it will allow us as the University to look at how the advising system is functioning,” he said.

Laura Tanner, an advisor in the English department, pointed to the vital advisor-advisee relationship as one the University should work to maintain, and

she believes the evaluations should help that process.

“Anything that we can do at the institutional level to support productive relationships between BC students and their faculty advisors strikes me as a positive development,” Tanner said.

“If the new evaluation system serves to reinforce the value of these important conversations and emphasize for faculty members the importance of looking at each student as a whole person, I think that it will be a good thing.”

Although academic advising has not always been the biggest concern for faculty, it will be highlighted to a larger extent in faculty end-of-year reports in which professors also discuss their activities in teaching, community service, publication, and academia in general.

Hafner emphasized that advising at BC has been evolving in recent years, noting that the establishment of the Academic Advising Center “was an affirmation that Boston College cares about this, and we’re going to put some resources into it.” n

‘Angels’ seek to improve connections

Addazio outlines strategic plan for BC football team State of the Heights, from A1

Astia, from A1 she focused on organizations that worked specifically with female entrepreneurs.

“There was a lot of emphasis on the education side and networking,” Gips said. “The organizations were making sure that the women were well prepared. What was missing was the capital. There are a ton of really great women entrepreneurs out there, but they needed early stage capital. This is what was really keeping women entrepreneurs back.”

Gips decided that she wanted to do something to change this, so she partnered with Astia. Astia is primarily an accelerator program for female-led businesses. Working on the education side, the company finds women advisors in different industries, and has experts all around the world.

“A lot of the experts were also investors or could have been investors,” Gips said. “There were community members who had the ability to invest, but weren’t necessarily investing in Astia companies.”

In order to change this, Gips worked with Astia to form Astia Angels, a network of angel investors committed to invest in female-led companies. Serving as a founding managing partner, Gips worked to bring together people who would act as early investors in startups led by women.

“We started off with a training program for investors in the fall,” Gips said.

“This was to help those who did not know how to make early stage investments.

We held our first meeting in January. We had four companies come and present to a room of 30 individual investors. Since that meeting, we had a lot of interest in one of the three companies—a medical device company focused on women’s health care products—so we focused on making that investment the first investment.”

One of the bigger issues that Gips thought faced female entrepreneurs was that of business networks.

“Finding early stage investment is part of a larger puzzle,” Gips said. “Women and men typically run in separate business networks—men have other men and women have other women. Historically, men do more of the early investments.”

In order to change this trend, Astia Angels is structured to have a balance of male and female investors.

“We want to open up men’s networks to women’s networks,” Gips said. “Part [of this] is capital, but part is also knowledge.

A lot of Astia’s mission is mixing the networks. The percentage of angel investors who are women is 12 percent. Also, 12 percent of women entrepreneurs receive money. We want to increase women investors and entrepreneurs.”

One of the things that Gips thought was important for the success of female entrepreneurs was reaching out to students in college.

“We are always looking for high-quality women entrepreneurs,” Gips said. “Encouraging women in college that they can be entrepreneurs is important. College students are the future college entrepreneurs. They must be aware that being an entrepreneur is an option for them. We didn’t feel like, when we were in college, that there was much of an emphasis on becoming an entrepreneur. There seems to be a lot more interest now. I am thrilled to see the changes at BC—that the school is being proactive and putting things in to place right now.” n

graham beck / heights editor

Addazio spoke to assembled students about his plan to rebuild the BC football team.

CHRISSY SUCHY / heights staff

Gasson Commons has been converted to a chapel while St. Mary’s is under construction.

Gasson Commons transforms Gasson Chapel, from A1 in Gasson,” said Vice President for Mission and Ministry Rev. Jack Butler, S.J. “The numbers seem to be coming back to what the numbers were prior to the move.”

David Quigley, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, explained that the move to Gasson was the most sensible solution.

“The University was interested in maintaining a central space for worship for the two years that St. Mary’s is being renovated, and Gasson was the best solution both for members of the campus community and for those neighbors who’ve regularly attended morning services over the years,” Quigley said in an email.

Although the Jesuit community still provides the priests to say Mass, the scheduling of the space has shifted from the minister’s office in the Jesuit community to Campus Ministry in the University.

One of the concerns with the relocation was the loss of the Commons as a study space. Both Butler and Quigley have not

seen this as a problem with the recent opening of Stokes.

“I think this relocation has worked well, in large part because the opening of Stokes has substantially increased the amount of space available for students and faculty in A&S,” Quigley said.

Although the location is atypical for a chapel, Butler found that the student feedback he had received was entirely positive.

“I’m amazed how many people love having it in that space,” Butler said. “They love the stained glass windows and the way it is set up. The space is conducive to a chapel. You have the statue of St. Michael the Archangel in the rotunda. There is an august flavor that enhances the ambiance, the sanctity. I think it works for what we are asking it to do for a couple of years.”

Both Butler and Quigley said that the chapel in Gasson was only a temporary situation and that it would revert to its original purpose upon the reopening of St. Mary’s. n

UGBC election season begins UGBC Elections, from A1 campaign member is responsible for acting as a mediator between the candidate teams and the Elections Committee in case of any complaints or concerns. The budget given to teams for campaigning, originally $500 before final voting, has now been reduced to $300. Bielen said that in past elections, campaign teams felt that the $500 budget was unnecessary, but that they had to use it to stay competitive.

The sanctioning system has also been changed since last year. Violations are now broken down into two categories: minor and major violations. Campaign teams that commit minor violations will be asked to stop by the Elections Committee. If minor violations are repeated, sanctions will result. If a campaign team commits a major violation, they will face sanctions and their campaign could be suspended, or they could be disqualified.

Unlike prior election seasons, according to Bielen, the Elections Committee is intending to sanction campaign teams that commit violations.

Students are now allowed to run for both a Senate seat and also UGBC president or vice president only until the primaries. If their campaign team moves to the final voting stage, they will be asked to step out of the senate race.

Bielen stated that those running for both president and a Senate seat would hold an unfair advantage over other prospective Senate members.

Unlike past campaigning seasons, private endorsements are now approved by the Elections Committee. This means that while students cannot represent their organization, they can publicly endorse a team on their own accord.

“Opinions of student leaders are relevant to elections,” Bielen said. “We want students to be able to contribute and play a part in the election season.”

The Elections Committee concluded the meeting by stressing the importance of the candidates’ roles within the BC community. They asked students to abide by BC’s mission and remain exemplary models for their peers throughout the season. n

ment’s plans to build an indoor practice facility after the recent collapse of the bubble, and he said it will be a part of the discussion in the compiling of the strategic plan.

Even before the strategic plan is finalized, though, Bates was ready to commit one major change to students in hopes of fixing the attendance deficit at men’s basketball games throughout the past two years. The department is trying out new seating arrangements for next season that will put students closer to the action.

“If we give you those seats, we need you to show up, because we are going to do some things that are going to put you right on top of the court and we’re getting details of that next year,” Bates said. “We need to make basketball as intimidating of an environment as it can be.”

In attendance with Bates was new head football coach Steve Addazio, who talked about rebuilding a program that has missed out on a bowl game the past two seasons.

“What we want to do here, and I want to do with this football program, is build a program that you’re really proud of,” Addazio said. “I want to have a program that, when you walk into that stadium, you feel like this team is really going to play hard. They respect the game of football. They treat it like it’s a privilege and not a right.”

Addazio said that recruiting will be one of the biggest factors in making the

program successful again, and described how he thinks BC will be appealing to the nation’s best high school players.

“First of all, you’re talking about one of the most beautiful campuses in the country,” he said. “This is what I say.

You’re talking about an elite education and degree. You’re talking about playing in a BCS conference. You’re talking about going to school in what’s considered to be the most favorable place to go to college in America. You’re talking about, from a football standpoint—we have an unbelievable tradition here of first-rounders.

We’re at a school where there’s a real family atmosphere. Really, what’s not to like? I told Brad Bates a few weeks back that I think this is a sleeping giant.”

He also told students that they will be a part of the rebuilding process as well.

“I want you guys to feel like you can watch practice,” Addazio said. “I want you guys to feel like a part of the program. I want you to be invested and I wanted you to be excited about it. I want you to be loyal to it. There’s not always great days on Saturday. That’s just not the way it is, but we’re all part of the same family.

We’re trying to work hard and represent the University and represent Boston College. Obviously you’re here because you’re true, loyal fans, and you’ve been through some good times and some hard times, and my hope is that you’re going to be excited about the brand of football that we’re going to build and that you’re going to be those loyal fans that are with us in the good times and sometimes the hard times.” n

Petty discusses student affairs at Ignatian colleges Student Affairs, from A1 a connection with mission and ministry and you have to be able to articulate it—and you have to have a connection in academic affairs,” Petty said.

According to Petty and Ignatian teaching, the care of the whole person is made possible by nurturing four main parts of the person: the intellectual, physical, social, and spiritual. The university setting is ideal for this kind of development and, according to Petty, is greatly enriched by proper execution of relevant programming.

“Student formation is everybody’s business,” Petty said. “So it’s not something that just belongs in an office of student formation and it’s not something that just belongs in an office of mission and ministry and it’s not something that just belongs in an office of student affairs or office of academic affairs … for this to work, all of that energy and all of that passion and all of the joy of being with students and watching that educational process take place needs to be promulgated.”

Even though a variety of student formation strategies are known, Petty explained that only those that leverage every aspect of university life are most effective.

“The only way to do student formation, in my opinion, is that everybody comes to the table to collaborate,” Petty said.

“Now, there’s a huge difference between collaboration and cooperation. Collaboration means folks get to the table and then they start saying ‘Lets create this together, this is what we think this should look like.’ Collaboration is at the key of having a successful formative process for students. It’s hard to do.”

Petty outlined many of the key initiatives and programs that Loyola New Or-

leans is implementing to improve student formation. One program is called “Open doors with faculty and staff,” which helps faculty and students connect outside of the classroom.

“What we basically do is we have teams of faculty and staff partner together and go through the entire first-year hall and we bring cookies,” Petty said. “The funny thing is when we first did that they thought that we were trying to catch them doing something wrong … we got a very odd reception at first, they didn’t know why we were there. And faculty had to also get over crossing that barrier of ‘this is the academic side of the house’—the quad, the student center, and the residence halls—the student center is sort of the line of demarcation. The faculty did not want to readily go past that.“ Eventually this barrier was broken and with a group of about 45 faculty members they were able to meet about 850 students.

“It brought down some barriers—it’s a tradition [now] and so new faculty know about it, we do it twice a year,” Petty said. “It’s one way of trying to get faculty to get past that [barrier]. Because you know what, at the end of the day faculty are the reason students stay. For our team, student affairs, mission and ministry, academic affairs, we bolster that relationship so that there’s this comfort level about going to more lectures, more music, more theater, more ball games, all of those things that make a campus life vibrant.”

Petty thought this type of campus program helped to enrich not only the students’ development, but every member of the university’s community.

“I never want to get too old to have fun with students and enjoy the vibrancy that they bring to the world and their work,” Petty said. n

CLASSIFIEDS Thursday, January 17, 2013

THE HEIGHTS THE HEIGHTS

A5 A5

Thursday, February 28, 2013

COMMUNITY MISCELLANEOUS Retailer Store Survey’s Looking for weekly retail store survey’s. We pay $50.00 per survey.

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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 filled.

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.

LIk_\Jgfb\jg\ijfe%Zfd

THE HEIGHTS

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Students need to take charge of their advising The process of selecting an advisor should be made easier and be better publicized This spring, around course registration time, advisor evaluation forms will be sent out to students as part of a joint effort between UGBC and the administration. The forms will ask students questions about their advisor, giving them the opportunity to evaluate how helpful and knowledgeable advisors are and how effective the advising relationship is. The goal of the program, which has already been piloted in CSOM and CSON, is to determine which departments are succeeding in advising their students, and which departments need to make improvements. Academic advising is an area of student life that is often complained about, but it is not one that can be easily fixed. These evaluations, though undoubtedly a good thing, will not resolve all of the issues related to academic advising.

They may, however, begin a conversation that can bring about significant positive change on campus.

Currently, students are assigned advisors pertaining to their specific major and are required to meet with that advisor before course registration time to obtain their access code.

Students who are undecided, mostly freshmen, are assigned a random faculty advisor. It makes sense that students are required to meet with a faculty member before course registration, and this process should not be discontinued. Many students, if given the opportunity, would download their access code from Portal, not meet with any faculty members, and register for classes without any outside input, thus failing to verbalize their future goals, or at the very least their plans for the next semester. This would not be beneficial for students in either the short or the long run.

There are problems with the system, however. Many freshmen are given faculty advisors who do not pertain to their academic interests in any way, simply because they checked the undecided box.

An option should be created that allows these students to select general areas in which they may be interested (for example, natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, fine arts, secondary education, etc.).

By giving students the ability to narrow down their interests from every major offered at Boston College to a smaller subset of departments, they will more likely be paired with a faculty mentor better equipped to relate to their needs and provide quality advising. In many ways, it is these students who can benefit most from an advising relationship with a faculty member, and it is imperative that they get the best mentorship possible.

What is important to realize, however, is that much of the suc-

Thursday, February 28, 2013

QUOTE OF THE DAY We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

-T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), American poet and playwright

cess of academic advising lies in the hands of the student, and thus the potential solutions that come from the administration are highly limited. Those students who take the initiative to build relationships with professors and seek out advice on career plans and class registrations are undoubtedly the students who get the best advising. Those students who meet with their advisor for two minutes, pick up their access code, and leave immediately clearly don’t get the same level of mentorship.

When it comes down to it, it is the responsibility of the student to seek out professors who will be able to provide them with good advice and a beneficial relationship. When advisors are assigned, the Academic Advising Center rarely knows the personality or specific academic interests of the student, and thus it is unreasonable to expect that each pairing is an ideal match. It is for this reason that the process of selecting a new advisor should be made much easier and the option be publicized more thoroughly. Many students keep their randomly assigned advisor for several years, without even knowing that it is possible to switch.

Students who major in two different areas are often assigned an advisor in their secondary area of study, and again believe that they are stuck with that advisor permanently. By sending out emails to students before course registration time informing them that they can select a new advisor if they so choose, more students will be likely to switch, and academic advising as a whole will improve.

While there may be some logistical problems with every student selecting his or her advisor, the benefits far outweigh the cost. A cap could be established to prevent popular professors from being overwhelmed with advising requests, and professors with similar academic interests could share advising relationships.

Many students are not in classes small enough to foster a close relationship with a particular professor, and therefore aren’t comfortable asking to be an advisee. It is for these students that the random assignments by major exist. Students should always feel comfortable approaching faculty, however—after all, it’s part of their profession, and, for most of them, part of what they love doing. Students can get as much as they want out of their advising relationship, and it should be made as easy as possible for them to customize it however they choose. Many students don’t need more than a couple minutes with a professor and an access code. But many do, and for their sake, academic advising must be improved.

BRENNAN POWER / HEIGHTS ILLUSTRATION

BC females should use alumnae community Alums like Amy Gips can be resources for female students looking to enter the business world

Amy Gips, BC ’04, strives to provide opportunities to female entrepreneurs because she recognized early in her career on Wall Street that women often enter the business world at a disadvantage, having limited networks of potential investors. Gips’ experience is proof of the very real obstacles that women still face today when entering the business world. On top of the recent publicity of the statistic stating that women leave Boston College with less confidence in their abilities than when they arrived, this information can color a disheartening world view for those who prefer to think only of how far women have come, and not of the gaps they still must bridge.

A partial solution can be found, however, in the cooperation between alums, such as Gips, who are conscious of the problems faced by women today and the community of bright, driven female students at BC. Current students can look to alumnae such as Gips as role models: successful businesswomen who embody what they, as students, have the potential to become. In return, alums in situations like Gips’ can draw upon the vast population of capable female students at BC for jobs and internships, providing them with mentorship and connections for future endeavors. Working together, BC alumnae and current BC students can strive to promote equality in the professional world.

HEIGHTS

THE

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The Heights

Thursday, February 28, 2013

A7

Web of memories, human experience

Patrick Angiolillo Spring Break - Two more days to sweet, sweet freedom. Even though we all have homework to do over the break, we won’t. Sure, we say we’ll do it on the plane, but then it seems so much more appealing to sleep/watch that movie we’ve never heard of/do the crossword in the magazine in the seatback pocket … and the Sudoku … and the word scramble … and memorize the floor plans of all the major U.S. airports. Then boom, the plane lands and we blissfully ignore all academic obligations for nine days.

We can’t wait.

Mr. Rodman Goes to NoKo - Turns out Kim Jong-un is a huge Dennis Rodman fan. We recently saw a photo on the Internet of a young Kim rocking a Rodman Bulls jersey.

Besides this being the best photo to surface from the country since all the photographs featuring Kim Jong-il looking at something, we think it offers a solution to the North Korea problem: appoint Rodman ambassador. He’ll challenge Kim to a friendly game of one-on-one, secretly let him win, charm him over discussions of facial piercings, and convince him to abandon the whole nuclear weapon thing cuz it just isn’t cool. Voila.

Also, for a little insight into the life of a North Korean, look at the English translation of their newspaper, Rodong Sinmun. It’ll blow your mind.

A snippet from the article on the recent nuclear test: “The scientists, technicians, workers, soldier-builders, and officials braced themselves up to rapidly develop the nation’s nuclear technology and thus make a positive contribution to further glorifying the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state.” We’re not kidding.

As the weather begins to warm on and off a bit (by which I mean the temperature rises to about 45 degrees and the sun is actually visible), I am quickly taken back to my summer journeys. I recounted one of them in a column back in September (highlighting my blundering misadventures to and from Ashkelon, Israel). The others were my family trip to Maine and my joining the Giving to Ghana Foundation on their annual trip to Sunyani, Ghana.

When the soft rays of the late winter sun warm my cheeks, I am brought back to Israel, where the intense Middle Eastern sun couldn’t keep from burning my face. The crisp wind of a particularly warm and rainy day reminds me of the thick and humid, but not-too-hot air of Ghana. These quickly and spontaneously spur other memories—fast and furious cab rides careening down from the highlands, where Jerusalem lies, to the Mediterranean seashore, where Tel Aviv and Ashkelon are situated; fighting with a market vendor who wanted an outrageous price for a reproduction oil lamp in Acco, Israel; dodging piles of rubble on the sparsely paved roads of rural Ghana; spending an eight hour lay-over in Amsterdam and accidentally, but fortunately, stealing a ride on their metro system from the airport. (It’s more complicated than you think—and it is not made any easier without knowledge of Dutch.)

The flood of memories I have from this past summer offers me a wealth of stories to share with friends, family, and strangers, as well as new and different perspectives on varied things (I will not, for example, complain—as much—about summers in New York after Israel). I cannot number how many times I am transported back to Grid 47 in Ashkelon, moving dirt for eight hours every day, and only finding more of

Ark of the 21st Century - So if any of us actually were feeling a little bummed about leaving Chestnut Hill for a week, the torrents of rain being dumped on us these past couple days have hosed that sentiment right out of us. It’s as if God has lined up all his little angel minions, armed them with super soakers, and had them all aim right at the Newton/Boston border.

Frankly, it’s a mess, and we don’t know what we’ve done that prompted God to smite us in this way. Fine, we caved and had sweets on Tuesday, but isn’t this kind of an overreaction? The only explanation: humanity has failed Him once again. Hit us up if you spot anyone accompanied by numerous pairs of various animal species.

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I cannot say if other creatures are subject to (or liberated by?) the same phenomenon. But I count it as a blessing, a gift on our human part. Our ability to associate memories, connect experiences, synthesize reflections, link ideas, and knit a quilt of different patches of lives or mould a statue of different clays of people—all of this allows us to empathize, to share our universal humanity with one another. It makes the concept of solidarity possible. It makes social and political justice across country and continent possible. It makes cultural immersion and cultural appreciation possible.

Because we all share the spark of humanity, we can all share each other’s memories, each other’s stories. Joseph Campbell far more elaborately described what I am only hinting at in his book, A Hero with a Thousand Faces. What he calls the “Monomyth” or the “Monomythic Cycle of the Hero” undergirds the human experience. Day in and day out we are bombarded with tales and adventures—whether in the plays of Shakespeare we read in our English seminars, the Iliad of Homer we translate for Greek class, the junk novels we are afraid to tell anyone we are reading, or the anecdotes we share among friends on the Comm. Ave. bus. These excite us, scare us, make us laugh, make us cry—pick your cliche. But the point is they connect us. We are inherently social beings, so if you’re chatting with an old friend, or the guy at the bus stop, or the attractive young lady for whom you just held the door, you’re sharing in this thing we call being human, and all of your life, your memories, experiences, fears, and desires come to bear on each second in each of these moments.

You cannot escape being you. So embrace it. Remember, and try to remember well, and reflect, and experience anew.

Never hesitate to live and don’t apologize for living fully. Don’t take this as a warrant for epicureanism or hedonism, but realize your humanity and share it with your fellow man.

Patrick Angiolillo is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

awkward.

Kristy Barnes

An Unholy Alliance - The other day, we witnessed someone get written up in Mac for hiding chicken in their salad bowl. We do not lie. The situation went a little like this: your average, defenseless BC female in the jungle of Mac at 1 p.m. finally makes it to the end of the line to pay: safety from the swarms of hungry freshmen is just around the corner. But as she takes her card back from the cashier and takes her first step into the clearing, two managers clearly trained in guerilla warfare appear out of nowhere. The girl is trapped! She tries to explain that she had simply forgotten about the chicken breast hidden beneath the piles of vegetable in her bowl, but the managers are showing no mercy to their prisoner.

They take down her name and ID number and all witnesses are struck by the resemblance of the situation to a drunk student being documented for having a party in his/her dorm room. Have the RAs and the BC Dining managers joined forces to strike fear into the hearts of all quiet hours-violating, chicken-stealing, underage-drinking students? Nowhere is safe anymore. And we don’t even want to think about what will happen to Late Night.

a monumental Roman wall (which, yes, is very cool, but is made substantially less cool when day after day your only find is more of the same wall—white plaster can only be so exciting). I am also readily brought back to Ghana—the beautiful, verdant landscape, the gracious, ebullient hospitality of everyone I met, and of course the horrible, yet developing system of roads outside the major cities. Each memory is a snippet, a photograph in my mind—the waterfalls at En Gedi and Kintampo, a plate of St. Peter’s fish in Tiberas, a hearty meal of chicken and Jollof rice in Techimen—and each rushes back to me in an instant.

Memories form a web in our human experience. We associate different experiences with one another based on similarities in the external circumstances or our internal dispositions. I cannot unlink the waterfalls at En Gedi, Kintampo, Niagara, and the little swimming hole where my family and I used to go in summers long past, just as I lump together the horribly awkward experience of flying next to an overly-affectionate Norwegian couple and my one uncomfortable foray into seeing a punk rock concert. Our experiences shape who we are, what we do, how we react to things, and where we go. Why we are who we are is in a large part answered by what our experiences have been—from growing up with our parents, to first setting out alone, to raising our own families.

These memories and experiences are constantly bouncing off one another, shedding light on the past and lighting a candle for the future. Our psyche is amazingly intricate—just think about the classic scene where a shrink with a curly mustache and a pipe induces lost and hidden memories out of his desperate patient (there’s got to be some truth to that, right?). We are inextricably bound by what we have undergone, what we have suffered, what we have experienced.

Even our English word “passion,” as in “you have passion for …” or “you are passionate about …” is based on the Latin word passio, meaning “suffer or endure”—a favorite word to describe what we love most is born of a word meaning suffering, enduring and experiencing. Yes, we are inextricably bound.

What I’m about to say is going to make you uncomfortable. It will make you squirm and cringe and recall some of your least favorite moments here at Boston College. But then again, what I say will probably make you recall your friends’ worst moments as well, and maybe, just maybe, amid your unpleasant feelings you’ll laugh too.

I was recently informed that I am an awkward human being. Well, that was no surprise to me—I’ve known that my entire life. I don’t know how to end phone calls, and one compliment will send enough blood to my cheeks to turn them the color of a fire truck. For a long time I thought I was alone in this uncomfortable world, filled with embarrassed giggles and moments that reveal my inability to handle normal social situations, but as I looked around the dining hall with a close friend the other night I realized I was not alone.

We were laughing over the awkward waltz I had just performed with the person who sat at the table before and was trying to get around me to exit, when we noticed it was not just I in this world of unease. Oh no, BC is filled with awkward people and situations. In fact, we sat there during dinner and listed typical situations here at BC that we all go through, and yet we all find so uncomfortable.

Lets look at Lower for starters. It’s basically like a college-level obstacle course but with the exact same challenges and embarrassment you felt in elementary school. First comes the test of strength—sounds like the monkey rope, right? But this time, it’s a door. Yeah, you know which one I am talking about. The one that is all the way on the right and is so dang heavy that your original effort isn’t enough. Instead of using any of the three other doors on the left, which are

Imbroglio

like the monkey ropes with the knots in it, you went right for the hanging piece of death. Or in this case, the wood block that weighs as much as you do. You basically walk into the door rather than through it, causing your friends to laugh at you and the cute girl behind you to wonder if you ever go to the Plex. By the time you are done wrestling the door, you realize that you’re already in the midst of the next obstacle: the army crawl. Low to the ground you attempt to wriggle by the service group that is screaming about the poor children they just know your money will save. Of course they see you and when you have to deny them you feel dirtier than you would have if you had literally been crawling through mud.

Into the lines you go, one step to the left or right and someone will push you to the side, just as the school-yard bully did to the little kids on the balance beam. Finally! You have your food and begin to maneuver your way to the utensil station. After performing an awkward square dance with the other confused souls looking for a plastic fork, you turn around to a sea of people, none of whom you recognize. Its like a glass house as you wander through lower searching for the face of your companions. Left, right, up, down, you’ve passed the same table three times. You spot your friends, but they seem to be doing the same hopeless wander you are. Luckily you see people starting to get up, and while you know you’re about to dive in on that table, and they know you are too, you both pretend that’s not the reality of it, and the whole situation gets unnecessarily uncomfortable. By the time you sit down, you’re out of breath and blushing, hoping to curl up in on a back bench where no one can see you.

But the dining hall isn’t the only place with typical awkward situations. All over campus the early week is full of terrible moments. Whether it’s making eye contact with someone you hooked up with in the Mods last weekend, or making eye contact with that girl that you may have hooked up with in the Mods last weekend, your Mondays are bound to be filled with discomfort.

Teachers make allusions to knowing what you did over the weekend then move on

to talk about the sexual tension between characters in the Iliad while the girl your roommate brought home glances at you from across the room. By lunchtime you’ve thought you’ve run out of awkward situations that occur as a result of the weekend’s activities, but then you run into your friend’s brother’s best friend and you panic. You don’t want to be rude and not say hello, but do they remember you? Both of you had had a few Nattys before the introductions and while for an hour you two became best friends and shared some of your darkest secrets, you’re not sure if they even know your name. So instead of risking embarrassment for both parties, you shuffle away with your head down and your face red.

Later in the week you can guarantee that you will run into your ex at the Plex, looking all hot and sweaty in your oversized tee after being on the elliptical for exactly 60 minutes plus the 5 minute cool down. Mind you, this was after you had to pretend to do push-ups for 20 minutes, trying not to seem like the tiger you are, ready to pounce on the first elliptical that is free. You’ll run into at least three members of your orientation group where you will apply the BC look-away, the same look you will, (or I guess won’t) give to the history professor you no longer talk to, even though you asked for a letter of recommendation last semester that he was too busy to write. You’ll probably get lost in Stokes, for even though it has been weeks, the logical students of BC still don’t grasp that the third floors of the North wing and the South wing are not connected.

The pull away is that everyone goes through these situations. So learn to embrace the blush, laugh at yourself and along with others—it will sure make life easier.

Hey, for most of us, at least we’ve passed the awkward times of trolling in the Mods, and if you are not past this, you’ll probably be too drunk to realize it’s as awkward as it is.

Kristy Barnes is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@ bcheights.com.

BY KALEB KEATON

The opinions and commentaries of the staff columnists and cartoonists appearing on this page represent the views of the author or artist of that particular piece, and not the views of The Heights. Any of the columnists and artists for the Opinions section of The Heights can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

The homeless paradox Eleanor Sciannella The hardest part about being homeless has got to be being ignored. But I can’t smile at every single homeless person I pass. If I acknowledge their presence, I have to acknowledge that they need help, and that I can offer that help, and I just can’t give money every single time I see someone in need. So I ignore. I ignore because I’m a young woman traveling alone in the city and I need to not get taken advantage of.

There was one night over Winter Break when two people showed up at the door asking me to support a child in a thirdworld country. They showed me a picture, tried to make small talk, and asked me to donate 50 cents a day, at which point I told them the classic “I support your cause, but I’m a college student and don’t have the means to give this sort of support” excuse and made the retreat back into my house. But he had his foot propping open my door, and kept telling me I could terminate the account later, and asked for my email. I gave it to him thinking he would spam me and nothing more, but then he started asking for all my contact information and putting it into the iPad in his hand—at which point I told him I would terminate the account if he started one, but he proceeded to ask for credit card information anyway (which is when my dad came to the door and told him off ). I was so angry that he had taken advantage of the fact that I was polite enough to give him my time. I obviously did not want to donate and he kept pushing to sign me up. You can’t just give money to a cause. You have to believe in it. You have to feel like you are doing the right thing. A better way to solve that problem would involve encouraging fair international trade practices, or supporting the U.S. to spend more on humanitarian support—anything that would prevent the condition those children face. So I hated that that man made me feel so insignificant, because I really did want to help—just not in his way.

Then there was one time in a Subway in Boston when a homeless man approached me and asked me to buy him a sandwich. Before I had time to think it through, I said, “No, sorry, I can’t” and turned back to the counter and he walked away and I never saw him again. I felt horrible immediately after. The extra minute it would have taken to pay for another sandwich, the few dollars it would have cost me, mean nothing to me, and everything for the dignity of that man. And it would have communicated to him and to the people in line that it is important to look after one another. And I could have set that example. I didn’t and I saw the dirty look that the guy making my sandwich gave the homeless man as he walked out. That dirty look should have been directed at me. A week later I saw a man asking for money on the street and went into the CVS I needed to pick up groceries from, and I bought him some water and pretzels, to reassure myself that I was a good person. And I felt really good about that, until I realized how dangerous it was to feel that way.

Doing that one good thing does not make me a good person. I have to live in a way that keeps that man from falling prey to poverty and homelessness. I go home and buy into the systems that put people like that on the streets. My life is run by consumerism, materialism, propaganda, white supremacy. So yes, I can take a minute out of my day to give some money to a man I’ve never met, but then I continue with my day, texting on my smartphone that I didn’t even know I needed until Apple told me so, and I go back to my 50-something-thousand dollar school because employers now value a school with a quality reputation more than a person with a quality character. I buy clothes I don’t need because appearing a certain way is more of a priority than putting money into programs that might provide a safety net for people along the poverty line. I was raised in a good area with a good school and had people to rely on and sports to play and clubs to join because my county has zoning laws that keep the people with money in, and the people without money out, of my neighborhoods. Only when I start speaking out against the systematic injustice of poverty can I truly feel good about giving something to someone on an interpersonal level.

Eleanor Sciannella is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

The Heights

A8

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Arnold leads BC on offense

Hockey Notebook

Hockey, from A10

Graham beck / Heights Editor

Head coach Jerry York has described the final games down the stretch as playoff hockey, where offensive chances are difficult to find.

Eagles adjust to playoff-style hockey

By Marly Morgus Asst. Sports Editor

Head coach Jerry York, after his team’s loss on Tuesday, acknowledged the added weight that each game possesses as his Eagles and six other teams stand in contention for the Hockey East regular season.

“We’ve been involved in some good races over the years—generally two teams, maybe three, but with the four tied—fifth and sixth hovering around—any one of those teams could win it,” York said.

Heading into the night, the Eagles were sitting on a three-way tie for first with one game in hand, possessing a perfect opportunity to create some separation between themselves and the rest of the field. With the loss, not only did they fail to create such separation, but they also allowed UMass-Lowell to grab a share of the top spot and lost their game in hand position. York was aware of what possibilities the night held for Boston College, but he didn’t express disappointment in his team.

“It’s going to go into the final night, I would think,” he said. “We all kind of play each other as we head down through the stretch here. But surely tonight was a night that would have given us a little separation.”

Two minutes for hooking. Two for interference. Slashing. High sticking. Interference again. The intensity that comes with, as York calls it, “playoff type hockey,” as the teams move down the final stretch

of the regular season, may have translated into urgency for the Eagles, as they took five penalties on the night compared to Lowell’s two. One of those, Bill Arnold’s high sticking in the second period, was matched by Joe Houk of Lowell, putting the teams in a four on four situation rather than going a man down, but this meant that BC had only one power play in the three periods of play.

During that single power play, the Eagles scored one of their two goals, and while the teams were at even strength, neither was able to dominate in their offensive zone.

Because of the even style of play, possession became extremely valuable for both teams, and they did everything that they could to keep the puck. That meant big hits, tough play in the corners and along the boards, and a reliance on speed.

Michael Matheson came out in the first period with one of those key elements in mind as he electrified the playing surface with two big hits within the first half of the period. During those opening minutes, physicality ruled play as both teams came out with the appropriate sense of urgency that comes with the final games of the regular season, and they conveyed it through hard hitting, fast hockey.

This even display of physical play led to the quick succession of goals, first by the River Hawks then followed by BC. Yet after the Eagles got on the board and as the period went on, the play slowed and fewer tough interactions occurred.

The result? A second period that con-

tained scoring chances but went without solid control at either end as neither team took a distinct advantage.

In this “playoff type hockey,” the scoring chances don’t come easily.

“Everybody is playing good, hard, tight defense,” York said. “We’ve got to really be assertive and capitalize on those scoring chances cause there aren’t going to be a lot of them. Goals are hard to come by now.”

Knowing that chances without concrete results can become a source of frustration, York is clear in that he doesn’t want his team to let that sentiment build up.

“You have to eliminate frustration from the game,” he said. “Shift after shift you can’t because that makes tight sticks.”

This outlook will lead the team into the rest of their season. With four games remaining, the Eagles will need loose sticks if they want to remain at the top of Hockey East. Providence, New Hampshire, the Lowell, and BC all have 28 points. They all have four games remaining. Heading down the stretch, dropping one game could mean dropping out of contention.

This weekend brings big matchups for all. Lowell faces Merrimack, who is just one point back, in a two-game series.

UNH takes on Massachusetts, and in the matchup that holds the highest stakes, the Eagles are set to take on Providence in two games.

If Tuesday night’s game was “playofftype hockey,” the next week takes the tone of a single-elimination tournament. n

suspension to give his team a boost on the ice.

Hayes, however, suffered a quad injury late in the third period, which will keep him out the rest of the year.

In a night full of momentum shifts, however, Lowell drew first blood.

With the Eagles playing shorthanded, Lowell’s Chad Ruhwedel waited with the puck for a play to develop before dishing it to sophomore Scott Wilson for a one-timed slap shot. The line drive scorched its way past goalie Parker Milner for a power play score to give the River Hawks an early advantage.

BC struck back minutes later, when freshman Travis Jeke sent a pass to forward Bill Arnold, who snuck a quick shot past Lowell goalie Connor Hellebuyck for the game-tying score.

Yet just when it seemed the tide had shifted in the Eagles’ favor, the River Hawks responded only 23 seconds later when Josh Holmstrom corralled a loose puck in front of BC’s crease and notched the visiting team’s second goal of the frame. The brief offensive volley rendered a 2-1 Lowell lead that stood strong for over 35 minutes of play.

After a scoreless second period defined

by BC penalty kills and missed opportunities, the Eagles finally fought their way back into the game almost halfway through the third frame.

Taking control of the puck near the point, Arnold took it to the net himself and beat Hellebuyck with his second goal of the night to draw even at two.

The second of Arnold’s two scores proved to be the last bit of offense BC could muster against Lowell, however. Unable to capitalize on opportunities in enemy territory, the Eagles were left to depend on a locked-in Milner to

hold the River Hawks at bay.

Though the senior goalie had found a groove en route to 25 saves on the night, he was soon confronted by a River Hawk duo eager to claim momentum. Center Joseph Pendenza charged up the side of the ice with the puck, dishing it to freshman teammate Christian Folin on the run before getting it back after another exchange. As if in the midst of playing keep-away with the Eagles, Pendenza quickly set up a go-ahead Folin score that caught a befuddled BC defense off guard.

York’s squad tried to rally and mount a comeback, but the Eagles could not create any chances menacing enough to outduel a dominant Hellebuyck.

After an empty-net goal from Lowell captain Riley Wetmore put the River Hawks up by two with under a minute to play, BC’s dismal fate was sealed.

“You have to eliminate frustration from your game, shift after shift, because that leads to tight sticks,” York said. “We had a couple of near misses, but so did Lowell.”

In the middle of playing four games in a seven-day stretch heading toward the regular season’s conclusion, the Eagles must keep pace as they remain deadlocked atop the conference.

One of the closest Hockey East stretch runs in recent memory can cause even the most composed teams to be distracted by potential scenarios and results that impact conference standings. Yet York and his squad will remain focused on one objective: taking care of their own business on the ice.

“We try to say that scoreboard watching is for second-place teams,” York said. “We’re going to just do our job. There are just so many variables, you could drive yourself nuts doing that. So we just concentrate on playing our game and just do the best we can with it.” n

Graham beck / Heights Editor

BC is in the middle of a four-game stretch in seven days as the regular season winds down.

BC tennis squads battle through a string of Ivy League matchups

By Chris Grimaldi Assoc. Sports Editor

For the Boston College men’s and women’s tennis teams, the past week has been a battle against Ivy League competition.

Despite capturing the doubles point in its match against Brown University on Tuesday night, the men’s squad fell by a mark of 5-2.

A pair of dominant team performances fueled the Eagles’ success with duo competition. Freshman Kyle Childree joined forces with junior Michael McGinnis to top Brown’s Justin To and Will Spector with an 8-5 advantage.

Adding to BC’s doubles run were sophomore Matt Wagner and senior Billy Grokenberger, who worked together to knock off Brown’s Brandon Burke and Daniel Hirshberg in a closely contested 8-6 matchup.

As much as the Eagles thrived in their doubles contests, they were outdueled in solo competition, dropping five of six single matches on the day.

BC senior Klaus Puestow accounted for his squad’s lone win in one-on-one play, defeating opponent David Neff 7-6, 4-6, and 10-5.

Alex Trautwig / Heights Senior Staff

The women’s tennis team remained unbeaten in 2013 after wins over Brown and Harvard last weekend. They are ranked No. 51 nationally.

Though sophomore Philip Nelson took opponent Michael Reichmann down to the wire in a 7-6, 7-5 loss, the Eagles could not compensate for their singles struggles in a hard-fought

match.

Meanwhile, the women’s squad began its successful run against Ivy competition with a 5-2 victory over Brown on Friday evening. BC senior Alex Kelle-

her led the Eagle charge, as she won her singles matchup and notched a victory alongside sophomore teammate Jessica Wacnik in doubles competition.

A senior duo of Olga Khymylev and

Ina Kauppila notched another doubles victory over Brown’s Sarah Kandath and Nikita Uberoi by an 8-7 (3) final, while Khymylev recorded a win in her singles matchup. Refusing to be outdone by their upperclassman teammates, BC freshmen Heini Salonen and Katya Vasilyev teamed up for a doubles victotry in addition to Salonen’s 6-4, 6-2 solo victory over Uberoi.

The Eagles carried their momentum and a 4-0 overall season record into battle with Harvard on Saturday night.

Wacnik continued her solid play, winning her singles contest against Hideko Tachibana and uniting with Kelleher to tally an 8-7 (2) doubles win.

Senior Kelly Barry and freshman Wan-Yi Sweeting contributed to BC’s solo matchup dominance with individual wins of their own. To cap a successful stint against Ivy League competition and bring the Eagles’ record to a flawless 5-0, the rookie Salonen and veteran Khmylev worked together to outduel the pair of Hai-Li Kong and Natalie Blosser, 8-3.

As BC’s men prepare for tournament play and the women look to continue a perfect early-season run, both will head out west within the coming week. n

Bates is gambling on Donahue, students Column, from A10

Graham Beck / Heights Editor

Brad Bates said on Monday that students will be moved “on top of the court” for basketball.

the Tar Heels and, potentially, to storm the court. For Bates’ gamble to pay off, both of these things will have to change.

BC needs to be entertaining enough on its own. The barrage of 3-pointers will have to stop rimming out and start falling in bunches. That 80-point mark Donahue has set will need to be hit regularly. And, most importantly, court-storming will have to be taken off the table. If BC hoops is going to draw a crowd on a regular basis, the team will have to be good enough for wins over Duke and Carolina not to be considered enormous upsets. Otherwise, those are the only games that will sell out.

Last week, the bull crew, respon-

sible for switching out the basketball and hockey ice, tried some changes at Bates’ direction. The student seating behind the rims was moved up 10 feet from where it currently stands, eliminating the gap between students and the court, so that Bates could see how it looked. That’s a good place to start.

The next move should be to bump the media away from its courtside spot. Ideally, students should be standing there, and the team benches should be moved to that side as well.

BC should set up a few rows of benches for students to crowd in behind the teams. With better seating and possibly a better and more exciting team, there is more motivation for students to go, and even to get there early to take up these spots.

Yet there’s still no guarantee that students won’t only show up for the

two or three games against elite opponents. If Bates takes this risk and only the hundred or so students who showed up for the Wake Forest or Maryland games this year come to most games next year, things could get ugly.

Bates knows this, and based on Monday’s comments it sounds like he’s prepared to go forward with the plan anyway. Less than five months into his tenure as athletic director, it’s a bold and ambitious move, but if he truly wants to institute change, all he can do is fire away. From there, it’s up to Donahue and his players to step up and finish the shot for him.

Austin Tedesco is the Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.

THE HEIGHTS

EDITORS’ EDITORS’PICKS PICKS

Thursday, February 28, 2013 The Week Ahead

Standings

Men’s hockey travels to Providence Friday to start a home-and-home weekend series. Women’s hockey hosts Maine on Friday night. Men’s basketball takes on Virginia at home Sunday afternoon. Women’s basketball plays North Carolina on the road Thursday night. Men’s basketball awaits its ACC tournament seeding.

Heights Staff

14-11

Chris Grimaldi

12-13

Marly Morgus

12-13

Austin Tedesco

10-15

A9

Recap from Last Week

Series of the Week

Women’s basketball fell to Maryland 86-61. Women’s hockey defeated Vermont 4-0. Women’s lacrosse lost to Ohio State 15-8.

Men’s hockey dropped its game against UMass Lowell 4-2. Baseball was beaten by the Red Sox in an MLB spring training game 11-1.

Men’s Hockey

Guest Editor: Connor Farley

Providence vs.

Asst. Copy Editor

“Taking care of business.”

This Week’s Games

Austin Tedesco Sports Editor

Chris Grimaldi Assoc. Sports Editor

Men’s Hockey: No. 4 BC vs. No. 20 PC (series)

Marly Morgus Asst. Sports Editor Split

Connor Farley Asst. Copy Editor

PC

Split

Women’s Hockey: No. 3 BC vs. Maine

BC

BC

BC

BC

BC

Women’s Basketball: BC at No. 15 UNC

UNC

BC

UNC

UNC

Men’s Basketball: BC vs. UVA

BC

BC

UVA

UVA

Men’s Basketball: BC’s ACC tournament seed

11th

10th

10th

11th

Boston College

On Friday night, the Eagles will travel to Providence College for the first game of a home-and home weekend series, culminating in a Saturday matchup at Conte.

BC is currently in a four-way tie atop Hockey East that includes the Friars. Eleven of Providence’s 13 victories have come against conference opponents, but the Friars could only muster a tie against the Eagles the only time both teams have met so far this season in December.

The Friars bring a two-game winning streak into the series. Despite posting a winning month of February, BC’s offense looks to improve after being held to four scores over its last two games

Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m.

BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK

Eagles haunted by slow start

BY STEVEN PRINCIPI Heights Staff

Even on the wrong end of a blowout, Olivier Hanlan and Joe Rahon logged a ton of minutes for the Eagles. Hanlan and Rahon played 34 and 36 minutes respectively and combined for 20 points. Hanlan once again managed to get to the basket better than anyone else on BC, but appeared to be unnerved at times by the big frontcourt of NC State. He did continue his recent hot shooting from 3-point range, however, going 2-for-4 from behind the arc.

Rahon, meanwhile, went just 2for-7 from the field but added 5 assists. Hanlan and Rahon both played close to their average for minutes on the season and continue to be the only two freshmen averaging in the top 10 for minutes in ACC play this season.

opened the game for the Eagles, NC State went on a 14-0 run that set the tone for the rest of the night. The 14 unanswered points consisted of only two BC turnovers, but a number of possessions that ended in contested looks and bad shots. On the defensive end, the Wolfpack grabbed a few offensive rebounds but mainly took advantage of the Eagles in transition and because of some good ball movement. The run was completed when Olivier Hanlan drove to the basket and attempted a layup, but was emphatically rejected by Wolfpack star C.J. Leslie. The block started an NC State fastbreak that ended with a dunk

by Rodney Purvis that send the home crowd into a frenzy.

The dunk made the score 14-2 and put the Eagles in an early hole that they would not dig themselves out of.

Wood Goes Off

Paint Tells the Story After dropping 23 points in his last outing against Duke, Ryan Anderson struggled for the majority of the game on Wednesday. The sophomore put up 12 points and six rebounds, but started the game just 1-of-6 from the field and had only two points after the first half. Anderson ended the game 4-of-10 from the field, but appeared hesitant to try any post moves against the much larger Wolfpack front court.

On the defensive end, NC State had their way in the paint .

They pulled down 14 offensive rebounds and beat the Eagles on the glass 38-24 overall. The Wolfpack forwards put up 46 points overall and dominated BC in the paint. The Eagles were once again significantly undersized as Dennis Clifford played only 11 minutes and Eddie Odio found himself on the wrong end of a number of mismatches on the defensive end.

After holding Scott Wood mostly in check during their first matchup, the Eagles were unable to contain the sharpshooter on Wednesday. Wood went 5-10 from 3-point range

Slow Start Dooms Eagles After a Dennis Clifford dunk

and dropped 17 points on the night, second only to Rodney Purvis for the Wolfpack. BC tried a number of different looks throughout the night, but Patrick Heckmann and Eddie Odio couldn’t stick with him in man-to-man looks and the zone defense lost him on a few times. For one of the best 3-point shooters in ACC history, a few open looks proved to be enough as Wood knocked down a number of threes to take momentum from the Eagles.

Jackson Leads the Way Lonnie Jackson was the leading scorer for BC, dropping 16 points coming off the bench for the Eagles. Jackson went 5-of-10 from the field and 3-of-6 from three point range and managed to keep the game close at times in the first half. After the Eagles fell behind early, Jackson tipped in a rebound and made two 3-point shots that helped BC cut an early 12 point deficit to five points. Another 3-pointer at the end of the first half saw BC get within three points, the closest they would be. 

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Steve Donahue and the Eagles cut the Wolfpack lead to 6 before the half, but couldn’t carry the momentum forward.

State tallies 46 points in the paint Basketball, from A10 the complaint with NC State up by 10. The Wolfpack then went on a 16-6 run that put the game out of reach.

Warren, a standout freshman forward, helped the Wolfpack capture the victory by posting 13 points and six rebounds in the second half.

Warren has been in the conversation for the rookie of the

year race with BC’s freshman point guard Olivier Hanlan and Duke’s Rasheed Sulaimon.

Sulaimon had 27 points against the Eagles on Sunday, while Hanlan could not create for his team like he had previously against both squads at home. He finished with 12 points, shooting 5-for-11 from the field, but the BC offense, which usually relies on his penetration to get started, stalled as the Wolfpack guards kept him in front for most of the game.

Fellow freshman guard Joe Rahon logged 36 minutes for the Eagles, but like the rest of his teammates, also could not find success against NC State’s length and athleticism, shooting 28 percent.

The Eagles stand pat at 11th in the ACC with three games to go until the conference tournament beings two weeks from now.

They will face both Clemson and Georgia Tech, both of which sit atop BC in the standings. 

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Lonnie Jackson led the Eagles with 16 points last night at NC State.

Late rally clinches UConn win Lacrosse, from A10 the Huskies, the Eagles maintained the offensive zone for nearly the entirety of the first 10 minutes of the half, forcing Connecticut to take the first timeout of the game after a goal from Stanwick with 20 minutes remaining in the game gave the Eagles their first lead.

The timeout paid off when the Huskies tied the game just over a minute later and continued to score five more unanswered goals

taking a 12-8 lead. As BC had dominated the first 10 minutes of the half, UConn dominated the second. BC was able to get some time in the Huskie zone, but the strong perimeter that UConn had established in the first half of play carried through.

After a sixth unanswered goal, head coach Acacia Walker called her team to a short huddle. Her efforts, however, did not prove as fruitful as Connecticut’s and BC was unable to answer as the clock wound down. The final score was

m. Tennis

scoreboard

BC Brown m. Fencing

BC BRAN

Huskies 13, Eagles 8.

Top contributors for UConn included Palmucci, whose four goals set the tone for the Huskie offense, and goalie Shannon Nee, whose six saves in the first half contributed immensely to Connecticut’s lead.

There were also bright spots on the Eagles’ end, as Rix finished the night with three goals.

It was the Eagles’ second loss of the season, and one that they will want to move past quickly with their matchup against top ranked Northwestern on the horizon. 

Dedham, MA 2/27

2 5

Dedham, MA 2/22 w. Tennis

W. Tennis

5 (4-3, 0-0) BC (5-5, 0-0) Brown 2 Waltham, MA 2/26

Baseball

72 Harmeyer Gold medal BC 89 IU

4 Kelleher W 6-3, 6-4 BC HarvRD 3 Greenville, NC 2/24 Softball

2 5

CaMBRIDGE, MA 2/23

Wacnik W 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 Chattanooga, TN 2/24

Waltham, 2/26 Boston, Mama11/11

W. Fencing

BC 105 Adragna Silver Medal Bran 107 W. Basketball

81 Cooley 3-for-4, 2 RBI bc Butera 2-for-3, R BC Parr 2 RBI ToleDO 69 Tobias 2-for-3, 2 R Clem

61 64

Newton, MAMA 11/09 Chestnut Hill, 2/24

Shields 14 pts

SPORTS THE HEIGHTS

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Thursday, February 28, 2013

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Wolfpack overpower Eagles inside

BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Sports Editor

For nine minutes, the Boston College men’s basketball team showed that a road environment wouldn’t affect its ability to execute. Trailing North Carolina State 22-6 midway 82 NC State through the Boston College 64 first half, it looked like the Eagles were once again going to get outplayed on an opponent’s home floor.

Then, sophomore center Dennis Clifford finished a dunk and guard Lonnie Jackson erupted for nine points, all from behind the line, to cut the Wolfpack lead down to six points before the half ended.

BC couldn’t carry that momentum into the second half, however, as NC State pulled away to an 82-64 win, shooting 64 percent in the final frame compared to the Eagles’ 38 percent. The victory marked the fifth-straight for the Wolfpack over BC. The Eagles were dominated by NC State’s size, allowing 46

points in the paint while managing only 22 themselves.

State’s C.J. Leslie, T.J. Warren, and Rodney Purvis had no trouble finding scoring lanes through the BC defense.

The perimeter defenders for the Eagles struggled to contain Purvis and Lorenzo Brown off the dribble, and Brown and Warren found easy looks either from post-ups or off the Wolfpack’s 14 offensive rebounds.

The game looked like it was over early when the Eagles couldn’t get anything going on offense and continued to fumble the ball over to NC State, especially sophomore forward Ryan Anderson who saw hard double-teams every time he caught the ball down low. It resembled BC’s outing on Sunday afternoon at Duke, when the offense stalled due to tight pressure and the defense couldn’t protect the rim in a 21-point defeat. With the loss, the Eagles dropped to 1-7 on the road in conference play this season.

Jackson’s sharp shooting and a strong defensive effort down the stretch brought

the game back within reach, though, before the first half ended. 11 of Jackson’s 16 points came in the first half as he sparked BC’s comeback off the bench, but he went cold in the second half, not scoring in the final 15 minutes.

BC cut the Wolfpack lead to 39-34 after two Jackson free throws early in the second half, but that’s as close as the game would get from that point on. NC State turned the defensive intensity back up and the Eagles struggled to hold on to the ball and make good decisions on offense. On one end of the floor, State found easy looks either around the rim or behind the arc with quick ball movement and hard dribbles into the paint, and on the other end of the floor BC continued to struggle to find gaps in the Wolfpack defense.

The frustration peaked for BC when Anderson turned to an official and complained about a foul call midway through the second half, drawing a technical for GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

See Basketball, A10

The Eagles couldn’t get on track at NC State, falling to 1-7 on the road in ACC play.

Bates takes big gamble on BC hoops AUSTIN TEDESCO

sphere,” said head coach Jerry York. “I thought tonight was a playoff-type hockey game.”

Despite a gritty effort to regain the conference’s top spot, the Boston College men’s hockey team fell to Lowell by a score of 4-2. The loss not only marked the Eagles’ first home loss to their conference rival since 2009, but also allowed the River Hawks to join BC in a four-way tie for first place in the Hockey East.

“I thought our team battled hard, played very well, as did the River Hawks,” York said.

“Not a lot of difference between those two teams tonight.”

BC lived up to the matchup’s urgent nature right out of the gates, as freshman Michael Matheson placed a couple of bone-rattling hits on his opponents to set the tone, and forward Kevin Hayes returned from a three-game

If he builds it, will they come?

Brad Bates’ first major risk as athletic director hinges on that question.

The hiring of Steve Addazio, even if it was the right move, was safe. The firing of Frank Spaziani was obvious.

What Bates is planning next, though, is neither of those things, and the answer to the question will be in the hands of a fourth-year head coach, his team, and 9,000 undergrads.

“We need to make basketball as intimidating of an environment as it can be,” Bates said at the State of the Heights on Monday night.

One of the first questions Bates has repeatedly asked students since he got to Boston College has centered around the seating at men’s basketball games.

Imagine you could start over from scratch, he’s said. Don’t think about the restrictions. What would you want it to look like?

That answer is starting to take shape.

“We are going to do some things that are going to put you right on top of the court,” Bates said.

If students are right on top of the court, that means they’ll be on TV. That also means that if they don’t show up, like they haven’t for the past two seasons, a barren outer rim will haunt the television’s edges.

So, which one will it be?

“If we give you those seats, we need you to show up,” Bates said.

There’s the gamble, and it looks like Bates is making it at the perfect time.

The team should be significantly better in 2013-14, which will encourage students to fill the new, improved seats. BC’s scoring margin against opponents has shrunk from a putrid -9.3 average point differential last season to just -1.8 this year. With a young team making the transition to a veteran squad, especially when it comes to learning how to finish games and staying composed on the road, that margin should swing into the positive next year.

Dennis Clifford is expected to be back at 100 percent after having time off to rest his knee. Joe Rahon and Olivier Hanlan, both of whom already carry themselves like seasoned upperclassmen on the court and can only fly under the national radar for so long, are looking to become the conference’s best back court. Eddie Odio still has plenty of ACC big men he needs to dunk on, over, and through.

The students proved against unranked North Carolina earlier in conference play that it’s possible to fill seats for a weeknight game. The issue, though, is that they didn’t come to watch the Eagles, they came to watch

See Hockey, A8

See Column, A9

MAGGIE BURDGE / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC

MEN’S HOCKEY

LACROSSE

Late run leads to BC upset

BY MARLY MORGUS Asst. Sports Editor

With rain falling, pushed horizontally by gusts of wind, the University of Connecticut Huskies and Boston College Eagles lined up for a stormy afternoon lacrosse matchup.

Rankings separated the teams by 17 spots, BC coming in at No. 20 and UConn at 37, but at the end of the day numbers didn’t stand the test of the game. An unyielding Con13 UConn necticut of8 Boston College fense led the Huskies past BC to a win with a final score of 13-8.

The Huskies went up early as their first goal of the game came off of a foul that gave them position right in front of the goal. Carly Palmucci beat BC goalie Emily Mata for the score.

Though BC responded by taking the ball right down to the opposite end, solid perimeter defense by the Huskies held them at bay as the Eagles struggled to break through toward the net. Upon finally breaking through, the Eagles’ first shot of the game from senior Brooke Blue went just wide.

Gaining possession off of the wide shot, UConn took control and answered the attempt with another goal off a foul to take a 2-0 lead.

After another wide attempt from the perimeter, BC got on the board with just under 20 minutes

remaining in the half when Mikaela Rix drove toward the net from the left side to earn herself an unassisted goal.

For the final 20 minutes of the half, the teams went back and forth. Plagued by turnovers on both ends, each of the teams was able to create chances all the way up and down the field. The scoring alternated with BC goals coming from Rix, sophomore Covie Stanwick, junior Moira Berry, and junior Cali Ceglarski.

BC had more shots than UConn, tallying 13 to the Huskies’ nine, but goalie Emily Mata made just two saves during the first half, allowing UConn to hold the lead going into the intermission with a score of 7-5.

To start the second half, BC dominated the possession of the ball leading them to strike first as Rix captured her third goal of the game just over two minutes in.

The Huskies tried to answer quickly as they were given possession at midfield off of a BC foul, but Mata stopped a shot for her third save of the game.

Just over six minutes into the half, BC came back to tie the game when Blue struck again off of a pass from Stanwick. The deficit that the Eagles had fought from the second minute of play in the first half was behind them.

The back and forth nature of the first half was over. With help from a series of fouls from

See Lacrosse, A9

I NSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Lowell forced a four-way tie atop Hockey East with a 4-2 win over BC on Tuesday night.

BC slowed down by Lowell

BY CHRIS GRIMALDI Assoc. Sports Editor

The first time UMass-Lowell came to BC this season in late October, Hurricane Sandy made its way to Boston. When the River Hawks were 4 UMass-Lowell again scheduled to faceoff with Boston College 2 the Eagles at Chestnut Hill a few weeks ago, winter storm Nemo battered campus with blizzard conditions.

Yet when the two squads faced each other Tuesday evening in Conte Forum, Lowell found another way to wreak havoc on the Heights—playoff-style intensity amidst a close chase for the Hockey East title.

“I think when we get to this stage in the season, late February, early March, the games take on so much more of a playoff type atmo-

Men’s tennis falls to Brown

The Bears defeated the Eagles 5-2 at the Dedham athletic complex on Tuesday...A8

Game Of The Week: BC vs. PC

Men’s hockey has a home-and-home series with the Friars this weekend.........A9

Editors’ Picks........................A9 BC Notes...............................A9

A2Column

Fashion Forward

Reconsidering Rhinestones and cheetah print, page B4

netflix nexus

survivor shows

exploring the timeless conflict of Man Vs. nature, page B4

The Heights

Thursday, January 17, 2013

album review

‘amok’

Thom Yorke of radiohead releases new, groovy, and distinct album with side project band Atoms for peace, B5.

james franco

Great The

Powerful and

Sam Raimi

Wizards

Oz

of

In advance of the release of Oz The Great and Powerful, coming March 8 from Disney, director Sam Raimi and star James Franco talked to The Heights about the film. Read on for their insights into crafting a fresh new spin on a classic tale.

Interview conducted by:

Sean Keeley | Arts & Review Editor Ariana Igneri | Associate Arts & Review Editor

See Oz, B3

MAGGIE BURDGE / Heights PHoto illustration

photos courtesy of walt disney studios motion pictures

THE HEIGHTS

B2

WILEY’S FOLLIES

Piracy, Plato, and publishing

Thursday, February 28, 2013

SCENE AND HEARD

BY: ALLAN GUZMAN

JOHN WILEY Gyges’ ring, as presented in Plato’s Republic, is a mythical artifact capable of making man invisible. In consequence, whoever wears the ring, ridden of fear of punishment, may act freely against established moral convention. From these metaphorical circumstances, there comes a great question: if no one’s watching, is man by natural an immoral being?

The Internet is perhaps the nearest humanity has come to imitating the implications of invisibility. From maintaining friendships to exchanging goods and services, people have come to favor this attractive invisibility for many of their most important interactions. The Internet has accordingly been praised for its convenience and privacy, but all too commonly, the technocentric glosses over the disturbing moral implications of online exchanges.

The piracy of movies, television, and music is the realization of the moral duplicity The Republic hinted at thousands of years ago. But rather than burdening my purpose by restating the overstated contentions with piracy, I hope to qualify the issue objectively, and take time to assess properly why the “powers that be” are effectively powerless in sentencing the 21st century buccaneer to the gallows.

Much to his dismay, the common car thief has yet to master the art of stealing cars over the Internet. Accordingly, the online pirate is effective only in his plunder of abstract goods. And since they’re stealing inspiration rather than sustenance, the demographic of such thieves is decidedly broader. These people are generally not in desperate straits—they are not stealing music to feed their children or to prevent the foreclosure of their homes.

Interestingly enough, books would seem to fall under the category of abstract goods, and yet, publishers have hardly felt a pinch of the pirate’s inexorable plundering force. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact they never distributed their livelihood to the masses by way of compact disc, in good faith of humanity’s intentions.

But I believe another important story of the relative success of publishers better answers our question.

Imagine paying $15 to spend two hours of your Friday night having books read to you in a crowded duplex. The absurdity of this could serve as a useful critique of the movie industry—for our purposes, we should understand it as the distinction of books as a generally intimate medium.

Books provide few immediate sensations.

Instead, we are educated through books.

The intellectual connection we have with them cannot be equated to the sensory connection we have with movies, television, and music. Books are our teachers.

Movies, television, and music are our friends. And while paying for education is reasonable, paying for friendship is laughable.

However, it’s worth mentioning books.

By means of the public library, books are free and have historically been this way, but here’s the kicker: people have consistently chosen to pay for them. Inversely in the music industry, record companies insist on people paying for music, and in turn, people have consistently chosen not to.

There is a noble stupidity to legislation that seeks to effectively regulate anonymous exchanges capable of spanning the entire world in a matter of seconds. We erect picket fences along the highway, in hopes of stopping the frequent avalanches of the unstable mountain it was built upon. My advice is to instead relocate the highway or level the mountain. Online pirates would be no more a threat than the old ladies who pocket the sugar packets in diners if the respective content could legally be accessed for free. Though at face hardly a lucrative solution, we have already seen Pandora, Spotify, and Netflix successfully monetize cheap or free content. But if the mountain is too costly to level, the path by which artists make their money can be moved. It’s a gloomy forecast, but if the artist’s livelihood is bleeding through one particular appendage, perhaps it’s time to tie the tourniquet.

Returning to the original question, does online piracy prove the immoral nature of man? To this, I answer no, not conclusively at least. Perhaps man has simply become a bit overzealous in his entitlement, or perhaps he is in truth devoid of morality. But I believe he is young. I believe we naively expect the laws of physical commerce can perfectly be applied to an immaterial state. We are like a child losing a favorite toy into the ocean. We cannot understand why the ocean took it, and we are farther yet from realizing that it’s not the ocean’s fault. So instead we cry, because we placed our toy in the ocean, and in the ocean, now it’s gone.

John Wiley is the Asst. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

1. A ONE-TIME OSCAR GIG

Only a few days after his predictably controversial gig as Oscars host, the Family Guy creator tweeted that there is “no way” he will host the show again. Although MacFarlane roused critics with jokes and song numbers that many called offensive, the Oscars enjoyed its highest ratings in three years, with over a million viewers more than 2012’s show.

On to the next one.

2. DEVELOPMENT ARRESTED While the cult hit’s fans eagerly await its fourth season debut on Netflix, the excitement may be short lived.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings stated that there are no plans for continued seasons, calling this year’s a “one-off.”

Despite the disappointing news, hope remains for the long-awaited Arrested Development movie. The show’s creator, Mitchell Hurwitz, stated that he’d like season four to serve as an introduction to the film.

4. WEST-WARD EXPANSION

It appears that being a future dad will not slow Kanye West down. The rapper recently announced at a concert in Paris that he was working on something new and would be back “in a couple of months.” If this concerns a new solo album, it would be the first since West’s 2010 masterpiece, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Equally likely, however, is the possibility that he’s working on a follow-up to his compilation record, Cruel Summer.

3. NEW DANCING STARS

5. ONION CONTROVERSY

It’s hard to believe that Dancing with the Stars is about to enter its 16th season, but there is still no shortage of celebrities to recruit. The latest batch of contestants was announced recently, with stars like Wynonna Judd, Andy Dick, and football player Jacoby Jones comprising part of the list. Also participating is recently-made-famous Olympic athlete Aly Raisman.

Will she leave viewers unimpressed, like her teammate McKayla Maroney? Only time will tell.

Always outspoken, satirical news organization The Onion made a rare act of apologizing after calling 9-year-old Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis the C-word in a recent tweet. Although the tweet was purportedly meant in jest, many reactions called the joke in very poor taste. The tweet has since been deleted and Onion CEO Steven Hannah made a formal apology to Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

THE CRITICAL CURMUDGEON

@PATTONOSWALT (PATTON OSWALT, ACTOR/COMEDIAN)

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

“Thrift Shop” sensation Macklemore stands out with his appealingly self-deprecating persona compared to the egos of most rappers.

Macklemore: actually keeping it real MATT MAZZARI Happy Birthday to Johnny Cash, who would have turned a whopping 81 on Feb. 26. Unfortunately, this will have to be just a tangential acknowledgement, since I used up my quota for posthumous birthday-related columns last week with a dedication to grunge great Kurt Cobain. Of course, you already know that though … you are reading my columns every week, aren’t you, loyal reader? I don’t write these for my health, you know.

No, this week’s unabashedly onesided discussion is inspired by the exciting news from UGBC that Macklemore and Ryan Lewis will be headlining this year’s Modstock Concert! Despite having some qualms with the culture of formulaic laziness behind most popular rap being released nowadays (as you know so well, loyal reader), I’m actually not being the least bit sarcastic when I call that “exciting news.”

Within the last year, Macklemore has released a U.S. Billboard No. 1 single, “Thrift Shop feat. Wanz,” as well as an album that charted at No. 2, The Heist. His commercial success is especially impressive when you consider that he and his producer Lewis never even signed with a major record label … But that’s not why I’m so gung-ho about him coming here. The reason has more to do with his style of songwriting, which comes out particularly in “Thrift Shop”: he’s mastered that certain element of not-sosubtle farce and self-deprecation that’s so

refreshing to see. A performer’s capability to make fun of his or her self is what I’d like to talk about today. Why has the silly, parsimonious premise of “Thrift Shop” appealed to people so much, while the rest of pop musicians are concerned with depicting their own wealth and confidence in precisely the opposite way? In my opinion, the ability to dangle at the edge of parody is an invaluable skill for any entertainer to have, whether comedy is directly involved in their act or not.

With that said, there are also plenty of other reasons I’m glad they booked these guys this year, including the fact that we aren’t scraping the bottom of the barrel for more washed up late-’90s/early-2000s deadbeats. What a relief it is to hear they’re giving Nelly a break from the hassles of showbiz, so he can finally tend to his rhododendrons in peace. It’s really nice to see that we can still get somebody to show up who’s relevant to the current scene, be it as it may that listeners are now waiting for a second major album since Macklemore’s triumphant break into the mainstream. The last time this happened for Boston College was probably when we got Kid Cudi, who will be a useful example of exactly the opposite of what I’m saying Macklemore does well.

So take “Thrift Shop”: it’s a fun song, definitely catchy, and distinctively upbeat.

More than that, though, it’s a reversal of an accepted theme in rap, the nearly constant boasting about having stacks of cash, fabulously tricked out cars, and all of that jazz.

Macklemore, instead, proudly declares that

he’d rather wear $.99 leopard mink smelling vaguely of urine than pay $50 for a tee shirt.

It works because it’s new and funny, but also because it turns that off-putting, generic, in-your-face ego associated with the genre on its head. Now take “Man on the Moon,” the title track of one of Cudi’s biggest albums: the theme of the song isn’t very specific besides “I’m super in love with myself,” though he definitely makes that part clear in his opening lines when he simply repeats how he doesn’t give a f—k about his critics because they “can’t comprehend” how awesome he is. He claims that if he was “boring,” people might be more ready to accept him. Yeah, Cudi, that’s it: your raps about how great you are must be just too innovative for people to handle. Fascinating analysis, right there.

What I’m saying is, it’s admirable to see humility in an artist, but even more admirable to see an artist who is legitimately self-aware and having actual fun in the studio. Sure, the music business is stressful and you’ve got to be tough to get to the top, but that doesn’t mean putting on airs and constantly reminding everyone that you’re rich and therefore verified as an artist. In the long run, it just makes you seem like you’re even less secure. For me, that ability to just relax and not take yourself so seriously in the studio pushes a guy like Macklemore over the edge.

Matt Mazzari is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

“IF THIS WERE THE SINGING HUNGER GAMES, JENNIFER HUDSON WOULD ADVANCE TO THE OCTAGON ROUND WITH SHIRLEY BASSEY. #SORRYCATHERINE #OSCARS” @ELIZABETHFORMA (ELIZABETH WARREN, SENATOR)

“SO HAPPY FOR @ BENAFFLECK AND ARGO TONIGHT. WE’RE CHEERING FOR YOU BACK HOME IN MA! #OSCARS2013” @JOELMCHALE (JOEL MCHALE, ‘THE SOUP,’ ‘COMMUNITY’)

“BEN AFFLECK’S TUX IS

BY ARMANI, HIS SHOES ARE BY GUCCI, AND HIS BEARD IS BY SEE I’M A DIRECTOR NOW.” @CONANOBRIEN (CONAN O’BRIEN, ‘CONAN’)

“JENNIFER LAWRENCE: SORRY I COULDN’T BE YOUR OSCAR DATE TONIGHT, BUT EMMANUELLE RIVA IS GOING TO BE THERE - AND YOU KNOW HOW MY EXES ARE.” SUBMIT YOUR FAVORITE TWEETS OF THE WEEK FOR CONSIDERATION AT ARTS@BCHEIGHTS.COM.

The Heights

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Speaking with the

O

of

Wizards

SAM RAIMI Q: What inspired your version of the World of Oz? A: Well I drew it all from the great author L. Frank Baum, his vision of Oz, that he had written about in 14 some books. And then, I was also inspired by the illustrator, W. W. Denslow, he was the original illustrator of the L. Frank Baum books. So a lot of inspiration was taken from his drawings. But I was also inspired by the great classic movie, Wizard of Oz, of course, who would not be inspired by that? A lot of the visuals of the movie, but more than the visuals; what inspired me about the Wizard of Oz movie, was the character’s sense of love that they have for each other.

How friends come together and that very soulful sweet message that comes at the end of the picture when we learn from the Wizard that all of us are complete, all of us broken, lonely individuals are completely, we have within us the thing to make us complete if we only recognize it. That gave me a great source of inspiration.

Q: What was it about these actors, who between them have a very diverse acting background, that makes them so perfect for their respective roles?

A: Well it all comes down to the casting process. I wasn’t looking for, necessarily the very best actor or actress in the world.

I was looking for that actor or actress that had the qualities of the character they’re going to portray. And I guess that’s the essence of the casting process. And, I guess, the old saying is, you want to find the right person for the role. So I’m looking for, like with Mila Kunis’s character, she plays Theodora, and Theodora is a good and innocent character, so I’m looking for someone who could portray that innocence and also she makes a turn for the wicked side. The wizard breaks her heart and first she’s heartbroken, but then a deep anger starts to stir within her, and she becomes a raging woman scorned. So I needed somebody who would portray both sides of that character. And there are a lot of great actresses, but when I saw two movies it told me that she could handle both sides. One was Forgetting Sarah Marshall and I saw this real positive vibe that she put out as this, I guess, Hawaiian hotel clerk. And I thought, there is an innocent positive force, that is, I believe she could play Theodora. And then when I saw the brilliant Black Swan, where she had this real dark and nasty witchy quality.

That told me that she could play the other half of the role. So between those movies, I thought that she had everything it took to become Theodora. And the same is true, I want to get through all the actresses, but for instance, um, with Michelle Williams, who plays Glinda the Good Witch.

Primarily I thought the most important thing with this character is a source of pure goodness. And I needed an actress that had a good soul. So suddenly that ruled about 90 percent of the actresses in Hollywood. (laughing) Anyways. What I mean to say is that when you spend time with Michelle Williams, she puts out a very sweet aura. And I consider her to be a very good soul. And that’s something that I thought couldn’t be faked by an actor, no matter how fine they were. Because when the camera gets in close, really close to the face of the actor or actress, the audience knows whether they’re true or not. They know in their heart whether or not … they can judge it from a critical point of view, I don’t know, but you can feel it. And I needed her to radiate that goodness.

B3

z

james franco Q: What was the best part of working on the film? And also, what was the most challenging part of working on the film?

Q: Recently you’ve been doing a lot of serious movies. Why did you decide to attach yourself to this more family fun/adventure film?

A: The best part of the picture for me was, as a director, was once I had worked on the thing for like two years and eight months, was to hear Danny Elfman, our composer, create such a fantastic score. Because he took the emotions that were in the movie and he elevated them. He took the drama and he deepened it, the thread enhanced it. So he basically made everything better, he was the secret sauce that brings it to the next level. That was the best part for me, to see the movie whole and be made better and be brought together. The most challenging, I think was probably not dissimilar from other filmmakers and their ensemble movies, where there are many characters, and many back stories, and many interconnected relationship tales, and juggling what part of their back story should I include? What part should I cut out? What part should I give the audience?

And what part would be most effective if I let the audience use their own imagination to fill in the blanks? Because, that’s really the secret I think—letting the audience participate. Not spoon-feeding them everything, but giving them just enough tools to finish building the bridge and make them their own collaborator. And it’s that part about it, part of that is what to withhold.

A: Well, I’ve been a fan of the Oz books, L. Frank Baum Oz books since I was a boy. I read all of them when I was age 11. They were some of the first books that I read on my own for pleasure and I’ve worked with the director, Sam Raimi, in three previous films and so this was another chance to work with him. And then in addition to that, I saw the role as something I could have a lot of fun with and, and could be fairly creative with. He was written as a comedic character within this fantastical world, and I found that combination to be fairly unusual and I just thought it would be a juxtaposition of two different things, comedy and fantasy that would, would result in something entertaining.

Q: What are you most excited about for audiences to take away from seeing the film?

A: Ideally I’d like them to feel uplifted. The best thing that stories could do for us is reverberate with truth and, show us the way in a way that is not pushy or preachy, but basically, if you could recognize this is true, and that’s true, and see there is a way to be happy with material goods, without the pride, without sense of self being everything [and] all dominating, there’s a simple beauty in loving another person and friends coming together, in being selfless. And that’s what this movie’s message is, and that’s what I’d like the audience to come away with.

Q: What advice would you give to aspiring directors looking to forward their careers after college?

A: To inspiring directors looking to forward their careers, I would say, be directing now, not after college. Every day you should be writing. Writing a script or a scene, every weekend, every Saturday, you should be shooting on video a scene from the script you’ve been writing. Around Sunday you should be cutting the thing, and on Monday you should be showing it to a university audience. And they won’t like your damn little picture. So you’re going to have to take it back and recut it and make it better, and rewrite it on Friday, reshoot it on Saturday, recut it on Sunday, put some music on it, and show it to them again on Monday. And they might like it a little bit better. That’s what you got to do and you got to keep doing it, just keep shooting and you will be a filmmaker.

If you wait for some after school thing, or sometime in the future to start your career, that waiting will expand. You just do it now and you will always be a director.

So get to work you lazy bums.

Q: When taking up this project, did you have any initial hesitations about portraying this character that you had read about?

A: Yeah, well, because I was an Oz fan I wanted to be sure that they had a sound approach and I was already very hopeful because Sam was involved—Sam Raimi, and, you know, he’s just one of our best directors, and I knew that they would capture the visuals of the movie very well, or at least I had hopes that they would.

But I wanted to be sure that they were being loyal to certain things about Oz that people expect, and then also had a fresh take on it. And they did, you know. They had all the elements you need in order for people to recognize the world of Oz. You had the Yellow Brick Road and the Emerald City, and witches, and flying monkeys, and a bunch of strange creatures, and Munchkins. All the things that make up what we, we imagine Oz to be. But then I saw that their approach to the world, their emissary into the world was not a male version of Dorothy, fortunately. That they weren’t just gonna redo it, uh, with a, you know, innocent young person kind of walking through Oz that my character was, instead, a kind of con man that was stumbling through Oz and, and because he’s trying—he’s pretending to be something he’s not, he gets into a lot of awkward situations that could be played for comedy. And I thought that comedic edge would help distinguish this version of Oz from other versions.

Q: How did you prepare for the role of Oz both physically and mentally?

A: Well, I had to be able to carry myself as a magician because my character, Oscar Diggs, starts off as a traveling magician in a circus, and we even see a bit of one of his shows.

So I needed to be able to do that, those tricks convincingly and to hold myself on stage like a magician in a convincing way. So they hired one of the best magicians in Las Vegas, Lance Burton, to come to Detroit, and he gave me—I was fortu-

nate enough to have private lessons with him, and he taught me how to make it look like I’m, you know, having people levitate and make it look like they’re, you know, evaporating in front of everyone’s eyes and, um, and then also just kind of how to hold myself on stage, you know. You know, he taught me all of that, so it was, it was great.

Q: What’s different about working with Sam Raimi now than it was when you were working on Spiderman?

A: I’ve known Sam for over 10 years.

He is one of my favorite directors to both work with and he makes some of my favorite films. When I worked on Spiderman with him, I was a supporting character and Sam Raimi identifies with his lead characters very closely. And so he very much identified with Peter Parker. And because my character was trying to kill Peter Parker, I think Sam, um, blamed me for that, not in a harsh way, but I felt like I got a little less love than Tobey McGuire on those films, just because of what the character was doing. And now that I’m the protagonist in Oz, Sam is identifying with my character.

And so, I felt a lot more of Sam’s love on this film.

Q: How has it been balancing between your acting career and your collegiate education and endeavors?

A: Well, I insist that I have this balance of an academic career and a film career. It’s in a lot of ways saved my life or made me a much happier person. I love the academic world. During the past seven years, I’ve gone to quite a few schools. I got a little addicted to school but, uh, now I’m doing a lot more teaching than I am studying, and it’s a great new chapter in my life. I love teaching. I usually teach in creative programs so, film programs, or writing programs, or art programs, and I love being able to focus on other people’s work and, and, you know, it takes me out of myself. I don’t have to think about my work all the time. I get to, you know, think about others.

Q: Your filmography as an actor and director is one of the most diverse in Hollywood. How do you balance your work in Oz with an indie film like Spring Breakers?

A: Well, they’re very different movies but they are both movies, and they’re made on different scales and they have very different subject matter, but there are essential things about making movies that are in place in both films. And I guess I just go into the different projects trying to figure out what the tone of the film in, what my place in the film is and how I can best fit into that world.

So, you know, Spring Breakers has a particular character, and I just had to play him as believably as possible.

He’s like, a gangster, mystic/rapper and, the Oz character is, you know, a magician/con man, so I just, you know, had to figure out how to play each of those roles as realistically as possible.

photos courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

THE HEIGHTS

B4

Thursday, February 28, 2013

KEELEY’S CORNER

NETFLIX NEXUS BY MAXIMILLIAN ADAGIO

Crossing the Enjoy real-life survivor thrills from the couch with Netflix comedic line at the Oscars TITLES: Survivorman, Man vs. Wild, Dual Survival YEARS: 2004-2013

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH: Because there are few things more entertaining than rugged men surviving in the wilderness

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

Within the genre of infotainment, there is no category of show that has taken off in recent years like the survival show. Netflix has three standout options in terms of this category: Survivorman, Man vs. Wild, and Dual Survival. Each show takes a different route balancing entertainment value with practical survival instruction in different survival settings. Survivorman is a “barebones” survival show. The host, Les Stroud, is legitimately alone in the wilderness filming himself for a week. The show is extremely informative and true-to-life, but less active and entertaining. Host Bear Grylls’ Man vs. Wild is the opposite end of the spectrum. Grylls has a camera crew, which allows him to be more cavalier and entertaining in his wilderness adventure, but the show is not as informative as Survivorman. Dual Survival is a happy medium between these two, combining both high entertainment and informational value. The show follows two radically different survival experts: a hippie (Cody Lundin) and an army veteran (Dave Canterbury) as they survive and try to overcome their ideological and personal differences. So the shows can be looked at in a Mama, Papa, and Baby Bear type way. Which one is just right for you? 

FASHION FORWARD

Breaking rules and pushing boundaries Cheetah prints and rhinestones are unfairly maligned of which I have seen in some article of clothing) will end up looking tacky, even on a phone case. A tasteful original cheetah print peplum top paired with black jeans is a flawless outfit.

TAYLOR CAVALLO Fashion boundaries always need to be pushed.

What’s the fun of wearing, buying, stalking, and trading clothes if you’re not going to create interesting and unique outfits? Not to say that every day on campus needs to be a runway show (I’m the first to break that rule), but special occasions, a weekend out, or even job interviews are perfect ways to display your own personal style.

Things aren’t always black or white—sometimes there’s a grey area with fashion. I find that people are quick to write certain things off as ugly, cheesy, or tacky without really considering the potential a certain piece might hold. While style clearly varies from person to person, there are some standard things that have been exiled from the minds of the fashion conscious: an orange and black outfit (too Halloween-y) or black and white stripes that are somehow the exact width of those on a referee’s shirt (I happen to own a shirt exactly like this).

Frankly, I don’t think these fashion rules should exist. Remember when people used to say it’s wrong to wear navy blue and black? This is simply not true.

The two are a killer combination. There are a few styles that generally get labeled as tacky without a fair shot. I’m here to stand up for these trends.

CHEETAH PRINT If Chelsea Houska from Teen Mom has gotten anything right in her life, it’s her obsession with cheetah print. While the pattern has certainly made a comeback in recent days, it’s a print that not many feel they can pull off properly. As cheetah has always been a print dear to my heart and my wardrobe, that’s never been a fear I’ve had. I can see, however, the intimidation factor some people might feel for it. I guess it must be something about the animal print that hints at something wild and crazy.

I’m of the opinion that everyone needs at least one wild and crazy outfit though, so cheetah print is a great way to display that fierce side of yourself.

Stick with the standard brown cheetah that we’re all familiar with. Any boldly colored variation of the print, such as pink, purple, blue, or green (all

RHINESTONES Rhinestones have gotten a bad rep over the years. When I think of this accent, I think of arts and crafts projects, bedazzled phone cases, or the board game Pretty, Pretty Princess with the adhesive rhinestone jewels. But we’re here to break fashion rules, right? Everyone’s favorite British import (and godsend) TopShop has found great ways to incorporate rhinestones into their collections the past few seasons, especially in their winter lines, adorning light sweaters and cardigans. The key is that they’re subtle along the collars or sleeves, in appropriate accent colors such as gold or plain white. Last summer I purchased a three-fourths length white knit sweater that had a frenzy of white and diamond-type rhinestones in the center. I fell in love with it, but was scared that it was tacky or too overwhelming. It’s a sweater I get compliments on all the time—it dresses up jeans or even plain black leggings when I’m feeling lazy. Don’t push your comfort zone limit with the rhinestones though. When shopping in TopShop you obviously can’t go wrong, but if you’re straying into unknown territory, go with your gut. “Would a seven-year-old like this?” and “Am I blinded by the overwhelming shine?” are two great questions to ask yourself while purchasing a rhinestone item. Oh, and bedazzled phone cases have a time and a place if you ask me.

Next time you’re in Forever 21 looking for a last-minute going-out dress for the weekend and you see an entirely sparkly mini dress, go for it.

Be the girl who pulls through in that dress to the party. Do you want to be unique, or another girl wearing a peplum shirt with dark jeans?

Let’s break the unspoken fashion rules of our campus. It’s the only way things will remain interesting. Don’t only shop at J. Crew, go thrifting on Harvard Ave. Steal clothes from your mom that she hasn’t worn in years, cut them up, and make them your own. Even take from your dad’s while you’re at it. Dads are great for sweaters, cardigans, old button downs, and belts. Moms are great for all else. These are ways you’ll know you’re getting a one-of-a-kind piece, and that’s what it’s all about, right?

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

Taylor Cavallo is a senior staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

Cheetah prints and rhinestones are too often seen as fashion nonos, but when used appropriately, they can spice up a girl’s typical wardrobe choices.

THIS WEEKEND in arts

BY: ARIANA IGNERI | ASSOCIATE ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR

Thursday 1. BC IDOL (THURSDAY 2/28, 7:00 PM)

Judged by three University Jesuits, 10 talented student singers will be performing and competing in this year’s BC Idol. Tickets are $10 through the Robsham Theater Box Office, and all proceeds benefit the St. Columbkille Partnership School Music Program.

2. MY MOTHER’S FLEABAG WINTER CAFE (THURSDAY 2/28, 8:00PM)

Friday

3. MILO GREENE CONCERT AT THE SINCLAIR (FRIDAY 3/1, 8:00PM) This Friday, the indie quintet Milo Greene—known for their swelling harmonies and string melodies—is performing at The Sinclair, a live-music venue and American restaurant in Cambridge. Tickets are available for $15 either at The Sinclair Box office or online through Ticketmaster.

Saturday

4. JAMAICA KINCADE READING (SATURDAY 3/2, 6:00-8:00 PM ) The Harvard Book Store is sponsoring a reading by acclaimed novelist Jamaica Kincade at the Algiers Coffee House in Cambridge. She will be reading selections from her latest release, See Now Then, a fictional book exploring how time affects human consciousness.

Tickets are $5 and can be purchased online through Eventbrite.

5. MIXED MEDIA BIRDS (SATURDAY 3/2, 11:00 AM)

Boston College’s comedy sketch club My Mother’s Fleabag will be performing their hilariously entertaining annual Winter Cafe in Gasson 305 this Thursday evening. Admission is free.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

Visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum this Saturday morning for a hands-on workshop led by local artist Euka Homes. Inspired by the birds in the museum’s collection, the workshop will enable guests to craft their own avian pieces from feathers and other assorted, recycled materials. Tickets are free with museum admission.

SEAN KEELEY This Sunday’s Oscar ceremony had plenty of surprises, for those who were counting.

Michelle Obama appeared via satellite to announce that Best Picture went to Argo, a movie that wasn’t even nominated for Best Director, while Ang Lee upset perennial favorite Steven Spielberg in that category. The six major awards went to six different movies, Jennifer Lawrence took a tumble while accepting her award, and there was even the unusual occurrence of a tie in one category.

Still, when all was said and done, most of the online world wasn’t talking about the awards. No, they were talking about the unseemly spectacle of Seth MacFarlane doing a musical number about seeing actresses’ boobs.

That bizarre piece of showmanship was one of the weirder moments of a telecast that didn’t lack them. In context, the joke was poking fun at the excesses of MacFarlane’s own crude persona, with William Shatner warning him “from the future” that people would be offended at a crass musical number he would perform, and voila, there it was.

But many commentators, from The New York Times’ A.O. Scott to The New Yorker’s Amy Davidson, saw it as the beginning of an Oscar night unusually full of misogyny and sexism. (One joke targeted the abusive nature of Chris Brown and Rihanna’s relationship, while another asked when nine year-old Quvenzhane Wallis would be too old for George Clooney).

I admit that my initial gut reaction to all this outrage was, well, get over it. Like it or not, it’s in the very nature of comedy to shock and provoke. It’s an art form whose very basis lies in subversion and offending sensibilities. That’s exactly what MacFarlane did on Oscar night, and I initially enjoyed the way he punctured the bubble of self-importance that so often arises over awards shows. More importantly, he made me laugh, repeatedly. I’m no fan of Family Guy, but as a host I found MacFarlane agreeable enough. I even liked the Lincoln assassination joke that so many people found tasteless.

On reflection, though, I realize that there is something of a nasty streak running through MacFarlane’s humor that is worth questioning. I’m no prude—it’s not the language or the focus on bodily functions that’s offensive. Comedians like Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, and Louis C.K. are far more vulgar than MacFarlane, but they are vulgar with a purpose. The thrill of Pryor and Rock’s comedy isn’t just that they tell good jokes—it’s how they lace the comedy with an incisive look into race in America, defusing very real tensions with the disarming power of laughter. Louis C.K. does a similar feat with his show Louie, which finds humor in the sad life of a schlubby 40-something divorcee.

These men understand the deeper essence of good comedy. It’s not just making people laugh—it’s having those laughs mean something, having them trigger a greater societal recognition.

MacFarlane’s jokes may cause instinctual laughter, but does that mean they’re good comedy? They’re predicated on glibness and snideness, the equivalent of a TMZ commentator’s catty comments about a celebrity. In fact, it’s hard to think of a better exemplar of the spirit of those trashy gossip rags than “We Saw Your Boobs.”

Yes, you can argue that MacFarlane was actually satirizing such publications, but that’s probably giving him too much credit—and there’s no doubt he’s also indulging in their attitudes. The same is true of the now-infamous tweet from The Onion that the fake news publication sent out during Oscar night, and has since deleted and apologized for. Referring to the 9-year-old Best Actress nominee, it read, “Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhane Wallis is kind of a c—t, right?” Now, the joke there clearly lies in the ludicrous discrepancy between Wallis’s sweet and innocent persona and the idea that someone could say something so nasty. In that sense, the joke is less about the actress and more about the extremes of mean-spirited vitriol that ceremonies like the Oscars engender.

Still, there comes a point when enough is enough. It’s easy to hide behind a comfortable veneer of irony and say that nothing is off-limits to humor, but when a 9-year-old is denigrated with such a loaded slur, a line is drawn in the sand. And when Seth MacFarlane does an entire song that reduces women to their chests, or says that Zero Dark Thirty is about how women are never “able to let anything go,” we should get offended—and not because it’s politically incorrect, but because it’s lazy comedy. MacFarlane’s brand of humor betrays no greater impulse than that of a giggling teenage boy, and truly provocative comedy is so much more than that.

On that note, can we get Louis C.K. to host the Oscars? One can only dream.

Sean Keeley is the Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, February 28, 2013

B5

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke releases unique side project

CHART TOPPERS TOP SINGLES

BY RYAN SCHMITZ For The Heights Radiohead fans rejoice, for Thom Yorke has done the music world a favor and released another record, this time with the American-formed Atoms for Peace. The new album follows the ever-experimental trend that Yorke has set for himself, taking the listener on a journey fueled by droning electro tones and the classic falsetto that so many know and love. What sets this record apart from other Yorke projects, including recent Radiohead albums, is its sheer funkiness. Amok has a nine-song track list that seems to get groovier by the tune.

Each song has its own unique element with a drumbeat that the listener cannot help but rock their head and tap their feet to. What is so great about this album is that it is full of surprises, not only musically but personnel-wise, as well.

With the easily recognizable Yorke taking the vocal position, the band also includes longtime Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich—but there’s even more. Red Hot Chili Pepper fans will be pleased that Flea has picked up his bass and put it to great use in this new musical melting pot.

It is pretty safe to say that one never knows what to expect when listening to a piece of Thom Yorke’s music. Amok is certainly no excep-

tion—with strange rhythmic electro-keyboards and oddly fast-paced drumbeats, the listener is constantly bombarded with new sounds and experiences. Yorke does a fair bit of vocal experimentation as well, using the studio to its full potential.

He creates double or triple tracks of his voice at the same time, recording chants that sound like they are coming from a Native American tribe during a great musical celebration while he sings with his high pitched yet subtle drone. It is truly amazing that this music works together in the first place, but how it works so well is almost unbelievable.

If you are looking for an album where every track has its own groove, then this is absolutely the album to listen to. Every single song has a clear groove that could only come from a jam band that is in sync with one another. After the grooves are laid down the real Yorke and Godrich experimentation begins. By putting trance-inducing drones over dance inducing beats, the musicians and producers have truly made a work of strange modern art.

There is no doubt that this album is as unique as they come, but this uniqueness also raises eyebrows. Each and every song has an unfathomable depth, like looking into the deepest part of the ocean—you know there must be a limit somewhere, an edge or

1 Harlem Shake Baauer 2 Thrift Shop Mackelmore & Ryan Lewis Feat. Wanz 3 Stay Rihanna Feat. Mikky Ekko 4 Scream & Shout will.i.am & Britney Spears 5 I Knew You Were Trouble Taylor Swift 6 Ho Hey The Lumineers

AMOK ATOMS FOR PEACE PRODUCED BY XL RECORDS RELEASED FEB. 25, 2013 OUR RATING A

TOP ALBUMS PHOTO COURTESY OF XL RECORDS

Thom Yorke’s band Atoms for Peace succeeds in crafting a diverse album with singly definitive and groovy tracks. floor where the vastness stops, but you cannot see it. In this musical science experiment-gone-right there is no perceivable end to the depth of the music—every song is a layer upon a layer upon a layer.

In spite of all of the complexities, however, Yorke emanates a laid back vibe through his wild but subdued vocalizations. While this album takes on the common Ra-

diohead experimental feel, it has a new factor adding to its intrigue: it is actually fun.

Though very good, this album is definitely not perfect. Its biggest and most glaring problem is that it is absolutely not for everyone. This is not the kind of record you are going to play at a party and expect the whole crowd to start jumping up and down with enthusiasm. While

it may not be the dark, depressed Yorke from Radiohead, this album does not attract those who are closed-minded. There are points during the album where one needs to remember that this is what makes Yorke, Godrich, and company musical geniuses and move on.

Any Radiohead fan or person who is looking to expand their musical horizons should give it a try. 

1 Babel Mumford & Sons 2 2013 Grammy Nominees Various Artists 3 Unorthodox Jukebox Bruno Mars 4 Red Taylor Swift 5 All That Echoes Josh Groban Source: Billboard.com

Old friends and fellow musicians, Harris and Crowell unite

BY ARIANA IGNERI Assoc. Arts & Review Editor A deliberate and complete collaboration between seasoned country musicians and longtime friends Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell has been in the works for well

over three decades. And though they performed together in the ’70s—when Crowell sang in Harris’s Hot Band—and recorded sporadically together in the years following, Old Yellow Moon is actually their first duet project together.

Consisting of 12 tracks, most of

which are covers, the album doesn’t really offer much in terms of novelty, excepting the four songs written by Crowell. Nevertheless, the selection of songs featured, the originals and the reinterpretations included, exhibits an authentically charming synergy between Harris and Crow-

OLD YELLOW MOON EMMYLOU HARRIS & RODNEY CROWELL PRODUCED BY NONESUCH RECORDS RELEASED FEB. 26, 2013 OUR RATING BPHOTO COURTESY OF NONESUCH RECORDS

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell’s collaboration album is pleasantly inimate, but it lacks originality and diversity.

ell. Their apparent intimacy enables them to bring both perspective and depth to Old Yellow Moon, making it truly special.

For example, “Hanging Up My Heart,” the album’s opening song, demonstrates their seamless musical understanding of each other quite well. Written by Hank DeVito, an old band mate of theirs, the song is warm and sentimental, and with its steel guitar licks and guileless, bright vocals, it’s an undeniably fun country tune.

Many of the songs, about half of them in fact, are similarly upbeat.

“Invitation to the Blues” and “Bluebird Wine” are both quickly paced concerning their tempo. The former song, characterized by sliding, electric riffs, frolicking violins, and a bouncing bass, is a Roger Miller cover, but Harris and Crowell effortlessly make this honky-tonk tune into one of their own. A song about drinking, the latter track, “Bluebird Wine,” is a revisited original. Amidst romping guitar solos and jug band melodies, it not only showcases Crowell’s lead vocals well, but it also serves as a stage for Harris to prove

her skillful harmonies.

“Chase the Feeling” and “Black Caffeine” are, likewise, fast paced, but, in contrast, they have a slightly darker and more blatant blues vibe to them. A rendition of the Kris Kristofferson original, “Chase the Feeling” is one of the most rocking tracks on Old Yellow Moon—it finds Harris and Crowell belting out rebellious lines such as “Getting loaded again” and “Chase the feelin’ till you die.” “Black Caffeine” is comparable, but it’s more basic and acoustic, with snarling sing-talk blues vocals.

The rest of Old Yellow Moon is comprised of mellow ballads, and though many of them are sincere and moving, musically, they’re incredibly similar. Highlights include the lulling Patti Scialfa cover “Spanish Dancer” and the touching, acoustic Waylon cover “Dreaming My Dreams.” However, it’s the song “Back When We Were Beautiful” that shines most brilliantly amidst the surplus of similarly sweet slow tracks. Originally performed by Matraca Berg, the song stands out with its raw piano progression and

reverberating Spanish-esque strings.

“Back When We Were Beautful” is gracefully sad—it’s a stunningly bleak meditation on age and death, and Harris’s assertive voice, flitting into wispy breaths, complements Crowell’s tender and pleading tones flawlessly, resulting in what may be the best track on the album.

Delicate piano chords, guitar strums, and accordion refrains serve as a rich backdrop for Old Yellow Moon’s title and closing track. It, too, is lovely, and with its lyrics about retaining hope in the face of the inevitable passage of time, it’s a perfectly fitting place to end the record.

Though it certainly isn’t an album of innovation or diversity, Old Yellow Moon doesn’t seem to be too concerned with either. Rather, Harris and Crowell’s release maintains an entirely different focus: a sincere and poignant reflection on their past, on their relationship, and on music itself, Old Yellow Moon, holistically, is a timeless, sepia-toned collection of nostalgic country tunes shared between two close, old friends. 

Johnny Marr of The Smiths and Modest Mouse debuts solo record

BY BERNADETTE DERON For The Heights If you don’t know who Johnny Marr is, you’ve probably heard of at least one of the musical talents he has been involved with. Most recognizable for being the lead guitarist of The Smiths, Marr has spread himself wide across the music industry, working with artists such as The Pretenders, Pet Shop Boys, Billy Bragg, Talking Heads, and stints with The The, The Cribs, and Modest Mouse. He’s no newcomer to this industry, and his proper solo debut (not counting his 2003 album Johnny Marr and the Healers as an actual solo release) has been a long time coming.

Marr is not only looking to one of his former projects for inspiration, however. Smiths fans won’t find an album dedicated to the revival of the “Smiths sound” per se, but they will get their fix, along with doses from virtually every band Marr has been in throughout his career. The

melancholy track “New Town Velocity” is probably as Smithsesque as it gets on this record.

You could argue that “European Me” also has the vocal approach Morrisse y would bring to a traditional Smiths record, but it is clear that there is a strong departure from the Smiths .

With that being said, the album is all in all surprisingly upbeat.

The opening track “The Right Thing Right” gives the album an energetic start. You can hear certain niches, like the tempo and guitar riffs, Marr may have picked up from his time with The Cribs on this track, as well as on “Upstarts.”

The title track has a haunting undertone to its lively guitar, and sounds like the hypothetical baby of “The Smiths” and “Modest Mouse.” You can hear the brushstrokes of the “Modest Mouse” sound all over this album, most notably on the tracks “Sun & Moon” and “Word Starts Attack.” Marr returned to his hometown of Manchester, England to work on this album,

and the reconnection to his musical roots is very much present in his work, making this a very British sounding album. The Messenger is a breath of fresh air among the seemingly electronically dominated modern music industry. It’s an alt-rock record and a retro Brit-pop record at the same time. It maps out his career within the music industry to the greatest degree.

With that being said, Marr has made a name for himself as one of the greatest and most important guitarists of the past 25 years. He has not made a name for himself for his incredible vocal ability, which is what this record lacks. He’s not a terrible singer and the lyrics are not tragic, but don’t expect any breakthrough stuff here.

Where The Messenger shines is in the guitar abilities that Marr is famous for. His ability to manipulate the guitar, from gentle, almost folk sounding strumming, to more aggressive angst ridden riffs comes to life on this record and reinforces

just why Marr deser ves the “Godlike Genius” honor, that he will be presented with later this month at the annual NME (UK) awards.

It’s a wonder that it took Marr this long to come out with a proper solo debut, but the wait is worth it. Sure, it’s not a

masterpiece, but The Messenger offers what the current cultural scene lacks: authenticity. Marr invites us back to the post-punk, alt-rock sound that bands like The Smiths and Modest Mouse emulate, and sounds different and fresh at the same time.

What sets Marr apart is that his

lengthy and miscellaneous career allows for the sound variety on the album. Smiths fans will find comfort in the tracks where homage is paid to the infamous band as well as in the record as a whole, but The Messenger has Marr’s distinct fingerprint all over it. 

THE MESSENGER JOHNNY MARR PRODUCED BY WARNER BROS. RELEASED FEB. 25, 2013 OUR RATING B-

PHOTO COURTESY OF WARNER BROS.

Despite Johnny Marr’s extensive, varied musical past, his new album, ‘The Messenger,’ exhibits his own exclusive style.

SINGLE REVIEWS BY LUIZA JUSTUS Bizerk feat. Shaggy “Like To Party”

Kate Nash “3AM” The young British artist Kate Nash has been known for providing audiences an upbeat, soft indie pop sound ever since 2006. Her new single follows the same style expected from Nash, very reliant on vocals and lyrics worth paying attention to. The singer-songwriter’s new song is as peculiar and quirky as she is, and that is exactly what makes it so interesting.

Rob Zombie “Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown” Disappointing as it may be, this hip hop duo’s new single doesn’t leave us wanting to party.

It’s slow, the lyrics are weak, and the melody isn’t memorable. Listeners from the ’90s are drawn to this project due to Shaggy’s name, but his participation is anticlimactic at best. It is, unfortunately, a flop. It’s easier to comprise a list of what it lacks than what it has to offer.

Rob Zombie is known for his alternative metal sound, which fits with the gory slasher films he is known for directing, writing, and producing.

“Dead City Radio” incorporates noisy guitars with electronic sounds, unforgettable guitar riffs, and an eerie atmosphere that makes the listener unsure about whether to feel troubled or euphoric.

B6

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, February 28, 2013

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, February 28, 2013

B7

THIS WEEK IN...

BY RYAN TOWEY | ASST. METRO EDITOR

ARTS

POP CULTURE

BUSINESS

MUSIC

GETTING FRATTY

The Brattle Theatre in Har vard Square, struggling to keep up with modern cinema, achieved its goal of $140,000 in donations to its Kickstarter fund.

Matt Damon, having recently appeared in a video promoting awareness of the world’s water crisis for Water.org, chose to help out a more local cause, offering a meeting with himself as reward for any potential donor that provides $5,000 to help the small, independent theatre. As of Tuesday, the Brattle Theatre’s Kickstarter fund reached beyond its goal of $140,000 dollars in order to give the theatre an update, including new digital projection technology and an HVAC system for the theatre. Digital projection will be a major update for the theatre, which has thus far shown movies only on 35 mm film.

The Kickstarter fund will close to donations today at 11:59 p.m.

Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, a resident of Needham, Mass., is to appear as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. Raisman, age 18, is a gold medalist. In her most recent Oly mpic s , R aisman g ar nere d two gold medals and a bronze medal. This is the 16th season of Dancing with the Stars, and another Olympic gymnast, Shawn Johnson, won the eighth season.

Other contestants for this season of Dancing include musicians Wynonna Judd and Kellie Pickler.

This season will also include other athletes alongside Raisman, including ice skater Dorothy Hamill, Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones, and professional boxer Victor Ortiz. The season 16 premiere, which will be two hours long, will air on March 15 at 8 p.m. on ABC.

When the New York Times Company put The Boston Globe up for sale last week, it was unclear what entities would come forward to purchase the newspaper. Purchased by the New York Times Company in 1993, two potential buyers have recently emerged to purchase the newspaper, according to Boston Innovation. One potential buyer is Rick Daniels, the former president of The Globe. According to the Boston Business Journal, Daniels posted a bid of about $100 million alongside private equity firm Boston Post Partners. Another potential buyer is Ernie Boch Jr., owner of auto dealership Boch Enterprises. In a statement released by his company, Boch is described as “a lifelong Bostonian,” and that he plans to team up with Bruce Mittman, CEO of Mittcom, and Community Broadcasters to potentially make the purchase.

Democratic state representatives Josh Cutler and James Cantwell filed legislation on Monday to grant Aerosmith’s rock anthem “Dream On” the status of state rock song. “Dream On,” Aerosmith’s 1973 hit, has been ranked in Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest songs of all time. Aerosmith, a band founded in Boston, appeared in a free concert last November at their former apartment on Commonwealth Avenue.

According to South Coast Today, Cutler called “Dream On” a “classic ballad that’s all about holding on to your dreams and seizing opportunity,” adding that no band other than Aerosmith is “more closely associated with Massachusetts.” Another contender for the spot as official rock song of Massachusetts is “Roadrunner” by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, and this song is supported by Democrat Rep. Marty Walsh.

The members of an Emerson College fraternity, Phi Alpha Tau, decided to reach beyond the fratty stereotype of a drunken stupor to help out their transgendered fraternity brother, Donnie Collins, when he found out that part of his female-tomale surgery would not be covered by his insurance, according to Boston Innovation. Although the fraternity could not fundraise for Collins as a single entity, the individual fraternity brothers have helped raise over $8,000 to cover the surgery. “I feel completely overwhelmed,” Collins said of the support of his fraternity brothers. Collins, a sophomore screenwriting major, was born a woman and began his gender transition about 14 months ago, and hopes for his upcoming surgery to remove his breasts. “I was born in a female body, but it just wasn’t me. I lived through a process of figuring out how I could live the life I wanted to,” Collins said.

RESTAURANT REVIEW

Dok Bua offers Thai variety

PHOTO COURTESY OF DOK BUA THAI

BY KATHERINE BU For The Heights

HOUSE AD

Harvard Avenue offers an impressive variety of cuisines at varying price ranges. There are several popular Korean and Chinese restaurants, as well as the less common Afghan and Burmese options.

Due to the abundance of choices on Harvard Ave., many people make the mistake of never venturing down in the other direction, on Harvard Street.

Just an eight-minute walk from the Harvard Ave. T stop toward Coolidge Corner, Dok Bua Thai Kitchen at 413 Harvard Street offers authentic Thai food at unbeatable prices.

This family-owned and operated restaurant has been passed from sister to sister since 1998.

It is a medium-sized restaurant with a casual, fun atmosphere. In the front of the restaurant, models of Bangkok boat vendors and their dishes add to the decor. Somehow Dok Bua strikes the perfect balance between cute and quirky. Their service also makes this restaurant so appealing—the waiters and waitresses are attentive without being overbearing, as well as extremely friendly and genuinely pleasant people.

While ambiance and service add a lot to any restaurant experience, the excellence of Dok Bua goes well beyond these two aspects. Not only does the restaurant offer an impressively extensive menu—featuring curries, rice plates, and several vegetarian options—it also boasts some of the best lunch and dinner specials in Boston. The lunch special runs from 11 to 4 p.m. and is only $8.95.

It includes one of 21 different main dishes along with a choice of two side orders, including various soups, salads, and meatier starters like steamed pork dumplings. For just two dollars more, their dinner special is served with jasmine rice, Tom Yum soup, two vegetable egg rolls, and two fried pork dumplings. This option appeals to many people because it offers variety and all four components of the meal are authentic. Furthermore, the portions are generous without being wasteful. The soup is spicy and tangy—absolutely full of flavor.

The egg rolls are crisp and the dumplings, while not the highlight of the plate, add another dimension to the meal. The simplicity of the dumplings compliments the flare of the soup.

The quantity and variety of entrees can be overwhelming. With the short descriptions under each option, most dishes are written in anglicized Thai. “Guay-Tiow-Ped” most likely does not help the average Bostonian decide what to eat, but thankfully the menu also has numerous pictures of the food. The Pad Thai is a common favorite that is also more familiar to most people. A simple sauteed rice noodle dish offers the seamless combination of several flavors from the shrimp, egg, scallion, bean sprout, and ground-peanut mixed in. The noodles are slightly chewy and the many ingredients provide a variance of textures.

In addition to a great variety of appetizers and main entrees, Dok Bua also offers various teas and LOCATION: 413 HARVARD STREET CUISINE: Thai SIGNATURE DISH: Pad Thai ATMOSPHERE: 8/10 AVERAGE MEAL: $10 OVERALL EXPERIENCE: Adesserts. Thai iced tea, popular across most Thai restaurants, can be slightly risky when ordering at a new destination. Somehow it seems every restaurant will make it slightly differently—at some places it is sickeningly sweet, at others overly milky and bland. Dok Bua’s Thai Iced Tea ($2.50), however, has consistently been perfectly sweet and creamy from the milk and has deliciously strong tea flavor. The presentation in a vintage, glass mug offers a nice touch as well.

The various components of a quality restaurant are all present at Dok Bua. Everything from the individual spice condiments conveniently provided on every table to the timeliness of the service comes together to create a highly enjoyable meal. Their dinner and lunch specials are what make Dok Bua stand out among the many great Thai restaurants around Boston. If the walk from the T stop is a deterrent, Dok Bua also offers delivery. 

THE HEIGHTS

B8

Panera charity cafe opens

BOOKISH BOSTONIAN

Preserving a cinematic tradition

Panera Cares, from B10

RYAN TOWEY What I am about to say will hurt many of you.

If the news has not already reached you, I hope you can forgive me for having the unfortunate task of being the messenger. If this news angers you, I have no doubt that you will be able to find someone faster than me to chase me through the campus of Boston College, only for us to have a final showdown in the Mods—where all great showdowns simply must occur—at which point I will hide myself in a Mod bathroom as best as I can. I ask the seniors that reside in said Mod to forgive me should I accidentally tear their sink from the wall when I fight off my angry readers, as is wont to happen during freshmen encounters with Mod bathrooms.

To avoid all of this, I ask you to remember that I am just trying to be a good journalist, and that I am morally obligated to inform you of this news, and that I am also morally obligated to let you know that I have a very powerful left hook—and that I am not afraid to use it.

The news, ladies and gentlemen, is this: it is likely, that by the end of the year, 20th Century Fox will cease making movies in 35 millimeter film.

While typing that, I realized that it would not likely lead to the riots I initially imagined, but if a major film studio going completely digital does not concern you, then you are failing to recognize the implications for Brattle Theatre, the small, independent moviehouse located in Harvard Square.

Running for over 60 years, Brattle Theatre currently shows its collection of modern, classic, and independent movies using traditional, 35 millimeter film. Brattle Theatre is also one of the few remaining movie theaters that uses a rear-projection system, meaning that movies are projected from behind the screen.

In order to stay in business, then, Brattle Theatre, which is a non-profit, had to rally fans of cinema to purchase a new digital projection system, so that they may continue to present their patrons with the most up-to-date films.

To do this, the theater opened a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds not only for the digital projection system, but also for a much-needed HVAC system.

As of Tuesday, Brattle Theatre had exceeded its goal of $140,000, having raised $144,524.

With theaters like this one disappearing across the country, this will likely not be the last time that Brattle Theatre has to fight for its life.

But I am proud to see that the theater is still fighting. With the salvation of Brattle Theatre, I feel a sense of justice for the independent bookstore that was lost to my hometown in my youth.

In many ways, I am a traditionalist, and do believe firmly that when something can be reasonably preserved, it ought to be.

Alongside my traditionalist tendencies regarding the arts, however, resides my deeply capitalistic mind. I know that certain establishments cannot reasonably expect to remain open unless they can keep patrons coming, but I like to believe that the efforts of private individuals in a community can preserve what they care about, even when the general economic climate may not be so forgiving.

Though the Brattle Theatre has already met its goal, I recommend visiting its home page and making even a small donation.

Not only will it be helpful to the theater and allow you to visit the theater in the future, but Brattle Theatre is offering an array of rewards for donations.

I have a soft spot, however, for the kinds of people that will make a donation, look down the list of possible rewards and click, “No thanks, I just want to help the project.”

If the idea of donating something without expectation of a reward makes you angry, I will be hiding in a Mod bathroom, ready for the fight.

Ryan Towey is the Asst. Metro Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

Councillor John Connolly has begun his campaign to challenge incumbent Menino.

Menino challenged Connolly, from B10 Connolly, a Roslindale native, graduated from the Roxbury Latin School and Harvard University, and is no stranger to Massachusetts politics. His mother, Lynda Connolly, BC Law ’73, is the chief justice of the state district court, and his father, Michael Connolly, served as secretary of the Commonwealth for 16 years. John Connolly was elected to the City Council in 2007 after practicing law for six years.

Connolly lives in West Roxbury with his wife Meg, a former social worker who is currently a doctoral student in counseling psychology in the Lynch School of Education, and their two small children.

The man Connolly will likely face in the November election, the popular incumbent Menino, has proven a formidable opponent for several councillors who have challenged him in recent years.

Elected to his first full term in 1993 after briefly serving as acting mayor, Menino ran unopposed in 1997, only to defeat his challengers comfortably in the next three mayoral elections.

Most recently, Menino beat City Councillor Michael Flaherty in 2009, winning 57 percent of the vote. No incumbent Boston mayor has been defeated since the corrupt James M. Curley in 1949.

Though he has not officially announced his plan to run for re-election, and he has until May 13 to file for nomination papers, it is widely assumed that the 70-year-old Menino will run, despite several health setbacks. Connolly has said that he will not make Menino’s health an issue in the campaign.

“I don’t think it’s relevant,” Connolly told the Globe. “He’s clearly up to the job. I take him at his word. It’s not an issue for me.”

Boston’s first non-Irish-American mayor since 1930, Menino has also made the city’s youth and education a priority, with an emphasis on improving underperforming schools, increasing the

availability of enriching out-of-school programs, and breaking the cycle of poverty in vulnerable communities. In 2010, Menino partnered with Boston Public Schools Superintendent Carol Johnson to launch the “Circle of Promise” initiative, which, according to the Mayor’s website, targets disadvantaged communities for specific academic intervention.

Connolly, while respecting Menino’s efforts as mayor, believes it is time for a change.

“Mayor Menino is a good man,” Connolly said in a posting on his campaign website. “I’ve worked with him and I respect him immensely, but transforming our schools requires new ideas, new energy, and a bold desire to break the status quo.”

The first significant candidate to enter the mayoral race, Connolly has taken the risk of abandoning his seat on the City Council before knowing Menino’s plans, while many others are waiting to see what the incumbent mayor does before throwing their hat in the race.

In January, Connolly took $75,000 in campaign contributions, according to the Boston Herald, fueling rumors that he was preparing for a run for the mayoralty.

Menino, in that same month, only raised $3,300, though his war chest holds about $650,000, as compared to Connolly’s $315,000. Connolly believes he will need to raise at least $1 million to mount a credible campaign.

The campaign that awaits him seems daunting, though respect for Connolly’s bid to unseat Menino is evident among local leaders.

“I give him credit for being willing to put it all on the line,” former Councillor Maura Hennigan, who lost to Menino in 2005, told The Herald. “The most important thing is you have to really seek out the people who are with you solid, who aren’t going to blink … this is not a business for the faint of heart. If people are with you, they have to be willing to say that.” 

their means so that all may eat with dignity.” He sees the cafe as a model for corporate responsibility, a way for the company to utilize its talents to the best ability and apply them towards fostering the common good in the community.

An important point expressed by Hoppers about the location is that there is a “healthy mix” of people who have and people who need, which further enforces the communal responsibility ideals of the cafe. In Hoppers’ eyes, the location, along with the types of customers frequenting it, make the cafe a place where people can come together and “be as one,” regardless of their social or financial standing. It is “one of the few places everyone is truly equal” as both rich and poor can dine together on the same quality meals.

The five cafes located around the nation are all self-sustaining entities that not only seek to provide food security, but also to cultivate community responsibility. Cash or credit, everything one puts into the donation box, not the register, is a contribution to the foundation to cover their operating costs, and the ability for those without the means to afford a full meal enjoy the same opportunities as those better off financially.

This is when the customer must decide what their fair share will be.

Hoppers mentioned that those with

the means to afford a meal are encouraged to pay full price as well as a little extra to help cover the costs of another person’s meal. This is all in place so that customers who do not have the means to afford the full cost of a meal can have a chance at receiving an equal level of sustenance as those in better financial positions. Customers in this position, however, are also expected to share in responsibility as they must either limit their free meals per week or volunteer for the cafe to work off the donation made on their behalf.

Making the Panera food experience accessible to people from all walks of life and allowing them to come together at a common location without judgment, social stigma, or a loss of dignity is at the core of what Panera Cares cafes are looking to achieve. “What makes me happiest is seeing a homeless man at one table, and a well-to-do woman at another and seeing them strike up a conversation that would not happen elsewhere,” Hoppers said.

Panera Cares is not looking to solve the hunger crisis in America by giving out free chipotle chicken sandwiches with chips on the side, but they are looking to break down socioeconomic barriers and foster a deeper sense of social responsibility and community among the dwellers of the towns where they operate. As their mission statement clearly states, their goal is for all people to be able to eat with dignity. 

O’Malley rumored to be contender for the papacy O’Malley, from B10 best American possibilities. This speculation differed from the American press, most of whom named Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, as the most likely candidate from the United States.

O’Malley, 68, was born in Ohio and grew up in Pennsylvania, where he attended a Franciscan seminary. He has a master’s degree in religious education and a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese literature, both from Catholic University of America. He then went on to teach at Catholic University and began a center for Hispanic immigrants in Washington, D.C. He has held numerous positions as a leader in the church, including being the bishop of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, Fall River, MA, and Palm Beach, FL. He was named archbishop of Boston in 2003 after the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law in the midst of the sex abuse scandal, and appointed to Cardinal in 2006. His handling of the sex abuse scandal has gained him approval and recognition in the Catholic community.

O’Malley’s personality also makes many think that he is well-suited for the job. He has been described as lowkey and simple. If he does not appear in public in his Cardinal’s clothing, he often is seen wearing a simple black cassock, reminiscent of the dress of a monk. Vatican writer Paolo Rodari mentioned this simplicity as a strength

of O’Malley’s in a blog post on Saturday, Feb. 16 saying, “O’Malley is a humble prelate, which is no bad thing in a Roman curia that’s suffering not just a few financial difficulties.” Rodari also mentioned the importance of the way O’Malley maintains a connection with the public through media such as Twitter and a blog.

Professor Thomas Groome from the School of Theology and Ministry also commented on the Cardinal’s humbleness in an email.

“He is a holy man, and a person of simplicity of life style; both would surely be welcome in a pope. Then, he is a person of good judgment and balance, neither extreme right or left.

He would be a bridge-builder, which is what the Church very much needs right now. And he would have the language skills that are needed in a pope to be able to communicate across many cultures,” Groom said. He did note, however, that it is unlikely that an American would be chosen as the next Pope, especially as there has never been one before.

O’Malley will soon leave for Rome for the Papal Conclave which will decide who will take the place of Benedict XVI. He and 116 other cardinals will gather in the Sistine Chapel to begin the highly secret process of choosing the next Pope. The voting process will take approximately a month, and it is likely a new pope will be named by the end of March. 

PROJECT TO WATCH By: Danielle Dalton | For The Heights The sesquicentennial celebration of Boston College’s commitment to men and women for others since 1863 continued this past weekend in Miami, FL. Alumni, family, and friends of the University gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel Miami to package over 30,240 meals for hungry families in Burkina Faso.

The meal packets prepared by volunteers contain rice, freeze-dried vegetables, barley, and a nutrition pack and will be distributed to those in need, such as orphans, people with HIV, widows, young women, people with disabilities, and the elderly, through a partnership with Stop Hunger Now and Catholic Relief Services.

A global hunger relief organization, Stop Hunger Now created an efficient and mobile packaging process to prepare meals that are distributed through efficient coordination. Catholic Relief Services promotes the holistic well being, including both nutritional and spiritual components, of individuals. The two organizations work in tandem under the title of Helping Hands. BC teamed up with Helping Hands to coordinate its food donation efforts because the partnership’s values aligned with those of the University.

Twitter was buzzing with the positive reactions of all those who participated in Saturday’s event. Brittany Michele tweeted, “Being at a BC event today really made me miss college. Best 4 years of my life by far.”

Dylan Keuning tweeted, “I assisted with the help of many @BCAlumni pack over 30,000 meals for hungry

people at Four Seasons Hotel Miami. #WEareBC150 good to give.”

With a total of seven food-packaging events scheduled like the one in Miami, BC hopes to package over 150,000 meals in collaboration with Catholic Relief Services and Stop Hunger Now. The service initiative began on Saturday, Feb. 9 when over 225 members of the BC community gathered at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in WHO: Boston College alumni, their family, and their friends WHAT: In conjunction with Helping Hands, BC assisted in the creation of meal packets for the needy.

WHERE: Miami, FL WHY IT MATTERS: Assisting the needy is an important part of BC’s committment to the idea of educating men and women for others.

Los Angeles, CA. By the end of the event, 35,436 meals were packaged for those in need. Roy Y. Chan tweeted, “I’m soo proud to be an Eagle in Los Angeles…what an amazing start to BC Sesquicentennial On the Road #WeAreBC150.” Ben

Heider echoed Chan’s sentiment, “Had an awesome day with @BCAlumni packing 35,436 meals for Burkina Faso!

Eagles for Others in LA!” In March 2012, University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J. wrote to members of the community: “Since 1863, it [Boston College] has remained true to its mission and Jesuit, Catholic roots; and with the help of its thousands of alumni and supporters, it will meet the challenges of today and tomorrow with grace, determination, and abiding hope.”

Such feelings of promise and hope for the future will solidify in upcoming events taking place in Chestnut Hill, MA; San Francisco, CA; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; and Dublin, Ireland.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, February 28, 2013

B9

Plans emerge for new skyscrapers along Boston’s skyline Skyscraper, from B10 glass tower with two asymetric sloped rooves. Trinity Place, if approved, will be yet another representation of the recent commercial building boom taking place downtown, not only in Back Bay but also in places like the Seaport District. Over the past few years, the Seaport District has been well on its way to transforming its South Boston waterfront location into a start-up and tech company breeding ground full of new, large residential complexes, deemed the “Innovation District” by Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

Gary Saunders, chairman of the Saunders Hotel Group, told Boston. com that he is looking forward to working with the city and the community “to bring an exciting new locally-owned and operated hotel and residences to the heart of Back Bay.” The hotelier hopes to start construction next fall.

Boston Properties, which owns both the Hancock and Prudential Towers, is additionally in the planning and proposal stages of erecting an office skyscraper in place of a 2,000-car parking garage at 100 Clarendon St., which would be mere steps away from the developer’s Trinity Place hotel project. The building would join the

60-story Hancock Tower and the 52story Prudential Tower in dominating the Boston skyline. It is projected that the building would be at least 40 to 50 stories tall in order to accommodate the number of tenants needed for the rent to support the cost of the development, especially since a torn-down Clarendon St. garage would involve loss of revenue.

Approval of the new office tower, however, might not be granted so easily. Since about one-third of the existing parking garage is above ground with the remainder hovering over the Mass. Pike, the project will require substantial infrastructure requirements , as the turnpike is a major Boston roadway. Boston Properties has not officially filed plans with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and a building of this scale and visibility is likely to face critics.

A Back Bay neighborhood panel of residents and business leaders, for example, recently indicated that the impending office-building site and the newly acquired hotel site are not viable hosts for significant redevelopment.

The panel argues that the properties, which would accommodate building heights of at least 30 to 40 stories, or about 400 ft., exceed the 125-foot limit

allowed under existing zoning laws.

To qualify for the additional height, Boston Properties must prove that the developments will follow guidelines established by the panel, including that the buildings will not increase wind in the area nor cast shadows on nearby parks or historic structures.

It is also unclear as to why Boston Properties is seeking approval for another office building when it was grante d approval in 2008 for a 17-story, $192 million office tower at 888 Boylston St. that has not yet been built. The development company has explained that it would not begin construction of the B oyl ston St. building until they can secure a tenant.

Though the Back Bay skyline is already renowned for its beauty and appeal, the majority of its construction dates back before the 1980s , which leads many to believe that these new high-rise developments just might modernize a familiar part of the B oston skyline. 

plains, “There is strong consensus that the planning for any future event has to address the evidently widespread belief that Winter Bash is a time to get outrageously drunk and go to a classy Boston hotel.”

Do students drink more because of the level of hype surrounding this kind of event, or are they just exposing an only slightly intensified version of what essentially are their habits in the dorms back on

campus? It seems that it is the latter, with bad track records at many schools both on and off campus.

In agreement with Reitman’s editorial, The Tufts Daily editorial board printed their own editorial, titled “Winter Bash behavior merits serious reflection.” It approved of the need for changes, but also added that “the problem isn’t alcohol consumption so much as it is a small group of people who abuse it.”

Statistics seem to agree with this asser-

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

Intoxicated Tufts University students were hospitalized after an event at the Westin Copley Hotel.

tion in the editorial: though many college students drink, it is a minority that overdoes it. This is reflected in what some may find to be a surprising study by researchers at UCLA, which found that the reported rate of underage drinking in college has reached an all-time low of 33.4 percent, down from 73.7 percent in 1982. Furthermore, only 13.7 percent of students in the study claimed to spend six or more hours a week at parties, a significant drop from the 63 percent who claimed to do the same in 1987. This could be due, however, to students involved in the study choosing to lie.

The questions regarding what can be done to prevent even a small number of students from endangering themselves and others remain. A recent study by Boston University researchers titled “Brand Specific Consumption of Alcohol Among Underage Youth in the U.S.” found that the drink of choice among those not able to drink legally is Bud Light, followed by Smirnoff malt beverages, and then regular Budweiser. It is generally assumed that college students, who are on a budget, would buy the absolute cheapest type of alcohol available, but while Bud Light is not the finest lager on the market, it also is not the least expensive.

The study suggests that alcohol choice has more to do with the emotion and meaning

however. It has already been suggested to increase ticket prices from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. This would only increase revenue to the city, rather than putting money into the cab companies’ pockets. The MBTA should also consider only offering overnight hours in select, heavily-used stations. This way, funds are not wasted keeping under-used stations open.

With some creative scheduling, this would also still allow for track maintenance, another problem cited by the MBTA, according to Boston Innovation.

In addition, there could simply be fewer trains running. This would save energy costs and allow fewer workers to be on the clock during these less popular hours. Finally, the T does not need to be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Customers would even be satisfied with extended hours solely Thursday through Saturday.

The T is the cheapest and most convenient way home from work for many professionals who work late hours. There is a city full of bar-crawlers and students—sometimes one and the same—who would like to use public transportation beyond 12:30 a.m.

Yes, right now the MBTA cannot afford to keep all of the trains running all night. There are, however, many unique solutions that could be implemented in order to make this a possibility.

With Facebook, Twitter, email, and smart phones, there is no denying the fact that technology is making our world smaller and smaller everyday. Taking this into account, it would make sense that education should be approached from a global perspective, right?

In order to compete on such a global level, the pioneers in education reform, such as Michael Gove, have been looking around the world for ideas to improve their own education systems. Gove, who serves as the Education Secretary in Finland as well as rising Asian economies like Singapore, highlighted our very own Massachusetts as a leader in initiating a type of core curriculum.

Massachusetts instituted its legislation of “Common Core of Learning” in 1993 in order to accommodate for an increasingly global society and “reflect what citizens highly value and see as essential for success in our democratic society.” It established broad goals and emphasized that teaching and learning must be interdisciplinary. A commission of 40 members held hearings around the state to decide what should be included in this core canon of knowledge, with an estimated 50,000 people taking part in the debates.

Developing the parameters for the Common Core was only the first of three steps taken by educators in the Commonwealth. Secondly, specific and rigorous curriculum guides were developed in seven academic areas to assist teachers. Finally, a comprehensive performance evaluation system was piloted to assess the performance not only of each individual student but also of the schools.

Gove, with support from now retired educator and literary critic E.D. Hirsh, asserted that students should have a core of knowledge and a set of basic facts and information as a foundation for more advanced work.

Both posited that students possessing a broad base of key knowledge are much better prepared to understand advanced ideas.

In the world of education, where people tend to focus on what is wrong and who to blame, it is refreshingly uplifting to hear that Massachusetts is at the forefront of global education and is serving as a model for other countries.

However, we should hold the applause because, as with all statistics, they should not be trusted at face value.

According to the Pisa test rankings published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Massachusetts has been performing well compared to the U.S. average and is creeping up closer to the top science and math performing countries in the world such as Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan.

The value of these comparisons, however, is called into question when one learns that Massachusetts is being compared to other states against a background in which the U.S. has become an “educational underachiever.”

In fact, according to the OECD, the U.S. represents the only industrialized country where the next generation is not going to be better educated than the previous one, a trend coined “educational downward mobility” by BBC News.

It is a safe bet to assume that students in Massachusetts are no longer just competing with students from New York, California, and Texas.

Instead, they are competing with students from China, France, Stockholm, and all over the world.

For this reason, this sobering trend cannot be dismissed, especially now, when there has been a surge of interest in such international education comparisons.

Maggie Powers is an editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

Jacqueline Parisi is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

associated with a particular brand, which implies that some of the responsibility may lie with alcohol-producing companies which may subliminally appeal to an underage consumer market.

There is even a vaccine in the production stages at the Universidad de Chile

by Juan Asenjo that will theoretically simulate the impact alcohol has on a naturally alcohol-resistant individual, which means it delivers an extremely severe hangover after only one drink. According to Asenjo, alcoholic mice reduce their intake of alcohol by an average of 50 percent for 30 days following exposure to the vaccine.

While introduction of such a vaccine may be seen as an extreme, it sets the tone for society’s desire to address the prevalence of binge drinking, especially among inexperienced, often impulsive underage drinkers. Although statistics suggest that this is no longer a problem that plagues the majority of students, those who abuse alcohol have proven themselves dangerous enough to merit the attention of administrators responsible for setting the regulations that provide boundaries for the student body’s collective and individual drinking habits. 

THE ISSUE:

With the MBTA currently in talks regarding whether or not to extend hours for the T, the MBTA released a group survey to receive feedback from the community regarding whether or not this would be a desirable chage and whether or not consumers would be willing to deal with potentially increased costs. If extended, should the T keep running on weekends until 2 a.m., or should it also include the hours between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.?

Running all night too costly PARISA OVIEDO While many can agree that the MBTA should, indeed, reevaluate closing at 12:35 nightly, another question needs to be addressed. Considering the MBTA’s already limited resources and lack of funding, a curfew at 5:00 a.m. simply cannot be accommodated, whereas a 2:00 AM one can.

This extension may warrant a small increase in ticket prices, but it will be an increase that those enjoying Boston will be willing to dole out in exchange for greater experience of the city’s nightlife.

While in an ideal world the city has unlimited resources that would enhance public transportation, the reality is that such finances are simply unavailable. In an email to BostInno, Joe Pesaturo, MBTA Spokesman, recognized the “enormous strain on the MBTA’s limited resources.” These resources, Pesaturo said, make it impossible to consider an extension.

In other words, the MBTA is already financially limited, and trying to extend a 12:35 a.m. curfew by about another hour and a half is already a very difficult task, but asking to extend it until 5:00 a.m. simply does not consider the city’s lack of resources.

Governor Deval Patrick did, however, recognize the need to increase state revenue for public transporta-

tion, but lawmakers still need to decide whether or not they will pass his proposed transportation plan.

In an article for Boston Innovation, author Steve Annear notes that the plan, if passed, could have “bar crawlers [finding] themselves skipping the cab rides home, and using the MBTA until 2 a.m. on weekends”—but only 2 a.m. Nowhere is it stated that, even with Patrick’s plan, the MBTA will physically be able to fund maintenance and operations past 2 a.m., let alone extend that time for another three hours.

As for college students, many clubs close at around 2 a.m., so leaving 15 minutes before closing time in order to catch the T is not too much to ask for. If you plan on staying until sunrise, then find a place to stay overnight.

As much as I’d wish for the MBTA to extend its hours until 5 a.m., it is simply impossible unless some extremely generous donor decides to pump money into Boston’s transportation sector. 2 a.m. is only an extra hour and a half or so past the current curfew, but it is still a reasonable compromise that fits the needs of most Boston residents while still respecting the MBTA’s limited resources.

Parisa Oviedo is an editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

The T should run all night MAGGIE POWERS There is no denying Boston is a major city. A major city packed with professionals, young people, and the students of 11 major colleges and universities, who are not tucked into bed by 12:30 a.m. All of these people need a public transportation system that meets their needs, day and night. The MBTA needs to answer customer demands by staying open all night, especially on weekends.

This argument has recently been re-opened by the MBTA Rider Oversight Committee. An “independent think-tank dedicated to ‘the improvement and expansion of public transit in the Greater Boston Area’’,” according to Boston Innovation.

While the Rider Oversight Committee is independent, it is still affiliated with the MBTA, providing a glimpse of hope to T riders who are asking for all-night service.

Boston is often compared to cities that have trains that run all night.

For example, the New York subway system runs 24 hours a day. If New York, a city larger and more active than Boston, has made this possible, why can’t the MBTA? The MBTA has sparse resources that are stretched to limited—this is why the T does not already run over night. There are still ways to make all-night service a possibility,

A look at globalized education

JACQUELINE PARISI

Statistics on underage drinking paint surprising picture Underage Drinking, from B10

MASSEDCHUSETTS

METRO THE HEIGHTS

B8

B10

Thursday, February 28, 2013

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2013

BREAKING BOUNDARIES

Ultimate Boston boy

Connolly declares challenge to mayor in election Councillor hopes to unseat the incumbent, Mayor Thomas M. Menino

BY JULIE ORENSTEIN Heights Editor Despite uncertainty as to whether Mayor Thomas M. Menino will run for reelection, Boston City Councilor John Connolly, BC Law ’01, announced Tuesday in a rally in Brighton that he will challenge the five-term incumbent in this November’s

mayoral election.

Seeking to dethrone the longest serving mayor in the city’s history appears to be an uphill battle for Connolly, a 39-year-old atlarge councillor, yet his willingness to enter the race without knowing Menino’s plans signals his confidence in his chances.

“I wouldn’t run if I didn’t think I could win,” Connolly told The Boston Globe. “My

heart tells me we need to have a serious debate about the city’s future and the city’s schools.”

A middle school teacher before he became an attorney, Connolly has made education a primary focus of his work on the City Council, having served as chairman of the Council’s Education Committee. In this position, he advocated for a new teacher’s contract that would give students more time in the classroom and worked to reduce dropout rates, according to his campaign website.

Education also looks to be a central

topic in his mayoral campaign platform.

“Boston should be the first city in America to transform urban public schools and offer every child a world-class education,” Connolly said in a YouTube video announcing his candidacy. “Whether or not you have a child, we all need our Boston public schools to work because great schools equal great neighborhoods.”

“I want Boston to be the city they point to and say, ‘They did it,’ when it comes to schools,” he said.

See Connolly, B8

TRICIA TIEDT I’ll admit, I’ve always had a thing for Boston boys.

Maybe it’s the accent, that charming arrogance, or the Nantucket reds—probably all three.

On Sunday night, the Academy Awards honored the ultimate Boston boy: Ben Affleck. Argo, the film in which Affleck co-produced (with fellow leading man George Clooney), directed, and starred, was awarded the Oscar for Best Picture. In a category with phenomenal nominations across the board, there was no clear winner leading up to the Academy Awards as to which film would take the final statue. It was Affleck’s first Oscar acceptance speech in 15 years.

Although Argo was given a nomination for Best Picture, Affleck himself was not included in the category for Best Director. This proved to be a shock for critics and fans alike: it’s an understatement to say that people (including me) vehemently disagreed with the Academy’s decision. The Golden Globes, which aired in January, not only gave Affleck a place in the running for Best Director, but also gave him the Globe.

Argo additionally won the Golden Globe for Best Picture.

As you can see, Affleck entered the Oscars at a slight disadvantage—and he wasn’t afraid to address it in his acceptance speech.

“You have to work harder than you think you possibly can. You can’t hold grudges— it’s hard, but you can’t hold grudges. And it doesn’t matter how you get knocked down in life—that’s going to happen. All that matters is you’ve got to get up.”

And get up he did. As I mentioned earlier, Affleck had not received an Oscar in exactly 15 years. Good Will Hunting took home the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1998, second only to Titanic for Best Picture of that same year. It was in that 25-year-old Affleck, one of the newest members of Hollywood, that the Masshole identity shined. In what has (all too kindly) been described as “youthful exuberance”

by Hollywood critic Bryan Enk, Affleck outright botched his acceptance speech.

Giving co-director and star of the film Matt Damon no time to speak, Affleck hurriedly attempted to thank everyone and their mother—literally. Damon and Affleck brought their moms as Oscar dates that year. He even looked at the camera and stated, “There’s no way we’re doing this in 20 seconds.” Glad to know the rules don’t apply to you, Ben. Although Good Will Hunting launched both young men’s careers, Affleck had a long journey before he would, once again, land anywhere successful. Between his disastrous romance with actress Jennifer Lopez, and Gigli, the joke of his acting career, Affleck nearly lost sight of all credibility. As he reinvented himself as a director after marrying wife Jennifer Garner, all signs pointed up—up North to Boston, that is. Affleck directed and starred in 2010’s The Town, the story of a gang of bank robbers in Southie—a thriller that caught the attention of public audiences and critics alike.

Now a matured man in all aspects of the film, it’s easy to see what Affleck gained: humility.

“I’d just like to say, I was here 15 years ago or something and I had no idea what I was doing. I stood out here in front of you all and really just a kid. I went out and I never thought I would be back here.”

It’s said that college students are some of the most selfish people on the planet. Hey, I believe it. Add that Boston attitude (or, if you prefer Affleck’s expression, “Argo-f—yourself”), some J. Crew (have you figured out yet how much I love J. Crew?), and a bottle of Sam Adams and you’ve got a firecracker on your hands. But if those of us who now embody that “youthful exuberance” of Affleck can learn anything from Argo, it’s this: the best is yet to come.

How do you like them apples?

Tricia Tiedt is the Metro Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

IMBIBED An examination of underage drinking at Boston’s universities

BY MAGGIE MARETZ For The Heights

W

ith over a dozen Tufts University students attending the school’s Winter Bash earlier this month having been hospitalized for their intoxication at Westin Copley Place Boston Hotel, the constant concerns regarding college students and drinking were reopened.

When BPD arrived shortly after midnight to assist vomiting students, 15 to 20 students were found to be intoxicated to the point that they required hospital treatment, and even those who were not drunk to the point of threatening their own safety were reportedly rude to the hotel staff.

Although Tufts has attracted a certain amount of negative attention lately for this incident, it is not the only university to have had its image suffer from the drinking habits of its students. Boston College itself held spring concerts that resulted in the medical transport of between 30 and 40 intoxicated students in both 2010 and 2011.

Such drinking habits invite a look at the larger drinking culture present on college campuses both in Boston and across the nation.

Those most familiar with Tufts University’s Winter Bash seem to believe that the excessive drinking at the event was a case of a self-fulfilling prophecy—that is, that the Winter Bash is traditionally thought of as an event for which everyone becomes intoxicated. So, each year when it comes around, students do just that. In an op/ed published in The Tufts Daily, Bruce Reitman, Dean of Student Affairs at Tufts, ex-

See Underage Drinking, B9

JORDAN PENTALERI / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC

Rebuilding the Boston skyline

O’Malley outside shot for papacy

New tower, 40 Trinity Place, seeks approval for Back Bay location

BY BRENNA CASS For The Heights

of the surrounding neighborhood and as well as the various social services and agencies located nearby.

What may at first glance seem like an ordinary Panera Bread restaurant complete with the classic soup and salad combos and tasty bakery treats is actually a self-sustaining non-profit that seeks to break down barriers and address the stigmas that go along with the national problem of food insecurity. The cafe’s mission, according to the Boston location’s general manager Jimmy Hoppers, is that Panera Cares “exists to feed everyone who walks through [the] doors regardless of

Boston’s own Cardinal Sean O’Malley has been mentioned as a potential candidate for Pope in the recent buzz surrounding the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI to take effect on Feb. 28.

Pope Benedict, who said in a Vatican announcement that he will step down due to health concerns, was the first to do so in more than six centuries. O’Malley, the current cardinal of Boston who has faced controversies, such as the child sexual abuse scandal, during his time as Cardinal, has been mentioned by Vatican watchers and the Italian press as a potential successor to Benedict.

Benedict’s papacy ends today. The decision was mostly made due to the declining health of the Pope. At 85 years old, he leaves after eight years of service as the pope. The resignation of a pope is not unprecedented, but it is rare—the last Pope to resign was Gregory XII in 1415.

In the wake of this resignation, many have speculated that O’Malley could be a possible contender for the papacy.

There was mention of him in the Italian media, with papers such as the AGI and Il Giornale, as well as notable Vatican watchers putting him on the list of the

See Panera Cares, B8

See O’Malley, B8

BY LAUREN TOTINO

ALEX GAYNOR / HEIGHTS PHOTO

Heights Staff

This is the first Panera Cares to open on the East Coast, and fifth to open nationwide.

Boston Properties, the locally based real estate investment trust, unveiled plans to add another skyscraper to the ranks of the Prudential Center and the Hancock Tower in Boston’s Back Bay, and is awaiting approval by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, which oversees land use in the city. The proposed 33-story mixed-use building would stand on Stuart Street, where the John Hancock Hotel & Conference center once stood. Last fall, the Saunders Hotel Group and developer Jordan Warshaw proposed the $225 million building that involves tearing down the existing structure, the Boston Common Hotel & Conference Center, and constructing a 220-room hotel with 142 condo units, 100 parking spaces, and multiple restaurants.

The tower will reportedly be called 40 Trinity Place, and the rendering as depicted on Boston.com shows a slim

See Skyscraper, B9

I NSIDE METRO THIS ISSUE

Panera Cares strives to bring food to the needy and hungry

BY ALEX GAYNOR Heights Editor What does social responsibility tangibly look like? One may not realize it, but it can take the form of a seemingly simple community cafe.

Panera Cares Cafe, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit operated by the Panera Bread Foundation, not to be confused with the corporate entity Panera Bread, has taken on the role of providing donations-based meals to all people regardless of their monetary resources.

Recently opened at 3 Center Plaza across the street from the Government Center T station in downtown Boston, the cafe seeks to embrace the diversity

On the Flip Side

Should the T run throughout the night to accomodate more Boston residents and their nightlife? ........................................................................B9

Restaurant Review: Dok Bua Thai..........................................................B7 Project to Watch: On the Road, BC Alumni.................................................B8