The Heights 03/18/2013

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AN IRISH TRADITION

‘COLLIDE’

MINNEAPOLIS BOUND

FEATURES

ARTS & REVIEW

SPORTS

Celebrating a history of Irish festivities through previous Heights issues, B9

The Boston College Dance Ensemble exhibits stunning skill in its annual show, A10

With a 3-1 victory over Harvard, women’s hockey advances to the Frozen Four, B1

www.bcheights.com

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

HEIGHTS

THE

established

1919

Monday, March 18, 2013

Vol. XCIV, No. 14

UGBC PROPOSES POINT SYSTEM BC alum nominated for SENATE COMMITTEE ADVOCATES FOR NEW ALCOHOL POLICY

0 1 2 3-4 4-6 7-9 10 10

MIT professor Ernest Moniz, BC ’66, chosen to join Obama’s Cabinet

ALL STUDENTS: Hospitalization (Good Samaritan Policy or amnesty)

POINTS

POINT

POINTS

POINTS

POINTS

POINTS

UNDER 21 (ON CAMPUS) & ALL STUDENTS OFF CAMPUS: Possession of beer and/or wine (less than 20 percent alcohol), failure to comply with University officials due to intoxication, hosting a large, off-campus party with more than 60 people (alcohol present), open container of alcohol in public, possession of alcohol paraphernalia and/or “empties”

UNDER 21: Possession of liquor (greater than 20 percent alcohol), possession of a fraudulent ID FINE: $50 (for ID only)

ALL STUDENTS: Public disturbance and/or lewd behavior due to intoxication (disrespectful behavior at Late-Night, public urination, streaking, etc.) FINE: Restitution if applicable

ALL STUDENTS: Intoxication leading to infirmary stay, intoxication leading to hospitalization, possession and/or consumption of Class D and/or E drugs (small quantity) FINE: Associated Costs

ALL STUDENTS: Possession and/or consumption of Class A, B, and/or C drugs (small quantity), possession of related drug paraphernalia FINE: $100

POINTS

ALL STUDENTS: Possession of a large quantity of any drug (Classes A-E), intent to distribute any illegal substance and/or marijuana FINE: $150

POINTS

ALL STUDENTS: Driving under the influence, sexual harassment and/or sexual assault (regardless of alcohol intoxication) FINE: $400 MAGGIE BURDGE / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC

A committee in the UGBC Senate has issued a proposal for a new alcohol policy (above) based on a points system for various infractions. BY GIANNI MATERA Heights Staff In the last few days, a Senate committee has been at work publicizing its proposed alternative to Boston College’s “Community Standards Sanctions,” more commonly referred to as the alcohol and drug matrix. UGBC is proposing a point-based system that they claim would increase the clarity and transparency of sanctions as well as help promote healthier drinking habits. Chris Marchese, A&S ’15, is a sophomore senator in UGBC and chairman of the select committee that has been working to revise the

alcohol policy. Last year, he ran on a platform to reform the alcohol matrix and has continued to work toward his vision this year. According to the committee’s own study, 93 percent of BC students surveyed think the matrix needs to be reformed. They say that the system is unfair due to ambiguity and misleading language. For example, the word “probation” causes many students to think that once their probation period ends, they are forgiven. This is, in fact, not the case, and for many students, the sanctions imposed for subsequent violations are up to the discretion of the administrator at their hearing. Addressing the rise in unhealthy drink-

next Secretary of Energy

ing habits is also a top priority for UGBC. An anonymous comment published in their recent study said that the current matrix “encourages students to drink liquor and drink it quickly to avoid getting in trouble by RAs.” The point system would address this problem by giving hard liquor violations a higher point value. In the most recent draft of the new system, alcohol that is less than 20 percent alcohol per volume, effectively applying to beer and wine, would be valued at one point. Violations involving beverages with a higher alcoholic content, on the other hand, would

See Alcohol Policy, A4

BY ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT News Editor If the Senate confirms Ernest Moniz, BC ’66, as the next U.S. Secretary of Energy, two of the 15 members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet will be Boston College alumni. Secretary of State John Kerry, BC Law ’76, assumed office on Feb. 1 this year—the date of Moniz’s confirmation hearing is as of yet undecided. He is poised to inherit the position from current Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, who served during Obama’s first term. Moniz was the associate director for science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 1995 to 1997, and was undersecretary of energy from 1997 to 2001. He currently serves on Obama’s council of advisors for science and technology, as well as the Department of Defense’s Threat Reduction Advisory Committee.

Old issues of The Heights highlighted various awards Moniz earned during his time at BC. In April of 1965, Moniz was one of seven students nominated as a Scholar of the College, who would conduct research with faculty support. “Ernest Moniz is directing his efforts in the field of Physics,” the article read. “In particular Mr. Moniz will study Magnetic Resonance Physics in the solid state.” Moniz also qualified as a semifinalist in physics for the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in 1966, the same year that he was one of 55 seniors inducted into the Order of the Cross and Crown, the honor society of the College of Arts and Sciences. After graduating from BC in 1966 with a B.S. in physics, Moniz went on to Stanford University, where he earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics, and then joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1973. He is currently the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems and directs MIT’s Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. He is also the founding director of the MIT Energy Initiative

See Moniz, A4

UGBC campaigning officially begins today BY ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT News Editor The campaigning season for president and vice president of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) during the 2013-14 academic year will begin today. Three teams are competing: Tim Koch, A&S ’14, and Chris Truglio, CSOM ’14; Molly McCarthy and Ricky Knapp, both A&S ’14; and Matt Nacier and Matt Alonsozana, both A&S ’14. The team of Nick Barrett, CSOM ’14, and Tim Strakosch, A&S ’14, removed themselves from the running last week. Although campaigning does not officially start until tonight, each of the teams have found ways to get their name out ahead of time. Last week, Koch and Truglio created a Twitter account and a Facebook page, and several members of their staff changed their Facebook profile pictures to a campaign photo. “We did receive a complaint that multiple of Tim and Chris’ campaign staffers had changed their profile pictures to their team logo,” said Carter Bielen, co-chair of the UGBC Elections Committee and A&S ’13, in an email. “In keeping with the new elections code, we informed Tim and Chris that their team was required to stop immediately, which at this point they have. We do not anticipate any additional sanctions at this time.”

The other two teams have also created Facebook pages for their campaign, and the Koch-Truglio and Nacier-Alonsozana teams have begun Twitter accounts as well. There have been no sanctions as a result of this social media activity, however. “As of now, there have been no official sanctions,” Bielen said. “Candidates are allowed to create groups/events and invite people, but are not allowed to put forth any platform information. [Koch and Truglio] have been instructed to delete one Facebook post, but will incur no sanctions because of it at this point. All candidates have been told to refrain from posting on Facebook and Twitter until the start of campaigning.” He noted that all teams have been cooperative about not posting and have been quick to take down any unacceptable content at the Elections Committee’s request. The UGBC elections kickoff, at which the three teams will be introducing their platforms, will be hosted by the Elections Committee tonight at 7 p.m. in Merkert 127. The first UGBC presidential and vice presidential debate, also hosted by the Elections Committee, will be Wednesday at 9 p.m. in Hillside Cafe, and a second, town hall-style debate, hosted by the Bellarmine Law Society and dealing primarily with RSOs, will be Thursday at 7 p.m. in the third floor Voute lounge. 

Professor reflects on recognition of Irish Magdalene Laundries crimes Smith contributed to McAleese Report, which prompted Irish government to apologize formally BY JENNIFER HEINE Heights Staff

ALEX GAYNOR / HEIGHTS EDITOR

James Smith has worked since 2007 to shed light on the Magdalene Laundries abuses.

Although last month’s McAleese Report detailing the abuses of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundry workhouse system and the government’s subsequent apology stunned and dismayed many at Boston College, especially given the school’s Irish Catholic heritage, it proved particularly meaningful to professor James Smith, who, through extensive research and advocacy on the subject, played a vital role in bringing the scandal to light. Although the Magdalene Laundries, in operation from the 18th until the 20th century, have today come to be associated with the most infamous Irish examples, they were not specific to Ireland, according to Smith. “There was one here in Boston,” he said. “The laundries were not a specifically Irish institution, or even specifically Catholic.”

“Originally, the mission of these institutions was rehabilitative,” he said. “That mission, certainly in the Irish context, seems to have become skewed. They became incarcerative institutions, in which women were incarcerated and worked for no pay.” That new mission reflects the perception the entrants into the Magdalene Laundries began to take on. “In the Irish context, these were women who, for a variety of reasons, were deemed problem women,” Smith said. “Historically, they were considered, in quotations, ‘fallen women.’” This term, used in the 18th and 19th centuries as a euphemism for prostitution, lent a sense of shame and sexual degradation to the women who were committed. In reality, though, few of the Magdalene Laundry workers could be so categorized. “Only a small percentage of those in the Magdalene laundries were single mothers,” Smith said. “The vast majority, by the 20th

century, were women who had come from an industrial school.” The industrial school system, a program of institutions to house abandoned and orphaned children, ended at the age of 16, and, by the latter part of the Magdalene Laundry era, many schools found it easiest to transfer its charges directly into laundries. Beginning with his 2007 work Ireland’s Magdalen Laundries and the Nation’s Architecture of Containment, winner of the American Conference for Irish Studies Donald Murphy Prize, Smith has sought to address the Irish government’s lack of recognition of these crimes. He also serves as a member of the Justice for Magdalenes advisory committee (JFM), an advocacy group dedicated to promoting the rights of those who emerged from the Magdalene Laundry system. Following 2009’s Ryan Report on the industrial schools and in particular the state’s involvement with the system, which made no mention of the laundries, Smith drafted a report highlighting the Irish state’s sup-

See Smith, A4


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