The Heights 05/02/2013

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The Heights will return on Thursday, Sept. 5. Good luck on finals! ONE LAST SHOT

THE RESULTS ARE IN

MACKLEMORE

SPORTS

METRO

SCENE

Chase Rettig prepares for his last year under center at BC, A10

Markey and Gomez look ahead to the general election after winning Tuesday’s primaries, B10

The Scene dissects the rapper’s musical personality as he lands at Modstock today, B1

www.bcheights.com

HEIGHTS

THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

established

1919

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Vol. XCIV, No. 24

Administrators take steps to deal with grade inflation at BC BY DAVID COTE Editor-in-Chief AND

ANDREW SKARAS

Asst. News Editor Starting during the Vietnam War, average grades at universities nationwide began to climb steadily, a trend that has not stopped since. At the time, professors were unwilling to give students low grades, as a poor GPA could jeopardize their military exemption status and result in their being sent to fight and possibly die overseas.

In 1930, the average GPA of undergraduate students at U.S. colleges was 2.40, according to a 2009 report released by the University Council on Teaching. In 1960, it was around 2.48, a modest increase of .08 over 30 years. In 2009, the last year the data was reported, the average GPA was roughly 3.25. In 2004, 90.6 percent of Harvard University’s graduating class received Latin honors (cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude), an occurrence that sparked controversy and led to

serious conversation on the topic of grade inflation among top-ranked universities nationwide. The trend has been apparent across the country at both private and public universities, and Boston College is no exception. Donald Hafner, vice provost for undergraduate academic affairs, noted that grade inflation was a trend that had gained momentum and was difficult to stop once it began. In the College of Arts and Sciences as a whole, the percentage of As and Aminuses was 38 percent in 2000, according

to the report. In 2008, As and A-minuses made up 45 percent of the grades. David Quigley, dean of A&S, partially attributed this trend to the increasing quality of the average BC student. Quigley pointed out that average GPAs have been increasing at close to an equal rate to incoming SAT scores and high school GPAs of students, but admitted that there have been problems recently. “[Grade inflation] has clearly been one of the big issues of the last 10 years on all highly selective college campuses—cer-

BC Social to open as media hub

BY ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT News Editor

Muslims, immigrants, and people of color after the bombings. “As everything was unfolding, the first thing that the media jumped to was what their religion is and where they are from,” Bhattacharyya said. “Immediately, within minutes, people on Twitter started making memes and people on Facebook started putting things up about immigration reform … People jumped to conclusions out of fear, anger, and just wanting someone to blame.” Bhattacharyya spent the lockdown

During the last academic year, the Office of AHANA Student Programs (OASP) and the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs conducted a climate survey about diversity on campus. This past spring, smaller focus groups were convened in order to gather more information about questions that sprang up as a result of the original survey and could not be answered with any preexisting institutional data. “There were some questions where we just wanted to understand better why students were saying what they were saying,” said Ines Maturana Sendoya, director of OASP. “Black students and African-American students indicated [on the original survey] that they were the most dissatisfied with their experience at Boston College, so we wanted to get a better understanding as to why that was happening. “Another area we wanted to explore was we found that mainly white students indicated that they were tired of talking about diversity … and so we wanted to understand what that meant. The other area was that, about one-third of students said that LGBTQ students have support, another third said that they’re not supported, and another third said that they didn’t know.”

See Anti-Islamophobia, A4

See Diversity Study, A4

BY GABBY TARINI Heights Staff

See BC Social, A4

ALEX GAYNOR / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The ‘Don’t Meet Hurt with Hate’ initiative is intended to combat Islamophobic sentiments that sprang up after the Marathon attacks.

Student group fights Islamophobia BY DEVON SANFORD Assoc. News Editor Between the comedy show fliers and a cappella banners, “Don’t Meet Hurt with Hate, Love Islam” might be missed by those passing through the Quad. The phrase, painted on a blue banner and hung earlier this week, is surrounded by signatures and kind words of Boston College students, faculty, and administrators in support of the cause. “Don’t Meet Hurt with Hate” is an antihate initiative group created in response to the prejudice against Muslims, immigrants,

The BC Social site, set to launch this summer, will be compatible with phones and tablets.

and people of color after the Boston Marathon bombings. The initiative was created by members of the BC community, including Sriya Bhattacharyya, GLSOE ’14. “This whole entire thing started when we were in the lockdown, during the aftermath of the bombings,” Bhattacharyya said. “In the lockdown, I think the only thing people could do was watch the news, sit, and wait for more information. As I was sitting there, all I could think about [was] how worried I was that the person behind this was a Muslim.” Bhattacharyya feared that people would impose violence and discrimination on

BC community supports bombing victims, alums BY DEVON SANFORD Assoc. News Editor

PHOTO COURTESY OF BC ITS WEB TECHNOLOGY GROUP

See Grade Inflation, A4

Focus groups explore BC’s diversity

Webpage will coalesce Boston College’s best

In an effort to bring better cohesion to the social media offerings at Boston College, the Office of News & Public Affairs is working with BC Information Technology’s Web Group to launch a fully integrated social media convergence site called BC Social. Commonly known as a “mashup page,” the site will highlight the best of BC’s official social media. In addition to serving as a one-stop entry point for BC’s social media channels, the site will bring awareness to active social media campaigns and promote the best work being done on behalf of the University. BC has been recognized by Track Social as one of the top 25 overall performing schools in social media. The University also has a “Klout Score” of 92, which is among the nation’s highest for colleges and universities. The score is a number from 1-100, based on the relative activity of the University’s social networks. After adopting Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram, BC has continued to evolve its virtual presence through initiatives like BC Social. Office of News & Public Affairs Deputy Director and Social Media Council cochair Patricia Delaney is enthusiastic about the use of social media on campus, and sees the University as leading social media initiatives on college campuses around the nation. “We’re excited that BC’s social channels

tainly Boston College is no exception,” Quigley said. “I think in the last decade or so there are some areas where the grading curve, at the high end, the outliers have really drifted far away from a reasonable median, depending on department and discipline.” Hafner didn’t necessarily agree that the upward trend in grades could be explained by an increasingly talented student body. “There has also been an argument that the

In the wake of tragedy, members of the Boston College community have joined together to support the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. Most recently, BC alumni, friends, and even complete strangers have reached out to Patrick Downes, BC ’05, and his wife Jessica Kensky, who were both seriously injured by the bombings. A fundraising effort via GiveForward.org was launched within days of the Boston Marathon to help pay for the couple’s medical bills and rehabilitation costs. The fundraiser has since raised over $735,000. Friends, family, and supporters of the fundraiser have left notes of encouragement and good wishes for the couple, including video tributes from as far away as Istanbul. “You don’t know me, but I wanted to contribute to the cost of your care, and wish you a speedy recovery,” one donor wrote on the page. “I am so sorry this happened to you, but I hope you emerge from this with strong spirits and determination to live the rest of your lives to the fullest.” “My son Alex, Brandon’s roommate, has told me how much he respects and admires you both,” Stephanie Neckles,

another donor, wrote. “He described your courage, generosity of spirit, and deep love you share. These things, and God’s grace, will sustain you as you travel the difficult road ahead … My family’s thoughts and prayers are with you.” Downes and Kensky, newlyweds and avid runners, were standing at the finish line of the marathon when the bombs exploded. They each lost a leg, and Kensky’s right foot was badly hurt. Downes ran in the Boston Marathon in 2005, according to The Washington Post. The couple had gone to the finish line this year to reminisce about the run. Downes, a Cambridge native, is finishing a doctoral degree in psychology. Kensky is originally from California and is an oncology nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital. The two met in 2006 in Washington, and were married in Boston last summer. As a BC undergraduate, Downes was active in Campus Ministry and received a certificate of merit for programming skills in the 2005 University Student Leadership Awards. Downes, “who cried his eyes out when the Sox finally won the World Series,” according to the fundraising site, “was nicknamed ‘Jesus’ in high school for

See Marathon Charities, A3

THOUSANDS LINE UP FOR TICKETS

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

UGBC distributed tickets for today’s Macklemore show to non-seniors on Tuesday. At 8 a.m., the line stretched from Conte Forum (above) to Fulton Hall.


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