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BC gets a rematch with NU after rasing the 2012 Championship banner, A10
Two bodies found in the Charles River prompt investigation, B10
Mario Testino’s photography has become iconic enough for the MFA, B1
in your face
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Vol. XCIII, No. 37
ALC adds theme, new safety measures to annual event
Supreme Court issues a stay on Belfast tapes
By Mary Rose Fissinger
By David Cote
Boat Cruise Revamped Heights Editor
The Programming Department of the AHANA Leadership Council (ALC) has reworked the ALC Boat Cruise this year to include more varied entertainment and stricter security measures. In an attempt to continue improving the ever-popular event, attract a broader demographic, and cut down on issues arising from intoxication, the programming department has revamped the annual excursion, adding a theme and precautionary safety measures. Co-directors of the programming department Denise Pyfrom, A&S ’14, and Gabriela Mejia, A&S ’13, decided to make the event casino-themed partly
because they believed it would add a fun element that would entice people not just from ALC or within the AHANA community to attend the event. “It’s really important to us too that people don’t see the ALC boat cruise as only for AHANA students,” Pyfrom said. “That’s one of the reasons why we tried to get more creative this year, to try to attract a more diverse crowd from the student body.” Diversifying the attendance has been a goal of the planners of the ALC Boat Cruise for a few years now, and Mejia believes that progress has been made. “My freshman year, it was very much mostly AHANA students, and over the past couple years there’s been a big increase in how mixed the crowd is,”
Mejia said. She attributes this progress partially to the fact that there is a much greater presence in ALC on the part of non-AHANA students now than in past years. “Our staff members have been trying to get out there and talk to everybody as opposed to just keeping it within the council or keeping it within the small AHAHA community that’s at BC,” Mejia said. “Our staff has done a great job of reaching out.” They also added the casino theme to entice students who have attended the event in the past and may think that the next boat cruise would be more of the same.
News Editor
Editor’s Note: This story is part of an ongoing series about the subpoenas of the Belfast Project. United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer recently approved a stay on the Belfast Project materials being sought by the Police Services of Northern Ireland (PSNI). The stay, which was issued yesterday, will remain in place until at least Nov. 16.
The announcement by Breyer approved a request made by Belfast project researchers Ed Moloney and Anthony McIntyre for a stay on the lower court decision until the Supreme Court decides whether or not to hear the case of the Belfast Project. “It is ordered that the mandate of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, case Nos. 11-2511 and 12-1159, is hereby stayed until November 16, 2012,” the decision by Breyer read.
See Belfast Project, A3
See Boat Cruise, A4
eun hee kwon /heights staff
Dozens of students turned out for the first-ever major and minor fair in Higgins on Tuesday.
photo courtesy of denise pyfrom
The ALC Boat Cruise is being modified this year to attract a more diverse audience and to address safety concerns from previous years.
Outdoors Club gains traction in first year
energy expert comes to BC
For The Heights
Over 40 areas of study were represented at the first-ever Major and Minor Fair held on Tuesday afternoon. The event was organized by the UGBC in collaboration with the Academic Advising Center
For The Heights
See Outdoors Club, A4
Over 40 majors and minors represented in Higgins Atrium By Henry Hilliard
By Michael Head After years of clearing red tape and navigating bureaucracy, the Outdoors Club of Boston College (OCBC) now enjoys both official recognition as a student organization and status as one of the most popular student-run groups on campus. Growing rapidly in popularity after approval by the Student Programming Office (SPO) last year, the club holds meetings that consistently go over capacity in BC’s largest lecture halls. This newfound success comes in the wake of decades of false starts and denials—failures still freshly imprinted in the minds of many students, alumni, and faculty members. Assistant Dean for Curriculum Ethan Sullivan, for example, attempted to organize an outdoors club during his time as an undergraduate in 1992, but ultimately joined the ranks of those stonewalled by the administration. “When we brought it forth before BC, we were declined,” Sullivan said. “We were a little upset, but it wasn’t the end of the world. We were told that there were a lot of other groups that had tried to do it before us, and from what I know there have been several other attempts since then in the last 20 years.” During that time, SPO struggled to find a place for the club when nothing in their protocol matched the organization’s objectives, and many within the office feared providing funding to a group that could cause liability issues. “Proving to SPO that our Outdoors Club was not simply a disorganized social group with no vision or long-term plan
UGBC hosts first major and minor fair for the undecided as part of the inaugural Academic Advising Week. Tables at the fair featured faculty and student representatives from the various fields of study within Arts and Sciences, as well as representatives from the Carroll School, the Lynch School, and the Connell School, for students considering switching schools within the University. The Academic Advising Center and Career Center were also on hand. “The purpose of the Major/Minor Fair is to represent all the academic depart-
See Major Fair, A4
Authors of book on evolution and religion discuss implications By Andrew Skaras Heights Staff
daniel lee / heights editor
Brenda Shaffer, author of ‘Energy Politics’ and a professor at the University of Haifa, Israel, (above) spoke at Boston College on Monday on the role energy plays in politics.
OSS teaches smart money management strategies By Julie Orenstein For The Heights
Differentiating between wants and needs and developing discipline when budgeting were the principal guidelines at the Introduction to Budgeting workshop Wednesday evening held by $uccessful Start, Boston College’s financial literacy program. Sponsored by the Office of Student Services (OSS), the workshop was the second of seven events scheduled for this semester
“Can a transcendent God be a personal God?” Neil Ormerod asked to the crowd gathered in Fulton 305 on Monday evening. “We are close to God because He is the source of our being. Our conception of God is too small. Divine existence is not like our own. It is inexhaustibly mysterious.” In the modern world, religious questions on the nature of God and the relationship between God and the physical universe are heavily debated by believers and non-believers alike. In their book
Creator God, Evolving World, Ormerod and Cynthia Crysdale draw on Christian tradition in an attempt to answer some of the difficult questions regarding the nature of God and the relationship between God and science in a format accessible to any educated reader. A professor at the School of Theology at the University of the South, Crysdale teaches Christian ethics and theology with a focus on science and Christian belief, drawing from the Catholic tradition of Boston College professor and scholar Ber-
See Creator God, A4
featuring topics ranging from credit and debt management to understanding financial aid. Ultimately, the program hopes to provide BC students, both undergraduates and graduates, with the information necessary to become financially literate and responsible for their lifetime. Budgeting, said Craig Noyes, direct loans and corrections specialist in OSS and BC ’08, who presented Wednesday’s workshop, “requires a lot of intent effort
See Finances, A4
andrew skaras / for the heights
Neil Ormerod and Cynthia Crysdale (above), spoke about their book on evolution and religion.