The Heights 09/09/2013

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Monday, September 9, 2013

Vol. XCIV, No. 26

O.A.R. TO HEADLINE UGBC’S FALL CONCERT

BY DEVON SANFORD Assoc. News Editor This year’s Fall Concert, hosted by the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC), will feature O.A.R. in Conte Forum on Friday, Sept.

20, at 7 p.m. Moe Pope, an indie hiphop artist based in Boston, will open the concert.

“We were really excited to change things up this year,” said Tim Koch, co-coordinator of concerts and A&S ’14. “In the past we have had a lot of hip hop artists and rappers. We wanted to offer the student body something different.”

O.A.R., an American rock band k now n for its singles “Love and Memories” and “Lay Down,” will perform at a later

time than last year’s Fall Concert artist. The show will begin at 7 p.m., with doors opening at 6 p.m. and closing at 8:30 p.m. UGBC will also be offering four tickets per ID instead of the usual two.

“We feel that the start time of the show will be in the students’ best interest,” Koch said. “By 7, there won’t be light streaming through Conte. In addition to the time change, we will be working with Nights on the Heights (NOTH) this year. We hope that our partnership with Nights on the Heights will give the program more favor within the student body.”

NOTH will be holding a barbeque before the concert, between 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The student-led program will also be providing

mini golf, two photo booths, customized hats, and glitter tattoos for students.

Koch is confident that students will respond positively to this year’s artist.

“In years past, students have said that O.A.R. is a band that they wanted to see at BC,” Koch said. “When we were presented with the opportunity, we felt that we should take advantage of it.”

Koch and the concert coordination team worked with BC’s concert production agent, James Anderson from One If By Land Productions, to choose O.A.R. “We are given a set of artists from our agent,” said Michael Warren, cocoordinator of concerts and CSOM ’16.

“From there, it was our decision.

Through availability, it was down to a

SEE FALL CONCERT, A3

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

MARY O’KEEFFE, STEPHANIE MARTIN, AND SUZY COFFAY (1979)

Alumni accompany a Homecoming float (above). This year marks a renewal of the festivities.

Homecoming festivities return after four decades Sprit Week, pep rally will lead up to weekend

BY JOHN WILEY Heights Editor Boston College’s first recorded Homecoming festivities took place on Friday, Oct. 18, 1935. The Alumni Association of Boston College hosted a Homecoming supper at the senior assembly hall, alongside an evening of entertainment in the Bapst Library auditorium. The same evening, BC undergraduates held a student automobile parade down Commonwealth Avenue into the city of Boston, ending, presumably, at the hotel where football opponents from Michigan State University were staying.

Beginning Sunday, Sept. 30, and continuing through the Saturday of the BCArmy football game, BC Athletics—in partnership with UGBC, the Division of Student Affairs, Nights on the Heights (NOTH), and the BC Alumni Association—will be hosting Homecoming Week-

end and Spirit Week.

Following an alumni reception at the Cardigan Alumni Center, Homecoming Weekend will kick off with a football pep rally Friday night at 7:30 p.m. on Shea Field, ending in a fireworks display. A FanFest will be held in the Flynn Recreation Complex, alongside a series of alumni events for former varsity athletes on Saturday, before the game. The ’88 BC and Army teams will be recognized during the game, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first game of American college football played in Europe, Nov. 19, 1988 in Dublin, Ireland. The weekend’s events will end with the UGBC’s annual Homecoming Ball at the Sheraton Boston, the single enduring tradition of Homecoming over the last few decades.

Director of Athletics Brad Bates described the inspiration for Homecoming Weekend as twofold.

“One, we wanted to engage our alumni in ways that would get them back to the Heights, and provide them with a home

See Homecoming, A3

Student Assembly members propose financial accountability measure

BY ANDREW SKARAS Asst. News Editor On Tuesday evening, the Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) kicked off the new academic year with the first meeting of the new Student Assembly.

While the freshman senators have not been elected yet, it is the largest incarnation of the legislative side of the student government to date. After an opening speech and prayer, the new senators were inaugurated.

Afterward, Chris Marchese, A&S ’15, ran unopposed for the position of president pro tempore of the Student Assembly. In his speech, he outlined his plan for working with the Student Assembly in the coming year and focused on mentorship and reaching out to new members of the organization.

The primary focus of the legislative agenda was two pieces of legislation dealing with internal transparency.

Sponsored by Marchese and Helen Yu, CSOM ’14, the Fairness in Accounting and

Finance Committee chair. Further, the act stipulates that the forms must be made available to any student that requests them.

After the resolution’s introduction, the sponsors received questions from other senators and Gus Burkett, Director of the Student Programs Office (SPO), who was also in attendance. Burkett warned the Assembly that the ability for students to see the forms with financial data out of context could be detrimental.

“If students look at a budget concert for

$200,000, they will freak out if they don’t see it in context,” Burkett said. “I cannot change any resolutions, I just give you advice and you take it or leave. It may be smart if a student has a question or they want to see the forms, they meet with someone from the finance committee and they go over the form oneon-one so that they give them some context on the expenses instead of just putting it out there and people seeing $100,000 or two

See Transparency, A3

Country concert to benefit Pete Frates

Quinn acting as provost during search

House of Blues will host event Thursday

BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Heights Editor

BY JENNIFER HEINE Heights Staff Following former Boston College Provost Cutberto Garza’s decision to step down from his role at the end of last year, the search for a new provost is underway.

University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., announced the makeup of a search committee at the University Convocation on Wednesday, chaired

by Executive Vice President Patrick Keating and theology department chair Catherine Cornille. Special Assistant to the President Robert Newton will serve as secretary.

Thirteen other faculty members, including professors, deans, and other administrators, as well as student representative Matthe w Alonsoz ana , A&S ’14, will make up the rest of the committee.

In addition, the University has hired executive search firm Witt Kieffer to

Clear Transparency Standards (FACTS) Act was one of these two pieces of legislation, and the Assembly devoted most of the time designated for legislation to discussing it.

FACTS creates a requirement that every event sponsored by UGBC that is funded either partially or fully with money from the Student Activity Fee be followed up with a written evaluation that includes the complete budget of the event. The vice president of financial affairs will be required to compile the forms and submit them to the Assembly

EMILY SADEGHIAN / HEIGHTS STAFF

Quinn is acting as provost while a search for a permanent replacement is underway. assist in the process, four of whose representatives will also serve on the committee.

The committee held its first general meeting on Friday and, according to Keating, “The plan is to begin interviewing candidates in late fall with recommendations to Father Leahy in late January or early February 2014.”

In the meantime, though, Leahy put a familiar face in charge of the job,

See Interim Provost, A3

When Pete Frates was diagnosed with ALS in March of 2012, his former Boston College baseball teammates Nick Asselin and Adam Crabtree knew they had to do something to help.

“If you know Pete,” Asselin said, “Pete’s one of those guys that wouldn’t even think twice of giving back or lending a helping hand if you asked him.”

Asselin and Frates joined the Eagles as freshmen together in 2003 and they roomed with each other during their junior year.

“You can just kind of tell by his personality, he was warm and caring, but on the field he was an animal,” Asselin said.

When news spread of Frates’ diagnosis, Asselin couldn’t believe it.

“It was like a, you’ve got to be kidding me, type thing,” he said. “I never would’ve thought this would’ve happened.

“It was heartbreaking, for everyone.

Anyone you talk to, anyone that really knew him—Pete was really one of those kids that, like, he’d walk around campus in a T-shirt and

shorts during the middle of winter. He was just one of those kids that would never, ever get sick. Just all around tough kid. One of the strongest kids in the weight room when we lifted and all that kind of stuff. To really see him hit with this, words can’t really describe what happened.”

Crabtree and Asselin knew that they could set up a donation fund for Frates and his family, but they wanted to do something on a larger scale that also fit Frates’ personality.

This Thursday night at the House of Blues, after almost a year of work by Crabtree and Asselin, country music star Joe Nichols is

headlining “Country Strikes Out ALS for Pete Frates,” along with Chase Rice, Sam Hunt, and BC graduate Ayla Brown.

“We were thinking along the lines of Pete’s mentality where we want to reach the most amount of people possible,” Asselin said. “We thought that tying in country music, with a cause, with everyone from BC, friends, family—it was kind of like we wanted to create that memorable experience for people to, A, get the word out and, B, to raise money.”

Asselin met some people with local

See Frates Concert, A3

PHOTO COURTESY OF BC ATHLETICS

Former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates (center) was diagnosed with ALS in 2012.

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Mary McAleese

Monday, September 9, 2013

Medical Ethics Lecture Constitution Day Luncheon

1 2 3 Wednesday Time: 4:30 p.m.

Location: The Heights Room, Corcoran Commons

Mary McAleese, the former president of Ireland and the Burns Library Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies, will be speaking to the general public as an introduction to the University.

Wednesday Time: 7:00 p.m.

Location: Fulton 511

Robert P. George, J.D., Ph.D., McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Politics at Princeton University will be giving a talk titled “Embryonic Humans.” The lecture is open to the general public.

Tuesday Time: 12:00 p.m.

Location: Barat House

Mary Sarah Bilder, Professor of Law at Boston College Law School, will be speaking at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy’s annual luncheon.

BC professor tests out new Google Glass “I have no doubt that Glass is the future,” said Jerry Kane, associate professor and assistant chairperson of information systems. “The only question is: how far away is that reality?”

Earlier this summer, Kane was selected by Google to participate in a pilot program for Glass, a wearable computer that is designed to look like glasses. For the price of $1500, Kane and other accepted applicants were able to pick up the Explorer Edition from Google offices and try them out before the rest of the public. Kane believes that his social media influence was what made him an attractive pilot tester for the tech giant.

“On a whim I videoed my class saying ‘Please give us Google Glass’ and I posted it to Twitter,” Kane said. “They used social media influence as an important differentiator, and I have a fairly big social media presence.”

Glass runs Android operating software with apps that are tailored to its unique interface. Users can command Glass either vocally or by touching a touch pad that is located on a user’s temple. A screen sits in front of a user’s right eye, which Google has advertised as the equivalent of looking at a 25-inch screen from eight feet away. One app appears on the screen at a time, and users can easily scroll through them by using the touch pad. Current apps available to testers include Google Now, Google Maps, and

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF NEWS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Jerry Kane of information systems was selected to participate in a pilot program for Glass.

Gmail, as well as third party apps such as The New York Times app.

While Kane is convinced that Glass is the future, he believes the product has a long way to go before it will be successful in the market. “Right now it is sort of geeky and sort of clunky,” he said. “The interface is also a little clunky. It is hard to use effectively.

The battery life is pretty bad. I also feel a bit awkward using the voice commands in public. Using the touch sensor is a bit more subtle.”

Kane does, however, see lots of positives about the first iteration of Glass. “The screen is absolutely remarkable,” he said. “Glass also has 15 GB worth of storage—that’s crazy.”

Kane se es a ver y bright f uture for the device once more consumers have access to it. “Right now I am struggling with seeing everyday uses

for Glass, but that is why they had to send it out to testers,” he said. “People will develop uses for it and come up with solutions for the problems that Glass has.”

According to Kane, functionalities not yet incorporated into Glass could have a major impact on its usefulness as a product.

“The question you have to ask is ‘Can I do more with this device than I could by just duct-taping my smartphone to my head?” he said. “If you are just taking photos and videos then this device isn’t much of an improvement.

The apps I am more excited about would include face recognition, which is banned right now, or the ability to read another person’s MAC address for their device to identify them.”

Apps that utilize this sort of technology would have a myriad of uses.

POLICE BLOTTER 7:56 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student in the Flynn Sports Complex. The student was later transported to a medical facility.

11:53 p.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC employee in the Commonwealth Garage. The employee was later transported to a medical facility.

9:43 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a traffic accident in the Lower Parking Lot. 9:53 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a suspicious person in McGuinn Hall.

10:51 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student in McElroy Commons. The student was later transported to a medical facility.

Thursday, September 5

2:52 p.m. - A report was filed regarding larceny in the Flynn Sports Complex.

12:48 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an underage, intoxicated BC student in Cushing Hall.

3:21 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a lost parking permit.

College Corner NEWS FROM UNIVERSITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

BY DEVON SANFORD Assoc. News Editor JPMorgan Chase & Co. will stop making student loans in October, according to Reuters. The decision was made after JPMorgan concluded that competition from federal government programs limits its ability to expand the loan business.

On Oct. 12 the company will stop accepting applications for private student loans, at the end of the peak borrowing season from this school year, according to a memo from the company to colleges.

“We just don’t see this as a market that we can significantly grow,” said Thasunda Duckett, chief executive for auto and student loans at Chase, in an interview this past Thursday.

Not making more loans “puts us in a position to redeploy those resources, as well as focus on our No. 1 priority, which is getting the

regulator y control environment strengthened,” Duckett said.

Last year, the bank chose to make education loans available only to existing Chase bank customers. The retail bank has some 64 million customers and 5,657 branches, according to Reuters.

Chase made education loans to 12,500 people for a total of about $200 million in 2011-12.

The company ’s student loan portfolio held $11 billion—less than 0.5 percent—of JPMorgan’s $2.44 trillion of assets at the end of June.

J PMo rg a n’s d e c i s i o n m e a n s less competition for the remaining banks in the market, such as Wells Fargo & Co. and Discover Financial Services.

The company said in a memo to colleges that its administrators would continue to process loan applications received before Oct. 12. 

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

EDITORIAL RESOURCES

“I could be at a conference and I don’t know you from Adam, but Glass could identify you and pull up your Facebook profile and alert me that we have an appointment,” Kane said. “A doctor using an app with face recognition could have a patient’s records pulled up on his or her Glass right as the patient walks in. Or retailers could use Glass to recognize who their best customers are walking around and pull up their sales history to make sure that the best customers get excellent customer service.”

Glass fits nicely into Kane’s vision of a future digitalized world. “ What happ ens when a dig it al layer is placed over reality?” he said. “Imagine walking up to the BC Eagle statue and the Wikipedia page for it is pulled up so you can learn its history and then you can sign a digital layer of graffiti to show that you have visited there. A game called Ingress has also been de velop e d for Gla ss that split s Glass wearers into two teams that go around to historical monuments that are covered by a digital layer of information. They can claim markers for their team by doing certain things at the markers.”

There is no official release date for Glass as of yet, but Kane does not believe it will be released in 2013. Whatever the release date is, Kane believes Glass will be the next step in the evolution of technology.

“We have gone from desktops to the pocket,” he said. “Now we are going from the pocket to digital reality. It’s only a matter of time.” 

9/4/13-9/6/13

Wednesday, September 4

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BY ANDREW MILETTE Heights Editor

A Guide to Your Newspaper

8:33 p.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student in Flynn Sports Complex. The student was later transported to a medical facility.

Friday, September 6

News Tips Have a news tip or a good idea for a story?

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

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Arts Events The Heights covers a multitude of events both on and off campus – including concerts, movies, theatrical performances, and more. Call Sean Keeley, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email arts@bcheights.com. For future events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk.

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 email eic@bcheights.com.

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CORRECTIONS

12:01 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a suspicious circumstance in Gabelli Hall.

1:26 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an activated fire alarm in Gabelli Hall.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

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

VOICES FROM THE DUSTBOWL “What is the most unique object in your dorm room?”

“A pair of fins and paddles.”

—Caitlin Mark, A&S ’16

“A model of a spine.”

—Micah Sy, A&S ’14

“My own wi-fi.”

—Jonathon Shaffer, CSOM ’17

“A giant lawn ornament of the BC Eagle.”

—David Riemer, A&S ’14

The Heights

Monday, September 9, 2013

A3

UGBC debates disclosing internal financial records Transparency, from A1 years of tuition.”

After Burkett gave his advice, the Assembly debated the merits of his suggestion.

Yu, did not support it, as she expressed concern that it would put an undue burden on the Finance Committee to have numerous meetings with students every week. Instead, she suggested a letter of explanation to go along with the forms. Marchese also supported this position. Denise Pyfrom, Vice President of Programming (VPoP) and A&S ’14, expressed concern and opposed the measure.

“It could be beneficial to have a financial person there in some aspect, either from the executive board or the two of you [Yu and Marchese],” Pyfrom said. “I don’t like

this at all because I feel like it will stir up a lot of issues among the student body once they see how much money is going to put on an event and how much it takes to put on an event because I don’t think that many people understand how much money it takes to do these large-scale events on our campus. I really think this is not going to be a good idea, but if I am going to be flexible and go along with this, I think there should be a financial person there to go over it.”

In the end, the Assembly decided not to close debate on the resolution and to table it until the next meeting, when they will continue to discuss and amend the resolution.

Because of time constraints, they decided not to discuss the second resolution on transparency, the Student Activities Fee Education (SAFE) Act, until the next meeting. n

Concert to support Frates Frates Concert, from A1 country music station WKLB who put him in touch with Ginny Rogers, the music director at the station.

“She’s kind of been a savior to us, guiding us through the whole process,” Asselin said.

Rogers connected Asselin and Crabtree with Nichols, who said yes to headlining the show right away. Rice played linebacker at North Carolina and also had the same management as Nichols, so he was easy to book after Nichols signed up. Hunt was a quarterback for UAB, and after Asselin told him about the show, Hunt said all he needed was a flight and a plane ticket and he’d be there.

After some help from John Innamorato with Live Nation locking down the House of Blues, the show was set.

Asselin and Crabtree picked country music not only because they’re big fans, but also because they think that it fits what they’re trying to do best.

“To have these guys have the ability to meet Pete and see what he’s going through,” Asselin said, “I think it’s kind of going to not only touch them, but I think it’s just going to help to spread the awareness that much more.

“You can hire some people to come play and all they’re going to do is play their set and go home and stuff like that, but I think country music kind of takes a step above and beyond.”

Tickets are still on sale, with funds from the concert going to the “Pete Frates #3 Fund.”

This week, a back-to-school promo was also added, where four tickets can be bought for the price of three. n

BC provost’s role filled by Joseph Quinn Interim Provost, from A1

photo courtesy of google images

Boston-based indie hip hop artist Moe Pope will open for O.A.R. at the Fall Concert.

O.A.R., Moe Pope to play BC Fall Concert, from A1 couple artists and O.A.R. was the best option.”

Koch discussed the process behind choosing an artist for the Fall Concert.

While the decision was ultimately made by the concert coordination team, multiple factors played into the planning of the O.A.R. show.

“Our agent, James, has worked with BC in many capacities,” Koch said. “Whenever the Student Programs Office is sponsoring an event in which talent is needed, James acts as the BC agent. We begin by telling him the genres we’re interested in, and since he’s worked at BC before he’s very accustomed to what BC students like. He provides us with a list of 10 or so options for the semester’s concert. The difficulty comes into play when we’re really interested in a certain artist but his tour dates have changed or he is interested in negotiating for more money. Because we are limited in our resources, it becomes a lot more difficult when an artist is asking for more or when an artist’s touring changes.”

Koch and the team worked to offer reasonably priced tickets while still pre-

senting an artist that would appeal to the student body.

“I think we were given very good options for the Fall Concert,” Koch said. “James does a very good job working within the constraints we are confined to. I think one of the biggest constraints that we, and all registered student organizations and offices face, is fiscal.”

Koch believes that the funding process, in which the University allocates the student activities fees to student programs, needs to be revised.

“The root of the issue as it stands now is that the administration is not in touch with what BC students want in terms of programming,” Koch said. “If we think about how we are spending our money in a fiscally responsible way, in the long term there needs to be more of a student consideration ... I think that is a real opportunity for the new Vice President of Student Affairs. It’s important to start talking to students and asking them what programs they really enjoy, what events do they attend. If we can have students involved in how that large sum of money is allocated amongst these large organizations, we are going to notice more effective programming.” n

naming former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Joseph Quinn as Interim Provost shortly after Garza’s announcement last spring. Following what Quinn called a fairly normal summer, including a vacation on the Cape and a conference in Jackson Hole, he officially took over the provost’s office on July 1.

Quinn’s long career at BC made the transition to provost easier. “I’ve been here for 40 years, mostly as a member of our economics department,” he said.

“But for eight years, from 1999 to 2007, I was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. I was also chair of the economics department for six years and NCAA faculty athletic representative

“The best phrase is ‘I’m back on the learning curve,’ because although I know a lot about one component of BC, the largest component, arts and sciences, I have much more limited experiences with the other schools ... I’m learning every day.”

- Joseph Quinn Interim Provost and Dean of Faculties

judy mello (1988)

The Boston College marching band parades in Dublin (left). On November 19, 1988, BC played against Army in the first game of American college football in Europe (right).

BC revamps Homecoming weekend, adds spirit activities Homecoming, from A1 football game as entertainment and a reason for everyone to get together as classmates, as teammates, as friends, visit former faculty members and that sort of thing,” Bates said.

“And the other part of it that inspired the concept was that there’s been this ongoing Homecoming Ball, and so integrating the student event with alumni events was really what we’re trying to engage around football weekend.”

Leading up into Homecoming Weekend, BC will host its first Spirit Week. This new tradition is set to revolve around the Homecoming Cup Competition, a week-long contest in which teams from the University’s student organizations and learning communities will compete in a series of spirited Eagle challenges.

“Boston College students are inherently competitive people,” Bates said. “I suspect that there’s going to be some very interesting

and passionate teams that are going to be entering into the competition.”

Beginning around the 1930s, the homecoming tradition at BC has seen sporadic growth and decline over the decades. It began as far less of an organized event, existing rather as a series of impromptu student gatherings, and automobile parades. The event grew through the 1960s, drawing a large alumni base and featuring A-list acts.

In 1967, Otis Redding performed at BC, after the social commission failed to book The Righteous Brothers or the Woody Allen Show with Judy Collins—this apparently drew criticism from student groups who viewed Otis Redding as an outdated act.

In 1968, the Homecoming Committee was liquidated, and 1970 marked the last of the substantive homecoming events for eight years.

In 1979, the tradition of Homecoming Weekend returned—it included a road race, and a parade of floats designed by student

organizations. This Homecoming was also marked by a failed attempt by BC bubble blowers to break the Guinness Book of World Records’ record for largest bubble.

By 1981, Homecoming Weekend was drawing crowds of over 81,000. This was also the year of the first annual, and also the last annual, Homecoming Tailgate Contest. The winning entry was “Kostka’s 11-Keg Bash.”

The next year, Doug Flutie led BC to a 32-17 victory over Army at a homecoming game held at West Point.

Through the ’80s, Homecoming Weekend saw gradual decline. A near decadeworth of large Homecoming celebrations seemingly ended in 1986, when that year’s Homecoming Ball ended with over $11,000 in damages to the Marriott Hotel Copley Place.

BC’s last Homecoming pep rally was held in 1992 in O’Neill Plaza. Tom Coughlin, current head coach of the New York Giants, led BC to a 28-0 victory over Navy that weekend.

Additionally, UGBC hosted a poorly-attended Homecoming concert at Conte Forum, featuring the original Temptations that year. In 1993, the Boston Pops gave the first of their annual benefit concerts as part of Homecoming Weekend. In 1996, this concert was moved to Parents’ Weekend, leaving UGBC’s Homecoming Ball the orphan of the longtime homecoming tradition.

“We want to make sure this is a tradition that is every single year and people have an expectation for it,” said Jamie DiLoreto, associate athletic director for external operations.

“We’re renewing an old tradition, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t start new traditions that go into Homecoming,” Bates said, “so any feedback that students provide us would be very much welcome.”

Updates on Homecoming Weekend and Spirit Week can be found at bc.edu/homecoming. Registration for the Homecoming Cup Competition begins on Sept. 11. n

mary o’keeffe, stephanie martin, and suzy coffay (1979)

Lieutenant governor Tom O’Neill waves from the lead car in the 1979 Homecoming parade. Boston College ceased all Homecoming activities, apart from the ball, in 1986.

for seven years. Those are my administrative experiences: department chair and Dean of Arts and Sciences. Faculty athletic rep is less relevant, but the other two things are useful in being provost, because I work a lot with the various deans, which I used to be.”

These experiences, especially as a dean, proved helpful to Quinn in acclimating to his new position. Having been a dean himself, he knows firsthand what the job entails. He also cherishes his personal relationships with many of the deans, which makes working with them in this new capacity easier.

Even so, Quinn admitted that the new job proved a challenge. “The best phrase is ‘I’m back on the learning curve,’ because although I know a lot about one component of BC, the largest component, arts and sciences, I have much more limited experience with the other schools. Fortunately, they all have great deans.”

He added, “So basically, I’m learning every day.”

According to Q uinn, the ide al situation would mean a new provost instated by this summer. But he acknowledges the challenge of finding the right person, as well as the challenge of establishing that person in his or her new role.

“If all goes according to plan, the ne w permanent provost might be chosen by early next year and might start about the time I did last summer, during the summer,” he said. “He or she will be happily and gainfully employed somewhere else, and will have to disengage from wherever he or she is.

“B C is a ver y attractive place, an excellent school still on the rise.

Boston’s a very attractive town. We’ve got a great mission. I think that this would be a very attractive job for a lot of people. But the people we want are also people that their home schools want to keep.”

The new provost would likely face the same learning curve Quinn experienced. “Since most people come out of a discipline in a particular school, and since the provost’s office encompasses all the schools, it’s eye-opening during someone’s first time as provost.

We may hire someone who is already a provost at a great school. But even so, they won’t know the BC intricacies.”

Still, he shared nothing but optimism. “It’s a great job,” he said. “It’s a complex job, although it covers just the academic part of the school. The main thing is: you’re working with really good people—experienced people who have been in Waul House and worked with Bert Garza, who left the place in great shape. And we plan to make it even better a year from now.” n

The Heights

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Monday, September 9, 2013

ScriptEd teaches tech skills, coding

Being the best you

By Deryn Thomas For The Heights

Brendon Anderson Sometimes I look at the world and I get discouraged. I feel like an old man flipping through the channels and complaining about how the summer of 1952 was the golden age. First, I see Paula Deen throwing slabs of butter around and being a supposed racist. Right after that it’s announced that another childhood hero of mine was using some sort of performance enhancing drug the whole time.

The last thing I see before I have to shut my eyes is a debate between weapons strategists, arguing about the best way to kill Syrians so Syrians won’t kill Syrians. I close my eyes but the image no one wanted me to see is the only one I can.

There’s a kid in the rubble but no one sees him because of steroids, and cooking shows, and politics, and everything else.

All I want is a hero, some champion of peace and love and all that good stuff to swoop in and pick him up. I want Gandhi at the spinning wheel. I want The Beatles singing “All You Need is Love.” I want Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to dream. I want the man from Tiananmen Square to stand in front of the world and stop it from turning for a second just so everyone might just catch a glimpse of this kid. It can’t be too much to ask.

And I could just keep my eyes shut and wish that everything would miraculously be okay. That would be easy. I don’t want to do that though, and I hope it’s in me to say for sure that I wouldn’t be able to.

That’s all fine, though, but seeing and doing nothing about it is probably even worse than choosing not to see. And I want to do something, anything, but everything is just so overwhelming. Syria is kind of far away, I don’t have money to make my way there, and I know not a word of Arabic. Oh and let’s not forget the fact that my mom would totally kill me if I went into an active war zone.

See, I’d love to be Mother Teresa, really, I would. But I just don’t know what to do. For so long, I’ve seen everything going on in Syria and in so many other places and all I can manage is to get discouraged.

I’m not a hero. Maybe they don’t exist anymore, or have gone into hiding like in The Incredibles.

A week ago, though, someone shared a quote with me from the fantastic Fr. Greg Boyle. He wrote, “God has already given the world a Francis of Assisi. It does not need a second. Teresa of Avila did a splendid job of being Teresa of Avila. The world does not need a second inadequate version. But the world has never had you and it does need you or God would have not made you, and so you have to discover the unique ways in which you can give yourself away in service to the world.” At the moment, I can’t be the Gandhi for Syria. But I can care. I can stand with them in peace, listen to their stories without bias, and remember that kid in everything I do.

I think if you open your eyes just a little bit more, it’s easy to see that he’s not the only kid in the rubble. The rubble isn’t just in Syria.

There’s rubble everywhere. There’s rubble at Boston College. It might be different kinds of rubble, but all seven billion of us are that kid. I’m that kid. So if I can’t be a hero for that kid, I can be a hero for a friend, for a student at my 4Boston placement, for anyone I can.

At least for now, it’s unrealistic to think I’m going to rescue that kid I love and pray for. That’s not to say that I’m just forgetting about him.

For now, I’ll be the hero for anyone I can, and one day I’ll be able to do even more. Maybe just one act of loving heroism might inspire someone who can save him.

Until then, I’ll do all I can which is to care and love and serve and even if I can’t be Nelson Mandela, I can be me, and one day, with a little help, that might be enough.

Brendon Anderson is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at news@bcheights.com.

Courtesy of Boston College Police department

The “Community Resource Officer” program replaced “Adopt-a-Cop” program to build student-police relationships.

Rebranded police department program to reach out to public

By Sara Doyle For The Heights L a s t m o nth , th e B o s to n C o l l e g e Po l i ce d e p a r t m e nt changed the name of the previous “Adopt-a-Cop” program to the “Community Resource Officer,” (CRO) program. In addition to a name change, the program will now include appointments to libraries, dining halls, recreational facilities, community organizations, as well as residence halls.

S erge ant Jef f Po stell explained that the program changed as a response to the previous “Adopt-A-Cop” program.

“This is a very community driven program,” Postell said.

“It’s been in existence since 2006. It was originally intended to bridge the gap between police and students on campus and foster a relationship with the student body. As the years have passed, and the program has developed, we discovered the opportunity to reach out to our faculty and staff as we have had with our students.”

In previous years, the program has been focused primarily on assigning officers to residence halls. Postell found that reviews giving community feedback, however, indicated that the program might benefit from change. “We received 1,500 responses from members of the community, and one thing we identified was a lack of understanding about what the ‘Adopt-a-Cop’ program actually was,” Postell said. “We started analyzing ways that we could

strengthen the program and make it more effective.”

Postell and the department considered the purpose of the program and concluded that, since the “Adopt-a-Cop” program provides resources to the community, it should instead be called the “Community Resource Officer” program.

This type of program has been around in high schools since the 1960s, but the idea of a police department focused on the community is even older. In the 1800s, Robert Peel developed a philosophy with nine principles of policing, which he applied to the Metropolitan Police Force in Britain. The CRO is based on these principles, which stress positive relationships between the police and the public. “It’s taking practices and principles that have been in place for many years and reintroducing them to people of the modern time,” Postell said.

In order to determine the areas in which the police staff could expand its program, the department analy zed which areas had trends and repetitive incidents, concluding that open access areas could benefit from a police presence. Additionally, certain areas reached out and expressed interest in the program.

“We’ve had staff members in buildings who might have reached out to us and said ‘it would be nice if we had an officer as part of our community,’” said Chief John King, Director of Public Safety. King also stated that the program has been a success due to both the community

and the officers involved. “It’s so encouraging and rewarding to see how many of our officers have elected to participate in this program and make themselves available to help with this program and the community,” King said.

“We’re very fortunate to have a welcoming community who wants that type of interaction with their police department,” Postell said.

The officers involved in this program will also have access to ne wly organize d materials for educational programs.

They will be able to have packages with which to educate the community so that the educational programs will be more consistent from place to place.

Furthermore, each month will have specific themes that emphasize crime prevention and greater community awareness for a safer campus. For more information about the monthly themes, as well as contact information for resources officers, members of the community can visit bc.edu/cro.

“It’s important that the community understands that we’re their police department,” Postell said. “This is just another part of our department that is all about being part of the greater BC community.”

“At the b eg inning of the freshman year, our department is involved in the ice cream social. At the end of senior year, we are involved in the cookout.

Between those four years, our job is to continue being a resource and a part of our community,” King said. n

Boston College teaches those who share a love of wisdom to question all that surrounds them, and to see themselves as a vehicle for vision. In the face of a world that is constantly challenged by adversity, the question becomes, how does one inspire change? Anyone who attempts to address this question in any serious way will inevitably find that many, like Maurya Couvares, BC ’06, have already thought seriously about the answer.

Couvares’ thoughts on the matter, along with a few other of life’s unexpected experiences, lead her to co-found a non-profit in 2012 called ScriptEd, which provides opportunities for low-income students to learn about the technology industry and develop computer programming skills, through courses offered at their schools and field trips to technology firms. Additionally, the students gain access to full-time paid summer internships in organizations that have partnered with ScriptEd, including websites like About.com and Thrillist.

One can surely blame a Boston College education, complete with a degree in philosophy, for the inspiration. But more than just an environment of academic excellence should be given credit for the work she has done. Couvares herself will even attest to it: “BC’s call to be ‘men and women for others’ greatly impacted my career path, and all that I’ve done since leaving the school.” While at BC, Couvares participated in the Appalachia Volunteers Program and organized a Relay for Life team.

After graduating, she was accepted into the Teach For America program, and taught history in a Philadelphia middle school for one year. The first year showed her much about the ever-present challenges of low-income education. Couvares moved on, after the first year, to work in the pro bono department of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, coordinating the law firm’s volunteer partnership with a local high school. Upon being promoted to Pro Bono Coordinator, she found herself having to sort through large amounts of electronic data, and began learning to code simply out of necessity, in order to more efficiently organize the data she was dealing with.

“I am certainly not an expert in programming, it’s [ScriptEd’s] volunteers who are the experts. I am more of a hobbyist. But in learning to code, I began to think about kids,

students, and how this might connect to them.”

Founding ScriptEd was consequently not an easy task. Time and funding proved to be the biggest challenges in getting the project off the ground, although volunteers were, from the offset, always in abundance, helping with the development of the curriculum for the program.

“...we need a diversity of problem solvers, because society needs people to bring their own perspectives, approach, and a diverse skillset, to the issues of today.”

- Maurya Couvares co-Founder of ScriptEd “We actually just had to take down the volunteer page of the website, we were getting so much interest,” she said with a laugh.

The non-profit’s success has not gone unnoticed—it has been presented with awards by IGNITEgood and Teach For America, and is in the running to be recognized

by Ashoka, which identifies innovative social entrepreneurs.

Couvares was recently able to leave her job at the law firm to work full time as the executive director for the non-profit. The program will be in five New York City schools by the end of September, with the hope of expanding to at least six different cities in the next five years. ScriptEd has a vision for it’s students, as well, to become “drivers of innovation … in the 21st century,” to become “creators of technology.”

“Technology offers a way to solve problems,” Couvares said.

“But we need a diversity of problem solvers, because society needs people to bring their own perspectives, approach, and a diverse skillset, to the issues of today.”

The ability to problem-solve is important in any field, but not the only lesson these students will learn. The hope is that they, too, will begin to ask questions about positive change, and will one day implement visions of their own. n

Professor in Honors Program wins research Fulbright

By Julie Orenstein Heights Editor

It was a historical coincidence that Thomas Epstein’s passion for Russia and its literary and intellectual culture manifested in the late 1980s and 1990s, a time during which a normally “sleepy” country became manic and fully awake.

The political reform known as perestroika and, ultimately, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, provided a unique backdrop for Epstein’s growing involvement with the “underground” artistic movement that made its home in the city of Saint Petersburg.

This spring, Epstein, an adjunct associate professor in the Arts & Sciences Honors Program as well as the Slavic and Eastern languages department, will travel to Saint Petersburg for a semester of research and teaching at Smolny College, supported by a faculty Fulbright fellowship from the Council of International Exchange of Scholars.

A frequent visitor to Russia and Saint Petersburg, specifically, Epstein recollected how he stumbled upon the country and its vivacious artistic culture over two decades ago. After college, Epstein was seeking a literary life in New York when he found himself drawn to a group of Russians active in an “unofficial” literary culture.

“It was all-consuming, but completely invisible,” Epstein said.

His association with the unofficial underground movement increased as Epstein contributed to

a bilingual anthology of poetry, art, and fiction, and he soon decided to learn the Russian language.

“The more I learned about Russian culture, the more I felt its draw, its power over me,” Epstein said.

His growing passion would intensify further beginning in 1989 when he discovered Saint Petersburg, then known as Leningrad. The city was “still suffering its generations-long punishment

by Stalin,” Epstein said, but its monumentality and indomitable spirit shone through.

During his time in Leningrad, Epstein fell upon a literary and artistic second culture that preserved both religious and intellectual traditions from Russia’s past. The underground movement sought to keep alive a vibrant cultural period suppressed and “officially forgotten” under Stalin. They did so through a system of “thick journals,” each over 300 pages long, full of literary and artistic works.

“I was one of the first Americans to serve as an intermediary between Leningrad’s unofficial culture and English-language readers,” Epstein said. “The vibrancy and pluralism of Leningrad, evident in its welter of samizdat [self-published] magazines, immediately impressed. Moreover, although the ‘unofficials’ themselves occupied a marginal social position, their cultural project was in the mainstream of a Russian, European, and universal cultural tradition.”

When the Soviet Union dissolved, it became clear that the

underground movement would come to light, effectively ending the “unofficial” culture of that time—though a new era of “unofficials” is reemerging today. During this transitional period, many of the artistic minds of the 1980s underground faced a complex new reality.

“The most talented among them found a way to remain true to their artistic credo while acknowledging the new reality.

Others went into crisis: either of confidence—their work in print didn’t look as good as it had when read in a smoky apartment—or of existence—they just couldn’t adapt to the horizonless post-Soviet 1990s,” Epstein said.

Epstein pointed to his colleagues in the Slavic department as particularly knowledgeable in the area of Saint Petersburg and its cultural history, especially through ties they have established with the Dostoevsky Museum.

“While Boston College’s Slavic program is modest, we do succeed in covering the Petersburg phenomenon well,” Epstein said.

Epstein turned to teaching as a means through which he could continue his research on the underground while sharing his passion for Russian literature.

“My many visits [to Russia] are rooted in research, friendship, and fascination,” Epstein said. “My teaching career grew literally out of my love for Russian literature and Russian life. I became a professor, so to speak, accidentally.”

As a faculty Fulbright scholar, Epstein will be teaching his area

sean smith / Office of News and Public affairs

Thomas Epstein, a specialist in Russian intellectual culture, won a Fulbright. of expertise—the “unofficial” culture—in English to undergraduates at Smolny, Russia’s first liberal arts college, and hopes to strengthen BC’s relationship with the city of Saint Petersburg, perhaps bringing writers and intellectuals to speak on campus in the future. He is also working to develop a summer course in Russia for BC students

through the Office of International Programs.

“Coming from a university, Boston College, and a program, the Honors Program at Boston College, that explicitly values the liberal arts and seeks to educate the whole person, my collaboration with Smolny is natural,” Epstein said. n

CLASSIFIEDS Monday, September 9, 2013

THE HEIGHTS THE HEIGHTS

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Monday, September 9, 2013

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: 路 Number can appear only once in each row 路 Number can appear only once in each column 路 Number can appear only once in each 3x3 box 路 The number should appear only once on row, column or area.

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Pack your own lunch instead of going out. $6 saved a day x 5 days a week x 10 years x 6% interest = $19,592. That could be money in your pocket.

Small changes today. Big bucks tomorrow. Go to feedthepig.org for free savings tips.

YOU JUST BLEW $10,000.

Buzzed. Busted. Broke.

Get caught, and you could be paying around 10,000 in fines, legal fees and increased

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Buzzed driving is drunk driving. buzzeddriving.adcouncil.org

THE HEIGHTS

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Irrelevant Fall Concert lineup disappoints

Monday, September 9, 2013

QUOTE OF THE DAY Conviction without experience makes for harshness.

-Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964), American author

More money must be allotted if UGBC hopes to bring relevant, popular performers to campus Many factors go into planning the Fall Concert, including the price of the artist, the availability of both the artist and of Conte Forum, and the popularity of the artist among students. In addition, the relatively recent moratorium on large-scale programming on Saturdays has further limited the nights available for concerts.

This year, the combination of factors has resulted in a thoroughly disappointing fall concert—O.A.R. and Moe Pope, for a ticket price of $30.

O.A.R., a rock band known for its hit “Shattered”—which was released more than five years ago—has not released an album in two years. Moe Pope, an indie rapper from Boston, has received little mainstream attention.

While schools like Boston University, Harvard, and Brown host largescale, popular, and current artists like Childish Gambino, BC continues to pull in weak, outdated acts that fail to draw significant numbers of students, with Macklemore at Modstock in May being the lone exception.

Beyond the lackluster nature of the artists performing, the ticket pricing is perhaps an even stronger deterrent for students. While the price is comparable to previous spring and fall concerts, it is difficult to justify paying $30 to see an act that is as irrelevant as O.A.R. and as unknown as Moe Pope.

Traditionally, the fall and spring concerts are the largest, most important programming events for UGBC,

and a significant portion of their more than $500,000 budget goes toward the events. Yet fiscal concerns are still a significant problem when planning the concerts, according to Tim Koch, cocoordinator of concerts for UGBC and A&S ’14. To this, there are at least two potential solutions. The first would be for UGBC to use its $500,000 budget in a way that is more representative of the desires of the student body—namely, in securing popular and relevant acts for the fall and spring concerts. Concerts are one of the few programming events put on at BC each year that can truly attract a diverse and significant portion of the student body, and it is not unreasonable to use the majority of funds on events such as these rather than those focused on much more limited segments of the BC community.

Another solution would be for Nights on the Heights (NOTH) to use some of its equally large budget to assist UGBC in sponsoring the annual spring and fall concerts. Rather than hosting a barbeque before the concert with customizable trucker hats and glitter tattoos, perhaps NOTH could have used that money, with UGBC, to hire a more popular act.

UGBC can do little to change the fact that there are so few possible dates for the fall and spring concerts. They can, however, find a way to allot more money to these events so that they can afford an act that displays understanding of and concern for students’ interests and expectations.

FACTS Act could be step toward transparent UGBC Clauses that require timely reports and enforce accountability are necessary to ensure act’s success At the first meeting of the new Student Assembly, the legislative agenda included an important step toward increasing transparency in UGBC: the Fairness in Accounting and Clear Transparency Standards (FACTS) Act, which requires that the executive branch submit a written evaluation for every event sponsored

by UGBC that receives any funding from the Student Activities Fee. Included in this report would be a breakdown of the costs incurred for holding the event.

Furthermore, the resolution requires that the report be submitted to the Assembly Finance Committee Chair and be made available to any member of the student body, upon request.

Due to the length of debate and disagreements over how the budget information should be explained, the legislation was tabled on Tuesday for further discussion at the next meeting. Some members of the Assembly and the executive branch expressed concern that the information would be misleading and hard to understand outside of context. Disagreement arose over whether each person requesting the information should meet with a member of the Finance Committee or whether there should be an explanatory letter that

would accompany the document.

While it may be true that the financial information could be taken out of context, it is still important that it be released to the public. Furthermore, the requirement that every person requesting the information talk with a member of the committee is a cumbersome one, both for those requesting the information and the committee members. A better option would be a letter of explanation, with an option for the recipient to follow up with any questions with a member of the committee.

A further problem with the legislation is a lack of measures to prevent obstructionism. There is no requirement that the Chair of the Finance Committee release the requested documents in a timely manner, nor is there any mechanism for holding the Chair accountable. These requirements are essential in making this legislation successful in achieving the goal of increasing transparency. It is critical that the Student Assembly not water down this proposal, which was an integral part of the campaign of Matt Nacier, UGBC President and A&S ’14, and Matt Alonsozana, UGBC Executive Vice President and A&S ’14.

Homecoming innovations could be new traditions The extensive list of new activities surrounding Homecoming promise more participation

The planned revitalization of Homecoming Weekend and the addition of a Spirit Week leading up to the weekend’s events is a promising initiative with the potential to significantly heighten both alumni and undergraduate involvement in BC Athletics. The product of an extensive partnership among BC Athletics, UGBC, the Division of Student Affairs, Nights on the Heights, and the BC Alumni Association, many of the events have the potential to become yearly Homecoming traditions alongside UGBC’s annual Homecoming Ball.

For nearly 20 years, the BC Homecoming tradition has been mostly nominal—few undergraduates and alumni have identified with it due to a lack of programming and vague precedent for it. This year’s commitment to bringing Homecoming back needs to grow into a long term commitment if the BC community hopes to distinguish this effort from the many similar attempts over the years. The success of Homecoming Weekend and Spirit Week is contingent on undergraduates taking ownership of these traditions.

HEIGHTS

THE

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The Heights

Monday, September 9, 2013

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God and other things

Saljooq Asif Undefeated Season - Another solid win for the football team, and, being the typically superstitious sports fans that we are, we can’t help but wonder if our congratulatory Thumbs Up in the last issue was the thing that precipitated this second victory. And so we will once again laud our Eagles here, in the hopes that another victory awaits us this weekend in Los Angeles. Who knows, maybe the only thing standing in the way of defeating USC is a little Thumbs Up mojo. So we ask you here, football team: make us proud.

American Food - Among Americans, it’s a pretty widely held belief that the good old US of A is the greatest country in the world—the borderline baffling number of giant American flags hanging in common rooms on this campus is a testament to the fact that BC is no exception—and there are many arguments for why this is true. The one that truly convinced us? Peanut butter. Anyone who has spent time in other countries has undoubtedly realized that this delicious spread is conspicuously absent from foreign diets. For those of you who don’t prescribe to the Americais-the-greatest belief, and God knows there are arguments in support of that as well, we ask only that you acknowledge the truth in what we have said. In the realm of peanut butter, the U.S.A. reigns supreme.

Summer is officially over, the assigned textbooks have been bought, and classes have started once more. Another academic year has begun, and with it, new experiences, lessons, and struggles.

And yet, just walk down Linden Lane and catch a glimpse of Gasson Hall among the trees—it’ll feel like you never left this place.

But actually, less than a full week of school has passed and already the work has piled on—back to the daily grind, right? Just last Thursday, one of my professors made us read Friedrich Nietzche’s Joyful Wisdom. There’s a lot in Nietzche’s dense yet poetic writing with which I could bore you, but there are only three sentences that I think are worth mentioning: “God is dead. God remains dead.

And we have killed him.”

The quote is infamous. Nearly everyone has heard it before in some form, but what exactly does it mean? Does it, as some people believe, support the idea that God never actually existed?

And surely, how could such an entity be possible? The two World Wars that forever ravaged the 20th century must be a testament to His nonexistence.

“Where was God when the Twin Towers fell?” my 10th grade English teacher once asked. And certainly, where is He in this entire Syrian crisis?

I don’t have the answers to these pressing questions—no one does and no one ever will. I’m sure Pope Francis could offer an interesting explanation, but then again, so could the Westboro Baptist Church.

There will never be one single answer that will console and appease everyone. It’s impossible.

In early August, controversy erupted when a Georgia mother discovered that

her daughter’s high school displayed a poster featuring the quote “God is dead.”

And right here in Massachusetts, a court battle is currently taking place over the Pledge of Allegiance in schools. Is it correct to call us all “one Nation under God?” God has many different meanings to many different people around the world.

Honestly, who really knows what Nietzche meant in his Joyful Wisdom? Are we lost without Him? Do we need some sort of replacement? Do humans want someone to blame—God—for all the atrocities that have plagued the globe?

Or is He, as author Neil Gaiman puts it, “a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms … someone who loves you?”

Boston College is “rooted in a world view that encounters God in all creation and through all human activity,” and yet the University also “regards the contribution of different religious traditions

Can one god exist despite varying “religious traditions and value systems?”

Is that even allowed?

There are so many burning and unanswered questions that I could list here. and value systems as essential to the fullness of its intellectual life and to the continuous development of its distinctive intellectual heritage.” Can one God exist despite varying “religious traditions and value systems?” Is that even allowed?

There are so many burning and unanswered questions that I could list here.

Without a doubt, the archetypal divine entity represents a measure of belief, faith, and to a certain extent, even submission. But the complexities and mysteries surrounding such a figure inextricably create a plethora of inter-

pretations and ideas. For example: I’ve met people who claim God could not exist and is definitely a figment of human imagination. I’ve met other individuals who would stand by their religion until the end of the world, and I’ve even known people who gladly and willingly converted to an entirely different creed. And this summer I met a man who had a deep respect for his Catholic faith, claiming it’s possible that God will save every soul on Earth except for those who are truly evil to the very core.

“God’s hard to comprehend,” a good friend of mine put it best over the summer. He continued, “And my belief is not that God loves us and damns us. I have always held that God damning people is a false perception of the truth. We damn ourselves by turning away from God. The choice is ours.”

And my friend remains steadfast in that belief to this very day. How? No clue.

How much of what he believes is true, though, I also have no idea. But maybe Nietzche had a point—what if humans are, at the very least, responsible for the death of something? Maybe God hasn’t abandoned us—maybe we’ve abandoned Him, and in doing so have killed Him. I don’t know exactly what Nietzche was trying to prove—I don’t even know what I’m exactly trying to say—but I certainly don’t think anyone can make such a sweeping statement as his without at least pondering the countless possibilities. Nietzche obviously believed, and we, as thinkers, college students, humans, can believe in a variety of ways. Isn’t it the belief that matters in the end? After all, “it is that belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen.”

So as this new academic year begins, walk down Linden Lane and catch a glimpse of Gasson Hall among the trees—it’ll feel like you never left this place.

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

Game day traditions Where did all this Homework come from? - Though college is frequently referred to as the best time in a person’s life, the first week of classes always makes us yearn for years past—elementary school, to be exact.

Remember when the first week of class was all about “getting to know one another” and other similarly ambiguous and nonstressful endeavors?

When your homework was just getting random things signed by your parents? You didn’t even have to actually read those things. But now, on the first night of class, you find yourself holding a book that needs to be read, digested, and analyzed in a mere five days. Suddenly, it’s a week into classes and you already feel like you’re behind. You find yourself sitting in O’Neill for endless hours on this first Sunday of the school year, longing for recess.

Sushi Emergency - Fins has cut down their delivery hours by at least an hour and something must be done.

Let’s face it, they pretty much have a monopoly on the sushi market around here, and when you’re hungering for some Hawaiian Maki at 11 p.m. at night, Eagle’s Deli is just simply not a suitable substitute. We are considering personally volunteering to drive the 10:15-11:30 delivery shift, so long as we are paid in endless sushi of our choice. The happiness that it would bring to our fellow BC Eagles would be worth sacrificing our Friday and Saturday nights for. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what men and women for others looks like.

Minifridge Freezers - Why do they even have them? First of all, the only things college students ever want to freeze are ice cream and Rubinoff, neither of which will fit in that miniscule space. On top of that, the things that actually do fit—those single serving Haagen Dazs ice creams that are actually just two bites, for example (perhaps deserving of their own thumbs down one day)-—rarely remain frozen. And what are we left with but melted goop from the three ounces of coffee ice cream we bought a month ago out of inexplicable desperation to actually put that stupid freezer to use and promptly forgot about.

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Patrick Angiolillo I have the “Gold Pass.” Though BC is still working out some of the kinks in the system, it appears to be a valuable new program. So I guess that makes me a Superfan, right? Well, probably not. I have not been to a football game since freshman year—though I am lauding our two consecutive wins so far—and I think I can count on one hand how many hockey games I have attended. So it is clear I cannot claim any sort of superiority, or super-ness, to my fan-hood through attendance. But simply because I am not your ardent football follower or die-hard hockey disciple does not mean I do not have a certain appreciation for the sport, its customs, and what it really is we are doing when we go out and cheer on the Eagles.

I purchased my tickets this summer with the intention of joining friends at the games, having a legitimate reason to tailgate prior to kickoff, and enjoying some possibly good wins in the course of the year. (I have even had the naive hope of catching an out-of-bounds football or the occasional puck gone awry—we can all hope.) But I was not super fired up for the new season, at least not like some of my peers.

This changed when I heard about our newest mascot on campus—the live eagle. Finally, our age-old tradition, 47 years in hiatus, has returned. The bald eagle, who is yet to be named (#NameBCsEagle), is a fine specimen of sports tradition that surrounds the actual game. I’m waiting now for his inaugural flight, which I hope will come with his receiving a moniker of some sort.

My excitement for the new season was further ignited by news of the foot-

Lecture Hall

ball teams’ innovative Eagle Walk. The revised tradition now involves a Mass in Gasson Chapel and the team marching down the million-dollar stairs to the Yawkey Center while the Gasson tower bells resound in the background. How much more traditional can you get at a Gothic-infused Catholic university?

Together these renewed and revised traditions bring a reinvigorated spirit to game-day festivities. Though I can fault myself for poor participation in the past, these new traditions give me a reason to try my hand at sports fandom again. And as I revisit the idea, I come to the realization of how truly brilliant our festivities are. Our game-day activities, whether we are cognizant of this or not, are brimming with tradition and ritual. Whether it is crowding around a barbeque grilling burgers and dogs, or covering ourselves in face and body paint, or shouting “We are—BC” and a range of other cheers, we are engaging in different kinds of very ritual practice.

It is this aspect of the sport that Michael Rossmann, S.J., writes about in his article “The Spirituality of Sports Fanaticism” for The Jesuit Post. He observes that it is “truly dizzying to think about how much time, money, energy, and human emotion goes into games that are, well, games. Stranger still when I notice how we even create games about the games, and how we spend an inordinate amount of time assembling fantasy teams or competing in office pools.” But these things we do, these strange traditions and practices, are part of a deeper, even spiritual bond we build between our fellow sports fans (Superfans, if you will). On a certain level, we may be distracted from an appreciation for the sport itself, so caught up in the (sometimes supercilious) traditions that have grown up around the sport. But there remains value in these practices—especially when joined by a genuine interest in the sport itself.

It is this dimension of the sport that attracts both my (scholarly, even

theological) attention, but also my drive to be a part of the goings-on before a game. It is fascinating to me that we engage in the same time-honored practices. What we reach for when we are celebrating on game day, I think, is a kind of communion. We are looking for real community with our fellows, our brothers and sisters in maroon and gold.

When done properly, we do achieve genuine communion, a sincere bond of friendship.

Granted, some of these traditions can be abused—excessive drinking, unnecessarily rowdy behavior, and vulgar trash-talk do nothing to build communion among fellow fans and prevent us from fostering mutual respect between friendly rivals. But when engaged in an appropriate manner, game-day rituals—including imbibing some spirits or brews and parleying with the exceptional foe—can be positive practices of communion building. They are signs of mutual respect founded on a shared appreciation for the sport itself, for the ability to join together in common interest, and for the beauty of human endurance competing in a challenge.

When we take this approach to the sport, we gain a whole new insight into what we are actually doing when we wear silly maroon wigs and giant foam fingers—things that would look ridiculous in any other context or under any other circumstances.

On a final note, it is this kind of sportsmanship and fandom that generates great athletes, coaches, and fans alike. With genuine interest in the sport, as well as (perhaps equally) real appreciation for the game-day traditions, fans—super or regular—can build great communion in a shared experience. How much more, then, can we do this now at BC with the changes to our game-day rituals!

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

BY PAT HUGHES

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 necessarily 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.

My celebrity crush Matt Beckwith With so much being written about Hillary Clinton as a possible contender for the 2016 Presidential election, the popular consensus says she is the most prominent female in American culture, as she has been for decades now. But while Hillary may be the most celebrated female, I’d like to turn the conversation to the two most important women in American life in the last 30 years: Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

For the purposes of this column, due to word restraints, I’m just going to focus on Ginsburg, even though O’Connor is an unbelievably cool woman whose intelligence and wit blew me away last year when she came to BC. Ginsburg is an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, and the second woman ever appointed to the bench. She is barely five feet tall, and an 80-year-old widower. If a Boy Scout saw her on a street corner, he would offer to help her across. And yet Justice Ginsburg is perhaps the most passionate, determined, and driven person in government today.

She has not led an easy life. Her childhood was marred by the death of her sister and the harsh economic realities of the Depression.

She married her husband when she was a senior at Cornell and had her first daughter before she began at Harvard Law. Then, when she was a 1L, her husband Martin was diagnosed with testicular cancer. The tragic and dire circumstances of her situation were matched by her extraordinary drive to succeed. Ginsburg attended class and took notes for both of them, typed her husband’s papers, and raised a daughter while taking care of her sick husband. And of course she made The Harvard Law Review. And then The Columbia Law Review after she transferred. This is perhaps the most famous example of the Ginsburg work ethic, which has lasted to today as evidenced by her frequent 16-hour days.

Even as a college sophomore I’m not embarrassed to say I love Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

You may not agree with her liberal brand of politics, but you cannot deny she has been instrumental in the fight for equality for all people. Despite her massive accomplishments, she was initially unable to find a respectable job after law school because of her gender. Instead of being oppressed by a glass ceiling that was inherently designed to do just that, Ginsburg thought her time would be better spent taking a sledgehammer to it. Ginsburg became renowned not just for her academic brilliance, but for her various successes arguing before the Supreme Court and in front of legislatures, fighting against gender discrimination and for women’s rights. Many legal critics have labeled her “the Thurgood Marshall of the women’s rights movement” and it is a powerful comparison. She helped remove optional female jury duty practices, and was the first person to convince the Court to extend the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause to include women as a suspect class. And that was all before Bill Clinton appointed her to the Court in 1993.

Without Justice Ginsburg, there is no Hillary in the mix for 2016. Without Justice Ginsburg, the Supreme Court may have struck down Title IX and cost thousands of female athletes college scholarships. Without Justice Ginsburg, America’s embarrassing history of institutionalized misogyny may have lasted for decades longer. It was an infamously stinging dissenting opinion in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007) that inspired Congress to finally pass the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which made discriminatory pay practices based on gender illegal, in 2009.

More than just brilliant, Ginsburg is just pretty cool. She is an 80-year-old pancreatic cancer survivor who can do 20 push-ups, and does so three times a week (in addition to challenging male clerks to push-up contests). She was married for 56 years and raised two kids who are successful in their own right. In all the copious free time she had between being a mother, wife, trailblazer, academic, and expert jurist, she also is a casual expert on opera and enjoys giving lectures at opera festivals all over the country. She views this as no big deal, and credits her success to time management and not complaining.

Maybe the best thing about Justice Ginsburg (whom I should say in full disclosure, is my celebrity crush. Seriously, Justice Ginsburg you’re an “oh hot damn!” kind of lady, and I’d love to take you to dinner and a movie) is that she is not content. She is 80 and still wants to push new boundaries. Just last week she became the first Supreme Court Justice to officiate a same sex marriage, and she is growing more fully into her position as liberal leader of the Court with every passing term. She says she won’t consider retiring for the next 10 years if she stays healthy. I think that the whole country needs to pause, and think not of the Hillary Clintons and Kirsten Gillibrands that will define the future, and pay homage to the true ceiling-breaker in American life, the incomparable Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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

The Heights

A8

Monday, September 9, 2013

‘The Butler’ is a masterfully crafted civil rights narrative

By Daryn Thomas For The Heights The quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that follows the opening credits and states, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that,” illuminates that which cannot be described about Lee Daniels’ The Butler, a powerful depiction of an intanLee daniels’ the gible purbutler: suit of a Lee Daniels The Weinstein better life, Company through struggle, mistakes, hardship, and love.

The movie recounts the life of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), the White House butler for three decades, through depictions of his memories, accompanied by the occasional narration of Whitaker’s warm and lilting voice. The scenes feel aged, as if from another time or place, even when the storyline reaches the present at the end of the film.

This is particularly notable at the outset, in which scenes from his childhood on the cotton farm could easily describe a life of forced servitude at any point in the previous century.

This timelessness has both positive and nega-

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tive effects on the viewing experience, but ultimately does not detract from the message and effectiveness of the film. It is the world of the early 20th century that young Gaines is born into, and the story that follows is not just that of a man and his family, but that of a nation struggling to redefine itself, a people fighting for their rights, their humanity, and their social freedom.

Cecil Gaines seems to provide a figure around which the screenwriters could personify the slow march of the civil rights movement. Over the decades that the film covers, relevant historical events such as the attacks on the Freedom Riders, school integration, and the Vietnam War are drawn into the storyline to provide context. The frame for the theme of family is set early on, as Cecil runs away from the cotton farm, leaving behind his two mother figures: his biological mother and the elderly matriarch of the farm, who teaches Cecil to serve “white men.” His voice recalls with some nostalgia, “I don’t think God ever meant for people to not have a family.” And family becomes the basis for the storyline, the constant that bears the marks and scars of wounds inflicted by a changing world.

From this strong baseline, the film is able to carry heavy emotion, and this adds to its appeal, and its ability to affect. There are scenes that elicit extremely tangible pain and sorrow—for example, the scene implying Kennedy’s assassination shows a soundless portrait of Jackie Kennedy sobbing, screaming almost, sitting on a sofa in the White House, still in her iconic pink suit which is covered in blood—at her feet, her husband’s watch, her daughter’s doll. The image is wrenching, haunting, and other scenes like it imbue the film with a rawness that at times relentlessly grips the gut. And all of the characters—though many appear only momentarily throughout the film—hold a significant emotional fullness that gives dimension and life to the story.

The film itself is not remarkable. It does not break cinematic boundaries, but it tells a powerful story, and this is what makes it worth taking the time to see. Although today’s generations have a vastly different experience with the historical events of the film than their parents or grandparents had, the movie gives a perceptible reality to what, for many young people today, is a chapter in a history textbook. There is a satisfying moment toward

Photo courtesy of The Weinstein Company

With its powerful historic narrative, ‘The Butler’ explores life during the civil rights movement. the end, when an elderly Cecil confronts, for the second time, his supervisor about raising the wages of the black staff, who were still paid less than their white coworkers in the 1980s.

The first time Cecil had asked, the man, Mr. Warner, told him to seek work elsewhere if he wanted a better salary. Upon Cecil’s second appeal, some 20 years later, Warner is ready with the same answer, to which Cecil replies,

“I told Mr. President [Reagan] you would say that. And so he requests that you take the matter up with him personally.” Warner is speechless. And it is this wave of quiet power sweeping through the entirety of the film that makes it so commanding, inspiring awe and reverence, and proving that those who society attempts to cast out can always find a way to change it. n

‘The Grandmaster’ lacks the right moves

1

Box office report title

photo Courtesy of Annapurna Productions

With its complicated plot, vague characters, and lengthy scenes, Wong Kar-wai’s movie ‘The Grandmaster’ leaves viewers confused.

By Dmitry Larionov Heights Staff There were maybe 10 to 15 minutes in Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster that had some sense of plot, some vague understanding of character or motive.

So what I’m about to tell you may be incorrect.

The Grandmaster tells the story of Ip Man: Bruce Lee’s infamous (apparently) The Grandmaster: trainer and life coach.

Wong Kar-wai Everybody Annapurna hangs out Pictures at this place called the “Golden Temple”—a brothel which hosts an underground network of martial arts experts. The Master of the Temple is retiring, and has failed in his life goal of bringing a certain style of kung fu to the North, so he must find a replacement (though it’s never clear how these people earn a living. It doesn’t seem like they work at all unless smoking opium and making idioms about changing seasons is “work”).

When the Master refuses to cede the throne to hot-headed Ma San on account of his hot-headedness, Ma San proves him wrong by killing him. The Master’s daughter vows to avenge his death and pursues Ma San. She has a love affair with Ip Man. That’s about it.

So the question is: how do we get an interminable two hours of film from that? Well, there’s a lot of staring into the

D

distance. A lot of slow-panning shots of pagodas. A lot of “if you take something off the fire before it is ready, nobody wants it. If you keep it on the fire too long, it gets burnt.” Where the RZAdirected The Man With the Iron Fists is a fun, colorful tribute to the genre and uses its cliches to create a spectacle, The Grandmaster is a limp noodle.

Of course, there are only two things people expect from a kung fu movie—absurdly-translated dialogue and

Where the RZA-directed ‘The Man With the Iron Fists’ is a fun, colorful tribute to the genre and uses its cliches to create a spectacle, ‘The Grandmaster’ is a limp noodle. fighting. In regard to the former, here is a line from the film: “There is a lot of underwear there. There are a lot of butts.

When I first moved to Hong Kong, I only smoked this brand of cigarettes.”

As for the fighting, there is really not that much of it. When Ma Sun kills the master of the Golden Temple, it is done behind a closed door. It’s Shakespearean. Some would argue more civilized.

But for someone raised on movies like

Rambo, Air Force One, and Commando, my notion of vengeance involves at least one disembowelment, at the very, very least. In kung fu, if the winner isn’t covered in his opponent’s blood, the loser isn’t dead or mutilated. (In fact, it’s not clear how you “win” kung fu—it seems like at some point you just stop throwing judo chops.) The fight scenes even sound different—The Grandmaster abandons the slap of a hard punch for a soft thud and whooshing air. Ultimately, the fighting doesn’t seem justified or satisfying.

Certainly, the film is political. It takes place right before the Japanese invaded China and there are some disjointed scenes of living under occupation. The master stepping down tells his daughter that, even though she grew up watching him fight, she must now see him refusing to stay in a position of power after he is no longer fit to serve—a sentiment that speaks volumes for Chinese politics. If the movie had placed Ip Man’s story into a more historical context, perhaps the narrative would be clearer. The protagonists are trying to protect a legacy that has been built up for generations—generations which have long passed before the events of the film take place—and it’s hard to distinguish a “bad” or “good” guy in a system built around something as intangible as honor.

Oh, and the movie has four false endings. Four. n

weekend gross weeks in release

1. riddick

18.6

1

2. lee daniels’ the butler

8.9

4

3. instructions not included

8.1

2

4. we’re the millers

7.9

5

5. planes

4.2

5

6. one Direction: This is us

4.1

2

7. elysium

3.1

5

8. blue Jasmine

2.6

7

9. percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

2.5

5

8

9 photos courtesy of Google

bestsellers of hardcover fiction 1. How the Light Gets In Louise Penny 2. The Cuckoo’s Calling Robert Galbraith 3. Inferno Dan Brown 4. Mistress James Patterson & David Ellis 5. and the mountains echoed Khaled Hosseini

6. The whole enchilada Diane Mott Davidson 7. bones of the lose Kathy Reichs 8. Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 9. night film Marisha Pessl 10. The Bone Season Samantha Shannon SOURCE: The New York Times

Sci-fi flick ‘Riddick’ runs on empty with Diesel’s flat performance

By Phoebe Fico For The Heights

The main thing that sets Captain Richard B. Riddick apart from his other human counterparts is his eyes, which glow like twin moons in the barren sky of the dusty, canary-colored planet he is stranded on. Another thing that sets the tituRiddick: lar character apart is that David Twohy Universal Pictures unlike in the other movies in this science fiction trilogy (2000’s Pitch Black and 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick), where he had a crew or a companion to help him escape his treacherous situations, threetime writer/director David Twohy leaves his hero, (Vin Diesel, reprising his role from the two previous films) all alone on a mysterious planet. This is Twhoy’s first mistake.

Staring at the nameless planet for more than an hour and a half would be a difficult task for anyone. While it was probably not intended to be pretty or beautiful, as it is the place the protagonist is left for dead, it looks

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so computer-generated that it might as well be your MacBook’s desktop picture. And as a result, it is hard to get lost in the land. Unlike James Cameron’s Pandora, the landscape is not varied, nor does it even look treacherous.

That is, until Riddick meets some of the planet’s most furious predators, which include a dog-like creature and what appears to be something resembling a scorpion crossed with an anaconda. These creatures provide some of the best and most realistic action sequences in the movie, as Diesel is forced to outsmart them using ingenious tactics that exhaust the limited interesting crevasses of the unimaginative landscape. These creatures, the dog-like one in particular, also draw out some of Diesel’s best acting in the movie. He and the canine form a bond on a plant that is alienating, which can only be described as humanizing. While this relationship with the computer-generated animal brings out the best in Diesel, it is also where the movie begins to lag, as he is forced to carry the movie alone.

The movie picks up, however, when Santana (a solid Jodi Molia of Blow) and his crew (which includes Conrad Pla and former

professional wrestler Dave Bautista), come to collect Riddick’s head in a box. His plans are disrupted when a second crew, Johns (Matt Noble) and a kiss-ass girl named Dahl (a stellar Katee Sckhoff) come to give him the back-up that he never asked for. This second act of the film is bolstered by the two crews who seem more concerned with how to beat each other than how to obtain their target. They make this second part of the film a very fun ride, as moviegoers get to see not only explosions typical to these types of movies, but also handto-hand combat and wars of words.

It may seem like these two parts are from completely different movies. At times it does, as Riddick is absent or a shadow in the night for the most part. However, this actually improves his character. Instead of the audience knowing everything that is in his head, as in the first part, he becomes a mystery to them.

They are left wondering how he completed his kills, got into a locked space, or knew certain information. As a character, Riddick is better left a mystery than a flesh and blood man.

At times Riddick overstays its welcome at just less than two hours, as the third act of

the movie turns into a melodramatic family drama that could only appeal to the most diehard fan of the series. While Riddick may be better than most expected, the one problem with the film is its star. Diesel is an actor of limited range. In the beginning of the film, his monotone voice narrates the thoughts in Riddick’s head without any real change in

emotion. Similarly, when he is cocky, he is not cocky enough. When he is sad, he is not sad enough. He does a mediocre job at best. It is because of him that sometimes the movie succeeds when things are implied and not seen—when the audience is left like small children to gaze into the moons that are his eyes and wonder. n

photo Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Despite the interesting quality of his character, Diesel fails to expand beyond his acting limits.

The Heights

Monday, September 9, 2013

A9

McMullen explores the rich legacy of Realism ‘Mapping Realism,’ from A10 snow, brown trees, and blue sky make for an exquisite composition. Courbet’s brushstroke style is precise, and yet it’s just vague enough—is that an icicle or a frozen waterfall?—to foreshadow the Impressionist movement that would follow in the wake of Realism.

Courbet’s art is about more than just aesthetic beauty, however—it is often charged with radical political and social themes. Although many of Courbet’s most famous works, which deal with the plight of manual laborers—like The Stone Breakers (tragically destroyed in the firebombing at Dresden) and The Wheat Sifters—are not on display at the McMullen, the featured paintings do highlight social realities, albeit in more subtle ways. 1851’s Signora Adela Guerrero, Courbet’s portrait of a patriotic Spanish dancer, has been read as an oblique commentary on Courbet’s support for Belgian independence. Some of the landscapes, too, carry surprising political significance. Chateau de Chillon (1873) may seem to be simply a picturesque view of a castle on a lake, but its subject is a fortress made famous

by Lord Byron for its imprisonment of a politically active monk. For Courbet, himself a political exile after his role in the failed Paris Commune of 1871, the painting was undoubtedly personal, more about the solitary isolation of prisoners of conscience than simple natural beauty.

The political and social concerns of Realism, though, are most clearly seen at the McMullen in the works of artists inspired by Courbet. Joseph Stevens’s Brussels, Morning is a formidable example. On his huge, shadow-cast canvas depicting a ramshackle tenement house, Stevens foregrounds a group of dogs fighting over a bone, seeming to privi-

lege them over the human characters barely visible in the background. The painting is Realist in the way it shows uncomfortable and all-too-real details of poverty, but it is symbolic in the way the dogs’ struggle for basic sustenance mirrors that of the poor women sulking in the shadows. Louis Dubois’ grim nature painting The Dead Deer— Solitude and Charles de Groux’s The Paupers’ Bench, which depicts a group of poor peasants praying in an isolated corner of church, similarly mix realistic sensory imagery with allegorical possibilities.

Mapping Realism places such work in historical context with clippings and cartoons from French newspapers of the time, many of them mocking the Realist project. Courbet is often caricatured as a bloated buffoon. In one cartoon, stuffy aristocratic types complain that Courbet paints characters that are too vulgar, and that “there’s no one in nature as ugly as that.”

Despite such stereotypes, though, the Realist works on display here offer so much more than gloomy portraits of poverty. Many of the paintings gathered here show a world of pure beauty, especially works by American artists like Martin Johnson Heade, James LaFarge, and Winslow Homer, who turn Courbet’s techniques to scenes of New England’s natural splendor.

The greatest accomplishment of the latest McMullen exhibit, then, is the way it expands the audience’s understanding of Realism. Curators Jeffery Howe (of BC’s art history department) and Dominique Marechal have assembled a collection of works that speaks to the breadth of the realist tradition.

In the end, the portrait that emerges of the movement Courbet inspired is one as deceptively complex and multilayered as the very reality he sought to depict. n

alex gaynor / heights editor

Rock groups heed the Boston Calling Boston Calling, from A10 she chooses. A well-designed wristband allows hungry concert patrons to roam around the restaurant-lined corridor of Quincy Market, visiting tourists to walk around the Common, and anyone else the opportunity to take in the richness of summertime-Boston. Venue freedom enticed event-goers to explore the city and further intertwined Boston’s cultural identity with the festival—a major success on the part of the event organizers.

At 6:30 p.m. Local Natives took to the Blue Stage for their performance.

Crew members dressed the stage with the appropriate instruments, lighting, and amps when suddenly one of the stagehands took to the mic.

“I’d like to introduce a great supporter of the arts,” he began, introducing the person apparently responsible for making Boston Calling possible.

Then emerged an older gentleman, cane in hand, from behind the stage to a thunderous ovation: Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

Boston’s longest serving mayor expressed, in his signature, unintentionally humorous way, his enthusiasm for such a musical presence in the heart of

the city, and introduced an energized Local Natives.

The evening was slipping away, the sun inconspicuously bowing out during a charged Natives setlist. The band wrapped up their indie-pop performance with a jammy, synthy, ambient “Sun Hands”—a satisfying lead-in to the eagerly awaited Vampire Weekend.

Although Gaslight Anthem took the Red Stage immediately following Local Natives’ 13-song set, few were ambitious enough to make their way to the other end of the plaza, instead securing a spot for the 9:00 p.m. culmination of waiting—of trying to get by on similarbut-nowhere-near-as-great bands—the Vampire Weekend finale.

With perhaps unrealistically high expectations (given the incessant chatter of “how stoked” the largely collegiate, new-age hippie crowd at Boston Calling was), I expected a mailed-in set from “Vamp Week” (another apparent entry in the alt-scene dictionary)—and why not? They had no incentive to engage the already-“stoked” droves of college students. I imagine they would have met, even exceeded, most expectations with their mere presence.

But, oh, was I wrong.

The closer for Saturday’s Boston

Calling event combined old hits and newer deep-cuts off Modern Vampires of The City, frequently added playful dialogue between songs, and prompted the crowd to sing along with the fanaticism the band knew the dedicated, packed City Hall Plaza brought. Vamp Week combined psychedelic visual effects with gripping vocals and compelling departures from their studio work that only a live experience, complete with widespread sing-alongs and frolicking dance craze, could deliver.

With musical versatility and sound experimentation beyond their stereotyped genre, I eventually couldn’t see how Vampire Weekend could yield any lesser experience. I had become stoked.

Each band acknowledged Boston’s historical significance, its youthful atmosphere, and the inexplicable beauty that envelops the city in the summer.

It was a day that relished in its own perfection—a blend of phenomenal weather, bands at the frontier of alternative rock, and a gathering of animated, yet respectful, students, families, and visitors. It was a colorful celebration of Boston and the evolving musical climate of our generation—it was the beginning of a longstanding musical tradition-tobe in the heart of the city. n

Kenyon crafts dark thriller ‘Day One’ ‘Day One,’ from A10

courtesy of the mcmullen museum of art

‘Signora Adela Guerrero, Spanish Dancer’ is one of Courbet’s portraits at the exhibit.

suspense thriller, and science fiction. In addition to his original works, Kenyon has also written tie-in novels for the Diablo and Starcraft video game series.

Kenyon’s latest is the thriller Day One, coming Oct. 1 from Thomas Dunne Books. Set in New York City, Day One tracks a young father struggling to save his family on the day machines become sentient. Kenyon says that the book was partly inspired by the Terminator films, but from the perspective of consumer machines rather than military ones. The book arose from a simple thought experiment: “What would happen if, basically, some sentient intelligence woke up and decided to take over all of your network devices and use them to try to kill you,” Kenyon said with a slight laugh. The book has already received positive buzz with a starred review from ALA-Booklist, who deemed it “a highly imaginative thriller with solidly built characters and a story that, if it weren’t told so well, might have seemed silly.” Kenyon will be celebrating the release of Day One with a book launch party at Newtonville Books on Oct. 1 at

7:00 p.m., featuring a reading, signing, and sibilities afforded by the Internet, Kenyon author Q&A. sent a former editor the first few chapters Although he is now a successful pro- of Bloodstone via email and at last found fessional author, Kenyon certainly put in his elusive breakthrough. A few months his time as a struggling writer before find- later, he had his first book deal. ing success. He had With the success of his dreamed of being previous novels, his strong a writer since early ties with his editor, and childhood—an amhis frequent appearances bition encouraged at fan conventions like by his grandfather, BlizzConn, Kenyon has who gave him a lapnow strongly established top as a graduation himself in the publishing gift, in the hopes that world. But the journey he could pursue his there was a long and ardudreams. But Kenyon ous one, made possible by is quick to acknowlthe force of sheer persisedge that publishing tence. When asked about is a “brutal business,” advice for aspiring writers, recalling his many it is persistence that Kenfrustrated attempts yon stresses above all. to publish his first “You just have to be courtesy of nate kenyon kind of clinically insane,” he novel after college.

After many close calls and false breaks, Ke- said half-joking, “and keep bashing your nyon gave up on the submission process, head against that wall, because that’s the though he always kept writing. Around his only way it works.” It’s a metaphor that 30th birthday, after he had re-established speaks to Kenyon’s own career arc, and himself in Boston with a professional job, one that shows the fertile imagination of Kenyon decided to give his dream another the man responsible for frightening and shot. With the newfound networking pos- thrilling so many readers. n

Scorsese, Russell eye Oscar gold in crowded fall movie season Ryan Dowd It’s probably a good thing summer lasts only three months. I enjoy superheroes, robots, and the end of the world as much as anyone, but even the best of us have limits. I reached my limit earlier than usual this summer toward the end of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, after Superman was thrown through a building for the billionth time. But as the leaves change, so do the movies. Superheroes and robots become federal agents, lawyers, and con men scheming toward a golden Oscar.

If there’s one thing you need to know about this fall’s slate of features, it’s that Marty returns. Martin Scorsese, our greatest living director, has paired with Leonardo DiCaprio again for The Wolf of Wall Street. The film, based on a true story, chronicles the rise and fall of stockbroker Jordan Belfort. And frankly, this is where Scorsese is best. In his past two films, Hugo and Shutter Island, Scorsese again proved that he can excel in any genre of film, whether it is a hyperimaginative children’s film or a thriller (Hugo is considered a children’s movie only because of its PG rating, not that adults can’t relate to the film). With The Wolf of Wall Street, however, Scorsese returns to the type of film in which he really thrives. If

The Departed was a more modern update of Goodfellas, then The Wolf of Wall Street is a modern sequel of sorts to perhaps Scorsese’s best film, Raging Bull. Substitute boxer for stockbroker, but what remains is a great American fall. The Wolf of Wall Street is one of two locks for an Oscar nomination.

The other lock is David O. Russell’s American Hustle, the story of a partnership between two con artists and a federal agent as they take on corruption in Camden, N.J. Rarely can a director string three award-

winning box office successes in a row, but that’s what Russell has a chance to do here. First it was The Fighter (2010). Then it was Silver Linings Playbook (2012). And Russell brings back most of his feature players for American Hustle including Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Jeremy Renner, and Louis C.K. That amounts to four movie stars (Bale, Adams, Lawrence, Cooper), one pseudo-movie star (Renner), one film icon (De Niro), and to top it all off an Emmy-winning comedian (C.K.).

image courtesy of google images

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio team up again for ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.’

Past the two heavy-weights, Tom Hanks stands tall in Captain Phillips, along with the joint Ridley Scott-Cormac McCarthy project The Counselor. How could a film written by Cormac McCarthy (The Road, Blood Meridian), directed by Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Blade Runner), and starring Brad Pitt (Fight Club, Moneyball) not be good? Sure, plenty of movies fail for any number of reasons, but I’ll bet on the power of collective precedent this go round. Another film that will surely be heard when award season rolls around is Alfonzo Cuaron’s space drama Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

If any particular week you tire of such serious fare like the four films mentioned above, never fear, for a triplet of box office busting sequels will soon arrive to hold you over until Transformers 4: Age of Extinction premiers in June and resets all that is good and true in this world.

These sequels are of course The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Thor: The Dark World, and to the delight of anyone who has ever been a 13-yearold boy, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. If you’re looking for the next Hunger Games, look no further than Ender’s Game, an adaption of the cult science fiction novel of the same name. Ender’s Game features two of the most talented young actors of their generation with Asa But-

terfield (Hugo), and Haliee Steinfeld (True Grit).

The fall, and especially Christmas time, used to be a safe haven for romantic comedies, most unspectacular but a few quite original. And two such original films have a shot, which is more than enough for me, at dethroning the slew of Nicholas Sparks-inspired fare that has taken the comedy out of romantic comedy.

The first is Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut Don Jon, an endearingly brash picture of life as a New Jersey alpha male. The second one, About Time, is a throwback to those quirky, introspective romantic comedies of old. About Time, directed

by Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill) follows Tim, who on his 21st birthday learns he can travel in time, and stars relative unknown Domnall Gleeson alongside universal darling Rachel McAdams.

Sure, this fall doesn’t look much different from last fall, and next summer won’t look much different than this past summer. That’s the rhythm of the movies. But each year brings its own distinct flavor. And that’s the fun part of life at the movies—tasting the flavor.

Ryan Dowd is a staff writer for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

THE FINER THINGS

Home safe and sound

EXPLORING THE REALIST LANDSCAPE OF COURBET

ARIANA IGNERI Loud, constant horns, sounding in staccato, suffused the crowded streets of New Delhi—the incessant beeping becoming, to me, quickly characteristic of the bustling Indian city.

Casual cows lowed loudly on the side of the road, as they thoughtlessly roamed the same lanes as the mopeds and compact cars whirring past me.

Vendors screamed out, bargaining in Hindi and mouthing “namaste” each time I passed in and out of one of their small shops.

My ears had never heard anything like it—cars, animals, and people all at once seemed so foreign to me. So foreign, in fact, that after this overwhelming audial introduction to a new culture, I soon abandoned the hopes I had had of finding any sort of similarities between Eastern and Western countries.

But during my three weeks studying in India this summer, I found that the two places were actually a lot closer in comparison than I ever could have conceived.

This slow discovery began in a modest, little village tucked away in the Himalayan Mountains. It was called Sanji. The young children who lived there held our hands, and eagerly took me, and my eight other peers, around their fields and even into their own homes. They asked us questions about where we came from—about our customs and traditions—while we walked.

Eventually, a few of us found ourselves in a tiny straw and clay hut with three of the village girls.

It was quiet and awkward for a moment, until, suddenly, a petite girl with two long, dark braids, asked if we would teach her and her friends how to do “American dancing.” We were taken aback at first by her odd request and said that we couldn’t because there was no music playing. Admittedly, it was a poor excuse.

These children, though, were innovative and adorably persistent—they actually offered, if we promised to dance, to sing the only American song that they knew: Justin Bieber’s “Baby.”

So, gathered closely together in this single room, we all began to dance as the smiling children confidently sang, in their high, accented voices, the chorus to Bieber’s song—“Baby, baby, baby, oooh,” resounding off the four thin walls.

Even three months after my trip, I still don’t know what would be classified as “American dancing,” and I still don’t quite know what to make of the fact that the only Western song that children half way around the world knew was by a Canadian pop-star with a funny last name. Nevertheless, the incident did afford my new Indian friends and me some common ground—music.

I think my revelation reached its fruition a few days later, though, when my classmate Sean and I were walking through a lively marketplace in Mussoorie. We peaked in at the wooden carved elephant trinkets and the brightly embroidered tunics sold along the way, but it wasn’t until we came across a stand selling tourist trap, personalized keychains that we really stopped. The vendor was a tan and lean man in his late 20s. He was playing the guitar—the sound of its warm strings reverberated with a comforting sense of recognition.

Interestedly, Sean asked him what he was playing, and he replied that he was practicing English gospel songs for his church. He offered Sean the guitar, and the two bonded over the instrument’s sound, exchanging musical techniques and ideas with natural ease.

On the plane ride home, it was, for the first time in a long time, absolutely quiet—no honking, no mooing, no singing, no strumming. In the silence, I remembered a poem I had read while abroad by Kabir. He said, “The source of all is sound.” I’d heard so many different sounds while I was in India, and from those sounds, I had experienced a range of things—from displacement to belonging. But I think the most important thing that I learned there is that if you open your ears and listen—really listen—you’ll find something universal. You’ll find something you understand. You may even find harmony.

Ariana Igneri is the Assoc. Arts & Review editor of The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

COURTESY OF MCMULLEN MUSEUM OF ART

The new McMullen exhibit showcases masterpieces like ‘Winter Landscape’ (left) and ‘Brussells, Morning’ (right).

BY SEAN KEELEY Arts & Review Editor An icicle formation hangs over a shallow basin in a winter landscape untouched by humanity. A group of mangy stray dogs fight over a bone in a dark tenement building, while two poor women sulk in the corner. A Spanish dancer, dressed in an elaborate gown of red, black, and gold, stands with her feet at right angles and her hands on her hips, ready to dance.

These are just three of the diverse subjects depicted in the McMullen Museum of Art’s newest exhibition, Courbet: Mapping Realism. As the title suggests, the exhibit is anchored around the work of Gustave Courbet, the 19th-century French painter who pioneered the Realist movement in painting. Mapping Realism, however, is bigger than Courbet, expanding outward from the French master to look at his influence on American artists and charting the divisive reception of Courbet’s work in the French press, in contrast to the warm reception it enjoyed in Belgium.

The juxtaposition of all these elements—Courbet’s work, the American art it inspired, and the historical context given by the textual materials—demonstrate how an artistic movement like realism can undergo

COURBET: MAPPING REALISM

MCMULLEN MUSEUM OF ART DEVLIN HALL

subtle transmutations, taking on new interpretations across space and time.

Indeed, Realism has always been something of a slippery term, implying some degree of objective reality that art can never fully deliver. Courbet himself expressed skepticism about the word, saying, “the title of Realist was thrust upon me just as the title of Romantic was imposed upon the men of 1830. Titles have never given a true idea of things: if it were otherwise, the works would be unnecessary.” His work on display in the exhibit bears out this truth, showcasing dimensions of Realism that cannot be encompassed by a single definition.

Many of the Courbet works on display are landscape paintings. Landscape at Ornans depicts Courbet’s beloved countryside home as a series of verdant green hills punctuated by rock formations, with two female figures strolling through on a sunny day. In another seasonal mode, Winter Landscape—a work on display for the first time in America, and perhaps the centerpiece of the exhibit—is entirely bereft of human presence. The downward arc of the icicle and the sloping hill and the color contrast of the white

See ‘Mapping Realism,’ A9

CURRENTLY ON VIEW UNTIL DEC. 8

MUSEUM HOURS: MON-FRI: 11-4 SAT-SUN: 12-5

Vampire Weekend shines at day one of Boston Calling

BY CONNNOR FARLEY Heights Editor

A sunny, cloudless sky backdropped the Georgian-style buildings surrounding City Hall Plaza. It was a day as aesthetically crafted as the eclectically indie crowd it hosted—it was an amalgamation of a city’s history and a slew of rock bands aware of the distinctly Bostonian setting they were engaging—it was the first of day of the 2013 Boston Calling Music Festival.

The second installment of Boston’s largest-ever music festival, Boston Calling is beginning to nudge its way into the festival stratosphere of Chicago’s Lollapalooza and Manchester’s Bonnaroo—an event attempting to weave the city’s character throughout its acts.

The two-day outdoor weekend event afforded over 20,000 musically-inclined concert-goers the opportunity to witness headliners like The Airborne Toxic Event, Deer Tick, Local Natives, and indie heroes Vampire Weekend.

The festival opened with decidedly lesser-known bands—as most do—featuring Viva Viva, You Won’t, Lucius, and Okkervil River before initiating the first of about five major headliners, Deer Tick.

“Tick,” as a jaded, festival-going veteran of Deer Tick’s performances called them, stirred the crowd to a lukewarm level of excitement—inducing about

I NSIDE ARTS THIS ISSUE

Fall Movie Preview

an hour’s worth of mild head-bobs and moderate foot-tapping. A talented group to be sure, but tepid in its degree of musical captivation and audience interaction—a long way from the other much-anticipated groups most came to see.

But as holdover bands came and went, the day grew with anticipation— momentum was building toward a nighttime onslaught of alt-rock greats.

Opposite the Red Stage, Los Angeles-based The Airborne Toxic Event took the Blue Stage with the feisty, punk-rock caliber of energy Deer Tick couldn’t muster. Admittedly having known nothing of their music, I was compelle d by ATE’s vintage ’80srockabilly stage presence and neo-punk intensity. This was the harder headbobbing I was ready for—the rebellious rock sound I typically identify with the alternative scene.

After closing with a fiery cover of The Clash’s “I Fought the Law,” The Airborne Toxic Event left behind a far more packed, bouncy horde of college students and youthful Bostonians that came to rock, and, at the very least, one new fan.

Another brilliant yet relatively unspoken aspect of the festival is that the attendee is allowed to freely enter and exit the venue as frequently as he or

See Boston Calling, A9

As fall shifts into gear, Ryan Dowd spotlights the movies to look out for this season, A9

SEAN KEELEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

A familiar face at BC’s Law School, Nate Kenyon is also an award-winning novelist.

BC’s Nate Kenyon imagines ‘Day One’ in dark new thriller

BY SEAN KEELEY Arts & Review Editor For the past 14 years, from nine-to-five on any average weekday, Nate Kenyon has been a familiar face to employees on Newton campus. As he walks through the Law Library, strolls by the parking lot, or grabs a coffee at Stuart, Kenyon hails colleagues and seems the perfect embodiment of a dedicated BC employee.

And so he is—working for the Law School since 1999, Kenyon is currently its Director of Marketing & Communications, creating print and online advertising and coordinating long-term communications

Lee Daniels’ The Butler

The sweeping civil rights drama impresses with a stunning performance by Forest Whitaker, A8

strategies for one of BC’s most prestigious post-graduate schools.

For the past seven years, though, Kenyon has led another life in his spare time: that of an award-winning novelist. With the publication of the Gothic horror novel Bloodstone in 2006, Kenyon fulfilled his lifetime ambition to become a writer. And he hasn’t let up since, publishing a steady stream of dark genre fiction like The Bone Factory (a book he describes as a cross between classic horror and a James Patterson thriller) and Sparrow Rock, which melds the genres of apocalyptic horror,

See ‘Day One,’ A9

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SPORTS THE HEIGHTS

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BOSTON COLLEGE 24

WAKE FOREST 10

GROUND AND POUND

EAGLES STOP DEACONS SHORT ON KEY FOURTH-ANDOUT RED ZONE ATTEMPT AT THE END OF FIRST HALF

WILLIAMS RUNS FOR 204 YARDS BEHIND IMPROVED OFFENSIVE LINE, OVERPOWERING WAKE FOREST DEFENSE

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WAKE FOREST STUFFED AT THE GOAL LINE: After recovering a blocked punt on the BC 3, Wake Forest took over trailing 17-7 with 52 seconds left. The Deacons ran left to bring it to the BC one-yard line. They were then stopped on a run right for no gain. Quarterback Tanner Price threw an incompletion on third-and-goal. Wake then decided to go for it on fourth down, rather than take the points, and were stopped short of the goal-line.

Goal-line stand fuels BC defense past Demon Deacons

BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Sports Editor

If you didn’t know better, you’d think the Alumni Stadium scoreboard had malfunctioned. Next to “Q” it read “2,” but at least 60 of the Boston College football players had rushed onto the field in celebration. The few that hadn’t crossed the white line were too busy jumping around on the sideline to go greet their 11 heroes rushing off the field in elated glee.

But before any of that celebration, and a 24-10 victory over Wake Forest, came terror for the Eagles. Head coach Steve Addazio had just rolled the dice, allowing Chase Rettig three opportunities to throw backed up at his own 30 with 1:16 left. Twenty-four seconds off the clock and a loss of two yards later, Nate Freese sat back waiting for a punt.

Nikita Whitlock broke through and smothered Freese’s punt attempt, and then the Deacons fell on the ball three yards from the end zone with 52 seconds left in the half. Trailing 17-7, they had a chance to force a one-possession game before intermission.

The Wake offense had broken past the BC secondary on one perfect, 30-yard

touchdown throw from Tanner Price to Michael Campanaro, but besides that the Eagles had kept the Deacons in check.

Now, BC’s enemy couldn’t be much closer to the door.

Two straight runs by tailback Josh Harris brought the ball within one yard of the endzone. Wake called a timeout and then Price threw an incomplete pass, but he never left the field. Rather than take the points, Wake decided to go for it on fourth down.

The Deacons sent a man in motion, almost getting the snap off, but Addazio had rushed out onto the field to get a timeout called, stopping the play short.

Even with a chance to regroup, Wake head coach Jim Grobe didn’t change his mind. The offense was sent back out onto the field. One hundred yards away, the BC student section made all the noise it could.

Wake went right back to Harris, straight up the middle. Mehdi Abdesmad grabbed hold of Harris, and then a crowd of BC’s front seven greeted him at about the half-yard mark. Connor Wujciak stood his ground on the white line and

See Football, B3

I NSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE

Williams has career day in Eagles second straight victory

Andre Williams vs. Deacons CARRIES

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Volleyball wins BC Invitational

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Standing at six-feet tall and 227 pounds, Boston College senior running back Andre Williams knows how to pummel through defenders and keep running.

The Pennsylvania native gained a career high 204 yards, averaging out at 5.8 yards per carry, in Friday night’s 2410 victory against Wake Forest, scoring the final touchdown.

Williams is reaping the benefits of the new offense.

“Boston College was built on toughness, the ability to play great defense and the ability to run the ball,” said head coach Steve Addazio.

This culminated in Williams receiving 35 carries on the night, while the passing game was noticeably left out of the second-half game plan.

“I had 14 pass attempts—that’s probably the fewest since my freshman year,” said quarterback Chase Rettig, who was also complimentary of the way Williams and the offensive line performed.

Williams was excited at the prospect of getting more time with the ball.

A welcome to Boston College Athletics

Things to know as a new year of BC sports begins on campus in 2013-14.....................B4

“I’m a running back,” Williams said.

“I love to run the ball. So, put the ball in my hands and there’s nothing I like more than that.”

This worked to BC’s favor, as Williams’ physicality wore down the Wake Forest defense as the game went on.

“The first couple drives of the game, the defense is always really hype …

We made some adjustments, and after that we were only running a couple different plays and they couldn’t stop it,” he said.

His noticeably physical game showed when he slowed down a 21-yard, thirdquarter run on the way to the Wake seven to intentionally duck his head and hit a Deacon cornerback.

“It was intentional,” Williams said. “I never want to be the type of back that is going to run out of bounds. I always want to punish the DBs because the next play, it could be play-action and that DB is a little fazed and [Alex] Amidon will make a big play.

“I’m a big running back—I’m 230 pounds. I just have to be true to myself and realize that I can punish people. I

See Williams, B3

Football Recap...........................B3 Sports in Short...........................B2

The Heights

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Monday, September 9, 2013

Workman, Eagles dominate at BC Invitational Tournament

By Steven Principi Heights Staff A three game sweep at the Boston College Invitational for the BC volleyball team this weekend improved what was looking like a shaky start into one of the strongest that the team has seen in the past five years as the team improved their record to 5-2. The tournament—which was played over both Saturday and Sunday—saw BC playing host to Hampton, Bryant, and Fairfield with each team facing off once with each other.

BC closed out the tournament with a 3-1 victory over Hampton. The game started out very evenly matched as the teams battled back-and-forth to start the first set. The teams remained deadlocked exchanging points until, after being tied at 15, the Eagles managed to crack open the score slightly, winning nine of the next 14 points to put themselves at match point. BC took the first set 25-22 before Hampton won a similarly back and forth second set that required extra points.

Neither team put up a cushion of more than three points throughout the set, and as the Eagles and the Pirates battled past the 25point mark without a two-point margin for either team, the set went to extra points. In the end, a 29-27 decision was made in favor of the pirates.

It was there, however, that the Eagles clicked into gear taking the next two sets at 25-17 and 25-21, respectively. For the Eagles, Katie Workman led the way with 22 kills and five digs. Kellie Barnum dished out 51 assists and added seven digs as well while hitting at a .455 rate, and Sarah Mendes added in two aces to finish a solid day of serving. Vendula Strakova starred for Hampton with 21 kills and 14 digs, but the Eagles wrapped up their tournament with a fairly comfortable win for a perfect weekend.

The middle game of the tournament was another 3-1 victory for the Eagles thanks to another strong game from Workman.

Workman put up 14 kills and 19 digs while Madisen Lydon added

three aces to go with 18 digs of her own. BC started off strong and took both of the first sets 25-20 before dropping the third 26-24. The Eagles comfortably took the fourth set, however, blowing out the Stags 25-13 for the win. Barnum again led the way in terms of assists with 35 while Melissa McTighe paced the Eagles hitting at a .467 rate.

Caitlin Stapleton stood out for Fairfield with 11 kills to go along with 34 assists, but the Eagles proved to be too much for the Stags who dropped to 1-5 on the year with the loss.

The Eagles started their tournament off with their best match of the weekend against Bryant.

BC swept the Bulldogs 25-18, 2517, 25-17 in three commanding sets to make a statement as they started the three-game stretch.

Workman led the way with 10 kills to go along with three digs, Barnum had five kills to go along with a game high 31 assists, and Courtney Castle put up 12 digs to lead the team. Head coach Chris Campbell spoke about his teams’ performance, citing the defensive performance as a reason for winning.

“I thought we came out and played well. Bryant is a good team,” Campbell said. “They’ve got some good experience and some heavy hitters, so I thought we were going to have to defend and block well and the girls did exactly that.”

Several Eagles were honored in the post-tournament awards.

Barnum and McTighe were both named to the All-Tournament team for the best performers over the weekend. Katty Workman, meanwhile, earned even higher honors when she was named the BC Invitational Most Valuable Player with 46 kills and 27 digs on the weekend.

The Eagles continue with their non-conference schedule for another few weeks to open the season. They will be in New York to take on both Fordham and Columbia next Friday before facing off with Binghamton on Saturday at the Columbia Invitational.

They take on Miami the following Saturday to open ACC play. n

Graham beck / heights editor

Katty Workman (left), Madisen Lydon (top), and Courtney Castle (bottom) were among the contributors to BC’s tournament win this weekend.

All Tournament Team

All Tournament Team

Katty Workman Position:

Melissa McTighe Position:

Kellie Barnum

Outside Hitter

Position:

Kills:

Middle Hitter

Kills:

Setter

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Tournament MVP

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Assists: 117

Eagle Roundup

Fresh start for BC Cross Country

By Erik Eppig For The Heights

SPORTSininSHORT SHORT SPORTS

It ’s S eptemb er, and that means the beginning of a new season of cross country, and 2013 could potentially be an exciting year for Boston College.

Ranked sixth in ACC polls going into the season, the women’s team appears ready to stake its claim at the top of the rankings with a plethora of young talent.

The BC women’s cross country team kicked off its season this weekend at the Nassaney Invitational in Smithfield, R.I. Although it was a non-scoring meet, the women successfully finished five runners in the top 35 in a field of 183.

Redshirt sophomore Brittany Winslow clocked in with a team best 18:18.3, good enough for fifth place overall. Coming in eighth place with a time of 18:30.3, senior Alanna Poretta became the second Eagle in the top 10 of the meet. Rounding

ACC Men’s Soccer Standings Hockey East Standings

Team

Conference

Clemson 1-0-0 Conference Team NC StateCollege 1-0-0 11-6-1 Boston Virginia Tech 1-0-0 10-5-1 New Hampshire Wake Forest 1-0-0 Boston University 10-6-1 Maryland 1-0-0 8-6-3 Providence UNC 0-0-1 8-6-2 UMass Lowell Notre Dame 0-0-1 8-6-2 Merrimack Syracuse 0-1-0 6-9-1 Massachusetts Boston College 0-1-0 4-9-4 Vermont Duke 0-1-0 4-10-3 Northeastern Virginia 0-1-0 3-9-4 Maine Pitt 0-1-0

Overall

3-0-0 Overall 2-0-0 14-7-2 2-1-0 15-6-2 2-1-0 13-9-1 1-1-1 10-10-4 2-0-1 14-7-2 1-0-2 10-10-5 2-1-0 9-12-2 1-1-1 7-13-4 1-1-1 7-12-3 1-2-0 7-14-4 0-1-2

Numbers to Know Numbers to Know

0 4

The number of penalties taken by the The losses that the men’s BCnumber footballofteam during Friday night’s hockey team has since the start of game against Wake Forest.

January.

3 5.6

The number of game winning goals The average finalMeehan deficit that that Meghan has the for the men’s basketball team has suffered women’s soccer team so far in their in five ACCgames. play. Before Saturday, that number was 3.5.

100 18

The number of wins field hockey The number games thatthat the women’s coach Ainslee Lamb has at after her ice hockey team went unbeatenBC before team’s victory on Thursday. losing to Mercyhurst on January 19.

out the top 35 were sophomore Elizabeth Pedmore (16th) and freshmen Danna Levin (23rd) and Meagan Roecker (34th).

The men look to generate similar success this weekend as they compete in the UMASS Invitational on Sept. 14.

Coming off a disappointing year, the men’s team, ranked 12th in preseason polls, looks to improve with a rebound year. A perfect opportunity for redemption lies on Sept. 14, as the Eagles kick off their season at the UMass Invitational.

The cross countr y teams are not the only ones hoping to prove themselves with the coming of a new year.

Last year resulted in plenty of ups and downs for both the men’s and women’s golf teams.

The men struggled, finishing at the bottom of the pack in nearly all the intercollegiate tournaments. Finishing their season with an 11th place finish at the ACC Championships and an

overall team score of 896 (+32), the men look to turn the page on the 2012 season.

Bringing back a number of familiar faces including sophomore Nick Pandelena, the men appear to have the tools to improve upon last year.

This week, the men are in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina hoping to start their season off on the right foot.

Last year, the women’s side was more sporadic than the men’s, winning the C&F Bank Intercollegiate toward the end of the year, but progressing through the majority of the season in mediocrity. With the tough loss of graduated senior Isabel Southard, a 2013 NCAA East Regional participant, the women must function well as a team this year to have success.

The women are also in Myrtle Beach this week competing in the same tournament, the Golfweek Program Challenge, as the men.n

Quote of the Week Quote of the Week

“You keep pounding the rockyou and “Thank topoundour ingwho thesupported rock, andus the fans rock cracked...We’re this weekend.

Truly the scratching andcounclawing most loyal in the toWe getstill here, but we’ve try. believe in gotteam a lotand of so work to our should — BC’s Pat Mullane (via do.” you” twitter) in reaction to a tough — Steve Addazio on his weekend for the men’’s hock-

team’s 2-0 start.

The Heights

Monday, September 9, 2013

B3

.

Graham Beck / heights editor

key stats

1 204 55

Red zone TD allowed by BC defense in five stands this year

quote of the Game

Rushing yards by Andre Williams, a career-high

“I never want to be the type of back that is going to run out of bounds. I always want to punish the DBs because the next play, it could be play-action and that DB is a little fazed and [Alex] Amidon will make a big play.”

- Andre Williams Boston College running back

Rushing yards by Wake Forest

Standouts

Memorable Play On BC’s second play of the game, after recovering a fumble in Wake territory, Chase Rettig hit Alex Amidon on a screen pass, and Amidon sprinted out to the sideline, running 28-yards into the endzone untouched.

Prime Performance Andre Williams

Michael Campanaro Alex Gaynor / heights editor

Graham Beck / Heights Editor

Williams took 35 carries for a career-high 204 yards, averaging 5.9 yards per carry. Campanaro was the lone bright spot for Wake, scoring an early touchdown.

Football Notebook

Offensive line creates holes for run game Williams, from B1 can wear down the defense and that’s just the role I’m going to embrace.”

To make this even more significant, Williams was coming off both sickness and injury.

He suffered from a hamstring strain and a cold earlier in the week and was questionable for the game.

He did not practice for the entire week.

But Williams finished the game, taking snaps even when the Eagles were 14 points ahead of Wake Forest in the fourth quarter.

“I thought the line blocked really well at that point, we were getting a lot of surge,” Addazio said. “Andre knew that it was important for him to come to this game and get on that field and overcome the hamstring strain that he had and have the night that he had.”

It was the first game that Williams had ended against Wake Forest without having to be sent off for injury. He suffered a sprained right ankle while

playing against Wake Forest in 2011 and an abdominal strain in 2012.

“He gutted it out,” Addazio said.

“That’s important.”

“It’s not like we’re putting him in any harm’s way. He’s playing football. Go finish the game out.”

-Steve Addazio BC head football coach Despite Williams recovering from a hamstring injury, he remained in the

game for the final two drives with the Eagles up 14.

“He’s in because he’s ready to roll and we’ve got to go win a game,” Addazio said. “I’m not going to take him out of the game and put a true freshman in in that situation. We’ve got to go win the game. We had to move the chains, get first downs, and win the game. That’s just what it is.

It’s not like we’re putting him in any harms way. He’s playing football. Go finish the game out.”

Williams was too happy after the game to focus on any bruises from his 35 carries.

“I feel great. I’m sure I’ll probably be a little sore tomorrow morning, but right now I’m still running on a high of adrenaline,” he said.

He was also already looking ahead to next week.

“I don’t know if it’s the most satisfying game, because I’m sure there’s a lot of football left to be played,” he said.

“And the next one is gonna be sweeter when we’re 3-0.” n

While Andre Williams was the big name for the BC offense on Friday night, his offensive line paved the way for his runs with larger holes than the unit has created in years.

BC defense pummels Wake Football, from B1 wouldn’t budge. Harris’ knee skirted the grass before he could extend the ball. He was short, and the entire Eagle roster let everyone know. Kaleb Ramsey thew his hands up. Sean Sylvia shook his, affirming that Harris was short. Manny Asprilla and Bryce Jones crossed one arm over the other, back-and-forth. They were sending a message: no.

Senior linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis lingered. Making sure it had really just happened. Then the referee pointed to his right, almost directly to the student section. BC ball, and the call stood after a quick review.

“It was amazing,” said senior captain and defensive lineman Kasim Edebali.

“It’s a Friday night game and the student section was wild. We got out after them.

“We say it every day, ‘Just play aggressive.’”

The Eagle defense continued that strong play throughout the second half.

The Deacons were held to 246 yards total, with only 55 yards on the ground. BC let up the one big touchdown to Campanaro, but that was the only time the chaos

didn’t pay off.

“One thing we talk about is organized chaos,” Jones said. “We’re moving fast and we’re all buying into it. We’re more aggressive.”

The unit had one mindset in the second half—get off the field so Andre Williams can get back on. The senior tailback set a career record for rushing yards with 204. It was a return to form for BC. The Eagles pounded their opponent on offense and then pounded them even harder on defense.

The scoreboard hadn’t malfunctioned.

It really did read “2” next to the “Q” symbol. The biggest stop this defense has had in a long time came in the second quarter and the entire team took in the celebration. The “2” also stood for the second win this season, already matching last season’s total.

“We’re a whole new outfit right now,” said senior wide receiver Alex Amidon.

“It’s night and day.”

On a Friday night on national television, BC secured the only “2” that mattered: 2-0.

“Two and ‘o, two and ‘o,” quarterback Chase Rettig piped as he left the press conference following the game, happier than he’s seemed in a long time. n

The Heights

B4

Monday, September 9, 2013

Open letter: A welcome to Boston College and BC athletics

Austin Tedesco Freshmen (and transfers, and people who only know what the inside of Conte Forum looks like because you couldn’t get out of Convocation), Welcome. I know you didn’t ask for it, but here’s some advice, general notes, and whatnot: If you get to a game 30 minutes early, about 20 percent of the pretzels aren’t too hard to eat yet.

A lot of people around campus are going to be talking about how awesome “Superman” is. They don’t mean that awful Zach Synder movie from this summer. They mean Luke Kuechly.

You’re going to want to be able to say you saw Olivier Hanlan play basketball before it was cool.

Be the kid who somehow gets the band/stadium/arena to play more R. Kelly. The Heights might do a feature on you.

No one has ever taken someone’s iPhone out of the speakers in a freshman dorm, put on an obscure mash up mixing something like the Beach Boys with Earl Sweatshirt, and gotten the desired result from such a move.

Don’t take Beanpots, or any hockey trophies, for granted.

There was that one time, I think, that UGBC hosted a good artist for its fall or spring concert. That was cool.

From basketball’s Nicole Boudreau, Kristen Doherty, and Katie Zenevitch, to field hockey’s Emma Plasteras, to hockey’s Haley Skarupa and Emily Field, to lacrosse’s Covie Stanwick, Mikaela Rix, and Sarah Mannelly, to sailing’s national champion Erika Reineke, to soccer’s Stephanie McCaffrey and McKenzie Meehan, to softball’s Torry Speer, to volleyball’s Courtney Castle and Katty Workman, there are plenty of talented female athletes at BC that are just as entertaining to watch as the male athletes.

Find out what “Sieve” means before you start chanting it at goalies. Don’t find it out on your phone at the game.

The football team knows the words to its fight song now, which means you

might feel a little worse about trailing off halfway through.

Conte Forum has upgraded its sound system in the arena, but there’s no word if that comes with an upgrade to the music selection too.

BCHeights.com isn’t a bad way to pass your time during a boring lecture (I’m limiting the shameless plugs, I promise).

You might not think you like hockey. Johnny Gaudreau can change that.

Read about Dick Kelley and Pete Frates, two of the most incredible and inspiring people to set foot on this campus.

Don’t challenge Alex Amidon to a race.

Your friends aren’t lying to you

when they tell you that you really do need to start watching Breaking Bad, and that you just need to power through the first season.

Eddie Odio Dunk Time is the best time.

Only the seniors were here the last time BC football had a winning record.

People might start doing weird things.

Just roll with it.

As the athletic department reminds its athletes on little white cards, don’t “engage in ‘Twitter beef,’” or “use social media as a way to complain about your life.” We’re at BC. It’s pretty great.

Nana Boateng is suspended for tonight’s men’s soccer game against Dartmouth, but go watch him, and his yellow hair, play soon. His play can be

even more awesome than his hair.

That dorm you see right when you turn into campus is called The Gate.

There’s a Chik-fil-A 16.6 miles from campus, and there’s a Sonic on the way.

Just because you’ll regret it the next morning, that doesn’t mean getting steak and cheese at late night is a bad decision.

Your Boston College clothing should be maroon, gold, black, or white. These are the only acceptable colors.

Even the kids at BU know there’s truth to the “safety school” chants.

“Respect their privacy”, “middle schmiddle”, and “it is what it is”, are jokes you will hear that you should be happy you don’t understand.

Eventually, you will figure out what you think is the perfect time to get food from Eagles Nest without waiting in line. You will inevitably still go five minutes before that time, because it’s just too good.

Don’t take the B-line into the city.

Don’t be that guy, or girl, that says it’s just as fast as the C or the D-line.

Your too old to make this mistake in you’re texts or tweets.

Join some group or club or anything because you love it and wouldn’t want to do anything else. If you want less time to study and work out, join the Heights’ board.

Have a good year. Use your Gold Pass. Read this section sometimes.

Best, Austin Tedesco

Graham Beck / heights Editor

The student section has been packed at Alumni Stadium for BC’s first two home football game due to a winning team and a new ticket system.

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

Men’s Soccer Notebook

Lack of experience haunts BC in loss to Wake

By Alex Fairchild For The Heights

Graham Beck / heights Editor

BC was shutout by the Demon Deacons on Saturday night at home in a 2-0 loss.

Eagles can’t get offense going

By Connor Mellas Heights Staff

The Boston College men’s soccer team has a reputation for being young and talented. In a 2-0 loss to Wake Forest on Saturday night, both qualities were on full display.

“I thought the first half we looked fantastic,” head coach Ed Kelly said. “For a young team, we have seven new starters, and that’s a seasoned team.”

BC began the game playing energetic and high-pressure soccer. Fresh off a twogoal performance against Quinnipiac, junior striker Cole DeNormandie looked dangerous, stretching the field and providing an offensive target for BC. Then, about four minutes into the action, disaster struck. Sprinting for a 50-50 ball, DeNormandie suffered a brutal, head-first collision with Wake Forest goalkeeper Andrew Harris. The sickening sound of the stomachchurning impact drew horrified gasps from the crowd, and left DeNormandie lying flat on his back.

“Poor Cole, that’s a terrible thing,” Kelly said. “It was very unfortunate because he looked very dangerous getting in behind the two.”

A few minutes after the collision, DeNormandie walked gingerly off the field with the help of a trainer as fans and players from both teams cheered him on. Sophomore forward Derrick Boateng came off the bench to fill the role of striker.

Just six minutes after being introduced into the game, Boateng nearly put the Eagles up one. Sprinting toward goal on a breakaway, he fired a low, hard shot from the right side of the box, but hooked it just wide of the net.

Boateng’s attempt spurred Wake Forest into action, and at the other end of the pitch, BC keeper Keady Segel made a brilliant, pointblank reflex save to keep the Deacons from going up a goal.

As the first half progressed, the game devolved into a grinding contest for control of the midfield. Each team struggled to find a physical or tactical edge, and Wake Forest began relentlessly targeting the right wing freshman defender Ado Kawuba. When the dam finally broke in the 27th minute, it cracked on the left wing, not the right, and Wake Forest playmaker Luca Gimenez fed forward Andy Lubahn to put the Deacons up 1-0.

BC continued to battle. The Eagles looked dangerous on set plays, including long throws

from junior transfer Nick Butler. Freshmen Isaac Normesinu and Zeiko Lewis showed flashes of brilliance on the wings, but despite BC’s effort, the Eagles trailed 1-0 at the half.

The second 45 began with more of the same. Wake Forest became increasingly successful at crowding the midfield, and the Eagles struggled to possess the ball in the attacking third. Boateng, left more isolated up top, began tracking further back into the midfield, searching for the ball. The Eagles grew frustrated, and in the 66th minute, tempers boiled over when Boateng and Wake Forest midfielder Hunter Bandy clashed and were forcibly separated. Both received yellow cards.

Then, the inexperienced nature of this Eagles team revealed itself.

Less than four minutes after receiving the caution, Boateng made an unnecessary tackle, an offense worthy of a second yellow card, and was ejected from the game.

“He runs all over the place,” Kelly said. “He’s very talented, but [Boateng] loses the head.”

“That put us in a terrible situation.”

Down a man and a goal, Kelly switched from four defenders to three in an attempt to keep BC’s offensive hopes alive, but the 10man Eagles were stuck chasing the Deacons.

Frustrated and tired, BC gave up a bad foul outside the box, and on the ensuing free kick in the 74th minute, Gimenez set up midfielder Jared Watts for Wake Forest’s second goal of the game.

The Eagles ran and played hard till the final whistle blew, but there was no comeback in the cards.

Despite the loss, as a whole, BC showed potential. In his first game for the Eagles, Butler, at 6-foot-4, 185-pounds, added size, versatility, and a new threat on set pieces.

Veteran defenders Chris Ager and Ryan Dunn looked strong and anticipated the play well for most of the game, and junior Giuliano Frano was a workhorse in the midfield.

With DeNormandie hurt and Boateng suspended for the next game, the Eagles’ Monday night away match against Dartmouth will be challenging, but Kelly says he’s focusing on the positives, and won’t dwell on the growing pains.

“Sometimes that happens, sometimes you get the luck, and sometimes you don’t,” Kelly said.

“So we just put it behind us with a great performance. I mean a great performance, but we should have done better.” n

Maroon shirts streaked around the pitch, with a white ball zipping back and forth between them as they looked to penetrate a stubborn Wake Forest defense.

Cole DeNormandie’s hold-up play was excellent. The three attackers behind him were involved in the match, and the Eagles were a threat headed forward. But DeNormandie’s target man status led to an injury after just moments of play.

Coming off a brace against Quinnipiac, the Lincoln, Mass. native’s head injury, which appeared quite severe, changed the way Boston College would matchup.

Derrick Boateng entered the game via a straight swap for DeNormandie, who would not see action for the rest of the night. With Boateng on for the ailing forward, the sophomore’s workload would see BC increasingly play with the ball on the turf. Ed Kelly’s team would go without length to lead the line.

According to Kelly it wasn’t an issue, because Boateng runs all over the field.

And run he did.

No. 10 made diagonal bursts down the right and left side, as teammates looked to find Boateng with through balls both on the ground and over the top. He had the opportunity to score twice on the night.

He also played well with the other attackers, holding the ball up with his back to goal before connecting them with the team’s forward moves.

Wake Forest’s play out of the back was based around the long ball. Their central midfielders, especially Jared Watts, sprayed the ball across the pitch.

If sitting deep on the right, Watts would

nail the ball across the field to Luca Gimenez, who was the match’s most influential player.

This was due to the high press the Eagles instituted, as they looked to keep the Demon Deacons in their own half. Throwing speedy bodies at Wake’s defenders forced them into multiple errors, including one that nearly led to a Boateng strike. But the threat of the Wake midfielder was too much for the Eagles to handle.

Gimenez had a brilliant game on his left flank, torching BC right back Matt Wendelken on multiple occasions. His wing play created the Deacon opener at 28 minutes. The strike by Andy Lubahn came as a result of Gimenez’s blast into the box’s left hand side. The Brazilian drove the ball across to find the foot of his striker at the end of his trailing run.

Despite his difficulties, Wendelken adapted in the second half. The junior defender made better decisions as to whether or not to stay loose on his man or get tighter on him. Wendelken’s play became containment based as well, though it allowed the Wake Forest man to slot the ball to his fellow attackers in and around the 18-yardbox.

Keeping Wake Forest to the wings was BC’s Nick Butler. The 6-foot-4 midfielder is a force to be reckoned with in the center.

With Butler in the game, the team’s shape shifted. After using one defensive midfielder, Kelly felt tonight was the opportunity to make the switch to a pairing between the transfer and Giuliano Frano.

“We played with the one holding, but it’s too much work,” Kelly said, “It’s easier with two guys to settle it in and the way

they knock the ball around, we thought it was a good time to change, and they did well.”

Frano and Butler worked all over the middle, chasing Wake’s midfielders down to recover the ball for BC, as the Eagles did well to fit into a 4-2-3-1.

Atobra Ampadu played in the hole behind Boateng. Ampadu had difficulty creating chances against a stingy Wake defense that had him pegged all over the field. This left Isaac Normesinu to spur the host’s attack, though he struggled to find his link in the middle.

“I think Isaac didn’t do enough dribbling,” Kelly said. “He didn’t take enough people on. Toby’s screaming for every ball, when he’s not really open and Isaac is passing it to him. Isaac is fantastic. He was taking them on in the first half.”

After picking up two yellow cards in a four-minute span, Boateng was sent off. It was a dangerous decision from the creative player, as his team was already bereft of an out-and-out striker.

Boateng’s slow walk to the bench signaled that there was no way back for the Eagles. Zeiko Lewis, a freshman who had spent the majority of the night playing down the right flank, was pushed into Boateng’s position, as the Eagles shifted into a jumbled 4-1-3-1.

Had DeNormandie been in the game, BC would have been able to spot its giant.

Having a 5-foot-6 freshman up front, with the team in need of two last-gasp goals, called for a different strategy that lacked the ability to get a quick strike. Without DeNormandie, and while Boateng serves his suspension, Ed Kelly and the Eagles will be tactically stretched, as they look to piece together results in their upcoming matches. n

Graham Beck / heights Editor

Derrick Boateng was ejected from the game after receiving a red card following his second yellow card. His loss slowed down BC’s attack.

The Heights

Monday, September 9, 2013

B5

Meehan goal, BC defense fuel upset victory over Ohio State

By Terence Nixdorf For The Heights

The Boston College women’s soccer team knocked off the No. 21 Ohio State Buckeyes 1-0 as sophomore standout McKenzie Meehan stayed red hot, netting her fifth goal of the season in just as many games.

The Eagles squared off against the undefeated Buckeyes at home on Thursday night. Both teams’ previous games went into overtime, with BC beating Hofstra on the road 6-5 and Ohio State ending in a tie against Arizona after two extra periods.

BC started off the game in very aggressive fashion, controlling most of the possessions in Ohio State’s zone for the first five minutes of the game. Once Ohio State got the ball rolling, though, it was on.

They made their size and physical presence known early on in the first half and started creating problems for BC goalkeeper Alexandra Johnson, who was making her Eagle debut in beneath the crossbar.

Eagle head coach Alison Foley called the match “a game of inches” and in the first half, it seemed as though inches helped her team stay in the game.

Shortly after a 21st minute header

by Ohio State forward Marisa Wolf rang off the crossbar, Ohio State almost took the lead. Forward Michelle Prince found the back of the net, seemingly giving the Buckeyes a 1-0 edge, but the sideline official raised the off-sides flag.

Just minutes later, in the 27th minute, it appeared as though Ohio State was going to take the lead as a forward’s strike bounced off of the sprawling goalkeeper Johnson, rolling toward the BC net. Eagle defender Coco Woeltz rushed to the ball just in time to save the goal and clear the

ball out of danger. Woeltz made another great defensive play with 12 minutes to go in the first half, stopping a potential Ohio State rush just outside of the 18yard box.

With less than 10 minutes to play in the first half, momentum shifted from defense to offense for the home team. BC freshman forward Hayley Dowd made a couple of nifty plays, giving the Eagles some great scoring chances.

With a fancy turn volley and then a strike that went just wide, Dowd gave life to the team and the home crowd. As the half ended with the score still tied 0-0, BC had the edge in total shots but Ohio State clearly had the better scoring chances.

The second half kick-off started off quick-paced, physical, and tense like the first half.

BC started creating a lot more scoring chances early on in the half with set pieces and superb foot skills by junior forward Stephanie McCaffrey. The junior brought the Newton Field crowd to their feet at one point as she dazzled an Ohio State defender, putting the ball through her legs.

After the game, Foley praised McCaffrey for giving Ohio State’s defense “so many problems” as she “made them work” and used her speed and creativity to “get into seams.” Foley called the performance “incredible.”

Ohio State started creating scoring chances of its own using its height in set pieces, putting headers just wide and making BC’s defensive backline work, which Foley said played well. BC countered all of Ohio State’s second half chances, not allowing the ball to stay in their half of the field for too long.

BC worked the ball up to their mid-

Graham Beck / Heights Editor

Continuing her strong sophomore campaign, BC’s McKenzie Meehan sent a header into the net for BC’s lone goal in its win over OSU. fielders and forwards who began giving Ohio State’s second half goalkeeper, Jillian McVicker, trouble as they forced her to make a couple of spectacular saves to keep the match tied at zero.

In the 80th minute, BC’s Jana Jeffrey put an excellent ball in the box on a corner kick that found the back of the net near the

far post off the head of McKenzie Meehan.

The crowd at Newton Field erupted as BC took a 1-0 lead over Ohio State.

The Buckeyes had three potential chances in the last 10 minutes of the game, but capitalized on none of them as the BC defense stayed strong helping their goalkeeper Johnson earn her first shutout

as an Eagle.

Meehan, who was awarded with the honor “Eagle of the Week” for her hattrick performance against Hofstra this past Sunday, ended up as the game winning goal scorer for BC. Foley called the performance a “great game of perseverance.” n

Eagles suffer first loss

By Chris Stadtler

Graham Beck / Heights Editor

Thursday night’s 3-2 home win over Quinnipiac marked head coach Ainslee Lamb’s 100th career victory at the helm of BC field hockey.

BC’s Lamb reaches milestone in win Head coach earns 100th career victory with the Eagles

By Chris Grimaldi Assoc. Sports Editor

In a game of potential milestones, the Boston College field hockey team looked to defend a perfect record heading into its home matchup with Quinnipiac on Thursday night.

A combination of timely offense and effective goalkeeping late in the game from sophomore Leah Settipane propelled the Eagles to a 3-2 win over the Bobcats.

The victory not only marked BC’s fourth win in as many games, but also head coach Ainslee Lamb’s 100th career win at the program’s helm.

Before taking their place in the winner’s circle, the Eagles had to overcome two periods of closely contested field hockey. Neither team could muster any offense early on, as the first 15 minutes of play were marked by a scoreless defensive struggle.

Quinnipiac drew first blood less than a minute later, however, when Amanda

Danziger turned a pass from the penalty corner into a direct-shot goal past Settipane.

Yet the Eagles struck back just over four minutes later when senior Virgynia Muma corralled a rebound and sent the ball into the goal, tying the game at one.

The score was the veteran’s third of the young season.

Af ter Muma’s score, S ettipane stepped up and asserted herself as a game-changing defensive stalwart against Quinnipiac’s offensive attack.

The sophomore preserved a tied score with a diving save to stop a Bobcat attempt from the corner.

Just as both teams appeared destined to enter halftime in a deadlock, BC beat the clock by capitalizing on one of its best offensive opportunities.

Following a corner attempt, the Eagles sent a volley of shots toward Quinnipiac goalkeeper Megan Conaboy.

Although BC’s first two tries were thwarted by the Bobcat goalie, sophomore Jacqueline Kelleher managed to connect on a go-ahead goal with no time on the clock.

Entering the half, BC had outshot the Bobcats by a substantial nine-shot margin. Yet despite attacking the net far more than their opponent, the Eagles

entered the break with a precarious one-goal advantage.

Lamb’s home squad managed to add some insurance to its 3-2 lead, as sophomore AshLeigh Sebia connected with classmate Kelcie Hromisin to put BC up 3-1 early in the second frame.

Despite allowing two straight goals, Quinnipiac refused to go down without a fight. Ashleigh Allen sent a deflection past Settipane with 17 minutes left to draw her squad within one.

Ten minutes passed before the Bobcats made one last charge against BC’s defense.

Quinnipiac’s Kristin Engelke eluded her defenders and took off on a breakaway, leaving Settipane as the Eagles’ only hope for a preserved lead.

Yet the sophomore stepped to the plate at the game’s turning point, charging from the circle to disrupt the play with a brilliant kick save—the most pivotal of her five stops on the evening.

Engleke’s attempt was the closest Quinnipiac would get to a comeback, as the Eagles closed the game out to start the 2013 season 4-0.

With her 100th win as BC’s head coach, Lamb pushed her record on the Heights to an impressive 40 games above the .500 mark.n

Heights Editor

Heading into its road matchup against UMass, the Boston College field hockey team looked to continue its perfect start to 2013.

The Eagles were fresh off coach Ainslee Lamb’s 100th career win. Yet even with an emotional high and a four-game winning streak, the Eagles began the game relatively flat in a loss to the Minutemen.

The Minutemen sprinted to an early two-goal lead, forcing the Eagles to play catch up all day.

BC field hockey lost 4-2 at UMass Amherst on Sunday, falling to 4-1 on the year. Ranked No. 14 in the country, UMass remains undefeated.

“We played a great 25 minutes in the second half but against a top program like UMass, it’s not going to be enough to win,” Lamb said. “That will be a critical step to get us back on track.”

Despite falling behind early, the Eagles fought back to tie the game at two goals a piece early in the second half. The Minutemen quickly squashed the comeback, however, scoring two goals to seal the victory.

BC’s inability on Sunday to play a complete game for an entire 70 minutes was uncharacteristic of a squad led by Lamb.

In spite of the loss, freshman Emily McCoy shined. With the Eagles down a goal and very much in the game, the rookie showed poise uncharacteristic of a freshman.

Off the penalty corner, McCoy controlled the ball in the circle and snuck it past UMass goaltender Sam Carlino. She is tied for the team lead with five goals.

Emma Plasteras also kept pace with McCoy on Sunday, scoring her fifth goal of the season. Just a few minutes after the intermission and down two goals to none,

Plasteras found the back of the cage off of a deflection on a corner attempt. Her goal began BC’s scoring on the afternoon, preceding McCoy’s own score.

Yet the Minutemen quickly fired back with two goals of their own late in the second frame. An unassissted goal from Molly MacDonnell and a score from Brooke Sabia gave the home team a late two-goal edge.

With less than five minutes remaining and down 4-2, the Eagles made one last push to steal a victory on the road. Sophomore goalie Leah Settipane was pulled to give the Eagles strength in numbers and potentially a late-game push on the offensive end. Even with the man advantage, BC was unable to convert, gathering just three shots.

The Eagles managed to outshoot their opponents in the two-goal loss by a formidable six-goal margin, 24-18.

Yet BC was haunted by a lack of offensive execution all afternoon, a flaw uncharacteristic of its strong start to the season.

While the No. 19 Eagles are still in search of their coach’s 101st career win, Lamb did not take this out of conference loss lightly. If they want to make it back to the NCAA tournament this season, their best will be required against the top programs in the country.

The Eagles will have a couple of golden opportunities for redemption in the near future, with two of their next three games against ranked opponents.

Despite yesterday’s disappointing defeat, Lamb still saw the game as a learning experience and a chance for her squad to spark a new streak.

“We need to commit as a staff and team to make sure that we use this opportunity to get better so we can make the most of this loss.” n

Graham BEck / Heights Editor

Despite outshotting UMass by six shots, the Eagle offense struggled to execute yesterday.

B6

THE HEIGHTS

Monday, September 9, 2013

THE HEIGHTS

Monday, September 9, 2013

HEALTH&SCIENCE

Being you: it’s not just in the genes

JOSEPH CASTLEN You are wonderfully unique. And I’m not saying that in a preschool-confidence-building sort of way, either. Your genetic code is distinct from the seven billion people that currently exist on our planet, and in all likelihood, it will probably remain distinct from the billions, trillions, or quadrillions to come, contingent on how long it takes NASA to master intergalactic space travel.

There are, of course, exceptions—I’m looking at you, identical twins—but even then there are identifiers to distinguish them from one another (unless they have the same hair length, in which case they are the same person to me).

By and large, however, you are the only you, and only you can do the things that you will do.

Even the most menial tasks have a certain beauty when viewed with the correct perspective. Anyone can take out the trash, but only you can do it just the way you do. Similarly, you have a perspective on life that only you have.

When you see the color blue, it may look like the blue I see, but it is not the same blue. If you are colorblind, then it is an entirely different blue. We live in the same world and entirely different ones all at the same time.

This sounds nice, but is overall a pretty useless observation unless you do something with it. You and I are obviously not the same person, and you’ve been told you were special ever since you started watching Barney back when you were four years old, so what’s the big deal? Maybe there is no big deal after all. Maybe it’s stupid to think about these things and even more stupid to write about them. Maybe our individuality is nothing more than a biological fact, the significance of which extends no further than its utility in evolution.

You can determine a lot just from looking at someone’s genome—eye color, your risk of developing type II diabetes, whether or not your ear lobes are attached directly to your head or not—but it can’t tell you if someone is a good father, or if they laugh at their own jokes all the time, or if they are one of those people who are constantly inviting you to “like” their group’s page on Facebook. There are intangible elements that we all have, the culmination of which defines both how we view ourselves and how we are viewed by other people.

When you work in a fast food restaurant, you wear a uniform. The uniform serves many purposes: identification, sanitation, and safety are a few.

It also, in a way, reduces the employee to just that, an employee. When you are having a disagreement, it is a lot easier to yell at and berate someone wearing a uniform than it is to yell at someone in plain clothes (or so I would infer from my past experiences). This is probably in part due to the feeling—one that we don’t have a word for in the English language—that you only experience when you receive a medium order of fries instead of a large, and in which you are filled with an unquenchable rage that can only be satisfied by julienned potatoes soaked in boiling grease and coated with more sodium than any doctor would ever recommend ingesting.

In part, however, people treat fast food employees poorly because the uniform makes them lose an aspect of their personhood: their own individuality.

Uniforms in fast food restaurants are one thing, but there are other more unsavory ways that people are dehumanized. The best way to prevent this from happening is to firmly assert your individuality. Do what you want to do, and make decisions for you. You were born to do exactly what you are going to do, and whatever you do, you are the only person capable of doing it the way you do.

Genetics is pretty cool, but genes didn’t build airplanes and spaceships and those trucks with the rotating part that transport liquid cement across large distances. People did. People are more than their genes or the uniform that they put on when they go to work in the morning. Each person is unique in a way that no other is, and we should take pride in this. Transcend your individual components, and be an individual.

Joseph Castlen is an editor for The Heights. He can be reached at features@bcheights.com.

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Jumpstart and 4Boston members share challenges and rewards Volunteering, from B10 very close with other Jumpstart volunteers.

Each Jumpstart team consists of core members, which are paired up with two to three preschool students, and a team leader, who brings the class together after small-group reading work to engage in activities, games, and song. Schollmeyer noted that there are definitely some challenges—it can be difficult to encourage family involvement, for example, and working with ELL students.

Overcoming these difficulties, however, actually enhances the experience, Schollmeyer noted.

“I think that is the most rewarding thing— when you get through to students, you can see it in their faces, and it’s pretty amazing,” she said. “It’s amazing watching the kids improve from beginning to end,” she added, noting that the program is a year-long commitment.

“Our goal is to give the preschool children who are from low-income neighborhoods an opportunity to catch up to their peers who come from higher-income families. We don’t want them to start kindergarten at a disadvantage.”

While working with these students, Schollmeyer has come to the realization that she wants to teach in a low-income area, and she noted that other students have recognized a desire to teach through Jumpstart.

“I think that I’ve realized where I can really make a difference and how I can make a difference,” she said. “On my team last year, there were people from A&S and CSOM who picked up a minor in education or switched to Lynch just because they were so impacted by the work they do with the kids and really seeing firsthand the difference they can make in the classroom.”

That moment of realization, when you can see the change in someone’s heart just by a smile on his or her face, is an experience that can make the concept of service take on another level of meaning. For Silvia Turk, the co-chair of the 4Boston Council and A&S ’14, living that moment is one of most fulfilling aspects of her volunteerism.

“Starting out was a little bit rough,” Turk admitted, who has worked at the Commonwealth Tenants Association (CTA), an afterschool program in Brighton for children of the Commonwealth Housing Develop-

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Council members of 4Boston recruit new members for various placements in Boston.

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

BC’s Jumpstart connects volunteers with low-income preschool children and families. ment. “It was hard to get to know them, since they have a hard time letting people in.

But the first time the kids remembered my name and were excited to see me, I realized I had become a part of their community, and that was just so rewarding.” Turk has also strengthened her relationships with other BC students through 4Boston, since she had the chance to meet people from other social groups and majors.

4Boston, which is a Campus Ministry organization, involves four hours of service per week at one of their 29 placements, along with a one-hour reflection period led by a council member with other volunteers of the same placement. “I think the fact that we have our one-hour reflection each week makes everyone get really close to their groups, which I think is really appealing to a lot of people,” Turk said. The council, which currently consists of 37 members, is also responsible for working with volunteer coordinators at each placement and organizing 4Boston events.

The foundation of 4Boston rests in three pillars: community, spirituality, and social justice. Turk explained that these three pillars are essential to the 4Boston experi-

ence—building a strong sense of community to accomplish greater goals, raising awareness for social justice issues that people in Boston are facing, and remembering that spirituality drives their service. These pillars are not just ideas—they are practiced in concrete ways, such as the 4Boston spring teach-in. It is a one-day, on-campus retreat where council members teach workshops about different social justice issues to the other volunteers, and a speaker also presents to the 4Boston members. Last year, for example, Turk taught a class on child labor, and the Council brought a woman who worked in sweatshops to share her stories and emphasize the importance of buying fair trade products. Programs such as the spring teach-in exemplify the manner in which 4Boston volunteers gain a diverse perspective, and students who are interested in engaging with others through 4Boston service can apply by Sept. 13.

The experiences of Schollmeyer and Turk are just two examples of the ways in which service can connect students more deeply to BC and the greater Boston community. So if you have any interest in volunteerism, stop by the VSLC, visit the volunteer fair and discover what it means to give back. 

Code Coalition founder stresses hands-on learning to succeed Code Coalition, from B10 After leaving BC, Nichols spent a year and a half at Harvard medical school, where he pursued his interest in computational biology. “Computational biology was always a goal for me because it’s a very interdisciplinary field,” Nichols said. He had to learn programming as part of his research, but eventually recognized that software engineering was his true passion.

While Nichols always had an interest in the field of technology, he noted that opportunities exist at BC to expose students to the world of business and software development. Specifically, he recalls a program called TechTrek,

which still exists and involves courses and field studies in Silicon Valley. Wyly was actually involved in the program as an undergraduate, led by professor John Gallaugher, and was able to meet influential individuals and executives from big-name companies such as Google.

“That experience has been a big help for us because now we have a ton of connections that we wouldn’t have had otherwise,” Nichols said.

Now, Nichols can put his skills to use through his three-month online course program, which costs $125 and does not require previous experience in programming. The next deadline to register is Sept. 30, and those who sign up will learn through video lectures and

assignments, especially those that are project-based. Nichols firmly believes that the best way to learn coding is by practicing, making mistakes, and learning from them, but he also offers discussion forums and face-time with students to help them along the way. In addition to developing iOS applications, Nichols plans to offer a one-week module to instruct users how to customize Tumblr blogs.

Nichols also offered several pieces of advice to any BC students who have an interest in entering the tech field and even starting their own company. Specifically, he noted that several business students believe they can build a tech company without knowing how to build

a product, which is not the successful approach to take. Investors do not want to only see a PowerPoint presentation, he explained—rather, they must be able to see your ability to build a product and execute from day one.

“Getting a job in the tech world doesn’t depend on where you go to school, or what your grades were, or what you majored in,” Nichols said.

“People at inter vie ws rarely kne w where I went to college. I got a job offer at Twitter recently and they never asked for my GPA—they just looked at my portfolio of projects. For the tech people at BC, get involved in a project that shows you really know how to build things.” 

CLUB SERIES FEATURING BC’S STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS

InterVarsity builds unity through community involvement and outreach

BY JAE WON SHIN For The Heights InterVarsity. At first glance, the name sounds like varsity sports, but once ‘Christian Fellowship’ is added behind it, one will realize it is far from that. InterVarsity’s name is divided into two sections: ‘inter’ meaning between, and ‘varsity’ meaning college students.

Thus, the name comes together to mean ‘Christian Fellowship between college students.’

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship was started in England in the late 1800s when students at the University of Cambridge came together to study the scriptures and be witnesses for Christ on their campus. They wanted to be able to have a group and a meeting place, where students would be able to gain community with one another, to support each other, and then show others how God was working in their lives. This movement slowly grew over the next century, and eventually spread throughout America.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of Boston College (IVCF BC) is an interdenominational (Catholic and Protestant) campus ministry. It is a considerably large club on the BC campus that seeks to welcome everyone from all walks of

life to see and experience the power of God’s love and compassion.

Participants of InterVarsity welcome everyone—all they ask is that you come with an open heart about God and love the members of the community. They partner with Asian Christian Fellowship of BC and Multicultural Christian Fellowship of BC to create an even greater network of community to truly welcome everyone from all walks of life.

IVCF BC’s website describes their mission, which is, “Learning to live life to the fullest in the love of Jesus Christ.

We believe that Jesus has come to free us and the world from suffering, evil, sin, and death through the power of His life, death on the Cross, and Resurrection. He freely invites us to receive life to the fullest (see John 10:10) in relationship with Him and each other.

Our fellowship and fellowship events seek to explore this — the Gospel message — more deeply in community with one another.”

IVCF BC seeks to further explore and cement this idea through the various opportunities they have to get involved with their community along with outreach opportunities.

IVCF BC stresses the idea of community groups. They implement this idea by having both large groups and

small groups in the program. Large groups are the mass gatherings for everyone—not restricted to age or gender, bringing the different parts of the IVCF BC community together to form a sense of cohesion within the community.

Small groups are gatherings meant to be more intimate, allowing people to share or listen with people of their same age and gender.

On their website, IVCF BC says, “Small Groups are communities around campus that meet each week to share life together, look at Scripture, discuss how it applies to their lives, and serve the campus together. Whether you grew up learning in Church or have never heard of Jesus before, Small Groups are for you.”

Small groups are meant to allow more personal relationships to develop and flourish. There are small groups for freshmen and sophomore men, one for freshmen and sophomore women, one for upperclassman women, and one for upperclassmen men. The CORE members of IVCF BC facilitate these community groups.

The CORE members of IVCF BC are chosen each year after long sessions of prayer and deliberation by the current CORE members and their staff member—one chosen by the larger

InterVarsity network. They meet every week or every other week and discuss how they can best serve the greater BC community. They then help organize involvement projects like service trips and retreats every semester to further foster a sense of community among the members and nonmembers.

Danielle Gautereaux, a small group leader for IVCF and CSON ’14, said that IVCF BC truly feels like a second home to her. It is the place of rest where she can find true peace and restoration, being able to seek how God chooses to work in her life, through prayer, meditation, and the encouragement of her fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Hannah Jack, a senior at IVCF BC, said, “IVCF gives me a home, a community to rest and be energized by my brothers and sisters. It allows me to recharge and then give back.”

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of BC is not only a place of Christian dialogue and worship, but it’s also an organization that can be seen as one that fosters a sense of intimate community. It welcomes every single member of the BC community—all it asks is that one has an open mind about God, and that members are prepared to gain fellowship with one another. 

THE HEIGHTS

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HOW-TO

Monday, September 9, 2013

CAMPUS CHRONICLES

Escape the Confronting the jungle of the student activities day September heat ALISON TAKAHASHI

CAROLINE HOPKINS We’re all familiar with that moment.

Step into the elevator in Walsh surrounded by friends and familiar faces you haven’t seen for the past three months. Give a few hugs, say a few hellos, hit the button for your floor, and realize in terror that you have begun to sweat profusely.

Here at Boston College our hot chocolate outshines our iced lattes, our fuzzy BC mittens are better made than our tank tops, and our heat system far exceeds our (often nonexistent) air conditioning. At a university designed to withstand months of blizzards and negative temperatures, there is no denying the fact that our warm weather commodities can be less than sub par. Only a select few residence halls boast the perks of central air, leaving the vast majority of us entering into the new school year making our first impressions with sweaty handshakes and glittering hairlines.

Although these brutal days of heat will be few and far between here in Chestnut Hill, and we will soon be longing for the sun as we shiver in our knee-length North Face parkas, the following tips may help you to survive the early September heat.

1) Utilize your more fortunate friends.

Those of you in Vanderslice and 90, you know who you are. If you are among the lucky students to live in an air-conditioned building, you should expect your friends, classmates, and perhaps even distant acquaintances to casually “stop by” to “check out your room.” Chances are, they’ll wind up staying perched on your cool, conditioned couch until the wee hours of the morning.

2) Choose your social venues wisely.

Planning to meet up with an attractive member of the opposite sex? Plan your encounter in the Chevy Lounge, the Lower Dining Hall, or perhaps the Chocolate Bar in Stokes. Please, whatever you do, do not meet up in the lobby of the Plex or the confines of your 10-foot toaster oven of a dorm room.

3) Gym clothes, gym clothes, gym clothes. Ladies, I cannot stress enough the deceptive value of nylon shorts and breathable tank tops. At this time of year, rushing up the million dollar stairs to make it to your first class on time is inevitably going to leave you as flushed and sweaty as if you just ran five times around the Res. If you’re wise enough to don your gym clothes as opposed to that floral sundress, you can play it off as if you actually did just come from the Plex. Same goes for gentlemen. Please do us all a favor and avoid the embarrassing pit stains that come with your favorite pastel button downs. As preppy and collegiate as you look in khakis and a polo, you’re better off sticking to the breathable pinny you reserve for bench presses at the Plex. Suns out, guns out.

4) Keep your doors and windows open at all times. As tempting as it is to sustain your precious privacy during one of the most social months of the year, you’re not doing yourself any favors when you shut your door, draw your blinds and close yourself in. Though you may think you’re simply containing the atrocious mess of your week-one dorm room, you’re also trapping in all of that miserably stuffy hot air. Keep both your doors and windows open to allow for fresh airflow.

5) Hydrate the cool way. There’s nothing that says “chill BC student” like a Camelbak water bottle with the BC logo tucked into the side mesh pocket of your sporty backpack. These water bottles are available at both BC bookstores and believe me, they’re worth the $24. The bottles have pop up straws for easy hydration on the go, and the “bite and sip” feature will ensure you won’t be “that kid” who rushes into a lecture hall panting from the heat and proceeds to spill his water bottle all over someone’s laptop.

6) It’s all about the freezer. If you haven’t already purchased your mini fridge, try to get one with a separate freezer section that will fit several ice trays. At desperate times like these, a working freezer is all too necessary. If your mini fridge is among the kind with the blocked off freezer shelf, keep that little plastic flap closed at all times.

During a month where all beverages will taste lukewarm if not downright hot, you’ll be thanking yourself for going through that extra effort of filling an ice tray.

7) Last but not least, the most vital solution of all: your fan. On those humid nights when your open window and cracked door simply won’t do, your electric fan will unconditionally be your new best friend.

The best fans to buy are those that rotate, moving the air 360 degrees around your room rather than channeling the air flow in a single direction. Without a doubt the most effective fan, however, is the large box fan that you fit to your window. Fresh air is coolest at night, and a window fan will keep the outside air circulating, creating an almost air-conditioning like feel. Almost.

Caroline Hopkins is a contributor for The Heights. She can be reached at features@bcheights.com.

It’s Friday morning on Sept. 6, 2013 and the sun is shining down onto Boston College’s central campus. Iridescent rays are cast onto the school’s most recognizable symbol, the golden eagle. Resting on its elevated podium, the metallic icon’s curved figure easily reflects rays that radiate outward in every direction.

Droplets of fresh dew from the night prior evaporate and disappear off of the sprouted grass lining the streets’ perimeter as birds weave in and out of the chill air. Despite this scene’s calm peace, an undoubtedly eerie stillness lingers, threatening to pervade the present tranquility and transform it into one of utter chaos.

There’s no saying what inspires this kind of supernatural ominousness, but there’s certainly something mysterious coming, and it’s coming quickly.

It isn’t until the clock strikes 10:00 a.m. that the Gasson bell tower lets out its familiar chime, releasing thundering sound waves across the distance and beyond. The cacophonous noise can be heard from both near and far, since its vociferous ring has the uncanny ability to turn every corner as it travels through the atmosphere. It isn’t the clamor itself that inspires all those within earshot to rise out of bed, or rather jump in shock, but it’s

the predictability of its coming again and again that reawakens all that is around.

It’s as if the inhabitants of BC have roused from their nighttime hibernation with gusto and purpose. In little to no time at all, campus has become a hive of tumultuous mayhem. Welcome to the jungle.

The street that was once vacant has lost its structure, becoming clouded and blurred by the uncountable number of tables that have entirely covered its black surface. Not only are there tables, but the tables are also of every color, with streamers and cloths to boot, which together make up some kind of fabric rainbow that catches the eye. Every stand could not be any closer to its neighbor, each of which appears to be fighting inanimately for the other’s precious space. Although the road is in absolute disarray, the whole lot of booths appears to be vying territorially for their own space, suggesting that there is some kind of unspoken necessity for order in a sea of so much disorder.

In addition to the tables themselves fighting for their individual plot of land, the BC student body appears to be following suit. The more animated counterparts are assisting in the ever-increasing pandemonium with their sporadic change of direction, discordant shouting, and helpless cry for desperate attention. Acting more like wild animals than civilized people, BC scholars have become undomesticated

brutes who have no understanding of what ‘being in another person’s bubble’ means. It seems reasonable to assume that the law of this land, if there even is one, must be that there is no law at all.

Each table acts as the protective hut for a specific tribe, many of which are grouped together based on shared characteristics that have been a unique part of their identity since their outset. The savages that enjoy listening to their own voice quite sensibly find themselves among others who too feel the same. Though one would think a common interest could inspire the most charming of friendships, BC clubs and organizations have made it clear that this actually has quite the opposite effect on the student population.

Organizations such as the all male Heightsmen a capella group promise their young freshmen prospects that not only can they become part of a close-knit brotherhood, but they can learn how to woo the women with their sweet voices too. Profound rhetoric such as this is soon drowned out by the clapping of Synergy dancers, whose stomping feet sound like an animalistic warning to clear the way for their highly anticipated arrival. It isn’t until the ‘fresh meat’ are beginning to buy into the available artistic extracurricular activities that they’re nearly trampled by the parade of rowing paddles that function much like the blades explorers use

to slash through tropical forests, except these are intended to push aside competing athletic clubs who are jockeying for new recruits. The more civilized, goaloriented beasts lobby for enlistment into the more ‘professional clubs’ on campus, whether it’s the Accounting Academy, Law Student Association, or the Computer Science Society. Those who feel a special connection with their ancestry often seek out associations founded on ethnicity, whether it is the Asian Caucus or the Brazilian Club.

With so many students passionate for their cause, it’s no wonder they act like animals. Inspired and excited to contribute to what they believe in, BC students tend to get carried away when it comes to student activities day, which entails four action-packed hours of unending racket, direct targeting, and candy throwing.

The only change as dramatic as the first is the transition back into the ordinary humdrum of student life. Although the brutes eventually return to their human form, lose their vengeance, and actually socialize with each other in a friendly manner, they also continue to carry their fiery passion inside of them, whether it’s Sept. 6 or not.

Alison Takahashi is a contributor for The Heights. She can be reached at features@bcheights.com.

PROFESSOR PROFILE

Rosenthal encourages students to speak up in an evolving world

BY KELLY COLEMAN

WHO: Danielle Taghian WHO: Rita Rosenthal

For The Heights If the importance of public speaking has not been branded into your brain enough already, here’s a little more preaching for you: you can take public speaking and rhetoric classes in college and form lifelong friendships, you can be on a rhetoric team, and you can even meet your husband through it. At least, that’s the case for Rita Rosenthal, a communication professor at Boston College.

Rosenthal was born and raised in Missouri, but moved to Pennsylvania during her high school years, where she spent the summers in her high school drum choir. When her family relocated to North Carolina, Rosenthal enrolled in Appalachian State University. She recalls that, as soon as she began attending the university in North Carolina, her family moved back to Missouri, but that she had grown tired of moving around and opted to remain at Appalachian State. After competing in a nationally recognized forensics team—a team that competes among different colleges in the categories of poetry, informative speeches, extemporaneous and impromptu speaking, and persuasive speaking—she moved on to Bowling Green State in Ohio for graduate school. She noted her speech team as the place where two of her lifelong friendships blossomed.

Once at Bowling Green, Rosenthal began coaching forensics teams. A fellow coach and graduate student turned out to be her future husband.

Looking back at her college experience, Rosenthal reflected that she wishes she would have taken a broader range of classes, rather than ones related to her communication education major. She revealed that some business courses and literature courses are

TEACHES: Molecules and TEACHES: Public Biology SpeakCells and Cancer ing and Persuasion FOCUS: The biology of EXPERIENCE: Attended cancer Appalachian State University RESEARCH: Completed

her postdoc at MassachuFUN Competed in settsFACT: General Hospital in aSimon nationally recognized Powell’s lab forensics team in college EMILY SADEGHIAN / HEIGHTS STAFF GRAHAM BECK/ HEIGHTS EDITOR

always helpful and practical. However, when asked what she thought the one class is that everyone should take, she honestly replied “public speaking!”

Rosenthal shared her thoughts on what skills she believes are most valuable for today’s job market. She emphasized the necessity of mastering social media, as in knowing what people are putting on social media and how it is going to follow us through our lives. She also noted the importance of knowing how to navigate through the online world, especially those interested in journalism. To students considering a major or minor in communications and interested in journalism, Rosenthal suggests taking as many journalism courses as possible, so as to get a feel for exactly where journalism is right now. She describes the present day as “a waiting period to see what social media is going to do.”

Currently, Rosenthal enjoys her view from

the communication department in Maloney Hall, and is excited for their soon-to-be home in the reconstructed St. Mary’s. The door to her office dons a sign with her favorite quote: “What if the hokey pokey really is what it’s all about?” A quote perfect for those long days, Rosnethal says it is helpful in reminding her to take a step back and put everything into perspective, to breathe. Her office is filled with potted plants and a collection of toys she began gathering for her evaluative speech activity in her public speaking class.

For instance, students have associated Barbie with poor body image and low self-esteem.

Alternatively, students could credit Barbie as an inspirational career woman. Students are assigned to ascribe alternative values such as these to several other objects.

Rosenthal frequently babysits her young grandson, and enjoys time at home cooking extravagant pasta dishes and gardening.

Although she has taught at four other universities, there is one thing she loves most about BC. “Definitely the students,” she said. “I don’t have one word for them. Students have become very professional … willing to put themselves out there and have such a dedication to the work.” She said that BC students also know how to let loose and have fun, but have a strong work ethic that is not easy to come by.

Rosenthal teaches public speaking and persuasion, two communications courses.

Both highly recommended courses, Rosenthal encourages students within the communication major to enroll in them. She says that the “speeches keep [her] young,” because every year they are fresh and on brand new topics.

So if it has not been branded into your brain by now, let’s reiterate one final time: public speaking is what it’s all about. 

HE SAID, SHE SAID Over the summer, I met someone at work that I really enjoyed spending time with. He goes to a different school, but I still can’t stop thinking about him.

Should I pursue this further, or forget about him and keep my options open here at BC?

Long distance relationships are the result of poor life choices. Humans are carnal beings who require constant physical contact. If you have not been with your significant other for an extended period of time prior to geographically separating, the relationship is probably destined for failure.

It appears that you worked well in a professional setting with your potential love interest.

I generally advise against expressing romantic MARC FRANCIS interest in coworkers—past or present. Unless your job was at the local ice cream shop, do not risk your reputation in the work field as office gossip often results in a decrease in chances of promotion or subsequent recruitment. Furthermore, the cost of a long-term relationship does not produce equivalent returns—the time and money spent keeping in touch will become tedious and monotonous. Both parties have different expectations as they enter the relationship, and one or both people are guaranteed disappointment.

Boston College presents a generous pool of options for both males and females of at least moderate attractiveness. So, going under the assumption that you are an average BC female, the odds are in your favor. I advise that you wait at least one month to see if this boy still pervades your thoughts and completely debilitates you from finding love somewhere else. If you are still hung up on the idea of dating this young lad one month from now, despite the relationship’s dismal prospects, you must first establish that he is, in fact, interested in you as well. You should not hesitate to communicate your feelings with him. Since you probably will never see each other again, you have nothing to lose.

Honestly, it depends. There are always a few people who become infatuated with their summer lovers and decide they want to get married and have babies as soon as possible and somehow it works out 10 years later. But I think it’s important to think realistically about your feelings and where the relationship is headed. Is it feasible to visit him or him to visit you? Will he become the reason you stay in on weekends or bow out of fun AMY HACHIGIAN dinners in the city with your friends? Do you truly love him or are you just happy to have someone and not be alone? If you think your feelings are sincere and you are curious if a relationship could work out, I’d encourage you to take the risk and try it out. After a couple of months, you can always reassess and see if you like where things are headed or choose to end it and move on. Long distance relationships take a lot of effort and patience, but can definitely work out if both partners are committed and love each other. At the same time, even if you decide you’d like the relationship to grow, it could be worthwhile to wait a bit to see if he initiates anything himself.

This could be a good way to determine if he is willing to put in the effort needed to make the long distance work and that he felt strong feelings toward you, as well. However, if you decide you don’t want to pursue the relationship, but he calls you asking to make things work, stick to your guns and say no. It’s not worth leading him on or keeping him around until you’re bored.

Marc Francis is an editor for The Heights. He can be reached at features@bcheights.com.

Amy Hachigian is an editor for The Heights. She can be reached at features@bcheights.com.

Monday, September 9, 2013

The Heights

B9

The Heights throughout the century issues from Septembers of years past

Tracking the evolution of Superfan spirit and back-to-school traditions of past

By Caroline Kirkwood For The Heights

graham beck / heights editor

Student members of SAP presented their organization at the Activities Fair on Friday.

Tours shaped

by SAP guides Tour Guides, from B10 -gram. The program matches each tour guide with a returning one and allows new guides to shadow a returning guide’s tour on the first week. On the second week, they are able to give a tour in conjunction with the returning guide, which helps them transition into the third week, in which they give a tour on their own with a returner shadowing them.

“This enables them to get experience, to develop the way they talk about BC and the way they talk about campus,” McDermott said. “The best way to learn is from peers.”

Because SAP is student-focused, its recruitment of students can be attributed to how genuinely enthusiastic the guides are. O’Brien noted that at many other universities tour guides tend to work for public relations or other facets of the university and treat their jobs as tour guides more as a professional duty. In comparison to BC’s student-run program, “those programs might lack the spirit, genuineness, and authenticity that comes from students being able to express the things they care about,” he said. “I’ve always liked our mission of allowing students to organically come up with the things they feel are very important for describing BC—this conveys more of what we are about than having clones from a media office.”

Additionally, at most institutions, information sessions are run by admissions employees. In 1996, BC transferred to a format in which students participate in the info sessions. After a brief introduction by an administration counselor, a diverse student panel introduces themselves to prospective students and their parents and fields questions in a Q&A platform.

While the majority of questions asked are pertinent and BC related, sometimes students will be asked extremely difficult or inappropriate questions. Thus, it’s vital that students are trained and prepared for what they could encounter. It is, however, inevitable that nothing can fully prepare someone for what they may be asked. “When our students can answer those tough questions professionally and respectfully, other people in the audience are much more impressed by their poise and nature in fielding those questions,” Schneider said, stressing that honesty is usually the best way to combat trying questions.

The outreach division of SAP is a media-based program to provide the BC experience to people that can’t come to visit. Student blogs and Instagrams uploaded to the admission’s website allow prospective students to get a glimpse into intimate aspects of the BC community unattainable on a tour, such as chronicles of the Newton bus from the perspective of a freshman. O’Brien noted that the number one piece of feedback he always receives is how shocked people are by how much trust is given to students to carry the program. Because BC’s academic reputation is pretty much universally understood, people really come to campus to see what the people are like and if they will fit in with the community.

“They want to see the product in action,” O’Brien said. “If that person is likable, articulate, sensitive to their needs, they could envision themselves being friendly with them. If we fill their brains with a lot of scripted material, we will never see what they are like. I’d rather be in a category of a school people love to visit even if they make the decision to go somewhere else, as long as we have guides who are informed, friendly and willing to show people their BC.” n

As students return to Boston College’s campus and classes commence, The Heights searches through its archives to see what the beginning of a new school year has looked like throughout BC history.

The start of a new academic year brings with it new adventures, new journeys, new problems, and new changes for the BC community and its students.

This year BC students are dealing with the implementation of the new Gold Pass for access to BC football games. Life was much different, however, in 1925 when the Sept. 29, issue and article titled “New System for Distributing Football Tickets Instituted” was published. As opposed to the hopefully timesaving Gold Pass that simply allows students to use their student ID to enter a game, in 1925 this “new system” came in the form of a coupon book. While students paid $175 this year for season football, basketball, and hockey tickets, in 1925 admittance to the football game was granted by handing over one free coupon along with $1. In 1925 the coupon book “promise[d] much better results than any other system previously used,” and we can only hope this will be the case for the Gold Pass as well.

In the Sept. 12, 1960 edition of The Heights, students were introduced to a live mascot, “the finest species of aquile chrysaetos in the nation,” otherwise known as an eagle. This year the student population will be awarded the presence of this live mascot again for the first time in 47 years. As is the case this year, students in 1960 were afforded the opportunity to propose and vote on the name that would be bestowed on the majestic bird.

One can only sit and wait patiently to see what name will be revealed for our eagle mascot this year.

In this same issue on Sept. 12, 1960, the editors of The Heights offered a message to the freshman class in the front-page article “Points to Ponder.” In a direct address to the newest members of the BC community they said, “To Boston College you must show devotion and loyalty—not by attending faithfully all sporting events and dances, but by developing to the fullest your intellectual capacities by a diligent application and utilization of those talents with which you have been blessed.”

Any student at BC should take these words into account—the biggest gift and legacy that one can leave to BC is enriching and exposing the community to our unique persons.

In this first week of school, as Corcoran Commons and the outside of McElroy dining hall are taken over by poster vendors, in

1980 room decorating worked a little differently. While we have the ease of just stepping out of our dining halls to purchase a poster or a quick online trip to Amazon.com, on Sept. 2, 1980 The Heights ran an article entitled “Where to Find your Heroes, 2D,” a guide to the best poster shops in Boston. Sadly, the shop “Stairway to Heaven,” which apparently had the ability “to fill even the darkest depths of Duchesne with a homey glow,” has since closed its doors. However, if a “Keep calm and carry on,” or a Dave Matthews poster isn’t quite doing it for you, take a trip down to Newbury comics to add some more unique flair to your room.

One might think that they have a pretty good handle on the BC lingo, however, some of the terms that we use frequently today had different names in 1986 as explained in the Sept. 2 issue of that year. The infamous million-dollar staircase was referred to as “Higgins steps” and was “the Number One reason that sophomores on College Road don’t see their friends who got into Walsh,” which is still true today. Also, there was none of this talk of going to O’Neill for a late-night study session.

Rather, students would say they were heading to “Tip’s Place,” the previous nickname of the Thomas P. O’Neill Library. Also, instead of the common phraseology of BCPD in reference to the Boston College Police Department, students used the nickname BC 5-0, a nod to the popular TV show Hawaii 5-0. In another 20 years one wonders if phrases like the Mods and the Plex will be long gone as well.

Finally, in a Papa Ginos’s ad found in the Sept. 5, 1995 issue of The Heights was the line “Goes Great with X-files, Pearl Jam, and Nietzsche. Put two large pizzas on your BC Meal card for $8.99.” By referencing a quintessential ’90s sci-fi television show and rock band, Papa Gino’s was enticing BC students left and right. On top of the wittiness of their ad, two large cheese pizzas for $8.99 is a deal unheard of nowadays. There was even an exclusive BC hotline phone number. Who would have thought?

So as summer comes to an end and a long arduous school year stands before us, 2013-14 can become another part of BC’s ever-growing rich history. Through the contributions of every student whether in the classroom, athletic field, or club activity a new mark can be made at BC this year, one that will help change and mold its landscape.

As found in the Sept. 10, 2007 quote of the day in this issue of The Heights, “‘The best way to predict the future is invent it’-Allan Kay.” Invent your own future as we begin the journey of the 2013-14 academic year. n

Editor’s Column

Embracing a summer lifestyle against the norm

Michelle Tomassi I am a 20-year-old adult, but up until this past summer, I’ve never had a real job.

Throughout high school, my mom encouraged me to focus on my studies, constantly reiterating the fact that I have the rest of my life to work and only a few more years to be a student. My dad, on the other hand, loved to boast about his first job as a paper boy (yes, they did exist) at 14, and how he paid for his own car at 16. Many of my high school friends couldn’t wait to get their first job bussing tables at our local pizzeria or folding shirts at the American Eagle in the nearby mall. I, on the other hand, was perfectly content with my living room couch and my stacks of books surrounding me.

The summer of 2013 brought me my first “real-person” job. That’s right—paychecks, business attire, and working nine-hour days, five days a week. I loved the feeling of putting on a blazer for my first day of work, as if the clothing elevated my importance and disguised my youthful 5-foot-1 frame.

However, after just day one of making copies, scrolling through data on Excel, and preparing accounting schedules, I found myself missing my stack of novels just waiting to be read from the comfort of my own home.

I gained invaluable office experience, and my books and I were reunited around mid-July, when I left my job to take a family vacation to Italy. Yes, a vacation—I didn’t go abroad for research, or to take classes, or for a service trip. It was absolutely incredible and relaxing, and I’m sure I don’t need to go into detail about how beautiful of a country Italy is. But when I returned to BC, and asked all of my friends about their summers, I felt a strange sense of guilt.

A large amount of my friends also went abroad this summer, but each of them had a specific purpose—to conduct research in historical cities of Ireland, to take courses while exploring the cultural haven of Paris, or to provide service to citizens of poor neighborhoods outside the U.S. And that’s when the guilt set in—why did I spend my time playing tourist around Italy when I could have been doing something more academically oriented, or when I could have been working to better the lives of other individuals? I am wholeheartedly grateful that I had the opportunity to travel to the country of my heritage, but I still feel as though I could have done something more.

It’s a sentiment that I believe is common across the BC student body—the need to constantly be doing something more.

Whether it’s working an extra job, volunteering in the city of Boston, or signing up for just one more listserv at the Student Activities Fair, there’s a sense that we constantly need to push the limits, to explore every option and discover what makes us rise out of bed in the mornings. Overall, I believe it is a positive attitude to have, since that dedication and passion is what will lead to success in the future. It can be easy, however, to constantly compare yourself to others, and worry that you’re just not doing enough.

I know I have fallen victim to this over-analyzing of my life choices and decisions, especially since my four years of college has now become two, and I want to make the most of every second before I must depart.

So maybe I waited longer than the average student to obtain my first job, and maybe my summer trip won’t lend itself to producing a scholarly research paper, but those experiences have still shaped the person I am today. If it were not for those summers reading my books instead of ringing up customers, I would not have such a strong love for literature that has driven me to pursue my English degree here at BC. If I hadn’t gone to Italy this summer, I wouldn’t have had the chance to practice speaking Italian so frequently, which has made me love the language even more and made me so thankful for picking up an Italian minor last semester. I wouldn’t have been able to listen to my 16-year-old cousin share his dreams about going to the U.S. for college, or see my 90-year-old great aunt’s beautiful smile for possibly the last time. The memories will always be etched in the fibers of my being, and from this perspective I can replace my uncertainty with the satisfaction of having a new experience of self-discovery. Those feelings of inadequacy and instances of regret happen to each of us at some point, but they should not overshadow all of the moments, which are significant no matter how small, that truly make us individuals.

Michelle Tomassi is the Features Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at features@bcheights.com.

FEATURES THE HEIGHTS

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Monday, January 24, 2013

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

BC grads form startup for the new tech trade

BY MICHELLE TOMASSI Features Editor

WELCOME TO BC A GUIDE TO STUDENT TOURS AND SAP RESOURCES By: Cathryn Woodruff Asst. Features Editor

T

here are countless aspects of Boston College that inherently draw students to apply year after year.

Its academic reputation entices highly intelligent high school upperclassmen, and word of mouth is a vital part of BC’s popularity. But arguably the most important recruitment tactic is a candid tour that offers a real look into what it means to be a BC student. Without having the ability to officially attend BC before putting a deposit down, a student’s brief experience on campus carries a lot of weight in their decision. The Student Admissions Program works to present BC in an individualized way, and to provide a glimpse into what life as a BC student is like.

Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Student Admissions Program (SAP) Supervisor Chris O’Brien stressed the importance of making campus tours as all encompassing and authentic as possible.

“Our vision has always been if it’s just a factual and statistical tour, I could do it. If it’s just a student telling random stories as they walk around, it’s a friend giving a tour,” he said. “It is a delicate balance. Our hope is that tour guides develop the art of balancing facts and anecdotes and spirit. A great tour guide will seamlessly transition from what kind of granite Gasson is made of to what it’s like to wake up on the morning of a football game.”

Tours start Sept. 16 and continue through the Friday before Thanksgiving. The tour guide staff consists of 140 this fall, including a mix of returners, summer tour guides, and newly trained guides. Twenty tours are given a week, as well as a handful of Saturday tours. In a given year, 40-50,000 visitors come to campus—with the spring typically busier than the fall, but never with a period of quiet.

The tour guide application process is conducted

at the end of each semester, in which guides are selected for the upcoming semester. A student can be eligible if they have had experience with other SAP programs, such as with the day visit program, greeting in the administration office, office management, and general outreach. These prerequisites prove passion for BC and student involvement enthusiasm, and then the interview process helps to narrow down the most competent and driven tour guides.

Guide training is an organic process at BC. Bridgette McDermott, head coordinator of tours and A&S ’15, noted that new guide training consists of becoming familiar with a handbook that contains a broad base of knowledge about the campus. She expressed the importance of guides being able to talk about their own experiences at BC and about things they are involved in.

“We offer a handbook, but the essence of a BC tour is your personal experience. We try to help everyone make an informed college decision—we want to show everyone how unique BC is and what it means to be an Eagle,” she said.

The most unique quality of SAP is the amount of responsibility given to students and volunteers. As head coordinator Lexi Schneider, A&S ’14, noted, by the end of a visit, a family will have had contact with at least six current students. Students are given the reins. With no script, and no precise tour route, each tour guide is given the autonomy to mold the tour in a personalized way. As a council of student volunteers, SAP members have the freedom to formulate programs on their own—overseen by Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions Danielle Wells and O’Brien.

In order to ease new tour guides into the program, last year they initiated a three-week mentoring pro-

See Tour Guides, B9

JORDAN PENTALERI / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC

Having a career that involves doing what you love, and sharing that passion with others, is an ultimate goal for many students after they leave Boston College. Add in the possibility of launching your own business, along with other BC graduates, and you’ve got a deal that would be hard to pass up. This postgrad lifestyle may only seem idealistic now, but it is certainly attainable. Just ask John Nichols, one of the minds behind the creation of the Code Coalition startup and BC ’10.

Nichols worked for startups in New York the year after he graduated from BC, mainly involved with software development and creating iPhone applications for various companies. He eventually ended up at BitFountain, a company that develops applications for iOS and Android devices, and was inspired by their three-month apprentice program that brought people from absolute beginner to junior-level developers. It just so happened that two other BC graduates, Eliot Arntz, BC ’10, and Theodore Wyly, BC ’13, entered the apprentice program, and once the three became acquainted, they came together to launch their own online course, now known as Code Coalition.

The apprentice program at BitFountain, Nichols explained, can be viewed as a trade school for the 21st century, but it was limited in the fact that only about five apprentices could be taught at once. By converting this training program to an online platform, Nichols was able to fulfill his goal of building a community of passionate software developers—Code Coalition’s ultimate mission is to “lower the barrier of entry into the tech field,” as explained on their website.

“It lowers the cost too, because instead of having five people we can have 5,000 people, and they pay smaller and smaller fees as more and more people sign up,” Nichols said.

He also didn’t have to worry about financial investments prior to launching the online course one month ago—only time was necessary since they were creating their own product. Code Coalition is already generating revenue and gaining an increasing amount of signups each day, since the registration deadline for the next three-month course is Sept. 30.

With so much te chnolog y and software development experience, one may be surprised to learn that Nichols majored in philosophy as a BC undergraduate. The reasoning behind his choice was that philosophy had fewer major requirements than some other programs, so he had the freedom to take more science and programming courses to supplement his already existing interest in the field.

See Code Coalition, B7

Personal experiences give insight into expansive service culture

BY MICHELLE TOMASSI Features Editor If there’s one thing that students at Boston College know how to do with astounding dedication, it’s volunteering. Anyone who passed by the numerous tables and enthusiastic club members at the Student Activities Fair on Friday undoubtedly saw at least several tables for service organizations, all promising to help you utilize your time in the most rewarding way possible. And if you somehow missed these groups, have no fear: the Volunteer Fair, sponsored by the Volunteer Service and Learning Center (VSLC), will be held on Tuesday, Sept.

10 for those who want to learn more about the various organizations devoted to service.

The VSLC is the one-stop spot for all service-oriented groups at BC—just take a look at their website, and you will have access to multitudes of volunteer opportunities, whether it be through their online database, programs sponsored by the department, on-campus groups, or service and immersion trips.

“The role that we play at the University is to be the primary gateway for any student that wants to serve,” said Daniel Ponsetto, the

Welles R. Crowther Director for Volunteer & Service Learning at the Center. Ponsetto has served as the director for the VSLC since it was established 10 years ago, and was a campus minister prior to assuming his current position. The mission of the VSLC is two-fold: one, that any BC student that wants to serve is able to do so, and two, that students engage in what Ponsetto calls “conscientious and thoughtful service” with members of the community.

“It’s about realizing that I can learn from others’ life experiences and discover things about myself and my own ability to care about another person, because of this relationship,” he said. To ensure that students find the organization that is best for them, the VSLC offers one-on-one counseling for anyone who is struggling to choose among the vast amounts of opportunities available.

Making a decision is not always as simple as pointing and clicking—some on-campus organizations require an application process and certain time commitments, to ensure that those who are serving are fully dedicated to the group, and to accommodate for constraints in placements and resources. It’s not just a question of where to volunteer—the people

I NSIDE FEATUR E S THIS ISSUE

who you work with also become an integral aspect of the service experience. For groups such as Jumpstart and 4Boston, which both take BC students into the city of Boston to work at various placements, the relationships between the volunteers themselves, and the connections established with those at the placements truly define the BC motto of men and women for others.

Jumpstart is a national organization with a chapter established at BC, and sends students into Boston to work with preschool children from low-income areas. Last year, about 50 students participated in Jumpstart, but this year the group is hoping to increase the number of participants to 70, as explained by Rebecca Schollmeyer, the volunteer coordinator for Jumpstart at BC and LSOE ’15.

“I personally can’t imagine BC without Jumpstart,” Schollmeyer said. “I think it’s an amazing way to make friends, build leadership skills, and develop connections with different groups of people.” BC students are assigned to preschools with about six to seven other students, so they have the chance to become

See Volunteering, B7

GRAHAM BECK /HEIGHTS EDITOR

Students flocked to O’Neill Plaza to learn about the various volunteer organizations on campus.

Heights Through the Century Observing a history of new beginnings through back-to-school issues of ‘The Heights’................................................. B9

Club Series...................................B7 He Said/She Said.........................B8