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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014 THE INDEPENDENT WEEKLY STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR XLIV. VOLUME LXXXVII. ISSUE VII.
PHOTOS BY ALEX MASSET/DAILY FREE PRESS CONTRIBUTOR
Left: Boston University maintenance workers marched from Marsh Plaza to the BU Administrative Offices on 1 Silber Way Wednesday to protest for better wages. Top right: Demonstrators hold signs reading “RESPECT” at Marsh Plaza. Bottom right: Chanda Jones, a part-time custodian, discusses working at BU and the lack of job support she feels from the university.
Boston University workers march for better job contracts BY MARIEL CARIKER DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Boston University workers and union leaders gathered at Marsh Plaza Wednesday to demand stronger, fairer contracts from the administration. The protesters marched from the plaza to 1 Silber Way, where BU President Robert Brown’s office is located. Negotiations for a new, multi-year contract between BU and 32BJ SEIU, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union and the largest property service union in the nation, began in August 2013. “In two weeks, the contract that covers the working conditions of 700 workers here at
Boston University that work as custodians and skilled trade workers will expire,” said Roxana Rivera, director of 32BJ SEIU District 615. “We only have two weeks left to get to a good contract and 32BJ SEIU and Boston University are still not in agreement. We’re here to express the urgency of maintaining good jobs here in Boston.” Approximately 100 workers who will be covered by the new contract protested and marched down Commonwealth Avenue. The current contract, which expires on Oct. 31, is not sufficient for these workers to maintain a normal lifestyle in Boston, said Eugenio Villasante, assistant director of communications for SEIU’s local 32BJ. “Just like everyone that lives in the Boston area, the skyrocketing cost of living
is an issue for workers,” he said. “It makes it tough for working families to make ends meet. Health care is a big issue because the health care costs have been going up and up. We want to make sure workers have quality health care at a reasonable cost.” Chanda Jones, a limited part-time custodian at BU, shared with the crowd her frustration with Brown and discussed how she and her 11-year-old daughter have faced many problems because of the current contract. “I get no benefits whatsoever. I’ve been here for nine months, and I’ve gotten nothing,” she said. “President Brown made all this money, but forgot the little people that helped him get it. He is sitting up on his throne because of
us. We are the ones that sent him there.” Tim Hall, a lead custodian who has worked at BU for 36 years, said the committee that is working on the contract has not provided workers with respect. “The committee really doesn’t want to bargain about anything,” he said. “What is upsetting me more than anything else is not their insult by offering me a bonus instead of a percentage, which is a prostitution of the system, it’s not that they don’t want to pay for insurance, it’s the fact that they’re not showing us respect. We are the backbone of this university. They need us, but they don’t respect us.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
Students protest for prison reform through art demonstration BY STEVE FRIEDMAN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Umoja, Boston University’s Black Student Union, hosted a “Solitary Confinement Performance Art Project” Wednesday in front of the George Sherman Union to raise awareness for prison reform efforts. For the project, students and faculty members took turns sitting in a 7 feet by 9 feet cell outlined on the ground out of duct tape. In order to demonstrate the reality of solitary confinement cells, demonstrators did not have access to entertainment or interaction with passersby. “We use solitary confinement more than any other country, and prisoners are staying in this state of solitary confinement for months and even years at a time,” said Rosa Otieno, one of the students creating a BU Students for Prison Reform group on campus. “And it has devastating effects on people’s mental health and overall health status.” Otieno, a senior in the College of Arts
and Sciences, said she is forming the group to start a dialogue on prison reform and the tactics being used in U.S. prisons. Students at other colleges and universities in the Northeast, including Harvard University, Yale University, Brandeis University and Suffolk University held similar demonstrations as part of the larger organization, Student Alliance for Prison Reform. The 23-hour vigil took place at various campuses from 7 p.m. Tuesday to 6 p.m. Wednesday with some schools participating for the full time and others for a portion of the day. Solitary confinement as a form of punishment was mostly discontinued in the United States in 1890, after the U.S. Supreme Court found the practice attributed to mental illness, according to information posted next to the project from the American Friends Service Committee. The practice was reintroduced in the 1980s during the federal push against the “War on Drugs.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
PHOTO BY BETSEY GOLDWASSER/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Max Gonzalez (CAS ‘16) protests solitary confinement by sitting in a 7 feet by 9 feet rectangle, which are similar to the dimensions of a solitary confinement cell.
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NEWS
Rise in bike ridership leads to bike theft, crime
PHOTO BY MIKE DESOCIO/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
An increase in bike ridership in Boston has led to an increase in theft and vandalism of bicycles, which may be influenced by improper use of bike locks and poorly made locks. BY PAIGE SMITH DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Bike crimes, including thefts and vandalism, have increased on Boston University’s campus and in the city, as bikes are becoming a more widely chosen mode of transportation. Boston’s ridership has more than doubled since the City’s Boston Bikes program was started in 2007, increasing by 122 percent from 2007 to 2009, according to the City’s bike statistics. The BU Police Department has received 21 reports of stolen bicycles since the start of the 2014-15 academic year, said BUPD Deputy Director of Public Safety Scott Paré. In other cases, pieces of bikes have been stolen or bikes have been damaged.
“We’ve had 61 larcenies reported, one-third of them being bikes,” Paré said. “They take the front wheel off one bike, and the front wheel off another, and off they go.” Bike cages have been implemented on BU’s Medical Campus for those in need, Paré said. These cages can be accessed using a registered card distributed by BU Bike Safety. “It’s just like the [Warren Towers] bike garage,” he said. “You just swipe in and store your bike in there. It adds an extra layer of protection.” BU is actively working to combat bike crime on campus. Literature on bike safety, and particularly bike theft, has been distributed to hundreds throughout the BU campus, as well as Boston College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Northeastern University and Harvard University, said William Hajjar, director of BU’s Parking and Transportation Services. “Universities in these areas tend to have a large population of student and other cyclists commuting on a daily basis,” he said in an email. “Any bike that can quickly or easily be removed is susceptible [to crime]. We continue our attempts along with BUPD to enlighten the University community with education through our bike safety website and initiatives.” Galen Mook, founder of the Allston-based CommonWheels Bicycle Collective, said bikes, or parts of them, are stolen because people neglect to lock their bikes or the wheels, but bicyclists must take responsibility for their property. “I don’t think it’s people that are targeted. It’s bikes that are targeted, but there are definitely people who spend a little more concern locking their bikes and people who spend a little less concern locking their bikes, and students are definitely in the less-concerned bracket,” Mook said. More than 95 percent of Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority stations have bike racks accessible to commuters. The MBTA implemented the “Pedal & Park” bike parking facilities, which became open to the public in Summer 2014 in more than 14 T stations around Boston and the surrounding areas. Each facility can store 50 to 150 bikes. David Watson, executive director of the nonprofit group Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, echoed Mook’s sentiment, blaming the locks many select because of price or
convenience. There has been an exponential rise in bikers within the city, which has created more opportunities for thefts to occur, and shoddy locks are a common cause of the problem, Watson said. People often choose to spend less for locks, which can be problematic later on. Watson recommended that buildings should convert already-existing space into indoor bike racks, much like the existing bike garage in Warren Towers. “I know space is always at a premium at BU, but another option is to think about repurposing existing indoor space as secure bike parking,” he said. “I still see lots of people using cable locks, which are light and convenient, but utterly ineffective at preventing your bike from getting stolen. You need to use one of the heavier steel locks.” Zoe Thompson, a freshman in the College of General Studies, said she noticed that bike crimes around campus were prevalent, despite the precautions. “I’ve seen so many bikes around campus missing tires,” she said. Luis Jimenez, 24, of South Boston, said he admires BU’s unique culture of alternative transportation. “BU is definitely bike-friendly,” he said. “[There are] bike racks next to the entrances, the Hubway stations and so many students on bikes.” Sean Smith, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, echoed Jimenez saying BU is a bike-friendly campus. “It depends on where you live, but there are many options,” he said. “There’s the bike room in Myles [Standish Hall], the garage in Warren [Towers] and many more great options.”
Gubernatorial candidate Jeff McCormick pushes for job creation BY FELICIA GANS DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
This is the third part in a five-part series of profiles about the gubernatorial candidates facing off in the Nov. 4 election. When Jeff McCormick first moved to Boston, he had $800 in his pocket. Twenty-seven years later, the venture capitalist, who has since founded a company called Saturn Partners, is running as an independent candidate for governor in the November 2014 election. His experiences in company-building, education, energy, the environment, biotech software and real-world problem-solving have prepared him to lead the Commonwealth, he said in an interview with The Daily Free Press in his office on Federal Street. McCormick grew up in a middle-class family and attended Syracuse University for his undergraduate and graduate education. In 1993, he founded Saturn Partners, a financing firm that invests in early-stage companies and start-ups. The passion he found through his work at Saturn Partners inspired him to launch his campaign in February, with the goal of bringing job growth to the Commonwealth and helping millions of people, he said, while working as a “hands-on manager” to start fixing the Commonwealth’s problems. FG: What are the biggest flaws existing in the two-party system today? JM: Coming up through the system, you get tied to the system, and what we need, if we’re going to have change, is a break from the system. We need bold solutions. We can’t continue to do what we’re doing a little bit better and make marginal incremental changes. FG: The big slogan of your campaign is ‘Jeff for Jobs.’ What made that the focal point of your campaign?
JM: Having created thousands of jobs in my life and being someone who has spent my work and life building small businesses, which is where the vast majority of jobs are created, I sincerely believe that it is a job, a good-paying job, that lifts people out of poverty, and it is a job that provides some of the opportunity to buy a home and save for college and save for retirement. So for me, that is a major concern, and as I talk to people around the Commonwealth, that is a huge concern to people that there are just good job opportunities and that we’re educating our children for those very job opportunities. FG: What are your plans for higher education? JM: I am a huge believer that we need to help educate people for vocational schools and technical schools… The purpose of education is to ultimately apply that to a job, so that’s something that we are not doing a good enough job throughout the country, and certainly here…We can also compress the time it takes for people to get degrees with more Advanced Placement courses, using online tools, which again I re-built companies in this space, so I’m very familiar with this, how scalable education can be. And the marriage of those two, online with conventional classroom learning, and also with internships and apprenticeships. Always driving to find the right mix of that is quite important. FG: What separates your plan for education from those of the other candidates? JM: Part of it is I, having used the technologies of tomorrow and having cutting-edge companies, I believe we can do that much faster than we’re doing that now. I also believe very strongly that we need to communicate with business communities and understand what skills they need so there isn’t a so-called skills gap…We have to close that. There are 100,000 open jobs in the Commonwealth right now, but there are twice as
PHOTO COURTESY OF JEFF MCCORMICK
Independent gubernatorial candidate Jeff McCormick will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot in Massachusetts.
many unemployed people. Wouldn’t it be nice if those people had the skills for those jobs? FG: How will you ensure that students who came to the Commonwealth for college will have the ability to find a job here after they graduate? JM: If people look at the future and what the needs of businesses are and they’re educated for those needs, the job opportunities are here and will be here. What we need to do is make sure that indeed, people are educated and people do learn the skills they need for those jobs. FG: What are the big issues college students should be concerned with in this election? JM: College students ought to know that if my generation doesn’t really start changing things and stop this thought that if you just throw more
money at a broken system, it will fix itself — it won’t — they’re going to own the problems, and unfortunately, they’re going to have less time to solve the problems. And the problems are going to be bigger. So I think a younger generation has to know that the vote is important now. FG: What makes you the best candidate for college students? JM: A lot of people can relate to where I’m from. Middle class, hardworking, driven and someone who can think out of the box and someone who has the experience and has traveled a hard, but a good path to living a little version of the American dream. That’s what I think so many of us aspire to, and I hopefully am a reflection on the kind of person people want in office and the kind of person people want to be. READ MORE ON DFPR.ES/JFMCCRM
NEWS
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BU workers, adjuncts march Solitary confinement remains for livable salaries, respect problem in U.S. prison system MARCH, FROM PAGE 1
Maintenance workers are not the only BU workers struggling with the contract. Adjunct professors, or part-time professors, do not receive the same pay as full-time professors. Bayla Ostrach, an adjunct professor at BU, said wages are so low that many faculty members are eligible for Medicare and food stamps, and rely on the Massachusetts taxpayers to subsidize low wage work. “If adjuncts are being paid less than minimum wage and qualifying for state benefits, and if maintenance workers and groundskeepers that make this place a safe, clean place to learn can’t get a good contract, where is that tuition money going?” she said. After the protest, Maureen Sullivan, another adjunct professor, went directly to Brown’s office on the eighth floor, followed by two police officers, and requested to leave two small clementines for the president. Although she was not allowed inside the office, the officers took the fruit and left it on a desk outside his office. “This is my dinner for tonight, and I want Mr. Brown to have it,” she said. “He has taken everything else from me, so I want him to have my dinner too. He seems to need everything I have, so I’m giving this to him.” A number of BU students were protesting with and supporting the workers. Declan Bowman, a senior in the College of Engineering, said it was unfair that staff are being treated poorly, considering BU’s status as a prominent university. “It’s jarring that I study at one of the nation’s
top biomedical engineering programs, to advance health care in the United States. Meanwhile, our adjunct professors and part-time maintenance staff don’t have access to health care,” he said. Tori Dutcher-Brown, a sophomore in CAS, said students have the ability to influence administrators and to help the workers.
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his is my dinner for tonight, and I want Mr. Brown to have it. He seems to need everything I have, so I’m giving this to him. —Maureen Sullivan
“We as students have power here, to help stand with our workers. We pay tuition dollars. We have a large impact on the university,” she said. “As students, we have the power to stand up to what’s not right. We need to take action and fight back. We need to let the school know, especially President Brown, that we stand with the workers.”
PRISON REFORM, FROM PAGE 1
Rev. Dr. Michelle Walsh said the inhumanity of solitary confinement is one of many problems with the U.S. prison system. She said she spent about 30 minutes in the cell space. “Once people become part of the prison system, they lose all kinds of rights,” said Walsh, a professor in the School of Social Work. “Not just being in the prison system itself, but when they come out, they lose access in most states to being able to vote, access to housing, access to all kinds of things that would even enable them, in terms of rehabilitation, to reenter society successfully.” After observing the demonstration, Baptiste Fassin said he agrees solitary confinement is a major flaw in the U.S. justice system. “If your system has one aspect of it that puts people in this ver y confined cell, where you spend [23] hours…without any light, without any social interaction…that shows how repressive you’re willing to go to oppress people,” Fassin, a senior in CAS, said. “It really shows that the judicial system is ver y much about repression and not about rehabilitation.” Walsh said she was surprised by the lack of attention passersby gave the demonstration. “What really struck me was how
even with somebody sitting here in a marked-off space with material around, people don’t stop to look,” she said. “We just walk right by and walk right through.” Fassin also noted the lack of attention from students and pedestrians. “I see a lot of people just ignoring it,” he said. “But that always happens when you have this kind of demonstration. It’s sad because I think it’s a very worthy project.” Another observer, Katherine Sennott, a CAS junior, said it would be difficult to dedicate time to prison reform as an already preoccupied student. “I wish it could be as simple as, ‘Yes, now I will designate 10 hours a week to doing this,’ but I’m a biolog y major, so it’s on the list of, I’m not even exag gerating, 100 different things I should be doing,” she said. “But you can’t do them a ll. But I will def initely look into it.” Wa lsh said the demonstration was a good f irst step in bringing prison reform to the forefront of people’s attention. “They need to organize and come together, so she [Otieno’s] got this group here that she’s trying to organize. Students can help to create awareness,” she said. “We need to continue to bring speakers and groups to campus to educate [students] on the different things that are happening.”
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OPINION
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014
T H E I N D E P E N D E N T S T U D E N T N E W S PA P E R A T B O S T O N U N I V E R S I T Y
44th year | Volume 87 | Issue 7 The Free Press (ISSN 1094-7337) is published Thursdays during the academic year except during vacation and exam periods by Back Bay Publishing Co.,Inc., a nonprofit corporation operated by Boston University students. No content can be reproduced without the permission of Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. Copyright © 2014 Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.
Kyle Plantz, Editor-in-Chief
Felicia Gans, Managing Editor
Clinton Nguyen, Multimedia Editor
Conor Ryan, Sports Editor
Mina Corpuz, Campus Editor
Taryn Ottaunick, Opinion Editor
Stephanie Pagones, City Editor
Hannah Landers, Features Editor
Emily Zaboski, Photo Editor Shakti Rovner, Office Manager
Midterm Elections 2014: The Power of the Student Vote With the Nov. 4 midterm elections looming, the deadline for registering to vote in Massachusetts was Wednesday. Voting among the demographic of 18- to 24-year olds has never been positive, but that does not mean all young people should hide from the polls. Valiant efforts have been made both nationally and locally to encourage young people to vote. The “Rock the Vote“ campaign, which so many celebrities like to be photographed supporting, is clearly aimed at young people, who are more inclined to “rock” than older voters. And here at Boston University, the Student Government held camp in the George Sherman Union to sponsor TurboVote, an online voter service that quickens the process. Yet as of Friday, only 50 students had registered to vote through the system, and year after year, polls show a depressing number of young people making it to the polls. “It’s generally found that the older a person gets, the more likely they are to vote,” said John Berg, a political science professor at Suffolk University. “Students are in school. They’re thinking about school, and they’re thinking that the events and issues they care about tend to be on their campus. They don’t really hear about what’s going in Massachusetts. It’s not that they don’t care. It’s just that they don’t really hear about it.” During the 2012 election, only 49.9 percent of 18-to24-year-old Massachusetts residents voted, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And that was in the presidential election. The 2010 midterm election statistics are even gloomier, with only 21.3 percent of Massachusetts’ youngest voter demographic making it to the polls. Young people in general may be apathetic to voting, but this attitude is causing more problems for the young generation than the politicians. Government officials are known for catering to the demographics that vote. If students and young people cannot prove themselves as a worthy demographic, our needs will largely be ignored in favor of the
groups who utilize their voting powers. “Politicians pay attention to the interests of demographics groups that vote heavily,” Berg said. “There’s a lot of attention paid to older people who are at or near the stage of collecting social security and Medicare. Right now, one of the big crises for students is loans… It doesn’t get the attention it deserves. If more students voted, there would be a lot more attention paid to improving that.” OK, so this is a midterm election, and everyone knows that the midterms are not as exciting and media-hyped as the presidential elections, but these elections are more exciting than one might think, especially here in Massachusetts. Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, has been in office since 2006, making it eight years since the Commonwealth has seen new leadership. Now, Republican candidate Charlie Baker and Democratic candidate Martha Coakley are neck in neck for the seat, with Coakley edging Charlie Baker by only 1.7 percent, according to a Real Clear Politics poll released Saturday. The race for governor is truly a toss-up, and every vote will matter. “Right now, the governor may well be Republican,” Berg said. “Certainly, if Republicans got out and voted, they could make an impact. Especially this year, because the election of the governor is very close, and between Republican votes and Democrat votes and Independent votes, whoever they vote for, that vote is going to count.” The big questions for college students, aside from who to vote for, is what state to vote in. Students at BU come from far more states than just Massachusetts, but once settled in Boston, their lives in general become wrapped up in the culture of the city. Now, the editors at The Daily Free Press are a little biased, because our job is to remain informed about Boston and Massachusetts politics, but as a whole, information about Massachusetts is far more accessible than information about the states we left behind. After all, it is The Boston Globe, not Northwest Georgia’s Cherokee County
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Herald or whatever your local newspaper of choice is, lying around the school’s hallways. Didn’t many of us decide to attend BU for the fact that Boston is a cool city and we wanted to get involved in it? Getting involved in the city often means getting involved with its politics, and Boston is the capital of Massachusetts. As long as you’ve lived here for more than 90 days, (sorry freshmen), we as BU students are technically residents of the Commonwealth, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This status requires us to serve jury duty here, so why shouldn’t we vote here too? Wherever you decide to register, the most important thing to do is vote. Opportunities to register exist, and even though they can be inconvenient, it’s important to take advantage of your civic duty.
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1. Killer whale 5. Shelf 10. Vipers 14. Gloomy atmosphere 15. Small egg 16. A person who lacks good judgment 17. Nonsectarian 19. Circuit breaker 20. Confederate soldier 21. They hold up heads 22. Delineated 23. Attack 25. Epee or saber 27. Attempt 28. Crowding 31. Small boat 34. Spot 35. Neither ___
36. Test 37. Intelligent 38. Chills and fever 39. Shade tree 40. Fellow 41. Fastidious 42. Similar to a seed 44. Arrive (abbrev.) 45. Fry briefly 46. Foot lever 50. Not fresh 52. Cost 54. 18-wheeler 55. Throw up 56. Seer 58. Assist in crime 59. Filched 60. Heredity unit 61. Short run 62. Glacial ridge 63. At one time (archaic)
1. A drama set to music 2. Contests of speed 3. A card suit 4. A high alpine meadow 5. Lacking companions 6. Kick out 7. Dodge 8. Crystal 9. Snake-like fish 10. Assert 11. Measurements of water depth 12. Sit for a photo 13. Sleigh 18. Habituate 22. Forsaken 24. “Smallest” particle 26. Pause 28. Investment 29. French for “We” 30. Midway between
white and black 31. C C C C 32. Spindle 33. People with the same name 34. Smudge pots 37. Narrow opening 38. Emanation 40. Color of the sky 41. Liberates 43. 4th Hebrew letter 44. Bowman 46. Name of a book 47. Clothesline alternative 48. Property claims 49. Heron 50. WW1 plane 51. Brass instrument 53. A chess piece 56. South southeast 57. How old you are
OPINION
5
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014
About Amanda Bynes
BY CASEY MINTZ COLUMNIST
When I say the name Amanda Bynes, who comes to mind? Is it the Amanda Bynes of 2002, the cute, funny star of “The Amanda Show” who carried an entire Saturday Night Live-esque television show by herself? Is it the Amanda Bynes of “She’s the Man,” pretty and talented and seemingly not going off on a Lindsay Lohan downward spiral? Or is it the Amanda Bynes of recent times, with the bizarre tweets and the ever-changing hair? The Amanda Bynes whose name is followed by a slightly nervous laugh and an “oh, Amanda Bynes? She’s crazy now.” Is it that Amanda Bynes? Because we need to talk about that Amanda Bynes. Looking at it objectively (well, as objectively as one can look at another person’s repeated descent into mental illness), Amanda Bynes’s Twitter is entertaining. Her since deleted, “I want Drake to murder my vagina” tweet from early 2013 is pretty much iconic by now. I remember my reaction the day that tweet made its rounds around the Internet. I was in my junior year of high school, sitting in my car with my friends before class. We all laughed, but brushed it off because maybe she was hacked, or maybe it was an isolated incident of poor judgment. Every one of my friends in the car that day retweeted the tweet as a joke, a “ha-ha, look at this girl we all used to watch on television tweeting something weird,” and that was the end of that. But then there were more tweets, strange, unfounded assertions of stalking and multiple arrests for driving under the infl uence. Amanda Bynes was going through a textbook mental breakdown: paranoid delusions, erratic behavior, reckless drug and alcohol abuse. But it was not seen as something that required hospitalization; it was seen as a funny joke. We all laughed at her ridiculous antics and pictures and ignored the fact that if this was happening to one of our friends or family members, we would be seriously concerned. Articles that came out around the time of Amanda Bynes’s first breakdown
primed us to laugh at what she’s going through and trivialize her struggles, just because she’s doing ridiculous things such as purposefully locking herself in the bathroom at a cupcake shop and banging her head repeatedly against the wall. These are the behaviors of someone who is incredibly mentally ill and refusing treatment, and we thrust her into the spotlight like a circus monkey and watched to see what she would do. Imagine if this spectacle was your best friend or your sister, instead of someone you are so removed from. Imagine the helplessness you’d feel as you looked on in fear for her life while everyone was just waiting to see what she’d do next. Would you be laughing? Luckily, Amanda Bynes’s parents caught up with her and placed her into psychiatric hold, where she was reportedly diagnosed with bipolar disorder (you can check out my column last week to see my thoughts on that particular illness). All of her strange tweets were deleted, and she was quiet until March 2014, when she tweeted that she was studying at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and doing well. However, in October, things started to get bizarre again. Over the course of two days, she went on a Twitter rant saying that she is suing In Touch Weekly for lying about her and that she is ugly and needs plastic surgery and that her dad molested her when she was little and implanted a microchip in her brain to monitor her thoughts. And again, we as a society began to laugh, because again, we took her descent into madness as a joke. Amanda Bynes’s downward spiral was loud, as bipolar disorder usually is. It was and continues to be a messy and ridiculous spectacle. But there has been another display of mental illness in recent media, one that shook us to our core: Robin Williams. Williams, one of the greatest actors of all time, committed suicide on Aug. 11. Tears were shed over another great talent lost to the quiet, isolating nightmare that is depression. It was and continues to be a horrible loss. The response to this tragedy was a sympathetic media and a public that pushed mental health awareness. Nowhere was Williams ridiculed or demonized or joked about. The same people who were crying about Robin Williams are laughing at Amanda Bynes. The same people who said we all need time to grieve Williams’ death are the ones making Bynes’s illness into a punch line. We need to talk about Amanda Bynes because mental illness is a lot of things: it is scary, isolating, powerful and dangerous. But it is not a spectator sport.
ISIL: It’s Complicated
BY MIKE NEMINSKI COLUMNIST
This summer saw an increase in the amount of turmoil located in the Middle East. CNN constantly featured images of the Israeli and Palestinian confl ict, or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant tanks rolling through Iraq. While the Israeli-Palestinian confl ict eventually subsided, the situation in Iraq and Syria has yet to reach a resolution. Part of this is due to the extreme nature of ISIL and their unwillingness to give up. Yet if their extremism is not enough, ISIL creates an extremely complicated Middle Eastern landscape. This landscape is the result of three specific situations that cannot be easily resolved, perpetuating the ISIL crisis. The fi rst of these situations is the Turkish government, and their relationship to the people of Kurdistan. The Kurds are an ethnic group in Northern Iraq who are known for their desire to gain autonomy from the government of Iraq. The Kurds received substantial coverage this summer for successfully halting the ISIL advance. One of the opponents to Kurdish autonomy has been Turkey, which shares a border with the Northern Iraqi region. The Kurds are also one of the largest ethnic minorities in Turkey, and the Turkish government fears that a peace settlement and more autonomous Kurdish region would cause the Kurdish people in Turkey to flock across the border and leave Turkey. This could do serious damage to the Turkish economy, or create a so-called “Brain Drain” effect. This relationship becomes even more complicated as skirmishes between the Kurds and ISIL break out along the borders of Iraq, Syria and Turkey. While Turkey has come out against ISIL, and these confl icts are breaking out along their border, Turkey has stood by while the Kurds engage ISIL. The Kurds have openly pleaded for Turkish support, but those calls have not been answered. And those calls will continue to remain unanswered as long as the Turkish government is wary of the Kurdish people. While ISIL became infamous for their fighting in Iraq, they have been fighting in Syria as well. The fighting in Syria has raged for years, and the United States has often supported the Free Syrian People against the
President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. Yet now, the soldiers of ISIL are mixed in with the Free Syrian Army, creating a complicated situation for the United States. In order to successfully combat ISIL, the United States must fight ISIL in Syria as well as Iraq. But attacking ISIL in Syria would strengthen Assad’s regime, something the United States has long advocated against. The United States and some of their allies have recently conducted airstrikes in Syria, yet they walk a fi ne line as they are doing their best to damage ISIL while not strengthening Assad. The fi nal situation involves the United States again, forcing them to form another awkward partnership. The United States government has often found itself an enemy of Iran. Ever since 1953, when the United States assisted rebels in overthrowing the government of Iranian Premier Mohammed Mosaddeq and in 1979, when disgruntled Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy and held staff hostage, tensions have been high between the two nations. However, they now have found a common enemy in ISIL and subsequently may be forced to work together. Iran considers itself a Shia Muslim nation, while ISIL is a Sunni Muslim organization. Iran feels that ISIL could become a threat to its borders, especially due to the opposing religious views. While they have come to agree over this common enemy, the alliance between the United States and Iran is still uneasy at best. Both the United States and Iran are conducting military operations within Iraq, yet the uneasiness between the two makes it nearly impossible to coordinate. While no one could have predicted the extreme international complications ISIL has caused, the rise of ISIL may have been preventable altogether. U.S. President Barack Obama won his 2008 campaign in part due to his strong opposition to the war in Iraq. This opposition propelled him to an upset victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary and a blowout win against U.S. Sen. John McCain in the general election. But when the President fi nally took office, he came to the realization that leaving Iraq would not be as easy as he claimed. With his campaign promise haunting him, Obama forced an early removal of troops from Iraq. This removal left an untrained Iraqi military and an inexperienced Iraqi government in control of the country, a country that was primed for collapse. While more training for the Iraqi military may not have been the answer, U.S. military support in Iraq was still needed. If the U.S. military had remained until the Syrian Civil War ended or the Iraqi people adjusted to democracy, perhaps we would not be dealing with ISIL today.
Interrobang Scientists have reported the first case of an addiction to Google Glass on Tuesday. The patient, who used the device 18 hours a day every day, complained of irritability when going without it and experienced dreams through the device’s small window. We here at the ol’ Free Press were wondering what BU people might become addicted to. President Brown: Money.
Dean Elmore: Bowties.
CFA: Cigarettes...but actually.
SMG: Themselves.
RA’s: Distributing noise violations to freshman.
FreeP: The smell of printer ink...JK, we only print once a week now.
ENG: Using 3D printers to make more 3D printers.
6
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MUSE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014
From rink to rock: Inside the Agganis Arena conversion process
PHOTOS BY GRACE BOWDEN/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
The conversion of Agganis Arena from an ice hockey rink to a concert venue involves removing the Plexiglas from the rink and covering the ice with a “subfloor,” an inch-thick layer of flooring. BY J.D. CAPELOUTO DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
On Friday, the Boston University men’s hockey team wrapped up its final practice of the week on the ice at Agganis Arena. Just one night later on Saturday, the arena was filled as international music star Marc Anthony performed for 6,000 screaming fans. Two days after that, on Monday night, alternative poprock group Bastille performed in the same location for about 5,500 people. Over the years, Agganis Arena has served multiple purposes and hosted a variety of events. For each of these, the Arena operations crew is responsible for converting the stadium to fit their various needs. Agganis Arena General Manager Kristoffer Brassil estimated that in the 2014-15 academic year, in addition to hockey games, Agganis will transform to accommodate eight basketball games, 20 concerts, 25 family shows and 20 other special events. “Agganis Arena has always been a hockey arena. I guess I always thought it has [been]. I didn’t know you could have concerts in there,” said Akanksa Upadhyay, a College of Communication freshman who attended the Bastille concert. “It was cool that they were over the ice.” The conversion for the Marc Anthony and Bastille concerts began Friday afternoon at about 1:30 p.m., after the hockey team left the ice at 1 p.m. After shaving down the top of the ice, the Agganis conversion crew, led by Assistant Operations Manager Bo Stewart, began their big job. First, the crew, which consists mainly of BU students, covered the rink with a “subfloor,” an inch-thick layer of flooring that covers the ice completely, and removed the plexiglass from the sides of the rink. The transformation process was recently revised to allow the crew to multitask and get these initial tasks done faster.
“They started on the glass. We’re still doing [the subfloor]. We have a crew…doing the locker room set ups,” said Stewart, who has been the assistant operations manager at Agganis for nine years. “So we’re doing a lot of different things at the same time.” After the subfloor was locked in, some of the stadium seating was removed, and the bleachers were compressed to make room for the stage, which the crew began to set up at about 4 p.m. on Friday. It was 7 p.m. when the crew finished the stage and floor chair arrangement. At 10 a.m. the following morning, Marc Anthony’s crew came to Agganis with trucks and buses full of equipment. They hung up sound and lighting gear and arranged the stage to fit the specific needs of the show. Once that was complete, Stewart’s day-of-show conversion team came back to put finishing touches on the arena, including setting the final chairs on the floor and hanging correct signage. Marc Anthony went on at 8 p.m. and directly following the show, the operations groups got back to work. “After the show Saturday night [at about 11], Marc Anthony’s crew will take out all of its sound and lights,” Brassil said in preparation for the arena transformation. “We’ll keep the stage in place, and then we’ll be ready for Monday morning when Bastille’s crew will come in with their sound and lights.” Once the conversion crew removed the chairs – Bastille’s concert was sold as general admission standing room for the Arena floor – and cleaned up the venue, they were ready for Bastille’s performance Monday at 8 p.m. At the end of the show at around 11 p.m., the crew once again had a big job ahead of them. “So at that point they’ll go and pick up the stage, they’ll clean up the Arena, remove the subfloor so the ice is visible [and] put the glass back up, so we’re ready for hockey practice on Tuesday,” Brassil said, laying out the
weekend plans for the conversion crew. That final process of converting the Arena from the Bastille concert set-up back to a hockey rink took about five-and-a-half hours. The operations crew finished at about 4 a.m. Tuesday. In total, a conversion process like this at Agganis takes more than 12 hours and requires 40 to 50 people, Brassil estimated. Upadhyay said she was amazed by how well Agganis was able to disguise the fact that the concert happened over ice. “It’s extremely intriguing, because there’s a bunch of people who didn’t go to BU who were there and probably didn’t even know it’s actually an ice hockey arena,” she said. “I’m wondering how it [the ice] didn’t fall through because there was a lot of jumping and the stage set-up was pretty complex too.” Brassil said many people do not know the inner workings of how the Arena transforms so quickly and smoothly. “You still hear a lot of people who are like, ‘Where does the ice go when you have a concert? Do you just take it away or does stuff come down from the ceiling?’” he said. “No, it’s a lot of manual labor. But it’s all about the team that gets it done.” Since its inception in 2005, Agganis Arena has hosted a large number of big-name artists including Maroon 5 in 2005, The Strokes in 2006, Katy Perry in 2009 and the Arctic Monkeys in February. It has also featured family events such as Sesame Street Live in 2011 and 2012, as well as other community events like the 2014 Massachusetts Republican Convention and Berklee College of Music’s annual commencement ceremonies. “I think there was always an intention that there would be concerts and family shows, in addition to supporting the university in athletic events,” Brassil said. Rachael Caldwell, a COM sophomore who attended the Bastille show, said the ver-
satility of Agganis increases the quality of its shows and its appeal as a venue. “It allows for more people to go to a venue and experience a show that they’re interested in,” she said. “If anything, it helps because a hockey arena’s going to be able to fit more people.”
W
e have great service, the building is welllit, it’s clean, it doesn’t look like it’s a 10-year-old venue. —Kristoffer Brassil Brassil said because of its size, Agganis is a good choice, in comparison to other Boston convert venues, for many artists who cannot sell out an enormous stadium like TD Garden. And though Agganis has been open for nine years, he said, it has not lost its charm. “We have great service. The building is well lit. It’s clean. It doesn’t look like it’s an [almost] 10-year-old venue,” Brassil said. “A lot of that plays into people having a great experience when they come here. It’s a combination of the actual venue, its size, its design and the people that run it to make sure that we’re taking care of the folks that come here.”
1:30 p.m.
10 a.m. Saturday
Saturday night
Tuesday morning
Crew shaves down ice, “subfloor” is laid over the ice, plexiglass is removed.
Marc Anthony’s crew begins set-up, positions lights and sound equipment.
Concert ends, lighting and sound equipment is removed
Agganis Arena conversion crew deconstructs stage, puts back plexiglass around rink, removes “subfloor,” finishes at 4 a.m.
1 p.m. Friday
4 p.m.
8 p.m.
8 p.m. Monday
BU men’s hockey finishes practice
Bleachers compressed to make room for the set-up of the stage, arrangement of chairs
Marc Anthony concert begins
Bastille performs
GRAPHIC BY SAMANTHA GROSS/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
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FEATURES
SPOTLIGHT THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014
BU Student Ambassadors take different approaches to student mentoring BY NAVRAJ NARULA DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Autumn brings many prospective students to Boston University’s campus, creating a busy time for student ambassadors who are responsible for giving tours, answering questions from prospective students and making sure that new undergraduate students are adjusting to college life. These student leaders are savvy in all things BU and know how to welcome and support the new student population, whether by offering advice on which classes to take or simply suggesting the best place to get pizza on campus. “I became a Dean’s Host because I absolutely love Sargent College, and I want to share that with prospective students,” said Fiona Egan, a junior in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. “We have the opportunity to share all that Sargent has to offer as a college, but also as a community.” Danny Sarkis, a junior in Sargent, said he became a Dean’s Host for reasons beyond receiving free sweatshirts. He was drawn to the position because it would allow him to not only meet prospective BU students from diverse backgrounds, but also to represent the school he loves. During their time as Dean’s Hosts, Sarkis and Egan have been approached by parents and students about a number of topics. Sarkis said one of the questions he is asked most often is what he does in his free time outside the classroom. “This is one of my favorite topics to talk about because BU is located in the best city in the world,” Sarkis said. “Boston has an endless amount of things to do, ranging from local concerts to [Boston] Bruins’ games to walking The Freedom Trail to comedy shows to just about
anything you can think of.” Although Sarkis said he enjoys answering questions, he said his favorite memory is from an open house at Sargent earlier in the fall semester. “I was giving tour after tour when a parent said to me, ‘You must really love this school. I would never be able to wake up at 8 a.m. on a Saturday and run around like crazy giving all these tours,’” Sarkis said. “I smiled wider than the Cheshire Cat and replied, ‘Oh, I love sleeping in. I don’t know how I would ever be up if I didn’t love Sargent.’” Just like Sarkis, Egan’s passion for her school shows when parents ask her time and time again what
makes Sargent College so special. “That is my favorite question of all,” Egan said. “Most people truly do want to hear about students’ experiences. Everyone can look up what resources or classes each school has to offer. But in the end, it is the people and the connections that prospective families want to know more about. They want to see that the students can be happy and know that they can see themselves being happy here as well.” For Allison Durkan, a sophomore in the College of Engineering and an ENG Student Advisor to incoming freshmen, said the idea of attending college seemed daunting at first.
PHOTO COURTESY OF HANNA ANDERSON
Hanna Anderson (COM ‘17) posing with her ambassador group at the READ MORE AT DFPR.ES/STUDAMB College of Communication Kickoff BBQ on Sept. 1.
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Increased use of Bitcoin leads to government regulation, management BITCOIN, FROM PAGE 5
Bitcoin entrepreneurs echo Brownworth’s claim that price should not be the deciding factor of whether or not to use Bitcoin. Luke Champine, cofounder of Nebulous Labs, a cryptocurrency-oriented startup, said bitcoin’s value lies in the idea of decentralized money, which trumps worries of price fluctuations. “The dream of decentralized money is one that so-called ‘cypherpunks’ have held dear for a long time,” he said. “Bitcoin is far from perfect, but it works and people are using it. A lot of people are only in it to play the market, and that accounts for most of the price fluctuation. But there will always be an ideological core to Bitcoin’s user base that will persist, even if the rest of the world abandons it.” Chris Yim, cofounder of Liberty Teller, which aims to increase Bitcoin liquidity through the use of Bitcoin ATMs, said people should look beyond the price and focus more on the technological benefits of Bitcoin. “A lot of people who are learning about Bitcoin for the first time are too fixated on the price,” Yim said. “It is important for people to focus on what Bitcoin really is: a stored value. I don’t spend time at all thinking about the price…What I be-
lieve is you have this inherent mismatch of merchant and consumer benefits. For merchants, it is really a no-brainer to use Bitcoin. You save 3 percent on every transaction. It’s pretty compelling if you are running a large business or small business.” Despite the price drops and doomed endeavors such as Mt. Gox and Silk Road, an online marketplace specializing in illicit goods shut down by the FBI in October 2013, Bitcoin has grown. A year ago, 10,000 stores accepted bitcoin, Yim said. That number has since increased to 80,000 stores. In Cambridge, restaurants such as Veggie Galaxy, Thelonious Monkfish and Moksa accept bitcoin as a form of payment. Tim Tighe, bartender at Moksa, said the Bitcoin ATM in the restaurant has drawn customer interest, but conceded that Bitcoin is still not easily understandable to the average consumer. Payments to Moksa using bitcoin account for less than 1 percent of payment methods, he said. “It runs directly through the Internet, so sometimes the Internet is running a little slow,” Tighe said. “The bitcoin is not really transferred as quickly as we would like to, but if it’s something that is becoming a constant use, then I am sure the management will figure out
a way to correct those problems.” As more merchants are grappling with the idea of accepting Bitcoin, local college and university bitcoin clubs aim to educate and train the next wave of Bitcoin entrepreneurs. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bitcoin is almost a culture. Not only does the MIT bookstore accept payments made in Bitcoin, but also $100 worth of bitcoin, most of which was donated, will be disbursed to every MIT undergraduate student, said Dan Elitzer, a second-year MIT master of business administration student and founder of the MIT Bitcoin Club. “What we are doing at MIT now is building an ecosystem for Bitcoin,” Elitzer said. “I can’t tell you where Bitcoin is going to be in five years, but it is such a powerful and flexible tool.” Jinglan Wang, a junior at Wellesley College and the cofounder of the Wellesley Bitcoin Club, said one of the reasons for founding the club was to establish women’s presence in emerging technologies. “Female presence has long been an issue in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics], finance and business,” she said. “Bitcoin is an intersection of all these fields, and the nascency of Bitcoin gives way to
an amazing opportunity for us to become experts before others even know what it is.” The growth of the digital currency industry has not gone unnoticed by Massachusetts regulators. Cotney said he will be chairing the Emerging Payments Taskforce, a taskforce comprised of nine state regulators who will investigate payment issues, including virtual currencies. “It’s no surprise that states would be interested in things like security of systems for folks who engage in buying and selling Bitcoin, the money laundering policies and procedures they have in place [and] the consumer protections that exist,” Cotney said. “It’s our job to make sure we adopt the appropriate level of regulation so we don’t stifle innovation.” Mitchell Dong, a Bitcoin user since February and managing director at Pythagoras Investment Management, said regulators should consider the overall benefits of Bitcoin. “[Bitcoin is] like the days of the Internet,” he said. “People thought the Internet was going to be used for pornography. But people saw good things, so they continued with the Internet. A $100 bill can be used for terrorists, drugs and prostitution. Bitcoin can be used for positive things, and the positive uses outweigh the negative.”
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9
SCIENCE TUESDAY THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014
A GIANT DISCOVERY
Boston Children’s Hospital finds GIANT genetic numbers BY MEAGAN DAWSON DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Tall, short or somewhere in between, height’s numerical value never surpasses feet and inches. However, a study conducted by Boston Children’s Hospital found that the number of genes that comprise height actually exceeds 600. This new data could lead to developments in a variety of health science fields, said Joel Hirschhorn, one of the study’s lead researchers and an associate professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. “For centuries, height has been used as a model for almost anything that you can measure in people,” he said. “Height is very genetic and very easy to measure in large numbers of people.” Created by the Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT) Consortium, which strives to identify the genetics behind human shape and body size, the study comprised of more than 300 institutions and more than 250,000 subjects, making it the largest genome-wide association research endeavor to date. “When you double the sample size and increase your statistical power, you can make new discoveries,” Hirschhorn said. “As you study more people, you are going to learn more about biology.” By sharing and analyzing the genomic code
of the large sample, the team of researchers was able to pin down genetic variants in relation to height and in turn, draw defi nitive conclusions about how and where DNA defi nes height. “We identified 400 different regions on the genome, each of which contains one or more genes that is important for skeletal growth, for height,” Hirschhorn said. “And those all add up together to regulate height.” He said, as a pediatric endocrinologist — a doctor that focuses on diseases related to the glands, such as diabetes — he hopes to identify treatments for abnormal skeletal growth, such as severe short stature. “The main reason that children come to see a pediatric endocrinologist is that they’re not growing well, so their parents are worried,” Hirschhorn said. “Sometimes, that’s due to genes…and that’s where the study can identify all the genes that affect height and growth, which can then be used to indicate when there is a more severe problem.” The result of the study was the astonishing identification of 697 genetic variants, located on 424 gene regions that are related to height. The study, published on Oct. 5 in Nature Genetics, stated that height is the most genetically understood human trait, which Hirschhorn predicts will make it a model for further inquiry into a variety of medical fields.
“There are many spinoffs of what genetics are used for as ways of identifying history or how things work,” said Lindsay Farrer, chief of the biomedical genetics program at the Boston University School of Medicine. And in this GIANT case, a fair “spinoff ” is the continued study of various human diseases, which, according to Farrer, goes hand-in-hand with genetics. “Even before the individual has developed anything in terms of a body, skeleton or any true life, the DNA sequence has already been set,” he said. “It [the DNA sequence] is the most upstream event. If you are thinking of the disease or where it all began, it is [in] the human DNA.” BUSM is also playing its role in harnessing the potential of genetics. The genetics department is currently researching the genetic role in everything from drug dependence to dementia, Farrer said. “Some people, like myself, are studying human populations as a way to identify genetic causes of disease,” he said. “Other members of our faculty are studying inside cells or human tissue or model organisms to better understand the genetic bases of disease.” Genetic research will continue to expand greatly over the next 50 years, Farrer said, making for dramatic renewal of “what we know today.”
INBUSINESS
GIANT by the numbers 2 million Researchers looked at 2 million genetic variants
697 Researchers identified 697 genetic variants
424 Researchers identified 424 different gene regions as being related to height, which is the largest number to date associated with any trait or disease
20% The research will help explain about 20 percent of the heritability of height
GRAPHIC BY SAMANTHA GROSS/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Use of Bitcoin currency expands in Boston despite reliability, solvency issues BY OLIVIA DENG DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Bitcoin, a digital currency created by a person or group of people under the alias Satoshi Nakamoto, is maturing. BitPay, a Bitcoin payment service provider, has over 40,000 businesses and organizations using its service to accept payments, according to its website. There are four bitcoin ATMs in Boston and Cambridge. Bitcoin clubs and “meetups” in the Greater Boston area strive to generate interest in the relatively new currency. But as Bitcoin matures, it also encounters struggles that call into question the solvency and reliability of the digital currency. On Oct. 5, the value of Bitcoin shrank from $356 to $290. Yet this was not the first time Bitcoin’s value changed significantly over a short period of time. In 2013, between Dec. 4 and Dec. 7, its value dropped from $1,147 to $694. The drop, said Mark Williams, lecturer at the Boston University School of Management, validated his cautionary approach to Bitcoin. “It is highly volatile, meaning that you can buy it today, and it can drop by a lot in a week, which makes it challenging to own it,” he said. “It has no consumer protection, which is really concerning if you are a consumer and you want to use bitcoin, and if bitcoin was stolen from you, you have no recourse. You lose everything. The analogy is used quite a lot that Bitcoin is safer than credit cards, but in reality, it isn’t.” The Office of Consumer Affairs and Busi-
ness Regulations and the Massachusetts Division of Banks have issued warnings about Bitcoin’s price volatility, said David Cotney, the Commissioner of the Division of Banks. The warnings were based on a model of consumer guidance that was developed nationally by state banking regulators and state securities regulators from around the country, he said. Despite the recent price drop, bitcoin’s value has stabilized, said Anders Brownworth, organizer of the Cambridge Bitcoin Meetup. “The price is relatively way down from where it was, but it has been a lot more stable,” he said. “Foreign markets affect [bitcoin’s value] more than the U.S. dollar because the U.S. dollar is stable. It is arguable [that] bitcoin is less volatile than some African currencies.” Brownworth said people are too fi xated on the price and on old controversies associated with Bitcoin, such as the implosion of Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. Headed by the CEO and majority stakeholder Mark Karpeles, Mt. Gox was the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange until its collapse into bankruptcy in February when hackers raided the exchange and stole $460 million. “Some people are seeing the price go up, and that’s just people bidding up a scarce resource and some people may be discouraged by that,” he said. “On the other hand, [there’s] the fall of Mt. Gox. I remember when Mt. Gox went down. Bitcoin didn’t crash. A bad actor went out of business. Mt. Gox never audited books. Mt. Gox disappeared, and it is [was] not a well-capi-
talized Bitcoin business. They don’t point to fundamental problems with [Bitcoin] technology.”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
GRAPHIC BY CLINTON NGUYEN/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
10
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XC competes at Franklin Park BY NICK FRAZIER DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
The Boston University men’s and women’s cross country team battled rainy conditions and tough competition to fi nish fifth and 10th, respectively, at the New England Championships Saturday at Franklin Park in Boston. The men’s team had strong showings from their top five runners Saturday, as junior Kevin Thomas fi nished the 8-kilometer race in 10th place with a time of 24:49.39, gathering Patriot League Runner of the Week accolades in the process. Senior Ben Ravetz (25:00.06) followed closely behind Thomas for the Terriers, ending the race in 19th place. “The men’s team ran very well,” said BU coach Bruce Lehane. “Kevin Thomas chopped 20 seconds off of his personal best. Ben Ravetz fell twice on muddy turns and still ran his strongest race yet.” Rounding out the list for the Terriers were junior Alec Olson (25:06.73), who placed 28th overall, junior Paul Gennaro (25:16.74), who crossed the fi nish line in 43rd place and sophomore Mitch Russo (25:37.90), who fi nished in 82nd. Their efforts helped BU end up with an impressive pack time of 48.51 seconds between their fi rst and fifth runners. “Alec Olson is coming back from an abdominal injury, so his 25:06 was a welcome return,” Lehane said. “Paul Gennaro had a season goal of 25:25, and his 25:16 blew past that. Mitch Russo was, in a way, the biggest surprise, running 25:37. This is a guy who was over 28 minutes last year.” The Terriers’ effort led to a total of 182 points. Providence College and Brown University tied for fi rst place in the men’s division with 72 points. The women’s team had a group of runners step up Saturday, as the team’s top two runners this season were struggling with minor injuries. Coming in fi rst for the Terriers in the 5-kilometer race was junior Michelle Sumner, as
PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE MCLAUGHLIN/BU ATHLETICS
Senior Ben Ravetz finished in 19th place with a time of 25:00.06.
she fi nished eighth with a time of 17:56.08. It was her third top-10 fi nish in three races this season and earned her Patriot League Runner of the Week honors. Her teammates, sophomore Hallie Armstrong (18:09.53) and junior Shelby Stableford (18:12.12) fi nished in 22nd and 25th, respectively. “Michelle Sumner, Hallie Armstrong and Shelby Stableford ran very strongly,” Lehane said. “I am very pleased with their runs.” Missing from the top overall runners in this race for BU were seniors Rosa Moriello and Monica Adler, as Lehane decided to hold them back due to nagging injuries. Moriello fi nished 140th with a time of 19:19.98, while Adler did not race. “We need to get Rosa and Monica back, and a few others have to get their game back on track,” Lehane said. “We have time to do that prior to conferences.” Other notable participants for the Terriers were junior Erin Pierce with a time of 19:08.07, freshman Alexia Zawadzke (19:58.76) and sophomore Colleen Tretheway (20:57.61). Despite the fact that some
of its top performers were held back, the women’s team totaled 314 points. The University of New Hampshire won the invitational with a tally of 61 points. Although rain fell throughout the invitational, Lehane said the precipitation had little effect on how both teams ran. “The course holds rain surprisingly well,” he said. “So most of the course had good footing. There were a few spots, mostly at sharp turns that turned to muck and mud. So those segments were slippery, but by and large, it wasn’t so bad.” Next up for both teams is the Central Connecticut State University Mini Meet on Oct. 24th in New Britain, Connecticut. However, Lehane said his main goal is preparing his team for the Patriot League Championship on Nov. 1st in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. “For the women’s team, the main focus is on defending their Patriot League title. The men’s squad aims to get at least in the top three,” he said. “We’ll be going to the NCAA Regionals after that, but it’s the conference meet that we’re focusing on right now.”
MLB playoff ratings stumbling MLB, FROM PAGE 12 were still broadcasted on the least popular and accessible channels. The playoff games which have received the lowest ratings so far were Game 2 between the Cardinals and the Dodgers and Game 3 between the Giants and the Washington Nationals. Both games were broadcast on MLB Network and drew fewer than 2 million viewers. MLB Network is even less available than Fox Sports 1, and some cable providers don’t even offer the channel in their premium lineups. Meanwhile, the AL games were on their usual network, TBS. Despite the teams not attracting as much interest, the channel was more available than Fox Sports 1, making these games viewable to a larger audience. Nothing against FS1, it’s just that it has not been made complete-
ly available by some cable companies. Interestingly enough, the most watched game of the playoffs so far, according to Sportsmediawatch. com, was the National League Wild Card game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Giants. This game was broadcasted neither on Fox nor TBS, but rather ESPN. Finally, game times have also been an issue, albeit minor. Games that start at 4:07 p.m. EST begin three hours earlier on the west coast. In the meantime, games that begin at 8:07 p.m. EST end far too late on the east coast. The two games on MLB Network have examples of poorly timed games. The Cardinals versus Dodgers game began at 9:30 p.m. EST on a Saturday night. Moreover, the Giants versus Nationals game began at 5:00 p.m. EST on a Monday, creating a perfect time slot for…no one.
Unfortunately, this is not the first year where the game times have been questionable. The games are starting too late for some viewers and too early for others. Adding to that, the MLB has not been effective at assigning games either, as matchups that draw the larger audience are often broadcasted on the less popular channels. In order for the MLB to stop repeating its mistakes and draw the audiences of which it’s capable, they must rethink their scheduling process. To best fit the correct audience, the MLB must decide on times that are convenient for audiences all across the country, as well as broadcast games on popular networks based on their importance and interest. Although the MLB playoffs are interesting and entertaining, the time and network assignments detract from fans’ abilities to enjoy the playoffs.
SPORTS
11
Women’s hockey recieving boost from freshmen BY JUSTIN PALLENIK DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Although a largely veteran squad, the No. 6 Boston University women’s ice hockey team’s newcomers have far exceeded expectations so far in the young season. In three of the Terriers’ (1-1) four games this season, including exhibitions, a freshman has notched a point. In two regular-season matches against No. 2
University of Minnesota and St. Cloud State University, freshmen forwards Victoria Bach and Rebecca Leslie have combined for four points off three goals and an assist. “It’s great to have these kids,” said BU coach Brian Durocher. “They’re both excellent skaters, they both carry the puck well, they both seem to have a pretty good sense for how to play the game and have vision on the other end, which are all good qualities to have.” Leslie broke out against Min-
nesota (3-0-1) on Oct. 4, contributing BU’s only two goals and fi nishing at a plus-2 for the game. In a 5-2 win over St. Cloud State University on Oct. 3, the Ottawa, Ontario native added a helper to bring her point total to three for the season, earning Hockey East Rookie of the Week honors in the process. Bach collected her fi rst career point with a power-play goal against the Huskies (1-3) on Oct. 3, extending the Terriers’ lead to three goals in their season-opening win. And even though it does not count toward her season total, Bach also scored a spectacular goal against the Boston Blades on Saturday. “It’s great to see somebody fit in that quickly into the game having played the Blades, Minnesota and St. Cloud State,” Durocher said. “It’s nice to know that they’ve played against a really high level already. They came here having played with the [Canadian] Under-18 team, which is a statement for what kind of players they are. “It’s clear that they’ve brought that level of play to the team already.” The offensive prowess of these two fresh faces will add even more fi repower to an already deep BU roster. BU tests goaltending rotation
PHOTO BY MICHELLE JAY/DFP FILE PHOTO
Sophomore goaltender Victoria Hanson has only appeared in seven career games with the Terriers.
Through BU’s fi rst four con-
tests, Durocher has featured a strict goaltending rotation between sophomore Victoria Hanson and freshman Erin O’Neil. The two Terrier netminders have split almost even time thus far into the campaign, each having played roughly five-and-a-half periods, with Hanson maintaining a slight edge in time on ice. Hanson started the entire game versus St. Cloud State, making 15 saves, while allowing just two goals. Meanwhile, O’Neil bore the brunt of a difficult matchup against the Gophers, as she made 23 saves, but gave up five goals in the three-goal defeat. “There’s a bit of a learning process here in getting comfortable in situations, whether it’s Erin or Victoria,” Durocher said. “They both have really good qualities, and they’re working hard in practice. They’ve played against some real snipers out there against Minnesota and the Blades in particular.” The Terriers’ strength of schedule has not helped their young goaltenders. However, they will continue to learn on the job against top-tier opponents, as they face an upcoming road weekend series with defending national champion No. 7 Clarkson University and the University of Maine. “They’re going to be just fi ne. We just need to get some confidence in them,” Durocher said.
“We’ll keep having an inter competition before we decide who we want to take over, if anybody does.” A difficult non-conference schedule Despite beginning its season with the winners of two of the past three National Championships, BU’s non-conference schedule will not get any easier. This coming weekend, the Terriers head to Potsdam, New York to play the Golden Knights (3-1), who overcame a season-opening loss to St. Lawrence University on Oct. 3 and have since gone on a three-game winning streak en route to the defense of last year’s title. Going forward, Durocher entreats his team to stay near-sighted in its season outlook. “The best way [to prepare] is just one at a time,” Durocher said. “If everybody looks at the schedule and sees a tough non-league schedule with a little bit of an overflow towards the road games, you can psych yourself out and worry about the big picture, when all we really need to do is worry about the next game, the next shift or the next period. “If we keep winning those, the shifts and periods, we’ll probably end up winning a lot of hockey games, and that’s the only way we can attack this thing.”
Steding brings championship pedigree to BU program STEDING, FROM PAGE 12
standing Player of the Tournament honors. The 1989-90 team still holds program records for points, scoring average, field goals, scoring margin and assists. Steding, VanDerveer’s fi rst Stanford recruit, said she takes pride in the work that she and her teammates did to establish the Cardinal as a perennial championship contender. “Being part of that movement and that groundswell and being a part of that place, where our freshman year they barely pulled out the bleachers in the gym, and by the time we were seniors, we were selling the place out, was a time of tremendous growth,” she said. “It was really truly amazing to be part of that rise. We get to say that we put our shoulders in and started that movement.” Steding graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and as a three-time All-Pac 10 Conference selection. She still owns Stanford’s
record for steals in a single contest, notching 10 in December 1988 against Northwestern University, and also tops all freshmen with an average of 8.7 rebounds per game. When Steding left Stanford, no singular U.S. league existed that consistently attracted the game’s best players. As such, she played professionally in Japan and Spain before returning home to compete for a spot on the U.S. National Team as it readied for the 1996 Olympic Games. VanDerveer, who took a year off from her duties at Stanford to coach Team USA, selected both Steding and Azzi as part of a roster that included talents such as Teresa Edwards, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes. Team USA put up an unblemished 60-0 record en route to Olympic Gold. “To be around at that time was really exciting,” shd said. “I learned about watching that team come together with incredible diversity on the squad, not just demographically, but geographically and in life-experience and in col-
lege experience…so bringing that group together and watching it develop into something that was really dominant like we were was amazing. It was fun to watch, and it was fun to be a part of.” Following the Olympics, Steding became one of the founding members of the American Basketball League, playing for the Portland Power and head coach Lin Dunn. Steding said the mission of the ABL was to create a “player-friendly” league that was also accessible to fans. Although the ABL folded in December 1998, she called it “an amazing experience.” The WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs drafted Steding in 2000, and she played two seasons in the league before retiring. “Looking back, now that the WNBA is still around, it’s pretty amazing that we get to say we got to be a part of starting that,” she said. “Forever, we get to say that we started that and that we were pioneers.” Not wasting any time, Steding made the jump over to Warner Pa-
cific in Portland to start her coaching career. Although she had initial reservations, she said those faded once she ran her fi rst practice. Steding stayed at Warner Pacific for seven years, mainly because of her relationship with the community and her players. Now, Steding has developed a coaching style that combines the methods of the “father figure” Lavender, the “caring, but business-like” VanDerveer and the “fiery, bubbly” Dunn. She said she leans more toward Dunn in the way she approaches the game. “I like to keep practice light-hearted, but I like it to be very intense, and I like us to get work done, and I like us to get better, and I like us to show that intensity and competiveness,” Steding said. “But at the same time, I think you can’t take yourself too seriously. It’s still basketball. It’s still a game. It’s a lot more enjoyable, and I think you’re better and you’re more productive when you remember that.” In making the jump to BU,
Steding was attracted to “the academics in combination with the potential and history for great athletics.” Now, she will attempt to guide a young Terrier squad to success. In addition to stressing to her players that their “biggest impact is going to come off the court,” she said one of the things she hopes to instill in her team is a championship mentality. “I think that the only barrier to accomplishment for them is their own mind,” Steding said. “If you want something bad enough, you’ll fi nd a way to get it done. They’ve all said that they want to win championships here, and that’s great with me because that’s what I want to do, so that works out. “I want to help them see that they can do so many great things if they just are willing to make the sacrifices for it… At the end of the day, they’re more than willing to do what it takes, and they want to be pushed, and we’re totally great with that.”
SUNDAY, OCT. 19
MONDAY, OCT. 20
BOTTOM LI NE THURSDAY, OCT. 16
FRIDAY, OCT. 17
SATURDAY, OCT. 18
Field Hockey @ UMass, 2 p.m. W. Hockey @ Clarkson, 3 p.m. W. Hockey @ Clarkson, 3 p.m.
W. Tennis @ ITA Regionals, All Day M. Hockey @ USNTDP U18, 7 p.m.
W. Tennis @ ITA Regionals, All Day
Field Hockey vs. Holy Cross, 7 p.m.
W. Rowing @ Head of the Charles, W. Soccer @ Loyola, 2 p.m.
All Day
M. Soccer vs. Lafayette, 2 p.m.
M. Crew @ Head of the Charles, All
W. Tennis @ ITA Regionals, All Day Day
W. Tennis @ ITA Regionals, All Day
QUOTABLE They’re going to be just fine, we just need to get some confidence in them. BU women’s hockey coach Brian Durocher on the team’s young goaltending corps, p. 11
Sports
GOING THE DISTANCE Both Boston University cross country teams participated in the New England Championship at Franklin Park over the weekend. p. 10
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014
A Fan’s Perspective 2014 MLB PLAYOFFS
BY DAN SHULMAN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
The 2014 MLB playoffs have certainly been a thrilling and entertaining sight to behold. So far, we have seen upsets, late heroics, stellar pitching and loyal fan bases. However, the question is: Who cares? While ratings for a few games so far this month have been noteworthy, Game 1 of the National League Division Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers had a 13 percent drop in viewership from last year’s playoff ratings, while Game 1 between the San Francisco Giants and Washington Nationals also suffered a 16 percent drop. Why exactly have the ratings dropped? There are several reasons that explain this mysterious lack of interest. First and foremost, however, are the teams involved. If someone were to have said at the beginning of the season that the American League Championship Series would be played between the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals, some responses might have been prolonged laughter, ignorance or cries of “Kansas City still has a team?” But here we are, six months later, and lo and behold, the Royals and Orioles just wrapped up the American League Championship Series, with Kansas City making the trip back to the Fall Classic. In terms of the average number of households tuning into games, the Orioles and the Royals are situated at 14th and 15th, respectively, in the league. Not bad, but a far cry from the top of the MLB, as the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers and New York Mets lead the league with 254,000, 159,000 and 130,000 households, respectively. With a combined 135,000 households accounting for the Orioles and Royals, the interest level is certainly low. The National League, in this case, shouldn’t have to undergo such problems in terms of ratings, as the Giants and Cardinals are often on top of the MLB in terms of viewership and draw audiences from across the world regularly with a combined total of 225,000 households. However, ratings for the NLDS were not as promising as they should have been. Another big reason why ratings are down this season is due to network changes. In 2013, TBS and Fox were the networks where the MLB Playoffs could be found. This year, while Fox still gets the World Series and a few games in the League Championship Series, Fox Sports 1 has taken a majority of the National League games. FS1 is a premier cable channel, so customers without access to the premier channel lineup cannot watch these games. Despite historically boasting the better crowd in terms of viewership, NL playoff games READ MORE ON PAGE 10
PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ATHLETICS
Katy Steding served as an assistant coach at the University of California-Berkeley for the last two seasons.
Steding ready to make her mark at BU BY JACKLYN BAMBERGER DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Katy Steding, the new head coach for Boston University’s women’s basketball team, has loved basketball since age 6, when she asked her parents to put up a hoop in their driveway. Growing up near Portland, Oregon, Steding practiced in that driveway everyday, drawing inspiration from the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. In particular, she admired center Bill Walton, who led the team to an NBA title in 1977, when Steding was in elementary school. “I had a big thing for Bill Walton,” Steding said. “I loved him as a player because I was tall, and he was tall. That gave me great inspiration.” She recalls telling her fifth grade classmates her ambition to become a Portland Trail Blazer. “Of course, everybody laughed their
butts off because girls don’t do that,” Steding said. What her peers did not know was that she would turn out to be just that: a pioneer in the game of women’s basketball. As a player, Steding captured two of the game’s most lucrative prizes: an NCAA Championship at Stanford University in 1990 and an U.S. Olympic Gold Medal as a member of the 1996 “Women’s Dream Team.” Over her 14-year coaching career, Steding has served as an assistant with the University of California-Berkeley, the University of San Francisco, Columbia University and the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream and as a head coach at Warner Pacific College. In June, she was introduced as the Terriers’ seventh head coach. In her youth, Steding largely competed with boys, as women’s basketball was still not fully accepted by society. “I was blessed to be in a family and in
Career Highlights
Helped Stanford University win its first NCAA title in 1990.
Won a gold medal with Team USA at 1996 Summer Olympics.
54-14 Played with the Sacramento Monarchs and Seattle Storm in the WNBA.
Helped lead Cal to 54-14 record over last two seasons as an assistant coach. GRAPHIC BY MIKE DESOCIO/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
a community where I got an opportunity to play with the boys because there was no opportunity to play with the girls at that time,” she said. “I was able to play at that level without people saying ‘Ugh, what a weirdo,’ or anything like that…if I had been born ten years earlier, it would have been a very different story.” After playing for coach Gary Lavender at Lake Oswego High School, the 6-foot power forward continued her career at Stanford. Today, the Cardinal and 28-year Coach Tara VanDerveer are synonymous with success, having captured two NCAA Championships and 12 Final Four appearances. When Steding made her college decision, none of those accolades existed. She chose Stanford because of its academics and the mentality of then-second year Coach VanDerveer. As a freshman, Steding remembered the now-Hall of Fame coach talking to her and classmate Jennifer Azzi about their future. “Tara sat Jennifer and I down and said, ‘By the time you graduate, you guys are going to be playing for a national championship,’” she said. While Azzi eagerly absorbed VanDerveer’s message, Steding was not fully convinced that a national title was in the cards. Each year, the team steadily improved. After posting a .500 season her freshman year, Steding’s sophomore campaign saw the Cardinal reach the NCAA Sweet 16 for the fi rst time in program history. The next season, Stanford went 28-3, captured its fi rst Pacific-10 Conference title and advanced to the Elite Eight. Then, in Steding and Azzi’s senior season, everything came together, as VanDerveer’s squad dropped just one contest before meeting up with Auburn University in the 1990 National Championship game. There, Stanford won 88-81 to claim the program’s fi rst national championship. Steding set Final Four records for 3-point field goal attempts (15) and makes (6) in the game and was named to the All-Tournament team along with Azzi, who earned Most OutREAD MORE ON PAGE 11