4-30-2015

NEWS Over the next few weeks, Tsarnaev’s fate will be determined by a specific list of factors. pg. 4

MUSE After some thank-yous, IFFBoston finished its week-long run Wednesday night with “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” and its fitting themes of loss and love. pg. 5

46º / 56º MOSTLY CLOUDY

SPORTS Return of the Grizz — Junior defenseman Matt Grzelcyk foregoes an opportunity to go pro and returns for his senior year. pg. 12

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THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015 THE INDEPENDENT WEEKLY STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR XLIV. VOLUME LXXXVIII. ISSUE XV.

Students organize to address sexual violence at BU BY KEELA SWEENEY DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

their members … that’s a pretty low bar if you ask me, and I asked their leadership to even go better.” A few weeks after the conversation occurred, Elmore said his office received an allegation about members of a fraternity who participated in hazing. Due to the ongoing investigation, the name of the fraternity hasn’t been released, he said. David Lugo, president of BU’s Interfraternity Council, said IFC governs fraternity chapters on campus to promote collaboration and ensure “scholastic excellence.” “We serve as a governing body, assembling judicial hearings to investigate allegations against any member chapter, and set rules, deadlines and standards for our recruitment period each semester,” Lugo, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences,

In response to a Letter to the Editor published in The Daily Free Press Tuesday, the Boston University Feminist Collective (FEMCO) hosted a town hall meeting Wednesday night to address the ways the BU administration responds to sexual violence reports across campus. A female student who chose to remain anonymous wrote the letter about her experience as a victim of sexual assault, and said the university didn’t handle the situation adequately. More than 100 people gathered in the Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism to brainstorm the next steps for getting the administration to deal with issues related to sexual assault. Students worked in the meeting to create an action plan and list of tangible goals for the future. Jessica Klein, the president of FEMCO, said she wanted to host this meeting to reinvigorate dialogue that had been occurring on campus over the past several weeks. “The reason that I wanted to organize an event like this is because sexual assault awareness week ended about a week ago, and I was trying to find a way to keep this conversation going in a way that is sustainable,” said Klein, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, after the meeting. Klein said the conversation is aimed to ignite conversation about the ways the university handles reports of rape and to point out holes in university policy. Organizers talked about plans to create more outlets for advocacy, resources and further staff and faculty training. The group made a list of working demands based on what changes they want to see from the BU administration and what ways they plan to have university officials meet these demands. “You have to have peers talking to peers about this in order for the culture to change internally,” said Garrett Moore, a senior in the College of Engineering, during the meeting. Isabella Romano, a sophomore in CAS, told the crowd she wants to see greater nationwide awareness following the conversation had Wednesday evening. “This is not just BU. This is college culture, and it needs widespread recognition,” she said. “Make BU that school, that when you think of BU, it’s immediate that you know people are doing something about this.” After an initial brainstorming session, students split into groups to tackle various phases of the movement they want to start. Some focused on ways to address the administration through protests, letters and more conversations, while others talked about how to address sexual assault on a peer-to-peer level.

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PHOTOS BY SARAH SILBIGER AND MIKE DESOCIO/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Left: Children hold signs near Boston Police Headquarters during a protest against police brutality Wednesday. Right: Protesters chant and hold signs during a march on Tremont Street Wednesday.

Hundreds rally peacefully against police brutality BY JULIA METJIAN AND OLIVIA QUINTANA DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Hundreds gathered at the intersection of Ruggles Street and Tremont Street Wednesday to support the protests in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray, an African-American man who died on April 19 as the result of injuries he sustained while in the custody of Baltimore police. Mass Action Against Police Brutality organized the rally, which featured several speakers, including Wayne Dozier, who said his grandson DJ Henry, a Pace University football player, was shot and killed by a police office four years ago. Dozier spoke in front of the crowd and told his story about the pain that comes from losing a loved one to brutality. Dozier said he was grateful for the crowd’s support and the ability to speak about the issue of police brutality. “It’s been noted that it’s not a black thing.

It’s a society thing. We’ve got to change society,” Dozier said. “It takes everybody here to get together [and] push the vision for freedom without feeling intimidated because of the color of your skin.” The crowd showed support by clapping and cheering as speakers stood up to tell their stories. Some held signs above their heads reading, “Justice for Freddie Gray,” while others chanted, “No justice, no peace, no racist police.” Brock Satter, an organizer of the event from Mass Action Against Police Brutality, said the rally was not intended to be violent or confrontational. “We are going to take the streets, and we’re going to march,” Satter said to the crowd. “We are not trying to get into a confrontation with the police today. We’re not trying to disrupt traffic, but we will take the streets. I’m not saying that it’s not ever necessary, but today, it isn’t necessary. We need to organize, we need to reach out, [and] we don’t just need hundreds. We need

millions.” Satter said Mass Action plans to organize further demonstrations in the future. “We need people in the streets. We need the masses. That’s what mass action is all about, action against police brutality,” he said to the crowd. “That’s the type of movement we think is needed, and that’s why we’re having this event, because it’s not going to be solved tonight, and we can’t solve all the problems in Baltimore here in Boston, but together, we can be part of the solution.” Bishop Filipe Teixeira, founder and member of the Franciscan Order of Saint Joseph Cupertino, addressed the crowd about facing the truth of police brutality. “I have seen so many young men and women being killed by the cops,” Teixiera said. “This is real. It’s about life. Our lives matter, black and brown people. We need to tell the truth about CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

University, Greek life community address multiple suspensions BY MINA CORPUZ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Three fraternities at Boston University have been suspended during the 2014-15 academic year, prompting campus officials and the Greek life community to speak more about problematic behavior and steps for moving forward. Sigma Chi, Delta Tau Delta and Kappa Sigma have all lost recognition as BU student organizations within the past academic year. Some of the issues that have led to their suspensions include hazing, underage drinking and promotion of questionable parties, said Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore. Elmore said the number of fraternity suspensions this academic year is not typical.

“This is a big number,” he said. “I try and think that what we do is to continue to raise the conversation as much as we can, but ultimately, this comes down to individual students and then collectively as a group doing the right thing and taking some moments to think.” After members from Sigma Alpha Epsilon at the University of Oklahoma were caught on video singing a racist chant in March, Elmore said he met with fraternity and sorority presidents and their advisors to talk about behaviors and attitudes in Greek life. “We used [in] conversation the example with Sigma Alpha Epsilon out in Oklahoma where I’ve been asking ‘Are we above this?’” he said. “I have asked fraternities and sororities to give me, to give us a year where we don’t have these incidents. The leadership can manage people and

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NEWS

Council on sexual assault, domestic violence restored C A M P U S BY MONIKA NAYAK DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, working alongside Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, reinstated the Governor’s Council on Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Monday to reestablish the council’s overview of programs meant to diminish levels of sexual assault and domestic violence, according to a Monday press release. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Rape Crisis Centers recorded over 2,000 incidents of sexual assault between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014, the release stated. Additionally domestic violence was identified as the leading cause of injury among females between the ages of 15 and 44. “I’d like to thank Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito for reestablishing this council to oversee the implementation of the domestic violence law,” Healey said in the release. “We are committed to working together to make sure that every resident of Massachusetts has the opportunity to live a safe and healthy life, free from violence.” After naming April Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Awareness month, Baker was pleased to sign the executive order, the release stated. The order intends to target support services and provide legal protection for victims, awareness and education efforts and accountability of assailants. The council will eventually

host a minimum of 30 members working under Polito and will include heads of sexual assault and domestic violence aid corporations, existing program directors and the Police Chief Mark Dubois of the Maynard Police Department. “We worked actively in past government councils and have seen them as a great opportunities for people to get together and work on issues relating to domestic violence,” said Maureen Gallagher, director of policy at advocacy organization Jane Doe Inc. “Hopefully, the council will continue to take on whatever issues in relation to sexual and domestic violence that need to be addressed, such as housing and homelessness. It is an opportunity to move forward.” The council will implement Chapter 260 domestic violence legislation aimed at reducing sexual assault and domestic violence previously enacted in 2014, the release stated. Several residents said they support the reinstatement of the council. Jean Binjour, 37, of Hyde Park, said she supports Baker’s efforts to raise awareness for issues that are too often thought to be rare. “It’s good that he is addressing this because over the years, I’ve always heard of assaults happening on the T, or a typical place where assaults usually happen is Jamaica Pond,” he said. “To bring that to the forefront and have people more aware and proactive in protecting themselves from being in situations like that is important. We live in a city … so

CRIME LOGS ANUSH SWAMINATHAN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The following reports were taken from the Boston University Police Department from April 23 to April 29. Male student reported for behavior A 20-year-old female student reported Sunday at approximately 8:59 p.m. that a 19-year-old male student had developed a troubling obsession with her roommate. The reporting party also claimed that the male blamed her because the roommate did not contact him. Marijuana possession at 277 Babcock Street

PHOTO BY DANIEL GUAN/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker speaks at a press conference on April 13. Baker, Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced an executive order Monday to re-launch the Governor’s Council to address sexual assault and domestic violence.

we figure that things like that don’t happen with too many people around, but it evidently happens.” Giselle Ramirez, 19, of Dorchester, said the areas with higher instances of sexual assault should be made known to the public. “I [can’t] say specifically, but there are some communities or some areas of Boston that are bad but not as bad as others,” she said. “In most communities, there are a lot of kids, and it’s important to not have that around children especially.” Maha Chourafa, 38, of Jamaica Plain, said sexual assault

prevention is a valuable pursuit to put tax dollars toward and will benefit everyone. “We want to be able to have people to not have fear when they are taking public transportation and walk in their neighborhoods without having the fear of being assaulted,” she said. “It makes [life] more livable, more walkable. It’s taxpayers’ money. So it’s important that … you put tax money toward general expenditure. Put the money where your values are.” Julianna Narita contributed to the reporting of this article.

Resources offered for support for student organizations FRATERNITIES, FROM PAGE 1

wrote in an email. IFC works only with university-recognized fraternities, Lugo said. Once suspended, IFC cannot work with a chapter. Abby Myette, associate director of the Student Activities Organization and advisor to Greek councils, said SAO offers guidance for Greek organizations. “When four organizations are suspended, it can be overwhelming to face, especially if it’s connected to IFC,” she said. “They’re looking at how they can be successful with the organizations that are still around … There are issues across Greek life, and we want students to have a positive experience in these groups.” Bringing the community together to address areas such as expectations and accountability gives BU fraternities the opportunity to learn and “move forward,” Myette said. Maureen Mahoney, director of BU’s Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Center, said the center coordinates with SAO and the Dean of Students office to host educational programs.

“We train peer educators to facilitate Step Up Step In BU, the bystander intervention training program,” she wrote in an email. “All BU students are welcome to participate in SUSIBU. President [Robert] Brown has required at least 1 member of the e-board of any student group that receives funds from the Allocations Board to participate every year.” Katharine Mooney, director of Wellness and Prevention at Student Health Services, said student organizations often reach out to her office to get information about alcohol. “We historically have worked with a lot of fraternities and sororities by coming in and leading alcohol educational workshops with students where we talk about how students can drink in low risk ways,” she said. “It’s really interactive and activity-based, so students can feel like they’re gaining stills, so if they choose to drink, they can do so in a responsible way.” SHS takes a “harm reduction approach,” taking into account the fact that drinking is part of college culture and colleges need to teach students the

best way to stay safe, Mooney said. Several students said it’s unfortunate to hear about the fraternity suspensions, but they understand why the university made the choices they did. Zach Collins, a freshman in CAS, said he is “a fan of” BU taking action to suspend groups when they don’t behave in the best way. “All that [the suspensions] does is validate my stereotypical views of frats,” he said. “It would be embarrassing to think that things here aren’t really different from things that you hear about all over the news, like [the] intense hazing in Southern fraternities.” David Padwa, a senior in the College of Communication, said he supports that the university has a “zero-tolerance” type of policy when incidents arise, but he is not sure if these policies have an impact. “This keeps happening, so maybe it’s never really going to be enough. Maybe no punishment could be enough, because nothing has happened where anyone is scared straight,” he said. “I’ve been hearing echoes of these kinds of things since I

was a freshman, so maybe they have to get more severe. Clearly, whatever they’re doing isn’t highly effective.” Jasmine Fuller, a freshman in the College of Engineering, said BU may be acting too strictly when it comes to managing the chapters. “Some of the cases, it’s understandable why they [fraternities] got suspended, but sometimes it seems a little drastic,” she said. “I understand because BU wants to protect its name and sexual misconduct is a big deal, but it can get blown way out of proportion.” Armina Petrescu-Tudor, a sophomore in CAS, said stopping questionable behavior draws attention to the greater issues in the Greek life community. “Things like the suspensions make people more aware of what’s happening, whereas I’m sure before hearing about this, people who aren’t involved or interested in Greek life probably didn’t know about anything that goes on,” she said. “Punishment is definitely really important.” Ellen Cranley contributed to the reporting of this article.

Residence Life staff reported at approximately 8:27 p.m. on April 23 that they found a 27-yearold female student smoking marijuana in a room in Rich Hall at 277 Babcock St. Officers issued the student a civil citation and confiscated the narcotics. Motor vehicle accident at Agganis Arena A 66-year-old male not affiliated with the university drove over a drop-off in the Agganis Arena parking garage at 925 Commonwealth Ave. on April 23 at approximately 10:39 p.m. The vehicle became stuck and sustained damaged to the undercarriage. No injuries were reported. Obscene material distributed On Friday at approximately 1:54 a.m., a 45-year-old non-affiliated female reported that a male party put a photo of male genitalia under the front door of the laundry room in 860 Beacon Street and then ran away. Similar incidents have been reported in the past, and BUPD is investigating the recent incident. Suspicious activity reported A 32-year-old female BU employee reported on Friday at approximately 3:38 p.m. that someone had printed out a specification sheet for a rifle and ammunition from the printer at 890 Commonwealth Ave. There were no threats accompanying the order sheet. Missing student report filed The parents of a 26-year-old male student filed a missing person’s report Saturday at approximately 9:53 a.m. with BUPD, claiming that they had not spoken to their son since April 16. The missing student lives in Brookline, so the Brookline Police Department was notified, and detectives are investigating the case.

NEWS

PHOTO BY ALEXANDRA WIMLEY/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

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PHOTO BY ALEXANDRA WIMLEY/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Left: Women with their children hold their hands up in front of a line of marching protesters on Tremont Street during a march against police brutality Wednesday. Right: Pamela Robinson, 31, of East Boston, chants near Boston Police Headquarters in Roxbury.

Protesters stand with Baltimore, say time for violence to end RALLY, FROM PAGE 1

what’s going on today. We have numbers, [and] we have people.” Following the speeches, the attendees and organizers marched down Tremont Street toward Dudley Square. Nearly all attendees participated in the march, followed closely by police officers. Several attendees expressed their distress surrounding police violence in Baltimore and around the country. Sarah O’Connor, 24, of Somerville, said she felt the turnout was representative of a united community.

“It’s been a great show of people and an inspiring show of unity,” she said. “It’s important for Boston to show that we are with Baltimore, and that we support their struggle.” Mario Nelson, 37, of the North End, said he chose to come to the rally to support the idea of asking for more information about the Freddie Gray incident. “A lot of times, when you have instances like you’ve had down in Baltimore and Ferguson, they’re kind of few and far between,” she said. “There’s been little sparks of people trying to come together. But something like this, when it was just over-

whelmingly blatant that something happened [and] there’s a cover-up for it, people need to kind of band together and figure out what’s going on.” Greg Williams, 65, of Jamaica Plain, who has been involved with People’s Campaign for the Constitution since 1968, said he finally wants to see an end to violence. “I have seen too many people die in many, many decades and it has to stop,” Williams said, “so you need some of us older [people] and a lot of young ones to make the change.” Williams classified the event as both a rally and a protest.

“It’s in solidarity with what’s happening in Baltimore and around the country,” he said. “If people don’t turn up in these places, then they’ll just say ‘Oh, it’s just in Baltimore,’ but it’s everywhere.” Meron Makonnen, 24, of Brighton, said she feels troubled that no one around her seems to care about what is happening in the world unless it has a personal effect on them. “It hurts me so bad that no one will talk about an issue until they hear that a baseball game was affected,” she said. “Nobody cares until it affects them, and then everyone wants to sit here and criticize a whole oppressed

people’s response to something, when no one paid attention when these people were protesting peacefully for days and days and days. No one cared. No one paid them any mind.” Makonnen described how distressing it is that she feels uncomfortable discussing such important issues, even at her workplace. “I’m tired of all the oppression that goes on in this country that everybody tries to ignore,” she said. “I’m tired of working in a corporate America environment and no one says anything. It makes me so sick to my stomach that I can’t talk and educate people anymore.”

Social media, mission statement tools for university-wide change LETTER, FROM PAGE 1

Kymbeerly Irizarry, a sophomore in CAS and the School of Hospitality Administration, said she wants BU to understand its mistakes and participate in the movement so that long-term change can occur. “This isn’t the first time that it’s happened, and it won’t be the last. The letter riled me to the core,” she said during her small group discussion. “We need to submit a letter to administration. We need a protest and so much more. Something that opens the eyes of administration and makes them see how they’ve messed up … Nothing can be carried out before we hold administration accountable for their actions.” Several attendees said they want #ThisCouldBU, a hashtag used by the anonymous author in the letter, to trend on all social media platforms by the end of the week as another way to raise awareness. Sydney Throop, a junior in the College of Communication, said the use of the hashtag is the

best way to reach out to a large group of people. “The campaign starts here,” she said during the meeting. “Social media is what gets to the community. The hashtag is going to get to everyone and be seen by people all over.” Caitlin Lawlor, a senior in CAS, said the movement will carry weight in the BU community and shouldn’t be taken lightly. “We as a campus, we are not letting go of this one, and that’s how we show it,” she said to the crowd. Klein said FEMCO hopes to organize a demonstration that will encompass the themes from Wednesday’s meeting. “This opportunity came up where people were really, really angry, and it was getting shared all over social media, and I wanted to harness that energy in kind of a movement of students led by students to demand things from their administration to kind of demand things that they may not have had the outlet to do before,” Klein said after the meeting.

PHOTO BY BRIAN SONG/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Kymbeerly Irizarry (SHA and CAS ‘17) (right) speaks during “Sexual Assault at BU: Come Discuss the Letter to the Editor” at the Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism Wednesday.

By the close of the meeting, the group developed a mission statement to bring to BU President Robert Brown at a luncheon on Tuesday.

“We want to create a community of safety and empowerment for all Boston University students, especially survivors of sexual assault and rape,” accord-

ing to the mission statement. “This will be accomplished by reform in administration, judicial procedures and campus culture.

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NEWS

Tsarnaev trial, looking forward: expectations for coming weeks BY PAIGE SMITH DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

As the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has entered the penalty phase, its focus has shifted from determining guilt to determining the severity of Tsarnaev’s punishment. Tsarnaev, the 21-year-old former University of Massachusetts Dartmouth student, admittedly placed two bombs at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 260. He was found guilty on April 8 of all 30 charges levied against him. Of those 30 counts, 17 carry the death penalty. Karen Pita Loor, a professor in Boston University’s School of Law and expert in criminal law, said this does not mean that Tsarnaev has garnered a death sentence, but rather that he can now qualify for a death sentence. Loor used the example of the count of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, of which Tsarnaev was found guilty of, to explain the process. “So essentially, they [the jury] not only need to find him guilty of this particular count that he conspired to use weapons of mass destruction, but also the use of that weapon,” Loor said. “The conspiracy to use that weapon resulted in the death of at least one of the people who was killed during the marathon.” The results of the penalty phase,

Loor said, will primarily depend on how effectively the jury finds that the prosecution presented aggravating factors that may have prompted the April 2013 attacks. As explained in the criminal indictment levied against Tsarnaev in June 2013, there are 26 specifically outlined aggravating factors. These include the fact that Tsarnaev “committed the offense after substantial planning and premeditation on to cause the death of a person and commit and act of terrorism” and that he “intentionally killed and attempted to kill more than one person in a single criminal episode.” Loor said this point had already been touched upon in the guilt phase. “The defense has fought a little bit about this in the guilt phase already, and I expect they will fight about this in the sentencing phase, which is really, ‘He was not the mastermind behind this, he was controlled by his brother, so he’s not the main planner or premeditator in this bombing,’” Loor said. The document then goes on to outline the specific deaths he inflicted, including that of 8-year-old Martin Richard. “The death, and injury resulting in death, of Martin Richard occurred during the commission and attempted commission of, and during the immediate flight from the commission of an offense,” the document stated. “The victim, Martin Richard, was particu-

larly vulnerable due to youth.” Loor said the death of Martin, as well as the other victims of the Marathon attacks, is a particularly strong aggravating factor that could heavily impact the sentencing of Tsarnaev. “We’ve heard a little bit about that already in the penalty phase, people coming to testify about what the loss of each person’s life meant, and also what the loss of limbs actually has meant to them personally,” Loor said. The prosecution rested in the penalty phase of the trial on April 23. Tsarnaev’s defense team is in the midst of presenting its case to the jury, after which, Loor said, the decision of the death penalty can be considered. “Only at that time can they really consider imposing the death penalty, so there’s still another threshold question,” she said. “Once that happens, each juror, individually, takes that aggravating factor, the aggravating factor that has been found beyond reasonable doubt, and weighs them along with the mitigating factors that have been presented by the defense.” The mitigating factors the defense has been presenting include duress under the influence of Tsarnaev’s older brother Tamerlan, Dzhokhar’s young age and the fact that he lacked any sort of criminal record before the bombing. Several residents said that whether or not Tsarnaev should get the death penalty is complicated, but that he

ILLUSTRATION BY REBECCA NESS/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is depicted in a courtroom sketch during the penalty stage of the trial at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse Monday.

should be punished harshly regardless of the influence his brother had over him. Alex Vuckovic, 25, of Allston, said there’s a significant reason to give Tsarnaev life in prison over the death penalty. “If he were to be executed, then there’s a chance that he could become a martyr, and I think that might be what he wants,” he said. “It’s a difficult call.” Gabriel Newby, 38, of Back Bay, said Tsarnaev’s fate should be left up to the families of the victims. “There’s no question there [whether he’s guilty] but the question of the death penalty is difficult,” he said. “People want him to pay, but whether he should be locked up or

die is another factor. He did it, so he’s guilty, but in the end, his punishment should be what the families want.” Dilip Das, 37, of Back Bay, emphasized the magnitude of Tsarnaev’s crimes. “He killed a lot of people,” he said. “I feel so bad. A lot of people’s lives are changed forever and all because of those two people.” Das went on to refute the idea that Tsarnaev acted under the influence of his older brother. “Many people are brainwashed,” he said. “All over they are brainwashed, but they don’t do this.” Amanda Burke contributed to the reporting of this article.

Potential SG Senate restructure raises questions from incoming, current senators BY SEKAR KRISNAULI DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Conversations about restructuring seats in the Boston University Student Government Senate have led to speculation about how a change would affect student representation in the 2015-16 academic year. The incoming SG Executive-Board and several 2014-15 senators have expressed differing approaches as to how the board should address Senate seat appropriation and student group representation. Andrew Cho, the incoming executive president for the 201516 academic year, said Senate seat expansion will be a priority on his agenda once the fall 2015 semester begins. “In the past year or two, they’ve [Senate] added more groups in the bases that they’re large, which is great, but it’s not a full solution to increasing representation because obviously there are tons of groups that are [still] not represented,” said Cho, junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. “My hunch is that the senators are open to adding more seats, and there’s just concerns about how we’re going to do it.” Senate membership must consist of at least 2 percent of the current student body, and for every additional 1,000 members added to a student group, the organization will gain one seat in Senate, according to Article VII, Section V of the SG constitution. Cho said he does not agree with the current amendment to the constitution that only allows Sen-

ate representation after the 2-percent rule is met. “One of the ideas that came out [from the Town Hall meeting Monday] was, ‘Why not allow any group to have a Senate seat if they are willing to come to the meetings?’” he said. “It would be very energizing, difficult to manage, but it would also kind of be much more representative. We’re still not sure what the best solution is, and that’s why we’re having conversations to get feedbacks and concerns.” During a town hall hosted by the incoming E-board Monday evening, some of the senators present brought up proportional representation in Senate. The incoming E-Board sent out an email survey to the members of Senate before the town hall to gather feedback on structural solutions, Cho said. However, the survey caused backlash, and “several senators jumped to conclusions,” he said. Stephen Chang, the current Senate chair who will also serve for the 2015-16 academic year, said according to the constitution, any structural change cannot officially be made until the next Senate meeting, which will be at the beginning of the fall semester. “If they [the incoming E-board] have to move a structural change, they have to go through two-thirds vote of the Senate in order to be approved in our constitution. That’s how structural changes move,” said Chang, a junior in CAS. “They haven’t reached out to Judicial [Commission] or me about adding seats, removing seats or really trying to work this out and negotiate.” Chang also said he’s hap-

PHOTO BY KELSEY CRONIN/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Student Government members vote at a meeting Monday. Boston University’s Student Government leaders and Senate members differ on the possible restructuring of the number of Senate seats each university organization will have.

py with the way Senate seats are structured, including the 2-percent threshold. He said the system already gives an equal distribution of representatives. “Alternatively, I don’t believe in additional seats,” he said. “There have been concerns about them [E-Board] trying to remove seats. I would shut it down immediately if they want to remove seats. Almost every year, there’s always structure changes, and now we have confusion here.” Members of student groups such as BU Hillel and the Student Athletic Advisory Council have expressed concern over speculation of some of their seats in Senate being removed, Chang said. Claire Peaceman, one of three Hillel senators for the 2014-15 academic year, said she doesn’t want to speculate about something that is not definite, but that she has heard rumors about Senate seat removals. “A lot of [Senators] would’ve expected something like that to come on the floor [at the last meet-

ing] like removing seats. It would’ve been voted down,” said Peaceman, a junior in CAS. “It would be a real shame and a real loss to the SG community if it were to happen … People are just over-reacting.” Abbi Erkes, representative for the Panhellenic Council, said she has not heard of the talks about restructuring Senate, but believes eliminating seats would be counterproductive to the E-board’s goal of inclusivity. “You can’t exclude other senators, especially if they have a history of being [in Senate] for a certain amount of time,” said Erkes, a sophomore in the College of General Studies. “We do need to expand. For some reason right now, it’s like exclusive. That’s not what BU is. That’s not what we need. Expansion is necessary, but also there has to be appropriation according to the size.” Austin Kruger, a representative from SAAC, said the 2015-16 E-board makes it seem as though they plan to target specific groups

within Senate and the student body. “[The incoming E-Board is] catering towards the vocal minority, which is somewhat slanted against Hillel, Greek Life and athletics,” said Kruger, a junior in the Questrom School of Business. “It’s interesting the BU groups that they’re targeting. That’s pretty blatantly obvious that it’s kind of politically motivated.” Several current senators said a structural change is not a surprise, but the E-board should not remove any seats without consensus of the Senate. Chloe Hite, a Myles Standish Hall Residence Hall Association senator, said restructuring and expanding the Senate seats would create openness to get more students involved. It would also increase student representation and institutional transparency, she said. “I have heard these rumors and believe them to be baseless,” said Hite, a sophomore in CAS. “If anything, Senate will be restructured to expand or streamline senator involvement and further represent the growing student body.” Rachel Feigelson, a senator for the West Campus RHA, said SG should focus on students’ needs, which could include adding seats accordingly. “There are going be seats added, but no seats are going to be taken away,” said Feigelson, a freshman in CGS. “I don’t know if that’s True BU’s intention, but they’re not True BU anymore. They’re True BU plus BUtiful Dreamers, and I know [Executive Vice President Barron Roth] is not interested in taking any seat away. He won’t allow for that.”

FEATURES

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MUSE THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015

At end, IFFBoston introduces “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” BY HANNAH LANDERS DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

At one point in “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” the closing film at this year’s Independent Film Festival Boston on Wednesday night, the eponymous dying girl snuggles into our protagonist’s arms. “This is the part where she’d say all the wise and beautiful things you learn in life’s twilight years,” he tells us. A moment later they’re apart — he looking lost and she looking miserable. This is the reality that our protagonist is faced with. The previous scene was just part of a story. There was much talk of stories at the packed Coolidge Corner Theatre. The logo of this year’s IFFBoston, an illustrated marshmallow over a blazing fire, calls to stories told under starry skies. Managing director of the festival Brian Tamm talked at length before the start of the screening about the power of stories to bring us together, how we all gather as strangers under the premise of watching a film and, in the process, become an audience united. But none of these stories could have come together without the hard work of the IFFBoston staff, Tamm reminded the crowd, which is composed almost entire-

PHOTO BY WILLA RUSOWICZ-ORAZEM/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Independent Film Festival Boston concluded Wednesday with a screening of “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

ly of volunteers. Tamm thanked many, but brought program director Nancy Campbell onstage — the one responsible for assembling the slate of 109 documentaries, shorts and narrative films screened over the course of the festival, which started on April 22.

“She’s the DJ. I’m the rapper,” Tamm said. The eager crowd, warmed up with a delightfully strange pre-screening theremin set including “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “Video Killed the Radio Star,” dutifully applauded through Tamm’s many thank-

yous before the New England premiere of “Me and Earl,” which garnered the U.S. Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. “Me and Earl” lays it all in the title. The “me” is Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann), a senior in high school who prides himself in his ability not just to blend in but to float untethered from one stock high school type (jock, goth, stoner) to another, making no enemies — or friends — in the process. He does this, he explains, by never committing to a conversation that doesn’t seem “mellow” enough. “Ugh, tests. I’ve been there,” he says flippantly as he breezes by a group of girls. One of those girls, it turns out, is Rachel (Olivia Cooke). And her “test” was one that turned up positive for leukemia. When Greg’s parents (Connie Britton and Nick Offerman) learn that Rachel is sick, they send him over to her house to spend time with her. Greg ropes in his only friend, Earl (RJ Cyler), whom he’s known since they both bonded over a love of foreign film at the tender age of 8. (But Greg insists that Earl is just a “co-worker” — their love of film is translated into a large repertoire of their own homemade features.) Mann shines as the blonde

mop-topped Greg, capturing all the energy and lovability of a yellow lab. “We’re not on drugs,” he blurts to Rachel after consuming some pot cookies and then swearing Earl to secrecy about the whole ordeal. Mann is also impressively adept at switching gears, capturing Greg’s absurdly silly exterior (“Can you believe we let animals in our house?” he asks Rachel at one point. “Like real animals?”) while balancing the inner turmoil hiding just beneath his sunny surface, playing his final scene with Rachel with the kind of emotion that hurts the heart. All of the young actors, relatively unknown, are a highlight. Cyler is deadpan, tough but still remarkably sensitive. And Cooke is marvelous as the ailing Rachel, fearlessly playing the realities of struggling with cancer in one of the more formative years of her character’s life (and actually shaving her head for the role, too). Offerman, Britton and Molly Shannon (as Rachel’s mother) all put in delightful terms as the parents, as expected. As Greg’s sociologist father, Offerman dons something that looks like a muumuu and boasts an eccentric taste in cuisine (cuttlefish, anyone?), providing the zen yin to Britton’s nervy yang. Britton herself is hi CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

INBUSINESS THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015

CityStart “boot camp” to push for Boston start-ups without end BY BLAKE SNELLING DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

When it kicks off on May 30, CityStart Boston, a hackathon and boot camp aiming to foster startup innovation activity around the city, will put Boston entrepreneurs through three weeks of team-building exercises, mentorship and innovative idea-making.

CityStart came from a student-focused initiative created for the city called College Think Tank, said co-founder Monique Fuchs. “We added another boot camp to the event,” Fuchs said. “Students and other participants will be part of workshops, mentorship and a demo day. We hope to take those ideas and make them reality.”

PHOTO BY COLLIERS/WIKIMEDIA

CityStart, a Boston-based hackathon and boot camp for start-up innovation, will launch May 30.

Fuchs went on to say that opening up the challenge beyond just college students will help to increase diversity in participants’ backgrounds and experience levels, creating an ideal space for innovative thinking. “CityStart Boston has been an evolution from the College Think Tank we’ve been doing the past two years. Originally, the College Think Tank was for student participants who would ideate around a challenge the city has with innovation firms and throw those ideas back to the city,” Fuchs said. CityStart hopes to address Boston Mayor Martin Walsh’s emphasis on expanding innovation efforts to neighborhoods that currently do not see a lot of attention. Fuchs elaborated that outside the Innovation District, neighborhoods such as Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and others need better access to resources that support startup activity. “Resources in the Innovation CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

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FEATURES

PHOTOS BY HEATHER GOLDIN/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Models show off a line from Ministry of Supply at the Fashion and Retail Association’s “La Vie en Rose” fashion show Saturday at the George Sherman Union Metcalf Ballroom. (Above) A model poses in student designer Emma Bowers’ design at the Fashion and Retail Association’s “La Vie en Rose” fashion show Saturday at the George Sherman Union Metcalf Ballroom. (Right)

SPOTLIGHT THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015

Student designers hold close, hold fast in casting out cancer BY DAGNY CREPEAU DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The Boston University Fashion and Retail Association (FAB) painted the town pink Saturday night with a fashion show held in partnership with non-profit breast cancer foundation Susan G. Komen. The show, appropriately titled “La Vie en Rose,” was held in the Metcalf Ballroom of the George Sherman Union and featured clothing by 12 student designers, as well as lines from corporate brands Ministry of Supply and Haute Hippie. Fifty percent of the proceeds were donated to Susan G. Komen Massachusetts. Also featured was guest speaker Catie Fauvelle, the development director for Susan G. Komen Massachusetts. Fauvelle said part of the organization’s mission in combating breast cancer is to raise awareness and educate the public about the illness. The partnership between FAB and Komen, she said, was integral to helping the organization meet that goal.

“It’s huge for us,” Fauvelle said. “We feel that breast cancer is a huge thing that so many people are touched by, especially young women, so we’re honored that FAB chose to partner with us for their fashion show.” That outreach hit a crowd of about 300, according to organizers. Guests paid $10 at the door, and in exchange, were treated to an hourand-a-half of fashion, food, drinks, raffles and live music performed by local band Migrant Motel. Raffle prizes included designer handbags, sunglasses and watches, and proceeds from raffle ticket sales were also donated to Susan G. Komen. What makes FAB unique, its members hold, is that it offers BU students an outlet for creative design while also incorporating elements of business and marketing. The fashion show is the culmination of a semester’s worth of work. “It’s like a job,” said Zahra Shivji, a sophomore in the College of General Studies and the public relations manager for FAB. “I think FAB is like my full-time job,

and school is my part-time job.” FAB is also currently the only available channel at BU for people interested in fashion design or retailing. “BU doesn’t have any kind of fashion major, so it really provides an outlet for people who are interested in the industry, both on the business side and the creative side, to express that,” said FAB president Alex Hough, a senior in the Questrom School of Business. Hough also expressed pride in FAB’s partnership with Susan G. Komen, reflecting on the importance of including charity as an intrinsic component of the fashion show, a new tradition that the club started with last semester’s show. “Our previous show, we had a much smaller donation system for a cause. We had a table outside where we were collecting donations to help pay for school uniforms for kids in Africa, and it went down really well,” Hough said. “People seemed to really like it, so we decided to take it a step further. We thought, let’s make

the whole show about a cause, and pick a theme that’s really based around that cause.” According to Hough, the pink theme made sense for a show centered on Susan G. Komen, an organization that has used the color pink to represent breast cancer awareness since its inception in 1982. FAB vice president Rebecca Rose, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, echoed Hough’s sentiments, noting that the show was also a valuable opportunity to demonstrate the value of charity and community involvement to other BU students. “The reason why we did something with Susan G. Komen is because we believe fashion can easily become a very materialistic industry,” Rose said. “It’s not always necessarily about giving. It’s about wearing and buying, so we wanted to incorporate something that would actually give back to the community.” Many of FAB’s members said they feel that a show organized by students, including student design-

ers and models, also holds tremendous value in and of itself. “You get to see your fellow students,” said David Lowe, a Questrom junior and FAB strategic advisor and model. “That’s the great thing about this show is they’re all student designers. A lot of people who are designers now, they never would have considered it before, but they saw others doing it and they tried it and now they love it. It’s great. Events like this open your mind to new things.” Valerie Lenzi, a sophomore in Questrom, was one of the student designers whose designs were featured on the runway Saturday. Her line, “Barbie’s Closet,” was inspired by her mother, Barbara, a 10-year cancer survivor. Lenzi said she was heartened by the execution of such a grandiose benefit by a single group of students. “It makes it all that much more impressive,” she said. “The fact that students were able to pull this off is incredible to me, and it makes events like this a lot more exciting.”

Three week start-up program aims to spread innovation around city CITYSTART, FROM PAGE 5

District can be difficult to access without a car, and spreading similar support systems like MassChallenge to other neighborhoods is very important,” said Ashley Waters, the events and operations coordinator at Boston University’s BUzz Lab. Waters emphasized that a huge percentage of startups fail within the first two years, especially without guidance resources readily available. Though Boston continues to be one of the nation’s leaders in technological innovation, CityStart and its participating partners hope to support the creative economy throughout the city.

“The hackathon is in the spirit of what we’re doing,” said Fairmount Innovation Lab director Liora Beer. On June 20, at the end of the program, Fairmount will host a final “Pitch Day” competition so that participants can show off their polished projects. “Fairmount Innovation Lab is a new strategy to bring innovation resources to the Fairmount neighborhoods,” she said. “We are providing everything that a larger accelerator such as MassChallenge would for creative industries in a specific community, on a neighborhood scale.” Fairmount and CityStart both aim to support the local economy and creative industries, especially

in specific communities where innovation is most needed. “We’re serving a predominantly low-income community,” Beer said. “There is a tremendous amount of talent and innovation in neighborhoods where people don’t actually have the resources to catalyze those businesses. I think there’s a huge loss for the people in those communities but also the greater society.” CityStart hopes to stray away from the traditional hackathon challenge model, though, by providing a rigorous process for problem solving. “We really want to go back to the drawing board and ask, ‘What does innovation actually mean?’

We intentionally kept the guidelines of the hackathon very open so participants can decide what issues they want to tackle,” Fuchs said. “We are looking for a way to foster innovation and make it sustainable. We’re asking ourselves how we can make the community really build something relevant for the city.” Just as the CityStart hackathon hopes to create a better support system for startup development, BU’s BUzz Lab provides business guidance and workspace for all enrolled students. “We want to be all-inclusive throughout the whole BU community, not just Questrom [School of Business] students. Students can set up an appointment and are able

to bounce ideas off entrepreneurs and other students. We can help address specific questions along the way, like starting up a website or other issues typical of new startups,” Waters said. Ultimately, CityStart Boston hopes to challenge participants by providing three weeks of intensive workshops and mentorship. By fostering startup activity in more neighborhoods outside the Innovation District, the goal is that more talent from corners of the city will be able to improve the city and make ideas implementable reality. “It doesn’t stay with the oneday hackathon,” Fuchs said. “It will motivate participants to build further.”

FEATURES

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CATALYST THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015

Panel to address media’s role in feeding global food crisis BY OLIVIA DENG AND NAVRAJ NARULA DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

As children grow up, a lot can affect the people that they grow up to be. Most of that, though, depends on the sort of nutrition they receive as they do so. On Thursday, Boston University hosted a panel called “The First 1,000 Days: Changing Lives Through Early Intervention.” Nicholas Kristof, columnist for The New York Times and author of “A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity,” was joined by Roger Thurow, former foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Rhitu Chatterjee, contributing correspondent for Public Radio International, and Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health. The sold-out panel, sponsored by the BU Program on Crisis Response and Reporting, focused on early childhood development and creative intervention strategies for children who encounter growth-inhibitors such as malnutrition, said Carey Howard, academic program coordinator for the global health department at SPH. “This event … focus[ed] primarily on the idea of the first 1,000 days of life being really critical in childhood development, so getting proper nutrition and how that impacts their health outcomes as a child and later into life,” Howard said. In “A Path Appears,” Kristof,

the panel’s keynote speaker, highlights ways to help children during the crucial developmental stages. “He wrote an excerpt about primary care physicians prescribing children’s books,” Howard said. “The idea that children reading is still important and having access to books … would influence their ability to communicate and connect in the world, particularly in a developing country where that luxury isn’t afforded to everyone.” Anne Donohue, a professor of journalism in the College of Communication and also a faculty member of the Program on Crisis Response and Reporting, said she first heard Kristof speak at her daughter’s high school in Belmont. Inspired by the message from the book that each person can impact their community, Donohue said she found it fitting that Kristof should speak on the strategies he wrote about in “A Path Appears.” “[The Program on Crisis Response and Reporting] draws attention to global issues that are under-covered … The fact that a boat cast aside in the Mediterranean with 900 souls on board gets so little coverage is just disgusting to me …We just don’t cover the world.” That neglect extends very seriously to public health, Thurow said. He currently serves as a senior fellow for global agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, keeping an eye on the ways that food impacts public health worldwide.

“I think a lot of these issues, there is a cruel irony that the hungriest people in the world are farmers,” Thurow said. “Agriculture, agriculture development and nutrition are neglected by the government — the governments of the developing world [and] developing countries. So I figured I needed to keep raising attention about those issues.” Galea, whose research specializes on the social production of health in urban communities, said that his work reveals an issue the general public might rarely consider. “I’ve done a lot of work about the consequences of trauma and about how violence, conflict and trauma result in both traumatic stress disorder and depression. I’ve also done work around how social conditions can influence drug use and create substance abuse … certainly many issues are relevant … but it can be difficult to account for things like depression.” Galea’s solution is to use early intervention strategies. “It sets people on trajectories for better health in the long term, and early intervention results in the biggest assessment of anything we can do,” he said. “If we make for good early childhood condition, we have the potential to create healthier individuals throughout their lives.” Conversation, he believes, is key for more people to not only become aware of these issues, but also

PHOTO BY WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM/WIKIMEDIA

Author and journalist Nicholas Kristof will speak about public health Thursday at the Tsai Performance Center.

to intervene. “There are issues that we do not pay attention to … [communicating] through mass media is exactly what citizens should be doing,” Galea said. Global health is interdisciplinary, Howard said. Because of its interdisciplinary nature, public health relies on the media to address frequently ignored global health more effectively. The interdisciplinary approach to global health extends beyond the panel, Howard said. “There may be important research happening in the public health field but without being able to broadly communicate those things to the public, a lot of issues can go under-noticed,” he explained, “whether it is a crisis that is happening, or if something is

working well without people really knowing about it.” This collaborative approach has helped BU make its mark in global health, Howard said, with professors working in countries all over the world. The work of those professors, along with the work of those telling their stories, will be the driving force in helping to feed the world of the future. “That’s a way to make a difference. I would hope that from the media side, people would be interested in doing these stories,” Thurow said. “That momentum is building behind these issues, but there is a long way to go. It is one of the great challenges we face when it comes to nourishing the world in the future.”

IFFBoston closes week with gratitude, gravitas in “Me and Earl” IFFBOSTON, FROM PAGE 5

larious, getting the rare chance to flex her comic muscles. And while the script is mercilessly smart and the performances are perhaps already a career best for this young cast, it’s the camera work that really makes “Me and Earl” something to remember. Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung, the latter of whom is best known for working on fast-paced thrillers such as “Oldboy” and “Stoker,” bring the look of that genre to “Me and Earl,” imbibing each scene with vitality and — more importantly — draining it when necessary. As Greg goes to visit Rachel day after day, we follow him into her room over and over with a shaky camera. Greg and Earl have a conversation, and the camera captures the top halves of their face. In one of the more stunning shots, a young Earl and Greg careen down a sidewalk turned vertical. The film’s Pittsburgh setting only amplifies this with its angular houses and narrow streets. Adding to the whimsy are charming and illustrative claymation codas, spliced between the live action without warning. Greg describes the touch of a pretty

classmate like a chipmunk being crushed by an unaware moose, then — SPLAT! It’s before our eyes in vivid clay color. Earl and Greg’s films are a recurring delight in the same vein, with titles like “A Sockwork Orange,” (“A Clockwork Orange”) “2:48 p.m. Cowboy” (“Midnight Cowboy”) and “A Box of Lips — Wow!” (an “Apocalypse Now” parody featuring a box of tulips discovered by two weathered army vets). It’s almost disappointing to see only bits and pieces of them throughout the actual film. With its cancer connection and basis in a young adult novel, this film will perhaps draw comparisons to “The Fault in Our Stars.” But while “Fault” was a Cancer Film, “Earl” is a film that deals more with the ideas of self-identity and mortality tied to cancer, and childhood cancer especially. “You’re doing this to feel good about yourself,” one of Rachel’s friends tells Greg acidly at the beginning of the film. Are actions ever truly altruistic? Are we always just looking out for ourselves? The film grapples with this, as it deals with a different kind of illness. Greg isn’t the one who’s sick, but he struggles with issues of self-loathing and intima-

cy in a way that makes them just as real and important as if they were manifested physically. The raw feeling captured in the script made it surprising that, when screenwriter/author Jesse Andrews took the stage after the screening, he wasn’t, in fact, a high school senior. Still, this film hit close to home for him, he said. Very close. “Greg’s house in the film? That’s my house,” he said. When he took Gomez-Rejon to Pittsburgh to scout locations, he said, the director decided that he liked Andrews’ home the best out of all the places they saw. They also shot the high school scenes in Andrews’ old school, which he described simply as “strange.” As for the film’s heavier elements, Andrews said he never had a classmate with cancer. But he did write the novel, published in 2012, when his grandfather was terminally ill. “It’s all about how you never say the things you wish you said. You never do the things you think you’re going to do,” he said. Although he had nothing but praise for the people involved in making the film, Andrews did concede that he had always imagined his characters a bit drabber.

“You have the input that’s kind of frumpy and then the Hollywood output is beautiful,” he said, before conceding that it’s

probably for the best. “I’m actually too shallow to genuinely want that.”

OPINION

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THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015

Felicia Gans, Editor-in-Chief Jacklyn Bamberger, Managing Editor

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 XV 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 © 2015 Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

Mike DeSocio , Multimedia Editor

Judy Cohen, Sports Editor

Alexandra Wimley, Photo Editor

Mina Corpuz, Campus Editor

Casey Mintz, Editorial Page Editor

Samantha Gross, Layout Editor

Alexandra David, City Editor

Joe Incollingo, Features Editor

Shakti Rovner, Office Manager

Efforts made to tackle sexual assault simply not enough Due to an egregious oversight, Budweiser’s “Up for Whatever” campaign has come toppling down. As part of the campaign, the company put catchy phrases on Bud Light bottles. One of the catch phrases? “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night.” Social media exploded with hundreds of people calling out what they saw as the company perpetuating rape culture. In a world where there is seemingly a new university coming under fire for excusing sexual assault every day, this was not a good move. In a statement posted on Budweiser’s website Tuesday, Bud Light’s Vice President Alexander Lambrecht apologized for how the slogan came out and said they will cease production of this particular message. The word “no” has become an important part of the movement to combat rape and fight back against rape culture. “No means no” has become a movement of its own, emphasizing the importance of consent. It should be simple. It should be common sense. But apparently, it’s not. This semester, The Daily Free Press has written editorials about rape culture and everything related to it multiple times. We’ve written about Rolling Stone magazine’s “A Rape On Campus” disaster. We’ve written about one of the brothers of Kappa Sigma at the University of Maryland writing an email to his chapter saying, “[expletive] consent.” We’ve written about the University of Oregon basketball players who went on to play while

the woman they sexually assaulted had her privacy invaded and her case mishandled. We’ve written, of course, about Boston University’s place in rape culture, how it is embedded in it and how it even perpetuates it. In May 2014, BU’s Title IX policy came under fire by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights for mishandling reports of sexual assault. BU’s new policy came into effect on Jan. 1, 2015, not that it has noticeably done any good. Most recently, on Tuesday, we published a letter to the editor. It went viral, reaching over 100,000 people on Twitter, making it all the way to Scotland over Facebook and receiving a record-breaking number of views on our website. The letter was from a survivor of sexual assault at BU and it described the alleged mishandling of her case. It detailed the judicial process and the appeals process, something her assailant was granted based on no new evidence. It told the story of a woman who felt that she was scorned by the institution that was supposed to protect her. Prior to the letter’s publication, the general sentiment on campus among most people was that sexual assault doesn’t happen here. Not with BU’s comprehensive survey about sexual assault and violence, not with Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Center, not with the skit they perform at orientation about attempted rape at a party. But it does. The letter we published was the first real outcry we’ve seen at this university in recent years. It was encouraging to keep refreshing

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tigation, which spanned several weeks and involved several leaders across BU, was seemingly shoved under the rug with the decision of Provost Jean Morrison to grant the appeal. The victim thought her case had been closed and she could move on in peace. She was happy with the way the school had handled her case. That is, until, the school suddenly changed its mind. And so maybe the problem isn’t the system used to handle sexual assault reports — after all, the investigation was thorough and led to a punishment for the assailant — but instead who is given the power to make the final decisions. Why are educators, who were largely trained to support the academic and social lives of students, making decisions about what should be a criminal investigation? As the semester comes to a close, we hope BU can take a step back from the academic year and evaluate where they stand with their sexual assault policies. We didn’t publish this letter to the editor to make BU look bad or aimlessly point blame. We did this because there is a continuing problem on this campus, and thus far, BU has done nothing to fix it except for create a comprehensive sexual assault survey. But surveys won’t provide justice for victims, and surveys won’t protect students. What BU needs is a real change. Not a professionally crafted statement from a spokesman or quiet behind-the-scenes meetings with deans, but a loud statement saying that BU is aware that we have a problem and they’re ready to fix it.

This week’s crossword puzzle is brought to you by Mina’s dining points

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the page and seeing the views go up, to read all the comments commending the woman for sharing her story. It was incredible to see the student body galvanize in support, tweeting at BU to share their grievances and organizing Facebook events to discuss the letter like the Feminist Collective did on Wednesday evening. The letter opened the door for the BU administration to know that they have to be better about how they treat victims. All of the things they do and resources they have are under the guise of protecting the victim, but they don’t take into account that the way they treat the assailant affects the victim too. What BU did by granting the assailant an appeal based on no new evidence was effectively dismissing the woman’s claims as if they were nothing. Rather than just show a skit at orientation about how to not get raped, why don’t they focus on what happens to the assailant when they rape? Through cases such as the one told in the letter, BU is sending the message that those who sexually take advantage of others are not punished within the structure of the university. BU does not treat rape as a violent crime, but instead just a wrongdoing that can be overturned with the touch of an appeal. When BU first received the report, they took all the necessary steps and provided the victim with appropriate protection. They didn’t neglect their duties as a university: they did a thorough investigation and ultimately punished the assailant. But then the appeals process began. And the lengthy initial inves-

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1. A measuring instrument 5. Range 10. Shove 14. Not yours 15. Church offering 16. Initial wager 17. Alteration 19. Back 20. 54 in Roman numerals 21. Construct 22. Repeat 23. Flight attendant 25. A religion based on sorcery 27. Frozen 28. Clairvoyants 31. Breadth 34. Philippine tribal chief 35. Prompt 36. Garden tools

37. Exploded stars 38. “Phooey!” 39. French for “Summer” 40. Astronomical visitor 41. Hotel employee 42. Unconsciousness induced by narcotics 44. Precious stone 45. Interlaced 46. Twister 50. Cubic meter 52. Community spirit 54. Martini ingredient 55. Kind of school 56. Stunt flying 58. Helps 59. Nonpoetic writing 60. Away from the wind 61. Thorny flower 62. A chemical

compound 63. Exam 1. Objectives 2. A financial examination 3. Tomb 4. Clairvoyant’s gift 5. Abounding in stars 6. Quoted 7. Ear-related 8. A duplicating machine 9. Poetic dusk 10. Outcast 11. Immoral 12. Immediately 13. Protagonist 18. Instruct 22. A style of design 24. Mental keenness 26. 8 bits of data 28. Covers with asphalt

29. Medical breakthrough 30. Dispatched 31. At what time 32. Greek letter 33. Bush-like herbs 34. Tyrannizes 37. Schnozzola 38. An expletive 40. Sheltered nook 41. Vice ___ 43. Body 44. Peanut 46. Not these 47. Nimble 48. Cuts into cubes 49. Beginning 50. Box 51. Threesome 53. Gait faster than a walk 56. Gorilla 57. Make lace

OPINION

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Final Word: Letter from the Editor Right and Wrong Ways to Advocate BY FELICIA GANS DAILY FREE PRESS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

I’ve written more ledes than I can count for The Daily Free Press, but I’m at a loss for this one. This year has been about exploration. As Managing Editor this past fall and Editor-in-Chief this spring, I was fortunate enough to be a part of two of the most talented, inspiring and dedicated teams of journalists that I could ever dream up. I entered the semester knowing it would be a challenge. While we were still trying to find our footing as a digital-first publication, I wanted to push ourselves to go beyond the “transition year” mindset and find places for innovation. It was scary — while our predecessors were there for support every step of the way, the dreams we had were unlike anything that had been done at the FreeP. For every question we had, it was up to us to find the answers. We were all taking a shot in the darkness, and we had to put trust in each other that whatever came as a result, we would work through it together. And if I sat here and told you the result was a perfect publication, filled with the best of the best every single day, I’d be lying. But those moments of failure or those times when we opened the paper and thought, “Wow, we could’ve done better,” that’s when we stepped out of our comfort zones and became professional journalists. It was in those moments that I realized all the FreeP was teaching us. Immersing myself in the world of college journalism — and an independent student newspaper at that — has been the most challenging and rewarding thing I’ve ever done. Five nights a week, a group of college students willingly spend 8 or more hours in a smelly, dark office to create something beautiful. We don’t have a faculty advisor. We don’t have a university endowment. All we have is each other. This semester, I’ve watched our organization grow in so many ways. Digitally, our multimedia presence grew with the introduction of our podcast section, BU’s first and only medium for long-form audio journalism. We expanded our video department and redefined our social media goals. We covered the trial of admitted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and published a story daily, with reporters at the courthouse every single day of the trial. And most recently, we’ve found our place in the sexual assault conversation on campus. After publishing a letter to the editor this week that broke viewing records on our website within hours, we have found ourselves in the spotlight, inspiring advocates

from across campus to demand answers from the administration. From one section to the next this semester, we challenged the systems we had been taught. We strived for better and pushed ourselves to cr-eate content that we knew we’d be proud of you. Serving as Editor-in-Chief is a bizarre thing — you’re aware that you’re in charge, but sometimes, you can’t help but look around the room at all the talented people creating content and realize that you’re the least important person there. The passion and momentum of the editors, associates editors, writers, photographers, videographers and bloggers keep this paper going. I couldn’t do this without them.

PHOTO BY ALEXANDRA WIMLEY/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

As I look around the newsroom, writing this final word, I leave with pride for what we’ve accomplished and nothing but hope for the future. This semester, I had the pleasure of working with a group of people who became my mentors, my second family and my best friends. They inspired me to be better than I thought I could be, and we all pushed each other to our limits for the sake of this newspaper. Being a college journalist isn’t always fun. It’s filled with 20-hour days, a lot of fast food and more deadlines than one mind can keep straight. But when you walk out of the office at 7 a.m. and look around in the light of day, there’s something amazing about knowing that you just spent the night creating a newspaper with your best friends. There’s something amazing about watching someone in class reading your work. It’s a reminder that college journalism is one of the most powerful tools we have. It lets us experiment across sections and try things we never thought we could do. And more importantly, it lets us challenge the world around us. When we step outside this office, we may just be college students. But when we’re here, we’re professional journalists. And I have no one but the FreeP to thank for giving me that experience.

BY CHRISTOPHER REMILLARD COLUMNIST

While scrolling through Facebook yesterday, I was struck by the volume of posts written on the Baltimore protests. Luckily, my newsfeed has been flooded with the countless liberal voices I’ve met since coming to Boston University. But there were still a number of posts reflecting the ignorant and racist views of the people from my small hometown, Bellingham, Massachusetts, where our Dunkin’ Donuts to Democrat ratio is a solid one-toone. Now, I normally try to ignore the ignorant posts, in favor of sharing and supporting ones that better reflect my views. After all, half of the people throwing around the word “thugs” on my newsfeed could hardly find Baltimore on a map, never mind understand the incredibly complex monster of racial injustice in our country. But one post in particular caught my attention among the deluge of misinformed opinions. It was a picture shared by one of my Facebook friends who is as aggressively white as he is conservative. The picture was split down the middle. The top half showed Martin Luther King, Jr. leading the 1965 protests in Selma, Alabama overlaid with the caption, “This is a protest.” The bottom half showed a person of color smashing in a car window, captioned, “This is a riot.” The reason this picture caught my attention is because it is a perfect example of the ways in which white people in our country manipulate the truth and misrepresent people of color and their words through media. King wrote on the topic of urban riots in a 1967 speech entitled “The Role of the Behavioral Scientist in the Civil Rights Movement.” King argued, “The policymakers of the white society have caused the darkness; they create discrimination; they structured slums; and they perpetuate unemployment, ignorance and poverty. It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society.” In this way, white people have transformed King

Interrobang

from the leader and racial expert he was into a tool for making a point. To many of the white people in our country, King’s name has become synonymous with “peaceful protests” rather than “racial equality,” despite the fact that King cared far more about the latter. If you’re going to use King to make some point about Baltimore, use his words. The Daily Kos, a political blog, published a great article on this topic, entitled “Dear White America: Please Stop Talking About Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Baltimore ‘Riots.’” The blog writes, “In these times of troubles, it is easy and intellectually lazy for people to mouth-breath [sic] some selection selectively misquoted and misappropriated from the I Have a Dream speech, as opposed to meditating on King’s analysis of systemic power and inequality as embodied by his observation that ‘a riot is the language of the unheard.’” The Facebook post in question, however, points to a larger problem in discussions about Baltimore and race relations in general in our country. While white conservatives are misrepresenting the voices of people of color, white liberals are often attempting to speak over those voices while trying to support racial equality. To my fellow white liberals: the best way to support the protestors in Baltimore and racial equality in general is to shut up. Black voices matter just as much as black lives, so put black voices in front of your own. I’m not trying to tell white people to stop talking about Baltimore because, after all, I’m a white person talking about Baltimore. But when disseminating information and sharing perspectives, ensure that the focus is always on what people of color are saying about what is going on. As news of the Baltimore protests occupies our social media platforms, the “retweet” and “share” buttons are your new best friends. As a white person, I will never understand the feeling of being a victim of racism and racial injustice. White people need to remember that when we talk about Baltimore and racial injustice, we are entering a conversational space that is occupied by people who are infinitely more qualified to speak on the matter: people of color. They are the experts. They are the experienced group. The Baltimore protests are not about white people, white opinions or white experiences. Effectively — and I know this weighs heavy on the fragile pride of privileged white Americans — our white opinions don’t matter. If you want to really make a difference with police violence, the death of Freddie Gray and the subsequent protesting, use your privileged position in society to push black voices to the front.

The FreeP term has come to an end, much to our disappointment. It has been the best of times, and it has been the worst of times. So we here at the ol’ Free Press were wondering, what were the top eight FreeP moments of the semester?

“Poom poom into the poom”

PIZZA.

Teratoma/#Teraticia

Too much FreePcest.

“Too turnt to comment.”

The “yo” count.

Sam and Jackie taking a selfie with President Brown after a print night.

Steve Friedman wins “The Hunger Games.”

10

SPORTS

Men’s lacrosse readies to finish up season versus No. 5 Duke

PHOTO BY ALEXANDRA WIMLEY/DFP FILE PHOTO

Sophomore midfielder Cal Dearth has two seven-point games for BU this year and earned All-Patriot League First Team honors. BY NICK FRAZIER DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The Boston University men’s lacrosse team will wrap up its season Sunday, when it travels to Koskinen Stadium in Durham, North Carolina, to square off against No. 5 Duke University. This will be the Terriers’ (6-7, 3-5 Patriot League) first game in over two weeks, their last being a 12-10 loss to the College of the Holy Cross at Nickerson Field on April 17. Freshman attacks Jack Wilson, Ryan Hilburn and sophomore attack Adam

Schaal each had two goals apiece in the contest. The reason why BU has not played in so long is because it failed to qualify for the Patriot League tournament after dropping its last five league games. With one final match left to play, BU coach Ryan Polley said the Terriers have had a lot of time to avoid getting rusty and work on their offense, which has averaged only 7.6 goals during their losing streak. “We’ve been practicing hard the past two weeks,” he said. “We took a couple days off after Holy Cross and had practices a couple of times the last week. Now we’ve been going pretty hard. Certainly, we try to simulate Duke and what they do and try to prepare for them, but we’ve been going pretty hard with longer practices, trying to keep the guys focused and from becoming rusty.” Despite missing the league tournament, the Terriers have made great strides as a program in only their second season being a varsity club, as their 6-7 record is a big improvement over their 2-12 record from the 2014 season. The best example of this progress is sophomore midfielders Cal Dearth and Sam Talkow being named to the All-Patriot League First Team and Second Team, respectively. They are the first Terriers to do so. Dearth leads BU in points with 41 and has had two seven-point games this season. Talkow is third in the country in faceoff-win percentage, with 66.2 percent, and ranks 10th in ground balls per game, with 7.31. “I thought it was really well deserved by both of them,” Polley said. “It’s great recognition for the program, and I’m really happy

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for them. They both had tremendous years not only in the Patriot League, but also outside of it, in non-conference play. I’m just happy that it was voted by the coaches of the league, and I was happy that the coaches saw the same thing we see on a daily basis.” There’s no doubt that the Terriers will have their hands full when they take on the Blue Devils (10-5), who are the two-time defending NCAA Championships. Duke is led by midfielder Myles Jones, who has totaled an astounding 39 goals and 34 assists so far. The Blue Devils are also led on offense by attacks Justin Guterding and Jack Bruckner, who have combined for 87 goals this season. Polley said he knows his team will have its hands full trying to stop Duke’s

offense. “Certainly, we have to keep them out of transition,” Polley said. “They get a lot of early offense by pushing the ball and getting it to the attack. They’re so well balanced. They have a great attack, and a great midfielder in Myles Jones, who will probably be midfielder of the year. “We’re going to do everything we can to control the tempo of the game. Hopefully win face-offs and get the ball to our offense, along with being efficient there and taking time off the clock to try to make sure we’re in the game in the second half,” he added. “We’ve played some great teams this year, so we kind of know what to expect, and hopefully we play the best that we can, and we’ll go from there.”

Pitching shines in softball’s victory over UMass Lowell

PHOTO BY ALEXANDRA WIMLEY/DFP FILE PHOTO

Junior pitcher Melanie Russell got the win for BU on Wednesday and tossed two innings of scoreless, one-hit ball. BY JOE CALABRESE DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

A walk-off single from freshman third baseman Kaitlin Sahlinger gave the Boston University softball team the 2-1 victory over in-state rival University of Massachusetts Lowell Wednesday afternoon, bringing its win streak to eight games. On Wednesday, the Terriers’ (17-24, 7-8 Patriot League) pitchers, sophomore Makinna Akers and junior Melanie Russell, continued their dominant stretch while the usually-effective Terrier offense stagnated. Akers started in the circle for the Terriers, allowing just one hit in her first two innings of work. After allowing one run in the third, Akers bounced back to pitch a perfect fourth and fifth inning. She would finish with four strikeouts on the day. Russell, who walked away with the win, came in in the sixth inning, looking just as powerful, retiring the River Hawks (17-30) by getting them to fly out in order. After leading off the seventh inning with a double, Lowell senior Abby Jamieson reached third with one out on a wild pitch. Russell was able to then strike out junior Emilia Davies and get senior Melissa King to pop out to senior second baseman Emily Felbaum, opening the door for the walk-off victory in the bottom of the inning. Coming into Wednesday, the pitching staff’s combined ERA was an impressive 3.50 in 61 innings, but seven more innings of one-run ball against the River Hawks brought that total down 25 points, to 3.25 with Akers and Russell at 2.28 and 2.31, respectively. BU coach Kathryn Gleason said that during the stretch, the confidence and trust between the pitching staff and the rest of the defense has increased. “It’s just a confidence thing for them,” she said. “[With] just getting outside and practicing and playing on dirt — on our own field. I think they’re just gaining confidence as they go. I think the Colgate [University] weekend was a big deal for

both of them — to get in there and trust their defense. So I think it’s a combination of [them] trusting their defense and their defense is trusting them and just coming up and making plays for them.” Sahlinger said she was also pleased by the pitching’s efforts, noting that their dominance makes the batters’ jobs easier. “It’s been great,” she said. “Especially this last weekend and then today, they both had great appearances on the mound, and it’s been really helpful. Going into the dugout, it just gets us really hyped up, and it’s really nice to have some good pitching on the mound. It gets us ready to go up to the plate, and it gives us a lot of confidence too. We’re not getting down runs and then having to chase any.” At the dish against River Hawks pitcher Erica Armenti, the Terriers struggled for the first time in recent memory. In the first inning, BU seemed to get its foolproof offensive formula working. Sophomore centerfielder Moriah Connolly led the game off with a walk and after two outs, stole second. In the next at-bat, sophomore catcher Gabi Martinez drove her in. It appeared as though the offense was going to continue its impressive run, but Armenti was able to bring them to a complete halt. After tallying a run, the Terriers were held hitless until Sahlinger’s game-winning double in the bottom of the seventh. In every other game during the win streak, the Terrier bats have had much success with runners in scoring position. On Wednesday, the Terriers didn’t for a simple reason — they didn’t have any opportunities. Aside from Martinez driving Connolly in the first, no other Terrier was able to get past first base against Armenti. While the offense was disappointing on Wednesday, Gleason said she was happy her team was able to pull out the win. “I thought we had some pretty good at-bats,” she said. “We had some walks. We had people get on base. We just couldn’t bunt them over, even in the first inning. But you gotta grind it out, and this time of year, it doesn’t matter what it looks like. You just need to get that ‘W’ on the board.”

SPORTS

11

Softball wins eighth straight in walk-off fashion against Lowell BY RYAN PROVENCHER DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The Boston University softball team wrapped up its abridged home season with a thrilling 2-1 walk-off victory over University of Massachusetts Lowell. The Terriers (17-24, 7-8 Patriot League) had not scored since the first inning, but put things away quickly in the final frame with a leadoff walk by senior second baseman Emily Felbaum, followed by the game-winning double by freshman third baseman Kaitlin Sahlinger. “It’s a great confidence booster, especially for Kaitlin,” said BU coach Kathryn Gleason. “She’s been in and out of the lineup all year, and sometimes injuries take over and people aren’t able to play, so she stepped in and did a great job.” While Sahlinger has struggled throughout the season, the freshman has made strides recently, notching a .429 on-base percentage in BU’s three-game sweep of Colgate University earlier this week. Her progress continued in the victory over the River Hawks (17-30) on Wednesday. “They threw me a pretty good one on the [second] pitch, and [coach] gave me the go-ahead, and I was pretty surprised, but it felt good,” said Sahlinger of her final atbat. “Definitely felt good.” BU got on the board in the bottom of the first inning after lead-off hitter sophomore center fielder Mo-

riah Connolly forced an eight-pitch walk, stole second base and came in to score when sophomore catcher Gabi Martinez drove a double to the right-center field gap. In the top of the third, the River Hawks evened things up when right fielder Brianna Martin came around to score from second on an RBI single from shortstop Alisha Welch. Lowell would be stymied for the remainder of the game due to the pitching performance put in by sophomore right-hander Makinna Akers and junior Melanie Russell. Akers started the game and went five strong innings, giving up just one earned run on three hits while striking out four and walking none. Russell came in in the sixth inning and continued to keep Lowell’s bats quiet, allowing just one baserunner over two innings before collecting the win after the walk-off hit. “I thought Makinna did a great job holding the runners down,” Gleason said. “Mel came in and did a great job, even giving up that double. She came in and forced some pop ups, and I thought she did a great job coming in because we’re going to need everyone down the stretch.” The two hurlers have formed a dynamic duo down the stretch and are largely responsible for the eight-game winning streak that the Terriers are currently riding. Over that stretch, Akers and Russell have pitched all 55 innings of play, com-

PHOTO BY ALEXANDRA WIMLEY/DFP FILE PHOTO

Freshman third baseman Kaitlin Sahlinger knocked in BU’s winning run with a double in the bottom of the seventh.

bining for 37 strikeouts and giving up just three home runs. Meanwhile, the lineup has supplied more than enough run support for the team’s superb pitching, averaging seven runs per game during the win streak thanks to a power tilt including 22 extra base hits.

Wednesday marked just the second time during their streak that the Terriers won by just one run, as the team has shown an effective mix of timely hitting and shutdown pitching that so many teams yearn for. “I think they look at it more

than I do,” Gleason said about the win streak. “I just look at it game to game, and are we improving and getting better every game. And I told them, ‘Sometimes it’s not always pretty. Sometimes you have to grind it out,’ and we did that.”

Opportunity to be senior, get degree factored in Grzelcyk’s decision GRZELCYK, FROM PAGE 12

themselves in the coming campaign. “Being a junior captain this year, we had to rely heavily on everyone to step up as the year went, and I think all three of those guys did a great job

in the locker room,” Grzelcyk said. “I think they understand that they don’t have to change much with their actions or anything like that. They’re guys who hold their teammates accountable and work hard on and off the ice, so I think they’re definitely

great role models to have.” Boasting both a large returning class and a talented influx of promising freshmen, expectations will be high for the 2015-16 Terriers, especially in wake of the 2014-15 squad’s NCAA championship push.

He might not be willing to put a number down in terms of wins, but Grzelcyk made it clear that October can’t come soon enough. “Any time you come into a season, you always have high expectations,” Grzelcyk said. “I’m not going

to say how many games I think we can win or anything like that. Since I’ve come to BU, it seems like we bring in a big class each and every year, so it’s nice to kind of have a lot of guys coming back and rely on that depth going forward.”

National League, MLB better off adopting universal designated hitter BENEDYKCIUK, FROM PAGE 12

professional league to have such drastically different rules between its two subdivisions. The World Series would have a slightly more level playing field if a designated hitter were in place throughout the series – not just at the American League’s home games. This is not to say that the AL is at a disadvantage in the current system. It simply means that the presence of a DH in each league would provide a level of consistency the World Series has not seen since 1984. (On even number years from 1976 through 1984, the DH was used throughout the World Series, regardless of venue.) Offense in the MLB is declining. In 2006, the league-wide

batting average was .269. As of May 2014, the league’s average was .251, and had experienced a consistent downward trend each year during the period. And, although we are still very early in the 2015 season, the current league-wide batting average (as of April 29) is .249. This is the first time since 1972 that the league’s average is below .250. Aside from just batting average, league-wide on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and runs per game are significantly less than what they were in 2006. Each of these categories has seen a fairly steady decrease since 2006, and none show signs of stopping. Many baseball fans and critics say that the league’s diminishing offensive production

poses a problem. In an interview with CBS Sports, Scherzer explained that people don’t want to see him hit. He’s right – pitchers are terrible hitters. When considering the pitchers with the most hitting prowess, Zack Greinke of the Los Angeles Dodgers always comes to mind. Greinke’s lifetime average is .214. Yes, the batting average of one of the league’s best hitting pitchers is actually worse than Mario Mendoza’s career average (.215). Baseball is a game of tradition. I am not so naïve to think that the DH will be adopted into the National League without resistance. In fact, many baseball fans would like to get rid of the designated hitter altogether.

The lack of a DH poses more of a strategic challenge than the presence of one. Use of bench players and bullpen pitchers, especially in double-switches. Including a universal DH would reduce the importance of “brain” and increase the significance of “brawn” in a game that currently requires a fluid mix of the two. But the game is still changing, and it will continue to change. Ten years ago, who would’ve thought there would ever be an instant replay rule in baseball? Who would’ve thought that each manager would be granted the ability to challenge a call? Baseball must adapt where necessary if it wants to maintain the level of prominence it

has earned over its rich history. Game 1 of the 2014 World Series between the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants saw just 12.2 million viewers – a record low for WS Game 1 viewership. Including a DH in the National League will not instantly restore a .260 league batting average. It will not resonate well with baseball purists. And it will definitely not revamp baseball’s popularity to a level comparable to football. It will, however, halt the league’s offense from decreasing any further. It will rewrite baseball’s history books. And it just might get some more people to watch baseball more often.

SUNDAY, MAY 3

MONDAY, MAY 4

Softball @ Bucknell 12 p.m. (Bison)

[Editors Note: Associate Sports Editor

BOTTOM LI NE THURSDAY, APRIL 30

The Houston Rockets fired their social media head after an inappropriate tweet toward the Dallas Mavericks.

FRIDAY, MAY 1

SATURDAY, MAY 2

Softball @ Bucknell 12 & 2 p.m. That man gives me the strength to voice my opinions about Boston

Women’s Lacrosse @ Boston College

College.

1 p.m.

Men’s Lacrosse @ Duke 1 p.m. (Duke)

Michael Joscelyn has been fired.]

Quotable

“We are improving and getting better every game. And I told them, ‘Sometimes it’s not always pretty. Sometimes you have to grind it out,’ and we did that,” said BU coach Kathryn Gleason after her team’s 2-1 victory.

The Blue Line The National League Designated Hitter

Sports

Third Baseman in the Rye Freshman Kaitlin Sahlinger hits the game-winning, walk-off double to lead the softball team to a 2-1 win versus Lowell. pg. 11

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Grzelcyk’s return more than unfinished business

BY MIKE BENEDYKCIUK DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Adam Wainwright, one of Major League Baseball’s most dominant starting pitchers in recent history, recently suffered a torn Achilles tendon. The St. Louis Cardinals ace will likely miss the rest of the season due to the injury he sustained as he exited the batter’s box to run to first base. Wainwright’s injury has once again ignited the discussion on whether or not the MLB should universalize the designated hitter. After watching Wainwright’s injury, Washington Nationals starter and 2013 AL Cy Young award winner Max Scherzer spoke out, saying that the National League should adopt a designated hitter. He told CBS reporters that although he likes to swing the bat, he sees too many advantages to removing pitchers from the batting lineup. I agree with Scherzer. I acknowledge that Wainwright’s injury is an anomaly, and that pitchers are much more likely to get injured while on the mound than in the batter’s box. However, I believe it is time for the American League and National League to follow the same set of rules. Since the Houston Astros moved to the AL West in 2013, interleague play is now commonplace throughout the season. As such, the presence of a DH in both the NL and AL makes perfect sense. The uniformity between the two leagues would be an excellent change for the MLB. Although the National Football League is divided into both the American and National Football Conference (AFC and NFC), each Conference’s rulebook is identical. In fact, the MLB is the only CONTINUED ON PAGE 11

PHOTO BY JUSTIN HAWK/DFP FILE PHOTO

Junior captain Matt Grzelcyk has opted to return to BU for his senior season and will continue serving as captain.

BY CONOR RYAN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

When Boston University men’s hockey team junior captain Matt Grzelcyk announced during the team’s annual banquet that he intended to return for the 2015-16 season, it appeared that the motivating factors in his decision were easy to map out. After all, less than a week before he made his return official, Grzelcyk and the Terriers bore the brunt of a crushing loss to Providence College in the NCAA title game, coming up one game short in what was a miraculous turnaround season for BU. Clamoring for one last championship run would seem to be more than enough motivation for any player to make the call to return to school for another season, but Grzelcyk — speaking with The Daily Free Press outside of the team’s training facilities at Agganis Arena — said that such a scenario wasn’t the case. “I mean, obviously it’s your goal, coming into each and every season,” he said when asked if winning a championship was the top factor in his return. “I wouldn’t say it’s my exact reason for coming back, but it definitely adds a little fuel to the fire coming back for next season.” For the All-American defenseman, opting to return to Commonwealth Avenue amounted to more than just chasing a national title that eluded the Terriers this season. It’s rooted a bit deeper than that. After missing the second half of the 201314 season due to a severe shoulder injury, a

recuperated and reenergized Grzelcyk helped lead a Terrier squad that orchestrated an 18win improvement this past 2014-15 campaign. Grzelcyk was an immense presence on the blue line, notching 38 points — the third-highest total for a BU defenseman over the last 20 years — while leading all Division I defensemen with a plus-32 rating. Blocking 50 shots in the process, the Charlestown native also anchored a defense that ranked 15th in the country at 2.32 goals allowed per game. For his efforts this season, Grzelcyk garnered multiple accolades, including Hockey East First Team All-Star, Hockey East All-Tournament Team and Beanpot MVP honors. Grzelcyk earned a CCM Hockey All-American nod along with freshman center Jack Eichel, making them the first BU duo to earn the titles in the same season since defenseman Matt Gilroy and forward Colin Wilson received the distinction in 2009. While Grzelcyk racked up both points and awards out on the ice, the decision regarding his future with the Terriers loomed large. Drafted in the third round (85th overall) of the 2012 NHL Draft by his hometown Boston Bruins, Grzelcyk was going to have to decide if he was going to trade in his scarlet-and-white sweater for one of the black-and-gold variety. While his pending future with BU could have been a lingering saga throughout this season, Grzelcyk acknowledged that all talks regarding a potential departure were staved off until after the 2014-15 season came to a close.

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“That’s something that I talked about with my family, my family advisors … [I] didn’t want to bring it up during the year or anything,” Grzelcyk said. “I just felt like we had a lot to accomplish this year and didn’t want that to affect anything. I think it was something that was brought up at the end of the season, that’s it.” When it came time to make his decision, Grzelcyk leaned on his family, who encouraged him to prioritize completing his advertising degree in BU’s College of Communication. “One of the reasons why I came to BU is to get my degree, and my family has always valued education highly, so I think they were definitely pushing for me to stay for the four years,” he said. Grzelcyk, who was forced to accelerate a year in high school, was also frank about the fact that getting the opportunity to experience life as a senior with his teammates served as another key component in his verdict. “I wasn’t actually a senior,” Grzelcyk said when reflecting on his time in high school. “I think that’s something that I always dreamed about. Just having the opportunity to be a senior on campus and enjoying it with some of my best friends, is probably why I came back.” With the offseason now in full swing, Grzelcyk has set aside time to both reflect on the past season and prep himself for his final foray in front of the Terrier faithful. When asked what serves as his primary takeaway from the 2014-15 season, Grzelcyk noted that the amount of maturity and dedication present throughout the roster was always a reassuring sight both on the ice and in the training room. “I think we obviously came a long way from the year before,” he said. “Like it’s been stated all year, with the group of guys we had coming back, we were pretty confident in our ability to come back from last season and adding to the freshman class was huge. I think just having those guys at the rink every day, working hard, was a big key to our success [this] season.” Looking ahead to next year, Grzelcyk is currently set to receive some assistance in terms of leadership from a trio of teammates, as Eichel, junior winger Danny O’Regan and junior center Matt Lane were all named assistant captains for next season. While all three are currently in line to receive the “A” on their sweaters next year, Grzelcyk doesn’t expect much to change in the way that all three carry

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