You Should Be Getting That Beauty Rest!
20 News
Eat, Eat, Love
New Campaign seeks solutions to hunger in local communities
Pg 04
Failure to
LAUNCH
Relationships at BC
Pg 12
Cocktail Review: MADMEN Pg 26
Culture:
Artist Spotlight: Fun Pg 42
February 2013 / Volume V / Issue 01
Dear Reader, This semester marks the beginning of the end for me. As a second semester senior, my days with Gavel Media are numbered. Happily, since my two year stretch as Editor-in-Chief first began in March 2011, our staff has grown extraordinarily. Gavel Media still keeps the news around BC fresh with constant updates online and the arrival of our monthly print editions. We look forward to growing with the rest of the campus in the future. If you are interested in becoming involved or have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me personally at mslende@gmail.com. I would be more than happy to talk with you! Happy reading,
Mason S. Lende Editor-in-Chief
Editoral Board MASON LENDE OLIVIA SIMONE ROB ROSSI MEGHAN SMITH JASMINE UDUMA MEIDEMA SANCHEZ JING XU KATIE LEVINGSTON ALLISON RICCATO KATIE TOLKOWSKY EMILY AKIN SAMANTHA COSTANZA MARY YEUNGERT SAMEEH DHILLON MICHAEL NATALIE SARAH GARCIA ANDREW SCHOFIELD TEDDY KOLVA JAKE MILLER MARION HALFTERMEYER SHANNON COGAN KELLY SLATER KATELYN CROWLEY KARA WEEKS LISA MELLA DANEY RAMIREZ
Editor-in-Chief Print Manager Managing Editor News Editor News Editor Assoc. News Editor Assoc. News Editor Features Editor Assoc. Features Editor Assoc. Features Editor Culture Editor Assoc. Culture Editor Assoc. Culture Editor Assoc. Culture Editor Opinions Editor Assoc. Opinions Editor Sports Editor Assoc. Sports Editor Assoc. Sports Editor Copy Editor Assoc. Copy Editor Assoc. Copy Editor Assoc. Copy Editor Photo Editor Design Editor Assoc. Design Editor
Video Department MEGHANA KUTHYAR Video Manager LAUREN REVER Ass’t Video Manager
Business and Operations RYAN LEAHY ANGELA SONG ERIC KOPELSON TAYLOR MCELDOWNEY PAT LENEHAN DAPHNE WANG JEANIE LEE ELYN ZHANG AJAY VELLORE TIM OH
Executive Director Finance Director Ass’t Finance Director Marketing Director Ass’t Marketing Director Advertising Director Avertising Acc’t Manager Avertising Acc’t Manager Avertising Acc’t Manager Avertising Acc’t Manager
@bcgavel facebook.com/bcgavel
www.bcgavel.com 2
Cover art by Kara Weeks
February2013
February
The Gavel / February 2013 / Volume V, Issue 1
Table of Contents 04 News 04
Eat, Eat, Love:
07
Love & Unhappiness
10
Student Loan Crisis:
New Campaign seeks solutions to hunger in local communities Cosmo Girl in a Cosmo World Policies attempt to alleviate the burden
12 Opinions 12
Failure to Launch:
16
Dining Hall Disrespect
18
A “fresh” Perspective on Dining Bucks
This is not the story of the booty call. Be thankful for those who serve your food.
There should be more flexibility.
Features 20 20
You Should Be Getting that Beauty Rest How important is sleep to college students
Horrors: 22 Housing Don’t Let This Happen to You!
24 What does freedom mean to foreign countries? International Update:
26
Cocktail Review:
28
Overheard at BC
Gavel Media looks at the drinks of Mad Men
Culture 30 30
No Oven? No Stove? No problem!
Chocolate Strawberries for your BC sweetheart
Romance on a Budget 32 Budding Have a great date without an empty wallet Can Your BC ID Take You? 34 Where Gavel Media explores all the places you can go
36 Artist Spotlight: Fun. & Grammy 38 Rap Gavel Media explores all the places you can go
40 Sports 40
The Sorry State of Modern Sports
44
Academics and Athletics
46
Balking at Baseball
From steroids to money, what defines the game today
3
News
INSIDE: Love and Unhappiness / Student Loan Crisis /
News Eat, Eat, Love: New campaign seeks solutions to hunger in local communities By Meidema Sanchez Assoc. News Editor
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I
February 2013
t is hard to imagine a world in which you can pay as much as you want for as much as you want. Thanks to Panera Bread, that world has become a reality. On Jan. 23, Panera Bread opened its first Panera Cares location in Boston at 3 Center Plaza just across from Government Center. It is the fifth Panera Cares location nationwide. At Panera Cares, customers can pay whatever amount they want for whatever amount of food and beverages they want. This means that a customer can feasibly walk away with a Broccoli Cheddar soup, Napa Almond Chicken salad and Mediterranean Veggie sandwich for free (without the likelihood of incarceration). Dreams do come true. Luckily for Panera Cares, its Boston location has seen very high contributions in its first few weeks. Its faith in the principle of “shared community responsibility” seems to have paid off. Many of those who have been unable to pay for their meals have volunteered their time and effort to sweeping the floors of Panera Cares or clearing the tables. To have a business depend on “shared community responsibility” is intriguing but risky. As described by Panera Bread CEO Ron Shaich in a statement: Now that the site is open, it is up to the community to sustain it. All con-
sumers have to do is cover its direct operating costs. They do so by donating for their meals and leaving a little bit more if they’re able to help cover the meals of customers who cannot contribute. This is a pay-it-forward model and will only work if the community supports it and one another. As college students, what will we do if we choose to stop into Panera Cares after a day trip to Faneuil Hall? Would you pay exactly what it costs, or a little more in order to help Panera Cares stay open and feed the people who cannot afford to feed themselves? We could just as easily pay less than what we owe, or nothing at all; afterall, many college students struggle to pay for food as it is. Panera Cares is not only an experiment designed so that people can help others, but so that people can help themselves as they decide who they want to be after walking through its doors. The customer can choose to help the homeless guy outside of the BPL, or order a French Onion soup to eat on the T-ride home.
?
Did you know...
At Panera Cares cafes, customers are asked to pay what they can afford. Overall the nonprofit restaurants brin in 70 to 75 percent of what they would by charging standard prices. SOURCE: Panera Bread Co.
photos courtesy of PaneraCares.org
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News News
& Unhappiness By Jasmine Uduma News Editor
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Photo by Flickr.com user:gimmeocean
I
n the most basic sense, a relationship is defined by our interaction with others. But in this day and age, that “interaction” doesn’t even need a body present or the sound of a voice, has the quality of the relationship diminished? Despite the pleasure-seeking, YOLO atmosphere we generally operate in, surveys are finding that Americans are more unhappy with their personal lives. The internet has made it so much easier to virtually “stay in touch.” But has this signicicant change, along with several others in our dating culture, been good or bad? For starters, does anyone know what a date is anymore? For that matter, what exactly is dating? At what point does the “hooking up” become a bonafide relationship? If these questions triggered a momentary panic attack similar to ones experienced before a pop quiz, don’t worry; they’re rhetorical. But they are important ideas to consider. Shani Silver, a social media and blog manager in Philadelphia, argues that “the word ‘date’ should almost be stricken from the dictionary.” In an interview with New York Times’ writer Alex Williams, Silver continued, saying that the “dating culture has evolved to a cycle of text messages, each one requiring the code-breaking skills of a cold war spy to interpret.” We often joke about the friend who went on a date in Lower/McElroy, but apparently that’s pretty good compared to most young 20-somethings. In the scary, post-graduate/drunkendorm-room-party world, the pickings are even slimmer than a Victoria Secret model. “It’s one step below a date, and one step above a high-five,” Silver described dating as a young adult. Has the hookup culture completely incinerated our hopes for the Disney magic in our relationships? Do the typical rules of engagement for courtship need to be re-taught or have we hot-blooded mawww.bcgavel.com
Cosmo Girl in
Cosmo World a
Though we have always been exposed to it, there was a time when sex in relationships was never discussed at all. Every movie, dating site, girls and guys magazine addresses the sexual health of relationships today. But who pioneered this trend for sexual openness and discussion? That’s where Helen Gurley Brown came in. Back in the 1800s, aspiring couples were chaperoned conducted under the approval of a parent. It was in the 20th century that more books and plays addressed couples and relationships as something away from parents’ control. By the 1950s, young American culture practiced the “going steady” phenomenon so that a man could first prove his ability to satisfy his partner’s romantic needs. In 1962, newly married Helen Gurley Brown wrote the fictional book Sex and the Single Girl, a story about a single girl (surprise) leading a new kind of life. The book was inflammatory, telling women in novel fashion that they didn’t need a man to be happy, but should enjoy sex with whomever they chose without guilt. The sisterhood of unattached girls everywhere found their hero. Since then Cosmo has not only become the numberone-selling monthly magazine out there, but a catalytic agent for social change, encouraging women everywhere to go after what they want.
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News
Online Dating Statistics in U.S. Total number of single
54
people in the U.S. million Total number of people in the U.S. who have tried
40
mals evolved so much that courtship is as obsolete as our gallbladders? Smart phone apps, Facebook, Twitter and other social media addictions have arguably left our generation completely bamboozled about how to vet, select and keep a boyfriend or girlfriend. Many old and rigidly boring adults, having been so long removed from the dating scene, blame this phenomenon on the freedom of our youth. Relationships have been polluted, they say, by our “spontaneous, commitment-free (and often, alcoholfueled) romantic flings.” Donna Freitas, professor of religion and gender studies at Boston University and Hofstra and author of The End of Sex: How Hookup Culture is Leaving a Generation Unhappy, Sexually Unfulfilled, and Confused About Intimacy, notes that many college students have never been on a “traditional” date. We lack the basic understanding for developing relationships outside of the
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hookup culture she argues. Let us unwrap this idea of traditional relationships and courting. In order to land a date outside of a hookup mentality, experts say that many young adults lack the necessary courage, strategic planning and ability to handle potential rejection. ‘Asynchronous communication,’ apparently absolves us of the much needed charm to ‘get the girl/land the guy’ at the end of the romantic comedy that is our life. However valid this point may be, the technological advances of society were arguably made to make this process easier. We don’t need to meet up in person to learn about a potential suitor’s background, education, political beliefs, music tastes and so on. That’s what Facebook is for. And if you take the movie The Social Network at its word, that’s exactly what it was designed for. There is no way to tell if these changes in dating are healthy or not, but there should be the understanding that things change. So if your best friend becomes manic about the over-the-
online dating million There are nearly as many EHarmony members are there are people in Austrailia Annual revenue from the online dating industry
1.049 billion
Average length of courtship for marriages that
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met offline months Average length of courtship for marriage that met
18.5
online: months Percent of current committed relationships that began online
20%
phone breakup she’s going through with her “boyfriend” in Nebraska who she’s met only three times, rather than judge, comfort her with a hug and a pint of White Mountain Cookie Monster Ice Cream. That relationship was as real as the calories she’s going to ingest. February2013
ce n e l o i V g n Dati Here are some warning signs of dating violence and what to look for: • Controlling behavior • Physical Abuse • Verbal Abuse • Sexual Abuse/Control • Digital Abuse/Control
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February is Dating Violence Awareness Month. What many people don’t know is that 47 percent of 13-18 year olds who have been in relationships have reported being victimized by controlling behaviors from a boyfriend or girlfriend. College students face unique obstacles in dating relationships especially when seeking help because living on campus can make students feel trapped. College students might be more fearful of reporting because they don’t want to get in trouble for any substance use or because avoiding someone can be more difficult when a victim lives in the same residence hall as their abuser. 9
News
Student loan crisis Policies attempt to alleviate the burden
By Meghan Smith
A
merica has a debt problem. You have probably heard that before, except this problem does not have anything to do with a fiscal cliff or a debt ceiling. This debt problem does not take the form of credit cards, mortgages, or car loans. The largest form of consumer debt in this country is student loans, which tops $1 trillion annually. And student loans are the only type of debt that are not eligible for bankruptcy. Student loan debt is increasingly becoming a problem for graduates all over the country, and politicians are starting to notice. On Jan. 23, three U.S. Senators unveiled the Fairness for Struggling Students Act of 2013. The Act is sponsored by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jack Reed (D-Ill.) Since 1978, federal loans have not been eligible for bankruptcy in order to protect taxpayer money, but in 2005, this was extended to private student loans as well. Politicians frequently argue that in order for America to remain competitive in a global economy, higher education must be easily attainable. President Barack Obama, for example, in his first Address to a Joint Session of Congress, said, “by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” In July, the Obama administration urged Congress to make it easier for
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News Editor
people to file for bankruptcy protection for student debt and discharge some part of their loans. A report by the Education Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said that it would apply to the $150 billion student debt issued by private lend-
The largest form of consumer debt in this country is student loans, which tops over $1 trillion annually. ers, which is about 15 percent of all outstanding student debt. Sallie Mae, which is the country’s biggest provider of private student loans, said that it would support a legislative initiative to allow bankruptcy in some cases. “Sallie Mae continues to support reform that would allow federal and private student loans to be dischargeable in bankruptcy for those who have made a good-faith effort to repay their student loans over a five- to seven-year period and still experience financial difficulty,” it said in a statement. Sallie Mae confirmed on Jan. 23 that it still supports this initiative. The new proposed bill would reverse the change that occurred in 2005
which would allow a discharge on private student loans. In a press release, Sen. Durbin noted that private and federal loans are very different; loans issued by the government are generally easier on the student because of lower interest rates and options for income-based repayment plan. “In 2005, the law was unjustifiably changed to give private student loans the same privileged bankruptcy treatment as government loans, even though private student loans have vastly different terms and fewer consumer protections,” Durbin said. “Today’s bill would restore the bankruptcy law, as it pertains to private student loans, to the language that was in place before 2005 so that privately issued student loans will once again be dischargeable in bankruptcy like nearly all other forms of private debt.” A BC junior, who asked to remain anonymous, said that she wishes there was a lot more support for students who have loans. “What a lot of people don’t realize is that there are a ton of BC students who are here on financial aid and loans,” she said. “Sometimes it is hard for me to be a part of the lifestyle here when I have to be so worried about my future with student loans and debt. I’m worried that people will, like, judge me here, if they know how much financial aid I get.” She said that she is glad that
February2013
Photo courtesy of LeStudio1.com/Flickr
some of these policies will attempt to alleviate some of the burden, although she is not sure how much it will affect her personally. This bill comes amidst a movement to support students while the cost of college continues to skyrocket. Obama made this a priority in his first term. He supported a Congress initiative to prevent student-loan interest rates from
doubling, which was successful. Under the administration, the maximum amount for a Pell Grant doubled, and the government became a direct loan lender, which took away the role of many banks, a move that was perceived as more efficient and a better financial option for students. His most significant accomplishment is considered to be the changes to the income-based repayment system, which now allows borrowers to make payments of 10 percent of their income, instead of the previous 15 percent and the loan could be forgiven after 20 years. With the start of Obama’s second term, he has made it apparent that college affordability will continue to be a priority. “Let me put colleges and
universities on notice: If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. Higher education can’t be a luxury -- it is an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford,” Obama said in his 2012 State of the Union address. Obama has also proposed several policies, including extending the tuition tax credit, as well as increasing the number of work-study jobs. Under advisement from the President, the Consumer Protection Bureau and Department of Education have put pressure on colleges to use a universal form for financial aid which would make it easier to compare financial aid packages and increase transparency about the risks of taking on debt. Amidst a tough job market for recent graduates, the proposed bill is meant to give some relief to struggling college graduates. In a statement, Sen. Whitehouse said, “This bill gives us the chance to right that wrong.”
Statistics about graduate employment
from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity’s report on Jan. 29
• About 48 percent of employed U.S. college graduates are in jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) suggests requires less than a four-year college education,
•
11 percent of employed college graduates are in occupations requiring more than a high-school
diploma but less than a bachelor’s
37 percent are in occupations requiring no more than a high-school diploma • “Typical graduates of elite private schools make more than graduates of flagship state universities, but graduates from the flagship schools do much better than those attending relatively non•
selective institutions”
• “Engineering and economics graduates usually earn almost double what social work and education graduates receive by mid-career”
growth in college enrollments and the number of graduates exceeds the actual or projected growth in high-skilled jobs, explaining the development of the underemployment problem and its probable worsening in future years” • “Past and projected future
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INSIDE: Failure to Launch / Dining Hall Disrespect / A “Fresh” Perspective on Dining Bucks
Opinions
Photo by Pixmac-com/Flickr
Failure to
By Sarah Garcia Opinions Editor
Launch
It’s a common story on campus. A guy loves a girl but refuses to be in a relationship, while the girl cannot decide whether to push him away or settle for what intimacy he can offer.
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Relationships at Boston College
This is not the story of the booty call. It is a new story: the notquite-boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. I was asked to write this article by a friend who told me in a torrent of texts, “someone needs to write an article about guys who say they care about you, love spending time with you, make love to you, but then insist that they can’t take the next step and for whatever reason cannot be in a relationship with anyone.” My friend would give in, hang out with him, share intimate moments, yet each time they hung out he said he “just couldn’t be the person that she deserved right now.” Angry at herself, and confused by his behavior, she presented her situation to me. I understood immediately. Stories like this have become common on our campus: the guy who loves the girl but refuses to officially be in a relationship while the girl cannot decide whether to push him away or settle for what intimacy he can offer. What is it exactly guys are so afraid of? Are reasons like “this isn’t a good time for me to have a girlfriend,” or “I’m in a bad place and I just can’t be close to someone right now” the whole story, or is there something else that’s driving good guys to feel they cannot commit to the women they seem to care about? This phenomenon must be discussed in two parts: what is goFebruary 2013
ing on in a guy’s head when he balks from a dating relationship, and then what a girl should do when she is in this situation. To begin with, a large part of the problem is that in our society male success is measured by financial gain and sexual prowess. Traditional American values associated with masculinity, such as fatherhood, career success, athleticism and affluence have been supplemented by sexual conquest; for our age group, prowess in the bedroom has replaced these values. For college-aged men, the guy who can seduce the most beautiful woman, or the most women, wins. Playboys are given social currency by popular music, sports culture and the hook-up culture of college campuses. But I say this reasoning is flawed. It isn’t that impressive to be able to hook up with many women; what is truly impressive is getting one of those beautiful women to agree to eschew all other suitors and to date YOU, exclusively. That would be a feat truly worthy of admiration. Playboys: I think you should cherish your ability to charm many women, but when you find someone worth keeping, give yourself a real challenge and try to get her to date you. Many guys can successfully sleep with a lonely or inebriated girl; few have enough charm and intelligence to have her decide — when she is sober — that they are worth her time and commitment. There is another small group of guys who do not think there is value in being a playboy, but rather think that it is “safer” or “easier” to hook up with girls but not enter into a relationship. To these guys, I will echo the sentiment of many frustrated women and yell, STOP THINKING WE WILL BE LIKE www.bcgavel.com
Many guys can succesfully sleep with a lonely or inebriated girl; few have enough charm and intelligence to have her decide-- when she’s sober-that they are worth her time and commitment. THAT CRAZY GIRLFRIEND YOU HAD IN HIGH SCHOOL. I think guys operate under the misconception that they know exactly what will happen in the course of a relationship before they ever enter it. They just know that if they agree to be “boyfriend-girlfriend” with a girl, she will turn “pyscho” or clingy. Next thing they know, they are guilted into saying no to football Sundays with the guys because their girlfriend insists they spend more time together. Here’s the thing: this is not what will happen. This is what happens sometimes. Usually with girls who, frankly, you suspected were crazy from the start.
Important Knowledge: There are very chill girls out there, who are looking for people who want to get to know them, quirks and all, and who like to have rollicking good sex. But these girls are NOT the poutyfaced, lipstick-wearing, super drunk girls stumbling around in heels, shooting everyone dirty looks when they look up from the iPhone they’ve been glued to all night at Cityside. If the girl is boring to be around when she’s sober, unpredictable and moody when she’s drunk, and/or she manipulated you into a relationship using sex or mind games, then I have no sympathy for you when the relationship inevitably turns out exactly as you feared it would. But don’t take that experience and superimpose it on every other girl you see! Just as you would agree that not all guys are created equal, neither are all gals created equal. Finally, there is a small minority of guys who don’t want to be close to someone, who think feeling numb and detached is easier than letting someone in. One girl on campus was telling me about a guy she was casually seeing before this past winter break, and how they talked every day over break and things seemed to be going well. However, a few days after break, he ended whatever they were doing, saying “right now I just don’t want to feel anything for anyone, and I don’t want anyone to feel anything for me.” That is one of the saddest things I have ever heard. One day that guy will understand that the thrill and comfort of being in love is more rewarding, exciting and utterly satiating than hooking up with someone who does not know who you really are. Finding out what the girl perspective was on this rock-and-a-hardPhoto by Gatsbys on Northgate/Flickr
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Opinions
This is not the story of the booty call. It is a new story. The not-quite boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. place situation was easy; I had only to listen to the complaints all around me. One friend said about her quasiboyfriend, “He is totally in denial! We talk every day, all day and the sex is amazing! He says himself, ‘This is the best it’s ever going to get.’ “When I told him that either we needed to take our relationship to the next level, or I would need to stop talking to him, he begged me to still be friends because he said I am the most important person in his 14
life!” In his defense it could be (poorly) argued that this guy just sees her as a friend and isn’t attracted to her. But, not only does their palpable sexual chemistry negate this, but he also gets very jealous when he sees her with other guys. She asserts that “If he found out that I found a boyfriend, he would be angry, hurt and completely awkward.” So, what is a girl to do? I have been in this situation before; two forces that ideally work in tandem, what we want to do and what we need to do — are made opposing. In our heart of hearts, we want the intimate conversations and the physical intimacy to continue. Everything feels sort of okay, and it can seem easier to just float along,
accept the status quo and make no demands. We can easily make excuses for his unwillingness to grow closer. Yes, we know—and we hear from our friends—that we should end all contact until our emotional needs are met. Because if a man is not ready to commit to a deeper level of intimacy and if he can’t give us what we have clearly communicated that we want, then we must end ties with him, STAT. This must be done for two reasons. First, certain male behaviors cannot be rewarded. In simpler terms, he don’t get no honey without no beehive! He don’t get the milk without buying the cow! Say to him, “No sir, you do not get access to my body, my emotional support and my epic personality,
February 2013
It can seem easier to accept the status quo and make no demands. We can easily make excuses for his unwillingess to grow closer. whenever you want and in exchange for whatever you feel like giving in return!” But breaking off the steady hook-up is about more than just punishing guys. The goal isn’t to inflict pain, it is really more that we have to do this for our own sanity. By refusing to go along with a status quo we are dissatisfied with, we are asserting that we respect ourselves. Yes, self-respect doesn’t keep you warm at night. And it might not stop the loneliness from settling deep in your chest when you are inebriated. Ultimately though, it is more enduring and rewarding to break off something
you aren’t completely satisfied with, rather than lying to yourself just to feel close to someone. Without a commitment, this closeness is only transient. It comes with no promise and no trust. And the pain that you will inevitably experience when/if the object of your affection rips away that intimacy, with grumbled protests of “You knew the deal! I told you I couldn’t be serious right now!” the pain you will experience will be so much worse than the longing for intimacy you might feel when you choose to be alone rather than lower your standards just to keep someone close.
You will not only have fallen and then gotten kicked in the butt for it, but what is worse, you will know that you should have expected this, and some part of you will blame yourself for falling in the first place, for going along with a relationship where you wanted different things. And that triple dose of sadness, betrayal and self-reprimand is just too much to bear. I know this is hard, but you will emerge stronger, happier, and with room in your heart for someone who will know you, love you, and never let you go.
Yes, self-respect doesn’t keep you warm at night. Ultimately though, it is more enduring and rewarding to break off something you aren’t completely satisfied with, rather than lying to yourself just to feel close to someone.
Photo by Hamed Esmail/Flickr
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Opinions
Dining hall disrespect By Sally Faulkner Gavel Media Staff
Photo by Kara Weeks/Gavel Media
I think it’s important to be t hankful in all parts of life. It helps you realize what you have, and had things been different, what you might not have. It is a Thursday night and I am sitting in Lower Dining Hall, alone except for my computer. I’m hoping people are exceptionally “thirsty” tonight, so I can observe how this (for the most part) respectful student body changes as the night progresses. I am incognito, hidden by my yellow baseball cap. So far, I haven’t been noticed. Well, almost. The two guys in front of me have definitely noticed me typing as I look up at the dining scene. In fact, the different groups of people who come and sit by me at first think I am watching something worth their attention, but after a bit they change their minds. So here I am, a strong believer in not judging anyone. But I had this idea in my head that there are those who present themselves in a certain way and collectively act similarly. But tonight, I soon realized that, at least in Corcoran Commons, I cannot stereotype anyone. Because as I watch the many different
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types of people who stroll up to pay for their food, there is no certain type of person who could be counted on to say “Thank you!” to the two cashiers. I think it’s important to be thankful in all parts of life. It helps you realize what you have, and had things been different, what you might not have. We are young adults, and we have great dining facilities. We have pretty good options in terms of what we eat. We have wonderful people cooking for us, serving us and cleaning up after us. We are here to learn both our academia and how to become responsible, virtuous young adults. How we interact here on campus becomes habitual over time. Our behavior in the present influences how we will act when we take on more responsibilities and stresses in the future. The crowd has lulled, and the dining staff has maintained control. I’m still sitting at my table and I’m real-
izing that I may not have picked a good night to stake out Lower. Maybe tonight would not be as rowdy as I had hoped. “C”, lets call her, a BC dining employee, has walked over to set up the dividers for later, when I assume things usually get wild. About 20 minutes ago, I caught C at a quiet time to show her a heartwarming comment someone had made about her on the Internet. You may be familiar with the Facebook group, Boston College Compliments. It is a fabulous idea, in my opinion. It seems that the creators of this group have a hard time keeping up with the numerous nice things people have to say about their friends, admirers, acquaintances and loved ones. There are comments going up all the time recognizing various people’s good nature. An anonymous Facebook user messaged BC Compliments who posted the comment, “C is a sweetheart and great
February 2013
conversationalist.” 28 people stumbled across this post and liked it in acknowledgement that she is in fact a great person who deserves some recognition. I got to talk to her for a second. I asked her about her opinion on the fact that some people think that disrespect for dining hall workers has reached an all-time high. C said the fact of the matter was that there is no trouble when it comes to disrespect if she is working. And I believe it. I’ve only gotten to know her a short while, but she seems like a strong human being who wouldn’t tolerate being disrespected. C says theft is the only problem she can think of. This year BC has hired people to aid the police officers who work at Late Night as the watchful protectors of the food. They are also
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there during the day to watch out for a subtle sandwich snag. Hey, I’m a little upset that we’re paying $6.99 for a premade salad, too! But, my friends, it is actually the thieves who are to blame, who have over the years stolen food and in turn upset the inventory. C may not see the things I occasionally see when I pop into Lower. In the past, I have seen people throw their cards in the cashiers’ faces. I’ve seen people spill something and walk away. I’ve seen people get something, change their minds, and leave their plate of food in a random place. I’ve seen people choose not to respond to a friendly, “Hello!” My point is you never know how you’re going to affect someone else’s day. You could make it
better, or you could make it worse. I know it’s someone’s job to clean up at the end of the night. But no one needs to clean up unnecessary messes. Just use your head! Our mothers, fathers, aunts, and uncles may have cleaned up for us in the past. But we can’t act like we did when we were five. For sure, people here on campus make our lives easier but we still have to act as we would in our own dining rooms. We have to act as the young adults that we aspire to be. We have to help the people we are becoming. This campus is bustling with good energy, and I think we are very different from most schools because of that. Let’s keep our home happy and clean. Let’s keep it respectful. Let’s make it serene.
Abiove (From Left): wafrerboard/Flickr, Elaine Ashton/Flickr, Jeremy Carbaugh/Flickr
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Opinions
A “fresh” perspective on dining bucks
By Tim Coogan Gavel Media Staff
“There should be more flexibility in what type of meal plan a freshman has and how much money goes into it.”
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Freshman students should have more power to choose their meal plan and how their dining money is spent. It is inconceivable that students be limited in their meal plan options and food choices due to the different kinds of dining “currency” allowed at each dining hall. Instead, freshmen who are required to have the $2,409 Residential Dining Plan each semester, ought to be able to use their money at any Boston College food vendor that they choose. BC Dining is a singular, university run business. Hillside does not compete with Lower, nor does the Chocolate Bar Peet’s coffee compete with the Peet’s coffee bar at Stuart. However, freshmen are only allotted $175 a semester at secondary dining halls such as Hillside, The Chocolate Bar, and at the “On the Fly” mini marts. The remaining $2,234 can only be spent at the three primary dining halls in addition to some smaller places such as the Rat and Eagles Nest. The money is all going to the same place though, so why does BC Dining dictate how we can spend it? All freshmen and even upperclassmen living in Walsh, 66, Greycliff, Vanderslice, 90 and Stayer are required to have the Residential Dining Plan. The University finds that, for
freshmen especially, having the meal plan is an “essential part of the residential life experience.” I agree that the primary dining halls can be a social scene. Although it is important to recognize that those dining halls are only a social hub for those who want it to be. Students who want to eat by themselves, either for some peace and quiet or because of a busy study night are going to eat alone regardless of whether or not they buy their meal from Lower or heat up some Easy Mac from On the Fly. In reality, restraining students from buying a larger portion of their meals from On the Fly would not stop the isolationists from secluding themselves to their rooms. Preventing students from buying all their meals at Hillside or the Chocolate Bar does not ensure nutrition either. More freedom to spend dining money may mean more gelato and bakery goods, but the students who pursue a healthy diet will continue to do so and the others who prefer flattops and F’real shakes will stick to their Freshman 15 diet. Eating a balanced diet is a choice that students themselves have to make, not a choice BC can make for us by deciding where our money
February 2013
goes. It is also frustrating that when a student runs out of regular dining money, the Hillside/vending dollars can be utilized in the main dining halls. Meanwhile, when a student runs out of Hillside dollars the opposite is not true. It would be great if the extra money on my meal plan at the end of the semester could be used towards the secondary dining halls. However, BC Dining presents the ultimatum to either spend it in Lower, McElroy, and Stuart or watch it disappear at the end of the academic year. The only concession I can make is that if a student does have left over dining bucks than that money may be refunded upon graduation. Furthermore, how fair is it for a five foot two inch tall “plex-girl” to have the same amount of money on her account as a “BC bro” who rigorously lifts weights a couple of times a week? Obviously the physically larger people with more rigorous workouts will require a greater amount of food to sustain themselves. BC Dining explains that the meal plan is a reflection of what the average person eats. Although this makes sense on paper, many freshmen see this as unreasonable due to the large population of classmates at both ends of the “plex girl-BC bro” spectrum. Therefore, there should be more flexibility in what type of meal plan a student has and how much money goes into it. If you deplete your account before the end of the semester a www.bcgavel.com
friend will usually help you out. Is it reasonable though for other students to donate meal plan money to friends when sometimes that money wasn’t even theirs to begin with? Supporting a friend after he or she has run out of money can be expensive, at about $20 a day. Especially with swipes, you may not think twice about constantly covering for a friend. However, if that money were cash then you would definitely be a little more hesitant. With greater meal plan flexibility fewer students would find themselves with too many or not enough dining bucks at the end of the semester. I also want to acknowledge that I am not criticizing BC Dining in itself. As BC students we are privileged to appear on “top ten” lists around the web (such as Newsweek’s TheDailyBeast.com #7 rating and an A- rating on COLLEGE PROWLER). Additionally, it is great that we have so many choices of where to eat each day. I am only proposing that students should have the freedom to choose how their own money is spent. While upperclassmen have the option to move off campus or into a dorm without a meal plan requirement, many freshmen are trapped eating the food at McElroy. Some would prefer to eat the food from the secondary dining halls more often while others wish that they could eat more food in general. When the dining hall money is all going to the same place, BC students should be able to choose how to spend it.
Photos by Kara Weeks/Gavel Media Photo
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Inside: Housing Horrors/International Update/Mad Men Cocktail Review/Overheard at BC
Features
February 2013
You Should Be Getting That Beauty Rest!
Michael Bonner, a Boston College senior, wakes up tired every day. He sleeps between four to five hours per night on an average weekday, and on a bad day drinks up to six cups of coffee, two of them by 8 a.m. He heads to his internship at Bank of America in downtown Boston before attending classes at the Carroll School of Management, where he is studying finance and accounting. Bonner drinks so much coffee that the caffeine barely helps him stay awake. “I’m feeling pretty burnt out right now,” he says about juggling five classes and an internship. Bonner knows he probably could use a few more hours of sleep and fewer cups of coffee. After all, sleep deprivation is not new to college students. But what he doesn’t know is that lack of sleep can make you become obese, according to new research findings. You snooze, you lose? Insufficient sleep, even for a short amount of time, leads to a risk of obesity and Type II diabetes in the long run, according to a study published in October in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a journal of the American College of Physicians. After four hours of sleep per night for four days, the fat cells of research participants were 30 percent less able to respond to insulin compared to a person who was not sleep-deprived, the researchers say. The sleep-deprived people’s fat cells resembled those of a diabetic or an obese person. “It was once thought that sleep was only necessary for the brain,” says Josiane Broussard, one of the researchers of the sleep study and a post-doctoral fellow at a nonprofit community medical center in Los Angeles.
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By Marion Halftermeyer COPY EDITOR
But this study and others show that sleep can be important for the other organs and tissues in the body as well, such as its effect on the cells that respond to insulin and other side effects of not getting enough sleep. The study also revealed that more research is needed to determine whether getting more sleep could offset or delay obesity or diabetes. Adequate sleep may be just as important as diet and exercise in preventing and treating obesity and diabetes, it says. Sleep and the college student Sleep deprivation particularly affects college students, who are overwhelmingly and increasingly not getting seven to nine hours of sleep per night as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. About 70 percent
of college students sleep less than eight hours per night, according to a 2010 study by the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Nationally, the average college student gets about 6.87 hours of sleep per night, says Robyn Priest, associate director of the Office of Health Promotion at BC. As students are sleeping less, they are becoming unsatisfied with the quality of the sleep they are getting, and usually are not sleeping as deeply or as well as they would like to. In 1969, fewer than a quarter of students reported being unhappy with the quality of sleep they were getting; today that number has risen to 71 percent, Priest said citing data collected by the office from the CDC. Although there has been no study of sleep patterns at BC, Priest says, “most of the student body is consistently getting an hour or two not enough sleep (per night) during the week.” A perfect storm Students are not only sleeping less, but national trends show that on average they are also getting fatter. Over the past 20 years, obesity in the United States has dramatically increased. More than one-third of adults and 17 percent of people aged 2 to 19 years old are obese, according to the CDC. In 2005 to 2007, a quarter of all adults and 42 percent of people aged 18 to 24 years old were obese, according to a survey on health behaviors by
February2013
the National Center for Health Statistics. “Maybe the ‘freshman 15’ is due to the drastic reduction in sleep that most college students undergo,” Broussard says in reference to the belief that first-year college students gain 15 pounds during the adjustment to college. “Students seem to compensate by sleeping in ridiculously late on the weekends, drinking energy drinks and sugary beverages and caffeinated beverages, like coffee,” Priest says. For Lyuda Gorbach, a senior at BC, coffee-drinking is almost a science. Gorbach, who studies finance at the Carroll School of Management, times her first cup of coffee to be ready the minute she steps out of the shower in the morning. “I want to be ready for it and I want it to be ready for me when I’m ready. It’s perfect timing,” she says. She’ll drink up to five cups a day on a busy day.
But Priest says turning to caffeine and sugar is unhealthy and can make you gain weight. Having too much caffeine or sugar in your system before bed could cause even more sleep deficiency. What’s more alarming is that sugar does not actually give you energy, says Sheila Tucker, the nutritionist in the Office of Health Promotion. She says it’s a central nervous system stimulant; it makes you feel like you have more energy. “That’s why I call it fake energy,” she says. While energy actually comes from calories in food, ‘fake’ energy from drinks like a 5-Hour Energy can leave you feeling more tired. “Going all day on coffee or Diet Coke,” Tucker says, “you aren’t fueling your brain so you could be more tired from that.” Tucker adds that when you’re tired, you don’t necessarily have enough energy or time to make the effort to eat well. “It’s easy to just take the easier
Infographic courtesy of the Office of Health Promotion
www.bcgavel.com
route through junk foods,” she says. Given the risk of becoming fat from sleep deficiency, unhealthy coping habits like eating junk food and drinking energy drinks are only making students’ health worse. “It’s the perfect storm,” Tucker says. Storm or not, sleep < homework + internship/ job + social time + working out Bonner worries about his health. Because he’s so busy that he doesn’t sleep more than five hours per
night, he finds himself needing to eat more the sleepier he is. He’s scared of being overweight later on in life, so he works out three to four times per week to compensate for his snacking habits in addition to the four to five meals he eats per day. “That’s what keeps me going,” Bonner says.
Photos by Kara Weeks/Photo Editor
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Features
Photos by Kara Weeks/Photo Editor
Housing selection is coming right around the corner, just after spring break!
Housing Horrors: Don’t Let This By Katie Levingston Happen to You! FEATURES EDITOR
My experience with housing last year
my roommate and I were not included. I
honestly with your friends as early as pos-
was interesting to say the least. I lived on
had spent the majority of my first semester
sible will make for the best results and for
Newton where I would say that, though the
freshman year with these girls and now we
all of you to feel happy about yourhousing
green space and the “idea of coming home”
don’t talk anymore because of housing.
situations.
are nice, it can sometimes feel like you are in your own kind of Newton world. I loved Newton for the kind of friends I still have, but not so much for the isolation it presented being so far away from main campus. I was lucky enough to have a roommate who has become my best friend. We spent a lot of our time with the other people in our dorm and on our floor and when it came time for housing selection, we thought we would room with six other girls on our floor. That was probably my biggest mistake: assuming my roommate and I were a part of a group of eight. It kept getting closer to the housing deadline and one of the girls told us that they already had a plan, and
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Yes, this actually did happen. We used
2) Have back-up plans: If one option falls
to talk every day about our classes, things
through, have another option. Don’t think
that were bothering us, just like friends
that you won’t have anywhere to live, don’t
often do. Somehow the housing process
think you’re going to have to transfer,
had the power to do away with all of that.
things do work out. Being, so to speak, “re-
In hindsight, I am glad the whole thing
jected” from a group really hurt at the time,
happened because I came to realize that
but you will get over it and will be better off
I didn’t have that much in common with
for getting through it.
these girls who I thought were my friends and I ended up finding another group and fortunately got a 9-man apartment on Lower Campus. To avoid this kind of situation: 1) COMMUNICATE with your friends: Don’t think anything is set in stone as far as housing groups are concerned; I found that out the hard way. Talking openly and
3) Make sure you can see yourself living day to day with the girls or boys you choose to live with. It’s a lot of people in one space. And, the people you live with don’t have to be your best friends — you just have to be able to live with them. Dorm life can be fun as long as you make sure to think realistically about the kind of environment you want to live in.
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Housing Guide: All About Where You’re Living Sophomore Year
short biography about her
You’re very lucky if you get to live on Lower Campus sophomore year. It’s what an imaginary Boston College realtor would call “prime real estate.” Vandy, 90, and Walsh are made up of mostly 8-person apartments mans, with some 9-person apartments, quads and 6-person apartments. Some sophomores can live in Edmonds through the Healthy Living Program. Pros: -Living on Lower: close to events in Robsham Theater, sporting events, other upperclassman dorms -Not having a common bathroom -Having a common room -Living with a lot of friends
Photo by Katie Tolkowsky/ Gavel Media Photo
Cons: -Living with a lot of people -Having to clean your own bathroom (an adjustment after most students lived in a double as freshmen) -Farther away from class
CoRo isn’t that bad. Yes, you’re not on Lower but you can virtually roll out of bed and into your 9 a.m. in Stokes in five minutes if you wanted to. And you’re closer to the Chocolate Bar... who doesn’t like that? Roncalli, Welch and Williams are made up of mostly doubles with some triples and quads.
recipe name
Pros: Cons: -Near classes -Common bathrooms -Someone else cleans your bathroom Pro or Con: Not on Lower: you won’t hear the Mods raging every weekend, and maybe you might like that. Photo by Katie Levingston/Gavel Media Photo
Photo by Kara Weeks/Gavel Media Photo
Junior Year Some juniors live off-campus. However, if you are living on-campus, the options are a lot like sophomore year. Vandy, 90, and 66 are still up for grabs in addition to Edmonds and the Gate (recently renamed Stayer Hall): sometimes you might have to cook your own meals, but that’s easy to deal with. Stayer Hall also includes a full mean plan. Edmonds has 4-person apartments and the Gate has mostly 8-person apartments.
Senior Year
Photo by Robert Rossi/Gavel Media Photo
Senior year comes with a whole host of great accolades, and housing is one of them. Depending on the kind of living situation you want, there is nothing horribly awful about senior housing, unless you will continue to hold a grudge when you don’t get a Mod. Other senior housing such as Rubenstein, Gabelli, Ignacio, Voute and the Gate (Stayer Hall) are still some of the best dorms on campus. Sometimes you might have to cook your own meals since these dorms also don’t have a full meal plan, but again that’s easy to deal with. Optional meal plans can be purchased for $800 or $1200.
www.bcgavel.com
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Features
INTERNATIONAL UPDATE: What Does Freedom Mean To Foreign Countries? By Victoria Southwood GAVEL MEDIA STAFF Freedom is a widely revered and understood term in American culture. But the same cannot be said for a large part of the world. While many Americans and other citizens of developed countries think of freedom as an indisputable right, billions of people around the world continue to live in conditions deemed “Partly Free” and even “Not Free” by the Freedom House Organization. Freedom House, founded in 1941, dedicates its resources towards the analysis of freedom around the world. This includes defining freedom and determining the best political environment to sustain it, as well as determining the countries and regions where freedom is threatened or may not exist at all. In addition, Freedom House advocates for freedom on a global level by speaking against those who pose a threat to freedom and by encouraging individuals residing in these threatened areas to speak up and demand their basic rights. “Freedom is possible only in democratic political environments where governments are accountable to their own people; the rule of law prevails; and freedoms of expression, association, and belief, as well as respect for the rights of minorities and women, are guaranteed,” according to Freedom House. Using this definition of freedom, the independent watchdog organization releases an annual report that summarizes its research of the year
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and labels countries as Free, Partly Free, or Not Free. This data is based on ratings, assigned by a Freedom in the World survey, on a 1-7 scale for political rights and civil liberties. The Huffington Post reported the release of Freedom House’s 2012 report, which demonstrated a continued decline in worldwide freedom. For the seventh year in a row, the international community has experienced a declining state of freedom. Freedom House determined that more than half of the countries in the world are not free, leaving over two billion people under oppressive rule. The 11 nations and territories that Freedom House defines as the most oppressive and lacking in freedom included North Korea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Western Sahara (territory), and Tibet (territory). However, omission from this list doesn’t ensure a nation or region is advancing towards freedom. Mali demonstrated what Freedom House recorded as “one of the greatest single-year declines in the history of Freedom in the World,” as its freedom status declined from Free to Not Free. The military coup and takeover by Islamist militants were large factors in this deep setback, but Mali is not alone. Similar trends of decline can be seen in Turkey where the government has started to threaten civil liberty, in Syria where the Arab Spring hit the hard-
Saudi Arabia
North Korea Uzbekistan February2013
est and stimulated the most violence, and in Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran where it is increasingly dangerous for people like activists and journalists to be present in the countries as the threat of persecution is increasingly high. Eurasia, following Russia’s increase in oppression with the return of Vladimir Putin, has suffered setbacks that Freedom House claims will lead it to rival “the Middle East as one of the most oppressive areas on the globe.” Despite some setbacks, there are parts of the world that are moving forward. West Africa, even with some terrible declines, has also been home to important gains in freedom. Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal, and Sierra Leone all took steps towards freedom through either improvement in their government sectors or through the adoption of civil liberties for their citizens. The MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region has also made notable movement towards freedom. Specifically, democratic improvements helped nations such as Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, make this happen. These improvements and similar improve-
ments elsewhere give organizations like Freedom House hope for the fu-
freedom of its citizens for decades. This will require democracies to encourage and protect activists around the world, to support rulers who will enforce democracy in their own nations, and to aid civil movements, all of which “will send a critical message to the agents of repression that, no matter what our various domestic woes may be, the spread of freedom is still very much on the global agenda.” While freedom is not yet a global reality, with the support and action of nations that have successfully established freedom domestically the prospect of ensuring global freedom sometime in the future becomes increasingly possible each day.
ture. Freedom House concluded its report with a call for action on the part of countries like the U.S., whose democratic ideals have ensured the Above: North Korea Photos by Kara Weeks/ Photo Editor
Tibet
Syria www.bcgavel.com
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Features With AMC’s hit drama Mad Men returning to the air this spring, Gavel Media thought we’d change up this month’s beer review, opting for cocktails instead. Join us as we explore five basic drinks and the characters who enjoy them.
COCKTAIL R
Gin Martini In a shaker filled with large ice cubes, add 2.5 ounces of dry gin, half an ounce of dry vermouth, and one dash of aromatic bitters. Stir (don’t shake! That will make it cloudy…) and strain off into a cocktail glass. Flag with a stuffed olive on a cocktail pick. Martinis made dry, as Roger Sterling would drink his, are classy but strong; the classic gin martini isn’t mixed with anything that isn’t alcoholic. A gin martini also isn’t artificially flavored like so many martinis today, but the bitters and vermouth give the gin a nice floral note on the back end. Like Roger, this drink comes on strong, but then charms you with its subtle finish.
Vodka and Tonic In a highball glass filled with ice, add 2 ounces of vodka, 5 ounces of tonic water, and 3 or 4 lime wedges. Stir and serve. Vodka and tonic is a simple but refreshing cocktail that masks its alcohol well and carries forth a pleasant wave of citrus flavor and mild bitterness from the tonic. In Mad Men, we’d most likely find it in the hands of Betty, who has shown her affinity for lime and vodka by ordering vodka gimlets, a similar drink. You can’t go wrong with this choice; it’s not complicated like some of our other drinks, just like Betty’s character. Don chose to marry her because she seemed like a good choice for a wife and mother. This drink is a safe choice, and unlike Betty, won’t prove you wrong.
Manhattan In a lowball glass filled with ice, mix 2 ounces of rye whiskey, 1 ounce of sweet vermouth, and 3 dashes of Angostura bitters. Stir and strain off into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry. Manhattans are sophisticated, strong and spicy cocktails. Often associated with power and intrigue (think Gilded-Age businessmen and Mafia bosses). Manhattans would be a fit drink for Pete Campbell. Pete has had quite the arc on Mad Men, from his role as a thorn in Draper’s side, to an up and coming ad-man, to most recently landing big accounts for the firm. But for every success Pete has, he manages to screw up as well. He, like many characters on the show, is less than honest in his domestic life, and can often blur the lines of what constitutes proper business etiquette. The Manhattan, with its delicate balance of sweet and spicy mirrors Pete’s personality. He’ll charm you with his sweetness, but next thing you know he’s fist-fighting a senior partner in the boardroom.
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February2013
REVIEW: By Christian Fiedler and Thomas Fiascone GAVEL MEDIA STAFF
Don Draper’s Rye Old Fashioned
Grab a lowball glass, a sugar cube, a cherry, and some Angostura bitters. Add a few dashes of bitters to the sugar cube, cherry and muddle. Mix by crushing the ingredients together. In a highball glass filled with ice, add 2 ounces of rye whiskey (just like Draper, we used Old Overholt) and half-to-an-ounce of club soda. Stir to combine, then pour off onto the muddled mixture in the lowball glass. Garnish with an orange slice and serve.
All participants in this cocktail review were 21+. Please drink responsibly.
The old-fashioned cocktail is classy and sophisticated, much like Mad Men’s hero Don Draper. And like Don’s personality, the cocktail can have many faces. Part of the beauty of the old-fashioned is the subtle differences you taste from drink to drink. Some recipes call for a dash of soda water, and others prefer to garnish with fruit rather than muddle. The spirit used can vary from the traditional rye to bourbon and other whiskeys, and some employ Southern Comfort to sweeten up the drink even more. Whatever the twist, this cocktail is a classic go-to drink, much like Draper is the go-to ad man at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. The drink, like Don, is elegantly put together, but with a strong kick that is lacking from many of today’s sugared-up and watereddown cocktails.
Sazerac
Fill a lowball glass with ice to chill and set aside. In a second glass, add a sugar cube, saturate it well with Peychaud’s bitters (a spicy, berryish New Orleans specialty), and muddle. After it is well-mixed, add two ounces of rye whiskey, top with ice, and stir. In the original chilled lowball glass, dispose of the ice and add a quarter ounce of absinthe, Pernod, or Herbsaint, coating the walls of the glass. Strain the cocktail into the anise-liquer coated glass, run a lemon peel around the rim, and add the peel to the cocktail. The Sazerac is reportedly the oldest cocktail in the United States, which makes sense given its use of obscure ingredients like Peychaud’s bitters and absinthe. Although it is not a regular drink in Mad Men, the Sazerac would be well suited to Ad Executive Bert Cooper, one of the heads of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Bert, an Ad Exec from days gone by, often finds himself forgotten in the bustle of 1960s New York. He does, however, have a knack for coming through in the clutch, reminding his coworkers that he still has the acumen to close a big deal. Like Bert, the Sazerac is somewhat obscure today, only recently making resurgence in the cocktail community. It may be a cocktail from days gone by, but if you’re looking to take a step beyond the familiar, you won’t be disappointed: this drink always comes through. Photos by Kara Weeks/Gavel Media and courtesy of Flickr/myownstyle1234/xJavierx
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Features
Overheard at BC
Overheard at BC is a cherished Gavel Media tradition. Read on to get some laughs at the expense of your fellow BC students and be careful what you say— or it might show up here! All statements are 100 percent “overheard” and not fabricated by Gavel Media. “Bros have feelings too you know.” –Outside Mac “I want to punt the BU terrier off the Golden Gate Bridge.” –Conte Forum “There are pretty much no downsides to having sex with him.” –Eagles Nest “How many calories do you think that burns?” –Mod Lot “If we don’t get an 8-man I’m moving off campus.” –Mac “I look too good in this picture.” –O’Neill Library “I wrote a paper about how skinny girls are discriminated against, and I got an A on it, so I have a point.” –Bookstore “If I ever get above 115 pounds, I’ll be so sad.” -Hillside “Gonna open up my Natty Light, so fratty, so college” -Vandy “He’s kinda cute, in a future husband sort of way” –Hillside Photos by Kara Weeks/Gavel Media
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February2013
Features
29 www.bcgavel.com
Features
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INSIDE: Where can your BC ID take you?/Cheap dates for every couple/Irrelevancy of the Grammy’s
Culture
February 2013
No oven? No stove? No problem! Chocolate Strawberries for your BC sweetheart By Lauren Leckenby/ Gavel Media Staff
You may be broke after going abroad or you may just not have money for an extravagant Valentine’s Day treat. This simple recipe for chocolate covered strawberries makes a perfect gift or festive dessert!
Ingredients:
Preparation: 1
2
Set up a cookie sheet (or plates) covered with wax paper.
3
Melt the semi-sweet chocolate in the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl on high power for approximately 60 seconds. Take the bowl out of the microwave and stir the chopped pieces together, then place it back in the microwave for 10 more seconds until the chocolate has melted. Remove the bowl from the microwave and allow the chocolate to cool a little bit so that it thickens.
1-pound (about 20) ripe strawberries 6 ounces chopped semi-sweet chocolate
Rinse the strawberries, drain them and pat them dry.
4 5
Take each strawberry by the stem and dip the bottom half or three quarters into the chocolate. Twist the strawberry in the chocolate while lifting it out so that it does not drip.
6
Place each strawberry on the parchment paper. Once all of the strawberries are dipped in chocolate, place them in the refrigerator to cool. Give them to your Valentine for a homemade and thoughtful gift … college dorm room style!
Photos by Lauren Leckenby/ Gavel Media Staff
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February2013
Top 10 Anti-Valentine’s Day Movies
Ahhh, Valentine’s Day. The holiday of love. It’s the prime opportunity to treat your significant other to chocolate, flowers and a nice dinner to show them how much you care. It’s a big ordeal for most couples: new ones debating whether to celebrate or not and long-term ones working behind the scenes to make the day extra special. But there is, unfortunately, an opposition. For those of us who are currently unattached (yes boys, I’m single; I know, it’s
shocking), Valentine’s Day is often a day of resentment. We scoff at the happy couple we see holding hands across the quad, the countless Kay Jewelers commercials which show us what we are missing out on, the obnoxious amounts of pink and red that make their way into every part of our day and the annoying amount of ooey-gooey chick flicks that come out around this time of year. Needless to say, Valentine’s Day for
singles usually translates into a night in with dessert and a bottle of wine. If you’re going to be spending Valentine’s Day at home this year, whether with friends or your coziest blanket, and you don’t want to fuel the fire of your own personal pity party, I happily present to you the top 10 anti-Valentine’s Day movies. They’re gory, they’re intense, they’re hysterical and they’ll be sure to take your mind off of love and make your day a little more bearable (you can still have that bottle of wine).
By Mary Yuengert / Assoc. Culture Editor
10. Taken: You’ll think twice before daydreaming about meeting a hot foreign guy while studying abroad. 9. Saw 1-6: Have your own marathon. The amount of red in these movies won’t leave you yearning for romance. 8. Fatal Attraction: Guys, take it from Michael Douglas. Women are indeed capable of coming at you with a kitchen knife. 7. American Beauty: Unhappy couple + infidelity + unhappy ending = happy about being single. 6. Kill Bill: Vol. 1: The Bride seeks revenge for her baby’s death and Quentin Tarantino is crowned the king of AntiValentine’s Day. Bazinga. 5. The Break-Up: The allout war between Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn will remind you that being single is not so bad after all. 4. The Exorcist: No love, no romance, just pure devil possession. 3. Stand by Me: For guys who miss the uncomplicated days, when finding a dead body in the woods with your friends was top priority. 2. Bridesmaids: The ultimate girl power comedy, perfect for cozying up with your best friends and a box of chocolates. 1. Friends with Benefits: The proof that being unattached can be fun, especially when it involves Justin Timberlake. Screenshots by Emily Akin/ Gavel Media Photo
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Culture
Budding romance on a budget
Photo courtesy of Muns/Wikimedia Commons
Struggles of the college student revolve mostly around one object: money. The amount of cash in your wallet dictates where you go, what you do and when you do it. But Valentine’s Day is no time to cut corners. When it comes to showing someone how you feel, money cannot hold you back. Lucky for us, Boston is full of inexpensive and unique activities and restaurants for you and your valentine. Whether you are a casual couple or soul mates, this list will give you plenty of ideas for a memorable evening together.
Planetarium Show at the Museum of Science
What could be more romantic than stargazing? This date shows that you are cre32
ative and smart but also a romantic. If you really want to impress your date, check out the Museum’s website for the monthly sky chart and viewing guide. The Museum is open until 9:00 p.m. on Saturday’s, so you and your date will have time to make a second stop elsewhere after taking in the stars.
By Christie Merino / Gavel Media staff for its organic and delicious not be accepted for payment! pizza. As a bonus, it won’t break the bank to grab a bite Trident Booksellers and play a game or two with and Cafe your date. If you or your date is vegetarian or vegan, then this menu will be a welcome Mr. Bartley’s Burger change from the limited Cottage If your Valentine is really meal selections on campus. not a Valentine and more of If you’re old enough to grab a good friend that you talked a beer come this Valentine’s into spending the evening Day, Trident, located on Newwith you, then enjoying some bury Street, even has a solid messy comfort food together collection of New England in Harvard Square will make beers to go along with your it more than worth his or her Hummus Plate or handmade while. These delectable burg- Tibetan vegetarian dumpers will have your mouths wa- lings. Wandering around tering the second you walk Newbury Street afterwards in but don’t run more than is a great option, but even about $13. Harvard Square is better is wandering around also a great place to explore, the bookstore and pointing so don’t be in a rush to get out your favorite books and back on campus! Make sure reminiscing about the times to bring cash, as your card will you once spent enjoying the
The Flatbread Company @ Sacco’s Bowl Haven
Nothing says casual fun more than pizza and bowling. This date will have you both laughing and will bring out your competitive sides. It’s easier to get to if you have access to a car, as the restaurant/bowling alley is located in Somerville, but it is definitely worth the trek. The Flatbread Company is known
Photo courtesy of Pizza Express Marketing/Wikimedia Commons
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you both up and keep your wallet happy. Of course, the atmosphere is less-than- romantic, but if that’s what you’re looking for, then this is an ideal restaurant.
Mike’s Pastry
Photo courtesy of Peter Weiss/Wikimedia Commons
luxury that is recreational reading.
Punjab Palace Restaurant
Indian food may not be what most people associate with Valentine’s Day, but if your goal is to have great food that you won’t be seeing on campus, this is worth a try. Consistently rated as having the best Indian food in Boston by Zagat Survey, Punjab has a wide array of authentic Indian food for those that know the cuisine well. Located close to BC’s campus on Brighton Avenue, Punjab Palace is a great place
for an old college couple to indulge in some new food. A meal won’t cost you more than $15 here, which is a great value considering this restaurant’s reputation around Boston.
If casual but sweet is more of what you’re looking for, Mike’s Pastry shop in the North End is a great stop on your Valentine’s Day adventure. With some of the best cannolis in Boston, Mike’s is still a bargain without sacrificing any of the taste or
Photo courtesy of John Mueller/Wikimedia Commons
Pour House
If all you want to do this Valentine’s Day is take your date somewhere that feels like a nonstop party, this place will do the trick. The expansive menu of American food including burgers, steak tips and subs is accompanied by Mexican food such as chimichangas and tostadas. This food will fill
Photo by Mary Yuengert/ Gavel Media staff
Legal Sea FoodsHarborside
Legal Sea Foods has become a successful national franchise for a reason. Sitting down for a full meal here might run a little too high for most budgets, so a great alternative is sitting on Floor 3 for an appetizer and a lovely view of the harbor. Make reservations for dusk so you can woo your date as the sun sets. Photo courtesy of William Heimbuch/Wikimedia Commons
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charm that comes with a small 100 percent homemade bakery. This menu includes delectable cookies, cake by the slice, specialty coffee and biscotti all within a college student’s budget. Again, make sure you have cash as Mike’s does not accept cards.
These ideas leave you feeling confident and prepared for your Valentine’s Day this year. Planning ahead is key when it comes to special occasions, so make sure you do your research before heading out with your date. Girls and guys alike aren’t looking for extravagance. Instead, show your date that you are creative, fun and attentive to their interests and you both will have a night you won’t soon forget!
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Culture out in the Robsham Ticket Office. These are huge perks, since all of the museums generally charge a $15 admission fee and Aquarium tickets cost a whopping $22. While free MFA tickets have always been run of the mill, BC2Boston, a new branch of UGBC, is responsible for opening up the other museums to the student population.
take you?
Where can your BC ID By Emily Akin / Culture editor It’s really remarkable how much we disrespect our Eagle IDs. They get thrown into jumbled purses, slammed down on the counter at Late Night and too often dropped on the Comm. Ave bus. But if you knew how much that little bugger could be saving you out and about in Boston, you might not be quite so tempted to challenge your friends to a game of ID paper football in Mac. And we’re not just talking about the ambiguous college student 10 percent off discount which can be found at many clothing stores and restaurants.
The group also provides discount tickets to Broadway shows and concerts through the Robsham Ticket Office. “The point is to give students an opportunity to experience all of the great things that Boston has [to offer] that we can’t do because we’re poor college students,” said Maggie Farrell, A&S ‘15 and the fine arts coordinator for BC2Boston.
Thanks to the history and fine arts core requirements, many students know that admission to the Museum of Fine Arts is free when you present your ID at the desk. What you probably didn’t know is that as BC students we also have free access to the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, the Science Museum and the New England Aquarium. For most of these venues your ID will give you free entrance at the door, but tickets for the Aquarium and Science Museum are handed
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Photo by Emily Akin / Gavel Media photo
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city for fun can be harder to swing with our packed schedules. Slater explained that this was one of the driving motives for founding the branch of UGBC: “BC2Boston started two years ago with the idea that there were a lot of BC students who were expressing at the end of their time here that they hadn’t really explored Boston,” she said.
BC2Boston sold discounted tickets to Ellie Goulding’s concert on Jan. 23 at the House of Blues through the Robsham Ticket Office. In a demonstration of the program’s success, tickets sold out approximately two minutes after the online box office opened. Besides strictly cultural events, BC2Boston strives to “promote events that are more inclusive of the entire BC population, so we’re not just putting on events that might just satisfy one pocket of students,” said Tim Koch, A&S 2014 and deputy director of BC2Boston. This means that students can also score discounted Celtics, Red Sox and Bruins tickets through the Robsham Ticket Office. Sarah Slater, A&S ‘13, director of BC2Boston, said that these events are all about picking what the city has best to offer: “You normally get all these ‘Things to do in Boston’ lists and you don’t know what to pick, so that’s what our goal is. To help you choose! We want students to experience the typical Boston things, the iconic Boston experiences.”
A lot of students feel tied to the campus on weekends or overwhelmed by the amount of events on campus during the week. The result can be a senior who graduates without ever really getting to know the great city of Boston. Our BC ID should act as a passport to the rest of the city, not a chain and ball which keeps us confined to the Cleveland Circle bar scene. Take the opportunities provided by BC2Boston and enjoy our proximity to one of the greatest cities in the country this semester. Make sure to stay on top of the events by checking out the BC2Boston’s Facebook page or the Robsham Ticket Office’s calendar of events.
Photos By Left User:Alexf. Wikimedia Commons Bottom: Daderot (Own work) Wikimedia Commons
Besides these Boston-centric events, BC2Boston also hosts its own BC-exclusive trips-- Eagle ID required for admission. These fun experiences, such as pumpkin picking, are aimed at getting students off campus and out into the Greater Boston area. Many of us are dragged out of the Chestnut Hill bubble by work or volunteer commitments, but getting into the
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Screenshots by Mary Yuengert/ Gavel Media photo
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Culture
Artist Spotlight: Fun. By Samantha Costanza / Assoc. Culture Editor Fun. is an indie-pop band with a style all its own and some pretty catchy tunes. Period. Fun. officially exploded onto the music scene in 2011 with the release of its single “We are Young,” featuring guest vocalist Janelle Monáe. The single was a huge success; it was used on many television shows and reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That made Fun. the first rock band in 10 years to have a song reach number one (its predecessor was Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me” in 2001). Fun. consists of three main band members: Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, and Jack Antonoff. Ruess was originally a member of the band The Format. Following their split, Ruess asked Dost and Antonoff (of the bands Anathallo
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and Steel Train, respectively) to join him on a new project, and thus Fun. was born. Fun. released its debut album, Aim and Ignite, in 2009 with less-than-stellar results. Despite many great tracks, the album never really took off due to the band’s lack of popularity. Aim and Ignite hit its peak position of 71 on the US album charts. In 2010, the song “Walking the Dog” was used in a commercial for Expedia.com, generating some buzz for the then underrated band.
Why the period?
No, it’s not a typo. The band’s name is really spelled f-u-n-period. Why did they decide to punctuate their name, you ask? It wasn’t for emphasis or hipster irony. It was actually for legal reasons. Once the band decided on a name, they received
an email from a Finnish noise rock band of the same name asking them to subtly change their title. And so, the period beat out the question mark and the exclamation point and became the extra oomph to help pack the band’s musical punch.
What to listen to?
Although the group’s first album did not experience the massive success of Some Nights, its second album, fans are now coming to realize that both albums are packed with incredible lyrics and fresh, original melodies. Fun.’s sound is like a combination of Freddie Mercury’s vocals mixed with Electric Light Orchestra’s synth sounds, all wrapped up in an indie-pop-rock bow. Here are just a few of the best songs from both albums: Aim and Ignite
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“Some Nights” “Benson Hedges” Best Lyric: “Now I believe the sun, it’s like a symphony. /But what it’s trying to play, I don’t know.” “All the Pretty Girls” Best Lyric: “Oh c’mon, what’s a boy to do when all the pretty girls can’t measure to you?” “I Wanna Be the One” Best Lyric: “Clever comes in truth when truth begets the past.” “The Gambler” Best Lyric: “I knew nothing of romance, but it was love at second sight.” Some Nights “Some Nights” Best Lyric: “Some nights I
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wish that my lips could build a castle. /Some nights I wish they’d just fall off.” “Carry On” Best Lyric: “May your past be the sound of your feet upon the ground. /Carry on.” “Out On the Town” Best Lyric: “I was out on the town, so I came to your window last night. /I tried not to throw stones, but I wanted to come inside.” “All Alone” Best Lyric: “How do you cry with inanimate eyes?” “Stars” Best Lyric: “We’d stay up late, debate on how we’d find our way, say it’s all up in the stars.”
debuted The band’s latest album, Some Nights, emphasis to rave reviews. It features heavier ents such rum inst on synthetic sounds and odd Ruess de” On. rry as Irish drums in the song “Ca Times York scribes the album’s style to the New nd.” sou as “reinventing” the “70s pop-rock
Fun fact
Jack Antonoff, lead guitar player and drummer of Fun., is currently dating Lena Dunham, creator and star of the hit HBO show Girls. Maybe someday they’ll get married and have little musical, hilarious children.
The Ally Coalition
Designer Rachel Antonoff, sister of Fun.’s Jack Antonoff, teamed up with Fun. to form The Ally Coalition. TAC works with entertainers, musicians, and members of the fashion world to raise awareness and funds to support equality in the LGBTQ community. The goal of the coalition is to gather a large group of people who will encourage artists and everyday teens and young adults to lend their voices to the cause and end discrimination by challenging homophobia. Screenshots by Mary Yuengert/ Gavel Media Photo
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Culture
Rap & Grammys By Josh Forte/ Gavel Media staff Since 1959, the Grammy Awards have annually recognized outstanding achievements in the music industry. Yet after the 55th edition of the ceremony aired on February 10, it remains clear that the event is becoming more of a sales-based popularity contest than a true celebration of the artistry within the music industry, and particularly within the rap subset of the industry. The Grammys have been especially critical in their treatment of contenders for Rap Album of 38
the Year. This year big artists such as Drake and Rick Ross dominated the category, while musicians with less radio airtime were excluded from the ticket. Mac Miller’s Blue Side Park, Common’s The Dreamer/The Believer and Childish Gambino’s Camp received widespread critical acclaim, and yet were all overlooked in the nominations. This is just further proof that the members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sci-
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ences, who decide the nominees and winners in each category, tend to favor commercially-successful albums over critically-acclaimed albums. For example, 2 Chainz’s inaugural studio album Based on a T.R.U. Story debuted at number one of the U.S. Billboard 200, yet garnered only mixed reviews from critics, receiving a score of 55/100 on Metacritic. All three of the aforementioned “underground” albums achieved higher scores on the same scale, with The Dreamer/The Believer receiving a whopping 74/100. Despite the underwhelming reception, Based on a T.R.U. Story was one of the six albums nominated for Rap Album of the Year, prompting one to wonder if Academy members actually listen to all the albums they vote for, or if they simply glance at album sales charts. While some rap albums are held back at the Grammys by their lack of fiscal success, others fall victim to the poorly thought-out cutoff date for potential nominees. As it stands, an album must have been released by Sept. 30 to be eligible for the upcoming award ceremony. This leaves three months of critically and commercially successful albums in the limbo of having to wait until the next year to gain recognition for their impact on the world of music. These fourth quarter albums are put at a distinct disadvantage when it comes time for the next awards season. It seems counter-intuitive for an album released in 2012 to receive a Grammy in February of 2014. Not only is this delay nonsensical, but it can also negatively impact the chances of these albums actually winning an award come the following ceremony. As
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an album’s buzz dies down the chances of being properly recognized by the voters diminish. Also, because artists, especially those in the hip-hop/rap genre, have begun to release albums more frequently, it is very possible that an artist who released a notable album past the cutoff date in 2012 could also release a comparable album in 2013, thus hurting the chances that the former will earn a nomination. For example, Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City was listed on many critics’ lists as the best album of 2012, but because it was released on Oct. 22, past the Sept. 30 cutoff date, it was not eligible for the 55th Grammys. Although Kendrick will likely see his album on the list of nominations for the 56th Grammys, it will not be in the spotlight and atop critics’ lists for the best records of the year in 2013, possibly hurting his chances of receiving the coveted gold gramophone. Another artist to suffer from the Grammy’s unreasonable cutoff date is independent rapper Macklemore, who’s debut album The Heist topped the charts at number one on October 9th. Macklemore would also be a contender for Best New Artist of the Year, but must now wait until the 2013 Grammy’s, by which time no one will consider him to be a “new artist.” Crucial changes need to be made to prevent the Grammy’s total fall into insignificance in the rap and hip-hop community. Albums need to be judged by their content and lyricism, not their sales. And in fairness to fourth quarter
albums the eligibility cutoff date should be pushed back. Yes, this would force voters to pick nominees and winners more quickly, but it would also prevent the inherent absurdity and unfairness of excluding deserving albums just because they were released a month after the cutoff date. If necessary, why not move the ceremony back a couple of weeks? Most importantly, and in fairness to all genres, Academy members should only be allowed to vote in their genres of expertise. Currently, members are encouraged to only vote in the fields which they are knowledgeable, and yet there are no strict rules which govern this voting. Imposing this sanction would hopefully reduce the number of significant snubs in categories and ensure that the most deserving, and not necessarily the most commercially popular, productions are considered. The 21st century has been one of great change in the rap game, and music industry as a whole; it is time for the Grammys to get with the program.
Screenshots by Mary Yuengert/ Gavel Media staff
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INSIDE: Striking a balance in college atheltics/ Our national pastime’s fall from grace
Sports
February 2013
The sorry state of modern sports By Bill Stoll Assoc. Sports Editor I love sports. I really do. I’m addicted to ESPN. I cannot go a day without watching Sportscenter, listening to the Jim Rome Show, checking Bleacher Report, scrolling through my Twitter feed, pouring over hockey-rumor websites, or sitting down and going through every page of Sports Illustrated. I live and die with each Buffalo Bills or Buffalo Sabres game (so I mostly die) and my house is filled with memorabilia of the various teams I support. But I’ve got to say, we are just a few days into 2013 and the stories which have dominated the landscape so far have been sickening. To recap very, very briefly, they are as follows: The Baseball Hall of Fame ultimately decided not to accept any members for this year. The NHL’s heinous lockout situation shortened the season to 48 games in lieu of its regular 82-game season. In the NFL, newscasters everywhere have been celebrating the glorious career of Ray Lewis, who will be hanging up his pads following the Super Bowl and retiring, which is nice, aside from the fact that no one seems to care that he very well could
Photo Courtesy of JamesChicago/Flickr
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have been involved in manslaughter. Manti Te’o, a college football star from Notre Dame, was apparently led to believe that his girlfriend of over a year had died, even though she never existed. Whether he was in on the hoax, was fooled completely, or whether he found out about the hoax earlier and chose to go along with it due to embarrassment, we may never truly know. Finally, Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner who served as an inspiration to millions who fought and are still fighting cancer, is a cheater who blood-doped his way to victory He admitted to being a liar and a pretty horrible person, as he used lawsuits, threats of intimidation, and ruined several lives just so he could preserve his reputation.
Steroids and skepticism The terrible truth about sports today is that when an athlete performs an incredible feat — maybe breaks an old record, sets a new high, or has a season that far surpasses the rest of his career — he will immediately be targeted on suspicion of cheating. A prime example is found in the Baseball Hall of Fame’s decision not to elect a single person to its hallowed grounds for 2013.
Photo Courtesy of dga productions/Flickr
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Why? Because all of the players worth selecting, including the person who broke Roger Maris’ single season home run record (Mark McGwire), the all-time career home run leader (Barry Bonds), a member of the 600 club (Sammy Sosa), the all-time career home runs leader for a catcher (Mike Piazza) and a seven-time Cy Young Award winner (Roger Clemens) are all automatically disqualified in the minds of the voters as they are all, at the very least, suspected of using steroids. Let’s face it: almost every player and achievement from that era has been tainted with steroid allegations. Even one of the greatest sports stories ever, the historic World Series win of the 2004 Boston Red Sox, has been tainted, as several of their players (including leaders Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz), tested positive for steroids. This brings us to another question: what are we supposed to do with all of the current players, or anyone who ever again will be accused of juicing? What about Andy Pettitte? Or Alex Rodriguez? Even Derek Jeter has drawn some questions about the fact that he was able to hit over .300 despite being born when Gerald Ford was president. How about Ryan Braun, who had his 2011 MVP season tarnished because he tested positive for steroids, but was able to appeal the suspension due to a technicality that saw him go unpunished? It’s important to point out that the Hall of Fame has no problem with baseball stars in the early 20th century, like Babe Ruth, even though they had quite an advantage themselves, as only white people were allowed to play (of the 20 Cy Young finalists this year, seven were minorities). The Hall of Fame should recognize that baseball must be broken down into two categories, the historical and the modern ages. Suspected steroid users should be elected to the Hall and placed in the modern section. Though the “Steroid Era” officially lasted from the mid-1990s to the mid 2000s, it won’t be over until players like Jose Bautista, the Toronto Blue Jay who has been able to crank out home
Photo Courtesy of Keith Allison/Flickr
Photo Courtesy of Meridiano/Flickr
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Sports
run numbers far above his career average the past few seasons, can escape steroid suspicion. And it won’t be over until incidents like this past season, when Melky Cabrera, a career .280 hitter suddenly started hitting over .350 before getting caught using steroids, cease to exist. Baseball isn’t the only sport that is besmirched by the continual threat of cheating. Lance Armstrong is the other obvious case. The inspiration to millions of people who have fought and are still fighting cancer has finally admitted that he doped in order to win all seven of his Tour de France titles, which have been stripped from him. The entire sport, not very popular to begin with, has been tainted with steroid use. Throughout the period from 1999 to 2011, multiple riders have been at the very least accused of doping each year. Now, it is easier to assume that riders who finish at the top are actually cheating, rather than riding clean. The Summer Olympics are no different. Over the past 20 years or so, not only have numerous track and field champions, especially sprinters, been both accused of and caught cheating (such as Ben Johnson, Justin Gatlin, and Marion Jones), but now anyone who achieves greatness in the sport is automatically suspected of using steroids. Take Usain Bolt, the world record holder for the 100-yard dash, who was accused by former track star Carl Lewis of using performance enhancing drugs in order to win gold at the Olympics. It seems we’ve entered a day and age in which any outstanding performance will be met with suspicion of cheating. It truly is a sad day when, instead of celebrating the fastest person on the planet, we all automatically assume that something may
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be amiss.
A corporate game As the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, and NCAA have all grown to be multi-billion dollar industries, it is has become readily apparent that the leagues and owners stopped truly caring for their fans long ago. In the last two years, professional sports have experienced not one, not two, but three work stoppages and lockouts. The NFL missed weeks of training camp, the NBA was forced to adopt a shortened 66-game season and, worst of all, the NHL launched into its third lockout since 1994, forcing it to eventually embark upon a shortened 48-game season. So why screw fans out of a full season of entertainment? Why hurt the various stadium and team employees who depend on that extra income? The answer is pretty simple: league owners all felt they weren’t making enough money. Suprisingly, I’m not even the troubled most by the lockouts themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I hate NFL billionaire owners who were so upset that the CBA didn’t allow them to make enough to pay for another yacht for their fleet. And I hate the NBA owners for depriving us of a full season last year when basketball is in the best place it’s been since the mid-1990’s. And if I ever meet Gary Bettman, I’ll punch him in his face for taking away a full season and a half since 2004. But at least there is some sort of business argument to be made on the side of the owners. What sickens me is the direction sports are moving. Consider the new Yankee Stadium, where any given game, the lower levels, the best seats in the entire stadium, remain
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unfilled because the average fan can’t afford to drop a couple thousand to pay for tickets. Or in the NFL, when some smallmarket teams refuse to pay a fee to the league and opt to stick with the old-blackout policy, ensuring that their local fans cannot see the game on TV unless the stadium is sold out. Or like any of the plethora of franchise owners who have turned to the taxpayers to finance their shiny new
stadiums, even though they are more than equipped to pay for it themselves. The leagues that control professional sports are losing touch with the people who really matter most, the fans. And that is the most troubling thing of all. So what does this all mean? Am I going to stop loving or caring about sports? No, probably not. So maybe I’m the real problem.
Photo Courtesy of Ben C.K./Flickr
Photo Courtesy of lighthouse_li/Flickr
Maybe nothing will actually change until people like me, the fans, the supporters of each league decide to stop spending money and supporting all of this absurdity in sports. Let’s be honest, it is, at the very least, highly, highly unlikely anything like that will ever occur. Maybe it’s just time to accept that the Golden Age of sports has already come and gone. I doubt I’ll ever be able to see a
true power hitter in baseball blast 50-plus home runs in a season and not have doubts of cheating creep into my mind. And I will not believe a franchise owner when they say that the fans come first. I really, truly doubt professional sports can return to the days when they represented a game, not an industry. But hey, a guy can dream, right?
Photo Courtesy of LeStudio1/Flickr
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Sports
Academics
and athletics
By Teddy Kolva Assoc. Sports Editor
A
s collegiate sports are becoming a progressively more lucrative industry and the stakes for maximizing a school’s profit are at an all-time high, there is one constant in an otherwise competitive, crazed atmosphere: the desire to make more money. Striving to achieve milestones and institutional goals, schools are trying everything to attain dominance and financial success. But, it seems that the academic standards associated with top-tier schools are unwavering—a certainty in the unpredictable and often spontaneous world of college sports. The University of Notre Dame, which boasts a 24 percent acceptance rate and is considered one of the premier national universities in the Midwest, recently contended for a BCS football national championship after going undefeated in the regular season. When Notre Dame became the No. 1 team in the country towards the end of the season, it was lauded by many for not only its athletic successes, but its consistent focus on academia as well: it has the
best GSR (Graduation Success Rate) in the country at 99percent. Similar to its South Bend counterpart, the University of Michigan is known for providing an outstanding undergraduate education, ranked 28th in US News & World Report’s annual listing of best universities. The Wolverines men’s basketball team is the No. 2 team in the nation and the football team finished the season in the AP Top 25, always maintaining excellence even in “off-years.” UCLA, holder of the NCAA-record 108 team championships, has also never strayed from its status as one of the leading research universities in the entire world. Last year, 15,892 people were admitted of the 72,697 applicants. Along with its 21 percent acceptance rate, the school is home to No. 1 draft picks in the MLB, NFL, NBA and MLS. There is a positive correlation between financial support and well-balanced universities. UCLA’s endeavors, set at the intersection of strong sports teams and stronger academics, saw donations to the athletic department triple over the decade, in part due to the university’s ability to cultivate competent scholar-athletes.
Left: Photo Courtesy of tbagpro/Flickr Right: Photo Courtesy of EMA Dharma Bum/Flickr
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February2013
50,000 donors contribute annually to the school’s Wooden Athletic Fund, ranging in gifts from $100 to $50,000. Evidenced by UCLA’s growth in donations and annual giving, the incentive for finding a medium between academics and athletics is growing markedly. Alumni and fans give back in times of athletic success, but seem to respond even more generously when the school demonstrates a balance between academics and athletics. There seems to be a formula that works well for many top-tier schools, but for the universities that maintain their academic prestige and still struggle to find on-field success, different routes need to be taken to achieve a greater balance — if it is even in the school’s best interests to. To the defense of smaller, private universities like Boston College, it is a lot easier to accept exceptional athletes in a bigger pool of applicants and broader requirements set by the admissions office — something UCLA and Michigan can afford to do without tarnishing their academic reputation. A school remaining true to its academic prestige, but failing to experience success in major revenuegenerating sports in recent years, Boston College is certainly looking to develop a model that fosters athletic success without diminishing academic prestige. While BC has the most Fulbright scholars in the country and boasting a GSR of 97 percent — one of the best in the ACC and NCAA — the shortcomings of the football and men’s basketball teams give way to concern on the Heights.
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According to 2008 figures derived from the Knight Commission, formed in 1989 in order to reform the practices of NCAA institutions, the ACC spends 6.3 times more of its institutional resources on athletics over academics. The median spending per student was $15,911, while the median spending per athlete was a staggering $105,805. While analysis of these numbers suggest that no school truly balances academics and athletics, the significance lies in the fact that schools are willing to invest much more in the success of their athletes than in their students. Clearly, the desire to win on the field (or the rink, if you’re an avid Boston College sports fan) outweighs all. Yet schools like Boston College are continuing to see mediocre or average performances from the men’s basketball and football teams. What is enabling this underperformance? As indicated by the Knight Commission figures, it is not an issue of an institution not investing enough into the athletic department. Boston College reportedly set new head football
coach Steve Addazio’s contract at $1.6 million per year, so it would be wrong to also blame BC’s struggles on a lack of investment of personnel. One of the only remaining variables hindering BC’s athletics success is the admissions office. Lessening admissions requirements and standards would obviously allow for a broader range of talent to be recruited at BC, but that option seems only feasible and doable at major public universities. A report conducted by the Associated Press in 2009 found that out of 92 public universities investigated, 27 of them brought in athletes that otherwise would have never been able to attend the university without “special athletic admittance.” Striking enough, one of these schools was UCLA. Athletes are 61.2 percent more likely to get accepted into the university in comparsion with regular applicants. Disparities such as these would never exist at Boston College; the emphasis on being a well-rounded individual is too central to the University’s mission to bring in fivestar recruits who fall well below admissions standards. Luckily, as shown in years past, it is not impossible for a balance of great athletics and academic prestige. BC’s road to success may not be as instantaneous and rewarding as other schools, given the ever-present academic and admissions pressures, but it can and will happen.
The median spending per student was $15,911, while the median spending per athlete was a staggering $105,805.
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Sports
Balking at baseball
Photo Courtesy of MDreibelbis/Flickr
By Jake Miller Assoc. Sports Editor 24. That’s the percentage of children, ages 7 to 11, who stopped playing baseball in 2010. This means that one out of every four children in their late elementary school years are giving up on, or not even picking up, our country’s supposed national pastime. To many a baseball savant, this figure might seem horrifyingly high, almost too high to be accurate. However, when examining the matter further, one realizes that the sport of baseball is doing itself no favors on its path to joining hockey as a
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niche sport in America. “Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed 3 times out of 10 and be considered a good performer,” said Ted Williams who was surprisingly spot on with his summation of the confusing game that is baseball. This creation of Abner Doubleday was crafted for those of us patient enough to withstand eight innings of inaction and then a small stretch of run scoring in the final frame — or two to three hours of nothing followed by five minutes of excitement. Instead of “boring,” baseball fanatics would refer to this as a “pitching duel.” To
each his own. Patience is a virtue, one that many children lack. In a study done by Northwestern Medicine in 2012, it was shown that ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diagnoses have increased by 66 percent in the last 10 years. This statistic is eye opening, in that this upsurge of ADHD is mostly in young boys and in the very same range of children quitting baseball — ages 7 to 11. Let us review what we have learned so far. Baseball, though a passion of millions of people including myself, is clearly a game for those of us patient enough to handle its long periods of stagnancy.
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Recent history has shown that the children necessary for the game to expand are becoming less interested in, or medically proven less capable of concentrating on, the sport. Standing around watching the pitcher walk batter after batter is not conducive to a child with ADHD’s need for constant mental stimulation. As expected, parents also have a starring role in the Shakespearean tragedy that has unfolded in the youth baseball realms. Just as with hockey, our nation’s pastime is becoming more costly each year, with newer models of gloves, bats, cleats and other equipment raising the average price of baseball accoutrements. Clearly not the most cost-effective way of keeping their child in shape, baseball has become parents’ third choice of athletics in the United States, behind basketball and soccer. In 2010, the latest year with reported figures, the National Sporting Goods Association published a study documenting a steady decline in the number of kids ages 7 to 11 playing baseball, while the data for basketball and soccer showed these two sports had surpassed baseball in popularity. This statistic should not come as a surprise. Basketball and soccer are much less expensive than baseball in terms of investment; a ball is all that’s necessary. Children are also very capable of quickly picking up basketball and soccer: run, pass, shoot and score. Not only are these sports cheaper and easier to learn, but they are also more exercise-intensive. The obesity epidemic has parents urging their children to participate
in activities that are more likely to keep them fit and in shape. These two sports are healthier regarding cardio, due to their constant movement, and they may be healthier from a psychological standpoint as well. With other sports — basketball, soccer, hockey, lacrosse and football, there is too much action to dwell on missed shots or bad passes.
24. That’s the percentage of children, ages 7 to 11, who stopped playing With baseball, if you make an error in the field, you have to stand there, hiding underneath your sweaty cap and wishing you could dig a hole in the outfield grass to avoid the stares that are boring a hole into the back of your skull. If you let up a home run while pitching, you have to remain out
on that mound and somehow dust yourself off and pick yourself up from what may have been an incredibly detrimental mistake. Ted Williams, the Splendid Splinter, was right. The game of baseball is perhaps the most confusing of all major sports. Compound that with the fact that it takes the patience of a saint in order to watch, play, teach or succeed at the sport, and you have got yourself a very unattractive usage of time for someone like an 11-year old with a short attention span. With fewer and fewer kids joining the ranks of little league baseball, a future where few people understand the difficult nuances and intricacies of the sport is beginning to take shape. Fewer future promoters of the game means an even smaller chance of recruiting children to play baseball. At this rate, the brainchild of Abner Doubleday — our national pastime — may never regain its foothold in the elusive 7 to 11 age bracket.
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