Vol. XCVII, No. 15 Monday, March 21, 2016

HEThe Independent

Student Newspaperof Boston College

www.bcheights.com

e s t a b l i s h e d

On the eve of the primary

elections for Undergraduate

Government of Boston College

president, the Elections Com-

mittee held the 2016 UGBC De-

bate at 8 p.m. in the Vanderslice

Cabaret Room. Russell Simons,

MCAS ’17, and Meredith Mc-

Caffrey, MCAS ’17, received

the most votes from the student

audience—45—to win the presi-

dential debate.

The team of Nikita Patel,

CSOM ’17, and Joseph Arquillo,

LSOE ’17, came in second place

with 27 votes, followed by An-

thony Perasso, LSOE ’17, and

Rachel Loos, MCAS ’18, with

15 votes. The remaining teams

of Matthew Ulrich, MCAS ’17,

and John Miotti, MCAS ’17;

Ryan Fairhurst, MCAS ’17, and

Charlie Butrico, MCAS ’18; and

Andrew Meck, MCAS ’18, and

Jonathan Barbosa, LSOE ’18,

received six, three, and one vote,

respectively.

“Going forward, we hope to

engage the other candidates in

greater conversation about how

to accomplish our respective

goals for next year, since we hope

this will allow students to be

more informed in their voting,”

Simons said in an email. “We be-

lieve in our mission of “Strength

in Unity,” and are excited to con-

tinue sharing our ideas with the

entire student body.”

The six teams of candidates

discussed issues ranging from

diversity concerns to the effec-

tiveness of UGBC in implement-

ing policy.

The Elections Committee

received over 50 questions from

students through an online form

and chose the 15 most relevant

for debate. The Elections Com-

mittee only asked one question

that was drafted by the Com-

mittee.

The first question asked can-

didates about how they would

increase the support for the arts

on campus.

Simons and McCaffrey would

like to subsidize some of the

ticket prices of the performing

art shows in order to encourage

more students to attend events.

Meck drew upon his own per-

sonal experience in the theatre

department when encouraging

the administration to become

involved.

The Committee then asked

Fairhurst about what his efforts

would be to make BC’s campus

more eco-friendly. While he

claims that his personal concen-

tration is not on directly making

the campus more eco-friendly, he

wants to create a way for students

who are interested in that area to

have the opportunity.

When asked about gender

equality on campus, Patel said

she hopes to create a more equal

playing field for women and

men’s athletic programs. Ulrich

and Miotti hope to create ad-

ditional programming around

women’s sports in order to in-

crease campus morale as well.

He hopes to organize pep rallies

to help school spirit.

Patel would like to create

a campus calendar for culture

clubs, furthering efforts to pro-

mote events on campus. Patel

and Arquillo also hope to encour-

age students of color to take on

leadership positions for different

organizations on campus.

McCaffrey countered Patel,

adding that UGBC has already

begun to create a cultural club

calendar at BC. McCaffrey would

also like to bring together or-

ganizations’ leaders in order to

further discuss individuals’ goals

and facilitate conversation on

diversity issues.

Meanwhile, Perasso plans on

encouraging individuals to come

together and have open conversa-

tion. He is aware that UGBC can-

not solve the problem of diversity

on campus, but it can encourage

student efforts for inclusivity,

he said.

FEATURESAn entrepreneurial vision takes fl ight, A4

GAME OF DRONESARTS & REVIEWSmall Talk, Funky Giant, Will Bolton, and others fought it out for performances at this year’s Arts Fest, B1

BATTLE OF THE BANDSSPORTSBC men’s hockey fell to Northeastern University in the Hockey East Semifi nals, C6

GRIEF AT THE GARDEN

Boston College will be visited on

April 9 by a female entrepreneur who

began building her career the day she

sold a stolen book on eBay. Since then,

Sophia Amoruso has discovered more

ethical ways of making money and has

worked her way up from dumpster-div-

ing and hitchhiking to running her own

company. She named her online clothing

retailer NastyGal and was CEO until

2015, when she announced that she was

leaving the position. Amoruso is com-

ing to BC as this year’s keynote speaker

for Boston College’s second annual

Women’s Summit: Own It.

Own It is part of a series of events

held throughout the semester that bring

current female leaders from various ar-

eas of society to campus to teach young

BC students about leadership. The

summit’s board invited Amoruso to be

its keynote speaker this year. The event

was created last year to inspire the male

and female students on campus to gain

knowledge and leadership skills. Last

See Debate, A3

UGBC Elections <<<

year, the summit featured two keynote

speeches from high-profile speakers

Carrie Rich, CEO and founder of The

Global Good Fund, and Kate White,

former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitanmagazine.

“Our goal is to bring together like-

minded students looking for ways to

gain knowledge and leadership skills to

amplify their personal and professional

successes,” Alexis Teixeira, co-chair of

the summit board and CSOM ’17, said.

According to Teixeira, the board

thinks Amoruso will do well to inspire

and empower BC students so that they

can better see their potential. They be-

lieve that her authenticity and success

are a combination that will capture the

audience’s attention, and ultimately

motivate it.

“What we find most interesting is her

background—she wasn’t handed oppor-

tunities, she made them,” Teixeira said.

“Through hard work, time, and passion,

she has been successful.”

As a young adult, Amoruso dropped

out of community college and worked at

a Bay Area art school checking student

IDs in order to get health insurance.

At this time, she began experimenting

with eBay. She attempted to sell vintage

pieces of clothing through the platform

See Own It, A3DREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

ABBY PAULSON / HEIGHTS EDITOR

THE HEIGHTS

Boston Public Schools Superintendent Tommy Chang and his transition team will speak on March 22 at 4:30 in the Murray Function Room. The talk will focus on the schools that the team visited and the planning that went into Chang’s first 100 days as superintendent. 1

The Carroll School of Management is sponsoring a talk by Barbara Messing, the chief marketing officer of TripAdvisor, on March 23 at 7 p.m. in Fulton 511. Her lecture is a part of the Carroll School of Management’s Distinguished Marketing Lecture Series. 2

Monday, March 21, 2016 A2

As a part of a special Holy Thursday event, the C21 Center is holding a lecture by Ra-fael Luciani on March 24 in Gasson 100 at 5 p.m. Luciani will speak about Pope Francis on Evange-lization, with an emphasis on a multicultural perspective.

Top

things to do on campus this week

3 3

If you could commit any crime and get away with it, what would you do?

NEWSBRIEFS

The undergraduate tuition

for the 2016-17 academic year

will be $50,480, bringing the

overall cost of attendance at

Boston College to $65,114. The

Board of Trustees increased tu-

ition, fees, and room and board

by 3.65 percent.

In order to allow students

of diverse socioeconomic back-

grounds to attend BC, the Board

also increased need-based fi-

nancial aid for undergraduates

by 4.1 percent to $114 million.

BC is one of only 19 private

universities in the United States

that is need-blind in admissions,

meeting the full demonstrated

need of all undergraduate stu-

dents. More than 66 percent of

BC undergrads receive financial

aid. The average financial aid

package is estimated to reach

$40,000.

“Every effort goes into de-

veloping a budget that provides

the best possible educational

experience for our students

through investing in academic

priorities that advance the Uni-

versity,” Executive Vice President

Michael Lochhead said to BC’s

News and Public Affairs Office.

“At the same time, the University

remains committed to meeting

the full demonstrated need of

all accepted students through

the $114 million we will offer

for need-based undergraduate

financial aid to ensure a BC

education remains available to

families with need.”

The Board of Trustees also

set tuition for graduate programs

for the coming academic year.

BC Law was set at $50,620, and

the full-time MBA program in

the Carroll School of Manage-

ment will cost $47,340.

BC ranked No. 35 among na-

tional universities on U.S. News

and World Report’s list of “Best

Value Schools.” It also placed

22nd in Kiplinger’s Personal Fi-

nance magazine’s ranking of the

50 “Best Values” among Ameri-

can private universities.

“Boston College continues to

invest in strategic academic pri-

orities while maintaining our com-

mitment to need-blind admissions

and meeting the full demonstrated

need of all admitted students,” Pro-

vost and Dean of Faculties David

Quigley said to BC’s News and

Public Affairs Office.

—Source: TheBoston College

Police Department

POLICE BLOTTER 3/16/16 - 3/18/16

Wednesday, Mar. 16

6:57 p.m. - A report was filed

regarding a property confiscation

on Campanella Way.

Thursday, Mar. 17

6:58 a.m. - A report was filed re-

garding a suspicious circumstance

at Conte Forum.

1:11 p.m. - A report was filed re-

garding a minor in possession of

alcohol in the Walsh Hall Lot.

5:13 p.m. - A report was filed re-

garding a minor in possession of

alcohol in the Newton roadways.

7:54 p.m. - A report was filed

regarding a minor in possession

of alcohol in the Upper Campus

roadways.

8:16 p.m. - A report was filed

regarding a trespass warning at

Robsham Theater.

Boston College alumna Saxon

Eastman, ’13, began volunteer-

ing with Guiding Eyes for the

Blind, a program through which

people can care for a puppy that

is training to become a service

dog, when she was an under-

graduate at BC. Boulder, the dog

she raised while at BC, is now a

working guide dog in Florida.

Eastman began working at

Guiding Eyes after graduating

from BC. She has also raised

two more dogs—Wrangler and

Vincent.

The Today Show has volun-

teered to help raise Wrangler,

who visits the set each day, for

the next year. He brings interna-

tional awareness to service dogs

and disability.

Eastman teaches the dogs

basic skills and house manners.

After two years, the dogs are

given to blind people in need of

a guide dog.

Please send corrections to eic@bcheights.com with

‘correction’ in the subject line.

CORRECTIONS

By Brigid Kelley

For The Heights

Gregg Cassin, the founder of Appa, aims to get students to break down their walls and open themselves up to others.PHOTO COURTESY OF GREGG CASSIN

By Joseph Yuengert

For The Heights

Around 50 businessmen and

businesswomen, legal scholars,

professors, and educators gathered

at Boston College Law School this

past Friday for the conference

“Student Debt Crisis: Issues and

Solutions.” Put on by the Rappaport

Center for Law and Public Policy at

BC Law, the daylong event featured

several panels that discussed the

causes and remedies for the stu-

dent debt crisis.

“The amount of debt that stu-

dents now are graduating with is

staggering,” Elisabeth J. Medvedow,

the executive director of the Rappa-

port Center, said. “Many people are

suffering a massive burden because

of the system in place. We wanted

to bring these experts together to

discuss some general solutions.”

Student loan debt has become

a driving political and economic

issue over the past decade. Since

2004, student loan balances have

increased by 74 percent. In 2012 the

average student loan debt burden

was $29,400 for graduating seniors,

according to a study done by the

Institute for College Access and Suc-

cess. With 71 percent of all students

graduating with student loan debt,

this issue has widespread implica-

tions in the education, political, and

business sectors.

Before the panel discussions,

the conference began in Stuart Hall

on Newton Campus with a keynote

address given by Deputy Secretary

Sarah Bloom Raskin of the U.S. De-

partment of the Treasury. Raskin’s

focus in the Treasury Department

is on the larger economic impact of

student loan borrowing and cyber

security. In her address, Raskin

discussed the current state of the

higher education loan system and

whether the system is delivering on

its promise to make higher education

more affordable and accessible.

After Raskin spoke, the first of

three panels, “Did Privatization

of the Student Loan Marketing

Corporation (Sallie Mae) Work?”

began the substantive discussion

of the policies of student loans.

Moderated by Rohit Chopra, a

senior advisor in the U.S. Depart-

ment of Education, the panelists

gave prepared remarks about the

privatization of student loans dur-

ing the financial crisis from the

perspective of the fields of law,

public policy, and non-profits.

Following that discussion, the

second panel, “Reforming Stu-

dent Loan Servicing,” began with

opening remarks for moderator

Kathleen Engel, a law professor at

Suffolk University and a national

expert on predatory and subprime

lending and consumer credit. Un-

like the first panel, which focused

more on the economic side of the

issues, the second panel was a

policy-based discussion.

After a luncheon address from

Raskin, the final panel focused on

one of the most pertinent aspects

of student loans to college students:

debt collection. The panel, titled

“The Draconian Era of Student

Debt Collection” and moderated

Gregg Cassin, founder of Ap-

palachia Volunteers, active voice

for LGBT and HIV/AIDs com-

munities, and BC ’80, will speak

on the importance of building

communities in Cushing 001 on

March 22 at 8 p.m.

Cassin graduated from BC

with a degree in theology and then

moved to San Francisco to join

Jesuit volunteers. Cassin currently

resides in California and works to

create retreats and programs for

long-term survivors of the HIV

epidemic. Cassin is a 30-year

survivor of HIV himself.

Cassin was also honored

with the Certificate of Special

Recognition from the U.S. Con-

gress, in addition to honors from

the City of San Francisco.

Cassin will also speak to a

group of Appalachia Volunteer

students on Sunday who re-

cently travelled on Spring Break

service trips. Cassin will share

his story of the challenges of

embracing oneself, no matter the

roadblocks.

“My message is that in the

most challenging times we must

find self-discovery and then self-

acceptance,” Cassin said. “This is

a sacred journey that everyone is

by BC Law professor Patricia A.

McCoy, reviewed the flaws in the

complex system that allow for

predatory student debt collection.

“Many students do not under-

stand the differences in the loans

they receive,” Dalie Jimenez, a

law professor at University of

Connecticut and a panelist, said.

“Federal and private loans are

very similar, and for most people

it is hard to tell what kind of loan

you have taken out.”

The discussion on collec-

tion focused mostly on the legal

aspects of what are permissible

tactics for collectors to use. One

of the main topics of discussion

was the role of private versus

public loans in collection. If a

person defaults on payments for

a federal loan, the tools available

to collectors are much more

extensive than if one defaults

on private loans. This means

that collectors have no incentive

to let the person know if they

have a private or federal loan,

Jimenez said.

As the conference wrapped

up after closing statements by

Rappaport Center faculty direc-

tor Michael Cassidy, many of

the participants stuck around

talking about the problems and

solutions discussed during the

conference. The majority felt

the conference was a positive

step in finding solutions to the

varying problems that make up

the student debt crisis.

“With such a wide variety

of experts from different areas,

the discussion today provided

a lot of innovative solutions to

the burden of student debt that

college graduates are facing,”

Medvedow said.

Businessmen, scholars, and professors discussed the rise of student debt.ISABELLE LUMB / HEIGHTS STAFF

obligated to do.”

In his message of spreading

Jesuit values, Cassin asks the

audience to consider questions

about themselves in the hope of

self-discovery.

“Who are you born to be?

Who are you called to be?” Cas-

sin said. “Claim ourselves, no

matter the institutions, society,

or mainstream ideas. You get

to self-define. You get to be the

person you want to be.”

While Cassin is coming to

BC to speak with the Appalachia

Volunteers group, he also hopes

to reach out to the broader BC

community through the GLTBQ

Leadership Council.

Nick Minieri, chair of GLC

and CSOM ’16, helped organize

Cassin’s talk to BC students.

Minieri wants students to under-

stand that Cassin’s work with the

LGBTQ community is connected

to Jesuit values. Cassin’s goal is to

develop communities in which

students are able to break down

their walls and open themselves

up to others.

“The thing that I’ve always

been drawn to is building com-

munity,” Cassin said. “In the hum-

blest way, I’ve found comfort,

inspiration, and joy with people

with the intention of doing im-

portant work of helping another.

We need to break the isolation of

human experience.”

THE HEIGHTS Monday, March 21, 2016 A3

Maura McSweeney, MCAS ’17,

was awarded the 2016 Archbishop

Oscar A. Romero Scholarship on

Saturday. McSweeney, a philoso-

phy major and an international

studies minor, has served as the

vice president and president of

Other Americas and has par-

ticipated in the Organization of

Latin American Affairs, Camino

Ignatius and Ignatian Family

Teach-In, while working in the

Dean of Students Office and the

philosophy department.

One of three finalists, Mc-

Sweeney won a scholarship of

$25,000. All three finalists earned

a scholarship of up to $3,000, as

well as a $1,000 gift certificate

to the Boston College Bookstore.

The other finalists were Jenny

Penafiel, CSOM ’17, and Peter

Laboy, MCAS ’17.

The scholarship recognizes

a Hispanic or Latino BC junior

whose life demonstrates an un-

derstanding of and commitment

to the values and ideals inherent

in the life of Archbishop Romero.

He or she must show involvement

in and service to the Hispanic and

Latino community at BC, as well

as in the wider community.

Jeans Santana, the scholarship

recipient in 2009 and BC ’10, led

this year ’s ceremony. Santana

is currently a medical student

at SUNY Downstate College of

Medicine and has two children.

In his opening remarks, Santa-

na highlighted the responsibilities

of those representing the values of

Romero. He said that each person

has a commitment to social justice

and serving those in need.

“To whom much is given, much

is expected,” Santana said. “We

must pay it forward which serves

as the fuel to level the playing field.

We must serve the poor, putting

an emphasis on the serving.”

The event started with a

buffet of traditional Argentin-

ian food like plantains, chorizo

sandwiches, and dulce de leche

pastries, and ended with hours of

dancing. In addition, the Tango

Society of Boston, a traditional

Argentinian dance group, per-

formed three separate times.

Rev. Don MacMillan, S.J.,

spoke of Romero’s work in El

Salvador. Romero, he said, gave

the people of El Salvador spirit

and hope. He led the opening

prayer for the ceremony.

McSweeney had traveled to

El Salvador for a Romero anni-

versary celebration. It was here

where she began to realize the

sacrifices people must make in

order to promote social justice.

“I often find myself between

two realities, that of Nicaragua

and Boston College,” McSwee-

ney said. “I could forget about

the injustices in Nicaragua, but

the example that Romero gives

makes forgetting an unaccept-

able choice.”

Eva Maynard, BC ’97, was

recognized as the recipient of

the Rev. John A. Dinneen, S.J.,

Hispanic Alumni Community

Service Award. Juan Concepcion,

BC ’96 and Law ’03, presented

Maynard with the award. He

referenced how the world today

should focus on social justice,

and building bridges instead of

walls.

Maynard serves as the as-

sistant director of the Alumni

Affinity Program at the Alumni

Association. She, along with

alumni, conceived Reconnect,

the largest gathering of AHANA

alumni at BC, in 2009. In addi-

tion, she revived groups focused

on the arts , Middle Eastern

studies, and law enforcement,

and also coordinated reunions

for organizations such as The

Heightsmen, BC Bop, and My

Mother’s Fleabag. Maynard ex-

plained that her determination

stems from her selfless family.

“I urge you to not shrink

in your pursuit of what you

want out of life,” Maynard said.

“Sometimes it may cost you and

in the namesake of this award, for

some people it cost them their

lives to say that I am somebody,

I matter, I was intended and so

are you. It’s important to pursue

everything we want out of life

wholeheartedly.”

University President Rev.

William P. Leahy, S.J., announced

the winner of the scholarship.

“I hope tonight renews us

and helps us call on memories,

adds to our sense of idealism and

leads to a deepening of hope,”

he said.

McSweeney explained that

as a freshman, she felt a culture

clash when arriving at BC. She

reminded herself of the injustices

she saw at home and searched

for ways to correct these while

in Chestnut Hill.

“As students of Boston Col-

lege, we have a platform to speak

out on issues of injustice and,

therefore, a responsibility to use

that platform,” McSweeney said.

“My hope, then, is to encourage

more students to make use of it

to work for justice.”

and discovered how to make the

activity as lucrative as possible. Us-

ing her friends as models and tact-

ful lighting techniques, Amoruso

posted appealing photographs

online and began attracting large

quantities of customers.

She was eventually forced off

of eBay due to tensions with other

sellers, and that was when she be-

gan her own Web site. She simply

turned to her MySpace followers for

customers, and her company took

off immediately after. Amoruso

released a memoir in 2014 that

was titled, #GIRLBOSS. The book

made it onto the New York Times

bestseller list, and it recounts her

story while also providing readers

with business advice.

When looking at speakers for

the summit, the board considers va-

riety, vocations, and passions. Thus,

the 30 female speakers attending the

summit will represent a broad spec-

trum of professions, backgrounds,

and experiences. Teixeira described

them as women who are breaking

barriers and paving the path for

future generations.

“By attending the day, they

will get to hear from over 30 ex-

traordinary speakers from various

industries, experiences, and walks

of life,” she said.

The difference between the

summit this year and last year is that

this year the summit will focus more

on vocations. Teixeira explained

that there are many students with

ideas to do things, but the problem

is that they have always believed

there was no way for them to pos-

sibly turn these ideas into realities.

She hopes that the summit will push

these students to follow through

with their dreams and reach their

goals.

The day will consist of Amoru-

so’s keynote address, panels, main

stage conversations, round table

discussions, workshops, and per-

formances. It is supported by two

different offices on campus: the

Office of Student Involvement and

the Women’s Center. Both were

influential in spreading the word

throughout the community about

the summit event last year.

“We hope our role is much more

than a one-day event—we hope

to create a dialogue that extends

throughout the year that encour-

ages students to be authentically

and unapologetically themselves

by owning their successes, owning

their opinions, and owning their

differences,” Texeira said. “We need

more women in leadership in the

real world.”

Meck and Barbosa’s team is also

encouraging students to reach out to

UGBC and have conversations about

inclusivity.

“We want every student on cam-

pus to feel supported by us, and if

not us, then the BC administration,”

Barbosa said.

The Elections Committee also

raised concerns about campus acces-

sibility for disabled students. Ulrich

drew on his personal experience with

his disability when he was young,

when he was temporarily paralyzed

from the waist down.

“We obviously cannot change the

campus in terms of layout, but we

can change the accessibility,” Ulrich

said. “The role UGBC needs to play

in this is getting students in touch.”

Patel mentioned how she wants

to publish updates of UGBC’s prog-

ress throughout the year, in order to

connect further with students.

Meck said that he will discuss

their campaign’s three main plat-

form points, “transition, reform,

and health” in their first Board of

Trustees meeting.

The Elections Committee asked

candidates how they would respond

to the administration rejecting their

policy points, even if they are backed

by students.

McCaffrey noted that their goals

must be “realistic and necessary”

when working withthe administra-

tion.

“We must come back and find

different avenues to get the results

we want,” McCaffrey said.

Perasso realizes that his team’s

goals are rarely going to be accom-

plished and they are being open

about that within their platform, he

said. He wants to create a safe space

for students when they can’t always

accomplish their goals and need to

take a break from perfection.

The Elections Committee then

posed a question on BC’s Catholic

identity and whether the University

announces it too much, too little, or

just the right amount.

Arquillo noted that the Univer-

sity also has an obligation to diversity

organizations like ALC, GLC, and

other inclusivity groups, in addition

to focusing on its Catholic identity.

BC must focus on the individual,

Arquillo said.

Simons agrees that the Boston

College is a Jesuit Catholic institu-

tion before anything else. He thinks,

however, that the University must

provide students the opportunity

to be a complete individual, despite

the beliefs of the University. He ref-

erenced LGBTQ and sexual identity

issues.

“We need to be able to work

within a Catholic framework to pro-

vide students with what they need,”

Simons said.

When the Elections Committee

posed a question on mental health

on campus, Barbosa and Meck

responded that their platform is

centered around creating support

for both mental and physical health.

Miotti said that his team hopes to

promote counselors and a mental

health center in order to make stu-

dents more knowledgeable about

help on campus.

Perasso said he believes that

the reason that BC students are the

most documented students in the

ACC for alcohol-related incidents

is because the University’s policies

are too strict.

“I am not sure that I believe that

BC’s alcohol-related policies are

too strict,” Fairhurst responded to

Perasso.

The Elections Committee also

asked candidates how they would

better the experience for freshmen

living on Newton Campus.

McCaffrey hopes to increase the

frequency of Newton buses on the

weekends and continue program-

ming within the dorms to allow

students to be more social. Ulrich

added that BC should encourage

more students to travel to Newton

for events, like pep rallies.

When asked whether UGBC

has a tangible enough impact on

students’ BC experience, Patel and

Arquillo noted that freshmen often

don’t know what UGBC is doing.

“I will say that UGBC does do

a lot of stuff,” Patel said. “I think it

is more of an issue of students not

knowing what is going on.”

Perasso noted that the adminis-

tration is the problem with UGBC’s

inefficiency. He and Loos want to

focus on issues that are within stu-

dents’ control, like playing WZBC

over the speakers in Lyons Dining

Hall.

To wrap up the debate, the Elec-

tions Committee asked the candi-

dates what they thought was the

most important issue that UGBC

has to deal with in the coming year.

Each team was given one minute

and 30 seconds to answer the final

question.

Perasso believes that biggest is-

sue that UGBC must face is mental

health, and the president’s efforts

need to be focused on hiring addi-

tional counselors.

Simons, on the other hand,

thinks that the president must en-

courage students to collaborate and

work together. Miotti added that the

strongest vehicle that students have

is a sense of community.

Arquillo and Fairhurst touched

on the same point in believing that

the president must make resources

available for students, while acting

as a link between students and ad-

ministrators.

Barbosa and Meck believe that

UGBC should be concentrating on a

multitude of student concerns.

“UGBC is huge, and we don’t

have to focus on one specific thing,”

Barbosa said.

This year, questions for the de-

bate were drafted by students and the

Elections Committee. The Commit-

tee requested that students submit

questions through its online form

over its Facebook page, which was

sent to students over email.

In previous years, the ALC and

the GLC were involved with the

question creation process. Because

there are six teams in the race, as op-

posed to last year’s three teams, the

Elections Committee and Diversity

and Inclusion decided to hold two

separate debates in order to conserve

time and allow more questions to

be asked.

Diversity and Inclusion will hold

a Town Hall Event on March 30, the

night before the final election for

UGBC president.

Nick Minieri, the chair of GLC,

said that he is unsure whether the

Elections Committee and Diversity

and Inclusion will hold two separate

debates in the future. It was more

feasible this year because of the ex-

tended election period, which spans

over three weeks instead of 10 days,

he said.

Own It, from A1

By Yolanda Bustillo

Heights Staff

Debate, from A1

DREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Anthony Perasso and Rachel Loos were among the six teams participating in the debate on Sunday evening.

Amid the current politi-

cal debate over single-payer

healthcare, Paul Farmer, M.D.

and Ph.D., of Partners In Health,

may provide an answer to this

hot-button issue.

Farmer will deliver the inau-

gural lecture in the Park Street

Corporation Speaker Series on

March 22. The event is titled

“Universal Health Care? From

Slogan to Mantra” and will

be held at 7 p.m. in Robsham

Theater.

Farmer is the co-founder

and chief strategist of Partners

in Health, an international non-

profit organization. Farmer

founded the organization along-

side Ophelia Dahl, an advocate

for the health of the poor, and

Jim Yong Kim, now the presi-

dent of the World Bank Group.

Since 1987, the organization has

provided health care, conducted

research, and undertaken ad-

vocacy efforts for the impover-

ished across the world. Partners

in Health operates in Haiti,

Rwanda, Mexico, Peru, and other

third-world nations. The orga-

nization has built hospitals and

health posts in areas in which

people would not otherwise have

access to health care.

According to its Web site, the

organization’s two main goals are

to bring the benefits of modern

medical science to those most in

need of them and to serve as an

antidote to despair.

Farmer is described as “the

man who would cure the world”

in the award-winning book

Mountains Beyond Mountains

by Tracy Kidder. This biographi-

cal work follows Farmer’s life

from his work at Brigham and

Women’s Hospital when he

met Ophelia Dahl and formed

Partners in Health. The book

describes his journeys through-

out Haiti, Cuba, and Russia as

he worked to battle infectious

diseases affecting impoverished

nations across the world. Farmer

served under former president

Bill Clinton as the United Na-

tions Deputy Special Envoy to

Haiti. In June, Clinton presented

Farmer with the Forbes 400

Lifetime Achievement Award for

Social Entrepreneurship.

“I can honestly say that a

great deal of the good things that

have happened to me in my life

… are directly on the shoulders

of Paul Farmer,” Clinton said

at the ceremony. “There are

so many people all across the

world whose lives he has saved,

but countless others we will

never know, whose lives he has

touched.”

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates

were among the audience mem-

bers applauding Farmer at the

Forbes Award Ceremony.

Farmer’s talk at Boston Col-

lege will kick off the new Park

Street Corporation Speaker

Series in Health, Humanity, and

Ethics.

The goal of the series is to en-

gage students in exploring values

and ethics related to health and

health care practices. The series

is funded by the Institutional

Review Board at Massachusetts

General Hospital.

Amy Boesky, the director of

the minor in medical humani-

ties, is co-director of the Park

Series. The medical humanities

minor, a recent addition to the

interdisciplinary minors at BC,

is a humanistic and cultural

study of illness, health care, and

the body.

“We [held] a series of work-

shops in which we talked about

how could we come together

from different disciplines to

think about interdisciplinary

approaches to health and health-

care,” she said.

Courses in this interdisciplin-

ary minor are available through

the Morissey College of Arts and

Sciences, and include classes in

social science, psychology, and

natural science.

Boesky also talked about the

future speakers of the Park Street

Series. She said that journalists

and co-authors Nick Kristoff and

Sheryl WuDunn will speak on

September 15 about the health

inequities related to their work

on gender and human rights.

Boesky also announced that

other speakers for next year will

include Susan Reverby from

Wellesley College on medical

history, Rosemarie Garland

Thomson on disability bioeth-

ics, and Meghan O’Rourke on

chronic illness and the ‘future’

of illness.

By Chris Russo

Heights Staff

THE HEIGHTS Monday, March 21, 2016 A4

KELSEY MCGEE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

“Behind every man now alive stand

30 ghosts, for that is the ratio by which

the dead outnumber the living.” – Ar-

thur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

“Some day soon, perhaps in 40

years, there will be no one alive who

has ever known me. That’s when I

will be truly dead—when I exist in no

one’s memory. I thought a lot about

how someone very old is the last liv-

If you haven’t heard of Branick Weix

already, then you are late to the game. Th e

CSOM freshman, who hails from St. Paul,

Minn., has made major waves within the

Boston College community, helping to create

promotional videos for the school, and being

featured on the BC News Web site for his

notable extracurricular achievements.

Currently, Weix is the president and

founder of two diff erent companies—Sky-

link Productions LLC and Demain Designs.

SkyLink, a project born from Weix’s interest

in videography and photography, was estab-

lished on Weix’s 18th birthday after he spent

a summer using drones in his job as a golf

course employee. He did not know much

about drone technology initially, however.

“I just ran into drones online, and started

reading about them until I knew a little bit,”

he said. “I saw the opportunity to use drones

for marketing materials and also for data

analysis with that golf course.”

Opportunities quickly spread from out-

side the golf course, when Weix was soon

approached by realtors and schools inter-

ested in his work with aerial photography

and data analysis.

SkyLink is probably Weix’s biggest

achievement, as his work with the company

is heavily solicited. One project in particular,

a data and research project conducted with

Seeds of Change, has already changed some

of the scientifi c process for a group of re-

searchers in Costa Rica. Weix traveled to the

area over Winter Break to implement drone

technology in the tracking of sea turtles by

taking aerial images and videos of the island’s

beaches. After proving that drones could

streamline this process, as well as provide

access to faraway beaches previously left

unstudied, Weix hopes to set up a drone

permanently at the organization’s base.

“I’ll likely be returning sometime to train

their scientists how to use it,” Weix said.

“Hopefully in the long term they can start

to use drones to make more decisions and

whatnot, now that we know that it works.”

Demain Designs, also established during

Weix’s senior year, started as a favor to a fam-

ily friend. Th e company works to take excess

inventory from a home decor manufacturer

in St. Paul, Velvet Pumpkins, and sell it online

through Amazon and other websites. Weix

put his eff orts in the simplest terms.

“We fi gure out how we can take their

stuff , sell it, and make money,” he said. Th e

project garnered $40,000 for the company

last fall, and is only going to expand in the

future—Weix is currently building Velvet

Pumpkins a Web site and setting up two

new sales channels within the project. Th e

19-year-old is already hiring employees,

taking on an extra set of hands to help with

the project over the summer.

Having hiring power seems unusual for

someone who’s only 19 years old, but Weix

says that he doesn’t feel any strain based on

his past accomplishments.

“I think there’s always pressure, especially

at BC—it’s just an intense school in general,”

Weix said when asked about the expecta-

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRANNICK WEIX

Over Winter Break, Weix collaborated with scientists in Costa Rica by using drones to observe the migration patterns of sea turtles.

tions of others. “But a lot of these things have

come around from doing things that interest

me and that I enjoy to do, so I think as long

as I continue to do that, things will go well

and I’ll hopefully keep learning new things

and picking up new projects.”

Speaking of new projects, Weix also

mentioned a collaborative eff ort between

him and BC’s Thomas Wyner, a CSOM

professor, in which the two will map out

the campus of BC with drone technology

in order to create 3D printed models of the

buildings.

Weix’s interests reach beyond his work

with his companies, a fact that is often

overshadowed in interviews by the desire

to fi nd the secret to his success. He loves

to rock climb, and has been involved with

the Shea Center for Entrepreneurship, the

Information Systems Academy, and various

Tech Trek programs with John Gallaugher,

an information systems professor, since

arriving at BC. He also emphasized that

drone technology has remained a hobby for

him, even as he capitalized on its business

applications.

“I love making videos,” he said when

asked to describe his ideal extracurricular

project. “For me, the ideal project is just go-

ing and exploring places that people haven’t

been to before, that they haven’t seen before

and just making videos of that. Just present-

ing a diff erent view.”

When asked if he had a proudest ac-

ing individual to have known some

person or cluster of people. When

that person dies, the whole cluster

dies, too, vanishes from the living

memory. I wonder who that person

will be for me. Whose death will make

me truly dead?” – Irvin D. Yalom,

Love’s Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy

A gentle breeze, carrying with it

the smell of fertilizer and grass, rocked

the most eager of flower buds starting

to peek out of the ground. Above, the

sun was shining, and the sky was a

crisp blue. Campus was filled with a

renewed sense of energy due to the

first signs of spring, and the weather

would only get better from here. For

once in my life as a biology major,

I wasn’t drowning in lab reports,

problem sets, and midterms. I could

actually go outside and feel the sun

directly on my face instead of through

the library windows. I had to use my

free time wisely, so I put some thought

in what I wanted to do. It certainly was

a beautiful day outside—so I decided

to visit a graveyard.

2150 Comm. Ave. presses against

the border of Evergreen Cemetery.

The noise of construction on the new

dorm permeated the normally still air

around the cemetery, which only made

me slightly concerned for the future

residents who disturbed the restful

dead. Evergreen Cemetery was estab-

lished in 1850 by the town of Brighton

and was listed in the National Register

of Historic Places in 2009. Built in a

rural cemetery style and following

the natural curvature of the hill, the

cemetery’s paved paths form concen-

tric ovals and wind their way through

graves dating back to the mid-1800s.

On top of the hill in the middle of the

cemetery stands a towering monu-

ment, topped with a soaring eagle,

dedicated to the Brighton residents

who gave their lives fighting for the

Union in the Civil War. But despite all

of the cemetery’s historical impor-

tance, it didn’t really live up to its

name when I visited that day.

Leaves from countless autumns

past had accumulated into a thick

orange carpet that muffled the sound

of my footsteps. Pools of stagnant

water from the previous rain sub-

merged parts of the paths. Twisted

tree branches had begun to slowly

suffocate a crumbling footbridge on

the outskirts of the grounds. Now

that I was in the middle of the silent

cemetery, I was grateful for any sound

that would remind me of the living,

whether it was the nearby construc-

tion, the wind in the trees, or the birds

poking around in the earth. The late-

afternoon sun beat down on my head

as I began to walk the circuitous path

through the cemetery.

The solid, lifeless faces of tomb-

stones of every shape and size, all en-

graved with similar-sounding names,

popped up everywhere I turned in a

cold, cruel parody of the budding flow-

ers back on campus. Even though the

paths gave the cemetery some sem-

blance of order, tombstones stuck out

of the ground in random spots, mak-

ing it impossible to walk in a straight

line without stumbling on a tombstone

sinking into the ground. Some graves

were marked with a simple engraved

stone in the ground. Others were

obelisks rising into the sky, topped

with statues of guardian angels. Mar-

ried couples were buried side by side

with matching tombstones. A mother

and father engraved heartbreaking

epitaphs on the tombstone of their

lost baby. The earth slowly swallowed

up older tombstones that had no one

to care for them, with exposure to the

elements erasing the inscribed names

from memory. A name that had been

freshly etched into a family tombstone

shone a clean white compared to the

older black cuts on the granite.

Peals of laughter suddenly cut

through the air, snapping me out of my

reverie. From a distance, I could make

out a group of students walking down

one of the many paths that zigzags

through the tombstones, no doubt

using the cemetery as a shortcut to

Cleveland Circle, skirting death to get

back to life.

I realized I was making myself sad

looking at these rows of tired tomb-

stones leaning against each other,

bearing the names of people whose

lives I will never know and whose

stories have been lost in time. Our

society doesn’t like to face death—we

allocate a small plot of land for death

and keep it out of sight and out of

mind until it inevitably strikes. Death

seems to be the be-all and end-all of

human existence, the bookend of our

mortality, and I think it’s perfectly

healthy to fear it while in the midst of

life. But I like to regard death as one

of the ultimate expressions of love. We

lay our loved ones to rest and show

our love by bringing them flowers and

small gifts that they would enjoy. We

place a monument of solid stone in

the ground in a final act of defiance of

death to mark the significance of one

mere life. We share stories and keep

their memories alive for as long as we

can until it’s finally our turn to rest.

I made my way back to campus,

thinking of those quotes from Clarke

and Yalom. Some of the people in that

cemetery have been dead for well over

a century, their tombstones neglected

but still standing, as if demanding that

they be acknowledged. I conceded to

them, and also thought of my personal

30 ghosts standing behind me. And

as I recall all of their names from my

experience walking through Evergreen

Cemetery, I only hope that they were

able to live one last time and enjoy the

beautiful spring day.

complishment, Weix was at a loss for

an answer.

“Ah, that’s a tough one,” he replied. “I

don’t know about that.”

Of course, any one of his various

efforts would have been a reasonable

answer—not many students can say

that they don’t have a proudest accom-

plishment simply because there are too

many to choose from. Weix cautions

others against fearing their own short-

comings.

“That’s part of the experience, not be-

ing afraid to fail,” he said. “The strongest

attribute you can have is being willing

to fail, and knowing that it’s not the end

of the day.”

UGBC Elections Guide 2016 <<<

<<<

MIOTTI AND ULRICH<<<

PERASSO AND LOOS <<<

FAIRHURST AND BUTRICO <<<

“hYPE UP THE hEIGHTS”

INCREASE STUDENT PROGRAMMING

Back our athletic and student programs

Host events such as concerts and pep rallies in conjunction with athletic events

<<<

<<<

community happiness

Encourage student groups to host campus-wide events and invite international speakers to further unify our student body

<<<

individual happiness Establish a mental health center<<<

bring backfunkth

e

“redefining ugbc”

linking students and administrators

goals for student assembly

goals for ugbc’s

executivecabinet

Listen to students’ concerns and ideas for change

<<<

Advocate on students’ behalf to administration and work together to create solutions

<<<

Publish reports on these issues as a guide for adminis-trators and keep students informed

<<<

Make connections between administration and students

<<<

Directly representminority and marginalized students

<<<

“for us the biggest thing is community. the strongest vehicle we have is a sense of community.”

<<< JOHN MIOTTI

THE HEIGHTS A5Monday, March 21, 2016

PATEL AND ARQUILLO <<<

MECK AND BARBOSA <<<

SIMONS AND MCCAFFREY <<<

“fOR BC, NOT JUST UGBC”

Make UGBC more accessible, relevant, and useful

Off er comprehensive

campus guides to fi rst

year students

Use UGBC as a

platform to support

Student Organizations

health

Work to advocate for

increased representation of

diversity groups in UGBC

and on campus, as well

as introduce creative

solutions for social and

diversity education

programming

address issues overlooked by BCFocusing on fi nancial aid, socioeconomic

status, and sustainability

“A NEW PERSPECTIVE”

SupportTo advocate for student

groups and organizations

and see to it that they get

the representation and

respect they deserve,

whether that be practice

rooms, funding, or proper

recognition

<<<To see to it that all health needs of students are

met on campus

<<<

transitionChanging First Year Experience to improve

students’ transition to BC

<<<

Some problems being the under resourced

mental health clinic, the poor accessibility for

handicapped students, and walking and

transportation accessibility

<<<

“STRENGTH IN UNITY”

“Student life has many different facets to it. we want to make sure that we provide students with as many of these resources aspossible.” JOSEPH ARQUILLO

“WE WANT EVERY STUDENT ON CAMPUS TO FEEL SUPPORTED BY US, AND IF NOT US, THEN THE bc ADMINISTRATION.” JONATHON BARBOSA<<<

THE HEIGHTS A6

THE HEIGHTS A7Monday, March 21, 2016

KELSEY MCGEE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Much more than fl our, butter, and sugar

goes into making the best cookies on cam-

pus. Haley House chocolate chip cookies

are sold in the dining halls, where they have

gained a reputation for their deliciousness.

But there is far more to these cookies than

just what meets the tongue. Every Haley

House cookie contributes to the eradication

of societal inequality. Haley House is a local

non-profi t organization that strives for social

justice through its mission to “challenge the

attitudes and structures that perpetuate

suff ering.”

Haley House was founded in 1966 when

Kathe and John McKenna opened their

apartment to Boston’s homeless. Th ey began

to provide these forgotten souls a warm meal,

a place to sleep, and kindness and respect.

A year later in the South End of Boston, the

original Haley House soup kitchen opened

its doors.

Right from the start, Haley House took a

radically diff erent approach to helping victims

of inequality than any other organization of

its kind. In mission and practice, the Haley

House community relies on mutual respect,

empowerment, and connection through food

to remove the socially-constructed barriers

that perpetuate inequality between people of

diff erent racial, educational, and socioeco-

nomic backgrounds. Live-in volunteers and

activists run the kitchen and programming,

which creates a conscious community that

embodies respect and connection for all. Th e

McKennas’ hands-on approach to promot-

ing social justice has remained integral to

the mission of Haley House over the last 50

years, even as the organization has matured

and expanded.

Today, the Haley House community has

expanded to include a food pantry, meal

services for the elderly, aff ordable housing,

urban agriculture partnerships, and two

eateries: a pizzeria called Dudley Dough

and the Haley House Bakery Cafe. Th ese two

eateries are open to all and feed people from

all walks of life.

In addition to providing their com-

munities with food, these restaurants are

community hubs that provide programming

catered to victims of inequality. In fact, it is

the Temporary Employment Program at the

Bakery Cafe that provides the Boston College

community with 600 packs of its famous

cookies each week. Th ese cookies are made

by individuals who have been incarcerated

and isolated from mainstream society and

employment, often due to the vicious cycle of

addiction and incarceration. Th e Temporary

Employment Program stops this cycle in its

tracks by giving ex-off enders paid jobs, a

supportive community, and mentoring. Th e

program’s participants learn how to make

cookies and gain the skills they need to secure

a steady job after the program. Th e Tempo-

rary Employment Program has transformed

the lives of many of its participants, who have

then gone on to transform society.

Th e relationship between BC and Haley

House goes far deeper than just cookies.

Haley House’s namesake, Leo Haley, was a

BC alumnus who embraced BC’s Jesuit tra-

dition of social justice. In 1976, the PULSE

program began sending undergrads to vol-

unteer with Haley House, a tradition that

continues to this day.

Luke Heineman, a PULSE council mem-

ber for Haley House and MCAS ’17, works as

a liaison between the 10 to 15 students in the

PULSE program who volunteer at the soup

kitchen each semester. At the beginning of

this year Heineman had to work overtime to

schedule enough tours of the Haley House for

the interested PULSE participants.

“Haley House is traditionally one of the

most popular PULSE placements,” Heineman

said. Interest is not likely to die down any

time soon, as the Haley House continues to

attract a diverse and dedicated staff .

“I was blown away by the [organization’s]

sense of community,” he said, emphasizing

how friendly and open the Haley House staff

was. Haley House is all about connection and

through PULSE, Heineman’s students get

to connect with and “learn about relation-

ship-building with people you don’t think

about.”

Getting involved with Haley House is a

transformative experience for these students,

and over the course of the year Heineman

sees them mature, gain patience, and expand

their awareness. Students are encouraged

to step out of their comfort zones and

form connections with the soup kitchen’s

clientele. Heineman saw how interacting

with the residents could overcome societal

barriers when one of his students connected

with a homeless man who was interested in

astronomy.

“[The homeless man] actually found

a mistake in the Museum of Science’s as-

tronomy exhibit and pointed it [out] and he

was correct, which really undermines the

stereotype that homeless people are unedu-

cated,” Heineman said.

The students’ experiences working at

Haley House have long-reaching eff ects on

how they view society, perpetuating the Jesuit

mission for justice in the BC community. So

if you ever need an excuse to eat a cookie,

or three, remember that every Haley House

cookie helps bring people together and pro-

motes equality and social change.

It was freshman year all over again.

Oedipus Tyrannus, Antigone, the Five Dia-

logues, and the Nicomachean Ethics formed a

small pile on top of the desk.

The names Sophocles, Plato, and Aristotle

brought up memories of sitting around a table

with my classmates and discussing the nuances

of each text as if we were Greek philosophers

ourselves. While freshman year is all a blur to

me now, it was recent enough that I can recall

memories of when everything was still shiny,

new, and terrifying.

Though I was never one for philosophy, for

the time I sat around that table I came to appre-

ciate the importance of conversation and other

ways of thinking. My personal copies of those

Greek texts take up an entire bookshelf in my

room back home. I can’t bring myself to let go of

the memories of that formative period of my life

associated with those books. I’ve never bothered

to re-read them, though—at the end of the day,

it’s all Greek to me.

I reached back into the bag and picked up a

heavy tome, weighed down with the authority of

the Word of God. Of course the Bible had to be

in there. After 16 years in Catholic school, I’m

pretty sure I learned a thing or two about the

Bible.

Catholic Bibles are marked with imprimaturs,

stamps of approval from a bishop or other high-

ranking clergy member indicating that the Bible

has been published in accordance with Catholic

teachings. The New Oxford Annotated Bible car-

ries no such distinction as an ecumenical study

Bible, but even though it’s not explicitly Catho-

lic, the lack of an imprimatur makes it universal

in a refreshingly unique sense of the word.

I chuckled when I saw a calculus textbook in

the bag. The fact that it was the only hardcover

in the bag seemed to make a statement about

the importance of calculus in one’s education.

It’s interesting how only a handful of definite

equations can quantify rates of change. Calculus

is the gateway to many careers in the similarly

dynamic fields of science and technology, and

it’s only after becoming fully immersed in my

science classes that I’ve been able to go back

and appreciate the simultaneous simplicity and

complexity of calculus. Like it or not, calculus

will always be an integral part of science.

The gleaming cover of Plato’s Republic now

stared up at me from the top of the pile. It’s al-

most impossible to make it through a liberal arts

education at BC without reading the Republic

and pretending to know what the Form of the

Good is.

A year later, I still don’t know what the Good

is, and I may never understand what it means to

be just, but I guess that’s exactly why I’m here in

the first place, looking for answers as I stumble

my way out of Plato’s cave.

If my freshman year taught me anything, it

was that in order to grow, you first have to hit

rock bottom. We resolved to go deeper into the

cave to see what other books were lying in wait.

If you want to learn about what makes us human, open a book. Books chronicle our progress

through time, recording our unique stories, cultures, and ways of thinking for posterity. Several infl u-

ential texts have not only guided Western thought, but also laid the foundation for a liberal arts educa-

tion. For the entirety of the semester under our desk here in the Heights offi ce, an unclaimed canvas bag

has been hiding, completely untouched and unopened. Upon some further investigation, we found that

the bag contains several brand-new books—though neglected books from a wide range of academic

disciplines. After a bit of pondering, we came to the conclusion that the random sample of books found

in this bag is an apt look at an average variety of books that a Boston College student might encoun-

ter—something of a liberal arts sampler. We decided to fi nally go through them one by one and see how

each one contributes to painting a comprehensive picture of BC’s liberal arts education.

First impression upon pulling up Texte et Pas-

tiches—une initiation á la littérature? Yikes. Personally,

I have no academic experience in the French language,

and my incompetence of the French language, despite

eight years of studying Spanish in high school, is exten-

sive to the point where I needed to use Google translate

to decipher the title—it’s roughly, “Text and Pastiches

– an Introduction to Literature,” if you were wonder-

ing. Looked at broadly though, I think that the study

of language is essential to the liberal arts. Formally a

student of Spanish and currently a student of German,

studying language is more than just learning how to

speak a foreign tongue. It’s a means of discovering a

new world outside of your own and learning how to

interact with that new world on cultural and linguistic

levels. Looking back at my own experiences studying

language and now leafi ng through the indecipherable

pages of this book, it’s clear that there’s a little more

to it than fl ashcards and conjugations. It’s a cultural

exploration which makes us better as humans, and if

that thought doesn’t just wreak of liberal arts, then I

don’t know what does.

Th e next book was a welcome relief, a liberal arts

classic: a Norton Anthology on American Literature.

Th ough notorious back-breakers, Norton Anthologies

are a staple in English Literature and related disciplines,

fi lled with classic stories and insightful essays that pro-

vide a variety of perspectives and readings on the most

important and signifi cant ideas in each specifi c fi eld. In

a variety of ways, this model of analysis, multi-perspec-

tive discussion, and criticism is much like this liberal

arts approach to education we’ve all encountered. To

look at a broad spectrum of literature, encourage dis-

cussion of diff ering opinions, and synthesize new ideas

is, in itself, a demonstration of the broad spectrum of

exposure that studying the liberal arts encourages.

Right as things were looking positive, the next book

up is Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. But what is an

education if it simply consists of the fl owery stuff ?

Without delving too much into plot, Northanger Ab-

bey, like many Austen novels, is a dark exploration of

Gothic obsession and maturation into adulthood. In

this same vein of well-roundedness, scrutinizing a wide

variety of movements in each fi eld of study adds a level

of diversity to education. To be excessively singular in

thought and experience is a dangerous thing, and the

mission of the liberal arts education is highly geared

toward avoiding this threat of the single narrative. It’s a

positive thing that our mystery student is mixing his or

her calculus with a side of American Gothic litera-

ture—it’s an eclectic mix that makes for a multifaceted

individual.

Th e fi nal book in our mini collection actually

made total sense to me—we had explored philosophy,

religion, calculus, language, and literature, so what

pursuit should follow to round out the pack? Art. A

dense paperback with the informative title Th eories of

Modern Art runs through the various movements and

time periods of which modern art is composed. Opin-

ions with regards to modern art certainly have varying

degrees of approval, but it is undeniable that it is a part

of the human discourse. To neglect the importance of

visual art would be to overlook a huge part of the hu-

man experience and to fail to align with the philosophy

of the liberal arts.

JAMES LUCEYKAYLA FERNANDO

KELSEY MCGEE / HEIGHTS EDITOR

THE HEIGHTS Monday, March 21, 2016A8

HEIGHTSThe Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

THE

“I don’t think life is absurd. I think we are all here for a huge pur-pose. I think we shrink from the immensity of the purpose we are here for.”

-Norman Mailer

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The Heights reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity,

accuracy, and to prevent libel. The Heights also reserves the

right to write headlines and choose illustrations to accom-

pany pieces submitted to the newspaper.

Letters and columns can be submitted online at ww

bcheights.com, by e-mail to editor@bcheights.com,

person, or by mail to Editor, The Heights, 113 McElro

Commons, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467.

EDITORIALS

The views expressed in the above editorials

represent the official position of The Heights, as

discussed and written by the Editorial Board. A list

of the members of the Editorial Board can be found

at bcheights.com/opinions.

At the presidential debate for the

Undergraduate Government of Boston

College (UGBC) last night, candidates

were questioned on the arts at Boston

College, the role of student government,

and mental health.

On March 30, a Diversity and Inclu-

sion town hall will serve as another

opportunity to hear candidates answer

questions, this time directed entirely to-

ward issues of diversity and inclusion.

The inclusion of a separate town hall

debate exclusively devoted to questions

from the AHANA Leadership Council

(ALC), the Council for Students with

Disabilities (CSD), the GLBTQ Leader-

ship Council (GLC), and the Diversity

and Inclusion Programming Board (DIP)

came about due to the unexpectedly

extended election season as well as the

inclusion of six presidential teams in the

initial debate.

The last time the debates were sepa-

rate was three years ago.

As Diversity and Inclusion is the

largest subsection of UGBC and has

the most programming and funding, it

is important that its concerns are ad-

dressed. In a six-team, one-night debate,

this would not have been feasible due to

time restraints.

Although the Elections Committee

did ask some questions on Diversity

and Inclusion issues, this separate town

hall will allow every issue to be ad-

dressed specifically by each candidate

in a way that otherwise would not have

been possible.

It is uncertain whether this practice

of holding a separate town hall will

be continued in the future, due to the

potential return to a normal 10-day

election period, instead of this year’s

three-week cycle.

Each year, the decision regarding this

separation should be based on the num-

ber of teams running.

When six teams are running, it is

nearly impossible to adequately repre-

sent the interests of Diversity and Inclu-

sion in one debate.

A separate town hall forum solves this

problem and ensures that they can ask

their questions.

On the other hand, when two or three

teams are running, it is preferable to

bring everything into one debate, in-

cluding questions regarding Diversity

and Inclusion.

This is logistically possible due to

the small amount of candidates and

reduced amount of time in answering

questions.

By bringing everything into one in

this situation, the Elections Commit-

tee would unify the multiple facets

of UGBC.

The elections committee has made the

right decision in having a Diversity and

Inclusion town hall.

In the future the Committee should

remember this and base its decisions

on how many teams are running while

ensuring that Diversity and Inclusion

is able to have its concerns adequately

addressed.

Sophia Amoruso will come to Boston

College on April 9 as part of the BC

Women’s Summit: Own It.

She will give the keynote speech

at the summit, which aims to bring

female leaders to campus in an effort

to provide empowerment and foster

leadership in BC students.

Amoruso gained fame during her

time as CEO of NastyGal, an online

clothing realtor, and for her 2014 New

York Times bestselling memoir #GIRL-

BOSS.

Amoruso provides a perspective that

can often go unseen at BC. Her story

is filled with difficulty and poverty,

including a period of homelessness,

until she eventually managed to achieve

business success that culminated in her

time as CEO of NastyGal.

Entrepreneurship is of key impor-

tance to Amuruso’s success and is a

theme of her memoir, in which she

provides business advice.

Having Amoruso speak at BC pro-

vides support for another effort at BC,

by the Shea Center for Entrepreneur-

ship.

As BC increases its efforts to en-

courage students to pursue their own

startups and ventures, a clearly dif-

ficult and risky road, the presence of

role models like Amoruso on campus

goes a long way toward legitimizing

these efforts.

She provides a hopeful perspective

and serves as an encouraging example

to BC students hoping to find entrepre-

neurial success.

She also serves as a reminder of the

privilege BC students have in being able

to earn a college diploma.

As someone who can share the oppo-

site view, Amoroso should remind BC

students of the opportunity they have

been given and the many people who

have not received the same.

To many students living on a campus

surrounded by other BC students, this

perspective can sometimes be lost, and

it is important and valuable to ensure

that it is remembered.

Amoruso provides these multiple

perspectives and students should take

the time to attend her speech and sup-

port the efforts of the Own It summit.

The Women’s Center, the Office of

Student Involvement, and all those

who work to put on the Own It summit

deserve commendation for bringing

Amoruso to campus.

Her memoir and success in the busi-

ness world have made her a significant

figure who is sure to bring attention not

only to the keynote speech specifically,

but to the Own It summit and Women’s

Center as a whole.

With her delivering the speech, a

good step has been taken to spread the

message of this year’s summit: pushing

students to pursue their dreams and

achieve their goals.

GABE PASTEL / HEIGHTS STAFF

On March 3, The Heights published an article

that informed the community about the recent

inclusion of African and African Diaspora

(AADS) courses being added to the history

Core. I would be lying if I said that when I re-

ceived emails from people across the campus

congratulating me that I took a deep sigh of

relief. Instead, I shook my head in despair.

A visionary, a giant, a prophet—one who is

often forgotten about and pushed to the side—

once explained in response to a reporter’s ques-

tion about racial progress: “No, no. I will never

say that progress is being made. If you stick a

knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six

inches, that’s not progress. If you pull it out all

the way, that’s not progress. Progress is heal-

ing the wound that the blow made. They won’t

even admit the knife is there!” While changes

are coming, the question about whether or not

we, as an institution, are progressing must still

be raised.

Symbolic gains are not the same as system-

atic ones. While future students will be able to

capitalize on this opportunity to learn about the

African Diaspora for Core credit, this was not a

giant leap, but rather an inching drag forward.

It seems that we have to walk the University

through each course in order for them to review

its eligibility for Core credit. Why were courses

such as African American History and those

related to Asian Studies, Latino Studies, and Na-

tive American studies not also granted the green

light? Has there been a call by the administra-

tion for faculty to develop courses to enhance

the Core and have departments step up to the

task? What are departments doing to enhance

cultural diversity on this campus?

We now address the University directly. We

have presented a guide and offered to assist you

in reaching an improved state, yet we continue

to receive push back. You must take ownership

of what is happening right here on the Heights,

which only some of us can call home. We expect

the University to make visible, positive changes

and to begin healing its wounded students.

If we do our due diligence and truly live out

the Gospel message of justice, the Eagles that

graduate from this institution can go forth and

set the world aflame by working for the societal

changes we so desperately need.

Let’s focus on our mission: the holistic for-

mation of our students. Inform and challenge

people to engage with issues of diversity and

inclusion. This message is a direct request for

genuine and exhaustive effort and commitment

to improving diversity and inclusion.

The Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercul-

tural Center said, “BC, Let’s Talk.” Organizations

under United Front umbrella have maintained

the conversation on diversity among students,

and the AHANA Leadership Council created a

space in which they elevated this conversation

to a University dialogue. Now that we have ac-

complished these difficult feats, administration,

it’s your turn to get to work.

In Regards to “African, African Diaspora Courses Added to Social Science, History Core”

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

college students are on spring break

when campaigns will be heading to

campuses. Early primaries and caucuses

are predominantly Southern, and the

proliferation of voter identification laws

is disproportionately preventing young

voters from voting, even when they’ve

already registered. Charles Blow of The

New York Times recently pointed out

that Sanders’ civil rights advocacy is

“strangely devoid of southern touch-

stones,” and that hurt his numbers

among black voters in the South.

The best thing that Sanders can do

to get ahead of Hillary is to accentuate

their differences.

Sanders has stood up for liberal

values for a much longer time than Clin-

ton. He was arrested in Aug. 1963 for

protesting segregated housing owned

by the University of Chicago, while

Clinton campaigned for Barry Goldwa-

ter who supported repealing the Civil

Rights Act in 1964. On May 11, 1995,

Sanders accosted a representative on

the floor of the house for his deroga-

tory use of his phrase “Homos in the

military,” referring to homosexual men

and women whom Sanders said were

being denied their basic human rights.

Hillary supported the 1996 Defense of

Marriage Act, and has only supported

gay marraige since 2013 despite her pre-

vious claims that she believes marriage

is a sacred bond between a man and a

woman. The most radical difference is

that Sanders intends to remove the cor-

rupting influence of corporate money

from politics.

Sanders’ intense focus on getting

money out of politics completely con-

trasts with the efforts of Clinton. Sand-

ers has raised the vast majority of his

money in small contributions directly

from individuals. Clinton and many

other politicians rely on political action

committees that can receive unlimited

amounts of money to fund major cam-

paign activities. To evade laws prohib-

iting direct coordination with PACs,

campaigns usually put out hours of

footage and audio of the candidates that

PACs can edit on their own.

Clinton has said that she wants to

get money out of politics, too, but this

can be seen as disingenuous. Sanders

has called her out on her claim numer-

ous times. He has talked about how a

certain “other candidate” in the race has

super PACs and most of the individual

contributions to her campaign come in

the form of the maximum amount of

$2,700. Sander’s average contribution is

only $27. Nobody really wants to spend

all of their waking hours fundraising,

but if she were really serious about get-

ting the corrupting influence of money

out of politics, Clinton would lead by

example like Sanders.

The companies that portray Clinton

as the inevitable nominee would be best

served by her hypothetical pro-business

administration. Clinton is the business

candidate. It is plain to see that she

is beholden to the Wall Street firms,

private prison companies, and the other

special interests that donate to her cam-

paign, philanthropic organization, and

super PACs.

The recent debate in Flint, Mich.

encapsulated exactly what kind of politi-

cians Clinton and Sanders are. Clinton

has attempted to deceive the public

about Sanders’ record by picking out

negative components of larger pieces

of legislation in order to make Sanders

look like he is against the policies and

interests which he has always claimed

to work for. Most notably, she twisted

Sanders’ universal health care plan by

arguing that it would eliminate people’s

insurance policies under the Affordable

Care Act.

Clinton is always very well-re-

hearsed, and she usually goes for the

easy one-liner. She does this to get

political points, while Sanders says what

he believes.

THE HEIGHTSMonday, March 21, 2016 A9

ARNOLD PALMER - The drink, not

the golfer. Toss in a little tea, a

little lemonade, and a whole lot of

freedom. Think of the lives Palmer

has touched with this simple, yet oh-

so-beautiful, concoction. It brings a

tear to our eyes just thinking of it.

And by “our,” I am referring to the

collective alien conscious from the

planet Bueskytter that writes these

thumb-tastic little thingies.

THUMBING YOUR NOSE AT PEOPLE-

While this is a somewhat common

idiom, what we’re referring to here

is literally placing your thumb

against your nose and then staring

at people. No one will have any

idea what you’re doing. Often this

leads to new friendships and great

conversations.

SUBSERVIENCE TOWARD YOUR ALIEN BETTERS - Clearly your best option.

EARWAX - While probing the cavern-

ous tunnel of your inner ear with a

pinkie, you suddenly discover that

your ear is filled with a disgusting,

sticky, yellowish substance packed

against your supple hearing-skin like

gunpowder in a musket. Removing

your finger, you stare at the filth that

has accumulated on it. You think

about that last sentence and realize

you are a disgusting animal. In a fit

of cleanly fury, you sprint to CVS in

search of an ear wax cleaning kit.

A RUMBLING STOMACH - On the topic

of things your body does wrong.

One of the most uncomfortably

embarrassing moments known to

the indigenous college student is

sitting in a quiet classroom sur-

rounded by your peers while your

stomach rumbles like a bloodthirsty

saber-toothed tiger. No amount

of contorting and squirming will

make it stop. You can only cough so

many times. Your only option is to

live in the awkwardness, to make it

your home, to revel in the essence

of discomfort.

TRYING TO GO TO SLEEP EARLY ON THE WEEKEND - For once in your misera-

ble life, you decide to be responsible,

to take control and be the ultra-ef-

ficient machine that you know you

can be. It’s Friday night and you’re

going to get in your bed and drift

away to dreamland at 10 p.m. on the

dot. Then you’ll rise bright and early,

take a run along the Reservoir as the

sun peeks over the trees, take care of

all your papers and homework, rec-

oncile with your long-lost love, and

save a small hamster from asphyxi-

ation. You’ll be the hero Chestnut

Hill needs. You feel the sweet tug of

sleep. Next thing you know Neil Dia-

mond is singing “America” while you

and your kindergarten class sail on

a small tugboat toward the Statue of

Liberty. But no! There’s a hole in the

tugboat and under that hole is your

great-uncle Gerald with a bloody

steak knife, screaming, “Shut up and

dance with me.” What? You wake

up confused and terrified. Then you

hear the music from the room next

door. Groaning, you lay in your bed

covered in sweat for 17 hours, unable

to sleep a single minute.

RESISTING YOUR ALIEN OVERLORDS - It’s

futile.

Like Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down?

Follow us @BCTUTD

Free college tuition is not the answer.

Disregarding any political affiliation, I want

to challenge Bernie Sanders’ stance on free

college tuition. While his education platform

has several other components, including

revising the system of student loans, I will

focus exclusively on how free college tuition

will affect universities themselves. I am not

promoting the typical “Who’s going to pay

for it?” question, but rather arguing that free

college tuition will drastically devalue higher

education in America.

On the surface, it seems as though free

college education would invariably improve

the country. After all, human capital theory

states that by investing in personal skills,

through means such as higher education,

individuals can increase their productiv-

ity. Thus, removing tuition costs will allow

everyone to substantially invest in his or her

own human capital. By creating a better-edu-

cated workforce, overall productivity would

increase and thereby promote economic

and social growth. The quality of college

education, however, would greatly suffer (let’s

assume that the government will only be

able to affect the tuition of state universities).

Consider the issue of public high schools in

America. Since these schools are guaranteed

a certain level of revenue, they do not need to

compete for students and therefore are not

effectively incentivized to improve.

Conversely, private schools must evaluate

both tuition price and the quality of educa-

tion offered in order to optimize enrollment.

Private schools follow the same principles of

an open market wherein competition is neces-

sary for efficient and cost-effective results.

Hence we can recognize why there is a dispar-

ity between the education offered at public

versus private high schools (on a national

average). Importantly, our system of higher

education is one of the best in the world

simply because the competition between col-

leges, whether public or private, forces them

to improve. Essentially, the free-cost principle

that has weakened our public high schools

would shatter America’s higher education.

By instituting free tuition, public universi-

ties will lose the competitive edge that makes

them so elite. The value of public degrees will

significantly decrease, and private colleges

will begin to excel in comparison. This sudden

gap in quality will allow private universities to

increase their tuition, since their enrollment

will be in higher demand. A truly advanced

education will be less available to the middle

and lower class, creating an elitist system—the

very thing Sanders is trying to avoid.

We need to redirect the conversation

about free college tuition. It should not focus

on comparisons between military spending

or a plan to tax Wall Street. We must not sac-

rifice the quality of education in the United

States if we hope to create a competitive

workforce in the global market. I absolutely

support educating our population, but the

answer cannot be free tuition. Schools need

to remain competitive.

Reform must be implemented in other

aspects of America’s education system. I

completely agree that a student should never

be denied access to higher education due to

his or her socioeconomic status. Govern-

ment policy should aim to increase financial

aid programs that accommodate the poorest

of eligible candidates. Secondly, there needs

to be a better system of student loans that

does not prey on the likelihood of students

defaulting. While it would be counterpro-

ductive to have student loans erased, there

should exist safeguards that give graduating

students leeway in payment time, allowing

such individuals to find stable jobs.

Unfortunately, the issue of education

is far too complex for me to appropriately

offer the “right” solution. But I believe it is

much more critical to focus on reforming

the early stages of education before college.

These early stages involve not only changes

to elementary and high school, but also to

issues of family life and childhood develop-

ment. The conversation should not begin

with free college, but with improved primary

education, more effective welfare, and greater

income distribution for teachers.

Free college tuition is not the answer. It

will devalue the quality of America’s higher

education and perpetuate an elitist system. I

believe that education, of all levels, is a natu-

ral human right. But it must be made more

accessible through other means.

except dating—How To Lose A Guy In

10 Days, 27 Dresses, and This Means

War—rarely ever work, because love

is always mixed up with all kinds of

other complicated, life-altering issues.

Art is meant to make a statement, and

whether that’s about humanity, grief,

unwanted change, or class struggle—art

has to have something to say and has to

say it loud. The best romantic comedies,

then, are the ones that reflect life for

itself, defining our characters in frames

of living retrospect. They have elements

of real sadness and real emotion even

within their humor, like the depressed

mental instability of the Jason Segel’s

lonely Peter Bretter in Forgetting Sarah

Marshall or the complexities of human

interaction found in Notting Hill.

People still like rom coms. There’s

a reason people still watch them. But

those reasons can’t last if studios

continue to generate slop for swine.

Continuing to make lackluster, care-

less, and disrespectful films hurts us,

as both movie lovers and members of

society—they make people feel justi-

fied in using “chick flick” as a misogy-

nistic insult, inevitably accompanied

by an eye roll and a wave of the hand.

They make people who care about love

trifling and valueless. They make us, by

association, pathetic.

Just like any genre of art, this genre

needs to evolve to survive, to find its

audience and serve it what it deserves,

and this calls for a change in percep-

tion of what a rom com is and what it

should do for its audience. We millen-

nials are not the starry-eyed consumers

that our parents were. Blame it on the

fact that the Baby Boomers have sunk

the economy for us, or on the fact that

we grew up on dystopian revolutionar-

ies and reluctant anti-heroes rather

than epic space explorers and idealistic

Western cowboys. But we are a discern-

ing generation, cynical and terrified

for the unknowable, uncharted futures

before us, and we need, and want, mov-

ies that reflect the complexities of our

living concerns.

the “classics”—or at least the most-

loved—of 21st century rom coms have

these bizarre, sci-fi-esque plots that

normal people would never find them-

selves in: In The Proposal, a woman

forces her younger male secretary to

marry her to avoid getting deported to

Canada. Warm Bodies depicts the in-

tensely relatable teen drama of falling in

love with a zombie. She’s the Man, bless

that movie’s heart, has a girl preposter-

ously pose as her brother to play soccer

and fall in love with her roommate in

the process. These may be pleasing,

adorable pieces of candy, but anything

that is meant to be watched with a grain

of salt or three has not been well-sea-

soned in the first place (if you’ll forgive

the metaphor).

While one can argue that perhaps

these ridiculous plots only mean to

mirror the issues we do face in our

lives, we as consumers shouldn’t have

to forcibly derive that meaning for

ourselves—to make up for the lazi-

ness of the producers. In fact, I wholly

blame this new formulaic simplicity of

the genre on studios’ severe underesti-

mation of audiences. I have no qualms

about the humiliating box-office deaths

of insipid, uncreative “rom coms” like

The Ugly Truth (2009) and Playing It

Cool (2015) because these are obtuse,

witless bores that make plaster walls

seem brazen in comparison. They say

nothing and accomplish nothing, they

think they are wittier than they are,

and they don’t challenge anyone, most

of all themselves. They are, by movie

standards, unrespectable because they

are cowardly. Art is for inventing. Art

is for learning. Art is for feeling. And to

continuously produce these time-wast-

ing tins is to disrespect audiences, to say

that this is all we single-minded sheep

can handle.

Movies that take nothing seriously

I don’t mean to brag or anything, but

I’m kind of an expert movie-watcher. I

can spend days, probably even weeks

if life allowed it, watching films: gory,

colorful Tarantino action films, meticu-

lously plotted courthouse thrillers, over-

the-top comic book superheroes, mini-

malist introspective character studies,

and on special occasions—provided a

blanket and a space to scream in—those

gritty, high-budget CGI horror movies.

But being a chronic moviegoer means

dealing with the valleys along with the

peaks—and in this expert watcher’s

humble opinion, no film genre has more

peaks and valleys than the romantic

comedy.

This is, believe me, no rag on the

rom com. Even by my standards, too

much of my Spring Break was devoted

to watching feel-good, happily-ever-af-

ter love stories: love stories in Seattle,

love stories in New York, love stories in

Sacramento and Chicago and Austin.

But it became quickly evident that the

memorable characters and the emo-

tional stickiness of the last couple de-

cades, perfected in original and creative

films like When Harry Met Sally, Say

Anything, and even the seemingly air-

headed Clueless of the ’80s and ’90s are

slowly regressing to a pervasive, chronic

laziness. The normalization of happily-

ever-after endings in rom coms may be

feel-good, but it has led to the decline of

the genre: a timid and uninspired adher-

ence to formula.

Although there are and always will

be exceptions, so many romantic com-

edies now seem to depend on vapid plot

contrivances and character choices that

contradict the way humans actually act,

putting the movieverse into an alternate

space-time continuum until it’s filled

with characters that are practically

inhuman—people who bend the rules

of human interaction until the whole

movie fills itself with sociopaths. Even

Hillary Clinton is not the inevitable

nominee for the Democratic Party in

2016. She was not inevitable in 2008,

and she is not now.

Democratic voters as well as Inde-

pendents will vote for the candidate

who shares their values and views so

long as they still believe that candi-

date can win in the general election.

Most mainstream media outlets have

propagated the idea that Hillary Clinton

is inevitable, and that voters should

rally behind her immediately to save

her chances in the general election.

Generally, these pundits’ arguments rely

on beliefs that Hillary is the moderate

candidate who can sway people away

from Trump.

It is not over for Bernie. Sanders has

extremely passionate supporters, and

he has consistently polled better than

Clinton in hypothetical general-elec-

tion matchups against the Republican

frontrunners. As of March 18, Hillary

Clinton has 1,147 pledged delegates,

and Bernie Sanders has 830 pledged

delegates of the 2,383 needed to get

the democratic nomination. In total

there are approximately 4,768 delegates,

pledged and unpledged, which means

that there are plenty more to go around.

But Sanders will need bigger wins in

states such as Arizona and Washington

in the coming months in order to make

up his current deficit.

Sanders will have a difficult final

stretch in the primary season. While

he has maintained significantly higher

favorability among younger voters,

the young are generally less likely to

turn out to vote than the old. Politico

recently pointed out that between

March 5 and March 26, over 500,000

“At first I was afraid,” Layla Aboukhater,

MCAS ’18, said before breaking out into a sur-

prisingly light-hearted laughter. “That sounds

like the beginning of the song,” she laughed,

amused by her unintended reference to the

Gloria Gaynor classic, “I Will Survive.”

I couldn’t help but laugh along to this

playful outburst with a hint of incredulous-

ness—Gaynor surely wasn’t referring to fear

on the same scale of that which Aboukhater

was alluding to.

The fear occupying Aboukhater’s mind

night after night was rather a product of

the noise from far-off gunshots and rockets,

which until recently kept her awake at night

in her home city of Aleppo, Syria.

“When you’re not used to the noises and

how loud they are, it’s kind of terrifying, but

then you really get used to it,” she said.

A recent transfer student to Boston Col-

lege, Aboukhater escaped Syria’s escalating

violence in Nov. 2014 alongside her father,

who was allowed entry after a multitude of

failed attempts to acquire a visa.

The two landed in Boston and began the

daunting process of migrating the rest of

the family.

Though raised from the age of four in

Syria, Aboukhater was born to her Syrian par-

ents during their time studying in the United

States, making her a U.S. passport holder.

Though this citizenship made her own

entry into the country a relatively simple

one, it provided no benefit to her parents,

particularly her mother.

“My parents had no visa, no green card,

nothing,” Aboukhater said. “They decided to

send me by myself, but miraculously my dad

got a [professional] visa. We started setting

things up, my sister and brother followed with

the cat and the dog—who was pregnant—and

it took another five months to get my mom

here.”

This flight from war-torn Syria is unsur-

prisingly quite common among Aboukhater’s

peers, she explained, several of whom are

now scattered around the United States and

the world. Despite her success at finding a

home in the United States, resettlement in

the country is rare among the families of her

friends and classmates.

“They’re countable—it’s really, really

rare,” Aboukhater said of her Syrian friends

with the United States as their final desti-

nation. “Most people ended up in Canada,

Sweden, or Germany. I could go there and

find my whole city packed into one of those

places.

“Right now what’s happening is, anyone

who has enough money to leave would get to

Lebanon [and] get a plane ticket from there,”

Aboukhater said.

Urgency became an ever more palpable

sensation in Aleppo over the last five years

due to escalation in violence, best illustrated

by one detail in particular—darkness. As

regime and rebel forces fought their war,

power lines were destroyed day in and day

out, leaving thousands of Syrians without

electricity and in a constant state of cold and

literal darkness. This darkness provided a

stark reminder of the world outside of the

walls of Aboukhater’s home.

Recalling the first power outage with a

shrug, Aboukhater explained that the power

was only out for an hour. As the violence

escalated, the number and duration of these

outages became increasingly frequent, esca-

lating right up until the bitter end of her stay

in Syria. In the month before her departure,

the instability was such that during one two-

day span, she had electricity for a total of

one hour.

The typical “buy a generator” response

to this darkness, however, implied a level

of acclimation or admission of defeat to

Aboukhater’s family, one which she feared

deeply. To Aboukhater, her family’s pur-

chase of a generator would be a gesture

of acclimation to the violence escalating

around them.

With this in mind, the Aboukhater family

came to a resolution—they would not buy

a generator. They determined that if things

were bad to the point where they would need

a generator to get by, they would simply leave

the country rather than adjust based upon

what the situation demanded.

But the darkness grew.

“We went through a really, really dark

year,” Aboukhater said. “Literally dark—like

candles and flashlights. But then we adjusted

like everybody else and got a generator, and

you just live life like everyday. Your entire

family comes home—that’s cool—but maybe

not.”

Aboukhater spoke candidly about living

in this hostile environment and the terror of

adjusting beyond the point of seeing the need

to leave, likening it to the story of two frogs

told by her father.

“One frog was put in boiling water so

he jumped out and survived,” Aboukhater

recounted. “The other was put in water that

was heated up really slowly and eventually he

boiled to death.”

“We were boiling to death,” she ex-

plained.

In the face of this violence and death

which daily shook the foundation of her home

and her relationships, Aboukhater insisted

that life had to go on. For a brief moment of

playful inquiry, we talked about the Aleppo

party scene.

“You’re kind of dirtier because you’re not

as showered,” Aboukhater said, laughing at the

absurdity. “But that look became the trend.”

Aboukhater found that this violence,

though undoubtedly an exercise in hardship

and pain, was also an agent for community

building. In her description of the mentality of

a community plagued by death and violence,

one expression that she emphasized stood out:

“YOLO mentality.”

“The people that were left became such a

tight community, everyone was going through

the same hardships, and the social life was re-

ally interesting,” Aboukhater explained. “Our

cafes had never been fuller at points when I

was there. People would sit outside even when

it was really unsafe to do so.”

Taking a moment to be lighthearted was

essential to the people of Aleppo—an escape

from the cold and dark quarantine of a bar-

ricaded basement.

Aside from a physical escape, carrying on

in ways like this worked to remove oneself

from the shackles of emotional confinement.

Maintaining a feeling of purposefulness in

the face of extreme violence was crucial to

survival.

“I mean you go to a funeral in shock like,

‘Oh my God, they were so young,’” remem-

bered Aboukhater.

But as violence began to escalate and the

funerals became more regular, the mourning

which accompanied each funerary proces-

sion necessarily began to likewise become

more regular.

Much like the lack of electricity and the

constant sounds of far-off shelling, death and

mourning became nothing more than facts

of life for a young girl in her teens and early

twenties.

“If you want to lose a week every time

someone dies, that’s a lot of weeks lost,”

Aboukhater said plainly, a frightening re-

minder of the massive amount of bloodshed

with which every Syrian inevitably comes

face-to-face. “You have to get work done and

get on with life.”

Physically distant now from the bat-

tleground that was once her homeland,

Aboukhater brings parts of Syria with her,

which is not always an easy thing. Having

escaped from Syria, the burden of awareness

is often a backbreaking weight.

Hot water, electricity, security, and ample

opportunity are now realities of Aboukhater’s

daily life in the United States.

Realities that, with one eye back on Syria,

weigh on Aboukhater with a feeling of help-

lessness.

She describes it as a feeling of gratitude

that is haunted by an underlying guilt—a

feeling that while her new life is good, her old

one still exists for countless innocent people

living in fear in Syria.

The feeling of obligation which comes

with this freedom is not merely a peripheral

sensation.

“I’m basically just sitting out there in

O’Neill Plaza on the grass, and it’s sunny, and

looking up at the sky knowing nothing is going

to fall on me right now,” she said.

The burden of this knowledge, fears of

checking Facebook and learning of neighbors’

deaths, and overcoming the language and

cultural barriers of new surroundings are all

certainly large loads to bear. But Aboukhater’s

positivity is as unmistakable as it is improb-

able.

Aboukhater’s enthusiasm was self-evi-

dent throughout, and her face lit up when

she talked about her recent experience of

fearlessly wearing a dress to class, a novel

experience for her.

“I could not believe myself, I was on such

a high,” she said, laughing. “I’m so used to try-

ing to be invisible when I walk, and now I’m

here where everything is green and everyone

is undressed.”

Certainly, walking out of our conversation

I saw the world around me with a very differ-

ent filter, like I had stepped into Syria for an

hour-long verbal tour.

The grass was a little greener, the sky

a little bluer. A distinct mix of contagious

hopefulness and unseen ordeal pervaded our

conversation—a complex mix too difficult to

fully put into words appropriately, either in

conversation or publication.

It’s a mix that can only fully be lived, not

written.

When I inquired about any last-minute

requests before walking away, however, the

response was an appropriate mix of sincere

poignant geniality and BC-student enthu-

siasm:

“You should mention the Harry Potter

club,” she said with a laugh.

THE HEIGHTS Monday, March 21, 2016 A10

—Layla Aboukhater, MCAS ’18

PHOTOS COURTESY OF LAYLA ABOUKHATER

Nick Rocchio-Giordano, MCAS ’18, his bass

hanging limp for the moment, leaned into the

microphone and declared: “We are Funky Giant.”

And it echoed across the Rat, partly due to the

state of the audio system, but also because of the

sophomore bassist’s insistency.

Th e sophomore trio Funky Giant went on to

provide the promised funk in a set that made up

for its lack of vocals with a sound straight out of

HBO’s nostalgic, fi ery Vinyl. Th e setting in the

basement of Lyons helped. With tapestries framing

the stage and center aisle, the Rat proved a more

robust venue than the Cabaret Room has usually

provided.

At the end of the night, hosted by a programming

triumvirate of the Music Guild, Campus Activites

Board, and the Arts Council, it was music scene

stalwarts Small Talk and William Bolton, and then

earnest newcomer Funky Giant, which earned the

golden ticket to the fi nal showdown at Arts Fest

later in the year.

Th e bluesy Matt Michienzie, MCAS ’17, kicked

off the battle. Th e band has an earthy, full presence

with your basic band equipment (plus a little bit

of saxophone) that backs Michienzie’s voice. He

sang under, over, and through the arrangement

in “Skylines,” where the Foxborough native sings

about an imagined journey through Chicago to

Memphis and, of course, New York.

His best work was seen in “Drunk.” Alone on

the stage for most of the song, he used a stomping

guitar riff and his deep, breathy voice to bend and

hold notes in a rambling fashion that epitomizes

what it’s like to be drunk and a bit sad.

Backed by a drummer and a set of samples

cycling from his laptop, Bolton fi t a fi ve-song set

in just over his allotted time. “Bad Girl,” “Summer

Breeze,” “Fading,” “Bud Light,” and “Let’s Stay

Together” are all infectious, tightly wound pieces

of pop music.

Bolton is a precocious master of crowd

engagement, and his set got the crowd on its

feet moving and grooving along with the Detroit

native. It was the best he has ever sounded live.

“Let’s Stay Together” remains an irresistible bundle

of earnest soul and pop.

While a veteran of now four Battles of the

Bands, Small Talk holds the distinction of battling

with a diff erent lineup each year. With the addition

of Kaitlyn and Meghan Kelleher, CSOM ’18

and LSOE ’16, the band employs a dramatically

diff erent sound than it did two years ago with

more traditionally indie songs like “A Diff erent

Gravity.”

The band has moved in a more textured,

psychedelic direction, and with the absorption of

the Kellehers, the band’s vocals are now as textured

as its arrangements, as Sean Seaver’s, MCAS ’16,

voice mixes with the Kellehers’.

Small Talk treated the audience to two new

songs. It kicked off the set with “Eclipse” and

fi nished with “Aquarium.” “Eclipse” is as peppy as

Small Talk gets these days. If most songs are a lap

around the track, then “Aquarium” is a marathon,

a slow burn of Chris Southiere, Berklee ’16, on the

drums and Seaver and the Kellehers’ vocals fi lling

the proverbial aquarium of sound.

Last year’s Singer-Songwriter Competition

champion Wynnm Murphy, MCAS ’18, teamed up

with Ryan Bradley, MCAS ’18, to form Sixtowns.

Murphy, who in the past used an acoustic guitar

and a kick drum, has moved in a more electronic

direction.

With Bradley on keys and Murphy on guitar

and wielding a looper, Sixtown has an airy sound

that leaves more than enough room for Murphy’s

&MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2015

INSIDEARTS ‘Daredevil’Season 2 of Netfl ix’s superhero series hit the

streaming service Friday morning, B4THIS ISSUE

Gwen StefaniTh e No Doubt lead vocalist released her third

solo album this weekend, B4

Weekend Box Offi ce Report.........................B4Hardcover Bestsellers....................................B4Th e Acoustics..................................................B3

Music is cyclical. Musical elements come

in and out of fashion. New sounds pop into

existence and exit the scene as quickly as

they appeared. Years later, these sounds

may resurface, revitalized by an artist who

uses them in new ways, incorporating them

into the current scene. Music lends itself to

itself—a sort of self-sampling occurs as the

constant exchange of ideas takes old ideas

and creates something new. I believe that

is what is happening today, as we arrive on

the cusp of a new musical age, artists are

embracing old elements.

Th e paradigm shift in music has been

a long time coming. Since the early ’00s

or even the late ’90s, the progression has

tended in favor of pop and electronic foun-

dations. In a 2014 interview with Howard

Stern, Chris Cornell, lead singer of the band

Soundgarden, had much to say about the

fate of modern music when looking at the

past. Cornell recognized that electronic

dance music (EDM) and more synth-pop

music dominates the younger generations

playlists. Its popularity was in constant

ascent. But it likely will not last forever.

“I don’t know how much more it can go

up,” Cornell said. “ Th e only thing I can say

is that tends to be the beginning of a really

great new movement in rock, which is the

same thing that kind of happened when

disco was dominating.”

After disco died, punk rock and other

genres of music took off in popularity. In

part a response to the dissatisfaction with

disco and the desire to create something

new, the giant hole left in the cultural scene

allowed new kinds of artists to break into

the mainstream. Th e parallels with the disco

age and the EDM age are substantial, and we

may fi nd in time that it will be the big fad of

our decade. Only time will tell.

But Cornell’s point also highlights where

we might be going. Just as ’70s disco faded

into ’80s punk and metal, the EDM and

synthpop of the ’00s fades into retrowave

and new alternative rock.

We might be close to breaking into a

new musical horizon as older ’80s sounds

are coming back into play in retrowave elec-

tronic, which uses more atonal, imperfect

sounds, reminiscent of the time period.

EDM, though a party genre, has become

primp and proper as the technology allows

for near-perfect sounds to be created. Just

as the imperfect, grating, and distorted

guitar sounds of ’90s grunge contrasted the

conventional powercords and sounds, new

music, like retrowave, will throw away mod-

ern conventions in favor of something more

raw. Th is seems like a natural progression,

fl eshing out old ground, while incorporating

it into new media. Retrowave may be the

natural predecessor.

Th e umbrella term ‘alternative rock’

may simply function as a catch-all phrase

for uncategorizable rock bands, but it is also

the home of artists who push the boundar-

ies of rock music. Th e 1975’s new album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You are Beautiful Yet Completely Unaware of It, is a prime

example of this. Th ough frontman Matt

Healy is not shy about stating that genre is

dead, the band recognizes that the sounds of

the ’80s are present. Incorporating more re-

served and classic uses of synth in several of

its songs, listeners will notice the similarities

while appreciating the diff erences laden in

the work. Th e boundaries are being pushed

farther back. And this band is representa-

tive of a larger shift in music toward a new

kind of rock that Cornell references in his

interview.

Maybe this new era has a certain ir-

reverence to genre, maybe it will continue to

employ older elements in new and exciting

ways. In any case, being on the edge of a

musical shift is exciting because it suggests

that there are more artists out there to fi nd

and sounds to be explored. Music has always

been as dynamic as the people who create it.

Individually, we are an amalgamation of na-

ture and nurture. It is natural for us to keep a

pulse on everything going on around us. As

an industry, collective of people, music keeps

a pulse, too, evolving with every turn. Disco

is dead. Punk is dead. Grunge is dead. EDM

is dead. Genre is dead. Music is alive.

&MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2016

ARTS REVIEW B1

See Battle of the Bands, B2

Taking the stage with poise, each

dancer owned the stage with every smooth

step. A moving spectacle, Boston College

Dance Ensembles’ Roulette held the

house on edge throughout the night, as

it engaged the audience with varied and

visually stimulating dance performances

while maintaining a level of energy and

enthusiasm from their fi rst spin to their

last.

The opening performance, “Luck be

a Lady,” choreographed by the Dance

Ensemble Offi cers, showcased all members

of the Ensemble and highlighted the

complexity of their performance. The

dancers took to the stage with glowing

personalities that, coupled with their

colored tutus, made for a commanding

start. Th e dance was dynamic with many

moving parts, utilizing the entirety of the

stage. Th e troupe’s ability to gracefully drop

to the fl oor allowed for the girls behind

those front and center to add fl ourishes

with arms, legs, and quaint jests to add

even more movement to the performance.

Th e joy present in the eyes of the dancers

infectiously invigorated the audience.

“Hotel California,” choreographed

by Carissa Burns, MCAS ’17, brought a

commanding performance to the Eagles’

famous song. The dancers donned red

dresses and elegantly moved in front of the

red backdrop. Th e production behind this

piece is indicative of the simple, yet eff ective

design and use of stage seen in the rest of

the show.

Th e next performance, “Waking Up,”

choreographed by Olivia Duddy, MCAS

’17, uses light to impressive ends from start

to fi nish. Bathed in a light golden hue, the

dancers brought life to the slow song, while

creating an aura truly embodying the titular

process of waking up. Th e lights, which

dimmed and intensified at key points,

enhanced the movements of the dancers,

creating a more visually striking image

on stage.

Th e fi rst guest dance group, BC Irish

Dance, truly owned the stage with a

powerful performance. After several

seconds of synchronized tapping with the

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

See SASA, B7

TAYLOR PERISON / HEIGHTS STAFF

The Boston College Dance Ensemble took over Robsham Theater Friday and Saturday with dance numbers choreographed to “Hotel California,” Luck be a Lady,” and “Six En Pointe.”

See Dance Ensemble, B2

THE HEIGHTSB2 Monday, March 21, 2016

What do insane dictators, panini-

obsessed men, and angry squirrel siblings

have in common? If you wanted the answer

to that question, you needed to attend the

Committee for Creative Enactments’ latest

improv comedy show, March Radness.

Stokes South was filled with laughter

and merriment last Friday night as audience

members trickled into the auditorium,

excited to see what the latest CCE show

would have to offer. Fortunately for all

involved, the troupe did not disappoint. As

everyone found their seats, warm lights lit

the front of Stokes auditorium, and the show

began.

From the very outset of the show, it

was clear that the audience was in for quite

a treat. The night began with a bang—actors

stepped out onto the stage and began

performing scenes almost immediately.

The first event of the night was interesting:

the first two performers began a scene, and

slowly, performer after performer would

enter and change the scene as they saw fit.

Naturally, the stage stacked up with people

rather quickly, but this was far from the

conclusion. After center stage was packed

with actors, each one slowly departed,

and the story began to move in reverse.

Finally, the front of the room was occupied

by only the first two actors performing

their original scene, leaving the audience

extremely impressed with the display it had

just witnessed. As the lights fell to signify

the end of the first event, onlookers filled

the room with much-deserved applause.

Much to the joy of everyone watching,

March Radness only went uphill. It was

refreshing to see multiple talents integrated

into the show—at one point, a musical

theatre-esque performance was given.

Audience members shouted out film genres

as inspiration, and CCE actors proceeded to

not only improvise scenes that correlated

with the suggestions, but also perform

music on the spot to set the mood. More

than anything else, this was the most

impressive event of the evening. The ability

to produce a tune without any prior warning

is notable, and any praise that CCE gets for

its talents is not nearly enough.

Perhaps the greatest piece of March

Radness was the connections CCE members

made with the audience throughout the

night. One improv game stands out:

“Pillars.” For this event, audience members

were selected to sit center stage as CCE

members acted out a scene around them.

When the time came, actors would tap the

chosen audience members on the shoulder,

who would then produce a line out of thin

air for the performers to follow along with.

Needless to say, this created some priceless

moments—from the predictable to the

outright bizarre and inane, the cast was well

equipped to handle any and all situations,

a mark of truly incredible improvisational

actors.

In truth, it was this aspect of March

Radness that made the show stand among

other types of performances. When

Boston College students makes their

ways to an on-campus event, they may

be seeking entertainment, but they rarely

expect to be able to participate in a show

themselves. This is precisely what CCE

afforded audience members Friday night,

and while this was potentially a recipe

for disaster, the troupe handled it with

precision and poise.

Admittedly, not every single piece

of the show was perfect—the lighting was

not entirely spot on, and certain scenes ran

longer than they maybe should have. This is

only to be expected, after all. But if these are

the only flaws that CCE makes in one night

of above-average comedy, any mistakes are

easily forgiven.

As the show came to a close, onlookers

exited the auditorium with smiles on their

faces. True humor can, unfortunately, be

difficult to come by. But when the stresses

of schoolwork and housing are running

high, a little bit of laughter may just be

the key element in soothing some tense

days at BC. With its latest show, March

Radness, the Committee for Creative

Enactments has undoubtedly proved that it

is an excellent source for this laughter. If all

students on campus took the time to watch

a CCE improv show or two, they might find

their daily stresses easier to carry.

song, the music stopped, leaving the five

dancers alone on a quiet stage. Robsham

echoed with the sounds of stomps and

clicks, emanating from the dancers’ shoes.

The cohesiveness between the dancers

made a melody of beautiful sounds and

stomps as they owned the stage through

their own dancing prowesses.

After intermission, “Six En Pointe,”

choreographed by Kelsey Ortiz, LSOE ’16,

displayed the always-impressive technical

skills of pointe. Deft movements and

seamless transitions with the music made

for a stunning level of precision as the

dancers moved synchronistically about

the stage en pointe. Never faltering in

the face of the demanding number, the

dancers exercised a different kind of stage

presence as the audience looked on. The

dance exuded a subtle contrast to the loud

personalities of other dances.

Synergy performed toward the end of

the show, employing its numbers to an

eclectic mix of songs and dancing styles.

The hip-hop company members moved

every part of their bodies, stretching and

bending, creating another interestingly

complex set of advances around the stage.

As its name suggests, the energy is not

simply poured out on stage by the group,

but coalesced into a unified force. The

shared movements of so many create a

beautifully harmonious image.

In a sentimental moment, the Dance

Ensemble seniors came onto the stage to

offer up a final performance. Aptly named

“Started from the Bottom,” the seniors’

performance was rife with sisterhood and

amiable affection.

The final dance, the titular “Roulette,”

again brought the entire ensemble to the

stage. Much like the beginning, the troupe

dressed in costume, this time as showgirls, to

conform to the number’s Las Vegas theme. The

dance was another flash of quick and smooth

movements, and girls kicked, spun, and

waved while adhering the larger movements

of the ensemble. As the final piece, the dance

captured the nature of the show as a whole.

Much like a river, there was a larger current

to follow, and plenty of room for smaller

tributaries to branch away and reintegrate

later. Each dancer exuded her own personality,

while uniformly fitting into the larger context

of the dance.

Dance Ensembles’ Roulette took the best

aspects of dance and showcased them in

quick and poised fashion. The production of

the show was simple and striking, all aspects

done in such a way that the movements of

the dancers were not only more visible, but

augmented through their design. The duration

of each dance was refreshing as they seemed

to be structured to be the perfect length.

Never overstaying its welcome on stage,

each dance seemed to have a story to tell.

Stopping after that story was told made

their endings all the more poignant.

The dancers, their energetic figures

illuminated purple from the glow of the

stage lights, sprang across the stage as

the 16th Annual Southeast Asian Student

Association (SEASA) Culture Show

commenced Saturday night. The room

was an almost eerily black, but the bright

lights and energy emanating from the stage

seemed to dissipate the darkness. Much to

the delight of the eager audience, the show

began with an entertaining modern dance

number by a visiting dance group from

Brandeis University.

The theme of the night, The Seven

Deadly Sins, was brought into the show

through a comedic kidnapping of SEASA’s

president Peter Soewardiman, CSOM ’17,

and the ensuing quest to save him by the

club’s freshmen representatives, Ben Koh,

Dennis Phan, Elaine Hartono, and Khanh

Le, all MCAS ’19. The interplay and story

set on stage introduced different mythical

monsters hailing from the folklore of

different Southeast Asian nations to the

audience as well as set an introduction

to each dance number. Following the

introductory performance, the show

graduated into more traditional Southeast

Asian dances, but with some modern flare.

The first traditional dance of the night

was a Vietnamese fan dance, choreographed

by Mai Hoang, MCAS ’16. The dance was

visually stunning and elaborate, as the fans

seemed to spin gracefully upon the stage.

According to Vietnamese culture, the fans

symbolize friendship and respect for one

another, and the dance often embodied

grace, nature, and subtly. The following

performance, a traditional Malaysian Joget,

was a couples’ dance featuring modern,

upbeat music that was well-danced-to and

entertaining.

Next was the Maglalatik, the Filipino

Coconut Dance, which was one of the many

highlights of the night. The performers, with

coconut shell halves secured to their bodies

and hands, tapped the the shells to produce

a hollow sound as they danced. The red

spotlight that shone across the stage in the

beginning of the number was a fitting touch

for the mesmerized audience.

The final show before the intermission

was a traditional Indonesian Saman/

Lenggang Nyai dance. Choreographed by

Elaine Hartono and Matt Mikrut, both

MCAS ’17, the performance was fast-paced,

and the common harmony between the

dancers was impeccable and exciting to

watch.

This excitement and upbeat vibe was

continued after the intermission with the

final traditional dance of the night, the

Filipino Escrima—a class of martial-arts

fighting using sticks. The performance

was carried out with both a sense of grace

and fortitude, and had been expertly

choreographed by Gary Kim, MCAS ’17,

and Dennis Phan. The night then continued

with a swift transition into modern dance

numbers with a performance aptly entitled

Modern Girls.

This performance was followed by

Modern Boys, and then finally by Modern

Couples. All three performances were

entertaining, well-danced, and incited great

excitement from audience members.

The show came to a close with the

eventual rescue of the club’s president and

a final dance performance that culminated

with the entirety of the show’s participants

and club’s members together on stage.

Overall, the SEASA Culture Show was

spectacular. It was a fun, exciting evening

that featured beautiful traditional dances

with a modern flare and wonderfully

choreographed modern dances by

enthusiastic and talented performers.

vocals to breeze in and out.

The band closed with “Take Me There,”

and despite a stumble that may have

ultimately hurt the band’s reputation

with the judges and forced the band

to restart the song about a minute in,

“Take Me There” remains four minutes

of accomplished indie-pop. It has a

transporting quality, much like Murphy’s

earlier acoustic work, but the electronic

shift adds a distance that makes Murphy’s

voice even more compelling.

Funky Giant, the trio of Rocchio-

Giordano, Mario Borges, both MCAS

’18, and Henry Ricciardi, CSOM ’18, was

the last to take the stage, but it threw the

gauntlet down.

They’re mad technicians of funk. Funk

needs no words. Funk needs no (verbal)

rhyme. Words, apparently, just get in

the way.

The band blasted through two long

jams, but it was Ricciardi’s solo in the

second section that might have secured

the young group a spot in the finals.

The band had reached a groove by then,

the crowd nodding and stomping along

like they were in some NYC club. It felt

like the band, to finish the set, needed

to launch into something resembling

a bridge.

And it became clear that it wasn’t

going to a chorus of any sort. Rocchio-

Giordano and Borges, on the bass and

drums, settled their pace and turned

to Ricciardi. And boy, did he lean in,

climbing up and down the neck like a

warlock of funk.

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS STAFF

Dance Ensemble, from B1

Battle of the Bands, from B1

The Committee of Creative Enactments puts their stamp on the improv game as they masterfully engage the crowd wittily and with tact.

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

TAYLOR PERISON / HEIGHTS STAFF

Guest performances from Irish Dance and Synergy kept ‘Roulette’ a versatile show. The Southeast Asian Student Association held its 16th annual culture show, ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ in Gasson 100 Saturday night.

Wynnm Murphy, Will Bolton, and others duked it out Friday night for a spot at Arts Fest.

TAYLOR PERISON / HEIGHTS STAFF

THE HEIGHTS B3Monday, March 21, 2016

The phrase “sharing is caring” was aptly

embodied at The Acoustics Spring Invitational

this past Saturday night in Gasson 305. The

cacophony that was the crowd’s anticipation

seeped out of the packed lecture hall, as people

swarmed in to find space on the floor to sit.

The lack of seating didn’t deter anyone from

squeezing in to see one of Boston College’s

premier a cappella groups perform a few

renditions of current pop hits and classics.

Alongside The Acoustics were BC’s newest

a cappella crew, The Common Tones, and

Surround Sound from nearby Stonehill

College. Though the performance ran under

an hour, The Acoustics Spring Invitational

gave attendees a filling dose of soulful and

intriguing covers that rang through the chock-

full classroom.

The Acoustics kicked off the night with

a rendition of Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No

Other Man” that set the passionate tone of

the overall performance. Dominique Alba,

CSOM ’17, took on the number’s lead vocals,

displaying a versatile, stunning vocal range

that garnered several shouts and whistles

from the audience throughout the song.

Sophomore Liz McGovern, MCAS ’18,

blew the crowd back with her cover of Lady

Gaga’s “Speechless.” Interjecting a few funny

comments throughout the song, McGovern

captivated the crowd with apparent ease,

tackling a song that demanded a gravelly and

quaint sound.

After The Acoustics’ opening set came

The Common Tones, the newest a cappella

crew of BC singers. Laura Galligan, LSOE

’18, led The Common Tones in an epic play

through of Justin Bieber’s “Sorry,” which had

everyone in the audience snapping, stamping,

or clapping.

Reaching back to the ’80s, Sarah Rooney,

MCAS ’18, took a stab at The Outfields’ “Your

Love.” Both songs showed off the newly

formed group’s prowess, proving to the

audience that The Common Tones are just

as talented as some of BC’s most reputed and

oldest a cappella groups.

Next, it was time for Stonehill College’s

Surround Sound to take the spotlight.

Apparently “Sorry” was on more than a few

of the performers’ minds, as Surround Sound

had its own rendition of Bieber’s hit up its

sleeve. While it’s easy to imagine that the

duplicate song might’ve been unappealing

to the audience, it was actually engaging to

hear a second version. Sometimes, different

groups’ styles sort of meld together, making

the distinctions between groups hazy. With

“Sorry,” the audience got to see an example of

the varying approaches that a cappella groups

will take with one song. While The Common

Tones had the entire ensemble chanting the

hook for “Sorry,” Surround Sound left that job

to only one of its members.

Returning with Billy Joel’s legendary

“Piano Man,” The Acoustics began the

closing set of the night. Josh Behrens,

MCAS ’18, lent his vocals to the song’s

main melody and brought out a harmonica

throughout the number. “Piano Man” had

the audience collectively swaying back and

forth to the sullen, yet beautiful classic.

The Acoustics closed out the night

with an astounding mash-up of Kanye

West’s “Jesus Walks” and Willy Moon’s

“Railroad Track.” While at first the crowd

seemed a bit flustered, expecting to hear

“Jesus Walks” in full force, the audience

members settled back in their spots once

they realized what was unfolding before

them. Alex Rougeau’s, MCAS ’18, quick,

seamless rap took the audience by surprise,

but resulted in overwhelming applause at

the end of the song.

Some might have felt that The

Acoustics Spring Invitational should have

featured more from The Acoustics, which

performed just four songs. Having the three

groups, however, exhibited The Acoustics’,

Common Tones’, and Surround Sound’s

distinct styles.

Onlookers also got a glimpse of the

heartfelt community that the BC a cappella

scene makes up. It was generous of The

Acoustics to feature an up-and-coming

a cappella squad, giving the Common

Tones backing and viewership that

might not come easily to a new group

performing on its own.

The day has finally come. After

soldiering through 42.5 hours of

Arrested Development on Netflix, I

have finally reached the last episode

of the series. Once this last episode,

“Blockheads,” is removed from my

Netflix queue, I feel like a huge weight

will be lifted from my shoulders. You

see, watching the show is no longer

an enjoyable pastime for me—at this

point, I’m so sick of the Bluth family

that I can barely bear to watch the

final half hour.

The first three seasons flew by in

a blur of binge-watching. I started the

series over Spring Break while staying

at my sister’s, while I attempted to

catch up on rest and she nursed her

emotional and physical wounds from

working well past 2 a.m. the night

before. We weren’t up for anything

beyond sitting on the couch for hours

at a time, eating pretzel nuggets and

mindlessly switching our attention

between our phones and the television

screen in front of us—excluding the

short moments after every episode in

which we had to press the “continue

watching” option on the side of the

credits screen. We had finished the

first season by the afternoon of the

next day.

Even after I had left my sister’s

apartment, I kept moving through

the series with unparalleled speed.

In around a week, I had finished the

second and third seasons. I was hesitant

to start the fourth season, however,

as I had been cautioned against its

comparatively worse quality. The

Netflix reboot of the series was around

five episodes shorter than the original

series, filmed eight years later, featuring

a new host of actors hoping to buy into

the franchise’s success. All of these

ingredients added up to a recipe for

disaster.

Unfortunately, I found my fears

confirmed after watching only one

episode of the reboot. The series was

now set five years after the original

unexpectedly cut off and spent an

extravagant amount of time in forced

and confusing flashbacks trying to

explain how the characters ended up

in their current roles. Big names in

comedy like Kristin Wiig, Seth Rogen,

and Ed Helms joined the cast, but

distracted from the series’ original quiet

humor, based not on one-liners but

on the irony of real-life situations. The

Bluth family had also fallen apart into

many separate divisions, with many of

the characters barely interacting with

the others—since the first few seasons

were entirely focused on the family’s

inner workings and collaborative

struggles, this was a disappointing

change.

So why did I keep watching even

though I knew I would be disappointed

by each following episode? To be

honest, I really don’t know. One

possible explanation is that I don’t

like to quit things I’ve started, but that

seems a little ridiculous in the context

of finishing a TV series. There would be

no consequence of me losing interest

in the Bluth family, unlike if I stopped

painting my room midway through

painting a wall, for example. For other

shows, I often explained this obligation

to finish the series as a result of my

investment in the characters’ well

being—I at least needed to know where

these people ended up, after spending

so much time following their stories.

Yet in season four, I grew so irritated by

the Bluth family’s antics that I couldn’t

be bothered to care whether they

thrived or failed.

The best explanation that I can

find for this need to complete the

series is that binge-watching has

changed the way I view TV series on

the whole. Instead of viewing the series

as multiple installments, I think of it as

a “super movie” of sorts, which is much

harder to justify leaving unfinished. I

can’t remember the last time I failed to

finish a movie, aside from the times I

fell asleep while watching something.

Netflix has expertly solved that

problem by saving your place after

periods of inactivity, leaving the story

to pick back up right where you left off.

The Web site is designed to encourage

as much viewing as possible—the

more seasons a subscriber is coerced

into watching, the longer he or she

will send monthly checks to Netflix’s

corporate headquarters. Thinking

about binge-watching as part of a

conspiracy theory about Netflix’s rise

to power is a bit of a stretch, but it

does make sense.

I have finally made it to the last

episode of Arrested Development, and

I can’t wait to be done with the show. I

must admit, though, that I was completely

unable to stop the show once I lost

interest. Somewhere along the hours I

spent binge-watching, I became entirely

hooked, much to my disappointment. It’ll

be a while before I stray from my typical

movie-watching to start another TV

series. I’ve learned that binge-watching is

much too hard a drug to quit.

With their latest performance,

the Bostonians lived up to their name.

At Saturday’s Spring Cafe, the group

made Boston proud, playing to a packed

room in McGuinn Hall. The audience

was filled with friends, family, and

Bostonians alumni, who sat in the

second row. The men and women of

the Bostonians donned black dresses,

heels, and button downs. Dimly lit

with twinkling lights, the room was set

to create an intimate environment for

the audience. These lights illuminated

the singers of each set and allowed for

a special focus on the individuals of the

Bostonians.

During many of the songs, the

entirety of the Bostonians were involved,

with a soloist singing the melody and

chorus of a song, while the rest of the

group provided background music. The

majority of the group pieces were led by

music director Paul Wagenseller, MCAS

’16.

One of the freshmen in the group,

Will Supple, MCAS ’19, recently

won this year’s Sing it to the Heights

competition. The talented singer sang

“So. Good.” by Johnny Stimson. The

second he finished, people jumped out

of their seats to give him a standing

ovation.

Ben Stevens, CSOM ’18, performed

the song Supple won Sing it to the

Heights with—“Tennessee Whiskey.”

It was a different, though still great

performance. After beatboxing in most

of the previous songs, it was a nice

change of pace to hear Stevens solo.

Paul Wagenseller’s “Mr. Brightside”

was another standout. The senior had

such energy and animation throughout

his performance. He was jumping,

lunging, and fully engaging himself in

his performance.

Part of his performance also had an

interactive component, as Wagenseller

reached out his hands to the members

of the alumni section of the audience.

He had so much fun performing that it

seemed as though the audience couldn’t

resist being absorbed.

On o f the mo st memorab le

performances was “You Make Me

Feel So Young,” performed by Aram

Barmakian, MCAS ’18. The singer

sounded just like Frank Sinatra and

caught the audience by surprise.

At the very end of the show, the

Bostonians called up their alumni to

perform one last piece with them—

“Love the One You’re With” by Crosby,

Stills, & Nash, which is often performed

at the end of Bostonians’ performances.

Three of the freshman girls in the group

each took a turn on a verse.

LEIGH CHANNELL

SARAH HODGENS / HEIGHTS STAFF

Singers Ben Stevens, Will Supple, Paul Wagenseller, and Aram Barmakian took the stage for the a cappella show in McGuinn Hall.

THE HEIGHTS Monday, March 21, 2016B4

“I feel so weird right now,” Gwen

Stefani said at the end of a Nov. 2015

interview, suddenly breaking her cool

and confi dent demeanor with a nervous

glance around the room. Sitting opposite

radio host Ryan Seacrest, the pop singer

fi dgeted anxiously with her tangled, lay-

ered necklaces. “I feel nervous, like I said

too much. I feel like I wanna throw up.”

She does a whole lot of this on her

new album—feeling, that is. Stefani feels

deeply,

and,

a s e v i -

denced

b y h e r

charac-

teristi-

cally un-

apolo-

getically honest lyrics that have survived

her solo career’s decade-long hiatus, she’s

never been one to hide it.

Th ough she was only referring to their

intimate interview, in that she provided a

detailed account of her harrowing divorce

and other personal struggles, Stefani’s

sentiments about having revealed too

much could easily be applied to the pop

princess’ new, emotion-heavy EP Th is Is What the Truth Feels Like. Th e 12-track

collection is a narrative about toxic love

gone very wrong, and the transition into

a new romance done right. It’s an intimate

conversation with millions of fans, an

unabashed admittance of vulnerability

in musical form. Simply stated, the tell-

all album is Stefani’s raw inner turmoil

available for purchase on iTunes.

Th e album’s fl uctuation from sarcasm

to elation and back again reinforces

the notion of relationships as a baffl ing

mobius strip of confl icting feelings. Tell-

ing the all-too-complicated tale of her

tumultuous split with Gavin Rossdale

and subsequent relationship with coun-

try star Blake Shelton, Th is Is What the Truth Feels Like feels overwhelmingly

optimistic.

Th e new album is astoundingly similar

to her previous releases (both as a solo

pop artist and lead vocalist of American

rock band No Doubt), complete with

all the bells and whistles expected from

Stefani—literally. Most of Stefani’s back-

ground instrumentals, though clearly

infl uenced by the pop realm’s reliance on

bass-drops and over-produced synth in

today’s hit songs, sound like they could

have come straight off of Sweet Escape,

Stefani’s widely popular 2006 release.

Many tracks on the new album are

surefi re chart-toppers. “You’re My Fa-

vorite” and the punchy “Make Me Like

You” are speckled with all those afore-

mentioned bells and whistles—familiar

airy xylophone tones and the occasional

sound of a whimsical slide whistle.

Though a clunky melange of musical

instruments, these songs are more in-

triguing than annoying, and the use of

quirky instruments reinforces Stefani’s

propensity for taking risks. As usual

for the singer, who throws caution to

the wind by including musical oddities

that could potentially ruin a track if not

employed imaginatively, the unconven-

tional elements strewn throughout the

songs pay off .

As expected, her familiar vocals are

breathy and atmospheric one moment,

but powerfully shrill the next. Her sultry

tone in “Send Me A Picture” gives way to

the jarringly punchy refrain. Th e catchy

song is Stefani’s stab at fl irting in the

digital age, yet the lyrical subject matter

does little to persuade listeners that her

sound and style have changed at all since

her early-2000s heyday.

Unfortunately for the 46-year-old

popstar, not all of her new tracks are lyri-

cal or musical home runs. Th e repetitive

“Asking 4 It,” featuring Fetty Wap, sounds

as silly as its use of the digit “4” in place

of the three-letter word. “Naughty” is a

whiny, immature, and awkward attempt at

seduction, complete with cringe-worthy

moans and botched bass drops thrown in

periodically for good measure.

From start to finish, the album is

choppy, messy, and diffi cult to consume.

Oddly enough, however, Stefani’s lack of

fl uidity or melodic continuity from one

song to the next works really well in some

parts. Th e new album feels like Stefani

hasn’t changed all that much since her

debut in the late ’80s. It feels familiar,

but rejuvenated in a way. Th is Is What the Truth Feels Like is an entertaining roller-

coaster ride to emotional recovery—and

it feels good.

Whenever popular shows change show-

runners, it can be easy to think that the show

will change for the worse. So naturally when it

was announced that Daredevil’s showrunner,

Steven DeKnight, was leaving, fans were scared

for the future of the show. Th ankfully, new

showrun-

ners Doug

Petrie and

Marco

Ramirez

take Matt

Mur-

dock’s tale

of justice in Hell’s Kitchen to new heights.

Part of what made the first season of

Daredevil so great was that it committed

fully to its slow-burn storytelling approach.

While this approach hooked fans on season

one, it seemed like the show spun its tires a

bit toward the end. Season two continues the

slow-burn approach, but instead of building

toward a single end game, the show instead

weaves several smaller story arcs that then

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1. OFF THE GRIDC. J. Box

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THIS IS WHAT THE TRUTH FEELS LIKE

Gwen Stefani

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one because he couldn’t seem to get over the

fact that his best friend was a vigilante. Last

season, Foggy kept giving the same “you’re

going to get yourself killed” lines over and over

again. Th e writing for Foggy is much improved

in season two and even gives him some heroic

moments both in and out of court. He does,

on the other hand, still fall back into nagging

Matt about his safety far too often, to the point

that it becomes annoying. Th e inclusion of a

weird love triangle between Matt, Foggy, and

their secretary, Karen Page, also seems out

of place and makes viewers less sympathetic

to Foggy.

Overall, Daredevil’s second season fi nds

ways to improve on everything that made the

fi rst season work. Th e gritty fi ghts, the great

character progression, and strong storytelling

all return better than ever. Th e show makes

attempts at fixing its biggest weaknesses,

such as Foggy, but still doesn’t fully fi x them.

Th ese problems, however, detract little from

the overall experience. Daredevil is still one of

the best superhero shows on TV.

‘Daredevil’ is able to stimulate an interesting moral conversation as characters butt heads.

DAREDEVILNetflix

LOMA VISTA RECORDINGS

song becomes clearer as it symphonically ap-

proaches the fi nale, a clear nod to Pop’s own

feelings. “Vulture” has a south-of-the-border

feel, while the overall eff ect of the song evokes

feelings of unease in listeners.

Post Pop Depression is an uneasy, weird,

and moody set of tracks that seems to signify

the end of a great artist’s career. Every track

has a diff erent instrumental mood, which

plays nicely into the subjects of each song

and the overall feeling of the album. Th is

works to the album’s advantage, as it points

to an understandable disposition to have

as an artist. And the album represents

a fi tting end with Pop’s aged and worn

voice, which is still touching and moving.

Th ough Pop may fear the future of his

legacy as he ventures into the twilight of

his career, fans will know that his songs

will continue to roll on in our hearts and

ears. Depression may take root, but all

one has to do is look back at a life of ac-

complishments. No matter his age, Pop is

still a modern guy.

As his career reaches its twilight hour, Pop reflects on his fame and what and lies beyond it.

POST POP DEPRESSION

Iggy Pop

Few artists have truly spanned the de-

cades and survived to tell the tale. Iggy Pop is

one who defi es the odds. In his latest album,

Post Pop Depression, Iggy Pop collaborates

with guitarist Josh Homme and bassist

David Ferita of Queens of the Stone Age,

as well as drummer Matt Helders of Arctic

Monkeys. As the title would suggest, Post Pop De-pressionis an al-

bum full

of emo-

tion and

melan-

choly, as

it seems like Pop says goodbye to his own

bygone era in music. In a sense, both post-

pop and post-Iggy Pop are at play here.

Entering into the twilight years of his career,

Pop positions himself for a graceful exit, as

Post Pop Depression upholds what fans have

come to know and love about Pop, even as

he embraces darker tones that signal his

inevitable departure from the scene.

Pop has said himself about the album that,

“I feel like I’m closing up after this.” Th ough

fans knew that the 68-year-old rocker would

one day close up his lucrative shop, the point

is still hard to swallow. One can immediately

draw parallels to the late David Bowie and his

album Blackstar. Th ere are some tonal and

situational similarities, which is sad, as many

great artists seem to be penning their fi nal

chapters. But Post Pop Depression calls to

mind all the varied sounds and ideas Pop has

often brought to the table while emotionally

saying he will not go out quietly.

Pop makes his intentions for the album

clear during the fi rst track “Break Into Your

Heart,” as the catchy tune infi ltrates the mind,

as the title suggests. As in other tracks, Pop

seems to strive to “break into the hearts” of

listeners as his era comes to a close. In an

instrumentally unchallenging but eff ective

way, the keyboard embellishments, catchy

chorus, and swelling guitars achieve that

decidedly.

The infectious single “Gardenia” is a

song with a bumping bassline and guitar

oscillations that will quickly grab listeners’

attention. Lyrically, Pop explores what may

be considered a lustful love for a woman,

possibly a prostitute, adding another layer

of intrigue to the song.

One of the most interesting songs on the

album, “American Valhalla” seems to scratch

at the core of Pop’s thoughts behind the al-

bum and his place in the music scene. Dark

and dirty bass tones and light keyboard notes

carry Pop’s lyrics which speak to his concern

for his legacy. His words, “Where is American

Valhalla / Death is the pill that’s tough to

swallow / Is there anybody in there?” speak

to his concern as he wishes to be invited to

the “afterlife” of his era. Later he sings, “I have

nothing but my name” and later ends the song

with several poignant spoken repetitions of

the phrase. Again, Pop seems to call into

mind the legacy he has accrued for himself,

wondering what it is worth in the end.

Other songs like “Sunday” have more

unique elements, like a distorted guitar that

aids in solidifying its more thought-provok-

ing lyrical content. Additionally, the end of

the song fades into an interesting non sequi-

tur style of orchestral music that carries on

with the melody. Th e somber nature of the

come together in the last few episodes. Th is

approach gives season two a much quicker

pace but still gives adequate time to evolve the

story. Additionally, the smaller story arcs give

great introductions to new characters Elektra

and the Punisher.

The Punisher, in particular, steals any

scene he appears in. Daredevil does a great

job of making a character best known for mass

murder of criminals relatable. Credit also goes

to Jon Bernthal for his great performance.

Elektra, however, comes across as a casual

sociopath. She seems just as willing to snap

Matt’s neck as she is to ask him to dinner.

Speaking of snapping necks, the fight

sequences in Daredevil continue to be the

gold standard in the current crop of super-

hero TV. Th e fi ghts are well-choreographed

and often leave viewers surprised by their

brutality. Matt Murdock may refuse to kill as

Daredevil, but he certainly is a fan of brutally

breaking criminals’ bones. Th e fi ghts do a

great job of reminding the viewer that other

than his super sense, Matt has no true super

powers. He is just excellently trained. Where

characters like Captain America knock out

villains with single punches and rarely seem

to tire, Murdock must attack bad guys repeat-

edly to take them down and often collapses of

exhaustion soon after.

Th e addition of these new anti-hero char-

acters also brings a clash of morals. Elektra and

Punisher are more than willing to kill those

they deem villains, as they see their enemies’

deaths as permanent solutions to their prob-

lems. Matt’s code of no killing is continually

tested by these new characters. Th roughout

the show they chide him for only taking half

measures or simply putting a bandage on the

problem. Th is confl ict of philosophies brings

about several surprisingly good moral discus-

sions between Daredevil and Punisher.

Th e moral aspect of the show also carries

over into Matt’s everyday life as a lawyer. Th is

part of the show sees a balancing act between

Matt and his best friend and law fi rm partner

Foggy Nelson. Th e two must choose between

representing the down-trodden or taking bet-

ter-paying, morally questionable cases. Th e

show does a good job of preventing either Matt

or Foggy from becoming the true moral com-

pass. Instead, whenever one of them seems to

falter, the other takes up his slack.

Foggy was a problem character in season

40-AND-NO

SPORTSC1

MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2016

DURHAM, N.H. — After 41 games, Boston College women’s hockey has had brushes with history many times. Th e Eagles com-pleted only the second undefeated regular season in women’s college

hockey history. Th ey held the Beanpot trophy and took home both the Hockey East regular-season and tournament titles.

But the program’s biggest goal—putting a star on the back of

the game sweaters—remains out of reach. Th e Eagles (40-1-0) fell in their fi rst loss of the year to Min-

nesota in the NCAA National Championship, 3-1. With the win, the Golden Gophers (35-4-1) have accomplished back-to-back wins on the biggest stage of women’s college hockey. Th is will be the third time Minnesota has achieved back-to-back champion-ship wins.

For comparison, many consider Minnesota’s conference, the Boston CollegeMinnesota

13

See National Championship, C4

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

THE HEIGHTS Monday, March 21, 2016C2

SKARUPA THE SAVIOR When it

looked like women’s hockey’s

undefeated season may have

been in jeopardy, Haley Skarupa

came to the rescue. Less than a

minute into overtime against

Clarkson, Skarupa scored the

game-winning goal to send BC

to the national championship.

SPEEDY SIMMONS Justin Sim-

mons impressed a lot of NFL

scouts at BC’s Pro Day last week

with his speed and determina-

tion. On an happier note, the

speculation is that Simmons

may be a New York Giant next

year. I guess you can win them

all.

STEVENS’ STREAK - Freshman

phenom pitcher Jacob Stevens

started his BC career off with

a bang. He hurled 29 score-

less innings before Clemson’s

Eli White homered to end the

impressive streak. Looks like

an illustrious career is ahead for

Stevens at BC.

DISGRACE AT TD GARDEN - Men’s

hockey looked seriously out of

sorts in the Hockey East semi-

fi nal game at TD Garden. After

defeating Vermont in three

games to advance, the Eagles

couldn’t overcome cross-town

rival Northeastern and lost the

chance to crown themselves

Hockey East champs. Th e game

was much more lopsided than

its 5-4 score would suggest.

LOSING LATE - Adding insult

to injury, the start of the BC-

Northeastern game was delayed

by two and a half hours after

the Providence-UMass Lowell

game went to triple overtime.

Th e 10:33 p.m. start time meant

that the game did not end until

1 a.m.

ALMOST UNDEFEATED - BC wom-

en’s hockey was SO close to

capping off a historic season

with the fi nal prize of a national

championship. Yeah, going 40-1

is a pretty respectable record,

but going 41-0 with a national

championship is even better.

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EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Emily Fahey / Heights EditorCupicatuidet L. Fulessedo, querfecta, nihilicii ineri fic

SPO

RTS

in S

HO

RT Numbers to Know ACC Softball Standings Quote of the Week

A sunny, blue-skied Saturday

afternoon brought out a large

crowd to watch No. 15 Boston

College (6-3, 1-2 Atlantic Coast)

welcome

No. 3 Syr-

acuse (7-

3, 1-1) to Newton. Spectators

lined all edges of the field and

peered through sunglasses as the

Eagles put together a full team

effort en route to a 13-8 upset

victory, giving them their first

conference win.

The Eagles’ last conference

game resulted in a 7-6 overtime

loss to Louisville on Feb. 27. BC

came to play Saturday with a

sense of urgency and an air of

confidence that spurred it into

action. After taking control of the

opening draw, the Eagles wasted

no time in spreading the Orange

defense with accurate passing,

before getting the ball to the stick

of senior midfielder Sarah Man-

nelly. Mannelly sliced her way

through the Syracuse defense like

a hot knife through butter before

burying a shot into the top corner

just 56 seconds into the game.

Despite BC’s early goal, Syra-

cuse remained calm, cool, and

collected, and responded with

an expertly executed offensive set

culminating in a well-placed shot

from sophomore Riley Donahue

to level the playing field.

The mentality and play of

both teams in the first half can

be summarized as “anything you

can do, I can do better.” BC and

Syracuse alternated goals for

the remainder of the first half,

staring each other down, neither

team willing to blink. For every

call there was a response. A free

position goal from junior Tess

Chandler capped the scoring

for the first half and gave the

Eagles the 7-6 edge heading into

halftime.

The parity would prove to be

temporary, however, as BC took

control of the second half. A nice

save from junior goalkeeper Zoe

Ochoa led to another beauti-

ful score from Mannelly, who

beat the Syracuse goalkeeper

while diving through the air. The

goal gave BC its first multiple-

goal lead of the game, and the

Eagles never looked back. The

Eagles proceeded to go on a 3-1

run, dominating time of posses-

sion and frustrating the Orange,

which was scarcely able to mount

any sort of offensive threat. Now

down 11-7, Syracuse was forced

to take a timeout.

After returning from the hud-

dle to the ensuing drop, junior

Kate Weeks delivered the dag-

ger. She and Mannelly executed

a masterful breakaway, barreling

down the field, right through

the heart of Syracuse’s back line

to score. It took BC just nine

seconds to score following the

Syracuse timeout. With all the

momentum and a five-goal lead

to protect, it became clear that

the Eagles were firmly in the

driver’s seat.

The Eagles would score an-

other to push the score to 13-7

before Syracuse would respond

with one of their own. Despite

Syracuse’s desperate attempts at

a comeback, Ochoa repeatedly

rose to the occasion, swallowing

up every shot that the Orange

could muster en route to record-

ing 10 saves on the day. Head

coach Acacia Walker, when asked

about Ochoa’s performance after

Despite winning 12 of its last 13

games, including a fi ve-game win

streak, Boston College softball’s

momentum was stilled after a week-

end series against Virginia Tech.

Unlike in their previous stretch of

games, the Eagles could not sync

their offense with their pitching,

and were unable to avoid big, game-

changing innings from the Hokies.

BC (17-12, 3-3 Atlantic Coast) fell

in all three games to Virginia Tech

(14-14, 9-2).

While BC played two close games

against a talented Hokie team on

Sunday, the weekend ended on a

low note for the Eagles, as they were

defeated 11-3 in fi ve innings. Virginia

Tech scored early and often, plating

four runs in the second inning off an

RBI single and a three-run home run.

BC starter Allyson Frei was chased

after the second inning, but the

aggressive off ense of Virginia Tech

could not be contained. It added

another four runs in the third in-

ning, the result of three singles and

a fi elder’s choice.

The Eagles got on the board

in the top of the fourth inning.

Freshman Carly Severini hit an RBI

groundout that scored sophomore

Chloe Sharabba, and later in the

inning senior Megan Cooley hit a

double down the left-fi eld line that

scored freshman Loren DiEmmanu-

ele. BC could not slow down the

Hokies, however, and Virginia Tech

added three more runs on another

three-run home run to center fi eld.

Th e Eagles picked up one run in the

top of the fi fth on a groundout from

sophomore Jordan Chimento that

scored junior Tatiana Cortez, but it

was not enough to avoid an early end

to the game.

The first game of the Sunday

doubleheader was a back-and-forth

aff air that Virginia Tech ultimately

won 8-7. Th e Eagles drew blood fi rst

as Cooley scored on a sacrifi ce fl y by

Sharabba in the top of the fi rst in-

ning. Th e Hokies immediately struck

back in the bottom of the fi rst inning,

scoring three on a pair of hits and a

passed ball.

BC tied the game in the top of the

second as Virginia Tech’s Maggie Ty-

ler lost control briefl y and threw two

wild pitches. Severini then singled to

the shortstop, scoring DiEmmanu-

ele. In the top of the third, Cortez hit

a solo home run to center fi eld, and

in the top of the fourth BC stretched

out its lead even further to 6-3 as the

Hokies walked in a run.

Th is lead was short-lived, as the

Hokies exploded for fi ve runs in the

bottom of the fi fth, taking the lead

back for good. BC relief pitcher Jes-

sica Dreswick walked in a run, which

was followed by a double to left fi eld

that scored two Hokies. Virginia

Tech then hit another double to left

field that scored two more runs

before the Eagles fi nally secured the

third out in the inning.

Th e Eagles went into their last

at-bat down 8-6, but did not go down

without a fi ght. Cortez got on base

for the third time of the game, and

was driven in on a double by Annie

Murphy to bring the Eagles within

one run. Despite the two losses, there

were still off ensive highlights for the

Eagles on the day. Cortez fi nished

the day 5-6 with one home run, two

doubles, one RBI, and four runs

scored, and DiEmmanuele picked up

her team-leading 13th stolen base of

the season.

The first game of the Virginia

Tech series saw BC fall 4-0, ending

the Eagles’ fi ve-game win streak. Th is

was the 14th consecutive opponent

that BC held to four runs or less.

Frei’s relief appearance continued

her streak of seven straight games

allowing only one run or fewer.

Th is game saw strong pitching

from both the Hokies and BC starter

Dreswick, as neither team could get

its off ense going in the early innings.

Tyler held the Eagles hitless through-

out all seven innings, only allowing

one baserunner on a walk.

Dreswick kept the Hokies off

of the scoreboard as well until the

fourth inning, when Virginia Tech

hit a two-run home run to start

the scoring. An unearned run also

scored in the fourth off of a throwing

error. In the bottom of the fi fth the

Hokies added another run from an

RBI double, which was all the scoring

they would need.

Th e Eagles have a short stretch of

games before they return to confer-

ence play, in which they will need to

be strong in pitching, defense, and

off ense in order to remain competi-

tive.

ing out four in 7.2 innings of

one-run ball. As was the case

throughout the series, BC at-

tacked the starting pitcher

early but actually took worse

at-bats as the game progressed,

especially against Clemson’s

lights-out bullpen.

On Friday, the Eagles lost 6-2

in a game that was closer than

the scoresheet refl ects.

Mike King did his best to

keep BC within striking range,

but timely (and somewhat lucky)

hitting by Clemson ruined an

otherwise solid performance

from Gambino’s bonafi de ace.

Despite consistently hitting his

spots on the outside corner,

King found himself in trouble in

the second inning while work-

ing against Andrew Cox with

two outs and runners at fi rst and

second. Cox poked a blooper

into center that fell just in front

of Michael Strem, scoring Rob-

ert Jolly from second and giving

Clemson a 1-0 lead.

Adam Renwick would take

Cox’s cue and fi ght one off the

end of his bat—this time to

right field—that dropped in

front of Casey and scored Beer

from second in another piece of

clutch hitting.

When a nationally ranked

team puts runs up on the board

early against your ace on the

road, it can suck the life out

of a dugout. But BC contin-

ued to stay on its toes, piec-

ing together some of the best

at-bats of the weekend in the

third inning against the Tigers’

newly-crowned Friday night

starter, Clate Schmidt. Sauter

didn’t waste any time, hammer-

ing Schmidt’s fi rst pitch of the

inning over the fence in right

fi eld to cut the Clemson lead

to 2-1. Adams, the next hitter,

found the sweet spot again, but

the left fi elder was there to snag

the lineout.

With one out, Schmidt left a

pitch up in the zone and Gabriel

Hernandez made him pay. Th e

senior left fi elder lifted the pitch

into right center, and Beer could

only watch as it sailed over his

head to even the score at 2-2.

But once again, it was Beer

with an emphatic answer.

Before the Eagles could bask

in the glory of their unusual

burst of power (they only have

six home runs all year), Beer

belted a two-run, go-ahead

homer on one of King’s few mis-

takes of the day. Th e moonshot

would be all the Tigers needed,

as Schmidt settled nicely into a

groove, allowing only two hits

the rest of the way and striking

out a career-high 11 in seven

innings of work.

Let’s face it: BC will be fac-

ing Top-25 teams all season

long, and it can’t rely on its bats

to win such games. Gambino

knows the importance of pitch-

ing and defense to this veteran

group, and it needs to be re-

inforced throughout practice

this week.

But the Eagles shouldn’t

be too upset. It would’ve felt

nice to come home from South

Carolina with at least one win to

show for their eff orts this week-

end, but they ran up against a

hot-hitting ball club in Clem-

son.

The ACC is a hotbed for

young MLB talent, and Seth

Beer reminded BC of the con-

ference’s raw, unstoppable tal-

ent the hard way.

SyracuseBoston College

813

LACROSSE

BASEBALL

SOFTBALL

Baseball vs. Clemson, from C6

the game, said she was absolutely

in the zone.

As the final horn sounded

with the scoreboard reading 13-8

in favor of BC, the Eagles rushed

the field and celebrated their

upset, as Syracuse watched from

the sidelines.

Walker credited the second-

half dominance to increased

composure, which she said had

been a main focus in practice the

previous week.

“I don’t think the girls ever

lost faith,” Walker said. “A good

win can help your confidence.”

Despite the big win, Walker

was hesitant to get too caught up

in the moment since a matchup

with rival North Carolina still

looms on BC’s horizon.

“It’ll be a hard week of prac-

tice and hopefully we’ll improve

even more,” she said. “We’ve got

Carolina on Saturday, there’s no

time to celebrate.”

Sarah Mannelly scored four goals to lead the Eagles past Syracuse for the upset.LUCIUS XUAN / HEIGHTS STAFF

THE HEIGHTSThursday, January 17, 2014 B5THE HEIGHTS

Monday, March 21, 2016CLASSIFIEDS C3

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THE HEIGHTS Monday, March 21, 2016C4

Northeastern forward Kendall Coyne accepting the award with her parents.JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

The Huskies’ Zach Aston-Reese be-

gan the rout by completely undressing

McCoshen. After receiving a pass at the

BC blue line from Nolan Stevens, Aston-

Reese two-stepped the BC defenseman

to beat Demko five-hole to knot the

game up late in the first.

Moments later, BC had a collective

mental lapse. Dylan Sikura stole the

puck away from Zach Sanford in the left

corner. The forward found Mike Mc-

Murtry between the circles, who dished

it over to Adam Gaudette. Somehow, no

BC defenseman saw Gaudette, allowing

him to tap the puck in easily with a mere

.9 seconds on the clock.

BC came out of the locker room

strong in the second, appearing to shake

off the sleepies that probably came with

the 10:33 p.m. start—UMass Lowell and

Providence, the early game, went into

triple overtime. Colin White beat Ruck

glove side after an excellent backhanded

pass from Matthew Gaudreau to tie the

game at two.

But the defensive lapses just kept

continuing for the Eagles. Even their

best unit couldn’t stay strong. Steve

Santini’s roughing penalty set up Stevens

to blast one past Demko’s blocker side.

It was the first goal BC allowed on the

power play in its last 26 attempts and

since Feb. 20.

Soon after, the Eagles crumpled again

on the kill. Again on the power play—

this one because of a Casey Fitzgerald

holding call—the Eagles allowed fresh-

man defenseman Eric Williams to find

space at the right circle, blasting it past

Demko on the glove side on the high

corner.

Once is a coincidence. Twice signifies

a trend, one that’s going in the opposite

direction for BC.

Wood got one back on the power

play. He capitalized on a slashing call on

John Stevens, picking up the puck from

Ryan Fitzgerald to beat Ruck under his

right pad to cut the lead to 4-3.

Don’t be deceived by the goals ,

though. The Eagles struggled mightily

on offense. They managed a mere four

shots in the first period, the lowest

they’ve had in a period this season, and

only seven in the second. York expressed

his frustrations about the lack of shots.

“That’s not enough for our team,”

York said.

In the final frame, it was the turn-

overs that burned BC one last time.

Casey Fitzgerald attempted to clear

the puck toward White at the blue line.

White then tried to pass it to McCoshen

on the left. Yet he made an inexcusable

error, dishing it right to Lincoln Grif-

fin in the slot. And Demko, who had

stood on his head with some incredible

saves in the period—one in particular,

he stopped with his wrist while falling

backwards—was left out to dry. The Dog

Pound, Northeastern’s notoriously rau-

cous student section, was rocking, while

the (very) few BC faithful who made the

trip were sent running to the T hoping

to catch one of the last late-night trains

back to campus.

Even once Alex Tuch scorched a

backhanded beauty past Ruck, it would

make no difference. The Eagles failed

to capitalize on a power play, and com-

mitted two penalties in the last three

minutes that ensured they wouldn’t get a

real chance to make a rush at the net.

After the game, York listed all of the

things his team will have to work on

in practice: controlling the puck in the

neutral zone, generating more offense,

and reworking the fundamentals. And

he noted that it doesn’t get easier the

rest of the way. BC will only take on

good teams, ones that are better than

Northeastern. Instead of reclaiming

the March magic they have become

so famous for, BC instead had to wait

around for the NCAA Selection Show

this Sunday at 12 p.m. The loss blew

BC’s chances at earning a No. 1 seed, and

the Eagles will now play against Harvard

on Friday in Worcester, Mass., at 8p.m.

The winner of that game will take on the

victory between Minnesota-Duluth and

Providence. The ever-competitive York

is determined to not allow his team’s fail-

ures in the conference tournament affect

his quest for another national title.

“Our goal is to put a sixth star on that

game sweater, and we’ll find out Sunday

where we go, and who we play, and you

know, you’ve got to win four games to

do that,” York said. “I’m disappointed in

tonight’s effort, but we’ll key it up and

start on Sunday.”

But if BC’s efforts are any similar to

Friday night’s, a team that looked like the

title favorite after the Beanpot may face

the indignity of a one-and-done trip to

the national tournament for the second

year in a row.

NEW CASTLE, N.H. — Amid the

overtime games and the upcoming NCAA

Tournament Finals, Boston College wom-

en’s hockey took a short break Saturday

morning in Newcastle for the 19th Annual

Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award banquet.

The award is given to the player who best

exhibits the qualities of Kazmaier, one

of the first collegiate women’s hockey

players, who died of a rare blood cancer

at age 28.

When the top 10 finalists were an-

nounced, the list featured three Eagles—

Megan Keller, Haley Skarupa, and 2015

Patty Kaz Award winner Alex Carpenter.

The final three came down to Carpen-

ter, Northeastern’s Kendall Coyne, and

Wisconsin’s Ann-Renee Desbiens. Their

talents were highlighted at the banquet

following speeches from Kazmaier’s

husband and sister, and former Kazmaier

award winners AJ Mleczko and Angela

Ruggiero. At the end of the banquet, Rug-

giero announced that Coyne was voted

the winner of the prestigious award.

Voting for the Kazmaier Award is

based on regular-season play, academic

achievement, and service to the com-

munity. Coyne excelled in each of those

areas this year, notching 84 points total

this season while maintaining a 3.8 GPA.

She also volunteered at various charities

and organizations, including the Make-A-

Wish Foundation.

Coyne expressed her gratitude to her

teammates and coaches, but also noted

that she wished the team’s departure in the

NCAA Tournament wasn’t so early.

After her speech, she took photos

with youth hockey players and fans who

attended the banquet, as well as with her

parents and three of her fellow teammates,

who surprised her in a Northeastern

shuttle shortly before the ceremony.

Though Coyne’s season is over, her

hockey career is not. Next week she will

join teammates and rivals across the

country to prepare for the IIHF Women’s

World Championships in Kamloops, B.C.,

Canada. She also was taken by the Boston

Pride as the third pick in the first round in

the National Women’s Hockey League’s

(NWHL) inaugural draft.

“It’s hard to accept an individual award

because there is so much of a support staff

behind the award,” Coyne said after her

speech.

Had Coyne not won the trophy and

the honor had instead gone to Carpenter,

it would have been the first time in the

award’s history that it would be given to

the same player in back-to-back years.

Though BC head coach Katie Crowley

did not have the winning player on her

team, she delivered praise to the cross-

town rival.

“It’s great to have another Patty

Kazmaier in Hockey East,” Crowley said.

“She’s had a tremendous year this year.”

In a year of utter turmoil for Bos-

ton College athletics, one team has

stood above the rest.

We know it was NOT football

or men’s basketball. The Olympic

sports—the two soccers and field

hockey—both performed admirably,

with men’s soccer and field hockey

putting up their all-time best results.

Even men’s hockey has given plenty

of reason for doubt, struggling to

shore up its defense against Vermont

and Northeastern in the Hockey East

Playoffs.

In reality, there was one team, from

beginning to end that gave reasons for

promise of bringing glory back to the

Heights. That team was BC women’s

hockey.

Last season brought heartbreaking

results for the Eagles. Katie Crowley’s

team didn’t lose a game for the first

three months of 2014-15, before falling

to Harvard in the Beanpot Final. BC

continued that trend of struggling only

when a trophy was on the line, falling

to Boston University in the Hockey

East Championship Game and again to

Harvard in the NCAA Semifinals.

This year was different.

The Eagles opened as the con-

sensus No. 2 in the country, blazing

out of the gate with 40 wins in a row.

They took home the two trophies that

eluded them last year by crushing

Northeastern 7-0 in the Beanpot and

BU 5-0 in the Hockey East title. BC

beat those pesky Huskies from across

town six times this year. Throughout

it all, Crowley’s crew set numerous

program records as a team and as

individuals.

In heartbreaking fashion, Minne-

sota took down BC 3-1 in the national

championship game. Throughout

those 60 grueling minutes in Durham,

N.H., Golden Gophers goaltender

Amanda Leveille stoned the nation’s

top-scoring offense repeatedly. Minne-

sota’s devastating top line—2013 Patty

Kazmaier Award winner Amanda

Kessel, 2016 Kaz Top-10 Finalist Han-

nah Brandt, and NCAA Rookie of the

Year Sarah Potomak—was simply too

dangerous for BC’s stifling defense to

hold back.

Minnesota dashed BC’s hopes of an

undefeated year. It would’ve been the

second perfect campaign in the history

of collegiate women’s hockey, along

with Minnesota’s own 2012-13 team.

But instead of writing their names

into the annals of sports history, the

Eagles were handed a New England

perfect season: lots of wins with one

giant loss. And, like the 1972 Miami

Dolphins do every year when the the

last undefeated football team goes

down, those Golden Gophers will pop

the champagne.

Rather than spend too much time

lamenting the ending, let’s take a

moment to salute one of the greatest

teams, and a few of the most outstand-

ing players, that have ever taken to the

ice in Chestnut Hill.

I’ve covered just about every team

at BC over my two years as sports

editor, but it’s hard to say any team has

been more entertaining than my run-

ins with Crowley and her bunch.

I’ll miss the most dangerous

partners-in-crime in the history of

BC hockey: Alex Carpenter and Haley

Skarupa.

Carpenter, the 2015 Patty Ka-

zmaier Award winner, is, without

question, the best player to lace up

the skates—male or female—at Kelley

Rink. She’s the school’s all-time lead-

ing scorer, regardless of sex, with a

career 279 points: 134 goals and 145

assists. Twice, Carpenter, the daughter

of NHL star Bobby Carpenter, has led

the nation in points. And she destroys

her opponents as the team’s primary

center, with an intense glare off the

draw that helps set up many of BC’s

goals. No player controls the ice quite

like Carpenter.

Skarupa has often played second

fiddle to her linemate, but by no

means is she any less talented. She

joined Carpenter in the scoring race,

finishing this season with 79 points

and 244 for her career. Skarupa also

wrote her name into BC lore with her

overtime game-winning goal on Friday

in the National Semifinal against

Clarkson. Her goal stands as the best

moment in program history to date.

We may not get to watch those

two at BC anymore, but they’ll still be

teammates for years to come. The two

team up in international play—they’ll

represent the United States at the IIHF

Women’s World Championships next

week, and there’s no reason to believe

Skarupa won’t join Carpenter on the

Olympic team in 2018.

Plus, Carpenter and Skarupa were

selected first and fifth, respectively,

in the inaugural NWHL draft by the

New York Riveters. They’ll join fellow

graduating senior Dana Trivigno, one

of the most fun players I’ve had in a

postgame interview and one of the

scariest to see on the ice.

But there’s plenty of hope for the

future of this program. And it’s hard

to imagine that the Eagles won’t be

right back here in the same spot next

season.

Goaltender Katie Burt has been

another one of my favorite players

to cover at BC. The now-sophomore

was the first feature I’ve ever wrote.

I had never had a sitdown interview

with a player, and she hadn’t ever had

one with the media. Needless to say,

there were a lot of “um’s.” But when

she mentioned that she lived in the

room above me in Cheverus Hall, and

we shared a few laughs about our love

of Cory Schneider (but hatred of the

New Jersey Devils), it made for 30 of

my most memorable minutes with an

athlete.

Over the last two seasons, I’ve

loved watching Burt become a domi-

nant netminder. She has fought criti-

cism that BC’s spine-crushing defense

prevents her from seeing any real at-

tempts at the net. The stats somewhat

back that up, too.

But if you saw the national cham-

pionship game, it’s not hard to notice

that Burt is the most viciously hungry

goalie in the country. She fought off

unbelievably hard attempts from those

dynamic Minnesota forwards. And her

drive to win has been incomparable.

Take one look at her face when she’s

knocking shots off her pads left and

right. Burt is one of those players who

can’t be stopped when she wants a

win.

On the attack, there’s no reason to

think the Eagles will slow down any

time soon. Five BC underclassmen

joined Carpenter, Skarupa, Trivigno,

and Lexi Bender on the nation’s top-75

scoring list. BC will return speedy

juniors Kristyn Capizzano and Andie

Anastos, the latter of whom was a

captain this season. It’ll have Kenzie

Kent, the two-sport superstar who has

played with Carpenter and Skarupa

on the top line in each of the last two

seasons and whose fire for winning

compares only to Burt.

BC has the most lethal weapon in

the country from the point in Megan

Keller—she led the nation in scoring

among defenders. Like the Golden

Gophers’ Potomak, BC has a young

sensation in Makenna Newkirk. The

freshman was second to Potomak in

the country with 49 points among

newcomers and will look to take over

the reins as BC’s best scorer next sea-

son. And there’ll be more coming next

season. BC landed one of the nation’s

top recruits, Caitrin Lonergan, a two-

time member of Team USA.

But, best of all, the Eagles will still

have Crowley and assistant coach

Courtney Kennedy. The two have

become the most revered coaching staff

in the sport. Their recruiting ability is

unparalleled, and they can out-coach

anyone in the country. And, along with

Crowley’s bubbly 2-year-old daughter,

Camryn—who is, without question,

the best reason to cover a game—she

has the best locker-room environment

in the country. Just look at this tweet

that she sent out only minutes after the

game was over. “Thank u to all of the

fans who supported our team today!

Players played their hearts out for all of

u! So proud of what we accomplished!”

At the end of this trying year

for BC fans, women’s hockey gave

everyone reason to hope. The team

didn’t finish the job this year. But with

a cast of All-American talent and the

nation’s best coach, the Eagles proved

they have staying power. Even without

Carpenter and Skarupa, they’re out to

do it all again next season.

And every team in the nation

should be on notice.

MHOK vs. NU, from C6

The Eagles couldn’t stay out of the penalty box on Friday against Northeastern at TD Garden.DREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

MEN’S HOCKEY

THE HEIGHTSMonday, March 21, 2016 C5WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Ian McCoshen had a particularly poor game against Northeastern on Friday night.DREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

likely know the Eagles better at this

point than most of the other teams in

the tournament.

Whereas the Eagles are loaded

with depth from top to bottom, the

Crimson claims one of the best players

in college in Jimmy Vesey, a few very

capable linemates to complement

him in Kyle Criscuolo and Alexander

Kerfoot, and not much else below that.

Harvard’s top line makes up more than

a third of the team’s total points.

The most interesting matchup

between the two teams, especially

given BC’s play in recent games,

will be between the specialty units.

Harvard boasts the No. 4 power play

in the country, while BC has the No. 4

penalty kill in the NCAA.

Looking forward in the bracket,

assuming the top seed wins each

game, the Eagles would face Provi-

dence College—another team with

which it is very familiar—in the

Northeast Regional Final. In three

consecutive games against the Friars

over Winter Break, BC lost at a neu-

tral site, won at home, and tied on the

road.

But more importantly than the

seeding and the potential opponents,

the Eagles simply are not playing their

best hockey of the season when it

matters most.

Thatcher Demko’s final stat line

doesn’t read like that of a Hobey

Baker Award nominee, but he was

clearly the best player on the ice for

the Eagles, making two of the most

impressive saves that anyone has seen

this season. As Demko’s defensemen

allowed Northeastern skaters open

shooting angles from all sides, Demko

flew around the net, blocking pucks

in any way that he could.

None of the goals were really

Demko’s fault—one came on a two-

on-one chance from point-blank

range, two came on the power play,

and two came off careless turnovers

in the defensive zone. There was only

so much the goalie could do to stop

the superior Northeastern attack.

Following a lackluster three-game

series against the University of Ver-

mont in the Hockey East Quarterfi-

nals, the loss to Northeastern should

serve as a wake-up call for the Eagles

heading into the NCAA Tournament.

The Huskies sit firmly on the NCAA

bubble, so the remaining games for

BC will only be tougher.

After the game, BC head coach

Jerry York said that the team would

specifically focus in practice this

week on getting “better,” in a lot of

facets of the game. There’s a big dif-

ference between improving skills that

have already been mastered and add-

ing (or re-learning) new skills to the

repertoire. Based on York’s comment

and the Eagles’ game on Saturday

night, it seems that they’ll be doing

the latter.

That’s not the type of improve-

ment a team should be looking to

make just a week before its biggest

game of the season. But if the Eagles

don’t get “better” at each end of the

ice, they’ll reach the end of the road

sooner than they’d prefer.

Hockey Struggles, from C6

women’s Western Collegiate Hockey Asso-

ciation (WCHA) to be the SEC of women’s

hockey. Minnesota and two other members

of WCHA—Minnesota Duluth and Wis-

consin—have claimed all but one NCAA

National Championship title, which went

to Clarkson. It would have been BC’s, as

well as Hockey East’s, first championship

in the series’ 16-year history.

Thirteen seconds into the game, the

Golden Gophers made their first strike,

showing just how deadly their first line—

composed of National Rookie of the Year

Sarah Potomak, Patty Kazmaier Award top-

10 finalist Hannah Brandt, and 2013 Ka-

zmaier winner Amanda Kessel—can be.

After Burt stopped a puck and di-

rected it behind her, Brandt fished it out

and passed to Potomak, who was waiting

behind the faceoff circle. She moved to be-

tween the circles just in front of the crease

and hurled the puck, which sailed into the

left corner of the goal.

But, unlike the goal that BC faced in

the Frozen Four game against Clarkson, it

didn’t seem that it would make or break the

game. The Eagles put up a strong perfor-

mance for the remainder of the first period,

evening their shots with Minnesota’s at

12-12 to end the period.

“We had all the faith in the world in

our team,” Burt said. “All the way down to

the last minute, we thought that we could

do it.”

Both BC and Minnesota adapted to

each other’s play for the second period,

resulting in a stalemate. The Eagles’ best

chance came in the sixth minute of the

period, when Lee Stecklein and Megan

Wolfe were called within minutes of each

other to result in a 5-on-3 power play. The

scene was a familiar one, as in the Frozen

Four semifinal against Clarkson, BC also

stumbled upon such luck.

And like the 5-on-3 on Friday, the Eagles

could not capitalize. They had several good

opportunities that Leveille picked up, but

they did not display the aggression or

urgency that the power play warranted.

Minnesota’s defense stopped the forwards

in their tracks, and toward the end of the

power play, Makenna Newkirk was called

for holding, squandering the gift presented

to them.

The Eagles are usually unstoppable on

the power play, but met their match against

the Frozen Four teams. None of their 11

power-play opportunities over the weekend

resulted in a goal.

On the other end of the ice, Burt re-

mained as strong as ever. She was a wall

for 39:47, save for the first 13 seconds in

the first. After the goal, she deftly snatched

every puck out of the air and laid out for

tough ones on the ground.

Nearly halfway into the third period,

BC got another dose of that fatal first line.

Kessel skated by the faceoff circle and shot

hard at Burt, nailing the net with a force

that landed the puck just in front of the

goal line.

The goal and win mean more for Kes-

sel than what there is at face value, as the

senior has only just returned to the ice in

February after a concussion she suffered

in 2014.

“These are games that you don’t get

back,” Kessel said. “We laid it out on the

line, and I really couldn’t be happier with

our team’s effort.”

The happiness for Kessel’s recovery and

return was felt on both sides.

“It’s a tough thing that she went through,

and it’s awesome that she was able to come

back and play this great game,” BC head

coach Katie Crowley said.

Later in the period, Kelly Pannek snuck

it past Burt’s left side for Minnesota’s third

and final goal. Pannek passed the puck back

to her teammate as she skated closer to the

goal. Her teammate passed it back, and

while Megan Keller tried to clear it, Pannek

stripped it from her and shot the puck in

between Burt and the left pipe. Minnesota

knew then that the game was in its hands,

jumping up and cheering.

Less than a minute later, Newkirk made

up for her penalty with a shot past Leveille

on the left side of the goal. Keller passed

the puck to Andie Anastos, who gave it

to Newkirk waiting at the crease. With

goalie Amanda Leveille distracted, Newkirk

slipped it past the uncovered left side of the

net. Newkirk has been a standout fresh-

man this season, and only stood behind

Minnesota’s Potomak in points, with 49.

It is easy to examine the season as a

success, especially when the Eagles have

lost all but one game. But senior defender

Lexi Bender felt otherwise.

“The 40 wins didn’t really matter to-

day,” she said. “Whoever won today won

everything.”

DURHAM, N.H.— Alex Carpenter

darted down the long stretch of ice at Whit-

temore Arena, and passed to her linemate,

Haley Skarupa.

Skarupa

wound up and

shot hard at Clarkson goalie Shea Tiley by

the crease, and the puck found its way into

the net. No big deal for Skarupa—with 35

goals this season, she does it a lot.

“[Carpenter] couldn’t have put it in a

more perfect place for me to just hammer it

home,” Skarupa said. “I just slid it in there.”

But this one was different. This one came

58 seconds into Boston College women’s

hockey second overtime game of the year,

and gave the Eagles (40-0-0, 24-0-0 Hockey

East) the edge over Clarkson University in

the National Semifinal.

If you watched the first period, you

would not believe that BC would ever make

it to overtime. The Golden Knights (30-6-5,

14-3-5 Eastern College Athletic Conference)

dominated the Eagles, who suddenly had a

feeling that they weren’t in Chestnut Hill

anymore.

Three minutes in, Rhyen McGill shot

from the crease, and the puck slipped in

between the right pipe and Burt’s right hand.

The Golden Knights knew that a one-goal

lead would be a big one, as the Eagles’ offense

was brought to a grinding halt. Clarkson

displayed a level of play unmatched by any of

BC’s opponents in Hockey East this season,

and it showed.

Amid the yelling of the Clarkson faith-

ful, the Eagles were stifled by the Golden

Knights’ defense. BC’s dynamic duo, Car-

penter and Skarupa, was broken up, unable

to connect on its usually seamless plays.

It stifled their typically deadly onslaught

of shots, and left BC struggling to find the

puck. Even when on the man advantage, it

seemed that the Golden Knights far out-

numbered the Eagles.

BC went into the locker room down by

one, the first time the team has done so all

season.

Even with half of a power play to start

off the second period, the Eagles could not

capitalize on the man advantage. The Golden

Knights stood attention at the goal, not even

letting BC get through to face Tiley. Every

shot was blocked, and no one could get

through the traffic.

Five minutes into the second period,

Clarkson struck again, this time taking a

hard shot from the left faceoff circle. The

puck hit the crossbar and landed in the goal.

It didn’t look like BC would come out with

win No. 40. The Eagles were out of gas.

But Skarupa didn’t just score the over-

time goal.

After a long drought, Carpenter tried for

her shot but fell once the puck deflected off

Tiley. Skarupa picked it out of the mess and

shot it into the low right corner of the right

pipe. Tiley’s hand stretched out to reach

it, but she couldn’t stop it in time, and the

Eagles were now on the board.

“They really kicked it into gear halfway

through that second period,” head coach

Katie Crowley said.

Even with the goal, however, it seemed

like BC couldn’t catch up. That is, until Ka-

liya Johnson showed up on the scene.

The senior defenseman shot between the

faceoff circles after Megan Keller passed the

Alex Carpenter (5) smiles at linemate Haley Skarupa after her game-winning goal.JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

puck to center with less than four minutes

left in the third period. The shot went in,

and fans were treated to an entirely differ-

ent atmosphere. With a tie game, anything

could happen.

A penalty on Carpenter with 2:06 left on

the clock gave the Eagles a scare. Clarkson

forced its way into BC’s defensive zone, and

well-placed shots on goal kept fans on the

edge of their seats.

But the third period’s last few moments

occurred without a goal. BC and Clarkson

headed into overtime, during which Skarupa

would play Savior again and clinch the win

for the Eagles. Carpenter skated over to hug

Skarupa, and every BC player swarmed the

ice. The team even made sure to thank its

supporters, banging on the glass where BC

fans with signs sat.

For some, the win was never doubted.

“[Assistant coach Courtney Kennedy] said

before the game today, ‘We’re gonna win, be-

cause they’re not gonna lose,’” Crowley said.

After a season of disappointment last

year, in which the Eagles fell in the Beanpot,

Hockey East Finals, and National Semifinals,

the Eagles have found a way to come through

in the clutch. BC took home the first two

trophies of the year. Clarkson gave the Eagles

a little reminder of last year’s woes.

But with plays like that from Skarupa, it’s

hard to imagine the Eagles will be stopped

on the path to making a clean sweep of the

hardware this year.

The Eagles mob Skarupa after her overtime goal sends them flying past Clarkson to the final.

BC women’s hockey mustered up all the offense it could against Minnesota’s Amanda Leveille, but Amanda Kessel (center) was too much for an Eagles’ team that failed on three power-play opportunities.JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS EDITOR

National Championship, from C1

ClarksonBoston College

23

Lacrosse.............................................................................................................C2Softball................................................................................................................C2

SPORTSC6

MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2016

INSIDESPORTSTHIS ISSUE

Women’s Hockey: Eagles Can’t CloseBC’s hopes for a perfect season were dashed by a talented

Minnesota team in the season’s final game............C5

BOSTON — For much of the

2015-16 season, Boston College men’s

hockey looked like a dominant force

primed to make some serious noise in

the NCAA Tournament.

But the team that showed up last

night in the Hockey East Tournament

Semifinals would be lucky to advance

past the first round.

The Eagles (26-7-5) turned in a

lackluster effort brimming with care-

less turnovers and needless penalties

in a disappointing defeat at the hands

of Northeastern University (21-13-5).

BC didn’t look ready to play, and the

Huskies frustrated the Eagles on each

end of the ice with their physicality.

Based on what happened pregame,

we should have seen this loss coming

a mile away.

BC sat in the locker room at TD

Garden, waiting anxiously to take

on Northeastern in a much-awaited

contest to send one team to the

championship. The first game of that

night’s doubleheader between UMass

Lowell and Providence—a 2-1 win

for the River Hawks—went into triple

overtime to significantly push back

BC and NU’s start time from 8 p.m. to

10:33 p.m.

When the Eagles finally charged

out of the tunnel and onto the ice,

they looked sluggish, took unnec-

essary penalties, and dropped the

contest to the underdog Northeastern

squad by one goal.

That game was a little over a year

ago, in the 2015 Beanpot semifinals.

But the same exact thing happened

Saturday night.

After scoring two goals each in

regulation, UMass Lowell and Provi-

dence needed to play nearly an entire

additional game to score one more.

The River Hawks finally ended the

marathon with a deflection off a skate

in the third overtime period, but by

then, it was already an hour after BC

and Northeastern should have started

their game. Factor in the 55-minute

warmup period allotted between

games, and it was clear that it was go-

ing to be a long night.

So it was deja vu all over again

for the Eagles, who presumably want

nothing to do with the Huskies with a

trophy on the line late in the season.

And while that game is over, BC’s

season is not. So where do the Eagles

go from here?

BC was an obvious lock to appear

in the NCAA Tournament field, but

it played itself out of a chance for

one of the top four seeds with the

loss. As the top overall No. 2 seed,

the Eagles will take on a familiar foe

in Harvard University on Friday in

Worcester, Mass. The only time the

teams matched up this year was in the

first round of Beanpot—BC took that

game by a score of 3-2.

The Eagles got what the seed and

opponent deserved, but it’s unlikely

that the team is thrilled about playing

Harvard once again. BC had to come

back from an early deficit to win in

this year’s Beanpot, and the Crimson

See Hockey Struggles, C5

BOSTON — It was almost too quick.

Right off the opening draw, Boston College’s Miles Wood darted down

the bench side of the ice. He received the puck on a backhand pass from

his linemate Christopher Brown in the neutral

zone as he made a run at Northeastern’s Ryan

Ruck in goal. The freshman fired five-hole, giv-

ing the Eagles a 1-0 lead on the first shot of the game, a mere 15 seconds

in. It seemed like the perfect start in the Hockey East Semifinals against

Northeastern, the hottest team in the country.

That would be the last time BC held the lead the entire game. From

then on, the Eagles completely broke down.

Clearing passes out of the neutral and defensive zone. Generating of-

fensive production. And, oh yeah, the turnovers. Nothing went right for

the Eagles (26-7-5) in a 5-4 defeat to a Northeastern (21-13-5) team that

will continue its magical march into a trip to the NCAA Tournament. The

Huskies would later play Saturday at 7 p.m. at TD Garden against UMass

Lowell, taking home their first Hockey East Championship since 1988.

And the Eagles, after dominating the conference for so many years, will

go without one for their fourth year in a row—the first time head coach

Jerry York has had a senior class that will graduate without raising the

Lamoriello Trophy.

After Wood’s goal, things quickly soured for the Eagles. All year, we had

wondered when BC’s thin defense would break down. At once, it appeared

each one caught the yips. In particular, Ian McCoshen—a man who will

soon lace up the skates for the NHL’s Florida Panthers—was a mess in the

Eagles’ own zone, perhaps playing his worst game as a collegiate player.

McCoshen and the defense routinely turned the puck over. BC struggled

to get shots on net in large part because the defense couldn’t clear it

to the neutral and offensive zone. That prevented goaltender Thatcher

Demko—who, despite the five goals, played spectacularly—from getting

much-needed breaks. The pressure just never seemed to stop.

“That was kind of our Achilles heel,” York said regarding the defense

and turnovers.

It was the cherry on top for Clemson

baseball.

After Boston College right fielder

Donovan Casey gunned down the po-

tential winning run at home plate in the

bottom of the 9th inning to preserve a

2-2 tie, Seth Beer sent John Nicklas’

breaking ball sailing over the right-

field fence in the bottom of the 10th

to hand the No. 22 Tigers (16-3, 5-1

Atlantic Coast) a 3-2 walk-off win that

completed their weekend sweep of the

Eagles (12-6, 2-4).

BC entered the weekend on the

wings of a series win against No. 8 NC

State that garnered the program na-

tional attention as a team on the rise.

But Beer wasn’t impressed.

Ranked by Perfect Game as the No.

1 outfielder in the nation in his class,

Beer skipped his senior year of high

school to join Clemson in January, and

he hasn’t missed a beat. Beer tallied two

doubles, two home runs, and three RBI

as part of his six-hit weekend—the last

of which gave the Tigers their seventh

consecutive win.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone

quite like him,” BC head coach Mike

Gambino said.

As disappointing as the weekend

was for Gambino’s club, the outcome

certainly wasn’t a product of a lack of

effort. The Eagles scraped across one

run in each of the first two innings to

take an early lead in the series finale.

Freshman Jacob Stevens tossed six in-

nings of shutout ball before an Eli White

solo homer in the 7th inning sent him

packing. Closer Justin Dunn couldn’t

hold the slim lead in the 9th inning, but

Casey’s cannon of a throw to catcher

Nick Sciortino delayed the walk off until

the following frame.

Saturday’s contest saw BC’s strong

suits—pitching and defense—go down

the drain in a 6-1 defeat which marked

the squad’s first back-to-back losses of

the season.

The Eagles opened the scoring in the

2nd inning in textbook Gambino fash-

ion. Casey led off with a double, moved

to third on a sacrifice bunt by Sciortino,

and advanced home after Stephen Sau-

ter finally rolled a chopper to shortstop

to cap off a nine-pitch at-bat against

Clemson starter Charlie Barnes.

Unfortunately for Gambino, small

ball only works if you avoid big innings

on defense.

The Tigers broke the game open with

a four-run 4th inning, and the catalyst

of the scoring barrage was none other

than Beer. The 6-foot-2 lefty smashed a

double off of the wall to start the inning

before starter Jesse Adams walked a pair

to load the bases. It appeared as if Ad-

ams would escape the inning unscathed

after he induced two straight infield

popouts, but a bases-loaded, two-out

walk quickly erased such hopes.

Clemson tacked on three more runs

before Adams could stop the bleeding,

thanks to a bad hop on shortstop Johnny

Adams and a dropped fly ball by Casey.

Three walks, two errors, and four easily

preventable runs that essentially put the

game out of reach with Barnes on the

rubber for the Tigers.

Barnes allowed just four hits, strik-

See Baseball v. Clemson, C2

BASEBALL

DREW HOO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

See MHOK vs. NU, C4

MELTDOWN AFTER MIDNIGHT

NUMBER OF BC PENALTIES IN THE

GAME

SECONDS LEFT IN THE FIRST PERIOD FOR

NU’S SECOND GOAL

POWER-PLAY GOALS SCORED BY

NORTHEASTERN

NortheasternBoston College

45