Vol. XCVI, No. 47 Thursday, December 10, 2015

HEThe Independent

Student Newspaperof Boston College

www.bcheights.com

e s t a b l i s h e d 1 9 1 9

As of Wednesday morning, 120 Boston College students have been infected with norovirus, a highly contagious virus that is the most common cause of gastrointestinal disease in the United States. Th e origins of the virus have been linked to a Chipotle employee who served BC students at the restaurant’s location in Cleveland Circle.

Th e University has begun to take steps to address the infl ux of infected students and prevent the spread of the virus. Director of Health Services Th omas Nary sent an email to students and faculty on Wednesday afternoon with guidelines and recommendations for how to stop the spread of the illness. Norovirus is spread through contaminated food, improper hygiene, and contact with contaminated surfaces.

Wednesday’s email suggests that students who feel symptomatic stay hydrated, well-rested, and eat small meals. Health Services recommends that students do not take antibiotics or over-the-counter anti-diarrhea medication, as those treatments will only prolong the symptoms. Th e virus should pass without medical treatment within 24 to 48 hours, Nary said in the email.

“I went to Chipotle on Sunday night,” Ryan White, MCAS ’19, said. “Luckily, three days later I have not felt any of the symptoms and neither have the people I went with.”

Th e facilities staff has doubled their eff orts to clean rest-rooms, dining halls, administrative offi ces, residence halls, and athletic facilities. BC Dining Services has also stopped off ering self-service stations, like the salad and fruit bars in dining halls, to prevent the spread of norovirus. Instead, salad and fruit have been boxed into individual containers, and baked goods individually wrapped.

Study days are still currently scheduled for Th ursday

METROBon Me brings Vietnamese-inspired food to Chestnut Hill, A10

BON ME, PLEASE SPORTSEmily Daley posted 14 points and nine boards in the Eagles’ seventh win of the season, B8

THE DALEY SHOWARTS & REVIEWLooking back at the past before ‘The Force Awakens, B1

‘STAR WARS’

Last month, Boston College alumnus Joe McConaughy ’13 released a film, The Run for Colin, for free viewing on the Internet. The short film documents Mc-Conaughy’s 53-day, six-hour, 37-minute run along the 2,660-mile-long Pacific Crest Trail in the summer of 2014.

McConaughy, who beat the previous record set by Santa Monica College Track coach Josh Garrett by six days, brought a team of friends along with

him on his journey. They were in charge of filming his run, supplying him with food, water, and shelter, and turning the footage into a short film.

McConaughy completed the run in honor of his cousin Colin, who passed away in 2012 at the age of two. Just two days before his death, Colin was diag-nosed with neuroblastoma, a rare form of brain cancer.

The team wanted the film to be light-hearted, Michael Dillon, BC ’13, said, to reflect the upbeat attitudes that they had on the trail.

“Joe mentioned to me how he wanted this trip to be something that celebrated Colin’s life, which really stuck with me,”

If it wasn’t a push, it was a nudge—and several University leaders are taking note. Managing for Social Impact was recently approved as an interdisciplin-ary minor in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences and is now in final-ization stages as a co-concentration in the Carroll School of Management. Information systems professor Mary Cronin, who spearheaded the initiative, sees the new academic offering as a case of the University finally playing catch-up with longstanding student interest in social enterprise and the non-profit sector—she said the idea simply needed a champion.

What exactly the program’s future looks like, however, is still very much in flux. The nascent initiative does not have dedicated financing within the Carroll School, and will exist—for now—as an amalgamation of tailored course offerings across departments and schools.

“Would it go in the direction of something like the recently established Shea Center for Entrepreneurship?” Richard Keeley, undergraduate dean of the Carroll School, said. “I don’t think so. Would it work in conjunction with the Shea Center? It very well might.”

Currently, there isn’t a plan to have a separate budget line for special programming in managing for social impact, although Keeley said that the Carroll School is open to helping out with flexible funds should the demand arise.

BC—which was named an Ashoka Changemaker University in 2013 for its offerings in social innovation—has historically taken a more gradualist stance in developing programming on the topic, with much change happening through individual departments.

Keeley said that the traditionalist view of business education does not necessarily point toward programs such as this. With that in mind, he sees their emergence as inevitable.

“Why would we want to resist the evident student interest and the care-ful, thorough preparation someone like Mary and her colleagues put together?” he said. “I don’t think we’ll see this go off the rail.”

Still, challenges in both funding and student outcomes could potentially stymie the growth of social entrepre-neurship at BC.

Information systems professor John

See Virus, A5

GOINGGallaugher, who alongside account-ing professor Betty Bagnani leads thepopular field study program TechTrekGhana, said that in addition to being an onerous field for perspective founders,social enterprise often lacks the neces-sary institutional investment to get offthe ground.

“Everyone’s excited about sinkingmoney into a potentially billion dollaridea, but oftentimes the high-profit upside for social ventures isn’t there,” Gallaugher said in a recent email. “Andon the business school rankings front,social entrepreneurship is challengingbecause many rankings weigh student salaries. Go to work on your own start-up or for a social venture and chancesare your salary will be way below theWall Street Crowd.”

Gallaugher, however, is optimistic about the expansion of social enterprise at BC, arguing that the University’s Jesuit background and Boston locationposition it to be a leader in the field. He believes existing programs like theOffice of Residential Life’s living andlearning communities could also serve as powerful forces in bringing students together to found businesses.

“It took about three years to get BC’sentrepreneurship up to the point where our students were regularly gaining venture funding and gaining admission to elite accelerator programs,” he said.“I’m sure social entrepreneurship willhave a similar trajectory.”

In earning its Ashoka Changemakerdistinction, BC designated the School of Social Work’s Social Innovation Lab as the University’s “signature program” in the area. This lab focuses primarily on “intrepreneurship,” which is the practice of steering social change through exist-ing organizations.

The University ’s central entre-preneurial engine is the Boston Col-lege Venture Competition (BCVC), a program offering no-strings-attached financing to students with ideas forstartups. BCVC Seed is a smaller branchof the initiative, led by Professor Laura Foote, centered exclusively on socially-focused pitches.

Foote, who also teaches a course insocial entrepreneurship and mentors several students in the area, said thatthere is a lot more BC could do in thefield. She mentioned that the resources aren’t necessarily there in terms offaculty who can offer long-term sup-port to students in enacting their ideas or serving as a clearinghouse for their projects.

Several area universities have dedi-cated institutes for social

Rob Bohn, a member of Eradicate Boston College Racism and MCAS ’16, distributed an infographic about the diff erent approaches that colleges across the country are taking to combat institutional racism in O’Neill Library on Wednesday afternoon. The info-graphic, which compared the eff orts by See Eradicate, A3

See Run for Colin, A10

See Entrepreneurs, A3

VIRAL

LUCIUS XUAN / HEIGHTS STAFF

the administrations at Yale University, Brown University, and BC to promote diversity on campus, was part of the group’s current campaign, entitled “12 Days of Boston College Racism.” Th e posters marked the ninth day.

Th e infographic demonstrated how Yale and Brown are investing resources and money to terminate institutional racism. Yale pledged $50 million to enhance faculty diversity, increase fi nancial aid for low-income students, and increase funding for programs that promote diversity and inclusion. Brown announced that the university plans to

spend $100 million in the next 10 years to deal with issues of racism and diver-sity on campus.

Pat DeLeeuw, vice provost for facul-ties in the Offi ce of the Provost and Dean of Faculties, has said that the adminis-tration works to hire faculty and admit students of AHANA backgrounds. She noted that when she began working at BC in 2000, only 11 percent of the faculty identifi ed as AHANA—now 16 percent of faculty do.

Bohn said the administration makes

nually hold Toys for Tots drives, including the BC Athletics De-partment. BC Athletics began collecting toys at sports games in early December. Students and fans will have the opportunity to drop off toys at six remaining women’s basketball, men’s bas-ketball, and men’s hockey games. Attendees who donate a gift will also receive either discounted or free admission.

Toys for Tots was founded in 1947 by Major Bill Hendricks of

the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in Los Angeles. The organiza-tion was spread nationwide by the next year. Last Christmas, Toys for Tots received over $284 million in revenue, the most suc-cessful year to date.

“Ultimately, the more toys we get delivered and dropped off, the more families can have a good Christmas and not have to worry during this time of year to be able to provide for their families,” Postell said.

THE HEIGHTS

The Pyschology Department is hosting Francesca Gino to discuss her paper, “Why Connect? Moral Consequences of Networking Motives” on Monday. The discussion is a part of the Department’s Psychology Colloquium Series and will be held in McGuinn 334 at 3:30 p.m. 1

Jiadong Zang will speak in Higgins 235 on Tuesday at 2 p.m. about the interconnectivity of skyrmion’s nontrivial topology and dis-tinguished symmetries, which leads to novel properties of helimagnets. The talk is hosted and sponsored by the Physics Deparment. 2

Thursday, December 10, 2015A2

On Saturday, the Alumni Association is hosting a Christmas event for alumni, family, and friends at the Cadigan Alumni Center from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be crafts, live entertainment, a pet-ting zoo, photos with Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and more. Entry is $15.

Top

things to do on campus this week

3 3

—Source: TheBoston College

Police Department

What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?

NEWSBRIEFS

The St. Mary’s Hall renova-tion, which took place from Jan. 2013 to Jan. 2015, has been honored with the Institutional Sustainability and Preservation Award from Historic Newton and the Newton Historical Com-mission.

The award, which recog-nizes outstanding efforts and stewardship in local historic preservation, is one of the eight Preservation Awards that His-toric Newton and the Newton Historical Commission gives.

“I am pleased to join with Historic Newton and the New-ton Historical Commission in congratulating the winners of this year ’s awards ,” Newton Mayor Setti D. Warren said in a press release. “As we look to the future, it is so important to pre-serve and treasure the past.”

St . Mary ’s Hall, which is Boston College’s second oldest building on the Chesnut Hill campus, has housed BC’s Je-suit community since 1917. The two-year renovation, which was finished at the beginning of this year, focused on brightening up the building and adding academ-ic space to its South Wing.

With the restorative efforts, the building was able to stay in its original location, and now houses the Woods College of Advancing Studies, in addition to providing homes and offices for the Jesuits on campus.

POLICE BLOTTER 12/7/15 - 12/10/15

Monday Dec. 7

10:28 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an off-campus armed robery.

11:10 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a suspicious person in Devlin Hall.

1:41 p.m. - A report was filed re-garding vandalism to Boston College Property.

9:01 p.m. - A report was filed regard-ing medical assistance provided to a student who was transported to a medical facility by ambulance from Edmond’s Hall.

11:18 p.m. - A report was filed regard-

ing a suspicious person and attempted larceny in Cushing Hall.

Tuesday Dec. 8

1:24 a.m. - A reprt was filed regarding a suspicious person in the East Wing.

8:42 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a larceny from O’Neill Library.

3:42 p.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a stu-dent who was transported to a medical facility by ambulance from Cushing Hall Clinic.

John Burke, BC ’84, Boston College’s current associate vice president of finance, will step up as the University’s new fi-nancial president and treasurer in 2016.

Burke will take the position of Peter McKenzie, who is retir-ing on Dec. 18 after 25 years of service at BC. Burke has worked in finance, both in higher educa-tion and healthcare, for over 30 years. He has worked in his cur-rent position since 2012.

“John has decades of experi-ence in financial management, including seven years as director of University budgets and as-sociate vice president of finance at Boston College,” University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., said in his announcement of Burke’s promotion. “He is a respected, talented member of our community who is clearly committed to BC’s mission. I look forward to working with him.”

As associate vice president of finance, Burke oversaw opera-tional and organizational func-tions for several offices on cam-pus, including the Controller’s Office, Procurement Services, Accounts Payable, and Financial Management Systems. Now, in addition to his past responsibili-ties, Burke will oversee Internal Audit, Risk Management, Trea-sury, Dining Services, and the BCPD.

“I am honored to be selected as the next financial vice presi-dent and treasurer of Boston College,” Burke said to the Of-fice of News and Public Affairs. “I consider myself fortunate to have had Peter McKenzie as a mentor over the past seven years and look forward to continuing his financial legacy as he retires after a quarter century of service to Boston College.”

By Chris RussoHeights Staff

“Tony Blair stole that line from me,” Monica McWilliams said, as the crowd broke into laughter. She was referring to the line “Peace is a process, not an event,” which she claims she told the British prime minister before he began to use it on a public platform.

On Dec. 9, women’s studies professor and former Northern Ireland politician Monica McWil-liams gave a talk about women and the peace process in Northern Ireland as part of the Flatley Fam-ily Lecture Series.

The discussion was held in Devlin 001 in front of a crowd of about 30 students and faculty members. During the talk, Mc-Williams discussed the history of

the tension between Irish Catho-lics and Protestants over the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. She also discussed the gender inequality that existed during that period and how wom-en began to have an active role in the peace process.

During her childhood in Kilrea in Northern Ireland, violence was a normal occurrence, McWilliams said. She joked that her aunt was more scared of thunder than the frequent trembling from a bomb explosion. After being exposed to this violence and seeing fear in the eyes of her friends and family, McWilliams knew she had to make a change.

She soon realized, however, that women were not granted a voice in politics. In 1968, Mc-Williams was suspended from

By taylor st germainHeights Staff

In accordance with the spirit of the holiday season, the Boston College Police Department has a philanthropic goal in mind: fill an entire police cruiser with toys to donate to underprivileged children in Boston.

BCPD has co-partnered with BC Campus Recreation in order to collect toys for this year’s Toys for Tots drive. The organization, which is run through the Marine Corps, collects donated gifts for underprivileged children throughout the United States.

“We actually have a very big SUV that we would like to see filled [with toys],” Lt. Jeffrey Postell said. “But, I’ll tell you, I’d like to actually have to get a trailer to put toys in, to hook to the back of a cruiser, and take to the Toys for Tots site for drop off.”

BCPD and BC Campus Rec-reation are encouraging stu-dents, faculty, and staff to donate unwrapped and unused toys, games, and books. All collec-tions will be donated to children in and around the Boston area.

convent school for marching at a civil activist rally. Women were discouraged from speaking out, as men were in complete control of politics and major decisions.

After several years of education and experience, McWilliams found-ed the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition in 1996. Although the initial reception of the group was not entirely positive, the party won two seats on the Northern Ireland Forum. McWilliams was elected to one of the seats and participated in the negotiations that resulted in the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. This agreement helped to solve problems of civil rights, cultural rights, and the decommissioning of weapons.

McWilliams became a promi-nent figure for peace in Northern Ireland. She advised President

George W. Bush against involve-ment in Iraq and has met with former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Nelson Mandela also invited her and her founding party members to South Africa to talk about peace in the mod-ern world.

The gender inequality in Northern Ireland was char-acterized by marginalization and objectification, and only 4 percent of signatures on the Good Friday Agreement were women’s, McWilliams said. As a result, the party was based on a feminist platform and called for gender equality.

The Northern Ireland Wom-en’s Coalition traveled to Boston to spread their message.

“We figured if we could go to a place like Boston, [people] might just listen to our story,” McWil-liams said.

Eventually, Americans did hear the party’s plight. Hillary Clinton was heard saying, “their grief be-came their, and our, call to action.” The Coalition united women and gave them a place to speak.

McWilliams closed the talk by explaining the importance of women in political discus-sions, because they are equal stakeholders in the evolution of the world. She argued that women have a different level of expertise compared to men, and representation from both men and women is beneficial for society.

“It is time for us to focus on welfare, not warfare.” McWil-liams said.

Collection sites for the toys have already been set up in the police department in Maloney Hall and inside the Flynn Rec-reation Complex. The toy drive will end Dec. 17.

BCPD is also currently work-ing to implement a service where a police officer can pick up dona-tions for the drive from students on campus who are unable to drop them off on Lower Campus, Postell said.

BCPD began to look into holding a fundraiser for the holiday season this past Novem-ber. When they decided to host Toys for Tots, BCPD asked BC Rec to partner with them. The Plex receives heavy foot traffic on a daily basis, so the police department thought it would be the ideal location to set up, Postell said.

“I absolutely believe in Santa Claus,” Postell said. “I totally be-lieve in the spirit of Santa. It may not be the big, jolly man in a red suit, but I believe that people like us, others who bring in toys, and those who organize these events, those are your Santa Clauses.”

In addition to BCPD and BC Rec, other BC departments an-

Please send corrections to

eic@bcheights.com with ‘correction’ in

the subject line.

CORRECTIONS

AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS STAFF

BCPD and BC Recreation have teamed up to collect toys for Toys for Tots.

Monica McWilliams talks about women’s role in Irish politics and her career as a politician and professor.SARAH HODGENS / HEIGHTS STAFF

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, December 10, 2015 A3

By Olivia MorleyHeights Staff

William Bolton, CSOM ’16, who wore flip-up, John Lennon-esque glasses and a maroon suede jacket to the Stokes Chocolate Bar, is part-businessman, part-artist. The new age soul singer from Detroit has been making and performing music for the last several years—sometimes with acts like Hoodie Allen and Shwayze, other times for friends around campus and in Boston.

Bolton is preparing to perform at the Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Del., this June, alongside acts such as Tame Impala, Ellie Goulding, and The 1975. Bolton will take the stage with his drum-mer, Victor “Vicky Stix” Araromi, MCAS ’17. The two have been working together for over a year. Bolton produces beats, writes lyrics, and sings, while Araromi plays the drums.

“I produce like 90 percent of the music,” Bolton said.

Bolton said his style lies some-where between Tame Impala

and Kanye West‚ two artists who Bolton said are similar to him, especially “within the groove of the drums and the chord progres-sions,” he said.

Bolton said he uses his CSOM degree to his advantage—he has managed his music and personal brand like a businessman might manage a startup. He boasts 1.5 million SoundCloud views.

“I built an independent fan base,” he said, explaining that his connections to key players in the music industry were essential to landing the Firefly gig.

Bolton found his current agent, Lawrence Lam, at the New York City-based Paradigm Talent Agency, which also books Tame Impala and MisterWives. Bolton said that he had a mutual friend who runs a record label who introduced him to the agents at Paradigm. Bolton said that Lam didn’t even ask him before book-ing the music festival.

The news was a genuine sur-prise for both Bolton and Ara-romi, who didn’t know that they were scheduled to perform at

the festival until the lineup was released. One morning, Araromi woke up to a text message from a friend.

“One of my bros from home said, ‘Congrats on Firefly,’” Ara-romi said.

The drummer, shocked to hear the news, woke Bolton to tell him that his name was listed on the Firefly lineup. Bolton couldn’t believe it.

“I wake up, and [Araromi’s] like, ‘you’re playing Firefly this year,’” he said.

Bolton finally got the con-f irmation from Lam, who’d hoped to surprise him, and was thrilled.

Bolton has been given very few details about the Firefly performance, but he said he and Araromi are working to perfect their act before they head to Delaware this June.

“The most important thing is going to be deciding what we play, and then the set up,” said Bolton.

The singer, whose stage pres-ence is “a combination of soul

it difficult for students to hang posters in many areas.

“One of the things on Boston College’s campus that’s kind of different than a lot of other cam-puses is that it’s very nice looking, very whitewashed, very pristine and beautiful in one regard,” Bohn said.

He explained that Eradicate went around posting flyers, which were promptly taken down by BC staff. It was then that he decided to distribute the flyers directly to the students.

“We’ve tried to get our graphics approved before, and they get stuck in bureaucratic channels for months,” said Sriya Bhattacharyya, GLSOE ’16 and leader of Eradicate, when talking about the removal of the posters.

While some of the students were busy working and didn’t pay the flyer much attention, many of the students, he said, were intrigued by the infographic.

“As I got to the main area of the

library, I could hear a dull roar, like a rumbling, a murmur, because people started talking about this,” Bohn said.

Bohn said that when he reached the back of the library, students came up to him, asking him more about the flyers and what Eradicate is doing on campus. He added that people came up to him to ask for additional flyers.

“I sensed a positive reception,” he said. “People were eager to check it out, even amidst this time when people are busy studying.”

As part of the ninth day, the group went through the University’s archives and found articles in The Heights archives that they believe show how the University has not implemented new policies to diver-sify the faculty and student body over the years. In a letter to the Board of Trustees, Eradicate asked that a faculty member of color, a staff member of color, and a student of color be added to the Board and be allowed to vote.

On the second day of the cam-paign, called “Ghosts of BC’s Past,” a

group of alumni donated over $1,000 to Eradicate, rather than donating to the University directly.

On the third day, 61 faculty members signed a letter to support Eradicate’s movement. The members of Eradicate then delivered holiday gifts to these faculty members to thank them for their support.

During the fifth day, called “BCPD is Coming to Town,” Eradicate posted videos complaining that BCPD has not released any documentation on an investigation that took place after an incident at Modstock last year. Students had filed complaints after the concert saying that two officers put their hands on Bhattacharyya while she was handing out posters that promoted equality on campus.

“It’s been eight months since four students filed the complaints,” Bhat-tacharyya said. “They will not give any reason for why they will not make the results public.”

On the sixth day, “Come All Ye Faithful,” Eradicate invited students to post videos about why they believe that institutional racism is wrong, specifically as people of faith.

“It didn’t have to necessarily be re-ligious faith,” Bryn Spielvogel, GLSOE ’17, said. “It could just be their faith in social justice or pretty much anything that they believed in strongly.”

People have a difficult time real-izing that they are racist, Spielvogel said. It takes a lot of energy, she said, to examine your own life and understand how we can improve our attitudes and actions.

The list of demands that Eradicate delivered to Dean of Students Thomas Mogan during their caroling last week, Bhattacharyya said, was appar-ently given to the Board of Trustees as the protesters requested. Eradi-cate hopes that the demands, which included having a faculty member of color, a staff member of color, and a student of color on the Board, will be met by Jan. 19, the date they set as their deadline.

“We need to look within ourselves and understand how we need to fight this internally and externally, and recognize that racism is not a problem with black people and brown people, it’s a problem with white people” Spielvogel said.

Eradicate, from A1

Entrepreneurship, from A1

Business School, for ex-ample, has invested in social entrepreneurship since coining the phrase in 1993, integrating the discipline with its MBA program in 1994. It has since funded research and upstarts in the area. Northeastern Uni-versity founded its Social En-terprise Institute in 2007, which now supports faculty publishing on social innovation and offers scholarships and grants for student. Also in 2007, Massa-chusetts Institute of Technol-ogy (MIT) created the Legatum

Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, focusing more specifically on catalyz-ing projects and research that benefits those in low-income countries.

Keeley, who has served as associate dean of the Carroll School since 1995, sees student leadership as playing a central role in the future of social en-terprise at BC. In his earlier work in helping develop the University ’s PULSE service-learning program, he noted that such a shift in ownership was key to the program’s long-term success.

“What you want to be ableto do is diffuse responsibility so that it becomes an enterprise which is not owned solely by thefaculty or by the administra-tion, but something that lives in the lives and interests of thestudents as well,” he said.

So far as the future of busi-ness education goes, he said that the recent interest in socialenterprise, and entrepreneur-ship more broadly, will not beeasily ignored.

“Well, if it’s well taught, then the people who are doing theinstruction should really be pay-ing attention to this,” he said.

JOHN WILEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

William Bolton and Victor Araromi just landed a gig at Firefly, alongside artists such as The 1975 and Tame Impala.

singer and rock star,” said he plans to perform the songs “Summer Breeze,” “Fading,” and “a crazy song that’s not released yet” called “Fly,” at the festival.

Bolton is currently working

on his new extended play album, titled Love Supreme, set to re-lease before graduation.

Bolton said he and Araromi are looking forward to Firefly, but their ultimate goal is sched-

uling a tour. “My agent, he’s booking me

these little shows—and Firefly, which is huge—but the main thing he’s doing is trying to get me on tour,” Bolton said.

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS STAFF

Eradicate Boston College Racism disseminated flyers (above) to students in O’Neill Library as part of their ‘12 Days of Boston College Racism’ campaign designed to draw attention to the group’s racial awareness mission.

JOHN WILEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

‘Managing for Social Impact’ is an entrepreneurship minor that is open to students in the Morrissey School.

GRAPHIC COURTESY OF ERADICATE BOSTON COLLEGE RACISM

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, December 10, 2015A4

KEATON BEAMS

the residual trauma of exams? It got to the point where I com-

pletely avoided opening my newly-acquired Twitter—let alone check-ing my email—out of the fear that I would see another headline about the Boston area that would tie my stomach in knots.

After a few tortured minutes, I succumbed (and was greeted with a reassuring story about the vandal-ization of a stained-glass window in Brockton), but I began to wonder why exactly these headlines were making me so nervous.

Usually, I’m someone who walks down the stairs and imagines what would happen if I were to slip, tum-bling down the steps and breaking various important limbs in my body.

I look at the people around me and try to remind myself that no matter how much time we spend together, most likely there are parts of them that I will never know about—and even parts of myself that I don’t know yet.

I try to approach the world with a low grade of pessimism, so that when good things happen, I’m un-reasonably happy. I like to picture the worst possible outcome, but why, when I am faced with it now, do I find it so frightening?

And then I remembered the infa-mous BC Bubble.

As a first year student, you tend to hear a lot about the mysterious entity dubbed “the BC Bubble.” Up-perclassmen warn you of its limiting dangers, and suggest frequent trips on the T as an easy solution. And so,

in a concerted effort to seem like I have some handle on the tumultuous world around me, that’s what I’ve been doing.

For the short time I have been at BC, I’ve dragged my friends down-town to explore the city and find food, telling myself that at least this bubble is something I won’t have to worry about.

But maybe my perspective on the bubble that I’m trying to avoid is completely incorrect. Perhaps the bubble is more of a mindset of secu-rity than a physical confine spurred by a subversive desire to watch Net-flix and the ease of having nine huge rooms within walking distance that serve food on a meal plan.

I have felt a wonderful sense of security at BC that I know I will never feel again once these four years are over. The warm feeling of safety is all-encompassing, for it extends beyond the physical world to the intellectual one.

Blue lights glow around the cam-pus like a reassuring safety net, and even if you venture into the neigh-boring areas, there is a high chance that you will encounter similar security measures taken by the many other universities in the Boston area.

Boston is a peculiar city that, some of the time at least, can seem removed from reality. With the me-dian age of residents at only 31 years old, and an overwhelming college population, it is a young city that allows transient residents (like yours truly) to get caught up in the invin-cible vivacity and fearlessness of the

MADELEINE D’ANGELO

I have a running theory that everything goes terribly wrong dur-ing exam season. Unfortunately, my theory seems to apply to the lives of full-fledged adults, as well as to the lives of current students.

Maybe they have a vestigial memory of the stress they suffered when, not too long ago, they were in our shoes, or maybe it is simply the stress of the approaching holidays.

Or maybe it is the close of yet an-other year that whizzed by without bringing quite the accomplishment that everyone envisioned when the ball dropped 12 months ago.

But even with my theory, the number of bizarre things that have gone wrong in Boston over the past few days have shocked me. On Sun-day night, an armed robbery took place in Brighton. On Monday and Tuesday alone, 80 Boston College students, later rising to 120, con-tracted a mystery gastrointestinal disease that may or may not turn out to be E. coli, a man stabbed himself near the Commons, scorched human remains were discovered under the Milton Bridge, and a fatal stabbing occurred in Dorchester.

Is the entirety of Boston having a synchronized freak-out rooted in

A graphic rendering of Wynn Resorts’ proposed plans for the Everett, Mass. casino

Heights Staff

As Wynn Resorts breaks ground for a new casino in Everett, Mass., Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, is grappling with the decision of whether to appeal his and the city’s case against the development. After first making its lengthy case in May 2014, the City of Boston has sought legal aid in the process of garnering revenue from the casino, especially after the Mas-sachusetts Gaming Commission awarded Wynn Resorts a gambling license over Mohegan Sun, a company that would have established its casino at Suffolk Downs and brought in a minimum of $18 million per year for the city.

The city’s case has repeatedly lost in court, as the state of Massachusetts has of-ficially deemed the road where the building will sit “properly zoned” for a casino. More-over, legislation that Mayor Walsh, when he was a State representative, voted in favor of in 2011 states that “the host community [is defined] in geographical terms, not in impact terms,” discounting Walsh’s argu-ment that the increase in traffic in nearby Charlestown justifies naming Boston the casino’s host.

In addition to said legislation, Wynn has promised, and is required by law, to

refurbish Charlestown’s Sullivan Square in preparation for this increase, a project es-timated to cost the company $10.9 million. Yet, even with previous legal failures and Wynn Resorts’ reparations pledge, Walsh is set on finding a way to make Boston the casino’s host community.

If the city were to be awarded host status of the resort, then the $1.25 million of tax money spent in the past two fiscal years on this lawsuit by Mayor Walsh would be justi-fied. Currently, the lawyers working with the mayor’s appeal have stated that further legal proceedings would be executed pro bono, should he choose to pursue it. As the situation currently stands, however, Walsh may be fighting a losing battle.

According to Boston College professor Rev. Richard McGowan, S.J., only one of the two potential casino locations within city limits voted in favor of the develop-ment—East Boston voted against, while Revere, the home of Suffolk Downs, only led in voting percentages by roughly 33 percent. Meanwhile, local voters in Everett are voting 80 percent in favor of the casino being built.

One aspect of the legislative battle lies within those statistics—economically, Everett is in far more need of the revenue from the casino than Boston. The increased traffic flow and casino revenue would revive

the impoverished town’s economy, creating a larger consumer base and more jobs.

The casino would also make use of a previously unapproachable ex-chemical site, with Wynn planning on spending $1.6 billion to overturn the damaged grounds. If the local votes do not thoroughly show the social effects of the casino’s development, those two realities do—Everett is seeking revitalization through Wynn, while Walsh and the city are fighting for revenue, regard-less of the source.

“Suffolk Downs makes more sense,” McGowan said. “But, that’s just not the way it worked out—that just goes to show you’ve got to keep playing the game until the last out.”

This “last out,” or at least some form of resolution to the problem, seems to be in the works, as on Dec. 8, Mayor Walsh and Wynn Resorts CEO Steve Wynn held a closed-door meeting. In a response to The Boston Globe, Walsh stated that he and Wynn were “working on some common agreements and common goals” for the future of the casino, although Walsh has made no promises to stop fighting the development.

“I’m fighting on behalf of the people of Boston,” Walsh said in a comment outside City Hall last week. “I’m not going to roll over and not fight for the

Passersby wander through one of downtown Boston’s green spaces close to the harbor.DREW HOO/ PHOTO EDITOR

youth that surrounds them. I feel like I’ve almost forgotten

that I exist within a real world that faces actual dangers.

Reality does, however, peek through more often than not, and Boston has certainly seen more than its fair share of horrors over the past few years. I just have been lucky enough to only experience them as headlines that are quickly displaced and replaced.

If I have any intention of truly experiencing Boston, or any place

for that matter, I need to see beyond the sense of security that my identity as a college student provides.

I can see the hazy outlines of the bubble that surround me, and I’m coming to the unfortunate realiza-tion that it will eventually burst.

It just might be less frightening if I pop it myself.

is also my cousin. Although he is adamant about not playing the blame game with regard to the system of complete disrepair he was thrust into, the findings produced by a panel of experts that reviewed the system indicate that, ultimately, it was the chronic fiscal inconsistency and dys-functional leadership that caused the T’s problems.

The severity of the fundamental issues exposed by the failed “stress test” of last winter demanded imme-diate and radical change in the basic structure of the MBTA. In response, Mass. Governor Charlie Baker has collaborated with Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollack to oversee a complete change.

When Shortsleeve became the chief administrator in July, he joined General Manager Frank Depolla and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Gonn-eville in the ranks of the completely restructured MBTA leadership team.

The explicit allocation of roles and responsibilities in this system demands accountability from those appointed to manage it—something lacking during the previous board.

After graduating from Harvard Business School and serving as an

officer in the Marines, Shortsleeve worked at the consulting firm Bain & Company, and then as a managing di-rector at a venture capital firm called General Catalyst Partners. Over the course of his career in business, he has acquired a unique ability to repair and develop the fiscal viability of companies.

It is this skill that Governor Baker hoped to apply to the pervasive fi-nancial issues crippling the MBTA by appointing him as chief administrator this year.

The MBTA has, in the past, simply not been managed or structured to function as a viable business with customer obligations, administrative accountability, and fiscal responsi-bilities. The new leadership, with Shortsleeve at its helm, is designed to redefine the structure of the MBTA as a self-sustaining business.

After almost six months on the job, Shortsleeve confessed that he has been surprised by the difference be-tween the private and public sector.

Specifically, Shortsleeve admitted that he is not accustomed to “how long it takes to get things done” in such a slow bureaucratic system. It appears Shortsleeve has found out,

as so many have in the past, how unconducive the public sector is to the changes required for the estab-lishment of fiscally viable business-oriented systems.

This challenge has not detracted from his determination, as he re-mains vigilant in revamping the capi-tal program of the MBTA to make it more efficient.

In its action plan submitted in April, a special panel of transpor-tation experts commissioned by the governor to review the MBTA identified, among other key issues, “a severe imbalance between costs and revenue” as the crux of the finan-cial challenges Shortsleeve has been tasked to address.

According to the panel, the dis-parity between revenue and expense costs has been increasing steadily for over a decade and is on pace to amount to $295 million in 2015 and grow to a staggering $558 million in 2020 if nothing changes.

According to Shortsleeve, it is not necessarily a deficiency in revenue, but rather a surplus of spending that is the most significant area of concern. The severity of what Shortsleeve defines as a “cost control

problem” in the operating budget of the MBTA has made it the first prior-ity of his fiscal restoration efforts.

According to Shortsleeve, a con-clusive five-year plan outlining this fiscal restoration is still being devel-oped, but will definitely be rolled out in 2016.

Even without this master blue-print, major steps have and will continue to be made by the MBTA. Recently it invested $83 million in improvements and additions to its arsenal of snow-removing equip-ment and kick-started its “Winter Happens” campaign to increase the communication between the T and its riders.

More improvements to machinery will be made continuously, as $7 bil-lion have been allocated by the state to fund such efforts.

Although the monumental task of completely repairing the system has not yet been overcome, the establish-ment of this new and firmly struc-tured leadership team is a meaningful first step.

Last year’s infamous, record-breaking winter delivered the decisive blow that finally pushed the MBTA over the edge, as buses and subways alike broke down, causing countless trips to suffer spontaneous delays and cancellations.

As daily commutes turned into in-numerable hours of frustration, two things became clear to commuters in the Boston area: the winter tested the strength of their transportation system, and it floundered under im-mense pressure.

The collapse of the MBTA last winter was not induced merely by Mother Nature. It was the culmina-tion of years of structural inadequacy and decay that had, by the time the first snowflake dropped, already bent the system to its breaking point.

Among the frustrated commut-ers was future Chief Administrator of the MBTA Brian Shortsleeve, who

people of Boston.” Now, years after the initial casino pro-

posal, the only avenue available for Mayor Walsh to engage in the lawsuit Mohegan Sun plans to pursue in appealing the Gaming Commission’s rejection of its ap-plication, which, if successful, may result in an establishment with Boston listed as

its host community. Bostonians are left anxiously wonder-

ing what Walsh’s definition of the “lastout” is, and whether this tax-fundedbattle will be worth it in the end.

“Every city is just trying to protect their revenue,” McGowan said. “That’swhat this all comes down to.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF CASINO.ORG

not eat at Chipotle. Th e email sent out to the rest of BC students and staff , was not sent until 3:28 p.m. that same afternoon.

On Tuesday, another email was sent out to students stating that more than 80 students had come into Health Services. By Wednesday’s notice, over 120 students had been infected.

Initially, it was suspected that the out-break was E. coli, similar to the illnesses that had been linked to 52 other Chipotle establishments in New York, Maryland, and California, among others. After testing, however, Boston Public Health authorities confi rmed on Tuesday that the students’ symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea were caused by the norovirus.

“The Health Department in Boston

confi rmed that norovirus was the cause of this incident, which was the speculation very early on, and that cases tied to us all occurred at a single location in Boston,” Chris Arnold, communications director at Chipotle, said in an email to Th e Heights. “We off er our sincerest apologies to people who were impacted by this incident.”

Th e restaurant, which closed Monday for inspection, is still closed.

“I’d also note that CDC (Center for Disease Control) reports that there are approximately 20 million cases of norovi-rus annually, making it the leading cause of gastroenteritis in the country,” Arnold said in the email. “The large number of cases of this illness is due partly because it can spread very easily through person to

THE HEIGHTS A5Thursday, December 10, 2015

By Jack LynchFor The Heights

In front of a crowd of enthusiastic supporters in historic Faneuil Hall last weekend, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ’09, announced his sup-port for Hillary Clinton as the Demo-cratic candidate for president in next year’s election.

“Get your sledgehammers ready, because we have a glass ceiling to de-molish,” Walsh, a former labor leader, to a cheering crowd of union members at a recent campaign rally for Clinton, The Boston Globe reported.

Walsh had previously withheld his endorsement because he was torn be-tween Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden, who made his decision not to run this past October.

This, however, does not mean that the mayor is endorsing the Democratic frontrunner “in name only.”

He then added that he had wanted to wait for the field of Democratic candidates to solidify before making his choice, which for some time had been clouded by doubt.

One of the reasons the Boston mayor favors Clinton over the other candi-dates, which include Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and the former gover-nor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley, is her $10 billion plan to target drug and alcohol abuse.

Walsh, who himself is a recovered al-coholic, has received a lot of emotional and political support from his recovery community—meaning this plan is not only in line with his policies but con-nects to him on a more personal level.

Given Walsh’s past as a labor leader, it does not come as a surprise that Clin-ton began her “Hard Hats for Hillary” platform with him by her side.

Clinton announced this campaign to mobilize union workers to support her five -year, $275 billion plan to improve infrastructure.

This plan comes as Democratic

candidates Sanders and O’Malley have been focusing on increasing federal spending, with Sanders introducing a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, which he plans to fund through increased taxes on the wealthy.

“I’m the only Democrat in this race [who has] pledged to raise your income, not your taxes,” Clinton later said, The Boston Globe reported, in what was a clear swipe at Sanders and his plan.

The Republican National Com-mittee has criticized both Sanders’ and Clinton’s plans to increase federal funding, stating that while Clinton and Sanders have both said they will place the burdens of their projects on the shoulders of corporations and the wealthy, hard working Americans would also feel the ripple economic effect of their plans.

Undoubtedly, Clinton’s new infra-structure and labor plans will continue to be a hot-button issue in the coming weeks of the campaign. For now, the goal remains to use $250 billion of the plan to directly invest in fixing roads, bridges, public transit, and airports.

The additional $25 billion would fund a national infrastructure bank. Unfortunately for Clinton, this has already been proposed in Congress by Democrats multiple times and has been blocked by Republicans every time. Concerning her labor campaign, the primary focuses are income equality and the stagnant wages of U.S. work-ers.

“My job as your president will be to do everything I can to create more good-paying jobs, to get wages ris-ing again for American workers and families,” Clinton said in the same rally. “Americans have not had a raise [in a while].”

In making labor law a primary focus of her campaign, Clinton shows some similarities to her husband, President Bill Clinton.

During his tenure in office, he amended the North American Free

STEVEN SENNE / AP PHOTO

After previously witholding his endorsement, Mayor Martin J. Walsh, WCAS ‘09, gave his support for Hillary Clinton last week.

ARCHER PARQUETTE

I’ve often found myself thinking about what my current situation would be like had my parents not made the brave decision to leave my native Venezuela when I was only 11 years old.

Would my best friends still have been those I knew since I was four years old? Where would I have gone to school? How would my family have reacted to the emerging politi-cal, social, and economic issues that have ravaged my country over the past 16 years? What type of person would I have been?

I know one thing almost for certain: I would not be here, in this nurturing environment in one of the great cities of the world, with noth-ing but optimism about the future.

I spent many days watching those who are dear to me struggle through their day-to-day existence, where even the simple action of buying food involves long lines and quantity restrictions that remind of Orwell’s 1984. This, coupled with the growing

violent crime problem, always lingers in their minds and makes for a less-than-ideal existence.

A some point, I came to realize that what I missed from my child-hood no longer existed, and that gen-erated inside of me what can at best be described as disappointment and, at worst, a burning resentment and hatred for anything that the Venezu-elan government was involved in.

Coming to Boston last year as a first-year student was more of a shock than I had initially thought, especially coming from Miami, also known as north Latin America.

Watching from afar, I saw how the economy collapsed, institutions failed, crime rose to unprecedented levels, government agencies turned a blind eye—how a family friend was murdered in broad daylight over a petty disagreement.

But I digress—back to optimism. Two and a half years ago, things began to change, as if someone who had forgotten to turn on the light fi-nally remembered there was a switch nearby.

After years of feeling hopeless and too far removed to effect change, I saw how many in my position took to the streets of whatever adoptive city or country they took residence in, Boston included, and expressed their support for reconciliation and a new beginning for all.

Last year, during an event hosted here at Boston College by the Latin American Business Club, a promi-nent business and a political leader for the opposition talked about the changing mentality in the nation, spurred by support from those living abroad like us. It was a message not of conflict, but of reconciliation.

This past weekend, in a critical turn of events for the country’s his-tory, Venezuela held congressional elections.

For the first time, the world tuned in. Secretary of State John Kerry, BC Law ‘76, expressed “a desire for change,” and Hillary Clinton, speaking at Faneuil Hall on Nov. 28, echoed the sentiment.

As a stu-dent, I previ-ously felt helpless, but after many days spent in deep thought—that may or may not have included a cup or six of J.P. Licks ice cream—I realized that what I was doing was

JUAN OLAVARRIA

-day and Friday, and the fi nals schedule will remain the same. Students who are experi-encing symptoms of the norovirus, however, should speak with their professors directly to make accommodations for their illness.

Th e Offi ce of Student Aff airs has also cancelled the planned Study Day event on Th ursday due to the outbreak of the virus.

Th e fi rst of three emails from Nary was sent out on Monday, advising students not to eat at the Chipotle in Cleveland Circle af-ter several students had complained of gas-trointestinal symptoms. Maria Knoerr, the Athletic Administration staff assistant, sent out an original email to BC athletes at 9:28 a.m. on Monday morning warning them to

Norovirus, from A1

JULIA HOPKINS / HEIGHTS PHOTO STAFF

The local Chipotle remains shuttered, as health officials continue their testing inside.

worthwhile.Every walk I take down Linden

Lane, every time I breathe in the cold February air, hell, every time I take an hour-long T ride into the city that should take half that time (that’s a story for another day): these are experiences unlike anything I could ever get anywhere else in the world.

Democracy made a huge leap forward this weekend, and seeing the outpouring of emotions from all over, the worst of the storm finally may have passed.

Seeing the celebrations, where previously divided families finally came together after years of tension, where those living in foreign coun-

tries may feel safe going back, even just to visit—this is just the begin-ning.

I may never live in Venezuela again, but at least I’ve gained an entirely new set of experiences, memories, and perspectives that have awakened inside of me the very same optimism that I have for my future and for the future of my country.

And I know from personal experi-ence, that a visit to my loving family can brighten an otherwise gloomy day better than anything else ever could.

person contact, surfaces, or through food or drink.”

Norovirus is characterized by nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. It is rarely serious, however, and the symptoms usually disappear after a couple of days.

“My illness started with diarrhea, thenvomiting, and it has lasted all last nightand through today,” Alex Dupee, CSOM ’18, said. “I have no idea how I got it either,as I didn’t even go to Chipotle in Cleveland Circle.”

STEVEN SENNE / AP PHOTO

KELSEY MCGEE / GRAPHICS STAFF

Trade Agreement (NAFTA), with sanctions for countries’ violations of labor laws.

Furthermore, President Clinton had one of the most well -known secretaries of labor in Robert Reich, who himself is very pro- union and a strong advocate of the correction of income inequality.

“When you think about a candidate who has the experience and the resume for this job, there’s nobody ever in the history of this country that has the resume that Hilary Clinton has to run for president,” Walsh said, according to The Globe.

“At the end of the day, that’s why I opened the business,” she said.

BCPD and Boston College Recreation have teamed up to contribute to the national orga-nization Toys for Tots, which col-lects and distributes toys to needy children for Christmas. Last year, the organization raised over $284 million worth of toys. This is the first time the two campus groups have joined together to support this worthy cause. Donations have been, and will continue to be, collected in the lobby of the Plex. BCPD is also going around campus and collecting toys if someone is unable to deliver them to the Plex. The toys collected will be given to children in the Greater Boston area, and the drive will continue until Dec. 17.

These kinds of charitable en-deavours are good examples of what members of the BC com-munity can do. Two campus orga-nizations, completely separate in function, joining together to raise money for a charity exemplifies the kind of charitable spirit that a Jesuit education is meant to foster. The people who give their time, effort, and resources to Toys for Tots deserve to be commended for helping to start, and build, this impressive charitable effort.

Pooling the influence and re-sources of BCPD and BCRec is an example of originality in an attempt to serve. This collabora-tion serves as an example for other campus organizations interested in pursuing a charitable cause.

By joining with other forces on campus, more work can be

accomplished and the somewhat complicated logistics behind any large operation can be better dealt with. Removing some of these dif-ficulties and being more efficient allows the maximum amount of time and effort to go directly to

helping the cause itself, toys for tots.

BC students should strive to contribute to causes such as this, encouraging these kinds of projects by supporting them. By giving our support whenever we can, we are able to foster increased service on this campus and inspire

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, December 10, 2015A6

HEIGHTSThe Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

THE

“It is possible to be homesick for a place even when you are there.”-Don Delillo, White Noise

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 head-lines and choose illustrations to accompany pieces submitted to the newspaper.

Letters and columns can be submitted online at www.bcheights.com, by e-mail to editor@bcheights.com, in person, or by mail to Editor, TheHeights, 113 McElroy Commons, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467.

EDITORIALS

The views expressed in the above edito-rials 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.

Since Monday, over 120 students have reported to University Health Services suffering from symptoms of food poisoning. The vast major-ity of these students had recently eaten at the Chipotle in Cleveland Circle. While the outbreak was ini-tially suspected to be E. coli, UHS has now confirmed the presence of norovirus.

Ten of the students who have reported symptoms are members of the men’s basketball team. On Monday morning at 9:38 a.m., all student-athletes received an email from Maria Knoerr, an athletic administration staff assistant, in-forming them about the possible outbreak and advising them to avoid eating at Chipotle. At 3:28 p.m., the general student popula-tion received a health alert from Dr. Thomas Nary, director of UHS.

The delay between notifying athletes and the rest of the student population demonstrates an initial mishandling of communication. If the possible outbreak had been confirmed strongly enough that all of the student-athletes could be informed, then warning the entire student population should have been treated with the same immediacy.

Although the men’s basketball team has been seriously affected by this outbreak, the information ap-plies to every member of the Boston College community. When it comes to issues of student health, spread-ing the information as quickly and far as possible and protecting all students from potential exposure to disease should be the University’s number one priority.

Throughout this situation, UHS, in its final year in the Cushing Hall basement, performed well under high stress and without the ideal resources to handle a sudden out-break. As Health Services waits for next year’s opening of the new, larger infirmary in the basement of 2150 Commonwealth Ave., it had to make do with an inadequate amount of space while dealing with the influx of sick students. With only a 10-bed facility and normally

only one doctor on call, the rush of around 120 patients experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms over a short period of time proved a challenge that seems to have been handled well under the circum-stances. UHS did well to continue to inform the student body effec-tively via email to disseminate the progressing information about the disease. In addition, BC Dining Services has foregone self-service items, with the intention of reduc-ing the spread of the disease.

The need for the new Health Services facility is clearer now than ever and its opening will be a posi-tive step for BC as a whole, making the community better prepared for the possibility of future large-scale health issues.

SWAN SONGSTHE HEIGHTS BIDS FAREWELL TO THE GRADUATING MEMBERS

ONE-YEAR BOARD MEMBERS

THREE-YEAR BOARD MEMBERS

TWO-YEAR BOARD MEMBERS

to the heights, Thank you to those who taught us along the way, the

friends we will always keep, and the stories we will take with us.

Love,

THE 2015 BOARD

the outgoing board members

THE 2014 BOARD THE 2013 BOARD

John Wiley Maggie PowersChris Stadtler

Jordan Pentaleri

Alex Fairchild

Breck WillsRyan Dowd

Ryan Daly

Joy Li

Julie Orienstein

Arielle Cedeno

Jack Stedman

Mujtaba Syed

Summer Lin

Daniella FascianoFrancisco Ruela

Jessica Turkmany

Kayla Famolare

Donny Wang

Evan Gatti Russ Puelo

Corinne Duffy

motives are to blame for the absence of symbols long-held as anathema to that very religion. Though it may sound ri-diculous, it’s certainly time to recognize the split between Christian Christmas and commercial Christmas. The holiday has divided itself like a cell, and now we are left with two halves. The religious holiday should be celebrated by Chris-tians at Mass and in their homes, but by no means on the side of a Starbucks cup.

The very fact that this split needs to take place, however, speaks to the suc-cess of the commercial Christmas, its draw and universality. The integration of various pagan elements in Christmas has operated on a bell curve. We are simply trending downward as the celebratory practices like decorated trees and gift-giving once more become disassociated from the Christian holiday. In addition to their own seasonal religious devo-

tions, people of many faiths in America have come to celebrate Christmas com-mercially. But rather than uniting us in celebrating a common holiday, the uproar on all sides never seems to cease. We fail to see that this Christmas divi-sion is beneficial for everyone. It allows the religious holiday to shed the skin of its pagan trappings and return to its true root and focus, the birth of Christ, and allows everyone to embrace the positive and joyful aspects of the commercial holiday.

The reason we can’t adopt the com-mercial Christmas as a secular national holiday is owed to the dogged resistance of religious rebels who erroneously

believe a talking red-nosed reindeer has anything more to do with the birth of their Savior than the Festival of Lights. And at a time when America has real and divisive ever-present issues like terrorism and climate change, the fact that we can’t come together on what is supposed to be a festival of joy might be the scariest thing of all. The same people bemoaning the Starbucks holiday cups (despite clearly being Christmas-based and red, as opposed to, say, the traditional blue or white of Hanukkah) are the same people who refuse to say “Happy Holidays.”

Despite the fact that this greeting makes more sense with its potential inclusion of New Year’s as well, people still cling to the same misguided sense of pompous self-importance. In any other setting, it would be considered ridicu-lous—I certainly don’t go around shout-ing “Go Sox” to people unless I know they’re from New England and root for the Red Sox. And I certainly won’t actively disdain whatever team they root for, unless maybe it’s the Yankees. It’s the same corrupt, ingrained sense of partisanship that has come to dominate the entirety of American society. Rather than adopting the common-sense solu-tion of simply wishing someone ”Happy Holidays” if you don’t know what they celebrate, we have been driven into this dogmatic determination to place our-selves first.

Tragically, this selfishness is only a symptom of the decay occurring in the holiday season overall. The season of generosity, goodwill, and gift-giving has turned into greed, animosity, and gift-getting. The very fact that Christ-mas, despite an ever-increasing com-mercialization and paganization, has been so deeply and staunchly made into a religious war has prevented its very adoption as a universal secular holi-day and has led to the mess of “Happy Holidays” and half-measures. Rather than looking to a unifying solution, we’ll all just keep on keeping on, complaining about the absence of Christmas spirit on the sides of our gourmet coffee cups while we stroll past the cold, homeless, and hungry.

THE HEIGHTSThursday, December 10, 2015 A7

NO MORE CLASSES - Some people say college is about learning, about the enrichment of the human soul through rigorous and consistent academic excellence. They say that every day we push boundaries and expand our horizons toward the beautiful and elusive throne of true and never-ending knowledge. But that’s kind of hard and stuff. Now that classes are over and finals will soon be done, you can sleep for 17 hours straight and eat boxes of grease-soaked chips and candy while staring dull-eyed at an unplugged television. We did it, guys!

THE NORTH END - Possibly the most recognizable neighborhood in Bos-ton, and also one of the most worth-while visits for a BC student. Take the Green Line to Haymarket and take a walk down those absurdly narrow streets. Grab a cannoli at Mike’s Pastry, get some lunch at Strega or Nico, smoke a cigar and point at people—you can do it all in the North End.

CHRISTMAS MUSIC - If you don’t like Christmas music, you’re stupid and wrong. There’s one month a year when we’re all allowed to listen to some of the greatest and most spirited songs of all time. Listen-ing to some of the best singers of the past century—Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole, to name two of the greatest—we can all rise above our miseries and appreciate the spirit of holiday joy.

REALIZING YOU ARE NOT GOING TO MAKE THE DEADLINE - You’ve had four papers due this week. You’ve known about them for almost three weeks now and have been slowly, but steadily working your way through. First you knocked out the English paper, then you plowed your way through 20 pages of poli sci, then you made some strides in sociology. But now there’s one left and you only have one day to write it. You could stay up all night, but you know you’re going to get a mediocre grade. And now, you’re just huddled in the cor-ner weeping like a small child into the sleeve of your hooded sweatshirt as you realize that you’ve failed.

ALL-NIGHTERS - Around seven in the morning, when you see the sun in the sky and taste the bright morning air, you realize that you’ve made a ter-rible mistake. It’s been all night. The days should never be organized like this, like one never-ending stretch of consciousness. There has to be a break, or any semblance of sanity falls apart. For no apparent reason, you suddenly notice the remarkable resemblance between the human and the armadillo. As you wander around campus with zero hours of rest it all seems like a bizarre, surreal nightmare and there’s nothing left to comfort you but your regrets.

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And so it begins—the final stretch. Our notebooks are full, textbooks highlighted, novels and short stories filled with margina-lia, and our brains are exhausted. We have already come so far, and yet we are just at the starting line of the dreaded race that university scholars all seem united in their disdain for: finals week.

For a long time I failed to see the point of final exams. After a demanding semester, why bother with yet another test that will inevitably lead to stress, anxiety, and perhaps even contempt for the course or theprofessor?

Let’s think back to the beginning of the semester. We have just been handed our course syllabi, and naturally we flip through to see the schedule of assessments. We read: two papers, one midterm, one final. Great! That doesn’t seem too bad. Less is more, right? Well, unfortunately, this operating logic is all wrong. It is in fact to the student’s benefit to have the maximum amount of tests, quizzes, and essays possible, no matterwhich way we cut it, especially when final exams are considered.

This is all to say that finals, unfairly, get a bad rap. In order to lift the veil and (hopefully) lessen our frustration with exam week, we ought to consider the facts. Learn-ing-science research suggests that pedagogi-cally, cumulative tests are one of the best tools to enhance our learning.

In a comprehensive paper titled “How Students Learn—and How We Can Help Them” from the department of psychol-ogy at University of California, Berkeley, John Kihlstrom notes that the primary key to student learning is understanding that we best learn progressively—in other words, cumulatively. When we are able to build new knowledge atop old, we are far more likely to be able to relate concepts and ideas—the basis for what is known as the organization principle of memory. This allows for a meaningful connection that enhances our memory’s framework to best solidify what we already know and to pre-pare our expectations for what we are trying currently to learn.

Following this reasoning, we can more easily understand the educational merit of the cumulative final. Kihlstrom writes: “A cumulative final exam forces students to re-view all the material covered in the course, and that review in and of itself enhances learning. Plus, it’s an opportunity for the student to put the whole course together, to connect material.”

The science is undeniable: testing pro-motes learning. Frequent quizzes and examsare our best aids to enhance our memory, and once we, as students, understand and accept this, we can approach them with a deeper intrinsic motivation (that is, if we, I hope and assume, are all scholars with a strong passion for intellectual growth).

Alas, if we are to be successful in this endeavor, we can’t pick up the reins now. Our challenge starts at the beginning of each semester, from our first day’s reading assignment to the last chapter quiz, and if we haven’t been attentive throughout the course, it doesn’t bode well for final exam preparation. So perhaps the lesson is if we have failed in the task this time around, we know, come spring, just what we ought to be doing right off the bat.

One semester’s grades aren’t everything, and the important message is to know how we can improve in practical ways. Each homework assignment, each class lecture, each discussion, no matter how trivial the day’s curricula may seem to you, are all mo-ments that we can use to our advantage—the more we pay attention to the founda-tions laid in the beginning of our course, the better prepared we will be to critically think when the challenge comes our way.

It is natural to harbor dislike for finals week, but I encourage us all to see the big-ger situation at work here. As it happens, final exams aren’t simply assessments, but rather the pinnacle of our opportunities to genuinely learn and retain material. Let us then go about our studies with this in mind: rather than arduously cramming and voicing our abhorrence for cumula-tive exams, let’s see them for what they’re really worth—a lucky chance to cash in on why we’re here, to learn to the best of our abilities.

in mind—next semester’s courses, next summer’s internship that could poten-tially lead to a job, the idealized future partner who you’re just bound to meet.

But what about this semester’s classes? The people in your life now? Everything going on in the world right now has forced me to have a reality check. I’ll eventually take those desir-able classes, and I’m sure I’ll find an in-ternship somewhere but for now I need to concentrate on existing in the present day, the present moment.

I think of the stranger who ran after the man who had left his half-eaten bag of potato chips on the train. I think of Matteo, the barista at the café next to my school in the small city of Parma, Italy, who decided to strike up a “conversation” in elementary Italian of mostly laughs and smiles from the lack of understanding. I think of my selfless host mom, Antonia, who is the hard-est worker I know and one of the most loving and dedicated mothers to her three children (five, with my roommate Kate and me included, as I feel like she’s accepted us as one of her own). I think of my own mom, my best friend, an individual with the biggest heart and the respectable capacity to see the good in people.

These are truly good people. Amid so much destruction, it’s easy to let the darkness overpower you. It’s easy to let the darkness win. But forcing ourselves to come out of the haze and let our-selves be present, we realize the quan-tity of good humans whose numbers overpower those on the opposite end of the spectrum. These are the people who give us hope that our world truly is good. It’s just a matter of rejecting the darkness as reality.

tion humanity. Having always prided myself on seeing the inherent goodness in people, I have had weeks of internal struggle. How can someone be capable of committing these acts? I cannot fathom that one is proud to cause so much pain and true suffering.

Complete disillusionment has been my mindset ever since the Paris at-tacks. I struggle to find the words to even write about how sad I am for the world. This can’t possibly be the way to live—to feel unsafe in the world. When unbelievable evils such as these plague our societies, how, then, are we sup-posed to move on? How do we let these events affect us? These are questions

that plague my mind when I stay up at night, and accompany each tear I shed at random moments throughout the day.

We embrace the relationships that are present in our lives. It’s so easy to step out of the present and dwell on the past, or become anxious for the future. Not truly existing in the present mo-ment yields the very real potential for regrets in the future: wishing you had realized how happy you were, or how much you valued a certain relationship. This is a problem of our society, as we are trained to always have the future

Panic. Are you in Paris? Catherine, you need to answer me.

Having just woken up, I logged onto CNN and BBC to discover the news of the attacks. I immediately messaged my college and high school friends study-ing there, and I couldn’t move from my chair until I had heard back from them.

Until my friends messaged me back and said that they were okay, allowing me to calm down, I wasn’t able to fully comprehend the gravity of the situation. Innocent people—enjoying dinner, a concert with friends—became victims of unfathomable acts in a matter of min-utes. Lives forever destroyed, families never the same, the world distraught.

In the weeks following the attacks, I knew fear like I had never known it before. More than fear—paranoia. Everywhere I went, I felt threatened. I couldn’t sleep. The day of a trip to Amsterdam, I stayed up until 4 a.m. de-bating whether or not I should still go. I ultimately decided I should. An hour layover in Milan led to a pseudo-panic attack, and I hid in the bathroom.

Looking back now, I know I over-reacted, but even though other travelers surrounded me, having no one I knew personally meant I felt totally alone. Even once I arrived in Amsterdam and met my high school friends, I was constantly checking my news apps for any updates. Terrorism had achieved its objective: I had lost my trust in the world.

And now, hearing of the recent shooting in California, I am distraught. Heaving with intense sadness and ut-terly disillusioned with the capabilities of fellow human beings, I find myself crying while walking down the street.

Dramatic, yes, but with all of this destruction, I have been led to ques-

“Dude, plain red cups? Might as well be a Soviet Christmas. We should totally boycott them,” whined the bespectacled man exiting Starbucks, eliciting a groan from his companion (who, nonethe-less, began to drain his gourmet coffee). It wasn’t a new take on the subject—I had heard about the controversy with Starbucks’ new plain red holiday cups dozens of times through social media and overheard conversations. I couldn’t help thinking, however, that everyone looking for Christmas on the side of a coffee cup is searching in exactly the wrong place.

The “War on Christmas” crowd can be split into two groups based on their concerns: those who believe Christianity is being targeted, and those who mourn the decline of Christmas as a centrally commercial juggernaut. In truth, how-ever, neither crowd has much to fear: those who fear the removal of Christ from Christmas need to recognize the commercialization of the holiday.

Christmas has steadily morphed into a different celebration over the years, long after absorbing various aspects of pagan rituals. Most Christians are blind to this transformation, and might even be coaxed into forgiving Starbucks if the company just slapped some Christmas trees on its cups—you know, the sup-posedly Christian symbol that actually dates back to Middle Eastern tribes be-fore Christ’s birth, Roman pagans after that, and pagan Germans who eventu-ally passed it on to German Christians. The same symbol that was vehemently rejected by the Church until the 19th century. Or maybe Santa Claus, who perhaps has more in common with Odin and the pagan holiday of Yule than the Greek bishop St. Nicholas.

There needs to be a distinction between Christmas as a commercial holiday and Christmas as a religious holiday. The argument gets downright ridiculous when allegedly anti-religious

MATTHEW BEDUGNIS

CATHERINE DUFFY

KATHERINE BELSITO

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, December 10, 2015A8

Run for Colin, from A1

This past Saturday, the familiar maze-like parking lot located in the center of Chestnut Hill Square featured a notice-able addition: a vibrant yellow truck parked among the masses of neutral, black, and white minivans. The truck, stationed in front of the site of the new-est addition to the square, was nothing other than the original award-winning Bon Me food truck.

The brightly-colored vehicle spent the day in Chestnut Hill Square to promote the Dec. 18 opening of the newest Bon Me brick-and-mortar location. Through-out the afternoon, the Boston-based chain’s co-owner, Allison Fong, and a small team of staff served complimentary

samples of Bon Me’s trademark Vietnam-ese-with-a-twist fare to Chestnut Hill shoppers, introducing residents to what may become their new favorite casual dining location.

Although the nature of the event limited the items available for sampling, passersby had the opportunity to try two of Bon Me’s most popular menu items: warm rice bowls or cold soba noodle salads.

Each bowl could be topped with either roasted soy and paprika tofu or spice-rubbed chicken. Regardless of the combination chosen, the samples were a glimpse of what is to come, filled with bright, fresh flavors.

It was this same culinary process that allowed the truck to win The City of Boston’s Food Truck Contest in 2010.

Since, duo Patrick Lynch and Allison Fong have grown their business from a single food truck, which hit the streets in 2011.

“The City of Boston [Food Truck] Contest was looking to add the street food that they’ve seen in other major cities—like healthy, quick, inexpensive, [which] were all things that really ap-pealed to me,” Fong said. “We developed this concept for the contest, and as it turned out, it has worked out really well in the city of Boston.”

The Chestnut Hill location is the fifth in a series of Bon Me restaurants, which can also be found in Cambridge, Fort Point, Alewife, Boston Public Market, or on the go in one of Bon Me’s five roaming food trucks.

Although this is Bon Me’s first loca-

tion outside of the Boston and Cam-bridge area, Fong feels very comfortable in the Chestnut Hill community, as she grew up very close to the area and even worked in the community as an adult. This understanding will benefit Fong as she irons out the specifics of the restau-rant menu over the coming days.

“With all new locations, we look and kind of think, ‘What are the things we think we could be doing in the future, or would be fun to do and customers would like?’” Fong said.

She says that Bon me is currently de-veloping the menu for the new location, as they usually have special items, such as different add-on items for the salads and bowls, for each individual restaurant.

“For example, at our Fresh Pond lo-cation, when we opened up, we served

a Japanese sweet potato fry, as well as lemongrass fried chicken,” she said. “[It] was completely new for us.”

With such an extensive and fluid menu, Fong is always looking for ideas. Since the Bon Me menu encompasses the traditions and flavors of many different cultures, Fong and Lynch find inspira-tion in everything, from techniques theyadmire while eating out on their own toflavors they are simply eager to explore.

After such a busy few years of rapid growth, the pair will likely take a breakin the coming months.

“I think we are just going to focus onmaking sure we serve the same food, with the same quality and care that we’ve been doing since our first truck,” Fong said. “We’re probably not going to be growingquite at the [same] pace.”

Dillon said. “So we knew that the film could be sad, but we much preferred it to have a lighter note.”

On Sept. 13, McConaughy’s film was shown at the Trail Film Festival, a series that included three full-length movies and several shorter films. The films were shown at a few dozen movie theaters across the country.

The team did not obtain a film permit, so they are unable to receive profit from it. Because they had no money for marketing, their advertis-ing campaign focused on social me-dia, articles, and word-of-mouth.

The team also interviewed Colin’s parents three weeks before the film came out.

Colin’s mother, Andrea, provided the team with videos of Colin’s child-hood for the film. Because of the run, McConaughy said, Colin’s parents were able to open up about the trag-edy that they endured.

“The reason that [Andrea] is so intense about documenting things is because she has a very different perception of the brevity of life,” Mc-Conaughy said.

McConaughy ran on BC’s track and cross country teams, so he ex-plained that he was already running between 60 and 70 miles a week. To prepare for his PCT run, he said, he began doing longer, slower runs and going to the weight room three times a week to build muscle.

Even though McConaughy said he ate about 8,000 calories a day while running, over the course of the 53-day trek, he lost 24 pounds and all of his body fat. Within a day and a half of completing the run, however, McConaughy said he had gained 13 pounds back.

McConaughy said that his team was essential to the success of his run. Jordan Hamm, BC ’13, and McCo-naughy were in charge of figuring out the logistics of the run—mapping out the checkpoints and the trail—while Dillon and childhood friend Jack Murphy focused on the production of the film.

Getting his food, water, shelter, and clothing, McConaughy said, was difficult. Very often, the team would have to hike to reach him. At other points, he would not see them for days at a time—he once went 84 hours and 180 miles in the Sierra

Nevadas without seeing the team, which forced him to carry more food in his backpack than usual.

The first 10 days were the most challenging, McConaughy said. Al-though the route through Southern California was the flattest stretch of his run, the temperature reached over 100 degrees. Sam Fox, who ran the PCT in 2011 and raised $300,000 for Parkinson’s research, had warned McConaughy prior to his run that this would be the most difficult por-tion of the trail. McConaughy was able to stay motivated because he knew that it would get easier.

McConaughy suffered from Achil-les tendonitis throughout his run. He said his team helped him minimize the pain by supplying him with ibu-profen.

Hamm, who also ran track at BC, gave McConaughy massages dur-ing their meetings, which helped to minimize his injuries.

One of the most challenging parts of the run, however, was not captured in the film, McConaughy said. He was running through the High Sierra Nevada Mountains, two and a half weeks after starting. It was his birth-day, and his crew had missed him at

the checkpoint. He recalls going to bed with only a salami stick and four power bars to eat.

“I was like ‘If this is what is going to happen in the future, I’m seriously considering getting off,’” he said. “It became a situation where I was seri-ously playing with my life.”

McConaughy sent his crew a text message that night, using his satellite phone, to say that if he didn’t see them at the next checkpoint he was going to stop running and reevaluate his mission. The next day, his team left only a sleeping bag and some food at the designated checkpoint. Mc-Conaughy remembers being angry, but he was eventually able to forgive his crew.

“Once I saw them again, I was ec-static,” he said. “It was this awesome reuniting moment. It was like ‘We can still do this.’”

McConaughy did not listen to music during his run. He explained that he kept himself entertained by thinking about life and filming himself. He also had to pay attention to the trail to avoid falling, which he did at one point in the run, which is captured in the film.

He first came up with the idea to

run the PCT when he was 12 years old, McConaughy explained. He used Mapquest to calculate the route on I-5, the closest highway to the trail, from the Mexican border to the Ca-nadian border.

McConaughy hoped to spend a few weeks outside, hiking and running, before getting a job after graduation. It was during the summer after his junior year at BC that he first decided to take on the PCT.

McConaughy began to fundraise for his run and for CancerCare, a group that provides professional services to help people manage the emotional and financial challenges that come with cancer treatment.

For his fundraising efforts, Mc-Conaughy turned to social media, he said. McConaughy also hosted an event at Baseball Tavern and sold “Marathon Monday” tanks to raise money for his run.

While this run was in support of his cousin Colin, McConaughy is considering doing other long-distance runs. On Saturday, he ran his first ultra-run—a run that is 50 kilometers or more—and is looking into running the Appalachian Trail in 2017.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL DILLON

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BON ME

Bon Me has a food truck and a brick-and-mortar location in Chestnut Hill. The restaurant offers classic Vietnamese dishes like warm rice bowls and cold soba noodle salads, topped with a variety of fresh, colorful, vibrant ingredients.

‘MACBETH’FASSBENDER DOES JUSTICE TO THE LITERATURE AS MACBETH,

A MCLAUGHLIN MINUTEHOW EMBRACING MEDIOCRITY CAN ENHANCE LIFE’S EXPERIENCES,

PAGE B4

REVIEW

REVIEW

‘In the Heart of the Sea’THE CREW OF THE ESSEX FIGHT TO SURVIVE IN FACE OF THE GREAT WHITE WHALE,

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COLUMN

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ABBY PAULSON / HEIGHTS GRAPHICS

THE

THURSDAY | DECEMBER 10, 2015

looking at which ‘star wars’ is strongest with the force

SEE b3

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, December 10, 2015B2

FULLER PICTURE

CHRIS FULLER

For my last column before the end of the semester, I thought I’d take an old trick out of my friend and mentor Ryan Dowd’s playbook. Things are going to get a bit more self-reflexive than they’ve ever been before.

I was just recently elected arts & review editor for The Heights for 2016, and I’ve spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks pondering what this job has in store for me and what I can bring to it. In this process, I thought a lot about what I had done as the associate editor this year, mainly focusing on what I did well, what I really need and want to improve upon, and what I want to change in the next year.

If you follow my writing at all, it’s pretty evident that I’ve got a strong affinity for film and, more specifically, fantasy. A gargantuan number of my columns this year were about either Star Wars or Game of Thrones and how I felt about them, which is, to a degree, com-pletely understandable. Game of Thrones is one of the most popular shows on television right now, and Star Wars is about to reenter the lives of millions of obsessive fans for the first time in ten years. In the world of Arts these two enti-ties hold a lot of clout in and dominance over a major portion of the conversation between moviegoers and television gurus.

I also think focusing on these things that I love so much has really helped me develop as a writer over the last year. Beyond high school essays, I hadn’t done much writing before I got to BC. I might’ve done well on assignments back in those days, but I don’t think they were ever graded very stringently. If I were still handing in the caliber of arguments I made back in high school to professors today, I’d be academically mutilated. I’m sure a lot of people can say the same thing, but I think the differ-ence between them and me is that I can point to my film and album reviews and my columns I wrote for The Heights and say, “That’s what made me a significantly better writer. That’s how I learned to best articulate my thoughts.” If I hadn’t found this outlet to talk about the things that mean the most to me, I would have never found the courage or skills necessary to tackle something larger than my interests or myself.

The game has changed, though. Now, I’m not the one being assigned the stories or being told who to talk to on campus. Now, I’m the guy in the arts & review section calling the shots. I’m not only responsible for my own work but also for what The Heights covers in the realm of arts. My job is no longer about Star Wars, it’s not about Game of Thrones, and it’s not about promoting that one Boston College artist I was assigned to talk to for the week. It’s about showing this campus the talent that it holds and how that talent, in its many facets, evolves in the next year.

That’s part of the reason there’s a Star Wars Scene feature this week. In one sense, I believe debating which is the best Star Wars film is a worthy and intriguing discussion to thoroughly have before The Force Awakens is released next week. In a more personal sense, I think I subconsciously needed a way to restrict myself from talking about Star Wars throughout the paper in the next year. I believe if I devote my first issue to it, there will never be a good excuse to discuss it again, and I will be left to focus on much more relevant and BC-oriented topics. This task will be a bit of a challenge for me, but I’m ready to take it on. I’m ready to show the community, and even artists themselves, what the Arts here at BC mean to this campus and what they contribute to our experience moving through this school.

It wasn’t until I was compiling a list of BC artists that I would want to cover or keep in close contact with over the next year that I realized not only how drastically my focus per-taining to the arts section would have to shift, but also how much I want it to shift. I noticed I no longer want to give my readers The Fuller Picture of the things I personally love most, but that I would love to show this campus The Fuller Picture of itself, the community of bril-liant artists it holds, and what the student body can do to foster and nourish one of the most important components of the BC experience.

But hell, I won’t kid myself. There’ll be a Game of Thrones column sometime after it comes back this spring. The difference is that now it won’t constitute the majority of my conversation. It won’t be my full picture.

THIS WEEKEND in artsBOSTON COLLEGE MUSICAL THEATRE SHOWCASE(FRIDAY 7 PM)Head over to Robsham’s Bonn Studio this weekend for a showcase of musical talent. From old-school hits to contemporary favorites, students will perform selections from the golden age of musical theatre.

‘STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS’(OPENS DEC. 18)The saga continues with this newest installment of everyone’s favorite sci-fi film franchise. Set 30 years after defeating the Galactic Empire, Episode VII follows Han Solo and the crew as they take on Kylo Ren in an all-new galactic battle.

‘IN THE HEART OF THE SEA’(OPENS FRIDAY)This biographical adventure thriller details the 1820 sinking of American whaling ship Essex, the event which served as the inspiration for the tale of Moby Dick. Chris Hemsworth stars in this suspenseful film.

‘SISTERS’(OPENS DEC. 18)Comediennes Tina Fey and Amy Poehler play middle-aged sisters in this highly-anticipated buddy comedy. When their parents put their childhood home up for sale, the sisters decide to throw a wild party for the ages.

KISS 108 JINGLE BALL(THURS. 7 PM)This week, Kiss 108 will bring some of the biggest names in music to Boston’s TD Garden for the annual Jingle Ball concert. Headliners include Demi Lovato, The Weeknd, and 5 Seconds of Summer, among others.

JIM GAFFIGAN(FRI. AT WILBUR THEATRE 7:15 PM)Funny guy Jim Gaffigan will take the stage this weekend at Boston’s Wilbur Theater. Known for his quick wit and sarcasm, the comedian brings his original stand-up to a Beantown audience.

COLE SWINDELL (THURSDAY AT HOUSE OF BLUES 7PM)(THURS. AT HOUSE OF BLUES 7 PM)American country music singer Cole Swindell brings a sweet Southern sound to the House of Blues this week. Be there to hear hit songs like “Let Me See Ya Girl” and “Chillin’ It,” off his self-titled debut album.

A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES (NOV. 11- DEC. 20)The Huntington Theatre Company presents the stage ad-aptation of John Kennedy Toole’s best-selling novel. Parks & Recreation star Nick Offerman stars as Ignatius J. Reilly in this colorful, comedic spectacle set in the 1960s.

BY: HANNAH MCLAUGHLIN | HEIGHTS STAFF

WALT DISNEY PICTURES

Before continuing Monday’s conversa-tion, the events that have occurred over the last three days must be addressed. Let’s start with yesterday, when the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced their nominations for this year. Forgoing nominations for Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon and Jen-nifer Lawrence, SAG threw Oscar predictors for a loop.

It’s important to note that the SAG Awards is the only major awards show of the season in which actors nominate other actors. Films themselves are not nominated, but rather ensembles and individual actors. The SAG Awards are also notorious for big surprises—nobody knows how Naomi Watts managed a nom for St. Vincent last year.

That being said, the race has definitely gotten more interesting. Along with the SAG nominations, the reviews for Joy came in on Monday. With Indiewire calling the film, “David O. Russell’s least memorable,” Joy no longer stands a chance at a Best Picture nom. The Academy has a soft spot for Jennifer Law-rence, however, so her performance stands as the film’s lone chance for a nomination.

As mentioned last week, the Academy has a long history of refusaling to nominate African-American actors and directors. The Academy’s diversity problem doesn’t pertain only to race. There is zero chance a woman will be nominated for directing this year, reflecting a fundamental problem in

Hollywood. According to a new study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, only 7 percent of the top 250 grossing movies from the past 17 years were directed by women. There’s not even a long-shot female candidate for Best Director this year, whereas last year saw maybe two (Angelina Jolie for Unbroken and Ava DuVernay for Selma, neither of which were actually nominated).

Perhaps more predictable than the lack of diversity among this year’s potential nominees, Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies is a contender in this year’s race. Spies features a male lead, almost no diversity in cast or crew, and is a movie we’ve seen from Spielberg time and time again. While his filmmaking is on point, the film lacks innovation and a fresh approach. It’s the only film this year so far that really, truly does not deserve its place on this list. (Last year, the same argument could have been made for The Theory of Everything or American Sniper.) But the Academy’s demo-graphic has critics believing Spies will surely be nominated. Last year, Oscar voters were found to be 94 percent white, and 76 percent men with an average age of 63. Of course they’ll vote for Spielberg’s film. His films—of-ten about a bunch of old, white guys—have been nominated at least 15 times before.

One film that could throw the whole race for a loop—and many are hoping it does—is J.J. Abrams’ yet to be screened Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The first Star Wars, released in 1977, went on to be nominated for an Os-car. Yet many believe Abrams’ version carries

the same fate. It’s the first to feature a female protagonist, with Daisy Ridley being talked about as the next Jennifer Lawrence. The film has already been announced as a contender on the Academy’s short list for visual effects, but its place in the major categories has yet to be seen.

Newcomers seem to be favored this year in the race for Best Actress. With Jennifer Lawrence and Cate Blanchett’s recent wins (Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook and Blanchett for Blue Jasmine), it’s unlikely they’ll be on stage in February, despite their almost-guaranteed chances of being nomi-nated for Joy and Carol, respectively. Saoirse Ronan might see a similar fate. Ronan was nominated back in 2007 for her role in Atone-ment, and while reviews for her portrayal in Brooklyn have been strong, she’s no Brie Larson. Larson shocked many with her role in Room, and it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which she doesn’t win.

The Best Actor race doesn’t seem so clear. Will his role in The Revenant finally give Leo an Oscar? He seems to be the most likely, but Michael Fassbender could take it for Steve Jobs. Its box office flop will likely render any award for Jobs illegitimate to voters. With Michael Keaton going for Supporting Actor, there aren’t any other considerable opponents facing Leo.

If the Academy voters had any sense, they’d choose Matt Damon for The Martian. He carries the film, with his performance ranging from funny to suspenseful to down-right heartbreaking. But the commercial

success of The Martian makes his perfor-mance seem less artistic than, say, getting partially eaten by a bear and having maggots eat your flesh, as apparently Leo does in The Revenant. And while Johnny Depp and Eddie Redmayne are certainly in for another round at the Oscars, the negative critical reaction to Black Mass and The Danish Girl essentially guarantees they won’t win.

Best Supporting Actress gets even trickier. It all depends on the category Rooney Mara lands in for Carol. Right now, The Weinstein Company is campaigning for her in supporting, but the Academy could deem it category fraud, and vote for her in Best Actress. The same thing happened to Kate Winslet when she won for The Reader in 2009. She campaigned for Best Supporting, but wound up winning for Best Actress. If Mara ends up in the latter, this Best Support-ing is most likely Jennifer Jason Leigh’s (The Hateful Eight).

MY PREDICTIONS:Best Picture: SpotlightBest Director: Ridley ScottBest Actor: Leonardo DiCaprioBest Actress: Brie LarsonBest Supporting Actor: Michael KeatonBest Supporting Actress: Rooney MaraBest Original Screenplay: SpotlightBest Adapted Screenplay: Brooklyn

One of the best parts of living in Bos-ton is, ironically enough, what comes out of it—or, in this case, what goes into it. The city is a Mecca of creativity: a per-son can walk 10 feet in any direction and find art that someone has created. At a Takeover Tuesday event, three bands played at the House of Blues Foundation Room on Dec. 8, 2015: Berklee College of Music’s Fern Souza and DWill, and Boston College’s Juice.

The doors of the Foundation Room opened at 8:30 p.m. The venue was surprisingly posh—thickly carpeted floors, luxurious seats, and a wide array of drinks. People mingled and talked, waiting for the performers to arrive. As both Fern Souza and DWill took the stage, the audience applauded, but anticipation was clearly building for Juice’s entrance. Fern Souza played an

excellent set of electronica songs, riling up the audience, and DWill’s intense, pulsating rap shook the room with its fiery ambience. Still, nothing could compare to the moment that Juice took center stage—the audience erupted in a slew of applause.

Every BC student should make a point to see a Juice concert at some point in their college career because it is a unique experience. It is not often that a group of such talent is a regular feature on college campuses.

At the start of the concent, the sound of stringed instruments filled the room and listeners lit up with joy. Bathed in the glow of multi-colored spotlights and backed by a mural of a neon-colored elephant, Juice began its performance. Christian Rougeau, Ben Stevens, and Kamau Burton’s vocals were as strong as ever, a fitting conclusion to this semes-ter’s set of concerts. Miles Clyatt’s drum work is as unrivaled as ever, driving

home every beat the band moves along to. It is sometimes said that drums are the heartbeat of music—if this is true, Clyatt brings life to Juice.

Daniel Moss, Michael Ricciarduli, and Rami El-Abidin stole the show with their guitar and bass work, and Chris Vu’s keyboard beautifully rounded out what was an altogether spectacular performance. The band played many of its biggest hits, and the audience, surrounding the band almost entirely, felt every note it struck. Listening to Juice play is something of a religious experience—each member has a way of connecting with listeners in a way that no other college band can recreate.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to find flaws in the band’s performance on Tuesday night. Perhaps the most standout track played was “How You Gonna Do Me Like That.” It is a master-ful blend of R&B, classical, and rap—a qualification that seems strange, but

comes very naturally. The overal sound is never overbearing or audibly strained,but consitently balanced. The result is aunique sound, that clearly distinguishes itself from the scene.

The level of creativity exhibited injust this song rivals that of many popular artists today. It isn’t surprising to see Juice garnering so much attention from the Boston area. Looking toward the future, Juice may very well have success outside the area and move onto bigger, more elaborate venues.

It is sad to see the semester, and thus Juice’s semester performances, come to a close. The past several months havebeen an impressive time for music at BC,and it is an exciting prospect that moreis still to come next semester, as bands continue to show what they can do.

If Juice continues on the path thatit’s currently on, it would be no shockat all to see it rise to very high levels ofmuch-deserved fame.

JAMES CLARKE / HEIGHTS STAFF

GRACE GODVIN

THE HEIGHTSThursday, December 10, 2015 B3

received hospi-tably. The con-niving sorcerer is brought before

Jabba. Awoken and upset, Jabba demands who is important enough to explain why he, the great Hutt, has been disturbed. Th e fi gure removes his hood. To our shock, we fi nd Luke Skywalker the passionate and often misguided hero of Star Wars.

For many, it’s diffi cult to see Return of the Jedi as the best fi lm of the original trilogy. Th e fi rst third of it is spent in a repugnant and dis-turbing grotto of the galaxy’s fi lth. It features the loveable, yet peculiar and bizarre, Ewoks, and it asks viewers to go along with the fact that the Empire builds a second Death Star. Despite these weaknesses, Jedi does what A New Hope and Th e Empire Strikes Back never could have done. It made Star Wars whole. Sure, Hope has the original assault on the Death Star. Empire’s got Luke and Vader’s fi rst confrontation, which is full of some of most compelling tension a battle could ever have. Jedi, on the other hand, has its own, better and more fulfi lled versions of both of these, and its own substantive and fascinating qualities.

Jedi is where we see the only character development in the whole trilogy. In both Hopeand Empire, Luke is described as a whiny, yet ambitious kid who has the Force and a bit of talent on his side. First he’s completely dis-satisfi ed staying at home on Tatooine, then he’s extremely impatient to become a Jedi. His desires change, but he doesn’t. These

are necessary plot points for Luke, but they are not examples of where Luke is the most intriguing in the series. Luke is most inter-esting in Jedi, after he has completed his training and is actually ready to confront his father, and it is in this fi lm where we see him as this wise, masterful Jedi.

The same can be said of Han Solo. In the fi rst two fi lms, we see this narcis-sistic rogue out to make a quick buck to pay off his debts. Sure, he unnecessarily drops in to save the day at the end of Hope, but at the beginning of Empire, we see him ready to run off on his own with Chewie once again. Th e only reason he doesn’t get the hell out of dodge is because the Falcon is broken. In Jedi, we see this devoted and compassion-ate Rebellion general, loyal to his cause and friends. While it’s fun and, again, necessary to see the snaky bandit Han that was, it is much more fascinating to see the admirable hero he transforms into.

Speaking of change, is that loud and muf-fl ed breathing I hear? When it comes to Darth Vader, Jedi allows for one of most compas-sionate and eff ective character developments in cinematic history. One of the most striking

moments in the film is when Luke allows himself to be captured. He tells Vader to come back to the light side of the Force, and Vader responds, “It is too late for me, son.” And that

is where we fi nally see the crack in his armor. Th at is where we fi nally

fi nd the man behind the mask.

When we finally get to Vader and Luke’s

duel, it’s no longer about the spectacle. It ’s about the emotions seeping through the scene. The battle between Vader and Luke is the shortest bat- tle in all of Star Wars, but it is entirely the most effective. It’s no longer an old man fi ghting his friend, which is almost impossible to believe. And Luke is not a kid dueling with an unconquerable force. We see a son defending his sister, a son reaching out for the man that he knows his father is, not the machine he appears to be.

Th at’s what gives Star Wars its power. It’s not its action, not its universe, but its storytell-ing and the fulfi llment of its story. Finality and resolution are always more rewarding than suspense, and while Hope and Empire make for great suspense, Jedi took it to the entirely proper conclusion it needed to be drawn to. Jedi was the master that Luke always sought to—and did—become.

DuEL oF THE ‘STAR WARs’

I can’t sing.I still choose to, but most people with

a normal and healthy hearing ability would probably suggest I don’t.

In the company of close friends, I might do that sneaky thing where you start off strong, feeling like a regular Whitney Houston, while belting out your best rendition of a lame love ballad’s cheesy refrain. When deafen-ing instrumentals subside to reveal your real voice, though, a genuine attempt at singing turns to exaggerated, tone-deaf shrieks (thus screaming, “I’m quirky and fun and was totally trying to sound reallybad the whole time!”).

But apart from that and some strategically muffl ed shower-singing, I’ve never been too comfortable with the idea of showcasing my nonexistent musical prowess publicly. I’ve had no formal training, and the performance aspect just seems so darn intimidating. “Plus, you’d totally suck at it,” says that old friend, Fear.

Anyway, this is where my mind wan-dered while sitting in a sardine-packed Trinity Chapel last weekend for the University Chorale’s Christmas con-cert. Well, there and to the big cookie I planned on purchasing from Stuart as soon as the last song wrapped up. Like some kind of Christmas miracle, a single seat opened and I was free to soak in all the seasonal merriment from the comfort of a foldable chair. My friends onstage sounded great (those little cher-ubs!) and the accompanying orchestra’s passionate playing was mesmerizing to watch. Most of my friends are long-time choir members or they’ve had an instru-ment in hand since birth. I am not and have not, so I gladly leave music-making to the semi-professionals.

I was sandwiched in between a tall, balding man who clearly didn’t want to be there and an older woman who’d much rather be standing with the singers, front and center in a long, itchy frock of her own. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll call her Marge. Nod-ding enthusiastically after each song was announced as if she knew every tune backwards, forwards, and inside out, Marge seemed to be reliving some previous, precious choir experience of her own. Marge’s emphatic “oohs” and “ahhs” during instrumentals, as well as her off -key crooning, were annoying background vocals that my fellow audi-ence members tried desperately to tune out. Meanwhile, I was loving it.

Buckle up, because this is where things take a sharp turn for the abstract. I considered the general concept of mu-sical talent, how artistic interest isn’t tiedexclusively to skill, and why it’s often refreshing (liberating even) to see, hear, or experience someone’s bad art. What I’m getting at here is that sometimes, a person can (and should) show passion for a hobby even if they’re not particu-larly good at it themselves. Unabashed-ly—and luckily for us—they sometimes allow us to watch.

I thought a bit about my brother. For high school seniors like him, the end of December marks a semester-long battle with round one of college applications in the books. Already, colleges have seen Common Apps teeming with weird brags about how many student councils that kid Chris was on, or how good Grace was at every sport she tried. Spending time catering to their natural talent and excelling in things they were told will “look good” to colleges, stu-dents were left with no time to try things they could’ve enjoyed more, but might not have been the absolute best at.

I can’t tell you the number of col-lege kids I’ve talked to who say that after joining this singing group or that intramural team just for fun (despite often being pretty bad at said activity), they’re enjoying themselves more thanthey ever have before. They finally feellike they belong somewhere, thanks to that gutsy leap of faith just outside of a comfort zone. And I (like most BC students, I bet) can relate. I think this is all kind of sad.

If you’re still with me, your reward is me getting straight to the point. Marge’s discordant confidence reveals the beauty of artistic expression in all its many forms and levels of expertise. Music isn’t reserved for the Mozarts or Mileys of the day. Picasso never owned a patent for the sole right to paint pictures. Art gives anyone, regardless of their talent, the freedom to dabble in whatever they wish, how-ever they want.

I guess all I’m really trying to say is this: for all you Marges about to rock, I salute you.

A MCLAUGHLIN MINUTE

HANNAH MCLAUGHLIN

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope—or as you might more appropriately call it, Star Wars—takes every clumsy clone of the original fi lm and drops it into the trash compactor. If we ignore Empire Strikes Back for a minute—which was not directed by George Lucas, but we’ll get back to that—there’s little more to the franchise that followed the 1977 space opera beyond the thinly veiled, commercialized rehashing of A New Hope’s main plot. We loved it, but let’s be real: no part of its follow-ups actually functioned well as standalone content.

Lucas recently confessed in an interview with Vanity Fair that even he didn’t enjoy his extended run with the series.

“You go to make a movie, and all you do is get criticized, and people try and make decisions about what you’re going to do before you do it,” Lucas said of the franchise. “It’s not much fun, and you can’t experiment. You can’t do anything. You have to do it a certain way. I don’t like that, and I never did.”

What many Star Wars fans forget is that, before his extended foray with that galaxy far away, and more specifi cally his time with the Star Wars prequels, Lucas was consid-ered a really good director. Watch American Graffi ti, and you’ll see in his work much of what we initially loved about A New Hope: inventive stage settings, memorable, albeit clunky, dialogue and well-developed characters.

I will argue that the crip-pling blow to Lucas’ career was that the original Star Wars was too good of a movie.

It opens with a Star Destroyer, hunting down a rebel spacecraft, which escalates into a quick, yet epic battle. Th e exposition is a lesson on the Force and a captive princess. Enter a series of other memorable charac-ters—a dashing rogue and his furry friend. Eventu-ally, plot lines weave till we work our way up to a series of intersecting battles between the evil Empire and the hopeful rebels. Boom. Something explodes, applicable par-ties celebrate, and then it’s over.

This is Star Wars. It’s about the under-dogs working to take down an evil far bigger than themselves. And there’s always that mo-

ment of infl ection—that moment we get a glimpse of the good in the evil and the evil in the good. In A New Hope, this is when Obi-Wan reveals Darth Vader was once his pupil, much like Luke. In Empire Strikes Back, this is when Darth Vader reveals he is Luke’s father. In Return of the Jedi, this is when Luke reveals that he can see the good in Vader.

Th e expectations were fi rmly set by the original, and much of the technical issues with the other fi lms surface in the bizarre subplots that service these motifs—whether it’s the Ewoks emerging as unlikely allies in taking down the Galactic Empire, or the Gungans emerging as the unlikely allies in taking down the menacing Trade Federa-tion, or an army of clones emerging as the unlikely allies in taking down the Trade Fed-eration again, this time with Count Dooku. We see it over and over again, but never to the eff ect of its original poignancy.

You can see how adhering to the for-mula became frustrating for Lucas—to have immense fan and studio pressure locking in his decisions. Much of the franchise reads like fan fi ction, with countless sad attempts made at recreating the ingenuity of the original plot.

The notable exception, of course, is Empire Strikes Back, if only for the fact that it never tried to compete with the original in scale. Still, if we were to can-onize one film, why stick with the install-

ment that is only considered superior on the grounds that it never

sunk into the sad trend of the rest? The multibillion-dollar

franchise was not built out of Irvin Kershner’s Empire,

a darker, character-driven reimagining of Lucas’ original work, but out of the fresh universe

that A New Hope so brilliantly illuminated for fans. It was built

out of Darth Va-der, arguably the evilest villain in all of film. And yes,

it was built out of the Force, the strange

magic that animates all living things in the Star Wars universe and imbues

the galaxy with purpose.The successes of A New

Hope squelched all hope that Lucas could produce some-

thing of new importance after it. We fell in love with Star Wars, but not just the overall themes behind it. We love the nuts and bolts, and, wretched fans

that we are, we will fault and sabotage anything

screwed in a little dif-ferently.

New Hope is the only Star Wars.

I’ve been tasked with defending—and let’s be honest, crowning—The Empire StrikesBack, which is kind of like defending the labra-dor over all other dogs. It just is the best. Th ese are facts. But still, never tell me the odds.

I’ll do my best, though, to convince you—whether you’re a Jedi knight or a bounty scoundrel, a card holding member of the Ga-lactic Empire or rogue member of the Rebel Alliance—that Th e Empire Strikes Back is the greatest work in the Star Wars cinematic canon, so far. It is the only one that remotely stands alone, not only in its pure artistry but with its story arc as well.

I’ll admit, that Empire without A New Hope, Return of the Jedi, and the rest of the universe would be a pretty weird movie, but you don’t really need the rest to actually enjoy what Empire is about. Empire is about a boy realizing he has to and can be a dude— a hero. It’s about two friends who have a thing for each other, Han and Leia, trying over and over again to say goodbye. (Also, Hoth is a magical dream land of ton tons. Puppet Yoda is my spirit creature. Darth Vader runs through admirals like Addazio does quarterbacks. And Lando’s head of security’s (Lobot) head is literally a security system.)

Episode V picks up three years after Luke’s heroics, when he fl ew his X-Wing around the Death Star just like it was Beggar’s Canyon. Led by the now Commander Skywalker, the Rebel Alliance— along with Han, Leia, and the rest of the gang (and my boy Wedge), have retreated to the Hoth system to run inter-ference, or what-ever it is the Rebel Alliance does. Luke looks a bit older, but he’s still the same kid from Tatooine. L ike in A New Hope, the locals—this time an abominable snowman—are still giving him some trou-ble. He’s still honing those force powers.

Meanwhile , in their first scene to-gether in Empire, Han Solo—who happens to be a nice man—is leaving, off to repay lumpy Jabba the Hut. Leia steals a glance his way.

“General, I gotta leave,” Han turns to Leia.

“Well, your highness, I guess this is it … Don’t get all mushy on me. So long Princess!”

It’s not the last time they’ll say goodbye in this movie. Th e entire relationship in this movie is just them trying to fi gure how to say goodbye to each other, but also what they mean to each other. And that’s why Star Warshas endured—not because of the lightsabers, but because despite all “laserbrain” and “nerf-herder” jargon. Empire is about relationships we have in our time. Th e feels are real.

It’s no coincidence that Empire is the fi lm that George Lucas has had the least to do with. It’s Lucas’ old teacher at USC, Irvin Kershner who picks up for Lucas after the massive success of A New Hope, as Lucas went off to build Lucasfi lms. And Kershner’s touch helps. Hamill, Ford, and Fisher are never bet-ter. Empire doesn’t advance the galactic plot at all. It’s entirely character-driven. It’s not about getting the galactic plot from point B to C. Luke is off doing hero-stuff , like getting captured by a monster in a cave, facing his demons in another cave, and getting trained by a mystical master in Endor. Ya know, hero stuff . He spends the heart of the movie study-ing the force with a little green guy with a crazy laugh. Han, Leia, Chewy (or Chewby), and C3P are just trying to get the Millennium Falcon’s hyper-drive to work.

Empire is a bridge, charting the emotional arc from the fi rst entry to the third. It ends with the iconic shot of Luke, Leia, C3P0, and R2 looking out into the galaxy. And they’re no closer to defeating Th e Evil Empire, but everything’s changed. And, I think, it’s a moment to take account of how far we’ve

come and how far we still get to go. Han and Leia finally know what they

mean to each other. Luke has faced his demons, which turn out to

be his father, and comes out on the other side, partially all-together. Yes, Empire is a bridge, but a wonderful bridge. When Leia tells Han she loves him, and he says, “I know,” it’s cathartic because that’s what he’s been saying this whole time, elbowing her in the arm and sneering “I know you love me.”

Empire Strikes Back is the first and only time to really get to know the characters that inhabit the Star Wars universe. Be-cause I love the lan-guages and scope of the universe, what makes Star Wars such an en-during fictional playground are the real, flesh and blood—or puppet—char-a c t e r s t h a t live there.

A gigantic, creaking door slowly grinds open. Th is isn’t the fi rst time we’ve seen this, but now we’re seeing it from the inside looking out, not the other way around. A hooded fi gure dressed in black saunters in, starkly contrasted with the radiant light streaming in from a blis-tering Tatooine afternoon. Th e fi gure appears calm, col- lected, and, to a degree,

menac-ing.

Th en again, he is

en- tering Jabba’s Palace, a per- fect den for the galaxy’s most unpleasant and heinous inhabit-ants. A Gamorrean guard stops the fi gure, but is quickly force-choked into complacency. Found by Jabba’s assistant, Bib Fortuna, the man is told he is not welcome, but with a wave of his hand and a few muttered words, he is

A Sith would claim, “Th ere could only be two.” But in this battle, there can only be one real ‘Star Wars.’

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, December 10, 2015B4

There is no faster way to whip a fan base into an unbridled frenzy than botching a film adap-tion of a deeply-loved book or play. Look no further than The Da Vinci Code (2006), The Great Gatsby (2013), or even the en-tire Hobbit franchise, and you’ll find the book-loving naysayers brandishing their original source material like a sword to cut down those who dare call any book-based-film “good enough.”

Today, however, it appears that the naysayers will not have their victory. Justin Kurzel’s adaption of William Shake-speare’s Macbeth (starring Mi-chael Fassbender as Macbeth and Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth) is remarkably true to its roots. For better or worse, almost no details or dialogue are changed from the original play, creating a very accurate, if somewhat inaccessible, rep-resentation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece.

Beyond its adherence to the text, Macbeth succeeds on many fronts. Cinematographer Adam Arkapaw is most noteworthy. Across the board, the visuals of the movie rival the very best that the industry has to offer.

TOP SINGLES

1 HelloAdele

2 Sorry Justin Bieber 3 Hotline Bling

Drake 4 What Do You Mean?

Justin Bieber 5 The Hills

The Weeknd 6 Stitches

Shawn Mendes 7 Love Yourself

Justin Bieber 8 Here

Alessia Cara

TOP ALBUMS

1 25Adele

2 PurposeJustin Bieber

3 That’s Christmas To MePentatonix

4 Made In The A.M.One Direction

5 1989Taylor Swift

Source: Billboard.com

CHART TOPPERS

Complete with seedy strip clubs, loaded handguns, and vio-lent run-ins with an international street gang, Th e Weeknd’s newest video is a nightmarish fusion of horror and romance. Th e video’s nostalgic mimicry of Michael Jackson’s “Th riller” is as captivat-ing as it is imaginative.

“In The Night” is a nod to 1980s-era cinematography where harsh neon lights and fade tran-sitions abound. However, the video’s grainy footage and shaky camerawork capture the trippy vibe it set out to emulate.

Supermodel Bella Hadid plays a scantily clad femme fatale who weaponizes her mastery of seduc-tion to defeat the bad guys. Th e heroine, though clearly sexualized for the majority of the long video, is not just a pretty face. Sure, most of her screen time consists solely of close-up camera shots her body. But a later scene in which she shanks a villain without break-ing a sweat reveals that she sure knows how to use a knife.

Th e video’s fast pace matches the song’s tempo perfectly, and the drama-laden scenes mixed with The Weeknd’s signature vocals leave viewers feeling as though they’ve been transported into the suspenseful action scenes by the end of the seven-minute spectacle.

Like virtually everything from the ‘80s, the video seems in-credibly overdone. Th e murder scenes contain far too much fake blood for anyone’s liking, and the random rose petals pictured throughout the video are way too cheesy to overlook. In spite of these elements, Th e Weeknd delivers a refreshing take on the modern music video.

By going back a few decades to a time when erotica was all the rage and fi lms of the day assaulted viewers with action, dizzying footage, and overly dramatic ac-tion plots, The Weeknd treats fans to a hefty dose of nostalgia with his new video for “In Th e Night.”

“IN THE NIGHT”THE WEEKND

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musical ambience can be more effective—some scenes contain no music at all, creating an air of tension and anticipation. At other points, the score is mag-nificent, leading Justin Kurzel’s storytelling by the hand and echoing the regal and epic nature of Shakespeare’s story.

Of course, as Macbeth teach-es us, ambition can be a downfall as much as it can be a motivator. Justin Kurzel’s decision to use Shakespeare’s original language was a bold one, but perhaps a dangerous one, too. Though it

is executed well, the dialogue of Macbeth can become clunky and hard to follow, just by virtue of the fact that 17th-century writ-ten English is rarely spoken or heard by the audience. This has the effect of strengthening the established setting, despite mak-ing it difficult to comprehend for those not well versed in archaic English. Had they chosen not to use this language, the film may well have come together in a much more coherent way.

Along with this issue comes the fact that the first half of

Macbeth is extremely exposi-tion-heavy, which causes early pieces of the movie to drag out excessively. For everyone except the most well-versed in Shake-speare’s work, Macbeth can be somewhat inaccessible because of these problems.

Despite its shortcomings, though, Justin Kurzel’s Macbethsucceeds. It is a fantastic example of how classic stories hold merit beyond their social context, and should undoubtedly be viewed by anyone who considers them-selves a film aficionado.

Though a visual spectacle that highlights the barren beauty of the South Pacifi c, the trials of the whaling ship Essex, in In the Heart of the Sea are as substantively full of air as her sails. Based on the true, riveting strug-gle of the Essex, In the Heart of the Sea fails to capture the tale in any sort of epic proportion. Grand concepts are not met with grand execution. Th e minimal characterization leaves hol-low feelings toward the Essex’s crew

and their plight, drastically stifl ing the gravity of their two-and-a-half-year journey. Its cinematography is admi-rable at points, with clear care taken in certain frames as well as a markedly inoff ensive use of CG. Despite some shortcomings, In the Heart of the Sea remains enjoyable in its simplicity.

Heart of the Sea is framed by Tom Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson) recounting his time aboard the Essexto Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw.) After some prodding from Melville, Nickerson re-envisions the past and begins his account. Setting sail from

Nantucket, Mass., the Essex is led by Capt. George Pollock, Jr. (Benjamin Walker) and First Mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth). The arduous and brutal business of whaling takes its physical and mental toll when an ancient whale incites the ensuing struggle for survival and sanity.

Cinematographically, the intent behind many of the fi lm’s shots is im-pressive. Mirror images and symbolic pairings serve as interesting juxtaposi-tions of thematic ideas pertaining to survival and morality, bringing visual weight of their narrative moments.

Additionally, the use of CG is sometimes integrated into scenes in unobtrusive fashions. Off in the back-ground, the cityline of 1820s Boston is clearly visible, but is neither the focal point nor a distraction from the scene playing out in the foreground. Th is kind of CG use is a fl uid and con-structive addition to the practical sets. Th e great white whale and the other marine mammals are presented elo-quently enough, while it is clearthat they are computer generated. Th eir presence on screen is brief enough to create a striking and believable image of their immense size and strength. On the ocean, the break of waves over the bow and the spray of water over the haggard crewmates is one of the most visually striking aspects, putting the horror of the situation in stark contrast with the terrifying magnifi cence of mother nature.

The most vapid part of In the Heart of the Sea lies in its character-ization and narrative progression. Interpersonally, the relationships between characters, like the tensions between captain and fi rst mate, are established in a single scene and play out in predictable fashion. Th e sum-mation of these relationships leaves something more meaningful to be desired. Time on the boat seems to go fast and evolves unimaginatively. Th e crew’s relationship, therefore, appears extremely underdeveloped as the

almost three-year journey is summed up in two or three critical scenes.

One of the more unfortunate aspects of the fi lm comes in its han-dling of the framing story. Ultimately, it could be left out or more easily summed up in a title card or two. Th e intention behind the scenes is clearly to provide a moral struggle and anguish, but the interludes where the fi lm shifts back to the framing story are clunky and obtrude upon the more engaging story. Th e perfor-mances by Gleeson, Whishaw, and Michelle Fairley as Mrs. Nickerson are laudable, but the heart of the fi lm lies out under the beating sun of the Pacifi c. In their place, more apt character development could have strengthened emotional ties to characters throughout the rest of the fi lm.

In the Heart of the Sea is an enjoyable adventure, thanks to its visual spectacle. Th e overall eff ect of the fi lm is disappointing, especially when considering the grandeur of the tale was such that it inspired a Great American Novel. Suffering from a cluttered narrative, viewers hoping for something more meaningful may find themselves feeling like Tom Holland, a new greenhand, tasked to scoop precious whale oil out of a dead whale’s head. Enveloped by its massive skull, he fi nds the inside rather hollow. WARNER BROS. PICTURES

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FILM

FILM

SINGLE REVIEWS BY DAN FITZGERALD

A single from Coldplay’s newest album, A Head Full of Dreams, the somber and contemplative “Everglow” feels like a hybrid of the airy, sentimental Coldplay of old. Though this track features a piano riff so remarkably ordinary it could have been heard on an elevator, Chris Martin’s vocals redeem the song.

COLDPLAY“Everglow”

Foxes appears to be capitalizing on the powerful, vocal-centric love song trend that continues to saturated the pop music market. This track offers nothing truly unique, but rather relies heavily on its catchy chorus and well-placed, soaring violins to make a statement about something commonplace.

FOXES“If You Leave Me Now”

It is diffi cult to describe the mood of Francis’ single “Wake Up!” as dramatic, yet soft rock rings underneath Francis’ inspirational words. As Francis’ speech ends, the song transitions into an up-tempo rock anthem sung in Italian. This track is intriguing simply because it exists—it’s certainly worth checking out.

POPE FRANCIS “Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward!”

MUSIC VIDEOHANNAH MCLAUGHLIN

For a 52-year-old, John Stamos still has a great head of hair.

He also has a son he never knew about, a granddaughter named Edie, and a whole bunch of family-related responsibilities—that is, if he decides to make room for them. While Sta-mos himself is not entangled in this complex aff air, his haughty character Jimmy Martino in the new Fox sit-

and childlike naivete parallel his Drake & Josh character perfectly. His endearing nice-guy vibe follows that age-old, can’t-get-the-girl plotline which makes him a pitied fan favorite. His evident desire to date Vanessa (Christina Milian), the mother of his child, is an underlying plot point that viewers can’t wait to watch unfold in the coming season. Appearing unannounced with a stroller and a mission at the swanky restaurant Jimmy owns, Gerald sets out to fi nd

the biological father he never knew and the grandfather he hopes Edie will grow to love.

In sharp contrast to Gerald, Jimmy is a narcissistic millionaire whose life before Gerald consisted entirely of the benefi ts of bachelorhood: money, women, and zero responsibilities. De-spite wishing sometimes that he had a family of his own, Jimmy is content living in the cushy world he’s created for himself—a Peter Pan-esque realm of “no strings attached” situations and zero responsibilities. Of course, Gerald’s announcement that Jimmy is his father shakes the once-sturdy foundation of Jimmy’s comfortable life, and the middle-aged man must wrestle with the stark truth that he really is, well, middle-aged.

Supporting characters like Van-essa, Jimmy’s old fl ame Sara (Paget Brewster), and Jimmy’s trusty assis-tant Annelise (Kelly Jenrette) would do well to deliver their lines less like a drama-laden Greek tragedy and more like a normal conversation. Despite this, the overall casting is a particularly praiseworthy element of the series. Stamos and Peck have a great dynamic going, as the tem-porary awkwardness needed for the fi rst few episodes has shifted naturally 20TH CENTURY FOX

GRANDFATHEREDSEASON 1

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OUR RATING

TELEVISION

to a more comfortable and familiar feeling between the two. Comparing Grandfathered to I Love Lucy, Jimmy is the perfect Fred to Gerald’s Ethel. Jimmy is constantly a sarcastic skeptic of his son’s seemingly unwavering optimism.

A blatant downside of the series is the plot predictability. Tired jokes and stock situations abound. Sappy sentiments predominate season one of Grandfathered. Despite the disap-pointing lapses in the three programs’ content, the new series keeps things fresh with comical personality clashes and absurd happenings.

In Grandfathered, director Dan-iel Chun chooses the most basic audience bait and builds a successful sitcom around it—everybody knows that few things are better for attract-ing viewership than babbling babies and beautiful leads. To kick it up a few notches, though, Fox has thrown together talented actors who clown around with cute babies—all while giving a nostalgic nod to older popu-lar shows. With the show’s star power and adorable premise luring viewers away from other popular shows, Tuesday primetime has been easy for Grandfathered to snatch—just like taking candy from a baby.

Usage of grand set pieces and wide-angle shots injects life into Kurzel’s film, and intercutting crystal-clear slow motion into the battle scenes sets Macbethapart from the mindless vio-lence often found in Hollywood blockbusters.

On occasion, the camera pans away from the bloodshed, but at other points delivers a close shot of a knockout blow or grimy death and destruction. Seeing Macbeth relentlessly stab King Duncan or watching arrows enter a helpless Banquo’s chest adds extreme emotional weight to Macbeth. The film finds the perfect middle-ground between subtle and gratuitous violence, which is one of its best selling points overall.

Cast-wise, Macbeth could not be more impressive. Big names like Marion Cotillard and Sean Harris perform admirably. Mi-chael Fassbender, as Macbeth himself, gives the standout per-formance of the film. He plays his role with commitment and emotion, and the experience would fall much shorter without him. Paddy Considine, with his excellent portrayal of Macbeth’s friend Banquo, is an honorable mention as well.

Macbeth’s score, composed by Jed Kurzel, proves that less

com Grandfathered must decide if he’s ready to trade his Corvette for a carseat and a bachelor pad for a playpen.

In his latest television venture, Stamos joins former Nickelodeon star Josh Peck in a charming, fam-ily-friendly series that lands the two actors in roles eerily similar to those their fans have come to know and love them for.

Peck plays Gerald, a straightlaced 20-something whose pathetic puns

THE HEIGHTSThursday, January 17, 2014 B5

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Directions: The Sudoku is played over a 9x9 grid. In each row there are 9 slots, some of which are empty and need to be fi lled.Each row, column and 3x3 box should contain the numbers 1 to 9. You must follow these rules:· Number can appear only once in each row · Number can appear only once in each column · Number can appear only once in each 3x3 box· The number should appear only once on row, column or area.

THE HEIGHTS Thursday, December 10, 2015B6

First of all, what’s the biggest reason why the other players on BC men’s basketball would be upset? A little pride? Dignity? “Aww, wah, I’m so upset that my teammates all got Chipotle!”

Cry me a river, y’all. If you’re the lucky five out there, which I’m going to guess is Steve Perpiglia and four others—love you Steve, love to pick on you—you’ve got better things to do anyway.

You’re all Division-I athletes playing, and some of you starting, for an ACC men’s basketball school that’s ripe with, uh, tradition?—no, that’s not the right word. Well, the school has played a long time, okay. You get to travel to Krzyzewskiville, the Dean Dome, and the KFC Yum! Center. You wear white and black backpacks that we all secretly envy. There’s no reason for you guys to have any low self-esteem. I know, it sucks to be left out. But take a word from Steve Addazio and BE A DUDE. You’ve got so much going for you.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t be a little bit vindictive. After all, your boys just hung out without you while you probably stayed in and Netflix-and-Chilled-By-Yourself. It’s time for you to have the last laugh. You’ve still got the sanctity of your bowels. You don’t need to spend hours on the toilet. And now that all those fools are sick, you get the ~*~privilege~*~ of starting against Providence College this Wednesday at 7 p.m.

No one on BC will get in your way when the Friars’ Kris Dunn barrels into you for the and-one dunk be-cause they literally cannot get out of bed. This will be especially clutch for walk-ons Jordan Barros and Aser Ghebremichael, neither of whom looks to get much court time once conference play begins. Plus, they’re also very sick. T’s & P’s, fam. But at the same time, give them the old side-eye emoji while you’re at it.

And finally, let me state for the record that I am thoroughly glad this happened.

Not the fact that anyone has food poisoning, mind you, but the fact that the world will finally join me in my #WarAgainstChipotle. I’ve never been a fan. It’s too expensive. Chips aren’t free. I never thought the quality was great, and turns out I’ve been right this whole time. There aren’t enough toppings. No banana peppers? What about queso? Not even Chipotle mayo?! The

So guacamole isn’t the only thing you can get for extra at Chipotle.

Over the weekend, hungry customers got a bit more than they paid for at Chipotle Mexican Grill in Cleveland Circle. Dozens of Boston College stu-dents—including 10 men’s basketball players, according to reports—are suffering from food poisoning caused either by the bacteria E. coli or a norovirus spread by an employee.

So 10 basketball players are temporarily sidelined with food poisoning, but there are 15 players listed on the roster. Those other five must have gotten away by the skin of their teeth…or did they?

This begs a question—would you rather plague yourself with a terribly painful bacterial infection, or find out on the evening news that you weren’t invited on the team trip to lunch?

If I were on BC men’s basketball, I’d be pretty pissed if I got E. coli in the middle of a five-game losing streak at the beginning of the season. But I’ll tell you what—I’d be even more pissed if I didn’t get E. coli but all of my so-called friends did because they were hanging out for lunch without me. Sure, that might not say the most about my social confidence, but regardless, if the guys are going out for tacos, I want to be a part of it—bacte-rial infections be damned!

The symptoms of food poisoning just sound ter-rible—abdominal cramping, diarrhea, fatigue, and vomiting are common, just to name a few. I wouldn’t wish those malaises on my worst enemy, let alone a friend. But what’s really more painful: some tem-porary technical difficulties in the gastrointestinal department, or the existential crisis brought about by the realization that your “brothers” are enjoying fast, casual dining at Greater Boston’s preeminent burrito joint without you?

BC men’s basketball is in the process of rebuilding. For that to happen, all 15 players need to be on board with the process and in tune with each other. If they’re not rolling squad-deep to Chipotle every day, how can anyone be confident in the team’s ability to function as one coherent unit?

If you can’t recite my Chipotle order by memory—steak bowl, little bit of brown rice, black beans, mild

POINT

COUNTERPOINT

WOULD YOU RATHER GET SICK OR GET LEFT OUT?

salsa, corn, lettuce, guac (I know it’s extra)—how can I count on you to set a strong ball screen at the top of the key with the game on the line? The last thing BC needs is for this team to get clique-y, and this seems like it could only be the tip of the iceberg.

Sometimes it takes tragedy to bring a group of people together. Other times it takes the fact that 10 people spend an extended stretch of days living inside the Conte Forum bathrooms because they can’t control their bodily functions. This particular situation is the latter, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Plus, what builds team chemistry like a bacte-rial infection?

A team-wide food poisoning plague could just be another sick plan from head-coach-but-maybe-also-evil-mastermind Jim Christian. Just imagine him sneak-ing into Chipotle at midnight and tainting the food with petri dish samples from Higgins Hall, whispering maniacally as he works, “If you can dodge a potentially fatal illness, you can dodge a ball.”

So screw E. coli/norovirus/Death Star. You spend a week within a 50-foot radius of a restroom, and then you get over it—no big deal (probably). You buy an extra bottle of mouthwash, you grab another pack of toilet paper from the store—no less than four-ply, of course—and you bear that burden like any good Division I student-athlete would. At the very least, you and your boys can bond over the fact that your delicious double steak burritos were all contaminated with bacteria. Just please, invite me the next time you guys go out for lunch.

And if you think that basketball players don’t care about that kind of stuff, look no further than the NBA’s Kendrick Perkins. Back when Perk was with the Okla-homa City Thunder in 2014, a few of his teammates hung out on the town on an off day. Hasheem Thabeet posted about it on Instagram, and Perk took no-tice, crafting a terribly sad comment lamenting the fact that he had been left out. It happened again just four months later, and while Perk was able to laugh at himself the second time, it doesn’t make it any less sad.

Perk was a fully-grown professional athlete making millions of dollars, and he still got fed up when his friends did stuff without him. Imagine what that kind of emotional blow could do to a college student.

place is freakin’ called Chipotle!So no, if I’m the other five players that were left

out of BC men’s basketball’s Saturday night plans, Idefinitely don’t believe I missed out. In fact, I laughin their faces.

They could have dined at a much classier Mexicanjoint—one that doesn’t have you soiling your basket-ball shorts as you simply try to scarf down the burritoyou get with the poor investment you call your cost-of-attendance check. Let’s go down the line with thefirst four that come to mind:

Moe’s Southwest Grill: An instant classic and mypersonal favorite. Moe’s has everything you want in aMexican chain. It’s at your convenience, some placesdeliver (like the one in my hometown), and boy, doesit have options. Getting a creamy dollop of meltedqueso on top of your delicious, sultry mix of carnitas,guacamole, and probably more cheese is the perfectthing for any 14- to 22-year-old to eat, especially if youwere like me in high school, coming home on the trainand scrambling for first dinner in Penn Station beforegetting second dinner from Mom at home.

Boloco: To be honest, I’ve never had Boloco. So IGoogled, “Is Boloco good?” Now, I would like Boloco.Dartmouth’s Spoon University blog has an excellentchart that shows exactly why this Mexican chain is thebest, because it’s all about the burrito, not the contentsinside. I’d love to get me a smattering of that buffalochicken burrito, maybe Teriyaki, or even Mediter-ranean. I don’t like to be confined to a menu or thesocial conformity of what is or isn’t a burrito. Neithershould you, BC men’s basketball rejects.

El Pelon: Call me a proponent of small-marketAmerica, but I just love the mom-and-pop atmo-sphere of El Pelon. It’s a two-restaurant operationthat arguably has the best Mexican food in all ofBoston. The crema tops any sour cream you can findfrom Brooklyn to Brookline. Their meats are freshand scrumptious. Prices remain reasonable to playto the BC crowd. Plus, it’s the closest option possible,AND they’ll deliver. There’s really nothing that canbeat El Pelon.

Taco Bell: Hey, if you’re in a rush, why not? Don’thate on them for the fact that they made Doritos intoa taco shell or a brownish paste for beans. At least theydon’t get caught with FREAKIN’ E. COLI. (At least inthe last 10 years.)

for a female friend? I think it is mind-boggling that

anyone would make the assump-tion that men automatically know more about sports than women. Do they think there’s a biological difference? Do they think men are just born with the capacity to retain more sports information? I have no explanation. Maybe one day science will tell us why some people cling to alarmingly sexist opinions. I can only hope.

I don’t mean to sound defensive. I don’t mean to imply that all men are sexist and that all men believe that women naturally know less about sports. In fact, I have not met anyone with this viewpoint since arriving at Boston College. My time on The Heights has been wonderful so far. But it is undeniable that there is still rampant sexism facing wom-en in sports today. In my experi-ence, though, for every person who tells me I don’t know what I’m talk-ing about, there is another person firmly in my corner, reassuring me that I don’t have to explain myself to these idiots. My gender doesn’t define my capacity to understand sports. If other people don’t get it, it’s their own problem.

My high school newspaper

staff advisor was one such person. I never openly discussed it with him. I can’t recall ever telling him about remarks people made to me. But when I approached him for the very first time as a freshman and asked about how I could get involved with the newspaper—how I could get involved with the sports section—he didn’t bat an eye. When I was a sophomore, he promoted me to co-sports editor. He never treated me any differently from anyone else on the sports staff. I wasn’t just a girl who loved sports. I was a person who loved sports and was qualified to write about them. My gender didn’t play into it at all, and neither did anyone else’s. If they weren’t qualified to write about sports or if they didn’t take it seriously, they wouldn’t write about sports. Plain and simple. This support meant the world to me and boosted my confidence beyond measure.

My parents also never acted like my love for sports was abnormal. Both of my brothers and I were exposed to a wide variety of sports at a very young age. Instead of watching movies like Pocahontas, 101 Dalmatians, and The Lion King, we used to watch Washington Redskins NFL Yearbooks from 1982, 1987, and 1991 on VHS. We all played about a dozen different

sports growing up. I can discuss sports like football and baseball with my dad. I can talk about sports like tennis and golf with my mom. I owe so much to my parents, who have never trivialized women in sports and who have always sup-ported me.

There is no doubt that the sports world has opened up for women in recent years. There is no doubt that a vast majority of people treat male and female sports broadcasters and journalists just the same. There is no doubt that people like Bell are in the minority. But even a minority is too much when it comes to sexism in sports. Hope-fully someday women in the sports reporting industry can do their jobs without being questioned about their appearance and knowledge. As long as people like Bell are given a platform to discuss their prejudic-es, that day is a long way off. Until people like Bell can acknowledge that women understand sports just as much as men, and until they can acknowledge that women are just as capable of discussing sports as men, there is still work to do.

Women in Sports, from B8

BC point guard Martina Mosetti goes down to grab a loose ball in Wednesday’s game against Hartford.SAVANNA KIEFER / HEIGHTS EDITOR

THE HEIGHTSThursday, December 10, 2015 B7

Newton, MA 11/09

Boston, Ma 11/111-

scoreboardSyracuse, NY 12/5

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KAPP 9 SVSPOLK 1 G

M. Hockey Chestnut hill, ma 12/5 w. HOCKEy Orono, me 12/6 w. basketball

w. Hockey Orono, ME 12/5BC MAINE

HROMISIN 1 GTREACY 19 SVS

M. Basketball Chestnut hill, ma 12/6 M. BasketballM. HOCKEY BostoN, ma 12/650

chestnut hill, ma 12/9

Providence. rI 12/9

m. SoccerNUBC

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BCMAINE2

7 KELLER 2 G RICHARDS 1 G

HART BC

2862

MAYZA 8 PTSDALEY 14 PTS

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THOMAS 7 AROBINSON 16 PTS

Sports Editor

MICHAEL SULLIVAN

JACK STEDMAN

Assoc. Sports Editor

TOM DEVOTO

Asst. Sports Editor

BC vs. Hartford, from B8

I’m an ACC truther through and through. You tell me to hit the Dab, I say, how hard? There’s no reason for you NOT to believe in the No. 1 ranked Clemson Tigers right now. And frankly, I don’t know whose faith you would have. Alabama hasn’t played anyone. Michigan State got lucky against Ohio State and Michigan. And OU’s Baker Mayfield is too concussed. Give me the song that shakes the Southland.

While Clemson’s defense is undeniably domi-nant, it allowed nearly 200 yards on the ground to Florida State University running back Dalvin Cook. Alabama running back Derrick Henry is even better. The SEC’s single season rushing leader and Heisman front runner will run right through the Tigers’ front seven and wreak havoc in the red zone. Nick Saban will coach like the strategic God he is and his holiness will hoist the trophy for the fifth time in his career. Roll Damn Tide.

I think the College Football Playoff Semifi nals are fairly straightforward—Clemson is far superior to Oklahoma, and while Michigan State has taken down three top-10 teams this season, all three have been in-conference. Plus, Alabama does not lose big games. Th e fi nal, however, is tricky. ’Bama and Clemson are pretty evenly matched. But again, Alabama does not lose big games. I can’t go against the Tide in the Final.

Prediction:Clemson 28, MSU 20

Prediction:Alabama 31, Clemson 24

Prediction:Alabama 38, Clemson 35

even scored a point yet, a lot of teams would start pointing fingers or start trying to save the day themselves or ‘I gotta get mine,’” Johnson said. “None of those things happened with this basketball team.”

Even as great of a team effort as it was, it was Edwards that got things rolling.

She came off the bench four minutes into the game as part of a quick, consistent subbing pattern that Johnson called characteristic of this team. She got two nice offensive boards and missed a jumper in her first three minutes of action, but she finally made her significant contributions with three minutes left in the first quarter and BC down 5-0.

She grabbed a defensive re-bound off a missed Hartford jumper and marched the ball down the floor.

After a few passes around the

arc, she got the ball back, got inside, and drew a foul to get to the line. She only made 1-of-2, but it got BC on the board. The Eagles got a stop on defense, and on the next play, she made a pic-ture-perfect pass from the arc to a cutting Nicole Boudreau, who sunk an uncontested layup—a fluid play that would be repeated a lot in the next 30 minutes.

“A lot of it has to do with our point guard play, it’s been really, really good lately,” Daley said. “They’ve just been looking up and waiting instead of trying to speed things up. We’ve just been playing at our pace.”

BC’s pace has been a good one, as the 7-1 start is the best for the team since it began 11-0 in 2010-11, and the team even received three votes in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll that came out on Tuesday. Of course, the Eagles have yet to face any ACC action, a lineup of teams that will boast not only higher levels of

skill, but physically taller compe-tition—Hartford’s tallest player is just 6-foot-1, and the Eagles still struggled at times to find either Fasoula or fellow center Katie Quandt down low.

But at other times, they man-aged to turn their ball move-ment into very open looks and great shots, of which the ‘Splash Sisters’ (Hughes, Boudreau, and Daley), as well as the rest of the team, will be eager to take advantage.

The defense was even more impressive on the night. Though Hartford missed some shots it could have made, the Eagles didn’t give up many good looks and certainly played a big role in holding their opponents to 20 percent from the field.

They used their height ad-vantage well to dominate the rebound battle, 55-23, and, even more impressively, didn’t send the Hawks to the line once, another great testament to how

well Johnson’s team defended its opponents’ shots.

With another one of the de-fense’s many stops after Bou-dreau’s lay-in, Edwards got the ball back for a third straight possession on the left side. This time, she drove hard to her left down the baseline and picked up another foul. She sunk both, tying the game at five.

Although Hartford’s Deanna Mayza made a three at the other end to temporarily retake the lead for the Hawks, BC continued on a 26-4 run in the next 12 minutes, quickly putting the game far out of reach and never sinking back to its opening effort.

Though the level of competi-tion will rise, BC has proven it can adjust and find ways to im-prove in short-term situations.

If it can continue to build upon that foundation, the Eagles can expect to receive some more attention and votes in the weeks to come.

covered over the course of the next month. Just because the classes stop doesn’t mean the grind does, for the athletes at least. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the Eagles throughout this Winter Break. You should too!

Here are the best BC games you can watch or listen to between Dec. 19, the last final, and Jan. 19, the first day of the Spring 2016 semester, in chronological order.

Men’s basketball vs. Fordham at the Barclays Center, Tues. Dec. 22: Listen, Jim Christian’s Eagles are not exactly on a hot streak right about now. They’ve lost their last six after getting out to a 3-0 start in their non-conference slate. For some, we expect-ed—Michigan State University, Providence College, and even the University of California-Irvine are all forgivable losses. You can’t say the same for Pennsylvania State University, Santa Clara University, and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. I fully expect BC to hit a small winning streak against the University of Maine and the University of Delaware before heading out to Brooklyn’s Bar-clays Center to take on Jesuit

rival Fordham University in the ACC-A10 Challenge. Playing on the big stage of a bad NBA team could give BC the con-fidence it needs heading into conference play.

Men’s hockey vs. Cornell or Providence in Estero, Fla., Tues. Dec. 29: This could be the big 1,000 for Mr. Jerry York. If things bounce BC’s way against the University of Notre Dame on Thursday and in the first round of the Florida Hockey Classic, York will have an opportunity to widen his lead on college hockey’s all-time wins list. And in Austin Cangelosi’s hometown no less! More importantly for the Eagles, this could be their first test against the defending na-tional champions. If BC wants to be taken seriously, it needs to beat Providence College.

Men’s basketball vs. Duke, Sat. Jan. 2: So you’re saying there’s a chance? Yes. There is always a chance. But consider-ing this is BC’s marquee home men’s basketball game of the year, it’s definitely worth tuning in on whatever ESPN affiliate it appears on. Take a look at NCAA’s defending national champions with the roundball, highlighted by Grayson Allen and Brandon Ingram.

Men’s hockey at Provi-dence, Sat. Jan. 9: Similar to York’s potential 1,000th win, this is a crucial game for BC. This will be their first seri-ous road test of the year. The Eagles don’t want to be just a national title contender. They want to be the contender. BC needs to take the home game on Fri. Jan. 8 and put this one in the win column to be taken seriously by the college hockey community.

Women’s basketball vs. Notre Dame, Thurs. Jan. 14: The way BC women’s basket-ball has played this year, there’s no reason why Erik Johnson and Co. can’t knock off Muffet McGraw’s legendary Fighting Irish. That being said, the Irish are really good. This is a prime game to view if you want to see quality women’s basketball from a team that is very likely to go to the Final Four against Geno Auriemma’s 10-time national champion University of Connecticut Huskies. An Eagles’ victory would give them a great pitch when Selection Sunday rolls around.

The Comm. Ave. Clas-sic—men’s hockey vs. Boston University on Fri. Jan. 15 and at BU on Sat. Jan. 16:The Granddaddy of Them All

(for men’s collegiate hockey). Even if BC drops both of its games against PC, it still has a solid chance to come away a bigger winner in early January with a sweep of the Terri-ers. It’s a shame students on both sides won’t be around to watch it because of winter break, because a big draw to the BC-BU game is the pure hatred between both schools, but it won’t change any of the intensity on the ice.

Women’s hockey at Har-vard, Tues. Jan. 19: Okay, I’m cheating a little bit by includ-ing a game on the day we come back. But seriously, how could I not give a shoutout to Katie Crowley’s crew? This time, it’s personal. The Eagles had three losses last year. Two of them were because of the sharp glovework of Harvard University’s Emerance Mas-chmeyer, who shut down BC in the Beanpot final and the NCAA Semifinals. This year, in superstar Alex Carpenter’s senior year, the Eagles are committed to making sure that doesn’t happen again.

Winter Break, from B8

ock hit a layup to take the wind out of BC’s sails.

This same pattern repeated itself again and again in the sec-ond half. Every time it seemed BC was poised to get back in the game and make things interest-ing, Bullock would hit a big shot to halt the Eagles’ momentum, culminating with his twisting reverse layup with 4:41 to go to push the Friars’ lead back to double digits.

While Bullock is to be credit-ed for turning back BC’s momen-tum whenever the Eagles made a push, BC can’t help but feel that it missed a great opportunity to snatch a road win over a top-25 opponent on Wednesday night.

Midway through the second half, the Eagles had cut the deficit to four points, momentum was on their side, and their oppo-nents were down their two best players. That was the time for BC to go for the throat, as head coach Jim Christian has pleaded

for them to do all season long. Unfortunately, as has become the norm during this six-game losing streak, the Eagles shrank in the heat of the moment.

After Bullock hit a layup to extend BC’s deficit to six, Matt Milon missed a three and Carter turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions. That was all Providence needed to get back in its groove and hit Bullock for another couple easy looks.

While the Eagles got an unex-pected contribution from Hicks,

a redshirt sophomore, they failed to get much offense from their more established players until it was too late. Eli Carter missed his first five shots and finished 2-for-11 for BC in the first half in what was ultimately a disap-pointing performance from one of the Eagle’s few senior leaders. While Carter finished the game with 15 points on 5-for-18 shoot-ing, it was too little, too late for the Eagles, who failed to get the buckets they needed in crunch time.

Dennis Clifford (24) and Darryl Hicks (2) both overcame a norovirus diagnosis and gave the Eagles a great effort, but couldn’t hold on against PC.STEPHAN SAVOIA / AP PHOTO

BC vs. PC, from B8

Point/Counterpoint: Chipotle or nah?Would you rather have E. coli or know you weren’t invited with the team to go to Chipotle?.. . . . . . . . . . . . .B6

Scoreboard....................................................................................................B7Editors’ Picks.........................................................................................................B7

SPORTSB8

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2015

INSIDESPORTSTHIS ISSUE

MICHAEL SULLIVAN

WHEW. It’s finally time for finals week here at Boston College. What a semester we’ve had.

There have been constant protests on campus, from impromptu caroling by Eradicate Boston College Rac-ism, to signs across campus on topics ranging from immigration reform to climate justice. The Heights has gotten exclusive access to the inner work-ings of BC’s two new dorms: 2000 and 2150 Commonwealth Ave. The gridiron Eagles followed up a 7-6 bowl season campaign with a 3-9 one that saw the painfully slow development of an offense coupled with a defense that reached unparalleled levels of success.

And now, in the last week, a wave of E. coli and/or norovirus is sweep-ing through Chestnut Hill thanks to Chipotle, a restaurant that has always been the bane of my existence and has questioned everything I know about the sanctity of the burrito and Mexican food. It’s even threatening to prematurely end the men’s basketball season before they can end it them-selves in the ACC Tournament.

What a way to end a semester, huh?

And now it’s time for the reward: Winter Break. It’s easily the best time of the year. You don’t really have to worry about starting your internships or jobs, so it’s time to relax. Your family might plan a vacation around Christmas, since parents often get breaks during that four-week stretch. Home friends can get back together for more than a quick four-hour session in between Thanksgiving turkey and mile-long lines to get on a six-hour bus ride from Port Authority to South Station. And presents! Who can hate on presents? (Bern and Mike, if you’re reading this, I want tearaway pants.)

For me, I’m taking some of that time to relax—not on an island or anything, unless you think Long Island in the winter is a place for relaxation. I plan on checking if the tree in Rockefeller Center looks any different from the Christmas tree that they’ve acquired in each of the first 20 Decembers of my life. I’ll hit up my favorite restaurants in Man-hattan—shoutout to you, Macbar, I want a large Lobsta’ Mac. And sleep. I need sleep.

But more likely than not, I’ll be back at the grind very soon. I’ll be returning as your sports editor next year. My two new assistants—Riley Overend and Annabel Steele—and I plan on bringing this section to the next level of coverage. To do that, I’ll be spending most of my Winter Break studying other newspapers and websites, student and professional alike, to figure out how to perfect our sports section.

More importantly, there’ll be plenty of game stories that need to be

For the first seven minutes of its game on Wednes-day, Boston College women’s basketball seemed to be in for a long night. A team that entered the day at an impressive 6-1 looked like it had come out for a casual pick-up game. You know the type, where everyone is generally decent at basketball but no one has touched a ball in a few months, and it shows.

The Eagles turned the ball over on three of their first four possessions. While the first two were on attempts to get the ball inside to freshman center Mariella Fasoula, who was named ACC Rookie of the Week on Monday after a stellar 23-point per-formance on 11-of-15 shooting in a tight 58-56 win over Purdue last Thursday, the last one was ugly. After giving up a layup to the University of Hartford ‘sDarby Lee for the first points of the game, neither Martina Mosetti nor Ella Awobajo noticed Hawks forward La’Trace Hall sneak in from behind and snag the ball away on the in-bounds, prompting BC head coach Erik Johnson to fly out of his seat and make some quick substitutions.

They didn’t pay immediate dividends, as the Eagles picked up three more turnovers, missed eight

shots, and found themselves down 5-0 after those long seven minutes. Eventually, though, BC (7-1) managed to turn it on, flipping a switch and dominat-ing Hartford (4-4) en route to a 62-28 win.

For that switch, you could thank Emilee Daley—the game’s leading scorer despite coming off the bench—who put up 14 points in 21 minutes. You could thank Kelly Hughes, who was the only other player in double digits and just about always puts up a performance worthy of praise.

But tonight, the player to look at was Kailey Edwards.

Her statline won’t immediately pop out—hon-estly, no one player really stuck out for BC. Daley and Hughes generally come with an eye-catching, 3-point prowess, but even they didn’t separate themselves from the crowd. All but one BC player tallied double-digit minutes and pulled down at least one rebound. All but two made at least one shot and had at least one assist. It was even easier to tell when watching the game, as just about everyone touched the ball on each possession.

“When you’re frustrated, when we turn the ball over five times in the first few minutes, we haven’t

See Winter Break, B7

ANNABEL STEELE

In early October, an Atlanta-area sports radio personality named Mike Bell took to Twitter to complain about an announcer on an ESPN broadcast of a playoff baseball game. Normally, I wouldn’t have any issue with this. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. Anyone can decide that he or she doesn’t like the way a game is being announced.

But Bell’s complaint was solely that Jessica Mendoza, a woman, dared to presume that she knew enough about baseball to announce a playoff game! Gasp! Bell tweeted a sexist joke from the movie Anchorman and questioned Mendoza’s qualifications to call a baseball game. Because, you know, she’s a woman. And according to Bell, women—even women with a past like Mendoza’s—inherently aren’t as quali-fied as men to discuss sports.

See, Jessica Mendoza is a former collegiate and professional softball player. I’d list all of her college ac-colades, but there are far too many to name. Suffice it to say that she was a four-time First Team All-American at Stanford University and broke about a billion Cardinal records during her four years there. As a professional player, Mendoza represented the United States National Team for six years, winning two gold medals, and played in the National Pro Fastpitch softball league. And she worked as a broadcaster and analyst for ESPN, appearing on Sunday Night Baseball to replace the painfully racist Curt Schilling. Hell, she even called a no-hitter—Jake Arrieta’s against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Aug. 30.

Clearly Mendoza knows what she’s talking about. So why did Mike Bell assume that she didn’t? That night in October, a quick search on Twitter would show that Bell wasn’t alone in his criticism of ESPN using a female announcer. It is deplorable that, un-like their male counterparts, female broadcasters face scrutiny about their sports knowledge, appearances, and personal lives.

It’s not just high-profile women like Mendoza or Erin Andrews who have to deal with damaging assump-tions about their sports knowledge. I have also been on the receiving end of sexist remarks from several old acquaintances who just couldn’t wrap their minds around the idea that a girl might actually know what she’s talking about.

One of my best friends told a male friend of hers that she loved sports. He reacted to this by writing a sports quiz and sending it to her. Later on, when I met this male friend for the first time, he also questioned me about my sports knowledge. I find it hard to believe that he would do this if a male friend discussed his love for sports. So why on earth would he do it for a female friend?

See Women in Sports, B6

See BC vs. Hartford, B7

With 4:41 left in the game, Rodney Bullock took a pass from Kyron Cart-wright, dribbled, gathered himself, and hit a nice reverse layup with defenders draped all over him to give the Provi-dence Friars (9-1) an 11-point lead over the visiting Boston College Eagles (3-6). The double-digit lead effectively ended BC’s hopes of a comeback against No. 15 Providence, as the now-healthy Eagles struggled mightily to score against the Friars’ stingy defense, eventually falling 66-51 on Wednesday night.

Bullock scored only two points in the first half for the Friars, but exploded for 15 points after halftime when it was an-nounced that Providence’s top two play-

ers, Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil, would sit for the rest of the game.

Bentil was on pace for the best game of his career at the time of his injury late in the first half, when he landed awkwardly after a jump shot. Despite playing less than half the game, Bentil still finished with 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting and eight rebounds, to go along with several impressive blocks. Time and time again, the skilled forward made the Eagles pay with his smooth post moves and willingness to run the floor for easy buckets.

Dunn played 15 minutes in the first half before succumbing to illness, scor-ing four points and dishing out three assists while helping Providence build a 14-point halftime lead. Dunn’s stat line doesn’t do him justice, as the gifted point

guard was instrumental in Providence’s first-half success—running the Friars’ offense with precision, playing good defense, and getting the right guys the ball at the right times.

With Providence playing without its two star players for the entire second half, the stage seemed set for the Eagles to come back and steal a win. Unfortu-nately for BC, Bullock refused to let it happen. Sure enough, BC scored the first six points of the second half to make it a single-digit game, but just as the Eagles seemed to be gaining momentum, Bull-ock made a jump shot.

With 11:37 to go and the Eagles trailing 41-37 after a few nice shots by seldom-used guard Darryl Hicks, Bull-

Eli Carter (3), returning from a sprained ankle, driving for a layup against the Friars.STEPHAN SAVOIA / AP PHOTO

PLENTY OF HART

See BC vs. PC, B7

SAVANNA KIEFER / HEIGHTS STAFF