ordering BC to release interviews of Brendan Hughes and Delours Price, two former Northern Irish republican mili-tants, stored in its archives.

The interviews, housed in the John J. Burns Library, are part of the Belfast Project, an oral history project conducted in the late 1990s by Irish journalist Ed Moloney. The collection contains ap-proximately 30 to 50 oral histories from both republicans and those loyal to the British Crown. Many of those interviewed for the project engaged in activities in the hope of victory for their desired role of Britain in the governance of Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

Directed by Moloney, Anthony Mc-Intyre, a former Irish Republican Army member, interviewed Republicans, and Wilson McArthur, a former unionist militant, documented the experiences of

ably in the top 10 percent of national test takers, which gives some sense of the qual-ity of the class,” Mahoney said.

The number of AHANA students ap-plying also broke the University record. This year saw an 11 percent increase in ap-plicants, bringing the number of AHANA students applying to 9,692. Twenty-nine percent of the applicants were AHANA students, which Mahoney said is reas-suring because a little over 30 percent of graduating high schoolers are AHANA

By AdriAnA MAriellA Assoc. News Editor

While the start of a new year leaves the campus seeming fuller than ever, the Boston College community begins this semester two members short. Kris-tine Topel, A&S ’12, and Toochukwu “Tony” Nwokedi, ’13, who both passed away during the summer vacation, are mourned by both their home and school communities.

Topel, of Deerfield, Ill., was killed in the early hours of June 14 in her native Illinois after being struck by a train. The Chicago Tribune reported that the conductor noticed something on the tracks but was unable to stop in time. At BC, Topel was a biology major and was

data collected by university officials every three years. Students, however, can log on to The Princeton Review’s website at any time and fill out surveys that ultimately effect their schools’ rankings – a statistical procedure that some school officials have questioned.

The University has dismissed Princeton’s rankings in the past due to their method-ology. “From the University’s perspective, the Princeton Review is methodologically flawed and unrepresentative of the actual campus climate,” said University Spokes-man Jack Dunn. “In reviewing the analysis, as few as 22 to 99 student respondents, out of 9,000 undergraduate students, can deter-mine BC’s placement on these particular surveys. From a statistical standpoint, the survey has no validity, and from a practical standpoint, it does not accurately portray student sentiment on campus.”

Regarding the group of respondents, Dunn said, “To the extent that there are any students who feel that BC is not a full-wel-coming community, then all of us have to continue to work hard so that everyone sees the campus as the open and inviting place

Vol. XCII, No. 26 Thursday, Spetember 8, 2011

THE SCENEClassic Nick stomps onto the scene with its classic programming block, C3

a new kind of retro

By TAylour KuMpf

News Editor

In response to concern about excessive rowdiness at campus events, the University has placed a temporary moratorium on all large-scale concerts in Conte Forum, placing the UGBC into a position where it will not be able to offer the Fall Concert this year.

The UGBC recently announced the

alex trautwig / HeigHts editor

Burns Library (shown above) houses the oral history records sought by British authories.

By dAniel TonKovich

Heights Editor

An international showdown involving British police, the U.S. Justice Depart-ment, and former IRA members has Bos-ton College placed on the frontline.

The University is currently engaged in efforts to quash a federal subpoena for access to confidential interviews regard-ing a period known as “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland that lasted from 1969-1998.

In May, the U.S. Department of Justice, acting on behalf of the Police Services of Northern Ireland, issued subpoenas

University places temporary moratorium on all large-scale concerts in Conte Forum

See Subpoena, A4

No Fall Concert this year, says UGBC

keePing BalanCedFooTball prEviEwMontel Harris isn’t letting his knee injury get him down for the 2011 season, B4

MarKETplaCEPotential candidates emerge for the 2012 presidential election, D4

goP fanfare

University defends sensitive tapes on Northern Ireland

Campus loses two students over summerCommunity mourns two students’ deaths

See Deaths, A4

alex trautwig / HeigHts editor

Gasson Hall (above) has reopened this fall after undergoing a series of renovations. The first floor now features a study lounge for student and faculty use.

welcome back, gasson!

move, which came from the Student Pro-grams Office (SPO), with the support of Patrick Rombalski, the vice president for Student Affairs. The University is currently exploring a strategic plan to deal with the issue with drinking and medical transports at events.

In a Sept. 6 letter to UGBC president Michael Kitlas, A&S ’12, Mark Miceli, associate director of SPO said that the primary reason for the moratorium “is

By Molly lApoinT Asst. News Editor

There were 32,974 applicants to the Boston College class of 2015, a 10 percent increase over last year and a new Univer-sity record.

The admissions office was more selec-tive than last year, accepting 28 percent of applicants, as opposed to 31 percent last year. The target number for the class is 2,280, but there are currently about 20 more students enrolled than this, said John Mahoney, director of undergraduate admission. The exact number of students will not be official until October.

“May 1 is the standard candidate reply date,” Mahoney said. “After that, we have to assess where we are and take candidates off the wait list.”

In addition to accepting more students from the wait list, BC also loses some stu-dents who are accepted to other schools off their wait lists. “Through spring and summer it really is a moving target,” Ma-honey said.

International students who are citizens of foreign countries comprise 5 percent of the entering class, and 25 different coun-tries are represented. However, many more students have international ties.

“The international flavor of the student body is closer to 10 percent if you count

See Class of 2015, A4

Class of 2015 breaks admissions records dual citizens and U.S. citizens living abroad,” Mahoney said.

Children of alumni make up 14 per-cent of the class of 2015, a number that is relatively common, Mahoney said. Usu-ally, this number is somewhere around 15 percent.

The mean SAT score for the enrolled students of the class of 2015 is 2014, with a middle 50 percent range of 1920 to 2135. For those who submitted ACT scores only, the middle 50 percent range spanned from 29 to 32, with a mean of 30.

“Both mean scores rest very comfort-

mollie kolosky / HeigHts editor

By TAylour KuMpf

News Editor

Boston College placed higher on this year’s “Little Race / Class Interaction” and “LGBT-Unfriendly” lists in The Princeton Review, though administrators dismiss these statistics.

The lists, which were released as part of The Princeton Review’s “Best Colleges” rankings, rank colleges based on several criteria surrounding student life, academ-ics, and athletics.

This year marks BC’s third consecutive year on the “Little Race / Class Interaction” list. The University placed fifth this year after placing ninth last year. On the list for “LGBT-Unfriendly” schools, the University made its second appearance in two years, increasing two spots from 10 to eight.

In recent years, however, the University has been on a positive upward trend in the industry standard U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Colleges” rankings, improv-ing by nine spots in a seven-year period. The Report’s rankings come out on Sept. 13.

The methodology of The Princeton Review’s study is different than most. The Review bases its surveys off representative See Rankings, A4

Administrators shrug off latest ‘Review’ rankings

A fight for the record books

an increase in disruptive behavior on the part of BC students and a corresponding increase in the abuse of alcohol at these large-scale events.

“Given the large number of transports at both of the large-sale Conte concerts last year, we felt that something needs to change,” Miceli wrote. “We simply cannot have an average of 35 medical transports for alcohol intoxication at these events. Clearly students are engaging in high risk drinking as a result of the concert, and we need to develop a strategic plan to address this serious issue.”

See Concerts, A4

—Source:TheBostonCollegePoliceDepartment

Police Blotter

..Today

Friday

SaTurday

Sunday

67°

62°

78°

61°

71°

57°

72°

60°

Showers

Morning Showers

Partly Cloudy

Partly Cloudy

Source: NatioNal Weather Service

Summer SelectionsMonday, May 23

9:22 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a student who was not wearing any pants under his commencement gown. the student was escorted from the area.

11:02 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a professor providing medical assistance to another officer who was choking at BcPD headquarters. the officer’s airway was cleared and he did not need further medical attention.

Wednesday, June 15

9:18 a.m. - A report was filed that a piece of heavy equipment had driven over an electrical manhole causing a partial collapse of the cover near Mcelroy commons. Bc facilities personnel on-scene determined the power should be shut off while the cover is stabilized. the Newton Fire Department was con-tacted as a safety precaution. Power was brief ly terminated and the necessary repairs were made without incident. Power was restored shortly thereafter.

Thursday, June 16

10:08 a.m. - A report was filed a coun-terfeit twenty dollar bill which was passed in a dining hall. the article was turned over to the detectives for further review.

11:49 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a male in distress from severe leg cramps in Hillside. Upon the officers arrival they found the victim on the floor and unable to stand. Assistance was rendered and the party was transported to St. elizabeth’s Hospital by Armstrong Ambulance.

Saturday, June 18

6:34 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a complaint from a local resident that students were on the roof of 249 Foster Street consuming alcoholic beverages and disturbing the peace. Boston Po-lice were notified. BcPD arrived and spoke with the resident/Bc student who agreed to clean up the area and cease the continuation of their post Bruins parade celebration. the call to Boston Police was canceled prior to their arrival. Sunday, June 19

10:39 p.m. - A report was filed regarding an off campus address in Brookline on a report that a Bc student had not come home from a night at Mary Ann’s bar in cleveland circle. their calls, texts and checks of Facebook did not receive a reply from the student. A check with the area hospitals was initiated. BcPD later received a call from the missing student’s roommate who reported that she was located at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

VoiceS FroM tHe DUStBoWl“What class are you most looking

forward to this year?”

“Anatomy.”—Kelsey Pierce, A&S ’12

“Western Cultural Tradition.”—Julia Gorman, A&S ’15

“Politics in Japan and Korea.”—Christopher Stehli, A&S ’13

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Deliveryto have The Heights delivered to your home each week or to report distribution problems on campus, contact Dan ottaunick, General Manager at (617) 552-0547.

AdvertisingThe Heights is one of the most effective ways to reach the Bc community. to submit a classi-fied, display, or online advertise-ment, call our advertising office at (617) 552-2220 Monday through Friday.

EDITORIAL RESOURCES

News TipsHave a news tip or a good idea for a story? call taylour Kumpf, News editor, at (617) 552-0172, or e-mail news@bcheights.com. For future events, e-mail, fax, or mail a detailed description of the event and contact information to the News Desk.

Sports ScoresWant to report the results of a game? call Paul Sulzer, Sports editor, at (617) 552-0189, or e-mail sports@bcheights.com.

Arts EventsThe Heights covers a multitude of events both on and off campus – in-cluding concerts, movies, theatrical performances, and more. call Dar-ren ranck, Arts and review editor, at (617) 552-0515, or e-mail arts@bcheights.com. For future events, e-mail, fax, or mail a detailed de-scription of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk.

Clarifications / CorrectionsThe Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. if you believe we have made a reporting er-ror, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or ques-tions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact Michael caprio, editor-in-chief, at (617) 552-2223, or e-mail editor@bcheights.com.

The Heights is produced by Bc undergraduates and is published

on Mondays and thursdays during the academic year by

the Heights, inc. (c) 2011. All rights reserved.

A Guide to Your Newspaper

The HeightsBoston college – Mcelroy 113

140 commonwealth Ave.chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467

editor-in-chief (617) 552-2223

editorialGeneral (617) 552-2221

Managing editor (617) 552-4286News Desk (617) 552-0172

Sports Desk (617) 552-0189Marketplace Desk (617) 552-3548

Features Desk (617) 552-3548Arts Desk (617) 552-0515

Photo (617) 552-1022Fax (617) 552-4823

Business and operationsGeneral Manager (617) 552-0169

Advertising (617) 552-2220Business and circulation

(617) 552-0547classifieds and collections

(617) 552-0364Fax (617) 552-1753

Four day WeaTher ForeCaST

CORRECTIONS

Please send corrections to

editor@bcheights.comwith ‘correction’

in the subject line.

TodayTime: 1 p.m. Location: Newton Soccer FieldBring your friends and cheer on the Women’s Soccer team as they take on Colgate. The Eagles will play the Raiders at 1 p.m.

late cardinal and a party to the lawsuit, confirmed to the Globe that the dispute had ended with an amicable agreement.

“Right now we are renovating two buildings on the Brighton campus,” said Executive Vice President Patrick Keating. “The former Chancery – 2101 Com-monwealth Avenue – will house the Advancement Division and will be completed next March. The former Bishop Peterson – 129 Lake Street – will house the divi-sions of Finance and Human Re-sources and will be completed in

early November of this year. Both groups are now housed in More Hall, which will be demolished and a new residence hall will be built on that site.

“The expected completion date of the new residence hall is the summer of 2015,” Keating said.

BC’s plans for the land include new fields and, eventually, en-hanced fine arts facilities. “We are planning to build new intramural, baseball, and softball fields on the Brighton campus during this time frame,” Keating said. “Eventually a new garage will be constructed,

along with fine arts facilities, on the Brighton campus.”

The cardinal’s new resting place near St. John’s Chapel is less than a five-minute walk from his former tomb. According to the Globe report, the new grave is cur-rently unmarked, though the arch-diocese plans to mark the grave and will hold a formal ceremony in the fall when the memorial to O’Connell is complete.

O’Connell, born in 1859, was ordained in 1884 and became archbishop of Boston in 1907. He was made the city’s first cardinal

By Taylour KumpfNews Editor

The seven-year dispute over the gravesite of Boston’s first cardi-nal was resolved this summer, and Cardinal William H. O’Connell is finally at rest, according to a report by The Boston Globe.

Almost 70 years after his death, O’Connell’s remains were moved a short distance from a crypt be-neath a small chapel to a courtyard at St. John’s Seminary, and the argument over what to do with the bones of one of the most influen-tial Roman Catholic leaders in the city’s history came to a close.

The long-term disagreement between Boston College and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, and the living relatives of the late cardinal hinged on the University’s desire to relocate O’Connell’s remains from the Brighton property in order to re-develop the land, which it bought from the archdiocese in 2004.

The cardinal’s relatives, how-ever, wished to uphold his request to be buried near the seminary, the Globe report stated.

The dispute wound up in probate court two years ago but has now been settled, and the cardinal’s remains are even closer to the seminary.

Edward Kirk, a relative of the

With Cardinal entombed, Brighton Campus rebuilds

FridayTime: 10 a.m.Location: Linden Lane

Visit Linden Lane on Friday to learn about the different clubs and organizations at Boston College at the an-

nual Fall Student Involvement Fair. Beginning at 10 a.m., stop by and find a way to get involved. Registered student organizations will be present recruiting members and distributing information.

1 Student activities Fair

3

TopThreethings to do on campus this week

Women’s Soccer takes on Colgate raiders

DaNiel lee / heightS Staff

BC is renovating buildings on 2101 Commonwealth Ave. and 129 Lake St. on Brighton Campus (above).

On Campus

Twenty school principals from the greater Boston area participated in the first Lynch Leadership Acad-emy on the Boston College campus this summer. This academy, created through a donation given by philanthropists Carolyn A. and Peter S. Lynch, is designed to help these principals deal with issues faced in urban school districts in an effort to help these schools achieve greater success. Established in 2010, the academy, which is the first of its kind, was developed to bring K-12 principals from traditional public schools, Catholic schools, and charter schools and train them using an innovative 10-day training program featuring successful school leaders, Uni-versity faculty, visiting lecturers, and speakers from non-profit organizations, and government agencies. This academy focused on a variety of topics, including school culture, instructional leadership, and educa-tional equity. The Lynch Leadership Academy will continue lessons through the year, and graduates will receive three graduate school credits and a certificate in school leadership.

University hosts first Lynch Leader-ship Academy for school principals

Stephen Kinzey, an associate professor of kinesiol-ogy at California State University at San Bernardino is being sought by law enforcement authorities, according to a report by The Chronicle of Higher Education. Authorities, who raided Kinzey’s home last week and seized weapons and drugs, say he led a methamphetamine ring and the local chapter of a motorcycle gang. University President Albert Karnig said in a written statement that the univer-sity would assist in the investigation to help assure that all the facts are accurate.

California professor sought for involvement in drug ring

A new iPhone and Android application created by Star Li, Vidappe, allows users to find discounts of-fered at various stores and other locations near them in real-time. The discounts are offered through over 160 different organizations, like AAA, student ID cards, and the MBTA CharlieCard. Users, who can download the application for free, subscribe to the cards they have, and receive notifications about the available discounts in the area. More information can be found at https://vidappe.com.

iPhone and Android app reveals discounts with CharlieCards

LocaL News

University

The heighTs thursday, September 8, 2011

TodayTime: 9 p.m. Location: McGuinn 121Attend a meeting to learn how to use campus recruiting and EagleLink in your job and internship search this year.

2Campus recruiting and eaglelink info Session

four years later. He became an influential figure, overseeing wide-spread growth and expansion of the Catholic Church in Boston.

On his 69th birthday in 1928, O’Connell announced that he would be buried at a mausoleum being built near his residence. At the time, that land belonged to St. John’s Seminary. That was where his earthly remains “shall repose until the Judgment Day,’’ he said at the time. He repeated the request in his last will, signed in 1943. He died April 22, 1944, at age 84.

His repose was uninterrupted until 2004, when the archdiocese agreed to sell the land to BC to raise money to settle claims from victims of clergy sex abuse.

A condition of the sale was that the archdiocese would “use diligent efforts’’ to remove O’Connell’s tomb from land that had become part of the BC cam-pus, according to legal filings, the Globe report stated.

O’Connell’s relatives objected. In 2009, the Archdiocese of Boston and BC sued 30 of his descendants in probate court for the right to move the remains.

Relocating the casket was a compromise that made all the par-ties happy, Kirk told the Globe.

Elise Taylor, Heights editor, contributed to this report. n

featured story

“Molecules and Cells.”—Shealyn Matthews, lSoe ’15

iNtHe

NeWS

The heighTsThursday, September 8, 2011

By ElisE TaylorHeights Editor

There have been many chang-es to Gasson Hall, the 95-year-old gothic building that has long been considered an iconic symbol of Boston College. Stone porticos, quoins, and other stone elements have been replaced, new windows have been posi-tioned, and handicapped ramps have been added. However, one major change to Gasson Hall is interior rather than exterior. Starting this semester, Gasson Hall will turn the former Arts and Sciences Honors Library into Gasson Commons, an informal study space for students.

Gasson 112, the former space of the A&S Honors Library and the current space of Gasson Commons, has a rich history. When the college first moved to its Chestnut Hill Campus in 1913, the room in Gasson Hall served as the University’s original library. When Bapst Library was built and initiated as BC’s official library in 1925,

the space in Gasson was used for other purposes. After a previous major renovation, Gasson 112 became the A&S Honors Library. The recent decision to move the entire A&S Honors Department to Stokes Hall, made Stokes the logical place for the library. The new honors library will be avail-able starting in 2012, when it is projected Stokes Hall will be open for student use.

“The use of Gasson 112 as the Honors Library is an important part of the room’s history, but not the only important role this lovely space has played in the past, and will certainly be playing in the future, as Gasson Commons,” said Mark O’Connor, director of the A&S Honors Program.

“The Honors Program is mov-ing to Stokes to be part of the humanities mission this impor-tant new learning center will serve. There has been a library space designed for us there, and we were part of its design process.”

Echoing this sentiment is Da-vid Quigley, dean of Arts and Sci-

dences. “When the decision was made to move Honors to Stokes

Hall, it made sense to think of Gasson Commons as a new A&S space, for students and faculty, as we plan for the new Honors Library in Stokes.”

While the A&S Library re-mains in a physical limbo be-tween Gasson and Stokes, most of the books will be stored in a conference room on Brighton

Campus until the new honors library is complete. Others were given away as what O’Connor refers to as “mementos of the moment,” as the new library will not be able to hold as many books as the old one.

When asked if A&S Honors students were frustrated with not having a concrete space for two years, Quigley said he has received no formal complaints. “I have not heard any, but I’d imagine that there are some Honors Program students who are disappointed,” he said.

Quigley also expressed con-fidence that Gasson Commons will be a wonderful place to congregate and study for BC students. “The beautifully re-stored Gasson Commons is open to A&S students all year long as a study space and for informal meetings,” he said. “I anticipate that the Commons will quickly become a popular quiet space for many of our students. I think the new Gasson will be a much more welcoming home base for the A&S community.” n

A3

Gasson 112, formerly known as the Arts and Sciences Honors Library, is now Gasson Commons following summer renovation (above).

By DaniEl TonkovichHeights Editor

In what brings to mind lyr-ics from the Sound of Music song “Getting to Know You,” the Boston College Police Depart-ment is attempting just such an endeavor. After a year at the helm, John King, director of Public Safety and Chief of the BCPD, is revising the way the department fulfills its mission, adapting it to the needs of the BC community.

King has occupied himself with developing the department through emphasis on best prac-tices in campus law enforcement and community policing.

More officers out of their cruisers and on bikes, dedicated staff to serve as resources to stu-dent groups, state accreditation, and even a department Facebook page are making the organization not only more visible, but more accessible to the community.

“The changes are not a meta-morphosis,” King said. “Rather, they are the benefits from tak-

ing more time to think and talk about the objectives, policies, and structures needed to ensure public safety.”

As a result of King’s reflection with staff about the direction and needs of the department and

BC community, BCPD is in the process of implementing a new organizational model for the department. Under his model, BCPD will be arranged into four bureaus: a business services bureau will provide internal sup-port for the department; a plan-ning and administration bureau, supervised by a captain, will

oversee policy and procedures, as well as training, accredita-tion, and event management; a dispatch and communication bureau will address the technical needs of the department, and a bureau known as Community Policing and Patrol Services, the department’s largest and most visible bureau, will handle polic-ing and patrol matters.

The new model, King said, will allow for the necessary re-sources to be available to handle the diverse safety needs of the campus.

One of the ways he has worked to meet the needs is the addi-tion of a fourth shift of officers to augment the force during the time of department’s greatest need for manpower, from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.

“The shift will allow for the department to not only cover service calls, but also have staff available for meetings, crime prevention programs, and gen-eral interactions with students,” King said. “Officers will now not always be occupied with calls or

reports.”The additional officers will

be available to advance commu-nity policing activities such as acting as resources for student groups, conducting public safety awareness campaigns, patrol-ling on bicycles, and engaging more fully in programs such as Residential Life’s Adopt-a-Cop program.

Community policing is of such great importance to King and his development plan for BCPD that the department will be hiring a supervisor for its community policing efforts . The supervisor will also be re-sponsible for coordinating with student organizations to address their public safety staffing and educational needs.

King has also worked to im-prove the department’s commu-nication with the BC community through the development of re-vised informational materials and a Facebook page for quick distribution of announcements and public safety tips. He has even involved students in the

interview process with new of-ficer recruits.

So far, his plans have faced little opposition within the de-partment.

“The officers I have spoken with have responded favora-blely because the department is maturing,” King said. “The University has also been very supportive of our work.”

All of the efforts will assist the department in its ambition to receive state accreditation.

Throughout the past academ-

ic year and continuing this year, BCPD will be adopting formal policies to direct the activities of the department, including directives related to community oriented policing.

“We expect to be prepared for certification by fall and be-gin preparations for full state accreditat ion by the end of spring or beginning of summer,” King said. “The accreditation will be a mark of excellence and professionalism for the department. It will identify us as following the best practices in public safety.”

However, regardless of the seeking accreditation, King sees the reorganization and refocus-ing of the department as key to fulfilling its mission.

“We are a community service department,” he said. “Officers are often the first to respond to incidents and can have a pro-found impact on students. We will always keep the interests of students and the University in mind while performing our duty.” n

BCPD unveils new community policing model for current semester

“I anticipate that the Commons will quickly become a popular quiet space for many of our students,”

-David QuigleyDean of Arts and Sciences

Gasson Commons replaces Honors Library

SAng lee / heighTS STAff

Consider

THE SUBPOENA AND THE MEDIA:

The U.S. Justice Department took further subpoena action against Boston College late last month when it asked that the University relinquish the entirety of the “Belfast Project” on Northern Ireland (see Page 1 story). As the legal saga continues, the subpoena battle has ruffled the ranks of the Fourth Estate, soliciting extensive commentary from the Boston Globe as well as some treatment from the Chronicle of Higher Education and The New York Times. Let’s start with the Globe. Columnist Kevin Cullen, who served as chief of the paper’s now-shuttered Dublin bureau, treated the issue in several news pieces for the Globe in early June as the debate blossomed. In a breakaway from its commentary staff, the paper’s editorial board came out urging BC to hand over the documents in an August 1 editorial, stating that the weight of the murder investigation trumps any political concerns, real or imagined. We’ll keep following what the Globe has to say on this ... One report you don’t want to miss is that of UCLA doctoral candidate Chris Bray, who was published in the Chronicle of Higher Education on July 5. Some good reporting on Bray’s part examines the international law precedence for the Justice Department – PSNI partnership. -Michael Caprio

CAMPUS IMPROVEMENTS:

Students returned to a changed campus this year, among the most notable of those changes being the completion of the much

anticipiated Gasson Hall renovation. With this renovation, offices that were previously housed elsewhere for the duration of the construction have moved into Gasson Hall. As of September, University Counseling Services will be located in Gasson 001, an office that had been previously relocated, as well as the Arts and Sciences Honors Program offices. Both major dining halls have also been renovated, a move that eliminated the family picnic-style banquet tables from Lower in favor of more smaller ones, and allowed for a major overhaul in Carney’s. It now features updated food stations, new tables, and a reorganized floor plan, which will be all too soon torn down after McElroy’s impending demolition. Additionally, both entry ways of McGuinn Hall were updated and the foyer’s seating area was redesigned. -Adriana Mariella

PRINCETON REVIEW BY THE NUMBERS:

You would assume that The Princeton Review rankings are based on some sort of well-oiled, multi-variable scientific formula, however BC’s rising status on two of the company’s lists, ‘Least GLBTQ Friendly’ and ‘Little Race/Class Interaction’ (meaning that we’re getting nearer to being the worst in these two categories) can be the result of the survey responses of less than 100 (22 to 99, to be exact) undergraduate students. According to The Heights’ back-of-the-envelope calculations, that amounts to less than two percent of the student population. That mere two percent doesn’tquite cut the mustard as a significant representation.

-Adriana Mariella n

“We will always keep the interests of students and the University in mind while performing our duty.”

-John King

Chief King expounds the benefits of walking and bicycle patrols and the connection to students via Facebook

“Officers will now not always be occupied with calls or reports.”

-John KingChief of BCPD and Director of Public Safety

This...

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011A4

Subpoena, from A1

Deaths, from A1

University fights subpoena for Belfast Project records

“We wish someone from the Princeton Review would have contacted members of the GLC when determining this ranking instead of making

broad assumptions based on the responses of select students.”

Carolyn McCrosson and Joshua Tingley, President and Vice President of the GLC, respectively

loyalists. Those interviewed were guaranteed the record would not become public until their deaths.

The agreements of safeguard-ing the tales of participants in violent acts during the Troubles until their death have caused the current legal feud.

Agreements granting confi-dentiality to subjects discussing sensitive topics, such as criminal activity, are not uncommon in oral history research. The strength of agreements against government subpoenas, however, is vague, which has led to the current battle the University is facing to uphold the integrity of the project.

The requested accounts are part of an investigation into mur-ders and kidnappings conducted as part of the struggle over gov-ernance in Northern Ireland. Law enforcement officials in the United Kingdom seek the con-tents of the project in hopes of gathering information related to the 1972 abduction and murder of Jean McConville.

McConville was a mother of 10, residing in Belfast at the time and suspected of being an informer for British loyalists. The IRA has admitted its involvement in the murder of McConville, whose remains were discovered in Ireland in 2003, but no individuals have ever been charged with the murder.

Hughe s ’ inter v ie ws were handed over, as the promise of confidentiality expired upon his death, in 2008 and most of his testimony has already appeared in Moloney ’s Voices from the Grave. Price remains alive, and BC lawyers stated in June to The Heights on her behalf that she would be “deeply traumatized” if her interviews went public. However, in late August, a second round of subpoenas for all of the interviews of IRA members re-garding the McConville case from the Belfast Project were issued by an unidentified party in the UK through the U.S. Attorney’s office.

The University responded with an additional motion to quash the broadened request for access to the archives.

Hughes and Price made previ-ous assertions that Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, a political party in Northern Ireland associ-ated with the Provisional IRA, ordered McConville’s murder. Ad-ams has denied the allegations.

Moloney and McIntyre have dismissed the subpoena as with-out merit and claimed it to be politically motivated against Ad-ams.

“The subpoenas that have been served are based on an unproven assertion: that an interview given to the college by a former Irish Republican Army activist, Do-

lours Price, could shed light on a 40-year-old murder and should be surrendered,” Moloney and McIntyre said in a joint opinion published in The Boston Globe.

“The truth, however, is that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), on whose behalf U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz is acting, does not know what Do-lours Price told Boston College’s interviewers. Neither does Ortiz. They do not know because the legal basis for the subpoenas is deeply flawed, the result of either

rank incompetence or sleight of hand,” the duo wrote.

“The authorities have justified the action by claiming that an interview with Price published in a Belfast newspaper in Febru-ary 2010 about the murder was derived from her Boston Col-lege interview, when in fact it was based on a separate taped interview given directly to the newspaper. Price’s interviews have never been released by BC and never would be - because a guarantee of confidentiality was given to every interviewee. What is happening is essentially an un-warranted fishing expedition into the college archives.”

BC maintains that relinquish-ing the interviews prior to the death of the interviewees as promised jeopardizes the safety of the participants in the Belfast Project, the peace process in Northern Ireland, and academic freedom.

“The University’s ongoing po-sition has been that the premature release of the tapes could threaten the safety of the participants, the enterprise of oral history, and the ongoing peace and reconciliation process in Northern Ireland,” said Jack Dunn, University Spokes-man.

Prosecutors maintain that BC had no authority to grant confidentiality and that justice for a crime supersedes academic privilege.

Moloney and McIntyre have also filed their own suit seeking to quash the subpoena. Moloney and McIntyre argue that prosecution for politically motivated crimes was excluded under the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

“This is to supplement, not conflict with, BC’s action, and we are doing it because it is a much more political approach,’’ Mo-loney said in a recent interview with The Boston Globe.

Judge Joesph Tauro is expected to rule in the coming months as to whether he will make a judgment based on the motions filed by BC or hold a hearing in the U.S. Dis-trict Court in Boston. n

involved in 4Boston, to which her family requested donations in her memory.

Nwokedi, who was reported missing on July 16, was found dead in the Allegheny River on July 19 near his Oil City, Pa. home. The 21-year-old’s cause of death was related to a medi-

cal condition. Nwokedi, a na-tive of Nigeria, was a transfer student at BC and had taken a leave of absence during last fall semester. He planned to return to BC in the fall to pursue a degree in political science.

“The University community was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of two BC students this summer,” said University Spokesperson Jack Dunn. “At

the time of their deaths, Uni-versity administrators person-ally extended condolences to the families of Kristine Topel and Tony Nwokedi on behalf of BC students , faculty, and staff. We ask that all students who knew Kristine and Tony remember them in their inten-tions, and pray for their fami-lies who are struggling with the loss.” n

students, meaning BC’s applicant pool is similar to the national pool of high school graduates.

AHANA student yield went down a percentage point, from 30 percent to 29 percent, Mahoney said. Yield was down slightly for all students, which could be attributed in part because the quality of applicants is improving.

“The quality of the applicant pool continues to rise, which is both a blessing and a curse,” Mahoney said. “All the best institutions in the country are after these students.”

Students are also applying to more schools. The average number of schools that a BC applicant applied to this year was nine, and 45 percent of applicants applied to 10 or more.

Although the number of high school graduates has leveled off at about three million after peaking at 3.3 million in 2009, the applicant pools are not stabilizing. In part, the Common Application and the ability to apply online make it easier to apply to multiple schools.

“Online applications make the process so much

easier,” Mahoney said.In addition, some schools are beginning to waive

application fees. “There are a number of schools, in their zeal to increase application pools, that waive application fees,” Mahoney said.

Students applying to selective schools have to make sure they cover their bases by applying to a range of universities. “Even though the number of high school graduates has stabilized, application numbers are con-tinuing to rise at most colleges,” Mahoney said.

Looking forward, though it would appear the num-ber of applicants to BC will remain high, the number of early action candidates may see a decline this year. After a three-year hiatus, Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia are all reinstating early ac-tion. While UVA will have unrestricted early action, students applying early to Harvard and Princeton will be unable to apply early to any other school. This policy is similar to the ones already in place at Yale and Stanford.

“Those students, if they want to apply to those schools, can’t be in our pools,” Mahoney said. “This would predict for me that Boston College will have fewer early applicants this year.” n

Class of 2015, from A1

Nearly 40 students required medical attention at last year’s Fall Concert featuring Kid Cudi and LM-FAO. Last semester’s spring concert featuring J. Cole and Wale saw over 30 transports.

The UGBC attempted to curb the drinking issue last spring when it offered a pre-concert BBQ outside Conte Forum as a sober alternative to pregaming. Such efforts have not been as effective as hoped, Miceli pointed out.

“We have tried some things to address this issues including the pre-concert BBQ, but the problem seems to be getting worse not better,” he told The Heights.

The decision to place all large-scale concerts on hold was one that unfolded over the summer months.

“In late May, we were told that large-scale concerts in Conte would possibly be under review,” Kitlas said. “At this time, though, we were told to go through the normal concert-plan-ning process, including getting bids and creating a short list.”

The UGBC planed accordingly and SPO formed a committee by late August. But, Kitlas said, he was told that the committee would not be able to form a strategic plan by Sept. 9, the planned date for the concert.

The UGBC routinely has trouble securing dates for Conte Forum events due to conflicts with the athletics department. Organizers

usually receive one or two dates to host a concert and plan accordingly around those dates.

“Conte is virtually impossible to get once the ice goes down for the hockey team to start practicing, which is why we were unable to push the concert back,” said Mike Zarrilli, executive director of campus en-tertainment for UGBC and CSOM ’12. “For example, athletics had a difficult time finding a date for Ice Jam this year.”

Zarrilli will be working with Kit-las in reallocating the funds – around $40,000 – that are budgeted to the Fall Concert. The UGBC is plan-ning to host a musical event in the Plex this semester (Plex shows are traditionally held in the spring) and will be reallocating some funds to the BC to Boston program. The program buses BC students into the city to various venues and has enjoyed success in its inaugural year last spring.

Meanwhile, the concert review process is under way and should be completed by mid-October, Kitlas said.

“The administration doesn’t think the process can completely solve the alcohol problem, but they hope it will create better solutions. They can’t support an event that puts students in this high risk drink-ing situation. They’ve said it’s not a punishment. Our health and safety is their primary concern.”

Miceli’s letter reiterated Kitlas’ comments. “The health and safety

of our students and the larger com-munity are of paramount impor-tance to both the Student Programs Office and Boston College,” Miceli wrote. “It goes without saying that having hospital emergency rooms overwhelmed by intoxicated Boston College students is not acceptable.”

The strategic plan committee is comprised of Miceli and Kitlas, in addition to Don Camelio, program administrator for alcohol and drugs in the Office of Health Promotion and Kate Daly, assistant director of the Volunteer and Service Learning Center.

“This will be the one and only review process, and our hope is that the Spring Concert will be a time to test out the administration’s recom-mendations,” Kitlas said. “There will also be a small review after that concert to see if the recommenda-tions worked.”

The UGBC has set up a twitter account, @UGBCconcerts, to filter feedback from students on the is-sue. Those interested can also send comments to UGBCconcerts@gmail.com

“If students have any questions, they can tweet them at us, and we’ll answer them,” said Bianca Gandar-ias, executive director of communi-cations for UGBC and A&S ’12.

Kitlas will also be holding office hours to answer students’ questions on Monday and Wednesday from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. His office is in the UGBC headquarters on the second floor of 21 Campanella Way. n

Concerts, from A1

that we hope is aspires to be.”Dunn said he hopes these rank-

ings will not deter students from applying to BC. “We hope that per-spective students would not make a decision based on Princeton’s surveys, given their obvious flaws,” he said. “But rather, would hear from BC students themselves, who can provide a realistic assessment of student life at Boston College.”

Following BC’s 2010 debut in the “Little Race / Class Interac-tion” category, student leaders and administrators made concerted efforts to address student con-cerns about diversity on campus. The AHANA Leadership Council (ALC) has focused on this issue in recent years, and FACES, a campus discussion group that addresses is-sues of diversity, has held meetings with students and administrators to work through such issues on campus.

Gururaj Shan, ALC president and A&S ’12, said, “Overall, I believe the rankings are relatively unreli-able. While I am not dismissing the idea that our school has problems with race/class interaction, I do not believe the data presented by the Princeton Review can be considered valid evidence of it.

“The rankings report that they surveyed 122,000 students at 376 schools which implies an average sample of 324 students at each school,” he said. “This number rep-resents a mere 3.5 percent of Boston College’s population and can in no way be considered an accurate portrayal of our campus.”

“I believe that the issue has been continually discussed over the past few years, which may influence stu-dent responses on the survey,” Shan said. “We definitely do have an issue with it, and I believe Boston College has to first collect data of its own in order to address the issue. We need to look into the demographics of

our population not only in terms of race, which I know we have done in the past, but also class, and study the correlations between the two.”

Shan said the administration should approach this issue with the same dedication as they do the drinking culture. “In order to move the campus forward, we really need to analyze the culture at Boston College to see what may be the underlying cause for this issue,” he said. “The administration has been dedicated to looking into the drink-ing culture at Boston College and determining its causes and methods to curb it, but a similar initiative has not been set up for how the BC culture perpetuates little race/class interaction.”

“I think the argument has al-

ways been that drinking affects all students, while the other issues affect some,” Shan said. “However, I disagree since interaction is never a one-way street, which means both the advantaged and disadvantaged in the situation are losing out on potential relationships and experi-ences due to the limited interaction between races and socioeconomic classes at BC.”

The GLBTQ Leadership Council (GLC) responded similarly to BC’s high placement on the “LGBT-Un-

friendly” list. The GLC held its first gala event three years ago, presented a 10-year plan to the University, and instituted a new mentoring program, Queer Peers, for GLBTQ students on campus.

“We agree that Boston College has many steps to take, especially at the administrative level, to better the academic and social experience for GLBTQ students, faculty, staff and administrators,” said Carolyn McCrosson, GLC president and A&S ’12, and Joshua Tingley, GLC vice president and A&S ’13. “How-ever, this does not mean that we think that Boston College is deserv-ing of this low ranking.”

“Boston College has come a long way in recent history and among much of the student body and fac-ulty, there is a very supportive Ally community along with a supportive GLBTQ community on campus,” they said. “The GLC does more ev-ery year to better the experiences of GLBTQ students and to educate this campus on the issues and concerns of the GLBTQ community. We wish someone from the Princeton Review would have contacted members of the GLC when determining this ranking instead of making broad assumptions based on the responses of select students.

“We would like to use this op-portunity to remind students, fac-ulty, staff, and administrators that there is a network of support on this campus and prospective students are not doomed to come here as the Princeton Review suggests,” McCrosson and Tingley said. “How-ever, this campus does have a long way to go in terms of fully accept-ing and recognizing the GLBTQ community. More of our opinion on this matter can be found in our document ‘Reaching New Heights’ that was sent to the upper level administration of this school.”

A complete list of The Princ-eton Review rankings can be found online. n

Rankings, from A1

Student leaders disagree with results of ‘Review’ rankings

“The University’s ongoing position has been that the premature release of the tapes could threaten the safety of the participants, the enterprise of oral history, and the ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland.”

Jack Dunn, University Spokesman

“In order to move the campus forward, we really need to analyze the culture at Boston College to see what may be the underlying cause for this issue.”

Gururaj Shan, President of the ALC and A&S ’12

Incoming class continues trend of raising the admissions bar

Large concerts under scrutiny

BC remembers deceased students

The heighTsThursday, September 8, 2011 A5

By Molly laPoint Asst. News Editor

The Volunteer and Service Learn-ing Center (VSLC) plans to implement many changes this year, including ex-panding its office space into McElroy 120, augmenting its programs, and potentially changing its name.

This year, the VSLC is hoping to become a place where students can come to find out about all volunteer organizations, whether or not they are run through the VSLC.

“One of the things we’re trying to do is make sure the VSLC becomes the portal for all service organizations at Boston College,” said Dan Ponsetto, director of the VSLC.

The VSLC, whose current pro-grams include the Eagle Volunteer Corps, a listserv that allows students to receive e-mails about service oppor-tunities, Hoops for Hope, the English Language Learner Employee Program, the Welles Crowther Red Bandana 5K Run, and the Jemez Pueblo Exchange, is also hoping to bring more focus to the department.

“We’re trying to focus our mission with a strong emphasis on the city of Boston,” Ponsetto said. “A lot of that comes from our understanding that students here want to serve. We want to address that low rumbling that people feel frustrated that they weren’t able to find the time or got rejected from a service organization.”

There are two big programs the VSLC is working on this year. It will be expanding its Big Brother and Big Sis-ter program, increasing recruitment and providing more resources on cam-pus for involved students, Ponsetto said. In addition, it will be increasing its involvement with Franklin Field, a neighborhood of Dorchester. Last year, 10 students were partnered with 10 boys from that neighborhood. Un-like the way the Big Brother program normally works, these students come to BC to participate in various activi-ties. This year, the program will expand to 25 or 30 pairs of students.

The second big program is new for this year. The VSLC is beginning the First Year Service Program. The First Year Service Fair will take place Sept. 13, and will feature multiple service organizations that will provide place-

ment for freshmen seeking involve-ment in a service organization.

“Students will be able to walk around, talk to them, and then indi-cate to our office if they want to work weekly or monthly, and then we’ll place them with an organization,” Ponsetto said.

The VSLC is anticipating a high volume of applications, and will not be accepting them that night. Students will take a form home, on which they will list their schedule and organiza-tion preferences, as well as signing to indicate that they understand they are making a commitment. Then, they will bring the form into the VSLC office within the week. “It will take some thought, and some action,” Ponsetto said.

The VSLC will coordinate with organizations that require applica-tions, such as 4Boston, so that those who are rejected from such programs will still have a chance to get involved. However, they cannot guarantee that all students will get their first choice or a placement at all, because of limited capacity at placements and differ-ing schedules. “It will be somewhat random,” Ponsetto said. “Anyone can serve, so it’s going to depend on what matches your schedule.”

The VSLC is expecting to make changes to the program in the future. “We’re looking at this as a learning year,” Ponsetto said. “We’re going to let it evolve.”

As sophomores, the class of 2015 will no longer will be eligible to be of-ficial members of the program, but will be welcome to continue service at their placement. This could mean the VSLC will have to look for more community partners next year, Ponsetto said.

These sophomores could poten-tially become involved in the leader-ship of the First Year Service Program. “We’re hoping that some of these sophomores will emerge as leaders,” Ponsetto said.

The mission statement of the VSLC will be adjusted to highlight the VSLC’s new role as a portal for resources on all service opportunities on campus, as well as its increasing emphasis on opportunities in the city of Boston. “What won’t change is our mission to help students serve,” Ponsetto said. n

VSLC centralizes as service organization hub

Alex TrAuTwig / heighTS ediTor

The University’s middle campus construction project

(shown above and right) is continuing on schedule. The

site will be the home of Stokes Hall, an academic building which will soon house the

humanities department, the Academic Advising Center, and the Arts and Sciences

Honors Program.

By ElisE taylor Heights Editor

Stokes Hall, one of the most visible construction projects un-derway at Boston College, remains on schedule.

According to the construction update released on the BC web-site, Stokes Hall will gain exterior block walls, steel erections, an addition of underslab and slab in certain wings, and an installation of granite on the North Wing throughout this month. The construc-tion mock-ups of the walls and pavers have also been completed.

Executive Vice President Patrick Keating said that he was pleased with the progress of Stokes. “The Stokes project is moving along well,” he said. “We expect the project to be completed in October of 2012 and be occupied for the start of the winter 2013 semester.” This date has remained consistent with earlier publicized projec-tions released by the University.

The 183,000 square foot academic building will eventually house BC’s humanities department, the Academic Advising center, the Arts and Sciences Honors Program, among others, and, when finished, will be the successful completion of one segment of the University’s Institutional Master Plan (IMP). The IMP, which was unveiled in December 2007, proposed new academic buildings, a student center, recreation center, fine arts district, playing fields for baseball, softball and intramurals, and undergraduate housing for the school. The first phase of the IMP, which includes Stokes, is also underway with the ongoing renovation of the administra-tive buildings on Brighton Campus and the completed renovation of Gasson Hall.

According to the update, the College Road stairway, originally expected to remain closed during construction, will open on week-ends and on weekdays after 4 p.m. n

Stokes Hall project remains on schedule

Alex TrAuTwig / heighTS ediTor

Alex TrAuTwig / heighTS ediTor

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011

Editorials

A6

The Heights welcomes Letters to the Editor not exceeding 200 words and column submissions that do not exceed 700 words for its op/ed pages.

The Heights reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity, accuracy, and to prevent libel. The Heights also reserves the right to write headlines and choose illustrations to accompany pieces submitted

to the newspaper. Submissions must be signed and should include the author’s con-

nection to Boston College, address, and phone number. 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, The Heights, 113 McElroy Commons, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467.

SAmAnThA Cohen / heighTS illuSTrATion

Show respect, root for the home team

lEttErs to thE Editor

Even though I have been a sophomore for an entire weekend, I do not think of myself as that different from the freshman. I know that there was a time when I car-ried a tray at Mac or climbed on a bus that was headed to Cleveland Circle not Newton. However, on Sept. 5, I saw something I have never seen before, a Notre Dame T-shirt being worn proudly inside Mac. Even worse, it was a Notre Dame football shirt and it was green and it was hideous.

As I walked back to my College Road dorm feeling as if my Boston College soul had taken a sucker punch, I passed not one but two Duke Basketball shirts. After a few hours of picking up my broken BC heart I was able to sit down and write this letter to the editor. I understand that Boston College is not an athletics powerhouse. I understand many students come from across the country

and carry their local sports allegiances with them to Boston College. And I understand that BC is at a unique level of academic excellence, which leads many disap-pointed Irish and Blue Devils to the Heights every fall. However, freshman (or anyone else supporting Notre Dame or Duke) you are part of the BC community.

Hostile and offensive school spirit is disgusting but a community united behind its teams and its school is stronger than one divided. Take off the shirts supporting rival schools’ athletic programs (burn them), throw on a Superfan shirt, and immerse yourself in the BCcom-munity.

DaviD albares

A&S ’14

The eyes and ears of academia are pointed at Boston College this fall as the University fights a subpoena that would require BC to relinquish a set of classified documents on the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The documents - a series of interviews with former Irish Republican Army mem-bers and British authorities - are alleged to contain information about the 1972 murder of Jean McConville, a widow who was killed by members of the Provisional IRA. BC researchers offered the interview-ees confidentiality until death – a promise they might have to break if they abide by the subpoena.

This presents big questions: What does this mean for future oral history projects? What does this mean for the ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland? and, of course, the ultimate question: Should BC abide by the subpoena or stand its ground?

In a word, no. They shouldn’t. While the Police Service of Northern Ireland is justifiably zealous in pursuing this cold-case murder, the fact remains that BC was oper-ating outside police jurisdiction in gathering the interviews. In fact, BC would not have been able to gather its information had it not been for the confidentiality agreement, which the PSNI is simultaneously trying to exploit and defile.

There are other reasons for BC to be

respectfully stubborn. Some commentators – particularly Anthony McIntyre and Ed Moloney, both of whom worked with BC in conducting the interviews – have alleged that the actions of the PSNI are politically motivated. In a recent op-ed to the Boston Globe, the duo described the subpoena as a “fishing expedition” for dirt on Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

But, political allegations aside, no one but the interviewees and the interviewers knows which are in the files, which are kept under lock and key in Burns Library.As Christopher Hitchins says, “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” There is cur-rently no evidence that BC’s documents contain any information that would interest the PSNI.

Still, even if there is incriminating infor-mation, what does that matter?

The PSNI should respect the autonomy of BC in the matter and direct its resources elsewhere in pursuit of justice.

The latest development from the PSNI has been a new subpoena issued last month requesting all of BC’s documents from its oral history project, named the Belfast Proj-ect. We can only hope that the PSNI intends to use those documents to investigate cold cases involving British belligerents. But even so, we hope to BC stand its ground on this one. Sometimes it’s O.K. to be stubborn.

Protecting documents, preserving honor

To protect the integrity of future oral history projects, BC should not release contents of the Belfast Project

Factors in selecting a smartphoneI recently decided to make the long

overdue decision to upgrade from a regular cell phone to a smartphone. As a Verizon subscriber, I had the choice between a wide variety of phones. After some initial research, I narrowed it down to three choices: the iPhone 4 by Apple, the Droid 2 Global by Motorola, and the Droid Charge by Samsung.

I compared the three phones using the standard criteria: price, battery life, app capabilities, etc. Each of these phones had their specific pros and cons, but to me, they all seemed fairly similar. I was still unsure, so I decided to evaluate the phones using new criteria.

Not long ago, I learned that some of the minerals in our phones may originate from conflict areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo and our purchases may be indirectly fund-ing armed groups committing atroci-ties there. I also learned that a new generation of conscious consumers has emerged in response to this crisis, similar to those who confronted blood diamonds and sweatshops. These consumers are pressuring electronics companies to investigate where their minerals are coming from and work towards guaranteeing their minerals as conflict-free.

With smartphones in mind, I was curious to find out what Apple,

Motorola, and Samsung were doing in regards to the conflict minerals issue. I decided to give them each a call.

The first company I called was Apple. When I asked about the DRC and the origin of their minerals, the representative took a few minutes to do some research. When she returned to the call, she informed me that she is “not sure about that information.” She said Apple products are, “mercury free, arsenic free, and bromine free,” but that Apple has not commented on the situation in the DRC.

Next, I called Motorola. I was transferred several times to different representatives, but I finally got in touch with someone who could tell me more about the Droid 2 Global. However, when I asked him about minerals, he told me, “To be honest with you, sir, I have no information on that at all. I have no idea where to get that information.”

Last, I called Samsung. The response was similar to that of Motorola. The representative spent a while searching for information, but he eventually just told me, “We don’t have any information on that. I am not in the right position to give you that information. I can assure you, all the minerals are legal, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

Since calling the companies did not give me much information, I

decided to check online. I discovered that an advocacy group, The Enough Project, has published a report grad-ing each electronics company on their efforts to trace conflict minerals. Ac-cording to the report, Motorola is do-ing better than Apple and Samsung. However, Apple recently joined the Conflict-Free Smelter program that puts pressure on mining companies to verify their minerals as conflict-free. The Enough Project offers consumers the chance to email companies and ask them to do more to work towards a mineral certification scheme.

I encourage everyone to consider the issue of conflict minerals when purchasing electronics. Whether or not you make your decision based on a company’s efforts on the issue, simply asking them about it can make a difference. It shows them that consumers care about where their products come from, and if enough people ask about conflict minerals, companies will change their behavior. They will invest more time and effort into tracing their products and guar-anteeing them as conflict-free. In this way, we can help work towards ending the violence in the DRC.

DaviD Willner

A&S ’12

In the 2011 edition of The Princeton Review’s “Best Colleges” rankings, Bos-ton College was ranked eighth in the “Little Race/Class Interaction” category and fifth in the “LGBT-Unfriendly” cat-egory. BC’s position in these rankings increased over the past year and made strong statements to those outside of the BC community about the experi-ences of students at BC.

The rankings, however, are not a particularly strong barometer for mea-suring the varied experiences of all BC students. According to the Review’s web-site, a part of the publication’s rankings are calculated through student-submit-ted testimonials. Any BC student may log into the Review’s website and rank BC in a number of categories. From a statistical standpoint, this method of data collection falls victim to sample bias. Because the students surveyed are not randomly selected, but are choosing to give answers, the range of opinions surveyed does not represent all types of students, but rather those who felt

compelled to give their opinions on these particular issues. Furthermore, the surveys were each based off the responses of less than 100 out of more than 9,000 undergraduates, a number which falls well outside of the limits of statistical significance. Because the sample size is so small, a group the size of a small classroom could very easily manipulate the results.

Although it can be argued that the Review’s methodology practices require scrutiny, the opinions collected are still valid representations of the respon-dents’ views, and these issues should not be written off as irrelevant.Though prospective students should not base their opinions about BC on these rank-ings, issues of race/class interaction and LGBT acceptance are certainly present at BC, and The Heights encourages students to consider how they person-ally contribute to these problems, and what behaviors they can better in order to create a more accepting campus en-vironment.

An improper measurement

Diversity interaction rankings aren’t representative of reality, but are cause for discussion

Over the summer, the Boston Col-lege community lost two members of its undergraduate family, as Tony Nwokedi, A&S ’13, and Kristine Topel, A&S ’12, passed away.

As we begin another school year, engrossed in organizing our academic responsibilities, friendships, and future plans, dedicating a moment to reflect on the losses of these two students is necessary. Doing so puts into perspec-tive what is truly important and what it means to leave a legacy. The friends

and family of these students, as well as the BC community, will feel the losses of Nwokedi and Topel who impacted those around them through the way they learned, lived, and loved.

Our years spent at BC are torn in several directions by an amalgamation of influences and obligations. If we can continue to maintain focus on what makes us most proud and complete, we can continue to build legacies as BC students similar to those left by Nwokedi and Topel.

Thinking beyond the here and now

The loss of two members of the BC community this summer reminds us to refocus our perspectives

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Be systematically heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than its difficulty, so that, when the hour of need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved or untrained to stand the test.”

Daniel Akst, author, We Have Met the Enemy: Self-Control in an Age of Excess

EditorialThe heighTs

Established 1919The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

Michael Caprio, Editor-in-Chief

Clara Kim, Copy EditorTaylour Kumpf, News EditorPaul Sulzer, Sports EditorKristopher Robinson, Features EditorDarren Ranck, Arts & Review EditorDavid Cote, Marketplace EditorAna Lopez, Opinions EditorDan Tonkovich, Special Projects EditorAlex Trautwig, Photo EditorLindsay Grossman, Layout EditorMollie Kolosky, Graphics Editor

BusinEss and opErations

Margaret Tseng, Business ManagerChristina Quinn, Advertising Manager Zachary Halpern, Outreach CoordinatorCecilia Provvedini, Systems ManagerJames Gu, Local Sales ManagerJamie Ciocon, Collections ManagerAmy Hachigian, Asst. Ads ManagerSeth Fitchelberg, Business AssistantDaniel Ottaunick, General Manager

DJ Adams, Managing Editor

David Riemer, Online ManagerTherese Tully, Assoc. Copy EditorAdriana Mariella, Assoc. News EditorMolly LaPoint, Asst. News EditorGreg Joyce, Assoc. Sports EditorChris Marino, Asst. Sports EditorBrooke Schneider, Asst. Features EditorBrennan Carley, Assoc. Arts & Review EditorCharlotte Parish, Asst. Arts & Review EditorMatt Palazzolo, Asst. Marketplace EditorKevin Hou, Asst. Photo Editor

Woogeon Kim, Asst. Layout EditorAlex Manta, Asst. Graphics EditorDara Fang, Asst. Online ManagerElise Taylor, Editorial AssistantKatherine McClurg, Executive Assistant

The heighTsThursday, September 8, 2011

OpiniOns

ally I find myself in situations where it is incumbent upon me to introduce the person. These elaborate, rhetorical tap dancing routines whereby I am able to introduce a person without saying their name causes undue stress and anxi-ety. Usually after one or two of these encounters I buckle down and resolve to figure out the person’s name.

But not all of these situations end happily. In one case, I was introduced to two friends, several times, but had yet to learn their names. I passed by these two people all the time, occa-sionally having a conversation with one or both of them. For months, I deftly avoided having to say their names, us-ing a series of impromptu nicknames to cover my ignorance. Finally, the ruse came to a close when one night at a party I ran into both of them. They had clearly tired of my obfuscation and were ready to call me out. They asked me, point blank, if I knew their names. I responded, “Of course, I do! That’s ridiculous. How was your summer?” all the while digging the proverbial shovel into my social grave. The two were not distracted by my trickery and instead forged ahead with the inquisition. Un-able to contact my attorney and having been cut off from any possible escape route I cracked under the pressure and apologized. My head hung in shame. My integrity, shattered.

Subsequent efforts to remember people’s names have ended in similar failure. I started to say people’s names immediately after hearing them and would use them frequently in the initial conversation we had. If you have never tried this strategy I encourage you to do so. Even try it out on some-one whose name you already know. Over the course of the conversation try to use their name at least three times. You will likely discover, as I did, that it

sounds incredibly creepy. In addition, this strategy often

backfires. Once I misheard a person’s name and kept repeating back to them a name that was clearly not theirs. For months, I would run into this person around campus and because I was ex-cited that I thought I had remembered their name, I repeatedly called them by it. I was only recently corrected.

Returning to school has kindled this old problem. Three months being away from Boston College has really chal-lenged my ability to remember names. Already I have been caught in mo-ments where I have run into someone who I had met at the end of last semes-ter and obviously neither of us remem-bers the other’s name. Nevertheless, we dance around this fact with a series of “buddys,” “pals,” and “dudes.”

On one hand, why are names even important? If you have come to know someone a little but have yet to learn his or her name, what does it matter? But on the other hand, learning names is the most elementary step one must take to get to know someone. I doubt there is a single person who you would consider a friend whose name you do not know. Making sure you learn someone’s name when you first meet him or her is more than just sparing yourself from later embarrassment. It is about forcing yourself to focus on the other person instead of just waiting until they are done talking so you can speak. Personally, my school year’s resolution is to make a genuine effort to learn people’s names instead of just pretending to know. That is, if I remember.

A7

Dylan Hewkin

Gasson – Chances are, if our newly revamped cam-pus crown jewel had been a contestant on “The Swan,” it would have swept the compe-tition. How can you say no to a fresh face like that? However, injecting a little of that fresh-ness indoors and curbing the century-old building’s stifling temperature wouldn’t hurt.

High Chairs – The new, multi-level seating schemes being enjoyed in Carney dining halls and Corcoran Commons are putting Bos-ton College students’ favorite pastime, people watching, on a whole new level—literally. But any seasoned veteran of the BC spy scene knows the booths outside Addie’s will forever reign as prime snoop-ing grounds.

Stokes – My, they grow up so fast, don’t they? Or at least Stokes has. Someone needs to test that bad boy for growth hormones.

The Skinny on Weed – You’d think with the reputation pot smokers have for being prone to “munching,” they’d be a pretty hefty bunch. However, a new study is showing that, on average, only 17 percent of people that use cannabis are obese, compared to 25 percent of non-smokers. Though these results are thought-provok-ing, TU/TD isn’t condoning opening a dispensary to fulfill your weight-loss goals. The Plex is still a much better, not to mention legal, option.

Other Eagles – So we lost to Northwestern on our first turn out of the gate. But don’t sell all of your Superfan gear just yet, three BC teams – men’s soccer, women’s soccer, and field hockey – are currently ranked in the top 20 in their sports. If you’re still feeling down about BC athletics , think about adopting low ex-pectations. You can only go up from there.

A Cleaner Carney’s – Who knew BC Dining could make their food more appetizing with nails and plywood? We’re talking about the sparkling, clean redesign of Carney din-ing hall, of course. There’s something to be said for pur-chasing food from a well-lit cafeteria rather than a dark circus tent. However, did the sign over the desserts stand reading “Temptations” really have to be that large and over-whelming? We’re looking to buy a brownie, not pushed to review our life choices.

Lines – They say the best things come to those who wait. Well, we’re definitely waiting, but wouldn’t classify a $500 bill at the bookstore or a grueling hour on the tread-mill the “best” things. Maybe the adage refers to waiting for the mass of life all over campus to subside.

The Imperfect Storm – If you talked to a BC student last week, life was just too good to be true: gearing up for another year in Chestnut Hill, football season started, and the weather was to die for. As these things go, it was too good. Our stint riding the paradise wave is over, time to gear up for cloudy skies for the foreseeable future.

Get your daily dose. Follow TU/TD on Twitter.

@BCTUTD

Thumbs Down

Thumbs Up

Winning the name game

The blame game

Why we remember

Dylan Hewkin is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at opinions@bcheights.com.

Meeting people is stressful. There are a series of rituals and formalities that one must enter into in order to complete the process. Sometimes an introduction to someone is accompa-nied by a handshake. Other times, and especially among the male population, a complicated hand clapping routine with a corresponding shoulder bump is employed. Often, there is just a smile. But immediately upon meeting people you have to absorb a host of informa-tion that you will undoubtedly be test-ed on later. Who is this person? What do the two of you have in common? And most of all, what is their name?

I, like many people, am awful with names. Sometimes I forget them seconds after introductions. Even if I do manage to remember it past the initial introduction I am poor at remembering it later. I start to second guess myself. Did he say Max or Jack? Or was it Tom? Sam? This problem is sometimes an easy fix. If a friend of yours introduced you, you can just ask them again. If the person was in one of your classes you can check on Agora. If those fail, Facebook stands ready to assist.

But sometimes these efforts fail. More often, I just forget that I should look up the person’s name. I then find myself in awkward situations where it is too late to ask the question, “What is your name again?” This problem only increases as time goes on and eventu-

Like every other type-A, highlighter obsessed, perfectly scheduled individual, I spent my last few days of summer filling in my Google calendar for the next year. After putting in each of my final exams for the fall semester (and yes, this was before school actually started), I scanned the Boston College academic calendar for the words “no classes.” This phrase was preceded by Labor Day, Columbus Day, and Martin Luther King Day, but I looked right past those parts. I didn’t care about the reason, just the result.

This isn’t the first time I ignored the meaning of a specific remembrance day. I never forget that banks are closed on Veteran’s Day, but when passing a flag on the way to the ATM, I’ve been known to ask why it’s at half-mast. On Memorial Day, the same proceedings occur.

So yes, I’ll admit that on many days set aside for remembrance, most of the time, I didn’t remember.

I thought that no concrete benefit would come from my thoughts, that if I spent my Memorial Day sitting and thinking about all the members of the United States Armed Forces who have died, chances are, my mood would drop and life would stay the same.

With the upcoming 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, though I know that without active intention, I’ll find myself sitting there less upbeat than the day before. On that day, I won’t need a day off of school to remind me, and I won’t be wondering about the half-mast flags. Like everyone in my generation, I vividly remember the day the principal came in and whispered to my teacher, the day several classmates were pulled out of class based on where their parents worked, and the day my mom and I watched smoke filling in the skyline across the Long Island Sound.

If I’m forced to remember, I wondered if I at least could make something posi-tive come out of it. Upon contemplation, I’ve realized that remembering doesn’t have to be a passive process, and can lead to positive change. Recalling the attacks 10 years ago brings up feelings of national unity and positive fear, which can spark change. It can make volunteers want to educate others so that they don’t turn to extremism in ignorance, and can make politicians feel connected to fellow citizens, becoming more likely to compromise and work together for the good of America.

For me personally, the change that comes from this reflection won’t be drastic, and that is why I’ve gone so many years without thinking that it mattered. But this Sept. 11, or Veteran’s Day, or Memorial Day, maybe my remembrance will make me more appreciative of what our firefighters and soldiers have done for us. I might be reminded of our com-mon humanity, and be inspired to help others in my daily life. And perhaps I’ll be incited to learn more about other cultures after seeing the destruction that misunderstanding and hatred can yield.

Remembrance like this could help each individual person, but also our na-tion as a collective whole. Being attacked brought an unprecedented level of patriotism and unity, which we desper-ately need at this time. Politicians are divided within their parties, and political compromise has become like the green spaces on BC’s campus: nowhere to be found. People need to remember not just the events, but also the unity that fol-lowed. And as we still face threats from a slew of nations, we need to remember that fear.

Throughout the year, it’s easy to forget the horrifying events that occurred, and to an extent, this is for the best, as we cannot be constantly thinking about that Sept. 11, purely for sanity’s sake. However, it’s important to have a day to reflect on the tragedy in 2001, not just for the sake of reflection, but because that reflection, if done properly, can lead to change. The change that comes from remembering often can’t be planned or concretely documented. I can’t add it to my “to-do” list and then cross it off on Sept. 12. However, the impact that stems from recollection should not be disre-garded.

Yes, giving Veteran’s Day and Memo-rial Day their due attention might make us sad about the wars that have occurred. Martin Luther King Day might cause discomfort at the thought of pre-civil rights injustices. And this Sept. 11 will be painful for all Americans. The only thing worse than that pain, though, would be the lack of it.

John Blakeslee is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes comments at opinions@bcheights.com.

Marye Moran is a staff columnist for The Heights. She welcomes comments at opinions@bcheights.com.

JoHn Blakeslee

Marye Moran

“people’s champion.” Complete with a long list of quotes so mind numb-ingly dumb, she’s already given Tina Fey and the SNL crew enough material for three seasons. And let’s not forget about Newt Gingrich who is possibly more abrasive and annoying than late night re-runs of The Nanny. Just about the only breath of fresh air though, has been Rick Perry.

With a record of actual success in his long tenure as Texas’ governor, Perry is shaping up to be Romney’s big-gest adversary. Instead of trying to walk the lines between Tea Party populism and moderate conservatism like his Mormon opponent, Perry at least has

the appearance of being genuine. A very real fear among Republicans however, is that Obama and the Dem-ocrats will simply make out Perry to be the second coming of George W. Just because he is a Texas governor and an Evangelical, Obama will try to use the connection to launch what will most certainly be the theme of his campaign: “Don’t blame me, blame Bush.”

Unfortunately for the president, I have a feeling that Americans have grown tired of hearing the same excuse for three and a half years. Sure the economy was not exactly at peak per-

formance, but since Obama’s inaugura-tion things have gotten exponentially worse. If Obama gets all the credit for the death of Bin Laden, then why should Bush be blamed for the reces-sion? Unfortunately, that’s a whole other story.

At the end of the day, the current administration has been plagued by indecisiveness and stubbornness. When it comes to creating jobs, the fact that we are still even considering spending money to do so blows my mind. Perry has already voiced his desire to see a six-month break from federal business regulations. It is now painfully clear that a lack of government spending is

not the problem behind unemploy-ment. If we make this country a

more profitable environment for business, then the problem will

work itself out.Obama however, wants to

see the government under-take huge building programs to provide work for the mil-

lions of unemployed contractors. Sure

that makes some people happy in the short term, but where does that leave us a few years down the road? Increased national debt and a continuing search for stable jobs are not the results we are looking for.

So to all of those Republicans who are skeptical of putting up

another Texas governor to try and oust Obama, let

it go. The last thing we need right now is another candidate who is more interested in simply winning the election, than one who actually has the qualities needed to get us out of the present crisis.

As the 2012 presidential election nears, I seem to be suffering a serious case of deja vu. Amid President Barack Obama’s multitude of shortcomings and the looming threat of missing out on a second term, it seems that the White House has decided to put the economy on the back burner and move into full re-election mode. Instead of using his Camp David retreat to assess the failures of his consistent spending, he has come out firing over the issues of unemployment and job creation. It would seem however, that he is firing blanks. He calls the proposed spend-ing a necessary investment for the long-term viability of our economy. Sound familiar? Or how about his attacks on the partisan GOP contin-gent in Con-gress that, he claims, strictly protects the interests of “oil com-panies and the most affluent of Ameri-cans.”

As for those greedy Republicans , Mitt Romney says that the latest unemployment reports are further evidence that “Obama has failed.” His solution however, is still in the works, leaving him to tirelessly remind us that he alone has spent years in the private sector. Then we have Michele Bachmann, who makes Sarah Palin look like Eleanor Roosevelt, parading around calling herself the

Bazoomie Wagon | Ben Vadnal

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011A8

look upon the leader

alex trautwig / photo editor

insidekevin rogers’ new offense 2Q&A with the linebAckers 3the best nicknAmes on the teAm 3rettig’s progression 6whAt’s plAying on richmAn’s ipod 6the 2011 schedule 8

2011 Boston College FootBall Preview the heightsthursdAy, september 8, 2011

pAge 4montel hArris tAkes his knee problems in stride

pAge 7colin lArmond, Jr.,

And the hAil mAry pAss

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011B2

the injured bc student body

96 – Kaleb RamseyRamsey was removed from saturday’s game in the first quarter when he injured his foot. In this saturday’s depth chart, Ramsey was slotted to be the starting defensive tackle again.

3 – IfeanyI momahIn saturday’s match-up with northwestern, the fifth-year senior went down with a season-ending aCl injury on his left knee. bC has said it will appeal for a sixth year of eligibility for momah.

2 – montel haRRIsharris underwent his second arthroscopic left knee surgery in august, delaying his comeback to the field. he hopes to be back within the next two weeks, barring any more setbacks.

75 – nate RIChmanlike fletcher, Richman also is returning from a back injury. he saw limited action in the north-western game, but will be moving back to the starting guard at Central florida.

4 – DonnIe fletCheRThe captain suffered a back injury in august, and was held out of action in the season-opener against northwestern. he is slotted to return on saturday at Central florida.

The reaction to the end of the Gary tranquill era reminds me of a left-wing political power play. Casting off the shackles of an overly conservative offensive coordinator, boston College has entrusted the dy-namic Kevin Rogers with the play calling. he comes to Chestnut hill promising change superfans can believe in. he’s the barack obama to tranquill’s George bush.

We’re one game into Rogers’ tenure. It’s easy to jump to conclusions based on saturday’s 24-17 loss to northwestern. let him find out what works, and what doesn’t, before making final judgment. for now, let’s dissect what didn’t work to figure out how he can change that.

so far, Rogers has produced mixed results, much like obama. (If you want political analysis from people who actually know what they’re talking about, check out our marketplace section.) yes, the new offensive coordinator calls play-actions and rollouts and sweeps and everything else critics have been clamoring for since tranquill sedated the masses with a steady dose of run-run-pass possessions. but he hasn’t fixed the o-line issues that have troubled bC following Jeff Jagodzinski’s decision that interviewing for a job he had no shot at getting trumped building upon the most successful coaching debut at this school since frank leahy 70 years ago.

The longstanding problems along the offensive line are especially troubling because bC has been weak there for so long despite having an inherent recruiting advantage. The guys in the trenches are among the smartest on the field. They should be attracted to the program by academics alone. When coupled with bC’s tradition for producing quality pros at the position, that gives the eagles a fantastic pitch for the best pros-pects. Instead, “o-line U” has become a misnomer lately. bC struggles to protect the pocket and to open running lanes, as we saw against northwestern.

none of that is Rogers’ fault, but it is his dilemma. to compensate for the inexperience up front, he has tailored the playbook to suit the strengths of the back-field. Chase Rettig spent more time outside the pocket against the Wildcats than he did his entire fresh-man year. That helped his confidence early on, when northwestern was crowding the box and begging him to beat them up top. and he did, for the most part, when he had time to set his feet and throw. too often, though, he had a hand in his face because a defensive lineman was blowing up the play. Rettig’s progress is limited by the line’s inability to form a cohesive unit. (In fairness to the line: Rettig did hold on to the ball for too long. as he becomes more decisive, this issue will dissipate.)

The limitations of the line are also evident in the rushing options Rogers has at his disposal. When he was able to get running back andre Williams to the edge, the eagles were lethal. look no further than the first play of the game, when Williams went off left tackle for 69 yards. between the tackles, however, the eagles’ efforts were futile. Williams is a powerful run-ner (6-foot, 225 pounds), but he couldn’t gain an inch between the tackles. every carry up the middle went right into a crowd of purple and white jerseys.

again, this is a problem that can resolve itself down the road. Williams is a sophomore, so he still has time to learn to hit the hole quickly and hard. meanwhile, the eagles are on the verge of regaining primary back montel harris, who excels at slipping through the smallest creases thanks to his slighter build. (for more on harris, check out “hanging in the balance” on pages 4-5.)

so it’s not time to panic. at least not yet. The young bC offense put up almost 500 yards from scrimmage against a bCs opponent. The eagles only scored 17 points, but they didn’t even reach the red zone much last year. They never had the opportunity to learn how to finish drives. They’ll pick that up as they get more reps near pay dirt.

let’s re-poll Rogers’ constituents midway through the season. We’ll see if they’re as eager to jump ship then.

New offense still needs some workalex TrauTwig / heighTS ediTor

Chase Rettig (left) and Andre Williams (right) will benefit from more time in new coordinator Kevin Rogers’ offense.

By Tim JaBlonski

Heights Staff

Given the steep learning curve that Division 1 football requires, boston College safety hampton hughes should be pretty proud of how he acquit-ted himself in the eagles

loss to northwestern on sunday.after all, he’s been playing his position for

a little over two weeks now.The former wide receiver was moved to

safety in time for bC’s fourth scrimmage of the summer, which was held eight days prior to the season opener. although he had originally come to the eagles in 2008 as a defensive back, hughes hasn’t played the position in years. but he was willing to do whatever needed to get on the field.

“I came in as a safety, and I’ve switched

back and forth a couple times,” hughes said. “It’s been challenging, but wherever the coaches need me to fill in I’m happy to help

out the team.”The first signal that hughes was turning

heads came in april, when head coach frank spaziani rewarded the third-year walk-on with a full scholarship. hughes credits his experi-ence as a walk-on with helping him develop the habits that have propelled him into the starting lineup.

“being on scholarship and having the op-portunity to play now allows me to put all the years I spent as a walk on in perspective,” he said. “I won’t forget that I had to work. even now I have to work just as hard or even harder to stay where I am. I still bring that work ethic that got me to where I am today in practice.”

after the dismissal of former safety oke-chukwu okoroha and the surprising transfer of Dominick leGrande left the secondary with only one upperclassman, the coaching staff had few options other than turning to the one-time safety hughes. and although he was surprised by the opportunity, the switch has not changed

his approach to practice. “as far as coming in on the defense and

either being a backup or a starter, you have to

Players under the radar could come through

season. he credits his preparation over the last nine months with helping him to reach the starting lineup.

“I got stronger in the weight room, I worked even more on basic fundamentals, things that you can never practice enough,” Jones said. “I just tried to make myself more confident in my abilities.”

Confidence might be a little in short supply in the eagle secondary after the departures of veterans okoroha and leGrande, but Jones and junior safety Jim noel bring a measure of experience to a mostly green group that is still growing together.

“I think all the adversity that happened this pre-season brought us closer together, Jones said. “We haven’t been playing together as much as some of the older guys. We know we have to make an impact on the field for this

team to be successful, and we have to come together in order for that to happen.”

Though they didn’t see the field much last saturday, eagles fans should keep an eye out for backup tailbacks tahj Kimble and Deuce finch. both prepared for major playing time in the weeks leading up to the season opener, and remain potential weapons should andre Williams aggravate his ankle injury. after miss-ing last season with an aCl tear, finch “got a lot tougher physically and mentally in the offseason” and is hungry for an opportunity to show that he’s healthy. With two carries for nine yards, Kimble was the only other back given the chance to run ball against north-western; look for him to get touches against Central florida this saturday. n

take the same mindset to practice and meet-ings in how you prepare for a game,” he said. “you have to prepare for every play like you’ll be playing.”

If his play is any indication, hughes appears to have been preparing for quite some time. In his first collegiate start at his second position on saturday, he collected four tackles and helped hold northwestern under 200 yards passing for the day. mistakes he makes now can be written off to inexperience, but as the season progresses, the expectations for one of the reigning best defenses in the country will be raised.

hughes is aware that there are several hungry backups itching for a chance to get on the field, most notably redshirt freshman sean sylvia. There’s little doubt that he’ll use the challengers threats as more motivation to stay where he has worked so hard to get.

after an offseason spent preparing to take over as a starter, cornerback C.J. Jones did not disappoint in his first collegiate start on sat-urday. The sophomore racked up four tackles and showed impressive quickness in helping limit Wildcats quarterback Kain Colter to 17 completions. he commented that his rigorous preparation sharpened a little bit more once he was promoted to full time starter.

“Knowing you have to come in and make an impact with all the movement in the sec-ondary, and knowing that you’ll be playing the position a lot, makes you take the role more seriously,” he said.

Jones played in parts of 12 games last

Hughes, Jones, Kimble, and Finch are all anticipating expanded roles this season

The former receiver moved to safety during BC’s fourth scrimmage of the summer, eight days prior to the season opener. Hughes hasn’t played the position in years.

37 - Hampton HugHesYear: Junior position: safetyHeight: 6 - 3Weight: 202Hometown: Dallas, texas

6 - C.J. JonesYear: sophomoreposition: CornerbackHeight: 5 -11Weight: 178Hometown: Wilmington, Del.

20 - taHJ KimbleYear: Redshirt freshmanposition: Running backHeight: 5 -11Weight: 210Hometown: Fernandina beach, Fla.

28 - RolanDan FinCH Year: sophomoreposition: Running backHeight: 5 -10Weight: 209Hometown: new albany, ind.

breakout candidates - vital information

alex TrauTwig / heighTS ediTor

Hughes paid his dues, and now he’s starting at safety two weeks after switching to the position.

alex TrauTwig / heighTS ediTor

Redshirt freshman Tahj Kimble is listed second on the depth chart vs. UCF this weekend. He recorded his first career touches against Northwestern.

Paul Sulzer is the Sports Editor for the Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.

Paul Sulzer

B6B2 FOOTBALL PREVIEW The heighTs THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

Richman as captains, Kuechly knows his role as a leader.

“I’m not the most vocal guy,” Kuechly said. “When I see something and I need to say something, I’m gonna say it, but I’m not gonna go out of my way to necessarily say something. That’s just not what I do.”

Described by his teammates and coach as more of a lead-by-example type of captain, Kuechly’s influ-ence on others is clear. All one has to do is look at the two linebackers that line up alongside Kuechly, Kevin Pierre-Louis, and Steele Divitto, and see how they have benefited by learning from Kuechly.

“It’s an honor,” Pierre-Louis said of playing with Kuechly. “He strains every day, every play. If you don’t try to match his skills, it’s almost like you’re letting the team down, you’re letting him down, you’re letting yourself down. You have to match his ability every day cause he works hard. He’s earned everything he has so far, and he’s only getting better.”

“Luke doesn’t quit any plays, he’s always running to the ball,” Divitto added. “He expects a lot of everybody around him. It’s good because it makes you step up your game as well. It’s just a big help to have him there. He’s a great kid and a great teammate.”

During his first two seasons on the Heights, Kuechly made a name for himself on the national scene. Many came to know him as “Boy Wonder” for his different demeanors on and off the field: a beast on the field chasing down opponents on Saturdays, but an ordinary college student during the week.

Now, Kuechly is beginning to resemble the part physically. Over the summer, he spent his time at BC doing four things: working out, eating, going to class, and eating some more.

“You just gotta eat as much food as you can,” Kuechly

B3

The silent warriorA soft-spoken student of the game, Kuechly led the nation’s No. 1 rushing defense in 2010

For Luke Kuechly, it has always been about the team. From the moment he first put on a football jersey in fourth grade, the name on the front has always been more important than the one on the back. Kuechly’s account of the first time he played football captures his motivation for playing his best:

“That first year of football, we won every game,” he said. “That was the biggest thing for me. We won the Pee Wee League Championship. So since the first time I played football, [winning] was all I wanted to do. It was a lot of fun. Just for me, I’m a competitive person. It was a good way for me to compete.”

No stories about how many tackles he recorded, and no stories about personal accomplishments. The first thing that came to Kuechly’s mind was about his team, his competitive nature, and winning—three themes that have gotten Kuechly to where he is today.

2009 ACC defensive rookie of the year and All-ACC first team honoree. 2010 Consensus All-American, All-ACC first team, Butkus Award runner-up, Nagurski Award finalist, and the nation-leader in tackles. 2011 Preseason All-American. Twenty-three consecutive games with 10 or more tackles, the longest active streak in the country. Eight-time ACC player of the week. Boston College’s all-time single-season leader in tackles, with 183 in 13 games.

The list of accolades that Kuechly has amassed dur-ing his career could go on for pages. But that wouldn’t be appropriate for BC’s junior linebacker.

“I really don’t care about numbers, stats, awards,” Kuechly said. “I just want to do what I can to help the team win. That’s the biggest thing. I play football to win games. I don’t play football to set records or have certain stats. I want to play to win. Anything I can do to do that, I’ll do my best to do.”

Kuechly’s play on the field during his first two sea-sons at BC has been off the charts as far as statistics go, but so has his work ethic and leadership. That earned him a spot as one of four captains for the 2011 season, though he is the sole captain that is not a senior.

“I think it’s a testament to what his teammates think

about him and as far as his production, his dedication, his work ethic, etcetera, etcetera,” said head coach Frank Spaziani of Kuechly getting voted captain.

“It’s something good,” Kuechly said. “It’s an honor to get elected by the guys on your team, and any time you get elected like that, you gotta be at a high level at all times to set an example.”

Joining Donnie Fletcher, Ifeanyi Momah, and Nate

said. “All I gotta do is eat and work out. They did a great job of putting us on a good plan to make that happen. They just say, ‘Be able to move.’ So as long as you can move with what you put on, it’s good for you.”

The results did not go unnoticed, as Spaziani said Kuechly now “looks like a linebacker.” Kuechly weighs in at a brawny 6-foot-3, 237 pounds.

“People joked with me a little bit about [bulking up],” Kuechly remarked. “I don’t really notice it cause I don’t think you notice yourself really getting bigger. But it’s better. Some things become a little easier with more size. It’s easier to control things.”

The summer workouts are just another example of Kuechly’s impressive work ethic. The life of a college athlete is not easy, but Kuechly adds a whole other di-mension to the term “student-athlete.” He is a student in every sense of the word, whether it is on the field, in the film room, or in the classroom.

On a typical Tuesday, Kuechly is in the weight room as early as 7:00 a.m., before heading to classes from 9-12. He tries to sneak in an hour-long nap after class before heading over to the Yawkey Center at 1:00 p.m. for the start of his football day. From 2:00-6:00 p.m. he is in team meetings and practice, which is followed by time in the tub, treatment, dinner, and then another

By GreG Joyce | Assoc. sports editor

By GreG Joyce

Assoc. Sports Editor

The Heights: How was training camp?

Luke Kuechly: With training camp, one thing I noticed is that it flew by this year more than anything. I think it went fast, probably because I know what’s going on. You get here freshman year and you don’t really know what’s going on. I think more than anything you know what to expect, and that’s the biggest thing for me.

Kevin Pierre-Louis: Camp has been going well. Everybody’s been battling; everyone’s been running to the ball. We’re really excited for this year.

Steele Divitto: It’s been a grind working every day and competing.

The Heights: How is this year’s defense looking compared to last year’s?

Kuechly: I think each team is different. I think we have to find our identity. We didn’t have an identity until probably the Clemson game last year. It’s a new group of guys this year so obviously there are differences. We’ve got a whole new secondary, we got new guys on the D-line. There’s a new feel. I can’t put a finger on exactly what’s different, but it’s just a new feel. We’re just excited to get going.

Pierre-Louis: It’s looking good. It’s a new year, so we gotta start with win one, tackle one. I believe we can be as good as we were last year statistically. We could even be better.

Divitto: Good. Everyone’s coming together. We’ve had a few new guys step in, so we’re pretty excited to see how they do, including myself. It’s gonna be a challenge. Every year we try to come out and be the best defense in the country.

The Heights: How’s the chemistry between you three?

Kuechly: Me and Kev have game experience together, and that’s obviously the biggest thing. I think you can’t replicate being in a game to-gether. Kev and I have a good understanding of each other. We’ve been in certain situa-tions, so when that situation pops up now, we kind of peek at each other real quick and kind of get on the same page.

Pierre-Louis: The chemistry has been well. We all know that noth-ing is tattooed. We practice out there everyday like our job is on the line, which it is. It’s just been going well so far.

Divitto: Good. Through camp there was a bunch of compe-tition and stuff back and forth, which is all great and keeps it pushing. But we’re real excited going into [game action]. I feel like we’re clicking and we just gotta go out and do us.

The Heights: What are the team-wide expectations for the season?

Kuechly: Expectations for us is that we want to be as good as we can be. I think everyone’s goal is to get to the Orange Bowl. Get to the ACC championship game first, then get to the Orange Bowl.

Pierre-Louis: We have team goals like hold the offenses under 17 points. We feel as though if we don’t do that and we lose the game, it’s definitely our fault. Things like hold them under 3.2 yards per carry. So as long as we stick to those goals, our expectations would be reached. Team-wise, we really want to send the seniors of this year along with a good winning record, not 7-6 like last year.

Divitto: We always have team goals, and that’s to be the best defense and win every game that we have set forth for us.

The Heights: Have you circled any games on the schedule?

Pierre-Louis: Not necessarily. We focus on today, think about tomorrow. The whole entire schedule is a good schedule. There are games like, obviously, Notre Dame that we’re excited about; Florida State on a Thursday night. But we try not to think about those too much.

Divitto: Every game on our schedule is pretty great. Notre Dame is always a great game. Miami will be cool. Central Florida. You just got to try to take it day by day and week by week just stay focused on that task at hand.

The Heights: What are you looking forward to most in the 2011 season?

Pierre-Louis: I’m looking forward to everyone getting their money’s worth—everyone that’s coming to the games,

everyone that bought season tickets. I’m looking forward to giving the BC student body a good showing this year.

Divitto: Coming together as a team. It’s all about the journey, about the experience. I’m

really excited for this journey. We’ve had a lot of hard work going into this season.

The Heights: What is one word you would use to describe this year’s linebackers?

Kuechly: Relentless. I like that word, it’s a good word.

Pierre-Louis: Hustle.

Divitto: Competitive. n

The list of accolades that Kuechly has amassed during his career could go on for pages. But that wouldn’t be very fitting for BC’s junior linebacker.

Get to know

the starters at linebacker

alex trautwig / heights editor

breakout candidates - vital information

hour back at Yawkey. It is in this last hour that Kuechly once again gets in the film room and watches more tape. Finally by 8:30 p.m., it is time for Kuechly to head back to his room where his schoolwork awaits him.

“It’s time management more than anything,” Kuechly said. “You get back to your room, you gotta sit down and do your work. I try to get to sleep pretty early. So I get back to my room, screw around for maybe ten minutes, and then you gotta start cranking on your work, cause there’s not a lot of time in the day to get it done.”

The extra time Kuechly puts in at night in the film room clearly pays dividends on the field, and it’s part of what makes him a special player.

“The thing that sets him apart is that he goes beyond coaching,” Spaziani said. “He just does instinctive, natural things that we just look at and go, ‘Wow.’ That’s what the great ones do. You tell them where to go and tell them what to do, but they produce because that’s what they are—they’re great players. He just makes plays in spite of what we tell him.”

It seems like Kuechly has done it all while at BC, but he knows there is one big thing still missing: a victory in a bowl game.

The elusive postseason win is something that Kuechly thinks about all the time. He called the two bowl game losses his toughest moments during his college career.

“You work so hard and then the climax of the season is a bowl game,” Kuechly said. “If you can’t win that game, it’s just a disappointment because you sit that whole offseason with that taste in your mouth. We won five straight games at the end of last season, but you lose that bowl game, it just sits with you. You work for it and you play that game and it sits with you—winter, spring ball, summer, camp, now. You just gotta keep working.”

Keep working is exactly what Kuechly will do. It’s the only logical response for the linebacker with the competitive nature and incredible work ethic.

“When you play a game like this, you gotta embrace challenges more than anything,” Kuechly said.

Kuechly will surely take the challenge upon himself, looking to improve his own play. And at the same time, he will continue to elevate the performance of those around him—quietly but effectively, by example. n

alex trautwig / heights editor

In 2010, Kuechly led the country in tackles and established himself a physical presence who always takes down ball carriers.

B7The heighTsTHURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011 FOOTBALL PREVIEW B3

B4 FOOTBALL PREVIEW B5

Entering his senior year, Harris has 3,600 career rushing yards. That’s 125 yards away from Derrick Knight’s eight-year-old school record and 1,002 yards behind Ted Brown’s 33-year-old ACC record at NC State.

Harris is approaching these numbers despite his modest height and average speed. The athletic depart-ment lists him at 5-foot-10, which would be accurate if he were wearing two-inch lifts. He doesn’t have a listed 40 time, but defensive backs like Florida State’s Greg Reid have saved touchdowns by chasing him down from behind.

What makes Harris great is his ability to stay upright. He compensates for his lack of speed with a decisive first step, charging toward the slightest of openings in the line before the space even develops. When tacklers get a hand on him, he’s tougher to hold onto than a bar of soap.

“Montel’s a glider,” head coach Frank Spaziani says. “He just knows how to make you miss.”

No one can touch Harris today for a different rea-son—he can’t stay on the field. Two seasons as the near-exclusive running back for the Eagles have taken their toll on him. The same player who set a school record for carries with 308 in 2009 now feels pain if he has to stand for more than 30 seconds.

Harris hobbles out of his Monday morning workout with a football-sized ice pack wrapped around his left knee. He walks deliberately to the nearest chair and plops down. Shifting his weight forward, he reaches for a nearby seat and hoists his left leg on to it. The ice begins dripping.

“I’m never going to stop icing it now,” he says. “Ice always helps, even when I’m all the way back and healthy.”

Beneath the wrap are two scars the size of match-sticks. They are from surgeries Harris had to repair his meniscus, a crescent-shaped piece of cartilage that gives the knee strength and allows it to twist. He ices his knee for 20-25 minutes following every workout, a routine he began after tearing his meniscus for the first time in November.

It happened on the final play of the third quarter against Virginia. Harris already had 100 yards rush-ing, his sixth straight game topping the century mark. The play was a zone run to the right. After Harris took the handoff, Cavaliers defensive end Cam Johnson broke through the line and lunged toward him. Harris twisted around and wriggled free from Johnson for an instant before the 270-pound lineman swung him to the ground. Their legs got tangled during the tackle. Harris’ knee buckled and snapped. Someone had finally knocked him off balance.

“I heard a pop,” he says. “I thought it was my ACL. I’ve never hurt my knee before. I’ve never even been

seriously injured before.” Harris walked off the field under his own power and

sat out the rest of the game. He had an MRI that night before undergoing arthroscopic surgery for a torn left lateral meniscus at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center two days later. The team’s medical staff ruled him out for three to six weeks.

In December, the Eagles received an invite to the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, which was scheduled for seven weeks after Harris’ surgery. The running back’s slow progress during rehab curtailed the optimism surrounding his return, however.

“We had inklings he could be out before we left,” Spaziani says. “We weren’t quite sure. He was on track, but we had hoped he would have progressed a little more.”

Regardless, Spaziani listed Harris atop the depth chart after the tailback practiced fully with the team each day leading up to the game in San Francisco. Harris pulled a muscle in his leg during the team’s final

practice, but he told Spaziani he would be all right. While warming up for the game, he aggravated the strain. He was scratched just before kickoff.

Without its leading rusher, the BC offense sputtered in a 20-13 loss to Nevada. The Eagles managed just 2.6 yards per rush. Getting to midfield was a challenge. The Wolf Pack wreaked havoc in the backfield. They sacked freshman quarterback Chase Rettig three times and hurried him throughout the game. The Eagles were destitute of their most dependable weapon, who was relegated to watching it happen mere feet away from him.

“I was crying on the sideline because I couldn’t help my team,” he says. “That’s painful to see.”

The tears on Harris’ cheeks had barely dried before he finished his rehab and got back on the field. The coaching staff took no chances with his knee in spring practice, though. He made a cameo in one of the scrim-mages, but sat out the others as a precaution. After finally getting the rest his knee needed, Harris went into the summer at full strength.

Nothing can get Harris down, physically or emo-

tionally. He’s perpetually sunny, deflect-ing negativity just as he stiff-arms a wayward tackler. His serene demeanor is evident in his approach to his offseason job as a sandwich maker and barista at Hillside Cafe.

Harris has served up chicken clubs and mocha lattes behind the counter for 10-15 hours a week each of the past two offseasons. It’s not work to him, though. It’s an opportunity to participate in the community.

“It’s nice to be able to come in and see people I haven’t seen in a while,” he says. “Hillside gets pretty busy, so it’s a good place to socialize. I take pride in making sandwiches extra neat, like I’m making them for myself.”

On a typical work day, Harris will lift weights in the morning, attend class until the early afternoon, and put in a shift

at the dining hall until dinner. That’s before factoring in homework and tutor-ing. The same poise he demonstrates while allowing blocks to develop as the defense is bearing down on him comes in handy when balancing his busy weekly schedule.

Harris needed help finding his equilib-rium growing up in Jacksonville, Fla. He had boundless energy but no outlet for it as a six-year-old when his parents signed him up for karate. At 13, he earned a first degree black belt. He passed the test for a second degree black belt five years later.

Training in a dojo taught Harris pa-tience and discipline before he even began playing football—he joined his first orga-nized league when he was eight.

“Karate definitely helps me with my balance and fighting off tackles,” he says. “You have to be able to kick and stand on one leg. You have to be able to fight opponents off. I kind of do the same thing fighting someone off on the football field.”

Since enrolling at BC, Harris has gone to local dojos a few times to keep his skills sharp. He does spar for fun occasionally in the locker room with one of his team-mates who also took karate while growing up—Andre Williams, the heir to his throne at running back.

That inner peace that Harris devel-oped through karate is being tested by his problematic left knee. When training camp began Aug. 8, Harris was seemingly healthy. (“He looked like his old self,” Spaziani says.) He would wake up at 7 a.m., eat some breakfast, lift, do seven-on-seven drills, and rest before going to Spanish class every night.

Nine days later, he had his knee scoped. Doctors found another lateral torn meniscus and some debris that was removed. The timetable for this recovery was three-to-four weeks. Today marks three weeks and one day since the surgery. Harris returned to practice on a limited basis two days ago.

“My Penn State psychiatry degree doesn’t allow me to figure out exactly how everyone thinks,” Spaziani says. “We understand it’s a mental strain. He seems to be dealing with it well.”

Harris felt something was wrong with his knee from the beginning of camp. This wasn’t a contact-based injury, like the one from the Virginia game. After a week of practice, Harris approached Spaziani and revealed the swelling and pain he felt. Harris got an inconclusive MRI, so he sought a second opinion. Dr. Thomas Gill—the orthopedist for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Bruins—suggested an ex-ploratory procedure, which he performed at Brigham and Women’s/Mass. General Health Care Center in Foxboro.

Since the surgery, Harris visits the sports medicine staff in the Yawkey Center for daily treatment. He expects to return for the game against Duke on Sept. 17, he says, which is one month to the day after his most recent surgery.

“Montel is always upbeat about every-thing,” Williams says. “He always sounds good to me. He sounds like he’ll be ready to come back soon.”

In Harris’ absence, Williams has arisen as the next great BC back. He’s a powerful runner who often initiates con-tact. And when he breaks away, he doesn’t get caught from behind.

Williams, a true freshman last season, relieved Harris against Virginia, rushing for 108 yards on just 12 carries. On his first run, he sprinted 59 yards for a score.

He followed up that performance with 185 yards on a school-record 42 carries at Syracuse. Williams is durable enough to shoulder as great a load as Harris, and he’s more explosive.

“All year in practice, Andre had given us every indication that he was a capable player,” Spaziani says. “He just wasn’t in the game. Everything he did—his work ethic, how he practiced, how he handled himself—led us to believe that it was just a matter of time before he would produce. When he got his opportunity, we all saw what he could do.”

Although the Eagles have lost two of the three games Harris has sat out dating back to his first knee in-jury, running back production hasn’t been an issue. Including the Virginia game, Williams is av-eraging 119 yards rushing and has scored five touchdowns.

None of this should suggest that Har-ris has lost his grip on the starter’s spot when healthy.

“Make no mistake about it,” Spaziani says. “Montel is the straw that stirs the drink.”

Harris is more polished than his understudy. Whereas Harris picks his running lanes confidently, Williams is hesitant. That costs him when there isn’t an opening for him to run through. Harris turns those runs into three or four yard gains by getting a step down field before first contact. By comparison, Williams gets hit in the backfield and has to settle for making it back to the line of scrimmage.

When the Eagles throw the ball, Harris is the more reliable receiver. BC utilizes its tailbacks infrequently in the passing game, rarely calling screens or swings. But the running backs are critical as check-down targets as Rettig reads through his progression.

“Montel has way better hands than I do,” Williams says. “I’ll catch the checkdown, but he’ll make it look pretty.”

The Eagles need Harris to return to restore balance to their backfield. He and Williams complement each other well. Between the elusive Harris and the brawny Williams, BC backs are a difficult match-up for their opponents.

“The running backs stick together,” Williams says. “We’re good friends. He’s

rooting for me, I’m rooting for him. I can’t wait for him to come back. I need him to come back because we’re definitely going to be more effective once we’re both on the field.”

Harris and Williams will split carries when they are both healthy. A more man-ageable workload increases their odds of making it through the season unscathed. Although Harris is willing to carry the ball upwards of 30 times a game, his struggle in recovering from his knee problems suggests that it is not the best idea. Har-ris carried the ball 19 times a game over the first five games last season. That increased to 28 carries a game in the six contests leading up to his injury.

“We don’t go in saying Montel is going to get 25 touches, and Andre’s going to get 10,” Spaziani says. “If somebody gets hot, we’ll go with him.”

The transition from current starters to successors is a reality all players must accept. The process started earlier than anticipated in the BC backfield. It ben-efits the team for Williams to get these reps now, better preparing him for the day when the starting spot is his. But it also hurts the Eagles not to be at full strength. There isn’t a substitute for the experience and evasiveness Harris brings to the position. The team is on the verge of a shift in the balance of power at run-ning back.

“It’s nice that I’ve set up something for him to take over,” Harris said. “Andre is his own person. He’s a great running back. Whenever I leave, he’s going to start his own legacy that other people are going to look forward to taking after. There were running backs before me. It’s all part of the natural progression.”

Harris has handled his troublesome knee and changing role with the same grace that he exudes while elegantly sidestepping a linebacker. Nothing rattles him. He plans to emerge from this lat-est challenge just as he does whenever a tackler disrupts his stride – by landing on his feet. n

Tailbacks are judged by how long they can stay on their feet. The best backs absorb contact with aplomb. They shed the arm tackles of weaker players, elude the grasp of stronger ones, and fall forward for extra yards when finally cornered.

For Boston College running back Montel Harris, maintaining balance has never been an issue.

Montel Harris is on the verge of rewriting the rushing record books, but knee problems

have called his future into question

BC Rushing ReCoRd Book

Hanging in the balance

Nothing can get Harris down, physically or

emotionally. He’s perpetually sunny,

deflecting negativity just as he stiff-arms a

wayward tackler.

Training in a dojo taught Harris patience and discipline before

he even began playing football—he joined his first organized league

when he was eight.

aCC Rushing ReCoRd Book

BY PAuL SuLzER | SPORTS EDITOR

1. Derrick Knight

alex trautwig / heights editor

See Balance, B5

Balance, from B4

credit youtuBe user uvafarmar alex trautwig / heights editor

Years: 1999 - 2003Rushing Yards: 3,725

2. Montel Harris

Years: 2008 - presentRushing Yards: 3,600

3. Mike Cloud

Years: 1994 - 1998Rushing Yards: 3,597

1. Ted Brown

School: NC StateYears: 1975-1978Rushing Yards: 4,602

2. Amos Lawrence

School: uNCYears: 1977 - 1980Rushing Yards: 4,391

15. Montel Harris

School: BCYears: 2008 - presentRushing Yards: 3,600

3. LaMont Jordan

School: MarylandYears: 1997 - 1980Rushing Yards: 4,147

sang lee / heights staff

What makes Harris great is his ability to stay upright. He

compensates for his lack of speed with a decisive first step, charging toward the slightest of openings in the line before the space develops.

B7The heighTs THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011 The heighTsTHURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011 FOOTBALL PREVIEW B5

B6

he had evaded health issues his entire career, Larmond finally got hit by a looming, destruc- t i v e i n -jury. Always strong and l ight on his feet, now the quick receiver could hardly move his leg an inch. The rehabilitation moved slowly, institut-ing a mental pain equally as difficult to overcome.

“Rehab came around, and there were points where I was like, ‘What is going on?’” Larmond explained. “There were days where I would come in after three or four weeks of the same thing, and no progress was being made. When I first started, we did these things where you had to just squeeze your quad over and over again, and I couldn’t move at all. If it moved a little bit, they told me, ‘Good, good,’ but it didn’t look good.”

With the help of his supportive and reassuring mother, though, Larmond’s mood finally started to improve.

“I grew up in a church background, so there was that idea of God has a reason for everything,” Larmond reflected. “At first it was like, man, how could there be a reason, what did I do that would make him wait until two weeks before the season to have an injury like that happen? But my mom kept telling me that he had a plan. And you know, it took me awhile to realize it, but she was right, and He really did have a plan for me.

“That was a turning point for me, because you can feel sorry for yourself for a little while,

but you got to get back to real-ity. It’s a part of life, and

things happen

in life. I just had to take it with a grain of salt.”

While his physical strength returned slowly, Larmond’s mental capacity sky-rocketed in the presence of such intense reflection.

“I felt like, as an individual off the field, I grew up a lot more and learned how to handle things because there was nothing I could do,” he stated. “It was a wake up call to me to be more appre-ciative of the game, to play every snap like it’s your last. You hear people say it, and it sounds cliche, but it’s so true.

By DJ ADAms

Heights Editor

Football’s most exciting play has sev-eral names: the deep ball, the go route, or even – the one that will forever hold its special place in Boston College lore – the Hail Mary. The terrific touchdown pass has undergone many different de-scriptions, as if an altered name could somehow disguise the utter simplicity of its complexion.

But it can’t. Three fundamental tal-ents, present in athletes as early as day one of flag football, are all that is needed to execute such a call to perfection.

Stout pass blocking for extended time, a sturdy-armed quarterback who isn’t afraid to let the pigskin fly, and the simultaneously agile and sure-handed wideout with just one step on his de-fender. The irony of all this is that, de-spite such routine, the call almost never finishes in the way it was drawn up.

Linemen miss blocks and grab a pur-suer’s jersey for a penalty, quarterbacks let loose of the fingers on the laces a sec-ond too soon, or an unexpected bump in the turf restrains the receiver from attaining that elusive space downfield.

That’s the beauty of ‘da bomb.’ At any moment, an offensive coordinator must be willing to call it, his opponent prepared to squash it, and the fans an-ticipating the euphoria left behind in its heavenly wake.

For the last of the triad of those romantic heroes, the flashy receiver on the far sideline, the glory and blame associated with the play’s outcome fall directly on his shoulders.

Skills are necessary, sure, but having patience, and a lot of it, is seemingly the

o n l y way to survive the sometimes eternal void between succes-sive completions.

BC wide receiver Colin Larmond, Jr. is a prime example of an athlete meant to perform the go route with indescrib-able poise. He has everything: a big target, long legs, an astounding verti-cal, and that quick first step. He even worshipped Randy Moss, one of the best deep-threat receivers there ever was.

Even as just a sophomore in 2009, the flashes of brilliance were evident.

Appearing in all 13 games, Larmond led Eagles receivers in average yards-per-catch (20.6) and was second in recep-tions (29), yards (596), and touchdowns (5). Expectations of the star wideout continued to rise.

Then, while performing a simple hook route in practice two weeks be-fore the 2010 season opener, Larmond suffered a severe knee injury, and the young star’s bright future was suddenly clouded in a thick mist of uncertainty.

“It was crazy,” the junior reminisced. “It happened in the first 15 minutes of practice, we were doing routes and then went to one-on-ones, and I ran a hook route, and my knee just went boom. I felt pain for like 30 seconds, and they were like, ‘Are you okay?,’ and I thought I was, but then it started throbbing. Then I got my MRI and they told me I tore my knee. And I have never been hurt before, so I was just like, ‘Wow.’”

The wow factor only increased with the news of the doctor’s verdict: a six-to-eight month recovery period. Several coaches were presented with difficult questions to consid- er. Would he play again, a n d e v e n i f h e did, would h e e v e r b e the same? The deci-s i o n

w a s f i n a l l y made to redshirt the e s -t a b -l i s h e d u p p e r -c l a s s -man, be-gin rehab s l o w l y , and hope f o r t h e best.

T h o u g h

You have to run every rep like its your last, because you never know what can happen. It can get taken away from you in a second.”

Ev e n w h i l e h e wasn’t perform-ing reps, instead s i t t i n g m o s t practices and s p e n d i n g Saturday af-ternoons on the bench,

Larmond invent-ed other ways to help out the team, particular-ly through men-toring the young receivers instruct-ed to take his place.

“ [ M y r o l e ] w a s

more of being a vocal

leader now, and trying to send down the knowl-edge that I acquired from older guys like Rich Gun-nell, and Brandon Robin-son, to the true freshmen and try to explain to them that no one cares on the other side that this is your first time playing college football,” he said. “You can’t think as a freshman, you just have to play. So I gave them

pointers, tried to help them read cover-ages, really reemphasized what Coach Day says, that sometimes as a young player you don’t listen to what the coach says, you would rather hear it from the older guys. Those guys [Alex Amidon, Bobby Swigert, Ifeyani Momah], have done a fantastic job.”

Finally, this past spring, Larmond’s workouts got progressively more in-tense. The knee was finally ready to begin serious rehabilitation, and the junior was ready to push the joint to its max.

“I told my strength and conditioning coach not to hold me back because this is no longer an excuse, no one really cares,” Larmond said. “I didn’t want to come back as the kid who they say was good, but then got hurt. So that moti-vated me to work harder and keep push-ing this thing until there was nowhere

left for it to go.”With the season now underway and

the troubled wideout back on the turf, the one question left is the most obvious one: Will Larmond have the same flare on the field as before?

“I’m 100 percent. I don’t even think about it, honestly, I mean I have to wear that brace, but it’s become like a sock that I put on every game, almost like part of the pre-game ritual,” Larmond joked. “I only have to wear it for the

first five games, but if I have a lot of success with it, I’m just going to keep it on.”

If BC’s 24-17 loss to North-western on Saturday afternoon was

any indication, the game plan for how to use the athletic phenomenon in the passing game hasn’t changed much since his absence. Quarter-back Chase Rettig targeted the junior downfield several times, even connecting deep once for a 49-yard strike.

Just like that, the Eagles’ mas-ter of the go route was back in prime

form, but with a newfound apprecia-tion for the importance of his role

in every single play. “Whenever they call your

number, you have to be able to respond,” Larmond

said. “So wheth-er they

want me to run deep or they want me to block, whatever it is, I just want to be counted on. As long as I can say I did my job, then I’m happy. Because sitting out a whole year, you miss it so much more that you don’t even care if you have to hold the ball for the kicker to kick it if that’s what helps the team win.”

But when offensive coordinator Kev-in Rogers finally does call his number, Larmond will be more than ready.

“That’s what the coach says, ‘When we call your number downfield, you have to make it count,’” Larmond re-iterated. “If you really think about it, there are really only two or three op-portunities where the deep ball is going to be called, and realistically you might catch one.”

Then, in the most fitting of interview gestures, he paused and smiled.

“You just have to be ready when the chance comes.”

BC’s biggest playmaker knows the painted grass of the end-zone will soften his stride soon enough, maybe even this weekend against the University of Central Florida.

After how long Larmond waited with diligent patience, a few more days couldn’t possibly hurt. n

By Chris mArino

Asst. Sports Editor

New Boston College offensive coordinator Kevin Rog-ers has a great history in the world of football, having held positions at both the NFL and NCAA levels. He’s coached NFL greats Donovan McNabb (while serving as offensive coordinator at Syracuse) and Brett Favre (as quarterbacks coach for the Minnesota Vikings). The Heights had a chance to talk with Rogers about his new job.

The Heights: With the start of your first season at Boston College under way, what has impressed you the most about the program here?

Kevin Rogers: Definitely the caliber of the young men that I’m coaching. I think we’ve got a bunch of really fine young men on this team that work hard, play tough and are just some high character guys. You know, I think that is our number one asset. The Heights: Having coached in the ACC earlier in your career, what strengths do you think your offense will have against conference opponents this season?

Rogers: You know, we’re still a little bit of a work in progress in terms of trying to find out what our strengths and weaknesses are. Obviously, based on last week’s performance, we have a ways to go. We’ve got to improve in the running game. I thought that at times we threw the ball well, but we’ve got to develop an identity and find out exactly where we stand. That’s only one game, so I really don’t have a great barometer on what our strengths are as of yet.

The Heights: While the offense is fairly young to begin with, how has the loss of veteran leadership in the early part of the season, such as Montel Harris and most recently Ifeanyi Momah, affected both the locker room and everyone’s mindsets?

Rogers: Well, I’m not trying to sound callous about it, but it’s part of the game. It’s one of the cold hard facts about football. Nobody really wants to hear excuses. It’s really black and white. So, you either do it or you don’t. In spite of not having Montel, who obviously has got a shot at being the all-time leading rusher in the ACC and Ifeanyi, who really hasn’t missed a practice since I’ve been here and has kind of been our ironman and showed it with a great game on Saturday, it is what it is. There’s nothing we can do about it. We just have to be resilient and move forward and the next guy in that spot has to step up and do his job. Obviously it hurts you, but again we can’t rationalize for those things.

The Heights: What were, in your mind, the biggest positives and negatives from last week’s loss to North-western?

Rogers: Well, I mean the positives were that I think we’ve got the ability to move the ball. The negatives were that we had 22 mental errors throughout the course of the game, which killed us. The big thing there is that if the opponent beats you it’s one thing, but if you beat yourself it’s quite another. I thought for a good portion of the game we beat ourselves. I mean we run the ball for 70 yards all the way down to the five-yard line on the first play of the game and then we don’t get into the end zone. And two out of the three plays were self-inflicted mistakes. And that was kind of the counter of the entire afternoon. And then we had big plays that went negative against us either at midfield or on the short side of the field. I mean that interception was a plus 40-yard play on first down. Just things like that. We’ve got to make sure that we aren’t beating ourselves, and I thought last weekend we really beat ourselves.

The Heights: What is your feeling, upon Montel’s return, of how the carries will be split between him, Andre Williams, and Tahj Kimble?

Rogers: Going into last week’s game we anticipated ‘Dre going two-to-one with Tahj. Tahj probably should’ve had more carries last week. Montel’s a guy who’s a proven back. He’s our guy, and he’s going to be our guy when he’s ready to go. So we’ll probably see the same thing going on, except Montel will be getting the carries two-to-one with Andre, just as we had between Andre and Tahj last week. Obviously that is going to cut down on the number of snaps that Tahj gets but we’ll see that he gets into the game situationally anyway. If Montel’s ready to go then Montel is the guy.

The Heights: Do you think there are any players who may be flying under the radar and have a breakout season that Superfans should look out for?

Rogers: I think most of the guys we have are the guys you’d look for. Guys like Alex Amidon have really improved. I think Chris Pantale is a really good tight end. Obviously, a guy like Andy Gallik who is playing at center. I think he is going to develop into a really good player too. But I don’t really think there are any secrets at this point in time.

The Heights: What are your own personal goals/expec-tations for the offense this season?

Rogers: Probably, and not to be evasive, just being as good as we can be. And I think that it can be pretty good. And again, seasonally we’re into the old cliche of taking it one game at a time. We’re just trying to get better from the first week to the second week. You just keep getting better along the way. Like I said, I think we are a work in progress right now. I think that we have come a long way since we’ve started but we still have much farther to go. We’ve got to eliminate mistakes and play smarter than we did. n

Get to know

BC’s newest coordinator

The power of prayerAs a deep target, wide receiver Colin Larmond, Jr., knows the importance of patience and faith to ultimate success

B6 FOOTBALL PREVIEW The heighTs THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

B7

helm, Rettig has shown an early grasp of the offense. With a season of experience in the difficult ACC behind him, Rettig can focus on his game rather than try to battle the freshman nerves and new surroundings he faced a year before. And with running back Montel Harris and, more recently, wide receiver Ifeanyi Momah sidelined early with injury, Rettig has been pushed into the role of team leader.

In a preseason media conference, the quarterback demonstrated his maturity when ask of his expectations for himself and the team.

“My goal this year is to take every game one at a time and try to allow the team to be as ready as we can, mentally, for the game,” he said. “The most important thing, regard-less what happens, is winning and losing. It’s black and white when it comes to that. The biggest thing you want to do when it comes to that is win the football game. Personally, my goal is to show leadership on the field, be able to go up to the line of scrimmage and understand the coverage so I can get the right guy the ball and know what everyone on the field is doing – that’s my job as the QB. I think I’m making steps towards that and Coach [Kevin] Rogers has definitely helped me to do that.”

Rettig has shown the ability to come into work everyday and learn his respon-sibilities with tremendous speed and efficiency.

Rogers, in his first year as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, has been impressed thus far with Rettig’s abil-ity to focus on his job at such a young age and has even higher expectations for his growth as a player.

“First of all, I like who he is very much,” he said. “He’s highly competitive. He has a burning desire to be a great player. He doesn’t get the big eyes. It’s not too big for him. I really like all of those things. I also think people have to keep in mind that Chase is still 19-years old, and it’s still very young in his career. Chase is a work in progress right now, but he has what I

By Chris Marino

Asst. Sports Editor

Matt Ryan. Matt Hassel-beck. Tim Hasselbeck. And of course, Doug Flutie. These are just some of the top quar-

terbacks in the history of Boston College football. The 2011 Eagles are hoping to add sophomore Chase Rettig to this list.

Since his arrival on the Heights, the California native has had high expecta-tions from coaches, teammates, and fans. His mindset since his first preseason snap has been the same – no excuses. He lived by this motto and didn’t disappoint dur-ing his freshman campaign, stepping into the starting role in the fourth game of the season. In his first action, Rettig faced a stiff test against nonconference opponent Notre Dame. He gave fans a preview of

things to come, going five-for-10 for 72 yards and a 58-yard touchdown pass. He went down with an ankle injury, however, and was forced to sit out the next game.

Upon his return, Rettig picked up right where he left off, leading the team to a 5-4 record. He posted veteran-quality numbers, including an 18-for-33 for 189 yards and one touchdown performance against ACC foe Maryland. He finished his inaugural campaign with a 51.3 comple-tion percentage (100-for-195) for 1,238 yards and six touchdowns against nine interceptions.

Despite Rettig’s greatest efforts, how-ever, the Eagles were unable to come with a victory in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl against Nevada to end the season. The true freshman went 14-for-34 for 121 yards, and was unable to ignite the offense past a tough Wolfpack defense.

Now entering his second season at the

Rettig grows into starter’s spot

alex trautwig / heights editor

call a very good way of doing and seeing, meaning he can work very quickly. One of the most important things in being a quarterback is the ability to process tre-mendous amounts of information instan-taneously. And that takes time. But I see him developing.”

This is high praise from an accom-plished coach. Rogers has worked with a high caliber of quarterbacks throughout his career, including former NFL Pro Bowl quarterbacks Donovan McNabb and Brett Favre. The Eagles coaching staff hopes that Rogers’ experience with talented gunsling-ers will result in an even quicker progres-sion for Rettig.

And it definitely appears that there has been a positive influence on the of-fense throughout the preseason, as Rettig tweeted, “I feel good. I think the offense is headed in the right direction. We just gotta keep progressing everyday. #WeAreBc.”

This positive attitude will be crucial in the sophomore’s role as leader.

He further showed his ability to repre-sent his teammates after the opening week loss to Northwestern. Despite throwing for a career high 375 yards on 24-of-44 pass-ing, Rettig was unable to find the end zone and threw one costly interception.

Despite his clear frustration, he fol-lowed his mantra closely, saying via his Twitter account, “W and L’s are black and white.”

The team is looking forward to nothing but improvement from one of its young-est contributors, and if Rettig has shown one thing it is that he will do everything in his power to bring his team to victory. He’ll never make an excuse about his age, the number of injuries to his offense, or another teammate’s mistakes.

Sounds like he’s going to fit into the BC way just fine. n

Thrown into the fire as a true freshman, Chase Rettig used that experience to mature into a leader

alex trautwig / heights editor

Expectations are high for Rettig, who follows a long line of pro-caliber signal callers at BC.

“Personally, my goal is to show leadership on the field, be able to go up to the line of scrimmage and understand the coverage so I can get the right guy the ball and know what everyone on the field is doing.”

- Chase Rettig, Sophomore Quarterback

Rettig has demonstrated the requisite leadership to command his teammates’ respect.

The heighTsTHURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011 FOOTBALL PREVIEW B7

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011B8B6B8 FOOTBALL PREVIEW The heighTs THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011

mollie kollosky / heights graphics editor

match up

brit-popdebating the pros and cons of jessie

j’s new single “domino”

album review

david guetta sticks to the same formula“nothing but the beat” comes up short

page c7

scene and heard

sarah palin the political icon puts on her running shoes

page c2 page c4

thursday, september 8, 2011

Thursday, September 8, 2011C2

For the first time in recent memory, I ended my summer feel-ing completely at ease. Normally the peak season for relaxation, my summers often grow tense with the release of hot headed action films, aggressive basslines in the back-track of the latest summer radio smash, and the in-your face appeal of beachwear. This past summer felt like a kinder, gentler one, though, the kind of summer caught through the gritty lens of handheld camera.

The summer’s biggest radio hits were the ever-cool “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People and the sleek and electric “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5; superhero movies took a backseat to the light comedy Crazy, Stupid Love and the moving adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help; and the world swooned over the glorious product of love between Beyonce and Jay-Z and rejoiced over the false news that Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith had, in fact, not separated. Such vicious rumors could never dry up the cooling quench of sum-mer 2011.

Personally, I relaxed in the shade of Manhattan skyscrapers and truly came to understand the phrase, “I love N.Y.” Beyond the cease-less stream of energy, I came to a poignant conclusion about the city dwellers. To the surprise of none, my realization came in the form of a pop culture medium. I read some amazing books this summer, but the most harrowing and difficult had to be Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Its difficulty did not stem from its language or complex plot, but from its emotionally draining subject matter – the plight of the families of Sept. 11 victims.

With the tenth anniversary of Sept. 11 approaching, my read-ing was simply serendipitous. To be frank, I never felt any personal resonance to the Sept. 11 attacks. As an American, I recognized the attacks as a blight on American virtues and safety, but living so far away and being so young, I couldn’t properly empathize the situa-tion. Reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close brought me closer to the experience than I thought possible.

This change of heart came at the hands of the book’s young narrator, Oskar Schell, a precocious nine-year-old who lost his father during the attacks. Oskar is as eccentric as a child can be. He’s incredibly bright and creative, highly sensi-tive and adventurous, but most heartrending, he is in a constant state of mourning. His narration is full of characterizing quirks but every sentence hangs heavy with oppressed sadness. Oskar wants so badly to lash out and self destruct, but he keeps it to himself, holding every bad feeling in a notebook he calls “Things That Have Happened to Me.”

Oskar’s recollections of his father portray him as an effortlessly lovable individual. He represents an innocent a family man caught in the middle of danger. I felt like I knew him. In knowing him, it felt like I knew everyone affected by the attacks. I could fully empathize with the people, and for the first time, I felt personally affected. Walking by Ground Zero felt so peculiar to me. It’s a massive crater full of dust and construction, pos-sibly the most serene part of the city. Passing it and remembering feels like a punch to the stomach. It’s devastating.

Safran Foer touches on the silver lining, though. Sept. 11 did not tear New York down. It brought it together. Young Oskar goes on his own Odyssey, depending on the help of his fellow city dweller, people joining him in the mourn-ing and the rise. New Yorkers are incredible people. I didn’t need a book to tell me that, but it took a piece of fiction to help me realize the very real resilience of an entire city. The 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11 falls on Sunday. Find a way, whether privately or publicly, to honor those who passed and those who persevere.

Darren ranck

I left my heart in New York

Darren Ranck is the Arts & Review editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

The heighTs

This semester, five talented writers will collaborate on a serialized story, inspired by the famed works of Charles Dickens.

phoTo CourTeSy of google

Serial Story

To be continued.These are the three key words of

a serial story. Without a cliffhanger, there isn’t much of anything to keep readers coming back, to get them to purchase the next installment of the newspaper. Or in the case of Sche-herazade, a cliffhanger was the only means that convinced King Shahiyar to let her live another night. One Thousand and One Nights, also known as Arabian Nights, was one of the first serialized stories ever produced. In fact it was a story within a story as Scheherazade is the protagonist of Nights, yet is also the authoress of tales such as “Sinbad the Sailor” and “Aladdin.” She spun these two stories out for over one hundred nights com-bined in order to save her life.

Charles Dickens had less dire circumstances to inspire his periodic installments. However, he, was also a serial writer, and penned many of his most famous works, including Great Expectations, on a weekly basis. Dur-ing the 1800s, serial authors were paid by the word. Because of this, Dick-ens has become famous for sections that sometimes ramble on endlessly.

Despite the tendency to fall asleep in the middle of chapters, readers were kept enthralled because of Dickens’ ability to create a cliff hanger, the “to be continued.”

More recently, prolific author Stephen King as well as Michael Faber and Orson Scott Card, have played with the serial format, expanding the tradition to the Internet where out of print mediums get the stories to readers even faster. Although readers do not have to wait for their favor-ite story to go to print, they are still tortured by the wait between install-ments. Tracy and Laura Hickman also initiated a novel market with Dragon’s Bard. Readers receive online install-ments as they are written, then are sent a physical copy of the story upon completion.

A serial story is very different from other long or short works, but another important medium of fiction because it uniquely combines elements of both. It must have the scope, characteriza-tion, and longevity of a novel, with the excitement, pacing, and intensity of a short story. Every episode walks a fine line since it must not only weave in seamlessly with the previous install-ments and move the plot forward, but also be able to stand-alone and entice

new readers who missed the inception of the story.

Creating a piece with all of these aspects and incredible writing is hard enough. Now imagine collaborating with five authors to produce it. This semester, The Heights will feature a creation of five different Boston Col-lege student authors, all working on the same piece of fiction. Every week, beginning next week, one segment of a continuous story from one author will print in The Scene, but all authors will work together creatively to design the frame of the piece. In doing so, they will collectively create the realm of their fiction, but individually write each week’s piece.

Every single writer has a particular cadence, a unique voice, and a highly divergent vision. Thus, with five of such writers, this serial story will represent a completely inimitable product since each writer is unable to be copied on their own and as a unit the result will be distinctive from many other types of fiction, serial or otherwise.

BC writers will unite to craft a unique, weekly serialCharlotte Parish

Charlotte Parish is the Assistant Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

In a recent interview with Jonathon Ross, British song-stress Adele hinted that she may record the latest James Bond theme song. When asked about her future recording plans, she mentioned that it was a theme, adding, “Wow, that’s really giving something away.” The 23-year-old has come a long way from her days of “Chasing Pavements.” Immortalized in Bond music, Adele would be joining the ranks of Chris Cornell, Paul McCartney, Duran Duran, Nancy Sinatra, Carly Simon, and Madonna.

When you’re feeling nostalgic about your childhood and the glory days of the Disney Channel, just remember that the child stars grow up too – and they either pose ‘par-tially clothed’ for Vanity Fair or end up in a rehab facility. Maybe Orlando Brown, better known as Eddie on That’s So Raven, decided it was high time he got some attention for his own bad habits. Brown’s B.A.C. recently came in at 0.17, more than double the legal limit, earning him two counts of DUI.

Watch out, world. Sarah Palin is officially a renaissance woman. The beauty queen-cum-senator-cum-undeclared presidential candidate is also an athlete. Adding to her ever-growing list of accomplishments is second place for her age group in a Storm Lake, Iowa, half-marathon. Running under her maiden name Heath, she completed the race in an impressive 1:46:10, a minute behind the unimportant first place runner. What does she have to say for herself? “Well, I guess ya’ can stick that in your lower 48.”

In a pop culture world with Lady Gaga and her meat dresses, you’d think that you’d seen it all. Enter Nicki Minaj. At this year’s recent MTV Video Music Awards, it looked like Harajuku Barbie decided to rummage through a child’s toy bin and glue together all the shiny, discarded things on to her 99 percent plastic body. Then she robbed a candy store and accessorized with her loot. To call the garish collage an outfit is definitely a stretch.

2. wild OuTfiTs

3.NewesT BONd Girl

4. see saraH ruN

5. BrOwN v. disNey

Need a graphic desigNer? let us make your ad!

With his latest poignant song “Let’s Be Real,” Soulja Boy provokes the armed forces of America. Ironic, considering his rap moniker. Though not as poetic as “crank that soulja boy,” lyrics like “F— the FBI and the army troops” certainly incite a passionate response, especially from the military. Peter Flores, a proud veteran and father of two, who is also in the military, called the rapper “ungrateful” and demanded an apology. Soulja has not responded.

sceNe aNd Heard

@kristeNschaaled (kristeN schaal, comedieNNe)

At first the kid kicking the bAck of my AirplAne seAt wAs enrAging. then i imAgined it wAs A broken mAssAge chAir And i kindA liked it.

@prattprattpratt (chris pratt, parks aNd recreatioN)

someone just told me thAt college wAs 4 yeArs of getting wAsted And not leArning Anything. thAt’s exActly whAt i did! (except the college.)

@biggsjasoN (jasoN biggs, americaN pie series)

i think the [presidentiAl] cAndidAtes should be Able to tAke A physicAl chAllenge. #doubledAre #tweetthepress

@azizaNsari (aziz aNsari, parks aNd recreatioN)

scott cAAn gives us his tAke on todAy’s world events. cnn presents cAAntemplAtions. #cAAntv

1.sOulja BOy speaks

submit your favorite tweets of the week for coNsideratioN at artseditors11@gmail.com.

The heighTsThursday, September 8, 2011 C3

The gang’s ‘all that’ again

Above all else, audiences today surely remember Kel Mitchell’s ode to that brightly colored fizzy drink; “Who loves orange soda? Kel loves orange soda. I do, I do, I do!” is just one of those quotes that can still bring a smile to everyone’s face. It’s one of several memorable moments from two young actors who loved to make people laugh

The sitcom followed the title characters’ experiences in high school in Chicago, and the Kenan’s after school job in the corner grocery store. Kel’s signature catchphrase, “Aw, here it goes!” was uttered in nearly every episode. More than that, the show was unique in its exploration of the often-comedic lives of two black teens. It is the rare show that features black actors in the lead roles, especially among programming geared at kids. It carried on the tradition of shows like Sister, Sister and Smart Guy in this regard, but its popular-ity and staying power far exceeded its predecessors. Today, a hole exists in terms of this type of programming, so it’s encouraging to see Nickelodeon attempting to smooth out this wrinkle, even if it means reairing some old content.

It wasn’t groundbreaking, nor was it always funny, but it still allowed the two inherently talented actors the chance to mature and hone their craft. It’s funny to look back on Thompson’s man-nerisms in the show; many of them have accompanied him to his current position on Saturday Night Live. Had he attempted to make the jump directly from All That, it’s doubtful that Lorne Michaels would have even given him the time of day. Kenan and Kel pre-sented the two a platform, a chance to improvise and test their material on an audience that was far less judgmental than that of the primetime world.

Though it’s been said before, All That was a clearly watered down version of Saturday Night Live meant to appease children of all ages, but looking back on it, the show was much more of a launching pad for future talent than a two-bit variety show.

In revisiting the show, it is blatantly obvious that multiple skits fall flat in terms of laugh factor—how many fart, vomit, and poop jokes can kids really take in before it becomes too much? Others, however, retain their humor in subtler ways. The “Good Burger” skits frequently skittered into absurdity, but the chemistry between Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell is still noteworthy. Likewise, Amanda Bynes’ appearance in Season 3 brought a much needed freshness to the skits; her youthful exuberance in pieces like “Ask Ashley” dem-onstrate her comedic timing, even at such an early age.

Adults embraced the show as an introduction to the world of comedy; it was a safe and, more often than not, fairly appropriate starting point for kids to learn about what was funny and what wasn’t. Even SNL cast member Chris Farley appeared on the show, as if Lorne Michaels himself was extending an olive branch of acknowledgment and approval to the show.

A new era of All That began in 2002, after the show took a yearlong hiatus to deal with the loss of many of its most vibrant and popular cast members. Bynes moved on to The Amanda Show, while Mitchell and Thompson jumped ship for their own sitcom on the network, the still quote-worthy Kenan and Kel. Britney Spears’ little sister Jamie Lynn took the helm, but it was obvious that the golden age of the show was complete. Thankfully, Nick is only airing episodes from that very age.

The memorable opening strains of this classic’s theme song says it all: “Na na na na-na.” Incessantly wordy but empty of substance – that’s Clarissa! Before Melissa Joan Hart stepped into the legendary role of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, she played the spunky girl next door Clarissa Darling. For young girls, Clar-issa helped them navigate the preteen scene. She was the poster child for street smarts with her savvy way of dealing with boys, school, and her annoying little brother (a staple for older sister archetypes). Her fearless breaking of the fourth wall made her an active character in the lives of viewers. She was more than a television show character. She was a friend.

While Clarissa’s exploits are no longer quite relatable (hopefully the perils of teen acne are a thing of the past), the show’s central relationship between Clarissa and her best friend Sam Anders still makes hearts of any age flutter. Their will they/won’t they tension is enough to rival Ross and Rachel from Friends. If you discount the creep factor of the ladder Sam used to climb into her window at night, their relationship was very sweet. They gave one another necessary sup-port but also continued to allow their relationship to f lourish into something near romance. While the relationship never came to fruition, the idea that Sam and Clarissa got together their final semester of senior year before becoming an en-gaged couple at University of Ohio still sounds like a viable option. For the cynical, little brother Ferguson plays a de-lightfully comic villain and foil to heroine Clarissa.

In 1991, animator Jim Jinkins brought the world of My So-Called Life to a much younger generation in the sitcom Doug. Voiced by Billy West, Doug Funny was one of the most engaging characters on TV at the time because he was so uniquely normal. In a pop culture world filled with oddities (the talking babies of Rugrats) and quirks (Ren and Stimpy), Doug stood out with his average life. Surrounded by others who constantly threatened to steal his diminished spotlight, the green-vested everyman struggled with insecurities faced by all children. He had girl troubles (Patti Mayonnaise), family issues (would his parents love him any less once his baby sister Dirtbike was born?), and of course, he had his bullies.

Roger Klotz was also voiced by Billy West. The two lead char-acters were more similar than either of the two might have liked to think. Both were victims of bullying in their own right. Before the show transferred homes (Disney’s New Doug failed to fire on the same cylinders as the original), Jinkins and his team of writers adeptly navigated storylines about poverty, absentee parents, and disappointing friends.

Of the batch, Doug is the show that holds up best, because its universally understood themes remain highly relevant. It combines slapstick humor with heartfelt pathos. He doesn’t always come out on top, but when he does, it makes the audience root for him even more.

Nick has already cycled Doug out of its lineup, but it maintains a constant presence on the programming block’s Facebook page, and eager fans will assuredly vote it back onto the network. Download the pilot episode, “Doug Bags a Neematoad,” easily one of the show’s best, and revisit the gang that still brings a remembering smile to faces all across the country some 20 years later.

Before the era of South Park, the edgy cartoon skewed the line between innocence and inappropriateness. For every Care Bears, there was a Beavis and Butthead to stir the animated pot. Nickelodeon added to this mix with the utterly bizarre but highly amusing Rocko’s Modern Life. Premiering in 1993, the show introduced the world to Australian Rocko the wallaby following his immigration to America. Rocko is essentially the Jerry Seinfeld of his home O-Town (not to be confused with the first season product of Making the Band). He finds dilemmas in the most mundane situations alongside his best friends Heffer, a blonde cow (the Kramer character), and Filbert, a turtle with taped glasses (the George Costanza character).

As children, we watched this show thinking it was a goofy, crazy gang of personified animals. The actual situation, though, placed mentally unstable animals together in a city littered with dirty jokes. Yes, in retrospect, Rocko’s Modern Life is filthy. There’s innuendo at every turn in the names of places and characters. In the bold, wild colors of the animation, there are lewd images gracing the streets. There are jokes and story-lines that children couldn’t possibly understand (anyone recall the highly unconventional episode about censored nudity?). Rocko’s Modern Life would make the Parents Television Council go red with rage, yet somehow it aired on Nickelodeon for five years. Now that it’s back, you can revisit every disgustingly offensive episode and finally be in on the joke. For instance, there’s more to the name of their favorite restaurant, “The Choking Chicken,” than just poultry.

illiamsburg is not the only place where vintage and throwbacks are in vogue. This summer, Nickelodeon pulled out some of their televi-

sion gems from the back shelf and dusted off six of their most popular shows from the ’90s. A programming block aired on Teen Nick

called ‘The ’90s Are All That’ swept the 12 a.m. to 4 a.m. time slot on July 18, pulling in about 555,000 viewers longing for a fix of

their favorite childhood shows.

Not only is this movement for the ’90s children, it is by the ’90s children. A group of Nickelodeon interns – unpaid, nostalgic, and

brilliant folks who grew up with the likes of Doug, Clarissa, and Kenan – pitched the idea to bring back all the best of Nick to a later time

slot, citing the 9 million Facebook members who were already attached to groups reminiscing about some of the best shows of their childhood.

Similar in concept to ‘Nick at Nite,’ the ’90s throwback segment is even simpler to produce because Nick is recycling their own shows, rather

than other networks’ sitcoms. There is already talk of adding to the six shows chosen for the pioneer run of ‘The ’90s Are All That.’ Bubbling into

that chatter, numerous social media outlets, which drove the initial push for the return of these shows, are campaigning for their favorite shows.

It is a unique marketing campaign for Nickelodeon, trying to draw in viewers who are expressly not in the usual demographic of Nick shows. How-

ever, its short-term success is undeniable. All that’s left is one question to survey the longevity of the program: at 3 a.m., would you rather be reading

a textbook or have Clarissa explain it all to you?

BY DARREN RANCK | ARTS & REVIEW EDITORBRENNAN CARLEY | ASSOC. ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR

AND CHARLOTTE PARISH | ASST. ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR

Wclarissa explains it all doug

allthat

kenan and kelrocko’s modern

life

During the golden age of SNICK, the premiere Saturday night programming on Nickelodeon, everyone stayed up late for the thrilling Are You Afraid of the Dark?. For six years, the Midnight Society, a group of teenage storytellers, gathered around a campfire in the middle of a forest to spin tales of fright. The members of the Midnight Society refreshingly had nothing in common except for a love of horror stories and creative fiction.

With the flick of “magic sand,” the weekly story commenced, bringing in a new cast each week to tell the tale. As with any ’90s serial, future stars, such as Ryan Gosling and Neve Campbell, had feature roles in the tales of horror and whimsy. A host of recurring characters also keep it entertaining. Who can forget the mythical Sardo and his shop full of magical yet treacher-ous gifts? Who isn’t creeped out by the vaguely European and rather mad murmurings of Dr. Vink?

Even with the familiarity, this is a show that will never stop being entertaining. After 10 years off the air, the show still feels just as chilling as before. Clowns drooling green sludge, a headless horseman, girls turning into China dolls, and fun-house creatures haunting your house are staples of fright, and the show delivers. Just when the Midnight Society decides to extinguish the campfire, you’ll want to keep the lights on for just a little lon-ger.

are you afraid of the dark?

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011C4

con

Tv momenTs

Esteemed director Alfred Hitchcock is quoted as saying in an interview that “the length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” One year (and many pee breaks) later, I’ve come to the realiza-tion that my love of film is deeply rooted in something more widely encompassing than just movies.

I’ve always been a pop culture sponge (who hasn’t?), but over the past four years or so, I’ve found myself drawn to the smaller, perhaps some-what inconspicuous forms of entertain-ment available. For the past year, I’ve written this column entirely about in-dependent films and those who directly affect that filmmaking process. It was a wonderful experience, but I yearn for a broader exploration.

I’ve found that there is a rush of sorts that comes hand in hand with dis-covering something that has not yet hit the radar of the masses. I first noticed it in November of 2008. It was the winter of my senior year, and I fancied myself as quite the film connoisseur. (Oh, how I would like to go back to that time and knock the chip off my shoulder.) I had stumbled upon a quiet indie film called Slumdog Millionaire that month, after devouring the book by Vikas Swarup. When I tried to convince other friends to see it, they pooh-poohed the idea, saying, “Nobody’s heard of that, why would we see some random movie?”

Rather than react, I wrote, chan-neling my blind anger into something positive. It ignited something in me, the siphoning of my emotions. It was the first time I had ever felt that way about the written word. It may not have been the most well written piece ever (ones guided by extreme emotions often need heavy rewrites, I find) but it made me feel.

I felt good. There’s no other way to describe it. It was like, all of a sudden, I knew where my path in life would lead. That feeling changed the way I thought about the world around me. I don’t pro-fess to be the best or most knowledge-able about culture; God knows there’s so much out there left that I’ve barely even skimmed, but I made a promise to myself to run, not walk. When I write about the arts, I feel a passion. Words spill out from some unknown place, untappable except in these moments. When I write, I research; I engulf myself in all things cultural. I absorb, I read, I listen, I watch, I learn.

“I don’t know how you do it, you watch all my shows, and you watch all her shows too!” a coworker said to me yesterday, referring to a discus-sion of summer TV we were having. I can explain it, I think. All media is as important to my life and my studies as are, say, Supreme Court rulings and copyright precedents to budding law students. I do spend much more time absorbing these media than others do, and I certainly enjoy it, but for me, it’s so much more than just a pastime for me. My only hope is to grasp as com-plete a picture as possible, as a frame of reference for my writing.

This has all been a very long-winded way (talk about burying the lede) for me to inform everyone that start-ing next week this column space will host a broader range of independent entertainment topics. Movies might still be featured on a frequent basis. (Did anyone else see Another Earth this summer? It alone is worth a column.) However, I’d like to allow myself the opportunity to interact with and re-spond to more than just movies. Surely nobody can deny the great joy in shar-ing and discussing different media with those closest to them.

I hope to shed some light on in-teresting but less known figures and works in the entertainment world. In weeks ahead, I plan to delve into the immeasurable worlds of books, music, television, fashion, and perhaps even some new media.

When it comes to being an inter-preter and investigator of the arts, the media, all entertainment in all forms, I truly believe that I am a line that can’t be defined, as anyone who has ever read this column before should realize; I grow as I write. I hope, throughout the next several months, to continue furthering my independent frame of mind.

an independenT frame of mind

Brennan Carley is the Assoc. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

A gradually evolving frame of mind

Though classes may be dreadful, and yes it’s raining already, at least you have tons of new trends to track, designers to follow, and wardrobe addi-tions to look forward to, as Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week starts today. There is no better way to begin the year than with a week-long preview of all the incredible fall fashion we have in store for us this season. This week, which begins the second Thurs-day of both September and February, to preview the fall and spring trends respectively, kicks off with Fashion’s Night Out (FNO).

FNO is an event complete with after hours shop-ping, special deals, and appearances by everyone from musicians to models and designers themselves. This year, this event is occurring online as well for the first time. Though it will be to a much smaller extent, everyone can access some of the deals FNO has to offer from all around the country, and can snag totes and tops emblazoned with the FNO logo.

Some of my favorite designers that will be show-ing this week are Nanette Lepore, Tibi, and Elie Tahari, though I am equally excited to fall in love with new designers and their fall looks. The biggest trends expected to show for fall are: animal prints from leather to python, ’60s inspired prints, polka dots both classic and with a twist, midi skirts, wide leg trousers and jeans, color blocking, lace details, fur accents, and playful tuxedo jackets. The hottest color expected to dot the runways and adorn the models from their painted lips to their shoes is red, accented by camels and browns. Though these are the trends, there is sure to be an element of surprise as each designer interprets them that will make watching each show a unique and exciting experi-ence.

This year, Fashion Week is doing live online streaming of some of the most anticipated shows, like Derek Lam and Diane von Furstenberg. This will provide a lovely study break for those who can only dream of attending the shows this week. Though some of us will only watch these shows jealously from our dorm rooms, there is a lot of excitement to look forward to, as the New York event is only the tip of the iceberg. After the final model sashays down the runways in the city, the event will move to London, Milan, and Paris.

The shows themselves are really something to be seen. They are a true celebration of not only fashion,

Fashion’s Night Out storms into NYC

Therese Tully is a Heights Editor. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

Designers, musicians, and fashionistas revel in their artbut of innovation, creativity, collaboration, and the joy that fashion brings to its followers. Brilliant minds and expert craftsmen all join together in one place for one week to show their mutual admiration of the hard work and genius that goes into each gar-ment. Fashion lovers from all industries get involved to make the event extra special. This year Lykke Li, whose latest album Wounded Rhymes is becoming a huge sensation, will be performing at the DKNY Cardmember-Only show. On Sept. 15, it will surely be the place to be.

Though some may turn their nose up at Fash-ion Week, and gripe about the models that prance around in hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fashion merchandise, this is hardly a frivolous waste of time, money, and resources. Not only does fashion lift our spirits, according to a press release issued this week by Fordham, Fashion Week this year is expected to generate over $40 million of revenue in seven days alone. This includes revenues from hotels, restaurants, retails, venue rental, and many other sources. To enjoy and support fashion is to stimulate the sagging economy for sure, not to mention add some joy to these bleak first weeks of school.

The shows are sure to awe, amaze, and inspire us all. Back to school shopping for those last minute essentials? Make sure to grab some red-hot pieces, fun polka dots, and wide leg trousers along with the new pencils.

Fall fashion inspirations are pulling from all different eras. Spinning back to classic, timeless tuxedos, these straight lines and flat panels are now flattering women’s curves. Meanwhile the `50s and `60s are inspiring designers with their bold prints and flouncy polka dot patterns, but twisted with shapes that fit a modern style. To accessorize, animal prints are slinking onto every type of clothing. From scarves and shoes, to tops and skirts, this season is boldly going back to the jungle.

fashion forward

BRAVO ADDRESSES RuSSELL ARMSTRONG’S SuICIDE

On Tuesday night’s episode of The Real House-wives of Beverly Hills, producers tacked on a four-minute introduction that addressed the recent suicide of Taylor Armstrong’s husband, Russell. Bravo should be commended for doing their best to deal with the situation in a timely fashion, and it’s obvious that the episode was edited to deal with the touchy situation, but the segment fell flat. It came off as awfully frosty, even for the Housewives franchise. It consisted of a the women sitting around in a room, crying and commiserat-ing about the loss of their costar, but it was more than obvious that the producers had put them there against there will; Lisa Vanderpump’s face was more frigid than usual.

LOuIE

usually, summer proves to be a generally atrocious dumping ground for the worst shows on television (nobody will ever convince me that Bachelor Pad has any redeeming qualities). Luckily, FX has pulled out its big guns in Louie, a beautiful and quietly poignant show that has redefined the conventions of television genres. It is impossible to classify it as either comedy or drama; creator, writer, and actor Louis C.K. toes the line between the two with each episode. On last week’s episode, “Niece,” C.K. finds himself struggling to con-nect with his mentally unstable sister’s daughter. The episode was a swift, cutting, and touching examination of rock ‘n’ roll culture (he takes her to a rock club), the squarely “goofy” dad, and psychological illnesses. Each episode of Louie is an in depth, perfectly crafted study of the average in a fashion unlike that of any other show. It is, in a word, unmissable.

TRuE BLOOD

On last week’s penultimate episode of the fang-filled HBO drama, of everything that happened, the least crazy was Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) ripping out a man’s heart and sucking the blood out through its straw-like aorta. This season in general has been wackier than most, what with the introduction (and subsequent, merciful disappearance) of were-panthers, vampire blood addiction, and witches. This, on top of the show’s penchant for blood, sex, and violence, could easily have sullied the engrossing plot, but Skarsgard’s newly impassioned performance has lightened the weight of the show. After experiencing the vampire’s equivalent to amnesia (at the hands of the season’s big bad, Marnie the witch), Eric turned into quite the softie, but Skarsgard steered his performance away from hopelessly sappy. Instead, newly quieted Eric emerged as a grounded and engaging protagonist.

TasTe debaTe: Jessie J’s “domino”

If the only song a person heard by John Lennon was the atrocity “John and Yoko, ” they would have an incredibly skewed view of the musical legacy of an incredible artist. In the same way, judging the entire artist that is Jessie J on the singular song “Domino” is a gross overstatement. Anyone who saw the video of her performing “Who You Are” in Metro cannot deny Jessie J’s raw vocal power as well as her lyrical depth. Although “Domino” is not on the same level as “Who You Are” in terms of a message that is immediately evident and powerful, it does deserve credit as a great pop song because love is as valid a topic as the sound of silence. Countless artists have been inspired by the topic of love that strikes like lightning, makes your heart “like a bass drum,” and evokes a plethora of metaphors. In fact, what other ways can a person describe love but through these oc-casionally trite phrases? Paul McCartney, Lennon’s bandmate, himself defended these “Silly Love Songs.”

Plus, simply put, the song is fun. When did music become such a serious entity that it lost its entertain-ment value? Although music is most often heard on the radio and from iPods, artists are also per-formers. At a concert, “Domino” would be a smash hit and a crowd raiser since it instantly hooks. No one can discount that as a measure of musical suc-cess.

Hey, do you like Katy Perry? Then you will also love Jessie J! Why have zeal for expression when the peppy auto-tune phase is so darn profitable? Jessie J herself seems so excited to hit the Ke$ha big time in her latest single that she can hardly keep track of her similes: she shifts constantly in a maddened frenzy of comparisons, basically creating an abusive cover of “Hot N Cold.”

The trouble with “Domino,” as with so very much of inspired modern pop, is that Jessie J puts nothing

into the song and thereby gets nothing out of it. The result is mindless pop so utterly devoid of integ-rity that it has a legitimate identity crisis right in front of you. Where is the expressiveness of the line “I can taste potential like a cloud of smoke in the air”? Does that even make sense? It really doesn’t, and neither does having a music career if you aren’t willing to invest yourself in the art form.

David Byrne of the Talking Heads once said, “When I have nothing to say, my lips are

sealed.” Perhaps Jesse J should take a page out of a highly legitimate musician’s book.

Pro MATT MAzzARIHEIGHTS STAFF

CHARLOTTE PARISHASST. ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR

Darren ranck Therese Tully

Brennan carley

Subscribe to The Heights

Send Name & Address to:The Heights

Boston College113 McElroy Commons

Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467

C5The heighTs

Thursday, September 8, 2011CLASSIFIEDSCommunity

HELP WAntED HELP WAntEDHELP WAntEDBabysitter Wanted for Sweet 6-month-Old Newton parents and BC grads seek responsible, friendly BC student for babysitter. Must be avail-able some weekdays and weekends. Car is a plus but not necessary. Please have references available. E-mail rcriccardella@gmail.com.

Overnight Childcare for Middle School Girl Need companion for mature, independent 13 year old girl while parents are traveling, overnight Thursday, Sept. 15, and Sunday,

After-school sitter needed Sitter needed for our 11-year-old on Tues-day and Thursday afternoons from 3-6 p.m. Some driving needed, so a reliable car and an excellent driving record are a plus. Some light house-keeping, errands, or dog-walking of our very friendly chocolate lab as needed. References required. E-mail susan@nesson.net.

PROGRAMMER WANTED for small business project. Must have experience with C/C++. Call (617)655-8196 if interested. Salary negotiable.

Sept. 18. Some driving required Friday and Monday afternoons, car provided. Other dates possible. Great pay! E-mail cbkahane@comcast.net.

EAGLESNEEDJOBS.COM. We need paid survey takers in Chestnut Hill. 100 percent free to join! Click on “Surveys.”

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 filled.

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.

“Ca va etre utile pour apprendre

le francais!”

For SALE

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011C6

The heighTsThursday, September 8, 2011 C7

The ‘Beat’ flatlines too often on Guetta’s newest albumBy Brennan Carley Assoc. Arts & Review Editor

With David Guetta, what you see is what you get. His music professes to be nothing more than party anthems, wriggling, worm-like songs that will eventually find a home in the retirement community that is the Now That’s What I Call Music! series. Their shelf lives will be long-lasting (surely you haven’t forgotten every word to Akon’s “Sexy B– ” already?). Inevitably some are horribly out of tune, out of time patrons at a karaoke bar in the East Village will be beating them to a drunken death decades from now. He is, at least through Top-40 goggles, one generation’s ABBA.

At the same time, Guetta must be praised for his crucial influence in the electronic music world. He has produced some of the most thrilling, genre bending music of the past two decades. He intro-duced the world to the sounds that echo throughout the clubs of France and Ibiza. Perhaps just as importantly, he has offered rappers and popstars alike the chance at conquering a new market; where would Kelly Rowland be today without “Love Takes Over?” Guetta has his hits, but he has his culturally ignored masterpieces (think Kelis’ “Acapella”) that more than balance the flops.

After stumbling into the pop world, however, Guetta established a formula that stuck: building a track first, and inserting the musi-cian later. What makes Nothing But the Beat somewhat of an anomaly for him is that several of the songs seem to be a merciful return to his golden years. These songs have once again been built around the featured artists, a less slapdash and certainly more successful tech-nique. As is Guetta’s trade, Beat is filled with the requisite stars-of-the-moment, both divas and rappers alike, but it seems far less cookie cutter than other chart-top-

By Katie lee

Heights Staff

After nine albums, 50 mil-lion records sold, and three de-cades of successful pop music, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have established themselves as one of the principal rock groups of our time alongside contempo-raries like Radiohead and Pearl

Jam. Its members make up the lovable rock group that has created some favorite ’90s bal-lads such as “Scar Tissue” and “Californication,” and despite a few band mate departures, in addition to the death of found-ing member Hillel Slovak, the Peppers have seemed to be impervious to any sort of fall-ing out. The Los Angeles poster

boys have molded into rock superstars. Now, after taking a few short years of hiatus, the band is back with their newest album titled I’m With You.

For the 10th album in their repertoire, the group has created a collaboration of both old and new sounds. Even though some avid Red Hot Chili Peppers fans may be able

sense a small change in sound, there are obvious remnants of their old strengths existing in the album’s entirety. Admit-tedly, though, it can be diffi-cult to determine whether the presence of new sounds in I’m With You is a consequence of the band growing up or selling out. All in all, I’m With You is a continuation down a path

SingleS

1 Someone Like You Adele

2 Moves Like Jagger Maroon 5

3 Pumped Up Kicks Foster the People

4 Party Rock Anthem LMFAO

5 Super Bass Nicki Minaj

6 You & I Lady Gaga

7 Lighters Bad Meets Evil

8 You Make Me Feel Cobra Starship

9 Give Me Everything Pitbull

10 T.G.I.F. Katy Perry

Top AlbumS

1 The Carter IV Lil Wayne

2 I’m With You RHCP

3 21 Adele

4 Watch the Throne Jay-Z & Kanye West

5 Nothing But the Beat David Guetta

Source: Billboard.com & CMJ.com

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new album leaves a less than spicy aftertaste

CourTeSy of google.Com

NothiNg But the BeatDAviD GuEttA

produced By CAPitALreleased

AuG. 29, 2011our ratiNg DiSC ONE C

DiSC tWO A-

ChART ToPPERS

On ‘I’m With You,’ the band fails to excite with their new experimental material, but manage to salvage the album with some old-school, classic rock anthems.

i’m With youRED HOt CHiLi PEPPERS

produced By WARNER BROS,

releasedAuG. 22, 2011our ratiNg C+

CourTeSy of google.Com

ping hits of the moment. Sadly, Guetta fizzles more often than he electrifies.

Guetta is at his best when he brings out the wild side of his featured artists. Aussie vocalist Sia, usually reserved and meek, steals the show with “Titanium.” Memo-rable in all the right ways, Sia’s voice wavers with unbridled precision. Her future producers would do well to note her beautifully strung-together lyrics and just-so-slurry vocals, a sort of counterpart to last summer’s “Bulletproof” by La Roux. “You ricochet / you take your aim / fire away, fire away / You shoot me down / but I won’t fall,” she cries as the beat whisks her away to a bliss-ful pop castle in the sky.

On “Where Them Girls At,” Guetta unleashes the sonic force of Nicki Minaj on his audiences.

Her pulsating rap goes punch for punch with her career-altering turn on Kanye West’s “Monster.” Here, Minaj slithers her way through Desi-accents and brilliant rhymes. Where her partner on the song, Flo Rida, fails to overcome the beat, Minaj not only conquers it, she takes its place. In fact, she so strongly exerts herself that the mu-sic entirely cuts out at times, ceding all control to her.

Usher gives a veiled perfor-mance on “Without You,” a song that takes listeners completely by surprise in its versatility. Guetta and the “Yeah!” singer transform the tune from a ballad to a club anthem and back again in a dizzying matter of seconds. Here, Usher’s voice adeptly navigates the bleeping of Guetta’s heavy pianos and synthe-sizers. It is the kind of song that

makes one long for a hot summer night and a car with a thumping stereo.

Sadly, Guetta proves unable to keep from imploding on some of the songs that, on paper, showed se-rious promise. Jessie J, she of “Price Tag” fame (or perhaps you know her as “that girl with the bedazzled leg cast who the VMAs kept cut-ting off), is featured on the blandly unmemorable, “Repeat.” She with-ers away under the monotonous melody. Meanwhile, Akon’s “Crank It Up” falls meters short of the gleeful charm of the pair’s previ-ous work together. Likewise, “I Just Wanna F” could easily be one of the worst songs released by Guetta to date. With Dev and Timbaland trading foolish, lazy rhymes, it should have been left on the cutting room floor.

It is worth noting that Nothing But the Beat comes with a second album containing tracks that are truly beat-driven. It’s easy to deduce that this is the album Guetta wished he could release, not just as a B-side. It is an entirely new, winning hand that Guetta adeptly plays.

On the second disc, he invites talented house DJs Avicii and Afrojack to the party. Tracks like “Lunar” (a record that prob-ably makes electro-punks Crystal Castles seethe with jealousy) and “Sunshine” are trailblazing, thrill-ing, and cutting edge that, thank-fully, are free of any heavy-handed, secondary vocalists. Some may call the tracks faceless, but not one song on the second disc falls flat. They don’t need a singer to bring them to life; that’s what David Guetta is there for. n

that the Red Hot Chili Peppers has always gone down. They rely mostly on old successes and rarely leave room for new sound. It is an album that is functional because it showcases the band’s already appreciated talents. It may not reign in any new followers, but should cer-tainly be good enough for the multitude of fans that the band already has.

The most memorable and catchy track is definitely the album’s lead single, “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie,” in which lead singer Anthony Kiedis starts out by stating the memorable lyric, “Tik-tok I want to rock you like the ’80s.” It is a song that epito-mizes exactly what the band is good at: creating catchy rock songs with full and memorable hooks that any listener would be tempted to sing along with.

Even though there are probably few other radio ap-propriate songs on the album, there are still ones that deserve recognition. For example, “Brendan’s Death Song” strays away from the sound of a big hook and takes a little bit of a different and mellow ap-proach. This more laid-back and acoustic-sounding track, serves as a tribute to the death of a close friend of the group that is poignant, powerful, and successful. Another notable track positioned about halfway through the album is “Did I Let You Know.” The upbeat song

has attractive, goofy lyrics ac-companied by a breezy guitar riff and a trumpet solo.

Yet there are other parts where the Chili Peppers are not as strong. The most aggressive track on the album, “Goodbye Hooray,” can be somewhat uncomfortable to listen to. In this track, it seems as though the group attempts to stray away from a melodic sound and become a bit more experimen-tal. Yet it just doesn’t seem right and can leave a listener

feeling unsatisfied and hop-ing for a track with a bit more structure. Other tracks that seem to follow this same pat-tern are “Annie Wants a Baby” and “Ethiopia.” These tracks are not up to par with the rest of the album, and seem somewhat out of place.

Overall, I’m With You is worth a listen but it just might not deserve the attention of the group’s previous pieces of work. n

the latest single to come from American Idol’s Scotty McCreery is quite perplexing. is the song a subtly acidic satire, or is it really generic enough to use “they smile their smile” without irony? is there any validity to McCreery’s bold claim that girls are made of “sugar and spice and angel wings?” Has Scotty McCreery ever actually seen a woman? the passionless verse is almost as confounding as it is nauseating.

Queen B brings it back to the ’80s on this groovy track. First performed at the vMAs, “top” is a funky, soul infused track that would nestle in perfectly among the greatest hits of Whitney Houston. it is quite the departure from first single “Run the World (Girls).” Vocally, though, Beyonce has never sounded stronger. She rides the key changes with poise and flair. Look for this to hit the airwaves soon.

With her latest release, “25/8,” soul singer Mary J Blige swipes the concept of “Eight Days a Week” and heavily applies a stalker vibe. With lines like “ain’t nowhere on the planet that you can go i won’t,” it’s hard to tell if Blige is seducing or forewarning. Blige’s talent as a singer should be acknowledged, but her lack of talent as a songwriter thwarts any potential this gospel-esque style might offer.

Beyonce“Love on Top”

Scotty McCreery“The Trouble with Girls”

Mary J Blige“25/8”

RAdIo SINGLES BY MATT MAzzARI ANd BRENNAN CARLEY

“They rely mostly on old successes and rarely leave room for new sound. It is an album that is functional because it showcases the band’s already appreciated talents.”

this week’s award for most aggressive assault on music goes to the nefarious Jason Derulo. “that’s My Shhh” features an uncomfortably graphic description of his sex life, complete with tasteless references to cream and water parks. Yet the most offensive part about this drivel is the fact that Derulo chooses to back it with a poorly equalized drum kit and obnoxious piano tingling. truly the work of a twisted soul.

Jason derulo“That’s My Shhh”

Artists like Nicki Minaj and Usher rise above the pack on the otherwise bland and sincerely disappointing disc one of Guetta’s ‘Nothing But the Beat.’

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011C8

The heighTsThursday, September 8, 2011 D3

around their fallen star. That process began with the promo-

tion of backup receiver Johnathan Cole-man to Momah’s spot atop the depth chart. A former cornerback, Coleman switched over to offense before last season to help out a shorthanded unit. He caught 14 passes for 260 yards on the year while learning much of the offense on the fly. With a full year of practice at the position under his belt, the junior will be making his first career start in the Orlando heat on Saturday

night against the Knights. While not the same player by any means, Coleman claims to have learned much from the man he is replacing.

“[I learned from] his physical attri-butes, being physical in blocking and in jams,” Coleman explained. “He actually taught me a lot since we have the same body type, just going up for the ball. He was really my mentor throughout my time here since we played the same

Thursday, sepTember 8, 2011

SPORTS D1

inside sports F o o t b a l l N o t e b o o k After struggling last weekend, the defensive line has its hands full again at UCF...........D3

No. 10 Field Hockey impressive earlyThe offensive attack has been hot early, lead-ing to a 4-1 start to the season.......................D2

Editors’ Picks..............................D2Game of the Week............................D2this issue

By Tim JaBlonskiHeights Staff

Boston College’s football team had finally found the oversized, playmaking wide receiver that it had been seeking for years in Ifeanyi Momah. The senior lit up the field on Saturday to the tune of eight catches for 157 yards in the

offense’s biggest passing game since 2008. But Momah’s status as the team’s No. 1 receiver ended almost as soon as it began after he was lost for the year to a torn ACL in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss. Now, staring an 0-2 start in the face with a night game on the road against Central Florida looming, the Eagles have to find a way to scheme See Offense, D3

GreG Joyce

Offense catching up after loss

WOMen’s sOccer

It’s one of the first lines you hear when you step foot on the Boston College cam-pus: “Men and women for others.” Welles Crowther personified that adage better than anyone.

If you haven’t seen the ESPN Outside the Lines video feature on Crowther, I recommend you watch it right now. Believe me, it will be more important than any homework you’re trying to get done before the weekend. That can wait for the 13-minute clip, because the message is one we should all hear.

A BC graduate, class of 1999, Crowther was known to many as the Man in the Red Bandana. His father first gave the bandana to him when he was six years old. He carried it with him everywhere. The red bandana was always with him when he volunteered at the Fire Station in his home-town of Nyack, New York. Likewise, it was with him underneath his helmet every time he took the field for the BC varsity lacrosse team.

In the ESPN video, Crowther’s mother described him as a “team player,” while his former teammate, Tyler Jewell, remem-bered him as “the first guy to pat you on the back if you didn’t have a good game. And always a smile.”

Two years after he graduated from BC, Crowther was working in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on the morning of Sept. 11. Instead of saving his own life, the “Man in the Red Bandana” decided to do what he did best: put others first. Crowther saved the lives of as many as 12 people around him while sacrificing his own.

This Saturday night, the BC football team will travel to the University of Central Florida. But they won’t just be seeing the Knights’ colors of black and gold in the stands. The students at UCF have created an event via Facebook for all the fans in attendance to wear a red bandana. A small gesture to honor a distinguished young man, and a life cut too short.

In a world where the college sports scene gets more tainted and corrupted every day, this demonstration should not go unnoticed.

The unity and class shown by the UCF student body is one that college football and the NCAA should be proud of, and something that we should see more of. Instead of having SportsCenter filled with headlines of conference-hopping or recruiting violations, wouldn’t be nice to hear stories about teams and their student bodies doing something positive?

“I think it’s beautiful that those UCF fans are touched enough by my son’s story that they want to honor him by wearing red bandanas,” Welles’ father, Jefferson Crowther, told the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s almost like they’re sending a message and telling people that college sports needs to get back to doing things the right way.”

The same lesson can be applied for any of us lucky enough to be at BC. We always hear “Men and women for others,” but Crowther was an Eagle who took the maxim and acted it out to the fullest.

In the bone-chilling ESPN piece, the narrator Ed Burns poses these questions: “What would you do in the last hour of your life? Where would you be? Who would remember it? What would it look like?”

The loaded questions seem like a lot for us to ask ourselves as just college students, but they are something to think about. How will we make our mark wherever we end up?

The red bandana symbolizes what Crowther brought to each part of his everyday life: “strength, honor, courage,” according to Jewell. What do we bring to each part of our everyday lives?

Over 5,000 fans have signed up on Facebook to bring a red bandana with them on Saturday in Orlando. The bandanas will represent unity, and the characteristics that Crowther unselfishly carried with him through his life.

A simple act by the UCF fans, but one that carries a world of meaning to many others. They will honor Welles Crowther, a true hero, who left a mark on the lives of those he encountered and countless others.

How will you make your mark?

By maTT BelnapFor the Heights

After a solid 2010 campaign that saw the Boston College men’s soccer team finish 10-5-5, reach the semifinals of the ACC tournament, and eventually bow out to Brown in the first round of the NCAA tournament, the Eagles look to make a serious run at both an ACC and a national championship title in 2011.

The Eagles return a boatload of talent from the 2010 squad, starting in goal with keeper Justin Luthy, who head coach Ed Kelly calls “one of the best in the country.” Top goal scorers, juniors Kyle Bekker and Charlie Rugg are back to terrorize opposing defenses. The Eagles also bring back Colin Murphy, who spent the summer playing for the New Zealand national team. Additionally, there are plenty of talented newcomers on the squad, including Steven Rose, a transfer from Seton Hall.

Once again, the Eagles will be lead by Kelly, who is entering his 24th year at the helm of the program.

”[This year’s team] is a good team, with a

lot of good guys, and we’re all excited for the season,” Kelly said.

The Eagles have jumped out to a hot start in 2011, beginning the season 4-0, including a 2-0 defeat of No. 22 Dartmouth last Sunday. This fast start has vaulted the Eagles to seventh in the country. The hot start has seen the Eagles outscoring their opponents 12-3.

“We’ve gotten contributions from all over the place, and we’ve really been working hard every game,” Kelly said. “Our guys have played hard each time out, and we want to continue that effort for the rest of the season.”

The Eagles’ early season run has also brought individual accolades for forward Charlie Rugg. Rugg was named the ACC Player of the Week for his opening night performance against George Mason. The junior had two goals in BC’s 3-2 defeat of the Patriots, in-cluding the game-winning strike in the 89th minute. It was the third multi-goal game of Rugg’s career, and his first since 2009.

The Eagles open ACC play this Friday in

BC on fire to begin the season

See Men’s Soccer, D2

Honoring the red bandana

Alex TrAuTwig / heighTS eDiTor

Chase Rettig (11), who threw for a career-high 375 yards on Saturday, is without Ifeanyi Momah for the rest of the season, meaning Johnathan Coleman will be inserted into his role in the offense.

By kim schroerFor the Heights

Last season the Boston College women’s soccer team managed to cross off several of the goals they set for themselves going into the season. They made it to the first College Cup in school history, had three play-ers named All-American, and were ranked in the top five of the 2011 preseason top 25 poll for the first time in school history.

Unfortunately, last season’s suc-cess also gave the team a new chal-lenge to overcome: a target on their backs that forces them to enter each game against opponents eager to pull an upset.

“We try not to think about na-tional rankings. They mean more to others than they do to us,” said coach Allison Foley. “We’re learning that it’s nice to be on top but it’s not neces-sarily easy.”

The Eagles are hoping that the re-turn of seven starters from last year’s Final Four squad will help avoid an early season letdown. Foley believes that the return of All-American goalkeeper Jillian Mastroianni will be critical to the team’s success.

“I honestly think she’s the best goalkeeper in the country,” Foley said. “She’s the total package. Her under-standing of positioning and her ability to make big time saves while keeping concentration is excellent.”

While the final line of defense appears to be in good hands, a big question entering the season was the center back position vacated by the graduation of senior sweeper Chelsea Regan. Luckily for the Eagles, fresh-man Casey Morrison has stepped up and exceeded expectations early in

the season.“Casey has been superb so far

this season,” Foley said. “She is play-ing with confidence and conviction, and that fills a big role left open with Chelsea graduating last year.”

The offense also received a spark this season with the arrival of fresh-men Stephanie McCaffrey and Rachel Davitt. Both McCaffrey and Davitt have played a key role in helping the Eagles replace the loss of four starters from last year’s roster. Foley hopes the duo can maintain the energy they displayed early in the season come tournament time.

With such high expectations entering the season, the team has faced several challenges from teams hoping to knock the Eagles from the top of the rankings. Although the team is currently undefeated heading into a game Sunday against Colgate, they were tested in two hard-fought ties against Boston University and Syracuse.

“Everybody has thrown their best game and more at us,” Foley said.

The Eagles have also been chal-lenged by the loss of All-American Vicki DiMartino to an injury sus-tained over the summer. Although she managed to return briefly in the Eagles’ 1-1 tie against BU and even scored the team’s lone goal, Foley is unsure of when she will return. The team is looking to some of its younger players to step up in her absence.

The Eagles hope that their recent 5-0 victory against Vermont will give them some positive momentum as they enter conference play. Foley saw several promising signs in the Vermont game that she hopes they

Alex TrAuTwig / heighTS eDiTor

Four games into the season, the men’s soccer team is 4-0, and looking to finish at the top of the ACC.

Eagles working their way back

See Women’s Soccer, D2

A year after making the College Cup, the women’s soccer team wants a return trip

Greg Joyce is the Associate Sports Editor of The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.

With Momah out for the season, the offense will be looking for wideouts to step up in his place

Men’s sOccer

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011D2

College Park, Md. with a huge test against the Maryland Terra-pins, who are also 4-0 and ranked second in the country. This clash of unbeatens will go a long way in determining the race for the ACC crown. Kelly says his team is look-ing forward both to the challenge of the match-up, and the fevered atmosphere of College Park.

“Maryland is a great place to go play,” he said. “They’re going to have six or seven thousand fans in the stands. It’s a great atmosphere, and we need more places like it

to play in.” In a season that has started

off with such promise, and with a team that returns so much tal-ent combined with a bevy of new recruits, expectations are bound to be high.

“We just need to take it one game at a time, and continue to play with intensity every time we take the field,” Kelly added, ad-dressing the expectations facing his squad.

In terms of goals for the sea-son, Kelly wants his team to fin-ish in the top four of the ACC, in order to earn home field ad-

vantage in the first round of the conference tournament. Home field advantage will be key for the Eagles when trying to win a rug-ged conference.

“With teams like Maryland and North Carolina sometimes it can be harder to win the ACC than reach the Final Four,” Kelly said.

Even with the tough schedule ahead of the Eagles, Kelly has confidence in his squad.

“There are a lot of challenges facing us, but if we stay focused and take it one game at a time, I’m excited about what we can do this year.” n

Standings

Paul Sulzer

Chris Marino

Heights staff

0-0

0-0

0-0

0-0

Edit

or

s’ P

ick

s The Week Ahead

Paul SulzerSports Editor

Greg JoyceAssoc. Sports Editor

Chris MarinoAsst. Sports Editor

David CoteMarketplace EditorThis Week’s Games

Recap from Last

Boston College

Guest Editor:David CoteMarketplace Editor

“Tom Brady is the worst.”

Boston College

Boston College

Boston College

Packers

Maryland

Boston College

Boston College

Saints

UCF

Maryland

Boston College

Boston College

Packers

Boston College

Maryland

Boston College

Boston College

Packers

Football lost its season opener to Northwestern. Men’s soccer contin-ued its undefeated play, earning a No. 16 ranking. Women’s soccer earned a No. 12 ranking, while field hockey is now No. 10. Volleyball upset Utah in the Yale Invitational.

Football: Boston College at UCF

Men’s Soccer: No. 7 BC at No. 2 MarylandWomen’s Soccer: No. 12 BC vs. Colgate

Field Hockey: No. 10 BC at No. 11 BUNFL: New Orleans Saints at Green Bay Packers

Boston College

This weekend, football looks to rebound against UCF. Men’s soccer travels down to play ranked Maryland, while women’s soccer faces off against Colgate. Field hockey continues its early season suc-cess at BU. The long-awaited NFL sea-son finally kicks off on Thursday night.

Greg Joyce

Game of the Week

BostonCollege

vs.

Football

After a disappointing start to the season, the Boston College football team will take its talents down to Orlando, Fla. to take on the University of Central Florida. In yet another challenging non-conference game, the Eagles are looking to rebound and earn their first win of the season. They will be without last week’s leading receiver, Ifeanyi Momah, who is out for the season with an ACL tear. UCF is an up-and-coming program in the nation, and the Knights are coming off an impressive 62-0 smackdown of the Charleston Southern Buccaneers.

Central Florida

Saturday, 8:00 p.m.

Men’s Soccer, from D1

Eagles take flight to College Park for their first true test of the season

continue to display throughout the season.

One of the keys for the Eagles, Foley says, is scoring early. An-other is finishing crosses more efficiently by positioning some-one at the back post every time a cross is sent in. A head ball goal

off a cross two minutes into the Vermont game by Patrice Vettori is a sign that the Eagles are taking their coach’s words to heart.

“We’ve talked a lot about get-ting confidence by scoring early,” Foley said. “I think we’ll build off the Vermont game as we move forward.”

The team hopes to continue

the momentum from last week’s win over Vermont heading into their next game against Colgate on Sept. 11 at 1 p.m. at the New-ton Soccer Fields. With a strong and experienced team returning this season, the Eagles hope to repeat last year’s success story with a different ending: a national championship. n

Women’s Soccer, from D1

BC looks for victory at Colgate

By Steven PrinciPiFor the Heights

With another season getting into full swing, the No. 10 Boston College field hockey team already seems to be in full swing. Sporting a record of 4-1 and averaging five goals per game, the Eagles appear to be one of the most dangerous teams in the nation on the attack-ing side. With an already talented roster being boosted with the ad-dition of some young blood, it’s easy to understand the excitement surrounding this team. Coming off a 6-0 rout of Holy Cross last Sunday, head coach Ainslee Lamb was quick to praise her team’s performance in the early stages of the season.

“They’ve been great so far,” said Lamb, “They look really good. Scoring five goals a game is great and I think the whole team has really played well up to this point in the season.”

One of the main reasons for the team’s early success has been outstanding play from the se-nior class. On offense, Carla

Tamer is leading the team with 13 points and fellow senior Courtney Tavener is right behind her with 11. Meanwhile, Nicole Barry has done a superb job in the net so far, allowing only six goals in the first five games and posting two shut-outs early on. Lamb was quick to point out the impact that the se-niors have had so far this season.

“It’s a great senior class, one of our finest,” she said. “They’re all playing extremely well. For us to get where we want to be, we need them being leaders on and off the field. I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls.”

Not to be outdone, the fresh-man class has played a large role in the success of the team in the early goings. Emma Plasteras leads all freshmen with two goals and four points while Hannah Nedeau and Abby Bascetta have both made big impacts at mid-field in the first five games. Once again, Lamb was quick to praise her players.

“It really looks like a great freshman class,” Lamb said, “We actually have five girls out there

playing every game, which is new for us. Overall, it looks like we’ve got a great class and some players who can contribute for us for years.”

With talent from the top of the roster to the bottom, the Eagles are looking to make a big splash this year. Ranked No. 10 in the nation and seemingly getting bet-ter with every game, the team has its sights set high this year, giving themselves an ambitious goal.

“Our team’s goal is to make the NCAA tournament. It’s a 16-team tournament, but with all the au-tomatic qualifiers, you really need to be in the top 10 in the nation to make it as an at large. We think we can do it, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work and determination from everyone.”

While the season has just begun and so much can change in the coming months, this year’s field hockey team has the poten-tial to be a special one. With con-tributions coming from all over the roster, it seems like the goal of reaching the NCAA tournament is definitely an obtainable one. n

Field hockey looks for success behind its strong senior class

Alex TrAuTwig / HeigHTS

CharIie Rugg had a huge impact in the Eagles’ 3-2 win over George Mason, earning ACC Player of the Week honors.

Alex TrAuTwig / HeigHTS eDiTor

Victoria DiMartino tries to regain her form from the 2010 season and help her team continue its early season success.

The heighTsThursday, September 8, 2011 D3

Special teamsWhile not the strongest kicker, BC’s Nate Freese has proven to be

dependable from within 40 yards. UCF starts freshman Shawn Moffitt, who is currently 0-1 for his career. Tahj Kimble, while not a true explosive threat returning kicks, has respectable speed and should provide the Eagles with decent field position.

Advantage:

When BC runs the ballAndre Williams showed big promise in his first collegiate start.

He is expected to receive a heavy load of carries again. Backup Tahj Kimble may receive a few carries in limited action. Look for the Eagles to run the bruising Williams between the tackles against a slightly undersized defensive line.

Advantage:

When BC passes the ballQuarterback Chase Rettig had a career high with 375 passing yards

last week, but after losing his favorite target Ifeanyi Momah for the season, he’ll have to adjust to having Johnathan Coleman in his place. Keep an eye out for sophomore Alex Amidon, who was targeted four times by Rettig last week in limited action.

Advantage:

When UCF runs the ballSenior tailback Ronnie Weaver spearheads a deep backfield for UCF,

but the team’s real threat comes from Jeffrey Godfrey. The sophomore quarterback ran for three touchdowns last week, so expect him to look to run often against an Eagles team that had serious issues with dual-threat quarterbacks last season.

Advantage:

When UCF passes the ballGodfrey only threw 10 passes last week, but with a full year of experi-

ence under his belt he should feel comfortable facing a mediocre in pass coverage BC defense. Six receivers caught passes for the Knights last week. Senior AJ Guyton leads a mostly inexperienced group.

Advantage:

By Maegan O’ROuRke

Heights Senior Staff

In the Boston College football team’s first game of the season, the defen-sive line seemed to struggle against Northwestern’s up-tempo offense. BC went on to drop its opening game to the Wildcats, 24-17, allowing 227 rush-ing yards.

This weekend, though, the Eagles will have the chance to redeem themselves against the upstart University of Central Florida, as they head to Orlando, Fla. to face the Knights for the first time since BC defeated them 34-7 in 2008. Defen-

sive end Max Holloway says to expect more physicality from the defensive line this weekend.

“Coaches are really getting on us about being physical and flying off the ball and knocking people back,” Hol-loway said. “It’s just one game, you get judged from that one game, but we’ll come out next game and hopefully shut some people up.”

The defensive line will have its hands full with Central Florida quarterback Jeff Godfrey, Conference USA’s 2010 Fresh-man of the Year, who rushed for three touchdowns in UCF’s opening 62-0 win over Charleston Southern. The high-

BOSTON COLLEGE AT CENTRAL FLORIDA

Coaching and intangiblesWhile the game will be played at night, eliminating the threat of

serious heat, the forecast calls for rain, which could lead to both teams focusing primarily on the ground attack. Head coach Frank Spaziani has shown himself a capable, if sometimes slow to change, game coach. His opponent, George O’Leary, resurrected the UCF program and helped the team to its first win over a ranked program. He’ll hold nothing back to get the team its first win over a BCS opponent.

Advantage:

ALEX TRAUTWIG / hEIGhTS EDIToR

Ifeanyi Momah, shown laying out for a catch in last week’s season-opener, suffered an ACL tear later on in the game, and will miss the rest of the season.

football notebook

position.”The more he can emulate his

fallen teammate on Saturday, the better, as the Eagles prepare to go up against a defense that allowed 70 yards through the air against (admittedly overmatched) Foot-ball Championship Subdivision squad Charleston Southern. The Knights finished 12th in D-1 in total defense last year, and return several starters to a stalwart secondary that includes All-Conference junior cornerback Josh Robinson. Robinson, named to the watch list for the Jim Thorpe Award, given to the best defensive back in the nation, and safety Kemal Ishmael, the teams leading tackler last season, lead a unit that will provide a stern challenge for the inexperienced

Eagle receiving corps.“Their defense is pretty simi-

lar to what Northwestern ran, but in terms of talent they’re definitely better in the second-ary,” Coleman said. “It’s going to be a little challenging this week, but we’ve played teams in our league that are just as good as them.”

The more Coleman can pro-vide the Eagles at receiver, the less attention the Knights tal-ented back four will be able to pay to BC’s now undisputed No. 1 receiver, Colin Larmond, Jr. Fresh off his first game since leading BC in receiving in 2009, Larmond will most likely re-ceive even more looks from quarterback Chase Rettig after catching four balls for 84 yards last week. The third receiver should remain sophomore Bobby

Swigert, though sophomore Alex Amidon and freshman Spiffy Evans could receive looks there as well. While they don’t provide the same big play potential that the 6’6” Momah did, all of them except Evans have experience working with Rettig, and what the unit lost in Momah’s size it will have to make up in execution and effort.

But the players catching the ball aren’t the only ones charged with the task of carrying the load on offense. The offensive line, which had an unexceptional day against a pedestrian Northwest-ern pass rush, will have to handle a speedier Central Florida front seven in primetime this week. After surrendering three sacks last week and having several other plays stomped out because of defensive penetration into

the backfield, the offense will need to execute more crisply in order to avoid its first two-game losing streak to open a season since 1994.

“It’s definitely a combination of us holding our blocks longer and the ball coming out when it should, whether that’s on the quarterback or the receivers,” said senior offensive lineman Nathan Richman.

Regardless, Richman indic-taed that the whole offensive unit needs to make adjustments in order to have a successful game in Orlando. If corrected these changes could also make a difference in the long run for the Eagles.

Richman said, “The mistakes we made were very correctable, so we should be ready on Sat-urday.” n

Holloway and defensive line trying to get more physical in the trenches

Offense, from D1

UCF poses stiff competition for the BC offense

powered Knights also feature running back Ronnie Weaver, who tallied 107 yards last weekend. UCF, Conference USA’s leading rushing team last season, will try to use speed to its advantage.

“[Godfrey ’s] fast, probably more athletic than [Northwestern quarterback Kain] Colter, which is a big task for the defensive line to keep him in the pocket, not running around as much,” Holloway said. “But like I said, he’s a great athlete, I’m excited. We’re an ACC team and usu-ally every week we have a quarterback that can run around like that, especially these past few years. So it’s really noth-ing new, we’ve prepared for it before, we’ll do it again.”

Offensive line shuffleIn the Northwestern game, the BC

starting offensive line was shifted from its normal lineup due to injuries. Captain Nate Richman, who had been hobbled by a back injury, took 50 percent of the left tackle reps after moving from left guard. Center Mark Spinney was then moved to left guard. This week against UCF, Richman will return to left guard, while Spinney will move back to center.

Richman says he feels more com-fortable at guard, and noted that the offensive line gelled better together now that the starting lineup has returned to normal. This weekend, the offensive line hopes to get back on track in Orlando.

“Sometimes you just hit the wrong play against a defensive look and it just doesn’t work out,” Richman said. “Sometimes we miss a guy or sometimes the running back didn’t cut it right. It’s a combination of both us and them. We have to have all five guys doing the job right for us to have success. That first play we did [against Northwestern], some of the others we didn’t, so we’re trying to fix that for this weekend. It’s very correctable mistakes we made.”

The Eagles will face a challenge in a speedy UCF defense, and especially from key players like cornerback Josh Robin-son and defensive end Troy Davis.

“They’re very fast, definitely faster than Northwestern, but they’re smaller, too,” Richman said. “So I think if we

come out real physical like we’ve known to be in the past, and get bodies on bodies and try to run it up the middle on them, I think we can control them in that way.”

Game NotesOne concern for the Eagles as they

prepare to travel to Orlando will be the notorious Florida heat. Even though the game kicks off at 8 p.m., the humidity will still be a factor as temperatures will reach 89 degrees during the day. As a result, the BC coaching staff has empha-sized increased conditioning.

“The heat in Florida, they keep harp-

ing on us, like you need to run extra because the heat ain’t no joke there,” Holloway, who is from the Tampa area, said. “I’m from there and I know exactly what it’s going to feel like.”

BC will also face a packed house at Bright House Networks Stadium. If they can knock off the Eagles, it will be the first time the Knights have defeated a team from an automatic-qualifying BCS conference at home. It’s also important to note that the UCF team has asked fans to wear red handkerchiefs to the game in honor of Welles Crowther, BC ’99, who passed away in the attacks on Sept. 11. n

ALEX TRAUTWIG / hEIGhTS EDIToR

Holloway and the defense will have their hands full again on Saturday with UCF’s speedy QB. ALEX TRAUTWIG / hEIGhTS EDIToR

Spaziani was visibly upset last week with his defense, which let up a total of 227 rushing yards.

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011

Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul, left to right, are all candidates for the Republican nomination for president in 2012.PhoTo CourTeSy of david S. holloway

marketplaceThursday, sepTember 8, 2011

D4

inside Marketplace On the flip sideThis week on the flip side will explore both sides of the issue of U.S. inter-vention in the ongoing Syrian rebellion....................................................... D7

Forecast on Washington.......................................D6Health and Science...............................D7this issue

Politics

killed in the crash of a plane carrying a Russian hockey team on Tuesday.

43 people

I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas.

– texas GovernorRick Perry

on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Former Massachusetts Governor and 2012 can-didate for the Republican nomination for President Mitt Romney recently released a plan aimed at creating jobs and lowering unemployment.

”

“

The Marines recently con-sulted with numerous small businesses looking for solar energy sources. Water heat-ers and power sources were demonstrated to the Marines for possible purchase.

NASA recently released high definition photos of the six Apollo moon landing sites that show the footprints of the Apollo astronauts as well as some of the materials they left behind.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs stepped down due to health concerns. He will remain on as chairman of the company. He has been responsible for the creation of many of Ap-ple’s most popular products.

The World Economic Forum announced that the plummeting U.S. dollar fell to fifth in global competitive-ness. The forum cited huge deficits and public distrust of government.

Oil prices in the U.S. rose this week due to the onset of hurricane season. Hurricanes have the potential to disrupt U.S. oil consumption, the larg-est per capita users of oil in the world.

Despite the growing American jobs crisis, busi-nesses posted more jobs in July than any other month in the last three years. Lay offs also declined in the month of July.

The Obama administration announced that there has been no decision on whether or not troops will remain in Iraq after the withdrawal is complete, though Obama has no plan to create a base there.

United States President Barack Obama plans to lay out ideas for a new job cre-ation package this Thursday, Sept. 8. The plan follows Romney’s recent proposal.

the wildfires in Texas have lasted due to drought and high temperatures.

300 days

stolen in eight cities through false billing. Ninety one health professionals were arrested.

$295 million

Truth is treason in the empire of lies.

– Rep. Ron Paul (R-tex.)in Revolution: A Manifesto.

”“

Economics

sciEncE & tEchnoloGy

in numbERs

in quotEs

America’s still got it

Despite a declining glob-al influence due to more world players, the United States, with a population of 312,115,646 is the world’s “coolest” nationality. Accord-ing to the social networking site Badoo.com, after survey-ing over 30,000 people in 15 different countries, we are the coolest nationality, while oth-ers like Belgium and Poland apparently aren’t as “cool.” After initially reading the statistics reported by Reuters, the results may initially be shocking considering how much “anti-Americanism” has been floating around during the last couple of years. Lloyd Price, Badoo’s director of marketing, tells Reuters that although we hear a lot of anti-Americanism in the media, “We sometimes forget how many people across the world consider America seriously cool.”

But readers shouldn’t be stunned by the results because after taking a step back, it is evident the effect of American globalism on the world and to what extent it has affected the lifestyles of millions in every country, whether it still be developing or not.

The obvious example is concurrent with the recent news of Steve Jobs step-ping down as CEO of Apple Inc. Jobs may be one of the wealthiest men in the U.S., but he’s contributed more than just advancements in technology. He’s created a world where a smartphone is a necessity, paper books are for the antique-lovers, and walkmans are clearly out-dated. According to recent numbers released by Apple, since January 2008, over 108 million iPhones, 25 million iPads, and 304 million iPods have been sold worldwide. In addition, Price is right on target when he says that Jobs did more than give the world life-changing technology, he “made geeks look cool.”

It’s creative Americans like these who have made sig-nificant contributions to the world that make us the “cool-est” nationality. What was the world like before Facebook or other social networking sites? Elvis Presley and Marilyn

See Americans, D6

From the Golden State

By DaviD CoteMarketplace Editor

Though the 2012 election is more than a year away, the Re-publican Party has long begun its search for a candidate to challenge incumbent President Barack Obama.

The GOP potential candidates include Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), former governor of Alaska and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney, former house speaker Newt Gingrich, former governor of Utah John Huntsman, current Texas Governor Rick Perry, for-

GOP frontrunners emerge for 2012 race

See Candidates, D6

Welcome back my fellow Boston College students. Before we were sent off to indulge or inundate ourselves in all that summer has to offer, I gave you a warning to watch out for the markets as they could prove to be explosive. Just how explosive were they? Well, I’m sure for any of you who tuned into CNN or CNBC anytime in August, you’re most likely up to date. For those of you who have absolutely no idea what I am talking about, let me preface this analogy.

We all remember those pre-teen years that were filled with Little League baseball and

A struggling summer market

See Finance, D6

summer reading and of course, rollercoasters. How many times you went on the biggest or best rollercoaster was one of the biggest talking points in a twelve year olds life. The biggest drops or the most bumps, whatever it was, it was exciting. If you liked big drops and bumpy rides, the summer session in the stock market was the premiere roller-coaster. While this rollercoaster had many more downs than ups, it still ran the summer track as one of the most tumultuous summers in recent years.

In case you were not keep-ing track of the market, (and for your sanity’s sake I hope you weren’t) here’s what has hap-pened. The United States Credit Rating got downgraded from a AAA score to AA plus. Concerns about growing budget deficits made financial analysts at Stan-dard & Poor’s weary of the U.S. Though Wall Street struggled over the summer, the market should improve.

henny ray abramS / aP PhoTo

Mitt Romney reveals plan to create jobs

See Romney, D6

Former Massachusetts governor plans to create 11 million jobs by 2016into 59 parts. He asserts that it will create 11 million jobs during his first four years in office and stimulate GDP growth to a four percent annual rate. The plan is grounded in central conservative values of cutting taxes and shrink-ing government. Romney pledged

By Matt PalazzoloAsst. Marketplace Editor

Republican presidential candi-date Mitt Romney unveiled his jobs plan in a speech at an international truck company in North Las Vegas, Nevada. His speech comes one day

before a debate between the Re-publican candidates at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, and two days before President Barack Obama’s jobs speech before a joint session of Congress.

Romney’s plan is broken down

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, above, recently released a plan to create 11 million jobs within 4 years.mary ann ChaSTain / aP PhoTo

mer senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum, and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.).

In May of 2011, Minne-sota Governor Tim Pawlenty announced his candidacy for the presidency. Last month, the day after the Ames, Iowa straw poll, in which he placed third, Pawlenty withdrew from the race. While Donald Trump was also rumored as a possible candidate as early as 2010, he announced in May of 2011 that he would not run.

On Aug. 13, Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll, an early in-dicator of presidential potential, with 28.6 percent of the vote,

narrowly edging out Paul at 27.7 percent and becoming the first woman to win the poll. Pawlenty pulled down 13.6 percent. How-ever, the straw poll has not always accurately predicted eventual candidates. Then presidential candidate George H. W. Bush placed third in the straw poll the year he won election, while in 2007 Republican candidate John McCain won only 0.7 percent of the vote, also eventually winning the Republican nomination.

C u r r e n t l y , B a c h m a n n , Romney, and Perry represent the front runners of an ever-shifting group of candidates. Bachmann has served as congresswoman

in Minnesota since 2007, and previously served in the Minne-sota state senate. She is known as a strong supporter of the Tea Party movement, as well as an opponent of abortion and same – sex marriage.

Romney, who also ran for the candidacy in 2008, identifies heavily with his Mormon faith but has frequently stated that his election should not depend either way on his faith. Instead, he has worked to produce poten-tial solutions to the problematic economy, including a recent plan to stimulate job growth.

economy and thus resulted in the credit rating downgrade. This news that broke in early August sent the markets into a tizzy as investors panicked that this signaled what some considered to be an omen of the next eco-nomic recession. Actions taken by President Barack Obama and Washington D.C. were thought to be inconsequential in their at-tempt to save the U.S. economy. Standard & Poor called for a $4 billion “down payment” in the U.S.’ attempt to lower its financial deficit to which Obama an-nounced a mere $2.1 billion debt payment to be made over the course of the next 10 years. This news began the real rollercoaster ride that plagued and pleasured many investors.

As the indices fell into freefall

Finance at a Glance

Clara Kim

alexander dripChaK

to lower the corporate tax rate from its current level of 35 percent to 25 percent, cut non military and entitlement government spending by five percent annually, and freeze any regulatory policies enacted by President Obama that could potentially hamper job growth. He also reiterated his pledge to end the so-called Obamacare health care reform via executive order in his first day of office. Additionally, Romney proposed expanding the United States’ commitment to free-trade, a policy also favored by Obama.

Romney’s plan has a similar framework to many of the other Republican candidates’ economic plans, albeit with some subtle changes. While Romney pledged to lower the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, Jon Huntsman proposed lowering it to 20 percent, and Newt Gingrich proposed lowering it to 12.5 percent. Also, Romney promises four percent annual GDP growth, Tim Pawlenty’s plan, which

The heighTsThursday, September 8, 2011 D5

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011

was heavily criticized by econo-mists for being overly optimistic, promised five percent annual growth. While Romney proposed cutting non military and entitle-ment spending by five percent, Rick Santorum has proposed cutting the federal budget as a whole by one percent, which would actually cut government spending by a larger margin.

Romney’s economic plan also has a multifaceted response to the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent government regulation of the stock market. Romney does not outright blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the crisis, in contrast to many GOP presidential candidates. Also, while he lobs criticism at the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory bill, he also acknowledged that “some of the concepts in Dodd-Frank have a place. In contrast, candidates such as Gingrich and even Jon Huntsman have pledged to not only repeal Dodd-Frank, but also the Sarbanes-Oxley financial reform bill that was passed in the wake of the Enron scandal with near unani-mous Congressional support.

Romney also strayed from the established Republican opinion in his treatment of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisc.) budget reduction plan. He praised the Ryan plan, which has attracted widespread criticism for its potential conversion of Medi-care into a voucher program, but refused to endorse it. Romney also shied away from saying whether he supported raising the retirement

D6

DaviD CoteMarketplace Editor

Matt PalazzoloAsst. Marketplace Editor

MiChael CaPrioEditor-in-Chief

Who will win the Re-publican nomination for president in 2012?

Should the United States become involved militarily, diplomatically, both, or neither in Syria?

Will Mitt Romney’s plan to create jobs succeed?

Was Dick Cheney’s recent interview successful in attempting to redeem the Bush administration?

Ron Paul. He won the CPAC straw poll, how could he lose the nomina-tion?

Militarily, one more war and the U.S. gets frequent fighter discounts on cruise missiles.

Yes, as long as he redefines unemployment applications as “jobs.”

No, he didn’t apologize for cutting off Luke’s hand in Cloud City.

Too early to tell, I think. But an Obama-Bachmann match-up would be enter-taining.

No comment.

I sure hope so...

Let me look at it first and get back to you

Hopefully Paul or Hunts-man. Realistically though, probably Perry.

Diplomatically, but definitely not militarily or monetarily.

Unlikely, but I guess some-body has to try.

No. Somehow Cheney made the vice Presidency the most hated office in America.

taylour KuMPfNews Editor

Mitt Romney or Rudy Giu-liani, if he decides to run.

If anything, diplomati-cally, but I think our energy should be spent fixing domestic problems first.

Maybe, though 59 points seems a little excessive. Stick to the basics.

It’s Dick Cheney...

aDriana MariellaAssoc. News Editor

Chris Christie. Can a write-in who’s not running win the nomination? Yes, because he’s superman.

Irene put my town under-water. I won’t care about Syria until Jersey residents put their canoes away.

I’d like to see a commit-ment to bringing jobs to the U.S., but it has potential.

Hardcore Bush-haters will never be swayed.

(with losses for the Dow Jones eclipsing the 400 and 500 point marks several times) day traders began to take advantage of the growing concern and speculation that engulfed the stock market. Intraday swings of 200 points, and weeks that saw days of both 400 point gains and losses set up for one of the most volatile weeks in recent NYSE history. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged into the low 10,000s and hovered around the 11,000 mark for most of August. While the credit rat-ing was the main reason for the apparent cataclysm in the market for a few weeks in August, almost every news release that came out failed to satiate optimists. Unemployment rates stayed at 9.1 percent for the month of Au-gust with many government jobs being severed. August’s dramatic downturn in consumer confi-dence also provided a notable scare to retailers and nonessen-tial goods providers. The 44.5 percent consumer confidence hit a bottom that had not been seen since April of 2009.

You may be asking yourself, how could anyone have benefited during these dismal few weeks? Well, there were two ways: commodities (namely gold) and shorting the market. The pro-verbial “run to the (equity) exit”

also marked the entrance into the commodities market. Gold itself saw its price jump to an apex of $1,914 dollars an ounce. During the week of Aug. 15, gold rose an astounding nine percent as everyone jumped on the bullion bandwagon. Gold’s seemingly endless rise has since come back down in recent weeks. However, with more and more August reports coming out, people are still fleeing to the safe haven that is gold.

As far as shorting is con-cerned, uncertainty helped pro-pel day traders into making tons of money. With little assurance in the market, day traders played off of the panic of investors and bet that the Dow Jones would go down 400-500 points in a single day. These kind of extreme drops had not been seen since the eco-nomic recession of 2008. Cogni-zant of how things are still better than 2008, the market would climb back up some 300-400 points the very next day; almost recovering all of its losses from the previous day. This swing was not a one-time affair, but rather a consistent pattern for a period of two weeks in August.

As the optimist that I am, I al-ways try to find the silver lining. While it is difficult here, the an-swer (as it has been for so long) is Apple. Apple hit a low of 356 and topped out around 390 at the end

of August. While Apple entered the month hovering just below the 400 mark, the mere 10 point correction was a small sacrifice. Given the recent announce-ment that CEO Steve Jobs would be stepping down and the fact that the stock only went down a quarter of a percent signaled just how strong this stock really is. Many predicted that when the ill Jobs stepped down that the stock would go down some 4-6 per-cent. If you’re looking for some more news that Apple is today’s equity giant, here are two facts to ease that hesitation. Apple briefly overtook Exxon Mobil as the U.S.’ most valuable stock during the month of August. Not impressed by their meteoric rise? Perhaps you’re concerned with growing competition? Don’t be. Touchpad maker Hewlett-Packard left the tablet industry after its launch just a few months ago signify-ing Apple’s dominance in the industry.

While there was much to complain about in the month of August, the good news is: it’s in the past. One thing seems certain and that is the old adage: sell in May and go away. Well, hopefully the time to come back is now.

Time to come back to the market

Obama and Romney have been at odds over the growing unemployment.Paul Synca / aP PhoTo

Obama vs. Romney on jobs

Monroe. Who else better rep-resented a global sex symbol and ultimate embodiment of “cool?” McDonald’s. Taylor Swift, America’s sweetheart and global music sensation. Jersey Shore. Abercrombie & Fitch. President Barack Obama.

The list could go on and on of what America has contrib-uted to the current generation and generations past that have created a “cool” nationality. We’ve made significant strides in politics, the music industry, anything movie-related, TV, and the technological field.

But what is this “cool” fac-tor? If we try to observe the position of the least “cool” country, which is Belgium, I literally had to Google what Belgium has contributed to the world. (If you’re interest-ed, they’ve given the world the Smurfs, the body mass index,

America voted the coolest nationAmericans, from D4

Finance, from D4

Romney, from D4

Perry, who holds similar views to Bachmann on abortion and same – sex marriage, has been described by many as similar, policy-wise, to another Texas governor who campaigned for the presidency—George W. Bush.

Perry is well known for his frequent criticisms of two Con-stitutional amendments.

“If you want to know when Washington really got off the track- the 16th Amendment, giving them the opportunity to take your money with a personal income tax,” said Perry in an interview with Jon Stewart last November.

Furthermore, he criticizes the 17th amendment, which al-lows direct election of senators by their constituents, instead of their appointment by state

legislators as the constitution originally dictated.

Paul, who gained a consid-erable percentage of the straw poll vote from 2007 to 2011, has been written off by many as unelectable due to his policies which often clash with both Republicans and Democrats. His libertarian social policies contrast with that of other Re-publican candidates, most espe-cially his opposition to the war on drugs. Similarly, his plans to bring all U.S. troops home from abroad puts him at odds with nearly every other Republican candidate. However, his fis-cally conservative agenda shares many similarities with other Republicans.

John Huntsman, Jr., former Utah governor and son of notable philanthropist John Hunstman, Sr., is also in the running for the nomination. He gained national

publicity for his criticisms of the GOP stance on intelligent design and general rejection of evolution as a scientific theory. He recently served as the U.S. ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. He supports fiscally conservative policies, but supports measures to end global warming. Like Paul, he often diverts from typical Republican thinking.

Whoever is chosen by the GOP in the primary next year will face strong opposition from Obama, who has already begun fundraising for his 2012 reelec-tion campaign. Though Rasmus-sen Reports show that Obama’s approval ratings have dropped of late, with 44 percent of Ameri-cans strongly disapproving of the way he is performing as presi-dent, he still maintains intense popularity among large numbers of Democratic voters. n

2012: A variety of optionsCandidates, from D4

Alex Dripchak is a staff columnist for The Heights. He welcomes com-ments at marketplace@bcheights.com.

Clara Kim is a Heights editor. She welcomes comments at market-place@bcheights.com.

and numerous athletes). Obvi-ously, every country has given something to the world (even Canada gave us Justin Bieber) but the key question to ask is if it is something or someone that will last.

If it doesn’t last, it doesn’t pass the first test of endur-ance. People need to believe in a product or find the passion in the person in order to feel the connection to it. And if it catches on well enough, we have ourselves a new form of “cool.”

It used to be that America was the place where dreams come true, where one could start from rock bottom and work their way up to a sat-isfactory living where their children could attend some of the best universities in the world to graduate and become an employee of one of the globally leading companies in the world. And suppose it still is. Two hundred years later, America is still the land of op-

portunity. Now referred to as the

melting pot, a poll taken by Daniel Yankelovich revealed that 71 percent of Americans believed that cultural diver-sity is the “major reason” for America’s success and evident “coolness.” In line with this observation, the cool becomes subtly interchangeable with creative. Branching from ideas from our ancestors, we have the greatest amassed pool of resources to create something new and innovative. China can mass-produce items much more efficiently than we can, they can come up with high definition cell phones before we do, but we’re the ones that invented the original proto-type.

So amid the looming de-cline of global superpower in-fluence, America’s still got it.

Former Utah governor John Huntsman Jr. has gained considerable support in a run for the Presidency in 2012.jim cole / aP PhoTo

age for Social Security from 65 to 67 or even 70 as some politicians have proposed.

Romney returned to main-stream Republican ideology when discussing his international eco-nomic outlook. He recommended increasing domestic energy pro-duction to help wean the United States off of its foreign oil depen-dency. Romney also pledged to sanction China for unfair trade practices such as artificially devalu-ing its currency, the yuan.

Romney also took several swipes at Obama’s economic policies in his speech. He said that the president is “not a bad guy, he just doesn’t have a clue what to do,” in a line strik-ingly similar to Obama’s own asser-tion at the Democratic convention in 2008 that he did not believe that Senator John McCain “doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of

Americans, I just think he doesn’t know.” Romney also referred to the president’s economic policies as a pay-phone strategy in a smart phone world. GOP candidates have frequently employed metaphors to criticize the president, former candidate Tim Pawlenty likened Obama to a “manure spreader in a windstorm.”

Mitt Romney’s economic plan combines traditional Republican ideology with more nuanced and moderate policy views. He, like every major Republican candidate, has pledged to repeal Obamacare, but has shied away from Tea Party proposals to eliminate the Environ-mental Protection Agency and the Department of Education. His plan will come under increased scrutiny in upcoming weeks as he engages in several debates with fellow Repub-lican presidential candidates. n

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011D7

Of late there has been much talk of a developing conflict, which began in Syria last January between protest-ers and the administration of current Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. There is no doubt that these protesters have noble goals—they hope for freedom of speech, press, religion, and assembly. They hope for a violent and hated president to step down. They hope for equal rights among all ethnic groups. I sincerely hope they achieve these goals as soon as possible.

However, there has also been much talk of possible United States involvement in assisting the rebels. To be-come involved in this conflict would be a grave mistake for the U.S. and President Barack Obama’s administration. It would be fiscally irrespon-sible and would drastically contrast with the prom-ises Obama made during his campaign, on which he has already reneged.

The U.S. is already in-volved in a conflict in Iraq and a conflict in Afghanistan. We have troops in both of these countries, not to men-tion in over 500 international military bases. The U.S. had military expenditures of over $698 billion in 2010, more than $500 billion more than the next closest nation, the People’s Republic of China at $114 billion. This astro-nomically high number is an example of constantly failing American foreign policy.

The interventionism that has become such a staple of our foreign policy since the end of World War II has led to our involvement in dozens of wars and conflicts that have no relation to the U.S. or its citizens, as well as the waste of billions of dollars of taxpayer money. The recent conflict in Libya is a prime example. The U.S. spent over $550 million in a single week of operations against the Libyan government, and has continued operations since March. Where did that money come from? You and me and every American we know. If you are a liberal leaning reader, wouldn’t you rather have those millions of dollars put in programs like welfare, education, and social security, rather than used to support a rebellion to which the U.S. has no connection? If you are a conservative leaning reader, wouldn’t you rather have that money remain in the pock-ets of the taxpayers it was taken from in the first place? I think most would agree that it should not be used to lob cruise missiles at the Libyan mainland from miles away.

In the economic climate

of 2011, there is no room for waste. The recent credit downgrade, which 2012 presi-dential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R- Tex.) referred to as “too little, too late,” is a glar-ing condemnation of the re-cent fiscal failures of the U.S. government. Despite having a stagnating economy and being massively in debt, the government has continued to

increase spending in almost all areas. Involvement in Syria would only add to those un-necessary expenditures.

Even in a world where the U.S. had unlimited money, involvement in the conflict would be wrong. It represents a betrayal of values and a con-tinuation of broken promises by Obama, not to mention it violates the wishes of the Syr-ians themselves. That will be discussed later. First of all, let us remember a few promises made by then Presidential candidate Obama.

In 2007, Obama said, “The president does not have power under the Constitu-tion to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stop-ping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” During his campaign, he promised to bring the troops home from Iraq gradually over a period

of 16 months and, though we are more than 16 months into his presidency, the troops still have not all returned. All of the Americans who voted for Obama were glad to have a candidate who promised peace and an end to the wars they so strongly criticized under the Bush administra-tion. Great, Obama wanted peace. So how are the Ameri-can people letting him get away with failing to follow his promise of peace, all while starting another war?! Congress, given the authority by the Constitution to declare war, did not authorize our intervention in Libya. The Obama administration did. The same administration that promised to end our overseas armed conflicts eventually in-volved us in another in Libya.

Furthermore, the Syrians do not want U.S. assistance.

“Syrian rebels who have shaken the regime in Da-mascus do not want U.S. assistance, at least for now, a Syrian dissident in close touch with the network of protesters told The Wash-ington Times on Sunday,” read a news article from The Washington Times published in March. This revolution was started without the U.S., and it can be finished the same way.

I fully support the Obama administration using its diplomatic weight to force al-Assad into stepping down. However, any military or monetary involvement would strain a constantly strug-gling U.S. budget, prove to violate even more of Obama’s campaign promises, and go against the wishes of even those fighting for their free-dom.

THE ISSUE:In January, Syrian rebels rose up against their president, Bashar al-Assad. The protesters hope to gain freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly- rights they claim have been withheld from them by their president. Since January, protesters have met violence from the government of al-Assad, who has brutally crushed the uprising as much as possible. Many foreign policy debates have taken place on the topic. Should the United States assist the Libyan rebels in their crusade for freedoms?

Intervention in Syria uncalled for

US national interests at stake

2,000 deaths. 1,800 wounded. 12,000 arrests. These statistics resemble a military conflict, or at least an armed uprising. In-stead, they describe the casual-ties of the peaceful protests by unarmed Syrian civilians. Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad has sent soldiers, tanks, and even armed gunboats to ruthlessly mas-sacre peaceful protestors. This week, the Syrian government cancelled a meeting with Arab League representatives, cut off all communications into the city, and sent in tanks and soldiers to combat supposed “armed reb-els.” In Libya, the United States and NATO provided military support to a rebel faction, yet currently they have refused to aid the civilians of Syria. How could this be?

The U.S. does not have to unilaterally intervene in Syria. Recent military history has shown that multinational forces led by an international body are much more successful in armed interventions. The U.S. inter-vened in Vietnam unilaterally and in Iraq with a small inter-national contingent, both with disastrous results. On the other hand, the recent intervention in Libya was a tremendous suc-cess. The U.S. provided military support via airstrikes instead of combat troops, and deferred overall leadership to NATO. In five months, at a cost of just $900 million, NATO successful-ly deposed the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, whereas the ongoing Iraq War has cost more than $1 trillion with more than five thousand U.S. casualties. Interventions led by non-gov-ernment organizations tend to gather broad international support, whereas both the Iraq and Vietnam wars were highly controversial. Furthermore, insurgents would be loathe to attack an international force that contains neighboring na-tions’ soldiers. A NATO or even

United Nations intervention would be much more efficient than a U.S. led one.

The international community has already turned against al-Assad and his dictatorial regime. The U.S., the United Kingdom, and other NATO nations have unsurprisingly called on Assad to step down. International organizations, like the UN and the Arab League, have also con-demned Assad. Even allies like Turkey and Russia have labeled the Syrian peoples’ demands “legitimate” and demanded that Assad cease his violent crackdown. This international condemnation closely resembles

the Libyan uprising, where both NATO and Arab allies con-demned Gaddafi’s crackdown. When, the UN Security Council voted to institute a no-fly zone in Libya, Russia expressed its disproval, but did not veto the resolution. Presumably, a similar intervention in Libya, as long as combat troops are not involved, would obtain similar broad international support.

Syria is also much more bel-licose than Libya under Gad-dafi. Gaddafi dismantled his weapons of mass destruction program and distanced himself from state sponsored terrorism shortly after the Iraq War began. Syria, on the other hand, is an ally of Iran and a sponsor of the terrorist group Hezbollah. Even worse, Syria’s loose border with Iraq allowed war criminals to exit and insurgents and al Qaeda to enter during the early stages of the Iraq War. Intervening in Syria serves the U.S.’ national interests much more than armed

intervention in Syria.Critics of intervention have

labeled Syria as a powder keg, saying that if al-Assad is over-thrown the Middle East will col-lapse into an inferno of chaos. First, these same arguments were used against the Iraq War, and the Middle East is still standing. Second, the uprising is being spearheaded by the Syrian people, not a foreign army. The citizens are protesting a corrupt and repressive dictatorship. No dictator has ever voluntarily relinquished power. If the inter-national community does not intervene, the al-Assad regime will become more repressive and more unstable. The Syrian people will eventually overthrow the yoke of dictatorship, with or without international assistance. It makes sense for the U.S. to intervene now, on its own terms and through an international body, then to stand by and wait for the Syrians to rebel later with potentially catastrophic results.

Lastly, the U.S. should intervene on moral grounds. Obama’s eloquent argument in favor of protecting inno-cent lives in Libya rings just as true in Libya. In past centuries peaceful protests were ruth-lessly crushed by oppressive governments. Czechoslovakia and Hungary are just a couple of examples of popular upris-ings that were suppressed and languished under authoritarian rule for several more decades. Now The Washington Post reports that protestors have begun carry banners pleading for a no-fly zone similar to the Libyan model. The U.S., with its military dominance and diplo-matic clout, can assist the Syrian people through NATO and the UN. America should extend the Arab Spring and further sow de-mocracy across the Middle East.

DaviD Cote

Matt Palazzolo

David Cote is Marketplace Editor for The Heights. He welcomes com-ments at marketplace@bcheights.com

Matt Palazzolo is Asst. Marketplace Editor for The Heights. He wel-comes comments at marketplace@bcheights.com

Ap phoTo

Syrian rebels have gathered across the country since January to protest against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

It would be fiscally irresponsible and would drastically contrast with the promises Obama made during his campaign, on which he has already reneged.

“Mens sana in corpore sano.”Many centuries have passed

since the Roman poet Juvenal first penned these words, but time has not diminished the truthfulness of their meaning. Often translated as “a sound mind in a sound body,” the above Latin phrase should serve as a reminder of the importance of both physical and mental well-being in our daily lives.

Although we know that these two components of overall well-ness are connected, many peo-ple seem less willing to discuss the issue of psychological health openly and honestly. More often than not, it is easier to

Issues of mental health more serious and common than most knowtalk about your favorite fitness class at the Plex or most recent attempt to lose a few pounds than it is to admit that you are struggling to cope with anxiety, depression, or some other form of emotional distress.

“Mental disorders are re-ally the chronic diseases of the young,” concluded the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in 2005. “Unlike most disabling physical diseases, mental illness begins very early in life. Half of all lifetime cases begin by age 14; three-quarters have begun by age 24.” Thus, it should come as no surprise that university students, usually in their late teens or early twen-ties, may be confronted with mental health challenges.

The most recently avail-able American College Health Association National College Health Assessment (Fall 2010) revealed that at sometime in

the 12 months prior to being surveyed nearly 84 percent of students were overwhelmed by all they had to do, 46 percent experienced extreme anxiety, 45 percent felt that things were hopeless, 30 percent were so depressed they had trouble functioning, six percent seri-ously considered suicide.

Some temporary emotional turbulence is common and expected, especially given the great number of changes that one experiences during ado-lescence and early adulthood. So how can we differentiate between what is considered ordinary and what is abnormal?

According to the Mayo Clinic, even though each mental health condition is accompanied by a particular set of symptoms, there are some general warn-ing signs that may indicate the presence of a potentially serious problem. Changes in eating or

personality, an inability to cope with daily life, intense mood swings, alcohol or drug abuse, lingering depression, overpow-ering anxiety, odd or delusional ideas, and thinking about sui-cide are all reasons to request professional help for yourself, or for a friend or family member.

Unfortunately, the stigma surrounding the topic of mental health and illness is strong and widespread. Embarrassment or concerns about discrimination can keep people from reaching out and receiving the treatment they need. The Clinic recom-mends a number of strategies to overcome these barriers.

Find someone you trust and tell them about your struggle. Realize that this problem does not define you and is not an indicator of weakness or poor character. Join a support group and speak with others who share your story. “Don’t let the

fear of being ‘labeled’ with a mental illness prevent you from seeking help. Treatment can provide relief by identifying what’s wrong in concrete terms and reducing symptoms that interfere with your work and personal life.”

And certainly do not forget about the University Counsel-ing Services at Boston College. Over 1,200 students per year consult with the staff counsel-ors, psychologists, and psychia-trists, who can aid with a vari-ety of issues, including “adjust-ment difficulties, problems in relationships, situational crises, depression, anxiety, eating dis-orders, and substance abuse.”

It is important to remember that therapy is not only for peo-ple with a mental health condi-tion. It can be utilized by any-one who may be having trouble dealing with a trying situation, such as disease, death, divorce,

or the deployment of a loved one in the military.

Along those same lines, the college experience provides a wonderful opportunity to grow as a student and to learn about yourself as a person, but it also comes with its own unique stressors. Financial concerns, competition, academic pres-sure, and homesickness are of-ten part of the package. With all the time and money we invest in our education (and therefore our minds), we should be sure to acknowledge the importance of mental well-being in deter-mining our overall success. Taking steps to improve your “psychological fitness” is neces-sary for a healthy and produc-tive lifestyle.

HealtH and Science

Rachel Newmiller is a staff col-umnist for The Heights. She wel-comes comments at marketplace@bcheights.com.

Rachel NewmilleR

On the other hand, the recent intervention in Libya was a tremendous success.

The heighTs Thursday, September 8, 2011D8