8
Although swiping into dormitories at Bos- ton University is tedious, the ritual is a small price to pay for safety, said Elise Sullivan, a sophomore in BU’s College of Arts and Sci- ences. She lived in Warren Towers her freshman year and said she appreciated the tight secu- rity. “Signing people in and swiping in did get a little annoying at times,” Sullivan said, “but it was a nice reminder of how strict and secure the security in the building was and definitely left me with a sense of safety.” Jessie Torrance, a CAS freshman and War- ren Towers restaurant, said the university’s security measures offer some comfort to her. “It’s hard not to feel safe when you have two security guards at the entrance of your building watching everyone who comes in- side,” Torrance said. BU “provides uniformed security coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the main entrances of the large residences . . . to ensure that only authorized residents and their guests enter University residences,” according to the university’s housing website. Smaller dormitory-style and apartment- style residences, by contrast, have locked front-entrance doors, but no security guards. With or without entryway guards regulat- ing the flow of people into buildings, crimes still occur within BU residences. In 2010, 29 in-dorm crimes were reported to the Boston University Police Department – 26 burglaries, two forcible sex offenses and one instance of aggravated assault, according to BUPD crime statistics. The BUPD also has blue-lighted telephone boxes scattered throughout campus that serve as a direct line to police in case of an emer- gency, security or otherwise. Although some of the calls are related to residence safety, the majority are not, said Scott Paré, BU’s deputy director of public safety. “The number-one reason we usually end up going to residences is due to a student that is under the influence [of drugs or alcohol],” Paré said. “They are having trouble even en- tering the building. They try and swipe their driver’s license or credit card to get in.” The University Security Council, com- prised of BUPD members and other adminis- trators, meets weekly to suggest new security measures, according to BU’s website. The preceding week’s crime reports are also discussed and analyzed, Paré said. “I can say with a pretty good level of con- fidence that the dorms are safe,” he said. “Is [safety] a concern? It’s always going to be a concern because we want the students as safe as possible. But it seems that the security mea- sures in place are working.” Many BU students said although they feel safest while on campus, the lighter security of off-campus housing does not necessarily frighten them. “I still feel comfortable living off campus because our neighborhood is pretty safe,” said Alex Hawley, a BU College of Communica- tion junior who lives in a South Campus apart- ment. “For instance, I lock my bike outside my apartment building every night assuming no one will steal it. So far, I’ve still got my bike.” He said living on the fourth floor increases his sense of safety. In the Allston-Brighton police district, Although students said the cost of living at Boston University combined with food, furniture and other fixings is too high, of- ficials said the school’s location may be worth the price. “It’s an expensive proposition to live in the city,” said BU spokesman Colin Ri- ley. “There’s a benefit of living in univer- sity housing. You’re close to the core and academics. Students who live in university housing tend to do better academically.” The cost for basic room and board at BU increased by $480 for the upcom- ing academic year, raising the price to $13,190, according to a tuition announce- ment BU President Robert Brown emailed to students. He called the increase one of the lowest BU has implemented in the past 40 years. “We work hard to keep our costs low,” Riley said. “Costs are essentially just the costs of operative facilities, passed on to the students.” Some students said they understand the university’s approach to pricing. “You’re living in the city. It’s going to be more expensive,” said BU College of Arts and Sciences junior Bianey Ramirez, who lives in the Harriet E. Richards Coop- erative House on Bay State Road. The HER house, which is not officially affiliated with the university, provides a low-cost housing alternative to female un- dergraduates at BU, according to its web- site. But students said the cost for BU hous- ing – city or no city – is daunting. Many Terriers choose to live off campus instead, flocking to apartments on Beacon Street or in Allston in search for better deals. “We can spend $10,000 on an apartment in total or $10,000 on a small room in War- ren while a roommate also pays $10,000 to share the same small room,” said Richard Hayes, a CAS alumnus who graduated in Over the last several weeks, about 250 crew members have worked through the plumbing, tiling and various other assign- ments within the new six-story building at 100 Bay State Rd., opposite the Kenmore Class- room Building. Dubbed the Center for Student Services, the building is expected to open for the fall semester. Officials said construction, which began in late June, recently reached the half- way mark. “We’re at that muddy phase where every- thing is starting to be finished a little bit, but still working through the rough interior piec- es,” Senior Project Manager Jason Jewhurst told the Daily Free Press during a tour of the site. “Really all of the items on the exterior and the interior are sort of in play right now being installed, being fabricated, being deliv- ered.” Tradespeople have been placed on each floor to complete myriad tasks, including drywalling, plumbing, painting and install- ing the mechanical systems, a process Senior Project Architect Susan Morgan described as an “exponential equation” for completing the project. “There are just so many different trades working at any given time that for a given lev- el we are more than halfway done,” she said during the tour. The facility is projected to cost $50 mil- lion, said Walt Meissner, BU’s associate vice president for operations. The architects designed the building to in- corporate the modern atmosphere of Kenmore Square in the front and blend in with the his- toric scenery of the brownstones of Bay State Road in the back, Morgan said. The side fac- ing Bay State Road will be three stories high Tuesday, March 20, 2012 The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University The Daily Free Press Year XLI. Volume LXXXII. Issue LXXXVI. www.dailyfreepress.com [ ] KATHLEEN SORENSEN/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF The Center for Student Services, currently under construction at 100 Bay State Rd., is scheduled to be open in time for the fall semester. AUDREY FAIN/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF An admission ambassador discusses Boston University campus safety in front of a blue light box. As the safety offered by the BU Police Department, dorm security and the blue light system are considered a benefit for students and parents for on-campus living. By Amy Gorel Daily Free Press Staff Boston University officials suspended the Sigma Delta Tau sorority after an alleged haz- ing involving alcohol, officials said. The BU Police Department stopped three men carrying SDT members, who were not identified, down Ashford Street in Allston be- tween 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. on March 3, according to the police reported recited by Captain Robert Molloy. The officers called an ambulance for two of the young women, one of whom was reportedly intoxicated. BUPD received a call from the Dean of Stu- dents Office on March 6 about a hazing report stemming from the reported incident. “We believe it happened off campus,” Mol- loy said in a phone interview with The Daily Free Press. “We believe it’s a sorority and a fra- ternity both involved, where alcohol was sup- plied to sorority sisters.” The fraternity was not identified by BUPD. Molloy said BUPD was not aware that the students they sent to the hospital were involved in an alleged hazing for a BU sorority until BUPD received the call on March 6. BU spokesman Colin Riley said SDT was temporarily suspended shortly before spring break, banning them from conducting any pro- grams or activities as a Greek organization on campus. The sorority is being investigated on the grounds of alleged hazing involving alco- hol. “Hazing is illegal,” he said. “It’s a very seri- ous issue. We need to make a determination, so we take the allegation of hazing very seriously.” In an email to The DFP addressed to the BU community, Panhellenic Council Presi- dent Marisa Feehan and Campus Affairs Vice President Juliette Miller, who are both College of Arts and Sciences seniors, said the members involved and the sorority as a whole will be looked at closely and sanctions will be deter- mined from the findings of the investigation. “Due to the nature of these events, a full investigation is being conducted and potential By Nicole Leonard Daily Free Press Staff Sorority suspended, investigated by BU for alleged hazing BU students face high cost of living in urban setting By Jasper Craven Daily Free Press Staff By Eddie Donga Daily Free Press Staff Student center includes digital screens, sit-down restaurant Today: Cloudy, High 72 Tonight: Clear, Low 52 Tomorrow: 79/54 Data Courtesy of weather.com Weather THE REAPING: Spotlight editor helps solve the housing lottery dilemma Sports $AVING MONEY: Some students enjoy living off campus Campus & City Where to live THE WINDING ROAD: W. hockey ends season full of ups, downs page 3 page 5 page 8 SAFETY, see page 2 COST, see page 4 HAZING, see page 2 EAST, see page 2 Safety more of a concern for students living off campus in Allston, crime statistics show Special Issue: Guide to BU housing

3-20DFP

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

March 20th Daily Free Press

Citation preview

Although swiping into dormitories at Bos-ton University is tedious, the ritual is a small price to pay for safety, said Elise Sullivan, a sophomore in BU’s College of Arts and Sci-ences.

She lived in Warren Towers her freshman year and said she appreciated the tight secu-rity.

“Signing people in and swiping in did get a little annoying at times,” Sullivan said, “but it was a nice reminder of how strict and secure the security in the building was and definitely left me with a sense of safety.”

Jessie Torrance, a CAS freshman and War-ren Towers restaurant, said the university’s security measures offer some comfort to her.

“It’s hard not to feel safe when you have two security guards at the entrance of your building watching everyone who comes in-side,” Torrance said.

BU “provides uniformed security coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the main entrances of the large residences . . . to ensure that only authorized residents and their guests enter University residences,” according to the

university’s housing website.Smaller dormitory-style and apartment-

style residences, by contrast, have locked front-entrance doors, but no security guards.

With or without entryway guards regulat-ing the flow of people into buildings, crimes still occur within BU residences.

In 2010, 29 in-dorm crimes were reported to the Boston University Police Department – 26 burglaries, two forcible sex offenses and one instance of aggravated assault, according to BUPD crime statistics.

The BUPD also has blue-lighted telephone boxes scattered throughout campus that serve as a direct line to police in case of an emer-gency, security or otherwise.

Although some of the calls are related to residence safety, the majority are not, said Scott Paré, BU’s deputy director of public safety.

“The number-one reason we usually end up going to residences is due to a student that is under the influence [of drugs or alcohol],” Paré said. “They are having trouble even en-tering the building. They try and swipe their driver’s license or credit card to get in.”

The University Security Council, com-

prised of BUPD members and other adminis-trators, meets weekly to suggest new security measures, according to BU’s website.

The preceding week’s crime reports are also discussed and analyzed, Paré said.

“I can say with a pretty good level of con-fidence that the dorms are safe,” he said. “Is [safety] a concern? It’s always going to be a concern because we want the students as safe as possible. But it seems that the security mea-sures in place are working.”

Many BU students said although they feel safest while on campus, the lighter security of off-campus housing does not necessarily frighten them.

“I still feel comfortable living off campus because our neighborhood is pretty safe,” said Alex Hawley, a BU College of Communica-tion junior who lives in a South Campus apart-ment. “For instance, I lock my bike outside my apartment building every night assuming no one will steal it. So far, I’ve still got my bike.”

He said living on the fourth floor increases his sense of safety.

In the Allston-Brighton police district,

Although students said the cost of living at Boston University combined with food, furniture and other fixings is too high, of-ficials said the school’s location may be worth the price.

“It’s an expensive proposition to live in the city,” said BU spokesman Colin Ri-ley. “There’s a benefit of living in univer-sity housing. You’re close to the core and academics. Students who live in university housing tend to do better academically.”

The cost for basic room and board at BU increased by $480 for the upcom-ing academic year, raising the price to

$13,190, according to a tuition announce-ment BU President Robert Brown emailed to students. He called the increase one of the lowest BU has implemented in the past 40 years.

“We work hard to keep our costs low,” Riley said. “Costs are essentially just the costs of operative facilities, passed on to the students.”

Some students said they understand the university’s approach to pricing.

“You’re living in the city. It’s going to be more expensive,” said BU College of Arts and Sciences junior Bianey Ramirez, who lives in the Harriet E. Richards Coop-erative House on Bay State Road.

The HER house, which is not officially affiliated with the university, provides a low-cost housing alternative to female un-dergraduates at BU, according to its web-site.

But students said the cost for BU hous-ing – city or no city – is daunting. Many Terriers choose to live off campus instead, flocking to apartments on Beacon Street or in Allston in search for better deals.

“We can spend $10,000 on an apartment in total or $10,000 on a small room in War-ren while a roommate also pays $10,000 to share the same small room,” said Richard Hayes, a CAS alumnus who graduated in

Over the last several weeks, about 250 crew members have worked through the plumbing, tiling and various other assign-ments within the new six-story building at 100 Bay State Rd., opposite the Kenmore Class-room Building.

Dubbed the Center for Student Services, the building is expected to open for the fall semester. Officials said construction, which began in late June, recently reached the half-way mark.

“We’re at that muddy phase where every-thing is starting to be finished a little bit, but

still working through the rough interior piec-es,” Senior Project Manager Jason Jewhurst told the Daily Free Press during a tour of the site. “Really all of the items on the exterior and the interior are sort of in play right now being installed, being fabricated, being deliv-ered.”

Tradespeople have been placed on each floor to complete myriad tasks, including drywalling, plumbing, painting and install-ing the mechanical systems, a process Senior Project Architect Susan Morgan described as an “exponential equation” for completing the project.

“There are just so many different trades working at any given time that for a given lev-el we are more than halfway done,” she said during the tour.

The facility is projected to cost $50 mil-lion, said Walt Meissner, BU’s associate vice president for operations.

The architects designed the building to in-corporate the modern atmosphere of Kenmore Square in the front and blend in with the his-toric scenery of the brownstones of Bay State Road in the back, Morgan said. The side fac-ing Bay State Road will be three stories high

Tuesday, March 20, 2012The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University

The Daily Free PressYear xli. Volume lxxxii. Issue lxxxvi. www.dailyfreepress.com[ ]

KATHLEEN SORENSEN/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF The Center for Student Services, currently under construction at 100 Bay State Rd., is scheduled to be open in time for the fall semester.

AUDREY FAIN/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFFAn admission ambassador discusses Boston University campus safety in front of a blue light box. As the safety offered by the BU Police Department, dorm security and the blue light system are considered a benefit for students and parents for on-campus living.

By Amy GorelDaily Free Press Staff

Boston University officials suspended the Sigma Delta Tau sorority after an alleged haz-ing involving alcohol, officials said.

The BU Police Department stopped three men carrying SDT members, who were not identified, down Ashford Street in Allston be-tween 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. on March 3, according to the police reported recited by Captain Robert Molloy. The officers called an ambulance for two of the young women, one of whom was reportedly intoxicated.

BUPD received a call from the Dean of Stu-dents Office on March 6 about a hazing report stemming from the reported incident.

“We believe it happened off campus,” Mol-loy said in a phone interview with The Daily Free Press. “We believe it’s a sorority and a fra-ternity both involved, where alcohol was sup-plied to sorority sisters.”

The fraternity was not identified by BUPD.Molloy said BUPD was not aware that the

students they sent to the hospital were involved in an alleged hazing for a BU sorority until BUPD received the call on March 6.

BU spokesman Colin Riley said SDT was temporarily suspended shortly before spring break, banning them from conducting any pro-grams or activities as a Greek organization on campus. The sorority is being investigated on the grounds of alleged hazing involving alco-hol.

“Hazing is illegal,” he said. “It’s a very seri-ous issue. We need to make a determination, so we take the allegation of hazing very seriously.”

In an email to The DFP addressed to the BU community, Panhellenic Council Presi-dent Marisa Feehan and Campus Affairs Vice President Juliette Miller, who are both College of Arts and Sciences seniors, said the members involved and the sorority as a whole will be looked at closely and sanctions will be deter-mined from the findings of the investigation.

“Due to the nature of these events, a full investigation is being conducted and potential

By Nicole LeonardDaily Free Press Staff

Sorority suspended, investigated by BU for alleged hazing

BU students face high cost of living in urban setting

By Jasper CravenDaily Free Press Staff

By Eddie DongaDaily Free Press Staff

Student center includes digital screens, sit-down restaurant

Today: Cloudy, High 72 Tonight: Clear, Low 52 Tomorrow: 79/54

Data Courtesy of weather.com

WeatherTHE REAPING:Spotlight editor helps solve the

housing lottery dilemma

Sports$AVING MONEY: Some students enjoy living off campus

Campus & City Where to liveTHE WINDING ROAD:

W. hockey ends season full of ups, downs

page 3 page 5 page 8

Safety, see page 2

CoSt, see page 4 Hazing, see page 2

eaSt, see page 2

Safety more of a concern for students living off campus in Allston, crime statistics show

Special Issue: Guide to BU housing

Across1 Ivory alternative

5 Lumps of earth

10 They’re full of beans

14 In that event

15 Center

16 Stat start

17 What the hyphen in an emoticon represents

18 Like many micro-brews

19 Actor McGregor

20 Indoor gardener’s tool

22 Vigilant

23 “Eek!” elicitor

24 __ Vandelay, recur-ring fake “Seinfeld” character who turns out to be a real judge in the final episode

25 Reagan court ap-pointee

26 Wing, perhaps

28 Big drinker’s “secret”

31 Greenish blue

32 Come down hard

33 Tutor’s charge

39 Churlish sort

40 Piano, to a pianist

43 Golden retriever?

48 __ d’Alene

49 Hardy and North

50 It brought Hope to the troops: Abbr.

52 Sign of peace

53 Dr. J’s alma mater

54 Hard-to-see critters lurking in 20-, 28-, 33- and 43-Across

57 Milquetoast

58 String quartet part

59 Like Granny Smith apples

60 Wrath, in a classic hymn

61 Played a part

62 Object of adoration

63 Former OTC watchdog

64 Visibly moved

65 Give up

Down1 Birdbrain

2 Start of an opinion

3 Right after

4 Movie mogul Marcus

5 Gospel singers

6 Pool measure

7 Curse

8 “Curses!”

9 NASCAR sponsor

10 Course for a bud-ding DA

11 Words of resignation

12 Sweetheart

13 “In America” novelist Susan

21 Loose

22 Squash variety

25 Talk like thish

27 Pipe fitting

29 “William Tell,” e.g.

30 Mauna __

34 Wind section

35 Astounds

36 Cybercackle

37 Pedro’s “that”

38 1973 landmark case

41 Nuclear reactor component

42 Amtrak canyon crosser

43 “I give up”

44 New York city where Mark Twain is buried

45 Pack animals

46 Talked like thith

47 Base player?

48 Base bunk

51 Not on the up and up

54 “Good one!”

55 Scintilla

56 Narc suffix

58 Vintner’s container

The Daily Free Press CrosswordBy Tribune

Media Services

Solution is on Page 4 Sudoku-Puzzles.net Difficulty: Medium Solution is on Page 4

Sudoku

2 Tuesday, March 20, 2012

CLASSIFIEDSJOBS -- $$ SPERM DONORS WANTED $$Earn up to $1,200/month and give the gift of family through California Cryobank’s donor program. Convenient Cambridge location. Apply on-line: SPERMBANK.com

Students living off-campus aware of break-ins, surroundings

Two-story dining hall integral part of new student center

SDT suspended for ‘risk management’ problems

Safety: From Page 1

eaSt: From Page 1

Hazing: From Page 1

and decorated with a brick pattern.“That’s one of the ways where

this is actually kind of a Siamese twin of a building or a ying-yang of a building because it’s tradition-al and respectful on the Bay State side,” Morgan said.

The six-story sides facing Deer-field Street and Kenmore Square will have walls made of a variety of brick and showcase a glass struc-ture called the “Lantern.” Spanning from the second story to the sixth, the Lantern will glow with LEED lighting.

“This big Lantern of light was the idea of the president as a way to mark this end of campus,” Mor-gan said, “so that when you arrive in Kenmore Square you’re going to see this building and it will be glow-ing and bright and you’ll see people moving around in it.”

Morgan said the walls of the Lantern will be illuminated by light-ing in the floors that change colors.

Inside the building, the crew is developing a two-story dining hall, retail restaurants, study rooms and offices.

The dining hall on the first and second floor follows the format of the West Campus dining hall, where food is prepared in front of the stu-

dents. An air delivery system is be-ing installed to circulate fresh air, particularly due to high turnouts and turnover rate.

Connecting the two floors is the “Ellipses,” a floor opening that will allow students on both floors to see the activity going on above or below them.

“It’s a double-height space that allows that daylight to deeply pen-etrate the floor plate,” Jewhurst said.

The “News and Sports” room on the first floor is set to hold six tele-vision screens, Morgan said. The living room, which includes a gas fireplace, will have back-to-back benches along the wall.

The basement is reserved for two retail restaurants – a coffee shop and a sit-down restaurant with a wait-staff.

“[Designers] kind of describe it as Hard Rock Cafe meets ESPN Zone,” she said. “It’s really going to be amazing.”

While the first two floors are meant to incorporate a distinct social atmosphere, the top four floors are designated for academic and career services. The building will include several classrooms, as well as study rooms with white boards and digital screens.

The third and fourth floors will house the College of Arts and Sci-

ences Writing Program, Academic Advising Center, Pre-Professional Advising Office and Office of Stu-dent Programs and Leadership, Meissner said. The fifth and six floors will house the Educational Resource Center and Center for Ca-reer Development.

“The intent was really to bring all of these services together so that a student doesn’t have to

march to different points on cam-pus,” Morgan said.

Jewhurst noted a focus on “low-technologies” in the construction process. The building is made of Forest Stewardship Council lumber and brick resourced locally from Canada.

Floors four through six run on a hydronic heating and cooling sys-tem, which circulates water to trans-port air and adjusts to temperature changes at the source of the change.

The architects designed large windows and higher ceilings that will let daylight penetrate the floor plate more deeply to reduce the need for artificial light and heating.

“We try to use low-technologies, or technologies that have been test-ed, and use simple systems with fewer moving parts,” Jewhurst said. “You have less turnover, you have less fixing and you have less main-tenance.”

sanctions will be determined before they will be considered for reinstate-ment as a recognized student group,” Feehan said.

The DFP obtained an email sent from Feehan to sorority sisters on March 8 from a source who wished to remain anonymous. In the email, Feehan announced SDT was no lon-ger affiliated with BU or the Panhel-lenic Council.

Feehan stated in the email that SDT was under investigation for “problems arising from risk manage-ment” involving a few members.

“This was not an action of the entire chapter, but of a select group of girls,” the email stated. “They by no means reflect the overall character of Sigma Delta Tau and anyone that you may be friends [with] within the chapter.”

Feehan said in a statement to The DFP that the BU Panhellenic Coun-cil does not accept any misbehavior involving incidents such as this one.

“The Boston University Panhel-lenic Council does not condone any behavior that threatens the well-being of any member of Greek Life, and we will not accept the occurrence of such incidents,” she said.

where many BU students reside in off-campus housing, there are high-er crime statistics than on campus.

From Jan. 1 to March 18, there were 46 cases of burglary and at-tempted burglary, 25 cases of ag-gravated assault and 134 cases of larceny and attempted larceny in that area, according to Boston Police Department crime statistics.

Sullivan, who lives off campus in Allston, said her neighborhood does not give her the “same sense of safe-ty” that on-campus housing does.

“During the day I feel safe in Allston because it’s really just a lot of college kids walking around . . . the night is a little different,” she said.

Sullivan said during her time liv-ing in Allston, she has heard about

shootings, a rape incident, an elusive arsonist and several robberies in the areas surrounding her neighbor-hood.

“We’ve never had to deal with a break-in, luckily, but friends of ours have,” she said. “Friends who lived in a house on Chester Street were robbed last year. It’s scary and definitely something we have to be aware of.”

In addition to taking such pre-cautions as living above ground lev-el and installing a bolt on the door to her apartment, Sullivan said she also avoids walking around by herself at night in Allston.

“I always am aware of my sur-roundings,” she said. “So far, I haven’t found myself in situations where I feel like I’m in any serious danger.”

While sex in dorms may be one of the most difficult issues for col-lege students to discuss, Boston University students said room-mates should communicate about what to expect from each other.

“One thing that is really impor-tant is for roommates to work out a system together to tell each other what is going on,” said a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, who wished to be referred to as Lindsey.

Lindsey said she once returned to her dorm room early from class

to find her roommate being inti-mate with a guy.

The incident, she said, made their living situation awkward for a couple of days. She now lives with her best friends and finds communicating about sex easier.

Sex in dorms may often cause conflicts between roommates, as it did for Lindsay Blankmeyer, a for-mer student at Stonehill College in Easton.

Stonehill is studying a com-plaint made by Blankmeyer, Stonehill spokesman Martin Mc-Govern told The Daily Free Press in an email interview.

Blankmeyer claimed Stonehill Residence Life failed to help her when she complained about sex issues with her roommate. Her roommate, she said, would engage in sexual behavior while she was in the room, which caused her to lapse into suicidal depression.

Stonehill spokeswoman Kris-ten Magda said the student did not notify the staff of her concerns with the sexual activity. A resi-dence director held a mediation with Blankmeyer and her room-mate, and Residence Life gave Blankmeyer the option to move into a single room.

David Zamojski, director of BU Residence Life, said the first steps in calming a roommate dis-pute similar to this one are for a resident assistant to coach the stu-dent on how to approach the room-mate and to schedule a meditation or an intervention.

“There are some reports that we need to bring to a professional res-idence director due to the nature of the information,” Zamojski said in a phone interview.

Neither Zamojski nor BU spokesman Colin Riley could provide data on how many stu-

Off-campus housing more convenient, cheap, students saycaMpus & ciTy Tuesday, March 20, 2012 3

After Deanna Abbondola, a Boston University School of Edu-cation sophomore, and her friends realized they would have to split up and live on opposite sides of campus from each other in on-campus housing, they decided to move off campus.

“This was our last year with the five of us all being here, because some of us are going abroad next year and the other two are going abroad senior year,” she said. “We wanted to all live together for at least one year and there was no housing for five people left when we got there.”

Most students face the task of deciding on housing situations each academic year. While some students decide to stay on the BU campus, others choose to live in off-campus units within a com-mutable distance to BU.

According to the BU Common Data Set from 2010 until 2011, 99 percent of freshmen lived in uni-versity housing while 34 percent of all undergraduates lived off campus or commuted.

Despite these statistics, BU spokesman Colin Riley said there will be students who want to look at options outside of university housing.

“We know that some students would like to live off campus, so we’ll never have 100 percent [on campus] in the upper classes and, that’s just the reality,” Riley said. “There are options in the com-munity and a lot of it is driven by the economy, the availability of apartments and the job market.”

Riley said it is difficult to fac-tor in upperclassmen’s living situ-ation because so many of them

go abroad during their junior and senior years.

Katie Burns, a sophomore in BU’s College of Communication and Abbondola’s roommate, said this year she and her friends had to go through the process of find-ing an apartment that would allow them to study abroad for the fall 2012 semester and live off cam-pus in the spring 2013 semester.

“We found another apartment for next year and it was kind of stressful, especially since three of us are going abroad next fall,” Burns said. “We needed to find a place that was just for a semes-ter, a problem which it seems like a lot of people have that are off campus.”

Burns said along with the complicated process of choosing housing at BU, the close quarters in university housing was a prob-lem.

BU Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences sophomore Genny Mudd said the

untimely dining hall hours was an issue that added to her search for an apartment off campus next year as well.

“Some of the hours for the din-ing halls were inconvenient be-cause I dance and I’d want to eat dinner pretty late after dancing,” she said, “and obviously I’d have to go to late night instead, and you run out of dining points after a while.”

Despite many students choos-ing to live off campus, Riley said the university has seen an increase in student requests to return to BU on-campus housing after experi-encing off-campus living.

“Many of them have cited that living off campus wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be and that their GPA wasn’t as strong this semes-ter, they tended to miss classes or maybe get into problems because they weren’t as academically fo-cused,” Riley said.

Off-Campus Student Council

Roommate disputes involving sexual behavior minor, officials sayBy Julianna FlamioDaily Free Press Staff

By Nicole LeonardDaily Free Press Staff

AUDREY FAIN/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFFDexter Park is one of the many apartment complexes occupied by Bos-ton University students who choose to make the move off campus.

The following reports were taken from the Boston University Police De-partment crime logs from March 5 to March 18.

An unknown suspect kicked the

door and forced entry into a dormitory room at 481 Commonwealth Ave. at some point on March 5. A MacBook valued at $1,500 was taken. BUPD was notified of the break-in at around 6 p.m. after receiving a tip on the anonymous tip website. BUPD is investigating the report.

Sharp guy The Massachusetts Bay Transporta-

tion Authority Transit Police Depart-ment contacted BUPD on March 6 at 6:16 p.m. after a male non-affiliate on the Green line displayed a knife to a male non-affiliate. Transit police noti-fied BUPD because it occurred in their area, and BUPD observed the suspect exiting the T at 808 Commonwealth Ave. and walking toward Brookline. They stopped the suspect and turned the suspect over to the transit police. BUPD recovered the knife, which the suspect had tossed into some bushes af-ter exiting the T.

Musical mix-up A student reported on March 9 at

11:14 a.m. that a music mixer valued at $300 was taken out of a room at the College of Fine Arts at 855 Common-wealth Ave. The mixer was reportedly taken between March 8 and March 9 at 10:30 a.m. The room was supposedly locked, though there was no forced en-try to the room.

Dried-up case BUPD responded to Student Village

I, located at 10 Buick St., on March 12 at 11:19 a.m. after a female student re-ported that her clothes were stolen from a clothes dryer sometime on March 10.

Foot race Officers observed three suspects

attempting to steal a bicycle that was locked to a railing at the intersection of Babbitt Street and Saint Mary’s Street on March 13 at 9:30 p.m. Two suspects fled on foot in the west direction of Commonwealth Avenue, while the third fled on foot east on Commonwealth Av-enue. Officers pursued the two suspects heading west. One suspect ran over the BU Bridge and fled toward Cambridge before BUPD could uncover them.

By Dana FinleyDaily Free Press Staff

NEEL DHANESHA/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFFEugene O’Neill, a playwright who died in the building that is now Shelton Hall, met his end in room 401 when the dorm was a Sheraton Hotel.

caMpus criMe Logs

KnocK KnocK

College of Communication sophomore Andrew Stieglitz said he occasionally hears knocking on the wall of his room, but finds no one there.

“It could just be people fool-ing around in the hallway, which I think it is,” he said, “but it gets creepy when it’s at one in the morning.”

Stieglitz is one of several residents on the fourth floor of Shelton Hall who take note of seemingly unusual events. Many jokingly attribute them to an ur-ban legend, but still seem to em-brace the floor’s reputation.

The fourth floor of Shelton is known as the Writers’ Corridor in honor of American playwright Eugene O’Neill, who penned dramas such as “The Iceman Co-

meth” and “Long Day’s Journey into Night” while staying at the building when it was a Sheraton Hotel.

O’Neill died on the floor in 1953. His ghost is thought to re-main in the residence.

Despite ongoing rumors that the fourth floor is haunted, resi-dents remain unconvinced of the alleged ghost. For residents who said they don’t believe in the leg-end, the myth is a quirk of the floor.

“All of these things have sim-ple explanations,” Stieglitz said. “Someone could be knocking in the hallway. So nothing really big happens. We just like to think that some weird things could be attributed to the ghost.”

Rachel Kerrigan, a School of Management sophomore, said she

has not had many supernatural ex-periences, but said residents keep the ghost legend alive for enter-tainment.

“I haven’t experienced any-thing too weird, although the lights tend to flicker a lot,” Ker-rigan said. “I don’t think anyone takes it seriously or is afraid of anything bad happening.”

David Zamojski, director of Residence Life, said students claimed to have experienced strange events while he was di-rector of Shelton Hall from 1983 to 1989.

“I remember hearing stories from students that they would hear sounds, like doors closing or knocks at the door,” he said. “When they opened their own doors, there would be no one out

SHelton, see page 4

By Chris LisinskiDaily Free Press Staff

While Boston University of-ficials said they expect to enroll fewer freshmen in the fall, the smaller incoming class will likely not affect students’ chances in getting their preferred housing choices in late March.

The size change may open up space for transfer students who wish to live on campus for the 2012-13 academic year.

Transfer students are not guar-anteed housing on campus and are only placed in any remaining rooms after same-room, internal and community selection has oc-curred for continuing and new students, said Executive Director of Housing and Dining Marc Ro-billard.

Community housing appoint-ments will occur between March 29 and April 5, during which time students will vie for their pre-ferred rooms from 11,400 spots available, Robillard said. Incom-ing freshmen will need to be ac-counted for, as all BU students are required to live on campus their first year.

More than 7,000 students paid their housing reservation fee and will be placed into on-campus housing, he said.

Robillard cited the class of 2014 as an instance when BU was not able to place transfer students in housing, due to the 4,409 new

By Allie DeAngelisDaily Free Press Staff

Smaller freshman class not likely to improve students’ housing chances

HouSing, see page 4off CampuS, see page 4

Sex, see page 4

Ghost of Shelton Hall considered urban legend, adds quirk to floor

Today’s crossword solution brought to you by...

Cookie Cake monsters

4 Tuesday, March 20, 2012

BU costs similar to other area schools

CoSt: From Page 1

December. Despite the financial reasons to

move off campus, Hayes said liv-ing on campus provides a better social life.

“You always have a central location to meet up and you’re in the heart of everything,” he said.

Riley said since the cost of liv-ing is high in Boston, the cost of student housing also tends to be high.

“This is unfortunately what the market is,” he said. “I’ll leave it up to the students to be the judge of how affordable it is.”

Though some BU students complain about the high costs of housing, other local colleges charge similar rates.

Wheelock College’s hous-ing costs are within a few hun-dred dollars of BU’s rates – in

Suffolk University housing costs per academic year tend to be about $2,000 more than BU’s, ac-cording to the universities’ web-sites.

Suffolk spokesman Greg Gat-lin said the university’s location in one of the city’s most expen-sive real estate markets drives the school’s housing prices up.

“One of the great things about Suffolk University is our location . . .. We are located very centrally in downtown Boston,” he said. “One of the things that comes along with the great downtown location is high real estate costs – including housing.”

Despite the necessary costs, Suffolk has tried to keep prices as low as possible for students and their families, Gatlin said, adding that its housing costs have not in-creased in two years.

the 2011-2012 academic year, Wheelock charged students about $12,370, which is about $340 less than what BU charged during the same year, according to the schools’ websites.

Wheelock tries to keep costs low by collaborating on initia-tives with other colleges, said Vice President and CEO Anne Marie Martorana.

In addition to the rising cost of housing, Martorana said, the school’s efforts to keep up with changing technology becomes ex-pensive as well.

“The expectations for the col-lege’s services are very high too. The cost of keeping up with tech-nology is amazing right now. We have to keep up with what the stu-dents want,” Martorana said, add-ing that despite the prices, “a lot of students want to be here, close to everything.”

HouSing: From Page 3

off CampuS: From Page 3

Students suggest talking with each other to fix roommate problems

Student in O’Neill’s old room calls haunting ‘relatively benign’

Freshman ending up in freshman dorms ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ Off-campus housing makes students feels ‘more at home’

Sex: From Page 3

SHelton: From Page 3

undergraduate students. However, BU spokesman Co-

lin Riley said there were only 4,130 freshmen in the class of 2013.

“Enrolling a freshman class is an art, not a science, and our Ad-missions folks do an amazing job, so the numbers sometimes fluctu-ate above our targets as was the case [for the class of 2014],” Ri-ley said in a phone interview.

The class of 2016 is targeted at around 3,900 students, 3 percent less than last year and 13 percent less than the class of 2014, Riley said.

However, Robillard said the lower numbers do not necessarily mean students will see a change in the ability to get their preferred housing.

“Having more freshmen only tells part of the story,” Robillard said. “You have continuing stu-dents too, as well as graduate and transfer students.”

As The Daily Free Press re-ported in January, BU received a record number of applicants for the 2012-13 academic year, which can result in a larger-than-normal freshman class.

Helen Baine Keller, a College of Communication sophomore, said she is disappointed with the housing process. Keller received a lottery number of about 12,000, but said the only choices left for her and her roommate were War-ren Towers, Myles Standish Hall, Danielsen Hall and the predomi-

nantly freshman dorms in West Campus.

“I guess we’ll see what hap-pens this year with the lottery sys-tem, but last year my roomie and I were treated very poorly by the staff,” she said. “Hopefully, this year there are more choices.”

College of Arts and Sciences junior Kayla Fernandez said she has never met a transfer student who has lived on campus.

Robillard said last year saw the most number of continuing students staying on campus be-cause of the added capacity and appeal of Student Village II and a negative influence by the housing market.

“It all depends on the real es-tate markets,” he said. “We’re liv-ing in a changing environment.”

President and SAR junior Alisha Tubis said in an email students seek off-campus housing to gain independence, even though off-campus housing still comes with responsibility.

“Still, living off campus of-fers students freedom in decision-making and budgeting, offers less restrictions as far as quiet hours and guests and offers the sup-port of the Off-Campus Council,” Tubis said.

Although Burns said it was stressful because all five of her roommates, including herself, had to listen to each other’s opinions in deciding what they wanted, it is convenient to come home to her apartment.

“It’s really nice to just kind of be able to come home, have your own freedom, there’s nobody tell-ing you to quiet down,” she said. “It’s just nice being able to come home and cook your own dinner when you want to. You feel like you’re more at home.”

dents move out due to roommate disputes. However, Zamojski said students rarely contact him with complaints about Residence Life staff, and dealing with roommate conflict is infrequent.

Riley said students need to be responsible for their actions and respectful of others.

“There is no reason for conflict; conflict is unnecessary,” Riley said in a phone interview. “Communi-cate with the RA and maybe the hall staff.”

There are questions to ask a roommate upfront to avoid con-

flicts later because many students are sexually active, said CAS ju-nior Arielle Egan.

“I feel like it’s different asking to have the room for you and your boyfriend verses bringing some guy home from a bar,” Egan said. “Just knowing those things about your roommate is important.”

Alyssa Biller, a sophomore in Sargent College of Health and Re-habilitation Sciences, said she re-membered her RA freshman year asked residents to sign contracts all roommates agreed to.

Biller said, “I think that sort of thing is important if you don’t know your roommate so you’re both on the same page.”

Students will invariably end up in less-than-preferred housing such as Danielsen Hall, especially because freshmen fight to get into Warren Towers, West Campus and parts of Bay State Road, Robil-lard said.

“It’s a self-fulfilling prophe-cy,” he said. “Freshmen think that they should live in the typically freshman dorms, so that’s what they end up going for.”

Morgan Kelley, a College of Engineering sophomore, said he only stays in on-campus housing because his financial aid won’t pay for an off-campus apartment.

“I think housing could be re-formed,” he said. “I think the money they put into other projects could be used to improve their dorms.”

HILLARY LARSON/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFFThis is an single in Student Village II. Boston University is seeing an influx of students wanting to live on campus because of StuVi II’s appeal.

in the corridor.”Students said occasional

flickering lights and faint knock-ing characterize the apparition, Zamojski said.

“I even remember a student saying that he or she had seen sort of a shadowy figure in the corri-dor,” he said.

Despite the students’ skepti-cism, Zamojski said he has heard students report otherwise.

“It could be an urban leg-end,” Zamojski said, “but I’ve met students that were absolutely convinced the floor was haunted

based on their own experiences.”However, Zamojski said the

ghost hysteria surrounding the haunting has died down in recent years.

CAS sophomore Dean Borza, who lives with Stieglitz in the suite in which O’Neill died, said he is skeptical about the haunting.

“It’s been relatively benign, and I haven’t experienced any-thing,” he said.

O’Neill’s ghost, he said, seemed like more of an urban leg-end than an actual haunting.

“What’s funny is everyone talks about it,” he said. “It’s really pervasive in the BU community.”

HILLARY LARSON/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFFStudent Village II, located at 33 Harry Agganis Way, is one of the most expensive and coveted dormitories at Boston University. BU’s dorm costs rose by $480 for the 2012-13 academic school year.

Need more FreeP?freepblog.wordpress.com

@dailyfreepressfacebook.com/dailyfreepress

Every time February rolls around, Boston University students panic over where they are going to live

during the upcoming school year. A deci-sion that seems so far off in the distance is suddenly a pressing issue with a deadline. Getting first choice housing can seem chal-lenging to students, especially those who prefer to live on one side of campus over

another. For some students, the benefits of off-campus housing outweigh the appeal of living on campus.

WHEN EAST DOESN’T MEET WEST

With about 18,000 undergrads to ac-commodate, BU provides 15 different dor-mitories for students to live. While some students struggle to decide between a suite and an apartment style room, for many the debate is where to live on campus.

College of Arts and Sciences Sopho-more Edmo Gamelin has lived on east cam-pus for both his freshman and sophomore years. Through experience living in both the Danielsen Hall and Myles Standish Hall dormitories, he said East campus has both advantages and disadvantages.

“Living on East campus is nice because it’s closer to classes and [my fraternity’s] chapter meetings,” he said. “But I’m not a fan of having to travel over a mile to reach the best dining hall, the gym and my extra-curricular activities that take place in west

and off campus in Allston.”Besides Danielsen and Myles, East cam-

pus offers the Shelton Hall and HoJo dormi-tories, as well as brownstones on Bay State Rd. With the new student center located at 100 Bay State Rd. to be completed in Fall 2012, East campus will now offer some of the amenities Gamelin said he missed by not living on West campus.

CAS Sophomore Megan Duffy blames the housing process, and her East campus placement, for the “terrible” time she had during her freshman year at BU.

“My experience with housing was awful. I was put in Danielsen freshman year which is extremely far from campus and any other freshman and students in general,” she said. “I think living there negatively affected my time freshman year.”

Duffy also said the housing process is unfair because freshmen students should be put in an environment where they can meet new people.

“When entering college, freshmen shouldn’t be put in an environment where they feel alienated. I also think that if fresh-men are put into such a situation, they should have a little more priority when choosing housing for sophomore year,” she said.

BU’s West campus seems to be popular among students who desire a more ‘campus feel’ area to live. West campus housing op-tions include 1019 Commonwealth Ave.,

and Rich, Sleeper and Claflin Halls. Direc-tor of Housing Nishmin Kashyap said via email that the most sought after dorms for students are Student Village I and Student Village II, which are both located on West campus as well.

College of General Studies Sophomore Kara Korab lived on West campus during her freshmen year and currently lives there as a sophomore. In her opinion, the pros of living on West campus outweigh the cons.

“There are so many benefits [of West campus],” she said. “It has a more campus and personal feel. FitRec and Nickerson field are close, and the dining hall is great. It’s kind of ideal.”

However, similarly to other West resi-dents, Korab said that the far distance to class and being away from the George Sher-man Union and central campus, “where ev-erything goes on” is a drawback of the area.

LUCK OF THE DRAW

According to BU Housing’s website, room selection appointment notification cards will be mailed out to students in “late march.” For students who have not already selected their housing for next year, a lottery system is used to assign individual housing. A computer system generates a “random” lottery number for each student. Students with higher class standing receive lower lottery numbers. Subsequently, seniors and

juniors oftentimes get their preferred hous-ing over sophomores.

Kashyap said that because every student situation is different, there are no tricks that a student can pull to guarantee to get the housing he or she wants.

Duffy agrees that there are no “tips” stu-dents can use to get their preferred housing. The only suggestion she said is to “summer swap” with another student because ulti-mately “it’s the only option you’re given.”

Many students try to get “pulled in” to a room by a student who already lives in that desired room, or students sometimes choose to stay in their current room for the upcoming year as well. In some cases, stu-dents can summer swap with another stu-dent if both students agree that they would rather live in the others’ assigned room.

SEEKING REAL INDEPENDENCE

In an effort to avoid the hassle of se-lecting an on-campus room, some students opt to move off campus in the neighboring

Brookline and Allston areas. Corban Roache has been a leasing agent

for Capital Reality Associates in Brookline since June 2011, and his work mainly in-volves rentals for BU students. Roache said that cheaper cost of living off campus and the independence from security guards and RAs appeals to some students.

“I have found that in almost all cases, living off campus is significantly less ex-pensive than living in BU housing. Most off-campus residents find themselves sav-ing at least about $100 a month after mak-ing the transition,” he said.

Students like Gamelin, who did not get the housing that he wanted the past two years, are opting to move off campus for the upcoming 2012-2013 school year.

“I’m living off campus next year be-cause the on-campus housing that I find acceptable is limited and too expensive,” Gamelin said. “I’m also not willing to risk getting stuck in East campus again due to a poor lottery number.”

Roache said that the Brookline area, around St. Paul St. and Pleasant St., are in the “highest demand” among students. He suggests that if students plan to move off campus, they should have a plan set before they go looking for apartments.

“If you plan on living off campus, my best advice is for you to come up with a concrete plan over winter break, and con-tact an agent as soon as you get back to

school in January,” he said. “This way, you don’t miss out on all of the nicer places.”

However, Roache said that the most dif-ficult part of working with students seek-ing off-campus housing is not actually the students themselves. The students’ parents cause the most problems for leasing agents.

“Parents are often hesitant to let their children move into an apartment of their own. But when kids get to college, they try to make decisions without their parents’ consent, and agents end up tangled in per-sonal matters that make the job harder than it should be,” Roache said.

Roache, who is a CAS Junior, lived in Warren Towers his freshmen year and Rich Hall his sophomore year. He decided to move off campus for his junior year, and he plans on living off campus during his senior year as well.

“I’d recommend living off campus to anyone after freshmen year,” he said. “It’s a valuable learning experience and a lot of fun.”

The Hous ing GamesWith housing selection right around the corner, what should Boston University students know before making their pick?

May the odds be ever in your favor.

By Frankie Barbato

Features Staff

HILLARY LARSON/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFFStudent Village I, at 10 Buick St. in West Campus, is one of the most coveted dormitories on cam-pus.

AUDREY FAIN/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFFSouth Campus residences include small dormitory-style brownstones and apartments. This South Campus triple is located in a brownstone at 11 Bushwell St.

HILLARY LARSON/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFFWarren Towers, at 700 Commonwealth Ave., mainly houses underclassmen.

W H E R E TO L I V E ?

opinion6 Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Housing on any college campus is an integral part of the student experi-ence. Whether we are aware of it or not, where we live and our consequent living environment are usually factors that can determine whether we grow to love or loathe the campus we adopt as our sur-rogate home. Boston University prides it-self on its housing promise: Namely, stu-dents are guaranteed on-campus housing for all four years of their undergraduate career. It’s certainly an attractive prom-ise, especially at a university that boasts such a diverse student body. As enam-oured prospective students learn about BU’s campus, these same individuals are bombarded with glowing anecdotes of fostering community and renovated resi-dences, which reflect BU’s commitment to student well-being. Security, food facilities and laundry facilities, among other things, are carefully considered and presented to the public.

Yet, while housing itself may be better than many other campuses, BU students are notorious for complaining about the housing selection process. Here, you find a disparity between what you’re promised at the beginning of the housing process and how reality unfolds. At the end of it, a select few are never around to publicly complain because they are relegated to the far-flung Danielsen Hall. Unfortunately, a lottery system seems to be the only fair solution to housing selec-tion, so the system can’t be helped. Due to the larger class of 2014 and an influx of seniors choosing to stay on campus, last year’s housing appointments brought anger and frustration to many BU stu-dents. According to a housing update published in The Daily Free Press today, smaller incoming classes won’t better students’ chances of getting housing of their choice, but it will just shift a larger

quota to incoming transfer students. So where does that leave the current

state of BU housing? Envelopes in dorm mailrooms everywhere were sharply torn apart yesterday, as students received their lottery numbers. For some, staring down at those black numbers is a metaphorical death sentence. Perhaps now is the time for BU to adequately exercise its breadth in housing possibilities. For instance, freshman-only dorms. Why should soph-omores be subjected to living in Warren Towers against their will while freshmen are placed in desirable brownstones? If Warren, West Campus halls and Towers were to be opened only to freshmen, the possibility of providing an easier transi-tion for first-year students is tangible.

Furthermore, the prospect of spe-cialty housing should be re-visited and revamped. While the idea is a popular selling point during orientation and ad-missions tours, its impact and promi-nence in the BU community is marginal. For those students looking for a smaller community to integrate themselves into, this alternative could be a fantastic way to add vibrancy to the overall BU com-munity.

Increases in what one pays to attend BU have been on the forefront of every-one’s minds, and housing is pivotal to that equation. A review of housing facili-ties is secondary; the emergence of the Center for Student Services will enhance the residential area. What does need to be scrutinized is implementing a viable se-lection system. In addition, petitions and discussions over gender-neutral housing will add another portion to BU’s hous-ing spectrum. As we all prepare to enter the housing selection frenzy, armed with our numbers, luck and a bit of hope, only time will indicate which students the pro-cess will favor or fail.

Handling housing

[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]@[email protected]

The Daily Free PressThe Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University

42nd year F Volume 82 F Issue 82

Chelsea Diana, Editor-in-ChiefTim Healey, Managing Editor

The Daily Free Press (ISSN 1094-7337) is published Monday through Thursday during the academic year except during vacation and exam periods by Back Bay Publishing

Co.,Inc., a nonprofit corporation operated by Boston University students. No content can be reproduced without the permission of Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

Steph Solis, Campus Editor

Meredith Perri, Sports Editor

Kira Cole, Features editor

Kaylee Hill, Layout Editor

Sydney L. Shea, City Editor

Sofiya Mahdi, Opinion Page Editor

Audrey Fain, Ricky Wilson, Photo Editors

Praise Hong, Advertising ManagerValerie Morgan, Office Manager

Senses of homeStream of Consciousness

DANY VASQUEZ

I take a step outside the cool arms of air conditioning. The blue brightness makes my eyes squint even behind my dark sunglasses. Twenty differ-

ent shades of green are at my sandaled feet. My hair is flying behind me in a light breeze that doesn’t quite mask the heavy humidity.

I walk out of the shade and into the burning sun-light that is felt in every cell of my body. Vivid colors and heat on my bare skin. This is what I see when I think of home.

Ah, the Sun-shine State. I grew up in these subur-ban streets, just

a short drive away from the beach, close enough for adventures in the city jungles of Miami and Fort Lauderdale. There truly is nothing like your hometown. It doesn’t mat-ter how many places you visit, travel to or settle down in. Where you grow up defines you in a way nothing else can. It takes an early hold on your heart and writes its se-crets in your veins.

Home. This one word will evoke a world of flashbacks and sensations, a different feel-ing for each individual. At some point, the word will take on multiple meanings as you try and merge the senses of the past and the present. When you invest your heart and soul into a place, its essence will become the life-blood that keeps you going. The more places you invest in, the stronger you will be mov-ing forward.

The cold doorknob turns in my hand, and I hop lightly down the three steps into the brisk autumn air. Shades of orange and pink that don’t exist in the English language paint the sky a brilliant sunset. The trees whistle a song to the wind that rests on their branch-es. The marriage of history and modernity is celebrated in the buildings that surround me. In the street, cars fight like schoolchil-dren for their place in the road. Soft chatter. Horns beeping. Buses exhaling. Above my head, my lighthouse has just turned on: The square Citgo sign smiles at me, always wait-ing to guide me home.

Boston. My latest definition of home. Sometimes it takes a while to adapt to a place, but it has been less than a year for me and I already find myself melting in its essence. I feel the city life pumping in my heart, emphasizing my experiences and re-minding me there is still so much I haven’t seen. I take one look outside my brownstone window, and I know this place will have as strong a presence within me as the blazing warmth from my hometown.

These are my two somewhat conflict-ing definitions of home. They swirl in my heart and blend together. I hear the sounds of the city that has changed me, taught me, and defined me in so short a time. I feel the hot sand on my skin and the salty ocean at-mosphere in my lungs that relaxes my mind and my senses. The opposite ends of the East Coast that play tug of war with the strings of my heart.

And it is wonderful. The sensations fuse in their extremes and create this unique definition made for me and no one else. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. One day, I will move away again. I will make my home in a new place. It will be completely unfa-miliar and vibrating in its mysteries. Time will pass. I will breathe my life into my new environment and let it charge me with all it has to offer. As I change and adapt once again, it will slowly begin to add its own colors to my heart. The definition will grow wider and more meaningful. New faces will smile at me, new memories will grab my senses and become the images I see when I close my eyes.

A quote to live by: “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” Do not be afraid to make multiple homes. Let your surroundings define you. Invest yourself in new places and let them become as much a part of you as you are of them. Create these senses of home in every place you give your heart to. And most im-portantly, never forget the home that started it all, whose voice resounds louder than any in the script of your life.

Dany Vasquez is a sophomore in the Col-lege of Communication and a weekly col-umnist for The Daily Free Press. She can be reached at [email protected]

Regardless of your housing lottery

number, your voice is our first choice

Submit a letter to the editor at:

[email protected]

cio, who served as a captain this season.Like Alford, Young recorded her 1000th

point of her career earlier this season. Young also clinched the all-time record for most 3-pointers by a Terrier in a game against the University of New Hampshire on Feb. 15, and ended her career with 218 3-pointers.

Stewart posted four double-doubles on the season, one of which consisted of 14 rebounds and 14 points in a win over Yale. Stewart became the face of the pro-gram according to Greenberg, and while

her production on the court was impres-sive, Greenberg noted that Stewart, as well as Young, made big impacts in the locker room as well.

“[Young and Stewart] had such terrific careers here. I remember everything they have done since freshman year and I have truly, truly enjoyed coaching them,” Green-berg said. “It makes you sad when you see young women like those two come along and do so many great things and right now all they can do is cry. Hopefully we get to a point where they can appreciate how ter-rific they were here at BU.”

Tuesday, March 20, 2012 7

Injuries cause women’s hockey to struggle during first half of season

Greenberg: Young and Stewart had ter-rific careers as Terriers, will be missed

the frame and taking the air out of an otherwise Frozen Four-hungry BU squad.

Likewise, the Terriers deflated at the end of their season-opening seven-game stretch when a series of injuries to key players debilitated a once offensively potent team.

Senior defenseman Tara Watchorn missed the first seven games of the season with linger-ing concussion symptoms from an injury that occurred during the Canadian national team camp in August. While Watchorn returned to the Terriers during their series against the Uni-versity of Wisconsin, she was not at her usual form.

At the same time, redshirt freshman Caro-line Campbell suffered a setback to her debut as a Terrier with an ankle injury.

While both of these injuries were detrimen-tal to BU’s team, nothing struck the team harder than a hit Poulin took in the left circle by North Dakota’s goal on Oct. 2. The hit left Poulin with a spleen injury and kept the sophomore forward off the ice until January.

Even worse, senior forward Jenelle Kohan-chuk, who was expected to fill the void left by Poulin, suffered a concussion that eventually ended her season just a few games after Poulin was scratched from the lineup.

As the Terriers limped along with a weak-ened roster, the team began to struggle, going 5-8 for the rest of the semester. While BU suf-fered defeats at the hands of some challenging squads, the most important losses came in Mat-thews Arena against Northeastern University, which went on to win the regular season con-ference title.

Like this intermediate part of the season, the second frame of the quarterfinal against Cornell was a challenge for the Terriers. After the Big Red secured momentum at the end of the first period, they went on to have a four-goal second. Cornell then tacked on two more goals at the beginning of the third period to hold a 7-4 lead .

Alas, BU would erase this deficit, tying the game with fewer than two minutes left in the third period, embodying the same resurgent qualities that helped the team come back in the second half of the season.

The rejuvenated Terriers, with Poulin back in the lineup, went 10-4 in the rest of the regular season. For the first time all year, the roster fea-tured almost all of its star power, and it showed as BU defeated Boston College 6-0 and stopped a series sweep by Northeastern by beating it 3-2 at Agganis Arena on Jan. 28.

“Certainly at the end some people started to get healthy, some people started to get their game rhythm, so that matters to the extent of

where we were,” Durocher said. “I think the kids handled it for the most part pretty well . . .. I give them pretty good marks for kind of hold-ing the fort and keeping us on track.”

Thanks to the late comeback, BU found itself in extra play. The Terriers made it to the Hockey East Quarterfinals where it defeated New Hampshire 9-1 to continue their season.

Wakefield earned her 200th career point in that game thanks to a hat trick, and BU set a program record for goals in a single postseason game.

The next weekend, BU took on Boston Col-lege and tallied five goals en route to its 5-2 win that punched its ticket to the Hockey East Championship, where BU played for the oppor-tunity to move on to the NCAA Tournament.

The chances seemed slim as the game against Providence College progressed. Friar netminder Genevieve Lacasse stopped every-thing that came near her, as Providence dug its nails into a 1-0 lead. But with 7.3 seconds left in regulation, Wakefield extended BU’s chances with a goal.

After a quite extra period BU entered into double overtime, where after 2:15 Wakefield struck again to push the Terriers into the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season.

“You kind of have a few good bounces and the kids’ mental state of mind was really strong at the end of the year,” Durocher said of his team’s second half of the season. “They felt good about how they were playing. They are getting some bounces and we were healthy, so that snowballed into a nice set of results.”

Nonetheless, BU could not live up to its NCAA Championship appearance from 2011. After making that comeback to tie up Cornell 7-7 in the quarterfinal, the Terriers and the Big Red played what nearly amounted to a second game. After 59 minutes of overtime play, Cor-nell forward Lauriane Rougeau put an end to BU’s season and the game.

As the Terriers fell to the ice, a season’s worth of accomplishments and records also fell to the wayside, as BU could not make the to-tal comeback from its mid-season blues to the Frozen Four.

“The season probably ended up being de-cent,” Durocher said. “Not as good as we would have liked it. We would have liked to have taken a few more games during the year but circumstances that were part of it, to have some really high-end players be injured during the course of the year, certainly was the first part of our slight demise.

“But I give the young ladies who rallied a lot of credit. They kept their composure and still ended up with 23 wins, which is a pretty darn good season most of the time.”

W. HoCkey: From page 8 W. baSketball: From page 8

Softball: From Page 1

game of the week, before dropping its final two games of the tournament. The first of the back-to-back losses came in a 4-3 de-feat at the hands of Long Island University, and the second in a 3-1 extra-inning loss to the University of North Florida.

Rychcik said the pitchers were the true stars of the week. After going every game leading up to spring break without a vic-tory, both juniors Whitney Tuthill and Erin Schuppert combined to only allow 12 earned runs in 59.1 innings pitched. Soph-omore Holli Floetker continued to pitch well, only allowing four earned runs in her 33 innings pitched.

“That pitching enabled us to win 1-0 games,” Rychcik said.

Rychcik said even though the Terriers offense may not have performed as well as he would have liked, the strong pitching proved to be the catalyst for victory over the week.

“If we only scored a couple runs, that’s because it’s just the way it is against those big teams,” Rychcik said. “But we were able to get out big hits when we needed them.”

Rychcik stressed the strain put on the team, which spent the whole week in ho-tels, never able to take a break as they played a game almost every day, including four doubleheaders.

“You never really get a break from the

games,” Rychcik said, “because you’re on break but you’re in the hotel and you never really get away. You’re going to the park every day.”

After the Under Armor Showcase, BU moved to its second tournament of the week with The Game Tournament. The Terriers split the first day of play, defeating Florida Agricultural and Mechanical Uni-versity 3-2 in extra innings before falling to the University of Illinois 5-4. The Ter-riers had defeated Illinois 8-1 earlier this season.

In their highest scoring game of the tournament, the Terriers defeated Coastal Carolina University 7-1 before shutting out the University of Maryland in a 1-0 victory. Rychcik considered the victory over Maryland one of the Terriers’ best of the week, along with the team’s victories against Syracuse and Northern Iowa.

“Overall I thought we had a pretty good trip,” Rychcik said. “There are a few games I’d like to have back, but overall I’m pretty pleased with all of them.”

After sweeping both their opponents on the second day of The Game Tournament, the Terriers continued their winning streak, defeating Northern Illinois University 2-0 in the final game of spring break.

“[After this past week] a new part of our season starts,” Rychcik said. “The part where we’re back up north, we’re not trav-eling like we were, and conference is going to start up.”

Pitchers enable softball to win during busiest week of season

Follow us on Twitter:@DFPsports

@BOShockeyblog@BUbballblog

And ‘Like’ us on Facebook:The Daily Free Press Sports Section

As the lamp lit up behind sopho-more netminder Kerrin Sperry’s head, and the clock froze at 10.1 sec-onds, the Boston University wom-en’s hockey team’s season ended after a dramatic bout.

The members of an exhausted Terrier squad fell to the ice. After los-ing its initial lead, BU had come back only to fall to Cornell University, 8-7, in the NCAA Regional Quarterfinal during triple overtime.

In the larger framework of the Terriers’ season, this game repre-sented more than a playoff loss. It featured the initial triumphs, the mid-season challenges, the resilience and eventually the demise of a team pro-jected to succeed.

Roughly two weeks into the school year, BU was chosen as the preseason favorite in the Hockey East Coaches Poll, receiving six-of-eight first-place votes. After winning the Hockey East regular-season title

the year before, and retuning its two top point producers in forwards Jenn Wakefield and Marie-Philip Pou-lin, BU appeared poised to take the crown once again.

“I think our expectations coming off of last year, returning a real, real good nucleus of players was to try to gain some of the same goals we did last year,” said BU coach Brian Du-rocher. “Without a doubt that would be the Beanpot, a real good regular season, the Hockey East Champion-ship and getting back to the NCAA Tournament.”

In the first seven games of the sea-son, the Terriers found success, going 5-1-1, and holding their own against hockey powerhouses like the Univer-sity of North Dakota, Clarkson Uni-versity and St. Lawrence University.

The Terriers enjoyed early suc-cess in the game against Cornell, as well, jumping out to a quick 3-0 lead in the game. But at the end of the first period, Cornell gained momentum, scoring a goal with 45 seconds left in

With the Boston University women’s basketball team’s loss to Saint Joseph’s University in the opening round of the Nation-al Invitational Tournament, the Terriers’ season came to an end. Despite keeping the score close with the Atlantic-10 opponent, BU faltered late in the game and could not continue its run in the postseason.

The Hawks (22-10) took a 30-24 lead into halftime, and al-though BU attempted a comeback in the second half, Saint Joseph’s went on a 9-0 run to seal the vic-tory.

The loss was despite the effort of sophomore forward Rashidat Agboola, who scored 14 points and grabbed 10 boards for her team-leading eighth double-dou-ble of the season.

Although BU lost in the semi-final of the America East Tourna-ment and the opening round of the NIT, the Terriers finished the year champions, as they took the America East regular-season title with a 12-1 conference record.

“You certainly want to win

and move onto the NCAA tour-nament,” said BU coach Kelly Greenberg, “but for me, we had a lot of very great moments and a lot of people who really worked well together, and I think that’s a success.”

BU won 20 games for the first time since 2009, including key wins on the road against Marist College and Boston College. The Terriers lost to both teams a year ago at home. Marist recently moved onto the second round of the NCAA tournament as a 13-seed, defeating four-seed Univer-sity of Georgia.

Junior guard Chantell Alford led the team again this season, av-eraging 12.4 points per game and 2.2 steals per game en route to winning her second-consecutive America East Player of the Year Award. Alford scored her 1000th career point in the Terriers’ loss to West Virginia University on Dec. 3, and led the Terriers with a 37.1 3-point field goal percentage.

Alford was named to the All-Conference First Team and was joined on the squad by junior guard Mo Moran. Agboola was also honored with her first appear-

ance on the All-Conference Third Team.

While leading the Terriers in minutes this season, Moran aver-aged 10.9 ppg - good for second on the team behind Alford - and team-high four assists per game.

Agboola enjoyed a break-out season after earning the lone starting spot left vacant from last season. In the process of filling former Terrier Kerry Cashman’s role, Agboola ranked among the top three in the league in confer-ence play in rebounding, blocks and field goal percentage.

“She really works hard and she learned a lot from Kerry Cashman last year with how hard to work,” Greenberg said. “She has some tools that with her hard work and her athleticism – her ability to re-bound is incredible.”

Only three seniors will gradu-ate after this season for BU, but they certainly will take lots of production with them. The seniors are forward Caroline Stewart and guard Alex Young, both of whom served as captains the past two seasons, and guard Kasie Carba-

The BU tennis teams struggled over spring break, as the women’s team dropped both of its meets and the men’s team went 1-3.

The women’s team (4-6) dropped its fifth and sixth straight matches after losing to Rutgers University and No. 74 College of Charleston, respectively.

During the meet with Rutgers, sophomore Leonie-Charlotte Atha-nasiadis and classmate Amelia Mar-tinez won two of the total six singles matches. Junior Vivien Laszloffy and senior Petra Santini earned BU’s lone doubles win.

Two days later, the Terriers fell again when they competed against Charleston. Athanasiadis and Mar-tinez, along with freshman Sami Lieb, won BU’s only matches of the game. All of three of them were in singles action.

Meanwhile, the men’s team (1-11) started off spring break in a tough match with Loyala Mary-mount University. The Terriers’ only win of the meet came from senior Alex Green and junior Alex Hallen-beck in the third doubles match.

Two days later, the team lost to Farleigh Dickinson University, where BU earned just two wins, both in singles action.

The Terriers earned their first win of the season on March 15 when they defeated Western Illinois Uni-versity, winning every match.

BU could not create a win streak, however, as BU fell to Gonzaga University the next day. Freshman Emilio Teran had the only BU win of the meet.

WrestlingSophomore heavyweight Kevin

Innis had shined all season long for the Boston University wrestling team, but he could not make the sea-son last longer for himself late last week. He dropped his final decision of the season to Arizona State Uni-versity’s Levi Cooper, 5-1, on day two of the NCAA Championships.

Innis earned a spot in day two of the NCAA championships thanks to a 5-3 overtime victory over Uni-versity of Pittsburgh’s P.J. Tasser on Thursday. Innis lost 17-2 in a techni-cal fall to Oregon State University’s Clayton Jack later that day, which set up Innis’ bout with Cooper.

Cooper, the Pacific-12 Confer-ence runner-up, earned a takedown a minute into the match and Innis was never came back.

Innis and junior Kyle Czarnecki made their NCAA championship debuts, giving BU a total of five wrestlers on its current roster with NCAA tournament experience.

Terriers’ tumultuous season comes to end

SportsTerriers’ Tennis

The men’s tennis team earned its first victory of the season on March 15 when they defeated Western Illinois University. The Terriers are now 1-11 on the season, p. 8

The Daily Free PressQuotable“ “[They] still ended up with 23

wins, which is a prett darn good season most of the time.

- BU women’s hockey coach Brian Durocher on the Terriers’ season

[ www.dailyfreepress.com ]page 8 Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Bottom Line

By Meredith PerriDaily Free Press Staff

RACHEL PEARSON/DaiLY Free Press staFF

Members of the Boston University women’s hockey team cele-brate after a goal. The Terriers’ season ended during the NCAA Regional Quarterfinal on March 10. W. HoCkey, see page 7

Women’s basketball ends season in opening round of WNIT

W. baSketball, see page 7

By Kevin DillonDaily Free Press Staff

Saturday, Mar. 24M. Hockey @ Minnesota, 5 p.m.W. Lacrosse vs. Vermont, 1 p.m.Softball vs. Binghamton, 1 p.m.Softball vs. Binghamton, 3 p.m.

Tuesday, Mar. 20 Thursday, Mar. 22Wednesday, Mar. 21 Friday, Mar. 23

W. Lacrosse vs. Yale, 4 p.m.Softball @ Bryant, 4 p.m.

No Games ScheduledTim Tebow is on the trade market. The Church has already offered a first-round

pick for him.

Softball vs. Boston College, 4 p.m.M. Tennis @ Quinnipiac, 3 p.m.

M. Swimming @ NCAA Champion-ships, TBA

M. Swimming @ NCAA Champion-ships, TBA

The Boston University softball team had its first break in almost ten days on Monday after a 14-game spring break in which the Terriers went 9-4 during its busi-est week of the season.

The Terriers (14-8) started off the week much like they did last year during spring break, splitting a doubleheader on the first day of

the University of Florida Under Armour Showcase. After drop-ping their first game of the day 1-0 to the University of Northern Iowa, the Terriers came back to defeat Bradley University 5-3 in one of their highest scoring games of the week.

The win against Bradley marked the beginning of a four-game winning streak for the Terriers. After defeating No. 23

Syracuse University 1-0 and Uni-versity of South Carolina Upstate 4-2 on Saturday, BU finished out the weekend’s official play with a 2-1 victory over Miami Univer-sity on Sunday.

The weekend ended with an interesting matchup versus the Netherlands National Team in an exhibition game. The Terriers lost, 3-2.

“That’s a national team;

they’re going to play for their country,” said BU coach Shawn Rychcik. “So that’s quite an expe-rienced group and the girls didn’t really think twice about it. They just came up and played the game like they’re supposed to.”

The Under Armour Showcase continued for three more days as BU defeated Fordham University 4-3 in extra innings in the first

Softball see page 7

By Sam SimmonsDaily Free Press Staff

Give me a break: Softball goes 9-4 during spring break

DaiLY Free Press FiLe PHoto

Junior guard Chantell Alford

Weekly roundup:

Men’s tennis gets first win

of seasonBy Kevin Dillon and Meredith Perri

Daily Free Press Staff