The tower engraved above a School of Theology doorway. | Photograph by Allan Lasser

A ghost haunts central campus. The copper-plated specter hangs above the doorways to the School of Theology and the College of Arts and Sciences. Recalling the ambitions of a young university, this phantom tower is the key to a campus that could have been.

The Alexander Graham Bell Memorial tower was meant to anchor Boston University’s unified Charles River Campus. It would house the University’s administrative offices and graduate school and cost a million dollars. The tower’s real value, however, was in its rich symbolism. Named for Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone while on the school’s faculty, it would reify the school’s pride and anticipate a brighter future.  It would cast long shadows over MIT and Harvard from across the Charles and forever alter Boston’s skyline, symbolically integrating the University with its city. It would also establish a trans-Atlantic connection with Boston, England, uniting the two cities with twin towers. The tower would rise from a brand new campus, unifying the school into an eminent whole.

Although Boston University was chartered in 1869, the Charles River Campus was not opened until 1938. Before the establishment of the riverside campus, the University’s different departments and schools were scattered across the city. The School of Law neighbored the State House, the School of Theology sat a few blocks west on Mount Vernon Street, and clustered at Copley Square were the administrative buildings and School of Liberal Arts. The school’s wide distribution became increasingly problematic as enrollment grew.

The interwar period was explosive for Boston University. In 1915, the school’s enrollment was 2,060. Five years later it tripled to 6,795 students¹. The huge student body overwhelmed the older buildings. And, with students spread across central Boston, the school lacked unity and a cohesive campus culture. In 1920 the University purchased 15 acres of riverside property. From it would rise a grand campus. Planners and architects were consulted; the October 24, 1928 edition of the Boston University News² reported on the final design presented to the University’s Board of Trustees. By that time the school’s population had again doubled to around 14,000 students and its facilities were overwhelmed³. As compensation, “the new buildings [were] designed…for almost double the present enrollment of the university,” a prophetic precaution considering today’s enrollment: 31,766 students⁴. Multi-story departmental buildings containing offices, laboratories, and classrooms would encircle campus quadrangles. A magnificent tower would crown the new campus along the Charles.

The Commonwealth Avenue side of the campus design. | Image republished with permission from the Howard Gottlieb Archival Research Center

Obviously, this grand campus was never built. A 2007 historical account published by Boston University explained it was “forced to scale back its plans in the late ’20s [because] the State Metropolitan District Commission used the right of eminent domain to claim the land nearest the river for the construction of Storrow Drive”⁵. Yet the pre-WWII highway was never built due to public protest. Storrow Drive wasn’t constructed until after the second World War to address traffic problems arising from increasing suburbanization⁶. Furthermore, the plans of 1928 clearly show the campus bounded by Bay State Road; none of the proposed structures would have intruded upon state property. The University’s explanation for the failed construction of the Alexander Graham Bell Tower does not make sense. It is unlikely that the proposed 1920′s Charles River Parkway disrupted construction. What was the real obstacle?

A likely explanation is found in the publication date of the Boston University News article: October 24, 1928. Exactly one year later came Black Monday and the Great Crash. I haven’t discovered how the depression directly affected the University’s finances. I do know the grand plans for campus rode along a wave of excess and easy credit. I do know that with the economic implosion, enrollment dropped precipitously and resulted in a period of severe austerity for the University. This, much more than an unbuilt highway, seems the most likely reason for postponing construction of the Charles River Campus and abandoning the Alexander Graham Bell Tower.

Arial diagram of the campus complex. | Image republished with permission from the Howard Gottlieb Archival Research Center

Although the tower was never built, it has an obvious contemporary analog. The construction of the John Hancock Student Village was another monumental undertaking for the University. The construction of Student Village Phase II (StuVi2), a 26-story steel skyscraper, was another architectural imposition upon Boston’s skyline. Construction of a third tower (StuVi3) was halted due to the 2008 crash and recession. Another display of BU’s prominence that rode another wave of excess and easy credit, the Student Village is a spiritual sibling to the unbuilt tower.

Campus construction has made the 1920′s master plan obsolete. The campus is still decentralized; it is a mile-long riverside strip instead of a densely packed complex. Still, remnants of BU’s past are scattered throughout campus. Scraping away the layers of history reveal the idealism and ambition of a university at the start of the twentieth century. By comparing the campus that is to the campus that could have been, we can better understand the ambitions of the school we call home.

A proposed campus design, as seen from above the BU Bridge. | Image republished with permission from the Howard Gottlieb Archival Research Center

~

I would like to thank the Howard Gottlieb Archival Research Center for free access to their materials and assistance.

Citations:

^{1 2 3} “Trustees View New Campus Plans.” Boston University News 24 Oct. 1928. Print.

⁴ “Boston University.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 28 Apr. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_University>.

⁵ ”Between the World Wars.” History. Boston University. Web. 28 Apr. 2012. <http://web.archive.org/web/20071212022404/http://www.bu.edu/visit/about/history/betweenwars.html>.

⁶ Seasholes, Nancy S. “Storrow Drive.” Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2003. 206. Print.

if you like this...

• Get Your Green On: Second Annual sustainability@BU Festival on campus
• The BU Campus from Metropolis to Ghost Town: A Photostory
• The Quad’s Guide to Moving Off-Campus

One of the only physical ads BU Central has is the Chalkwall outside the venue. That, and the posters (aslo in GSU)

As we’ve said before, shows at BU Central are vastly under-attended. It seems to be the kind of place where if you’re in, you’re in and if you’re not… well, you’re missing out.

Saturday’s show was Cults, and they were fantastic. The stark change between the mostly white album cover and sunshine associated with Cults and the darkness of the BU Central show only highlighted how complex the band is, bringing out the underside of a band so inextricably woven into the summer air.

“I’m surprised,” said CAS Senior Becca Antonopolis between acts. “There’s no one here.”

Saturday’s show was Antonopolis’s first concert at BU Central in her four years at the university. Antonopolis explained her absence through the theory that, unless a student is plugged in to the basement’s online presence, the only way to hear about shows is through word of mouth.

Which isn’t to say that the online aspect isn’t useful. Students queuing outside the venue before the doors opened seemed to find the online advertising BU Central does very effective, with most of them finding out about the show through BU Central’s e-mails and tweets.

People queuing outside BU Central before Cults

“There are so many different ways that they can reach you” said COM freshman Lindsey Mann.

Kevin Velasquez has been going to shows at BU Central for a few years, citing Tokyo Police Club and the Smith Westerns as the two most recent. “They’re really good with advertising on campus so I always know what’s going on,” he said. He did, however, agree with the same sentiments expressed by Antonopolis – students need to already be in the know to keep updated on BU Central’s happenings.

“I feel like maybe I’m a little more pro-active about finding events” said Velasquez.

And it seems to be that the pro-active students are the ones having the most fun.

Cults’s self-titled album, Cults, was released at the perfect time – summer months meant summer music and that’s exactly what Cults is: airy, beachy, singularly west-coast dream pop with some fifties throwback mixed in.

Spectral's drummer in a Cults t-shirt, showing both sides of Cults's music - light and dark

Which is why seeing them in a dark basement with only surreal projections and deep red stage lights to illuminate the band was so awesome – it introduced the audience to a whole other side of Cults purely through visual elements. The at times disco trance lighting brought out Madeline Follin’s young alto, whereas on the album it sounds like an airy mezzo-soprano. Brian Oblivion’s shredding guitar parts were hauntingly gorgeous as he played in semi-darkness, lost in the swirling polka-dot lights, particularly on the closing song “Oh My God,” where on the album it only adds to the airy feel.

Madeline Follin's intensity is only multiplied by the disco/techno lighting.

Even though BU Central’s new sound system has a way of pumping the bass and making the lyrics inaudible, the show also brought out the darkness in Cults’s lyrics, which can get lost in its sing-alongable melodies. “You Know What I Mean” was the perfect example, with the disco lights going absolutely crazy at the chorus with Folin just belting/yelling “‘Cause I am afraid of the light / Yeah you know what I mean / And I can’t sleep alone at night/ Yeah you know what I mean!” stomping on the ground and pounding her fist at the air like a kid having a tantrum. This mania played beautifully with the mellow pinpoint lights projecting on the band when she pleads “please come and save me/ tell me what’s wrong with my brain ’cause I seem to’ve lost it” swaying and moving all the while. And they’re just really nice people who seemed genuinely happy to be there, exampled by Folin’s huge smiles between songs and Oblivion’s sweet banter.

“I really hope you guys feel like you made the right decision coming here tonight” said Oblivion with a laugh before launching into “Oh My God.”

All of this passion, and three of the band members had strep. Holy hell.

Belting. Love it.

So in the wake of this revelatory show, why on earth was the 350 person capacity BU Central a little more than half-full?

“I think a lot of it is the stigma that people don’t want to come to school events” said BU Central Manager Jake Cox (SMG ’14)

Even as I asked students how they came to know about the show while we were waiting for the doors to open, Cox announced that they were sending around a clipboard asking students to suggest acts for next year and also write down how they found out about the night’s performance.

“I feel like a lot of people are over-saturated already” said Cox about the basement’s online advertising. Cox also said the solution would be to expand to a more physical ad campaign on campus to nudge the student body into being more pro-active.

“We have a lot to offer” said Cox. “We want to make this more of a community space.”

Cults’ Setlist:

if you like this...

• I’m Mad At You For Not Seeing Titus Andronicus at BU Central
• Slow Children At Play Provide Free Fun at BU Central

Image by Quad artist Evan Caughey.

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”: a simple sentence that carries with it an awful lot of potential frustration. Working hard to qualify for an internship only to find out its been handed to the CEO’s best friend’s daughter is never a fun moment. Fighting tooth and nail to make it to the final round of interviews and hearing the boss’s cousin scored the position isn’t the greatest, either. The truth, however, is that there’s something to be said for being well-connected. “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know and how you worked to meet them,” is a better way of putting it.

The process of securing post-grad employment can never begin too soon. Networking during undergrad can seem an often daunting and sometimes awkward process. With a bit of social tact and the tools of our time, networking during undergrad is manageable, painless, and hopefully fruitful.

When it comes to making meaningful connections, the best place to start is right here on campus. Many of Boston University’s part-time faculty work actively in their respective fields, some of them even holding full-time jobs in addition to their teaching duties. Professors such as these are common in professionally oriented schools like COM, SMG, and even CFA. Don’t shy away from dropping by frequently during these professors’ office hours. Even if you don’t have questions pertaining to class, stopping in for valuable career advice may transform your relationship from academic to professional come the end of the semester. Of course, that’s not saying your professor is going to offer you a job upon graduation – but they may be able to point you in the direction of someone who can.

While connections with professors can be professionally fruitful, the connections you make with classmates are also important. A network of peers with similar career interests may one day provide you with a job opportunity. Helpful advice: don’t hit up the schmuck on Facebook all class long. Those students who also foster their career interests outside the classroom are the ones to connect with.

At BU, we’re lucky enough to have our own Center for Career Development. The CCD advises to “visit early and often.” In much the same way, you should begin networking “early and often.” As part of the CCD’s “3 Steps to Success” program, they advise students to create elevator speeches – prepared pitches to “sell yourself” during impromptu networking opportunities. Along with their useful skills workshops, the CCD provides ample opportunities throughout the year for students to put these skills to good use. This year, the CCD has sponsored several career fairs. Area businesses table at these fairs, business cards in hand, waiting for students eager to network. The next career fair is scheduled for October 17 of this coming fall.

While nothing beats face-to-face networking with peers, professors, and prospective employers, the Internet is also an ideal platform for making connections. Many Boston University students will move back home after graduation and have to search for work in a city different than Boston. Still other students come to BU with a goal – move to LA or New York after graduation. Unfortunately all that “bright lights, big city” isn’t so glamorous when you’ve uprooted your life but can’t find employment. Padding a big city job hunt with ample connections makes the process a far less vulnerable and dim one. This is where the Internet comes in. Using LinkedIn is the obvious choice. There’s also Facebook and Twitter. Following people affiliated with your career of choice and tweeting questions  at them gives them the opportunity to reply quickly. You’re granted the opportunity to get your name on their timeline and in their mind. Target people who work at the location of an organization you’d like to work at. Don’t be afraid to e-mail seeking advice, but always play the student card. In this four-year chunk of pseudo-reality we like to call our undergraduate education, we get to be the fawning fans of those people whose jobs we’d like. An e-mail seeking insight is a stroke of their ego. However, once these four years are up, our inquiries can be seen as annoying acts of job fishing. Play your golden student card while you can.

Making connections is great, but it’s only half the battle. Once an internship has been completed or an e-mail correspondence concluded, don’t let them forget your name. Check back in occasionally. What you do, who you know, how you know them – they’re all important pieces of the post-grad career acquisition puzzle. Most of the basics of establishing and maintaining career connections are self explanatory, but it’s the taking action that calls for gusto. But the image of a rat-infested hole-in-the-wall apartment with a couple grand monthly rent and an empty fridge should be motivation enough for all the undergrad big city dreamers to network, network, network.

No related posts.

Life after college. | Photo courtesy of Larsinio via Wikimedia Commons

With graduation right around the corner, many seniors still have yet to land jobs. Not surprisingly, they’re starting to get nervous. But not having a job right after graduation doesn’t equate to living at your parents’ house forever. In fact, many employers are still hiring over the summer, according to Eleanor Cartelli, Associate Director for Marketing and Communications at BU’s Center for Career Development. So for anyone who thinks they may be searching for jobs this summer, here’s how you do that in a way that can get you hired.

Cartelli says that the first thing applicants should ask themselves is what exactly they’re looking for. “If the answer is a job, anything I can find, you need to do a little digging to narrow that down,” Cartelli says. “You’re more likely to be successful if you are targeting positions that are a good fit for your skills, values, experience, and personality.”

Once recent graduates know what they’re looking for, they should know where to look for it. Cartelli recommends the BU CareerLink job boards as well as industry-specific job boards. They shouldn’t hesitate to contact someone at a company or organization in which they’re interested to see if the company is hiring. Also, they should check out career fairs, like the Just-In-Time Career Fair that the CCD held last Monday, and actively network.

But there are more preparations an applicant needs before clicking that button to apply. They should double check that the listing is actually what they want to do. “Carefully read job descriptions,” Cartelli says. “Sometimes the job title doesn’t clearly indicate what the job really entails.” With the job description in mind, an applicant should carefully form a cover letter and résumé that address the qualifications of the job. Showing knowledge of the company and of the job impresses employers.

Applicants should also apply this knowledge if they’re called for an interview. They should be prepared to show why they’re the best applicant for the job. “Practice as much as you can,” says Cartelli. “Through BU CareerLink, you can practice using InterviewStream. It is available 24/7 from anywhere. You just need a webcam and the Internet. Be able to address the question of why the employer should select you over all of the other applicants. Be prepared to demonstrate how you fit their needs.”

It’s a good thing recent grads have the time, because the job search doesn’t end there. “Don’t assume that just applying to jobs online is enough,” says Cartelli. “If you’re willing to invest time and energy into doing both a reactive and a proactive job search you are much more likely to succeed.” Applicants should follow up on their applications, but make sure that they respect that their potential employers may not get back to them right away.

Job searching can seem intimidating, but given the right amount of time and effort, it can yield successful results. Organizations like the Center for Career Development are willing to help even when the applicant is an alumnus. So get prepared, don’t hold back, and you’ll be able to get a job.

No related posts.

None of them are students.

This is not the case everywhere.  More and more, colleges and universities are including student voices where the big decisions are made. A 2010 survey by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges found that 21 percent of private institutions include a student on their board. At public universities, the number jumps up to 70 percent. At half of those universities, the student is a voting member.

Higher education. | Photo from Bain News Service.

The University of Massachusetts is included in the lucky half. There are five schools within the UMass system, and each is granted one student seat on the Board of Trustees. Two of those seats are voting seats; the schools rotate annually for their student’s chance to vote. Massachusetts State college students enjoy similar rights.

On the state’s Board of Higher Education, there are three student members as well, one of them voting. While this is not a perfect system—the student to nonstudent ratio is 1:12—it’s still progress.

So Massachusetts is fairly progressive when it comes to hearing the voices of students and has the structure to prove it. The Board oversees several aspects of higher education in the state from financial planning to financial aid, and from academic policy to academic programs.

But what about schools like Boston University, where such programs are lagging or nonexistent?

Last November, the Center for American Progress put together “Including More Students in Higher Education Policymaking,” an analysis and list of suggestions for change in policy in such cases.

The report offers a list of suggestions for doing so in addition to student representation, namely strong campus newspapers and grassroots movements by on-campus groups.

Boston University in particular has a long history of both of those things: since the days of Silber, student publications have taken an interest in University policy and the decision-making processes. And there is no shortage of student activist interest on-campus.

The Quad chatted with Julie Morgan, a policy analyst for post-secondary education at the Center for American Progress and one of the authors of the report, about what private schools like Boston University–and public schools as well–can do to amplify the voice of students and student government on campus.

In your report, you discuss public universities’ options to work with university officials in the decision-making process (being non-voting members of boards, for instance.) Have you ever heard of that being implemented at private universities?

Public school students must deal with the reality that the state legislature often has more control over the cost of tuition than the school’s administration. But they also may have more formal rights to be involved in the governing process. At private universities, the administration has more control over tuition policies and the university’s direction. But they also have more leeway to keep students out of the conversation, if they so choose. At private schools, students must appeal directly to the administration to get representation on decision-making bodies. And the best way to make that appeal is to show that representation is something that is of broad concern to the student body.

Where do you think students are more likely to be heard by their administrations: public schools, or private schools?

I think it depends more on the individual students’ ability to recognize and use the opportunities available to them. We’ve seen students at private schools be just as effective of advocates as those at public schools because they understand well how to make their voices heard.

What sorts of pressure do you think student-body governments could be putting on University administrations, but are not?

I think student body governments could be better at working across college campuses on the issues that matter to them. Some of the problems that students face these days can be solved on campus, but others–like affordability, quality and availability of classes, and rising student loan debt–require a stronger voice for students at the national and state level.

When talking to a lot of my peers about student governments I will occasionally hear students say that they believe student government to be not only useless, but a figurehead that is just used by the administration. Have you ever found that to be the case? Do you think that administrations actually have an interest in doing that?

I think that’s a common perception, and it really varies by campus. One of the main characteristics of a strong student government is an independent budget. When student governments are dependent upon the administration for their funding, it can have a chilling effect on their ability to represent the students’ interests to the administration. I don’t know about whether administrations are actually using the student governments to accomplish their interests. I think it’s probably more complicated than that–administration officials may view participation in student government as part of the learning experience, and so they may work more closely with the student government to guide that experience.

No related posts.

Photo courtesy of Chunteh via Wikimedia Commons

Every weekend night, people emerge from their caves to seek out their chosen forms of entertainment for the next few hours. They seek out clubs, bars, apartments, or other party-appropriate locations and spend the night flitting from one such place to another. For those of us who are still under 21, however, things aren’t so easy. It’s hard to find a good time when it seems like everything to do at night in Boston involves alcohol. And early-to-bed Boston, with its self-imposed 11 p.m. curfew, isn’t exactly overflowing with things for us to do after hours.

Not on the surface, anyway. If you know where to look or like to explore, any underage wanderer will discover Boston’s nocturnal culture. After some searching, experiencing, and uncovering of my own, here’s a list that has something for everyone in the way of food, music, and dancing for those of us who’d like a little variety in our Saturday nights.

Feed Your Midnight Chocolate Cravings

Who knew that Max Brenner Chocolate Shop was open until 2 a.m. every night? For those of you who need an introduction, Max Brenner is an Israeli chocolate shop chain that doubles as a restaurant. Stepping in is like stepping into a chic version of Willy Wonka’s factory, with its huge vat of melted chocolate out front to greet guests. The menu features a wide range of delectable chocolate-based drinks and desserts. I personally would recommend the fondues (yes, there is more than one type). While a little on the pricey side, it’s the perfect late night spot to satisfy your sweet tooth. Max Brenner’s Boston location is on Boylston Street, so it’s a relatively easy place to get to.

Classics and Weird Movies After Midnight

It’s a well-known fact that the Coolidge Corner Theater screens a very interesting selection of movies. From current box office babies to cult classics (ahem, The Room) and foreign cinema, it really covers all its bases. However, its “@fter Midnite” program on Friday and Saturday nights really deserves more credit. Self-described as “Late-night, weekend programming for the cool insomniac crowd, including horrifying, weird, camp, avant-garde, tripped-out movies, interactive and cult niche live performances,” it’s the perfect fix for insomniac movie buffs who want to broaden their movie-going experience. It’s also the perfect place for people-watchers because some of the movies (ahem, The Room) are bound to attract a colorful crowd!

Speaking of Cult Classics and Colorful Crowds…

Something that should be experienced at least once in everyone’s lifetime is a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Fortunately, the Full Body Cast over in Harvard Square ensures this with their weekly Saturday night Rocky Horror Floor Show, complete with goodie bags of things to throw at the screen! The screening happens at the AMC Lowes Harvard Square after midnight. Be warned, this is not for the faint of heart.

Dance Anthems of the ‘80s

Sometimes all you want is a night of dancing–good old-fashioned dancing, that is. And for those who haven’t warmed up to the bass-heavy music of the more popular clubs, never fear! TT the Bear’s Place is here. Well, it’s actually in Cambridge behind the Middle East, but you get the point. Aside from having performances seven nights a week, this small musical venue also hosts HEROES, an ‘80s themed dance party every Saturday night from 10PM to 2AM. The event is 18+ with a relatively inexpensive cover charge and the sounds of Bowie, The Smiths, and all that good stuff.

And if You DO Like That Bass-Heavy Stuff…

The Phoenix Landing Bar over in Central Square has your number. Every Thursday night they host Elements, their drum ‘n’ bass night that has been running non-stop for 13+ years. Underground electronic music fans can get a taste of Boston’s scene, and pay no cover charge if they arrive before 9:30PM! The event is 19+ (awkward, yes) and is bound to draw in an eclectic crowd.

Hookah in Habibi

If all you really want is to sit back and relax, Habibi’s Hookah Lounge, down on Commonwealth Ave, is the perfect place. With its offering of 33 hookah flavors and selection of tea and Moroccan food, it’s the perfect place to kick back with friends and make believe you’re in the Middle East. And who doesn’t like good hummus, anyway?

4 a.m. Bacon

That’s right. The South Street Diner over in the South End is open 24 hours. Originally opened to cater to factory workers in the ‘40s, it has now become the final destination of the night for club goers and insomniacs alike. It serves up everything from breakfast to dinner, which students can get at a discounted rate Monday through Thursday. Fun fact: you might have seen it (and other BU locations) in the movie 21.

This is just a fraction of everything there is to do in Boston. While it’s true that the 21+ set have it easier, all hope is not lost! Whether you choose to scope out one of the above locations or decide to buy frozen fruit from Shaw’s and eat it on the Esplanade (I have it on good authority that this is life-changing), there is always something to do in this fun city of ours.

if you like this...

• Cheapskate’s Guide to Boston Summer: Boston Landmarks Orchestra
• The Boston Underground: A Guide to Boston’s Hidden Music Scene
• Gotta Have That Swing: A Guide to Getting Your Groove On in Boston

Mittens is looking as stiff as ever. | Photograph courtesy of user roberthuffstutter via Flickr Commons

With Newt Gingrich suspending his campaign last week and Rick Santorum’s presidential effort a distant memory, Mitt Romney is now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.  Both parties have started acting as though the primary campaign has reached its conclusion, and the only person who seems to remember that Ron Paul is still running a debtless campaign is Ron Paul.

Despite that campaign coverage has now shifted to discussion of a possible running mate for Romney, the Republican Party may have bigger fish to fry.

Mitt Romney appears to have clinched the Republican nomination, and done so with little real competition. According the a New York Times count, Romney has won 847 delegates, with Rick Santorum as his closest competitor with a comparatively insignificant 259 delegates.

Newt Gingrich is expected to officially end it this Wednesday. According to Fox News, Gingrich is considering endorsing Romney, which would make a challenger even less likely. The official nominating convention will not take place until August, but it seems likely that full-scale campaigning will start long before that.

Current Gallup polling shows that President Obama and Romney are essentially in a dead heat. When asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, 47 percent of respondents favored Obama and 46 percent indicated they would vote for Romney.

Of course, as anyone who remembers the 2000 election knows, the percentage of voters who choose each candidate is of little importance. In 2008, Obama won a slim majority of the popular vote, with 51 percent, but he won 67 percent of the electoral votes. What will be important for Romney will not be his ability to convince a majority of Americans to vote for him; it will be convincing a majority the residents of key states to swing his way.

Swing states like Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Michigan (among others) are crucial to presidential campaigns. While it is far too early to say who will win those states – they are often in contention even in the final hours of presidential campaigns – Romney’s primary performance does not inspire confidence. Romney won four of those five states in the Republican primary, losing Colorado to a trending Rick Santorum in February. In the 2008 general election, however, Barack Obama won all five of those swing states. It is unclear if Romney will be able to repeat his primary victories when he faces Obama.

Mitt Romney is easily the most moderate person who ran in this year’s Republican presidential primary. His ability to win swing states over men who hold polarizing views on everything from women’s rights to religion’s role in government is hardly a feat. While he was busy courting moderates, however, Romney has almost totally failed to energize the conservative Republican base. His middling rhetoric and his track record as Governor of perpetually liberal Massachusetts – not to mention his shockingly bland personality and occasional accidental mentions of his massive personal wealth – have alienated him from the religious conservative base that has been crucial to the rise of the Republican party in the 20^th century.

Of the 21 states that went red in 2008 that have held republican primaries in 2012, thirteen have held primaries. Romney has won just four of those states, none of them in the traditional Republican stronghold in the Bible Belt. Without the ability to get voters excited about his campaign, Romney may not be able to hold his own in swing states as an untested, slightly more conservative version of President Obama.

Perhaps more importantly, many swing states are located in the industrial Midwest where social conservatism meets a strong labor presence. Romney has been openly hostile towards unions, and has famously stated (and re-stated) that he believes the American auto industry should have been allowed to go bankrupt rather than allow it to accept government funds. In Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, manufacturing is still a crucial part of the economy.

The Midwest lost hundreds of thousands of jobs to the prolonged auto crisis, and is unlikely to take kindly to hearing that they should have lost hundreds of thousands more. Obama seems to have caught on to this. He has been touting successes in the manufacturing sector as one of the main victories of his first term since he opened his 2012 State of the Union address with praise for the American auto industry’s apparent turnaround.

Romney may stand more of a chance in Florida, especially if he chooses rising star and Florida senator Marco Rubio as his running mate, but without the industrial swing states and with little momentum behind the conservative base, the 2012 election could be an uphill battle for the Romney campaign.

if you like this...

• Will Mitt Lose in the Mitten?
• Pulling a Romney: Mitt’s History With Abortion
• Romney Wins Arizona & Michigan, Regains ‘Favorite’ Status

Dylan and Joan Baez at the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. | Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons

Christopher Ricks’ office looks like any other professor’s office – with one exception. Behind a desk sits a small bathtub.

“It’s Bob Dylan’s childhood bathtub,” said Ricks, a professor at Boston University.

The bathtub has an affidavit and belongs to two Boston University alumni, but Ricks keeps it safe in his roomy office.

“It’s also used for charity,” said Ricks with a smile.

Ricks, also a literary critic and a knight, is probably best known for his love of Bob Dylan. Slouching on his sofa, Ricks recounts with a childish grin the first time he met Dylan in 2001 at a concert in Boston.

“He said, ‘Mr. Ricks, we meet at last.’

They spoke for 20 minutes before Dylan took the stage. During that time, Dylan asked Ricks if he liked the politically-charged song “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.”  He said yes, of course, but intentionally kept his chatter brief.

“I didn’t want to be a bore or a leech,” he said.

It was an unforgettable and humbling moment for Ricks. One can only imagine meeting a hero; for Professor Ricks, that person was Bob Dylan. He considers Dylan a “genius” and much more than just a musician. This genius led him to write a book—528 pages–called Visions of Sin, analyzing Dylan’s songwriting and rhyming scheme. Ricks makes sure to note the book is not a biography.  It really is the only definitive work on Dylan as a songwriter and poet.

Last year, Ricks gave a series of talks on major themes in Dylan’s music including love and salvation. One of his talks had a big impact on sophomore Liliana Castaneda.

“I definitely have a greater appreciation of Bob Dylan now. I realized how much of a difference emphasis on certain words makes in a song,” Castaneda said.

However, Ricks’ fascination with the ‘60s icon didn’t come out of nowhere. He loved the written word ever since he started reading.

Born in Beckenham, Kent in 1933, he attended boarding school from ages 8 to 18, and recalls being known as a bookworm.

“Books are a great refuge. They’re a great asylum,” Ricks said.

While at school he was viewed as an odd child mostly because he chose classic literature over comic books. He recalls his early childhood with a British sense of humor and does not seem to care that he stood out. He says of his classmates, “they think [people who love books] need spectacles.”

With a passion for literature, Ricks went on to teach at Oxford, Bristol, and Cambridge before coming to BU in 1986 where he now presides over the Editorial Institute, which is a school dedicated to editing various works of art. He has written numerous books analyzing poets like Keats, Tennyson and T.S. Eliot. English literature was his first love and it gave him the foundation to appreciate Bob Dylan’s poetic lyrics more than the average listener.

Ricks is the Yoda of literature. In one conversation, he quotes the first chapter Jane Eyre, a line from Nietzsche, and C.S. Lewis. This guy really knows his stuff, and it shows. His endless knowledge is an admirable feature of a 78-year-old man. Those who work closely with him could not agree with him more.

“Christopher Ricks is the most intelligent person I have known, and one of the great literary critics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries,” says Archie Burnett, an English professor at BU and co-director with Ricks at the Editorial Institute.

Although he only teaches a CAS core humanities class and classes at the Editorial Institute, he gives different talks throughout the year, usually through the Gotlieb Center in Mugar. Fingers crossed he’ll do another on Dylan.

When asked if he has a favorite Bob Dylan song, Ricks says “There’s something personal and endearing about favorites…they’re not necessarily the best.” With Ricks, you’ll never get a one-word answer, which makes him so great to talk to. He eventually tells me his favorite song is “I Want You.”

Why? Ricks doesn’t give an exact answer, but he conveys the simplicity and beauty within the song by repeating the lyrics.

“Because I, because I…want you.”

No related posts.

With finals looming and the year ending, The Quad asked its graduating seniors to once again share some thoughts and give advice to the folks they’re leaving behind as they step into that dark abyss that is adulthood.

Liz Breen, COM Film & Television, TweetCreep:
“My freshman year, we found a young woman sitting in our trash room in Claflin completely naked aside from cat ears. The only true piece of advice I have for future BU students? Don’t be that person.”

Sam Galanis, COM Magazine Journalism, Campus and City:
“For me, BU is a place where I made great friends from all over the world, made connections, and had professors who influenced me a great deal. Boston will always be a special place to me.”

Will Huebner, CAS English, Sports:
“It’s important never to get STDs. Make sure your college friends never become drug addicts/suicide bombers/politicians. And one thing I learned the hard way at BU: hold the door open for people behind you. Those CAS swinging doors can do some serious damage.”

Tara Jayakar, CAS English, Campus Editor, Music:
“The friends I made through chance encounters are the friends I plan on being old and senile with (then they’ll be new friends!), so I can’t stress enough how important it is that you be open, be brave, and be kind. And for goodness sake, see a show at BU Central. They’re free! Come on.”

Joel Kahn, COM Film & Television, Co-Publisher, Food:
“I don’t think I know what it takes to have the best college experience, and I probably am under-qualified to give advice to anyone else. However, I can say that I came to BU not wanting to go here at all—and it quickly changed my mind. BU is great. We might knock it for the bureaucracy, PR flubs, or changes in curriculum midway through the semester, but those aren’t the things anyone is going to remember in a few years.

I did come to college hoping to spend my time in an oak library, discussing existentialism. While I ended up with Brutalist architecture and philosophical breakdowns of Kanye West, I am satisfied. BU is so large that it has every type of person you could be hoping to be friends with—there’s no one specific BU stereotype. Because of that I don’t think there is any way to insist that the people at BU are not great. If someone doesn’t like the group they’ve fallen into, it’s easier to find a new club or start talking to a stranger than it would be at any other point in life. So BU wasn’t what I was expecting, but I am very happy with how it ended up, and am unabashedly terrified of what is to come next.”

Ian Moskowitz, CAS Political Science, Politics:
“The busy days and sleepless nights throughout my time at BU have been a source of amusement and education whether they were in Mugar or Allston. There’s no question that I’m going to miss it.”

Annie White, CAS Political Science, Co-Publisher, Politics:
“Never take an 8 am class. But if you do, don’t skip it. Look for the things and the people that make you happy, and surround yourself with them. Don’t believe your professors when they say a project will take all semester, but don’t believe yourself when you think it will only take one night. And eat vegetables.”

Best of luck to our Quad seniors–and all seniors–in their future adventures.

if you like this...

• Hip-Hop Stans Share Their Passion for the Genre
• “Meeting on the Bridge”: Distinguished Russian Women Share Artistic Knowledge

The Freep article provided tangible evidence of the existence of at least some semblance of rape culture on the BU campus. The eyes of national media have turned to our university, and this past week, the online publication Jezebel released a story entitled “Boston University Has a Sexual Assault Problem.” The article cites students as having called BU a “party school” with a population of “fratty bros.” A BU graduate quoted in the piece felt this “bro culture” can, at times, turn violent. The piece went on to identify potential fault with the task force assembled by President Brown to investigate the “culture and climate” of BU’s hockey team in light of this winter’s sexual assault charges.

Does BU have a sexual assault problem? What’s more, is the presence of a rape culture more prevalent on the BU campus than at other universities? Public relations coordinator for the Center for Gender, Sexuality & Activism and BU student quoted in the Jezebel article Michelle Weiser said, “I don’t think BU’s rape culture is more pronounced or prevalent than other colleges around the country. But it is interesting to contrast the prevention, education and response structures and services BU has in comparison to other schools. Also, the student body plays an important role in preventing, responding and talking about sexual assault. It was really heartening to see so many students at take back the night. So even though there probably aren’t more sexual assaults at BU, the response of administration and students makes a big difference.”

Weiser’s assertion that BU most likely doesn’t have a higher occurrence of sexual assault on campus is probably right. It’s difficult to discern where our stats stand in comparison to other schools because, while one in five female students will be assaulted during her college years, many will not to report the assault. The Clery Act of 1990 is a piece of legislation which requires that all universities participating in federal aid programs keep track of crimes on and off campus and have the information readily available. That’s not to say that these statistics are easily attainable, or well organized for that matter. In an opinion piece published in The Harvard Crimson this February, a Harvard senior says she feels that merely keeping track of the numbers isn’t enough. In the piece, student writer Madeleine Schwartz said, “the University cannot maximally protect the safety of its students so long as it is selective about what information to withhold and what to make public.” She feels that the university should also disclose, for example, the locations where the sexual assaults take place. In researching the incidence of sexual assault on college campuses, it seems that some universities, much like Harvard across the river, have adopted this practice of selectivity in their disclosure of information on sexual assault. This unfortunate possibility, along with the fact that rape is the most underreported violent crime, mean that no absolute judgment can be made as to whether Boston University’s statistics make it a school with a greater “sexual assault problem” than others.

Although it’s difficult to say whether or not the prevalence of sexual assault is greater in Boston University territory than at neighboring colleges, it is possible to make note of what aspects of BU culture might contribute to a sexual assault problem, should it exist. In a February 2011 article from Feministing.com, the website investigated “definitions of consent” in the context of sexual assault. The Feminsting piece said that most university policies on sexual assault define the act as “nonconsensual sex,” but do not take their definition any further. Feministing believes that this is not enough. Feministing placed Boston University’s name on a list of national universities that “do not even come close to clearly defining consent.” The article poses an important question: “How can students be expected to only engage in consensual acts if they don’t know what those are?” An insufficient definition of consent could, perhaps, contribute to a sexual assault problem at BU.

Still others might pin at least part of the cause of a “sexual assault problem” at BU on its urban environment. Surely, many students were cautioned before attending BU of the dangers of roaming a big city at night. Making a connection between our urban location and any higher incidence of sexual assault, however, would be naïve. This is in light of the fact that “stranger rape,” although it does occur, comprises only a very small fraction of overall sexual assaults. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, in 80-90% of sexual assaults the attacker and the victim are well acquainted with each other.

Any number of factors could contribute to the possible existence of a “sexual assault problem” at BU.  With the publication of articles such as Jezebel’s, and after last week’s Freep article, many wonder whether or not BU’s real problem is that students are not able to relate to the seriousness of sexual assault in an appropriate way. One BU sophomore seems to think that used to be the case, but that the events of this year have resulted in increased sensitivity and a more mature outlook on sexual assault campus-wide. “To outsiders looking at our school right now, it may seem that since these events have continued to escalate throughout the year, we are not taking assault seriously. But, I think that right now, the BU student population does not have a problem relating to the seriousness of sexual assaults. In the beginning of the year, when issues first started arising, they were not taken as seriously because they were seen as being personal matters to be dealt with by those involved, so their impact and seriousness did not resonate as highly with the student population as more recent events have,” she said.

This resonation is evident in the backlash against the Freep piece and the outpouring of support for a possible rape crisis center on campus, with about 1,200 signatures on a petition for its creation at the time of press.

The more troublesome possibility is that Boston University does not have a sexual assault problem; rather, most universities have a sexual assault problem. Some students questioned felt that the media’s representation of the college lifestyle contributes to a sexual assault problem pervasive in university culture.

Whether BU has a sexual assault problem or not, and whether it exists at all universities or not, are ultimately useless questions to ponder if they do not result in growth as a school and as a community. It seems that most BU students are optimistic about our school’s future treatment of the topic of sexual assault. “Personally, I have never been more aware of its presence and its effects on people and a population, and I could say with confidence that there are other people within the student body that would agree,” one BU student said. “It is a shame that the actions of a few, in such a large school, will reflect poorly on our atmosphere, but I know that we have and will continue to grow from it.”

if you like this...

• Warren Towers Assault Raises Heavy Concerns
• Stress Prevention, Sexual Health, and Swag: The 2012 Wellness Expo
• Brown’s Letter: A Response Worth the Wait

Last week, archeologists from Boston University discovered fire, in a manner of speaking. Professors Francesco Berna and Paul Goldberg published research stating they found evidence of man-made fire that, at one million years old, is the oldest one found to date.

Goldberg is a professor of archeology and geoarchaeology and Berna is a research assistant professor of archeology. The two professors were part of a team led by Michael Chazan of the University of Toronto. They were collecting sediment samples in a cave in Wonderwerk, South Africa, when they came across a discovery: the sediments contained traces of burned animal bones and ash.

This meant that early on in our evolutionary history, in our homo erectus period, humans had control of fire.

It is something that was hypothesized, but never certain. Previous evidence indicated that man-made fire was much, much more recent—hundreds of thousands of years more recent. Some evidence put the oldest manmade fires around 800,000 years ago in Gesher Benot Ya`aqov, Israel. There have been other, similarly older sites where evidence of fire was clear, but evidence was not as secure as it was in Wonderwerk.

“The problem with the other sites is that most all of them are open air sites, so it’s very hard to rule out the role of a wildfire burning on top of human remains or carcasses left there,” Berna said. “Our site, Wonderwerk, is a cave, and is a very well protected environment, and so we know that there is no wildfire coming in. It’s related to human activities.”

What made Goldberg and Berna’s study difference was their emphasis on context. Goldberg and Berna work out of the Labratory of MicroStratigraphy in the College of Arts and Sciences. They bring in samples of sediment and scrutinize them right in the lab. What their techniques give them is valuable context. In simplest terms, they carefully collect sediment from the sites, bring it back to the laboratory and look it over.

“The way we work in the lab is we collect a sample of in-tact sediments form the cave, a block the size of a brick, let’s say, a little smaller than a brick. We carefully wrapped it up in toilet paper…and we bring it to the lab and…essentially turn it into a rock, and we slice it once it’s hardened, and mount it on a glass slide,” Goldberg said. “So, once we do that, we can look at the material… under the microscope as if it were a piece of the cave brought back to the laboratory.”

Graphic by Evan Caughey.

That’s how they stumbled upon their discovery. They did not go into the caves looking for evidence of fire (not exactly) and were really just looking to reconstruct the history of the cave using samples. But in terms of history to uncover, moving back the discovery of fire hundreds of thousands of years is fairly substantial, because wrangling control over the destructive and useful fire was a major moment in early human history.

“The control of fire has a biological significance, has an evolutionary significance,” said Berna. “It’s like…humans became humans because they weren’t afraid of fire, they knew how to use fire, and they knew how to cook their food, and so that gave them a huge advantage in terms of energy saving, time saving, and allowed the cultural evolution to rapidly evolve and become what we have now.”

The discovery gives support to one controversial hypothesis about early humans, the cooked food hypothesis of Richard Wrangham. The professor of biological anthropology at Harvard University believed that our ancestor homo erectus was already on a cooked food diet.

“And this is a big, big claim, that very few people believe in terms of archeology,” said Berna. “Because it’s only based on biological evidence and anatomical evidence and not in archeology.”

But now the archeological and geological evidence is present. The cooking of food, Wrangham’s research says, contributed to brain growth and smaller jaws, both important evolutionary differences between homo erectus and homo sapien. The theory remains controversial in multiple scientific communities, but with the contribution of Goldberg and Berna’s discovery, it remains food for thought.

The archeologists also both emphasized the importance of their methods above all else. The team was studying sediments and packaged them for study in the laboratory. Rather than bringing the artifacts to the lab, they brought the whole cave without having to lose any of the contextual information.

“Until people start looking at these sediments as artifacts, if you will, there’s a lot of information that’s being either thrown over the side of the site or just ignored that’s just a gold mine of information,” Goldberg said.

if you like this...

• Boston Comic Con: Rapid-Fire Creator Interviews, Part 1
• Cannabis Rising: Carl Hedberg Comes to Boston University
• Boston University Students Occupy Boston

Ryan is considered an ambitious and deeply intellectual thinker by many of his Republican colleagues. He has consistently advocated for smaller government, critical of what he calls Presidents Obama’s desire to create equal outcomes rather than equal opportunities. In a speech to conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, Ryan articulated his views on American government, stating that the American Idea is about lowering “the hurdles to upward mobility” rather than acting on ill conceived notions of fairness that justify raising taxes on the rich. Despite obvious ideological disagreements, Ryan remains relatively well respected by the other side of the aisle for his intellectual chops.

Paul Ryan made the leap from rising star to household name with the release of his FY 2012 budget proposal, Path to Prosperity. The budget, despite having never made it to the President’s desk, created a major stir in Washington for its ambition deficit reduction proposals, fueled in part by Medicare reform. Under the current system, the government pays directly for seniors’ medical care. Ryan’s budget would have shifted to a system in which participants are given a credit and invited to shop around for insurance, potentially raising the cost of the program for individuals. While it’s long been acknowledged that with the United States’ aging baby boomer population Medicare costs will become unsustainable, proposing reform has been politically risky because it affects the elderly, a large swath of the population that votes in high numbers. Not surprisingly, Democrats hammered Ryan and Republicans who supported the plan, charging them with wanting to “end Medicare,” a claim that was considered the 2011 Lie of the Year by the non-partisan fact-checking website Politifact. The attacks on the budget helped shift public opinion to oppose the Ryan’s Medicare reforms.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan meets with President Obama | Photo Courtesy of White House Photographer Pete Souza via Flickr Commons

Still, Ryan was lauded by many intellectuals and policy elites for taking on such a politically risky issue. Hardly the center for conservative ideas, Time praised Ryan for bringing major issues such as tax reform and changes to entitlements into the public discussion, naming him a “runner up” in the weekly magazine’s annual Person of the Year issue.

Paul Ryan’s pessimistic view of government makes sense given his pulled-himself-up-by-the-bootstraps success story. When Ryan was 16 he found his father dead in bed of a heart attack. Following his father’s death, Ryan went to college then headed to Capitol Hill, working his way up from mail room intern to policy staff while taking a number of side jobs along the way to help pay the bills.

It should also come as no surprise that Ryan is an Ayn Rand enthusiast who allegedly requires his staffers to read Atlas Shrugged, Rand’s most well-known work, in which society’s most productive members refuse to work in response to increasing government control over their economic activities.

Others are unimpressed by the talk of Ryan’s genius. The New Republic named Ryan one of 2011′s most overrated thinkers offering devastating criticism. The article called him “Washington’s idea of a big thinker” and accused him of trying to “impose a radical right-wing agenda” while “his doe-ish eyes and his Midwestern vintage convinced a rapt press corps that he is the ideas man in this age of budgetary woe.”

Paul Ryan’s intellectual capabilities notwithstanding, TNR is not incorrect about his agenda. On Monday at a luncheon hosted by the Associated Press, President Obama ripped the budget proposal as “nothing but thinly veiled social Darwinism.” Ryan’s latest budget disproportionately slashes programs that are used by the poor, with 62 percent of cuts coming from programs designed to help low-income Americans, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. As Washington Post writer Ezra Klein notes, despite Ryan’s speech to Heritage in October acknowledging government’s role in encouraging social mobility, the cuts this budget would make to the poor–specifically on education, food aid and health care–would seriously undermine their ability to get ahead. Under the guise of deficit reduction, the GOP is seeking to implement the pro-business, small government agenda it has always wanted.

Despite calls for him to enter the GOP presidential primary earlier this year, Paul Ryan declined, citing the lack of ambition. Recently, Ryan was mentioned as a potential VP choice. Though Ryan would certainly fire up the conservative base, many would like to see him stay and rise in the House of Representatives.

Ryan’s dream is to become the chairman on the prestigious House Ways & Means Committee. Ways & Means is considered the most powerful committee in Congress because it has jurisdiction over any bill that involves adjustments to revenue, giving it a voice on any significant piece of legislation: Medicare, Social Security, tax reform, ObamaCare, you name it. At the helm of Ways & Means, Ryan would have immediate access to the most important pieces of policy and a major say in how Congress seeks to address this nation’s budgetary challenges. Whatever the six-term Congressman chooses to do, he will continue to be a vocal and influential conservative voice in government.

if you like this...

• ‘Drive’ Review: Ryan Gosling Enters the Shark Tank