By Tue Tran, Editor-in-Chief -

There are many degrees of homophobia. From the flippant usage of “that’s so gay” to injuring someone due to suspicions of him or her having a non-heterosexual orientation. At Boston College, GLBTQ students have expressed concern about the campus climate with regard to issues of sexual identity and the lack of support from the University.

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By Alison Athey, Assoc. Features Editor -

Many Boston College students have heard horror stories about the Plex, from students on the elliptical machines for hours on end to girls eating packets of Splenda so they won’t pass out while exercising. These are signs of a pervasive culture of disordered eating that has created a formidable presence on campus.

Forty percent of female college students have eating disorders, according to the Massachusetts Eating Disorders Association. To combat this widespread problem, Feb. 21 – 27 is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Dur­ing NEDAwareness there will be several online seminars that call upon healthcare practitioners, social workers and all those affected by eating disorders to raise awareness by organizing events in their own communities.

“Our aim of NEDAwareness Week is to ultimately prevent eating disorders and body image issues while reducing the stigma surround­ing eating disorders and improving access to treatment,” says The National Eating Disorder Associa­tion (NEDA) Web site.

“There is a difference between being healthy and being sick. There is such a fine line and it is being crossed all the time. It’s scary,” a Boston Col­lege senior who has had several close friends with eating disorders.

This student, who asks to remain anonymous to protect the privacy of her friends, remembers a close friend putting herself on Weight Watchers in the sixth grade. Instead of eating balanced meals on this diet program, the young girl would save all of her “points” for Twiz­zlers and Hohos.

Many BC students know that anorexia is characterized by restricted eating habits and that bulimia is based on binging followed by compensatory behaviors. The physical consequences of these disorders are far-reaching, among them nose bleeds, stained teeth, inability to menstruate, hair loss and the development of lanugo, a soft, coating of hair on the arms, face and back that occurs when body fat decreases too significantly. Accord­ing to the American Psychological Association, anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any psychotic disorder at 10 -15 percent.

No single cause of eating disorders is known, but research­ers believe that it is linked to a combination of factors, including genetics, depression, anxiety, famil­ial difficulties and imbalances of the neurotransmitter Seratonin.

Distorted self-image is a critical feature of eating disorders, and many sufferers experience feelings of inadequacy. High-achieving people with perfectionist tendencies are also vulnerable to disordered eating, which is a characteristic typical to students at competetive universities.

Women at BC may be especially at risk for developing eating disor­ders. NEDA states that anorexia is more prevalent in young, upper-middle class women, who make up a large proportion of the student body. However, anyone can develop an eating disorder, regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic status, size or sexual orientation.

There are many on-campus re­sources available to students with dis­ordered eating. University Counsel­ing Services and University Health Services offer some psychological and nutritional counseling. The University also employs a nutritionist available by appointment on Tues­days and Thursdays. The Women’s Resource Center (WRC) offers a variety of resources for people who struggle with disordered eating, as well as those who care for them.

“There are weekly support group meetings for those struggling with eating issues, and in the WRC we regularly see students strug­gling with eating issues or friends of students struggling with those issues,” says Rachel Lamorte a staff member at the WRC and A&S ’10.

The group, known as HOPE (Healthy Options for the Pressure of Eating) is facilitated by two graduate students who have extensive training in the area of eating issues.

The WRC is not planning any events related to National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Instead, they organize Love Your Body Week in the fall semester and offer ongo­ing services throughout the year.

“We try to make Love Your Body Week focused on healthy body image promotion and eating issues awareness to make it a positive week while also getting at some incredibly difficult issues,” says Lamorte, who was the chief coordinator of the event in 2008 and 2009.

“We’re always looking at the efficiency and effectiveness of our programs and we’ve had many stu­dents give positive feedback about Love Your Body Week,” she says.

Despite these services, BC students still hear those same horror stories from the Plex. It is clear that eating disorders have a large and negative presence on campus, but many students do not know how to help friends or address peers who engage in unhealthy eating and exercising habits.

The WRC Web site offers detailed advice to students who are concerned about loved ones who struggle with eating. They offer a guide on how to set up interven­tions, what to expect in the process, and a perspective on the subjective experience of people with disor­dered eating.

“It is so easy to go on with­out addressing [a friend’s eating disorder],” the anonymous source says. “If you catch it early enough, though, they can be helped in a relatively quick fashion, as opposed to being sent away [for treatment].”

When confronting a friend about his or her eating behaviors, it is im­portant to know common mistakes to avoid — telling a friend that she looks “disgustingly thin” can be in­terpreted as a compliment, whereas telling someone in recovery that she looks “healthy” can be seen as code for “fat” — but without the encour­agment of loved ones, few people know how to reach out for help.

“Many people who recover acknowledge the importance of friends who believed in them and kept trying to reach through to them,” says the WRC website.

Especially on college campuses, where residence halls become a second home to many students, friends and roommates can play an important role in helping to reduce and raise awareness of disordered eating.

By Meg Lister, Gavel Writer -

Every day, every person, somewhere, somehow, sits down on a toilet. Approximately 20 percent of these squats take place in a public bathroom. Moreover, a significant percentage of these public bathroom stalls are graffitied with personal reflections, confessions, poetry, prose, questions, and answers. We’ve all seen these markings, and perhaps even contributed to them. Each sentence or phrase is totally anonymous, untraceable, and yet provides an interesting insight into our culture. Continue Reading

By Benjamin Mayer, Editorial Assistant -

Technological resources have enabled a humanitarian response of an unprecedented nature, since a 7.0 earthquake struck Port Au Prince on Jan. 12. Live Internet feeds, satellite uplinks, and even texting are being utilized by news agencies, relief organizations, and family members of those in Haiti, to give aid to Haitians who are still in urgent need. Although the event has demonstrated the incredible utility of technology, this tragedy has also shown the current limit of its abilities. Continue Reading

By Andrew Schofield, Special Projects Editor -

Until Christmas Day, Yemen was a small, poor, and politically fragmented Arab nation in the eyes of most. But an attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to detonate explosives on a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit, Michigan, has placed Yemen at the forefront of the global fight against terrorism as considerable evidence points to the fact that Abdulmutallab acted with substantial aid from the Yemeni Al Qaeda cell. The latest attempt of terrorism only demonstrates a long developing problem in the country of Yemen: the increasing power of Al Qaeda throughout the country.

Abdulmutallab’s attempt, however, is not the first act of terrorism that can be traced back to the country’s Al Qaeda cell. In 2000, Al Qaeda orchestrated one of its most significant attacks at the time, the bombing of American destroyer USS Cole, in the port city of Aden, Yemen. In addition, the Yemeni cell has focused on bombing Yemeni government facilities and hotels known for their Western clientele.

But more recently, Al Qaeda has increased its efforts in Yemen in large part due to the influx of terrorists in Yemen. According to Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College, nearly 2,000 Yemenis who fought for Al Qaeda in Iraq are returning to Yemen to help the cause there. Many have been released from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba or have escaped from Yemeni prisons. For example, in 2006, four high-profile terrorists escaped from a maximum-security including Nasser al-Wuhayshi and Qassim al-Raimi who would eventually become the leader of the Al Qaeda cell in Yemen and its military commander respectively. Although the core in Yemen remains small, its operations have become more sophisticated with the merging of the branch with the Saudi Al Qaeda branch.

In 2004, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born, English speaking Internet imam of Al Qaeda returned to Yemen after prison time on security charges. Although American intelligence officials do not believe he holds much power, most are convinced that he provides a vital link between prospective recruits like Abdulmutallab and Al Qaeda. There is also increasing evidence of a connection between al-Awlaki and Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army officer who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in November. Furthermore, he provides Al Qaeda with protection by the powerful Yemeni tribe, the Awlakis. In Yemen, most tribal codes compel the tribe to provide assistance to a member and his colleagues, or in this case, al-Awlaki and Al Qaeda.

Yemen’s history of instability and chaos only aids the terrorist operations of Al Qaeda. Up until 1990, the present-day Yemen was divided into North Yemen, or what was part of the old Ottoman Empire, and South Yemen, the former British colony. After the unification, in 1994, civil war broke out as southern secessionists established the Democratic Republic of Yemen. Although the secession was quickly defeated, the chaos in Yemen continues.

Al Qaeda’s resurgence in Yemen comes in a particularly tumultuous time as President Ali Abdullah Saleh has recently increased efforts to combat Iran-backed Houthi Shiite rebels. Against these rebels to the north, Mr. Saleh has encouraged jihadists and radical Sunni groups to fight the Houthi, which appears to be feeding support for Al Qaeda according to some analysts. In addition, Mr. Saleh’s second priority appears to be quashing a secessionist movement in the south. As Abdullah al-Faqih, a political scientist at Yemen’s Sana University told the New York Times, “President Saleh’s first priority is to stay in power. Two, at this point, is the war in the north. Three is the south. And sometimes Al Qaeda doesn’t even make the list at all — it drops from the agenda.”

Compounded the problem that the Yemeni government appears to be distracted, the terrorist cells appear to be taking refuge in the rugged tribal lands of Yemen – lands that do not have much government supervision much like those of Pakistan. Furthermore, Yemen is the poorest Arabian country with 70 percent of its GDP coming from oil reserves that are expected to be depleted within the next decade.

Despite their focus in Afghanistan, the situation in Yemen has the full attention of the United States government. President Barack Obama has pledged to make the strengthening of his government’s relationship with Yemen and President Saleh a priority. United States Special Forces have been deployed to Yemen to teach and train Yemeni forces on counterterrorism techniques and the United States has begun sharing intelligence with the Yemeni government. Connecticut Senator Joe Liberman has pushed for increased efforts to combat Al Qaeda in Yemen and claimed that a government official in the Yemeni capital told him, “Iraq was yesterday’s war, Afghanistan is today’s war. If we don’t act preemptively, Yemen will be tomorrow’s war.”

By Lorna Greene

So far, my exchange to Boston College has been the most rewarding and interesting experience of my life. Coming from University College Cork in Ireland, I was unsure as to what I could expect from an American university.

When I first started classes at BC, I was disgusted by the fact that lecturers here give homework and set reading that they actually expect you to do. I was further appalled when I learned that class participation and attendance mattered, and that I may actually have to be cognitive and conscious in class. I was struck by the sheer madness of it all. What kind of establishment is this, anyway? Professors remember students’ names. It will be noticed if you are not in class. Entire lecture transcripts are not posted on blackboard for my convenience at a less hungover time.

It became clear to me that attending classes while still drunk from the night before was not going to be an option at BC. Ignoring the set reading and using Wikipedia synopses of books would not be good enough, and I may actually have to go to the library before the prescribed study week!

At my home university, lecture time may as well be called nap time for the majority of classes. Students turning up is not so much a requirement as an added bonus and attending half of your lectures in a week is a job well done.

Without a doubt, the academic side to Boston College has challenged me and my previous scholastic experiences in college life. The teaching systems at BC surpass anything I have come across in two years of higher education in Ireland. After getting over the initial shock of the approach to academics at BC, I have come to realize that the American teaching system is nothing less than fantastic. The way in which classes are conducted and the emphasis placed on student participation and discussion is invaluable as a learning tool.

Simple things, such as the structure of a class or a professor’s approachability, go so far in offering students a better education and awakening us to the fascinating topics and issues our classes address.

These subtle disparities make all the difference when it comes to students engaging in their discussions and actually wanting to attend lectures. I have surprised myself with the interest I have had in my classes here. I have fallen in love with certain subjects thanks to the enthusiasm of the professors involved and the emphasis placed on my participation and engagement with the material. It makes all the difference in one’s approach to learning and enjoying the academic side of college life.

I am nothing but grateful to BC for allowing me the opportunity to study here as an exchange student. I feel that BC has made me appreciate the fact that a university is first and foremost about education and learning. When I don’t take my classes seriously, I am the one missing out, and in doing so I fail to get the most out of my college education.

I think one example that best illustrates the difference between an Irish university education and its American counterpart is the Irish use of words such as “lecture” and “lecturer,” which imply being talked at and no connotations of discussion or group participation. Americans on the other hand refer to “classes” and “professors.” Classes would imply interactive learning, dialogue and some form of a teacher-student relationship. This, along with the word “professor,” a professional person intent on teaching rather than merely reciting facts to a class, highlights a major advantage in the American learning system.

I can now safely say that Boston College has exceeded many of my expectations, while at the same time opening my eyes to many aspects of American culture to which I had previously been blind. I have been met with many different emotions since arriving in Boston and beginning my year at BC. The life of an international student has left me surprised, disappointed, intrigued, excited, impressed, dismayed, inspired and frustrated at one stage or another. However, I would not change a single second of my experiences so far.

I know that when it is time for me to return to Ireland and UCC in May I will be sorry to leave the excellent learning resources at BC behind. I am already jealous of the BC students who will make use of this fantastic system for four years. However, I will go home with an amazing experience a new appreciation and determination towards my studies at home. I feel that my experiences as an exchange student here will be very beneficial to my academic future and to my final year at UCC.

By April Chang, Contributing writer -

A diminutive figure, draped by a moth-eaten cloak, ceased to tremble as she entered what at first glance might be mistaken for a cozy, red-brick café — Rosie’s Place, a women’s homeless shelter.

The receptionist at the front desk warmly greeted the meager, silver-haired guest, who paused to chit-chat before entering the dining hall.
Since the economic recession began, Boston has been seeing a pronounced increase in the visibility of homeless women. Although women suffer disproportionately from homelessness, they receive less attention than their male counterparts. This may be due to the fact that women do not fit the stereotype of homelessness. Continue Reading

By Tue Tran, Co-editor-in-chief -

With one sweep of a clock’s second hand, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts decided that it was okay for me to have wine with dinner. After years of going out with friends who could order a glass with their meals, it was a nice to finally have that option.

However, we place too much emphasis on alcohol at 21. To me, turning 21 — some arbitrary number — meant that I was deemed by someone to be “grown up.” And now, there are no other age minimums for me in society, except for senior discounts at movie theaters. Continue Reading

By Alison Athey, Assoc. Features Editor -

When people ask, “So…where are you from?” they usually expect a two-word answer, three words max. There are students from all 50 states and 96 different countries at Boston College. For most, home is a definite place located only a few hours away. For some of us, however, the answer to the question “Where are you from?” is less clear. In my 20 years, I have lived in seven different home towns, on three different continents, for no more than five years apiece. Continue Reading

By Amy Walsh, Features Editor -

Fairness, justice, and equality are inherent qualities that this Jesuit institution strongly promotes and strives to instill in its students, even in such a seemingly insignificant purchase like morning coffee.

As sleep-deprived college students, it is no surprise that the Boston College campus consumes thousands upon thousands of coffee every year. However, when one is standing in line at Hillside, groggy and dreading the busy day that lies ahead, fair trade is probably not on one’s mind. It is this lack of conscientious consumerism that may be hindering the fair trade movement. Continue Reading