Written by: Dan Merica

The Campus Activity Board’s (CAB) spring semester comedy show will feature Judah Friedlander, who plays writer Frank Rossitano on NBC’s hit comedy 30 Rock. According to CAB Comedy Chair Kevin Penley, Friedlander’s comedy act, entitled “Judah Friedlander is the World Champion,” will be the headliner of the February 18 act.

“Judah is a familiar face and his name, because of 30 Rock, will be familiar with people,” said Penley. He went on to say that, personally, he is “really excited” about Judah’s show.

Friedlander has been featured in over twenty movies, including Meet the Parents, Zoolander, Wet Hot American Summer and American Splendor. He has also received acclaim for his roles on VH1’s Best Week Ever and HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.

“In the past we have found the people on TV shows go over well with Bentley, and I expect it to be pretty full,” said Penley.

The 40-year-old Friedlander has been pursuing standup for 18-years, and according to Punchline Magazine, he “effectively works the crowd with his laugh-out-loud-worthy retorts.” Friedlander recently announced that he plans to release his first comedy album in 2010.

According to his biography, Friedlander is “a great athlete, gets tons of chicks & is a role model to children. And he’s better than you at everything.”

CAB will also be promoting this comedy show under the guidelines of the new Green Initiative that the organization is taking up. “We won’t actually be using professional posters for this event,” said Penley. “We will be using Facebook, Twitter and also A-Frame boards around campus,“ he finished.

Aside from his work in front of the camera, Friedlander is recognized by his witty, homemade trucker hats. He makes up all the sayings on the hats, which are sold on his website and include phrases like, “Champion of the World,” “World Runner-Up,” and “Regional Semifinalist.”

In addition to hats on his website, Friedlander sells a spaceship for $10,000,000 that will, “make you cool and popular,” as well as a Judah-Bot, “a full life-size robot of Judah… Great for lying around the house and doing nothing” for $1,000,000. Friedlander also sells a nude picture of himself for $500; however, the website states, “SOLD OUT! Sorry ladies.”

During the interview, Penley spent some time looking around Judah’s website and laughed-out-loud when he saw some of the goods he was selling. “I would imagine that anything he does in his life has some humor in it,” said Penley.

Friedlander is the second NBC comedy writer to come to Bentley in the last three comedy shows.  Past shows have included Patton Oswalt in the fall of 2009, B.J. Novak, a writer for NBC’s The Office, in the spring of 2009,  and Stephen Lynch in the fall of 2008.

The show will be held in Koumantzelis Auditorium on Thursday, February 18. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show will start at 7:30 PM. Admission is free with a Bentley ID and five dollars without a Bentley ID.

Written by: Dan Merica

Two women have been charged in the stabbing of Bentley student, senior Rafael Pena, in the upper chest early Wednesday morning inside Fenway Hall.

Breanne Fraser, 21, of Cranston, RI, and Sarah Monta, 19, of Danvers, MA, plead not guilty to assault and battery with a deadly weapon, along with one count of armed robbery yesterday afternoon in Waltham District Court. Fraser and Monta were arrested by University police after the 3 a.m. incident.

Both suspects will be held without bail until Wednesday, February 10, when a “dangerousness” hearing will be held in the Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn, MA. Fraser and Monta hung their heads in court, covering their faces from the cameras of news and print media.

Pena has been released from the hospital and is in stable condition despite receiving what authorities called a “deep stab wound.”

According to the official Bentley University arrest report, at approximately 3:25 a.m. on February 3, police officers were dispatched to Fenway after receiving a report of a male stabbed by 2 females following an argument. One officer was posted in the Farm Lot at a car with a Rhode Island license plate. This was believed to be the suspect’s car.

Another officer responded to Fenway, where Pena was found in the lobby with a deep stab wound to his upper right chest, along with blood on both his shirt and hands.

Another officer at this time observed two girls walking on Beaver Street towards the Farm Lot. After much resistance, the two girls were then handcuffed and put into separate police vehicles. No weapons were found on either suspect.
Neither Fraser nor Monta are Bentley students. According to Lieutenant Bill Williams of the University Police Department, “the people who were taken into custody knew the person who was stabbed.”

According to the arrest report, Fraser stated that money for sex was involved in the dispute. She stated that Mr. Pena had said, “I guess I’m not going to have sex, so how about a blow job for $50 dollars,” to which both women said no.

The arrest report also stated that the evidence found in the women’s purse and pockets consisted of two different types of perfume and lotion, lipstick, Chap Stick, lip gloss, birth control, nine condoms, and lubricant jelly, among other items.

Both women accused in the February 3 dispute also have a court date in Boston Municipal Court, where they were involved in an another altercation with a man living in a Boylston apartment. According to Jake Whark, spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, the altercation stemmed from a disagreement regarding sex for money.

“Monta and Fraser came to the door and stated that it would be 200 dollars for one girl and 300 dollars for two girls,” said Whark. He went on to say that “the officers took the women into custody, and during the booking process found 300 dollars in the same denominations as the money the man involved said he had given to the women.” According to the police report, the women were “uncooperative and hostile” to the January 6 responding officers.

It was the prior incident coupled with the Bentley stabbing that forced the Middlesex District Attorney’s office into labeling the pair a danger to society and ask for the denial of bail.

When asked whether he could confirm if these women were prostitutes, Williams stated that he has no knowledge of that, but stated that “I would not be surprised that they were involved with something like that.”

Students were notified of the stabbing via an e-mail at 7:16 Wednesday morning from Dean of Student Affairs Andrew Shepardson. “We will share more information with the community as it becomes available,” read the e-mail.

“However, I do want the community to know that the situation is being addressed,” the e-mail also stated.
As the story was breaking this morning, students told The Vanguard that they were concerned with the lack of information they were getting.

“We all wish we knew more,” said senior Katie Brodrick. “Right now everyone is watching the news, and the news knows more than the students,” she added.

Sophomore Bree Johnson echoed Brodrick’s concerns by saying, “We have enough information as far as not having to be worried about the rest of our community, but would like to hear more.” Johnson went on to say that what she wants is an explanation, stating, “I would like someone to let me know how two girls with a knife got into Fenway… I would like to know how this happened.”

To quell students’ fears, Dean Shepardson sent out another campus-wide e-mail at 5:15 p.m., outlining a number of tips from the University Police Safety and Security Report, as well as recommendations for what to do “while you are out and about.”

“Thank you all for looking out for each other,” read the e-mail. “We all need to be a part of the solution in keeping our campus safe,” it stated.

Doreen Floyd, assistant dean of Student Affairs, recognized the growing concern among students, stating, “We want to make sure that students feel safe on this campus, because they should.” At the same time, though, she recognized the reality of the situation.

“At Bentley this thing is not typical,” said Floyd, adding “but we all walk around with the perception that this is a very safe campus, and it is in large part, but I think we live in greater society and things can happen.”
Jon McColgan and Rebecca Langweber contributed to this report.

Written by: Dan Merica

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, girls and guys all over campus are trying to define their physical relationships with one another in the hopes of having an enjoyable Valentine’s Day, and perhaps night.

According to Jen Casavant, assistant director of Residence Life, these physical relationships, many of which are defined as “hooking up.”

Even with the possibility of hooking up on the rise, it is the definition of “hooking up” that not only leaves participating students miffed, but also causes staff to pause in an effort to find the right words to describe the phenomenon. Dr. Brenda Hawks, associate director of Counseling and Student Development here at Bentley, says that in the counseling office, “We let the client define what it is.”

Dr. Hawks goes on to explain that each student exhibits his or her own definition of what hooking up is. “I think it really is an umbrella term now for this generation, but it is anything sexual that happens,” said Dr. Hawks.

Casavant agreed with Dr. Hawks, saying that she believed it was “any sort of sexual activity that is not within the context of a committed relationship.”

While the definition of hooking up may differ from person to person, there is some unanimity in the agreement that hooking up can leave the participants at a disadvantage, both now and once they leave Bentley.

“As a therapist, what I see a lot are people who are lonely,” said Dr. Hawks. “There are a lot of lonely people here at Bentley.” Dr. Hawks went on to say that at Bentley a student is lucky if he or she has two or three emotionally intimate friends, “who really know the intimate stuff in his or her life… In some ways that is what a romantic, intimate relationship can give people.”

What comes with that lack of emotional intimacy, according to Dr. Hawks, is an inability to accept yourself as well as partners in relationships.

“The most important thing about being intimate is being able to accept the range of humanity in yourself and in another person,” said Dr. Hawks. “I think especially at Bentley we have this push to be perfect… but inside we all are a little chaotic. What an intimate relationship gives people is just an incredible acceptance of themselves and of the other person. That is what people are missing,” she concluded.

Students look to fill the void that comes with a lack of emotional intimacy, something that Casavant believes can be detrimental in the long run.

“If you don’t have this stable, emotional relationship with someone to rely on, you are constantly replacing it with the physical…” said Casavant, which she believes can eventually create a “sense of anonymity amongst people.”

“If that is all we are seeing one another to be good for, if I am meeting men and all I see is a potential hookup and that is it, what does that do to my sense of self worth?” Casavant pointed out.

When attempting to fill that void with continual emotionless, physical relationships, both Hawks and Casavant pointed to the fact that students will occasionally turn to substances like drugs and alcohol.

Substances also play a large role in whether a hookup occurs at all. Dr. Hawks supports this by stating, “I bet you that most people don’t hook up unless they have been drinking…  and if you have only met people and had intimacy when you are drunk and hooking up, how do you go about dating?”

Bentley students are not the only group of college-aged kids that are participating in the hookup culture. According to a recent Stanford University study, 75 percent of college students have had one hookup by senior year, and the average number of hookup relationships per person over their time in college is 6.9, as opposed to 4.4 traditional dating relationships.

“A long time ago you had a relationship with someone and it could lead to sex,” said Dr. Hawks. “Now you have sex and it could lead to a relationship,” she finished.

The idea behind hooking up, a physical relationship before an emotional relationship, is nothing new, with the “free love” era of the 1960’s and 70’s as evidence of that. However, what may have changed is the way that hooking up effects the development of students.

“I think it hurts males and females differently,” Dr. Hawks said, stating that at this time in development, men are grappling with being comfortable in an emotionally intimate relationship, while women in college are dealing with “autonomy, feeling independent, and owning their strength and power.” This can lead to development issues because, according to Dr. Hawks, “There is a disconnect between what they need and what hooking up gives them.”

This disconnect not only applies to heterosexual couples.“In gay relationships, often the same could be true… they may feel they got what they wanted but not what they needed,” Dr. Hawks explained.

Both Dr. Hawks and Casavant agreed that some cases of hooking up do work and both parties involved get what they need. However, they question the reasons for hooking up as opposed to dating.

“For some people, hooking up works fine,” said Casavant. “But for the vast majority, they convince themselves it’s what they want and that it’s OK. But is it really or are you just doing it because that’s the culture?” she concluded.

“A culture of hooking up has the propensity to be dangerous emotionally, but you can’t make a blanket statement because everyone is different,” said Dr. Hawks. “But when I think about what is necessary to be a full, happy human being, hooking up really doesn’t provide you opportunities to do that,” she finished.

See next week’s edition for Part Two of our Valentine’s Day feature: Intimacy in the Hook Up Era: Students.

Written by: Andy Zhong

The Association of Bentley Activities (ABA) kicked off this semester by appointing its Vice President of Organizational Recognition, Tyler Williams, as its President. The highly-influential position was left vacant late last semester when Williams’ predecessor Jacob Graham stepped down due to personal reasons.

“One of the big goals for this semester,” said Williams, “is revamping the entire communication process. One of my charges as president has been redefining our internal communications to make that more efficient, which in turn reflects the efficiency of our outward communications.”

While Williams admits that there has been a “big lack of inefficiency in the past,” he urges organizations to be patient in the transition process. Williams goes on to remind students that “the best thing I can really say is that the organizations really just need to get back to us with the information that we request and that it is going for a good cause and it does have a purpose.”

The presidency of ABA is a position that is voted upon by the student body at the end of every academic year. Because the position was vacant at the start of this semester, Williams was selected in accordance with ABA constitutional guidelines, which allowed him to become president without holding an election in the wider Bentley community.

Last January was the beginning of Tyler Williams’ first semester on the ABA executive board as the Campus Arts and Media representative. “I really just wanted to get in and see how it worked, why different policies were made, and why organizational governance on campus operated that it did,” said Williams.

Last semester as the Vice-President of Organizational Recognition, Williams was in charge of helping new organizations on campus. “I was responsible for facilitating the process for students who had new ideas and wanted to start an organization on campus,” said Williams.

As president, Tyler Williams will supervise twelve cluster representatives and five members of the executive board, who all together oversee the 102 Bentley clubs and organizations.

“The ABA is first and foremost a resource,” said Williams. “We are here to really enhance and enrich the extra-curricular experience on campus and we try to provide for every organization and to make sure that every organization is heard.”