The student newspaper of Houghton University for more than 100 years.
Author: Emma Hughes
Emma Hughes is serving as 2012-2013 editor-in-chief of the Star. She is a senior history major currently sweating through her senior honors project on the 20th century Chinese Cuban community, most often in the library. At other times, she can be found in the Star office and the campus coffee shop. Hobbies include Taekwondo, working in the Star office, attending Senate, working in the Star office, reading, and drinking (tea).
With the Oscars just around the corner—taking place this Sunday, February 24—offered here is a quick look at the five Best Picture nominees, previously un-reviewed by the Star: Zero Dark Thirty, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Silver Linings Playbook, Django Unchained, and Amour.
Zero Dark Thirty: Hauntingly, Kathryn Bigelow’s latest direction begins with a black screen, as the audience listens to 911 phone calls made from the World Trade Center the morning of 9/11, and from here never lets up. Though it may be better-known for its controversy, ZDT may actually be a surprising work of art.
Beasts of the Southern Wild: At first glance, the quiet indie flick may seem more geared toward issues of poverty and survival, but at its heart, it centers deeply on the touching relationship between a father and daughter, and the way in which such relationships are a bedrock of one’s life.
Silver Linings Playbook: Alongside the rest of the field, David O Russell’s film seems misplaced: it’s dramedy, fluff romance, gooey optimism. It has none of the relentless questions or haunting situations of its fellow nominees, and its treatment of mental illness comes off as less than authentic, and more in line with its emphasis on blind positivity.
Django Unchained: Quentin Tarantino’s latest, Django leaves the impression of being more dedicated to the memory of spaghetti westerns and the glory of blood-letting than to the real humanity and personhood of the characters involved, but it left me wondering how through his hyperbole, Tarantino speaks, however superficially, to the outrageousness of slavery’s horrors.
Amour: Perhaps the most poignant of the nominees, this soft-spoken French-language film confronts mortality and questions about the end of life, as an elderly couple deals with the wife’s deterioration, and her husband’s caretaking of her. Through its shots and performances, Amour forces its audience to join momentarily the isolation and grief of old age.
The February meeting of Houghton College’s Board of Trustees took place last weekend, February 8-9, during which the key issues facing the college were addressed.
Courtesy of topchristiancolleges.com
Among the subjects covered were the sale of the Willard J. Houghton foundation’s old property of Star Lake, the renovation of the Alumni House, a facilities audit, and most notably, the Kerr-Pegula project.
The Board also honored Professor Ron Oakerson, political science, for his work in Sierra Leone—recognizing his leadership of the Houghton partnership on the mango outdoors project there.
The finalized sale of Star Lake, previously owned by the Willard J. Houghton foundation, and formerly the site of Houghton’s now discontinued Adirondacks semester, was another topic approached. The property’s new owners have looked at the possibility of using the property for a Christian camp.
The sale of the property is, in a way, indicative of a larger move on the part of the foundation. The foundation was formed “to work with properties, and now the Willard J. Houghton foundation is moving away from community development toward building funds for endowment,” said President Mullen about the focus shift. “A lot of colleges have foundations that raise funds for the college, that have more flexibility in the kinds of gifts they can receive than a non-profit does…the focus is toward building the endowment for the college.”
An interesting effect of this old community development focus of the foundation is the fact many of the buildings along the Houghton main street, Route 19, are properties purchased at one time by the foundation.
Foundation focuses aside, the Board also addressed the renovations of the Alumni House, which will hopefully serve as “A place where people can connect with alumni and network,” President Mullen said.
The financial resources for the extensive renovations of the house are the not result of funds being extracted from students’ tuition, but instead from fund-raising specifically for the house, and in part, from undesignated estate gifts.
In addition, an audit of the Houghton College facilities is underway; Sodexo has been working with the chief business officer to develop a plan “[to help] us systematically plan for short-term and long-term care of our facilities,” Mullen explained. This way, when the facilities require repair and maintenance, the budget to take care of the facilities’ needs is already in place.
Courtesy of topchristiancolleges.com
Perhaps the topic most interesting to students is the status of the Kerr-Pegula project.
“The board authorized the administration to seek contractor bids for the project, and to complete a funding plan that would include a fundraising component as well as financing component,”
Mullen said. “[This plan] will be presented on or around May 1st,” when further decisions about proceeding with the project will be made.
In an unexpected move, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope to resign in almost 600 years when he announced Monday he would step down from his position, citing deteriorating “strength of mind and body.”
“Before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” Benedict said in his speech Monday, delivered to a private church body in Vatican City.
“In today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith…both strength of mind and body are necessary… which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me…Well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome,” he said.
Spiritual leader to the world’s population of over 1 billion Catholics, his quiet announcement Monday prompted immediate and widespread response across the globe. Monday morning saw news agencies as diverse as Aljazeera English to the Washington Post being quickly swamped with coverage of the unexpected announcement. Social media played its part as well, as The New York Times reported, with #pontifexit quickly trending on Twitter only minutes after the statement from the Vatican.
Yet the 85-year old pontiff, unlike the last of his predecessors to step down from the position, resigned in ‘plena libertate,’ translated from the Latin, in which he made his announcement, as being in “full freedom.” The health decline he had experienced in the last months had seen him taken to the altar of Saint Peter’s during Christmas Eve Midnight Mass on a wheeled platform, and his advancing years seem to have taken their toll. During the same mass, the tiredness that appeared to have crept in during the last months also manifested itself as he appeared to doze off during the proceedings; he appears to have done so at points throughout other masses as well.
Shocked though the rest of the world was at the news of the resignation, the pope’s brother, Georg Ratzinger, told German news organization DPA that he had known of the pope’s plan to resign for many months preceding, and that “age was taking its toll” on the pope.
According to the Washington Post, Ratzinger also noted his brother’s gradual decline: “He has gotten tired faster and faster, and walking has become hard for him” but still, Ratzinger also said his brother had done “the best he possibly could have done” in the position. The final decision had been made by Benedict XVI soon after a taxing trip to Mexico and Cuba in early 2012, according to the editor of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, Giovanni Maria Vian.
Born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger in 1927, in Marktl, Bavaria, Germany, the pope led a varied early life, growing up in a tumultuous Germany and at the age of 14 was reluctantly conscripted into Hitler’s Youth. He saw the tragic circumstances of WWII played out, and entered seminary afterward. In 1951, he was ordained as a Catholic priest, and from there built a formidable reputation as one of the staunchly conservative theologians of the Catholic Church.
He met his friend, the future John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla, during the 1978 conclave of cardinals to elect Paul VI’s successor. Nearly thirty years later, on April 19, 2005, Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI by the conclave of cardinals electing the pope following the passing of John Paul II.
As he departs, Pope Benedict XVI leaves a mixed legacy—one that will perhaps be better known for the challenges faced by the conservative pope in a world in which faith has served an increasingly different role than the one it has in the past. During his eight years as pontiff, he has resisted and rejected the issues of ordination of female priests, homosexuality, embryonic stem cell research, and has dealt much with the ongoing problems of rampant child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
The pope will retire after February 28 to “a life dedicated to prayer,” and the next pope may well be in place by Easter, March 31.
