The Oscar’s have been maligned for many things: “They’re too long”, “No one’s even seen the Best Picture nominees”, “The host won’t be funny”, “If Leo’s not winning, I’m going to bed”. Year after thankless year these criticisms are levied against the Academy in its putative inability to accurately reflect the interests of “The Average Moviegoer”, to honor the films that people actually care about. As if those allegations aren’t jarring enough on any given year, the familiar flak has been all but eclipsed by the ongoing and widespread allegations of prejudice within the film industry, Hollywood’s behind-the-scenes racism supposedly has been responsible for the lack of diversity among this year’s very pale nominees.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in a move undoubtedly made to appease those disappointed with the #OscarSoWhite controversy, decided to invite edgy stand-up comedian Chris Rock to host. Thankfully enough for both audience and Academy it turned out to be a smart move. The Academy, to its credit, held up a mirror and allowed itself to be subjected to a healthy dose of reality that they may realize how difficult it has become for minorities to penetrate the upper echelons of Hollywood.
Rock’s opening monologue was as funny as it was poignant, even becoming wincingly uncomfortable at times when some jokes began to feel less and less funny and more and more unsettling in the truths underlying them. Of course, some punchlines missed their mark, as is customary (see above, standard complaint #3), but the continual presence of the energetic host and several others throughout the night who managed a laugh or two kept the admittedly overlong ordeal moving along at a relatively brisk pace. More than most, this year’s Oscar’s experience was an introspective one, the audience having to grapple with several complex issues, not only of race, but of sexuality, big business, and the environment, to name a few of the accompanying themes that manifested themselves as the show went on.
All that taken to heart, the Oscar’s are still, by their nature, an awards show meant to honor excellence in cinema and in that department the presentation went off largely without a hitch. Two female first-time nominees walked away with the Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Brie Larson winning the former for her role in Room, and Alicia Vikander securing the latter for her performance in The Danish Girl. Always-the-bridesmaid-never-the-bride Leonardo DiCaprio finally (FINALLY) won his long-awaited Best Actor Oscar for his visceral performance in The Revenant. Both the film’s director and cinematographer, Alejandro Iñárritu and Emmanuel Lubezki taking home awards in their respective fields as well.
Cleaning up in nearly every category it was nominated was 2015’s best reviewed blockbuster, Mad Max: Fury Road. The action movie titan didn’t win any “major” awards per se but did manage to come away from the night with six Oscar’s for Achievement in Film Editing, Hair and Makeup, Production Design, Sound Mixing and Editing, and Costume Design, the film being more than deserving of such accolades.
The show was not without its upsets, however, the distinction of Best Actor in a Supporting Role causing the biggest stir of the night. Mark Rylance won the award for his role in Stephen Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, many believing Sylvester Stallone’s emotional return to the Rocky franchise in Creed being the superior performance. Pixar collected its eighth Oscar for Best Animated Feature for Inside Out many critics wondering beforehand whether the more mature, Charlie Kaufman film, Anomalisa with its existential gravitas and unique romance made it a more deserving candidate.
While Mad Max did not win the coveted Best Picture Oscar, Spotlight, the little film that could and did, was the most welcome upset of the night. The emotionally compromising story of the group of Boston Globe journalists who worked tirelessly to uncover the Catholic Church’s involvement in the molestation of children was not only the year’s best film but its most important one. Perhaps, it’s telling that both Spotlight and this year’s Oscar’s share the admonition that when it comes to securing justice, it is genuine perspective that seems to be key.
In 2013, Cronin transferred to Houghton College. She joined the basketball team and remained healthy during the regular season. Unfortunately, Cronin’s luck ran out during a summer league basketball game, she felt a pop in the arch of her foot. The seemingly harmless pop turned out to be a rare injury; Cronin had torn her plantar fascia tendon lengthwise. After recovering, she proceeded to re-tear the tendon two more times, the final tear occurring last spring during a routine base-sliding drill on the softball diamond. She was then barred from athletics by her podiatrist. “There was definitely a period of mourning after that”, she said. 
In the wake of their losses, Button and Cronin found solace in assisting their respective head coaches: Alicia Mucher of women’s basketball and Brianna Allen of softball. “Nothing is the same as playing, but it enables me to stay close to the game”, Cronin said. “It’s a different style of leadership [than playing], and it’s a different way of thinking and strategizing about the game.” 
Overall, our group of students wanted to find new ways to approach sports business and analytics by gaining insight on how this particular sporting event was run. Our day in the stadium was not focused on actual analytics, rather the problems we could solve through use of data science. 
It’s no accident that despite the violence that saturates the film, the setting and cinematography are devastatingly gorgeous. Shot entirely with natural light, the beautiful scenes of nature form an interesting contrast to Glass’s suffering, perhaps as a testament of nature’s callous unconcern.
Students discussed how to integrate 
Abbott got connected to this opportunity through Guiding Eyes, a nonprofit organization that provides “superbly bred and trained guide dogs to men and women who are blind or visually impaired” and helps to “expand horizons for people to achieve life’s goals.” What initially interested her in training a dog was her desire to “gain insight in the future as I work with people who are blind or who have disabilities and need extra assistance.” In addition, Abbott said that this insight “may allow me to understand the kind of help they might need which will allow me to know how to better help them when I am working with them.” 
The night’s transitions were in sync as 90s hit pop songs videos from Back Street Boys to Smash Mouth intermittently entertained the audience. 
This year, Baxter’s contributions include a selection of slab-made bowls and a tower-like installation of mugs. He has continued his explorations of texture with the variety of materials he used to make impressions in the surfaces of the vessels, draping the slabs over different forms to shape them. His work is largely inspired by fish and underwater life, as his series of bowls showed in last year’s faculty show demonstrated. His ziggurat of mugs explores the “idea of structure where the primary bonding force is gravity”. 
This year, Rhett is showing a series of watercolors and oil paintings. His watercolors were created over a series of bike rides around the Houghton area. Though he explores the form of the road over the landscape, the paintings are free of people or vehicles, creating a quiet moment in time. His brush strokes hold a lot of motion though the subjects are still. Through these careful studies made while in transit, he shows the beauty and intrigue that can be found along a journey, rather than in the destination.