A few weeks ago, students began to see an unknown newsletter scattered about campus. It lurked in lounges, dining halls, and residence halls. It offered students news they wouldn't find in The Heights, The Patriot, or The Observer. And none of it was true.
The New England Classic, a Boston College-based satirical newspaper making its debut on BC's campus in October, quietly made its presence known to the students. Where did it come from exactly? What started out as kind of a joke based on loose ideas turned into a more concrete and realistic goal achieved by the creators Katie Forberg and Jacqui Geaney, both A&S '10. "We are huge fans of The Onion, and we were definitely inspired by it," Forberg said.
The New England Classic satirizes events, trends, and experiences here on BC's campus. Forberg and Geaney look at the publication as a way of bringing attention to topics that are overlooked, forcing students to acknowledge these issues and look at them in a different way. "Most of our stories are based on events that have happened to us or inspired by people we know. You'd be surprised by how much of this is real."
To come up with articles for their newsletter, the girls bounced ideas off of friends who gave them outside input on what would appeal to students. They do not attribute their creation to one specific moment, but rather the accumulation of observations of BC's campus that they have made since freshman year. "A lot of the things we wrote about I have been thinking about for a while," Geaney says. "This just seemed like a fun way of voicing our opinions."
The publication is not out to make a political statement, nor is it meant to offend anyone or any specific group. The New England Classic is filled with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor that offers clever observations of the common experiences of a BC student. Among the issues addressed in this edition is the annoyance with the residence halls of College Road; the piece which details the "actions" taken by several female residents of College Road housing in the hopes of improving their living experience in Welch Hall. While blasting the ever-popular song "Soulja Boy" on repeat to mask the sounds of the ongoing demolition, the girls knocked down the walls to create an eight-man suite only to discover that the walls were so thin that they really didn't gain that much more living space.
2008 Woodie Awards
